Validating racism and cultural respect: testing the psychometric properties and educational impact of perceived discrimination and multiculturation for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students

Within the field of quantitative research, the diverse and negative effects of racial discrimination have become increasingly documented across a number of outcome variables (including physical, mental, and social wellbeing); however, research on the direct effects of racism is less evident within educational settings. The present investigation explored the negative impact of perceived racial discrimination, in addition to perceptions of cultural respect (Multiculturation) on both objective (e.g., student grades) and subjective (e.g., importance of school) schooling outcomes for a sample of Indigenous Australian and non-Indigenous Australian high school students. Perceived racial discrimination was found to be one of the strongest negative predictors of a number of outcomes for Indigenous Australian students, and Multiculturation was also found to have substantial positive relations with the subjective schooling outcomes for the same group of students. That the results were also generalisable to the non-Indigenous students suggests that attempts to combat racism and promote respect may benefit all members of society.     

Multi-Campus Studies of College Impact: Which Statistical Method is Appropriate?

In most multi-campus studies of college impact that have been conducted over the past four decades, investigators have relied on ordinary least squares (OLS) regression as the analytic method of choice. Recently, however, some investigators have advocated the use of Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM), a method specifically designed for analyses that involve both individual (student) and aggregate (institutional) level measures. Cross-validation analyses using a national database show that the two methods yield an equally good “fit” with empirical data. Existing OLS software has the advantage of enabling one to perform path analytical causal modeling; HLM has the advantage of yielding a more conservative estimate of the significance of institution-level effects.

Using LBG quantization for particle-based collision detection algorithm

INTRODUCTION Collision detection is an important task in many fields such as robotics, computer games, computa- tional geometry (Gottschalk et al., 1996), computer simulation, virtual reality, etc. Most collision detec- tion algorithms work efficiently only with solid and rigid objects, so collision detection between de- formable objects is a challenge. A number of re- searches on non-rigid objects are proposed such as cloth simulation (Bridson et al., 2003; Teschner et al., 2004) and bi…     

When Race and Class Both Matter: The Relationship between Socioeconomic Diversity, Racial Diversity, and Student Reports of Cross–Class Interaction

This paper delves into a facet of socioeconomic diversity relatively unaddressed in the literature: student reports of cross–class interaction (“reported CCI”). Previous research has found that student interaction across social class is a significant predictor of cross–racial interaction, but it is unknown whether the actual socioeconomic heterogeneity of a student body is significantly related to reported CCI. We use hierarchical linear modeling to identify predictors of reported CCI in the 2003 Freshman/2007 College Student Survey from the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute. In the final model, students who attended more socioeconomically diverse institutions and more racially diverse institutions reported higher levels of CCI. Findings suggest that reported CCI is linked to the actual socioeconomic heterogeneity of a student body. Measures of racial diversity (percent of students of color and diversity engagement), both at the institutional and student level, also predicted reported CCI. Thus, reported CCI is likely influenced by the racial diversity of a student body and other aspects of the campus racial climate, in addition to socioeconomic diversity. Implications for campus climate, diversity, and equity research are discussed.     

Student evaluation of courses: what predicts satisfaction?

The main goals of course evaluations are to obtain student feedback regarding courses and teaching for improvement purposes and to provide a defined and practical process to ensure that actions are taken to improve courses and teaching. Of the items on course evaluation forms, the one that receives the most attention and consequently the most weight is the question, ‘Overall, I was satisfied with the quality of this course.’ However, no attention has been placed on examining the predictors of students being ‘satisfied with the quality of this course’ overall. This study attempts to address this gap. The findings show that while student characteristics and reasons for enrolling in a course are predictors of overall satisfaction, it is the evaluation questions that predict the majority of the variation in course satisfaction. The findings also reveal that faculty‐selected optional questions are stronger predictors of overall satisfaction than compulsory questions.     

Faculty perceptions of work-life balance: the role of marital/relationship and family status

Higher Education - This study examined correlates of work-life balance perceptions for faculty from various marital/relationship and family statuses, using data from the multi-institutional survey...     

Meta-Analysis in Higher Education: An Illustrative Example Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling

The purpose of this article is to provide higher education researchers with an illustrative example of meta-analysis utilizing hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). This article demonstrates the step-by-step process of meta-analysis using a recently-published study examining the effects of curricular and co-curricular diversity activities on racial bias in college students as an example (Denson, Rev Educ Res 79:805–838, 2009). The authors present an overview of the meta-analytic approach and describe a meta-analysis from beginning to end. The example includes: problem specification; research questions; study retrieval and selection; coding procedure; calculating effect sizes; visual displays and summary statistics; conducting HLM analyses; and sensitivity analyses. The authors also offer guidelines and recommendations for improving the conduct and reporting of research which in turn can provide the information necessary for future and more comprehensive meta-analytic reviews.     

Evaluation of Oxidative Stress and DNA Damage in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Patients and Comparison with Controls

In the present study, oxidative stress and lymphocytic DNA damage in both pre-op and post-op benign prostrate hyperplasia (BPH) patients with age >50 years was evaluated and compared with normal healthy subjects (controls- without any evidence of disease) of the same sex and age group. From December 2007 to November 2009, oxidative stress in 45 BPH patients were evaluated both before (pre-op patients) and after 7 days of surgery (post-op patients) in terms of measurements of plasma levels of (1) various anti-oxidative enzymes, (2) non-enzymatic antioxidants and (3) malondialdehyde which is a product of lipid peroxidation. The lymphocyte DNA damage was also evaluated by single cell alkaline gel electrophoresis in terms of tail length migration in these patients. These values were compared with their respective control subjects of similar sex and age group. The activities of antioxidant enzymes and the levels of antioxidant, reduced glutathione were found significantly decreased (p < 0.05) in serum samples of pre-operative group of BPH patients as compared to the controls. These altered parameters increased significantly (p < 0.05) and returned to their near normal control values, but not up to baseline values, in post operative patients i.e. after the cancer load was decreased by surgery. Lymphocytic DNA damage was found to be significantly increased in pre-op group as compared to controls and was reduced after surgery in post-op group. The present study therefore, shows significantly increased levels of oxidative stress and DNA damage in BPH patients which were reduced after removal of tumour load. Thus oxidative damage plays an important role in prostate tumourogenesis and timely management of oxidative stress can be of importance in preventing the occurrence of BPH.