Does Lynda.com’s ‘Introduction to SPSS’ Course Provide a Positive Learning Experience Relating to Data Analysis within a Research Methods Module? the Beginnings of an Exploratory Study

When embarking on a clinical degree, students imagine themselves in a clinical environment treating patients as well as learning a plethora of medical conditions to help inform practice. The modules met with the most resistance are the two research methods modules they must complete to successfully graduate. Students at the beginning of their second year cannot comprehend how a module that is very different to the general stream of clinical modules fits onto their learning curve. However, over the past academic year, I have been able to identify the reason for the resistance, which lies solely in the students’ fear of statistics. In this article I discuss the implementation of screencasts as an adjunct to standard methods of teaching statistics in higher education. This particular project served as part of the completion for my Postgraduate Certificate in Education

Safer Streets: Cutting Repeat Crimes by Juvenile Offenders.

FIGHT CRIME: INVEST IN KIDS is an anti-crime organization led by more than 3,500 law enforcement leaders -- chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors -- and survivors of crime. Most of the survivors are parents of murdered children. Crime requires punishment. Punishment may be placing a young offender in custody, or, depending on the crime, imposing a range of other tough sanctions. The bottom line is that residents must be safe walking the streets. Research shows, however, that punishment alone will often not be enough; troubled teens will need help to stop their aggression, substance abuse, or other anti-social behaviors. It is usually not too late to change anti-social patterns of behavior. Sanctions that include strict and effective interventions can direct anti-social and dangerous juveniles onto a different path that will make Americans safer

Potential Effects of Emission Taxes on CO2 Emissions in OECD and LDC Countries

A set of existing optimization models representing the energy systems of the OECD and LDC countries with a time horizon up to 2020 was applied to derive first-order estimates of the techno-economic potential for emission reduction. The driving force for the introduction of reduction measures was a scheme of taxes levied on the emissions of 6 relevant pollutants -- including the greenhouse gases CO2 and methane. The tax levels introduced are based on the taxes discussed by the Swedish government administration; they are the break-even point to test which measures are cost-effective and which emission levels can be reached at these costs. The regional models offer the choice between the following alternatives as response to increases in expenditures caused by emission taxes: (1) Reduction of final energy demand by supplying the requested services by other means (i .e., conservation). (2) Substitution of "dirty" fuels by fuels entailing less pollution. (3) Introduction of "clean" technologies for the same purposes (e.g., a combined cycle based on coal gasification is a much cleaner process for electricity generation from coal than conventional coal power plants). (4) For SO2 and NOx emissions pollution reduction technologies (i.e., scrubbers and catalysts) can be added to existing technologies in order to reduce emissions. Alternative scenarios with emission taxes are compared to a Base Scenario without taxes related to pollutant emissions. The results indicate that an increase in CO2 emissions in the OECD and LDC regions of 47% over the next 30 years in the Base Scenario would be changed into stabilization up to 2010 by measures induced by the tax levels introduced. Thereafter, however, energy consumption growth in the LDC area, in conjunction with the exhaustion of economically viable emission reduction measures, reverse this trend: CO2 emissions start to increase again after 2010

Solar Energy Futures in a Western European Context

Final report prepared for the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie of the Federal Republic of Germany (Project ET 4359A

Part A: User's Guide to CO2DB: The IIASA CO2 Technology Data Bank - Version 1.0

Environmental impacts of products and production processes are receiving increasing social attention. In searching for solutions with less impacts, there is a need for comparing competing products with regard to their life-cycle demands for raw-materials and energy as well as their emissions to the environment. It is however necessary to consider the entire systems, because decreased emissions in one part can easily increase the emissions in another part of the system. IIASA has developed a methodology and database for life-cycle analysis of products and production processes. Data for more than 1000 so-called unit processes of the industrial sectors pulp and paper, steel, aluminum, petrochemicals, plastics, inorganic chemicals, glass, energy conversion, transportation and waste management is currently stored in the database. The model and database is intended to support analysis of the impacts of products and production processes. Examples of possible applications are: comparison of the environmental impacts of different stages of the production cycle, e.g. basic materials, processing, fabrication, packaging and shipping; comparison of two competing products with respect to their direct and indirect environmental impacts; and comparison of alternative production processes for the same product. The assessment can be performed at any level of aggregation, from a single factory to regional or national averages. The results can be used for targeting improvements of the production processes, for assessing the impact of new regulation or to support international negotiations on environmental protection. Results from calculations indicate the importance of considering the whole life-cycle of a product. At the same time it is necessary to build "transparency" both into the models and the data used. Possible disagreements in results have to be traceable back to the specific assumptions made. A deliberate effort was made to make the model and the database "user friendly", to make it possible for a person with a background in production to understand the assumptions without excessive effort. The model and database have been built in the dBASE IV database program to make it easily transportable and expandable

A Comparative Assessment of Different Options to Reduce CO2 Emissions

The IIASA research project on Environmentally Compatible Energy Strategies includes the assessment of options and measures for mitigating global CO2 emissions. The basis of this assessment is the comparative inventory of technological and economic measures including efficiency improvement, conservation, enhanced use of low-carbon fuels, carbon free sources of energy and measures for removing carbon from fuels, flue gases and also from the atmosphere such as afforestation, and finally also measures for enhancement of carbon sinks. To include all potential options, the comparison is based on energy end-use accounting for the fully interlinked energy conversion chain up to energy resources. The analysis is supported by a fully interactive data bank system, CO2DB, that is capable of evaluating full energy chains with respect to their economic, technical and environmental parameters. The paper reports energy requirements, costs and CO2 emissions for different energy chains providing industrial drives, cooling and air transport services. At additional cost, emissions can be reduced drastically on all these end-use categories

A Comparative Assessment of Different Options to Reduce CO2 Emissions

The IIASA research project on Environmentally Compatible Energy Strategies includes the assessment of options and measures for mitigating global CO2 emissions. The basis of this assessment is the comparative inventory of technological and economic measures including efficiency improvement, conservation, enhanced use of low-carbon fuels, carbon free sources of energy and measures for removing carbon from fuels, flue gases and also from the atmosphere such as afforestation, and finally also measures for enhancement of carbon sinks. To include all potential options, the comparison is based on energy end-use accounting for the fully interlinked energy conversion chain up to energy resources. The analysis is supported by a fully interactive data bank system, CO2DB, that is capable of evaluating full energy chains with respect to their economic, technical and environmental parameters. The paper reports energy requirements, cost and CO2 emissions for different energy chains providing industrial drives, cooling and air transport services. At additional cost, emissions can be reduced drastically on all these end-use categories

The Influence of Technological Changes on the Cost of Gas Supply

This paper analyzes the cost of supplying natural gas to a virtual consumer in Central Europe from all presently conceivable sources. The sensitivity of the price of supplying the gas to changes in the cost of single components is also investigated