The instrumentality of the portfolios in the teach-learning process: study with higher education Portuguese teachers

In a time when higher education come for deep changes and if intends an education more centered in the pupil, the teach-learning portfolios appears as a tool to use, because versatile and with innumerable potentialities. This article reveals the results gotten with higher education teachers, who we looked for to know if these appeal in use the teach-learning portfolios, in the curricular units that teach. We looked for, equally, to perceive of that forms these are used. This is an exploratory study, basically descriptive, that does not have pretensions to generalize for all the teaching population. We elaborated and we applied a questionnaire, with 290 teachers of higher education public, university and polytechnic. We verify that the percentage of the teachers that uses the portfolios in the teach- learning process is not very raised.

A comparison of three canopy interception models for a leafless mixed deciduous forest stand in the eastern United States

Canopy interception of incident precipitation is a critical component of the forest water balance during each of the four seasons. Models have been developed to predict precipitation interception from standard meteorological variables because of acknowledged difficulty in extrapolating direct measurements of interception loss from forest to forest. No known study has compared and validated canopy interception models for a leafless deciduous forest stand in the eastern United States. Interception measurements from an experimental plot in a leafless deciduous forest in northeastern Maryland (39°42'N, 75°5'W) for 11 rainstorms in winter and early spring 2004/05 were compared to predictions from three models. The Mulder model maintains a moist canopy between storms. The Gash model requires few input variables and is formulated for a sparse canopy. The WiMo model optimizes the canopy storage capacity for the maximum wind speed during each storm. All models showed marked underestimates and overestimates for individual storms when the measured ratio of interception to gross precipitation was far more or less, respectively, than the specified fraction of canopy cover. The models predicted the percentage of total gross precipitation (PG) intercepted to within the probable standard error (8.1%) of the measured value: the Mulder model overestimated the measured value by 0.1% of PG; the WiMo model underestimated by 0.6% of PG; and the Gash model underestimated by 1.1% of PG. The WiMo model’s advantage over the Gash model indicates that the canopy storage capacity increases logarithmically with the maximum wind speed. This study has demonstrated that dormant-season precipitation interception in a leafless deciduous forest may be satisfactorily predicted by existing canopy interception models.

The effect of term-time employment on UK higher education students

In the UK, participation in higher education has risen over the past two decades, along with a shift of the costs of higher education onto the individual and a move to widening participation among previously underrepresented groups. This has led to changes in the way individuals fund their higher education, in particular a rise in the incidence of term time employment. Term time employment potentially plays a much bigger role than in the past, both as a means for individuals to fund their education and reduce debt, and as a way to gain valuable work experience and increase employability. With the increase in the number of graduates in the UK labour market it is now more important for individuals to be able to differentiate themselves in the labour market.

Macroeconomic forecasting with mixed-frequency data: forecasting output growth in the United States

Many macroeconomic series, such as U.S. real output growth, are sampled quarterly, although potentially useful predictors are often observed at a higher frequency. We look at whether a mixed data-frequency sampling (MIDAS) approach can improve forecasts of output growth. The MIDAS specification used in the comparison uses a novel way of including an autoregressive term. We find that the use of monthly data on the current quarter leads to significant improvement in forecasting current and next quarter output growth, and that MIDAS is an effective way to exploit monthly data compared with alternative methods.

Proximity, strategic groups and reputation: an exploratory study of reputation in higher education

This paper explores the idea that stakeholder proximity, that is, how much/little experience a stakeholder has with a focal organization, impacts the extent to which stakeholders rely on strategic group characteristics as an anchor when judging the reputation of higher education institutions. We synthesize theories from psychology (ie, cognitive categorization theory) and management (ie, strategic group theory) to explore how stakeholder proximity may influence the formation of organizational reputation. Specifically, we examine how the proximity of three key stakeholders (N=1,049; prospective students, parents of students and hiring managers of new graduates) influences the perceived strategic character and generalized favorability of three distinct groups of post-secondary institutions (research-intensive universities, teaching-intensive universities and career colleges). Our results suggest that high proximity stakeholders rely less on strategic group characteristics, while reputation at a strategic group level is suggested to have greater influence on stakeholders who have less direct experience of and low proximity to an organization. Interestingly, our findings reveal some consistent differences between perceptions of prospective students and hiring managers that pose important theoretical questions about the role and impact of direct experiences in the reputation-building process, while also suggesting that higher education institutions may benefit significantly from differentiated marketing strategies according to issues of proximity.

Entrepreneurial dynamics and higher education institutions in the post-communist world

This study draws on the institutional and regional entrepreneurship literature to develop a conceptual framework that analyses the impact of higher education institutions on entrepreneurial dynamics. It is used to examine the cities of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) during the period 1995–2008. Extending the multi-pillar institutional concept, it is found that higher education institutions play a prominent role in fostering entrepreneurial dynamics in CIS cities through multiple channels, including human capital development, cultivating a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship, affecting the perceptions of the knowledge and skills needed to start up a successful business, and knowledge spillovers.

Typology of companies networks for competitive assessment: an application in higher education institutions

Taking into account the changes in the market scenario by virtue of globalization, Institutes of Higher Education (IES) as well as other organizations seek their competitive stability. For that reason, it is up to organizations to adopt innovative models of management for their operations aimed at improving results. Company networks consist of a model that is perfect for uniting efforts through cooperation among partners in a given business, which can involve ties of different natures. This paper shows the development and the application of an auxiliary technique to analyze the intensity, nature and importance of internal and external relations in the formation of results for a company network. For such, a multiple case study was conducted at two IES in the State of São Paulo and their networks of partners and employees in order to observe their specificities and organizational strategies. The study demonstrated the existence of specific performance criteria (pillars) for each IES and its network, resulting from its competitive reality. It reveals evidence that the education pillar is strengthened in both cases, and the research pillar is growing, although it is the weakest. The outreach pillar is the most robust in the public IES and the financial sustainability pillar is relevant for the private IES, and it was only detected in this IES.

Accounting for Fetal Death: Vital Statistics and the Medicalization of Pregnancy in the United States

Recent reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have decried the high rate of fetal mortality in the contemporary United States. Much of the data about fetal and infant deaths, as well as other poor pregnancy outcomes, are tabulated and tracked through vital statistics. In this article, I demonstrate how notions of fetal death became increasingly tied to the surveillance of maternal bodies through the tabulating and tracking of vital statistics in the middle part of the twentieth century. Using a historical analysis of the revisions to the United States Standard Certificate of Live Birth, and the United States Standard Report of Fetal Death, I examine how the categories of analysis utilized in these documents becomes integrally linked to contemporary ideas about fetal and perinatal death, gestational age, and prematurity. While it is evident that there are relationships between maternal behavior and birth outcomes, in this article I interrogate the ways in which the surveillance of maternal bodies through vital statistics has naturalized these relationships. Copyright 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modes of Diversification in Bulgarian Higher Education: Case Studies in four Disciplines

This project was stimulated by the unprecedented speed and scope of changes in Bulgarian higher education since 1989. The rapid growth of the student population and the emergence of a new private sector in higher education led to tightening governmental control and a growing criticism of autonomy and academic freedom. This raised questions about the need for diversification in the field, about the importance of recent innovations in terms of strategic choices for future development and so of how higher education governance could maintain diversity without the system deteriorating. The group first traced the extent of spontaneous processes of innovation at the level of content, of institutions, and the organisation of teaching and learning processes. They then identified the different parties in the struggle for institutionalisation and against diversification, and promising mechanisms for maintaining diversity in higher education. On this basis they outlined a basis for a wide-ranging public discussion of the issue which may serve as a corrective to the mechanisms of state control. Their work included analysis of the legislative framework laid down in the Higher Education Act, which effectively dispenses with the autonomy of universities. They then surveyed the views of both high-level executives in the field and the academics actually involved in the process, as well as of the "consumers" of the educational product, i.e. the students. In considering diversification, they focused on four different types of programmes, including those where diversification is largely limited to content level (e.g. Law), those where it operates mainly on structural levels (e.g. Industrial Management), those where it is often feigned (e.g. Social Work), and those where it is at best formal and sporadic (e.g. Mechanical Engineering). They conclude that the educational system in Bulgaria has considerable internal resources for development. The greatest need is for adequate statutory regulation of academic life which will provide incentives for responsible academic development of higher education institutions and create conditions for the institutionalisation of academic self-organisation and self-control, which will in turn limit the pathological trends in the diversification processes.

Governmentality in higher education : a critical analysis of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

In this dissertation, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) serves as a nodal point through which to examine the power relations shaping the direction and practices of higher education in the twenty-first century. Theoretically, my analysis is informed by Foucault’s concept of governmentality, briefly defined as a technology of power that influences or shapes behavior from a distance. This form of governance operates through apparatuses of security, which include higher education. Foucault identified three essential characteristics of an apparatus—the market, the milieu, and the processes of normalization—through which administrative mechanisms and practices operate and govern populations. In this project, my primary focus is on the governance of faculty and administrators, as a population, at residential colleges and universities. I argue that the existing milieu of accountability is one dominated by the neoliberal assumption that all activity—including higher education���works best when governed by market forces alone, reducing higher education to a market-mediated private good. Under these conditions, what many in the academy believe is an essential purpose of higher education���to educate students broadly, to contribute knowledge for the public good, and to serve as society’s critic and social conscience (Washburn 227)—is being eroded. Although NSSE emerged as a form of resistance to commercial college rankings, it did not challenge the forces that empowered the rankings in the first place. Indeed, NSSE data are now being used to make institutions even more responsive to market forces. Furthermore, NSSE’s use has a normalizing effect that tends to homogenize classroom practices and erode the autonomy of faculty in the educational process. It also positions students as part of the system of surveillance. In the end, if aspects of higher education that are essential to maintaining a civil society are left to be defined solely in market terms, the result may be a less vibrant and, ultimately, a less just society.

Present at the Creation: Montana Higher Education Reforms from 1972 Constitution -- Dr. Lawrence K. Pettit “In the Crucible of Change”

Prior to the passage of the 1972 Constitution, Montana’s higher education system was both controlled and victimized by Montana’s politics. Alternatingly, Governors or the Legislature tried to control and/or impose political ideology upon the management and teaching/content within the University System. Political favoritism and power-broking were the hallmark of the legislative appropriation process. Under the new Constitution, a newly empowered Board of Regents, and a new Commissioner of Higher Education managed the system and controlled the allocation of the legislative appropriations, but not without a major battle before the Montana Supreme Court. Dr. Lawrence K. Pettit (Larry Pettit) (b. 5/2/1937) was present at the creation of this newly structured higher education system as the first Commissioner of Higher Education in Montana after his appointment by the Board of Regents of the University System in 1973. Larry Pettit has had a dual career in politics and higher education. Pettit, of Lewistown, served as legislative assistant to U.S. Senators James E. Murray and Lee Metcalf, campaign manager, head of transition team and assistant to Montana Governor Thomas L. Judge, taught political science at The Pennsylvania State University (main campus), was chair of political science at Montana State University, Deputy Commissioner for Academic Programs at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Chancellor of the University System of South Texas (since merged with Texas A&M University), President of Southern Illinois University, and President of Indiana University of Pennsylvania from where he retired in 2003. He has served as chair of the Commission on Leadership for the American Council on Education, president of the National Association of (University) System Heads, and on many national and state boards and commissions in higher education. Pettit is author of “If You Live by the Sword: Politics in the Making and Unmaking of a University President.” More about Pettit is found at http://www.lawrencekpettit.com

Molecular and serological diagnosis of Bartonella infection in 61 dogs from the United States

Molecular diagnosis of canine bartonellosis can be extremely challenging and often requires the use of an enrichment culture approach followed by PCR amplification of bacterial DNA. HYPOTHESES: (1) The use of enrichment culture with PCR will increase molecular detection of bacteremia and will expand the diversity of Bartonella species detected. (2) Serological testing for Bartonella henselae and Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii does not correlate with documentation of bacteremia. ANIMALS: Between 2003 and 2009, 924 samples from 663 dogs were submitted to the North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Vector Borne Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory for diagnostic testing with the Bartonella α-Proteobacteria growth medium (BAPGM) platform. Test results and medical records of those dogs were retrospectively reviewed. METHODS: PCR amplification of Bartonella sp. DNA after extraction from patient samples was compared with PCR after BAPGM enrichment culture. Indirect immunofluorescent antibody assays, used to detect B. henselae and B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii antibodies, were compared with PCR. RESULTS: Sixty-one of 663 dogs were culture positive or had Bartonella DNA detected by PCR, including B. henselae (30/61), B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii (17/61), Bartonella koehlerae (7/61), Bartonella volans-like (2/61), and Bartonella bovis (2/61). Coinfection with more than 1 Bartonella sp. was documented in 9/61 dogs. BAPGM culture was required for PCR detection in 32/61 cases. Only 7/19 and 4/10 infected dogs tested by IFA were B. henselae and B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii seroreactive, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Dogs were most often infected with B. henselae or B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii based on PCR and enrichment culture, coinfection was documented, and various Bartonella species were identified. Most infected dogs did not have detectable Bartonella antibodies.

Environmental, health and safety cost benefit analysis in the United States chemical industry

The purpose of this research project is to determine whether there is a cost/benefit to allocating financial and other company-related resources to improve environmental, health and safety performance beyond that which is required by law. The issue of whether a company benefits from spending dollars to achieve environmental, health and safety performance beyond legal compliance is an important issue to the chemical manufacturing industry in the United States because of the voluminous and complex legal requirements impacting environmental, health and safety expenditures. The cost/benefit issue has practical significance because many U.S. chemical manufacturing companies base their environmental, health and safety management strategies on just achieving and maintaining compliance with legal requirements when in reality this strategy may actually be a higher cost way of managing environmental, health and safety practices. This difference in environmental, health and safety management strategy is being investigated to determine if managing environmental, health and safety to achieve performance beyond that which is required by law results in a greater benefit to companies in the U.S. chemical manufacturing sector.