COMPUTER APPLICATIONS: OFF-LINE ORDER ENTRY

The author presents his company's experience with off line order entry equipment.Agribusiness,

PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Measuring Producer Level Beef Cattle Alliance Financial Performance

There has been a movement toward developing production and marketing alliances in the beef cattle sector in the United States to improve communications and ultimately provide higher priced branded products consistent with consumer demand. Beef cattle producers do not employ a consistent methodology to measure the financial performance of alliance participation. Nor do they have the information to negotiate financially sustainable agreements. The concentrated packer and retail sector do not share cost and returns information beyond total business data required by public traded corporations. A methodology using cost accounting and economic analysis is described to measure return on producer's assets for an alliance agreement. This information can be used to inform the margin sectors, feedyards, packers and retailers on what share of increased revenue from branded product sales to pass to the cow-calf segment to make participation competitive and the alliance financially sustainable. The cow-calf segment must absorb the added costs and cyclical financial loss to participate in alliances. Increased revenue is required to make branded products a more profitable marketing option than producing commodity beef.Agricultural Finance, Livestock Production/Industries,

An Illustration of Students’ Engagement with Mathematical Software using Remote Observation

Students using three types of spreadsheet calculators for understanding expected value were observed remotely. This remote observation involves the use of webcams and application sharing for observing students learning mathematics. The study illustrates how remote observation can be used for collecting mathematical education data and raises questions about the extent to which such a method can be used in future experiments

Mathematical thinking of undergraduate students when using three types of software

The research investigates how conceptual understanding of mathematics is promoted when using three types of software: black-box (no mathematical intermediate steps shown), glass-box (intermediate steps shown) and open-box (interaction at each intermediate step). Thirty-eight students were asked to think-aloud and give detailed explanations whilst answering three types of tasks: mechanical (mostly procedural), interpretive (mostly conceptual) and constructive (mixture of conceptual and procedural). The software types had no impact on how students answered the mechanical tasks; however students using the black-box did better on the constructive tasks because of their increased explorations. Students with low maths confidence resorted to using real-life explanations when answering tasks that were application related

Technology - Empowering the Educational Researcher through Remote Observation

Observing students using computers often occurs through three methods: user-lab, on-site and remote data logging. Whilst each of these have their advantages with the new type of students such as elearners, an alternative method called web-conferencing remote observation is presented for observing students at a distance. This method collects both audio and video data of the observer through webcams and voice/video conversations. Students are able to interact with the software through application sharing facilities. Further, it allows both quantitative and qualitative data to be collected. This proof-of-concept method is presented here where it has been used in two previous studies using Windows Messenger and Netviewer. Although, video quality is not high the quality is sufficient for observational data

Multiple Boom Deployment

Some embodiments of the invention include a boom deployment system. The boom deployment system, for example, may include a housing, a spool, a first boom, and a second boom. The spool may be disposed within the housing and configured to rotate around an axis that is fixed relative to the housing. The first boom and/or the second boom may have a cylindrical shape in a deployed configuration, a flattened shape in a stowed configuration, and a slit that extends along the longitudinal length of the boom in the deployed configuration. The first boom and/or the second boom may be stowed in the stowed configuration flattened and wrapped around the spool. The first boom and/or the second boom may transition from the stowed configuration to the deployed configuration as the spool rotates around the axis

What do UK archaeologists think of public engagement?

While there have been many surveys of archaeologists in the UK (for example – Aitchison 1997; Aitchison and Edwards 2003; Aitchison and Edwards 2008, Aitchison and Rocks- Macqueen 2013) and indeed in many other countries (see DISCO projects for examples of from dozens of European countries www.discovering-archaeologists.eu/) there have been limited surveys into what archaeologists’ views are on public engagement. There was one survey of ‘Attitudes and Values in Archaeological Practice’ (Zimmer et al. 1995) that asked some questions on the topic and another survey that specifically targeted the views of archaeologists in New Mexico (Rocks-Macqueen 2012). These aside, there is a significant gap in our understanding of how archaeologists perceive their engagement with the public. This Paper aims to help bridge that gap and provide data on how public engagement is perceived by archaeologists in the UK

Comparison of black-box, glass-box and open-box software for aiding conceptual understanding

Three mathematical software types: black-box (no steps shown), glass-box (steps shown) and open-box (interactive steps) were used by 32 students to solve conceptual and procedural tasks on the computer via remote observation. Comparison of the three software types suggests that there is no difference in the scores that students receive for conceptual understanding tasks. Students using the black-box are more likely to explore answers than students using the glass and open-box software

Extendible Boom

An asymmetric mast is disclosed that can be used for solar arrays. The asymmetric mast can have an asymmetry out of the plane of the solar blanket. The mast may include two or more booms that comprise slit tube longerons. In some embodiments, a single mast can be used with one or two solar blankets