Why is Johnny failing? it depends on who you ask

This study focuses on the problem of explaining the academic performance of children and on the differences that may arise when reports of academic performance come from the child versus the parent. Data for this study came from Waves I and 11 of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH). Based on theory and prior research, it was predicted that the following factors would have a significant affect on the child\u27s school performance: interparenal violence, parental drug or alcohol abuse, socioeconomic status of the family, personality traits of the child, level of parental support provided to the child, and gender of the child. Furthermore, it was predicted that the child\u27s feelings toward school, as well as the level of family cohesiveness and stability as reported by the child would have significant effects on the child\u27s school performance. Finally, the frequency with which the child skips or cuts school was expected to be significantly and negatively associated with academic performance. Because reports on academic performance at Wave II came from both the child and parent, differences in the significance of the aforementioned factors based on the respondent were investigated. The children at the center of this study were in the first through fourth grades during Wave I and approximately five to six years further along in their education at the time of Wave II. Logistic regression was used to determine the effects of family and individual factors on the child\u27s school performance at Wave II. Results indicate that many of the factors predicted to exert a significant affect on a child\u27s school performance, such as interparental violence, socioeconomic status, and parental support, had no such effect. Other factors, such as the family environment appear to have moderately significant effects on both parental and child reports of academic performance. Factors which consistently had a significant effect on performance in school were the child\u27s gender, the child\u27s school performance at Wave I, and the frequency with which the child skipped or cut school. While the previously mentioned factors were significant regardless whether parent or child reported, antisocial personality traits of the child were significant only when the parent reported and the child\u27s feelings about school were significant only when the child reported. This suggests that while parental reports of child outcomes can provide a great deal of information about the factors that may be affecting the child, it is equally as important to obtain information directly from the child when attempting to determine what and how certain factors affect their behavior and performance

Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: The Potential of Digital Archaeology

This project brings together pioneers in the field during a two-day workshop to discuss the use, creation, and implementation of mobile tablet technology to advance paperless archaeology. Session themes will facilitate presentation, demonstration, and discussion on how archaeologists around the world use tablets or other digital tools in the field and lab and how best practices can be implemented across projects. The workshop will highlight the advantages and future of mobile computing and its challenges and limitations. The workshop will consist of formal paper sessions and opportunities for informal discussion of the issues and themes at moderated discussions, demonstrations, round tables, and speaker meals. The workshop's goal is to synthesize current practices and establish a blueprint for creating best practices and moving forward with mobile tablets in archaeology. The data generated will be made available through a website to promote ongoing discussion and information sharing

The Impact of Dietary Calcium on Rates of Breast Cancer Metastasis to Bone

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is directly involved in breast cancer (BC) metastasis, as well as the severity of metastatic tumors. Excess PTH, caused by insufficient dietary calcium, may be an important and preventable factor affecting BC metastasis to bone. PTH levels increase with age in most women, largely due to insufficient dietary calcium. The goal of the research is to test this hypothesis in non immune-compromised mice that have breast cancer, and are fed diets containing adequate or insufficient calcium

Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future : The Potential of Digital Archaeology

Mobilizing the Past is a collection of 20 articles that explore the use and impact of mobile digital technology in archaeological field practice. The detailed case studies present in this volume range from drones in the Andes to iPads at Pompeii, digital workflows in the American Southwest, and examples of how bespoke, DIY, and commercial software provide solutions and craft novel challenges for field archaeologists. The range of projects and contexts ensures that Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future is far more than a state-of-the-field manual or technical handbook. Instead, the contributors embrace the growing spirit of critique present in digital archaeology. This critical edge, backed by real projects, systems, and experiences, gives the book lasting value as both a glimpse into present practices as well as the anxieties and enthusiasm associated with the most recent generation of mobile digital tools. This book emerged from a workshop funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities held in 2015 at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. The workshop brought together over 20 leading practitioners of digital archaeology in the U.S. for a weekend of conversation. The papers in this volume reflect the discussions at this workshop with significant additional content. Starting with an expansive introduction and concluding with a series of reflective papers, this volume illustrates how tablets, connectivity, sophisticated software, and powerful computers have transformed field practices and offer potential for a radically transformed discipline.https://dc.uwm.edu/arthist_mobilizingthepast/1000/thumbnail.jp

0.2. Mobile Computing in Archaeology: Exploring and Interpreting Current Practices

Since 2010, a range of mobile and internet-connected tablet computing devices (e.g., iPads) have been integrated into archaeological practice, with projects experimenting with new approaches to documenting, interpreting, and publishing material culture. The rapid pace of this change has led to a tension in the discipline as archaeologists have begun to realize how creating and manipulating born-digital data could fundamentally alter archaeological knowledge production. We are thus at a critical time for archaeology as it moves from a paper-based discipline to an increasingly digital one. There is a growing sense that the change is good, but that it must be critically and reflexively embraced to prevent the discipline from losing what has made it so vital to social discourse: its ability to shed light on the human past. This contribution outlines the debates surrounding digital archaeologies while laying the groundwork for their reflexive and ethical application. As the introductory chapter to Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future, it draws on over twenty studies of contemporary digital archaeological practices to suggest that the transition to paperless workflows is an ongoing process that has the potential to improve archaeological interpretations. This review of current practices engages with the collection, manipulation, interpretation, and dissemination of archaeological data as it passes through the digital filter from trench side to the digital repository and examines what is being gained, lost, or changed through such processes. This overview not only presents a concise and informative introduction to the timely themes explored in the volume, but also offers a cumulative, informed, and critical perspective on how digital technologies are transforming archaeology and what it can tell us about the past.https://dc.uwm.edu/arthist_mobilizingthepast/1001/thumbnail.jp

0.2. Mobile Computing in Archaeology: Exploring and Interpreting Current Practices

Since 2010, a range of mobile and internet-connected tablet computing devices (e.g., iPads) have been integrated into archaeological practice, with projects experimenting with new approaches to documenting, interpreting, and publishing material culture. The rapid pace of this change has led to a tension in the discipline as archaeologists have begun to realize how creating and manipulating born-digital data could fundamentally alter archaeological knowledge production. We are thus at a critical time for archaeology as it moves from a paper-based discipline to an increasingly digital one. There is a growing sense that the change is good, but that it must be critically and reflexively embraced to prevent the discipline from losing what has made it so vital to social discourse: its ability to shed light on the human past. This contribution outlines the debates surrounding digital archaeologies while laying the groundwork for their reflexive and ethical application. As the introductory chapter to Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future, it draws on over twenty studies of contemporary digital archaeological practices to suggest that the transition to paperless workflows is an ongoing process that has the potential to improve archaeological interpretations. This review of current practices engages with the collection, manipulation, interpretation, and dissemination of archaeological data as it passes through the digital filter from trench side to the digital repository and examines what is being gained, lost, or changed through such processes. This overview not only presents a concise and informative introduction to the timely themes explored in the volume, but also offers a cumulative, informed, and critical perspective on how digital technologies are transforming archaeology and what it can tell us about the past.https://dc.uwm.edu/arthist_mobilizingthepast/1001/thumbnail.jp

1.4. DIY Digital Workflows on the Athienou Archaeological Project, Cyprus

For the last 25 years, the Athienou Archaeological Project (AAP) has conducted pedestrian survey and excavations of domestic, religious, and funerary sites in the Malloura Valley on Cyprus. To enhance the project’s research goals, excavation methods, and pedagogical mission, AAP has recognized the utility of thoughtfully integrating emergent technologies into the excavation process and has acknowledged the importance of acquainting students with such technologies. Indeed, AAP has participated in the transition from handwritten notebooks to born-digital, tablet-based recording. In 2011 AAP was among the earliest projects to embrace the “paperless” archaeology revolution that is quickly becoming standard in field archaeology. This chapter describes AAP’s transition to a do-it-yourself (DIY) hybrid archaeological recording system that integrates both born-digital and tablet-based on-site methods with existing paper-based modes of field recording. We discuss the benefits and drawbacks of system implementation and consider the impact of born-digital data recording on project workflows, research, and teaching.https://dc.uwm.edu/arthist_mobilizingthepast/1005/thumbnail.jp

Empirical array quality weights in the analysis of microarray data

BACKGROUND: Assessment of array quality is an essential step in the analysis of data from microarray experiments. Once detected, less reliable arrays are typically excluded or "filtered" from further analysis to avoid misleading results. RESULTS: In this article, a graduated approach to array quality is considered based on empirical reproducibility of the gene expression measures from replicate arrays. Weights are assigned to each microarray by fitting a heteroscedastic linear model with shared array variance terms. A novel gene-by-gene update algorithm is used to efficiently estimate the array variances. The inverse variances are used as weights in the linear model analysis to identify differentially expressed genes. The method successfully assigns lower weights to less reproducible arrays from different experiments. Down-weighting the observations from suspect arrays increases the power to detect differential expression. In smaller experiments, this approach outperforms the usual method of filtering the data. The method is available in the limma software package which is implemented in the R software environment. CONCLUSION: This method complements existing normalisation and spot quality procedures, and allows poorer quality arrays, which would otherwise be discarded, to be included in an analysis. It is applicable to microarray data from experiments with some level of replication

Robust, compact implementation of an off-axis digital holographic microscope

Recent advances in digital technologies, such as high-speed computers and large-format digital imagers, have led to a burgeoning interest in the science and engineering of digital holographic microscopy (DHM). Here we report on a novel off-axis DHM, based on a twin-beam optical design, which avoids the limitations of prior systems, and provides many advantages, including compactness, intrinsic stability, robustness against misalignment, ease of use, and cost. These advantages are traded for a physically constrained sample volume, as well as a fixed fringe spacing. The first trade is not overly restrictive for most applications, and the latter provides for a pre-set assembly alignment that optimizes the spatial frequency sampling. Moreover, our new design supports use in both routine laboratory settings as well as extreme environments without any sacrifice in performance, enabling ready observation of microbial species in the field. The instrument design is presented in detail here, along with a demonstration of bacterial video imaging at sub-micrometer resolution at temperatures down to –15 °C