Development and Implementation of a Catch and Effort Data Collection System for Monitoring Trends in Fishing Success on Virginia\u27s Artificial Fishing Reefs, 1987-1988

The basic objective of the study was to identify a core population of recreational fishermen owning private boats and fishing one or more Virginia artificial reef sites (Fig. 1) with some degree of regularity (making a minim4m of two to three reef trips per season). This developing and expanding population of fishing boat comers was to be sampled randomly, by either telephone or fishing log books, to determine fishing effort and catch rates characterizing trips made to specific reef sites during the 1987 fishing season. Examination of the resulting data would provide a basis for determining whether all, or only a limited number of reef sites, could be successfully monitored during the study\u27s second year. Based upon results of the first year\u27s project, the study\u27s methodology would be retained and/or modified during the second year to collect additional data on fishing success rates at various reef sites.

Optically Transparent Composite Material and Process for Preparing Same

Glass ribbon-reinforced transparent polymer composites which provide excellent optical transparency and a low distortion level over a wide temperature range while exhibiting superior mechanical properties as compared to non- reinforced polymer counterparts, and equivalent properties as compared to glass fiber-reinforced counterparts

2013 Exit Survey of Graduate Students Completing Degrees Fall 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013, and Summer 2013: Descriptive Statistics

The 2013 Exit Survey of Graduate Students Completing Degrees continues the Office of Survey Research’s (OSR) survey of graduate students first initiated in 2009. The current survey was administered at the end of each quarter to students completing their graduate degree. This report summarizes responses from students who graduated in Fall 2012, Winter 2013, Spring 2013, and Summer 2013. Of the 266 recipients of this degree during this time, OSR received valid responses from 204, a response rate of 76.7%. Interestingly, while this response rate is higher than those from the Graduate Exit Surveys in the past, Western had fewer total graduate students complete their degrees between Fall 2012 and Summer 2013 than in either of the prior two years resulting in fewer total responses to this survey than in prior years. With the help of the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, this survey was designed to elicit information on program satisfaction, the frequency and scope of academic interaction on and off campus, barriers to success, and plans for the future. OSR uses a mixture of online and telephone survey methodologies and links survey results with Western’s student records thus expanding their usefulness to researchers and university decision makers. The survey was launched with an e-mail invitation to potential respondents about four weeks prior to the end of each quarter. Follow up e-mail reminders were sent approximately every four days for the subsequent two weeks. Phone call reminders were placed to all non-respondents. The survey was closed immediately prior to commencement exercises. As with any survey, readers should be concerned with sample selection bias; that is bias which arises because survey respondents are not a random selection of the population of survey recipients. While sample selection bias for Western’s graduate exit survey is mitigated through proper survey techniques and limited by a high response rate, its presence should continually be kept in mind when evaluating results. Section A of this document presents basic descriptive statistics that compare all graduates with those who responded to the survey. At the university level, these comparisons reveal that the average respondent is nearly identical to the average graduate. For instance, 13% of respondents are minorities compared to 13% of all graduates. Similar results occur for average age (30.3 years for respondents, 30.7 years for graduates), the number of credit hours attempted (68.9 for respondents and 69.7 for graduates), the average graduate GPA (3.79 for respondents and 3.80 for graduates), and the quarter of graduation. Section B of this report presents all questions asked. Section C presents these questions broken down by college and,Sections D through G are further broken down to the departmental level for departments with enough respondents to prevent identification of individuals. Because CBE has only a single graduate program, we do not break their responses down further than the college level. While we leave it to the reader to determine what is interesting in the survey, here we highlight some of the findings. The first set of questions is geared to understanding students’ background and general satisfaction with their Western graduate school experience. Immediately prior to beginning their Western graduate program 36% of students were in an undergraduate program, 33% were employed in a field related to their graduate program, and 26% were employed in a field different than their program. Results are very similar to prior surveys. Sixty-nine percent of students claimed that, if given the opportunity, they would “probably” or “definitely” select Western again for graduate study, an amount similar to the 2012 survey but a decrease of five percent relative to the 2011 survey. Seventy percent would “probably” or “definitely” recommend Western to someone considering graduate school, a decrease of five percent relative to the prior year and nine percent lower than two years ago. Survey questions also relate to a student’s academic program. For instance, 86% of students reported that the level of academic challenge was “very” or “extremely” important to them and 73% of students claimed they were “satisfied “or “very satisfied “with the level of academic challenge. Perhaps the largest disparity occurred among the 74% of students who claimed that the “quality of instruction” was “extremely important” to them but only 26% of students said they were “very satisfied” with the quality of instruction. Working as a teaching assistant remains an important component of Western’s graduate program. Forty-six percent of respondents reported working as a TA in some capacity while pursuing their graduate degree. In their most recent TA position, respondents reported working an average of 18.5 hours per week. Eleven percent of graduate students taught an independent section of an undergraduate class; among these the median graduate student repeated this experience 6 times while in Western’s graduate program. The average graduate accumulates just over $19,700 in debt from their graduate program, a 10.6$28,300. There is large variation in amounts of student debt incurred between colleges. Graduates of CHSS incur 50% more debt that those of CBE who, in turn, accumulate about twice as much debt than students in CST. Among all graduate students, almost two-fifths hope to work in a school or community college. The remainders are fairly evenly split between non-profit employment, government employment, and pursuing further graduate study. Among those pursuing employment, at the time our survey was conducted, 45% had already received an offer of employment and 85% of those had accepted an offer. One-hundred percent of these had jobs in their field of study. As with all of OSR’s surveys of Western students, the data from this survey is available to campus researchers upon request

2012 Exit Survey of Graduate Students Completing Degrees Fall 2012, Winter 2012, Spring 2012, and Summer 2012: Descriptive Statistics

The 2012 Exit Survey of Graduate Students Completing Degrees continues the Office of Survey Research’s (OSR) survey of Graduate students first initiated in 2009. The current survey was administered at the end of each quarter to students completing their graduate degree. This report summarizes responses from students who graduated in Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2012, and Summer 2012. Of the 343 recipients of this degree during this time, OSR received valid responses from 247 (a response rate of 72.0%). With the help of the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, this survey was designed to elicit information on program satisfaction, the frequency and scope of academic interaction on and off campus, barriers to success, and plans for the future. OSR uses a mixture of online and telephone survey methodologies and links survey results with Western’s student records thus expanding their usefulness to researchers and university decision makers. The survey was launched with an e-mail invitation to potential respondents about four weeks prior to the end of each quarter. Follow up e-mail reminders were sent approximately every four days for the subsequent two weeks. Phone call reminders were placed to all non-respondents. The survey was closed immediately prior to commencement exercises. As with any survey, readers should be concerned with sample selection bias; that is bias which arises because survey respondents are not a random selection of the population of survey recipients. While sample selection bias for Western’s graduate exit survey is mitigated through proper survey techniques and limited by a high response rate, its presence should continually be kept in mind when evaluating results. Section A of this document presents basic descriptive statistics that compare all graduates with those who responded to the survey. At the university level, these comparisons reveal that the average respondent is nearly identical to the average graduate. For instance, 10% of respondents are minorities compared to 11% of all graduates. Similar results occur for average age (30.7 years for respondents, 30.5 years for graduates), the number of credit hours attempted (69.3 for respondents and 68.8 for graduates), the average graduate GPA (3.76 for respondents and 3.75 for graduates), and the quarter of graduation. Section B of this report presents all questions asked. Section C presents these questions broken down by college and, for questions with enough responses to prevent identification of individuals, these are further broken down to the departmental level in Sections D through H. Because CBE has only a single graduate program, we do not break their responses down further than the college level. As CFPA had a small number of graduates, these responses were included in the overall WWU results but, in order to protect student anonymity, were not disaggregated into a college report. While we leave it to the reader to determine what is interesting in the survey, here we highlight some of the findings. The first set of questions is geared to understanding students’ background and general satisfaction with their Western graduate school experience. Immediately prior to beginning their Western graduate program 34% of students were in an undergraduate program, 37% were employed in a field related to their graduate program, and 25% were employed in a field different than their program. Results are very similar to prior surveys. Sixty-Eight percent of students claimed that, if given the opportunity, they would “probably” or “definitely” select Western again for graduate study, a decrease of six percent relative to the 2011 survey. Seventy-five percent would “probably” or “definitely” recommend Western to someone considering graduate school, a decrease of four percent relative to the prior year. Survey questions also relate to a student’s academic program. For instance, 86% of students reported that the level of academic challenge was “very” or “extremely” important to them and 77% of students claimed they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the level of academic challenge they encountered. Seventy-eight percent were satisfied or very satisfied with their program. The most commonly reported barrier to academic progress was family obligations. Almost two-thirds of respondents claimed the availability (or lack thereof ) of faculty had no impact on their progress towards their degree, a significant increase over the prior year. The average graduate accumulates just over $17,800 in debt from their graduate program, a 5.7$25,000. There is large variation in amounts of student debt incurred between colleges. Graduates of CHSS incur 50% more debt that those of CBE who, in turn, accumulate about 50% more debt than students in CST. One benefit of the graduate exit survey is that the data is tracked by a unique student identifier which allows OSR to divide the data by school or program. OSR hopes to share this data with administrators and individuals who hope to improve their programs

2010 Exit Survey of Graduate Students Completing Degrees Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, and Summer 2010: Descriptive Statistics

Executive Summary: The 2010 Exit Survey of Graduate Students Completing Degrees continues the Office of Survey Research’s (OSR) survey of Graduate students first initiated in 2009. The current survey was administered at the end of each quarter to graduate students slated to graduate that quarter. This report summarizes responses from students who graduated in Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring 2010, and Summer 2010. With the help of the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, this survey was designed to elicit information on program satisfaction, the frequency and scope of academic interaction on and off campus, barriers to success, and plans for the future. OSR used a mixture of online and telephone survey methodologies and links survey results with Western’s student records thus expanding their usefulness to researchers and university decision makers. Anonymous individual-level survey responses may be shared with interested campus parties. This exit survey was administered to graduate students earning their masters degrees at the conclusion of their final enrolled quarter. Of the 329 recipients of this degree, (Fall 2009-Summer 2010) OSR received valid responses from 231 (a response rate of 70.2%). The survey was launched with an e-mail invitation to potential respondents about four weeks prior to the end of each quarter. Follow up e-mail reminders were sent approximately every four days for the subsequent two weeks. Phone call reminders were then placed to all non-respondents. The survey was then closed immediately after commencement exercises. As with any survey, readers should be concerned with sample selection bias; that is bias which arises because survey respondents are not a random selection of the population of survey recipients. While sample selection bias for Western’s graduate exit survey is mitigated through proper survey techniques and limited by a high response rate, its presence should continually be kept in mind when evaluating results. Section A of this document presents basic descriptive statistics that compares all graduates with those who responded to the survey. At the university level, these comparisons reveal the average respondent is nearly identical to the average graduate. For instance, 40% of respondents are male compared to 42% of all graduates. Nine percent of respondents are minorities as are 9% of all graduates. Similar results occur for average age (31.1 years for respondents, 31.5 years for graduates), the number of credit hours attempted (65.2 for respondents and 65.3 for graduates) and for the average graduate GPA (3.81 for respondents and 3.79 for graduates). Section B of this report presents descriptions of questions geared to understanding students’ background and their general satisfaction with their Western graduate experience. When asked their primary activity immediately prior to enrolling in a Western graduate program, students are almost evenly split between pursuing an undergraduate degree, working in a field related to their graduate program, and working in a field unrelated to their graduate program. Seventy-Two percent of students claimed that, if given the opportunity, they would “probably” or “definitely” select Western again for graduate study. Seventy-eight percent would “probably” or “definitely” recommend Western to someone considering graduate school. These satisfaction levels are almost identical with those reported on the 2009 exit survey (75% in that survey would select Western again and 78% would recommend it to someone). Sections C and D present information regarding a student’s academic program. For instance, 89% of students reported that the level of academic challenge was “very” or “extremely” important to them and 75% of students claimed they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the level of academic challenge they encountered. Ninetysix percent of students claimed the overall quality of their program was “very” or “extremely” important and 81% were satisfied with their program. Five percent of students have written a paper for publication based on their thesis and a further 23% plan to do so. The following section (E) presents information on graduate teaching assistantships and barriers to academic success. The most commonly reported barrier to academic progress was family obligations followed by course scheduling/availability. Almost two-thirds of respondents claimed the availability (or lack thereof) of faculty had no impact on their progress towards their degree. The average graduate accumulates just over $14,000 in debt from their graduate program but this average obscures the nearly one-third of students who leave Western without any additional academic debt from their program. The final section of this report (F) details future plans. One-third of respondents had received an offer of postgraduate employment; 82% of respondents had an immediate post-graduate plan involving employment. Nine percent of respondents intend to continue graduate study and of these, over four-fifths have already been admitted to a program. One benefit of the graduate exit survey is that the data is tracked by a unique student identifier which allows OSR to divide the data by school or program. OSR hopes to share this data with administrators and individuals who hope to improve their programs

2011 Exit Survey of Graduate Students Completing Degrees Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, and Summer 2011: Descriptive Statistics

Executive Summary: The 2011 Exit Survey of Graduate Students Completing Degrees continues the Office of Survey Research’s (OSR) survey of Graduate students first initiated in 2009. The current survey was administered at the end of each quarter to students completing their graduate degree. This report summarizes responses from students who graduated in Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Spring 2011, and Summer 2011. Of the 322 recipients of this degree during this time, OSR received valid responses from 239 (a response rate of 74.2%). With the help of the Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, this survey was designed to elicit information on program satisfaction, the frequency and scope of academic interaction on and off campus, barriers to success, and plans for the future. OSR uses a mixture of online and telephone survey methodologies and links survey results with Western’s student records thus expanding their usefulness to researchers and university decision makers. The survey was launched with an e-mail invitation to potential respondents about four weeks prior to the end of each quarter. Follow up e-mail reminders were sent approximately every four days for the subsequent two weeks. Phone call reminders were then placed to all non-respondents. The survey was then closed immediately prior to commencement exercises. As with any survey, readers should be concerned with sample selection bias; that is bias which arises because survey respondents are not a random selection of the population of survey recipients. While sample selection bias for Western’s graduate exit survey is mitigated through proper survey techniques and limited by a high response rate, its presence should continually be kept in mind when evaluating results. Section A of this document presents basic descriptive statistics that compare all graduates with those who responded to the survey. At the university level, these comparisons reveal that the average respondent is nearly identical to the average graduate. For instance, 23% of respondents are minorities compared to 24% of all graduates. Similar results occur for average age (30 years for respondents, 30 years for graduates), the number of credit hours attempted (70.0 for respondents and 69.9 for graduates), the average graduate GPA (3.81 for respondents and 3.80 for graduates), and the quarter of graduation. Section B of this report presents all questions asked. Section C presents these questions broken down by college and, for questions with enough responses to prevent identification of individuals, these are further broken down in Sections D through H by department. The final section of this report presents questions submitted by the Department of Communication and Sciences and Disorders. While we leave it to the reader to determine what is interesting in the survey, here we highlight some of the findings. The first set of questions is geared to understanding students’ background and general satisfaction with their Western graduate school experience. Immediately prior to beginning their Western graduate program 37% of students were in an undergraduate program, 32% were employed in a field related to their graduate program, and 26% were employed in a field different than their program. Seventy-Four percent of students claimed that, if given the opportunity, they would “probably” or “definitely” select Western again for graduate study. Seventy-nine percent would “probably” or “definitely” recommend Western to someone considering graduate school. These satisfaction levels are almost identical with those reported on the 2009 and 2010 exit surveys. Survey questions also relate to a student’s academic program. For instance, 87% of students reported that the level of academic challenge was “very” or “extremely” important to them and 76% of students claimed they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the level of academic challenge they encountered. Eighty-three percent were satisfied or very satisfied with their program. The most commonly reported barrier to academic progress was family obligations. Almost three-fifths of respondents claimed the availability (or lack thereof) of faculty had no impact on their progress towards their degree. The average graduate accumulates just over $16,900 in debt from their graduate program but this average obscures the nearly one-third of students who leave Western without any additional academic debt from their program. The average debt of$16,900 is about $2,800 higher than the previous year and, as seen in Section C, there is a large variation in this average across colleges with graduates from CFPA incurring twice the debt of CBE students who, in turn, incur almost 6 times the debt of CST students. One benefit of the graduate exit survey is that the data is tracked by a unique student identifier which allows OSR to divide the data by school or program. OSR hopes to share this data with administrators and individuals who hope to improve their programs

The relative influence of demographic, individual, social, and environmental factors on physical activity among boys and girls

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aimed to evaluate the associations of selected demographic, individual, social, and environmental factors with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in a sample of children and adolescents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>MVPA was assessed among youth (n = 294) 10-17-years-old using the ActiGraph accelerometer. Youth completed measures of demographic and individual variables related to physical activity (PA), perceived social support by parents and peers, and perceived neighborhood characteristics. Parents completed the long-form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. The Physical Activity and Media Inventory was used to measure the home environment and Geographical Information Systems software was used to measure the physical neighborhood environment. Bivariate correlations and hierarchical multiple regression were conducted stratified by gender.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Boys participated in significantly more MVPA than girls. In hierarchical analyses, peer support, home PA equipment, and temperature were significantly associated with MVPA among boys whereas distance to the school they attended was associated with MVPA among girls. The final models accounted for 25% and 15% of the variance in MVPA among boys and girls, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Important differences exist among the individual, social, and environmental factors related to MVPA between boys and girls. Boys' levels of activity appear to be influenced by factors closely linked to unstructured and social types of activities whereas girls' activities relate to internal and external barriers as well as their proximity to their schools. The prospective contribution of these important individual, social, and environmental factors to changes in MVPA among children and adolescents remains to be determined.</p

Prospectus, January 21, 1992

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1992/1000/thumbnail.jp

Environmental exposure to pyrethroids and sperm sex chromosome disomy: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background The role of environmental pesticide exposures, such as pyrethroids, and their relationship to sperm abnormalities are not well understood. This study investigated whether environmental exposure to pyrethroids was associated with altered frequency of sperm sex chromosome disomy in adult men. Methods A sample of 75 subjects recruited through a Massachusetts infertility clinic provided urine and semen samples. Individual exposures were measured as urinary concentrations of three pyrethroid metabolites ((3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3PBA), cis- and trans- 3-(2,2-Dichlorovinyl)-1-methylcyclopropane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid (CDCCA and TDCCA)). Multiprobe fluorescence in situ hybridization for chromosomes X, Y, and 18 was used to determine XX, YY, XY, 1818, and total sex chromosome disomy in sperm nuclei. Poisson regression analysis was used to examine the association between aneuploidy rates and pyrethroid metabolites while adjusting for covariates. Results Between 25-56% of the sample were above the limit of detection (LOD) for the pyrethroid metabolites. All sex chromosome disomies were increased by 7-30% when comparing men with CDCCA and TDCCA levels above the LOD to those below the LOD. For 3PBA, compared to those below the LOD, those above the LOD had YY18 disomy rates 1.28 times higher (95% CI: 1.15, 1.42) whereas a reduced rate was seen for XY18 and total disomy (IRR = 0.82; 95% CI: 0.77, 0.87; IRR = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.87-0.97), and no association was seen for XX18 and 1818. Conclusions Our findings suggest that urinary concentrations of CDCCA and TDCCA above the LOD were associated with increased rates of aneuploidy. However the findings for 3BPA were not consistent. This is the first study to examine these relationships, and replication of our findings is needed before the association between pyrethroid metabolites and aneuploidy can be fully defined.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134538/1/12940_2013_Article_854.pd

The relative influence of demographic, individual, social, and environmental factors on physical activity among boys and girls

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the associations of selected demographic, individual, social, and environmental factors with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in a sample of children and adolescents. Methods: MVPA was assessed among youth (n = 294) 10-17-years-old using the ActiGraph accelerometer. Youth completed measures of demographic and individual variables related to physical activity (PA), perceived social support by parents and peers, and perceived neighborhood characteristics. Parents completed the long-form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. The Physical Activity and Media Inventory was used to measure the home environment and Geographical Information Systems software was used to measure the physical neighborhood environment. Bivariate correlations and hierarchical multiple regression were conducted stratified by gender. Results: Boys participated in significantly more MVPA than girls. In hierarchical analyses, peer support, home PA equipment, and temperature were significantly associated with MVPA among boys whereas distance to the school they attended was associated with MVPA among girls. The final models accounted for 25% and 15% of the variance in MVPA among boys and girls, respectively. Conclusions: Important differences exist among the individual, social, and environmental factors related to MVPA between boys and girls. Boys\u27 levels of activity appear to be influenced by factors closely linked to unstructured and social types of activities whereas girls\u27 activities relate to internal and external barriers as well as their proximity to their schools. The prospective contribution of these important individual, social, and environmental factors to changes in MVPA among children and adolescents remains to be determined