Collateral positions in student affairs

Staff members in student services argue that students have become their responsibility by the default of the faculty. Faculty members, insisting that they are the university, do not want budgets for student support to remain large or to continue growing. Students want both faculty members and support personnel to pay attention to them. Administrators, legislators, and the public want to see budgets cut. The tensions are palpable. The constant tug of war between faculty and staff for larger budgets places more pressure on universities to allocate funds equitably. In doing so, the use of collaborative positions have increased. By increasing the number of these positions, the quality of service to and outcome of students needs to be examined. This paper examines the efficacy of practitioners in dual positions

Improving provider compliance of the NAEPP 2007 asthma guidelines through the electronic health record (EHR) in a pediatric primary care practice

The Expert Panel Report -3 (EPR3) NAEPP 2007 evidence-based clinical asthma guidelines were developed to provide evidence-based high-quality patient care that leads to improved outcomes. A literature review showed that healthcare providers do not routinely follow the asthma guidelines. The purpose of this project was to develop and implement an evidence-based asthma electronic health record (EHR) template in a pediatric office to improve provider compliance to the guidelines resulting in improved outcomes for children with asthma. The study was conducted over a period of four months from January - April 2016. An EHR asthma protocol template and training for providers using a PACE program (physician asthma care education) on current guidelines was provided. A retrospective EHR audit measuring provider’s compliance was performed. Pre/post aggregate data for documentation specific to asthma was collected and analyzed using the chi square method. The outcome objectives from this quality improvement study focused on provider compliance and asthma control. Results indicated the EHR template significantly improved provider documentation in compliance with 7 of the 8 areas measured

Explorations in engagement for humans and robots

This paper explores the concept of engagement, the process by which individuals in an interaction start, maintain and end their perceived connection to one another. The paper reports on one aspect of engagement among human interactors--the effect of tracking faces during an interaction. It also describes the architecture of a robot that can participate in conversational, collaborative interactions with engagement gestures. Finally, the paper reports on findings of experiments with human participants who interacted with a robot when it either performed or did not perform engagement gestures. Results of the human-robot studies indicate that people become engaged with robots: they direct their attention to the robot more often in interactions where engagement gestures are present, and they find interactions more appropriate when engagement gestures are present than when they are not.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Pretending to Upset the Balance: Old Chief v. United States and Exclusion of Prior Felony Conviction Evidence Under Federal Rule of Evidence 403

The story of an event is often more interesting and informative than the mere fact that the event occurred. Aesop\u27s morals would not be as captivating without the fables that accompany them. The fables tell the reader a story embodying a moral truth. On election night, the ballot tally proves which candidate won, but the voter is interested more in the story of the campaign trail that put the candidate in office rather than a naked statistic comparing voting percentages. The story gives not only the bare idea or fact; it mixes this bare idea or fact with the supporting factual information, making it easier to understand

Casting the Net: Another Confusing Analysis of Personal Jurisdiction and Internet Contacts in Telco Communications v. An Apple A Day

The fascination of the Internet and cyberspace is its sense of boundlessness. A user seemingly can go anywhere, be anyone, and do anything in a virtual world of information and interactivity. Actions on-line, however, often may have real world ramifications. The demarcation line between the physical and cyberspace worlds is not so pronounced that actions occurring in one have no effect in the other

Prioritising the care of critically ill children: a pilot study using SCREEN reduces clinic waiting times

Objective In low-resource settings, childhood mortality secondary to delays in triage and treatment remains high. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of the novel Sick Children Require Emergency Evaluation Now (SCREEN) tool on the waiting times of critically ill children who present for care to primary healthcare clinics in Cape Town, South Africa. Methods We used a pre/postevaluation study design to calculate the median waiting times of all children who presented to four randomly chosen clinics for 5 days before, and 5 days after, the implementation of SCREEN. Findings The SCREEN programme resulted in statistical and clinically significant reductions in waiting times for children with critical illness to see a professional nurse (2 hours 45 min to 1 hour 12 min; p<0.001). There was also a statistically significant reduction in the proportion of children who left without being seen by a professional nurse (25.8% to 18.48%; p<0.001). Conclusions SCREEN is a novel programme that uses readily available laypersons, trained to make a subjective assessment of children arriving at primary healthcare centres, and provides a low cost, simple methodology to prioritise children and reduce waiting times in low-resource healthcare clinics

Survival prediction in mesothelioma using a scalable lasso regression model: instructions for use and initial performance using clinical predictors

Introduction: Accurate prognostication is difficult in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). We developed a set of robust computational models to quantify the prognostic value of routinely available clinical data, which form the basis of published MPM prognostic models. Methods: Data regarding 269 patients with MPM were allocated to balanced training (n=169) and validation sets (n=100). Prognostic signatures (minimal length best performing multivariate trained models) were generated by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression for overall survival (OS), OS &lt;6 months and OS &lt;12 months. OS prediction was quantified using Somers DXY statistic, which varies from 0 to 1, with increasing concordance between observed and predicted outcomes. 6-month survival and 12-month survival were described by area under the curve (AUC) scores. Results: Median OS was 270 (IQR 140–450) days. The primary OS model assigned high weights to four predictors: age, performance status, white cell count and serum albumin, and after cross-validation performed significantly better than would be expected by chance (mean DXY0.332 (±0.019)). However, validation set DXY was only 0.221 (0.0935–0.346), equating to a 22% improvement in survival prediction than would be expected by chance. The 6-month and 12-month OS signatures included the same four predictors, in addition to epithelioid histology plus platelets and epithelioid histology plus C-reactive protein (mean AUC 0.758 (±0.022) and 0.737 (±0.012), respectively). The &lt;6-month OS model demonstrated 74% sensitivity and 68% specificity. The &lt;12-month OS model demonstrated 63% sensitivity and 79% specificity. Model content and performance were generally comparable with previous studies. Conclusions: The prognostic value of the basic clinical information contained in these, and previously published models, is fundamentally of limited value in accurately predicting MPM prognosis. The methods described are suitable for expansion using emerging predictors, including tumour genomics and volumetric staging

In the trenches: rescue archaeology at the Bala Hissar, Kabul

The Bala Hissar was the royal, military and administrative heart of Kabul for a significant period before itwas occupied by British forces during the first two Anglo-Afghan wars in the nineteenth century. Despite itsarchaeological and historical significance, part of the site continues to function as a military base, an expansionof which began in 2007 when nine large holes were bulldozed into the site before protests halted thework. This paper details the findings of an archaeological impact assessment undertaken in July 2007, andincorporates an analysis of satellite images documenting further construction in 2009. The results provide thefirst explicit archaeological (in particular ceramic) evidence suggesting deep continuity of occupation at thesite. The contested ownership and uncertain future of the Bala Hissar in Kabul exemplify the pressures placedon archaeological sites around the world, in the face of uncontrolled development and competing agendas

Modifications Necessary for Commercial Arbitration Law to Protect Statutory Rights Against Discrimination in Employment: A Discussion and Proposals for Change

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio