Charter school expansion is on the forefront of educational reform. There is currently little research on what issues charter school organizations face when they expand, how specific organizational structures are implemented during a charter school expansion process, and which structures provide a favorable outcome of the expansion. The overall goal of this study was an in-depth analysis of two expanding charter schools. This qualitative two-site case study examined several select issues that charter schools face during expansion, with the goal of identifying differences in approach, and evaluating outcomes of the expansion in the light of these differences. Two urban charter school organizations within the same city were chosen for this case study. The following are the four specific research questions addressed: 1) What issues did the selected charter school organizations face when they were expanding? 2) What type of organizational system did the charter schools have and how did that system facilitate their expansion? 3) How was information communicated during the Charter School Organizations' expansion? 4) How did the selected charter school organizations handle heightened turbulence during the expansion period? The primary sources were: 1) data obtained through interviews with three school administrators within each organization; and, 2) data collected via questionnaires in order to determine administrator's approaches to decision making, strategic plans, and communication flow within each organization. The data were analyzed and the research reflects an in-depth analysis of the varying level of turbulence experienced by each charter school organization including factors and decisions that impacted each organization's expansion process. The findings indicate that there are a variety of internal factors and external obstacles that charter school organizations must consider and ultimately overcome before and during a charter school organizational expansion. The results of these findings suggest that each organization experienced varying levels of turbulence when expanding due to a multitude of factors including relationships with stakeholders, community support, school performance, as well as the availability of resources including students, facilities, finances, and staff. Ironically, the levels of turbulence experienced by each charter school organization were quite different given the variety of factors that impacted each charter school organization's expansion. Additionally, there were only a few areas in which each charter school organization experienced similar levels of turbulence to one another. These findings indicate that while at times each charter school organization may have faced different levels of turbulence, given a variety of internal and external factors, it did not appear that these varying levels of turbulence prevented either charter school organization from expanding. Furthermore, the degree of turbulence experienced by different individuals within iv each charter school organization, based upon their positionality, was influenced by a multitude of factors that are both controllable and uncontrollable. These factors that impact the level of turbulence experienced by each organization include the organizational structure, stakeholder involvement, and the flow of communication. The benefit of this study is to better understand the variety of factors both internal and external that influence and contribute to a charter school expansion and to better understand the varying degrees of turbulence experienced by all stakeholders involved in a charter school while the organization is expanding. The results of this study provide insight regarding varying factors charter school organizations should consider when expanding and how decisions are made and communicated to all stakeholders while simultaneously considering the impact these decisions have on all individuals. / Educational Leadership

Advances in information and network technologies have fostered the creation and availability of a vast amount of online information, typically in the form of text documents. Information retrieval (IR) pertains to determining the relevance between a user query and documents in the target collection, then returning those documents that are likely to satisfy the user¡¦s information needs. One challenging issue in IR is word mismatch, which occurs when concepts can be described by different words in the user queries and/or documents. Query expansion is a promising approach for dealing with word mismatch in IR. In this thesis, we develop a fuzzy cluster-based query expansion technique to solve the word mismatch problem. Using existing expansion techniques (i.e., global analysis and non-fuzzy cluster-based query expansion) as performance benchmarks, our empirical results suggest that the fuzzy cluster-based query expansion technique can provide a more accurate query result than the benchmark techniques can.

Orientador: Carlos Lenz Cesar / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Física "Gleb Wataghin" / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T09:30:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Moreira_WendelLopes_D.pdf: 1772489 bytes, checksum: 3d4e37a805f4c66c447aea58b93692b8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Desde 1908, quando Mie apresentou expressões analíticas para os campos espalhados por uma partícula esférica sob incidência de uma onda eletromagnética plana, generalizações para esta expansão têm se mostrado incompletas. Isto se deve à presença de certos termos com dependência radial nos coe cientes de forma do feixe quando expandido em termos de funções de onda esféricas vetoriais. Aqui mostramos pela primeira como cancelar estes termos, permitindo expressões analíticas para os coe cientes para um campo eletromagnético completamente arbitrário. Damos tambem vários exemplos deste novo método, que também é muito apropriado para cálculos numéricos. Obtemos deste modo, expressões analíticas para feixes de Bessel e para os modos de guias de onda metálicos retangulares e cilíndricos. Estes resultados são extremamente relevantes para o incremento na velocidade de cálculo das forças de radiação atuando sobre uma partícula esférica, colocada em um campo eletromagnético arbitrário, com por exemplo, em pinças ópticas / Abstract: Since 1908, when Mie reported analytical expressions for the elds scattered by a spherical particle upon incidence of an electromagnetic plane-wave, generalizing his analysis to the case of an arbitrary incident wave has proved elusive. This is due to the presence of certain radially-dependent terms in the equation for the beam-shape coecients of the expansion of the electromagnetic elds in terms of vector spherical wave functions. Here we show for the rst time how these terms can be canceled out, allowing analytical expressions for the beam shape coecients to be found for a completely arbitrary incident eld. We give several examples of how this new method, which is well suited to numerical calculation, can be used. Analytical expressions are found for Bessel beams and the modes of rectangular and cylindrical metallic waveguides. The results are highly relevant for speeding up calculation of the radiation forces acting on spherical particles placed in an arbitrary electromagnetic eld, such as in optical tweezers / Doutorado / Física / Doutor em Ciências

Concrete has proven to be, by far, one of the most reliable materials for the construction of critical infrastructure. However, despite its structural capacity, concrete members are susceptible to damage mechanisms that may decrease its performance and durability throughout its service life. One such mechanism is alkali-silica reaction (ASR), which takes place when unstable siliceous phases present in coarse or fine aggregates react with the alkali hydroxides from the concrete pore solution, generating a secondary product (i.e., ASR gel); this product swells upon moisture uptake from the surrounding environment, leading to cracking and expansion of the affected concrete. In severe cases of ASR-affected infrastructure, structural safety could become a problem, and thus requiring the demolition of affected members. It is, therefore, necessary to adopt effective protocols for the diagnosis and prognosis of aging infrastructure, to ensure its performance over time along with properly planning for rehabilitation strategies, whether required. This work presents a two-stage case study of the S.I.T.E. building at the University of Ottawa for the diagnosis and prognosis of ASR-affected members (i.e., columns) after nearly 20 years in service. The diagnosis phase was conducted with the aim of evaluating the cause and extent of distress and interpreting its impact on the performance of the affected structure. First, a visual inspection was conducted to evaluate potentially damaged members, in order to select the best location for core-drilling. Once ASR was confirmed through petrographic examination, specimens were evaluated through the multi-level assessment (i.e., coupling of microscopic and mechanical assessment). A range of damage was discovered among the examined columns (i.e., 0.03%, 0.05%, and 0.08% expansion). Moreover, evidence of developing freeze and thaw (FT) damage was discovered in columns with greater levels of expansion, raising future concerns regarding the durability and serviceability of members affected by this coupling of damage (i.e., ASR+FT). For the second stage of this project (i.e., prognosis), a novel ASR semi-empirical model was developed with the aim of predicting future ASR-induced expansion and damage in the S.I.T.E. building. The above model was developed and validated (using ASR exposure site data) through the coupling of existing chemo-mechanical macro-models, which were used to predict material behaviour on the structural scale, and novel mathematical relationships for the prediction of anisotropy in the columns. Moreover, the use of the multi-level assessment to predict the mechanical implications of predicted distress was found to enhance the model’s capacity for prognosis and demonstrated important potential for the accurate prediction of multi-level damage in the S.I.T.E. columns.

No description available.

The overall goal of this thesis is to better understand changes in the spatial pattern of urban growth and its impact on landscape configuration by conducting a case study in Greater Chengdu, an inland megacity in China. The objectives are as follows: 1) Quantifying changes in the spatial pattern of the study area between 2003 and 2013; 2) Evaluating the degree of urban sprawl over that period; 3) Evaluating urban expansion dynamics; and 4) Examining and defining the types of urban growth. Satellite imagery was employed to distinguish and identify different land surface categories. Integrated remote sensing and GIS (Geographic Information System) technique was used to analyse both qualitative and quantitative perspectives regarding the objectives. The results indicate that the urban area of Greater Chengdu doubled from 525.5 km2 to 1191.85 km2 during 2003 to 2013. The geographic footprint demonstrates that the distribution of the built-up area was dispersed and continues to grow more dispersed. The dominant type of urban growth is outward expansion, by which the city grew within a 10 km to 25 km radius surrounding the city center. A substantial infill phenomenon exists between a 5 km and 10 km radius from the city center. The urban core boundary expanded outward by 5 km, while the fringe of suburban area expanded outward by 10 km during the time period, which both indicate a substantial outward expansion over the city. The significant contribution of this study could benefit to many aspects such as comparative studies between cities or continuous studies relevant to urban growth.

Land managers have struggled to develop successful control strategies to address buffelgrass invasion in the Sonoran Desert. Two important variables for control strategies are dispersal type and patch expansion rate (i.e. satellite or invasion front). We investigated these variables along a highway invaded within the last 10 years located south of Gila Bend, Arizona, USA. Dispersal type was calculated by documenting the location of each buffelgrass individual along a 16 km stretch of highway and using an average nearest neighbor analysis in ArcMap 10.2.2. Thirty-six patches were monitored for four years along a 56 km stretch of highway 85 by documenting the outlines of each patch. Dispersal type registered as satellite dispersal (i.e. clustered on the Nearest Neighbor test), z-score = -47.2, p < 0.01. Patch expansion exhibited a median doubling time of 0.81 years. The results of the dispersal type analysis represent an opportunity to enhance control strategies, by targeting buffelgrass satellites and theoretically reducing patch expansion exponentially. The patch expansion rates for buffelgrass were faster than found in past research, giving land managers a clearer understanding buffelgrass patch expansion behavior.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / In a society growing towards alternative modes of transportation, this study explores the phase 2 streetcar expansion for the Tucson area. Using case studies and research articles, a criteria of factors were created to best judge three predetermined expansion routes. A case study was then done on these routes to determine which route would be best for the area. In this study, the factors that were looked at and used to rank the three routes included; population density and average annual income of the surrounding area of the route (400 meter buffer), accessibility and connectivity, which includes; bus stops, bike lanes, walkability, traffic counts and possible park & ride development. The last factor used in the case study was proximity to destination, specifically how many ‘big destinations’ (destinations that experience high volumes of people) each route had. The proximity to destination factor also determined how good of a balance each route had with housing, work and amenities/leisure destinations.

Allt fler företag väljer att expandera och öppna upp kontor i nya länder, vilket inte alltid sker helt oproblematiskt. Vid en expansion till ett nytt land sker en internationalisering som innebär en ny intern miljö med en organisationskultur och struktur som växer fram på den specifika enheten, men också en extern miljö bestående av marknaden där enheten är verksam. I denna studie har en kvalitativ fallstudie genomförts av det svenska företaget Hansoft. Internationaliseringen har undersökts i termer av interna och externa miljöer. Interna miljöer innefattar den lokala organisationskulturen på enhetsnivå, och externa miljöer dess marknader – Japan, USA och Sverige. Syftet var att ta reda på om Hansofts expansion har påverkat organisationskulturen och organisationsstrukturen på företagsnivå. Genom intervjuer med tre stycken tidigare anställda på Hansoft visade det sig att internationaliseringen inte har haft någon större inverkan på organisationskulturen och strukturen i helhet. Organisationskulturen på Hansoft präglas av teamwork och flexibilitet, såväl före som efter internationaliseringen, samt både enhets- och företagsnivå. Den enda direkta konsekvensen av internationaliseringen var ökad formalisering som ledningen framhävde vid expansion till USA. Strukturen i företaget innehar tydliga egenskaper med en organisk struktur och uppmuntrar en öppen kommunikation – även detta var oförändrat i och med internationaliseringen. Hansoft har dock inte genomgått en vanlig internationalisering i den bemärkelsen att de mött nya marknader och öppnat upp större kontor. Anledningen till deras expansion var att komma närmre de kunder som företaget redan hade, vilket kan vara en orsak till att internationaliseringen inte påverkat Hansoft mer än vad den gjort. Resultatet av den här studien indikerar att mindre företag som flyttar över sin verksamhet till nya länder, inte genomgår någon större förändring gällande organisationskultur och organisationsstruktur.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Civil Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy