FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS AND THE CHALLENGES FACED TOWARDS THEIR SENSE OF COMMUNITY AT A 4-YEAR UNIVERSITY

It takes a village to raise a child. Such simple words, yet the power it holds behind it is something not to be overlooked. The aspect of community, especially in a college campus setting, is something all students should have the opportunity to cherish. From K-12, we slowly begin to create our very own village, filled by various individuals that pertain to one\u27s own experience. These individuals guide us and grant us knowledge when needed most, but as we mature, and at some point, leave this village to begin our journey into adulthood, we find ourselves having to begin anew, and this can be a challenge as a First-generation student. The purpose of the following phenomenological qualitative study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the first-year experience of First-generation students and the way their experiences shaped their sense of being a part of the community at Rowan University

Neural Connectivity with Hidden Gaussian Graphical State-Model

The noninvasive procedures for neural connectivity are under questioning. Theoretical models sustain that the electromagnetic field registered at external sensors is elicited by currents at neural space. Nevertheless, what we observe at the sensor space is a superposition of projected fields, from the whole gray-matter. This is the reason for a major pitfall of noninvasive Electrophysiology methods: distorted reconstruction of neural activity and its connectivity or leakage. It has been proven that current methods produce incorrect connectomes. Somewhat related to the incorrect connectivity modelling, they disregard either Systems Theory and Bayesian Information Theory. We introduce a new formalism that attains for it, Hidden Gaussian Graphical State-Model (HIGGS). A neural Gaussian Graphical Model (GGM) hidden by the observation equation of Magneto-encephalographic (MEEG) signals. HIGGS is equivalent to a frequency domain Linear State Space Model (LSSM) but with sparse connectivity prior. The mathematical contribution here is the theory for high-dimensional and frequency-domain HIGGS solvers. We demonstrate that HIGGS can attenuate the leakage effect in the most critical case: the distortion EEG signal due to head volume conduction heterogeneities. Its application in EEG is illustrated with retrieved connectivity patterns from human Steady State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEP). We provide for the first time confirmatory evidence for noninvasive procedures of neural connectivity: concurrent EEG and Electrocorticography (ECoG) recordings on monkey. Open source packages are freely available online, to reproduce the results presented in this paper and to analyze external MEEG databases

BANCOSOL: THE CHALLENGE OF GROWTH FOR MICROFINANCE ORGANIZATIONS

This paper focuses on the difficulties inherent in the prudent management of growth of microfinance organizations and on potential limits to the increased efficiency, profitability, and sustainability expected from growth and large size. The paper addresses both positive and negative implications of rapid growth for microfinance organizations. The experience of BancoSol in Bolivia is used to illustrate these questions. Building upon the successful experience of PRODEM, BancoSol was chartered as a private commercial bank in 1992. The paper discusses the intangible assets inherited from PRODEM that gave BancoSol a head start and the additional advantages that resulted from formalization as a bank, in particular from the authorization to mobilize deposits. BancoSol shows outstanding success in terms of breadth, depth, and quality of outreach and in terms of sustainability. It is the microfinance organization with the largest number of clients in Latin America and it reaches poor clients who could never expect to gain access to conventional financial institutions. The paper discusses the incentive structure associated with a lending technology that has resulted in low loan arrears and the cost- effective supply of small loans. Success is explained by a strong concern with financial viability, development of a lending technology appropriate for the market niche, a long learning period, and upgrading into a formal intermediary. As it grew, BancoSol had to face a reduction of revenues as a proportion of productive assets and an increase in the average cost of funds, which combined reduced its operating margin by 13 percentage points. This challenge was fully met by reducing operating expenses as a proportion of productive assets. While growth of PRODEM had been mostly constrained by too rigid access to donor funds, growth of BancoSol has been constrained by threats on asset quality and by diminishing marginal economies of size. Portfolio efficiency has grown steadily. This growth has been the net outcome, however, of reductions in transactions efficiency and of increases in average loan size after transformation into BancoSol. The paper explores the sources of increases in average loan size and it concludes that mission drift has not occurred at BancoSol, which continues to focus on small loans to microentrepreneurs. The evolution in transactions efficiency is related, in turn, to sources of extensive (installed capacity) and intensive (productivity) growth. Extensive growth has been rapid at BancoSol and it tends to dampen productivity increases. Finally, the paper reviews the pressures from growth on the original informal culture of the organization and the gradual establishment of more formal structures.Agricultural Finance,

Testicular lymphoma in inguinal hernia

Primary testicular lymphoma is a rare disease that has a higher incidence in patients over 60 years of age, presenting as an increase in volume in the inguinal region, which is usually painless and slow-growing. In the case that we present, it is a patient who was initially diagnosed with an indirect inguinal hernia due to the findings on examination and ultrasound, without presenting relevant findings in the laboratory studies, during the trans-operative we found testicular tumor compatible with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, this being the most common variant of testicular lymphoma. This case emphasizes on importance of pre-operative suspicion in older age patients with increased volume in the groin region and without a clear diagnosis

Internal transitions of negatively charged magnetoexcitons in quantum dots

We report calculations of oscillator strengths for the far infrared absorption of light by the excitonic complexes Xn- (the excess charge, n, ranging from one to four) confined in quantum dots. The magnetic field is varied in an interval which corresponds to ``filling factors'' between 2 and 3/5. Electron-hole interaction effects are seen in the deviations of the peak positions from the Kohn lines, and in the spreading of the oscillator strengths over a few final states. Transition densities are used as an additional tool to characterize the absorption peaks.Comment: Presented as a poster in the Third Stig Lundqvist Conference on Advancing Frontiers of Condensed Matter Physics: Fundamental Interactions and Excitations in Confined Systems, Trieste, August 11 - 1

MICROCREDIT AND THE POOREST OF THE POOR: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM BOLIVIA

We construct a theoretical framework that puts the social worth of a microfinance organization (MFO) in terms of the depth, worth to users, cost to users, breadth, length, and scope of its output. We then analyze evidence of depth of outreach for five MFOs in Bolivia. Most of the poor households reached by the MFOs were near the poverty line�they were the richest of the poor. Group lenders had more depth of outreach than individual lenders. The urban poorest were more likely to be borrowers, but rural borrowers were more likely to be among the poorest.Financial Economics, Food Security and Poverty,

Microfinance Market Niches and Client Profiles in Bolivia

This paper presents and interprets descriptive statistics generated from data obtained in a survey of clients of five microfinance organizations believed to be among the best in Bolivia. These lenders represent different combinations of organizational design, lending technology, and market area of operations. Two are regulated financial intermediaries and three are NGOs. Two operate in rural areas (PRODEM and Sartawi) and three operate in urban areas (BancoSol, FIE, and Caja Los Andes). Two offer individual loans and three grant loans through joint liability groups. The paper discusses household-enterprise profiles of a sample of 622 clients and identifies terms and conditions of loan contracts with these organizations to evaluate the depth and quality of their outreach.Marketing,segmentation,Bolivia,competition,microfinance

MICROFINANCE MARKET NICHES AND CLIENT PROFILES IN BOLIVIA

This paper presents and interprets descriptive statistics generated from data obtained in a survey of clients of five microfinance organizations believed to be among the best in Bolivia. These lenders represent different combinations of organizational design, lending technology, and market area of operations. Two are regulated financial intermediaries and three are NGOs. Two operate in rural areas (PRODEM and Sartawi) and three operate in urban areas (BancoSol, FIE, and Caja Los Andes). Two offer individual loans and three grant loans through joint liability groups. The paper discusses household-enterprise profiles of a sample of 622 clients and identifies terms and conditions of loan contracts with these organizations to evaluate the depth and quality of their outreach. The interpretation seeks to establish connections between key characteristics of the clients and features of the lending technologies that lead to the matching of classes of borrowers with particular organizations and that influence the choice of market niches. Data on loan sizes suggest the existence of different but broadly overlapping market niches associated with three tiers of clients. The sharpest distinction is between urban and rural clients. The matching between clients and organizations also reflects a weak but positive correlation between levels of poverty and loan sizes. According to an index of basic needs fulfillment of their clients, these organizations can be ranked as: FIE and Caja Los Andes (first tier), BancoSol (second tier), and PRODEM and Sartawi (third tier). The same ranking is obtained when clients are ordered according to loan size, the ratio of loan size to the value of sales, and the value of monthly sales. The three tiers of clients are associated with different socio-economic features of their household-enterprises: sex, education, household size, access to electricity, water supplies, and sewage facilities, employment-generating capacity of the enterprise, informality and separation of household and enterprise, occupations and the like. The development of lending technologies that do not rely on standard financial statements and collateralizable assets is a formidable innovation that explains the outreach and sustainability of these organizations. Differences in the guarantees required for loans dominate distinctions in lending technology. Trade-offs between loan size, interest rates, and guarantee requirements attract different subsets of the clientele. Joint liability seems to be appropriate for very poor people, but group borrowers eventually outgrow this relationship. Caja Los Andes and FIE have shown that it is possible to supply individual loans to poor people and be profitable. Most clients are satisfied with the services received. The lowest satisfaction concerns loan sizes and loan-size rationing may be widespread. At least in urban areas, increasing competition will force these organizations to improve their services and adjust loan sizes. All of these organizations are expanding the frontier of microfinance by developing lending technologies for a much poorer clientele than is reached by collateral-based lenders. This is a formidable achievement.Financial Economics,

Antilisterial and physical properties of biopolymer films containing lactic acid bacteria

Novel biopolymer films were developed and used to control Listeria innocua in an artificially contaminated synthetized medium. Two hydrocolloids, sodium caseinate (NaCas) and methylcellulose (MC), and two bacteriocin-producing lactic acid bacteria (LAB), Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus reuteri, were tested. Bioactive cultures were added directly to the film forming solution and films were obtained by casting. In order to study the impact of the incorporation of bacterial cells into the biopolymer matrix, the water vapour permeability, optical and mechanical properties of the dry films were evaluated. Furthermore, the survival of LAB and the antimicrobial potential of bioactive films against L. innocua were studied. Results showed that the use of lactic acid bacteria altered the film s physical properties. Films enriched with bacterial cells exhibit higher gloss and transparency whereas no significant modifications were observed in terms of tensile properties. These films were less-effective water vapour barriers, since a significant increase can be observed in the WVP values. As far as food safety is concerned, these films are an interesting, novel approach. In refrigeration conditions, these films permit a complete inhibition of L. innocua for a week. Viability of LAB was higher in sodium caseinate films, although bacteriocin production was greater in polysaccharide matrix. The best results were obtained for films made of methylcellulose, without differences between the two lactic acid bacteria tested.The authors acknowledge the financial support from Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia throughout the project AGL201020694. Author L. Sgnchez-Gonzalez thanks the support of Campus de Excelencia Internacional from Universidad Politecnica de Valencia.Sanchez-Gonzalez, L.; Quintero Saavedra, JI.; Chiralt, A. (2014). Antilisterial and physical properties of biopolymer films containing lactic acid bacteria. Food Control. 35(1):200-206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.07.001S20020635