Ethical Development and Diversity Training for Educational Leaders

In the 21st century schools must meet the challenges of current and anticipated increases in racial and ethnic student populations. In turn, school principals must be prepared to lead diverse student populations to high levels of achievement. To facilitate adequate leadership preparation, therefore, the diversity training of educational leaders in given settings must be reworked so that the achievement gap between non-white and white students can be closed. Furthermore, restructuring of principal training is best accomplished through consensus within the profession, based on the tenets of the democratic values of respect, acceptance, and appreciation of diversity. The purpose of this paper is to add to the body of knowledge in educational leadership degree and certification programs in regard to diversity standards and social justice relevance. This paper provides an overview of a social justice agenda that includes five key elements. The first is a discussion of the term diversity and American demography. The second element is a summary of the sociopolitical context of social justice. The third element is an examination of multicultural education. The fourth element is an overview of educational administration programs. The last element is a review of the moral and ethical leadership standards for educational administrators

DAQ Software Contributions, Absolute Scale Energy Calibration and Background Evaluation for the NOvA Experiment at Fermilab

The NOvA (NuMI Off-axis νe [nu_e] Appearance) Experiment is a long-baseline accelerator neutrino experiment currently in its second year of operations. NOvA uses the Neutrinos from the Main Injector (NuMI) beam at Fermilab, and there are two main off-axis detectors: a Near Detector at Fermilab and a Far Detector 810 km away at Ash River, MN. The work reported herein is in support of the NOvA Experiment, through contributions to the development of data acquisition software, providing an accurate, absolute-scale energy calibration for electromagnetic showers in NOvA detector elements, crucial to the primary electron neutrino search, and through an initial evaluation of the cosmic background rate in the NOvA Far Detector, which is situated on the surface without significant overburden. Additional support work for the NOvA Experiment is also detailed, including DAQ Server Administration duties and a study of NOvA\u27s sensitivity to neutrino oscillations into a sterile\u27\u27 state

Bridging the Gap Between Energy and the Environment

Energy and environmental policies have always been intertwined, but the exact nature of those interrelationships is often difficult for the non-technical reader to understand. In an analysis that was originally included in an appendix of the Report of the Maine Commission on Comprehensive Energy Planning, the former director of Maine\u27s Office of Energy, John Flumerfelt, provides a clear and concise graphical summary of the relation between energy use and air pollution in Maine. His presentation frames the issues in ways that identify important energy and environmental questions for the state

A Compton Spectrometer Experiment in Support of the NOνA Experiment Calibration Effort

AbstractThe NOνA experiment is part of the next generation of accelerator neutrino experiments. Liquid scintillators like those used in NOνA suffer from several effects which result in nonlinear response. NOνA uses in-situ muons to calibrate the detector, but the response can be suppressed by up to 15% for electrons, positrons, and gammas by these effects. There is an ongoing effort at the University of Tennessee to measure the non-linear response of the NOνA liquid scintillator. We measure both Birks coefficient and the UV re-emission properties of the scintillator (The UV re-emission measurements were a separate experiment performed by UT graduate student Philip Mason). These results will then be used in simulations to predict the response of the liquid scintillator to electromagnetic particles at incident energies up to several GeV

Aluminum powder metallurgy processing

In recent years, the aluminum powder industry has expanded into non-aerospace applications. However, the alumina and aluminum hydroxide in the surface oxide film on aluminum powder require high cost powder processing routes. A driving force for this research is to broaden the knowledge base about aluminum powder metallurgy to provide ideas for fabricating low cost aluminum powder components. The objective of this dissertation is to explore the hypothesis that there is a strong linkage between gas atomization processing conditions, as-atomized aluminum powder characteristics, and the consolidation methodology required to make components from aluminum powder;The hypothesis was tested with pure aluminum powders produced by commercial air atomization commercial inert gas atomization and gas atomization reaction synthesis (GARS). The commercial atomization methods are bench marks of current aluminum powder technology. The GARS process is a laboratory scale inert gas atomization facility. A benefit of using pure aluminum powders is an unambiguous interpretation of the results without considering the effects of alloy elements;A comparison of the GARS aluminum powders with the commercial aluminum powders showed the former to exhibit superior powder characteristics. The powders were compared in terms of size and shape, bulk chemistry, surface oxide chemistry and structure, and oxide film thickness. Minimum explosive concentration measurements assessed the dependence of explosibility hazard on surface area, oxide film thickness, and gas atomization processing conditions. The GARS aluminum powders were exposed to different relative humidity levels, demonstrating the effect of atmospheric conditions on post-atomization oxidation of aluminum powder. An Al-Ti-Y GARS alloy exposed in ambient air at different temperatures revealed the effect of reactive alloy elements on post-atomization powder oxidation;The pure aluminum powders were consolidated by two different routes, a conventional consolidation process for fabricating aerospace components with aluminum powder and a proposed alternative. The consolidation procedures were compared by evaluating the consolidated microstructures and the corresponding mechanical properties. A low temperature solid state sintering experiment demonstrated that tap densified GARS aluminum powders can form sintering necks between contacting powder particles, unlike the total resistance to sintering of commercial air atomization aluminum powder

A Historical and Analytical Study of Feminization in the Field of Public Relations

The origin of the public relations field can be traced back more than 1,000 years. The use of its basic concepts can be seen throughout history, and increased in the 19th and 20th centuries. Until the mid-1900s, the field was largely comprised of men. World War II spurred the beginning of the feminization process, which caused public relations to experience a large influx of women. The number of female practitioners has since continued to increase. Even though feminization occurred and the field is now largely female-dominated, female practitioners experience a wide variety of gender inequalities in social, professional and economic areas. This study is a historical analysis of the feminization of public relations, why women are drawn to the field, the obstacles female practitioners face, and what can be done in the future to achieve gender equality

Planning Maine\u27s Energy Future

Secure and reasonably priced energy supplies have always been vital to the welfare ofMaine\u27s economy and its people.Maineresponded to the energy shocks of the 1970s with important state policies, designed in large part to reduce dependence on foreign oil. John Flumerfelt and Richard Silkman of the State Planning Office provide for us an overview of Maine\u27s recent history of energy use and an analysis of both past and future energy policies in Maine. Two alternatives perspectives on energy policy are provided by Beth Nagusky of the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Matthew Hunter of Central Maine Power [this issue]

Lean Engineering Education : bridging-the-gap between academy and industry

This paper presents Lean Engineering Education (LEE) as an curricular innovation in the Engineering courses. It provides a discussion, mainly based on literature and informal dialogues, about the disconnected world of academy and industry and the demands for new educational methods and strategies. Additionally, it defines LEE as also the principles inherent to this and describes how LEE addresses two complex challenges faced by Higher Education Institutions: the globalized marketplace and the right skills from industry perspective for engineering graduates

The Lean Production multidisciplinary: from operations to education

Lean Engineering (LE) had its roots in Toyota automobile production where the main objective is to standardize operations, so that wastes in the production processes can be identified and eliminated. Pursuing standardization in a systematically and continuous way, companies enter a continuous improvement mode of operation where input from all affected parties across the value stream is sought; this requires personnel on all levels of the organization to be prepared to be active learners. As LE has exceeded its original focus and application in the automotive industry, it has transformed manufacturing industries as well as service providers, including travel agents, health care, and many others. Yet, although engineers and non-engineers alike rely on LE principles and tools almost daily, LE has not yet transforme d Engineering Education. In this paper, the authors review their concept of Lean Engineering Education which they have based on the three-step of ethics, system-thinking and sustainability. The paper concludes with recommendations for curriculum innovations to improve engineering students’ competencies.National Funds - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under Project Pest-OE/EME/UI0252/2011

Lean engineering education: DNA for change

The Lean Engineering Education (LEE) model is advocated by the authors of a book in press, Lean Engineering Education: DNA for Change (Flumerfelt, et al., 2014) as a methodology to allow for students’ parallel content and competency development, based on the double helix DNA image (Figure 1). This LEE methodology targets the shortcomings in the professional development of engineering students as evidenced in several data sets, such as the ASME’s Vision2030 survey results (2010, 2011). (...