Two Ways to Stay at the Top: Prestige and Dominance Are Both Viable Strategies for Gaining and Maintaining Social Rank Over Time

The dual-strategies theory of social rank proposes that both dominance and prestige are effective strategies for gaining social rank (i.e., the capacity for influence) in groups. However, the only existing longitudinal investigation of these strategies suggests that, among undergraduate students, only prestige allows people to maintain social rank over time. The current study provides a longitudinal test of dominance and prestige in a context where dominance is more normative: MBA project groups. Among 548 MBA students in 104 groups, peer-rated dominance and prestige predicted gains in social rank over the course of 4 weeks, indicating that both strategies may help people not only gain social rank but also maintain it over time. Furthermore, prestige—but not dominance—led to social rank because of willingly given deference from group members. This confirms a central but thus-far-untested principle of dual-strategies theory: While prestige is based on freely conferred deference, dominance is not.

Teachers' Experiences in the Implementation of the Life Skills CAPS for Learners With Severe Intellectual Disability

This article focuses on a participatory process where the experiences of teachers regarding the implementation of the life skills curriculum and assessment policy statement (CAPS) for learners with severe intellectual disabilities (SID) in schools for learners with special educational needs were investigated. This curriculum for learners with SID has been developed to be more effective in meeting the needs of these learners. The curriculum ensures that learners can meet the requirements of the national CAPS used in ordinary public schools at a reduced depth and width, or at a more functional level, in accordance with their cognitive abilities. Although a descriptive mixed research method was applied in the study, this article reports on the qualitative part of the research. In the qualitative phase, collages and arts-based discussions with core project groups were used to generate data. Four schools, 13 core project groups, and 51 participants (teachers) were involved in the research. The transcribed data from the core project group discussions were analysed using thematic analysis, and the themes that emerged were discussed by the participants. Based on the results of these qualitative arts-based discussions, the findings were used to create opportunities for the teachers to talk and work together to jointly develop a training manual for beginner teachers and to form a learning environment that would permit rich inquiry-based dialogue among the teachers.

Learning Computer Programming Using Project-Based Collaborative Learning

The major concern of teaching computer programming in higher education is to provide students with the skills necessary to integrate theory and practice. One of the methods most suited for this task is project-based collaborative learning (PBCL). This study provides an in-depth analysis of students’ experiences, levels of collaboration and challenges in learning computer programming in a PBCL setting. A survey of 428 students was selected from a population of 840 undergraduate computer programming students at all levels using a stratified random sampling technique. It was found that focusing programming courses on real problems made the course more interesting for students. The students gained new interpersonal skills and understood the technical concepts of the courses better. PBCL was found to be suitable for teaching lower level (level 100 and 200) undergraduate programming courses compared with higher level (level 300 and 400) courses. Students' challenges in PBCL computer programming courses include time allocation for projects, choosing appropriate problems and piggy riding in project groups. We expect the findings of this study to influence policy on the teaching of computer programming courses at the undergraduate level.

Participatory Budgeting with Project Groups

We study a generalization of the standard approval-based model of participatory budgeting (PB), in which voters are providing approval ballots over a set of predefined projects and---in addition to a global budget limit---there are several groupings of the projects, each group with its own budget limit. We study the computational complexity of identifying project bundles that maximize voter satisfaction while respecting all budget limits. We show that the problem is generally intractable and describe efficient exact algorithms for several special cases, including instances with only few groups and instances where the group structure is close to being hierarchical, as well as efficient approximation algorithms. Our results could allow, e.g., municipalities to hold richer PB processes that are thematically and geographically inclusive.

A Systematic Design Approach for Bulk Gel Treatments Based on Average Gel Volume-Concentration Ratio

Controlling excessive water production in mature oil fields has always been one major objective of the oil and gas industry. This objective calls for planning of more effective water-control treatments with optimized designs to obtain more attractive outcomes. Unfortunately, planning such treatments still represents a dilemma for conformance experts due to the lack of systematic design tools in the industry. This paper proposes and makes available a new design approach for bulk gel treatments by grouping designs of 62 worldwide field projects (1985-2018) according to gel volume-concentration ratio (VCR). After compiling them from SPE papers, the average gel volumes and polymer concentrations in the field projects were used to evaluate the gel VCR. Distributions of field projects were examined according to the gel VCR and the formation type using stacked histograms. A comprehensive investigation was performed to indicate the grouping criterion and design types of gel treatments. Based on mean-per-group strategy, the average VCR was estimated for each channeling and formation type to build a three-parameter design approach. Two approximations for the average polymer concentration and two correlations for minimum and maximum designs and were identified and included in the approach. The study shows that the gel VCR is a superior design criterion for in-situ bulk gel treatments. Field applications tend to aggregate in three project groups of clear separating VCR cut-offs (<1, 1-3, >3 bbl/ppm). The channeling type is the dividing or distributing criterion of the gel projects among the three project groups. We identified that VCRs<1 bbl/ppm are used to treat conformance problems that exhibit pipe-like channeling usually presented in unconsolidated and fractured formations with very long injection time (design type I). For fracture-channeling problems frequently presented in naturally or hydraulically-fractured formations, VCRs of 1-3 bbl/ppm are used (design type II). Large gel treatments with VCR>3 bbl/ppm are performed to address matrix-channeling often shown in matrix-rock formations and fracture networks (design type III). Results show that the VCR approach reasonably predicts the gel volume and the polymer concentration in training (R2 of 0.93 and 0.67) and validation (AAPE <22%) samples. Besides its novelty, the new approach is systematic, practical, and accurate, and will facilitate the optimization of the gel treatments to improve their performances and success rate.

Group Formation Using Friendship Graph in Managing Students’ Projects in Educational Settings

In the literature, there are several group formation methods such as random, self-selected, instructor-selected, and mixed, which have been outlined on how to form groups for effective learning and project completion. There is little empirical research on which of the approaches creates the best student learning experience. In this article, we examine the use of acquaintance and friendship graphs in generating groups to manage projects in a learning environment. This work focuses on freshmen and sophomores from faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences and faculty of Medicine at “Nile university of Nigeria”. In creating the friendship graphs for each of the classes, a questionnaire is employed. The responses from the students are transformed into graph input data. The resultant graphs are then analyzed to create the project groups. The performance (measured by group grades) of students in the projects is an evidence that this method of creating groups is effective. Moreover, the project completion time and average score of the projects show improvement in comparison to previous year’s groups, which were formed by instructor-selected method. Furthermore, testing our created groups against the normal standard of group formation using a balanced distribution of GPA scores, see [1], indicates that our method passed with 83%. In fact, when each student was presented with the opportunity to choose through voting whether to be within an instructor-selected group with a balanced distribution of GPA scores or a group formed by the friendship graph approach, an overwhelming 78% chooses the latter

Scientific Management of Equipment in Medical Innovation Laboratory

Aim; To solve the problem of innovation laboratory instrument management and improve laboratory management level. Method; It is necessary to do an excellent job in managing innovative laboratory equipment by improving the equipment management system, functional division management, appointment registration, and strengthening the construction of management teams to guarantee the cultivation of innovation and entrepreneurship capabilities of undergraduates. Results; The number of innovative experimental projects approved and the number of project groups that the laboratory can accept at the same time was increased significantly. The utilization rate of laboratory equipment has increased, and the vacancy rate has decreased. Conclusion; Excellent instrument management can significantly improve the efficiency of scientific research in the innovation laboratory.