A Study to Determine the Correlation Between Personality Types and Certification Area for Military Career Transition Students

The goals of this research project were to: 1. Determine the personality types of Old Dominion University Military Career Transition Program students; 2. Determine which chosen certification areas correlate to the sixteen personality types

Problem-Based Learning and Clinical Reasoning: An Action Research Study with Occupational Therapy Students

Framed from a social constructivist perspective this action research study explored a problem-based learning approach and its relationship to occupational therapy students’ clinical reasoning skills.Rich text provide support for the key qualitative findings. An independent t-test performed on the pre-post test yielded statistically significant improvement at the p\u3c .018

Youve Got Mail: Techniques To Increase Response Rates

While much research exists on the benefits of using postal surveys especially in B2B marketing, it is understood and almost universally accepted that postal surveys are synonymous with low response rates. The paper presents results from a study carried out within the wine industry in Australia where a variety of techniques were utilised to overcome the expected low response rates. The various methods that were implemented to test how response rates can be influenced include the accompaniment of the survey with a reply paid addressed envelope, a coversheet on University letterhead explaining the offer of results in return for completing the survey, pre-notification and reminders via e-mail and the drop and collect survey method. The findings are significant in that a combination of techniques was used on the dyad (buyer and supplier) which allowed for comparison of relative effectiveness and success of the techniques. A timeline used to test these techniques is presented and the subsequent influence is presented. This research provides valuable insights to academics who, because of various circumstances (inaccessibility, cost etc.), have no choice but to use postal surveys. It is interesting also that pre-notification by e-mail had a significant impact

IRON PRECIPITATES FROM ACID COAL MINE DRAINAGE IN SOUTHEASTERN OHIO: ORIGIN, OCCURRENCE AND REGIONAL SIGNIFICANCE.

Monomeric species of dissolved iron in acid mine drainage and the waters of receiving streams were also examined. The dominant iron species in acid mine drainage was Fe(II). In areas of the receiving stream where precipitation occurred, FE(III) species dominated. Based on the presence of various Fe(III) species detected by UV-spectroscopy, two distinctly separate pathways for precipitation of Fe-oxide were suggested. In the stream, polymer growth resulted in ferrihydrite. In contrast, contact (direct) precipitation of goethite appeared to occur from mine discharge waters in contact with soil surfaces.The yellow precipitate was isolated, identified as poorly-ordered ferrihydrite, and compared to synthetic ferrihydrites that were hydrolyzed and precipitated in the presence of graded levels of SO(, 4). Based on increased rates of precipitation with increases in sulfate at the time of hydrolysis, it was determined that sulfate served to neutralize positive surface charge and to increase aggregate stability. The sulfate also suppressed structural ordering and altered the morphology, surface area, and color of the synthetic ferrihydrites. The laboratory synthate most similar in color and other properties to the nature stream precipitate was that formed in the presence of 0.1 to 0.15% sulfate.Despite geologic, gemorphic, and land use differences within the Muskingum River Basin, suspended sediments collected from the Muskingum River and its tributaries during spring flooding were found to be remarkably uniform in mineralogy and size distribution. The most significant evidence of regional differences within the basin came from Moxahala Creek, which is heavily influenced by acid drainage from abandoned coal mines. As a result, Black Fork Creek, a tributary to Moxahala Creek, was chosen for detailed water quality and bottom sediment studies. Marked increases in dissolved SO(, 4), Fe, and Al, together with an associated decrease in pH were observed in sections of the stream affected by acid mine drainage. In addition, a gelatinous yellow precipitate of iron was abundant in the bottom sediments below sources of pollution. This Fe-oxide or oxyhydroxide precipitate greatly increased the surface area and reactivity of the bottom sediments and added to the overall sediment load

The use of impulsivity and core affect to optimize the potential selection of working dogs

Police and military working dogs are highly trained to be able to perform a variety of roles but withdrawal from service due to behavioural problems is an issue (Evans et al, 2007). To achieve optimal field performance there is a need to be able to assess resilience in dogs and understand factors that impact performance, such as arousal and distractibility. Relationships between arousal and performance were examined using a scent detection task in a population of pet dogs and highlighted the challenges in assessing arousal in terms of physiological measures (heart rate variability). This line of enquiry was not pursued further and the focus was shifted to developing methods to assess temperament traits which may be linked to withdrawal from service. A review of published tests that assessed behavioural characteristics relevant to working dogs revealed a lack of reliable methods for assessing behavioural characteristics relevant to working dogs, and unclear predictive ability in terms of service performance outcomes following selection and certification. Working dogs need to be resilient enough to cope with working environments that they are likely to encounter, but also they need to be able to work despite distractions. Impulsivity is relevant to the assessment of distractibility and while questionnaire measures (DIAS, Wright et al, 2011) can be used to assess the trait in dogs, existing behavioural measurement methods for impulsivity require extensive training (Wright et al, 2012). This lead to the development of a simplified behavioural test to assess impulsivity using a spatial discounting paradigm in dogs over the age of 2 years which found that more impulsive individuals travel a shorter distance for a larger reward before switching to a small reward, and less impulsive individuals travelled further. Resilience and distractibility also depend partly on sensitivity to rewards (positive distractions - temptations) and aversives (negative distractions – anxieties) which can be assessed psychometrically in dogs from 10 weeks of age using the Positive and Negative Activation Scale -PANAS, Shepherd and Mills 2002). The PANAS and the DIAS were used to collect data within the UK police and military dog sector and found that police dogs that had been withdrawn from service for behavioural reasons were found to score significantly lower for “Responsiveness” in terms of impulsivity (using the DIAS), and Positive Activation “Energy & Interest” in terms of core affect (using the PANAS) compared to police dogs in active service. In a working dog setting questionnaires cannot always be relied upon so behavioural tests were developed to assess these elements. Dogs with temperament profiles similar to the active working dogs acquired a new task in fewer trials compared to the withdrawn group but task acquisition was statistically similar at retest. These results suggested that it may be the initial learning processes that are important in test performance and may be indicative of individuals at risk of withdrawal from field service. Further information is still needed in terms of military working dog withdrawal and also to establish if the temperament profiles observed in withdrawn dogs are a result of them failing in their work, or if the profile is responsible for their poor performance leading to withdrawal

Effects of Phosphate Fertilizer Applications and Chemistry-Mineralogy of the Iron Oxide System on Phosphate Adsorption-Desorption by Stream Sediments : Final Report

(print) vii, 102 p. : ill., maps ; 28 cm.Item lacks publication date. Issue date supplied from WorldCat bibliographic recordDespite geologic, geomorphic, and land use differences, suspended sediments collected from the Muskingum River and its tributaries during spring flooding were remarkably uniform in mineralogy and size distribution. The greatest evidence of regional differences came from Moxahala Creek, which receives acid drainage from abandoned coal mines. As a result, Black Fork Creek, a tributary to Moxahala Creek, was chosen for detailed water quality and bottom sediment studies. Marked increases in dissolved SO4, Fe, and Al, and decreased. pH were observed in sections of the stream affected by acid mine drainage. In addition, a gelatinous yellow precipitate of iron was abundant in the bottom sediments below sources of pollution. This Fe-oxide or oxyhydroxide precipitate greatly increased surface area and reactivity of bottom sediments and added to the overall sediment load. A standard P adsorption procedure was proposed and the ability of four laboratories to produce consistent results over a wide range of soils was determined. Soil (0.5 or 1.0 g) was shaken in 0.01 mol L-1 CaCl2 at a soil: solution ratio of 1:25 in containers allowing a 50% head space for 24 hours at 24 to 26°C on an end-over-end shaker. Initial dissolved inorganic P concentrations of 0 to 323 u mol P L-1 (as KH2PO4 or NaH2PO4) were used and microbial activity inhibited by 20 g L-1 chloroform. Excellent agreement between the four laboratories was obtained for P adsorbed by the 12 soils studied, with a mean coefficient of variation over all P levels and soils of 0.91%. The laboratories also exhibited a high degree of replication of individual treatments with no laboratory showing a strong consistent bias across all soils and P levels in terms of P adsorption. Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin adsorption models were highly correlated with the adsorption data. Respective mean correlations for the 12 soils were 0.98, 0.97 and 0.95. The proposed method has the potential to produce consistent results which can be used to predict partitioning of dissolved inorganic P between solid and solution phases in the environment.Acknowledgements -- Abstract -- Chapter 1: Suspended Sediments of the Muskingum River Basin -- Chapter 2: Water and Bottom Sediment Quality in Streams Affected by Acid Coal Mine Drainage - a Study of the Black Fork Creek Watershed, Ohio -- Chapter 3: Interlaboratory Comparison of a Standardized Phosphorus Adsorption Procedur

Toward Improving Physician/Patient Communication Regarding Invisible Chronic Illness (ICI): The Potential of mHealth Technology in Instructional Communication

Patients that suffer from invisible chronic illness (ICI) such as autoimmune conditions, neurological conditions, and gastrointestinal problems often struggle to obtain a proper medical diagnosis due to a lack of objective indicators to help health-care providers diagnose patients with ICIs. Thus, researchers conducted interviews with 21 participants with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) to determine what messages they received from health-care providers as they pursued a diagnosis, how they interpreted those messages, and what role mHealth technology may play in improving patient/provider communication and effective diagnosis/treatment of ICIs. Several themes regarding potential instructional communication intervention content emerged from the interview data, including physician communication to patients, patient interpretation of physician communication, and information-seeking via mHealth technology. Directions for future research and implications for patient and provider instruction and training, including utilizing the IDEA model, are discussed

A Probabilistic Framework for Adaptive Texture Description

This report details the development of a probabilistic framework for adaptive texture description. Starting with a probability distribution on the space of infinite images, we generate a distribution on finite regions by marginalisation. For a Gaussian distribution, the computational requirement of diagonalisation leads naturally to adaptive wavelet packet models which capture the principal periodicities present in the textures and allow long-range correlations while preserving the independence of the wavelet packet coefficients. These models are then applied to the task of segmentation. Two data types are included in our test bed: synthetic Brodatz mosaics and high-resolution satellite images. For the case of the synthetic textures, undecimated versions of the wavelet packet transform are used to diagonalise the Gaussian distribution efficiently, albeit approximately. This enables us to perform a pixelwise classification of the mosaics. A regularisation step is then implemented in order to arrive at a smooth final segmentation. In order to obtain the best possible results for the real dataset, the mean of the distribution is included in the model. The approximation made for the classification of the synthetic texture mosaics is tested on the remote sensing images, but it produces unsatisfactory results. Therefore we introduce a heuristic classification technique for this dataset, based on a decimated wavelet packet transform. The resulting segmentation is then regularised using the same method as in the synthetic case. Results are presented for both types of data and a discussion follows