Research at the UWC: Understanding the Diversity of Student's Experiences

A pilot study redesigns data collection to reflect increasing diversity in student populations and to improve writing center consultations and campus outreach efforts. The Undergraduate Writing Center (UWC) at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) performs roughly 11,500 writing consultations each year. In addition to providing one-on-one consultations with undergraduate students, a considerable amount of activity happens behind the scenes. For example, project groups are a mainstay of the UWC and are an integral aspect of work we do beyond consulting. Up until now, the Research & Publications Project Group has primarily analyzed data the UWC collects from students’ Intake Forms. The Intake Form asks students to report basic information regarding their course prefix, their instructor’s information, their assignment, their writing process, and their ESL status. While these forms lend valuable information about the classes for which students request to receive help and the types of problems students encounter with their writing, there is a tremendous amount of information we do not collect (and therefore do not know) about the students who walk through our doors.University Writing Cente

Adapting Consulting Practices for Struggling Students

Since 2007, the Undergraduate Writing Center (UWC) at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) has consulted with over 22,587 students. In the majority of consultations, the standard 45-minute consultation gives students confidence in their abilities to produce quality papers and empowers them to feel strongly about the improvements they have made. Our over-arching goal is to help students become better writers through nondirective consultation sessions; however, it may be more difficult to achieve this goal with a subgroup of students seeking to overcome internal struggles with the writing experience. Over 23% of the students who utilize the UWC’s services indicate (by self-report) that they struggle with some aspect of the writing processUniversity Writing Cente

Pagecasting in the UWC: Writing, Digital Media, and Communtiy Outreach

As writing centers adapt to the influx of students with nontraditional writing assignments, such as hypertexts and other digital creations, the response of consultants and administrators has often been a somewhat defensive one. To some extent, writing centers must see new technology from this type of reactionary perspective: students bring in writing projects that their instructors assign, and consultants respond as best they can to meet the students’ writing needs. But writing centers are in the unique position to take a lead role in developing technologically aided approaches to education. Therefore, in the face of adapting to the challenges of these new forms of writing, we have taken a proactive role in teaching students to write in digital environments. Using writing center methods and philosophy in a classroom environment, we have found that we can empower students to express themselves in digital media and, in the process, improve their writing in more traditional text-based forms.University Writing Cente

Increased and Expedited Case Detection by Xpert MTB/RIF Assay in Childhood Tuberculosis: A Prospective Cohort Study

The Xpert MTB/RIF assay is a quick and accurate tuberculosis diagnostic tool in children. Compared with microscopy, 3-fold more tuberculosis cases were detected with a similar turnaround time, resulting in a potentially shortened time to tuberculosis diagnosi

Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra assay for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in children: a multicentre comparative accuracy study

We evaluated the diagnostic performance of the novel next-generation Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra (Xpert Ultra) in comparison to Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) assay for the detection of paediatric pulmonary tuberculosis in high burden settings.; From May 2011 to September 2012, children with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis were enrolled at two Tanzanian sites and sputum samples were examined using sputum smear, Xpert and culture. Xpert Ultra was tested between January and June 2017 using sputum pellets, which had been stored at -80°C. The diagnostic accuracy of Ultra versus Xpert was determined using well-defined case definitions as reference standard.; In total, 215 children were included. The median age was 5.4 years, the HIV prevalence was 52% and 13% had culture-confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis. When only the first available sample of each patient was analysed, the sensitivity of Xpert Ultra was 64.3 % (95% CI: 44.1 to 81.4) while that of Xpert was 53.6% (95%CI: 33.9 to 72.5). The specificity of Xpert Ultra based on analysis of all available samples was 98.1% (95%CI: 93.4 to 99.7), that of Xpert was 100%.; Xpert Ultra was found to have a higher sensitivity, but slightly reduced specificity compared to Xpert in detecting pulmonary tuberculosis in children

INNOVATIONS AND FRAGMENTS OF TRADITION IN SLOVENIAN VILLAGES

In this paper the author reports on some results of an investigation of innovations in ten different types of village in Slovenia. The investigation was designed to establish (1) the rate of development of rural communities in Slovenia (measured according to the diffusion of innovations), and (2) the influence of tradition (from the degree of the distribution of »isoetes«, i.e. local customs). , Two groups of innovations were investigated: innovations in land cultivation methods on peasant farms, and innovations in the equipment of rural households. The data were collected using the method of interviews, which were held with both pure farmers and peasants-workers in 1968 and again in 1973. The obtained results regarding the spread of farm innovations are shown in Diagram 1; the results regarding the spread of innovations in household equipment are presented graphically in Diagram 2; while Diagram 3 indicates the »standing« of each village as regards the degree of innovation it has achieved with all the 25 controled innovations. As was expected, the highest degree of innovation is shown by villages with the largest proportion of inhabitants in temporary employment abroad and villages vhich contain a comparatively numerous category of peasants-workers

Diagnostic performance of the AID line probe assay in the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and drug resistance in Romanian patients with presumed TB.

BACKGROUND: The AID line probe assay has shown promising evaluation data on the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as well as 1st- and 2nd-line drug resistance, using isolates and selected clinical samples in previous studies. METHODS: The diagnostic performance of three AID-modules (AID INH/RIF, AID FQ/EMB and AID AG) was analyzed in sputum samples from patients with presumed tuberculosis against culture methods and phenotypic drug resistance as reference standards.Results59 patients had culture-confirmed tuberculosis. All AID modules showed moderate sensitivity (46/59, 78.0%, 65.3-87.7) and very good specificity (100%, 95.5%, 93.7%). There was a high proportion of invalid tests, resulting in 32.6%, 78.3% and 19.6% of 46 AID-positive tuberculosis cases, who could not be assessed for drug resistance by the AID INH/RIF-, AID FQ/EM- and AID AG-module, respectively. A small number of patients showed drug resistance by reference standards: Three MDR-TB cases plus three, one and one patients with resistance to streptomycin, fluoroquinolones and aminoglycosides, respectively. The AID-assay detected all MDR-TB cases, two of three streptomycin-resistant TB cases, one of one of fluoroquinolone-resistant and missed one aminoglycoside-resistant TB case. DISCUSSION: The high proportion of invalid results precludes the use of the AID-assay from direct sputum-based tuberculosis and drug-resistance testing

A new challenge for meteorological measurements: The meteoMet project-Metrology for meteorology

Climate change and its consequences require immediate actions in order to safeguard the environment and economy in Europe and in the rest of world. Aiming to enhance data reliability and reduce uncertainties in climate observations, a joint research project called MeteoMet-Metrology for Meteorology started in October 2011 coordinated by the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRiM). The project is focused on the traceability of measurements involved in climate change: surface and upper air measurements of temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, solar irradiance and reciprocal influences between measurands. This project will provide the first definition at the European level of validated climate parameters with associated uncertainty budgets and novel criteria for interpretation of historical data series. The big challenge is the propagation of a metrological measurement perspective to meteorological observations. When such an approach will be adopted the requirement of reliable data and robust datasets over wide scales and long terms could be better met. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC

Rapid and Accurate Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Sputum Samples by Cepheid Xpert MTB/RIF Assay-A Clinical Validation Study

Background: A crucial impediment to global tuberculosis control is the lack of an accurate, rapid diagnostic test for detection of patients with active TB. A new, rapid diagnostic method, (Cepheid) Xpert MTB/RIF Assay, is an automated sample preparation and real-time PCR instrument, which was shown to have good potential as an alternative to current reference standard sputum microscopy and culture.Methods: We performed a clinical validation study on diagnostic accuracy of the Xpert MTB/RIF Assay in a TB and HIV endemic setting. Sputum samples from 292 consecutively enrolled adults from Mbeya, Tanzania, with suspected TB were subject to analysis by the Xpert MTB/RIF Assay. The diagnostic performance of Xpert MTB/RIF Assay was compared to standard sputum smear microscopy and culture. Confirmed Mycobacterium tuberculosis in a positive culture was used as a reference standard for TB diagnosis.Results: Xpert MTB/RIF Assay achieved 88.4% (95% CI = 78.4% to 94.9%) sensitivity among patients with a positive culture and 99% (95% CI = 94.7% to 100.0%) specificity in patients who had no TB. HIV status did not affect test performance in 172 HIV-infected patients (58.9% of all participants). Seven additional cases (9.1% of 77) were detected by Xpert MTB/RIF Assay among the group of patients with clinical TB who were culture negative. Within 45 sputum samples which grew non-tuberculous mycobacteria the assay's specificity was 97.8% (95% CI = 88.2% to 99.9%).Conclusions: The Xpert MTB/RIF Assay is a highly sensitive, specific and rapid method for diagnosing TB which has potential to complement the current reference standard of TB diagnostics and increase its overall sensitivity. Its usefulness in detecting sputum smear and culture negative patients needs further study. Further evaluation in high burden TB and HIV areas under programmatic health care settings to ascertain applicability, cost-effectiveness, robustness and local acceptance are required

Phase transition observations and discrimination of small cloud particles by light polarization in expansion chamber experiments

Cloud microphysical processes involving the ice phase in tropospheric clouds are among the major uncertainties in cloud formation, weather, and general circulation models. The detection of aerosol particles, liquid droplets, and ice crystals, especially in the small cloud particle-size range below 50 μm, remains challenging in mixed phase, often unstable environments. The Cloud Aerosol Spectrometer with Polarization (CASPOL) is an airborne instrument that has the ability to detect such small cloud particles and measure the variability in polarization state of their backscattered light. Here we operate the versatile Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets (CLOUD) chamber facility at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to produce controlled mixed phase and other clouds by adiabatic expansions in an ultraclean environment, and use the CASPOL to discriminate between different aerosols, water, and ice particles. In this paper, optical property measurements of mixed-phase clouds and viscous secondary organic aerosol (SOA) are presented. We report observations of significant liquid–viscous SOA particle polarization transitions under dry conditions using CASPOL. Cluster analysis techniques were subsequently used to classify different types of particles according to their polarization ratios during phase transition. A classification map is presented for water droplets, organic aerosol (e.g., SOA and oxalic acid), crystalline substances such as ammonium sulfate, and volcanic ash. Finally, we discuss the benefits and limitations of this classification approach for atmospherically relevant concentrations and mixtures with respect to the CLOUD 8–9 campaigns and its potential contribution to tropical troposphere layer analysis