1,827 research outputs found
An Automated Diagnostic Test and Tutorial Package for Basic Skills of Mathematics in Post Secondary Vocational Education of Kentucky: Construction and Validation
The purpose of this research study was to determine characteristics of entering vocational students in Kentucky Area/State vocational schools and to develop a computerized diagnostic instrument and tutorial package for assisting students in the mastery of necessary basic skills in mathematics. After specific math skills were identified in which proficiency is required of vocational education students, item pools were constructed for each skill. The skill item pools were validated using approximately 500 public school students throughout the grades of four through eight in public schools of Harlan County, Kentucky, Lee County, Virginia, and Washington County, Tennessee. The items within each item pool were found to be statistically equivalent. Computer programs were coded in the BASIC language using the item pools to randomly select and generate a diagnostic instrument and tutorial program relevant to the basic math skills. Three randomly generated forms of the diagnostic instrument were sent to 100 students in twenty area state vocational schools of Kentucky for normalization and form validation. The diagnostic instrument showed a strong positive coefficient of reliability with an average of.95 over the three forms used in the normalization process. There was no significant difference between the mean raw scores of the three forms. A 67 percentile score was found to be the norm which was to be statistically equivalent to the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE) at the 8.75 grade equivalent. An experiment was conducted using vocational students at Hazard State Vocational School as subjects to determine the affects of the tutorial package on basic math skill mastery using equivalent forms of the diagnostic instrument for pretesting and posttesting. Results of the experiment indicated that the computer managed instruction tutorial package had a significant affect in increasing posttest scores of the experimental group over the control group. It was concluded that the problem of constructing a computerized diagnostic math instrument and tutorial package capable of enhancing mastery of basic math skills to assist vocational students in gaining entrance into vocational school was achieved. A recommendation was made for further research and development to use the random item pool model for other development of computer assisted instruction (CAI) software
C4B null alleles are not associated with genetic polymorphisms in the adjacent gene CYP21A2 in autism
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Research indicates that the etiology of autism has a strong genetic component, yet so far the search for genes that contribute to the disorder, including several whole genome scans, has led to few consistent findings. However, three studies indicate that the complement <it>C4B </it>gene null allele (i.e. the missing or nonfunctional <it>C4B </it>gene) is significantly more frequent in individuals with autism. Due to the close proximity of the <it>CYP21A2 </it>gene to the <it>C4B </it>locus (3 kb) it was decided to examine samples from autistic subjects, including many with known <it>C4B </it>null alleles for common <it>CYP21A2 </it>mutations.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Samples from subjects diagnosed with autism and non-autistic controls (controls) previously typed for <it>C4B </it>null alleles were studied. Allele specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods were used to determine 8 of the most common <it>CYP21A2 </it>genetic mutations, known to completely or partially inhibit 21-hydroxylase, the enzyme encoded by the <it>CYP21A2 </it>gene.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although the combined autism and control study subjects had 50 <it>C4B </it>null alleles only 15 <it>CYP21A2 </it>mutations were detected in over 2250 genotypes. Eight mutations were detected in the autistic samples and 7 in the controls. The frequency of <it>CYP21A2 </it>mutations was similar between the autism and control samples. Only one individual (autistic) carried a chromosome containing both <it>C4B </it>null allele and <it>CYP21A2 </it>mutations.</p
Recommended from our members
A Search for Dark Higgs Bosons
Recent astrophysical and terrestrial experiments have motivated the proposal
of a dark sector with GeV-scale gauge boson force carriers and new Higgs
bosons. We present a search for a dark Higgs boson using 516 fb-1 of data
collected with the BABAR detector. We do not observe a significant signal and
we set 90% confidence level upper limits on the product of the Standard
Model-dark sector mixing angle and the dark sector coupling constant.Comment: 7 pages, 5 postscript figures, published version with improved plots
for b/w printin
Measurement of the Forward-Backward Asymmetry in the B -> K(*) mu+ mu- Decay and First Observation of the Bs -> phi mu+ mu- Decay
We reconstruct the rare decays , , and in a data sample
corresponding to collected in collisions at
by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron
Collider. Using and decays we report the branching ratios. In addition, we report
the measurement of the differential branching ratio and the muon
forward-backward asymmetry in the and decay modes, and the
longitudinal polarization in the decay mode with respect to the squared
dimuon mass. These are consistent with the theoretical prediction from the
standard model, and most recent determinations from other experiments and of
comparable accuracy. We also report the first observation of the {\mathcal{B}}(B^0_s \to
\phi\mu^+\mu^-) = [1.44 \pm 0.33 \pm 0.46] \times 10^{-6}27 \pm 6B^0_s$ decay observed.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Measurements of the properties of Lambda_c(2595), Lambda_c(2625), Sigma_c(2455), and Sigma_c(2520) baryons
We report measurements of the resonance properties of Lambda_c(2595)+ and
Lambda_c(2625)+ baryons in their decays to Lambda_c+ pi+ pi- as well as
Sigma_c(2455)++,0 and Sigma_c(2520)++,0 baryons in their decays to Lambda_c+
pi+/- final states. These measurements are performed using data corresponding
to 5.2/fb of integrated luminosity from ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV,
collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. Exploiting the
largest available charmed baryon sample, we measure masses and decay widths
with uncertainties comparable to the world averages for Sigma_c states, and
significantly smaller uncertainties than the world averages for excited
Lambda_c+ states.Comment: added one reference and one table, changed order of figures, 17
pages, 15 figure
Search for a New Heavy Gauge Boson Wprime with Electron + missing ET Event Signature in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV
We present a search for a new heavy charged vector boson decaying
to an electron-neutrino pair in collisions at a center-of-mass
energy of 1.96\unit{TeV}. The data were collected with the CDF II detector
and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.3\unit{fb}^{-1}. No
significant excess above the standard model expectation is observed and we set
upper limits on . Assuming standard
model couplings to fermions and the neutrino from the boson decay to
be light, we exclude a boson with mass less than
1.12\unit{TeV/}c^2 at the 95\unit{%} confidence level.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures Submitted to PR
Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV
The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum
- …