Perceptions of Secondary Principals Regarding the Effectiveness of the Program of Alternative Certification for Educators (PACE) In South Carolina

In this dissertation, I report the findings of a mixed-methods study I conducted in the state of South Carolina with secondary principals (middle and high school). The purpose of this two-phase, sequential mixed methods study was to examine the perceptions of secondary principals regarding the effectiveness of the Program of Alternative Certification for Educators (PACE), South Carolina’s state supported alternative certification program. In the first phase, I used quantitative survey research to understand secondary principals’ perceptions of the PACE. In the second phase, I identified eight secondary school principals who had experience hiring PACE certitifed teachers and conducted semi-structured interviews with them to explore their experiences regarding the effectiveness of the PACE program. Specifically, I analyzed three aspects of the PACE program that have been shown throughout literature as vital to alternative certification program effectiveness: 1) the recruitment and selection of PACE certified teachers; 2) the preparation of PACE certified teachers; 3) and the mentoring and support of PACE certified teachers. Survey and interview results revealed that principals perceived the PACE Program to be effective in the recruitment and selection of PACE certified teachers. Principals perceived the program to be effective in recruiting a diverse pool of candidates, attracting candidates who can teach in critical needs subject areas such as business and STEM backgrounds, and attracting candidates who possess relevant job and life experiences. They also believed the PACE program had robust entry requirements for prospective candidates. Principals expressed concerns that a hiring bias exists towards these prospective PACE candidates as principals are reluctant to hire PACE certified teachers. Regarding the preparation of PACE certified teachers, principals perceived these teachers to possess strong content knowledge but expressed concerns related to pedagogical weaknesses (especially classroom management) and a lack of student teaching experiences. Moreover, principals believed that PACE certified teachers seemed overwhelmed with the nature of teaching and that these teachers seemed to struggle with educational language and terminology as they come from fields outside of education. Regarding the mentoring and support of PACE certified teachers, principals believed that the program needed more support from PACE decision-makers as most of the responsibility for supporting these teachers rests with school and district leaders. However, principals did acknowledge that PACE certified teachers are provided with high quality mentors and receive targeted support for their specific needs. Findings of my dissertation are significant as my research suggests that a hiring bias exists towards PACE certified teachers and is attributed to the following factors: poor articulation and communication from PACE decision-makers regarding the entry requirements for prospective PACE candidates; lack of student teaching opportunities; and pedagogical concerns towards PACE certified teachers. Moreover, principals argued that these three areas should be focal points of improvement for PACE decision-makers. Furthermore, my research provides recommendations for practice which were based on perceived areas for improvement in the PACE Program. These three areas for improvement included providing a paid internship with a veteran teacher prior to entering the PACE Program, encouraging prospective PACE candidates to serve in some type of educational role in the school prior to entering PACE (substitute, teacher aid, coach), and reinstating the two-year work experience requirement for prospective PACE candidates

Change and continuity in the rural church : Norfolk, 1760 - 1840

Two historiographical traditions have influenced our understanding of church and society in Georgian England: on the one hand the church has been subject to a severe, judgemental treatment which has discouraged impartial scholarship, and on the other the supposed decay of the rural community has provided material for a polemical brand of historical writing. These two traditions are discussed, then tested by a close scrutiny of the church and the community in Georgian Norfolk. A quantitative method is adopted, correlating a large amount of detailed information from all the rural parishes and assessing the influence of each factor over against the others. Three categories from this detailed survey – enclosure, tithes, and the growth of dissent - are then examined in more detail for the light they shed on the concept of historical continuity and the strength of regional identity, which, it is argued, are important counterbalances to the theme of change which has so dominated the historiography of this period. An attempt is made to survey the complex intellectual history of the church in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by tracing the changing concept of charity in the religious and social theory of the period. In conclusion it is suggested that, in this rural diocese at least, the social and economic relations between church and society were less subject to stress and change than has been supposed, and a plea is made for a less controversial, less consciously modern, historical perspective

Autonomous Planetary Rover Team Final Project Report

This design team was tasked to develop autonomous movement, sensing, and navigation capabilities on a rover platform developed by a summer research team working under Dr. Kevin Nickels. The rover is comprised of four subsystems that strive to meet the requirements by establishing movement capabilities through power delivery and control, odometry feedback of the wheels, obstacle detection, and navigation. This report evaluated each design against the requirement they were intended to meet. The following report describes the final design of each of these subsystems, explains the testing performed on each subsystem, and evaluates the results of these tests against the design requirements. The design constraints of rover size and budget are maintained by our final design by delivering a final design that fits through a standard CSI doorframe, and not exceeding the total budget of $2400. The final deliverable satisfies the requirements of battery specifications, incline traversal, display of map and estimated position, and obstacle detection. The final design failed to demonstrate an ability to traverse over an obstacle of 2 inches. The team was unable to demonstrate completion of the remaining requirements because of significant failures of the motors described later in the report. In the process of delivering the project requirements, extensive modifications and redesigns to the provided platform were necessary. The frame received from the project sponsor was in a nonfunctional state. The team performed significant modifications to the rover frame to allow for proper movement of the rover. Also, the provided motor drivers failed in preliminary testing, requiring the team to experimentally evaluate the operational requirements of the motors and select and integrate new motor drivers into the final design. Overall, the team delivered a functioning prototype that met many of the project requirements, and all the design constraints. The rover was able to move, detect obstacles, and plan navigation through an environment. Unfortunately, the motors suffered a thermally induced failure during testing, precluding the completion of the remaining tests

Uncertainty associated with the measurement of airborne sound insulation in the field

Understanding uncertainty is an important part of any scientific measurement process and the ability to evaluate and understand uncertainty is a requirement of the International Standards for quality control. The basic uncertainties relating to the measurement of airborne sound insulation in the field can be assessed using the methods in BS5725. However, identifying the components that contribute to the total variability is beyond the scope of the standard and more detailed information requires a more advanced approach. Recent developments in the “Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement” (GUM) suggest an approach can be used where identification of the input variables and their likely contribution will result in a solution that can be modelled providing enough information is available. However, recent research on uncertainty in sound insulation using GUM has identified problems involving the correlation between frequency bands, which leads to an overestimate of uncertainty. An empirical approach is used in this thesis, which incorporates advanced analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a specific model called Gauge Repeatability and Reproducibility (GRR). It enables the components of variance in the measurement system to be partitioned and provides an estimate of their contribution. In addition, ANOVA highlights any interaction between factors. In the GRR, carried out on a lightweight timber floor and a heavyweight concrete floor, significant interaction was detected between the operator and part. Good agreement is obtained in the repeatability and reproducibility calculated for each construction and the samples are combined with measurements of test elements that provide a wider range of sound insulation performance. The uncertainty associated with the instrumentation, operator, interaction and part are calculated in each case. It is shown that the interaction component is important and should be contained in any approach evaluating uncertainty. Further evidence reveals that the total uncertainty in the measurement process is dependent on the construction being measured

The exploration of collaborative supply chain factors in the oil and gas industry

Recent investigation on supply chain collaboration practices in the Oil and Gas industry reveals that there is limited research on supply chain collaboration (SCC). This calls for further exploration of the literature on collaborative supply chain and the factors of SCC in other industries to understand and identify the extent of SCC that exist in the industries. The study explored the systematic literature of two significant databases (Scopus and OnePetrol) to collect related publications on existing collaborative supply chain factors and its extents in almost all sectors. The findings suggest that information sharing, trust, and information technology are three crucial factors of a collaborative supply chain that contributes to performance improvement and effective supply chain system in most organisations. This study suggests that the identified factors have the potentials to enhance the oil and gas industry if implemented to achieve the outlined improvements obtained across other industries

Two distinct mechanisms localise cyclin B transcripts in syncytial Drosophila embryos

We demonstrate that two independent mechanisms act on maternally derived cyclin B transcripts to concentrate the transcripts at the posterior pole of the Drosophila oocyte and at the cortex of the syncytial embryo. The cortical accumulation occurs because the cyclin B transcript is concentrated around nuclei and comigrates with them to the cortex. The perinuclear localisation of the transcript is blocked by inhibitors of microtubule polymerisation and the transcript colocalises with microtubular structures during the cell cycle, suggesting that the transcript is associated either directly or indirectly with microtubules. Neither microtubules nor actin filaments are required to maintain the posterior concentration of cyclin B transcripts. Instead, this seems to depend on the association of the transcripts with a component of the posterior cytoplasm. The distribution pattern of the transcript at the posterior pole throughout embryogenesis and in a variety of mutant embryos suggests that this component is associated with polar granules

An investigation of ribonucleoprotein processing in amphibian oocytes

Two forms of ribonucleoprotein complex from oocytes of Triturus cristatus carnifex are investigated, heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) and a free 40S cytoplasmic RNP particle that stores 5SRNA and transfer RNA in pre-vitellogenic oocytes. HnRNP, isolated from homogenates of Triturus ovaries, has been characterized by sucrose gradient centrifugation, isopycnic centrifugation, electron microscopy and treatment with non-ionic detergent. The results largely confirm previous observations by Malcolm and Sommerville (1974) although electron microscopy of thin-sectioned hnRNP material revealed a considerable degree of cytoplasmic contamination of the preparation. This finding was confirmed by characterization of the polypeptide components of the hnRNP fraction and by comparison with the polypeptide spectrum of manually isolated oocyte nuclei. These studies further revealed that not only were there very few major polypeptides common to both the hnRNP preparation and isolated oocyte nuclei but that the majority of the "hnRNP" polypeptides could be isolated from the oocyte cytoplasm. Comparison of the polypeptide spectra of hnRNP, oocyte nuclei and rat-liver hnRNP "core particles" suggest that a "core protein" homologue may be present in oocyte nuclei though not in the "hnRNP" preparation. Immunostaining of SDS/polyacrylamide gel transfers with an antiserum to rat-liver hnRNP "core protein" revealed the presence of antigenically related polypeptides in the "hnRNP".- It is suggested that a large proportion of the so-called hnRNP preparation from Triturus oocytes could represent partially processed messenger RNP in association with membranous supramolecular structures. The 40S cytoplasmic RNP accumulated in previtellogenic Triturus oocytes contains 5S RNA and transfer RNA with two proteins of molecular mass 45,000 and 39,000 (P45 and P39). The particle has a buoyant density of 1.53 g cm-3 and consists of four identical subunits as shown by salt dissociation and isopycnic centrifugation experiments. Treatment with SDS completely dissociates the RNP complex into its separate components. These can be reassociated into subunits and even intact 40S RNP particles upon removal of the SDS by dialysis. The stable RNA/protein interactions can be demonstrated by analysis of reformed RNP complexes using isopycnic centrifugation and are found to be: 5S RNA/P45, 3(tRNA)/P45, 5S RNA/P39 and 58 RNA/P45/ P39. Indirect immunostaining of frozen oocyte sections with antisera to P45 and P39 suggest a purely cytoplasmic location for P39 whilst P45 is also found in the nucleus. The relationship between the 40S RNP particle proteins with transcription of 5S RNA and transfer RNA is discussed and the possibility that P39 is related to 5S RNA associated ribosomal proteins is also considered. A scheme for the formation and breakdown of 40S RNP storage particles is presented

Biological responses to a resumption in river flow in a freshwater-deprived, permanently open Southern African estuary

The Kariega Estuary is a freshwater-deprived system due to numerous impoundments in the catchment. This system has had little or no horizontal salinity gradient over the last 15 years, with hypersaline conditions sometimes predominating in the upper reaches. Following high rainfall events in the catchment during the spring of 2006, including a flood event (approximate 1:10 year) in August 2006, a series of riverine pulses entered the estuary and a horizontal salinity gradient was established. This study examined the influence of this freshwater pulse on four components of the biota within the estuary, namely the zooplankton, and larval, littoral and demersal fishes. The study demonstrated that in three of these components elevated densities were recorded following the riverine input, with only the littoral fishes retaining an almost constant density. In addition, changes in the relative contributions of the estuarine utilisation classes for all three fish groups examined indicated that freshwater input into these systems positively influences the abundances. This has significant implications for water managers as it demonstrates the importance of an Ecological Reserve (defined as ‘the water required to protect the aquatic ecosystems of the water resource’) for this system

Mining of submerged shell deposits: history and status of regulation and production of Florida industry

(55pp.