Teaching teachers in effectual entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education is seen by all kind of people to be important for economic growth. Teaching entrepreneurship needs another approach. Active learning and the constructivism is mostly seen as essential. Other elements that are influencing the teaching process are the competences, the culture and the teacher. So the teacher must be capable of using other methods and theory as he is used to. Effectuation, constructivism and andragogy are the key elements for the training of entrepreneurial teachers. From that perspective there has been made an education program that will start in September 2013 for teachers at universities of applied science. Until that time there are being held some minor experiments on parts of the program

Ontogenetic and temporal variability in the fat content and fatty acid composition of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) from the Bay of Fundy, Canada

Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is an ecologically and economically valuable species in many food webs, yet surprisingly little is known about the variation in the nutritional quality of these fish. Atlantic herring collected from 2005 through 2008 from the Bay of Fundy, Canada, were examined for variability in their nutritional quality by using total lipid content (n=889) and fatty acid composition (n=551) as proxies for nutritional value. A significant positive relationship was found between fish length and total lipid content. Atlantic herring also had significantly different fatty acid signatures by age. Fish from 2005 had significantly lower total lipid content than fish from 2006 through 2008, and all years had significantly different fatty acid signatures. Summer fish were significantly fatter than winter fish and had significantly different fatty acid signatures. For all comparisons (ontogenetic, annual, and seasonal) percent concentrations of omega-3, -6, and long-chain monounsaturated fatty acids were the most important for distinguishing between the fatty acid signatures of fish. This study underscores the importance of quantifying variation in prey quality synoptically with prey quantity in food webs over ontogenetic and temporal scales when evaluating the effect of prey nutritional quality on predators and on modeling trophic dynamics

Investigation of Nitrogen and Utilization and Efficiency in 17 Corn Inbred Lines

Nitrogen (N) is considered to be one of the major nutrient elements required in obtaining maximum crop production. It has been stated that in order to keep at the same production level that we have now, two to three times as much cropland would be required if we used 1930 technology and fertilizer. Nitrogen is an important resource. But with price increases, shortage possibilities and ecological implications of nitrogen toxicity, anew outlook on nitrogen utilization is being taken. Increases in the price of N are well known to everyone who is connected with agriculture. As for shortage possibilities, the United States, in 1950, used approximately 1 million tons. In 1974, 9 million tons were used with an expected yearly increase of 5% compounded annually. The world’s future needs for this energy requiring product can be expected to increase at a faster rate yet, The threat to drinking water from nitrate toxicity is also being visualized where an excess of nitrate is being leached deeper into the ground. In spite of these problems, nitrogen utilization is and has been an important aspect in crop production improvement programs, as can be seen by the vast amount of literature published. However, even more research is needed to better understand nitrogen efficiency and the role that it can play in crop production. The purpose of this research is to 1) investigate various areas of plant metabolism for nitrogen efficiency and 2) measure the genetic variability present in those areas of nitrogen efficiency in inbred lines of corn

The multi-state latent factor intensity model for credit rating transitions

A new empirical reduced-form model for credit rating transitions is introduced. It is a parametric intensity-based duration model with multiple states and driven by exogenous covariates and latent dynamic factors. The model has a generalized semi-Markov structure designed to accommodate many of the stylized facts of credit rating migrations. Parameter estimation is based on Monte Carlo maximum likelihood methods for which the details are discussed in this paper. A simulation experiment is carried out to show the effectiveness of the estimation procedure. An empirical application is presented for transitions in a 7 grade rating system. The model includes a common dynamic component that can be interpreted as the credit cycle. Asymmetric effects of this cycle across rating grades and additional semi-Markov dynamics are found to be statistically significant. Finally, we investigate whether the common factor model suffices to capture systematic risk in ratin