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Peer victimization is critical to study in early and middle childhood as it is associated with adjustment and behavioral problems in adolescence. Because much victimization occurs outside of the purview of adults, self-report measures are important assessments of this construct; however, there is limited evidence for the psychometric properties of the score interpretations of many measures. The goal of the current study was to replicate and extend previous work with the Social Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ; Crick and Grotpeter, Development and Psychopathology 8:367-380, 1996). Specifically, we explored the factor structure of the measure, investigated measurement invariance across gender, age and time, and examined evidence for criterion-related validity of the SEQ score interpretations. Participants were 558 children (49.2% girls; 50.7% boys) within the classrooms of 34 teachers (Kindergarten-5th grade). Children completed the SEQ, and children and teachers completed measures of social and academic functioning in the fall and spring of the school year. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed strong evidence for a two-factor solution (Factor 1: victimization; Factor 2: receipt of prosocial acts), with evidence of invariance across gender, age, and time. There was evidence of criterion-related validity across measures of social and academic functioning. Implications for our understanding of victimization and continued use of the SEQ are discussed.

Establishing a positive peer climate in elementary school classrooms is an important goal for educators because peer dynamics are thought to affect academic learning. Thus, it is important to: (1) understand the relationship between children's peer dynamics and academic functioning; and (2) identify teacher practices that influence both peer processes and academic outcomes. In this pilot study, we explored whether specific teacher strategies that promote positive behaviors in children and positive peer dynamics influence children's better academic enablers, as well as whether they do so indirectly via improving peer sociometric ratings. Such teacher strategies may be particularly relevant for supporting children who demonstrate impairment in both social and academic domains, such as children at risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thus, we also examined whether these relationships differ for children with elevated ADHD symptoms and peer problems (i.e., target students), relative to classmates (i.e., non-target students). Participants were 194 children in the classrooms of 12 teachers (grades K-4) who participated in an open-trial pilot study of the school-based version of the Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms (MOSAIC) program. In the fall and spring of a school year, we assessed children's sociometric ratings received from peers, and academic enabler skills as rated by teachers. Throughout one academic year, we obtained assessments of teachers' use of MOSAIC strategies (observed and self-reported). Results showed that, after accounting for fall academic enablers, the teacher strategy of CARE time (involving one-on-one interaction with the student to build the teacher-student relationship) was positively associated with spring academic enablers. However, findings did not support the hypothesized indirect effect of peer sociometric ratings on the relationship between teacher strategy use and academic enablers, or the moderated indirect effect by target student status. Implications for future research and classroom interventions are discussed.

Abstract Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and worldwide. While influenza illness is known to be particularly dangerous for frail and elderly patients, the relationship between influenza illness and outcomes in patients with cancer remains largely unknown. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was queried to identify patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) diagnosed between 2009 and 2015. Influenza-like illness (ILI) activity, provided by the Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network of the Center of Disease for Control and Prevention, was merged with the SEER dataset on the state-month level. Regional monthly mortality rates were compared during low versus high flu months in this ecological cohort study. 202,485 patients with NSCLC from 13 SEER-reporting states were included in the analysis. 53 of 1049 state-months (5.1%) had high flu activity. Monthly mortality rates during low and high flu months were 0.041 (95% CI 0.041–0.042) and 0.051 (95% CI 0.050–0.053), respectively (RR 1.24 [95% CI 1.21–1.27]). The association between ILI activity and mortality was observed at the individual state level and in all clinical and regional subgroups. Increased regional influenza activity is associated with higher mortality rates for patients with NSCLC. Vaccine-directed initiatives and increased awareness amongst providers will be necessary to address the growing but potentially preventable burden of influenza-related lung cancer deaths in the U.S.

In our continuing search for new polymer composites with antimicrobial activity, we observed that even unmodified epoxy resins exhibit significant activity. Considering their widespread use as starting materials for the realization of multifunctional nanocomposites with excellent chemical and mechanical properties, it was deemed relevant to uncover these unexpected properties that can lead to novel applications. In fact, in places where the contact with human activities makes working surfaces susceptible to microbial contamination, thus jeopardizing the sterility of the environment, their biological activity opens the way to their successful application in minimizing healthcare-associated infections. To this end, three commercial and widely used epoxy resins (DGEBA/Elan-TechW 152LR, 1; EPIKOTETM Resin MGS®/EPIKURETM RIM H 235, 2 and MC152/EW101, 3) have been investigated to determine their antibacterial and antiviral activity. After 24 h, according to ISO 22196:2011, resins 1 and 2 showed a high antibacterial efficacy (R value > 6.0 log reduction) against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Resin 2, prepared according to the ratio epoxy/hardener indicated by the supplier (sample 2a) and with 10% w/w hardener excess (sample 2b), exhibited an intriguing virucidal activity against Herpes Simplex Virus type-1 and Human Coronavirus type V-OC43 as a surrogate of SARS-CoV-2.

Establishing a positive peer climate in the elementary school classroom is an important goal for educators. This pilot study examined if children's liking and disliking of their classroom peers is predicted by teachers' use of practices designed to address child disruptive behaviors that are off-putting to peers, and practices designed to enhance peer inclusivity. Whereas teacher practices to foster good peer relationships are useful for all students, they are particularly important for those with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms, as these children are often poorly regarded by classmates. Thus, we explored the moderating effect of child ADHD symptom status. Participants were 194 children (grades K-4) in the classrooms of 12 teachers. The teachers were helping our study team revise the Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms (MOSAIC) program for use in general education classrooms. The MOSAIC program contains a set of teacher strategies to encourage students' increased liking and decreased disliking of one another, which was measured by sociometric ratings. Teachers' use of MOSAIC strategies were observed and self-reported over a school year. Results indicated that teacher practices designed to improve children's classroom behaviors, as well as practices that encouraged peers to be more inclusive, each predicted children receiving better sociometric ratings at the end of the year after accounting for ratings at the beginning of the year. Some practices appeared uniquely efficacious for children with elevated ADHD symptoms, whereas others were useful for all children but had accentuated benefits for typical children. Implications for practitioners are discussed. [This article was published in "School Mental Health" (EJ1253711).]

Research predominantly focuses on problematic behaviors in children with symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to explain why they are disliked by their classroom peers. By contrast, the current study explores characteristics of peers that are associated with them disliking classmates with ADHD symptoms. To do so, we undertook a novel methodological approach using hierarchical linear modeling to examine the strength of the association between child characteristics, their sociometric ratings given to classmates, and the recipients' ADHD symptom levels. Participants were 194 children (Grades K-4) in 12 classrooms. Using the sociometric method, children rated their liking versus disliking of each classmate. Children's ADHD symptoms were reported by the teacher. Children's self-reported stigma about ADHD, their own sociometric ratings received, and teacher ratings of children's academic competence were collected. Results suggested that children who reported more stigma about ADHD, and who were more socially and academically competent, had a stronger negative association between the sociometric ratings they gave and the recipients' ADHD symptoms (i.e., were more likely to dislike classmates with ADHD symptoms). These effects were strongest at the end of the academic year relative to the beginning of the year. Implications for interventions targeting the peer group are discussed.

The Bystander Intervention Model (BIM) has been validated for face-to-face emergencies and dictates that observers’ decision to intervene hinges on five sequential steps, while barriers block progress between steps. The current study is the first, to our knowledge, to apply the BIM in its entirety to cyber aggression and explore the ways that individual factors such as experiences with depression, social anxiety, and cyber aggression either as the target or the aggressor influence bystanders. In our pre-registered study, emerging adults (N = 1,093) viewed pilot-tested cyber aggressive content and reported how they would engage with each of the steps and barriers of the BIM, if they were observing this content as a bystander in real life. Regarding the actions they would take, most participants chose non-intervention (36.3%) or private direct intervention (39.4%). Path analysis suggested that overall, the BIM can explain bystanders’ responses to cyber aggression. Nonetheless, there were some discrepancies with prior work on face-to-face emergencies, specifically that cyber bystander intervention does not appear to be as linear. As well, in contrast to the face-to-face applications of the BIM that prescribes barriers to affect only a single specific step, here we found some barriers were negatively linked to multiple steps. These findings elucidate ways in which cyber aggression in the online context may be similar to, as well as different from, aggression that occurs face-to-face. Implications of these findings for interventions are discussed.

BackgroundMisconceptions about ADHD stigmatize affected people, reduce credibility of providers, and prevent/delay treatment. To challenge misconceptions, we curated findings with strong evidence base.MethodsWe reviewed studies with more than 2000 participants or meta-analyses from five or more studies or 2000 or more participants. We excluded meta-analyses that did not assess publication bias, except for meta-analyses of prevalence. For network meta-analyses we required comparison adjusted funnel plots. We excluded treatment studies with waiting-list or treatment as usual controls. From this literature, we extracted evidence-based assertions about the disorder.ResultsWe generated 208 empirically supported statements about ADHD. The status of the included statements as empirically supported is approved by 80 authors from 27 countries and 6 continents. The contents of the manuscript are endorsed by 366 people who have read this document and agree with its contents.ConclusionsMany findings in ADHD are supported by meta-analysis. These allow for firm statements about the nature, course, outcome causes, and treatments for disorders that are useful for reducing misconceptions and stigma.

We examined the effects of a teacher coaching program on discipline referrals using records from 7,794 U.S. classrooms in secondary schools. Some classroom teachers took part in a trial: They were randomized to receive intensive coaching in a focal classroom or to form a business-as-usual control group. The remaining teachers taught in the same schools as the teachers in the trial. Previous research suggested that the coaching program was associated with increasing equity in discipline referrals in focal, coached classrooms. The current study addressed whether effects found in the teachers' focal, coached classrooms generalized to diverse classrooms in their course load. Results suggested that the coaching program had no generalized effects on reducing referrals with African American students or racial referral gaps in classrooms with coached teachers, relative to the control teachers and the other teachers in the schools. We offer implications for coaching programs and directions for equity-oriented efforts to reduce racial discipline gaps.

This study examined bidirectional associations between cross-racial friendships and children's social and academic adjustment. Participants were 583 elementary school-age children in western Canada, or the midwestern United States (4-10 years; 279 girls; 143 Asian, 88 Black, 65 Hispanic or Latinx, 171 White, 116 mixed). Children's adjustment (social preference, academic enablers, academic performance) and friendship nominations (reciprocated, received, given) were measured in fall and spring over one school year from 2017 to 2018, or from 2018 to 2019. Regarding "reciprocated" nominations, fall adjustment positively predicted spring reciprocated cross-racial friendships, but not vice-versa. For "received" nominations, academic enablers and received cross-racial friendship nominations were positively and bidirectionally related to one another. Fall same-racial friendship nominations positively predicted spring academic performance and social preference. Effect sizes were small.

Model calibration is essential for acceptable model performance and applications. The Hybrid-Maize model, developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is a process-based crop simulation model that simulates maize growth as a function of crop and field management and environmental conditions. In this study, we calibrated and validated the Hybrid-Maize model using soil moisture and yield data from eight commercial production fields in two years. We used a new method for the calibration and multi-parameter optimization (MPO) based on kriging with modified criteria for selecting the parameter combinations. The soil moisture-related parameter combination (SM-PC3) improved simulations of soil water dynamics, but improvement in model performance is still required. The grain yield-related parameter combination significantly improved the yield simulation. We concluded that the calibrated model is good enough for irrigation water management at the field scale. Future studies should focus on improving the model performance in simulating total soil water (TSW) dynamics at different soil depths by including more soil water processes in a more dynamic manner.

The thermal and electrical performance of different designs of air based hybrid photovoltaic/thermal collectors is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The circulating air is used to cool PV panels and to collect the absorbed energy to improve their performance. Four different collectors have been designed, manufactured and instrumented namely; double PV panels without cooling (model I), single duct double pass collector (model II), double duct single pass (model III), and single duct single pass (model IV) . Each collector consists of: channel duct, glass cover, axial fan to circulate air and two PV panel in parallel connection. The temperature of the upper and lower surfaces of PV panels, air temperature, air flow rate, air pressure drop, wind speed, solar radiation and ambient temperature were measured. The power produced by solar cells is measured also. A theoretical model has been developed for the collector model IV based on energy balance principle. The prediction of the thermal and hydraulic performance was obtained for the fourth model of PV/T collector by developing a Matlab computer program to solve the numerical model. The experimental results show that the combined efficiency of model III is higher than that of models II and IV. The pressure drop of model III is less than that of models I and IV, by (43.67% and 49%). The average percentage error between the theoretical and experimental results was 9.67%.

Determining the aerodynamic characteristics of iced airfoil is an important step in aircraft design. The goal of this work is to study experimentally and numerically an iced airfoil to assess the aerodynamic penalties associated with presence of ice on the airfoil surface. Three iced shapes were tested on NACA 0012 straight wing at zero and non-zero angles of attack, at Reynolds No. equal to (3.36*105). The 2-D steady state continuity and momentum equations have been solved utilizing finite volume method to analyze the turbulent flow over a clean and iced airfoil. The results show that the ice shapes affected the aerodynamic characteristics due to the change in airfoil shape. The experimental results show that the horn iced airfoil consumes more power than the other shapes of ice, its value was (44.4W). The horn iced shape has the worst effect on the airfoil than the other shapes. The present results are compared with previously reported results; it is found there is a very good agreement between them. A comparison between the experimental and computational results of the presented work were pursing the same behavior.

In this study, the turbulent buoyancy driven fluid flow and heat transfer in a differentially heated rectangular enclosure filled with water is quantified numerically. The two dimensional governing differential equations are discretized using the finite volume method. SIMPLE algorithm is employed to obtain stabilized solution for high Rayleigh numbers by a computational code written in FORTRAN language. A parametric study is undertaken and the effect of Rayleigh numbers (1010 to 1014), the aspect ratio (30, 40 and 50), and the tilt angle (10o to 170o ) on fluid flow and heat transfer are investigated. The results of the adopted model in the present work is compared with previously published results and a qualitative agreement and a good validation is obtained. Results show that the fluid circulation and temperature fields are strongly affected by the enclosure tilt angle and Rayleigh Number.

The rodent assemblages were studied in different habitat types in the northern part of the Fazao-Malfakassa National Park located in central-western Togo, West Africa. A suite of different methods was applied, including face-by-face interviews with local hunters, live trapping along standardized transects and opportunistic observations. A total of 20 rodent species were recorded based on the surveys carried out in villages, including 6 families and 17 genera. There was a clear gradient pattern in the univariate diversity indices by habitat type: Dominance index was remarkably higher in Urban/plantation than in the other habitat types whereas Evenness index was remarkably higher in gallery forest than in the other habitat types. According to a Canonical Correspondence Analysis, three “ecological groups” (= guilds) of species were formed: a group from wooded habitats (savannahs and semiforests), a group from grassy savannah and a group from urban/plantation habitats. Null model analyses revealed that species tend to non-randomly congregate in some habitat types and/or localities. The ecological implications of these data were presented.

INFN-CNAF is one of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) Tier-1 data centres, providing computing, networking and storage resources to a wide variety of scientific collaborations, not limited to the four LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiments. The INFN-CNAF data centre will move to a new location next year. At the same time, the requirements from our experiments and users are becoming increasingly challenging and new scientific communities have started or will soon start exploiting our resources. Currently, we are reengineering several services, in particular our monitoring infrastructure, in order to improve the day-by-day operations and to cope with the increasing complexity of the use cases and with the future expansion of the centre. This scenario led us to implement a data streaming infrastructure designed to enable log analysis, anomaly detection, threat hunting, integrity monitoring and incident response. Such data streaming platform has been organised to manage different kinds of data coming from heterogeneous sources, to support multi-tenancy and to be scalable. Moreover, we will be able to provide an on demand end-to-end data streaming application to those users/communities requesting such kind of facility. The infrastructure is based on the Apache Kafka platform, which provides streaming of events at large scale, with authorization and authentication configured at the topic level for ensuring data isolation and protection. Data can be consumed by different applications, such as those devoted to log analysis, which provide the capability to index large amounts of data and implement appropriate access policies to inspect and visualise information. In this contribution we will present and motivate our technological choices for the definition of the infrastructure, we will describe its components and we will depict use cases which can be addressed with this platform.

In this study, thermal characteristics of a two-phase closed heat pipe were investigated experimentally and theoretically. A two-phase closed heat pipe (copper container, Fluorocarbon FC-72 (C6F14) working fluid) was fabricated to examine its performance under the effect of input heat flux range of 250–1253 W/m2 , 70% fill charge ratio and various tilt angles. The temperature distribution along the heat pipe, input heat to evaporator section, and output heat from condenser were monitored. A comprehensive mathematical model was developed to investigate the steadystate heat transfer performance of a two-phase closed heat pipe. A steady state analytical model, is presented to determine important parameters on the design of two-phase closed heat pipe, including temperature levels and heat transfer coefficients for condenser and evaporator. The experimental and simulation results of this work are found in good agreement. The experimental boiling heat transfer coefficients were compared with existing previously reported correlations.

In this paper thermo-hydrodynamic characteristics were investigated experimentally for a new type shell-helical coiled tube heat exchanger used as a storage tank of closed loop solar water heater system. Triple concentric helical coils were made of copper tubes of (12.5mm OD and 10mm ID) with coils diameter of (207, 152.2, 97mm) for outer, middle and inner coils respectively. The experiments were carried out during a clear sky days of (March and April 2012). The parameters studied in this work are: history of average temperature of shell side of the storage tank, collector heat gain, heat rejected from coils to shell side of the storage tank, collector efficiency, thermal effectiveness of the heat exchanger (storage tank), and pressure drop. These parameters were studied at four different circulating mass flow rates of (1.8, 3, 6, 9 l/min) and for two consuming modes of supply water namely no withdrawal, and continuous withdrawal of (1 l/min). The results show that stratification temperature in the storage tank is increased for no withdrawal compared with water withdrawal, also the shell side average temperature increases with increased solar time. Collector efficiency is increased with increasing circulation flow rates, also increases with water withdrawn from storage tank. The pressure drop decreases with the increase of solar radiation .

Heat transfer process and fluid flow in a solar chimney used for natural ventilation are investigated numerically in the present work. Solar chimney was tested by selecting different positions of absorber namely: at the back side, front side, and at the middle of the air gap. CFD analysis based on finite volume method is used to predict the thermal performance, and air flow in two dimensional solar chimney under unsteady state condition, to identify the effect of different parameters such as solar radiation. Results show that a solar chimney with absorber at the middle of the air gap gives better ventilation performance. A comparison between the numerical and previous experimental results shows fair agreement.

Heat transfer around a flat plate fin integrated with piezoelectric actuator used as oscillated fin in laminar flow has been studied experimentally utilizing thermal image camera. This study is performed for fixed and oscillated single and triple fins. Different substrate-fin models have been tested, using fins of (35mm and 50mm) height, two sets of triple fins of (3mm and 6mm) spacing and three frequencies applied to piezoelectric actuator (5, 30 and 50HZ). All tests are carried out for (0.5 m/s and 3m/s) in subsonic open type wind tunnel to evaluate temperature distribution, local and average Nusselt number (Nu) along the fin. It is observed, that the heat transfer enhancement with oscillation is significant compared to without oscillation for low air inlet velocity. Higher thermal performance of triple fins is obtained compared to the single rectangular fin, also triple fins with (height=50mm and fin spacing=3mm) gives better enhancement as compared to other cases. This work shows that the piezoelectric actuator when mounted on the rectangular fins shows great promise for enhancing the heat transfer rate.

The present work describes numerical and experimental investigation of the heat transfer characteristics in a plate-fin, having built-in piezoelectric actuator mounted on the base plate (substrate). The geometrical configuration considered in the present work is representative of a single element of the plate-fin and triple fins. Air is taken as the working fluid. A performance data for a single rectangular fin and triple fins are provided for different frequency levels (5, 30 and 50HZ) , different input power (5,10,20,30,40 and 50W) and different inlet velocity (0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6m/s) for the single rectangular fin and triple fins with and without oscillation. The investigation was also performed with different geometrical fin heights ( 50mm and 35mm) and distance between the fins (3mm and 6mm). It is observed that the heat transfer increases with the increase in the frequency and Reynolds number. It is further observed that triple fins with (height=50mm and distance between the fins=3mm) gives better enhancement as compared to other cases, The study shows that the piezoelectric actuator when mounted on the rectangular fins gives great promise for enhancing the heat transfer rate

The Dahomey Gap in West Africa is a human-derived savannah-like vegetation zone interspersed by patches of moist forest, with large rainforest blocks at both West (Upper Guinean Forest) and East (Lower Guinean Forest) of its limits. Togo is a tiny country situated in the middle of the Dahomey Gap. In this paper, a biogeographic analysis of the composition of the mammalian fauna of Togo is presented, by classifying each species on the basis of five distinct ecological distribution patterns. The greatest proportion of species were Pan-African (88.0%). Excluding the Pan-African species from the analysis, the mammalian fauna appeared to be affiliated similarly to both Upper Guinean and Lower Guinean Forest blocks. Only three endemic species were observed, all of them being rodents: Cryptomys zechi (Batyergidae), Funisciurus substriatus (Sciuridae), and Leimacomys buettneri (Muridae). Considering only the multispecies genera, the great majority did not show any barrier effect by the Dahomey Gap on their own species, as all of them did occur on both sides of Togo. A barrier effect by the Dahomey Gap was uncovered in 8 genera; overall, the Dahomey Gap apparently showed a barrier effect on 28.6% of the multispecies genera. It is emphasized that the full understanding of the role of the Dahomey Gap as a biogeographic barrier and of its island forests as centers of endemism is impeded by the lack of biogeographic reviews and meta-analyses on the composition of faunal and floral groups of the entire region.

Orientation: Globally, the repercussions of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic infiltrated many areas within societies. Like all other institutions, higher education institutions (HEIs) had to migrate to online and blended activities, and work-from-home (WFH) became characteristic of the ‘new normal’. Research purpose: The main purpose of the study was to determine the perspectives on work engagement and WFH among employees of an HEI in South Africa during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Motivation for the study: There is limited published research reporting on WFH and work engagement in HEIs. Research approach/design and method: The study employed a quantitative-based cross-sectional design. The target population of this study included all employees an HEI in South Africa who worked from home during the COVID-19 lockdown. A web-based survey was used to collect the data. In total, 399 respondents participated in the research. Main results: The results of the study revealed that the employees were to a great extent engaged in their work because of the organisational support received from the institution. It was also evident that some employees experienced difficulties with establishing a work routine, a lack of sufficient equipment and resources to function at home, work–home interference, increased workload and working hours, isolation and work–life balance issues. Practical/managerial implications: The results of the study are important to inform business decisions regarding the WFH model as an alternative working arrangement to be considered in HEIs. Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding work engagement and WFH in HEIs in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The current study examined relations between distinct aspects of moral functioning, and their cognitive and emotional correlates, in preschool age children. Participants were 171 typically developing 3- to 6-year-olds. Each child completed several tasks, including (a) moral tasks assessing both performance of various moral actions and evaluations of moral scenarios presented both verbally and nonverbally; and (b) non-moral tasks assessing general cognitive skill, executive functioning, theory-of-mind, and emotion recognition. Shyness and empathic concern were assessed from video acquired during participation. Results demonstrated positive associations among distinct moral actions, as well as among distinct moral evaluation tasks, but few associations between tasks assessing moral actions and moral evaluation. Empathic concern and inhibitory control each emerged as important predictors of preschoolers' moral functioning.

The steady 3-D raw water turbulent flow is numerically investigated. This flow is formed of solid silica sand (quartz) carried by water in stainless steel pipe. The flow in a straight pipe and flow in a pipe with a sudden contraction are analyzed using a two-way coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian approach. Erosion rate is estimated by Oka erosion model combined with the constant coefficient of restitution. The effect of solid particles mass flow rate, inlet velocity, particle diameter, internal pipe diameter, orientation, contraction coefficient, and wall pipe contraction angle on erosion rate are examined. The predicted erosion is distributed homogenously for straight pipe, while the step wall area of the contraction is the most eroded part. The erosion rate increases with the increase of solid particles diameter, flow rate, inlet velocity, and decreasing pipe diameter. Iit is found that the erosion is limited till the particle diameter reaches 500 µm then it starts to increase. The erosion rate increases with decreasing contraction coefficient and step wall angle. When the step wall angle decreased to 300, the erosion rate is reduced by 30 times that for 900. So, decreasing step wall angle can be considered as a geometrical solution to reduce erosion rate.

Black students are issued school discipline sanctions at rates higher than members of other racial and ethnic groups, underscoring the need for professional development that addresses this gap. In 86 secondary school classrooms, a randomized controlled trial examined the effects of a 2-year teacher-coaching program, My Teaching Partner Secondary (MTP-S). Results from the second year of coaching and from the year after coaching was discontinued replicated previous findings from the first year of coaching--intervention teachers had no significant disparities in discipline referrals between Black students and their classmates, as compared with teachers in the control condition, for whom racial discipline gaps remained. Thus, MTP-S effects were replicated in the second year of coaching and maintained when coaching was withdrawn. Mediational analyses identified mechanisms for these effects; Black students had a low probability of receiving disciplinary referrals with teachers who increased skills to engage students in high-level analysis and inquiry.

Multilevel mediation analyses test whether students' mid-year reports of classroom experiences of autonomy, relatedness with peers, and competence mediate associations between early in the school year emotionally-supportive teacher-student interactions (independently observed) and student-reported academic year changes in mastery motivation and behavioral engagement. When teachers were observed to be more emotionally-supportive in the beginning of the school year, adolescents reported academic year increases in their behavioral engagement and mastery motivation. Mid-year student reports indicated that in emotionally-supportive classrooms, adolescents experienced more developmentally-appropriate opportunities to exercise autonomy in their day-to-day activities and had more positive relationships with their peers. Analyses of the indirect effects of teacher emotional support on students' engagement and motivation indicated significant mediating effects of autonomy and peer relatedness experiences, but not competence beliefs, in this sample of 960 students (ages 11-17) in the classrooms of 68 middle and high school teachers in 12 U.S. schools.

Oxygenic photosynthesis requires metal-rich cofactors and electron-transfer components that can produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are highly toxic to cyanobacterial cells. Biliverdin reductase (BvdR) reduces biliverdin IXα to bilirubin, which is a potent scavenger of radicals and ROS. The enzyme is widespread in mammals but is also found in many cyanobacteria. We show that a previously described bvdR mutant of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 contained a secondary deletion mutation in the cpcB gene. The bvdR gene from Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 was expressed in Escherichia coli, and recombinant BvdR was purified and shown to reduce biliverdin to bilirubin. The bvdR gene was successfully inactivated in Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, a strain that is naturally much more tolerant of high light and ROS than Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. The bvdR mutant strain, BR2, had lower total phycobiliprotein and chlorophyll levels than wild-type cells. As determined using whole-cell fluorescence at 77 K, the photosystem I levels were also lower than those in wild-type cells. The BR2 mutant had significantly higher ROS levels compared to wild-type cells after exposure to high light for 30 min. Together, these results suggest that bilirubin plays an important role as a scavenger for ROS in Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002. The oxidation of bilirubin by ROS could convert bilirubin to biliverdin IXα, and thus BvdR might be important for regenerating bilirubin. These results further suggest that BvdR is a key component of a scavenging cycle by which cyanobacteria protect themselves from the toxic ROS byproducts generated during oxygenic photosynthesis.

Deficient social communication and interaction behaviors are a hallmark feature of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. These social communication and interaction deficits potentially stem from problems with explicit social cognition (i.e. processes that are controlled and largely conscious) as well as with implicit social cognition (i.e. processes that are fast, spontaneous, and primarily unconscious). This study aimed to investigate the relative contributions of implicit and explicit social cognition factors as predictors of multi-informant measures of social communication and interaction behaviors in a sample of 34 youth with clinical diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder. Behavioral, cognitive, and electrophysiological indices of implicit and explicit social cognition were entered into partial least squares regression models designed to identify latent factors that optimally predict parent-report, observer-coded, and clinician-rated social communication, and interaction outcomes. Results indicated that while both implicit and explicit social cognition factors optimally predicted outcomes, implicit social cognition factors were relatively more predictive. Findings have important implications for the conceptualization and measurement of social functioning as well as the development of targeted social interventions in autism spectrum disorder populations.

The Academic Competence Evaluation Scales (ACES; DiPerna and Elliott in School Psychol Rev 31(3):293, 2002) is a 73-item teacher rating scale that assesses academic skills and enablers. The ACES Short Form (ASF) is a newly extracted 32-item short form of the ACES that has promising psychometric properties (Anthony and DiPerna in School Psychol Q 32(4):552, 2017; School Mental Health 10(3):314-321, 2018). The goals of this study were to examine the factor structure and extend the psychometric assessment of three subscales of the ASF (interpersonal skills, motivation, and engagement) with an independent sample. Participants were 193 students (63.2% White; 46.1% female) in grades K through 4, in the classrooms of 12 teachers. Teachers completed three subscales of the ACES and reported on student inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, social functioning, and academic functioning. We also obtained parent and peer assessments of student social functioning. Results corroborated the factor structure found by Anthony and DiPerna (School Mental Health 10(3):314-321, 2018) and the high internal consistency ([alpha]'s > 0.90; [omega]'s > 0.80) of the three subscales. In an extension of previous work, correlations with parent, peer, and teacher report on other measures provided evidence for convergent and divergent validity of the three ASF subscales. ASF scores also differed significantly for students with and without academic, behavioral, and social difficulties, in a manner similar to that of the ACES. These findings, along with those of Anthony and DiPerna (School Psychol Q 32(4):552, 2017; School Mental Health 10(3):314-321, 2018), provide evidence that the subscales of ASF, although substantially shorter than the respective subscales of the ACES, retain the strong psychometric properties and clinical utility of the full-length measure.

Although there are various checklists of Italian mammals, there is not yet a synthesis of those mammals that are endemic to Italy. Therefore, we provide for the first time a detailed review on Italian mammal endemic species including endemic taxa deserving additional studies. This review is based on the most recent taxonomic revisions obtained using Scopus and Google Scholar databases. We also considered the age of endemic species. Some aspects of mammalian conservation are also provided and discussed.

This study tests the impact of a randomly assigned professional development coaching intervention (MyTeachingPartner-Secondary; MTP-S) on teacher projections of their students' educational attainment. Results indicate that students who report more behavior problems in the Fall of the academic year are projected by teachers to have lower future educational attainment in the Spring of the academic year. However, analyses further indicate that participation in the MTP-S intervention moderates the association between Fall student behavior problems and teachers' Spring projections for student attainment, such that this link is not significant for students in classrooms where the teacher is participating in MTP-S. In fact, results indicate that teachers who participate in the intervention project better educational attainment for their students than teachers who are in a business-as-usual control condition, regardless of their students' behavior. Findings are discussed in terms of the role that interventions targeting classroom interactions may play in altering teachers' internal view of students, thus ultimately promoting adolescent development. [This paper was published in "International Journal of Behavioral Development" (EJ1072051).]