FACTORS AFFECTING EARNINGS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY AGRIBUSINESS ECONOMICS GRADUATES: THE NON-LAND-GRANT EXPERIENCE

Survey data were used to identify determinants of starting and current salaries of agribusiness economics graduates from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.Labor markets appear to be similar for graduates from land grant and non-land-grant universities. Respondents with the highest earnings were "native" men with advanced degree(s) who moved out of the southern Illinois region and were working in the private sector.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF EXPERIENCED-BASED LEARNING: A ROPES COURSE ILLUSTRATION

This paper draws on empirical evidence to measure the impact of using corporate-like outdoor-based team training to enhance the effectiveness of student groups and teach team player skills. Results indicate that outdoor team activities had greater effects and impacts on student behaviors and learning than in class team activities.team experiential learning, outdoor-based training, team building, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Becoming a teacher educator : guidelines for induction : 2nd edition

The first edition of these guidelines was published in 2007. Since that date it has been used to support the induction of new teacher educators in the UK and beyond. The guidelines and the research which underpinned them also won the Sage BERA Practitioner Research Prize in 2009. But change in the higher education sector and in the field of teacher education mean that the time is now right for a second edition. This new edition has been revised in four main ways. Firstly, a considerable body of published international research focused on teacher educators has been produced since 2007 and the revised guidelines are informed by this work. Secondly, the new guidelines include the ‘voices’ of new teacher educators themselves gathered during our regular workshops for new teacher educators and our research projects. Thirdly, the revised edition aims to be more inclusive of all teacher educators, including those in further education. In terms of this latter group, it is informed by the limited literature available and our own research into the experiences of those teaching higher education programmes in further education colleges. Finally, the new guidelines seek to respond in a measured way to changing policy and contextual frameworks. These include the continued intensification and increasing fragmentation of academic work and identity in the higher education sector; and the wider questioning of the contribution of higher education to professional education for teachers

When does an ostrich become a bird? The role of typicality in early word comprehension

Which objects and animals are are children willing to accept as referents for words they know? To answer this question, the authors assessed early word comprehension using the preferential looking task. Children were shown 2 stimuli side by side (a target and a distractory) and heard the target stimulus named. The target stimulus was either a typical or an atypical exemplar of the named category. It was predicted that children first connect typical examples with the target name and broaden the extension of the name as they get older to include less typical examples. Experiment 1 shows that when targets are named, 12-month-olds display an increase in target looking for typical but not atypical targets whereas 24-month-olds display an increase for both. Experiment 2 shows that 18-month-old display a pattern similar to that of 24-month-olds. Implications for the early development of word comprehension are discussed

Adverse Selection in an Insurance Market with Government-Guaranteed Subsistence Levels

We consider a competitive insurance market with adverse selection. Unlike the standard models, we assume that individuals receive the benefit of some type of potential government assistance that guarantees them a minimum level of wealth. For example, this assistance might be some type of government-sponsored relief program, or it might simply be some type of limited liability afforded via bankruptcy laws. Government assistance is calculated ex post of any insurance benefits. This alters the individuals’ demand for insurance coverage. In turn, this affects equilibria in various insurance models of markets with adverse selection.adverse selection, insurance, government relief

Universality Class of One-Dimensional Directed Sandpile Models

A general n-state directed `sandpile' model is introduced. The stationary properties of the n-state model are derived for n < infty, and analytical arguments based on a central limit theorem show that the model belongs to the universality class of the totally asymmetric Oslo model, with a crossover to uncorrelated branching process behavior for small system sizes. Hence, the central limit theorem allows us to identify the existence of a large universality class of one-dimensional directed sandpile models.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Carbonisation of biomass-derived chars and the thermal reduction of a graphene oxide sample studied using Raman spectroscopy

Chars and carbonised chars were produced from three different oxygen-rich precursors (Pinus radiata wood, Phormium tenax leaf fibres, and sucrose crystals). These non-graphitisable carbons were analysed with Raman spectroscopy in order to study the nanostructural development which occurs with increasingly severe heat treatments up to approximately 1000 °C. The thermal reduction of a graphene oxide sample was similarly studied, as this is considered to involve the development of nanometre-scale graphene-like domains within a different oxygen-rich precursor. Increasing the heat treatment temperatures used in the charring and carbonisation processes, led to significant changes in a number of parameters measured in the Raman spectra. Correlations based on these parameter changes could have future applications in evaluating various char samples and estimating the heat treatment temperatures employed during their manufacture. After production heat treatment temperatures exceeded 700 °C, the Raman spectra of the carbonised chars appeared to be largely precursor independent. The spectra of these carbonised chars were similar to the spectra obtained from thermally-reduced graphene oxides, especially when compared to a wide range of other carbonaceous materials analysed using this particular methodology. Partial reduction of a graphene oxide sample due to reasonably mild laser exposures during Raman analysis was also observed

Vision-model-based Real-time Localization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Autonomous Structure Inspection under GPS-denied Environment

UAVs have been widely used in visual inspections of buildings, bridges and other structures. In either outdoor autonomous or semi-autonomous flights missions strong GPS signal is vital for UAV to locate its own positions. However, strong GPS signal is not always available, and it can degrade or fully loss underneath large structures or close to power lines, which can cause serious control issues or even UAV crashes. Such limitations highly restricted the applications of UAV as a routine inspection tool in various domains. In this paper a vision-model-based real-time self-positioning method is proposed to support autonomous aerial inspection without the need of GPS support. Compared to other localization methods that requires additional onboard sensors, the proposed method uses a single camera to continuously estimate the inflight poses of UAV. Each step of the proposed method is discussed in detail, and its performance is tested through an indoor test case.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to i3ce 201

Upper tails for triangles

With $\xi$ the number of triangles in the usual (Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi) random graph $G(m,p)$, $p>1/m$ and $\eta>0$, we show (for some $C_{\eta}>0$) \Pr(\xi> (1+\eta)\E \xi) < \exp[-C_{\eta}\min{m^2p^2\log(1/p),m^3p^3}]. This is tight up to the value of $C_{\eta}$.Comment: 10 page