An analysis of reading test results in several Kansas high schools

Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--University of Kansas, Education, 1925

DAIRY FARMERS' USE OF FINANCIAL LONG-RANGE PLANNING (FINLRB) TO AID DECISION-MAKING

Agricultural Finance, Livestock Production/Industries,

Wage Inflation and the Distribution of Unemployement

Les résultats décevants que les recherchistes ont obtenus en essayant de découvrir des courbes de Phillips stables obligent à en examiner de nouveau les fondements théoriques. Même si l'on a fait en ces dernières années beaucoup d'effort pour tenir compte de l'hypothèse de prévisions inflationnistes, on a aussi considéré attentivement les relations entre les taux d'inflation et les taux de chômage nationaux et régionaux. Quelles que soient les directions dans lesquelles les recherches se sont orientées, on est arrivé à la conclusion qu'il n'existe pas de marché du travail « global », mais qu'il y a, à l'intérieur d'une économie nationale, plusieurs marchés du travail interreliés. Dans leur article, les auteurs ont analysé le problème des courbes de Phillips régionales « globales » et quelques-uns des problèmes qu'elles soulèvent. À partir d'études théoriques récentes faites sur le sujet en Grande-Bretagne et en Amérique du Nord, ils ont essayé de montrer que plus la dispersion du chômage à travers différents secteurs de l'économie est marquée plus la courbe de Phillips a tendance à glisser vers la droite, que la direction de l'effet de dispersion est ambiguë lorsqu'il y a mobilité de la main-d'oeuvre d'une région à l'autre et, enfin, que, même quand il n'y a pas migration de la main-d'oeuvre, il ne s'ensuit pas nécessairement un effet de dispersion.L'étude de Lipsey a considéré l'hypothèse de l'existence d'une économie divisée en deux marchés du travail en supposant un taux de chômage différent de l'un à l'autre alors que le taux de chômage global demeure constant. Il en résulte que les salaires augmentent plus rapidement dans la région où le taux de chômage est bas qu'ils ne baissent dans celle où le taux de chômage est le plus élevé. Lipsey en conclut donc que plus la différence entre les taux de chômage est grande entre les deux secteurs, plus l'indice des taux de salaire a tendance à s'accroître. Dans le cas du Canada, il devient évident qu'il faut repenser la théorie de Lipsey. Un autre auteur, Archibald, a montré qu'il n'y a pas lieu de s'en préoccuper en autant que le taux de changement de l'indice global des salaires est construit de telle sorte que les taux individuels de salaire soient pondérés en tenant compte de la main-d'oeuvre existant dans chacune des deux régions. Le but de l'article est de démontrer que le raisonnement apporté par Archibald à l'appui de la théorie de Lipsey ne vaut plus s'il y a migration de la main-d'oeuvre d'une région à l'autre. Or, comme la migration des sans-travail des régions à haut taux de chômage aux régions à taux de chômage bas est un phénomène bien établi au Canada et aux États-Unis, les auteurs expriment l'opinion que l'analyse d'Archibald n'a pas tellement de signification, car, comme le laissent voir les études de Brechling pour les États-Unis et celles de Kaliski et de Thirsk pour le Canada, il n'existe pas d'effet de dispersion.Cependant, lorsqu'il y a dispersion des taux de chômage, les recherchistes peuvent également vouloir mesurer le degré de dispersion dans la courbe de Phillips « globale ». Pour ce faire, il faut que les changements globaux dans les données relatives aux salaires soient construites de façon que la pondération de l'ensemble tienne compte des proportions de main-d'oeuvre. En résumé, si l'on considère que les sans-travail émigrent d'une région du Canada à l'autre, il n'est aucunement surprenant que les études empiriques existantes soient impuissantes à détecter un effet de dispersion positif. La conséquence de cette ambiguïté signifie qu'on ne peut découvrir une courbe de Phillips d'ensemble stable d'où il résulte que les tentatives en vue d'incorporer la variable d'un changement des taux auquel on s'attend s'avèrent un test nullement appropriéde l'hypothèse de l'accélération.The authors re-examine the question of aggregating regional Phillips curves and suggest some problems with the empirical work to date

An Analysis of Chainsaw Operator Safety Between Asian and European Countries

Work safety in the forestry industry, where chainsaws are used for tree felling, continues to be a top priority. The mobility of workers involved in chainsaw operations between Europe and Asia has become more common in today’s global workplace. Therefore, sharing knowledge about the types of work safety issues found in both regions can be beneficial. Increased knowledge and safety awareness in the workplace can contribute to a reduction in chainsaw accidents. This paper identifies and addresses four key related areas, namely: regulatory frameworks; chainsaw accidents; personal protective equipment and chainsaw training. Information for both regions was evaluated via interviews, questionnaires, direct observation, desk studies, field studies and descriptive statistical analysis. A total of 234 participants responded to the main research questionnaire, which resulted in data analysis of significant questions related to the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and possible causes of accidents. Key findings included a need for more information relating to the effect of regulations in individual countries and chainsaw accident and fatality statistics within Asia. A requirement for further research into the suitability of PPE used in Asia was identified. Inadequate training was seen as a primary factor causing accidents in Asia, while in Europe, it was due to chainsaw operators taking shortcuts. Inadequate workplace supervision and a lack of uniform and affordable training provision were common issues identified within both regions. Field tests carried out in accordance with the International/European chainsaw (ICC/ECC) qualification standards of the »non-profit« Awarding Body Association (ABA) International were successful in demonstrating the benefits of uniform training to participants in Europe and Asia. Overall, the study raises awareness of the fatal consequences of risk-taking behaviour to work safety, requiring a better understanding of the problem from a social psychology perspective. It identifies the self-employed or temporary worker groups as high-risk categories in both regions, with younger workers seen to be more at risk of injury in Asia and older workers more at risk in Europe. The findings demonstrate that, while there are differences between the two regions (at least within the participating countries), it is essential to provide quality education and raise skills by training and promotion of supervision in order to prevent chainsaw accidents. This can lead to the development of the building blocks of a holistic approach to safety in forestry work, which, as shown in this paper, can result in a decrease in the occurrence of accidents

A Study of the Effectiveness of an Explicit Information Processing Technique (IKR) for Interpreting Examination Essay Questions at University Level

This thesis presents the results of fourteen experiments designed to test the effect of an explicit information processing technique (IKR) on students' interpreting of examination essay questions. The experiments which took place in the University of Glasgow from February 1990 till December 1992, involved undergraduate students in civil engineering and chemistry, post-graduate students in adult education, and graduate civil engineers preparing for their professional examination. Chapter One provides an extensive report on some of the existing knowledge about essay-writing, and explains how the researcher developed the "Instruction Key Words, Knowledge Key Words and Relevance Key Words" technique (IKR) for interpreting essay questions. In addition, a summary of current information processing theory is given, and IKR explained in terms of it. Some of the experiments reported in this thesis examined the effect of IKR on students': essay examination results; abilities to identify correctly the number of parts required in the answer to questions; criteria for deciding on the number of parts; perceptions of question difficulty when questions contain statements and when questions vary in length; understandings of what different instruction key words (IKWs) entail and the relative difficulty in terms of mental effort that different IKWs imply; criteria for deciding that one question entails a more difficult answer than another; perceptions of the difficulty they experience in undertaking question interpretation exercises; times taken to complete various interpretation exercises; quality of descriptions when asked to describe how they would answer a question if asked to do so; and, time taken to complete interpretation exercises. In general, the results show that IKR enhances the information processing skills (question interpretation skills) of many students. A few individuals show considerable improvement. This is evident in the increase of correct responses after a workshop on IKR and in the change of perceptions away from those that will mislead students, to those that are likely to give more accurate interpretations. However, in several experiments it was found that 20% - 30% of students still gave erroneous responses even after an IKR workshop, indicating that more than one workshop is necessary to alter deep-seated traditional perceptions held by some students. Some of the more revealing findings were that before a workshop on IKR many students: thought (erroneously) that longer questions and questions containing statements were easier because they provided information to help with the answer; thought (erroneously) that vague, less specific, less direct questions were easier because they allowed one to "waffle", and to use one's imagination and personal experiences to make up for lack of knowledge; had an intuitive understanding of the different degrees of mental effort required by different instruction key words; perceived that of sixteen instruction key words, the five most difficult were "analyse", "assess", "evaluate", "justify" and "compare & contrast", with "analyse" being perceived as particularly difficult; have unjustified and erroneous perceptions of what some instruction key words require them to do. Considerable information is presented on how students perceived question difficulty, and the researcher has been able to construct a list of sixty one classifications into which students' perceptions of difficulty can be grouped. It has also been possible to provide a ranking of sixteen instruction words according to the degree of inherent difficulty which students perceive in them. It has also been possible to provide a list of thirty two classifications into which students' reasons for identifying a particular number of parts in a questions, could be grouped. In Chapter Twelve, examiners are offered six recommendations which could contribute to the designing of more effective essay questions and in turn, to students providing more adequate answers to essay questions. Eight recommendations are offered for future research, including for example, further tests on whether enhanced information processing skills leads to enhanced performance in essay examinations. These recommendations for further research reflect the pioneering nature of some of the experiments, the researcher not having encountered similar work in the literature. It is recommended in Chapter Twelve that lecturers introduce their students to IKR and eight guidelines are offered for the successful teaching of IKR. This recommendation is based on the results of this research. It is also offered on the grounds of IKR being a more effective way (than traditional scribing-out of essays in full) of developing the thinking skills necessary for solving complex problems in students' personal and professional lives

An analysis of aims of eight moral-related educations, with implications for the teaching of morals

This dissertation records the results of a study into the aims of eight “educations”: Character Education, Citizenship Education, Drugs Education, Environmental Education, Moral Education, Multicultural Education, Religious Education, and Sex Education. Since the initial impression was that these educations had a moral component, they are referred to as moral-related educations. The purpose of the research was to examine the extent and nature of moral content in each of the moral-related educations, and the extent of any duplication. Criteria for selecting the eight moral-related educations are explained and the methodology of analysing their stated aims is justified. Each moral-related education was taken in turn and data on it stated aims extracted from relevant literature. The collected data for all eight moral-educations was then analysed. The main findings from the analysis are that: i) there is considerable duplication of aims among the “educations”; ii) many aims are to do with behavioural change; iii) the main behavioural change aimed for is “responsible behaviour”, and iv) the fundamental aim is “moral behaviour”. Consequently, it is reasonable to refer to the selected “educations” as “moral-related educations”. Two of the recommendations have major implications for the organisation of teaching of morals, namely, i) the formation of a single subject (“Practical Morality”) consolidating the morals and moral issues of the moral-related educations, and ii) formation of a subject (“Personal Skills”) to develop the personal and social skills. Further justification for the two major recommendations is provided in the form of findings from fellow-educationists, and in the form of five possible advantages, should the recommendations be implemented. Four main suggestions for further research are provided. The methodology employed to conduct the research seems to be a pioneering approach, and a critique of the methodology is given to assist fellow-educationists should they wish to replicate the research reported in this dissertation

Conjugate heat transfer effects on gas turbine film cooling : including thermal fields, thermal barrier coating, and contaminant deposition

textThe efficiency of natural gas turbines is directly linked to the turbine inlet temperature, or the combustor exit temperature. Further increasing the turbine inlet temperature damages the turbine components and limits their durability. Advances in turbine vane cooling schemes protect the turbine components. This thesis studies the conjugate effects of internal cooling, film cooling and thermal barrier coatings (TBC) on turbine vane metal temperatures. Two-dimensional thermal profiles were experimentally measured downstream of a single row of film cooling holes on both an adiabatic and a matched Biot number model turbine vane. The measurements were taken as a comparison to computational simulations of the same model and flow conditions. To improve computational models of the evolution of a film cooling jet as it propagates downstream, the thermal field above the vane, not just the footprint on the vane surface must be analyzed. This study expands these data to include 2-D thermal fields above the vane at 0, 5 and 10 hole diameters downstream of the film cooling holes. In each case the computational jets remained colder than the experimental jets because they did not disperse into the mainstream as quickly. Finally, in comparing results above adiabatic and matched Biot number models, these thermal field measurements allow for an accurate analysis of whether or not the adiabatic wall temperature was a reasonable estimate of the driving temperature for heat transfer. In some cases the adiabatic wall temperature did give a good indication of the driving temperature for heat transfer while in other cases it did not. Previous tests simulating the effects of TBC on an internally and film cooled model turbine vane showed that the insulating effects of TBC dominate over variations in film cooling geometry and blowing ratio. In this study overall and external effectiveness were measured using a matched Biot number model vane simulating a TBC of thickness 0.6d, where d is the film cooing hole diameter. This new model was a 35% reduction in thermal resistance from previous tests. Overall effectiveness measurements were taken for an internal cooling only configuration, as well as for three rows of showerhead holes with a single row of holes on the pressure side of the vane. This pressure side row of holes was tested both as round holes and as round holes embedded in a realistic trench with a depth of 0.6 hole diameters. Even in the case of this thinner TBC, the insulating effects dominate over film cooling. In addition, using measurements of the convective heat transfer coefficient above the vane surface, and the thermal conductivities of the vane wall and simulated TBC material, a prediction technique of the overall effectiveness with TBC was evaluated.Mechanical Engineerin

Towards long distance quantum state teleportation

In dieser Masterarbeit wurde die Vorbereitung zu einem Quantenteleportations-Experiment über lange Distanz präpariert, welches Anfang nächsten Jahres, zwischen den Kanarischen Inseln La Palma und Teneriffa durchgeführt werden wird. Die Verbindung zwischen den zwei Inseln ist ein optischer ,,free-space``- Link mit insgesamt 144 km Länge. Quantenteleportation wurde schon von vielen anderen Arbeitsgruppen durchgeführt, erstmals 1997. Vor kurzem ist ein Teleprepreparationsexperiment über 16 km ,,free-space`` gelungen. Des Weiteren wurde im Jahr 2007 mit Mitarbeitern der gleichen Gruppe, mit dem gleichen Kommunikationskanal, ein Quanten-Schlüsseltausch über 144km durchgeführt. Diese Arbeit besteht aus der Konstruktion und Charakterisierung eines Setups in Wien, welches auf den Kanarischen Inseln zum Einsatz kommen wird. Wir teleportieren ein Qubit, realisiert durch die Polarisationszustände eines Photons. Zum Erzielen der Verschränkung wird spontane parametrische Down-Conversion verwendet. Die Optimierung dieses Prozesses ist von zentraler Bedeutung für das Experiment. Zusätzlich ist der Aufbau so geplant, dass das Photon sowohl im Fock-Zustand als auch im kohärenten Zustand teleportiert werden kann, wobei besonders die Verwendung des kohärenten Zustandes sehr hohe Zählraten erlaubt. Auf diese Weise können wir die Zählraten anpassen, um am Effektivsten eine Teleportation im Quantenzustand zu demonstrieren. \ud Diese Arbeit wurde zwischen Februar 2009 und Mai 2010 fertiggestellt.In this masters thesis we present a body of work towards a long distance quantum teleportation experiment to be completed in the near future between two of the Canary Islands: La Palma and Tenerife. The link between the islands is an optical free-space link with a total distance of 144 km. Previously a number of teleportation experiments have been realised, the first in 1997. Recently Jin et. al. performed a free-space teleprepreparation experiment over 16 km. In addition quantum key distribution over 144 km was completed (over the same link that is proposed for this work and by members of the same group) in 2007. This work consists of the construction and characterisation of a setup in Vienna, Austria that is to be used in the Canary Islands. We teleport a qubit realised as the polarisation state of a photon. We use spontaneous parametric down-conversion to create entanglement and thus the optimisation of this process is of central importance to this work. In addition the setup is designed such that the photon to be teleported may be in either a Fock state or a coherent state. In particular using the coherent state allows for very high count rates and thus we investigate how we can adjust these rates so as to most effectively demonstrate quantum state teleportation. The present work was completed between February 2009 and May 2010