Development Of A Test And Establishment Of A Cut Score For The National Fire Academy Chemistry Of Hazardous Materials Course

The purpose of this Major Applied Research Project (MARP) was to develop a valid and reliable test instrument and to establish a reasonable cut score for the National Fire Academy\u27s (NFA) Chemistry of Hazardous Materials course final exam. In addition, a test technical manual was written based on the American Psychological Association\u27s Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. 1985. There were nine research questions addressed in this MARP: (1) Were test development procedures based on correct educational methodology? (2) Does the test have content validity? (3) Does the test have domain validity? (4) Has an optimal cut score for the test been achieved? (5) Does the test have decision validity? (6) Does the test have threshold loss function reliability? (7) Does the test have internal consistency reliability? (8) Are the test items effective? and (9) ls the technical manual for the test clear, accurate, and complete? Nine classes of the Chemistry of Hazardous Materials course were selected by the NFA Assistant Superintendent for Leadership and Hazardous Materials to participate in this study. The classes were selected because they were scheduled to be conducted during the timeframe of this MARP. The total number of students was 221. Five classes were pretested and posttested and four classes were posttested only. The selection of which classes to pretest was by random drawing. The development process included writing educational objectives and test questions to create a criterion-referenced test. Specific procedures were used to ensure the test\u27s validity and reliability. The types of validity and reliability were content validity, decision validity, threshold loss function reliability and internal consistency reliability. The optimal cur score was selected empirically based on the test results of instructed and uninstructed students using the criterion groups validation model. Item analysis procedures included sensitivity to instructional effects calculations, revise of test items for bias, and student feedback on the questions. The test technical manual was written based on applicable APA standards. Finally the development procedures were conducted by the NFA development team which consisted of three people. The work of the development team was evaluated by eleven individuals. The findings indicate that the test instrument was developed on correct educational methodology and is valid and reliable for the purpose of the instrument. Specifically the test has item, sampling, and domain validity. The test has 96 percent decision validity and a false positive error rate of .008 and a false negative error rate of .024 based on the optimal cut score of 70. The Pₒ reliability index is .974, the KR-21 is .839, and the standard error of measure around the cut score is +/- 3 points. All the test questions have a positive sensitivity to instructional effects score and the items are free of bias, and did not confuse the students. Finally, the test technical manual has completeness, accuracy, and clarity. A total of seven recommendations were made. The first three are that the test be used as the final exam in the Chemistry of Hazardous Materials course with a passing score of 70 and that the test technical manual be distributed to all Chemistry of Hazardous Materials faculty. The remaining four recommendations are more future oriented. Future test data should be stored in the computer database and additional psychometric analysis conducted. Finally, it was recommended that the procedures used for this study be applied to other NFA test instruments and that future course development projects include test validity and reliability procedures using this study as a model

Effects of Demographics and Attitudes on WTP for Fuel Import Reductions through Ethanol Purchases

imported fuel, willingness to pay, Marketing,

Willingness to Pay for Emission Reductions with E85

This study examines consumers' WTP for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from E85 as opposed to gasoline. Data were collected via a contingent choice exercise in a 2009 national online survey. As part of the fuel choice exercise, several fuel attributes were allowed to vary including emission reductions, import level, proximity of fuel availability, price, and fuel blend (E85 or regular gasoline). A random parameters model with demographics and attitudes interacted with emission reductions was estimated. The resulting estimates suggest that, overall the WTP for an emission reduction is not statistically significant. However, for some demographic and attitudinal profiles, the WTP is significant. An example profile includes younger age, female, concerned about climate change, not supportive of additional drilling, supportive of farmland being used for fuel, own or are likely to own a FlexFuel vehicle, and primary vehicle not an SUV.Willingness to Pay, Emission Reductions, E85, Consumer/Household Economics, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q41, Q51,

Competitive Bidding as a Means of Extracting and Demonstrating Farmer Willingness-to-Grow an Alternative Crop

Switchgrass has been identified as a model renewable energy feedstock. This article describes a project to evaluate the feasibility of producing a switchgrass crop in Tennessee dedicated to energy production. An unusual feature of this research/demonstration project is its use of a competitive bidding process to elicit estimates of the willingness of Tennessee producers to displace traditional crops with switchgrass. One goal of this process was to supplement survey data with real world information that would increase the credibility of the project\u27s results among potential market participants. This approach may prove interesting to readers faced with dwindling experiment station resources

The distance and neutral environment of the massive stellar cluster Westerlund 1

The goal of this study is to determine a distance to Westerlund 1 independent of the characteristics of the stellar population and to study its neutral environment, using observations of atomic hydrogen. The HI observations are taken from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey to study HI absorption in the direction of the HII region created by the members of Westerlund 1 and to investigate its environment as observed in the HI line emission. A Galactic rotation curve was derived using the recently revised values for the Galactic centre distance of $R_\odot = 7.6$ kpc, and the velocity of the Sun around the Galactic centre of $\Theta_\odot = 214$ km s$^{-1}$. The newly determined rotation model leads us to derive a distance of $3.9\pm 0.7$ kpc to Westerlund 1, consistent with a location in the Scutum-Crux Arm. Included in this estimate is a very careful investigation of possible sources of error for the Galactic rotation curve. We also report on small expanding HI features around the cluster with a maximum dynamic age of 600,000 years and a larger bubble which has a minimum dynamic age of 2.5 million years. Additionally we re-calculated the kinematic distances to nearby HII regions and supernova remnants based on our new Galaxic rotation curve. We propose that in the early stages of the development of Wd 1 a large interstellar bubble of diameter about 50 pc was created by the cluster members. This bubble has a dynamic age similar to the age of the cluster. Small expanding bubbles, with dynamical ages $\sim 0.6$ Myr are found around Wd 1, which we suggest consist of recombined material lost by cluster members through their winds.Comment: 8 pages, accepted for publication in A&

Factors Influencing Consumer Likelihood of Purchasing a Flexible-Fuel or Hybrid Automobile

Developing fuels and vehicles that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels has become a priority due to the threat of global climate change and desire for reduced dependence on oil imports. Flexible-fuel vehicles that can run on ethanol/gasoline blends of up to 85% ethanol and hybrid electric vehicles present two such opportunities. While production of both flexible-fuel and hybrid vehicles is increasing, there is still a great deal of uncertainty about how consumers will respond to these products. To address this uncertainty, data was collected through an online survey of automobile owners that asked respondents how likely they were to choose either a flexible-fuel or hybrid vehicle as their next vehicle. A bivariate probit model was used to jointly analyze responses to these two questions. The results show that, while there was some overlap in the factors correlated with perceived likelihood of choosing one of these two types of automobiles, there were also clear differences. These results should benefit policymakers, marketers and academics seeking a better understanding of the respective markets for these vehicles.flexible-fuel vehicles, ethanol, E85, hybrid electric vehicles, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Analysis of Factors Affecting Farmers’ Willingness to Adopt Switchgrass Production

In the United States, biomass is the largest source of renewable energy accounting for over 3 percent of the energy consumed domestically and is currently the only source for liquid, renewable, transportation fuels. Continued development of biomass as a renewable energy source is being driven in large part by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which mandates that by 2022 at least 36 billion gallons of fuel ethanol be produced, with at least 16 billion gallons being derived from cellulose, hemi-cellulose, or lignin. However, the market for cellulosic biofuels is still under development. As such, little is known about producer response to feedstock prices paid for dedicated energy crops. While there have been some studies done on factors that determine farmers’ willingness to produce switchgrass, these have been very regional in nature. This study will provide information regarding potential switchgrass adoption by agricultural producers in twelve southeastern states. The objectives of this research are 1) to determine the likelihood of farmers growing switchgrass as a biomass feedstock and the acres they would be willing to devote to switchgrass production and 2) to evaluate some of the factors that are likely to influence these decisions, including the price of switchgrass.Switchgrass, Farmer Adoption, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q12, Q16,

Shocked molecular hydrogen towards the Tornado nebula

We present near-infrared and millimetre-line observations of the Tornado nebula (G357.7-0.1). We detected 2.12 micron_m H2 1-0 S(1) line emission towards the suspected site of interaction with a molecular cloud revealed by the presence of an OH(1720 MHz) maser. The distribution of the H2 emission is well correlated with the nonthermal radio continuum emission from the Tornado, and the velocity of the H2 emission spans over 100 km/s, which both imply that the H2 emission is shock excited. We also detected millimetre-lines from 12CO and 13CO transitions at the velocity of the maser, and mapped the distribution of the molecular cloud in a 2 x 2 arcmin^2 region around the maser. The peak of the molecular cloud aligns well with an indentation in the nebula's radio continuum distribution, suggesting that the nebula's shock is being decelerated at this location, which is consistent with the presence of the OH(1720 MHz) maser and shocked H2 emission at that location.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, minor changes, accepted to MNRA

Data resource profile: the Scottish Social Care Survey (SCS) and the Scottish Care Home Census (SCHC)

Introduction: Linked health care datasets have been used effectively in Scotland for some time. Use of social care data has been much more limited, partly because responsibility for these services is distributed across multiple local authorities. However, there are substantial interactions between health and social care (also known internationally as long-term care) services, and keen policy interest in better understanding these. We introduce two social care resources that can now be linked to health datasets at a population level across Scotland to study these interdependencies. These data emerge from the Scottish Government’s centralised collation of data from mandatory returns provided by local authorities and care homes. Methods: Deterministic and Probabilistic methods were used to match the Social Care Survey (SCS) and Scottish Care Home Census (SCHC) to the Community Health Index (CHI) number via the National Records of Scotland (NRS) Research Indexing Spine. Results: For the years 2010/11 to 2015/16, an overall match rate of 91.2% was achieved for the SCS to CHI from 31 of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas. This rate varied from 76.7% to 98.5% for local authority areas. A match rate of 89.8% to CHI was achieved for the SCHC in years 2012/13 to 2015/16 but only 52.5% for the years 2010/11 to 2011/12. Conclusion: Indexing of the SCS and SCHC to CHI offers a new and rich resource of data for health and social care research