After being assessed, many students entering community colleges are referred to one or more levels of developmental education. While the need to assist students with weak academic skills is well known, little research has examined student progression through multiple levels of developmental education and into entry-level college courses. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the patterns and determinants of student progression through sequences of developmental education starting from initial referral. We rely primarily on a micro-level longitudinal dataset that includes detailed information about student progression through developmental education. This dataset was collected as part of the national community college initiative Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count. The dataset has many advantages, but it is not nationally representative; therefore, we check our results against a national datasetthe National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Our results indicate that fewer than one half of the students who are referred to remediation actually complete the entire sequence to which they are referred. About 30 percent of students referred to developmental education do not enroll in any remedial course, and only about 60 percent of referred students actually enroll in the remedial course to which they were referred. The results also show that more students exit their developmental sequences because they did not enroll in the first or a subsequent course than because they failed or withdrew from a course in which they were enrolled. We also show that men, older students, African American students, part-time students, and students in vocational programs are less likely to progress through their full remedial sequences.

This study was conducted to identify the effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and efficacy of intralesional injection as a method of application to acute cutaneous wounds in dogs. Healthy adult beagles (n = 3) were used in this study. Autologous PRP was separated from anticoagulant treated whole blood in three dogs. Cutaneous wounds were created and then treated by intralesional injection of PRP in the experimental group, while they were treated with saline in the control group on days 0, 2 and 4. The healing process was evaluated by gross examination throughout the experimental period and histologic examination on day 7, 14 and 21. In PRP treated wounds, the mean diameter was smaller and the wound closure rate was higher than in the control. Histological study revealed that PRP treated wounds showed more granulation formation and angiogenesis on day 7, and faster epithelialization, more granulation formation and collagen deposition were observed on day 14 than in control wounds. On day 21, collagen deposition and epithelialization were enhanced in PRP treated groups. Overall, PRP application showed beneficial effects in wound healing, and intralesional injection was useful for application of PRP and could be a good therapeutic option for wound management in dogs.

Pumpkin seed oil (PSO) has been shown to block the action of 5-alpha reductase and to have antiandrogenic effects on rats. This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study was designed to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of PSO for treatment of hair growth in male patients with mild to moderate androgenetic alopecia (AGA). 76 male patients with AGA received 400 mg of PSO per day or a placebo for 24 weeks. Change over time in scalp hair growth was evaluated by four outcomes: assessment of standardized clinical photographs by a blinded investigator; patient self-assessment scores; scalp hair thickness; and scalp hair counts. Reports of adverse events were collected throughout the study. After 24 weeks of treatment, self-rated improvement score and self-rated satisfaction scores in the PSO-treated group were higher than in the placebo group (P = 0.013, 0.003). The PSO-treated group had more hair after treatment than at baseline, compared to the placebo group (P < 0.001). Mean hair count increases of 40% were observed in PSO-treated men at 24 weeks, whereas increases of 10% were observed in placebo-treated men (P < 0.001). Adverse effects were not different in the two groups.

Previous studies have reported that uterine leiomyoma (UL) may share pathogenic features with obesity and hypertension, which are components of metabolic syndrome (MetS). We examined the association between UL and MetS in premenopausal parous women.This 1:1 case–control study was conducted on 615 asymptomatic women with UL and 615 women without UL that were matched for age, reproductive history, and hormonal use, who underwent a comprehensive health examination. UL was diagnosed by a gynecologist based on transvaginal ultrasonography findings. Blood pressure (BP), body composition, fasting plasma glucose, lipid profiles, insulin, and HOMA-IR were checked.Median age of the 1230 study subjects was 44 (40–47) years and 7% had MetS. Women with UL had significantly higher waist circumferences and body fat, BP, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) than women without UL. Although nonsignificant, the prevalence of MetS was higher in the UL group than in the non-UL group (9.3% vs 5.7%). In addition, the prevalence of UL increased as the number of abnormal metabolic components increased and was higher than in women without UL. Conditional logistic regression analysis, after adjustment for confounding factors, showed that hyperglycemia was significantly associated with an increased risk of UL (odds ratio = 1.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.10–1.89).Prevalence of abnormal metabolic component was higher in premenopausal women with UL than in normal controls, regardless of age or reproductive history. Furthermore, the study suggests that UL may share pathogenic features with the components of MetS and that women with UL be considered eligible for the early screening of metabolic abnormalities.