Although education theory in general includes important insights related to the relationship between multiculturalism and pedagogy, a critical analysis of what are considered culturally responsive western adult education methods, such as Experiential Learning Cycle & Dialogue Education (ELC) suggests significant adaptations should be made when applied in settings with non-western learners. This paper highlights the challenges and opportunities of utilizing adult education methods as a framework in delivering learning opportunities in non-western settings or for non-western, new American communities in western settings. Specifically, the author discusses her experience in one Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Darfur, Sudan, presenting her findings from her critical analysis of ELC, as well as her experience designing and facilitating financial capability curriculum for Somali-Bantu women in Chittenden County, Vermont with the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity Financial Futures Program. Implications from this analysis are also addressed, including the importance of further exploring assumptions held by the conceptual underpinnings of culturally responsive adult learning methods (including Dialogue Education and ELC) and adapting training-of-trainer (TOT) models and financial capability workshops to account for significant cultural differences between learners and the methods intended for use with diverse audiences.

This study explored the social inclusiveness of classrooms with culturally competent teachers who were identified both by their participation in in-service diversity training and by principal nomination. The design of this study was primarily quantitative using a one-way ANOVA to analyze whether fourth and fifth grade students (N = 125) in classrooms with teachers identified as culturally competent are more inclusive in their mutual friendships than students (N = 117) in classrooms with not trained teachers at the same schools. Sociometric questionnaires were used to collect data on mutual friendships. Observations of students in lunchroom settings were also conducted. Findings from the sociometric questionnaire suggest that students with culturally competent teachers, also referred to as culturally responsive teachers in the literature, have broader and more diverse social networks than students in classrooms with not trained teachers. However, in the lunchroom settings where a given student must choose a limited number of students to sit next to at the lunch table, no notable differences between the classrooms emerged. Other than training in diversity issues, teachers in the two groups were very similar.

This thesis explores responsive written feedback as a means of mediating the written language of six to eight year olds, including students traditionally minoritised within mainstream New Zealand classrooms because of cultural and/or language differences. This research aimed to develop understandings about the effect responsive writing has on all of the students who participated, including those students whose second language was English. A review of the literature identified the importance of socio-cultural contexts for mediating students' learning, including a specific examination of responsive written feedback and its effects on students' written language in English and in Māori medium settings. Chapter two presents the mixed methods approach utilised in this research, which involves a retrospective look at two different responsive writing studies. In chapters three and four, the results from these two studies are presented in terms of how effectively the responsive writing was undertaken by the responders and the extent to which the responsive writing strategy mediated both the quality and quantity of writing for the students who participated, including students whose second language was English. These results suggest a very positive impact from mediating the learning of all students, including second language learners, within the context of responsive written feedback. The thesis concludes with implications for other teachers, from the existing students' outcome data and participants' interviews.

<p>During the past few decades, the term intelligent building envelope has emerged as a building skin designed to meet increasingly varying and complex demands related to user comfort and energy and cost efficiency. The concept is described by a multitude of definitions that range from the use of innovative components and a high-tech visual expression to the rational design, use and maintenance of the building envelope.</p><p>Within the scope of this Ph.D., intelligent behaviour for a building envelope has been defined as adaptiveness to the environment by means of perception, reasoning and action, allowing the envelope to solve conflicts and deal with new situations that occur in its interaction with the environment, i.e., the local climate and site, and the individual user needs.</p><p>This definition is used to analyse the functions an intelligent building envelope can be expected to perform in the context of daylighting quality, or an optimisation of the indoor luminous environment to the requirements of the individual building occupant. Of particular importance is the co-operation between artificial intelligence and the material, form and composition of envelope elements, allowing the envelope to learn the occupant’s needs and preferences, to choose the most appropriate response in each situation, to make long-term strategies, to anticipate the development of environmental conditions, and to evaluate its own performance.</p><p>Simultaneously, it is found that adaptive envelope solutions in no manner reduce the need for envelope design meticulously adjusted to local climate and site and to individual user needs, developed in close co-operation between architects, engineers and manufacturers. All of the sources consulted during the course of this Ph.D. stress time and time again how difficult it is to control the operation of the envelope components according to the local environment, and, simultaneously, how important it is to do so.</p>

The photoviscosity effect in aqueous solutions of novel poly(4-methacryloyloxyazobenzene-co-N,N-dimethyl acrylamide) (MOAB-DMA) was demonstrated. The observed significant reduction in the zero-shear viscosity upon UV-irradiation of MOAB-DMA aqueous solutions was due to the dissociation of the interchain azobenzene aggregates. Such phenomena can be advantageously used in photoswitchable fluidic devices and in protein separation. Introduction of enzymatically degradable azo cross-links into Pluronic-PAA microgels allowed for control of swelling due to degradation of the cross-links by azoreductases from the rat intestinal cecum. Dynamic changes in the cross-link density of stimuli-responsive microgels enable novel opportunities for the control of gel swelling, of importance for drug delivery and microgel sensoric applications. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

During the past few decades, the term intelligent building envelope has emerged as a building skin designed to meet increasingly varying and complex demands related to user comfort and energy and cost efficiency. The concept is described by a multitude of definitions that range from the use of innovative components and a high-tech visual expression to the rational design, use and maintenance of the building envelope. Within the scope of this Ph.D., intelligent behaviour for a building envelope has been defined as adaptiveness to the environment by means of perception, reasoning and action, allowing the envelope to solve conflicts and deal with new situations that occur in its interaction with the environment, i.e., the local climate and site, and the individual user needs. This definition is used to analyse the functions an intelligent building envelope can be expected to perform in the context of daylighting quality, or an optimisation of the indoor luminous environment to the requirements of the individual building occupant. Of particular importance is the co-operation between artificial intelligence and the material, form and composition of envelope elements, allowing the envelope to learn the occupant’s needs and preferences, to choose the most appropriate response in each situation, to make long-term strategies, to anticipate the development of environmental conditions, and to evaluate its own performance. Simultaneously, it is found that adaptive envelope solutions in no manner reduce the need for envelope design meticulously adjusted to local climate and site and to individual user needs, developed in close co-operation between architects, engineers and manufacturers. All of the sources consulted during the course of this Ph.D. stress time and time again how difficult it is to control the operation of the envelope components according to the local environment, and, simultaneously, how important it is to do so.

The papermaking industry uses a large amount of starch each year, both as a wet-end additive and as a rheological modifier in surface sizing and coating colors. It is important to be able to reduce the amount of chemicals used in the papermaking and surface treatment process, to reduce costs and to make the process even more efficient. Interest in new high-performance starches is great. By using these new types of starches, improved recycling of barrier products may be obtained as well as a reduction in the use of synthetic sizing agents. The objectives of this work were to understand the behavior of temperature-responsive hydrophobically modified starches, where the solubility in water simply can be adjusted by temperature or by polymer charge, to improve the barrier properties, like the water vapor permeability, mechanical properties and water resistance (Cobb and contact angle) of papers surface sized by starch-containing solutions, and to investigate the potential for industrial use of these temperature-responsive starches. It was demonstrated that the temperature-responsive starches phase separate upon cooling and, depending on the charge density of the starch, a particulate precipitation or a gel-like structure was obtained. The starch with zero net charge showed a larger increase in turbidity than the starch with a cationic net charge, indicating that particulate precipitation is favored by a zero net charge and that the formation of a gel network is favored by charged starch molecules. Further, the starches formed inclusion complexes with surfactants, giving stabilization to the starches in the presence of surfactants. The net charge density of the starch and the charge of the surfactant determined whether or not an inclusion complex would form between them. Important mechanisms for the stability of the starch seemed to be formation of mixed micellar-like structures between the hydrophobic chain of the starch and the surfactant along the starch backbone in addition to formation of inclusion complexes between the starch and the surfactant. The hydrophobically modified starches showed higher hydrophobic surface character when applied to the paper surface above the critical phase separation temperature than with application at room temperature. Free films of the temperature-responsive starches showed good barrier against oxygen, but no barrier against water vapor. The mechanical properties decreased with addition of glycerol to the films.

As global competition becomes more fierce each day, in order for many corporations and organizations to respond to competitive pressures or technological advancements, they are forced to reduce costs or promote efficiency through downsizing, restructuring or merger. These organization changes result in involuntary modification of employee¡¦s jobs, which violates the psychological contracts between organization and the employee, causing employees to loose their sense of security. In recent years, new battleships have joined service in the navy. The Policy of Abridgement together with the policy of national defense procuring from the private sectors are also being enforced. These movements required the logistic capabilities of the defense logistics shipyard unit to implement restructuring and adjustment of human resources so as to meet the new mission requirements. Yet, being part of an organizations undergoing change, lack of job security becomes the atmosphere among employees, which is exacerbated by retirements reaching its peak in the next 3 years. This has been a great impact on the logistics organization of the navy. Therefore, it is imperative that the mechanisms by which job insecurity affects occupational stress, organizational commitment and employee responsive behavior be identified. Moreover, there is need to establish what leadership styles will effectively reduce the negative impacts of job insecurity, occupational stress and promote employee commitments to the organization, so as to lead a positive course of response from employees. Based on the above motivation and research objectives, in this study, maintenance staff of the defense logistics shipyard unit was investigated through a questionnaire survey. 482 questionnaires were returned from the 500 questionnaires distributed, from which 371 responses are valid, representing a 74.2% response rate. The survey data was analyzed by multivariate analysis using SPSS v.10 statistical software. The major results are as follows: 1. Job insecurity, as moderated by occupational stress, reduces the effect of emotions on employee responsive behavior. 2. Leadership styles with high relationship and high task, high relationship and low task, and, low relationship and low task, bear significant interfering effects on the relationship between job insecurity and employee responsive behavior toward problems. 3. Leadership styles with high relationship and high task, and, low relationship and low task, bear significant interfering effects on the relationship between occupational stress and employee responsive behavior toward problems.

This study investigates the effect on: 1) the bulk surface; and 2) the three-dimensional non-woven microfabric scaffolds of poly(N-isopropylacylamide)-CNT-polyaniline on growth and viability of  mice fibroblast cells L929. The poly(N-isopropylacylamide)-CNT-polyaniline was prepared using coupling chemistry and electrospinning was then used for the fabrication of responsive, nonwoven microfabric scaffolds. The electrospun microfabrics were assembled in regular three-dimensional scaffolds with OD: 400-500 mm; L: 6-20 cm. Mice fibroblast cells L929 were seeded on the both poly(N-isopropylacylamide)-CNT-polyaniline bulk surface as well as non-woven microfabric scaffolds. Excellent cell proliferation and viability was observed on poly(N-isopropylacylamide)-CNT-polyaniline non-woven microfabric matrices in compare to poly(N-isopropylacylamide)-CNT-polyaniline bulk and commercially available Matrigel™ even with a range of cell lines up to 168 h. Temperature dependent cells detachment behaviour was observed on the poly(N-isopropylacylamide)-CNT-polyaniline scaffolds by varying incubation at below lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of poly(N-isopropylacylamide). The results suggest that poly(N-isopropylacylamide)-CNT-polyaniline non-woven microfabrics could be used as a smart matrices for applications in tissue engineering. / European Commission FP7 (PIIF-GA-2009-254955), JSPS, JST-CREST and MEXT

It is no secret that over the last several decades, prison populations have grown exponentially due to an increasingly “tough on crime” policy stance and war on drugs. Although male offending populations continue to make up the majority of prison inmates nationwide, the fastest growing prison population has actually been female offenders, many who are locked up for nonviolent offenses like drug possession and larceny. Until recently, female offenders have been treated as an afterthought to male-dominated prison statistics. However, further research shows that female offending patterns are starkly different from their male counterparts, and women are contributing to higher recidivism rates because of their unmet needs prior to, during, and after incarceration. Therefore, this paper argues that state and federal governments must institute gender-responsive policies in order to combat stubbornly high recidivism rates through reentry alternatives, especially halfway houses.