Resisting Tropes, Inserting Selves: An Interpretative Biographical Analysis Of The Life Writings Of Mixed Race Women Writers

This thesis focuses on the patterns of racial formation, and epistemological points of entry that are salient to the mulatta experience in the United States, through the use of life writings. The results gleaned from this research are utilized to problematize revived political and social assertions of a post-feminist, post-racist United States

Advanced Thermodynamic Analyses of Energy Intensive Building Mechanical Systems

A review of past research reveals that while exergetic analysis has been performed on various building mechanical systems, there has not been extensive efforts in the areas of air distribution systems or cooling plants. Motivations for this new work include demonstrating the merits of exergetic analysis in association with retrocommissioning (RCX) an existing building air handling unit (AHU), as well as conducting an advanced analysis on an existing chiller. The following research demonstrates the benefits of including a second law analysis in order to improve equipment operation based on lowered energy consumption and improved operation, and as a means for system health monitoring. Particularly, exergetic analysis is not often performed in the context of RCX, therefore this research will provide insight to those considering incorporating exergetic analysis in their RCX assessments. A previously developed RCX test for assessing an AHU on a college campus, as well as data collected from the testing is utilized for an advanced thermodynamic analysis. The operating data is analyzed using the first and second laws of thermodynamics and subsequent recommendations are made for retrofit design solutions to improve the system performance and occupant comfort. The second law analysis provides beneficial information for determining retrofit solutions with minimal additional data collection and calculations. The thermodynamic methodology is then extended to a building\u27s cooling plant which utilizes a vapor compression refrigeration cycle (VCRC) chiller. Existing chiller operational data is processed and extracted for use in this analysis. As with the air handling unit analysis, the second law analysis of the VCRC chiller provides insight on irreversibility locations that would not necessarily be determined from a first law analysis. The VCRC chiller data, originally collected several years ago for the design of an automated fault detection and diagnosis methodology, is utilized. Chiller plant data representing normal operation, as well as faulty operation is used to develop a chiller model for assessing component performance and health monitoring. Based on RCX activities and thermodynamic analyses, conclusions are drawn on the utility of using exergetic analysis in energy intensive building mechanical systems in order to improve system operation. Unique models are developed using the software program Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The models developed are shown to properly predict performance of the systems as well as serve as a means of system health monitoring. The results show the utility of the model and illustrate system performance

Next Generation Teaching and Learning ??? Technologies and Trends

The landscape of teaching and learning has been radically shifted in the last 15 years by the advent of web technologies, which enabled the emergence of Learning Management Systems (LMS). These systems changed the educational paradigm by extending the classroom borders, capturing and persisting course content and giving instructors more flexibility and access to students and other resources. However, they also constrained and limited the evolution of teaching and learning by imposing a traditional, instructional framework. With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, participation and collaboration have become predominant experiences on the Web. The teaching and learning community, as a whole, has been late to capitalize on these technologies in the classroom. Part of this trend is due to constraints in the technology (LMS), and part is due to the fact that participatory media tools require an additional shift in educational paradigms, from instructional, on-the-pulpit type of teaching, to a student-centered, adaptive environment where students can contribute to the course material and learn from one another. This panel will discuss the next generation of teaching and learning, involving more lightweight, modular systems to empower instructors to be flexible, explore new student-centered paradigms, and plug and play tools as needed. We will also discuss how the iSchools are and should be increasingly involved in studying these new forms, formulating best practices and supporting the needs of teachers as they move toward more collaborative learning environments

Leadership Practices of School Counselors

Leadership is a vital skill called for by the school counseling profession. However, limited research has been done to examine how leadership is characterized by practicing school counselors. The purpose of the exploratory study in this article was to assess leadership practices of school counselors, and to analyze the relationships among demographics, experience, training, work setting, and leadership practices. Results presented are part of a larger study. Findings revealed that age, experience, size of school population, and professional licensure predicted leadership practices of school counselors

Developing Physician Migration Estimates for Workforce Models

OBJECTIVE: To understand factors affecting specialty heterogeneity in physician migration. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Physicians in the 2009 American Medical Association Masterfile data were matched to those in the 2013 file. Office locations were geocoded in both years to one of 293 areas of the country. Estimated utilization, calculated for each specialty, was used as the primary predictor of migration. Physician characteristics (e.g., specialty, age, sex) were obtained from the 2009 file. Area characteristics and other factors influencing physician migration (e.g., rurality, presence of teaching hospital) were obtained from various sources. STUDY DESIGN: We modeled physician location decisions as a two-part process: First, the physician decides whether to move. Second, conditional on moving, a conditional logit model estimates the probability a physician moved to a particular area. Separate models were estimated by specialty and whether the physician was a resident. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Results differed between specialties and according to whether the physician was a resident in 2009, indicating heterogeneity in responsiveness to policies. Physician migration was higher between geographically proximate states with higher utilization for that specialty. CONCLUSIONS: Models can be used to estimate specialty-specific migration patterns for more accurate workforce modeling, including simulations to model the effect of policy changes

Highly Ionized Envelopes of High Velocity Clouds

We present recent results on highly ionized gas in Galactic High-Velocity Clouds (HVCs), originally surveyed in OVI (Sembach et al. 2003). In a new FUSE/HST survey of SiII/III/IV (Shull et al. 2009) toward 37 AGN, we detected SiIII (lambda 1206.500 A) absorption with a sky coverage fraction 81 +/- 5% (61 HVCs along 30 of 37 high-latitude sight lines). The SiIII (lambda 1206.500 A) line is typically 4-5 times stronger than OVI (lambda 1031.926 A). The mean HVC column density of perhaps 10^19 cm^-2 of low-metallicity (0.1 - 0.2 Z_sun) ionized gas in the low halo. Recent determinations of HVC distances allow us to estimate a total reservoir of ~10^8 M_sun. Estimates of infall velocities indicate an infall rate of around 1 M_sun yr^-1, comparable to the replenishment rate for star formation in the disk. HVCs appear to be sheathed by intermediate-temperature gas (10^4.0 - 10^4.5 K) detectable in SiIII and SiIV, as well as hotter gas seen in OVI and other high ions. To prepare for HST observations of 10 HVC-selected sight lines with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), we compile FUSE/STIS spectra of these ions, plus FeIII, CIII, CIV, and SIV. Better constraints on the physical properties of HVC envelopes and careful treatment of HVC kinematics and infall rates should come from high-quality (S/N ~ 30-40) COS data.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, published in Future Directions in Ultraviolet Spectroscopy, Proceedings of the AIP Conference held October 20-22, 2008 in Annapolis, Marylan