More Guidance, Better Results? Three-Year Effects of an Enhanced Student Services Program at Two Community Colleges

In a program at Lorain County Community College and Owens Community College in Ohio, low-income students received enhanced counseling and advising services and were eligible to receive a modest stipend for two semesters. The program improved academic outcomes during the second semester and continued to have a positive effect on registration rates in the semester that followed, but it did not have any meaningful effects on academic outcomes in subsequent semesters

Fludarabine modulates composition and function of the T cell pool in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

The combination of cytotoxic treatment with strategies for immune activation represents an attractive strategy for tumour therapy. Following reduction of high tumour burden by effective cytotoxic agents, two major immune-stimulating approaches are being pursued. First, innate immunity can be activated by monoclonal antibodies triggering antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Second, tumour-specific T cell responses can be generated by immunization of patients with peptides derived from tumour antigens and infused in soluble form or loaded onto dendritic cells. The choice of cytotoxic agents for such combinatory regimens is crucial since most substances such as fludarabine are considered immunosuppressive while others such as cyclophosphamide can have immunostimulatory activity. We tested in this study whether fludarabine and/or cyclophosphamide, which represent a very effective treatment regimen for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, would interfere with a therapeutic strategy of T cell activation. Analysis of peripheral blood samples from patients prior and during fludarabine/cyclophosphamide therapy revealed rapid and sustained reduction of tumour cells but also of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. This correlated with a significant cytotoxic activity of fludarabine/cyclophosphamide on T cells in vitro. Unexpectedly, T cells surviving fludarabine/cyclophosphamide treatment in vitro had a more mature phenotype, while fludarabine-treated T cells were significantly more responsive to mitogenic stimulation than their untreated counterparts and showed a shift towards TH1 cytokine secretion. In conclusion, fludarabine/cyclophosphamide therapy though inducing significant and relevant T cell depletion seems to generate a micromilieu suitable for subsequent T cell activation

More Graduates Two-Year Results from an Evaluation of Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for Developmental Education Students

Having a college degree is increasingly important in the U.S. labor market, and workers with a degree earn substantially more, on average, than those without. Recently there has been an unprecedented national focus on boosting the stubbornly low graduation rates of students in community colleges. Community colleges serve millions of the nation’s undergraduates, but only about one-third of those students graduate within five years. 1 Graduation rates are even lower for students who enter college without the math, reading, or writing skills required for college-level courses and thus need to take developmental (remedial) courses. 2 In addition, most college students take longer to graduate than is considered “normal. ” For example, a survey of students who started at a public two-year college found that only 4 percent graduated with an associate’s degree within two years. 3 Educators have tried many reforms to help improve the success rates of community college students. Most of the reforms have been short term, lasting only one or two semesters, and have addressed no more than a few barriers to student success. The Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) is an ambitious and promising exception. Operated by the City University of New York (CUNY), which serves over half a million students annually and is the largest public university system in the country, ASAP provides a comprehensive array of services and supports over a three-year period to help more students graduate and to help them graduate sooner. The program aims to simultaneously address multiple barriers to student achievement over multiple semesters, and is one of the most aggressive efforts in the country to improve the success rates of low-income students. This brief describes the ASAP program and the students in the study, presents the two-year effects of the program, offers some conclusions, and shares next steps for ASAP and the random assignment evaluation

The origin of early age expansions induced in cementitious materials containing shrinkage reducing admixtures

Studies on the early-age shrinkage behavior of cement pastes, mortars, and concretes containing shrinkage reducing admixtures (SRAs) have indicated these mixtures frequently exhibit an expansion shortly after setting. While the magnitude of the expansion has been noted to be a function of the chemistry of the cement and the admixture dosage: the cause of the expansion is not clearly understood. This investigation uses measurements of autogenous deformation, X-ray diffraction, pore solution analysis, thermogravimetry, and scanning electron microscopy to study the early-age properties and describe the mechanism of the expansion in OPC pastes made with and without SRA. The composition of the pore solution indicates that the presence of the SRA increases the portlandite oversaturation level in solution which can result in higher crystallization stresses which could lead to an expansion. This observation is supported by deformation calculations for the systems examined. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved