The impact of daily writing on kindergarten students\u27 phonemic awareness.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether or not a significant relationship exists among daily writing and student growth in phonemic awareness. The study also considered the impact of writing on the phonemic awareness development of students at different literacy levels. Although studies exist on the importance of phonemic awareness development in reading acquisition, a deficit exists examining the correlation among daily writing and the phonemic awareness development of students representing different literacy levels. Forty students in an experimental group engaged in daily writing opportunities, while 37 students in the control group engaged in less frequent writing opportunities. Data included pre- and posttest results from The Phonological Awareness Test. Descriptive statistics were chosen to describe the demographic variable of group, gender, and ability level and inferential statistics included the two-sample t test. Results were statistically analyzed using SPSS 13.0 and concluded that a significant relationship does exist among daily writing opportunities and the phonemic awareness development of kindergarten students. Daily exposure to writing had a significant impact on students in the low-risk experimental group. Although a significant difference was not found in the some/at-risk groups, the experimental group had a larger average increase on the phonemic awareness measure. Results will fill the existing gap between research and practice concerning the correlation among daily writing and phonemic awareness, and the reciprocal impact this correlation has on students\u27 literacy development. In addition, results may influence early childhood educators to implement daily writing opportunities as a method for increasing students\u27 phonemic awareness development

Comparing Line and HR Executives’ Perceptions of HR Effectiveness: Services, Roles, and Contributions

This study compared HR and line executives’ evaluations of the effectiveness of the HR function in terms of its service delivery, roles, and contributions to the firm. Survey responses from 44 HR and 59 line executives from 14 companies indicated that (a) HR executives consistently rated the functions effectiveness higher than did line executives, and (b) the greatest differences were observed on the more important and/or strategic aspects of HR. Implications are discussed

Measurement Error in Research on Human Resource Decisions and Firm Performance: How Much Error is There and How Does its Influence Effect Size Estimates?

Recent empirical research finds that the relationship between human resource (HR) decisions and firm performance is significant in both statistical and practical terms. However, the typical research design in this area relies upon on a single respondent to validly assess firmwide HR practices. To date, no study has adequately addressed the reliability of such measures, a basic requirement of construct validity. Previous efforts have either defined reliability so narrowly as to miss a major source of measurement error (raters) or have estimated the unreliability due to raters using incorrect methods. In both cases, the result is upwardly biased estimates of reliability. We estimate reliabilities using intraclass correlation and generalizability coefficients. Our reliability estimates suggest substantial measurement error in the types of HR effectiveness and HR practice measures typically used to predict firm performance. We discuss how this degree of measurement influences research and policy implications

Discovery Of A Molecular Outflow in the Haro 6-10 Star-Forming Region

We present high sensitivity 12CO and 13CO (1-0) molecular line maps covering the full extent of the parsec scale Haro~6-10 Herbig-Haro (HH) flow. We report the discovery of a molecular CO outflow along the axis of parsec-scale HH flow. Previous molecular studies missed the identification of the outflow probably due to their smaller mapping area and the confusing spectral features present towards the object. Our detailed molecular line study of the full 1.6 pc extent of the optical flow shows evidence for both blueshifted and redshifted gas set in motion by Haro~6-10 activity. The molecular outflow is centered at Haro~6-10, with redshifted gas being clumpy and directed towards the northeast, while blueshifted gas is in the southwest direction. The molecular gas terminates well within the cloud, short of the most distant HH objects of the optical flow. Contamination from an unrelated cloud along the same line of sight prevents a thorough study of the blueshifted outflow lobe and the mass distribution at the lowest velocities in both lobes. The cloud core in which Haro~6-10 is embedded is filamentary and flattened in the east-west direction. The total cloud mass is calculated from 13CO(1-0) to be ~200Msun. The lower limit of the mass associated with the outflow is ~0.25Msun.Comment: ApJ Accepted; 9 pages, 8 figures. For high resolution ps file use: http://www.astro.umass.edu/~irena/haro.p

Sensitive Limits on the Water Abundance in Cold Low Mass Molecular Cores

We present SWAS observations of water vapor in two cold star-less clouds, B68 and Core D in rho Ophiuchus. Sensitive non-detections of the 1(10)-1(01) transition of o-H2O are reported for each source. Both molecular cores have been previously examined by detailed observations that have characterized the physical structure. Using these rather well defined physical properties and a Monte-Carlo radiation transfer model we have removed one of the largest uncertainties from the abundance calculation and set the lowest water abundance limit to date in cold low-mass molecular cores. These limits are < 3 x 10^{-8} (relative to H2) and < 8 x 10^{-9} in B68 and rho Oph D, respectively. Such low abundances confirm the general lack of ortho-water vapor in cold (T < 20 K) cores. Provided that the ortho/para ratio of water is not near zero, these limits are well below theoretical predictions and appear to support the suggestion that most of the water in dense low-mass cores is frozen onto the surfaces of cold dust grains.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, accepted by Astrophysical Journal Letter

Embedded Stellar Clusters in the W3/W4/W5 Molecular Cloud Complex

We analyze the embedded stellar content in the vicinity of the W3/W4/W5 HII regions using the FCRAO Outer Galaxy 12CO(J=1-0) Survey, the IRAS Point Source Catalog, published radio continuum surveys, and new near-infrared and molecular line observations. Thirty-four IRAS Point Sources are identified that have far-infrared colors characteristic of embedded star forming regions, and we have obtained K' mosaics and 13CO(J=1-0) maps for 32 of them. Ten of the IRAS sources are associated with an OB star and 19 with a stellar cluster, although three OB stars are not identified with a cluster. Half of the embedded stellar population identified in the K' images is found in just the 5 richest clusters, and 61% is contained in IRAS sources associated with an embedded OB star. Thus rich clusters around OB stars contribute substantially to the stellar population currently forming in the W3/W4/W5 region. Approximately 39% of the cluster population is embedded in small clouds with an average mass of ~130 Mo that are located as far as 100 pc from the W3/W4/W5 cloud complex. We speculate that these small clouds are fragments of a cloud complex dispersed by previous episodes of massive star formation. Finally, we find that 4 of the 5 known embedded massive star forming sites in the W3 molecular cloud are found along the interface with the W4 HII region despite the fact that most of the molecular mass is contained in the interior regions of the cloud. These observations are consistent with the classical notion that the W4 HII region has triggered massive star formation along the eastern edge of the W3 molecular cloud.Comment: to appear in ApJS, see http://astro.caltech.edu/~jmc/papers/w

Molecular evolution of the membrane associated progesterone receptor in the Brachionus plicatilis (Rotifera, Monogononta) species complex

Author Posting. © Springer, 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Hydrobiologia 662 (2011): 99-106, doi:10.1007/s10750-010-0484-4.Many studies have investigated physiological roles of the membrane associated progesterone receptor (MAPR), but little is known of its evolution. Marked variations in response to exogenous progesterone have been reported for four brachionid rotifer species, suggesting differences in progesterone signaling and reception. Here we report sequence variation for the MAPR gene in the Brachionus plicatilis species complex. Phylogenetic analysis of this receptor is compared with relatedness based on cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 sequences. Nonsynonymous to synonymous site substitution rate ratios, amino acid divergence, and variations in predicted phosphorylation sites are examined to assess evolution of the MAPR among brachionid clades.National Science Foundation grant BE/GenEn MCB-0412674E to TWS and DMW, and an NSF IGERT fellowship to HAS under DGE 0114400, supported this work

Human Resources and the Resource Based View of the Firm

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has influenced the field of strategic human resource management (SHRM) in a number of ways. This paper explores the impact of the RBV on the theoretical and empirical development of SHRM. It explores how the fields of strategy and SHRM are beginning to converge around a number of issues, and proposes a number of implications of this convergence

Water and ammonia abundances in S140 with the Odin satellite

We have used the Odin satellite to obtain strip maps of the ground-state rotational transitions of ortho-water and ortho-ammonia, as well as CO(5-4) and 13CO(5-4) across the PDR, and H218O in the central position. A physi-chemical inhomogeneous PDR model was used to compute the temperature and abundance distributions for water, ammonia and CO. A multi-zone escape probability method then calculated the level populations and intensity distributions. These results are compared to a homogeneous model computed with an enhanced version of the RADEX code. H2O, NH3 and 13CO show emission from an extended PDR with a narrow line width of ~3 kms. Like CO, the water line profile is dominated by outflow emission, however, mainly in the red wing. The PDR model suggests that the water emission mainly arises from the surfaces of optically thick, high density clumps with n(H2)>10^6 cm^-3 and a clump water abundance, with respect to H2, of 5x10^-8. The mean water abundance in the PDR is 5x10^-9, and between ~2x10^-8 -- 2x10^-7 in the outflow derived from a simple two-level approximation. Ammonia is also observed in the extended clumpy PDR, likely from the same high density and warm clumps as water. The average ammonia abundance is about the same as for water: 4x10^-9 and 8x10^-9 given by the PDR model and RADEX, respectively. The similarity of water and ammonia PDR emission is also seen in the almost identical line profiles observed close to the bright rim. Around the central position, ammonia also shows some outflow emission although weaker than water in the red wing. Predictions of the H2O(110-101) and (111-000) antenna temperatures across the PDR are estimated with our PDR model for the forthcoming observations with the Herschel Space Observatory.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, 10 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics 14 November 200