An Exploratory Investigation of a Flipped Classroom Model in Human Services Education

Human services education has unique needs due to the practical elements that are a part of preparing students for the field. One aspect is for students to graduate with a firm capacity to enact the skill detailed by the National Organization of Human Services (NOHS, n.d.). A blending of on-campus and on-line components has been found to encourage higher order thinking and offer experiential learning (Rehfuss, Kirk-Jenkins, & Milliken, 2015). The flipped classroom pedagogical model offers one potential way for educators to create an environment that facilitates the learning needed and recommended. This study altered a class to the flipped classroom model, and then used two type of data collection, a survey given twice during a semester and reflections written as a part of the class’ expectation. This was done to explore human services undergraduates’ reactions to the pedagogical model. Implications and lines of further enquiry are included

Effects of conversation interference on annoyance due to aircraft noise

The annoyance and interference effects of aircraft flyover noise on face to face conversation were investigated. Twenty 5 minute sessions, each composed of three flyovers, were presented to each of 20 pairs of female subjects in a simulated living room. Flyovers varied in peak noise level (55-79 dB, A-weighted) and spectrum (low or high frequency components). Subjects engaged in conversation for 10 sessions and in reverie for the other 10 sessions, and completed subjective ratings following every session. Annoyance was affected by noise level, but was not significantly different for the two activities of reverie and conversation. A noise level of 77 db was found unacceptable for conversation by 50 percent of the subjects. Conversation interference was assessed by incidence of increased vocal effort and/or interruption of conversation during flyovers. Although conversation interference increased with noise level, the conversation interference measures did not improve prediction of individual annoyance judgments

Nonflammable organic-base paint for oxygen-rich atmospheres

New paint formulations, which combine aqueous latex paints with inorganic pigments and additives, produce coatings that are self-extinguishing in pure oxygen at pressures up to twice the partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen. A paint formulation in percent by weight is given and the properties of resultant coatings are discussed

Global Linear Complexity Analysis of Filter Keystream Generators

An efficient algorithm for computing lower bounds on the global linear complexity of nonlinearly filtered PN-sequences is presented. The technique here developed is based exclusively on the realization of bit wise logic operations, which makes it appropriate for both software simulation and hardware implementation. The present algorithm can be applied to any arbitrary nonlinear function with a unique term of maximum order. Thus, the extent of its application for different types of filter generators is quite broad. Furthermore, emphasis is on the large lower bounds obtained that confirm the exponential growth of the global linear complexity for the class of nonlinearly filtered sequences

Optimising Trade-offs Among Stakeholders in Ad Auctions

We examine trade-offs among stakeholders in ad auctions. Our metrics are the revenue for the utility of the auctioneer, the number of clicks for the utility of the users and the welfare for the utility of the advertisers. We show how to optimize linear combinations of the stakeholder utilities, showing that these can be tackled through a GSP auction with a per-click reserve price. We then examine constrained optimization of stakeholder utilities. We use simulations and analysis of real-world sponsored search auction data to demonstrate the feasible trade-offs, examining the effect of changing the allowed number of ads on the utilities of the stakeholders. We investigate both short term effects, when the players do not have the time to modify their behavior, and long term equilibrium conditions. Finally, we examine a combinatorially richer constrained optimization problem, where there are several possible allowed configurations (templates) of ad formats. This model captures richer ad formats, which allow using the available screen real estate in various ways. We show that two natural generalizations of the GSP auction rules to this domain are poorly behaved, resulting in not having a symmetric Nash equilibrium or having one with poor welfare. We also provide positive results for restricted cases.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, ACM Conference on Economics and Computation 201

Sea ice-atmospheric interaction: Application of multispectral satellite data in polar surface energy flux estimates

This is the third annual report on: Sea Ice-Atmosphere Interaction - Application of Multispectral Satellite Data in Polar Surface Energy Flux Estimates. The main emphasis during the past year was on: radiative flux estimates from satellite data; intercomparison of satellite and ground-based cloud amounts; radiative cloud forcing; calibration of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) visible channels and comparison of two satellite derived albedo data sets; and on flux modeling for leads. Major topics covered are arctic clouds and radiation; snow and ice albedo, and leads and modeling

Time to publication for NIHR HTA programme-funded research: a cohort study

ObjectiveTo assess the time to publication of primary research and evidence syntheses funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme published as a monograph in Health Technology Assessment and as a journal article in the wider biomedical literature.Study designRetrospective cohort study.SettingPrimary research and evidence synthesis projects funded by the HTA Programme were included in the cohort if they were registered in the NIHR research programmes database and was planned to submit the draft final report for publication in Health Technology Assessment on or before 9 December 2011.Main outcome measuresThe median time to publication and publication at 30?months in Health Technology Assessment and in an external journal were determined by searching the NIHR research programmes database and HTA Programme website.ResultsOf 458 included projects, 184 (40.2%) were primary research projects and 274 (59.8%) were evidence syntheses. A total of 155 primary research projects had a completion date; the median time to publication was 23?months (26.5 and 35.5?months to publish a monograph and to publish in an external journal, respectively) and 69% were published within 30?months. The median time to publication of HTA-funded trials (n=126) was 24?months and 67.5% were published within 30?months. Among the evidence syntheses with a protocol online date (n=223), the median time to publication was 25.5?months (28?months to publication as a monograph), but only 44.4% of evidence synthesis projects were published in an external journal. 65% of evidence synthesis studies had been published within 30.0?months.ConclusionsResearch funded by the HTA Programme publishes promptly. The importance of Health Technology Assessment was highlighted as the median time to publication was 9?months shorter for a monograph than an external journal article

Laser Induced Thermal Degradation of Carbon Fiber-Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Laminates

Recent advancements in fiber laser technology have increased interest in target material interactions and the development of thermal protection layers for tactical laser defense. A significant material of interest is carbon fiber reinforced polymers due to their increased use in aircraft construction. In this work, the thermal response of carbon fiber-carbon nanotube (CNT) hybrid composites exposed to average irradiances of 0.87-6.8 W/cm2 were observed using a FLIR sc6900 thermal camera. The camera had a pixel resolution of 640x512 which resulted in a spatial resolution of 0.394x0.383 mm/pixel for the front and 0.463x0.491 mm/pixel for the back. The hybrid samples that showed the highest absolute and relative reduction in heat penetration contained three CNT outer layers on the front and backside and one CNT center layer respectively. When compared to the 8-layer carbon fiber control sample, they demonstrated a backside peak temperature reduction of 120° C and 85° C respectively. This reduction in temperature appears to be due to the production of an insulating layer produced by the trapping of organic volatile gases in the CNT layers. The introduction of CNT layers to carbon fiber reinforced composites reduced heat penetration to deeper layers reducing subsequent thermal