An analysis of teacher guides for formative assessment

The teaching practices associated with formative assessment are widely accepted as improving students’ learning. Wiliam and Thompson proposed a set of strategies that can enhance teachers’ productive formative assessment practices. These strategies, however, give only limited guidance for implementation in specific contexts. My PhD research aims to identify examples of these strategies in the context of multiplicative reasoning in early secondary mathematics and interrogate ways to support teachers in enacting these strategies productively. As the first step, I analysed teacher guides for multiplicative reasoning lessons from five different sets of curriculum materials in the United Kingdom and the United States, adopting Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis approach. In this paper, I present the initial findings of this analysis in relation to the strategy of eliciting students’ learning and introduce the future directions of this research

The Problem Of Prohibition On The Use Of Nuclear Weapons

As a result of United States’bombing of two Japanese cities in 1945, the Soviet Union, by setting fire of a weapon competition, became the second State which has developed nuclear weapons and has global interest in the nuclear division. The general nuclear weapons are not the only risk. The September 11th incident has been increased concerns about the world’s nuclear power stations and means that could be target of the terrorists. After the Second World War, an increasing trend of proliferation of nuclear weapons have led to negotiations on the control and restrictions that would be concluded with reduction of these weapons as number. There is a fairly widespread belief that nuclear deterrence helped to maintain peace over several decades. Moreover, the employment of nuclear weapons is now envisaged - at least by some nuclear powers - not only as a last resort, but also as a way to react to any attacks committed with chemical or biological or even conventional weapons. As long as the use of nuclear weapons has not been unreservedly prohibited, the efforts to create a nuclear-weapon-free world will remain useless. This article, considering existing restrictions and applicable law on the use of weapons, intends to determine what the future works are, in order to reach this aim eventually.Nuclear weapons, Nuclear deterrence, Legality, Disarmament, International Court of Justice, Conventional prohibitions Martens Clause.

Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Business Excellence: Empirical Evidence from Hospital Nursing Departments

Business excellence is important in terms of encouraging successful quality implementations, disseminating the result of such implementations to society, making quality culture widespread, creating a basis for comparison of quality implementations, and directing the quality implementer to continuous improvement. Excellence models affect performance and help organizations achieve organizational excellence. Furthermore, employee satisfaction is another concern of organizational excellence. The measurement of job satisfaction has become an important issue in TQM. In this respect, the extent to which employees are satisfied with what they are responsible for may directly influence the level of customer satisfaction with their services and products. The main purpose of the study is to determine the relationship between business excellence and job satisfaction. In order to reach this goal, a survey that contains Job Descriptive Index with 5 factors and EFQM Criteria with 6 factors is applied to different nursing departments of two research hospitals. Both hospitals are in the business excellence process. Data obtained in the study has been analyzed at the base of multivariate data analysis and the results show that the canonical correlation between job satisfaction and business excellence model is significant. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed in the paper

Robust profit opportunities in risky financial portfolios

Cataloged from PDF version of article.For risky financial securities with given expected return vector and covariance matrix, we propose the concept of a robust profit opportunity in single- and multiple-period settings. We show that the problem of finding the “most robust” profit opportunity can be solved as a convex quadratic programming problem, and investigate its relation to the Sharpe ratio. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Electron-phonon superconductivity in the filled skutterudites LaRu4P12, LaRu4As12, and LaPt4Ge12

This is the final version of the article. Available from American Physical Society via the DOI in this record.We have reported on the structural, elastic, electronic, lattice dynamical and electron-phonon interaction properties of LaT4X12 (T=Ru, Pt and X=P, As, Ge) by using the generalized gradient approximation of the density functional theory and the plane-wave pseudopotential method. These lanthanum-filled skutterudites are found to be characterized with a flat band, resulting in a sharp peak in the electronic density of states, near the Fermi level. The lattice dynamical properties of these materials change considerably when the P atom is replaced by larger As or Ge atoms. The Migdal-Eliashberg approach is used to determine the Eliashberg spectral function for all the considered compounds. Using the calculated Eliashberg spectral function, the value of average electron-phonon coupling parameter is found to be 0.74 for LaRu4P12, 1.03 for LaRu4As12, and 1.08 for LaPt4Ge12. The superconducting critical temperature (Tc) values for LaRu4P12, LaRu4As12, and LaPt4Ge12 are estimated to be 6.95, 11.56, and 8.32 K, respectively, which compare well enough with their experimentally measured values of 7.2, 10.45, and 8.23 K.Some of the calculations for this project were carried out using the computing facilities on the Intel Nehalem (i7) cluster (ceres) in the School of Physics, University of Exeter, United Kingdo

Empirical essays on performance of management buyouts

This thesis investigates value creation in MBO transactions and the effect of earnings management on the perceived performance improvements following buyout. Various samples of buyouts are used to examine earnings management and performance, however, especial attention is given to private-to-private MBOs. We find that MBOs and private equity sponsors generate little additional value after controlling for selection bias. MBO performance peaks in the year preceding MBO, a result that could indicate practice of earnings management before MBO transactions. Further analysis of accounting numbers reveals that managers of private firms inflate earnings prior to MBO. The earnings management practice and resulting accrual reversals have substantial impact on the subsequent performance. We also show that earnings management is mainly practiced by private non-family firms while family firms do not engage in earnings management prior to MBO transaction. The presence of a private equity investor in the team tends to constrain practice of earnings management in MBOs, while private equity investors tend to inflate earnings at the time of exit. Overall, the results suggest that value gains or losses subsequent to buyout do not fully reflect operational activities. Selective investment strategies of private equity funds and earnings management influence performance. Key to understanding performance is the distinct managerial and ownership motivations for undertaking an MBO that vary across different types of buyouts

Valuation and underpricing of Turkish IPOs

This study utilizes prospectuses and supplementary valuation reports to investigate the relationship between underwriters’ valuation and underpricing in 113 firms going public on Borsa Istanbul. It argues that underwriter discretion in the valuation is crucial to underpricing in the Turkish market, where fixed price is the dominant method of offering and retail investor allocation is large. Building on the overpricing theories, the study hypothesizes and finds that optimistic valuation bias is a significant determinant of underwriter discounts, and underwriter discounts are negatively associated with initial returns. One standard deviation increase in deliberate discounts is associated with a 30.4% reduction in underpricing. The median underwriter discount in the sample is 21%, while the median market-adjusted initial return is a small 1.45%, indicating that discounts might not be designed to induce underpricing and reward investors. Book-built offerings are overvalued and overdiscounted; however, not underpriced, contrasting the information extraction view

Partial Liquid Ventilation: Animal Studies on Lung Function

Various mechanical ventilation techniques have been investigated, both experimentally and clinically, to improve outcome from acute respiratory failure. As an alternative means of respiratory support, perfluorocarbon (PFC) liquids have gained Interest first in liquid breathing applications, and then have formed the basis for the liquid ventilation technique. Combining the liquid and gas ventilation techniques, a new ventilatory support technique, namely partial liquid ventilation, is In progress as an investigational treatment modality in which gas tidal ventilation is superimposed on PFC-treated lungs. This thesis consists of six articles focusing on this topic. One review and five articles describing original experimental work on partial liquid ventilation are presented. Partial liquid ventilation is Investigated with respect to its effects on pUlmonary gas exchange and respiratory system mechanics in an animal model of acute respiratory failure and in healthy animals

The effect of spin orbit interaction on the physical properties of LaTSi3 (T = Ir, Pd, and Rh): First-principles calculations

This is the final version of the article. Available from AIP Publishing via the DOI in this record.We have presented the structural, elastic, electronic, phononic, and electron-phonon interaction properties of the La-based noncentrosymmetric superconductors, such as LaIrSi3, LaRhSi3, and LaPdSi3, by using the generalized gradient approximation of the density functional theory. The calculated elastic constants reveal the mechanical stability of all the studied compounds in their noncentrosymmetric structure, while the lack of inversion symmetry gives rise to lift the degeneracy of their electronic bands, except in the Γ-Z and X-P directions. The calculated Eliashberg spectral function shows that all phonon branches of these materials couple considerably with electrons, and thus, all of them make contribution to the average electron-phonon coupling parameter λ. Using the calculated values of λ and the logarithmically averaged phonon frequency ωln, the superconducting critical temperature Tc values for LaIrSi3, LaRhSi3, and LaPdSi3 are estimated to be 0.89, 2.56, and 2.40 K, respectively, which accord very well with their corresponding experimental values of 0.77, 2.16, and 2.60 K.This work was supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) (Project No. MFAG-115F135)

Effects of spin-orbit coupling on the electron-phonon superconductivity in the cubic Laves-phase compounds CaIr2 and CaRh2

This is the final version of the article. Available from American Physical Society via the DOI in this record.We report our ab initio pseudopotential results for the structural, electronic, vibrational, and electron-phonon interaction properties of the cubic Laves-phase compounds CaIr2 and CaRh2. While the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) does not result in any appreciable changes in structural parameters, it lifts the degeneracies of some bands near the Fermi level, albeit with a much smaller amount for CaRh2. The effect of SOC on the vibrational properties of both materials is considerable. The SOC results in a slight decrease in the electronic density of states near the Fermi level N(EF) and makes low-frequency phonon branches harder, and the electron-phonon coupling parameter λ is lowered from 1.43 to 1.05 for CaIr2 and from 1.17 to 0.96 for CaRh2. On the other hand, the logarithmically averaged phonon frequency ωln is enhanced from 79.60 to 100.97 K for CaIr2 and from 120.20 to 140.80 K for CaRh2 with the inclusion of SOC. Using the calculated values of λ and ωln, the superconducting critical temperature is determined to be 5.94 K (7.34 K without SOC) for CaIr2 and 6.97 K (9.08 K without SOC) for CaRh2. The superconducting critical-temperature values with SOC compare very well with corresponding experimental values of 5.80 and 6.40 K, indicating the importance of SOC for the physical properties of both materials.Some of the calculations for this project were carried out using the computing facilities on the Intel Nehalem (i7) cluster (ceres) in the School of Physics, University of Exeter, United Kingdom