The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades

Despite the widespread use of social media by students and its increased use by instructors, very little empirical evidence is available concerning the impact of social media use on student learning and engagement. This paper describes our semester‐long experimental study to determine if using Twitter – the microblogging and social networking platform most amenable to ongoing, public dialogue – for educationally relevant purposes can impact college student engagement and grades. A total of 125 students taking a first year seminar course for pre‐health professional majors participated in this study (70 in the experimental group and 55 in the control group). With the experimental group, Twitter was used for various types of academic and co‐curricular discussions. Engagement was quantified by using a 19‐item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement. To assess differences in engagement and grades, we used mixed effects analysis of variance (ANOVA) models, with class sections nested within treatment groups. We also conducted content analyses of samples of Twitter exchanges. The ANOVA results showed that the experimental group had a significantly greater increase in engagement than the control group, as well as higher semester grade point averages. Analyses of Twitter communications showed that students and faculty were both highly engaged in the learning process in ways that transcended traditional classroom activities. This study provides experimental evidence that Twitter can be used as an educational tool to help engage students and to mobilize faculty into a more active and participatory role.     

Inequalities in Facebook use

While research has examined digital inequalities in general Internet use, little research has examined inequalities in social networking website use. This study extends previous research by examining how Facebook use is related to student background characteristics. Analyses were conducted to assess differences in time spent and activities performed on Facebook using a large sample (N = 2359) of college students. Results showed that women were more likely to use Facebook for communication, African Americans were less likely to use Facebook to check up on their friends, and students from lower socioeconomic levels were less likely to use Facebook for communication and sharing. Implications for education, communication, and student outcomes are presented.     

No A 4 U: The relationship between multitasking and academic performance

The proliferation and ease of access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as Facebook, text messaging, and instant messaging has resulted in ICT users being presented with more real-time streaming data than ever before. Unfortunately, this has also resulted in individuals increasingly engaging in multitasking as an information management strategy. The purpose of this study was to examine how college students multitask with ICTs and to determine the impacts of this multitasking on their college grade point average (GPA). Using web survey data from a large sample of college students at one university (N = 1839), we found that students reported spending a large amount of time using ICTs on a daily basis. Students reported frequently searching for content not related to courses, using Facebook, emailing, talking on their cell phones, and texting while doing schoolwork. Hierarchical (blocked) linear regression analyses revealed that using Facebook and texting while doing schoolwork were negatively associated with overall college GPA. Engaging in Facebook use or texting while trying to complete schoolwork may tax students' capacity for cognitive processing and preclude deeper learning. Our research indicates that the type and purpose of ICT use matters in terms of the educational impacts of multitasking.     

Derivation of Input-State-Output Port-Hamiltonian Systems from bond graphs

This paper presents methods to obtain models in the form of Input-State-Output Port-Hamiltonian Systems from causal nonlinear bond graph models. This is done first establishing equivalences among key variables in both domains through the comparison of the expressions of the stored system energy in both formalisms. Later, with the help of the general field-representation of bond graphs and its associated standard implicit form, the functions characterizing this class of Port-Hamiltonian Systems, i.e., interconnection, dissipation and input/output matrices, as well as their properties, are immediately expressed in terms of bond graphs parameters. Under suitable assumptions, the method supports the direct derivation of Input-State-Output Port-Hamiltonian Systems – which is an explicit type of PHS – even from bond graphs having causally coupled dissipators and storages in derivative causality, which are known to imply algebraic and implicit differential equations. The methods are illustrated with some application examples covering different causal situations. Besides its intrinsic interest as a technique for model conversion, the contribution is seen as a useful step towards implementing Port-Hamiltonian based control system design methods with the support of BG techniques.     

Treatment with low-protein diet and caloric supplements in patients with chronic kidney failure in predialysis. Comparative study

Etiology of the high rates of growth failure in children with cerebral palsy (CP) remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relation between growth failure in preterm infants with cystic periventricular leukomalacia (CPVL) and neonatal health complications. The population consisted of all preterm infants (51) with a gestational age of <33 weeks who were admitted to the Children's Hospital of Buffalo from 1988 to 1993 and who had CPVL. Out of the 41 survivors with CPVL who were followed, 39 developed CP and 18 developed growth failure during infancy. At the time of greatest growth failure, the majority (72%) of infants had signs of undernutrition as defined by the Waterlow (1972) classification. Oral feeding impairment was the sole risk factor for the occurrence of growth failure. Undernutrition appears to be important in the occurrence of growth failure in preterm infants with CPVL and CP.     

The association between the quality of inpatient care and early readmission: a meta-analysis of the evidence

OBJECTIVES: To help resolve the current controversy over the validity of early readmission as an indicator of the quality of care, the authors critically reviewed the literature using meta-analysis to derive summary estimates of effect and evaluate inter-study heterogeneity. METHODS: The authors selected reports meeting five criteria: (1) presentation of new data on medical-surgical hospitalization of adults; (2) measurement of outcome as a person-specific readmission; (3) readmission within < or = 31 days; (4) examination of some aspect of the process of inpatient care; (5) inclusion of a comparison group. One meta-analysis examined 13 comparisons of readmission rates after substandard versus normative care, another examined 9 comparisons of readmission rates after normative versus exceptional care, and the third examined all 22 comparisons together. Two authors applied inclusion criteria and extracted data on methods and findings. Two others classified studies on 11 methodological variables for the heterogeneity evaluation. RESULTS: The summary odds ratio for readmission after substandard care was 1.24 (0.99-1.57) relative to normative care; for readmission after normative care the summary odds ratio was 1.45 (0.90-2.33) relative to exceptional care. The individual odds ratios varied significantly (chi2, 21 df = 50.34, P = 0.0003). Most of the variance in study odds ratios could be explained by whether the study focused on the quality of patient care or the qualifications of patient care providers. The summary odds ratio for the 16 homogeneous comparisons focusing on the quality of patient care was 1.55 (1.25-1.92). CONCLUSIONS: Early readmission is significantly associated with the process of inpatient care. The risk of early readmission is increased by 55% when care is of relatively low quality, that is, substandard or normative instead of normative or exceptional.     

Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between multiple indices of Facebook use and academic performance

Because of the social media platform’s widespread adoption by college students, there is a great deal of interest in how Facebook use is related to academic performance. A small number of prior studies have examined the relationship between Facebook use and college grade point average (GPA); however, these studies have been limited by their measures, sampling designs and failure to include prior academic ability as a control variable. For instance, previous studies used non-continuous measures of time spent on Facebook and self-reported GPA. This paper fills a gap in the literature by using a large sample (N = 1839) of college students to examine the relationship among multiple measures of frequency of Facebook use, participation in Facebook activities, and time spent preparing for class and actual overall GPA. Hierarchical (blocked) linear regression analyses revealed that time spent on Facebook was strongly and significantly negatively related to overall GPA, while only weakly related to time spent preparing for class. Furthermore, using Facebook for collecting and sharing information was positively predictive of the outcome variables while using Facebook for socializing was negatively predictive.     

Characterisation of Asturian cider apples on the basis of their aromatic profile by high-speed gas chromatography and solid-phase microextraction

Headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled to high-speed gas chromatography with FID detector (HSGC-FID) and with quadrupole mass spectrometric detector (GC–MS) was employed to study the volatile compounds in Asturian cider apples. The optimised conditions used for characterisation of cider apple were: sample equilibration at 25 °C for 12 h, followed by PDMS–DVB fibre exposure to the headspace above the sample for 5 min and finally thermal desorption of the adsorbed substances in the injector port for GC analysis. The use of high-speed gas chromatography allowed the separation of 27 compounds in less than 8 min, reducing the analysis time in 80% compared to conventional gas chromatography. A simple, rapid and reliable method to analyze volatile compounds in cider apples has been developed. The aromatic profile of 59 apple samples included in eight apple varieties was analysed. The different apples were obtained from two consecutive harvests (2005 and 2006). The apples volatile compounds together with chemometric techniques such as principal components analysis (PCA), Bayesian analysis and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), allowed us to differentiate apples on the basis of the sweet or sharp category to which the cider apple variety belongs. Volatile compounds such as ethyl heptanoate, E-farnesene, ethyl butyrate and hexyl caprylate are closely related to cider apple cultivars of the sweet category, while propyl butyrate and butyl acetate are related to the sharp class.