Promoting Global Empathy and Engagement through Real-Time Problem-Based Simulations: Outcomes from a Policymaking Simulation set in Post-Earthquake Haiti

We introduce a real-time problem-based simulation in which students are tasked with drafting policy to address the challenge of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in post-earthquake Haiti from a variety of stakeholder perspectives. Students who participated in the simulation completed a quantitative survey as a pretest/posttest on global empathy, political awareness, and civic engagement, and provided qualitative data through post-simulation focus groups. The simulation was run in four courses across three campuses in a variety of instructional settings from 2013 to 2015. An analysis of the data reveals that scores on several survey items measuring global empathy and political/civic engagement increased significantly, while qualitative student comments corroborated the results. This format of a real-time problem-based policymaking simulation is readily adaptable to other ongoing and future global crises using the framework provided in this paper

Organizational Response to a University Writing Initiative: Writing in the Disciplines (WID) in an Interdisciplinary Department

The authors use an institutional theory framework to examine the impact of a newly adopted university-wide Writing in the Disciplines (WID) initiative in courses offered by three undergraduate programs housed in an interdisciplinary department at a major land-grant university in the southeastern United States. They identify and describe three types of institutional pressure on departments and individual faculty members to adopt changes in writing: normative, mimetic, and coercive. A systematic review of 97 discipline-specific course syllabi from Fall 2009-Spring 2012 was conducted to determine whether there were significant changes in the quantity and types of writing assignments in courses before and after the development and submission of a department writing plan as required by the newly implemented university writing initiative. The results show significant positive changes in the following measures of relevance of writing in discipline-specific courses: the weight of writing assignments as a proportion of final course grades, the level of sophistication of the intended audience identified in writing assignments, and the level of course engagement with writing as evidenced by the inclusion of course objectives specific to writing outcomes. They attribute these changes to specific aspects of the writing initiative as well as the influence of accrediting organizations and the University that fit within each of the three categories of institutional pressure identified in the paper.PublishedYe

Enantioselectivity of Cs- and C2-symmetric ansa-metallocene catalysts in the styrene insertion

The correlation between relative reactivity of the two styrene enantiofaces and geometry of ansa-zirconocene systems has been determined by C-13 NMR microstructural analysis of the poly(propylene-co-styrene-ethylene) (P/S-E) obtained in the presence of C-2- and C-s-symmetric zirconocene catalysts. The chemical shifts assignment accomplished by using configurational additivity rules suggests that secondary styrene insertion with C-2-symmetric metallocene occurs with the opposite enantioface with respect to primary propylene insertion. On the contrary the analysis of C-13 enriched copolymer obtained in the presence of C-s-symmetric catalyst seems to indicate that the secondary styrene insertion occurs with same enantioface with respect to propylene. This stereochemistry is what one expects for a simple olefin inserting in secondary fashion despite the peculiar behavior of the aromatic monomer toward zirconocene-based catalysts

Estudo da obtenção de índices de produtividade para tabelas de composições unitárias: Uma abordagem probabilística / Study of obtaining productivity indexes for unit composition tables: A probabilistic approach

As tabelas de composição unitária servem como balizadores para todas as obras públicas. As diferenças entre os índices das composições unitárias das diferentes tabelas se tornam fontes de questionamentos pelos órgãos de controle e interferem nos processos licitatórios, aumentando prazos para os certames, levando às constantes suspeições e insatisfação por parte dos stakeholders. Este estudo apresenta metodologia para obtenção de índices de produtividade baseados em dados, como ferramenta que pode auxiliar o processo de renovação dos índices das tabelas vigentes. Adotando-se a abordagem probabilística nos índices dos insumos das composições, permite-se que sejam propostas estratégias de atendimento das concorrentes aos índices postulados. O aprofundamento do estudo das produtividades nas técnicas construtivas passa a ser um forte indicativo da capacidade de abrangência do índice escolhido e da possibilidade maior ou menor de concorrência dos certames oriundos da referência estabelecida

North-South preferential trade agreements, trade, and armed conflict

Do North-South preferential trade agreements (PTAs) hold promise for the expectation that increased economic interdependence contributes to more global peace? Contributing to the commercial institutional peace research, this dissertation calls into question the practice of treating North-South PTAs as similar to other agreements in assessing their effect on the relationship between trade and interstate armed conflict. The African Growth and Opportunity Act is used to develop and illustrate the following argument behind the contention that North-South nonreciprocal trade agreements are not expected to have a peaceful effect on their members. This type of trade agreement is unlikely to increase volumes of trade among its members, trade preferences incorporated in the agreement are often underutilized by less developed country members, providing few benefits to producers from less developed country member, these agreements do little to promise future expectations of gains from cooperation, and they have been recently used as political tools by developed country members. Results across two large-N logit models of dyadic data for years 1950-1985 and 1950-1999 suggest there is a significant difference between the effects of North-South PTAs versus other types of agreements on interstate armed conflict. In addition, North-South PTAs are found to have a null effect on interstate armed conflict, contrary to expectations put forth in the mainstream literature. Furthermore, membership in other types of trade agreements is found to have a positive effect on the probability of armed conflict, questioning the premise in the literature that preferential trade agreements pave the way for more peace

Replication Data for Promoting Global Empathy and Engagement through Real-Time Problem-Based Simulations: Outcomes from a Policymaking Simulation set in Post-Earthquake Haiti

We introduce a real-time problem-based simulation in which students are tasked with drafting policy to address the challenge of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in post-earthquake Haiti from a variety of stakeholder perspectives. Students who participated in the simulation completed a quantitative survey as a pretest/posttest on global empathy, political awareness, and civic engagement, and provided qualitative data through post-simulation focus groups. The simulation was run in four courses across three campuses in a variety of instructional settings from 2013 to 2015. An analysis of the data reveals that scores on several survey items measuring global empathy and political/civic engagement increased significantly, while qualitative student comments corroborated the results. This format of a real-time problem-based policymaking simulation is readily adaptable to other ongoing and future global crises using the framework provided in this paper