Mothering and Professing in the Ivory Tower: Supporting Graduate Student Mothers

Women interested in becoming professors and mothers are often unsure of the besttime to start their families. Many women decide to become mothers in graduateschool. This article discusses the landscape for graduate students who decide to becomemothers ( gsm s) while still in school. There are several obstacles for gsm s who wishto become tenured faculty members. Institutional obstacles include the notion of idealworkers and ideal careers, which do not include the option of motherhood and oftenconflict with the notion of the ideal mother. Another obstacle is institutional genderbiases and assumptions about women, such as the bias against caregiving. Womenof any age are assumed to be responsible for caregiving of children and/or elders.Finally, women lack their own individual agency and do not have family supportto be able to be successful. gsm s can employ various strategies to overcome theseobstacles. Strategies can include institutional change strategies, department support,individual agency, and family support. Obstacles and strategies are illustrated throughpersonal vignettes from the authors’ own experiences: three authors are tenured withchildren, and two have infants and are gsm s. Two authors are or have been chairsof dissertation committees. Recommendations for institutions are offered that cansupport gsm s in their efforts to be successful at mothering and professing in theivory tower. The presented arguments make it clear that the mothering viewpointis sorely needed in the academy, and that gsm s need support from all stakeholdersin order to be successful

Data Acquisition Protocols and Reporting Standards for Studies of the Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide

Objective evaluation of the performance of electrocatalysts for CO_2 reduction has been complicated by a lack of standardized methods for measuring and reporting activity data. In this perspective, we advocate that standardizing these practices can aid in advancing research efforts toward the development of efficient and selective CO_2 reduction electrocatalysts. Using information taken from experimental studies, we identify variables that influence the measured activity of CO_2 reduction electrocatalysts and propose procedures to account for these variables in order to improve the accuracy and reproducibility of reported data. We recommend that catalysts be measured under conditions which do not introduce artifacts from impurities, from either the electrolyte or counter electrode, and advocate the acquisition of data measured in the absence of mass transport effects. Furthermore, measured rates of electrochemical reactions should be normalized to both the geometric electrode area as well as the electrochemically active surface area to facilitate the comparison of reported catalysts with those previously known. We demonstrate that, when these factors are accounted for, the CO_2 reduction activities of Ag and Cu measured in different laboratories exhibit little difference. Adoption of the recommendations presented in this perspective would greatly facilitate the identification of superior catalysts for CO_2 reduction arising solely from changes in their composition and pretreatment

Common Raven Impacts on Nesting Western Snowy Plovers: Integrating Management to Facilitate Species Recovery

The U.S. Pacific coast population of the western snowy plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus; plover) has declined due to loss and degradation of coastal habitats, predation, and anthropogenic disturbance. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the subspecies in 1993 as threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to the population declines and habitat loss. Predation of nests and chicks has been identified as an important cause of historic population declines, and thus, most predator management actions for this subspecies are focused on reducing this pressure. In recent years, common ravens (Corvus corax; ravens) have become the most common and pervasive predators of plover nests and chicks, especially in areas with subsidized food sources for ravens and sites without predator management. We compiled data from a variety of sources to document the impact of raven predation on plover nesting success. We discuss current raven management and suggest several tools and strategies to increase plover nesting success, including multi-state approval for the use of the avicide DRC-1339, the use of lures and new trap types, and an increase in funding for predator management. The lack of coordinated and integrated management continues to impede the recovery of the Pacific coast plover population

Harnessing person-generated health data to accelerate patient-centered outcomes research: the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America PCORnet Patient Powered Research Network (CCFA Partners)

The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America Partners Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRN) seeks to advance and accelerate comparative effectiveness and translational research in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Our IBD-focused PCORnet PPRN has been designed to overcome the major obstacles that have limited patient-centered outcomes research in IBD by providing the technical infrastructure, patient governance, and patient-driven functionality needed to: 1) identify, prioritize, and undertake a patient-centered research agenda through sharing person-generated health data; 2) develop and test patient and provider-focused tools that utilize individual patient data to improve health behaviors and inform health care decisions and, ultimately, outcomes; and 3) rapidly disseminate new knowledge to patients, enabling them to improve their health. The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America Partners PPRN has fostered the development of a community of citizen scientists in IBD; created a portal that will recruit, retain, and engage members and encourage partnerships with external scientists; and produced an efficient infrastructure for identifying, screening, and contacting network members for participation in research

Data Acquisition Protocols and Reporting Standards for Studies of the Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide

Objective evaluation of the performance of electrocatalysts for CO_2 reduction has been complicated by a lack of standardized methods for measuring and reporting activity data. In this perspective, we advocate that standardizing these practices can aid in advancing research efforts toward the development of efficient and selective CO_2 reduction electrocatalysts. Using information taken from experimental studies, we identify variables that influence the measured activity of CO_2 reduction electrocatalysts and propose procedures to account for these variables in order to improve the accuracy and reproducibility of reported data. We recommend that catalysts be measured under conditions which do not introduce artifacts from impurities, from either the electrolyte or counter electrode, and advocate the acquisition of data measured in the absence of mass transport effects. Furthermore, measured rates of electrochemical reactions should be normalized to both the geometric electrode area as well as the electrochemically active surface area to facilitate the comparison of reported catalysts with those previously known. We demonstrate that, when these factors are accounted for, the CO_2 reduction activities of Ag and Cu measured in different laboratories exhibit little difference. Adoption of the recommendations presented in this perspective would greatly facilitate the identification of superior catalysts for CO_2 reduction arising solely from changes in their composition and pretreatment

Standard operating procedure for curation and clinical interpretation of variants in cancer

Manually curated variant knowledgebases and their associated knowledge models are serving an increasingly important role in distributing and interpreting variants in cancer. These knowledgebases vary in their level of public accessibility, and the complexity of the models used to capture clinical knowledge. CIViC (Clinical Interpretation of Variants in Cancer - www.civicdb.org) is a fully open, free-to-use cancer variant interpretation knowledgebase that incorporates highly detailed curation of evidence obtained from peer-reviewed publications and meeting abstracts, and currently holds over 6300 Evidence Items for over 2300 variants derived from over 400 genes. CIViC has seen increased adoption by, and also undertaken collaboration with, a wide range of users and organizations involved in research. To enhance CIViC\u27s clinical value, regular submission to the ClinVar database and pursuit of other regulatory approvals is necessary. For this reason, a formal peer reviewed curation guideline and discussion of the underlying principles of curation is needed. We present here the CIViC knowledge model, standard operating procedures (SOP) for variant curation, and detailed examples to support community-driven curation of cancer variants

The Temporal Relationship Between the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic and Preterm Birth

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether preterm birth rates changed in relation to the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and whether any change depended on socioeconomic status. METHODS: This is an observational cohort study of pregnant individuals with a singleton gestation who delivered in the years 2019 and 2020 at 1 of 16 U.S. hospitals of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units Network. The frequency of preterm birth for those who delivered before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (ie, in 2019) was compared with that of those who delivered after its onset (ie, in 2020). Interaction analyses were performed for people of different individual- and community-level socioeconomic characteristics (ie, race and ethnicity, insurance status, Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) of a person\u27s residence). RESULTS: During 2019 and 2020, 18,526 individuals met inclusion criteria. The chance of preterm birth before the COVID-19 pandemic was similar to that after the onset of the pandemic (11.7% vs 12.5%, adjusted relative risk 0.94, 95% CI 0.86-1.03). In interaction analyses, race and ethnicity, insurance status, and the SVI did not modify the association between the epoch and the chance of preterm birth before 37 weeks of gestation (all interaction P \u3e.05). CONCLUSION: There was no statistically significant difference in preterm birth rates in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic onset. This lack of association was largely independent of socioeconomic indicators such as race and ethnicity, insurance status, or SVI of the residential community in which an individual lived

The biogeochemical impact of glacial meltwater from Southwest Greenland

Biogeochemical cycling in high-latitude regions has a disproportionate impact on global nutrient budgets. Here, we introduce a holistic, multi-disciplinary framework for elucidating the influence of glacial meltwaters, shelf currents, and biological production on biogeochemical cycling in high-latitude continental margins, with a focus on the silica cycle. Our findings highlight the impact of significant glacial discharge on nutrient supply to shelf and slope waters, as well as surface and benthic production in these regions, over a range of timescales from days to thousands of years. Whilst biological uptake in fjords and strong diatom activity in coastal waters maintains low dissolved silicon concentrations in surface waters, we find important but spatially heterogeneous additions of particulates into the system, which are transported rapidly away from the shore. We expect the glacially-derived particles – together with biogenic silica tests – to be cycled rapidly through shallow sediments, resulting in a strong benthic flux of dissolved silicon. Entrainment of this benthic silicon into boundary currents may supply an important source of this key nutrient into the Labrador Sea, and is also likely to recirculate back into the deep fjords inshore. This study illustrates how geochemical and oceanographic analyses can be used together to probe further into modern nutrient cycling in this region, as well as the palaeoclimatological approaches to investigating changes in glacial meltwater discharge through time, especially during periods of rapid climatic change in the Late Quaternary