A study of rhythmic activities for the primary grades.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Examining the Relationship Between Gifted Behavior Rating Scores and Student Academic Performance

Current trends in gifted education research suggest the importance of identifying, developing, and nurturing the talent and potential of gifted learners in addition to recognizing high ability through intelligence testing. However, despite decades of work to decrease the achievement gaps, increasing excellence gaps, the disparity between the highest levels of student achievement from White, affluent backgrounds and the top-performing students from minority or low income backgrounds, remains a problem (Plucker & Callahan, 2014). This quantitative research study examines how a component of the identification process, the gifted behavior rating scale, can be used to assess student potential and increase representation of minority populations in gifted education. In this study, ex post facto gifted behavior rating scale data gathered from the gifted screening process in a large, diverse suburban school district was correlated to determine if any relationship existed between gifted behavior rating scales scores and student academic performance. Findings from this research study indicated a weak to moderate positive correlation between students’ gifted rating scale scores and student academic performance. Because results were statistically insignificant, gifted rating scale scores were not determined to be predictors of student academic performance. However, results support the talent development approach in gifted education and demonstrate that teachers are able to recognize and identify gifted behavior characteristics for high ability students effectively using a gifted behavior rating scale. In addition, the study demonstrated the academic performance success achieved by both underrepresented and non-minority high ability students in gifted programming. Further empirical research needs to be conducted to demonstrate the predictive value of using teacher rating scales as a component of the gifted identification screening process

HUMAN PREDATION RISK AND ELK BEHAVIOR IN HETEROGENEOUS LANDSCAPES

Elk (Cervus elaphus) are increasing in fragmented landscapes that result from exurban human development throughout western North America. This problem is increasing human-wildlife conflicts and represents a significant new challenge to wildlife managers. Elk hunting must be intensively managed, if allowed at all, to reduce public relations problems. For example, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks has focused three hunts on a rapidly growing (~11% annually) elk herd in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) of Missoula, Montana, USA. Their goals were to reduce population growth rate, crop depredation, and habituation to humans. However, little was known about the indirect effect hunting has on anti-predator behavior, movement, resource selection, and human-elk conflicts. We first investigated the indirect effects of hunting on elk using an extensive comparison of elk anti-predator behavior across four human predation risk levels in western Montana. We collected 361behavioral observations across this predation risk gradient from October 2008 to March 2009. Vigilance was highest in highest predation risk areas and lowest in lowest risk areas. Vigilance and movement attenuated with the removal of human predation risk within 3-5 weeks under intermediate human predation risk in Missoula, Montana. I then used an intensive investigation of elk outfitted with global positioning system (GPS) collars in the WUI of Missoula to test the indirect effects of hunting on elk. We used data from nine GPS collared adult female elk during three hunting seasons with increasing hunting pressure (2007-2009) to test relationships between movement rates measured by first passage time (FPT) and resource selection. FPT decreased annually, by season type, and by hunting mode (archery vs rifle), and was negatively correlated with hunter predation risk. Elk slowed down ~750 meters from and selected for areas ~1200 meters from houses and trails, suggesting habituation to humans contributed to WUI human-wildlife conflict. These results support the risk allocation hypothesis that elk modify behavior in relation to temporal and spatial variation in human predation risk, and provide some of the first insights as to the indirect effects of hunting on elk in the WUI

CENP-A Is Dispensable for Mitotic Centromere Function after Initial Centromere/Kinetochore Assembly

Human centromeres are defined by chromatin containing the histone H3 variant CENP-A assembled onto repetitive alphoid DNA sequences. By inducing rapid, complete degradation of endogenous CENP-A, we now demonstrate that once the first steps of centromere assembly have been completed in G1/S, continued CENP-A binding is not required for maintaining kinetochore attachment to centromeres or for centromere function in the next mitosis. Degradation of CENP-A prior to kinetochore assembly is found to block deposition of CENP-C and CENP-N, but not CENP-T, thereby producing defective kinetochores and failure of chromosome segregation. Without the continuing presence of CENP-A, CENP-B binding to alphoid DNA sequences becomes essential to preserve anchoring of CENP-C and the kinetochore to each centromere. Thus, there is a reciprocal interdependency of CENP-A chromatin and the underlying repetitive centromere DNA sequences bound by CENP-B in the maintenance of human chromosome segregation

Compensation Programs in Wyoming for Livestock Depredation by Large Carnivores

Common law in America, which has been continually reinforced in the courts of the United States, holds that the people of the state own the wildlife within its boundaries. No person or entity holds absolute property rights to wildlife regardless of the ownership of the land on which the animal is found. The courts have construed that since wildlife belongs to everyone, everyone must share in its keep. As a result of this interpretation, courts have ruled the government, both state and federal, is immune from liability for damage caused by wild animals, unless the government waives its sovereign immunity and voluntarily assumes liability. The federal government has long invoked its sovereign immunity from liability for damage caused by species managed under federal law, such as migratory waterfowl, passerine birds, and those species listed as threatened or endangered, such as grizzly bears and gray wolves. In addition, many states have traditionally invoked their sovereign immunity from liability for damage caused by wild animals. As an example, the state of South Dakota does not accept monetary liability for damage done by wildlife. Conversely, some states, such as Wyoming, Utah, Washington and Idaho, have waived their sovereign immunity to a limited degree and assumed liability for some types of damage caused by some types of wild animals. After a century of persecution that resulted in large scale population reductions, large predator numbers have increased over much of their former ranges in North America. Predators such as wolves, cougars and grizzly bears are making a comeback in parts of the West. The comeback is largely due to a variety of changing societal values about predators that have resulted in reduced control campaigns. Along with the increase in predators, predator compensation programs have evolved in some jurisdictions. Currently, fourteen states and four Canadian provinces have government administered programs to reimburse livestock owners for losses caused by some predators. In addition, Defenders of Wildlife, a private conservation group, reimburses livestock producers for losses caused by grizzly bears in two western states and wolves in three western states. Most programs pay for losses caused by only the large predators (black bears, grizzly bears, cougars, and wolves) even though in most states smaller predators, such as coyotes or golden eagles, cause a far more significant monetary loss to the livestock industry. This industry is important, and in some instances critical, to the rural infrastructure and local economies of Wyoming

Swimming against the tide: a study of a neighbourhood trying to rediscover its ‘reason for being’– the case of South Bank, Redcar and Cleveland.

Many of the programmes and initiatives to regenerate deprived neighbourhoods appear to have had limited lasting impact. It has been argued that one reason for this is that we still have little real understanding of the nature and scale of the problems some communities face (Bernt, 2009). This article attempts to add to our knowledge through close study of an area with multiple problems and a history of failed regeneration attempts. An in-depth case study, undertaken to explore the current situation and future prospects of South Bank, a small neighbourhood in the North East of England, highlights transferable knowledge which may be applied to other regeneration areas. The analysis considers the nature and consequences of industrial decline; entrenched deprivation; the stigmatization of communities; the value of community consultation and the potential impact of retail-led regeneration. We question whether negative stigma attached to places can be changed and we ask what the future may hold for deprived communities now that public sector funding has largely dried up, and we consider an alternative approach: the potential impacts of private sector retail-led regeneration in the absence of public sector funding

Supported magnetic nanoclusters: Softlanding of Pd clusters on a MgO surface

Low-energy deposition of neutral Pd_N clusters (N=2-7 and 13) on a MgO(001) surface F-center (FC) was studied by spin-density-functional molecular dynamics simulations. The incident clusters are steered by an attractive "funnel" created by the FC, resulting in adsorption of the cluster, with one of its atoms bonded atop of the FC. The deposited Pd_2-Pd_6 clusters retain their gas-phase structures, while for N>6 surface-commensurate isomers are energetically more favorable. Adsorbed clusters with N > 3 are found to remain magnetic at the surface.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figs, Phys.Rev.Lett., accepte