Rethinking Teacher Evaluation in Chicago

Presents findings from the Excellence in Teaching Pilot, which included training and support, classroom observations, and feedback in principal-teacher conferences. Examines implementation issues and the validity and reliability of observation ratings

Dwyer Google Migration

The IT staff at Dwyer Instruments encountered several issues when switching to use Google’s business technology services. These problems included lack of a button to open a new email draft with a PDF already attached, the timestamp function in Google Sheets displaying the current time instead of the time it was entered, duplicate Google Sheets spreadsheets not maintaining protected ranges, lack of a timeline chart in Google Sheets, inability to save Gmail searches, lack of event templates in Google Calendar, and lack of a workflow management tool in Google’s business technology suite. On site personnel were asked to communicate what would help smooth the transition to the G Suite. One challenge encountered was the difficulty in publishing G-Suite add-ons to Google’s online marketplace. Another challenge is presented by the lack of examples of G-Suite add-ons. This makes it tough to create add-ons since there are few resources to go off of. A G-Suite add-on was developed to create an in-page side window in Gmail and Drive to allow attachments from selected conversations or Drive files to be attached and sent with an email. A Google Sheets add-on was also developed in order to insert the current time into a selected cell. While some needs remain outstanding, but the project made significant progress toward solving some of their IT issues

Comparison of herbicide programs in imidazolinone tolerant corn

Field studies were conducted in 1998 at Jackson, Milan, Knoxville, and Spring Hill, Tennessee, to examine several herbicide programs for weed control in imidazolinone-tolerant corn. Field corn variety FFR 797 IMI was no-till or minimum-till planted at all locations. The treatments were replicated four times in a randomized block design. Treatments ranging from a PRE-only to PRE followed by postemergent (POST) to total POST applied to examine weed control, crop injury, and yield. Crop oil concentrate (COC) was combined with atrazine when applied POST, while nonionic surfactant was added to all other POST treatments. Visual evaluations were taken four weeks after treatment to evaluate control of broadleaf signalgrass (Brachiaria platyphylla (Griseb.) Nash), large crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop), Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri (S.) Wats), pitted morningglory (Ipomoea lacunosa L.), and sicklepod (Senna obtusifolia (L.) Irwin and Barnaby). None of the treatments controlled sicklepod at Milan due to high population density (600-5000 plants/m2). Imazethapyr + imazapyr + dicamba POST and atrazine + metolachlor PRE followed by prosulfuron + primisulfuron + nicosulfuron POST controlled these weeds while imazethapyr + imazapyr POST, imazethapyr + imazapyr + pendimethalin POST, and atrazine + metolachlor PRE followed by flumetsulam + clopyralid + nicosulfuron POST controlled all weeds \u3e86% except Palmer amaranth (\u3c67%). Imazethapyr + imazapyr + nicosulfuron POST failed to control Palmer amaranth and only controlled sicklepod 75% at Spring Hill. Atrazine + metolachlor PRE followed by nicosulfuron POST did not control Palmer amaranth and pitted morningglory but controlled all other weeds. Atrazine + metolachlor PRE followed by dicamba POST failed to control broadleaf signalgrass and pitted morningglory, but controlled large crabgrass, Palmer amaranth, and sicklepod. Imazethapyr + imazapyr + atrazine POST controlled all weeds except pitted morningglory (71%), while atrazine + crop oil concentrate controlled the dicot weeds but had little monocot activity. Nicosulfuron + rimsulfuron + atrazine POST controlled broadleaf signalgrass and Palmer amaranth, but only partially controlled pitted morningglory control. Sicklepod was controlled at Knoxville but not at Spring Hill by the mixture of these three herbicides. Although atrazine + metolachlor PRE controlled broadleaf signalgrass and sicklepod at Knoxville, the treatment did not control all other weeds at Jackson and Spring Hill. Corn yields were reduced at Milan from sicklepod competition. Yields were also low for treatments that did not provide adequate large crabgrass and Palmer amaranth control. Slight corn injury was observed but did not appear to influence corn yields

Factors affecting productivity of highway construction operations

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) presently schedules highway construction projects using past experience along with some production rates obtained from historical data. Just recently TDOT has changed the way contracts are awarded. In the past TDOT awarded contracts with a working day deadline. This style of contract lead to some unreasonably long project durations. In order to alleviate this problem, TDOT has decided to change contract deadlines to a calendar date, a type of contract which requires the contractor to complete the contract on or before a given date. With the new style of contract being used, TDOT has to be extremely confident in their scheduling techniques to avoid any unnecessary claims that may result if the scheduled time is too short. To aid in the development of improved scheduling techniques, TDOT funded a research project at the University of Tennessee to investigate 22 highway construction operationsThese tasks were chosen because they make up approximately 75 percent of the time duration on typical highway construction projects. This thesis concentrates on the factors affecting productivity of highway construction operations and presents a methodology for predicting productivity of cyclic operations which accounts for the various factors affecting productivity. Field data were collected for both cyclic and non-cyclic highway construction operations. The cyclic operations were tested using statistical analysis procedures in order to determine the most appropriate statistical model to use when predicting future production rates. The most appropriate model for use with highway construction cycle times was determined to be the lognormal distribution. After determining the most appropriate distribution, a predicted productivity rate (P95) was calculated with a 95 percent confidence level. It was found that there were several factors that affected the productivity of highway construction operations. Many of the operations were affected by more than one factor during an observationThe most often encountered factors were: delays, site conditions, resources, start-up and finishing-up operations, bunching effect, regional factors, and the amount of working days to calendar days. All of these factors are broken down further and examples are given in order to better explain how these factors affect the productivity of highway construction operations

A Symmetric Time-Varying Cluster Rate of Descent Model

A model of the time-varying rate of descent of the Orion vehicle was developed based on the observed correlation between canopy projected area and drag coefficient. This initial version of the model assumes cluster symmetry and only varies the vertical component of velocity. The cluster fly-out angle is modeled as a series of sine waves based on flight test data. The projected area of each canopy is synchronized with the primary fly-out angle mode. The sudden loss of projected area during canopy collisions is modeled at minimum fly-out angles, leading to brief increases in rate of descent. The cluster geometry is converted to drag coefficient using empirically derived constants. A more complete model is under development, which computes the aerodynamic response of each canopy to its local incidence angle

The Self-Appraisal of Masking Instrument

We explore mask-wearing behavior during the coronavirus pandemic using the Self-Appraisal of Masking Instrument (SAMI). We situate this survey-based instrument within a theory in which the decision to mask reflects social identity, an associated identity standard, and appraisals that generate feelings about oneself. Analyses of SAMI's empirical properties reveal that masking-specific emotional reactions are distinct from emotional reports related to current events and politics (discriminant validity). We also uncover evidence of predictive validity: expressed feelings about masking predict future voting more than 6 months later. We recommend SAMI to researchers interested in studying mask resistance in an increasingly polarized political climate, and the intuition behind SAMI could prove useful in other research contexts in which health decisions reflect a conscious comparison to standards held by those who share an identity or will otherwise pass judgment