Time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of pteropods

© 2017 Burridge et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the [4.0] Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Campus Mental Health: Implications for Instructors Supporting Students

The recent escalation in student suicides due to mental health problems has encouraged higher education institutions to not only modify their overall support structures, but to also (re)define the role of faculty and staff. Despite the increased attention given to student mental health in Canadian higher education institutions, little is known and understood about how instructors view their role as supporters or promoters of student mental health. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of college instructors in supporting students with mental health problems or illnesses. Participants were 42 instructors between the ages of 25 to 64 from Molize College in Toronto, Ontario. Qualitative ethnography was employed to gather data from participants, specifically through a survey questionnaire and interviews. A constructivist framework was adopted to analyze and understand the values, perceptions, meanings, and practices post-secondary instructors carry around notions of student mental health and intervention. Findings revealed that instructors were generally aware of student mental health concerns in post-secondary institutions, but that greater awareness was still warranted, namely in the areas of instructor mental health and location of support services. Findings also demonstrated that most instructors evaluated their knowledge and confidence in relation to student mental health as poor, which was often credited to limited relevant professional development and training. Additionally, data indicated that instructors carried skepticism towards the role of some student support services departments, as well as towards their own role when supporting the mental health and well-being of students. On a final note, findings revealed that instructors commonly employed four practices to support the mental health and well-being of students: conversation, referral, accommodations, and curricular inclusion and instruction. Future studies are encouraged to acknowledge the narratives of instructors through ethnographic inquiry, to allow for greater insights into their awareness, knowledge/confidence, responsibilities, and practices when it comes to supporting the mental health and well-being of students in higher education settings. Incorporating the instructor may not be a panacea for the shortcomings of current mental health policies and practices in higher education settings, but it can certainly represent a colossal step in that direction. KEYWORDS: student mental health, higher education, instructor

A perspective on the census of marine life. The role of natural history institutions for this programme

The Census of marine life programme (CoML) is expected to generate a large amount of information on the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine communities, many of them new or poorly known. Institutions such as natural history museums can play a crucial role in providing the necessary tools to allow the CoML to advance knowledge in the fields of marine systematics and biogeography. These institutions can contribute taxonomic expertise to provide quality-controlled identifications of species; specimen collections to allow for cross-checking of occurrences and a historical context for new data; information, both paper and electronic, on taxonomy, ecology and other topics to enable researchers to review past work; education opportunities to inform the public about the results of current and past research on the marine world. Challenges for these institutions in the future include the recruitment, training, and retention of taxonomic experts, development of advanced molecular techniques for more reliable and faster species identification in certain groups, and integration of expertise and other taxonomic resources into research on scientific processes from start to finish.Le programme de Recensement de la vie marine devrait apporter une grande quantité d’informations sur la diversité, la distribution et l’abondance des communautés marines, dont beaucoup sont insuffisamment connues voire nouvelles. Des institutions comme les muséums d’histoire naturelle doivent jouer un rôle-clef en fournissant les outils nécessaires pour permettre à ce recensement de progresser dans les domaines de la systématique et de la biogéographie. Ces institutions peuvent contribuer à l’expertise taxinomique en contrôlant la qualité de l’identification des espèces. Leurs collections doivent permettre. Elles doivent fournir une information, sous forme papier et électronique, sur la taxinomie, l’écologie et d’autres thèmes pour permettre aux chercheurs d’accéder aux travaux passés. Elles peuvent enfin informer le public sur les résultats en cours et passés sur le monde marin. Le défi pour ces institutions est d’attirer, de former et de recruter des systématiciens, de développer les techniques moléculaires modernes pour une identification meilleure et plus rapide des espèces et d’intégrer les ressources taxinomiques et de détermination dans les processus de recherche et ce, du début à la fin des programmes