Sense of Belonging: International Student Enrollment in Business Programs

Objective: The authors sought to develop a better understanding of the sense of belonging to international students enrolled in graduate-level business programs. Background: A theoretical framework exists to support the sense of belonging as a significant predictor of academic persistence. However, a paucity of literature exists that investigates international students’ sense of belonging in graduate-level programs.Method: The qualitative case-study research method was used to collect data via semi-structured focus groups and interviews with 13 participants. Data were recorded, transcribed, themed, and coded to establish research findings.Results: Participants reported barriers such as loneliness, isolation, immobility, and language barriers in the development of academic and social belonging.Conclusion: Campus-based support services focus on integrating international students into the campus community. However, little effort is placed on helping domestic students support the sense of belonging to their international peers. Furthermore, there is some evidence indicating that international students either failed to engage or were unaware of services that might help them overcome social and academic barriers. Application: Educational institutions should improve the ease of access, enhance existing, and develop additional services to help improve the sense of belonging to international students

Concurrent Multi-Target Laser Ablation for Making Nano-Composite Films

New method of using laser ablation for film deposition that can be called as concurrent multi-beam multi-target matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation and pulsed laser deposition (MBMT-MAPLE/PLD) is described. Practical MBMT-MAPLE/PLD system built at Dillard University has three separate laser beams, three targets and the remotely controlled plume overlapping mechanism that provides even mixing of the target materials during their deposition on the substrate. The system accommodates MAPLE targets in the form of polymer solutions frozen with flowing liquid nitrogen. The feasibility of the method was demonstrated when it was used for making polymer nano-composite films with two inorganic additives: upconversion fluorescent phosphor NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ and aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO). Three laser beams, an infrared 1064-nm beam for the MAPLE and two 532-nm beams for the PLD targets, were concurrently used in the process. The fabricated nano-composite films were characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical fluorescent spectroscopy, and the measurement of the quantum efficiency (QE) of the upconversion fluorescence. The size of the inorganic nanoparticles varied in the range 10–200 nm. The AZO additive increased QE by 1.6 times. The conclusion was made on the feasibility of MBMT-MAPLE/PLD method for making multi-component nano-composite films for various applications

Sense of Belonging: International Student Enrollment in Business Programs

Objective: The authors sought to develop a better understanding of the sense of belonging to international students enrolled in graduate-level business programs. Background: A theoretical framework exists to support the sense of belonging as a significant predictor of academic persistence. However, a paucity of literature exists that investigates international students’ sense of belonging in graduate-level programs.Method: The qualitative case-study research method was used to collect data via semi-structured focus groups and interviews with 13 participants. Data were recorded, transcribed, themed, and coded to establish research findings.Results: Participants reported barriers such as loneliness, isolation, immobility, and language barriers in the development of academic and social belonging.Conclusion: Campus-based support services focus on integrating international students into the campus community. However, little effort is placed on helping domestic students support the sense of belonging to their international peers. Furthermore, there is some evidence indicating that international students either failed to engage or were unaware of services that might help them overcome social and academic barriers. Application: Educational institutions should improve the ease of access, enhance existing, and develop additional services to help improve the sense of belonging to international students

Predicting Online Islamophobic Behavior after #ParisAttack

The tragic Paris terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015 sparked a massive global discussion on Twitter and other social media, with millions of tweets in the first few hours after the attacks. Most of these tweets were condemning the attacks and showing support for Parisians. One of the trending debates related to the attacks concerned possible association between Muslims and terrorism, which resulted in a world-wide debate between those attacking and those defending Islam. In this paper, we use this incident as a case study to examine using online social network interactions prior to an event to predict what attitudes will be expressed in response to the event. Specifically, we focus on how a person’s online content and network dynamics can be used to predict future attitudes and stance in the aftermath of a major event. In our study, we collected a set of 8.36 million tweets related to the Paris attacks within the 50 hours following the event, of which we identified over 900k tweets mentioning Islam and Muslims. We then quantitatively analyzed users’ network interactions and historical tweets to predict their attitudes towards Islam and Muslims. We provide a description of the quantitative results based on the tweet content (hashtags) and network interactions (retweets, replies, and mentions). We analyze two types of data: (1) we use post-event tweets to learn users’ stated stance towards Muslims based on sampling methods and crowd-sourced annotations; and (2) we employ pre-event interactions on Twitter to build a classifier to predict post-event stance. We found that pre-event network interactions can predict attitudes towards Muslims with 82% macro F-measure, even in the absence of prior mentions of Islam, Muslims, or related terms

Novel microwell-based spectrophotometric assay for determination of atorvastatin calcium in its pharmaceutical formulations

The formation of a colored charge-transfer (CT) complex between atorvastatin calcium (ATR-Ca) as a n-electron donor and 2, 3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ) as a π-electron acceptor was investigated, for the first time. The spectral characteristics of the CT complex have been described, and the reaction mechanism has been proved by computational molecular modeling. The reaction was employed in the development of a novel microwell-based spectrophotometric assay for determination of ATR-Ca in its pharmaceutical formulations. The proposed assay was carried out in 96-microwell plates. The absorbance of the colored-CT complex was measured at 460 nm by microwell-plate absorbance reader. The optimum conditions of the reaction and the analytical procedures of the assay were established. Under the optimum conditions, linear relationship with good correlation coefficient (0.9995) was found between the absorbance and the concentration of ATR-Ca in the range of 10-150 μg/well. The limits of detection and quantitation were 5.3 and 15.8 μg/well, respectively. No interference was observed from the additives that are present in the pharmaceutical formulation or from the drugs that are co-formulated with ATR-Ca in its combined formulations. The assay was successfully applied to the analysis of ATR-Ca in its pharmaceutical dosage forms with good accuracy and precision. The assay described herein has great practical value in the routine analysis of ATR-Ca in quality control laboratories, as it has high throughput property, consumes minimum volume of organic solvent thus it offers the reduction in the exposures of the analysts to the toxic effects of organic solvents, and reduction in the analysis cost by 50-fold. Although the proposed assay was validated for ATR-Ca, however, the same methodology could be used for any electron-donating analyte for which a CT reaction can be performed

CMS Software Distribution on the LCG and OSG Grids

The efficient exploitation of worldwide distributed storage and computing resources available in the grids require a robust, transparent and fast deployment of experiment specific software. The approach followed by the CMS experiment at CERN in order to enable Monte-Carlo simulations, data analysis and software development in an international collaboration is presented. The current status and future improvement plans are described.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, latex with hyperref

Effect of extreme low and high temperatures on the almond moth, Ephestia cautella (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

he different immature stages of the almond moth, Ephestia cautella (Walker) were exposed to low temperature of -5ºC for different exposure times. Exposure of eggs to 240 to 360 minutes is sufficient to achieve 100% mortality for this stage. Exposed early larval instar to -5ºC for 180 minutes is sufficient to achieve 100% mortality. Exposure of the late larval instars to 300 and/or 360 minutes is effective to achieve a complete mortality for the late larval instars of the pest. The calculated LT50 and LT95 were 113.73 and 208.64 minutes. Exposure of pupae to 300 minutes or more is effective to get a complete mortality for the pupal stage. High temperatures of 45º, 50º, 55º and 60ºC were tested against egg, late larval instars and pupal stages of E. cautella. Mortality tended to be increased with the increasing of temperature and exposure time. Exposure time for more than one hour at 45ºC, 15 minutes at 50ºC and 10 minutes at 55ºC were more effective and led to more than 95% mortality for the egg stage of E. cautella. Exposure of the late larval instars for more than 97.22, 72.17, 17.65 minutes at 45, 50 and 55ºC is sufficient to achieve more than 95% mortality for the late larval instars as indicated by LT95 values. Exposing the pupae to 25 minutes at high temperatures of 50ºC and to 15 minutes at 55ºC is an effective to get complete mortality for the pupal stage. Thus exposure times for more than 90 minutes at high temperature of 45ºC; 33 minutes at 50ºC and/or 11.67 minutes at 55ºC were more effective to achieve more than 95% mortality of the pupal stage of E. cautella.

Laparoscopic and bacteriologic evidence of bacterial vaginosis in unexplained infertility

Background: Aim of current study was to estimate the prevalence of Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) among women with Unexplained Infertility (UI) and to describe laparoscopic appearances in positive cases.Methods: Design: Prospective randomized comparative diagnostic trial. Setting: Tertiary care referral facility and University hospital. Patients: One hundred and fifty women divided into UI study group A (120 cases) and a control group B (30 cases). Intervention(s): Vaginal and endouterine swabs form two subgroups of the UI group (60 cases each) and vaginal swabs from control group (30 cases). All swabs were tested using Amsel's criteria then cultured. Thereafter, UI group (60 cases) was subjected to diagnostic laparoscopy. Main outcome measure(s):  the prevalence of BV among women with UI and laparoscopic findings among positive cases.Results: In the study group, the number of positive cases of BV confirmed by culture was 51 cases (42.5%) while it was diagnosed in three cases (10%) in group B (P = 0.0001). In group A, BV was diagnosed in 24 and 27 infertile cases with periods of infertility less than and more than 3 years respectively and in 39 patients (32.5%) with recurrent vaginitis without statistically significant difference. There was an insignificant difference in diagnosis of BV whether the site of sample was the posterior fornix of the vagina or the endometrial cavity. Positive laparoscopic findings were reported in 77 patients (64.2%). The most common laparoscopic abnormalities were hyperemic uterus and chronic salpingitis.   Conclusions: BV is frequently implicated in female infertility and it is probably an underestimated cause of UI. There is no extra benefit from using culture instead of Amsel’s criteria for the diagnosis of BV.  No difference in the site of sample taking in diagnosis of BV from posterior vaginal fornix or endometrial cavity.  Laparoscopy is very beneficial in explaining the effect of BV on the upper genital tract

Electrochemically Generated Luminescence of Luminol and Luciferin in Ionic Liquids

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is the generation of light triggered by an electrochemical reaction. ECL has been extensively studied in solvent-based electrolytes, but there is a lack of data on using electrode reactions to populate an excited-state light emitter in room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). This work explores the current response, light intensity (photon counting), and spectral signatures of the cathodic ECL of luminol and firefly's luciferin in imidazolium-based RTILs. We have demonstrated that the cathodic (superoxide-triggered) ECL of both luminol and adenylate-ester of firefly's luciferin is viable in RTILs, explored the effect of water contaminations, and importantly, shown that the ECL signal persists for up to about 700 s after the removal of the external cathodic pulse, which is probably due to the stabilization of superoxide by double-layer cation-rich structures. Long-lived RTIL double-layer structures and their endogenous fields are detected as stable and discrete open-circuit potential plateaus