Critical Thinking Teaching Practices in Community College

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more ubiquitous, and machine learning continues to optimize systems and data, the human contribution to our working and social worlds must evolve to be more sophisticated. Labeled as the fourth industrial revolution by the World Economic Forum (2019), employment roles comprised of repetitive tasks and rote analysis will no longer be needed because machines and artificial intelligence will be able to program themselves to perform these functions. Many experts forecast that for every low-skilled occupation a new, more sophisticated role will be invented (Skilton & Hovesepian, 2018)

Generational Communication Disparities in Leadership

Companies seek to strategically utilize their resources and personnel to obtain an advantage over competitors. With generational diversity being a relevant topic, emphasis is placed on the strategic management of its personnel as they are essential in the innovative practices’ companies implement to evolve organizations and enable them to be viable in a dynamic business environment. The aspect of leadership methodologies is demonstrative in not only their verbal communication, but also nonverbal behaviors. Contributors to leadership styles displayed through communication cues may be emblematic of cultural upbringings and demographic differences. As organizations develop the skillsets of their personnel, diversification should be instrumental in the process particularly in emerging leaders from an array of backgrounds into leadership positions. As the variety in the organization’s demographical makeup is transforming with societal norms, it is beneficial to analyze the leadership styles and the reception of their subordinates. In delving into the peculiarities of leaders, this paper will explore the upbringings of leaders in conjunction with demographical considerations, which is inclusive of generational miscellany

Reviews

Danny Saunders and Nina Smalley (eds.), The International Simulation and Gaming Research Yearbook — Volume 8: Simulations and Games for Transition and Change, London: Kogan Page, 2000. ISBN: 0–7494–3397–3. Hardback, viii+271 pages, £40.00

Hypoxia Upregulates Estrogen Receptor β in Pulmonary Artery Endothelial Cells in a HIF-1α-Dependent Manner

17β-Estradiol (E2) attenuates hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (HPH) through estrogen receptor (ER)-dependent effects, including inhibition of hypoxia-induced endothelial cell proliferation; however, the mechanisms responsible for this remain unknown. We hypothesized that the protective effects of E2 in HPH are mediated through hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α)-dependent increases in ERβ expression. Sprague-Dawley rats and ERα or ERβ knockout mice were exposed to hypobaric hypoxia for 2-3 weeks. The effects of hypoxia were also studied in primary rat or human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (PAECs). Hypoxia increased expression of ERβ, but not ERα, in lungs from HPH rats as well as in rat and human PAECs. ERβ mRNA time dependently increased in PAECs exposed to hypoxia. Normoxic HIF-1α/HIF-2α stabilization increased PAEC ERβ, whereas HIF-1α knockdown decreased ERβ abundance in hypoxic PAECs. In turn, ERβ knockdown in hypoxic PAECs increased HIF-2α expression, suggesting a hypoxia-sensitive feedback mechanism. ERβ knockdown in hypoxic PAECs also decreased expression of the HIF inhibitor prolyl hydroxylase 2 (PHD2), whereas ERβ activation increased PHD2 and decreased both HIF-1α and HIF-2α, suggesting that ERβ regulates the PHD2/HIF-1α/HIF-2α axis during hypoxia. Whereas hypoxic wild-type or ERα knockout mice treated with E2 demonstrated less pulmonary vascular remodeling and decreased HIF-1α after hypoxia compared with untreated hypoxic mice, ERβ knockout mice exhibited increased HIF-2α and an attenuated response to E2 during hypoxia. Taken together, our results demonstrate a novel and potentially therapeutically targetable mechanism whereby hypoxia, via HIF-1α, increases ERβ expression and the E2-ERβ axis targets PHD2, HIF-1α, and HIF-2α to attenuate HPH development

Encouraging Victims: Responding to a Recent Study of Battered Women Who Commit Crimes

The article discusses evolution of social services and legal remedies for domestic violence. It reviews research done on domestic violence victims to find out factors that prevent victims from reporting the incident. It offers tips on how to motivate victims to report the incidence of domestic violence. It offers a new proposal targeting women who both suffer violence and have a criminal history

The Impact of Socialization on Newly Certified Athletic Trainers

Professional education programs can often focus purely on course content. The lack of socialization especially amongst diverse communities can hinder the development of soft skills especially in those preparing for a career in healthcare. PURPOSE: Athletic trainers are not only a part of their work environment, but also their unique individual community. They develop a relationship with their athletes, fellow faculty, physicians, and other stakeholders. No matter their own personal background, to be an effective athletic trainer they must be able to engage in the varying aspects of their work environment. It they are unable accomplish this, their standard of care can be stifled. This study was designed to answer if the athletic trainers who find themselves in a new population assimilate well within their patient population. METHODS: For this study a survey was created for those who met the specific criteria. Those who could participate in the survey needed to be an athletic trainer who has only been certified less than 5 years. This survey asked participants multiple choice questions about their undergraduate and graduate athletic training programs as well as current work environment. These questions included topics on racial and social economic diversity. The survey was sent out via email and social media. RESULTS: Of the respondents, 67.5% identified as female and 32.5% male. 56.25% reported as being of Caucasian ethnicity, 25% African-American, and the rest chose other (non-Asian and non-American Indian). 50% attended an athletic training program (ATP) 100 or more miles from their hometown with an average cohort size of 11-15 students. Participants reported no statistically significant difference between genders when responding to being asked if their ATP helped prepare them for the cultural difference in their current work setting (p=.806). However, there was a significant difference when comparing the answers to this question based upon the individual’s ethnicity (p=.045). CONCLUSION: While athletic trainers generally believe that the socialization and education they receive in their ATP helps to prepare them for the culturally diversity they will encounter in their workplace, there are variances based on the individual’s ethnicity as well as background prior to entering the ATP. This information can be utilized to further enhance the programs delivery of didactic concepts including those that relate to cultural competency in healthcare

Conformal Decision Theory: Safe Autonomous Decisions from Imperfect Predictions

We introduce Conformal Decision Theory, a framework for producing safe autonomous decisions despite imperfect machine learning predictions. Examples of such decisions are ubiquitous, from robot planning algorithms that rely on pedestrian predictions, to calibrating autonomous manufacturing to exhibit high throughput and low error, to the choice of trusting a nominal policy versus switching to a safe backup policy at run-time. The decisions produced by our algorithms are safe in the sense that they come with provable statistical guarantees of having low risk without any assumptions on the world model whatsoever; the observations need not be I.I.D. and can even be adversarial. The theory extends results from conformal prediction to calibrate decisions directly, without requiring the construction of prediction sets. Experiments demonstrate the utility of our approach in robot motion planning around humans, automated stock trading, and robot manufacturing.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Morphoproteomic profiling of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway in desmoplastic small round cell tumor (EWS/WT1), Ewing's sarcoma (EWS/FLI1) and Wilms' tumor(WT1).

BackgroundDesmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare sarcoma in adolescents and young adults. The hallmark of this disease is a EWS-WT1 translocation resulting from apposition of the Ewing's sarcoma (EWS) gene with the Wilms' tumor (WT1) gene. We performed morphoproteomic profiling of DSRCT (EWS-WT1), Ewing's sarcoma (EWS-FLI1) and Wilms' tumor (WT1) to better understand the signaling pathways for selecting future targeted therapies.MethodologyThis pilot study assessed patients with DSRCT, Wilms' tumor and Ewing's sarcoma. Morphoproteomics and immunohistochemical probes were applied to detect: p-mTOR (Ser2448); p-Akt (Ser473); p-ERK1/2 (Thr202/Tyr204); p-STAT3 (Tyr 705); and cell cycle-related analytes along with their negative controls.Principal findingsIn DSRCT the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway is constitutively activated by p-Akt (Ser 473) expression in the nuclear compartment of the tumor cells and p-mTOR phosphorylated on Ser 2448, suggesting mTORC2 (rictor+mTOR) as the dominant form. Ewing's sarcoma had upregulated p-Akt and p-mTOR, predominantly mTORC2. In Wilm's tumor, the mTOR pathway is also activated with most tumor cells moderately expressing p-mTOR (Ser 2448) in plasmalemmal and cytoplasmic compartments. This coincides with the constitutive activation of one of the downstream effectors of the mTORC1 signaling pathway, namely p-p70S6K (Thr 389). There was constitutive activation of the Ras/Raf/ERK pathway p-ERK 1/2 (Thr202/Tyr204) expression in the Wilms tumor and metastatic Ewing's sarcoma, but not in the DSRCT.ConclusionMORPHOPROTEOMIC TUMOR ANALYSES REVEALED CONSTITUTIVE ACTIVATION OF THE MTOR PATHWAY AS EVIDENCED BY: (a) expression of phosphorylated (p)-mTOR, p-p70S6K; (b) mTORC 2 in EWS and DSRCT; (c) ERK signaling was seen in the advanced setting indicating these as resistance pathways to IGF1R related therapies. This is the first morphoproteomic study of such pathways in these rare malignancies and may have potential therapeutic implications. Further study using morphoproteomic assessments of these tumors are warranted