Online Graduate Student Identity and Professional Skills Development

Graduate students are assumed to develop skills in oral and written communication and collegial relationships that are complementary to formal graduate programs. However, it appears only a small number of universities provide such professional development opportunities alongside academic programs, and even fewer do so online. There appears to be an assumption in higher education that students develop professional skills by virtue of learning through required academic tasks and having proximity to other students and faculty. Skeptics of online study raise questions about whether graduate students studying online can participate fully in such graduate communities and access these informal professional skill-building opportunities. It is possible that such activities may have to be designed and delivered for online graduate students. This paper presents preliminary qualitative findings from a project that developed, offered, and evaluated such online opportunities. Findings suggest that while online graduate students can and do develop professional skills while navigating their studies, building relationships, and participating in online learning communities, they are keen to develop such professional skills in a more deliberate way.  On présume que les étudiants des cycles supérieurs acquièrent des habiletés en communication orale et écrite et vivent des relations de collaboration qui soient complémentaires aux programmes formels des études supérieures. Cependant, il semblerait que seul un petit nombre d’universités offre de telles opportunités de perfectionnement professionnel dans leurs programmes académiques, et que ce nombre est même inférieur en ce qui a trait aux formations en ligne. On suppose que les étudiants des études supérieures acquièrent des habiletés professionnelles en raison des travaux académiques de leur formation et des relations établies avec leurs professeurs et d’autres étudiants. Les sceptiques au sujet de la formation en ligne émettent des doutes quant à la possibilité, pour les étudiants diplômés qui étudient en ligne, de participer pleinement à ces communautés universitaires et d’avoir accès à ces occasions informelles d’acquérir des compétences professionnelles. Il se peut que ces activités doivent être conçues puis offertes aux étudiants de cycles supérieurs en ligne. L’étude qui suit présente les résultats préliminaires qualitatifs d’un projet qui a élaboré, offert et évalué de telles opportunités en ligne. Les résultats suggèrent que si les étudiants de cycles supérieurs en ligne sont en mesure d’acquérir des habiletés professionnelles tout en poursuivant leurs études, échafaudant des relations et participant à des communautés d’apprentissage en ligne, ils sont aussi enthousiastes de développer plus délibérément de telles habiletés professionnelles

Identifying Motivators and Barriers for Wellness Programs to Inform Recruitment and Retention of Diabetes Prevention Programs (DPPs)

Obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) has increased greatly in incidence in the United States over the past decade. Diagnosis of T2DM is typically preceded by insulin resistance, which is typically indicated by increases in fasting blood sugar and called pre-diabetes. The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is a group-based program focused on improving diet and maintaining consistent exercise towards a lower body weight. It has been found that minimum weight loss and 150 minutes of moderate exercise is more effective at preventing T2DM than medication-based treatment. Therefore, the DPP has potential in preventing T2DM however currently faces obstacles concerning recruitment and retention. Unfortunately, only 1-5% of individuals who would benefit from the program actually sign up. In order to address this, researchers obtained RDC funding and partnered with YMCA to determine barriers and motivators to the DPP. Individuals were invited to an on-campus, pilot DPP aimed towards employees in a single building. All employees received an invitation to give feedback in 1 of 3 focus groups: 1 with those who joined the program and 2 with employees who did not join. There were 4 individuals in the focus group for DPP participants and 18 total who attended the other focus groups (one group of 5, and one group of 13). The focus group for current participants was scheduled during the time of a normal weekly meeting, while the group for non-DPP participants was during lunchtime. Questions centered around individuals\u27 perceptions on wellness programs, barriers to participation, and recommendations. Thematic analysis was done on notes taken at each focus group. Motivators found in the focus group with DPP participants included family history of diabetes, weight loss, desire to take control of lifestyle, hearing success stories, and support from others. A challenge faced by individuals going through the program included unsupportive family members or home environment. Themes found among the non-DPP participant focus groups gave greater insight in the negatives and barriers to wellness programs. Themes emphasized included importance of convenience, variability, coworker support, and appealing to individual interests. Overlapping themes included convenience, coworker support, and the importance of steering away from the \u27diabetes\u27 or \u27prediabetic\u27 labels. This study has significant impact especially in Tennessee where the DPP has become a covered benefit under insurance. In order to ensure strong recruitment and retention of these programs across the state and nation, researching further and addressing the motivators and barriers identified is key. With the DPP having such great potential in reducing risk of diabetes and obesity, a strong, intentional recruitment plan is necessary

Real-World Treatment Patterns and Outcomes among Elderly Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients in the United States

Over half of patients diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are 65 years or older. Using the linked SEER-Medicare database, we conducted a retrospective cohort analysis to examine patient characteristics, treatment patterns, and survival among the elderly AML patients in routine clinical practice. Out of 29,857 patients with AML in the database, 8336 were eligible for inclusion in the study. The inclusion criteria included a diagnosis with first primary AML between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009, >66 years of age, and continuous enrollment in Medicare Parts A and B in the year before diagnosis. Forty percent (N = 3327) of the cohort received chemotherapy within 3 months after diagnosis. The multivariable overall survival analyses showed a lower risk of death among those receiving intensive and hypomethylating agent therapies compared with no therapy. Among the younger cohort, a significant lower mortality was also noted with receipt of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Over the past decade, about 60% of the elderly AML patients remain untreated in routine clinical practice. Use of antileukemic therapy was associated with a significant survival benefit and provides further support that age alone should not deter the use of guideline-recommended therapies particularly because of the high disparities in outcomes between treatment receipt and palliative care in this elderly cohort

Following the lead of Barack Obama, CNN, and Ashton Kutcher: Police departments’ use of Twitter

An increasing number of police departments are using Twitter to communicate with the public. As with any emerging communications technology, there is considerable variation in the usage of this medium. This study reports the results of a content analysis designed to determine how police departments are using Twitter

Glareosin : A novel sexually dimorphic urinary lipocalin in the bank vole, Myodes glareolus

Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3859369. Detailed methods are presented in the electronic supplementary material. The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE [32] partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD006645 and 10.6019/PXD006645 This work was funded in part by BBSRC (BB/J002631/1 and BB/M012557/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Darcin: a male pheromone that stimulates female memory and sexual attraction to an individual male's odour

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Among invertebrates, specific pheromones elicit inherent (fixed) behavioural responses to coordinate social behaviours such as sexual recognition and attraction. By contrast, the much more complex social odours of mammals provide a broad range of information about the individual owner and stimulate individual-specific responses that are modulated by learning. How do mammals use such odours to coordinate important social interactions such as sexual attraction while allowing for individual-specific choice? We hypothesized that male mouse urine contains a specific pheromonal component that invokes inherent sexual attraction to the scent and which also stimulates female memory and conditions sexual attraction to the airborne odours of an individual scent owner associated with this pheromone.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using wild-stock house mice to ensure natural responses that generalize across individual genomes, we identify a single atypical male-specific major urinary protein (MUP) of mass 18893Da that invokes a female's inherent sexual attraction to male compared to female urinary scent. Attraction to this protein pheromone, which we named darcin, was as strong as the attraction to intact male urine. Importantly, contact with darcin also stimulated a strong learned attraction to the associated airborne urinary odour of an individual male, such that, subsequently, females were attracted to the airborne scent of that specific individual but not to that of other males.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This involatile protein is a mammalian male sex pheromone that stimulates a flexible response to individual-specific odours through associative learning and memory, allowing female sexual attraction to be inherent but selective towards particular males. This 'darcin effect' offers a new system to investigate the neural basis of individual-specific memories in the brain and give new insights into the regulation of behaviour in complex social mammals.</p> <p>See associated Commentary <url>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/8/71</url></p

Mutations in multidomain protein MEGF8 identify a Carpenter syndrome subtype associated with defective lateralization

Carpenter syndrome is an autosomal-recessive multiple-congenital-malformation disorder characterized by multisuture craniosynostosis and polysyndactyly of the hands and feet; many other clinical features occur, and the most frequent include obesity, umbilical hernia, cryptorchidism, and congenital heart disease. Mutations of RAB23, encoding a small GTPase that regulates vesicular transport, are present in the majority of cases. Here, we describe a disorder caused by mutations in multiple epidermal-growth-factor-like-domains 8 (MEGF8), which exhibits substantial clinical overlap with Carpenter syndrome but is frequently associated with abnormal left-right patterning. We describe five affected individuals with similar dysmorphic facies, and three of them had either complete situs inversus, dextrocardia, or transposition of the great arteries; similar cardiac abnormalities were previously identified in a mouse mutant for the orthologous Megf8. The mutant alleles comprise one nonsense, three missense, and two splice-site mutations; we demonstrate in zebrafish that, in contrast to the wild-type protein, the proteins containing all three missense alterations provide only weak rescue of an early gastrulation phenotype induced by Megf8 knockdown. We conclude that mutations in MEGF8 cause a Carpenter syndrome subtype frequently associated with defective left-right patterning, probably through perturbation of signaling by hedgehog and nodal family members. We did not observe any subject with biallelic loss-of function mutations, suggesting that some residual MEGF8 function might be necessary for survival and might influence the phenotypes observed

Potential Hazard to Human Health from Exposure to Fragments of Lead Bullets and Shot in the Tissues of Game Animals

Peer reviewedPublisher PD