Critical Thinking Ability as a Predictor of Success in a Nontraditional Master's Degree : Program in Adult and Continuing Education

Presented at the Midwest Research to Practice Conference in Adult and Continuing Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, October 8-9, 1987.This research-in-progress examines the predictive validity of the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) for forecasting master's degree students' attrition, achievement level, thesis progress, and program completion time in a field-based accelerated program in Adult and Continuing Education (ACE). In the fall of 1986, National College of Education (NCE) changed one of the admission requirements for this program from satisfactory performance on the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) to similar performance on the WGCTA. The appropriateness of the MAT content for NCE's nontraditional students was questioned and the WGCTA was chosen as an alternative. The current issue is the relative forecasting efficacy of the MAT and the WGCTA among predictor variables such as sex, age, race, marital status, geographic area, undergraduate major, time since baccalaureate degree, type of undergraduate institution, and junior-senior GPA. The results of multiple regression analysis and multiple discriminant analysis will be compared for the MAT and WGCTA

The Impact of Environmental Laws on the American Economy

Paper presented at the Third International Scientific & Practical Conference for Lecturers, Post-Graduate Students, and Young Scientists; Mechnikov National University, Odesa, Ukraine; May 2008.In conclusion, environmental regulation in an industrialized nation such as the United States is vital to protecting the natural environment from the adverse affects of pollution. There is no question that regulation is necessary, and that it has worked. Thanks to the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Environmental Protection Agency, Americans can breathe easier and still enjoy the nation’s multitude of waterways. Environmental regulations were put into place at exactly the right time, before any permanent damage to the environment could occur

Poglish in England, the United States, and Poland

Paper presented at the March 4, 2015 Conference "Culture-Tradition-Language" at Zespół Szkół Ekonomicznych in Nowy Sącz, PolandPoglish is a dialect that results from combining language elements from Polish and English. It is most commonly heard among people whose first language is Polish, but encounter the need to use English for practical situations in an English-speaking country, or to describe things using English words in Poland because there is no easily translatable equivalent term in Polish. The Poglish examples in this presentation will include those personally experienced by the author when listening to Polish immigrants in Chicago, some accounts of this dialect currently used by Polish immigrants in England, and the incorporation of English words or modifications of English words into the Polish lexicon in Poland. The implications of the use of Poglish on Polish immigrant traditions and the culture of present-day Poland are discussed

The impact of instructional technology on business education in the United States

Internet jest bardzo ważnym czynnikiem w dzisiejszej edukacji. Służy jako źródło nowych praktyk, metod nauczania i uczenia się. Nauczanie on-line uważane jest za skuteczne interakcje podtrzymujące to nowe środowisko. Przeglądanie stron www łączy nowe sposoby nauczania i uczenia się oraz stawia coraz nowsze i wyższe wymagania studentom i instruktorom. Programy kursów on-line są dobrze zaprojektowane, posiadają dobrze napisane teksty i efektywne cele uczenia się. Istnieją jednak krytyczne uwagi, że kursy on-line zmniejszają kontakty personalne między uczniami a nauczycielem. W rzeczywistości programy uczenia się on-line stwarzają nowe możliwości tworzenia oddzielnego, skutecznego środowiska, które podnosi wartość uczenia się. Aby osiągnąć skuteczne wyniki uczenia się studenci musza mieć dostęp do najnowszych technologii i muszą wiedzieć jak je zastosować. Role nauczyciela sprowadza się do projektowania i wdrożenia procesu uczenia się oraz kontroli

Individual Identity and Social Identity: Conflict or Confluence?

Paper presented at Third Scientific Conference and Discussion Forum on Personality: Psychology and Frontiers, “The Body in Health and Illness,” Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu-National Louis University, Nowy Sacz, Poland.Sometimes it is difficult or impossible to correctly classify or specify a person because of the lack of constancy or the lack of distinguishing information

The Validity of Locus of Control Dimensions for Chicano Populations

The multidimensional locus of control literature supported the tenability of five factorial dimensions: a) luck; fate, b) leadership/success, c) academics, d) politics, and e) respect. Contending that the contradictory locus ofcontrol findings involving Chicano populations may be due to methodological inadequacies, the purpose ofthe present study was to empirically determine theappropriatenessof the five categories for comparing Chicano and Anglo populations. This was done by factor analyzing the responses of 203 Anglo and 244 Chicano undergraduates to Rotter's (1966) I-E scale separately, and then comparing the corresponding factor pairs by using Cliffs (1966) congruence procedure. The luck/fate and leadership/success factors show substantial invariance across the two samples, whereas the cultural equivalence ofthe remaining three factors is somewhat questionable. The findings are discussed in relation to current knowledge of crosscultural differences between Anglo and Chicano populations

Teacher Evaluation as a Function of the Students' Sex and Achievement Level

This study was designed to determine how the ratingsof a college teacher were influenced by the sex and achievement levelof the students. Sixty-seven male and 73 female undergraduates wereused in the main analyses, with an additional 72 subjects insubsidiary analyses. During the first week of the course subjectswere asked to rate themselves, father, mother,and the instructor inthe course on the Michill Adjective Rating Scale (MAILS) whichmeasures four relatively independent factors (unhappiness,extraversion, self-assertiveness, and productive persistence). Theyalso rated themselves and the instructor on the same scale near theend of the course, rated the instructor on the Rating Scale forTeachers pm consisting of 17 itmes dealing with aspects of ateacher's job and personality, and took five teacher-made achievementtests during the semester. Students were separated into high and lowachievement levels, using the median of the cutoff. Two-waymultivariate analysis showed significant differences in teacherratings on MARS and RST factors between the sexes and between highand low achievement level subjects. Also, significant sex and achievement level interaction was found for the RST data

Gender Stereotyping of Occupations as a Function of Perceivers' Sex, Age, and Familiarity with the Occupation

Paper presented at the meeting of the Indiana Academy of Science Bloomington, Indiana, November 1985.Public perceptions of particular occupations as "masculine" or "feminine" are of interest as "equal employment opportunity" legislation has led to increased sexual integration of many occupations which were previously held predominantly by either men or women

Seminiferous tubule transfection in vitro to define post-meiotic gene regulation

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.rbej.com/content/7/1/67Background: Post-meiotically expressed genes in the testis are essential for the proper progression of spermatogenesis, and yet, aside from the construction of individual transgenic mice using specific promoters to drive reporter plasmids, there are only very limited possibilities for relevant and quantitative analysis of gene promoters. This is due to the special nature of post-meiotic haploid cells, which to date are not represented in any appropriate cell-lines. This article reports the development of novel methodology using isolated and cultured rat seminiferous tubules in a multiwell format, into which promoter-reporter constructs can be introduced by a combination of microinjection and electroporation. Methods: Culture conditions were developed which allowed the continued incubation of isolated rat seminiferous tubules for up to 48 h without obvious cell death and loss of post-meiotic cells. Transfection of intact seminiferous tubules by microinjection and electroporation was optimized to achieve high expression efficiencies of control plasmids, using either fluorescent protein or luciferase as reporters, thereby allowing both morphological as well as quantitative assessment. Results: Successful transfection was achieved into all cell types except for mature spermatozoa. However, there appeared to be only limited cell-type specificity for the promoters used, even though these had appeared to be specific when used in transgenic animals. Conclusion: We have devised a methodology which allows relatively high throughput analysis of post-meiotic gene promoters into primary cells of intact seminiferous tubules. An apparent lack of cell-type specificity suggests that the gene fragments used do not contain sufficient targeting information, or that the transient episomal expression of the constructs does not encourage appropriate expression specificity. The results also highlight the doubtful interpretation of many studies using heterologous transfection systems to analyse post-meiotically expressed genes.Sandra Danner, Christiane Kirchhoff and Richard Ivel

Differential expression of HSPA1 and HSPA2 proteins in human tissues; tissue microarray-based immunohistochemical study

In the present study we determined the expression pattern of HSPA1 and HSPA2 proteins in various normal human tissues by tissue-microarray based immunohistochemical analysis. Both proteins belong to the HSPA (HSP70) family of heat shock proteins. The HSPA2 is encoded by the gene originally defined as testis-specific, while HSPA1 is encoded by the stress-inducible genes (HSPA1A and HSPA1B). Our study revealed that both proteins are expressed only in some tissues from the 24 ones examined. HSPA2 was detected in adrenal gland, bronchus, cerebellum, cerebrum, colon, esophagus, kidney, skin, small intestine, stomach and testis, but not in adipose tissue, bladder, breast, cardiac muscle, diaphragm, liver, lung, lymph node, pancreas, prostate, skeletal muscle, spleen, thyroid. Expression of HSPA1 was detected in adrenal gland, bladder, breast, bronchus, cardiac muscle, esophagus, kidney, prostate, skin, but not in other tissues examined. Moreover, HSPA2 and HSPA1 proteins were found to be expressed in a cell-type-specific manner. The most pronounced cell-type expression pattern was found for HSPA2 protein. In the case of stratified squamous epithelia of the skin and esophagus, as well as in ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelium lining respiratory tract, the HSPA2 positive cells were located in the basal layer. In the colon, small intestine and bronchus epithelia HSPA2 was detected in goblet cells. In adrenal gland cortex HSPA2 expression was limited to cells of zona reticularis. The presented results clearly show that certain human tissues constitutively express varying levels of HSPA1 and HSPA2 proteins in a highly differentiated way. Thus, our study can help designing experimental models suitable for cell- and tissue-type-specific functional differences between HSPA2 and HSPA1 proteins in human tissues