The effects of teacher's written comments on pupil performance and attitudes

The development of reinforcement theory and attitudes are examined,with particular reference to the influence feedback and knowledge of results (in the form of grades and comments) have on achievement and attitude change in science. Relevant previous research is discussed critically. Hypotheses are formed regarding the effect of Teacher Written Comments on science attitudes and achievement. Thirteen year old pupils were asked to grade comments either 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' or 'E' depending on which grade they thought should go with the comments. 159 thirteen year old boys and girls were divided randomly into four treatment groups:- 1) Grades only, 2) Grades and matching comment, 3) Grade and above average comment, and 4) Control - existing marking and grading procedure. The Science Attitude Questionnaire (Skumik & Jeffs 1971) and a Science Achievement Test was administered before and after a topic (The Earth) was taught in science lessons. The pupil's work was marked, commented upon according to the four treatments above, and returned. No treatment effects on science achievement were found for boys or girls. Treatment 3 was found to have produced significantly greater gain than the other treatments in the Science Interest, Social Implications of Science, Science Teacher and School factors of the Science Attitude Questionnaire. Boys were found to have a significantly more favourable interest in science and it's social implications than girls. Girls had a significantly more favourable attitude to school than boys. Attenuation had reduced the sample to 147 (74 boys and 73 girls). Two years later another application of treatments was given in another middle school using 31 boys and 39 girls. A significant treatment effect was found for the achievement gain for girls (F= 4.71432, p:> 0.1%). Follow up t tests showed girls in Treatment 3 to have made significantly greater gains than Treatments 1 ,2 or 4. Again, some significant differences were found in favour of Treatment 3 in various attitude factor scores. The findings, are discussed comparing them with results from other researchers in this field. The original findings of Page (1958) are not fully supported

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Community Survey, 2014 and Trends 2009–2014: A Sourcebook of Community Attitudes

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Community Survey (Mat-Su Survey), conducted annually since 2006, is a cooperative research effort between the Justice Center at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The survey asks Mat-Su Borough residents to evaluate the quality of Borough services, provide opinions about Borough decision-making, and sum up their perceptions about a range of issues relevant to the present and future of the Mat-Su community. The 2014 survey was distributed to 2,491 adult heads-of-household in the Mat-Su Borough in the winter and spring of 2014; a total of 1,003 surveys were returned, for a response rate of 40.3%. This sourcebook presents both the results from the 2014 Mat-Su Survey and trends from 2009–2014 in five major areas: (1) evaluation of current borough services; (2) use of borough facilities; (3) life in Mat-Su neighborhoods; (4) local government access, policies, and practices; and (5) respondent background information. A set of additional questions focusing on salmon and the environment was added to the 2014 Mat-Su Survey at the request of the Nature Conservancy. Additionally, findings from a derived importance-performance analysis of the survey data are presented, as is a compilation of respondent comments.Matanuska-Susitna BoroughIntroduction / Organization of Sourcebook / Methods / Executive Summary / 2014 RESULTS AND 2009–2014 TRENDS / Part I. Evaluation of Current Borough Services / Part II. Use of Borough Facilities / Part III. Life in Matanuska-Susitna Borough Neighborhoods / Part IV. Local Government: Access, Policies and Practices / Part V. Open Space and Salmon / Part VI. Sample Characteristics / Part VII. Derived Importance-Performance Analysis / Part VIII. Respondents’ Comments / Appendix: Questionnair

Heat Generation Characteristics of LiFePO4 Pouch Cells with Passive Thermal Management

This article experimentally investigates the heat generation characteristics and the effectiveness of passive cooling of commercially available LiFePO4 (7.25 mm × 160 mm × 227 mm, 19.5 Ah) cells using different cooling materials. The specific heat capacity and the entropy coefficient of the cell are experimentally measured. The heat generation rate of the cell at 1–4 C current rates are also determined using three different methods: (1) the heat absorption calculated from the temperature increase of cooling water; (2) the energy loss calculated from the difference between the operating voltage and open circuit voltage; and (3) the energy loss during a charge-discharge cycle calculated using the voltage difference between charging and discharging. Results show that the heat generation rate estimated from heat absorbed by the water can be underestimated by up to 47.8% because of the temperature gradient within the cell and on the surface. The effectiveness of different passive cooling materials is compared at discharge current rates of 1–3 C. The average increase of the cell surface temperature is 22.6, 17.1, 7.7, 7.2 and 6.4 °C at 3 C (58.5 A) using air, aluminum foam, octadecane, water with aluminum foam and water, respectively

Working Futures 2017-2027 : Long-run labour market and skills projections headline report

This report provides a concise overview of Working Futures 2017-2027 results for the UK. It presents historical trends and future prospects by sector for the UK and its constituent nations and the English regions. The prime focus of Working Futures is on the demand for skills as measured by employment by occupation and qualification, although the supply side is also considered. Its prime objective is to provide useful labour market information that can help to inform policy development and strategy around skills, careers and employment, for both policy makers and a much wider audience. The results are intended to provide a sound statistical foundation for reflection and debate among all those with an interest in the demand for and supply of skills. It is aimed at the general reader and focuses on the key messages from this very detailed study. It complements the more detailed outputs and results from the project available from the gov.uk website2 and cover sectors, occupations, geography and qualifications

A Symplectic Integrator for Hill's Equations

Hill's equations are an approximation that is useful in a number of areas of astrophysics including planetary rings and planetesimal disks. We derive a symplectic method for integrating Hill's equations based on a generalized leapfrog. This method is implemented in the parallel N-body code, PKDGRAV and tested on some simple orbits. The method demonstrates a lack of secular changes in orbital elements, making it a very useful technique for integrating Hill's equations over many dynamical times. Furthermore, the method allows for efficient collision searching using linear extrapolation of particle positions.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures; minor revisions; accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

N-Body Simulations of Growth from 1 km Planetesimals at 0.4 AU

We present N-body simulations of planetary accretion beginning with 1 km radius planetesimals in orbit about a 1 solar mass star at 0.4 AU. The initial disk of planetesimals contains too many bodies for any current N-body code to integrate; therefore, we model a sample patch of the disk. Although this greatly reduces the number of bodies, we still track in excess of 10^5 particles. We consider three initial velocity distributions and monitor the growth of the planetesimals. The masses of some particles increase by more than a factor of 100. Additionally, the escape speed of the largest particle grows considerably faster than the velocity dispersion of the particles, suggesting impending runaway growth, although no particle grows large enough to detach itself from the power law size-frequency distribution. These results are in general agreement with previous statistical and analytical results. We compute rotation rates by assuming conservation of angular momentum around the center of mass at impact and that merged planetesimals relax to spherical shapes. At the end of our simulations, the majority of bodies that have undergone at least one merger are rotating faster than the breakup frequency. This implies that the assumption of completely inelastic collisions (perfect accretion), which is made in most simulations of planetary growth at sizes 1 km and above, is inappropriate. Our simulations reveal that, subsequent to the number of particles in the patch having been decreased by mergers to half its initial value, the presence of larger bodies in neighboring regions of the disk may limit the validity of simulations employing the patch approximation.Comment: 19 pages, 32 figures, 5 tables, accepted to Icaru

Interfacing Relational Frame Theory with Cognitive Neuroscience: Semantic Priming, The Implicit Association Test, and Event Related Potentials

The current article argues that an important component of the research agenda for Relational Frame Theory will involve studying the functional relations that obtain between environmental events and the physiological activity that takes place inside the brain and central nervous system, with a particular focus on human language and cognition. In support of this view, five separate experiments are outlined. The first three experiments replicate and extend previous research reported by Hayes and Bisset (1998). Specifically, the research, using both reaction time and neurophysiological measures, supports the argument that there is a clear functional overlap between semantic and derived stimulus relations. Specifically, an evoked potential waveform typically associated with semantic processing (N400) is shown to be sensitive to equivalence versus non-equivalence relations. Experiments 4 and 5 indicate that these reaction time and evoked potential effects are not restricted to traditional lexical decision tasks, but can also be observed using the implicit association test. Furthermore, preliminary evidence suggests that evoked potentials might constitute a more sensitive measure of derived stimulus relations than response time. The results obtained across all five experiments support the view that the study of derived stimulus relations, combined with some of the procedures and measures of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, may provide an important inroad into the experimental analysis of semantic relations in human language

The Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi) CubeSat: optomechanical design validation and laboratory calibration

Coronagraphs on future space telescopes will require precise wavefront correction to detect Earth-like exoplanets near their host stars. High-actuator count microelectromechanical system (MEMS) deformable mirrors provide wavefront control with low size, weight, and power. The Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi) payload will demonstrate a 140 actuator MEMS deformable mirror (DM) with \SI{5.5}{\micro\meter} maximum stroke. We present the flight optomechanical design, lab tests of the flight wavefront sensor and wavefront reconstructor, and simulations of closed-loop control of wavefront aberrations. We also present the compact flight DM controller, capable of driving up to 192 actuator channels at 0-250V with 14-bit resolution. Two embedded Raspberry Pi 3 compute modules are used for task management and wavefront reconstruction. The spacecraft is a 6U CubeSat (30 cm x 20 cm x 10 cm) and launch is planned for 2019.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figues. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, Austin, Texas, US