The purpose of this study was to examine the trends, attrition and retention rates of National Merit Finalists at the University of Central Florida between the years of 1997 to 2005. This study was intended to provide information for higher education practitioners, faculty, and administrators to help them better understand the expectations and current trends of National Merit Finalists. The problem was to determine how to increase recruitment and retention while decreasing the attrition rates of these highly desirable students. The importance of this study includes identifying trends that may aid in future recruitment efforts for National Merit Finalists; finding the causes of dissatisfaction towards the University among these students; and identifying specific areas in which to alleviate those dissatisfactions. The results will hopefully provide insight into specific recruitment, services, and programming options for these students. The study examined data that was collected from the University of Central Florida's Burnett Honors College database known as FileMaker 8.0. The data examined characteristics such as grade point averages (high school and college); valedictorian and salutatorian status; test scores (SAT and ACT); Honors in the Major (undergraduate thesis) students; Honors and university status (withdrawn, probation, removed, disqualified, enrolled, graduated); Honors college attrition; university attrition; ethnicity; gender ratios; majors; and, prestigious scholarships awarded in college (such as the Rhodes, Truman, Marshall). The actual size of the sample was one hundred ninety-eight National Merit Finalists. Data was also collected from a survey given to all University of Central Florida National Merit Finalists. Descriptive statistics were reported for each of the components examined. This data examined the types of scholarship packages that National Merit Finalists were offered; the reasons students chose the University of Central Florida over other universities; the college recruitment process; hours studied for the PSAT; siblings; perceptions on being a National Merit Finalist; the number of times students changed their majors; job status; transportation; computer attainment; disabilities; and the potential disadvantages of being labeled as a National Merit Finalist. The data could be utilized to examine the trends of our National Merit Finalists, in order to see what is working and what is not in terms or recruitment and retention; and also to further examine what these students want from their institutions. Findings indicated that problems exist in regard to the following: the recruitment of female and minority National Merit Finalists; males historically score higher on the SAT than females; decreasing the attrition rates of this population at the University of Central Florida; the majority of National Merit Finalists at the University of Central Florida come from Florida; the majority of National Merit Finalists at the University of Central Florida do not tend to be high school salutatorians or valedictorians; high school counselors seem to be the least effective tool for recruiting National Merit Finalists at the University of Central Florida; and the majority of National Merit Finalists at the University of Central Florida did not study at all for the PSAT test. However, the University of Central Florida is extremely competitive with other institutions of higher education with regard to scholarship packages. Results also revealed the following: the SAT is a more widely accepted tool for determining NMSC status as opposed to the ACT; the majority of National Merit Finalists have a GPA between 3.600 and 3.999 at the University of Central Florida; the University of Central Florida is succeeding in making its National Merit Finalists feel special during the recruitment process; the most influential reason that National Merit Finalists are choosing UCF is based upon the financial scholarship packages they are offered; and the majority of National Merit Finalists at the University of Central Florida do not feel that there are disadvantages toward being labeled as such. This data provides a basis for further research on National Merit Finalists trends, attrition, and retention. Practical considerations are revealed in the data that will influence future recruitment methods and lead to higher retention rates and increased student satisfaction. Several other recommendations are made to conduct further research studies on the trends, attrition, and retention rates of National Merit Finalists.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / This paper presents the results of installing a distributed feedback (DFB) laser transmitter and the appropriate optical receiver in an operational site. Frequencies from 1435 to 2400 megahertz are transported intact from a remote site to a local site. From the theoretical calculations, 10 dB of dynamic range may need to be recovered by the use of an automatic gain circuit. The actual device is a delight, needing no additional circuitry to meet specifications. Predictions of performance were made from calculations. The installed system was measured for 1 dB compression point and for figure of merit.

Current research on Career Ladder Teacher Incentive Plans indicates a need to go beyond the usual description of legislation, career ladder plans, teacher evaluation procedures and "intent" of the policymakers. This study uses a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to examine the interaction among teacher participation on a career ladder project, student achievement and teacher characteristics. Student achievement test scores over a two year period were analyzed. One group of students had teachers who participated for two years on a career ladder and the other group had teachers who did not participate the two years. One hundred forty teachers and two thousand two hundred sixty-three students in grades 3, 4 and 5 were analyzed in order to identify differences in test scores due to teacher participation. Contrasts were drawn between teachers as participants and non-participants on the career ladder, years of experience and education and their influence on how students scored on a State Mandated Norm Referenced Test, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Comparisons of the two groups in the study lead to some fairly consistent results. Even though there were no variables that impacted the achievement scores from a statistically significant standpoint, when the factor of "time" was defined in terms of Ladder and non-Ladder participation, the two year group showed statistically different results from the one year group. The results of this study indicate that a Career Ladder Program in the course of one year or two years would not significantly impact student achievement. However, the element of time is an important factor when looking at the potential for career ladder impact on student achievement. This factor should be considered in any quest for immediate versus long term success patterns of such plans.

This thesis argues that Luther’s reaction to Pelagianism within the Scotist tradition led to a decisive break with the scholastic theology of free will, merit and the Mass. However, by identifying the theological crux of Luther’s Reformation, this thesis discovers a rapprochement in the free will theology of early Lutheranism and Counter-Reformation scholasticism. The case is made that Luther’s theology of the passivity of the human will calls for a recovery of the Reformation significance of Luther’s relation to scholasticism and provides the means for recovery in ecumenical dialogue today. The thesis is presented in three parts. The first locates the origins of Luther’s Reformation reaction to Pelagianism in the Scotist developments of free will, merit and the Mass from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Chapter One argues that Scotus’s view of free will as autonomous volition had Pelagian repercussions on his teaching on merit. Chapter Two finds that Luther’s charge of Pelagianism could similarly be applied to Scotus’s theology of Eucharistic sacrifice, because the human will rather than Christ’s cross is deemed by Scotus to be the source of merit in the Mass. Chapter Three examines the continued influence of Scotus’s free will theology on the fifteenth-century debates concerning predestination. Scotus’s free will legacy in these debates, gives historical justification for positing a connection between Scotus and Luther’s denunciation of the Mass as a Pelagian work. Part Two argues that Luther’s theology of the passivity of the human will and the Mass as a testament constitutes a Reformation break with scholastic understandings of the meritorious agency of the human will. Chapter Four locates Luther’s Reformation relation to the voluntarism of Ockham and Biel, the German mystical tradition, and his confessor Staupitz, in his denial that the human will attains a meritorious agency under grace. Chapter Five maintains that Luther’s theology of the Mass as a testament reflects his rejection of Pelagianism and his Reformation article of passivity. In consequence, Luther’s testament model is shown to be incompatible with Cajetan’s non-Pelagian theology of the merit of the sacrifice of the Mass. Part Three affirms that Luther’s belief in the passivity of the human will has Reformation significance, by examining the condemnations of Trent. However, by considering subsequent treatments on free will, it is possible to identify a convergence in late sixteenth-century Lutheran and Catholic theology. Chapter Six argues that Trent countered both the Scotist theory of merit and Luther’s theology of the passivity of the human will. Luther’s belief in passivity is shown to cause a Reformation rift in a way that the Scotist reformulation of free will does not, because it led Luther to renounce the meritorious offering of Masses. Chapter Seven shows that in the wake of the Majorist, Synergist and Flacian debates of early Lutheranism and the Catholic de auxiliis controversy, a parallel understanding of the free will to sin can be discerned. The Lutheran Formula of Concord (1577) relinquished Luther’s Reformation article of passivity and offered a position which was in unconscious agreement with Trent. The thesis concludes by applying the results of this historical study to key ecumenical documents on the Mass. It is suggested that the rediscovery of a historical consensus on free will, opens the door to a common understanding of merit as participation in Christ, and thus to a shared Lutheran and Catholic understanding of Eucharistic sacrifice.

The thesis focuses on the benefits, that can be characterized as dependent on previous earnings. It is pension benefits, sickness benefits and benefits of passive employment policy in Czech Republic. These benefits will be described in terms of construction and elements with influence on equivalence. With this issue is also related to social policy. The aim of thesis is to compare the contributions to social security and state employment policies to benefits received from this system for employees and the self-employed, and compare them in relation to equivalence.

This thesis is trying to understand and describe fundamental principles of power market which needs to be understood by every investor present on this market. These principles are then challenged based on the observations and everyday power market experience. A special focus is put here on understanding of wholesalemarket price-setting mechanism and its implications for the choice of the power production technology by the investor.

L’utilisation de colorants synthétiques se développe depuis de nombreuses années dans des différentes industries. Les procèdes les plus couramment utilises pour le traitement des eaux usées colorées sont les traitements biologiques mais ils ont leurs limites. Les techniques d’oxydation chimique traditionnelle quant a elles conduisent à la coupure de la molécule au niveau du chromophore ne peuvent pas minéraliser totalement des colorants alors que la dépollution complète de ces effluents l’exigerait. Le procède photo-fenton homogène est une technique de traitement qui peut dégrader les effluents colores efficacement. Mais il y a quelques inconvénients majeurs qui limitent l’application industrielle de cette technologie. L’objectif de ce travail de recherche était d’étudier la décoloration et la dégradation des solutions des colorants: acide orange 7 acide orange 8 acide rouge i4 acide rouge 73 et acide bleu 74 par le procède d’oxydation avancée: photo-Fenton heterogene. Dans ce procède la zeolite fe-zsm5 a été utilisée comme un catalyseur heterogene. L’application de ce système nous a permis d une part de diminuer la quantité de boue formée au cours du traitement ainsi que la consommation d’énergie électrique engendrée par l’utilisation d’UV estimée à l aide de la méthode figures-of-merit et d’autre par d’étendre l’application du procède type photo-fenton aux ph plus élevés. La modélisation des procèdes étudies a été faite par deux méthodes à la méthodologie de surface de réponse (RSM) et les réseaux neuronaux artificiels (ANNS) - afin d optimiser la performance de système et également d'évaluer les effets simples et combines des différentes variables sur l’efficacité du traitement. / Large amounts of dyes are annually produced and applied in different industries. The biological methods are widely used for treatment of coloured ef fluents, but they have some limitations. Traditional chemical oxidations that destroy the chromophore of the molecule could not also result the complete mineralisation of the dyes. Homogeneous photo-fenton is a promising technique for treatment of the effluents but there are still some drawbacks that limit the industrial applications of this method. The aim of this work was to study the decolourisation and the degradation of coloured solution containing acid orange 7 acid orange 8 acid red I4 acid red 73 or acid blue 74 by an advanced oxidation process: heterogeneous Photo-fenton. In this study zeolite fe-zsm5 was used as a heterogeneous catalyst. Application of this system not only allowed us to diminish the quantity of sludge formed during the process but also reduced the consummation of electrical energy process keeps its high efficiency even at neutral phs. The modelling of the process was done by two methods - response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial Neural networks (ANNS) in order to optimise the performance of the system and to evaluate the simple and the combined effects of different variables on the process efficiency.

Thesis advisor: Zhifeng Ren / Solid state cooling and power generation based on thermoelectric principles are regarded as one of the technologies with the potential of solving the current energy crisis. Thermoelectric devices could be widely used in waste heat recovery, small scale power generation and refrigeration. It has no moving parts and is environmental friendly. The limitation to its application is due to its low efficiency. Most of the current commercialized thermoelectric materials have figure of merit (ZT) around 1. To be comparable with kitchen refrigerator, ZT is required at room temperature. Skutterudites have emerged as member of the novel materials, which potentially have a higher ZT. In the dissertation, my investigation will be focused on the optimization of CoSb₃ &ndash based skutterudites. Starting with Co and Sb elements, CoSb₃ will form through a high energy ball mill. Unfortunately, even after 20 hours, only a small percentage of the powders have transformed in into CoSb₃. Then the powders will be compacted into bulk samples by DC-controlled hot press. CoSb₃ single phase will form after press. Characterization of the structure and thermoelectric properties will be presented with details. The effects of synthesis conditions on thermoelectric properties of skutterudites were studied and discussed. Several possible methods of improving the ZT of N type skutterudites were applied. The highest obtained ZT thus far is about 1.2 from Yb doped CoSb₃. For a group of samples with nominal composition Yb_xCo₄Sb₁₂, the increased Yb concentration in our samples not only enhanced the power factor due to electron doping effect but also decreased the thermal conductivity due to a stronger rattling effect. In addition, the increased grain boundary density per unit volume due to the small grains in our bulk skutterudite materials may have also helped to enhance the phonon scattering and thus to reduce the thermal conductivity. Single and double doping methods with different combinations were also tried. So far, none of them have surpassed ZT of 1.2. Mixing different materials with Yb_0.35Co₄Sb₁₂ so far to increase the phonon scattering was also performed. No dramatic thermal conductivity reduction was observed. Small amounts of Fe/Mn substitution on Co sites will decrease the power factor to undesired degrees. Some results with Nd filled P type sample will be briefly introduced. P type samples are also obtained through substitution on Sb site. Preliminary work on preparing the electrode for CoSb₃ will be presented in the dissertation. CoSi₂ has low resistivity, and a similar coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) as of doped CoSb₃. It is good electrode candidate. DC controlled hot press is used to make the contact. Thermal stability of the contact was tested. Small cracks will form in the contact area, further improvement is necessary. Finally, my previous work on ZnO nanowire growth is briefly introduced. Large throughput of ZnO nanowire could be obtained with NaCl as the support to promote the conversion of Zn powder to ZnO. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Physics.

Like many sociologists, I am perplexed by the fact that in meritocratic societies, individuals whose abilities or talent does not differ widely nevertheless enjoy considerably different levels of achievement and success. The present dissertation seeks to uncover some of the reasons behind such non-meritocratic inequality. There are two main approaches one can take to that problem. The first and more classical one consists in observing inequality that matters – inequality in earnings or career prospects for example – and to show that such inequality can be traced back to broad categorical attributes such as class, gender, or race and ethnicity. This is not the approach I follow here. Rather, I strategically select cases that make it possible to uncover the fine-grained processes and mechanisms generative of non-meritocratic inequality. Among these “pure” cases are art worlds – winner-take-all settings typically marked by high inequality, and where success is often vastly disconnected from merit or intrinsic quality. The first part of this dissertation focuses on one such art world as a laboratory for studying the social processes underlying the formation of economic value, and therefore the formation of inequality in economic success. CONSECRATION AS A SOCIAL PROCESS OF VALUATION My approach to success and inequality rests on the intuition that we can partially explain them by studying social processes of valuation, i.e. processes that shape the value of things or individuals without affecting their underlying differences in ability, merit, performance, or talent. In the first two chapters this dissertation, I outline and test a theory of one such process, namely consecration. The first chapter develops a structural definition of consecration that makes possible to study its occurrence, conditions, and consequences in a variety of social settings. The chief features of that definition are identified using a series of empirical instances of consecration. The chapter then shows how that definition can be operationalized with simple network concepts, and suggests a network-based strategy for capturing consecration empirically – in art worlds for example. The chapter finally draws testable implications from that definition, and explores its relationship with the notion of retrospective consecration. The second chapter uses that notion of consecration to solve an empirical puzzle in the sociology of valuation. Markets for unique and novel goods are often seen as privileged settings for the powerful influence of market intermediaries: when quality is uncertain, or when it lacks definition altogether, intermediaries can play a crucial role in signaling or specifying it, thereby ultimately shaping the prices consumers are willing to pay for products. Products, meanwhile, do not get much more unique or novel than in the market for contemporary art. Yet economic sociologists have repeatedly failed to observe any influence of art market intermediaries on the value of the artists they distribute. This puzzling finding, I argue, arises from a misconception of how intermediaries shape the value of artists. We usually think of intermediation as acting through two chief processes of valuation: credentialing, or the signaling of unobservable quality, and qualification, or the establishment of specific quality criteria. Yet I suggest that it also can influence value through consecration, or the structural signaling of the existence of quality differences in a population. Using the market for modern art in early twentieth-century Paris as an empirical backdrop, this chapter shows that intermediation as consecration, not credentialing or qualification, was indeed how art market intermediaries shaped the value of their artists in the heyday of French modern painting. SOCIAL PROCESSES OF VALUATION AND ELITE CONSOLIDATION IN GILDED AGE AMERICA The remaining chapter is a logical development of the previous two. It builds on the fine-grained insights they offer – on social processes of valuation, and on the mechanisms of non-meritocratic inequality more generally – to address larger-scale issues of social inequality and social reproduction. The chapter uses a new database of subscribers to the New York Philharmonic to understand how cultural participation cemented the status – or social value – of elites in Gilded Age America. The database has information on who subscribed to the Philharmonic between 1880 and 1910 – a period of huge upheaval, of threats to the dominance of traditional elites, and ultimately of elite consolidation in the United States, and in the city of New York in particular. In analyzing these data I seek to understand how culture worked as an elite resource in that era. The classic account of culture and elite consolidation posits that the formation of an upper class and its continued dominance rest on a mechanism of exclusion. In this view, cultural participation reinforces elites by setting them apart – a process akin to consecration as I delineate it in earlier chapters. My work on the Philharmonic challenges that classic view. For the distinctiveness associated with elite cultural endeavors to reinforce elite dominance, I argue, these endeavors have to happen against a backdrop of general agreement over their value. In Gilded Age New York, this agreement happened not through exclusion, but through the inclusion of a group of cultural experts into the cultural institutions championed by the social elite. The inclusion of that cultured group served to testify to the quality of the cultural endeavors of the social elite, and provided them with a stamp of cultural legitimacy. In other words, it valued the elite through a process of credentialing. The second analytical contribution of that final chapter has to do with class consolidation and the reproduction of upper class dominance more generally. While consolidation is often seen as happening through exclusion and closure, I argue that in a context of rapid social differentiation, marked by the emergence of new areas of expertise, maintaining dominance does not necessarily involve barring access to outside groups. It can also mean being flexible enough to include the experts in emerging spheres. To remain atop the social hierarchy, elites may benefit from incorporating external elements that testify to their own continued relevance. Such inclusion is not necessarily full integration – instead, I show that at the Philharmonic it involved a built-in mechanism of protection, namely segregation. Hence cultural experts were included to help reify and support upper class status and social power, but in a segregated fashion to protect the upper class from threats of destabilization. Finally, a word on title: the notion of purity is the recurring motif in this work. It conveys ideas of social exclusion and social closure, as deployed in the third chapter. When thought about in relational terms, purity may also refer to one’s absence of ties to others whom one does not wish to be associated with in the public eye. This relational take on purity has strong affinities with the idea of consecration developed in chapters one and two. As a heuristic tool for the sociological imagination, purity is the thread that connects all the dots in this dissertation.

Nesta tese concentro-me em duas propostas de educação pública que Denis Diderot projeta para a Rússia - assim como no pensamento político que lhes dá origem. Para tanto, analiso textos pouco estudados de Diderot e de seus interlocutores (sobretudo da década de 1770), como: Mémoires pour Catherine II; Observations sur le Nakaz; e o próprio Nakaz, de Catarina II; além de grande parte da correspondência do filósofo francês. Em tais textos, Diderot revela um pensamento político mais completo e até mesmo mais autoral do que em obras de outros períodos. Os projetos de educação pública que aqui examino, assim como o pensamento político que os concerne, são, indubitavelmente, os mais representativos daquilo que significou o período das luzes, seja pelo que neles há de tradição política e educacional, seja pelo que há de inovador e arrojado nas aspirações iluministas de reforma geral da sociedade. Aspirações que fazem com que as próprias propostas de educação pública de Diderot insiram-se em um intento maior, que marca toda a trajetória filosófica do pensador: a construção de uma nova ordem política e social, por meio do maior fomento possível e da difusão máxima das luzes. A proposta educacional de Diderot, como um todo, situa-se no cerne deste intento; constitui-se como parte dele, mas não como uma parte qualquer. Demonstro que, sem a educação pública, a reforma institucional que Diderot formula para a Rússia, assim como o conjunto de seu pensamento sobre o homem em seu estado civil, perde a sua própria razão de ser: a superação da ignorância e tudo o que a fomenta - como a tirania, o fanatismo e a desigualdade de direitos. Demonstro ainda como Diderot encontra no interior das escolas setecentistas (sobre as quais desfere as mais duras críticas) um critério de justiça com o qual visa corrigir toda a sociedade: o mérito individual. Então, sem me descuidar do contexto histórico, traço as raízes filosóficas destas propostas de Diderot, a fim de melhor compreender as relações que ele estabelece entre educação e política; conhecimento e justiça; instrução e progresso. / In this dissertation, I focus on two proposals for public education that Diderot designs for Russia - as well as on the political thought that gives rise to them. To this end, I analyze some texts of Diderot and his partners (mainly from the 1770s) that do not use to be carefully studied by scholars, such as: Memoires pour Catherine II; Observations sur le Nakaz; and Nakaz itself, written by Catherine II; besides that, I also analyze most of the letters written by the French philosopher. In these texts, Diderot reveals a more complex and original political thought in comparison with works of others periods. The public educational projects that I examine here, as well as the political thought regarding them, are undoubtedly the most representative of what Enlightenment meant, considering both what is in its political and educational tradition and what is innovative and audacious in the Enlightenment\'s aspirations for the general reform of society. These aspirations make Diderots public education proposal takes part of a greater ambition, which marks all the philosophical journey of the thinker: the building of a new social and political order, through the largest possible promotion and dissemination of knowledge. The public education plan proposed by Diderot as a whole is the core of this intent; it is constituted as part of it, but it is not any part. I demonstrate that, without public education, the institutional reform that Diderot proposes for Russia, as well as the whole of his thinking about the man in his civil status, loses its own reason of being: the overcoming of ignorance and everything that encourages it - such as tyranny, bigotry and inequality of rights. I also show how Diderot finds in the schools of the 18th century (that are strongly criticized by him) a criterion of justice through which he will aim at correcting the entire society: the individual merit. Thus, without neglecting the historical context, I trace the philosophical roots of Diderot\'s proposals in order to better understand the relations that he establishes between education and politics; knowledge and justice; education and progress.