Addressing Work-Induced Stress and Depressive Symptoms in Police Officers

Police officers across the nation face a significant issue as it relates to work-induced stress and depressive symptoms. Specifically, the problem is the lack of preventative mental health services available to officers. This study aims to explore the perceived presence of work-induced stress and depressive symptoms in patrol officers employed by the Field Police Department (Pseudonym; FPD). To gather these data, the potential research participants were offered the ability to take an online anonymous survey. The results indicated that many of the survey participants were suffering from work-related stress and depressive symptoms. The research results further displayed many of the participants utilized poor coping strategies which contributed to their perception of work-induced stress and depressive symptoms. Survey participants reported being unaware of how the department could aid them if they or an officer they knew were seriously struggling. Positive social change is centered on the evaluation, development, and implementation of policies and procedures that benefit the quality of life of all stakeholders. The data collected and analyzed have the potential for positive social change by helping police administrators to develop engagement strategies to effectively teach and monitor the mental resiliency of their officers. This study is useful for the front-line officers as it makes them aware of various signs and symptoms to observe and investigate

BiblioBouts: A Scalable Online Social Game for the Development of Academic Research Skills

Researchers at the School of Information of the University of Michigan are designing, developing, and evaluating BiblioBouts, an online game that helps students learn academic research skills. Players practice using online library research tools while they work on an in-class assignment and produce a high-quality bibliography, at the same time as they are competing against each other to win the game! While librarians are experts at helping students who want to learn about academic research, most students are reluctant participants because they want just-in-time personal assistance that is tailored to their unique information needs, and faculty are reluctant to cede class time. The BiblioBouts project enlists games to teach undergraduate students information literacy skills and concepts in the classroom. Social gaming reinforces principles of good learning, including getting results by trial and error, self-discovery, following hunches and reinforcement through repetition. BiblioBouts also incorporates collaborative problem solving and participation in a community of learning. The project aims to explore how games can be utilized to achieve information literacy goals and to yield open-source game software that libraries could use immediately to enhance their information literacy programs. The LOEX presentation will incorporate a live interactive demo of the game, as well as videos demonstrating gameplay. We will discuss challenges in situating the game into the classroom and integrating it into existing course syllabi. The presentation will describe how we have adapted the game in response to feedback from students and instructors during the pilot process

BiblioBouts Project Interim Report #5

The University of Michigan’s School of Information and its partner, the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, have undertaken the 4-year BiblioBouts Project (October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2012) to support the design, development, testing, and evaluation of the web-based BiblioBouts game to teach incoming undergraduate students information literacy skills and concepts. This fifth interim report describes the BiblioBouts Project team’s 12-month progress achieving the project’s 4 objectives: designing, developing, deploying, and evaluating the BiblioBouts game and recommending best practices for future information literacy games. This latest 12-month period was marked by extensive progress in the analysis of evaluation data from the testing of the beta 1.0 version of BiblioBouts and putting to work what was learned from this analysis in the design and development of the beta 2.0 version of BiblioBouts. Major tasks that will occupy the team for the next 12 months are demonstrating BiblioBouts’ learning goals, recruiting more instructors to incorporate BiblioBouts in their classes, seeking additional funding, and finding a future home for BiblioBouts. For additional information about game design, pedagogical goals, scoring, game play, project participants, and playing BiblioBouts in your course, consult the BiblioBouts Project web site (http://bibliobouts.si.umich.edu).Institute of Museum and Library Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87186/1/bbInterimReportToIMLS05.pd

Magnetic Field Generation in Stars

Enormous progress has been made on observing stellar magnetism in stars from the main sequence through to compact objects. Recent data have thrown into sharper relief the vexed question of the origin of stellar magnetic fields, which remains one of the main unanswered questions in astrophysics. In this chapter we review recent work in this area of research. In particular, we look at the fossil field hypothesis which links magnetism in compact stars to magnetism in main sequence and pre-main sequence stars and we consider why its feasibility has now been questioned particularly in the context of highly magnetic white dwarfs. We also review the fossil versus dynamo debate in the context of neutron stars and the roles played by key physical processes such as buoyancy, helicity, and superfluid turbulence,in the generation and stability of neutron star fields. Independent information on the internal magnetic field of neutron stars will come from future gravitational wave detections. Thus we maybe at the dawn of a new era of exciting discoveries in compact star magnetism driven by the opening of a new, non-electromagnetic observational window. We also review recent advances in the theory and computation of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence as it applies to stellar magnetism and dynamo theory. These advances offer insight into the action of stellar dynamos as well as processes whichcontrol the diffusive magnetic flux transport in stars.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures. Invited review chapter on on magnetic field generation in stars to appear in Space Science Reviews, Springe

Differential Impact of Tumor Suppressor Pathways on DNA Damage Response and Therapy-Induced Transformation in a Mouse Primary Cell Model

The RB and p53 tumor suppressors are mediators of DNA damage response, and compound inactivation of RB and p53 is a common occurrence in human cancers. Surprisingly, their cooperation in DNA damage signaling in relation to tumorigenesis and therapeutic response remains enigmatic. In the context of individuals with heritable retinoblastoma, there is a predilection for secondary tumor development, which has been associated with the use of radiation-therapy to treat the primary tumor. Furthermore, while germline mutations of the p53 gene are critical drivers for cancer predisposition syndromes, it is postulated that extrinsic stresses play a major role in promoting varying tumor spectrums and disease severities. In light of these studies, we examined the tumor suppressor functions of these proteins when challenged by exposure to therapeutic stress. To examine the cooperation of RB and p53 in tumorigenesis, and in response to therapy-induced DNA damage, a combination of genetic deletion and dominant negative strategies was employed. Results indicate that loss/inactivation of RB and p53 is not sufficient for cellular transformation. However, these proteins played distinct roles in response to therapy-induced DNA damage and subsequent tumorigenesis. Specifically, RB status was critical for cellular response to damage and senescence, irrespective of p53 function. Loss of RB resulted in a dramatic evolution of gene expression as a result of alterations in epigenetic programming. Critically, the observed changes in gene expression have been specifically associated with tumorigenesis, and RB-deficient, recurred cells displayed oncogenic characteristics, as well as increased resistance to subsequent challenge with discrete therapeutic agents. Taken together, these findings indicate that tumor suppressor functions of RB and p53 are particularly manifest when challenged by cellular stress. In the face of such challenge, RB is a critical suppressor of tumorigenesis beyond p53, and RB-deficiency could promote significant cellular evolution, ultimately contributing to a more aggressive disease

Activation of NF-kB Pathway by Virus Infection Requires Rb Expression

The retinoblastoma protein Rb is a tumor suppressor involved in cell cycle control, differentiation, and inhibition of oncogenic transformation. Besides these roles, additional functions in the control of immune response have been suggested. In the present study we investigated the consequences of loss of Rb in viral infection. Here we show that virus replication is increased by the absence of Rb, and that Rb is required for the activation of the NF-kB pathway in response to virus infection. These results reveal a novel role for tumor suppressor Rb in viral infection surveillance and further extend the concept of a link between tumor suppressors and antiviral activity

Building the Games Students Want to Play: BiblioBouts Project Interim Report #2

The University of Michigan’s School of Information and its partner, the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, are undertaking the 3-year BiblioBouts Project (October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2011) to support the design, development, testing, and evaluation of a computer game to teach incoming undergraduate students information literacy skills and concepts. This second interim report describes the project team’s 5-month progress achieving 2 of the project’s 4 objectives, designing the BiblioBouts game and engaging in evaluation activities. It also enumerates major tasks that will occupy the team for the next 6 months. Appendixes A and B describe the game’s design and include pedagogical goals and how the game scores players.Institute of Museum and Library Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64293/1/bbInterimReportToIMLS02.pd

Angular-momentum coupling through the tachocline

Astronomical observation of stellar rotation suggests that at least the surface layers of the Sun have lost a substantial amount of the angular momentum that they possessed at the beginning of the main-sequence phase of evolution; and solar-wind observations indicate that magnetic coupling is still draining angular momentum from the Sun today. In addition, helioseismological analysis has shown that the specific angular momentum at the top of the almost uniformly rotating radiative interior is approximately (although not exactly) the same as the spherically averaged value at the base of the (differentially rotating) convection zone, suggesting that angular momentum is being transported through the tachocline. The mechanism by which that transport is taking place is not understood. Nor is there a consensus of opinion. I review some of the suggestions that have been put forward, biassing my discussion, no doubt, according to my own opinions.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, conference on `Magnetic coupling between the interior and the atmosphere of the Sun' ed. S. S. Hasan and R. J. Rutten, Bangalore, December 200

BiblioBouts final performance review

A University of Michigan (U-M) research team designed, developed, deployed, and evaluated the BiblioBouts information literacy game. BiblioBouts gave students repeated opportunities to develop and practice information literacy skills while they completed a research-and-writing assignment. The evaluation enlisted a multi-methodological approach to data collection. BiblioBouts players were exposed to more online sources than non-players. Players cited more sources in their final-paper bibliographies than non-players. Players felt that they would be better at and more confident about performing various research tasks than they felt before playing the game. They rated their motivation and perseverance at playing the game at high and very high levels. They cited many game-play benefits such as getting a head start on their research, finding relevant sources from classmates’ submissions, becoming a more confident researcher, and being better prepared to write their papers as a result of using the Zotero citation management system.Institute of Museum and Library Serviceshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97036/1/bbFinalPerfReviewToIMLS.pd

Cranial Ontogeny in Stegoceras validum (Dinosauria: Pachycephalosauria): A Quantitative Model of Pachycephalosaur Dome Growth and Variation

Historically, studies of pachycephalosaurs have recognized plesiomorphically flat-headed taxa and apomorphically domed taxa. More recently, it has been suggested that the expression of the frontoparietal dome is ontogenetic and derived from a flat-headed juvenile morphology. However, strong evidence to support this hypothesis has been lacking. Here we test this hypothesis in a large, stratigraphically constrained sample of specimens assigned to Stegoceras validum, the best known pachycephalosaur, using multiple independent lines of evidence including conserved morphology of ornamentation, landmark-based allometric analyses of frontoparietal shape, and cranial bone histology. New specimens show that the diagnostic ornamentation of the parietosquamosal bar is conserved throughout the size range of the sample, which links flat-headed specimens to domed S. validum. High-resolution CT scans of three frontoparietals reveal that vascularity decreases with size and document a pattern that is consistent with previously proposed histological changes during growth. Furthermore, aspects of dome shape and size are strongly correlated and indicative of ontogenetic growth. These results are complementary and strongly support the hypothesis that the sample represents a growth series of a single taxon. Cranial dome growth is positively allometric, proceeds from a flat-headed to a domed state, and confirms the synonymy of Ornatotholus browni as a juvenile Stegoceras. This dataset serves as the first detailed model of growth and variation in a pachycephalosaur. Flat-headed juveniles possess three characters (externally open cranial sutures, tuberculate dorsal surface texture, and open supratemporal fenestrae) that are reduced or eliminated during ontogeny. These characters also occur in putative flat-headed taxa, suggesting that they may also represent juveniles of domed taxa. However, open cranial sutures and supratemporal fenestrae are plesiomorphic within Ornithischia, and thus should be expected in the adult stage of a primitive pachycephalosaur. Additional lines of evidence will be needed to resolve the taxonomic validity of flat-headed pachycephalosaur taxa