Examining the Effectiveness of Marketing Practices of a Nonprofit Institution of Higher Education: Internal Service Provider

Abstract - Quality education is the sum of Institutions of Higher Education’s (IHE) parts, including classroom instruction and internal services, that are key to a student’s success during and after college. The purpose of this study is to address an understudied sector in the nonprofit marketing literature (i.e., Institutions of Higher Education internal service providers). The current study extends Dakouan et al. (2019) work by examining the marketing efforts of an IHE’s career services center’s effectiveness in creating awareness and increasing attendance at career events. The study focuses on outbound marketing strategies addressing the research question “to what extent are outbound marketing strategies successful in creating awareness and increasing attendance at IHE’s career fairs?” Data were collected over three academic years through an intercept survey provided at career fairs and through a database of social media and digital marketing analytics at a medium-sized university located in the Southeastern United States. Frequency analyses were used to determine the effectiveness of marketing strategies in bringing awareness and increasing attendance to IHE career fairs. Further, attendance data were compared between results of frequency analyses of outbound marketing strategies. The findings revealed that only two effective forms of outbound communications used by the subject IHE’s career center were personal selling by faculty and email blast. Findings also revealed that social and internet marketing strategies used by the subject IHE career center were not effective. The results have implications as to a need for continual marketing research of trends in marketing best practices. The findings demonstrated the need for adding inbound marketing strategies(Dakouan et al., 2019) and hiring and/or training staff in marketing research, social media, and internet marketing skills. From the study’s findings, it was concluded that Filip’s(2012) study was supported. Thus, to create awareness and increase attendance at events provided by an IHE’s internal services providers, strategically applied marketing best practices are necessary

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Comparison of monensin sodium and xylanase in high fiber poultry diets

Antimicrobials, such as monensin sodium, have been used to increase nutrient digestibility in poultry diets. However, consumers have been putting increasing pressure on producers to limit the amount of antimicrobials used in feeds. Therefore, producers have been searching for replacements of antimicrobials. Another common additive is exogenous xylanase, an enzyme used to improve digestibility in high fiber feeds. Thus, the objective of this study was to compare the ability of monensin sodium and xylanase to improve digestibility in poultry diets of different fiber levels. This experiment was conducted with a total of 216 1-day old Cobb chicks, 6 chicks/cage. Treatments and birds were randomly assigned to battery cages. The dietary treatments included a corn-based control, wheat-based control, a corn- or wheat-based diet containing 0.10 g/kg monensin sodium (Coban 90), or a corn- or wheat-based diet containing 16,000 betaxylanse units/kg beta 1-4, endoxylanse enzyme (Econase XT). The treatments were fed over a 21-day period, while BW and feed intake were monitored weekly to determine overall weight gain, total feed intake, and FCR. The data was analyzed using GLIMMIX and SAS with the cage as the experimental unit and the treatments as the fixed effect. There was a treatment impact of P 0.05) in the FCR. However, when comparing the controlled wheat-based diet to the wheat-based xylanase treatment, the FCR improved (P < 0.05). There was no statistical impact of monensin sodium due to the low disease pressure exhibited. However, this experiment suggests xylanase improves the nutrient digestibility in wheat-based diets to a level that compares to corn-based diets

A phase I trial of immunotherapy with intratumoral adenovirus-interferon-gamma (TG1041) in patients with malignant melanoma

Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) has been shown to upregulate MHC class I and II expression, and to promote generation of specific antitumor immune responses. We hypothesized that intratumoral administration of an IFN-gamma gene transfer vector facilitates its enhanced local production and may activate effector cells locally. We conducted a phase I dose-escalation study of a replication-deficient adenovirus-interferon-gamma construct (TG1041) to determine safety and tolerability of intratumoral administration, in advanced or locally recurrent melanoma. Patients were enrolled at four successive dose levels: 10(7) infectious units (iu) (n=3), 10(8) iu (n=3), 10(9) iu (n=3), and 10(10) iu (n=2) per injection per week for 3 weeks. TG1041 was injected in the same tumor nodule weekly in each patient. Safety, toxicity, local and distant tumor responses and biologic correlates were evaluated. A total of 11 patients were enrolled and received the planned three injections per cycle. One patient with stable disease received a second cycle of treatment. A maximum tolerated dose was not reached in this study. No grade 4 toxicities were observed. Two grade 3 toxicities, fever and deep venous thrombosis were observed in one patient. The most frequently reported toxicities were grade 1 pain and redness at the injected site (n=8), and grade 1 fatigue (n=5) patients. Clinical changes observed at the local injected tumor site included erythema (n=5), a minor decrease in size of the injected lesion (n=5) and significant central necrosis by histopathology (n=1). Systemic effects included stable disease in one patient. Correlative studies did not reveal evidence of immunologic activity. Weekly intratumoral administration of TG1041 appears to be safe and well tolerated in patients with advanced melanoma

Tapwater Exposures, Effects Potential, and Residential Risk Management in Northern Plains Nations

In the United States (US), private-supply tapwater (TW) is rarely monitored. This data gap undermines individual/community risk-management decision-making, leading to an increased probability of unrecognized contaminant exposures in rural and remote locations that rely on private wells. We assessed point-of-use (POU) TW in three northern plains Tribal Nations, where ongoing TW arsenic (As) interventions include expansion of small community water systems and POU adsorptive-media treatment for Strong Heart Water Study participants. Samples from 34 private-well and 22 public-supply sites were analyzed for 476 organics, 34 inorganics, and 3 in vitro bioactivities. 63 organics and 30 inorganics were detected. Arsenic, uranium (U), and lead (Pb) were detected in 54%, 43%, and 20% of samples, respectively. Concentrations equivalent to public-supply maximum contaminant level(s) (MCL) were exceeded only in untreated private-well samples (As 47%, U 3%). Precautionary health-based screening levels were exceeded frequently, due to inorganics in private supplies and chlorine-based disinfection byproducts in public supplies. The results indicate that simultaneous exposures to co-occurring TW contaminants are common, warranting consideration of expanded source, point-of-entry, or POU treatment(s). This study illustrates the importance of increased monitoring of private-well TW, employing a broad, environmentally informative analytical scope, to reduce the risks of unrecognized contaminant exposures

The scholarship of teaching and learning in public administration: an agenda for future research

Two essential questions for those leading the field of public administration are: What do we teach our students, and how do we train them? As scholars, we pay significant attention to our research, often to the detriment of recognizing the potential for merging our research with teaching through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). However, given our students’ leadership positions, SoTL-related work is vital to their success. In this article, we have come together to reflect on the state of SoTL’s work in public administration. Through this reflection, we explore the windows of opportunity for research that we see emerging. Included among these opportunities is the need for research on how we can best serve students in and out of the classroom, as well as research the most effective way of managing our programs. We also see the need for research into faculty development, instructional design, and the return on investment for a public administration degree. Lastly, we argue for improved recognition of the value and contribution of SoTL-related work in tenure and promotion standards