Preparing Students as Leaders with a Global Mindset: A Study Abroad Phenomenological Case Study

Research continues to stress the importance for college students to graduate with the skills to be successful as global-minded leaders in today’s evolving workforce. Although the typical study abroad programs can address this, critics point to some limitations. First, most study abroad programs are short-term, limiting students’ ability to internalize and apply cultural context upon their return to the United States. Second, although universities and colleges state the importance of developing students' cultural competencies, few have intentionally incorporated best practices for study abroad. The purpose of this phenomenological case study, therefore, was to explore how nine students from six different disciplines perceived a unique study abroad experience, designed to address some of the typical study abroad limitations. This interdisciplinary program was designed to immerse students in three European countries while participating in a formal learning cohort program that incorporated cognitive, experiential, and humanistic methodologies. The study also explored what role cross-cultural partnerships with companies, organizations, and community leaders played in enhancing the students’ application and integration of developing themselves as global- minded citizen leaders in their field of study. Data were collected through informal interviews with all nine students and supporting data included field observations, rich text, and results from the Global Mindset Inventory®. Utilizing a hybrid-coding scheme, researchers found four themes that emerged, supporting the notion that the cross-cultural pedagogical framework enhanced students’ self-efficacy as global-minded citizens, resulting from their interdisciplinary international experiences

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

The effect of initial density on interactions between bryophytes at individual and community levels

1  A glasshouse experiment was conducted with seven bryophyte species to determine the effects of competition. We tested whether competitive hierarchies varied with initial abundance (density and biomass) and between two different experimental approaches. 2  Relative competition intensities were calculated based on proportional growth ( G ) and relative biomass ( R ). The standards for comparison (i.e. no interactions) were species’ performance in monocultures at one of two sowing abundances (the combined monocultures method; CM) and in a low-density mixture of equal proportions of all species (the community density series method; CDS). 3  Proportional growth decreased with increasing initial abundance for all species. Community effects (relative biomass of each species) were generally weaker and more variable than individual effects. R increased linearly with abundance for only one species, while three species showed a quadratic response (of which two were negative). 4  Competitive hierarchies derived by the CM method differed with abundance, and we argue that the CDS method is likely to provide a more reliable comparison. 5  With CDS, competitive hierarchies were similar along the community abundance gradient, implying that non-linear competitive effects are not likely to be a mechanism of coexistence in this community. 6  There were significant competitive effects on community composition, but not on diversity as measured by evenness. At the community level individual species tended to show either competitive or positive effects throughout the gradient of initial community abundance, with decreasing values for most species at high initial community abundance, as were the effects of interactions on community composition.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73305/1/j.1365-2745.2000.00442.x.pd