Developing, implementing, and testing a parent feedback instrument for public school boards and employees

The primary purpose of this study was to identify, implement, and test a parent feedback questionnaire to be used to gain information from parents about the operation of the board of education, the district administration, the programs, policies, and procedures of individual school buildings, the school administration of individual school buildings, the teachers and professional staff of individual school buildings, and the support staffs of individual school buildings. The questionnaire was developed with assistance from a judgment panel;The opportunity sample consisted of two school systems located in the northeastern United States. Custom tailored scanforms were prepared for each district;The questionnaire used was divided into two parts. The first part was specific questions about the various school groups. The second part allowed respondents to rate the importance of the questions in the first part;The data from the questionnaires were analyzed. Mass authorship of the document provided social validity, while the Cronbach coefficient alpha procedure was used to establish the reliability of the instrument. Additionally, confidence intervals were computed for each district and for the survey as a whole;The major findings include: (1) The parents felt all the questionnaire items were important for parents to rate. (2) The highest rated questions were four in the area of programs, policies, and procedures of the individual school building, and one in the area of teachers and professional staff. (3) The lowest rated questions included three from the area of the school board, one from the area of the district administration, and two from the area of programs, policies, and procedures of the individual school building. (4) When the results of both districts were combined, a reliability of 0.97 was computed for the entire instrument. (5) Confidence intervals of +/-4 percent for the entire survey and +/-5 percent at both Stream Harbor and Cotcar were obtained. (6) The instrument and the process proved to be quick, easy, and cost effective

Electron, ion and neutral heating in hollow cathode plasma thrusters

This thesis demonstrates the capability to control the particle heating mechanisms in radio-frequency (rf) hollow cathode electrothermal micropropulsion sources via the application of multi-harmonic `tailored' voltage waveforms. Modulation of the electrical asymmetry of such waveforms, through varying the phase offset between successive harmonics, results in a direct variation of the phase-resolved sheath dynamics. This enables the preferential deposition of power into either electrons or ion species, selectively enhancing the ionisation rate or neutral gas heating efficiency, respectively. Further, by considering the neutral depletion arising from neutral gas heating, this work predicts the formation of collisionless ion populations within otherwise collisional plasmas. These outcomes are achieved in tandem through the use of 2D fluid/Monte-Carlo numerical simulations with comparison to experimental measurements of the lab-based prototype Pocket Rocket hollow cathode microthruster. Application of these electrical control schemes to plasma sources for spacecraft propulsion enables the prospect of variable thrust and variable specific impulse operation, significantly increasing the in-mission versatility of electric thrusters

Blended e-learning skeleton of conversation: improving formative assessment in undergraduate dissertation supervision

The supervision of undergraduate student dissertations is an area in need of research. Although some studies have already addressed this, these are primarily based on academic staff responses. This study contributes to knowledge by gathering the responses of students and focusing on formative electronic assessment. Data was collected using a student focus group and student questionnaire. The findings suggest that good supervisor-student communication is crucial to the supervision process and a number of students felt unhappy with this aspect. It is suggested that to improve the undergraduate student dissertation experience, a combination of face-to-face and electronic formative assessment is used. In addition, the Blended E-learning Skeleton of Conversation model provides a sound theoretical framework that could guide supervisors and students in the supervision process. This model is advocated for use in dissertation module design and in supervisor development

Developing the Quantitative Histopathology Image Ontology : A case study using the hot spot detection problem

Interoperability across data sets is a key challenge for quantitative histopathological imaging. There is a need for an ontology that can support effective merging of pathological image data with associated clinical and demographic data. To foster organized, cross-disciplinary, information-driven collaborations in the pathological imaging field, we propose to develop an ontology to represent imaging data and methods used in pathological imaging and analysis, and call it Quantitative Histopathological Imaging Ontology – QHIO. We apply QHIO to breast cancer hot-spot detection with the goal of enhancing reliability of detection by promoting the sharing of data between image analysts

Relationship Between Chemical Percentage Intramuscular Fat and USDA Marbling Score

This paper presents the relationships found and developed into a set of regression formulas for marbling score (MS) and actual percentage intramuscular fat (PIMF) using data from realtime ultrasound (RTU) certification programs. MS was determined to the nearest 10th of a marbling degree by a USDA grader—that is, sm10, sm20, etc. The same USDA grader was used each year. Percentage intramuscular fat was determined by removing a 1/4 in. facing from the 12th rib. This facing was returned to the Iowa State University Meat Laboratory, trimmed so that the sample contained only the longissimus dorsi muscle, freeze-ground, and sub-sampled. Product moment correlations between PIMF and MS were .95, .82, and .89 for 1996, 1997 and combined years, respectively. The results shown in this paper are not characteristic of what is generally observed in the industry. However, it shows that there can be a high correlation between the subjective grading of marbling as compared to actual chemical fat in the longissimus dorsi muscle. The USDA grader that graded these cattle knew he was being compared to an instrument grading system. How much fairer might the current grading system be if this technology were to be embraced and implemented by the beef packing industry

Intelligent assistance in scientific data preparation

Scientific data preparation is the process of extracting usable scientific data from raw instrument data. This task involves noise detection (and subsequent noise classification and flagging or removal), extracting data from compressed forms, and construction of derivative or aggregate data (e.g. spectral densities or running averages). A software system called PIPE provides intelligent assistance to users developing scientific data preparation plans using a programming language called Master Plumber. PIPE provides this assistance capability by using a process description to create a dependency model of the scientific data preparation plan. This dependency model can then be used to verify syntactic and semantic constraints on processing steps to perform limited plan validation. PIPE also provides capabilities for using this model to assist in debugging faulty data preparation plans. In this case, the process model is used to focus the developer's attention upon those processing steps and data elements that were used in computing the faulty output values. Finally, the dependency model of a plan can be used to perform plan optimization and run time estimation. These capabilities allow scientists to spend less time developing data preparation procedures and more time on scientific analysis tasks

Trends Associated with Marbling Score, Fat Cover, and CAB (Certified Angus BeefTM) Acceptance Rate

The objective of the study was to analyze the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) program carcass database for trends associated with marbling score, fat cover, and CAB acceptance rate in Angus-type cattle. The CAB program carcass database is made up of over 100,000 records collected during 1989 to 1999. Steers make up 90 % of the database, and 89 % of the cattle were finished in the Midwest (NE, CO, KS). The majority of the cattle (62 %) were finished in Nebraska feedyards. The CAB program overall acceptance rate was 23.4 %. Marbling score (84.0 %) is the first limiting factor for CAB acceptance of steers. For steers, a combination of marbling score and yield grade (8.3 %) and yield grade alone (6.1 %) for steers are the second and third limiting factors for CAB acceptance, respectively. The phenotypic correlation between fat cover and marbling score is nearly zero for CAB steers, yet for non-CAB steers the correlation is 0.38 (p \u3c .01). On the average, as yield grade increases from 2.0 to 4.0, by each tenth of a unit, marbling score increases by 0.3 % for every 1 % increase in fat cover for all steers. Comparing CAB steers versus non-CAB steers, marbling score increases by 0.05 % and 0.34 % for every 1 % increase in fat cover, respectively. As fat cover groups increase by 0.1 of an inch, CAB acceptance rate increases up to the 0.6- 0.69 inch group, then starts to decrease for steers. When looking at marbling score by fat cover groups, CAB steers increase 1.0 % for each 0.1 inch increase in fat cover, and for non-CAB steers, there is an increase of 5.0 %. Fat cover increases by 5.6 % and 14.2 % as you go from a USDA marbling score of small to modest and slight to modest, respectively, for all steers. Looking at the slaughter months, there is an increase in marbling score from April to August, although fat cover remains steady. Yet CAB acceptance rate decreases from April to June and then increases from June to November. Producers may be able to improve the CAB acceptance rate of their cattle if there is a clearer understanding of the relationship between traits that are included in the CAB specifications

Una entrevista con Luis Murillo Fort, traductor de Cormac McCarthy

Una entrevista con Luis Murillo Fort, traductor de Cormac McCarth

Magnetic enhancement of the electrical asymmetry effect in capacitively coupled plasmas

The authors gratefully acknowledge Prof. Mark J Kushner and Dr Andrew R Gibson for insightful discussions.Peer reviewe