The business environment is currently typified by rapid and ongoing change, which causes the future to be increasingly unpredictable and unsettled. Companies are struggling to maintain their competitive edge and to survive. It is therefore important that management should ensure that the necessary competencies and abilities are available to enable the coordination of both diversified and specialised functions within the company. This underlines the importance of effective teamwork in organizations. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of team leadership in the effectiveness of management teams. In order to attain this goal, the primary focus of the literature study was team leadership. Chapter 2 comprehensively discusses the most important aspects determining effective teams and team efficiency in organizations. The analysis of the literature was focused specifically on the general factors determining team efficiency and twenty critical factors were identified. In chapter 3 team leadership is discussed. A comprehensive literature study was done in order to identify the characteristics of an effective team leader, as well as the roles he/she is expected to play in the team. Qualitative analysis of the literature indicated 17 discernable roles which are discussed comprehensively in this chapter. Qualitative as well as quantitative research methodologies were used in order to achieve the objective of this study. Qualitative methodology was used mainly to analyze the available literature. Quantitative research involved a random sample of 19 teams, which were selected from all divisions of the organization. A dual criterion, consisting of an evaluation of the group dynamics in the teams and also of quantifyable team output was used. On the basis of the criterion these teams were divided into nine effective and ten ineffective teams. The team leaders were assessed by means of a 360° questionnaire. The head of the team, team members and the team leaders themselves were required to do the assessment according to five identified dimensions describing team leadership. The effective and ineffective teams were compared using the Mann-Whitney U-test to determine whether any significant differences between the teams exist in terms of the following five dimensions: "management of attention" (dimension 1); "management of meaning and motivation" (dimension 2); "management of trust" (dimension 3); "management of self" (dimension 4) and "management of empowerment" (dimension 5). From the comparison between the effective and ineffective teams the following results were apparent: There is a clear tendency to indicate that in the case of effective teams, when assessing the team leader, the assessment by team members and team leaders coincide. In the case of ineffective teams, leaders tend to rate themselves considerably higher than the team members do. This leads to the conclusion that leaders of effective teams have a realistic view of their ability as team leaders. Significant differences were also discernable in the following dimensions: "management of attention" (dimension 1); "management of trust" (dimension 3); "management of self" (dimension 4) and "management of empowerment" (dimension 5). The most significant differences were found in terms of dimensions 3 and 5. Results indicate that leaders of effective teams have a realistic concept of their ability; that they have the ability to purposefully lead their team members; that they can inspire trust in their team members; that they manage themselves effectively and that they empower their team members in all areas and aspects. / Thesis (MCom (Human Resources Management))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

M.Ed. / This dissertation is about the instructional approaches used by teachers to teach Grade 11 quadratic equations, errors learners made and misconceptions they possessed. The main topics that I had focused on were solving quadratic equations by factoring, completing a square and using quadratic formula. The intention was to observe teachers’ teaching approaches in quadratic equations and diagnosed types of errors learners displayed and misconceptions they possessed in quadratic equations. Literature review had served as a secondary source of information that was relied upon for the research study. Sources such as scholarly books, government documents, dissertations, professional journals and electronic resources were used to gather the information pertinent to the research topic. Review was also done on how teachers teach quadratic equations, learners’ learning of quadratic equations and teachers teach and learners learn mathematics. This study is action research under qualitative research paradigm in which the information collected was analyzed through thick description and not statistically. Pre-test, self and post test evaluation methods are discussed of quadratic equations by factorization, completing a square and using quadratic formula. Learners were tested on factoring, completing a square and using quadratic formula. In addition to the learners’ class exercises and home work, these scripts were also analysed for errors and misconceptions. Collected data is presented that helped to address errors and misconceptions learners displayed in solving quadratic equations and teachers’ teaching methods and approaches. Data was collected from schools in the neighborhood and the school I was attached as a mathematics teacher. In all schools, five teachers’ three lessons were observed which added up to a total of fifteen. All five teachers were interviewed as well as five learners in each school. Interviews were analyzed by comparing what their teaching approaches with the types of learners’ errors and misconceptions. In classroom observations, Indicator Evaluation Form adopted from Luneta (2006) was used to collect data as well as analyzing it. Questionnaires were prepared for both teachers and learners for interviews.

Les systèmes à électrons fortement corrélés sont d’intérêt particulier pour le calcul ab initio, cherchant à modéliser ces systèmes à partir des premiers principes. La théorie de la fonctionnelle de la densité associée à une prise en compte des corrélations locales en DFT+U ou en DFT+DMFT, permet de reproduire qualitativement la physique de ces systèmes. Cependant, ces méthodes font intervenir les paramètres d’interaction effective de Hubbard U et de Hund J. Ces derniers peuvent eux-mêmes être calculés de manière ab initio, notamment avec l’approximation de phase aléatoire contrainte (cRPA), ouvrant la voie au développement de schémas de calcul les plus prédictifs possible. Nous utilisons un schéma DFT+U/cRPA, dont le principe consiste à calculer les paramètres U et J en cRPA et la structure électronique en DFT+U de manière auto-cohérente. Nous appliquons ce schéma aux lanthanides allant du cérium au lutétium (en détaillant le cas du cérium dans ses phases gamma et alpha), et aux dioxydes des actinides allant de l'uranium au curium. Nous effectuons d'abord une étude de l'état fondamental en DFT+U en fonction de U, en détaillant l'influence des états métastables. Nous étudions le rôle de la localisation des orbitales corrélées sur l'interaction effective dans un cas particulier. Nous détaillons ensuite les valeurs de U obtenues en cRPA en fonction de celles utilisées pour le calcul DFT+U. Nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement aux effets des processus d’écrantage sur les valeurs de U obtenues. Nous montrons que les limitations du schéma observées (multiplicité des valeurs auto-cohérentes de U obtenues et/ou incompatibilité de ces valeurs avec les spectres de photoémission expérimentaux) sont causées par certains processus d’écrantage spécifiques. Cela suggère d'améliorer la description de ces processus d'écrantage en modifiant le modèle. / Strongly correlated electron systems are particularly interesting for ab initio calculus, which aims to model these systems from first principles. Density functional theory, improved by taking into account local correlations within DFT+U or DFT+DMFT, enables to reproduce qualitatively the physics of these systems. Nonetheless, these methods require the Hubbard and Hund effective interaction parameters U and J. These can be computed from first principles as well, within the constrained random phase approximation (cRPA), paving the way for numerical schemes as predictive as possible. Here, we use a DFT+U/cRPA scheme, which aims to compute self-consistently the U and J parameters with cRPA and the DFT+U electronic structure. We apply this scheme to lanthanides from cerium to lutetium (insisting on cerium and its gamma and alpha phases), and dioxides of actinides from uranium to curium. We study the DFT+U ground state in function of U, giving more details about the influence of metastable states. We study as well the influence of the localization of correlated orbitals on the effective interaction in a particular case. We then detail the values of U obtained with cRPA, in function of those used for the DFT+U calculation. We study more particularly the effects of screening processes on the obtained values of U. We show that the limitations of the scheme (multiplicity of self-consistent values of U and/or their incompatibility with experimental photoemission spectra) are caused by specific screening processes. This suggests to improve the description of these screening processes by modifying the model.

MEd / Department of Curriculum Studies and Educational Management

Fatigue life estimation of welds is a complex issue since the characteristics of each weld are unique depending on load case, geometry and properties. Fatigue life estimation on weld ends is limited and often the weakest point of a weld. There are five different methods for evaluation of fatigue life as following: nominal stress method, hot-spot method, effective notch method, fracture mechanics and lab testing. To evaluate fatigue life on weld ends, only lab testing can be used.   The purpose with this thesis is to determine a method for evaluation of fatigue life weld ends for a load carrying weld joint. This is done by comparing finite element calculations to mechanical testing and adapt the existing calculation method to have a better correspondence to the test results. The focus will be to analyse the fatigue through mechanical testing and develop a new fatigue class (FAT) and slope of the S/N-curve for weld ends.   The research was conduct through different parts with fatigue testing in form of mechanical testing, strain gauge measurements and creating different modelling techniques for finite element calculations. The development of the different modelling techniques has been carried out using linear misalignment, increasing the depth of fusion by extension of the weld root gap, changing plate edge radius at the weld toe notch and decreasing the throat thickness on a finite element model on the continues weld design.   The result from the mechanical testing indicates that the continues weld has a higher fatigue strength than the discontinues weld and that the initial crack mainly in both weld designs mainly propagating from the weld root. The fatigue strength when the initial crack starts at the weld root is higher than when the crack starts at the weld toe.   The conclusion is that the tested modelling techniques can’t be used to analyse the real-life weld end design. from the comparison between the mechanical test results the FE analysis result the fatigue life can be approximated with the effective notch method using FAT 340  and slope  at 50 % failure probability for weld ends, if the calculated root stress is used even if the toe stress is higher. / Livslängsberäkningar för utmattning av svetsar är ett komplext problem, då varje svets har unika kännetecken som är beroende av lastfall, geometrin och andra egenskaper från svetsprocessen. Livslängdsuppskattning av svetslut är ett område där det inte finns så mycket forskning, trots att svetsluten ofta har högst spänningskoncentration och lägst livslängd. Det finns fem olika beräkningsmetoder för att utvärdera livslängden, nominell spänning, hot-spot, effective notch, brottmekanik och labbprovning. För att utvärdera livslängden på svetslut kan endast labbprovning användas som utvärderingsmetod.   Syftet med detta examensarbete är att bestämma en analysmetod för utvärdering av livslängden av svetslut för en lastbärande svetsfog. Detta görs genom jämförelse mellan provresultat på detaljer med och utan svetslut och resultat från finita elementberäkningar. Fokus kommer att vara att analysera utmattningen för svetsförbandet genom mekanisk provning och ta fram ett nytt FAT-värde och en lutning på S/N-kurvan motsvarande resultaten från den mekaniska provningen av svetslut.   Forskningen har genomförts i olika steg, genom utmattningsprovning i form av mekanisk provning, genom mätning med trådtöjningsgivare och genom beräkningar med finita elementmetoder. I beräkningarna har olika modelleringsmetoder testats för att se om det gick att få bättre överenstämmelse med provresultatet.   Resultatet från de mekaniska testerna indikerar att de svetsförband med kontinuerlig svets har en högre utmattningsstyrka än svetsförbanden med svetslut. De mekaniska testerna indikerar att utmattningssprickan för båda designerna huvudsakligen sker från svetsroten. Livslängden då spricktillväxten sker från svetsroten är högre än då spricktillväxt sker från svetstån.   De olika modelleringsmetoderna som provades gav inte högst spänningskoncentration vid provobjektens sprickstart. Ingen av dessa metoder fångar därför det verkliga beteendet. Utifrån en jämförelse mellan provresultaten och resultatet från FE analysen kan utmattningshållfastheten i svetsluten approximeras med effective notch metoden om ett FAT-värde 340  och en lutning på  vid 50 % brottrisk används, förutsatt att den beräknande rotspänningen används även om tåspänningen är högre.

Learning how to plan for effective instruction is a critical part of the work performed daily by the elementary school teacher. While some new and struggling teachers in urban school districts have access to professional development on a variety of topics including instructional planning, teachers in rural school districts often struggle to find training opportunities. This study sought to gather information and insight from rural teachers who demonstrate expert instructional planning. The specific planning decisions they made and activities they engaged in while planning were studied. Not only were the planning practices identified, but the reasons said practices were employed were investigated. Five expert elementary school teachers employed in a remote Utah school district served as the cases for this qualitative research. Observations, lesson plan documentation, and interview data were collected and analyzed. It was found that the expert rural elementary school teachers spent the majority of their planning time thinking about curriculum goals, learning objectives, and selecting appropriate resources. Very little thought was invested in how teachers would interact with students, how students would interact with each other, or how students would interact with their environment. This was because of a repertoire of teaching skills that could be used on an improvisational basis depending on how students responded. From this study, instructional leaders may gain insight into the thought processes behind successful planning and thus have new tools for working with novice teachers to improve their lesson planning.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第21328号 / 理博第4424号 / 新制||理||1635(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科数学・数理解析専攻 / (主査)教授 並河 良典, 教授 上 正明, 教授 森脇 淳 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Clinical simulation is an innovative teaching/learning strategy that supports the efforts of educators to prepare students for practice. Despite the positive implications of clinical simulations in nursing education, no empirical evidence exists to inform effective teaching in simulated learning environments. The purpose of this research is to create an instrument to measure effective teaching strategies in clinical simulation contexts. The conceptual framework for this study is the Nursing Education Simulation Framework. The Student Perception of Effective Teaching in Clinical Simulation (SPETCS) is a survey instrument scored on a 5-point Likert scale with two response scales: Extent and Importance. The Extent response scale measures participants’ perception of the extent to which the instructor used a particular teaching strategy during the simulation, and the Importance response scale measures perception of the degree of importance of the teaching strategy toward meeting simulation learning outcomes. A descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional design was used. Evidence to support content validity was obtained via a panel of simulation experts (n = 7) which yielded a content validity index of .91. A convenience sample of undergraduate nursing students (n = 121) was used for psychometric analysis. Internal consistency reliability met hypothesized expectations for the Extent (α = .95) and Importance (α = .96) response scales. Temporal stability reliability results were mixed; correlations between administration times met expectations on the Importance scale (ICC = .67), but were lower than expected on the Extent scale (ICC = .52). Both response scales correlated within hypothesized parameters with two criterion instruments (p < .01). The Importance scale was selected for exploratory factor analysis (EFA). EFA revealed 2 factors: Learner Support and Real-World Application. The result of careful item and factor analysis was an easy to administer 33 item scale with 2 response scales. The SPETCS has evidence of reliability and validity and can serve as a tool for the assessment, evaluation, and feedback in the ongoing professional development of nurse educators who use clinical simulations in the teaching/learning process. In addition, results of this study can support the identification of best practices and teaching competencies in the clinical simulation environment.

A set S of vertices in a graph G = (V,E) is a dominating set if every vertex in V \ S is adjacent to at least one vertex in S. A vertex v in a dominating set S is said to be it cost effective if it is adjacent to at least as many vertices in V \ S as it is in S. A dominating set S is cost effective if every vertex in S is cost effective. The minimum cardinality of a cost effective dominating set of G is the cost effective domination number of G. In addition to some preliminary results for general graphs, we give lower and upper bounds on the cost effective domination number of trees in terms of their domination number and characterize the trees that achieve the upper bound. We show that every value of the cost effective domination number between these bounds is realizable.

Effective field theories (EFTs) provide frameworks to systematically improve perturbation expansions in quantum field theory. This improvement is essential in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) predictions, both at low energy in the description of low momentum hadron-hadron scattering and at high energy in the description of electron-positron, proton-proton, proton-electron collisions. It is also important in quantum electrodynamics (QED), when electrons interact with a high-intensity, long-wavelength classical field. I introduce the principles and methods of effective field theory and describe my work in three EFTs: First, in the perturbative QCD region, I use soft collinear effective theory (SCET) to prove that strong interaction soft radiation is universal and to increase the QCD accuracy to next-to-next-to-next-to leading logarithm order for new particle searches in hadron colliders. I also compute a new class of non-perturbative, large logarithmic enhancement arising near the elastic limits of deep inelastic scattering and Drell-Yan processes. Second, in the QCD confinement region, I use heavy hadron chiral perturbation theory to study near-threshold enhancements in the scattering of 𝐷 and 𝜋 mesons near the threshold for the excited 𝐷-meson state, 𝐷*, as well as in the scattering of 𝐷 and 𝐷* mesons near the threshold for the exotic hadron X(3872). This work provides a clear picture of the hadronic molecule X(3872) and more profound understanding of the nuclear force between hadrons. Finally, inspired by SCET, I construct a new electron-laser effective field theory to describe highly-relativistic electrons traveling in strong laser fields, extract the universal distribution of electrons in strong electromagnetic backgrounds and its evolution in energy from the separated momentum scales of emitted photons and classical radiation, and predict the rate of wide angle photon emission. I conclude with limitations of EFT methods and some perspectives on what new work may be achieved with these EFTs.