No description available.

Eyewitness testimony has as long history in the court system, and is very persuasive to juries. Jurors are hard pressed to ignore a witness' assertion of a perpetrator's identity. However, the juror's perception of eyewitness testimony is problematic as it has been documented as inaccurate and unreliable in numerous experiments. With the advent of DNA testing and efforts such as The Innocence Project, it has become apparent that faulty eyewitness accounts are central to many wrongful convictions. The intent of this thesis was to explore how law enforcement can facilitate more accurate eyewitness accounts via their interview process. Research suggests that a key problem in the current interviewing system is "post-event information," or outside information introduced by leading questions, exposure to police conversations or other witnesses' accounts. This information can contaminate a witness's memories of events and lead them to report things they did not see. The current experiment explores the effects of 1) warning and educating witnesses about suggestibility and 2) interviewing with leading or open-ended questions. Accuracy scores were then compared for each condition. The hope was to gain insight into methods for improving accurate recall of events and reducing memory contamination from "post-event information."

The aim of this study is to investigate teachers&rsquo / perceptions of constraints on improving student thinking skills in schools, and to find out whether there are differences in teachers&rsquo / perceptions of constraints in terms of subject area, educational background, teaching experience, gender, geographical area, and school location. A survey design was used in this study. The questionnaire used in the study was developed by making use of the related literature, and it was administered to 522 teachers working in the public high schools in four different regions of Turkey during the fall semester of 2002-2003 academic year. The data gathered are analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics (one-way ANOVA and t-test). There were four major constraints on improving student thinking, namely, teacher-related, student-related, curriculum-related, and external factors to classroom. The results indicated that the most agreed constraints were the student-related ones. The results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences in teachers&rsquo / perceptions of the constraints on improving student thinking based on the background variables, i.e., subject area, educational background, teaching experience, gender, geographical region, and school location.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MCom (Personnel Management))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Master of Science / Department of Agronomy / David B. Mengel / Grain Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is one of the most drought and stress tolerant crops grown in Kansas. For this reason, much of the sorghum is grown in high risk environments where other crops are more likely to fail or be unprofitable. Efficient sorghum cropping systems should not only produce high yields and use inputs such as nitrogen efficiently, but they should also remove as much risk as possible for a successful crop, and give farmers more flexibility in making input decisions. The price of nitrogen (N) fertilizer has increased substantially in recent years. Current retail prices for commonly used N fertilizers range from $0.88 to $1.50 per kilogram of N in Kansas. Thus, a farmer could easily invest $50-$100 per hectare in N, depending on the rate of N needed and the source used. Practices which allow farmers to assess crop potential as late as possible after planting before applying costly inputs like fertilizer, can increase the potential for a profitable return on those inputs in risky environments. Currently, most sorghum growers routinely apply all the N fertilizer prior to planting, sometimes as much as 6 months prior. The current Kansas State University (KSU) nitrogen recommendation is yield goal based and performs well when the grower is able to predict yield six months or more in advance of harvest. However, yield is quite variable and difficult to predict. Because long range weather and yield predictions are not very reliable, could deferring making N application decisions until later in the season when yield can be more accurately predicted reduce risk? Can the use of active sensors provide a better estimate of yield potential and nitrogen needs sometime after planting? If they can, how late can the decision be made and how best should the fertilizer N be applied? Several studies were conducted throughout Kansas to look at the effect of N rate, N application timing (pre-plant, side dress, or combinations of the two) and method of application on sorghum yield and N use efficiency. The studies were also designed to examine the potential of using optical sensors to predict optimum N rate for post-planting applications as a means of avoiding the use of soil tests to estimate soil N contributions. The objectives of this research were: a. to validate the KSU N fertilizer recommendations for grain sorghum grown in rotation with crops such as soybeans and wheat, b. to determine the effect of both preplant and midseason N applications on the growth and yield potential of grain sorghum, and to determine the optimal timing and method for midseason N applications on grain sorghum, and, c. to assess the potential of optical sensing of the growing crop to refine N recommendations using in-season applications during the growing season. This thesis will summarize the results from the various experiments we completed to achieve these objectives. The KSU N fertilizer recommendations for grain sorghum may need some revisions. This research suggests that including coefficients relating to N use efficiency may be necessary to get more accurate N recommendations. Both pre-plant and midseason N applications increased the yield of grain sorghum whenever a response to N was observed. There was no negative effect of applying all the nitrogen midseason at 30-40 days after planting when compared to pre-plant applications. Injecting nitrogen fertilizer below the soil surface had higher yields than other methods of midseason N applications such as surface banding or surface broadcasting, especially when a significant rainfall event did not occur within a few days of application. The optical sensors used in this study were very effective at making N recommendations 30-40 days after planting. These sensors will provide for more accurate N recommendations compared to the current soil test and yield goal method.

'Climate change is the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen' Stern (2006 p. xvii). This vigorous description highlights one of the most important and frustrating realizations of the last decades. The main reason of that market failure stems from the fact that climate change is a complex global externality. This makes the design of appropriate measures to mitigate the problem and the identification of their effects on economic activity of paramount importance. The transboundary nature of pollution combined with the skewed distribution of the origin and impact of emissions among countries reveals the need for international cooperation in the direction of multilateral agreements among countries. The characterization of Pareto-efficient environmental and trade policies has been a key issue (and continues to be) in the literature. Predominantly, however, the literature has focused on the role of taxes (trade and pollution) in achieving the first-best paying no attention to the role (if there is any) of non-tradeable goods. Chapter 4 deals with this issue. A key issue in mitigating climate change is with the appropriate extent of harmonization of environmental policies. This thesis (Chapters 2) addresses this within a general equilibrium model of international trade with endogenous pollution discharges, paying particular attention to the allocation of tax revenues. It argues that there indeed exist instances in which pollution tax harmonization (that moves the initial pollution taxes towards an appropriately weighted pollution tax vector) can deliver potential Pareto improvements. The difficulty with the achievement of global environmental agreements should not be, however, ignored. Chapter 3 deals with the possibility that governments may act unilaterally in order to mitigate the social cost of pollution. It shows that (under certain conditions) there exist unilateral Pareto improving trade policy reforms. Chapter 5 discusses the welfare implication of environmental policy reforms within a subset of countries. It shows that environmental policy coordination has opposing effect on the welfare of the coordinating and non-coordinating countries.

In this report a product development process is constructed and used to redesign an omnidirectional treadmill, the Omnideck. The current design of the Omnideck platform is designed without regard for assembly. Using modularity and design for assembly theories, incorporated with the product development process, the Omnideck platforms design is improved in respect to assembly time. The original design required 175 labour hours to install. The result is an improved design which requires ten and a half hours to install at a customer. This is achieved by redesigning the Omnideck into individual modules which allow for a faster installation.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper presents initial results of an investigation on bandwidth efficient waveforms for telemetry, tracking and commands (TT&C). Included in the investigation are waveforms that are currently being considered by the International Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) for standards, advanced waveforms and others that have the potential to become future standards. The goal of this investigation is to recommend a suite of bandwidth efficient modulation schemes for further investigation. This suite of modulation scheme should be suitable for various TT&C applications with data rates ranging from a few hundreds Bit Per Second (bps) to a few hundreds Mega bps (Mbps). First, the philosophy of waveform evaluation is described. The description includes a list of waveform attributes leading to quantitative and qualitative figures of merit for bandwidth efficient waveforms. Then quantitative results for the two most important waveform attributes (bandwidth efficiency and bit error rate performance) are presented. These results will be used by a follow-on study to significantly reduce the number of candidate waveforms, so that all attributes can be more thoroughly evaluated.

The problem of this study was to determine whether Kenyan Bible college students who receive instruction using a modified (highly structured) mastery learning model will demonstrate greater achievement in knowledge of Christian Church history as compared to Kenyan Bible college students who receive instruction using a traditional (minimally structured) non-mastery learning model. The subjects were 17 second-year Kenyan Bible college students enrolled in a course on Christian Church history, and they were randomly assigned to the two treatment conditions. The researcher served as instructor for both groups. The experimental group used a textbook, detailed syllabus, 200 page study guide (featuring an advance organizer to provide an ideational scaffolding), and a lesson-development feature (providing an enabling objective, congruent questions, and informative feedback for each lesson segment). The control group used a textbook and a less-detailed syllabus. Both groups shared the same classroom lectures, class discussions, required assignments, examinations, and review of examination items. Five tests of Christian church history were administered, including a pretest, three unit tests, and a comprehensive course examination. Test data were analyzed using a 2 x 5 (treatment x testing occasion) repeated measures analysis of variance (RM ANOVA). The percentage of students performing at mastery level (80% correct) on each test was also calculated. Results indicated that, from the second unit test to the comprehensive examination, the modified mastery learning group achieved slightly but consistently higher mean percentage correct scores than the traditional group, but there was no significant main effect for treatment. In contrast, the main effect for testing occasion did reach statistical significance. Across the five test occasions, 8% to 51% more students in the modified mastery learning group attained mastery level as compared to the traditional learning group.

The purpose of this case study is to conduct a descriptive analysis of the election of Black males to public office and the role they played in improving the quality of Black life in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The study has analyzed and examined the impact that education, housing, income, and health care demographic factors have contributed to the election of these males to various committees, boards and commissions in the city of Atlanta and Fulton County Georgia. The study has also examined the political activity of college fraternities, urban voluntary associations, and community based organizations that played a role in the city council race of 1992 in electing a Black as mayor and member of the city council. To measure how effective these males were in improving the quality of Black life the following indicators will be utilized in this study, namely: (a) the improvement of the neighborhoods in Atlanta's Black community, (b) the distribution of goods and services to the Black community, (c) the sponsorship of bills and neighborhood economic development related projects through its candidates, in an attempt to exercise political influence, within the state legislature and the city council in Atlanta, Georgia, (d) the improvement of the quality of health care, housing, income, and(e) education. The principal method of analysis employed for explaining Black male political activity in the city of Atlanta, Georgia has been through the use of a research study conducted by the Clark Atlanta University Political Science Department in Atlanta, Georgia. The study was conducted by undergraduate and graduate students and several members of the faculty. The survey comprises telephone interviews with 100 respondents in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The data are a unique resource that now makes possible an in-depth investigation of the urban issues, attitudes, and political beliefs and activity of a representative local sample of adult Black Atlanta residents. Each respondent was of voting age, but was not necessarily registered to vote. The sample for the Atlanta survey was drawn using a random-digit-dial design that selected participants disproportionately from different geographic areas within the city of Atlanta representing varying densities of Black population. The survey was inclusive of only those residents living within the (404) area code listing. The racial composition of the household was determined by including a direct question about race in the screening instrument. Members of eligible households found in the screening were eligible for the study if they were Black Americans and were at least 18 years of age.