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High Relevance (high + relevance)
Selected AbstractsUsing current consumer issues to involve students in researchINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 4 2008Elizabeth B. Carroll Abstract The value of involving students in research has been well documented. By including students in research, active and independent learning opportunities are provided, the importance of inquiry and investigation is emphasized, and connections between course material and the discipline become evident. Relevant opportunities for involving students in research projects can sometimes be elusive. Faculty time constraints limit the number of projects that can be undertaken and the number of students involved. Furthermore, many students become intimidated when told that they are required to carry out a research project. The purpose of this study was to use current consumer issues to involve undergraduate students in a relevant research project. The research project was implemented in class settings with teams of students. Faculty selected contemporary consumer issues based upon perceived student interest and experiences as consumers. By using issues of high relevance and familiarity to students and using the team approach within a course that faculty members were already assigned to teach, the issues of time constraint for the faculty members and increased levels of comfort for students were addressed. Prior to undertaking the project, students were instructed in appropriate research methods. Research methods utilized included student development of survey instruments, collection and recording of data, interpretation of data and presentation of results. Students became familiar with various research practices. By working as team members, the students' comfort level for being involved in research increased; however, other common group challenges arose. Relevant, contemporary consumer issues carry high relevance and interest for student groups, helping generate enthusiasm for the research process. The focus on involving students in research continues to be emphasized. By using research topics related to student's experiences as consumers, students are more readily engaged in undertaking research projects. Through these relevant research projects, students' consumer decision making is positively impacted. [source] GUEST EDITORIAL: The interplay of pollinator diversity, pollination services and landscape changeJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2008Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter Summary 1Pollinators are a functional group with high relevance for ensuring cross-pollination in wild plant populations and yields in major crops. Both pollinator declines and losses of pollination services have been identified in the context of habitat destruction and land use intensification. 2This editorial synthesizes and links the findings presented in seven papers in this Special Profile, focusing on pollinator diversity and plant,pollinator interactions in natural habitats and agricultural landscapes. 3The results contribute to our understanding of local and landscape scale effects of land use intensification on pollinator densities and diversity, and pollination functions in wild plant communities and crops. 4Synthesis and applications. We emphasize the exceptional coverage in pollination ecology ranging from basic ecological relationships to applied aspects of ecosystem services and ecosystem management, and conclude with identifying gaps in current knowledge and challenging research areas for the future. [source] Programme Evaluation with Multiple TreatmentsJOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 2 2004Markus Frölich Abstract., This paper reviews the main identification and estimation strategies for microeconometric policy evaluation. Particular emphasis is laid on evaluating policies consisting of multiple programmes, which is of high relevance in practice. For example, active labour market policies may consist of different training programmes, employment programmes and wage subsidies. Similarly, sickness rehabilitation policies often offer different vocational as well as non-vocational rehabilitation measures. First, the main identification strategies (control-for-confounding-variables, difference-in-difference, instrumental-variable, and regression-discontinuity identification) are discussed in the multiple-programme setting. Thereafter, the different nonparametric matching and weighting estimators of the average treatment effects and their properties are examined. [source] Predictors of breast cancer-related distress following mammography screening in younger women on a family history breast screening programmePSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 12 2008K. Brain Abstract Objective: This longitudinal study investigated pre-screening factors that predicted breast cancer-specific distress among 1286 women who were undergoing annual mammography screening as part of a UK programme for younger women (i.e., under 50) with a family history of breast cancer. Methods: Women completed questionnaires one month prior to screening, and one and six months after receiving screening results. Factors measured were breast cancer worry, perceived risk, cognitive appraisals, coping, dispositional optimism, and background variables relating to screening history and family history. Results: Pre-screening cancer worry was the most important predictor of subsequent worry, explaining 56/61% and 54/57% of the variance at one and six months follow-up, respectively. Other salient pre-screening predictors included high perceived risk of breast cancer, appraisals of high relevance and threat associated with the family history, and low perceived ability to cope emotionally. Women who had previously been part of the screening programme and those with a relative who had recently died from breast cancer were also vulnerable to longer-term distress. A false positive screening result, pessimistic personality, and coping efforts relating to religion and substance use predicted outcomes of screening at one month follow-up, but were not predictive in the longer-term. Conclusion: Early intervention to ameliorate high levels of cancer-related distress and negative appraisals would benefit some women as they progress through the familial breast screening programme. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] New Technology in Schools: Is There a Payoff?,THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 522 2007Stephen Machin Despite its high relevance to current policy debates, estimating the causal effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) investment on educational standards remains fraught with difficulties. We exploit a change in the rules governing ICT funding across different school districts of England to devise an Instrumental Variable strategy to identify the causal impact of ICT expenditure on pupil outcomes. The approach identifies the effect of being a ,winner' or a ,loser' in the new system of ICT funding allocation to schools. Our findings suggest a positive impact on primary school performance in English and Science, though not for Mathematics. [source] Mapping of quantitative trait loci affecting behaviour in swineANIMAL GENETICS, Issue 4 2009G. Reiner Summary Behavioural indices in vertebrates are under genetic control at least to some extent. In spite of significant behavioural problems in farm animals, information on the genetic background of behaviour is sparse. The aim of this study was to map QTL for behavioural indices in swine under healthy conditions and after infection with Sarcocystis miescheriana, as behaviour can be significantly influenced by disease. This well-described parasite model subsequently leads to acute (day 14 p.i.), subclinical (day 28 p.i.) and chronic disease (day 42 p.i.), allowing the study and comparison of the behaviour of pigs under four different states of health or disease. The study was based on a well-described Pietrain/Meishan F2 family that has recently allowed the detection of QTL for disease resistance. We have mapped six genome-wide significant and 24 chromosome-wide significant QTL for six behavioural indices in swine. Six of these QTL (i.e. 20% of total QTL) showed effects on behavioural traits of the healthy pigs (day 0). Some of them (QTL on SSC11 and 18) lost influence on behavioural activities during disease, while the effects of others (QTL on SSC5, SSC8) partly remained during the whole experiment, although with different effects on the distinct behavioural indices. The disease model has been of high relevance to detect effects of gene loci on behavioural indices. Considering the importance of segregating alleles and environmental conditions that allow the identification of the phenotype, we conclude that there are indeed QTL with interesting effects on behavioural indices in swine. [source] Bridging Scholarship in Management: Epistemological ReflectionsBRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2003John D. Aram If the relevance gap in management research is to be narrowed, management scholars must identify and adopt processes of inquiry that simultaneously achieve high rigour and high relevance. Research approaches that strive for relevance emphasize the particular at the expense of the general and approaches that strive for rigour emphasize the general over the particular. Inquiry that attains both rigour and relevance can be found in approaches to knowledge that involve a reasoned relationship between the particular and the general. Prominent among these are the works of Ikujiro Nonaka and John Dewey. Their epistemological foundations indicate the potential for a philosophy of science and a process of inquiry that crosses epistemological lines by synthesizing the particular and the general and by utilizing experience and theory, the implicit and the explicit, and induction and deduction. These epistemologies point to characteristics of a bridging scholarship that is problem-initiated and rests on expanded standards of validity. The present epistemological reflections are in search of new communities of knowing toward the production of relevant and rigorous management knowledge. [source] Development of the coronary vasculature and its implications for coronary abnormalities in general and specifically in pulmonary atresia without ventricular septal defectACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 2004AC Gittenberger-de Groot Aim: Coronary vascular anomalies are an important factor in congenital heart disease in the neonate. However, our knowledge of the pathomorphogenesis is still defective. Material and methods: 1) Study of coronary anomaly variations in congenital heart disease using specimens and 2) study of the role of epicardium-derived cells (EPDC) and neural crest cells in coronary vascular formation using quail-chicken chimeras. Results: The clinical and pathological data revealed the existence of ventriculo-coronary arterial communications during fetal life before pulmonary atresia was established. This supported a primary coronary developmental anomaly as the origin of some cases of pulmonary atresia as opposed to other cases in which the pulmonary orifice atresia was the primary anomaly. Our experimental work showed the high relevance of the development of the epicardium and epicardium-derived cells for the formation of the coronary vasculature, and showed the coronary vascular ingrowth into the myocardium and subsequently into the aorta and the right atrium. The absence of epicardium-derived cells leads to embryonic death, while delayed outgrowth could result in the absence of the main coronary arteries to pinpoint orifice formation. In these cases, the circulation was maintained through ventriculocoronary arterial communications. Neural crest cells were important for the patterning of the coronary vasculature. We have extended this knowledge to a number of other heart malformations. Conclusions: Coronary vascular anomalies are highly linked to the development of extracardiac contributors like the epicardium and the neural crest. A proper interaction between these cell types and the myocardium and aortic arterial wall are important for normal vascular development. [source] | ||||||||||||||||