No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to make as analysis of the relationship between dominative-integrative classroom behavior and the mean scores on selected measures of socio-civic attitudes of students at North Texas State College preparing to teach the social studies during the year 1960-61.

In July of 1993 an underground coal mine owned and operated by Southern Ohio coal company (SOCCO) underwent emergency recovery operations due to flash flooding of the mine from an adjacent abandoned mine. During mine dewatering operations, approximately 132,650 liters per minute of acid mine water was released into the Parker Run tributary draining into Leading Creek. The 24.2-km section of Leading Creek was heavily impacted eradicating most aquatic organisms. An acutely toxic impact resulted from the discharge of high conductivity (~6000µmhos), low pH (2.5-3.1 pH units), high metal concentrations (iron and iron floc, manganese, copper, nickel, zinc and aluminum, mg/L) and high total suspended solids (TSS). Through the process of a Consent Decree, a proactive plan was developed for monitoring the recovery in Leading Creek and to develop an enhancement plan for the watershed. SOCCO set aside $1.9 million that has grown to $2.5 million to cover the costs of implementing specific enhancement measures in the watershed. The primary goal of the enhancement plan was to describe actions that could reasonably be taken to affect measurable ecological rehabilitation or enhancement of the Leading Creek stream system so it attains the highest Ohio EPA aquatic life use designation possible. The objectives of this research project were to identify specific ecosystem stressors affecting the habitat quality within the watershed preventing Leading Creek from attaining either the Warmwater Habitat (WWH) or the Excellent Warmwater Habitat (EWH) designation and to provide potential remediation techniques to address the identified stressors. Although natural processes have lead to partial recovery in Leading Creek from the impact of dewatering, reconnaissance has shown significant problems relating to toxicity and habitat degradation in the watershed. Seventeen tributaries and ten mainstem stations were chosen to receive monthly monitoring as point source discharges, including biological, chemical, toxicological, and hydrological sampling. Specific ecotoxicological parameters studied included water and sediment quality, algal colonization upon artificial substrates, benthic macroinvertebrate sampling (qualitatively and quantitatively), acute water column toxicity, sediment chronic toxicity and </i>in situ</i> clam toxicity. Evaluation of habitat impairment included habitat assessments, in-stream riparian surveys and land use analysis. Through the analysis of laboratory and field data, agriculture and Abandoned Mined Land (AML) were identified as the two main stressors in the watershed. Agricultural practices contributed chronic toxicity through habitat degradation identified from benthic macroinvertebrate data and sediment depth measurements. AML impacted several tributaries and the Leading Creek mainstem by degrading water quality through the introduction of acidic waters, high in conductivity and heavy metals. Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) from the AML areas was pinpointed through acute testing with <i>Ceriodaphnia dubia</i> and </i>in situ</i> testing with the Asian clam, </i>Corbicula fluminea</i>. Active mining effluents from the Meigs #2 and Meigs #31 mines influenced the Ogden Run and Parker Run tributaries with conductivity values ranging from 2000 to 6000 μmhos/cm, respectively. The influence of the active mine effluents was observed down the mainstem from LCS6 to LCS10 in the form of high conductivity (~1200 μmhos/cm) and increased pH values (~8.0). Development of the enhancement plan began with the ranking of the ten mainstem stations and 17 tributary stations based on prioritization of impact parameters using an Ecotoxicological Rating (ETR) developed specifically for the Leading Creek watershed. The ETR included biological, toxicological, chemical and physical data to integrate a complete description of the impacts affecting the Leading Creek watershed. The 23 parameters in the ETR for the mainstem stations were; sediment depth, acidic pH, quantitative Invertebrate Community Index (ICI) scores, conductivity, clam <i>in situ</i> survival and growth, </i>Daphnia magna</i> and <i>Chironomus tentans</i> sediment toxicity, stormwater acute toxicity, qualitative invertebrate richness and Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) abundance, percent AML area, concentrations of sodium, copper, zinc, iron, manganese, chloride, nitrate/nitrite, ammonia, TSS, plus Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI) and United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) habitat scores. For the mainstem stations, low flow in the summer was substituted for quantitative ICI scores. The ETR provided a single numerical score of 200 points that allowed comparisons to be made between sites within Leading Creek and tributaries within the watershed. Stressors identified within the watershed and used in the ranking of sites included agricultural sedimentation, sedimentation from AML, poor water quality from AMD and multiple toxic inputs such as acute stormwater runoff. Remediation techniques and costs were described to address poor agricultural practices and designed to alleviate sedimentation within the mainstem. Remediation techniques for AMD were described but due to the enormous amount of AML within the Leading Creek watershed, costs and specific projects were deemed beyond the scope of this research project. / Ph. D.

This research is intended to better understand the structural behavior of steel bridge beams that have experienced section loss near the bearings. This type of deterioration is common in rural bridges with leaking expansion joints, which exposes the superstructure to corrosive road deicing solutions. Seventeen beams from 4 decommissioned structures throughout Virginia were tested to induce web shear failure near the bearing locations and measured for load, vertical displacement, and web strain behavior. The strain was measured using a digital image correlation (DIC) system to create a digital strain field at equal loading and beam displacement intervals during testing. The data recorded during these large-scale tests was compared to several existing methods for calculating the shear capacity of the damaged beams. Finally, the most appropriate method of these approaches was identified based on accuracy, conservatism, and ease of implementation for load rating. When using load rating methods to determine a steel beam's capacity, this study also recommends that the effective area of the web used in determining the percentage of remaining thickness should consist of the bottom 3 inches of the web and should extend the length of the bearing plus one beam height excluding any areas without any noticeable section losses. / Master of Science / Older bridge structures typically include a rubber joint near the ends to allow for expansion and contraction of the bridge due to heating and cooling from the weather. In many cases, these joints will get damaged due to impacts from vehicle tires and other environmental disturbances. Damage to these joints allows for water to leak through, which, while not in of itself harmful, also allows melting snow to carry road salts laid in the winter to spread onto the underlying bridge steel. These salts cause aggravated corrosion of the steel beams below the bridge's deck, resulting in damage or collapse of the bridge itself. The goal of this study was to characterize this damage and determine how it affects the remaining capacity of the bridge. This objective was achieved by testing 17 beams from 4 out of service bridges with varying damage levels. A load was applied near the damaged ends to determine their behavior during loading, to locate areas of high strain resulting from corrosion, and find the beam's capacity. Several methods to predict the remaining strength in corroded steel beams were compared and recommendations made based on accuracy and conservatism.

The principle of encoding specificity states that effective information retrieval relies upon consistency of encoding and retrieval cues. The present study generalized this principle to a complex social interaction in order to investigate the relation between certain combinations of pre- and post-observational cues and their effects on information categorization, recognition accuracy, and judgment accuracy. It was hypothesized that two experimental factors, appraisal purpose and rating format categorization, would influence organization, retrieval, and judgment of performance information. Specifically, consistent encoding (purpose) and retrieval (format) cues were expected to result in the most efficient retrieval of information, and consequently in more accurate performance ratings. / Master of Science

The present study explored the use of a technique for validating individual raters of performance and its implications for the existence of a generalized "ability" in raters to make accurate assessments of others performance. Subjects were asked to record critical incidents of ratees' performance in two types of job situations-- 1) a videotaped presentation of managers interviewing problem employees, and 2) instructors teaching in actual college classrooms. Subjects also rated the performance of these managers and instructors. Scaled critical incidents were correlated with ratings to derive three kinds of accuracy scores. Two sets of these accuracy scores (the managerial "reliability" and "validity" estimates) were compared to determine if a method for inferring validity using many raters' observations were comparable to a method using only one rater's observations. The accuracy scores derived in two types of settings (i.e., reliability estimates derived from manager data and reliability estimates derived from instructor data) were compared to determine the generalizability of rating accuracy across situations. Unfortunately, little empirical support was provided for the equivalence of the two methods (i.e., "reliability" and "validity") or for the generalized ability notion. Possible reasons for the failure of the present study to support the hypotheses are discussed, with emphasis on the importance of considering the process of rating performance rather than the end products of such a process. / Ph. D.