Science

Cooperative Learning

A Framework for Supporting Automatic Simulation Generation from Design

The Functional Morphology of the Alimentary Canal of Tribolium Confusm Du Val (Coleoptera)

Parenting Matters

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children’s well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child’s brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents’ lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents’ use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

The Design of a Prototype Lentil Harvester for Small Farms

Although lentil is a valuable source of protein in human diet, and its straw is a highly valued animal feed, its production in West Asia and North Africa is limited, mainly due to problems associated with harvesting. Mechanical harvesting has not been successful because: 1)Seed and leaf shattering occurs when plants are mature; 2) low cutting heights are required since lentils tend to be short (only 20-30 cm tall) with pods borne close to the ground; 3) lentils are usually grown in marginal stony fields where stones cause damage to essential parts of harvesters; and 4) uneven ripening. Hand harvesting cause minimal losses, but it is labor intensive and labor is becoming increasingly scarce.--The objective of this study was to design and test a prototype lentil harvester for small farms with focus on the cutting/feeding mechanism. A hand held preliminary system was first designed and tested and the results were then used to develop a self-propelled prototype, which cuts and collects whole plants without threshing. Very low (5 cm average) and clean cut with negligible seed and leaf losses were achieved under various field conditions (stony, weedy and weeded), wide range of plant moisture (54.7% to 8.7% wet basis) and operation speeds (up to maximum design speed of 4 Km/h). The results were superior to combine and forage harvesters while comparable to--typical hand harvesting (hand pulling). Nevertheless, the ability of the prototype to harvest very dry crop with minimal losses allows farmers to delay harvest until most of the lentils is mature, thus overcoming the the problem of uneven maturity.

Teachers' and Students' Perceptions Towards the Use of Arabic in Secondary Level English Language Classrooms

"The purpose of the study was to find out teachers' amd students' perceptions towards the use of Arabic (L1) in secondary level English language teaching and learning classrooms in United Arab Emirates (UAE). In addition, this study set out to discover the similarities and differences in the ways teachers and students perceive the use of Arabic (L1) in English language teaching classrooms, and what are the purposes, if any, in which teachers use Arabic in English language classroom activities."--Abstract.

The Dual of Goldie Dimension

The aim of this thesis is to dualize the Goldie dimension theory for modules. Chapter I discusses some preliminary results that will be usefull in defining the notion of Goldie dimension for modules. Chapter II defines the notion of Goldie dimension for modules, and presents the theorems related to this concept of dimension. Chapter III discusses briefly the concept of dualization in the category of R-modules. It states few rules that reduce the dualization process in R-modules to an automatic one. Chapter IV dualizes the Goldie dimension theory for module It states and proves the dual of each theorem presented in Chapter.

Discipline-Based Education Research

The National Science Foundation funded a synthesis study on the status, contributions, and future direction of discipline-based education research (DBER) in physics, biological sciences, geosciences, and chemistry. DBER combines knowledge of teaching and learning with deep knowledge of discipline-specific science content. It describes the discipline-specific difficulties learners face and the specialized intellectual and instructional resources that can facilitate student understanding. Discipline-Based Education Research is based on a 30-month study built on two workshops held in 2008 to explore evidence on promising practices in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This book asks questions that are essential to advancing DBER and broadening its impact on undergraduate science teaching and learning. The book provides empirical research on undergraduate teaching and learning in the sciences, explores the extent to which this research currently influences undergraduate instruction, and identifies the intellectual and material resources required to further develop DBER. Discipline-Based Education Research provides guidance for future DBER research. In addition, the findings and recommendations of this report may invite, if not assist, post-secondary institutions to increase interest and research activity in DBER and improve its quality and usefulness across all natural science disciples, as well as guide instruction and assessment across natural science courses to improve student learning. The book brings greater focus to issues of student attrition in the natural sciences that are related to the quality of instruction. Discipline-Based Education Research will be of interest to educators, policy makers, researchers, scholars, decision makers in universities, government agencies, curriculum developers, research sponsors, and education advocacy groups.

Building global connections

Australian Small Business

"This publication provides a statistical overview of Australia’s small businesses, with emphasis on business counts, characteristics and performance. Unless otherwise stated, small businesses are defined as those who are actively trading and employ less than 20 people."--Introduction.

Coeducation in West Pakistan's Secondary Schools

Journal of the National Institute of Social Sciences

List of members in v. 2-4, 6-7, 9.

Joint Symposium on Small Scale Vegetable Production and Horticultural Economics in Developing Countries

Late Jurassic Vulcanicity in Kartaba-Tannourine District of Central Lebanon

The Role of Purchasers and Payers in the Clinical Research Enterprise

In a workshop organized by the Clinical Research roundtable, representatives from purchaser organizations (employers), payer organizations (health plans and insurance companies), and other stakeholder organizations (voluntary health associations, clinical researchers, research organizations, and the technology community) came together to explore: What do purchasers and payers need from the Clinical Research Enterprise? How have current efforts in clinical research met their needs? What are purchasers, payers, and other stakeholders willing to contribute to the enterprise? This book documents these discussions and summarizes what employers and insurers need from and are willing to contribute to clinical research from both a business and a national health care perspective.

Emerging Needs and Opportunities for Human Factors Research

This book identifies areas that represent new needs and opportunities for human factors research in the coming decades. It is forward-looking, problem oriented, and selectively focused on national or global problems, including productivity in organizations, education and training, employment and disabilities, health care, and environmental change; technology issues, including communications technology and telenetworking, information access and usability, emerging technologies, automation, and flexible manufacturing, and advanced transportation systems; and human performance, including cognitive performance under stress and aiding intellectual work.

Assessing the Value of Research in the Chemical Sciences

This book captures the messages from a workshop that brought together research managers from government, industry, and academia to review and discuss the mechanisms that have been proposed or used to assess the value of chemical research. The workshop focused on the assessment procedures that have been or will be established within the various organizations that carry out or fund research activities, with particular attention to the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). The book presents approaches and ideas from leaders in each area that were intended to identify new and useful ways of assessing the value and potential impact of research activities.

Construction Research at NIOSH:

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducts construction-relevant research activities. From 1996 through 2005, the program focused on four research goals: reducing traumatic injuries and fatalities; reducing exposure to health hazards; reducing major risks associated with musculoskeletal disorders; increasing the understanding of construction industry attributes and factors for improving health and safety outcomes. In this book, the National Research Council evaluates the relevance and impact of the NIOSH Construction Research Program in terms of its research priorities and its connection to improvements in the protection of workers in the workplace. It also assesses the program' s identification and targeting of new research areas, to identify emerging research issues, and to provide advice on ways that the program might be strengthened. The book finds that the efforts of the Construction Research Program have made meaningful contributions to improving construction worker safety and health, and provides overreaching and specific recommendations for continuing progress. While NIOSH cannot set and enforce research-based standards on its own, the program can be expected to help reduce construction workplace fatalities, injuries, and illnesses through its research, its research dissemination, and transfer into practice.

Mining Safety and Health Research at NIOSH:

The U.S. mining sector has the highest fatality rate of any industry in the country. Fortunately, advances made over the past three decades in mining technology, equipment, processes, procedures, and workforce education and training have significantly improved safety and health. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Mining Safety and Health Research Program (Mining Program) has played a large role in these improvements. An assessment of the relevance and impact of NIOSH Mining Program research by a National Research Council committee reveals that the program makes essential contributions to the enhancement of health and safety in the mining industry. To further increase its effectiveness, the Mining Program should proactively identify workplace hazards and establish more challenging and innovative goals toward hazard reduction. The ability of the program to successfully expand its activities, however, depends on available funding.

Fostering Research on the Economic and Social Impacts of Information Technology

The tremendous growth in use of information technology (IT) has led to an increased interest in understanding its social and economic impacts. This book presents examples of crosscutting research that has been conducted to understand the impact of information technology on personal, community, and business activities. It explores ways in which the use of methodology from economics and social sciences contributes to important advances in understanding these impacts. The book discusses significant research issues and concerns and suggests approaches for fostering increased interdisciplinary research on the impacts of information technology and making the results of this research more accessible to the public and policymakers. This volume is expected to influence funding priorities and levels of support for interdisciplinary research of this kind.