The Effects of Class Size on Student Achievement in Higher Education: Applying an Earnings Function

This paper uses an earnings function to model how class size affects the grade students earn. We test the model using an ordinal logit with and without fixed effects on 363,023 undergraduate observations. We find that class size negatively affects grades. Average grade point declines as class size increases, precipitously up to class sizes of ten, and more gradually but monotonically through class sizes of 400 plus. The probability of getting a B plus or better declines from 0.9 for class sizes 20 to about 0.5 for class sizes of 120 and almost 0.4 for class sizes of 400

Modeling views in the layered view model for XML using UML

In data engineering, view formalisms are used to provide flexibility to users and user applications by allowing them to extract and elaborate data from the stored data sources. Conversely, since the introduction of Extensible Markup Language (XML), it is fast emerging as the dominant standard for storing, describing, and interchanging data among various web and heterogeneous data sources. In combination with XML Schema, XML provides rich facilities for defining and constraining user-defined data semantics and properties, a feature that is unique to XML. In this context, it is interesting to investigate traditional database features, such as view models and view design techniques for XML. However, traditional view formalisms are strongly coupled to the data language and its syntax, thus it proves to be a difficult task to support views in the case of semi-structured data models. Therefore, in this paper we propose a Layered View Model (LVM) for XML with conceptual and schemata extensions. Here our work is three-fold; first we propose an approach to separate the implementation and conceptual aspects of the views that provides a clear separation of concerns, thus, allowing analysis and design of views to be separated from their implementation. Secondly, we define representations to express and construct these views at the conceptual level. Thirdly, we define a view transformation methodology for XML views in the LVM, which carries out automated transformation to a view schema and a view query expression in an appropriate query language. Also, to validate and apply the LVM concepts, methods and transformations developed, we propose a view-driven application development framework with the flexibility to develop web and database applications for XML, at varying levels of abstraction

Research, development and application of noncombustible Beta fiber structures

Beta fiber was selected as the primary material for flexible fibrous structures used in spacecraft and crew systems applications in the Apollo program because it was noncombustible in a 100 percent oxygen atmosphere up to 16.5 psia. It met NASA criteria for outgassing, toxicity, odor, and crew comfort, and possessed sufficient durability to last through the mission. Topics discussed include: study of spacecraft applications; design of Beta fiber textile structures to meet the requirements; selection of surface treatments (finishes, coatings, and printing systems) to impart the required durability and special functional use to the textile structures; development of sewing and fabrication techniques; and testing and evaluation programs, and development of production sources

The outcomes of family and consumer leadership education: creating positive change in disability policy and practice

Background When individuals with disabilities are trained in evidenced based practices and how to advocate for themselves and their families, they are best able to ensure that services and supports meet their needs and create and realize a positive vision for their future. Participants and procedure In New Hampshire in the United States a Leadership Series provided seven weekend training sessions to an annual cohort of about 25 family members and 10 adults with disabilities about better practices in service provision, defining a vision for the future, and community organizing and advocacy strategies, using informational sessions and participation in small work groups. Results A total of 100 participants completing the Series over a six-year period completed pre and post surveys consisting of both closed-ended and open-ended questions. Respondents reported highly significant increases in their knowledge about service provision and advocacy strategies, significant increases in their clarity of vision for six out of seven life domains, and significant increases in their membership in community organizations and frequency of advocacy activities. Conclusions The Leadership Series fostered increased efforts to create positive change in the lives of the participants and their family members with disabilities and in the services and supports provided to family members with disabilities

Self-Injurious Behavior Associated With Clonidine Withdrawal in a Child With Tourette's Disorder

A 7-year-old boy with Tourette's disorder, atypical pervasive developmental disorder, borderline mental retardation, and a history of self-injurious behavior was treated for 21 months with clonidine transdermal patches at doses ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 mg weekly. When withdrawn from clonidine over 4 weeks to assess the need for continued therapy, the patient developed multiple self-destructive behaviors involving the theme of suffocation. The importance of careful clinical monitoring of the behavior of patients undergoing withdrawal from prolonged treatment with high doses of clonidine is emphasized. (J Child Neurol 1990;5:308-310).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68074/2/10.1177_088307389000500406.pd

Alien Registration- Dillon, John E. (Brownville, Piscataquis County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/9883/thumbnail.jp

Master of Science

thesisSideline concussion assessments can prove difficult in situations where athletes claim to be asymptomatic and do not present with obvious cognitive deficit. More thorough neurocognitive assessments, such as Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT), can be difficult to administer on the sideline and are not always conclusive. The Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screen (VOMS) is designed to assess the vestibular and ocular symptomology of an individual suspected of suffering a concussion and has shown promising preliminary findings. This study sought to determine if the VOMS would correlate with current concussion assessment methods in acute settings. Participants were recruited from local high schools and included football athletes who sustained a suspected concussion. Athletes suspected of a concussion were administered a subsection of the VOMS before other concussion assessment methods. Results were compared to the Standardized Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT 3) and ImPACT tests to determine the ability of the VOMS to assess the presence of concussion in acute situations. It was hypothesized the VOMS would correlate with concussion evaluations and lend more support to the diagnosis. Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) analysis and Phi correlations were conducted. The study concluded with a sample of 11 athletes evaluated for suspected concussion with five concussions diagnosed through assessments other than the VOMS. Our study findings revealed that relationship and diagnostic ability were evident regarding specific symptoms within individual tests, which comprises the VOMS. However, the subset of the VOMS utilized for this test did not prove to be a viable test metric to determine the presence of an acute concussion. Interestingly, significant relationships and diagnostic capability were identified within this tested subset of the VOMS, specifically regarding concussion suspicion when fogginess and dizziness are present. Further research is warranted to determine if these findings can be used in a diagnostic capacity, though at minimum, our study findings provide a basis for increased clinical suspicion of concussion when these symptoms are present

An Ethic of Love: A Frommean Critique of Education

This dissertation is centrally concerned with the ways in which Erich Fromm’s critical analysis of society can be applied to education, specifically looking at the ways in which Fromm’s conceptualizations of freedom, ethics, and love can be used both to critique education and to provide an alternative vision of education through an ethic of love. With its focus on humanization and freedom, critical pedagogy offers a powerful critique, but its liberatory potential has yet to be fully realized, largely because of the ways in which critical theory has been engaged in the work of critical pedagogy. Fromm’s work offers a necessary complication to critical pedagogy through his analysis of the psychological and emotional dimensions of authentic humanization. Combining the liberatory aims of critical pedagogy with Fromm’s work enables us to reveal how schooling functions to perpetuate negative freedom, to propose a universal ethic or moral vision for critical educational studies, and to engage in a critical humanizing praxis. Ultimately, the hope of this project is to show how a more complex understanding of freedom that centers a critical theory of love allows us to develop a pedagogical framework where education as the practice of positive freedom becomes synonymous with teaching as an ethic of love

Hearing voices, dissociation and the self: a functional-analytic perspective

Item does not contain fulltextIn the current paper, we review existing models of the aetiology of voice hearing. We summarise the argument and evidence that voice hearing is primarily a dissociative process, involving critical aspects of self. We propose a complementary perspective on these phenomena that is based on a modern behavioural account of complex behaviour, known as Relational Frame Theory (RFT). This type of approach to voice hearing concerns itself with: the functions served for the individual by this voice hearing; the necessary history, such as trauma, that establishes these functions; and the relevant dissociative processes involving self and others. In short, we propose a trauma-dissociation developmental trajectory in which trauma impacts negatively on the development of self, through the process of dissociation. Using the RFT concept of relations of perspective-taking, our dissociation model purports that trauma gives rise to more co-ordination than distinction relations between self and others, thus weaking an individual's sense of a distinct self. Voice hearing experiences, therefore, reflect an individual's perceptions of self and others, and may indicate impairments in the natural psychological boundaries between these critical related concepts. One clinical implication suggested by this model is that therapeutic 'intervention' should understand the behaviours associated with a sense of self that is fragile and threatened by others. Relations with self and others should be a key focus of therapy, as well as interventions designed to enhance a coherent distinct sense of self.20 p

A Gang Of Pirates : The Confederate Lighthouse Raids in Southeast

In July of 1861, three months after Confederate gunners opened fire on Fort Sumter igniting the Civil War, a distinguished group of United States Army, Navy, and civilian officials met in Washington, DC. These men, Flag Officer Samuel F. DuPont, Commander Charles H. Davis, Major John G. Barnard, and Superintendent Alexander D. Bache of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, had been appointed by the Navy Department as a blockade board to study the geography and topography of the southern coastline, the state of Federal naval resources and manpower, and the strategic and tactical plans necessary to make President Lincoln’s frequently ridiculed blockade of the Confederate States a reality. Meeting throughout the summer and early fall, the board prepared a series of reports giving detailed descriptions of the Confederate shore and recommending the division of blockading forces into sections. Commenting on the southern Atlantic coast of Florida in their July 26 report, the board dismissed the region with the statement that it “can hardly be said to be inhabited, and is of no great consequence except as a convenient place of resort for pirates.“ Although this statement reflected the common perception of southeast Florida during the mid-nineteenth century, events would soon prove it notably shortsighted