Student Evaluation of Teaching

The analysis of factors which influence student valuations of teaching is the subject of this paper. An empirical test, using the evaluations carried out in the School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University shows that the grades granted by instructors do not relate significantly to the evaluations of that instructor by students. Factors which do relate to higher evaluations include: early morning classes, small classes, optional subjects, and senior classes. From a survey of how faculty react to the evaluations, it appears that most faculty do not find the evaluations useful in making improvements in their own teaching.La présente communication a pour butd 'analyser les facteurs qui influencent les étudiants dans leur évaluation des professeurs. Une étude, basée sur des sondages effectués au School of Business and Economies de Wilfrid Laurier University, montre que l'opinion des étudiants ne semble pas proportionnelle aux notes attribuées par les professeurs. Les évaluations positives sont reliées aux facteurs suivants: heure matinale du cours, petites classes, matières facultatives et cours avancés. Un autre sondage semble montrer que la plupart des professeurs ne trouvent pas les évaluations très utiles pour perfectionner leur enseignement

Some Effects of Stator Cone Angle and Blade-tip Leakage on 40 Percent Reaction Turbine Having Rotor-blade Caps

An investigation of the effects of stator cone angle and tip leakage on turbine performance

(OC-6-35)-(2,2′-Bipyridine-κ2 N,N′)dimeth­yl(3-sulfido­propionato-κ2 S,O)platinum(IV)

The title complex, [Pt(CH3)2(SCH2CH2CO2)(C10H8N2)], is formed by the unusual oxidative addition of the disulfide, R 2S2 (R = CH2CH2CO2H), to (2,2′-bipyridine)­dimethyl­platin­um(II) with elimination of RSH. The product contains an unusual six-membered thiol­ate–carboxyl­ate chelate ring. This slightly distorted octa­hedral complex exhibits cis angles ranging from 77.55 (11) to 97.30 (8)° due to the presence of the thiol­ate–carboxyl­ate chelate ring and the constrained bipyridine group. The crystal packing appears to be controlled by a combination of π-stacking [centroid–centroid distance = 3.611 (2) Å] and C—H⋯O inter­actions

How can diagnostic assessment programs be implemented to enhance inter-professional collaborative care for cancer?

BackgroundInter-professional collaborative care (ICC) for cancer leads to multiple system, organizational, professional, and patient benefits, but is limited by numerous challenges. Empirical research on interventions that promote or enable ICC is sparse so guidance on how to achieve ICC is lacking. Research shows that ICC for diagnosis could be improved. Diagnostic assessment programs (DAPs) appear to be a promising model for enabling ICC. The purpose of this study was to explore how DAP structure and function enable ICC, and whether that may be associated with organizational and clinical outcomes.MethodsA case study approach will be used to explore ICC among eight DAPs that vary by type of cancer (lung, breast), academic status, and geographic region. To describe DAP function and outcomes, and gather information that will enable costing, recommendations expressed in DAP standards and clinical guidelines will be assessed through retrospective observational study. Data will be acquired from databases maintained by participating DAPs and the provincial cancer agency, and confirmed by and supplemented with review of medical records. We will conduct a pilot study to explore the feasibility of estimating the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio using person-level data from medical records and other sources. Interviews will be conducted with health professionals, staff, and referring physicians from each DAP to learn about barriers and facilitators of ICC. Qualitative methods based on a grounded approach will be used to guide sampling, data collection and analysis.DiscussionFindings may reveal opportunities for unique structures, interventions or tools that enable ICC that could be developed, implemented, and evaluated through future research. This information will serve as a formative needs assessment to identify the nature of ongoing or required improvements, which can be directly used by our decision maker collaborators, and as a framework by policy makers, cancer system managers, and DAP managers elsewhere to strategically plan for and implement diagnostic cancer services

Analysing age structure, residency and relatedness uncovers social network structure in aggregations of young birds

Animal sociality arises from the cumulative effects of both individual social decisions and environmental factors. While juveniles' social interactions with parents prior to independence shape later life sociality, in most bird and mammal species at least one sex undergoes an early life dispersal before first-year reproduction. The social associations from this period could also have implications for later life yet are rarely characterized. Here, we derived predictions from available examples of juvenile groups in the literature (mobile ‘flocks’, spatially stable ‘gangs’ or adult-associated ‘crèches’) and then used three cohorts of juvenile hihi, Notiomystis cincta, a threatened New Zealand passerine, to demonstrate how multistate modelling and social network analysis approaches can be used to characterize group type based on residency, movement, relatedness and social associations. At sites where hihi congregated, we found that juveniles were resighted at a higher frequency than adults and associated predominantly with unrelated juveniles rather than siblings or parents. Movement between group sites occurred, but associations developed predominantly within the sites. We suggest therefore that juvenile hihi social structure is most similar to a ‘gang’, a group structure in which juveniles congregate without adults at predictable sites. Such gangs have previously only been described formally in ravens, Corvus corax. By combining spatial and social network analyses, our study demonstrates how social group structures can be described and therefore facilitate broader comparisons and discussion about the form and function of juvenile groups across taxa

Two-layer viscous instability in a rotating couette device

A novel experiment to study the interfacial shear instability between two liquids is described. Density-matched immiscible liquids are confined between concentric cylinders such that the interface is parallel to the cylinder walls. Interfacial waves that develop because of viscosity differences between the shearing fluids are studied as a function of rotation rate and depth ratio using optical techniques. Conditions neutral stability and the most unstable wavenumber agree reasonably well with predictions from linear stability analysis of the Navier-Stokes equations. Illumination using laser sheets allows precise measurement of the interface shape. Future experiments will verify the correctness of weakly nonlinear theories that describe energy transfer and saturation of wave growth by nonlinear effects. Measurements of solitary wave shapes, that occur far above neutral stability, will be compared to similar measurements for systems that have gravity as an important force to determine how gravity effects large disturbances. These results will be used to interpret slug and annular flow data that have been obtained in other mu g studies