Internationalizing the Community College Experience

September 11, 2001 heightened the need for America to train a new generation of leaders with the ability to navigate different cultures and to succeed in the international marketplace. This paper seeks to place the community college firmly in the mix of developing such leaders through the internationalization of the community college experience. Specifically, we suggest that a focus on the 3Is— Internet (technology in the classroom); Internationalization of the curriculum (encouraging international activities in the classroom); and Interdependency (understanding of other cultures, languages, and customs)—through the illustration of case studies, will create a more educated global citizenry.     

Video Modeling and Explicit Instruction: A Comparison of Strategies for Teaching Mathematics to Students with Learning Disabilities

As classrooms begin to adopt a greater number of digital technologies such as computers and tablets, it is important for educators to understand how effective such tools can be in aiding in the delivery of instruction to students who struggle in mathematics, such as those identified with a learning disability in mathematics. One digital‐based instructional strategy with a limited research base for students with a learning disability is video modeling. Through a single subject alternating treatments design, this study compared the use of video modeling to face‐to‐face explicit instruction for teaching geometry word problems to three secondary students with a learning disability in mathematics. Across 10 sessions of intervention, all three students demonstrated improved performance on all dependent variables with both interventions, while the explicit instruction condition produced slightly greater accuracy scores for two of the three students. The results and their implications for the field of mathematics are discussed.     

Serum carcinoembryonic antigen levels in head and neck cancer

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels were estimated in sera of 25 patients with head and neck cancer. The levels were found to be significantly higher in patients as compared to the controls. However, the rise was nearly to the same extent in all the patients studied, irrespective of the site or character of lesion but was directly proportional to the stage of cancer and to the presence of lymphnode metastasis. After radiotherapy serum CEA levels were significantly reduced.     

Scaled telerobotic control of a manipulator in real time with laser assistance for ADL tasks

In this paper we present a novel concept of shared autonomous and teleoperation control of a remote manipulator with a laser-based assistance in a hard real-time environment for people with disabilities to perform activities of daily living (ADL). The laser pointer enables the user to make high-level decisions, such as target object selection, and it enables the system to generate a trajectories and virtual constraints to be used for autonomous motion or scaled teleoperation. Autonomous, position-teleoperation and velocity-teleoperation control methods have been implemented in the control code. Scaling and virtual fixtures have been used in the teleoperation based control depending on the user preference.A real-time QNX operating system has been used to control a PUMA 560 robotic arm using a Phantom Omni master through a TCP/IP port. A SICK laser range finder was used to for the telerobotic control. The system was implemented with different control modes, and three healthy human subjects were trained to use the system for a pick-and-place task. Data were collected and presented for different control modes, and a comparison between these modes based on the time to complete the task was presented.     

Improving the Numerical Knowledge of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Benefits of Linear Board Games

A lack of numerical knowledge early on can impede a child's academic development. In past research, playing linear board games improved children's understanding of numerical relations, which the authors theorised could extend to children with autism spectrum disorder. For this pilot study, 10 children played a board game where they moved tokens across coloured tiles displaying the numbers 1–10. During gameplay, students in the experimental group focused on the numbers on the tiles, while the control group focused on the colours. The assessment consisted of a number line estimation task, where students placed numbers ranging from 1 to 9 on a blank number line. Results showed children in the experimental group experienced statistically significant improvement in their understanding of numerical relationships of numbers on the number line estimation task. Findings indicate extended experiences with linear board games can support the numerical development of children with autism spectrum disorder.     

Free Radical Status in Retinopathy of Prematurity

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a major cause of blindness in children. Free radicals are implicated in the development of this retinopathy. We studied the role of free radicals in ROP and enrolled 60 preterm neonates at 30–32 weeks age. Thirty neonates predisposed to development of ROP, were placed in study group and 30 normal neonates in control group. Malondialdehyde and antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) were measured in blood spectrophotometrically. Both the groups were followed-up to 40–42 weeks age. Serum MDA levels, erythrocyte SOD and plasma GPX were significantly high in study group at 30–32 weeks as compared to control group. At follow up visit significant increase in MDA level and decrease in SOD and GPX level among the study group was seen. This disturbance in equilibrium of oxidant and antioxidant status initiates an inflammatory process in retinal tissue leading to development of ROP.     

Serum LCAT and lipoprotein—Transport cholesterol in hyperthyroid patients

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the serum levels of lecithin cholesterol acyl transferase and lipoprotein cholesterol in hyperthyroid patients. The serum levels of total cholesterol and triacylglycerols were also determined in order to assess the lipid status of these patients. It was observed that serum content of total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high density liproprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were significantly lower (P<0.001) in these patients whereas serum triacylglycerols (Tg.) and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) (P>0.05) did not show any significant change as compared to control values. However, the serum level of lecithin cholesterol acyl transferase (LCAT) was significantly higher (P<0.001) in these patients. It is concluded that an increased LCAT activity plays a significant role in regulating lipoprotein cholesterol levels in hyperthyroid patients.     

Critical decisions for ERP integration: Small business issues

Small enterprises are facing significant challenges to become suppliers of bigger customers due to the excessive costs associated with accessing a vast market of potential customers. It is essential for small businesses to adopt an ERP system to maintain control of their operations and to compete globally. An ERP implementation is expensive and risky for all businesses, but it is still more challenging for small businesses, which have particular characteristics. We identified from archived literature, key decisions necessary in selecting and implementing an ERP system. While these critical decisions are applicable to all types of businesses, the focus of this research was to recommend the best practices for each one of these key decisions for small businesses. We interviewed six small businesses to recommend best practices for the critical decisions: (1) project team structure, (2) implementation strategy, (3) database conversion strategy, (4) transition technique, (5) risk management strategy and (6) change management strategy. Our results indicate that these best practices greatly enhanced the success of an ERP implementation for small businesses. Further, we recommend studying the impact of ERP systems on the small business’ participation in supply chain management.