The main purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of the full-time Seminary teachers in the L.D.S. Department of Education regarding the present practice of merit pay for teachers employed in the System. Consideration was also given to merit pay programs for teachers in the public schools, since to a great extent merit pay practices in the public schools have given rise to many equivalent reactions among the personnel of L.D.S. Church schools.

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In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird, ausgehend vom Stand der Wissenschaft und Technik des Lichtbogendrahtspritzens, das Verwenden von chromreichen Fe-Basislegierungen zur Herstellung von korrosionsbeständigen und gleichzeitig tribologisch geeigneten Zylinderlaufbahnbeschichtungen für Verbrennungsmotoren untersucht und qualifiziert. Der Einfluss der gewählten Werkstoffe und die durch die Beschichtung resultierenden Schichteigenschaften werden anhand von Ergebnissen der Tribologie- und Korrosionstests verglichen. Die Bewertung liefert einen Beitrag zum Verständnis der Mechanismen bei der Herstellung solcher Funktionsschichten. Es werden sowohl materialografische als auch diverse andere Charakterisierungsmethoden herangezogen. Ergänzt werden die Ergebnisse durch die Voraussage des motorischen Verhaltens und der anschließenden motorischen Qualifizierung des neuen Beschichtungssystems sowie die darauf folgenden Befundungen, welche der Bestätigung der theoretischen und im Laborumfeld ermittelten Erkenntnisse zum tribologischen und korrosiven Verhalten solcher Systeme dienen. Die Arbeit schließt mit einer Diskussion und einem Ausblick und gibt Empfehlungen für weiterführende Vertiefungen auf diesem Gebiet. / In the presented work it has been researched and qualified based on the knowledge about twin wire arc spray deposition states, the utilization of iron base chromium materials as a corrosion resistance and tribological useful cylinder liner coating for engine applications. The influence of the material selection and the produced twin wire arc coating properties has been compared with the results of the tribology and corrosion test. The comparison allows the understanding of the circumstances and relation by producing such functional coatings. Several materialographic-, tribological and corrosion tests have been done. In addition, the testing results were confirmed by a real engine application and a final analyses of the coating after engine run which delivers more information to understand the theory and laboratory testing results. The work discusses the achieved results and gives a forecast for further investigations in this field of science.

This study is a content analysis of news frames used in the coverage of Proposition 8 by newspapers in Utah and California, spanning the three months prior to its passage in November 2008, to the three months after its passage. A total of 401 news stories from five newspapers were analyzed to examine which of five news frames (attribution of responsibility, human interest, conflict, morality, and economic consequence) were used most predominantly and if the use of those frames varied by newspaper. Conflict was the most predominantly used frame, followed by attribution of responsibility, morality, economic consequence and human interest. The use of news frames did vary by newspaper. The newspapers in Utah used the morality frame more often in their coverage of Proposition 8 than the newspapers in California. Framing choices by the newspapers also changed over time. The use of the human interest frame decreased sharply after the November ballot vote, while the use of the responsibility frame and conflict frame showed a meaningful increase.

Students frequently hold an incorrect view of evolution. There are several potential barriers that prevent students from engaging evolutionary theory including lack of knowledge, limited scientific reasoning ability, and religiosity. Our research provides tools for overcoming barriers related to religiosity and diagnoses the barriers preventing students from fully engaging in learning the theory of evolution. This was a two-part study. The first part of our study addressed two hypothesized barriers to learning evolutionary theory among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon): (1) religious views stemming from incorrect understanding of the Church's neutral stance on evolution and (2) misunderstanding the theory of evolution. We measured the relationship between acceptance of evolution and knowledge of evolution, religiosity, and understanding of religious doctrine on evolution. Additionally, we measured the effect of including a discussion on religious doctrine in the classroom. Students in all sections, except for a control section, were taught a unit on evolution that included a discussion on the neutral LDS doctrine on evolution. Students enrolled in introductory biology for non-majors took pre, post, and longitudinal surveys on topics in evolution. We found significant relationships between knowledge, understanding of religious doctrine, and religiosity with acceptance of evolution. Additionally, an in-class discussion of he LDS doctrine on evolution helped students be more accepting of evolution. In the second part of our study, we studied a broader population to analyze differences in acceptance of evolution based on religious affiliation and religiosity. Our study focused on the interaction of five variables and their implication for evolution education: (1) religious commitment (2) religious views (3) knowledge of evolution (4) scientific reasoning ability and (5) acceptance of evolution. We measured each of these among equal samples of Southern Baptists, Catholics, Jews, and LDS populations and analyzed them with traditional statistics and structural equation modeling. Our findings showed that religious affiliation, religiosity and creationist views effected evolution acceptance, but not knowledge or scientific reasoning. These data provide compelling evidence that as students gain an accurate understanding of their religious doctrines and knowledge of evolution, they are more willing to accept the basic concepts of evolution. They also show diagnostic results that help educators better understand students' background and views. When educators better understand views that students hold, they are better able to design instruction for optimal learning.

Future wireless networks will have applications that require many devices to be connected to the network. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a promising multiple access scheme that allows more users to simultaneously transmit in a common channel than orthogonal signaling techniques. This overloading allows for high spectral efficiencies which can support the high demand for wireless access. One notable NOMA scheme is low-density spreading (LDS), which is a code domain multiple access scheme. Low density spreading operates like code division multiple access (CDMA) in the sense that users use a spreading sequence to spread their data, but the spreading sequences have a low number of nonzero chips, hence the term low-density. The message passing algorithm (MPA) is typically used for multi-user detection (MUD) of LDS systems. The MPA detector has complexity that is exponential to the number of users contributing to each chip. LDS systems suffer from two inherent problems: high computational complexity, and vulnerability to multipath channels. In this thesis, these two problems are addressed. A lower complexity MUD technique is presented, which offers complexity that is proportional to the number of users squared. The proposed detector is based on minimum mean square error (MMSE) and parallel interference cancellation (PIC) detectors. Simulation results show the proposed MUD technique achieves reductions in multiplications and additions by 81.84% and 67.87% with a loss of about 0.25 dB with overloading at 150%. In addition, a precoding scheme designed to mitigate the effects of the multipath channel is also presented. This precoding scheme applies an inverse channel response to the input signal before transmission. This allows for the received signal to eliminate the multipath effects that destroy the low-density structure.

This study qualitatively examined the experiences of transgender individuals who also identify as active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (N=10). Researchers took an interpretive phenomenological approach to elicit factors which allow trans Mormon folks to hold their apparently conflicting religious and gender identities simultaneously (and the consequences of doing so). Overall, we aimed to answer the broad question, “what is it like to be transgender and Mormon?” Following a process of semi-structured interviews, transcription, and coding, the broad categories which seemed to connect many elements of the trans/Mormon experience were 1) a sense of being pulled in two directions, 2) experiences of sacrifice, and 3) experiences of loss and rejection. Findings suggest that sacrifices of authenticity, gender expression, and well-being were made because of a desire to: a) be accepted within the LDS Church, b) promote change within the LDS Church, c) maintain family relationships, d) live congruently with one’s personal interpretation of doctrine, and/or e) follow personal guidance from God. Results also suggest that most experiences of loss and rejection for trans Mormons center around their church communities and local leadership, the LDS Church as an institution, and LDS family members.

Digital technology is developing rapidly, and educators are currently in the process of exploring what opportunities new technology can have for learning and teaching. This applies not least to the field of education in programming, as   learning to program is a great challenge for many students. Therefore, educators and researchers have sought to find educationally effective digital learning resources to facilitate the programming learning process. In this thesis, multimodal online learning environments, providing accessible and learner-focused learning activities, and multimodal software visualizations, striving at concretizing the abstract building blocks in programming languages, were exploratory investigated. The aim was to expand the understanding of how digital learning resources can be used to support students’ understanding of basic programming concepts and dynamics. Empirical studies were conducted at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) at Stockholm University, Sweden. The data were collected during introductory programming courses in which the author had an active role as designer of the software visualizations, teacher and researcher. In these courses, the digital learning resources were explored as additional course resources. The research was conducted both through field experiments and case studies and data was collected using questionnaires, interviews and group discussions. Results strengthened the claims that abstract phenomena like programming can be made visible and understandable through visualization, in particular program dynamics.  When visualizations illustrated more conceptual elements, further guidance was required, to facilitate students’ interpretation and understanding. Regarding the online learning environments, guiding to the right learning pathways was the most critical factor found from the results. When adequate instructions and feedback were lacking in the learning environments, users became cognitively overloaded and disoriented. Finally, findings in all compiled studies indicate that teacher planning and orchestration of the learning situations should be conducted with more reflection.

Sometimes, the place where a play is performed is as important as or more important than the play itself. The first known theatrical rituals were performed in spaces which came to hold deep religious significance. Many religious traditions regard certain places as sacred because of spiritually significant events which took place there, sometimes involving the presence of Deity. In an effort to build on that sacrality, sometimes religious cultures bring theatre to these spaces, which, in turn, tend to alter the nature of the theatrical event. This seems especially true in regards to theatre which presents a re-enactment of the events which originally sacralized the performance space. Creating a theatrical performance at the same space, and recreating the same event which made the space sacred in the first place, gives the theatrical event a reflexive quality which performances in a space designated for theatre do not have. The Passion of Osiris in Ancient Egypt and the celebrations and commemorations of the early Christian Church are two examples of theatrical reenactments of sacred events in sacred spaces. Although such performances have been uncommon since those of the early Christians, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers two comparable performances today (the Hill Cumorah Pageant and the Nauvoo Pageant); they are also reenactments of sacred events framed by the sacred spaces where they originally occurred. The main commonality of my focus is the sacred physical space which frames each of the performances as a sort of ethereal proscenium arch or a silent witness of sacred events.