Northland Pioneer College

Abstract Stakeholders in early childhood (EC) education have a responsibility to construct and implement programs and evaluation methods that are developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive. Currently, widely used paradigms for preschool and other EC program evaluations are predominantly quantitative and unable to provide stakeholders with a holistic picture of an early education program’s impact within the crucial context of a child’s and family’s lived experiences. This chapter provides an overview of lessons learned from a past mixed-methods evaluation for Elevate PreK (EPK) in Northern Arizona and how these lessons informed the shift to a primarily ethnographic evaluation approach exploring program meaning and impact. The authors first provide a summary of their past approach to evaluation to introduce the authors’ shift to ethnography. The authors then outline the development of evaluation strategies, established through orienting themselves toward a constructivist and interpretivist way of thinking where the authors saw program meaning and impact as something that can be constructed through deeper, more intentional interactions. Data were primarily collected using classroom observations of teachers, observations taken during child drop-off and pick-up hours and family–teacher conferences, feedback solicited from teachers on curricular use, and interviews with families about their experiences in the program. Preliminary analyses have uncovered and reinforced valuable findings regarding the positive impact that the program has had on children, families, and teachers. The insights gleaned from this evaluation indicate the great benefit of implementing ethnographic and other qualitative methodological approaches in evaluating EC programs to understand these programs’ direct and indirect impacts on their beneficiaries.

Roadway surface type classification (e.g., unpaved, asphalt, concrete) is an essential data element for road safety analysis and required as part of the Model Inventory of Roadway Elements (MIRE) Fundamental Data Elements (FDEs). Supplementary guidance issued by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires detailed surface type classification for the National Highway System (NHS) and roads functionally classified as interstates; however, less detailed surface type attribute group values (i.e., unpaved surface, asphalt pavement, concrete pavement, and other paved surface) are required for all remaining road segments that are not a part of the NHS. As part of a FHWA data analysis technical assistance (DATA) team, the research team worked with the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) to develop a machine learning model capable of initially categorizing roads to reduce the level of effort required to satisfy the full MIRE FDE requirements. The research team conducted a pilot image classification analysis and determined a potential workflow for a broader statewide study area. This paper outlines the pilot methodologies and results. The team developed a support vector machine (SVM) learning model combined with Bayesian statistics that classified roads as paved or unpaved from aerial imagery with an overall model accuracy of 95%.

Here we present new 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, rock magnetic, and paleomagnetic data obtained from rocks from three distinct domains of the Precambrian Sveconorwegian orogen (Southern Norway) that record progressively younger orogenic events from east to west. The first locality is in the Bamble lithotectonic unit and the other two areas are located within the Telemark and Rogaland–Vest Agder sectors in the central and southwestern parts of the Telemark lithotectonic unit, respectively. New and existing geochronology data on metamorphism and cooling, combined with detailed rock magnetic analyses indicate that studied rocks cooled and blocked (acquired) the natural remanent magnetization at ∼ 1090 Ma (Bamble Lithotectonic unit), 1000 Ma (Central Telemark), and at around 900 Ma in the westernmost part of the Telemark Lithotectonic Unit. Accordingly, the new paleomagnetic poles for the Bamble (Plat = -6.6°N, Plong = 218.4°E, N = 38, A95 = 6.1°, K = 15.6), central Telemark (Plat = -17.4° N, Plong = 229.8° E, N = 23. A95 = 6.5 °, K = 22.6), and western Telemark Lithotetonic Unit (Plat = -46.2° N, Plong = 209.4° E, N = 9, A95 = 12.0, K = 19.4) were assigned 1090 Ma, 1000 Ma, and 900 Ma ages, respectively. The new Bamble paleomagnetic pole reconstructs Baltica at ∼ 1090 Ma with noticeable latitudinal gap from the eastern Laurentian margin and thus does not support classical Baltica-Laurentia configuration within the Rodinia supercontinent. The other two younger poles, when used together with the coeval paleomagnetic data from Laurentia do not support the traditionally envisaged Meso- to Neoproterozoic Baltica-Laurentia relationship either. Overall, the new data do not lend any support to the close connection between the two continents during the proposed Rodinia tenure but instead emphasize the problems with the traditional paleogeographic reconstructions of Rodinia. The new data appear more in line with the geological record within the Sveconorwegian orogen, which indicates that the orogeny developed at or behind active continental margins. While Baltica and Laurentia may have resided at broadly similar latitudes between 1000 and 900 Ma, there is no geologic and paleomagnetic evidence for placing them next to each other.

Therizinosaurs are unusual theropods from the Upper Cretaceous of Asia and North America. North American representatives include Falcarius utahensis from central Utah, Nothronychus mckinleyi from west central New Mexico, and N. graffami from southern Utah. Nothronychus was quite large, with well-developed forelimbs and pectoral girdle. In many respects, however, these structures were typical for conventional carnivorous theropods, although therizinosaurs have been hypothesized to be herbivorous using anatomical and functional inferences. There is no indication of increased range of motion within the forelimbs, as might be predicted for derived non-avian theropods. The muscular anatomy of the pectoral girdle and forelimb of Nothronychus is reconstructed using visible muscle scars, data from extant birds and crocodilians, and models for other theropods. The osteology and inferred musculature is a mosaic of primitive and derived characters for theropods. A fossa pneumotricipitales may have been present in the proximal humerus. There was a well-developed fossa brachialis in the distal humerus. The epicleidium of the furcula is deflected, reflecting either taphonomic deformation or possibly accommodation of M. supracoracoideus in a triosseal canal, but such a development has yet to be described in any non-avian theropod. In many respects, the other muscular results were quite similar to those inferred for dromaeosaurs.

The subject of identity politics rests within a set of related concepts, such as the distribution of social power, social location and status, and a stratified system in which these interpersonal resources may be valued and used for purposes of individual or group advantage over other individuals or groups. Groups in a stratified system—that is, a social system with a ranked structure of positions—may contend for advantage among themselves. Each group may seek to use group‐level resources in addition to individual characteristics to secure a better or stronger position vis‐à‐vis the members of other groups in the social tapestry. This may not be a result of actual conspiracy: often, people acting in their own perceived self‐interest serve the mutual desires of others in a similar social position.

Discovering missing ancestors is essential to understanding the evolutionary history of biodiversity on Earth. Evidence from extinct species can provide links for reconstructing intricate patterns of reticulate relationships among extant descendents. When fossils are unavailable and other evidence yields competing hypotheses to explain species ancestry, data from proteins and DNA can help resolve conflicts and generate novel perspectives. The identity of a parent shared by two tetraploid species in the cosmopolitan fern genus Dryopteris has remained elusive for more than 50 years. Based on available data, four hypotheses were developed previously, each providing a different resolution to this uncertainty. • New molecular evidence from studies of isozymes and restriction site analysis of chloroplast DNA tested the competing hypotheses about the diploid ancestors of these two extant Dryopteris polyploids. • The results falsify two of the hypotheses, resolve the uncertainty in the third, and support the fourth. • Our data validate the prior existence of Dryopteris "semicristata," which was proposed 38 years ago as a diploid progenitor of the allotetraploids D. cristata and D. carthusiana but has never been collected. After developing a phylogeny using the new molecular data, we describe a plausible morphology for D. "semicristata" by extrapolating likely character states from related extant species.