Going beyond defining: Preschool educators\u27 use of knowledge in their pedagogical reasoning about vocabulary instruction

Previous research investigating both the knowledge of early childhood educators and the support for vocabulary development present in early childhood settings has indicated that both educator knowledge and enacted practice are less than optimal, which has grave implications for children\u27s early vocabulary learning and later reading achievement. Further, the nature of the relationship between educators\u27 knowledge and practice is unclear, making it difficult to discern the best path towards improved knowledge, practice, and children\u27s vocabulary outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to add to the existing literature by using stimulated recall interviews and a grounded approach to examine how 10 preschool educators used their knowledge to made decisions about their moment-to-moment instruction in support of children\u27s vocabulary development. Results indicate that educators were thinking in highly context-specific ways about their goals and strategies for supporting vocabulary learning, taking into account important knowledge of their instructional history with children and of the children themselves to inform their decision making in the moment. In addition, they reported thinking about research-based goals and strategies for supporting vocabulary learning that went beyond simply defining words for children. Implications for research and professional development are discussed

Finite Element Analysis to model ischemia experienced in the development of device related pressure ulcers.

Pressure ulcers are a common occurrence of damage to skin. Severity ranges from slightly discoloured skin to full thickness tissue damage which can be fatal in some cases. Engineering effort, typically developing computational models had made significant progress in the understanding and demonstration of the formation mechanism of pressure ulcers with the aetiology of excessive stress however relatively limited attempts had been made to develop relevant models for pressure ulcers caused by ischemia. The aim of this paper is to present evidence of a computational model developed to simulate ischemic pressure ulcer formation and demonstrate the established relationship between the computational data and the acquired clinically relevant experimental data by utilising laser Doppler velocimetry. The application of the presented computational model and the established relationship allows the evaluation of the effect of a mechanical loading to the cutaneous blood flow velocity which is a step closing to understand and evaluate a mechanical load to the formation of pressure ulcers caused by ischemia

Coral Reef Island Initiation and Development Under Higher Than Present Sea Levels

Coral reef islands are considered to be among the most vulnerable environments to future sea-level rise. However, emerging data suggest that different island types, in contrasting locations, have formed under different conditions in relation to past sea level. Uniform assumptions about reef island futures under sea-level rise may thus be inappropriate. Using chronostratigraphic analysis from atoll rim islands (sand- and gravel-based) in the southern Maldives, we show that whilst island building initiated at different times around the atoll (~2,800 cal. yr. B.P. and ~4,200 cal. yr. B.P. at windward and leeward rim sites respectively), higher than present sea levels and associated high-energy wave events were actually critical to island initiation. Findings thus suggest that projected sea-level rise and increases in the magnitude of distal high-energy wave events could reactivate this process regime which, if there is an appropriate sediment supply, may facilitate further vertical reef island-building

EFSA CEF Panel (EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids), 2013. Scientific Opinion on Flavouring Group Evaluation 93, Revision 1 (FGE.93Rev1)

International audienc

Evaluation of a spring-powered captive bolt gun for killing kangaroo pouch young

Context: During commercial harvesting or non-commercial kangaroo culling programs, dependent young of shot females are required to be euthanased to prevent suffering and because they would be unlikely to survive. However, the current method for killing pouch young, namely a single, forceful blow to the base of the skull, is applied inconsistently by operators and perceived by the public to be inhumane. Aims: To determine whether an alternative method for killing pouch young, namely a spring-operated captive bolt gun, is effective at causing insensibility in kangaroo pouch young. Methods: Trials of spring-operated captive bolt guns were conducted first on the heads of 15 dead kangaroo young and then on 21 live pouch young during commercial harvesting. We assessed the effectiveness at causing insensibility in live animals and damage caused to specific brain areas. We also measured depth of bolt penetration and skull thickness. Performance characteristics (e.g. bolt velocity) of two types of spring-operated guns were also measured and compared with cartridge-powered devices. Key results: When tested on the heads of dead animals, the spring-operated captive bolt gun consistently produced a large entrance cavity and a well defined wound tract, which extended into the cerebrum, almost extending the full thickness of the brain, including the brainstem. When tested on live pouch young, the captive bolt gun caused immediate insensibility in only 13 of 21 animals. This 62% success rate is significantly below the 95% minimum acceptable threshold for captive bolt devices in domestic animal abattoirs. Failure to stun was related to bolt placement, but other factors such as bolt velocity, bolt diameter and skull properties such as thickness and hardness might have also contributed. Spring-operated captive bolt guns delivered 20 times less kinetic energy than did cartridge-powered devices. Conclusions: Spring-operated captive bolt guns cannot be recommended as an acceptable or humane method for stunning or killing kangaroo pouch young. Implications: Captive bolt guns have potential as a practical alternative to blunt head trauma for effective euthanasia and reducing animal (and observer) distress. However, operators must continue to use the existing prescribed killing methods until cartridge-powered captive bolt guns have been trialled as an alternative bolt propelling method. Additional keywords: animal welfare, blunt trauma, culling, euthanasia, humaneness, kangaroo harvesting

Including debris cover effects in a distributed model of glacier ablation

Distributed glacier melt models generally assume that the glacier surface consists of bare exposed ice and snow. In reality, many glaciers are wholly or partially covered in layers of debris that tend to suppress ablation rates. In this paper, an existing physically based point model for the ablation of debris-covered ice is incorporated in a distributed melt model and applied to Haut Glacier d’Arolla, Switzerland, which has three large patches of debris cover on its surface. The model is based on a 10 m resolution digital elevation model (DEM) of the area; each glacier pixel in the DEM is defined as either bare or debris-covered ice, and may be covered in snow that must be melted off before ice ablation is assumed to occur. Each debris-covered pixel is assigned a debris thickness value using probability distributions based on over 1000 manual thickness measurements. Locally observed meteorological data are used to run energy balance calculations in every pixel, using an approach suitable for snow, bare ice or debris-covered ice as appropriate. The use of the debris model significantly reduces the total ablation in the debris-covered areas, however the precise reduction is sensitive to the temperature extrapolation used in the model distribution because air near the debris surface tends to be slightly warmer than over bare ice. Overall results suggest that the debris patches, which cover 10% of the glacierized area, reduce total runoff from the glacierized part of the basin by up to 7%

Rare event computation in deterministic chaotic systems using genealogical particle analysis

In this paper we address the use of rare event computation techniques to estimate small over-threshold probabilities of observables in deterministic dynamical systems. We demonstrate that genealogical particle analysis algorithms can be successfully applied to a toy model of atmospheric dynamics, the Lorenz '96 model. We furthermore use the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck system to illustrate a number of implementation issues. We also show how a time-dependent objective function based on the fluctuation path to a high threshold can greatly improve the performance of the estimator compared to a fixed-in-time objective function

Ideological cultures and media discourses on scientific knowledge: re-reading news on climate change

Focusing on the representation of climate change in the British “quality press,” this article argues that the discursive (re)construction of scientific claims in the media is strongly entangled with ideological standpoints. Understood here as a set of ideas and values that legitimate a program of action vis-à-vis a given social and political order, ideology works as a powerful selection device in deciding what is scientific news, i.e. what the relevant “facts” are, and who are the authorized “agents of definition” of science matters. The representation of scientific knowledge has important implications for evaluating political programs and assessing the responsibility of both governments and the public in addressing climate change

Aerodynamics of aero-engine installation

This paper describes current progress in the development of methods to assess aero-engine airframe installation effects. The aerodynamic characteristics of isolated intakes, a typical transonic transport aircraft as well as a combination of a through-flow nacelle and aircraft configuration have been evaluated. The validation task for an isolated engine nacelle is carried out with concern for the accuracy in the assessment of intake performance descriptors such as mass flow capture ratio and drag rise Mach number. The necessary mesh and modelling requirements to simulate the nacelle aerodynamics are determined. Furthermore, the validation of the numerical model for the aircraft is performed as an extension of work that has been carried out under previous drag prediction research programmes. The validation of the aircraft model has been extended to include the geometry with through flow nacelles. Finally, the assessment of the mutual impact of the through flow nacelle and aircraft aerodynamics was performed. The drag and lift coefficient breakdown has been presented in order to identify the component sources of the drag associated with the engine installation. The paper concludes with an assessment of installation drag for through-flow nacelles and the determination of aerodynamic interference between the nacelle and the aircraft