Does Cultural Immersion Around the World Create Stronger Students? A Study of the Benefits of Studying Abroad on Students’ Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Mental illnesses have been increasing throughout the population of the United States. College-aged students are being affected by mental illnesses at alarming rates. This is a pivotal age range for people as they transition towards more adult responsibilities. Universities provide its students a lot of opportunities to prepare them for the real-world. One of these opportunities that has become popular amongst students is studying abroad. This research focuses on the effects of study abroad on students’ mental health and wellbeing. 104 students from the summer 2022 CIMBA study abroad program participated in this study. This set of respondents encompassed ten universities and a wide variety of academic majors, creating a diverse group. The students took a pre-survey and post-survey to evaluate their mental health state at two periods in time. The survey-items included the Psychological Wellbeing Scale and Hero Wellness Scale derived from the literature. For statistical analysis, the pre-survey average response was compared to the post-survey average response. The data showed that there were statistically significant (p\u3c0.05) positive increases in students’ mental health and wellbeing over the course of studying abroad. Students also reflected highly upon their study abroad experience and gained meaningful relationships and personal growth that will benefit them in the future. This research should be taken into consideration by universities to promote study abroad opportunities to its students. Further research could study more long-term effects of study abroad on students by surveying them years after they study abroad

Does Cultural Immersion Around the World Create Stronger Students? A Study of the Benefits of Studying Abroad on Students’ Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Mental illnesses have been increasing throughout the population of the United States. College-aged students are being affected by mental illnesses at alarming rates. This is a pivotal age range for people as they transition towards more adult responsibilities. Universities provide its students a lot of opportunities to prepare them for the real-world. One of these opportunities that has become popular amongst students is studying abroad. This research focuses on the effects of study abroad on students’ mental health and wellbeing. 104 students from the summer 2022 CIMBA study abroad program participated in this study. This set of respondents encompassed ten universities and a wide variety of academic majors, creating a diverse group. The students took a pre-survey and post-survey to evaluate their mental health state at two periods in time. The survey-items included the Psychological Wellbeing Scale and Hero Wellness Scale derived from the literature. For statistical analysis, the pre-survey average response was compared to the post-survey average response. The data showed that there were statistically significant (p\u3c0.05) positive increases in students’ mental health and wellbeing over the course of studying abroad. Students also reflected highly upon their study abroad experience and gained meaningful relationships and personal growth that will benefit them in the future. This research should be taken into consideration by universities to promote study abroad opportunities to its students. Further research could study more long-term effects of study abroad on students by surveying them years after they study abroad

Role of the interval from completion of neoadjuvant therapy to surgery in postoperative morbidity in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer

Increasing the interval from completion of neoadjuvant therapy to surgery beyond 8 weeks is associated with increased response of rectal cancer to neoadjuvant therapy. However, reports are conflicting on whether extending the time to surgery is associated with increased perioperative morbidity. Patients who presented with a tumor within 15 cm of the anal verge in 2009-2015 were grouped according to the interval between completion of neoadjuvant therapy and surgery: < 8 weeks, 8-12 weeks, and 12-16 weeks. Among 607 patients, the surgery was performed at < 8 weeks in 317 patients, 8-12 weeks in 229 patients, and 12-16 weeks in 61 patients. Patients who underwent surgery at 8-12 weeks and patients who underwent surgery at < 8 weeks had comparable rates of complications (37% and 44%, respectively). Univariable analysis identified male sex, earlier date of diagnosis, tumor location within 5 cm of the anal verge, open operative approach, abdominoperineal resection, and use of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy alone to be associated with higher rates of complications. In multivariable analysis, male sex, tumor location within 5 cm of the anal verge, open operative approach, and neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy administered alone were independently associated with the presence of a complication. The interval between neoadjuvant therapy and surgery was not an independent predictor of postoperative complications. Delaying surgery beyond 8 weeks from completion of neoadjuvant therapy does not appear to increase surgical morbidity in rectal cancer patients

On the duality between interaction responses and mutual positions in flocking and schooling.

Recent research in animal behaviour has contributed to determine how alignment, turning responses, and changes of speed mediate flocking and schooling interactions in different animal species. Here, we propose a complementary approach to the analysis of flocking phenomena, based on the idea that animals occupy preferential, anysotropic positions with respect to their neighbours, and devote a large amount of their interaction responses to maintaining their mutual positions. We test our approach by deriving the apparent alignment and attraction responses from simulated trajectories of animals moving side by side, or one in front of the other. We show that the anisotropic positioning of individuals, in combination with noise, is sufficient to reproduce several aspects of the movement responses observed in real animal groups. This anisotropy at the level of interactions should be considered explicitly in future models of flocking and schooling. By making a distinction between interaction responses involved in maintaining a preferred flock configuration, and interaction responses directed at changing it, our work provides a frame to discriminate movement interactions that signal directional conflict from interactions underlying consensual group motion

A standard protocol for describing the evaluation of ecological models

Numerical models of ecological systems are increasingly used to address complex environmental and resource management questions. One challenge for scientists, managers, and stakeholders is to appraise how well suited these models are to answer questions of scientific or societal relevance, that is, to perform, communicate, or access transparent evaluations of ecological models. While there have been substantial developments to support standardised descriptions of ecological models, less has been done to standardise and to report model evaluation practices. We present here a general protocol designed to guide the reporting of model evaluation. The protocol is organised in three major parts: the objective(s) of the modelling application, the ecological patterns of relevance and the evaluation methodology proper, and is termed the OPE (objectives, patterns, evaluation) protocol. We present the 25 questions of the OPE protocol which address the many aspects of the evaluation process and then apply them to six case studies based on a diversity of ecological models. In addition to standardising and increasing the transparency of the model evaluation process, we find that going through the OPE protocol helps modellers to think more deeply about the evaluation of their models. From this last point, we suggest that it would be highly beneficial for modellers to consider the OPE early in the modelling process, in addition to using it as a reporting tool and as a reviewing tool.publishedVersio

Changes in the multidisciplinary management of rectal cancer from 2009 to 2015 and associated improvements in short‐term outcomes

Aim: Significant recent changes in management of locally advanced rectal cancer include preoperative staging, use of extended neoadjuvant therapies, and minimally invasive surgery (MIS). This study was aimed at characterizing those changes and associated short‐term outcomes. Method: We retrospectively analysed treatment and outcome data from patients with T3/4 or N+ locally advanced rectal cancer ≤15 cm from the anal verge who were evaluated at a comprehensive cancer center in 2009–2015. Results: In total, 798 patients were identified and grouped into five cohorts based on treatment year: 2009‐2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014‐2015. Temporal changes included increased reliance on MRI staging, from 57% in 2009‐2010 to 98% in 2014‐2015 (p < 0.001); increased use of total neoadjuvant therapy, from 17% to 76% (p < 0.001); and increased use of MIS, from 33% to 70% (p < 0.001). Concurrently, median hospital stay decreased (from 7 to 5 days; p < 0.001), as did the rates of grade III‐V complications (from 13% to 7%; p < 0.05), surgical site infections (from 24% to 8%; p < 0.001), anastomotic leak (from 11% to 3%; p < 0.05), and positive circumferential resection margin (from 9% to 4%; p < 0.05). TNM downstaging increased from 62% to 74% (p = 0.002). Conclusion: Shifts toward MRI‐based staging, total neoadjuvant therapy, and MIS occurred between 2009 and 2015. Over the same period, treatment responses improved, and lengths of stay and the incidence of complications decreased

Spillover effects of supplementary on basic health insurance: evidence from the Netherlands

Like many other countries, the Netherlands has a health insurance system that combines mandatory basic insurance with voluntary supplementary insurance. Both types of insurance are founded on different principles. Since basic and supplementary insurance are sold by the same health insurers, both markets may interact. This paper examines to what extent basic and supplementary insurance are linked to each other and whether these links generate spillover effects of supplementary on basic insurance. Our analysis is based on an investigation into supplementary health insurance contracts, underwriting procedures and annual surveys among 1,700–2,100 respondents over the period 2006–2009. We find that health insurers increasingly use a variety of strategies to enforce a joint purchase of basic and supplementary health insurance. Despite incentives for health insurers to use supplementary insurance as a tool for risk selection in basic insurance, we find limited evidence of supplementary insurance being used this way. Only a minority of health insurers uses health questionnaires when people apply for supplementary coverage. Nevertheless, we find that an increasing proportion of high-risk individuals believe that insurers would not be willing to offer them another supplementary insurance contract. We discuss several strategies to prevent or to counteract the observed negative spillover effects of supplementary insurance