Accessible Business Instruction (ABI): A New Model for Business Education

Students who attend college in the hopes of earning a business degree assume a financial risk. Of undergraduate students who attend college, approximately 60,000 report having a Specific Learning Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or Autism Spectrum Disorder. These three conditions comprise a population known as students with learning differences. The introduction of a business instruction model that includes the best elements of traditional business education with Universal Design and LD instructional principles could improve the education for students with learning differences. The Accessible Business Instruction (ABI) model combines these best elements and promotes flexibility and innovation in classroom instructio

Excellence in Lesson Planning: The Purpose and Use of a Micro-uniting Template

For college professors, student engagement is the pinnacle of the teaching experience. The competition with external influences such as social media and internal issues such as interest in the subject being studied can cause students to disengage from classroom sessions and reduce the ability to learn the material. The use of Micro-Uniting as a classroom preparation tool is a key to improve student engagement, to maintain student focus, and to maintain both academic rigor and flexibility. An example of a Micro-United lesson plan and suggestions for use is included

Method of making a piezoelectric shear wave resonator

An acoustic shear wave resonator comprising a piezoelectric film having its C-axis substantially inclined from the film normal such that the shear wave coupling coefficient significantly exceeds the longitudinal wave coupling coefficient, whereby the film is capable of shear wave resonance, and means for exciting said film to resonate. The film is prepared by deposition in a dc planar magnetron sputtering system to which a supplemental electric field is applied. The resonator structure may also include a semiconductor material having a positive temperature coefficient of resonance such that the resonator has a temperature coefficient of resonance approaching 0 ppm

COMPARISON OF CONSTRUCTION RELATED REWORK IN UGANDA AND MOZAMBIQUE

The realisation of the expected minimum client quality requirements in both the products and processes in the construction industry remains challenging. The effects have been increased wastage and value loss through rework in both public and private sector initiatives providing social services in developing countries. The purpose of the research was to compare the impact of construction related rework on project budgets and schedule in public building construction in both Uganda and Mozambique, being examples of developing countries. The objective of such comparison is to document where focus should probably be placed in ensuring that quality requirements in construction are achieved. Case study approach was adopted and separate case study protocols prepared. The scope of study in the Ugandan project involved construction of classroom blocks, health centres and staff housing between 2008 and 2011. The scope of study in the Mozambique project involved the construction of 209 public housing units in Mozambique. The units of study were rework-related project budget and schedule overruns with further comparison of rework-related impacts on both project budgets and schedules under study. In Uganda, the mean percentage rework range was 12.45% - 15.58% of the construction contract scope. It was determined that the mean percentage of rework-related impact on project budget and schedule was 4.53% and 8.42% respectively. In Mozambique, the mean percentage rework range was 3.35% - 4.40% of the construction contract scope. It was determined that the mean percentage of rework-related impact on project budget and schedule was 0.56% and12.0% respectively. Acknowledging the differing cultural contexts of both countries where the study was conducted, these findings could improve governance and strengthen the regulatory framework on quality management in both Uganda andMozambique.&nbsp

Dimensional Reduction of High-Frequencey Accelerations for Haptic Rendering

Haptics research has seen several recent efforts at understanding and recreating real vibrations to improve the quality of haptic feedback in both virtual environments and teleoperation. To simplify the modeling process and enable the use of single-axis actuators, these previous efforts have used just one axis of a three-dimensional vibration signal, even though the main vibration mechanoreceptors in the hand are know to detect vibrations in all directions. Furthermore, the fact that these mechanoreceptors are largely insensitive to the direction of high-frequency vibrations points to the existence of a transformation that can reduce three-dimensional high-frequency vibration signals to a one-dimensional signal without appreciable perceptual degradation. After formalizing the requirements for this transformation, this paper describes and compares several candidate methods of varying degrees of sophistication, culminating in a novel frequency-domain solution that performs very well on our chosen metrics

Investigating the Validity of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT)

study investigated the validity of the Perceiving Emotions branch of the Mayer-Salovey- Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). This was conducted through a correlational analysis with three previously validated measures of nonverbal communication proficiency; The Profile of Nonverbal Communication (PONS), the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-2 (DANVA2), and the Affective Communication Test (ACT). The PONS and the DANVA2 correlated significantly with each other but neither correlated with the ACT. In line with this, the MSCEIT correlated significantly with the PONS and DANVA2 but did not correlate with the ACT. In general, the MSCEIT shows convergent validity that it is measuring the ability to perceive nonverbal emotional signals. The ACT is a paper-and-pencil assessment intended to predict an individual’s expressivity rather than perception. The lack of correlation between the ACT and the other three assessments brings into question whether the ACT measures individual differences in people’s ability to express nonverbal messages

Cutting out continuations

In the field of program transformation, one often transforms programs into continuation-passing style to make their flow of control explicit, and then immediately removes the resulting continuations using defunctionalisation to make the programs first-order. In this article, we show how these two transformations can be fused together into a single transformation step that cuts out the need to first introduce and then eliminate continuations. Our approach is calculational, uses standard equational reasoning techniques, and is widely applicable

Exciton and negative trion dissociation by an external electric field in vertically coupled quantum dots

We study the Stark effect for an exciton confined in a pair of vertically coupled quantum dots. A single-band approximation for the hole and a parabolic lateral confinement potential are adopted which allows for the separation of the lateral center-of-mass motion and consequently for an exact numerical solution of the Schr\"odinger equation. We show that for intermediate tunnel coupling the external electric field leads to the dissociation of the exciton via an avoided crossing of bright and dark exciton energy levels which results in an atypical form of the Stark shift. The electric-field-induced dissociation of the negative trion is studied using the approximation of frozen lateral degrees of freedom. It is shown that in a symmetric system of coupled dots the trion is more stable against dissociation than the exciton. For an asymmetric system of coupled dots the trion dissociation is accompanied by a positive curvature of the recombination energy line as a function of the electric field.Comment: PRB - in prin

Antibodies to the Mr 64,000 (64K) protein in islet cell antibody positive non-diabetic individuals indicate high risk for impaired Beta-cell function

A prospective study of a normal childhood population identified 44 islet cell antibody positive individuals. These subjects were typed for HLA DR and DQ alleles and investigated for the presence of antibodies to the Mr 64,000 (64K) islet cell antigen, complement-fixing islet cell antibodies and radiobinding insulin autoantibodies to determine their potency in detecting subjects with impaired Beta-cell function. At initial testing 64K antibodies were found in six of 44 islet cell antibody positive subjects (13.6%). The same sera were also positive for complement-fixing islet cell antibodies and five of them had insulin autoantibodies. During the follow-up at 18 months, islet cell antibodies remained detectable in 50% of the subjects studied. In all six cases who were originally positive, 64K antibodies were persistently detectable, whereas complement-fixing islet cell antibodies became negative in two of six and insulin autoantibodies in one of five individuals. HLA DR4 (p < 0.005) and absence of asparic acid (Asp) at position 57 of the HLA DQ chain (p < 0.05) were significantly increased in subjects with 64K antibodies compared with control subjects. Of 40 individuals tested in the intravenous glucose tolerance test, three had a first phase insulin response below the first percentile of normal control subjects. Two children developed Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus after 18 and 26 months, respectively. Each of these subjects was non-Asp homozygous and had persistent islet cell and 64K antibodies. We conclude that 64K antibodies, complement-fixing islet cell antibodies and insulin autoantibodies represent sensitive serological markers in assessing high risk for a progression to Type 1 diabetes in islet cell antibody positive non-diabetic individuals

Time-resolved spectroscopy of multi-excitonic decay in an InAs quantum dot

The multi-excitonic decay process in a single InAs quantum dot is studied through high-resolution time-resolved spectroscopy. A cascaded emission sequence involving three spectral lines is seen that is described well over a wide range of pump powers by a simple model. The measured biexcitonic decay rate is about 1.5 times the single-exciton decay rate. This ratio suggests the presence of selection rules, as well as a significant effect of the Coulomb interaction on the biexcitonic wavefunction.Comment: one typo fixe