Microwave Radiometric Remote Sensing of Volcanic Ash Clouds From Space: Model and Data Analysis

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Bridge Building in Higher Education: Multi-Modal Mentoring Programs to Support Retention & Career Preparedness

Despite the limitations on time for career preparedness and shrinking professional development budgets, mentoring remains as important as ever due to the interconnectedness in a global society and the changing demographics of postsecondary education students. The traditional-age population in college that lives on campus and does not work has been declining for over three decades. The majorities of current students that are now non-traditional, and work at least part-time are first-generation, and are pursuing degrees via distance or online learning. The importance of providing a diverse mentoring strategy for this new population is borne out in research in order to improve retention, persistence, and completion rates, as well as future professional success. As such, this study sheds light on the need to develop a multi-modal mentoring program to support different student populations through a flexible combination of faculty-student, student-student, alumni-student, and supervisor-student mentoring programs applied in different contexts and modalities. While results indicate that overall faculty-initiated mentoring is preferred by both populations and the most impactful method for mentoring is face-to-face with a faculty member with non-academic experience in the field of their discipline, other approaches are more effective for populations, such as first-generation, minority, and online and graduate students

Predictors of Persistence, Retention & Completion for First-Generation Graduate Students

Postsecondary education is still considered key for achieving upward mobility and economic success. While access to higher education has over the past three decades, students whose parents did not complete at least a bachelor’s degree continue to be at a distinct disadvantage. Given that most first-generation college students are from low-income and minority backgrounds, this population faces challenges distinct to them- 1) insufficient academic preparation, 2) inadequate financial resources, and 3) deficient support from family members and/or peers that attended college. Yet, while first-generation undergraduate students have been extensively studied with regard to their motivations, challenges, and unique needs for persistence, retention, and completion, their graduate counterparts have not. This mixed-methods study seeks to determine the motivations for pursuing graduate degrees by different populations, especially firstgeneration graduate students, who are the first in their families to pursue graduate degrees, their perceptions of the value of education, necessary social networks of support, and additional support required for a non-traditional population that has often been out of college for over a decade

Design and evaluation of a subcutaneous contraceptive implant training simulator

ObjectiveTo design and fabricate a subcutaneous contraceptive implant insertion simulator, and to characterize the performance of nursing students trained with and without the simulator.MethodA cross‐sectional study was conducted on nursing students in Ghana who had no previous training in the insertion of contraceptive implants. They were given standardized training in insertion of implants from 25 April to 26 April, 2016, and then were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. The control group watched insertions of live implants while the intervention group practiced using the simulator. Local materials were used to fabricate the simulator. The performance of both groups was assessed after the training.ResultsThe participants consisted of 50 nursing students. Those in the intervention group were more likely to: insert the implant accurately (95.2% vs 78.4%, P<0.001); take less time to complete an insertion (mean of 33.6 seconds vs 42.2 seconds, P<0.001); and commit fewer errors (1.9 vs 2.5, P=0.005) compared to the control group. In addition, participants rated the simulator high on 11/11 of the product requirements with the teaching (93.2%), learning (91.4%), and skill acquisition (88.6%) requirements being the highest rated.ConclusionA low‐cost, locally fabricated simulator is an effective tool for augmenting the current training protocol by improving insertion skills of contraceptive implants.Novices trained with the implant insertion simulator were able to perform error‐free simulated insertions more accurately and quickly compared with the current mode of training.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151337/1/ijgo12896_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151337/2/ijgo12896.pd

Ethical dilemmas when using citizen science for early detection of invasive tree pests and diseases

The early detection of tree health pests and disease is an important component of biosecurity to protect the aesthetic, recreational and economic importance of trees, woodlands and forestry. Citizen science is valuable in supporting the early detection of tree pests and diseases. Different stakeholders (government, business, society and individual) will vary in their opinion of the balance between costs and benefits of early detection and consequent management, partly because many costs are local whereas benefits are felt at larger scales. This can create clashes in motivations of those involved in citizen science, thus leading to ethical dilemmas about what is good and responsible conduct for the use of citizen science. We draw on our experience of tree health citizen science to exemplify five dilemmas. These dilemmas arise because: the consequences of detection may locally be severe (e.g. the destruction of trees); knowledge of these impacts could lead to refusal to make citizen science reports; citizen science reports can be made freely, but can be costly to respond to; participants may expect solutions even if these are not possible; and early detection is (by definition) a rare event. Effective engagement and dialogue across stakeholders, including public stakeholders, is important to properly address these issues. This is vital to ensure the public’s long-term support for and trust in the use of citizen science for the early detection of tree pests and diseases

Two-Terminal and Multi-Terminal Designs for Next-Generation Quantized Hall Resistance Standards: Contact Material and Geometry

In this paper, we show that quantum Hall resistance measurements using two terminals may be as precise as four-terminal measurements when applying superconducting split contacts. The described sample designs eliminate resistance contributions of terminals and contacts such that the size and complexity of next-generation quantized Hall resistance devices can be significantly improved

Mechanisms of Inflammation in Neutrophil-Mediated Skin Diseases

Neutrophil-mediated skin diseases, originally named neutrophilic dermatoses (NDs), are a group of conditions due to an altered neutrophil recruitment and activation, characterized by polymorphic cutaneous manifestations with possible internal organ involvement. Although a number of diseases are included in this setting, the two prototypic forms are pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) and Sweet's syndrome (SS) which usually present with skin ulcers and plaque-type lesions, respectively. They have central features significantly overlapping with autoinflammatory conditions which manifest as repeated episodes of tissue inflammation. However, in contrast to appropriate inflammatory responses to insults or to autoimmune disease, there is an absence of identifiable pathogens, autoantibodies, or autoreactive lymphocytes. The recognition of monogenic autoinflammatory diseases which can present with NDs has led to study several genes involved in autoinflammation in NDs. Based on discovering of a number of mutations involving different autoinflammatory genes, neutrophil-mediated skin diseases are nowadays regarded as a spectrum of polygenic autoinflammatory conditions. Although disease mechanisms have not yet been completely elucidated, NDs are recognized as diseases involving dysfunctional cellular signaling mediated by pathways mainly related to inflammasome and IL-1 with the contributory role of IL-17 and other effector molecules. The precise elucidation of the above-mentioned pathologic mechanisms may pave the way to tailored treatments for patients with different neutrophil-mediated skin diseases

ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: \u3cem\u3eHypoviridae\u3c/em\u3e

The Hypoviridae, comprising one genus, Hypovirus, is a family of capsidless viruses with positive-sense, ssRNA genomes of 9.1–12.7 kb that possess either a single large ORF or two ORFs. The ORFs appear to be translated from genomic RNA by non-canonical mechanisms, i.e. internal ribosome entry site-mediated and stop/restart translation. Hypoviruses have been detected in ascomycetous or basidiomycetous filamentous fungi, and are considered to be replicated in host Golgi-derived, lipid vesicles that contain their dsRNA as a replicative form. Some hypoviruses induce hypovirulence to host fungi, while others do not. This is a summary of the current ICTV report on the taxonomy of the Hypoviridae, which is available at www.ictv.global/report/hypoviridae