Building pathways to academic success: a practice report

Students attending university for the first time come with a range of expectations, experiences and skills. For many these prior experiences are less than optimal for achieving academic success. This paper evaluates the academic outcomes across three cohorts of a five day enabling program offered to commencing students in the week prior to their formal university orientation program. The demographics of this sample (n=965) are such that over 50% come from low socio-economic backgrounds, about 50% are first in family to attend university, 50% are mature age students and over 50% have university entrance scores in the lower ranges of academic ability. Those who entered university with an OP1 score of 15 or less and completed the program were less likely to fail and achieved higher GPAs at the end of their first semester of studies than those who did not complete the enabling program

Development of a micro flow-through cell for high field NMR spectroscopy.

A highly transportable micro flow-through detection cell for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has been designed, fabricated and tested. This flow-through cell allows for the direct coupling between liquid chromatography (LC) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) resulting in the possibility of hyphenated LC-NMR and GPC-NMR. The advantage of the present flow cell design is that it is independent and unconnected to the detection probe electronics, is compatible with existing commercial high resolution NMR probes, and as such can be easily implemented at any NMR facility. Two different volumes were fabricated corresponding to between {approx}3.8 and 10 {micro}L detection volume. Examples of the performance of the cell on different NMR instruments, and using different NMR detection probes were demonstrated

Tools for characterizing biomembranes : final LDRD report.

A suite of experimental nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy tools were developed to investigate lipid structure and dynamics in model membrane systems. By utilizing both multinuclear and multidimensional NMR experiments a range of different intra- and inter-molecular contacts were probed within the membranes. Examples on pure single component lipid membranes and on the canonical raft forming mixture of DOPC/SM/Chol are presented. A unique gel phase pretransition in SM was also identified and characterized using these NMR techniques. In addition molecular dynamics into the hydrogen bonding network unique to sphingomyelin containing membranes were evaluated as a function of temperature, and are discussed

Software reuse in spacecraft planning and scheduling systems

The use of a software toolkit and development methodology that supports software reuse is described. The toolkit includes source-code-level library modules and stand-alone tools which support such tasks as data reformatting and report generation, simple relational database applications, user interfaces, tactical planning, strategic planning and documentation. The current toolkit is written in C and supports applications that run on IBM-PC's under DOS and UNlX-based workstations under OpenLook and Motif. The toolkit is fully integrated for building scheduling systems that reuse AI knowledge base technology. A typical scheduling scenario and three examples of applications that utilize the reuse toolkit will be briefly described. In addition to the tools themselves, a description of the software evolution and reuse methodology that was used is presented

Creating birds of similar feathers: Leveraging similarity to improve teacher-student relationships and academic achievement

When people perceive themselves as similar to others, greater liking and closer relationships typically result. In the first randomized field experiment that leverages actual similarities to improve real-world relationships, we examined the affiliations between 315 ninth grade students and their 25 teachers. Students in the treatment condition received feedback on five similarities that they shared with their teachers; each teacher received parallel feedback regarding about half of his/her ninth grade students. Five weeks after our intervention, those in the treatment conditions perceived greater similarity with their counterparts. Furthermore, when teachers received feedback about their similarities with specific students, they perceived better relationships with those students, and those students earned higher course grades. Exploratory analyses suggest that these effects are concentrated within relationships between teachers and their “underserved” students. This brief intervention appears to close the achievement gap at this school by over 60%

To manage a complex dependency: The experience of caregiving after a fall

Aim: To understand the experience of family members of an older relative who has had a fall which required medical attention. Background: There is abundant bibliography in caregiving, but little is known about the problems faced by caregivers and how family members cope when their older relative has a fall. Design: Qualitative study that used a symbolic interactionism perspective. Methods: Twenty‐two people with older relatives, who had had a fall and contacted health services in Spain, participated in the study. Data were obtained via written accounts, focus groups, and semi‐structured interviews between February 2014 ‐ December 2015. Analysis was guided by grounded theory procedures. Results: With the fall, dependency becomes a complex issue for the family. To manage a complex dependency is the core issue that emerges from the data analysis. It depicts family efforts to assist their relative in gaining autonomy after a fall, in the best conditions they can provide. They do this with little guidance and support from healthcare professionals. Conclusions: Guides and protocols for the care of a fragile older person, particularly after a fall, should not only include care but also support to caregivers. Health professionals and especially nurses need to be aware and respond to the family caregivers needs after a fall. To the fall prevention initiatives already in place, it must be added that those who support family members to cope with the care of an older person who has had a fall.Authors receive funds to conduct this research from the Nursing Scientific Association of Spain (SCELE), Charo Palencia Grant

Composing first species counterpoint with a variable neighbourhood search algorithm

In this article, a variable neighbourhood search (VNS) algorithm is developed that can generate musical fragments consisting of a melody for the cantus firmus and the first species counterpoint. The objective function of the algorithm is based on a quantification of existing rules for counterpoint. The VNS algorithm developed in this article is a local search algorithm that starts from a randomly generated melody and improves it by changing one or two notes at a time. A thorough parametric analysis of the VNS reveals the significance of the algorithm's parameters on the quality of the composed fragment, as well as their optimal settings. A comparison of the VNS algorithm with a developed genetic algorithm shows that the VNS is more efficient. The VNS algorithm has been implemented in a user-friendly software environment for composition, called Optimuse. Optimuse allows a user to specify a number of characteristics such as length, key and mode. Based on this information, Optimuse 'composes' both cantus firmus and first species counterpoint. Alternatively, the user may specify a cantus firmus, and let Optimuse compose the accompanying first species counterpoint. © 2012 Taylor & Francis

Proceedings of the Third Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: A Review of Emerging Issues and Technologies

The proceedings of the 3rd Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank summarize the most contemporary clinical, electrophysiological, imaging, and computational work on DBS for the treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric disease. Significant innovations of the past year are emphasized. The Think Tank\u27s contributors represent a unique multidisciplinary ensemble of expert neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuropsychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, engineers, and members of industry. Presentations and discussions covered a broad range of topics, including policy and advocacy considerations for the future of DBS, connectomic approaches to DBS targeting, developments in electrophysiology and related strides toward responsive DBS systems, and recent developments in sensor and device technologies