Departmental Leadership: Navigating Productive Tension While in a Paradoxical Role

The landscape of higher education is dynamic and calls for faculty and academic administrators to not only prepare those entering the workforce with current skills, knowledge, and values but to do so in an environment that is resourceful with the tools, and personnel necessary to educate the citizenry. A critical component in achieving this noble mission is the role of the Department Chair, who spans both the academic and administrative environments. The Department Chair, whether at a public or private institution must serve multiple masters which include, senior academic administrators, departmental faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, community partners, and donors. The challenges that arise while in this role are many, for example, budgetary, personnel, and academic program accreditation/certification. Successes also do occur as evidenced by enrollment and graduation rates, and sincere appreciation from those we have taught. The Department Chair role is essential and deserves to possess the authority necessary to make decisions that are in the best interest of students, faculty, and the academic programs offered. The purpose of this perspective is to offer recommendations, grounded in experience, that may assist the Department Chair in navigating productive tension that can arise while working in this role that is often paradoxical at times

Public Health Genomics: The Essentials. By Claudia N. Mikail

The sequencing of the human genome in 2001 provided researchers, clinicians, policymakers, ethicists, and public health practitioners with a myriad of information to potentially improve disease outcomes on an individual and population basis. Genomics is a burgeoning field of study that examines the interactions among the genetic material in the human body, including interactions with environmental and behavioral factors. The role of public health in this new field of study is complementary, since population trends, health disparities, and the social determinants of health contribute to our understanding of the underlying causes of disease provided by genomic research. Thus, the new discipline of public health genomics has improved our ability to carry out the health professional’s mission to promote health and prevent disease. Public Health Genomics: The Essentials is a recent book that describes this emerging ‘‘interface between science and society.’

The educated citizen and global public health issues: One model for integration into the undergraduate curriculum

The Educated Citizen Initiative proposes that an understanding of public-health issues is a core component of an educated citizenry and is essential to develop one’s societal responsibility. This initiative supports the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation that “all undergraduates should have access to education in public health.” Furthermore, the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) framework developed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities supports the “integration of public-health education into general and liberal education with an aim to produce an educated citizenry.” The LEAP framework is implemented by teaching about the role of social determinants in a population’s health status; the significance of personal and social responsibility; and providing skills for inquiry, critical thinking, problem solving, and evaluation. This article describes one university’s experience in generating an educated citizenry cognizant of comprehensive public-health conflicts, thus contributing to both a local and global perspective on learning

Journal Club Revisited: Teaching Evidence-Based Research and Practice to Graduate Students in a Professional Degree Program

A Journal Club can be a learning exercise that allows for the critique and pursuant analytic discussion of empirical studies, and encourages the public health, health administration, or health policy student to better understand how evidence-based research contributes to evidence-based practice. The purpose of this paper is to describe a learning exercise that implements the Journal Club to evaluate strengths and limitations of relevant research studies and their potential influence on evidence-based practice. This learning exercise was developed to increase discipline-specific knowledge and improve analytical thinking to form and communicate a well-researched and reasoned critique about current peer-reviewed research. Specifically, the exercise was designed to: (1) identify the peer-review process and its influence on evidence-based practice; (2) curate primary resources for selected health issues; (3) evaluate a published, peer-reviewed research article for its rigor and limitations with respect to reported methods, findings, and applicability to professional practice; and (4) facilitate a discussion about discipline-specific research in a concise, professional manner. At the conclusion of the exercise, graduate students, who are also working professionals, reflected on the utility of examining how evidence-based research impacts evidence-based practice. The benefits of this applied learning approach for students and the faculty instructor are discussed

Co-producing healthcare in a volume vs. value-based healthcare system: perspective of a parent of a patient and a health professions’ educator

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Triple Aim framework represents an approach to optimizing a health system’s performance by focusing on improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing healthcare costs. As the US healthcare system undergoes substantial reformation and a shift from fee-for-service payment to value-based models, an approach that emphasizes the co-production of healthcare, our healthcare system must work in concert with the Triple Aim to improve the health experience for patients across multiple environments. Co-production in healthcare means that patients contribute to the provision of health services as partners of professional providers. To highlight how the current healthcare model failed a patient by delaying diagnosis and subsequent care, thus causing undue suffering, the personal experience of one of the author’s children is reported as a narrative. The purpose of communicating this patient experience is to: 1) remind healthcare providers about the importance of not only listening, but hearing the patient and their parent’s concerns; 2) readily admit when a patient’s clinical presentation falls outside of their expertise; and 3) co-produce healthcare by working with the patient and their family. This patient experience serves to reinforce the commitment to co-produce health with patients and their families in a manner that emphasizes the value of care

Iterative structure of finite loop integrals

In this paper we develop further and refine the method of differential equations for computing Feynman integrals. In particular, we show that an additional iterative structure emerges for finite loop integrals. As a concrete non-trivial example we study planar master integrals of light-by-light scattering to three loops, and derive analytic results for all values of the Mandelstam variables $s$ and $t$ and the mass $m$. We start with a recent proposal for defining a basis of loop integrals having uniform transcendental weight properties and use this approach to compute all planar two-loop master integrals in dimensional regularization. We then show how this approach can be further simplified when computing finite loop integrals. This allows us to discuss precisely the subset of integrals that are relevant to the problem. We find that this leads to a block triangular structure of the differential equations, where the blocks correspond to integrals of different weight. We explain how this block triangular form is found in an algorithmic way. Another advantage of working in four dimensions is that integrals of different loop orders are interconnected and can be seamlessly discussed within the same formalism. We use this method to compute all finite master integrals needed up to three loops. Finally, we remark that all integrals have simple Mandelstam representations.Comment: 26 pages plus appendices, 5 figure

Solvable Relativistic Hydrogenlike System in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory

The classical Kepler problem, as well as its quantum mechanical version, the Hydrogen atom, enjoy a well-known hidden symmetry, the conservation of the Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector, which makes these problems superintegrable. Is there a relativistic quantum field theory extension that preserves this symmetry? In this Letter we show that the answer is positive: in the non-relativistic limit, we identify the dual conformal symmetry of planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills with the well-known symmetries of the Hydrogen atom. We point out that the dual conformal symmetry offers a novel way to compute the spectrum of bound states of massive $W$ bosons in the theory. We perform nontrivial tests of this setup at weak and strong coupling, and comment on the possible extension to arbitrary values of the coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Clarifications added; published versio

An inventory of state natural resources information systems

The status of a project to inventory state natural resources information systems is summarized. All tasks accomplished are described, and tasks remaining to be completed are outlined