Mimulus gemmiparus populations: current status and extended search

A research report submitted to: Steve J. Popovich, Botanist, USDA - Forest Service, Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forests.September 30, 2005, revised September 5, 2006.Includes bibliographical references.To more accurately assess the current conservation status of the rare plant Mimulus gemmiparus (Phrymaceae), we visited all previously known sites of occurrence and documented the location, size, and condition of populations, and we searched for additional populations in nearby areas. Our search results indicate that more occurrences of M. gemmiparus are likely. Details regarding the populations and our searches are presented here. Includes a 2006 addendum and update by David A. Steingraeber

Tennessee\u27s National Impact on Teacher Evaluation Law & Policy: An Assessment of Value-Added Model Litigation

Over the last decade or so, federal and state education policymakers embraced the use of value added models (VAMs) to evaluate teachers’ performance and make high-stakes employment decisions (e.g., tenure, merit pay, termination of employment). VAMs are complicated statistical models that attempt to estimate a teacher’s contribution to student test scores, particularly those in mathematics and reading. Educational researchers, as well as many teachers and unions, however, have objected to the use of VAMs noting that these models fail to adequately account for variables outside of teachers’ control that contribute to a student’s education performance. Subsequently, many teachers challenged the use of VAMs through the courts. This article assesses those challenges

Testing the Universality of Entropic Segregation at Polymer Surfaces

This study addresses entropic segregation effects at the surfaces of monodisperse and bidisperse melts. For the monodisperse melts, we focus on the segregation of chain ends to the surface, and for the bidisperse melts, we examine the segregation of short polymers to the surface. Universal shapes have been predicted for their concentration profiles, but the derivations rely on the mean-field approximation, which only treats the excluded-volume interactions in an approximate manner. To test whether or not the predictions hold up when the polymers are rigorously prevented from overlapping, we compare mean-field calculations with Monte Carlo simulations performed on the exact same model. Apart from a significant increase in the statistical segment length, the rigorous enforcement of excluded-volume interactions has a relatively small effect on the mean-field predictions. In particular, the universal profiles predicted by mean-field theory are found to be accurate.NSER

Synergies Between Galaxy Surveys and Reionization Measurements

The epoch of reionization is one of the most exciting frontiers in astrophysics. Here we describe how the combination of galaxy surveys and direct 21-cm measurements of reionization can illuminate numerous mysteries of this fascinating era. <p/