Faculty incorporation of liberal Essential Learning Outcomes

In 2007, the Association of American Colleges and Universities recommended a set of Essential Learning Outcomes as objectives for twenty-first-century college learning. This study examined to what extent Essential Learning Outcomes are endorsed by faculty members with different teaching experience, across academic disciplines, Carnegie Classifications, institution types of controls, and accreditation regions.;Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE) 2004 data were used for this study with permission from the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. ANOVA, t test, were used for hypothesis tests. Regression and multiple regressions were used to calculate effect sizes, which quantified the differences between groups.;The major findings included: (1) the two groups of faculty (one is from professional and applied fields, and the other is from all remaining disciplines) differed significantly (p \u3c .01) on endorsing eight of the 11 Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs). Faculty members from professional and applied fields emphasized more on six of the eight significant ELOs than faculty members from others did. Most of the differences in magnitude are appreciable; (2) the two groups of faculty (one is from professional, and the other is a combination of applied and the remaining disciplines) differed significantly (p \u3c .01) on six of the 11 ELOs. Regarding these six significant ELOs, faculty members in professional gave more emphasis than the group of applied & others did, and the differences in magnitude are appreciable; (3) faculty members across disciplines differed significantly (p \u3c .01) on endorsing each of the 11 ELOs, and most of the differences in magnitude are large; (4) faculty members from private and public higher institutions differed significantly (p \u3c .01) on five of the 11 ELOs. The differences in magnitude between them are modest to trivial; (5) faculty members from six accreditation regions differed significantly (p \u3c .01) on emphasizing six of the 11 ELOs. The differences in magnitude between these regions are appreciable; (6) faculty members from the three Classifications of Carnegie institutions differed significantly (p \u3c .01) on emphasizing five of the 11 ELOs. The differences in magnitude between them are modest to trivial; (7) faculty members with different teaching experience differed significantly (p \u3c .01) on emphasizing three of the 11 ELOs. The differences in magnitude between them are modest to trivial.;These findings should assist policy makers, professional organizations, and college leaders to make sound decisions in maximizing the adoption of the AAC&U 2007 proposal

Cultural Influnces on Risk Tolerance and Portfolio Creation

We extend existing research that examines the impact of culture on risk tolerance. Using surveys completed by Chinese and American students, we find, consistent with previous studies, that Chinese students perceive themselves as more risk tolerant. However, we find that Chinese students are less consistent in matching their perceived tolerance levels with actual scores from a standard risk tolerance assessment. Further, we also examine mock portfolios created by the respondents and find no evidence that Chinese students create portfolios that are riskier than their American counterparts. Our findings suggest that differences in risk tolerance are at least partially a product of culture, but such differences may not always translate into actual investment decisions

Distributed Supervisory Controller Design for Battery Swapping Modularity in Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

As industry strives to standardize engineering design, manufacturing, and maintenance processes, the focus on achieving component modularity is increasing. Component swapping modularity (CSM) in control systems allows component change without redesign of the system level controller, while achieving the required system performance. Opportunities to achieve CSM are emerging in control systems consisting of smart components connected by bidirectional communication networks. By distributing a part of the controller into the component module, controller recalibration can be limited to only the component module when the component changes. In this dissertation, a novel Direct Method is proposed to generate the distributed controller with CSM through a bi-level optimization. The distributed controller enables CSM and provides required system performance for each component variant. The Direct Method is applied to throttle actuator CSM design in engine idle speed control. The results demonstrate that the new Direct Method improves the CSM results compared to the previous 3-Step Method. In addition, the Direct Method permits the designer to trade off desired system performance versus achievable CSM. The Direct Method is then applied to design a distributed supervisory controller for battery CSM in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. A novel feedback based controller for the charge sustaining mode is proposed. For effective controller distribution, a method based on sensitivity analysis of the control signals with respect to the battery hardware parameter is introduced. The bi-level optimization problem for the distributed controller gains is solved using the Augmented Lagrangian Decomposition method. The results demonstrate that battery CSM can be achieved without compromising fuel economy compared to the centralized control case.Ph.D.Mechanical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86264/1/sfli_1.pd

First Report of Cassytha filiformis Parasitizing Justicia gendarussa in Malaysia

‘Gandarusa’ (Justicia gendarussa, family Acanthaceae) is an evergreen shrub. Its leaves and stem extracts are used for antiangiogenis, anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant and hepatoprotective purposes. In July 2021, sign of haustoria of the parasitic plant attached on estimated 50% of ‘Gandarusa’ with leaf yellowing symptoms was observed in a park (50 m2 site of investigation) of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Sabah, Malaysia (6°01’55.6"N 116°07’18.5"E)

Interrater Variability in Identifying Ventilator Associated Pneumonia Using Six Different Definitions

Objective There is no widely accepted standard definition for Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP). The reliability of the current definitions in use remains controversial. Our objective was to assess the reliability of six commonly used VAP definitions: The Loose, The Rigorous, The Modified Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS), The Canadian Critical Care Trials Group (CCCTG), The International Sepsis Forum Consensus (ISFC) and The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Design We examined the electronic health records of all the consecutively admitted adult patients at our institution who received invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) for ≥ 48 hours, from January 2006 through December 2006.Patients were excluded if they developed pneumonia within the first 48 hours or if they had a tracheostomy before IMV. Two expert intensivists independently reviewed the following data for each patient: indications and duration of IMV, vital signs, oxygen requirements, frequency of respiratory suctioning, amount, color and consistency of secretion, ventilator settings, leukocyte count, microbiologic and radiographic data. Interreviewer reliability in diagnosing VAP independently were compared using Cohen’s-Kappa statistics. Results A total of 115 patients met the initial inclusion criteria of which 47 patients were excluded (40 had pneumonia on presentation, 6 developed pneumonia within 48 hours and 1 had a tracheostomy on admission). The inter-reviewer agreement Kappa for the Loose, the Rigorous, CPIS, CCCTG, ISFC and CDC definitions for VAP were 0.22, 0.49, 0.33, 0.41, 0.38 and 0.68 respectively. Conclusion The CDC definition of VAP proved to be statistically more reliable than other tested definitions of VAP, as demonstrated by the lowest interrater variability between two independent reviewers

Predictive value of neurophysiological monitoring during posterior communicating artery aneurysm clipping for postoperative neurological deficits

ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic effect of intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring in identifying intraoperative ischemic events and predicting postoperative neurological dysfunction during PCoA aneurysm clipping, as well as to explore the safe duration of intraoperative temporary clipping of the parent artery.MethodsAll 71 patients with PCoA aneurysm underwent craniotomy and aneurysm clipping. MEP and SSEP were used for monitoring during operation to evaluate the influence of MEP/SSEP changes on postoperative neurological function. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to calculate optimal duration of intraoperative temporary clipping.ResultsPatients with intraoperative MEP/SSEP changes were more likely to develop short-term and long-term neurological deficits than those without MEP/SSEP changes (P < 0.05). From the ROC curve analysis, the safe time from the initiation of temporary clipping during the operation to the early warning of neurophysiological monitoring was 4.5 min (AUC = 0.735, 95%CI 0.5558-0.912). Taking 4.5 min as the dividing line, the incidence of short-term and long-term neurological dysfunction in patients with temporary clipping >4.5 min was significantly higher than that in patients with temporary clipping ≤4.5 min (P = 0.015, P = 0.018).ConclusionIntraoperative MEP/SSEP changes are significantly associated with postoperative neurological dysfunction in patients with PCoA aneurysms. The optimal duration of temporary clipping of the parent artery during posterior communicating aneurysm clipping was 4.5 min under neurophysiological monitoring

Performance evaluation of heating tower heat pump systems over the world

Heating tower heat pumps (HTHPs) are proposed as an alternative to the conventional heat pumps. However, lacking performance evaluation of the HTHPs in different regions limits their applications worldwide. To address this issue, this paper carries out a large-scale comprehensive performance evaluation of the HTHPs in 869 typical locations. These locations are in the warm, mixed, and cool climate zones, where buildings need both cooling and heating supply. Seven performance indices are adopted, including the annual coefficient of performance (COP), COP in cooling season, COP in heating season, regeneration ratio, number of unsatisfactory hours, matching degree of heat pump, and matching degree of heating tower. The performance evaluation of the HTHPs is conducted by the processes of location selection, building load calculation, system sizing, simulation, and evaluation. The results show that the HTHPs have excellent performance in the warm and mixed climate zones, where the average annual COPs are 4.67 and 3.68, respectively. The HTHPs are also applicable in the cool climate zone with an average annual COP of 3.11. The distributions of all the performance indices are presented through color maps, and the results are analyzed considering the air temperature and relative humidity data of the locations.</p