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Brigham Young University (BYU)-Hawaii has a student body of approximately 2,400 students representing 70 different countries. Almost half of this student body is international, representing many different cultures and languages. One of the biggest challenges for BYU-Hawaii is return-ability; that is, the university does not want to be a stepping stone for immigration to the United States. The university is striving instead to provide an education to these young people that will facilitate their productive return to their home countries. The goal of the Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship (CIE) is to prepare students to return home and start small businesses that will not only provide for their families but will also enable them to employ others. The Center for Instructional Technology and Outreach (CITO) at BYU-Hawaii was established with two primary missions: first, to help the faculty of BYU-Hawaii to provide more effective instruction and second, to assist the faculty of BYU-Hawaii to put their courses on-line for delivery to students prior to their coming to the university so that the university can accommodate more of the young people in their target area. CIE director, Gregory Gibson, contacted CITO with a proposal for an on-line course in "Entrepreneurship for Non-Business Majors." The existing program consisted of a series of a business core of six short courses representing what the CIE believed to be the most important steps in starting a business. CITO was able not only to help CIE put their Entrepreneurship course on-line but to also implement an innovative problem-centered approach to this instruction. The authors briefly describe this project and their approach in this portfolio. (Contains 8 figures.)

Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) has been commonly used to determine geological sources of volcanic glass artefacts, but its ability to discriminate between basaltic sources is less developed. We examine the precision and accuracy of non-destructive EDXRF for basalt artefacts by analysing varying size and weathering characteristics. The experiments identified no appreciable effect in reproducibility or measured composition due to thickness (down to 1 mm) or natural weathering of pre-contact flake scars for the 17 elements measured in this study. Samples with surface area less than 100 mm2, however, show significant variability in measured composition and reproducibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our purpose in conducting this qualitative study was to examine how a multiethnic sample of women living in Hilo, Hawai'i, describe menopause. Interviews were conducted with 185 pre-, peri-, and post-menopausal women aged 45 to 55. We found that pre-menopausal women felt anxious compared with peri- and post-menopausal women's more affirmative attitudes of increasing confidence and freedom in this new cycle of life. A dominant theme was the construction of a post-menstrual identity. Peri-and post-menopausal women's attitudes were not biomedically oriented. Local culture and the island lifestyle may provide a positive atmosphere for women going through menopause.

Objective: The aims of this study were to test for a diurnal pattern in hot flashes in a multiethnic population living in a hot, humid environment and to examine the rates of concordance between objective and subjective measures of hot flashes using ambulatory and laboratory measures., Methods: Study participants aged 45 to 55 years were recruited from the general population of Hilo, HI. Women wore a Biolog hot flash monitor (UFI, Morro Bay, CA), kept a diary for 24 hours, and also participated in 3-hour laboratory measures (n = 199). Diurnal patterns were assessed using polynomial regression. For each woman, objectively recorded hot flashes that matched subjective experience were treated as true-positive readings. Subjective hot flashes were considered the standard for computing false-positive and false-negative readings. True-positive, false-positive, and false-negative readings were compared across ethnic groups by chi analyses., Results: Frequencies of sternal, nuchal, and subjective hot flashes peaked at 1500 +/- 1 hours with no difference by ethnicity. Laboratory results supported the pattern seen in ambulatory monitoring. Sternal and nuchal monitoring showed the same frequency of true-positive measures, but nonsternal electrodes picked up more false-positive readings. Laboratory monitoring showed very low frequencies of false negatives. There were no ethnic differences in the frequency of true-positive or false-positive measures. Women of European descent were more likely to report hot flashes that were not objectively demonstrated (false-negative measures)., Conclusions: The diurnal pattern and peak in hot flash occurrence in the hot humid environment of Hilo were similar to results from more temperate environments. Lack of variation in sternal versus nonsternal measures and in true-positive measures across ethnicities suggests no appreciable effect of population variation in sweating patterns.

Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) measurements of 120 female teachers of Japanese-American or Caucasian ethnicity working in public schools located in Hilo, Hawaii, were recorded. BP was measured at 15-min intervals during waking hours and 30-min intervals during sleep over a 24-hr period that included a full work day. These measurements were averaged during three daily settings: at work, at home while awake ("home"), and during sleep. ANCOVAs using ethnicity as a predictor variable of BP, with age and the body mass index (BMI) as covariates, show a significant interaction effect between age and ethnicity in some daily settings. Among Japanese-Americans partial correlations between age and systolic BP controlling for the BMI are significant in these settings, while among Caucasians none of the correlations are significant. Menopausal status is not significantly related to BP when age is controlled in analyses. There was no significant ethnic difference in number of symptoms reported, including frequency of "hot flushes/flashes," within the past two weeks. Those who reported hot flushes had significantly elevated BP in waking settings but not during sleep. The greater increase in BP with age in Japanese-Americans may be related to their elevated risk for development of hypertension. The lack of a significant relationship between menopausal status and BP may be due to the high rate of usage of hormonal replacement therapy in this sample, as well as an unusually high rate of hysterectomy.