Mean Value Theorems for L-functions over Prime Polynomials for the Rational Function Field

The first and second moments are established for the family of quadratic Dirichlet $L$--functions over the rational function field at the central point $s=\tfrac{1}{2}$ where the character $\chi$ is defined by the Legendre symbol for polynomials over finite fields and runs over all monic irreducible polynomials $P$ of a given odd degree. Asymptotic formulae are derived for fixed finite fields when the degree of $P$ is large. The first moment obtained here is the function field analogue of a result due to Jutila in the number--field setting. The approach is based on classical analytical methods and relies on the use of the analogue of the approximate functional equation for these $L$--functions.Comment: 17 page

Deep brain stimulation as adjuvant therapy for Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the neurodegenerative disease responsible for the majority of dementia cases across the United States. Its pathology involves the accumulation of protein plaques in areas of the brain directly involved with learning and memory formation, causing cognitive impairments and loss of independence in everyday life. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a relatively young field in medicine that has gained a great deal of traction with its efficacious clinical outcomes in neurological diseases including Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. More recently, researchers have sought to discover the proper application of DBS to improve the formation of episodic memory to provide a comparable or superior therapy for AD. Many experiments have been performed using different electrical parameters, hardware, or locations stimulated in the brain, which produced mixed results for benefits in memory reinforcement. Of the various brain structures available to target, the Entorhinal Cortex (EC) has been shown to lead to numerous positive outcomes. Additionally, one study used a novel approach, applying DBS in response to the neural activity of the individual brain during memory encoding tasks, which produced improvements in memory performance. This proposal aims to use these modalities in concert - a closed-loop stimulation approach that monitors neural activity and targeting the EC - in AD dementia patients to act as an adjuvant therapy to current acetylcholinesterase inhibitor medications that provide weak efficacy when used alone. This will be conducted in a 2 year, multicenter, double-blind, randomized controlled clinical trial comparing treatment with dual therapy consisting of DBS and an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, to those with acetylcholinesterase inhibitor monotherapy. Participants will have mild or moderate AD at baseline, evaluated using the Mini-Mental State Examination and their progress in both experimental arms will be recorded using the 13 item Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Subscale-Cognitive over a 2-year period. Investigators will study the primary outcome of delaying cognitive decline, with secondary effects involving the differences between age groups, stages of AD and how frequently stimulation was received in those within the DBS and standard therapy group. The results from this study have the potential to further improve future approaches involving DBS in the treatment of AD dementia, as the projected number of those affected by the disease continues to grow with advances in modern medicine

Engaging Millennial Students through Community-Engaged Experiential Learning

Millennial students and workers are high-achieving, have a strong desire for ongoing personal and professional development, and tend to be invested in making a sustainable impact on society and in the communities in which they live and work. One avenue to engage these students is community-engaged experiential learning (or service learning). While service learning is not new, this “civically-engaged” pedagogy has increased in popularity and usage. It provides meaningful community-service opportunities that simultaneously teach civic responsibility and encourage life-long civic engagement, while also providing significant real-life, hands-on learning of important skills and vital social understanding. This quantitative study examines the connections between students’ motivations for enrolling in service-learning courses and their perceived likelihood for course and program completion. It also connects student motivations for enrolling in service-learning courses to the literature on millennial students and preparing students for the future workforce. Findings not only identify gains in service-learning motivations overall, but also specific volunteerism motivations that contribute to students’ expressions of intent for course and program completion. The findings also demonstrate that study participants exhibited typical characteristics associated with the millennial generation and that these are strengthened through service-learning participation

Aligning Community-Engaged Research to Context.

Community-engaged research is understood as existing on a continuum from less to more community engagement, defined by participation and decision-making authority. It has been widely assumed that more is better than less engagement. However, we argue that what makes for good community engagement is not simply the extent but the fit or alignment between the intended approach and the various contexts shaping the research projects. This article draws on case studies from three Community Engagement Cores (CECs) of NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Science Core Centers (Harvard University, UC Davis and University of Arizona,) to illustrate the ways in which community engagement approaches have been fit to different contexts and the successes and challenges experienced in each case. We analyze the processes through which the CECs work with researchers and community leaders to develop place-based community engagement approaches and find that different strategies are called for to fit distinct contexts. We find that alignment of the scale and scope of the environmental health issue and related research project, the capacities and resources of the researchers and community leaders, and the influences of the sociopolitical environment are critical for understanding and designing effective and equitable engagement approaches. These cases demonstrate that the types and degrees of alignment in community-engaged research projects are dynamic and evolve over time. Based on this analysis, we recommend that CBPR scholars and practitioners select a range of project planning and management techniques for designing and implementing their collaborative research approaches and both expect and allow for the dynamic and changing nature of alignment

Comparative Job Satisfaction and Its Determinants in For-Profit and Nonprofit Employees Across the Globe

Beneficial outcomes of job satisfaction include greater productivity, higher work quality, increased company competitiveness, less turnover, and decreased workplace conflict. Understanding the variables that impact job satisfaction is critical to improving organizational effectiveness. The current research compares job satisfaction factors among for-profit and nonprofit employees globally, using International Social Survey Program data on work orientations. As such, this study contributes new insights from a large-scale international data set to inform employers and researchers about factors that contribute to job satisfaction on a global basis. Findings indicate more commonalities than differences in job satisfaction factors across the two groups

Hybrid visual servoing with hierarchical task composition for aerial manipulation

© 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.In this paper a hybrid visual servoing with a hierarchical task-composition control framework is described for aerial manipulation, i.e. for the control of an aerial vehicle endowed with a robot arm. The proposed approach suitably combines into a unique hybrid-control framework the main benefits of both image-based and position-based control schemes. Moreover, the underactuation of the aerial vehicle has been explicitly taken into account in a general formulation, together with a dynamic smooth activation mechanism. Both simulation case studies and experiments are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed technique.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The Perceived Value of Using a Team Charter in Business Education

Schools of business seek to prepare students for the workplace with employer-valued skills such as communication, teamwork, and application of knowledge. As such, a common practice for business and management educators is to involve students in collaborative team-based assignments and community projects. To facilitate the development of teamwork skills, faculty members may have students create a team charter, which involves student teams identifying goals, roles, and norms. However, empirical evidence of the value of team charters is limited. This study examined student perceptions of team charters to determine if they played a role in effective teamwork or if other variables accounted for team success. The study entailed an analysis of a mid-semester team evaluation survey and an end-of-semester team charter survey. Findings indicated that overall, the inclusion of the development and application of student charters in student group projects leads to several important benefits and learning outcomes. However, the perceived usefulness of charters varies among students by level of experience and year in school

A Model of Student Learning: A Cross-Disciplinary Examination of Student Reflections of Service-Learning Experiences

The purpose of this study was to measure and analyze student service and engaged learning outcomes employing the qualitative tradition of phenomenology. This study was based on the “Five R” service and engaged learning framework. The population for this project included 565 students enrolled in sixteen different course sections (eight distinct classes) taught by twelve faculty members across six academic departments in three colleges/schools on the campus of a regional teaching university in the Intermountain West. The results yielded support for each “R” in the framework (reciprocity, reflection, rewards of synergy, responsibility, and reality), thereby supporting the validity of the framework across disciplines

Job Satisfaction and Gender

Previous studies of job satisfaction and gender have had mixed results, with some finding that women enjoy greater satisfaction than men, and others no difference once other factors were accounted for. This study used data from the 2015 International Social Survey Programme to investigate if gender, country and work-based factors make a difference on employees’ level of job satisfaction. Extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards, work relations and work-life balance rewards were examined. Overall there were no differences between women’s and men’s job satisfaction. In only one country was women’s job satisfaction was significantly higher. Extrinsic outcomes were significantly lower for women