Hunting exotics: the search for long-lived particles decaying to non-prompt tau leptons in the ATLAS detector and its essential technical developments

The search for long-lived particle (LLP)s decaying 11 to two non-prompt ᵀhad-vis objects in the A Toroidal LHC Apparatus (ATLAS) detector during Run 2 is presented. The search was performed at final state level, searching for events with two non-prompt ᵀhad-vis objects. The analysis of this displaced Standard Model (SM) search was performed with 139 fb⁻¹ of proton-proton collision data with a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The Fake-Factor method was employed to estimate background contributions in defined signal regions. These results presented are the first of their kind to search for third generation displaced leptons as a means to probing beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics. Also presented in this work is the technical displaced ᵀhad-vis (dTau) trigger developments for an analogous analysis to be performed with Run 3 data. The triggers presented are a set of displaced single and di-ᵀhad-vis analysis triggers, designed to target dTau signatures using an recurrent neural network (RNN) that are otherwise lost by the standard ⌧had-vis triggers employed in Run 2. The dTau triggers run alongside the nominal ⌧had-vis trigger chains, and yield an increase of signal acceptance in high displacement regions between 30% to 80% over the nominal ᵀhad-vis triggers. These triggers will therefore provide increased event statistics in the Run 3 search for final-state dTau objects. An additional efficiency study is presented supporting the accuracy of accepting true ⌧had-vis in these new dTau triggers. This analysis is performed via the tag-and-probe method with the electron plus displaced-tau trigger chains in tt templates reconstructed with the nominal ᵀhad-vis identification (ID) in data with a collective luminosity of 3.077 E4 pb⁻¹ in Run 2

Trouble with the edTPA: Sliding from Teaching to Preparing for the Test

This paper was written by a group of instructors responsible for preparing 100 elementary/middle school licensure students for the edTPA portfolio assessment. It is an analysis of our experiences doing so in the pilot year. The edTPA is a performance assessment required for teacher licensure. We considered this assessment to have significant advantages over a multiple choice test and we debated for a year how best to implement it. Our plan was to integrate what they needed to know into our courses rather than to prepare them directly for the test. We approached this with a positive attitude but emerged with a skeptical one. We gradually slid from preparing students to be teachers, to preparing them for the test. Using a narrative self-study, we chronicle and analyze this unexpected trajectory

INCREASING GRADE-LEVEL PROFICIENCY SCORES OF STUDENTS IN GRADES 3-8 IN DURHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS THROUGH POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORTS

Childhood educational attainment and long-term health outcomes are tightly linked to socioeconomic status. In order to break the cycle of poverty and poor health, Durham County has acknowledged the need to focus on those students at a high risk of failing to realize grade level competency. Here we describe our ambitious goal to increase the reading and math grade level proficiencies for third through eighth-grade students within Durham County Public Schools (DPS), particularly focusing on improving the equity in proficiency achievement. This paper will evaluate the potential effect of the Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports framework on DPS students by discussing the program, stakeholders, budget, and engagement plan to improve grade level proficiency scores for third to eighth-grade students.Master of Public Healt

INCREASING GRADE-LEVEL PROFICIENCY SCORES OF STUDENTS IN GRADES 3-8 IN DURHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS THROUGH POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORTS

Childhood educational attainment and long-term health outcomes are tightly linked to socioeconomic status. In order to break the cycle of poverty and poor health, Durham County has acknowledged the need to focus on those students at a high risk of failing to realize grade level competency. Here we describe our ambitious goal to increase the reading and math grade level proficiencies for third through eighth-grade students within Durham County Public Schools (DPS), particularly focusing on improving the equity in proficiency achievement. This paper will evaluate the potential effect of the Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports framework on DPS students by discussing the program, stakeholders, budget, and engagement plan to improve grade level proficiency scores for third to eighth-grade students.Master of Public Healt

Increasing Grade-Level Proficiency Scores of Students in Grades 3-8 in Durham Public Schools Through Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Childhood educational attainment and long-term health outcomes are tightly linked to socioeconomic status. In order to break the cycle of poverty and poor health, Durham County has acknowledged the need to focus on those students at a high risk of failing to realize grade level competency. Here we describe our goal to increase the reading and math grade level proficiencies for third through eighth-grade students within Durham County Public Schools (DPS), particularly focusing on improving the equity in proficiency achievement. This paper will evaluate the potential effect of the Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports framework on DPS students by discussing the program, stakeholders, budget, and engagement plan to improve grade level proficiency scores for third to eighth-grade students.Master of Public Healt

A central support system can facilitate implementation and sustainability of a Classroom-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) in Genomics

In their 2012 report, the President\u27s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology advocated replacing standard science laboratory courses with discovery-based research courses -a challenging proposition that presents practical and pedagogical difficulties. In this paper, we describe our collective experiences working with the Genomics Education Partnership, a nationwide faculty consortium that aims to provide undergraduates with a research experience in genomics through a scheduled course (a classroom-based undergraduate research experience, or CURE). We examine the common barriers encountered in implementing a CURE, program elements of most value to faculty, ways in which a shared core support system can help, and the incentives for and rewards of establishing a CURE on our diverse campuses. While some of the barriers and rewards are specific to a research project utilizing a genomics approach, other lessons learned should be broadly applicable. We find that a central system that supports a shared investigation can mitigate some shortfalls in campus infrastructure (such as time for new curriculum development, availability of IT services) and provides collegial support for change. Our findings should be useful for designing similar supportive programs to facilitate change in the way we teach science for undergraduates

A course-based research experience: how benefits change with increased investment in instructional time

There is widespread agreement that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs should provide undergraduates with research experience. Practical issues and limited resources, however, make this a challenge. We have developed a bioinformatics project that provides a course-based research experience for students at a diverse group of schools and offers the opportunity to tailor this experience to local curriculum and institution-specific student needs. We assessed both attitude and knowledge gains, looking for insights into how students respond given this wide range of curricular and institutional variables. While different approaches all appear to result in learning gains, we find that a significant investment of course time is required to enable students to show gains commensurate to a summer research experience. An alumni survey revealed that time spent on a research project is also a significant factor in the value former students assign to the experience one or more years later. We conclude: 1) implementation of a bioinformatics project within the biology curriculum provides a mechanism for successfully engaging large numbers of students in undergraduate research; 2) benefits to students are achievable at a wide variety of academic institutions; and 3) successful implementation of course-based research experiences requires significant investment of instructional time for students to gain full benefit

The Application of SAR Analysis to Measure Relative Permeability to Specific Ions in the Eagle Ford Shale

In this work, we studied the Eagle Ford Shale and experimented in detail to create a baseline to address the relative permeability of specific ions in shale. The study identifies that: (1) Ions are dispersed in a specific sequence (Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+). (2) As ions are dispersed, this allows the gas bubbles out of the shale/soil and forces the flakes and fragments to float to the top of the water on the vessel. The floating particles, depending on the type of cations released from the shale mass move towards a specific ion electrode. (3) Detachment or bursting of gas bubbles may initiate a shift or break in the shale/soil formation. (4) Calcium electrical potential, Eh, goes from negative to positive. This indicates an unstable potential with respect to time around the length of the well bore. (5) The release of ions depends on the diffusion properties of water penetrating the shale/soil mass. The motion of the shale/soil floating material is a vortex-like motion. We conclude that by using SAR, it will help predict where the wellbore is stable or unstable based on the curve where certain drops or peaks or located. By creating a baseline measure using deionized water it is possible to predict the relative permeability of wellbore drilling of the Eagle Ford Shale using SAR. Taking note of the ionic relative permeability as observed in our experiments, we decided to use the SAR method for estimating the relative permeability of shale/soil to various ions. All of this is based on where the most ionic flow occurs under given wellbore conditions. This understanding is further applicable to the design of certain type of frac fluids or design of a compatible drilling fluid for drilling a specific shale/soil

DOES THE AMOUNT OF SOCIAL OR OBJECT PLAY BETWEEN INFANT AND MOTHER RELATE TO INFANT CONSTRUCTION ABILITY?

Infants prefer to watch caregivers during object play, as opposed to face-to-face play or watching objects alone (Deak et al., 2014). Infants spend more time looking at a caregiver\u27s hands and objects during manipulation, as opposed to the caregiver\u27s face (Yu & Smith, 2013). Parents who engage in object play more may be encouraging their infants to manipulate objects more skillfully, than parents who only engage socially. Object construction is one way that infants begin to show an increased ability to manipulate objects (Marcinowski et al., 2016). Thus, infants whose parents encourage object play are expected to perform more object constructions, than infants whose parents engage more socially. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether parent object or social play correlates with infant construction ability. Parent-infant dyads (n=31) were tested for dyadic play at the emergence of object construction ability. Parents were provided with four toys, and instructed to spend five minutes interacting with their infant. Reliable coders marked the duration of object and social play. Object play was defined as dyadic interactions in which a toy was involved, while social play was defined as interactions without the use of toys. For the object construction task, each infant was separately given six sets of toys that could be combined in some manner. A successful construction was defined as occurring when an object was successfully built upon a base item. Correlational analyses are expected to reveal a negative correlation, such that increases in social play will be correlated with decreases in construction ability. A positive correlation between object play and construction ability is expected. Increases in object play are expected to be correlated with increases in construction ability. Previous research supports the idea that infants observe object manipulations of their caregiver(s) by watching the caregiver\u27s hands and objects when engaged in object manipulation. However, there is no research investigating the impact of these observations on infant behavioral outcomes. We propose that object play, as opposed to social play, has an important role on an infant\u27s subsequent ability to create structures from objects successfully