Barn Bluff. Red Wing Minnesota

The stereograph features a black and white image of a steamboat sitting on the Mississippi River. To its proper left, a building sits just on the shore. The image is mounted on an orange card with rounded edges. Documentary information may be found on the card\u27s back.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-photographs/1384/thumbnail.jp

Investigating the Relationship Between Professional Development and Student-Centered Learning Environments in Qatari Math and Science Elementary Classrooms

While considerable study of the organizational structures and outcomes of Qatari educational reform in Education for a New Era initiatives has been planned and implemented (see Rand, 2007), little attention has been placed on the study of what is occurring in the site where learning actually takes place – the classroom. Little research in Qatari or other Arab classrooms has been conducted to examine the relationship between the learning environment and either attainment of the student-centered standards or professional development related to standards or even to determine whether the classroom teaching and learning elements associated with student-centered learning environments exist (see e.g., Knight et al., 2011). Since the reform focuses on creating learning environments that foster attainment of the student-centered curriculum standards, research on classroom learning environments in schools targeted for reform provides valuable information. In particular, the role of professional development in creating appropriate learning environments needs to be investigated.Qatar National Research Foundation, National Priorities Research Program, Grant # 13-6-7-

Exploring Factors Related to Completion of an Online Undergraduate-Level Introductory Statistics Course

Data were collected from 353 online undergraduate introductory statistics students at the beginning of a semester using the Goals and Outcomes Associated with Learning Statistics (GOALS) instrument, an abbreviated form the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS), a survey of expected grade and expected time commitment, and the first lesson quiz. At the end of the semester, whether or not each student successfully completed the course with a grade of D or higher was recorded. It was hypothesized that students who successfully completed the course would have had favorable ratings on each of these variables. While there were no significant differences between students who did and did not successfully complete the course in terms of anxiety, attitudes, or expected time commitment, students who completed the course had higher scores on the GOALS, higher expected grades, and higher scores on the first quiz of the semester. Stepwise logistic regression found that students’ attitudes towards statistics teachers and scores on the first quiz of the semester could be used to predict whether or not students would successfully complete the course. Based on these findings, suggestions for online instructors are given

Building Environmentally Sustainable Communities: A Framework for Inclusivity

Reviews literature on past inequitable and unsustainable urban development and visions for linking sustainability, opportunity, and inclusion. Analyzes possible metrics for measuring sustainability and access as well as next steps for policy

Donor Complications Following Laparoscopic Compared to Hand-Assisted Living Donor Nephrectomy: An Analysis of the Literature

There are two approaches to laparoscopic donor nephrectomy: standard laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) and hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (HALDN). In this study we report the operative statistics and donor complications associated with LDN and HALDN from large-center peer-reviewed publications. Methods. We conducted PubMed and Ovid searches to identify LDN and HALDN outcome studies that were published after 2004. Results. There were 37 peer-reviewed studies, each with more than 150 patients. Cumulatively, over 9000 patients were included in this study. LDN donors experienced a higher rate of intraoperative complications than HALDN donors (5.2% versus. 2.0%, P < .001). Investigators did not report a significant difference in the rate of major postoperative complications between the two groups (LDN 0.5% versus HALDN 0.7%, P = .111). However, conversion to open procedures from vascular injury was reported more frequently in LDN procedures (0.8% versus 0.4%, P = .047). Conclusion. At present there is no evidence to support the use of one laparoscopic approach in preference to the other. There are trends in the data suggesting that intraoperative injuries are more common in LDN while minor postoperative complications are more common in HALDN

A Decade of SN1993J: Discovery of Wavelength Effects in the Expansion Rate

We have studied the growth of the shell-like radio structure of supernova SN1993J in M81 from September 1993 through October 2003 with very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations at the wavelengths of 3.6, 6, and 18cm. For this purpose, we have developed a method to accurately determine the outer radius (R) of any circularly symmetric compact radio structure like SN1993J. The source structure of SN1993J remains circularly symmetric (with deviations from circularity under 2%) over almost 4000 days. We characterize the decelerated expansion of SN 1993J through approximately day 1500 after explosion with an expansion parameter $m= 0.845\pm0.005$ ($R \propto t^{m}$). However, from that day onwards the expansion is different when observed at 6 and 18cm. Indeed, at 18cm, the expansion can be well characterized by the same $m$ as before day 1500, while at 6cm the expansion appears more decelerated, and is characterized by another expansion parameter, $m_{6}= 0.788\pm0.015$. Therefore, since about day 1500 on, the radio source size has been progressively smaller at 6cm than at 18cm. These findings are in stark contrast to previous reports by other authors on the details of the expansion. In our interpretation the supernova expands with a single expansion parameter, $m= 0.845\pm0.005$, and the 6cm results beyond day 1500 are due to physical effects, perhaps also coupled to instrumental limitations. Two physical effects may be involved: (a) a changing opacity of the ejecta to the 6cm radiation, and (b) a radial decrease of the magnetic field in the emitting region. (Long abstract cut. Please, read full abstract in manuscript).Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, accepted in A&

The neuroscience of conceptual learning in science and mathematics

Learning new concepts in mathematics and science often involves inhibiting prior beliefs or direct perceptual information. Recent neuroimaging work suggests that experts simply get better at inhibiting these pre-potent responses rather than replacing prior concepts with the newer concepts. A review of both behavioral and neuroimaging evidence with children suggests that improving inhibitory control is a key factor in learning new scientific and mathematical facts. This finding has implications for how these subjects are taught in the classroom and provides corroborating evidence for practices already in place

Perturbations in the carbon budget of the tropics

The carbon budget of the tropics has been perturbed as a result of human influences. Here, we attempt to construct a ‘bottom-up’ analysis of the biological components of the budget as they are affected by human activities. There are major uncertainties in the extent and carbon content of different vegetation types, the rates of land-use change and forest degradation, but recent developments in satellite remote sensing have gone far towards reducing these uncertainties. Stocks of carbon as biomass in tropical forests and woodlands add up to 271 ± 16 Pg with an even greater quantity of carbon as soil organic matter. Carbon loss from deforestation, degradation, harvesting and peat fires is estimated as 2.01 ± 1.1 Pg annum(−1); while carbon gain from forest and woodland growth is 1.85 ± 0.09 Pg annum(−1). We conclude that tropical lands are on average a small carbon source to the atmosphere, a result that is consistent with the ‘top-down’ result from measurements in the atmosphere. If they were to be conserved, they would be a substantial carbon sink. Release of carbon as carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning in the tropics is 0.74 Pg annum(−1) or 0.57 MgC person(−1) annum(−1), much lower than the corresponding figures from developed regions of the world