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As more students enroll at community colleges, questions are raised about whether learning is the same in the two- and four-year sectors, both overall and for sub-groups, and whether effects of student backgrounds and college experiences on learning are similar. This study used structural equation modeling with CCSSE and NSSE data from a sample of first- and second-year students at 18 institutions and concluded that mean self-reported academic and personal-social gains attributed to college attendance were significantly less for students at two-year colleges. These results were the same for demographic sub-groups, and also for two additional samples, including one with NSSE data only for students who reported their age as between 18 and 24 and CCSSE data only for students who reported their age as 18-24, their highest current educational credential as a high school diploma or GED, and their educational goal as transfer to a four-year institution; and a second additional sample with all two-year students and four-year students who attended a university with a large percentage of transfer students. (Contains 3 footnotes, 1 figure and 5 tables.)

This manuscript summarizes an institutional research study carried out at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) concerning factors affecting time to bachelor's degree attainment. Tuition sensitivity and concern about efficient use of institutional resources point to the need for decreasing students' time-to-degree. This study enlarges upon an earlier one; it investigated the effects of state- and institutionally-sponsored policies that were designed to decrease time-to-degree, and also some additional factors such as student participation in learning communities and first year programs. Time-to-degree decreased in four years since the previous study. Participation in a tuition discount program, total student credit hours earned, average credit hour load per semester, and student credit hours transferred were among the strongest predictors of time-to-degree. The study highlights the use of descriptive and bivariate statistical techniques, as well as important considerations in the use of applied multiple regression. (Contains 8 tables, 1 figure, and 1 endnote.)

Background: Dysphagia is common in adults living with neuromuscular disease (NMD). Increased life expectancy, secondary to improvements in standards of care, requires the recognition and treatment of dysphagia with an increased priority. Evidence to support the establishment of healthcare pathways is, however, lacking. The experiences of people living with NMD (pplwNMD) and their caregivers are valuable to guide targeted, value-based healthcare.Objective: To generate preliminary considerations for neuromuscular dysphagia care and future research in the United Kingdom, based on the experiences of those living with, or caring for, people with NMD.Methods: Two surveys (one for adults living with NMD and dysphagia, and a second for caregivers) were co-designed with an advisory group of people living with NMD. Surveys were electronically distributed to adults living with NMD and their caregivers between 18th May and 26th July 2020. Distribution was through UK disease registries, charity websites, newsletters, and social media.Results: Adults living with NMD receive little information or education that they are likely to develop swallowing difficulties. Most respondents report wanting this information prior to developing these difficulties. Difficulties with swallowing food and medication are common in this group, and instrumental assessment is considered a helpful assessment tool. Both adults living with NMD and caregivers want earlier access to neuromuscular swallowing specialists and training in how best to manage their difficulties.Conclusions: Improvement is needed in the dysphagia healthcare pathway for adults living with NMD to help mitigate any profound physical and psychological consequences that may be caused by dysphagia. Education about swallowing difficulties and early referral to a neuromuscular swallowing specialist are important to pplwNMD and their caregivers. Further research is required to better understand the experiences of pplwNMD and their caregivers to inform the development of dysphagia healthcare pathways.

Military history is riddled with accounts of operations that failed, faltered, or assumed additional risk because of ineffective or poor logistics intelligence. Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of Grenada in [...]

Supplementation of imperiled wild fish stocks with captively raised fish is a commonly used conservation tool. Programs designed to maintain or improve fish populations through supplementation should be evaluated to determine whether they are meeting conservation objectives. The Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Hybognathus amarusis a small‐bodied, endangered minnow endemic to the Rio Grande basin of the southwestern United States. The wild population of Rio Grande Silvery Minnow has been supplemented with captive‐reared fish since 2002. Our objective was to determine whether supplementation measurably increases the number of spawning fish after years of population bottlenecks; this objective was simplified because nearly all hatchery‐released fish have been given identifying markings. We leveraged a long‐term fish sampling data set (18 years) covering the species' contemporary range and a single‐season, high spatial coverage fish sampling data set to determine whether the number of potential spawners was increased by the addition of hatchery fish. Hatchery‐reared fish increased the catch rates of spawners by up to an order of magnitude in some years. We also observed that most hatchery‐reared fish were recaptured near the point of release. We were able to determine that supplementation with hatchery fish increased the abundance and distribution of Rio Grande Silvery Minnow and provided the desired demographic boost after severe population bottlenecks. Releasing hatchery‐reared fish may be a useful tool for conservation of imperiled freshwater fishes. However, there is a need for spawning and rearing infrastructure that matches the life‐history of the species and sufficient postrelease monitoring to evaluate the effectiveness of hatchery supplementation. Use of hatchery‐reared fish has been beneficial for improving population resiliency of Rio Grande Silvery Minnow following recruitment bottlenecks; however, natural recruitment can greatly exceed hatchery supplementation and conditions promoting natural recruitment should be restored. Impact StatementReleasing hatchery‐reared Rio Grande Silvery Minnow after years of poor reproduction increases the number of fish spawning during the following year, thus helping to maintain the species' ability to persist through drought and climate change. Releasing hatchery‐reared Rio Grande Silvery Minnow after years of poor reproduction increases the number of fish spawning during the following year, thus helping to maintain the species' ability to persist through drought and climate change.

ABSTRACTDrawing on more than eight years working to implement Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the Human Brain Project, a large EU-funded research project that brings together neuroscience, computing, social sciences, and the humanities, and one of the largest investments in RRI in one project, this article offers insights on RRI and explores its possible future. We focus on the question of how RRI can have long-lasting impact and persist beyond the time horizon of funded projects. For this purpose, we suggest the concept of ‘responsibility by design’ which is intended to encapsulate the idea of embedding RRI in research and innovation in a way that makes it part of the fabric of the resulting outcomes, in our case, a distributed European Research Infrastructure.

Hatchery augmentation of dwindling wild populations has become a common strategy to avoid extinction of endangered fishes. While benign hatchery conditions can lead to low persistence of stocked individuals, experiments have demonstrated that flow conditioning of Razorback Sucker Xyrauchen texanuscan increase swimming performance and reduce downstream movements from desired locations after stocking in the Colorado River basin, USA. However, managers have been slow to adopt its use, likely because linking experimental flow conditioning to scales that are relevant to conservation has been difficult. We reared age‐2 Razorback Sucker in two raceways (control: n= 530; flow conditioning: n= 533) for 10 weeks to assess whether flow conditioning could increase apparent survival after stocking into the San Juan River, New Mexico. We used riverwide active sampling and remote PIT tag antennas to resample individuals for 3 years after stocking. Using Cormack–Jolly–Seber mark–recapture models, we assessed the effects of flow conditioning, size at stocking, relative condition (Fulton’s K), and their interactions on apparent survival and downstream movement after stocking. Flow conditioning of fish doubled the mean apparent survival (at a mean size of 325 mm TL) during the first overwinter period (control fish: 0.14, 95% CI = 0.09–0.21; flow‐conditioned fish: 0.28, 95% CI = 0.19–0.38), with both groups having similar mean overwinter apparent survival estimates thereafter (both > 0.75). Size at stocking and Kwere positively associated with first‐overwinter apparent survival regardless of treatment (mean survival was <0.20 for fish <275 mm TL but was >0.65 for fish >450 mm TL). Downstream movement after stocking was negatively associated with fish size, indicating that emigration likely contributed to higher apparent mortality of smaller fish. Our results suggest that transitioning hatchery practices to include flow conditioning of Razorback Sucker (and potentially other endangered Colorado River fishes) prior to stocking could substantially increase the conservation efficiency of these augmentation programs.

William Knight computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk Every 10 weeks or so, more than 1,400 physicians pay the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) a fee - typically £800 - to take examinations, and most […]

Losing sensitive data is a major fear for businesses, particularly those with remote workers. William Knight looks at how businesses are marrying greater security with usability and productivity Fear is […]

WEB-ENABLED PRESENTATION Companies are using multimedia systems to help deliver corporate information around the globe. Cambridge-based Bluetooth technology specialist CSR uses web conferencing to conduct monthly communications meetings with overseas […]

INFORMATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT Richard Hall, group IT manager at financial consultancy Coda, has completed the implementation of lifecycle management for policy control of email. Rather than just purchasing extra storage […]

The power of the grid Grid computing promises business users the ability to tap into the world's consolidated computational power, without maintaining a huge mainframe or buying a rack full […]

HIGH-SPEED DEVELOPMENT TECHNIQUES In the search for development perfection - high speed, low cost, few errors - agile methods are risk-reducing techniques that recognise that requirements are a moving target, […]

Networking has become a commodity. No one is interested in the pipes, bits and routes anymore; they are interested in what the network can do for the business, how it […]

Predicting the next big thing, or the next niche market, is a game played on a knife edge of success or failure. Startup companies know this precarious position as they […]

There is a growing consensus that once handsets are sufficiently standardised, and broadband speeds universal, mobile commerce (m-commerce) will offer unique opportunities combining the best of today's internet with the […]

More than half of the UK's households - some 12.9 million homes - now have internet access, and more than 60 per cent of adults regularly use the web, according […]

However mature a company's IT, the technology everyone depends on is the telephone. But even traditional voice networking is being revolutionised by the internet. By 2006, more than two-thirds of […]

Three years ago, IBM laid down a 'Grand Challenge' for the industry to reduce complexity in computer systems. For such a far-reaching goal, it is not surprising that outwardly little […]

Companies are increasingly changing from traditional leased lines to internet-based communications, and the promise of uninterrupted connectivity is fuelling a drive to browser-based computing from all manner of remote devices. […]

For sexually dimorphic species, size‐based management can cause changes in the sex ratio of the target population. Bonytail Gila eleganspopulations in the Colorado River basin are augmented annually in an effort to re‐establish wild populations. To increase survival rates of stocked individuals, the Lower Colorado River Multi‐Species Conservation Program's Habitat Conservation Plan implemented a minimum stocking size. Anecdotal reports on hatchery populations suggest that females grow at a faster rate and reach larger sizes than males. If this observation is correct, a minimum stocking size may cause skewed sex ratios of stocked populations. To test this prediction, we compared average male and female lengths in 3‐year‐old fish from two cohorts before and after they were sorted by size. Our data support the observation that size in Bonytail is sexually dimorphic by age 3, with females being the larger sex. This is also the age at which fish begin to reach the minimum size to meet stocking requirements. As predicted, size‐grading produced a significantly skewed sex ratio in the animals slated for release. The consequences of augmenting wild populations with groups of animals having skewed sex ratios are largely unknown but could include increased mate competition, inadvertent artificial selection, or a reduction in genetic diversity.

Gastric tumours are subdivided into those of epithelial and stromal origin. Malignant tumours are more common than benign, with adenocarcinomas being the most common type of malignancy. Rarer gastric malignancies include gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs), lymphomas and neuro-endocrine tumours. Gastric cancer is the sixth most common cancer in Europe and the fourth most common cause of cancer death. Multidisciplinary treatment planning is an essential part of management of these cancers. The only curative treatment option is surgical resection, although this is usually accompanied by perioperative chemotherapy or adjuvant chemoradiotherapy. GISTs are most commonly caused by a mutation in the KITgene. They are the most common mesenchymal malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract and are usually found in the stomach. Intestinal lymphomas are also most commonly found in the stomach, and most arise from the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue.

Captive propagation and augmentation of the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Hybognathus amarusis necessary for continued persistence of the species until habitat can be restored. Augmentation occurs using captive fish within the first year (age 0) through age 2; however, older year‐classes (ages 3–4) have been released into the wild. We quantified fecundity and compared egg quality across four reproductive age‐classes (1–4) of hatchery‐reared Rio Grande Silvery Minnow. Batch fecundity (total number of spawned eggs) ranged from 2,029 eggs in age‐1 fish to 10,588 eggs in age‐4 fish. Standing stock of vitellogenic (i.e., yolked) oocytes remaining in ovaries after spawning increased from 988 oocytes at age 1 to 4,924 oocytes at age 4. Total fecundity (i.e., batch fecundity plus standing stock of yolked oocytes) increased from 3,017 eggs and yolked oocytes in age‐1 fish to 15,522 eggs and yolked oocytes in age‐4 fish. Of note, batch fecundity ranged from 57% to 68% across the four age‐classes indicating that over half of the total fecundity occurs in the first spawn. Average percent fertilization of eggs (63–82%) was not detectably different across the four age‐classes, while average egg diameter (4.1–5.5 mm) increased as age increased. Fecundity increased across all four reproductive age‐classes of Rio Grande Silvery Minnow, with the larger portion of total fecundity occurring in the first spawn across all age‐classes. The timing of spawning with optimal conditions in the Rio Grande is critical for survival and ultimately recruitment into the wild fish population.

I never miss an issue of Military History, and the January 2012 issue was another winner, but I was disappointed by the article 'The Mystery of Pearl Harbor' [by Jeffrey [...]

The article discusses the Supreme court case Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez where it discusses how can a defendant kill a class action and deposits the full amount of plaintiff's individual claim in an account payable to the plaintiff.

The article focuses on court case FTC (Federal Trade Commission) v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp. which sanctioned Wyndham for unfair business practices after data breaches compromised the sensitive financial data of its customers and cybersecurity law.

We quantified tag retention, survival, and growth in juvenile, captive-reared Humpback Chub Gila cyphamarked with three different tag types: (1) Biomark 12.5-mm, 134.2-kHz, full duplex PIT tags injected into the body cavity with a 12-gauge needle; (2) Biomark 8.4-mm, 134.2-kHz, full duplex PIT tags injected with a 16-gauge needle; and (3) Northwest Marine Technology visible implant elastomer (VIE) tags injected under the skin with a 29-gauge needle. Estimates of tag loss, tagging-induced mortality, and growth were evaluated for 60 d with each tag type for four different size-groups of fish: 40–49 mm, 50–59 mm, 60–69 mm, and 70–79 mm TL. Total length was a significant predictor of the probability of PIT tag retention and mortality for both 8-mm and 12-mm PIT tags, and the smallest fish had the highest rates of tag loss (12.5–30.0%) and mortality (7.5–20.0%). Humpback Chub of sizes 40–49 mm TL and tagged with VIE tags had no mortality but did have a 17.5% tag loss. Growth rates of all tagged fish were similar to controls. Our data indicate Humpback Chub can be effectively tagged using either 8-mm or 12-mm PIT tags with little tag loss or mortality at sizes as low as 65 mm TL. Received July 24, 2014; accepted October 31, 2014

Is the Java certification program offered by Sun really the route to a higher salary and better quality of code for businesses? I have my doubts. In my fifth year […]

In a previous study, 0.3 and 0.45 mgkg of intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) were safe when combined with eptifibatide 75 mcgkg bolus and a 2-hour infusion (0.75 mcgkg per minute). The Combined Approach to Lysis Utilizing Eptifibatide and rt-PA in Acute Ischemic Stroke–Enhanced Regimen (CLEAR-ER) trial sought to determine the safety of a higher-dose regimen and to establish evidence for a phase III trial.

Pain at split skin graft donor sites is common. Fibrin sealant has been demonstrated to reduce time to hemostasis at wound sites, and patients receiving this treatment were incidentally noted to report less pain. This study aimed to evaluate pain and incapacity in split skin graft donor sites treated with and without fibrin sealant.

The primary objective of the preclinical dental anatomy course in the predoctoral dental curriculum is to introduce students to cognitive and psychomotor skills related to the morphology and spatial and functional relationships of human dentition. Traditionally, didactic content for the subject is found in textbooks and course manuals and summarized by the faculty in lectures to the entire class. Psychomotor skills associated with recognition and reproduction of tooth morphology are traditionally learned by examining preserved tooth specimens and their cross‐sections, combined with producing two‐dimensional line drawings and carving teeth from wax blocks. These activities have little direct clinical application. In most cases, students are passive in the learning process, and assessment of student performance is unilateral and subjective. A recently revised dental anatomy module at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry integrates independent class preparation with active small‐group discussion and patient scenario‐based wax‐up exercises to replace missing tooth structure on manikin teeth. The goal of the revision is to shift emphasis away from decontextualized technical learning toward more active and clinically applicable learning that improves conceptual understanding while contributing to early acquisition of psychomotor skills. This article describes the rationale, components, and advantages of the revised module and presents a pre‐post comparison of student learning outcomes for three class cohorts (N=203).

Neurological emergencies are common and frequently devastating. Every year, millions of Americans suffer an acute stroke, severe traumatic brain injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, status epilepticus, or spinal cord injury severe enough to require medical intervention. Full evaluation of the diseases in the acute setting often requires advanced diagnostics, and treatment frequently necessitates transfer to specialized centers. Delays in diagnosis and/or treatment may result in worsened outcomes; therefore, optimization of diagnostics is critical. Point-of-care (POC) testing brings advanced diagnostics to the patient’s bedside in an effort to assist medical providers with real-time decisions based on real-time information. POC testing is usually associated with blood tests (blood glucose, troponin, etc.), but can involve imaging, medical devices, or adapting existing technologies for use outside of the hospital. Noticeably missing from the list of current point-of-care technologies are real-time bedside capabilities that address neurological emergencies. Unfortunately, the lack of these technologies may result in delayed identification of patients of these devastating conditions and contribute to less aggressive therapies than is seen with other disease processes. Development of time-dependent technologies appropriate for use with the neurologically ill patient are needed to improve therapies and outcomes. POC-CENT is designed to support the development of novel ideas focused on improving diagnostic or prognostic capabilities for acute neurological emergencies. Eligible examples include biomarkers of traumatic brain injury, non-invasive measurements of intracranial pressure or cerebral vasospasm, and improved detection of pathological bacteria in suspected meningitis.