Using comparative judgement and online technologies in the assessment and measurement of creative performance and capability

In this paper we argue that comparative judgement delivered by online technologies is a viable, valid and highly reliable alternative to traditional analytical marking. In the past, comparative judgement has been underused in educational assessment and measurement, particularly in large-scale testing, mainly due to the lack of supporting technologies to facilitate the large number of judgements and judges. We describe the foundations of comparative judgement and dispel many of the old issues regarding its use in regards to time, cost and training for large-scale assessment. Studies in the use of comparative judgement and online technologies for the assessment and measurement of practical performance conducted by Edith Cowan University provide a context for further promoting its use in educational testing. © 2016, The Author(s)

Digitizing Practical Production Work For High-stakes Assessments

High-stakes external assessment for practical courses is fraught with problems impacting on the manageability, validity and reliability of scoring. Alternative approaches to assessment using digital technologies have the potential to address these problems. This paper describes a study that investigated the use of these technologies to create and submit digital representations of practical production work and forms of creative expression for summative high-stakes assessment. The study set out to determine the feasibility of students creating and submitting these digital representations for assessment and to identify which of analytical or comparative pairs scoring generated the more reliable scores. This paper proposes that scoring digital representations of creative practical work submitted by students is a viable alternative to traditional approaches to assessment

Tamaño y rentabilidad en la banca cooperativa: una perspectiva desde las entrañas de una entidad portuguesa

The European co-operative banks play an important role in promoting savings and in financing small and medium enterprises. Their distinctive characteristics have allowed them to get through the Subprime crisis with remarkable resilience. Nevertheless, co-operative banks operate in a very competitive market, where they are constantly under pressure to improve their position. Increasing the size of local co-operative banks is often the strategy used to deal with this pressure. Based on data from a Portuguese co-operative banking group for 2009-11, we assess the impact of size on assets profitability, and conduct a disaggregated analysis of the ratios affecting it. Results indicate that size has an insignificant effect on profitability after controlling for the time-invariant characteristics of each local bank (i.e. caixa). This suggests that the initial higher profitability identified in small and larger caixas vis-à-vis that of medium-size caixas was explained by their specific time-invariant features. However our evidence suggests that size has an indirect effect on return through credit risk: larger caixas have better credit risk management.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Águas Subterrâneas em Cabo Verde - Qualidade da Água na Ilha de Santiago

Em Cabo Verde os recursos hídricos subterrâneos desempenham um papel fundamental, constituindo a principal fonte de abastecimento de água para as populações de pequenos aglomerados urbanos. O trabalho que se apresenta enquadra-se num estudo alargado de caracterização de águas subterrâneas; foi efectuado nos seis concelhos da ilha de Santiago a maior do país, em captações do tipo poço, furo e galeria destinadas ao abastecimento da população através de chafarizes e resulta de uma parceria entre o Instituto Nacional de Gestão dos Recursos Hídricos de Cabo Verde (INGRH) e o Instituto Nacional de Saúde, Porto de Portugal (INSA-Porto). Com base nos dados obtidos, e no sentido de uma cooperação alargada, propõe-se a criação do Observatório de Águas Subterrâneas nos Países Africanos de expressão Portuguesa

Testing the Reliability of Financial Sustainability. The Case of Spanish Local Governments

Local Governments (LGs) have strengthened the financial control as a consequence of mandatory requirements to ensure financial sustainability in their management. The aim of this study is to determine whether financial indicators about financial conditions defined in Spanish regulation are backed by worldwide generally accepted financial benchmarking indicators. For this purpose, we analyze the relationship between Spanish indicators of financial sustainability based on European Union (EU) regulations and Financial Trends Monitoring System Indicators (FTMS) of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). For this purpose, two methodologies are applied: discriminant analysis and logistic regression, where the dependent variables are each of the Spanish financial indicators and the independent variables are ICMA indicators. The evidence supports that variables that are related to the control of expenditures, debt and the revenues show a greater explanatory power of financial sustainability, being the most important elements which offer relevant information about the financial sustainability measurement of LGs

Mapping quantitative trait Loci associated with graft (In)compatibility in apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.)

Graft incompatibility (GI) between the most popular Prunus rootstocks and apricot cultivars is one of the major problems for rootstock usage and improvement. Failure in producing long-leaving healthy grafts greatly affects the range of available Prunus rootstocks for apricot cultivation. Despite recent advances related to the molecular mechanisms of a graft-union formation between rootstock and scion, information on genetic control of this trait in woody plants is essentially missing because of a lack of hybrid crosses, segregating for the trait. In this study, we have employed the next-generation sequencing technology to generate the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and construct parental linkage maps for an apricot F1 population “Moniqui (Mo)” × “Paviot (Pa)” segregating for ability to form successful grafts with universal Prunus rootstock “Marianna 2624”. To localize genomic regions associated with this trait, we genotyped 138 individuals from the “Mo × Pa” cross and constructed medium-saturated genetic maps. The female “Mo” and male “Pa” maps were composed of 557 and 501 SNPs and organized in eight linkage groups that covered 780.2 and 690.4 cM of genetic distance, respectively. Parental maps were aligned to the Prunus persica v2.0 genome and revealed a high colinearity with the Prunus reference map. Two-year phenotypic data for characters associated with unsuccessful grafting such as necrotic line (NL), bark and wood discontinuities (BD and WD), and an overall estimate of graft (in)compatibility (GI) were collected for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) on both parental maps. On the map of the graft-compatible parent “Pa”, two genomic regions on LG5 (44.9–60.8 cM) and LG8 (33.2–39.2 cM) were associated with graft (in)compatibility characters at different significance level, depending on phenotypic dataset. Of these, the LG8 QTL interval was most consistent between the years and supported by two significant and two putative QTLs. To our best knowledge, this is the first report on QTLs for graft (in)compatibility in woody plants. Results of this work will provide a valuable genomic resource for apricot breeding programs and facilitate future efforts focused on candidate genes discovery for graft (in)compatibility in apricot and other Prunus species