A review of periodical literature on merit rating.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

A conceptual analytics model for an outcome-driven quality management framework as part of professional healthcare education

BACKGROUND: Preparing the future health care professional workforce in a changing world is a significant undertaking. Educators and other decision makers look to evidence-based knowledge to improve quality of education. Analytics, the use of data to generate insights and support decisions, have been applied successfully across numerous application domains. Health care professional education is one area where great potential is yet to be realized. Previous research of Academic and Learning analytics has mainly focused on technical issues. The focus of this study relates to its practical implementation in the setting of health care education. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to create a conceptual model for a deeper understanding of the synthesizing process, and transforming data into information to support educators’ decision making. METHODS: A deductive case study approach was applied to develop the conceptual model. RESULTS: The analytics loop works both in theory and in practice. The conceptual model encompasses the underlying data, the quality indicators, and decision support for educators. CONCLUSIONS: The model illustrates how a theory can be applied to a traditional data-driven analytics approach, and alongside the context- or need-driven analytics approach

The mass and radius of the M-dwarf in the short period eclipsing binary RR Caeli

We present new photometry and spectroscopy of the eclipsing white dwarf - M-dwarf binary star RR Cae. We use timings of the primary eclipse from white-light photo-electric photometry to derive a new ephemeris for the eclipses. We find no evidence for any period change greater than Pdot/P ~ 5E-12 over a timescale of 10 years. We have measured the effective temperature of the white dwarf, T_WD, from an analysis of two high resolution spectra of RR Cae and find T_WD = (7540 +- 175)K. We estimate a spectral type of M4 for the companion from the same spectra. We have combined new spectroscopic orbits for the white dwarf and M-dwarf with an analysis of the primary eclipse and cooling models for helium white dwarfs to measure the mass and radius of the M-dwarf. The mass of the M-dwarf is (0.182 - 0.183) +- 0.013 Msun and the radius is (0.203 - 0.215) +- 0.013 Rsun, where the ranges quoted for these values reflect the range of white dwarf models used. In contrast to previous studies, which lacked a spectroscopic orbit for the white dwarf, we find that the mass and radius of the M-dwarf are normal for an M4 dwarf. The mass of the white dwarf is (0.440 +-0.022) Msun. With these revised masses and radii we find that RR Cae will become a cataclysmic variable star when the orbital period is reduced from its current value of 7.3 hours to 121 minutes by magnetic braking in 9-20 Gyr. We note that there is night-to-night variability of a few seconds in the timing of primary eclipse caused by changes to the shape of the primary eclipse. We speculate as to the possible causes of this phenomenon. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. The paper contains 10 figures and 3 table

Simultaneous X-ray/optical observations of GX 9+9 (4U 1728-16)

We report on the results of the first simultaneous X-ray (RXTE) and optical (SAAO) observations of the luminous low mass X-ray binary (LMXB) GX 9+9 in 1999 August. The high-speed optical photometry revealed an orbital period of 4.1958 hr and confirmed previous observations, but with greater precision. No X-ray modulation was found at the orbital period. On shorter timescales, a possible 1.4-hr variability was found in the optical light curves which might be related to the mHz quasi-periodic oscillations seen in other LMXBs. We do not find any significant X-ray/optical correlation in the light curves. In X-rays, the colour-colour diagram and hardness-intensity diagram indicate that the source shows characteristics of an atoll source in the upper banana state, with a correlation between intensity and spectral hardness. Time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy suggests that two-component spectral models give a reasonable fit to the X-ray emission. Such models consist of a blackbody component which can be interpreted as the emission from an optically thick accretion disc or an optically thick boundary layer, and a hard Comptonized component for an extended corona.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA

Dairy Resource Management: A Comparison of Conventional and Pasture-Based Systems

Facing rapid and significant change in the sector, U.S. dairy production trends from 1993-2005 were tracked and performance measures (scale and technical efficiency and returns on assets) were estimated for conventional and pasture-based dairy farms using data from USDA's Agricultural Resource Management Survey. Comparisons of relative economic performance of dairy farms by size and type are made.dairy operations, pasture-based systems, technical efficiency, Livestock Production/Industries,

Morphometric and cladistic analyses of the phylogeny of Macropodinium (Ciliophora : Litostomatea : Macropodiniidae)

Phylogenetic studies of the genus Macropodinium were conducted using two methods; phenetics and cladistics. The phenetic study of morphometrics suggested that the genus could be divided into 3 groups attributable mostly to cell size and shape. The cladistic study also split the genus into 3 groups related to cell size but groups were further distinguished by patterns of ornamentation. Reconciliation of both approaches revealed considerable congruence, however, it also suggested the existence of convergences in the phenetic study and a lack of resolution in the cladistic study. The morphological diversity of Macropodinium is probably due to evolutionary trends such as increasing body size, allometry and polymerisation of structures. None of these trends, however, was uniformly directional and differential effects were observed in different regions of the phylogenetic tree. Comparison of the phylogeny of Macropodinium to a consensus phylogeny of the macropodids revealed limited incongruence between the 2 trees. The ciliate groups could be related to 2 host groups; the wallaby genera and the kangaroo and wallaroo subgenera. The association with these host groups may be the result of phyletic codescent, ecological resource tracking or a combination of both. Further studies of both host and ciliate phylogeny are necessary to resolve these effects

Analysis of repeated high-intensity running performance in professional soccer

The aims of this study conducted in a professional soccer team were two-fold: to characterise repeated high-intensity movement activity profiles in official match-play; b) to inform and verify the construct validity of tests commonly used to determine repeated-sprint ability in soccer by investigating the relationship between the results from a test of repeated-sprint ability and repeated high-intensity performance in competition. High-intensity running performance (movement at velocities >19.8 km/h for a minimum of 1-s duration) in 20 players was measured using computerised time motion analysis. Performance in 80 French League 1 matches was analysed. In addition, 12 out of the 20 players performed a repeated-sprint test on a non-motorized treadmill consisting of 6 consecutive 6s sprints separated by 20s passive recovery intervals. In all players, the majority of consecutive high-intensity actions in competition were performed after recovery durations ≥61s, recovery activity separating these efforts was generally active in nature with the major part of this spent walking, and players performed 1.1±1.1 repeated high-intensity bouts (a minimum of 3 consecutive high-intensity with a mean recovery time ≤20s separating efforts) per game. Players reporting lowest performance decrements in the repeated-sprint ability test performed more high-intensity actions interspersed by short recovery times (≤20s, p<0.01 and ≤30s, p<0.05) compared to those with higher decrements. Across positional roles, central-midfielders performed a greater number of high-intensity actions separated by short recovery times (≤20s) and spent a larger proportion of time running at higher intensities during recovery periods while fullbacks performed the most repeated high-intensity bouts (statistical differences across positional roles from p<0.05 to p<0.001). These findings have implications for repeated high-intensity testing and physical conditioning regimens