Canadian University Early Admission Policies for Gifted and Talented Students

Early entrance/admission to university (i.e., between two and four years before the usual age of admission) can provide multiple benefits for gifted and talented secondary school students. For these students, early university entrance/admission may be a key way to extend their intellectual capacities, capacities that they would not be able to achieve otherwise (Gross & van Vliet, 2005). Many researchers have argued that gifted and talented students not only show exceptional uniqueness in their extended intellectual and cognitive potential (Noble & Childers, 2008), but also, they demonstrate enhanced creativity and curiosity (Noble et al., 2007). Therefore, the primary problem that some gifted and talented secondary school students face is the option of obtaining early entrance/admission to Canadian universities. The question arises whether Canadian universities have implemented early entrance/admission policies and procedures to respond to such needs. This study was conducted in two phases. Phase One investigated what early entrance/admission options are currently offered by Canadian universities. To determine these options, the researcher examined all Canadian Universities’ websites and invited Registrars of all Canadian universities (N=98) to participate in the study. The researcher received 27 responses either accepting the invitation to participate in the research (n=16), or declining it (n=11). The research revealed that most universities have not implemented early admission policies and procedures for gifted and talented students who would be interested in early admission. Decisions about early admissions are made on a “case-by-case” basis which seems a satisfactory solution due to low numbers of applicants. On the other hand, universities willingly accept such applications, and the age of applicants is not a decisive factor as long as other standards requirements are met. In Phase Two, the researcher undertook a single-case study of Paolo (student’s pseudonym), a young male, who, at the age of 16, was admitted to the Honours History Program at the University of Toronto from where he graduated at the age of 19. The case study, like other larger-scale studies of gifted and talented individuals, revealed that students such as Paolo may be very successful and benefit not only academically or intellectually from university early entrance/admission, but also, socially and emotionally. Such multifaceted developmental benefits of early entrance/admission are also supported in the literature and presented in this thesis

A dynamic model of cylindrical plunge grinding process for chatter phenomena investigation

In the paper, chatter vibrations in the cylindrical plunge grinding process are investigated. An improved model of the grinding process was developed which is able to simulate self-excited vibrations due to a regenerative effect on the workpiece and the grinding wheel surface. The model includes a finite-element model of the workpiece, two degrees of freedom model of the grinding wheel headstock and a model of wheel-workpiece geometrical interferences. The model allows to studying the influence of different factors, i.e. workpiece and machine parameters as well as grinding conditions on the stability limit and a chatter vibration growth rate. At the end, simulation results are shown and compared with exemplified real grinding results

Electricity Transmission and the State Utility Commission Approcal Process- What's Taking So Long?

Electricity transmission lines connecting widely dispersed renewable energy resources and other electricity generators to load centers are a vital piece of the electric grid of the future. Building transmission infrastructure faces a number of obstacles, not the least of which is receiving approval from state utility commissions. This paper tracks the progress of fifteen transmission projects approved in Midcontinent Independent System Operator Transmission Expansion Planning 2011, as they move through the commission approval process in an attempt to identify any delays and their causes. These projects were selected due to their status as Multi value Projects in the hopes they would represent the best case scenario for projects seeking approval. The projects cover eight states: Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. While projects in Iowa and Minnesota were found to take significantly longer than projects in other states, the delays were determined to be due primarily to developer actions, rather than a cumbersome approval process

Uncompensated Care and Quality Assurance Among Rural Hospitals

Health care disparities in rural areas remain significant in the U.S. health care industry. Uncompensated care makes health care disparities in rural areas worse, and rural hospitals are unfavorably positioned to compete with urban hospitals in the economic-downturn marketplace. How uncompensated care affects quality care among rural hospitals has been lightly investigated. Given that many rural residents experience difficulty accessing high quality care and given the importance of establishing quality care practice standards in a rural setting, we conducted a systematic literature review to identify some quality-care barriers and opportunities and suggested strategies to strengthen the position of rural hospitals in response to uncompensated care

Is uncompensated care affecting quality assurance of rural hospitals?

Healthcare disparities in rural areas remain significant in the U.S. healthcare industry. Uncompensated care makes healthcare disparities in rural areas worse and rural hospitals are unfavorably positioned to compete with urban hospitals in the economic downturn marketplace. How uncompensated care affects quality care among rural hospitals has been lightly investigated. As many rural residents experience difficulty accessing high quality care and the importance of establishing quality care practice standards in a rural setting, we conducted a systematic literature review to identify some quality care barriers and opportunities, suggested strategies to strengthen the position of rural hospitals in response to uncompensated care

Determination of enantiomeric excess of leucine and valine by X-ray powder diffraction

Two amino acids, leucine and valine, were studied by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD). The linear correlations between intensity of racemate (decrease) or enantiomer (increase) and enantiomeric excesses were observed in each case

A computational method for quantifying morphological variation in scleractinian corals

Morphological variation in marine sessile organisms is frequently related to environmental factors. Quantifying such variation is relevant in a range of ecological studies. For example, analyzing the growth form of fossil organisms may indicate the state of the physical environment in which the organism lived. A quantitative morphological comparison is important in studies where marine sessile organisms are transplanted from one environment to another. This study presents a method for the quantitative analysis of three-dimensional (3D) images of scleractinian corals obtained with X-ray Computed Tomography scanning techniques. The advantage of Computed Tomography scanning is that a full 3D image of a complex branching object, including internal structures, can be obtained with a very high precision. There are several complications in the analysis of this data set. In the analysis of a complex branching object, landmark-based methods usually do not work and different approaches are required where various artifacts (for example cavities, holes in the skeleton, scanning artifacts, etc.) in the data set have to be removed before the analysis. A method is presented, which is based on the construction of a medial axis and a combination of image-processing techniques for the analysis of a 3D image of a complex branching object where the complications mentioned above can be overcome. The method is tested on a range of 3D images of samples of the branching scleractinian coral Madracis mirabilis collected at different depths. It is demonstrated that the morphological variation of these samples can be quantified, and that biologically relevant morphological characteristics, like branch-spacing and surface/volume ratios, can be computed. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00338-007-0270-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Diaqua­dichloridobis(pyridine-κN)manganese(II)

The molecular title compound, [MnCl2(C5H5N)2(H2O)2], lies about an inversion centre. The MnII atom is in an all-trans octa­hedral environment defined by two water mol­ecules, two chloride anions and two pyridine ligands. An inter­molecular hydrogen-bonding inter­action between a water mol­ecule and a chloride anion bonded to an adjacent MnII atom generates an eight-membered ring. The crystal packing exhibits two inter­molecular π–π stacking inter­actions between the aromatic rings, with centroid–centroid distances of 3.485 (12) and 3.532 (12) Å