Evaluating the Quality of Pre-Service Preparation for Teachers in Regard to Culturally Responsive Teaching for English Language Learners

This paper will focus on a study about culturally responsive teaching and English Language Learners. Specifically, this paper will evaluate pre-service and early service teachers and their ability to provide culturally responsive teaching to their English Language-Learning students. There will be three different subtopics, which will pertain to comfort levels with culturally responsive teaching, creating a culturally responsive classroom environment, and reflecting on pre-service training. This topic is extremely important because much of the research on culturally responsive teaching indicates a disconnect between teachers and their English Language Learners, however, it is vital that students feel comfortable and at ease in their learning environment. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, students will be unable to learn or retain information if they do not first feel safe and secure. This study will be conducted by means of a quantitative survey that evaluates both preservice educators and current teachers that have been in the classroom for less than five years. While the study will be geographically limited to the area of Central Pennsylvania and the surrounding school districts of Elizabethtown College, the implications of this research will apply to students across the country. Ideally, the information that is obtained from this study will help pre-service and early service teachers to improve the education of English Language Leaners by implementing culturally responsive teaching methods, demonstrate to higher education institutions that pre-service educators must be trained in culturally responsive teaching, and encourage school districts to use professional development to train their staff

Comparative analysis of auxinic compounds transporter ABCG37 and various polarly localized proteins in respect of secretion, trafficking and plasma membrane dynamics

Plants as sessile organisms evolved a specific body structure and at the cellular level mechanisms that allow to survive under extreme environmental conditions. The body shape and subcellular processes are largely dependent on coordinated activity of a small molecule indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), auxin. Local gradients of IAA correlate spatiotemporally with such developmental events like embryogenesis, phyllotaxis, organ initiation or tropisms. Auxin maxima and minima are mostly mediated by auxin efflux carriers PIN's. Asymmetric distribution of these proteins determines the directional flow and facilitates the auxin gradient formation. Aberrations in apical or basal auxin-carriers localisation leads to severe developmental defects. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the mechanisms initiating and controlling polar proteins localisation. Next to polarly distributed PIN's, there is a growing group of polarly localized proteins transporting hormones or nutrients placed at the outer lateral and inner lateral polar domains. In my work I was mostly focused on polarity and function of auxinic-like compounds transporter ABCG37/PIS1, which localises to outer lateral domain in epidermal cells. I tried to characterise the transporting function of this specifically localised protein and find the regulators and mechanisms determining polarity. In order to get a more global overview about components and processes controlling asymmetric distribution of proteins I have included other asymmetrically distributed proteins like ABCG36, BOR4 or BOR1 localised to outer- or inner-lateral domains, respectively

Beginnings of the Józef Piłsudski Institute in New York (1943-1956)

Józef Piłsudski Institute was founded in New York, July 4, 1943. The main aim was to maintain constant and independent scientific research facility dealing not only with collecting and organizing historical documents, but also with popularizing unadulterated knowledge about Poland and its recent history. From its earliest days the Institute was based on financial support granted by Polish activists and on membership fees, as well as on larger donations from some members. Since the late forties, when KNAPP activity slowly began to fade, actions and statements of people associated with the Institute were regarded as guidelines for independence environments. These people formed very cohesive environment, being faithful to Piłsudski heritage, negated any compromises with regard to Polish independence. It was strongly anticommunist rejecting all contacts with PRL institutions. Thanks to the energetic work of people connected with the facility rapidly grew both archival and library collections. In 1949 the collection in the library had grown to 2500 books, periodicals reached up to 800 titles. To the library came valuable Polish diplomatic archives, collections of different personalities, as well as documents showing the huge effort of organizations of Poles, who after the end of the war were on the territory of West Germany

Investigation of metal atom and ion number densities in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere by satellite remote sensing with SCIAMACHY/Envisat

Extraterrestrial meteoroids continuously enter the Earth's atmosphere. The bulk of the meteoric mass comes from about 220 µm sized particles coming mostly from asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The particle size ranges from atomic scale particles to macroscopic bodies with a mass of several tons. The input rate is very uncertain, ranging from 2 to 300 tons per day. The meteoroids collide with the Earth's atmosphere at very high velocities (on the order of 10 to several 10 km per second), which leads to frictional heating of the meteoroids. This leads to full or partial ablation of the meteoroids in the upper atmosphere. Since the meteoroids consist partly of metals, this ablation leads to the formation of metal atom layers in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). The metals are partly ionized in the MLT and metal ion layers are also formed. The MLT cannot easily be probed by in situ measurements. The pressure is too low for balloons to fly in this region, and the drag on satellites is too high there for stable satellite orbits. Therefore, only rocket-borne in situ measurements can be performed in the MLT. Because of this, remote sensing techniques are preferred to investigate the MLT. The atmospheric metal atoms and ions can be observed by re- mote sensing, because they are strong emitters of resonance fluorescence. Therefore, they are valuable tracer species for wave propagation and other transport processes in the MLT. In addition to their role as tracers, meteoric metals are also important for the chemistry in the middle atmosphere. Information on their absolute number densities is therefore of interest. The metals are involved in the formation of cluster ions and meteoric smoke particles (MSP), which are important for the heterogeneous condensation and nucleation of aerosols and clouds in the middle atmosphere. To estimate the impact of meteoric metals on the chemistry of the middle atmosphere, global observations are necessary. These need to be combined with models, which also include the yet undetectable particle species like, e.g., the metal molecules. Only in the last decades have global long-term satellite observations of the Earth's atmosphere with good local, temporal, and vertical resolution and cover- age been available. One of these data sets comes from the observations of SCIAMACHY/Envisat, which provides daily limb and nadir observations from 2002 to 2012. Beginning in mid-2008, a special limb observation mode for the investigation of the MLT was performed. This data set was used to retrieve the number densities of Mg, Mg , and Na from 2008-2012. Therefore, an existing retrieval algorithm for Mg and Mg was significantly improved and also extended for application in the visible spectral region for Na. The improved retrieval algorithm and the results for Mg, Mg and Na are presented and discussed in this thesis, and the metal's interaction with polar mesospheric clouds is investigated. Furthermore, a survey of spectral signatures of other target species for the retrieval algorithm has been carried out. The measurements have been compared with model results, which include the total daily meteoric mass influx as well as other measurement results. The seasonal, altitudinal and latitudinal variation of metal species is in good agreement with the most recent model results

The beginnings of the Józef Piłsudski Institute in New York (1943‑1956). Part II (1951‑1956)

This is the second part of an article devoted to people who made a lot of effort to build an independent research institute with an archival base dedicated to promoting knowledge about Poland and its history. The Józef Piłsudski Institute was financially supported by the Polish community abroad, membership fees, and larger donations by some of its members and sympathisers

Strain-induced alignment in collagen gels

Collagen is the most abundant extracellular-network-forming protein in animal biology and is important in both natural and artificial tissues, where it serves as a material of great mechanical versatility. This versatility arises from its almost unique ability to remodel under applied loads into anisotropic and inhomogeneous structures. To explore the origins of this property, we develop a set of analysis tools and a novel experimental setup that probes the mechanical response of fibrous networks in a geometry that mimics a typical deformation profile imposed by cells in vivo. We observe strong fiber alignment and densification as a function of applied strain for both uncrosslinked and crosslinked collagenous networks. This alignment is found to be irreversibly imprinted in uncrosslinked collagen networks, suggesting a simple mechanism for tissue organization at the microscale. However, crosslinked networks display similar fiber alignment and the same geometrical properties as uncrosslinked gels, but with full reversibility. Plasticity is therefore not required to align fibers. On the contrary, our data show that this effect is part of the fundamental non-linear properties of fibrous biological networks.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. 1 supporting material PDF with 2 figure

Mapping properties of fundamental harmonic analysis operators in the exotic Bessel framework

We prove sharp power-weighted $L^p$, weak type and restricted weak type inequalities for the heat semigroup maximal operator and Riesz transforms associated with the Bessel operator $B_{\nu}$ in the exotic range of the parameter $-\infty < \nu < 1$. Moreover, in the same framework, we characterize basic mapping properties for other fundamental harmonic analysis operators, including the heat semigroup based vertical $g$-function and fractional integrals (Riesz potential operators).Comment: 31 page

Cellular mechanisms for cargo delivery and polarity maintenance at different polar domains in plant cells

The asymmetric localization of proteins in the plasma membrane domains of eukaryotic cells is a fundamental manifestation of cell polarity that is central to multicellular organization and developmental patterning. In plants, the mechanisms underlying the polar localization of cargo proteins are still largely unknown and appear to be fundamentally distinct from those operating in mammals. Here, we present a systematic, quantitative comparative analysis of the polar delivery and subcellular localization of proteins that characterize distinct polar plasma membrane domains in plant cells. The combination of microscopic analyses and computational modeling revealed a mechanistic framework common to diverse polar cargos and underlying the establishment and maintenance of apical, basal, and lateral polar domains in plant cells. This mechanism depends on the polar secretion, constitutive endocytic recycling, and restricted lateral diffusion of cargos within the plasma membrane. Moreover, our observations suggest that polar cargo distribution involves the individual protein potential to form clusters within the plasma membrane and interact with the extracellular matrix. Our observations provide insights into the shared cellular mechanisms of polar cargo delivery and polarity maintenance in plant cells