Teacher Action Research in Elementary Social Studies: Use of iPads in 6th Grade Geography Instruction

A university instructor and master teacher describe the limited examples of practitioner research in elementary social studies found in traditional publications. They present a social studies practitioner research project that investigated the use of various technologies in 6th grade geography to improve student engagement, collaboration and academic success. The authors suggest that practitioner research provides a structure for elementary teachers to investigate questions related to student learning of key social studies content, the social studies curriculum, and related skills. They suggest that practitioner research, as professional development or alternative to traditional teacher evaluation requirements, creates opportunities for elementary school teachers to focus on the teaching of social studies, raising both the status of social studies in elementary classrooms and the potential for increased teacher efficacy

PubMed and Beyond: Recent Advances and Best Practices in Biomedical Literature Search

Biomedical research yields a wealth of information, much of which is only accessible through the literature. Consequently, literature search is an essential tool for building on prior knowledge in clinical and biomedical research. Although recent improvements in artificial intelligence have expanded functionality beyond keyword-based search, these advances may be unfamiliar to clinicians and researchers. In response, we present a survey of literature search tools tailored to both general and specific information needs in biomedicine, with the objective of helping readers efficiently fulfill their information needs. We first examine the widely used PubMed search engine, discussing recent improvements and continued challenges. We then describe literature search tools catering to five specific information needs: 1. Identifying high-quality clinical research for evidence-based medicine. 2. Retrieving gene-related information for precision medicine and genomics. 3. Searching by meaning, including natural language questions. 4. Locating related articles with literature recommendation. 5. Mining literature to discover associations between concepts such as diseases and genetic variants. Additionally, we cover practical considerations and best practices for choosing and using these tools. Finally, we provide a perspective on the future of literature search engines, considering recent breakthroughs in large language models such as ChatGPT. In summary, our survey provides a comprehensive view of biomedical literature search functionalities with 36 publicly available tools.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures, 36 tool

Solstice and Solar Position observations in Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions

A major focus of the archaeoastronomical research conducted around the world focuses on understanding how ancient cultures observed sunrise and sunset points along the horizon, particularly at the solstices and equinoxes. Scholars argue that observations of these solar points are useful for developing calendars, informing ritual/ceremonial practices, and predicting seasonal change. This is the foundation of the Eurocentric four-season Julian (and later Gregorian) calendar. Famous examples include Stonehenge, Newgrange, Chichen Itza, and Chankillo. Studies at these and other sites tend to focus on solar point observations through alignments in stone arrangements, and the orientations of monuments. Despite the ongoing study of Indigenous Knowledge in Australia revealing a wealth of information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander observations and interpretations of solar, lunar, and stellar properties and motions, very little has been published about the importance and use of solar point observations. The authors examine this topic through four case studies, based on methodological frameworks and approaches in ethnography, ethnohistory, archaeology, and statistics. Our findings show that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people observe the solstices and other significant sunrise/sunset points along the horizon for timekeeping and indicating seasonal change - but in ways that are rather different to the four-season model developed in Western Europe.Comment: Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Vol. 23(1), in press (2020

Comprehensively identifying Long Covid articles with human-in-the-loop machine learning

A significant percentage of COVID-19 survivors experience ongoing multisystemic symptoms that often affect daily living, a condition known as Long Covid or post-acute-sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, identifying scientific articles relevant to Long Covid is challenging since there is no standardized or consensus terminology. We developed an iterative human-in-the-loop machine learning framework combining data programming with active learning into a robust ensemble model, demonstrating higher specificity and considerably higher sensitivity than other methods. Analysis of the Long Covid collection shows that (1) most Long Covid articles do not refer to Long Covid by any name (2) when the condition is named, the name used most frequently in the literature is Long Covid, and (3) Long Covid is associated with disorders in a wide variety of body systems. The Long Covid collection is updated weekly and is searchable online at the LitCovid portal: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research/coronavirus/docsum?filters=e_condition.LongCovi

The Ursinus Weekly, November 17, 1952

Faculty show is considered huge success • Dean addresses freshman class • Bus. Ad. Club sponsors debate on current economic issues • Y cabinet hears program plans of commissions • Dorm reps chosen to sell yearbooks • Speaker explains international bank • 11 articles, three books left in lost and found department • Ruby to give show on Friday • Benefit fashion show enjoyed by audience • I.R.C. attends model U.N. • Chest Drive opens today; $1300 set as final goal • Two Messiah soloists chosen • Lord to speak at Forum on November 25 • Freshmen petition to give breakage fees to Union • Rev. James tells What on earth God is doing • Alpha Psi sees play • Kratz, Moser describe Paris to French Club • Marine captain to speak • Editorials: Fashionable trend?; Let\u27s all give • No more expansiveness • Don Juan in Hell judged fine show • Engagements • Scribe reviews Russian movie • F.T.A. holds roast • Not as dead as you think claims fightin\u27st college • Time for change; Ursinus in 1870 • Go west young man ; Dawkins finds rare rattler • Snell\u27s Belles defeat Chestnut Hill in shutout • Court men begin pre-season drills • Drexel defeats Ursinus in final home tilt, 7-1 • Bakermen close season with 7-2 loss to Lehigh • Bears to try for equalizing victory • Juniata topples Bears in rain and mud, 7-0 • Two Ursinus Belles honored • Playoffs to decide champhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1506/thumbnail.jp

A galaxy's accretion history unveiled from its integrated spectrum

We present a new method of quantifying a galaxy's accretion history from its integrated spectrum alone. Using full spectral fitting and calibrated regularization techniques we show how we can accurately derive a galaxy's mass distribution in age-metallicity space and further separate this into stellar populations from different chemical enrichment histories. By exploiting the fact that accreted lower mass galaxies will exhibit an offset to lower metallicities at fixed age compared to the in-situ stellar population, we quantify the fraction of light that comes from past merger events, that are long since mixed in phase-space and otherwise indistinguishable. Empirical age-metallicity relations (AMRs) parameterized for different galaxy masses are used to identify the accreted stellar populations and link them back to the progenitor galaxy's stellar mass. This allows us to not only measure the host galaxy's total ex-situ mass fraction (facc), but also quantify the relative amount of accreted material deposited by satellite galaxies of different masses, i.e. the accreted satellite mass function in analogy to the subhalo mass function. Using mock spectra of simulated, present-day galaxies from the EAGLE suite we demonstrate that our method can recover the total accreted fraction to within ≈12%, the stellar mass of the most massive accreted subhalo to within ≈26% and the slope of the accreted satellite mass function to within ≈16% of the true values from the EAGLE merger trees. Future application of this method to observations could potentially provide us accretion histories of hundreds of individual galaxies, for which deep integrated light spectroscopy is available

The Ursinus Weekly, December 10, 1951

Feulner goes to convention in New York • Supply Store announces 40 percent reductions • Pi Gamma Mu sets initiation banquet for new members • Booster Committee doing art work • Messiah concert called credit to Philip\u27s directing ability • Harte and Lukens named \u2753 year book co-editors • Count to speak at 3rd Forum on January 9 • Y hears lecture on loyalty oath • Students dance at winter whirl • Inge Rudloff to speak • Pre-Christmas week of gay events arrives • Curtain Club may give play again • Candlelight Communion planned Thursday night • St. Nick furthers his education by paying visit to Ursinus College • Editorials: Christmas spirit; Thanks for paint job; New religion discovered • English dorm life described as much different from U.S. • I\u27m dreaming of a tight Christmas • Christmas spirits rise as caroling day draws near • Investment in dinner at Millers\u27 home pays high dividends • Bruin court squad scores 67-61 win over Lycoming team in extra period • Snell\u27s Belles practice for coming court season • Intramural basketball to start after Xmas vacation • Temple Pharmacy defeated by locals as 1951-52 basketball season begins • Twenty-seven report to Coach Kuhrt Wieneke for wrestling • Crusaders\u27 rally dies as Bears win thriller, 60-58 • French Club holds annual holiday soiree • Teacher to address FTA • Jones reads Galsworthy • Chest reaches half mark • Chess Club scores loss to Lansdale teamhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1530/thumbnail.jp

Disentangling the formation history of galaxies via population-orbit superposition: method validation

We present population-orbit superposition models for external galaxies based on Schwarzschild's orbit-superposition method, by tagging the orbits with age and metallicity. The models fit the density distributions, as well as kinematic, age and metallicity maps from Integral Field Unit (IFU) spectroscopy observations. We validate the method and demonstrate its power by applying it to mock data, similar to those obtained by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) IFU on the Very Large Telescope (VLT). These mock data are created from Auriga galaxy simulations, viewed at three different inclination angles ($\vartheta=40^o, 60^o, 80^o$). Constrained by MUSE-like mock data, our model can recover the galaxy's stellar orbit distribution projected in orbital circularity $\lambda_z$ vs. radius $r$, the intrinsic stellar population distribution in age $t$ vs. metallicity $Z$, and the correlation between orbits' circularity $\lambda_z$ and stellar age $t$. A physically motivated age-metallicity relation improves recovering the intrinsic stellar population distributions. We decompose galaxies into cold, warm and hot + counter-rotating components based on their orbit circularity distribution, and find that the surface density, mean velocity, velocity dispersion, age and metallicity maps of each component from our models well reproduce those from simulation, especially for projections close to edge-on. These galaxies exhibit strong global age vs. $\sigma_z$ relation, which is well recovered by our model. The method has the power to reveal the detailed build-up of stellar structures in galaxies, and offers a complement to local resolved, and high-redshift studies of galaxy evolution.Comment: 20 pages, submitted to MNRA