ArtsApp.com – Digitizing the Music School Application Process

Dejen Tesfagiorgis was a senior in Entrepreneurship at the University of Saint Thomas. As an accomplished musician, Dejen had to make a decision between accepting a scholarship to pursue music at Juliard or launch the business he developed in his senior capstone Entrepreneurship class. This case provides a rich context in which to formally explore opportunity identification using the well accepted framework of POCD, as well as explore to the student entrepreneur experience

Borealis Software Case Study

This case study details the potential acquisition of Amcom Software by two entrepreneurs. It is intended to be used as an in-class case study in an Entrepreneurial Finance course, after pro formas and valuation have been covered, to illustrate normalizing and projecting financial statements to arrive at an estimate of future firm value. Students are asked to use the financial information given to create their own financial projections for Amcom should the entrepreneurs make the acquisition. Students can then decide whether the company is worth purchasing for the $12 million asking price

Chronic kidney disease: The distribution of health care dollars

Chronic kidney disease: The distribution of health care dollars.BackgroundThe cost of care for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is known to be high. The factors responsible for higher ESRD cost develop during chronic kidney disease (CKD), where the data on distribution of cost are limited.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study of 1995 through 1998 incident dialysis patients was performed to study the distribution of costs during the 24 months prior to initiation of dialysis. Patient data were obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Patients who were Medicare eligible for at least 2 years prior to initiation of dialysis were included in the study. Financial data were obtained from Medicare Part A and Part B claims and inflationary adjustments were made. The study period was divided into four segments based on overall distribution of cost.ResultsThe mean age was 75 years, 51% were males, 73% were white, and 22% were black. Overall, patient comorbidity increased significantly during the study years. Cost showed a sharp increase in the last 6 months prior to initiation of dialysis. Hospitalization was the major component of cost throughout study period. Patients who initiated hemodialysis incurred a higher cost compared to patients who initiated other modes of kidney replacement therapy. Patients with diabetes or cardiovascular disease incurred higher cost compared to those who had no diabetes or cardiovascular disease, respectively.ConclusionThese data showed that hospitalization was the major component of the sharp increase in cost around the initiation of dialysis. Increased comorbidity was associated with higher cost. A focus on timely management of CKD may prevent future morbidity and costs

Peritoneal and hemodialysis: I. Differences in patient characteristics at initiation

Peritoneal and hemodialysis: I. Differences in patient characteristics at initiation.BackgroundComparisons of mortality outcomes between peritoneal dialysis (PD) and hemodialysis (HD) patients have shown varying results, which may be caused by the unequally distributed clinical conditions of patients at initiation. To address this issue, we evaluated the clinical characteristics of 105,954 patients at the initiation of PD and HD, using the U.S. national incidence data on treated end-stage renal disease from the Medical Evidence Form, 1995 to 1997.MethodsA general linear model was used to analyze differences of age, albumin, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and hematocrit; categorical data analysis to evaluate body mass index (BMI), grouped into four categories: !19, 19–25 (!25), 25–30 (!30), and 30+; and logistic regression to assess the likelihood of initiating PD versus HD. Diabetics (DM) were analyzed separately from non-diabetics (NDM). Explanatory variables in the logistic regression included incidence year, race, gender, age, BMI, albumin, creatinine, BUN, and hematocrit. Race included white and black. Age was categorized into four groups: 20–44, 45–64, 65–74, and 75+.ResultsAt the initiation of dialysis PD patients were approximately 6 years younger (P ! 0.0001) than HD patients. PD patients also had higher (P ! 0.0001) albumin (+0.35 g/dL for DM and +0.23 g/dL for NDM) and hematocrit (+1.64% for DM and +1.71% for NDM) levels, and lower (P ! 0.04) BUN (-8.75 mg/dL for DM and -5.24 mg/dL for NDM) and creatinine (-0.51 mg/dL for DM and -0.23 mg/dL for NDM) levels than HD patients. Whites had a higher (P ! 0.0001) likelihood of starting PD than blacks, and patients with BMI !19 had a lower (P ! 0.0001) chance of beginning on PD.ConclusionPD patients had favorable clinical conditions at the initiation of dialysis, which should be taken into consideration when comparing dialysis outcomes between the two modalities

Re-examining the effects of verbal instructional type on early stage motor learning

The present study investigated the differential effects of analogy and explicit instructions on early stage motor learning and movement in a modified high jump task. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: analogy, explicit light (reduced informational load), or traditional explicit (large informational load). During the two-day learning phase, participants learned a novel high jump technique based on the ‘scissors’ style using the instructions for their respective conditions. For the single-day testing phase, participants completed both a retention test and task-relevant pressure test, the latter of which featured a rising high-jump-bar pressure manipulation. Although analogy learners demonstrated slightly more efficient technique and reported fewer technical rules on average, the differences between the conditions were not statistically significant. There were, however, significant differences in joint variability with respect to instructional type, as variability was lowest for the analogy condition during both the learning and testing phases, and as a function of block, as joint variability decreased for all conditions during the learning phase. Findings suggest that reducing the informational volume of explicit instructions may mitigate the deleterious effects on performance previously associated with explicit learning in the literature

Taking a long-term approach to the development of weightlifting ability in young athletes

Despite previous misconceptions, youth participation in weightlifting is now recognizedas safe and beneficial when delivered, programed, and monitored by a qualifiedprofessional. This article explores teaching progressions to aid coaches periodizeweightlifting training for young or novice athletes, with consideration to the theoreticalconcepts underpinning long-term athletic development. It is hoped that the structuredand progressive guidelines presented in the current article will help coaches developthe weightlifting performance of their young athletes in a safe and effective manner

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AIM: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery. METHODS: This was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin. RESULTS: Overall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P < 0.001). After adjustment, delay was not associated with a lower rate of complete resection (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.90-1.55, P = 0.224), which was consistent in elective patients only (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.69-1.27, P = 0.672). Longer delays were not associated with poorer outcomes. CONCLUSION: One in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease

\u27Tommie Tank\u27 Helps Students Learn to Finance Ventures

This paper outlines the design of an entrepreneurial finance course at the University of St. Thomas around an experiential project. The concept is straightforward: students raise money for a business concept and then execute on it; the expectation was that students would better learn everything that was taught in the course, from pro formas to liquidation preference, if they experienced it. The project we developed and implemented has had even better outcomes than we anticipated

Simply sport bikes case study

This case is intended to introduce undergraduate entrepreneurship students to business models via an entrepreneur who has two businesses: a used‐car dealership, which he owns with his father, and a used‐sport‐bike dealership, which he solely owns. Although these businesses seem similar, there are subtle differences in business model that make the sport‐bike business much more attractive. Case analysis involves a step‐by‐step comparison of the two firms’ revenue models, cost structures, and investment needs and leaves students with two decision: first, how to best grow the sport‐bike business, and second, whether to continue operating the used‐car business once his father retires