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

Cryptography is the process of transforming message to avoid an unauthorized access of data. One of the main problems and an important part in cryptography with secret key algorithms is key. For higher level of secure communication key plays an important role. For increasing the level of security in any communication, both parties must have a copy of the secret key which, unfortunately, is not that easy to achieve. Triple Data Encryption Standard algorithm is weak due to its weak key generation, so that key must be reconfigured to make this algorithm more secure, effective, and strong. Encryption key enhances the Triple Data Encryption Standard algorithm securities. This paper proposed a combination of two efficient encryption algorithms to

We present a reliable algorithm for solving, homogeneous or inhomogeneous, nonlinear ordinary delay differential equations with initial conditions. The form of the solution is calculated as a series with easily computable components. Four examples are considered for the numerical illustrations of this method. The results reveal that the semi analytic iterative method (SAIM) is very effective, simple and very close to the exact solution demonstrate reliability and efficiency of this method for such problems.

Fingerprint recognition is one among oldest procedures of identification. An important step in automatic fingerprint matching is to mechanically and dependably extract features. The quality of the input fingerprint image has a major impact on the performance of a feature extraction algorithm. The target of this paper is to present a fingerprint recognition technique that utilizes local features for fingerprint representation and matching. The adopted local features have determined: (i) the energy of Haar wavelet subbands, (ii) the normalized of Haar wavelet subbands. Experiments have been made on three completely different sets of features which are used when partitioning the fingerprint into overlapped blocks. Experiments are conducted on

STAG3 is the meiotic component of cohesin and a member of the Cancer Testis Antigen (CTA) family. This gene has been found to be overexpressed in many types of cancer, and recently, its variants have been implicated in other disorders and many human diseases. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the major variants of STAG3. Western blot (WB) and immunoprecipitation (IP) assays were performed using two different anti-STAG3 antibodies that targeted the relevant protein in MCF-7, T-47D, MDA-MB-468, and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells with Jurkat and MCF-10A cells as positive and negative controls, respectively. In silico analyses were searched to study the major isoforms. WB and IP assays revealed two abundant polypeptides < 191 kDa and

In this study, four different spectrophotometric methods were applied for determination of cimetidine and erythromycin ethylsuccinate drugs in pure form and in their pharmaceutical preparations. The suggested methods are simple, sensitive, accurate, not time consuming and inexpensive. The results showed the following: The first method: Based on the formation of ion pair complex of each drug with bromothymol blue (BTB) as a chromogenic reagent. The formed complexes were extracted with chloroform and their absorbance values were measured at 427.5 nm for cimetidine and 416.5nm for erythromycin ethylsuccinate; against their reagents blanks. Two different methods, univariate method and multivariate method, were used to obtain the optimum condit

The study deals with reactivity insertion linear and non linear and/or Ramp reactivity expressed as a polynomial in time in the presence of two Feedback mechanisms, using the neutronic-thermohydraulic coupling in order to predict the neutron behavior as a function of time in terms of reactor power. Also, a comparative study has been achieved in the case of the presence of the feedback mechanisms. Insertion of Ramp reactivities in terms of polynomial in time to study the behavior of power and reactivity as a function of time in the presence of two feedback mechanisms (fuel and coolant) has been carried out and the results are displayed as plots, and showed this results corresponding with international results. The present study shows t

The current study aims at using non-hatchable artemia eggs of local origin and making use of these eggs by decapsulating and presenting them as food for the larvae of the Cyprinus carpio as a source of animal protein with high nutritional value instead of throwing them away. The results showed that the second parameter (A2) was highly significant at the level (P≤0.05) in the growth rates of the larvae that were fed on decapsulated artemia eggs alone, and it was better than the two control parameters (A1), in which the larvae were fed with feed designated for Cyprinus carpio fish. It also outperformed the third parameter (A3), in which the feed was mixed with artemia eggs with 50% decapsulation, which also outperformed the control paramete