DSN seven day/twelve week schedule program

Deep Space Network scheduling program allocates resources based on the users requirements. The system reviews and allocates the requests for equipment and resources. Depending upon the program input either the seven day or the twelve week schedule is generated

Identification of valid, reliable, discriminating criteria for use in developing evaluation instruments for special education teachers

This study sought to determine discriminating, reliable, and valid criteria to evaluate the performance of special education teachers. Data were collected on criteria to distinguish high performing special education teachers from average and poor performing special education teachers. A sample of over 500 principals/supervisors, teachers, related services personnel, and knowledgeable others was administered a 49-item questionnaire. In addition, the investigation endeavored to determine if appraisers\u27 ability to rate a special education teacher varied according to job assignment. In particular, it tried to verify the ability of typical building principals to make performance evaluation judgments about special education teachers. The study also attempted to determine whether a difference existed between discriminating items for regular and special education teachers. Voluntary participation for the study included 33 special education teachers from school districts located in Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, New York, and Nevada. Each of the 33 special education teachers was evaluated by 15 to 18 raters;Results showed that: (1) all 49 of the survey items discriminated or measured differences between the 33 special education teachers at least at the.05 level of significance; (2) performance criteria found to be discriminating for regular education teachers were also able to discriminate for special education teachers; (3) ratings by raters with little or no special education background were not significantly different from raters with certification in special education; (4) effective teacher behaviors in the regular classroom appear to be effective behaviors for the special education teacher; (5) effective behaviors of special education teachers appear to be readily observable by a variety of observers with various backgrounds and training; and (6) regular educators, particularly principals and supervisors, are capable of making valid observations of special education teacher performance;The study also includes a list of 49 performance criteria for special education teachers based on discrimination power that may be used to develop a performance evaluation instrument for special education teachers

Single Parameter Combinatorial Auctions with Partially Public Valuations

We consider the problem of designing truthful auctions, when the bidders' valuations have a public and a private component. In particular, we consider combinatorial auctions where the valuation of an agent $i$ for a set $S$ of items can be expressed as $v_if(S)$, where $v_i$ is a private single parameter of the agent, and the function $f$ is publicly known. Our motivation behind studying this problem is two-fold: (a) Such valuation functions arise naturally in the case of ad-slots in broadcast media such as Television and Radio. For an ad shown in a set $S$ of ad-slots, $f(S)$ is, say, the number of {\em unique} viewers reached by the ad, and $v_i$ is the valuation per-unique-viewer. (b) From a theoretical point of view, this factorization of the valuation function simplifies the bidding language, and renders the combinatorial auction more amenable to better approximation factors. We present a general technique, based on maximal-in-range mechanisms, that converts any $\alpha$-approximation non-truthful algorithm ($\alpha \leq 1$) for this problem into $\Omega(\frac{\alpha}{\log{n}})$ and $\Omega(\alpha)$-approximate truthful mechanisms which run in polynomial time and quasi-polynomial time, respectively

Bundling Equilibrium in Combinatorial auctions

This paper analyzes individually-rational ex post equilibrium in the VC (Vickrey-Clarke) combinatorial auctions. If $\Sigma$ is a family of bundles of goods, the organizer may restrict the participants by requiring them to submit their bids only for bundles in $\Sigma$. The $\Sigma$-VC combinatorial auctions (multi-good auctions) obtained in this way are known to be individually-rational truth-telling mechanisms. In contrast, this paper deals with non-restricted VC auctions, in which the buyers restrict themselves to bids on bundles in $\Sigma$, because it is rational for them to do so. That is, it may be that when the buyers report their valuation of the bundles in $\Sigma$, they are in an equilibrium. We fully characterize those $\Sigma$ that induce individually rational equilibrium in every VC auction, and we refer to the associated equilibrium as a bundling equilibrium. The number of bundles in $\Sigma$ represents the communication complexity of the equilibrium. A special case of bundling equilibrium is partition-based equilibrium, in which $\Sigma$ is a field, that is, it is generated by a partition. We analyze the tradeoff between communication complexity and economic efficiency of bundling equilibrium, focusing in particular on partition-based equilibrium

Criterion-Referenced Testing for Outcomes-Based Education

The district wanted improved student achievement but not at the expense of low teacher morale, dissatisfied parents, or exploited students

Representations of families of triples over GF(2)

AbstractLet B be any family of 3-subsets of [n] = {1, …, n} such that every i in [n] belongs to at most three members of B. It is shown here that there exists a 3 × n (0, 1)-matrix M such that every set of columns of M indexed by a member of B is linearly independent over GF(2). The proof depends on finding a suitable vertex-coloring for the associated 3-uniform hypergraph. This matrix result, which is a special case of a conjecture of Griggs and Walker, implies the corresponding special case of a conjecture of Chung, Frankl, Graham, and Shearer and of Faudree, Schelp, and Sós concerning intersecting families of subsets

Tidal Synchronization and Differential Rotation of Kepler Eclipsing Binaries

Few observational constraints exist for the tidal synchronization rate of late-type stars, despite its fundamental role in binary evolution. We visually inspected the light curves of 2278 eclipsing binaries (EBs) from the Kepler Eclipsing Binary Catalog to identify those with starspot modulations, as well as other types of out-of-eclipse variability. We report rotation periods for 816 EBs with starspot modulations, and find that 79% of EBs with orbital periods less than ten days are synchronized. However, a population of short period EBs exists with rotation periods typically 13% slower than synchronous, which we attribute to the differential rotation of high latitude starspots. At 10 days, there is a transition from predominantly circular, synchronized EBs to predominantly eccentric, pseudosynchronized EBs. This transition period is in good agreement with the predicted and observed circularization period for Milky Way field binaries. At orbital periods greater than about 30 days, the amount of tidal synchronization decreases. We also report 12 previously unidentified candidate $\delta$ Scuti and $\gamma$ Doradus pulsators, as well as a candidate RS CVn system with an evolved primary that exhibits starspot occultations. For short period contact binaries, we observe a period-color relation, and compare it to previous studies. As a whole, these results represent the largest homogeneous study of tidal synchronization of late-type stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. EB rotation periods and classifications available at https://github.com/jlurie/decatur/blob/master/decatur/data/final_catalog.cs

CMS Software Distribution on the LCG and OSG Grids

The efficient exploitation of worldwide distributed storage and computing resources available in the grids require a robust, transparent and fast deployment of experiment specific software. The approach followed by the CMS experiment at CERN in order to enable Monte-Carlo simulations, data analysis and software development in an international collaboration is presented. The current status and future improvement plans are described.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, latex with hyperref