Technostress Effects on Technology Acceptance by Nurse Faculty

Technology is an essential tool used in nursing academia. The rapid changes in technology and required adaptations can result in technostress, but little research exists about technostress among nurse educators. Gaps in this area of research generated several questions regarding the adaption to technology among nurse faculty and the impact technology has on stress, system use, job satisfaction, and intent to stay in the profession. This dissertation explored technostress and its influence on technology use, acceptance, job satisfaction, and intention to stay within the profession. Included are two manuscripts. The first is a concept analysis of technostress. The second manuscript is a research study report on the effects of technology acceptance on 1,017 nursing faculty using hierarchical regression. Three regression analyses involved up to seven predictors and their potential influence on technology use, job satisfaction, and intent to stay. Results yielded multiple factors that influence nursing faculty use of electronic learning technology

Integrating Blended Learning in Middle School ELA Classrooms to Support Diverse Learners: Lessons Learned

The current focus of education is on preparing diverse student populations for college and career readiness. One critical aspect of this preparation is the development of 21st-century learning skills that integrate technology to support students in becoming active members of a globalized society. According to theNational Assessment of Educational Progress, however, English learners (ELs) and students with disabilities(SWDs) are underprepared to use technology to enhance their learning. Therefore, it is important for schools to find ways to integrate critical technology skills with academic instruction in the education of cognitively and linguistically diverse learners. School leaders are essential to the establishment of this instruction. This paper provides lessons learned from a professional development project focused on training middle school English language arts teachers in the integration of blended learning activities to support these diverse learners. These lessons, with supporting data, are discussed along with implications and recommendations for school leaders focused on providing access to critical 21st-century learning skills

Interprofessional Learning Readiness: Health Policy Summit

Purpose: Interprofessional Education (IPE) and Health Policy are important components in health professional curricula. Students from business, communication sciences and disorders, dietetics, occupational therapy, nursing, and social work participated in an innovative IPE event working in an IPE group to apply discipline specific knowledge and propose solutions to the Medicaid Expansion gap in Virginia. Students presented their final proposals to legislators while advocating for issues important to their discipline. Methodology/Results: This study used the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) to examine student Teamwork and Collaboration, Professional Identity, and Roles and Responsibilities following participation in a Health Policy Summit. The results revealed a difference at baseline between health professions students and business students (N= 260) in their perception of teamwork and collaboration between groups. The themes of the question items found to be significant within the scale pre- and posttest were student perception of learning with other health-care/professional students, shared learning to help students understand their limitations, and welcoming opportunities to work with IPE students. Conclusion: This data indicates that there remains an opportunity to promote student perceptions of their abilities to participate in teamwork, collaborate significantly, and to understand the scope of their discipline specific knowledge and contributions to a team

Interprofessional Education for Pre-Service School-Based Professionals: Faculty and Student Collaboration

Interprofessional collaboration is necessary for school-based professionals who provide services for students with disabilities. Most pre-service training, however, takes place in separate programs and does not afford students opportunities to learn effective collaborative techniques. This study examined the effects of a one-day interprofessional learning experience for pre-service school-based professionals. The goals were twofold: 1) increase students’ understanding of the core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016) and 2) provide an opportunity for students to participate in interprofessional collaboration within a simulated school-based context. A mixed method design examined changes in students’ knowledge of the IPEC competencies. Students completed a modified version of the Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale (ATHCT) and reflections of learning. Participants demonstrated significant increases in value of team, team efficiency, and shared leadership. Qualitative analysis of students’ responses to open-ended survey questions about the day revealed three major themes and two minor themes, which indicated increased understanding of three of the IPEC competencies (i.e., roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams and teamwork). The findings suggest that pre-service training programs could use case-based learning to assist students in developing interprofessional collaboration skills

Recurrent Modification of a Conserved Cis-Regulatory Element Underlies Fruit Fly Pigmentation Diversity

The development of morphological traits occurs through the collective action of networks of genes connected at the level of gene expression. As any node in a network may be a target of evolutionary change, the recurrent targeting of the same node would indicate that the path of evolution is biased for the relevant trait and network. Although examples of parallel evolution have implicated recurrent modification of the same gene and cis-regulatory element (CRE), little is known about the mutational and molecular paths of parallel CRE evolution. In Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies, the Bric-à-brac (Bab) transcription factors control the development of a suite of sexually dimorphic traits on the posterior abdomen. Female-specific Bab expression is regulated by the dimorphic element, a CRE that possesses direct inputs from body plan (ABD-B) and sex-determination (DSX) transcription factors. Here, we find that the recurrent evolutionary modification of this CRE underlies both intraspecific and interspecific variation in female pigmentation in the melanogaster species group. By reconstructing the sequence and regulatory activity of the ancestral Drosophila melanogaster dimorphic element, we demonstrate that a handful of mutations were sufficient to create independent CRE alleles with differing activities. Moreover, intraspecific and interspecific dimorphic element evolution proceeded with little to no alterations to the known body plan and sex-determination regulatory linkages. Collectively, our findings represent an example where the paths of evolution appear biased to a specific CRE, and drastic changes in function were accompanied by deep conservation of key regulatory linkages. © 2013 Rogers et al

Functionally-relevant mutations in dimorphic element alleles.

<p>(A) Dimorphic element allele phylogeny, including the outgroup species <i>D. simulans</i> (D. sim.). Alignment of sequences encompassing the (B) “D” mutation, (C) “E” mutation, (D) “F” mutation, (E) and the “L” mutation. Black background color for the E mutation indicates the 1 base pair overlap for the derived deletion and the adjacent DSX binding site. (F–J) Comparison of GFP-reporter activity in female transgenic pupae at 85 hAPF, represented as the % of the <i>D. melanogaster</i> Concestor element female A6 mean ± SEM. Red upward and downward arrow respectively indicate segments with increased and decreased regulatory activity. Yellow arrowhead indicates expanded regulatory activity. Regulatory activities differing from the Concestor element due to the following derived mutations: (G) D mutation; (H) E mutation; (I) F mutation; and (J) L mutation. (K) Summary for the female A6 regulatory activities for modifications to the E mutation region. The Concestor element sequence is provided and the introduced modifications indicated by red bases. (L) Gel shift assays for annealed oligonucleotide probes containing the wild type (Concestor element, lanes 1–7), E mutation (lanes 8–14), and mutant (Dsx1 KO, lanes 15–19) Dsx1 binding site. The binding site sequences are included with mutant bases in red. For the Concestor element and E mutation probes, binding reactions used increasing amounts of the DSX protein (from left to right: 0 ng, 8 ng, 16 ng, 31 ng, 63 ng, 125 ng, 250 ng, and 500 ng). For the Dsx1 KO probe, binding reactions used the following amounts of protein (from left to right: 0 ng, 8 ng, 31 ng, 125 ng, 500 ng). Blue and red arrowheads point to the respective locations of single or pair of DSX monomers bound to the probe.</p

Abdomen pigmentation correlates with the regulatory activity of dimorphic element alleles.

<p>(A) The A5 and A6 segment dorsal tergites of <i>D. melanogaster</i> males are fully pigmented, (B–H) whereas the female A5 and A6 tergite pigmentation varies from “Light” to a male-like “Dark” phenotype. (A′–H′) GFP-reporter transgene activity was measured in transgenic pupae at 85 hours after puparium formation (hAPF) and activity measurements were represented as the % of the <i>D. melanogaster Canton^S</i> allele female A6 mean ± SEM. (A′) The regulatory activity of a male <i>Canton^S</i> pupae. The regulatory activity of alleles from the following locations were measured: (B′) Oaxaca, Mexico (called Light 2), (C′) Crete, Greece, (D′) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (called Light 1), (E′) Mumbai, India, (F′) Kisangani, Africa, (G′) Uganda, Africa (called Dark 1), and (H′) Bogota, Columbia (called Dark 2).</p

Population level differences in Bab paralog expression.

<p>(A–C) The expression of Bab1 in the dorsal abdomens of female pupae at 85 hAPF. (A) Light 1 females display uniform Bab1 expression throughout segments A2-A6, whereas expression is reduced in the A5 and A6 segments of (B) Dark 1 and (C) Dark 2 females. (D and E) Expression of Bab1 in the female genitalia (g) and analia (a) at 29 hAPF. (F–H) Bab2 expression in the dorsal abdomen of female pupae is at 85 hAPF. Bab2 expression is (F) uniform throughout the A2–A6 segments of Light 1 females, (G) reduced in the A5 and A6 segments of Dark 1 females, and (H) uniform throughout the A2–A6 of Dark 2 females. (I and J) Expression of Bab2 in the female genitalia (g) and analia (a) is at 29 hAPF. Red arrowheads indicate segments where expression is reduced compared to more anterior segments, whereas yellow arrowheads indicate the segments where Bab2 is expressed at a higher level than that observed for Bab1 for Dark 2 females.</p

Pigmentation gene network model and the evolution of an ancestral CRE regulatory logic.

<p>(A–C) Schematic of the hierarchical structure of the <i>D. melanogaster</i> pigmentation gene network. Direct regulation is represented as solid connections and dashed connections represent connections where regulation has not been shown to be direct. Activation and repression are respectively indicated by the arrowhead and nail-head shapes. This network includes an (A) upper level of patterning genes, including <i>Abd-B</i> and <i>dsx</i> respectively of the body plan and sex-determination pathways, (B) a mid-level tier that integrates patterning inputs, (C) and a lower level that includes pigmentation genes whose encoded products function in pigment metabolism. Although <i>Abd-B</i> directly regulates the pigmentation gene <i>yellow</i>, sexually dimorphic expression of the <i>yellow</i> and <i>tan</i> genes results from the sexually dimorphic output of the <i>bab</i> locus that acts to repress <i>tan</i> and <i>yellow</i> expression in females. (D) A model for the evolution of diverse dimorphic element regulatory activities. The common ancestor of <i>D. melanogaster</i> populations and related species possessed a dimorphic element with both DSX and ABD-B regulatory linkages and that drove expression in the female A6–A8 segments. This ancestral regulatory logic was recurrently modified to increase the levels and expand the segmental domain of activity, or to decrease and contract activity. These changes occurred amidst the preservation of the core ABD-B and DSX regulatory linkages, perhaps though the loss (TF 3) and/or gain (TF 4) of other transcription factor linkages.</p

<i>bab locus</i> allelic variation underlies phenotypic variation.

<p>(A) The A5 and A6 tergite phenotype for F1 females were intermediate to those from the parental Light 1 and Dark 1 stocks. F2 females had pigmentation phenotypes that were (B) “Light”, (C) “Intermediate”, or (D) “Dark”. (E–P) Complementation tests for population stock <i>bab</i> loci with a <i>bab</i> locus null allele. (E) The Light 1 stock complemented the <i>bab</i> locus null allele with regards to abdomen tergite pigmentation, whereas the (F) Dark 1, and (G) Dark 2 stocks failed to complement the null allele in segments A5 and A6 but complemented the null allele for the A3 and A4 segments. Light 1, Dark 1, and Dark 2 stocks complemented the <i>bab</i> locus null allele for (I–K) posterior abdomen phenotypes and (M–O) for the development of the leg tarsal segments. Females with a homozygous <i>bab</i> locus null genotype displayed (F) ectopic pigmentation on segments A3 through A6, and (L) lacked bristles on the A6 and A7 ventral sternites and the genitalia (g) had altered bristles and morphology. (P) Individuals with a homozygous <i>bab</i> locus null genotype had tarsal segments 5, 4, and 3 fused, and altered bristle morphology on tarsal segments 2 and 3. Red arrowheads and black arrows respectively indicate the location abnormal posterior abdomen and tarsus features.</p