<p> The perceptions of six community college faculty members about the qualities of college-level writing were explored in a series of guided interviews conducted at Prairie Community College (a pseudonym) located in the central time zone of the United States. The study examined the perceptions of the six faculty members with regard to important characteristics of college-level writing, acceptable multiple discourses within college-level writing, and perceptions of faculty members from different academic disciplines about college-level writing. Interview data were analyzed through the lens of transcendental phenomenology. </p><p> The results showed that the six community college faculty members differed greatly by academic discipline about what they perceived college-level writing to be. The English faculty members believed that college-level writing consists of grammatically correct sentences presented within essay structures. However, faculty members of biology, economics, and mathematics were much more open in their perceptions about what could be accepted as college-level writing. </p><p> The results of the study suggest a need for dialogue among faculty members of different disciplines within community colleges about the characteristics of college-level writing and what community college students need to learn to become successful college-level writers.</p>

published_or_final_version / abstract / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Prior research shows a positive correlation between years of education and overall health. Historically, Latinos have had lower levels of educational attainment than Whites and other ethnic groups in the United States. The current study explored how a student’s social context in sophomore year is associated with his/her college aspirations and college expectations, and how these factors then influence subsequent college preparatory behaviors and college application in senior year. Differences in the role of social context were explored in Latino students and White students. Secondary data analysis was conducted using the Texas Higher Education Opportunity Project (THEOP) dataset, which provided longitudinal data for 2,875 Texas high school students. Hopes and Fears theory of future orientation was used as the guiding framework for the analysis of future orientation. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to address the research questions. College preparatory behaviors and college application at senior year had the strongest associations with the social contextual variables at sophomore year that were most proximal to the students, namely family and friends. For all students, iv grade point average, graduation track, parent education in sophomore year were all significant predictors of college preparatory behaviors and college application in senior year. Parental encouragement to go to college in sophomore year was a significant predictor of college preparatory behaviors and college application at senior year among Latino students, but not among White students. Conversely, having more than three friends who planned to attend college or having a sibling who dropped out of high school was predictive of college preparatory behaviors and college application among White students, but not among Latino students. Implications for interventions and future research are discussed. / text

The purpose of the study was to determine the role of various economic, social, and institutional variables that accounted for the enrollment trends of liberal arts colleges. Most enrollment forecasts have predicted declines in higher education enrollments. Individual institutions relying upon enrollment predictions for planning have had difficulty using these predictions because most of them are aggregated. This study concentrated on individual liberal arts colleges as defined by the Carnegie Commission. Methods of enrollment projections were discussed along with a variety of national, regional, institutional type enrollment projections made since 1970. Observed enrollment trends, factors affecting enrollments, and demographic information were discussed. A marketing concept was used to provide the framework for discovering variables relating to enrollment trends. Phase I of the study selected contributing variables and prepared the data to be examined statistically. Phase II catagorized the institutions into groups according to their enrollment tends over a fourteen year period beginning in 1965 and selected a sample group for statistical testing. Phase III statistical analyzed enrollment trends using enrollment trends as the dependent variable and the independent variables selected in Phase I. The variables discovered to be significant were then tested to assess their predictive validity. Institutions were classified into ten groups using a least squares regression criterion for best fit. These included accelerated growth, constant growth, slowing growth, stable, slowing decline, constant decline, accelerated decline, growth/decline, decline/growth, and erratic. Of 585 Liberal Arts I and Liberal Arts II colleges listed by the Carnegie Commission, 62 were eliminated for lack of enrollment information, and 523 were classified. Those institutions most clearly fitting an enrollment trend were used in the 122 sample that was used in the statistical analysis. Thirty-three Liberal Arts I and eighty-nine Liberal Arts II institutions were chosen for the analysis. In the final analyses, only the growth or decline and the stable groups were used making the seven enrollment trends. Discriminate function analysis was used to distinguish statistically among the groups and to indicate the ability of the independent variables to predict enrollment trends. Liberal Arts I and Liberal Arts II colleges were analyzed separately, and in three ways. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI

No description available.

This study aimed to propose and test an integrated model of information processing and dual-processing components (IP-DP model) to explain connections among delinquency-related factors and treatment engagement. Hypotheses stated that exposure to aggressive friends would be associated with maladaptive cognitive scripts, and maladaptive scripts would mediate relationships between exposure and delinquency, and exposure and engagement. Analytic thinking was expected to moderate these relationships by attenuating the negative effects of exposure and maladaptive scripts on outcome measures. Data were collected from 424 adolescents in 8 community-based residential treatment facilities as a part of the TCU Adolescent Project. Hypotheses were tested using PROC MIANALYZE to conduct multiple regression across 5 imputed datasets. Results indicated that maladaptive scripts partially mediate the relationships between exposure and hostility, and exposure and negative urgency. Analytic thinking moderates the relationships between maladaptive scripts and engagement. Findings were not supportive of the IP-DP model but suggest further testing.

Large numbers of migratory tree bats are being killed at wind energy facilities across North America, and this rapidly growing source of renewable energy may pose a threat to bat populations. In 2012 and 2013 we conducted an ultrasound playback experiment, night vision surveys, and acoustic monitoring to determine if bats could be attracted to the smooth wind turbines surfaces because they perceive them to be water. Our playback experiment revealed little or no differences in the physical characteristics of echoes reflected from water and turbine surfaces. Our video and acoustic surveys indicated that bats behave at wind turbines as they do around water sources. Moreover, we observed bats attempting to drink from turbine towers at rates similar to water sources. Our data suggest that bats may be attracted to wind turbines because the surfaces produce an acoustic signature that is indistinguishable from water.

Mucus secretion is the first-line of defence against the barrage of irritants inhaled into human lungs, but abnormally thick and viscous mucus results in many respiratory diseases. Investigation of processes underlying mucus pathology is hampered, in part, by lack of appropriate experimental tools for labeling and studying mucin granule secretion from live cells with high sensitivity and temporal resolution. Fluorescence spectra and fluorescence lifetime of AO measurements reveal significant changes due to aggregation, and this properties can be useful for determination of mucus expansion. In this report I present original spectroscopic properties of acridine orange (AO) which could be utilized to study granule release and mucin swelling with novel fluorescence imaging approaches. To explore fluorescent properties we measured the quantum yield and extinction coefficient and lifetimes.

Enon is an anomalous stony-iron meteorite having an affinity to both achondrites and ordinary chondrites. This study uses mineral chemistry, oxygen isotopes, and two-pyroxene geothermometry to understand Enon's formation history and to determine if it can be genetically related to any other known meteorite group. SEM mineral maps were used to identify texture and mineralogy, and detailed chemical analyses were obtained by electron microprobe. Oxygen isotope data was collected by analyzing powered olivine by infrared laser-assisted fluorination. The program QUILF was used to calculate the two-pyroxene closure temperature for Enon. Results indicate that Enon has approximately chondritic silicate compositions; an oxygen isotope composition similar to mesosiderites/HEDs; and experienced partial melting at the Fe, Ni-FeS eutectic and silicate recrystallization and major-element equilibration. This study suggests that Enon is a primitive achondrite that records the onset of igneous differentiation of its parent body.

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is a human liver pathogen. In the host its infection leads to acute and chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. This positive stranded RNA virus is extremely efficient in establishing persistent infection by escaping immune detection by hindering the host immune responses. An important component of the host&rsquo;s innate immune response in viral infection is the production of type I interferons (IFNs). Typically, viral infection induces the synthesis and secretion of interferon &alpha;/&beta; (IFN &alpha;/&beta;) by the infected cell, which in turn activates signaling pathways leading to the establishment of an antiviral state in the cell. This raises the question of how HCV circumvents the antiviral immune responses of host cells. Previous studies have shown that HCV nonstructural protein NS3/4A interferes with the activation of signaling pathways that leads to the activation of the IFN&beta;. Our lab has identified another HCV protein, NS5A, that also interferes with host antiviral signaling independent of the NS3/4A-mediated inhibition of the host antiviral response. Activation of IFNβ gene expression involves the activation of three transcription factors (ATF-2, IRF3/7 and NF-&kappa;B) and the formation of an enhanceosome on the promoter. To investigate the influence of HCV NS5A on innate immunity, we study the effect of NS5A over-expression on Sendai Virus (SV)-mediated IFN&beta; gene induction via qPCR and reporter gene assay. We have identified NS5A to be a potent inhibitor of the host innate immune system, possibly through inhibition of IRF3 activation. We are currently investigating the effect of NS5A on transcription factor activation. NS5A inhibition of IFN&beta; induction, may be another factor contributing to the persistence of HCV in the host, and may play a key role in designing therapies for the treatment of HCV infection.