The Sounds of Writing: Students' Perception of their Writing Histories and their Effect on Current Dispositions toward Writing

This qualitative teacher action research project investigates students’ perceptions of past writing performance and the influence of these perceptions on current attitudes about academic writing, specifically writing in a workshop-model class. Too often, at the very mention of “essay” or “writing assignment,” students’ demeanors change from benign to distress. Even students at the Honors level often hate writing and believe they just “can’t write.” This begs the question, “Why?” Why do so many students at the highest academic level available to them believe they can’t write? Why are students so intimidated by writing certain writing activities? Is there something in students’ writing histories that drives this apprehension? Is there a relationship between students’ self-initiated writing and writing assigned by a teacher? Do the demands of standardized testing play a role? The project under study was conducted in a tenth grade Honors American Literature and Composition class in an urban high school in the mid-Atlantic United States. Students in this class have traditionally been in an honors track since entering middle school (currently grade 6), although some may have been moved up in more recent years. Nine students participated in the project: seven girls and two boys. The district demographics identify eight of the students as “White (Non-Hispanic)” and one female student as “Multi Racial.” One female student qualifies for special education services due to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Data collection methods include student interviews; artifacts such as writing histories, journal entries, and writing samples; researcher field notes and observations; and class surveys. Results indicate that once students’ beliefs about themselves as writers - their writing self-efficacy - have been established, it is very difficult to change these perceptions, even in the light of positive learning outcomes. However, writing in a workshop model class does improve students’ writing self-efficacy, at least in the time and space of the workshop. Results also indicate that students’ dispositions toward writing are vastly different between self-initiated writing (home) writing and writing done at school. The role of standardized testing is also discussed, as are implications for classroom teachers

Effects of Reserve Requirements in an Inflation Targeting Regime: The Case of Colombia

The Colombian economy and financial system have coped reasonably well with the effects of the global financial crisis. Hence, "unconventional" policy measures have not been at the center of the policy decisions and discussions. Nominal short term interest rates have remained the main monetary policy tool and "Quantitative easing" measures have not been central in the policy response. The one "unconventional" monetary instrument used by the Central Bank in Colombia has been changes in reserve requirements (RR) on financial system deposits. Interestingly, they were adopted before the global financial crisis, as a reaction to domestic credit conditions. The effects of RR on interest rate and interest rate pass-through in an inflation targeting regime are not as straightforward as those under a monetary targeting regime. Conceptually, those effects depend on the degree of substitution between deposits and central bank credit as sources of funds for banks and on the extent to which RR changes affect the risks facing banks. The empirical results for Colombia suggest that RR are important long run determinants of business loan interest rates and have been effective in strengthening the pass-through from policy to deposit and lending interest rates.Reserve Requirements, Inflation Targeting, Interest rate pass-through. Classification JEL: E51, E52, E58, G21.

INTEGRATED ECONOMIC-HYDROLOGIC ANALYSIS OF POLICY RESPONSES TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE WATER USE UNDER CHANGING CLIMATIC CONDITIONS

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Charged anisotropic matter with linear or nonlinear equation of state

Ivanov pointed out substantial analytical difficulties associated with self-gravitating, static, isotropic fluid spheres when pressure explicitly depends on matter density. Simplification achieved with the introduction of electric charge were noticed as well. We deal with self-gravitating, charged, anisotropic fluids and get even more flexibility in solving the Einstein-Maxwell equations. In order to discuss analytical solutions we extend Krori and Barua's method to include pressure anisotropy and linear or non-linear equations of state. The field equations are reduced to a system of three algebraic equations for the anisotropic pressures as well as matter and electrostatic energy densities. Attention is paid to compact sources characterized by positive matter density and positive radial pressure. Arising solutions satisfy the energy conditions of general relativity. Spheres with vanishing net charge contain fluid elements with unbounded proper charge density located at the fluid-vacuum interface. Notably the electric force acting on these fluid elements is finite, although the acting electric field is zero. Net charges can be huge ($10^{19}\,C$) and maximum electric field intensities are very large ($10^{23}-10^{24}\,statvolt/cm$) even in the case of zero net charge. Inward-directed fluid forces caused by pressure anisotropy may allow equilibrium configurations with larger net charges and electric field intensities than those found in studies of charged isotropic fluids. Links of these results with charged strange quark stars as well as models of dark matter including massive charged particles are highlighted. The van der Waals equation of state leading to matter densities constrained by cubic polynomial equations is briefly considered. The fundamental question of stability is left open.Comment: 22 Latex pages, 17 figures, Inclusion of new paragraph at the end of Conclusion & some of the old captions of the Figures are replaced with new caption

The Cauchy-Schlomilch transformation

The Cauchy-Schl\"omilch transformation states that for a function $f$ and $a, \, b > 0$, the integral of $f(x^{2})$ and $af((ax-bx^{-1})^{2}$ over the interval $[0, \infty)$ are the same. This elementary result is used to evaluate many non-elementary definite integrals, most of which cannot be obtained by symbolic packages. Applications to probability distributions is also given

Mercados de Derivados: Swap de Tasas Promedio Cámara y Seguro Inflación

This paper studies and describes the financial derivatives markets of Interest Rate Swap «Promedio Cámara» (SPC) and «Seguro Inflación» (SI). It uses data obtained between 2002 and 2006 mainly from banks and brokers. This survey explores the agents’ incentives, the market dynamics, and the interactions between the SPC, SI and other markets. In addition, it proposes methodologies for forecasting interest and inflation rate, which are implicit in these financial instruments. The first part describes the SPC and the second part, the SI. Using practical examples, it shows the market’s trading and dynamics, and the interactions with other markets. Specifically, a close relationship between the SPC and the central bank bonds is found. The swap spread explains the difference between their rates. Additionally, using formulas based on the SPC and SI definitions, the implicit interest and inflation rate forecasts are calculated.

Runoff at the micro-plot and slope scale following wildfire, central Portugal

Through their effects on soil properties and vegetation/litter cover, wildfires can strongly enhance overland flow generation and accelerate soil erosion [1] and, thereby, negatively affect land-use sustainability as well as downstream aquatic and flood zones. Wildfires are a common phenomenon in present-day Portugal, devastating in an average year some 100.000 ha of forest and woodlands and in an exceptional year like 2003 over 400.000 ha. There therefore exists a clear need in Portugal for a tool that can provide guidance to post-fire land management by predicting soil erosion risk, on the one hand, and, on the other, the mitigation effectiveness of soil conservation measures. Such a tool has recently been developed for the Western U.S.A. [3: ERMiT] but its suitability for Portuguese forests will need to be corroborated by field observations. Testing the suitability of existing erosion models in recently burned forest areas in Portugal is, in a nutshell, the aim of the EROSFIRE projects. In the first EROSFIRE project the emphasis was on the prediction of erosion at the scale of individual hill slopes. In the ongoing EROSFIRE-II project the spatial scope is extended to include the catchment scale, so that also the connectivity between hill slopes as well as channel and road processes are being addressed. Besides ERMiT, the principal models under evaluation for slope-scale erosion prediction are: (i) the variant of USLE [4] applied by the Portuguese Water Institute after the wildfires of 2003; (ii) the Morgan–Morgan–Finney model (MMF) [5]; (iii) MEFIDIS [6]. From these models, MEFIDIS and perhaps MMF will, after successful calibration at the slope scale, also be applied for predicting catchment-scale sediment yields of extreme events