Rhetorical Awareness of Student Writers at an HBCU: A Study of Reflective Responses in the Writing Center

The recent call for replicable, aggregable, and data-driven (RAD) research of writing center effectiveness motivated this study. In writing centers, the primary objective is to improve writers through one-to-one conversations. Improvement in writers, defined here in terms of rhetorical awareness, has proven difficult to measure. In this article, the authors describe how they developed a scale to measure rhetorical awareness, specifically purpose, genre, and audience awareness. Using both discourse and content analyses, they applied the scale to student responses on reflection forms collected over two semesters at an HBCU to see if rhetorical awareness might be observable and measurable. Although the responses of students who visited the center more than once within six months did not show changes in their rhetorical awareness, as the authors had hoped, the results seem to reveal more about the social context than individual students, suggesting that current-traditional pedagogy persists. Aggregating data with this methodology may open new lines of inquiry for researchers of writing and allow them to track trends in discourse on writing.University Writing Cente

Monodisperse gas-solid mixtures with intense interphase interaction in two-fluid smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Simulations of gas-solid mixtures are used in many scientific and industrial applications. Two-Fluid Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (TFSPH) is an approach when gas and solids are simulated with different sets of particles interacting via drag force. Several methods are developed for computing drag force between gas and solid grains for TFSPH. Computationally challenging are simulations of gas-dust mixtures with intense in- tephase interaction, when velocity relaxation time tstop is much smaller than dynamical time of the problem. In explicit schemes the time step τ must be less than tstop, that leads to high computational costs. Moreover, it is known that for stiff problems both grid-based and particle methods may require unaffordably detailed resolution to capture the asymptotical bahaiviour of the solution. To address this problem we developed fast and robust method for computing stiff and mild drag force in gas solid-mixtures based on the ideas of Particle-in-Cell approach. In the paper we compare the results of new and previously developed methods on test problems

Monodisperse gas-solid mixtures with intense interphase interaction in two-fluid smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Simulations of gas-solid mixtures are used in many scientific and industrial applications. Two-Fluid Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (TFSPH) is an approach when gas and solids are simulated with different sets of particles interacting via drag force. Several methods are developed for computing drag force between gas and solid grains for TFSPH. Computationally challenging are simulations of gas-dust mixtures with intense in- tephase interaction, when velocity relaxation time tstop is much smaller than dynamical time of the problem. In explicit schemes the time step τ must be less than tstop, that leads to high computational costs. Moreover, it is known that for stiff problems both grid-based and particle methods may require unaffordably detailed resolution to capture the asymptotical bahaiviour of the solution. To address this problem we developed fast and robust method for computing stiff and mild drag force in gas solid-mixtures based on the ideas of Particle-in-Cell approach. In the paper we compare the results of new and previously developed methods on test problems

Ticagrelor in patients with diabetes and stable coronary artery disease with a history of previous percutaneous coronary intervention (THEMIS-PCI) : a phase 3, placebo-controlled, randomised trial

Background: Patients with stable coronary artery disease and diabetes with previous percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), particularly those with previous stenting, are at high risk of ischaemic events. These patients are generally treated with aspirin. In this trial, we aimed to investigate if these patients would benefit from treatment with aspirin plus ticagrelor. Methods: The Effect of Ticagrelor on Health Outcomes in diabEtes Mellitus patients Intervention Study (THEMIS) was a phase 3 randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial, done in 1315 sites in 42 countries. Patients were eligible if 50 years or older, with type 2 diabetes, receiving anti-hyperglycaemic drugs for at least 6 months, with stable coronary artery disease, and one of three other mutually non-exclusive criteria: a history of previous PCI or of coronary artery bypass grafting, or documentation of angiographic stenosis of 50% or more in at least one coronary artery. Eligible patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to either ticagrelor or placebo, by use of an interactive voice-response or web-response system. The THEMIS-PCI trial comprised a prespecified subgroup of patients with previous PCI. The primary efficacy outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (measured in the intention-to-treat population). Findings: Between Feb 17, 2014, and May 24, 2016, 11 154 patients (58% of the overall THEMIS trial) with a history of previous PCI were enrolled in the THEMIS-PCI trial. Median follow-up was 3·3 years (IQR 2·8–3·8). In the previous PCI group, fewer patients receiving ticagrelor had a primary efficacy outcome event than in the placebo group (404 [7·3%] of 5558 vs 480 [8·6%] of 5596; HR 0·85 [95% CI 0·74–0·97], p=0·013). The same effect was not observed in patients without PCI (p=0·76, p interaction=0·16). The proportion of patients with cardiovascular death was similar in both treatment groups (174 [3·1%] with ticagrelor vs 183 (3·3%) with placebo; HR 0·96 [95% CI 0·78–1·18], p=0·68), as well as all-cause death (282 [5·1%] vs 323 [5·8%]; 0·88 [0·75–1·03], p=0·11). TIMI major bleeding occurred in 111 (2·0%) of 5536 patients receiving ticagrelor and 62 (1·1%) of 5564 patients receiving placebo (HR 2·03 [95% CI 1·48–2·76], p<0·0001), and fatal bleeding in 6 (0·1%) of 5536 patients with ticagrelor and 6 (0·1%) of 5564 with placebo (1·13 [0·36–3·50], p=0·83). Intracranial haemorrhage occurred in 33 (0·6%) and 31 (0·6%) patients (1·21 [0·74–1·97], p=0·45). Ticagrelor improved net clinical benefit: 519/5558 (9·3%) versus 617/5596 (11·0%), HR=0·85, 95% CI 0·75–0·95, p=0·005, in contrast to patients without PCI where it did not, p interaction=0·012. Benefit was present irrespective of time from most recent PCI. Interpretation: In patients with diabetes, stable coronary artery disease, and previous PCI, ticagrelor added to aspirin reduced cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke, although with increased major bleeding. In that large, easily identified population, ticagrelor provided a favourable net clinical benefit (more than in patients without history of PCI). This effect shows that long-term therapy with ticagrelor in addition to aspirin should be considered in patients with diabetes and a history of PCI who have tolerated antiplatelet therapy, have high ischaemic risk, and low bleeding risk