Evaluating teachers’ perceptions of the social validity of psychological report writing styles

Psychologists spend a significant portion of their time writing psychological reports. Oftentimes these reports are highly technical and written at a level which the literature has suggested is often difficult for teachers to utilize in their classrooms. Several previous research studies have examined psychological report writing practices and offered suggestions for improvement. One of these suggestions (theme or referral-based report writing) has not been as thoroughly examined in the literature. The purpose of this study was to examine this report writing style compared to more traditional report writing practices. This study utilized a novel approach to assessing teachers’ perceptions of these report writing styles which was adapted from the social validity literature (e. g., ARP-R). This study investigated both differences between each report writing style as well as a potential interaction effect between teacher experience and report type. Overall, the study did not find significant differences in teachers’ ratings between each report style. The readability of the psychological reports was hypothesized to be a confounding variable which may have impacted teachers’ views of the social validity of each report. Results, limitations, implications, and future research are also discussed

Microscopic Modeling of Novel Semiconductor Heterostructure Properties

Nowadays, semiconductor-based technology is part of everyday lives of many people around the world. This is most visible in the frequent use of computers and smartphones. By using clouds, messenger services and social networks among other things, enormous amounts of data are transmitted globally. For this purpose, laser signals that propagate through fiber-optic cables are being used. At this, the wavelengths that can be used for transmission, are determined by the absorption and dispersion properties of the propagation medium. Wavelengths in the near-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum are suited for this purpose. Conventional light-emitting heterostructures that consist of nanometer-thick semiconductor layers and rely on spatially direct recombination of charge carriers in the same layer, are not ideally suited for emission in the near-infrared. This stems from Auger-losses, which increase with increasing wavelength and are significant for bandgap energies corresponding to wavelengths in the near-infrared. Hence, alternatives are needed. Promising alternatives are provided by heterostructures that rely on spatially indirect recombination of charge carriers. In such heterostructures, electrons and holes are confined in layers of different semiconductor materials. This allows to use semiconductor materials with comparatively large bandgaps and to still generate light with a wavelength in the near-infrared of the electromagnetic spectrum. Moreover, using two different materials for charge carrier confinement increases the number of possible designs for such structures and thus offers more flexibility. Generally, the confinement of electrons and holes in different semiconductor layers is accompanied by lowered electron-hole wavefunction overlap in comparison to structures that rely on spatially direct charge carrier recombinations. This leads to lowered optical transition rates and can be compensated to a certain extent by careful optimization of the optical properties of these heterostructures. This thesis presents research results that contribute to the optimization of heterostructures that rely on spatially indirect recombination of electrons and holes. For this purpose, it was focused on heterostructures where (InGa)As was used to achieve electron confinement and Ga(AsSb) was used to achieve hole confinement. At this, both materials were grown on GaAs as a substrate. The results presented in this thesis are either based on calculations using the reliable many-body theory from the semiconductor Bloch and luminescence equations in combination with the k.p-theory or on density functional theory calculations. In many respects, the results gained from the calculations replace the investigative, experimental growth and subsequent experimental characterization of properties of such heterostructures. In the investigated heterostructures, charge transfer and recombination processes take place through internal interfaces. Properties of the internal interfaces can be studied using interface specific excitations. One of those is the charge-transfer exciton. This thesis presents certain results from a detailed experiment-theory investigation of the formation and decay of charge transfer excitons. The presented results are based on bandstructure calculations with the k.p-theory and the semiconductor Bloch approach. The density functional theory calculations carried out in the framework of this thesis were used to calculate the valence band offsets between GaAs and Ga(AsSb) in strained heterostructures. This allows for drawing conclusions on the band alignment in the corresponding heterostructure. During the density functional calculations the problem appeared that the Ga(AsSb) bandgaps vanish at certain Sb concentrations in the ternary semiconductor compound. Related to this, for Sb concentrations exceeding a critical value the calculated valence band offsets diverged. These problems could be resolved by introducing the method of half-occupations to the calculations of the valence band offsets. The presented approach for the calculation of valence band offsets has the potential to be applicable for other semiconductor materials as well

Information Needs for the Double-Crested Cormorant in Midwestern North America, as Identified by an Audience Survey

Double-crested cormorant (DCCO) research needs and data gaps were identified in the early 1990’s by Erwin (1995) and Nisbet (1995). Erwin (1995) recommended four areas of research: (1) large-scale banding and marking to determine age- and sex specific survival and fecundity, (2) studies of movements during migration and winter, (3) assessment of limiting factors such as contaminants and disease, especially in light of recent Newcastle disease in cormorants, and (4) evaluation of economic impacts of cormorants on cultured fishes and ways to reduce predation by fish-eating birds

Information Needs for the Double-Crested Cormorant in Midwestern North America, as Identified by an Audience Survey

Double-crested cormorant (DCCO) research needs and data gaps were identified in the early 1990’s by Erwin (1995) and Nisbet (1995). Erwin (1995) recommended four areas of research: (1) large-scale banding and marking to determine age- and sex specific survival and fecundity, (2) studies of movements during migration and winter, (3) assessment of limiting factors such as contaminants and disease, especially in light of recent Newcastle disease in cormorants, and (4) evaluation of economic impacts of cormorants on cultured fishes and ways to reduce predation by fish-eating birds

Das Protein rEAG2 und die immunhistochemische Bestimmung der Lokalisation ether-à-go-go homologer Proteine im zentralen Nervensystem der Ratte

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Introduction: Double-crested Cormorants of the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence River Basin: Recent Studies, Movements and Responses to Management Actions

This paper introduces the second Special Publication of the Waterbird Society to address the biology and management of the Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritius) in North America. Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the species was at very low population levels, the Double-crested Cormorant has rebounded to its greatest population level in over 100 years. Such a significant increase has resulted in changes in community structure, and new stressors, in many aquatic ecosystems. Both Special Publications (1995 and 2013) have been focused on the biology and management of the species. The first volume dealt mainly with population growth and the resulting, immediate management issues. In the current volume, studies address the longer term situation, the implementation of two U.S. depredation orders and new research directions identified in the first Special Publication and in subsequent smaller cormorant symposia. Seventeen papers which comprise this volume are presented under six headings: introduction, impacts to natural resources, population dynamics, evaluation of control efforts, assessing fish consumption and bioenergetics, migration ecology and local and seasonal movements, and summary overview and future information needs. A second Special Publication on Double-crested Cormorants gives us an opportunity to assess how well cormorant biologists have addressed and answered questions we posed to ourselves 15 years earlier; it also provides us with a vision for the next 18 years