In this paper we introduce a new lexical simplification approach. We extract over 30K candidate lexical simplifications by identifying aligned words in a sentencealigned corpus of English Wikipedia with Simple English Wikipedia. To apply these rules, we learn a feature-based ranker using SVM rank trained on a set of labeled simplifications collected using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Using human simplifications for evaluation, we achieve a precision of 76% with changes in 86% of the examples.

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Effective teaching practices are more common in courses taught by faculty who spend time learning about teaching.

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Decades ago, pioneering petroleum geologist Wallace Pratt pointed out that oil is first found in the human mind. His insight remains true today: Across geoscience specialties, the human mind is arguably the geoscientist's most important tool. It is the mind that converts colors and textures of dirt, or blotches on a satellite image, or wiggles on a seismogram, into explanatory narratives about the formation and migration of oil, the rise and fall of mountain ranges, the opening and closing of oceans. Improved understanding of how humans think and learn about the Earth can help geoscientists and geoscience educators do their jobs better, and can highlight the strengths that geoscience expertise brings to interdisciplinary problem solving.

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The Salmon River suture zone, western Idaho, is a fundamental lithospheric boundary between the North American craton and the accreted terranes of the Cordilleran margin. The initial juxtaposition along this north-south-oriented structure occurred during Early Cretaceous time. This zone was potentially reactivated twice by subsequent tectonism, once during Cretaceous time and once during Miocene time. The Late Cretaceous western Idaho shear zone formed along the Salmon River suture zone, as denoted by a sharp gradient in the isotopic signature of the granitoids that intruded the lithospheric boundary zone. The reconstructed Late Cretaceous orientation of the western Idaho shear zone contains subvertical fabrics (lineation, foliation). The same boundary also acted as a locus for subsequent Miocene Basin and Range extensional deformation. Domino-style normal faulting and deep (2100 m) basin formation accommodated the motion between the extending accreted terranes to the west and the unextended Idaho batholith to the east. Whereas either the mantle boundary or a crustal-scale structuring controls the regional extent of the extensionally reactivated zone, locally crustal basement faults and lithological contacts control the orientation and precise location of faults that accommodate reactivation. The multiple reactivation of the Salmon River suture zone is critical for several reasons. The Early Cretaceous suture zone apparently created a fundamental lithospheric flaw, which was reactivated after terrane accretion. Whether this zone was a fracture or a shear zone, the fabric in the mantle lithosphere was apparently not ‘healed’ during orogenesis. Thus, juxtaposition of mantle lithosphere, which is inferred to occur by faulting in the uppermost mantle, acts as a weakness during later tectonism. Second, the paucity of strike-slip plate boundaries in the geological record makes sense in the context of reactivation. The vertical, lithospheric-scale nature of these structures makes them particularly susceptible to lithospheric-scale reactivation during both transcurrent and/or extensional deformation. These reactivations both overprint the earlier deformation and modify the original geometry. Steeply dipping fabrics, rather than vertical fabrics, may be the general signature of major, ancient strike-slip faults.

This study analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from classroom observations combined with instructor survey results to characterize the application of reformed teaching practices in undergraduate geoscience classes in the United States. Trained observers used the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) to score 204 geoscience classes. Observed faculty represent a diversity of institutions, teaching rank, and years of experience. Classrooms observed included introductory and upper-level undergraduate courses that ranged in size from 6 to 275 students. Total RTOP scores do not correlate with class size, class level, institution type, instructor gender, instructor rank, or years of teaching experience. Classroom instruction was separated into three categories based on total RTOP scores: Teacher Centered (≤30), Transitional (31-49), or Student Centered (≥50). Statistical analyses of RTOP subscales and individual item scores are used to identify the instructional practices that are characteristic of each category. Instructor survey responses and qualitative classroom observations provide additional details about instructional practices common within each instructional category. Results of these analyses provide a coherent picture of instructional strategies used in geoscience classrooms. Instruction in the most Student Centered classrooms differs from that in Transitional and Teacher Centered classrooms in at least one of three ways. Student Centered classes are more likely to include (1) students engaged in class activities with one another; (2) activities in which instructors assess student learning and adjust lessons accordingly; and (3) opportunities for students to answer and pose questions that determine the focus of a lesson.