Student Veterans/Service Members' Engagement in College and University Life and Education

Since the passage of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, also known as the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the enrollment of active-duty service members and veterans in American colleges and universities has increased substantially. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than three-quarters of a million veterans have used their earned benefit to enroll in postsecondary courses. In response to the influx of veteran student enrollment, a group of higher education associations and veterans' organizations collaborated in 2009 and 2012 on a study that asked college and university administrators whether their institutions had geared up campus programs and services specifically designed to support the unique needs of veterans.1 The results indicated that administrators had indeed increased support levels, sometimes by quite significant margins.But how do student veterans/service members perceive their experiences at higher education institutions? To date, there is little or no information to assess whether the efforts by institutions to provide targeted programs and services are helpful to the veterans and service members enrolled in colleges and universities. Similarly, not much is known about the transition to postsecondary education from military service experienced by student veterans/service members, or whether these students are engaged in both academic programs and college and university life to their fullest potential. In this context, this issue brief explores student veteran/service member engagement in postsecondary education. The brief utilizes data from the 2012 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), an annual survey of students enrolled in four-year universities, to assess how student veterans/service members perceive their integration on campus.A key finding is that student veterans/servicemembers are selective about the campus life and academic activities in which they invest their time. Student veterans/service members are morelikely to be first-generation students -- the first in their families to attend a college or university -- and older than nonveteran/civilian students; they therefore tend to have responsibilities outside of higher education that put constraints on their time.Student veterans/service members report placing greater emphasis on academic areas that they find essential for academic progress than on college and university life and activities -- academic or otherwise -- that are not essential for success in the courses in which they are enrolled. Student veterans/ service members are less likely to participate in co curricular activities, and they dedicate less time to relaxing and socializing than nonveteran/ civilian students

Distributed computer system enhances productivity for SRB joint optimization

Initial calculations of a redesign of the solid rocket booster joint that failed during the shuttle tragedy showed that the design had a weight penalty associated with it. Optimization techniques were to be applied to determine if there was any way to reduce the weight while keeping the joint opening closed and limiting the stresses. To allow engineers to examine as many alternatives as possible, a system was developed consisting of existing software that coupled structural analysis with optimization which would execute on a network of computer workstations. To increase turnaround, this system took advantage of the parallelism offered by the finite difference technique of computing gradients to allow several workstations to contribute to the solution of the problem simultaneously. The resulting system reduced the amount of time to complete one optimization cycle from two hours to one-half hour with a potential of reducing it to 15 minutes. The current distributed system, which contains numerous extensions, requires one hour turnaround per optimization cycle. This would take four hours for the sequential system

Dendritic cells stimulate primary human cytolytic lymphocyte responses in the absence of CD4+ helper T cells

Young, J.W., and Steinman, R.M. Dendritic cells stimulate primary human cytolytic lymphocyte responses in the absence of CD4+ helper T cells. J. Exp. Med. 171: 1315-1332, 1990https://digitalcommons.rockefeller.edu/historical-scientific-reports/1024/thumbnail.jp

Dendritic cells stimulate primary human cytolytic lymphocyte responses in the absence of CD4+ helper T cells

[No abstract available

Postembryonic Polarity Modification in the Acoel Convolutriloba longifissura

Metazoans establish the bilateral body plan early in embryogenesis by patterning orthogonal body axes with polarity that is unaltered during the lifetime of most animals. While some organisms re-establish/modify body axes during regeneration and asexual reproduction, the acoel flatworm Convolutriloba longifissura is unusual in its ability to modify left-right (L-R) axis polarity during longitudinal fission. We have developed C. longifissura as a model for studying the mechanisms of L-R polarity modification during postembryonic development. Regeneration experiments have elucidated the temporal dynamics of midline re-specification, suggesting that parallel L-R axes replace the pre-existing midline prior to longitudinal fission. We have characterized the spatiotemporal expression of genes encoding ligands and receptors of signaling pathways with conserved functions in polarity specification and axial patterning. Expression domains of BMP, Notch, and Slit/Robo signaling components are dynamic prior to and during longitudinal fission. RNAi-mediated gene knockdown of Notch and Slit/Robo signals disrupt longitudinal fission while BMP disrupted normal midline patterning suggesting a role in modulating changes in L-R axis polarity