Building Student-Centered Relationships between the University of Southern Maine’s Information and Innovation and Business and Industry Information Technologies Sectors

Developing effective, long-term relationships between business and industry and universities is essential to workforce andeconomic development. This paper details the range and class of activities, including the development of a “pipeline” forInformation Technology students and a Letter of Intent cementing relationships, that have been ongoing between theUniversity of Southern Maine’s Information and Innovation unit and business and industry for the last three years. This is aconcerted and systematic effort to increase student education for Maine’s IT workforce through research, development, andcommercialization that is ongoing and continues to develop in scope and depth

Estimation of age-stratified contact rates during the COVID-19 pandemic using a novel inference algorithm

Well parameterized epidemiological models including accurate representation of contacts are fundamental to controlling epidemics. However, age-stratified contacts are typically estimated from pre-pandemic/peace-time surveys, even though interventions and public response likely alter contacts. Here, we fit age-stratified models, including re-estimation of relative contact rates between age classes, to public data describing the 2020–2021 COVID-19 outbreak in England. This data includes age-stratified population size, cases, deaths, hospital admissions and results from the Coronavirus Infection Survey (almost 9000 observations in all). Fitting stochastic compartmental models to such detailed data is extremely challenging, especially considering the large number of model parameters being estimated (over 150). An efficient new inference algorithm ABC-MBP combining existing approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) methodology with model-based proposals (MBPs) is applied. Modified contact rates are inferred alongside time-varying reproduction numbers that quantify changes in overall transmission due to pandemic response, and age-stratified proportions of asymptomatic cases, hospitalization rates and deaths. These inferences are robust to a range of assumptions including the values of parameters that cannot be estimated from available data. ABC-MBP is shown to enable reliable joint analysis of complex epidemiological data yielding consistent parametrization of dynamic transmission models that can inform data-driven public health policy and interventions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Technical challenges of modelling real-life epidemics and examples of overcoming these'

Development of a Critical Appraisal Tool for Models Predicting the Impact of “Test, Trace, and Protect” Programmes on COVID-19 Transmission

OBJECTIVES: To develop a Critical Appraisal tool for non-computational-specialist public health professionals to assess the quality and relevance of modelling studies about Test and Trace (and Protect – TTP) programmes’ impact on COVID-19 transmission. STUDY DESIGN: Decision-making tool development. METHODS: Using Tugwell et al.’s Health Care Effectiveness equation as a conceptual framework, combined with a purposive search of the relevant early modeling literature, we developed six critical appraisal questions for the rapid assessment of modeling studies related to the evaluation of TTP programmes’ effectiveness. RESULTS: By applying the Critical Appraisal tool to selected recent COVID-19 modeling studies we demonstrate how models can be evaluated using the six questions to evaluate internal and external validity, and relevance. CONCLUSIONS: These six critical appraisal questions are able to discriminate between modeling studies of higher and lower quality and relevance to evaluating TTP programmes’ impact. However, these questions require independent validation in a larger and systematic sample of relevant modeling studies which have appeared in later stages of the pandemic

Sources and Channels of Information Used by Educational Program Clients

Organizations that want to create change through educational programs need to engage clients in a process that makes use of existing communication networks. Most clients use a repertoire of sources and channels for becoming aware of, learning about, and making decisions about practice or technology adoption. This paper focuses on one group of clients served by Cooperative Extension - horse owners - to identify patterns in the sources and channels of information they use. Further, the association between sets of channels and sources is assessed, controlling for relevant client attributes. The results show that horse owners have four correlated sets of information sources and four sets of information channels. The net influence of channels on clients\u27 use of sources varies, with traditional Extension channels, one-on-one consultations, and Internet channels being strongly associated with the use of sources characterized by linkages outside the community. Overall, the results suggest that horse owners can be sorted into distinct market segments that use specific sources and channels. These findings can guide the design of communication strategies for Extension professionals serving adult horse owners in Florida, as well as provide general rules for others involved in developing educational programs for other clients

A psychophysiological investigation of laterality in human emotion elicited by pleasant and unpleasant film clips

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Research on laterality in emotion suggests a dichotomy between the brain hemispheres. The present study aimed to investigate this further using a modulated startle reflex paradigm.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined the effects of left and the right ear stimulation on the modulated startle reflex (as indexed by eyeblink magnitude, measured from the right eye) employing short (2 min) film clips to elicit emotions in 16 right-handed healthy participants. The experiment consisted of two consecutive sessions on a single occasion. The acoustic startle probes were presented monaurally to one of the ears in each session, counterbalanced across order, during the viewing of film clips.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The findings showed that eyeblink amplitude in relation to acoustic startle probes varied linearly, as expected, from pleasant through neutral to unpleasant film clips, but there was no interaction between monaural probe side and foreground valence.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data indicate the involvement of both hemispheres when affective states, and associated startle modulations, are produced, using materials with both audio and visual properties. From a methodological viewpoint, the robustness of film clip material including audio properties might compensate for the insufficient information reaching the ipsilateral hemisphere when using static pictures. From a theoretical viewpoint, a right ear advantage for verbal processing may account for the failure to detect the expected hemispheric difference. The verbal component of the clips would have activated the left hemisphere, possibly resulting in an increased role for the left hemisphere in both positive and negative affect generation.</p

Increasing the Accessibility of Science for All Students

This paper evaluates the accessibility of selected field and laboratory high school science activities, and provides suggestions for increasing accessibility for students with disabilities. We focused on GLOBE (Global Learning Observations to Benefit the Environment) protocols, specifically the new Seasons and Biomes investigation currently being developed as part of the GLOBE program. Five university students with disabilities majoring in science or technology were recruited to test the GLOBE protocols, and 10 protocols were evaluated for accessibility. Based on our results, we make several suggestions with regards to instructions, equipment, safety, outcomes and activity significance that will increase the accessibility of GLOBE and all K-16 science methods