Creating Individualized Self-Scoring Assessments for Agricultural Economics Undergraduates

What is an individualized self-scoring assessment for an agricultural economics major? It is a homework assignment that is unique for each student in the class and provides immediate feedback to the student on the correctness of the work. The principle is to generate unique problems, whether it is as simple as the basic intercept and slope of supply and demand equations for an introductory economics class, the parameters of a production function for a production economics, or the interest rate for agricultural finance. One must be aware in constructing the generator algorithms for problem parameters that any necessary conditions will be satisfied a priori such as downward sloping demand, concavity or convexity for maximization or minimization. These assignments are created in an Excel spreadsheet format. Once the basic template is created, the process for self-scoring immediate feedback is relatively easy. Create a copy of the original uncompleted problem sheet in the same workbook and provide the correct formulae to serve as a key. Create a second copy to serve as a check page and replace the formulae with an IF statement comparing the value or formula in the original to the second. It is best to provide some tolerance in the comparison such as checking that the absolute difference in the original and second sheet is less than some critical value. This is especially true for optimization problems. By hiding the key worksheet and protecting the workbook structure, students can not access the correct formulae. However, if the correct formulae or number is entered in the problem sheet, the student can view the check worksheet to see if the answer is correct. A simple GETFORMULA add-in allows the worksheet to check model setups in optimization problems. The key advantage of this technique to the students is the immediate feedback. Also by generating unique assignments, students can cooperate and learn among themselves without being able to directly copy from their peers. Additionally, graphical representations of their problems can often be provided simultaneously. Lastly, the students find that their spreadsheet skills are greatly enhanced. From the instructor perspective, the assessments are already scored when submitted. Students will seek help prior to turning in the assignment. And there is little need to sacrifice complexity to create problems that work out to neat answers. Empirical evidence of improvement in student evaluations indicates the technique is successful.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Dynamic Factor Demands for Aggregate Southeastern United States Agriculture

A four equation input demand system for aggregate Southeastern United States agriculture consistent with dynamic optimizing behavior is specified and estimated. Labor and materials are considered as variable inputs while land and capital are treated as quasi-fixed inputs. It is found that the adjustment rates for capital and land differ considerably and are interdependent. Further, the data appear consistent with the existence of an aggregate production technology and the hypothesized optimizing behavior.Farm Management,

Turning Points and Protective Processes: A Qualitative Study on Resilient Youth Through Their Perspective as Resilient Adults

This study investigates the processes of resiliency and the turning points of decision-making in youth from at-risk environments. The study utilizes a constructivist, qualitative approach, to examine indicators of resiliency from both an individual and contextual perspective. The narrative descriptions of eleven adults from at-risk childhoods are analyzed through biographical interviews. Analyses were completed to determine common factors that contribute to the process of resiliency in successful adults. Results indicate that the influences of risk on healthy functioning are modified by shifting environmental protective factors, resources, and developed attributes of self-efficacy. Risk and adversity had a strengthening effect that contributed to participant success in adult life

Measurements of Photo-neutrons from a Medical Linear Accelerator Using Cr-39 Plastic Nuclear Track Dtetectors

Photo-neutrons are produced when x-ray energies exceed 7 MeV. Photo-neutron production varies depending on x-ray beam energy. CR-39 PNTDs were used in this study to measure the neutron absorbed dose and dose equivalent produced by a Varian Clinac 23EX for x-ray beams of 6 and 18 MVp and with a Varian Trilogy using an x-ray beam of 10 MVp. Neutron absorbed dose and dose equivalent were measured at 100 cm SSD at 0, 20, and 40 cm off-axis from the primary beam in air. Using a polyethylene phantom the neutron absorbed dose and dose equivalent were measured at 100 cm SSD from the top of the phantom at 0, 5, and 10 cm from the surface, in the beam central axis and off-axis distances of 20 and 40 cm at a depth of 10 cm. The neutron absorbed dose and dose equivalent from medical linear accelerators have been measured from the LET spectrum of recoiled tracks produced in the CR-39 PNTDs for high energy neutrons (1-20 MeV) and the neutron dose equivalent for low energy ( 100 keV/�m) particles than those detectors exposed in air.Physic

Towards the Design of a Networked Social Services Media Model to Promote Democratic Community Participation in South African Schools

The belief that society benefits from the adoption of democratic practices and a desire to improve schooling in South Africa, motivate this research. The social objective of the research is therefore to determine what are the causes of the persistent failure of the South African schooling system and to what extent community participation may serve to resolve them. The technological objective is to determine the feasibility of utilising social media for addressing social problems through enabling participative democracy. The potential for community participation in South African schools is therefore viewed through the lens of Internet enabled participative democracy. A design science-inspired research framework is devised in a qualitative study adopting a critical interpretevist epistemology. The study entails three phases applying a mixing of methods to perform critical research, context-based evaluation and critical interpretive evaluation. The first phase reveals the fundamental problems impacting the schooling education system in South Africa and determines that the underlying cause for their persistence lies in a systemic problem of conflicting legislation and policies caused by ideological differences within the ruling tripartite alliance. It further identifies through critical inference, specific practices by school communities which could improve the education system by participative, democratic action. The second phase evaluates the capacity for selected, popularly used social media artefacts to serve as communication and collaboration tools, in the schooling context, to enable community participation. These are found to be inadequate. The third phase is an evaluation of the technologies capable of facilitating activities required to achieve democratic participation of communities in schools and results in the description of an artefact that could enable a “networked social service media” system. The paper substantiates the notion that an appropriately designed, Internet enabled social media artefact, can promote the participation of communities in schools in South Africa

Variation in Avian Pathogenic Escherichia coli Colonization Levels in Chickens

Colonization levels in five tissues after avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) inoculation were investigated in chickens to generate phenotypic data for a genome wide association study (GWAS). Bacterial loads were measured in 370 birds and varied among individuals and tissues. Mean bacterial levels were significantly different between tissues (right lung \u3e spleen \u3e left lung and liver \u3e blood). There were also significant correlations in bacterial load between tissues. These data suggest that colonization levels could be used as phenotypes in GWAS and could help identify markers associated with poultry resistance to APEC infections. After verification, these markers could be used for genetic selection for more resistant chickens

The integration of quantitative genetics, paleontology, and neontology reveals genetic underpinnings of primate dental evolution

Significance Experimental research on mice has yielded tremendous biological insight. However, the ∼140 million y of evolution that separate mice from humans pose a hurdle to direct application of this knowledge to humans. We report here that considerable progress for identifying genetically patterned skeletal phenotypes beyond the mouse model is possible through transdisciplinary approaches that include the anatomical sciences. Indeed, anatomy and paleontology offer unique opportunities through which to develop and test hypotheses about the underlying genetic mechanisms of the skeleton for taxa that are not well suited to experimental manipulation, such as ourselves. Abstract Developmental genetics research on mice provides a relatively sound understanding of the genes necessary and sufficient to make mammalian teeth. However, mouse dentitions are highly derived compared with human dentitions, complicating the application of these insights to human biology. We used quantitative genetic analyses of data from living nonhuman primates and extensive osteological and paleontological collections to refine our assessment of dental phenotypes so that they better represent how the underlying genetic mechanisms actually influence anatomical variation. We identify ratios that better characterize the output of two dental genetic patterning mechanisms for primate dentitions. These two newly defined phenotypes are heritable with no measurable pleiotropic effects. When we consider how these two phenotypes vary across neontological and paleontological datasets, we find that the major Middle Miocene taxonomic shift in primate diversity is characterized by a shift in these two genetic outputs. Our results build on the mouse model by combining quantitative genetics and paleontology, and thereby elucidate how genetic mechanisms likely underlie major events in primate evolution

Pregnancy Outcomes in Women With a History of Previable, Preterm Prelabor Rupture of Membranes:

To characterize subsequent pregnancy outcomes among women with a history of previable, preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (PROM) and assess factors associated with recurrent preterm birth