Failure of Unrestrained Lightly Reinforced Concrete Slabs under Fire, Part II: Verification and Application

Accepted versio

How reliable are systematic reviews in empirical software engineering?

BACKGROUND – the systematic review is becoming a more commonly employed research instrument in empirical software engineering. Before undue reliance is placed on the outcomes of such reviews it would seem useful to consider the robustness of the approach in this particular research context. OBJECTIVE – the aim of this study is to assess the reliability of systematic reviews as a research instrument. In particular we wish to investigate the consistency of process and the stability of outcomes. METHOD – we compare the results of two independent reviews under taken with a common research question. RESULTS – the two reviews find similar answers to the research question, although the means of arriving at those answers vary. CONCLUSIONS – in addressing a well-bounded research question, groups of researchers with similar domain experience can arrive at the same review outcomes, even though they may do so in different ways. This provides evidence that, in this context at least, the systematic review is a robust research method

A Photovoice Evaluation of Coping Mechanisms Among Children of Immigrants

In this community based participatory research, photovoice was used to shine a light on the coping mechanisms of children of immigrants. Photovoice was chosen to give the children a platform to explore and identify how they cope with difficult circumstances and situations. Eight children were chosen by convenience sampling. Children were recruited from the after-school program offered by Puentes de Salud, a non-profit organization in South Philadelphia. Participants varied in ages from 7 to 12 years old or, 3rd through 5th grade. The primary purpose of the study was to (a) provide a deeper understanding of the coping mechanisms of vulnerable children whom experience adversity and (b) provide insight to Puentes de Salud, for them to implement and/or evaluate their activities to suit those coping mechanisms of the children. The study occurred over 5 sessions with parents and children. The children were given a disposable camera with 27 frames and were given the probing question: “What or who do you turn to when things go and get tough?” The three major themes that emerged from the pictures were: Culture, Friends and Family, and Puentes (the after-school program). This research shed light on the adversity faced by these children and how they try to cope with it. There was both personal buy-in and skepticism from this vulnerable populations, given the scope of the research project. Puentes de Salud can implement strategies and activities into their education program to teach effective coping mechanisms and styles

A positive relationship between the abundance of ammonia oxidizing archaea and natural abundance δ15N of ecosystems

We present a significant relationship between the natural abundance isotopic composition of ecosystem pools and the abundance of a microbial gene. Natural abundance 15N of soils and soil DNA were analysed and compared with archaeal ammonia oxidizer abundance along an elevation gradient in northern Arizona and along a substrate age gradient in Hawai'i. There was a significant positive correlation between the abundance of archaeal amoA genes and natural abundance δ15N of total soil or DNA suggesting that ammonia oxidizing archaea play an important role in ecosystem N release. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

A Survey of Information Sources Used for Progress Decisions about Medical Students

Although many medical schools have adopted a variety of methods to assess student competency, the extent to which these innovations have changed how decisions about student progress are made is not clear. This paper describes a survey of 126 accredited allopathic U.S. medical schools to determine which information sources are used for decisions related to medical student progress and graduation. Respondents were asked to indicate up to three information sources used for seven specific decisions about student progress. The results indicate that multiple choice questions (MCQs) and faculty ratings remain the most frequently used information sources. Clinical skills education in the pre-clinical curriculum is the area with the broadest use of assessments for progress decisions. Several explanations are suggested for the primacy of MCQs and faculty ratings in student decisions, including familiarity for faculty and students, ease of implementation and the resources required for the adoption of other assessment strategies

Dynamics of subpicosecond dispersion-managed soliton in a fibre: A perturbative analysis

A model is studied which describes a propagation of a subpicosecond optical pulse in dispersion-managed fibre links. In the limit of weak chromatic dispersion management, the model equation is reduced to a perturbed modified NLS equation having a nonlinearity dispersion term. By means of the Riemann--Hilbert problem, a perturbation theory for the soliton of the modified NLS equation is developed. It is shown in the adiabatic approximation that there exists a unique possibility to suppress the perturbation-induced shift of the soliton centre at the cost of proper matching of the soliton width and nonlinearity dispersion parameter. In the next-order approximation, the spectral density of the radiation power emitted by a soliton is calculated.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, to appear in J. Mod. Optic

Global Charges in Chern-Simons theory and the 2+1 black hole

We use the Regge-Teitelboim method to treat surface integrals in gauge theories to find global charges in Chern-Simons theory. We derive the affine and Virasoro generators as global charges associated with symmetries of the boundary. The role of boundary conditions is clarified. We prove that for diffeomorphisms that do not preserve the boundary there is a classical contribution to the central charge in the Virasoro algebra. The example of anti-de Sitter 2+1 gravity is considered in detail.Comment: Revtex, no figures, 26 pages. Important changes introduced. One section added

Monte Carlo Simulation of the Three-dimensional Ising Spin Glass

We study the 3D Edwards-Anderson model with binary interactions by Monte Carlo simulations. Direct evidence of finite-size scaling is provided, and the universal finite-size scaling functions are determined. Using an iterative extrapolation procedure, Monte Carlo data are extrapolated to infinite volume up to correlation length \xi = 140. The infinite volume data are consistent with both a continuous phase transition at finite temperature and an essential singularity at finite temperature. An essential singularity at zero temperature is excluded.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures. Proceedings of the Workshop "Computer Simulation Studies in Condensed Matter Physics XII", Eds. D.P. Landau, S.P. Lewis, and H.B. Schuettler, (Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin, 1999