Examining Admission Factors in an MPA Program

This article presents an in-depth examination of the validity of the admission factors employed by a NASPAA-accredited MPA program. Admission factors are examined to determine if particular factors, or a set of factors, are most indicative of an applicant’s potential achievement in the MPA program as measured by a student’s final grade point average (GPA) in the program. The study uses truncated regression techniques to analyze student records in order to determine the relative significance of a set of commonly collected admissions information. We find that the best predictor of success in the MPA program, as measured by final GPA in the program, is the applicant’s undergraduate GPA. This finding brings into question the utility of much of the information collected in a typical MPA program application

Hybrid-learning for social design

Underlying causes of conflict, inequity, and injustice remain deeply entrenched in the lives of people ranging from impoverished villages to overpopulated megalopolises. To help address these complex issues, social design brings together designers from varying disciplines to address the needs of the community. While universities across the world recognize the need to introduce social design pedagogy into their curriculum, many programs remain confined within Western post-graduate education. In response, two multidisciplinary professors initiated a team-taught \u27Design for Social Change\u27 course in an undergraduate design program in Dubai, UAE. Open to students across disciplines, the course followed a hybrid-learning approach to planning, conducting, and evaluating learning activities. The methodology empowered students to determine their project interest, cooperatively build research, and value their diverse skills. This paper introduces the notion of hybrid-learning, collabor-active team-teaching in an interdisciplinary classroom, and applies the methodology to a social design course in the MENA region. This paper has been presented as part of the Tasmeem Exploration Platform during Tasmeem Conference, Doha, 2013

Smoking Characteristics and Psychiatric Comorbidities of Pregnant Smokers: An Analysis of Quit4Baby Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Text messaging or short message service (SMS) programs have been shown to be effective in helping adult smokers quit smoking (Abroms et al., 2014). However, to our knowledge, no prior research has examined psychiatric comorbidities associated with smoking in the text messaging context. The risk of smoking has been shown to increase as a function of the number of psychiatric illnesses with which a person is diagnosed (Aubin, Rollema, Svensson, & Winterer, 2012). The current study examined this association and other correlates of smoking-psychiatric comorbidity in a sample of U.S. pregnant smokers enrolled in Quit4Baby, a smoking cessation text messaging program for pregnant smokers that was adapted from Text2Quit. Method: Pregnant women enrolled in Text4baby and who were current smokers or recent quitter (N=505) were enrolled in a Quit4Baby efficacy study. Those under the age of 14, not pregnant, without a cell phone for personal use, and not currently smoking were ineligible. Participants were surveyed at baseline, and self-report measures of psychiatric conditions and smoking outcomes were assessed. Results: Consistent with previous studies, the number of comorbid diagnoses was significantly associated with heavy (\u3e20 cigarettes/day) smoking. Moreover, among current smokers, there was a significant difference between groups on number of cigarettes smoked by number of psychiatric comorbidities as determined by one-way ANOVA (F(3, 503) = 7.789, p= Conclusions: The current findings of increased rates of mental disorders among smokers and nicotine-dependent smokers in the pregnant women population are supported by this study. The intention to stop smoking should be proactively supported among these comorbid pregnant smokers. Upon the conclusion of the Quit4Baby randomized controlled trial, the effectiveness of text messaging interventions on psychiatric comorbid pregnant smokers will be examined

Inelastic Diffraction and Spectroscopy of Very Weakly Bound Clusters

We study the coherent inelastic diffraction of very weakly bound two body clusters from a material transmission grating. We show that internal transitions of the clusters can lead to new separate peaks in the diffraction pattern whose angular positions determine the excitation energies. Using a quantum mechanical approach to few body scattering theory we determine the relative peak intensities for the diffraction of the van der Waals dimers (D_2)_2 and H_2-D_2. Based on the results for these realistic examples we discuss the possible applications and experimental challenges of this coherent inelastic diffraction technique.Comment: 15 pages + 5 figures. J. Phys. B (in press

Influence of retardation effects on 2D magnetoplasmon spectrum

Within dissipationless limit the magnetic field dependence of magnetoplasmon spectrum for unbounded 2DEG system found to intersect the cyclotron resonance line, and, then approaches the frequency given by light dispersion relation. Recent experiments done for macroscopic disc-shape 2DEG systems confirm theory expectations.Comment: 2 pages,2 figure

Quit4baby: Results From a Pilot Test of a Mobile Smoking Cessation Program for Pregnant Women

Background: Text messaging programs have been shown to be effective in helping adult smokers quit smoking. This study describes the results of a pilot test of Quit4baby, a smoking cessation text messaging program for pregnant smokers that was adapted from Text2quit. Objective: The study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of Quit4baby for women currently enrolled in Text4baby, a perinatal health text messaging program. Methods: Pregnant women enrolled in Text4baby and who were current smokers or had quit within the last 4 weeks (N=20) were enrolled in Quit4baby. Those under age 18, not pregnant, not current smokers, those using nicotine replacement therapy and those not interested in participating were ineligible. Participants were surveyed at baseline and at 2 and 4 weeks post-enrollment. Results: Most participants responded to the program favorably. Highly rated aspects included the content of the program, skills taught within the program, and encouragement and social support provided by the program. Participants reported that the program was helpful in quitting, that the program gave good ideas on quitting, and that they would recommend the program to a friend. Suggestions for improvement included increasing the message dose and making the quitpal more interactive. Conclusions: The pilot test provides support for the feasibility and acceptability of Quit4baby. Future studies are needed to assess whether Quit4baby is effective for pregnancy smoking cessation

Transgenic avian-derived recombinant human interferon-alpha2b (AVI-005) in healthy subjects: an open-label, single-dose, controlled study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study characterized the safety and pharmacological properties of AVI-005, a novel glycosylated recombinant human interferon-alpha2b produced from the egg whites of chickens transfected with human cDNA. METHODS: 18 healthy volunteers received single subcutaneous rising doses (0.5, 1.66 or 5 million international units, MIU) of AVI-005. A randomized parallel comparator group of 10 subjects received 5 MIU of unglycosylated IFN-alpha2b (Intron A). The pharmacokinetic parameters t1/2, tmax, Cmax, AUC0-24h, Vd, and clearance were compared between AVI-005 and unglycosylated IFN-alpa2b. RESULTS: At equipotent doses, AVI-005 had a larger AUC0-24h than the control interferon. Pharmacodynamic markers ofneopterin and beta2-microglobulin for the two treatments were similar. These markers were increased by AVI-005 in a dose-dependent manner. Pharmacodynamic responses to treatment with AVI-005 were shown by the change in mRNA expression for interferon inducible protein kinase and 2\u275\u27-oligoadenylate synthetase. Adverse events in the two groups were qualitatively and quantitatively similar. CONCLUSION: AVI-005 demonstrates biological activity and pharmaco-kinetic properties in humans that support further development

Sum Rules for Multi-Photon Spectroscopy of Ions in Finite Symmetry

Models describing one- and two-photon transitions for ions in crystalline environments are unified and extended to the case of parity-allowed and parity- forbidden p-photon transitions. The number of independent parameters for characterizing the polarization dependence is shown to depend on an ensemble of properties and rules which combine symmetry considerations and physical models.Comment: 16 pages, Tex fil

Quit4baby: Results from a pilot test of a mobile smoking cessation program for pregnant women

Background: Text messaging (short message service, SMS) programs have been shown to be effective in helping adult smokers quit smoking. This study describes the results of a pilot test of Quit4baby, a smoking cessation text messaging program for pregnant smokers that was adapted from Text2quit. Objective: The study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of Quit4baby for women currently enrolled in Text4baby, a perinatal health text messaging program. Methods: Pregnant women enrolled in Text4baby and who were current smokers or had quit within the last 4 weeks (n=20) were enrolled in Quit4baby. Those under the age of 18, not pregnant, not current smokers, those using nicotine replacement therapy, and those not interested in participating were ineligible. Participants were surveyed at baseline and at 2 and 4 weeks postenrollment. Results: Most participants responded to the program favorably. Highly rated aspects included the content of the program, skills taught within the program, and encouragement and social support provided by the program. Participants reported that the program was helpful in quitting, that the program gave good ideas on quitting, and that they would recommend the program to a friend. Suggestions for improvement included increasing the message dose and making the quitpal more interactive. Conclusions: This pilot test provides support for the feasibility and acceptability of Quit4baby. Future studies are needed to assess whether Quit4baby is effective for smoking cessation during pregnancy

Isomorphisms of Brin-Higman-Thompson groups

Let $m, m', r, r',t, t'$ be positive integers with $r, r' \ge 2$. Let $L_r$ denote the ring that is universal with an invertible $1 \times r$ matrix. Let $M_m(L_r^{\otimes t})$ denote the ring of $m \times m$ matrices over the tensor product of $t$ copies of $L_r$. In a natural way, $M_m(L_r^{\otimes t})$ is a partially ordered ring with involution. Let $PU_m(L_r^{\otimes t})$ denote the group of positive unitary elements. We show that $PU_m(L_r^{\otimes t})$ is isomorphic to the Brin-Higman-Thompson group $t V_{r,m}$; the case $t =1$ was found by Pardo, that is, $PU_m(L_r)$ is isomorphic to the Higman-Thompson group $V_{r,m}$. We survey arguments of Abrams, \'Anh, Bleak, Brin, Higman, Lanoue, Pardo, and Thompson that prove that $t' V_{r',m'} \cong tV_{r,m}$ if and only if $r' = r$, $t'=t$ and $\gcd(m',r'-1) = \gcd(m,r-1)$ (if and only if $M_{m'}(L_{r'}^{\otimes t'})$ and $M_m(L_r^{\otimes t})$ are isomorphic as partially ordered rings with involution).Comment: 24 page