Heteronormativity and Teacher Effectiveness: Parent’s Perspectives of Importance

Heteronormativity is the presumed acceptance of culturally determined gender roles about heterosexuality and what expectations society considers as “natural” or “normal” (Habarth, 2015). United States schools are primarily heteronormative (Dinkins & Englert, 2015). The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 required school districts to employ “highly qualified” teachers in all core subject areas by the 2005-06 school year. Defining “highly qualified” relates to the quality of the teachers training and certifications, never mentioning sexuality or lifestyle as a component. Using a critical queer theory approach and narrative research study analysis, this study sought perspective from parents of K-12 students on their view of heteronormativity as it relates to teacher effectiveness. The researcher collected surveys from (n=30) participants seeking demographics, Likert-scale responses, and descriptive narrative responses. The researcher made the following discoveries from the coding process: a) teacher effectiveness is paramount to parent’s concern over their lifestyle outside of school, b) parents support the acknowledgment of non-heteronormative lifestyles as a means to promote diversity, c) most 6 parents are unaware of Lifestyle Policies and those familiar do not support it, d) effectiveness is essential but there are exceptions. Finding results of this research can inform school administrators and policymakers of what teacher and school expectations parents’ value more in their child’s education: the educators effective or lifestyle choices

Cybersecurity Governance – An Adapted Practical Framework for Small Enterprises

Digitalization is advancing and the associated risks are a strategic task for enterprises of all sizes. One risk area to which small businesses often do not pay enough attention are cyber risks. Often, the governance of cyber risks is not embedded at the owner or management level. However, it is important to evaluate, direct and monitor cyber risk mitigation activities by a company's leaders or its owner. A ´cybersecurity governance framework´ for small enterprises was developed and validated by applying Design Science Research. The framework focuses on criteria that are essential for small businesses, such as simplicity of understanding and ease of use (both for non-experts). Six principles identified relevant build the common thread of the framework, which guides the main activities to be implemented: 'responsibility', 'strategy', 'cybersecurity threats and risks', 'development and change', 'conformance' and 'people, skills and competencies'

Building Digital Trust to Protect Whistleblowers - A blockchain-based Reporting Channel

Organizations today need internal reporting channels to report illegal/unethical misconduct. For this purpose, organizations set up one or more - often digital - internal reporting channels. Persons/Employees who want to report misconduct, so-called whistleblowers, expose themselves to reprisals and therefore need trustworthy reporting channels which ensure ´Digital Trust´. Blockchain, a technology that overcomes the need for trust due to its properties of immutability and integrity of data, could be promising as underlying technology for a digital reporting channel which is recognized as trustworthy. In our research, we explored multiple perspectives relevant to a trustworthy digital reporting system. Applying design science research, we evaluated the current state of the art of (digital) reporting channels and developed a prototypical blockchain-based reporting solution called “Integrity@Inside”. The prototype is being iteratively demonstrated and pre-evaluated

An Adaptable Approach for Successful SIEM Adoption in Companies

In corporations around the world, the topic of cybersecurity and information security is becoming increasingly important as the number of cyberattacks on themselves continues to grow. Nowadays, it is no longer just a matter of protecting against cyberattacks, but rather of detecting such attacks at an early stage and responding accordingly. There is currently no generic methodological approach for the implementation of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems that takes academic aspects into account and can be applied independently of the product or developers of the systems. Applying Hevner's design science research approach, the goal of this paper is to develop a holistic procedure model for implementing respective SIEM systems in corporations. According to the study during the validation phase, the procedure model was verified to be applicable. As desire for future research, the procedure model should be applied in various implementation projects in different enterprises to analyze its applicability and completeness.Comment: Submitted to the AC2023 Conferenc

Parameter Estimation of Linear Dynamical Systems with Gaussian Noise

We present a novel optimization-based method for parameter estimation of a time-varying dynamic linear system. This method optimizes the likelihood of the parameters given measured data using an optimization algorithm tailored to the structure of this maximum likelihood estimation problem. Some parameters of the covariance of process and measurement noise can also be estimated. This is particularly useful when offset-free Model Predictive Control with a linear disturbance model is performed. To reduce the complexity of the maximum likelihood estimation problem we also propose an approximate formulation and show how it is related to the actual problem. We present the advantages of the proposed approach over commonly used methods in the framework of Moving Horizon Estimation. We also present how to use Sequential Quadratic Programming efficiently for the optimization of our formulations. Finally, we show the performance of the proposed methods through numerical simulations. First, on a minimal example with only one parameter to be estimated, and second, on a system with heat and mass transfer. Both methods can successfully estimate the model parameters in these examples.Comment: Submitted to IEEE European Control Conference 2023 (ECC23). Contains 8 pages including 6 figure

Intertester and intratester reliability of movement control tests on the hip for patients with hip osteoarthritis

Hip joint complaints are a problem associated with increasing age and impair the mobility of a large section of the elderly population. Reliable and valid tests are necessary for a thorough investigation of a joint. A fundamental function of the hip joint is movement control and a test of this function forms a part of the standard examination. Until now there have been few scientific studies which specifically investigate the reliability of measurement tests of movement control of the hip joint. The aim of this study was to examine the intratester and intertester reliability of the movement control tests of the hip joint which are in use in current clinical practice

Touching Space: Distributed Ledger Technology for Tracking and Tracing Certificates

Components built into space vehicles and equipment (space products) must meet different regulatory requirements; in detail, each component must be certified and sustainably traceable at all times. Space engineers have expressed the need for an interoperable system to collect, manage and route certifications for components, parts and materials that go into space products. The lack of a unified approach in the European space industry is a challenge for companies involved in product development. This research proposes an open-source, secure, fast and distributed ledger technology (DLT) based solution that fits into any IT environment and is well adapted to the needs of manufacturing companies in the space sector. The results show that a blockchain-based solution based on 'Hyperledger Fabric' combined with the InterPlanetary File System is viable. The results can guide other researchers and practitioners to consider DLTs when changing their certification management paradigm with suppliers, customers and auditors

Optimized data exploration applied to the simulation of a chemical process

In complex simulation environments, certain parameter space regions may result in non-convergent or unphysical outcomes. All parameters can therefore be labeled with a binary class describing whether or not they lead to valid results. In general, it can be very difficult to determine feasible parameter regions, especially without previous knowledge. We propose a novel algorithm to explore such an unknown parameter space and improve its feasibility classification in an iterative way. Moreover, we include an additional optimization target in the algorithm to guide the exploration towards regions of interest and to improve the classification therein. In our method we make use of well-established concepts from the field of machine learning like kernel support vector machines and kernel ridge regression. From a comparison with a Kriging-based exploration approach based on recently published results we can show the advantages of our algorithm in a binary feasibility classification scenario with a discrete feasibility constraint violation. In this context, we also propose an improvement of the Kriging-based exploration approach. We apply our novel method to a fully realistic, industrially relevant chemical process simulation to demonstrate its practical usability and find a comparably good approximation of the data space topology from relatively few data points.Comment: 45 pages, 6 figure

Partitioned Quasi-Newton Approximation for Direct Collocation Methods and Its Application to the Fuel-Optimal Control of a Diesel Engine

The numerical solution of optimal control problems by direct collocation is a widely used approach. Quasi-Newton approximations of the Hessian of the Lagrangian of the resulting nonlinear program are also common practice. We illustrate that the transcribed problem is separable with respect to the primal variables and propose the application of dense quasi-Newton updates to the small diagonal blocks of the Hessian. This approach resolves memory limitations, preserves the correct sparsity pattern, and generates more accurate curvature information. The effectiveness of this improvement when applied to engineering problems is demonstrated. As an example, the fuel-optimal and emission-constrained control of a turbocharged diesel engine is considered. First results indicate a significantly faster convergence of the nonlinear program solver when the method proposed is used instead of the standard quasi-Newton approximation

Pilot plant experimental studies of post combustion CO2 capture by reactive absorption with MEA and new solvents

AbstractThe main challenge for the CO2 post combustion capture from power plant flue gases is the reduction of the energy requirement for solvent regeneration. The required reduction can only be achieved by application of new solvents. For the validation of new solvents in the absorption/desorption process, a pilot plant (column diameters 0.125 m, absorber packing height 4.2 m, flue gas flow 30–110 kg/h, CO2 partial pressure 35–135 mbar) was built in the EUproject CASTOR. To obtain a baseline for testing of new solvents, first systematic studies were carried out with MEA in that plant. All important process parameters, i.e. CO2 content in the flue gas, CO2 removal rate ΨCO2, fluid dynamic load, and solvent flow rate were varied. These studies allow detailed insight into the process, e.g., a quantification of the different contributions to the overall regeneration energy (namely: desorption enthalpy, stripping steam, heating up of solvent feed and condensate recycle) as a function of the chosen process parameters. A rate-based model of the process based on a detailed physico-chemical model was implemented in the process simulator CHEMASIM. It is shown that the model is able to predict the experimental results for MEA. Besides MEA, two new solvents were studied in the pilot plant. A direct comparison of different solvents in such pilot plant experiments is not trivial. The comparison of only a few operating points for the new solvents with seemingly corresponding results for MEA can lead to wrong conclusions, since for each solvent an optimisation of the operating conditions is necessary. Only systematical studies allow a meaningful comparison. The technique that was used in the present work for this purpose was measuring data sets at constant CO2 removal rate (by adjustment of the regeneration energy in the desorber) and systematically varying the solvent flow rate. A minimal energy requirement for the given removal rate is found from theses studies. Only the optima for different solvents should be compared. By this procedure, one solvent candidate was identified that shows an advantage compared to MEA