Drug Tests: Issues Raised in the Defense of a Positive Result

The practitioner confronted for the first time with the task of representing a client who has been accused of using a controlled substance where the only evidence of the alleged use id scientific testing of the client\u27s urine has a somewhat challenging task ahead

The Role of the Manual Alphabet in Letter Recognition of Kindergarten Children

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference between recall of sounds and symbols of the alphabet by students who were taught the letters of the alphabet using a manual alphabet (fingerspelling), versus recall of the sounds and symbols of the alphabet by students who were taught without fingerspelling. Using a population of 20 regular education kindergarten students from a rural, upstate New York school district, the researcher found whether or not the manual alphabet played a role in kindergarten students\u27 sight and symbol recognition of the alphabet. For three consecutive weeks, the researcher taught a treatment group (N=10) a letter a day. The sessions lasted 30 minutes and included the instruction of the manual alphabet for each letter taught, along with enrichment activities. For the same three weeks, the researcher taught a control group (N=10) the same letters of the alphabet, with the same enrichment activities, in the same fashion, without the use of the manual alphabet. At the end of the instruction time, the researcher administered an ABC inventory to the entire population. The ABC inventory was designed by the researcher. The subjects recalled the sounds and symbols of the letters they were taught. The number of correct identifications were calculated for both of the groups. The group mean data from the measure was analyzed using an independent t-test. After testing the null hypotheses at the .05 level of significance by the independent t-test, the results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the mean score of the treatment group and the control group on their ability to recognize the alphabet visually. There also was no statistically significant difference between the mean score of the treatment group and the control group on the ability to recall the alphabet auditorally. Further research was recommended

The Role of the Manual Alphabet in Letter Recognition by Kindergarten Children

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference between recall of sounds and symbols of the alphabet by students who were taught the letters of the alphabet using a manual alphabet (fingerspelling), versus recall of the sounds and symbols of the alphabet by students who were taught without fingerspelling. Using a population of 20 regular education kindergarten students from a rural, upstate New York school district, the researcher found whether or not the manual alphabet played a role in kindergarten students\u27 sight and symbol recognition of the alphabet. For three consecutive weeks, the researcher taught a treatment group (N=10) a letter a day. The sessions lasted 30 minutes and included the instruction of the manual alphabet for each letter taught, along with enrichment activities. For the same three weeks, the researcher taught a control group (N=10) the same letters of the alphabet, with the same enrichment activities, in the same fashion, without the use of the manual alphabet. At the end of the instruction time, the researcher administered an ABC inventory to the entire population. The ABC inventory was designed by the researcher. The subjects recalled the sounds and symbols of the letters they were taught. The number of correct identifications were calculated for both of the groups. The group mean data from the measure was analyzed using an independent t-test. After testing the null hypotheses at the .05 level of significance by the independent t-test, the results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the mean score of the treatment group and the control group on their ability to recognize the alphabet visually. There also was no statistically significant difference between the mean score of the treatment group and the control group on the ability to recall the alphabet auditorally. Further research was recommended

Providing Global Change Information for Decision-Making: Capturing and Presenting Provenance

Global change information demands access to data sources and well-documented provenance to provide evidence needed to build confidence in scientific conclusions and, in specific applications, to ensure the information's suitability for use in decision-making. A new generation of Web technology, the Semantic Web, provides tools for that purpose. The topic of global change covers changes in the global environment (including alterations in climate, land productivity, oceans or other water resources, atmospheric composition and or chemistry, and ecological systems) that may alter the capacity of the Earth to sustain life and support human systems. Data and findings associated with global change research are of great public, government, and academic concern and are used in policy and decision-making, which makes the provenance of global change information especially important. In addition, since different types of decisions benefit from different types of information, understanding how to capture and present the provenance of global change information is becoming more of an imperative in adaptive planning

The pattern of northern hemisphere surface air temperature during prolonged periods of low solar output

We show that the reconstructed sensitivity of the sea level temperature to long term solar forcing in the Northern Hemisphere is in very good agreement with the empirical temperature pattern corresponding to changes of the North Annular Mode (NAM). This implies that long-term variations of solar output affect climate predominantly through the NAM that extends throughout the stratosphere and troposphere

Coronary stents—the role of experience and evidence in making clinical decisions

The authors reflect on the charge placed on future medical practitioners given evolving standards of care

Potential for Precision Measurement of Solar Neutrino Luminosity by HERON

Results are presented for a simulation carried out to test the precision with which a detector design (HERON) based on a superfluid helium target material should be able to measure the solar pp and Be7 fluxes. It is found that precisions of +/- 1.68% and +/- 2.97% for pp and Be7 fluxes, respectively, should be achievable in a 5-year data sample. The physics motivation to aim for these precisions is outlined as are the detector design, the methods used in the simulation and sensitivity to solar orbit eccentricity.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure

On climate response to changes in the cosmic ray flux and radiative budget

We examine the results linking cosmic ray flux (CRF) variations to global climate change. We then proceed to study various periods over which there are estimates for the radiative forcing, temperature change and CRF variations relative to today. These include the Phanerozoic as a whole, the Cretaceous, the Eocene, the Last Glacial Maximum, the 20th century, as well as the 11-yr solar cycle. This enables us to place quantitative limits on climate sensitivity to both changes in the CRF, Phi_CR, and the radiative budget, F, under equilibrium. Under the assumption that the CRF is indeed a climate driver, we find that the sensitivity to CRF variations is consistently fitted with mu := -Phi_0 (dT_global/ d Phi_CR) = 6.5 +/- 2.5 K (where Phi_0 is the CR energy flux today). Additionally, the sensitivity to radiative forcing changes is lambda := dT_global/ dF_0 = 0.35 +/- 0.09 K/(W/m^2), at the current temperature, while its temperature derivative is negligible with d lambda / dT_0 = 0.01 +/- 0.03 1/(W/m^2). If the observed CRF/climate link is ignored, the best sensitivity obtained is lambda = 0.54 +/- 0.12 K/(W/m^2) and d lambda / dT_0 = -0.02 +/- 0.05 1/(W/m^2). The CRF/climate link therefore implies that the increased solar luminosity and reduced CRF over the previous century should have contributed a warming of 0.37+/-0.13 K, while the rest should be mainly attributed to anthropogenic causes. Without any effect of cosmic rays, the increase in solar luminosity would correspond to an increased temperature of 0.16+/-0.04 K.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, submitted to JGR-Atmosphere

Synthesis and Assessment Product

This report focuses on the Climate Projections Based on Emissions Scenarios. The influence of greenhouse gases and particle pollution on our present and future climate has been widely examined. While both long-lived (e.g., carbon dioxide) and short-lived (e.g., soot) gases and particles affect the climate, other projections of future climate, such as the IPCC reports focus largely on the long-lived gases. This U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product provides a different emphasis. The authors examine the effect of long-lived greenhouse gases on the global climate based on updated emissions scenarios produced by another CCSP Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP 2.1a). In these scenarios, atmospheric concentrations of the long-lived greenhouse gases leveled off, or stabilized, at predetermined levels by the end of the twenty-first century (unlike in the IPCC scenarios). However, the projected future temperature changes fall within the same range as those projected for the latest IPCC report. The authors confirm the robust future warming signature and other associated changes in the climate

Synthesis and Assessment Product

This Synthesis and Assessment Product focuses on the connection between the scientific ability to predict climate on seasonal scales and the opportunity to incorporate such understanding into water resource management decisions. It directly addresses decision support experiments and evaluations that have used seasonal-to-interannual forecasts and observational data, and is expected to inform (1) decision makers about the relative success of experiences of others who have experimented with these forecasts and data in resource management; (2) climatologists, hydrologists, and social scientists on how to advance the delivery of decision-support resources that use the most recent forecast products, methodologies, and tools; and (3) science and resource managers as they plan for future investments in research related to forecasts and their role in decision support. It is important to note, however, that while the focus of this Product is on the water resources management sector, the findings within this Synthesis and Assessment Product may be directly transferred to other sectors