From e-learning to integrated learning architectures. A novel approach to learning management in corporate and higher education contexts

E-learning has taken an important role in the work of human resources departments, thus increasing both the importance of, and the demands placed upon, learning management processes and technologies. High-performance learning platforms enable a wide range of functionalities and process choice. In addition, they need interfaces for integration into other corporate IT systems. And finally, corporate learning solutions also need to reach all relevant partners who might participate in learning and information exchange processes. Providing examples from the architecture of the leading European learning management system CLIX�, the article outlines the conceptual, technical, process-related and organizational framework for a successful implementation of viable and sustainable learning solutions in companies, higher education and public organizations.corporate learning, E-learning, learning management, management education, performance management.

Reforming Reforms: Incentive Effects in Education Finance in Vermont

In 1997, Vermont passed Act 60, which reformed its education finance system to achieve greater equality of spending within the state. Like other recent education finance reforms that included strong and transparent incentives to reduce spending, Act 60 was politically very unpopular. In February 2004, Vermont passed Act 68, an attempt to acheive court-mandated education equalization at a lesser political cost than that required by Act 60. In this paper we analyze the incentives for local spending created by Act 60 and Act 68, and estimate the effects the change will have on spending inequality in Vermont. We find that Act 68 greatly reduces spending disincentives created by Act 60, but reduces them disproportionately for wealthy towns. As a result it increases inequality of spending in Vermont relative to Act 60. Because spending is quite inelastic with respect to tax prices, however, the increase in inequality is not very large relative to existing inequality. Act 68 does result in lower tax prices in all towns in Vermont and hence produces a moderate increase in education spending statewide. It has also been more politically acceptable than its predecessor, though not unanimously supported. Our findings emphasize the importance of marginal effects of education finance, and suggest that understanding the way in which towns respond to the incentives those effects create is critical in designing successful education finance reforms. They also show that a rereform of education finance in response to political criticism of an initial reform can reduce political concerns without greatly decreasing the equalizing incentives.

Raw milk quality: the processor\u27s point of view

Raw milk quality is important to the processor for many reasons, this quality can be assessed by several different tests. Quality tests are used to ensure that the raw milk meets legal USDA standards as well as some of the individual requirements of the processor. Although some quality tests can be done in a matter of minutes, others require up to several days to complete. Because milk quality deteriorates relatively quickly, it is important to concentrate on those tests that provide the greatest amount of information in the shortest time. This information then is extrapolated to assess the actual raw milk quality . After all, the quality of milk does not improve with time; thus, if the starting materials are substandard, the final products will be less than substandard. Generally, raw milk quality is assessed by type and number of microbes, milk composition, presence of contaminants, and current (and perhaps previous) temperature.; Dairy Day, 2000, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 2000

THE INFLUENCE OF DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS ON FATHERS’ BEHAVIORS AND ATTITUDES

The present study examines the impact of young, poor, unwed fathers on their family by investigating the influence of depressive symptom frequency on fathers’ relationship with their children and partners. Couples from seven American cities with populations over 200,000 were recruited and interviewed about such areas of life as romantic and parental relationships, health, and employment at the hospital within 24 hours after the birth of their child. An Item Response Theory (IRT) within-group analysis of the 1,759 African-, Caucasian-, Hispanic-, Asian-, and Native American fathers in the study yielded a 3-class clustering of depressive symptoms. Class 1 fathers had the lowest frequency of depressive symptom expression; class 2 fathers had a low frequency; and class 3 fathers had low to medium rates of depressive symptoms. Multivariate statistics revealed that depressive class membership predicted domestic violence toward fathers’ partners but not affection toward their children. The importance of the parental behavior of teaching children about life, however, varied by class, with class 2 fathers most highly endorsing this behavior. Implications of young, unwed, poor fathers' behaviors and attitudes toward their children and romantic partners will be discussed in terms of men's contributions to family life.

Milk quality as a funcion of temperature-cycled, reduced-fat milk stored in various size containers

Dairy Research, 2006 is known as Dairy Day, 2006Packaged, reduced-fat milk was subjected to a 20 min/day temperature cycle during a 7-day refrigeration period to determine the ef-fect on milk quality. Temperature cycling did not affect the compositional or microbial counts in reduced-fat milk stored in various package sizes. Analysis of headspace com-pounds during the 7 days of storage, however, showed that benzaldehyde, 2-butanone, 2-heptanone, hexanal, and octanal concentra-tions significantly changed, indicating that milk flavor was altered. Concentration of heptanal, a compound associated with lipid oxidation, was higher in milk packaged in half-gallon and 1-gallon containers, compare

Teachers Are Making a Difference: Understanding the Influence of Favorite Teachers

Using the theoretical framework of occupational socialization, the purpose of this study was to examine preservice physical education teachers’ beliefs and values of teachers and teaching through analysis and interpretation of favorite teacher narratives. One hundred and eighty six preservice physical education teachers’ narratives were collected and analyzed using open and axial coding (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). The qualities and characteristics identified through analysis were organized into seven inclusive sub-categories of favorite teacher characteristics and abilities and were articulated into three central themes, described as Pay it Forward, Caring in Teaching, and Motivated to Learn. The findings suggest that understanding favorite teacher influences on preservice teachers provides insights into maximizing the impact of physical education teacher education programs

Evaluation of yogurt with enhanced cysteine content

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein and assist with metabolism in the body. In the human body, the amino acid cysteine can be synthesized from methionine by the enzyme Î¥-cystathionase. Because certain human subpopulations such as those prone to cataracts have decreased Î¥-cystathionase activity, dietary cysteine may be beneficial. Nutritionally, yogurt mix is one of the best dairy food sources of methionine and cysteine, but the heat treatment used in manufacturing yogurt decreases the dietary availability of cysteine. Last year, it was shown that supplementing yogurt mixes with whey protein isolate (WPI) (\u3e90% protein) and processing yogurt mixes at a lower temperature produced yogurts with increased cysteine. Because the quality or cysteine content of the yogurt during the expected storage life is unknown, this study was conducted to determine if a combination of WPI addition and non-optimal process conditions could produce a yogurt with higher cysteine content and an acceptable shelf life. In this study, control yogurt mixes were made with nonfat dry milk (NDM) and processed at 90oC for 7 minutes, whereas the experimental yogurt mixes were made with NDM and WPI and processed at 70oC for 20 minutes. Both mixes were cooled, inoculated, fermented into yogurt, stored at 4°C, and evaluated periodically over a 60-day period. The experimental yogurts had ~2X more cysteine than the control yogurt; this trend was present throughout storage. After 60 days of storage, the water-holding capacity (WHC) and firmness was greater and the syneresis was less for the experimental yogurt than the control yogurt. These results show that yogurt supplemented with WPI and processed at less optimal conditions may be a good source of the conditional amino acid cysteine during storage.; Dairy Day, 2012, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 2012; Dairy Research, 2012 is known as Dairy Day, 201

Intraspecific facilitation of the recruitment of a burrowing mangrove crab species along an environmental gradient

The exploited mangrove crab Ucides cordatus, an important ecosystem engineer in South American mangroves,has a biphasic lifecycle with pelagic larvae developing offshore. Megalopae return to the mangrove forestto settle, i.e., metamorphose into benthic juveniles but its environmental drivers remain poorly understood.We postulate that conspecific crabs facilitate recruitment. In the field, we investigated whether the number ofrecruits is higher near conspecific burrows than in areas without conspecific bioturbation. Recruit samplingwas conducted monthly from April 2008 to May 2009 along an environmental gradient. First, U. cordatusrecruits of that year emerged from March to July. Intraspecific facilitation was indicated by significantly higherrecruit numbers in bioturbated than in non-bioturbated substrates. Recruits were most abundant in zones withintermediate conditions of inundation, leaf litter standing stock, sediment consistency, luminosity, temperature,salinity, and pH. Avoidance of more inundated zones likely reduces predation by fishes and of less inundatedzones helps individuals escape more stressful, drier environmental conditions. The observed habitat-specificrecruitment pattern must be considered when designing field assessments of the population structure ofU. cordatus (which should include sampling recruits) and enhancing stocks by releasing laboratory-cultivatedlarvae and first juveniles into the wild

Effect of building block transformation in covalent triazine‐based frameworks for enhanced CO2 uptake and metal‐free heterogeneous catalysis

Invited for the cover of this issue is the group of Pascal Van Der Voort at the University of Ghent and colleagues at Technische Universitat Berlin. The image depicts the covalent triazine frameworks reported in the manuscript for the sorption of CO2 and also in metal-free catalysis. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/chem.201903926