Giving Up on a Course: An Analysis of Course Dropping Behaviors Among Community College Students

Excessive course dropping is costly to students and institutions. Using longitudinal transcript data, this study investigated course withdrawal patterns among 5900 students at a large, racially/ethnically diverse community college district in Texas. Two-thirds of the students dropped at least one course, and 13.5% of the total course enrollments resulted in withdrawal. Course withdrawal rates were significantly higher among students who were: male, African American, age 20–24, GED holders, academically underprepared, enrolled part-time, and had a cumulative college GPA of less than 2.0. Science, mathematics, and writing courses had high drop rates, as did Second Start and fully online courses. Dropping 20% or more of attempted courses was associated with 44% lower odds of a successful enrollment outcome. We hypothesize that community college students are rational, act in their own self-interest, and perform a cost–benefit analysis with the knowledge they possess when deciding whether to drop a particular course. However, students often overuse or misuse the course withdrawal function. Despite acting in self-interest at the moment, the decision to drop a course is often not in students’ long-term best interest, and excessive course dropping can resemble a ‘cooling out’ mechanism by which students’ reduce their aspirations toward degree completion. Recognizing community college structures and rules (e.g., withdrawal procedures, tuition refund policy) influence course dropping decisions, we describe academic policies and classroom practices that can help reduce course withdrawals. We believe that reducing course attrition is a foundational, yet often overlooked, mechanism for reducing community college attrition

Exploring Students’ Endorsement Enrollment in Texas Public High Schools

To support youth early motivation for college and careers that meet workforce needs, the Texas Legislature in 2013 passed House Bill 5 to adopt a new high school graduation program, which allows students to pursue “endorsements” as they begin 9th grade. Endorsements introduce high-school students to STEM, Business & Industry, Public Services, Arts & Humanities, and Multidisciplinary areas to help them explore specific career pathways. The study was based on analysis of restricted-use Texas longitudinal administrative and transcript data for students enrolled in the academic year of 2015/16. We examined the mapping of Texas 9th graders on endorsements through an equity and inclusion lens associated with student demographic and academic characteristics. The study was guided by the college and career readiness tenets and social equity theories that identify competing goals in Texas educational policies that may produce (or reproduce) persistent socioeconomic differences in student educational transitions.Educatio

Comparison of five-year survival rates among patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma with and without association with syphilis: a retrospective case-control study

Background: Syphilis is an infectious disease that is at least discussed to be premalignant. This potential, combined with its general pathological impact, raises the question if syphilis increases mortality in oral cancer patients. The aim of the study was to assess if the five-year survival rates among patients suffering from oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) with (cohort I) and without association with syphilis (cohort II) differ. Methods: Retrospective clinical data of patients diagnosed with OSCC (International Classification of Diseases [ICD]-10 codes C01-06) within the past 20 years from the access date September 25, 2021 were retrieved from the TriNetX network (TriNetX, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) to gain initial cohort 0. Subjects also diagnosed with syphilis (ICD-10 codes A51-53) were assigned to cohort I. Cohort II was comprised of the remaining individuals of cohort 0 by creating a group with the same number of patients as cohort I, and by matching for age and gender. Subsequently, Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression were performed, and risk, odds and hazard ratios were calculated. Results: Of a total of 73,736 patients in cohort 0, 199 individuals were each assigned to cohort I and II. During the five-year period after tumor diagnosis, 39 and 30 patients in cohort I and II died. The five-year survival probabilities did not significantly differ between the cohorts (I vs. II = 74.19% vs. 75.01%; p = 0.52; Log-Rank test), nor the risk of dying (I vs. II = 19.6% vs. 15.08%; risk difference = 4.52%; p = 0.23). The calculated risk, odds and hazard ratios were 1.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.84; 2.00), 1.37 (95% CI = 0.81; 2.31) and 1.17 (95% CI = 0.73; 1.88), respectively. Conclusions: The obtained results indicate that the survival rate of individuals with OSCC might not be negatively influenced if syphilis is present/associated. However, the results need to be interpreted cautiously due to limitations related to the retrospective approach, especially as data on the tumor staging were not accessible

Soil organic carbon stocks did not change after 130 years of afforestation on a former Swiss Alpine pasture

Soil organic matter (SOM) plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, especially in alpine ecosystems. However, ongoing forest expansion in high-elevation systems potentially alters SOM storage through changes in organic matter (OM) inputs and microclimate. In this study, we investigated the effects of an Picea abies L. afforestation chrono-sequence (0 to 130 years) of a former subalpine pasture in Switzerland on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and SOM dynamics. We found that SOC stocks remained constant throughout the chrono-sequence, with comparable SOC stocks in the mineral soils after afforestation and previous pasture (SOC forest40 = 11.6 ± 1.1 kg m−2, SOC forest130 = 11.0 ± 0.3 kg m−2 and SOC pasture = 11.5 ± 0.5 kg m−2). However, including the additional carbon of the organic horizons in the forest, reaching up to 1.7 kg m−2 in the 55-year old forest, resulted in an increase in the overall SOC stocks following afforestation. We found that the soil C:N ratio in the mineral soil increased in the topsoil (0–5 cm) with increasing forest stand age, from 11.9 ± 1.3 in the pasture to 14.3 ± 1.8 in the 130-year old forest. In turn, we observed a decrease in the soil C:N ratio with increasing depth in all forest stand ages. This suggests that litter-derived organic matter (C:N from 35.1 ± 1.9 to 42.4 ± 10.8) is likely to be incorporated and translocated from the organic horizon to the mineral topsoil (0–10 cm) of the profiles. Due to the high root C:N ratio (pasture 63.5 ± 2.8 and forests between 54.7 ± 3.9 and 61.2 ± 2.9), particulate root-derived organic matter seems to have a rather small effect on forest soil C:N ratios, as well as on SOC accumulation in the mineral soil. These results suggest that, although afforestation does not change the SOC stock in the mineral soil, there is an apparent alteration in the SOM dynamics through changes in the litter composition caused by the vegetation shift. We conclude that, at our study site, spruce afforestation on a former subalpine pasture does not change the total SOC stock and that, consequently, there is no additional SOC sequestration on a decadal to centennial scale

Animal Tracks Wetlands Action Pack

Welcome to Animal Tracks®, a classroom education program of the National Wildlife Federation focusing on teacher training and environmental education resources. In Animal Tracks materials, the animals and their tracks lead educators and students on an exploration of conservation issues. Thank you for using this Action Pack, our newest resource. We hope you find the Action Packs useful and as a work-in-progress, we welcome any comments you might have for I improvements. As you turn the page you\u27ll see our questionnaire. Please take a minute to fill it out and put it in the mail. We\u27ll include you on our mailing list and you\u27ll get invitations to any Animal Tracks educator workshops that we hold in your area as well as the latest information on Animal Tracks programs and materials. Animal Tracks Workshops are a large part of the Animal Tracks program. The Action Pack series was originally developed as our teacher training module. The workshops are designed to help teachers easily fit environmental and conservation issues into their lesson plans across the curriculum. Animal Tracks workshops emphasize learning by doing and include an interactive discussion of how to successfully incorporate action projects into learning. Animal Tracks has educator materials and information available online at http://www.nwf.org/atracks including the Water and Habitat Action Packs, Current Events Hotline, information about NWF\u27s EarthTomorrow® program for Detroit area schools, Environmental Education Online Conference, Animal Tracks Workshop schedule, and Animal Tracks Online classroom activities. There are also Animal Tracks kids\u27 pages at http://www.nwf.org/nwf/kids/ with our Cool Tour o/the Environment, Ranger Rick® site, resources in Spanish, games, and more fun. The next pages of the Action Pack are a questionnaire and an explanation about how to effectively use the Animal Tracks Action Packs. Again, we hope you find this a valuable resource and be sure to check out all the Animal Tracks Action Pack titles

Effects of Climate and Atmospheric Nitrogen Deposition on Early to Mid-Term Stage Litter Decomposition Across Biomes

Litter decomposition is a key process for carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems and is mainly controlled by environmental conditions, substrate quantity and quality as well as microbial community abundance and composition. In particular, the effects of climate and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on litter decomposition and its temporal dynamics are of significant importance, since their effects might change over the course of the decomposition process. Within the TeaComposition initiative, we incubated Green and Rooibos teas at 524 sites across nine biomes. We assessed how macroclimate and atmospheric inorganic N deposition under current and predicted scenarios (RCP 2.6, RCP 8.5) might affect litter mass loss measured after 3 and 12 months. Our study shows that the early to mid-term mass loss at the global scale was affected predominantly by litter quality (explaining 73% and 62% of the total variance after 3 and 12 months, respectively) followed by climate and N deposition. The effects of climate were not litter-specific and became increasingly significant as decomposition progressed, with MAP explaining 2% and MAT 4% of the variation after 12 months of incubation. The effect of N deposition was litter-specific, and significant only for 12-month decomposition of Rooibos tea at the global scale. However, in the temperate biome where atmospheric N deposition rates are relatively high, the 12-month mass loss of Green and Rooibos teas decreased significantly with increasing N deposition, explaining 9.5% and 1.1% of the variance, respectively. The expected changes in macroclimate and N deposition at the global scale by the end of this century are estimated to increase the 12-month mass loss of easily decomposable litter by 1.1-3.5% and of the more stable substrates by 3.8-10.6%, relative to current mass loss. In contrast, expected changes in atmospheric N deposition will decrease the mid-term mass loss of high-quality litter by 1.4-2.2% and that of low-quality litter by 0.9-1.5% in the temperate biome. Our results suggest that projected increases in N deposition may have the capacity to dampen the climate-driven increases in litter decomposition depending on the biome and decomposition stage of substrate.Peer reviewe

Drivers of the microbial metabolic quotient across global grasslands

Aim: The microbial metabolic quotient (MMQ; mg CO2-C/mg MBC/h), defined as the amount of microbial CO2 respired (MR; mg CO2-C/kg soil/h) per unit of microbial biomass C (MBC; mg C/kg soil), is a key parameter for understanding the microbial regulation of the carbon (C) cycle, including soil C sequestration. Here, we experimentally tested hypotheses about the individual and interactive effects of multiple nutrient addition (nitrogen + phosphorus + potassium + micronutrients) and herbivore exclusion on MR, MBC and MMQ across 23 sites (five continents). Our sites encompassed a wide range of edaphoclimatic conditions; thus, we assessed which edaphoclimatic variables affected MMQ the most and how they interacted with our treatments. Location: Australia, Asia, Europe, North/South America. Time period: 2015–2016. Major taxa: Soil microbes. Methods: Soils were collected from plots with established experimental treatments. MR was assessed in a 5-week laboratory incubation without glucose addition, MBC via substrate-induced respiration. MMQ was calculated as MR/MBC and corrected for soil temperatures (MMQsoil). Using linear mixed effects models (LMMs) and structural equation models (SEMs), we analysed how edaphoclimatic characteristics and treatments interactively affected MMQsoil. Results: MMQsoil was higher in locations with higher mean annual temperature, lower water holding capacity and lower soil organic C concentration, but did not respond to our treatments across sites as neither MR nor MBC changed. We attributed this relative homeostasis to our treatments to the modulating influence of edaphoclimatic variables. For example, herbivore exclusion, regardless of fertilization, led to greater MMQsoil only at sites with lower soil organic C (< 1.7%). Main conclusions: Our results pinpoint the main variables related to MMQsoil across grasslands and emphasize the importance of the local edaphoclimatic conditions in controlling the response of the C cycle to anthropogenic stressors. By testing hypotheses about MMQsoil across global edaphoclimatic gradients, this work also helps to align the conflicting results of prior studies

II Congresso Internacional “Diálogos Interculturais Portugal-China”: livro de resumos

No ano em que se assinalam os 70 anos da proclamação da República Popular da China, os 40 anos do estabelecimento das relações diplomáticas entre Portugal e a República Popular da China e os 20 anos do retorno de Macau à China, o Instituto Confúcio da Universidade de Aveiro (IC-UA), em parceria com vários Departamentos da Universidade de Aveiro (DLC, DeCA, DCSPT, DEGEIT), vai organizar, nos dias 13, 14 e 15 de março de 2019, o II Congresso Internacional “Diálogos Interculturais Portugal-China”.2019年是中华人民共和国成立70周年、葡萄牙与中华人民共和国建交40周年，澳门主权回归20周年。借此良机，阿威罗大学孔子学院将与阿威罗大学语言文化系、传播艺术系、社会政治与国土规划科学系、经济、管理、工业工程与旅游系合作，于2019年3月13 日至15日举办第二届“中葡跨文化对话” 国际会议。publishe

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts