Living information as a socially-mediated high school

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2005.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Some pages folded. Page 122 blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-90).(cont.) In this blurred area, a project/group-based curriculum can be developed to involve casual work areas that can fluctuate in size, based on the specifications of the project. Through the cultivation of this type of environment, the social energies of the students can begin to infect the rigid aspects of education in a positive way, thus creating an environment that is a mediated cross-fertilization of the social and the academic. The end goal is an involved type of learning that feeds off of the irrepressible social energies of the high school student."The present epoch will perhaps be above all other epochs of space. We are in an epoch of simultaneity: We are in an epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of near and far, of the side by side, of the dispersed. We are at a moment I believe, when our experience of the world is less that of a long life developing through time than that of a network that connects points and intersections with its own skin." -Michel Foucault' Social Network Theory suggests that aspects of quantum systems can effectively describe a constantly evolving invisible web of live information that is entirely contingent upon the varying degrees of trust and social interaction among a defined group of people. Despite traditional assumptions about social structure, order, and hierarchical systems, a vast web of tacit knowledge (i.e. embodied, living information) evolves within a group of people, entirely due to naturally informal social interactions. When placed within the socially charged realm of the high school, this premise suggests that significant moves can be made in the design of a school (both in physical form and curricular format) in order to positively engage (rather than suppress) an educational program with the enduring social tendencies of a student body. My thesis proposes a high school with a distinct spatial layout that mediates between the student body's inherent manner of socially constructing information among peers, and the curriculum's way of academically propagating knowledge. The design incorporates a layering of densely programmed spaces that reveal void conditions or between spaces that are free to be programmed in a variety ways, thus providing opportunities to blur the often strict boundary between social space and academic space.Aaron Matthew Wittkamper.M.Arch

American Association of Physicists in Medicine Radiation Therapy Committee Task Group 53: Quality assurance for clinical radiotherapy treatment planning

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134846/1/mp8373.pd

Description of ID 499 project : [an honors thesis (HONRS 499)]

There is no abstract available for this thesis.Thesis (B.?.)Honors Colleg

The relationship between assertiveness and job satisfaction of home economists in business

With this descriptive research study the investigator proposed to determine what, if any, relationship existed between the assertiveness and job satisfaction in a sample of female Indiana Home Economists in Business and the significance of any relationship found. Data were collected by means of a two-part questionnaire (one section measured job satisfaction and the other measured assertiveness) sent to the population by mail and self-administered. Responses to the testing instrument were returned in a self-addressed, stamped envelope provided by the researcher.Collected data were submitted to t-tests for independent means and the Pearson product moment correlation was calculated. Significance of that correlation was determined by using the critical-ratio z-test. A bivariate frequency distribution and a scatter diagram were constructed to further illustrate the relationship between the variables assertiveness and job satisfaction. Data were analyzed for significance at the five percent level.Treated data did not support null hypothesis one or two of the study. Female IHEIBs were not generally nonassertive and this finding was interpreted as one of assertiveness. Female IHEIBs were not found to be generally dissatisfied with their jobs. However, this finding could not be interpreted to mean that the opposite was true (that female IHEIBs were satisfied with their jobs) because neutral feelings were not separated from those of satisfaction.Furthermore, the crucial relationship hypothesis in its null form was not rejected because the level of significance for the correlation between the two variables did not meet the criteria established for the study. That is, any relationship between the assertiveness of female IHEIBs and their job satisfaction as revealed by this study was no greater than might have occurred by chance.Thesis (M.A.

Organizational Communication Processes and Job Stress.

The purpose of this study was to (1) examine associations between six organizational communication processes and job stress, (2) discover the relative importance of the communication processes in explaining the presence of stress, and (3) test moderating effects of three task-environment characteristics on the communication to stress relationship. The communication variables and the criterion variable of stress were measured with scales derived from a questionnaire administered to 405 management personnel from a manufacturing firm which has facilities located throughout the U.S. Job Stress was defined as an uncomfortable emotional response (e.g., anxiety, frustration) attributed to the work place. Using correlation analysis, each of the six communication variables were found to be negatively correlated with stress (p < .001), including: quality of supervisory communication (r = -.40), quality of formal performance feedback system (r = -.23), quality of top management communication (r = -.39), openness of communication climate (r = -.25), amount of felt decision-making autonomy (r = -.33), and quality of one's self-perceived communication behavior (r = -.17). Regression analysis found that the set of variables accounted for 25% of the variance; but, only three of the variables significantly contributed, including: supervisory communication, top management communication, and decision-making autonomy. Results of step-wise regression found the following order of importance of the variables: supervisory communication (partial = -.40), top management communication (partial = -.25), and decision-making autonomy (partial = -.17); the three remaining variables were not statistically significant. The following characteristics were found to have little effect on the relationship between the communication variables and stress: business area, job function (line vs. staff), and job specialty. Thus, the associations between the communication variable and stress were found to occur consistently among subjects regardless of the nature of their work. Results of the study suggest that certain communication processes, especially supervisory and top management communication, may play an important role in provoking stress. Also, the specific nature of one's work appears to have little effect on the extent to which communication provokes stress.Ph.D.ManagementUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160071/1/8412284.pd

Applications of Self-Assembled Monolayers in Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

The increasing applications of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has led to the development of various SERS-active platforms (SERS substrates) for SERS measurement. This work reviews the current optimization techniques available for improving the performance of some of these SERS substrates. The work particularly identifies self-assembled-monolayer- (SAM-) based substrate modification for optimum SERS activity and wider applications. An overview of SERS, SAM, and studies involving SAM-modified substrates is highlighted. The focus of the paper then shifts to the use of SAMs to improve analytical applications of SERS substrates by addressing issues including long-term stability, selectivity, reproducibility, and functionalization, and so forth. The paper elaborates on the use of SAMs to achieve optimum SERS enhancement. Specific examples are based on novel multilayered SERS substrates developed in the author’s laboratory where SAMs have been demonstrated as excellent dielectric spacers for improving SERS enhancement more than 20-fold relative to conventional single layer SERS substrates. Such substrate optimization can significantly improve the sensitivity of the SERS method for analyte detection