Using greenhouse pot techniques, 32 drilling mud components were tested to see if, at a high rate of addition, they reduced plant growth. Green beans and sweet corn were the test plants. The excellent black, silt loam, slightly acidic, uncultivated Dagor soil (Cumulic Haploxeroll) was used for most tests. Rates used were considered to be abnormal level (high rate) and usual (low rate) amounts that might be added in commonly used drilling muds. Drilling mud components that caused no observable or statistically significant reductions of plant yield are the following: Super Visbestos, (Asbestos), asphalt, Ben-Ex (a vinyl acetate and maleic anhydride copolymer), bentonite, Cypan (sodium polyacrylate), DME (ethoxylated nonyl phenol), Super Lube Flow (gilsonite), paraformaldehyde, Separan-AP- 273 (Dow-made, Shell-supplied polymer), sodium acid pyrophosphate, and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. Drilling mud components that barely caused a statistical significant (5 percent level) reduction in yield for only one of the two plant species when added to the soil only and, therefore, is of questionable hazard to plant growth are the following: Barite (BaSO4), Desco (modified tannin), Drillaid 412 (a filming amine), Drillaid 405 (diesel oil replacement), Kelzan-XC (a xanthan gum), Pipe dope, Lingo (lignite), Soltex (sulfonated asphalt?), and Witconnate 1840 (sulfonated tall oil). Drilling mud components causing significant reduction in plant growth mostly at only the high addition rates to soil-mud mixtures are the following: Desco (modified tannin?), Dextrid (a non-fermenting starch), pregelatinized starch, Q-Broxin (an iron chromelignosulfonate), Gendril Thik (guar gum), and Kwik-Seal. The most severe reductions in plant growth were caused by the following materials: Sodium hydroxide at the high rate (which was used in the soil-mud mixture with calcium lignosulfonate and with lignite), diesel oil and potassium chloride at both rates. The latter salt completely inhibited plant germination. Probable causes for plant growth reductions, photographic and visual records, and a discussion of the results is presented in some detail.

The purpose of this study was to develop a test which can be used to compare the reliability performances of two types of equipment components to determine whether or not the new component satisfies a given feasibility criterion. Two types of tests were presented and compared: the fixed sample size test and the truncated sequential probability ratio test. Both of these tests involve use of a statistic which is approximately distributed as F. This study showed that the truncated sequential probability ratio test has good potential as a means of comparing two component types to see whether or not the reliability of the new component is at least a certain number of times greater than the reliability of the old component.

Identifying effective instructional modifications for English-language learners (ELL) experiencing reading problems is a difficult task given the vast individual differences in language proficiency, motivation, and school experience. To address this issue, this study investigated the utility of brief experimental analysis as a means to quickly identify the most effective instructional components to increase reading performance for five ELL. Using a multielement design, five treatments were administered one by one with increasing language support. There were individual differences in response and effective treatments were identified for all participants. Further, an extended analysis of alternating baseline conditions with the hypothesized effective treatment indicated that selected interventions increased reading rates for four participants over time. A combination of the two most effective interventions based on results from the brief experimental analysis increased reading performance for the fifth student. These procedures appear to hold promise for quickly identifying effective instructional components for individual ELL.

Designing software components for future reuse has been an important area in software engineering. A software system developed with reusable components follows a "with" reuse process while a component designed to be reused in other systems follows a "for" reuse process. This dissertation explores the factors affecting design for reuse and design with reusable components through empirical studies. The studies involve Java components implementing a particular algorithm, a stemming algorithm that is widely used in the conflation domain. The method and empirical approach are general and independent of the programming language. Such studies may be extended to other types of components, for example, components implementing data structures such as stacks, queues etc. Design for reuse: In this thesis, the first study was conducted analyzing one-use and equivalent reusable components for the overhead in terms of component size, effort required, number of parameters, and productivity. Reusable components were significantly larger than their equivalent one-use components and had significantly more parameters. The effort required for the reusable components was higher than for one-use components. The productivity of the developers was significantly lower for the reusable components compared to the one-use components. Also, during the development of reusable components, the subjects spent more time on writing code than designing the components, but not significantly so.  A ranking of the design principles by frequency of use is also reported. A content analysis performed on the feedback is also reported and the reasons for using and not using the reuse design principles are identified. A correlation analysis showed that the reuse design principles were, in general, used independently of each other. Design with reuse: Through another empirical study, the effect of the size of a component and the reuse design principles used in building the component on the ease of reuse were analyzed. It was observed that the higher the complexity the lower the ease of reuse, but the correlation is not significant. When considered independently, four of the reuse design principles: well-defined interface, clarity and understandability, generality, and separate concepts from content significantly increased the ease of reuse while commonality and variability analysis significantly decreased the ease of reuse, and documentation did not have a significant impact on the ease of reuse. Experience in the programming language had no significant relationship with the reusability of components. Experience in software engineering and software reuse showed a relationship with reusability but the effect size was small. Testing components before integrating them into a system was found to have no relationship with the reusability of components. A content analysis of the feedback is presented identifying the challenges of components that were not easy to reuse. Features that make a component easily reusable were also identified. The Mahalanobis-Taguchi Strategy (MTS) was employed to develop a model based on Mahalanobis Distance  to identify the factors that can detect if a component is easy to reuse or not. The identified factors within the model are: size of a component, a set of reuse design principles (well-defined interface, clarity and understandability, commonality and variability analysis, and generality), and component testing. / Ph. D.

Since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, students who failed to demonstrate proficiency on state assessments were identified and targeted in order to receive interventions to assist in increasing their academic achievement. For many students, time during the regular school day simply could not be provided for the attention or time on-task necessary to meet their needs. As a result, many school districts and schools implemented after-school and tutoring programs to target those students who failed to demonstrate proficiency. Louisville Municipal School District (LMSD) operated an after-school program to help increase the academic achievement of 5th through 8th grade students in reading/language and mathematics on the MCT2. The purpose of this study was to (a) explore the impact the after-school program’s strategic components (leadership, activities, and partnerships) had on student achievement, and (b) determine if the after-school program had a positive effect on academic outcomes in the areas of reading/language and mathematics. A mixed method research design was used to conduct the study. A narrative approach was used to provide a response to the first research question. The Chi-squared test of independence was used as the primary means of analysis for the second and third research questions to determine if relationship existed between participation in the after-school program and academic achievement. The results from the research study show that strategic components of an after-school program had a positive impact on student achievement. Emerging themes were identified for each strategic component: leadership, activities, and partnerships. Participation in the after-school program proved to be a good predictor of student achievement on MCT2, with statistically significant Chi-squared results for reading/language. The recommendations for future research are as follows: (a) further research to improve reading/language and mathematics skills among the nation’s students, (b) longitudinal studies to determine long term effects on students attending after-school programs multiple years, (c) study of effects of after-school programs on other grade levels, and (d) including outcomes of other variables such as after-school participation on school attendance, behavior, and classroom grades.

The growing trend of internationalization in higher education underscores the importance of cross-national studies, particularly in the area of curricula, to facilitate learning and understanding among nations. This study examined undergraduate and graduate course syllabi from around the world to compare and contrast their components and subcomponents related to instructional design and technology. The aim was to identify major components and subcomponents and investigate their similarities and differences across continents. Additionally, the study explored the theories, principles, and concepts reflected in the syllabi and compared and contrasted them across the continents. The research analyzed 147 syllabi from 99 schools in 37 countries worldwide. The study identified eight major components that were present in the syllabi from all six continents, which include basic information, course information, course assessment, course resources, learning results, course schedule, course policies, and course expectations. The theories, principles, and concepts reflected in the syllabi included self-regulated learning, learner-centered pedagogy, universal design for learning, backward design, Bloom's taxonomy, and course objectives. However, the study also found significant differences in the specific components and subcomponents across continents. Therefore, when designing and creating a syllabus, it is essential to consider factors such as student readiness, instructor expertise, cultural practices, available resources, and educational policies, etc. / Doctor of Philosophy / This research looked at multiple course outlines related to technology-assisted teaching from universities worldwide to understand (1) what types of information were included and (2) why those types of information were important to the organization of the course outlines. It also described how universities across the world were different or similar in the contents included in their course outlines and in the ideas that supported the creation of their course outlines. In total, 147 course outlines were collected from 99 different schools in 37 countries. The researcher started by reviewing what other experts studied about course outlines and how they should be structured. After collecting these outlines from six different sources, the researcher organized the information from the outlines by grouping similar parts together. So, it became easier to find out how different parts of the outlines were similar or different from each other. The study found eight common parts in the course outlines collected worldwide. These parts included the following basic information about each course: details about what the course covers, how student assignments will be graded, the learning materials that students will use for the course, what students will be able to do after taking the course, the class activities, the rules, and what's expected from students. The study also discovered six common ideas that supported the creation of course outlines. These ideas deal with how students should take responsibility for their own learning, how teaching should center on the students, making sure that all students have equal access to the learning materials, planning lessons by starting with the end goal followed by assessment methods, describing different levels of thinking and learning, and setting clear goals for the course. In the end, this study found that the course outlines from the universities worldwide contained different types of information, despite sharing some key features. The outlines in different places frequently contained some information that is suitable and unique to the learning environments of specific regions. The same goes for the ideas and concepts regarding teaching and technology in these course outlines. The results of this research are important for a few reasons. First, the results provide new teachers with a broad perspective on how universities around the world structure their course outlines. Second, this study helps fill in a gap in our understanding of how course outlines are organized in different countries. It shows how they are similar or different. Third, it looks at whether these course outlines match up with the ideas and principles of teaching and technology. Fourth, the evidence from this research can be useful for people who make decisions about policies on teaching and learning. Lastly, it adds more knowledge to what we already know about making course outlines.

<p>The field of superplasticity is reviewed, with particular reference to the mode of deformation and viability for industrial application. Superplastic and conventional Zn-Al eutectoid alloys are compared with regard to the pressures and time required and the problems associated with the production of shaped hollow components from billet material, using extrusion followed by pressure forming. A possible industrial process is suggested and economically assessed in a Supplement to the Dissertation. </p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

<p> The radiation balance at a ship station in the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean is calculated using a term-by-term approach. Irradiances are calculated using upper air data from four daily radiosonde ascents and hourly surface weather observations made at the Canadian vessel 'Quadra' during GATE Phase 1 (June- July, 1974).</p> <p> Global irradiance is calculated by a cloud layer model similar to that used by Davies et al in Southern Ontario, Canada. The model considers first, cloudless sky attenuation of solar irradiance by water vapour, ozone and Rayleigh scattering. Second, cloud effects are added by considering contributions from three cloud layers - high, middle and low and secondary radiation from cloud base of reflected surface radiation. Reflected solar irradiance is calculated using a mean sea-surface albedo of 6% suggested by Payne for that part of the Atlantic Ocean.</p> <p> Estimates of incoming longwave irradiance are made first, from a numerical flux emissivity model which uses radiosonde ascent data and cloud amount at three heights and second, from a simple model which uses surface temperature and total cloud amount.</p> <p> Outgoing longwave emittance is evaluated using surface temperature and an emissivity of 0.98. The radiation balance is then obtained as the algebraic sum of the four components.</p> <p> The estimated values are compared with values measured at 'Quadra'. In 70% of the cases, calculated and measured solar irradiance agree to within 20%. Model performance for cloud amount > 5/10 is least satisfactory.</p> <p> In all cases, model and measured values of daily incoming longwave irradiance agree to within 5%. In 60% of the cases, measured and calculated radiation balance agree to within 20%.</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

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