Is communications a strategic activity in UK Education?

This qualitative exploratory paper investigates whether communications/public relations is regarded by opinion formers in UK education as a strategic business activity or a tactical marketing tool. It is based upon depth interviews with 16 senior managers with strategic roles in UK higher or further education, or Government bodies, conducted between June and September 2004. The findings seem to suggest that communications/PR is ideally seen by leaders as a strategic function, but that there are limitations to this vision becoming a reality. The research goes on to offer initial conclusions on some of the issues surrounding perception, resource, and implementation of strategic communications/PR in UK education, with implications for practitioners considered

Homework and Student Motivation

Homework and the motivation of students’ to complete it is a continuing challenge for educators and parents everywhere. Frustration by educator and student alike begs the question, why assign homework? What is its purpose or academic goal? Some experts argue homework is a means to assess students understanding of content, others that it allows students to exercise self-motivation to successfully complete assignments as they review skills and knowledge taught in the classroom. Still others believe homework to be a necessary building block to independent study skills and the work ethic required for future education and vocational arenas. This thesis project discusses the concept of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation for students’ completion of assigned mathematics homework. The student participants were of varying skill levels and socio economic status. The research was completed in two parts. The first section of the study was conducted under the hypothesis that an extrinsic motivator, a candy bar for an individual’s completed work, would encourage and potentially increase homework completion and was conducted over a two week time frame. The first sample group was 15 students. A negative correlation between homework completion and extrinsic motivation was concluded after the first section of the study. The second portion of the study theorized that larger rewards, a class pizza party, plus peer competition would encourage a greater percentage of the students to complete homework. This portion of the study had 80 student participants compromising five class periods and was conducted over a twelve day time frame. Results from the second portion drew a direct correlation between peer motivation and competition between classes as a factor which increased the homework finished by the students. Data was gathered using pre and post research surveys completed by the students, completed assignment scores and student grade averages were recorded to understand any changes pre and post study to both completion rates and grade average increases

Man power/cost estimation model: Automated planetary projects

A manpower/cost estimation model is developed which is based on a detailed level of financial analysis of over 30 million raw data points which are then compacted by more than three orders of magnitude to the level at which the model is applicable. The major parameter of expenditure is manpower (specifically direct labor hours) for all spacecraft subsystem and technical support categories. The resultant model is able to provide a mean absolute error of less than fifteen percent for the eight programs comprising the model data base. The model includes cost saving inheritance factors, broken down in four levels, for estimating follow-on type programs where hardware and design inheritance are evident or expected

An examination of the success factors of African America [sic] men in executive leadership positions in Arkansas higher education

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on August 29, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Sandy HutchinsonIncludes bibliographical references.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri-Columbia 2012"May 2012"The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the success factors of five African American men serving in executive leadership positions in the state of Arkansas. Five men agreed to participate in the study which included a demographic survey and semi-structured interview. The interview questions were designed to gauge the participants' views on leadership, mentorship, spirituality, career, and personal development. The interview questions were semi-structured and open ended to allow the participants to share additional insights. Web content, magazine articles, and program flyers were also examined. The research questions focused on the leaders' definition of leadership, their understanding of spirituality, the impact of mentorship, and the impact of their own personal upbringing and development. The findings included a common denominator among the leaders: strong supportive families that provided the necessary motivation for these leaders early on in life and set these men on a path to success. The leaders described how mentors and family members instilled in them a sense of responsibility toward aiding and assisting others. Finally, the leaders acknowledged how their spiritual/religious beliefs were a major factor in the motivation for the work they do as higher education executive level leaders.Includes bibliographical reference

Early jump-out corner detectors

Two corner detectors are presented, one of which works by testing similarity of image patches along the contour direction to detect curves in the image contour, and the other of which uses direct estimation image curvature along the contour direction. The operators are fast, robust to noise, and self-thresholding. An interpretation of the Kitchen-Rosenfeld corner operator is presented which shows that this operator can also be viewed as the second derivative of the image function along the edge direction

EC762 Revised 1954 Which Fuel for Farm Power?

Extension circular 762 R-54 is a revised version of extension circular 762. It provides information and diagrams to assist a farmer in figuring out how much different fuels will cost over a year’s time

EC762 Revised 1954 Which Fuel for Farm Power?

Extension circular 762 R-54 is a revised version of extension circular 762. It provides information and diagrams to assist a farmer in figuring out how much different fuels will cost over a year’s time

The dissimilarity corner detector

We present a corner detector that works by using dissimilarity along the contour direction to detect curves in the image contour. The operator is fast, robust to noise and almost self-thresholding. The standard deviation of the image noise must be specified, but this value is easily measured and the explicit modeling of image noise contributes to the robustness of the operator to noise. We also present a new interpretation of the Kitchen-Rosenfeld corner operator (1982) in which we show that this operator can also be viewed as the second derivative of the image function along the edge direction.<br /

Bringing in the Green: Pharma Stands to Win Hearts, Minds, and Tax Credits by Launching an Eco Bandwagon

A green mind-set can lead to a black bottom line. Becoming nvironmentally friendly can help boost brand image and ROi -- and pharma can get there with a few easy steps. First, with about 90,000 sales representatives on the road, the industry could lead a revolution in transportation if it bought hybrid cars. By replacing the current fleet, the benefits would be substantial. Each hybrid is cheaper to maintain, more fuel-efficient, and leaves a far smaller greenhouse-gas footprint on the environment. Imagine extrapolating these benefits to thousands of ca rs: That\u27s an environmentally friendly signature that shows leadership in the onearmosphere world we live in

Trends in the availability and usage of electrophysical agents in physiotherapy practices from 1990 to 2010: A review

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 Maney PublishingBackground: The use of electrophysical agents has a historically important role in physiotherapy practice. There are anecdotal reports that the availability and usage of electrotherapy modalities are declining, which may have implications for physiotherapy practice. The aim of this literature review was to provide scientific evidence on electrotherapy usage in the last 20 years by identifying trends in availability, use, and non-use of nine electrotherapeutic modalities in physiotherapy practices during 1990s and 2000s. Methods: Review of empirical studies published in the English language from 1990 to 2010 and identified through searching online bibliographic databases, which included: Medline/OvidSP, PubMed Central, CINAHL/EBSCOhost, ScienceDirect, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Findings: In the last 20 years, ultrasound availability and usage show increasing trends in several countries. The availability and use of pulsed shortwave diathermy and laser have shown steady trends. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, interferential, and biofeedback availability and usage have shown increasing trends in the UK and decreasing trends in Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Trends of continuous shortwave diathermy availability and use are declining irrespective of the country of the study. The availability and usage of microwave diathermy and H-wave show steeply declining trends, while there is a sharp rise in their non-availability over the last several years. Conclusions: The availability and use of electrophysical agents have greatly changed in the last 20 years. Declining trends in the availability and usage along with increasing trend of non-availability of electrotherapy modalities may have implications for electrotherapy education, training, and practice in the coming years.This study was funded by Health & Safety Executive, UK (grant no. 4371/R47.022)