Meeting a Need: Piloting a Mentoring Program for History Librarians

Mentoring is a mainstay of librarianship. Professional organizations can offer specific guidance for librarians through mentoring programs. This article describes the development and assessment of a mentoring program for history librarians by the Academic Librarians Committee of the Reference & Users Services Association’s History Section. The study examines the findings from a survey of participants. Respondents indicated overall that the program was beneficial. Mentors and mentees who interacted through web conferencing tended to report higher satisfaction. The responses suggest improved practices for future iterations of this program, including evaluating the process for pairing mentoring matches, creating an onboarding process, providing more structure for communication, and considering the potential of peer mentoring. These findings could be applied to other mentoring programs for librarians

Knowledge and Use of a Nursing Professional Practice Model at a Critical Access Hospital

Purpose: Nursing Professional Practice Model (NPPM) is a visual representation of nursing practice, communication, collaboration, and professional development. NPPM is critical to autonomous practice of nurses. The aim of the study was to investigate the level of knowledge and use in daily practice of Mariners Hospital (MH) NPPM among registered nurses, nurse practitioners, nurse leadership, and clinical partners. Method: This was an observational cross-sectional study that utilized the MH- NPPM instrument, a 45-item Likert-type scale survey open to registered nurses, nurse practitioners, nurse leadership, and clinical partners at MH. Findings: The MH-NPPM instrument (survey) determined the level of knowledge and use of the MH-NPPM in nurses and clinical partners working at MH and showed that the tool is able to distinguish between those who use and integrate the model into their practice and those who do not. The MH-NPPM instrument score can vary between 45 and 315, a higher score indicating a higher agreement with the usefulness of the NPPM.Of the 38 respondents who answered the questions “Do you know the core concepts of the MH- NPPM?”, only 6 (15.8%) answered no. Of the 39 respondents who answered the questions “Do you feel you understand how the MH-NPPM relates to daily practice?”, only 6 (15.4%) answered no. Finally, of the 39 respondents who answered the questions “Do you use the MH-NPPM in your daily practice?” 10 (25.6%) answered no. The scores on the MH-NPPM are significantly lower for those who have lower knowledge of the model and do not use of the model in their daily practice. Discussion: Nursing Professional Practice Models (NPPM) are valuable in promoting excellence in nursing practice. It is crucial for nurses of all levels to understand the components of their NPPM and how they use it as a guide in their daily practice

An Ecosystem Framework for use in Recovery and Management of the Puget Sound Ecosystem: Linking Assessments of Ecosystem Condition to Threats and Management Strategies

The ongoing influx of people to the Puget Sound basin has placed pressure on the ecosystem and contributed to a decline in ecosystem health. The Puget Sound Partnership (Partnership), formed in July 2007, is leading an effort to restore the health of Puget Sound. The Partnership is taking an ecosystem-based approach to management that will, over time, address policy questions associated with multiple interacting ecosystem goals. As a foundation of this approach, indicators of ecosystem condition are used to describe a healthy Puget Sound, to evaluate progress towards meeting the recovery goals, to evaluate and adapt management strategies, and as the basis for reporting back to the public. A portfolio of high-level ecological and human health indicators, “vital signs,” was developed and adopted in 2011. Since then, the indicators have received external review by the WA State Academy of Sciences, scientists, planners, decision-makers, and other stakeholders. In response, the Partnership is evolving its portfolio of indicators in order to provide a broader set of indicators to track progress toward threat reductions and ecosystem recovery. To guide the indicator evolution process, we developed an overall organizing ecosystem framework that is an amalgamation of three frameworks: (1) a generalized “causal chain/network framework” that is used to link drivers and pressures of ecosystem health with (2) a framework for assessment of the condition of Puget Sound’s biophysical system, and (3) a framework for the condition of human well-being (HWB). Assessing a complete array of condition and driver/pressure indicators can aid the analysis of the causal mechanisms underlying compromised ecosystem condition. Moreover, in this framework, HWB is recognized as an outcome of biophysical condition as well as a driver of biophysical condition, and that its many components are differentially affected by and can affect conservation outcomes. This paper will present examples of how the Partnership, working with the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program, is using this ecosystem framework to identify key ecosystem attributes and associated indicators for major ecosystem components. These biophysical condition indicators, along with indicators of key pressures on the system and indicators of HWB, can be used adaptively to track the recovery of Puget Sound

Feature Fusion of Raman Chemical Imaging and Digital Histopathology using Machine Learning for Prostate Cancer Detection

The diagnosis of prostate cancer is challenging due to the heterogeneity of its presentations, leading to the over diagnosis and treatment of non-clinically important disease. Accurate diagnosis can directly benefit a patient’s quality of life and prognosis. Towards addressing this issue, we present a learning model for the automatic identification of prostate cancer. While many prostate cancer studies have adopted Raman spectroscopy approaches, none have utilised the combination of Raman Chemical Imaging (RCI) and other imaging modalities. This study uses multimodal images formed from stained Digital Histopathology (DP) and unstained RCI. The approach was developed and tested on a set of 178 clinical samples from 32 patients, containing a range of non-cancerous, Gleason grade 3 (G3) and grade 4 (G4) tissue microarray samples. For each histological sample, there is a pathologist labelled DP - RCI image pair. The hypothesis tested was whether multimodal image models can outperform single modality baseline models in terms of diagnostic accuracy. Binary non-cancer/cancer models and the more challenging G3/G4 differentiation were investigated. Regarding G3/G4 classification, the multimodal approach achieved a sensitivity of 73.8% and specificity of 88.1% while the baseline DP model showed a sensitivity and specificity of 54.1% and 84.7% respectively. The multimodal approach demonstrated a statistically significant 12.7% AUC advantage over the baseline with a value of 85.8% compared to 73.1%, also outperforming models based solely on RCI and median Raman spectra. Feature fusion of DP and RCI does not improve the more trivial task of tumour identification but does deliver an observed advantage in G3/G4 discrimination. Building on these promising findings, future work could include the acquisition of larger datasets for enhanced model generalization

Salve Regina Arboretum Ten Year Plan to Reach Level III Accreditation

The Salve Regina University Arboretum, located in Newport, Rhode Island is currently registered as a Level II arboretum and is intertwined with the city of Newport Arboretum. The university now has intentions to reach Level III status, as part of a ten-year plan. This plan was developed by the students of the Spring 2018 BIO 255: Conservation Biology course, instructed by Dr. Jameson Chace, Associate Professor of biology at Salve Regina University. As part of a curriculum geared towards civic engagement, the class focused on creating and optimizing strategies that can be applied to the ten-year plan. These strategies were applied to the plan categorically: a team to inventory the current tree collection; a team to develop formal educational programming; a team for informal educational programming; a team to establish goals for conservation initiative related to the arboretum; a team dedicated to research related to arboreta; and a team to develop a list of species of special interest to add to the arboretum in the coming years. In the following document, each team’s strategies for the ten-year plan are outlined. Each of the components of this plan incorporate means to fulfill the conditions to meet Level III arboretum status so that the arboretum can apply for official registration. The aforementioned teams were tasked with designing a foundation on which to work up from. This includes formal educational programming to be applied to classroom settings and informal educational programming which can be applied to community outreach-based settings. The teams that worked to strengthen the arboretum’s mission of conservation focused on researching trees that can fit into the current landscape while providing some sort of benefit to the surrounding flora/fauna. Further, many of the species of interest, such as the chestnut, hold historical value to the greater Rhode Island region. In all, the Salve Regina Arboretum must achieve a total of 500 unique species of trees and woody plants as part of its efforts to apply for Level III status. In addition to the programming and research performed so far by the student teams, the arboretum must also hire a curator to manage the programming and to oversee the arboretum as a whole. Additionally, the arboretum must continue to actively collaborate with other arboreta and should encourage scientific research. It is important to recognize that the Salve Regina University Arboretum has already been utilized in the field of microbiology and has gained some attention at the university as a resource for further research and investigation. This ten year plan, along with resources within in it, is designed to provide a list of potential guidelines and ideas that can be applied for the arboretum’s benefit and growth. The Salve Regina University arboretum is a continually growing and developing part of the greater Newport, Rhode Island community, and will continue to strengthen its mission and that of the university which oversees its success.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/bio255_arboretum/1000/thumbnail.jp

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports with Peer Helpers

Participants will be introduced to the framework of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and how the system can be successful in any school. Trainings for the teachers and peer helpers will be shared to enable others to duplicate the model. The trials, triumphs and tribulations of this endeavor will be discussed as well as how to solicit sponsorships from the community at large

Variations in social capital among vocational rehabilitation applicants

BACKGROUND: In general, people with disabilities have lower levels of social capital, a measure of the quality of social relations, than people without disabilities. People with disabilities who participate in the labor force, however, have been found to have higher levels of social capital than their peers who do not participate in the labor force. OBJECTIVE: Using newly available data from the Survey of Disability and Employment (SDE), this study examined perceived social capital as it relates to supporting employment among applicants for state vocational rehabilitation (VR) services in three states: Mississippi, New Jersey, and Ohio. METHODS: We used multivariate analysis to compare differences in levels of perceived (i.e. cognitive) social capital between applicants who were employed and applicants who were not employed, by disability severity, age at disability onset, health status, and individual characteristics. RESULTS: VR applicants were more likely to benefit from social capital in their working lives if they reported currently working, less severe disability, and better perceived health. CONCLUSIONS: VR counselors must recognize that persons applying for VR services vary greatly in their access to the social supports that are closely associated with employment