No description available.

The organization of Modeling and Simulation (M&S) as a profession started in the early twenty-first century spurred by the advent of computers and the vast networking capabilities of contemporary computing. M&S is still in its infancy when compared to other disciplines, such as engineering, computer science and mathematics. However, the profession has experienced significant growth in part due to the varied use of M&S techniques and tools within almost every discipline. Professional organizations and academic programs supporting M&S across the country have started to materialize. In a short timeframe, the growth of these supporting organizations has outpaced their ability to stay unified as a discipline, aligned with standardized Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) and with growing stakeholder needs. Consequently, there appear to be gaps in the M&S professional organization. Such as a lack of synchronization between the three primary stakeholder groups of the M&S profession: academia, government, and industry. The discipline's professional organization fails to recognize a single body of knowledge as an authoritative reference for M&S KSAs. Academic institutions do not have unanimity regarding targeted KSAs. Industry lacks the confidence to hire M&S professionals who have a core understanding of KSAs directly associated with the version of M&S used by each separate industry. This research study attempts to take a coordinated step forward in unifying the M&S discipline by assessing and prioritizing the current competencies and standards required of M&S professionals and identifying the needs and competencies valued by primary stakeholders. A survey instrument was developed in conjunction with Rebecca Leis' doctorate research. The instrument was distributed to M&S stakeholders to ascertain the breadth of the needed, valued, and required KSAs within the domain. The survey was evaluated by cross-referencing questions and tabulating responses. Results from this research suggest ways in which stakeholders can coordinate efforts in advancing the M&S professional organization and support a uniformed set of KSAs needed in academia, government, and industry now and in the future.

The purpose of this collective case study was to explore the transmission of the Strong Black Woman (SBW) narrative and spiritual coping among spiritual Black women. The researcher utilized a social constructivist framework to guide the research process. After a review of the literature, the researcher recruited five mother and daughter pairs for the study. Data was collected using a demographic questionnaire, individual interviews, mother and daughter interviews, and identification of a meaningful scripture. To analyze the data, a cross-case synthesis of patterns related to the SBW narrative and spiritual coping resulted in five themes. Novel findings, implications, limitations, and future research is also discussed.

When a task is boring, repetitive, and takes place over a long period of time, individuals have a propensity to experience a gradual decline in performance known as the vigilance decrement (Mackworth, 1948). This negative trend is consistent across most populations (Davies & Parasuraman, 1982), though slight variations can occur based on the characteristics of the task, as well as characteristics of the human performing it. However, despite the many differences between these tasks, most studies are similar in the sense that, more often than not, participants are provided with immediate feedback on their performance throughout most laboratory trials. Yet, in applied settings, feedback is not always feasible. In fact, in many circumstances, if real-time feedback such as this was always available, then the role of the human component of the system may be brought into question. This also may be concerning for validity of laboratory studies which utilize feedback. Therefore, one goal of this experiment, as well as future work, is to continue to assess the importance of feedback by examining differences in performance on a vigilance task during which feedback may or may not be present. In addition to recent work relating to feedback, many current studies have also examined individual differences in the context of vigilance. Interestingly, it has been shown that performance accuracy often correlates to measures of higher order processing abilities including inhibition, which a component of working memory (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006). Additionally, when working memory load is increased, vigilant behavior also declines (Helton & Russell, 2011). Therefore, an additional goal of this study was to determine how performance relates to individual differences in higher order cognitive processing, such as working memory capacity and need for cognition. It was found that feedback does significantly improve performance, which is worth considering as issues relating to vigilance decrements are addressed in applied environments. The individual differences measures did not yield any significant results.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Recent financial problems have highlighted the portion of financial literacy classes related to credit and spending. The recent bursting of the real estate asset bubble and the ongoing economic crisis framed the research question for this study regarding the experiences of social studies and business teachers in teaching coursework in credit-related finance management. The purpose of this study was to understand teacher experiences in the classroom that involved teaching financial information related to consumer credit. The study was based on the theoretical foundations of constructivism and a synthesis of related economic and educational thought. A qualitative, constructivist, and interpretive case study was conducted using interviews with and observations of 6 business and 3 economics teachers. The results were horizontalized and then inductively grouped by phenomenological reduction into domains. Analysis showed that business and economics teachers were faithful in incorporating topics related to consumer credit-related finance education at, or greater than, the level outlined by state standards. The best methods recommended by research were prevalent in the instructional strategies. Teachers stressed the importance of literacy and numeracy. The infusion of economics in early grade levels had little effect on student performance. Participants felt that more finance education in high school was needed, either as a stand-alone course or integrated more efficiently into the curriculum. Implications for positive social change include evaluating financial curriculum components to improve instructional practices by being a part of the curriculum review process and helping administrators and teachers address poverty by improving students' financial skills.