A Comparative Study on Noise Reduction Ability of Rubberized Pavement with Conventional Pavement.

In the recent years, number of vehicles and roads are increasing exponentially. Noise pollution has been a concern among the publics and currently there is an up rise regarding the health and mental issues that might result from it. Thus the result, various development solutions such as softer tires, noise dampening barriers and new quiet pavement materials has been introduced. One of the new pavements introduced is rubberized pavement. Based on various researches around the world, rubberized pavement has the potential of reducing noise generated from tire-pavement contact. To date, a few rubberized pavement roads have been constructed in the country. However, the performance is yet to be evaluated. Therefore, this study was proposed to evaluate the noise reduction ability of rubberized pavement in Malaysia. This study will be carried out by performing test run on both rubberized and conventional pavements. Two field test methods have been proposed namely pass-by method and cruising method. Eventually, the result of the study shows that rubberized pavement produced relatively lower noise level as compared to conventional pavement. However, the reductions in noise level were not significant to the hearing of the human

A Case Study on the Implementation of a Positive Youth Development Program (Project P.A.T.H.S.) in a Changing Education Policy Environment

This investigation of the implementation of a positive youth development program (Project P.A.T.H.S.) was part of a large study undertaken comprehensively to explore how effective the Tier 1 Program was in practice and how the results can shed light on future developments. Case studies on randomly selected schools were conducted in order to examine the factors that influence the process and quality of implementation of the Tier 1 Program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. Through interviews with the school contact person and focus group interviews with the teachers, an integration of the findings of these studies showed that five factors related to the program, people, process, policy, and place (5 “P”s) facilitated the implementation process of the Tier 1 Program in the school. Based on the integrated findings of a randomly selected school, it was found that the school made use of the changes in the educational policy environment to facilitate school policy and structural changes, to pave the way for the success of the implementation of a new and “unfamiliar” curriculum. Overall, the quality of program implementation in the school was good and the program was well received by the program implementers. Implications of the present findings for future program implementation with reference to school administrative arrangements and implementation issues are also discussed

Construction of an Integrated Positive Youth Development Conceptual Framework for the Prevention of the Use of Psychotropic Drugs among Adolescents

This is a theoretical paper with an aim to construct an integrated conceptual framework for the prevention of adolescents' use and abuse of psychotropic drugs. This paper first reports the subjective reasons for adolescents' drug use and abuse in Hong Kong and reviews the theoretical underpinnings. Theories of drug use and abuse, including neurological, pharmacological, genetic predisposition, psychological, and sociological theories, were reviewed. It provides a critical re-examination of crucial factors that support the construction of a conceptual framework for primary prevention of adolescents' drug use and abuse building on, with minor revision, the model of victimization and substance abuse among women presented by Logan et al. This revised model provides a comprehensive and coherent framework synthesized from theories of drug abuse. This paper then provides empirical support for integrating a positive youth development perspective in the revised model. It further explains how the 15 empirically sound constructs identified by Catalano et al. and used in a positive youth development program, the Project P.A.T.H.S., relate generally to the components of the revised model to formulate an integrated positive youth development conceptual framework for primary prevention of adolescent drug use. Theoretical and practical implications as well as limitations and recommendations are discussed

A 100-MIPS GaAs asynchronous microprocessor

The authors describe how they ported an asynchronous microprocessor previously implemented in CMOS to gallium arsenide, using a technology-independent asynchronous design technique. They introduce new circuits including a sense-amplifier, a completion detection circuit, and a general circuit structure for operators specified by production rules. The authors used and tested these circuits in a variety of designs