The article investigates the patterns that arise in the convergence of numerical methods, particularly those in the errors involved in successive iterations, using data analysis and curve fitting methods. In particular, the results obtained are used to convey a deeper level of understanding of the concepts of linear, quadratic, and cubic…

Government policies sometimes cause unintended consequences for other potentially desirable behaviors. One such policy is the charitable tax deduction, which encourages charitable giving by allowing individuals to deduct giving from taxable income. Whether charitable giving and other desirable behaviors are complements or substitutes affect the…

This report demonstrates how existing national data can be used to first calculate upper limits on the average cost per participant and per outcome per state/territory for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). These upper limits can then be used by state EFNEP administrators to obtain more precise estimates for their states,…

Innovation processes are critical for preserving and improving our standard of living. While innovation has been studied by many disciplines, the focus has been on qualitative measures that are specific to a single technological domain. I adopt a quantitative approach to investigate underlying regularities that generalize across multiple domains.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the screening measures used to assess students entering kindergarten in he state of Indiana. In addition, this study sought to determine how the data from these measures are used to inform classroom reading instruction. Eighty-nine schools participated in the study and sixty-two of those schools completed…

A large body of literature exists on evolutionary computing, genetic algorithms, decision trees, codified knowledge, and knowledge management systems; however, the intersection of these computing topics has not been widely researched. Moving through the set of all possible solutions--or traversing the search space--at random exhibits no control…

The issue of measurement invariance commonly arises in factor-analytic contexts, with methods for assessment including likelihood ratio tests, Lagrange multiplier tests, and Wald tests. These tests all require advance definition of the number of groups, group membership, and offending model parameters. In this paper, we study tests of measurement…

Probabilistic topic models have been developed for applications in various domains such as text mining, information retrieval and computer vision and bioinformatics domain. In this thesis, we focus on developing novel probabilistic topic models for image mining and bioinformatics studies. Specifically, a probabilistic topic-connection (PTC) model…

The list of physiological events in which sex steroids play a role continues to increase. To decipher the roles that sex steroids play in any condition requires high quality cohorts of samples and assays that provide highly accurate quantitative measures. Liquid and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS and GC-MS) have…

In the United States, children that require mental health supports most frequently receive them in school. Promoting social-emotional skills is considered both a universal prevention against future psychological disturbances as well as a core component in the treatment of psychological disorders. However, fostering social-emotional skills requires…

The main objective of this research was to review the characteristics of portfolios and their outcomes for teaching professionalism to undergraduate medical students. A systematic review on the use of portfolios in teaching professionalism to medical students identified 1,257 papers. Of these, 11 articles met all inclusion criteria. According to…

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to predict transfer of learning to workplace among adult learners enrolled in a continuing professional education (CPE) training program, specifically training courses offered through face-to-face, blended and online instruction formats. The study examined the predictive capacity of trainee…

Designing and evaluating teacher development programs for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) who teach in the laboratory is a prominent feature of chemistry education research. However, few studies have investigated the impact of a GTA teacher development program on the verbal interactions between participating GTAs and students in the…

By giving early adolescents in their last 2 years of primary/elementary schooling opportunities to voice their ideas, teacher educators, school leaders, and teachers gain insight into how children view their mathematics learning. This article explores the views and aspirations of 34 11- to 13-year-old students from a range of socioeconomic schools…

When classifying the evidence base of practices, special education scholars typically appraise study quality to identify and exclude from consideration in their reviews unacceptable-quality studies that are likely biased and might bias review findings if included. However, study quality appraisals used in the process of identifying evidence-based…