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This research effort focused on ascertaining the headlamp technology (of the eleven specified) that minimized the amount of discomfort glare and maximized the visibility of three types of pavement marking materials used in the study. Two baseline conditions, halogen low beam (HLB) and high-intensity discharge (HID) were measured both individually and in combination with three levels of UV-A. In addition, three other headlamp configurations were evaluated. Discomfort glare was measured subjectively for each headlamp configuration. Pavement marking visibility was directly measured via pavement marking detection distances. Thirty participants representing three age groups participated in this study: young (18-25 years old), middle (40-50 years old), and older (60 years and older). The headlamp technology and the pavement marking material needed to be beneficial for all age groups as all would potentially use the new technology if it were implemented in vehicles and roadways in the future. Participants evaluated discomfort glare at both a far and close distance using the nine-point DeBoer scale and evaluated pavement marking visibility by indicating when they could see the first and last pavement markings in each of the three sections. Overall, it was found that the HID configurations (HID, Middle UV-A + HID, High UV-A + HID) with a sharp cut-off beam pattern provided the least amount of discomfort glare. In contrast, the halogen configurations (HLB, Hybrid UV-A + HLB, Middle UV-A + HLB, High UV-A + HLB) and high output halogen with a straight-ahead beam pattern provided the longest detection distances. Two of the pavement markings: a two part liquid system (developed by 3M) and a fluorescent paint provided longer detection distances than a thermoplastic marking. / Master of Science

The status of non-punitive grading practices and policies in the two-year college remained highly uncertain due to a lack of substantive research. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to answer the following research questions: (1) How many public and private two-year colleges are currently using non-punitive grading practices? (2) What are the different forms of non-punitive grading practices now in use in public and private two-year colleges? (3) Are there differences in non-punitive grading practices among two-year colleges with different enrollment classification? (4) Are there differences in non-punitive grading practices among public and among private two-year colleges with different levels of academic policy control? (5) Are there differences in non-punitive grading practices among public and among private two-year colleges with different curricular emphasis? (6) What is the level of satisfaction among Deans of Instruction with the current non-punitive grading in public and private two-year colleges? (7) What are the future trends of non-punitive grading practices in public and private two-year colleges? The Non-Punitive Grading Practices Survey was designed to address the seven major research questions and was sent to 1,030 chief academic officers of public (n=866) and private (n=164} two-year colleges located in the continental United States. Seven hundred seventy-eight usable returns were received, representing a 75.5 percent response rate. The following conclusions were drawn from the findings: (1) Nonpunitive grading practices, in its purest forms, remain a viable grading system in a limited number of public and private two-year colleges during 1980-1981. (2) Non-punitive grading practices are considered to be "experimental" by many administrators and the majority of users of non-punitive grading do so on a limited basis. (3) Most academic deans in two-year colleges do not believe that non-punitive grading is consistent with the mission of their respective institutions. (4) An overwhelming majority of the deans in institutions with non-punitive grading practices favor non-punitive grades which represent the least change from traditional grading systems. (5) For non-punitive grading systems to be the exclusive methods of student evaluation academic policy control must be maintained at the local or state level. (6) University control over the academic policy of a two-year college is detrimental to the existence of non-punitive grading systems. (7) Curricular emphasis within pµblic community colleges has no apparent effect on the utilization of non-punitive grading practices. (8) Deans of instruction who utilize non-punitive grading practices, exclusively or experimentally, are very satisfied with these grading systems and practices. (9) No revolutionary changes in grading. systems are likely to occur in the next five years. (10) Non-punitive grading. systems will remain the minority grading systems in public two-year colleges.· (11) It is further concluded that faculty support is vital to the implementation and the deletion of non-punitive grading practices in two-year colleges. / Ed. D.

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This study investigates whether national trends of declining SAT scores and grade inflation were evident at a small liberal arts college. Specifically, the changes in grading standards between major fields and across time periods were examined against the model of Adaptation-Level grading. (The Adaptation-Level grading theory hypothesizes a positive relationship between ability levels and grading standards.) Actual total and major GPAs were regressed separately on the SAT-verbal scores, SAT-math scores, and secondary school class ranks. The resulting regression equations were used to project a hypothetical GPA when applied to the predictor data of other major fields or longitudinal cohort groups. Evidence of Adaptation-Level grading was found between major GPAs of the major fields in the first two of three cohort groups. However, only the grading of the second cohort was significant at the .05 level. Between each cohort, the relative grading standards of the general academic areas (humanities, social sciences and sciences) remained relatively stable. The standards between the individual major fields in each area were less so. Adaptation-Level grading was also found for each of three total GPA performance levels across time periods with the highest GPA level exhibiting the greatest drop in grading standards over time. No consistent major GPA grading pattern was found between the individual major fields across time periods. Since Adaptation-Level grading was found between cohort groups for the total GPAs and not for the major GPAs, it was concluded that the grading pattern of total GPAs was primarily due to the grading patterns of lower level or service courses. / Ph. D.

This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Northern Galilee Arabic (NGA). DOM is a widespread linguistic phenomenon in which certain objects of verbs appear in a different form from the expected one depending on various factors. While DOM has been well studied cross-linguistically, it has been less investigated in Arabic and in particular NGA. The thesis provides a detailed investigation of DOM in NGA which is complemented by novel arguments about the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of DOM. I demonstrate that DOM in NGA has the following properties: (i) the object needs to be an individuated definite DP, (ii) the DP is marked by a prepositional dative, (iii) the dative marked DP is accompanied by clitic doubling i.e., the clitic and the marked DP co-refer, and (iv) the marked DP is interpreted as an aboutness topic. I argue that DOM is derived by rightward A-movement to the edge of vP, specifically to Spec-ApplP. I provide three pieces of evidence for this argument: (i) island tests, (ii) binding, and (iii) adverbial placement tests. The empirical motivation for movement to ApplP is primarily for case checking. The movement is accompanied by clitic doubling, where the DP object and the corresponding clitic start the derivation by forming a big-DP. The DP object is differentially marked by movement to Spec-ApplP where the Appl head assigns dative case to it. Another novel motivation for the DOM movement to ApplP comes from aboutness topicality. I argue that the property that distinguishes DOM structures in NGA from their non-DOM counterparts is aboutness topicality (Reinhart 1981). I argue that the obligatory movement of the differentially marked object to the phase edge of vP allows its anchoring to a referential address, making it an aboutness topic. I further observe that only nominals that can be mapped onto a referential address (Endriss 2009) can be differentially marked. Consequently, quantifier phrases can also be DOM but only if they can be mapped onto a minimal witness set. This dissertation also explores which types of nominals can participate in DOM. Based on Zarka and Hacohen’s (2023) experimental work, I show that only highly atomic nominals in Grimm’s (2012) sense can be differentially marked. I further demonstrate that these nominals are mappable onto a referential address and are able to hold an anaphoric relation with a clitic. The big-DP, i.e., the DP and the corresponding clitic which form a single unit, accurately predicts that elements that are mappable onto a referential address are able to be linked to a pronoun. I argue that the DOM structure is generated only if the nominal is merged as part of the big-DP. However, the syntactic analysis does not fully account for the overall distribution of DOM. I demonstrate that DOM has certain pragmatic properties, which raises the question of how they arise. Adopting Kučerová and Zarka (in prep), I argue that DOM in NGA functions as an illocutionary marker that grammatically marks the asserted proposition as a non-default Discourse Commitment (Gunlogson 2001; Farkas & Bruce 2010) giving rise to a range of speech acts including emotive content. It is suggested that the obligatory illocutionary properties of DOM stem from structural economy. Since DOM involves an additional structure (clitic doubling and an applicative projection), which is absent in non-DOM counterparts, this additional structure triggers interpretive effects that would not be available otherwise (e.g., Fox 2000; Sichel and Wiltschko 2021). The analysis put forward in this thesis is specific to NGA. It is an open question whether it extends to other languages with DOM. Similar to NGA, DOM in languages like Romanian (e.g., Hill & Tasmowski 2008) and Catalan (e.g., Escandell-Vidal 2009) is associated with discourse pragmatic effects, but further research is required for other languages. The proposed analysis of DOM raises the question of whether a uniform analysis of DOM is possible by unifying the different DOM systems as instantiations of economy-driven interpretive effects. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)