Learning from Failure: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Study Which Resulted in Unfavorable Financial Outcomes

This article describes a cost-benefit analysis study which resulted in unfavorable financial outcomes and discusses how this result became a learning opportunity for human performance development (HRD) professionals in the organization. Demonstrating the contributions of human performance development/performance improvement (HRD/PI) programs through cost-benefit analysis is a continuing need in organizations. However, most cost-benefit analysis case studies have reported favorable financial results. While these results may help raise the perceived status of the field, in fact, reporting unfavorable results may provide a richer professional learning opportunity than otherwise might be available.     

Third and fourth graders' conceptions of repeated trials and best representatives in science experiments

This study involved 24 third- and fourth-grade students in a suburban school in the Chicago area. These children had been learning science through a reform-based, integrated science and mathematics curriculum for about 2 years. In this study I explore how these children made sense of a scientific procedure that had been introduced to them and they had used before in their own experimental inquiries: performing repeated trials and determining the best representative of the measurements of a continuous dependent variable. Specifically, I explore how children made sense of the variability in the results of repeated trials, how their ideas of repeated trials and best representatives are related to their understandings of the sources of the variability, and how they thought about what would be the best representative of their measurements. The data and analysis reveal the complexity of the understandings involved in this apparently simple procedure, as children attempted to appropriate for themselves the procedure that had been introduced to them. The results support the idea that many of the children had not conceptualized the procedure of repeating trials and finding the best representative of the results in the way adult practitioners do. They also point to the value of introducing children to such experimental procedures. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 853–872, 1997.     

Music search engines: Specifications and challenges

Nowadays we have a proliferation of music data available over the Web. One of the imperative challenges is how to search these vast, global-scale musical resources to find preferred music. Recent research has envisaged the notion of music search engines (MSEs) that allow for searching preferred music over the Web. In this paper, we examine the growing research topic of MSEs, and provide potential specifications to follow and challenges to face.     

The Paradox of Being a Woman Teacher

In this article, the author follows genealogical lines of analysis in an attempt to map the different discourses and practices that interweave women's position in education today. Education is theorised as a nexus of created paradoxical spaces, where the female self has attempted to surpass closed boundaries and to question the dichotomy of the feminised private and/or the masculine public. The author also considers the importance of time restrictions upon women's lives and pays attention to the multifarious ways these lives are highly structured by specific space/time regulations. The genealogical mapthat is drawn depicts various positions, where the female self has created parodic unities and temporary coalitions. Finally, in tracing exit points that education has offered women, the author considers some of the implications of feminist theories for the subversion of the various dilemmas and dichotomies the female subject has lived through.     

The virtual laboratory concept applied to strain measurements

In recent years the methodology of engineering education has been changing and many projects deal with improving the educational software. This paper reports on the virtual laboratory, a virtual environment applied to experimental analysis. The goals of the virtual laboratory are to introduce the laboratory environment to the student entering this world, so different from the typical theoretical lectures, for the first time, and to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks. It should be mentioned that the virtual laboratory is not meant to replace highly enriching, practical experience, but rather is meant to train the individual, in order to improve his/her performance in later actual practice. The virtual laboratory experience starts with the study of strain measurements, an engineering technique widely used to measure deformations, strains, mechanical properties of materials and other variables which are used to analyse many problems.The strain measurement virtual laboratory is meant to offer the possibility of simulating experiences, undergone in a real laboratory, through the Internet. The student is expected to familiarize him/herself with the techniques, procedures, devices and theories in the laboratory environment.     

Tibetan Cultural Identity in Nepal: Change,Preservation, Prospects

In the difficult circumstances of institutional discrimination and political pressure, the Tibetan minority in Nepal negotiate their identity with utmost communicative resourcefulness, tying their values to universal ethics. They resort to their spiritual heritage in their daily intercultural encounters, seeing it mostly as an essential mindset. Developing intercultural personhood through universalization does not challenge identity salience, if one’s culture is adhered to consciously. The respondents are optimistic about preserving their culture, provided the positive factors, such as community living and cultural education, persist. The obstacles are seen in materialistic influences, globalization and lack of interest among the young generation.     

Assessing stains on historical documents using hyperspectral imaging

Hyperspectral imaging can be an important tool for the assessment and documentation of the state of preservation of an object. Over time, documents that have experienced heavy usage will inevitably show evidence of handling, which can include staining. In this paper, the use of hyperspectral imaging is described for enhancing the assessment of the visual properties of stains. The use of imaging software (ENVI) is also described for quantitatively assessing the extent of staining in two different documents. Single 10 nm bandpass images can be useful assessing darker stains with well defined boundaries. In one document (a treaty), the faint discolouration on one page made the extent of staining difficult to assess visually. A false colour density slice (450 nm) provided a topographical image which was useful for enhancing the contrast between stained and unstained paper. In this type of image, the degree of discolouration could be correlated to optical density and the amount of staining on a page could then be related to the number of pixels for a given absorbance range. In a second document (a prayer book), the staining was more extensive and some of the stains were dark in appearance. This document also contained a lot of text that was written using a dark irongall ink, which limited the use of a density slice at a single bandpass. In this document, pixel unmixing was successfully used to quantitatively determine the extent of staining. The measurement tool provided with the Nuance? Imaging System made it possible to quantitatively describe the size of the stain in terms of the number of pixels as well as its appearance in terms of average optical density.