Abstract Weather conditions during the growing season are determining the size and quality of the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) seed crop in northern areas. Pathogens, fungi, and insects also have an effect on seed crops. The varying quality of seeds from forest stands and seed orchards does not full fill the germination requirements of tree nurseries. Multi-phase pre-treatment are therefore used in forest tree seed centres to improve seed lots quality. The main objectives of this study were to analyse long-term variation in the size and quality of Scots pine seed crops in Northern Finland. Determine the impact of fungal injuries on the structures of Norway spruce seeds. To detect changes in the germination capacity and rate of Norway spruce seeds during pre-treatment phases and to determine the impacts of short-term and long-term storage on the germination of treated seeds. The study found that in most years, regeneration of Scots pine in Northern Finland is limited by quantity as well as quality the seed crop. The long-term average of the Scots pine seed crop was 77seeds/m2 and the long-term average expected germination percentage was 61%. Aeciospores of the inlad spruce cone rust Chrysomyxa pirolata (Körnicke) Wint. were found to form inside Norway spruce seeds, destroying the nucellar layers and reducing germination of seeds. In general, the germination capacity and rate of Norway spruce seeds increased during pre-treatment phases. The germination capacity of seeds increased about 30% and the rate by more than 40% during pre-treatment. During long-term storage the germination capacity and rate of pre-treated Scots pine seeds were preserved better in frozen storage than in cool storage. It was found that pre-treated Scots pine forest stand seeds can be stored for several years in frozen conditions. The germination capacity and rate of pre-treated orchard seeds were effected significantly more than those from forest stands. It is therefore recommended that Scots pine seeds from orchards be stored without pre-treatment. The germination capacity and rate of treated Norway spruce seeds from orchards was not significantly different after one year of storage.

Percentage plans such as the Talented Twenty program purport to assist and motivate high ranking students to attend college and grant access to higher education. This type of plan is particularly important to students enrolled in high priority schools who might not view themselves as potential college students. This study examined the relationship between Florida’s Talented Twenty program that begins intervention with juniors and the college aspirations for high ranking students at a high priority school. Numerous studies have established that increased levels of education lead to higher salaries, career mobility, and an increased quality of life (e.g., Bowen, 1997; Leslie & Brinkman 1988; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, Swail, 2000). Given the importance of students’ decisions regarding whether or not they will attend college, understanding how and when they make decisions about attending college is important for them, their parents, advisors, and educational administrators. This research examined students’ perceptions and insights via interviews. The overarching research question was: How do high ranking high school students attending a high priority school in a south Florida district perceive their college opportunities? Sixteen high ranking students, grades nine – 12 from a high priority school in Miami-Dade County participated in the study. Participants were identified by a school counselor and individual semi structured interviews were conducted at the school. Utilizing a student development theoretical framework developed by Hossler and Gallagher (1987) that centered on students’ predisposition, search strategies and choices, data were organized and emergent themes analyzed. The analysis of the data revealed that in alignment with the framework (a) parents were the strongest influence in the development of these students’ college aspirations, (b) these students formalized their higher education plans between eighth and 10th grade, (c) these students actively engaged in academic searches and learning opportunities that increased their chances to be admitted into college, and (d) there was no relationship between knowledge regarding the Talented Twenty program and their educational decisions. This study’s findings suggest that interventions and programs intended to influence the educational aspirations of students are more likely to succeed if they take place by the eighth or ninth grade.

This thesis deals with rules for reporting of revenues from long-term contracts, which is based on International Accounting Standard IAS 11 - Construction contracts. First, it briefly describes the emergence and development of standards and structure of IAS 11. Chapter 3 defines the basic concepts. In the fourth chapter is an analysis of expenses and revenues of long-term contracts in accordance with IAS 11 and in accordance with IAS 18. The fifth chapter analyzes the methods of recognition of contract expenses and revenues, including examples and requirements for disclosure, the problems associated with reporting in accordance with these methods and methods used in the Czech Republic. The sixth chapter deals with the related interpretations IFRIC 12 and IFRIC 15. The last part is focused on the research of ten annual reports in order to clarify compliance with IFRS in practice.

Hot and cold in-place recycling are two of the economical and well-known pavement rehabilitation strategies that can be used to recycle existing pavements. Two main limitations of hot in-place recycling (HIR) are high mixing and compaction temperatures, and a low percentage of using recycling materials in new mixtures. For cold in-place recycling (CIR), damaging the aggregate gradation of milled mixtures and low quality of final mixtures are major restrictions. In this study, eco-friendly additives to be used for warm in-place recycling technology (WIR) are proposed. To make this mix, two WIR additives were developed to decrease the mixing and compaction temperature while increasing increase the RAP percentage in Warm in-place recycling (WIR) process. In order to evaluate the products, the mixing and compaction temperatures of mixture were measured and the performance of three different mixture types with three different percentages of RAP were evaluated. The Superpave test was conducted to identify the optimum dosage of two WIR additives and for additive 1 and 2, 3.99% and 7.77% were identified as optimum dosages respectively. To verify this optimum dosage, the second group of Superpave tests were conducted on modified asphalt binder sample and the results had acceptable correlation with first set of rheological tests. The Multiple Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy tests were done on modified asphalt binder with WIR additives to better understand the effects of additives on recoverability, rutting resistance and aging mechanism of modified asphalt binder. The performance properties of mixtures containing 30, 70 and 100 percent RAP material which modified with optimum percentage of two different additives were investigated. Hamburg Wheel Tracking test (HWT) was conducted to evaluate the moisture susceptibility and rutting performance of modified mixture. According to this test results, none of the modified mixtures with additives did not have the moisture susceptibility and rutting problems. Although, additive 2 made the mixture softer than additive 1, but it did not have a significant effect on rutting. Disc-Shaped Compacted Tension (DCT) test was considered to evaluate the fracture properties of mixture at low temperature. Test result showed that additive 2 was more effective in lowering the low-temperature cracking and modified mixtures containing 100% RAP material have acceptable fracture energy.

No description available.

In 1978, only 24% of 8th grade students in the United States correctly answered whether 12/13+7/8 was closest to 1, 2, 19, or 21 (Carpenter, Corbitt, Kepner, Lindquist, & Reys, 1980). In 2014, only 27% of 8th grade students selected the correct answer to the same problem, despite the ensuing forty years of effort to improve students’ conceptual understanding (Lortie-Forgues, Tian, & Siegler, 2015). This is troubling, given that 5th grade students’ fraction knowledge predicts mathematics achievement in secondary school (Siegler et al, 2012) and that achievement in math is linked to greater life outcomes (Murnane, Willett, & Levy, 1995). General rational number knowledge (fractions, decimals, percentages) has proven problematic for both children and adults in the U.S. (Siegler & Lortie-Forgues, 2017). Though there is debate about which type of rational number instruction should occur first, it seems it would be beneficial to use an integrated approach to numerical development consisting of all rational numbers (Siegler, Thompson, & Schneider, 2011). Despite numerous studies on specific types of rational numbers, there is limited information about how students translate one rational number notation to another (Tian & Siegler, 2018). The present study seeks to investigate middle school students’ understanding of the relations among fraction, decimal, and percent notations and the influence of a daily, brief numerical magnitude translation intervention on fraction arithmetic estimation. Specifically, it explores the benefits of Simultaneous presentation of fraction, decimal, and percent equivalencies on number lines versus Sequential presentation of fractions, decimals, and percentages on number lines. It further explores whether rational number review using either Simultaneous or Sequential representation of numerical magnitude is more beneficial for improving fraction arithmetic estimation than Rote practice with fraction arithmetic. Finally, it seeks to make a scholarly contribution to the field in an attempt to understand students’ conceptions of the relations among fractions, decimals, and percentages as predictors of estimation ability. Chapter 1 outlines the background that motivates this dissertation and the theories of numerical development that provide the framework for this dissertation. In particular, many middle school students exhibit difficulties connecting magnitude and space with rational numbers, resulting in implausible errors (e.g., 12/13+7/8=1, 19, or 21, 87% of 10>10, 6+0.32=0.38). An integrated approach to numerical development suggests students’ difficulty in rational number understanding stems from how students incorporate rational numbers into their numerical development (Siegler, Thompson, & Schneider, 2011). In this view, students must make accommodations in their whole number schemes when encountering fractions, such that they appropriately incorporate fractions into their mental number line. Thus, Chapter 1 highlights number line interventions that have proven helpful for improving understanding of fractions, decimals, and percentages. In Chapter 2, I hypothesize that current instructional practices leave middle school students with limited understanding of the relations among rational numbers and promote impulsive calculation, the act of taking action with digits without considering the magnitudes before or after calculation. Students who impulsively calculate are more likely to render implausible answers on problems such as estimating 12/13+7/8 as they do not think about the magnitudes (12/13 is about equal to one and 7/8 is about equal to one) before deciding on a calculation strategy, and they do not stop to judge the reasonableness of an answer relative to an estimate after performing the calculation. I hypothesize that impulsive calculation likely stems from separate, sequential instructional approaches that do not provide students with the appropriate desirable difficulties (Bjork & Bjork, 2011) to solidify their understanding of individual notations and their relations. Additionally, in Chapter 2, I hypothesize that many middle school students are unable to view equivalent rational numbers as being equivalent. This hypothesis is based on the documented tendency of many students to focus on the operational rather than relational view of equivalence (McNeil et al., 2006). In other words, students typically focus on the equal sign as signal to perform an operation and provide an answer (e.g., 3+4=7) rather than the equal sign as a relational indicator (e.g., 3+4=2+5). Moreover, this hypothesis is based on the documented whole number bias exhibited by over a quarter of students in 8th grade, such that students perceived equivalent fractions with larger parts as larger than those with smaller parts (Braithwaite & Siegler, 2018b). If middle school students are unable to perceive equivalent values within the same notation as equivalent in size, it seems probable that they might also struggle perceiving equivalent rational numbers as equivalent across notations. This is especially true in light of evidence that many teachers often do not use equal signs to describe equivalent values expressed as fractions, decimals, and percentages (Muzheve & Capraro, 2012). Chapter 2 underscores the importance of highlighting the connections among notations by discussing the pivotal role of notation connections in prior research (Moss & Case, 1999) and the benefit of interleaved practice in math (Rohrer & Taylor, 2007). Finally, I propose a plan for improving students’ understanding of rational numbers through linking notations with number line instruction, as an integrated theory of numerical development (Siegler et al, 2011) suggests that all rational numbers are incorporated into one’s mental number line. Chapter 3 details two experiments that yielded empirical evidence consistent with the hypotheses that students do not perceive equivalent rational numbers as equivalent in size and that this lack of integrated number sense influences estimation ability. The findings identify a discrepancy in performance in magnitude comparison across different rational number notations, in which students were more accurate when presented with problems where percentages were larger than fractions and decimals than when they were presented with problems where percentages were smaller than fractions and decimals. Superficially, this finding of a percentages-are-larger bias suggests students have a bias towards perceiving percentages as larger than fractions and decimals; however, it appears this interpretation is not true on all tasks. If students always perceive percentages as larger than fractions and decimals, then their placement of percentages on the number line should be larger than the equivalent fractions or decimals. However, this was not the case. The experiments revealed that students’ number line estimation was most accurate for percentages rather than the equivalent fraction and decimal values, demonstrating that students who are influenced by the percentages-are-larger bias are most likely not integrating understanding of fractions, decimals, and percentages on a single mental number line. Furthermore, empirical evidence provided support for the theory of impulsive calculation defined earlier, such that many students perform worse when presented with distracting information (“lures”) meant to elicit the use of flawed calculation strategies than in situations without such lures. Importantly, integrated number sense, as measured by the composite score of all cross-notation magnitude comparison trials, was shown to be an important predictor of estimation ability in the presence of distracting information on number lines and fraction arithmetic estimation tasks, often above and beyond number line estimation ability and general math ability. The experiments reported in Chapter 3 also evaluated whether Simultaneous, integrated instruction of all notations improved integration of rational number notations more than Sequential instruction of the three notations or a control condition with Rote practice in fraction arithmetic. The experiments also evaluated whether the instructional condition influenced fraction arithmetic estimation ability. The findings supported the hypothesis that a Simultaneous approach to reviewing rational numbers provides greater benefit for improving integrated number sense, as measured by more improvement in the composite score of magnitude comparison across notations. However, there was no difference among conditions in fraction arithmetic estimation ability at posttest. The experiments point to potential areas for improvement in future work, which are described subsequently. Chapter 4 attempts to explore further students’ understanding of the relations among notations. For this analysis, a number of data sources were examined, including student performance on assessments, interview data, analysis of student work, and classroom observations. Three themes emerged: (1) students are employing a flawed translation strategy, where students concatenate digits from the numerator and denominator to translate the fraction to a decimal such that a/b=0.ab (e.g., 3/5=0.35). (2) percentages can serve as a useful tool for students to judge magnitude, and (3) students equate math with calculation rather than estimation (e.g., in response to being asked to estimate addition of fractions answers, a student responded, “I can’t do math, right?”). Moreover, case studies investigated the differential effect of condition (Simultaneous, Sequential, or Control) on students’ strategy use. The findings suggest that the Simultaneous approach facilitated a more developed schema for magnitude, which is crucial given that a student’s degree of mathematical understanding is determined by the strength and accuracy of connections among related concepts (Hiebert & Carpenter, 1992). Chapter 5 concludes the dissertation by discussing the contributions of this work, avenues for future research, and educational implications. Ultimately, this dissertation advances the field of numerical cognition in three important ways: (1) by documenting a newly discovered bias of middle school students perceiving percentages as larger than fractions and decimals in magnitude comparisons across notations and positing that a lack of integrating notations on the same mental number line is a likely mechanism for this bias; (2) by demonstrating that students exhibit impulsive calculation, as measured by the difference in performance between situations where students are presented with distracting information (“lures”) meant to elicit the use of flawed calculation strategies and situations that do not involve lures; and (3) by finding that integrated number sense, as measured by the composite score for magnitude comparison across notations, is a unique predictor of estimation ability, often above and beyond general mathematical ability and number line estimation. In particular, students with higher integrated number sense are more than twice as likely to correctly answer the aforementioned 12/13+7/8 estimation problem than their peers with the same number line estimation ability and general math ability. This finding suggests that integrated number sense is an important inhibitor for impulsive calculation, above estimation ability for individual fractions and a general standardized test of math achievement. Finally, this dissertation advances the field of mathematics education by suggesting instruction that connects equivalent values with varied notations might provide superior benefits over a sequential approach to teaching rational numbers. At a minimum, this dissertation suggests that more careful attention must be paid to relating rational number notations. Future work might examine the origins of impulsive calculation and the observed percentages-are-larger bias. Future research might also examine whether integrated number sense is predictive of estimation ability beyond general number sense within notations. From these investigations, it might be possible to design a more impactful intervention to improve rational number outcomes.

<p>QCR 20161026</p>

OBJECTIVE: The main objective of the present study was to assess the association between varying amounts of strength training and insulin resistance. Another goal was to assess the influence of several potential confounding variables on the strength training and insulin resistance relationship. Lastly, the role of waist circumference, fat free mass, and body fat percentage on the association between strength training and insulin resistance was assessed. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 6561 randomly selected men and women in the US. Data were collected using the precise protocol established by NHANES. HOMA-IR was used as the outcome variable. Both time spent strength training and frequency of strength training bouts were used as exposure variables. RESULTS: There was not a statistically significant relationship between strength training and insulin resistance in women. However, after controlling for 10 potential confounding variables, men who reported no strength training had significantly higher levels of HOMA-IR compared to men who reported moderate or high levels of strength training (F = 9.87, P < 0.0001). Odds ratios were also assessed, and 10 potential confounding variables were controlled. Men reporting no strength training had 2.42 times the odds of having insulin resistance compared to men reporting moderate levels of strength training (95% CI: 1.19 to 4.93). Similarly, men reporting no strength training had 2.50 times the odds of having insulin resistance compared to men reporting high levels of strength training (95% CI: 1.25 to 5.00). CONCLUSION: There was a strong relationship between strength training and insulin resistance in US men, but not in US women. Differences in waist circumference, fat free mass, and body fat percentage, as well as demographic and lifestyle measures, do not appear to mediate the relationship.

No description available.

Rice is an important human staple food for over half of the world’s population. Amylose content (AC), gelatinization temperature (GT), grain protein content (GPC), percentage grain chalkiness (PGC), and mineral content are important parameters for evaluating rice quality, which attracts customers and breeders. Only limited genes or QTLs (OsAAP6, OsGluA2, OsASN1, Chalk5, OsHMA3, etc.) are reported regulating rice GPC, PGC, and mineral content due to the lack of genetic knowledge and molecular markers. To dissect the genetic architecture of rice grain quality regulation, genome wide association studies (GWAS) were performed using two populations (USDA-mini core collection and a panel of 662 rice accessions from the 3K Rice Genomes Project). A total of 28, 11, 4, 3, 40, 3, 4, 3, and 10 QTLs were identified associated with Cd, Co, Cu, K, Mo, Ni, Rb, Sr, and Zn under flooded environment, while, 23, 7, 7, 7, and 3 QTLs were detected to be associated with Cd, Fe, Mo, Ni, and Zn under unflooded environment, respectively. Moreover, 6, 5, and 2 significant QTLs were tightly associated with kernel length, kernel rate, kernel width, respectively. Furthermore, 44, 7, 27, and 20 QTLs were identified associated with AC, GT, GPC, and PGC, respectively. Overall, 53 (~ 20.08%) of the 264 QTLs were coinciding with previously reported QTLs/genes, and 211 (~ 79.92%) were novel QTLs. A candidate gene, OsPCAT (putative cationic transporter), associated with GPC in the dry season was selected for further analysis. The OsPCAT gene belongs to the amino acid transporters (AATs) family with nine closely related members reported in Oryza Sativa. The classification and evolution of the CAT family (a subgroup of AATs family) using 61 species were studied. The over-expression lines (OsPCAT-OX) and CRISPR-Cas9 knock-out lines (OsPCAT-KO) were developed to study the function of OsPCAT gene. The preliminary results showed the GPC in OsPCAT-OX lines was increased and OsPCAT-KO lines were decreased compared to WT. Overall, a large number of new and reported QTLs associated with rice grain quality have been identified. This work lays the foundation for marker development in breeding and further investigation on rice grain quality regulation.