Selected E-Course Controls: Accounting Department Heads Views

Use of the Internet continues to increase, and new technology continues to provide more and better communication options.  As more and more students choose to enroll in Internet courses (e-courses), technological advances offer various ways to control academic dishonesty.  A questionnaire was developed and distributed to chairpersons of accounting departments to obtain their views about the use of several technological enhancements that could serve as controls in e-courses.  Such controls would require that some of these newer physical enhancements be on students’ computers when they register for an e-course.  Respondents strongly favored requiring students to provide a digital photo ID and audio capabilities when registering for an e-course.  Other potential controls were not supported.  Those surveyed also tended to believe that students should use a web cam when completing examinations on-line and that faculty should compare the photo ID with the web cam image.  In other settings, they felt that such a comparison was unnecessary.  Overall, the accounting department heads surveyed endorsed requiring the student who enrolls in an e-course to obtain some existing technology, and they expect the student to be prepared to spend more than $100 to obtain the technology

A Comparison Of Student Performance In An Online Introductory Accounting Course With Traditional Classroom Students

Use of e-courses in higher education has become increasingly widespread in recent years.  Educators continue to debate the effectiveness of the technology and some argue that e-courses may be appropriate for some courses, but not for others.  Each discipline must determine the effectiveness of e-courses consistent with its own priorities.  Within accounting education, no consensus has been reached.  Recently, an opportunity to compare student performance in an e-course setting with that in a traditional classroom setting presented itself.  A professor taught the introductory accounting course in the two settings; classes were conducted in such a way that student performance could be compared.  This paper describes results and conclusions drawn from the comparisons

Engaging with controversial science issues - a professional learning programme for secondary science teachers in New Zealand

Internationally there is concern that many science teachers do not address controversial science issues in their science classrooms, and there is a perception amongst many science teachers that science is about the delivery of facts, and that it is value-free. However with the increasingly complex, science-based dilemmas being presented to society, there is a growing call for future citizens to be more scientifically literate and to be able to make informed decisions on issues related to these dilemmas. There have been shifts in science curricula internationally, and in New Zealand, towards a focus on scientific literacy, but changes in teachers’ pedagogical practice have not been widespread. The demands and challenges for teachers are high and to make such changes requires support and guidance.Because of the paucity of literature available about teaching controversial science issues in New Zealand science classrooms, the purpose of this project was to firstly establish the current status of the teaching and learning about issues and to identify the support that teachers felt they required to address this in science classrooms. This information then informed the development of a professional learning programme to provide support for teachers. The project took a mixed method approach and proceeded in three phases, with Phase One involving the development and administration of a survey to secondary teachers in the North Island of New Zealand, with follow-up interviews with some survey participants. The qualitative and quantitative data gathered enabled the current scene to be established. Phase Two involved the use of data from Phase One, together with information obtained mainly from the literature review, to design a professional learning programme, the focus of which was the development of a model for ethical inquiry. Phase Three involved two workshops, separated by eleven weeks, in which four teachers critiqued, trialled and evaluated the model in the classroom. A series of case studies was developed from each trial, with a cross-case analysis made to validate the usefulness of the model.The findings of the survey and interviews indicated that to address controversial issues, there was a need to move New Zealand teachers away from a focus on content, towards a pedagogy that focused on ethical inquiry and the appropriate use of strategies and approaches to support this. The findings from the professional learning programme confirmed that teachers had been supported in addressing controversial science issues by the use of the model for ethical inquiry and positive outcomes were reported for both teachers and students.The project provided current information about how controversial science issues are addressed in New Zealand secondary science classrooms and validated the model for ethical inquiry in supporting teachers to address controversial science in the light of impending and changing requirements of The New Zealand Curriculum (2007) towards informed citizenry and scientific literacy. The project also supplements the very small amount of research that has been carried out in a New Zealand context on addressing controversial science issues in secondary science classrooms

A pilot cross-sectional study of patients presenting with cellulitis to emergency departments.

To characterise the Emergency Department (ED) prevalence of cellulitis, factors predicting oral antibiotic therapy and the utility of the Clinical Resource Efficiency Support Team (CREST) guideline in predicting patient management in the ED setting, a prospective, cross-sectional study of consecutive adult patients presenting to 3 Irish EDs was performed. The overall prevalence of cellulitis was 12 per 1,000 ED visits. Of 59 patients enrolled, 45.8% were discharged. Predictors of treatment with oral antibiotics were: CREST, Class 1 allocation (odds ratio (OR) 6.81, 95% Cl =1.5-30.1, p=0.012), patient self-referral (OR= 6.2, 95% Cl 1.9- 20.0, p=0.03) and symptom duration longer than 48 hours (OR 1.2, 95% Cl = 1.0-1.5,p=0.049). In conflict with guideline recommendation, 43% of patients in CREST Class 1 received IV therapy. Treatment with oral antibiotics was predicted by CREST Class 1 allocation, self-referral, symptom duration of more than 48 hours and absence of pre-EO antibiotic therapy

Application of a Fath-Based Integration Tool to Assess Mental and Physical Health Interventions

Background: To build on current research involving faith-based interventions (FBIs) for addressing mental and physical health, this study a) reviewed the extent to which relevant publications integrate faith concepts with health and b) initiated analysis of the degree of FBI integration with intervention outcomes. Methods: Derived from a systematic search of articles published between 2007 and 2017, 36 studies were assessed with a FaithBased Integration Assessment Tool (FIAT) to quantify faith-health integration. Basic statistical procedures were employed to determine the association of faith-based integration with intervention outcomes. Results: The assessed studies possessed (on average) moderate, inconsistent integration because of poor use of faith measures, and moderate, inconsistent use of faith practices. Analysis procedures for determining the effect of FBI integration on intervention outcomes were inadequate for formulating practical conclusions. Conclusions: Regardless of integration, interventions were associated with beneficial outcomes. To determine the link between FBI integration and intervention outcomes, additional analyses are needed. Key words: faith-based integration and interventions, faith and health studies, religion and spirituality, integrative healt

Acute Exercise Increases Adiponectin Levels in Abdominally Obese Men

Objective. To examine the effect of acute and short-term (~1 week) aerobic exercise training on plasma adiponectin levels in inactive, abdominally obese men. Materials and Methods. Inactive and abdominally obese men (n = 38, waist circumference ≥102 cm) recruited from Kingston, Canada were randomly allocated to perform three bouts of aerobic treadmill exercise at either low (50% VO2 peak) or high (75% VO2 peak) intensity during a 1-week period. Blood samples were taken before and after the first exercise session and 24–72 hours following the completion of the final exercise session. Results. Adiponectin levels were elevated immediately following an acute bout of exercise at both high and low intensities (High: 5.79 ± 0.42 versus 5.05 ± 0.41 ug/mL; Low: 5.24 ± 0.44 versus 4.37 ± 0.44 ug/mL, P < 0.05) and remained elevated following 30 minutes of rest. In comparison to baseline, adiponectin levels were also elevated 24–72 hours following the final exercise session (High: 5.47 ± 0.48 versus 4.88 ± 0.48 ug/mL; Low: 5.18 ± 0.49 versus 4.47 ± 0.49 ug/mL, P < 0.05). Conclusion. Both acute and short-term aerobic exercise result in a significant increase in plasma adiponectin levels in inactive, abdominally obese men independent of intensity

Acute Exercise Increases Adiponectin Levels in Abdominally Obese Men

Objective. To examine the effect of acute and short-term (~1 week) aerobic exercise training on plasma adiponectin levels in inactive, abdominally obese men. Materials and Methods. Inactive and abdominally obese men (n = 38, waist circumference ≥102 cm) recruited from Kingston, Canada were randomly allocated to perform three bouts of aerobic treadmill exercise at either low (50% VO2 peak) or high (75% VO2 peak) intensity during a 1-week period. Blood samples were taken before and after the first exercise session and 24–72 hours following the completion of the final exercise session. Results. Adiponectin levels were elevated immediately following an acute bout of exercise at both high and low intensities (High: 5.79 ± 0.42 versus 5.05 ± 0.41 ug/mL; Low: 5.24 ± 0.44 versus 4.37 ± 0.44 ug/mL, P < 0.05) and remained elevated following 30 minutes of rest. In comparison to baseline, adiponectin levels were also elevated 24–72 hours following the final exercise session (High: 5.47 ± 0.48 versus 4.88 ± 0.48 ug/mL; Low: 5.18 ± 0.49 versus 4.47 ± 0.49 ug/mL, P < 0.05). Conclusion. Both acute and short-term aerobic exercise result in a significant increase in plasma adiponectin levels in inactive, abdominally obese men independent of intensity

Innocent strategies as presheaves and interactive equivalences for CCS

Seeking a general framework for reasoning about and comparing programming languages, we derive a new view of Milner's CCS. We construct a category E of plays, and a subcategory V of views. We argue that presheaves on V adequately represent innocent strategies, in the sense of game semantics. We then equip innocent strategies with a simple notion of interaction. This results in an interpretation of CCS. Based on this, we propose a notion of interactive equivalence for innocent strategies, which is close in spirit to Beffara's interpretation of testing equivalences in concurrency theory. In this framework we prove that the analogues of fair and must testing equivalences coincide, while they differ in the standard setting.Comment: In Proceedings ICE 2011, arXiv:1108.014