Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blogs, Wikis, and E-Portfolios: The Effectiveness of Technology on Actual Learning in College Composition

BLOGS, WIKIS, AND E-PORTFOLIOS: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TECHNOLOGY ON ACTUAL LEARNING IN COLLEGE COMPOSITION Edith M. Kennedy, D.A. George Mason University, 2010 Dissertation Director: Dr. Victoria Salmon This study, as the title suggests, examines the effectiveness of using blogs, wikis, and e-portfolios in College Composition classes. The value of these tools was examined in their relationship with actual and real learning where these concepts are defined as the gaining of knowledge that is readily retrievable and is used in an active fashion that shows it has been integrated into the thought processes. The questions examined are whether or not there is a pedagogical underpinning to use these technologies and whether or not these tools really enhance student writing. Over the course of three semesters, the work of 207 students was examined to determine the effect of assigning work on blogs, wikis, and e-portfolios. The students were enrolled in College Composition I and College Composition II classes at Northern Virginia Community College, Manassas, Virginia. Students ranged from dual-enrolled high school students to traditional students and to those returning to class after an extended absence. Some students had previous experience with computers and others were novices. The pedagogical areas examined in this study are Time on Task, Collaboration, Peer Feedback, and Reflection. Using these criteria as indicators of success, the application of blogs, wikis, and e-portfolios did create a learning environment that enhanced the opportunity for student success. In addition, an examination of student writing showed an improvement in the composition of their academic prose across the duration of the courses. While there is a learning curve for students and instructors to master these technologies, they do contribute to actual learning in composition classrooms. This study will be of interest to teachers contemplating the use of or already utilizing technologies in the composition classroom with any level of student from high school to college graduate students. This document contains a discussion of the elements of each of the technologies under discussion, their application in composition classes, and their effectiveness. Ample use of student work is included to show the results of these assignments.
A Study on the Standard Setting, Validity and Reliability of the Standardized Patient Performance Rating Scale – Student Version

BackgroundA standardized patient is a healthy person, trained to role-play a patient who gives feedback on the performance of the student. During the clinical skills training of students, the performance of a standardized patient is essential for the effectiveness of clinical education. MethodsIn this study, we have developed and determined the psychometric properties and standard-setting of the 9-item "Standardized Patient Performance Rating Scale – Student Version," which is designed for assessing the individual performance of standardized patients. For the scale development process, 702 medical students and seven educators participated in the study. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient and split-half reliability coefficient were calculated. For the standard-setting study, the extended Angoff method was used. ResultsAs a result of the exploratory factor analysis, the scale had a single-factor structure as confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient was calculated as 0.91. The score of a standardized patient at the borderline was 24.11 out of 45.Conclusions"Standardized Patient Performance Rating Scale – Student Version" is a valid and reliable scale for assessing standardized patients' performances, and can be used for the standardized patient selection and evaluation process in the health sciences.
An evaluation of end of maintenance dates and lifetime buy estimations for electronic systems facing obsolescence

Title of Document: AN EVALUATION OF END OF MAINTENANCE DATES AND LIFETIME BUY ESTIMATIONS FOR ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS FACING OBSOLESCENCE Anthony Joseph Konoza, Master of Science, 2012 Directed By: Professor Peter Sandborn, Department of Mechanical Engineering The business of supporting legacy electronic systems is challenging due to mismatches between the system support life and the procurement lives of the systems’ constituent components. Legacy electronic systems are threatened with Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS)-type obsolescence, and the extent of their system support lives based on existing replenishable and non-replenishable resources may be unknown. This thesis describes the development of the End of Repair/End of Maintenance (EOR/EOM) model, which is a stochastic discrete-event simulation that follows the life history of a population of parts and cards and operates from time-to-failure distributions that are either user-defined, or synthesized from observed failures to date. The model determines the support life (and support costs) of the system based on existing inventories of spare parts and cards, and optionally harvesting parts from existing cards to further extend the life of the system. The model includes: part inventory segregation, modeling of part inventory degradation and periodic inventory inspections, and design refresh planning. A case study using a real legacy system comprised of 117,000 instances of 70 unique cards and 4.5 million unique parts is presented. The case study was used to evaluate the system support life (and support costs) through a series of different scenarios: obsolete parts with no failure history and never failing, obsolete parts with no failure history but immediately incurring their first failures with and without the use of part harvesting. The case study also includes analyses for recording subsequent EOM and EOR dates, sensitivity analyses for selected design refreshes that maximize system sustainment, and design refresh planning to ensure system sustainment to an end of support date. Lifetime buys refer to buying enough parts from the original manufacturer prior to the part's discontinuance in order to support all forecasted future part needs throughout the system's required support life. This thesis describes the development of the Lifetime Buy (LTB) model, a reverse-application of the EOR/EOM model, that follows the life history of an electronic system and determines the number of spares required to ensure system sustainment. The LTB model can generate optimum lifetime buy quantities of parts that minimizes the total life-cycle cost associated with the estimated lifetime buy quantity. AN EVALUATION OF END OF MAINTENANCE DATES AND LIFETIME BUY ESTIMATIONS FOR ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS FACING OBSOLESCENCE
Dilation

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Development and characterization of a continuous centrifugal bioreactor

A new continuous centrifugal bioreactor (CCBR), has been developed and characterized. A densely packed fluidized bed was maintained by balancing the drag and buoyancy forces of the incoming substrate with that of the centrifugal forces. With this approach, effluent streams were relatively free of cells and a small residence time assured the provision of adequate nutrient requirements and rapid removal of the product. This concept was tested using a nonflocculating strain of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The focus of this research was to clarify operating regimes and assess the feasibility of cell culture in a high gravity environment. (Refs. 14).
UWB Pulse Radar for Human Imaging and Doppler Detection Applications

We were motivated to develop new technologies capable of identifying human life through walls. Our goal is to pinpoint multiple people at a time, which could pay dividends during military operations, disaster rescue efforts, or assisted-living. Such system requires the combination of two features in one platform: seeing-through wall localization and vital signs Doppler detection. Ultra-wideband (UWB) radar technology has been used due to its distinct advantages, such as ultra-low power, fine imaging resolution, good penetrating through wall characteristics, and high performance in noisy environment. Not only being widely used in imaging systems and ground penetrating detection, UWB radar also targets Doppler sensing, precise positioning and tracking, communications and measurement, and etc. A robust UWB pulse radar prototype has been developed and is presented here. The UWB pulse radar prototype integrates seeing-through imaging and Doppler detection features in one platform. Many challenges existing in implementing such a radar have been addressed extensively in this dissertation. Two Vivaldi antenna arrays have been designed and fabricated to cover 1.5-4.5 GHz and 1.5-10 GHz, respectively. A carrierbased pulse radar transceiver has been implemented to achieve a high dynamic range of 65dB. A 100 GSPS data acquisition module is prototyped using the off-the-shelf fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) based on a low cost solution: equivalent time sampling scheme. Ptolemy and transient simulation tools are used to accurately emulate the linear and nonlinear components in the comprehensive simulation platform, incorporated with electromagnetic theory to account for through wall effect and radar scattering. Imaging and Doppler detection examples have been given to demonstrate that such a “Biometrics-at-a-glance” would have a great impact on the security, rescuing, and biomedical applications in the future.
Chapter 1An Introduction to AgriculturalBiotechnology Regulation in the U.S.

C.A. Wozniak and A. McHughen (eds.), Regulation of Agricultural Biotechnology: The United States and Canada, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-2156-2_1, © US Government 2012 Abstract The regulation of agricultural plant and microbial biotechnology products in the United States of America has a rich history that re fl ects the challenges the federal government has faced in the development of appropriate rules and standards needed to determine their safety to humans and the environment. Several factors – the insuf fi cient global food supply, loss or curtailment of the use of older chemistries to control pests due to risks and environmental persistence, the rising demand for safer food commodities, and the uncertainty surrounding the sustainability of agriculture in this and other countries – have added to these challenges. The chapter introduces the U.S. Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology (“Framework”), and the roles of its members: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in regulating agricultural biotechnology in accordance with U.S. federal statutes. The Framework agencies use scienti fi c, risk-based approaches in carrying out their regulatory responsibilities for the products of biotechnology. Relying on their experiences with risk assessment and risk management policies and principles for more conventional products, the Framework agencies have adapted new risk and exposure scenarios into their evaluations to ensure the safe use of these products in agriculture.
Who likes extraverts? Re-examining motivational tradeoff effects in social perception

Although many facial features elicit similar personality impressions across different perceivers, there are also substantial individual differences. Brown and Sacco conducted several studies to explore which perceiver characteristics explain these differences. Applying the idea of motivational tradeoffs, they showed that extraverted-looking targets are perceived more positively by perceivers whose social needs are more likely to be met by extraverted individuals. Here, we conduct two preregistered replications of their studies, testing if participants with (a) stronger affiliative needs, (b) weaker pathogen concern, and (c) a more unrestricted sociosexual orientation form more positive impressions of extraverted-looking individuals. Using the original stimuli and study design (Study 1, n = 273) and two additional stimulus sets and an improved study design (Study 2, n = 367), we do not find consistent evidence for any of the proposed relationships. Our findings highlight the need for additional research to understand individual differences in social perception.
Freeway Gap Acceptance Behaviors Based on Vehicle Trajectory Analysis

Gap acceptance forms a significant component of lane change modeling. Most studies on gap acceptance focus either on intersections or on merging areas. There is relatively little research on gap acceptance behaviors during lane changes on freeways. This paper analyzed gap acceptance behaviors on freeway segments by conducting a detailed analysis of the vehicle trajectory data obtained through Next Generation SIMulation (NGSIM) program. The paper classified accepted gaps from the vehicle trajectory data into mandatory lane change (MLC) and discretionary lane change (DLC) gaps, and conducted a detailed regression analysis by studying 24 explanatory variables grouped into six categories. The analysis shows that MLC maneuvers require greater gaps than DLC maneuvers. Also, if multiple lanes need to be traversed for a MLC, drivers are more inclined to accept smaller gaps. Presence of Heavy vehicles as subject or lag vehicles also tend to increase accepted gaps for both MLC and DLC maneuvers, while front and lead vehicle types do not have significant effect. Regression analysis revealed that the variance of observed variables, including MLC-specific variables, vehicle types, speed, relative speed, acceleration, and relative acceleration, can explain the variance of accepted gaps about 49.5% and 38.9% for MLC and DLC, respectively. This suggests that some other unobserved factors, such as gender, age, trip purpose, etc., may also play a role in gap acceptance when conducting lane changes on freeways. Overall, this paper enriches the understanding of gap acceptance behaviors when driving on freeways.
Nonlinear "nite element modeling of concrete con"ned by "ber composites

Since use of "ber composites for con"ning concrete columns is relatively new, analytical models are limited to those of steel ties and hoops, which tend to overestimate the strength of cross section. A nonlinear "nite element model with a non-associative Drucker}Prager plasticity is developed to account for restraint pressure sensitivity of concrete. The predicted stress}strain curves compare favorably with test results. Volumetric expansion tendency of con"ned concrete, however, is not preserved. The model shows stress concentrations around corners of square sections, as previously observed by the experiments. The stress concentration depends on corner radius. The model, however, does not allow for sti! ness degradation under cyclic loading. ( 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Conditional Analysis of Unsaturated Flow in Randomly Heterogeneous Soils Without Monte Carlo Simulation or Upscaling

Abstract : Our project aimed at developing theoretical and computational methods to predict unsaturated flow in randomly heterogeneous soils and to assess the corresponding prediction errors. Our objective was to avoid the need for either Monte Carlo simulation or upscaling, by developing ways to render predictions and uncertainty assessments directly, in a computationally efficient and accurate manner. This final technical report describes our accomplishments, which consist of developing two novel approaches, one based on the Kirchhoff transformation and the other on a Gaussian method of approximation. Both methods have been implemented in two spatial dimensions using the finite element method, and applied to superimposed mean uniform and convergent flows with and without conditioning on measured values of hydraulic conductivity. Methods have been examined to extend the applicability of both methods to transient flows in soils having arbitrary constitutive characteristics. The report cites several papers published, submitted for publication or under preparation based on our work. The project has contributed toward three doctoral dissertations at the University of Arizona.
Predictive Processing and Body Representation

We introduce the predictive processing account of body representation, according to which body representation emerges via a domain-general scheme of (long-term) prediction error minimisation. We contrast this account against one where body representation is underpinned by domain-specific systems, whose exclusive function is to track the body. We illustrate how the predictive processing account offers considerable advantages in explaining various empirical findings, and we draw out some implications for body representation research.
CMOS VOLTAGE REFERENCES AN ANALYTICAL AND PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE

cmos voltage references an analytical and practical perspective design of higherperformance cmos voltage controlled oscillators the gm id methodology a sizing tool for low voltage analog cmos circuits the semi empirical andpact model approaches temperature and supply voltage independent time references for wireless sensor networks analog circuits and signal processing cmos vlsi design a circuits and systems perspective 3rd edition cmos vlsi design a circuits and systems perspective 4th edition cmos vlsi design a circuits systems perspective 4th edition Cmos Vlsi Design A Circuits And Systems Perspective 4th Edition Solution Pdf Cmos Vlsi Design A Circuits And Systems Perspective Solutions Manual Pdf the book of ser marco polo the venetian concerning the kingdoms and marvels of the east translated and edited with extensive critical and explanatory notes references appendices and full indexes preceded by an analytical and historical introduction analytical philosophy in comparative perspective termination of a power an analytical perspective introduction to project finance an analytical perspective cmos sigma delta converters practical design guide from dummetts philosophical perspective philosophieperspectives in analytical philosophy s analytical tools for environmental design and management in a systems perspective analytical instrumentation practical guides for measurement and control practical guides series analytical practical grammar of the en analytical hypnotherapy vol 2 practical applications practical analytical electron microscopy in materials science
Environmental Effects on the Biomechanics and Motor Physiology of Elastically Powered Movements in Chameleons

Environmental temperature impacts the physical activity and ecology of ectothermic animals through its effects on muscle contractile physiology. Sprinting, swimming, and jumping performance of ectotherms decreases by at least 33% over a 10°C drop, accompanied by a similar decline in muscle power. We propose that ballistic movements that are powered by recoil of elastic tissues are less thermally dependent than movements that rely on direct muscular power. We found that an elastically powered movement, ballistic tongue projection in chameleons, maintains high performance over a 20°C range. Peak velocity and power decline by only 10%–19% with a 10°C drop, compared to >42% for nonelastic, muscle-powered tongue retraction. These results indicate that the elastic recoil mechanism circumvents the constraints that low temperature imposes on muscle rate properties and thereby reduces the thermal dependence of tongue projection. We propose that organisms that use elastic recoil mechanisms for ecologically important movements such as feeding and locomotion may benefit from an expanded thermal niche. 1 Portions of these results have been previously published (Anderson and Deban, 2010) and are utilized with permission of the publisher. Christopher V. Anderson and Stephen M. Deban designed the research and contributed analytic tools. The research was performed and analyzed by Christopher V. Anderson.
A scale transition plasticity theory - from crystal to continuum

• A submitted manuscript is the author's version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
The Impact of Financial Innovation Investment Support on SME Competitiveness

This article examines financial support (especially EU Structural Funds as the main tool of cohesion policy) for investments as a lever for the development of SME innovativeness in Poland. The European Commission strongly stresses the importance of their cohesion policy and support for SMEs. European enterprises have suffered significantly from the credit crunch, and the situation could worsen as banks engage in restructuring to eliminate impaired assets from their balance sheets. Supporting SMEs and promoting entrepreneurship is essential for economic development and competitiveness, especially in less developed regions. The main aim of this study is to establish the impact of financial support for investments, especially from EU Structural Funds, on SME competitiveness in Poland. We have analyzed empirically the data drawn from CATI carried out among 805 firms. We have learned how SMEs assess the financial support from different sources along with the resulting impact on the competitiveness of SMEs. The main statistical test for relationships and dependencies was the chi-square independence test and Cramer’s V. The results of our research show that SMEs have not used financial support efficiently. Moreover, micro-enterprises were shown to be the least effective after receiving financial support from EU funds. This support often has a demand-driven effect, but it does not improve firm competitiveness.