Comparing Teacher Education and Finance Majors’ Agreement with Financial Morality Topics

The authors describe findings of a survey that contains items related to financial morality. They analyzed responses of 382 teacher education majors and finance majors at a Midwestern institution of higher learning. The study found highest agreement with items measuring business responsibilities, and lowest agreement with items related to wealth distribution. It notes significant differences and varying effect sizes among education and finance majors’ interpretation of items concerning business responsibility, wealth distribution, and business management. Analysis of items concerning consumer attitudes and consumer behaviors found significant differences and moderate effect sizes. The authors argue for additional research that explores the concepts related to financial morality and provide suggestions for related study.

Nuclear Volume And Chromosome Number In Relation To Ploidy Distribution In The Liver Of The Mouse

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Multi-objective evolutionary–fuzzy augmented flight control for an F16 aircraft

In this article, the multi-objective design of a fuzzy logic augmented flight controller for a high performance fighter jet (the Lockheed-Martin F16) is described. A fuzzy logic controller is designed and its membership functions tuned by genetic algorithms in order to design a roll, pitch, and yaw flight controller with enhanced manoeuverability which still retains safety critical operation when combined with a standard inner-loop stabilizing controller. The controller is assessed in terms of pilot effort and thus reduction of pilot fatigue. The controller is incorporated into a six degree of freedom motion base real-time flight simulator, and flight tested by a qualified pilot instructor

SimKat: a virtual laboratory to explore the impact of rainfall variability associated with the A2 climate change scenario on the Western Australian wheat-belt [Abstract]

The wheat-belt of Western Australia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change in Australia (DAFWA, 2007). Over the last century, the landscape is Western Australian has changed drastically with almost 20 million hectares of native vegetation being converted into pastures and annual crops to create the so-called "Western Australian wheat-belt" (Turner and Ward, 2002) This significant landuse change has contributed to the modification of the regional water cycle. McFarlane and Williamson (2002) estimated that about 10% of cropping land in south-west Australia is affected by dry-land salinity which could increase to up to 30% in the coming decades. This loss is estimated to cost A$80 million per year in lost production, and A$500 million a year due to damaged infrastructure. Moreover, since the mid 1970's, winter rainfall has declined by more than 15% (Smith et al., 2000). Predicted changes in winter rainfall, for 2070, range from a 60% reduction up to an increase by 10% (Pittock, 2003). However, one of the more likely scenarios is a reduction in winter rainfall of about 15% by 2030 and 30% by 2070 (IOCI, 2002). In order to explore the long-term effects and consequences of rainfall uncertainty and climate change on these already threatened socio-ecological systems, we have developed SimKat, an agent-based model developed with the CORMAS platform. SimKat combines simplified biophysical processes of paddock cover with likely CO2 impact on potential yields, dry-land salinity changes, likely rainfall scenarios and farmers¿ decision making processes. Variations in temperature are not accounted for at this stage of model¿s development. Simulated agents - farmers make decisions about their future landuse pattern based on their land cover productivity and market returns. Agents are also attributed various risk-related attitudes towards market and mitigation signals. To account for rainfall variability, we use 50 rainfall series from 2005 to 2055, generated through a downscaling technique that relates changes in atmospheric predictors from a General Circulation Model. The model explores the impact of each rainfall series in association with the A2 climate change scenario on the viability of the simulated agricultural region based on the following simulated indicators: farm numbers, salinity extension, regional income, crop-pasture ratio. Yield potential and technological trends influencing farmers¿ ability to crop are also studied. Simulated scenarios discuss the impact of rainfall variability and atmospheric CO2 increase on individual and regional farm viability. The scenarios provide means to closely analyse the resilience of the simulated agricultural region to potential impacts of climate uncertainty. (Résumé d'auteur

Stable Frank-Kasper phases of self-assembled, soft matter spheres

Single molecular species can self-assemble into Frank Kasper (FK) phases, finite approximants of dodecagonal quasicrystals, defying intuitive notions that thermodynamic ground states are maximally symmetric. FK phases are speculated to emerge as the minimal-distortional packings of space-filling spherical domains, but a precise quantitation of this distortion and how it affects assembly thermodynamics remains ambiguous. We use two complementary approaches to demonstrate that the principles driving FK lattice formation in diblock copolymers emerge directly from the strong-stretching theory of spherical domains, in which minimal inter-block area competes with minimal stretching of space-filling chains. The relative stability of FK lattices is studied first using a diblock foam model with unconstrained particle volumes and shapes, which correctly predicts not only the equilibrium {\sigma} lattice, but also the unequal volumes of the equilibrium domains. We then provide a molecular interpretation for these results via self-consistent field theory, illuminating how molecular stiffness regulates the coupling between intra-domain chain configurations and the asymmetry of local packing. These findings shed new light on the role of volume exchange on the formation of distinct FK phases in copolymers, and suggest a paradigm for formation of FK phases in soft matter systems in which unequal domain volumes are selected by the thermodynamic competition between distinct measures of shape asymmetry.Comment: 40 pages, 22 figure