A Comparison of the Training Priorities of Clerical Employees and Their Supervisors

Determines whether and in which ways the priorities of local government employees differ from those of their supervisors using data from employees in the Santa Clara County, California. Respondent profiles; Priorities of employees and supervisors among specific training topics for employees

Comment on "A note on the construction of the Ermakov-Lewis invariant"

We show that the basic results on the paper referred in the title [J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. v. 35 (2002) 5333-5345], concerning the derivation of the Ermakov invariant from Noether symmetry methods, are not new

Evaluation of the Valley Transportation Authority’s DO IT! Program A “Ladders of Opportunity Initiative” Program Funded by the Federal Transit Administration

The U.S. Department of Transportation has increasingly demonstrated interest in developing programs that will enhance the workforce capacity of future transportation systems. To that end, the Department sponsored the 2015 Innovative Public Transportation Workforce Development program, directed by the Federal Transit Administration. This program sought to enhance the availability of skilled workers from targeted groups, including the underserved, underemployed, and/or minority groups into possible transit-oriented career paths. One of the 19 programs selected for funding was the “DO IT!” project proposed and developed by the Valley Transit Authority (VTA). VTA proposed to create an innovative education and training program that focused on attracting and ultimately hiring underserved, underemployed, and/or minority groups in its service area of Santa Clara County. The program was created with two major goals in mind: (1) to enable VTA to work with local youth who may not otherwise have the opportunity to be exposed to a career in public transportation – specifically in the area of transportation planning; and (2) to provide a ladder of opportunity into the middle class which will help strengthen our workforce and our intercity communities by building the critical skillset needed to maintain a competitive and efficient public transportation service. This report provides an evaluation of the “Do It! Program and presents recommendations for program replication or improvement

Analytical and experimental investigation of stator endwall contouring in a small axial-flow turbine. 1: Stator performance

Three stator configurations were studied to determine the effect of stator outer endwall contouring on stator performance. One configuration was a cylindrical stator design. One contoured stator configuration had an S-shaped outer endwall, the other had a conical-convergent outer endwall. The experimental investigation consisted of annular surveys of stator exit total pressure and flow angle for each stator configuration over a range of stator pressure ratio. Radial variations in stator loss and aftermixed flow conditions were obtained when these data were compared with the analytical results to assess the validity of the analysis, good agreement was found

Interaction of weak shock waves with cylindrical and spherical gas inhomogeneities

The interaction of a plane weak shock wave with a single discrete gaseous inhomogeneity is studied as a model of the mechanisms by which finite-amplitude waves in random media generate turbulence and intensify mixing. The experiments are treated as an example of the shock-induced Rayleigh-Taylor instability. or Richtmyer-Meshkov instability, with large initial distortions of the gas interfaces. The inhomogeneities are made by filling large soap bubbles and cylindrical refraction cells (5 cm diameter) whose walls are thin plastic membranes with gases both lighter and heavier than the ambient air in a square (8.9 cm side shock-tube text section. The wavefront geometry and the deformation of the gas volume are visualized by shadowgraph photography. Wave configurations predicted by geometrical acoustics, including the effects of refraction, reflection and diffraction, are compared to the observations. Departures from the predictions of acoustic theory are discussed in terms of gasdynamic nonlinearity. The pressure field on the axis of symmetry downstream of the inhomogeneity is measured by piezoelectric pressure transducers. In the case of a cylindrical or spherical volume filled with heavy low-sound-speed gas the wave which passes through the interior focuses just behind the cylinder. On the other hand, the wave which passes through the light high-sound-speed volume strongly diverges. Visualization of the wavefronts reflected from and diffracted around the inhomogeneities exhibit many features known in optical and acoustic scattering. Rayleigh-Taylor instability induced by shock acceleration deforms the initially circular cross-section of the volume. In the case of the high-sound-speed sphere, a strong vortex ring forms and separates from the main volume of gas. Measurements of the wave and gas-interface velocities are compared to values calculated for one-dimensional interactions and for a simple model of shock-induced Rayleigh-Taylor instability. The circulation and Reynolds number of the vortical structures are calculated from the measured velocities by modeling a piston vortex generator. The results of the flow visualization are also compared with contemporary numerical simulations

Factors Influencing Voting Results of Local Transportation Funding Initiatives with a Substantial Transit Component: Case Studies of Ballot Measures in Eleven Communities, MTI Report 01-17

This publication is a follow-up study to MTI publication 00-01, Why Campaigns for Local Transportation Funding Initiatives Succeed or Fail: An Analysis of Four Communities and National Data. The earlier publication was case studies of four local ballot tax measures for transportation packages. The current study, Factors Influencing Voting Results of Local Transportation Funding Initiatives with a Substantial Rail Transit Component: Case Studies of Ballot Measures in Eleven communities, uses the same case study methodology as the prior study, and is expanded to 11 communities from the past four years. Some of the important conclusions identified by the study are as follows: 1) The combination of an energetic and credible opposition and a questionable reputation of the transit agency or transit system make it extremely difficult for a ballot measure to be successful; 2) When a community has no prior rail transit system, a comprehensive rail-only package is unlikely to be successful; 3)Without $1 million or more to spend on a combination of direct mail and television advertising it is difficult for proponents to be successful; 4) Developing a consensus transportation package depends on the specific details of the package and it is very difficult to generalize about the needed details; and 5) Under certain circumstances, voters do not appear to place significant importance on the existence or length of the expiration date of the tax used to fund the transportation package

The Travel Behavior and Needs of the Poor: A Study of Welfare Recipients in Fresno County, California, MTI Report 01-23

The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 fundamentally transformed the provision of social assistance in the United States. Gone is Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a program that entitled needy families with children to an array of benefits and public services. In its place is Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), a program that abolishes federal entitlements, provides flexible block grants to the states, mandates tough new work requirements, and imposes a five-year lifetime limit on the receipt of public assistance. Current welfare programs mandate employment for most recipients and offer temporary financial aid and short-term employment assistance to help recipients transition into the labor market. As a result of this fundamental restructuring of the U.S. welfare system, millions of welfare recipients are required to enter the paid labor market. Public agencies must establish programs to transition recipients into the labor market or risk dramatic increases in poverty rates. A growing number of studies suggest that reliable transportation-whether automobiles or public transit-is essential to linking welfare participants to employment opportunities. The purpose of this study is to: Understand the travel behavior of welfare participants; Examine strategies by which welfare participants overcome their transportation barriers; Identify the transportation needs of welfare participants living in the Central Valley; Examine the relationship between access to reliable transportation and employment status; and Develop a set of policy and planning recommendations to improve the transportation options of welfare recipients and other low-wage workers living in smaller, more rural, metropolitan areas

Phylloplane Sterilization With Bleach Does Not Reduce Btk Toxicity for \u3ci\u3ePapilio Glaucus\u3c/i\u3e Larvae (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae)

Neonate tiger swallowtail larvae (Papilio glaucus) were used to bioassay the effects of Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki) at 4 doses (0.268, 0.034, 0.008, and 0.004 BIU per cm leaf surface) with an untreated control. Larvae, obtained from females captured in Georgia and North Carolina, were fed leaves of either tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipfera) or black cherry (Prunus serotina) in experiments that either included a pre-treatment dip and rinse in 5% chlorox bleach or not, before the application of Btk (dipping leaves in serially diluted solutions of Foray 48B). The results show no difference between North Carolina and Georgia P. glaucus larval dosage sensitivities, but do illustrate a clear dosage effect for all 4 treatments (cherry with and without bleach pre-treatment; tulip tree with and without bleach pre-treatment). The larvae on the bleached leaves do not do better (for cherry or tulip tree host plant) as would be expected if microbial symbionts on the phylloplane synergize the Btk toxicity. These results show that Btk (at doses several thousand-fold less than aerial sprays across forests for gypsy moth control) will kill P. glaucus, with or without microbial synergism on leaf phylloplanes