John W. Creswell, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches

Abstract. John W. Creswell was previously a professor in educational psychology in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He moved to the University of Michigan in 2015 as a professor in the Department of Family Medicine. He has published many articles and close to 27 books on mixed methods. Professor Creswell is also one of the founding members of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research. He was a Fulbright scholar in South Africa in 2008 and Thailand in 2012. In 2011, he served as a visiting professor in the School of Public Health of Harvard University. In 2014, he became the Chairman of the Mixed Methods International Research Association. Professor Creswell has a personal website called “Mixed Methods Research” at http://johnwcreswell.com/. The site contains the information about his background, his own blog, consulting works and published books. He also posted replies questions from academic researchers and practitioners in the blog.Keywords. Research design, Methodology, Methods.JEL. A20, B40, B49

Developing Mobile BIM/2D Barcode-Based Automated Facility Management System

Facility management (FM) has become an important topic in research on the operation and maintenance phase. Managing the work of FM effectively is extremely difficult owing to the variety of environments. One of the difficulties is the performance of two-dimensional (2D) graphics when depicting facilities. Building information modeling (BIM) uses precise geometry and relevant data to support the facilities depicted in three-dimensional (3D) object-oriented computer-aided design (CAD). This paper proposes a new and practical methodology with application to FM that uses an integrated 2D barcode and the BIM approach. Using 2D barcode and BIM technologies, this study proposes a mobile automated BIM-based facility management (BIMFM) system for FM staff in the operation and maintenance phase. The mobile automated BIMFM system is then applied in a selected case study of a commercial building project in Taiwan to verify the proposed methodology and demonstrate its effectiveness in FM practice. The combined results demonstrate that a BIMFM-like system can be an effective mobile automated FM tool. The advantage of the mobile automated BIMFM system lies not only in improving FM work efficiency for the FM staff but also in facilitating FM updates and transfers in the BIM environment

Application of satellite cloud brightness data for large-scale tropical analysis: A correlation study of brightness and 200-mb divergence

This is a preliminary analysis of digitized satellite cloud brightness data that will be used in developing a model for large-scale analysis over data-void tropical areas, which is based on Wallace's (1971) postulation that such data may be used to estimate vertical motion in the tropics. The relationship between satellite cloud brightness and large-scale 200 mb divergence on 5° x 5° grids in the tropical western North Pacific is examined from several angles. Correlation coefficients between the two fields are computed on a daily basis for the region of study and at each grid point for 8-month time series. The coefficients are mostly low although a positive correlation is generally indicated. The low correlation may be due to the quality of the available data, especially for the divergence which is kinematically computed from analyzed winds. Spectrum analysis is also performed to determine dominant synoptic time scales for both parameters in the period of study. Two common period bands, one centered ~ 10 days and the other ^ 5 days, are found. Crossspectra between the two parameters indicate that their phase differences are small (< 1/4 cycle) for both bands, but the coherence squares are somewhat lower than those found previously by Wallace for the 4- to 5- day waves using direct radiosonde data. Horizontal structures of both parameters, determined from inter-longitude cross-spectra in the two bands, suggest that the brightness is much more organized than divergence, but the two fields resemble each other whenever an organized pattern in divergence can be found. The results of this study lend some support to Wallace's postulation, but also indicate some problems for using the present data. It is anticipated that the correspondence with the actual divergence field will be greatly improved if satellite infrared data is incorporated into the brightness data.supported by the National Environmental Satellite Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under contract NA-833-73.http://archive.org/details/applicationofsat00chanNA 883-73N

Stationary Light Pulses in Cold Atomic Media

Stationary light pulses (SLPs), i.e., light pulses without motion, are formed via the retrieval of stored probe pulses with two counter-propagating coupling fields. We show that there exist non-negligible hybrid Raman excitations in media of cold atoms that prohibit the SLP formation. We experimentally demonstrate a method to suppress these Raman excitations and realize SLPs in laser-cooled atoms. Our work opens the way to SLP studies in cold as well as in stationary atoms and provides a new avenue to low-light-level nonlinear optics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure