Covid-19 and Canine Travelers: Determining Likelihood to Travel with Dogs

During the Covid-19 pandemic, dog adoption rates skyrocketed, restaurants focused on outdoor seating, and travelers pivoted away from tightly packed planes out of safety concerns. This study surveyed dog owners in the United States to determine whether pet attachment levels could predict dog owners’ likelihood of traveling with their dogs. In addition, it used Um and Crompton’s (1992) facilitators and inhibitors to establish how different factors affect a dog owner’s likelihood of traveling with their dog. These facilitators and inhibitors were split into three dimensions: needs satisfaction, social agreement, and travelability. Finally, this study sought to learn what effect the Covid-19 pandemic had on the participants likelihood of traveling with their dogs after the pandemic. The likelihood of traveling with a dog was divided into four trip types: visiting friends and family, recreation trip, day trip, and overnight trip. Survey results show that pet attachment had a positive significant relationship with the likelihood to visit friends and family with a dog. Needs satisfaction dimension of facilitators and inhibitors also had a positive significant relationship with likelihood for owners to take any of the four types of trips with their dog

College Knowledge of 9th and 11th Grade Students: Variation by School and State Context

While college enrollment rates have increased over the last 40 years, gaps still exist across groups. College enrollment rates are lower for high school graduates whose parents have not attended college, those with low-incomes, as well as Black and Latino/a students than for other high school graduates (Baum & Ma, 2007; Ellwood & Kane, 2000; NCES, 2007; Thomas & Perna, 2004). Widening gaps in income and health insurance coverage between high school and college graduates (Baum & Ma, 2007) suggest the economic and social imperative of working to increase college-going rates among these underrepresented groups

Contextual Influences on Parental Involvement in College Going: Variations by Socioeconomic Class

College enrollment rates vary systematically based on income and socioeconomic status (SES), with lower enrollment rates for lower-income students and students with lower SES than for their higher-income and SES peers (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2001). Although college enrollment rates increased for all groups over the past three decades, the gap in these rates between students from low-income families and those from high-income families was the same size in 1997 as in 1970 (32 percentage points; Fitzgerald & Delaney, 2002). Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), Cabrera and La Nasa (2001) found that, after controlling for relevant variables, college application rates were 26 percentage points lower for students with low socioeconomic status than for those with high socioeconomic status. These differential application and enrollment rates are especially disconcerting at a time when there are widening gaps in income and health insurance benefits between high school and college graduates (Baum & Ma, 2007)

A Typology of Federal and State Programs Designed to Promote College Enrollment

Over the past four decades, policymakers have developed numerous policies and programs with the goal of increasing college enrollment. A simple Google search of the phrase college access program generates 226,000,000 hits. Entering the same terms into the search engine on the U.S. Department of Education\u27s Web site generates 500 hits. Despite the apparent plentitude of policies and programs, however, college access and choice for recent high school graduates remain stratified by socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity (Thomas & Perna, 2004). Young people from low-income families and whose parents have not attended college, as well as those of African American and Hispanic descent, are less likely than other young people to enroll in college. When they do enroll, these students find themselves concentrated in lower-priced institutions, such as public two-year colleges and less-selective four-year colleges and universities (Baum & Payea, 2004; Ellwood & Kane, 2000; National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2003, 2004; Thomas & Perna, 2004)

Effects of Caffeine on Prospective and Retrospective Working Memory in Rodents

Caffeine is a substance that many people now consider to be a necessary part of their daily routines due to its desired effect of keeping us awake and functional. It’s been subject to much 59 debate over the years as to how it affects performance in terms of memory and cognitive ability. In our study, we examined the performance of 15 male rats in a delayed matching-toposition task (delayed from 1-20 seconds) after administering intraperitoneal injections of caffeine (10 mg/kg) to assess their levels of working memory and compared them to a control group that was similarly injected with saline. Each group of rats were trained in this task prior to experimental trials using methods of either differential outcomes (DO) or non-differential outcomes (NDO) and their performance measured as using prospective and retrospective working memory respectively. Pairwise comparisons using Fischer’s LSD showed a significant decrease in performance of those injected with caffeine at the 5 and 10 second delay in the DO group and at the 5 second delay in the NDO group when compared with those in the control groups in each condition. The results show that more can be learned about caffeine’s effects on working memory and that further research with a larger subject pool would be a promising way to do so.https://openriver.winona.edu/urc2019/1099/thumbnail.jp

Spatial Working Memory Under Differential and Nondifferential Outcomes I: Effects of Scopolamine

This project examined the effects of drugs associated with working memory on the accuracy of subjects completing tasks under differential outcomes (DO), that utilize a unique outcome after each stimulus and response sequence, or tasks with non-differential outcomes (NDO) where the two available outcomes randomly occur after each stimulus and response. Such drug can indicate neurochemical differences and similarities between these tasks, and insight into working memory. Tasks that administer differential outcomes are linked to prospective memory (foreseeing future events), while tasks with non-differential outcomes and common outcomes are associated with retrospective memory (memory of past events). Scopolamine, an acetylcholine antagonist, is prescribed to treat nausea and motion sickness, and is also a muscarinic cholinergic antagonist. Depending on the effect of scopolamine on memory performance at different doses in tasks that utilize differential and non-differential outcomes will indicate acetylcholine’s role in prospective and retrospective memory. Subjects were required to complete delayed matching to position tasks with specific or randomized outcomes for each stimulus and response. Results suggested that acetylcholine mediated prospective and retrospective memory, with scopolamine effecting tasks that utilized differential outcomes less than tasks that utilized non-differential outcomes. This indicates that acetylcholine is linked to the accuracy in performance of tasks that utilize differential and non-differential outcomes, or prospective and retrospective memory.https://openriver.winona.edu/urc2019/1076/thumbnail.jp

Spatial Working Memory Under Differential and Nondifferential Outcomes IV: Effects of Dextromethorphan

Previous studies have demonstrated the potential for nicotine to enhance cognitive ability including learning, attention, and memory in both animal and human models. The effects of 62 nicotine were examined while subjects performed a discrimination task under delayed conditions. Subjects were trained under nondifferential outcomes (NDO), or differential outcomes (DO) procedures. While subjects that were trained under (DO) did exhibit performance gains across delays indicative of the differential outcomes effect (DOE), no evidence of significant performance gain as a function of nicotine exposure were found under either condition. We are currently engaged in a follow-up study using a wider range of doses in which we investigate the effects of ethanol, scopolamine, MK-801, and dextromethorphan.https://openriver.winona.edu/urc2019/1043/thumbnail.jp

Care coordination for older people in the non-statutory sector: activities, time use and costs

Context: Care coordination is one important mechanism to provide effective care at home for frail older people in a world with ageing populations. In England this has usually been undertaken by state funded local authority social care services. The Care Act 2014 promoted greater involvement of the non-statutory sector in the provision of care and support, including care coordination, for older people at home to offer greater flexibility and consumer choice. Objective(s): To explore how organisations in the non-statutory sector in England undertake care coordination activities, targeting, their staff time use and costs to support older people at home. Method(s): A case study approach was used involving semi-structured interviews with practitioners in 17 services selected from a national survey in 2015. Estimates of practitioner time use for a typical case, and associated costs for each service were calculated. Data were analysed to identify the range of care coordination activities undertaken, forms of targeting, patterns of staff time use and service costs. Findings: Two services undertook no targeting activities; of eight care coordination activities only two were undertaken in all services. Costs of care coordination activities varied both within and between services in two distinct settings: hospital discharge and memory services. More time was spent by practitioners in direct contact with service users and carers than on indirect activities in most care coordination services. Limitations: A case study approach is more difficult to generalise; recall bias may have influenced data on time use and costs from practitioner interviews; some costs had to be attributed using national data. Implications: Both service setting and gatekeeping mechanisms shaped care coordination activities. Where services were designed to substitute for statutory services their sustainability needs to be addressed in terms of length of contracts, extent of case responsibility and full costing

A 43-GHz Survey in the ELAIS N2 Area

We describe a survey in the ELAIS N2 region with the VLA at 43.4 GHz, carried out with 1627 independent snapshot observations in D-configuration and covering about 0.5 square degrees. One certain source is detected, a previously-catalogued flat-spectrum QSO at z=2.2. A few (<5) other sources may be present at about the 3sigma level, as determined from positions of source-like deflections coinciding with blue stellar objects, or with sources from lower-frequency surveys. Independently we show how all the source-like detections identified in the data can be used with a maximum-likelihood technique to constrain the 43-GHz source counts at a level of ~7 mJy. Previous estimates of the counts at 43 GHz, based on lower-frequency counts and spectral measurements, are consistent with these constraints, although the present results are suggestive of somewhat higher surface densities at the 7 mJy level. They do not provide direct evidence of intrusion of a previously unknown source population, although the several candidate sources need examination before such a population can be ruled out.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in Mon. Not R. Astr. So

Maternal Serum and Breast Milk Vitamin D Levels: Findings from the Universiti Sains Malaysia Pregnancy Cohort Study

Background: Vitamin D deficiency has become a global health issue in pregnant women. This study aimed to assess the adequacy of maternal vitamin D status by measuring maternal serum and breast milk 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels and to determine the association between maternal serum and milk 25(OH)D levels. Methods: Data was obtained from the Universiti Sains Malaysia Pregnancy Cohort Study. This study was conducted from April 2010 to December 2012 in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. Blood samples from pregnant women aged 19 to 40 years were drawn in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, while breast milk samples at delivery, 2, 6 and 12 months postpartum were collected to analyze for 25(OH)D levels. A total of 102 pregnant women were included in the analysis. Results: Vitamin D deficiency [25(OH)D ,50 nmol/L] was detected in 60% and 37% of women in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, respectively. There were 6% and 23% of women who reached normal level of vitamin D status in the second trimester and the third trimester, respectively. Multivitamin intakes during pregnancy were significantly associated with higher serum 25(OH)D levels in the second trimester (b = 9.16, p = 0.005) and the third trimester (b = 13.65, p = 0.003). 25(OH)D levels in breast milk during the first year of lactation ranged from 1.01 to 1.26 nmol/L. Higher maternal serum 25(OH)D level in the second trimester of pregnancy was associated with an elevated level of 25(OH)D in breast milk at delivery (b = 0.002, p = 0.026). Conclusions: This study shows that high proportions of Malay pregnant women are at risk of vitamin D deficiency. Maternal vitamin D status in the second trimester of pregnancy was found to influence vitamin D level in breast milk at delivery