A letter to Lord John Russel on the necessity of parliamentary reform, as recommended by Mr. Fox : and on the expediency of repealing the corporation and test acts.

Mode of access: Internet.

Curiosities of the Bible : pertaining to Scripture persons, places, and things including prize questions and answers, Bible studies and test exercises founded upon and answered in the Bible, including blackboard outlines, seed thoughts illustrated, scripture emblems and allegories, Bible readings,concert exercises, prayer meeting subjects and daily readings with many ready reference tables and maps /

Mode of access: Internet.

Operator's and organizational maintenance manual : simulator, radar signal SM-674/UPM (NSN 6940-01-031-5887), and test adapter, radar signal MX-9848/APR-39(V) (NSN 5841-01-025-0379).

"16 June 1977."

Organizational, direct support, and general support maintenance repair parts and special tools lists for simulator, radar signal SM-674/UPM (NSN 6940-01-031-5887) and test adapter, radar set MX-9848/APR-39(V) 1 (NSN 5841-01-025-0379).

"May 1977."

Study guide to accompany Principles of sociology (rev. ed., Century co. 1930) and Test and challenges in sociology (Century co. 1931) by Edward Alsworth Ross,

Mode of access: Internet.

The concurrent validity and test-retest reliability of a visuospatial working memory task

To determine whether the visuospatial n-back working memory task is a reliable and valid measure of cognitive processes believed to underlie intelligence, this study compared the reaction times and accuracy of perforniance of 70 participants, with performance on the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB). Testing was conducted over two sessions separated by 1 week. Participants completed the MAB during the second test session. Moderate testretest reliability for percentage accuracy scores was found across the four levels of the n-back task, whilst reaction times were highly reliable. Furthermore, participants' performance on the MAB was negatively correlated with accuracy of performance at the easier levels of the n-back task and positively correlated with accuracy of performance at the harder task levels. These findings confirm previous research examining the cognitive basis of intelligence, and suggest that intelligence is the product of faster speed of information processing, as well as superior working memory capacity. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Is the method of signal analysis and test selection important for measuring standing balance in subjects with persistent whiplash?

Dizziness and or unsteadiness, associated with episodes of loss of balance, are frequent complaints in those suffering from persistent problems following a whiplash injury. Research has been inconclusive with respect to possible aetiology, discriminative tests and analyses used. The aim of this pilot research was to identify the test conditions and the most appropriate method for the analysis of sway that may differentiate subjects with persistent whiplash associated disorders (WAD) from healthy controls. The six conditions of the Clinical Test for Sensory Interaction in Balance was performed in both comfortable and tandem stance in 20 subjects with persistent WAD compared to 20 control subjects. The analyses were carried out using a traditional method of measurement, total sway distance, to results obtained from the use of wavelet analysis. Subjects with WAD were significantly less able to complete the tandem stance tests on a firm surface than controls. In comfortable stance, using wavelet analysis, significant differences between subjects with WAD and the control group were evident in total energy of the trace for all test conditions apart from eyes open on the firm surface. In contrast, the results of the analysis using total sway distance revealed no significant differences between groups across all six conditions. Wavelet analysis may be more appropriate for detecting disturbances in balance in whiplash subjects because the technique allows separation of the noise from the underlying systematic effect of sway. These findings will be used to direct future studies on the aeitiology of balance disturbances in WAD. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Using front-end and formative evaluation to design and test persuasive bird feeding warning signs

Wildlife feeding is a wide-spread and controversial practice that can pose serious threats to the safety of both wildlife and visitors. The design and effectiveness of warning signs in recreational areas varies considerably and is rarely the product of theoretical models or scientific research. This study uses front-end and formative evaluation to design and test the perceived effectiveness of warning signs relating to bird feeding. Stage One examined visitors' beliefs, attitudes and bird feeding behaviour and found significant differences between feeders and non-feeders. Stage Two involved designing and evaluating three signs that built on the beliefs, knowledge and mis/conceptions identified in Stage One. Respondents thought the sign that focused on the birds' health and safety would be the most persuasive, however, elements of the other two signs were also positively evaluated. The article concludes with recommendations for the wording of future bird feeding warning signs. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Apparatus and test methods for measuring the impact of golf balls on turf and their application in the field

An apparatus was developed to project spinning golf balls directly onto golf greens. This employed a modified baseball/practice machine with two counter-rotating pneumatic wheels. The speed of the wheels could be varied independently allowing backspin to be given to the ball. The ball was projected into a darkened enclosure where the motion of the ball before and after impacting with the turf was recorded using a still camera and a stroboscope. The resulting photographs contained successive images of the ball on a single frame of film. The apparatus was tested on eighteen golf courses resulting in 721 photographs of impacts. Statistical analysis was carried out on the results of the photographs and from this, two types of green emerged. On the first, the ball tended to rebound with topspin, while on the second, the ball retained backspin after impact if the initial backspin was greater than about 350 rads-1. Eleven tests were devised to determine the characteristics of greens and statistical techniques were used to analyse the relationships between these tests. These showed the effects of the green characteristics on ball/turf impacts. It was found that the ball retained backspin on greens that were freely drained and had less than 60% of Poa annua (annual meadow grass) in their swards. Visco-elastic models were used to simulate the impact of the ball with the turf. Impacts were simulated by considering the ball to be rigid and the turf to be a two layered system consisting of springs and dampers. The model showed good agreement with experiment and was used to simulate impacts from two different shots onto two contrasting types of green.

A Theory and Test of How Speakers with Nonnative Accents are Evaluated in Entrepreneurial Settings

An abundance of research in the social sciences has demonstrated a persistent bias against nonnative English speakers (Giles & Billings, 2004; Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010). Yet, organizational scholars have only begun to investigate the underlying mechanisms that drive the bias against nonnative speakers and subsequently design interventions to mitigate these biases. In this dissertation, I offer an integrative model to organize past explanations for accent-based bias into a coherent framework, and posit that nonnative accents elicit social perceptions that have implications at the personal, relational, and group level. I also seek to complement the existing emphasis on main effects of accents, which focuses on the general tendency to discriminate against those with accents, by examining moderators that shed light on the conditions under which accent-based bias is most likely to occur. Specifically, I explore the idea that people’s beliefs about the controllability of accents can moderate their evaluations toward nonnative speakers, such that those who believe that accents can be controlled are more likely to demonstrate a bias against nonnative speakers. I empirically test my theoretical model in three studies in the context of entrepreneurial funding decisions. Results generally supported the proposed model. By examining the micro foundations of accent-based bias, the ideas explored in this dissertation set the stage for future research in an increasingly multilingual world.

Response process and test-retest reliability of the Context Assessment for Community Health tool in Vietnam

BACKGROUND: The recently developed Context Assessment for Community Health (COACH) tool aims to measure aspects of the local healthcare context perceived to influence knowledge translation in low- and middle-income countries. The tool measures eight dimensions (organizational resources, community engagement, monitoring services for action, sources of knowledge, commitment to work, work culture, leadership, and informal payment) through 49 items. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore the understanding and stability of the COACH tool among health providers in Vietnam. DESIGNS: To investigate the response process, think-aloud interviews were undertaken with five community health workers, six nurses and midwives, and five physicians. Identified problems were classified according to Conrad and Blair's taxonomy and grouped according to an estimation of the magnitude of the problem's effect on the response data. Further, the stability of the tool was examined using a test-retest survey among 77 respondents. The reliability was analyzed for items (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and percent agreement) and dimensions (ICC and Bland-Altman plots). RESULTS: In general, the think-aloud interviews revealed that the COACH tool was perceived as clear, well organized, and easy to answer. Most items were understood as intended. However, seven prominent problems in the items were identified and the content of three dimensions was perceived to be of a sensitive nature. In the test-retest survey, two-thirds of the items and seven of eight dimensions were found to have an ICC agreement ranging from moderate to substantial (0.5-0.7), demonstrating that the instrument has an acceptable level of stability. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that the Vietnamese translation of the COACH tool is generally perceived to be clear and easy to understand and has acceptable stability. There is, however, a need to rephrase and add generic examples to clarify some items and to further review items with low ICC.

Methods for Parallelizing Search Paths in Phrasing

Many search problems are commonly solved with combinatoric algorithms that unnecessarily duplicate and serialize work at considerable computational expense. There are techniques available that can eliminate redundant computations and perform remaining operations concurrently, effectively reducing the branching factors of these algorithms. This thesis applies these techniques to the problem of parsing natural language. The result is an efficient programming language that can reduce some of the expense associated with principle-based parsing and other search problems. The language is used to implement various natural language parsers, and the improvements are compared to those that result from implementing more deterministic theories of language processing.

Adiabatic compression testing - part II : background and approach to estimating severity of test methodology

Adiabatic compression testing of components in gaseous oxygen is a test method that is utilized worldwide and is commonly required to qualify a component for ignition tolerance under its intended service. This testing is required by many industry standards organizations and government agencies; however, a thorough evaluation of the test parameters and test system influences on the thermal energy produced during the test has not yet been performed. This paper presents a background for adiabatic compression testing and discusses an approach to estimating potential differences in the thermal profiles produced by different test laboratories. A “Thermal Profile Test Fixture” (TPTF) is described that is capable of measuring and characterizing the thermal energy for a typical pressure shock by any test system. The test systems at Wendell Hull & Associates, Inc. (WHA) in the USA and at the BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Germany are compared in this manner and some of the data obtained is presented. The paper also introduces a new way of comparing the test method to idealized processes to perform system-by-system comparisons. Thus, the paper introduces an “Idealized Severity Index” (ISI) of the thermal energy to characterize a rapid pressure surge. From the TPTF data a “Test Severity Index” (TSI) can also be calculated so that the thermal energies developed by different test systems can be compared to each other and to the ISI for the equivalent isentropic process. Finally, a “Service Severity Index” (SSI) is introduced to characterizing the thermal energy of actual service conditions. This paper is the second in a series of publications planned on the subject of adiabatic compression testing.