Improving students’ use of argumentation is front and center in the increasing emphasis on scientific practice in K-12 Science and STEM programs. We explore the construct validity of scenario-based assessments of claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) and the structure of the CER construct with respect to a learning progression framework. We also seek to understand how middle school students progress. Establishing the purpose of an argument is a competency that a majority of middle school students meet, whereas quantitative reasoning is the most difficult, and the Rasch model indicates that the competencies form a unidimensional hierarchy of skills. We also find no evidence of differential item functioning between different scenarios, suggesting

In this paper a new structure for the AVR of the power system exciter is proposed and designed using digital-based LQR. With two weighting matrices R and Q,  this method produces an optimal regulator that is used to generate the feedback control law. These matrices are called state and control weighting matrices and are used to balance between the relative importance of the input and the states in the cost function that is being optimized. A sample power system composed of single machine connected to an infinite- bus bar (SMIB) with both a conventional and a proposed Digital AVR (DAVR) is simulated. Evaluation results show that the DAVR damps well the oscillations of the terminal voltage and presents a faster respo

Optical fiber chemical sensor based surface Plasmon resonance for sensing and measuring the refractive index and concentration for Acetic acid is designed and implemented during this work. Optical grade plastic optical fibers with a diameter of 1000μm were used with a diameter core of 980μm and a cladding of 20μm, where the sensor is fabricated by a small part (10mm) of optical fiber in the middle is embedded in a resin block and then the polishing process is done, after that it is deposited with about (40nm) thickness of gold metal and the Acetic acid is placed on the sensing probe.

Background: MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a global health problem. Many people are looking for new ways to combat MRSA, for example by using bacteriophages (phages). It has been extremely challenging to isolate a sufficient quantity of lytic anti-MRSA phages. Therefore, new techniques for separating, refining, and reworking anti-MRSA phages were sought in this study.

Methods: Of 437 S. aureus isolates, nine clinical MRSA isolates were obtained from three hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq and two ATCC MRSA strains were used to separate wild anti-MRS

Two molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) membranes for Levofloxacin (LEV) were prepared based on PVC matrix. The imprinted polymers were prepared by polymerization of styrene (STY) as monomer, N,N methylene di acrylamide as a cross linker ,benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as an initiator and levofloxacin as a template. Di methyl adepate (DMA) and acetophenone (AOPH) were used as plasticizers , the molecular imprinted membranes and the non molecular imprinted membranes were prepared.  The slopes and detection limits of the liquid electrodes ranged from -21.96 – -19.38 mV/decade and 2×10^-4M- 4×10^-4M, and Its response time was around 1 minute, respectively. The liquid  electrodes were packed with 0.1 M standar

In the present paper, an eco-epidemiological model consisting of diseased prey consumed by a predator with fear cost, and hunting cooperation property is formulated and studied. It is assumed that the predator doesn’t distinguish between the healthy prey and sick prey and hence it consumed both. The solution’s properties such as existence, uniqueness, positivity, and bounded are discussed. The existence and stability conditions of all possible equilibrium points are studied. The persistence requirements of the proposed system are established. The bifurcation analysis near the non-hyperbolic equilibrium points is investigated. Numerically, some simulations are carried out to validate the main findings and obtain the critical values of th