Connecting Curriculum Content with Community Service: Guidelines for Student Reflection

As faculty embrace community service as part of the teaching/learning process, most often they simultaneously adopt reflection as a critical component of that process. In fact, the most commonly accepted and used approach to facilitate the conceptual connections of service learning is reflection (Stanton 1991). In other words, students must be asked to reflect if we want them to connect the academic content of our courses with the community experience in which they are engaged. Reflection is a process of thoughtful self analysis directed to the development of awareness and attitudes. It has been used to describe a cognitive process (King and Kirchener 1994) and a structured learning activity (Silcox 1993). In service learning courses, reflection strategies promote and facilitate student processing of their community experiences in connection with the course content. Many faculty and students have found that self analysis is achieved more easily and significantly more often that the conceptual connections between service and course content. In fact, many faculty have concluded that those connections are difficult to facilitate (Driscoll et aL 1996)

Alcohol Cues, Craving, and Relapse: Insights from Animal Models

Alcoholism is a chronic relapsing and remitting disorder, where relapse to drinking is often triggered by an intense desire for alcohol (craving) and the consequent motivation to obtain alcohol (seeking). Environmental stimuli (cues) associated with past alcohol use are believed to strongly contribute to relapse, as exposure to these cues can trigger intense feelings of craving and drive alcohol seeking. Over the past several decades, much progress has been made in identifying the neurobiological correlates of alcohol seeking and relapse. Much of this progress is owed to the development of animal models and advanced techniques to manipulate neural activity. In this chapter, we describe some of the most commonly used rodent models of alcohol intake and seeking as well as the methods used to identify the neural structures and circuits involved in alcohol-mediated behavior. Several of the most routinely identified brain structures in alcohol seeking are also described

Assessing Physician Response Rate Using a Mixed-Mode Survey

Background. It is important to minimize time and cost of physician surveys while still achieving a reasonable response rate. Mixed-mode survey administration appears to improve response rates and decrease bias. A literature review revealed physician response rates to mixed-mode surveys averaged about 68%. However, no identified studies used the combination of e-mail, fax, and telephone. The purpose of this study was to evaluate physician response rates based on surveys first administered by e-mail, then fax, then telephone. Methods. Surveys initially were administered by e-mail to 149 physicians utilizing SurveyMonkey©. Two follow-up reminder e-mails were sent to non-respondents at two-week intervals. Surveys then were faxed to physicians who had not responded. A follow-up fax was sent to non-respondents one week later. Finally, phone interviews were attempted with physicians who had not responded by e-mail or fax; each physician was called at least twice. Results. Of the 149 eligible physicians, 102 completed the survey for a response rate of 68.5%. Of those who responded, 49 (48%) responded by e-mail, 25 (24.5%) by fax, and 28 (27.5%) by phone. Mode of response did not differ by gender, specialization, or years in practice. In addition, mode of response was not related to the primary study question, physician willingness to use text messaging for immunization reminders. Conclusions. This mix of survey methodologies appeared to be a feasible combination for achieving physician responses and may be more cost effective than other mixed methods

The Differential Effects of Sleep Quality and Quantity on the Relationship between SES and Health

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73341/1/j.1749-6632.1999.tb08162.x.pd

Agricultural productivity in past societies: toward an empirically informed model for testing cultural evolutionary hypotheses

Agricultural productivity, and its variation in space and time, plays a fundamental role in many theories of human social evolution. However, we often lack systematic information about the productivity of past agricultural systems on a scale large enough to test these theories properly. The effect of climate on crop yields has received a great deal of attention resulting in a range of empirical and process-based models, yet the focus has primarily been on current or future conditions. In this paper, we argue for a “bottom-up” approach that estimates potential productivity based on information about the agricultural practices and technologies used in past societies. Of key theoretical interest is using this information to estimate the carrying high quality historical and archaeological information about past societies in order to infer the temporal and geographic patterns of change in agricultural productivity and potential. We discuss information we need to collect about past agricultural techniques and practices, and introduce a new databank initiative that we have developed for collating the best available historical and archaeological evidence. A key benefit of our approach lies in making explicit the steps in the estimation of past productivities and carrying capacities, and in being able to assess the effects of different modelling assumptions. This is undoubtedly an ambitious task, yet promises to provide important insights into fundamental aspects of past societies, enabling us to test more rigorously key hypotheses about human socio-cultural evolution

Classifying atopic dermatitis: protocol for a systematic review of subtypes (phenotypes) and associated characteristics.

INTRODUCTION: Atopic dermatitis is a complex disease with differing clinical presentations. Many attempts have been made to identify uniform subtypes, or phenotypes, of atopic dermatitis in order to identify different aetiologies, improve diagnosis, estimate more accurate clinical prognoses, inform treatment andmanagement or predict treatment efficacy andeffectiveness. However, no consensus yet exists on exactly what defines these phenotypes or how many there are and whether they are genuine or statistical artefacts. This review aims to identify previously reported phenotypes of atopic dermatitis, the features used to define them and any characteristics or clinical outcomes significantly associated with them. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will search Ovid Embase, Ovid MEDLINE and Web of Science from inception to the latest available date at the time of the search for studies attempting to classify atopic dermatitis in humans using any cross-sectional or longitudinal epidemiological or interventional design. Primary outcomes are atopic dermatitis phenotypes, features used to define them and characteristics associated with them in subsequent analyses. A secondary outcome is the methodological approach used to derive them. Two reviewers will independently screen titles and abstracts for inclusion, extract data and assess study quality. We will present the results of this review descriptively and with frequencies where possible. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval is not required for this study as it is a systematic review. We will report results from this systematic review in a peer-reviewed journal. The main value of this study will be to inform further research. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42018087500

Disparities in the Uptake of Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Surge in a Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Population by Patient Demographic Characteristics and Socioeconomic Status

This cohort study examines the association between patient demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status and engagement in telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic