Sexual reconviction rates in the United Kingdom and actuarial risk estimates

OBJECTIVE: Assessing the risk of further offending behavior by adult sexual perpetrators of children is highly relevant and important to professionals involved in child protection. Recent progress in assessing risk in sexual offenders has established the validity of actuarial measures, although there continues to be some debate about the application of these instruments. This paper summarizes the debate between clinical and actuarial approaches and reviews the "base rate" for United Kingdom sexual offense reconviction. METHOD: A review of the literature revealed 16 UK sexual reconviction studies, 8 using incarcerated samples (N=5,915) and 8 using non-incarcerated samples (N=1,274). UK estimates of sexual reconviction rates are compared with European and North American studies. RESULTS: The mean sexual reconviction rates for the incarcerated sample at 2 years (6.0%), 4 years (7.8%) and 6 years or more (19.5%) were higher than that of the comparative non-incarcerated sample at 2 years (5.7%), up to 4 years (5.9%), and 6 years or more (15.5%). The overall sexual reconviction rate for both samples combined was 5.8% at 2 years, and 17.5% at 6 years or more. CONCLUSIONS: The sexual reconviction rate for incarcerated sexual offenders is higher than that of non-incarcerated sexual offenders. The UK sexual reconviction rates were comparable with European and North American studies.     

Does teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge affect their fluency instruction?

The relation is studied between teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of reading and the quality of their subsequent classroom behaviour in teaching fluent reading. A confirmatory factor analysis model with two latent variables is tested and shows adequate goodness-of-fit indices. Contrary to our expectations, the results of structural equation modelling reveal a small but significant γ-value of .29, indicating that only 8% of the variance in teachers’ classroom behaviour in teaching fluent reading is accounted for by teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of reading. Presumably teacher knowledge is not as stable and conclusive as one might think. More research is needed in determining the factors that work restricting for teachers in putting their knowledge into classroom practice. It is recommended that preservice and in-service teacher training should not be limited to transfer of knowledge, but should also assist teachers in designing and performing effective fluent reading instruction.     

Using an Attribution Support Tool to Enhance the Teacher Efficacy of Student Science Teachers

To increase the teacher efficacy of student teachers, they need positive classroom experiences: mastery experiences. These mastery experiences have to be created by the student teachers themselves. Therefore, student teachers need a tool to better understand problematic teaching experiences and help them create positive classroom experiences. Nine student biology teachers used this attribution support tool when reflecting on multiple lessons taught in classes they considered difficult. They scored their lessons and filled in a teacher efficacy questionnaire after each lesson. The results show that teacher efficacy increased and the number of failures during the lessons decreased; on average, the self-awarded marks per teacher per lesson increased, indicating an increase in mastery experiences. Therefore, the attribution tool seems to be a promising tool for student teachers to enhance their teacher efficacy and to support reflection on problematic teaching experiences.     

Pattern design on 3D triangular garment surfaces

This paper focuses on a pattern design method for a 3D triangular garment surface. Firstly, some definitions of 3D style lines are proposed for designing the boundaries of patterns as drawing straight lines or splines on the triangular surface. Additionally some commonly used style lines are automatically generated to enhance design efficiency. Secondly, after style lines are preprocessed, a searching method is presented for quickly obtaining the boundaries and patches of a pattern on the 3D trian- gular surface. Finally a new pattern design reuse method is introduced by encoding/decoding the style line information. After style lines are encoded, the pattern design information can be saved in a pattern template and when decoding this template on a new garment surface, it automates the pattern generation for made-to-measure apparel products.     

WVD的快速计算

The paper proposes a new method for computation of the Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD) taking account of the conjugate symmetry of the WVD kernel function and the periodicity and symmetry of the trigonometric function. The method transfers the computation of WVD into real field from complex field to remove the redundancies in the fast Fourier transform(FFT) computation. The realization of fast cosine operation and fast sine operation considerably reduces the computation cost. Theoretical analysis shows that     

That’s Not Something We Have to Discuss: Interrupting Silences About Multiracial Students in Teacher Work

The author asserts that the field of teacher education must begin a critical conversation to better prepare and support teachers in attending to the complexities of racialized identities, experiences, and perspectives of multiracial students in K12 schools. The author offers a review of literature relevant to multiracial students, and draws from the emerging theoretical framework of Multicrit (Harris in Int J Qual Stud Educ 29(6):795–813, 2016) to present monoracism, ahistoricism, colorism and intersectionality to analyze excerpts from three respective research studies. Each excerpt demonstrates an imperative to build a critical understanding of multiracial students within teacher work. The author concludes with implications for future research and practice.     

The Status of Career and Technical Education Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in the United States

The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate and graduate student enrollments, course delivery modes, and curricular trends and issues of CTE programs. Based on findings from 139 program/department coordinators, results emphasized that although CTE programs within institutions of higher education have declined in number (Fletcher, Gordon, Asunda, &; Zirkle, 2015 Fletcher, E., &; Djajalaksana, Y. (2015). Instructional strategy preferences in the career and technical education classroom. Journal of Research in Business Education, 57(1), 32–56. [Google Scholar]), student enrollments within those programs have remained steady compared to prior studies (Bruening et al., 2001 Bruening, T., Scanlon, D., Hodes, C., Dhital, P., Shao, X., &; Liu, S. (2001). The status of career and technical education teacher preparation programs. (Report No. V051A990004). Minneapolis, MN: The National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. [Google Scholar]; Lynch, 1990 Lynch, R. (1990). A national database on vocational teacher education (Report No. V051A80004-89). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education. [Google Scholar]). Even so, CTE program/department administrators have articulated that declining student enrollment is a major challenge within their programs. Additionally, the development of online courses and the impact of state/national educational reform initiatives were identified as major curricular trends for CTE programs. Recommendations include the need for CTE faculty to embrace online instruction, and for programs to use broader nomenclature of CTE/Workforce Education, instead of names of more traditional subdisciplines within the field to remain more accessible and sustainable in the future. The condition of undergraduate and graduate CTE programs will likely impact the viability and sustainability of CTE teacher preparation programs, recruitment of a talented and diverse CTE teaching force, continuity of the U.S. teaching workforce, and ability of K–12 teachers to maintain high-quality CTE programs.     

Domain Coloring and the Argument Principle

Abstract

The domain-coloring algorithm allows us to visualize complex-valued functions on the plane in a single image—an alternative to before-and-after mapping diagrams. It helps us see when a function is analytic and aids in understanding contour integrals. The culmination of this article is a visual discovery and subsequent proof of the Argument Principle, which relates the count of poles and zeros of a meromorphic function inside a contour to the accumulated change in argument of the function around the contour. Throughout, I offer connections to standard learning goals of courses in complex variables.     

Co-benefit of hazardous trace elements capture in dust removal devices of ultra-low emission coal-fired power plants

The co-benefit of hazardous trace elements such as mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), and selenium (Se) capture in dust removal devices of ultra-low emission coal-fired power plants was investigated. Feed fuel and ash samples collected from 15 different coal-fired power units equipped with ultra-low emission systems were characterized to determine the concentrations and distribution characteristics of trace elements. It was found that the low-low temperature electrostatic precipitator (LLT-ESP) and the electrostatic fabric filter (EFF) had greater abatement capacity for Hg than normal cold-side ESP (CS-ESP). Only 0.8%–36.1% of Hg escaped from LLT-ESP and EFF, whereas 42.1%–90.6% of Hg escaped from CS-ESP. With the employment of EFF and ESP (inlet temperature<125 °C), 72.3%–99.1% of As and 70.7%–100% of Se could be captured before the wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) system. The significance level of the effects on the abatement capacity for Hg, As, and Se in ESP were analyzed by the Pearson correlation analysis and grey relational analysis. The results indicated that the low inlet temperature of LLT-ESP had significant promotional effect on the simultaneous removal of Hg, As, and Se. The smaller particle size of fly ash can be conducive to the adsorption of hazardous trace elements. The inhibitory effect of sulfur content in coal was significant for the enrichment of Hg and Se in fly ash.