Ascertaining the Impact of P–12 Engineering Education Initiatives: Student Impact through Teacher Impact

The widespread need to address both science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and STEM workforce development is persistent. Underscored by the Next Generation Science Standards, demand is high for P–12 engineering-centered curricula. TeachEngineering is a free, standards-aligned NSF-funded digital library of more than 1,500 hands-on, design-rich K–12 engineering lessons and activities. Beyond anonymous site-user counts, the impact of the TeachEngineering collection and outreach initiatives on the education of children and their teachers was previously unknown. Thus, the project team wrestled with the question of how to meaningfully ascertain classroom impacts of the digital engineering education library and—more broadly—how to ascertain the impacts of teacher-focused P–12 engineering education initiatives. In this paper, the authors approach the classroom impact question through probing self-reported differentials in: (1) teachers’ confidence in teaching engineering concepts, and (2) changes in their teaching practices as a result of exposure to (and experiences with) K–12 engineering education resources and outreach opportunities. In 2016, four quantitative and qualitative surveys were implemented to probe the impact of the TeachEngineering digital library and outreach on four populations of K–12 teachers’ confidence and practices, including the frequency with which they integrate engineering into their precollege classrooms. Survey results document the teacher experience and perception of using hands-on K–12 engineering curricular materials in the classroom and help create a data-driven understanding of where to best invest future resources. The results suggest that the TeachEngineering curricular resources and outreach initiatives help teachers build confidence in their use of engineering curriculum and pedagogy in K–12 classrooms, impact their teaching practices, and increase their likelihood of teaching engineering in the classroom in the future

Use of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation in the Treatment of Neonatal Brachial Plexus Palsy: A Literature Review

Background: The purpose of this study was to conduct a review of current literature on the effectiveness of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) for restoring motion and function in neonatal brachial plexus palsy (NBPP). Method: A database search was conducted for NMES articles published between 1947 and 2015. Pre and posttreatment data were extracted for muscle power, active range of motion (AROM), and morphometric measurements. Results: An initial search yielded 2,721 articles. A further title/abstract review produced 27 articles; of these, four met the inclusion criteria. Treatment protocols varied. There were no changes in average Medical Research Council (MRC) scores following treatment for elbow flexion, shoulder abduction, or wrist extension. Shoulder flexion increased from MRC 1 to 4. AROM improved following treatment. Conclusions: Evidence for improved muscle strength after NMES is mixed. Improvement in AROM is more consistent. Due to variations in treatment modalities, patient profiles, and adjunct treatment, a clinical trial to isolate the effects of NMES in NBPP is required. Since improved motion and function has been reported, NMES in NBPP therapy remains reasonable

Undergraduate Engineers and Teachers: Can Students Be Both?

Today’s college-aged students are graduating into a world that relies on multidisciplinary talents to succeed. Engineering college majors are more likely to find jobs after college that are outside of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, including jobs in healthcare, management, and social services. A survey of engineering undergraduate students at the University of Colorado Boulder in November 2012 indicated a desire by students to simultaneously pursue secondary teacher licensure alongside their engineering degrees: 25 percent ‘‘agreed’’ or ‘‘strongly agreed’’ that they ‘‘would be interested in earning grades 7–12 science or math teaching licenses while [they] earn [their] engineering degrees. As colleges of engineering education, how can we support the success of our students in these multidisciplinary fields post-graduation, including teaching? The University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Science in partnership with the School of Education, has developed an innovative program that results in graduates attaining a secondary school STEM teacher license concurrently with an engineering BS degree. This streamlined pathway through engineering educates and prepares a workforce of secondary teachers capable of high-level teaching in multiple STEM subjects—either engineering coupled with science (biology, chemistry, and physics), or engineering coupled with mathematics. These engineers are motivated and inspired to pursue two career routes because they find value and passion for both professions. One study showed that successful mathematics and science teachers ‘‘would have liked to be engineers’’. Teachers expressed that being comfortable and understanding engineering phenomena is a barrier to why they initially did not pursue an engineering career. We are fostering students that develop both an engineering mindset alongside a commitment to giving back through secondary teaching in this program. This research aims to discover if and how students in the engineering + teaching program identify themselves as both an engineering student and as a teaching student. We are exploring why students decided to pursue engineering and teaching and how they plan to use engineering, teaching, or both in their futures. It is important to also understand how we attract students to this program. Given the diverse student experience inherent in this degree program built around passion and desire to combine engineering and teaching, the paper addresses the questions, ‘‘How do engineering knowledge and teaching knowledge intersect for undergraduate engineering students?’’ and ‘‘What challenges exist to navigating an engineering major with a teaching license pathway?’’ Initial survey and focus group data collected this past academic year indicates that students in this degree program identify as both an engineer and a teacher. Using mixed-methods analysis informed by current education research—including quantitative and qualitative survey questions and small focus groups—we explore the ways in which students discovered this program and how they plan to incorporate the two disciplines in their future. We are interested in how engineering students will incorporate the knowledge that they learned in engineering classes into the lesson plans they design for secondary classroom students

Use of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation in the Treatment of Neonatal Brachial Plexus Palsy: A Literature Review

Background: The purpose of this study was to conduct a review of current literature on the effectiveness of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) for restoring motion and function in neonatal brachial plexus palsy (NBPP). Method: A database search was conducted for NMES articles published between 1947 and 2015. Pre and post-treatment data were extracted for muscle power, active range of motion (AROM), and morphometric measurements. Results: An initial search yielded 2,721 articles. A further title/abstract review produced 27 articles; of these, four met the inclusion criteria. Treatment protocols varied. There were no changes in average Medical Research Council (MRC) scores following treatment for elbow flexion, shoulder abduction, or wrist extension. Shoulder flexion increased from MRC 1 to 4. AROM improved following treatment. Conclusions: Evidence for improved muscle strength after NMES is mixed. Improvement in AROM is more consistent. Due to variations in treatment modalities, patient profiles, and adjunct treatment, a clinical trial to isolate the effects of NMES in NBPP is required. Since improved motion and function has been reported, NMES in NBPP therapy remains reasonable

Manual / Issue 13 / Storage

Manual, a journal about art and its making. Storage. Manual 13 opens with an introduction by Fred Wilson, who confides, “You can look at all the opulence on display in a museum and begin to understand that something nefarious might be behind it. Storage, for me, is where the action is.” Museums usually make choices for viewers, their curators presenting what they think most important within a category. They can be so good at doing this that visitors sometimes don’t realize there’s anything else to see: they don’t realize the nature of the decisions behind an exhibition, and they accept that the elites have made a judgment about which shoe is the shoe to see. Visitors can learn about what’s great, but they don’t necessarily consider the process of discernment. –– Fred Wilson The RISD Museum’s thirteenth issue of Manual unpacks the idea and reality of storage—objects museums don’t put on view, works made as containers of various sorts, and more metaphorical considerations about how meanings and narratives are stored. This issue serves as a companion to the Raid the Icebox Now series of exhibitions on view at the RISD Museum through November 2020, in which nine contemporary artists and design collectives use the museum and its collections as a site for critical creative production and presentation. Raid the Icebox Now marks the 50th anniversary of Raid the Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol, held in 1970 at the RISD Museum. Softcover, 120 pages. Published Fall/Winter 2019 by the RISD Museum. Manual 13 (Storage) contributors include: Christina Alderman, Issac M. Alderman, A.H. Jerriod Avant, Hannah Carlson, Wai Yee Chiong, John Dunnigan, Maria Morris Hambourg, David Hartt, Elaine Tyler May, Claire McCardell, Denise Murrell, Ingrid Schaffner, Holly Shaffer, Tanya Sheehan, John W. Smith, Mimi Smith, Sassan Tabatabai, Allen Wexler, and Fred Wilson.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_journals/1039/thumbnail.jp

Evaluation of the Neutron Data Standards

With the need for improving existing nuclear data evaluations, (e.g., ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF-3.3 releases) the first step was to evaluate the standards for use in such a library. This new standards evaluation made use of improved experimental data and some developments in the methodology of analysis and evaluation. In addition to the work on the traditional standards, this work produced the extension of some energy ranges and includes new reactions that are called reference cross sections. Since the effort extends beyond the traditional standards, it is called the neutron data standards evaluation. This international effort has produced new evaluations of the following cross section standards: the H(n,n), 6Li(n,t), 10B(n,α), 10B(n,), natC(n,n), Au(n,γ), 235U(n,f) and 238U(n,f). Also in the evaluation process the 238U(n,γ) and 239Pu(n,f) cross sections that are not standards were evaluated. Evaluations were also obtained for data that are not traditional standards: the Maxwellian spectrum averaged cross section for the Au(n,γ) cross section at 30 keV; reference cross sections for prompt γ-ray production in fast neutron-induced reactions; reference cross sections for very high energy fission cross sections; the 252Cf spontaneous fission neutron spectrum and the 235U prompt fission neutron spectrum induced by thermal incident neutrons; and the thermal neutron constants. The data and covariance matrices of the uncertainties were obtained directly from the evaluation procedure

New models and online calculator for predicting non-sentinel lymph node status in sentinel lymph node positive breast cancer patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Current practice is to perform a completion axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) for breast cancer patients with tumor-involved sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs), although fewer than half will have non-sentinel node (NSLN) metastasis. Our goal was to develop new models to quantify the risk of NSLN metastasis in SLN-positive patients and to compare predictive capabilities to another widely used model.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We constructed three models to predict NSLN status: recursive partitioning with receiver operating characteristic curves (RP-ROC), boosted Classification and Regression Trees (CART), and multivariate logistic regression (MLR) informed by CART. Data were compiled from a multicenter Northern California and Oregon database of 784 patients who prospectively underwent SLN biopsy and completion ALND. We compared the predictive abilities of our best model and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Breast Cancer Nomogram (Nomogram) in our dataset and an independent dataset from Northwestern University.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>285 patients had positive SLNs, of which 213 had known angiolymphatic invasion status and 171 had complete pathologic data including hormone receptor status. 264 (93%) patients had limited SLN disease (micrometastasis, 70%, or isolated tumor cells, 23%). 101 (35%) of all SLN-positive patients had tumor-involved NSLNs. Three variables (tumor size, angiolymphatic invasion, and SLN metastasis size) predicted risk in all our models. RP-ROC and boosted CART stratified patients into four risk levels. MLR informed by CART was most accurate. Using two composite predictors calculated from three variables, MLR informed by CART was more accurate than the Nomogram computed using eight predictors. In our dataset, area under ROC curve (AUC) was 0.83/0.85 for MLR (n = 213/n = 171) and 0.77 for Nomogram (n = 171). When applied to an independent dataset (n = 77), AUC was 0.74 for our model and 0.62 for Nomogram. The composite predictors in our model were the product of angiolymphatic invasion and size of SLN metastasis, and the product of tumor size and square of SLN metastasis size.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We present a new model developed from a community-based SLN database that uses only three rather than eight variables to achieve higher accuracy than the Nomogram for predicting NSLN status in two different datasets. </p

Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease

We identified rare coding variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in a 3-stage case-control study of 85,133 subjects. In stage 1, 34,174 samples were genotyped using a whole-exome microarray. In stage 2, we tested associated variants (P<1×10-4) in 35,962 independent samples using de novo genotyping and imputed genotypes. In stage 3, an additional 14,997 samples were used to test the most significant stage 2 associations (P<5×10-8) using imputed genotypes. We observed 3 novel genome-wide significant (GWS) AD associated non-synonymous variants; a protective variant in PLCG2 (rs72824905/p.P522R, P=5.38×10-10, OR=0.68, MAFcases=0.0059, MAFcontrols=0.0093), a risk variant in ABI3 (rs616338/p.S209F, P=4.56×10-10, OR=1.43, MAFcases=0.011, MAFcontrols=0.008), and a novel GWS variant in TREM2 (rs143332484/p.R62H, P=1.55×10-14, OR=1.67, MAFcases=0.0143, MAFcontrols=0.0089), a known AD susceptibility gene. These protein-coding changes are in genes highly expressed in microglia and highlight an immune-related protein-protein interaction network enriched for previously identified AD risk genes. These genetic findings provide additional evidence that the microglia-mediated innate immune response contributes directly to AD development

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms