477 research outputs found

    Predicting Licensing Examination Performance With Cognitive Style And Reactive Behavior Pattern Assessments

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    Candidates for Florida real estate sales associate licensure responded to a two-part questionnaire based on William A. Long’s Reactive Behavior Patterns Theory and Robert J. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence. Examination scores were converted to a dichotomous pass/fail variable based on the Florida Real Estate Commission-mandated cut-off score of 75 correctly answered questions out of 100. The candidates’ responses to the questionnaire comprising the Long-Dziuban Inventory and the Cognitive Strengths Task List based on Sternberg’s theory, were crosstabulated with pass/fail to identify differential passing proportions, if any, based on reactive behavior pattern and/or cognitive strength. An ANOVA procedure was used with the raw scores to determine whether statistically significant differences in mean exam scores existed between the four Long Types and the three Cognitive Types adapted from Sternberg’s theory. The data were subjected to similar analyses to ascertain whether the ancillary traits described by Long were predictive of exam performance. A crosstabulation of Long Type by Cognitive (Sternberg) Type was performed to find out if any significant relationships existed between the several dimensions of the Long-Dziuban Inventory and the Cognitive Strengths Task List. The results revealed a moderate statistically significant relationship between exam performance and cognitive strength, with analytical types and creative types having the greatest exam success. Tenuous relationships were identified between exam performance and the Long types and traits and between the Long-based and the Sternbergbased components of the research instrument. Although the results of this study did not establish definitive relationships between the Long and Sternberg constructs, by combining them into a measure of cognitive style, it forged a framework for future research into the relationship between licensing examination performance and cognitive styles. Within this framework are the components of a predictive model potentially useful for identifying not only real estate licensing exam performance but also for identifying persons likely to succeed in the real estate industry

    Fencing Alleviates Nuisance Molting Goose Problems in an Urban Park in Tennessee

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    Canada geese (Branta canadensis; geese) often congregate in high public use areas while molting during summer, resulting in increased nuisance complaints. We censused geese that inhabited a Cookeville city park in Tennessee, USA on a weekly basis from 2013-2014 to determine the magnitude, trends, and seasonal nature of problems caused by urban goose flocks. Fewer than 50 geese were counted in most months except during the molt, when numbers increased to over 200. Most geese dispersed from the park shortly after completion of the molt. Molt site fidelity to the park was estimated to be 51.5%, indicating that permanent relocation or euthanasia would not provide long-term nuisance relief and may impact local hunting opportunities. To mitigate the nuisance aspect of high densities of molting urban geese in the park, we herded molting and flightless geese to a closed portion of the park and fenced them out of the public use area. Our temporary fencing, coupled with reduced human disturbance in the area where geese were relocated, alleviated the nuisance problems typically associated with large concentrations of geese. We recommend that other municipalities that are experiencing similar seasonal nuisance goose problems consider using non-lethal fencing options

    Movements, Habitat Selection, Associations, and Survival of Giant Canada Goose Broods in Central Tennessee

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    The brood-rearing period in giant Canada geese (Branta canadensis maxima) is one of the least-studied areas of goose ecology. We monitored 32 broods in Putnam County, Tennessee, from the time of hatching through fledging (i.e., when the goslings gained the ability to fly) and from fledging until broods left the brood-rearing areas during the spring and summer of 2003. We conducted a fixed-kernel, home-range analysis for each brood using the Animal Movement Extension in ArcView® 3.3 GIS (ESRI, Redlands, Calif.) software and calculated 95% and 50% utilization distributions (UD) for each brood. We classified 25 broods as sedentary (8 ha 95% UD), three as shifters (84 ha 95% UD), two as wanderers (110 ha 95%UD); two were unclassified because of low sample size. We measured 5 habitat variables (i.e., percentage of water, percentage of pasture, percentage of development, number of ponds, and distance to nearest unused pond) within a 14.5-ha buffer at nesting locations. We used linear regression, using multi-model selection, information theoretic analysis, to determine which, if any, habitat variables influenced home-range size at a landscape level. The null model was the best information-theoretic model, and the global model was not significant, indicating that landscape level habitat variables selected in this study cannot be used to predict homerange size in the Upper Cumberland region goose flock. We analyzed associations among broods, using a coefficient of association of at least 0.50, and determined association areas by overlaying individual home ranges. Overall gosling survival (Ŝ) during the brood-rearing period was 0.84 (95% CL = 0.78, 0.92), using a staggered-entry Kaplan-Meier survival curve. We believe that abundance of quality forage and pond habitat, high survivorship, and a lack of movement corridors (i.e., rivers, lakes, and reservoirs) were responsible for the relatively small home ranges of geese in the Upper Cumberland region. Associations formed during brood rearing may reduce predation risks and serve as a template for lifelong social bonds with family members and unrelated geese that are reared in the same locations

    Exploring the Judicial Use of the Ethics of Justice and Care in Deciding Fourth Amendment Cases: Implications for Students' Rights

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    This analysis examined the degree to which courts of law reveal non-traditional ethics in the manner in which the legal reasoning is crafted. The study focused specifically on opinions of the court rendered in cases that involved an educator, or his or her agent, conducting a search of a student’s person or property while in the care of the school. This study sought to understand the level to which judges’ opinions reveal an underlying ethical basis, either through justice or care, or perhaps a bit of both. The need for this analysis is significant considering the shift toward increasingly stringent disciplinary practices and legislative agendas that more frequently involve the courts in the administration of student discipline. These increasingly stringent practices are intended to provide a safe and orderly school environment; however, they are contributing to a school and societal climate that is infringing on the constitutionally protected rights of students. A thorough review of available literature identified that little scholarly work has previously been conducted on this specific area. Findings from the study fill an identified void in scholarship relating to the ethical posture of judges as they address student discipline. It was conclusively identified that the prevailing ethical posture of the judges is that of justice. An ethic of care was evidenced, but to a much lesser degree. The most significant finding from the study was the identification of a phenomenon in which courts, solely aligning to an ethic of justice, afford students in their court elements of care by applying a caring legal precedent. This phenomenon was identified as institutionalized care

    Planning strategies for inter-fractional robustness in pancreatic patients treated with scanned carbon therapy

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    Background: Managing inter-fractional anatomy changes is a challenging task in radiotherapy of pancreatic tumors, especially in scanned carbon-ion delivery. This treatment planning study aims to focus on clinically feasible solutions, such as the beam angle selection and margin design to increase the robustness against inter-fractional uncertainties. Methods: This study included 10 patients with weekly 3D-CT imaging and physician-approved Clinical Target Volume (CTV). The study was directed to keep the CTV-coverage using six beam angle configurations in combination with different Internal Target Volume (ITV) concepts. These were: geometric-margin (symmetric 3 and 5 mm margin); range-equivalent margins with an isotropic HU replacement; and to evaluate the need of asymmetric margins the water-equivalent range path (WEPL) was determined per patient from the set of CTs. Plan optimization and forward dose calculation in each week-CT were performed with the research treatment planning system TRiP98 and the plan quality evaluated in terms of CTV coverage (V95CTV) and homogeneity dose (HCTV = D5-D95). Results: The beam geometry had a substantial impact on the target irradiation over the treatment course, with the single posterior or two beams showing the best average coverage of the CTV. The use of geometric margins for the more robust beam geometries showed acceptable results, with a V95CTV of (99.2 ± 1.2)% for the 5 mm-margin. For the non-robust configurations, due to substantial changes in the radiological depth, the use of this margin results in a V95CTV that might be below 80%, only showing improvement when the range changes are included. Conclusions: Selection of adequate beam configurations and treatment margins in ion-beam therapy of pancreatic tumors is of great importance. For a single posterior beam or two beam configurations, application of geometrical margins compensate for dose degradation induced by inter-fractional anatomy changes for the majority of the analyzed treatment fractions

    Nest-Site Selection and Nesting Ecology of Giant Canada Geese in Central Tennessee

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    Little information is available on giant Canada goose (Branta canadensis maxima) nest-site selection on isolated nesting ponds. We monitored 46 island and 72 shoreline nests in the Upper Cumberland (UC) region of central Tennessee during 2002 and 2003. We measured 6 habitat variables at nesting ponds and randomly-selected non-nesting ponds. We used logistic regression to determine which habitat variables were important in nest-site selection. Presence of an island was the most important variable, but it was excluded from the final analysis because of quasi-separation (i.e., geese nested on all known islands in the study area). Geese that nested on shorelines generally selected larger ponds that may have offered a larger foraging base and more escape options from predators. Nest success rates were similar for island and shoreline nests. Management actions in the UC region and similar areas should be concentrated on ponds with islands because of higher goose nesting densities and ease in finding nests

    Randomised phase I/II study to evaluate carbon ion radiotherapy versus fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy in patients with recurrent or progressive gliomas: The CINDERELLA trial

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Treatment of patients with recurrent glioma includes neurosurgical resection, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. In most cases, a full course of radiotherapy has been applied after primary diagnosis, therefore application of re-irradiation has to be applied cauteously. With modern precision photon techniques such as fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT), a second course of radiotherapy is safe and effective and leads to survival times of 22, 16 and 8 months for recurrent WHO grade II, III and IV gliomas.</p> <p>Carbon ions offer physical and biological characteristics. Due to their inverted dose profile and the high local dose deposition within the Bragg peak precise dose application and sparing of normal tissue is possible. Moreover, in comparison to photons, carbon ions offer an increased relative biological effectiveness (RBE), which can be calculated between 2 and 5 depending on the GBM cell line as well as the endpoint analyzed. Protons, however, offer an RBE which is comparable to photons.</p> <p>First Japanese Data on the evaluation of carbon ion radiation therapy for the treatment of primary high-grade gliomas showed promising results in a small and heterogeneous patient collective.</p> <p>Methods Design</p> <p>In the current Phase I/II-CINDERELLA-trial re-irradiation using carbon ions will be compared to FSRT applied to the area of contrast enhancement representing high-grade tumor areas in patients with recurrent gliomas. Within the Phase I Part of the trial, the Recommended Dose (RD) of carbon ion radiotherapy will be determined in a dose escalation scheme. In the subsequent randomized Phase II part, the RD will be evaluated in the experimental arm, compared to the standard arm, FSRT with a total dose of 36 Gy in single doses of 2 Gy.</p> <p>Primary endpoint of the Phase I part is toxicity. Primary endpoint of the randomized part II is survival after re-irradiation at 12 months, secondary endpoint is progression-free survival.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The Cinderella trial is the first study to evaluate carbon ion radiotherapy for recurrent gliomas, and to compare this treatment to photon FSRT in a randomized setting using an ion beam delivered by intensity modulated rasterscanning.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>NCT01166308</p

    Assessment of the cardiac safety and pharmacokinetics of a short course, twice daily dose of orally-administered mifepristone in healthy male subjects

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    Background: Mifepristone is approved to control hyperglycemia in adults with endogenousCushing’s syndrome and is described as a mildly QTc prolonging drug, based on a TQT study.The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of mifepristone on the QTc interval at plasmamifepristone concentrations exceeding those observed in the TQT study.Methods: Twenty healthy, male volunteers were given three doses of 1200 mg mifepristoneevery 12 h with a high-fat meal in a randomized, placebo-controlled 2-period crossover study.Holter ECG recordings were made on Day 1 and 2.Results: Eighteen subjects completed the study. Mean peak plasma mifepristone concentrationswere 4.01 μg/mL (CV: 31%) on the fi rst dose and 5.77 μg/mL (CV: 29%) on the thirddose. Mifepristone did not have a meaningful QTc effect. The placebo-corrected, change-from--baseline QTcF (ΔΔQTcF) was between –1.6 and 0.7 ms on the fi rst dose (upper bound of 90%CI 3.8 ms) and the largest ΔΔQTcF on the third dose was 4.9 ms (upper bound of 90% CI: 8.4 ms).Concentration effect modeling showed a slightly negative slope of –0.01 ms/ng/mL.Conclusions: Mifepristone did not cause a clinically meaningful QTc prolongation in healthyvolunteers at plasma concent rations of mifepristone and its main metabolites that clearlyexceeded those seen in a previous TQT study

    Travel Behavior, Residential Preference, and Urban Design: A Multi-Disciplinary National Analysis

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    This report summarizes the findings of a national project to examine the travel behavior, social capital, health, and lifestyle preferences of residents of neotraditional developments (NTD) compared to more standard suburban developments. We compare survey results from residents of matched pairs of neighborhoods in seventeen U.S. cities and towns, with each pair comprised of one NTD and one typical suburban neighborhood of similar size, age, and socio-demographic composition. The study addresses salient themes in the transportation, planning and health literatures: a national study, surveying populations of diverse incomes, collecting resident information on preferences for and attitudes towards neighborhood qualities, and addressing transportation and health outcomes for diverse community designs
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