The Glitch That Stole Christmas From The Pac-10

The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) employs a multi-criteria decision model (MCDM) to determine eligibility to play in the most elite college football bowls at the end of the season.  MCDM’s are widely used in business and government to make important decisions, including those with tremendous financial impacts.  The BCS college bowls have the biggest payouts involving several million dollars.  This year, the PAC-10 could have been the first football conference to place two teams in the BCS bowl.  What a Merry Christmas that would have been!  The payout would have been $2.75 million or$275 thousand per team.  Unfortunately, due to the use of a faulty MCDM that distorts the relationship between those football programs considered, a glitch in the BCS formula stole the Rose Bowl prestige and the money from the PAC-10 during the Christmas holidays.  Using appropriate multipliers, the economic impact in PAC-10 communities could have been very significant.   The implication for future competition through enhanced athletic facilities, for example, could have a sustained economic impact for several years in those communities.  It will be demonstrated in this paper that had the BCS employed a valid and consistent algorithm for determining a final score, even with the BCS’s own data, the University of California would have a higher score than the University of Texas and the PAC-10 would have benefited by $2.75 Million, and they would have a much merrier Christmas than they had from playing in the Holiday Bowl

Assessing Walking Ability in People with HTLV-1-Associated Myelopathy Using the 10 Meter Timed Walk and the 6 Minute Walk Test

Five to ten million persons, are infected by HTLV-1 of which 3% will develop HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (HAM) a chronic, disabling inflammation of the spinal cord. Walking, a fundamental, complex, multi-functional task is demanding of multiple body systems. Restricted walking ability compromises activity and participation levels in people with HAM (pwHAM). Therapy aims to improve mobility but validated measures are required to assess change.Prospective observational study.To explore walking capacity in pwHAM, walking endurance using the 6 minute walk (6MW), and gait speed, using the timed 10m walk (10mTW).Out-patient setting in an inner London Teaching hospital.Prospective documentation of 10mTW and 6MW distance; walking aid usage and pain scores measured twice, a median of 18 months apart.Data analysis was completed for twenty-six pwHAM, (8♂; 18♀; median age: 57.8 years; median disease duration: 8 years). Median time at baseline to: complete 10m was 17.5 seconds, versus 21.4 seconds at follow up; 23% completed the 6MW compared to 42% at follow up and a median distance of 55m was covered compared to 71m at follow up. Using the 10mTW velocity to predict the 6MW distance, overestimated the distance walked in 6 minutes (p<0.01). Functional decline over time was captured using the functional ambulation categories.The 10mTW velocity underestimated the degree of disability. Gait speed usefully predicts functional domains, shows direction of functional change and comparison with published healthy age matched controls show that these patients have significantly slower gait speeds. The measured differences over 18 months were sufficient to reliably detect change and therefore these assessments can be useful to detect improvement or deterioration within broader disability grades. Walking capacity in pwHAM should be measured using the 10mTW for gait speed and the 6MW for endurance

Enhanced Hippocampal Long-Term Potentiation and Fear Memory in Btbd9 Mutant Mice

Polymorphisms in BTBD9 have recently been associated with higher risk of restless legs syndrome (RLS), a neurological disorder characterized by uncomfortable sensations in the legs at rest that are relieved by movement. The BTBD9 protein contains a BTB/POZ domain and a BACK domain, but its function is unknown. To elucidate its function and potential role in the pathophysiology of RLS, we generated a line of mutant Btbd9 mice derived from a commercial gene-trap embryonic stem cell clone. Btbd9 is the mouse homolog of the human BTBD9. Proteins that contain a BTB/POZ domain have been reported to be associated with synaptic transmission and plasticity. We found that Btbd9 is naturally expressed in the hippocampus of our mutant mice, a region critical for learning and memory. As electrophysiological characteristics of CA3-CA1 synapses of the hippocampus are well characterized, we performed electrophysiological recordings in this region. The mutant mice showed normal input-output relationship, a significant impairment in pre-synaptic activity, and an enhanced long-term potentiation. We further performed an analysis of fear memory and found the mutant mice had an enhanced cued and contextual fear memory. To elucidate a possible molecular basis for these enhancements, we analyzed proteins that have been associated with synaptic plasticity. We found an elevated level of dynamin 1, an enzyme associated with endocytosis, in the mutant mice. These results suggest the first identified function of Btbd9 as being involved in regulating synaptic plasticity and memory. Recent studies have suggested that enhanced synaptic plasticity, analogous to what we have observed, in other regions of the brain could enhance sensory perception similar to what is seen in RLS patients. Further analyses of the mutant mice will help shine light on the function of BTBD9 and its role in RLS

Experiential Learning: Introducing Faculty and Staff to a University Leadership Development Program

External changes exacerbate the complexity of managing and leading public secondary institutions (Page &amp; Dimsdale, 2002). Considering the many external governance bodies’ and their sheer influence in post secondary education, it is not surprising many faculty and staff are unclear about their role in meeting a changing institutional world. As key organizational members, faculty and staff have a growing need to know what governance changes and environmental pressures mean to the university and to them. Additionally, university leadership must encourage the involvement of faculty and staff to facilitate these changes. A Leadership Enhancement and Development Program (LEAD) has been instituted at the University of West Florida. Experiential learning is used as the catalyst introducing participants to its program. Key Words: Experiential Learning, Leadershi

Doing Murder One Again

Murder One is an experiential exercise developed in 1975 by J. Pfeiffer and J. Jones to focus on how information is shared within groups. This exercise was conducted in fall 2010 to see how students of the millennial generation react to and analyze the situations they are placed into. The experiential exercise’s content was not changed but some external factors were and student reactions to it were re-corded. Student’s reactions to new group members, their assessments when interpreting case details and how detective teams worked together were evident even after a semester of working together as a class. New and interesting aspects about team behavior can be learned when MUR-DER ONE is used

Assessing Project Management as an Academic Learning Outcome (ALO)

Colleges and universities ask,” how do you measure outcomes like Project Management (PM)” in our graduating students. Legislatures have directed universities and colleges to develop Academic Learning Outcomes (ALO) to meet the State’s Academic Learning Compacts established with in its curriculums. Students must be able to demonstrate an ALO, like PM, but this learning domain must be measurable. To evaluate PM one must assess many PM activities being done to deliver a completed project. Our students are assigned to teams in a business simulation where they responsible for successful PM activities. This paper looks at our effort toward a more accurate measure of the Project Management ALO using team members and faculty rating each team member on their PM activity performance. This evaluation combines final team simulation performance standings in the assessment of a PM ALO

What are Simulations For?: Learning Objectives as a Simulation Selection Device

A longstanding topic of discussion among simulation users is what types of learning objectives are appropriate. Research has shown mixed results at establishing a relationship between simulations and learning, and the construct of learning has been a contentious topic as well. Various streams of thought on the topic of learning objectives are reviewed and the authors then propose several fundamental objectives they personally have accepted as critical in adopting a simulation for classroom use. Two versions of a leading simulation are evaluated on how well they support these learning objectives. The conclusion is that users must clearly identify desired learning objectives not only prior to adopting a new simulation, but before progressing to the latest revision of a simulation currently in use

Group Exams: Are they Relevant and Reliable as a learning Tool?

This paper is primarily the front half of a larger experiental study on the role of group exams in educating student to have the skills to excel in the current dynamic environment. It provides an overview of the literature on the importance of groups and some studies that have investigated group evaluation instrument. The latter half of the paper provides a limited sample of some of the results which suggests that group exams may increase the performance and learning of students. A subsequent paper is intended to provide a much larger sample of data and then come up with hypotheses and results in this important area

Video Killed the Biblio Star: The Impact of Digital Media on Student Learning Outcomes

The Millennial generation has been raised with extensive social networking. The intent of this study is to determine if students have a more effective learning experience if they are required to utilize social net-working skills within the classroom. The major term project requires student teams to teach a concept or two from their assigned chapter using appropriate videos. One author, who is teaching one of the course sections being studied, is utilizing the identified video project approach. The second author is teaching one of the sections in the same manner and his other section is being taught in the traditional manner of requiring teams to examine a company and present their findings and recommendations to the class with-out the use of video technology. The two authors are utilizing similar exams, and to date, there is not a statistically significant difference in the results. How-ever, this is not surprising, since the students have not had the opportunity to present their final project. The real test will come if the results on the final exam are better in the two sections utilizing the video-presentation approach versus the traditional approach