The goal in mathematics has shifted towards an emphasis on both procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding. The importance of gaining procedural knowledge and conceptual understanding is aligned with Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000), which encourages fluency, reasoning skills, and ability to justify decisions. Possession of only procedural skills will not prove useful to students in many situations other than on tests (Boaler, 2000). Teachers and researchers can benefit from this study, which examined the effects of representations, constructivist approaches, and engagement on middle school students' algebraic understanding. Data from an algebra pretest and posttest, as well as 16 algebra video lessons from an NSF-IERI funded project, were examined to determine occurrences of indicators of representations, constructivist approaches, and engagement, as well as student understanding. A mixed methods design was utilized by implementing multilevel structural equation modeling and constant comparison within the analysis. Calculation of descriptive statistics and creation of bar graphs provided more detail to add to the findings from the components of the statistical test and qualitative comparison method. The results of the final structural equation model revealed a model that fit the data, with a non-significant model, p > .01. The new collectively named latent factor of constructivist approaches with the six indicators of enactive representations, encouragement of student independent thinking, creation of problem-centered lessons, facilitation of shared meanings, justification of ideas, and receiving feedback from the teacher was shown to be a significant predictor of procedural knowledge (p < .05) and conceptual understanding (p < .10). The indicators of the original latent factor of constructivist approaches were combined with one indicator for representations and two indicators for engagement. Constant comparison revealed similar findings concerning correlations among the indicators, as well as effects on student engagement and understanding. Constructivist approaches were found to have a positive effect on both types of student learning in middle school mathematics.

The development of spatial thinking proficiency has been increasingly demanded in Geographic Information System (GIS) education. Despite this educational trend, there is little empirical research on college students' spatial concept knowledge, which critically affects the quality of spatial thinking. This study addressed the following three research questions: 1) What differences exist between students' understandings of spatial concepts at the beginning, middle, and end of an introductory-level GIS course?, 2) What spatial misconceptions students may possess while taking an introductory-level GIS course?, and 3) Which spatial concepts are easy or hard for undergraduate students to understand? The researcher asked twelve participants who were taking an introductory-level GIS course to create concept maps about space and revised their concept maps in three experiment sessions. For the first question, the researcher scored the sixty obtained concept maps and statistically analyzed those scores to examine if there is any significant difference among the scores of the three experiment sessions. For the second question, the researcher examined participants' misconceptions by analyzing the incorrect statements of distortion, map projection, and scale. For the third question, the researcher statistically analyzed concept-based scores to examine if there is any significant difference among the scores of three different complexity levels. A main finding for the first question was that there was a significant difference among the scores of the concept maps created in the first session and the scores of the concept maps revised in the second and third sessions. This implied that participants could successfully revise their own original concept maps in the middle of a semester. The result of the study of the second question indicated that a half of participants misunderstood the concepts of map projections and scale. This result suggested that some undergraduate students may have difficulty shifting from scientifically inappropriate spatial concept knowledge to appropriate knowledge. Analysis of the third question resulted that the concept-based scores of simple spatial concepts are significantly higher than the scores of complicated spatial concepts. This result inferred that participants' scores decreased as the complexity of the concepts increased.

When a multicultural team is formed of say six individuals of different cultural backgrounds, there will be potential conflicts and greater varieties. However, there will be a ¡§normal¡¨ curve forms the range and permissible boundaries of a team. In concept, this normal distribution is the ¡§calm¡¨ state when the team is not active (norms). The potential is the range of team members¡¦ abilities/differences (divergences). To be able to reach the potential and perform is part of the team¡¦s goal (convergences & attributions). But to expect something more than expected is cultural synergy (break the original boundaries). The factors that will be considered as diverging forces are the differences that are born (already exists) when the team is formed. In order to model these cultural factors and estimate these cultural differences, Hofstede cultural dimensions are used. The factors that will be considered as converging forces are what each individual believe in such as perspective taking and self-leadership. These values are projected from the assessments of team individuals. The factors that will be considered as supporting forces (attribution factors) are how each member interacts with one another during the process. These are each individual behavior and personality. Therefore, from the perspective of divergence and convergence to see how cultural differences influence the teams and talk about their possible behaviors and reasons behind them is a conceptual way to look at the team. Based on the concept described above, the analysis of these different forces on multicultural teams is conducted. Using these factors, the paper explains/examines: l Cultural and individual values differences l Wish to base on the findings from the research to make helpful inferences on the learning and performance of multicultural teams. l Cultural divergent factors l Individual convergent factors l Individual attribution factors l Cultural synergy

Conceptual modeling is considered to be essential in simulation development activities. However, there are only a few research studies on how to develop conceptual models. One of the important and comprehensive approaches is the methodology developed under the leadership of METU Modeling and Simulation Center (MODSIMMER) for Turkish Armed Forces. The project suggests a methodology to develop mission space conceptual models (GUKAM), and provides a Conceptual Model Development Tool for C4ISR M&amp / S activities, which is named as KAMA-C4ISRMOS. KAMA methodology is developed to utilize conceptual models in requirements collection and analysis activities. Two improvement opportunities observed in KAMA approach are that, there are no methodologies defined to develop simulation space conceptual models / and although most approaches emphasize the importance of conceptual model to be used in design activities, no explanations are provided on how to do it. This thesis aims to suggest an extended KAMA methodology that, besides original KAMA properties, provides a method to develop simulation space conceptual model, and provides a guide to use conceptual model to develop design. To evaluate the suggested methodology, a case study is conducted on a synthetic environment project. In this way, implementation of the methodology on another simulation domain is depicted. Developed mission space and simulation space conceptual models and design artifacts are evaluated, and the effects of conceptual models on simulation development life cycle are discussed.

Abstract Since the establishment of World Wide Web in 1989, the life cycle of knowledge has been greatly shortened, which forces people to be more efficient in the creation, value-adding, update, exchange and use of knowledge. Thus, how to ¡§digitalize¡¨ and ¡§itemize¡¨ knowledge and the learning contents to form a more efficient knowledge cycle has become a crucial concern for one¡¦s competitiveness. Facing the new era of high-speed info, the traditional teaching approach has failed to meet the requirements of the ever-changing learning environment. Therefore, both the design and method of teaching should be changed in a great way in order to keep up with the ongoing development of the entire environment. We have to re-evaluate both the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet¡¦s influences on teaching, and develop a corresponding design module and assessment method, instead of merely digitalizing the traditional teaching materials, or just leaving it alone. If the learning contents could achieve the goal of being Reusable, Accessible, Durable, Interoperable and Adaptable, 50 ~ 80% of expense on developing new teaching materials will be saved. As a result, the main emphasis of this study lies on developing an Object-based E-learning Instructional Design Model which is adaptable to the itemization of conceptual learning. It will discuss the feasibility and effect of employing different multi-media and Example & Enquiry Strategy in the design of Internet Teaching Material Design. This study utilized Teaching Experiment Design, Pre- and Post- experiment, questionnaire assessment in gathering necessary information, which is concluded as below: 1. Teaching materials designed according to the Object-based E-learning Instructional Design Model is easier to understand, interest-provoking, and is adaptable to changes made along side with current events. 2. No significant difference shows among different media platforms of teaching materials generated under Object-based E-learning Instructional Design Model. 3. The ¡§simulation¡¨ method in ¡§Example & Enquiry Strategy¡¨ performed better effect than ¡§instructional games¡¨on the ¡§satisfaction of example & enquiry¡¨. Those who had experienced interaction and enquiry strategy have better learning grades than those who had not. 4.Personal traits and contents of teaching materials have remarkable interference with the learning effect of Object-based E-learning Materials. Keywords¡GObject-based¡BE-learning¡BInstructional Design¡BConceptual Learning¡BTeaching Achievement

Current emission prediction models in the conceptual design phase are based on historical data and empirical correlations. Two main reasons contributing to the current state of emission models are complexity of the phenomena involved in the combustor and relatively low priority of having a more detailed emissions model at the conceptual design phase. However, global environmental concerns and aviation industry growth highlight the importance of improving the current emissions prediction approaches. There is a need to have an emission prediction model in the conceptual design phase to reduce the prediction uncertainties and perform parametric studies for different combustor types and operating conditions. The research objective of this thesis is to develop a methodology to have an initial estimate of gas turbines' emissions, capture their trends and bring more information forward to the conceptual design phase regarding the emission levels. This methodology is based on initial sizing of the combustor and determining its flow-fractions at each section using a 1D flow analysis. A network of elementary chemical reactors is considered and its elements are sized from the results of the 1D flow analysis to determine the level of emissions at the design and operating conditions. Additional phenomena that have significant effects on the prediction of emissions are also considered which are: 1) droplet evaporation and diffusion burning, and 2) fuel-air mixture non-uniformity. A simplified transient model is developed to determine the evaporation rate for a given droplet size distribution and to obtain the amount of vaporized fuel before they ignite. A probabilistic unmixedness model is also employed to consider the range of equivalence ratio distribution for the fraction of the fuel that is vaporized and mixed with air. An emission model is created for the single annular combustor (SAC) configuration and applied to two combustors to test the prediction and parametric capabilities of the model. Both uncertainty and sensitivity analyses are performed to assess the capability of the model to reduce the prediction uncertainty of the model compared to the simpler models without considering the droplet evaporation and mixture non-uniformity. The versatility of the model is tested by creating an emission model for a Rich-Quench-Lean (RQL) combustor, and the results are compared to limited actual data. In general, the approach shows a good performance predicting the NOx emission level compared to CO emission level and capturing their trends. Especially in the RQL combustor case, a more detailed model is required to improve the prediction of the CO emission level.

The design of manufacturing systems in hazardous environments is complex, requiring interdisciplinary knowledge to determine which components and operators (human or robotic) are feasible. When conceptualizing designs, some options may be overlooked or unknowingly infeasible due to the design engineers' lack of knowledge in a particular field or ineffective communication of requirements between disciplines. To alleviate many of these design issues, we develop a computational design tool to automate the synthesis of conceptual manufacturing system designs and optimization of preliminary layouts. To generate workcell concepts for manufacturing processes, we create a knowledge-based system (KBS) that performs functional modeling using a common language, a generic component database, and a rule set. The KBS produces high-level task plans for specific manufacturing processes and allocates needed material handling tasks between compatible human and/or robotic labor. We develop an extended pattern search (EPS) algorithm to optimize system layouts based on worker dose and cycle time minimization using the functions and sequencing of generated task plans. The KBS and EPS algorithm were applied to the design of glovebox processing systems at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Our computational design tool successfully generates design concepts with varied task allocation and processing sub-tasks and layouts with favorable manipulation workspaces. This work establishes a framework for automated conceptual design while providing designers with a beneficial tool for designing manufacturing systems in an interdisciplinary and highly constrained domain. / text

According to the Body-Specificity Hypothesis, experiences of habitual motor fluency cause people to associate positive valence with their dominant hand side and confer positive valence to items located on their dominant hand side (Casasanto, 2009). Can ongoing motor experience impact this association in the absence of visually lateralized stimuli? In Experiment 1, participants flipped cards using one hand and rated the image on each card with respect to how well it was described by positive or negative personal characteristics. Contrary to our predictions, participant’s ratings were not biased by the hand that they used during the trial. In Experiment 2, the task was almost entirely the same, though participants wore a slippery glove on their dominant hand to reduce the perceived motor fluency of the dominant hand. Again, participant’s ratings were not biased by the relative motor fluency of the hand used during the trial. Results indicate that ongoing motor activity may not be sufficient to activate body specific preferences in the absence of visually lateralized stimuli. / text

Purpose: This study examined the effects of conceptual scoring on vocabulary performance of bilingual children with and without language impairment and the classification accuracy of an expressive vocabulary test across four scoring methods, single language and conceptual scoring, for bilingual (English-Spanish) children with and without language impairment. Method: Participants included English speaking monolingual children (n=14) and Spanish-English bilingual children (n=116) ages 5-11. Children completed the English and bilingual versions of the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test. Four different scores were derived representing monolingual scores in English and Spanish, and three conceptual scores. Within-test conceptual scores credited children’s other language responses during the test; and across-test conceptual scores compiled a conceptual score across Spanish and English administrations of the test. Results: Across-test conceptual scoring resulted in better overall classification, sensitivity, and specificity than within-test conceptual scoring, which resulted in better overall classification, sensitivity, and specificity than monolingual scoring; however, neither method achieved minimum standards of 80% accuracy in sensitivity and specificity. Conclusions: Results suggest that bilingual children are not always able to readily access their second language in confrontation naming tasks. Priming or inhibition may play a role in test performance. Cross-test conceptual scoring yielded the highest classification accuracy and is the recommended method for clinical practice. / text

While it is now understood that long-standing hypertension is predictive of later cognitive decline and risk for dementia, little research attention to date has focused on whether the short-term dynamics of blood pressure exert immediate influence on cognitive functioning. The present study contributes to this growing field with a conceptual replication and extension of work by Gamaldo, Weatherbee and Allaire (2008). A sample of 27 older adults (M=70.2 years) completed daily assessments of blood pressure, psychological stress and cognitive functioning for 14 consecutive days. Multilevel models conditional on demographic factors were applied to simultaneously estimate between- and within-person effects across three metrics of blood pressure (systolic, diastolic and pulse pressure) and five measures of cognitive functioning. To follow a suggestion proposed by Gamaldo et al., the model was extended to include main effect and blood pressure interaction terms for stress at both levels. In secondary analyses, within-person mediation models were applied to explore blood pressure as a mediator between stress and cognition. Results from the first model demonstrated a direct, positive association between occasion diastolic pressure and episodic memory. A cross-level interaction term revealed that processing speed was impaired on high-diastolic pressure days for those with high diastolic pressure on average. We found no evidence that occasion blood pressure mediated the association between stress and cognition. Overall, our results align with the hypothesis that age-related changes to vascular structures impair the carrying capacity of blood vessels and that occasions of increased blood pressure provide additional force to overcome these limitations, delivering larger quantities of blood and oxygen to cerebral tissue. We conclude that upward fluctuations in diastolic pressure may be cognitively beneficial for older adults; diastolic pressure is the most sensitive metric for detection of within-person associations with cognition; and episodic memory and processing speed exhibit sensitivity to occasion blood pressure levels. / Graduate