Student Evaluation of Teaching: Exploring Instructor and Student Perspectives with Course Redesign

Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET), or instructor evaluations, is used as a significant instrument across the world to measure instructors teaching methods and course evaluations. With the lack of standardized SET across universities and institutions, this study gains insight into how instructors use and improve student evaluations and students’ views of how their feedback is utilized by posing questions to university students and faculty through focus groups and interviews. Data was gathered and recorded to interpret students’ perceptions with how instructors utilize the students’ evaluations and instructors’ perceptions of student evaluations and how the instructors use the students’ feedback. Results indicate that students and instructors have different values for student feedback and curriculum improvement. Implications of different values for student feedback and curriculum improvement include instructors not attempting to improve their teaching and course, students poorly rating their instructors, and students that may not be challenged due to possibly receiving a negative evaluation

C-terminal UBA domains protect ubiquitin receptors by preventing initiation of protein degradation

The ubiquitin receptors Rad23 and Dsk2 deliver polyubiquitylated substrates to the proteasome for destruction. The C-terminal ubiquitin-associated (UBA) domain of Rad23 functions as a cis-acting stabilization signal that protects this protein from proteasomal degradation. Here, we provide evidence that the C-terminal UBA domains guard ubiquitin receptors from destruction by preventing initiation of degradation at the proteasome. We show that introduction of unstructured polypeptides that are sufficiently long to function as initiation sites for degradation abrogates the protective effect of UBA domains. Vice versa, degradation of substrates that contain an unstructured extension can be attenuated by the introduction of C-terminal UBA domains. Our study gains insight into the molecular mechanism responsible for the protective effect of UBA domains and explains how ubiquitin receptors can shuttle substrates to the proteasome without themselves becoming subject to proteasomal degradation

Landfill Site Selection for Solid Waste Using GIS-based Multi-Criteria Spatial Modeling: TaqTaq Sub-district in Iraqi Kurdistan Region as a Case

This study gains insight into landfill sites with the observance of all the political, economic and environmental difficulties for the implementing appropriate site measures by adopting a collection of geospatial technique and weighted linear combination (WLC) in TqaTaq sub-district. In the current study, there are several areas determined as appropriate sites for landfill location. In this study, the criteria of distance from the roads, the city center, rivers, surface water, and land use map were used. According to this analysis, only 25.21% of the TaqTaq sub district is suitable for a landfill. Thus, basing on the findings, 20.93% of the concerned sub-district is regarded as least adequate site for this mission, whereas only 3.25% of the area is regarded as moderate suitable. Thus, this study has found out that 1.03% area is the most suitable. The majority of suitable area was located in the North of the Town, where waste production is more than other locations. It should be noted that based on the outcome of this study, the amount of waste produced in the TaqTaq Town for the next 10 years, from 2022 to 2032, is predicted to be about 4080 tons. According to the density calculated for the waste of this area and considering the height of 4 m for the landfill center, in the next 10 years, about 3000 m2 of land is required for the landfill location. Since the suitable area found in this research is about 15 hectares

PARTICIPANTS REPRESENTATION IN NEWS ABOUT INDONESIA IN BBC WORLD WEBNEWS*)

News is a specific text of media discourse that has attracted special interest. This study gains insight into how linguistic choices shape the representation of information in news stories. Because they involve decision by definition, choices have an impact on the news angles and consequentially on the content and the message conveyed in an article. Specific structures, such as passive sentences, are not only determined by simple stylistic preference, but are also the fruit of linguistic choices. The choice of such constructions in place of factually equivalent or similar ones, gives a sentence a particular direction and indicates a linguistic strategy in the (re)presentation of the facts and the speaker’s attitude. A study on an integral aspect of language use such as linguistic choices applied to news stories is of particular interest because of the essential role language plays in media and communication in general. More specifically, the present thesis is situated in the particular context of foreign news reporting, which involves also editorial choices. The main theoretical framework of this study lies on systemic functional linguistics, from which the concept of linguistic choices originates, and discourse analysis, in its particular application to news texts. This study investigates linguistic choices through the systemic functional linguistic analysis of New about Indonesia in BBC International webnews. The selected web news consists in set BBC world news. The news contains an Indonesia News. The general purpose is to observe how Indonesian was portrayed in the BBC International Website or it can be said how Indonesian is portrayed by the worl

INDEPENDENT REVIEW OR AUDIT? THE SME IMPLICATIONS WORTH PONDERING

SME accessibility to finance is widely regarded as a crucial contributing factor to sustainability. It is also generally accepted that access to finance is considerably more difficult for SMEs than for larger corporations. The statutory audit of financial statements for qualifying SMEs in South Africa has been abolished and replaced with the option to do an independent review of the financial statements. This paper considers this abolishment from two perspectives. Firstly, the problem being investigated in this study is whether the lack of audited financial statements has negatively affected SME access to bank financing. This is done by testing the perspectives of SME owners/managers in this regard. A further problem looks at mitigating action SMEs can take to improve their risk profile during a banks assessment of a loan application. Knowledge of basic accounting principles has been identified as a potential mitigating factor by various researchers. This study gains insight into the views and perceptions of SME owners/managers pertaining to their perceived accounting knowledge and or skillsets. JEL Classification: M13, M41, M42, M4

2020-04-15 DAILY UNM GLOBAL HEALTH COVID-19 BRIEFING

Executive Summary: Daily NM recap. NM Hospital financial challenges. NM absentee voting. NM dairy farmers impact. 19-20 states open May 1? USA halts WHO funding. More NYC deaths. 250K tests AZ first responders. Global pandemic updates. Imported cases China. Masked South Korea elections. Danish children school return. PPE angiography. NYC cancels healthcare workers. GI shedding endoscopes. Blockade reduces transmission. Fever screening. Viral shedding post seroconversion. Radiology mitigations. Endoscopy units. Tracheostomy reduced transmission. Survivors plasma. Medical Imaging. Useful CTs. Electrophysiology procedures. Renin angiotensin blockers. Hemostasis. Dermatologic surgery. Pediatric gastroenterology. Autoimmune liver disease. Orthopedic surgical care. Updated treatment evidence. Asymptomatic detection. CVD pharmacology. Bleach disinfection. Arbidol beats lopinavir/ritonavir. IV immunoglobulin therapy. No HCQ clinical efficacy. Cepharantine inhibition pangolins. Machine learning antivirals. Eat bitter substances. 59 new trials. Combining RNA and antibody tests. No SARS-CoV-2 in patient ward air. Influenza impact prevention. Encephalitis. Low CD4+ and CD8+ severe. G6PD-deficient issues. Cytokine storm. Biosensor detection. Immunopathogenesis

In-Service Education and the Provision of Educational Materials to Improve Awareness of Chronic Wasting Disease Management Efforts in Arkansas

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a disease caused by an accumulation of misfolded prions throughout the nervous system. This disease affects animals within the Cervidae Family, which includes deer, elk, moose, and caribou. This disease is fatal and physical symptoms often do not materialize until the animal is near death. CWD has become an increasing issue in Arkansas since an elk (Cervus canadensis) in Newton County tested positive for CWD in 2016. Since then, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) has worked with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture (UADA) and others to develop management strategies to slow the transmission of this disease in the state. For this research project, three objectives were established. The objectives of this study included: 1) develop engaging and up-to-date CWD educational materials and analyze whether these benefit UADA County Extension Agents (CEAs) in public education, 2) create a ready-to-use packet of program materials and demonstrate those materials for CEAs in efforts to increase the annual number of extension programs in Arkansas about CWD, 3) determine how effective an in-service training is at improving CEAs’ knowledge of CWD. The methodology for this study included creating educational materials for a UADA CEA in-service training consisting of a PowerPoint® presentation providing an overview of information and current management strategies regarding CWD in Arkansas as well as 4 handouts discussing various topics related to CWD. These materials were presented to CEAs and made available to them following the presentation through a Box file. The study included a pre-assessment and post-assessment given to the CEAs prior to and following the training. These assessments utilized convenience sampling to gather quantitative and qualitative data. A statistically significant difference between pre-assessment and post-assessment responses to 4 questions was detected for objectives 1 and 3. Responses corresponding to objective 2 were analyzed qualitatively and indicated success of the objective’s goals when comparing pre-assessment and post-assessment responses. These results indicate an overall positive response to the materials presented during the in-service training

In-Service Education and the Provision of Educational Materials to Improve Awareness of Chronic Wasting Disease Management Efforts in Arkansas

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a disease caused by an accumulation of misfolded prions throughout the nervous system. This disease affects animals within the Cervidae Family, which includes deer, elk, moose, and caribou. This disease is fatal and physical symptoms often do not materialize until the animal is near death. CWD has become an increasing issue in Arkansas since an elk (Cervus canadensis) in Newton County tested positive for CWD in 2016. Since then, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) has worked with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture (UADA) and others to develop management strategies to slow the transmission of this disease in the state. For this research project, three objectives were established. The objectives of this study included: 1) develop engaging and up-to-date CWD educational materials and analyze whether these benefit UADA County Extension Agents (CEAs) in public education, 2) create a ready-to-use packet of program materials and demonstrate those materials for CEAs in efforts to increase the annual number of extension programs in Arkansas about CWD, 3) determine how effective an in-service training is at improving CEAs’ knowledge of CWD. The methodology for this study included creating educational materials for a UADA CEA in-service training consisting of a PowerPoint® presentation providing an overview of information and current management strategies regarding CWD in Arkansas as well as 4 handouts discussing various topics related to CWD. These materials were presented to CEAs and made available to them following the presentation through a Box file. The study included a pre-assessment and post-assessment given to the CEAs prior to and following the training. These assessments utilized convenience sampling to gather quantitative and qualitative data. A statistically significant difference between pre-assessment and post-assessment responses to 4 questions was detected for objectives 1 and 3. Responses corresponding to objective 2 were analyzed qualitatively and indicated success of the objective’s goals when comparing pre-assessment and post-assessment responses. These results indicate an overall positive response to the materials presented during the in-service training