Constructing the First Year Experience: Improving Retention and Graduation Rates at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

In 2012, UNM teamed up with the Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, to conduct a Foundations of Excellence® (FoE) First College Year Self Study addressing student success. As members of the First Year Steering Committee, we invented, coordinated, measured, and documented programs for linking students to the academic experiences and support that were best attuned to their needs

Academic health sciences library research support

The Ohio State University Libraries Advisory Committee on ResearchPublisher allows immediate open acces

The use of hypnosis in labor and delivery : a preliminary study

Self-hypnosis was taught to 87 obstetric patients (HYP) and was not taught to 56 other patients (CNTRL), all delivered by the same family physician, in order to determine whether the use of self-hypnosis by low-risk obstetric patients leads to fewer technologic interventions during their deliveries or greater satisfaction of parturients with their delivery experience or both. The outcomes of the deliveries of these two groups were compared, and the HYP group was compared to 352 low-risk patients delivered by other family physicians at the same hospital (WCH). Questionnaires were mailed postpartum to 156 patients, all delivered by the same family physician, to determine satisfaction with delivery using the Labor and Delivery Satisfaction Index (LADSI). The hypnosis group showed a significant reduction in the number of epidurals (11.4% less than CNTRL and 17.9% less than WCH, p < 0.05) and the use of intravenous lines (18.5% less for both, p < 0.05). The number of episiotomies was significantly less in the HYP group compared to WCH (15.9%, p < 0.05) and 11.5% less when compared to CNTRL. The tear rate was not statistically different. Combined use of the intervention triad (epidural–forceps–episiotomy) was less for HYP than for CNTRL (15.8% less) and WCH (10.2% less, p < 0.05). More deliveries were done in the labor room with HYP than CNTRL (21%, p < 0.05). The second stage was shortened by 10 min (HYP vs CNTRL). Overall satisfaction of HYP and CNTRL patients was similar and generally favorable

The Role of Forests and Trees in Poverty Dynamics

Understanding the contribution of forests to poverty alleviation and human well-being has never been more important. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are erasing gains in poverty reduction achieved over the past several decades. At the same time, climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events and natural disasters, especially in poor rural communities. In this paper, we review approaches to measuring poverty and well-being finding that standard approaches to measuring poverty and poverty dynamics typically do not adequately consider environmental goods and services, leading to an incompelete understanding of poverty dynamics among policy makers and practitioners. We identify four archetypal poverty trajectories and discuss how subsistence and cash income, assets, and non-material benefits from forests and tree-based systems influence each of them. We draw on the broad literature on forests and livelihoods, acknowledging that the majority of the literature on the topic of forests and poverty relies on static, micro-level, and highly contextualized analyses. Our review suggest that forests and tree-based systems provide a pathway out of poverty only under very specific conditions, when high value goods are accessible and marketed, or when ecosystem services can be monetized for the benefit of people living in or near forests. However, the role that forests play in supporting and maintaining current consumption, diversifying incomes, and meeting basic needs may be extremely important, particularly for those experiencing transient poverty. We discuss negative externalities associated with living proximate to forests, including the special case of geographic poverty traps, which can occur in remote forested areas. To build a strong evidence base for policy makers we recommend that research on forest-poverty dynamics address longer time-frames (up to decades), larger and/or nested spatial scales, and are contextualized within the landscape, region, or national setting where it is conducted. Advancing our understanding of forest-poverty dynamics is critical, particularly in low and middle-income countries where large numbers of people live in or near forests or in landscapes with forest-agriculture mosaics. Policy makers should strive to understand the potential role for forest-based livelihood strategies among their suite of social protection and poverty reduction policies and programs, particularly for addressing transient poverty

Research frontiers on forests, trees, and poverty dynamics

Forests and trees provide a range of goods and services vital for human well-being, particularly for people who live below the poverty line. Yet a number of important knowledge gaps remain regarding the relationship between forests, trees, and poverty dynamics. Here, we highlight five research priorities that require urgent attention if policy makers and practitioners are to realize the potential for forests and tree-based systems to contribute to poverty alleviation. These are: examining forest-poverty dynamics, especially over the medium- to long-term; assessing the relative effectiveness of different forest-related policy and management interventions for poverty alleviation; identifying the key barriers to more equitable, just, and sustainable use of forests and trees, and ways to overcome them; expanding the evidence base to cover under-represented geographies and contexts; and bringing to light the ‘hidden dimensions’ of forest contributions to poverty alleviation

Monophyly and Relationships of the Enigmatic Family Peridiscaceae

Peridiscaccae, comprising Peridiscus, Soyauxia, and Whittonia, are an enigmatic angiosperm family of uncertain composition and placement. Although some have placed Soyauxia in other families (e.g., Flacourtiaceae, Medusandraceae), rather than in Peridiscaceae, sequence data for five genes (material of Whittonia could not be obtained) provide strong support for a clade of Soyauxia and Peridiscus. This evidence, combined with the strong morphological similarity of Peridiscus and Whittonia, support a monophyletic Peridiscaceae of three genera. Molecular analyses of a three-gene (rbcL, atpB, 18S rDNA) dataset for 569 taxa indicate that Peridiscus + Soyauxia together with Daphniphyllaceae form a clade that is sister to the rest of Saxifragales. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses of Saxifragales using a five-gene (rbcL, atpB, matK, 18S rDNA, 26S rDNA) dataset place Peridiscaceae (posterior probability of 1.00) Peridiscaceae as sister to the remainder of Saxifragales, albeit without high posterior probability (pp = 0.78). Parsimony places a well-supported Peridiscaccae (100% bootstrap) as sister to Paeoniaceae within a paraphyletic Hamamelidaceae, a placement that may be due to long-branch attraction. Following removal of Paeoniaceae from the dataset, parsimony trees place Peridiscaceae as sister to the remainder of Saxifragales. Although the placement of Peridiscaccae is not well supported in any analysis, molecular data suggest that Peridiscaceae do not have as their closest relatives Saxifragaceae, Iteaceae, Pterostemonaceae, Haloragaceae, or Crassulaceae, but instead are more closely related to woody members of Saxifragales (Altingiaceae, Cercidiphyllaceae, Hamamelidaceae, and Daphniphyllaccae); several morphological features similarly suggest a relationship of Peridiscaceae to these woody families. The low support for the placement of Peridiscaceae is not surprising; previous analyses indicate that Saxifragales underwent a rapid, ancient radiation, and resolving relationships among members of the clade, particularly the basal grade of woody taxa, has been extremely difficult.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog