Determining The Computer Literacy Levels Of Vocational Teachers In Southern Nevada And Developing A Computer In-Service Program For Vocational Teachers

The purposes of this study were to ( 1) conduct a study to determine the computer skills level of the vocational teachers in Southern Nevada; (2) design a computer literacy in-service program targeting the specific instructional needs of the deficient vocational teachers; (3) develop a plan for evaluating the in-service training program; and (4) develop an implementation plan for continued computer literacy in-service training and an undergraduate computer literacy training program fer vocational teachers in university teacher training programs. The literature review addressed the first research question by providing the specific competencies for determining the characteristics of computer literacy and identifying the specific questions for the survey instrument. The competencies necessary for computer literacy are (1) hardware literacy; (2) word processing: and (3} advanced program operation, spreadsheet. database, gradebook program, or computer-assisted design (CAD} or the ability to write a simple computer program. The results of the study indicated that fifty percent of the vocational/technical teachers in Southern Nevada are not computer literate. A few content areas, specifically electronics and drafting, had exceptionally high rates of computer literacy with 100 percent for electronics and seventy-three percent for drafting. Some content areas, welding at fourteen percent and graphic arts at thirty percent had exceptionally low levels of computer literacy. The survey data Indicated no significant statistical differences in computer literacy levels between secondary and postsecondary teachers, and no statistical difference based on industry or formal university training. The demographic factor of age was determined by study data to not be a significant impactor on computer literacy. The data on differences based on gender were inconclusive as less than ten percent of teachers surveyed were women. Sixty-two percent of the computer literate vocational teachers surveyed indicated that they were self-taught, and seventy-one percent indicated that they learned their computer skills after beginning to teach. This provided substantial evidence that industry and formal educational institutions have provided very little computer training for vocational teachers. The conclusions reached by the study were that the need for computer literacy training in Southern Nevada does exist. With an accurate estimate of the potential student enrollment identified by the study, the Clark County Community College can commit resources for a program. It is recommended that the college implement the Teacher Computer Literacy Workshop model beginning the first semester of school year 1990-1991 and the University of Nevada system implement this or a similar computer literacy component in their teacher training programs. The final product of this study was the development of a computer literacy training program specifically designed to address the needs of the Southern Nevada vocational teachers. The Teacher Computer Literacy Workshop program design, goals, competencies. instructional media, unit and program evaluation, and revision procedures were elements addressed in the design process

Heat Transport across Interfaces for the Optimization of Heat Sinking in Device Applications

Heterogenous integration of materials and devices opens huge opportunities for exploiting device structures which benefit from an optimal combination of electronic and thermal material properties. It is critically important to assess heat transfer across their interfaces to avoid thermal bottlenecks resulting in excessive device temperatures though. Experimental techniques to assess thermal conductivity of materials and thermal boundary resistance between materials are reviewed, with examples from GaN-on-Diamond, diamond to metal diamond composites

Arthroplasty for Proximal Femur Fracture

With an increasing global incidence of hip fractures, designing appropriate treatment strategies for hip fractures is fundamentally important to healthcare professionals, policymakers, and payers of healthcare services. We will evaluate the role of total hip replacement (THR) in the setting of trauma for the acute treatment of hip fractures. In this chapter, we will compare hemiarthroplasty and total hip replacement in the acute setting while also examining the role of arthroplasty in the setting of failed internal fixation, as well as in pathologic fractures. We will describe the pearls and pitfalls of surgical technique in these scenarios, highlighted with case examples

A review of the ecological effectiveness of subtidal marine reserves in Central California, Part I: Synopsis of scientific investigations

Marine reserves, often referred to as no-take MPAs, are defined as areas within which human activities that can result in the removal or alteration of biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem are prohibited or greatly restricted (NRC 2001). Activities typically curtailed within a marine reserve are extraction of organisms (e.g., commercial and recreational fishing, kelp harvesting, commercial collecting), mariculture, and those activities that can alter oceanographic or geologic attributes of the habitat (e.g., mining, shore-based industrial-related intake and discharges of seawater and effluent). Usually, marine reserves are established to conserve biodiversity or enhance nearby fishery resources. Thus, goals and objectives of marine reserves can be inferred, even if they are not specifically articulated at the time of reserve formation. In this report, we review information about the effectiveness of the three marine reserves in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (Hopkins Marine Life Refuge, Point Lobos Ecological Reserve, Big Creek Ecological Reserve), and the one in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary (the natural area on the north side of East Anacapa Island). Our efforts to objectively evaluate reserves in Central California relative to reserve theory were greatly hampered for four primary reasons; (1) few of the existing marine reserves were created with clearly articulated goals or objectives, (2) relatively few studies of the ecological consequences of existing reserves have been conducted, (3) no studies to date encompass the spatial and temporal scope needed to identify ecosystem-wide effects of reserve protection, and (4) there are almost no studies that describe the social and economic consequences of existing reserves. To overcome these obstacles, we used several methods to evaluate the effectiveness of subtidal marine reserves in Central California. We first conducted a literature review to find out what research has been conducted in all marine reserves in Central California (Appendix 1). We then reviewed the scientific literature that relates to marine reserve theory to help define criteria to use as benchmarks for evaluation. A recent National Research Council (2001) report summarized expected reserve benefits and provided the criteria we used for evaluation of effectiveness. The next step was to identify the research projects in this region that collected information in a way that enabled us to evaluate reserve theory relative to marine reserves in Central California. Chapters 1-4 in this report provide summaries of those research projects. Contained within these chapters are evaluations of reserve effectiveness for meeting specific objectives. As few studies exist that pertain to reserve theory in Central California, we reviewed studies of marine reserves in other temperate and tropical ecosystems to determine if there were lessons to be learned from other parts of the world (Chapter 5). We also included a discussion of social and economic considerations germane to the public policy decision-making processes associated with marine reserves (Chapter 6). After reviewing all of these resources, we provided a summary of the ecological benefits that could be expected from existing reserves in Central California. The summary is presented in Part II of this report. (PDF contains 133 pages.