Business and Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business and Accounting - Essay Example I can always listen to music conveniently while at home or at my car. Eventually, I knew I had interest in business making and saving money. For me, learning is not only a process of gaining knowledge, values and skills through formal study but from experiences in working as well. After realizing my interest in the business field, I decided to work for a few months in a company that was owned by my father's friend before going to the United States. Even by just being a receptionist, I learned that it takes a lot of diverse skills such as good communications and sensitivity of other's needs is needed to do a good job in any business. I started working for my father's company as an accounting assistant in year 2005. I was assigned in making simple statements of different accounts and doing money wire transactions to companies that we deal with. Aside from this, I learned to use information systems to track the financial performance of the company. Through work, I discovered more on the enormous potential of the business world. To develop knowledge and skills required in this world, I therefore believe that studying the Business and Economic program offered in the University of California would prepare me to become a successful businessman. I consider leadership as a significant quality that I can contribute to the Universit

Issues of Faculty Training for Online Courses Research Paper

Issues of Faculty Training for Online Courses - Research Paper Example The authors incorporates qualitative research in educations so as to mitigate the issues circumventing around online trainings based on knew knowing patterns. The authors takes an approach of sociological perspective but showcases alterations in conceptualization of qualitative research resulting from feminist and post-structural thought. The emphasis on technology and qualitative analysis software in qualitative research assist faculty stakeholders and learners in technology utilization as well as its efficient installation and incorporation which is beneficial to online training. However the outstanding issues in online training such as faculty compensation, faculty workload and faculty selection need to be addressed urgently. Compensation and incentives are motivating factors to faculty and hence should be addressed based on course-load, incentives and perks and promotional (In Shattuck, 2014). The Faculty Workload is also a factor it determines the number of hours work and not how course count. This also incorporated class sizes. Another issue is the issue of Faculty Selection which is the driving force behind distance education program. There is need for proper selection of academically qualified faculty to deliver. This should consider academic review with increased technical and instructional skills. Computer proficiency should form the major benchmark for faculty selection as there is not automatic guarantee for those who have excelled in some fields to be good online

Effect of Parasite Diversity and Age on Antibody Responses

Effect of Parasite Diversity and Age on Antibody Responses This study was aimed at investigating the effect of parasite diversity and age on the levels of antibody responses to P. falciparum in individuals living in an area of seasonal malaria transmission. Two blood stage antigens (MSP1(19), AMA1) and two liver stage antigens (CSP and celTOS), making a total of four antigens were selected to be used for the study. These antigens were tested in archived plasma samples with ages ranging from 1year to 70 years. The samples were collected close to the end of the rainy season in the months of November and December (wet season), and April the following year at the end of the dry season (dry season). Of the samples collected in the wet season, 34.1% had parasites whiles those collected in the dry season was 15.5% (table 1). Appawu (2004) reported the seasonality of malaria transmission in a neighbouring district (Kasena Nankana District), being high in the wet season and low in the dry season. The high transmission in the wet season could be due to favourable breeding grounds for mosquitoes as a result of several collections of water when it rains and in turn increase the number of vectors and hence the high number of parasites individuals are exposed to (Ahmed, 1989). This data is in agreement with an earlier finding in northern Ghana by Apawu and his group where they found high parasite carriage, and high multiplicity of infection (MOI) in the wet season compared to low carriage and MOI in the dry season. Parasite carriage here means the proportion of participants with P. falciparum at enrolment. There was however no statistically significant difference in the parasite densitie s when compared between the seasons (p=0529) table 1. There was no difference in the overall ages between the wet and the dry season. (p=0.937). This was expected as most of the samples collected were from the same individuals in the two seasons. To explore age related pattern of P. falciparum infection, participants were categorized into three (3) age groups: under 5 years, between 5 and 15 years, and over 15 years. The data shows the 5-15 year olds having higher infected proportion in the two seasons (table 2). Parasitaemia was also determined using a more sensitive method, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR data confirmed the microscopy data because the 6-15 year group also had higher proportion of individuals carrying parasites at enrolment. This could be due to the fact that they are the more exposed group with incompletely developed immune systems. In contrast, under-fives who are much younger are likely to receive better care from parents thus preventing them from being infected with the parasites. Bed net usage could be one way of protecting the children. Also because of their younger ages they may not be allowed roam around freely. Adults on the other hand despite having possible similar exposure as 5-15 ye ar olds, seem to have less parasites because of their developed anti-malarial immunity. This partial immunity is gained with age and repeated exposure thus making the younger individuals more susceptible to infection (Pratt-Riccio et al., 2005; Dodoo et al., 2008). Thus the over 15 year group who are older, had the least proportion of infection (table 2). The study also sought to determine the relationship between IgG levels and age. Figures fig 7 and 8 shows the correlation plots between age and IgG levels in the wet and dry season respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between and IgG levels raised against AMA1-FVO, MSP1, CSP and CelTOS in the wet season. And for the dry season, the significant correlation was between age and IgG levels to AMA1-FVO, MSP1, CSP, and Celtos. The correlation coefficient (r2) and the p values are indicated on each plot. There was however no correlation between age and AMA1-3D7 (r2 0.0142, p 0.0699) for the wet season, and AMA1-FVO (r2=0.0114, p= 0.0594) for the dry season. The significant correlations were however very weak. This indicates that though IgG levels increased with age, the association between the antibody levels and age was not so strong and that the influence of age on the amount of antibodies produce against most of the antigens in the population studied was not that mu ch. However the age dependent increase in IgG response to the antigens tested may be due to the mature immune system in adults, and could also be due to cumulative exposure to infection over time (Nebie 2008). It is however not known what might be the reason for the lack of correlation with age to AMA1-3D7, and AMA1-FVO, in the wet and dry season respectively. IgG responses to the two AMA1 alleles (3D7, and FVO) was plotted against each other to determine which is more predominant in the study population. There was a strong correlation between the antibody levels of AMA1 alleles of 3D7 and FVO (r2=0.8382, p) implying that both strains are circulating in the study site during the wet season. A similar trend was observed in the dry season but with a lower correlation coefficient compared to the wet season (r2= 0.5302, p). Antibody titres against recombinant antigens have often been linked to protection from clinical disease (Polley 2004, Nebie 2008, Dodoo 2008, Dodoo 1999, Cavanagh 2004). Where high anti-malaria antibodies is interpreted to mean protection from clinical disease. The important role of antibodies was demonstrated by the passive transfer of purified IgG from immune donors to individuals with P. falciparum infection, which reduced parasitaemia (Cohen 1961, sabchareon 1991). Apical membrane antigen-1 AMA1 and MSP119 have been associated with reduced risk of clinical malaria (Branch 1998, Osier et al 2008). Anti-CSP antibodies have also been found to be partially protective where in Kenya high anti-CSP, anti-LSA, and anti-TRAP ( pre-erythrocytic ) antibodies were demonstrated to be associated with relative protection from reinfection (John CC 2005, 2008). The most advance malaria vaccine, RTS’S which is a subunit of CSP, has been found to protect to about 35-55% in children 5-17 mont hs for about 8 months (Alonso 2004,) . Also anti-CelTOS antibodies have been shown to inhibit invasion of herpatocytes by sporozoites in mice (Bergmann-Leitner 2010). In this study, antibody responses to the antigens, AMA1-3D7, AMA1-FVO, MSP119, CSP, and CelTOS were determined using indirect ELISA. The optical densities (OD) of the antigens were converted to arbitrary units (AU) where the highest OD for each antigen was awarded an arbitrary unit of 4, to allow for comparison between antigens the antigens tested. Antibodies to AMA1 in individuals living in malaria endemic regions have been reported to be high, (Thomas,1994, chelimo, 2005), and this study thus reports high antibodies to AMA1-3D7, and AMA1-FVO compared to MSP1(19), CSP, with anti-CelTOS antibodies being the least. (Fig: 3) in both wet and dry seasons. The data also shows total IgG responses in the wet season was higher than the in the dry season for all the antigens (p) except MSP119 where no statistical differences wa s found between the two seasons (p=0.85) (Figure 3). The seasonal changes in antibody response could be as a result of higher number of vector (mosquitoes) in the community in the wet season which could in turn increase the exposure of the population to parasites and also introduce new parasite clones/strains in the population and hence the high anti-malaria antibodies found in the wet season. In contrast, the dry season cause a reduction in the number of breeding sites for the vectors reducing their population resulting in minimal exposure and hence the low antibody levels. In malaria endemic regions, the number of different clones of Plasmodium falciparum parasites infecting a person could be a transmission indicator, an indicator of the hosts immune status, and a useful parameter in evaluating malaria control interventions (Babiker 1999, Arnot 1998, mayengue 2009). It has also been reported that parasite diversity in high malaria transmission areas are high and that individuals could carry multiple genotypes (clones) but the opposite pertains in low endemic areas with most infections being monoclonal (Peyerl-Hoffmann 2001, Bakiker 1997, Haddad 1999). Genotyping was done using block 3 region of the MSP 2 gene (Smythe et al. 1990) because of its high polymorphic nature (Felger et al.,1994 1999; Robert et al., 1996). Also MSP2 was selected to be used for this study because of the high allelic diversity observed in Ghana and other countries bordering Ghana with as many as 154 alleles in Ghana and about 50 genotypes in CÃ ´te d’Ivoire. ( Silue 2006 , falk 2006). The results from the two seasons using the 3D7 allelic family primers showed high mean multiplicity of infection in the wet season compared to the dry season (1.76, and 1.46, p=0.001) table 3. In both seasons, the number of infections per person ranged from 0 to 4. A similar degree of multiple infections has been reported in other African settings (Ntoumi et al., 1995,Beck 1997, Engelbrecht 1999). The samples used for this study was collected in asymptomatic individuals and the high multiplicity of infection found in the wet season could probably be due to high rate of exposure as a result of favourable breeding conditions compared to the dry season. This study did not find any significant correlation between MOI and age in both seasons (p=0.5768 for wet season, and p=0.4158 for the dry season). The samples were then grouped into two based on whether positive or negative using PCR to detect Plasmodium parasites. No differences were detected in the IgG levels between th e antigens tested in both seasons when compared based on the PCR data. This result is similar to that found when microscopy was used except that anti-CelTOS IgG in the parasitaemic group was higher than the non-parasitaemic group when microscopy was used. The disparity in the CelTOS report could be due to the lower sample size analysed using PCR compared to the microscopy. Apical membrane antigen AMA1 has been found to be a promising blood stage vaccine candidate antigen but this potential has been dampen due to extensive polymorphism (Remaque 2008).

Snapshots of Carver and O’Connor, Pre-Mortem :: Photographs Photos Carver OConnor Essays

Snapshots of Carver and O’Connor, Pre-Mortem Raymond Carver is glaring from the other side of the table, one beefy arm dangling on a chair, the other planted firmly in front of him. His eyes are white, ethereally white, and his hair is a salt and pepper gray. He looks like someone who buys rounds of drinks for everyone at a bar downtown, or, as one critic noted, maybe he’s your son’s little league coach. He is tough but jowly, going slightly soft, like a man who had a hair-trigger temper once but has worked all these years to overcome it. Flannery O’Connor, on the other hand, is a Sunday school teacher: bookish, awkward in a necklace, looking much older than 39. She is smiling crookedly, furtively, smiling away from us. At church socials, she would be a fixture, a great conversationalist, or possibly the woman that holds everything together, flitting from table to table, cooing in a gentle Georgia lilt. You might see Carver at the hardware store, or O’Connor picking through the stacks at the library. You might spy Carver raking his lawn on Sundays; O’Connor would be trying to settle a group of eight-year olds in a church basement with colorful stories of Noah and Moses. They seem like people I know, people I have seen around town, people I wave to on Sunday mornings. Yet for all their vigor, for all their presence, their days are numbered. I know that these are snapshots of people who are going to die. In a few years, their vivacity will be undercut by mortality, their photographic presence instead marked with the great void of absence. The later pictures show a Carver who is puffy, bald, with jowls dropping to the floor, paying for all those nights at the bar and all those cigarettes, a victim of intensive radiation treatment. O’Connor deteriorated in the opposite direction, not bloating but shrinking: the sinews in her neck jut out like those of a strange, scraggly bird, her soulful eyes bulge, and her body is rigid with lupus. In the final days, she had her God and her peacock farm in backwoods Appalachia. He had his friends, his writer’s reputation, his temporal achievements. Their intensive creative lives visible across their faces in the early photographs have been replaced by tranquility, the comforting promise of death, and a final absolution.

Working Paper

The term module means that the questionnaire can be used as part of a larger Research experience has shown that the answers to the 24 content questions are influenced by the nationality of the respondents. This is not to say that every respondent of nationality A gives one answer and everyone of a nationality B another, but one can expect systematic differences between the average answers from a sample with nationality A and a comparable sample from nationality B (in statistical terms, an analysis of variance on the answer scores shows a significant country effect).As the relationship is statistical, the samples per country should be of sufficient size. An ideal size for a homogeneous sample is 50 respondents. Sample sizes smaller than 20 should not be used, as outlying answers by single respondents will unduly affect the results. If samples are heterogeneous (composed of unequal sub-samples) these numbers apply to the sub-samples. Next to nationality, answers to the 24 content quest ions will also reflect other characteristics of the respondents, such as their gender, age, level of education, occupation, kind of work and the point in time when they answered the questions.Therefore comparisons of countries should be based on samples of respondents who re matched on all criteria other than nationality that could systematically affect the answers. The content questions attributed to a dimension were selected because in comparisons of matched samples from ten or more countries, the mean country scores on the four questions belonging to the same dimension usually vary together (if one is high, the other is high, or low if it is a reversely formulated question; if one is low, the other is low, etc. ). In statistical terms, the mean country scores are significantly correlated.The mean country scores on questions belonging to different emissions usually do not vary together (are uncorrelated). Therefore, the 24 questions form 6 clusters of 4 questions each. As mentione d above, the dimensions measured by the VS.. Are based on country- level correlations, between mean scores of country samples. For the same two questions, country-level correlations can be very different from individual-level correlations, between the answers by the individuals within the country samples (for a clear explanation see e. G. Klein, Danseuses & Hall, 1994).Individual-level correlations produce dimensions of personality; country-level correlations produce emissions of national culture. For research results about the relationship between personality and culture see Hefted & McCrae (2004). The study of national culture dimensions belongs to anthropology, the study of individual personality belongs to psychology. The first is to the second as studying forests is to studying trees. Forests cannot be described with the same dimensions as trees, nor can they be understood as bunches of trees.What should be added to the animals, organisms and climate factors, together described by the term epitome. In reverse, trees cannot be described with the same dimensions as forests. At best one can ask in what kind of forest this tree would be most likely found, and how well it would do there. A common misunderstanding about dimensions of national culture is that they are personality types. People want to score themselves on a dimension, or worse, try to score someone else. This is called stereotyping, which is not what the dimensions are for.They do not refer to individuals, but to national societies. What a person can do is find out how the values prevailing in his or her national society differ from those in another society. As an individual, a person can express how he or she feels about the values in a particular national society, but that would still be a function of his/her personality and not necessarily show his or her national culture. Because of this, the VS.. 2013 cannot be scored at the individual level. It is not a psychological test.The tendency to as k for individual scoring of the VS.. Is stronger in some national cultures than in others. Especially in very individualist cultures, the request for individual scoring is frequent: the concept of my society (a forest) is weaker that the concept of me myself (a tree). The VS.. Should only be used by researchers who subscribe to the concept of a society differing from other societies. The six dimensions on which the VS.. 2013 is based were found in research across more than 40 countries.In a research project across 20 different organizations within the same two countries, answers to the questions that made up the cross-national dimensions did not correlate in the same way (Hefted, Enquire, Omaha' & Sanders, 1990 and Hefted, Hefted & Moving, 2010: 341-368). So the cross-national dimensions do not apply to organizational (or corporate) cultures. The answers to the VS.. Questions (dealing with values and sentiments) varied less across organizations within a country than across countries .Instead, organizational cultures differed primarily on the basis of perceptions of practices, and the organizations in the study could be compared on six dimensions of perceived practices. While the study of national culture dimensions belongs to anthropology and the study of individual personality belongs to psychology, the study of organizational cultures belongs to sociology. The dimensions of perceived practices in the Hefted et al. 1990) study relate to known distinctions from organizational sociology. A similar concern prohibits the use of the VS.. Dimensions for comparing occupations (Hefted, Hefted & Moving, 2010: 368-369).In some cases, VS.. Dimension scores can be meaningfully computed and compared for the genders (female versus male) and for successive generations (grandparents country or across countries, but in this case we recommend extending the questionnaire with locally relevant items (Hefted, Garibaldi, Melville, Tenure & evokes, 2010). 4. VS.. 2013 scores are not comparable to published scores Some enthusiastic amateurs have used the VS.. With a sample of respondents from one country and tried to draw conclusions comparing the scores they found with those in Hypotheses books (1980, 1991 , 2001 , 2005, 2010).But essential to the use of the VS.. Is that comparisons should be based on matched samples of respondents: people similar on all criteria other than nationality that could systematically affect the answers. All scores in the first two Hefted books were based on carefully matched IBM subsidiary populations. A new sample, to be comparable to these, should be a attach for the original IBM populations on all relevant criteria. Such a match is virtually impossible to make, if only because the IBM studies were done around 1970 and the point in time of the survey is one of the matching characteristics.Hypotheses books since 2001 contain scores for a number of countries not in the original IBM set, based on extensions of the research outside MO M, or in a few cases on informed estimates. Extensions of the research to countries and regions not in the original set have to be based, like any VS.. Application, on matched samples across two or more countries. These should always include one or, if possible, more of the countries from the IBM set, so that the new data can be anchored to the existing framework. Anchoring' means that the scores from the extension research should be shifted by the difference of the old and new scores for the common country (or by the mean difference in the case of more common countries). The main problem of extension research is finding matched samples across new and old countries. Examples of successful extensions are described in Hefted (2001:464-465). The VS.. 2013 has been designed for research purposes. In the classroom it has poor ace validity, as it is based on the logic of national cultures which differs from the logic of individual students. Cultures are not king-size individuals: They are wholes, and their internal logic cannot be understood in the terms used for the personality dynamics of individuals. Echo-logic differs from individual logic† (Hefted, 2001 :17; the term ecological in cross-cultural studies is used for any analysis at the societal level; it does not only refer to the natural environment). To students or audiences without a professional training in anthropology or cross-cultural research the VS.. Is to the proper tool for explaining the essence of the dimensions.In this case trainers should rather develop teaching tools using the tables of differences between societies scoring high and low on each dimension, which are based on significant Hefted & Moving, 2010: Chapters 3-8). The twenty-four content questions allow index scores to be calculated on six dimensions of national value systems as components of national cultures: Power Distance (large vs†¦ Small), Individualism vs†¦ Collectivism, Masculinity vs†¦ Femininity, Uncertaint y Avoidance (strong vs†¦ Weak), Long- vs†¦ Short-Term Orientation, and Indulgence vs†¦ Restraint.All content questions are scored on five-point scales (1-2-3-4-5). Any standard statistical computer program will calculate mean scores on five-point scales, but the calculation can also be done simply by hand. For example, suppose a group of 57 respondents from Country C produces the following scores on question 04 (importance of security of employment): 10 x answer 24 x answer 2 14 x answer 3 5 x answer 4 1 x answer 5 42 20 54 valid answers totaling 125 Three of the 57 respondents gave an invalid answer: either blank (no answer) or multiple (more than one answer).Invalid answers should be excluded from the calculation (treated as missing). The mean score in our case is: 125/54 = 2. 31. Mean scores on five-point scales should preferably be presented in two decimals. More accuracy is unrealistic (survey data are imprecise measures). Power Distance Index (PDP) Power Distanc e is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a society expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. The index formula is PDP = 35(mom – mom) + 25(mom – mom) + QPS) in which mom is the mean score for question 02, etc.The index normally has a range of about 100 points between very small Power Distance and very large Power Distance countries. C(PDP) is a constant (positive or negative) that depends on the nature of the samples; it does not affect the comparison between countries. It can be chosen by the user to shift her/his PDP scores to values between O and 100. Individualism Index (DIVIDE) Individualism is the opposite of Collectivism. Individualism stands for a society in which the ties between individuals are loose: a person is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family only.Collectivism stands for a roofs, which continue to protect them throughout their lifetime in exc hange for unquestioning loyalty. DIVIDE = 35(mom – mol) + 35(mom – mom) + C(ICC) in which mol is the mean score for question 01, etc. The index normally has a range of about 100 points between strongly collectivist and strongly individualist countries. C(ICC) is a constant (positive or negative) that depends on the nature of the samples; it does not affect the comparison between countries. It can be chosen by the user to shift his/her DIVIDE scores to values between O and 100.Masculinity Index (MASS) Masculinity is the opposite of Femininity. Masculinity stands for a society in which social gender roles are clearly distinct: men are supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on material success; women are supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life. Femininity stands for a society in which social gender roles overlap: both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life. MASS = 35(mom – mom ) + 35(mom – mom) + corn) in which mom is the mean score for question 05, etc.The index normally has a range of about 100 points between strongly feminine and strongly masculine countries. C(MFC) is a constant (positive or negative) that depends can be chosen by the user to shift her/his MASS scores to values between O and 100. Uncertainty Avoidance Index (AJAX) Uncertainty Avoidance is defined as the extent to which the members of institutions and organizations within a society feel threatened by uncertain, unknown, ambiguous, or unstructured situations. AU' = 4001118 – mom)+ 25(mom – mom) + qua) in which mom is the mean score for question 18, etc.The index normally has a range of about 100 points between weak Uncertainty Avoidance and strong Uncertainty Avoidance countries. C(AU) is a constant (positive r negative) that depends on the nature of the samples; it does not affect the comparison between countries. It can be chosen by the user to shift his/her I-JAG scores to values between O and 100. Long Term Orientation is the opposite of Short Term Orientation. Long Term Orientation stands for a society which fosters virtues oriented towards future rewards, in particular adaptation, perseverance and thrift.Short Term orientation stands for a society which fosters virtues related to the past and present, in particular respect for tradition, preservation of â€Å"face†, and fulfilling social obligations. LTO = – mom) + 25(mom – mom) + C(IS) n which mom is the mean score for question 13, etc. The index normally has a range of about 100 points between very short term oriented and very long term oriented countries. C(l's) is a constant (positive or negative) that depends on the nature of the samples; it does not affect the comparison between countries. It can be chosen by the user to shift her/his L TO scores to values between O and 100.Indulgence versus Restraint Index (IVR) Indulgence stands for a society which allows rel atively free gratification of some desires and feelings, especially those that have to do with leisure, merrymaking with rinds, spending, consumption and sex. Its opposite pole, Restraint, stands for a society which controls such gratification, and where people feel less able to enjoy their lives. The index formula is IVR = – ml 1) + – mom) + COO in which ml is the mean score for question 11, etc. The index normally has a range of about 100 points between high indulgence and high restraint.C(IR) is a constant (positive or negative) that depends on the nature of the samples; it does not affect the comparison between countries. It can be chosen by the user to shift her/his IVR scores to values between O and 100. As country-level correlations differ from individual-level correlations, answers on questions used to measure a country-level dimension do not necessarily correlate across individuals. A reliability test like Cockroach's alpha should in this case not be based on individual scores but on country mean scores. Obviously this presupposes data from a sufficient number of countries, in practice at least ten.For comparison across fewer countries the reliability of the VS.. At the country level has to be taken for granted; it can indirectly be shown through the validity of the scores in predicting dependent variables. The IBM database (Hefted, 1980) allows to compute Cockroach alphas for the first four dimensions across 40 countries (39 for AAU, 33 for PDP because of missing data). Power Distance Index (3 items): Alpha = . 842 Individualism Index (6 items): Alpha = . 770 Masculinity Index (8 items): Alpha = . 760 Uncertainty Avoidance Index (3 items) Alpha = . 15 The rule of thumb for test reliability is a value over . 700. The new items in the new version were chosen because of their similarity to items in reliable other studies, but the reliability of the new dimension scores cannot be proven a prior'. The VS.. 2013 is copyrighted, but may be fre ely used for academic research projects. Consultants who want to use the VS.. 2013 periodically should pay a license fee based on the number of copies administered per year. The same holds for use by companies in employee surveys. Information on rates is available from the copyright holder ([email  protected] L) 9. History of the VS.. 2013 The original questions from the 1966-1973 Hermes (MOM) attitude survey questionnaires used for the international comparison of work-related values were listed in Hefted (1980, Appendix 1). Appendix 4 of the same book presented the iris Values Survey Module for future cross-cultural studies. It contained 27 content questions and 6 demographic questions. This VS.. 80 was a selection from the IBM questionnaires, with a few questions added from other sources about issues missing in the IBM list and Judged by the author to be of potential importance.In the 1984 abridged paperback edition of Hefted (1980) the original IBM questions were not included, but the VS.. 80 was. A weakness of the VS.. 80 was its dependence on the more or less accidental set of questions used in the IBM surveys. The IBM survey questionnaire had not really been imposed for the purpose of reflecting international differences in value patterns. However, the IBM questions could only be replaced by other questions after these had been validated across countries; and to be validated, they had to be used in a large number of countries first.Therefore in 1981 Hefted through the newly- founded Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation (IIRC) issued an experimental extended version of the VS.. (VS.. 81). On the basis of an analysis of its first results, a new version was issued in 1982, the VS.. 82. This was widely used for the next twelve years. 3 of the questions were needed to compute scores on the four dimensions identified by Hefted. The other questions were included for experimental use. Some questions in the VS.. 82 were only applicable to employe d respondents.Thus the instrument could not be used for entrepreneurs, students, and respondents without a paid Job. The number of replications using the VS.. 82 in Iris's files increased, but, unfortunately, it turned out that the samples from different researchers were insufficiently matched for producing a reliable new VS†¦ This changed when Michael Hope published his Ph. D. Hess on a survey study of elites (Syllabus Seminar Alumni) from 19 countries, using among other instruments the VS.. 82 (Hope, 1990). Eighteen of these countries were part of the IBM set, but besides USA all of them were from Europe.Hope's data base was therefore extended by adding results from replications in six countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America that could be considered somewhat matched with the Hope set. In the meantime, the research of Michael Harris Bond from Hong Kong, using the Chinese Value Survey (Chinese Culture Connection, 1987), had led to the identification f a fifth dimension: Lon g-Term versus Short-Term Orientation (Hefted & Bond, 1988; Hefted, 2001: Chapter 7). In the new version of the VS.. Published in 1994 (the VS.. 94), this dimension appeared for the first time together with the other four.The questionnaire was also adapted to respondents without a paid Job. Accumulated experience with the use of the VS.. 94 in the next 14 years led to the publication of an updated VS.. 08. In the meantime, many new sources of cross- cultural survey information became available. One was an unpublished Master's Thesis (Van Bug, 2006) reporting on the Internet administration of the VS.. 94 among active members of the student association EASIES in 41 countries, collecting some 2,200 valid answers, a response rate of 24%.We also looked for questions correlated with the IBM dimensions in the newly available sources, including the huge World Values Survey database freely accessible on Internet (Ingather and associates, 1998, 2004, 2007). In 2007, Michael Moving published a book integrating all available old and new databases, and we invited him to Join the VS.. Team. Moving (2007) proposed three new dimensions: Exclusion versus Universalism, Indulgence versus Restraint, and Monumentality versus Flexibility (flexibility plus nullity).From these, Exclusion versus Universalism across 41 countries was strongly correlated with Power Distance and Collectivism (both r = . 74), so we did not treat it as a new dimension. Indulgence versus Restraint was uncorrelated with any of the five dimensions in the VS.. 94 and it added new insights into national cultural differences, so we accepted it as a new and sixth dimension. Monumentality versus Flexibility was significantly correlated with Short Term Orientation (r = . 68 across 16 overlapping countries) and less strongly with Power

School Find Ways to Save Money

Carlson (2009) wrote an article, â€Å"Conservation helps schools spend on students, not energy†, that clearly defines the benefits of energy conservation in reducing school districts’ utility cost while saving a huge amount of taxpayer’s money. With the recommendation and help from the consulting firm, Energy Education, Inc. a program was created to monitor the usage of utilities and to implement proper ways of conserving electricity, gas and water. Oxnard School District, Las Virgenes Unified School District as well as the school districts in Ventura County have taken a bold step in hiring energy educators and managers. The risk that these school districts have taken proved to be a worthwhile endeavor as the savings generated from limiting energy use was rerouted towards the improvement of classrooms and educational services. The success of the energy conservation program in a limited number of districts is a wake up call to the rest of the school districts nationwide as current economic crisis and high cost of gasoline will have an impact on the school budget. In addition, a similar scheme may be applied to household and business establishments as the cost of utilities is a major concern of entrepreneurs and family members. The article shows that there are practical solutions in reducing operating expenses without sacrificing school districts’ budget that may be intended for classroom purposes, teacher’s salaries, in-service trainings and other educational programs. The solution often lies in the administrator’s willingness to keep an open mind, to take a concerted risk and to accept a new concept. The reluctance in changing a behavior that can make a difference may impede the growth of a sector that relies heavily on taxpayer’s money to meet the budgetary requirements of a system that is responsible for building a solid future for students who will be in charge of shaping the growth of our nation. Reference Carlson, C. (2009). â€Å"Conservation helps schools spend on students, not energy†.   Retrieved April 2, 2009 from http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/feb/08/nb1FCenergy08/