Bridging the Gap: 21st Century Media Meets Theoretical Pedagogical Literacy Practices

In this chapter, the researchers used an ethnographic stance to demonstrate how conversation evolved within a social media platform. They investigated the online discussions and face-to-face dialogues between teacher educators and pre-service teachers. They compared the participants’ reciprocal conversations within this case study to analyze patterns in the language used in each forum in order to identify the affordances and constraints of perceived understanding. Through this discourse analysis the authors sought to identify indicators of each participant’s metacognitive development while engaging in an online book discussion through a social media platform. Data analysis indicated that there was metacognitive growth when comparing the initial reciprocal conversations with the final conversations

The Professional Learning Motivation Profile (PLMP): A Tool for Assessing Instructional Motivation

This article chronicles the collaboration of administrators from six districts and three college professors as they assessed professional learning during the first year of teaching. The examination led to the development of a Professional Learning Motivation Profile. Results from the profile indicated a traditional model of professional development was not effective in growing the professional learning motivation of beginning teachers. Anecdotal data shared includes how administrators used the data to inform conversations designed to support teachers in their journey toward courageous, effective instruction

Research on genre learning for re-imagining the pedagogy of writers’ retreats

Writers’ retreats were originally conceived of as quiet spaces away from the workplace where academic staff would have uninterrupted time to focus on writing. Recently, however, the literature has referred to  “structured retreats” (Murray 2010:102) which allow for  “information giving” (pedagogy) and participants’ discussion of writing in progress.

The Conflation of Patent Eligibility and Obviousness: Alice\u27s Substitution of Section 103

Since the birth of the abstract ideas concept, the judiciary has struggled to define abstract idea and analyze what is patentable under this exception to Section 101. The Supreme Court’s decision in Alice has not clarified the complexities that have arisen from the abstract ideas category. Instead, it falls in line with the warnings of the dissent in Flook, where Justice Stewart advises against the majority’s use of “inventive application” because it conflates the Section 101 and Section 103 inquiries. In order to avoid such conflation, the Alice framework cannot be adopted. Step one of the framework should be eliminated because all inventions embody patent ineligible matter at some level, and it is too difficult to identify an abstract idea without a definitional or categorical understanding of what an abstract idea is. Step two of the framework must be reworked to prevent the courts from adopting an obviousness analysis under Section 101. Rather than using the “inventive concept” language, the Court should address step two as a question of preemption, asking whether the claims in the patent are overly broad and prevent other inventors from building upon the underlying principle. If this suggestion is not possible, the Court should create a bright line rule, at a minimum, to prevent the statutory constraint on the obviousness analysis from being ignored. That is, the courts should not be allowed to break down the claim to determine whether it is conventional. The courts must analyze the claim as a whole to determine if the claim adds enough to transform the underlying idea into a patentable claim

MS

thesisThe diagnosis of sepsis in the newborn is dependent on the recovery of bacterial organisms from the bloodstream. However, single blood culture results are often negative for the growth of organisms. The literature suggests that serial cultures might identify pathogens that are often missed when only a single culture is drawn. A heelstick blood culture method has been shown effective in identifying pathogenic organisms. This method would allow the clinician to draw serial cultures with less difficulty and minimal trauma to the infant. The purpose of this study was to determine whether serial heelstick blood cultures improved sensitivity to pathogenic organisms. An initial venous culture was drawn followed by three heelstick cultures with 15-minute intervals between each draw. All venous cultures were negative for the growth of an organism. Only one heelstick culture yielded a positive result which was felt to be a contaminant since the organism was not reported on the venous or other heelstick cultures. Therefore, continued research with a larger samiple size is needed to determine whether serial heelstick blood cultures will indeed yield a higher incidence of pathogenic organisms than a single venous culture

H ingestion into He-burning convection zones in super-AGB stellar models as a potential site for intermediate neutron-density nucleosynthesis

We investigate the evolution of super-AGB (SAGB) thermal pulse (TP) stars for a range of metallicities (Z) and explore the effect of convective boundary mixing (CBM). With decreasing metallicity and evolution along the TP phase, the He-shell flash and the third dredge-up (TDU) occur closer together in time. After some time (depending upon the CBM parametrization), efficient TDU begins while the pulse-driven convection zone (PDCZ) is still present, causing a convective exchange of material between the PDCZ and the convective envelope. This results in the ingestion of protons into the convective He-burning pulse. Even small amounts of CBM encourage the interaction of the convection zones leading to transport of protons from the convective envelope into the He layer. H-burning luminosities exceed 10⁹ (in some cases 10¹⁰) L⊙. We also calculate models of dredge-out in the most massive SAGB stars and show that the dredge-out phenomenon is another likely site of convective-reactive H-¹²C combustion. We discuss the substantial uncertainties of stellar evolution models under these conditions. Nevertheless, the simulations suggest that in the convective-reactive H-combustion regime of H ingestion the star may encounter conditions for the intermediate neutron capture process (i-process). We speculate that some CEMP-s/r stars could originate in i-process conditions in the H ingestion phases of low-Z SAGB stars. This scenario would however suggest a very low electron-capture supernova rate from SAGB stars. We also simulate potential outbursts triggered by such H ingestion events, present their light curves and briefly discuss their transient properties

Assessment of potential impacts to avian species from a proposed 750 foot guyed tower at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia

• NASA has proposed A 750 foot guyed instrumentation tower to be constructed on Wallops Island, VA at one of two locations. • Wallops Island is embedded within a critical location along the Atlantic Flyway that supports millions of avian species annually, many of which are of conservation concern. Since this tower has the potential to act as a collision hazard for birds, NASA has requested a synthesis of existing information on the species exposure and relative vulnerability to the proposed construction. • The proposed tower site and its alternative are relatively identical with respect to location from shoreline or other natural habitats use by birds and are only separated by 2,300 feet. There is no indication from known information that one site or the other poses any greater or lesser risk to collision by birds. • While the construction of an instrumentation tower on Wallops Island may result in bird mortality collisions, a central question from a population perspective, is not how many individuals would be killed annually but if the focal population would be able to sustain the mortality incurred and still reach conservation and management objectives. • Information required to make a full assessment on an expected mortality rate from the proposed tower does not exist. Information required for this type of assessment would include full understanding of the distribution of migrant corridors, breeding populations, winter populations and the flight altitudes of many species. In many cases this is only possible through post-construction monitoring. Because this monitoring data does not exist, the best assessment, based on the information available, was undertaken to provide relative levels of risk based on characteristics of broad population overlap with the tower site and species flight and behavioral characteristics