Academic achievement and its relation to family background and locus of control

The relationship between academic achievement and locus of control is considered with some key demographic and familial factors that can affect both academic achievement and locus of control. The size of the effects of each of these factors on both academic achievement and locus of control was investigated. The effect of academic-achievement feedback on the locus of control was also considered. Six primary public schools, in the Illawarra region, New South Wales, were selected by stratified random sampling. In each school, one class in each year (3, 4, 5 and 6) was selected to provide subjects, consisting of 502 students, 235 boys and 267 girls. Four kinds of instruments were administered to the subjects of the study: a demographic and family background questionnaire, a locus-of-control questionnaire (Nowicki- Strickland), a reading-comprehension test ( T O R C H ) and a mathematics test ( P A T M A T H S ) . In order to investigate the effects of academic-achievement feedback on locus-of-control attitude, two of the six schools, were selected randomly. In one of these schools the general results of students\u27 academic achievement were used as group achievement feedback, while in the second school the group feedback was not administered. Group achievement feedback appeared to influence locus-of-control attitude subsequently. The results of the study showed that the girls\u27 academic achievement was significantly higher than the boys\u27 academic achievement. N o significant difference was found between the locus-of-control means of boys and girls. The academic achievement significantly increased with SES from low to high levels. Also, the internal locus-of-control attitude increased with SES from low to high levels. The academic achievement of the English speaking students was significantly higher than the academic achievement of the non- English-speaking students. Also, the non-English-speaking students had a more external locus-of-control attitude than English-speaking students. Also, the results showed that the locus of control of students receiving encouraging feedback for both tasks (reading comprehension and mathematics) shifted towards internality, while the locus of control of other groups who received encouraging-discouraging or discouraging-discouraging feedback, did not change significantly. Locus of control, socioeconomic status, grade, sex, and language background had significant direct effects in determining academic achievement, while grade, socioeconomic status and language background had significant direct effects in determining locus of control. Neither mother\u27s work patterns nor family size had significant effects on academic achievement or locus of control. Although the results showed that locus of control is the best predictor of academic achievement, it cannot be concluded that locus of control is the cause of academic achievement Some implications are indicated for educational policy

Design and performance analysis of electric vehicles fed by multiple fuel cells

Recent advances in fuel cell developments have introduced them to many applications such as hybrid electric vehicles and heat/power cogenerations. They bring the advantage of clean energy and decrease the dependency on imported oil by providing fuel efficient devices in many applications such as electric vehicles. Conventional designs of hybrid fuel cell vehicles make use of a single fuel cell power source and a storage device to provide the base load and transients in various driving cycles. This thesis proposes a new configuration of multiple fuel cell power sources in hybrid fuel cell vehicles. Fuel cells are downsized in this new configuration to provide the same amount of power, which brings the advantage of a highly fuel economic design. The power control algorithm for this new configuration is presented and simulation results are studied for a case of double fuel cell power sources. Efficiency analysis for this new configuration is presented and compared with the conventional configuration. The main objective of this thesis is to achieve a higher efficiency in urban driving cycle. In conventional configurations, the fuel cell is not efficiently loaded in urban driving cycles, where small powers were required from the single fuel cell power source. Reliability analysis is also presented for this configuration

Improved MPS Methods for Refined Simulation of Free-Surface Hydrodynamic Flows

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Modelling of Violent Water Wave Propagation and Impact by Incompressible SPH with First-Order Consistent Kernel Interpolation Scheme

The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method has proven to have great potential in dealing with the wave–structure interactions since it can deal with the large amplitude and breaking waves and easily captures the free surface. The paper will adopt an incompressible SPH (ISPH) approach to simulate the wave propagation and impact, in which the fluid pressure is solved using a pressure Poisson equation and thus more stable and accurate pressure fields can be obtained. The focus of the study is on comparing three different pressure gradient calculation models in SPH and proposing the most efficient first-order consistent kernel interpolation (C1_KI) numerical scheme for modelling violent wave impact. The improvement of the model is validated by the benchmark dam break flows and laboratory wave propagation and impact experiments

A hybrid stabilization technique for simulating water wave - Structure interaction by incompressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (ISPH) method

The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method is emerging as a potential tool for studying water wave related problems, especially for violent free surface flow and large deformation problems. The incompressible SPH (ISPH) computations have been found not to be able to maintain the stability in certain situations and there exist some spurious oscillations in the pressure time history, which is similar to the weakly compressible SPH (WCSPH). One main cause of this problem is related to the non-uniform and clustered distribution of the moving particles. In order to improve the model performance, the paper proposed an efficient hybrid numerical technique aiming to correct the ill particle distributions. The correction approach is realized through the combination of particle shifting and pressure gradient improvement. The advantages of the proposed hybrid technique in improving ISPH calculations are demonstrated through several applications that include solitary wave impact on a slope or overtopping a seawall, and regular wave slamming on the subface of open-piled structure

Optimum Adaptive Piecewise Linearization: An Estimation Approach in Wind Power

This paper introduces an effective piecewise linearization technique to obtain an estimation of nonlinear models when their input-output domains include multidimensional operating points. The algorithm of a forward adaptive approach is introduced to identify the effective operating points for model linearization and adjust their domains for the maximum coverage and the minimum model linearization error. The technique obtains a minimum number of linearized models and the continuity of their domains. The algorithm also yields global minimum model linearization error. The introduced algorithm is formulated for a wind power transfer system for a 2-D set of input domains. The linearization error can be arbitrarily minimized in exchange for a higher number of models. The results demonstrate a significant improvement in the linearization of nonlinear models

Sliding Mode Extremum Seeking Control for Maximum Power Point Tracking in Wind System

This paper proposes a sliding mode extremum seeking control (SM-ESC) for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) in variable speed wind energy conversion system, which includes the permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG), the uncontrolled rectifier, boost converter, battery and the DC constant power load (CPL). The presented MPPT control method integrates the theory of sliding mode control and the extremum seeking control. It refrains from some disadvantages in traditional wind MPPT methods, such as detecting the gradient of output power vs. rotor speed, longer transient response, high frequency noise and larger oscillations of output power. The specific working principle and adaptive step size setting of the MPPT controller are also analyzed based on the SM-ESC algorithm. Numerical simulation results demonstrate accurate operation and robustness of the MPPT algorithm in each operating condition

GPU-acceleration for Moving Particle Semi-Implicit method

The MPS (Moving Particle Semi-implicit) method has been proven useful in computation free-surface hydrodynamic flows. Despite its applicability, one of its drawbacks in practical application is the high computational load. On the other hand, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which was originally developed for acceleration of computer graphics, now provides unprecedented capability for scientific computations. The main objective of this study is to develop a GPU-accelerated MPS code using CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) language. Several techniques have been shown to optimize calculations in CUDA. In order to promote the acceleration by GPU, particular attentions are given to both the search of neighboring particles and the iterative solution of simultaneous linear equations in the Poisson Pressure Equation. In this paper, 2-dimensional calculations of elliptical drop evolution and dam break flow have been carried out by the GPU-accelerated MPS method, and the accuracy and performance of GPU-based code are investigated by comparing the results with those by CPU. It is shown that results of GPU-based calculations can be obtained much faster with the same reliability as the CPU-based ones

Promotion of young Talent in Germany based on the example of SV Wehen 1926 Wiesbaden GmbH

Die Umstrukturierung der Lizenvereine hat sich im Laufe der Kommerzialisierung und Professionalisierung rasant verändert. Die Nachwuchsförderung hat in diesem Zusammenhang einen übergeordneten Stellenwert in Deutschland eingenommen. Diese Bachelorarbeit nimmt Bezug auf diese Entwicklung und beschreibt die Nachwuchsförderung in Deutschland. Am Beispiel des SV Wehen 1926 Wiesbaden GmbH wird eine erfolgreiche Jugendarbeit vorgestellt. Aus der Bachelorarbeit heraus resultieren Handlungsempfehlungen. Diese zeigen den Lizenzvereinen und dem Deutschen Fußball Bund auf, worauf in der Nachwuchsförderung besonders zu achten ist

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Combining Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention for Smoking Cessation: A Case Report

Previous electroencephalography (EEG) researches have shown significant differences in terms of abnormal brain activity among smokers and non-smokers. Typically, EEG analysis showed decreased slow waves and increased fast waves in people with nicotine consumption. The present study tested a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) technique combined with Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) to reduce nicotine cravings. Specifically, cathodal tDCS over Left Prefrontal Cortex (PFC), as well as anodal stimulation over the right central zone, tested. An 18-year-old right-handed male with almost three years of smoking participated. He had no anti-tobacco medical prescription. The participant received twelve sessions of tDCS treatment (two times a week). Anodal stimulation (1.5 mA, 15 min) performed on C3 (LORETA source localization) and cathodal stimulation on FP2. Also, the participant received 30-minute MBRP-based psychotherapy sessions in order to ameliorate aggression, stress, and craving. Clinical evaluations, Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AGQ), Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1994), and daily checklist for the number of smoked cigarettes administered along with Carbon monoxide (CO) levels. Also, subjective measures of craving intensity between zero and ten measured after treatment and 3-month follow-up. After treatment, the participant showed a substantial reduction in all clinical tests, and the number of cigarettes decreased from 30 to 2 a day. From a psycho neurotherapeutic perspective, the present study provides preliminary indications for a novel and efficient treatment of smoking during adolescence. Further studies are needed to determine generalizability and overall efficiency