Summary The provision of adequate sound insulation against both internal and external noise is an important aspect of noise control in buildings. This paper describes the basic…
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Summary The provision of adequate sound insulation against both internal and external noise is an important aspect of noise control in buildings. This paper describes the basic principles involved in designing buildings to achieve good sound insulation. Some of the practical ways of ensuring that walls and floors meet their full sound insulation potential are also considered.
Khodabakshsh Karami and Stan Frost
Noise measurement and social questionnaire surveys in three residential areas around Mehrabad International Airport (Tehran, Iran) were based upon randomly selected dwellings in…
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Noise measurement and social questionnaire surveys in three residential areas around Mehrabad International Airport (Tehran, Iran) were based upon randomly selected dwellings in each area. A total of 193 individuals responded and many are annoyed and dissatisfied with aircraft noise and in consequence they would like to move. Aircraft noise is the strongest negative environmental factor affecting the residents in the vicinity of Mehrabad Airport and it could be a hazard for their health.
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Describes a socio‐psychological study performed in a residentialarea of Tehran, exposed to both aircraft and traffic noise. Analysis ofresidents′ responses to road traffic noise…
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Describes a socio‐psychological study performed in a residential area of Tehran, exposed to both aircraft and traffic noise. Analysis of residents′ responses to road traffic noise shows that although aircraft noise is the chief environmental problem it fails to mask the nuisance of traffic noise.
John Komlos and Leonard Carlson
We analyze heights of Indian scouts in the U.S. army born between ca. 1825 and 1875. Their average height of ca. 170 cm (67 in.) confirms that natives were tall compared to…
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We analyze heights of Indian scouts in the U.S. army born between ca. 1825 and 1875. Their average height of ca. 170 cm (67 in.) confirms that natives were tall compared to Europeans but were nearly the shortest among the rural populations in the New World. The trend in their height describes a slightly inverted “U” shape with an increase between those born 1820–1834 and 1835–1839 of ca. 1.8 cm (0.7 in.) (p = 0.000) and a subsequent slight decline after the Civil War. This implies that they were able to maintain and perhaps even improve their nutritional status through the Civil War, though harder times followed for those born thereafter. We also recalculate the heights of Native Americans in the Boas sample and find that the Plains Indians were shorter than most rural Americans. The trend in the height of Indians in the Boas sample is similar to that of the scouts.
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Multiculturalism, in theory and practice, has become an important educational phenomenon in today's schools, colleges, and universities. It seeks inclusive avenues that equalize…
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Multiculturalism, in theory and practice, has become an important educational phenomenon in today's schools, colleges, and universities. It seeks inclusive avenues that equalize opportunities for all individuals (Sue, 2004). To a large measure, it incorporates multiple voices, including those of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) persons and communities in solving local, national, and global problems. As it appears, CLD learners are the majority in some of the largest school districts in the United States (Grossman, 1995, 1998; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Obiakor, 2004; Obiakor & Beachum, 2005). For instance, Ladson-Billings (1994) noted that these learners “represent 30 percent of the public school population. In the twenty largest school districts, they makeup over 70 percent of total school enrollment” (p. x). This revelation is particularly important today, especially because the composition of educational professionals and service providers still does not reflect the changing cultural and linguistic compositions of children in schools (Obiakor, 2007, 2008). At some levels, rather than progressive measures of desegregation, we are seeing retrogressive measures of resegregation. While this might not be a necessarily bad idea for some urban schools, the progressive goals of the 1954 Brown versus the School Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas case have somehow failed (Obiakor & Utley, 2004).
Michel P. Basister and Maria Luisa S. Valenzuela
Different strategies for expanding access to education of children with special needs (CSNs) are being implemented in the Philippines. With the existing definitions, policies, and…
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Different strategies for expanding access to education of children with special needs (CSNs) are being implemented in the Philippines. With the existing definitions, policies, and programs for the country's inclusive education, collaboration between stakeholders will serve as a vital component in achieving a more inclusive environment. Specifically, the journey of CSNs toward full inclusion will depend on the available professional services, easy access to these services, and the mechanisms to address conflicts that may arise in accessing these services. This chapter provides a critical reflection on the impact of existing policies, culture, and practices on the collaborations of professionals and other stakeholders of inclusive education. Additionally, a model of collaboration is proposed in this chapter based on the stakeholders' experiences, accomplishments, issues, and challenges in providing inclusive education to CSNs including the future perspectives on ensuring a more inclusive environment.
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National parks are selected as places of national importance, with national meaning. At the same time, the political process that shapes park management is often a local one. This…
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National parks are selected as places of national importance, with national meaning. At the same time, the political process that shapes park management is often a local one. This biases park interpretation away from national concerns and toward local ones. The National Park Service's corporate interests and decision-making processes often reinforce the role of local interests except in the rare cases of congressional intervention. A close look at the political environment of Fort Davis National Historic Site, Texas, illustrates these points. Congress mandated the site to interpret westward expansion and its impact on American Indians. It became instead a program of park interpretation based on westward expansion and the role of African-American “Buffalo Soldiers” within it. As a result, Indians have effectively been written out of the story of this “Indian fort.” Interestingly, Native American issues reappear in commercial establishments, both the gift shop in the park and businesses in the town of Fort Davis outside the park. If businesses perceive a demand for information about Native Americans among tourists, presumably there is a similar, unmet demand among the same tourists as they visit the historic site. Given the role of local concerns in park interpretation, national intervention will probably be necessary to provide political support for reinterpreting the site.
In this commentary, I highlight a few of the assertions made by McDaniel et al. (2013) about the importance of complexity science guided management practices, and extend these…
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In this commentary, I highlight a few of the assertions made by McDaniel et al. (2013) about the importance of complexity science guided management practices, and extend these ideas specifically to how we might think about reducing seemingly intractable problems in health care such as patient safety, patient falls, hospital acquired infection, and the rise of chronic illness and obesity. I suggest that such changes will require managers and providers to view health care organizations and patients as complex adaptive systems and include patients as full participants in co-producing their health care.
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Man Zhang and Patriya S. Tansuhaj
The increasing economic importance and the number of born global firms make it worthwhile to study what leads to their success in the international market. To better understand…
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The increasing economic importance and the number of born global firms make it worthwhile to study what leads to their success in the international market. To better understand this international business phenomenon, we conducted in‐depth interviews with managers, coupled with public database and Web site searches. Research propositions were developed based on an extensive qualitative method. The relationship between organizational culture, information technology capability, and performance is proposed in the context of born global firms, based on viewing the concept of IT capability from the resource‐based view. We further provide recommendations for managers, theoretical contributions and suggestions for future research.