Efficacy Testing of the Comprehensive Institutional Model (CIM) using Design-based Research: Instrumental Case Study

COVID-19 was a “black swan” event that forever altered higher education’s adult teaching and learning landscape by requiring a pathway shift in institutional resources to meet student and faculty support needs for academic success and institutional sustainability. Over the last two years, thousands of scholarly articles have been published about the challenges that higher education institutions (HEIs) faced during COVID-19 and their lasting impact on student learning, faculty engagement, and institutional operations in the post-COVID environment. Many researchers offer strategies and guidance to help address the challenges; however, research is limited to testing these strategies and proposed models designed to mitigate the challenges and manage such a crisis in the future. The proposed study will help close this gap by assessing the efficacy of the Comprehensive Institutional Model (CIM), developed based on the findings of Perceptions of Online Strategies and Digital Readiness in the COVID-19 Environment: An Instrumental Case Study by McCray et al. [19]. The CIM aims to provide HEIs with a model to support Hy-flex learning environments to ensure readiness for new emergencies and the aftermath of a “new normal” in higher education. The model organizes how aligning administrators, faculty, and graduate students impacts effective Hy-flex teaching and learning environments. Design-Based Research (DBR) will be used to systematically collect and analyze evidence-based testing results of the CIM across three iterations

A 2.3-Day Periodic Variability in the Apparently Single Wolf-Rayet Star WR 134: Collapsed Companion or Rotational Modulation?

We present the results of an intensive campaign of spectroscopic and photometric monitoring of the peculiar Wolf-Rayet star WR 134 from 1989 to 1997. This unprecedentedly large data set allows us to confirm unambiguously the existence of a coherent 2.25 +/- 0.05 day periodicity in the line-profile changes of He II 4686, although the global pattern of variability is different from one epoch to another. This period is only marginally detected in the photometric data set. Assuming the 2.25 day periodic variability to be induced by orbital motion of a collapsed companion, we develop a simple model aiming at investigating (i) the effect of this strongly ionizing, accreting companion on the Wolf-Rayet wind structure, and (ii) the expected emergent X-ray luminosity. We argue that the predicted and observed X-ray fluxes can only be matched if the accretion on the collapsed star is significantly inhibited. Additionally, we performed simulations of line-profile variations caused by the orbital revolution of a localized, strongly ionized wind cavity surrounding the X-ray source. A reasonable fit is achieved between the observed and modeled phase-dependent line profiles of He II 4686. However, the derived size of the photoionized zone substantially exceeds our expectations, given the observed low-level X-ray flux. Alternatively, we explore rotational modulation of a persistent, largely anisotropic outflow as the origin of the observed cyclical variability. Although qualitative, this hypothesis leads to greater consistency with the observations.Comment: 34 pages, 16 figures. Accepted by the Astrophysical Journa

Health literacy and public health: A systematic review and integration of definitions and models

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Health literacy concerns the knowledge and competences of persons to meet the complex demands of health in modern society. Although its importance is increasingly recognised, there is no consensus about the definition of health literacy or about its conceptual dimensions, which limits the possibilities for measurement and comparison. The aim of the study is to review definitions and models on health literacy to develop an integrated definition and conceptual model capturing the most comprehensive evidence-based dimensions of health literacy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic literature review was performed to identify definitions and conceptual frameworks of health literacy. A content analysis of the definitions and conceptual frameworks was carried out to identify the central dimensions of health literacy and develop an integrated model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The review resulted in 17 definitions of health literacy and 12 conceptual models. Based on the content analysis, an integrative conceptual model was developed containing 12 dimensions referring to the knowledge, motivation and competencies of accessing, understanding, appraising and applying health-related information within the healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion setting, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Based upon this review, a model is proposed integrating medical and public health views of health literacy. The model can serve as a basis for developing health literacy enhancing interventions and provide a conceptual basis for the development and validation of measurement tools, capturing the different dimensions of health literacy within the healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion settings.</p

Diversity and Specificity of Frankia Strains in Nodules of Sympatric Myrica gale, Alnus incana, and Shepherdia canadensis Determined by rrs Gene Polymorphism

The identity of Frankia strains from nodules of Myrica gale, Alnus incana subsp. rugosa, and Shepherdia canadensis was determined for a natural stand on a lake shore sand dune in Wisconsin, where the three actinorhizal plant species were growing in close proximity, and from two additional stands with M. gale as the sole actinorhizal component. Unisolated strains were compared by their 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) restriction patterns using a direct PCR amplification protocol on nodules. Phylogenetic relationships among nodular Frankia strains were analyzed by comparing complete 16S rDNA sequences of study and reference strains. Where the three actinorhizal species occurred together, each host species was nodulated by a different phylogenetic group of Frankia strains. M. gale strains from all three sites belonged to an Alnus-Casuarina group, closely related to Frankia alni representative strains, and were low in diversity for a host genus considered promiscuous with respect to Frankia microsymbiont genotype. Frankia strains from A. incana nodules were also within the Alnus-Casuarina cluster, distinct from Frankia strains of M. gale nodules at the mixed actinorhizal site but not from Frankia strains from two M. gale nodules at a second site in Wisconsin. Frankia strains from nodules of S. canadensis belonged to a divergent subset of a cluster of Elaeagnaceae-infective strains and exhibited a high degree of diversity. The three closely related local Frankia populations in Myrica nodules could be distinguished from one another using our approach. In addition to geographic separation and host selectivity for Frankia microsymbionts, edaphic factors such as soil moisture and organic matter content, which varied among locales, may account for differences in Frankia populations found in Myrica nodules