Examining Retention and Academic Success Among Community College Developmental Algebra I Students

An increasing number of community college matriculants enter college needing remediation in mathematics. This study examined factors that may affect student retention and academic success in a developmental Algebra I course at a community college, including demographic variables, life demand variables, pre-enrollment academic characteristic, self-regulated learning characteristics, and instructional methodology. The study ran for two consecutive semesters and included 154 participants. Self-report measures were used to gain demographic information and information about students\u27 beliefs about math and their self-regulated learning characteristics at the beginning of the semester. An elementary algebra pre-test was administered at the beginning of the semester with an elementary algebra post-test administered during the final week of the semester. A variety of measures were used to analyze the data: descriptive analysis, logistic regression, multiple regression, chi-square analysis, and ANCOVA. Several results of the study were contrary to the hypotheses. Results indicated that of the demographic variables, noncognitive variables, and high school grade point average (GPA), only age and GPA may be predictors of retention in developmental Algebra I; none of the variables showed a statistically significant relationship with success. There were no statistically significant relationships for students\u27 beliefs about math or their self-regulated learning characteristics with retention and success. Results indicated that statistically significant differences exist in both retention and success as a result of instructional methodology. The contrary findings may be attributed to the constructs and/or instruments used to measure the constructs or to the research design. Further research is needed

Midwife Asylum Kit : E-Learning-Konzept zur Weiterbildung von Hebammen für die Kompetenzerweiterung in der peripartalen Betreuung von Familien im Schweizer Asylverfahren

Asylsuchende Frauen weisen deutlich schlechtere Outcomes der peripartalen und reproduktiven Gesundheit auf, als die einheimische weibliche Bevölkerung der Schweiz (Cignacco et al., 2017). Die Gründe hierfür wurden in verschiedenen Studien bereits ermittelt, konkrete Verbesserungsvorschläge für das Gesundheitspersonal wurden bisher jedoch wenig ausformuliert. In der vorliegenden literaturgeleiteten Arbeit wird ein Konzept entwickelt, welches sowohl in Spitälern, für freiberufliche Hebammen sowie in Ausbildungsinstitutionen anwendbar sein soll. Ziel des E-Learnings ist es, die Arbeitsweise der Hebammen sowie die Betreuung der Asylsuchenden zu verbessern und somit langfristig die Outcomes zu verbessern. Anhand der aktuellen Studienlage werden die Defizite sowie die daraus resultierenden Bedürfnisse ermittelt und in eine globale sowie in eine Mikro- und Makroebene eingeordnet. Die Lerneinheiten unterliegen diesen drei Kategorien und behandeln folgende Themen: Holistische und frauenzentrierte Betreuung, Kultur, transkulturelle Kompetenz, die häufigsten Einwanderungsländer, vorherrschende Machtstrukturen, individueller Hintergrund der Frau, Beziehung Frau - Hebamme sowie Umgang mit Ungleichheit und Rassismus. Das Konzept gibt Aufschluss über die zu vermittelnden Inhalte wie auch über die Umsetzung, die sich an einer didaktischen Grundlage orientiert. Die Arbeit zeigt auf, dass Hebammen durch die nötige transkulturelle Sensibilisierung mit aufgeklärter Argumentation einen wichtigen Anstoss geben können, um die nötigen Veränderungen in Politik und Gesundheitswesen voranzutreiben

Making Education Work For Latinas in the U.S.

This study examines the existing knowledge base about promoting Latina educational success, defined as completing high school and then going on to secure a college degree. It also adds to existing research by examining two large data sets - one national, and one California-based for predictors of successful educational outcomes for representative samples of Latina youth who have recently been in high school and college. Finally, after identifying important predictors of success from the existing literature, and the examination of current data, the study incorporates case studies of seven young Latinas who illustrate pathways of women who are finding their way to educational success through high school, community college, and four year universities. Their stories provide a deeper understanding of the challenges that young Latinas encounter in our culture, as well as the promise they represent

Antiepileptic drug use in Austrian nursing home residents

AbstractPurposeCurrently around 30% of all newly developed seizures are diagnosed in persons older than 65 years. Five to 17% of nursing home-residents take antiepileptic drugs. The aim of our study was to analyze the type and frequency of prescribed antiepileptic drugs, as well as their indication, co-morbidities and co-medications in institutionalized elderly in Austria.MethodsThis was a retrospective, cross-sectional study, which included all residents of the seven public nursing homes in Innsbruck, Austria. The data of 828 probands were extracted from the charts at site and maintained anonymously. The data collection was followed by descriptive statistics.Key findings70 (8.5%; 26 M/44 F) of the 828 (192 M/636 F) residents took at least one antiepileptic medication. In 51.5% the reason for the prescription were epileptic seizures – yielding a minimum prevalence of 4.5%. The most often used antiepileptic drugs were gabapentin (37%), levetiracetam (24%) and valproate (18.5%). The three most common co-morbidities were arterial hypertension (49%), ischemic stroke (36%) and other cerebrovascular diseases (29%). Six to nine co-medications were prescribed in 41%, 26% had more than 10 additional drugs and 91% were treated with proconvulsive co-medications (64/70, median 2, range 0–6).SignificanceAustrian nursing home residents receive more frequently newer antiepileptic drugs compared to other countries, but co-prescription of proconvulsive drugs is common

A successful institutional policy of quality postgraduates at the UABC

[EN] This paper analyzes the postgraduate institutional policy in the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) implemented since 2003. Aligning the educational model of the UABC with the parameters of the National Program of Postgraduate Quality (PNPC in spanish), the results-based budget and the matrix of indicators of the logical margin and articulating them to the maximum qualifications of national recognition granted to the full time professors at higher education institutions, its results are explained by the continuity of the policy and organizational capacity of the institutional management, which has resulted in the improvement of the quality and coverage in the postgraduate level, achieving from 2013 that 100% of its programs are recognized for their quality and the first institution of the 34 state public universities existing in the country to reach it sustainably. This policy implemented by the UABC also should be reflected in the satisfaction of graduates and employers, in the contribution in the generation of knowledge through journals high impact factor, the degree of linkage with the productive sector measured through collaboration agreements and management of resources for public-private-social projects, which will be topics for future research.Huber, G.; Moctezuma, P.; Ocegueda, JM. (2017). A successful institutional policy of quality postgraduates at the UABC. En Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 418-426. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.523841842

Status quo and outlook of the information literacy course offerings for physicists in Germany's universities

Die vorliegende Arbeit erfasst und bewertet die bestehenden Angebote zur Vermittlung von Informationskompetenz an Physiker, stellt gelungene Beispiele vor und gibt Empfehlungen an einzelne Akteure heraus. Als neue, "vierte Kulturtechnik" ist Informationskompetenz gerade im akademischen Bereich von großer Bedeutung; deren frühzeitige Vermittlung jedoch ist lange nicht so selbstverständlich wie Lesen, Schreiben und Rechnen. Der Nachholbedarf wird an den Hochschulen vor allem von Seiten der Universitätsbibliotheken gedeckt, doch die Angebotsspektren sind dabei sehr verschieden, was den Umfang, die konkret vermittelten Inhalte, die Zielgruppen und die Formen der Vermittlung angeht. Alle für Physiker potentiell interessanten Angebote wurden auf diese Kriterien untersucht und die Ergebnisse in Hinblick auf den speziellen Bedarf und die Ansprüche von Physikern bewertet, welche anhand von Befragungen ermittelt wurden. Untersucht wurden die Internetseiten der 59 Physik-Fachbereiche an Deutschlands Hochschulen sowie deren Fach- und Universitätsbibliotheken auf Präsenzangebote und elektronische Selbstlernangebote für Studierende, Graduierte und auch Professoren der Physik. Die Ergebnisse sind insgesamt eher ernüchternd. Zwar gibt es – auch gute, umfangreiche – Angebote speziell für Physiker, aber nicht besonders häufig und lange nicht an jeder der Hochschulen. Allgemeine, interdisziplinäre Angebote, die deutlich öfter zu finden sind als fachspezifische, eignen sich prinzipiell für Physiker, sind aber durch den fehlenden Fachbezug deutlich uninteressanter. Und an manchen Hochschulen ist selbst das allgemeine Angebot noch stark ausbaufähig. Der überwiegende Anteil der Angebote ist an Studierende gerichtet; weniger häufig sind Angebote, die sich speziell an Graduierte richten oder für diese interessant sind. Angebote für Professoren wurden nur in Ausnahmefällen gefunden. Inhaltlich sind vor allem die bibliotheksnahen Einzelkompetenzen im bestehenden Angebot gut vertreten, andere dürften noch verstärkt vermittelt werden. Doch nicht nur durch eine eher ressourcenintensive Erweiterung des Angebots ließen sich Verbesserungen der Gesamtsituation erzielen, sondern bereits durch eine fachliche Anpassung der bestehenden Angebote, einhergehend mit deren zielgerichteter Kommunikation.This thesis detects and evaluates the existing information literacy course offerings for physicists in Germany's universities. It shows best practice examples and provides recommendations for the relevant institutions. Information literacy is especially important in the academic field. However it is still not tought as intensely as necessary in many schools. The consequent backlog-demand in universities is usually covered by its libraries, but the offerings are widespread in range, target groups, content and the way it is put across. All offerings that might be relevant for physicists are analyzed with respect to these criteria and the results are assessed concerning the special demand of physicists identified by questionnaires. The basis of the examination are the web presences of the 59 physics departments of Germany's universities as well as their department and university libraries. Both attendance courses and remote tutorials are registered, as well for students as for graduates and professors. The results are not very satisfactory. There are indeed some good and substantial offerings especially for physicists, but they are rare and some universities don't have any specialized offers at all. General, interdisciplinary offerings are by far more common and as helpful for physicists as for other disciplines, but the lack of specialist relevance makes a great difference. Moreover at some universities even the supply of general offerings should be expanded. Most of the existing offers are aimed at students, less numerous are offerings especially for graduates and those targeted at professors are few exceptions. The content of most offers covers competences concerning the handling of library resources, whereas other fields have to be worked on. Since many options of improvement require plenty of resources, one should consider that noteworthy improvements can also be reached simply by adjusting the specialist relevance of the existing offers, supported by target-oriented communication and publicity

FingerReader: A Wearable Device to Explore Printed Text on the Go

Accessing printed text in a mobile context is a major challenge for the blind. A preliminary study with blind people reveals numerous difficulties with existing state-of-the-art technologies including problems with alignment, focus, accuracy, mobility and efficiency. In this paper, we present a finger-worn device, FingerReader, that assists blind users with reading printed text on the go. We introduce a novel computer vision algorithm for local-sequential text scanning that enables reading single lines, blocks of text or skimming the text with complementary, multimodal feedback. This system is implemented in a small finger-worn form factor, that enables a more manageable eyes-free operation with trivial setup. We offer findings from three studies performed to determine the usability of the FingerReader.SUTD-MIT International Design Centr

Agents to the Rescue?

The advent of electronic environments is bound to have profound effects on consumer decision making. While the exact nature of these influences is only partially known it is clear that consumers could benefit from properly designed electronic agents that know individual users\u27 preferences and can act on their behalf. An examination of the various roles agents perform is presented as a framework for thinking about the design of electronic agents. In addition, a set of goals is established that include both outcome-based measures, such as improving decision quality, as well as process measures like increasing satisfaction and developing trust

Multidimensional en-face OCT imaging of the retina.

Fast T-scanning (transverse scanning, en-face) was used to build B-scan or C-scan optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of the retina. Several unique signature patterns of en-face (coronal) are reviewed in conjunction with associated confocal images of the fundus and B-scan OCT images. Benefits in combining T-scan OCT with confocal imaging to generate pairs of OCT and confocal images similar to those generated by scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) are discussed in comparison with the spectral OCT systems. The multichannel potential of the OCT/SLO system is demonstrated with the addition of a third hardware channel which acquires and generates indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence images. The OCT, confocal SLO and ICG fluorescence images are simultaneously presented in a two or a three screen format. A fourth channel which displays a live mix of frames of the ICG sequence superimposed on the corresponding coronal OCT slices for immediate multidimensional comparison, is also included. OSA ISP software is employed to illustrate the synergy between the simultaneously provided perspectives. This synergy promotes interpretation of information by enhancing diagnostic comparisons and facilitates internal correction of movement artifacts within C-scan and B-scan OCT images using information provided by the SLO channel

High-fat diets and seizure control in myoclonic-astatic epilepsy: A single center's experience

AbstractPurposeTo determine the efficacy of the Modified Atkins Diet (MAD) and Ketogenic Diet (KD) in seizure control within a population of myoclonic-astatic epilepsy (MAE) patients.MethodsThis was a retrospective, single center study evaluating the seizure control by high fat diets. Seizure diaries kept by the parents performed seizure counts. All patients met the clinical criteria for MAE.ResultsNine patients met the clinical criteria. We found that both the MAD and KD were efficacious in complete seizure control and allowed other medications to be stopped in seven patients. Two patients had greater than 90% seizure control without medications, one on the KD and the other on the MAD. Seizure freedom has ranged from 13 to 36 months, and during this time four patients have been fully weaned off of diet management. One patient was found to have a mutation in SLC2A1.ConclusionOur results suggest that strictly defined MAE patients respond to the MAD with prolonged seizure control. Some patients may require the KD for seizure freedom, suggesting a common pathway of increased requirement for fats. Once controlled, those fully responsive to the Diet(s) could be weaned off traditional seizure medications and in many, subsequently off the MAD or KD