Lost in hyperspace: Linearity versus exploration in the design of multimedia for independent learners

We are developing multimedia tutorials for independent learners based on a generic software shell. In doing so, one of the pedagogic issues we are addressing relates to navigation. This is a key factor in the effectiveness of multimedia teaching, since it affects how easy students find it to extract and integrate information. Multimedia tutorials tend to be either highly structured, with materials presented in a relatively linear fashion, or an encyclopedia-style explorative resource. The former is restrictive and provides the student with little freedom to study the materials in the order they choose; the latter makes systematic study difficult and students can easily become ‘lost’. Disorientation in explorative-style packages is a particular problem for Field Dependent people (Witkin et al., 1971). We have incorporated the best features of both linear and explorative packages in our shell and our tutorials, with the aim of supporting Field Dependent people as much as possible, while not denying those students who prefer to work in an explorative way the freedom to do so

Short and slim nacelle design for ultra-high BPR engines

An optimisation method consisting of the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and computational fluid dynamics of aero-engine nacelles is outlined. The method is applied to three nacelle lengths to determine the relative performance of different ultra-high bypass ratio engine nacelles. The optimal designs at each nacelle length are optimised for three objective functions: cruise drag, drag rise Mach number and change in spillage drag from mid to end of cruise. The Pareto sets generated from these optimisation computations demonstrate that the design space for short nacelles is much narrower in terms of these performace metrics and there are significant penalties in the off design conditions compared to the longer nacelle. Specifically the minimum spillage drag coefficient attainable, for a nacelle with a drag rise Mach number above 0.87, was 0.0040 for the shortest nacelle compared to 0.0005 for a nacelle which was 23% longer

The Capital Structure Decisions of New Firms

Based on data from the Kauffman Firm Survey, examines the funding sources of firms in their first year of operations. Highlights start-ups' reliance on external debt financing such as bank loans and credit cards, regardless of their credit scores

LGBT Equality and Sexual Racism

Bigots such as the trial judge in Loving have long invoked religion to justify discrimination. We agree with other scholars that neither religion nor artistic freedom justifies letting businesses discriminate. However, we also want to make manifest the tension between the public posture of LGBT-rights litigants and the practices of some LGBT people who discriminate based on race in selecting partners. We argue that some white people’s aversion to dating and forming relationships with people of color is a form of racism, and this sexual racism is inconsistent with the spirit of Loving. Part I provides a review of empirical literature on the prevalence of racial preferences in intimate relationships and shows that racial preferences are particularly pronounced among gay men. Part II supplements this overview with a qualitative exploration of how race informed the intimate experiences of people who sat for interviews as part of our ongoing study, LGBT Relationships and Well-Being. We also offer a theory that may partially explain sexual racism in the LGBT community. Specifically, exposure to mainstream gay culture may teach sexual minority men that race and desire are closely intertwined. In Part III, we propose ideas for further research, including a study that would test our theory

An optimization method for nacelle design

A multi-objective optimiZation method is demonstrated using an evolutionary genetic algorithm. The applicability of this method to preliminary nacelle design is demonstrated by coupling it with a response surface model of a wide range of nacelle designs. These designs were modelled using computational fluid dynamics and a Kriging interpolation was carried out on the results. The NSGA-II algorithm was tested and verified on established multi-dimensional problems. Optimisation on the nacelle model provided 3-dimensional Pareto surfaces of optimal designs at both cruise and off-design conditions. In setting up this methodology several adaptations to the basic NSGA-II algorithm were tested including constraint handling, weighted objective functions and initial sample size. The influence of these operators is demonstrated in terms of the hyper volume of the determined Pareto set

Patterns of Financing: A Comparison Between White- and African-American Young Firms

Based on Kauffman Firm Survey data, examines differences in start-up and follow-on capital injections into and capital use by firms with African-American and white owners. Explores how access to capital affects the racial gap in new business formation

A multimedia tutorial shell with qualitative assessment in biology

The project is developing methods to produce multimedia tutorials relatively quickly and cheaply, using a generic software shell suitable for any subject area. The shell is a version of one produced originally as part of the HEFC-funded TLTP initiative by the Biodiversity Consortium. Tutorials presented in the shell will provide the student with a structured learning experience that will allow their initial knowledge level or their knowledge acquisition and progress to be qualitatively and quantitatively assessed. Where areas of weakness are revealed by the assessment, students will be advised to study particular parts of the tutorial in order to improve their understanding

World of Relations: The Achievement of Peter Taylor

A leading figure in modern southern literature, described by Newsweek as one of the best American storytellers, Peter Taylor secured a national following through his long relationship with the New Yorker and his widely read volumes from the 1980s, The Old Forest and Other Stories and A Summons to Memphis. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author\u27s portrayals of the battles of strong-willed fathers and mothers with their equally strong-willed sons are at the center of his achievement in fiction. David Robinson presents Taylor as a writer deeply concerned with the interworkings of family relationships, and emphasizes his role as chronicler of the shifts in southern culture in this century. World of Relations provides an important critical assessment of the work of one of the South\u27s greatest writers, and includes the first extensive critical discussion of Taylor\u27s last two works, The Oracle of Stoneleigh Court (1993) and In the Tennessee Country (1994). David M. Robinson is Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Oregon Professor of English at Oregon State University. The study is thoroughly analytical, principally of themes rather than techniques, and robustly evaluative. —Choice Robinson is smart and subtle, revealing considerable insights into the complex layers of Taylor’s fiction and plays. —David Lynn Encourages not only a reevaluation of Taylor’s essential themes, but also new approaches that might situate Taylor’s work in relation to other mid-century diagnosticians of family collapse. —Mississippi Quarterly Sensitive, informed, and insightful, Robinson’s study deftly explores Taylor’s richly nuanced fictional world, particularly the complex dynamics of domestic and cultural turmoil lurking just beneath the mannered calm of southern gentility. —Robert Brinkmeyer Robinson shows through sound survey and analysis how Taylor’s entire oeuvre is of a piece artistically and thematically. —Southern Literary Journal A very helpful examination of a major storyteller. —Southern Seen Demonstrates the enormous complexity of Taylor’s characters. —Virginia Quarterly Review Deftly connecting struggles for independence within the family setting to larger tensions within the social structure of the South at midcentury, Robinson establishes Taylor\u27s place among the leading chroniclers of Southern culture in the twentieth century. —American Literaturehttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_north_america/1045/thumbnail.jp