Browsing by Subject "effectiveness"
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Exploring the Effectiveness of LEED Certification in LEED Certified Healthcare Settings in Climate Zone 2 and 3(2012-10-19) Xuan, XiaodongMost LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings are commercial office buildings and multi-use buildings. As of October 2009, 35,000 projects were registered in the LEED system, "comprising over 4.5 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 91 countries." However, as of April 30, 2009, only 43 healthcare projects had achieved LEED certification. Currently, most studies focus on the economic benefits and energy consumption of LEED certified buildings, rather than human factors. A small gain in productivity can result in a heftier financial gain. Even modest improvements in productivity and absenteeism can substantially outweigh the energy cost. This study surveyed 164 staff in the two healthcare settings for case study, and 146 staff in the six LEED certified healthcare settings for the main study in climate zone 2 and 3. Telephone interviews with the six facility managers were used to verify the survey results and further examine the healthcare facilities? performance and the effectiveness of the LEED strategies from facility managers' perspectives. Independent t-test was used to examine the difference between the LEED and Non-LEED hospitals in one healthcare system and results showed that building performance were rated higher by staff in LEED certified hospital than Non-LEED hospital. MANOVA was conducted to compare the staff's ratings between Silver and Gold certification levels, male and female, and also explore the possibility of interaction effect. Multilevel regression modeling was used to test how the building performance variables affect the overall comfort and productivity. Study results showed that staff in the Gold certified hospital had significant higher ratings in most the performance variables. Gold certified healthcare settings were significant better in rated building overall, overall comfort and controllability than Silver certified healthcare settings. And males felt more comfortable in temperature than females in healthcare facilities. Regarding the overall comfort and productivity, building design, efficiency of the space use, temperature comfort and controllability over building system were significant predictors for staff overall comfort; and lighting comfort, temperature comfort and controllability over building system had significant positive relationship with perceived productivity. LEED certified healthcare settings appear to have a good environment and building performance for occupants. Controllability, lighting, temperature, use of space, building design were important factors in staff comfort and productivity.Item Leadership behaviors and collective efficacy as perceived by teachers of schools in the Katy Independent School District(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Graham, Joe WilsonThe primary purposes of this study were to discover any connections between leadership effectiveness and collective efficacy from campuses in the Katy Independent School District. It also was designed to discover other possible connections between teacher demographic variables and collective efficacy. The research study for leadership was based on the leadership work of Kouzes and Posner and the survey they created, the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI). The collective efficacy piece was based on the work of Roger Goddard and his work on the collective efficacy survey for school personnel. Leadership effectiveness had a low positive correlation on collective efficacy. All five practices also had a low positive correlation on collective efficacy. These practices are: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Encourage Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. The Challenge the Process practice had the highest correlation on collective efficacy. Each of the practices had breaks at the 30th and 70th percentile groups based on Kouzes and Posner??????s norming group of approximately 18,000 participants. Schools scoring in the below the 30th percentile group in the Model the Way practice werestatistically significantly different than schools scoring in the middle or upper ranges. Schools scoring in the below the 30th percentile group in the Encourage Others to Act practice were statistically significantly different than those scoring in the middle or upper groups as well. There were no other practices showing significant differences in their respective groups. Most length of employment variables showed a low correlation on leadership effectiveness and collective efficacy. Length of employment in Katy ISD had a moderate negative correlation on leadership effectiveness. The researchers categorize schools as schools with high or low collective efficacy based on the teacher comments. High collective efficacy schools commented that they worked as teams and had administrative support. Lower collective efficacy schools mentioned administrative constraints, home life issues, lower administrative support, and lower discipline. The schools were categorized as positive leadership mentioned administrative support, encouragement, and principals who listened. In more negative leadership schools, teachers commented about communication problems and minimal rewards.Item Principals' Time Spent Off Campus and Their Perception of its Effectiveness(2012-04-19) Takahashi-Kury, Yuka; MacNeil, Angus; Busch, Steven; Emerson, Michael W.; Amine, RayyanAn educational leader must perform many roles from being a business manager to instructional leader. Principals are required to be “jacks of all trades” to meet the challenges of today (Shelton, 2008, p. 4). A principal has the most influence in implementing changes and affecting the climate and culture of the educational organization (Anderson, S., Leithwood,K., Louis,K.S., & Wahlstrom, K., 2004; Shelton, S. V., 2009). According to Fuller and Young (2009), the recent research findings indicate that in order to advance and sustain the increased performance of students, it is crucial to have a strong principal in a school to lead the change. This study is a section of a survey study of principals in Houston and surrounding areas in Southeast Texas. The focus is to find out on average how many hours the participants work per week, the average percentage of the time they spend off campus during the week, their perception in whether they feel they are using their time effectively, the emerging themes of what they consider effective use of time and ineffective use of time, and to find out who arranges the mandatory off campus meetings. It is a quantitative survey research with five open-ended questions and one Likert scale question. A mixed methods approach is used to analyze this study. The responses were analyzed using correlational techniques, statistical, and causal-comparative approach. The totals of 178 usable responses were acquired through the use of cognitive interview of each principal. The demographic information of the participants were obtained to further analyze the data based on gender, experience level and experience range of principals, TAKS rating, and the location of school. The result revealed principals’ average working hours were 59.8 hours a week. The average percentage of hours spent off campus was 13.5% a week. Other findings related to the perception of how necessary it is to spend the time off campus, the description of the effective and ineffective use of time off campus, and who arranges the off campus meetings will be useful for the administrators and the school districts in the future.Item Sensorless Speed Control of Permanent Magnet-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor (PMa-SynRM)(2011-02-22) Chakali, Anil K.An interesting alternative for today's high efficiency variable speed drives is the Permanent Magnet-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor drive, which belongs to the family of brushless synchronous AC motor drives. Generally, the reluctance torque of this motor is significant compared to the Permanent Magnet electrical torque. The advantage of increased reluctance torque is the decreased need of expensive permanent magnet (PM) material, which makes this solution thus cheaper than the respective permanent magnet motor. Also due to its synchronous operation, sensorless rotational control is possible along with higher power factor and better efficiency compared to the induction motor (IM). Therefore, this thesis first deals with the implementation of a vector control strategy for speed control of the PMa-synRM motor that can be applied to a washing machine application. The machine is supplied by a current controlled voltage source PWM inverter to control the instantaneous stator currents which are decided by the reference speed. Secondly, the thesis focuses on the sensorless speed operation of the PMa-SynRM to take advantage of the lower costs as well as increased system reliability which otherwise is not possible using the delicate speed or position sensors. The concept involves estimation of the rotor speed and/or position. There are several speed estimation techniques proposed by researchers and among them the observer based technique is proven and commonly used in the industry. The only requirements of the observer system are a very fast signal processor, specialized and optimized to perform complex mathematical calculations. The feasibility and effectiveness of the control techniques are verified using the experimental results, implemented using the Texas Instruments TMS320F2812 eZDSP controller board and the overall motor drive system in the laboratory.Item Shaped hole effects on film cooling effectiveness and a comparison of multiple effectiveness measurement techniques(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) Varvel, Trent AlanThis experimental study consists of two parts. For the first part, the film cooling effectiveness for a single row of seven cylindrical holes with a compound angle is measured on a flat surface using five different measurement techniques: steady-state liquid crystal thermography, transient liquid crystal thermography, pressure sensitive paint (PSP), thermocouples, and infrared thermography. A comparison of the film cooling effectiveness from each of the measurement techniques is presented. All methods show a good comparison, especially for the higher blowing ratios. The PSP technique shows the most accurate measurements and has more advantages for measuring film cooling effectiveness. Also, the effect of blowing ratio on the film cooling effectiveness is investigated for each of the measurement techniques. The second part of the study investigates the effect of hole geometries on the film cooling effectiveness using pressure sensitive paint. Nitrogen is injected as the coolant air so that the oxygen concentration levels can be obtained for the test surface. The film effectiveness is then obtained by the mass transfer analogy. Five total hole geometries are tested: fan-shaped laidback with a compound angle, fan-shaped laidback with a simple angle, a conical configuration with a compound angle, a conical configuration with a simple angle, and the reference geometry (cylindrical holes) used in part one. The effect of blowing ratio on film cooling effectiveness is presented for each hole geometry. The spanwise averaged effectiveness for each geometry is also presented to compare the geometry effect on film cooling effectiveness. The geometry of the holes has little effect on the effectiveness at low blowing ratios. The laterally expanded holes show improved effectiveness at higher blowing ratios. All experiments are performed in a low speed wind tunnel with a mainstream velocity of 34 m/s. The coolant air is injected through the coolant holes at four different coolant-to-mainstream velocity ratios: 0.3, 0.6, 1.2, and 1.8.