From Doctoral Student To Faculty Member: Ph.D. Project Alumnis Evaluation Of Their Preparedness

In response to the important issues regarding diversity in business schools and corporate America, the KPMG Foundation established the PhD Project. The PhD Project helps business professionals and recent college graduates earn doctoral degrees in business disciplines and join business school faculty. While the PhD Project has helped increase the number of minority faculty members in business schools, it may be helpful to gather insights from the recent PhD alumni who have received support from the PhD Project. Our study examines attitudes about preparedness of PhD Project alums for their first faculty position after completing their PhD program. Results show that PhD Project alumni and majority PhD alumni (alumni not associated with the PhD Project) felt they were prepared for their first faculty position, but they were not significantly different in their evaluation in most respects. However, to our surprise, majority PhD alumni felt they were better prepared for research than PhD Project alumni. This difference was significant and further analyses showed that younger faculty and those in the ethnic majority were better prepared for research. Both groups considered themselves well prepared for research and teaching. Neither group was as optimistic about being prepared for service responsibilities and the academic climate or politics of an academic career. Our findings show that the PhD Project is necessary to help ensure that minority faculty members are adequately prepared for research and their academic careers

The Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network: Results of the naturalistic follow-up study after 2.5 years of follow-up in the German centres

The Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network (SFBN) is an international, multisite network investigating the characteristics and course of bipolar disorder. Methods (history, ratings and longitudinal follow-up) are standardized and equally applied in all 7 centres. This article describes demographics and illness characteristics of the first 152 German patients enrolled in them SFBN as well as the results of 2.5 years of follow-up. Patients in Germany were usually enrolled after hospitalisation. More than 72% of the study population suffered from bipolar I disorder and 25% from bipolar 11 disorder. The mean +/- SD age of the study participants was 42.08 +/- 13.5 years, and the mean SD age of onset 24.44 +/- 10.9 years. More than 40% of the sample reported a rapid-cycling course in history, and even more a cycle acceleration overtime. 37% attempted suicide at least once. 36% had an additional Axis I disorder, with alcohol abuse being the most common one, followed by anxiety disorders. During the follow-up period, only 27% remained stable, 56% had a recurrence, 12.8% perceived subsyndromal symptoms despite treatment and regular visits. 27% suffered from a rapid-cycling course during the follow-up period. Recurrences were significantly associated with bipolar I disorder, an additional comorbid Axis I disorder, rapid cycling in history, a higher number of mood stabilizers and the long-term use of typical antipsychotics. Rapid cycling during follow-up was only associated with a rapidcycling course in history, a higher number of mood stabilizers and at least one suicide attempt in history. Copyright (c) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

The PhD Project: How Successful Is It?

The PhD Project’s mission to diversify the work force by increasing the diversity of business school faculty is quite admirable, but is the Project successful? To gather insights toward responding to that question and to offer suggestions, we reviewed three of the Project’s objectives that relate most closely to minority doctoral students and faculty members. We examined the Project’s website, held discussions with Project staff members, and surveyed Project alumni. Among the myriad of PhD Project activities, the most important are its annual November conference for potential doctoral students and its annual minority doctoral student association meetings for each of five academic disciplines (accounting, finance, information systems, management and marketing). The annual conference attracts between 350 and 400 individuals from which about 10% enroll in doctoral programs each year. The doctoral student associations have over 1,400 members of which some 400 are current doctoral students and the others are faculty members. The Project is making significant progress toward accomplishing its mission and objectives. Areas where the Project could improve its accomplishments include identifying why those who have considered enrollment have not done so, placing greater emphasis on teaching and service at minority doctoral student association conferences, and strengthening mentoring relationships

The Relation of Socioeconomic Status, Parental education, Vocabulary and Language Skills of Children Who Stutter

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to investigate the possible relation between standardized measures of vocabulary/language, mother and father education, and a composite measure of socioeconomic status (SES) for children who do not stutter (CWNS) and children who stutter (CWS). Methods: Participants were 138 CWNS and 159 CWS between the ages of 2;6 and 6;3 and their families. The Hollingshead Four Factor Index of Social Position (i.e., Family SES) was used to calculate SES based on a composite score consisting of weighted values for paternal and maternal education and occupation. Statistical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relation between parental education and language and vocabulary scores for both the CWNS and CWS. Correlations were calculated between parent education, Family SES, and stuttering severity (e.g., SSI-3 score, % words stuttered). Results: Results indicated that maternal education contributed the greatest amount of variance in vocabulary and language scores for the CWNS and for participants from both groups whose Family SES was in the lowest quartile of the distribution. However, paternal education generally contributed the greatest amount of variance in vocabulary and language scores for the CWS. Higher levels of maternal education were associated with more severe stuttering in the CWS. Conclusion: Results are generally consistent with existing literature on normal language development that indicates maternal education is a robust predictor of the vocabulary and language skills of preschool children. Thus, both father and mothers\u27 education may impact the association between vocabulary/language skills and childhood stuttering, leading investigators who empirically study this association to possibly re-assess their participant selection (e.g., a priori control of parental education) and/or data analyses (e.g., post hoc covariation of parental education). Learning outcomes: The reader will be able to: (a) describe the influence of socioeconomic status on the development of vocabulary and language for children who do and do not stutter; (b) discuss the contribution of maternal education on vocabulary and language development; (c) describe possible reasons why paternal education contributes in unique ways to the vocabulary and language development of children who stutter as well as stuttering severity; and (d) explain possible reasons why socioeconomic status is an important variable for describing language related findings in young children

Performance analysis of Woods Hole taut moorings

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has been using deepsea moored buoys for acquiring serial observations of ocean currents, temperature .and other data for over twelve years. A brief description of the deep-sea mooring program is given. The mooring statistics and performance are described. Mooring failures of 1970 and 1971 have been categorized and statistics on the modes and causes of failures are presented. The reliabilities of different types of moorings are computed and compared. The role of radio telemetry for the real-time measurement of mooring line tension and its use in checking the mooring status are discussed. Examples of potential design data like tension and currents recorded by moorings that failed are provided. Finally, recommendations for research and development needed to improve mooring reliability are given.Prepared for the Office of NavaZ Research under Contract N00014-66-C024lj NR 083-004

Seasonal timing for estimating carbon mitigation in revegetation of abandoned agricultural land with high spatial resolution remote sensing

Dryland salinity is a major land management issue globally, and results in the abandonment of farmland. Revegetation with halophytic shrub species such as Atriplex nummularia for carbon mitigation may be a viable option but to generate carbon credits ongoing monitoring and verification is required. This study investigated the utility of high-resolution airborne images (Digital Multi Spectral Imagery (DMSI)) obtained in two seasons to estimate carbon stocks at the plant- and stand-scale. Pixel-scale vegetation indices, sub-pixel fractional green vegetation cover for individual plants, and estimates of the fractional coverage of the grazing plants within entire plots, were extracted from the high-resolution images. Carbon stocks were correlated with both canopy coverage (R2: 0.76-0.89) and spectral-based vegetation indices (R2: 0.77-0.89) with or without the use of the near-infrared spectral band. Indices derived from the dry season image showed a stronger correlation with field measurements of carbon than those derived from the green season image. These results show that in semi-arid environments it is better to estimate saltbush biomass with remote sensing data in the dry season to exclude the effect of pasture, even without the refinement provided by a vegetation classification. The approach of using canopy cover to refine estimates of carbon yield has broader application in shrublands and woodlands

Near Infrared Light Induced Radical Polymerization in Water

We introduce a gold nanorod (AuNR) driven methodology to induce free radical polymerization in water with near infrared light (800 nm). The process exploits photothermal conversion in AuNR and subsequent heat transfer to a radical initiator (here azobisisobutyronitrile) for primary radical generation. A broad range of reaction conditions were investigated, demonstrating control over molecular weight and reaction conversion of dimethylacrylamide polymers, using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We underpin our experimental data with finite element simulation of the spatio-temporal temperature profile surrounding the AuNR directly after femtosecond laser pulse excitation. Critically, we evidence that polymerization can be induced through biological tissues given the enhanced penetration depth of the near infrared light. We submit that the presented initiation mechanism in aqueous systems holds promise for radical polymerization in biological environments, including cells

Measurement of the 18Ne(a,p_0)21Na reaction cross section in the burning energy region for X-ray bursts

The 18Ne(a,p)21Na reaction provides one of the main HCNO-breakout routes into the rp-process in X-ray bursts. The 18Ne(a,p_0)21Na reaction cross section has been determined for the first time in the Gamow energy region for peak temperatures T=2GK by measuring its time-reversal reaction 21Na(p,a)18Ne in inverse kinematics. The astrophysical rate for ground-state to ground-state transitions was found to be a factor of 2 lower than Hauser-Feshbach theoretical predictions. Our reduced rate will affect the physical conditions under which breakout from the HCNO cycles occurs via the 18Ne(a,p)21Na reaction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication on Physical Review Letter

Probiotic BC30 Improves Amino Acid Absorption from Plant Protein Concentrate in Older Women

Weizmannia coagulans GBI-30, 6086 (BC30) has previously been shown to increase protein digestion in an in vitro model of the stomach and small intestine and amino acid appearance in healthy men and women after ingestion of milk protein concentrate. The impact of ingesting BC30 with other protein sources or in other demographics is largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of adding BC30 to a 20-g dose of a blend of rice and pea protein on postprandial changes in blood amino acids concentrations in healthy, older women. Healthy, older females (n = 30, 58.5 ± 5.2 years, 165.4 ± 6.8 cm, 65.6 ± 8.8 kg, 23.7 ± 3.2 kg/m2) completed two separate 14-day supplementation protocols separated by a 3-week washout period. Participants were instructed to ingest a 20-g protein dose of a blend of rice and pea protein concentrates (ProDiem Plant Protein Solutions, Kerry) with (PPCBC30) or without (PPC) the addition of 1 × 109 CFU BC30 (Kerry). Body composition and demographics were assessed upon arrival to the laboratory. Upon ingestion of their final assigned supplemental dose, blood samples were taken at 0 (baseline), 30-, 60-, 90-, 120-, 180-, and 240-min post-consumption and analyzed for amino acid concentrations. Alanine (p = 0.018), tryptophan (p = 0.003), cysteine (p = 0.041), essential amino acids (p = 0.050), and total amino acids (p = 0.039) all exhibited significantly (p ≤ 0.05) greater AUC with PPCBC30 when compared to PPC. In addition, tryptophan (p = 0.003), cysteine (p = 0.021), essential amino acids (p = 0.049), and total amino acids (p = 0.035) displayed significantly greater (p ≤ 0.05) concentration maximum (CMax) values in PPCBC30 when compared to PPC. Finally, time to reach CMax (TMax) was similar between conditions with 80% of all measured amino acids and amino acid combinations achieving CMax at a similar time (~ 60 min). Only phenylalanine TMax was found to be different (p = 0.01) between the two conditions with PPC displaying a greater proportion of TMax values after 30 min. Following qualitative (non-inferential) assessment, 88% of all measured outcomes achieved a higher AUC with PPCBC30 and 100% of all outcomes achieved a higher CMax with PPCBC30. In concert with previous findings in a younger mixed gender cohort with milk protein, the addition of BC30 to a daily 20-g dose of plant protein concentrate in healthy older women improved AUC and CMax values in several individual amino acids and amino acid combinations. Retrospectively registered on April 6, 2022, at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT05313178