Setting The Agenda For STEM Literacy In Higher Education: A Content Analysis Of The Chronicle Of Higher Education

Enhancing achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is a long-standing national concern. The current national agenda, to instill an all hands on deck approach to creating a STEM literate citizenry, calls for broadening the scope of inclusion in STEM efforts. A critical population, higher education administrators, faculty, and staff are a valuable resource to advancing this agenda. Under the proposed Agenda Setting Communication Theory (ASCT) model developed for this study, their level of exposure to needed information is an important indicator of their potential participation in this agenda. As the leading news medium for the higher education community, the Chronicle of Higher Education was examined, through Content Analysis, to identify the frequency of reporting on STEM education from January 2001 to December 2015, to discern the themes in STEM education which appear in the Chronicle of Higher Education from January 2001 to December 2015, and to determine the frequency of reporting on the need for collaboration in STEM education in the Chronicle of Higher Education during that same period. The results of the Content Analysis indicate that there has been a significant increase in the Chronicle\u27s reporting on STEM education in the past five years. Also, matters relating to the recruitment and retention of underrepresented populations were reported on most frequently. Further, reporting on the need for collaboration did not emerge as a primary theme. These results indicate that while the Chronicle is somewhat participating in reflecting aspects of the national STEM education agenda, it is not yet functioning to advance the breadth of that agenda within the higher education community

Assessing the Psychometric Properties of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) Among Lebanese College Students

Internet addiction is an emergent problem; yet, both a strong conception of the factors precipitating challenging activities and a gold standard tool for evaluating symptoms are deficient. The aim of this study was to carry out a psychometric analysis using the most commonly employed screening tool, the young Internet Addiction Test (IAT), comprising a sample of Lebanese University medical students. Two hundred and fifty-six undergraduate medical students from a university in Beirut, Lebanon were included in our IAT. Exploratory factor analysis was employed, and four factors were extracted. These four factors were named as Lack of Control, Social Withdrawal and Emotional Conflict, Time Management Problems, and Concealing Problematic Behavior. Furthermore, the selected factors explained 56.5% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the internal reliability of the scale was found to be 0.91. For each subscale, the internal consistency score was approximated and detected as 0.76, 0.74, 0.69, and 0.63 for the first through fourth factor, respectively. Item total correlations were calculated and had a value range from 0.37 to 0.63 for the 20 items. IAT is a proper tool for evaluating internet addiction in Lebanese college students

Development of Gene Expression Markers of Acute Heat-Light Stress in Reef-Building Corals of the Genus Porites

Coral reefs are declining worldwide due to increased incidence of climate-induced coral bleaching, which will have widespread biodiversity and economic impacts. A simple method to measure the sub-bleaching level of heat-light stress experienced by corals would greatly inform reef management practices by making it possible to assess the distribution of bleaching risks among individual reef sites. Gene expression analysis based on quantitative PCR (qPCR) can be used as a diagnostic tool to determine coral condition in situ. We evaluated the expression of 13 candidate genes during heat-light stress in a common Caribbean coral Porites astreoides, and observed strong and consistent changes in gene expression in two independent experiments. Furthermore, we found that the apparent return to baseline expression levels during a recovery phase was rapid, despite visible signs of colony bleaching. We show that the response to acute heat-light stress in P. astreoides can be monitored by measuring the difference in expression of only two genes: Hsp16 and actin. We demonstrate that this assay discriminates between corals sampled from two field sites experiencing different temperatures. We also show that the assay is applicable to an Indo-Pacific congener, P. lobata, and therefore could potentially be used to diagnose acute heat-light stress on coral reefs worldwide

Neonatal, infant, and under-5 mortality and morbidity burden in the Eastern Mediterranean region: findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study

Objectives Although substantial reductions in under-5 mortality have been observed during the past 35 years, progress in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) has been uneven. This paper provides an overview of child mortality and morbidity in the EMR based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Methods We used GBD 2015 study results to explore under-5 mortality and morbidity in EMR countries. Results In 2015, 755,844 (95% uncertainty interval (UI) 712,064–801,565) children under 5 died in the EMR. In the early neonatal category, deaths in the EMR decreased by 22.4%, compared to 42.4% globally. The rate of years of life lost per 100,000 population under 5 decreased 54.38% from 177,537 (173,812–181,463) in 1990 to 80,985 (76,308–85,876) in 2015; the rate of years lived with disability decreased by 0.57% in the EMR compared to 9.97% globally. Conclusions Our findings call for accelerated action to decrease child morbidity and mortality in the EMR. Governments and organizations should coordinate efforts to address this burden. Political commitment is needed to ensure that child health receives the resources needed to end preventable deaths

Global Retinoblastoma Presentation and Analysis by National Income Level.

Importance: Early diagnosis of retinoblastoma, the most common intraocular cancer, can save both a child's life and vision. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many children across the world are diagnosed late. To our knowledge, the clinical presentation of retinoblastoma has never been assessed on a global scale. Objectives: To report the retinoblastoma stage at diagnosis in patients across the world during a single year, to investigate associations between clinical variables and national income level, and to investigate risk factors for advanced disease at diagnosis. Design, Setting, and Participants: A total of 278 retinoblastoma treatment centers were recruited from June 2017 through December 2018 to participate in a cross-sectional analysis of treatment-naive patients with retinoblastoma who were diagnosed in 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures: Age at presentation, proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, and tumor stage and metastasis. Results: The cohort included 4351 new patients from 153 countries; the median age at diagnosis was 30.5 (interquartile range, 18.3-45.9) months, and 1976 patients (45.4%) were female. Most patients (n = 3685 [84.7%]) were from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Globally, the most common indication for referral was leukocoria (n = 2638 [62.8%]), followed by strabismus (n = 429 [10.2%]) and proptosis (n = 309 [7.4%]). Patients from high-income countries (HICs) were diagnosed at a median age of 14.1 months, with 656 of 666 (98.5%) patients having intraocular retinoblastoma and 2 (0.3%) having metastasis. Patients from low-income countries were diagnosed at a median age of 30.5 months, with 256 of 521 (49.1%) having extraocular retinoblastoma and 94 of 498 (18.9%) having metastasis. Lower national income level was associated with older presentation age, higher proportion of locally advanced disease and distant metastasis, and smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma. Advanced disease at diagnosis was more common in LMICs even after adjusting for age (odds ratio for low-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 17.92 [95% CI, 12.94-24.80], and for lower-middle-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 5.74 [95% CI, 4.30-7.68]). Conclusions and Relevance: This study is estimated to have included more than half of all new retinoblastoma cases worldwide in 2017. Children from LMICs, where the main global retinoblastoma burden lies, presented at an older age with more advanced disease and demonstrated a smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, likely because many do not reach a childbearing age. Given that retinoblastoma is curable, these data are concerning and mandate intervention at national and international levels. Further studies are needed to investigate factors, other than age at presentation, that may be associated with advanced disease in LMICs

Global, regional, and national under-5 mortality, adult mortality, age-specific mortality, and life expectancy, 1970–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

BACKGROUND: Detailed assessments of mortality patterns, particularly age-specific mortality, represent a crucial input that enables health systems to target interventions to specific populations. Understanding how all-cause mortality has changed with respect to development status can identify exemplars for best practice. To accomplish this, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) estimated age-specific and sex-specific all-cause mortality between 1970 and 2016 for 195 countries and territories and at the subnational level for the five countries with a population greater than 200 million in 2016. METHODS: We have evaluated how well civil registration systems captured deaths using a set of demographic methods called death distribution methods for adults and from consideration of survey and census data for children younger than 5 years. We generated an overall assessment of completeness of registration of deaths by dividing registered deaths in each location-year by our estimate of all-age deaths generated from our overall estimation process. For 163 locations, including subnational units in countries with a population greater than 200 million with complete vital registration (VR) systems, our estimates were largely driven by the observed data, with corrections for small fluctuations in numbers and estimation for recent years where there were lags in data reporting (lags were variable by location, generally between 1 year and 6 years). For other locations, we took advantage of different data sources available to measure under-5 mortality rates (U5MR) using complete birth histories, summary birth histories, and incomplete VR with adjustments; we measured adult mortality rate (the probability of death in individuals aged 15-60 years) using adjusted incomplete VR, sibling histories, and household death recall. We used the U5MR and adult mortality rate, together with crude death rate due to HIV in the GBD model life table system, to estimate age-specific and sex-specific death rates for each location-year. Using various international databases, we identified fatal discontinuities, which we defined as increases in the death rate of more than one death per million, resulting from conflict and terrorism, natural disasters, major transport or technological accidents, and a subset of epidemic infectious diseases; these were added to estimates in the relevant years. In 47 countries with an identified peak adult prevalence for HIV/AIDS of more than 0·5% and where VR systems were less than 65% complete, we informed our estimates of age-sex-specific mortality using the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP)-Spectrum model fitted to national HIV/AIDS prevalence surveys and antenatal clinic serosurveillance systems. We estimated stillbirths, early neonatal, late neonatal, and childhood mortality using both survey and VR data in spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression models. We estimated abridged life tables for all location-years using age-specific death rates. We grouped locations into development quintiles based on the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) and analysed mortality trends by quintile. Using spline regression, we estimated the expected mortality rate for each age-sex group as a function of SDI. We identified countries with higher life expectancy than expected by comparing observed life expectancy to anticipated life expectancy on the basis of development status alone. FINDINGS: Completeness in the registration of deaths increased from 28% in 1970 to a peak of 45% in 2013; completeness was lower after 2013 because of lags in reporting. Total deaths in children younger than 5 years decreased from 1970 to 2016, and slower decreases occurred at ages 5-24 years. By contrast, numbers of adult deaths increased in each 5-year age bracket above the age of 25 years. The distribution of annualised rates of change in age-specific mortality rate differed over the period 2000 to 2016 compared with earlier decades: increasing annualised rates of change were less frequent, although rising annualised rates of change still occurred in some locations, particularly for adolescent and younger adult age groups. Rates of stillbirths and under-5 mortality both decreased globally from 1970. Evidence for global convergence of death rates was mixed; although the absolute difference between age-standardised death rates narrowed between countries at the lowest and highest levels of SDI, the ratio of these death rates-a measure of relative inequality-increased slightly. There was a strong shift between 1970 and 2016 toward higher life expectancy, most noticeably at higher levels of SDI. Among countries with populations greater than 1 million in 2016, life expectancy at birth was highest for women in Japan, at 86·9 years (95% UI 86·7-87·2), and for men in Singapore, at 81·3 years (78·8-83·7) in 2016. Male life expectancy was generally lower than female life expectancy between 1970 and 2016, an

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Développer des hydrogels et étudier les effets des propriétés mécaniques sur les activités biologiques des podocytes

Extracellular matrix (ECM), non-cellular component, regulates and maintains the main biological activities of cells such as cellular survival, proliferation and differentiation. Recently, hydrogels scaffolds have shown a remarkable advancement as candidates for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Hydrogels are defined as hydrophilic polymer network having the ability to hold a large amount of water and biological fluid. Various natural and synthetic hydrogels have been studied and developed in many tissue regeneration purposes. They provide an appropriate mechanical support, chemical and biological cues mimicking the native extracellular matrix (ECM). These artificial matrices characteristics contribute to induce the cellular functions as adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. The thesis aim was to develop polymers based hydrogels and to study the effect of their physical properties on podocyte kidney cells. Synthetic hydrolyzed polyacrylamide based hydrogel (PAAm) was the choice of study where the physical properties can be tailored and tuned over a wide range. These scaffolds have provided elasticity similar to the in vivo glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and have shown a suitable candidate for the regulation of podocyte functions. Moreover, the development of synthetic and biologic hybrid hydrogels was able to mimic the biological and mechanical properties of native ECM. The combination of gelatin methacrylate and acrylamide (GelMA-AAm) based hydrogels have been investigated and has shown tunable mechanical properties mimicking the native kidney GBM elasticity and a significant attachment of podocytes without any surface functionalization with adhesion proteins. This work permits to investigate the cellular physiology and to develop kidney-on-chip in order to study the functions of kidney on both healthy and diseased states.La matrice extracellulaire (MEC) contrôle et maintient les principales activités biologiques telles que la survie, la prolifération et la différenciation cellulaire. Récemment, les hydrogels ont marqué une progression remarquable en tant que candidats dans le domaine de l'ingénierie tissulaire et de la médecine régénérative. Les hydrogels sont des réseaux polymériques hydrophiles ayant la capacité d’absorber une grande quantité d’eau et de fluide biologique. Les hydrogels présentent un support mécanique approprié pour les cellules tissulaires et fournissent des signaux chimiques et biologiques imitant la MEC native. Par conséquent, de nombreux hydrogels de nature biologique et chimique ont été développés dans le domaine de régénération tissulaire. Les propriétés mécaniques des hydrogels sont nécessaires pour induire les fonctions biologiques telles que l'adhésion, la prolifération et la différenciation cellulaire. L'objectif de la thèse était de développer des hydrogels à base de polymères et d'étudier l'effet de leurs propriétés physiques sur les activités biologiques des cellules podocytaires. Cette étude consiste de synthétiser et de développer des hydrogels à base de polyacrylamide hydrolysé (PAAm) où les propriétés physiques peuvent être adaptées et réglées sur une large gamme d’élasticité. Ces matériaux ont fourni une élasticité similaire à celle de la membrane basale glomérulaire (GBM) in vivo et ont représenté un candidat approprié pour la régulation des fonctions des cellules podocytaires. De même, la synthèse des hydrogels à la fois synthétiques et biologiques a pu imiter les propriétés biologiques et mécaniques de la MEC native. La combinaison des polymères à base de méthacrylate de gélatine et d'acrylamide (GelMA-AAm) a été synthétisée et analysée. Ces hydrogels ont montré des propriétés mécaniques ajustables imitant l'élasticité native du GBM du rein et une fixation significative des podocytes sans modification de surface par des protéines d'adhésion. Ce travail consiste à étudier la physiologie cellulaire et à développer un système microfluidique afin de suivre les fonctions rénales dans les états normales et défectés

Development of hydrogels and study the effect of their mechanical properties on podocyte behaviors

La matrice extracellulaire (MEC) contrôle et maintient les principales activités biologiques telles que la survie, la prolifération et la différenciation cellulaire. Récemment, les hydrogels ont marqué une progression remarquable en tant que candidats dans le domaine de l'ingénierie tissulaire et de la médecine régénérative. Les hydrogels sont des réseaux polymériques hydrophiles ayant la capacité d’absorber une grande quantité d’eau et de fluide biologique. Les hydrogels présentent un support mécanique approprié pour les cellules tissulaires et fournissent des signaux chimiques et biologiques imitant la MEC native. Par conséquent, de nombreux hydrogels de nature biologique et chimique ont été développés dans le domaine de régénération tissulaire. Les propriétés mécaniques des hydrogels sont nécessaires pour induire les fonctions biologiques telles que l'adhésion, la prolifération et la différenciation cellulaire. L'objectif de la thèse était de développer des hydrogels à base de polymères et d'étudier l'effet de leurs propriétés physiques sur les activités biologiques des cellules podocytaires. Cette étude consiste de synthétiser et de développer des hydrogels à base de polyacrylamide hydrolysé (PAAm) où les propriétés physiques peuvent être adaptées et réglées sur une large gamme d’élasticité. Ces matériaux ont fourni une élasticité similaire à celle de la membrane basale glomérulaire (GBM) in vivo et ont représenté un candidat approprié pour la régulation des fonctions des cellules podocytaires. De même, la synthèse des hydrogels à la fois synthétiques et biologiques a pu imiter les propriétés biologiques et mécaniques de la MEC native. La combinaison des polymères à base de méthacrylate de gélatine et d'acrylamide (GelMA-AAm) a été synthétisée et analysée. Ces hydrogels ont montré des propriétés mécaniques ajustables imitant l'élasticité native du GBM du rein et une fixation significative des podocytes sans modification de surface par des protéines d'adhésion. Ce travail consiste à étudier la physiologie cellulaire et à développer un système microfluidique afin de suivre les fonctions rénales dans les états normales et défectés.Extracellular matrix (ECM), non-cellular component, regulates and maintains the main biological activities of cells such as cellular survival, proliferation and differentiation. Recently, hydrogels scaffolds have shown a remarkable advancement as candidates for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Hydrogels are defined as hydrophilic polymer network having the ability to hold a large amount of water and biological fluid. Various natural and synthetic hydrogels have been studied and developed in many tissue regeneration purposes. They provide an appropriate mechanical support, chemical and biological cues mimicking the native extracellular matrix (ECM). These artificial matrices characteristics contribute to induce the cellular functions as adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. The thesis aim was to develop polymers based hydrogels and to study the effect of their physical properties on podocyte kidney cells. Synthetic hydrolyzed polyacrylamide based hydrogel (PAAm) was the choice of study where the physical properties can be tailored and tuned over a wide range. These scaffolds have provided elasticity similar to the in vivo glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and have shown a suitable candidate for the regulation of podocyte functions. Moreover, the development of synthetic and biologic hybrid hydrogels was able to mimic the biological and mechanical properties of native ECM. The combination of gelatin methacrylate and acrylamide (GelMA-AAm) based hydrogels have been investigated and has shown tunable mechanical properties mimicking the native kidney GBM elasticity and a significant attachment of podocytes without any surface functionalization with adhesion proteins. This work permits to investigate the cellular physiology and to develop kidney-on-chip in order to study the functions of kidney on both healthy and diseased states

Darfuri village

Drawing that depicts a helicopter hovering over a village in Darfur near to a government office. Sudan\u27s flag is seen hoisted in the village.https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/darfuri_drawings/1045/thumbnail.jp