Context Matters: Social Psychological Factors That Underlie Academic Performance across Seven Institutions.

To enhance equity and diversity in undergraduate biology, recent research in biology education focuses on best practices that reduce learning barriers for all students and improve academic performance. However, the majority of current research into student experiences in introductory biology takes place at large, predominantly White institutions. To foster contextual knowledge in biology education research, we harnessed data from a large research coordination network to examine the extent of academic performance gaps based on demographic status across institutional contexts and how two psychological factors, test anxiety and ethnicity stigma consciousness, may mediate performance in introductory biology. We used data from seven institutions across three institution types: 2-year community colleges, 4-year inclusive institutions (based on admissions selectivity; hereafter, inclusive), and 4-year selective institutions (hereafter, selective). In our sample, we did not observe binary gender gaps across institutional contexts, but found that performance gaps based on underrepresented minority status were evident at inclusive and selective 4-year institutions, but not at community colleges. Differences in social psychological factors and their impacts on academic performance varied substantially across institutional contexts. Our findings demonstrate that institutional context can play an important role in the mechanisms underlying performance gaps.

Clinical and microbiologic consequences of amikacin use during a 42-month period.

In June 1980, 23% of our Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates and 53% of our Serratia species were resistant to gentamicin and tobramycin. During a 3 1/2-year period of almost exclusive amikacin usage, we noted a fall in overall resistance of gram-negative organisms to tobramycin and gentamicin from 18.8% and 19.3% to 15.2% and 16.2%, respectively. This fall in resistance was most notable for Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, and Serratia species. During this period there was no increase in amikacin resistance. Age, hospitalization, prior antibiotic therapy, and Foley catheter use were predisposing factors in acquiring amikacin-resistant organisms. Amikacin-resistant gram-negative bacilli were usually sensitive to newer penicillins or cephalosporins.

Type 8 pneumococcal pneumonia: an outbreak on an oncology ward.

An outbreak of four cases of type 8 Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia occurred on an Oncology Ward during a five-day period. All four patients had underlying malignancy and were in close proximity to each other on an open ward. No other patients or hospital personnel had type 8 S pneumoniae on throat or nasopharyngeal cultures. The implications of the outbreak with respect to transmission of this disease and role of pneumococcal vaccination are discussed.

Gastric microbial flora in patients with gastrointestinal disease.

We designed a prospective study to test the hypothesis that the stomach may be a bacterial reservoir in some patients and function as a potential source of aspiration-induced bacterial pneumonia. Quantitative cultures of fasting gastric contents were obtained in 100 consecutive patients having fiberoptic endoscopy for evaluation of gastrointestinal disease. Culture results were correlated with gastric pH and gastrointestinal pathology. Patients with gastric ulcer disease had a significantly higher incidence of bacterial growth than those with duodenal ulcer. Patients who had had gastrectomy were more likely than any others to have gram-negative bacilli in their stomach. A somewhat high frequency of other common pneumonic pathogens in gastric contents was also noted. The significance of these findings in the production of pneumonia in the elderly is discussed.

The structure of fantasied movement in suicidal children and adolescents.

Guided by the hypothesis that imagining actions is a way of rehearsing actions in the service of effective adaptations to reality, various characteristics of imagined motion, assessed by the Rorschach Test, were compared in hospitalized suicidal and nonsuicidal preadolescents and adolescents, and in public school children. A number of differences were found for example, suicidal children imagined less vigorous motion than distinguished suicidal and nonsuicidal children and preadolescent and adolescent suicidal children. Further, the scale devised to assess imagined motion successfully predicted about 75 percent of the suicidal children. Implications for diagnosis and treatment of suicidal children are discussed.