Exploring Students’ Perceptions of their Experiences in a Social Justice Living–Learning Community

Contemporary higher education leaders continue to deem the development of civic-minded graduates as among the primary goals of postsecondary education (Astin, 1996Astin, H. S. (1996). Leadership for social change. About Campus, 1(3), 4–10. doi:10.1002/abc.v1.3[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Cress, Burack, Giles, Elkins, & Stevens, 2010Cress, C., Burack, C., Giles, D. E., Elkins, J. E., & Stevens, M. C. (2010). A promising connection: Increasing college access and success through civic engagement. Boston, MA: Campus Compact. [Google Scholar]; Hurtado, Ruiz, & Whang, 2012Hurtado, S., Ruiz, A., & Whang, H. (2012). Assessing student social responsibility and civic learning. Paper presented at the 2012 Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, New Orleans, Louisiana. [Google Scholar]). Today’s undergraduates are poised to engage with their communities in numbers greater than their predecessors in previous generations, believing it is their responsibility to make society better (Kiesa et al., 2007Kiesa, A., Orlowski, A. P., Levine, P., Both, D., Kirby, E. H., Lopez, M. H., & Marcelo, K. B. (2007). Millennials talk politics: A study of college student political engagement. New York, NY: The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement. [Google Scholar]). In 2012, more than two-thirds of postsecondary students reported participation in community service over the past year, despite their overwhelming disillusionment with the United States government and social institutions (Levine & Dean, 2012Levine, A., & Dean, D. R. (2012). Generation on a tightrope: A portrait of today’s college student. San Francisco, CA: Wiley. [Google Scholar]) Civic engagement lacks a common definition in the literature (Jacoby, 2009Jacoby, B. (Ed.). (2009). Civic engagement in higher education: Concepts and practices. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. [Google Scholar]), however it typically includes involvement in the community with the purpose of “enhancing students’ understanding of civic life” (Cress et al., 2010Cress, C., Burack, C., Giles, D. E., Elkins, J. E., & Stevens, M. C. (2010). A promising connection: Increasing college access and success through civic engagement. Boston, MA: Campus Compact. [Google Scholar], p. 4). A growing body of research raised concerns with community service, service-learning, and other forms of civic engagement as reinforcing stereotypes (Dooley & Burant, 2015Dooley, J. C., & Burant, T. J. (2015). Lessons from pre-service teachers: Under the surface of service learning. In O. Delano-Oriaran, M. Penick-Parks, & S. Fondrie (Eds.), Service-learning and civic engagement: A sourcebook (pp. 325–332). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). These studies urged greater care when designing community involvement opportunities, including attention to students’ development and previous experience, meaningful curricular connections, and adequate contextualization and reflection (Dooley & Burant, 2015Dooley, J. C., & Burant, T. J. (2015). Lessons from pre-service teachers: Under the surface of service learning. In O. Delano-Oriaran, M. Penick-Parks, & S. Fondrie (Eds.), Service-learning and civic engagement: A sourcebook (pp. 325–332). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Some campuses have linked social justice to civic engagement to advance students’ knowledge about inequity, thus moving them away from a savior orientation (Dooley & Burant, 2015Dooley, J. C., & Burant, T. J. (2015). Lessons from pre-service teachers: Under the surface of service learning. In O. Delano-Oriaran, M. Penick-Parks, & S. Fondrie (Eds.), Service-learning and civic engagement: A sourcebook (pp. 325–332). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and deepening their understanding of the experience (Prentice, 2007Prentice, M. (2007). Service-learning and civic engagement. Academic Questions, 20(2), 135–145. doi:10.1007/s12129-007-9005-y[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Although conceptualized in varying ways, for this article social justice is defined as work toward ending the system of oppression giving certain social groups greater privilege and power over other groups (Broido, 2000Broido, E. M. (2000). The development of social justice allies during college: A phenomenological investigation. Journal of College Student Development, 41(1), 3–18.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). When coupled, the terms civic engagement and social justice often indicate the educators’ desire to situate students in their broader communities and increase their awareness of social inequity, which may inspire them to work for social change at the individual, cultural, and institutional levels (Boyle-Baise & Langford, 2004Boyle-Baise, M., & Langford, J. (2004). There are children here: Service learning for social justice. Equity & Excellence in Education, 37(1), 55–66. doi:10.1080/10665680490422115[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Living–learning communities (LLCs) are increasingly utilized to deepen and cohere students’ collegiate experiences (Matthews, Smith, & MacGregor, 2012Matthews, R. S., Smith, B. L., & MacGregor, J. (2012). The evolution of learning communities: A retrospective. In K. Buch & K. E. Barron (Eds.), New directions for teaching and learning: No. 132. Discipline centered learning communities (pp. 99–111). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Although variation exists in thematic and organizational type, these communities typically group students together in a residence hall, offer a shared academic experience, and provide co-curricular activities related to a theme (Inkelas & Soldner, 2011Inkelas, K. K., & Soldner, M. (2011). Undergraduate living–learning programs and student outcomes. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, 26, 1–55.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Social justice LLCs, which focus on increasing students’ awareness of social inequity and providing them with opportunities to work for social change, are often found on college campuses (Inkelas, 2007Associates; Inkelas, K. K. (2007). National study of living–learning programs: 2007 report of findings. College Park, MD: Authors. [Google Scholar]). Yet little formal research has been done that explores the impact of these communities on students. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore students’ experiences throughout their time in a social justice-focused LLC (hereafter referred by the pseudonym SJLLC) and one year after participation, focusing on how students described their participation in SJLLC and what aspects of the LLC had a lasting impression on them

An investigation of a deep learning based malware detection system

We investigate a Deep Learning based system for malware detection. In the investigation, we experiment with different combination of Deep Learning architectures including Auto-Encoders, and Deep Neural Networks with varying layers over Malicia malware dataset on which earlier studies have obtained an accuracy of (98%) with an acceptable False Positive Rates (1.07%). But these results were done using extensive man-made custom domain features and investing corresponding feature engineering and design efforts. In our proposed approach, besides improving the previous best results (99.21% accuracy and a False Positive Rate of 0.19%) indicates that Deep Learning based systems could deliver an effective defense against malware. Since it is good in automatically extracting higher conceptual features from the data, Deep Learning based systems could provide an effective, general and scalable mechanism for detection of existing and unknown malware.Comment: 13 Pages, 4 figure

Asymptotic Behaviour of the Proper Length and Volume of the Schwarzschild Singularity

Though popular presentations give the Schwarzschild singularity as a point it is known that it is spacelike and not timelike. Thus it has a "length" and is not a "point". In fact, its length must necessarily be infinite. It has been proved that the proper length of the Qadir-Wheeler suture model goes to infinity [1], while its proper volume shrinks to zero, and the asymptotic behaviour of the length and volume have been calculated. That model consists of two Friedmann sections connected by a Schwarzschild "suture". The question arises whether a similar analysis could provide the asymptotic behaviour of the Schwarzschild black hole near the singularity. It is proved here that, unlike the behaviour for the suture model, for the Schwarzschild essential singularity $\Delta s$ $\thicksim$ $K^{1/3}\ln K$ and $V\thicksim$ $K^{-1}\ln K$, where $K$ is the mean extrinsic curvature, or the York time.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur

Subharmonic and Endoscopic Contrast Imaging of Pancreatic Masses: A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVES: To use subharmonic imaging (SHI) to depict the vascularity of pancreatic masses compared to contrast-enhanced endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and pathologic results. METHODS: Sixteen patients scheduled for biopsy of a pancreatic mass were enrolled in an Institutional Review Board-approved study. Pulse-inversion SHI (transmitting/receiving at 2.5/1.25 MHz) was performed on a LOGIQ 9 system (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI) with a 4C transducer, whereas contrast harmonic EUS (transmitting/receiving at 4.7/9.4 MHz) was performed with a radial endoscope (GF-UTC180; Olympus Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) connected to a ProSound SSD α-10 scanner (Hitachi Aloka, Tokyo, Japan). Two injections of the contrast agent Definity (Lantheus Medical Imaging, North Billerica, MA) were administrated (0.3-0.4 and 0.6-0.8 mL for EUS and SHI, respectively). Contrast-to-tissue ratios (CTRs) in the mass and an adjacent vessel were calculated. Four physicians independently scored the images (benign to malignant) for diagnostic accuracy and inter-reader agreement. RESULTS: One patient dropped out before imaging, leaving 11 adenocarcinomas, 1 gastrointestinal stromal tumor with pancreatic infiltration, and 3 benign masses. Marked subharmonic signals were obtained in all patients, with intratumoral blood flow clearly visualized with SHI. Significantly greater CTRs were obtained in the masses with SHI than with EUS (mean ± SD, 1.71 ± 1.63 versus 0.63 ± 0.89; P = .016). There were no differences in the CTR in the surrounding vessels or when grouped by pathologic results (P \u3e .60). The accuracies for contrast EUS and SHI were low (\u3c53%), albeit with a greater κ value for SHI (0.34) than for EUS (0.13). CONCLUSIONS: Diagnostic accuracy of contrast EUS and transabdominal SHI for assessment of pancreatic masses was quite low in this pilot study. However, SHI had improved tumoral CTRs relative to contrast EUS

Labelling faces as “Autistic” reduces the Inversion Effect

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordDoes the belief that a face belongs to an individual with autism affect recognition of that face? To address this question, we used the inversion effect as a marker of face recognition. In Experiment 1, participants completed a recognition task involving upright and inverted faces labelled as either ‘regular’ or ‘autistic’. In reality, the faces presented in both conditions were identical. Results revealed a smaller inversion effect for faces labelled as autistic. Thus, simply labelling a face as ‘autistic’ disrupts recognition. Experiment 2 showed a larger inversion effect after the provision of humanizing versus dehumanizing information about faces labelled as ‘autistic’. We suggest changes in the inversion effect could be used as a measure to study stigma within the context of objectification and dehumanization.S.S.O. is supported by a discovery grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research council of Canada. C.C. is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie (grant agreement No. 743702) and by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) New Investigator Grant (Ref. ES/R005532)

Endoscopic sphincterotomy with or without cholecystectomy for choledocholithiasis in high risk surgical patients: A decision analysis

Background Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is recommended for patients with choledocholithiasis after ERCP with sphincterotomy (ES) and stone extraction. Aim: We designed a decision model to address whether ES alone versus ES followed by LC (ES + LC) is the optimal treatment in high-risk patients with choledocholithiasis. Methods: Our cohort were patients with obstructive jaundice who have undergone an ES with biliary clearance. Recurrent biliary complications over a 2-year period stratified by gallbladder status (in/out) and age-stratified surgical complication rates were obtained from the literature. Failure of therapy was defined as either recurrent symptoms or death attributed to biliary complications. Results For age 70–79 years, ES failed in 15% whereas ES + LC failed in 17% of cases. Mortality in the EC + LC group was 3.4 times that of the ES alone cohort. For age 80+ years, ES was dominant with an incremental success rate of 8%. Mortality in the ES + LC was 7.6 times that of ES. For age \u3c70, ES + LC was the dominant strategy with an incremental success rate 5%. Sensitivity analysis in the groups confirmed our conclusions. Conclusions: Management of choledocholithiasis by ES and stone clearance, but without cholecystectomy, should be considered for patients aged 70+. For low-risk patients, ES + LC should be performed to prevent recurrent biliary complications

Utilization of a Radiology-Centric Search Engine

Internet-based search engines have become a significant component of medical practice. Physicians increasingly rely on information available from search engines as a means to improve patient care, provide better education, and enhance research. Specialized search engines have emerged to more efficiently meet the needs of physicians. Details about the ways in which radiologists utilize search engines have not been documented. The authors categorized every 25th search query in a radiology-centric vertical search engine by radiologic subspecialty, imaging modality, geographic location of access, time of day, use of abbreviations, misspellings, and search language. Musculoskeletal and neurologic imagings were the most frequently searched subspecialties. The least frequently searched were breast imaging, pediatric imaging, and nuclear medicine. Magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography were the most frequently searched modalities. A majority of searches were initiated in North America, but all continents were represented. Searches occurred 24 h/day in converted local times, with a majority occurring during the normal business day. Misspellings and abbreviations were common. Almost all searches were performed in English. Search engine utilization trends are likely to mirror trends in diagnostic imaging in the region from which searches originate. Internet searching appears to function as a real-time clinical decision-making tool, a research tool, and an educational resource. A more thorough understanding of search utilization patterns can be obtained by analyzing phrases as actually entered as well as the geographic location and time of origination. This knowledge may contribute to the development of more efficient and personalized search engines

Could Reduced Fluid Intake Cause the Placebo Effect Seen in Overactive Bladder Clinical Trials? Analysis of a Large Solifenacin Integrated Database

Objective To assess the hypothesis that patients receiving placebo in overactive bladder (OAB) trials who experience less benefit from “treatment” continue with behavioral modifications such as fluid restriction, whereas those on active treatment adopt more normal drinking patterns. This may manifest itself as a reduction in micturition frequency (MF). Materials and Methods We interrogated a large integrated database containing pooled patient data from 4 randomized, placebo-controlled phase III OAB solifenacin studies. A statistical correction was applied to MF to remove the influence of fluid intake. Results Pooled analysis using patient-level data from 3011 patients and accounting for the studies within the models showed that all patients voided progressively less total urine per 24 hours during treatment than at baseline. However, reduction in total urine volume voided per 24 hours was larger in patients receiving placebo vs those on solifenacin; with a substantial decrease in 24-hour urine output in the placebo group from baseline to week 4, which was not the case in active groups. After correcting MF for volume voided for each patient using the statistical correction and averaging the corrected MF per treatment arm, the placebo effect almost disappeared. Patients on solifenacin voided less often, with a statistically significant increase in volume voided each time they voided, vs placebo. Conclusion Assuming volume voided is a good surrogate measure for fluid intake, this analysis shows that fluid restriction almost completely explains the reduction in MF in the placebo group. In contrast, patients receiving active treatment adopt more normal drinking patterns once they start to perceive improvement in their OAB symptoms