New Releases by Ann Arnold

A children''s alphabet book for Christmas, with all proceeds going to St Helena Hospice, Colchester.

Georgina the duck just wants to have fun!

The purpose of this naturalistic inquiry was to explore and analyze aspects of the reported beliefs and practices of a group of preservice elementary mathematics teacher educators. Until now, researchers have had little understanding of beliefs and practices of teachers in elementary mathematics methods classrooms, despite the fact that teacher educators'' beliefs and practices have profound effects on what happens in thousands of classrooms every day. The qualitative research in this study offered insights with the potential to inform higher educational practice in regard to the preparation of elementary mathematics teachers and mathematics teacher educators. Participants were six professors and instructors of elementary math methods courses at six different colleges and universities. A series of 18 in-depth interviews, three with each participant, allowed context, nuance, and detail to be closely examined. Typological analysis led to the emergence of six themes. They dealt with consistency, challenge, content, methods, resources, and reasons. Details related to those themes helped to illuminate what the working experience of a preservice elementary mathematics teacher is like. Study conclusions indicated (a) general consistency, with some exceptions, between reported beliefs and reported practices; (b) some common challenges faced by most participants, particularly in regard to limited elementary classroom experience, and perceived time constraints; (c) wide variation in content and methods despite agreement on teaching philosophy; (d) perceived student needs as the main reported basis of participant teaching decisions, and; (e) some indication of the extent of influence of curricular and pedagogical reform as elementary mathematics teacher educators sought to enact generally constructivist inspired teaching visions. Recommendations for educators, researchers and policy makers stemming from these conclusions have potential benefits for elementary mathematics teacher preparation.

These studies set out to identify strategies to rescue and repair the adult nervous system. First, we investigated the role of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) in 5HT1A receptor-induced neurogenesis in the rodent brain. Systemic treatment with an agonist, 8-OH-DPAT, increased neurogenesis only in rats and not mice, and only in one of the two neurogenic regions. This increase was not mediated by CNTF. These data suggest that translation of 5HT1A-based studies to human cell replacement therapies should be reconsidered. Secondly, the role of the plasticity-associated metalloprotease ADAM21 after spinal cord injury was investigated by comparing ADAM21-deficient mice to their wildtype littermates. No differences in behavioral or histology were found. However, a comprehensive metalloproteinase gene array revealed that ADAM21 regulates a cluster of inflammatory genes following injury. This leaves a potential for discovery of specific pharmaceutical ADAM21 inhibitors to reduce detrimental inflammatory processes following spinal cord injury.

On June 4, 1741, Georg Wilhelm Steller set sail from Avacha Bay in Siberia on the St. Peter, under the command of Vitus Bering. The crew was bound for America on the last leg of an expedition whose mission was to explore, describe, and map Russia’s vast lands from the Ural Mountains across Siberia to the Kamchatka Peninsula, and possibly lay claim to the northwest coast of America – if they could find it, for no European had ever reached America by this route. Officially, Steller was the ship’s mineralogist, but in practice he was its doctor, minister, and naturalist as well. Appointed to the expedition in 1737 by the Academy of Science in St. Petersburg, he was sworn to secrecy concerning any discoveries. Making judicious use of Steller’s richly detailed journals and liberal use of illustrations and maps, Ann Arnold allows the reader to join Steller on this fascinating voyage and its final dangerous mission, which left half the crew dead and the rest suffering from scurvy.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of parent trainings on the use of positive behavior support techniques and the behavior of their adolescents. Four parents participated in four trainings across one month. All parents had an adolescent with an attention deficit disorder between the ages of fourteen to eighteen and were being served in a resource specialist program. All parents had no prior experience with positive reinforcement parenting training prior to the start of the study. Results showed that the adolescents'' behaviors improved throughout the course of the trainings. Parents'' knowledge and understanding about their adolescent also improved as did their application of positive reinforcement.

Human-robotic systems will play a critical role in space exploration, should NASA embark on missions to the Moon and Mars. A unified framework to optimally leverage the capabilities of humans and robots in space exploration will be an invaluable tool for mission planning. Although there is a growing body of literature on human robotic interactions (HRI), there is not yet a framework that lends itself both to a formal representation of heterogeneous teams of humans and robots, and to an evaluation of such teams across a series of common, task-based metrics. My objective in this thesis is to lay the foundations of a unified framework for architecting human-robotic systems for optimal task performance given a set of metrics. First, I review literature from different fields including HRI and human-computer interaction, and synthesize multiple considerations for architecting heterogeneous teams of humans and robots. I then present methods to systematically and formally capture the characteristics that describe a human-robotic system to provide a basis for evaluating human-robotic systems against a common set of metrics.

Keywords: shallow drains, DRAINMOD N II, DRAINMOD, nitrate loss, drainage.

In 1837, when Alexis Soyer was just twenty-five years old, he became head chef at the exclusive Reform Club in London on the condition that he be allowed to participate in the design of the kitchen. The result was a showplace filled with Soyer''s clever inventions, such as the drainer and the multi-egg poacher, and it became the most talked about kitchen in all of Europe. Soyer quickly established himself as a star, but for all his flamboyance he was practical and large-hearted, cooking for the starving populace as well as the aristocracy, opening soup kitchens during the Irish potato famine, and teaching the army how to feed itself in the Crimean War. Filled with biographical detail and lively illustrations, The Adventurous Chef tells the story of a remarkable man who was determined to revolutionize the culinary world and who remains one of the greatest cooks of the nineteenth century.

Fort Worth physicians fought and overcame enemies too small to be seen with the naked eye. This is their story. In 1853 settler Julian Field needed a doctor. Carroll M. Peck responded and became the first civilian doctor at the old fort. From the first he and others rode horseback, and later drove Model Ts, as they ministered to the sick. Along the way they established a health care system that drew patients from across the state and nation. Nuns came from San Antonio to create St. Joseph Hospital, thus replacing kitchen table surgeries with well-equipped operating rooms. From these humble beginnings, dedicated and inovative men and women saved lives and endeared themselves to grateful patients. History is more than dates and battles. It is the chronicle of people and their impact on the lives of others. This book salutes medical pioneers, past and present.

From the earliest days of the cattle drives through town, Fort Worth embraced, if not with open arms, then certainly with an open palm, the profit and excitement of illegal entertainment.

History of the Daughters of the American Revolution''s first one hundred years.