A Framework for Developing and Integrating Effective Routing Strategies Within the Emergency Management Decision-Support System, Research Report 11-12

This report describes the modeling, calibration, and validation of a VISSIM traffic-flow simulation of the San José, California, downtown network and examines various evacuation scenarios and first-responder routings to assess strategies that would be effective in the event of a no-notice disaster. The modeled network required a large amount of data on network geometry, signal timings, signal coordination schemes, and turning-movement volumes. Turning-movement counts at intersections were used to validate the network with the empirical formula-based measure known as the GEH statistic. Once the base network was tested and validated, various scenarios were modeled to estimate evacuation and emergency vehicle arrival times. Based on these scenarios, a variety of emergency plans for San José’s downtown traffic circulation were tested and validated. The model could be used to evaluate scenarios in other communities by entering their community-specific data

Supporting Youth Employment: A Guide for Community Groups

Although public money is available for education, job training and youth programs throughout the nation, many young people in low-income communities do not acquire the skills and credentials necessary to get high paying jobs. This Guide is a resource for parents, youth workers, educators and young people who want to take action. It details three major public funding sources that can support job-related training for youth: the WIA, TANF and State Education Assistance. The Guide also offers information on how to recognize effective programs, activities and supports, highlighting successful youth initiatives. A long list of youth-oriented resources is provided

The Effect of Standardised Learning Diaries on Self-Regulated Learning, Calibration Accuracy and Academic Achievement

The online learning environment is a dynamic yet complex learning modality. Students are physically separated from their peers, they grapple with feelings of isolation, and they may be unable to self-regulate their learning. Studies have shown that self-regulation is related to academic achievement and student metacognitive monitoring in online settings. The present study investigated the effects of a standardized diaries on students’ self-regulatory behaviors, calibration accuracy and academic achievement within an online learning environment. Using this self-monitoring and evaluation tool, forty online graduate students enrolled in a research methods course at a southeastern university in the United States participated in a semester-long experimental study. Students were randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group. The researcher used the Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ) (Barnard-Brak, Lan, To, Paton, & Lai, 2009) to examine changes in students’ self-regulatory behavior. Calibration accuracy was used to measure metacognitive monitoring while final course grade was used to measure achievement. The one-way ANOVA revealed that students who received the intervention were significantly more accurate on their metacognitive judgements made after taking the test (postdiction) when compared to the control group. However, no significant effect of the treatment was found on self-regulated learning behaviors or academic achievement

A study of the function and organization of a neighborhood boys' work committee in an interracial experiment as conducted by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University, 1948. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Design and Analysis of Screening Experiments Assuming Effect Sparsity

Many initial experiments for industrial and engineering applications employ screening designs to determine which of possibly many factors are significant. These screening designs are usually a highly fractionated factorial or a Plackett-Burman design that focus on main effects and provide limited information for interactions. To help simplify the analysis of these experiments, it is customary to assume that only a few of the effects are actually important; this assumption is known as ‘effect sparsity’. This dissertation will explore both design and analysis aspects of screening experiments assuming effect sparsity. In 1989, Russell Lenth proposed a method for analyzing unreplicated factorials that has become popular due to its simplicity and satisfactory power relative to alternative methods. We propose and illustrate the use of p-values, estimated by simulation, for Lenth t-statistics. This approach is recommended for its versatility. Whereas tabulated critical values are restricted to the case of uncorrelated estimates, we illustrate the use of p-values for both orthogonal and nonorthogonal designs. For cases where there is limited replication, we suggest computing t-statistics and p-values using an estimator that combines the pure error mean square with a modified Lenth’s pseudo standard error. Supersaturated designs (SSDs) are designs that examine more factors than runs available. SSDs were introduced to handle situations in which a large number of factors are of interest but runs are expensive or time-consuming. We begin by assessing the null model performance of SSDs when using all-subsets and forward selection regression. The propensity for model selection criteria to overfit is highlighted. We subsequently propose a strategy for analyzing SSDs that combines all-subsets regression and permutation tests. The methods are illustrated for several examples. In contrast to the usual sequential nature of response surface methods (RSM), recent literature has proposed both screening and response surface exploration using only one three-level design. This approach is named “one-step RSM”. We discuss and illustrate two shortcomings of the current one-step RSM designs and analysis. Subsequently, we propose a new class of three-level designs and an analysis strategy unique to these designs that will address these shortcomings and aid the user in being appropriately advised as to factor importance. We illustrate the designs and analysis with simulated and real data

Drought Stress Results in a Compartment-Specific Restructuring of the Rice Root-Associated Microbiomes.

Plant roots support complex microbial communities that can influence plant growth, nutrition, and health. While extensive characterizations of the composition and spatial compartmentalization of these communities have been performed in different plant species, there is relatively little known about the impact of abiotic stresses on the root microbiota. Here, we have used rice as a model to explore the responses of root microbiomes to drought stress. Using four distinct genotypes, grown in soils from three different fields, we tracked the drought-induced changes in microbial composition in the rhizosphere (the soil immediately surrounding the root), the endosphere (the root interior), and unplanted soils. Drought significantly altered the overall bacterial and fungal compositions of all three communities, with the endosphere and rhizosphere compartments showing the greatest divergence from well-watered controls. The overall response of the bacterial microbiota to drought stress was taxonomically consistent across soils and cultivars and was primarily driven by an enrichment of multiple Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi, as well as a depletion of several Acidobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria While there was some overlap in the changes observed in the rhizosphere and endosphere communities, several drought-responsive taxa were compartment specific, a pattern likely arising from preexisting compositional differences, as well as plant-mediated processes affecting individual compartments. These results reveal that drought stress, in addition to its well-characterized effects on plant physiology, also results in restructuring of root microbial communities and suggest the possibility that constituents of the altered plant microbiota might contribute to plant survival under extreme environmental conditions.IMPORTANCE With the likelihood that changes in global climate will adversely affect crop yields, the potential role of microbial communities in enhancing plant performance makes it important to elucidate the responses of plant microbiomes to environmental variation. By detailed characterization of the effect of drought stress on the root-associated microbiota of the crop plant rice, we show that the rhizosphere and endosphere communities undergo major compositional changes that involve shifts in the relative abundances of a taxonomically diverse set of bacteria in response to drought. These drought-responsive microbes, in particular those enriched under water deficit conditions, could potentially benefit the plant as they could contribute to tolerance to drought and other abiotic stresses, as well as provide protection from opportunistic infection by pathogenic microbes. The identification and future isolation of microbes that promote plant tolerance to drought could potentially be used to mitigate crop losses arising from adverse shifts in climate

Performance Differences between Natural-Ventilated and Tunnel-Ventilated Finishing Facilities

Based on farm-level data from 744,500 head of pigs finished in confinement, the performance of pigs housed in tunnel-ventilation facilities was shown to be superior to that of pigs housed in natural-ventilation facilities, as measured by both daily feed consumption and feed conversion. This, in turn, resulted in higher average daily gain, a lower cull rate, and a lower feed cost per cwt of gain. The lower cost of gain, together with the reduced number of cull hogs and the extra 9.4 lb of market weight sold, are significant economic advantages that resulted in an estimated higher net return of $5.61 per pig for each group fed in tunnel housin

The example of coaching in the public sector: a quantitative case study

Coaching has become a key feature in the public sector environment. Since the global financial crisis greater demands have fallen on public sector organisations. Public sector organisations are in an era of value for money and provide excellent customer service. These organisations have put greater demand on their members of staff to perform well constantly. The aim of this paper is to explore the debates on coaching in a public sector environment. The research was carried out by applying a quantitative approach, namely a questionnaire survey. A public sector organisation was selected as the case study. From this research, it was observed that in the public sector organisation that was selected as the case study, employers were positively in favour of a strong dynamic coaching culture

Coaching works! A qualitative study exploring the effects of coaching in a public sector organisation

Professional development has become an important tool in the development of individual working in a public sector organisation. A crucial part of professional development is mentoring and coaching employees. The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of coaching in the workplace, specifically whether coaching or being a coach is related to job satisfaction and psychological empowerment and whether being in a culture of coaching is related to job satisfaction. The research was carried out by undertaking a series of qualitative structured interviews. It was found that coaching has a positive effect in a public sector organisation