A Comprehensive Survey of Current and Former College Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Background: There is a paucity of research concerning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) pursuing higher education.Method: This study sought to augment this gap in the literature by surveying individuals with ASD who are currently college students or who have previously attended college.Results: Thirty-five individuals completed an online survey. These individuals reported receiving extensive academic supports that enabled their academic success. Their reported difficulties in the social and emotional domains received less support. In addition, not all areas of campus life were supportive, as study abroad and career service offices were reported to not understand individuals with ASD.Conclusions: Overall, the results of this survey indicate the importance of self-advocacy and the need for institutions of higher education to provide comprehensive supports for individuals with ASD in the academic, social, and emotional domains in order to effectively integrate this group into the campus environment.     

The effects of health education on knowledge and attitudes to emergency contraception by female students of a tertiary educational institution in enugu, South East Nigeria

This was an intervention study to assess the effects of health education on the knowledge and attitudes to emergency contraception (EC) by female students of University of Nigeria in southeast Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 337 female students of a tertiary educational institution (150 in the study group and 187 from the control group) who were selected by multistage sampling. Subsequently, health education was conducted only among students in the study institution. Three months after this intervention, its effects were assessed through a survey using the same structured questionnaire employed in the baseline survey. Unlike the pre-intervention results, knowledge of EC was significantly higher among the study group than the controls. Attitudes to EC were also more favourable at the post- intervention survey among the study group. Health education can effectively improve knowledge and attitudes to EC among female students of tertiary institutions and this should be encouraged. Keywords: Knowledge, Attitudes, Emergency contraception, Health education, Female students, Tertiary institutions.     

The co‐evolution of social institutions,demography, and large‐scale human cooperation

Human cooperation is typically coordinated by institutions, which determine the outcome structure of the social interactions individuals engage in. Explaining the Neolithic transition from small‐ to large‐scale societies involves understanding how these institutions co‐evolve with demography. We study this using a demographically explicit model of institution formation in a patch‐structured population. Each patch supports both social and asocial niches. Social individuals create an institution, at a cost to themselves, by negotiating how much of the costly public good provided by cooperators is invested into sanctioning defectors. The remainder of their public good is invested in technology that increases carrying capacity, such as irrigation systems. We show that social individuals can invade a population of asocials, and form institutions that support high levels of cooperation. We then demonstrate conditions where the co‐evolution of cooperation, institutions, and demographic carrying capacity creates a transition from small‐ to large‐scale social groups.     

The development of the intramural research program at the National Institutes of Health after World War II

This paper explores the rise of the National Institutes of Health after World War II from the perspective of intramural scientists working at the NIH's main campus in Bethesda. Several postwar social circumstances-the local research tradition, the wartime experience of civilian scientists, the doctor draft, and anti-nepotism rules in academia-affected the recruitment of research-oriented scientists into the NIH. These historically contingent factors were no less important than the larger political, legislative context for the development of the NIH intramural program as a prominent research institution.     

Campus Anthropology: A Case Study from West Bengal,India1

In this ethnographic account, I attempt to write an anthropological narrative of my own university located in a district town of the West Bengal state in India about 130 kilometres from Kolkata, the capital of the state. My account does not come under the sub-discipline of ‘Educational Anthropology’ in which formal education is studied by the anthropologists as yet another process of the transmission of culture. My point of departure entails viewing the physical and the cultural space named ‘university campus’ by situating the case study of Vidyasagar University in a theoretical and global context. The anthropological subjects in the cultural space labelled as ‘campus’ range from the Vice-Chancellors to the indigenous tribal people who were viewed as ‘encroachers’ by the university community, while the latter looked at the campus as part of their traditional village common land. Ironically, the aims and objectives of my university was to build up research and teaching towards the development of the tribal and the underprivileged people of the region in which the university is located. The case of my university and comparative cases of Columbia, Pennsylvania and Marquette Universities definitely differ in scale, but they also share one common point: expansion of a campus and its effect on the local community in the context of the ideals and objectives of university as a social institution. The empirical scenario demands the emergence of the new sub-discipline named ‘campus anthropology’.     

Water Scarcity and the Sustainability of a Common Pool Resource Institution in the Urban Andes

The Cochabamba Water War of 2000 was precipitated by Bolivians’ defense of common-pool water resources and institutions against privatization. This article examines the design of a water institution and its sustainability during periods of water scarcity in urban Cochabamba. Based on data collected via participant-observation and panel surveys conducted in 72 randomly selected households, I draw three main conclusions. First, the institution operated according to principles found in sustainable resource management institutions in the rural Andes (Trawick 2001) and across cultures (Ostrom 1990). Second, while the function of the common-pool resource institution was stable over the five study periods, the social structures that supported collective choice and operational rules were sensitive to external events including seasonal water scarcity. Third, while institutions with strong historical precedents for contingencies under resource stress may be sustainable, other forms of social organization on which the institution depends may be more vulnerable to water scarcity.     

Comparison of multi-institutional pre-treatment verification for VMAT of nasopharynx with delivery errors

PurposeMeasurement-based pre-treatment verification with phantoms frequently uses gamma analysis to assess acceptable delivery accuracy. This study evaluates the sensitivity of a commercial system to simulated machine errors for three different institutions’ Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) planning approaches.MethodsVMAT plans were generated for ten patients at three institutions using each institution’s own protocol (manually-planned at institution 1; auto-planned at institutions 2 and 3). Errors in Multi-Leaf Collimator (MLC) field size (FS), MLC shift (S), and collimator angle (C) of −5, −2, −1, 1, 2 and 5 mm or degrees were introduced.Dose metric constraints discriminated which error magnitudes were considered unacceptable. The smallest magnitude error treatment plans deemed clinically unacceptable (typically for a 5% dose change) were delivered to the ArcCHECK for all institutions, and with a high-dose point ion chamber measurement in 2 institutions. Error detection for different gamma analysis criteria was compared.ResultsNot all deliberately introduced VMAT plan errors were detected using a typical 3D 3%/3 mm global gamma pass rate of 95%. Considering all institutions, gamma analysis was least sensitive to negative FS errors. The most sensitive was a 2%/2 mm global analysis for institution 1, whilst for institution 2 it was 3%/3 mm global analysis. The majority of errors (58/59 for institution 1, 54/60 for institution 3) were detected using ArcCHECK and ion chamber measurements combined.ConclusionsNot all clinically unacceptable errors are detected. Combining ion chamber measurements with gamma analysis improved sensitivity and is recommended. Optimum gamma settings varied across institutions.     

The missing link between awareness and the implementation of wetland policy and legislation in communal areas of Zimbabwe

This paper explores stakeholders’ perceptions of the efficacy of the current policies and legislation meant to conserve wetlands in the communal areas of Zimbabwe. A questionnaire was administered to one hundred and twenty three households adjacent to six wetlands studied including key informants who were interviewed. The existing laws were analysed to determine their appropriateness in light of peoples’ livelihood aspirations and principles of wetland protection. Zimbabwe has no national wetland policy per se but only wetland legislation, however inimitable policies shaped by indigenous tradition and practice were present at each wetland site. The majority of the people were not aware of the existence and rationale of laws governing the conservation of wetlands due to limited awareness education and enforcement by responsible institutions. Therefore, there was a disjuncture between legal provisions and the practical implementation resulting in less impact. Poor implementation of legislation was due to inadequate resources for regulatory agencies, political interference, social conflicts and high incidences of poverty among other factors. The results of the study highlighted that even if awareness was improved, enforcement was likely to remain a challenge unless adequate resources for regulatory institutions and alternative livelihood strategies for communities were availed. The paper thus recommends that development planners should therefore initiate other rural survival options such as restoration of dryland agricultural productivity by introducing water harvesting and conservation farming techniques. This would help to reduce community dependency on already vulnerable wetland ecosystems. Overall, a national wetland policy should be developed through a participatory process, if the legislation is to be used as an effective tool in wetland management.     

A creative collaboration between the science of ecosystem restoration and art for sustainable stormwater management on an urban college campus

This article presents an interdisciplinary, on‐campus, student project, titled “The Rain Project” that I designed as an urban ecosystem restoration model as well as a collaborative pedagogical approach between ecological science and art at George Mason University (GMU), Virginia, U.S.A. A group of students from several disciplines (e.g. environmental science, art, civil engineering, biology, communication, and film/media) participated in designing and constructing a floating wetland for a campus stormwater pond as part of sustainable stormwater management. The Rain Project has numerous implications for college education, scholarship, and service while presenting a novel way of building a sense of community among undergraduate students for ecological awareness and literacy. The work of Jackie Brookner, a renowned eco‐artist who worked extensively on stormwater, and its relevance to the project is discussed. I strongly suggest the need for linking art and the science of ecosystem restoration to best obtain improvements in much‐needed communication for the success of community participatory restoration projects. I also believe that this kind of interdisciplinary, campus project can facilitate the changes we need to train higher education students to be able to both think differently and communicate effectively. The Rain Project introduced students to new learning strategies that connected “systems thinking” with art, ecological science, and restoration practices.     

The emergence of pioneering public health education programs in the United States

This paper considers the social forces leading to the establishment of pioneering public health education programs in the United States. Schools of Public Health emerged in the United States as the result of a confluence of factors, including the changing nature of higher education, the development of commerce and industry, the rise to prominence of the science of bacteriology, and the urbanization of the nation, all coupled with a pervasive spirit of utility and a desire to be, in a word, useful. Each line leading to the establishment of five public health institutions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard-M.I.T., Yale, Michigan, and Pennsylvania is explored.     

The stabilizing role of the Sabbath in pre-monarchic Israel:a mathematical model

The three monotheistic cultures have many common institutions and some of them germinated in pre-monarchic Israel. Reasonably, the essential institutions were in place at that starting point; this work explores the possibility that the Sabbath is one of these institutions. Our mathematical examination points to the potential cultural, civic, and social role of the weekly Sabbath, that is, the Sabbath institution, in controlling deviation from social norms. It begins with an analogy between spread of transgression (defined as lack of conformity with social norms) and of biological infection. Borrowing well-known mathematical methods, we derive solution sets of social equilibrium and study their social stability. The work shows how a weekly Sabbath could in theory enhance social resilience in comparison with a similar assembly with a more natural and longer period, say between New Moon and Full Moon. The examination reveals that an efficient Sabbath institution has the potential to ensure a stable organization and suppress occasional appearances of transgression from cultural norms and boundaries. The work suggests the existence of a sharp threshold governed by the “Basic Sabbath Number ש₀”—a critical observance of the Sabbath, or large enough ש₀, is required to ensure suppression of transgression. Subsequently, the model is used to explore an interesting question: how old is the Sabbath? The work is interdisciplinary, combining anthropological concepts with mathematical analysis and with archaeological parallels in regards to the findings.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10867-014-9373-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Social organisational LCA for the academic activity of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - This article aims to estimate the social footprint of a higher education institution (HEI) and its potential contribution to Sustainable...     

Arts Education Partnerships: Informing Policy through the Development of Culture and Creativity within a Collaborative Project Approach

Arts education partnerships have become an important means for developing and sustaining school arts programs that engage students, teachers, and communities. Tapping into additional perspectives, resources, and support from arts agencies and postsecondary institutions, arts education partnerships strengthen arts education infrastructure within schools and develop a web of sustainable relationships whereby stakeholders mutually benefit. This article provides a snapshot of an arts education partnership in action that develops creative and cultural competencies in middle school students through a theme-based collaborative project approach. This article informs policy by recommending support for arts education partnerships that develop social and creative capital among schools and postsecondary institutions and within the communities surrounding these institutions.     

Two Competing Habitus among Hong Kong Art Practitioners

This article offers a comparison of the status of the “traditional” medium of oil painting or acrylic in Hong Kong SAR and in Mainland China. This issue concerns the well-known discourse about the hand as medium; a typical example of what Pierre Bourdieu would call habitus. The representation of art as something produced by the hand has been the only habitus in Euro-America for a number of centuries, and it remains so among many participants of the social field of art. The development of this habitus followed very different paths in Mainland China and in Hong Kong, thanks to very different institutions in those places. Those responsible for their establishment in the 20th century, especially educational institutions, are analyzed and provide the backdrop for the analysis of the field of art in present-day Hong Kong. New institutions and new ways for these institutions to deal with art education are now changing the field of art in Hong Kong, creating new concepts to deal with the issue of forms of art seen as respectively “traditional” and “contemporary.” In ways very different than what happens in Europe, for instance, where even media that can be seen as “traditional” like oil painting tend to belong to a single “contemporary art” habitus, Hong Kong has seen the establishment of a state of competition between two habitus seen as unrelated. This article concludes with a brief portrait of the state of struggle between these two habitus within the Hong Kong art field.     

A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Brazilian Science from the Perspective of Researchers’ Career Trajectories

The growth of Brazilian scientific production in recent years is remarkable, which motivates an investigation on the factors, inside and outside the country, that helped shape this wealthy research environment. This article provides a thorough analysis of the education of researchers that constitute the main Brazilian research groups, using data on about 6,000 researchers involved in the country’s National Institutes of Science and Technology (INCT) initiative. Data on the steps taken by each researcher in her education, from the bachelor’s degree to doctorate, including a possible postdoctoral experience, and employment, are extracted from an official curriculum vitae repository. The location and the time at which each career step occurred define spatiotemporal career trajectories. We then analyze such trajectories considering additional data, including the area of knowledge of the INCTs to which each researcher is associated. We found an increasing prevalence of Brazilian institutions in the education of Brazilian scientists, as the number of doctorates earned abroad is decreasing over time. Postdoctoral stages, on the other hand, often take place in Europe or in the United States. Taking an international postdoctoral position after a full education in Brazil suggests a drive towards seeking higher-level exchange and cooperation with foreign groups in a more advanced career stage. Results also show that Brazilian researchers tend to seek employment in regions that are close to the institutions at which they received their bachelor’s degrees, suggesting low mobility within the country. This study can be instrumental in defining public policies for correcting distortions, and can help other developing countries that aim to improve their national science systems.     

Does the level of infant mortality affect the rate of decline?: Time series data from 21 countries

Some scholars have suggested that an inverse care law holds for infant mortality--that infant mortality reductions are more rapid in regions with lower infant mortality. This theory has not been subjected to proper quantitative analysis. This paper examines time series data on infant mortality from 21 countries to test whether percentage reductions in infant mortality are larger when infant mortality is lower. We apply the Dickey-Fuller generalized least squares (DFGLS) unit root test to infant mortality rate (IMR) time series data from 21 mostly European nations for 1870-1988 to test the statistical significance of beta in a regression analysis of Deltaln IMR(t)=alpha+beta ln IMR(t-1)+epsilon(t). Evidence that beta is significant and negative would support the claim that infant mortality declines more rapidly when substantial mortality reductions have already been achieved. With the preferred specification, the DFGLS unit root test rejected the inverse benefit hypothesis in all countries except the Netherlands at the 5% and 10% cutoffs and Australia at the 10% cutoff. The rejection of the inverse benefit hypothesis was robust to alternative specifications of the lag structure of IMR and to transformations of IMR other than logarithmic. Based on late 19th and 20th century data from countries in Europe and Latin America, there is scarce evidence that percentage reductions in infant mortality are generally smaller in higher mortality countries. These findings suggest that large percentage reductions in infant mortality are possible for countries at any stage in economic development and are reflective of durable advances in human knowledge, social institutions and physical capital.     

Cash cows,backdoor migrants,or activist citizens? International students,citizenship, and rights in Australia

Since the late 1990s, the intersection of education and migration policies in Australia has shifted international students from transient consumers to potential citizens. This article analyses responses to the ‘problem’ of international students as consumers, workers, and migrants, particularly the conceptualization of their rights and protections, and the ways students have been positioned as both passive subjects and activist citizens. The article provides a theoretical review of academic, government, community, and media responses to international students in general and the consequences of the education-migration nexus in particular. It argues that discourses of human rights and consumer rights have become increasingly interconnected in these debates. This analysis adds to the emerging literature on changing conceptions of rights and citizenship in neoliberal contexts, and also illuminates the social and political consequences of the education-migration nexus in Australia. This will have resonance for countries who have implemented a raft of similar policies.     

Racism as social policy: The Nazi ‘euthanasia’ programme, 1939–1945

This article is concerned with the successive stages of the Nazi ‘euthanasia’ programme between 1933 and 1945. The ‘euthanasia’ programme was ordered by Hitler, and implemented by an ad hoc bureaucracy which bypassed the normative institutions of the state. It also relied upon the active complicity of academic psychiatrists and some directors of mental institutions. This article traces the successive stages of the programme and demonstrates the several links between the murder of the mentally handicapped and the subsequent extermination of the Jews. It then examines the ideological, scientific and social context of these policies, particularly emphasizing the role of cost‐cutting considerations in welfare policy during and after the Depression. It also stresses developments in psychiatric medicine which led otherwise ‘progressive’ psychiatrists to contemplate killing ‘incurable’ patients. The article then examines the impact of Nazi policy on specific institutions and individuals, sometimes with the aid of interviews and material from relatives of the victims concerned. The article also considers sources of individual opposition to these policies, and attempts by the regime to overcome mass distaste for its policies by skilful use of film propaganda. These passages in the article are based upon analysis of the films themselves. The article offers no theoretical, philosophical, or psychological, general explanations or conclusions, regarding the policies it analyses and describes.     

The YouTube generation: implications for medical professionalism

While medical education has remained relatively constant over the past century, the rising popularity of internet-based technologies, such as applications for social networking, media sharing, or blogging, has drastically changed the way in which physicians-in-training interact with educators, peers, and the outside world. The implementation of these new technologies creates new challenges and opportunities for medical educators. Representation, the absence of established policies and legal precedents, and the perception of the lay public exemplify some of the issues that arise when considering the digital images used by trainees. While some of these issues affect higher education generally, medical schools are faced with additional challenges to ensure that graduates exemplify the ideals of medical professionalism. We present a case vignette with subsequent discussion to highlight the complexities of ensuring medical professionalism in the digital age.