First-year Engineering Students’ Motivation to Participate in Virtual International Collaborative Experiential Program (VICEP): An Expectancy-Value-Cost Approach

Changes in course delivery mechanisms necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity to develop a Virtual International Collaborative Experiential Program (VICEP) as an alternative to traditional, travel-based study abroad programs. This paper presents the results of an investigation of engineering students’ motivation, perceived challenges, and preferred geographic areas for the VICEP. A sample of 116 first-year engineering students at the University of Cincinnati responded to survey items regarding their perceptions of motivation to participate in the VICEP, including in terms of expectancy, value, and cost, along with open-ended questions. Both male and female students scored the highest on value and the lowest on cost but with different weights. However, gender differences in the expectancy, value, and cost were not statistically significant. Intercultural collaboration and learning opportunities were significantly more important for female students than for males, and the engaged learning environment of the program and career skills development were more important for male students than for females. Time commitment and the structure of the program as well as the stress endured during the study abroad were strongly negative factors, more so for male students. Interestingly, the virtual nature of the project and the existence (or not) of incentives were not encouraging to most students. Structuring the world into seven geographic regions, the most preferred regions for virtual collaboration have the common feature of being technologically developed, except China which was among the lowest-ranking countries/regions. Preferences for geographical regions between male and female students was significant only for some regions. The present research provides valuable information for faculty leading virtual intercultural collaborative experiences

Corn Leaf Aphid and Polysora Rust Resistance in Tropical Maze

This research includes two separate studies both of which incorporated generation mean analyses to interpret genetically the resistance to com leaf aphid and polysora rust in tropical maize. The first study focused on resistance to com leaf aphid in tropical sweet corn inbred Hi38-71. An inoculation technique using hair-pin clip cages and infestation quantification method using digital image analysis were developed for this study. During the study, a heavy natural infestation of com leaf aphids occurred in a seed production nursery. Yield loss by ranged from 38.9% to 98.8%, with an average loss of 71.7%. The clip-cage method was effective in distinguishing resistant and susceptible plants under field conditions. Resistance to com leaf aphid from Hi38-71 appeared to be monogenic and recessive. Aphid reproduction and population growth were measured on four different genotypes of varying aphid tolerance. Aphids on Hi38-71 had poorest performance over all aspects of growth and reproduction examined. Difference in number of progenies produced and days to 50% mortality appeared to account for most of the difference observed in the genetic study. The second study estimated genetic parameters for polysora rust resistance in Hi38-71. Hi38-71 exhibited moderately high resistance to polysora rust as well as resistance to com leaf aphid. Generation mean analysis showed that epistatic interactions of [aa] and [dd] along with simple dominance and additive gene effects were involved in controlling resistance in Hi38-71 to polysora mst. It is concluded that polysora resistance breeding cannot be based on selection of a single parent but a hybrid-breeding or reciprocal recurrent selection approach appears justified. The tropical sweet com inbred, Hi38-71 is a sib line of Hi38 which was bred from a bt-1 conversion of AA8sh2. AA8sh2 was studied for its resistance to com leaf aphid in 1970’s in Hawaii and was converted to common rust resistance, Rd1-D which broke down due to evolved racial variation of the pathogen. Hi38-71 is thus of particular value in sweet com breeding for tropical regions. This is due not only to its resistance to com leaf aphid and polysora, but to its high sweet com qualities and generally good combining abilities

Matching in Marriage Market and Labor Market

This dissertation examines how matching -- in marriage markets and labor markets -- can change under certain market circumstances and under different information provisions. The first two chapters analyze marriage market, with a particular focus on the impacts of cross-border marriage in marriage markets. Given the severely male-biased sex ratios in many Asian countries including China and India, demands for foreign brides are expected to grow in the near future. In the first chapter, I theoretically investigate the impacts of cross-border marriage on marital patterns and surplus division of couples. I use a frictionless transferable utility matching framework to analyze how cross-border marriage affects matching patterns and marital shares for couples. In the second chapter, I test the model's predictions, focusing on Taiwan (a wealthier side with male biased sex ratios) and Vietnam (a poorer side with balanced sex ratios in the marriage market). I find that cross-border marriages are predominantly made up of Taiwanese men and Vietnamese women; Taiwanese men are selected from the middle level of the socioeconomic status distribution, and Vietnamese women are positively selected. Moreover, cross-border marriage significantly affects men and women who stay in their own countries without engaging in cross-border marriage, by altering marriage rate, matching partners, and intra-household allocations within the households. My results suggest that changes in trade and immigration policies can have far-reaching implications on marital outcomes and women's bargaining power. The third chapter investigates job and jobseeker matching in labor market. Specifically, it explores whether inaccurate expectations of job seekers about their competitiveness contribute to poor job matching in developing countries. We utilize the largest online job portal in the Middle East and North Africa region to evaluate the effect of an intervention providing information about own competitiveness to job applicants. Providing information about the relative fit of an applicant's background for a particular job causes job seekers to apply for jobs that are better matches given their background. The effects of information are the largest among entry-level workers with higher levels of education, who generally face the highest unemployment rates in the region. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that changes over time in demand for skills in the job market may lead to inaccurate expectations that hinder labor market matching. Improving the efficiency of online job search may be particularly welfare-enhancing in the Middle East and North Africa region given that the young, highly-educated subpopulation that faces the greatest labor market hurdles also has the highest level of internet connectedness

Clinical approaches for understanding the expression levels of pattern recognition receptors in otitis media with effusion

OBJECTIVES: Bacterial infections in the normally sterile environment of the middle ear cavity usually trigger host immune response, whereby the innate immune system plays a dominant role as the host’s first line of defense. In this study we evaluated the expression levels of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) -2, -4, -5, -9, and nucleotidebinding oligomerization domain-containing proteins (NODs) -1 and -2, all of which are related to bacterial infection in pediatric patients with otitis media with effusion (OME). METHODS: The study sample consisted of 46 pediatric patients with OME, all of whom had ventilation tubes inserted. The expression levels of TLR-2, -4, -5, -9, NOD-1 and -2 mRNA in middle ear effusion were assessed by polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: All effusion fluid samples collected from patients with OME showed expression of TLR-2, -4, -5, -9, NOD-1, and -2 mRNA. However, we found no correlations among expression levels of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) in relation to characteristics of exudates, presence of bacteria, or frequencies of ventilation tube insertion (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that exudates of OME patients show PRR expressions that are related to the innate immune response regardless of the characteristics of effusion fluid, presence of bacteria in exudates, or frequency of ventilation tube insertion

Prediction of cultivar performance and heterogeneity of genotype variance, correlation and error variance in the Iowa Crop Performance Tests−Corn (Zea mays L.)

Multi-environment trials generally have highly unbalanced data structures in which a particular cultivar is only observed in a subset of all environments for which data are available. A very common approach to reporting data from such unbalanced data is to subset the data into balanced sets and restrict comparisons within balanced sets. Such an approach results in much information being ignored. In an attempt to make use of all available information, a likelihood-based mixed linear model approach can be chosen since unbalanced data can be analyzed in a straightforward manner. Two studies were undertaken to determine the complexity of heterogeneity of genotype variance, correlation and error variance and to investigate predictive ability of multivariate mixed linear models with varying levels of heterogeneity of those variance components for hybrid performance in unobserved environment in the data sets of the Iowa Crop Performance Tests-Corn. In the first study, a likelihood-based model selection approach identified evidence of heterogeneity of error variances among 58 of 65 singe-year and single-district balanced data sets for two model selection criteria, AIC and BIC. Heterogeneity of genotypic variances and correlations between pairs of environments was found in about half of the data sets analyzed. In the second study where two years of data within a district formed 51 highly unbalanced data sets, there was no substantial difference between the best and worst prediction models among all 24 models considered using cross validation, although the best models were generally simpler and parsimonious models. When there was a relatively large difference between the best and worst prediction model, the magnitude of the difference appeared to be highly positively associated with the difference in pooled GE interaction variance among models and to be negatively associated with number of common hybrids between two years in the data sets. There seemed to be a negative association between the difference in pooled GE interaction variance among models and the number of common hybrids in the data sets. A simulation study indicated that the cause of the deviation of pooled GE interaction variance that was obtained from heterogeneous models from that obtained from the homogeneous genotype variance covariance model was due mainly to poor estimation of some of the variance components by very small number of common hybrids across two years. Because the prediction ability based on an average BLUPs across environments are about the same for models with varying degrees of heterogeneity in genotype variance, correlation and error variance, we may still need to find a statistical model with the best fit of the observed data which would give the most appropriate shrinkage estimator for each environment

First-Year Effects Of An Engineering Professional Development Program On Elementary Teachers

The ultimate objective of teacher professional development (TPD) is to deliver a positive impact on students’ engagement and performance in class through teacher practice via improving their content and pedagogical content knowledge and changing their attitudes toward the subject being taught. However, compared to other content areas, such as mathematics and science, relatively few engineering TPD programs have been developed, and there has been a lack of research on the effective practice of TPD for K-12 engineering education. As a part of a five-year longitudinal project, this study reports the first-year effect of TPD offered by the Institute for P-12 Engineering Research and Learning (INSPIRE) at Purdue University on elementary teachers integrating engineering. Thirty-two teachers of second through fourth grade from seven schools attended a one-week intensive Summer Academy and integrated engineering lessons throughout the year. Based on a pre- and post-test research design, multiple measures were utilized to examine changes in teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of engineering and their variations in knowledge and perceptions by school and teacher characteristics. Overall, teachers were satisfied with the engineering TPD program, significantly increased their engineering design process knowledge, and became more familiar with engineering. While teachers’ knowledge about engineering did not vary by school and teacher characteristics, some aspects of teachers’ perceptions regarding engineering integration and their practice differed by school and teacher characteristics.

Trends in Texas High School Student Enrollment in Mathematics, Science, and CTE-STEM Courses

Background: In the context of Texas of the USA, House Bill 5 signifies a major policy shift requiring entering high school students starting in fall 2014 to choose an endorsement, like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) being one of them, to provide students with earlier exposure to a coherent course sequence. As we barely understand students’ choices before the endorsement requirement, this study explored 6 years of data (2008–2013) on high school student enrollment rates in mathematics, science, and career and technical education (CTE)-STEM courses to set out the baseline of the trends in STEM course enrollment in Texas. Results: The enrollment rates of the STEM-related courses had wide variations by types of courses, gender, and race/ ethnicity. Overall, student enrollment rates increased across time in selective and advanced mathematics, science, and CTE-STEM courses, which indicates a promising prospect for the STEM pipeline. However, there were exceptions in several courses with gender and racial/ethnic differences in the trends. Gender disparity was greater in advanced science courses than advanced mathematics courses, and collectively, gender gap in CTE-STEM courses increased greater than advanced mathematics and advanced science courses across years. While racial/ethnic differences were constant across years in both advanced mathematics and advanced science courses, the differences were rising in CTE-STEM courses in recent years. Conclusions: As little is known about students’ preferences in course-taking in STEM courses at the state level, the findings on the trends in students’ STEM course-taking, disaggregated by gender and race/ethnicity, can provide needed insights on what institutional K-12 changes would be effective for impacting the STEM pipeline.Texas A&M University Open Access to Knowledge Fund (OAKFund

Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and their effect on learning style in the creative design process

Research has shown that user characteristics such as preference for using an interface can result in effective use of the interface. Research has also suggested that there is a relationship between learner preference and creativity. This study uses the VARK learning styles inventory to assess students learning style then explores how this learning preference affect the use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in the creative design process