Management education by the French Grandes Ecoles de Commerce

This essay presents a comprehensive briefing on the past and present of a business educational culture that is significantly different in ethos and structure to the widely known systems in the US and UK. That is the history and culture of the French Grandes Ecoles de Commerce. A brief reminder of extant literature on the utility of business education and its seeming misalignment with the competencies and skills as specified by practitioners is then given. Key pressures and trends on and within this system – such as internationalisation, accreditation and a greater emphasis on publications are identified and discussed. These threads are then combined in a partial replication of the work of Dierdorff and Rubin (2006; 2009). Specifically, collated information on 1582 classes from 542 programmes at the top Grandes Ecoles de Commerce is presented alongside further secondary data and then analysed in respect of alignment with Rubin and Dierdorff’s identified behavioural competencies. We argue that the outcome of these pressures may well be that inherent and historical strengths of great value are being discarded, and that the degree of irrelevance and misalignment between educational provision and required managerial competence will stay the same or even get worse

Antisense reductions in the PsbO protein of photosystem II leads to decreased quantum yield but similar maximal photosynthetic rates

Photosystem (PS) II is the multisubunit complex which uses light energy to split water, providing the reducing equivalents needed for photosynthesis. The complex is susceptible to damage from environmental stresses such as excess excitation energy and high temperature. This research investigated the in vivo photosynthetic consequences of impairments to PSII in Arabidopsis thaliana (ecotype Columbia) expressing an antisense construct to the PsbO proteins of PSII. Transgenic lines were obtained with between 25 and 60% of wild-type (WT) total PsbO protein content, with the PsbO1 isoform being more strongly reduced than PsbO2. These changes coincided with a decrease in functional PSII content. Low PsbO (less than 50% WT) plants grew more slowly and had lower chlorophyll content per leaf area. There was no change in content per unit area of cytochrome b6f, ATP synthase, or Rubisco, whereas PSI decreased in proportion to the reduction in chlorophyll content. The irradiance response of photosynthetic oxygen evolution showed that low PsbO plants had a reduced quantum yield, but matched the oxygen evolution rates of WT plants at saturating irradiance. It is suggested that these plants had a smaller pool of PSII centres, which are inefficiently connected to antenna pigments resulting in reduced photochemical efficiency.This work was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award to SAD, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology (MRB), and grants from the Australian Research Council (WSC)

Deriving C4 photosynthetic parameters from combined gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence using an Excel tool: theory and practice

The higher photosynthetic potential of C4 plants has led to extensive research over the past 50 years, including C4-dominated natural biomes, crops such as maize, or for evaluating the transfer of C4 traits into C3 lineages. Photosynthetic gas exchange can be measured in air or in a 2% Oxygen mixture using readily available commercial gas exchange and modulated PSII fluorescence systems. Interpretation of these data, however, requires an understanding (or the development) of various modelling approaches, which limit the use by non-specialists. In this paper we present an accessible summary of the theory behind the analysis and derivation of C4 photosynthetic parameters, and provide a freely available Excel Fitting Tool (EFT), making rigorous C4 data analysis accessible to a broader audience. Outputs include those defining C4 photochemical and biochemical efficiency, the rate of photorespiration, bundle sheath conductance to CO2 diffusion and the in vivo biochemical constants for PEP carboxylase. The EFT compares several methodological variants proposed by different investigators, allowing users to choose the level of complexity required to interpret data. We provide a complete analysis of gas exchange data on maize (as a model C4 organism and key global crop) to illustrate the approaches, their analysis and interpretation

Evolutionary implications of C3 -C4 intermediates in the grass Alloteropsis semialata.

C4 photosynthesis is a complex trait resulting from a series of anatomical and biochemical modifications to the ancestral C3 pathway. It is thought to evolve in a stepwise manner, creating intermediates with different combinations of C4 -like components. Determining the adaptive value of these components is key to understanding how C4 photosynthesis can gradually assemble through natural selection. Here, we decompose the photosynthetic phenotypes of numerous individuals of the grass Alloteropsis semialata, the only species known to include both C3 and C4 genotypes. Analyses of δ(13) C, physiology and leaf anatomy demonstrate for the first time the existence of physiological C3 -C4 intermediate individuals in the species. Based on previous phylogenetic analyses, the C3 -C4 individuals are not hybrids between the C3 and C4 genotypes analysed, but instead belong to a distinct genetic lineage, and might have given rise to C4 descendants. C3 A. semialata, present in colder climates, likely represents a reversal from a C3 -C4 intermediate state, indicating that, unlike C4 photosynthesis, evolution of the C3 -C4 phenotype is not irreversible

Evolution of leaf-form in land plants linked to atmospheric CO2 decline in the Late Palaeozoic era

The widespread appearance of megaphyll leaves, with their branched veins and planate form, did not occur until the close of the Devonian period at about 360 Myr ago. This happened about 40 Myr after simple leafless vascular plants first colonized the land in the Late Silurian/Early Devonian, but the reason for the slow emergence of this common feature of present-day plants is presently unresolved. Here we show, in a series of quantitative analyses using fossil leaf characters and biophysical principles, that the delay was causally linked with a 90% drop in atmospheric pCO2 during the Late Palaeozoic era. In contrast to simulations for a typical Early Devonian land plant, possessing few stomata on leafless stems, those for a planate leaf with the same stomatal characteristics indicate that it would have suffered lethal overheating, because of greater interception of solar energy and low transpiration. When planate leaves first appeared in the Late Devonian and subsequently diversified in the Carboniferous period, they possessed substantially higher stomatal densities. This observation is consistent with the effects of the pCO2 on stomatal development and suggests that the evolution of planate leaves could only have occurred after an increase in stomatal density, allowing higher transpiration rates that were sufficient to maintain cool and viable leaf temperatures

Beyond individual tests : the effects of children's and adolescents’ cognitive abilities on their achievement

Students’ performance across several tests, including both cognitive and achievement tests, is often analyzed together to better understand their learning. This analysis is guided by the assumption that there are specific relations between students’ cognitive abilities and their reading, writing, and math skills. The research supporting this assumption is limited because cognitive-achievement research findings are mostly based on a single test, the Woodcock-Johnson tests (McGrew & Wendling, 2010), and previous studies involve analyzing a single intelligence and achievement test in isolation. Thus, findings are limited to the specific tests that are included in those analyses, and are not necessarily generalizable across other tests. Research that incorporates multiple intelligence and achievement tests, cross-battery analyses, can better address questions about the broader influences of children’s cognitive abilities on their achievement. Such cross-battery research can extend psychologists’ understanding of how intelligence and achievement relate beyond the test-level to the construct level. Six intelligence tests (KABC-II, WJ III, WISC-III, WISC-IV, WISC-V, and DAS-II) and three achievement tests (KTEA-II, WIAT-II, WIAT-III) were analyzed in a cross-battery cognitive-achievement analysis in the current study. Data were derived from seven of the tests’ standardization or linking samples; participants were 3,930 children and adolescents aged 6 to 16. In order to simultaneously analyze several tests a planned missingness approach and structural equation modeling were used. Six broad abilities (Gc, Gf, Gv, Gsm, Gs, and Glr) and g were modeled as latent variables; each broad ability latent variable was indicated by 7 – 14 subtests. Results suggest Gf and g were perfectly correlated and it was impossible to separate the two abilities statistically. The cognitive abilities were predictors of three achievement skills (basic reading, broad writing, and broad math), which were indicated by four to six subtests. Findings indicated Gc influenced all three academic skills; Gsm and Glr influenced basic reading and broad writing; Gs influenced broad writing and broad math; Gf exerted a significant effect on broad math; and Gv was not significantly related to any academic skill. Significant cognitive-achievement relations have implications for diagnostic decision-making regarding specific learning disabilities, assessment planning, and educational recommendations.Educational Psycholog

Book Review. - Literatur

Book Review. - Literatu

Book Review. - Literatur

Book Review. - Literatu

The Dynamic of the Lutheran Reformation

The Augsburg Confession is a confession of faith. But through its four hundred years it has become more: it is a witness to the persistence of the Lutheran Reformation. It was in its origin an episode in the growth of the Lutheran movement; it is a testimonial, after four centuries, to the permanent power of its principles. Why did the principles formulated under the inspiration of the Lutheran movement have this quality of persistence, becoming largely identified with the name and personality of Luther, maintaining their distinction through centuries and under varying circumstances? Why did not, for example, the Wycliffe or the Hussite movement persist under its own impulse? Historians remind us of the mysterious element” in all great revolutions of human thought (Trevelyan p.195); and the simplest explanation is thus summarized: The greatness of Luther and Calvin, as contrasted, for instance, with Marsiglio, Wyclif, or Gerson, does not lie so much in greater zeaI, more thorough method, more logical aim, ns in their greater opportunity. The fullness of the time had come. (Workman, p.17.) This opportunity- is thought of as a complex of political, ecclesiastical, intellectual, doctrinal, and economic ingredients, proportioned according to the school of the historian. (Cf. Smith, p. 699 ff.) But it is startling to what an extent these ingredients are present in the manifold attempts at revolt from Romo and its system before the Reformation. A review of these ferments at work in the pre-Reformation period may serve to emphasize in a less usual way that principle which stands out, by contrast with the past, as the dynamic of the Lutheran movement -- the sola fide

Brief Studies

Can Preaching Start a Chain Reaction? A Review of Preaching and Worship in Contemporary Germany