“There Is Never a Break”: The Hidden Curriculum of Professionalization for Engineering Faculty

The purpose of this exploratory special issue study was to understand the hidden curriculum (HC), or the unwritten, unofficial, or unintended lessons, around the professionalization of engineering faculty across institutions of higher education. Additionally, how engineering faculty connected the role of HC awareness, emotions, self-efficacy, and self-advocacy concepts was studied. A mixed-method survey was disseminated to 55 engineering faculties across 54 institutions of higher education in the United States. Quantitative questions, which centered around the influences that gender, race, faculty rank, and institutional type played in participants’ responses was analyzed using a combination of decision tree analysis with chi-square and correlational analysis. Qualitative questions were analyzed by a combination of tone-, open-, and focused-coding. The findings pointed to the primary roles that gender and institutional type (e.g., Tier 1) played in issues of fulfilling the professional expectations of the field. Furthermore, it was found that HC awareness and emotions and HC awareness and self-efficacy had moderate positive correlations, whereas, compared to self-advocacy, it had weak, negative correlations. Together, the findings point to the complex understandings and intersectional lived realities of many engineering faculty and hopes that through its findings can create awareness of the challenges and obstacles present in these professional environments

Measurement of Oral Epithelial Thickness by Optical Coherence Tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a real-time, in-situ, non-invasive imaging device that is able to perform a cross-sectional evaluation of tissue microstructure based on the specific intensity of back-scattered and reflected light. The aim of the present study was to define normal values of epithelial thickness within the oral cavity. OCT measurements of epithelial thickness were performed in 28 healthy patients at six different locations within the oral cavity. Image analysis was performed using Image J 1.52 software. The healthy epithelium has a mean thickness of 335.59 ± 150.73 µm. According to its location within the oral cavity, the epithelium showed highest values in the region of the buccal mucosa (659.79 µm) and the thinnest one was observed in the mouth’s floor (100.07 µm). OCT has been shown to be useful for the evaluation of oral mucosa in vivo and in real time. Our study provides reference values for the epithelial thickness of multiple sites within the oral cavity. Knowledge of the thickness values of healthy mucosa is, therefore, of fundamental importance

Tradisi Panen Raya Guna Menunjang Branding Beras Organik di Desa Gentungan, Kabupaten Karanganyar

Desa Gentungan merupakan salah satu desa di Kecamatan Mojogedang, Kabupaten Karanganyar. Desa Gentungan memiliki potensi pertanian organik yang sangat besar. Desa Gentungan memiliki lahan pertanian organik 22 ha yang dikelola oleh Kelompok Tani Mulyo 1 yang beranggotakan 80 orang. Areal pertanaman padi organik telah memiliki sertifikasi organik sejak tahun 2010. Areal pertanaman padi organik dilengkapi dengan berbagai gazebo dan Wisata Pertanian Embung Setumpeng. Faktor pendukung lainnya yang sangat kuat yaitu modal sosial anggota Kelompok Tani Mulyo 1 yang senang gotong royong dan melestarikan tradisi lokal pertanian. Tradisi panen raya menjadi salah satu kearifan lokal Desa Gentungan. Tradisi panen raya akan menunjang branding pertanian organik Desa Gentungan. Kegiatan panen raya yang dilakukan meliputi pertunjukan reog, kirab gunungan tumpeng, pertunjukan wayang kisah pertanian organik, methik padi, dan kirab Mbok Sri kembali. Rangkaian panen raya dari perencanaan, pelaksanaan, dan evaluasi menggunakan metode participatory rural appraisal yang melibatkan seluruh anggota Kelompok Tani Mulyo 1 dari perencanaan hingga evaluasi kegiatan. Panen raya ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan branding beras organik Desa Gentungan dan meningkatkan daya tarik wisata pertanian Desa Gentungan. Hasil dari kegiatan ini yaitu peningkatan branding beras organik Desa Gentungan ke area Solo Raya melalui penawaran dalam kegiatan pameran UMKM dan pemasaran digital serta terjadi peningkatan pengunjung di Wisata Pertanian Embung Setumpeng menjadi 40 rombongan setiap pekannya

Tradisi Panen Raya Guna Menunjang Branding Beras Organik di Desa Gentungan, Kabupaten Karanganyar

Desa Gentungan merupakan salah satu desa di Kecamatan Mojogedang, Kabupaten Karanganyar. Desa Gentungan memiliki potensi pertanian organik yang sangat besar. Desa Gentungan memiliki lahan pertanian organik 22 ha yang dikelola oleh Kelompok Tani Mulyo 1 yang beranggotakan 80 orang. Areal pertanaman padi organik telah memiliki sertifikasi organik sejak tahun 2010. Areal pertanaman padi organik dilengkapi dengan berbagai gazebo dan Wisata Pertanian Embung Setumpeng. Faktor pendukung lainnya yang sangat kuat yaitu modal sosial anggota Kelompok Tani Mulyo 1 yang senang gotong royong dan melestarikan tradisi lokal pertanian. Tradisi panen raya menjadi salah satu kearifan lokal Desa Gentungan. Tradisi panen raya akan menunjang branding pertanian organik Desa Gentungan. Kegiatan panen raya yang dilakukan meliputi pertunjukan reog, kirab gunungan tumpeng, pertunjukan wayang kisah pertanian organik, methik padi, dan kirab Mbok Sri kembali. Rangkaian panen raya dari perencanaan, pelaksanaan, dan evaluasi menggunakan metode participatory rural appraisal yang melibatkan seluruh anggota Kelompok Tani Mulyo 1 dari perencanaan hingga evaluasi kegiatan. Panen raya ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan branding beras organik Desa Gentungan dan meningkatkan daya tarik wisata pertanian Desa Gentungan. Hasil dari kegiatan ini yaitu peningkatan branding beras organik Desa Gentungan ke area Solo Raya melalui penawaran dalam kegiatan pameran UMKM dan pemasaran digital serta terjadi peningkatan pengunjung di Wisata Pertanian Embung Setumpeng menjadi 40 rombongan setiap pekannya

A problem-solving task specialized for functional neuroimaging: Validation of the Scarborough adaptation of the Tower of London (S-TOL) using near-infrared spectroscopy

Problem-solving is an executive function subserved by a network of neural structures of which the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is central. Whereas several studies have evaluated the role of the DLPFC in problem-solving, few standardized tasks have been developed specifically for use with functional neuroimaging. The current study adapted a measure with established validity for the assessment of problem-solving abilities to design a test more suitable for functional neuroimaging protocols. The Scarborough adaptation of the Tower of London (S-TOL) was administered to 38 healthy adults while hemodynamic oxygenation of the PFC was measured using 16-channel continuous-wave functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Compared to a baseline condition, problems that required two or three steps to achieve a goal configuration were associated with higher activation in the left DLPFC and deactivation in the medial PFC. Individuals scoring higher in trait deliberation showed consistently higher activation in the left DLPFC regardless of task difficulty, whereas individuals lower in this trait displayed less activation when solving simple problems. Based on these results, the S-TOL may serve as a standardized task to evaluate problem-solving abilities in functional neuroimaging studies

Observation of Dirac plasmons in a topological insulator

Plasmons are the quantized collective oscillations of electrons in metals and doped semiconductors. The plasmons of ordinary, massive electrons are since a long time basic ingredients of research in plasmonics and in optical metamaterials. Plasmons of massless Dirac electrons were instead recently observed in a purely two-dimensional electron system (2DEG)like graphene, and their properties are promising for new tunable plasmonic metamaterials in the terahertz and the mid-infrared frequency range. Dirac quasi-particles are known to exist also in the two-dimensional electron gas which forms at the surface of topological insulators due to a strong spin-orbit interaction. Therefore,one may look for their collective excitations by using infrared spectroscopy. Here we first report evidence of plasmonic excitations in a topological insulator (Bi2Se3), that was engineered in thin micro-ribbon arrays of different width W and period 2W to select suitable values of the plasmon wavevector k. Their lineshape was found to be extremely robust vs. temperature between 6 and 300 K, as one may expect for the excitations of topological carriers. Moreover, by changing W and measuring in the terahertz range the plasmonic frequency vP vs. k we could show, without using any fitting parameter, that the dispersion curve is in quantitative agreement with that predicted for Dirac plasmons.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, published in Nature Nanotechnology (2013

Tumor cell lines resistant to ALA-mediated photodynamic therapy and possible tools to target surviving cells

We isolated and characterized cell lines resistant to aminolevulinic acid (ALA)-mediated photodynamic therapy (PDT) derived from a murine adenocarcinoma and studied cross resistance with other injuries. The most resistant clones were numbers 4 and 8, which exhibited 6.7- and 4.2-fold increase in resistance respectively. Several characteristics were altered in these clones. A 2-fold increase in cell volume, higher cell spreading, and a more fibroblastic, dendritic pattern, were the morphology features that led us to think they could have different adhesive, invasive or metastatic phenotypes. The amount of porphyrins synthesized per cell in the resistant clones was similar to the parental line but, when it was expressed per mg protein, there was a 2-fold decrease, with a higher proportion of hydrophilic porphyrins. These cells were not cross-resistant to photosensitization with Benzoporphyrin derivative and Merocyanine 540, but exhibited a slight resistance to exogenous protoporphyrin IX treatment. Both clones displayed higher protein content and increased number of mitochondria, together with a higher oxygen consumption. The distinctive features found in the resistant lines led as to think how to exploit the changes induced by PDT treatment to target surviving cells. Those hypoxic cells can be also a preferential target of bioreductive drugs and hypoxia-directed gene therapy, and would be sensitive to treatment with other photosensitizers.Fil: Casas, Adriana Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias; ArgentinaFil: Perotti, Christian. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Hospital de Clínicas General San Martín; ArgentinaFil: Ortel, Bernhard. Harvard Medical School; Estados UnidosFil: Di Venosa, Gabriela Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias; ArgentinaFil: Saccoliti, María. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Hospital General de Agudos Carlos Durand; ArgentinaFil: Batlle, Alcira Maria del C.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Centro de Investigaciones sobre Porfirinas y Porfirias; ArgentinaFil: Hasan, Tayyaba. Harvard Medical School; Estados Unido

CD11cloB220+ interferon-producing killer dendritic cells are activated natural killer cells

Interferon-producing killer dendritic cells (IKDCs) are a recently described subset of CD11cloB220+ cells that share phenotypic and functional properties of DCs and natural killer (NK) cells (Chan, C.W., E. Crafton, H.N. Fan, J. Flook, K. Yoshimura, M. Skarica, D. Brockstedt, T.W. Dubensky, M.F. Stins, L.L. Lanier, et al. 2006. Nat. Med. 12:207–213; Taieb, J., N. Chaput, C. Menard, L. Apetoh, E. Ullrich, M. Bonmort, M. Pequignot, N. Casares, M. Terme, C. Flament, et al. 2006. Nat. Med. 12:214–219). IKDC development appears unusual in that cytokines using the interleukin (IL)-2 receptor β (IL-2Rβ) chain but not those using the common γ chain (γc) are necessary for their generation. By directly comparing Rag2−/−γc−/y, Rag2−/−IL-2Rβ−/−, Rag2−/−IL-15−/−, and Rag2−/−IL-2−/− mice, we demonstrate that IKDC development parallels NK cell development in its strict IL-15 dependence. Moreover, IKDCs uniformly express NK-specific Ncr-1 transcripts (encoding NKp46), whereas NKp46+ cells are absent in Ncr1gfp/+γc−/y mice. Distinguishing features of IKDCs (CD11cloB220+MHC-II+) were carefully examined on developing NK cells in the bone marrow and on peripheral NK cells. As B220 expression was heterogeneous, defining B220lo versus B220hi NK1.1+ NK cells could be considered as arbitrary, and few phenotypic differences were noted between NK1.1+ NK cells bearing different levels of B220. CD11c expression did not correlate with B220 or major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II (MHC-II) expression, and most MHC-II+ NK1.1+ cells did not express B220 and were thus not IKDCs. Finally, CD11c, MHC-II, and B220 levels were up-regulated on NK1.1+ cells upon activation in vitro or in vivo in a proliferation-dependent fashion. Our data suggest that the majority of CD11cloB220+ “IKDC-like” cells represent activated NK cells

First-principles calculation of topological invariants Z2 within the FP-LAPW formalism

In this paper, we report the implementation of first-principles calculations of topological invariants Z2 within the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave (FP-LAPW) formalism. In systems with both time-reversal and spatial inversion symmetry (centrosymmetric), one can use the parity analysis of Bloch functions at time-reversal invariant momenta to determine the Z2 invariants. In systems without spatial inversion symmetry (noncentrosymmetric), however, a more complex and systematic method in terms of the Berry gauge potential and the Berry curvature is required to identify the band topology. We show in detail how both methods are implemented in FP-LAPW formalism and applied to several classes of materials including centrosymmetric compounds Bi2Se3 and Sb2Se3 and noncentrosymmetric compounds LuPtBi, AuTlS2 and CdSnAs2. Our work provides an accurate and effective implementation of first-principles calculations to speed up the search of new topological insulators

Magnetism in AV3Sb5 (Cs, Rb, K): Origin and Consequences for the Strongly Correlated Phases

The V-based kagome systems AV3Sb5 (A = Cs, Rb and K) are unique by virtue of the intricate interplay of non-trivial electronic structure, topology and intriguing fermiology, rendering them to be a playground of many mutually dependent exotic phases like charge-order and superconductivity. Despite numerous recent studies, the interconnection of magnetism and other complex collective phenomena in these systems has yet not arrived at any conclusion. Using first-principles tools, we demonstrate that their electronic structures, complex fermiologies and phonon dispersions are strongly influenced by the interplay of dynamic electron correlations, non-trivial spin-polarization and spin-orbit coupling. An investigation of the first-principles-derived inter-site magnetic exchanges with the complementary analysis of q-dependence of the electronic response functions and the electron-phonon coupling indicate that the system conforms as a frustrated spin-cluster, where the occurrence of the charge-order phase is intimately related to the mechanism of electron-phonon coupling, rather than the Fermi-surface nesting.Comment: Accepted in Physical Review Letter