Placing Students in Writing Classes: One University’s Experience with a Modified Version of DSP

This article discusses our university’s attempt to analyze whether our system of First Year Writing placement serves the needs of our diverse student body. The theory behind Directed Self Placement (DSP) is appealing, so our program adopted a modified version of it, and after several years, decided to evaluate it quantitatively. The authors, a First Year Writing professor and a psychologist trained in statistical analysis, teamed up to gather and analyze data. We sorted our sample by course grade, standardized test scores, gender, race, and prior course grades, running regressions and searching for correlations between these data and our DSP matrix. Our research shows that DSP in the modified form of our placement matrix does not predict student success as measured by First Year Writing grades as well as simple standardized test scores do. Though placing students using test scores alone has limitations, we conclude that DSP, at least in the simplified form in which we use it, does not correct for these limitations, and therefore is not preferable

Tiyatroyla Düşünmek

Özet Türkiye’de Cumhuriyet döneminde bir ödenekli tiyatro çatısı altında sunulan ilk çocuk oyunu 1.Ekim 1935 de İstanbul Belediyesi Şehir Tiyatrolarında sergilenen “İlk Tiyatro Dersi” adlı oyundur. Bu oyun, ülkemizin büyük bir bağımsızlık savaşından çıktığı, tüm kurumlarıyla, kuruluşlarıyla yeniden yapılanma sürecinde olduğu bir dönemde sahnelenmiştir. Amaç, ülkemizde yaşanan bu değişim sürecinin çocuklara gösterilmesi ve daha da önemlisi benimsetilmesidir. Türkiye’de Çocuk Tiyatrosu aynı SSCB’de olduğu gibi resmi ideolojinin çocuklara benimsetilmesi, bir başka deyişle modernleşme sürecinde sanatın –tiyatronun – gücünden yararlanılması amacıyla kurulmuştur. Bu çalışmada Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet’e geçiş sürecinde sahnelenen bir çocuk oyununda, Modernizmin ne şekilde algılandığı ve yansıtıldığı üzerinde durulacaktır. Sergilenen bu oyunla ilgili elimizde bugün oyun metni dışında herhangi belge, kayıt bulunmamaktadır. Metin, hiçbir kısaltma değişiklik yapılmadığı varsayılarak oynandığı dönemle ilgili sosyal ve politik yapısı ile koşutluk kurulmaya çalışılarak, incelenecektir

Effect of bending rigidity in a dynamic model of a polyurethane prosthetic mitral valve

We investigate the behaviour of a dynamic fluid–structure interaction model of a chorded polyurethane mitral valve prosthesis, focusing on the effects on valve dynamics of including descriptions of the bending stiffnesses of the valve leaflets and artificial chordae tendineae. Each of the chordae is attached at one end to the valve annulus and at the other to one of two chordal attachment points. These attachment points correspond to the positions where the chords of the real prosthesis would attach to the left-ventricular wall, although in the present study, these attachment points are kept fixed in space to facilitate comparison between our simulations and earlier results obtained from an experimental test rig. In our simulations, a time-dependent pressure difference derived from experimental measurements drives flow through the model valve during diastole and provides a realistic pressure load during systole. In previous modelling studies of this valve prosthesis, the valve presents an unrealistically large orifice at beginning of diastole and does not close completely at the end of diastole. We show that including a description of the chordal bending stiffness enables the model valve to close properly at the end of the diastolic phase of the cardiac cycle. Valve over-opening is eliminated only by incorporating a description of the bending stiffnesses of the valve leaflets into the model. Thus, bending stiffness plays a significant role in the dynamic behaviour of the polyurethane mitral valve prosthesis