Education Versus Athletics: What Will Division I Football and Basketball Players Choose?

For many years the desire for money and winning in Division I athletics,  particularly in the sports of football (Football Bowl Subdivision) and men’s basketball, have encouraged colleges and universities to provide special admission for athletes with exceptional athletic ability, who in turn, often are less prepared to succeed academically. This has resulted in the widespread occurrence of unethical academic support practices (e.g., taking classes and writing papers for students and providing answers to exams) in order to maintain athletes’ eligibility and increase graduation rates to appease the public and to present the case that intercollegiate athletic are about education first. As one means of curbing academic misconduct, the authors recommend providing Division I football and basketball the option of playing their sport only without any academic eligibility requirement. Athletes who are struggling academically or lack academic commitment would no longer need to be bolstered by illegitimate academic support or less than accurate metrics. The present exploratory study sought to determine how many Division I football and basketball players would choose the option of playing their sport only versus playing and pursuing their degree under current National Collegiate Athletic Association Guidelines (NCAA) guidelines. The results showed that the majority would still choose to play and pursue their degree. Overall, the belief that one can play professionally did not diminish athletes’ desire to play and earn their degree.  However, there were also a percentage of athletes that believed they can play professionally and also desired to play their sport only

Complete Genome Sequence of Border Disease Virus Genotype 3 Strain Gifhorn

The complete genome sequence of the genotype 3 border disease virus strain Gifhorn has been determined; this strain was originally isolated from pigs. This represents the consensus sequence for the virus used to produce the bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) cDNA clone pBeloGif3, which yields a virus that is severely attenuated in cell culture

Changing Sides: The Failure of the Wrestling Community’s Challenges to Title IX and New Strategies for Saving NCAA Sport Teams

The relationship of intercollegiate athletics and the federal Title IX statute has been the subject of significant concern and academic inquiry. This article explores the legal and legislative history of Title IX and the statute’s impact on intercollegiate athletic programs and practical solutions for compliance. The article is broken into three distinct parts. Part I details a brief history of Title IX congressional, judicial, and regulatory involvement/enforcement over the past 36 years. Part II examines Title IX’s application in practice with regard to public institutions and athletics. In Part III, the researchers present recommendations to wrestling programs and other men’s teams concerning the economic realities of intercollegiate athletics. Specifically the researchers examine the wrestling community’s legal and legislative challenges and explain how colleges’ economic decisions and zeal for competitive teams at the “revenue sports” level are at the core of wrestling’s dilemma rather than the law itself. The researchers also suggest more constructive solutions for preserving and expanding athletic opportunities for all without cutting men’s sports programs. In particular, they argue that instead of attacking Title IX and women’s sports, the wrestling community should form alliances with women’s teams and their advocates to reverse the reallocation of resources in the college athletics arms race

On Diurnal and Annual Variations of Directional Detection Rates of Dark Matter

Direction sensitive direct detection of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) as dark matter would provide an unambiguous non-gravitational signature of dark matter (DM). The diurnal variation of DM signal due to earth's rotation around its own axis can be a significant signature for galactic WIMPs. Because of particular orientation of earth's axis of rotation with respect to WIMP wind direction, the apparent direction of WIMP wind as observed at a detector can alter widely over a day. In this work we calculate the directional detection rates with their daily and yearly modulations in earth-bound dark matter experiments considering detailed features of the geometry and dynamics of the earth-sun system along with the solar motion in galactic frame. A separate halo model namely the dark disc model other than the usual standard halo model for dark matter halo is also considered and the results for two models are compared. We demonstrate the results for two types of gas detectors namely DRIFT (target material CS2) and NEWAGE (target material CF4) that use Time Projection Chamber techniques for measuring directionality of the recoil nucleus. The WIMP mass and recoil energy dependence of the daily variation of event rates are computed for specific detector and the sensitive ranges of mass and recoil energies for the considered detector are probed.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figure

Association of Serum Antibody Levels Following Vaccination with A Modified Live BVDV Vaccine and Protection from Clinical Disease upon Challenge

Two studies were conducted to examine the range of virus neutralizing serum antibody (VNSA) response after vaccination with a modified-live viral vaccine in cattle and the level of protection elicited when subsequently challenged with a highly virulent type 2 BVDV. Study 1 examined responses in colostrum deprived (CD) calves with no passively acquired antibodies whereas Study 2 examined responses in conventionally raised (CR) calves which had varying levels of passive antibodies prior to vaccination. Study 1 used CD calves averaging 120 days of age. For Study 2, calves averaged 130 days of age and were stratified into CR-Low, Mid and High response groups based response to vaccination. Grouping was based on standard deviations from the mean value obtained from ELISA assay and reconfirmed by virus neutralization. Twelve calves, from each Rep in Study 2, were selected to represent low, mid and high response groups (n = 4 calves per group). The VNSA values for the three groups were as follows; CR-Low (titer \u3c 1:4), CR-Mid (titer 1:4 to 1:16) and CR-High (titer \u3e 1:16). Calves were challenged with a high virulence BVDV2 strain. Samples were collected for both studies on days -2, 2, 4, 6, 9, 11 and 13 post challenge to determine levels of circulating white blood cells, virus isolation and levels of BVDV VNSA. While, overt respiratory or enteric disease was not observed in any of the vaccinated calves, clinical symptoms were more likely to be observed in calves with lower BVDV VNSA levels following the BVDV challenge demonstrating significant association between VNSA levels and clinical protection. However, the extent of clinical symptoms including decreases in WBC and pyrexia, were more severe in the non-vaccinated animals which indicates vaccination did provide a level of protection

The high cost of diarrhoeal illness for urban slum households–a cost-recovery approach: a cohort study

Objectives: Rapid urbanisation has often meant that public infrastructure has not kept pace with growth leading to urban slums with poor access to water and sanitation and high rates of diarrhoea with greater household costs due to illness. This study sought to determine the monetary cost of diarrhoea to urban slum households in Kaula Bandar slum in Mumbai, India. The study also tested the hypotheses that the cost of water and sanitation infrastructure may be surpassed by the cumulative costs of diarrhoea for households in an urban slum community. Design: A cohort study using a baseline survey of a random sample followed by a systematic longitudinal household survey. The baseline survey was administered to a random sample of households. The systematic longitudinal survey was administered to every available household in the community with a case of diarrhoea for a period of 5 weeks. Participants: Every household in Kaula Bandar was approached for the longitudinal survey and all available and consenting adults were included. Results: The direct cost of medical care for having at least one person in the household with diarrhoea was 205 rupees. Other direct costs brought total expenses to 291 rupees. Adding an average loss of 55 rupees per household from lost wages and monetising lost productivity from homemakers gave a total loss of 409 rupees per household. During the 5-week study period, this community lost an estimated 163 600 rupees or 3635 US dollars due to diarrhoeal illness. Conclusions: The lack of basic water and sanitation infrastructure is expensive for urban slum households in this community. Financing approaches that transfer that cost to infrastructure development to prevent illness may be feasible. These findings along with the myriad of unmeasured benefits of preventing diarrhoeal illness add to pressing arguments for investment in basic water and sanitation infrastructure

Some semiconducting properties of Barium Titanate

A number of single crystals of barium titanate have been grown by the flux melt process. These have been rendered semiconducting by reduction in hydrogen at 800 C for times up to 15 min. The resistivity, Seebeck coefficient and optical absorption coefficient have been measured in these crystals to obtain information about the conduction processes. The temperature of the tetragonal to cubic transition in the reduced crystals has been measured and is shown to be consistent with the results of the resistivity and Seebeck data. The results obtained are consistent with the theory that electrical conduction in these crystals is in the small polaron hopping mode with a drift mobility at room temperature of about 4 X 10(^-4)cm(^2)/V.s. with polaron concentrations reaching a peak of 4.18 X 10(^20)cm(^-3).The variation of polaron concentration with reduction time is similar to that obtained by Arend et al. by chemical analyses

Can the Faculty Reform Intercollegiate Athletics? A Past, Present, and Future Perspective

The subject of academic corruption in intercollegiate athletics has been of significant concern and empirical inquiry for over 100 years. There are many character and ethical issues that pervade intercollegiate athletics such as academic fraud, cheating in recruiting, sense of entitlements, illegal inducements from boosters, and academic fraud. The author makes an argument that many of the problems relating to the culture of college sports and character development cannot be repaired without changing the culture with regard to academics and academic integrity. The faculty driven movement toward academic integrity in college sports is explored, along with the efforts of outside groups, such as The Drake Group and the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (who have emerged as the leading faculty driven reform movements), along with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the area of reform. Reform plans by these groups are juxtaposed with historical considerations; along with the relationship academic integrity has to reclaiming the morals and character of college athletics

400 Miles or Less: The Case for Local Food Procurement Policies in U.S. Schools

In the United States, the growing prevalence of overweight and obese children is of public health importance. Since the early 1980s, prevalence has more than tripled and presently, approximately 1 in 5 children are living with obesity. Because nearly half of all calories consumed by children occur during the school day, policy interventions on the school level present a significant opportunity for impact. A primary factor with regard to obesity is diet, and consuming healthier, fresher foods positively impact child health. This essay recommends adopting a local food procurement policy as part of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). A general search for local food procurement policies in the Growing Good Food Connections Policy database was conducted, as well as a review of jurisdictions that have adopted the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) model standards to form a representative sample. The GFPP model is based on five values – local economies, nutrition, valued workforce, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare – and promotes procuring local, fresh foods. In summary, schools that have adopted a local food procurement policy find students choose healthy, fresh food options while in school and consume, on average, more fruits and vegetables. A brief review of Brazil as a global leader in school feeding programs and its utilization of local food further supports adopting a local food procurement policy and can be used to inform the U.S. as it builds a coalition in support of a national food policy and local food procurement policy. This essay concludes with three recommendations. First, the U.S. must develop a national food policy so all food, agriculture, and nutrition laws, policies, and regulations can be integrated and coordinated across all departments and agencies in the government. Second, a standard or uniform procurement policy based on existing programs and models must be established. Finally, the U.S. must adopt a local food procurement policy for the NSLP through the legislative process. Adopting a local food procurement policy will promote healthy eating behaviors in schools and positively impact child health by decreasing the prevalence of overweight and obese children in the U.S

NCAA Division I student athlete characteristics as indicators of academic achievement and graduation from college

The purpose of this study was to determine if NCAA Division I student athlete characteristics of graduation, presented in the literature and previous research, can be generalized to student athletes in the Mid-American Conference using research based conclusions developed from this study. The study identified seven characteristics prominent in the literature and made conclusions to ascertain if information provided on the characteristics, as presented in the literature, can be generalized to the Mid-American Conference. The research population for this study was N = 1430. The population represented student athletes at the 13 schools of the Mid-American Conference. All student athletes represented in the selected population were seniors by NCAA eligibility standards and were within one academic year of receiving a baccalaureate degree. The researcher selected a proportional stratified sample (25%) of the population (n = 358) and mailed a research-developed survey instrument, inspired by previous survey instruments and research, to the selected proportion of the population, Data were stored securely and complete anonymity was guaranteed. The analysis of the data indicated that information gleaned from the literature can be applied to student athletes in the Mid-American Conference based upon the research conclusions presented in this study. The characteristics of graduation prominently identified in the literature that formed the basis for this study were student athletes\u27 perception of college coaches\u27 emphasis on academics, the extent of use of specialized academic support services for student athletes, specific sport played in college, ethnicity, gender, NCAA high school core course grade point average, and score attained on SAT or ACT test. The analysis of the data specific to the student athletes in the Mid-American Conference revealed, as in the literature, that the constructs of gender, ethnicity, and sport played can have a significant impact on the academic achievement in the other listed categories and on potential for graduation. Ancillary findings were related to the academic achievement of Caucasian females and women basketball players in the conference