The Political Behavior of California Community College Nursing Facilities in Response to Budget Cutbacks, 1982-1987

This study explored the political behavior of community college nursing faculties during a unique period of California history, 1982-87, when the community colleges were struggling to adapt to the economic and political consequences of Proposition 13. Using a two-phase qualitative design, it examined the effects of budget cutbacks on the nursing programs at 38 community colleges statewide, including twelve targeted for faculty layoffs, and identified the political behavior of their nursing faculties in response. It then focused on six districts, varying in size, structure, and location, for a series of in-depth case studies. In four districts, nursing programs were targeted for closure or downsizing; in two, they were not. Surveys, telephone interviews, and document review were the primary research tools. The results showed that most faculties accommodated to across-the-board cutbacks, but opposed and resisted selective termination, generally regarded as a crisis situation. One political benefit of accommodating was that little new behavior was required and faculties could remain focused on their primary value, clinical teachings. Efforts to alter college budget policy, on the other hand, required a level of governance participation to which few faculties were willing to commit, absent a crisis. The faculties targeted for layoffs orchestrated anti-termination campaigns to prevent the enactment or reduce the scope of the policy proposed

Aerothermodynamic Testing of the Crew Exploration Vehicle in the LaRC 20-Inch Mach 6 and 31-Inch Mach 10 Tunnels

An experimental wind tunnel program is being conducted in support of a NASA wide effort to develop a Space Shuttle replacement and to support the Agency s long term objective of returning to the Moon and Mars. This article documents experimental measurements made on several scaled ceramic heat transfer models of the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle Crew Module. The experimental data highlighted in this article are to be used to assess numerical tools that will be used to generate the flight aerothermodynamic database. Global heat transfer images and heat transfer distributions were obtained over a range of freestream Reynolds numbers and angles of attack with the phosphor thermography technique. Heat transfer data were measured on the forebody and afterbody and were used to infer the heating on the vehicle as well as the boundary layer state on the forebody surface. Several model support configurations were assessed to minimize potential support interference. In addition, the ability of the global phosphor thermography method to provide quantitative heating measurements in the low temperature environment of the capsule base region was assessed. While naturally fully developed turbulent levels were not obtained on the forebody, the use of boundary layer trips generated fully developed turbulent flow. Laminar and turbulent computational results were shown to be in good agreement with the data. Backshell testing demonstrated the ability to obtain data in the low temperature region as well as demonstrating the lack of significant model support hardware influence on heating

Do We Really Know What Makes Educational Software Effective? A Call for Empirical Research on Effectiveness

Empirical information on specific factors that make educational software effective in reaching instructional objectives would be of considerable value. The authors describe the current state of evaluation research with educational software and discuss how popular software review methods fall short of meeting our need to know how well specific programs work

Implementing Educational Software and Evaluating Its Academic Effectiveness: Part I

Two major obstacles are responsible for the delay in getting good educational software into schools. First, software implementation is a complex process that many schools are simply not prepared to undertake. Second, there is very little empirical research available on the specific factors that make educational software effective, leaving it extremely difficult to separate good from poor quality software. We will describe a basic plan for implementing educational software into classrooms, incorporating a research design that permits educational researchers to measure the effectiveness of the software. Part I of this series of two articles presents a basic plan for implementing educational software into classrooms

Comparison of Intravenous Anesthetic Agents for the Treatment of Refractory Status Epilepticus

Status epilepticus that cannot be controlled with first- and second-line agents is called refractory status epilepticus (RSE), a condition that is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Most experts agree that treatment of RSE necessitates the use of continuous infusion intravenous anesthetic drugs such as midazolam, propofol, pentobarbital, thiopental, and ketamine, each of which has its own unique characteristics. This review compares the various anesthetic agents while providing an approach to their use in adult patients, along with possible associated complications

Selecting Features Of A Web Platform To Enhance Course Delivery

This paper reviews key features of popular Web platforms used for course delivery.  Institutions of higher education have rushed to adopt these platforms for several reasons. From the point of view of the educator, the most important reason is to enhance the classroom experience (real or virtual).  “Classroom” experiences can benefit from a continuous stream of discourse made possible by the communications tools available in the web platforms designed for educational application.  In addition, web platforms can serve as a means of collecting and distributing content from various sources – including all class participants.   A review of studies from current business education literature conducted to assess the pedagogical impact of the use of some of these features is included. The authors’ also provide excerpts from their pages and classroom experiences in a traditional classroom and in distance learning with asynchronous communication, including email and bulletin boards, synchronous communication, content creation that includes course outlines and handouts, online surveys and exams and the digital dropbox. Platforms which are reviewed include Blackboard v. 5.5, WebCT v. 3.0 and WebBoard v. 4.0

Report Card On E-Mail: An Investigation Of Replies To Consumers

Organizational communications have been studied from several vantage points, and typically as a one-way communication tool.  Today, with the burgeoning growth and adoption of new technologies two-way communications have become ever more common.  While this paper focuses its research attention to specific forms of e-mail communications between organizations and those it seeks as consumers, a conceptual framework is also presented that sets a foundation for examining and evaluating the myriad of communications alternatives that are available to organizations and the publics they serve.   In this exploratory study 165 companies were e-mailed each of two messages and their responses to these e-mails were analyzed.  Firms used in the study were selected from seven different industries.  The findings reveal that many firms have serious problems responding to fairly simple and common communications.  Barely 45% of the firms studied responded to both types of inquiries, and many simply failed to respond.  Further, there was considerable variability in the timeliness, clarity and specificity of response.   While one may assume that e-mail communication, as a technology is well understood given its proliferation, there are several factors that are discussed that may impede responsiveness – in timeliness, clarity or specificity.  As a written form of communication, e-mail presents a challenge common to other forms of written communiqués; they provide a record that can be reviewed subsequent to the exchange between parties involved in communication.  As such, organizations may be reluctant to answer all e-mails for a myriad of reasons:  some may believe that e-mails place unnecessary or imposing demands on its workforce; some may fear that those responsible for handling the correspondence may be challenged to convey accurate, personalized information in an articulate manner; others simply do not want to have the burden of having to keep a record of such correspondence; yet others may simply view e-mail as a trivial or unimportant, irrespective of whether the communication was marked “urgent” or “confidential” by the sender; and others may fear that their e-mail correspondence is apt to become public, even if marked confidential – as email lacks the advantage of privacy that accompanied other more conventional written messages.  Finally, hypotheses for future research based on the Customer Response System model are presented

Tile Surface Thermocouple Measurement Challenges from the Orbiter Boundary Layer Transition Flight Experiment

Hypersonic entry flight testing motivated by efforts seeking to characterize boundary layer transition on the Space Shuttle Orbiters have identified challenges in our ability to acquire high quality quantitative surface temperature measurements versus time. Five missions near the end of the Space Shuttle Program implemented a tile surface protuberance as a boundary layer trip together with tile surface thermocouples to capture temperature measurements during entry. Similar engineering implementations of these measurements on Discovery and Endeavor demonstrated unexpected measurement voltage response during the high heating portion of the entry trajectory. An assessment has been performed to characterize possible causes of the issues experienced during STS-119, STS-128, STS-131, STS-133 and STS-134 as well as similar issues encountered during other orbiter entries

A Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Replicon-Based Bioassay for the Rapid and Sensitive Determination of Multi-Species Type I Interferon

Type I interferons (IFN) comprise a family of cytokines that signal through a common cellular receptor to induce a plethora of genes with antiviral and other activities. Recombinant IFNs are used for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infection, multiple sclerosis, and certain malignancies. The capability of type I IFN to suppress virus replication and resultant cytopathic effects is frequently used to measure their bioactivity. However, these assays are time-consuming and require appropriate biosafety containment. In this study, an improved IFN assay is presented which is based on a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) replicon encoding two reporter proteins, firefly luciferase and green fluorescent protein. The vector lacks the essential envelope glycoprotein (G) gene of VSV and is propagated on a G protein-expressing transgenic cell line. Several mammalian and avian cells turned out to be susceptible to infection with the complemented replicon particles. Infected cells readily expressed the reporter proteins at high levels five hours post infection. When human fibroblasts were treated with serial dilutions of human IFN-β prior to infection, reporter expression was accordingly suppressed. This method was more sensitive and faster than a classical IFN bioassay based on VSV cytopathic effects. In addition, the antiviral activity of human IFN-λ (interleukin-29), a type III IFN, was determined on Calu-3 cells. Both IFN-β and IFN-λ were acid-stable, but only IFN-β was resistant to alkaline treatment. The antiviral activities of canine, porcine, and avian type I IFN were analysed with cell lines derived from the corresponding species. This safe bioassay will be useful for the rapid and sensitive quantification of multi-species type I IFN and potentially other antiviral cytokines

Future scenarios for the charity sector in 2045

Rapid change is affecting the demography, technology and availability of resources (both financial and volunteer) on which charities draw. This paper presents four different scenarios that could describe the charity sector one generation from now as it responds to a different world. We highlight the dangers if any one scenario becomes dominant. While it is inevitable that change will occur, these drawbacks should be minimized and it is important that public funders and policy makers steer intelligently through this changing world. Also, charity leaders must prepare and plan for inevitable change in the sector