Intermediate Elementary Teachers’ Perception and Use of a Learning Management System in Supporting Effective Teaching and Learning: A Mixed Methods Study

Teachers in K-12 public schools have found themselves immersed in educational technology amidst a global pandemic that has shifted the landscape of instructional delivery. This study targeted intermediate elementary (3-5) teachers’ acceptance of an LMS as a central hub for student learning. While there is a volume of research to support the efficacy of an LMS at the secondary level and in higher education, there is minimal research to show its value-added in supporting intermediate learners at the elementary level. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study inquired to capture teachers’ perceptions and use of an LMS to support student learning. Integrated qualitative and quantitative findings were analyzed according to a conceptual framework including: Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework (TPACK), SAMR Model, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The results of this mixed methods study found that the role of the LMS in elementary classes focuses around content objective, assessment for learning, and student access to resources. Further, teachers’ perceived ease and use is supported by students’ ability to navigate and learn LMS-based skills. Lastly, teachers’ comfort level is a contributing factor in teachers’ perceptions and use of an LMS, though pandemic instruction improved teachers’ technological skill development. This study also includes practical implications of LMS integration at the elementary level

A Study of Innovation: ERD Takes Pollution Prevention to a New Level

ERD approaches its mission with a vision of continuously exceeding customer needs and expectations and continuously improving. It's this vision of continuous improvement that drives the ERD pollution prevention program towards innovation

Collapsible Moped

The ultra-light, collapsible street-legal moped combines the desired qualities of a motorcycle, a bicycle, and a skateboard. This innovative design allows the user to travel distances with a speed up to 30 miles per hour on a standard street, but also to navigate safely around a pedestrian-dominated college campus. Weighing less than 30 lbs, this moped allows the user to carry it wherever without the being burdened by the bulk or size of the vehicle. The user can fold up the moped in less than 60 seconds to fit under his or her arm for easy transportation and storage. Like a bicycle, this moped can be easily locked and stored on any bike rack, but if needed, can also be carried into lecture halls and classrooms with ease. Moped IV provides functionality and transportability without sacrificing convenience

India On the Line: Globalized labour in postmillennial Indo-Anglian literature

In this dissertation I look at the eruption of new subjectivities in postmillennial Indo-Anglian literature in an era of globalization and neoliberalism, and, concurrently, the seeming disappearance of old myths and identities – at how, for example, the telephone of the call centre, in joining one person to another, is shown to create fissures in identity, family, and what is described as “traditional” Indian culture. I also examine the ways in which technology, particularly in the form of machines like the tape recorder, industrial factory equipment, and the Internet, is depicted as mapping the formation of cyborg subjectivities in an era of rapidly changing and ever-broadening and improving modes of communication. These technologies seem at once to bring us closer together and further apart, fostering a greater sense of global solidarity and “connectivity” in previously isolated communities, in John Tomlinson’s terms (1999, 30), but also setting out battle lines for revolutionary new Indian movements: between the international rich and poor, and more frequently the US and India. In the “pulp fiction” books addressed in this dissertation, written by such authors as Chetan Bhagat, Neelesh Misra, and Brinda S. Narayan, globalization is depicted as oppressing and poisoning Indians but also freeing them from the chains of Western capitalism and even providing routes for nationalist innovation, creativity, and solidarity. Meanwhile, the more “highbrow” cosmopolitan texts, written by Aravind Adiga, Bharati Mukherjee, Indra Sinha, and Altaf Tyrewala, tend to evince a greater suspicion of nationalism and the utopian promises of neoliberalism. Each dissertation chapter addresses a different type of depressed and alienated protagonist – from the call-centre worker to the entrepreneur, to the cyborg-sahiborg and the exorcist-hacker – whose various triumphs of upward mobility and community-building are often, ultimately, oddly unconvincing and unmoving. Indian neoliberalism leads to a sense of anomie among these characters; even when they find community or professional and economic success, it never seems to be entirely or effectively dispelled. The unhappiness of these globalized literary avatars serves as warning – in some cases, probably involuntary – of the dark side of the glamour and glitz of globalized labour in India.Ph.D.2019-12-19 00:00:0

Low resting metabolic rate in exercise-associated amenorrhea is not due to a reduced proportion of highly active metabolic tissue compartments

Exercising women with menstrual disturbances frequently display a low resting metabolic rate (RMR) when RMR is expressed relative to body size or lean mass. However, normalizing RMR for body size or lean mass does not account for potential differences in the size of tissue compartments with varying metabolic activities. To explore whether the apparent RMR suppression in women with exercise-associated amenorrhea is a consequence of a lower proportion of highly active metabolic tissue compartments or the result of metabolic adaptations related to energy conservation at the tissue level, RMR and metabolic tissue compartments were compared among exercising women with amenorrhea (AMEN; n = 42) and exercising women with eumenorrheic, ovulatory menstrual cycles (OV; n = 37). RMR was measured using indirect calorimetry and predicted from the size of metabolic tissue compartments as measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Measured RMR was lower than DEXA-predicted RMR in AMEN (1,215 ± 31 vs. 1,327 ± 18 kcal/day, P \u3c 0.001) but not in OV (1,284 ± 24 vs. 1,252 ± 17, P \u3c 0.16), resulting in a lower ratio of measured to DEXA-predicted RMR in AMEN (91 ± 2%) vs. OV (103 ± 2%, P \u3c 0.001). AMEN displayed proportionally more residual mass (P \u3c 0.001) and less adipose tissue (P = 0.003) compared with OV. A lower ratio of measured to DXA-predicted RMR was associated with lower serum total triiodothyronine (ρ = 0.38, P \u3c 0.001) and leptin (ρ = 0.32, P = 0.004). Our findings suggest that RMR suppression in this population is not the result of a reduced size of highly active metabolic tissue compartments but is due to metabolic and endocrine adaptations at the tissue level that are indicative of energy conservation

Foraging Habits of Pogonomyrmex californicus: Invasive and Native Seeds

The California Harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex californicus, plays a key ecological role in the coastal sage scrub (CSS) ecosystem as a forager of seeds. Understanding the influence of different environments on food preferences of Harvester ants may indicate how native CSS environments will respond to rising temperatures and human encroachment. We sought to determine the effect of disturbed and undisturbed habitats on Harvester ant seed preference. We predicted that Harvester ants would prefer native seeds, Phacelia campanularia, over non-native seeds, Brassica nigra seeds. Further, we expected that ants in undisturbed habitats will show a stronger preference towards the native seeds than ants in disturbed habitats. By examining three disturbed grassland environments and three in undisturbed CSS environments of the Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station in Claremont, California, we found that Harvester ants preferred native P. campanularia seeds over non-native B. nigra seeds in both native and non-native habitats. Our results also showed that the grassland habitat ants had less of a preference than the coastal sage scrub ants, which supports our hypothesis that ants in undisturbed habitats would show a stronger preference towards the native seeds than ants in disturbed habitats

Current and past menstrual status is an important determinant of femoral neck geometry in exercising women

Menstrual status, both past and current, has been established as an important determinant of bone mineral density (BMD) in young exercising women. However, little is known regarding the association between the cumulative effect of menstrual status and indices of bone health beyond BMD, such as bone geometry and estimated bone strength. Purpose: This study explores the association between cumulative menstrual status and indices of bone health assessed using dualenergy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), including femoral neck geometry and strength and areal BMD (aBMD), in exercising women. Methods: 101 exercising women (22.0 ± 0.4 years, BMI 21.0 ± 0.2 kg/m2, 520±40 min/week of self-reported exercise) participated in this cross-sectional study. Women were divided into three groups as follows based on their self-reported current and past menstrual status: 1) current and past regular menstrual cycles (C + P-R) (n=23), 2) current and past irregular menstrual cycles (C+P-IR) (n=56), 3) and current or past irregular cycles (C/P-RIR) (n=22). Current menstrual status was confirmed using daily urinary metabolites of reproductive hormones. DXA was used to assess estimates of femoral neck geometry and strength from hip strength analysis (HSA), aBMD, and body composition. Cross-sectional moment of inertia (CSMI), cross-sectional area (CSA), strength index (SI), diameter, and section modulus (Z) were calculated at the femoral neck. Low CSMI, CSA, SI, diameter, and Z were operationally defined as values below the median. Areal BMD (g/cm2) and Z-scores were determined at the lumbar spine, femoral neck, and total hip. Low BMD was defined as a Z-score \u3c −1.0. Chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression were performed to compare the prevalence and determine the odds, respectively, of low bone geometry, strength, and aBMD among groups. Results: Cumulative menstrual status was identified as a significant predictor of low femoral neck CSMI (p = 0.005), CSA (p ≤ 0.024), and diameter (p = 0.042) after controlling for confounding variables. C + P-IR or C/PRIR were four to eight times more likely to exhibit low femoral neck CSMI or CSA when compared with C + PR. Lumbar spine aBMD and Z-score were lower in C + P-IR when compared with C + P-R (p ≤ 0.003). A significant association between menstrual group and low aBMD was observed at the lumbar spine (p = 0.006) but not at the femoral neck or total hip (p \u3e 0.05). However, after controlling for confounding variables, cumulative menstrual status was not a significant predictor of low aBMD. Conclusion: In exercising women, the cumulative effect of current and past menstrual irregularity appears to be an important predictor of lower estimates of femoral neck geometry, as observed by smaller CSMI and CSA, which may serve as an another means, beyond BMD, by which menstrual irregularity compromises bone strength. As such, evaluation of both current and past menstrual status is recommended to determine potential risk for relatively small bone geometry at the femoral neck