Simplified nonlinear analysis to compute neutral axis depth in prestressed concrete rectangular beams

Recent research in concrete analysis and design has revealed that the shear capacity contributed by concrete correlates well with the neutral axis depth. While nonlinear analysis calculation of the neutral axis depth is trivial for reinforced concrete beams, it is iterative for prestressed concrete beams and does not lend itself to straightforward hand calculations. In this study, a program is developed to simulate the response of prestressed concrete rectangular sections subjected to monotonic bending taking into account cracking, yielding and ultimate states. This program is used to benchmark a simplified analytical procedure devised to perform the same task by hand. Accordingly, critical observations made to a large pool of experimental and analytical results reveal that the moment-curvature and moment-extreme fiber strain can be accurately modeled as trilinear relationships. The four key points that define the trilinear functions (initial, cracking, yielding and ultimate) may be computed analytically from simple equations derived based on consistent assumptions with the true behavior. Once the simplified analysis is performed, the computation of the neutral axis depth becomes a simple hand calculation. A parametric study was performed to further simplify the analytical procedure by computing the four key points that define the trilinear functions through linear relationships that were derived based on regression analysis of a large number of beam solutions. The neutral axis depth was calculated using the analytical and the simplified procedures for three beams with different ratios of prestressing steel and concrete strength. The results compared well with the iterative numerical procedure.     

Do charismatic presidents influence college applications and alumni donations? Organizational identity and performance in US higher education

The effect of charismatic leadership on organizational performance is contested. Yet despite the lack of consistent evidence of the value of charismatic leadership to organizations, presidential searches have increasingly favored charismatic candidates. This study shows how organizational identity mediates the relationship between charismatic leadership and organizational performance. Among religious colleges, but not among private colleges considered overall, there is a positive relationship between presidents’ charismatic leadership and the number of applications for enrollment and the amount of financial donations colleges receive. This suggests that among organizations with atypical identities, charismatic leadership can be interpreted as a meaningful signal of organizational performance.     

An investigation of relationships between students’ mathematical problem-posing abilities and their mathematical content knowledge

The importance of students’ problem-posing abilities in mathematics has been emphasized in the K-12 curricula in the USA and China. There are claims that problem-posing activities are helpful in developing creative approaches to mathematics. At the same time, there are also claims that students’ mathematical content knowledge could be highly related to creativity in mathematics, too. This paper reports on a study that investigated USA and Chinese high school students’ mathematical content knowledge, their abilities in mathematical problem posing, and the relationships between students’ mathematical content knowledge and their problem-posing abilities in mathematics.     

Being a Stranger and the Strangeness of Being: Joseph Conrad’s ‘The secret sharer’ as an allegory of being in education

Abstract

Joseph Conrad’s ‘The secret sharer’ has often been associated with what can be called initiation stories. However, in this article I argue that Conrad’s text is more than that. It can, I suggest, be read as an allegory of the inaccessibility to reveal the essence of being in command, being in education, and also the inaccessibility of the essence of the meaning of the text itself. It keeps its secret by allegorically staging alternative readings. This inaccessibility gives rise to a feeling of strangeness, of the uncanny, that must be faced in order to pass through the initiation into the unknown that all the possible allegorical meanings of the text produce. In other words, ‘The secret sharer’ has an educational value that goes beyond the act of merely using it to exemplify a certain type of initiation. In this way I connect Conrad’s text to the themes of strangeness and the stranger and show how they mutually can involve a reading of education and literature as two distinct discourses of learning.     

CATHOLICS IN THE REA, 1903–1953

This article describes the involvement of Roman Catholics in the Religious Education Association during the first 50 years of its existence. It examines attitudes of Protestants toward Catholics expressed in journal articles, convention speeches, and archival material. It presents the contributions of Roman Catholics at conventions and in journal articles during this period. The article contends that Roman Catholics deepened involvement in the REA went a long way to making the association a multifaith organization. The history also documents changes in Roman Catholic viewpoints and emphases over the period of these 50 years from an exclusive concern with schooling to a broader view of the educational mission of the church and from education in an authoritarian and dogmatic spirit to one slightly more open to outside influences and cautiously willing to cooperate with other religious groups.     

Building an educative community for early childhood development

This article briefly describes the policy changes in Early Childhood Development in South Africa since 1994. It describes an attempt in Northern Province to generate discussion about the changes with a group of teacher‐practitioners and to highlight the action necessary to develop and implement the policies. The methodology of the process is discussed, with particular reference to the role of the researcher as an agent for change.