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During its 3 years of operation, the internships for Leaders in Dissemination Program trained 15 advanced graduate students, five per year, in techniques of evaluating dissemination efforts and developing procedures and materials for dissemination. Program participants were required to have a masters degree and a minimum of 3 years teaching experience. The academic portion of the program consisted of 8 hours of graduate work in an 8-week summer institute. Each intern was then assigned to a school district, the Regional U.S. Office of Education, or special project. The intern, in cooperation with his supervisor and the project director, planned a program of activities which would provide experience in evaluating and developing new procedures for dissemination activities. As a result of experience with this program, it is recommended that a formal program be developed leading to a Ph.D. in educational dissemination and communications. Summer institutes for administrators are also recommended. (Appendixes contain a list of participating interns; a list of publications, questionnaires, and slide-tape presentations developed by the interns; and an outline of a model Ph.D. program.) (RT)

This study surveyed the extent of Special Educational Opportunity Programs (SEOP) for disadvantaged students among higher education institutions in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, in an initial attempt to establish baseline data on the nature and range of SEOP activities. From the results of a questionnaire administered to both two-year and four-year colleges, the general responses indicate that: (1) SEOP activities are more prevalent presently in four-year institutions; (2) there is a small trend toward increasing the number of SEOP projects; (3) in the past two years, program implementation has been concentrated at freshmen-sophomore levels; (4) traditional academeic lines with supplementary counseling services have been followed; (5) student selection is based on regular admission criteria plus personal interviews; (6) student and institutional reaction to programs tends to be positive; and, (7) it is questionable whether the impact of SEOP projects can be sustained without outside financial aid to students. Recommendations made to the Office of Education, other Federal agencies, and colleges emphasized the need to continue and expand the level of studies on SEOP projects, and to begin establishing evaluative criteria that can benefit students, institutions, and educational agencies. [Not available in hard copy due to the marginal legibility of original document.] (Author)

Objectives The aim of this study was to perform a collaborative meta-analysis of published and unpublished quality-of-life, morbidity, and mortality data from randomized controlled trial comparisons of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and antiarrhythmic drug therapy (AAD) in symptomatic atrial fibrillation. Background RFA is superior to AAD in decreasing recurrences of atrial fibrillation, but the effects on other clinical outcomes are not well established. Methods The primary investigators of eligible randomized controlled trials were invited to contribute standardized outcome data. Random-effects summary estimates were calculated as standardized mean differences and risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals for continuous and binary outcomes, respectively. Fixed effects were used in subgroup analyses. Results Twelve randomized controlled trials (n = 1,707 patients) were included. RFA led to greater improvements in 4 36-Item Short Form Health Survey areas and the symptom frequency score from baseline to 3 months. In all quality-of-life metrics, there was a trend toward diminution of the differences between the 2 approaches with follow-up. There were 7 of 866 (5 in a study using phased RFA) and 0 of 704 strokes in the RFA and AAD arms, respectively (p = 0.02, Fisher exact test). Bleeding and mortality events were not significantly different between the 2 arms. There was high heterogeneity for hospitalizations, with decreased hospitalization risk with RFA when it was not first-line therapy (risk ratio: 0.34; 95% confidence interval: 0.24 to 0.46) and increased risk as first-line therapy (risk ratio: 1.22; 95% confidence interval: 1.03 to 1.45). Conclusions RFA demonstrates an early but nonsustained superiority over AAD for the improvement of quality of life. There are no obvious differences in other clinical outcomes, and the periprocedural stroke risk is non-negligible.

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