Increasing Student Engagement In The Middle School Classroom

There is a need to improve student engagement in the middle school classroom. This change plan seeks to determine the level of student engagement in the classroom using the Instructional Practices Inventory tool. Classroom walkthroughs will be conducted to determine the level of engagement in the classroom. The data collected during the walkthroughs will drive the professional development needed for teachers in order to be able to implement teaching strategies that increase the level of student engagement in the classroom. The effective implementation of this change plan will ensure that teachers will work collaboratively in order to design engaging instruction for the students

Measurement of XeI and XeII velocity in the near exit plane of a low-power Hall effect thruster by light induced fluorescence spectroscopy

Near exit plane non-resonant light induced fluorescence spectroscopy is performed in a Hall effect low-power Xenon thruster at discharge voltage of 250V and anode flow rate of 0.7mg/sec. Measurement of the axial and radial velocity components are performed, exciting the 6s[3/2]_2-->6p[3/2]_2 transition at 823.16nm in XeI and the 5d[4]_(7/2)-->6p[3]_(5/2) transition at 834.724nm in XeII. No significant deviation from the thermal velocity is observed for XeI. Two most probable ion velocities are registered at a given position with respect to the thruster axis, which are mainly attributed to different areas of creation of ions inside the acceleration channel. The spatial resolution of the set-up is limited by the laser beam size (radius of the order of 0.5mm) and the fluorescence collection optics, which have a view spot diameter of 8mm.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure

A room-temperature alternating current susceptometer - Data analysis, calibration, and test

An AC susceptometer operating in the range of 10 Hz to 100 kHz and at room temperature is designed, built, calibrated and used to characterize the magnetic behaviour of coated magnetic nanoparticles. Other weakly magnetic materials (in amounts of some millilitres) can be analyzed as well. The setup makes use of a DAQ-based acquisition system in order to determine the amplitude and the phase of the sample magnetization as a function of the frequency of the driving magnetic field, which is powered by a digital waveform generator. A specific acquisition strategy makes the response directly proportional to the sample susceptibility, taking advantage of the differential nature of the coil assembly. A calibration method based on conductive samples is developed.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, 19 ref

Postural evaluation in young skaters: effect of two proprioceptive training

The roller skating involves developing of motor and artistic skills from an early age. The aim was to evaluate the effects that an ocular a podalic proprioceptive training cause to postural control and stability in a sample of young skaters. A total of 25 skaters aged between 9 and 15 (12±2.14) divided into two groups: the eyes group (EG) aimed at exercising visual proprioception, the feet group (FG) aimed at exercising podalic proprioception. The participants were subject to through electronic stabilometry in static mode, open (OE) and closed (CE) eyes, in a time T0 (pre-training) and T1 (post-training), without and with skates. The results through the two paired t-test showed that both variables Wz (TotHz) to CE within the EG (p<.05) and Wx (TotHz) to CE within the FG (p<.05) were statistical significance. The unpaired t-test showed that the FG obtained a greater statistical significance than the EG for the VarVit and Wx (TotHz) variables in CE (p<.05) and Wz (TotHz) in both CE and OE (p<.05). The two-way ANOVA found statistical significance (p<.05) on the Wx (TotHz) variable in open/closed eyes of the FG (T0/T1). We concluded that in roller skating it could be useful to integrate athletic training with a visual proprioceptive training.

Peer victimization in Primary School. Gender difference

Purpose: The peer victimization is frequent phenomenon in the school. The aim of study was to investigate the gender distinction in the peer victimization, also considering the role that physical activity inside and outside school could have in this phenomenon. Methods: The study included 277 students (142 females; 134 males), between the ages of 8 and 10, attending the primary school. A questionnaire based on "Multi-dimensional Peer-Victimization Scale (MPVS)'' (Mynard et al., 2000), Italian version (Scarpa et al, 2010) and adapted to the age of the subjects, was given, to evaluate four areas of victimization (physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation and attack on property). In addition, subjects were asked which physical activities they practiced in and out of school. Results: The results showed that the phenomenon victimization is present in a content way, and that males are more involved than females. Physical victimization falls more in the male gender (average value of 2±1.4 and 1.6±0.9 for the males and females, respectively), while the social manipulation in the women gender (average value of 1.9±1.2 and 1.7±1.1 for the females and males, respectively). The correlation between two or more macro-areas is there for the 74.32% of the cases and verbal victimization is the most widespread phenomenon in our sample (9.46%). The extra-school physical activity is performed by the majority of students (83.57%). Conclusions: The results confirm existing studies in the literature. The peer victimization includes not only being the obvious target of physical attacks but also includes more subtle forms of abuse, falling more in females behavior than in males

Larmor frequency dressing by an anharmonic transverse magnetic field

We present a theoretical and experimental study of spin precession in the presence of both a static and an orthogonal oscillating magnetic field, which is nonresonant, not harmonically related to the Larmor precession, and of arbitrary strength. Due to the intrinsic nonlinearity of the system, previous models that account only for the simple sinusoidal case cannot be applied. We suggest an alternative approach and develop a model that closely agrees with experimental data produced by an optical-pumping atomic magnetometer. We demonstrate that an appropriately designed nonharmonic field makes it possible to extract a linear response to a weak dc transverse field, despite the scalar nature of the magnetometer, which normally causes a much weaker, second-order response.Comment: Published version has some minor changes; 22 pages and 8 picture

EDUCAZIONE MOTORIA E MIGLIORAMENTO DELLA DISPONIBILITÀ ATTENTIVA IN ETÀ EVOLUTIVA

L’Obbiettivo del presente lavoro è di verificare l’ipotesi secondo la quale una seduta psicomotoria condotta prima di un compito didattico (nel caso lo svolgimento di un dettato), possa incrementare la disponibilità attentiva in alunni di età compresa tra i 7 e gli 8 anni e la qualità del risultato al compito stesso. A tal fine sono stati coinvolti 170 alunni, ai quali si sono somministrati due diversi tipi di intervento: una prova di dettato (D) e una prova di dettato preceduta da una seduta di ginnastica (Ex+D). Successivamente, si è proceduto al calcolo degli errori compiuti nelle diverse prove e alle verifiche statistiche. Dall’analisi dei dati è emerso che la MEDIA degli errori compiuti nei dettati è inferiore e statisticamente significativa (p<0.0005) quando questi sono preceduti da una seduta di ginnastica psicomotoria rispetto a quando effettuati senza alcun intervento. In conclusione si è osservato che la pratica psicomotoria è da considerarsi, a tutti gli effetti, una buona opportunità per stimolare la disponibilità attentiva e migliorare le prestazioni didattiche e ciò ci fa pronunciare, senza indugio, l’esortazione affinché essa possa divenire prassi consueta in ambiente scolastico

Multiple hydrodynamical shocks induced by Raman effect in photonic crystal fibres

We theoretically predict the occurrence of multiple hydrodynamical-like shock phenomena in the propagation of ultrashort intense pulses in a suitably engineered photonic crystal fiber. The shocks are due to the Raman effect, which acts as a nonlocal term favoring their generation in the focusing regime. It is shown that the problem is mapped to shock formation in the presence of a slope and a gravity-like potential. The signature of multiple shocks in XFROG signals is unveiled

Ruthenium arene complexes in the treatment of 3D models of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas

Current chemotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are based on cisplatin, which is usually associated to severe side effects. In general, the exploration for metal-based alternatives to cisplatin has resulted in the development of a series of ruthenium complexes that are able to produce a safe therapeutic action against some neoplasms, among which are lung and ovarian cancers. Here, we evaluate the efficacy of well defined, easily available and robust ruthenium(II) η6-arene compounds on 3D models of HNSCCs with or without human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and compare their effects to the state-of-the-art RAPTA-C, a promising ruthenium compound with known anti-cancer activity. One of the compounds induces a significant therapeutic action especially on HPV negative carcinoma. Besides viability and repopulation evaluations, we performed quantitative analysis of the internalized Ru compounds to further validate our findings and elucidate the possible mechanisms of action. These results show that Ru arene compounds represent a promising alternative for the treatment of HNSCCs and pave the way for the composition of innovative (co)therapies