Modeling and Measuring Domain-Specific Quantitative Reasoning in Higher Education Business and Economics

Quantitative reasoning is considered a crucial prerequisite for acquiring domain-specific expertise in higher education. To ascertain whether students are developing quantitative reasoning, validly assessing its development over the course of their studies is required. However, when measuring quantitative reasoning in an academic study program, it is often confounded with other skills. Following a situated approach, we focus on quantitative reasoning in the domain of business and economics and define domain-specific quantitative reasoning primarily as a skill and capacity that allows for reasoned thinking regarding numbers, arithmetic operations, graph analyses, and patterns in real-world business and economics tasks, leading to problem solving. As many studies demonstrate, well-established instruments for assessing business and economics knowledge like the Test of Understanding College Economics (TUCE) and the Examen General para el Egreso de la Licenciatura (EGEL) contain items that require domain-specific quantitative reasoning skills. In this study, we follow a new approach and assume that assessing business and economics knowledge offers the opportunity to extract domain-specific quantitative reasoning as the skill for handling quantitative data in domain-specific tasks. We present an approach where quantitative reasoning – embedded in existing measurements from TUCE and EGEL tasks – will be empirically extracted. Hereby, we reveal that items tapping domain-specific quantitative reasoning constitute an empirically separable factor within a Confirmatory Factor Analysis and that this factor (domain-specific quantitative reasoning) can be validly and reliably measured using existing knowledge assessments. This novel methodological approach, which is based on obtaining information on students’ quantitative reasoning skills using existing domain-specific tests, offers a practical alternative to broad test batteries for assessing students’ learning outcomes in higher education

A streamlined collecting and preparation protocol for DNA barcoding of Lepidoptera as part of large-scale rapid biodiversity assessment projects, exemplified by the Indonesian Biodiversity Discovery and Information System (IndoBioSys)

Here we present a general collecting and preparation protocol for DNA barcoding of Lepidoptera as part of large-scale rapid biodiversity assessment projects, and a comparison with alternative preserving and vouchering methods. About 98% of the sequenced specimens processed using the present collecting and preparation protocol yielded sequences with more than 500 base pairs. The study is based on the first outcomes of the Indonesian Biodiversity Discovery and Information System (IndoBioSys). IndoBioSys is a German-Indonesian research project that is conducted by the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and the Zoologische Staatssammlung München, in close cooperation with the Research Center for Biology – Indonesian Institute of Sciences (RCB-LIPI, Bogor)

Aspects of the determination of the platinum group elements and arsenic by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this documentThesis (PhD (Chemistry))--University of Pretoria, 2007.Chemistryunrestricte

Neizvestnyj poet P. D. Buturlin - analiz tvorčestva

In der Reihe Slavistische Beiträge werden vor allem slavistische Dissertationen des deutschsprachigen Raums sowie vereinzelt auch amerikanische, englische und russische publiziert. Darüber hinaus stellt die Reihe ein Forum für Sammelbände und Monographien etablierter Wissenschafter/innen dar

Performance of Different Carbon Electrode Materials: Insights into Stability and Degradation under Real Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Operating Conditions

This work focuses on the performance and stability of selected commercial carbon electrode materials before and after heat-treatment in an operating all-vanadium redox flow battery (VRB). Heat treatment results in improved cell performance for all tested materials, with SGL 39 AA carbon papers and SIGRACELL GFD4.6 EA carbon felt showing the best performance. Further investigation of these two materials by in situ reference electrode measurements reveal improvements after heat-treatment that originate mainly from the negative electrode or V2+/V3+ side of the cell. Upon extended cycling, carbon felt is found to be stable. Carbon papers however, show significant performance losses originating from the negative electrode side. The potential limit during charging and the exposure to very negative potentials appears to be a critical issue at the negative electrode in the VRB. Analysis of both materials after cycling by scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveal significant differences in their surface chemistry, structure and morphology. These differences give valuable insights into the behavior and degradation of different carbon materials used in VRBs.ISSN:0013-4651ISSN:1945-711