Designing for Developmental Education

Designing in a universal context allows for an environment to be accessible, innovative, and conducive to the success of the user regardless of physical, emotional, or mental capabilities. This project integrates evidence-based design in order to convey a meaningful and uniquely curated environment for children with developmental disorders and/or sensory impairments to thrive in the context of developmental education.This research and design project focuses on the challenge of creating a space where children on the autism spectrum with learning disorders and/or sensory sensitivities feel educationally productive and comfortable with the stimuli around them at any given time. This project delves into the following areas:Sensory stimulation: What colors, saturations, visual and physical textures, acoustical properties, olfactory considerations (i.e. off-gassing, VOCs, material selection and properties), temperature control, etc. are most suitable for these types of spaces? How do hypo- and hyper-sensitivities play a role in finish, furniture, and equipment selection?Supplementary sensory stimulation: How do vestibular (inner ear balance) and proprioceptive (body/spatial awareness) play a role in the design process? Spatial considerations: How do design elements such as proximity, proportion, physical and spatial intimacy and/or isolation, volume, perception, and flexibility play a role in the design process? What is the importance of safety and privacy in this context?Design as therapy: What therapeutic techniques may be integrated into the project to improve the physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing of the occupants? How will practices like Snoezelen, horticulture and garden therapy, and hydrotherapy factor into the layout of the design? Color: How does color affect the visual weight, size, and distance of objects and surfaces? What stimulating response do certain interior colors have on occupants of a space? This developmental preschool project implements evidence-based design and integrates research and design solutions found in this area of design. Presentation Time: Thursday, 10-11 a.m

The Anthropologie effect

The purpose of this research is to investigate the phenomenon of lifestyle retail. How it’s accomplished in today’s consumer driven landscape? And, more importantly, how its practice can assist brick and mortar retailers in driving consumer behavior. Further, we will discuss the principal strategies that guide this distinctive business application. We will look at brands through the prism of both: The Experience Economy and Sensory Branding to determine what structural tenants, processes and guidelines are practiced to build a memorable lifestyle retail experience. The final component to the research is a proposed solution for independent retailers. In it, we will discuss the principles of lifestyle retail and how changing the physical environment can transform the customer experience and thus positively affect overall business performance. This study utilizes: Literature Review, Case Study and Content Analysis to explore the application of lifestyle retail within the construct of today’s consumer marketplace. Data was collected from all aforementioned methodologies

Fundamental Design Considerations For Creating Web Pages

Fundamental Design Considerations for Creating Web Pages is a graduate review paper that was written to increase awareness of the proper use of design principles and web page layout in designing school web sites. This was written in response to the increase of poorly designed web sites that are difficult to read and understand because of the use of improper text and text size, distracting backgrounds, and color combinations that do not match. Information is given as to what design considerations and background information is needed to create a web site. The use of tables and frames is compared along with the four design elements that consist of proximity, repetition, contrast, and alignment. The reader is also given information about readability and navigation within a web site

Seasonal variation of vitamin B12, B12 analogs, and phytoplankton in a Long Island estuary

Dissolved vitamin B12 concentrations in the Peconic Bay estuary, Long Island, were determined over a seasonal period by assay with the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana clone 3H…

Thermal Expansion of Single Crystals of Zinc

The thermal expansions of sixteen zinc single crystals have been measured in the temperature range 20°-100° C. The expansion coefficient is constant and obeys the Voigt symmetry relation

A Qualitative Case Study of Facebook and Its Perceived Impact on Social Connectivity

While the number of students using web-based social networks has increased, the effects of such networks on education have been unclear. Therefore, this research used a case study approach to study the relationship between social connectivity and the use of Facebook in a higher education classroom as well as the relationship between age and the use of Facebook. The intent was to understand the perceived impact of the use of a social media tool on bonding, bridging, and linking. The conceptual framework was built around the theories of social capital of Lin, Portes, Putnam, and Woolcock. The research questions addressed how the use of Facebook impacted social connectivity as part of the required interactions in a traditional undergraduate classroom and how different generations used Facebook in that setting. A self-selected sample of 13 out of 13 potential participants was used to acquire demographic data and to capture learner perceptions of their Facebook experience by way of a questionnaire and a focus group. NVivo10 content analysis software used thematic coding derived from multiple close readings of the collected data to surface relationships supporting the presence of social capital. The results indicated that learners\u27 use of Facebook influenced bridging, bonding, and linking within the classroom; however, learners wanted to keep their academic social networking separate from their personal use. The study also noted how students from different generations use Facebook in different ways. Understanding the role of social media tools may assist in innovative curriculum development that employs social networking tools, as well as help faculty determine how to use such tools to create a deeper learning experience for students

A dynamic term structure model of Central Bank policy

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-118).This thesis investigates the implications of explicitly modeling the monetary policy of the Central Bank within a Dynamic Term Structure Model (DTSM). We follow Piazzesi (2005) and implement monetary policy by including the Fed target rate as a state variable. The discontinuous target dynamics are accurately modeled via a non-linear switching process, while still maintaining affine requirements under the pricing measure ensuring tractability. To ensure a flexible risk specification we turn to the parametrization of Cheridito et al (2007), with extensions to the target jump process. Model parameters are estimated via a simulated maximum likelihood estimation scheme with importance sampling. A Bayesian particle filter is used as a robustness check, and it's use for static parameter estimation in a DTSM framework is explored. Our results support those in Piazzesi (2005), revealing a substantial improvement in pricing errors especially on the short end of the yield curve. The model construction provides a natural framework to inspect monetary policy information embedded in yields, which is found to be substantial. We find the addition of the target rate greatly improves the model's ability to explain excess return. An ability which is increased with the inclusion of the full term structure of target rates, as measured from Fed future contracts. We postulate the improved performance is due to the target as a proxy for short term rates, and a conduit to express the information content of the term structure of target rates.by Shawn W. Staker.Ph.D