Technical note: Preliminary estimation of rockfall runout zones

Rockfall propagation areas can be determined using a simple geometric rule known as shadow angle or energy line method based on a simple Coulomb frictional model implemented in the CONEFALL computer program. Runout zones are estimated from a digital terrain model (DTM) and a grid file containing the cells representing rockfall potential source areas. The cells of the DTM that are lowest in altitude and located within a cone centered on a rockfall source cell belong to the potential propagation area associated with that grid cell. In addition, the CONEFALL method allows estimation of mean and maximum velocities and energies of blocks in the rockfall propagation areas. Previous studies indicate that the slope angle cone ranges from 27° to 37° depending on the assumptions made, i.e. slope morphology, probability of reaching a point, maximum run-out, field observations. Different solutions based on previous work and an example of an actual rockfall event are presented here.

Northeast Iowa Schools Insurance Trust, Independent Auditor's Reports, Financial Statement and Required Supplementary Information, Schedule of Findings, June 30, 2005

Other Audit Reports - 28E Organizations

Behavioral Assumptions and Management Ability: A Tentative Test

The paper explores the consequences that relying on different behavioral assumptions in training managers may have on their future performance. We argue that training with an emphasis on the standard assumptions used in economics (rationality and self-interest) leads future managers to rely excessively on rational and explicit safeguarding, crowding out instinctive contractual heuristics and signaling a 'bad' type to potential partners. In contrast, human assumptions used in management theories, because of their diverse, implicit and even contradictory nature, do not conflict with the innate set of cooperative tools and may provide a good training ground for such tools. We present tentative confirmatory evidence by examining how the weight given to behavioral assumptions in the core courses of the top 100 business schools influences the average salaries of their MBA graduates. Controlling for the average quality of their students and some other schools' characteristics, average salaries are significantly greater for those schools whose core MBA courses contain a higher proportion of management courses as opposed to courses based on economics or technical disciplines.

Toolbox to Address Safety and Operations on School Grounds and Public Streets Adjacent to Elementary and Middle Schools in Iowa, August 2006

This study identified transportation safety issues at existing Iowa school sites through on-site observations, traffic data collection, and through interviews with schools, law enforcement, and traffic engineers. Frequently observed problems, such as crossing at unmarked crosswalks, unloading and loading students on the street side, inattentive student safety patrols, and illegal parking, were documented and solutions were recommended for implementation. The results of the study also conclude that regular communications between school officials, traffic engineers, law enforcement, parents, and school transportation personnel are all critical to promoting safe operations within school zones.

Audit report on the Northeast Iowa Schools Insurance Trust for the year ended June 30, 2006

Audit report on the Northeast Iowa Schools Insurance Trust for the year ended June 30, 2006

Lack of Discipline in Cape Verdean Secondary Schools: The Need to Better Define the Problem and Develop Strategies to Prevent or Manage the Situation

This research paper has been written with the intention to discuss the problem of discipline in Cape Verdean secondary schools. While many of us discuss the effects that student misbehavior has on the student misbehavior has on the student, school and society as a whole, very few of us seek solutions which would impact on the prevention and management of this problem that each day becomes more complicated and harder to handle. This paper will discuss the need to better define discipline at the school level; identify the causes and factors that aggravate the problem, in addition, to provide what I hope to be useful strategies to better manage the problem as we make the effort to reclaim our schools and better educate our students. My research included surveys completed by teachers and student alike as they baffled over the question: what is discipline and how can we better manage discipline problems at our schools?

The use of textbooks in Capeverdean secondary schools: The Relationship between Use, Evaluation and Adaptation of Textbooks

This study examines the relationship between teacher’s use of English textbooks and the way teachers evaluate and adapt them, looking at a particular context, the Capeverdean secondary schools, specifically in Praia. The referred relationship was analyzed through teachers’ responses about how they use, evaluate and adapt their textbooks. The results of the study revealed that, on the one hand, the way teachers use their textbooks influences the way they evaluate the same textbooks; on the other hand, the use of textbooks doesn’t necessarily influence the way teachers adapt them. Moreover, the findings revealed that, in general, due to some particular constraints the Capeverdean English teachers are using their textbooks as resources, in which several textbooks are used in combination with one another. Additionally, although teachers assume that they are doing their best, they still need more confidence concerning the way they use, evaluate and adapt available textbooks. Teachers’ confidence in the way they are using their textbooks can be reinforced by establishing an intensive teacher training module on materials evaluation and adaptation, taking into account that a textbook is one of the most important tools in the process of teaching and learning. I hope that the elements presented may lead to further studies on this matter, specifically regarding textbook evaluation and adaptation.

Offshoring and directed technical change

To study the short-run and long-run implications on wage inequality, we introducedirected technical change into a Ricardian model of offshoring. A unique final good isproduced by combining a skilled and an unskilled product, each produced from a continuumof intermediates (tasks). Some of these tasks can be transferred from a skill-abundant Westto a skill-scarce East. Profit maximization determines both the extent of offshoring andtechnological progress. Offshoring induces skill-biased technical change because it increasesthe relative price of skill-intensive products and induces technical change favoring unskilledworkers because it expands the market size for technologies complementing unskilled labor.In the empirically more relevant case, starting from low levels, an increase in offshoringopportunities triggers a transition with falling real wages for unskilled workers in the West,skill-biased technical change and rising skill premia worldwide. However, when the extentof offshoring becomes sufficiently large, further increases in offshoring induce technicalchange now biased in favor of unskilled labor because offshoring closes the gap betweenunskilled wages in the West and the East, thus limiting the power of the price effectfueling skill-biased technical change. The unequalizing impact of offshoring is thus greatestat the beginning. Transitional dynamics reveal that offshoring and technical change aresubstitutes in the short run but complements in the long run. Finally, though offshoringimproves the welfare of workers in the East, it may benefit or harm unskilled workers inthe West depending on elasticities and the equilibrium growth rate.

Interference of Native Language in English Language Acquisition in Santa Cruz and Calheta Secondary schools

This study analyzes the interference of native language when students are learning a foreign language, in this case English. According to this study, interferences from the native language such as lexical-semantic and phonological are not infrequent. It is one of the main barriers that create difficulties when learning English. The outcome of this study is presented at the end of the Monografia: to provide English-language teachers and students the most significant linguistic interferences that occur during the learning process of English language. Furthermore, some teaching strategies are discussed to avoid the biases that appear due to the interferences of the native language. As a result of this study, I hope to contribute to the learning success among English-language students.

Teaching metaheuristics in business schools

In this work we discuss some ideas and opinions related with teaching Metaheuristics in Business Schools. The main purpose of the work is to initiate a discussion and collaboration about this topic,with the final objective to improve the teaching and publicity of the area. The main topics to be discussed are the environment and focus of this teaching. We also present a SWOT analysis which lead us to the conclusion that the area of Metaheuristics only can win with the presentation and discussion of metaheuristics and related topics in Business Schools, since it consists in a excellent Decision Support tools for future potential users.

Technical inefficiency and public capital in US States: A stochastic frontier approach

This paper estimates a translog stochastic frontier production function in the analysis of all 48 contiguous U.S. states in the period 1970-1983, to attempt to measure and explain changes in technical efficiency. The model allows technical inefficiency to vary over time, and inefficiency effects to be a function of a set of explanatory variables in which the level and composition of public capital plays an important role. Results indicated that U.S. state inefficiency levels were significantly and positively correlated with the ratio of public capital to private capital. The proportion of public capital devoted to highways is negatively correlated with technical inefficiency, suggesting that not only the level but also the composition of public capital influenced state efficiency.