Students’ exploring and refining their equity ethic within the access network

The Access Network is an organization that supports vibrant interactions among students and faculty who advocate for equity work in the physical sciences. This paper uses McGee and Bentley’s framework of “equity ethic” (EE) to understand how Access student leaders adopt and refine a commitment to equity and social justice work within the physical sciences. In McGee and Bentley’s study of STEM students of color, they define EE as students’ sense of altruism and collectivism within and outside of their communities. Through interviews with student leaders, we model components of students’ EEs and how their EEs are influenced by their participation in Access. Student accounts illustrate that they are invested in improving equity within their disciplinary communities and see progress toward these goals as an important measure of success. Our findings highlight how students are already infusing an EE into their professional physics activities. This research suggests that student leaders benefit from having opportunities to articulate and refine critiques of disciplinary culture, and connect their EE to their professional practices. These accounts suggest that this work occurs in conversation with other equity leaders around issues of social justice

Patients’ opinions about knowing their risk for depression and what to do about it: The PredictD-Qualitative study

Background: The predictD study developed and validated a risk algorithm for predicting the onset of major depression in primary care. We aimed to explore the opinion of patients about knowing their risk for depression and the values and criteria upon which these opinions are based. Methods: A maximum variation sample of patients was taken, stratified by city, age, gender, immigrant status, socioeconomic status and lifetime depression. The study participants were 52 patients belonging to 13 urban health centres in seven different cities around Spain. Seven Focus Groups (FGs) were given held with primary care patients, one for each of the seven participating cities. Results: The results showed that patients generally welcomed knowing their risk for depression. Furthermore, in light of available evidence several patients proposed potential changes in their lifestyles to prevent depression. Patients generally preferred to ask their General Practitioners (GPs) for advice, though mental health specialists were also mentioned. They suggested that GPs undertake interventions tailored to each patient, from a ‘‘patient-centred’’ approach, with certain communication skills, and giving advice to help patients cope with the knowledge that they are at risk of becoming depressed. Conclusions: Patients are pleased to be informed about their risk for depression. We detected certain beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations and behaviour among the patients that were potentially useful for future primary prevention programmes on depression.Junta de Andalucía 2008/0195Gobierno Vasco 2008/111021Spanish Network of Primary Care Research (redIAPP) RD06/0018Salud Mental, Servicios y Atención Primaria (SAMSERAP

Advances and limitations in the modelling of fabricated photonic bandgap fibers

Copyright © 2006 IEEEWe model fabricated silica photonic bandgap fibers and achieve good agreement between simulated and measured properties. We identify the size of the SEM bitmap image as the ultimate limit to the accurate calculation of surfaces modes within the bandgapF. Poletti, M. N. Petrovich, R. Amezcua-Correa, N. G. Broderick, T. M. Monro and D. J. Richardsonhttp://eprints.soton.ac.uk/47883

A first-principles study of superconductivity on RbH by doping without applied pressure

The structural, electronic, lattice dynamics, electron-phonon coupling, and superconducting properties of the alkali-metal hydride RbH, metalized through electron-doping by the construction of the solid-solution Rb$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$H, are systematically analyzed as a function of Sr-content within the framework of density functional perturbation and Migdal-Eliashberg theories, taking into account the effect of zero-point energy contribution by the quasi-harmonic approximation. For the entire studied range of Sr-content, steady increments of the electron-phonon coupling constant and the superconducting critical temperature are found with progressive alkaline-earth metal content through electron-doping, reaching the values of $\lambda=1.92$ and $T_c=51.3(66.1)$~K with $\mu^*$=0.1(0). The steady rise of such quantities as a function of Sr-content is consequence of the metallization of the hydride as an increase of density of states at the Fermi level is observed, as well as the softening of the phonon spectrum, mainly coming from H-optical modes. Our results indicate that electron-doping on metal-hydrides is an encouraging alternative to look for superconductivity without applied pressure.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

First Ever Observations of Mineral Dust in Wintertime over Warsaw, Poland

The long-range transport of desert dust over the area of the temperate climate zone is associated with the influx of hot air masses due to the location of the sources of this aerosol in the tropical climate zone. Between 24–26 February 2021, such an aerosol outbreak took place and reached Central Europe. The mean temperature of +11.7 °C was recorded during the event. A comparison of this value to the 20-year (2000–2020) average February temperature for Warsaw (−0.2 °C) indicates the uniqueness of the meteorological conditions. It was the first wintertime inflow of Saharan dust over Warsaw, the presence of which was confirmed by lidar and sun-photometer measurements. The properties of the desert dust layers were obtained; the mean values of the particle depolarization for the fully developed mineral dust layer were 13 ± 3% and 22 ± 4% for 355 and 532 nm, respectively. The aerosol optical thickness was high with average values >0.36 for all wavelengths smaller than 500 nm. The three-modal, aerosol size distribution was dominated by coarse-mode particles, with a visible contribution of accumulation-mode particles. It suggests the possible presence of other aerosol types

También las publicaciones deben comprometerse con el impacto social

Recientemente el gobierno español ha modifi-cado los criterios de evaluación del profesorado universitario, introduciendo el valor cualitativo a la hora de determinar el peso de las publicaciones. Hasta ahora y desde hace más de una década se venía haciendo exclusivamente a través de un indicador indirecto: el Factor de Impacto que reciben las revistas científicas. Aunque tímidamente, el nue-vo criterio supone una ruptura al menos conceptual: al exigir a los académicos que muestren la repercu-sión bibliométrica de algunas de sus publicaciones, se está lanzando el mensaje de que lo importante es el impacto social del conocimiento,2 más que la producción acumulada del mismo. De alguna ma-nera se pone de manifiesto la preocupación que nuestras autoridades tienen sobre la escasa capaci-dad competitiva de nuestra actividad investigadora

Presence of antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptides in patients with 'rhupus': a cross-sectional study

'Rhupus' is a rare condition sharing features of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). If rhupus is a distinctive entity, an overlap between RA and SLE or a subset of SLE is currently debated. This study was performed to explore the prevalence of antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptides (anti-CCP antibodies) in rhupus. Patients meeting American College of Rheumatology criteria for RA, SLE, or both were included. Clinical and radiographic features were recorded and sera were searched for anti-CCP antibodies, rheumatoid factor, antinuclear antibodies, anti-extractable nuclear antigens, and antibodies against double-stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA antibodies). Seven patients for each group were included. Clinical and serological features for RA or SLE were similar between rhupus and RA patients, and between rhupus and SLE patients, respectively. Values for anti-CCP antibodies obtained were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in RA (6/7) and rhupus (4/7) than in SLE patients (0/7) and healthy subjects (0/7). Our data support the possibility that rhupus is an overlap between RA and SLE, because highly specific autoantibodies for RA (anti-CCP) and for SLE (anti-dsDNA and anti-Sm) are detected in coexistence