Exploring the contributions of self-efficacy and test anxiety to gender differences in assessments

The observed performance difference between women and men on assessments in physics---the "gender gap"---is a significant and persistent inequity which has broad implications for the participation of women in physics. Research also shows that gender-based inequities extend to affective measures, such as self-efficacy. In this exploratory study, we report on gender disparities in self-efficacy and test anxiety and their relationship to assessment scores in our active-learning introductory physics course. Overall, gender-based differences in favour of men are observed in all our measures, with women having lower scores on measures associated with success (self-efficacy and assessment scores) and a higher score on a possibly detrimental affective factor (test anxiety). Using a multiple regression model-selection process to explore which measures may explain end-of-course Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and final exam scores, we find that the best fitting models include FCI pretest and self-efficacy as predictors, but do not include test anxiety.Comment: Accepted to the 2020 Physics Education Research Conference Proceeding

Bleaching Response of Coral Species in the Context of Assemblage Response

Caribbean coral reefs are declining due to a mosaic of local and global stresses, including climate change-induced thermal stress. Species and assemblage responses differ due to factors that are not easily identifiable or quantifiable. We calculated a novel species-specific metric of coral bleaching response, taxon-α and -β, which relates the response of a species to that of its assemblages for 16 species over 18 assemblages. By contextualizing species responses within the response of their assemblages, the effects of environmental factors are removed and intrinsic differences among taxa are revealed. Most corals experience either a saturation response, overly sensitive to weak stress (α \u3e 0) but under-responsive compared to assemblage bleaching (β \u3c 1), or a threshold response, insensitive to weak stress (α \u3c 0) but over-responsive compared to assemblage bleaching (β \u3e 1). This metric may help reveal key factors of bleaching susceptibility and identify species as targets for conservation

Sexual violation of patients by physicians: A mixed-methods, exploratory analysis of 101 cases

A mixed-method, exploratory design was used to examine 101 cases of sexual violations in medicine. The study involved content analysis of cases to characterize the physicians, patient-victims, the practice setting, kinds of sexual violations, and consequences to the perpetrator. In each case, a criminal law framework was used to examine how motives, means, and opportunity combined to generate sexual misconduct. Finally, cross-case analysis was performed to identify clusters of causal factors that explain specific kinds of sexual misconduct. Most cases involved a combination of five factors: male physicians (100%), older than the age of 39 (92%), who were not board certified (70%), practicing in nonacademic settings (94%) where they always examined patients alone (85%). Only three factors (suspected antisocial personality, physician board certification, and vulnerable patients) differed significantly across the different kinds of sexual abuse: personality disorders were suspected most frequently in cases of rape, physicians were more frequently board certified in cases of consensual sex with patients, and patients were more commonly vulnerable in cases of child molestation. Drawing on study findings and past research, we offer a series of recommendations to medical schools, medical boards, chaperones, patients, and the national practitioners database

Expected Economic Benefits of the El Morillo Drain

The study of the benefits (damages averted) attributable to the El Morillo Drain encompasses U.S. municipalities, industry, and agriculture. It is conservatively estimated that the annual direct benefits to residents of South Texas ranges between $16.3 and$30.3 million. This does not include effects on landscapes, industry that is dependant on low saline water, and water treatment plants. Accounting for the costs to agriculture from crop losses of about $26.7 million, the total annual impact of the El Morillo Drain for South Texas is between$43 and $57 million. Such economic impact assessments are indicative that maintenance of the Drain is a highly-beneficial activity, leaving little doubt that it is essential that the drain be updated, maintained, and operated. Certainly as South Texas population increases and demand for high quality water increases, the value of the El Morillo Drain will increase

Prenatal treprostinil improves pulmonary arteriolar hypermuscularization in the rabbit model of congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a congenital malformation characterized by pulmonary hypoplasia, pulmonary hypertension, and cardiac dysfunction. Pulmonary hypertension represents the major cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity. Prenatal diagnosis allows assessment of severity and selection of foetal surgery candidates. We have shown that treprostinil, a prostacyclin analogue with an anti-remodelling effect, attenuates the relative hypermuscularization of the pulmonary vasculature in rats with nitrofen-induced CDH. Here we confirm these observations in a large animal model of surgically-created CDH. In the rabbit model, subcutaneous maternal administration of treprostinil at 150 ng/kg/min consistently reached target foetal concentrations without demonstrable detrimental foetal or maternal adverse effects. In pups with CDH, prenatal treprostinil reduced pulmonary arteriolar proportional medial wall thickness and downregulated inflammation and myogenesis pathways. No effect on alveolar morphometry or lung mechanics was observed. These findings provide further support towards clinical translation of prenatal treprostinil for CDH.</p

Skeletal Light-Scattering Accelerates Bleaching Response in Reef-Building Corals

Background At the forefront of ecosystems adversely affected by climate change, coral reefs are sensitive to anomalously high temperatures which disassociate (bleaching) photosynthetic symbionts (Symbiodinium) from coral hosts and cause increasingly frequent and severe mass mortality events. Susceptibility to bleaching and mortality is variable among corals, and is determined by unknown proportions of environmental history and the synergy of Symbiodinium- and coral-specific properties. Symbiodinium live within host tissues overlaying the coral skeleton, which increases light availability through multiple light-scattering, forming one of the most efficient biological collectors of solar radiation. Light-transport in the upper ~200 μm layer of corals skeletons (measured as ‘microscopic’ reduced-scattering coefficient, μ′S,m), has been identified as a determinant of excess light increase during bleaching and is therefore a potential determinant of the differential rate and severity of bleaching response among coral species. Results Here we experimentally demonstrate (in ten coral species) that, under thermal stress alone or combined thermal and light stress, low-μ′S,m corals bleach at higher rate and severity than high-μ′S,m corals and the Symbiodinium associated with low-μ′S,m corals experience twice the decrease in photochemical efficiency. We further modelled the light absorbed by Symbiodinium due to skeletal-scattering and show that the estimated skeleton-dependent light absorbed by Symbiodinium (per unit of photosynthetic pigment) and the temporal rate of increase in absorbed light during bleaching are several fold higher in low-μ′S,m corals. Conclusions While symbionts associated with low-μ′S,m corals receive less total light from the skeleton, they experience a higher rate of light increase once bleaching is initiated and absorbing bodies are lost; further precipitating the bleaching response. Because microscopic skeletal light-scattering is a robust predictor of light-dependent bleaching among the corals assessed here, this work establishes μ′S,m as one of the key determinants of differential bleaching response

Research Ethics Education for Community-Engaged Research: A Review and Research Agenda

Community engagement is increasingly becoming an integral part of research. “Community-engaged research” (CEnR) introduces new stakeholders as well as unique challenges to the protection of participants and the integrity of the research process. We—a group of representatives of CTSA-funded institutions and others who share expertise in research ethics and CEnR—have identified gaps in the literature regarding (1) ethical issues unique to CEnR; (2) the particular instructional needs of academic investigators, community research partners, and IRB members; and (3) best practices for teaching research ethics. This paper presents what we know, as well as what we still need to learn, in order to develop quality research ethics educational materials tailored to the full range of stakeholder groups in CEnR

Human genetic and metabolite variation reveals that methylthioadenosine is a prognostic biomarker and an inflammatory regulator in sepsis.

Sepsis is a deleterious inflammatory response to infection with high mortality. Reliable sepsis biomarkers could improve diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Integration of human genetics, patient metabolite and cytokine measurements, and testing in a mouse model demonstrate that the methionine salvage pathway is a regulator of sepsis that can accurately predict prognosis in patients. Pathway-based genome-wide association analysis of nontyphoidal Salmonella bacteremia showed a strong enrichment for single-nucleotide polymorphisms near the components of the methionine salvage pathway. Measurement of the pathway's substrate, methylthioadenosine (MTA), in two cohorts of sepsis patients demonstrated increased plasma MTA in nonsurvivors. Plasma MTA was correlated with levels of inflammatory cytokines, indicating that elevated MTA marks a subset of patients with excessive inflammation. A machine-learning model combining MTA and other variables yielded approximately 80% accuracy (area under the curve) in predicting death. Furthermore, mice infected with Salmonella had prolonged survival when MTA was administered before infection, suggesting that manipulating MTA levels could regulate the severity of the inflammatory response. Our results demonstrate how combining genetic data, biomolecule measurements, and animal models can shape our understanding of disease and lead to new biomarkers for patient stratification and potential therapeutic targeting

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie