The Study of Concepts, Growth and Attainment in School Science

The decades of the fifties and the sixties witnessed an unparalleled growth in the development of new curricula. Because of this, syllabuses in physics contained not only too much content but also some of it was conceptually difficult for the stage of the development of the children being taught. Difficulty in understanding physics was reported by many authorities. One of them was Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Board. This agency, from 1972 till now, in its annual reports, has been mentioning this factor of difficulty, encountered by the pupils in physics and has pointed out certain topics and concepts which were proving troublesome and were not properly understood by many pupils even at the higher levels of study. Many science educationists drew attention to another important factor which was creating difficulty and that was 'age' at which the topics and concepts were being taught. These views and reports indicated the need to study the difficulty and growth of topics and concepts in physics. Up to this time, nothing was reported regarding the pupils' views about this study. It was thought that the views and information given by the pupils would be useful and as important as the views given by various authorities and agencies. The study followed here is empirical in nature and was planned to find out about: (i) difficult topics and concepts in the course, (ii) the age level at which these become clear to the pupils, (iii) the growth of some of the concepts and (iv) the most appropriate order for the presentation of some topics. The survey of the literature was made at the beginning of the investigation. In this it was found that not such work of this nature had been done in this field in Britain before or after implementation of new syllabuses in physics which came into force in the late sixties. To fulfil the first three objectives of the research, the work was carried out for a period of more than two years and in different educational institutions and various classes. The beginning of the study was made with the general survey of difficult topics and concepts at various levels. This unit of work was applied in two consecutive years with the objectives to find out the topics and concepts which were: (i) understood first time or with a little effort, (ii) difficult but were mastered after considerable efforts, (iii) not clear, never understood and so needed to be taught again and, (iv) not covered by pupils in their course. For achieving these objectives, the work in first year consisted of a questionnaire having 41 items. This was applied to first year university students and pupils of 'H' and 'O' grades in five schools. In second year, a modified questionnaire having 23 items and a test were prepared for subjective and objective assessments. This material was also applied in the same way. To find out about (i) the age level at which some of the concepts become clear and (ii) the growth of these concepts, three concepts - density, heat and temperature and, electrical resistance were selected, one from each of the main areas of the study, mentioned above. Density was selected to study the 'natural' development of the concept; heat and temperature for confusion in normal everyday language usage and electrical resistance for it does not come often into normal use or conversation. The experimental techniques for investigating these concepts were similar although they differed considerably in detail. For each concept, the material prepared consisted of (i) a working net called a 'path diagram', (ii) an interview schedule and (iii) a diagnostic test. This material was also applied over two years in four schools. For the concept of density, the interview was conducted in SI to SIII classes and the test was applied to SI to SV classes. For the concepts of heat and temperature, and resistance, the interviews were conducted in SII to SIV classes and the tests were applied to SII to SV classes. There are two main features of the experimental technique. (i) The tests were prepared on the basis of the interview information and were validated against the interview results and (ii) new types of diagnostic tests were prepared and novel ideas were introduced in the test construction. The general survey of the syllabus revealed that there were certain topics and concepts which were difficult and were proving troublesome and, the troubles were carried by the pupils into their undergraduate careers. The study of the selected concepts revealed that the concept of density became clear to the pupils at the age of about 15 years and, in third year classes, there was fast growth of the concept. At the age of about 16 years, the concepts of heat and temperature were becoming clear to the pupils and the concepts were growing fast in fourth year classes. The concept of resistance became clear to half of the pupils at the age of about 17 years and the growth rate started improving in fifth year classes. The work embodied in this entire investigation is now actively being considered by the Consultative Committee on the Curriculum in its planning of the syllabuses for the 1980s

An Assessment of Global Factors towards the Financial Performance of a Containership Using a Bayesian Network Method

The movement of containerised goods made 2009 debatably the most dramatic year in the history of the box. A Bayesian network methodology associated with the cause and effect analysis technique is introduced to analyse the global economic conditions, the container market demand and the bunker fuel price in order to measure the financial performance of a containership. This method demonstrates the combination of qualitative and quantitative criteria in order to ensure that the best possible decision can be made by a shipping company. As a consequence, the result provided by the Bayesian Network method can be used as an indicator for helping shipping lines plan a cost-effective business strategy. Keywords: Bayesian Network Method; Uncertainty Treatment; Vessel Speed; Containership; Decision Making Technique.

Control Chart Pattern Recognition Using Small Window Size for Identifying Bivariate Process Mean Shifts

There are many traits in the manufacturing technology to assure the quality of products. One of the current practices aims for monitoring the in-process quality of small-lot production using Statistical Process Control (SPC), which requires small samples or small window sizes. In this study, the recognition performance of bivariate SPC pattern recognition scheme was investigated when dealing with small window sizes (less than 24). The framework of the scheme was constructed using an artificial neural network recognizer. The simulated SPC samples in different window sizes (8 ~ 24) and different change points (fixed and varies) were generated to study the recognition performance of the scheme based on mean square error (MSE) and classification accuracy (CA) measures. Two main findings have been suggested: (i) the scheme was superior when recognizing shift patterns with various change points compared to the shift patterns with fixed change point, with lower MSE and higher CA results, (ii) the scheme was more difficult to recognize smaller window size patterns with increasing MSE and decreasing CA trends, since these patterns provided insufficient information of unnatural variation. The outcome of this study would be helpful for industrial practitioners towards applying SPC for small-lot-production. &nbsp

Dampak Relokasi Pedagang Kaki Lima ( Pkl ) Pasar Jongkok Ke Mtc Giant Panam Terhadap Kehidupan Sosial Ekonomi Pedagang

This research was carried out on the public street vendors (PKL) who relocated to the area MTC Giant Panam. Problems studied in this research is how the impact of the relocation of street vendors to MTC Giant Markets Squatting on the socio-economic life of the merchant.The purpose of this study is to find out who the vendors who sell at area Giant Panam MTC, to determine the response to the relocation of street vendors to market MTC Giant Panam area, and to determine the impact of the relocation of street vendors (PKL) Squatting Market area to MTC Giant Panam towards the socio-economic life of the merchant. The population in this study are street vendors who relocated to the area MTC Giant Panam 250 people, 25 people were taken as samples by using random sampling techniques.In the authors use data collection methods of interviews and observations, and analyzed using quantitative descriptive method, that is by depicting or describing phenomena problems studied in the form of numbers, then processed using the percentage tables, so it can be clearly understood conclusion.Based on the results of the study authors note that the street vendors who sell at area Giant Panam MTC is a street vendor who initially conduct trading activities along Jl. HR. Soebrantas Panam, relocation of the market to get a good response from vendors who sell in the area MTC Giant Panam, and relolasi market impact or influence both the social and economic life of street vendors, among which a good trade competition among fellow traders in develop business for goods and services traded, social interactions are good, and the high level of earned income traders in buying and selling activities

Control Chart Pattern Recognition Using Small Window Size for Identifying Bivariate Process Mean Shifts

There are many traits in the manufacturing technology to assure the quality of products. One of the current practices aims for monitoring the in-process quality of small-lot production using Statistical Process Control (SPC), which requires small samples or small window sizes. In this study, the recognition performance of bivariate SPC pattern recognition scheme was investigated when dealing with small window sizes (less than 24). The framework of the scheme was constructed using an artificial neural network recognizer. The simulated SPC samples in different window sizes (8 ~ 24) and different change points (fixed and varies) were generated to study the recognition performance of the scheme based on mean square error (MSE) and classification accuracy (CA) measures. Two main findings have been suggested: (i) the scheme was superior when recognizing shift patterns with various change points compared to the shift patterns with fixed change point, with lower MSE and higher CA results, (ii) the scheme was more difficult to recognize smaller window size patterns with increasing MSE and decreasing CA trends, since these patterns provided insufficient information of unnatural variation. The outcome of this study would be helpful for industrial practitioners towards applying SPC for small-lot-production. &nbsp

Optimal energy management for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

There is a great potential for significant improvement to be made in energy efficiency and reduction in emissions, fuel use, weight and cost of vehicles through implementing innovative technologies. Many automakers have been making great efforts to develop an alternative vehicle that can offer the best solution in reducing the effects of global warming and oil depletion. Such a vehicle will win quick acceptance in the marketplace because of the current high fuel cost. Recently, the plugin hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) has been identified as one of the most viable technologies to achieve these goals by implementing an optimal energy management system. This paper presents our recent research work on the energy management system for a specific PHEV. The system configuration, analysis, model, control strategy, and simulation results are presented in detail. Recommendations on the directions and areas in which the further research in hybrid vehicle should be aligned are also be included

Influenced factors in the delignification process of red meranti wood sawdust

Lignocellulosic biomass are plants that include forestry residue and agricultural residues that are mainly composed of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. Red Meranti wood sawdust (RMWS) are one of lignocellulosic biomass that rich-cellulose content. To obtain cellulose, the pretreatments are needed to extract it from outer layer of lignin and hemicellulose by using the acid-chlorite delignification procedure aided with design of experimental from Design Expert 7.1 software. Four factors were selected in design of experiment using two level with half fraction factorial analysis were came out with total of 8 runs. The factors contributed were ratio acetic acid (AC) to RMWS (0.45 and 0.6), ratio sodium chlorite to RMWS (0.6 and 1.64), reaction time (4hr and 6hr) and temperature (55°C and 75°C). The results obtained were showed that the design model was substantial resulting with a coefficient of determination value of 0.9963. Two factors that generated the highest to the process were ratio SC to RMWS (B) and temperature (D). The percentage error between the actual and predicted value for lignin removal at 0.79% and 4.92%, which found to be less than 5%, and thus, the model was successfully validated

Gathering experience in trust-based interactions

As advances in mobile and embedded technologies coupled with progress in adhoc networking fuel the shift towards ubiquitous computing systems it is becoming increasingly clear that security is a major concern. While this is true of all computing paradigms, the characteristics of ubiquitous systems amplify this concern by promoting spontaneous interaction between diverse heterogeneous entities across administrative boundaries [5]. Entities cannot therefore rely on a specific control authority and will have no global view of the state of the system. To facilitate collaboration with unfamiliar counterparts therefore requires that an entity takes a proactive approach to self-protection. We conjecture that trust management is the best way to provide support for such self-protection measures

Emergency shutdown valve reliability function test by automated Partial Stroke Testing System

Partial stroke testing (PST) is a technique that is regularly practiced in oil and gas industries to test the emergency shutdown (ESD) valve by closing a certain percentage of the valve position and stop any flow through the pipeline. Generally, it only functions when there is an emergency occurring in the production system. When the ESD valve remains in one position for a long period, there is a risk and potential of fail on demand which is, the ESD valve fail to operate during the emergency shutdown. This testing can reveal approximately 75 of unrevealed failures in valves. It can also provide predictive maintenance data that can contribute to the extension of the preventive maintenance for the ESD valve. The objectives of this paper are to design, simulate, build and test the performance of the automated PST system based on PLC. Four guidelines and methodology are used in this work. First, understanding the operation of the PST system. Then, the utilization of the capability of MATLAB-Simulink software as the simulation tool for the PST design system. Next, designing the PST automated system based on PLC design and lastly, testing the performance of the PST design system using lab scale PST system prototype that has been built. Results of the project shows that the PST system is successfully designed and simulated via MATLAB-Simulink and the PLC programming is working in the correct order as performed on the prototype