Collaborative E-learning Methodologies: an Experience of Active Knowledge in ICT Classrooms

In the present study we highlight a specific environment that makes use of collaborative technological tools, like wikis and forums within an e-learning platform. Both of these approaches convey a lot of responsibility from the teacher to the students and the hoping, as backed up by the literature, is to promote deeper learning and reasoning skills at a higher level. The general goal of this paper is to contribute for the theoretical discussion on how active and collaborative experiences in ICT classrooms play a role on the construction of knowledge in HEIs. Based on the pointed outlines, we intend to: (1) understand how collaborative e-learning environments get students actively involved in the learning process;(2) perspective the role of collaborative tools at the level of group work and (3) find out how students assess their performance within a working group. Data was collected through questionnaires available on the e-learning platform Moodle. Descriptive statistical techniques were used to analyze quantitative data. Within the research questions proposed, the study, points towards some understanding of how a collaborative learning environment seems to get students actively involved in the learning process mainly if the tasks to be perform have an empirical component. The study also has shown that students seem to identify themselves with the need to be involved in simulations of their future professional activity, as well as with the need to regulate their own learning and to promote discussion not only between peers but also with the teacher

Constructing knowledge: an experience of active and collaborative learning in an ICT classroom

This paper reports on the impact of the implementation of active and collaborative practices in ICT (information and communication technologies) classrooms. Both of these approaches convey a lot of responsibility from the teacher to the students and the hoping, as backed up by the literature, is to promote deeper learning and reasoning skills at a higher level. The question is: how do you do all that? This research describes a specific environment that makes use of collaborative tools, like wikis and forums within an e-learning platform and of specific CRM (customer relationship management) software. In order to analyze how this learning environment gets learners actively involved in learning and working together in productive ways, students were surveyed by responding to questionnaires. Several cause-effect relations underlying the teaching-learning methodology and the students’ performance are discussed

Early traces of the Second Demographic Transition in Bulgaria: a joint analysis of marital and non-marital union formation

In this paper, we study entry into the first conjugal union among young women in Bulgaria in 1980 through 2004 based on data from the national Gender and Generations Survey conducted in 2004. We use an extension of piecewise-constant hazard regression to analyze jointly the transition into a cohabitational union and directly into marriage. This extension will allow us to compare the relative risks of covariates across the two competing transitions, a comparison which infeasible otherwise. In this manner we find, among many other things, that women in the Roma sub-population have more than twice as high a tendency to start a cohabitation as to start a marriage at each age, ceteris paribus, while for ethnic Bulgarian women the relationship is more like 1.5. We also find that a pregnancy leads to a dramatic increase in the rate of both kinds of union formation; the increase is by a factor of over 20 for marriage formation and “only” a factor of around 10 for entry into cohabitation, again ceteris paribus. The standardized marriage intensity for non-pregnant women without children has fallen strongly by a factor of more than six over the period of investigation; the standardized rate of cohabitation has been much more stable and has only fallen by some forty percent, mostly toward the end of the period. These features have not appeared in previous analyses.Bulgaria

Role of power on supply chain performance: empirical evidence from the agribusiness sector

Purpose: This empirical study has examined an important research question “what consequence power has on supply chain performance (SCP)” in a triadic context. Previous studies demonstrate that power imbalance in supply chains is inevitable due to differences in chain actors’ expertise, size, dependence, and nature of contract (Gellynck and Molnár, 2009). Powerful supply chain members may assume a greater influence in the supply chain thereby creating some stability, or they may leverage the power advantage at the cost of the weaker members (Nyaga et al., 2013). Hence, it is important to understand the nature and effect of power in supply chains in order to provide balanced benefit distributions. Past studies on power in supply chains have focused on its influence on power asymmetry (Nyaga et al., 2013), relationship commitment (Zhao et al., 2008), relationship strength (Maloni and Benton, 2000) and performance (Crook and Combs, 2007). However, most of these studies collect and analyse data from one side of a relationship dyad using a focal firm approach. Analysing a supply chain at firm or dyadic levels does not bring out the underlying dimensions of the entire supply chain relationships (Touboulic et al., 2014). Hence, this paper examines the perception of supply chain members on the effect of power on SCP in a triadic context underlying social network theory. The key hypothesis tested is that suppliers, focal firms and customers differ in their perception of power use and how it affects supply chain performance in terms of efficiency, responsiveness, quality and supply chain balance (Aramyan et al., 2007). Methodology: A matched triad approach (Kühne et al., 2015) was used to collect data from 150 supply chain members constituting 50 agribusiness supply chains (maize) in Uganda. Each supply chain considered had a triplet of supply chain members (supplier, focal firm, and customer). A matched triad approach was used because it helps to minimize the chances of sampling bias (Boyer and Swink, 2008). Multi-group analysis and structural equations modeling has been used to assess the perceptions of power and its influence on supply chain performance. Findings: The results highlight the difference in perception of power use and how it influences SCP. First, finding agree with the previous studies that the use of coercive power has negative effect on SCP (Nyaga et al., 2013). In practice, if one supply chain member perceive that another member is being coercive, it is likely to retaliate by declining to make specific adjustments or collaborate in joint relationship activities. The findings also support that the use of coercive power in supply chains diminishes the value of the relationship, even though the powerful party may gain initially (Zhao et al., 2008). This implies that managers of agribusiness supply chains need to properly control their use of coercive power in supply chain relationships, as it may be counterproductive in the long run. Second, the perception of suppliers and customers deviate with regards to the use coercive power on different performance parameters. For suppliers, efficiency and supply chain balance are significantly influenced by the use of coercive power by the focal firm. For customers, it is quality and supply chain balances that are critical. As for the focal firm, the use of coercive power by the supplier positively and significantly influences responsiveness. Contrary to previous studies (Terpend and Ashenbaum, 2012), focal firms perceived the use of coercive power to have a positive influence on their performance. This suggests the existence of power asymmetry in the maize supply chain due to fewer suppliers, supplying maize with specific quality requirements. Third, focal firms perceived the use of non-coercive power to have significant positive effect on responsiveness and chain balance. This is in agreement with previous studies (Nyaga et al., 2013), which suggest positive association between non-coercive power and SCP. This implies the use of rewards and incentives is a strong signal from a partner that they they value that relationship. Four, while, responsiveness (speed at which requested product is provided) is an important factor in the upstream, quality (product and process) is vital in the downstream. On the other hand, chain balance (distribution of risk and benefits, and chain understanding) appears to be critical in both upstream and downstream of the supply chain. Contribution: This work contributes to the ongoing debate in supply chain management literature that a firm or a dyad is heavily influenced by the network in which it operates. The novelty of this work is that assessed the perception of power among supply chain actors in a triadic context, a perspective that has not been adequately tested in agribusiness supply chain management studies before. A practical implication of the finding is that managers of agribusiness supply chains should be aware of their power positions and appropriately influence supply chain based on their relative power positions

The structure of recent first-union formation in Romania

By European standards, consensual first unions have been rare in Romania, and they remain so even though their incidence has increased by a factor of almost five since the early 1960s. Rates of conversion of consensual unions into marriages have been cut in half over the same four decades or so, and marriage rates have declined by a similar factor since the fall of state socialism, which is more dramatic because this period is so much shorter. There have been strong ethnic differentials in union-entry rates in the country.Romania

Alien Registration- Doucette, Dora M. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/24040/thumbnail.jp

Phase-slips and vortex dynamics in Josephson oscillations between Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the relation between Josephson dynamics and topological excitations in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a double-well trap. We show that the phase slips responsible for the self-trapping regime are created by vortex rings entering and annihilating inside the weak-link region or created at the center of the barrier and expanding outside the system. Large amplitude oscillations just before the onset of self-trapping are also strictly connected with the dynamics of vortex rings at the edges of the inter-well barrier. Our results extend and analyze the dynamics of the vortex-induced phase slippages suggested a few decades ago in relation to the "ac" Josephson effect of superconducting and superfluid helium systems.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Chemical composition and anti-diabetic properties of Cytisus multiflorus

Bakground and aims: The interest on plants with potential medicinal properties has been increasing worldwide. In the Iberian Peninsula there are some endemic species known by the population for their pharmacologic activity with valorization potential that have not been yet characterized. The white Spanish broom (Cytisus multiflorus) is described as having anti-diabetic effect [1] and in a preliminary the hypoglycemic and hyper-insulinemic effect of an aqueous extract has been shown [2]. The aim of this work was to fractionate and analyse the composition of the aqueous extract of C. multiflorus flowering parts and evaluate its potential as an anti-diabetic agent. Materials and methods: The aqueous extract was primarily fractionated by SPE using water:methanol (W:Me) eluent (a 10% step-wise gradient W:Me from 100:0 to 0:100) followed by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). The most relevant fraction were analysed by LC-MS to determine the chemical composition. Total fenol content was determined by a modified Folin-Ciocalteau method and the anti-oxidant activity was evaluated by the DPPH mehod. Finally, the hipoglicemic potential was evaluated in vivo using glucose intolerant rats (GIR). Results: Eleven fractions of the bulk extract were obtained. Seven of these fractions (10, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 e 80% Me) were found to have a relevant compounds, mostly flavonoid compounds, namely, rutin (50, 60 and 70% Me fractions), ferrulic acid (30% Me), referred as having hypoglicemic effect. The fractions obtained with 50 and 70% Me showed the highest content in phenol equivalents and the highest anti-oxidant effect were found in the 50 and 60% Me fractions. The 30 and 60% Me fraction had no effect on the post-prandial glicemia. Conclusions: The 30, 50, 60 and 70% Me fractions, due to their chemical composition and anti-oxidant effects were the most promising to have anti-diabetic effect. However, the 30 and 60% Me were found to be ineffective. The 50% Me fraction showed both a high content of flavonoid compounds and the highest anti-oxidant power which suggest that it may constitute the most promising one. The anti-diabetic properties of this fraction should be investigated. [1] Camejo-Rodrigues J. et al. (2003). J. Ethnopharmacol, 89, 199-209 [2] Célia M. Antunes, Laurinda R. Areias, Inês P. Vieira, Ana C. Costa, M. Teresa Tinoco, & Júlio Cruz-Morais (2009). Rev. Fitoterapia 9 (Supl.1): 91

La experiencia de mujeres con discapacidades en los proyectos archivísticos del siglo XXI

El artículo analiza la manera como los proyectos archivísticos del siglo XXI podrían favorecer la reconstituciónde subjetividades silenciadas y develar historias de exclusión. Se toma como caso de análisis ladocumentación sobre mujeres con discapacidades en instituciones de rehabilitación, salud mental oprotección legal. A partir de allí, la autora propone mecanismos para que la información depositadaen los archivos, especialmente institucionales, contribuya a la recuperación de la memoria, y a la democratizacióny descolonización de la historia de grupos excluidos y marginados. Esto gracias a que losarchivos albergan no solo documentos escritos autorizados sino una multiplicidad de materiales oralesy visuales.Materiales que pueden contribuir a la visibilización y reconocimiento de la diferencia, desdelas experiencias vidas de, por ejemplo, las mujeres con discapacidades, quienes adquirirían así una vozpropia

Aplikasi Greenship Interior Space Versi 1.0 Pada Perancangan Interior Panderman Hill Resort Hotel

The development of tourism in Batu, Indonesia began to grow rapidly. This condition shows that there is an increasing number of people needs traveled in the area adjacent to nature. To facilitate what tourism needs, so we made a Green Interior Resort Hotel that can facilitate stay overnights with the excellence of the green interior concept application which is expected to become a new tourist destination icon. The data analysis done with literature study, the data retrieval with comparative study and fields survey directly. While designing done with programmatic approach that involve programming, schematic design, and technical drawing. The aim of this design is to produce a design that applies various variables of Greenship Interior Space versi 1.0 and get platinum certification level