Addressing Persistence of Community College Students to Increase Transfer and Graduation Rates

Community college students are often identified by the support and resources that they lack (i.e., academic preparation for college, parental support at home, and financial resources). Faculty acting as institutional agents have been reported to provide emotional and practical curricular support to help students navigate the complexities of transfer. This mixed-methods study of first-time-in-college business students at a suburban community college assessed whether connecting students with full-time faculty institutional agents and employing the LMS as an information repository with program pathways, transfer institution requirements, and faculty contacts, would affect persistence and progress toward transfer and degree completion. Faculty were trained in the role of an institutional agent and then tracked their meetings with students. Fall-to-spring persistence, completion of developmental education, course selection based on program pathways, GPA, and achievement of credit milestones were compared for an active treatment cohort to the previous year’s treatment-naïve cohort. The faculty participants leveraged the relationships they developed with students based on coursework and engaged in advising conversations about transfer and career goals. However, first year students did not frequently avail themselves of meetings with faculty participants. The routine use of the LMS offers promising opportunities to support advising efforts. Although there was no association between cohort and fall-to-spring persistence, there was a positive association between cohort and developmental education completion. There was a trend toward following program pathways by taking the introductory business and economics courses in the first year and an association between the treatment cohort and delaying the accounting course. Although the chi-square test showed no association between cohort and earning 30 total credits or 30 college-level credits, there were trends in favor of the active treatment group. The one-tailed t-test indicated a significant difference between groups in favor of the treatment group for mean number of total credits completed and college-only credits completed. More study is necessary to determine how students can be encouraged to develop relationships with faculty from their first semester at community college. Following the active treatment cohort will reveal if their first year persistence yields higher rates of transfer and graduation. Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Stephen Pape

Healthcare ecosystems research in mental health: a scoping review of methods to describe the context of local care delivery

Background: Evidence from the context of local health ecosystems is highly relevant for research and policymaking to understand geographical variations in outcomes of health care delivery. In mental health systems, the analysis of context presents particular challenges related to their complexity and to methodological difficulties. Method guidelines and standard recommendations for conducting context analysis of local mental health care are urgently needed. This scoping study reviews current methods of context analysis in mental health systems to establish the parameters of research activity examining availability and capacity of care at the local level, and to identify any gaps in the literature. Methods: A scoping review based on a systematic search of key databases was conducted for the period 2005– 2016. A systems dynamics/complexity approach was adopted, using a modified version of Tansella and Thornicroft’s matrix model of mental health care as the conceptual framework for our analysis. Results: The lack of a specific terminology in the area meant that from 10,911 titles identified at the initial search, only 46 papers met inclusion criteria. Of these, 21 had serious methodological limitations. Fifteen papers did not use any kind of formal framework, and five of those did not describe their method. Units of analysis varied widely and across different levels of the system. Six instruments to describe service availability and capacity were identified, of which three had been psychometrically validated. A limitation was the exclusion of grey literature from the review. However, the imprecise nature of the terminology, and high number of initial results, makes the inclusion of grey literature not feasible. Conclusion: We identified that, in spite of its relevance, context studies in mental health services is a very limited research area. Few validated instruments are available. Methodological limitations in many papers mean that the particular challenges of mental health systems research such as system complexity, data availability and terminological variability are generally poorly addressed, presenting a barrier to valid system comparison. The modified Thornicroft and Tansella matrix and related ecological production of care model provide the main model for research within the area of health care ecosystems

Nordhaus–Gaddum problems for power domination

A power dominating set of a graph G is a set S of vertices that can observe the entire graph under the rules that (1) the closed neighborhood of every vertex in S is observed, and (2) if a vertex and all but one of its neighbors are observed, then the remaining neighbor is observed; the second rule is applied iteratively. The power domination number of G, denoted by gamma p(G), is the minimum number of vertices in a power dominating set. A Nordhaus-Gaddum problem for power domination is to determine a tight lower or upper bound on gamma p(G) + gamma p(G) or gamma p(G).gamma p(G), where G denotes the complement of G. The upper and lower Nordhaus-Gaddum bounds over all graphs for the power domination number follow from known bounds on the domination number and examples. In this note we improve the upper sum bound for the power domination number substantially for graphs having the property that both the graph and its complement are connected. For these graphs, our bound is tight and is also significantly better than the corresponding bound for the domination number. We also improve the product upper bound for the power domination number for graphs with certain properties

Zero forcing and power domination for graph products

The power domination number arose from the monitoring of electrical networks, and methods for its determination have the associated application. The zero forcing number arose in the study of maximum nullity among symmetric matrices described by a graph (and also in control of quantum systems and in graph search algorithms). There has been considerable effort devoted to the determination of the power domination number, the zero forcing number, and maximum nullity for specific families of graphs. In this paper we exploit the natural relationship between power domination and zero forcing to obtain results for the power domination number of tensor products and the zero forcing number of lexicographic products of graphs. In addition, we establish a general lower bound for the power domination number of a graph based on the maximum nullity of the matrices described by the graph. We also establish results for the zero forcing number and maximum nullity of tensor products and Cartesian products of certain graphs

A new bottom-up method for the standard analysis and comparison of workforce capacity in mental healthcare planning: Demonstration study in the Australian Capital Territory

The aims of this study are to evaluate and describe mental health workforce and capacity, and to describe the relationship between workforce capacity and patterns of care in local areas. We conducted a comparative demonstration study of the applicability of an internationally validated standardised service classification instrument—the Description and Evaluation of Services and Directories—DESDE-LTC) using the emerging mental health ecosystems research (MHESR) approach. Using DESDE-LTC as the framework, and drawing from international occupation classifications, the workforce was classified according to characteristics including the type of care provided and professional background. Our reference area was the Australian Capital Territory, which we compared with two other urban districts in Australia (Sydney and South East Sydney) and three benchmark international health districts (Helsinki-Uusima (Finland), Verona (Italy) and Gipuzkoa (Spain)). We also compared our data with national level data where available. The Australian and Finnish regions had a larger and more highly skilled workforce than the southern European regions. The pattern of workforce availability and profile varied, even within the same country, at the local level. We found significant differences between regional rates of identified rates of psychiatrists and psychologists, and national averages. Using a standardised classification instrument at the local level, and our occupational groupings, we were able to assess the available workforce and provide information relevant to planners about the actual capacity of the system. Data obtained at local level is critical to providing planners with reliable data to inform their decision making.This research is supported by the Bupa Foundation

Voice Activated Display of American Sign Language for Airport Security

Conference proceedings from the Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference-2003. California State University at Northridge, Los Angeles, CA March 17-22, 2003

A comprehensive review of ecosystem research and context analysis in mental health care

The role of context is critical in health services research. In health care, “context” could be defined as all sources of evidence of the local system: geographic, social and demographic factors, other environmental factors, service availability and scope, capacity, use, costs and the historical development of the health care system. The analysis of context of care of “healthcare ecosystem research” is an emerging discipline that should play a critical role in implementation sciences [1] and in the analysis of complex interventions [2, 3]. “Contextual evidence” has recently been identified as a major source of knowledge in health systems research together with experimental, observational, expert and experiential knowledge [4]. In spite of its relevance, the need for context analysis in health services and delivery research has not been sufficiently recognised [1, 2, 4]. One of the most widely used instrument in context analysis providing data on service availability is ESMS/DESDE (Description and Evaluation of Services and Directories for Long Term Care. This piece of research aims 1) to analyse available methods of context analysis and healthcare ecosystem research for standard description of mental health (MH