Objective: As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread in Africa and Asia, use of the injectable... more Objective: As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread in Africa and Asia, use of the injectable contraceptive steroid DMPA is widespread and has been increasing. Since studies dating back to 1992 have suggested that DMPA may increase the transmission of HIV to women, we endeavored to determine if the extant epidemiological and biological evidence is sufficient to conclude that DMPA use constitutes a definite hazard to women's health. Methods: We searched Medline using the search terms: contraceptives or contraception AND HIV and searched bibliographies of articles thus identified. We included in the meta-analysis all studies examining the association between use of DMPA (or injectable contraceptives comprising mostly DMPA) and the presence (cross-sectional studies, n = 8) or acquisition (longitudinal studies, n = 16) of HIV+ status in women, using a random effects models to estimate odds ratios (ORs; cross-sectional studies) and hazard ratios (HRs; longitudinal studies). Studies were excluded if the comparison group included women using any form of steroidal contraception. Results: Statistically significant positive associations between DMPA use and HIV positivity were observed both in cross-sectional (OR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.15 - 1.73) and longitudinal studies (HR = 1.49, 95% CI 1.28 - 1.73). The biological plausibility of increased vulnerability to HIV infection due to progestational action (via thinning of the vaginal epithelial barrier and immunosuppression) as well as glucocorticoid agonistic immunosuppression, are discussed. Conclusion: The epidemiological and biological evidence now make a compelling case that DMPA adds significantly to the risk of male-to-female HIV transmission.
Objective: South Asia, a historically low-incidence region for breast cancer, has produced many r... more Objective: South Asia, a historically low-incidence region for breast cancer, has produced many recent studies examining reproductive factors. We compiled these studies to confirm the reality of the significant association reported in the first, 1996 review of induced abortion as a risk factor, independent of abortion's known effect in abrogating the protection afforded by full-term pregnancy. Methods: We searched the medical literature for English language studies on breast cancer incidence in women in South Asia published from 1 January, 2000 through 30 June, 2017, using Pubmed, Scholar-Google, and bibliographic searches. Studies were included which reported overall data on induced abortion and/or abortion non-specifically. All 20 eligible studies were of retrospective, case-control design. Data from individual studies were combined using random effects modeling, following the determination of significant heterogeneity. Results: Cumulative OR for all 20 studies was 2.51 (95%CI: 1.67-3.75) and 3.91 (95%CI: 1.02-14.97) for the five studies which reported specific data on induced abortion. Significant dose-dependence was observed among all 5 studies which stratified by number of abortions. Meta-regression of OR v. abortion prevalence among controls was statistically significant, as observed in a 2013 meta-analysis in China. Conclusion: The moderately strong association identified between abortion and breast cancer explains in part the spread of the breast cancer epidemic to South Asia as it has become Westernized. Continuing denial of the abortion-breast cancer association can only ensure that the acknowledged worldwide breast cancer epidemic will continue to worsen, costing many millions of women their lives over the next several decades.
A meta-analytic review of all ad-equately designed field and laboratory research on the use of in... more A meta-analytic review of all ad-equately designed field and laboratory research on the use of incentives to motivate performance is reported. Of approximately 600 studies, 45 quali-fied. The overall average effect of all incentive programs in all work settings and on all work tasks was a 22 % gain in performance. Team-directed incen-tives had a markedly superior effect on performance compared to individu-ally-directed incentives. This effect was not influenced by the location of the study (business, government or school), the competitive structure of the incen-tive system (programs where only the highest performers get incentives versus programs where everyone who increased performance receive incen-tives), the type of study (whether the study was a laboratory experiment or a field study), or the performance outcome (quality, quantity, or both). Money was found to be a more powerful incentive than non-monetary tangible incentives; long-term programs led to greater per-formance gain...
OBJECTIVE South Asia, a historically low-incidence region for breast cancer, has produced many re... more OBJECTIVE South Asia, a historically low-incidence region for breast cancer, has produced many recent studies examining reproductive factors. We compiled these studies to confirm the reality of the significant association reported in the first, 1996 review of induced abortion as a risk factor, independent of abortion's known effect in abrogating the protection afforded by full-term pregnancy. METHODS We searched the medical literature for English language studies on breast cancer incidence in women in South Asia published from 1 January, 2000 through 30 June, 2017, using Pubmed, Scholar-Google, and bibliographic searches. Studies were included which reported overall data on induced abortion and/or abortion non-specifically. All 20 eligible studies were of retrospective, case-control design. Data from individual studies were combined using random effects modeling, following the determination of significant heterogeneity. RESULTS Cumulative OR for all 20 studies was 2.51 (95%CI: 1...
Gestalt psychological principles of visual perception, demonstrably robust and ubiquitous, can an... more Gestalt psychological principles of visual perception, demonstrably robust and ubiquitous, can and should inform both teacher education and general educational practice. While perhaps inconvenient, these principles nevertheless accurately describe some of the inherent biases and flaws in visual information processing. However, their association with educational practice rarely is made manifest. Recent work in the cognitive psychology of the development of expertise helps explain why these principles matter to learning and performance. Together, these two strands of psychology can assist educators in properly structuring their visual presentations of information so as to maximize student learning. This understanding is especially important as education continues to move to an increasingly visual-type format for instruction via computers, the internet, CD’s, DVD’s, and PowerPoint. Teachers need to understand how the biases inherent in visual information processing work so as to mitiga...
Experience in physics education has revealed that even in courses that "assess" well, students of... more Experience in physics education has revealed that even in courses that "assess" well, students often have serious misconceptions about fundamental concepts. A concept inventory is an instrument used to demonstrate and measure this anomalous effect. In physics education, use of the Force Concept Inventory and related instruments has facilitated true reform. Indeed, many educators view concept inventories as a key tool for change in any STEM subject. To date, there has been little work to develop concept inventories for use in CS education. This panel describes efforts to develop and encourage the use of such instruments for the computing field, initially for Discrete Mathematics (DM) as taught in CS programs and later for CS1 and CS2. Such instruments have potential for supporting investigations into important questions regarding the teaching of DM and the impact of different approaches on the development of CS1/CS2 skills.
BACKGROUND Some women who take mifepristone, a progesterone receptor antagonist, in order to term... more BACKGROUND Some women who take mifepristone, a progesterone receptor antagonist, in order to terminate their pregnancies, change their minds and desire to stop the medical abortion process. There are only two articles in the medical literature documenting the reversal of the effects of mifepristone. OBJECTIVE We present and analyze a series of women who attempted to reverse the effects of mifepristone by taking supplemental progesterone to determine if the reversal of the effects mifepristone with progesterone is possible and safe. Additionally, we compare different progesterone regimens to determine relative efficacies. METHODS This is an observational case series of 754 patients who decided to attempt to reverse the medical abortion process after taking mifepristone but before taking the second drug in the protocol, misoprostol. We followed the patients, who were given progesterone in an effort to reverse the effects of mifepristone, and conducted statistical analyses to determine...
Intelligence (also known as general mental ability or g), as an explanatory construct, has been s... more Intelligence (also known as general mental ability or g), as an explanatory construct, has been somewhat ignored in the study of human development in general and in leader development in particular. Studies of intelligence reveal it to be a strong predictor of academic, career, and life success. Researchers in the past have shown that intelligence also plays a role in predicting leadership emergence and effectiveness. Leader development, however, since it is properly nested in developmental (and organizational) psychology, tends to elicit the use of models and social processes to explain how leaders develop. In contrast, intelligence researchers have traditionally taken an individual differences approach. Evidence is herein presented which supports the validity of intelligence as a psychological scientific construct and demonstrates its association with academic, occupational, and life achievement. Then, in more speculative fashion, the literature dealing with leadership and leader ...
As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread in Africa and Asia, use of the injectable contracept... more As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread in Africa and Asia, use of the injectable contraceptive steroid DMPA is widespread and has been increasing. Since studies dating back to 1992 have suggested that DMPA may increase the transmission of HIV to women, we endeavored to determine if the extant epidemiological and biological evidence is sufficient to conclude that DMPA use constitutes a definite hazard to women's health. We searched Medline using the search terms: contraceptives or contraception AND HIV and searched bibliographies of articles thus identified. We included in the meta-analysis all studies examining the association between use of DMPA (or injectable contraceptives comprising mostly DMPA) and the presence (cross-sectional studies, n = 8) or acquisition (longitudinal studies, n = 16) of HIV+ status in women, using a random effects models to estimate odds ratios (ORs; cross-sectional studies) and hazard ratios (HRs; longitudinal studies). Studies were excluded if ...
Handbook of Improving Performance in the Workplace: Selecting and Implementing Performance Interventions, 2009
... reward (or in response to an external threat), and that lower levels of internal motivation u... more ... reward (or in response to an external threat), and that lower levels of internal motivation ultimately lead to poorer performance (for further discussion, see Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's 1985 text, as well as Alfie Kohn's 1993 ... Jenkins, GD, Mitra, A., Gupta, N., & Shaw, JD (1998 ...
Few students in general, and fewer female students in particular, choose an undergraduate major i... more Few students in general, and fewer female students in particular, choose an undergraduate major in IT/CS. Efforts at ameliorating the situation must be rooted in an understanding of those factors which have a demonstrated influence on major/career choice and decision making. In an attempt to improve our understanding, we surveyed students enrolled in IT105/155, a mandatory freshman computer science course. Our findings showed that male and female students did not differ from each other in terms of their grades, self-efficacy, need for encouragement, and perceptions about the major. These findings held whether students were taught by male or female instructors. Our survey results indicated that there are three major influences on a freshman's consideration on majoring in IT/CS: receiving more encouragement to major in the field; self-efficacy after completing IT105/155; and interest in taking an IT/CS course consisting of a majority of students the same sex as themselves. These s...
Objective: As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread in Africa and Asia, use of the injectable... more Objective: As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread in Africa and Asia, use of the injectable contraceptive steroid DMPA is widespread and has been increasing. Since studies dating back to 1992 have suggested that DMPA may increase the transmission of HIV to women, we endeavored to determine if the extant epidemiological and biological evidence is sufficient to conclude that DMPA use constitutes a definite hazard to women's health. Methods: We searched Medline using the search terms: contraceptives or contraception AND HIV and searched bibliographies of articles thus identified. We included in the meta-analysis all studies examining the association between use of DMPA (or injectable contraceptives comprising mostly DMPA) and the presence (cross-sectional studies, n = 8) or acquisition (longitudinal studies, n = 16) of HIV+ status in women, using a random effects models to estimate odds ratios (ORs; cross-sectional studies) and hazard ratios (HRs; longitudinal studies). Studies were excluded if the comparison group included women using any form of steroidal contraception. Results: Statistically significant positive associations between DMPA use and HIV positivity were observed both in cross-sectional (OR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.15 - 1.73) and longitudinal studies (HR = 1.49, 95% CI 1.28 - 1.73). The biological plausibility of increased vulnerability to HIV infection due to progestational action (via thinning of the vaginal epithelial barrier and immunosuppression) as well as glucocorticoid agonistic immunosuppression, are discussed. Conclusion: The epidemiological and biological evidence now make a compelling case that DMPA adds significantly to the risk of male-to-female HIV transmission.
Objective: South Asia, a historically low-incidence region for breast cancer, has produced many r... more Objective: South Asia, a historically low-incidence region for breast cancer, has produced many recent studies examining reproductive factors. We compiled these studies to confirm the reality of the significant association reported in the first, 1996 review of induced abortion as a risk factor, independent of abortion's known effect in abrogating the protection afforded by full-term pregnancy. Methods: We searched the medical literature for English language studies on breast cancer incidence in women in South Asia published from 1 January, 2000 through 30 June, 2017, using Pubmed, Scholar-Google, and bibliographic searches. Studies were included which reported overall data on induced abortion and/or abortion non-specifically. All 20 eligible studies were of retrospective, case-control design. Data from individual studies were combined using random effects modeling, following the determination of significant heterogeneity. Results: Cumulative OR for all 20 studies was 2.51 (95%CI: 1.67-3.75) and 3.91 (95%CI: 1.02-14.97) for the five studies which reported specific data on induced abortion. Significant dose-dependence was observed among all 5 studies which stratified by number of abortions. Meta-regression of OR v. abortion prevalence among controls was statistically significant, as observed in a 2013 meta-analysis in China. Conclusion: The moderately strong association identified between abortion and breast cancer explains in part the spread of the breast cancer epidemic to South Asia as it has become Westernized. Continuing denial of the abortion-breast cancer association can only ensure that the acknowledged worldwide breast cancer epidemic will continue to worsen, costing many millions of women their lives over the next several decades.
A meta-analytic review of all ad-equately designed field and laboratory research on the use of in... more A meta-analytic review of all ad-equately designed field and laboratory research on the use of incentives to motivate performance is reported. Of approximately 600 studies, 45 quali-fied. The overall average effect of all incentive programs in all work settings and on all work tasks was a 22 % gain in performance. Team-directed incen-tives had a markedly superior effect on performance compared to individu-ally-directed incentives. This effect was not influenced by the location of the study (business, government or school), the competitive structure of the incen-tive system (programs where only the highest performers get incentives versus programs where everyone who increased performance receive incen-tives), the type of study (whether the study was a laboratory experiment or a field study), or the performance outcome (quality, quantity, or both). Money was found to be a more powerful incentive than non-monetary tangible incentives; long-term programs led to greater per-formance gain...
OBJECTIVE South Asia, a historically low-incidence region for breast cancer, has produced many re... more OBJECTIVE South Asia, a historically low-incidence region for breast cancer, has produced many recent studies examining reproductive factors. We compiled these studies to confirm the reality of the significant association reported in the first, 1996 review of induced abortion as a risk factor, independent of abortion's known effect in abrogating the protection afforded by full-term pregnancy. METHODS We searched the medical literature for English language studies on breast cancer incidence in women in South Asia published from 1 January, 2000 through 30 June, 2017, using Pubmed, Scholar-Google, and bibliographic searches. Studies were included which reported overall data on induced abortion and/or abortion non-specifically. All 20 eligible studies were of retrospective, case-control design. Data from individual studies were combined using random effects modeling, following the determination of significant heterogeneity. RESULTS Cumulative OR for all 20 studies was 2.51 (95%CI: 1...
Gestalt psychological principles of visual perception, demonstrably robust and ubiquitous, can an... more Gestalt psychological principles of visual perception, demonstrably robust and ubiquitous, can and should inform both teacher education and general educational practice. While perhaps inconvenient, these principles nevertheless accurately describe some of the inherent biases and flaws in visual information processing. However, their association with educational practice rarely is made manifest. Recent work in the cognitive psychology of the development of expertise helps explain why these principles matter to learning and performance. Together, these two strands of psychology can assist educators in properly structuring their visual presentations of information so as to maximize student learning. This understanding is especially important as education continues to move to an increasingly visual-type format for instruction via computers, the internet, CD’s, DVD’s, and PowerPoint. Teachers need to understand how the biases inherent in visual information processing work so as to mitiga...
Experience in physics education has revealed that even in courses that "assess" well, students of... more Experience in physics education has revealed that even in courses that "assess" well, students often have serious misconceptions about fundamental concepts. A concept inventory is an instrument used to demonstrate and measure this anomalous effect. In physics education, use of the Force Concept Inventory and related instruments has facilitated true reform. Indeed, many educators view concept inventories as a key tool for change in any STEM subject. To date, there has been little work to develop concept inventories for use in CS education. This panel describes efforts to develop and encourage the use of such instruments for the computing field, initially for Discrete Mathematics (DM) as taught in CS programs and later for CS1 and CS2. Such instruments have potential for supporting investigations into important questions regarding the teaching of DM and the impact of different approaches on the development of CS1/CS2 skills.
BACKGROUND Some women who take mifepristone, a progesterone receptor antagonist, in order to term... more BACKGROUND Some women who take mifepristone, a progesterone receptor antagonist, in order to terminate their pregnancies, change their minds and desire to stop the medical abortion process. There are only two articles in the medical literature documenting the reversal of the effects of mifepristone. OBJECTIVE We present and analyze a series of women who attempted to reverse the effects of mifepristone by taking supplemental progesterone to determine if the reversal of the effects mifepristone with progesterone is possible and safe. Additionally, we compare different progesterone regimens to determine relative efficacies. METHODS This is an observational case series of 754 patients who decided to attempt to reverse the medical abortion process after taking mifepristone but before taking the second drug in the protocol, misoprostol. We followed the patients, who were given progesterone in an effort to reverse the effects of mifepristone, and conducted statistical analyses to determine...
Intelligence (also known as general mental ability or g), as an explanatory construct, has been s... more Intelligence (also known as general mental ability or g), as an explanatory construct, has been somewhat ignored in the study of human development in general and in leader development in particular. Studies of intelligence reveal it to be a strong predictor of academic, career, and life success. Researchers in the past have shown that intelligence also plays a role in predicting leadership emergence and effectiveness. Leader development, however, since it is properly nested in developmental (and organizational) psychology, tends to elicit the use of models and social processes to explain how leaders develop. In contrast, intelligence researchers have traditionally taken an individual differences approach. Evidence is herein presented which supports the validity of intelligence as a psychological scientific construct and demonstrates its association with academic, occupational, and life achievement. Then, in more speculative fashion, the literature dealing with leadership and leader ...
As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread in Africa and Asia, use of the injectable contracept... more As the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to spread in Africa and Asia, use of the injectable contraceptive steroid DMPA is widespread and has been increasing. Since studies dating back to 1992 have suggested that DMPA may increase the transmission of HIV to women, we endeavored to determine if the extant epidemiological and biological evidence is sufficient to conclude that DMPA use constitutes a definite hazard to women's health. We searched Medline using the search terms: contraceptives or contraception AND HIV and searched bibliographies of articles thus identified. We included in the meta-analysis all studies examining the association between use of DMPA (or injectable contraceptives comprising mostly DMPA) and the presence (cross-sectional studies, n = 8) or acquisition (longitudinal studies, n = 16) of HIV+ status in women, using a random effects models to estimate odds ratios (ORs; cross-sectional studies) and hazard ratios (HRs; longitudinal studies). Studies were excluded if ...
Handbook of Improving Performance in the Workplace: Selecting and Implementing Performance Interventions, 2009
... reward (or in response to an external threat), and that lower levels of internal motivation u... more ... reward (or in response to an external threat), and that lower levels of internal motivation ultimately lead to poorer performance (for further discussion, see Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's 1985 text, as well as Alfie Kohn's 1993 ... Jenkins, GD, Mitra, A., Gupta, N., & Shaw, JD (1998 ...
Few students in general, and fewer female students in particular, choose an undergraduate major i... more Few students in general, and fewer female students in particular, choose an undergraduate major in IT/CS. Efforts at ameliorating the situation must be rooted in an understanding of those factors which have a demonstrated influence on major/career choice and decision making. In an attempt to improve our understanding, we surveyed students enrolled in IT105/155, a mandatory freshman computer science course. Our findings showed that male and female students did not differ from each other in terms of their grades, self-efficacy, need for encouragement, and perceptions about the major. These findings held whether students were taught by male or female instructors. Our survey results indicated that there are three major influences on a freshman's consideration on majoring in IT/CS: receiving more encouragement to major in the field; self-efficacy after completing IT105/155; and interest in taking an IT/CS course consisting of a majority of students the same sex as themselves. These s...
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