Factors that influence transfer students\u27 success in Iowa State University\u27s journalism and communication program

This study aims to determine the demographic and academic profiles of students who transferred to the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University. The three-part questionnaire sent out in an e-mail census of all transfer students in the School by the end of AY 2005-2006 also assessed the level of preparation they received in their basic reporting and writing course, their satisfaction with the academic climate in the Greenlee School in particular and Iowa State in general, and identified what factors influenced their success at a four-year undergraduate program as measured by their GPA. The electronic questionnaire was sent to 147 transfer students. The response rate was 32.65%.;The results show that journalism and mass communication transfer students were relatively young (average age is 22 years old), mostly Caucasian females who were single and had no children. They came from all over Iowa, but mainly attended the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) before coming to ISU, and had an annual income of less than 20,000 per year. Over 60 percent of them took the basic reporting and writing class at Iowa State, about a third had high school media experience, and close to half were involved in college media. Their average grade point average was 2.85.;Those who took basic reporting and writing outside ISU rated their experience more favorably than those who took the course at the Greenlee School. The largest variance in the evaluations of the course was in the areas of computer and problem-solving skills acquisition

Integrated Serologic Surveillance of Population Immunity and Disease Transmission.

Antibodies are unique among biomarkers in their ability to identify persons with protective immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases and to measure past exposure to diverse pathogens. Most infectious disease surveillance maintains a single-disease focus, but broader testing of existing serologic surveys with multiplex antibody assays would create new opportunities for integrated surveillance. In this perspective, we highlight multiple areas for potential synergy where integrated surveillance could add more value to public health efforts than the current trend of independent disease monitoring through vertical programs. We describe innovations in laboratory and data science that should accelerate integration and identify remaining challenges with respect to specimen collection, testing, and analysis. Throughout, we illustrate how information generated through integrated surveillance platforms can create new opportunities to more quickly and precisely identify global health program gaps that range from undervaccination to emerging pathogens to multilayered health disparities that span diverse communicable diseases

Critical Role for Inflammatory Macrophages in Driving Antigen-dependent Th17 Cell Responses?

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Mycorrhizal Stimulation of Leaf Gas Exchange in Relation to Root Colonization, Shoot Size, Leaf Phosphorus and Nitrogen: A Quantitative Analysis of the Literature Using Meta-Regression

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis often stimulates gas exchange rates of the host plant. This may relate to mycorrhizal effects on host nutrition and growth rate, or the influence may occur independently of these. Using meta-regression, we tested the strength of the relationship between AM-induced increases in gas exchange, and AM size and leaf mineral effects across the literature. With only a few exceptions, AM stimulation of carbon exchange rate (CER), stomatal conductance (gs) and transpiration rate (E) has been significantly associated with mycorrhizal stimulation of shoot dry weight, leaf phosphorus, leaf nitrogen: phosphorus ratio and percent root colonization. The sizeable mycorrhizal stimulation of CER, by 49% over all studies, has been about twice as large as the mycorrhizal stimulation of gs and E (28% and 26%, respectively). Carbon exchange rate has been over twice as sensitive as gs and four times as sensitive as E to mycorrhizal colonization rates. The AM-induced stimulation of CER increased by 19% with each AM-induced doubling of shoot size; the AM effect was about half as large for gs and E. The ratio of leaf N to leaf P has been more closely associated with mycorrhizal influence on leaf gas exchange than leaf P alone. The mycorrhizal influence on CER has declined markedly over the 35 years of published investigations

Gaming in the library

Paper completed for Emerging Technologies, 9410 Seminar in Information Science and Learning Technology, Fall 2015, School of Information Science & Technologies, University of Missouri.Libraries are vital public spaces which benefit from a variety of collections. While video games may be a relative newcomer, board games have had a place in libraries since at least 1933 (“Broadening our definition,” 2008, p. 7) and promote “collaboration, inquiry, and critical thinking” (Crews, 2011, p. 10). For a new generation intent on having fun while learning, games can be a vital resource to improve social skills, problem solving, and leadership development (“Broadening the audience,” 2008, p. 28). Here are ten online resources to help librarians build a game collection, collaborate with other librarians, start a game night, or just learn more about how games can contribute to the mission of the library.Includes bibliographical references (page 4)

The role of comparisons in judgments of loneliness

Loneliness—perceived social isolation—is defined as a discrepancy between existing social relationships and desired quality of relationships. Whereas most research has focused on existing relationships, we consider the standards against which people compare them. Participants who made downward social or temporal comparisons that depicted their contact with others as better (compared to other people’s contact or compared to the past) reported less loneliness than participants who made upward comparisons that depicted their contact with others as worse (Study 1–3). Extending these causal results, in a survey of British adults, upward social comparisons predicted current loneliness, even when controlling for loneliness at a previous point in time (Study 4). Finally, content analyses of interviews with American adults who lived alone showed that social and temporal comparisons about contact with others were both prevalent and linked to expressed loneliness (Study 5). These findings contribute to understanding the social cognition of loneliness, extend the effects of comparisons about social connection to the important public health problem of loneliness, and provide a novel tool for acutely manipulating loneliness

Mapping the Galactic Halo. V. Sgr dSph Tidal Debris 60 degrees from the Main Body

As part of the Spaghetti Project Survey (SPS) we have detected a concentration of giant stars well above expectations for a smooth halo model. The position (l~350, b~50) and distance (~50 kpc) of this concentration match those of the Northern over-density detected by SDSS (Yanny et al. 2000, Ivezic et al. 2000). We find additional evidence for structure at ~80 kpc in the same direction. We present radial velocities for many of these stars, including the first published results from the 6.5m Magellan telescope. The radial velocities for stars in these structures are in excellent agreement with models of the dynamical evolution of the Sgr dwarf tidal debris, whose center is 60 degrees away. The metallicity of stars in these streams is lower than that of the main body of the Sgr dwarf, which may indicate a radial metallicity gradient prior to disruption.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures accepted in Astrophysical Journal Letter