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

Laser assisted skin wound closure offers many distinct advantages over conventional closure
techniques. The objective of this in vitro experimental study, carried out at the Institute of Laser for
Postgraduate Studies/Baghdad University, was to determine the effectiveness of 980 nm diode laser in
welding of human skin wounds. Multiple 3-4 cm long full thickness incisions in a specimen of human
skin obtained from the discarded panniculus of an Abdominoplasty operation were tried to be laser
welded using a 4 mm spot diameter laser beam from a 980 nm diode laser at different laser parameters
and modes of action. The tensile strength at the weld site was analyzed experimentally. Although laser
assisted wound welding did

Uranium concentrations in soil were determined for ten locations in Salahdin governorate using CR-39 track detector, fission fragments track technique was used, the nuclear reaction of nuclear fission fragments obtained by the bombardment of 235U with thermal neutrons from (Am-Be) neutron source with flux (5000n.cm-2.s-1), the concentration values were calculated by a comparison with standard samples. The results of the measurements show that the uranium concentration in soil samples various from 0.42±0.018ppm in Beji province to 0.2±0.014 ppm in Tooz province with an average (0.31±0.08ppm), the values of uranium concentration in all samples are within the permissible limits universally.

In this work optical window for infrared region was prepared by using Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3)material as antireflection coating on ZnSe substrate which covers the atmospheric window 3-5µm. the maximum transition was 97% at a wavelength 0f 4.4µm.

   Chaotic features of nuclear energy spectrum in ⁶⁸Ge nucleus are investigated by nuclear shell model. The energies are calculated through doing shell model calculations employing the OXBASH computer code with effective interaction of F5PVH. The ⁶⁸Ge nucleus is supposed to have an inert core of ⁵⁶Ni with 12 nucleons (4 protons and 8 neutrons) move in the f5p-model space ( and ). The nuclear level density of considered classes of states is seen to have a Gaussian form, which is in accord with the prediction of other theoretical studies. The statistical fluctuations of the energy spectrum (the level spacing P(s) and the Dyson-Mehta (or statistics) are well described by the Gaussian orthogonal ens

  In this work, we construct projectively distinct (k,3)-arcs in the projective plane PG(2,9) by applying a geometrical method. The cubic curves have been been constructed by using the general equation of the cubic.         We found that there are complete (13,3)-arcs, complete (15,3)-arcs and we found that the only (16,3)-arcs lead to maximum completeness

The large number of failure in electrical power plant leads to the sudden stopping of work. In some cases, the necessary reserve materials are not available for maintenance which leads to interrupt of power generation in the electrical power plant unit. The present study, deals with the determination of availability aspects of generator in unit 5 of Al-Dourra electric power plant. In order to evaluate this generator's availability performance, a wide range of studies have been conducted to gather accurate information at the level of detail considered suitable to achieve the availability analysis aim. The Weibull Distribution is used to perform the reliability analysis via Minitab 17, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) by approaching o