5 research outputs found

    Transport methods and interactions for space radiations

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    A review of the program in space radiation protection at the Langley Research Center is given. The relevant Boltzmann equations are given with a discussion of approximation procedures for space applications. The interaction coefficients are related to solution of the many-body Schroedinger equation with nuclear and electromagnetic forces. Various solution techniques are discussed to obtain relevant interaction cross sections with extensive comparison with experiments. Solution techniques for the Boltzmann equations are discussed in detail. Transport computer code validation is discussed through analytical benchmarking, comparison with other codes, comparison with laboratory experiments and measurements in space. Applications to lunar and Mars missions are discussed

    The status of English grammar instruction in master\u27s programs in TESOL in the United States.

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    Although the TESOL Guidelines for the Certification and Preparation of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages in the U.S. recommend that teacher preparation programs in TESOL offer courses in the grammatical system of English, there existed no descriptive study of nationwide curricular practice regarding English grammar instruction in master\u27s programs in TESOL. All master\u27s programs in TESOL listed in the Directory of Professional Preparation Programs in TESOL, 1992-1994 were surveyed in Fall 1993 regarding course offerings, requirements, placement mechanisms, course content and length, instructors, the role of grammar in the program, approval of the TESOL Guidelines, and curricular trends. The survey was completed by 117, or 67%, of the master\u27s programs in TESOL in the U.S. It was found that 53% of the responding master\u27s programs in TESOL offered one English grammar course; 26% offered two English grammar courses; 5% offered three English grammar courses, and one program offered four English grammar courses. Fifteen percent of the responding programs offered no English grammar course. Sixty-three percent absolutely required at least one English grammar course, but 38% did not require an English grammar course. Most programs did not have a direct measure of their incoming students\u27 knowledge of the grammatical system of English. Only six universities had an English grammar placement test. The majority of the courses were pedagogical grammar courses and employed an eclectic approach to English grammar. The Grammar Book by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1983) and the many grammars written by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartik were the most frequently used texts. Recommendations included the following: A placement test should be developed to determine whether incoming students are familiar with the terminology and concepts of traditional grammar, as well as ESL/EFL grammar. All master\u27s programs in TESOL should offer at least one pedagogical grammar course. Research regarding the number of semesters needed for TESOL graduate students to study the grammatical system of English should be conducted. ESL/EFL pedagogical grammar course texts which incorporate communicative functions should be written. Further research should explore in more depth the nature of English grammar courses in master\u27s programs in TESOL

    Patterns of membership and participation among British Quakers, 1823-2012

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    During the 1850s there was rising concern in the Society of Friends about declining membership. From the 1840s attempts were made to obtain hard statistics on adherence and in the late 20th century another decline again reduced numbers to the level of the 1850s and 1860s. This thesis reviews and analyses data from the middle of the 19th century to 2012, illuminating variation in both membership and participation in church worship and governance. lt presents new data on participation in meeting for worship and provides geographical and socio-metric data on the origins of enquiries about Quakerism, providing both a research tool for further work by bringing large volumes of information together and illuminating the ways in which the size and the social structure of the Society of Friends has varied with time

    Rethinking cognitive style in psychology

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    Bibliography: leaves 240-257.This thesis proposes to answer a single question: do the stylistic features of cognition operate independently of cognitive contents? The question itself has a history, and the way it has been framed, and the types of answers it has attracted have been related to ideological and political interests. Chapter 1 reviews four social psychological theories of the relationship between cognitive style and ideological beliefs - authoritarianism, extremism theory, context theory, and value pluralism theory. It argues that these (empiricist) accounts have been bedeviled by a tension between theoretical universalism and political critique, and have fostered the view that cognitive traits are stable, general, and pervasive properties of individual psychology. Chapter 2 focuses on the construct of intolerance of ambiguity, and shows how - in the manner of Danziger's (1985) "methodological circle" - universalistic assumptions have become incorporated into measurement instruments; and how all evidence of individual variability in cognitive style has been accommodated by interactionist models of personality, leaving the empiricist view intact. Roy Bhaskar's critical realism is used as an alternative to a empiricist psychology, and Michael Billig's rhetorical psychology is used as an alternative to universalistic theories of cognitive style. A measurement procedure is developed which can assess cross-content variability in ambiguity tolerance. Three studies are performed in order to justify a move towards an anti-universalistic conception of cognitive style. Study l evaluates the hypothesized generality of ambiguity tolerance on a sample of university students. Factor analysis and correlational matrices show that ambiguity tolerance toward different authorities is domain specific, and that different factors are related to each other positively, negatively, and orthogonally. Study 2 employs the same sample, and uses polynomial regression analysis to show that the relationship between ambiguity tolerance and ideological conservatism is highly variable across content domain. Study 3 replicates these central findings with another student sample and with different scale contents. The results of all three studies arc contrary to the predictions of the social psychological accounts of cognitive style. They show that expressions of cognitive style are context- and content-dependent, and suggest that the empiricist "thing-like" ontology be replaced with a praxis- and concept-dependent ontology
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