The assessment of complex learning outcomes

The Engineering Professors' Council (EPC) produced an output standard in 2000 containing a setof 26 generic statements of what an engineering graduate should have an ability to tackle. In addition, Higher Education (HE) is concerned with the promotion of complex or advanced understanding of subject matter. This leads to complex learning outcomes, which need to be adequately assessed. Changing demands mean changing assessment practices. While good practice is being used in many cases, there is a need to ensure assessment stimulates complex learning. The article seeks to address these issues

Monica’s Designer Handbags: Creative Marketing Decision-Making Based on Financial Analysis—A Case Study

Monica learned much about the designer apparel trade as an intern with a major retailer, and started a designer handbag business, selling through independent retailers. She practiced making sound marketing decisions using financial analysis techniques learned in college. These techniques proved useful when a regional discount chain offered a deal to sell her handbags through their stores on a trial basis. She was faced with a tough decision to accept the deal, reject it, or renegotiate it on mutually acceptable terms. Students are asked to analyze case data and to advise Monica on how to proceed with the prospective deal

Substituição de importações na agricultura brasileira: a produção de trigo no Rio Grande do Sul

Promover a expansão de trigo nacional durante todo o período de pós-guerra tem sido uma política oficial brasileira, e, do trigo produzido no Brasil, além de 80 por cento tem vindo do Rio Grande do Sul. Trigo foi o único produto agrícola importado em grande quantidade durante todo aquêle período e a tentativa de substituição de importação para êste produto foi a única feita dentro do setor agrícola. Um estudo da produção tritícola brasileira permite a análise de uma das raras oolíticas agrícolas positivas levadas a efeito por sucessivos governos brasileiros num período de mais de duas décadas

Pertinencia del análisis económica en los problemas de bienestar rural

First, the article presents the analysis of the term “rural welfare” and the relationship between welfare (rural or any other), individual values and analytical methods. The second part deals with the limitations of economic analysis which are very common when it analyzes the rural and urban sectors. Third, it explains a brief examination of two possible alternatives to the economic research: interdisciplinary research and the development of an integral social science. Finally, it describes the relationship between some of these ideas and the design and evaluation of rural development, suggesting a research agenda.En una primera parte, este artículo presenta un análisis del término “bienestar rural” y de la relación entre bienestar, valores individuales y métodos analíticos. En una segunda parte se trata sobre las limitaciones del análisis económico que son casi tan comunes en los sectores rurales como en los urbanos. En la tercera, se realiza un breve examen de dos posibles alternativas a la investigación y análisis puramente económicos: trabajo interdisciplinario en equipo y el desarrollo de una ciencia social integrada. Finalmente se describe la relación que existe entre algunas de las ideas presentadas en las tres primeras secciones y el diseño y evaluación de programas de desarrollo rural, sugiriendo una agenda de investigación

"Substituição de importações na agricultura brasileira: a produção de trigo no Rio Grande do Sul": resposta a comentários por Dr. Ady Raul da Silva

Agradeço ao Dr. Ady Raul da Silva, um dos mais destacados criadores de variedades de trigo brasileiro, sua valiosacontribuição aos argumentos econômicos em favor da produção de trigo nacional. Estou de acordo com uma boa porçãode seus comentários, mas devo fazer algumas observações adicionais que a seguir se detalham

Non-muscle myosins 2A and 2B drive changes in cell morphology that occur as myoblasts align and fuse

The interaction of non-muscle myosins 2A and 2B with actin may drive changes in cell movement, shape and adhesion. To investigate this, we used cultured myoblasts as a model system. These cells characteristically change shape from triangular to bipolar when they form groups of aligned cells. Antisense oligonucleotide knockdown of nonmuscle myosin 2A, but not non-muscle myosin 2B, inhibited this shape change, interfered with cell-cell adhesion, had a minor effect on tail retraction and prevented myoblast fusion. By contrast, non-muscle myosin 2B knockdown markedly inhibited tail retraction, increasing cell length by over 200% by 72 hours compared with controls. In addition it interfered with nuclei redistribution in myotubes. Nonmuscle myosin 2C is not involved as western analysis showed that it is not expressed in myoblasts, but only in myotubes. To understand why non-muscle myosins 2A and 2B have such different roles, we analysed their distributions by immuno-electron microscopy, and found that nonmuscle myosin 2A was more tightly associated with the plasma membrane than non-muscle myosin 2B. This suggests that non-muscle myosin 2A is more important for bipolar shape formation and adhesion owing to its preferential interaction with membrane-associated actin, whereas the role of non-muscle myosin 2B in retraction prevents over-elongation of myoblasts

Which Market Entry and Product Line Strategies Ought Organisations to Adopt for Emerging Economies?

Emerging economies offer tremendous potential for organisations seeking to expand globally and to attain the associated rewards. However, organisations differ in their entrepreneurial tendencies to enter new markets and to introduce new products in emerging economies. Organisations also differ in their abilities to manage their development programs, that is, their execution of different types of projects that lead to success in emerging markets. Finally, organisations differ in which overall measures of program performance are consistent with their strategic objectives. This study provides a literature foundation and conceptual framework designed to understand which market entry and product line strategies and performance measures are appropriate for organisations pursuing strategic success in emerging markets. This study sets forward grounded propositions that different strategic types will vary in their market entry and product line strategies, in the project composition of their development programs, and in the orientations of performance measures used to evaluate their development programs. Prospectors, according to type, will enter emerging economies by introducing new product lines to new customer types, and by emphasizing new-to-the-world products. They will evaluate their development programs with Growth-oriented performance measures. Defenders will more typically occupy secure niches within emerging economies by emphasizing product improvement and cost reduction projects for current types of customers. They will evaluate their development programs with Efficiency-oriented performance measures. Analyzers will either target new customer types with proven products, or serve an existing market niche with new product lines. They will evaluate their development program performance with Strategy-oriented measures

Evolution of X-ray cluster scaling relations in simulations with radiative cooling and non-gravitational heating

We investigate the redshift dependence of X-ray cluster scaling relations drawn from three hydrodynamic simulations of the LCDM cosmology: a Radiative model that incorporates radiative cooling of the gas, a Preheating model that additionally heats the gas uniformly at high redshift, and a Feedback model that self-consistently heats cold gas in proportion to its local star-formation rate. While all three models are capable of reproducing the observed local Lx-Tx relation, they predict substantially different results at high redshift (to z=1.5), with the Radiative, Preheating and Feedback models predicting strongly positive, mildly positive and mildly negative evolution, respectively. The physical explanation for these differences lies in the structure of the intracluster medium. All three models predict significant temperature fluctuations at any given radius due to the presence of cool subclumps and, in the case of the Feedback simulation, reheated gas. The mean gas temperature lies above the dynamical temperature of the halo for all models at z=0, but differs between models at higher redshift with the Radiative model having the lowest mean gas temperature at z=1.5. We have not attempted to model the scaling relations in a manner that mimics the observational selection effects, nor has a consistent observational picture yet emerged. Nevertheless, evolution of the scaling relations promises to be a powerful probe of the physics of entropy generation in clusters. First indications are that early, widespread heating is favored over an extended period of heating that is associated with galaxy formation.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. Minor changes following referee's comment

Modeling software design diversity

Design diversity has been used for many years now as a means of achieving a degree of fault tolerance in software-based systems. Whilst there is clear evidence that the approach can be expected to deliver some increase in reliability compared with a single version, there is not agreement about the extent of this. More importantly, it remains difficult to evaluate exactly how reliable a particular diverse fault-tolerant system is. This difficulty arises because assumptions of independence of failures between different versions have been shown not to be tenable: assessment of the actual level of dependence present is therefore needed, and this is hard. In this tutorial we survey the modelling issues here, with an emphasis upon the impact these have upon the problem of assessing the reliability of fault tolerant systems. The intended audience is one of designers, assessors and project managers with only a basic knowledge of probabilities, as well as reliability experts without detailed knowledge of software, who seek an introduction to the probabilistic issues in decisions about design diversity

Unexpected sound omissions are signaled in human posterior superior temporal gyrus: An intracranial study

Context modulates sensory neural activations enhancing perceptual and behavioral performance and reducing prediction errors. However, the mechanism of when and where these high-level expectations act on sensory processing is unclear. Here, we isolate the effect of expectation absent of any auditory evoked activity by assessing the response to omitted expected sounds. Electrocorticographic signals were recorded directly from subdural electrode grids placed over the superior temporal gyrus (STG). Subjects listened to a predictable sequence of syllables, with some infrequently omitted. We found high-frequency band activity (HFA, 70-170 Hz) in response to omissions, which overlapped with a posterior subset of auditory-active electrodes in STG. Heard syllables could be distinguishable reliably from STG, but not the identity of the omitted stimulus. Both omission- and target-detection responses were also observed in the prefrontal cortex. We propose that the posterior STG is central for implementing predictions in the auditory environment. HFA omission responses in this region appear to index mismatch-signaling or salience detection processes