Role-playing in the elementary school

Thesis (Ed. M.)--Boston University, 1963. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-74

HEDONIC VALUATION OF PROXIMITY TO NATURAL AREAS AND FARMLAND IN DAKOTA COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Open space may provide a variety of environmental services, such as flood control, prevention of soil erosion, storage and recycling of wastes, and scenic views, which do not have traditional market values. This study assesses the value of these amenities in Dakota County, Minnesota, by estimating the marginal price of open space proximity to housing, with the hedonic property price method. Utilizing residential housing and open space data, a propertys structural, neighborhood, regional, and environmental characteristics are related to its sale price. Key environmental characteristics are distances between a property and particular types of natural areas and farmland. The marginal price of proximity to open space was estimated with three models that illustrate the relationship between open space proximity and property price. The estimation results suggest that Dakota County homeowners pay, ceteris paribus, a higher property price ($115) to live 100 feet closer to any type of open space. Upon categorization of open space into natural areas and farmland, an interesting distinction was discovered: homebuyers paid more ($111) to live 100 feet closer to natural areas and less (-$53) to live the same distance closer to farmland. Further classification of open space into public lands, forests, prairies, wetlands, and water bodies, yielded varying marginal prices for proximity to these features. Proximity to public lands and forests had a positive relationship with property price ($80 and $70 respectively), while the marginal price for proximity to farmland remained negative (-$66). Living marginally closer to prairies also had a negative association with property price (-$48), while nearness to wetlands and water did not have a statistically significant effect. These last three marginal prices are unreliable due to the presence of multicollinearity. Finally, splitting the observations into urban and rural-urban fringe zones showed regional distinctions in the relationship of open space proximity to property price. In urban areas, proximity to publicly owned natural spaces and forests yielded a positive marginal price ($127 and $62 respectively). In the rural-urban fringe, proximity to forests and water features yielded positive marginal prices ($91 and $66 respectively). While proximity to farmland, prairies and wetlands was considered undesirable in the urban zone (with marginal prices -$102, -$55, -$63), nearness to these same features in the rural-urban fringe has a statistically insignificant relationship to property price.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Seeking the unseen humanities macrostructures: The use of corpus- and genre-assisted research methodologies to analyze written norms in English and Spanish literary criticism articles

Descriptive studies of general and discipline-specific academic writing genre conventions have paved the way for pedagogical materials that build real-world skills for novice academic writers. To name some better-known cases, breakthroughs have taken place in this regard in the fields of psychology, engineering, and chemistry. However, attested scholarship on rhetorical patterns in humanities writing, such as published literary criticism (hereafter “LC”) is less common. This dearth of research affects scholars of literature produced by Spanish-speakers who write in both English and Spanish. Many L1 Spanish user scholars must often publish their research in English, rather than Spanish, to maintain institutional employment. Postsecondary Spanish majors in the U.S. must also demonstrate competence in literary criticism to gain credentials. To address the needs of these groups, the present study examines the potential of lexical bundles, qualitative content, and multidimensional analyses to help describe LC from a lexico-grammatical perspective. Such findings may facilitate an arrival at a comprehensive schematic of strategies used by expert-level literary scholars in Spanish and English. First, using multidimensional analysis, linguistic features characteristic of literary criticism writing are analyzed and interpreted in the context of prior multidimensional analyses to offer insight on ways in which the written norms of LC compare to those espoused in other genres previously analyzed. Next, the study examines the syntactic structures and functions of lexical bundles used in English and Spanish LC writing, with particular attention to quasi-equivalent and language-specific bundles. Finally, the study proposes a taxonomy of communicative strategies utilized by literary scholars in their arguments. Devised via qualitative content analysis, this taxonomy may extend the functional analysis of bundles in LC. These findings offer further insight into the macrostructures of literary criticism, as well as the sentence-level strategies that serve as building blocks for expert-level writing in the genre

PVDF-TrFE Electroactive Polymer Mechanical-to-Electrical Energy Harvesting Experimental Bimorph Structure

Research of electrostrictive polymers has generated new opportunities for harvesting energy from the surrounding environment and converting it into usable electrical energy. Electroactive polymer (EAP) research is one of the new opportunities for harvesting energy from the natural environment and converting it into usable electrical energy. Piezoelectric ceramic based energy harvesting devices tend to be unsuitable for low-frequency mechanical excitations such as human movement. Organic polymers are typically softer and more flexible therefore translated electrical energy output is considerably higher under the same mechanical force. In addition, cantilever geometry is one of the most used structures in piezoelectric energy harvesters, especially for mechanical energy harvesting from vibrations. In order to further lower the resonance frequency of the cantilever microstructure, a proof mass can be attached to the free end of the cantilever. Mechanical analysis of an experimental bimorph structure was provided and led to key design rules for post-processing steps to control the performance of the energy harvester. In this work, methods of materials processing and the mechanical to electrical conversion of vibrational energy into usable energy were investigated. Materials such as polyvinyledenedifluoridetetra-fluoroethylene P(VDF-TrFE) copolymer films (1um thick or less) were evaluated and presented a large relative permittivity and greater piezoelectric β-phase without stretching. Further investigations will be used to identify suitable micro-electromechanical systems (MEMs) structures given specific types of low-frequency mechanical excitations (10-100Hz)

Electrostrictive Polymers for Mechanical-to-Electrical Energy Harvesting

Research of electrostrictive polymers has generated new opportunities for harvesting energy from the surrounding environment and converting it into usable electrical energy. Piezoelectric ceramic based devices have long been used in energy harvesting for converting mechanical motion to electrical energy. Nevertheless, those materials tend to be unsuitable for low-frequency mechanical excitations such as human movement. Since organic polymers are typically softer and more flexible, the translated electrical energy output is considerably higher under the same mechanical force. Currently, investigations in using electroactive polymers for energy harvesting, and mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion, are beginning to show potential for this application. In this paper we discuss methods of energy harvesting using membrane structures and various methods used to convert it into usable energy. Since polymers are typically used in capacitive energy harvesting designs, the uses of polymer materials with large relative permittivities have demonstrated success for mechanical to electrical energy conversion. Further investigations will be used to identify suitable micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMs) structures given specific types of low-frequency mechanical excitations (10-100Hz)

Conflict in the Consumer Identity: The Coexistence and Consequences of Environmental Identity and Material Identity

While consumer research has commonly considered how identities influence consumer behaviour, there has been little research that considers how conflicting identities within the same individual influence their consumer behaviours. As such, there is significant scope for research examining how ideologically conflicting identities within a consumer influence their behaviour aligning with these respective identities. To understand how conflicting identities influence consumption behaviour, this research considers the two higher-level identity standards of environmental identity (EID) and material identity (MID), where consumers with an EID feel a connection with and perceive importance in the natural environment, while consumers with a MID perceive importance in consumerist pursuits and material acquisition. Here, an EID is argued to guide an individual towards pro-environmental avenues of behaviour, while a MID will guide them towards consumerist avenues of behaviour. With the inherent conflict between the underlying ideologies around environmentalism and materialism, the coexistence of these identities will lead to conflicting meaning being presented to consumers. This research seeks to understand the coexistence between EID and MID within consumers, and their subsequent guidance towards pro-environmental and consumerist avenues of behaviour. Data was collected using an online survey that also applied experimentally manipulated mortality salience and measured chronic regulatory focus to understand how they influence the relationship between EID and MID. Willingness to sacrifice to protect the environment, intentions toward voluntary simplification, compulsive buying and status consumption were also included to examine how the interaction between EID and MID influences guidance towards these behaviours. Following confirmation of validity and reliability within the measurement constructs, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test the hypotheses. Findings showed that there was no relationship between EID ii and MID, despite their conflicting ideologies. However, results also showed chronic prevention focus moderated the relationship between EID and MID, where a positive relationship was seen among those with a low chronic prevention focus, and a negative relationship among those with a high chronic prevention focus. Furthermore, within the control condition, a positive relationship was seen between EID and MID that was not seen among those with experimentally induced mortality salience. It was also shown that while MID had the ability to negatively moderate the guidance of EID, EID had no effect upon the guidance of MID, suggesting that a MID is dominant in guiding the self over EID. This research contributes to our understanding of identity theory by showing that these identities can coexist within the self, and this is more likely among individuals with a low chronic prevention focus and without mortality salience. This coexistence is argued to relate to social forces that internalise environmental and materialistic ideals, in combination with consumers compartmentalising and selectively applying meaning from these identities to avoid the perception of conflict. Further, this research demonstrated that consumers with a chronic prevention focus will be more likely to recognise this conflict and have a reduced likelihood for coexistence between EID and MID. Finally, by showing the dominance of MID over EID in its ability to guide the self, this research provided practical implications for marketers who wish to encourage more sustainable consumption behaviours.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 201

Electrocatalysis for Proton and Oxygen Reduction Reactions

The Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) is a next generation energy technology with the potential to help stop global climate change and solve the energy crisis. Widespread implementation of the HFC requires production of efficient electrocatalysts for both proton reduction and oxygen reduction. Historically, catalysts for these reactions are efficient, but based on noble metals like platinum or palladium. These metals are obviously very expensive which limits possible commercial applications. This research synthesizes and tests inexpensive catalysts using earth abundant metals (like iron or cobalt) for activity. We use previously tested methodology for determining electrical activity and analysis of results, including recent Foot-of-the-Wave analysis (FOWA) to determine turnover frequencies for the selected molecules. This research provides valuable information regarding the viability of various catalysts in proton and oxygen reduction, and informs future discovery and refinement of electrocatalysts designed for these processes