Bridging the Data Divide: Understanding State Agency and University Research Partnerships within SLDS

This report examines this question through an analysis of state agency-university researcher partnerships that exist in State Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS). Building state agency-university researcher partnerships is an important value of SLDS. To examine state agency-university researcher partnerships within SLDS, our analysis is guided by the following set of questions based on 71 interviews conducted with individuals most directly involved with SLDS efforts in Virginia, Maryland, Texas and Washington. The findings from this analysis suggest that each state’s SLDS organization and governance structure includes university partners in differing ways. In general, stronger partnership efforts are driven by legislative action or executive-level leadership. Regardless of structure, the operation of these partnerships is shaped by the agency’s previous experience and cultural norms surrounding the value and inclusion of university researchers

Bridging the Data Divide: Understanding State Agency and University Research Partnerships within SLDS

This report examines this question through an analysis of state agency-university researcher partnerships that exist in State Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS). Building state agency-university researcher partnerships is an important value of SLDS. To examine state agency-university researcher partnerships within SLDS, our analysis is guided by the following set of questions based on 71 interviews conducted with individuals most directly involved with SLDS efforts in Virginia, Maryland, Texas and Washington. The findings from this analysis suggest that each state’s SLDS organization and governance structure includes university partners in differing ways. In general, stronger partnership efforts are driven by legislative action or executive-level leadership. Regardless of structure, the operation of these partnerships is shaped by the agency’s previous experience and cultural norms surrounding the value and inclusion of university researchers

GoWell in Glasgow’s East End: Baseline Community Survey

GoWell: Studying Change in Glasgow's East End is a five-year, mixed methods research programme, designed to evaluate the impacts of regeneration and other changes associated with the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games upon the health and wellbeing of communities in the East End of Glasgow. The project forms part of the Scottish Government's Commonwealth Games Legacy Evaluation Programme. This baseline report presents findings from the first wave of data collection in 2012. These relate to each of the four Scottish Government Evaluation Themes: Active, Flourishing, Sustainable and Connected. Where possible, the report includes comparisons with national benchmarks for indicators under these four themes

A Strategy Cut-short: The NALSAS Strategy for Asian Languages in Australia

This paper examines the first national attempt to establish the study of Asian languages and cultures in the Australian education system. The National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools (NALSAS) Strategy was based on the recommendations of a report commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in December 1992, Asian Languages and Australia's Economic Future (1994). The Report detailed a strategic framework for the implementation of an Asian languages and cultures program in Australian schools. This paper proposes that the Report was unprecedented in the history of policy efforts to teach Asian languages in Australia. It then analyses the Report’s focus on language study, its reception and implementation during its first quadrennium. It argues that despite some shortcomings, the Report’s implementation from 1995-1998 was significant in establishing formative foundations for Asian language study in Australia. This paper proposes that although progress towards targets was made during the second quadrennium, the Howard government’s decision to cut the Commonwealth’s funding commitment for this long term Strategy in 2002 was inappropriate at a time when Australia’s engagement with the nations of Asia was increasingly significant

Liking to be in America: Puerto Rico’s Quest for Difference in the United States

The interaction between wind turbines in simple wind farm layouts is investigated with the purpose of observing the influence of wake loss phenomenon on the energy production of downwind turbines. Following an intensive exploration stage about wind farm aerodynamics and wake modeling subjects, several tests cases are designed to represent various wind farm configurations, consisting of different number of wind turbines. These cases are simulated by using DNV GL WindFarmer software which provides the opportunity of performing simulations with two different wake modeling techniques, namely Modified PARK and Eddy Viscosity. Various terrain and ambient turbulence intensity conditions are considered during the test cases. Also three different turbine types having different hub heights, rotor diameters and power-thrust coefficients are used in order to observe the effect of turbine characteristics on wake formation. Besides WindFarmer, WAsP and MATLAB tools are used in some simulation stages in order to generate input data such as wind and terrain conditions or farm layout configurations; and to process the data obtained in the end of these test cases. Simulations which are executed in the presence of a predominant wind direction from a narrow direction bin indicate that, even though there exists no significant interaction between the turbines placed in abreast configurations, successive turbine rows affect each other strongly due to the existence of the wake region of upwind turbines. It is observed that downwind spacing between turbine rows required to recover wake deficit up to a certain level changes depending on terrain and ambient turbulence intensity conditions together with turbine characteristics. For instance increasing surface roughness length (or ambient turbulence intensity) of a given site by keeping all the other parameters constant can provide up to 20% (or 30%) decrease in the required downstream distance to reduce wake loss to 5% level in a simple tandem layout consisting of two wind turbines. Further test cases are executed with various numbers of wind turbines in different configurations to observe the effect of partial, full and multiple wake regions on total farm efficiency. The results obtained from these cases are used in order to have a comparison between several farm layouts and evaluate their advantages and drawbacks

Advertising Icons: Preserving the Cultural Record of Brand Ambassadors

The authors discuss the background and implementation of the Brandcenter Advertising Icons image collection, available at https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/brandcenter_icons

Identifying and Evaluating Equity Provisions in State Health Care Reform

Identifies state policies that promote equitable access to quality health care and analyzes whether reform proposals in five states meet those equity benchmarks. Discusses innovative measures and the need to implement truly universal health insurance

Resident Physicians' Preparedness to Provide Cross-Cultural Care: Implications for Clinical Care and Medical Education Policy

Recommends integrating cross-cultural training into medical school curricula, training faculty to ensure useful instruction and mentoring, and mandatory and formal evaluation of residents' cross-cultural communication skills