Walking Across Remote Terrain… Analysis of Potential Temperature-Related Dangers Using GIS Tools

Due to recent U.S. Border Patrol successes in stopping the flow of illegal migrants in populated areas, migrant attempts to illegally cross into the U.S. have shifted to more remote and more hazardous regions. As such, these have become areas of most concern to Border Patrol search-and-rescue teams, whose mission is to reduce the number of injures and deaths in the southwest region, and are also of concern to private organizations with similar missions. This masters degree study project uses a scenario of helping estimate areas for rescue teams to focus their efforts in remote areas of San Diego County, California. The analysis utilized GIS tools to model the effects of temperature as a measure of danger to people crossing this region on foot, and who may be exposed to the outdoors for extended periods of time. This project introduces an approach to portraying the phenomenon of temperature in a way that might be considered dangerous to humans. The models developed could be refined with additional data sources, and could also be applied to other locations with some modifications

Tracking nitrogen losses in a greenhouse crop rotation experiment in North China using the EU-Rotate_N simulation model

Vegetable production in China is associated with high inputs of nitrogen, posing a risk of losses to the environment. Organic matter mineralisation is a considerable source of nitrogen (N) which is hard to quantify. In a two-year greenhouse cucumber experiment with different N treatments in North China, non-observed pathways of the N cycle were estimated using the EU-Rotate_N simulation model. EU-Rotate_N was calibrated against crop dry matter and soil moisture data to predict crop N uptake, soil mineral N contents, N mineralisation and N loss. Crop N uptake (Modelling Efficiencies (ME) between 0.80 and 0.92) and soil mineral N contents in different soil layers (ME between 0.24 and 0.74) were satisfactorily simulated by the model for all N treatments except for the traditional N management. The model predicted high N mineralisation rates and N leaching losses, suggesting that previously published estimates of N leaching for these production systems strongly underestimated the mineralisation of N from organic matter

Escaping “Perpetual Beginnings”: Challenges and Opportunities for Local Atrocity Prevention in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This report is part of a three-year (2019-2022) project “Strengthening Networks to Prevent and Respond to Violence”, funded through a UK government (previously DFID) funded Jo Cox Memorial Grant, and led by Peace Direct in partnership with Protection Approaches, Beni Peace Forum (BPF), Réseau des organisations des Jeunes en Action pour la paix, la réconciliation et le développement (REJA), and the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). The project aims to ensure that local civil society is better able to provide strategic, coordinated and sustainable atrocity prevention work in eastern DRC and Burundi. This research focused on eastern DRC and sought to identify and understand the following: • The status and composition of current atrocity prevention efforts in Ituri, and North and South Kivu, including key actors and means of coordination; • What approaches to atrocity prevention are considered most effective by local, national and international actors; • The primary challenges faced by local, national and international actors engaged in atrocity prevention work; and • The forms of support from regional and international actors that are required to improve current atrocity prevention outcomes. The report is based on interviews and focus group discussions with 169 individuals, including civil society and community members, DRC government actors, local academics, UN staff, INGO staff, foreign donors and foreign government actors involved in atrocity prevention work in eastern DRC, which were carried out between February and June 2020

Executive Summary: Escaping “Perpetual Beginnings”: Challenges and Opportunities for Local Atrocity Prevention in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Executive Summary for the report "Escaping “Perpetual Beginnings”: Challenges and Opportunities for Local Atrocity Prevention in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The effects of acceleration on students' achievement in senior secondary mathematics: a multilevel modelling approach

Deposited with permission of the author. © 2007 Angela KotsirasDespite the vast research on the effects of acceleration programs on student achievement there is little quantitative confirmation of the benefits of these programs and there is no research that investigates the effects of acceleration on students’ VCE Mathematics study scores. This research attempts to fill this gap by considering four years of data provided by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) relating to achievement in mathematics. Acceleration in this study means the completion of the Year 12Mathematical Methods study during Year 11. The data constitutes experimental data for content acceleration and the results of students from schools without such acceleration programs provide the corresponding control data. However, the acceleration decision is not taken randomly by schools, so this data is only quasi-experimental in nature. The measures of mathematical achievement (Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics study scores) are carefully audited, and are accepted as reliable and valid by the Victorian education system. Controlling for individual characteristics such as gender and prior knowledge, and allowing for moderation effects due to school sector (Government, Catholic and Independent) and school class setting (single-sex or coeducational), the effects of content acceleration are measured using multi-level modelling. This study examines the effects of acceleration on the VCE Mathematics study scores of students who completed both Mathematical Methods (Units 3&4) and Specialist Mathematics (Units 3&4) in Victoria, over a four-year period (2001-2004). On average this involved 5341 students from 341 schools in each year with 829 students included in a content accelerated program. The results suggest that content acceleration is beneficial, especially for students with higher prior knowledge scores. The quasi-experimental nature of the data means that a causal relationship between acceleration and students’ mathematical performance can be claimed. In particular, this study showed that the effect of acceleration on students’ Mathematical Methods (the Year 12 study taken in Year 11 by accelerated students) study score was not significant. However, the effect of acceleration on students’ Specialist Mathematics study scores was significant. Accelerated students performed, on average,2.7 points higher (on a 50 point scale) than equal ability age-peers who were not accelerated. Interestingly, for accelerated students who scored in the top 2% for their General Achievement Test, in the mathematics, science and technology component, their Specialist Mathematics study scores were on average, almost 5 points higher (on a 50point scale) than their equal ability age-peers. The statistical control of other factors means that these results can also be generalised to other states, other countries and, probably, to other subjects

Διδασκαλία της Γεωγραφίας της ΣΤ' δημοτικού με εργαλεία ΤΠΕ και της εφαρμογής Layar Creator

Σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η μελέτη της δυνατότητας και της σπουδαιότητας της διδακτικής αξιοποίησης των Τεχνολογιών Πληροφορίας και Επικοινωνίας (ΤΠΕ) στο Δημοτικό και συγκεκριμένα στο μάθημα της Γεωγραφίας της Στ΄ τάξης. Η μελέτη ξεκινά με μία βιβλιογραφική ανασκόπηση της αξιοποίησης των τεχνολογικών μέσων στο δημοτικό, ως εκπαιδευτικά εργαλεία. Τονίζεται ιδιαίτερα η σημασία της αξιοποίησης διδακτικών σεναρίων για τη διδασκαλία του μαθήματος της Γεωγραφίας και συγκεκριμένα ο ρόλος της πλατφόρμας ανάπτυξης πλαισίου επαυξημένης πραγματικότητας Layar Creator για διδακτική χρήση. Το συμπέρασμα που προκύπτει είναι πως ο μειωμένος χρόνος διδασκαλίας, η ελλιπής επιμόρφωση των εκπαιδευτικών καθώς και η έλλειψη εποπτικών μέσων στις σχολικές μονάδες καθιστούν δυσχερή τη καθημερινή χρήση τεχνολογικών μέσων κατά τη διδασκαλία του μαθήματος της Γεωγραφίας.The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the feasibility and the importance of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at primary school especially in Geography class in sixth grade. The study starts with a bibliographic review of the use of technological media in primary education as educational tools. Particularly it is emphasizing the importance of using teaching scenarios in Geography course and specifically the role of Layar Creator, augmented reality development platform for teaching use. The resulting conclusion is that the reduced teaching time, the inadequate teacher education and the lack of supervisory tools in school units, make it difficult to use in daily base technology in the teaching of Geography