STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE U.S. GRAINS SUBSECTOR

Industrial Organization,

An Anti-Deficit Approach to Examining the Career Choice of African American Men in College

Awareness of congruence and discrepancies within an individual’s pathway from career interest to occupational choice offers significant insight into the process of conciliation and foreclosure (i.e., psychological disposition toward a circumscription of career options). Given the significant role of careers, understanding the career developmental process is of particular importance. Career interests to occupational choice mediated by self-efficacy are key components in the process of attaining career related goals. Lent, Brown, and Hackett (1994) proposed in the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) that under optimal conditions, career interests give rise to congruent occupational choice goals. Altogether, this leads to goal action planning and achievement (Lent & Brown, 2012; Lent, Hung-Bin, Sheu, & Brown, 2010). Many researchers have identified the anticipatory nature of college as a significant precipitant for desired career outcomes. College has also been identified as a place of afforded opportunity; however, rates of persistence and retention indicate a harbinger of premature career development with greater disparity among marginalized populations. Original hypotheses of SCCT indicated that contextual barriers have a direct relation to interest/occupational choice; however, later research indicated an indirect relation suggesting a greater surrounding milieu of the person. Lent et al. (2000, 2005) later revised the SCCT to include Astin’s (1984) concept of perceived “opportunity structure” and Vondracek, Lerner, and Schulenberg’s (1986) “contextual affordance” construct. Lent et al. (2000, 2005) conceptualized contextual affordances as two types: distal or earlier than occupational choice and proximal affordances closer to occupational choice (Swanson & Fouad, 2010). It has also been proposed that self-efficacy related to coping with barriers, or coping efficacy, may moderate the barrier-goal relation (Lent et al., 2000). In other words, there may be a direct correlation between barriers and goals only when coping efficacy is low. It has also been suggested that contextual barriers may moderate the relation of interests to goals; the relation of interest to goals will be stronger when perceived barriers are low. As a result, vocational researchers in the area of college persistence and retention have placed more emphasis on the contextual affordances and barriers of college students to improve, especially the greater disparity rates with ethnic minorities. However, the cross-racial research methods employed to examine the disparities have served only to amplify the deficits as global and composite comparisons without consideration of greater within-group variance. Moreover, a counterbalanced approach of disparities and achievement within a self-identified ethnic/racial group would magnify career development process. It is the purpose of this study to extend existing SCCT research on the career development of African American males beyond known deficits into examining contextual factors related to congruence for African American male college students. Therefore, this study examined distal and proximal factors of African American males with high and low congruence of interest/choice in under- and postgraduate full-time studies. Specifically, this study examined (a) to what extent are the within group differences, (b) if barriers moderate the relation of career interests to career goals, and (c) if coping efficacy moderates the relation of barriers to career goals

Beyond Mute-English: Empowering Oral Competency

‘Beyond Mute-English’ is an instructional essay based in practical applications and professional teaching experience.  The article presents foundational methods, gleaned through the author’s nine years instructing foreign learners of English at universities in America, China, and The Republic of Korea, and aims at resetting complex approaches in second language acquisition by revisiting best practices for developing oral competency.  The article outlines six concepts, referred to as ‘silver keys,’ pertaining to the study of English as a second language, with brief, substantive elaborations of each. The silver keys the article establishes are built around the pedagogical concepts of mimicry, specificity in adaptation, high currency versus low currency language, necessity of mastering the basic skills before progressing, and intrinsic motivation in learning

The Influence of Age, Dietary Protein, and Calorie Restriction on Serum Cholesterol and Triglycerides in the Male Rat

The effects of age, dietary protein, and caloric restriction on serum cholesterol and triglycerides were studied in l and 2 year old male Wistar rats fed ad libitum or restricted. Ad libitum animals were fed diets low (12%), medium (20%), or high (28%) in casein throughout the life cycle. Restricted animals were fed diets either low (18%), medium (30%), or high (42%) in casein. The latter groups were fed the same absolute amounts of protein but two-thirds of the calories as determined from the feed intakes of the ad libitum-fed rats. Two additional ad libitum-fed groups were fed diets increased or decreased in protein. After the second month of life animals fed variable amounts of protein were fed a 20% casein diet which was either increased or decreased at the rate of 0.8% per month until a level of 28 or 12% casein was obtained. Age had an effect on both serum cholesterol and triglycerides. The young animals had a significantly (p \u3c 0.05) lower mean serum cholesterol level than the old animals whereas the old animals had a lower (p \u3c 0.01) mean serum triglyceride level than their younger counterparts. The various levels of dietary protein (low, medium, and high) resulted in no significant differences in either serum cholesterol or triglycerides. The overall effect of protein on serum cholesterol was quadratic (p \u3c 0.01) but not linear. The overall effect of protein on triglycerides was neither linear nor quadratic, but the interaction of protein and calories on triglycerides was linear by group (p \u3c 0.05) and quadratic by group (p \u3c 0.05). Combined dietary treatments, regardless of age, significantly (p \u3c 0.01) affected both serum cholesterol and triglycerides. When all ad libitum-fed versus restricted-fed animals were contrasted, both parameters were significantly (p \u3c 0.01) lower for restricted animals. Variation in the ad libitum level (20→12% casein and 20→28% casein) had no effect on the serum cholesterol or the triglyceride level. In general, the significantly lower serum lipids recorded can be attributed to calorie restriction

EFFECTS OF EEP ON CANADIAN/UNITED STATES WHEAT TRADE

Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade,

A creep cavity growth model for creep-fatigue life prediction of a unidirectional W/Cu composite

A microstructural model was developed to predict creep-fatigue life in a (0)(sub 4), 9 volume percent tungsten fiber-reinforced copper matrix composite at the temperature of 833 K. The mechanism of failure of the composite is assumed to be governed by the growth of quasi-equilibrium cavities in the copper matrix of the composite, based on the microscopically observed failure mechanisms. The methodology uses a cavity growth model developed for prediction of creep fracture. Instantaneous values of strain rate and stress in the copper matrix during fatigue cycles were calculated and incorporated in the model to predict cyclic life. The stress in the copper matrix was determined by use of a simple two-bar model for the fiber and matrix during cyclic loading. The model successfully predicted the composite creep-fatigue life under tension-tension cyclic loading through the use of this instantaneous matrix stress level. Inclusion of additional mechanisms such as cavity nucleation, grain boundary sliding, and the effect of fibers on matrix-stress level would result in more generalized predictions of creep-fatigue life