Addams Crater, Venus, Venus: outflow analogous with a submarine debris flow?

The extraordinary outflow length and morphology of Addams crater deposits are compared with the Saharan submarine debris flow off Northwest Africa. Vapor cloud modelling and comparison of sonar data with radar images suggest a possible similar origin for the Addams crater outflow deposits

Developing Pre-Literacy Skills via Shared Book Reading: Assessment of a Family Intervention Program for Preschool Children at Risk of Becoming Reading Disabled

This paper reports on a low cost intervention program implemented into the homes of 34 preschool children at risk of reading failure. The intervention was targeted at families where there was a history of reading disability. Families were instructed in dialogic reading via videotaped examples of good practice. The intervention took place over eight weeks. Pre- and post- measures of language and literacy were taken for experimental and control groups. The intervention was successful in raising levels of concepts about print for the experimental group; receptive vocabulary and alphabet knowledge improved for the control group. There were no significant changes in measures of expressive vocabulary, rhyme and initial sounds. For students in both groups, gender was associated with rhyme, and concepts of print; parent educational level was associated with alphabet knowledge, and expressive vocabulary

Seasonal prediction of lake inflows and rainfall in a hydro-electricity catchment, Waitaki river, New Zealand

The Waitaki River is located in the centre of the South Island of New Zealand, and hydro-electricity generated on the river accounts for 35-40% of New Zealand's electricity. Low inflows in 1992 and 2001 resulted in the threat of power blackouts. Improved seasonal rainfall and inflow forecasts will result in the better management of the water used in hydro-generation on a seasonal basis. Researchers have stated that two key directions in the fields of seasonal rainfall and streamflow forecasting are to a) decrease the spatial scale of forecast products, and b) tailor forecast products to end-user needs, so as to provide more relevant and targeted forecasts. Several season-ahead lake inflow and rainfall forecast models were calibrated for the Waitaki river catchment using statistical techniques to quantify relationships between land-ocean-atmosphere state variables and seasonally lagged inflows and rainfall. Techniques included principal components analysis and multiple linear regression, with cross-validation techniques applied to estimate model error and randomization techniques used to establish the significance of the skill of the models. Many of the models calibrated predict rainfall and inflows better than random chance and better than the long-term mean as a predictor. When compared to the range of all probable inflow seasonal totals (based on the 80-year recorded history in the catchment), 95% confidence limits around most model predictions offer significant skill. These models explain up to 19% of the variance in season-ahead rainfall and inflows in this catchment. Seasonal rainfall and inflow forecasting on a single catchment scale and focussed to end-user needs is possible with some skill in the South Island of New Zealand

An invalidation test for predictive models

The standard means of establishing predictive ability in hydrological models is by finding how well predictions match independent validation data. This matching may not be particularly good in some situations such as seasonal flow forecasting and the question arises as to whether a given model has any predictive capacity. A model-independent significance test of the presence of predictive ability is proposed through random permutations of the predicted values. The null hypothesis of no model predictive ability is accepted if there is a sufficiently high probability that a random reordering of the predicted values will yield a better fit to the validation data. The test can achieve significance even with poor model predictions and its value is for invalidating bad models rather than verifying good models as suitable for application. Some preliminary applications suggest that test outcomes will often be similar at the 0.05 level for standard fit measures using absolute or squared residuals. In addition to hydrological application, the test may also find use as a base quality control measure for predictive models generally

Footprints in time

This report presents the results of two projects examining Indigenous Children\u27s language development.AbstractThis report presents the results of administration of the Who Am I? and the Renfrew Word Finding Vocabulary Test for the LSIC Wave 2 data collection in 2009. Who am I? is a developmental assessment that requires the child to write their name, copy shapes, write letters, numbers and words in a small booklet, with simple instructions and encouragement from the interviewer. Who am I? is not language dependent and is suitable for children with limited English. The assessment takes about 10 minutes to complete and is suitable for preschool children and children in the first two years of school. The Renfrew Word Finding Vocabulary Test assesses children’s expressive vocabulary (compared, for instance, with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, which is a test of receptive vocabulary). It assesses the extent to which pictures of objects, arranged in order of difficulty, can be named correctly. Most of the objects illustrated have no alternative names, so the responses of children can be quickly measured. The assessment contains 50 line-drawn pictures and is suitable for children aged 3-9 years. The assessments are being used as part of Footprints in Time, which is the name given to the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children managed by FaHCSIA.. Footprints in Time works with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families from sites in Australia seeking their consent to participate in annual interviews to help better understand what impacts on their children’s lives over time. LSIC especially explores how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children can be better supported to grow up strong and resilient, regardless of location

The edge of the stage

Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1984.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCHIncludes bibliographical references (leaf 17).The edge of the stage is not only the point where the mask is removed but also the line where performance enters daily life . The film, The Edge of the Stage, revolves around this point through the lives of five performers. Many levels of illusion are presented and removed as they portray different characters in the film, including themselves. Their roles are both unique and universal as they become metaphors for performance . The vehicle, the film, is not only a transparent medium in which to express the art of performance but rather a structure to reference the performers' art and their lives to the nature of performance in all our lives. This paper examines the role of illusion in both film and performance and the structures that control and break that illusion. Moving through the history of these intertwined art forms, the paper traces some of the ideas and observations that provided a framework for The Edge of the Stage. The thesis consists of a text and a videotape. The tape is 18 minutes long, in color, with sound, and is a transfer onto 3/4" video from film.by Catherine Purdie.M.S.V.S

The Kinetics of Crystallisation and Dissolution of Sparingly Soluble Salts in Aqueous Solutions

In a kinetic study of the crystallisation of sparingly soluble salts from supersaturated solutions the dependence of crystal nucleation in spontaneous growth on such effects as the geometry of the apparatus, the purity of the solutions, the previous history of the water etc. , warrants the use of the more reproducible method of growth by inoculation with seed crystals. This method is used in the present work. In an adsorbed layer theory suggested by Davies and Jones, growth and dissolution are described as non-reciprocal processes. The theory has been su successfully tested in growth and in dissolution work on silver chloride, a 1-1 electrolyte and silver chromate, a 2-1 electrolyte. In the first part of this thesis the study of the dissolution of silver chloride was extended to solutions of non-equivalent ionic concentrations. These conditions effectively alter the ion distribution in the layer, the ion in excess in solution being in excess in the adsorbed layer. As in equivalent ionic concentration conditions, good first order kinetic plots were observed in accordance with the theory of diffusion control in dissolution reactions. Parts 2a. and 2b. were designed to test the adequacy of the theory to include 2-2 electrolytes. Magnesium oxalate, a fairly soluble salt, forms a very stable complex in solution, Mg2+ + Ox2- ↔ MgOx. The theory of growth requires that a second order rate equation in ionic concentrations should be obeyed, -dm/dt = k(m - mo)2. and in spite of this complex formation, growth was explained by the theory at equivalent and non-equivalent concentrations and in the presence of adsorbates. Considerable retardation was observed in presence of adsorbates and from a Langmuir adsorption isotherm treatment of results the observed rate constant approached a limiting value as adsorbate concentration was increased, illustrating that adsorption occurred only at specific crystal sites. Crystallisation was followed by conductivity, titrimetric and photographic techniques. Spontaneous crystallisation was observed at supersaturations above a certain limit, but could be eliminated by increasing the seed concentration, The rate of growth was independent of the increasing

The Effects of Divorce and Non-Nuclear Families on Educational Achievement and Attainment

In the past fifty to sixty years divorce rates have risen exponentially. In 1950 the divorce rate was approximately ten percent (Michael, 1988). Today, it towers at fifty percent (Amato, 2009). As divorce rates have risen, researchers have sought to examine its effects on children‟s education in public schools. The following work synthesizes the findings of this research. Early research has indicated that divorce has caused a significant decrease in student‟s academic success, achievement, and attainment. Additionally, divorce is sighted for increasing public school ills such as tardiness, skipping school, and suspension from school. In addition to the existing material on the subject of divorce and education, I have created and administered a survey, which seeks to further study the impact of divorce on student academia. My new data and research closely parallels and confirms previously created studies. The vast majority of research on divorce and education agrees that divorce does have an adverse effect on student achievement. Likewise, most research suggests that divorce increases student tardiness, skipping, and suspension. As divorce is increasingly known and accepted to negatively impact student performance it should be used sparingly, entangling fewer children in the first place. If divorce involving children cannot be avoided, greater measures to support and encourage children‟s continuing academic success should be put in place

Scottish Poets and English Stanzas: Schir Thomas Norny and Dunbar’s Use of Tail-Rhyme

Dunbar’s satiric poem Schir Thomas Norny bears an obvious relation to Chaucer’s parody of English tail-rhyme romance, The Tale of Sir Thopas, and has often been taken for a mere imitation of it. This assessment of Dunbar’s poem within the context of his own works and that of contemporary Older Scots poetry reveals that Norny’s relationship with Thopas is far more complex, however. Dunbar’s own independent knowledge of tail-rhyme romance shows Chaucer’s influence to be less pervasive here than previously thought, although differences between Norny and Dunbar’s other two satirical tail-rhyme works indicate that it must have provided the initial inspiration. Furthermore, the status of tail-rhyme as a popular English, rather than Scottish, verse form lends an edge to Dunbar’s use of it for social satire that certainly cannot have been inspired by Chaucer: it indicates, rather, the point at which he moves beyond his acknowledged poetic mentor

Optimised access to user analysis data using the gLite DPM

The ScotGrid distributed Tier-2 now provides more that 4MSI2K and 500TB for LHC computing, which is spread across three sites at Durham, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Tier-2 sites have a dual role to play in the computing models of the LHC VOs. Firstly, their CPU resources are used for the generation of Monte Carlo event data. Secondly, the end user analysis data is distributed across the grid to the site's storage system and held on disk ready for processing by physicists' analysis jobs. In this paper we show how we have designed the ScotGrid storage and data management resources in order to optimise access by physicists to LHC data. Within ScotGrid, all sites use the gLite DPM storage manager middleware. Using the EGEE grid to submit real ATLAS analysis code to process VO data stored on the ScotGrid sites, we present an analysis of the performance of the architecture at one site, and procedures that may be undertaken to improve such. The results will be presented from the point of view of the end user (in terms of number of events processed/second) and from the point of view of the site, which wishes to minimise load and the impact that analysis activity has on other users of the system