Deciphering decision-making: Exploring the differences of criminal decision-making between offenders and college students

Previous research has used rational choice to look at criminal decision-making, with the majority of the research using college student samples. The current study uses a sample of college students and offenders to extend upon a previous research comparing the decision-making of the two samples and examining three different types of crime; drive while intoxicated, commit robbery and get into a fight. Comparing the two samples on their decision-making to provided support for rational choice in that individual’s do consider costs and benefits. The current study found that the students and offenders decision-making was comparable for one type of crime, but not for the other two. The findings, implications and future research are discussed

From Number Crunching To Organizational Leadership: Can Distance Education Adequately Handle The Range Of Graduate Business Classes?

With distance education delivery technology improving almost continuously, many Universities are seeking out distance education opportunities to expand their programs.   We seek to examine the effectiveness of the distance delivery approach across the range of types of courses offered in MBA programs – from the organizational leadership classes to the more quantitative “number crunching” classes.   Student performance in several types of MBA courses was evaluated as a result of presenting the same material on-campus (synchronously) and via distance education (asynchronously) in three different kinds of graduate business courses; a course in organizational leadership, an analytical course in managerial economics, and a quantitative methods course.   A number of individual variables (e.g., GMAT scores, undergraduate GPA) were included as explanatory factors regarding student performance.   Using multiple hierarchical regression analysis, the asynchronous distance delivery model was determined to have no adverse impact on student performance across all of these different types of MBA courses, indicating that indeed distance education techniques can adequately handle this broad range of graduate business classes

Dialogue as Moral Paradigm: Paths Toward Intercultural Transformation

The Council of Europe’s 2008 White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue: ‘living together as equals in dignity’ points to the need for shared values upon which intercultural dialogue might rest. In order, however, to overcome the monologic separateness that threatens community, we must educate ourselves to recognize the dialogism of our humanity and to engage in deep encounters with others with a mature skepticism of all dogmatisms, including our own. In order to aid us in reaching the necessary insight, the author calls upon Bakhtin’s ideas of the dialogism of every utterance and of the unity and heteroglossia of language, Gadamer’s hermeneutical experience that shakes us loose from what we think we know, and Levinas’s description of that transcendent ideal of a dialogue beyond reciprocity. These perspectives break open our certainty that tribalism and individualism are fundamental, placing them instead as secondary phenomena that, though powerful, pronounce neither the initial nor the final word on our life together

Interactions of time dependent, thermal and hygroscopic characteristics and runnability properties of paper

For purposes of design and optimization of industrial processing, many of the physical properties of paper have to be taken into account. The knowledge of the mechanical properties as part of the physical ones must be extended by considering hygroscopic, thermal, optic and electric material aspects. The knowledge on these properties will support the paper processing and converting industry in optimization of their processes and quality of paper.In previous projects at the Institute of Engineering Design (LMK, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany) a complete material law was developed and implemented into a finite element system [37]. This model contains also yielding and hardening which are major mechanical properties of paper.Our ongoing research on the physical properties of paper determines thermal and hygroscopic material behavior. The determination of these physical parameters can be divided into a constructive, an experimental and an analytical part which was performed iteratively.At first a usual test chamber with temperature control for general material testing was used for determining mechanical properties of paper in the three main directions under all process relevant temperature conditions. In this setup the climate conditions reach the limit for paper testing very soon. Therefore, an individual test chamber was conceived and developed to perform the relevant test environment for the analysis of paper under process relevant thermal and humid climate conditions. Secondly, mechanical experiments were performed in order to find the physical paper behavior, beginning with the mechanical properties of heated and moistured paper. Finally a mathematical formulation of hygro-mechanical behavior of paper was determined.From our data we found correlations between moisture content and runnability properties. The humidity influence on the elastic modulus and on the strain properties of paper were determined with tensile tests in machine direction (MD) and compression tests in thickness direction (ZD).Improving this knowledge of general physical material parameters can lead to a realistic mathematical formulation of the physical force-deformation-behavior in paper and paperboard grades in future. Principles, designs and settings of finishing and converting machines can be optimized by using material laws in process analyses, based on this advanced material knowledge. Furthermore, details of the expected runnability properties of established paper and paperboard grades can be determined

Coastal Marine Science for Law and Business Students: Preparing Law and Business Professionals to Make Informed Decisions About Coastal Issues

The rigors of employment-directed undergraduate education. and decreased emphasis on Liberal Arts studies occurring at some colleges and universities has left many graduates with a level of scientific understanding which is inadequate to make infonned choices about issues which effect the environment. To address this lack of scientific understanding. the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (Virginia) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, with the Marshall-Wythe School of Law and the School of Business Administration of the College of William and Mary are developing a Coastal Ecosystem Science Program to teach future law and business professionals the basics of coastal marine science. The Program is being developed after front-end evaluation (telephone survey of law/business faculty members from schools, law and business graduate students and industry professionals from around the United States) which explored the need, successful format, length and other essential or logistical elements of program design. Formative evaluation will continue through student pre-, and post-, testing to evaluate content, information transfer and retention. This program teaches the basic principles of coastal. environmental science to all law and business students (not just those students with experience in environmental science). The goal of this program is to ensure that future lawyers and business leaders will be able to make informed decisions about issues which effect the coastal environment. The development of the program, initial survey and focus group results, essential elements of the program design, evaluation of pilot presentations and plans for pilot-year testing in schools across the country will be discussed

Complete material law of paper for modelling and simulation of finishing processes

A complete three-dimensional material law is necessary for the mathematical description of the material behaviour and for the simulation and calculation of finishing or converting processes. In order to achieve this goal, all necessary material properties have been experimentally determined for different paper and cardboard grades. New testing equipments and analysis methods have been developed to record the complete force displacement-relations in all main directions (MD, CD, ZD) and for every possible axial and shear loading condition.Based on experiments a complete three dimensional nonlinear material law is developed, which is able to describe mathematically the complete mechanical behaviour of paper from the macroscopic point of view. This new material law contains an excellent plastification model and stiffening effects.The described material law is implemented into the FEM-System Marc&Mentat, which now allows the simulation and calculation of paper stress-strain-behaviour in finishing and converting processes. The implementation of the new material law achieves a very good correlation between simulations and experiments

Phenomens of rolling contact in paper calendering

In soft calenders synthetic roll covers are "state of the art", without knowing their detailed rolling contact behavior and their phenomenological effects to gloss and smoothness of paper. Complex interactions of process and material parameters lead to time consuming adjustments of the machine settings. Regarding the interacting material parameters the mechanical paper properties are as important as the elastomer cover properties of the rollers. This challenged coupling of the threesome paper, cover and process typifies a limit for new innovations in calendering. That is why present development objectives in calendering for example to higher calendering temperatures and higher process velocities have to be tested in practice as black box solutions concerning their effects.Present research activities are focusing on the thermo mechanics in the interaction of process and material parameters of the rolling contact of the calendering nip. With advanced knowledge on the paper properties [2, 4], with the theory of rolling contact and with the knowledge of the influence on runnability and printability parameters, it is possible to discuss phenomenological rolling contact effects on a macroscopic level. The results point out that the physical attributes of roll cover material and of paper material have to be analyzed along with the process parameters in order to achieve improvements in calendering.The investigated interactions motivate a new evaluation of the calendering process under consideration of mechanic, thermal, hygroscopic, visco-elastic and rolling contact effects. This point of view is close to reality and permits the detection of physical interactions in the calender nip. From these detected dependencies we can formulate conclusions to gloss and smoothness behavior as well as to the other printability and runnability parameters.To reduce time consuming process optimization in production, precise details on optimal machine settings in the process can be delivered. Although details to paper and roll cover properties for calendering can be given by identifying the physical interactions in the rollers' nip. Knowledge of these interactions will reveal the basic calender processes