Using Nominal Group Techniques for Helping New Extension Agents Understand How to Effectively Involve Advisory Committee Members

Advisory committees are a key component of true grassroots extension programming. Seasoned Extension agents can be very adept at using advisory committee members to multiply their efforts while further enhancing skills among these volunteers. For many new Extension agents, however, this can be a great challenge. Through interactive use of the nominal group technique, new Extension agents at the University of Florida have been able to share many ideas about effectively involving advisory committee members, and they have learned about this innovative group process technique

Extension Mentoring: Steps Leading to Greater Program Effectiveness

Mentoring is frequently used by many Extension programs as an ongoing methodology for helping new educators better understand their roles and responsibilities. This article is based upon a longitudinal mentoring study to determine value, benefit, and steps towards greater effectiveness. The population included mentors, mentees, and immediate supervisors, and the methodology is based upon focus group research conducted over an 18-month mentoring period. The results of the study reported here are focused on the areas of mentor selection, training, pairing, interaction, and recognition. Recommendations are widely applicable to other Extension programs looking to improve their mentoring programs

Making Communities More Viable: Four Essential Factors for Successful Community Leadership

A recent study was undertaken to compare two particularly successful rural communities, focusing on the importance of leadership within the community. Four significant factors set these successful communities apart from those less viable-effective communication, development of social capital, community engagement, and collaboration across and within communities. This article describes each component and provides specific suggestions for improvement. Ultimately, these factors could be used as focus areas to improve community leadership through the development of community-appropriate curricula, seminars, and workshops

Clientele Impact for Beef Producers from a Grass-Roots Style of Extension Programming

The Alachua County Master Cattlemen program is developed for small beef producers to help increase profitability. Because small beef producers are at a disadvantage in marketing truck loads of cattle and retaining ownership, educational programs relating to beef cattle management are used to give producers tools to manage their cattle in order to become more profitable. As a result of these programs, a small beef cooperative has been formed to take advantage of marketing alternatives. This cooperative has shown a significant increase in price per pound received, and this has resulted in a cumulative economic impact of $42,500

Cooperation Between Secondary Agricultural Educators and Extension Agents

The study reported here explored cooperation between agriculture teachers and Extension agents and characterized the environment surrounding interdisciplinary cooperation. A researcher-developed questionnaire was used to explore individual perceptions regarding cooperation, behavioral intentions, and individual experiences with cooperation. Means and standard deviations were compared between disciplines. Results indicated that agriculture teachers and Extension agents seemed to have very similar ideas concerning personal perceptions, motivations, and experiences regarding cooperation. Recommendations include joint preparation for teachers and agents, pre-service and in-service incorporation of different facets of cooperation, and assembling an integrated discussion group where future interdisciplinary associations could be discussed

Development of a high temperature battery

High energy density battery for use on planet Venu

Exploring Cooperation Between Secondary Agricultural Educators and Livestock Extension Agents: A Case Study

Due to the common goal of youth leadership development, there is the opportunity for Cooperative Extension\u27s 4-H clubs and Agricultural Education\u27s FFA chapters to be more effective through cooperation. The qualitative study discussed here used focus groups to explore the level of and perceptions regarding cooperation among agricultural educators and Extension agents. Major themes that positively influenced cooperation were identified as: the relationship between the agricultural educator and Extension agent, the awareness of the other profession, and the understanding and perceptions of cooperation. Findings of this study indicated a lack of collaboration between disciplines

The M waves of the biceps brachii have a stationary (shoulder-like) component in the first phase: Implications and recommendations for M-wave analysis

Objective. We recently documented that compound muscle action potentials (M waves) recorded over the 'pennate' vastus lateralis showed a sharp deflection (named as a shoulder) in the first phase. Here, we investigated whether such a shoulder was also present in M waves evoked in a muscle with different architecture, such as the biceps brachii, with the purpose of elucidating the electrical origin of such afeature. Approach. M waves evoked by maximal single shocks to the brachial plexus were recorded in monopolar and bipolar configurations from 72 individuals using large (10 mm diameter) electrodes and from eight individuals using small (1 mm diameter) electrodes arranged in a linear array. The changes in M-wave features at different locations along the muscle fiber direction were examined. Main results. The shoulder was recognizable in most (87%) monopolar M waves, whereas it was rarely observed (6%) in bipolar derivations. Recordings made along the fiber direction showed that the shoulder was a stationary (non-propagating) feature, with short duration (spiky), which had positive polarity at all locations along the fibers. The latency of the shoulder (9.5 ± 0.5 ms) was significantly shorter than the estimated time taken for the action potentials to reach the biceps tendon (12.8 ms). Significance. The shoulder must be generated by a dipole source, i.e. a source created at a fixed anatomical position, although the exact origin of this dipole is uncertain. Our results suggest that the shoulder may not be due to the end-of-fiber signals formed at the biceps brachii tendon. The shoulder is not related to any specific arrangement of muscle fibers, as it has been observed in both pennate and fusiform muscles. Being a stationary (non-propagating) component, the shoulder is not reliable for studying changes in sarcolemmal excitability, and thus should be excluded from the M-wave analysis

Is attending a mental process?

The nature of attention has been the topic of a lively research programme in psychology for over a century. But there is widespread agreement that none of the theories on offer manage to fully capture the nature of attention. Recently, philosophers have become interested in the debate again after a prolonged period of neglect. This paper contributes to the project of explaining the nature of attention. It starts off by critically examining Christopher Mole’s prominent “adverbial” account of attention, which traces the failure of extant psychological theories to their assumption that attending is a kind of process. It then defends an alternative, process-based view of the metaphysics of attention, on which attention is understood as an activity and not, as psychologists seem to implicitly assume, an accomplishment. The entrenched distinction between accomplishments and activities is shown to shed new light on the metaphysics of attention. It also provides a novel diagnosis of the empirical state of play