Examining Persistence: the Influence of Joining of Pan-Hellenic Black Greek Letter Organizations on African-American Male Students Attending Predominantly White Institutions

The retention of African-American male students at predominantly White institutions is an issue that continues to plague colleges and universities in the United States. African-American men have the lowest college graduation rate of any segment of the population. Pointedly, two-thirds of African-American male students who attend public four-year schools do not graduate within six years. Yet, research highlights how social engagement supports many minority students who find themselves on the campuses of predominantly White institutions. Establishing social connections builds a support system for these students and can prevent social isolation. One manner of social engagement steeped in history is the presence of Black Greek Letter organizations (BGLOs), which were mostly founded around the turn of the 20th century and have encouraged the educational pursuits, social growth, maturity, and community outreach that is often part of the successful African-American male educational experience. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand and analyze how African-American men now view their experiences as a member of a BGLO at a predominantly White institution 25 years later. The dissertation examines how do the fraternity members perceive the influence of their BGLO membership on their persistence and what memories of their BGLO membership are most salient? Specifically, this study aimed to collect information regarding the impact of African-American male student retention employing empirical phenomenology. Data collection included interviews with eight African-American males who were members of one of the BGLOs. These men attended and graduated from a four-year PWI located in the southeastern region of the United States. The data collected was analyzed using the hermeneutic phenomenology method. This study found that African-American former collegians who successfully persisted towards their college degrees used their BGLO membership as a means of social engagement in order to establish connectedness to their respective PWI campuses. Their BGLO membership gave them immediate access to mentorship, campus leadership opportunities, heightened culture capital and an affinity group where they inspire and lead

The Impact Of Online Quizzing On Student Success In An Introductory Financial Accounting Class

We document the impact of transitioning to online quizzing in an introductory Financial Accounting course.  Results show significantly increased course pass rates, significantly increased individual exam averages, and lower overall drop rates

Safety and efficacy of subcutaneous tanezumab in patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis

Background/objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of subcutaneous (SC) and intravenous (IV) tanezumab administration in osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Materials and methods: Study 1027 (NCT01089725), a placebo-controlled trial, evaluated the efficacy of SC tanezumab (ie, 2.5, 5, and 10 mg) and the therapeutic equivalence of 10 mg tanezumab given subcutaneously versus intravenously every 8 weeks in the symptomatic treatment of OA. Coprimary endpoints were: change from baseline in Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis index (WOMAC) Pain and Physical Function indices, and Patient\u27s Global Assessment (PGA) of OA. Study 1043 (NCT00994890) was a long-term, noncontrolled safety study of tanezumab (ie, 2.5, 5, and 10 mg) subcutaneously administered every 8 weeks. Both studies were discontinued prematurely due to a US Food and Drug Administration partial clinical hold. Results: Due to the clinical hold, Study 1027 was underpowered, and no statistical analyses were performed. Mean (standard error [SE]) change from baseline to week 8 in WOMAC Pain in tanezumab groups ranged from -3.59 (0.26) to -3.89 (0.32), versus -2.74 (0.25) with placebo. Mean (SE) change from baseline to week 8 in WOMAC Physical Function ranged from -3.13 (0.25) to -3.51 (0.28) with tanezumab and was -2.26 (0.24) with placebo. PGA mean (SE) change from baseline to week 8 ranged from -0.90 (0.11) to -1.08 (0.12) with tanezumab and was -0.78 (0.10) with placebo. Similar effectiveness was associated with tanezumab in Study 1043. Few patients in either study (1.4%-5.2%) discontinued due to adverse events. Five patients required total joint replacements in Study 1027 (placebo, n=2 [2.8%]; tanezumab 2.5 mg, n=3 [4.1%]) and 34 patients in Study 1043 (tanezumab 2.5 mg, n=11 [4.8%]; tanezumab 5 mg, n=8 [3.6%]; tanezumab 10 mg, n=15 [6.6%]). Conclusion: Preliminary results show similar efficacy and safety for both SC and IV administration of tanezumab based on the direct comparisons reported here and indirect comparisons with published results, confirming pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling predictions

A 21-year record of vertically migrating subepilimnetic populations of Cryptomonas spp.

The vertical distribution and diel migration of Cryptomonas spp. were monitored continuously for 21 years in mesotrophic Cross Reservoir, northeast Kansas, USA. The movements of these motile algae were tracked on multiple dates during July–October of each year using in situ fluorometry and optical microscopy of Lugol’s iodine-preserved samples. Episodes of subepilimnetic diel vertical migration by Cryptomonas were detected and recorded on 221 different days between 1994 and 2014, with just 2 of these years (1998 and 2013) lacking any sampling events with deep peaks sufficiently large enough to track. Whenever a subepilimnetic layer of Cryptomonas was detectable, it was generally observed to ascend toward the bottom of the epilimnion beginning approximately at sunrise; to descend toward the lake bottom during the late afternoon and evening; and to remain as a deep-dwelling population until dawn of the following day. Moreover, there was high day-to-day consistency in the absolute water column depths at which the migrating algal cells would cease their ascending or descending movement. We believe this unique and remarkable dataset comprises the most detailed record of diel migratory behavior for any planktonic freshwater alga reported for a single freshwater lake

The Incidence of Highly-Obscured Star-Forming Regions in SINGS Galaxies

Using the new capabilities of the Spitzer Space Telescope and extensive multiwavelength data from the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS), it is now possible to study the infrared properties of star formation in nearby galaxies down to scales equivalent to large HII regions. We are therefore able to determine what fraction of large, infrared-selected star-forming regions in normal galaxies are highly obscured and address how much of the star formation we miss by relying solely on the optical portion of the spectrum. Employing a new empirical method for deriving attenuations of infrared-selected star-forming regions we investigate the statistics of obscured star formation on 500pc scales in a sample of 38 nearby galaxies. We find that the median attenuation is 1.4 magnitudes in H-alpha and that there is no evidence for a substantial sub-population of uniformly highly-obscured star-forming regions. The regions in the highly-obscured tail of the attenuation distribution (A_H-alpha > 3) make up only ~4% of the sample of nearly 1800 regions, though very embedded infrared sources on the much smaller scales and lower luminosities of compact and ultracompact HII regions are almost certainly present in greater numbers. The highly-obscured cases in our sample are generally the bright, central regions of galaxies with high overall attenuation but are not otherwise remarkable. We also find that a majority of the galaxies show decreasing radial trends in H-alpha attenuation. The small fraction of highly-obscured regions seen in this sample of normal, star-forming galaxies suggests that on 500pc scales the timescale for significant dispersal or break up of nearby, optically-thick dust clouds is short relative to the lifetime of a typical star-forming region.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; emulateapj style, 30 pages, 18 figures (compressed versions), 3 table