Lessons Learned from Students' Research Experiences

Teaching graduate students how to do research can be a challenge for many instructors because "research education" is not an established field of research like other areas of teaching such as mathematics education, nursing education, science education, and statistics education. There are no scholarly journals devoted solely to teaching research methods; these sources are instead scattered across disciplines and journals (e.g., Nurse Researcher, Volume 13, Number 2, 2005; Sociology, Volume 15, Issue 4, 1981; and Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, Volume 49, Issue 1, 2005). Furthermore, even though research methods courses are a staple in most graduate training programs, instructors were rarely taught how to teach research methods as part of their own graduate programs. Left to their own devices, instructors of research courses must rely on a network of peers, scattered research literature, and much trial-and-error as they develop and improve upon their own research methods courses

Beef Cattle Instance Segmentation Using Fully Convolutional Neural Network

In this paper we present a novel instance segmentation algorithm that extends a fully convolutional network to learn to label objects separately without prediction of regions of interest. We trained the new algorithm on a challenging CCTV recording of beef cattle, as well as benchmark MS COCO and Pascal VOC datasets. Extensive experimentation showed that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art solutions by up to 8% on our data

Effect of Some Macrocyclic Ligands on the Rate of Reduction of Perchlorate Ion by Titanium(III)

Complexation with cyclam increases the rate of reduction of perchlorate ion by TiIII (in acidic, aqueous, 4 mol dm-3 LiCl Solutions at 25 °C) relative to the rate of the corresponding reduction of Ti3+. A modified cyclam with pendant amine and p-aminobenzyl functional groups is more effective in this regard than is cyclam itself. Both redox reactions are acid catalyzed. The data is consistent with involvement of an intermediate containing two TiIII centers

Physical therapy management, surgical treatment, and patient-reported outcomes measures in a prospective observational cohort of patients with neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome

OBJECTIVE: To assess the results of physical therapy management and surgical treatment in a prospective observational cohort of patients with neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome (NTOS) using patient-reported outcomes measures. METHODS: Of 183 new patient referrals from July 1 to December 31, 2015, 150 (82%) met the established clinical diagnostic criteria for NTOS. All patients underwent an initial 6-week physical therapy trial. Those with symptom improvement continued physical therapy, and the remainder underwent surgery (supraclavicular decompression with or without pectoralis minor tenotomy). Pretreatment factors and 7 patient-reported outcomes measures were compared between the physical therapy and surgery groups using t-tests and χ RESULTS: Of the 150 patients, 20 (13%) declined further treatment or follow-up, 40 (27%) obtained satisfactory improvement with physical therapy alone, and 90 (60%) underwent surgery. Slight differences were found between the physical therapy and surgery groups in the mean ± standard error degree of local tenderness to palpation (1.7 ± 0.1 vs 2.0 ± 0.1; P = .032), the number of positive clinical diagnostic criteria (9.0 ± 0.3 vs 10.1 ± 0.1; P = .001), Cervical-Brachial Symptom Questionnaire scores (68.0 ± 4.1 vs 78.0 ± 2.7; P = .045), and Short-Form 12-item physical quality-of-life scores (35.6 ± 1.5 vs 32.0 ± 0.8; P = .019) but not other pretreatment factors. During follow-up (median, 21.1 months for physical therapy and 12.0 months for surgery), the mean change in QuickDASH scores for physical therapy was -15.6 ± 3.0 (-29.5% ± 5.7%) compared with -29.8 ± 2.4 (-47.9% ± 3.6%) for surgery (P = .001). The patient-rated outcomes for surgery were excellent for 27%, good for 36%, fair for 26%, and poor for 11%, with a strong correlation between the percentage of decline in the QuickDASH score and patient-rated outcomes (P \u3c .0001). CONCLUSIONS: The present study has demonstrated contemporary outcomes for physical therapy and surgery in a well-studied cohort of patients with NTOS, reinforcing that surgery can be effective when physical therapy is insufficient, even with substantial pretreatment disability. Substantial symptom improvement can be expected for ∼90% of patients after surgery for NTOS, with treatment outcomes accurately reflected by changes in QuickDASH scores. Within this cohort, it was difficult to identify specific predictive factors for individuals most likely to benefit from physical therapy alone vs surgery

Development of G: A test in an amphibious fish

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this record.The data used in this manuscript has been achieved in Dryad repository: doi:10.5061/dryad.m56pj5b.Heritable variation in, and genetic correlations among, traits determine the response of multivariate phenotypes to natural selection. However, as traits develop over ontogeny, patterns of genetic (co)variation and integration captured by the G matrix may also change. Despite this, few studies have investigated how genetic parameters underpinning multivariate phenotypes change as animals pass through major life history stages. Here, using a self-fertilizing hermaphroditic fish species, mangrove rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus), we test the hypothesis that G changes from hatching through reproductive maturation. We also test Cheverud’s conjecture by asking whether phenotypic patterns provide an acceptable surrogate for patterns of genetic (co)variation within and across ontogenetic stages. For a set of morphological traits linked to locomotor (jumping) performance, we find that the overall level of genetic integration (as measured by the mean-squared correlation across all traits) does not change significantly over ontogeny. However, we also find evidence that some trait-specific genetic variances and pairwise genetic correlations do change. Ontogenetic changes in G indicate the presence of genetic variance for developmental processes themselves, while also suggesting that any genetic constraints on morphological evolution may be age-dependent. Phenotypic correlations closely resembled genetic correlations at each stage in ontogeny. Thus, our results are consistent with the premise that – at least under common environment conditions - phenotypic correlations can be a good substitute for genetic correlations in studies of multivariate developmental evolution

Longitudinal study of local authority child and family social workers (wave 1) Findings from a 5 year study of local authority child and family social workers in England.

The longitudinal study investigates recruitment, retention and career progression in local authority child and family social work over 5 years. This is the first of 5 reports. It provides workforce information for employers and policy makers. Topics covered in this report include: •entry routes into local authority child and family social work •current employment and career history •workplace wellbeing •management, supervision and working environment •job satisfaction •career progression and future career plan

Effect of floor type on the performance, physiological and behavioural responses of finishing beef steers

peer-reviewedBackground:The study objective was to investigate the effect of bare concrete slats (Control), two types of mats [(Easyfix mats (mat 1) and Irish Custom Extruder mats (mat 2)] fitted on top of concrete slats, and wood-chip to simulate deep bedding (wood-chip placed on top of a plastic membrane overlying the concrete slats) on performance, physiological and behavioral responses of finishing beef steers. One-hundred and forty-four finishing steers (503 kg; standard deviation 51.8 kg) were randomly assigned according to their breed (124 Continental cross and 20 Holstein–Friesian) and body weight to one of four treatments for 148 days. All steers were subjected to the same weighing, blood sampling (jugular venipuncture), dirt and hoof scoring pre study (day 0) and on days 23, 45, 65, 86, 107, 128 and 148 of the study. Cameras were fitted over each pen for 72 h recording over five periods and subsequent 10 min sampling scans were analysed. Results: Live weight gain and carcass characteristics were similar among treatments. The number of lesions on the hooves of the animals was greater (P < 0.05) on mats 1 and 2 and wood-chip treatments compared with the animals on the slats. Dirt scores were similar for the mat and slat treatments while the wood-chip treatment had greater dirt scores. Animals housed on either slats or wood-chip had similar lying times. The percent of animals lying was greater for animals housed on mat 1 and mat 2 compared with those housed on concrete slats and wood chips. Physiological variables showed no significant difference among treatments. Conclusions: In this exploratory study, the performance or welfare of steers was not adversely affected by slats, differing mat types or wood-chip as underfoot material

Temporal patterns of inflammatory gene expression in local tissues after banding or burdizzo castration in cattle

peer-reviewedBackground: Castration of male cattle has been shown to elicit inflammatory reactions and acute inflammation is initiated and sustained by the participation of cytokines. Methods: Sixty continental × beef bulls (Mean age 12 ± (s.e.) 0.2 months; Mean weight 341 ± (s.e.) 3.0 kg) were blocked by weight and randomly assigned to one of three treatments (n = 20 animals per treatment): 1) untreated control (Con); 2) banding castration at 0 min (Band); 3) Burdizzo castration at 0 min (Burd). Samples of the testis, epididymis and scrotal skin were collected surgically from 5 animals from each group at 12 h, 24 h, 7 d, and 14 d post-treatment, and analysed using real-time PCR. A repeated measurement analysis (Proc GLM) was performed using SAS. If there was no treatment and time interaction, main effects of treatment by time were tested by ANOVA. Results: Electrophoresis data showed that by 7 d post-castration RNA isolated from all the testicle samples of the Burd castrated animals, the epididymis and middle scrotum samples from Band castrates were degraded. Transitory effects were observed in the gene expression of IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α at 12 h and 24 h post treatment. Burd castrates had greater (P < 0.05) testicular IFN-γ mRNA levels compared with Band and Con animals, but lower (P < 0.05) testicular TNF-α mRNA levels compared with Con animals. Band castrates had greater (P < 0.05) testicular IL-6 mRNA levels than Burd castrates at 12 h post-castration. Burd castrates had greater (P < 0.05) testicular IL-8 mRNA levels than Band and Con animals at 24 h post-castration. In the epididymis, Burd castrates had greater (P < 0.05) IL-6 mRNA (both at 12 h and 24 h post treatment) and IL-8 mRNA (12 h post treatment) levels compared with Band and Con animals; Burd castrates had greater (P = 0.049) IL-10 mRNA levels than Band castrates at 12 h post-castration. Conclusion: Banding castration caused more inflammatory associated gene expression changes to the epididymis and scrotum than burdizzo. Burdizzo caused more severe acute inflammatory responses, in terms of pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression, in the testis and epididymis than banding

Stress and immunological response of heifers divergently ranked for residual feed intake following an adrenocorticotropic hormone challenge

peer-reviewedBackground When an animal is exposed to a stressor, metabolic rate, energy consumption and utilisation increase primarily through activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Changes to partitioning of energy by an animal are likely to influence the efficiency with which it is utilised. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the physiological stress response to an exogenous adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) challenge in beef heifers divergently ranked on phenotypic residual feed intake (RFI). Results Data were collected on 34 Simmental weaning beef heifers the progeny of a well characterized and divergently bred RFI suckler beef herd. Residual feed intake was determined on each animal during the post-weaning stage over a 91-day feed intake measurement period during which they were individually offered adlibitum grass silage and 2 kg of concentrate per head once daily. The 12 highest [0.34 kg DM/d] and 12 lowest [−0.48 kg DM/d] ranking animals on RFI were selected for use in this study. For the physiological stress challenge heifers (mean age 605 ± 13 d; mean BW 518 ± 31.4 kg) were fitted aseptically with indwelling jugular catheters to facilitate intensive blood collection. The response of the adrenal cortex to a standardised dose of ACTH (1.98 IU/kg metabolic BW0.75) was examined. Serial blood samples were analysed for plasma cortisol, ACTH and haematology variables. Heifers differing in RFI did not differ (P = 0.59) in ACTH concentrations. Concentration of ACTH peaked (P < 0.001) in both RFI groups at 20 min post-ACTH administration, following which concentration declined to baseline levels by 150 min. Similarly, cortisol systemic profile peaked at 60 min and concentrations remained continuously elevated for 150 min. A RFI × time interaction was detected for cortisol concentrations (P = 0.06) with high RFI heifers had a greater cortisol response than Low RFI from 40 min to 150 min relative to ACTH administration. Cortisol response was positively associated with RFI status (r = 0.32; P < 0.01). No effect of RFI was evident for neutrophil, lymphocytes, monocyte, eosinophils and basophil count. Plasma red blood cell number (6.07 vs. 6.23; P = 0.02) and hematocrit percentage (23.2 vs. 24.5; P = 0.02) were greater for low than high RFI animals. Conclusions Evidence is provided that feed efficiency is associated with HPA axis function and susceptibility to stress, and responsiveness of the HPA axis is likely to contribute to appreciable variation in the efficiency feed utilisation of cattle