Research Summary No. 20192

This paper examines trends in Alaska public high school graduation rates from academic year 2010-11 to 2015-16 and explores differences across demographic groups. We focus specifically on students from public neighborhood high schools. These are publicly-funded schools run by district or Regional Educational Attendance Area school boards serving all residents within school attendance boundaries. These schools represent about 88% of Alaska’s high school students.Council of Alaska Producer

Updating automation system and making user manual

The purpose of this thesis was to update an automation system (thermal cycling testing chamber) and make user manual. The main purpose of this thermal cycling testing machine was to test building materials quality through the dramatic changes of temperature in Finland. The thesis was divided into two parts, which were updating thermal cycling testing machine and making user manual. The first part of this thesis was to successfully update the thermal cycling testing chamber, which is easy and safe to use and able to be maintained. Related topics were also mentioned in this thesis to provide readers with in-depth knowledge of the concept. The second part introduced user manual of the thermal cycling testing chamber, which provided the needed knowledge for users to be able to use this thermal cycling testing chamber with ease. The starting point for the design work was proposing ideas of how to update this thermal cycling testing chamber via several discussions between author and the original co-creator of this thermal cycling testing chamber. Background information was also collected from the creator of this machine. Practical work was required to gain actual understanding as well as specific information about the machine, how it works, how to maintain it and to make user manual about how to operate it

Multi-source in DF cooperative networks with the PSR protocol based full-duplex energy harvesting over a Rayleigh fading channel: performance analysis

Due to the tremendous energy consumption growth with ever-increasing connected devices, alternative wireless information and power transfer techniques are important not only for theoretical research but also for saving operational costs and for a sustainable growth of wireless communications. In this paper, we investigate the multi-source in decode-and-forward cooperative networks with the power splitting protocol based full-duplex energy harvesting relaying network over a Rayleigh fading channel. In this system model, the multi-source and the destination communicate with each other by both the direct link and an intermediate helping relay. First, we investigate source selection for the best system performance. Then, the closed-form expression of the outage probability and the symbol error ratio are derived. Finally, the Monte Carlo simulation is used for validating the analytical expressions in connection with all main possible system parameters. The research results show that the analytical and simulation results matched well with each other.Web of Science68327526

Spatial distribution and historical dynamics of threatened conifers of the Dalat Plateau, Vietnam

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on July 14, 2011).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. C. Mark Cowell.Includes bibliographical references.M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2011.The Dalat Plateau is one of several biodiversity hotspots in Vietnam. It is considered to be one of five centers of plant diversity and one of three endemic bird areas in the country. Almost half of the conifer species known to occur in Vietnam are found in this area. Among the 14 species of conifers found here, six have been evaluated in the 2004 IUCN Global Red List of Threatened Species. However, due to the remoteness of the mountains where these conifers grow, there is very limited information on the ecology, habitat, distribution, population characteristics or historical disturbances for these species. This research examines selected aspects of conifer biogeography in Bidoup-Nui Ba national park to determine their distribution and relationship to topography, size class structure, and disturbances between the 1970s - 2000s. A combination of field work, remote sensing and GIS was used to determine these patterns. Among the seven conifer species sampled, three were classified as threatened. Of the nine general land cover types in the study area, these conifer species occurred in the mixed forest and the coniferous forests, from 1,000 - 2,200 m asl. Results show that the stand structures for these conifer species were unimodal and decreasing. Age-class distribution of Pinus krempfii showed its population to be the oldest. This study suggests that the decreasing numbers of threatened conifers, especially the old age stands, are vulnerable

One Mandarin Benefits the Whole Clan: Hometown Infrastructure and Nepotism in an Autocracy

This paper studies nepotism by government officials in an authoritarian regime. We collect a unique dataset of political promotions of officials in Vietnam and estimate their impact on public infrastructure in their hometowns. We find strong positive effects on several outcomes, some with lags, including roads to villages, marketplaces, clean water access, preschools, irrigation, and local radio broadcasters, as well as the hometown’s propensity to benefit from the State’s “poor commune support program”. Nepotism is not limited to only top-level officials, pervasive even among those without direct authority over hometown budgets, stronger when the hometown chairperson’s and promoted official’s ages are closer, and where provincial leadership has more discretionary power in shaping policies, suggesting that nepotism works through informal channels based on specific political power and environment. Contrary to pork barrel politics in democratic parliaments, members of the Vietnamese legislative body have little influence on infrastructure investments for their hometowns. Given the top-down nature of political promotions, officials arguably do not help their tiny communes in exchange for political support. Consistent with that, officials favor only their home commune and ignore their home district, which could offer larger political support. These findings suggest that nepotism is motivated by officials’ social preferences directed towards their related circles, and signals an additional form of corruption that may prevail in developing countries with low transparency.nepotism, infrastructure construction, official’s hometown, political connection,political promotion, social preference, directed altruism

Trust Issues and Engaged Buddhism: The Triggers for Skillful Managerial Approaches

As a transitional economy, Vietnam has undergone tremendous changes over recent decades within a ‘fusion’ context that blends both traditional and modern values from its complex history. However, few studies have explored how contemporary issues in the context of Vietnam have brought both obstacles and skillful initiatives to managerial approaches to doing business. We draw on the concepts of social trust and institutional theory to explore how informal institutions such as religious forces can contribute to the development of individual trust and whether individuals are willing to extend trust beyond familial networks. We contribute to the notion of a moral conception of trust by exploring how Buddhism in particular has initiated distinctive managerial approaches in the context of Vietnam, in response to dilemmas of social trust. Our findings highlight that as an informal institution, engaged Buddhism yields significant impact on the formation of social trust. We carried out in-depth interviews in Vietnam with 33 organizational leaders who were Buddhist practitioners, using thematic analysis to elucidate our findings and arguments. The study reveals how the incorporation of Buddhist principles has fostered context-sensitive, non-extreme, and reflexive managerial approaches to enhance morality as a response to social trust issues

The Cost of Teacher Turnover in Alaska

Low teacher retention - high turnover - affects student learning. Teacher recruitment and retention are challenging issues in Alaska. Rates vary considerably from district to district and year to year, but between 2004 and 2014, district-level teacher turnover in rural Alaska averaged 20%, and about a dozen districts experienced annual turnover rates higher than 30%. High turnover rates in rural Alaska are often attributed to remoteness and a lack of amenities (including healthcare and transportation); teachers who move to these communities face additional challenges including finding adequate housing and adjusting to a new and unfamiliar culture and environment. Though urban districts have lower teacher turnover rates, they also have challenges with teacher recruitment and retention, particularly in hard-to-fill positions (such as special education and secondary mathematics) and in difficult-to-staff schools. Annually, Alaskan school districts hire about 1,000 teachers (500-600 are hired by its five largest districts), while Alaska’s teacher preparation programs graduate only around 200. The costs associated with teacher turnover in Alaska are considerable, but have never been systematically calculated,1 and this study emerged from interests among Alaska education researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders to better understand these costs. Using data collected from administrators in 37 of Alaska’s 54 districts, we describe teacher turnover and the costs associated with it in four key categories: separation, recruitment, hiring, and induction and training. Our calculations find that the total average cost of teacher turnover is $20,431.08 per teacher. Extrapolating this to Alaska’s 2008-2012 turnover data, this constitutes a cost to school districts of approximately$20 million per year. We focused on costs to Alaskan school districts, rather than costs to individual communities, schools, or the state. Our calculation is a conservative estimate, and reflects typical teacher turnover circumstances - retirement, leaving the profession, or moving to a new school district. We did not include unusual circumstances, such as mid-year departures or terminations. Our cost estimate includes costs of separation, recruitment, hiring, and orientation and training, and excludes the significant costs of teacher productivity and teacher preparation. We suggest that not all turnover is bad, nor are all turnover costs; and emphasize the need to focus on teacher retention as a goal, rather than reducing turnover costs. Even with conservative estimates, teacher turnover is a significant strain on districts’ personnel and resources, and in an era of shrinking budgets, teacher turnover diverts resources from teaching and learning to administrative processes of filling teacher vacancies. Our recommendations include: • Better track teacher turnover costs • Explore how to reduce teacher turnover costs • Support ongoing research around teacher turnover and its associated costs • Explore conditions driving high teacher turnover, and how to address themUniversity of Alaska FoundationExecutive Summary / Acknowledgements / Funding / Contact / What is teacher turnover? / What are the impacts of teacher turnover? / What factors are associated with teacher turnover? / What are the costs associated with teacher turnover? / Challenges in calculating turnover costs / Method / Analysis / Findings / Implications / Recommendations / Limitations / Conclusions / References / Appendix A: Detail costs of teacher turnover / Appendix B: Occupation codes & wages used for cost calculation