In this thesis, free vibration of beam structures with initial load is analyzed. It is based on the theory of elasticity and the formulation is derived by finite element method. The present method is different from traditions beam theories and is able to simulate beam vibration more precisely. The free vibration frequencies of beams under initial axial loading and different boundary conditions and geometrical aspect ratios are solved first and compared with those of Timoshenko beam theory. Vibration of beams with initial lateral loading is then analyzed, considering only the initial stresses and both the initial stresses and the initial displacements induced by the initial loading, to reveal the effect of initial stresses and initial displacement on vibration of beams with initial loading.

Throughout the 1980s increasing attention was paid to the quality of teacher education by the government, culminating in the publication of Circular 9/92 (DFE 1992). It decreed that schools were to play a larger and much more active role than before, as the practical side of the training was to be enhanced at the expense of the educational theory provided by the HEIs. The government believed that encouraging more practical training through a partnership of equals between the HEIs and the schools would improve the professional competence of the NQTs and eventually raise standards in the classroom. An aura of co-operation and consensus pervades the notion of partnership, but this research suggests that the concept is imprecise and open to many different interpretations. It also supports the view that there is a significant difference between the image of partnership projected by the government and the intentions, values and practices of those immediately involved in initial teacher education. The resulting disparity between the rhetoric of policy and the reality of partnership is pinpointed and explained by a critique of the Universities of Sussex and Brighton and twelve of their respective partner secondary schools. This investigation adopts a case study approach. Evidence collected through surveys, interviews and observation of participants within the partnership - such as university tutors, trainees, mentors and professional tutors, together with a review of the contextual literature, are used to illuminate the problems experienced by the practitioners. The evidence presented shows that the success of the partnership and its continued existence in its present form is dependent upon a variety of factors: adequate communication, effective mentorships, clearly-defined assessment and standardisation procedures and the development of a professional ethos to avoid undue reliance on good-will. Major restrictions are also placed upon the delivery of effective initial teacher education by inadequate funds and the shortage of time. More importantly however, the straightforward perception of partnership promoted by the government is in itself seen to be flawed, because there are inherent tensions between the HEIs and the schools. This results in conflicting expectations over key issues, which if unresolved will continue to jeopardise the development of partnership and affect the quality of initial teacher education.

This is a formative evaluation study of the "Class-Teacher" pre-service teacher education programme at the University of Jordan. The aim was to identify and evaluate the programme as perceived by the programme's participants. The choice of the topic was inspired by the researcher's perception that there were negative faculty and students' attitudes toward the programme. The programme's evaluation was intended to be responsive to its participants' needs and concerns. It was also planned and implemented within the interpretive paradigm of research. Stake's countenance model of evaluation was used mainly to guide the process of data collection. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection including questionnaires, formal and informal interviews and document analysis were used. The fieldwork took place in two different contexts, the university where the theoretical (on-campus) part of the programme has been implemented and the cooperating schools where the student's teaching practice took place. The target groups were student teachers, university faculty members and supervisors, co-operating teachers and headteachers at the co-operating schools. The findings of the study indicate that there is a lack of clarity regarding the objectives of the programme among the majority of its participants. Concerning the programme's curriculum, the findings show that the student teachers welcome the variety of its content. However, the students criticised certain aspects of the programme's content, particularly the professional sequence, of lack of relevance to the school curriculum and therefore to their needs as student teachers. The findings also show that there is a need to increase the weight of the school-based component of the programme since there is a perceived lack of balance in the content. Although there is a perceived lack of communication between The University and the cooperating schools that has an effect on the training process, student teachers seem most satisfied with their school-based training. The final chapter further discusses the above as well as many other main findings, reports the problems raised and posits a set of recommendations intended to resolve the identified problems.

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Thesis advisor: William F. Stevenson / An important and basic question, highly-relevant to managerial practice, which has been only partially asked and answered in the organizational literature, concerns the development of initial trust among co-workers. In this dissertation, I develop and test the theoretical idea that individual reflection upon affectively-charged work experience will have considerable influence on present attributions of initial trustworthiness to co-workers. The theory is primarily based in the scholarly literature on attribution theory, affective forecasting and trust concepts. Empirical results from testing across three distinct vignette-based scenarios show that the valence of relevant indirect experience is significantly and positively related to the level of initially attributed trustworthiness. Two experiential indicators, relational self-efficacy and organizational identification, are also found to be situationally and positively related to the level of initially attributed trust. The discussion details important implications for scholarship and management practice. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Organization Studies.

The production of axisymmetric initial data for distorted black holes at a moment of time symmetry is considered within the (3+1) context of general relativity. The initial data is made to contain a distorted marginally trapped surface ensuring that, modulo cosmic censorship, the spacetime will contain a black hole. The resulting equations on the complicated domain are solved using the piecewise linear finite element method which adapts to the curved surface of the marginally trapped surface. The initial data is then analyzed to calculate the mass of the space time as well as an upper bound on the fraction of the total energy available for radiation. The families of initial data considered contain no more than few percent of the total energy available for radiation even in cases of extreme distortion. It is shown that the mass of certain initial data slices depend to first order on the area of the marginally trapped surface and the gaussian curvature of prominent features.

There are two coupled objectives for this study of buoyancy-driven turbulence. The first objective is to determine if the development of a Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) mixing layer can be manipulated experimentally by altering the initial condition of the experiment. The second objective is to evaluate the performance of the Besnard, Harlow, and Rauenzahn (BHR) turbulent transport model when initialized with experimentally measured initial conditions. An existing statistically steady water channel facility at Texas A&M University and existing experimental diagnostics developed for this facility have been used to measure the turbulent quantities of buoyancy-driven turbulence. A stationary, bi-planar grid with a high solidity ratio, σ, has been placed immediately downstream of the termination of the splitter plate, perpendicular to the flow direction, to generate a turbulent initial condition. The self-similar growth parameter, α , for the RT mixing layer has been measured using a visualization technique to determine if the initial conditions affect the development of the RT mixing layer. The self-similar growth parameter, α , decreased from a value of 0.072 ± 0.0003 with the fine grid to values of 0.063 ± 0.0003 and 0.060 ± 0.0003 with the medium and coarse grids, respectively. With the results from the first objective, a unique opportunity arose to evaluate the performance of the variable density, RANS-type, BHR turbulent transport model. Measurements of velocity statistics necessary to initialize the model accurately have been obtained using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The performance of the BHR model was evaluated through comparison of the experimentally measured and BHR modeled self-similar growth parameter, α , from the penetration height of the bubbles/spikes and the self-similar growth parameter, K α , of the turbulent kinetic energy at the centerline of the low Atwood RT driven turbulent mixing layer. When initialized with the experimentally measured initial conditions, the BHR model did agree with the experimental measurements of the penetration height growth parameter, α , as well as the centerline turbulent kinetic energy growth parameter, K α , in the self-similar portion of the flow.

Offering price is set by public company and underwriter, but the price always is underpriced. There is a restricted price fluctuation in Taiwanese stock market, which causes price of initial public offering doesn¡¦t response real marker situation in short run. New securities laws and regulations requests underwriter set an appropriate offering price to meet the real situation of supply and demand in market since 2005. Competent authority cancels offering price formula and rules that new stocks are offered by public subscription and book building. We take IPO samples since 2005, to research performance between public information and initial return. The conclusions of this study are presented as follows: 1.The emerging stock company becomes over-the-counter (OTC) company or the OTC company becomes listed company by initial public offering, which average transaction price of last transaction date in market is a good estimator that can predict initial return performance of IPO. The higher average transaction price of last transaction date in market, the more initial return. 2.New securities laws and regulations requests underwriter set an appropriate offering price to meet the real situation of supply and demand in market. The underwater has an incentive to set a lower offering price to avoid law risks. 3.The median of book building price range is smaller than market price, the higher closing price of first listed transaction date.

This thesis seeks to: 1) establish reasons for the introduction of Competenceand Standards-based Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in England and Wales; 2) assess the impact ofCompetences and Standards on Secondary RE ITT; 3) offer proposals for a new 'multidimensional' RE ITT paradigm. The thesis is structured around four research questions. The first research question: Why were Competences and Standards introduced into the lIT process? informs a historical inquiry into the origins of Competences and Standards in Part 1. The second and third research questions: To what extent do documents such as 9/92 and 4/98 represent idealized models of teacher training and assessment? and How do Ofsted inspectors interpret ITT Competences and Standards in practice?, are considered in Part 2, where DfEE Circulars 9/92, 4/98 and other ITT inspection-related materials are analyzed and critiqued. The fourth research question: Can Standards be successfully integrated into ITT structures that seek to develop personal and professional qualities that lie far beyond the mechanical acquisition of depersonalized and decontextualized skills, behaviours and knowledge? leads in Part 3 to the presentation of proposals for new Secondary RE ITT structures. After outlining the salient features of these proposed ITT structures, possible barriers to their successful implementation are considered.