Vapour–Liquid Equilibrium for <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-Dimethylformamide + Benzene + Thiophene via Gibbs Ensemble Molecular Simulation

The selection and design of an optimal solvent for extractive distillation require reliable vapour–liquid phase equilibrium data and knowledge of extraction mechanisms. Compared with time-consuming experiments, molecular simulation presents great potential in research on the properties of fluids. Therefore, in this work, Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo was applied to successfully predict the vapour–liquid phase equilibrium data of binary and ternary systems containing benzene, thiophene and N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) at P = 101.3 kPa. The explicit hydrogen version of the transferable potentials for phase equilibria potential model was chosen for benzene and thiophene, whereas the OPLS potential model was selected for DMF. The predicted phase diagrams were compared with experimental data and the UNIQUAC thermodynamic model. A good agreement was obtained, which corroborated the validity of the potential models. In addition, the extraction mechanism was explored by radial distribution function (RDF) of the liquid-phase structure. The RDFs showed that thiophene and benzene shared a similar liquid-phase structure because of the intermolecular interaction. The distinct difference between the RDFs of DMF/benzene and those of DMF/thiophene is that the oxygen atom of DMF is more associated with hydrogen atoms of thiophene than that of benzene, which may be responsible for the extraction effect of DMF.     

ASSESSING STUDENTS’ EXPERIMENTATION PROCESSES IN <Emphasis Type="Italic">GUIDED INQUIRY</Emphasis>

In recent science education, experimentation features ever more strongly as a method of inquiry in science classes rather than as a means to illustrate phenomena. Ideas and materials to teach inquiry abound. Yet, tools for assessing students’ achievement in their processes of experimentation are lacking. The present study assumes a basal, non-exclusive process model of inquiry in experimentation that can be considered a consensus from multiple approaches: (1) finding an idea/hypothesis, (2) planning and conducting an experiment, and (3) drawing conclusions from evidence. The study confronted 339 secondary level students with three guided inquiry experimentation tasks on 3 days. Selected working groups were videotaped while experimenting. All the students reported their processes in a structured report form simultaneous to their progress. The generated videos and reports were analysed in a two-stepped way: (1) Experimentation was coded according to the process model into process plots; on basis of these, (2) process-focused performance scores were calculated considering logical coherence and immediacy of the inquiry processes. Correlative analyses show for two of the tasks that the report format yielded comparable performance scores to those generated from video data after students have had opportunity to learn the surveying formats (r _S?>?.80). A first suggestion of a process-oriented assessment tool for inquiry in experimentation can be drawn from this study. It might be used to inform and complement secondary science instruction.     

Navigating Between Home and Empire: Mobility and Male Friendship in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Tom Brown’s Schooldays</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Three Midshipmen</Emphasis>

In this article, we investigate the public school novel as represented by Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857) and the boy’s sea story as represented by W. H. G. Kingston’s The Three Midshipmen (1873). The school novel and the sea story sometimes functioned as twinned forms enabling authors for boys to explore anxieties about male selfhood and relocating oneself in the larger community while growing up. As becomes especially apparent when they are read together, these novels address the boy’s relationship to home and empire, rootlessness and rootedness. The coming-of-age plot found in the boys’ books reveals a literature that embraces both rootlessness/mobility and rootedness/community and that posits an all-male version of something closely resembling domestic life as a way to navigate between the two.     

Assessing the productivity of schools through two “what works” inputs, <Emphasis Type="Italic">teacher quality</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">teacher effectiveness</Emphasis>

This paper is a critique of the school education productivity evaluation and two research constructs germane to it, teacher quality and teacher effectiveness. The paper will argue that policy inceptions of teacher quality and teacher effectiveness proxy for the productive capacity of schools and more broadly, school systems. Student achievement scores as determined by high stakes testing are the school education outputs of policy significance in current times while inputs thought to matter are increasingly tapered towards the particular characteristics of classroom teachers, specifically their quality (usually credentials) and effectiveness (teaching behaviours). The paper finds that attributing school system success largely to teachers and their work, especially in terms of their classroom teaching practice(s), distorts the school education policy agenda so that evaluations of school productivity purely serve accountability purposes.     

Another textbook project? The implementation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escuela Nueva</Emphasis> in Vietnam

This qualitative case study examines the implementation of Escuela Nueva, a rural multigrade schooling model, in Vietnam from the perspectives and experiences of local teachers and school administrators. Escuela Nueva first emerged in Colombia in the 1970s as a scalable low-cost educational innovation model that can be disseminated to other under-resourced regions around the world. Indeed, to date, the model has travelled to fourteen countries around the world, impacting the lives of over five million children. On the surface, the implementation of Vietnam Escuela Nueva (VNEN) appears to be a close reproduction of the original model. However, some aspects of VNEN in practice in fact directly contradict the principles and philosophies of the original model. Rather than encouraging more teacher autonomy, child-centered pedagogies, and local adaptation, the implementation of VNEN has reproduced the rigidity, conformity and textbook dependency that have been core features of the traditional Vietnamese education system. This points to the difficulties that can arise when attempts at scaling up educational change across borders come into conflict with local systems of reasoning, which impede the achievement of the intended outcomes.     

Crossover Literature and Abjection: Geraldine McCaughrean’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The White Darkness</Emphasis>

This article provides a close reading of Geraldine McCaughrean’s award-winning novel, The White Darkness. It argues that this is a key text in the increasing debate about ‘crossover’ literature. Whereas, traditionally, adolescent books were seen to offer compensatory fantasies to the adolescent reader, McCaughrean’s text goes beyond this, exploring adolescence in deeper terms: not simply as an age-defined period but as a time when the traditional coordinates of the self are thrown into crisis, or become destabilized (as an ‘open psychic structure’, as Kristeva puts it). Adopting such a psychoanalytical approach, it is argued, we can begin to understand this book’s appeal (and others like it) to adolescent and adult alike; that is, it stages a shift from an imaginary identification with a stable self to a more realistic, albeit less secure recognition of the flimsiness of identity. The white wastes of Antarctica provide the perfect backdrop for this confrontation with the ungraspable Real.

‘Be the Tree’: Classical Literature,Art Therapy,and Transcending Trauma in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Speak</Emphasis>

Laurie Halse Anderson’s young adult novel Speak concerns the rape and subsequent silence of ninth grade protagonist Melinda Sordino. By relying on extensive literary allusions involving trees, rape, silence, and transformation, Anderson creates a young adult problem novel that is both of the moment and timeless in its themes. The intertextuality of tree imagery in Speak can be placed in conversation with the rape and subsequent silence of women in classical myth and Shakespeare’s early tragedy Titus Andronicus. Grounded in Ovidian imagery, Speak has the appeal of an updated adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses: a girl is raped by the high school equivalent of a god. She changes from typical adolescent to a withdrawn teen suffering from selective mutism. Yet Anderson allows a second metamorphosis: her protagonist is able to transcend her trauma through art, unlike the tragic nymphs of old whose stories ended upon their violation and subsequent transformations. Anderson’s imagery, deeply indebted to literature’s past but speaking to psychotherapy’s present, offers a distinct venue for readers to grapple with trauma and trees, and their long literary correlations.     

History Writing That’s “Good to Think With”: <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Great Fire,Blizzard!</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">An American Plague</Emphasis>

In this article I argue that history books that are “good to think with” narrate history and, at the same time, provide insight into how it is constructed. These books are much more than collections of facts. Specifically, they provide information about historical context, multiple perspectives, sources of information, and original interpretation. This is crucial information for anyone attempting to understand history. As examples, I show how three books by Jim Murphy—The Great Fire, Blizzard! and An American Plague—address each of these essential topics. Myra Zarnowski is a professor in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Queens College, CUNY. She is the author of History Makers (Heinemann, 2006) and Making Sense of History (Scholastic, 2006).     

“The World Loves an Underdog,” or the Continuing Appeal of the Adolescent Rebel Narrative: A Comparative Reading of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Vernon God Little</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Catcher in the Rye</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Huckleberry Finn</Emphasis>

The early reception of D.B.C. Pierre’s Vernon God Little (2003) has been characterized by comparisons with two canonical literary antecedents: J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1991/1951) and, at a greater remove, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). The three novels capitalize on the subversive potential of disaffected teenage narrators, whose compelling vernacular voices, and distinctive position as outsiders in the adult world, are powerful tools for social critique. This article offers an analysis of the continuities and discontinuities in the narrative tradition that links Vernon Little to Huckleberry Finn via the pivotal figure of Holden Caulfield, who is widely considered as the original, unsurpassed model of adolescent rebelliousness in modern literature. Grounded in an extensive exploration of the history of reception of the three texts, this study proceeds to highlight and explore the wider implications of Pierre’s provocative twist on his predecessors’ narrative template. Significantly, this deliberate departure is overlooked in most reviews of Vernon God Little—an omission which testifies to our deep investment in the idea of teenagers as liminal figures between childhood and adulthood, and thus still relatively untainted by worldly corruption. Paradoxically, the persistence of this romanticized view of adolescence coexists with much less idealized representations of young people, especially in the media. This particular contradiction is tentatively teased out in a brief coda to the main argument, with reference to another idiosyncratic adolescent narrator who has managed to capture the popular imagination in recent years: Christopher Boone in Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2003). Although his connection with Salinger’s text is less immediately obvious than Vernon’s, in some ways Christopher is a more legitimate heir to Holden Caulfield than Pierre’s protagonist.     

Optimal multi-degree reduction of Bézier curves with <Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis><Superscript>1</Superscript>-continuity

This paper presents a novel approach to consider optimal multi-degree reduction of Bézier curve with G¹-continuity. By minimizing the distances between corresponding control points of the two curves through degree raising, optimal approximation is achieved. In contrast to traditional methods, which typically consider the components of the curve separately, we use geometric information on the curve to generate the degree reduction. So positions and tangents are preserved at the two endpoints. For satisfying the solvability condition, we propose another improved algorithm based on regularization terms. Finally, numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">CHEMnet</Emphasis>—Structure,Design, and Evaluation of an Online Chemistry Course

In order to contribute some aspects regarding the optimization of multimedia learning environments, we have developed a chemistry lecture that is called CHEMnet and provide it for free via the internet. As an introduction to general and inorganic chemistry, CHEMnet is directed to first year university students as well as to high school students. We plan to attain some information on the use and efficiency of multimedia teaching and learning software with CHEMnet. The structure and features of CHEMnet and numbers and characteristics of its use are represented in this article.     

David Almond’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Skellig</Emphasis>: “A New Vista of Contemplation”?

The debates that have arisen regarding Darwin’s theories of evolution and Christian views of creation and their place in education in the United States have frequently been extremely heated, resulting in trials, hearings, and laws. This article provides an overview of some of the disagreements and illustrates how David Almond’s British novel, Skellig (1998), can be read as a response to the disputes. The author suggests a close reading of Skellig demonstrates how a decrepit, broken, dispirited creature, who might be characterized as an angel, and the crumbling building in which he lives serve as a series of metaphors for attitudes regarding the role of Christian views of creation and evolution in contemporary culture.     

Complicating Culture and Difference: Situating Asian American Youth Identities in Lisa Yee’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Millicent Min,Girl Genius</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time</Emphasis>

This review situates how culture, difference, and identity are discursively constructed in Millicent Min, Girl Genius and Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, two award-winning books written by critically acclaimed Asian American author Lisa Yee. Using contextual literacy approaches, the characters, cultural motifs, and physical settings in these texts are deconstructed to explore the nuances of Asian American youth identities that intersect along the lines of class, gender, and race. This review ends by offering teaching strategies for explicating Asian American young adult literature to critically investigate the representations of Asian American counter-narratives, experiences, and youth cultures. Rachel Endo is a Ph.D. Candidate in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her current research interests are comparative multicultural education, immigrant/refugee experiences in post-1965 contexts, teacher education, and transnational studies of Asian America.     

The Effects of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Positive Action</Emphasis> on Preschoolers’ Social–Emotional Competence and Health Behaviors

Children from low-income families are at greater risk for poor social–emotional development and physical health and may be in need of intervention. This study examined the extent to which the Positive Action (PA) preschool lessons improved low-income children’s social–emotional competence and health behaviors. Mixed findings emerged with regard to whether the lessons facilitated growth in child outcomes. Results showed positive effects of PA on children’s directly assessed social problem solving skills and their parent-rated social–emotional competence and health behaviors. Unexpectedly, program effects on teacher ratings of social–emotional competence were in the opposite direction. These findings provide preliminary evidence that PA may be effective in promoting positive social–emotional and health behavior outcomes for children, particularly when outcomes are assessed directly and by parents.     

“Everything Comes from Seeing Things”: Narrative and Illustrative Play in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Black and White</Emphasis>

In 1991, David Macaulay was awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal for his picturebook, Black and White (1990). He believed the Caldecott committee’s choice communicated many messages to readers of all ages: “that it is essential to see, not merely to look; that words and pictures can support each other; that it isn’t necessary to think in a straight line to make sense; and finally that risk can be rewarded” (p. 419). This article focuses on how Macaulay uses play to engage readers—to arouse their curiosity, to make them think, and to incite them to ‘see things’ in Black and White. Excerpts from Grade 5 students’ written responses illustrate some of their responses to and interpretations of various kinds of narrative and illustrative play in Black and White.     

A disputed evidence on obesity: comparison of the effects of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rcan2</Emphasis><Superscript>−/−</Superscript> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rps6kb1</Emphasis><Superscript>−/−</Superscript> mutations on growth and body weight in C57BL/6J mice

It is widely accepted that body weight and adipose mass are tightly regulated by homeostatic mechanisms, in which leptin plays a critical role through hypothalamic pathways, and obesity is a result of homeostatic disorder. However, in C57BL/6J mice, we found that Rcan2 increases food intake and plays an important role in the development of age- and diet-induced obesity through a leptin-independent mechanism. RCAN2 was initially identified as a thyroid hormone (T3)-responsive gene in human fibroblasts. Expression of RCAN2 is regulated by T3 through the PI3K-Akt/PKB-mTOR-Rps6kb1 signaling pathway. Intriguingly, both Rcan2^?/? and Rps6kb1^?/? mutations were reported to result in lean phenotypes in mice. In this study we compared the effects of these two mutations on growth and body weight in C57BL/6J mice. We observed reduced body weight and lower fat mass in both Rcan2^?/? and Rps6kb1^?/? mice compared to the wild-type mice, and we reported other differences unique to either the Rcan2^?/? or Rps6kb1^?/? mice. Firstly, loss of Rcan2 does not directly alter body length; however, Rcan2^?/? mice exhibit reduced food intake. In contrast, Rps6kb1^?/? mice exhibit abnormal embryonic development, which leads to smaller body size and reduced food intake in adulthood. Secondly, when fed a normal chow diet, Rcan2^?/? mice weigh significantly more than Rps6kb1^?/? mice, but both Rcan2^?/? and Rps6kb1^?/? mice develop similar amounts of epididymal fat. On a high-fat diet, Rcan2^?/? mice gain body weight and fat mass at slower rates than Rps6kb1^?/? mice. Finally, using the double-knockout mice (Rcan2^?/?Rps6kb1^?/?), we demonstrate that concurrent loss of Rcan2 and Rps6kb1 has an additive effect on body weight reduction in C57BL/6J mice. Our data suggest that Rcan2 and Rps6kb1 mutations both affect growth and body weight of mice, though likely through different mechanisms.     

When Participants Don’t Wish to Participate in Participatory Action Research,and When Others Participate on Their Behalf: The Representation of Communities by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Real</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Faux</Emphasis> Participants

This article focuses on methodological and epistemological issues arising from a research project with two Gypsy communities (2010–2012) in the South West of England. Although the two communities seem to share cultural roots and values, and live within a few miles of each other, they have contrasting experiences within the education system and very different relationships with the surrounding mainstream communities. The article explores difficulties emerging as a consequence of the contrasting positions of the participant communities, the differing research aspirations and practices across the research team, and also the tensions between ethnographic work and participatory action research. It queries the problematic nature of participation, and proposes the concept of the faux-participant.