Effective Assessment Plan Leading to Strong Reform of Petroleum Engineering Graduate Program

The Bob L. Herd Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas Tech University has made a lot of significant actions of improvement to its graduate program that was motivated by a systematic SACSCOC assessment plan. This paper shows how the SACSCOC assessment plan aided in making continuous actions of improvement and as a conclusion of these actions, how the current graduate curriculum plan was improved. This paper highlights the details of the graduate department assessment plan, such as how graduate program objectives are assessed, what assessment tools are used, when data are gathered and evaluated, and when actions of improvement are made. This paper will also detail how the analysis of data was utilized in making actions of continuous improvement. At the end of the paper examples of the significant actions of improvement made based on the department assessment and evaluation plan are presented.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Evaluation in experimental research articles

This thesis examines evaluation in experimental research articles in terms of the meanings made and their contribution to the organisation of the articles. After an introduction to the phenomenon of evaluation in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 surveys recent work concerning the process of scientific discovery and the writing of research articles. Chapter 3 returns to evaluation and its place in various theories of discourse, mainly those of Sinclair and of Halliday. The model of evaluation proposed in this thesis is set out in the next three chapters, dealing in turn with the Status, Value and Relevance functions of evaluation. Status is the function of evaluation which bestows entity, assessing along a certain-uncertain parameter. Value bestows quality and assesses along a good-bad parameter. Evaluation of Relevance is meta-discoursal and marks significance. Relevance Markers are identified, which progressively chunk and organise the text. Comparisons between texts analysed for Status, Value and Relevance demonstrate a movement towards the theoretical and an increase in complexity of argument as the sub-discipline under discussion progresses. Chapter 7 investigates the contribution of evaluation towards text structure and notes a number of ways in which discourse units in experimental research articles may be organised. The concluding chapter, Chapter 8, discusses some of the practical and theoretical implications of the work described in the thesis. The Appendix contains the research articles which comprise the corpus

Evaluating the impact of the report "Faithful Cities" on the Church of England's role in urban regeneration: case study in two Dioceses (Birmingham and Worcester)

The Church of England's approach to urban regeneration has been shaped by government-led regeneration and its own social, political and financial situation, rather than its theology. The encouragement towards partnership working as a means of financing parishes in deprived areas in its 2006 report Faithful Cities is a result of the Church's inability to finance its work in deprived areas using its own resources. This thesis evaluates the impact of Faithful Cities within the dioceses of Worcester and Birmingham. It does this through geographical mapping of deprivation in each parish; review of diocesan policies on urban regeneration; the assessment of resource allocation to parishes with differing degrees of deprivation, and through in-depth interviews with key stakeholders (Bishops, Archdeacons, Diocesan Staff, Parish Clergy) in each diocese. Barriers to resourcing parishes in deprived areas through redistribution of internal resources are noted in both dioceses. However, partnership working is found to be impractical for overworked and untrained parish clergy to manage, and volunteers from churches lack the skills and interest to deliver projects which have partnership funding attached. Partnership funding is therefore potentially as problematic as the reallocation of internal resource as a way to fund Church presence in deprived areas

UTD analysis of electromagnetic scattering by flat structures

The different scattering mechanisms that contribute to the radar cross of finite flat plates were identified and analyzed. The geometrical theory of diffraction, the equivalent current and the corner diffraction are used for this study. A study of the cross polarized field for a monopole mounted on a plate is presented, using novel edge wave mechanism in the analysis. The results are compared with moment method solutions as well as measured data

2000-2001 Fact Sheet

This is the archive of Boston University's fact sheet for 2000-2001

Influence of liquid surface tension (surfactants) on bubble formation at rigid and flexible orifices

The influence of liquid surface tension on the bubble formation from both rigid and flexible orifice has been investigated. The liquid phases under test are aqueous solutions with butanol or surfactants (cationic, non-ionic and anionic); static and dynamic measurements of liquid surface tension have been performed to characterise them. This study shows that the effect of surface tension on the bubbles generated cannot be analysed only in terms of the static surface tension, but also depends on whether the bubbles are generated from a rigid orifice or from a flexible orifice. The kinetics of adsorption and diffusion of the solute molecules towards the bubble interface have to be taken into account insofar as their time scales are comparable to those of the bubble formation phenomenon

Impacts of U.S. Graduate Degree Training on Capacity Building in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Pulse CRSP

The Dry Grain Pulses Collaborative Research Support Program (Pulse CRSP) had allocated a major part of its resources to providing graduate degree training (GDT) of scientists/researchers in order to strengthen agricultural research capacity in Africa, Latin America, and the U.S. However, no systematic attempt had been made to assess the impact of this investment. The study adopted the Kirkpatrick framework as a guide for evaluating the impacts of GDT by the Pulse CRSP. The results were drawn from a survey of former trainees and researchers, supplemented by interviews with scientists and program administrators and an institutional case study. An important finding was that over 86% of host country trainees returned to their home country. In their enhanced capacity, trainees made contributions to the advancement of bean/cowpea research that can be attributed to their graduate degree training. Trainees reported that their GDT was necessary for their professional development and was highly relevant to their current job responsibility.Impact assessment, Pulse CRSP, USAID, Training, Graduate degree, Beans, Cowpeas, International Development, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, Q16-R&D-Agricultural technology-Biofuels-Agricultural Extension Services,