Job Satisfaction in the North Dakota State University Extension Service

Retirement rates are on the increase. Levels of job satisfaction and changing demographics raise concerns about attrition in the North Dakota State University Extension Service system. The study reported here examined data provided from the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and a demographics questionnaire to describe the overall job satisfaction of employees in the North Dakota State University Extension Service as well as their satisfaction based on the 20 job satisfaction scales of the MSQ. Determining levels of satisfaction, especially in relation to specific aspects of the job, is a necessary priority in recruiting and retaining new employees

A Profile of Secondary Teachers and Schools in North Dakota : Implications for the Student Teaching Experience in Agricultural Education

Journal of Career and Technical Education, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 90-104This study was an inquiry of secondary teachers' perceptions of the agricultural education student teaching experience in North Dakota. The sampling frame (N = 89) included all secondary teachers in the state; the final return rate was 74%. The instrument included 16 items identifying selected characteristics of secondary teachers and their schools. The agriculture teachers also rated 34 elements of the student teaching experience using a summated-rating scale ("5" = "High Importance..."1" = "No Importance"). Teachers rated 31 of 34 elements as having "much importance" or greater (M [greater than or equal to] 4.00). Seven of the ten highest rated elements were from the core area "Cooperating Teacher-Student Teacher Relationships." Recommendations and implications suggest a need for greater emphases in pre-service and in-service education regarding the importance of SAEs, careful consideration of student teacher placements, and future inquiry regarding student teachers' perceptions of the student teaching experience. (Contains 3 tables.

Aluminium Process Fault Detection and Diagnosis

The challenges in developing a fault detection and diagnosis system for industrial applications are not inconsiderable, particularly complex materials processing operations such as aluminium smelting. However, the organizing into groups of the various fault detection and diagnostic systems of the aluminium smelting process can assist in the identification of the key elements of an effective monitoring system. This paper reviews aluminium process fault detection and diagnosis systems and proposes a taxonomy that includes four key elements: knowledge, techniques, usage frequency, and results presentation. Each element is explained together with examples of existing systems. A fault detection and diagnosis system developed based on the proposed taxonomy is demonstrated using aluminium smelting data. A potential new strategy for improving fault diagnosis is discussed based on the ability of the new technology, augmented reality, to augment operators’ view of an industrial plant, so that it permits a situation-oriented action in real working environments

Exploring the Technical Expression of Academic Knowledge: The Science-in-CTE Pilot Study

The Science-in-CTE pilot study tested a curriculum integration model that enhanced the science that occurs in CTE curricula. The study replicated the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education's (NRCCTE) Math-in-CTE experimental research design (Stone, Alfeld, & Pearson, 2008

Foreseeing Meaningful Choices

Abstract A choice positively contributes to a player's sense of agency when it leads to meaningfully different content. We shed light on what a player may consider meaningfully different by developing a formalism for interactive stories in terms of the change in situational content across choices. We hypothesized that a player will feel a higher sense of agency when making a choice if they foresee the available actions lead to meaningfully different states. We experimentally tested our formalism's ability to characterize choices that elicit a higher sense of agency and present evidence that supports our claim. Study participants (n = 88) played a choose-your-ownadventure game and reported a higher sense of agency when faced with choices that differed in situational content over choices that didn't, despite these choices differing in non-situational ways. We contend our findings are a step toward principled approaches to the design of interactive stories that target specific cognitive and affective states

Winter Wheat Yield Response to Plant Density as a Function of Yield Environment and Tillering Potential: A Review and Field Studies

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grain yield response to plant density is inconsistent, and the mechanisms driving this response are unclear. A better understanding of the factors governing this relationship could improve plant density recommendations according to specific environmental and genetics characteristics. Therefore, the aims of this paper were to: i) execute a synthesis-analysis of existing literature related to yield-plant density relationship to provide an indication of the need for different agronomic optimum plant density (AOPD) in different yield environments (YEs), and ii) explore a data set of field research studies conducted in Kansas (USA) on yield response to plant density to determine the AOPD at different YEs, evaluate the effect of tillering potential (TP) on the AOPD, and explain changes in AOPD via variations in wheat yield components. Major findings of this study are: i) the synthesis-analysis portrayed new insights of differences in AOPD at varying YEs, reducing the AOPD as the attainable yield increases (with AOPD moving from 397 pl m-2 for the low YE to 191 pl m-2 for the high YE); ii) the field dataset confirmed the trend observed in the synthesis-analysis but expanded on the physiological mechanisms underpinning the yield response to plant density for wheat, mainly highlighting the following points: a) high TP reduces the AOPD mainly in high and low YEs, b) at canopy-scale, both final number of heads and kernels per square meter were the main factors improving yield response to plant density under high TP, c) under varying YEs, at per-plant-scale, a compensation between heads per plant and kernels per head was the main factor contributing to yield with different TP.Fil: Bastos, Leonardo M.. Kansas State University; Estados UnidosFil: Carciochi, Walter Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata; Argentina. Kansas State University; Estados UnidosFil: Lollato, Romulo P.. Kansas State University; Estados UnidosFil: Jaenisch, Brent R.. Kansas State University; Estados UnidosFil: Rezende, Caio R.. Kansas State University; Estados UnidosFil: Schwalbert, Rai. Kansas State University; Estados UnidosFil: Vara Prasad, P.V.. Kansas State University; Estados UnidosFil: Zhang, Guorong. Kansas State University; Estados UnidosFil: Fritz, Allan K.. Kansas State University; Estados UnidosFil: Foster, Chris. John Deer; Estados UnidosFil: Wright, Yancy. John Deer; Estados UnidosFil: Young, Steven. John Deer; Estados UnidosFil: Bradley, Pauley. John Deer; Estados UnidosFil: Ciampitti, Ignacio Antonio. Kansas State University; Estados Unido