Task Accomplishment Ability of Children in Small Groups.

The primary purpose of this study was the investigation and analysis of the behavior of small groups of children in a task accomplishment situation. The secondary purpose was to ascertain the effects of a group discussion generated by questions adapted from creative problem solving techniques. A review of literature revealed a lack of research on small groups of children in these areas. Thirty-six small groups of fourth and fifth grade children worked in groups of four on two construction-type tasks, one for pretest and one for posttest. Eighteen of the groups served as experimental groups and participated in the group discussion. The children\u27s conversation was recorded as they worked. Task completion time was noted. Transcripts of the tapes were made and trained evaluators classified the remarks into two categories: Productive and Non-Productive. Intra-evaluator agreement was 94.04 percent. The percentage of Productive Remarks made by the children was computed. An analysis of variance examined the data for significant mean differences on the dependent variables as classified by the independent variables: School, Grade, Treatment, Time, and their various interactions. The Pearson product-moment procedure examined the data for relationships between certain pairs of the dependent variables. The dependent variables were: Productive Remarks, Non-Productive Remarks, Total Remarks, Percent of Productive Remarks, Trips, and Seconds. The group discussion increased productive communication. The fifth grade experimental groups increased the number of remarks and productive remarks. There were no significant changes in behavior in the fifth grade control groups. Both fourth grade groups, experimental and control, increased the number of remarks and productive remarks. The fourth grade control group increased the number of non-productive remarks. There was a very high correlation between the number of remarks and productive remarks and between the task completion time and the number of productive remarks. Groups that participated in the discussion exhibited lower correlations between task completion time and non-productive remarks, and between task completion time and total remarks than groups which did not participate. There were negative correlations between task completion time and percentage of productive remarks and between number of remarks and percentage of productive remarks for the control groups

Rural Grocers Practice Pollution Prevention

Presenters discuss what the Pollution Prevention Institute is and how rural grocers can reduce their environmental footprint and operating costs. Our footprint is a metric that allows us to calculate human pressure on the planet and businesses that evaluate and actively manage their footprint can have a competitive edge

Methodology Brief: Can You Call It a Focus Group?

Focus groups don\u27t work for every purpose. Determine appropriate use of focus groups to get high quality information for high quality decision-making.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/extension_communities_pubs/1010/thumbnail.jp

Methodology Brief: Focus Group Fundamentals

Focus group research can produce highly useful information about programs and services that surveys miss. Learn how to gather rich detail.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/extension_communities_pubs/1011/thumbnail.jp

Good Intentions, Muddled Methods: Focus on Focus Groups

Are focus groups abused, misused, or overused in Extension? We responded to the challenge of getting Extension focused on the art and science of high-quality focus groups through an educational project. This article describes contemporary challenges of focus group practice and presents the first phase of an educational initiative, which includes a series of educational briefs

Who’s Taking the Accounting Class? Leveraging Professional Skepticism While Teaching Accounting Online

The shortage of academically qualified accounting professors makes this a relevant time to increase the use of online tools for content delivery, assignment completion and assessment. Accounting students employed as teaching assistants (TA) can develop professional skills including skepticism, problem solving, analysis, organization and electronic documentation, while in academia. Certified Public Accountants (CPA) and educators are held accountable to high ethical standards through a code of conduct and academic integrity policies. This teaching case incorporates ethical decision making from an experience in an online virtual classroom where power differentials and analysis of student activity require research in a learning experience

Good Intentions, Muddled Methods: Focus on Focus Groups

Are focus groups abused, misused, or overused in Extension? We responded to the challenge of getting Extension focused on the art and science of high-quality focus groups through an educational project. This article describes contemporary challenges of focus group practice and presents the first phase of an educational initiative, which includes a series of educational briefs

High-fidelity correction of genomic uracil by human mismatch repair activities

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Deamination of cytosine to produce uracil is a common and potentially mutagenic lesion in genomic DNA. U•G mismatches occur spontaneously throughout the genome, where they are repaired by factors associated with the base excision repair pathway. U•G mismatches are also the initiating lesion in immunoglobulin gene diversification, where they undergo mutagenic processing by redundant pathways, one dependent upon uracil excision and the other upon mismatch recognition by MutSα. While UNG is well known to initiate repair of uracil in DNA, the ability of MutSα to direct correction of this base has not been directly demonstrated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using a biochemical assay for mismatch repair, we show that MutSα can promote efficient and faithful repair of U•G mismatches, but does not repair U•A pairs in DNA. This contrasts with UNG, which readily excises U opposite either A or G. Repair of U•G by MutSα depends upon DNA polymerase δ (pol δ), ATP, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), all properties of canonical mismatch repair.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results show that faithful repair of U•G can be carried out by either the mismatch repair or base excision repair pathways. Thus, the redundant functions of these pathways in immunoglobulin gene diversification reflect their redundant functions in faithful repair. Faithful repair by either pathway is comparably efficient, suggesting that mismatch repair and base excision repair share the task of faithful repair of genomic uracil.</p

A Concise Method for Storing and Communicating the Data Covariance Matrix

The covariance matrix associated with experimental cross section or transmission data consists of several components. Statistical uncertainties on the measured quantity (counts) provide a diagonal contribution. Off-diagonal components arise from uncertainties on the parameters (such as normalization or background) that figure into the data reduction process; these are denoted systematic or common uncertainties, since they affect all data points. The full off-diagonal data covariance matrix (DCM) can be extremely large, since the size is the square of the number of data points. Fortunately, it is not necessary to explicitly calculate, store, or invert the DCM. Likewise, it is not necessary to explicitly calculate, store, or use the inverse of the DCM. Instead, it is more efficient to accomplish the same results using only the various component matrices that appear in the definition of the DCM. Those component matrices are either diagonal or small (the number of data points times the number of data-reduction parameters); hence, this implicit data covariance method requires far less array storage and far fewer computations while producing more accurate results