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A missing component in the current transfer literature is how community college students' exposure to faculty and/or advisors at baccalaureate institutions early in their educational journey, such as meeting with transfer advisors or faculty members from a baccalaureate college or university, may shape their longer-term transfer outcomes. Our research addresses this gap, drawing upon longitudinal survey data and propensity score matching. The findings reveal a positive relationship between early exposure and transfer, suggesting that when students gain exposure to and potentially receive support from faculty and advisors at baccalaureate institutions, they may be better prepared for the upward transfer process. Our study highlights the role played by the transfer-receiving end in assisting community college students to fulfill their transfer aspirations. The larger transfer research agenda must continue to delve into the specific ways in which baccalaureate institutions can play a substantive role in preparing and supporting students both prior to and after transfer.

Background and purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted people's lifestyles, changing sleep patterns. This study investigated changes in sleep patterns and disturbances in South Koreans over the past decade, including during the pandemic. Methods: We compared data from the Korean Sleep Headache Society Phase I survey (n = 2484; conducted in 2010) and the National Sleep Survey of South Korea 2022 (n = 3729; conducted in 2022), involving participants aged 20–69 years. Changes in sleep schedule, sleep duration, social jet lag, insomnia, and daytime sleepiness were explored. Results: Workday bedtimes were advanced and free-day bedtimes and workday and free-day waking times were delayed during the pandemic. Increased circadian preference for eveningness and social jet lag were noted. A significant decrease in sleep duration and sleep efficiency, along with an increased prevalence of insomnia and daytime sleepiness, was noted with age- and sex-specific variations. Conclusions: Over the past decade, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, sleep habits have changed significantly and sleep problems worsened. This study emphasize the need for more comprehensive public health strategies and research to facilitate sleep recovery in the post-pandemic period within a society known for its high prevalence of sleep deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are promising semiconductors for optoelectronic applications owing to their bandgap tunability and solution processability. Historically, ethanedithiol has been widely employed as a surface ligand to form a p‐type CQD layer via a layer‐by‐layer process. However, the limited control of p‐type characteristics reduces the device performance, and the high reactivity of ligand and processing solvents degrade the underlying layer. In this study, a thiol‐free p‐type CQD is demonstrated by creating native p‐type CQDs during the synthesis process. Sulfurization of PbS CQD results in p‐type properties that enable the avoidance of any further thiol‐ligand treatment process. Further, alternative surface passivation of the sulfurized CQD using halide ligand yields a robust, p‐type, morphologically uniform, and trap‐suppressed film. The developed CQD film is then employed as a hole‐transporting layer (HTL) for both broadband solar cells and photodetectors. The resulting CQD devices exhibit improved performance with a 65.7% increase in photovoltaic efficiency and a 1.7‐fold improvement in responsivity for infrared photodetection. The devices also demonstrate higher ambient stability, retaining 85% of the initial performance after 1,000 hr owing to the uniform top HTL morphology, indicating the potential of the new p‐type layer to be utilized in various emerging optoelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although a long line of research has been devoted to transfer pathways in general, there remains limited work on the capacity for community colleges to cultivate STEM baccalaureate transfer. In particular, both quantitative and qualitative evidence is extremely sparse on how STEM-aspiring students beginning at community colleges experience supports and barriers on their journey to pursue a STEM baccalaureate. Purpose: This mixed-methods study addresses the question: What salient factors are associated with beginning community college STEM students' decisions to transfer into baccalaureate STEM programs, and how do students describe the supports and barriers they experienced specifically pertaining to these factors? Research Design: Guided by the STEM Transfer model, we carried out this research using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. We incorporated survey, administrative, and interview data from three large two-year institutions in a Midwestern state. We applied Artificial Neural Network (ANN) techniques to identify factors associated with beginning community college STEM students' decisions to transfer into baccalaureate STEM programs. Based on the factors that emerged from ANN, we analyzed the interview data to give meaning to the identified factors using students' rich descriptions of their experiences. Findings: Results from the ANN revealed that students' initial attitudes toward science was the most salient factor related to transfer in STEM. Following that, GPA, students' initial attitudes toward math, transfer capital, being employed full time, major declaration, science preparation in high school, income levels above middle level, and transfer efficacy also turned out to be important variables shaping students' transfer in STEM. Qualitative results further illustrated how the factors from the ANN exerted their impact. Conclusions: This mixed-methods research illuminated significant factors shaping the road to becoming a scientist, as well as how those factors manifested their influences within the contexts of students' educational journeys. Through this approach, we were able to establish the significance of influential factors without presuming directionality and leverage the interview data to disentangle how these factors functioned independently and together in sophisticated and nuanced ways. Our study brings forth a deeper understanding of community college students' STEM pathways, including the many plot twists and processes involved to overcome challenges and maintain progress.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:The literature indicates that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) increases the risk of ischemic stroke. However, the causal relationship between OSA and ischemic stroke is not well established. This study examined whether preexisting OSA symptoms affect the onset of acute ischemic stroke. METHODS:We investigated consecutive patients who were admitted with acute ischemic stroke, using a standardized protocol including the Berlin Questionnaire on symptoms of OSA prior to stroke. The collected stroke data included the time of the stroke onset, risk factors, and etiologic subtypes. The association between preceding OSA symptoms and wake-up stroke (WUS) was assessed using multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS:We identified 260 subjects with acute ischemic strokes with a definite onset time, of which 25.8% were WUS. The presence of preexisting witnessed or self-recognized sleep apnea was the only risk factor for WUS (adjusted odds ratio=2.055, 95% confidence interval=1.035-4.083, p=0.040). CONCLUSIONS:Preexisting symptoms suggestive of OSA were associated with the occurrence of WUS. This suggests that OSA contributes to ischemic stroke not only as a predisposing risk factor but also as a triggering factor. Treating OSA might therefore be beneficial in preventing stroke, particularly that occurring during sleep.

We investigated the psychometric properties of six latent factors in a new survey instrument measuring factors related to transfer in STEM from 2-year to 4-year institutions: initial attitudes toward math, initial attitudes toward science, self-efficacy in math, self-efficacy in science, active learning, and transfer-oriented interaction. We demonstrated the utility of combining confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory in assessing both the overall factor structure and individual items' capability to capture respondent characteristics across all levels of a given latent trait. Our study expands the methodological repertoire for higher education survey research while illuminating potential mechanisms associated with transfer in STEM.

Unexplained neurological deterioration is occasionally observed in patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). We aimed to describe the clinical features of post-traumatic transient neurological dysfunction and provide new insight into its pathophysiology. We retrospectively collected data from patients with focal neurological deterioration of unknown origin during hospitalization for acute TBI for 48 consecutive months. Brain imaging, including computed tomography, diffusion-weighted imaging and perfusion-weighted imaging, and electroencephalography were conducted during the episodes. Fourteen (2.0%) patients experienced unexplained focal neurological deterioration among 713 patients who were admitted for traumatic intracranial hemorrhage during the study period. Aphasia was the predominant symptom in all patients, and hemiparesis or hemianopia was accompanied in three patients. These symptoms developed within 14 days after trauma. Structural imaging did not show any significant interval change, and electroencephalography showed persistent arrhythmic slowing in the corresponding hemisphere in most patients. Perfusion imaging revealed increased cerebral blood flow in the symptomatic hemisphere. Surgical intervention and anti-seizure medications were ineffective in abolishing the symptoms. The symptoms disappeared spontaneously after 4 h to 1 month. Transient neurological dysfunction (TND) can occur during the acute phase of TBI. Although TND may last longer than a typical transient ischemic attack or seizure, it eventually resolves regardless of treatment. Based on our observation, we postulate that this is a manifestation of spreading depolarization occurring in the injured brain, which is analogous to migraine aura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a deep-learning-based automatic sleep scoring system to detect sleep apnea using a single-lead electrocardiography (ECG) signal, focusing on accurately estimating the apnea–hypopnea index (AHI). Unlike other research, this work emphasizes AHI estimation, crucial for the diagnosis and severity evaluation of sleep apnea. The suggested model, trained on 1465 ECG recordings, combines the deep-shallow fusion network for sleep apnea detection network (DSF-SANet) and gated recurrent units (GRUs) to analyze ECG signals at 1-min intervals, capturing sleep-related respiratory disturbances. Achieving a 0.87 correlation coefficient with actual AHI values, an accuracy of 0.82, an F1 score of 0.71, and an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.88 for per-segment classification, our model was effective in identifying sleep-breathing events and estimating the AHI, offering a promising tool for medical professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although upward transfer in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields represents a prominent national policy concern, community college students' aspirations for transfer in STEM are often impeded, resulting in lower transfer rates. This study investigated four aspects of community college STEM students' aspirational experiences and behaviors with regard to transfer: support for transfer, transfer service usage, transfer-oriented interactions, and transfer information acquisition. Particular attention was paid to how these factors may impact students' aspirational momentum differently based on gender and race/ethnicity. Method: The study drew upon survey and administrative records from 1,245 first-time students beginning in STEM majors or courses at three large comprehensive 2-year institutions in a Midwestern state. A logistic regression model with interaction terms was employed to explore whether and how the relationship between students' aspirational momentum toward STEM transfer and their aspirational experiences and behaviors vary across gender and race/ethnicity. Results: Results indicate that, overall, students engaging in more frequent transfer service usage were significantly more likely to have aspirational momentum, but this relationship is weaker among female students, compared with males. Also, Black and Hispanic students' aspirational momentum was significantly less affected by support for transfer than for White students. In contrast, the effect of transfer service usage on aspirational momentum for Black students was significantly stronger than for White students. Contributions: Our findings hold implications for how to cultivate aspirational momentum toward transfer in STEM, especially how to resolve potential gender and racial disparities within this unique and pivotal transfer pathway.

This study explored whether and how beginning 2-year college students' engagement in active learning within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms is related to their intent to transfer to a 4-year institution. Despite the potentially important role active learning experiences play in shaping 2-year college students' intent to transfer upward, there is a dearth of research to investigate this relationship. To fill this gap, we explored the linkage between active learning and intent to transfer. In addition, we explored whether and how transfer self-efficacy may mediate this relationship. Based on survey data collected from a statewide sample of 1st-year 2-year college students beginning in STEM programs or courses and controlling for student entry characteristics and postsecondary factors, a path analysis of mediation revealed that active learning is directly related to transfer intent and exerts an indirect relationship through its positive influence on transfer self-efficacy.