1,705 research outputs found
Catastrophic Response and Disaster Recovery: An Industry Panel on Best Practices
Natural disasters and man-made failures or defects cause damage to buildings and its contents disrupting peopleās lives, businesses and the communities they live in. On a worldwide scale billions of dollars are spent to mitigate, restore and recover from a one-time residential incident, a single site large loss or for an area wide catastrophe.
This 2 part panel presentation will offer a perspective on the best practices from 3 different industry sectors from initial response to full recovery.
Representatives from the Restoration, Demolition and Volunteer Assistance industries will provide valuable insights to best practices and offer solutions on how industry can collaborate with academia, government, the social sector and community based organizations to better serve the victims affected by a disaster.
The ongoing goal of response and recovery should be for the stakeholders to share the lessons learned from previous disasters to help recover and build more resilient communities. Working together to develop emergency response plans and establishing a resource base before a disaster happens can better prepare for the recovery process.
The recovery process is not only about the restoration of people\u27s dwellings and personal belonging, but also about restoring ones peace on mind so they can resume their life after the event!
Dealing with an insurance company or government agency can often be a cumbersome and frightening ordeal for first time disaster victims The industry panel will share their experience on how to best handle financial considerations as well as the physical and emotional aspects of the loss recovery process
Space environmental effects on LDEF composites: A leading edge coated graphite epoxy panel
The electronics module cover for the leading edge (Row D 9) experiment M0003-8 was fabricated from T300 graphite/934 epoxy unidirectional prepreg tape in a (O(sub 2), +/- 45, O(sub 2), +/- 45, 90, 0)(sub s) layup. This 11.75 in x 16.75 in panel was covered with thermal control coatings in three of the four quadrants with the fourth quadrant uncoated. The composite panel experienced different thermal cycling extremes in each quadrant due to the different optical properties of the coatings and bare composite. The panel also experienced ultraviolet (UV) and atomic oxygen (AO) attack as well as micrometeoroid and space debris impacts. An AO reactivity of 0.99 x 10(exp -24) cm(sup 3)/atom was calculated for the bare composite based on thickness loss. The white urethane thermal control coatings (A276 and BMS 1060) prevented AO attack of the composite substrate. However, the black urethane thermal control coating (Z306) was severely eroded by AO, allowing some AO attack of the composite substrate. An interesting banding pattern on the AO eroded bare composite surface was investigated and found to match the dimensions of the graphite fiber tow widths as prepregged. Also, erosion depths were greater in the darker bands. Five micrometeoroid/space debris impacts were cross sectioned to investigate possible structural damage as well as impact/AO interactions. Local crushing and delaminations were found to some extent in all of the impacts. No signs of coating undercutting were observed despite the extensive AO erosion patterns seen in the exposed composite material at the impact sites. An extensive microcrack study was performed on the panel along with modeling of the thermal environment to estimate temperature extremes and thermal shock. The white coated composite substrate displayed almost no microcracking while the black coated and bare composite showed extensive microcracking. Significant AO erosion was seen in many of the cracks in the bare composite
G96-1276 Creep Feeding Growing Horses
This NebGuide discusses the benefits and implications of creep feeding horses during the growing period of development.
Creep feeding, providing a place where foals can eat without interference from the mare and other horses, should be used if foals are to grow at optimum rates. Creep feeders are used to provide a nutritionally balanced, digestible concentrate to young nursing foals before weaning. The practice of creep feeding serves to supply nutrients beyond what a foal receives from mare\u27s milk. And, creep feeding minimizes foals\u27 intake of broodmare feed which often lacks the concentrated amounts of protein and minerals relative to the energy needed by foals. Creep feeders also decrease the chances for injury to a foal when competing for feed from the mare\u27s feeder. Finally, creep feeders allow foals to become accustomed to eating concentrates before weaning time, thus reducing weaning stress
G96-1276 Creep Feeding Growing Horses
This NebGuide discusses the benefits and implications of creep feeding horses during the growing period of development.
Creep feeding, providing a place where foals can eat without interference from the mare and other horses, should be used if foals are to grow at optimum rates. Creep feeders are used to provide a nutritionally balanced, digestible concentrate to young nursing foals before weaning. The practice of creep feeding serves to supply nutrients beyond what a foal receives from mare\u27s milk. And, creep feeding minimizes foals\u27 intake of broodmare feed which often lacks the concentrated amounts of protein and minerals relative to the energy needed by foals. Creep feeders also decrease the chances for injury to a foal when competing for feed from the mare\u27s feeder. Finally, creep feeders allow foals to become accustomed to eating concentrates before weaning time, thus reducing weaning stress
Building the capacity of faculties of education : case studies of a TEMPUS journey in peer learning and transformations in teacher education
For some years, education has been high on the
agenda of heads of state, policy makers and
civil society, on the international, regional and
national levels. Most reforms have emphasised the
importance of teachers and, more specifically, the
critical impact that teacher preparation is proven
to have on student learning (Darling-Hammond,
1997). Research also suggests that, in addition to
teacher preparation, the quality of learning largely
depends on Continued Professional Development
(CPD) (OECD/WB, 2014). Moreover, preparing
and empowering educators through lifelong
learning is a complex undertaking that includes
induction and mentoring at entry point into the
profession. It is a long learning journey that starts
with university preparation but continues through
the career development path of each professional.
It has various configurations, but most importantly
is seen in school and in partnership with universities.
The best CPD programmes highlight what great
instruction looks like through curricula and
pedagogy, impart educators with the knowledge
and capacity to deliver exemplary instruction, build
practical skills through professional development
opportunities, support educators with good
mentors and coaches, select and develop good
instructional leaders who focus on instruction
and creating learning communities, and enable
educators to learn from each other (Barber and
Mourshed, 2007). Many international task forces
and initiatives have been established in the last
fifteen years to support teachers at the heart of
educational reform in Europe and elsewhere
(UNESCO, 2014; Twining, et al., 2013; Haigh,
et al., 2013).
In recent years one of the lead bodies for the
Arab region, the League of Arab States (LAS),
developed visions and strategies to promote
quality educational reform and research. These
two concerns have featured in every single Arab
Summit meeting since 2006. In fact already in
2005 a department for education and scientific
research was created at LAS to support the
new policy direction. In 2006, LAS and various
other regional bodies, such as the Arab League
Education Culture and Science Organization
(ALECSO), the Arab Bureau for Education in
the Gulf States (ABEGS), the regional offices
for the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the
regional office for the United Nations Childrenās
Fund (UNICEF) joined hands in a partnership
to enhance the quality of education in the Arab
world (League of Arab States and UNICEF, 2010).
The partnership chose teachers as their entry
point for the purposes of bringing about reform.
Several studies were conducted and compiled to
further understand the status of teachers, their
training and performance in the region. Studies
on Arab universities have highlighted the fact that
these relatively recently established institutions
work in very complex contexts, and that although
their numbers are rapidly proliferating they face
considerable challenges with regard to the quality of their programmes, autonomy and governance
(Mazawi, 2005; ElAmine, 2014; Al-Hroub,
2014). More specific studies on faculties of
education clearly pointed to the fact that the Arab
world in general suffers from weak professional
development programs. Curricula in university
faculties of education are not updated and do not
emphasize innovation, critical thinking, reflection,
research and problem solving. There is a weak
link between theory and practice, and on-the-job
CPD is very limited (Zaalouk, 2013). The situation
is further aggravated by the low status and salary
accorded to teachers (Farag, 2010; Herrara and
Torres 2006).
During later stages of the joint initiative on teacher
enhancement led by the LAS, UNICEF, and the
Middle East Institute for Higher Education (MEIHE)
at the American University in Cairo (AUC),
there have been many positive achievements
in terms of advocacy and the production of a
guiding framework for teachersā professional
development. Since 2008, the initiative has
been developing the capacity of two regional
centers of excellence to enhance the professional
development of teachers: one in Egypt ā the
Professional Academy for Teachers (PAT) and one
in Jordan ā the Queen Rania Teachersā Academy
(QRTA). The advocacy from the regional teacher
initiative overwhelmingly led by LAS, UNICEF
and MEIHE, has made teacher preparation and
enhancement a priority in all countries in the
region. Moreover, other agencies have joined the
reform attempts. The World Bank has launched the
Arab Regional Agenda for Improving Education
Quality (ARAIEQ) in partnership with ALECSO,
UNESCO, the World Economic Forum, INJAZ
al-Arab (a regional NGO) and QRTA in 2012.
One of the main pillars of the initiative is āTeacher
Policies and Professionalizationā.
Reforms have been attempted, but many
more efforts are clearly needed in the way of
internationalization, cultural exchange and
learning within borderless communities through
the acquisition as well as the production of both
explicit and tacit knowledge. In October 2012, the
MEIHE was awarded a -36month project entitled
āCapacity Development of Faculties of Education
CDFE in International Approaches to Teacher
Educationā (Project number -530614TEMPUS-
-1-2012-1EG-TEMPUS-JPHES). The project
(abbreviated to CDFE) focused on building the
capacity of selected higher education institutions.
It focused on learning from good practices
from the European Union (EU) in three strategic
areas: action research, practicum and Continued
Professional Development. In so doing, the project
harmonized pre-university with higher educational
reforms. It aimed at making the work of faculties
of education relevant and integral to school-based
reform. Through a collaborative network between
faculties of education in some EU countries and
some selected partners in the MENA/Arab region,
the project aimed at enhancing the capacities
of faculties of education in the latter. The
project essentially aimed at rendering university
faculties of education relevant to school and
society. The goal is to strengthen the partnership
between universities and schools through the
organization of practicum, action research and
Continued Professional Development. Schools
are social institutions constituting the work place
of future teachers. Effective teacher recruitment,
employment, deployment and retention should
begin with quality practicum during teachersā
university years, followed by strong mentorship
and professional development programmes
during the early induction years, and continued
lifelong learning through research during the
mature years of teaching. Learning resulting from
this project feeds into two regional centers of
excellence: the Queen Rania Teacher Academy in
Jordan (QRTA) and the Professional Academy for
Teachers in Egypt (PAT) for sustainable capacity
building of higher education institutions across
the region.peer-reviewe
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