Ningyo: Destined for the Trash Can?

Japanese Ningyo (dolls) are static art, individual sculptures and expressions of creativity. This paper explores the loss of these wonderful works of art. While western dolls fetch high prices and are highly sought after if even a few decades old, we explore the destination of most ningyo as they fail to be recognized or preserved. Particularly the dolls fashioned by women to decorate their homes, as their beauty fades they are set aside. What has happened to them? What is taking their place as globalization is changing the decorating desires of the Japanese

Think Globally and Act Locally: Local Implementation of Japan\u27s Internationalization Policy

In the late 1980s, the Japanese national government proposed a plan to internationalize the country – to increase international understanding. This national proposal resulted from the pressures of globalization as well as a mixture of domestic political and economic factors. Through this broad proposal, Japan sought to decentralize and encourage local levels of government to create individual policies for globalizing their communities. It proposed internationalizing business and education, exposing the Japanese people to outside cultures, exposing foreigners to Japan\u27s culture, and increasing the Japanese people\u27s familiarity with English. While the national government provided general suggestions for internationalization (kokusaika), its intent was for the prefectures and cities to create their own policies and programs. We will explore the implementation of Japan\u27s internationalization plan in the Aomori Prefecture, specifically Aomori City, Misawa City, and Hachinohe City. Each plan, despite similar goals, is intentionally highly individual in nature; we will explore their efforts at economic internationalization and cultural internationalization. Due in part to vague goals and a lack of program evaluation, it is hard to assess the success of these internationalization policies. Nonetheless, we will consider progress so far and conclude with suggestions for improving future internationalization efforts

Supporting Our Struggling Students: Details of a Hybrid Mathematics Summer Bridge Program

It goes without saying that the schools in the consortium are used to dealing with gifted and talented students. However with such high-caliber students, we also have high expectations. What resources do we offer to the students who struggle at our institutions? This presentation will detail the setup and results of EXCEL2 - a summer bridge program offered at the Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy to help students who were unable to meet course expectations. The program operated through a hybrid online/in-person model - with instruction primarily given through video conferencing but coupled with an on-campus experience

Persistent delirium in older hospital patients: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Delirium is associated with future dementia progression. Yet whether this occurs subclinically over months and years, or persistent delirium merges into worsened dementia is not understood. Our objective was to estimate the prevalence of persistent delirium and understand variation in its duration. Methods: We adopted an identical search strategy to a previous systematic review, only including studies using a recognised diagnostic framework for ascertaining delirium at follow-up (persistent delirium). Studies included hospitalised older patients outside critical and palliative care settings. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on 11th January 2022. We applied risk of bias assessments based on Standards of Reporting of Neurological Disorders criteria and assessed strength of recommendations using the grading of recommendation, assessment, development and evaluation (GRADE) approach. Estimates were pooled across studies using random-effects meta-analysis, and we estimated associations with follow-up duration using robust error meta-regression. Results: We identified 13 new cohorts, which we added to 10 from the previous systematic review (23 relevant studies, with 39 reports of persistent delirium at 7 time-points in 3186 individuals admitted to hospital care (mean age 82 years and 41% dementia prevalence). Studies were mainly at moderate risk of bias. Pooled delirium prevalence estimates at discharge were 36% (95% CI 22% to 51%, 13 studies). Robust error meta-regression did not show variation in prevalence of persistent delirium over time (-1.6% per month, 95% CI -4.8 to 1.6, p=0.08). Margins estimates for this model indicate a prevalence of persistent delirium of 16% (95% CI 6% to 25%) at 12 months. Conclusions: This systematic review emphasises the importance of delirium as a persistent and extensive problem (GRADE certainty = moderate), raising questions on chronic delirium as a clinical entity and how it might evolve into dementia. Addressing persistent delirium will require a whole-system, integrated approach to detect, follow-up and implement opportunities for recovery across all healthcare settings

A Study of Demographic Influence and Best Practices for South Georgia Career, Technical, and Agriculture Education End-of-Pathway Assessments

The purpose of this study was to describe the best practices used in south Georgia region CTAE programs that resulted in successful pass rates on Georgia CTAE End-of- Pathway Assessments and to propose recommended best practices to improve results for all CTAE pathways. The top five schools from three different calculations with the highest student success were used for this study - highest 3-year average, most improved average over a 3-year period, and the greatest positive difference between actual and predicted percent of change in EOPA. Once the schools had been selected a telephone interview was conducted with each CTAE Director representing the schools. The responses became the best practices to improve student success on the EOPA.I. INTRODUCTION - 1 Historical Context - 2 Current Context - 10 Theoretical Framework - 11 Statement of the Problem - 12 Purpose of the Study - 13 Research Questions - 13 Outcomes of the Study - 14 Limitations - 14 Assumption - 14 Definition of Key Terms - 14 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE - 18 Introduction - 18 Accountability for Learning - 18 Assessment Development - 20 Assessment as Added Value - 21 Theoretical Framework - 22 Demographic Influence on Assessment - 24 Best Practice - 25 Summary - 26 III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY - 27 Introduction - 27 Purpose of the Study - 27 Research Questions - 28 Research Design- 28 Population - 29 Data Collection Procedures 29 Interview Procedures - 31 Instrumentation - 32 Data Analysis - 35 Findings- 38 IV. FINDINGS - 40 Introduction - 40 Reporting of Results - 41 Qualitative Research - 54 Interview Findings - 55 Chapter Summary - 86 V. CONCLUSIONS - 88 Conclusions From Demographic Data Findings - 89 Conclusions From EOPA Test Results - 90 Conclusions From Qualitative Interview Findings - 91 Discussion of Research Questions - 91 Recommendations for Further Research - 96 REFERENCES - 98 APPENDIX A: E-mail Seeking Permission for Study - 110 APPENDIX B: E-mail Requesting EOPA Information - 112 APPENDIX C: E-mail seeking Permission for Telephone Interview - 114 APPENDIX D: Excel Spreadsheet Used for Entering EOPA Results - 116 APPENDIX E: E-mail for the Pilot Study - 118 APPENDIX F: Interview Questions -- 120 APPENDIX G: EOPA Skills Assessment Test Takers - 122 APPENDIX H: EOPA Average Improvement over a 3-Year Period - 126 APPENDIX I: Demographic Data Collected - 129 APPENDIX J: SPSS Pearson's Correlations for Demographic Data - 133 APPENDIX K: Responses to Telephone Interview Questions - 135 APPENDIX L: Transcription of Telephone Interviews - 140 APPENDIX M: Institutional Review Board (IRB) Exemption Report - 177Martinez, Reynaldo L. Jr.Hand, Carl MPrater, Marcella G.Siegrist, Gerald R.Ed.DEducatio

Algorithms and Bounds for Very Strong Rainbow Coloring

A well-studied coloring problem is to assign colors to the edges of a graph $G$ so that, for every pair of vertices, all edges of at least one shortest path between them receive different colors. The minimum number of colors necessary in such a coloring is the strong rainbow connection number (\src(G)) of the graph. When proving upper bounds on \src(G), it is natural to prove that a coloring exists where, for \emph{every} shortest path between every pair of vertices in the graph, all edges of the path receive different colors. Therefore, we introduce and formally define this more restricted edge coloring number, which we call \emph{very strong rainbow connection number} (\vsrc(G)). In this paper, we give upper bounds on \vsrc(G) for several graph classes, some of which are tight. These immediately imply new upper bounds on \src(G) for these classes, showing that the study of \vsrc(G) enables meaningful progress on bounding \src(G). Then we study the complexity of the problem to compute \vsrc(G), particularly for graphs of bounded treewidth, and show this is an interesting problem in its own right. We prove that \vsrc(G) can be computed in polynomial time on cactus graphs; in contrast, this question is still open for \src(G). We also observe that deciding whether \vsrc(G) = k is fixed-parameter tractable in $k$ and the treewidth of $G$. Finally, on general graphs, we prove that there is no polynomial-time algorithm to decide whether \vsrc(G) \leq 3 nor to approximate \vsrc(G) within a factor $n^{1-\varepsilon}$, unless P$=$NP

Ethical Decision Making in Online Graduate Nursing Education and Implications for Professional Practice

Academic dishonesty is an issue in academic institutions, which is escalating due to digital cheating. Cheating in online courses is a challenge in health science disciplines where high ethical standards are expected in professional practice. Unethical behaviors may begin in the academic career and persist into the professional career. The purposes of this article are to examine academic dishonesty within the online learning environment, transference of unethical behavior into professional practice, and strategies to reduce academic dishonesty in online graduate nursing education. In order to maintain high academic and professional standards, the individual must feel a moral obligation to engage in ethical behaviors in academia using online instructional technologies and in professional practice. Educators that teach in online courses are obligated to develop pedagogical and instructional designs that discourage dishonesty and encourage ethical decision making in the academic and professional setting. This article provides a glimpse of online cheating in academia and its implications for graduate nursing education and professional practice

Economics of Cormorant Predation on Catfish Farms

The Double-crested Cormorant is the primary avian predator on catfish farms causing significant economic losses primarily due to 1) on-farm expenditures related to bird-management activities and 2) value of the catfish lost to cormorants. This comprehensive economic study quantified these two economic effects by surveying catfish farms in the delta regions of Mississippi and Arkansas. On-farm expenditures for bird scaring were used to quantify bird-management costs. Economic losses from fish consumed by cormorants were quantified by evaluating data from field studies of the abundance, distribution, and diet of cormorants in the Mississippi delta. This study found that catfish farmers spent an average of $285 per acre on farms to scare birds, making bird-scaring costs one of the top five expenditures of raising catfish. Expenses for manpower (labor/manager) were the greatest cost, followed by vehicle expenses (fuel/depreciation/repairs/maintenance) used to run birds, and cost of levee upkeep to chase birds (Figure 1). Many of these costs were fixed in that effort was needed regardless of the volume of catfish produced. Increased fixed costs disproportionally harm small catfish farms because of their limited scale of production

What is the clinical and ethical importance of incidental abnormalities found by knee MRI?

INTRODUCTION: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used to examine joints for research purposes. It may detect both suspected and unsuspected abnormalities. This raises both clinical and ethical issues, especially when incidental abnormalities are detected. The prevalence of incidental, potentially clinically significant abnormalities identified by MRI and their clinical significance in a population undergoing knee MRI in research studies are unknown. METHODS: We examined the prevalence of such lesions in healthy asymptomatic adults and those with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA) undergoing knee MRI with limited sequences for the purpose of research. The MRI findings in 601 asymptomatic subjects and 132 with knee OA who underwent at least one limited knee MRI scan for cartilage volume measurement were examined by an MRI radiologist for the presence of potentially clinically significant abnormalities. RESULTS: These were present in 2.3% of healthy and 2.3% of OA subjects. All required further investigation to exclude non-benign disease, including four with bone marrow expansion (0.7%), requiring further investigation and management. A single potentially life-threatening lesion, a myeloma lesion, was identified in a subject with symptomatic knee OA on their second MRI scan in a longitudinal study. CONCLUSION: As musculoskeletal MRI is increasingly used clinically and for research purposes, the potential for detecting unsuspected abnormalities that require further investigation should be recognized. Incorporating a system to detect these, to characterize unexpected findings, and to facilitate appropriate medical follow-up when designing studies using this technology should be considered ethical research practice