Application of automobile emission control technology to light piston aircraft engines

The possibility was evaluated for achieving the EPA Standards for HC and CO emissions through the use of air-fuel ratio enleanment at selected power modes combined with improved air-fuel mixture preparation, and in some cases improved cooling. Air injection was also an effective approach for the reduction of HC and CO, particularly when combined with exhaust heat conservation techniques such as exhaust port liners

Tracing baryons in the warm-hot intergalactic medium with broad Ly alpha absorption

We discuss physical properties and baryonic content of broad Ly alpha absorbers (BLAs) at low redshift. These absorption systems, recently discovered in high-resolution, high-signal to noise quasar absorption line spectra, possibly trace the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) in the temperature range between 10^5 and 10^6 K. To extend previous BLA measurements we have analyzed STIS data of the two quasars H 1821+643 and PG 0953+415 and have identified 13 BLA candidates along a total (unblocked) redshift path of dz=0.440. Combining our measurements with previous results for the lines of sight toward PG 1259+593 and PG 1116+215, the resulting new BLA sample consists of 20 reliably detected systems as well as 29 additional tentative cases, implying a BLA number density of dN/dz=22-53. We estimate that the contribution of BLAs to the baryon density at z=0 is Omega_b(BLA)>0.0027 h_70^-1 for absorbers with log (N/b)>11.3. This number indicates that WHIM broad Ly alpha absorbers contain a substantial fraction of the baryons in the local Universe. (Abridged abstract)Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures; Accepted for publication in A&

Principles of practice in teacher education and performance standards

In a previous opinion piece (The Professional Educator, May 2013) I explained why professional practice cannot be broken down to sets of competencies as in trades’ training, which is why we speak of teacher education rather than training: I suggested that the number of variables and context means we can never be sure of the effectiveness or outcomes of any strategy; but this does not mean that it is not possible to identify and teach sets of strategies that teachers can apply according to their professional judgement of what will work best in any given instance..

Action Inquiry

I was being interviewed for a research project for which I had tendered with an action research approach..

The ideology of educational research

For too long it has been assumed that the shortcomings and failures of educational systems can be understood in terms of the inadequacies, obstinacies and motivations of individuals…More trust can be placed in approaches which, while recognising the contribution of personal characteristics, lay their major emphasis on the way in which individuals are constrained by the roles which the structure and traditions of the system define for them. (Taylor et al, 1974

Critical theory and educational research

This paper explores the concept of 'socially critical' research in education as this term is used in action research. The paper takes a critical incident from a mathematics lesson reported by a teacher in her journal. An analysis is presented of this observation and the teacher's subsequent reflection on the incident in dialogue with the writer. This incident is used to exemplify methodological principles of this research approach, which are briefly outlined at the beginning of the paper

Emerging from the MIST: A Connector Tool for Supporting Programming by Non-programmers

Software development is an iterative process. As user re-quirements emerge software applications must be extended to support the new requirements. Typically, a programmer will add new code to an existing code base of an application to provide a new functionality. Previous research has shown that such extensions are easier when application logic is clearly separated from the user interface logic. Assuming that a programmer is already familiar with the existing code base, the task of writing the new code can be considered to be split into two sub-tasks: writing code for the application logic; that is, the actual functionality of the application; and writing code for the user interface that will expose the functionality to the end user. The goal of this research is to reduce the effort required to create a user interface once the application logic has been created, toward supporting scientists with minimal pro-gramming knowledge to be able to create and modify pro-grams. Using a Model View Controller based architecture, various model components which contain the application logic can be built and extended. The process of creating and extending the views (user interfaces) on these model components is simplified through the use of our Malleable Interactive Software Toolkit (MIST), a tool set an infrastructure intended to simplify the design and extension of dynamically reconfigurable interfaces. This paper focuses on one tool in the MIST suite, a connec-tor tool that enables the programmer to evolve the user interface as the application logic evolves by connecting related pieces of code together; either through simple drag-and-drop interactions or through the authoring of Python code. The connector tool exemplifies the types of tools in the MIST suite, which we expect will encourage collabora-tive development of applications by allowing users to inte-grate various components and minimizing the cost of de-veloping new user interfaces for the combined compo-nents

Acting In Loco Parentis as a Defense to Assault and Battery

An offer to use force to the injury of another is an assault, and the use of that force is a battery, which usually includes an assault. An assault and battery upon the person of another may be a criminal act. Courts generally hold, however, that a parent or one in loco parentis may inflict disciplinary corporal punishment upon a child without becoming criminally liable