Investigating the Acoustic Properties of Polymer Microspheres Suspended in Gelatin

Recent advancements in materials science have produced materials that exhibit properties with values outside of naturally observed ranges. These properties are driven by overlapping, low order resonant modes, and are limited to small response ranges close to harmonic frequencies. This study aims to see if the same properties can be recreated with high order resonant modes from distributions of small scatterers. A method for holding random distributions of scatterers in space was created, and two types of acoustic measurements were taken. Resonant frequencies and their scattering order were identified, and the resulting scattered fields were resolved

Human sexuality knowledge and attitudes among graduate social work students

The purpose of this research was to obtain empirical evidence regarding the knowledge and attitudes among graduate social work students. It examines the relationship between age, previous sex education, marital status and the amount of human sexuality knowledge

The Lived Experiences of Female Superintendents in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia

Although women actively seek advancement and constitute the majority of teachers in American public schools, they do not occupy many of the decision-making, administrative, or superintendency positions in education. This paper presents a perspective on the problem of women\u27s lack of progression from entry-level positions of leadership through superintendency. A qualitative, phenomenological methodology is used to illuminate the lived experiences of 16 women who were active in the position of American public school superintendent during the 2008-2009 academic year. The superintendents were of varied age, race, and family/marital status. The researcher describes the voice of women superintendents and their personal experiences through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of female superintendents who gave descriptions of their work lives, including their resilience and the obstacles they faced, in order to determine how female superintendents in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia were successful in obtaining their positions. This was accomplished through a series of interviews in three southeastern states with female superintendents who were either African American or Caucasian. Barriers to leadership opportunities for women and resilience factors were examined to help describe some of the reasons women continue to be underrepresented in the role of superintendent nationally and in these three southeastern states. Although gender discrimination affected most of the superintendents at some point, findings indicate that the most frequently stated barrier was conflicting career and family demands, and the most frequently stated strategy for success was networking. The interviews yielded insight into the actual experiences and commonalities of the females in superintendent positions. All female superintendents interviewed reported high job satisfaction, and all except one agreed they would make the decision to seek leadership and superintendency again. Each of the superintendents expressed having strong support systems; all 16 had mentors who encouraged them along the way, and they stated those relationships were vital for success at each stage of their career. Most stated that collaboration was the most effective style of leadership unless the situation required an authoritarian approach. Other important leadership characteristics included communication, vision, problem-solving, critical thinking and risk taking

Normative self-definitional minority influence: when innovation is valued

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references: p. 34-36.Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics.The goal of this study was to test a prediction of the normative self-definitional model of social influence: when a non-n of 1 innovation 's salient and se] f-relevant to person, a minority is more likely to attain influence compared to when a norm valuing the status quo or no norm is invoked, and that based on the salience and self-relevance of the innovative norm, the influence will occur through a relatively thoughtful cognitive process on the part of the recipient. Furthermore, when cued to think in an innovative versus a status quo fashion, these effects will be emphasized. Finally, based on group decision-making research, it was also expected that those valuing innovation would exhibit the most divergent and creative thought. An experiment using four different social issues was conducted in which participants were exposed to an innovative versus a status quo versus no norm, then presented with a minority source who held a counterattitudinal position, then given the opportunity to reinterpret the issue in an either innovative or status quo fashion that would 'justify the minority source's stance, and then were given an assessment of attitude change. Results were marginally supportive of the hypotheses with only one issue. As expected, participants valuing a norm of innovation reinterpreted the issue in an innovative, but not a status quo, fashion that allowed alignment with the minority source. Attitude change also followed this pattern, but was significant. A qualitative analysis revealed that most divergent and creative thought not significant This study does provide direction for additional investigation into the type of processing leading to social influence that arises from non-native, self-definitional pressures; however, due to the lack of robustness of the findings, further research will need to be conducted before any convincing conclusions can be drawn. Problems with the study are discussed and another study is proposed that addresses these issues

Significance of controlling crystallization mechanisms and kinetics in pharmaceutical systems

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34497/1/1_ftp.pd

Retinal nerve fiber layer photography as an indicator of nerve fiber integrity in ocular hypertensive subjects

To evaluate the usefulness of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) photography in the estimation of nerve fiber layer integrity in ocular hypertensive subjects; we examined 89 eyes of normal (59 eyes, 48 subjects), ocular hypertensive (26 eyes, 14 subjects), and glaucomatous (4 eyes, 2 subjects) patients. Preliminary studies included verification of the Statpac program for the Humphrey field analyzer, and establishing the method of nerve fiber layer photography sensitive enough to detect nerve fiber layer loss. The main study matched 14 ocular hypertensive subjects with 14 normal subjects. The subjects were matched by age(+/- 5 years), sex, and race. It was found that 2 of the 59 total normal eyes (3.4%) [ 2 of the 48 normal subjects (4.2%)]; 2 of the 15 matched normal eyes (13.3%) [2 of 14 matched normal subjects (14.3%)]; and 2 of 24 assessable ocular hypertensive eyes (8.3%) [2 of 13 subjects (15.4%)] showed suspected focal nerve fiber layer defects. None of our normal or ocular hypertensive subjects showed diffuse nerve fiber layer loss. We feel that retinal nerve fiber layer photography is a valuable indicator of nerve fiber layer integrity

“Everybody Worships”: Religious and Para-Religious Presences and Interactions in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest

This project analyzes the work of the author David Foster Wallace regarding how ideas of religion and spirituality inform and manifest in his writing. Two of Wallace’s most prominent works are examined in this project: his 1996 novel Infinite Jest and his 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, as well as corresponding materials to both works from Wallace’s archives at the University of Texas, Austin. From examining these texts using close reading and analysis as well as theories of both religion and narrative structure, I argue that Wallace’s engagement with religion and spirituality in his writing is a means of exploring the role of religion in an increasingly secular society dependent upon technology and entertainment. This project concludes that presences and interactions that are indicative of or informed by religion in Wallace’s work are often para-religious in nature, meaning that they are motivated by a human desire to interact with some kind of suprahuman power, but are ultimately fall short of delivering spiritual fulfillment that is characteristic of more traditional portrayals of religion in narrative