Search results

Supplemental Instructions (SIs) were introduced into the San Francisco State University College of Science & Engineering curriculum in 1999. The goal was to improve student performance and retention and to decrease the time to degree in STEM majors. While for the most part we followed the structure and activities as developed by the International Center for Supplemental Instruction at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, we discovered several variations that significantly improved our outcomes. First and foremost, we created SI courses that require attendance, which results in higher students’ performance outcomes compared to drop-in options. Second, at SFSU the SI courses are led by pairs of undergraduate student facilitators (who are all STEM majors) trained in active learning strategies. Each year, more than half of our facilitators return to teach for another year. Thus, each section has a returning “experienced” facilitator who works with a new “novice” facilitator. Third, the SI courses were created with a distinct course prefix and listed as courses that generate revenue and make data access available for comparison studies. Results are presented that compare SI impact by gender and with groups underrepresented in STEM disciplines.

Research from numerous theories shows teams' information sharing and discussion enhances effectiveness. Likewise, team communication structure can increase information sharing, manage conflict productively and foster creativity. However, the lack of unifying theory hinders understanding of the disparate research findings. Agazarian aims to unify the field with her meta‐theoretical, multi‐level Theory of Living Human Systems (TLHS). Furthermore, her TLHS‐derived Systems‐Centered Training (SCT) presents an innovative structure to improve team performance. The purpose of this paper is to compare the verbal process, productivity, and creativity of pre‐existing work groups using SCT methods or Robert's Rules of Order (RRO), to test TLHS/SCT reliability and validity.

The verbal characteristics, information sharing, productivity, and creativity in SCT and RRO teams were compared using the System for Analyzing Verbal Interaction (SAVI), Group Productivity Scale and Work Group Inventory.

SCT teams, compared to groups using RRO, talked in ways more likely to transfer and integrate task‐related information. Furthermore, SCT teams were more productive, better performing, and more creative.

The study's design does not permit cause‐and‐effect conclusions. Proposals for future research are made.

The results suggest SCT methods improve team communication, productivity, and creativity. Because this study examined “real‐world” teams, the findings may apply to similar groups in various workplaces.

Having the ability to use differences as resources could improve society.

This paper suggests SCT methods offer innovative communication structures that focus teams effectively, perhaps by minimizing off‐task communications and conflict. Also, as SCT operationally defines TLHS, these results support the validity of TLHS.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss how project managers practice a coaching leadership style (CLS).

This paper is based on a case study of an organization practicing coaching in projects.

The research findings show that to succeed with a CLS, project managers must have a large toolbox, which includes signature strengths, self-management and a give culture. Further, the paper describes how a model consisting of two learning processes can help to implement a CLS in practice.

This study is exploratory, contributing to the development of a substantive theory. Theory testing as well as more in-depth investigation of mental models of a CLS would be valuable.

Coaching leadership theories offer insights that can be leveraged to make project management more effective through improved research foundations.

This paper focuses on how a CLS is carried out in projects and how it can be improved and should thus be of interest to managers searching for tools and models for effective leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the operational excellence of public sector services such as construction, telecommunication and health care. To achieve this endeavor, the study explores the structural attributes and obstacles in the public services and develops a Green Lean Six Sigma (GLSS) model for the public sector.

The study involved two stages: first, structured literature reviews; second, a focus group study involving Black Belts and supply chain practitioners. Using the results from the literature reviews and focus group study, the researchers have developed a Green Lean Six Sigma (GLSS) model for the public sectors.

Black belts and supply chain practitioners have identified the success in deploying Lean Six Sigma with green supply chain management. This leads to eradicating the obstacles faced by the public sector, leading to process improvement.

This study proposed an approach for developing a GLSS model for the public services, which can be applicable for other public service organizations.

The current paper presents a predictive model for process improvement in the public sector by integrating green supply chain management with Lean Six Sigma.

In this chapter, the authors describe the developments towards Roma inclusion in Spain through Successful Educational Actions. First, the authors describe the main characteristics of the Spanish Roma Minority with special regard to their cultural and linguistic diversity and deprivated social situation. After a brief overview of the Spanish education system, the authors give a detailed picture of the educational attainment of the Roma minority in Spain. After then the authors present and analyse the most important successful policies and support programmes for Roma education.

Gene term variation is a shortcoming in text‐mining applications based on biomedical literature‐based knowledge discovery. The purpose of this paper is to propose a technique for normalizing gene names in biomedical literature.

Under this proposal, the normalized forms can be characterized as a unique gene symbol, defined as the official symbol or normalized name. The unification method involves five stages: collection of the gene term, using the resources provided by the Entrez Gene database; encoding of gene‐naming terms in a table or binary matrix; design of a parametrized finite‐state graph (P‐FSG); automatic generation of a dictionary; and matching based on dictionary look‐up to transform the gene mentions into the corresponding unified form.

The findings show that the approach yields a high percentage of recall. Precision is only moderately high, basically due to ambiguity problems between gene‐naming terms and words and abbreviations in general English.

The major limitation of this study is that biomedical abstracts were analyzed instead of full‐text documents. The number of under‐normalization and over‐normalization errors is reduced considerably by limiting the realm of application to biomedical abstracts in a well‐defined domain.

The system can be used for practical tasks in biomedical literature mining. Normalized gene terms can be used as input to literature‐based gene clustering algorithms, for identifying hidden gene‐to‐disease, gene‐to‐gene and gene‐to‐literature relationships.

Few systems for gene term variation handling have been developed to date. The technique described performs gene name normalization by dictionary look‐up.

We review the state of the literature concerning work–family conflict in the military, focusing on service members’ parenting roles and overall family and child well-being. This includes recognition that for many women service members, parenting considerations often arise long before a child is born, thereby further complicating work–family conflict considerations in regard to gender-specific conflict factors such as pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and breastfeeding. Subsequently, we consider more gender-invariant conflict factors, such as the nature of the work itself as causing conflict for the service member as parent (e.g., nontraditional hours, long separations, and child care challenges) as well as for the child (e.g., irregular contact with parent, fear for parent’s safety, and frequent relocations), and the ramifications of such conflict on service member and child well-being. Finally, we review formalized support resources that are in place to mitigate negative effects of such conflict, and make recommendations to facilitate progress in research and practice moving forward.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of testing a new approach to strategic sustainability and resilience – Sustainable Resilient Strategic Decision-Support (SuReSDS™).

The approach was developed and tested using action-research case studies at industrial companies. It successfully allowed the participants to capture different types of value affected by their choices, optimise each strategy’s resilience against different future scenarios and compare the results to find a “best” option.

SuReSDS™ enabled a novel integration of environmental and social sustainability into strategy by considering significant risks or opportunities for an enhanced group of stakeholders. It assisted users to identify and manage risks from different kinds of sustainability-related uncertainty by applying resilience techniques. Users incorporated insights into real-world strategies.

Since the case studies and test organisations are limited in number, generalisation from the results is difficult and requires further research.

The approach enables companies to utilise in-house and external experts more effectively to develop sustainable and resilient strategies.

The research described develops theories linking sustainability and resilience for organisations, particularly for strategy, to provide a new consistent, rigorous and flexible approach for applying these theories. The approach has been tested successfully and benefited real-world strategy decisions.

This paper aims to investigate the quality of access to translated fiction published between 2007 and 2011 in six large Canadian public libraries, answering the question about what public libraries can do to help acquaint their readers with international translated fiction.

The article uses the method of bibliographic data analysis based on 2,100 catalog records.

As the results demonstrate, enhanced bibliographic catalog records deliver a wealth of information about translated fiction titles and facilitate meaningful subject access to their contents. At the same time, promotional activities related to translated fiction have room for improvement.

Despite the fact that the study focuses on public libraries, its findings will be of interest not only to public but also academic librarians, any librarian tasked with the selection and acquisition of translated fiction, reference and readers’ advisory librarians in any type of library, Library and Information Science students and anyone interested in access to translated fiction.

While many recent studies have turned their attention to enhanced catalog records and their role in access, discovery and collection promotion, there are no studies dealing with translated fiction specifically. The article also contributes to seeing an in-depth understanding of bibliographic records and cataloging as part and parcel of reference librarians’ knowledge and skill set, which improves retrieval practices and access provision.