Not a Tiger but a Dagger: The Larva of Comachara Cadburyi and Reassignment of the Genus to Acronictinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Comachara cadburyi Franclemont has benn classified as a sarrothripine (Noctuidae), lithosiine (Arctiidae), and afridine (Nolidae). Larval morphology and behavior indicate a close phylogenetic relationship with Polygrammate hebraeicum Hübner, an acronictine noctuid. The egg and larva of Comachara are described and illustrated with line drawings and scanning electron micrographs. Photographs of last instars of both Comachara and Polygrammate are provided. Larval feeding and pupation habits of C. cadburyi are briefly described and compared with those of Polygrammate. Larvae of both Polygrammate and Comachara exhibit a dramatic coloration change in the last instar, transitioning from a green phase to a mottled, steely gray form. As the color change progresses, the larva ceases feeding and enters a wandering phase, during which it seeks out wood in which to pupate. Interpretation of L group setal homologies on the ninth abdominal segment is briefly addressed. Comachara provides a poignant example of the importance of immatures in elucidating phylogeny - adult features of Comachara misled a number of the twentieth century century\u27s finest lepidopterists

Inference for High-Dimensional Doubly Multivariate Data under General Conditions

With technological, research, and theoretical advancements, the amount of data being generated for analysis is growing rapidly. In many cases, the number of subjects may be small, but the number of measurements taken on each subject may be very large. Consider, for example, two groups of patients. The subjects in one group are diseased and the other subjects are not. Over 9,000 relative fluorescent unit (RFU) signals, measures of the presence and abundance of proteins, are collected in a microarray or protoarray from each subject. Typically these kind of data show marked skewness (departure from normality) which invalidates standard multivariate normal-based theory. What is more, due to the cost involved, only a limited number of subjects can be included in the study. Therefore, standard large-sample asymptotic theory cannot be applied. It is of interest to determine if there are any differences in RFU signals between the two groups, and more importantly, if there are any RFU signal and group interaction effects. If such an interaction is detected, further research is warranted to identify any of these biological signals, commonly known as biomarkers. To address these types of phenomena, we present inferential procedures in two-factor repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (RM-MANOVA) models where the covariance structure is unknown and the number of measurements per subject tends to infinity. Both in the univariate case, in which the number of dimensions or response variables is one, and the multivariate case, in which there are several response variables, different sums of squares and cross product matrices are proposed to compensate for the unknown structure of the covariance matrix and unbalanced group sizes. Based on the new matrices, we present some multivariate test statistics, deriving their asymptotic distributions under fairly general conditions. We then use simulation results to assess the performance of the tests, and we analyze a real data set to demonstrate their applicability

Place, Prestige, Price, and Promotion: How International Students Use Social Networks To Learn About Universities Abroad

This qualitative study aims to explore the social media component of international student’s college choice process for studying abroad.  One of the emerging evidence was that participants applied social media specific criteria, such as the number of “likes”, the number of followers, and the ratio of followers to following to rank Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and measure their prestige.  Another emerging finding was that participants with no connections abroad relied exclusively on social media for their college choice decisions and without social media would not even consider an option of transferring abroad.   Videos and pictures offered by social network sites (SNS) provided emotional benefits by helping “to see” an unknown reality, develop sense of belonging, diminish apprehensions of moving abroad, and solidify the choice of HEI, while traditional sources of promotion, such as websites, were perceived as not trustworthy. Higher education professionals could hire individuals with proven expertise in social media to create consistent and meaningful content on different social media platforms to connect with potential international candidates.   

Does Federal Financial Aid Policy Influence the Institutional Aid Policies of Four-Year Colleges and Universities? An Exploratory Analysis

There is a dearth of empirical work that examines the relationships between federal financial aid policy and institutional financial aid priorities and expenditures. This study uses Resource Dependency Theory to explore whether changes the amount of financial aid awarded by colleges and universities during the last fifty years are best explained by changes in federal financial aid policy or by demographic and economic shifts. The results suggest that shifts in federal financial aid policy and in the economy have influenced the amount of institutional financial aid, but indicate that more research is needed on this important topic

Fifty Years of College Choice: Social, Political and Institutional Influences on the Decision-Making Process

Explores how the process of choosing colleges has evolved for high school students during the second half of the twentieth century, the factors behind the changes, and the implications of recent developments for postsecondary equity, access, and success

High-resolution imaging of kidney vascular corrosion casts with nano-CT

A vascular corrosion cast of an entire mouse kidney was scanned with a modular multiresolution X-ray nanotomography system. Using an isotropic voxel pitch of 0.5 mu m, capillary systems such as the vasa recta, peritubular capillaries and glomeruli were clearly resolved. This represents a considerable improvement over corrosion casts scanned with microcomputed tomography systems. The resolving power of this system was clearly demonstrated by the unique observation of a dense, subcapsular mat of capillaries enveloping the entire outer surface of the cortical region. Resolution of glomerular capillaries was comparable to similar models derived from laser scanning confocal microscopy. The high-resolution, large field of view and the three-dimensional nature of the resulting data opens new possibilities for the use of corrosion casting in research

A Comparative Study on Need-Based Aid Policy in Higher Education between the State of Indiana and Taiwan

The question of how the government can best support access to postsecondary education has become a critical issue for education policymakers around the globe, as the practice of cost sharing for funding postsecondary education has been more widely adopted. In this context, this study explores the approaches to implementing current need-based financial aid policies in higher education in Indiana and Taiwan using G.Z.F. Bereday’s (1964) comparative method as the framework. Using a comparative cross-national perspective, the authors explored cost sharing, Rawls’ theory of social justice, and the economic principles of horizontal and vertical equity. This review revealed that need-based aid programs in both Indiana and Taiwan were founded on the principle of vertical equity, which aims to equalize educational opportunity for low-income students and minorities. However, the increased popularity of cost sharing and its consequent heavy burden on students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds have made it necessary to reexamine the financial aid systems intended to hold open the door of opportunity for these students. These findings have implications for examining financial aid policy within a global context, as well as asserting the value of cross-national comparisons in postsecondary education. Governments and postsecondary institutions should examine the effects of financial aid systems on college attendance and completion from a longitudinal perspective to allow for a better understanding of the impact of policy changes and to prevent further erosion educational opportunities for students who aspire to a college education

Predicting Student Sensitivity to Tuition and Financial Aid

Over the last two decades, a substantial body of research has examined student responsiveness to tuition increases and financial aid offers in postsecondary educational decisions (see, for example, Heller, 1997; Leslie and Brinkman, 1988). Another major research interest in higher education literature is student behavior in choosing a postsecondary educational institution (see, for example, Hossler, Braxton, and Coopersmith, 1989; Paulsen, 1990). As the costs of postsecondary education have risen, policy analysts and scholars have paid increasing attention to the impact of tuition costs and student financial aid on access to postsecondary education, college matriculation decisions, and subsequent student persistence in postsecondary education (McPherson and Shapiro, 1991, 1998; Mumper, 1996; St. John, 1990a, 1990b; St. John, Starkey, Paulsen and Mbaduagha, 1995; Weiler, 1996). Institutional policy-makers are concerned about student recruitment and enrollment on the one hand and institutional financial health on the other, while state and federal policy-makers are worried about the effective use of public funds to meet national interests such as access, choice, and attainment in postsecondary education. Policy analysts and higher education researchers have recently become concerned about whether students attend college and which schools students attend, because the postsecondary destinations of students are related to student educational attainment and career development (Hearn, 1988, 1991; Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991). Thus, from a social equity perspective, college tuition and financial aid have become serious policy issues. It is believed that the influence of perceived college tuition rates and financial aid availability becomes important during student college choice process and reaches the highest level in the senior year of high school (Hossler and Gallagher, 1987; Hossler, Schmit, and Vesper, 1999). However, not until the last few years has research on the impact of college tuition and financial aid been linked with models of student college choice. Savoca (1990) integrated price impact into her research on student application behaviors to college and concluded that this integration would result in estimating student price responsiveness more accurately. Meanwhile, recent research implies that tuition pricing and financial aid offers exert different impacts on student postsecondary participation decisions (St. John and Starkey, 1995). The purpose of this study is to identify the predictors of student sensitivity to college tuition and financial aid and to differentiate the impacts of these predictors on student price sensitivity in the student college choice process

Steve Moore and John W. Hossler, Jr. in a Joint Recital

This is the program for the senior voice recital of tenor Steve Moore and graduate voice recital of baritone John W. Hossler, Jr. Pianist Bradley Permenter assisted Moore; pianist Jay Crowder assisted Hossler. The recital took place on March 11, 1986, in the Mabee Fine Arts Center Recital Hall

Family Knowledge of Postsecondary Costs And Financial Aid

Federal policymakers have recently expressed interest in family knowledge of student financial aid and postsecondary costs and the impact of family knowledge on student access. Analyzing a longitudinal data set of Indiana high school students, this study looks at student and parental knowledge of student financial aid and postsecondary costs. The results suggest that parents are more interested than students in information about postsecondary costs and student financial aid. Furthermore, the findings indicate that efforts to increase family knowledge should simultaneously focus on general information about aid and costs rather than on details about specific aid programs. This article was presented at the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Student Financial Aid Research Network Conference, Washington, D. C., May 16, 1990