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Operators, especially those managing production from deepwater reservoirs, are striving to produce hydrocarbons at higher and higher rates without exposing the wells to completion failure risk. To avoid screen failures, recent studies have favored gravel pack (GP) and high rate water pack (HRWP) completions over high-permeability fracturing (HPF), known in the vernacular as a frac&pack (FP) for very high rate wells. While a properly designed GP completion may prevent sand production, it does not stop formation fines migration, and, over time, fines accumulation in the GP will lead to increasing completion skin. Although, and not always, the skin can be removed by acidizing, it is not practical to perform repeated acid treatments on deepwater wells, particularly those with subsea wellheads, and the alternative has been to subject the completion to increasingly high drawdown, accepting a high skin effect. A far better solution is to use a HPF completion. Of course the execution of a successful HPF is not a trivial exercise, and frequently, there is a steep learning curve for such a practice. This work explains the importance to HPF completions of the well trajectory through the interval to be hydraulically fractured, for production, not execution, reasons. A new model quantifies the effect of the well inclination on the connectivity between the fracture and the well via perforations. Guidelines based on the maximum target production rate, including forecasts of multiphase flow, are provided to size the HPF completion to avoid common completion failures that may result from high fluid rate and/or fines movement. Skin model will be developed for both vertical and deviated wells. Once the HPF is properly designed and executed, the operators should end up with a long term low skin good completion quality well. The well will be safely produced at the maximum flow rates, with no need for well surveillance and monitoring.

Operators, especially those managing production from deepwater reservoirs, are striving to produce hydrocarbons at higher and higher rates without exposing the wells to completion failure risk. To avoid screen failures, recent studies have favored gravel pack (GP) and high rate water pack (HRWP) completions over high-permeability fracturing (HPF), known in the vernacular as a frac&pack (FP) for very high rate wells. While a properly designed GP completion may prevent sand production, it does not stop formation fines migration, and, over time, fines accumulation in the GP will lead to increasing completion skin. Although, and not always, the skin can be removed by acidizing, it is not practical to perform repeated acid treatments on deepwater wells, particularly those with subsea wellheads, and the alternative has been to subject the completion to increasingly high drawdown, accepting a high skin effect. A far better solution is to use a HPF completion. Of course the execution of a successful HPF is not a trivial exercise, and frequently, there is a steep learning curve for such a practice. This work explains the importance to HPF completions of the well trajectory through the interval to be hydraulically fractured, for production, not execution, reasons. A new model quantifies the effect of the well inclination on the connectivity between the fracture and the well via perforations. Guidelines based on the maximum target production rate, including forecasts of multiphase flow, are provided to size the HPF completion to avoid common completion failures that may result from high fluid rate and/or fines movement. Skin model will be developed for both vertical and deviated wells. Once the HPF is properly designed and executed, the operators should end up with a long term low skin good completion quality well. The well will be safely produced at the maximum flow rates, with no need for well surveillance and monitoring.

Degree completion is an issue for stakeholders and others concerned with higher education (Astin, 1997; Braxton, 2000; Porter & National Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities, 1990; Selingo, 2001). The research on degree completion in American higher education is extensive. Studies have been conducted on differences in degree completion by demographics (Pascarella, Smart, & Stoecker, 1989; Pritchard & Wilson, 2003), high school performance (Lewallen, 1993; Stage & Rushin, 1993; Tracey & Sedlacek, 1987), and college performance (DesJardins, Ahlburg, & McCall, 2002; Hu & St John, 2001; Tinto, 1997). Other work in higher education however has looked at how to classify students using student types. Astin developed one of these approaches. Despite the voluminous research conducted on persistence, no one has examined the issue of degree completion using Astin's (1993) student typology. The purpose of this study was to explore degree completion among college students. It employed Astin's (1993) student typology to explore differences between degree completers and dropouts. Specifically, it examined differences between degree completers and dropouts within and across Astin types by demographic characteristics, high school academic performance, and college academic performance. The data analyzed in the study were collected from entering freshmen, by cohort, from 1994 to 1997 at three different institutions: a public master's institution in the northeast; a private liberal arts institution in the northeast; and, a public research extensive institution in the mid-Atlantic. There were two sets of data employed in the study. The first set included responses to the Annual Freshman Survey (AFS) of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) (Sax, Lindholm, Astin, Korn, & Mahoney, 2002). The second set included institutional student data records consisting of demographic characteristics of participants and high school and college performance measures. This study examined degree completion among college students using Astin's (1993) student typology framework. The results of this research contributed to the existing body of literature on degree completion. This study was complex and yielded a mix of statistically significant findings. However, four key findings emerged from this study. First, degree completers are more likely to earn better high school grades than dropouts. Second, middle and high-income students are more likely to graduate from college than low-income students. Third, for Status Striver type students, other (non-academic) background variables predict college academic performance in terms of college GPA and total college credits. Fourth, for Social Activist type students, other (non-academic) background variables predict grades earned in college. These findings present a new direction for research on degree completion and research-based student typologies. / Ph. D.

Child maltreatment affects millions of children annually, and evidence-based home visiting programs, such as SafeCare®, help increase parenting skills and, ultimately, the well-being of children. Although effective at reducing maltreatment when participants complete services, high attrition rates in home visiting services may reduce this effectiveness. Using a sample of all clients receiving SafeCare services in Georgia (n=93) from October 2013 to February 2015, we evaluated individual characteristics, information seeking behaviors, and programmatic factors in order to understand the relationships, if any, with participant program completion. During this evaluation cycle, SafeCare reports a completion rate of 43%. The race of the primary guardian significantly relates to program completion (p=0.02). This evaluation can assist those implementing SafeCare to anticipate the needs of their target population.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed January 12, 2010). PDF text: xi, 118 p. : ill. ; 668 K. UMI publication number: AAT 3360498. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1962. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-159).

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the reasons for attrition of doctoral candidates in the College of Human Resources and Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Graduate students granted candidacy status have fulfilled the following requirements: successful completion of course work, successful completion of the written and oral preliminary examinations, and completion of the residency requirement. The population for this study was students, identified by the Office of Graduate Studies, who attained doctoral candidacy between 1983-1992. During this period, 94 students out of 354 attaining candidacy did not complete the degree. From the 94 students identified, 55 students were eliminated by the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies faculty for one of the following reasons: the student is presently working on dissertation with faculty member, the student was advised not to continue after preliminary examination, or the student was not in the EDAD program, thus leaving 39 candidates. By limiting the study to doctoral candidates who have not completed the degree, it is possible to focus on the experiences of candidates who most likely will not obtain a doctorate. The focus of this study was to develop a picture of how the doctoral degree attrition evolves over time. This was to be accomplished by allowing candidates the opportunity to expound on the doctoral degree experience in a semistructured interview setting. Responses from semistructured interviews were analyzed in order to reconstruct the experiences of those candidates who did not complete the degree and also to determine which barriers were dominant in the process. Results of the interviews were analyzed first for differences between candidates' opinions in general, and then to identify factors that each candidate perceived had promoted, had no effect on, or had impeded degree completion. Also, factors that most affect the decision not to complete the doctoral degree as ranked by the candidates were analyzed. Candidate responses revealed that time and financial management along with professional obligations and personal reasons were the most significant factors in degree non-completion. A secondary factor was that of financial concern and inability of how to obtain information and resources to address this concern. Findings of this study permitted the researcher to identify several factors affecting doctoral degree completion at one institution; the next step might be to operationalize these factors by describing the patterns of attrition, desegregating attrition by the stages of study, and identifying connections between the levels of attrition at various levels. / Ed. D.

With the fast growth of online education, factors influential to course completion need to be examined. Statistically, this study explored the relationship between five course status factors identified in the literature and the completion of previously incomplete online courses in a course-based approach. The five factors were about the curricular and completion status of an online course with an initially assigned "Incomplete" grade, including credit hours, required assignments, initially submitted assignments, initially earned points, and duration of incomplete status. The extent of coursework completion was measured by the subsequently completed assignments and subsequently earned points. Online courses (n = 933) offered with the 15 different course titles in an online graduate degree program and assigned an "Incomplete" grade in their registration terms between fall 2001 and fall 2005 were used as the units of data analysis. Multiple regression, logistic regression, descriptive statistics analyses, Chi-square tests, and independent t-tests were used for the statistical analysis. The results showed that there were significant differences (a = .05) in the required assignments, initially submitted assignments, initially earned points, and duration of incomplete status between the courses that were completed eventually and those that remained incomplete. According to the statistically significant results, the set of the five course status variables could explain 93.6% of the variance in the completion measured by the subsequently completed assignments and account for 87% of the variance in the completion measured by the subsequently earned points. The statistically significant results also indicated that the set of the five variables could be used to predict the probability of the coursework completion. Regarding the individual variables, the statistically significant results identified the required assignments and initially submitted assignments as the factors contributing to the explanation of the variance in the coursework completion measured by the subsequently completed assignments; the credit hours, required assignments, initially earned points, and duration of incomplete status as the factors contributing to the explanation of the variance in the coursework completion measured by the subsequently earned points. The required assignments and duration of incomplete status were identified as significant predictors of the completion. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study is to explore a possible method of diagnosing marital difficulties. This is an exploratory investigation into the possibility of developing a particular method for marital diagnosis rather than a specific test for such a diagnosis. This method consists of a series of related sentence stems which the subject completes and then rates as to their degree of difficulty.