Prior activities and progress in MBA programs

Many graduate business programs encourage, and even require, postbaccalaureate work experience as a criterion for program admission. In this research we use data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 to examine the extent to which MBA students actually experience a hiatus in their educational careers, and whether their work/education profiles differ from those of other graduate students in the United States. We also address whether this emphasis on educational discontinuity in the formal sense has any effect on how the student progresses through the MBA program. Our results suggest that interrupting school between the BA and MBA leads to a higher likelihood of part-time enrollment, and a consequent lower probability of completing the degree program in a timely fashion.     

Assessing University Library Print Book Collections and Deselection: A Case Study at The National University of Ireland Maynooth

This article discusses an assessment and deselection project of the modern print book collections in the John Paul II Library, National University of Ireland Maynooth. Following a contextual introduction and literature review, the article outlines the methodology, presents and discusses the results, and concludes with lessons learned. Although this project had its origins in planning for a major extension to the Library, its main aim was to ensure current and relevant print book collections. The purpose of the article is to share experience in the hope of it being useful to other libraries considering a review of print book collections.     

Sex differences in social support in sororities and fraternities

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to assess differences between sorority and fraternity members with regard to the social support provided by the “sisters”; and “brothers”; with whom they live. Based on sex differences in communication in general, and the few findings of sex differences in social support, two research questions were posed: Do members of sororities and fraternities differ in the social support they provide? How do the various types of social support compare with each other within fraternities and within sororities?

Differences found in this study corroborate results of research on sex differences in communication that characterize women as using communication to connect with, support, and achieve closeness with others, and men using communication to accomplish some task and to assert their individuality. In general, differences were mostly confined to two of the eight types of social support studied: members of sororities, in comparison to members of fraternities, reported being more satisfied with the emotional support they receive and perceiving greater availability of listening support. If the goal of fraternities and sororities is to provide their members with the full range of social support, then findings indicate members of fraternities could benefit from becoming more skillful at providing types of support that tend to promote closeness and connection (e.g., emotional support and listening support); and members of sororities could benefit from becoming more skillful at providing types of support that tend to create distance and separation (e.g., technical challenge support and emotional challenge support).     

The basic tastants in aversion conditioning: Evidence for sensory preconditioning and not potentiation

In Experiment 1, a potentiation paradigm was used to test the relative influence of odor and taste with two 2 basic tastants (i.e., salt and sweet) in conditioned aversion learning. Experiment 1 showed that aversions to tastants (salt or sweet presented in a manner by which it could be tasted) were established only in subjects trained with the tastant, not the odor (i.e., salt or sweet presented in a manner by which it could not be tasted). Experiment 2 demonstrated, with a sensory preconditioning procedure, that the expression of an aversion to tastants was dependent on previous tastant experience prior to odor aversion training. These results suggest that while subjects can smell salt and sweet solutions, these odors are neither sufficient nor necessary for the expression of a conditioned tastant aversion.     

Expanding Opportunity for the American People

Hi, everybody. In my State of the Union Address, I talked about the idea of opportunity for all.
Opportunity is the idea at the heart of this country--that no matter who you are or how you started out, with hard work and responsibility, you can get ahead.     

A fractal approximation algorithm for inverse initial-value problems of nonlinear differential equations

1. Introduction Initial-value problems (IVP) for the differential equations are often confronted with in many fields of science, and are particularly common in engineering. These problems are characterized by a governing differential equation and its associated initial conditions. Methods for solving direct IVP have been known for many decades in the area of differential equation. A few of the more popular methods of solution have proven to provide sufficient and even efficient mechanisms …     

Teaching: getting it right

This autobiographical article explores the way one North American high school teacher's intuitive teaching principles developed over time. The author uses tennis as a metaphor to try to describe her feelings about the teaching process.