Best Selling Books by Melissa Jo

We report on a study of sixteen high school calculus and seven precalculus students'' concept image and concept definition of continuity after one-trimester of instruction at a large suburban high school in the southwestern United States. The researchers developed a questionnaire based upon the work of Tall and Vinner (1981) to determine if calculus students had developed a more sophisticated concept image and concept definition of continuity than students in pre-calculus after a typical treatment in both courses. Using data from the written assessment it was not evident that calculus students demonstrated a more sophisticated concept image and concept definition than pre-calculus students. However, findings suggest that a weak concept image or concept definition of continuity reflects practices in precalculus and calculus instruction.

The purpose of this study was to explore how measures of academic success were predicted by familism and five dimensions of perceived parental authority (referent, legitimate, expert, reward, and coercive) in a sample of rural Appalachian adolescents. 707 students from two rural Appalachian high schools in northern Kentucky and southern Ohio participated. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine predictive significance of referent authority, legitimate authority, expert authority, reward authority, coercive authority, and familism on academic achievement and educational aspirations. Legitimate authority was the strongest predictor of academic success, confirming previous studies that found adolescents believe parents have legitimate authority over current and future educational plans. Referent authority was found to be significant, but negative, in the paternal model and expert authority was found to be a negative predictor of boys'' educational aspirations in the maternal model. Familism failed to predict academic success in any of the statistical models.

Beginning in 2009, governments across the world intensified their efforts to open their vast collections of data to provide transparency to the public, improve the provision of civic services, and encourage economic development. An initial strategy to encourage the use of this data was the creation of app contests based on civic open data. Though these contests became popular, their impact and value creation was less than anticipated. We examined open data initiatives in eight cities in the US and Europe to understand the failures of these early contests. We conclude with potential improvements and best practices based on second generation open data initiatives.

I censused for red-headed woodpeckers and measured habitat characteristics on 100 golf courses in central and northern Ohio from May-August 2002 and 2003. I also located 49 nests and measured surrounding habitat characteristics (i.e., nest patch) and monitored 16 of these nests to determine nesting success on golf courses. Red-headed woodpeckers were detected on 26% of golf courses and were positively associated with large (49 cm diameter at breast height) mast trees (e.g., Quercus spp.), snags (= 16 cm dbh and = 2 m tall), and dead limbs (= 30 cm dbh) at both the golf course and nest patch scale. Sixty-seven percent of nests were located in dead limbs of living trees, suggesting that snags are not the only nesting substrates used by red-headed woodpeckers. Landscape context was important, with 33% of golf courses in rural areas having red-headed woodpeckers, versus only 16% of courses located in urban areas (i.e., within town or city limits). No significant associations were identified between the number of red-headed woodpeckers and European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) or house sparrows (Passer domesticus) from the surveys. Twelve of 16 golf course nests (75%) monitored over two years successfully fledged young, and this success rate was comparable to birds nesting off courses (n= 11, 73% success).

School violence is an ongoing issue as is the training and construction of an adequate school safety plan in schools. The following study was conducted to investigate how knowledgeable and what understanding Catholic elementary school administrators, teachers, and staff members have concerning the school safety plans. Volunteer participants, 6 administrators and 118 teachers and staff members were asked several survey questions to gauge their understanding and knowledge of the schools'' safety plan. In addition, volunteer participants, 2 administrators and 4 teachers and staff members, participated in phone interviews and were asked more specific questions concerning their perceptions and knowledge of the school safety plans. The survey data was collected using an online platform and phone interviews were conducted by the researcher. The study data showed that the administrators, teachers, and staff members perceived they have a high knowledge of fire drill procedures and a strong understanding of fire drill procedures. The data also show the administrators, teachers, and staff members perceived a less than high knowledge of lockdown procedures, Shelter in Place procedures, evacuation procedures, and school safety plans. In addition, the study showed that there is a lack of these drills, with the exception of the fire drills, throughout the schools. Overall, the Catholic elementary schools that were polled should evaluate each school individually and propose a plan to make sure that all the administrators, teachers, and staff members are performing drills and have both an understanding and knowledge of the procedures to ensure everyone''s safety.

This study documents how Isabella Andreini used her profession, her writings, and her social associations to create and present an image that reconciled her public persona as an actress and author with the culturally accepted, private image of woman. Further, this study shows that Isabella Andreini adopted numerous strategies, both on-stage and off, to construct an image that transcended gender, and which gave her professional and social mobility. I have argued that Isabella also constructed this image in such a way that would ensure her survival beyond her own time. Her actions on both the personal and societal levels revealed that she acted deliberately and calculatedly in all aspects of her life to achieve her goals. Using the traditional methodologies of historiography this study looks at Isabella''s performances, her writings, and her personal relationships to show how gender is constructed, consciously and unconsciously, as a strategy for survival within a given culture. I examine the conditions that caused, or allowed the creation of a representation of woman as a public figure, and the ways in which she could and could not manipulate that representation. This study is concerned with representation, with the relation between the image Isabella created and what--in the world of cinquecento Italy--the image represented. At issue here is how Isabella both resisted and reinforced cultural constructions and how she represented her revisions of those constructions in the image she created--in how she reimagined herself.

MUC1 is a type I transmembrane glycoprotein that is expressed on the apical surface of mucosal epithelia, as well as some non-epithelial cells. MUC1 inhibits cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions and protects epithelial surfaces from microbial attack. In the uterus, the large, extended structure of MUC1 prevents interaction between an implanting embryo and the luminal uterine epithelial cell surface. Based on studies in animal and ''in vitro'' model systems, it is likely that MUC1 must be removed in order for implantation to occur. This loss of MUC1 likely is due to stimulated shedding and/or down-regulation of MUC1 gene transcription. In mice, Muc1 protein expression is lost during the receptive period in response to increased levels of progesterone (P). Interestingly, uterine epithelial MUC1 expression in humans is maximal during the receptive phase of the cycle when P levels are high. The HEC-1A human endometrial carcinoma cell line was used to examine the regulation of human MUC1 expression by the progesterone receptor isoforms, PRB and PRA. Liganded PRB, but not ER- & alpha;, stimulated MUC1 promoter activity and protein expression, and this stimulation was antagonized by PRA. The region from 523 to 564 bp upstream of the transcriptional start site is required for the P response. Mutation of two PRE 1/2-sites in this region reduced PRB-stimulated promoter activity by 33%. These along with other studies indicated that multiple cis elements in the 564/523 region of the human MUC1 promoter cooperate to mediate P responsiveness, and that PR interaction with other transcription factors in this region is likely. Using ovariectomized wild type and PR knockout mice (PRKO, PRAKO, and PRBKO), progesterone antagonism of estrogen-stimulated Muc1 protein and mRNA expression was shown to be dependent on PRA. These data indicate that liganded PRB stimulates MUC1 expression in human uterine epithelial cells while liganded PRA antagonizes MUC1 expression in both human and mouse uterine epithelial cells. Liganded PRA antagonized mouse Mucl promoter activity in HEC-1A cells, suggesting that differences in cellular context do not fully explain the differences in MUC1 regulation by progesterone between mice and humans. The differential MUC1 response to progesterone in these two species is due to dissimilar expression of the two PR isoforms in the uterine epithelium, as well as to differences in promoter sequence. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).