Implications of Student Loan and Finance Management Skills for Undergraduate Students

As the Presidential elections in 2024 are approaching, public opinions and politicians’ statements about student loans are presented more often. To curb educational borrowing, the entire society is involved. Institutions of higher education are highly engaged in securing possible funds for scholarships and grants to provide their students with the best and most efficient education. States offer scholarships, and students are becoming more selective about their institution, study major, and lifestyle choices during their undergraduate studies.  Many borrowers lack a clear understanding of loan terms and finance management skills. This study was conducted to determine the money management skills of undergraduates, their perceived amount of educational loans anticipated upon graduation, and its impact on their academic performance. A specifically designed survey instrument was administered to a total of 565 participants who were students at one of the US HBCUs in the North-Eastern region of the United States. The results revealed significant race differences in the perceived expected amount of debt upon graduation. The study further indicates a heightened requirement for academic guidance for students whose undergraduate GPAs fall within the range of 2.00 to 3.00, aiming to enhance their retention until graduation within the present institution. Student athletes expressed a significantly higher financial self-efficacy than non-athletes

Implications of Student Loan and Finance Management Skills for Undergraduate Students

As the Presidential elections in 2024 are approaching, public opinions and politicians’ statements about student loans are presented more often. To curb educational borrowing, the entire society is involved. Institutions of higher education are highly engaged in securing possible funds for scholarships and grants to provide their students with the best and most efficient education. States offer scholarships, and students are becoming more selective about their institution, study major, and lifestyle choices during their undergraduate studies. Many borrowers lack a clear understanding of loan terms and finance management skills. This study was conducted to determine the money management skills of undergraduates, their perceived amount of educational loans anticipated upon graduation, and its impact on their academic performance. A specifically designed survey instrument was administered to a total of 565 participants who were students at one of the US HBCUs in the North-Eastern region of the United States. The results revealed significant race differences in the perceived expected amount of debt upon graduation. The study further indicates a heightened requirement for academic guidance for students whose undergraduate GPAs fall within the range of 2.00 to 3.00, aiming to enhance their retention until graduation within the present institution. Student athletes expressed a significantly higher financial selfefficacy than non-athletes

Learning Engagement of Adult Females in Remote Physical Fitness Program Through Mobile App Intervention

The use of digital devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones as learning tools has gained prominence in formal education, generating increased research interest in potential growth areas. According to Jeong and So (2020), there seems to be inadequate empirical evidence from extensive research to support its learning effectiveness in the fitness domain, especially among women who have been underrepresented in economically stressed areas. One of the several explanations for this disparity is the failure to consider women’s intersecting cultural identities or potential for social impact. This paper focuses on addressing this issue by conducting a qualitative study. It involves a focus group comprising 15 adult females aged 24 and above. The primary objective is to assess how virtual learning influences the learning perception of adult female learners at a yoga and fitness studio. Interactive self-paced mobile-assisted learning modules were facilitated through the use of mobile phones. An open-ended questionnaire was designed using online resources for primary data collection. The findings were derived by cross-referencing data collected from recordings, interviews, and questionnaires. The study revealed that participating in online fitness classes could enhance women's involvement in fitness-related activities

Learning Engagement of Adult Females in Remote Physical Fitness Program Through Mobile App Intervention

The use of digital devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones as learning tools has gained prominence in formal education, generating increased research interest in potential growth areas. According to Jeong and So (2020), there seems to be inadequate empirical evidence from extensive research to support its learning effectiveness in the fitness domain, especially among women who have been underrepresented in economically stressed areas. One of the several explanations for this disparity is the failure to consider women’s intersecting cultural identities or potential for social impact. This paper focuses on addressing this issue by conducting a qualitative study. It involves a focus group comprising 15 adult females aged 24 and above. The primary objective is to assess how virtual learning influences the learning perception of adult female learners at a yoga and fitness studio. Interactive self-paced mobile-assisted learning modules were facilitated through the use of mobile phones.  An open-ended questionnaire was designed using online resources for primary data collection. The findings were derived by cross-referencing data collected from recordings, interviews, and questionnaires. The study revealed that participating in online fitness classes could enhance women's involvement in fitness-related activities

A Machine Learning and Computer Vision Application to Robustly Extract Winnings from Multiple Lottery Tickets in One Shot

Mega Millions and Powerball are among the most popular American lottery games. This article provides a practical software application that can conveniently examine and evaluate several lottery tickets for prizes using just the images. The application accepts as input a directory containing the images of lottery tickets and utilizes machine learning and computer vision to extract lottery ticket data, lottery name, lottery draw date, 5-digit lottery numbers, 2-digit lottery "ball" numbers, and the lottery multiplier. The application also retrieves winning lottery data that corresponds to the lottery draw date using a public database API. This is compared with data collected from each lottery ticket image to establish matches, and the corresponding prize amount is computed. The current version of the application supports GPU usage, and image orientation has no impact on its functionality.  It is believed that a considerable portion of the U.S. public participating in the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries will find such an application beneficial and handy

A Machine Learning and Computer Vision Application to Robustly Extract Winnings from Multiple Lottery Tickets in One Shot

Mega Millions and Powerball are among the most popular American lottery games. This article provides a practical software application that can conveniently examine and evaluate several lottery tickets for prizes using just the images. The application accepts as input a directory containing the images of lottery tickets and utilizes machine learning and computer vision to extract lottery ticket data, lottery name, lottery draw date, 5-digit lottery numbers, 2-digit lottery "ball" numbers, and the lottery multiplier. The application also retrieves winning lottery data that corresponds to the lottery draw date using a public database API. This is compared with data collected from each lottery ticket image to establish matches, and the corresponding prize amount is computed. The current version of the application supports GPU usage, and image orientation has no impact on its functionality.  It is believed that a considerable portion of the U.S. public participating in the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries will find such an application beneficial and handy

Designing An Instrument For Gauging Equity Literacy

Equity literacy refers to the skills and mindsets needed to recognize, respond to, and redress conditions that deny equitable access to education. It involves understanding how identities such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, immigration status, and disability intersect and contribute to class inequities. More than mere awareness, equity literacy demands a commitment to deepening individual and institutional understandings of the dynamics of equity and injustice within organizations and communities. Its goal is to pinpoint disparities, eradicate inequities, and actively foster a culture of equity. Evaluating equity literacy is essential to understand how educational disparities impact access to equitable opportunities free from bias and discrimination. Considering the existing deficiency in tools for assessing equity literacy, this study introduces a survey instrument designed to assess equity literacy in educational institutions. This survey was developed based on Gorski's equity literacy framework (2016). To establish its validity, the survey was reviewed by experts and refined using Lawshe’s Content Validity Ratio (CVR). Items with CVR scores below the established threshold were removed. The revised 20-item survey was administered to 34 individuals to assess reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. The survey demonstrated robust reliability with an alpha of 0.87. Additionally, the survey categorizes total scores into four rubric levels of equity literacy: exceptional, fair, developing, and little/none. This survey serves as a foundational tool for implementing this framework, thus empowering educators to challenge prevailing mindsets and cultural deficits. &nbsp

Designing An Instrument For Gauging Equity Literacy

Equity literacy refers to the skills and mindsets needed to recognize, respond to, and redress conditions that deny equitable access to education. It involves understanding how identities such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, immigration status, and disability intersect and contribute to class inequities. More than mere awareness, equity literacy demands a commitment to deepening individual and institutional understandings of the dynamics of equity and injustice within organizations and communities. Its goal is to pinpoint disparities, eradicate inequities, and actively foster a culture of equity. Evaluating equity literacy is essential to understand how educational disparities impact access to equitable opportunities free from bias and discrimination. Considering the existing deficiency in tools for assessing equity literacy, this study introduces a survey instrument designed to assess equity literacy in educational institutions. This survey was developed based on Gorski's equity literacy framework (2016). To establish its validity, the survey was reviewed by experts and refined using Lawshe’s Content Validity Ratio (CVR). Items with CVR scores below the established threshold were removed. The revised 20-item survey was administered to 34 individuals to assess reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. The survey demonstrated robust reliability with an alpha of 0.87. Additionally, the survey categorizes total scores into four rubric levels of equity literacy: exceptional, fair, developing, and little/none. This survey serves as a foundational tool for implementing this framework,  thus empowering educators to challenge prevailing mindsets and cultural deficits

SSAGES : Software Suite for Advanced General Ensemble Simulations

Molecular simulation has emerged as an essential tool for modern-day research, but obtaining proper results and making reliable conclusions from simulations requires adequate sampling of the system under consideration. To this end, a variety of methods exist in the literature that can enhance sampling considerably, and increasingly sophisticated, effective algorithms continue to be developed at a rapid pace. Implementation of these techniques, however, can be challenging for experts and non-experts alike. There is a clear need for software that provides rapid, reliable, and easy access to a wide range of advanced sampling methods and that facilitates implementation of new techniques as they emerge. Here we present SSAGES, a publicly available Software Suite for Advanced General Ensemble Simulations designed to interface with multiple widely used molecular dynamics simulations packages. SSAGES allows facile application of a variety of enhanced sampling techniques—including adaptive biasing force, string methods, and forward flux sampling—that extract meaningful free energy and transition path data from all-atom and coarse-grained simulations. A noteworthy feature of SSAGES is a user-friendly framework that facilitates further development and implementation of new methods and collective variables. In this work, the use of SSAGES is illustrated in the context of simple representative applications involving distinct methods and different collective variables that are available in the current release of the suite. The code may be found at: https://github.com/MICCoM/SSAGES-public

Implications of Student Loan and Finance Management Skills for Undergraduate Students

As the Presidential elections in 2024 are approaching, public opinions and politicians’ statements about student loans are presented more often. To curb educational borrowing, the entire society is involved. Institutions of higher education are highly engaged in securing possible funds for scholarships and grants to provide their students with the best and most efficient education. States offer scholarships, and students are becoming more selective about their institution, study major, and lifestyle choices during their undergraduate studies.  Many borrowers lack a clear understanding of loan terms and finance management skills. This study was conducted to determine the money management skills of undergraduates, their perceived amount of educational loans anticipated upon graduation, and its impact on their academic performance. A specifically designed survey instrument was administered to a total of 565 participants who were students at one of the US HBCUs in the North-Eastern region of the United States. The results revealed significant race differences in the perceived expected amount of debt upon graduation. The study further indicates a heightened requirement for academic guidance for students whose undergraduate GPAs fall within the range of 2.00 to 3.00, aiming to enhance their retention until graduation within the present institution. Student athletes expressed a significantly higher financial self-efficacy than non-athletes