A rationale and design of a microcomputer system for schools and colleges

Imperial Users onl

The use of microcomputers in mathematics teaching in Fiji

At the end of 1983 the Ministry of Education in Fiji informed schools that computers would be introduced in 1984. In February 1984 some selected schools received the first microcomputers. At a Conference on Computers in the Classroom, held in August 1984 at the University of the South Pacific. the Head of Mathematics at a senior secondary school said, in a paper presented at the conference: 'while there may have been some pre-planning at headquarters level it seems that no arrangement was made with individual schools.’ Amongst the problems highlighted in the paper by the Head of Mathematics was: 'the difficulty in deciding on a suitable type programme to offer to the students.' This thesis primarily concerns the application of microcomputers in teaching mathematics in Fiji. The author's experience shows that teachers in Fiji are aware of the need to respond to the microcomputer technology but this response is restricted due to the almost total lack of staff with even a basic knowledge of computers. [Continues.

Development of microcomputer-based mental acuity tests for repeated-measures studies

The purpose of this report is to detail the development of the Automated Performance Test System (APTS), a computer battery of mental acuity tests that can be used to assess human performance in the presence of toxic elements and environmental stressors. There were four objectives in the development of APTS. First, the technical requirements for developing APTS followed the tenets of the classical theory of mental tests which requires that tests meet set criteria like stability and reliability (the lack of which constitutes insensitivity). To be employed in the study of the exotic conditions of protracted space flight, a battery with multiple parallel forms is required. The second criteria was for the battery to have factorial multidimensionality and the third was for the battery to be sensitive to factors known to compromise performance. A fourth objective was for the tests to converge on the abilities entailed in mission specialist tasks. A series of studies is reported in which candidate APTS tests were subjected to an examination of their psychometric properties for repeated-measures testing. From this work, tests were selected that possessed the requisite metric properties of stability, reliability, and factor richness. In addition, studies are reported which demonstrate the predictive validity of the tests to holistic measures of intelligence

A course in microcomputer use for epidemiologists: using version 5 of Epi info

Microcomputers have become an important tool for epidemiology studies. Data collection, editing and analysis --for either small- or large-scale studies-- can be carried out more quickly and accurately through the use of microcomputer and user-friendly software. This document is therefore being made available to members of the WHO Global Environmental Epidemiology Network (GEENET) in order to encourage and facilitate the use of microcomputers in environmental epidemiology studies. It was prepared by Andrew Dean, M.D., of the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, U.S.A. and contains and introduction to microcomputer use, together with examples from the Epi Info epidemiology software devised by the Centers for Disease Control. It also contains notes for instructors, as an appendix, for those organizing a short introductory training course on microcomputing in epidemiology. WHO gratefully acknowledges the support of the Centers for Disease Control in making this material available for GEENET. As pointed out in the introductory notes, readers are encouraged to make copies for friends and colleagues.Andrew G. Dean.Also available via the World Wide Web

MicroComputer and Local Government

In 1976, two young Californians named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started a revolution. It was a quiet revolution... no shots were fired... no demonstrations occurred... there were no casualties, but it was a revolution nevertheless... a revolution that will have long-lasting results. That year these two young men developed the Apple, the first commercially successful microcomputer

Shock tube study of the fuel structure effects on the chemical kinetic mechanisms responsible for soot formation, part 2

Soot formation in oxidation of allene, 1,3-butadiene, vinylacetylene and chlorobenzene and in pyrolysis of ethylene, vinylacetylene, 1-butene, chlorobenzene, acetylen-hydrogen, benzene-acetylene, benzene-butadiene and chlorobenzene-acetylene argon-diluted mixtures was studied behind reflected shock waves. The results are rationalized within the framework of the conceptual models. It is shown that vinylacetylene is much less sooty than allene, which indicates that conjugation by itself is not a sufficient factor for determining the sooting tendency of a molecule. Structural reactivity in the context of the chemical kinetics is the dominant factor in soot formation. Detailed chemical kinetic modeling of soot formation in pyrolysis of acetylene is reported. The main mass growth was found to proceed through a single dominant route composed of conventional radical reactions. The practically irreversible formation reactions of the fused polycyclic aromatics and the overshoot by hydrogen atom over its equilibrium concentration are the g-driving kinetic forces for soot formation

Simulation of the rainfall runoff process from a watershed by using a microcomputer

With the recent advent of the microcomputer, a powerful new tool is available for use by engineers and hydrologists. Some relevant characteristics of the microcomputers are the language used for programming (BASIC), its simplicity of operation, low cost, small size and easy transport to the office, laboratory or field for both data acquisition and model simulation;To accomplish the objectives of this research, the entire organization of the hydrologic part of the Kentucky Watershed Model (KWM) was restructured to fit the operational characteristics of an Apple II-Plus microcomputer with 48 K bytes of memory capacity. The resulting computer model (Apple-KWM) consists of a single program and 7 text files containing input/output data. The program permits the user to run it on a daily or yearly basis;The effectiveness of the model was tested using 1976, 1977, 1979 and 1980 water year data from Four Mile Creek Watershed, near Traer, Iowa. The results were compared with those obtained by using the original program written in FORTRAN. From the results of this study, it appears that the efficiency and precision of a hydrologic simulation process when using a microcomputer are as good as those from using large computer systems. The current Applesoft version of the KWM gives essentially the same simulation results as the original FORTRAN version when applied to Four Mile Creek Watershed. Small differences were observed which can be attributed to round-off error of the microcomputer;The Apple-KWM program requires about 16 K bytes of memory. On a yearly basis computation, 1.2 K bytes are needed for variables, 8.7 K for arrays and only 3 bytes for strings. About 10 K are still available for further modifications and/or additions. By using the compiler program TASC (Microsoft Inc.) computation time was reduced to 40 minutes as compared to its Applesoft counterpart which takes 5.5 hours for a full year computation;The daily basis option of the program permits the user to calculate the streamflows from a watershed on a day-by-day basis. This alternative gives the designer up-to-date information of the runoff process which can be used advantageously in forecasting flood discharges