Moving Jewish Educators to the Next Stage in Their Career: An Evaluation of New York University's Dual Master's and Doctoral Programs in Education and Jewish Studies

This study used a qualitative inquiry methodology to explore the experiences of students, which is a common methodological approach in research on higher education when a study's sample size is small and individuals' narratives are diverse (Anderson & Anderson, 2012; Golde & Dore, 2001; Maki & Borkowski, 2006). The evaluation team conducted initial and follow-up phone interviews with the 24 recipients of the Jim Joseph Foundation fellowships under this grant. The interviews inquired about professional experience and academic background, career goals, academic courses and other professional development, professional networking, current employment, and leadership experiences. In addition, the evaluation team conducted interviews with academic advisors and reviewed program materials. To validate the formation of a framework and quality indicators for the review of the programs, the team conducted comprehensive literature review and interviews with employers of the fellows. The evaluation team synthesized the data collected to determine the level of programs' capacity to prepare students for leadership roles in Jewish education and the impact of the programs on students to date

Getting informed in a risky world

Predation ultimately affects the fitness of individuals. In nest building species like birds, the predation of dependent offspring is the most important source of reproductive failure, favouring the selection of parental adaptations to enhance offspring survival. However, environmental heterogeneity hampers individuals of having an accurate knowledge of perceived current risks. Consequently, individuals have to acquire information about their environment to optimise their nest site selection, antipredation responses, and parental investment decisions. Thus, individual reproductive decisions should be dynamic and depend on the availability and reliability of environmental information, as well as a species life-history strategy. This thesis examines the effect of individual risk assessment and antipredation strategies on parental investment in brown thornbills Acantiza pusilla, as well as the reliability of landscape features in predicting nest predation patterns in northern wheatears Oenanthe oenanthe. During incubation brown thornbill females used dynamic risk assessment to evaluate the risk different predators posed. Decreased environmental information via greater nest concealment increased female vigilance, with greater vigilance tending to increase brood survival. Within the breeding season, parental risk sensitivity increased and decreased for consecutive breeding attempts. Feeding rates in the presence of a predator of adults and a brood predator decreased, while risk taking increased by approaching predators more closely. When facing predators, brown thornbills used two alarm vocalisations, with alarm call rate denoting the degree of danger a predator posed to the adult birds. Parental alarm calls only silenced nesting begging over short time periods. In northern wheatears, predation increased for birds breeding closer to agricultural field and woodland habitat interfaces. This was only the case during incubation but not during nestling feeding, indicating that seasonal changes in ground vegetation structure and a change in predator composition can result in highly variable predation patterns. Overall, this thesis shows that antipredation responses and predation patterns can be dynamic and change within time and space, and thus influence the breeding success of bird species in general

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Insomnia Symptoms and Associated Cognition and Arousal in Young Adults

Current, influential theories of insomnia emphasise the role of cognitive and arousal factors in the development and maintenance of insomnia. Even though we know that insomnia is heritable, genetic influences have not been given enough attention in these models of insomnia. This thesis investigates the extent to which genes and the environment influence these cognitive and arousal variables (and their subscales) and their associations with insomnia symptoms. Furthermore, the theory that insomnia can be subtyped into insomnia with short sleep duration and insomnia with normal sleep duration (being distinguishable by for example differences in arousal) has not yet been tested. Data came from 862 individuals (aged 22 to 32, mean age 25, 34% males) of Wave 5 of the G1219 twin/sibling sample. The five studies reported in the current thesis investigated: 1) Mindfulness 2) Pre-sleep arousal 3) Dysfunctional beliefs about sleep (DBAS) and their associations with insomnia symptoms; 4) Non-shared environmental factors associated with DBAS; and 5) Self-reports of insomnia with short versus normal sleep duration. Mindfulness, pre-sleep arousal and DBAS (and their subscales) were all found to be associated with insomnia symptoms. Mindfulness was found to be familial, while DBAS had no familial influence. Pre-sleep arousal showed moderate, significant genetic influence. No genetic or shared environmental influence was found for the associations between mindfulness and symptoms of insomnia, depression and anxiety, nor was any found for the association between DBAS and insomnia symptoms. Genetic influences were important in the relationship between pre-sleep arousal and insomnia symptoms. Furthermore, for DBAS, drug use was a non-shared environmental influence un-confounded by genetic factors. The theory of subtypes of insomnia (short versus normal sleep duration) could not be confirmed. The findings provide novel insight into the concept and aetiology of insomnia, by integrating the behavioural genetics perspective into the current theories of insomnia

A Classroom Experiment on Exchange Rate Determination with Purchasing Power Parity

We develop a classroom experiment on exchange rate determination appropriate for undergraduate courses in macroeconomics and international economics. Students represent citizens from different countries and need to obtain currency to purchase goods. By participating in a sealed bid auction to buy currency, students gain a better understanding of currency markets and the determination of exchange rates. The implicit framework for exchange rate determination is one in which prices are perfectly flexible (in the long run) so that purchasing power parity (PPP) prevails. Additional treatments allow students to examine the impact of transport costs, nontradable goods and tariffs on the exchange rate and to explore possible deviations from PPP.

Layered Social Network Analysis Reveals Complex Relationships in Kindergarteners.

The interplay between individuals forms building blocks for social structure. Here, we examine the structure of behavioral interactions among kindergarten classroom with a hierarchy-neutral approach to examine all possible underlying patterns in the formation of layered networks of "reciprocal" interactions. To understand how these layers are coordinated, we used a layered motif approach. Our dual layered motif analysis can therefore be thought of as the dynamics of smaller groups that tile to create the group structure, or alternatively they provide information on what the average child would do in a given local social environment. When we examine the regulated motifs in layered networks, we find that transitivity is at least partially involved in the formation of these layered network structures. We also found complex combinations of the expected reciprocal interactions. The mechanisms used to understand social networks of kindergarten children here are also applicable on a more general scale to any group of individuals where interactions and identities can be readily observed and scored

Colonization of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus in Dormitory Versus Non-Dormitory Populations

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that has developed resistance to numerous antibiotics such as methicillin, a commonly used antibiotic for the treatment of Staphylococcus infections. In the community, MRSA is widespread, and it is believed that 1% of the population is a carrier. People are potentially at a greater risk in areas where factors such as close skin-to-skin contact occur, cuts or abrasions in the skin occur, contaminated items and surfaces are present, or where overcrowded living conditions and poor hygiene are common. MRSA’s occurrence in people without risk factors who live in communities is also increasing, and some of these infections are not typically associated with staphylococci bacteria. MRSA carriage rates are important to monitor in populations where individuals are in close contact and have crowded living conditions, such as a dormitory. The goal of this research is to identify MRSA carriers in the dormitory and non-dormitory populations in order to quantify nasal carrier rates. Frequent athletic facility attendance was also monitored to determine if this is an additional risk factor. Nasal swabs samples were collected from volunteers over the age of eighteen. Background information was gathered from volunteers at the time of swabbing by means of an anonymous survey. Background information that was taken into account when analyzing data included: place of living (dormitory versus non-dormitory); if they ever lived in a dormitory and timeframe (how long and how long ago); if they had a MRSA infection previously (confirmed by a physician); how often they visited a gym facility; and their age. Our results demonstrate that approximately 10% of Winona State University student were caring MRSA intranasally. We found a strong correlation between carriage rates and dormitory status and gym usage. Similarly, dormitory populations who used a gym facility frequently were at an even higher risk of MRSA carriage. We believe these findings indicate an increase in carriage rate among WSU’s dormitory student population. These data indicate a need to increase WSU’s surveillance of MRSA carriage rates and infections

Far-Ultraviolet Activity Levels of F, G, K, and M dwarf Exoplanet Host Stars

We present a survey of far-ultraviolet (FUV; 1150 - 1450 Ang) emission line spectra from 71 planet-hosting and 33 non-planet-hosting F, G, K, and M dwarfs with the goals of characterizing their range of FUV activity levels, calibrating the FUV activity level to the 90 - 360 Ang extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) stellar flux, and investigating the potential for FUV emission lines to probe star-planet interactions (SPIs). We build this emission line sample from a combination of new and archival observations with the Hubble Space Telescope-COS and -STIS instruments, targeting the chromospheric and transition region emission lines of Si III, N V, C II, and Si IV. We find that the exoplanet host stars, on average, display factors of 5 - 10 lower UV activity levels compared with the non-planet hosting sample; this is explained by a combination of observational and astrophysical biases in the selection of stars for radial-velocity planet searches. We demonstrate that UV activity-rotation relation in the full F - M star sample is characterized by a power-law decline (with index $\alpha$ ~ -1.1), starting at rotation periods >~3.5 days. Using N V or Si IV spectra and a knowledge of the star's bolometric flux, we present a new analytic relationship to estimate the intrinsic stellar EUV irradiance in the 90 - 360 Ang band with an accuracy of roughly a factor of ~2. Finally, we study the correlation between SPI strength and UV activity in the context of a principal component analysis that controls for the sample biases. We find that SPIs are not a statistically significant contributor to the observed UV activity levels.Comment: ApJS, accepted. 33 pages in emulateapj, 13 figures, 10 table