The Effect of Nonbank Diversification on Bank Holding Company Risk

Examines the effect of activity diversification on bank holding company (BHC) risk. Historical background of the BHC; Presentation of the research design and test results; Predictions of the modern portfolio theory; Implications of the study regarding the effect of nonbank diversification on BHC risk

An exploration of attitudes towards modern biotechnology: a study among Dutch secondary school students

Modern biotechnology will have a large impact on society and requires informed decision-making and critical attitudes toward biotechnology among the public. This study aims to explore these attitudes in secondary education. For this purpose, a questionnaire was constructed according to the general tripartite theory of attitudes. 574 Dutch secondary school students completed the questionnaire. Based on principal component analyses, several distinct and independent cognitive, affective, and behavioural factors were found, demonstrating that attitudes towards biotechnology are a multi-component concept. In a cluster analysis on these factors, we found four interpretable clusters representing different groups of students. The four groups are labelled as 'confident supporter' (22%), 'not sure' (42%), 'concerned sceptic' (18%) and 'not for me' (17%). These results indicate that there is a diverse appraisal of modern biotechnology amongst secondary school students. Suggestions for educational interventions are made

DCMI-Tools: Ontologies for Digital Application Description

The growth in electronic and digital publishing on the World Wide Web has led to the development of a wide range of tools for generating metadata. As a result, it can be difficult to select the appropriate type of application and the best metadata tool to support a project's metadata needs. The Dublin Core Tools (DCMI Tools) Community recognizes this need and is developing an application profile and a taxonomy of tool functionalities for describing metadata applications. The community will use the application profile and the taxonomy to standardize access to information on metadata via the DCMI Tools and Software program. This paper reports on the DCMI Tool Community's activities to develop an application profile for describing the wide range of applications (algorithms; metadata templates, editors, and generators; and other software) fitting this rubric. The paper begins with an introduction to metadata application challenges, and introduces the DCMI Tools Community in order to provide important historical context. Next, the paper reviews the concept of application profile and emphasizes the importance of this approach for describing metadata tools. The paper reviews procedures to develop the application profile and presents the DCMI Tools application profile. The paper also presents a metadata tool functionality taxonomy (to be used with the application profile), a glossary (to assist people in learning about metadata tools), and the DCMI Tool Community's implementation plans. The final part of the paper presents several conclusions and highlights next steps

Leaving College: A Gender Comparison in Male and Female-Dominated Programs

Women, on average, outnumber men and are more successful in higher education. A literature overview showed that these differences may be explained by gender differences in learner characteristics, by external factors and by institutional factors. This study aims to explain gender differences in higher education in more detail by focusing on one of the recent research findings in this area: the role of the numerical representation of men and women in course programs. What are gender differences in study success in male and female-dominated course programs, and what are gender differences in reasons for leaving these programs? The research questions were answered by analyzing Dutch census data and conducting a survey on students that have left college. Results showed that gender differences in retention scores and reasons for leaving were indeed related to the numerical representation of women and men in course programs. Leaving female-dominated programs seemed to be a different matter from leaving male-dominated programs

Education through fiction: acquiring opinion-forming skills in the context of genomics

This study examined the outcomes of a newly designed four-lesson science module on opinion-forming in the context of genomics in upper secondary education. The lesson plan aims to foster sixteen-year-old students’ opinion-forming skills in the context of genomics and to test the effect of the use of fiction in the module. The basic hypothesis tested in this study is whether fiction stimulates students to develop opinions with regard to socio-scientific issues. A quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design was used, involving two treatment groups and one control group. One of the experimental groups received a science module incorporating movie clips (i.e. the movie group). The other experimental group received the same science module, however, only news report clips were used (i.e. the news report group). Prior to and after the module, 266 secondary school students completed a questionnaire to test their opinion-forming skills. The results demonstrate that the science module had a significant positive effect on students’ opinion-forming skills and that the movie group improved their skills more compared to the news report group. It may be concluded that the use of fiction, to be more specific movie clips about genomics extracted from feature films, to introduce a socio-scientific issue in the classroom stimulates students to develop their opinion-forming skills

Fortaleciendo la capacidad profesional para mejorar la escolarización del alumnado inmigrante. Una reflexión sobre las actividades de la red Sirius

Revista Electrónica Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 45-57Este documento describe las actividades en el área de la capacidad profesional llevada a cabo por la Red Europea Sirius en la Educación y la Migración. El artículo analiza mediante encuesta el estado de la técnica, tres revisiones por pares y una reunión de un día con los responsables políticos. Los resultados de estas actividades se describen y se combinan con una visión general de la literatura de investigación sobre la capacidad profesional de las escuelas urbanas. Cinco recomendaciones se dan sobre la base de esta comparación: el desarrollo de comunidades de aprendizaje profesional, mejorar el ambiente de enseñanza y aprendizaje con un enfoque en la diversidad, aumentar la experiencia en el tratamiento de la diversidad lingüística, y organizar "escuelas abiertas" con las relaciones de buena calidad con los padres y las comunidades. Es de esperar que la aplicación de estas cinco recomendaciones, adaptadas a su contexto nacional, mejorará la posición de la educación de los niños de origen inmigrante