Community College For All: How Two-Year Criminal Justice Transfer Students Perceive Their Educational Experience

[Introduction] President Obama and others have called for free community college-- America\u27s College Promise. Yet controversy surrounds the community college system, with proponents emphasizing the educational opportunities provided while critics bemoan the high dropout rate and lack of equality of educational outcomes. Little research explores how students perceive their educational experiences at two-year colleges. This article explores community college strengths and weaknesses as perceived by a sample of successful criminal justice transfer students. During qualitative interviewing, students reported that they had a positive experience at community college and that it allowed them to prepare to be successful at university. Expense, teacher availability, and smaller class size were perceived as reasons the community college was advantageous. Notably, many students sensed that they missed out on a stereotypical college experience by first entering community college. Some referred to community college as the 13th year of high school, fake college , or not a regular institution

Expression profile of the N-myc Downstream Regulated Gene 2 (NDRG2) in human cancers with focus on breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several studies have shown that <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA is down-regulated or undetectable in various human cancers and cancer cell-lines. Although the function of <it>NDRG2 </it>is currently unknown, high <it>NDRG2 </it>expression correlates with improved prognosis in high-grade gliomas, gastric cancer and hepatocellular carcinomas. Furthermore, <it>in vitro </it>studies have revealed that over-expression of NDRG2 in cell-lines causes a significant reduction in their growth. The aim of this study was to examine levels of <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA in several human cancers, with focus on breast cancer, by examining affected and normal tissue.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>By labelling a human Cancer Profiling Array with a radioactive probe against <it>NDRG2</it>, we evaluated the level of <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA in 154 paired normal and tumor samples encompassing 19 different human cancers. Furthermore, we used quantitative real-time RT-PCR to quantify the levels of <it>NDRG2 </it>and <it>MYC </it>mRNA in thyroid gland cancer and breast cancer, using a distinct set of normal and tumor samples.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>From the Cancer Profiling Array, we saw that the level of <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA was reduced by at least 2-fold in almost a third of the tumor samples, compared to the normal counterpart, and we observed a marked decreased level in colon, cervix, thyroid gland and testis. However, a Benjamini-Hochberg correction showed that none of the tissues showed a significant reduction in <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA expression in tumor tissue compared to normal tissue. Using quantitative RT-PCR, we observed a significant reduction in the level of <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA in a distinct set of tumor samples from both thyroid gland cancer (p = 0.02) and breast cancer (p = 0.004), compared with normal tissue. <it>MYC </it>mRNA was not significantly altered in breast cancer or in thyroid gland cancer, compared with normal tissue. In thyroid gland, no correlation was found between <it>MYC </it>and <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA levels, but in breast tissue we found a weakly significant correlation with a positive r-value in both normal and tumor tissues, suggesting that <it>MYC </it>and <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA are regulated together.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Expression of <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA is reduced in many different human cancers. Using quantitative RT-PCR, we have verified a reduction in thyroid cancer and shown, for the first time, that <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA is statistically significantly down-regulated in breast cancer. Furthermore, our observations indicate that other tissues such as cervix and testis can have lower levels of <it>NDRG2 </it>mRNA in tumor tissue compared to normal tissue.</p

Effect on Cellular and Humoral Immune Responses of the AS03 Adjuvant System in an A/H1N1/2009 Influenza Virus Vaccine Administered to Adults during Two Randomized Controlled Trials ▿ †

The influence of AS03A, a tocopherol oil-in-water emulsion-based adjuvant system, on humoral and cell-mediated responses to A/California/7/2009 H1N1 pandemic vaccine was investigated. In two observer-blind studies, a total of 261 healthy adults aged 18 to 60 years were randomized to receive either AS03A-adjuvanted H1N1 vaccine containing 3.75 μg hemagglutinin (HA) or nonadjuvanted H1N1 vaccine containing 15 or 3.75 μg HA on days 0 and 21. Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody and T-cell responses were analyzed up to day 42. A first dose of AS03A-adjuvanted vaccine (3.75 μg HA) or nonadjuvanted vaccine (15 μg HA) induced HI responses of similar magnitudes that exceeded licensure criteria (e.g., 94 to 100% with titers of ≥40). A lower response following 3.75 μg HA without adjuvant was observed (73% with titers of ≥40). Following a second dose, geometric mean HI titers at day 42 were higher for AS03A-adjuvanted vaccine (636 and 637) relative to nonadjuvanted vaccine (341 for 15 μg HA and 150 for 3.75 μg HA). Over the 42-day period, the increase in frequency of A/H1N1/2009-specific CD4+ T cells was significantly higher in the adjuvanted group than in the nonadjuvanted group. There was no evidence of correlation between baseline CD4+ T-cell frequencies and day 21 HI antibody titers, while there was some correlation (R = 0.35) between day 21 CD4+ T-cell frequencies and day 42 HI titers. AS03A adjuvant enhanced the humoral and CD4+ T-cell-mediated responses to A/H1N1/2009 vaccine. Baseline A/H1N1/2009-specific CD4+ T-cell frequencies did not predict post-dose 1 antibody responses, but there was some correlation between post-dose 1 CD4+ T-cell frequencies and post-dose 2 antibody responses

Satellite monitoring of ammonia: A case study of the San Joaquin Valley

[1] Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) has recently been observed with infrared sounders from space. Here we present 1 year of detailed bidaily satellite retrievals with the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer and some retrievals of the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer over the San Joaquin Valley, California, a highly polluted agricultural production region. Several sensitivity issues are discussed related to the sounding of ammonia, in terms of degrees of freedom, averaging kernels, and altitude of maximum sensitivity and in relation to thermal contrast and concentration. We also discuss their seasonal dependence and sources of errors. We demonstrate boundary layer sensitivity of infrared sounders when there is a large thermal contrast between the surface and the bottom of the atmosphere. For the San Joaquin Valley, large thermal contrast is the case for daytime measurements in spring, summer, and autumn and for nighttime measurements in autumn and winter when a large negative thermal contrast is amplified by temperature inversion. © 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe