Evaluating Process Improvement Courses of Action Through Modeling and Simulation

Quantifying an expected improvement when considering moderate-complexity changes to a process is time consuming and has potential to overlook stochastic effects. By modeling a process as a Numerical Design Structure Matrix (NDSM), simulating the proposed changes, and evaluating performance, quantification can be rapidly accomplished to understand stochastic effects. This thesis explores a method to evaluate complex process changes within Six Sigma DMAIC process improvement to identify the most desirable outcome amongst several improvement options. A tool to perform the modeling and evaluation is developed. This process evaluation tool is verified for functionality, then is demonstrated against generic processes, a case study, and a real world Continuous Process Improvement event. The application of modeling and simulation to improve and control a process is found to be a positive return on investment under moderate complexity or continuous improvement events. The process evaluation tool is demonstrated to be accurate in prediction, scalable in complexity and fidelity, and capable of simulating a wide variety or evaluation types. Experimentation identifies the importance of understanding the evaluation criteria prior to “Measurement” in DMAIC, which increases the consistency of process improvement efforts

The Universal in Physics I.1

The opening paragraph of the Physics sketches succinctly Aristotle\u27s general notion of scientific knowledge. First, in any scientific discipline, to know a thing is to know its principles or elements. Secondly, the natural path of human knowledge is from things that are more knowable for men to things that are more knowable in themselves, that is, from concretions to the distinct cognition of principles and elements. These two norms are regarded as applying to all scientific procedure. Here they are outlined briefly as an introduction to the Aristotelian philosophy of nature. But Aristotle goes on to apparently recommend moving from universal to particular. We here explore what that might mean in the context of Aristotle\u27s philosophy and particularly at the beginning of the Physics

Note from Confederate Soldier

Dan Williams left a note with this document: My great grandmother & great grand father gave aid to Civil War soldier trying to find his way home from Vicksburg. This note he left to them.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-williams-papers/1020/thumbnail.jp

Income as a Predictor of Employe Job Satisfaction and Motivation

Employee job satisfaction and motivation are linked to their income level. Employee job satisfaction refers to an individual\u27s contentment with his or her job. Employee motivation has two components; extrinsic motivation refers to external benefits an individual gain (i.e. pay), whereas intrinsic motivation refers to an individual\u27s inherent satisfaction with one’s job (i.e. pride in the work they do). Higher or lower income levels impact employee satisfaction and motivation. It is hypothesized that individuals with medium-income ($45,000-$139,999) will have higher job satisfaction and motivation than individual with low-income ($0-$44,999). An independent samples t-test will be conducted between the two groups and the researchers will use two surveys to determine employee satisfaction and motivation. A 36-item Job Satisfaction Survey and 18-item Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale will be emailed to managers in food and service industry within 15 miles of Chattanooga City Hall. They will be incentivized to forward the survey to their employees, who will also be incentivized to complete the survey. We expect results to verify our hypothesis. Future research should examine how to potentially increase employee motivation by introducing and balancing more extrinsic and intrinsic factors in retail and food service positions

Convergence and transdisciplinary teaching in quantitative biology

The United States National Science and Technology Council has made a call for improving STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education at the convergence of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The National Science Foundation (NSF) views convergence as the merging of ideas, approaches, and technologies from widely diverse fields of knowledge to stimulate innovation and discovery. Teaching convergency requires moving to the transdisciplinary level of integration where there is deep integration of skills, disciplines, and knowledge to solve a challenging real-world problem. Here we present a summary on convergence and transdisciplinary teaching. We then provide examples of convergence and transdisciplinary teaching in plant biology, and conclude by discussing limitations to contemporary conceptions of convergency and transdisciplinary STEM

The Hiring of Music Teachers by Supervisors of Music

The purpose of this study was to explore the processes by which K-12 music teachers are hired when the hiring process is led by a supervisor of music. As defined in this study, supervisors of music are school administrators with a specialization in music education. School districts employing persons in this role rely on them to establish and implement a departmental vision. It is with this vision that they lead the hiring of music teachers in their district. Extant research relating to those traits which school districts seek when hiringteachers is centered around school principals and their views on hiring teachers in general terms, without regard for specific content areas. A subset of school administrators with music teaching experience, “music supervisors,” have been previously un-represented in research relating to hiring music teachers. This descriptive, mixed-method study focused on music supervisors and their role in and preferences for hiring music teachers. A survey was administered to music supervisors throughout Long Island and the responses of 62 music supervisors were analyzed. These data were triangulated through follow-up interviews of six music supervisors representing districts of varying sizes and financial need categories. The results indicated that music supervisors had high expectations for candidates to show excellent musicianship, content, and pedagogy knowledge in their candidates, but that candidates demonstrating exceptional soft skills were more likely to be awarded a teaching job. Though a significant amount of time is devoted to assessing candidate musicianship and pedagogical skills, music supervisors were in high agreement that “caring for students” was the most important trait that should be demonstrated by a candidate. Further results shed light on hiring processes and the way school districts each develop their own protocols which align with their community needs and culture to find the right teacher candidate

CTEQ Parton Distributions and Flavor Dependence of Sea Quarks

This paper describes salient features of new sets of parton distributions obtained by the CTEQ Collaboration based on a comprehensive QCD global analysis of all available data. The accuracy of the new data on deep inelastic scattering structure functions obtained by the very high statistics NMC and CCFR experiments provides unprecedented sensitivity to the flavor dependence of the sea-quark distributions. In addition to much better determination of the small x dependence of all parton distributions, we found: (i) the strange quark distribution is much softer than the non-strange sea quarks and rises above the latter at small-x; and (ii) the difference $\bar d-\bar u$ changes sign as a function of x. A few alternative sets of viable distributions with conventional assumptions are also discussed.Comment: 13 pages with figures, MSUHEP-92-27, Fermilab-Pub-92/371, FSU-HEP-92-1225, ISU-NP-92-1

SPAE: A Scratch Project Analysis Tool For Educators

Middle school and high school educators are always seeking new ways to offer differentiation and personalization of learning to their students. Computer programming can provide a differentiation technique as well as strengthen mathematical and problem solving skills. However, text-based computer programming languages are difficult for younger students to learn. Scratch is a visual, block-based programming environment that targets these younger novice learners. Scratch has been very successful at breaking down this learning barrier, evidenced by the 35 million projects created by 33 million unique users in twelve years. Educators that wish to use Scratch in the classroom now have a new problem in understanding how to evaluate and assess student projects. This thesis describes the Scratch Project Analysis for Educators tool (SPAE). SPAE is an easy to use web application that provides a summary of Scratch project characteristics that teachers can use in evaluating student work. SPAE is implemented on a variety of hardware and software platforms to ensure accessibility to any teacher. The reliability of SPAE was demonstrated through the analysis of nearly one million Scratch projects