Leadership Practices Among Undergraduate Nursing Instructors

The purpose of this study is to identify leadership practices of nursing instructors in the southern U.S.; and to determine if instructor leadership practices differ from the ‘norm’ leadership practices reported by the LPI instrument (Posner 2008), or from the practices observed by their matched students (observer version). Further, the purpose is to determine the relationship between instructors self-reported leadership practices (self-version) and student observed practices based on institution type, and instructor education level. The consisted of a group of instructors and students that were primarily Caucasian and female. The demographics for the instructors and students were similar to the demographics of all nurses in the state. Statistical analysis by way of a t-test was performed to determine if any significant differences exist between observed nursing instructor leadership practices and the observed practices of leaders as reported by the LPI instrument. The results indicate that nursing instructors in this study display 4 of the 5 exemplary leadership practices, challenging the process t (42) = 3.27, p = .002, inspiring a shared vision t (42) = 4.89, p \u3c .001, modeling the way t (42) = 4.15, p \u3c .001, and encouraging the heart t (42) = 4.23, p \u3c .001, at a statistically higher rate than the ‘norm’ for leaders as reported by the LPI instrument (Posner, 2008). No other statistical significance was noted however, a trend was determined that may be academically significant. Those instructors holding doctorate degrees were rated by students and rated themselves as practicing transformational leadership as measured by the LPI with the five practices of exemplary leadership at a higher rate than instructors holding a master’s degree. This study provides some baseline from which to delve into the reasons nursing instructors may score higher than leaders in general, the differences in leadership practices by education, and the benefits that may be gained by both students and instructors should all nursing instructors demonstrate very high levels of transformational leadership practices

Whāia te mātauranga - How are research libraries in Aotearoa New Zealand applying Ngā Ūpoko Tukutuku / the Māori Subject Headings and offering them to users?

Ngā Ūpoko Tukutuku/the Māori Subject Headings (MSH) were released in 2006, with the aim of “provid[ing] a structured path to subjects that Māori customers can…use to find material in libraries…using terms familiar to Māori and arranged in a hierarchy that reflects the Māori view of the world”. The project is a world leader and internationally well-regarded, but very little literature has been published evaluating the uptake and use of the MSH. I talked with staff in wānanga, university, public, and special libraries, to explore how research libraries are applying the MSH and offering the MSH to their users, when adding metadata, providing reference and research services, or supporting library users to search independently. Libraries employed diverse approaches tailored to their specific users, but participants consistently emphasised the importance of the MSH, advocated for further development of the thesaurus, and hoped for more training and information sharing between libraries. Results are discussed in terms of four questions - What is working well? What could work better? What are the benefits of this work? What further questions do we need to answer? Suggestions for further research include broader assessment of the actual and potential uptake of the MSH in libraries and other memory institutions, discussion with library users, and consideration of the future development of the MSH

Corporate governance : balanced boards, board diversity and firm performance

The board of a firm are agents, who act on behalf of the shareholders to monitor performance of the firm, reduce agency costs and take care of their interests, both financial and non-financial. Corporate governance codes such as the various King codes have emphasised the importance of having balanced boards in terms of diversity and the need for increased transformation in the boardroom. There is a growing debate on whether a board that is more diversified impacts the performance of the organisation and the research on the subject of diversified boards and organisational performance have had varied results thus far. This research concentrates on boardroom diversity, specifically in respect of gender, in terms of age diversity, race and board independence and whether these diversity variables have influences on organisational performance, in respect of Tobin’s Q and also utilising Return on Assets (ROA). The JSE top 100 firms were analysed for the period 2012 to 2016. Panel data was used and an OLS regression and a fixed effects regression model were utilised. The study concluded that all four board diversity variables have an insignificant impact on organisational performance.Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2018.dm2019Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)MB

Supporting Student Mental Health During and After COVID-19

This report by the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) in the VCU School of Education offers a rapid review of research about supporting student mental health as they return to school during COVID-19. It pulls from literature on natural disasters like hurricane Katrina, the psychological impacts of quarantine, and emergent research on the mental health impacts of the Coronavirus. The report is structured to answer three overarching questions: 1) Why is it important to address the mental health needs of students in schools? 2) How can we expect COVID-19 to impact the mental health of students? 3) What are some practical strategies for addressing the mental health needs of students and personnel as they return to school? Links to relevant resources for educators are provided throughout the report

Observations of Collaborative Behavior in COMPS Computer Mediated Problem Solving

Abstract COMPS is a web-delivered computer-mediated problem solving environment for student collaborative exploratory learning. The primary mode of interaction is typed dialogue, but COMPS also provides problem-specific affordances for exploring a problem. This paper reports qualitatively on dialogues from students employed in four different activities: two logical reasoning problems in a quantitative literacy class and two different problems in object-oriented Java in an elementary programming class. In all domains we observe behaviors consistent with quality collaborative learning experiences: co-construction of knowledge, mixed initiative dialogue, coming to common agreement, and students adopting different roles in the problem-solving process. These observations confirm that COMPS indeed facilitates true collaborative activity

Gene expression in primate liver during viral hemorrhagic fever

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rhesus macaques infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) provide a model for human Lassa fever. Disease begins with flu-like symptoms and progresses rapidly with fatal consequences. Previously, we profiled the blood transcriptome of LCMV-infected monkeys (M. Djavani et al J. Virol. 2007) showing distinct pre-viremic and viremic stages that discriminated virulent from benign infections. In the present study, changes in liver gene expression from macaques infected with virulent LCMV-WE were compared to gene expression in uninfected monkeys as well as to monkeys that were infected but not diseased.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on a functional pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes, virulent LCMV-WE had a broader effect on liver cell function than did infection with non-virulent LCMV-Armstrong. During the first few days after infection, LCMV altered expression of genes associated with energy production, including fatty acid and glucose metabolism. The transcriptome profile resembled that of an organism in starvation: mRNA for acetyl-CoA carboxylase, a key enzyme of fatty acid synthesis was reduced while genes for enzymes in gluconeogenesis were up-regulated. Expression was also altered for genes associated with complement and coagulation cascades, and with signaling pathways involving STAT1 and TGF-β.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Most of the 4500 differentially expressed transcripts represented a general response to both virulent and mild infections. However, approximately 250 of these transcripts had significantly different expression in virulent infections as compared to mild infections, with approximately 30 of these being differentially regulated during the pre-viremic stage of infection. The genes that are expressed early and differently in mild and virulent disease are potential biomarkers for prognosis and triage of acute viral disease.</p

Dynamic nuclear polarization at 9 T using a novel 250 GHz gyrotron microwave source

In this communication, we report enhancements of nuclear spin polarization by dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) in static and spinning solids at a magnetic field strength of 9 T (250 GHz for g = 2 electrons, 380 MHz for [superscript 1]H). In these experiments, [superscript 1]H enhancements of up to 170 ± 50 have been observed in 1-[superscript 13]C-glycine dispersed in a 60:40 glycerol/water matrix at temperatures of 20 K; in addition, we have observed significant enhancements in [superscript 15]N spectra of unoriented pf1-bacteriophage. Finally, enhancements of ~17 have been obtained in two-dimensional [superscript 13]C–[superscript 13]C chemical shift correlation spectra of the amino acid U–[superscript 13]C, [superscript 15]N-proline during magic angle spinning (MAS), demonstrating the stability of the DNP experiment for sustained acquisition and for quantitative experiments incorporating dipolar recoupling. In all cases, we have exploited the thermal mixing DNP mechanism with the nitroxide radical 4-amino-TEMPO as the paramagnetic dopant. These are the highest frequency DNP experiments performed to date and indicate that significant signal enhancements can be realized using the thermal mixing mechanism even at elevated magnetic fields. In large measure, this is due to the high microwave power output of the 250 GHz gyrotron oscillator used in these experiments.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Postgraduate Scholarship Fellowship)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant GM-35382)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant GM-55327)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant RR-00995

Fiction Fix 06

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Mycobacterium abscessus Complex Identification with Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization–Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry

We determined that the Vitek MS Plus matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry using research-use-only (RUO) v.4.12 and in vitro -diagnostic (IVD) v.3.0 databases accurately identified 41 Mycobacterium abscessus subsp. abscessus and 13 M. abscessus subsp. massiliense isolates identified by whole-genome sequencing to the species but not the subspecies level, from Middlebrook 7H11 and Burkholderia cepacia selective agars. Peak analysis revealed three peaks potentially able to differentiate between subspecies