The study aimed to explore full-service school teachers’ sense of self-efficacy in teaching within an inclusive education system. This study formed part of a follow up qualitative phase of an international collaborative research project between South Africa, Finland, China, Slovenia, Lithuania and England. The main purpose of this comparative project was to produce a knowledge base that sheds light on the nature of the development of inclusive education in different countries from a teacher’s perspective. The data from the first quantitative phase indicated that many South African teachers experience a lack of self-efficacy in the implementation of inclusive education. Inclusive education has brought many challenges for full-service school teachers. Classrooms now have a wider range of diverse learning needs and this impacts significantly on classroom practice. This situation often creates stress and can exacerbate feelings of inefficiency. When teachers acquire abilities, skills and professional expertise they often accept the responsibilities of inclusive education and subsequently become more confident about inclusion which in turn empowers them to be more effective in teaching. Adequate professional development and sufficient support can, therefore, help teachers to feel more equipped to address and consequently experience positive self-efficacy beliefs. Teachers with improved self-efficacy will, therefore, become more motivated to implement inclusive education successfully. Consequently, in this research teachers’ sense of self-efficacy within an inclusive education environment with specific reference to South African teachers was further explored. The purpose of my research was to explore factors that influence full-service school teachers’ sense of self-efficacy, enabling or disabling them to implement inclusive education successfully. Bandura’s social cognitive theory of self-efficacy as well as Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological framework formed the theoretical framework of this study. To achieve this purpose, a qualitative interpretive design was decided upon by employing a multiple case study (two full service schools) as strategy of inquiry. Twenty one teachers voluntarily participated in this research, eleven from the first school and ten from the second school. Data was collected through qualitative data generation methods which included focus group and individual interviews, collages and an open questionnaire. The findings from the literature review as well as the empirical data revealed that self-efficacy as a concept was best described and understood in relating low with high teacher self-efficacy. A teacher with a high sense of self-efficacy can be viewed as a person who exhibits and portrays certain traits and skills. It was evident that sufficient knowledge about what inclusive education entails, intra- and inter-personal skills, as well as values that take the best interest of the learner into consideration, are essential for teachers to experience a high sense of self-efficacy in an inclusive education environment. The findings also indicated that certain ecosystemic factors are currently enabling and disabling teachers’ sense of self-efficacy to implement inclusive education successfully. These factors were reflected in the specific needs of teachers to be more self-effective in an inclusive education system. This included more and effective continuous professional development opportunities (CPD) for professional and personal development; increased and improved support from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) (provincial and district) as well as the school and peers; improved collaboration with parents, NGO’s and HEI’s; a more flexible curriculum; and more acknowledgement for achievements from the school, parents and the DBE. These needs were addressed in recommendations for teachers themselves, the schools and the DBE in order to develop and enhance teachers’ sense of self-efficacy, within an inclusive full-service school. / PhD (Learner Support)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1988 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / A switched-capacitor technique for realization of one bit serial A/D converter is presented. A conversion accuracy that is higher than 15 bits can be expected from its integrated realization. Results of simulation are presented. It is shown that arithmetic operations on bit serial signals are possible. Using arithmetic operations on delta-modulated signals, it is possible to build inexpensive options necessary in instrumentation.

This paper outlines design considerations and implementation details of full swing and of partial swing SRAM arrays. Comparisons between the two methods based on performance, power, and noise rejection are then presented. Finally, a decision matrix will be provided that selects the better topology based on varying design constraints. / text

This thesis first outlines the testing undertaken on a partial core superconducting transformer under open circuit, short circuit, full load and endurance test conditions. During the endurance test, a failure occurred after 1 minute and 35 seconds. During the failure, voltage dipping and rapid liquid nitrogen boil off was observed. This prompted a failure investigation which concluded that the lack of cooling in the windings was the most probable cause to the failure. Full core transformer and superconductor theories are then introduced. A copper winding transformer model, based on a Steinmetz equivalent circuit and a reverse design method, is described. A superconductor loss model which outlines the different types of losses experienced under AC conditions is used to determine the resistance of the windings in the Steinmetz equivalent circuit. This resistance changes with the magnitude of current and the strength of the magnetic field that is present in the gaps between each layer of the windings. An alternative leakage flux model is then presented, where the flux is modelled based on the combination of the reluctance of the core and the air surrounding the windings. Based on these theories, an iterative algorithm to calculate the resistance of the superconductor is developed. A new design of a 15kVA single phase full core superconducting transformer, operating in liquid nitrogen, is presented. The issues with building the superconducting transformer are outlined. First, a copper mockup of the superconducting transformer was designed where the mockup would have the same tape and winding dimensions as the superconducting transformer, which means the same core can be used for two different sets of windings. This led to designing a core that could be easily taken apart as well as reassembled. Construction of the core, the copper windings and the superconductor windings ensued. The process of cutting the core laminations, insulating the copper and superconductor tapes, and making the steel fasteners and terminations are described. The copper mockup and superconducting transformers was then tested under open circuit, short circuit, different load and endurance conditions at both liquid nitrogen and room temperatures. These test results were then compared with the those from two models. The comparison showed a significant inaccuracy in the reactances in the models. This introduced a correction factor into the superconductor model which ii made it more accurate. However, further work is required to explain and quantify the correction factors for the copper transformer model under different load conditions.

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There is a demand for video quality measurements in modern video applications specifically in wireless and mobile communication. In real time video streaming it is experienced that the quality of video becomes low due to different factors such as encoder and transmission errors. HEVC/H.265 is considered as one of the promising codecs for compression of ultra-high definition videos. In this research, full reference based video quality assessment is performed. The raw format reference videos have been taken from Texas database to make test videos data set. The videos are encoded using HM9 reference software in HEVC format. Encoding errors has been set during the encoding process by adjusting the QP values. To introduce packet loss in the video, the real-time environment has been created. Videos are sent from one system to another system over UDP protocol in NETCAT software. Packet loss is induced with different packet loss ratios into the video using NETEM software. After the compilation of video data set, to assess the video quality two kind of analysis has been performed on them. Subjective analysis has been carried on different human subjects. Objective analysis has been achieved by applying five quality matrices PSNR, SSIM, UIQI, VFI and VSNR. The comparison is conducted on the objective measurement scores with the subjective and in the end results deduce from classical correlation methods.

The study of the full cost method of accounting for finding costs in the petroleum industry is significant because it offers a unique opportunity to examine and emerging accounting practice and will indicate some of the reasons for a shift in the reporting practices of a portion of the industry.

This work encompasses the study of a novel thermal driven desalination system to accomplish full separation of water and solute. This process advantageous over other process because it involves zero recirculation and zero liquid discharge, thus having minimum environmental impact. Since this system provides full separation, salts and other valuable products can be obtained in addition to pure water. This system can operate at high energy efficiencies using medium temperature heat source like industrial reject or solar cells. This plant consists of two technologies, the full separation and multi effect distillation which when integrated together 8ive us water and salt separately. Three different configuration of the FS-MED system have been presented, naming concurrent feed, variable feed, and counter current feed. They vary depending on their flow and feed distribution. Numerical procedure has been developed to solve the energy and mass balance equation for steady state condition has been presented.

Thesis advisor: John Houchin / The objective of this project was to attempt not only to adapt the novel "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov to the stage, but rather to translate it in both time and place to the stage. It has been more than 60 years since the novel was written, and as such the concerns of the characters have changed both in time and locale. Not only are their objectives adjusted, but the novel is ultimately that: a novel. Being a theatrical adaptation, the play must acknowledge its own existence as such and take issue with its form as much as "The Master and Margarita" does its own. The play is, ultimately, a failed one in my opinion. The greatest downfall thereof being the fact that theatre, drama, is centered around a single thing: conflict. The devil can be in conflict with no one but the divine, and as such any time he is on stage there is simply something missing. The failure is, to a certain extent, befitting of the piece for what it takes to heart as its issues. Enjoy. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Theater.

Roadside safety hardware has traditionally been approved on the basis of full-scale crash tests. In recent years, nonlinear dynamic Finite Element (FE) programs like LS-DYNA, PAM-Crash or ABAQUS Explicit have been widely used in evaluating new or improved design of roadside hardware. Although a powerful tool, numerical models must be properly verified and validated in order to provide reliable results. Typically, the verification and validation (V&V) process involves a visual comparison of two curves and is based on a purely subjective judgment. This research investigated the use of comparison metrics, which are mathematical measures that quantify the level of agreement between two curves, for comparing simulation and experimental outcomes in an objective manner. A computer program was developed in Matlab® to automatically evaluate most of the comparison metrics available in literature. The software can be used to preprocess and compare either single or multiple channels, guiding the user through friendly graphical interfaces. Acceptance criteria suitable to represent the typical scatter of experimental tests in roadside safety were determined by comparing ten essentially identical full-scale vehicle crash tests. The robustness and reliability of the implemented method were tested by comparing the qualitative score of the computed metrics for a set of velocity waveforms with the corresponding subjective judgment of experts. Moreover, the implemented method was applied to two real validation cases involving a numerical model in roadside safety and a model in biomechanics respectively. Eventually, the program showed to be an effective tool to be used for assessing the similarities and differences between two curves and, hence, for assisting engineers and analysts in performing verification and validation activities objectively.