Racial and Ethnic Heterogeneity in the Effect of MESA on AP STEM Coursework and College STEM Major Aspirations

Previous research suggests that racial and ethnic disparities in postsecondary STEM outcomes are rooted much earlier in the educational pipeline. One possible remedy to these disparities is participation in early STEM enrichment programs. We examine the impact of MESA, which is an early program that targets socioeconomically disadvantaged students, on outcomes that may lead students down the path to STEM. We analyze three waves of restricted nationally-representative data from the High School Longitudinal Study that trace the STEM progress of more than 25,000 students throughout high school and into their postsecondary careers. Propensity score matching models reveal that MESA participation increases students’ odds of taking AP STEM courses in high school and their aspirations for declaring a STEM major in college. However, these effects are driven primarily by black and white students, respectively. Latino and Asian students remain largely unaffected. A formal sensitivity analysis concludes that these findings are moderately robust to unobserved confounding. The results are also robust to alternative matching schemes. Collectively, the findings suggest that MESA may improve black students’ high school STEM engagement but may have little impact on black and Latino students’ STEM outcomes in college.     

Adaptive control of bi-directionally coupled Lorenz systems with uncertainties

The bi-directionally coupled Lorenz systems are linked to the modeling of a coupled double loop thermosyphon system where the mass momentum and heat exchange are both considered. As the key parameters of the system, known as Rayleigh numbers, increase, the system of differential equations predicts typical flow dynamics in a thermosyphon from heat conduction to time-dependent chaos. In many applications including the thermosyphon systems, there are uncertainties associated with mathematical models such as unmodeled dynamics and parameter variations. Also, under the high heat environment for a thermosyphon, there exist external disturbances quantitatively linked to the Rayleigh numbers. All these sources constitute uncertainties to the dynamical system. Our objective is to design adaptive controllers to stabilize the chaotic flow in each thermosyphon loop with unknown system parameters and existence of uncertainties. The controllers consist of a proportional controller with an adaptive gain and a wavelet network that reconstructs the unknown functions representing the uncertainties. Explicit stability bounds and adaptive laws for the control parameters are obtained so that the coupled Lorenz systems are globally stabilized.     

Institutional attention to European policy agendas: exploring the relevance of instrumental and neo-institutional explanations

This article addresses how European policy initiatives in higher education, research and innovation are diffused in the European higher education research and education area. Based on an instrumental and an institutional perspective, specific expectations are developed as to how policy diffusion might unfold, and, through an in-depth analysis of the strategic plans of 19 higher education institutions in Latvia and Norway, the article identifies factors that potentially mediate European policies into the strategic agenda of universities and colleges. The findings show that European Union membership and policy area seems to matter for the attention given to European policy initiatives, while administrative capacity at institutional level have less or quite mixed effects. The article concludes that both instrumental and institutional perspectives are of value in explaining how European policy diffusion takes place.

     

Urinary Urea,Uric Acid and Hippuric Acid as Potential Biomarkers in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Urine is a proven source of metabolite biomarkers and has the potential to be a rapid, noninvasive, inexpensive, and efficient diagnostic tool for various human diseases. Despite these advantages, urine is an under-investigated source of biomarkers for multiple sclerosis (MS). The objective was to investigate the level of some urinary metabolites (urea, uric acid and hippuric acid) in patients with MS and correlate their levels to the severity of the disease, MS subtypes and MS treatment. The urine samples were collected from 73 MS patients-48 with RRMS and 25 with SPMS- and age matched 75 healthy controls. The values of urinary urea, uric acid and hippuric acid in MS patients were significantly decreased, and these metabolites in SPMS pattern showed significantly decrease than RRMS pattern. Also showed significant inverse correlation with expanded disability status scale and number of relapses. Accordingly, they may act as a potential urinary biomarkers for MS, and correlate to disease progression.     

An accurate VO2max nonexercise regression model for 18-65-year-old adults

The purpose of this study was to develop a regression equation to predict maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) based on nonexercise (N-EX) data. All participants (N = 100), ages 18-65 years, successfully completed a maximal graded exercise test (GXT) to assess VO2max (M = 39.96 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1), SD = 9.54). The N-EX data collected just before the maximal GXT included the participant's age; gender; body mass index (BMI); perceived functional ability (PFA) to walk, jog, or run given distances; and current physical activity (PA-R) level. Multiple linear regression generated the following N-EX prediction equation (R = .93, SEE = 3.45 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1), % SEE = 8.62): VO2max (mL x kg(-1) x min(-1)) = 48.0730 + (6.1779 x gender; women = 0, men = 1) - (0. 2463 x age) - (0.6186 x BMI) + (0.7115 x PFA) + (0.6709 x PA-R). Cross validation using PRESS (predicted residual sum of squares) statistics revealed minimal shrinkage (R(p) = .91 and SEE(p) = 3.63 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1)); thus, this model should yield acceptable accuracy when applied to an independent sample of adults (ages 18-65 years) with a similar cardiorespiratory fitness level. Based on standardized beta-weights, the PFA variable (0.41) was the most effective at predicting VO2max followed by age (-0.34), gender (0.33), BMI (-0.27), and PA-R (0.16). This study provides a N-EX regression model that yields relatively accurate results and is a convenient way to predict VO2max in adult men and women.     

Reactions to “barriers to the implementation of career education for special education”

Journal of Career Development -     

The academic library: Structure,space, physical and virtual use

This mixed-methods study aims to characterize the appropriate structure of the academic library in the information age according to the perceptions of the faculty members who use the library and the academic librarians operating it. Two main issues were addressed: centralization versus decentralization, and the provision of physical versus virtual services. The study population included members of the faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences in three academic institutions in Israel and academic librarians working in these institutions. Qualitative data was collected through interviews with 20 faculty members and 15 librarians, while quantitative data was collected through questionnaires filled by 191 faculty members and 50 librarians in the above-mentioned institutions. Analysis of these data reveal that faculty members generally prefer a concentration of materials—rather than decentralization—and they show a similar preference toward a faculty library model, a combined faculty/departmental library model, and a central library model. Similarly, the academic librarians prefer either faculty or combined faculty/department libraries, but their preference toward a central library model is lower than that of the faculty members. The decentralized, departmental library model was the least favored by both groups. In addition, our findings indicate that both the faculty members and the librarians appreciate the virtual services that the library provides as well as its physical presence, although fewer faculty members than librarians perceived the latter as an important role of the library. Taken together it appears that the preferred model for the academic library in the information age is of large, multidisciplinary libraries that contain materials from a variety of fields and provide comprehensive virtual services.     

Association between moderately oxidized low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein particle subclass distribution in hemodialyzed and post-renal transplant patients

Disturbances in the metabolism of lipoprotein profiles and oxidative stress in hemodialyzed (HD) and post-renal transplant (Tx) patients are proatherogenic, but elevated concentrations of plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. We investigated the concentrations of lipid, lipoprotein, HDL particle, oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) and anti-ox-LDL, and paraoxonase-1 (PON-1) activity in HD (n=33) and Tx (n=71) patients who were non-smokers without active inflammatory disease, liver disease, diabetes, or malignancy. HD patients had moderate hypertriglyceridemia, normocholesterolemia, low HDL-C, apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and HDL particle concentrations as well as PON-1 activity, and increased ox-LDL and anti-ox-LDL levels. Tx patients had hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, moderately decreased HDL-C and HDL particle concentrations and PON-1 activity, and moderately increased ox-LDL and anti-ox-LDL levels as compared to the reference, but ox-LDL and anti-ox-LDL levels and PON-1 activity were more disturbed in HD patients. However, in both patient groups, lipid and lipoprotein ratios (total cholesterol (TC)/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C, triglyceride (TG)/HDL-C, HDL-C/non-HDL-C, apoA-I/apoB, HDL-C/apoA-I, TG/HDL) were atherogenic. The Spearman’s rank coefficient test showed that the concentration of ox-LDL correlated positively with HDL particle level (R=0.363, P=0.004), and negatively with TC (R=−0.306, P=0.012), LDL-C (R=−0.283, P=0.020), and non-HDL-C (R=−0.263, P=0.030) levels in Tx patients. Multiple stepwise forward regression analysis in Tx patients demonstrated that ox-LDL concentration, as an independent variable, was associated significantly positively with HDL particle level. The results indicated that ox-LDL and decreased PON-1 activity in Tx patients may give rise to more mildly-oxidized HDLs, which are less stable, easily undergo metabolic remodeling, generate a greater number of smaller pre-β-HDL particles, and thus accelerate reverse cholesterol transport, which may be beneficial for Tx patients. Further studies are necessary to confirm this.