Benthic macroinvertebrate communities in headwater streams influenced by Appalachian coal mining often differ from communities in minimally distrubed streams. Total dissolved solids (TDS) associated with mining have been suggested as stressors to these communities. In studies of such streams conducted to date, both non-TDS stressors and elevated TDS have been present as potential influences on biota. Here the association between dissolved salts and benthic macroinvertebrate community structure was examined using a family-level multimetric index and genus-level taxa sensitivity distributions. Test sites were selected along a gradient of elevated TDS, with non-TDS factors of reference quality. Virginia Stream Condition Index (VASCI) scores were regressed against log-transformed measures of TDS, specific conductance, and sulfate (SO42-) using ordinary least squares and quantile regression techniques. Biological effects, as defined by VASCI scores indicating stressed or severely stressed conditions, were observed with increasing probability from 0% at ≤ 190 mg/L TDS to 100% at ≥ 1,108 mg/L TDS, with 50% probability of effects observed at 422 mg/L TDS. Associations between water quality measures and biological condition were variable, with approximately 48% of the variance explained by TDS. Genus-level analysis using a field sensitivity distribution approach indicated 95% of reference genera were observed at sites with TDS ≤ 281 mg/L, and 80% of genera were observed at sites with TDS ≤ 411 mg/L. This is evidence that TDS, specific conductance, or SO42- can be used to establish dissolved solids levels for streams influenced by Appalachian coal mining above which aquatic life effects are increasingly probable. / Master of Science

<p>Low back pain (LBP) is a common musculoskeletal condition that can lead to pain, functional limitations and disability. Due to the prevalence of LBP, multiple self-reported outcome measures have been developed, which have resulted in redundancy in the literature. Two frequently used outcome measures are the Roland Morris Questionnaire (RMQ) and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). Few authors have performed head-to-head comparison studies to determine which of these outcome measures are the most successful at measuring sensitivity to change. The purpose of this thesis was to answer the question: Is there a difference in the sensitivity to change between the RMQ and the ODI in their ability to measure pain-related functional status in persons with low back pain?</p> <p>The first part of this thesis involves a systematic review of head-to-head comparison studies to determine the difference in the sensitivity to change of the RMQ and the ODI. Five databases were searched and nine articles were located. The second part of this thesis entails the development of a quality criteria form to evaluate head-to-head comparison studies.</p> <p>The third aspect of this research was to perform a head-to-head comparison study of the RMQ and the ODI using data from the nine studies. A small but significant difference was noted in favour of the RMQ in terms of the Spearman rank correlation coefficient between its change scores and the reference standard (Z = 2.36, p = 0.018; Z = 3.28, p = 0.001) and also in the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve area (<em>X</em>²₁ = 8.58, p = 0.003).</p> / Master of Science Rehabilitation Science (MSc)

No / RATIONALE, AIMS & Tools for the assessment of the quality of research studies tend to be specific to a particular research design (e.g. randomized controlled trials, or qualitative interviews). This makes it difficult to assess the quality of a body of research that addresses the same or a similar research question but using different approaches. The aim of this paper is to describe the development and preliminary evaluation of a quality assessment tool that can be applied to a methodologically diverse set of research articles. METHODS: The 16-item quality assessment tool (QATSDD) was assessed to determine its reliability and validity when used by health services researchers in the disciplines of psychology, sociology and nursing. Qualitative feedback was also gathered from mixed-methods health researchers regarding the comprehension, content, perceived value and usability of the tool. RESULTS: Reference to existing widely used quality assessment tools and experts in systematic review confirmed that the components of the tool represented the construct of 'good research technique' being assessed. Face validity was subsequently established through feedback from a sample of nine health researchers. Inter-rater reliability was established through substantial agreement between three reviewers when applying the tool to a set of three research papers (kappa = 71.5%), and good to substantial agreement between their scores at time 1 and after a 6-week interval at time 2 confirmed test-retest reliability. CONCLUSIONS: The QATSDD shows good reliability and validity for use in the quality assessment of a diversity of studies, and may be an extremely useful tool for reviewers to standardize and increase the rigour of their assessments in reviews of the published papers which include qualitative and quantitative work.

The presented work deals with the quality of education and elaborates upon the implementation of system of quality management ISO 9001 as one of the ways of possible improvement of a process and outcomes of education. Introduction included in the theoretical part is focused on explanation of the concepts of education quality, quality management, quality of a school, quality standards, quality control and quality management models. The subsequent part of the work contains implementation of a quality management system. The following chapter deals with process management as a means of maintaining quality management system. The final chapter of the theoretical part describes cloud computing as the latest and most progressive path of development of quality management. The object of the research is to develop a model of implementation of the quality management system. Actual implementation model build on a previous qualitative research conducted in several schools, performed in a form of a case study. In the appendix part, a number of actual documents are attached in order to better convey the implementation process. KEYWORDS: Education quality, quality management, ISO, quality criteria, quality standards, Office 365, cloud

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The proposal to evaluate churches acoustically brings two relevants aspects: the importance of sound quality in religious environments and its consequence to the followers. The present work analyzes the acoustic performance of a Basilic with contemporary architecture, evaluating data obtained from experiments performed in loco from the impulsive reply due to excitement for source of manual and semistructured interviews with followers and enthusiasts. The premises studied are the Basilic Sanctuary of Our Lady Medianeira that consists of an important center dedicated to the Patroness of Rio Grande do Sul State. In a church, good speech intelligibility is necessary for the right comprehension from the audience. Music also should be clearly understood. A wooden device manufactured by UFSM s Acoustic Sector regarding scientific researches, revealed ability of impulsive signal emission necessary for carrying out the measurements. After the source validation, the environment acoustic assessment was determined according quality and intelligibility rates for music and speech. Then it was obtained values of Reverberation Time (RT), Initial Decay Time (IDT), Clarity (C80) and Definition (D50). The data, collected with an equipment called Blue Solo from 01-dB, had its analysis effectively checked by computational program dBBati. Interviews with followers and Mass leaders such as priests, musicians and commentators indicated that people perceive sound irregularities in the premisses, however can not identify where are the aggravators of this particular situation. This analysis meets the answers of objective parameters, where is noticed that the premisses show lacking of sound quality, making it rather difficult the understanding of either the speech or the music. / A proposta de avaliar acusticamente igrejas traz dois aspectos relevantes: a importância da qualidade sonora em ambientes religiosos e a sua conseqüência para os freqüentadores. O presente trabalho analisa o desempenho acústico de uma Basílica, com arquitetura contemporânea, avaliando dados obtidos de experimentos realizados in loco, a partir da resposta impulsiva devido à excitação por fonte de impacto manual e de entrevistas semiestruturadas com freqüentadores e celebrantes. O local estudado é o Santuário-Basílica de Nossa Senhora Medianeira, que se constitui num importante centro dedicado à Padroeira do Rio Grande do Sul. Numa igreja, uma boa inteligibilidade da palavra proferida é necessária para ser bem compreendida pelos fiéis. A música também deve ser claramente percebida. Um dispositivo de madeira produzido no Setor de Acústica da UFSM, a partir de um estudo científico, revelou-se capaz de emitir o sinal impulsivo necessário para a realização das medições. Após a validação da fonte, a avaliação acústica do ambiente foi determinada em função dos índices referentes à qualidade e à inteligibilidade para a música e para a palavra. Foram obtidos os valores do Tempo de Reverberação (TR), Tempo de Decaimento Inicial (EDT), Clareza (C80) e Definição (D50). Os dados, coletados com o equipamento Blue Solo da 01- dB, tiveram sua análise efetivada pelo programa computacional dBBati. Entrevistas com os freqüentadores e executores das missas como os padres, músicos e comentaristas indicaram que as pessoas percebem a irregularidade sonora na edificação, porém não conseguem identificar onde estão os agravantes dessa situação. Essa análise vem ao encontro das respostas dos parâmetros objetivos, onde se constatou que a edificação apresenta carência em sua qualidade sonora, dificultando na compreensão tanto da palavra falada, quanto da música.

Student outcomes of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is reported to be weak and empirical studies investigating the underlying causes have been called for. School organization is pointed out as essential, which highlights the role of school leaders in realizing ESD. This study aims to identify characteristic features of ESD active school organizations, by investigating how school leaders maintain high quality in their organizations. ESD is thus studied from an internal organizational perspective. Fourteen school leaders at ten upper secondary schools, active in ESD implementation, were interviewed and qualitative data quantified. A special focus was on school leaders’ transformative statements, in response to earlier criticism that ESD implementation has been too structural. Results consist of 26 identified quality criteria. By means of cluster analysis, the quality criteria were merged into four principal quality criteria: collaborative interaction and school development, student-centred education, cooperation with local society and proactive leadership and continuity. The school leaders’ quality strategies were identified through correlation analysis of their principal quality criteria. The quality strategies reveal a difference in the schools’ internal or external focus. An analysis of the school leaders’ quality statements in relation to their quality strategy implementation indicates that ESD to a large degree is introduced from a transformative perspective. One school in the study stands out as highly transformation-oriented, and has a quality strategy combining an internal and external focus, thus making it a possible benchmark for successful ESD-implementation. The study contributes a suggestion on how a progression of ESD implementation can take place and as well as possible obstacles. / Studier om implementering av Lärande för hållbar utveckling (LHU) visar att påverkan på elevers förståelse, attityder och agerande i frågan är liten. Det finns ett behov av att empiriskt undersöka hur skolans organisation kan underlätta en mer framgångsrik LHU implementering. Rektorernas roll pekas ut som central i det arbetet, men få studier har tidigare undersökt hur rektorer arbetar med skolorganisationen. I studien undersöks generella uttryck för kvalitet som rektorer anser viktiga i skolorganisationen för att åstadkomma en utbildning med hög kvalitet. Resultaten tolkas i ljuset av skolor som aktivt implementerar LHU. Studien söker svar på vad som utmärker de skolorganisationer som aktivt arbetar med LHU. 14 rektorer på 10 LHU-skolor har intervjuats. Kvalitativ data har kvantifierats i syfte att upptäcka mönster och sammanhang. Ett speciellt fokus har ägnats åt transforamtiva uttryck, som ett svar på tidigare kritik mot att LHU implementerats allt för strukturellt inom skolan. Resultaten redovisar kvalitetskriterier som rektorerna framhåller som viktiga samt specifika fokusområden för kvalitetsarbete. Skolor i studien med hög medvetenhet om transformativa uttryck inom skolans organisation utgör grund för en diskussion om hur strategier för LHU implementering kan utformas.

The main aim of this diploma thesis is to provide a comprehensive analysis of legislation of evaluation criteria with its main focus on quality criteria taking account of decision practice of the Office for the Protection of Competition, case law of administrative courts and foreign and also domestic practice of awarding of the public contract. The diploma thesis is divided in five chapters, with each chapter being split in subchapters. The first chapter presents a brief overview of the public procurement legislation and intends to describe its basic aims and purposes. The second chapter focuses on legislation of quality criteria. The subject of the third chapter is the act of contracting authority prior to the launching of the procurement procedure and with it relating preliminary market consultation and award criteria. The fourth chapter deals with individual evaluation criteria including unnamed criteria and proposes the outline of the foreign practice of evaluation with the Best Value Procurement method. Furthermore, the chapter deals with the subjective award criteria in the light of the case of administrative courts and decision practice of the Office for the Protection of Competition. The last fifth chapter is devoted to the evaluation of tenders, deals with the changes to the award...

On its own, the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is not a solution to either inequalities or unemployment, but it is an important strategy to address access to education and training for those previously excluded (SAQA, 2003a, p. 31) This study deals with the search for valid and sustainable mechanisms for the implementation of the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in South Africa. Some of the elements that facilitate implementation include stringent quality criteria and common benchmarks that build trust in the process and ensures the protection of the integrity of the system. In an education and training system, which is subject to intense change, RPL has an important contribution to make to the opening up of access to education and training for individuals previously denied the privilege. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Curriculum Studies / Unrestricted

(in English): The topic of my dissertation was to create and verify the self-evaluation tool according to the real request of the concrete elementary school. The tool had to assess the satisfaction of the parents of the pupils, which attend the first school. The analysis showed that the existing self-evaluation tools are very complicated, time-consuming and use inadequate software solutions. Moreover they do not reflect the recent change of the criteria that are now used for school evaluation by the Czech School Inspectorate (the Quality School Model). As a result I tried to create the new self-evaluation tool that would fulfil the above mentioned requirements. First of all I designed the online questionnaire with the questions linked to the criteria of the Czech School Inspectorate. The close attention was paid on the data processing to validate whether the questionnaire serves as an self-evaluation tool. In addition the possibilities for improvement of questionnaire design were searched during the data processing. Furthermore I proposed the framework measures for each criterion of Quality School Model and developed simple method of using them for school improvements. Finally I presented the tool to the school management which considered it suitable and useful. In my opinion the results of...