The Genetic Origins of Dragons

Dragons are popular creatures in fantasy that are large winged lizards that can be the size of a house. This report looks at the basic genetic requirements to produce Dragons. It finds that HOXD and HOXc-6 genes are necessary requirements for the formation of the dragon’s wings. It also investigates the size limits for birds and finds that due to the current bird size being limited by feather size dragons will likely lack them, and be closer to the ancient creatures that flew, such as the Quetzalcoatlus

Could the Black Knight have survived to bite King Arthur’s legs off?

The paper examines the feasibility of the Black Knight surviving to the end of the duel with King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. By looking into the blood loss accrued when each limb is chopped off the level of haemorrhaging is found throughout the scene. Given the blood loss he would have sustained it is unclear as to whether the Black Knight would have been able to survive until the end of the scene. However, he would have certainly lost consciousness and died seconds after the fade to black

Perceptions of Novice Elementary Teachers Regarding Retention

Teachers at the local study site continue to leave the elementary school and profession at increasingly high rates creating a teacher shortage. The school staff consists of 33 teachers, with an average of 10 resigning each year. Because of the shortage, state and local school boards, school districts, and school-based administrators share the need to understand this phenomenon. Guided by Herzberg\u27s 2-factor theory, which noted that people are motivated by attributes such as recognition and by Maslow\u27s motivational theory, which refers to human needs and personal beliefs as motivational factors, this study investigated factors that contributed to teacher attrition and retention, as well as strategies used to improve retention of novice teachers. Nine novice teachers employed at the local site participated in e-mail interviews. Participants provided their perception of factors that influenced their decision to remain or stay in the profession. Data were analyzed with an emphasis on seeking emerged themes through the process of open coding. Data analysis revealed a gap in the level of support from mentors and administrators that affected novice teachers\u27 professional growth, as well as their decision to leave or stay in the profession. Participants listed incentives, acknowledgment, and training as the primary strategies for retaining teachers. The findings led to the creation of a professional development program. This study contributes to positive social change by providing educators a deeper understanding of the problem of teacher attrition and by identifying strategies to manage teacher turnover to improve retention efforts

Uniform Silicon Isotope Ratios Across the Milky Way Galaxy

We report the relative abundances of the three stable isotopes of silicon, $^{28}$Si, $^{29}$Si and $^{30}$Si, across the Galaxy using the $v = 0, J = 1 \to 0$ transition of silicon monoxide. The chosen sources represent a range in Galactocentric radii ($R_{\rm GC}$) from 0 to 9.8 kpc. The high spectral resolution and sensitivity afforded by the GBT permit isotope ratios to be corrected for optical depths. The optical-depth-corrected data indicate that the secondary-to-primary silicon isotope ratios $^{29}{\rm Si}/^{28}{\rm Si}$ and $^{30}{\rm Si}/^{28}{\rm Si}$ vary much less than predicted on the basis of other stable isotope ratio gradients across the Galaxy. Indeed, there is no detectable variation in Si isotope ratios with $R_{\rm GC}$. This lack of an isotope ratio gradient stands in stark contrast to the monotonically decreasing trend with $R_{\rm GC}$ exhibited by published secondary-to-primary oxygen isotope ratios. These results, when considered in the context of the expectations for chemical evolution, suggest that the reported oxygen isotope ratio trends, and perhaps that for carbon as well, require further investigation. The methods developed in this study for SiO isotopologue ratio measurements are equally applicable to Galactic oxygen, carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio measurements, and should prove useful for future observations of these isotope systems.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 839, Issue

Measuring and Managing Answer Quality for Online Data-Intensive Services

Online data-intensive services parallelize query execution across distributed software components. Interactive response time is a priority, so online query executions return answers without waiting for slow running components to finish. However, data from these slow components could lead to better answers. We propose Ubora, an approach to measure the effect of slow running components on the quality of answers. Ubora randomly samples online queries and executes them twice. The first execution elides data from slow components and provides fast online answers; the second execution waits for all components to complete. Ubora uses memoization to speed up mature executions by replaying network messages exchanged between components. Our systems-level implementation works for a wide range of platforms, including Hadoop/Yarn, Apache Lucene, the EasyRec Recommendation Engine, and the OpenEphyra question answering system. Ubora computes answer quality much faster than competing approaches that do not use memoization. With Ubora, we show that answer quality can and should be used to guide online admission control. Our adaptive controller processed 37% more queries than a competing controller guided by the rate of timeouts.Comment: Technical Repor

Nathaniel Greene to Unknown and Robert Morris to Nathaniel Greene, September 11, 1782

Robert Morris wrote from the Office of Finance to Nathaniel Greene, address not included. Included on the first page of the letter is an extract from a letter from Nathaniel Greene to an Unknown Person dated August 13, 1782. Both letters discussed the cost of rations and supplies for the military and whether they could be bought at better prices for cash. Greene\u27s letter mentioned ravishes done on Georgia. Both also mentioned previous letters sent to George Abbott Hall.https://digitalcommons.kean.edu/lhc_1780s/1080/thumbnail.jp

‘Los “soldados de Cristo” no-cristianos: costumbre, caciquismo, y la participación wixárika en la rebelión cristera’

The cristero rebellion from 1926 to 1930 was the most important civil conflict in post-revolutionary Mexico. Most of the rebels rose up to defend the Catholic Church against the anticlerical regime of the revolutionary government, but many members of the Wixárika (or Huichol ) indigenous people, famous for practicing their own religion far removed from orthodox Catholicism, also joined the rebellion. In this text, it is argued that the Huicholesthey supported the rebels not for religious reasons, but in response to the recent efforts of the revolutionary state to establish itself in their small homeland. This in the context of long-standing territorial conflicts, in addition to rivalries newly born in the violence of the revolution. Understanding this history allows us to better understand the contradictions of the Mexican revolution and the Cristero rebellion, and takes us away from the romantic vision of the original peoples as "incorruptible" by current politics or always located on the side of the "progressive" movements in America. Latin