Is there a linear relationship between R&D intensity and growth? Empirical evidence of non-high-tech vs. high-tech SMEs

To investigate whether there is a similar relationship between R&D intensity and growth in high-tech and non-high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we examine two samples of SMEs in manufacturing industries, applying the two-step estimation method. Our findings are that R&D intensity restricts the growth of high-tech SMEs at lower levels of R&D intensity and stimulates their growth at higher levels. However, R&D intensity restricts the growth of non-high-tech SMEs regardless of the level of R&D. The relationships obtained between other determinants considered in the literature and the growth of high-tech and non-high-tech SMEs allow us to conclude that (i) smaller, younger, non-high-tech SMEs grow more quickly than larger, older, non-high-tech SMEs, which does not occur in the case of high-tech SMEs; and (ii) financing restrictions are especially important in financing the growth of high-tech SMEs, compared with non-high-tech SMEs.     

Retrieval Practice Consistently Benefits Student Learning: a Systematic Review of Applied Research in Schools and Classrooms

Given the growing interest in retrieval practice among educators, it is valuable to know when retrieval practice does and does not improve student learning—particularly for educators who have limited classroom time and resources. In this literature review, we developed a narrow operational definition for “classroom research” compared to previous reviews of the literature. We screened nearly 2000 abstracts and systematically coded 50 experiments to establish a clearer picture of benefits from retrieval practice in real world educational settings. Our review yielded 49 effect sizes and a total n?=?5374, the majority of which (57%) revealed medium or large benefits from retrieval practice. We found that retrieval practice improved learning for a variety of education levels, content areas, experimental designs, final test delays, retrieval and final test formats, and timing of retrieval practice and feedback; however, only 6% of experiments were conducted in non-WEIRD countries. Based on our review of the literature, we make eight recommendations for future research and provide educators with a better understanding of the robust benefits of retrieval practice across a range of school and classroom settings.

     

Deaf children's informal knowledge of multiplicative reasoning

Multiplicative reasoning is required in different contexts in mathematics: it is necessary to understand the concept of multipart units, involved in learning place value and measurement, and also to solve multiplication and division problems. Measures of hearing children's multiplicative reasoning at school entry are reliable and specific predictors of their mathematics achievement in school. An analysis of deaf children's informal multiplicative reasoning showed that deaf children under-perform in comparison to the hearing cohorts in their first two years of school. However, a brief training study, which significantly improved their success on these problems, suggested that this may be a performance, rather than a competence difference. Thus, it is possible and desirable to promote deaf children's multiplicative reasoning when they start school so that they are provided with a more solid basis for learning mathematics.     

Environmental Perception as a Diagnostic Probe of Environmental Complexity Levels

Purpose: Educational methods to diagnose and improve the level of environmental conception are required. The present work reports a methodology based on studies about the environmental perception of a university public, divided into general students and those related to the forest sciences, who are involved with disciplines and researches related to e.g. environmental management.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The environmental perception obtained from the graphical representation of environment and the most relevant actions indicated by the students to achieve the environmental conservation, divided in four levels of complexity, were correlated using principal component analysis.

Findings: The students from both groups having the highest scores in environmental perception prioritize actions related to the comprehension and responsibility levels, while the ideal scenario would be to indicate actions related to competence and citizenship. Thus, the complex concept about environment of the students is still incipient and, therefore, educational strategies can be traced based on the profiles obtained.

Practical Implications: The method for environmental perception can be designed for different populations and a scheme relating environmental perception with four levels of actions on behalf of the environmental conservation is proposed to diagnose environmental conceptions, as well as to guide educational strategies about socio-ecological system.

Originality/Value: A semi-quantitative method was developed to estimate, clearly and directly, the level of complexity about the environmental knowledge of university students and, consequently, to predict the actions on behalf of the environmental conservation that they would probably perform.     

Clinical and diagnostic utility of saliva as a non-invasive diagnostic fluid:?a systematic review

This systematic review presents the latest trends in salivary research and its applications in health and disease. Among the large number of analytes present in saliva, many are affected by diverse physiological and pathological conditions. Further, the non-invasive, easy and cost-effective collection methods prompt an interest in evaluating its diagnostic or prognostic utility. Accumulating data over the past two decades indicates towards the possible utility of saliva to monitor overall health, diagnose and treat various oral or systemic disorders and drug monitoring. Advances in saliva based systems biology has also contributed towards identification of several biomarkers, development of diverse salivary diagnostic kits and other sensitive analytical techniques. However, its utilization should be carefully evaluated in relation to standardization of pre-analytical and analytical variables, such as collection and storage methods, analyte circadian variation, sample recovery, prevention of sample contamination and analytical procedures. In spite of all these challenges, there is an escalating evolution of knowledge with the use of this biological matrix.Key words: saliva, non-invasive, biological markers, drug monitoring, oral health     

Teaching children how to include the inversion principle in their reasoning about quantitative relations

The basis of this intervention study is a distinction between numerical calculus and relational calculus. The former refers to numerical calculations and the latter to the analysis of the quantitative relations in mathematical problems. The inverse relation between addition and subtraction is relevant to both kinds of calculus, but so far research on improving children’s understanding and use of the principle of inversion through interventions has only been applied to the solving of a + b − b = ? sums. The main aim of the intervention described in this article was to study the effects of teaching children about the explicit use of inversion as part of the relational calculus needed to solve inverse addition and subtraction problems using a calculator. The study showed that children taught about relational calculus differed significantly from those who were taught numerical procedures, and also that effects of the intervention were stronger when children were taught about relational calculus with mixtures of indirect and direct word problems than when these two types of problem were given to them in separate blocks.     

Correcting for sample problems in PISA and the improvement in Portuguese students’ performance

The results of large-scale international assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have attracted a considerable attention worldwide and are often used by policy-makers to support educational policies. To ensure that the published results represent the actual population, these surveys go through a thorough scrutiny to ensure their validity. One important issue that may affect the results is the occurrence of different participation rates across groups with heterogeneous average student scores. In this study, we illustrate how problems of representativeness of the samples may be corrected by the use of post-stratified weights. We use the case of Portugal, a country where we uncover a meaningful difference between the actual population and the PISA samples in terms of the distribution of students per grade and track of studies. We show that after post-stratification, the temporal evolution of the PISA scores is quite different from the one reported.