Exploring the Utility of Mindfulness and Self-regulation Assignments for Business Students

There are a number of personal habits, disciplines, and activities that are associated with success for both college students and business professionals. Goal-setting, concentration and focus, and the ability to delay gratification have long been known to be key factors. More recent research has shown that mindfulness, self-assessment, and self-regulation are also important to success. However, today’s world poses serious, new challenges to the student or professional who wishes to think and learn effectively and to achieve his/her goals. Previously, a Learning Academy was created to lead volunteer students through a series of self-assessments, worksheet exercises, personal reflections, and group discussions aimed at promoting the habits, disciplines, and activities mentioned above (Roberson, 2017; Polin and Roberson, 2016). The Academy was a success, but the number of students impacted was limited. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is utility in assigning selected Learning Academy content within a business course in order to reach a wider group of students

The Electrochemical Characterization of Ferrocene as a Guest Molecule in the Presence of ß-Cydodextrin

This experiment involves the development of electrochemical experimental methods for the determination of the oxidation/reduction potentials of a guest ferrocene complex (C10H10Fe) hosted by ß-cyclodextrin. The project was conducted so that the specific interaction of two molecules forming a unique inclusion compound can be used as a model for rapid analysis of other small molecules. In principle, the study is based on the expected equilibrium interaction of the iron compound with ß-cyclodextrin resulting in a complexed and an uncomplexed species equilibrium. The project\u27s experimental objective is to determine if the redox potentials of both complexed and uncomplexed iron compounds are influenced sufficiently by ß-cyclodextrin to allow simultaneous determination of the redox potentials in equilibrium mixtures. This analysis will allow the determination of equilibrium constants for interaction of guest molecules with ß-cyclodextrin

Improving Student Effort on a Learning Outcome Assessment: Benchmarks, Options, and Results

Mission-driven accreditation standards were established by AACSB in 2003 and updated in 2013, and these standards required accredited business and accounting programs to establish and assess student learning outcomes. This approach was a major change for AACSB accreditation, so beginning in 2003 universities were given a few years to design and implement their Assurance of Learning (AoL) programs. The result has been an array of measures to assess student learning outcomes. All too often, however, the AoL programs were stand-alone efforts to comply with the standards for assessment and were not linked to meaningful continuous improvement processes. Assessing basic business content knowledge gained by students continues to constitute an important element for AACSB accreditation. The challenge for universities is how best to measure content knowledge. While there are a variety of alternative approaches, many universities use the Educational Testing Service’s Major Field Test of Business (MFTB) as a component of their AoL programs. Between September 2013 and June 2015, 563 domestic institutions administered the MFTB to a total of 68,594 students (Educational Testing Service, 2015). The MFTB is a nationally-normed assessment instrument that enables business schools to compare their students’ content knowledge with that of students at other universities. Despite widespread use of the MFTB, concerns are sometimes expressed regarding the validity of the MFTB data. At issue is the extent to which students taking the test are sufficiently engaged and serious about doing their best, because if not, the test results cannot provide a reasonable estimate of students’ true knowledge and have little or no value as an assessment tool. Question: Is it possible to increase student motivation on a learning outcome assessment test and get results that are closer to each student’s true score

Inattention, Distraction, and Dysfunction - Modern Challenges for Business Education and Practice

Students of every generation have faced factors that limited the amount of time available for study based on responsibilities such as family and jobs. There were also potential distractions that challenged students’ willpower to focus on academic activities instead of other completely discretionary uses of their time. The choice was between activities that provided immediate gratification versus academic activities that would yield a far greater payoff over the long run. The last decade has seen a significant array of new temptations in the form of smart phones and other personal technologies that are powerful, portable, and pervasive. While these technologies offer many benefits to learning and productivity, they also provide the potential to negatively affect student academic performance, business and professional success, the quality of social and familial relationships, and general well-being. The purpose of this research is twofold. First, we provide a brief overview of key literature related to distractions in the academic environment and their effects on thought, concentration, reflection, and self-regulation. Second, we report the results of a questionnaire administered to junior-level undergraduate business students aimed at evaluating student awareness and personal management of these potential distractions, student self-regulation of learning, student time orientation, and additional descriptive information about the circumstances under which students study and learn

Probabilistic modeling of one dimensional water movement and leaching from highway embankments containing secondary materials

Predictive methods for contaminant release from virgin and secondary road construction materials are important for evaluating potential long-term soil and groundwater contamination from highways. The objective of this research was to describe the field hydrology in a highway embankment and to investigate leaching under unsaturated conditions by use of a contaminant fate and transport model. The HYDRUS2D code was used to solve the Richards equation and the advection–dispersion equation with retardation. Water flow in a Minnesota highway embankment was successfully modeled in one dimension for several rain events after Bayesian calibration of the hydraulic parameters against water content data at a point 0.32 m from the surface of the embankment. The hypothetical leaching of Cadmium from coal fly ash was probabilistically simulated in a scenario where the top 0.50 m of the embankment was replaced by coal fly ash. Simulation results were compared to the percolation equation method where the solubility is multiplied by the liquid-to-solid ratio to estimate total release. If a low solubility value is used for Cadmium, the release estimates obtained using the percolation/equilibrium model are close to those predicted from HYDRUS2D simulations (10–4–10–2 mg Cd/kg ash). If high solubility is used, the percolation equation over predicts the actual release (0.1–1.0 mg Cd/kg ash). At the 90th percentile of uncertainty, the 10-year liquid-to-solid ratio for the coal fly ash embankment was 9.48 L/kg, and the fraction of precipitation that infiltrated the coal fly ash embankment was 92%. Probabilistic modeling with HYDRUS2D appears to be a promising realistic approach to predicting field hydrology and subsequent leaching in embankments

Competency Development in University Business Students: A Multiperspective Analysis

University business schools work to produce graduates who are knowledgeable in each of the business disciplines (e.g., accounting, management) as well as subject matter related to their chosen major or concentration area. B-schools also seek to develop some of the key professional competencies that are needed by individuals working in business. There are other competencies that may be important in business but are either impossible or impractical to develop in a university environment, and graduates must develop those competencies after beginning their business careers. We investigated three research questions relating to the importance, trainability, and development of 22 professional competencies in business school students. 1. Do students, faculty members, and HR professionals agree on the relative importance of the competencies? 2. To what degree do faculty members and HR professionals believe each of the competencies is trainable in a college setting? 3. To what extent do students and faculty members believe that students currently receive learning, practice, and feedback to develop the competencies while in college

DNA methylation associated with postpartum depressive symptoms overlaps findings from a genome-wide association meta-analysis of depression

Background Perinatal depressive symptoms have been linked to adverse maternal and infant health outcomes. The etiology associated with perinatal depressive psychopathology is poorly understood, but accumulating evidence suggests that understanding inter-individual differences in DNA methylation (DNAm) patterning may provide insight regarding the genomic regions salient to the risk liability of perinatal depressive psychopathology. Results Genome-wide DNAm was measured in maternal peripheral blood using the Infinium MethylationEPIC microarray. Ninety-two participants (46% African-American) had DNAm samples that passed all quality control metrics, and all participants were within 7 months of delivery. Linear models were constructed to identify differentially methylated sites and regions, and permutation testing was utilized to assess significance. Differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were defined as genomic regions of consistent DNAm change with at least two probes within 1 kb of each other. Maternal age, current smoking status, estimated cell-type proportions, ancestry-relevant principal components, days since delivery, and chip position served as covariates to adjust for technical and biological factors. Current postpartum depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Ninety-eight DMRs were significant (false discovery rate \u3c 5%) and overlapped 92 genes. Three of the regions overlap loci from the latest Psychiatric Genomics Consortium meta-analysis of depression. Conclusions Many of the genes identified in this analysis corroborate previous allelic, transcriptomic, and DNAm association results related to depressive phenotypes. Future work should integrate data from multi-omic platforms to understand the functional relevance of these DMRs and refine DNAm association results by limiting phenotypic heterogeneity and clarifying if DNAm differences relate to the timing of onset, severity, duration of perinatal mental health outcomes of the current pregnancy or to previous history of depressive psychopathology

Lunar Soil Erosion Physics for Landing Rockets on the Moon

To develop a lunar outpost, we must understand the blowing of soil during launch and landing of the new Altair Lander. For example, the Apollo 12 Lunar Module landed approximately 165 meters from the deactivated Surveyor Ill spacecraft, scouring its surfaces and creating numerous tiny pits. Based on simulations and video analysis from the Apollo missions, blowing lunar soil particles have velocities up to 2000 m/s at low ejection angles relative to the horizon, reach an apogee higher than the orbiting Command and Service Module, and travel nearly the circumference of the Moon [1-3]. The low ejection angle and high velocity are concerns for the lunar outpost

Sufficient Conditions for Fast Switching Synchronization in Time Varying Network Topologies

In previous work, empirical evidence indicated that a time-varying network could propagate sufficient information to allow synchronization of the sometimes coupled oscillators, despite an instantaneously disconnected topology. We prove here that if the network of oscillators synchronizes for the static time-average of the topology, then the network will synchronize with the time-varying topology if the time-average is achieved sufficiently fast. Fast switching, fast on the time-scale of the coupled oscillators, overcomes the descychnronizing decoherence suggested by disconnected instantaneous networks. This result agrees in spirit with that of where empirical evidence suggested that a moving averaged graph Laplacian could be used in the master-stability function analysis. A new fast switching stability criterion here-in gives sufficiency of a fast-switching network leading to synchronization. Although this sufficient condition appears to be very conservative, it provides new insights about the requirements for synchronization when the network topology is time-varying. In particular, it can be shown that networks of oscillators can synchronize even if at every point in time the frozen-time network topology is insufficiently connected to achieve synchronization.Comment: Submitted to SIAD