Academic Dishonesty: Recommendations for the Future of Higher Education

The culture of academic dishonesty has become a common practice among students across numerous college campuses. It is imperative to address the policies designed to clearly define plagiarism and academic integrity, as they are not universally understood. The authors explore how academic dishonesty and academic integrity are defined at varying institutions and compare and contrast how such policy violations are addressed by campus administrators. The authors propose recommendations for campus administrators and policymakers to redefine best practices for faculty and staff to instill a culture of academic integrity on college campuses

Obesity and Diabetes: Two Growing Epidemics in California

Analyzes the 2001-07 increase in obesity and diabetes prevalence by race/ethnicity, age, income, education, and years lived in the United States. Outlines policy implications of the disproportionate effect on people of color, the poor, and less educated

Alma Normalization Rules: The Basics and Beyond

Alma normalization rules are a powerful tool for editing and enhancing bibliographic and holding records, in batch or individually. This presentation will describe how to read and write normalization rules for beginner and intermediate users. We will cover the syntax and logic of normalization rules, how and why to add a rule as a process, common use cases and real-world examples, and best practices and tricks we’ve learned along the way. No programming experience is necessary for this session. At the end of the session, attendees will understand the basic syntax of normalization rules, how to interpret a normalization rule, and how to write normalization rules of moderate complexity

Genetic Medical Clinic in Kentucky: A Needs Assessment of Anabaptist Households

The purposes of this study are to (a) describe the process of collecting survey data related to un/diagnosed genetic disorders in Anabaptist households, and (b) determine the need for a genetic medical clinic in Kentucky. A six-page adapted survey questionnaire was utilized to collect family status, un/diagnosed genetic conditions, reproductive history, history of deceased children, and demographics. The questionnaire was mailed to over 2,000 households; addresses were collected from Anabaptist directories. Data suggest that more than one-third of households include a family member with an un/diagnosed genetic condition. Collectively, 120 diagnosed conditions and 90 undiagnosed conditions were reported. Half of all households reported a miscarriage, while less than five percent reported a stillbirth. Information obtained from this survey helped Anabaptist leaders proceed with establishing a genetic medical clinic

Blended Classes: Expectations vs. Reality

Blended courses, also called hybrid, have a portion of the course taught face-to-face in a classroom, and at least one-third of the course work is online. Some instructors consider this format to be the best of both worlds. Students receive the personal contact and interaction with the instructor during the classroom portion. They also have flexibility in the pace, access, and repetition of the online content. In this paper, we explore 49 graduate students\u27 expectations for a required operations management course that was delivered in a blended format. The same students were also surveyed at the completion of the course to determine how their expectations matched with their experiences in the course. The majority of students had no prior experience with blended (77.6%) or online (55%) courses. The pre-survey showed students were hesitant or unsure about taking a blended course. At the end of the course, the post-survey included the statement The online content motivated me to do more learning/studying than I would have done otherwise. Most students strongly agreed (21%) or agreed (29%) with the statement and fewer disagreed (15%) or were neutral (35%). The vast majority of students (96%) felt that being able to work the online content at their own pace was beneficial. Only two students (4%) felt they were not able to learn material equally well in the online and traditional portions of the class. Most of the students (85%) expressed the desire to take another blended course based on their experience in this course

Feasibility of Manual Teach-and-Replay and Continuous Impedance Shaping for Robotic Locomotor Training Following Spinal Cord Injury

Robotic gait training is an emerging technique for retraining walking ability following spinal cord injury (SCI). A key challenge in this training is determining an appropriate stepping trajectory and level of assistance for each patient, since patients have a wide range of sizes and impairment levels. Here, we demonstrate how a lightweight yet powerful robot can record subject-specific, trainer-induced leg trajectories during manually assisted stepping, then immediately replay those trajectories. Replay of the subject-specific trajectories reduced the effort required by the trainer during manual assistance, yet still generated similar patterns of muscle activation for six subjects with a chronic SCI. We also demonstrate how the impedance of the robot can be adjusted on a step-by-step basis with an error-based, learning law. This impedance-shaping algorithm adapted the robot's impedance so that the robot assisted only in the regions of the step trajectory where the subject consistently exhibited errors. The result was that the subjects stepped with greater variability, while still maintaining a physiologic gait pattern. These results are further steps toward tailoring robotic gait training to the needs of individual patients

Chronicity and Mental Health Service Utilization for Anxiety, Mood, and Substance Use Disorders among Black Men in the United States; Ethnicity and Nativity Differences.

This study investigated ethnic and nativity differences in the chronicity and treatment of psychiatric disorders of African American and Caribbean Black men in the U.S. Data were analyzed from the National Survey of American Life, a population-based study which included 1859 self-identified Black men (1222 African American, 176 Caribbean Black men born within the U.S., and 461 Caribbean Black men born outside the U.S.). Lifetime and twelve-month prevalence of DSM-IV mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders (including Bipolar I and Dysthmia), disorder chronicity, and rate of mental health services use among those meeting criteria for a lifetime psychiatric disorder were examined. Logistic regression models were employed to determine ethnic differences in chronicity, and treatment utilization for disorders. While rates of DSM-IV disorders were generally low in this community sample of Black men, their disorders were chronic and remained untreated. Caribbean Black men born in the U.S. had higher prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, and Alcohol Abuse Disorder compared with African American men. Foreign born Caribbean Black men experienced greater chronicity in Social Phobia and Generalized Anxiety Disorder compared to other Black Men. Utilization of mental health service was low for all groups of Black Men, but lowest for the foreign born Caribbean Black men. Results underscore the large unmet needs of both African American and Caribbean Black men in the United States. Results also highlight the role of ethnicity and nativity in mental disorder chronicity and mental health service utilization patterns of Black men

Preparing Humanities Students for Employment: Reimagining Career Exploration and Education through Ignatian Spirituality and Discernment

Graduate students in the humanities are hungry for career exploration as they face limited academic career options and feel called to work beyond the academy. Career preparation is typically left to graduate advisors, and then, the focus tends to be on academic career preparation. This article details how a required, introductory graduate class was reimagined to integrate career exploration using a framework at the heart of Ignatian spirituality and education: discernment. The authors outline the course and two assignments that can be adapted and applied to any graduate course. The authors share reflections on how the class has impacted their own professional and personal formation, and they end with heuristics for educators to use when preparing to teach similar graduate courses

Population Growth Characteristics of Incipient Colonies of the Eastern Subterranean Termite, Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

Growth of Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) incipient colonies during their first year was documented via a monthly destructive sampling census of 15 unique colonies, each headed by an inbred primary pair, for a total of 180 colonies. King and queen biomass greatly decreased during the first 2 months, coinciding with egg production and colony foundation, but their biomass remained relatively constant thereafter. Three cohorts of eggs were produced, with the greatest number of eggs (mean = 14.5) during the first month. Larvae were present at 1 month, and workers were first observed at 2 months. The survival rate of the initial brood was less than 100%, most likely due to cannibalism. A single soldier was first noted in some colonies at 6 months. Offspring biomass was equal to that of the reproductive pair at the 2-month census, double at 3 months, and quadruple at 11 months. One-year-old colonies ranged in size from 20 to 40 individuals, with an average of 28.9 individuals; total colony biomass was 39.8 mg. The growth rate of these R. flavipes colonies was much slower than was reported in other studies, but our observations are consistent with previous models and suggestions regarding colony growth