Diagnostic efficiency of the computerized PTSD scale – multimedia version (CPS-M) in assessing posttraumatic stress disorder

The most commonly used interview for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), a semi-structured interview patterned after the DSM-IV criteria (Blake et al., 1990). The Computerized PTSD Scale – Multimedia Version (CPS-M: Richard, Mayo, Bohn, Haynes, & Kolman, 1997) is a computerized interview that is modeled after the CAPS. This study examined how well the CPS-M agreed with the CAPS diagnostically in a clinical sample. Ninety veterans completed the test protocol consisting of paper-and-pencil measures, the CPS-M, and the CAPS interview. Correlations between the CAPS and CPS-M were high at the item, subscale, and full-scale levels. Confidence interval analysis revealed that the CPS-M scales were not significantly different from their CAPS counterparts but failed to establish equivalence. Alpha scores for the scales indicated good internal consistency on both the CAPS and CPS-M. Difference scores between the two instruments were normally distributed, and scale effect sizes were negligible. ROC curve analysis for the CPS-M revealed high diagnostic accuracy. These results present a strong case for more widespread use of the CPS-M in the assessment of PTSD

Teaching Physical Concepts in Oceanography: An Inquiry-Based Approach

This supplement to Oceanography magazine focuses on educational approaches to help engage students in learning and offers a collection of hands-on/minds-on activities for teaching physical concepts that are fundamental in oceanography. These key concepts include density, pressure, buoyancy, heat and temperature, and gravity waves. We focus on physical concepts for two reasons. First, students whose attraction to marine science stems from an interest in ocean organisms are typically unaware that physics is fundamental to understanding how the ocean, and all the organisms that inhabit it, function. Second, existing marine education and outreach programs tend to emphasize the biological aspects of marine sciences. While many K–12 activities focus on marine biology, comparatively few have been developed for teaching about the physical and chemical aspects of the marine environment (e.g., Ford and Smith, 2000, and a collection of activities on the Digital Library for Earth System Education Web site [DLESE; http://www.dlese.org/library/index.jsp]). The ocean provides an exciting context for science education in general and physics in particular. Using the ocean as a platform to which specific physical concepts can be related helps to provide the environmental relevance that science students are often seeking. The activities described in this supplement were developed as part of a Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) collaboration between scientists and education specialists, and they were implemented in two undergraduate courses that targeted sophomores, juniors, and seniors (one for marine science majors and one including both science and education majors) and in four, week-long workshops for middle- and high-school science teachers. Support for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation\u27s Division of Ocean Sciences Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE), grant number OCE-0528702. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF

Recruiting for your Department: The Role of the Chair

The chairs of an Education, Sports & Exercise Science, and Psychology Departments, and their former dean, share how they have been able to implement innovative recruitment strategies from an academic standpoint to increase enrollment in their departments and in the School of Graduate and Professional Studies

Joining Forces: Fostering Creativity and Success across Departments

The chairs of a Psychology, Education, and Sports & Exercise Science Department and their dean share how they have been able to apply a model of collaborative creativity (Paulus & Dzindolet, 2008) to promote teamwork and innovation in their departments and in the School

Leading In A Perpetual State Of Change

Three academic chairs and their dean will provide examples of how they have led through the difficult and ever-changing higher education landscape. Topics will include faculty turnover, budget cuts, and university restructuring. The audience will be invited to share their own experiences and recommendations will be provided

Making the Abnormal Normal: Maximizing Diversity in a Virtual Environment

With the polarization of opinions around COVID 19, chairs and deans must become experts at navigating conflict and creating synergy from diversity, oftentimes while communicating virtually. Four chairs (of Business, Education and Sports & Exercise Science, Social Sciences, and Psychology Departments), and their dean, will share strategies for encouraging the expression of diverse opinions in virtual faculty meetings

Evaluating the Quality of Online Courses: Challenges and Strategies for Success

The department chairs of Education, Sports & Exercise Science, and Psychology and their dean, share their process for evaluating the quality of online courses with faculty in existing and newly developed courses. Training, internal and external reviews, and implementation strategies will be discussed in this session

Honey I Shrunk the University: Navigating Through Change in Higher Education

Enrollment declines continue to show no mercy for post-secondary institutions, threatening the long-term stability of higher education. The Department Chairs of Business, Psychology, Social Sciences and Sports & Exercise Science, and their dean, share their planned initiatives and academic strategies that have proven helpful in changing our operation mindset while addressing some of the complex issues facing the shrinking of higher education

Square Pegs in Round Holes: Evaluating Online Delivery for Course Quality

With the expansion of online education, chairs and deans must formulate new strategies for evaluating online course development and instructional delivery. Four chairs (of Business, Education, Sports & Exercise Science, and Psychology Departments), and their dean, will share quality strategies for defining course criteria, developing quality course design, and delivering valued instruction

A Search for Exozodiacal Clouds with Kepler

Planets embedded within dust disks may drive the formation of large scale clumpy dust structures by trapping dust into resonant orbits. Detection and subsequent modeling of the dust structures would help constrain the mass and orbit of the planet and the disk architecture, give clues to the history of the planetary system, and provide a statistical estimate of disk asymmetry for future exoEarth-imaging missions. Here we present the first search for these resonant structures in the inner regions of planetary systems by analyzing the light curves of hot Jupiter planetary candidates identified by the Kepler mission. We detect only one candidate disk structure associated with KOI 838.01 at the 3-sigma confidence level, but subsequent radial velocity measurements reveal that KOI 838.01 is a grazing eclipsing binary and the candidate disk structure is a false positive. Using our null result, we place an upper limit on the frequency of dense exozodi structures created by hot Jupiters. We find that at the 90% confidence level, less than 21% of Kepler hot Jupiters create resonant dust clumps that lead and trail the planet by ~90 degrees with optical depths >~5*10^-6, which corresponds to the resonant structure expected for a lone hot Jupiter perturbing a dynamically cold dust disk 50 times as dense as the zodiacal cloud.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap