The Acceptance of Multicultural Curriculum among Appalachian College Students

This study explores the multicultural predispositions of 437 students in a Central Appalachian university. After selecting students from a wide range of majors, this article shows which sort of multicultural programs garner weaker and stronger support in this undergraduate population. Following this descriptive elaboration, a set of OLS regressions tests a wide range of competing explanatory prepositions. Some of the explanatory models draw from familiar demographic and university-effect variables. However, this article expands on the education literature by drawing from some sociological, psychological and political science studies of American reactions to other multicultural programs (i.e., Affirmative Action, school desegregation, and welfare reform). By adding the variables on symbolic racism, authoritarianism and beliefs in American meritocracy, the final mix of 21 independent variables produces a somewhat robust model. Moreover, this analysis also identifies which educational practices seem to encourage a greater appreciation of a multicultural learning process. Finally, we address issues of generalizing to a national population by comparing our findings to case studies of multicultural education at other universities

Advances in molecular quantum chemistry contained in the Q-Chem 4 program package

A summary of the technical advances that are incorporated in the fourth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program is provided, covering approximately the last seven years. These include developments in density functional theory methods and algorithms, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) property evaluation, coupled cluster and perturbation theories, methods for electronically excited and open-shell species, tools for treating extended environments, algorithms for walking on potential surfaces, analysis tools, energy and electron transfer modelling, parallel computing capabilities, and graphical user interfaces. In addition, a selection of example case studies that illustrate these capabilities is given. These include extensive benchmarks of the comparative accuracy of modern density functionals for bonded and non-bonded interactions, tests of attenuated second order Møller–Plesset (MP2) methods for intermolecular interactions, a variety of parallel performance benchmarks, and tests of the accuracy of implicit solvation models. Some specific chemical examples include calculations on the strongly correlated Cr2 dimer, exploring zeolite-catalysed ethane dehydrogenation, energy decomposition analysis of a charged ter-molecular complex arising from glycerol photoionisation, and natural transition orbitals for a Frenkel exciton state in a nine-unit model of a self-assembling nanotube