Implications of Student Debt on Financial Wellness: Can Universities Help?

Introduction. Exploring whether or not students feel prepared financially for graduation is a useful exercise for universities as the results can provide ways to better support their students as they move into life after graduation. Financial wellness plays a role in a person’s overall wellness and happiness. This could be of particular concern for pharmacy students due to increasing cost of education and typically, a minimum of six years of education is required. If universities implemented better ways to educate their students on student loans and financial well-being, new graduates could have decreased financial anxiety, as well as improved overall wellness. Methods. This study was conducted via online survey using Qualtrics. Pharmacy students at Butler University were asked questions relating to the amount of stress they experience due to their finances and access to financial information, then rated their responses on a 5-point Likert scale. Results. There were 107 complete responses from P1-P4 pharmacy students enrolled at Butler University. Results indicated 69.1% (n=74) students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I feel anxious about my financial situation” and 84.1% (n=74) of students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I want to learn more about what to do with my loans after college.” When comparing anxiety and desire for financial information, there was a 0.276 positive correlation between anxiety and desire for financial information (p=0.004). Conclusion. Financial anxiety is correlated with desire for financial information in college students with debt. Students feel like they would benefit by having more access to financial planning resolving student loans

Implications of Student Debt and Financial Wellness: Can Universities Help?

Introduction- With student loan debt growing, the cost of pharmacy school increasing, and the pharmacist job market slowing due to increased number of graduating pharmacists, pharmacy students need to be more financially aware to improve their financial outlook and overall long-term financial wellness. Exploring whether or not students feel prepared financially for graduation is something that universities could use to evaluate different ways to educate and help their students. With an increased cost of education comes increased financial burden upon graduation. Financial wellness plays a role in a person’s overall happiness. If universities could better educate and prepare students prior to graduation, new graduates could have decreased financial anxiety and burden as well as improved overall wellness. Objective- The objective of this study is to compare at different points during their education, pharmacy students’ perspectives related to financial anxiety and their need for financial preparation before graduation. Procedure- This study was conducted online via a web-based survey using Qualtrics. Pharmacy students at Butler University were asked questions relating to the amount of stress and worry they experience due to their financial situation and asked to record responses via a 5-point Likert scale. Further questions were asked about loan specific information such as interest rates, repayment plans, and if they wanted access to more loan related information. Conclusion- Preliminary results suggest that students do endure anxiousness in regards to their financial situation. Students feel like they would benefit by having more access to financial planning and student loan information

Antiphonal exchanges in African elephants (Loxodonta africana): collective response to a shared stimulus, social facilitation, or true communicative event?

Female African elephants are thought to exchange \u27rumble\u27 vocalizations, but such temporally associated calls may not constitute communicative events. Affiliated females are more likely to engage in antiphonal calling, but affiliation is defined according to time spent in proximity. Affiliated partners may vocalize in sequence simply because their proximity causes them to collectively respond to shared external stimuli or due to a social facilitation effect. We used bi-variate and partial correlation analyses to test for the independent effects of the strength of the social relationship and distance between vocal partners on the likelihood of a vocal response. Female African elephants at Disney\u27s Animal Kingdom were video-taped and outfitted with audio-recording collars that allowed for the individual identification of low-frequency rumbles. Affiliation had a strong influence on response likelihood, even after controlling for the effects of the distance between vocalizing partners. Further, the distance between vocalizing partners did not correlate with response likelihood, and factoring out the effects of affiliation did not significantly alter this result. These results suggest that rumble exchanges are communicative events that reflect social bonds, not simply artifacts of increased proximity and, therefore, provide support for functional hypotheses concerning rumble exchanges in wild African elephants

Infant African Elephant Rumble Vocalizations Vary Accourding to Social Interactions with Adult Females

Research on African elephant (Loxodonta africana) vocal communication has increased in recent years, yet there has been very little data collected on the vocal production of infant African elephants. Vocalizations were recorded from a group of five adult female African elephants and 3 dependent offspring (1 male and 2 female) at Disney\u27s Animal Kingdom, Florida, U.S.A., using custom-designed audio-recording collars worn by the adult females. We measured both source and filter features of infant ‘rumble’ vocalizations made during affiliative social interactions and after cessation of nursing from adult females. Rumble vocalizations produced in the ‘nurse cessation’ context exhibited an upward shift in formant frequency locations, compared to rumbles produced during the ‘affiliation’ context. Additionally, call duration increased and fundamental frequencies decreased after nurse cessations for the male, but both females showed the opposite acoustic response. When infant rumbles accompanied nurse cessations, nursing was more likely to resume within 30 seconds compared to nurse cessations without vocalizations. These results suggest that infant rumbles associated with cessation of nursing reflect the motivational state of infants and may influence maternal responsiveness

The Expression of Affect in African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) Rumble Vocalizations

Affective states are thought to be expressed in the mammalian voice, but such investigations are most common in primates. Source and filter features of rumbles were analyzed from 6 adult female African elephants (Loxodonta africana) at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Rumbles produced during periods of minimal social interaction (“low affect”) were compared to those produced during dominance interactions (“high affect”). Low-ranking females produced rumbles with increased and more variable fundamental frequencies, and increased durations and amplitudes during dominance interactions with superiors, compared to the low affect context. This acoustic response is consistent with the expression of affect in mammals and may signal submission to superiors. The 2 highest ranking females were codominant and competed for alpha status. They produced rumbles with decreased and less variable fundamental frequencies, increased durations and amplitudes, and a decrease in formant dispersion during dominance interactions with each other, compared to the low affect context. This response is not generally consistent with the expression of affect, but may signal large body size to competitors. These results suggest that affect can be expressed in the voiced sounds of elephants

Rumble vocalizations mediate interpartner distance in African elephants, Loxodonta africana

The ability to utilize contact calls to facilitate reunions with social partners has been documented in a number of species showing a fission/fusion social organization. Field observations and playback experiments suggest that African elephants use low-frequency rumble vocalizations to reunite with their herd members following periods of fission. Using a digital audio and GPS recording collar system, we documented the production of rumbles and subsequent movements of five adult female African elephants at Disney\u27s Animal Kingdom, Bay Lake, Florida, U.S.A. This recording system allowed us to identify the producer of each rumble and to document the effect of rumbles on the movements of herd members relative to the caller. Our findings provide the first empirical evidence that spontaneously produced elephant rumble vocalizations function in part to mediate the spatial relationships of group members. Overall, the production of rumbles resulted in a net decrease in distance between the caller and her social partners. This approach behaviour was enhanced if the partner was highly affiliated with the caller, if the partner replied with a rumble of her own, and if the pair was initially far apart (≥61 m). Rumble production was likely to result in avoidance behaviour only when there was no rumble reply by the partner and the dyad was close together prior to the initial call. These results suggest that a general function of elephant rumbles is to promote spatial cohesion among separated group members, but they may also mediate a variety of other close-distance social interactions

GPS determination of walking rates in captive African elephants (Loxodonta africana)

The movements of elephants in captivity have been an issue of concern for animal welfare activists and zoological professionals alike in recent years. In order to fully understand how movement rates reflect animal welfare, we must first determine the exact distances these animals move in the captive environment. We outfitted seven adult female African elephants (Loxodonta africana) at Disney\u27s Animal Kingdom with collar-mounted global positioning recording systems to document their movement rates while housed in outdoor guest viewing habitats. Further, we conducted preliminary analyses to address potential factors impacting movement rates including body size, temperature, enclosure size, and social grouping complexity. We found that our elephants moved at an average rate of 0.409±0.007 km/hr during the 9-hr data collection periods. This rate translates to an average of 3.68 km traveled during the observation periods, at a rate comparable to that observed in the wild. Although movement rate did not have a significant relationship with an individual\u27s body size in this herd, the movements of four females demonstrated a significant positive correlation with temperature. Further, females in our largest social group demonstrated a significant increase in movement rates when residing in larger enclosures. We also present preliminary evidence suggesting that increased social group complexity, including the presence of infants in the herd, may be associated with increased walking rates, whereas factors such as reproductive and social status may constrain movements