The relationship between psychological well-being, student persistence, and retention at a rural public higher education institution

Mental health is a substantial concern in higher education. Fostering positive psychological attributes may improve mental health and contribute to student success. This research analyzes the relationship between positive psychological attributes and student persistence, an element of student success. The research also explores the impacts of mental health on higher education in rural areas. Additionally, it examines how society's view of the purpose of higher education can be revised and expanded by fostering psychological well-being. Employing a logistical regression model, the study results indicate that grit, engagement, resilience, and life satisfaction are statistically significant predictors of students' persistence from one semester to the next. However, this model is limited by a low r^2 number, which requires further research.Includes bibliographical references

Improving Loss Estimation for Woodframe Buildings. Volume 2: Appendices

This report documents Tasks 4.1 and 4.5 of the CUREE-Caltech Woodframe Project. It presents a theoretical and empirical methodology for creating probabilistic relationships between seismic shaking severity and physical damage and loss for buildings in general, and for woodframe buildings in particular. The methodology, called assembly-based vulnerability (ABV), is illustrated for 19 specific woodframe buildings of varying ages, sizes, configuration, quality of construction, and retrofit and redesign conditions. The study employs variations on four basic floorplans, called index buildings. These include a small house and a large house, a townhouse and an apartment building. The resulting seismic vulnerability functions give the probability distribution of repair cost as a function of instrumental ground-motion severity. These vulnerability functions are useful by themselves, and are also transformed to seismic fragility functions compatible with the HAZUS software. The methods and data employed here use well-accepted structural engineering techniques, laboratory test data and computer programs produced by Element 1 of the CUREE-Caltech Woodframe Project, other recently published research, and standard construction cost-estimating methods. While based on such well established principles, this report represents a substantially new contribution to the field of earthquake loss estimation. Its methodology is notable in that it calculates detailed structural response using nonlinear time-history structural analysis as opposed to the simplifying assumptions required by nonlinear pushover methods. It models physical damage at the level of individual building assemblies such as individual windows, segments of wall, etc., for which detailed laboratory testing is available, as opposed to two or three broad component categories that cannot be directly tested. And it explicitly models uncertainty in ground motion, structural response, component damageability, and contractor costs. Consequently, a very detailed, verifiable, probabilistic picture of physical performance and repair cost is produced, capable of informing a variety of decisions regarding seismic retrofit, code development, code enforcement, performance-based design for above-code applications, and insurance practices

Preliminary evaluation of water quality in tidal creeks of Virginia\u27s Eastern Shore in relation to vegetable cultivation

In response to concerns raised about the impacts of vegetable cultivation using plastic ground covers on water quality, we have initiated a broad-scale, systematic study of water quality in seaside tidal creeks of Virginia\u27 s Eastern Shore. Our objective was to determine if acute toxicity associated with heavy metals or pesticides was more prevalent in tidal creeks with drainage areas which include this agricultural practice than in those which do not. Though such correlations do not confirm cause and effect, they may serve as the basis for future, more targeted investigations and for some immediate changes in land management practices which, regardless of the specific cause, are likely to produce some remediation. Eleven study sites, located in six different watersheds, were selected to evaluate acute toxicity (from heavy metals and organic pesticides. Land use patterns and acreage within each watershed was determined from aerial photographs. The amount of vegetable plasti-culture in the watersheds of the study sites ranged from 0-13% of total acreage. An assay for heavy metals, based upon enzyme inhibition in a bacterial strain, was used to determine if up to seven metals (including copper) were present at acutely toxic levels. Both water samples and aqueous extracts of sediment samples were tested. A continuous series of 96 hr in situ bioassays using the grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio, were conducted from Aug. I, 1996 - Sept. 22, 1996 at each station to assay for toxicity from organic pesticides. Grass shrimp are known to be quite sensitive to insecticides and the in situ bioassay approach provides a continuous means of monitoring for toxic events

Law Schools as Knowledge Centers in the Digital Age

This article explores what it would mean for law schools to be “knowledge centers” in the digital age, and to have this as a central mission. It describes the activities of legal knowledge centers as: (1) focusing on solving real legal problems in society outside of the academy; (2) evaluating the problem-solving effectiveness of the legal knowledge being developed; (3) re-conceptualizing the structures used to represent legal knowledge, the processes through which legal knowledge is created, and the methods used to apply that knowledge; and (4) disseminating legal knowledge in ways that assist its implementation. The Article uses as extended examples of knowledge centers in the digital age the research laboratories in the sciences, and in particular research laboratories in linguistics and information science. It uses numerous examples to suggest how law schools might implement the concept of a knowledge center

Law Schools as Knowledge Centers in the Digital Age

This article explores what it would mean for law schools to be “knowledge centers” in the digital age, and to have this as a central mission. It describes the activities of legal knowledge centers as: (1) focusing on solving real legal problems in society outside of the academy; (2) evaluating the problem-solving effectiveness of the legal knowledge being developed; (3) re-conceptualizing the structures used to represent legal knowledge, the processes through which legal knowledge is created, and the methods used to apply that knowledge; and (4) disseminating legal knowledge in ways that assist its implementation. The Article uses as extended examples of knowledge centers in the digital age the research laboratories in the sciences, and in particular research laboratories in linguistics and information science. It uses numerous examples to suggest how law schools might implement the concept of a knowledge center

Asking new questions with old data: The Centralized Open-Access Rehabilitation database for Stroke

Background: This paper introduces a tool for streamlining data integration in rehabilitation science, the Centralized Open-Access Rehabilitation database for Stroke (SCOAR), which allows researchers to quickly visualize relationships among variables, efficiently share data, generate hypotheses, and enhance clinical trial design. Methods: Bibliographic databases were searched according to inclusion criteria leaving 2,892 titles that were further screened to 514 manuscripts to be screened by full text, leaving 215 randomized controlled trials in the database (489 independent groups representing 12,847 patients). Demographic, methodological, and statistical data were extracted by independent coders and entered into SCOAR. Results: Trial data came from 114 locations in 27 different countries and represented patients with a wide range of ages, 62 yr 41; 85, (shown as median range) and at various stages of recovery following their stroke, 141 d 1; 3372. There was considerable variation in the dose of therapy that patients received, 20 h 0; 221, over interventions of different durations, 28 d 10; 365. There was also a lack of common data elements (CDEs) across trials, but this lack of CDEs was most pronounced for baseline assessments of patient impairment and severity of stroke. Conclusions: Data integration across hundreds of RCTs allows clinicians and researchers to quickly visualize data from the history of the field and lays the foundation for making SCOAR a living database to which researchers can upload new data as trial results are published. SCOAR is a useful tool for clinicians and researchers that will facilitate data visualization, data sharing, the finding of relevant past studies, and the design of clinical trials by enabling more accurate and comprehensive power analyses. Furthermore, these data speak to the need for CDEs specific to stroke rehabilitation in randomized controlled trials.PROSPERO# CRD420140901