Predictors of academic success in medical school

This study was designed to determine the predictive validity of selected admissions variables used by the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Data for the study were collected from 586 students admitted to the M.D. program from 1961 to 1968. These students were categorized into one of three groups (Successful [SUCC], Successful with Extended Study [SWES], and Lost to Medicine [LTM]) based upon their performance in medical school. A two-way analysis of variance and the use of a post hoc Scheffé method of multiple comparisons indicated significant differences between the SUCC group and the combined SWES and LTM groups. Therefore, the data revealed the predictive ability of two admissions variables and suggested the need for additional research into the subjective variables used in the admissions process.     

Two- and Three-Year Achievement Results From the Memphis Restructuring Initiative

The purpose of this study was to analyze student achievement data from the first 3 years of the Memphis Restructuring Initiative (MRI). The MRI represents one of the first efforts by an urban school district to move past traditional top-down versus bottom-up reform debates by providing systemic support for outside-in/inside-out implementation and local co-construction of externally-developed reform designs in schools. Analyses of academic achievement focus on a state-of-the-art measure of value added assessments. At the end of 3 years the reforming schools had produced generally positive gains relative to locally matched control schools. Those results varied somewhat by reform type and by level of poverty in the communities being served. Based on the research methods used and the results, implications for future research and practice in educational reform are discussed.     

A teacher’s journey: a first-person account of how a gay,Cambodian refugee navigated myriad barriers to become educated in the United States

Educational institutions, like most social service organizations, need to recognize intersectionality and complexity and move away from monolithic conceptions of homelessness – if they recognize homelessness at all. This first person account of a gay, Cambodian refugee illustrates the enormous complexity schools face in forming institutional responses for the needs of homeless, highly mobile, and economically displaced children and youth. This article demonstrates an effort to avoid reductionist definitions of homelessness and to include experiential representations of humans living at the margins (under the 5th Avenues of the world, in central parks, in downtown shelters, outside of the ethical and systemic “home” of current ideologies and social orders, under the politics of HIV in Africa, as refugees and as those “othered” by dominant social narratives). The research takes place in the context of the At Home At School program at Washington State University.     

Mind the gap: Capturing value from basic research through combining mobile inventors and partnerships

To successfully generate more valuable technologies from accessing basic research knowledge, firms need to combine institutional and individual level bridges to universities and research institutes active in basic research. This combination is particularly important when the new technology builds on scientific prior art. While mobile inventors are needed to transfer and translate basic knowledge into new technologies, partnerships provide the commitment, resources and incentive structure to integrate this basic research knowledge more effectively into the firm’s innovation process, thus improving the value capture from mobile inventors. Our findings in the micro-electronics field illustrate the importance of jointly accounting for firm and inventor level industry-science links to assess their effectiveness and provides evidence on complementarity from using both. Furthermore, identifying the scientific nature of the technology projects critically determines whether the combination of these links allow to capture more value.     

The association between fundamental athletic movements and physical fitness in elite junior Australian footballers

This study investigated the associations between fundamental athletic movement and physical fitness in junior Australian football (AF). Forty-four under 18 players performed a fundamental athletic movement assessment consisting of an overhead squat, double lunge, single leg Romanian deadlift and a push up. Movements were scored on three assessment criterions using a three-point scale. Additionally, participants performed five physical fitness tests commonly used for talent identification in AF. A Spearman’s nonparametric correlation matrix was built, with correlation coefficients being visualised using a circularly rendered correlogram. Score on the overhead squat was moderately positively associated with dynamic vertical jump height on left (r_s = 0.40; P ≤ 0.05) and right (r_s = 0.30; P ≤ 0.05) leg take-off, stationary vertical jump (r_s = 0.32; P ≤ 0.05) and negatively associated with 20-m sprint time (r_s = ?0.35; P ≤ 0.05). Score on the double lunge (left/right side) was moderately positively associated with the same physical fitness tests as well as score on the multistage fitness test. Results suggest that improvements in physical fitness qualities may occur through concurrent increases in fundamental athletic movement skill, namely the overhead squat and double lunge movements. These findings may assist with the identification and development of talent.     

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Checkpoint: Teaching Stand-Up Comedy in Occupied Palestine

ABSTRACT

This article considers ideas about the performance of personal stories in stand-up comedy that emerged during a teaching and performance project in a refugee camp in Palestine. After experimenting with a range of stand-up techniques and approaches, participants created public performances sharing their experiences of life under military occupation.     

An investigation of a novel three-dimensional activity monitor to predict free-living energy expenditure

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the capability of the 3dNX? accelerometer to predict energy expenditure in two separate, free-living cohorts. Twenty-three adolescents and 14 young adults took a single dose of doubly labelled water and wore a 3dNX? activity monitor during waking hours for a 10-day period while carrying out their normal routines. Multiple linear regression with backward elimination was used to establish the strength of the associations between various indices of energy expenditure, physical activity counts, and anthropometric variables. 3dNX? output accounted for 27% and 35% of the variance in the total energy expenditure of the adolescent and young adult cohort, respectively. The explained variance increased to 78%, with a standard error of estimate of 7%, when 3dNX? output was combined with body composition variables. The 3dNX? accelerometer can be used to predict free-living daily energy expenditure with a standard error of estimate of 1.65 MJ in adolescents and 1.52 MJ in young adults. The inclusion of anthropometric variables reduces the error to approximately 1 MJ. Although it remains to cross-validate these models in other populations, early indications suggest that the 3dNX? provides a useful method of predicting energy expenditure in free-living individuals.