Enhancing Early Interventionists\u27 Abilities to Support Caregiver Learning through Multi-component, Technology-mediated Inservice Professional Development

In order to have qualified service providers from a variety of disciplines (e.g., early childhood special education, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology) who are well-prepared to provide effective early intervention (EI), high quality professional development is needed that is easily accessed by service providers and enhances their abilities to implement specific, evidence-based intervention practices with children and families. Because of the family-centered nature of EI, service providers must be knowledgeable about how to support caregiver learning during EI visits, using practices that are grounded in adult learning theory. The case study research project described in this dissertation addresses those needs by outlining the development, facilitation, and evaluation of a brief multi-component, technology-mediated inservice training course entitled, Using Adult Learning Strategies to Support Caregivers during Early Intervention Visits. This training course included ongoing, embedded support and was provided for nine EI service providers who were currently practicing within the Infant and Toddler Connection of Virginia, the Commonwealth’s EI system. A within-subjects pre-posttest design was used to evaluate the 6-week training course to determine the effects of participation on: 1) service providers’ use of four EI adult learning strategies (e.g., reflective conversation, caregiver practice with feedback, collaborative problem-solving, and joint planning); 2) providers’ changes in knowledge about adult learning and how to apply the adult learning strategies during EI visits with families; and 3) providers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the multi-component, technology-mediated training course

Is Service Learning More or Less Effective than Traditional Face-to-Face Learning in Technology Education in the Community College Environment?

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Business and Public Affairs at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by David C. Childress on November 29, 2011

What’s the Matter with Jarrettsville? Genre Classification as an Opportunistic Construct

The study of genre classifications within creative industries typically orients  toward the maintenance of order within organizational and institutional contexts. This study takes up the case of Jarrettsville, a work of fiction published in the United States in Fall 2009 to highlight prevalent disorders and debates in the development of a work of fiction. What looks like a clear and ordered process of genre assignment after-the-fact may actually contain a wealth of negotiations, strategic practices, and decisions to be made. In short, the assignment of genres can be conflicted, debated and opportunistic. As a work of culture is transmuted into a piece of commerce, cultural workers must navigate the interplay between text and context, and sometimes with competing agendas. When texts don’t fit a preferred context, the text itself may change. And when the context of the texts’ fabrication as a piece of commerce does not fit the text, contexts must be mediated as well. This case study highlights these processes in action

Evolutions in the literary field: the co-constitutive forces of institutions, cognitions, and networks

"Using the case-study of Odyssey Editions, an e-book publishing imprint created by literary agent Andrew Wylie, this work examines recent developments in the U.S. literary field. In lieu of a technologically deterministic focus on the effects of digital transitions within the book industry, the evolution of relations within the field's interdependent network structure, shifts in cognitive approaches to tasks and roles, and fieldwide institutional orientations toward 'blockbuster' texts and 'brand-name' authors are highlighted. These three co-constitutive forces have created structural holes within the literary field that entrepreneurial players such as Wylie have worked to fill." (author's abstract

Ferromagnetic resonance force microscopy on microscopic cobalt single layer films

We report mechanical detection of ferromagnetic resonance signals from microscopic Co single layer thin films using a magnetic resonance force microscope (MRFM). Variations in the magnetic anisotropy field and the inhomogeneity of were clearly observed in the FMR spectra of microscopic Co thin films 500 and 1000 angstrom thick and 40 X 200 micron^2 in lateral extent. This demonstrates the important potential that MRFM detection of FMR holds for microscopic characterization of spatial distribution of magnetic properties in magnetic layered materials and devices.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTex. To be published in Applied Physics Letters, October 5, 199

The Production of Culture Perspective in Historical Research: Integrating the Production, Meaning and Reception of Symbolic Objects

Historians have analyzed films, novels, records, theater plays etc. primarily in reference to their meaning and reception. This article makes a case for moving the focus to the actors, structures and processes that shape symbolic objects before these are consumed. To this end, we present a framework established in US sociology to study the fabrication, distribution and evaluation of symbolic content. We discuss the production of culture perspective as an approach that appears to be particularly useful for historical research and, by reviewing selected works from the sociological literature, demonstrate how this perspective can be applied to phenomena like popular music and literary fiction. We focus on genres as bundles of conventions as one lens through which historians may analyze the creation, reproduction, evaluation and consumption of culture

Apparatus and method for improvised explosive device (IED) network analysis

PatentTools and apparatus are presented for identification and analysis of improvised explosive device (IED) networks, including data acquisition tools and techniques providing structured prompting and predefined answers for acquiring structured IED data reports in a streamlined fashion using uniform terminology with respect to IED components and/or structure, as well as analysis methodologies employing IED component level analysis with adjustable similarity correlation and IED attribute filtering to expeditiously identify likely IED networks using graphical renderings of IED locations in a given geolocation range of interest and connection indicators

Microscale swimming: The molecular dynamics approach

The self-propelled motion of microscopic bodies immersed in a fluid medium is studied using molecular dynamics simulation. The advantage of the atomistic approach is that the detailed level of description allows complete freedom in specifying the swimmer design and its coupling with the surrounding fluid. A series of two-dimensional swimming bodies employing a variety of propulsion mechanisms -- motivated by biological and microrobotic designs -- is investigated, including the use of moving limbs, changing body shapes and fluid jets. The swimming efficiency and the nature of the induced, time-dependent flow fields are found to differ widely among body designs and propulsion mechanisms.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures (minor changes to text