Interactive lectures: Clickers or personal devices?

Audience response systems (‘clickers’) are frequently used to promote participation in large lecture classes, and evidence suggests that they convey a number of benefits to students, including improved academic performance and student satisfaction. The limitations of these systems (such as limited access and cost) can be overcome using students’ personal electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops together with text message, web- or app-based polling systems. Using questionnaires, we compare student perceptions of clicker and smartphone based polling systems. We find that students prefer interactive lectures generally, but those that used their own device preferred those lectures over lectures using clickers. However, device users were more likely to report using their devices for other purposes (checking email, social media etc.) when they were available to answer polling questions. These students did not feel that this distracted them from the lecture, instead, concerns over the use of smartphones centred around increased battery usage and inclusivity for students without access to suitable technology. Our results suggest that students generally preferred to use their own devices over clickers, and that this may be a sensible way to overcome some of the limitations associated with clickers, although issues surrounding levels of distraction and the implications for retention and recall of information need further investigation

Ketamine kinetics in unmedicated and diazepam‐premedicated subjects

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109775/1/cptclpt1984235.pd

State space sensitivity to a prescribed probability density function shape in coal combustion systems: joint β-PDF versus clipped Gaussian PDF

Journal ArticleThe turbulent transport of three coal off-gas mixture fractions is coupled to a prescribed joint //-probability- density-function (//-PDF) mixing model. This physical transport and subgrid joint //-PDF mixing model is used to explore the incorporation of coal off-gas compositional disparities between the devolatilization and the char oxidation regime in detailed pulverized-coal combustion simulations. A simulation study of the University of Utah pulverized-coal research furnace is presented to evaluate the sensitivity of different mixing model assumptions. These simulation studies indicate that using a variable composition to characterize the process of coal combustion does not appreciably change the predicted gas-phase temperature field. Moreover, neglecting fluctuations in the char off-gas stream was found to change gas-phase temperature predictions by approximately 15%. State space variable sensitivity to the assumed shape of the PDF (clipped Gaussian vs. joint //) is presented. Simulation results indicate differences in temperature profiles of as much as 20% depending on the chosen shape of the PDF. Integration accuracy issues for the joint //-PDF arc presented and are found to be acceptable. A robust //-PDF function evaluation procedure is presented that accommodates arbitrarily high //-PDF distribution factors. This robust algorithm simply transforms the joint //-PDF function evaluation into a logarithmic form. The assumption that a joint PDF, as rigorously required within a prescribed subgrid mixing model, can be written as the product of N - 1 statistically independent probability density (unctions is quantified and shown to be less accurate

The Plasma Interaction Experiment (PIX) description and test program

The plasma interaction experiment (PIX) is a battery powered preprogrammed auxiliary payload on the LANDSAT-C launch. This experiment is part of a larger program to investigate space plasma interactions with spacecraft surfaces and components. The varying plasma densities encountered during available telemetry coverage periods are deemed sufficient to determine first order interactions between the space plasma environment and the biased experimental surfaces. The specific objectives of the PIX flight experiment are to measure the plasma coupling current and the negative voltage breakdown characteristics of a solar array segment and a gold plated steel disk. Measurements will be made over a range of surface voltages up to plus or minus kilovolt. The orbital environment will provide a range of plasma densities. The experimental surfaces will be voltage biased in a preprogrammed step sequence to optimize the data returned for each plasma region and for the available telemetry coverage

P-01 Financial reporting fraud: How merger and acquisition complexity provide greater opportunities for CEOs to engage in wrongdoing

Using mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as a proxy to increase organizational complexity, we build upon Schnatterly et al.’s (2018) framework to addresses the gap in the management literature relating to how major firm disruptions, such as M&As, provide greater opportunities to entrenched CEOs for financial statement fraud due to higher levels of complexity. We extend the research on complexity-based information asymmetries (Ndofor et al. 2015) by empirically investigating whether accounting fraud is linked to M&As using a diverse set of variables. We propose the complex nature of M&A transactions result in higher information asymmetry, which provides a “veil” for self-interested CEOs who have an information advantage to engage in financial statement fraud. Comparing fraud firms with non-fraud firms during 1991-2016, we find evidence that fraud firms are more likely to be associated with M&As as compared to non-fraud firms using the Entrophy Balancing Method (EBM). We show similar results in Propensity Score Matching (PSM) analyses which controls for potential endogeneity to engage in M&As. Further analyses show that positive relationships between financial reporting fraud and M&As are more pronounced in more complex M&A transactions and that the positive relationship between M&As and frauds is more pronounced in M&As of a public target, stock-financed M&As, diversified M&As, larger M&As, multiple M&As, and M&As advised by investment bankers. These results also show that the positive relationship between reporting fraud and M&As is moderated post Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), for acquiring firms that engage Big N auditors and for firms with long tenured CEOs

CEO Demographics and Accounting Fraud: Who is More Likely to Rationalize Illegal Acts?

This article proposes that key CEO demographic factors reflect alternative modes of rationalizing the choice to engage in and/or facilitate accounting fraud. Specifically the authors theorize that younger, less functionally experienced CEOs and CEOs without business degrees will be more likely to rationalize accounting fraud as an acceptable decision. Based on a sample of 312 fraud-committing and control firms, the study finds support for the authors’ predictions. It also finds that CEO stock options (a form of executive equity incentive) also predict fraud, and that this relationship is not moderated by CEO demographics. The study thus extends upper echelon theory by demonstrating how key demographic variables influence CEO decisions to rationalize accounting fraud

Exploring Accounting Fraud in the Subsidiary Environment

This research explores accounting fraud in the subsidiary environment. Utilizing institutional theory, we propose that the subsidiary environment provides an opportune setting and vehicle for individuals to commit accounting fraud. While a growing body of literature exists on accounting fraud, minimal work has focused on the role of the subsidiary in accounting fraud, as reported by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We sample companies for which the SEC has documented accounting fraud in their enforcement releases. We then analyze the related SEC documents to determine to what extent, if any, a subsidiary is involved in the accounting fraud. Our preliminary results provide evidence related to the industries, circumstances and types of accounting fraud that take place in a subsidiary environment. These findings provide auditors, regulators, and designers of management control systems with additional insights as to the factors surrounding fraud when companies operate in a subsidiary environment

Hotshots, hot spots, and female preference: exploring lek formation models with a bower-building cichlid fish

In many animals, males congregate in leks that females visit for the sole purpose of mating. We observed male and female behavior on 3 different-sized leks of the bower-building cichlid fish Nyassachromis cf. microcephalus to test predictions of 3 prominent lek models: the "hotshot,” "hot spot,” and "female preference” models. In this system, we were able to refine these predictions by distinguishing between indirect mate choice, by which females restrict their set of potential mates in the absence of individual male assessment, and direct mate choice, by which females assess males and their territories through dyadic behavioral interactions. On no lek were males holding central territories favored by indirect or direct mate choice, contrary to the prediction of the hotshot model that leks form because inferior males establish territories surrounding hotshot males preferred by females. Average female encounter rate of males increased with lek size, a pattern typically interpreted as evidence that leks form through female preference for lekking males, rather than because males congregate in hot spots of high female density. Female propensity to engage in premating behavior once courted did not increase with lek size, suggesting female preference for males on larger leks operated through indirect choice rather than direct choice based on individual assessment. The frequency of male-male competitive interactions increased with lek size, whereas their foraging rate decreased, implying a cost to males maintaining territories on larger leks. Together these data most strongly support the female preference model, where females may benefit through indirect mate choice for males able to meet the competitive cost of occupying larger lek

The Effect of Leveling the Curve of Spee on the Inclination of Mandibular Incisors: A Retrospective Cephalometric Study

PURPOSE To assess mandibular incisor inclination after leveling the curve of Spee (CoS) in patients treated with fixed appliances. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a retrospective study, which included 80 consecutive patients with a mild CoS treated without extraction but with various biomechanical approaches. The depth of CoS was digitally measured on scanned plaster casts and mandibular incisor inclination was assessed with lateral cephalograms pre- and posttreatment. Patients were treated with 0.018"-slot edgewise fixed appliances and cinched back wires. Data were analyzed using linear regression modeling at 5%. RESULTS A total of 80 patients (40% female; mean age 13.8 years) were included with mean ANB = 4.4 ± 1.9°, mean SN/ML = 31.7 ± 4.7°, mean L1/ML = 95.0 ± 7.7°, and a mean depth of CoS = 1.1 ± 0.4 mm. The depth of CoS was leveled by -0.85 ± 0.39 mm to a post-treatment median of 0.18 mm (interquartile range = 0.09 to 0.35 mm). A small mandibular incisor proclination was observed through treatment (2.49 ± 9.1°), but this was not associated with the reduction in the depth of CoS (p > 0.05) and no statistically significant modifying effect from the different treatment mechanics was observed. CONCLUSION Under the limitations of this study, leveling a mild CoS was not associated with mandibular incisor proclination during fixed-appliance treatment