Three-dimensional in situ observations of compressive damage mechanisms in syntactic foam using X-ray microcomputed tomography

Royal Society Grant number RG140680 Lloyd's Register Foundation (GB) Oil and Gas Academy of Scotland Open access via Springer Compact AgreementPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Collaborative Contagion: A Case Study in Curriculum Development, Distribution, and Adoption

The collaborative contagion model is the culmination of a three‐year project designed first to develop a curriculum in business ethics and entrepreneurship (BE&E), then to increase the adoption of that curriculum by leveraging professional educators’ established networks. The development of a new curriculum, the collaborative portion of the program, was accomplished through a series of four‐day, in‐person disruptive innovation workshops (DIWs), after which educators continued their working relationships in a specially developed online community. To distribute this curriculum, we developed the contagion portion of the model, through which we encouraged and incentivized not only adoption of the curriculum on the part of the participants themselves, but also on the part of people in their broader networks. After our first year of workshops, 18 K‐12 and 21 higher education participants helped formulate 10 modules and 60 grade‐specific K‐12 lesson plans. We have established pilot programs at 13 separate institutions, and built partnerships with seven organizations. These early results indicate that the collaborative contagion model is a viable, and potentially strong method by which curricular materials can be developed, and then disseminated to a broad audience

BAYESIAN MCMC ANALYSES FOR REGULATORY ASSESSMENTS OF FOOD COMPOSITION

In order to gain regulatory approval to market a new seed product derived with biotechnology, grain and forage composition data must be collected from field trials, and summaries must be reported to various government agencies. Currently, both tests of differences in composition between a genetically modified organism (GMO) and its control and tests of equivalence of the GMO to conventional genotypes are required by regulatory agencies. Bayesian analyses offer an attractive option for regulatory assessments by expressing results that can be interpreted more easily by a wide audience and by providing more ways to examine various hypotheses of interest. In order to extend Bayesian methodology for application to different compositional analytes, and to take advantage of the information obtained in previous experiments, the use of informative prior distributions for composition studies is proposed. Methods for determining suitable informative prior distributions analytically are shown in four situations: (1) eliciting opinions from an expert, (2) finding the best fit from an overdetermined set of summary statistics from one previous study, (3) performing a meta-analysis of summary statistics from previous studies with an assumed common prior distribution, and (4) performing a different meta-analysis with the prior distribution determined by a mixture of different assumed prior distributions from previous studies. Examples from soybean composition studies are used to illustrate these techniques

Exploring Self-Efficacy and Anxiety in First-Year Nursing Students Enrolled in a Discipline-Specific Scholarly Writing Course

Background: Very few studies measuring writing self-efficacy or anxiety in undergraduate nursing students exist in the education literature. The purpose of the present investigation was to identify if changes to writing self-efficacy and writing anxiety will occur in first-year baccalaureate nursing students who are exposed to a discipline-specific scholarly writing course employing scaffolding strategies as the primary instructional method. Concurrently, this study was the pilot test for a new measure assessing writing self-efficacy, The Self-Efficacy Scale for Academic Writing. Method: A one-group pre-test/posttest design was employed. Sixty-four (64) paired questionnaires were available for analysis. Bandura’s self-efficacy theory and a scaffolding process guided the study. Results: Anxiety was significantly reduced from pre-test to posttest (p = .005). Writing self-efficacy improved and was near but not significant (p = .051). Writing self-efficacy at pre-test predicted 15.4% of the variance in final self-reported grade on the scholarly paper (p = .001). Students who reported writing their paper late or last minute reported significantly higher writing self-efficacy compared to students who reported adhering to the paper task schedule (p = .021). There were no differences in writing self-efficacy scores based on student past experience with writing or their help seeking activities. Conclusion: First year nursing students can benefit from taking a discipline-specific writing course incorporating scaffolding as an instructional method as both writing anxiety and writing self-efficacy can potentially be improved in this population. However additional research is required to support this claim. Résumé Contexte : Il existe très peu d’études publiées en formation qui mesurent l’auto-efficacité ou l’anxiété quant à la rédaction chez les étudiantes de premier cycle en sciences infirmières. Le but de la présente étude était de déterminer s’il y aurait des changements au niveau de l’auto-efficacité et de l’anxiété chez des étudiantes de première année de baccalauréat inscrites à un cours de rédaction scientifique particulière à la discipline utilisant des stratégies de soutien décroissant comme principale méthode d’enseignement. Simultanément, cette recherche servait d’étude pilote pour une nouvelle échelle de mesure d’évaluation de l’auto-efficacité quant à la rédaction scientifique : The Self-Efficacy Scale for Academic Writing [l’échelle d’auto-efficacité pour la rédaction académique]. Méthode : Un modèle prétest/post-test a été utilisé auprès d’un groupe. Soixante-quatre (64) questionnaires appariés ont été analysés. L’étude a été guidée par la théorie de l’auto-efficacité de Bandura et le processus de soutien décroissant. Résultats : Le niveau d’anxiété a diminué de manière significative entre le prétest et le post-test (p = 0,005). L’auto-efficacité quant à la rédaction, s’est améliorée s’approchant mais n’atteignant pas le seuil de signification (p = 0,051). L’auto-efficacité en matière de rédaction au prétest a prédit 15,4 % de la variance de la note finale autodéclarée sur le travail universitaire (p = 0,001). Les étudiantes qui ont affirmé avoir écrit leur travail en retard ou à la dernière minute ont déclaré une auto-efficacité en matière de rédaction significativement supérieure à celle des étudiantes qui ont affirmé avoir respecté l’horaire des activités reliées au travail (p = 0,021). Il n’y avait aucune différence dans les résultats d’auto-efficacité selon l’expérience de l’étudiante en écriture ou ses activités de recherche d’aide. Conclusion : Les étudiantes de première année en sciences infirmières peuvent bénéficier d’un cours de rédaction particulière à leur discipline, qui intègre le soutien décroissant comme méthode d’enseignement, car il a le potentiel de diminuer l’anxiété chez cette population et améliorer leur auto-efficacité en matière de rédaction. Toutefois, des recherches supplémentaires seront nécessaires pour appuyer cette affirmation

Intraluminal septation of the basilar artery: incidence and potential clinical significance

Variations in the cerebrovascular tree can increase surgical or interventional morbidity. To date, only scant comments are to be found in the literature regarding intraluminal variations of the basilar artery. To further elucidate such anatomy, a cadaveric study was performed. One hundred and fifty human brains were evaluated for the present study. The basilar artery was identified in each and sectioned longitudinally to observe for the presence of intraluminal septa. One specimen (0.67%) was identified that harbored an intraluminal septum of the basilar artery. This wall was within the proximal basilar artery and measured 3 mm by 1.5 mm. No specimen was found to have other anomalies of the basilar artery and in the single specimen with an intraluminal septum no signs of intracranial pathology were seen. Although seemingly rare, septation of the basilar artery can be found. Knowledge of such an intraluminal vascular variation may be important during invasive and minimally invasive procedures