Challenges for Global Learners: A Qualitative Study of the Concerns and Difficulties of International Students

The authors in this study seek to inform academia about international students’ experiences and challenges while attending universities in Small Town USA. Despite their eagerness to study in the United States (U.S.), international students are faced with setbacks that many universities fail to recognize or realize. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of students using questions based on information from the literature and an initial survey. The themes that emerged from the data analysis were language, jobs/finances, transportation, assimilation, religious interactions, and identity. Findings emphasize the imperative to understand the challenges these students face as they continue their educational journeys in the United States

Differential Photometry of Active Galactic Nuclei using Time Resolved Observations with the 1m Nickel Telescope of Lick Observatory

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are exotic objects in the center of some galaxies with luminosities that can greatly outshine the stars of the host galaxy across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The origin of the UV/optical light is thought to be due to accretion of material onto the supermassive black hole in their centers. Since these objects are too far away to resolve the gravitational sphere of influence of the black hole directly, we make use of a method called reverberation mapping. We measure the lag between the AGN power-law continuum emitted by the accretion disk and the Doppler-broadened emission lines which originate in gas clouds orbiting the black hole at high speeds while being ionized by the power-law continuum. Using light travel time arguments, the observed lag time can be translated into the size of the broad-line region. Combined with the width of the broad emission lines, we can estimate the black hole mass. The Seoul AGN Monitoring Project (SAMP) uses the 1m Nickel telescope of Lick Observatory to study the variability of the optical continuum emission. Combining these observations with spectroscopy of the broad-line region of the same AGNs, we can perform reverberation mapping. Our team, consisting of a handful of Cal Poly undergraduate students, is in charge of the optical imaging, controlling the 1m telescope remotely from Cal Poly. In this thesis, I present an overview of the optical imaging campaign led by the Cal Poly undergraduate students as well as first results of the observed continuum variability of the AGNs studied. Our study is special in that it targets AGNs at the high-mass end over a multi-year long campaign

Evaluation of Phytate and Phytase Interactions and Phytase Phase-Feeding on Bird Performance, Bone Characteristics and Meat Quality in Young Growing Broilers

Two trials were performed using one-day-old male Cobb x Cobb 500 broilers to determine how dietary phytate and phytase levels as well as phytase phase feeding impacted bird performance parameters, tibia characteristics, and malonaldehyde (MDA) content of the liver, breast and thigh tissues. The first experiment consisted of 1,008 birds randomly placed in 48 floor pens within two commercial broiler houses at the Applied Broiler Research Farm (ABRF; 21 birds per pen; 0.76 ft2 per bird). A 2 X 3 factorial design was used with two levels of dietary phytate (0.21 and 0.31 %) and three levels of phytase supplementation (0, 500 and 1,500 FTU/kg). Main effect phytase improved (P \u3c 0.05) feed intake, body weight at 17 d, body weight gain and tibia ash weight and percentage. In addition, phytase and phytate interacted (P ≤ 0.011) for FCR and FCR corrected to the overall experimental mean for body weight (AFCR). The second trial consisted of 1,056 total birds randomly placed in 48 floor pens within two commercial broiler houses at ABRF (22 birds per pen; 0.72 ft2 per bird). Treatments consisted of a positive control, a negative control (NC; less 0.16 % Ca, 0.15 % avP and 0.04 % Na), and four additional treatments based on the negative control. Treatments 3 and 4 consisted of the NC diet supplemented with 500 FTU/kg of phytase in the starter phase that was either continued through the grower diet (treatment 3) or increased to 1,500 FTU/kg (treatment 4). Treatment 5 and 6 were also the NC diet supplemented with 1,500 FTU/kg of phytase for the starter diet and either decreased to 500 FTU/kg in the grower diet (treatment 5) or maintained at 1,500 FTU/kg (treatment 6). A random complete block design was employed and analyzed using SAS GLM. At 35 d of age, phytase regimen did not affect (P \u3e 0.05) feed intake, BW gain, FCR, AFCR or mortality. However, increasing phytase concentration from 500 FTU/kg in the starter diet to 1,500 FTU/kg in grower diet increased (P \u3c 0.05) proximal and total tibia ash percentages when compared to broilers fed diets with 500 FTU/kg of phytase for the duration of the study

Lectin affinity binding of pseudononas aeruginosa with polyacrylamide neoglycoconjugates [abstract]

The main clinical feature of cystic fibrosis (CF) is a chronic progressive lung disease caused mainly by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infection. The mechanism of bacterial invasion is not very clear. It's been shown that PA recognizing specific saccharides through lectins on the airway surface could be the very first step during invasion and infection. This project aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of saccharides that could bind to different PA isolates from CF patients

Political Partisanship and Female High School Students Who Physically Fight on Campus

Democrats and Republicans have different platforms on how to modify the social learning environment. According to the social learning theory, people learn to be aggressive through their life experiences. These experiences include personally observing the behaviors of others and modeling them. Personal behaviors are a product of learning the norms, values, and behaviors of society. Indeed, learning is a by-product of the interaction with others and is influenced by perceptions of the legal code. Because people experience culture conflict when they are exposed to different and opposing attitudes of acceptable behaviors, and because Democrats and Republicans have different attitudes toward marijuana, gun control, and religion, it is unclear if the different social learning environments created by the two different political parties will influence high school violence. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if there is a difference between political partisanship and the percentage of female high school students who physically fight on campus in each jurisdiction. This study examined electronic second-hand data collected in 2013, 2015, and 2017 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results of the logistic regression for repeated measures indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between female high school students who physically fight on campus and political party. Females were 35.6% less likely to physically fight on campus in Republican states than in Democrat states

Arizona’s Rising STEM Occupational Demands and Declining Participation in the Scientific Workforce: An Examination of Attitudes among African Americans toward STEM College Majors and Careers

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2008), science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations constitute a growing sector of Arizona’s economy. However, the number of African Americans earning degrees related to these occupations has not kept pace with this growth. Increasing the participation of African Americans in STEM education fields and subsequent related occupations in Arizona is vital to growing and maintaining the state’s economic stature. This objective is made even more compelling given that each year, from 2008– 2018, there are 3,671 projected job openings in STEM fields in Arizona. This study explores the extent to which the attitudes held by African Americans in Arizona toward STEM related majors and careers influence their likelihood of joining the state’s scientific workforce. Our analyses reveal the importance of career consideration, confidence in one’s ability to be successful in a STEM related field, and family support of the pursuit of STEM education and careers.Educatio

Student Gains in Conceptual Understanding in Introductory Statistics with and without a Curriculum Focused on Simulation-Based Inference

Using “simulation-based inference” (SBI) such as randomization tests as the primary vehicle for introducing students to the logic and scope of statistical inference has been advocated with the potential of improving student understanding of statistical inference, as well as the statistical investigative process as a whole. Moving beyond the individual class activity, entirely revised introductory statistics curricula centering on these ideas have been developed and tested. In this presentation we will discuss three years of cross-institutional tertiary-level data in the United States comparing SBI-focused curricula and non-SBI curricula (roughly 15,000 students). We examine several pre/post measures of conceptual understanding in the introductory algebra-based course, using hierarchical modelling to incorporate student-level, instructor-level, and institutional-level covariates

Student Performance in Curricula Centered on Simulation-Based Inference: A Preliminary Report

Simulation-based inference (e.g., bootstrapping and randomization tests) has been advocated recently with the goal of improving student understanding of statistical inference, as well as the statistical investigative process as a whole. Preliminary assessment data have been largely positive. This article describes the analysis of the first year of data from a multi-institution assessment effort by instructors using such an approach in a college-level introductory statistics course, some for the first time. We examine several pre-/post-measures of student attitudes and conceptual understanding of several topics in the introductory course. We highlight some patterns in the data, focusing on student level and instructor level variables and the application of hierarchical modeling to these data. One observation of interest is that the newer instructors see very similar gains to more experienced instructors, but we also look to how the data collection and analysis can be improved for future years, especially the need for more data on nonusers