This thesis inquires narratively into the practice of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and teachers’ personal practical knowing process in a self-initiated community of university teachers in China. Following a conception by Boyer (1990) that research should be incorporated into teaching as the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), Huber & Hutchings (2005) theorize SoTL in a four-core-practice framework of a linear process of individual expression for research and publication. However, not much attention has been given to the important dynamics of collaborative learning. Adopting a social theory of learning and Wenger’s “communities of practice” (1998, 2002), this thesis extends the framework by Huber & Hutchings to investigate the integrated form of individual and collaborative SoTL practice. “Personal practical knowledge” by Connelly, Clandinin & He (1997) is considered in the light of Palmer’s “community of truth” (1998), which is aimed at developing an integrated perspective for understanding teachers’ evolving personal practical knowledge in the SoTL community. This study involves four university academics who are ready to cultivate a SoTL community. They become learning associates for one another, as they went beyond merely sharing concerns and practices about teaching to reach collaborative inquiry into their perceived problems. In response to new circumstances, the SoTL community evolves from an initial grouping of four to increased membership in the formal structure of the system. Narrative inquiry is adopted as the basis for research methodology. Data are collected via ethnographic observation of community meetings, writing correspondence and documentation. The study is naturalistic, collaborative and developmental by nature, enacted within Clandinin & Connelly’s narrative inquiry space along three dimensions (2000). The richness of the narrative experiences and the salient details of the community learning are organized into four narrative profiles, and each carries consistently three progressive steps, followed by the summary of narrative analysis, and concluded with an overview. From teachers’ lived experience in the SoTL community, the adapted framework by Huber & Hutchings is validated, showing that (1) inquiry evidence is multiplied through sharing dynamics; (2) teaching problems are re-defined from diverse resources through collaborative inquiry; (3) changes in teaching as a SoTL initiative are experimented; and (4) learning relationship is woven for further development in the community of inquiry. The study extends understanding of “personal practical knowledge” (Connelly, Clandinin, & He 1997) from moral and intellectual dimensions to shed light on the development of teachers’ personal practical knowledge in the SoTL community. Morally engaged, teachers not only fasten their commitment to teaching improvement, but also become aware of ethical dilemmas with readiness to tackle them. On a moral ground, teachers are empowered to make intellectual progress. They are capable of cultivating an authentic, critical, moral self to withstand the external pressure. They acquire growing competence to address the complexities of teaching and learning, from which to harvest context-specific knowledge. In conclusion, the study presents an alternative paradigm of SoTL for teachers to strengthen their capacity and learn together for professional development. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

3 pp. / This fact sheet briefly describes the research protocol of the Colorado River Indian Tribes reservation.

2 pp. / This fact sheet briefly describes research protocol on the Hualapai reservation.

Spectroscopic investigations have been carried out on an argon inductively coupled plasma operating at non-atmospheric pressure. The relationship between torch pressure and a number of plasma operating characteristics was explored for torch pressures between 100 and 3000 torr. The plasma operating characteristics examined include observed analyte emission intensities, electron densities, ion to atom ratios, and the deviation of plasma conditions from local thermodynamic equilibrium. The effect of pressure on the observed analyte emission intensities was found to include factors in addition to the change in density of species within the torch. Emission lines originating from ions and atoms with high ionization potentials (greater than 7 eV) increased in intensity with increasing torch pressure, in excess of that predicted by the increase in density of species present. Conversely, emission lines originating from atoms of low ionization potential decreased in intensity with increasing torch pressure despite the increase in density. The results of the spatial determination of electron densities and ion to atom ratios indicate that excitation conditions within the central channel of the plasma are shifted towards conditions of local thermodynamic equilibrium as the pressure within the torch is increased. In addition, it is possible to obtain improved limits of detection by optimizing the torch pressure for the analyte element of interest.

Knowledge of the structural arrangement of the atoms in a solid is an important prerequisite to a detailed understanding of physical and chemical properties. In this work, structural investigations of phosphate (Ca-P-O) and aluminofluorophosphate (Na/Ba-Al-P-O-F) glasses with and without nitridation were performed. Nitrogen was introduced via metal nitrides (AlN, Ba₃N₂, or Ca₃N₂) or ammonia gas treatment of the melt. These glasses were characterized by chemical, thermal and optical techniques. Infrared, Raman, and MASS NMR spectroscopies were used to determine the local coordination and atomic structure of these glasses. The presence of peaks corresponding to P-O-P and PO₂ molecular vibrations in Ca-P-O glasses provided a basis for proposing a calcium metaphosphate glass structure comprised of long chains. As calcium oxide is added to calcium metaphosphate glasses, the long chains are broken up into shorter pyrophosphate units, as indicated by the presence of PO₃²⁻ terminal groups. MASS NMR of Ba-Al-P-O glasses showed that Al occurs as Al(4), Al(6), and either Al(5) or Al(6) linked through Al-O-Al bonds (such as in α-Al₂O₃). The addition of F in both the Ba-Al-P-O-F and Na-Al-P-O-F systems increases the relative abundance of Al(6). The ³¹P peak maxima in the MASS NMR spectra at about -5 to -10 ppm for Ba-Al-P-O-F-N glasses and -9 to -17 for Na-Al-P-O-F-N glass, indicate that pyrophosphate units dominate the structure of these glassy solids. Raman spectroscopy of a series of Al(PO₃)₃-NaF glasses showed that an increase in NaF content causes a shortening of the P-O-P chains and a more disrupted structural network. The presence of P-O-F units were observed only at the higher (>80 mole %) NaF contents. While the complexity of the Raman spectra make it difficult to confirm the presence of P-N bonding, glasses prepared in an ammonia atmosphere (nitrogen content of 1.6 wt%) suggest the possibility of P-N bonding on the basis of a vibrational peak at 826 cm⁻¹.

No description available.

No description available.

The objective of this research effort is to design and implement a laboratory and establish a research method focused on scientific evaluation of human factors considerations for military individual equipment under both laboratory and field conditions. This integrated approach for laboratory and field conditions is the first of its kind for military human factors research, enabling an unparalleled degree of scientific rigor in the collection of empirical human factors data. This effort includes: 1) a state-of-the-art usability laboratory designed specifically for quantitatively evaluating military individual equipment / 2) a rugged, embarkable, fully self-contained, portable usability laboratory for field research in military environments / 3) a codified manual for using the two main configurations (stationary and portable) of the usability laboratory, written for the beginning usability researcher / 4) a set of validated procedures for applying sound human factors principles, and traditional and non-parametric statistics to the specific problem of usability testing of military individual equipment / 5) a proof-of-concept practical application of the laboratory and procedures to a specific problem, namely the usability testing of ruggedized personal digital assistants (RPDAs) designed for United States Special Forces operations.

An ACRL white paper from 2012 reported that, at that time, only a small number of academic libraries in the United States and Canada offered research data services (RDS), but many were planning to do so within the next two years (Tenopir, Birch, and Allard, 2012). By 2013, 74% of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) survey respondents offered RDS and an additional 23% were planning to do so (Fearon, Gunia, Pralle, Lake, and Sallans, 2013). The academic libraries recognize that the landscape of services changes quickly and that they need to support the changing needs of research and instruction. In their efforts to implement RDS, libraries often respond to pressures originating outside the library, such as national or funder mandates for data management planning and data sharing. To provide effective support for researchers and instructors, though, libraries must be proactive and develop new services that look forward and yet accommodate the existing human, technological, and intellectual capital accumulated over the decades. Setting the stage for data curation in libraries means to create visionary approaches that supersede institutional differences while still accommodating diversity in implementation. How do academic libraries work towards that? This chapter will combine an historical overview of RDS thinking and implementations based on the existing literature with an empirical analysis of ARL libraries’ current RDS goals and activities. The latter is based on the study we conducted in 2015 that included a content analysis of North American research library web pages and interviews of library leaders and administrators of ARL libraries. Using historical and our own data, we will synthesize the current state of RDS implementation across ARL libraries. Further, we will examine the models of research data management maturity (see, for example, Qin, Crowston and Flynn, 2014) and discuss how such models compare to our own three-level classification of services and activities offered at libraries - basic, intermediate, and advanced. Our analysis will conclude with a set of recommendations for next steps, i.e., actions and resources that a library might consider to expand their RDS to the next maturity level. References Fearon, D. Jr., Gunia, B., Pralle, B.E., Lake, S., Sallans, A.L. (2013). Research data management services. (ARL Spec Kit 334). Washington, D.C.: ARL. Retrieved from: http://publications.arl.org/Research-Data-Management-Services-SPEC-Kit-334/ Tenopir, C., Birch, B., & Allard, S. (2012). Academic libraries and research data services: Current practices and plans for the future. ACRL. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/whitepapers/Tenopir_Birch_Allard.pdf Qin, J., Crowston, K., & Flynn, C. (2014). 1.1 Commitment to Perform. A Capability Maturity Model for Research Data Management. wiki. Retrieved http://rdm.ischool.syr.edu/xwiki/bin/view/CMM+for+RDM/WebHome

M.Cur. / Currently an increasing awareness of human rights exists in South Africa, which can be ascribed to fundamental human rights being spelt out in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993 (Act number 200 of 1993). Events such as strikes by nurses presently focus the attention on human rights in health care. Incompatibility between the rights of the nurse and those of the patient leads to conflict. However, rights should not be perceived in isolation and, of necessity, they entail explicit or implied responsibilities ...