abstract: The U.S. Navy is interested in evaluating the dielectric performance of SF6 at 30 kHz in order to develop optimal bushing designs and to ensure reliable operation for the Very Low Frequency/ Low Frequency (VLF/LF) transmitting stations. The breakdown experiments of compressed SF6 at 30 kHz in the pressure range of 1-5 atm were conducted in both the uniform field (plane-plane gap) and the non-uniform field (rod-plane gap). To understand the impact of pressure on the breakdown voltage of SF6 at VLF/LF, empirical models of the dielectric strength of SF6 were derived based on the experimental data and regression analysis. The pressure correction factors that present the correlation between the breakdown voltage of SF6 at VLF/LF and that of air at 50/60 Hz were calculated. These empirical models provide an effective way to use the extensively documented breakdown voltage data of air at 60 Hz to evaluate the dielectric performance of SF6 for the design of VLF/LF high voltage equipment. In addition, several breakdown experiments and similar regression analysis of air at 30 kHz were conducted as well. A ratio of the breakdown voltage of SF6 to that of air at VLF/LF was calculated, from which a significant difference between the uniform gap and the non-uniform gap was observed. All the models and values provide useful information to evaluate and predict the performance of the bushings in practice. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Electrical Engineering 2010

Summary: I was commissioned in 1994 by the European Commission to lead a project that would produce distance learning materials on cancer education for post-basic nurses across the European Union. In facilitating the process with a group representing eleven countries I adopted an approach based on democracy, participation and experiential learning. The process was researched using grounded theory and aimed to discover the conditions required for collaborative working within the EU and with applications to other settings. The early chapters reflect both the concerns for the project and the interrelated but separate issues of research method and methodology. Regarding the former the original aims and commitments are set against the constraints imposed by funding and budgeting issues, translation difficulties and the challenges presented by dissemination. The context in which the research arose is given within a brief history of the project, set against the background in which this and similar projects were being funded by the Commission during the early 1990s. A review of the technical literature focuses on the Commission's own evaluations of public health projects in the first two action phases 1990 - 2000 and the subsequent adaptations to funding criteria from lessons learned. The embeddedness of the research within the project implementation creates complexities that are addressed first by a number of narratives that seek to elucidate antecedents. Brief auto/biographies underpin and provide a rationale for the development of the methodology that informed the implementation of the project. Narratives provide the platform for the ensuing exploration of foreshadowed problems that led to theoretical sensitivity. The case is made for the adoption of grounded theory methodology, acknowledging the procedural as well as epistemological challenges this poses. Later chapters track the development of the emerging theory by providing thick description about the data, its collection and analysis, as the techniques progress from open coding to explicit theory formation. Early themes deriving from theoretical sensitivity are re-assessed and some original concepts earn their way into the theory whilst others are rejected or transformed. The formal expression of the necessary conditions for collaborative project working in the EU is synthesised in chapter 12 in which the proposition is made for a theory of Facilitative Leadership. The case is made for a substantive theory that approaches multi area formality through its wider applicability across similar settings. The dissonance created for the social scientist in choosing to adopt the original model of grounded theory in its entirety is pervasive throughout the thesis. This theme is addressed explicitly in the closing chapter, in which the major elements of both the project and the research are re-assessed.

The thesis concentrates on both the supply and the demand sides of the post sixteen education market place. On the supply side, the study examines four key issues - responses to competition; changes in the performance of colleges; the effect of the market on social inequality; and the possibility of bias and manipulation in marketing information. Firstly, on the supply side, the marketing undertaken by one sixth form college is examined alongside quantitative data from college records, (retained over a period of twelve years.) Data are analysed to determine patterns and trends in the profiles and qualifications of students entering the college throughout the period when a niche marketing strategy was emerging. On the demand side, qualitative research data were collected through a series of interviews with twenty five fourteen to sixteen year olds, in a multisite study. Analysis concentrates on the decision making processes and strategies emerging during the period when students selected among post sixteen colleges. The study concludes that firstly, the potential to manipulate information about colleges is increased in a culture of markets and competition. Colleges need to evaluate and gain feedback on the success of promotional communications through marketing research, to monitor the development of the college's reputation, as well as to identify new markets. Secondly, markets have the potential to allocate resources by socioeconomic class. Colleges seeking to reduce inequalities in post sixteen education and training need to ensure that a number of niche markets are identified, appropriate to local need and labour market conditions, to accommodate a range of decision makers in the market. Thirdly, the findings suggest that sixteen year olds are rarely able to give coherent reasons for selecting colleges until they are exposed to the marketing and promotional information provided by colleges. The findings emphasise the importance of effective promotion and public relations, to ensure that positive and accurate marketing information is entering the marketing and choice cycle. Finally, a 'Typology of Decision Makers' is developed to summarise the decision making behaviour of sixteen year olds. The study concludes with a 'Marketing, Choice and Communications Input-Output Model', which highlights the significance of 'psychological defence mechanisms', and reinforcement strategies', in the decision making processes employed by sixteen year olds when selecting among post sixteen colleges.

In twenty-first century England, the emerging knowledge economy requires educated workers and the creation of new knowledge to fuel economic growth. The extension of opportunities in higher education is critical to social equity. Pressures of marketisation, massification and globalisation add to an agenda for change. For Universities to succeed in this pressurised environment, the response of academic staff – the most important resource in any institution – is critical. Against this background, there has been an emphasis from policy bodies and Universities on the need to improve the management of human resources. This research intended to describe what new academic career models were emerging, using field research through case studies. The research sought to examine a sample of higher education institutions’ promotion procedures and interview the authors of those documents. Having understood the formal context, examine through interviews the social reality of academics following careers in higher education. Using this inductive data, it was intended to generate possible career models to extrapolate, deductively using a survey questionnaire, to all English pre-1992 universities, the usage of the emergent models. Finally, explanations were sought for the models using statistical analysis, including secondary data. It was found that academic career models were localised, diversified and inclusive; differentially recognising variant contributions through new career routes. These career paths seemed to provide educationalists and researchers an opportunity to participate on equal terms with those following traditional careers. This conclusion seemed attractive as it recognised the changes observed and viewed them as institutionally strategic and academically benign. However, the trend towards a management-led division of academic labour, basing jobs on elements of a work process, tended to fractionalise the academic role and did not correlate with rank. This specialisation may represent the de-construction, or de-mystification, of the craft of academia by managers without clear performance gains. If what was observed was a varied occupation being broken down into describable elements, then what this study observed was the start of the destruction, rather than the evolution, of the craft profession that was academia. It was not clear the observed fractionalisation of academic roles, breaking apart the research-teaching nexus, was beneficial to the profession.

This thesis follows the natural history of the research which gave rise to it. Working as an evaluator on a Social and Environmental Studies curriculum development project in the Republic of Ireland the author was surprised by some of the reactions to his evaluation reports. After consideration he came to the conclusion that these products of his evaluation had of themselves some sort of socio-political role. Moving to Northern Ireland he came into contact with a number of other evaluators some of international repute, who convinced him that his experiences were not unique but were shared by other evaluators. He was helped to formulate and flesh out an Aggregate Pathology Model of reactions to evaluation products. This model represented a cumulative but not necessarily complete schema of possible negative reactions to evaluation products and included; co-option and collusion between the evaluation and the project, restrictive renegotiation of the evaluator's contract, rhetorical acceptance of the product divorced from political action, rejection of the evaluator or his product, distancing from the evaluation, a counter denunciation in which dossiers of evidence are produced to discredit the evaluation, the use of human sensitivity as an instrument of human control over the evaluation, and a 'rival product' developed as an internal counter-thrust to the independent evaluation. Visiting this model with members of the evaluation community the author received qualified approval of its contents as a valid and useful map of many of their own evaluative experiences. In endeavouring to ascertain what might be the cause of the pathological reactions to evaluative products Concomitant Variation Method was used to compare contrasting between-case evaluation outcomes. This enabled the establishment of constants and independent and dependent variables, in evaluation cases where typicality had been established. As a result of its application to evaluation cases three explanations are advanced as causes of pathological reactions to evaluation products. These are (1) that the products are not 'practical' in the sense identified by Schwab(2) that the pathology represents reactions to evaluation perceived as a degradation exercise (3) that evaluation products appear at nodes or decisive cusps in project activity where sensitivity is heightened. These explanations are offered as decisive in a final case study of a curriculum evaluation this time conducted in the political and social sensitivities of Northern Ireland. The thesis ends with a methodological appendix and a summary of the conclusions. A review of the literature covers the history of the evaluation problem of the thesis from its beginnings as a substantive critique of the testing movement and as a partial expansion from curriculum development, to the use of ethnography and other metaphors from the sciences and arts in the evaluation of curricula. The problem itself, aspects of which are covered in the literature, is next dealt with and some pertinent explanatory concepts from the social sciences are given. Finally, some published material concerning the principal evaluation cases studied in the thesis are given.

Results of mesosphere/lower thermosphere wind measurements over Collm in 2007, carried out with a meteor radar (MR) and the LF D1 method in 2007 are presented. The seasonal cycles of wind parameters are in qualitative agreement with other years, but strong southward winds are noted in the first half of the year. The tidal amplitudes are lower than on a long-term average. Trend analyses of the LF winds show an increase of the zonal prevailing wind throughout the year, a decrease of the meridional Brewer-Dobson-circulation, and a tendency of the semidiurnal tidal phases towards later times, possible in connection with middle atmosphere cooling. However, these trends seem to decrease in recent years. The LF winds are in good agreement with modern empirical models, partly owing to the fact that these models base on LF and similar wind measurements. MR winds are usually stronger, which is especially the case with the semidiurnal tide. / Es werden die Ergebnisse von Meteorradar- und LF D1-Windmessungen im Mesopausenbereich über Collm im Jahre 2007 vorgestellt. Der Jahresgang der Windparameter ist in qualitativer Übereinstimmung mit denjenigen anderer Jahre, aber deutliche nach Süden gerichtete Winde werden in der ersten Hälfte des Jahres festgestellt. Trendanalysen der Windparameter zeigen eine Zunahme des Zonalwindes, eine Abnahme des Meridionalwindes, und eine Tendenz zur Verschiebung der halbtägigen Gezeiten zu späteren Zeitpunkten, was in Übereinstimmung mit einer Abkühlung der Atmosphäre ist. Diese Trends weisen in den letzten Jahren jedoch eine Tendenz zur Verringerung auf. Die mit der LF D1-Methode gemessenen Winde sind in guter Übereinstimmung mit empirischen Modellen, was jedoch zum Teil darauf zurück zu führen ist, dass diese Modelle auch auf Collmer Daten beruhen. Meteorradars messen im Allgemeinen stärkere Winde, dies zeigt sich vor allem bei den halbtägigen Gezeiten.

Institutional factors affecting implementation of policies are a reflection of the larger political context and setting of money in education. This has an impact on implementing accommodations for English Language Learners in standardized testing under No Child Left Behind. To see if this is true, four states: Indiana, New York, Tennessee and Wisconsin were chosen as examples of state policy adoption and their test contracts were collected from a test company. State accommodations for ELL in testing policy and state costs for standardized tests were analyzed in a comparative review. The diversity of methods in accommodation and lack of correlation between state standardized test costs to product illustrates institutional factors affecting NCLB implementation. Therefore it becomes essential for professional development to support states in implementing NCLB within an institutional context. Addressing these factors will lead to greater educational progress in U.S. federal policies.

No description available.

Muitas pesquisas tem sido feitas em processamento digital de sinais (PDS) na tentativa de se avaliar o sinal de fala para diagnosticar doenças da laringe. Medidas acústicas têm sido propostas de forma a avaliar indiretamente o trato glotal por meio do sinal de voz coletado através de microfone convencional. Para isso, o modelo paramétrico Liljencrants-Fant (LF) foi desenvolvido para representar o sinal glotal em condições normais e patológicas. Tais parâmetros apresentam vantagens sobre medidas acústicas por possuírem características fisiológicas reais das pregas vocais. Assim, podendo ser empregados para identificação de doenças da laringe. Além da estimação dos parâmetros LF, no domínio do tempo (parâmetros T), a forma de onda da derivativa glotal também pôde ser quantificada através dos parâmetros identificados na literatura por parâmetros R (Rd, Ra, Rk e Rg), parâmetros quocientes Q (SQ, OQ, CQ, AQ e NAQ), parâmetros B1 e B2 que são as extensões de bandas do pulso derivativo LF, e o parâmetro ece, que relaciona os parâmetros &#946 e Ta. Os parâmetros B1 e B2 e ece apesar de serem propostos na literatura, não são encontrados resultados diferentes a essas duas medidas. Os resultados mostraram que os parâmetros B não foram confiáveis na discriminação entre as vozes, por outro lado, o parâmetro ece mostrou-se ser opção na discriminação entre as vozes normais, nódulo e Reinke. O objetivo deste trabalho é direcionar a atenção sobre o sinal glotal, estimando-o automaticamente mediante técnicas de PDS aplicadas ao sinal de fala, visando extrair parâmetros que identifiquem as condições normais e patológicas da laringe. Por fim foram propostos os parâmetros TRp e TRs, visando dissociar os efeitos de primeira ordem dos de ordem superior na fase de retorno do pulso glotal com a finalidade de estimar a real não-linearidade do sub-sistema glotal, retratando as condições normais e patológicas da laringe. Por fim foram propostos os parâmetros TRp e TRs, visando dissociar os efeitos de primeira ordem dos de ordem superior na fase de retorno do pulso glotal com a finalidade de estimar a real não-linearidade do sub-sistema glotal, retratando as condições fisiológicas do movimento das pregas vocais. Com um nível de confiança de 95%, o parâmetro de primeira ordem (TRp) é efetivo na discriminação do Edema de Reinke, porém mostrou-se ineficaz na detecção do nódulo. Em relação ao parâmetro de ordem superior, conclui-se que o TRs é um excelente detetor de vozes patológicas (nódulo e Edema de Reinke), porém não é capaz de discriminar as patologias. / Many researches has been conducted in digital signal processing (DSP) atempting to evaluate the physiological conditions of larynx. Acoustical parameters have been proposed to evaluate the glotal tract from voice signal. One technique proposed is the Liljencrants-Fant model (LF) developed to represent normal and pathologic conditions of the larynx. Those parameters compare favourably as far as real physiologic characteristic of vocal folds is concerned. So, a primary use of the model is the larynx pathologic identification. Beyond LF parameters estimation, (T parameters in the time domain), the waveform of glotal pulse derivative also can be quantified through, R parameters (Rd, Ra, Rk and Rg), quocient parameters (SQ, OQ, CQ, AQ and NAQ), B parameters (B1 and B2) that are band extension of the LF glotal pulse derivative and the ece parameter that in fact, is a relationship between &#946 and Ta. Although proposed in the literature, no results are found, related to B and ece parameters. Our founds show that B parameters do not present good results in voice discrimination, however, ece parameter seems to be good option to discriminate normal voice, nodulo and Reinke edema. The main purpose of this work is to estimate the glotal signal from the voice signal using DSP techniques in order to obtain parameters that identifies the physiological larynx condition. In order to estimate the shape of return phase of glotal pulse, twoparameters have been proposed in this work. The first one evaluates the pulse (TRp, in other words, the first order component of the return phase. The second is responsible to evaluate superior orders components of the return phase (TRs), i.e, the non-linear component of the glotal pulse. With 95% of confidence level, TRp is effective in Reinke edema discrimination however it is inefficient for nodule e dection. By the other hand, the TRs parameter works well to detect pathologic voice however is unable to discriminated them.

Schwankungen des arteriellen Blutdrucks (BP) im niederfrequenten Bereich (LF, 0.02-0.2 Hz) sind möglicherweise Ausdruck von endokrinen Regulationssystemen bei der Aufrechterhaltung der kardiovaskulären Homöostase, wie beispielsweise des Renin-Angiotensin-Systems (RAS). Bei Untersuchungen an Ratten mit sogenannter "one-clip, two-kidney" (1C-2K) Goldblatt Hypertonie wurde ein Anstieg der LF Komponente des BP-Powerspektrums unter aktiviertem RAS gefunden. Trotz der bisherigen Untersuchungen blieb jedoch die Frage ungeklärt, ob dieser Anstieg LF(BP)-Power auf einer Stimulation des RAS beruht, oder durch die Blutdruckerhöhung selbst bedingt ist. Aus diesem Grund wurden die Auswirkungen eines stimulierten RAS auf BP-Oszillationen im LF-Bereich in dieser Studie untersucht, während ein Blutdruckanstieg pharmakologisch verhindert wurde. Zweiundzwanzig normotensive Wistar- und siebzehn normotensive Brown-Norway-Katholiek-Ratten wurden aus diesem Grunde chronisch mit einem Telemetriesender instrumentiert. Es erfolgten Blutentnahmen zur Reninaktivitsbestimmung, der BP wurde jeden zweiten Tag telemetrisch aufgezeichnet. Nach drei Wochen wurden die Tiere in zwei Behandlungsgruppen aufgeteilt. Entweder wurden die Tiere einer Behandlung mit Placebo zugewiesen (n=14 bei den Wistar-Ratten und n=8 bei den Brown-Norway-Katholiek-Ratten), oder sie erhielten eine Behandlung mit Hydralazin (n=8 bei den Wistar-Ratten und n=9 bei den Brown-Norway-Katholiek-Ratten, 40-120 mg/kg/Tag). Ein Silberclip (innerer Durchmesser 200 Mikrometer) wurde auf die linke Nierenarterie plaziert, eine erneute Blutentnahme erfolgte und der BP wurde für weitere drei Wochen gemessen. Hiernach wurde die Behandlung beendet, der Clip von der Nierenarterie entfernt und eine letzte Blutabnahme erfolgte. Abschließende Blutdruck-Registrierungen wurden über einen Zeitraum von drei Wochen durchgeführt. Die Power im LF-Bereich wurde aus den aufgezeichneten Blutdrucksignalen berechnet. Nach Implantation eines Nierenclips stieg der BP bei den mit Placebo behandelten Tieren signifikant an (+37 +/- 5.7 mmHg bei den Wistar-Ratten und +50 +/- 7.4 mmHg bei den Brown-Norway-Katholiek-Ratten, p / Low frequency (LF, 0.02-0.2 Hz) blood pressure (BP) fluctuations may result from cardiovascular regulation by endocrine systems such as the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). Studies employing one-clip, two-kidney (1C-2K) Goldblatt hypertension in rats demonstrated an increase in the LF component of the BP power spectrum. However it remains controversial, whether this increase in LF(BP)-Power is due to the stimulation of the RAS or to the elevation in BP itself. Therefore, we investigated the effect of RAS stimulation on LF(BP) fluctuation while the increase in BP was prevented pharmacologically. Twenty-two normotensive Wistar and seventeen Brown-Norway Katholiek rats were chronically instrumented with telemetric BP sensors, blood samples for measurement of the renin activity were taken and BP was monitored every other day. Three weeks later, rats were subjected to oral treatment with either placebo (n=14 in the Wistar rats and n=8 in the Brown-Norway Katholiek rats) or hydralazine (n=8 in the Wistar rats and n=9 in the Brown-Norway Katholiek rats, 40-120 mg/kg/day). A stainless steel clip (inner diameter 200 micrometer) was placed on the left renal artery, again blood samples were taken and BP was recorded for another three weeks. Finally, treatment was discontinued, the clip was removed from the renal artery, a last blood sample was taken and BP was monitored for a final period of three weeks. LF spectral power was calculated off-line from the recorded BP signal. After renal artery clipping BP significantly increased in placebo-treated rats (+37 +/- 5.7 mmHg in the Wistar rats, +50 +/- 7.4 mmHg in the Brown-Norway Katholiek rats, p