A case study exploring the pedagogical content knowledge of intermediate phase Mathematics teachers.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.The poor performance of South African learners in mathematics has been a cause of great concern. Various factors have been identified which contribute to learners’ underperformance and amongst these factors, is that of teacher knowledge. Shulman (1986) who was the initial researcher on teacher knowledge, categorized seven knowledge domains. These knowledge domains include: content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, curriculum knowledge, knowledge of learners and their characteristics, knowledge of educational contexts, knowledge of educational purposes and values and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). PCK is deemed as the knowledge domain that makes “teachers, teachers” rather than subject experts (Cochran, King and DeRuiter, 1993). This study has therefore focused on this specific knowledge domain. The purpose of this study was to explore the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of two Grade Six mathematics teachers from the Umgungundlovu district in KwaZulu- Natal. The study focused on the categories of PCK that the teachers drew on when teaching 2D and 3D shapes. The teachers were purposively selected on the basis of having five years or more of teaching experience and their willingness to participate in the research. The study was guided by a qualitative case study method and located within the interpretive paradigm. Structured lesson observations and video stimulated interviews were used as data collection methods. The video stimulated interviews were transcribed and Ball et al’s. (2008) framework on Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) with a specific focus on PCK was used to analyze the data. The data was coded according to the three categories of PCK in the MKT framework. These categories are comprised of Knowledge of Content and Curriculum (KCC), Knowledge of Content and Teaching (KCT) and Knowledge of Content and Students. The findings of this study suggest that the teachers implemented KCC, KCS and KCT in their teaching of 2D and 3D shapes. However, it was also observed that both teachers failed to address the incorrect responses provided by their learners. The issue of time constraints was identified as a possible factor that could have contributed to the teachers’ inability to probe deeper into the learners’ misconceptions. In addition to this, the study also aimed to describe the nature of the relationship between the teachers’ PCK and pedagogic decision making. The results of this study also suggest that the teachers’ KCS and KCC greatly influenced their pedagogic decision making and a call for further research in this area is suggested

Inconsistency at the Pole: Exotic Dancer\u27s Employment Status Should Be Uniform Throughout the U.S.

As states start to recognize exotic dancers as employees under Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), states that have not yet classified exotic dancers as employees have put club owners in danger of costly litigation for violating the FLSA. Thus, this Note is designed to act as a road map for club owners and state legislators to recognize exotic dancers as employees in compliance with the FLSA and provide insight into how to avoid litigation. This Note analyzes this issue in four parts; Part IV, the analysis, is split into four substantial sections. Part I gives a short summary of the history and purpose of the FLSA. It then reviews the relevant facts and holdings of three circuit court cases in which exotic dancers were classified as employees under the FLSA. Finally, it concludes with a short discussion of the test used in these cases to make that determination. Part II starts with a broader geographical analysis of the United States and summarizes the current groups of states in relation to the laws surrounding exotic dancers as employees. It then analyzes the industry impact of states that mandated dancers be recognized as employees and states that still do not have such mandate. It also discusses the potential impact on states that have not yet followed suit. Part II then analyzes the practical implications of holding exotic dancers as employees of clubs. Part III presents an anomaly in the current framework of the industry that has the potential to lead to a destructive loophole with feature entertainers. Part IV compares the labor rights of strippers to other sex workers. Part V is a brief conclusion with broad recommendations for club operators and legislators, reiterating the potential impact on the health and wellbeing of the entertainers

Delay-Optimal Relay Selection in Device-to-Device Communications for Smart Grid

The smart grid communication network adopts a hierarchical structure which consists of three kinds of networks which are Home Area Networks (HANs), Neighborhood Area Networks (NANs), and Wide Area Networks (WANs). The smart grid NANs comprise of the communication infrastructure used to manage the electricity distribution to the end users. Cellular technology with LTE-based standards is a widely-used and forward-looking technology hence becomes a promising technology that can meet the requirements of different applications in NANs. However, the LTE has a limitation to cope with the data traffic characteristics of smart grid applications, thus require for enhancements. Device-to-Device (D2D) communications enable direct data transmissions between devices by exploiting the cellular resources, which could guarantee the improvement of LTE performances. Delay is one of the important communication requirements for the real-time smart grid applications. In this paper, the application of D2D communications for the smart grid NANs is investigated to improve the average end-to-end delay of the system. A relay selection algorithm that considers both the queue state and the channel state of nodes is proposed. The optimization problem is formulated as a constrained Markov decision process (CMDP) and a linear programming method is used to find the optimal policy for the CMDP problem. Simulation results are presented to prove the effectiveness of the proposed scheme

Optimizing the Energy Efficiency of Short Term Ultra Reliable Communications in Vehicular Networks

We evaluate the use of HARQ schemes in the context of vehicle to infrastructure communications considering ultra reliable communications in the short term from a channel capacity stand point. We show that it is not possible to meet strict latency requirements with very high reliability without some diversity strategy and propose a solution to determining an optimal limit on the maximum allowed number of retransmissions using Chase combining and simple HARQ to increase energy efficiency. Results show that using the proposed optimizations leads to spending 5 times less energy when compared to only one retransmission in the context of a benchmark test case for urban scenario. In addition, we present an approximation that relates most system parameters and can predict whether or not the link can be closed, which is valuable for system design

Distributed drone base station positioning for emergency cellular networks using reinforcement learning

Due to the unpredictability of natural disasters, whenever a catastrophe happens, it is vital that not only emergency rescue teams are prepared, but also that there is a functional communication network infrastructure. Hence, in order to prevent additional losses of human lives, it is crucial that network operators are able to deploy an emergency infrastructure as fast as possible. In this sense, the deployment of an intelligent, mobile, and adaptable network, through the usage of drones—unmanned aerial vehicles—is being considered as one possible alternative for emergency situations. In this paper, an intelligent solution based on reinforcement learning is proposed in order to find the best position of multiple drone small cells (DSCs) in an emergency scenario. The proposed solution’s main goal is to maximize the amount of users covered by the system, while drones are limited by both backhaul and radio access network constraints. Results show that the proposed Q-learning solution largely outperforms all other approaches with respect to all metrics considered. Hence, intelligent DSCs are considered a good alternative in order to enable the rapid and efficient deployment of an emergency communication network

Right Ventricular Mass in a Neonate

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138423/1/jpc13601.pd

Damaged Bodies, Damaged Lives: Immigrant Worker Injuries as Dignity Takings

Government data consistently affirm that foreign-born workers in the U.S. experience high rates of on-the-job illness and injury. This article explores whether—and under what circumstances—these occupational harms suffered by immigrant workers constitute a dignity taking. The article argues that some injuries suffered by foreign-born workers are indirect takings by the state due to the government’s lackluster oversight and limited penalties for violations of occupational safety and health laws. Using a framework of the body as property, the article then explores when work-related injury constitutes an infringement upon a property right. The article contends that the government’s weak enforcement apparatus, coupled with state-sanctioned hostility towards immigrants, creates an environment where immigrant workers are deemed to be sub-persons, and where employer impunity abounds. Drawing upon data gleaned from a research study of immigrant day laborers in northern Virginia, the article describes a range of practices by employers in cases of workplace accidents, noting the circumstances that are indicative of dehumanization, and thus, dignity takings

Monitoring Based Commissioning Activities in LEED Certification Process

The purpose of this thesis was to suggest a functional procurement plan for Monitoring Based Commissioning, within the framework of LEED certification. The procurement is applied to Finnish climate and statutes. The approach of the thesis was to provide a deep yet practical understanding of this LEED-specific procurement process. To achieve this purpose, extensive literature research, interviews and a case study were conducted. The research included academic papers from various fields, such as energy efficiency, energy management, facility management, building automation, building modeling and simulation, European Union and Finnish legislation. Apart from the literature research, the author has conducted interviews with several colleagues and utilized internal documents of the company. Additionally, a case study was applied, to test the actual functionality of Monitoring Based Commissioning. The result of the was a plan that summarizes the focus points of procurement prior to project preparation. They were disseminated within the company in order to get the employees familiar with this type of commissioning and utilize the gained knowledge in future procurement. The thesis also suggests further fields and subject to continue investigating

Offline to Online Conversion

We consider the problem of converting offline estimators into an online predictor or estimator with small extra regret. Formally this is the problem of merging a collection of probability measures over strings of length 1,2,3,... into a single probability measure over infinite sequences. We describe various approaches and their pros and cons on various examples. As a side-result we give an elementary non-heuristic purely combinatoric derivation of Turing's famous estimator. Our main technical contribution is to determine the computational complexity of online estimators with good guarantees in general.Comment: 20 LaTeX page