Personal perspective on education

In order to meet the challenges of educational administration, effective leaders must understand the culture of the school, model a passion for excellence, empower the stake holders, have a sense of commitment to a shared vision, and look to the future acting with integrity that heightens the value of character. Being an administrator or manager is not enough. Today\u27s school leaders are shouldered with unending responsibilities that challenge their abilities every day. By utilizing multiple forms of leadership along with empowerment the tasks and goals set by our society can be accomplished

Forgiveness in Education: A Qualitative Analysis of the Forgiveness Experience for Educators

Forgiveness is as powerful as it is complex. Evaluating how teachers understand and practice forgiveness has potential applications within broader forgiveness theory as well as more practically in discussions of both teacher health related to practicing forgiveness and student learning of forgiveness. The present study sought to gather qualitative insights related to teacher understanding of forgiveness, teacher practice of forgiveness within their jobs, and teacher opinions on forgiveness education. A total of six semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with groups of two to four public school teachers. Results indicated that there is variety in understanding amongst teachers of what forgiveness is or what it looks like in practice. Also, that teachers recognize that they practice forgiveness regularly in their jobs, with students, administrators, parents of students, and coworkers in a variety of situations. Finally, that teachers feel forgiveness education would be beneficial for students, but that another organized curriculum could be overload for most teachers. Recommendations for how forgiveness education could be more effectively enacted were offered and are summarized in the results and discussion. Implications for these results include applications to future forgiveness education pursuits, further contributions to forgiveness theory, and encouragement for teacher training in forgiveness, both for their own health and for consequential student learning

Functional Design of Structural Firefighter Clothing Systems for Improved Comfort

Over 50% of firefighter injuries and fatalities are due to heat exhaustion. To reduce incidents of heat strain and improve the comfort of structural firefighter turnout suits, the functional design process was used. Specifically, such tools as an interaction matrix and digital logic decision making tables further informed the incorporation of multiple design specifications for improved functionality. Design modifications explored included clothing ventilation, systems modularity, strategic layer reductions, and air gap volume analysis (using 3D body scanning). Full garment prototypes were developed and evaluated for manikin total heat loss (THL) according to ASTM F 1291 and 2370. Physiological responses were predicted using human thermal modeling software. Results demonstrated increased manikin THL for the modular, vented, and revolutionary turnout prototypes, compared to a control suit. Predicted physiological responses also demonstrated meaningful benefits for these prototype suits. Further research is necessary on the human wear level to measure the physiological responses of firefighters

Evaluation of a Modular Layering Approach for Heat Loss Improvement in Structural Firefighter Turnout Garments

Heat stress, due to overprotection, is an important cause of firefighter fatalities in specific working conditions (Rossi 2005). There are two vital, yet contradictory factors, which play a role in the heat stress a firefighter experiences. The multi-layer construction of firefighter turnouts hinders the ability of heat loss to occur by increasing thermal insulation and evaporative resistance. e development of a modular approach was evaluated by eliminating specific layers, to analyze their specific contribution to heat strain in certain working conditions, where threat of heat and flame are not present. The results presented here focused on the thermal comfort and heat strain aspects of a modular solution

Nucleosynthesis: Stellar and Solar Abundances and Atomic Data

Abundance observations indicate the presence of often surprisingly large amounts of neutron capture (i.e., s- and r-process) elements in old Galactic halo and globular cluster stars. These observations provide insight into the nature of the earliest generations of stars in the Galaxy -- the progenitors of the halo stars -- responsible for neutron-capture synthesis. Comparisons of abundance trends can be used to understand the chemical evolution of the Galaxy and the nature of heavy element nucleosynthesis. In addition age determinations, based upon long-lived radioactive nuclei abundances, can now be obtained. These stellar abundance determinations depend critically upon atomic data. Improved laboratory transition probabilities have been recently obtained for a number of elements. These new gf values have been used to greatly refine the abundances of neutron-capture elemental abundances in the solar photosphere and in very metal-poor Galactic halo stars. The newly determined stellar abundances are surprisingly consistent with a (relative) Solar System r-process pattern, and are also consistent with abundance predictions expected from such neutron-capture nucleosynthesis.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. To appear in the Proceedings of the NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop in Las Vegas, NV (February 2006

Siege Mentality: Current and Past Conflicts

Students will research all about sieges. Students will reiterate creatively what they learned

Non-destructive Characterizations of Natural Yarns and Fabrics

Textiles, next to skin, are an integral part of our lives, govern the skin microclimate, and contribute to our comfort and health. Over the years, natural and synthetic textiles have dominated the industry in diverse application areas. However, when it comes to the sustainability of the raw materials or products, processes, and the environment, the natural polymers or fibers will always dominate the preference. One of the many natural fibers, cotton fiber is the most popular and widely used one, leading to many fundamental researches in the fields of polymers, fibers, fabrics, their manufacturing processes and finishing, as well as in product characterizations and performance evaluations. To-date, most textile-characterization techniques involve processes which compromise the morphology of the textiles being tested, and are mostly destructive. In this chapter, a few novel non-destructive characterizations of textiles, made from natural fibers (specifically cotton), will be discussed which involve X-ray micro-computed tomographic (XRM-CT) three-dimensional (3D) image analysis. Tomographic characterizations allow the investigation of both the surface profiles and the inner construction of the textiles without compromising the morphology. The findings discussed in this chapter will assist in non-destructive characterizations and performance evaluations of other diverse material classes as well

The ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey. III. Distribution and Kinematics of Emission-Line Galaxies

We have studied the frequency of occurrence, the kinematics and the spatial distribution of Emission-Line Galaxies (ELG) in clusters in the ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey (ENACS). More than 90% of the ELG are spirals, but the ELG represent only 30% of all spirals. The true ELG fraction in clusters is 0.10; this is consistent with that in the field (0.21) as a result of differences in morphological mix. The average ELG fraction decreases with increasing velocity dispersion of the cluster. Only 1/5 of the clusters shows a significant difference in the average velocities of the ELG and the other (non-ELG) galaxies; in a similar fraction of the clusters significant differences in velocity dispersion are seen. Yet, the velocity dispersion of the ELG is, on average, 20% larger than that of the non-ELG. This larger velocity dispersion is largely intrinsic, i.e. it is not likely to be the result of velocity offsets of the ELG. The surface density of the ELG is significantly less peaked towards the centre than that of the non-ELG. The ELG are distributed fairly smoothly within the cluster with at most 25% in compact substructures. The distribution and kinematics of the ELG yield virial mass estimates that, on average, are 50% higher than those based on the non-ELG. This probably means that the ELG are on more radial orbits than the non-ELG. All observed properties of the ELG are consistent with most of them being on their first approach of the high-density cluster core.Comment: 23 LaTeX pages, 13 figures, to be published in A&A; uuencoded compressed ps file also available at ftp://132.229.8.14

An overt chemical protective garment reduces thermal strain compared with a covert garment in warm-wet but not hot-dry environments

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Frontiers Media. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.00913© 2017 Maley, Costello, Borg, Bach, Hunt and Stewart. Objectives: A commercial chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) protective covert garment has recently been developed with the aim of reducing thermal strain. A covert CBRN protective layer can be worn under other clothing, with equipment added for full chemical protection when needed. However, it is unknown whether the covert garment offers any alleviation to thermal strain during work compared with a traditional overt ensemble. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare thermal strain and work tolerance times during work in an overt and covert ensemble offering the same level of CBRN protection. Methods: Eleven male participants wore an overt (OVERT) or covert (COVERT) CBRN ensemble and walked (4 km·h-1, 1% grade) for a maximum of 120 min in either a wet bulb globe temperature [WBGT] of 21, 30, or 37°C (Neutral, WarmWet and HotDry, respectively). The trials were ceased if the participants' gastrointestinal temperature reached 39°C, heart rate reached 90% of maximum, walking time reached 120 min or due to self-termination. Results: All participants completed 120 min of walking in Neutral. Work tolerance time was greater in OVERT compared with COVERT in WarmWet (P 0.05). Conclusion: Those dressed in OVERT experienced lower thermal strain and longer work tolerance times compared with COVERT in a warm-wet environment. However, COVERT may be an optimal choice in a hot-dry environment. These findings have practical implications for those making decisions on the choice of CBRN ensemble to be used during work.This project is financially supported by the Australian Government, managed by the National Security Science and Technology Centre within the Defence Science and Technology Organization, and the US Government through the Technical Support Working Group within the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office.Published versio

Study of the Dependency on Magnetic Field and Bias Voltage of an AC-Biased TES Microcalorimeter

At SRON we are studying the performance of a Goddard Space Flight Center single pixel TES microcalorimeter operated in an AC bias configuration. For x-ray photons at 6 keV the pixel shows an x-ray energy resolution Delta E(sub FWHM) = 3.7 eV, which is about a factor 2 worse than the energy resolution observed in an identical DC-biased pixel. In order to better understand the reasons for this discrepancy we characterized the detector as a function of temperature, bias working point and applied perpendicular magnetic field. A strong periodic dependency of the detector noise on the TES AC bias voltage is measured. We discuss the results in the framework of the recently observed weak-link behaviour of a TES microcalorimeter