“Brick & Mortar” Education and “Real World” Experience: Assessing HRM Alumni Perceptions of their Early Professional Development

In this research we examined the extent to which three distinct human resource management (HRM) undergraduate programs provide coverage of the 13 core content areas specified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and explored the usefulness of various ways of learning including their undergraduate coursework, an internship, and previous work experience as related to early professional development. Based on perceptions of HRM alumni, the findings reveal that the three curricula provided significant differences in levels of proficiency in seven of the core areas and in perceived usefulness of the learning methods. Implications for HRM curriculum development and students’ professional development are discussed

The Impact of Passing the Professional in Human Resources Exam on Early Career Success for Undergraduates Entering the Human Resource Field

This study investigates the impact of passing the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification exam on the early career success of recent college graduates. Data were gathered from alumni of three Midwestern universities who earned an undergraduate degree in business administration (i.e., BBA) with a major in human resources. The survey was designed to measure early career success indicators including finding a job in the HR field, starting salary, and number of promotions. Results reveal that the probability of one’s first job after graduation being in human resources was significantly greater for those who had passed the PHR exam compared with those who did not pass or did not take the exam. Passing the PHR exam was not associated with significant differences in starting salary or early career promotions. Implications, study strengths and limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed

Behavior modeling and automated verification of Web services

Cloud computing has been rapidly adopted over the last few years. However, techniques on Web services, one of the most important enabling technologies for cloud computing, are still not mature yet. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that supports dependable development of Web services. Our approach includes a new Web service model that separates service behaviors into operational and control behaviors. The coordination of operational and control behaviors at runtime is facilitated by conversational messages. We also propose an automated service verification approach based on symbolic model checking. In particular, our approach extracts the checking properties, in the form of temporal logic formulas, from control behaviors, and automatically verifies the properties in operational behaviors using the NuSMV model checker. The approach presented in this paper has been implemented using a number of state-of-the-art technologies. We conducted a number of experiments to study the performance of our proposed approach in detecting design problems in services. The results show that our automated approach can successfully detect service design problems. Our system offers a set of tools assisting service developers in specifying, debugging, and monitoring service behaviors. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Let’s Play! Gamifying Engineering Ethics Education Through the Development of Competitive and Collaborative Activities

Engineering ethics is an extremely important topic that needs to be focused on more in engineering curricula, as many of the projects that engineers work on have a profound impact on society. There are many pitfalls with the traditional ways in which ethics is taught to engineering students as an abstract philosophical topic, rather than personal decision making situated in complex real contexts. The three main approaches that are used for engineering ethics include being taught by a professor outside of the engineering space, being taught late in their curriculum such as during a senior capstone project, and being taught in a short period of time as a module of another class. The downsides to these approaches are that students do not see ethics as equally important as some other topics, they do not see it consistently integrated throughout the curriculum, nor do they see ethical decisions as complex nuanced, and situated in context,. Game-based learning is a means to actively engage students in interrogating the complexities of ethical decision making. Game play can align with student learning objectives as well as improve student knowledge, behaviors, and dispositions. Our paper introduces three games that are designed to assist in the development of students’ ethical awareness and reasoning. Three engineering ethics games have been developed as the foundation for an NSF-funded project that investigates the empirical impacts of game play on ethical reasoning and decision making. Cards Against Engineering Ethics, Toxic Workplaces, and Mars: An Ethical Expedition have all been in development for the last few years. Each game targets specific ethics learning outcomes as well as different play mechanics. These outcomes include identifying the complexities of ethical dilemmas, evaluating responses to ethical situations in context, and promoting ethical discussions among peers. The time required to play each game varies, ranging from 20 minutes, to 75 minutes, to 5 minutes once a week for 15 weeks. The benefits that these games include an enriched learning experience, student engagement, and a greater connection between ethics and real life

Dust attenuation in 2<z<3 star-forming galaxies from deep ALMA observations of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

17 pages, 7 figures, accepted version to be published in MNRASWe present the results of a new study of the relationship between infrared excess (IRX ≡ L IR/L UV), ultraviolet (UV) spectral slope (β) and stellar mass at redshifts 2 < z < 3, based on a deep Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) 1.3-mm continuum mosaic of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Excluding the most heavily obscured sources, we use a stacking analysis to show that z ≃ 2.5 star-forming galaxies in the mass range 9.25 ≤ log(M*/M ⊙) ≤ 10.75 are fully consistent with the IRX-β relation expected for a relatively grey attenuation curve, similar to the commonly adopted Calzetti law. Based on a large, mass-complete sample of 2 ≤ z ≤ 3 star-forming galaxies drawn frommultiple surveys, we proceed to derive a new empirical relationship between β and stellar mass, making it possible to predict UV attenuation (A1600) and IRX as a function of stellar mass, for any assumed attenuation law. Once again, we find that z ≃ 2.5 star-forming galaxies follow A1600-M* and IRX-M* relations consistent with a relatively grey attenuation law, and find no compelling evidence that star-forming galaxies at this epoch follow a reddening law as steep as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) extinction curve. In fact, we use a simple simulation to demonstrate that previous determinations of the IRX-β relation may have been biased towards low values of IRX at red values of β, mimicking the signature expected for an SMC-like dust law. We show that this provides a plausible mechanism for reconciling apparently contradictory results in the literature and that, based on typical measurement uncertainties, stellar mass provides a cleaner prediction of UV attenuation than β. Although the situation at lower stellar masses remains uncertain, we conclude that for 2 < z < 3 star-forming galaxies with log(M*/M ⊙) ≥ 9.75, both the IRX-β and IRX-M* relations are well described by a Calzetti-like attenuation law.Peer reviewe

Circadian Clocks Are Resounding in Peripheral Tissues

Circadian rhythms are prevalent in most organisms. Even the smallest disturbances in the orchestration of circadian gene expression patterns among different tissues can result in functional asynchrony, at the organism level, and may to contribute to a wide range of physiologic disorders. It has been reported that as many as 5%–10% of transcribed genes in peripheral tissues follow a circadian expression pattern. We have conducted a comprehensive study of circadian gene expression on a large dataset representing three different peripheral tissues. The data have been produced in a large-scale microarray experiment covering replicate daily cycles in murine white and brown adipose tissues as well as in liver. We have applied three alternative algorithmic approaches to identify circadian oscillation in time series expression profiles. Analyses of our own data indicate that the expression of at least 7% to 21% of active genes in mouse liver, and in white and brown adipose tissues follow a daily oscillatory pattern. Indeed, analysis of data from other laboratories suggests that the percentage of genes with an oscillatory pattern may approach 50% in the liver. For the rest of the genes, oscillation appears to be obscured by stochastic noise. Our phase classification and computer simulation studies based on multiple datasets indicate no detectable boundary between oscillating and non-oscillating fractions of genes. We conclude that greater attention should be given to the potential influence of circadian mechanisms on any biological pathway related to metabolism and obesity

Alanine scan mutagenesis of the switch I domain of the Caulobacter crescentus CgtA protein reveals critical amino acids required for in vivo function

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75411/1/j.1365-2958.2001.02285.x.pd

The Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource: From Vision to Blueprint

A planned repository of immune epitope data with associated analysis tools should be a boon to vaccine developmen

Performance measurement : challenges for tomorrow

This paper demonstrates that the context within which performance measurement is used is changing. The key questions posed are: Is performance measurement ready for the emerging context? What are the gaps in our knowledge? and Which lines of enquiry do we need to pursue? A literature synthesis conducted by a team of multidisciplinary researchers charts the evolution of the performance-measurement literature and identifies that the literature largely follows the emerging business and global trends. The ensuing discussion introduces the currently emerging and predicted future trends and explores how current knowledge on performance measurement may deal with the emerging context. This results in identification of specific challenges for performance measurement within a holistic systems-based framework. The principle limitation of the paper is that it covers a broad literature base without in-depth analysis of a particular aspect of performance measurement. However, this weakness is also the strength of the paper. What is perhaps most significant is that there is a need for rethinking how we research the field of performance measurement by taking a holistic systems-based approach, recognizing the integrated and concurrent nature of challenges that the practitioners, and consequently the field, face