Community College Student Retention: Effectiveness of Online Intervention Methods in Retaining Students on Financial Aid Probation

The role of community colleges is to provide educational opportunities to all segments of a population regardless of academic proficiency or economic ability. This openess admissions policy is meant to allow equal admission to academic and career-technical programs for all students. Due to openess admissions, economically disadvantaged community college students find themselves being admissible to community colleges with uncertain financial ability to pay for community college even though it is at a lower cost than 4-year institutions. Community college students historically face more financial and social barriers than 4-year students in attaining higher education and thus have a greater need for federal financial aid assistance. Students attending community colleges participate in federal grant-in-aid and student loan programs at a higher rate than any other type of institution. With this greater need for financial aid assistance, community college students are still held to the same federal financial aid academic standards. Students receiving federal financial aid must meet the same grade-point average, completion rate, and eligibility limit requirements as their university counterparts. These standards impact students at the community college level at an even higher rate than those at the university. The purpose of this study was to determine if students who do not meet federal financial aid academic standards and are placed on financial aid probation can be retained at the community college level using an online intervention course. The knowledge obtained from the course could facilitate the selection of optimal and cost-effective intervention strategies. Determination is necessary in order to eliminate current online intervention, adapt the intervention methods, or continue supporting intervention through allocating resources to the program that may allow for expansion and outcome inference to future student populations. This study specifically explored the retention of students who do not meet corresponding Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) indicators through the inclusion of an online intervention course. Student data were obtained from online course outcomes over multiple semesters from a community college in the Southern Region of the United States, yielding quantitative data for analysis. Educational opportunities tend to be viewed in a dramaturgical or symbolic perspective and viewed as successful based on student outcomes. It was assumed that student outcomes are tangible, and the link between means and ends are clear, meaning student outcome attainment equals employment and life success. In this instance, a return on investment study is not intended, but rather program effectiveness in influencing student outcomes. This program can be considered effective as it provides causation for increased performance, subsequent retention, and positive impact on financial aid status. The addition of an online intervention course supports causation linkage. It also supports the correlation of predicting post-semester cumulative grade point average (GPA), and the performance within the course provides inference to the participant’s future status

Aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida en China

El artículo explora el aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida en China en relación a la modernización del desarrollo en las áreas de agricultura, industria, industria militar, y ciencia y tecnología. Se tratan temas relacionados con la distribución del factor trabajo, habilidades y formación, y problemas potenciales. El papel del aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida en China se contrasta con ideas de mundo occidental y se analiza a lo largo del tiempo para mostrar cómo ha cambiado para adaptarse a las necesidades del país en términos de analfabetismo y desarrollo de habilidades y cómo, inexplicablemente, se ha entrelazado con la agenda política y educativa del país

Deiotarus : zur Karriere eines römischen Klientelkönigs

The article traces the see-sawing fortunes of the Galatian ruler Deiotarus, how he gained and lost and regained control over various territories (the three Galatian tetrarchies; Lesser Armenia; and an unnamed coastal strip of land between Galatia and Lesser Armenia) from 63 BC until his death in ca. 40 BC. It also examines Cicero’s rhetorical strategy in his speech in Deiotarus’ defence before Caesar and argues that much in the speech cannot be taken at face value – many remarks of Cicero’s about Deiotarus are two-edged and should not be used uncritically in reconstructing Deiotarus’ career

Description of Supernova Data in Conformal Cosmology without Cosmological Constant

We consider cosmological consequences of a conformal invariant formulation of Einstein's General Relativity where instead of the scale factor of the spatial metrics in the action functional a massless scalar (dilaton) field occurs which scales all masses including the Planck mass. Instead of the expansion of the universe we get the Hoyle-Narlikar type of mass evolution, where the temperature history of the universe is replaced by the mass history. We show that this conformal invariant cosmological model gives a satisfactory description of the new supernova Ia data for the effective magnitude - redshift relation without a cosmological constant and make a prediction for the high-redshift behavior which deviates from that of standard cosmology for $z>1.7$.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, includes discussion of SN1997ff, text revise

Nonlinear evolution of initially sine-like wedge acoustic waves

In this paper the nonlinear behaviour of antisymmetric wedge acoustic waves propagating along the tip of a sharp elastic wedge is investigated theoretically. The nonlinear evolution equation is derived taking into account geometrical-acoustics approximation for wedge waves. In contrast to the case of surface acoustic waves for which the quadratic nonlinearity dominates, the lowest order of nonlinearity in this equation is cubic. For arbitrary propagation distances, the numerical solution taking into account 1O interacting wave harmonics has been carried out. The results show that an initially sine-like antisymmetric wedge wave distorts to a wave of trapezoidal form propagating with changed phase velocity

Gizzard contents of the Smooth-billed Ani Crotophaga ani in Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

The Smooth-billed Ani Crotophaga ani was introduced to the Galapagos archipelago in the 1960s, since when its population has grown significantly. We studied the dietary items in the gizzards of 56 anis sampled on the island of Santa Cruz. We confirmed that the diet of C. ani consists primarily of invertebrates and plant material, including native species and non-native invasives. The second most abundant seed in the anis’ diet was that of the highly invasive plant, Rubus niveus. Our findings suggest that C. ani poses a threat to the Galapagos ecosystem by dispersing seeds of non-native plants and by competing with other insectivorous species on the islands. Furthermore, the discovery of a Darwin’s Finch nestling in the gizzard of one C. ani establishes direct predation by this species on native birds

Software-defined open architecture for front- and backhaul in 5G mobile networks

New software-defined open network concepts are proposed in this paper to enable an efficient implementation of front- and backhaul solutions for future 5G mobile networks. Main requirements for 5G front- and backhaul are derived and then related to the open network architecture enabling multiple operators to share the same physical infrastructure. The value of software-defined networking (SDN) is particularly outlined therefore. For the use of SDN in the fronthaul, CPRI over Ethernet (CoE) is proposed as a new transport protocol. In the backhaul, distributed security can be implemented using SDN where direct links are confined inside the access domain, as opposed to the current centralized security solution including also the transport domain. In this way, low latency can be realized e.g. for machine-type communications. As the benefits for fixed-mobile convergence are evident, SDN should be enabled increasingly in the access domain. © 2014 IEEE

Delivering a “Dose of Hope”: A Faith-Based Program to Increase Older African Americans’ Participation in Clinical Trials

Background: Underrepresentation of older-age racial and ethnic minorities in clinical research is a significant barrier to health in the United States, as it impedes medical research advancement of effective preventive and therapeutic strategies. Objective: The objective of the study was to develop and test the feasibility of a community-developed faith-based intervention and evaluate its potential to increase the number of older African Americans in clinical research. Methods: Using a cluster-randomized design, we worked with six matched churches to enroll at least 210 persons. We provided those in the intervention group churches with three educational sessions on the role of clinical trials in addressing health disparity topics, and those in the comparison group completed surveys at the same timepoints. All persons enrolled in the study received ongoing information via newsletters and direct outreach on an array of clinical studies seeking participants. We evaluated the short-, mid-, and longer-term effects of the interventional program on clinical trial-related outcomes (ie, screening and enrollment)

A missing high-spin molecule in the family of cyano-bridged heptanuclear heterometal complexes, [(LCuII)6FeIII(CN)6]3+, and its CoIII and CrIII analogues, accompanied in the crystal by a novel octameric water cluster

Three isostructural cyano-bridged heptanuclear complexes, [{CuII(saldmen)(H2O)}6{MIII(CN)6}](ClO4)3$\cdotp$8H2O (M = FeIII 2; CoIII, 3; CrIII 4), have been obtained by reacting the binuclear copper(II) complex, [Cu2(saldmen)2(mu-H2O)(H2O)2](ClO4)2$\cdotp$2H2O 1, with K3[Co(CN)6], K4[Fe(CN)6], and, respectively, K3[Cr(CN)6] (Hsaldmen is the Schiff base resulted from the condensation of salicylaldehyde with N,N-dimethylethylenediamine). A unique octameric water cluster, with bicyclo[2,2,2]octane-like structure, is sandwiched between the heptanuclear cations in 2, 3 and 4. The cryomagnetic investigations of compounds 2 and 4 reveal ferromagnetic couplings of the central FeIII or CrIII ions with the CuII ions (JCuFe = +0.87 cm-1, JCuCr = +30.4 cm-1). The intramolecular Cu-Cu exchange interaction in 3, across the diamagnetic cobalt(III) ion, is -0.3 cm-1. The solid-state1H-NMR spectra of compounds 2 and 3 have been investigated