An Online Course Of Business Statistics: The Proportion Of Successful Students

This article describes the students' academic progress in an online course of business statistics through interactive software assignments and diverse educational homework, which helps these students to build their own e-learning through basic competences; i.e. interpreting results and solving problems. Cross-tables were built for the categorical variables: course-type (at 2 levels of classification: “online” and “classroom”) and the 2 levels of gender, where the dependent variable was the proportion of successful and unsuccessful students. The statistical analysis was performed via the Chi-square test for which we found that the variable “course-type” was not significant (p-value=0.512).  Similarly, the variable “gender” was not significant (p-value=0.652).  Both conclusions were also confirmed via the Normal distribution z-test with similar p-values: 0.516 for course-type and 0.556 for gender. Thus, our research indicates that the population proportion of successful students in a course of Business Statistics does not depend on their gender; likewise, the proportion of success is not affected nor depends on the manner on how these students decided to take their course instruction, whether online or in a classroom

A Nonparametric Comparison Of The Per Capita Yearly Economic Needs For The Water Supply In The USA-Mexico Border Region

Based on demographic and economic information, this research paper evaluates a nonparametric comparison of the per capita yearly economic needs for water supply of two international regions conformed by 100 cities and/or communities (localities) along the border of United States and Mexico, from which 57 are located on the American side and 43 on the Mexican side; part of the discrepancy exhibited by both borders about the per capita yearly economic needs for water supply is explained as a reflection of the demographic-gap among adjacent localities of the common border region; we present confirmatory evidence of discrepancies. The per capita yearly economic needs estimate should be considered in order to increase the sustainability for water supply. The United States-Mexico border in terms of water supply needs should be interpreted as an issue of national security. If the accelerated rate of population growth on both sides of the border between United States and México continues including the area around the water river basins, this could produce a dramatic scenery in the future (for year2020): An expected percentage of population growth of 108 % accompanied with a long-term economic needs volume of $ 3,393,870,000.0

The GDP Growth-Rates Of Countries With The Highest Production Of Patents

The generation of patents reflects a significant part of the economical development of a country, and is an activity that is intrinsically related to the intellectual capital of an organization. This article focuses on the relationship between the growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) and the production of patents, based on annual data during the period 2005-2010 for the three countries around the world with the highest level in production of patents: USA, China, and Japan. A nonparametric correlation method (named Spearman's rank correlation) was selected (whose justification is explained) to estimate the correlation coefficient (p-value<0.01); an economical variable: the external debt measured in US$ billions was incorporated in the analysis, due to its significant correlation (p-value<0.01), which since 2004 has been growing and reaching an unsuspected upper extreme margin

Employee Perceptions Of The Environmental Risk: Maquila Industries On The Mexico-U.S. Border

The Mexican maquila (assembly-for-export) industry has been involved in four main environmental risk areas of concern that affect residents of the border; these risks are: water-pollution, waste-management, air-pollution and water-availability. Our study shows a descriptive evaluation for the employees and/or supervisors perceptions of the environmental risk represented by their maquila industries located in the Mexican-U.S. border city of Nuevo-Laredo; where, its expected labor-force for year 2008 (an estimate of 24,480 employees) has been experiencing some reductions mainly due to the high cost of energy supplies and because some maquilas have emigrated to China. Furthermore, an estimate of 61.0% of these maquila’s employees perceive an appropriate level of application of environmental laws. Although the majority of the maquila industry (80.5%) at this border city possesses production-quality certifications, merely an estimate of 17.1% of such industrial-units (maquilas) have an international environmental-quality certification (ISO14000). The majority of the interviewed labor personnel agreed that an ISO14000 system in combination with any environmental risk reduction plan is the most effective strategy to prevent and minimize pollution

Environmental Crimes: A Summary Of Enforcement Actions To Support Business Productivity

This study summarizes and compares the most relevant criminal enforcement actions to support business productivity conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the fiscal years 1995-2008; the important actions under consideration are the environmental crime cases initiated, defendants charged, years sentenced, fines (and restitution) and pollutants' reductions. A correlation analysis was used to evaluate the significant relationship (p-value=0.002) between the environmental crime cases initiated and the period of time in years; a power regression model (via curve fitting) was estimated to explain this relationship (R2adj=0.998); the ratio of charged defendants to cases initiated (%) was measured as an indicator of the yearly enforcement productivity undertaken by the EPA, whose 95% prediction interval is graphically presented. In addition, other density measures of enforcement actions against environmental crimes, such as the years sentenced per defendant, and the economic amount of fines and restitution per defendant are included

Controlling Salmonella in Poultry using Bacteriophages

Public health concerns associated with high prevalence of foodborne salmonellosis, the emergence of antibiotic-resistant organisms and the identification of poultry meat and products as one of the most common sources of Salmonella support the need for new pathogen control strategies in the poultry industry. Scientific research has focused on the use of bacteriophages as therapeutic agents for humans and animals; however, limited studies have been conducted on bacteriophage application on food safety, especially on poultry. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the phage density and exposure time required to reduce Salmonella load on experimentally inoculated chicken meat. In Experiment 1, serovars of Salmonella were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and rifampicin-resistant isolates were generated. Cocktails of the serovars Enteritidis, Kentucky and Typhimurium (EKT), and Hadar and Heidelberg (HH), were inoculated on chicken breast samples to a target of 104 CFU/g. A mixture of three lytic bacteriophages, active against multiple Salmonella serovars was applied to chicken samples. A total of 84 samples (25 +/- 2 g) per each cocktail were distributed among a negative control, Salmonella-inoculated positive control, Salmonella-inoculated samples treated with the phage mixture at differing titers (105, 106, 107, 108, and 109 PFU/ml) with two identical samples at 0, 15, 30, 60, 120, 360 min at 4 degrees C. Experiment 2 evaluated nalidixic acid-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium among negative control, Salmonella-inoculated control (positive control), Salmonella with two phage titers (105 and 109 PFU/ml) at 0, 30, 60 and 120 min at 25 degrees C and 4 degrees C. Results showed differences in means for Salmonella cocktail EKT ranged from 0.1 to 0.7 log10 CFU/g with 0.7 log10 for 108 PFU/ml, 30 min, 4 degrees C. For Salmonella cocktail HH, reductions ranged from 0.1 to 0.4 log10 CFU/g with 0.4 log10 on samples treated with 108 PFU/ml, 120 min, 4 degrees C. For the Experiment 2, a higher phage concentration (109 PFU/ml) at 120 min post-inoculation storage at 25 degrees C was required to yield a 0.9 log10 difference in means. These findings showed that higher concentrations of bacteriophage were more effective controlling Salmonella than lower ones at both temperatures. In addition, temperature, time and bacterial attachment may influence phage efficacy

Evaluation of a collaborative photography workshop using the iPad 2 as an accessible technology for participants who are blind, visually impaired and sighted working collaboratively

A workshop using iPads to train photographers who are blind, visually impaired and sighted is evaluated using a model of inclusive technical capital. It was hypothesized that all participants would find iPad apps accessible. It was found that iPads were good introductory devices, but experienced participants who are blind and sighted still preferred specialized cameras

Students And Faculty Perceptions Of Communications Channels: A Comparison Of Survey Results

Individual communication between faculty and students outside of the classroom is one of the cornerstones of education. This survey examines the students and faculty perceptions of three communications media for several communication tasks that occur between students and faculty. A random sample of 449 students (undergraduate and graduate, full-time and part-time) which represents 10% of the population at a small Texas state university were invited to participate in a survey that elicited their perceptions on the effectiveness of face-to-face (office hours), e-mail and telephone communication. Similarly a random sample of 49 professors, which represents 32 % of the faculty population, was used to test several hypotheses. In this survey, the relevant results supported by some nonparametric statistical analyses are that at each media channel the "bootstrapped" confidence intervals estimates for the percentages in communications-time preferences of students and faculty were very similar, or without a significant difference. In addition, students and faculty expressed simultaneously (criteria of convergence) the same preference-level about e-mail for convenience and efficiency. Office hours were preferred for confidentiality, confrontation and emotional support. Equal preference about e-mail and office hours was expressed by both groups of study for the criteria: accuracy and overall effectiveness

Evaluation of a collaborative photography workshop using the iPad 2 as an accessible technology for participants who are blind, visually impaired and sighted working collaboratively

A workshop using iPads to train photographers who are blind, visually impaired and sighted is evaluated using grounded theory / methodology and a model of inclusive technical capital. It is hypothesized that all participants find iPad apps accessible. It is found that iPads and apps are generally good introductory tools, but experienced participants who are blind and visually impaired prefer specialized cameras

Isolating The Key Variables For Regression Models In Enterprise Software Acquisition Decisions: A Blocking Technique

Often researchers in the field of information systems face problems related to the variable selection for model building; as well as difficulties associated to their data (small sample and/or non normality). The goal of this article is to present an original statistical blocking-technique based on relative variability for screening of variables in multivariate regression models. We applied the blocking-technique and a nonparametric bootstrapping method to the data collected on the USA-South border for a research concerning enterprise software (ES) acquisition contracts. Three mutually exclusive blocks of relative variability for the response variables were formed and their corresponding regression models were built and explained. A conclusion was drawn about the decreasing tendency on the adjusted coefficient of determination (R2adj) magnitudes when the blocks change from low (L) to high (H) condition of relative variability. The obtained models (via stepwise regression) exhibited significant p-values (0.0001)