Blended Learning: Internal Factors Affecting Implementation

Blended learning is defined as an education program in which a student learns, at least in part, through online delivery of content and instruction and, at least in part, at a supervised brick-andmortar location away from home (Staker & Hom, 2012). It is regarded as an effective learning model in terms of student outcomes; however, there are barriers to the implementation of blended learning. These barriers can be categorized as external or internal. The aim of this study was to determine and understand the barriers or factors that affect the implementation of blended learning. To accomplish this, it was important to understand what teachers who have implemented blended learning perceive as most influential to implementation. Seventy-five teachers that have implemented blended learning were surveyed. A combination of descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the teachers\u27 perceptions of which factors or barriers were most influential to implementation. Within this study, the least influential factors perceived to influence the implementation of blended learning included preservice experiences, parent support, class size, and previous failures. The most influential factor perceived to influence the implementation of blended learning was access to the internet. Internal factors were perceived to influence the implementation more than external factors. Teacher characteristics of gender, subject taught, education level, perceived computer proficiency, and computer-to-student ratio did not have a significant influence on perceived internal factors affecting implementation. Finally, years of experience and perceived internal factors affecting implementation were found to have a negative correlation

Development and Validation of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services Prison Classification System

Over the last 45 years, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) has made two substantial changes to its classification system. The first system was created and implemented in the 1970s. In 2005, Patricia Hardyman was contracted to update and modify the classification and reclassification system. Using statistical analyses of available data, a set of prediction models were created to score inmates on items that predicted future infraction behavior. However, the primary issues of the tools were that inmates’ scores were routinely over-classified and that substantial uses of overrides (approximately 40%) were indicated. After a review of the tools’ development methods, several issues were identified, including: a small development sample, a lack of prediction and outcome item specificity, lack of item weighting, a less than optimal feature select strategy, inefficient validation techniques, and the tool’s inability to assess infraction prediction posttransfer. It was therefore determined that this system required major improvements and a research project was outlined and contracted by the University of Nebraska, Omaha

DEFICIENCIES IN THE U.S. NAVY POLICY FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS TECHNICIAN MANNING AND ORGANIZATION

The Information Technology field is not unique to the U.S. Navy and has massively grown since its inception. The U.S. Navy information system architecture grows more complex as more systems are networked together to pass information and data at high speeds. As these systems grow in size and complexity, the Navy’s Information System Technicians (IT) struggle to maintain the vast amount of required knowledge for maintenance and upkeep. Policy deficiencies are rooted in how the U.S. Navy handles schools, organizational strategies at operational commands, and the inherent way operational commands are manned. Through an analysis of U.S. Navy manning policies, analysis of project management organization archetypes, and a survey of the current IT manning conditions for operational commands, we can determine the effectiveness of IT and its ability to complete tasks and projects. The current state of Navy manning policies has the information and roles spread across many different documents and sources; consolidation of these under one strategy could provide a foundation for the Navy to correct some of its manning deficiencies. Analysis shows that IT suffers from multiple organizational flaws that contribute to competing internally to their organization for success and the generation of additional rework from symptomatic fixes. By employing a better foundation of project management principles, the Navy could lessen the burden it places on its Sailors.Distribution Statement A. Approved for public release: Distribution is unlimited.Outstanding ThesisLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant Commander, United States Nav

Predictors of Cartilage Injury in Pediatric Patellar Instability Remain Unknown

Pediatric patellofemoral instability, most commonly lateral patellar dislocation, can result in cartilageinjury (chondral or osteochondral fracture) to the knee.Specific anatomical characteristics can predict the severity of patellar instability • Can we identify anatomical predictors of cartilage injury in patients with patellar instability

Effects of Harvest Maturity and/or Kernel Processing on Corn Silage Processing Score and Particle Size of Corn Silage

Objective A single corn hybrid was used to evaluate harvest maturity (Mat) and/or kernel processing (KP) effects on corn silage processing score (CSPS) and particle size (PS). Study Description Treatments were arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial of: 1) Mat (early and late) and 2) KP (no or yes). A single corn field was planted on April 27, 2020. There were 12 loads (experimental unit) per simple effect treatment mean. Data were analyzed as a completely randomized design. Early harvest (3/4 milk line) occurred on August 28, 2020 [yield (as is) = 17.40 tons/acre; DM = 43.1%; CP, NDF, and starch = 6.5, 46.0, and 32.9%, respectively (DM basis)]. Late harvest (black layer) occurred on September 9, 2020 [yield = 16.83 ton/acre (as is); DM = 49.2%; CP, NDF, and starch = 6.6, 49.8, and 37.5%, respectively (DM basis)]. The same equipment was used for both Mat with KP achieved by narrowing processing rollers. The CSPS was determined as the proportion of starch retained below a 0.19 in sieve. Grain content (DM basis) of the corn silage was calculated from: starch content/0.72. Particle size was assessed using the Penn State Particle Separator. A Mat × KP interaction (P = 0.05) was detected for CSPS. Early/no and late/no had decreased (P ≤ 0.05) CSPS compared to early/yes and late/yes had the greatest CSPS (P ≤ 0.05) compared to others. Grain content was 13.9% greater in late compared to early (P = 0.01). A Mat × KP interaction (P = 0.03) was detected for PS. Early/no had the greatest (P ≤ 0.05) PS, early/yes and late/no were intermediate, and late/yes had decreased PS compared to others (P ≤ 0.05). Tak

Evaluation of Dietary Roughage Inclusion in a Single or Two-Diet System for Backgrounding and Finishing

Study Description: Pre-conditioned crossbred beef steers (n = 46; initial shrunk [4%] BW = 621 ± 89.1 lbs) were used in a 210-d grow-finish experiment at the Ruminant Nutrition Center (RNC) in Brookings, SD. Steers were fed once daily, and bunks were managed according to a slick bunk management system. Cattle were fed in 25 × 25 ft concrete surface pens (n = 10 pens; 5 pens/treatment) with 25 linear ft of bunk space and heated, concrete, continuous flow waterers. Treatments included: 1) A single-diet program (targeted a 59 Mcal/cwt NEg diet fed for 210-d; 1D) or 2) two-diet program (targeted a 55 Mcal/cwt NEg diet fed for 98-d, a 59 Mcal/cwt NEg diet fed for 14-d, and a 63 Mcal/cwt NEg diet fed for 98-d; 2D). All steers were implanted initially (d 1) with a 100 mg trenbolone acetate (TBA) and 14 mg estradiol benzoate (EB) implant (Synovex Choice) and re-implanted with a 200 mg TBA and 28 mg EB implant on d 112

Zero-Fidelity Simulation: Engaging Team Coordination without Physical, Functional, or Psychological Re-Creation

Team coordination is essential across domains, enabling efficiency and safety. As technology improves, our temptation is to simulate with ever-higher fidelity, by making simulators re-create reality through their physical interfaces, functionality, and by making participants believe they are undertaking the simulated task. However, high-fidelity simulations often miss salient human-human work practices. We introduce the concept of zero-fidelity simulation (ZFS), a move away from literal high-fidelity mimesis of the concrete environment. ZFS alternatively models cooperation and communication as the basis of simulation. The ZFS Team Coordination Game (TeC) is developed from observation of fire emergency response work practice. We identify ways in which team members are mutually dependent on one another for information, and use these as the basis for the ZFS game design. The design creates a need for cooperation by restricting individual activity and requiring communication. The present research analyzes the design of interdependence in the validated ZFS TeC game. We successfully simulate interdependence between roles in emergency response without simulating the concrete environment

Who witnesses The Witness? Finding witnesses in The Witness is hard and sometimes impossible

We analyze the computational complexity of the many types of pencil-and-paper-style puzzles featured in the 2016 puzzle video game The Witness. In all puzzles, the goal is to draw a simple path in a rectangular grid graph from a start vertex to a destination vertex. The different puzzle types place different constraints on the path: preventing some edges from being visited (broken edges); forcing some edges or vertices to be visited (hexagons); forcing some cells to have certain numbers of incident path edges (triangles); or forcing the regions formed by the path to be partially monochromatic (squares), have exactly two special cells (stars), or be singly covered by given shapes (polyominoes) and/or negatively counting shapes (antipolyominoes). We show that any one of these clue types (except the first) is enough to make path finding NP-complete ("witnesses exist but are hard to find"), even for rectangular boards. Furthermore, we show that a final clue type (antibody), which necessarily "cancels" the effect of another clue in the same region, makes path finding $\Sigma_2$-complete ("witnesses do not exist"), even with a single antibody (combined with many anti/polyominoes), and the problem gets no harder with many antibodies. On the positive side, we give a polynomial-time algorithm for monomino clues, by reducing to hexagon clues on the boundary of the puzzle, even in the presence of broken edges, and solving "subset Hamiltonian path" for terminals on the boundary of an embedded planar graph in polynomial time.Comment: 72 pages, 59 figures. Revised proof of Lemma 3.5. A short version of this paper appeared at the 9th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2018

Antibody Dependent Enhancement of Infectious Bronchitis Virus in Poultry

Avian infectious bronchitis (IB) is a coronavirus infection of chickens that causes respiratory disease and reproductive problems in chickens. Currently, there are vaccines that are effective against IB. However, new variants and strains of avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) routinely emerge. A vaccine that is not the same strain as the virus is not completely effective in protecting against other variants because the vaccine will not allow the host antibodies to completely neutralize the strain. This is a problem because it makes IB difficult to control and diagnose. Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is a phenomenon whereby non-neutralizing antibodies, or low levels of neutralizing antibodies, facilitate access into the host cell and allows either an enhanced viral infection or an increase in the severity of the clinical disease. This means the virus may create more variants that render current vaccines ineffective, created problems in diagnoses and may lead to more severity clinical disease. ADE has been found to occur with dengue virus and other viruses including some coronaviruses. This is a concern because COVID-19 is a human coronavirus and many vaccines have been developed, but variants routinely arise. ADE is thought to be a very important factor for developing new vaccines because vaccines that are not specific for a serotype could enhance viral infections. This would be the first work of looking at ADE on IBV to determine if ADE is occurring