A Mentoring Guide for Female Faculty in Engineering

One widely accepted method for increasing the chances of success of female engineering and science students and faculty alike is to provide access to female role models and mentors. In this article we offer to new female faculty, and to those who would mentor them, an annotated list of text and electronic resources that address most of the most important challenges facing new female faculty in science and engineering

Recent Cases

If the instant case, rather than Northway, is to become the accepted rule in the area of discounting, consumers and state lenders will be protected while the national bank-lenders will be burdened only slightly, if at all. National banks located in states that permit state lenders to discount loans at the maximum rate, with-out regard to the actual yield, will not be affected. National banks located in states that permit state lenders to discount only to the extent that the actual yield is within the statutory maximum will need to change their practices merely by charging the statutory rate only when it becomes due, or by charging a lower rate in advance that yields an effective rate not in excess of the maximum. Furthermore, the impact of the instant decision on national banks will be practically limited to consumer loans, because of the usual exemption of corporations from usury laws and of section 85\u27s higher alternative rate for business or agricultural loans. This limited restriction on the national banks will be justified by its beneficent effect on the borrower and on the competing state lenders, who have always been subject to the state restrictions. Linda A. Bunsey ======================= With the instant decision, federal defamation law has advanced within the space of ten years from no constitutional privilege, even for the press in defending against a public person, to the realized prospect of a constitutional privilege so sweeping that it prevents recovery of an element of damages by a public person who has been defamed by an individual. Specifically, the instant court\u27s holding completes a four-part scheme for liability and damages in defamation actions: under Supreme Court decisions, a private figure must prove negligence to receive compensatory damages and actual malice to receive punitive damages, and a public figure must prove actual malice to recover compensatory damages; under the instant decision, a public figure is almost totally precluded from recovering punitive damages. As the Sullivan Court in large measure adopted the minority position concerning fair comment and liability, so too the Maheu court in large measure adopted the minority position concerning punitive damages. Nevertheless, the instant decision was solidly based: the court fully considered the Supreme Court\u27s prior concerns with encouraging debate and discouraging self-censorship, shielding reputation and privacy, and, most importantly, scrutinizing the need for punitive damages. David M. Thompson ============================ In rejecting the State\u27s reliance upon the stated rule of the Brady trilogy and Tollett, the instant Court noted the suggestion originally made in a McMann footnote that an exception might exist if the applicable state law permitted appeal from adverse pretrial rulings despite a subsequent guilty plea. Under New York procedure, a defendant who chooses to plead guilty does not deliberately by-pass state appellate review of certain constitutional claims, and the State acquires no legitimate expectation of finality in the ensuing conviction. As to these constitutional claims, the plea does not constitute a break in the chain, but operates merely as a procedural device to secure review of the adverse pretrial ruling without the necessity of a time-consuming and expensive trial. The Court held that because the respondent\u27s guilty plea was entered in reliance upon a guarantee of the availability of further appellate review of his constitutional claims, it was essentially different from guilty pleas entered in other states that result in an absolute conviction and a waiver of all further state review. Charles K. Campbell, Jr. ======================================== In determining whether the challenged statute met the procedural requirements of the fourteenth amendment, the instant Court looked to the statutory safeguards protecting the debtor\u27s property interest in the absence of prior notice and hearing. Comparing the instant statute to the Fuentes statutes, the Court asserted that the same constitutional infirmities were present. Each statute allowed the seizure of property without prior notice and opportunity for a hearing by the issuance of a writ by a court clerk after the filing of an affidavit containing conclusory allegations. The instant Court restated its belief set forth in Sniadach and Fuentes that even a temporary deprivation of property does not put the seizure beyond scrutiny under due process requirements. The Court then asserted that the Georgia statute had none of the saving characteristics of the Louisiana sequestration statute upheld in Mitchell. According to the Court, the Mitchell statute survived challenge because of the presence of safeguards which imposed judicial control over the process of issuance of the writ; required the creditor\u27s affidavit to contain factual allegations; and provided for an immediate post-seizure hearing at which the debtor could seek dissolution of the writ. Keith B. Simmons ============================== The instant court rejected arguments based mainly on the vague wording of the statute and relied on two basic policies-(1)to compel pro rata distributions of unneeded funds that will be taxable to shareholders and (2) to avoid constructions that lead to inconsistent results in similar fact situations. Also, the court seemed to contemplate two theories of liability available to the Commissioner-first, that the corporation was availed of by permitting funds not used in the redemption to remain accumulated, and secondly, that the corporation was availed of through the redemption itself. The arguments based on the equivalency of the phrases to accumulate and to remain accumulated , the purpose of Congress to reach any corporation with an undue accumulation, and the relevance of past accumulations, plus the remand for determination of whether an unreasonable accumulation actually occurred, relate to the first theory. Other arguments used by the court relate more to the second theory-the repeated idea that preferential distribution of unneeded funds is not a congressionally approved method of abating the penalty tax with respect to those funds, the mention of corporations formed for the proscribed purpose that may be liable without regard to actual accumulation, and especially the concluding statement that the judgment concerning 1967 made liability in 1968 apparent. Thomas C. Hundle

Telemedicine in the Emergency Department in the Era of COVID-19: Front-Line Experiences from 2 Institutions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the major changes that has occurred in emergency medicine is the evolution of telemedicine. With relaxation of regulatory and administrative barriers, the use of this already available technology has rapidly expanded. Telemedicine provides opportunity to markedly decrease personal protective equipment (PPE) and reduce healthcare worker exposures. Moreover, with the convenience and availability of access to medical care via telemedicine, a more fundamental change in healthcare delivery in the United States is likely. The implementation of telemedicine in the emergency department (ED) in particular has great potential to prevent the iatrogenic spread of COVID-19 and protect health care workers. Challenges to widespread adoption of telemedicine include privacy concerns, limitation of physical examination, and concerns of patient experience. In this clinical review, we discuss ED telemedicine applications, logistics, and challenges in the COVID-19 era as well as recent regulatory and legal changes. In addition, examples of telemedicine use are described from 2 institutions. Examples of future applications of telemedicine within the realm of emergency medicine are also discussed

Development of the Risk Appraisal Measure: A Brief Screen to Identify Risk Areas and Guide Interventions for Dementia Caregivers

To develop and validate a brief screening measure for use in research, healthcare, and community settings to systematically assess well-being and identify needed areas of support for caregivers of patients with dementia. DESIGN : This study used data from Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health (REACH II), a multisite randomized clinical trial of a behavioral intervention designed to improve the quality of life of caregivers in multiple domains. SETTING : REACH II. PARTICIPANTS : Two hundred twelve Hispanic, 211 black, and 219 white family caregivers providing in-home care to patients with dementia. MEASUREMENT : Based on conceptual and psychometric analyses, a 16-item measure was developed that assesses six domains linked to caregiver risk and amenable to intervention: depression, burden, self-care and health behaviors, social support, safety, and patient problem behaviors. The reliability and validity of the instrument was evaluated with 642 dementia caregiver dyads from the REACH II program. RESULTS : The measure was found to have acceptable internal consistency for a multidimensional scale and similar measurement properties for each of the racial and ethnic groups. Concurrent validity was also demonstrated for the measure. CONCLUSION : The REACH Risk Appraisal Measure developed in this study shows promise as an assessment tool that can be used in research, clinical, and community settings to guide, prioritize, and target needed areas of support for caregivers of patients with dementia.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66234/1/j.1532-5415.2009.02260.x.pd

The mediating effect of task presentation on collaboration and children's acquisition of scientific reasoning

There has been considerable research concerning peer interaction and the acquisition of children's scientific reasoning. This study investigated differences in collaborative activity between pairs of children working around a computer with pairs of children working with physical apparatus and related any differences to the development of children's scientific reasoning. Children aged between 9 and 10 years old (48 boys and 48 girls) were placed into either same ability or mixed ability pairs according to their individual, pre-test performance on a scientific reasoning task. These pairs then worked on either a computer version or a physical version of Inhelder and Piaget's (1958) chemical combination task. Type of presentation was found to mediate the nature and type of collaborative activity. The mixed-ability pairs working around the computer talked proportionally more about the task and management of the task; had proportionally more transactive discussions and used the record more productively than children working with the physical apparatus. Type of presentation was also found to mediated children's learning. Children in same ability pairs who worked with the physical apparatus improved significantly more than same ability pairs who worked around the computer. These findings were partially predicted from a socio-cultural theory and show the importance of tools for mediating collaborative activity and collaborative learning

Alginate inhibits iron absorption from ferrous gluconate in a randomized controlled trial and reduces iron uptake into Caco-2 cells

Previous in vitro results indicated that alginate beads might be a useful vehicle for food iron fortification. A human study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that alginate enhances iron absorption. A randomised, single blinded, cross-over trial was carried out in which iron absorption was measured from serum iron appearance after a test meal. Overnight-fasted volunteers (n=15) were given a test meal of 200g cola-flavoured jelly plus 21 mg iron as ferrous gluconate, either in alginate beads mixed into the jelly or in a capsule. Iron absorption was lower from the alginate beads than from ferrous gluconate (8.5% and 12.6% respectively, p=0.003). Sub-group B (n=9) consumed the test meals together with 600 mg calcium to determine whether alginate modified the inhibitory effect of calcium. Calcium reduced iron absorption from ferrous gluconate by 51%, from 11.5% to 5.6% (p=0.014), and from alginate beads by 37%, from 8.3% to 5.2% (p=0.009). In vitro studies using Caco-2 cells were designed to explore the reasons for the difference between the previous in vitro findings and the human study; confirmed the inhibitory effect of alginate. Beads similar to those used in the human study were subjected to simulated gastrointestinal digestion, with and without cola jelly, and the digestate applied to Caco-2 cells. Both alginate and cola jelly significantly reduced iron uptake into the cells, by 34% (p=0.009) and 35% (p=0.003) respectively. The combination of cola jelly and calcium produced a very low ferritin response, 16.5% (p<0.001) of that observed with ferrous gluconate alone. The results of these studies demonstrate that alginate beads are not a useful delivery system for soluble salts of iron for the purpose of food fortification

Measuring retention within the adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD)SM study

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD

Development and validation of the Infant Feeding Style Questionnaire

This study describes and validates the Infant Feeding Style Questionnaire (IFSQ), a self-report instrument designed to measure feeding beliefs and behaviors among mothers of infants and young children. Categorical confirmatory factor analysis was used to estimate latent factors for five feeding styles, laissez-faire, restrictive, pressuring, responsive and indulgent, and to validate that items hypothesized a priori as measures of each style yielded well-fitting models. Models were tested and iteratively modified to determine the best fitting model for each of 13 feeding style sub-constructs, using a sample of 154 low-income African-American mothers of infants aged 3-20 months in North Carolina. With minor changes, models were confirmed in an independent sample of 150 African-American first-time mothers, yielding a final instrument with 39 questions on maternal beliefs, 24 questions on behaviors and an additional 20 behavioral items pertaining to solid feeding for infants over 6 months of age. Internal reliability measures for the sub-constructs ranged from 0.75 to 0.95. Several sub-constructs, responsive to satiety cues, pressuring with cereal, indulgent pampering and indulgent soothing, were inversely related to infant weight-for-length z-score, providing initial support for the validity of this instrument for assessing maternal feeding beliefs and behaviors that may influence infant weight outcomes

IL-21 production by CD4+ effector T cells and frequency of circulating follicular helper T cells are increased in type 1 diabetes patients.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: Type 1 diabetes results from the autoimmune destruction of insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells by T cells. Despite the established role of T cells in the pathogenesis of the disease, to date, with the exception of the identification of islet-specific T effector (Teff) cells, studies have mostly failed to identify reproducible alterations in the frequency or function of T cell subsets in peripheral blood from patients with type 1 diabetes. METHODS: We assessed the production of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-21, IFN-γ and IL-17 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 69 patients with type 1 diabetes and 61 healthy donors. In an additional cohort of 30 patients with type 1 diabetes and 32 healthy donors, we assessed the frequency of circulating T follicular helper (Tfh) cells in whole blood. IL-21 and IL-17 production was also measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from a subset of 46 of the 62 donors immunophenotyped for Tfh. RESULTS: We found a 21.9% (95% CI 5.8, 40.2; p = 3.9 × 10(-3)) higher frequency of IL-21(+) CD45RA(-) memory CD4(+) Teffs in patients with type 1 diabetes (geometric mean 5.92% [95% CI 5.44, 6.44]) compared with healthy donors (geometric mean 4.88% [95% CI 4.33, 5.50]). Consistent with this finding, we found a 14.9% increase in circulating Tfh cells in the patients (95% CI 2.9, 26.9; p = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: These results indicate that increased IL-21 production is likely to be an aetiological factor in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes that could be considered as a potential therapeutic target.This work was supported by the JDRF UK Centre for Diabetes - Genes, Autoimmunity and Prevention (D-GAP; 4-2007-1003) in collaboration with M. Peakman and T. Tree at King’s College London, the JDRF, the Wellcome Trust (WT; WT061858/091157 and 083650/Z/07/Z) and the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (CBRC). The Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) is in receipt of a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (100140). RCF is funded by a JDRF post-doctoral fellowship (3-2011-374). CW is funded by the Wellcome Trust (088998). The funding organisations had no involvement with the design and conduct of the study; collection,management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00125-015-3509-8