Academic Performance of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education: Insights from a Study of One Catholic College

The purpose of this study was to determine if students with disabilities perform comparably to students without disabilities academically at a small liberal arts college. Quantitative results were gathered through the comparison of end of semester and cumulative grade point averages for students with disabilities and students without disabilities (n=56). The t test for independent means and a 2-way analysis of variance were used to test hypotheses. Students without disabilities had significantly higher academic performances than students with disabilities as measured by grade point averages. Female students without disabilities outperformed female students with disabilities as measured by end-of-semester and cumulative grade point averages. However, male students without disabilities did not outperform male students with disabilities. Further research should evaluate why females with disabilities seem to fare worse when compared to female students in the comparison group and why male students did not demonstrate the same pattern. Resultados académicos de estudiantes con discapacidades en la educación superior: percepciones de un estudio de un centro de educación superior católico El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar si los estudiantes con discapacidades obtienen resultados comparables a aquellos sin discapacidades académicas, en un pequeño colegio de artes liberales. Se reunieron los resultados cuantitativos mediante la comparación de las notas de final de semestre y las notas medias cumulativas de los estudiantes con discapacidades y de los estudiantes sin discapacidades (n=56). Para probar hipótesis, se emplearon la prueba t para medias independientes y un análisis de variación a dos bandas. Los estudiantes sin discapacidades obtuvieron unos resultados significativamente superiores a los de los estudiantes con discapacidades, tal y como midieron las notas medias finales. Las estudiantes sin discapacidades superaron a las estudiantes con discapacidades, tal y como lo midieron las notas medias de final de semestre y las notas medias cumulativas. Sin embargo, los estudiantes varones sin discapacidades no superaron a los estudiantes varones con discapacidades. Investigaciones ulteriores deberían evaluar por qué las estudiantes con discapacidades parecen obtener peores resultados cuando se las compara a las estudiantes del grupo de comparación y por qué los estudiantes varones no mostraron el mismo patrón. Palabras clave: resultado académico, estudiantes con discapacidades, educación post-secundaria Résultats universitaires des étudiants handicapés dans l\u27enseignement supérieur : perspectives tirées d\u27une enquête sur un établissement d\u27enseignement supérieur catholique Cette étude avait pour but de déterminer si les étudiants handicapés ont des résultats universitaires comparables à ceux des étudiants non handicapés dans un petit établissement d\u27enseignement supérieur des Arts et Lettres. Des résultats quantitatifs ont été recueillis en comparant les moyennes des notes de fin de semestre et les notes accumulées pour les étudiants handicapés et non handicapés (n=56). Le test t pour des moyennes indépendantes et une analyse de variance à deux facteurs ont été utilisés pour tester les hypothèses. Les étudiants non handicapés ont des résultats universitaires nettement meilleurs que ceux des étudiants handicapés, mesurés par les moyennes des notes. Les étudiantes non handicapées ont des résultats universitaires nettement meilleurs que ceux des étudiantes handicapées, mesurés par les moyennes des notes. Toutefois, les étudiants hommes non handicapés n\u27ont pas eu de meilleurs résultats que les étudiants handicapés. Des recherches plus poussées devraient évaluer pourquoi les étudiantes handicapées semblent avoir de moins bons résultats par rapport aux étudiantes non handicapées dans le groupe de comparaison et pourquoi les étudiants hommes n\u27ont pas suivi le même schéma. Mots-clés : résultats universitaires, étudiants handicapés, enseignement post secondair

CHEK2 1100delC and polygenic susceptibility to breast cancer and colorectal cancer

Approximately 15-25% of breast cancers are identified in women with a family history of breast cancer. Yet, germline mutations in the currently known breast cancer susceptibility genes account for only one-third of familial breast cancer cases. In 2002, our research group had identified the CHEK2 1100delC mutation as a breast cancer susceptibility allele. It was estimated that this mutation confers an approximately 2-fold increased breast cancer risk for female CHEK2 1100delC carriers. Although this 2-fold increased breast cancer risk had classified the CHEK2 1100delC mutation as a moderate-risk breast cancer susceptibility allele, the mutation typically was more prevalent among breast cancer families with a high-risk breast cancer inheritance pattern. Also, the CHEK2 1100delC mutation did not completely segregate with the breast cancer phenotype in the high-risk breast cancer families. Together, these observations suggested the presence of additional cance! r susceptibility alleles in CHEK2 1100delC families. This thesis has focused on three topics related to the CHEK2 gene and in particular the CHEK2 1100delC mutation: analysis of the CHEK2-p53 tumor suppressor pathway by mutation analysis of both genes in human breast cancer cell lines; evaluation of the association of CHEK2 1100delC with male breast cancer and colorectal cancer; and identification of genes involved in the polygenic CHEK2 cancer model by using a candidate gene approach

Charge transfer reactions in nematic liquid crystals

Ultrafast transient absorption studies of intramolecular photoinduced charge separation and thermal charge recombination were carried out on a molecule consisting of a 4-(N-pyrrolidino)naphthalene-1,8-imide donor (PNI) covalently attached to a pyromellitimide acceptor (PI) dissolved in the liquid crystal 4{prime}-(n-pentyl)-4-cyanobiphenyl (5CB). The temperature dependencies of the charge separation and recombination rates were obtained at temperatures above the nematic-isotropic phase transition of 5CB, where ordered microdomains exist and scattering of visible light by these domains is absent. The authors show that excited state charge separation is dominated by molecular reorientation of 5CB perpendicular to the director within the liquid crystal microdomains. They also show that charge recombination is adiabatic and is controlled by the comparatively slow collective reorientation of the liquid crystal microdomains relative to the orientation of PNI{sup +}-PI{sup {minus}}. They also report the results of time resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) studies of photoinduced charge separation in a series of supramolecular compounds dissolved in oriented liquid crystal solvents. These studies permit the determination of the radical pair energy levels as the solvent reorganization energy increases from the low temperature crystalline phase, through the soft glass phase, to the nematic phase of the liquid crystal

Comparison of two models for bridge-assisted charge transfer

Based on the reduced density matrix method, we compare two different approaches to calculate the dynamics of the electron transfer in systems with donor, bridge, and acceptor. In the first approach a vibrational substructure is taken into account for each electronic state and the corresponding states are displaced along a common reaction coordinate. In the second approach it is assumed that vibrational relaxation is much faster than the electron transfer and therefore the states are modeled by electronic levels only. In both approaches the system is coupled to a bath of harmonic oscillators but the way of relaxation is quite different. The theory is applied to the electron transfer in ${\rm H_2P}-{\rm ZnP}-{\rm Q}$ with free-base porphyrin (${\rm H_2P}$) being the donor, zinc porphyrin (${\rm ZnP}$) being the bridge and quinone (${\rm Q}$) the acceptor. The parameters are chosen as similar as possible for both approaches and the quality of the agreement is discussed.Comment: 12 pages including 4 figures, 1 table, 26 references. For more info see http://eee.tu-chemnitz.de/~kili

ESR, ENDOR and TRIPLE resonance studies of the primary donor radical cation P960+ in the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas viridis

The light-induced radical cation of the primary electron donor P960+• in photosynthetic reaction centers from Rhodopseudomonas viridis has been investigated by ESR, ENDOR and TRIPLE techniques. Both the comparison with the cation radical of monomeric bacteriochlorophyll b (BChl b) and with molecular-orbital calculations performed on P960+• using the results of an X-ray structure analysis, consistently show an asymmetric distribution of the unpaired electron over the two BChl b molecules which constitute P960+•. The possible relevance of this result for the primary electron transfer step in the reaction center is briefly discussed

Mechanically Stabilized Tetrathiafulvalene Radical Dimers

Two donor−acceptor [3]catenanes—composed of a tetracationic molecular square, cyclobis(paraquat-4,4′-biphenylene), as the π-electron deficient ring and either two tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and 1,5-dioxynaphthalene (DNP) containing macrocycles or two TTF-butadiyne-containing macrocycles as the π-electron rich components—have been investigated in order to study their ability to form TTF radical dimers. It has been proven that the mechanically interlocked nature of the [3]catenanes facilitates the formation of the TTF radical dimers under redox control, allowing an investigation to be performed on these intermolecular interactions in a so-called “molecular flask” under ambient conditions in considerable detail. In addition, it has also been shown that the stability of the TTF radical-cation dimers can be tuned by varying the secondary binding motifs in the [3]catenanes. By replacing the DNP station with a butadiyne group, the distribution of the TTF radical-cation dimer can be changed from 60% to 100%. These findings have been established by several techniques including cyclic voltammetry, spectroelectrochemistry and UV−vis−NIR and EPR spectroscopies, as well as with X-ray diffraction analysis which has provided a range of solid-state crystal structures. The experimental data are also supported by high-level DFT calculations. The results contribute significantly to our fundamental understanding of the interactions within the TTF radical dimers

Transient two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy: coherent dynamics at arbitrary times along the reaction coordinate

Recent advances in two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) have enabled identification of fragile quantum coherences in condensed-phase systems near the equilibrium molecular geometry. In general, traditional 2DES cannot measure such coherences associated with photophysical processes that occur at times significantly after the initially prepared state has dephased, such as the evolution of the initial excited state into a charge transfer state. We demonstrate the use of transient two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (t-2DES) to probe coherences in an electron donor–acceptor dyad consisting of a perylenediimide (PDI) acceptor and a perylene (Per) donor. An actinic pump pulse prepares the lowest excited singlet state of PDI followed by formation of the PDI•––Per•+ ion pair, which is probed at different times following the actinic pulse using 2DES. Analysis of the observed coherences provides information about electronic, vibronic, and vibrational interactions at any time along the reaction coordinate for ion pair formation