Elements that Lead to a Successful Continuing Education Program at a Select Midwestern Community College

Continuing education programs at community colleges have been around for many years and typically serve adults, non-traditional learners, in non-transferable, short-term and often non-credit leisure/hobby type courses. Other words used synonymously with continuing education include community education, adult education and lifelong learning. Continuing education programs are important and will continue to grow in popularity, especially with the aging of the baby boom generation and as more professions require continuing education for their employees.. The purpose of this study was to show why students feel the continuing education program at a select Midwestern community college has seen large enrollment increases during the past ten years. The respondents felt the major reasons for departmental success was the colleges’ senior citizen tuition waiver policy, reasonable tuition/fees, a relaxed and friendly classroom atmosphere and the curriculum. The study concludes by offering suggestions which could be of value to community college continuing education programs

PERCEPTIONS OF ILLINOIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS ON THE IMPACT OF THE U.S. ECONOMIC RECESSION AND STATE FINANCIAL PRESSURES ON PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS

BARRY RAY HANCOCK, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in WORKFORCE EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT, presented on May 9, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PERCEPTIONS OF ILLINOIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS ON THE IMPACT OF THE U.S. ECONOMIC RECESSION AND STATE FINANCIAL PRESSURES ON PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. John S. Washburn The United States economic recession is now in its third year and continues to have a serious impact on the American higher education system, including Illinois\u27 public community colleges. Illinois community colleges are seeing increases in enrollments while at the same time seeing significant decreases in state funding. The purpose of this study was to provide data leading to a systematic understanding of how Illinois community college continuing education programs are delivered in the 21st Century. The analysis included survey data from community colleges presidents and continuing education program managers (CEPMs) and interview data from three presidents and three CEPMs representing urban, suburban and rural community colleges. Several findings and conclusions were discovered as a result of this study, including: (1) respondents indicated offering courses which do not meet profit expectations, but they do and should continue to because they are testing or building new curriculum, (2) primary state funding sources are inadequate and unreliable and secondary funding options, such as grants, endowments, and donations are used to support programs, (3) financial pressures are having an adverse effect on continuing education departments and their budgets, (4) approximately 35% of the state community colleges\u27 enrollment can be attributed to continuing education enrollments, yet most colleges only allocate 1-10% of their institutional budgets to this purpose, (5) about one-quarter of the respondents do not feel their colleges\u27 continuing education program is prepared for the influx of senior citizens. Several general recommendations were made, including dissemination of study results to state associations, community college presidents and CEPMs. The study concludes with recommendations for practice for presidents and CEPMs as well as recommendations for further research

Violent and Non-violent Offenders and Differences on Recalled Parental Control Practices

The present study is an attempt to assess violent and non-violent offenders for differences in recalled parental control practices. Eighty-two trustees in a maximum security prison at McAlester, Oklahoma participated in the study. Of the 82 subjects, 43 had been convicted of violent crimes, while 39 had been convicted of non-violent crimes. The total sample was nearly equal on white and non-white subjects. The two samples are compared by age, race, size of town where the offender lived, and if the offender lived, and if the offender lived with his parents at the time of the first offense. The data was gathered by use of a questionnaire, and contained sections concerning demographics, and a five scale indicator of parental control pactices. The five scales included physical punishment (PPS), home environment (HES), positive rewards (PRS), neighborhood milieu (NMS), and prisoner attitudes (PAS). Data was analyzed using factor analysis, t-test, and analyses of variance.Corrections (Sociology

Numerically resolved Radiation View Factors via Multi-GPU Accelerated Ray Tracing

A robust computational framework is presented to directly solve for the radiation view factors (Fij) of participatory surfaces within complex three-dimensional geometries. This framework exploits the embarrassingly-parallel nature of the formulation and solution of Fij through a multiple graphics processing units (GPU)-accelerated ray tracing scheme. The presented computational methodology was developed in Java and incorporated Aparapi for OpenCL compatibility. The surfaces of the geometries of interest are constructed via the creation of stereolithography (STL) files, which represent surfaces as tessellations. The shadow effect, where cast rays are obstructed by non-participatory surfaces, is handled via the Möller-Trumbore (MT) ray-triangle intersection algorithm. To ensure generality and robustness, a self-intersection algorithm is implemented for both planar and non-planar surfaces via the MT algorithm with back-face culling enabled. Validation of the algorithm was performed for a variety of three-dimensional geometries. The proposed multi-GPU framework was benchmarked to a conventional computer processing unit (CPU)-based version of the code and exhibited substantial decreases in computational time. Results indicate that near-linear speed-up is achievable with increasing numbers of GPUs. Additionally, a converging solution is obtained with increasing tessellation and GPU count, indicating no perceivable discrepancy in solutions in comparison to CPU and single-GPU based solutions

OH detection by absorption of frequency-doubled diode laser radiation at 308nm

Radiation at 308 nm has been obtained by frequency doubling the output of a commercial diode laser cooled to 165 K. A single pass through a crystal of LiIO3 converted 1 mW of 616 nm radiation to 50 pW of UV, and this was used to detect the OH radical in absorption in a flow tube. Possible extensions of the method for detection of OH in the atmosphere are discussed

Complete genome sequence of microcystis aeruginosa FD4, isolated from a subtropical river in Southwest Florida

We report the first complete genome of Microcystis aeruginosa from North America. A harmful bloom that occurred in the Caloosahatchee River in 2018 led to a state of emergency declaration in Florida. Although strain FD4 was isolated from this toxic bloom, the genome did not have a microcystin biosynthetic gene cluster

Atrial and placental melanoma metastasis: a case report and literature review

Malignant melanoma can metastasize to virtually any organ of the body. The aggressiveness is determined by the primary site, depth of dermal invasion, presence or absence of ulceration, lymphovascular infiltration and regional lymph node involvement. We report a case of a pregnant woman with a previous history of stage 3 melanoma who presented with cardiac metastasis and placental melanoma infiltration. A review of literature on cardiac and placental involvement of melanoma is also provided

'Reaching the hard to reach' - lessons learned from the VCS (voluntary and community Sector). A qualitative study.

Background The notion 'hard to reach' is a contested and ambiguous term that is commonly used within the spheres of social care and health, especially in discourse around health and social inequalities. There is a need to address health inequalities and to engage in services the marginalized and socially excluded sectors of society. Methods This paper describes a pilot study involving interviews with representatives from eight Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations . The purpose of the study was to explore the notion of 'hard to reach' and perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to accessing services for 'hard to reach' groups from a voluntary and community sector perspective. Results The 'hard to reach' may include drug users, people living with HIV, people from sexual minority communities, asylum seekers, refugees, people from black and ethnic minority communities, and homeless people although defining the notion of the 'hard to reach' is not straight forward. It may be that certain groups resist engaging in treatment services and are deemed hard to reach by a particular service or from a societal stance. There are a number of potential barriers for people who may try and access services, including people having bad experiences in the past; location and opening times of services and how services are funded and managed. A number of areas of commonality are found in terms of how access to services for 'hard to reach' individuals and groups could be improved including: respectful treatment of service users, establishing trust with service users, offering service flexibility, partnership working with other organisations and harnessing service user involvement. Conclusions: If health services are to engage with groups that are deemed 'hard to reach' and marginalised from mainstream health services, the experiences and practices for engagement from within the VCS may serve as useful lessons for service improvement for statutory health services