6,070 research outputs found
The outcomes of family and consumer leadership education: creating positive change in disability policy and practice
Background
When individuals with disabilities are trained in evidenced based practices and how to advocate for themselves and their families, they are best able to ensure that services and supports meet their needs and create and realize a positive vision for their future.
Participants and procedure
In New Hampshire in the United States a Leadership Series provided seven weekend training sessions to an annual cohort of about 25 family members and 10 adults with disabilities about better practices in service provision, defining a vision for the future, and community organizing and advocacy strategies, using informational sessions and participation in small work groups.
Results
A total of 100 participants completing the Series over a six-year period completed pre and post surveys consisting of both closed-ended and open-ended questions. Respondents reported highly significant increases in their knowledge about service provision and advocacy strategies, significant increases in their clarity of vision for six out of seven life domains, and significant increases in their membership in community organizations and frequency of advocacy activities.
Conclusions
The Leadership Series fostered increased efforts to create positive change in the lives of the participants and their family members with disabilities and in the services and supports provided to family members with disabilities
Anomalous magnetoresistance peak in (110) GaAs two-dimensional holes: Evidence for Landau-level spin-index anticrossings
We measure an anomalous magnetoresistance peak within the lowest Landau level
(nu = 1) minimum of a two-dimensional hole system on (110) GaAs.
Self-consistent calculations of the valence band mixing show that the two
lowest spin-index Landau levels anticross in a perpendicular magnetic field B
consistent with where the experimental peak is measured, Bp. The temperature
dependence of the anomalous peak height is interpreted as an activated behavior
across this anticrossing gap. Calculations of the spin polarization in the
lowest Landau levels predict a rapid switch from about -3/2 to +3/2 spin at the
anticrossing. The peak position Bp is shown to be affected by the confinement
electrostatics, and the utility of a tunable anticrossing position for
spintronics applications is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Baseline tests of the C. H. Waterman DAF electric passenger vehicle
An electric vehicle was tested as part of an Energy Research Development Administration (ERDA) project to characterize the state-of-the-art of electric vehicles. The Waterman vehicle performance test results are presented in this report. The vehicle is a converted four-passenger DAF 46 sedan. It is powered by sixteen 6-volt traction batteries through a three-step contactor controller actuated by a foot throttle to change the voltage applied to the 6.7 kW motor. The braking system is a conventional hydraulic braking system
Correlation-Space Description of the Percolation Transition in Composite Microstructures
We explore the percolation threshold shift as short-range correlations are introduced and systematically varied in binary composites. Two complementary representations of the correlations are developed in terms of the distribution of phase bonds or, alternatively, using a set of appropriate short-range order parameters. In either case, systematic exploration of the correlation space reveals a boundary that separates percolating from nonpercolating structures and permits empirical equations that identify the location of the threshold for systems of arbitrary short-range correlation states. Two- and three-dimensional site lattices with two-body correlations, as well as a two-dimensional hexagonal bond network with three-body correlations, are explored. The approach presented here should be generalizable to more complex correlation states, including higher-order and longer-range correlations
The near-synchronous polar V1432 Aql (RX J1940.1-1025): Accretion geometry and synchronization time scale
The magnetic Cataclysmic Variable (mCV) V1432 Aql (RX 1940.1-1025) belongs to
the four-member subclass of near-synchronous polars with a slight
non-synchronism (<2 %) between the spin period of the white dwarf and the
binary period. In these systems the accretion geometry changes periodically
with phase of the beat cycle. We present the application of a dipole accretion
model for near-synchronous systems developed by Geckeler & Staubert (1997a) to
extended optical and X-ray data. We detect a significant secular change of the
white dwarf spin period in V1432 Aql of dP_spin/dt = -5.4 (+3.7/-3.2) 10-9 s/s
from the optical data set alone. This corresponds to a synchronization time
scale tau_sync = 199 (+441/-75) yr, comparable to the time scale of 170 yr for
V1500 Cyg. The synchronization time scale in V1432 Aql is in excellent
agreement with the theoretical prediction from the dominating magnetic torque
in near-synchronous systems. We also present period analyses of optical CCD
photometry and RXTE X-ray data, which argue against the existence of a 4000 s
period and an interpretation of V1432 Aql as an intermediate polar. The dipole
accretion model also allows to constrain the relevant parameters of the
accretion geometry in this system: the optical data allow an estimate of the
dimensionless parameter (R_t0'/R_wd)1/2 sin(beta) = 3.6 (+2.7/-1.1), with a
lower limit for the threading radius of R_t0' > 10 R_wd (68% confidence).Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables accepted by A&
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