Search

Students who experience research as undergraduates tend to remain in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Since course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are often expensive to implement, we developed a relatively inexpensive first-semester research course for majors entitled "Freshman Research in Biochemistry," in which approximately 100 students participated in an ongoing research project each year. During this course, students conducted laboratory work related to multiple research veins, and graduate teaching assistants (TAs) and the instructor ensured that sufficient data from the laboratory were made available to the students to analyze. During three unique course iterations, students worked on faculty research projects that included connecting contigs of the draft genome of a native Oklahoma bacterial Arhodomonas isolate capable of degrading petroleum hydrocarbons, cloning antibiotic resistance genes from the genus Elizabethkingia, and analyzing RNAseq data from Elizabethkingia anopheles challenged with cell wall-active antibiotics to determine gene function, gene differential expression, and relative gene genome location. During the course, students scored results, analyzed data, maintained laboratory notebooks, and presented posters in a symposium to faculty and graduate TAs. To determine positive impacts of the course on students, they completed the Laboratory Course Assessment Survey in two course sections. Survey data indicated/students agreed that the course included elements of Iteration, Collaboration, and Discovery and Relevance. Students also reported that they gained scientific skills but were ambivalent about whether instructor feedback was harsh. Examination of Student Survey of Instruction responses showed students thought positively about the course, but some considered it too difficult. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry major cohort tracking revealed no effect of Freshman Research in Biochemistry on student persistence in the major or institution. Nonetheless, we consider the course a cost-conscious model for biochemistry and molecular biology departments for introducing research to first-year students.

Utilisation of healthcare facilities is low in many developing areas. One possible explanation is that treatment costs, in time or money, are high. Another is that parents perceive treatment benefits to be low. We combine Philippines DHS data with a subsequent facilities survey in order to examine these issues with respect to treatment for respiratory infections and diarrhoea in young children. Controlling statistically for the selectivity of the initiating illness, we find that the staffing level of nearby health facilities is a determinant of the probability that parents take their ill children for curative care., In the presence of poverty, small changes in family resources or their allocation may lead to unfavourable consequences for children. A case may be made that parents in many cases [...]

This paper uses Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria survey data on both supply and demand characteristics to examine how structural and demographic factors influence family planning provision and cost. The model, which takes into account the endogenous influence of service provision on average cost, explains provision well but poorly explains what influences service cost. We show that both size and specialization matter. In both countries, vertical (exclusive family planning) facilities provide significantly more contraception than integrated medical establishments. In the Nigeria sample, larger facilities also offer services at lower average cost. Since vertical facilities tend to be large, they at most incur no higher unit costs than integrated facilities. These results are consistent across most model specifications, and are robust to corrections for endogenous facility placement in Nigeria. Model results and cost recovery information point to the relative efficiency of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which operates large, mostly vertically organized facilities. Keywords: Family planning; Program placement; Cost; Cote d'Ivoire; Nigeria

A study was conducted to examine changes in social welfare arising from US merger activities in the manufacturing industries. The study focuses on market level conditions and considers data covering the period from 1985 to 1986. It is shown that over short durations, market customers lost because of the merger activities while the industry firms gained. However, the margin of gain was not enough to support consumer losses.

Proposes and tests a model permitting analysis of the relationship between young children's time allocation decisions and the pattern of their early educational achievement. Suggests that these time allocation decisions are influenced by children's ages and abilities relative to their classmates and that the decisions ultimately affect later life successes. (PGD)

The decline in the prevalence and duration of breast-feeding in less developed countries and the accompanying increase in bottle feeding is a concern. Little research has been done tracing the [...]

Shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) is an important conifer in much of the southeastern United States. However, the species and its associated ecosystems are in decline, and recent evidence about hybridization with loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) raises concerns that the species may be at risk of further losses due to introgression. Although shortleaf pine is not widely planted for timber production, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, state forestry agencies, some conservation organizations, and private landowners use artificial regeneration to regenerate shortleaf pine for various purposes including restoration of shortleaf pine-dominated ecosystems. Given the threat of introgression with loblolly pine, we tested federal and state shortleaf pine seed orchard trees (i.e., grafted clones) and wind-pollinated seedlings (from various nurseries sourced from several of the tested orchards) for hybrid character, using a previously developed microsatellite DNA test. We found that 8 to 10% of the USDA Forest Service orchard clones and 0 to 10% of state agency clones genetically resembled F1 hybrids or first-generation backcrosses to shortleaf pine (SLBC1). Frequencies of hybrid classifications in seedlings were generally similar to those of their seed orchard parent trees (0 -10%), although seedlings from the Oklahoma Forestry Services nursery contained an unusually high proportion of apparent F1 hybrids (4%), possibly due to the proximity of a loblolly pine seed orchard and loblolly pine plantations to the shortleaf pine seed orchard of origin. Based on these results, we recommend that shortleaf pine seed orchard managers consider steps to mitigate the genetic impact of trees classified as either F1 or SLBC1 hybrids to maintain the genetic integrity and desired phenotypic traits (i.e., fire, drought, and ice tolerance) of their shortleaf pine seeds, ensuring survival and adaptation of the species and its ecosystem to future climate variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keppler provides a worthwhile historical view of the rise and fall of monopolistic competition as a dominant element of microtheory that will be useful to scholars in the field of [...]

The book combines and expands several of the authors' published papers on regulatory risk and a report on risk in the interstate natural gas pipeline industry the authors prepared for [...]

Most industrial organization economists, be they tradition structure-conduct-performance empiricists or game theorists, would likely approve of the central goal of Professor Sutton's book: a reconciliation of the diverse worlds of [...]

Background: Breast cancer is becoming a public health problem in Vietnam. The mortality to incidence ratio of the disease was ranked second among the most common cancers in women. This study estimates the survival probability at 1, 3, and 5 years following diagnosis and determines prognostic factors for breast cancer mortality in Vietnam. Methods: A survival analysis was conducted based on retrospective data from Hue Central Hospital and the Cancer Registry in Ho Chi Minh City. Using the Kaplan-Meier method, the survival probability of patients with breast cancer was estimated at 1, 3, and 5 years following diagnosis. The covariates among prognostic factors for survival time were studied using an extended Cox proportion hazards model, including timedependent predictors. Results: Overall survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 years following diagnosis were 0.94, 0.83 and 0.74 respectively. Marital status, education level, stage at diagnosis, and hormone therapy were prognostic factors for mortality. For the stage at diagnosis, the relation to the risk of death for breast cancer was 1.32 (95% CI, 1.22-1.41). Married women faced a risk of death nearly 1.59 times higher than unmarried women (95% CI, 1.09-2.33). Women with higher levels of education and who received hormone therapy had approximately 10% (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.92; 95% CI, 0.89-0.96) and 80% (HR: 0.22; 95% CI, 0.12-0.41) risk reduction of death respectively, compared with those classified as illiterate and those without hormone therapy. Conclusions: The 5-year survival probability of breast cancer was lower in Vietnam than in countries with similar distributions of the stage at diagnosis. Screening programs and related support policies should be developed to increase the life expectancy of women with breast cancer in Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]