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This paper reports pre-service student' perceptions about hand-drawn paper-and-pencil concept maps (CM) versus computer generated concept maps using Inspiration software. Preservice undergraduate students had been developing CMs for the first half of the semester to construct their knowledge of concepts learned in a Foundations of Reading course at a university in southeastern North Carolina. Halfway through the semester, students switched to creating concepts maps using the Inspiration software. At the end of the semester, students wrote reflective journal entries discussing which format of concept mapping they preferred and why. It appeared that for various reasons ranging from technological skills to time factor, a majority of students preferred paper-and pencil concept maps over technologically assisted models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Advanced Nursing (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article chronicles the undergraduate research (UGR) process in the Sport Sciences Department at Wingate University. The main focus is a description of a course-based approach to UGR, followed by a brief summation of the department's experiential component that results in graduating seniors completing an extensive research project to meet university exit exam requirements. Challenges of the process are delineated, as are the benefits to the students and faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Southeastern Geographer is the property of University of North Carolina Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A recent article from Associated Press (12/17/2010) "Scientist Alleges Religious Discrimination in KY'' highlights the increasing tensions and conversations concerning Academic Freedom on University and College campuses across the United States. These questions include; what is meant by academic freedom, and who defines it. Recent articles have broken down these and other questions into an interrelated set of connections that make the answer to any and all of the above questions complex and worthy of much conversation. This paper provides a review of the current literature from the foundations of Academic Freedom to the current controversies that are occurring, to addressing the possible risks of involvement of the court/legal system in addressing them within the U.S. College and University system. A survey was developed to explore how faculty in various departments understand academic freedom and the associated ethical responsibilities. The survey was voluntary and limited to North Carolina A&T State University. Overall, confusion existed around the concept of academic freedom and around a lack of clarity of the boundaries of protection and faculty responsibility. The results from this survey found that differences in understanding the concept of academic freedom, its impact on faculty teaching and research, and the limits of its protection where influenced by the length of time that the faculty member had worked within the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teach For America (TFA) selects and places graduates from the most competitive colleges as teachers in the lowest-performing schools in the country. This paper is the first study that examines TFA effects in high school. We use rich longitudinal data from North Carolina and estimate TFA effects through cross-subject student and school fixed effects models. We find that TFA teachers tend to have a positive effect on high school student test scores relative to non-TFA teachers, including those who are certified in field. Such effects offset or exceed the impact of additional years of experience and are particularly strong in science. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares three self-developed subject guides and one commercial online subject guide (LibGuides) to provide information to other institutions which have a plan or are in the process of developing a plan to implement similar services to support online, distance and traditional education. This is a comparison of the current subject guides in use by three separate academic institutions: Murray State University, North Carolina State University, and The Ohio State University. This paper examines the creation and use of dynamic subject guides as a result of collaboration among departments: reference, systems, and campus information technology, through an examination of related articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early college high schools (ECHSs) in North Carolina are small public schools of choice on college campuses that seek to promote attaining postsecondary credits in high school, college readiness, and postsecondary enrollment for underrepresented groups. Evidence from randomized control trials (RCTs) has shown positive effects of the ECHS model on important high school and postsecondary outcomes but appear to be underpowered to detect moderation effects. Furthermore, RCTs rarely address the key question of primary policy interest: Is the program effective on average across the population? This leaves us uncertain about (1) whether the early college intervention is a good strategy for helping to close enrollment and attainment gaps between under- and overrepresented groups, and (2) whether the expansion of the ECHS model will lead to the positive results that the RCT studies suggest. This study uses administrative data on all ECHSs in North Carolina including those that were part of a lottery study. This allows us to generate RCT estimates for the ECHSs in the lottery sample and quasi-experimental estimates for both the lottery and non-lottery ECHSs. We leverage this unique circumstance to generate estimates of the effect of ECHS on postsecondary outcomes that simultaneously maximize both internal and external validity. Specifically, because generalization depends on both moderation and sample selection, we (1) investigate sample selection, (2) conduct a moderation analysis to determine whether the effects of the intervention vary by key factors that also predict sample selection, and (3) produce a pooled estimate by extending a method called cross-design synthesis to incorporate both RCT evidence and quasi-experimental evidence. We find strong evidence that the positive results of the RCTs generalize to the full sample of ECHSs, which provides stronger evidence of effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses administrative North Carolina data linked from high school to college and national surveys to characterize the largest contributor to the STEM gender gap: engineering. Disparities are the result of differential entry during high school or earlier rather than postsecondary exit. Differences in pre-college academic preparation account for 5 to 7% of the gap. Females’ relative lack of academic self-confidence explains 8%, while other-regarding preferences and professional goals capture a further 14%. Empirical evidence using identifying variation in the gender composition of twins in North Carolina shows that opposite-sex pairs are more likely to pursue gender-stereotypical majors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rehabilitative exercises alleviate pain in patients with patellofemoral pain (PFP); however, no researchers have analyzed the cartilage response after a bout of those athletic activities in patients with PFP. To determine if a single session of rehabilitative exercises alters femoral cartilage morphology. Crossover study. Research laboratory. Twelve participants with PFP (age = 21.0 ± 2.0 years, height = 1.72 ± 0.1 m, mass = 68.7 ± 12.6 kg) and 12 matched healthy participants (age = 21.3 ± 2.8 years, height = 1.71 ± 0.1 m, mass = 65.9 ± 12.2 kg) were enrolled. Participants completed treadmill running, lower extremity strengthening exercises, and plyometric exercises for 30 minutes each. Patient-reported outcomes on the visual analog scale, Anterior Knee Pain Scale (AKPS), Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for Patellofemoral Pain and Osteoarthritis were collected. Femoral cartilage ultrasonographic images were obtained at 140° of knee flexion. Ultrasound images were segmented into medial and lateral images using the intercondylar notch. Medial and lateral cartilage cross-sectional area (mm2) and echo intensity (EI), defined as the average grayscale from 0 to 255, were analyzed by ImageJ software. The difference between loading conditions was calculated using repeated-measures analysis of variance. The Spearman correlation was calculated to find the association between the cartilage percentage change (Δ%) and patient-reported outcomes. Pain increased in the PFP group after all loading conditions (P values <.007). No differences were found in cartilage cross-sectional area or EI alteration between or within groups (P values >.06). The KOOS was negatively associated with the Δ% of the lateral femoral cartilage EI after plyometric loading (ρ = –0.87, P =.001), and the AKPS score was positively correlated with the Δ% of lateral femoral cartilage EI (ρ = 0.57, P =.05). Ultrasound imaging did not identify cartilaginous deformation after all loading conditions. However, because lateral cartilaginous EI changes were associated with the AKPS and KOOS score, those questionnaires may be useful for monitoring changes in femoral cartilage health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broad surveys of college student activism are impossible without the study of individual campuses. Studies of activism on historically Black college and university (HBCU) campuses in the United States tend to focus on larger more well-known campuses or those in large urban areas. Studies of student activism within North Carolina repeatedly highlight only three of the eleven extant institutions. This study contributes to the historiography of Black campus activism by using nine oral history interviews conducted with university alumni paired with extensive archival research to excavate the ways Fayetteville State University students contributed to the Black Campus Movement. This essay is a narrative of student protests between 1966 and 1972. Ultimately, such protests were grounded in major breakdowns in meaningful communication between faculty, administrators, alumni, and students and in HBCU students’ shared desire to have a say in decisions that affected their lives. Fayetteville State’s student body fully invoked James Baldwin’s notion of critiquing America in that they loved their institution more than any other institution in the world, and, exactly for that reason, they insisted on the right to criticize Fayetteville State and demanded that she rise to the occasion for which she was formed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community colleges are complex organizations and assessing their performance, though important, is difficult. Compared to 4-year colleges and universities, community colleges serve a more diverse population and provide a wider variety of educational programs that include continuing education and technical training for adults, and diplomas, associates degrees, and transfer credits for recent high school graduates. Focusing solely on the latter programs of North Carolina's community colleges, we measure the success of each college along two dimensions: attainment of an applied diploma or degree; or completion of the coursework required to transfer to a 4-year college or university. We address three questions. First, how much variation is there across the institutions in these measures of student success? Second, how do these measures of success differ across institutions after we adjust for the characteristics of the enrolled students? Third, how do our measures compare to the measures of success used by the North Carolina Community College System? Although we find variation along both dimensions of success, we also find that part of this variation is attributable to differences in the kinds of students who attend various colleges. Once we correct for such differences, we find that it is not possible to distinguish most of the system's colleges from one another along either dimension. Top-performing institutions, however, can be distinguished from the most poorly performing ones. Finally, our adjusted rates of success show little correlation either to measurable aspects of the various colleges or to the metrics used by the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postsecondary education opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities (ID) have increased over the past 40 years. Although programs vary, some have been designed to provide a fully inclusive learning experience. The University Participant (UP) Program at Western Carolina University (WCU) is a fully inclusive program where participants live in campus residence halls, audit classes, work in internships on campus, and participate in a wide variety of on-campus activities. An important part of the UP program is the student volunteers serving as natural supports or individuals providing necessary assistance in typical environments for UP Program participants throughout the day. This paper describes how the WCU UP Program uses natural supports to facilitate inclusive opportunities, responsibilities, recruitment, training, coaching, coordination, scheduling, and evaluation of work performance. We conclude with benefits of having undergraduate students serve as natural supports in postsecondary education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: As smoking among college students reached new highs in the 1990s, most interventions for college student smoking prevention focused on individual student knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. No published studies report on statewide movements to accelerate the adoption of tobacco-free policies on college campuses. The results of the first 4 years of the North Carolina Tobacco-Free Colleges Initiative are presented. METHODS: The North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund developed a multilevel intervention to accelerate the diffusion of tobacco-free policies on college campuses, including funding campus coordinators and coalitions to tailor activities to the campus environment at 64 colleges. Evaluators tracked process and policy outcomes as well as the diffusion of policy adoption from January 2006–December 2009. RESULTS: Prior to the initiative, only one small, private college campus in North Carolina was tobacco-free. By 4 years into the initiative, 33 colleges and community colleges, representing more than 159 300 students, have adopted comprehensive tobacco-free policies to protect students, faculty, staff and visitors. Participating campuses also adopted 68 policies restricting smoking in certain areas and limiting industry activity. CONCLUSIONS: Tobacco-free policy adoption on college campuses can be accelerated with a multilevel statewide intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter provides a glimpse of student affairs assessment at North Carolina State University including a specific example of assessment, tips to implementing assessment at your institution, and barriers encountered when implementing the process at North Carolina State University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small distributed data centers and laboratories are becoming increasingly expensive to provision, support, and maintain on their own. In this paper, we discuss how North Carolina State University Virtual Computing Laboratory (VCL) technology can be used to implement distributed reconfigurable data centers and IT (information technology) services in educational institutions. VCL is an open-source implementation of a secure production-level technology for wide-area access to solutions based on real and virtualized computational, storage, network, and software resources. We discuss how this technology scales, what its return on investment is, and how it can deliver computing clouds that offer a mix of resource architectures and ensembles, including those that may integrate traditional mainframe servers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An -extendable path of a graph is defined inductively as follows: every path is 0-extendable; a path is ()-extendable if, for every finite , it has an -extendable extension which covers S; a path is -extendable for a limit ordinal if it is -extendable for every ordinal . Finally a path is -extendable if it is -extendable for every ordinal . If a graph has an -extendable path, then every countable set of its vertices is coverable by a (finite or infinite) path; in particular, if such a graph is countable then it has a Hamiltonian infinite path. We show that, for every graph G, there exists an ordinal such that every -extendable path of G is -extendable. The smallest of these ordinals is called the path-extendability rank of G. In this paper we study some properties of this ordinal. In particular we prove that the graphs for which almost all vertices have infinite degrees, and those whose thickness is finite and for which almost all vertices have finite degree, have a finite path-extendability rank. This gives partial answers to a problem of Nash-Williams (Proceedings of the Second Chapel Hill Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics and its Applications, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 1970, p. 547). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights the interdisciplinary conference on the creation of the identity and Empire in the Atlantic World in North Carolina. Sponsorship of the University of North Carolina; Invitation of papers by both literary scholars and historians; Discussion of issues of documentary evidence and suggested session topics related to historiography.

Introduction: From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials have sought to develop evidence-based messages to reduce COVID-19 transmission by communicating key information to media outlets and the public. We describe the development of an interdisciplinary rapid message testing model to quickly create, test, and share messages with public health officials for use in health campaigns and policy briefings. Methods: An interdisciplinary research team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assembled in March 2020 to assist the state health department in developing evidence-based messages to influence social distancing behaviors in the state. We developed and iteratively executed a rapid message testing model; the components of the 4-step model were message creation, survey development, survey administration, and analysis and presentation to health department officials. The model was executed 4 times, each during a 7-day period in April and May, and each subsequent survey included new phrasing and/or messaging informed by the previous week's survey. A total of 917 adults from North Carolina participated in the 4 surveys. Results: Survey participants rated messages focused on protecting oneself and others higher than messages focused on norms and fear-based approaches. Pairing behaviors with motivations increased participants' desire to social distance across all themes and subgroups. For example, adding "Protect your grandmother, your neighbor with cancer, and your best friend with asthma," to messaging received a 0.9-point higher score than the base message, "Stay 6 feet apart from others when out in public." Practice Implications: Our model to promote social distancing in North Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic can be used for rapid, iterative message testing during public health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rubric is a set of criteria and a scoring scale that are used to assess and evaluate student's work. In assessment, rubrics are used to evaluate student assignments for courses, a collection of student works, student presentations or papers, or program effectiveness. To assess holistically the meaningfulness of academic programs' assessment-based reviews, the North Carolina State University designed a rubric, to incorporate various disciplines' needs in regard to required accreditation vocabulary. The primary emphasis, however, was to make the language meaningful to all faculty.

Library users and their expectations for services and collections have changed. Among the factors driving change are: networked technologies, powerful search engines available to all, social technologies and the digitization of everything, to name a few. A research university library staff reorganized to meet changed expectations and succeeded in transforming the organization and its culture. This article describes alterations in the library's key functions that produced a new level of readiness to serve the university's students and faculty into the future. The transformed library is outward facing, de-siloed, technology diffused, collaborative, and operated by an engaged staff who demonstrate leadership in small and large ways in all sections of the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the temporal structure of projected futures. The sociology of time is an established line of inquiry, but the existing literature lacks empirically grounded description of the cultural and cognitive dimensions of projected futures. When individuals imagine their futures, what is the qualitative nature and temporal structure of their projected futures? In order to address these questions, we used a mixed-methods strategy of interviews and surveys with 126 persons from a small college in North Carolina. We asked the participants to tell us about their futures. The resulting descriptions form a strongly chronological pattern. When asked about the immediate future (i.e., tomorrow or next week), they tersely describe the tasks that must be completed. In their descriptions of the near future (i.e., next month or next year), they begin to anticipate enjoyable experiences. When they describe the intermediate future (i.e., five to ten years from now), their responses are characterized by detailed and optimistic enthusiasm for the possibilities they envision. They pay little or no attention to the distant future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Youth violence is best tackled through a multifaceted approach targeting risk and protective factors at multiple ecological levels. The North Carolina Youth Violence Prevention Center (NC-YVPC) is an example of such an approach. This article provides a comprehensive synthesis of NC-YVPC design, implementation, and results. Method: NC-YVPC packaged and implemented 3 evidence-based programs to decrease youth violence in a rural North Carolina community where violence was prevalent. Positive Action, a universal school-based program, was administered in 13 middle schools for 3 years. Parenting Wisely, an online program to improve parenting skills, was provided to 300 parents. Teen Court, a community-based restorative justice alternative to the traditional juvenile-justice system, was provided to 400 adolescents. In addition, county-level data were collected to examine if and how the NC-YVPC programs changed county levels of youth violence. Results: Positive Action participation was associated with increased self-esteem and decreased school hassles; Parenting Wisely participants were more confident and had less conflict with their children; Teen Court participants reported improved mental and behavioral health. Some county-level indicators of violence decreased. Conclusions: This summary of NC-YVPC findings highlights the utility of implementing a multifaceted approach to decrease and prevent youth violence and the importance of fostering a strong partnership between academic institutions and the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diversity in nursing remains limited with little progress made in the recruitment of males. The purpose of this research was to garner the male nursing students’ perspectives of their lived experiences while enrolled in their undergraduate program. Method: A phenomenological group focus approach was utilized with male nursing students regarding their lived experiences of what factors support or negate their being successful in completing a nursing program. Results: Four themes were interpreted: exclusion, gender bias, career expectations, and acceptance. Exclusion and gender bias were seen as negative impact factors, while career expectations was both a motivating factor and a negating factor. Acceptance was interpreted as an important positive factor. Conclusion: A call for change to the profession of nursing from a culture of the “good ole’ girls’ nursing club” to one of “great nurses from both genders and all ethnicities” is critical for the future growth of the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Colleges have implemented policies to limit tobacco use on-campus; however, the off-campus environment is often overlooked in tobacco control efforts. We assessed availability, marketing, and promotion of cigarettes, snus, and traditional smokeless tobacco (SLT) in a sample of communities surrounding 11 college campuses in North Carolina and Virginia. Participants: Between January-March of 2011, 2012 and 2013, 481 tobacco-selling retailers, including convenience stores, pharmacies and supermarkets, located near campuses were assessed. Methods: Trained observers completed annual point-of-sale assessments. Results: The percentage of stores selling (81.4% to 58.6%; p <.0001) and advertising snus (80.1% to 53.11%; p <.0001) significantly decreased over time. Convenience stores increased promotions of cigarettes (65.4% to 72.8%; p = 0.04) and SLT (3.1% to 23.3%; p = 0.02). Conclusions: Off-campus environments have abundant tobacco availability and marketing. Colleges should collaborate with state and local tobacco control advocates to address tobacco promotion near campuses to potentially decrease product appeal and access among young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Using a community-based participatory research and systems-based approach, the purpose of this community case study is to describe the planning process and first-year experiences of community - academic advisory board (CAB) partners involved with the development of an evidence-based childhood obesity treatment program in a medically underserved region. Method: Regional community partners (n = 9; Pittsylvania/Danville Health District, Children's Healthcare Center, Danville Parks & Recreation, and Danville Boys & Girls Club) and academic partners (n = 9) met monthly to select and adapt an evidence-based childhood obesity program, develop evaluation and recruitment protocols, and plan for program implementation. In the first 3 months, members developed a mixed-methods capacity evaluation, administered at 3 and 11 months following the first CAB meeting. Results: Most capacity dimensions were rated highly and demonstrated no significant change over time. However, perceptions of trust approached a significant increase (p = .055), the ability to resolve conflicts significantly increased (p = .018), and participation and influence perceptions significantly decreased (p = .001). Qualitative analysis elucidated members' experiences and key facilitator and barrier themes emerged. Conclusions: Similarities and differences between community and academic members' experiences allowed synthesis of best practices and lessons learned. The methodological framework and best practices can inform the capacity development for new community- academic collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews literature related to building digital scholarship centers and explores the experience of Appalachian State University Libraries in planning and implementing a digital scholarship program. Appalachian surveyed its faculty, performed a gap analysis of existing services, compared programs at other universities, and inventoried services provided by campus partners to determine service offerings. The following case study will discuss the planning process and the first year of implementation, exploring some of the challenges, such as a lack of understanding and hostility toward new modes of scholarship. Some of the lessons learned include the need for adequate research and planning time as well as education for, and communication with, key stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social workers currently engage in financial capability practice with low-income and financially vulnerable individuals and families in diverse practice settings, but typically lack professional preparation for this work. In response, several schools of social work have begun adopting financial capability curricula. Using an in-depth interview methodology, this study examines the adoption of a curriculum in financial capability and asset building (FCAB) from the perspectives of faculty and administrators (N = 19) at four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Findings show that key reasons for curriculum adoption are prior working relationships and trust, relevance of FCAB content to student and community needs, and alignment with program, institutional, and professional goals. Using the diffusion of innovation theory to understand curriculum adoption in HBCUs suggests that perhaps trust and relationship building are particularly important in the case of minority serving institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Writing for publication is an integral skill for both sharing research findings and career advancement, yet many faculty lack expertise, support, and time to author scholarly publications. Health professions educators identified writing as an area in which a new educators' academy could offer support. Case Presentation: To address this need, a writing task force was formed consisting of a librarian, a School of Medicine faculty member, and a School of Nursing faculty member. The task force launched two initiatives to motivate and support faculty writing and publication over two academic years. In the first year, a structured interprofessional "boot camp" consisting of a sequenced, modularized approach to manuscript completion was offered. In the second year, community building, in-person writing sessions, and incentives were added to the structured tasks. In year one, twenty participants enlisted in the boot camp, nine of whom completed a manuscript for submission by the end of the program. Qualitative feedback indicated potential improvements, which were put in place in the second program. In year two, twenty-eight participants enrolled, and eleven submitted thirteen manuscripts for publication by the end of the program. Conclusions: Structured tasks, frequent deadlines, and professional editorial assistance were highly valued by participants. Time remains a barrier for faculty seeking to complete manuscripts. As experts in many facets of the publication process, librarians are well positioned to partner with others to facilitate faculty and staff development in writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article shares the author's view about the advantages of taking internship program called Education Programmes Abroad (EPA) offered by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Based on her experience, EPA internships offer opportunities for students to stretch beyond their limits in which students who have never before had such chances and might never again. The author suggests that success is about how students are scratching and clawing for the opportunity to do what they love.

Background: Significant changes in the tobacco industry have led to heightened concern about co-use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco (SLT) products.Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess whether male cigarette smokers who also used SLT products, in the first semester of their first year of college, were more or less likely than male cigarette smokers who did not use SLT products to still be smoking by the first semester of their senior year.Methods: Using a longitudinal, observational study, we followed a cohort of undergraduate students from 11 four-year universities in North Carolina and Virginia through their college career. Mixed-effects logistic regression analysis was conducted to estimate the likelihood of being a current smoker fall of senior year for male students who used both cigarettes and SLT at baseline, compared to those who only smoked cigarettes, after adjustment for potential confounders (n = 274).Results: At baseline, 67.2% of participants were smoking cigarettes only (no SLT use) and 32.8% were dual users (cigarettes and SLT). A total of 62% were still smoking at senior year. Dual users were 30% more likely to be current smokers senior year compared to cigarette only users, although this difference was not statistically significant. Having at least one friend who smoked cigarettes and heavier cigarette smoking at baseline were significantly related to senior year smoking.Conclusions: Our findings do not support the argument that SLT use may help male college smokers discontinue their smoking habit. In fact, it may contribute to smoking persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hispanic/Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States are disproportionately affected by HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs); however, no efficacious behavioral HIV/STD prevention interventions are currently available for use with this vulnerable population. We describe the enhancement of HOLA en Grupos, a community-based behavioral HIV/STD prevention intervention for Spanish-speaking Hispanic/Latino MSM that is currently being implemented and evaluated in North Carolina with support from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Our intervention enhancement process included incorporating local data on risks and context; identifying community needs and priorities; defining intervention core elements and key characteristics; developing a logic model; developing an intervention logo; enhancing intervention activities and materials; scripting intervention delivery; expanding the comparison intervention; and establishing a materials review committee. If the CDC-sponsored evaluation determines that HOLA en Grupos is efficacious, it will be the first such behavioral HIV/STD prevention intervention to be identified for potential use with Hispanic/Latino MSM, thereby contributing to the body of evidence-based resources that may be used for preventing HIV/STD infection among these MSM and their sex partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' (CMS) Parent University is an innovative, collaborative initiative designed to engage parents in their children's education. Working with community partners, Parent University offers unique courses and workshops such as Parenting Awareness, Helping Your Child Learn in the 21st Century, Health and Wellness, and Personal Growth and Development. In response to calls to demonstrate a direct link to student outcomes, the current project explored ways to leverage existing program data for evaluation. A total of 661 parents attending Parent University were included in this study. Data for the children of these parents who were enrolled in CMS (n = 862) and a control group of students (n = 835) matched on age, grade, school, gender, and ethnicity were analyzed. Results indicated that Parent University is successful in engaging parents, particularly those who traditionally have been underserved, and highlighted some of the factors contributing to this success. Some positive trends in students' school performance, especially among those whose parents attended a course designed to link directly to academic outcomes, indicated that this may be a promising intervention for improving school performance and illustrate the potential for integrated data approaches to support outcome evaluation and to advance research regarding mechanisms of effective parent engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: College and university administrators have expressed concern that adoption of tobacco-free policies may reduce applications and enrollment. This study examines adoption and implementation of 100% tobacco-free campus policies by institutions of higher education on applications and enrollment. Participants: North Carolina private colleges and universities and public community colleges. Analysis was conducted in 2011. Methods: Student enrollment and application data were analyzed by campus type to determine (a) if there was a difference in student applications and enrollment before and after policy implementation, and (b) if there was a difference in student applications and enrollment for campuses with versus without a policy. Results: No significant differences were found in student enrollment or applications when comparing years prior to and following policy implementation or when comparing with institutions without 100% tobacco-free campus policies. Conclusions: The authors found no evidence that 100% tobacco-free policy adoption had an impact on student enrollment or applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been increasing recognition of the role played by higher education institutions (HEIs) in fostering regional economic development. Concurrently, regional economic development strategies have emphasized targeting economic clusters. This underscores the need for a structured operational framework to guide the efforts of a HEI that wishes to engage with a focused economic cluster in its service region with the intention of fostering regional economic growth. We introduce such a framework in this article that is referred to by its acronym STAID (Select, Tailor, Ascertain, Implement, and Disseminate). The exposition of STAID is annotated and illustrated with examples from two community-engaged projects at a public research university in North Carolina that were undertaken with two different regional economic clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present findings from a survey of nearly 600 university employees' e-mail use. The study provides a detailed comparison of use patterns between work and personal e-mail accounts. Our results suggest that users engage in more 'keeping' behaviors with work e-mail than with personal e-mail-respondents reported more frequent use of keeping actions and larger inbox sizes for their work accounts. However, we found correlations between individual respondents' e-mail behaviors in the two contexts, indicating that personal preferences can play a role. We also report results pointing to e-mail as an important boundary management artifact. We show evidence that the use of multiple e-mail accounts may be a work-personal boundary placement strategy, but also observe that a fair amount of boundary permeation occurs through e-mail. To our knowledge, this study is one of the first to compare e-mail use in both work and personal contexts across the same sample. Our findings extend prior research on personal information management regarding e-mail use, and help inform the role of e-mail in managing work-personal boundaries. The results have implications for the design of e-mail systems, organizational e-mail policies, user training, and understanding the impacts of technology on daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The authors estimated the number of violations of a university policy that prohibited smoking within 25 ft of all campus buildings. Participants: The project was conducted by 13 student researchers from the university and a member of the local public health department. Methods: Students quantified cigarette butts that were littered in a 30-day period inside the prohibited smoking area of 7 campus buildings (large residential hall, small residential hall, administrative building, 2 academic buildings, campus cafeteria, and student union). Results: Investigators found a total of 7,861 cigarette butts (large residential hall: 1,198; small residential hall: 344; administrative building: 107; 2 academic buildings: 1,123 and 806; campus cafeteria: 2,651; and student union: 1,632). Conclusions: Findings suggest that there is low compliance with the university's smoking policy. The described project may be repeated by students at other universities as a method to advocate for policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on talks presented at the University of North Carolina (UNC) from 1827 to 1860 to examine how the orators dealt with ideas of Union, law, and constitutionalism together with the vague trope of progress. The talks disclose strong support for the Union, often built in terms of support for the Constitution, and express the positive role that speech has in shaping politics. It highlights the content of political and legal notions at UNC from the 1830s through the 1850s.