Operationalizing “Substantive Faculty Interaction” for online courses: identifying high impact teaching practices

To operationalize the concept of “substantive faculty interaction,” researchers at Regis University used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to determine what online teaching practices have the highest impact on students’ perception of faculty-to-student engagement. A three-component model that accounts for 70% of the variance was identified. The components consisted of high-touch, design, and high-tech teaching practices. The high-touch component accounted for the largest percentage of the variance and the six teaching practices that comprise this component are recommended to become requirements for online teachers. They include: (1) Actively engaging in discussion boards (load of .8000), (2) Getting to know faculty (.7851), (3) Present multiple times per week (.7752), (4) Soliciting feedback (.7424) (5) Individual feedback on assignments (.6991) and (6) posting weekly announcements (.6735). Universities now have an operationalized definition of “substantive faculty interaction” that has been statistically validated

Effects of Metformin on Spontaneous and Clomiphene-Induced Ovulation in the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

ABSTRACT Background Obese women with the polycystic ovary syndrome are relatively unresponsive to the induction of ovulation by clomiphene. We hypothesized that reducing insulin secretion by administering metformin would increase the ovulatory response to clomiphene. Methods We performed oral glucose-tolerance tests before and after the administration of 500 mg of metformin or placebo three times daily for 35 days in 61 obese women with the polycystic ovary syndrome. Women who did not ovulate spontaneously were then given 50 mg of clomiphene daily for five days while continuing to take metformin or placebo. Serum progesterone was measured on days 14, 28, 35, 44, and 53, and ovulation was presumed to have occurred if the concentration exceeded 8 ng per milliliter (26 nmol per liter) on any of these days. Results Twenty-one women in the metformin group and 25 women in the placebo group were given clomiphene because they did not ovulate spontaneously during the first phase of the study. Among the 21 women given metformin plus clomiphene, the mean (±SE) area under the serum insulin curve after oral glucose administration decreased from 6745±2021 to 3479±455 µU per milliliter per minute (40.5±12.1 to 20.9±2.7 nmol per liter per minute, P=0.03), but it did not change significantly in the 25 women given placebo plus clomiphene. Nineteen of the 21 women (90 percent) who received metformin plus clomiphene ovulated (mean peak serum progesterone concentration, 23.8±3.4 ng per milliliter [7.6±10.9 nmol per liter]). Two of the 25 women (8 percent) who received placebo plus clomiphene ovulated (P\u3c0.001). Overall, 31 of the 35 women (89 percent) treated with metformin ovulated spontaneously or in response to clomiphene, as compared with 3 of the 26 women (12 percent) treated with placebo. Conclusions The ovulatory response to clomiphene can be increased in obese women with the polycystic ovary syndrome by decreasing insulin secretion with metformin. (N Engl J Med 1998;338:1876-80.

A Pilot Study of Brief Group Therapies for Preschool Children: Parent Training vs Group Play Therapy vs Project Group

The optimum modality for treating preschool age children with behavioral and emotional problems is uncertain. One study showed that children with good ego strength respond to psychotherapy independent of whether it is group or individual psychotherapy, provided that a minimum period of psychotherapy occurs (ovick, 1965). The literature has demonstrated that parent training, individual play therapy, and group therapy are all effective modes of treatment with children (Axline, 1969; Moreland, et ai, 1983; Pesco solido & Petrella, 1986). Due to the limited psychiatric resources in the military setting and increasing demand for service, the option for individual therapy may be restricted to specific neurotic clinical diagnoses. We studied the efficacy of short term group treatment applicable to behavior ally and emotionally disordered children, ages 4 through 6 years. In a review of various group treatments, the number of sessions ranged from 10 to 15 (Abramowitz, 1976). In another study, the mean n umber of hours needed to produce therapeutic benefits in parent training was 9.5 (Forehand, et al, 1979). All of the treatments to be considered are structured around a group principal to allow more patients to be treated for the same clinician time expenditure. Our study compared parent training, to group play therapy, and a project group on a population of behaviorally or emotionally disordered children, ages 4 to 6. The groups themselves ran for eight weeks, 75 minutes each week, along with 50-minute pre and post sessions with each set of parents. Total clinical time was approximately 24 hours per group for both therapists

Gaussian limits for multidimensional random sequential packing at saturation (extended version)

Consider the random sequential packing model with infinite input and in any dimension. When the input consists of non-zero volume convex solids we show that the total number of solids accepted over cubes of volume $\lambda$ is asymptotically normal as $\lambda \to \infty$. We provide a rate of approximation to the normal and show that the finite dimensional distributions of the packing measures converge to those of a mean zero generalized Gaussian field. The method of proof involves showing that the collection of accepted solids satisfies the weak spatial dependence condition known as stabilization.Comment: 31 page

Chevalier Jackson, M.D. (1865-1958): Il ne se repose jamais.

In the final year of the American Civil War, 1865, Chevalier Jackson was born on the 4th of November just outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The eldest of three sons of a poor, livestock-raising family, Jackson was raised in a period of social and political unrest. He was perhaps an even more unrestful boy. The description of his childhood days from his father’s father—Il ne se repose jamais, ‘‘He never rests’’—would ultimately reflect the man, doctor, and evangelist Jackson would later become.1 Indeed, he never did rest, Jackson would tirelessly pave the way for modern bronchoscopy and endoscopy as a whole; bringing international renown not only to himself, but also to his specialty

Efficient digital self-calibration of video-rate pipeline ADCs using white gaussian noise

Proceedings of IEEE, ISCAS 2003, Vol.I, pp. 877-880A digital-domain self-calibration technique for video-rate pipeline A/D converters based on a white Gaussian noise input signal is presented. The implementation of the proposed algorithm requires simple digital circuitv. An application design example of the self-calibration of a IZb. 40 MUS CMOSpipeline ADC is shown to illustrate that the overall linearity of the ADC can be highly improved using this technique

Seminal fluid protein divergence among populations exhibiting postmating prezygotic reproductive isolation

Despite holding a central role in fertilization, reproductive traits often show elevated rates of evolution and diversification. The rapid evolution of seminal fluid proteins (Sfps) within populations is predicted to cause mis‐signalling between the male ejaculate and the female during and after mating resulting in postmating prezygotic (PMPZ) isolation between populations. Crosses between Drosophila montana populations show PMPZ isolation in the form of reduced fertilization success in both noncompetitive and competitive contexts. Here we test whether male ejaculate proteins produced in the accessory glands or ejaculatory bulb differ between populations using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. We find more than 150 differentially abundant proteins between populations that may contribute to PMPZ isolation, including a number of proteases, peptidases and several orthologues of Drosophila melanogaster Sfps known to mediate fertilization success. Males from the population that elicit the stronger PMPZ isolation after mating with foreign females typically produced greater quantities of Sfps. The accessory glands and ejaculatory bulb show enrichment for different gene ontology (GO) terms and the ejaculatory bulb contributes more differentially abundant proteins. Proteins with a predicted secretory signal evolve faster than nonsecretory proteins. Finally, we take advantage of quantitative proteomics data for three Drosophila species to determine shared and unique GO enrichments of Sfps between taxa and which potentially mediate PMPZ isolation. Our study provides the first high‐throughput quantitative proteomic evidence showing divergence of reproductive proteins between populations that exhibit PMPZ isolation