The Conservation Reserve Program in the Presence of a Working Land Alternative: Implications for Environmental Quality, Program Participation, and Income Transfer, August 2005

The United States has invested large sums of resources in multiple conservation programs for agriculture over the past century. In this paper we focus on the impacts of program interactions. Specifically, using an integrated economic and bio-physical modeling framework, we consider the impacts of the presence of working land programs on a land retirement for an important agricultural region—the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). Compared to a land retirement only program, we find that the presence of a working land program for conservation tillage results in significantly lower predicted signups for land retirement at a given rental rate. We also find that the presence of both a large working land and land retirement program can result in more environmental benefits and income transfers than a land retirement only program can achieve.

Mediate evaluation of replicating a Training Program in Nonverbal Communication in Gerontology

OBJECTIVE Replicating the training program in non-verbal communication based on the theoretical framework of interpersonal communication; non-verbal coding, valuing the aging aspects in the perspective of active aging, checking its current relevance through the content assimilation index after 90 days (mediate) of its application. METHOD A descriptive and exploratory field study was conducted in three hospitals under direct administration of the state of São Paulo that caters exclusively to Unified Health System (SUS) patients. The training lasted 12 hours divided in three meetings, applied to 102 health professionals. RESULTS Revealed very satisfactory and satisfactory mediate content assimilation index in 82.9%. CONCLUSION The program replication proved to be relevant and updated the setting of hospital services, while remaining efficient for healthcare professionals.

A comment on the Nash program and the theory of implementation

The mechanisms in the Nash program for cooperative games are madecompatible with the framework of the theory of implementation. This is donethrough a reinterpretation of the characteristic function that avoids feasibilityproblems, thereby allowing an analysis that focuses exclusively on the payoff space. In this framework, we show that the core is the only majorcooperative solution that is Maskin monotonic. Thus, implementation of mostcooperative solutions must rely on refinements of the Nash equilibrium concept(like most papers in the Nash program do). Finally, the mechanisms in theNash program are adapted into the model.

PyRate: a new program to estimate speciation and extinction rates from incomplete fossil data

Despite the advancement of phylogenetic methods to estimate speciation and extinction rates, their power can be limited under variable rates, in particular for clades with high extinction rates and small number of extant species. Fossil data can provide a powerful alternative source of information to investigate diversification processes. Here, we present PyRate, a computer program to estimate speciation and extinction rates and their temporal dynamics from fossil occurrence data. The rates are inferred in a Bayesian framework and are comparable to those estimated from phylogenetic trees. We describe how PyRate can be used to explore different models of diversification. In addition to the diversification rates, it provides estimates of the parameters of the preservation process (fossilization and sampling) and the times of speciation and extinction of each species in the data set. Moreover, we develop a new birth-death model to correlate the variation of speciation/extinction rates with changes of a continuous trait. Finally, we demonstrate the use of Bayes factors for model selection and show how the posterior estimates of a PyRate analysis can be used to generate calibration densities for Bayesian molecular clock analysis. PyRate is an open-source command-line Python program available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyrate/.

Juvenile Crime Prevention Community Grand Fund Outcomes Report and FY2002 Juvenile Justice Youth Development Program Summary, January 2002

This document contains two related, but separate reports. The Juvenile Crime Prevention Community Grant Fund Outcomes Report is a summary of outcomes from services and activities funded through the Juvenile Crime Prevention Community Grant Fund in FY2001. The Juvenile Justice Youth Development Program Summary describes Iowa communities’ current prevention and sanction programs supported with funding from the Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP) during FY2002. The material in Juvenile Crime Prevention Community Grant Fund Outcomes Report is presented in response to a legislative mandate to report specific prevention outcomes for the community Grant Fund. It includes a brief description of a Youth Development Results Framework established by the Iowa Collaboration for Youth Development. Outcomes are reported using this results framework, which was developed by a number of state agencies as a common tool for various state programs involving youth development related planning and funding processes. Included in this report is a description of outcomes from the prevention activities funded, all or in part, by the Community Grant Fund, as reported by local communities. The program summaries presented in the Juvenile Justice Youth Development Program Summary provide an overview of local efforts to implement their 2002 Juvenile Justice Youth Development plans and include prevention and sanction programs funded through the combined resources of the State Community Grant Fund and the Federal Title V Prevention, Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention Act Formula Grant and Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant programs. These combined funds are referred to in this document as the Juvenile Justice Youth Development (JJYD) funds. To administer the JJYD funds, including funds from the Community Grant Fund, CJJP partners with local officials to facilitate a community planning process that determines the communities’ priorities for the use of the funds. The local planning is coordinated by the Iowa’s Decategorization Boards (Decats). These local officials and/or their staff have been leaders in providing oversight or staff support to a variety of local planning initiatives (e.g. child welfare, Comprehensive Strategy Pilot Projects, Empowerment, other) and bring child welfare and community planning experience to the table for the creation of comprehensive community longterm planning efforts. The allocation of these combined funds and the technical assistance received by the Decats from CJJP is believed to have helped enhance both child welfare and juvenile justice efforts locally and has provided for the recognition and establishment of connections for joint child welfare/juvenile justice planning. The allocation and local planning approach has allowed funding from CJJP to be “blended” or “braided” with other local, state, and federal dollars that flow to communities as a result of their local planning responsibilities. The program descriptions provided in this document reflect services and activities supported with JJYD funds. In many cases, however, additional funding sources have been used to fully fund the programs. Most of the information in this document’s two reports was submitted to CJJP by the communities through an on- line planning and reporting process established jointly by the DHS and CJJP.

Transportation Program Management System, HR-394, 2003

HR-394 was a software and database development project. Via funding provided by the Iowa Highway Research Board, the Iowa County Engineer's Association Service Bureau oversaw the planning and implementation of an Internet based application that supports two major local-government transportation project activities: Project programming and Development tracking. The goals were to reduce errors and inconsistencies, speed up the processes, link people to both project data and each other, and build a framework that could eventually support a 'paperless' work flow. The work started in 1999 and initial development was completed by the fall of 2002. Since going live, several 'piggy back' applications have been required to make the Programming side better fit actual work procedures. This part of the system has proven adequate but will be rewritten in 2004 to make it easier to use. The original development side module was rejected by the users and so had to be rewritten in 2003. The second version has proven much better, is heavily used, and is interconnected with Iowa DOT project data systems. Now that the system is in operation, it will be maintained and operated by the ICEA Service Bureau as an ongoing service function.

Asset Management Program Enhancement Plan: Baseline Assessment Phases I and II, 2015

This project resulted in the development of a framework for making asset management decisions on low-volume bridges. The research focused on low-volume bridges located in the agricultural counties of Iowa because recent research has shown that these counties have the greatest percentage of structurally deficient bridges in the nation. Many of the same counties also have the highest crop yields in the state, creating a situation where detours caused by deficient bridges on farm-to-market roads increase the cost to transport the crops. Thus, the research proposed the use of social return on investment (SROI), a tool used by international institutions such as the World Bank, as an asset management metric to gauge to the socioeconomic impact of structurally deficient bridges on the state in an effort to provide quantified justification to fund improvements on low-volume assets such as these rural bridges. The study found that combining SROI with current asset management metrics like average daily traffic (ADT) made it possible to prioritize the bridges in such a way that the limited resources available are allocated in a manner that promotes a more equitable distribution and that directly benefits the user, in this case Iowa farmers. The result is a system that more closely aligns itself with the spirit of MAP-21, in that infrastructure investments are used to facilitate economic growth for Iowa’s agricultural economy.

A logic programming framework for possibilistic argumentation: formalization and logical properties

In the last decade defeasible argumentation frameworks have evolved to become a sound setting to formalize commonsense, qualitative reasoning. The logic programming paradigm has shown to be particularly useful for developing different argument-based frameworks on the basis of different variants of logic programming which incorporate defeasible rules. Most of such frameworks, however, are unable to deal with explicit uncertainty, nor with vague knowledge, as defeasibility is directly encoded in the object language. This paper presents Possibilistic Logic Programming (P-DeLP), a new logic programming language which combines features from argumentation theory and logic programming, incorporating as well the treatment of possibilistic uncertainty. Such features are formalized on the basis of PGL, a possibilistic logic based on G¨odel fuzzy logic. One of the applications of P-DeLP is providing an intelligent agent with non-monotonic, argumentative inference capabilities. In this paper we also provide a better understanding of such capabilities by defining two non-monotonic operators which model the expansion of a given program P by adding new weighed facts associated with argument conclusions and warranted literals, respectively. Different logical properties for the proposed operators are studied

BEX Mejora continua framework

Memoria de la implementación de un software que permite la gestión y control de todo el framework que requiere gestionar el departamento de mejora continua (BEX Business Excelence).

RTOS Framework for Real-Time Control System

This thesis is done as a complementary part for the active magnet bearing (AMB) control software development project in Lappeenranta University of Technology. The main focus of the thesis is to examine an idea of a real-time operating system (RTOS) framework that operates in a dedicated digital signal processor (DSP) environment. General use real-time operating systems do not necessarily provide sufficient platform for periodic control algorithm utilisation. In addition, application program interfaces found in real-time operating systems are commonly non-existent or provided as chip-support libraries, thus hindering platform independent software development. Hence, two divergent real-time operating systems and additional periodic extension software with the framework design are examined to find solutions for the research problems. The research is discharged by; tracing the selected real-time operating system, formulating requirements for the system, and designing the real-time operating system framework (OSFW). The OSFW is formed by programming the framework and conjoining the outcome with the RTOS and the periodic extension. The system is tested and functionality of the software is evaluated in theoretical context of the Rate Monotonic Scheduling (RMS) theory. The performance of the OSFW and substance of the approach are discussed in contrast to the research theme. The findings of the thesis demonstrates that the forged real-time operating system framework is a viable groundwork solution for periodic control applications.

Informal learning and competence development during a management trainee program

The purpose of this research was to study how management trainee program participants experienced the program with respect to their learning and competence development. Additionally, the purpose was also to examine what the trainees learned and how the learning occurred. Furthermore, factors affecting learning in the workplace were examined. The theoretical framework of this research was formed utilizing individual competence and informal learning frameworks. Research was conducted as a single case study and data was gathered by thematic interviews. The results of this research indicate that the trainees experienced the program as a good method for learning the overall picture of the organization and its business. Regarding competence development, especially knowledge- and cognitive competence categories were developed during the program. The best learning outcomes were achieved through learning by doing, in co-operation with others, and learning from others. The results indicate that the planning of the program and its structure have a significant effect on learning. Furthermore, a sufficient level of challenge was experienced as being important for the quality of the learning as well.

Adopting the Vaadin Java framework to rebuild VTT’s Web Interfaces and Database Applications

With the growth in new technologies, using online tools have become an everyday lifestyle. It has a greater impact on researchers as the data obtained from various experiments needs to be analyzed and knowledge of programming has become mandatory even for pure biologists. Hence, VTT came up with a new tool, R Executables (REX) which is a web application designed to provide a graphical interface for biological data functions like Image analysis, Gene expression data analysis, plotting, disease and control studies etc., which employs R functions to provide results. REX provides a user interactive application for the biologists to directly enter the values and run the required analysis with a single click. The program processes the given data in the background and prints results rapidly. Due to growth of data and load on server, the interface has gained problems concerning time consumption, poor GUI, data storage issues, security, minimal user interactive experience and crashes with large amount of data. This thesis handles the methods by which these problems were resolved and made REX a better application for the future. The old REX was developed using Python Django and now, a new programming language, Vaadin has been implemented. Vaadin is a Java framework for developing web applications and the programming language is extremely similar to Java with new rich components. Vaadin provides better security, better speed, good and interactive interface. In this thesis, subset functionalities of REX was selected which includes IST bulk plotting and image segmentation and implemented those using Vaadin. A code of 662 lines was programmed by me which included Vaadin as the front-end handler while R language was used for back-end data retrieval, computing and plotting. The application is optimized to allow further functionalities to be migrated with ease from old REX. Future development is focused on including Hight throughput screening functions along with gene expression database handling

The impact of a training program in phonological awareness on children's early writing

This study examined the effects that a training program in phonological awareness had on the early writing skills of children in a Grade One class in the Lincoln County Separate school system. The intent of the training program was to provide consistent and systematic practice in the manipulation of the phonological structure of language. The games and activities of the training program were related to a framework of developmental phonological skills and practised in a group setting during an unstructured period of the regular classroom schedule. The training program operated three days in a six-day cycle for approximately twenty minutes a day, from November until mid-March. All children were tested at the outset and conclusion of the study to determine level of functioning in letter identification, word recognition, verbal intelligence, phonological awareness and spelling. Results of the pre-tests and post-tests were compared to determine differences between the experimental and control groups over time. In addition, a systematic analysis of the children's writing looked at the development of the spelling of regular and irregular words. The results of this study provided strong support for the hypothesis that the treatment group would progress through the stages of early writing development more quickly than children without such training. On the basis of differences between the groups over time, it was evident that training in phonological awareness had a direct positive effect on the spelling of regular words for children during the early stages of writing. The training program did not have a significant effect on the spelling of irregular words. Test results evaluating phonological awareness indicated a significant difference within each group over time but no significance between the groups during the experimental period. It would appear that the results of these tests reflect maturational changes in the child rather than causal effects of the training program. Nor did the effects of the training program transfer significantly to other aspects of language. Although some of the hypotheses considered were not supported by the study, the results do indicate that children during the early stages of writing development can benefit from a training program in phonological awareness. The theoretical direction for effective programming as a result of this study is discussed. The educational implications of training phonological awareness concurrent to beginning efforts in writing are considered.

A framework for understanding the factors that influence spectators' recall and recognition of embedded sponsorship stimuli

Now, more than ever, sponsors of athletic events demand to see evidence of a commercial return, such as enhanced brand awareness, for their investment of cash or non-cash resources (Lough et aI., 2000). The most common way to measure the impact of perimeter signage (Le., any billboard or sign that displays a company's brand name and/or logo and which surrounds the playing area) on spectators' awareness of event sponsors has been through the use of brand name recall and recognition tests (Shilbury & Berriman, 1996). Recall testing requires spectators to list all of the sponsors they can remember seeing at, for example, an athletic event, strictly from memory and without any help (Cuneen & Hannan, 1993). With recognition testing, spectators are required to identify sponsors from a prepared list which include "dummy" brand names (i.e., sponsors that are present in the list but which do not actually sponsor the event). In order to determine whether sponsors' brand awareness objectives are being met, it is important for sport and recreation marketers to understand what influences a spectator's ability to remember (Le., recall and/or recognize) the brand names of companies who advertise on perimeter signage. The purpose this study was to examine the factors that influence spectators' recall and recognition of embedded sponsorship stimuli (i.e., company brand names on perimeter signage surrounding the play area) at a Canadian University's men's basketball game and football game. These factors included the number of games spectators attended over the course of the season (i.e., repeated exposure to sponsorship stimuli), spectators' level of involvement with the event, and spectators' level of involvement with the advertisements (i.e., perimeter signage). This study also examined the differences between recall and recognition as a means of measuring spectators' awareness of sponsors, and attempted to determine if there are sport differences in spectators' recall and recognition of perimeter signage. Upon leaving the football stadium or gymnasium, spectators were approached, at random, by trained research assistants located at each exit and asked to complete a brief survey questionnaire. Respondents completed the survey on-site. A total of 358 completed surveys were collected from spectators who attended the football (N = 277) and basketball (N = 81) games. The data suggest that football and basketball respondents recognized more sponsors' brand names than they recalled. In addition, football respondents who were highly involved with the event (i.e., those individuals who viewed attending the events as fun, interesting and exciting) attended more games over the course of the season and had significantly higher brand name recognition of sponsors who advertised on perimeter signage than those individuals with low involvement with the athletic event. Football respondents who were highly involved with the sponsors' advertisements (i.e., those individuals who viewed sponsors' perimeter signage as appealing, valuable and important) had significantly higher brand name recall of event sponsors than those individuals with low involvement with these sponsors' advertisements. Repeated exposure to perimeter signage did not have a significant influence on football or basketball respondents' recall or recognition of sponsors. Finally, the data revealed that football respondents had significantly higher recall of sponsors' brand names than basketball respondents. Conversely, basketball respondents had significantly higher recognition of sponsors' brand names than did football respondents.

Identifying language needs of ESL students in a Canadian university based intensive English language program

This study investigated the needs of adult ESL learners intending to pursue higher education in Canada. Its chief purpose was to enable educators and administrators to design ESL programs that would prepare students to function at optimal levels in academic and social settings during their university studies. The study adopted a mixed research method that was predominantly qualitative in its orientation and narrative in its implementation. It focused on an Intensive English Language Program (IELP) offered at an Ontario university. Using a holistic approach, the study sought to represent the various perspectives of all the participants in the program: the students, the instructors, and the administrators. Analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from 17 students, 6 instructors, and 1 administrator in the IELP showed that to a large extent the academic needs ofESL learners in the IELP were generally not being met. Most notably, the study found that learners were not receiving sufficient training in speaking and listening skills, a factor that contributed to their sense of insecurity and lack of confidence in their ability to communicate successfully in academic and social settings. The study also revealed that the solutions to many of the problems it identified lay not in the classroom but in the way the ESL program was structured administratively. One major recommendation to come out of the study is that programs like the IELP should be restructured so as to give them greater flexibility in meeting individual needs. While the study labored under certain limitations and did not achieve all of its goals, it did succeed in creating awareness ofthe problems and in establishing a methodological approach that can serve as a framework within which future research may be conducted in this somewhat neglected area.