Robotics and Programming Workshops to Stimulate Children's Interest in STEM

IMPACT. 1: Dr. Radin has partnered with community organizations to provide facilities, advertising, registration, and funding so that workshops can be provided without cost to teams. -- 2. Dr. Radin's team has taught these workshops for 4 years, reaching over 1500 elementary and middle school children and their adult mentors. Participants come from Ohio as well as neighboring states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Kentucky.OSU PARTNERS: College of Veterinary Medicine; Department of Veterinary BiosciencesCOMMUNITY PARTNERS: Starbase - Wright Patterson Air Force Base Outreach; iSpace Cincinnati; Rockwell AutomationPRIMARY CONTACT: M. Judith Radin ([email protected])FIRST is an organization that promotes robotics competitions to stimulate children's interest in math and science. Many teams competing in this program are based in elementary and middle schools and available teachers/ mentors often have very limited programming experience, which can result in frustration for both students and mentors. As one of the coaches of a successful robotics team, Dr. Radin helped design an 8-hour interactive programming workshop for elementary and middle school students and mentors

Human Worth as Collateral

Human worth has taken on a surprising new role: that of market asset. Specifically, lenders in radically different contexts are using their borrowers’ human worth as collateral in loan transactions. The two examples of this new collateralization that I examine are credit card lending in the United States and microlending programs in the Third World. I conclude that the use of human worth in these two contexts is too similar to be coincidental. Rather, this new collateralization is a product of globalization. For those interested in the effect of law on globalization, this convergence in the market for credit teaches important lessons. In both the contexts I examine, the laws governing secured and unsecured lending fail to recognize human worth as collateral. For this reason, the new collateralization serves as a counter-example to the claimed centrality of the rule of law in economic development

Muscle Potassium Content and Potassium Gluconate Supplementation in Normokalemic Cats With Naturally Occurring Chronic Renal Failure

Muscle potassium content and supplementation with potassium gluconate were evaluated in normokalemic cats with chronic renal failure (CRF). Affected cats received standard medical therapy for renal failure and either placebo (sodium gluconate! or potassium gluconate. At the beginning of the study and after 6 months of supplementation, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and effective renal plasma flow (ERPF) were estimated using 3H‐inulin and 14C‐tetraethylammo‐nium bromide (TEA) clearances. Muscle potassium content was determined in biopsy specimens using atomic absorption spectroscopy. Muscle biopsy samples obtained from cats with CRF before treatment had significantly lower muscle potassium content than did those from normal control cats. Over the 6‐month period of supplementation, muscle potassium content increased both in cats with CRF that received potassium gluconate and in those that received placebo (sodium gluconate). Serum potassium concentration and fractional excretion of potassium remained relatively unchanged in both groups of cats throughout the treatment period. There were no significant differences in the percentage change in GFR and ERPF between treatment groups over the 6‐month time period. Median values for pH, HCO3, and total CO2 at 6 months were higher than baseline in the potassium gluconate group but lower than baseline in the sodium gluconate group