Radiation Driven Implosion and Triggered Star Formation

We present simulations of initially stable isothermal clouds exposed to ionizing radiation from a discrete external source, and identify the conditions that lead to radiatively driven implosion and star formation. We use the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code SEREN (Hubber et al. 2010) and the HEALPix-based photoionization algorithm described in Bisbas et al. (2009). We find that the incident ionizing flux is the critical parameter determining the evolution: high fluxes simply disperse the cloud, whereas low fluxes trigger star formation. We find a clear connection between the intensity of the incident flux and the parameters of star formation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, conference proceedings, IAU Symposium 270 (eds. Alves, Elmegreen, Girart, Trimble

Effects of Metacognitive Training on the Academic Self-Regulation of Japanese College Students

The ability to self-regulate is important for students at any level, especially for those in college, as they need to process a large volume of information and material a short span of time as they study. Competent self-regulated learners have the knowledge and strategies needed to learn and remember information along with the ability to apply the skills to specific learning task (Bembenutty, 2009, 2011; Ruban, 2006; Schunk & Zimmerman, 2011). Though more than a few decades have passed since academic self-regulation has been a focus in the field of educational psychology in Japan, the focus on self-regulation has concentrated on middle school to junior high school students in the area of mathematical learning (Ichikawa, Seo, & Uesaka, 2007; Uesaka, Manalo, & Ichikawa, 2007). Few studies have confined the effectiveness of metacognitive training among Japanese college students. Using a convenience sample from Japanese private Christian colleges, the intervention of metacognitive strategies such as goal setting, time-management, and self-control was implemented. Research question 1 attempted to determine if there was a significant difference between the groups Treatment and Comparison on the MSLQ scores. Research question 2 attempted to determine if there was a significant difference in the MSLQ scores by gender. Research question 3 attempted to determine if there was a significant effect for group by gender. A nonequivalent comparison-group design with repeated-measure was employed in this study. The design included three independent variables: a) Group (treatment and comparison9, b) Gender (male and female), and c) Testing (pretest, posttest, and posttest 2). The dependent variable was the self-regulation scores derived from two subscales, Motivation and Metacognition, of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Inferential analysis was accomplished using two-way repeated-measures ANOVA. Despite the lack of finding statistical significance in this study, the students’ reflections written after each intervention session offered insight into the possible effectiveness of teaching self-regulated learning to Japanese college students. Further studies are needed with a larger sample size to determine whether or not the results of this study would hold true for other populations