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Racially and ethnically minoritized individuals, first-generation college students, and women are significantly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. This lack of equal representation limits creativity and progress in these fields and perpetuates systemic barriers that discourage students from pursuing STEM pathways. This special communication introduces the three-tiered mentorship model employed in the Teen Science Ambassador Program (TSAP), which incorporates senior mentors, near-peer mentors, and high school ambassadors (i.e., mentees) to promote education, hands-on research, and career development in STEM for underrepresented students. We discuss the benefits and challenges of the three-tiered model and offer recommendations for optimizing its effectiveness to enhance mentorship experiences for all participants. Findings from the TSAP program suggest that the three-tiered approach benefited all participants: high school ambassadors gained STEM skills and confidence, near-peer mentors developed leadership and communication abilities, and senior mentors improved mentorship skills. However, the effectiveness of near-peer mentorship is highly dependent on clearly defined roles and structured involvement. Thus, feedback collected from each mentorship tier was used to inform subsequent iterations of the program. The layered mentorship structure fostered a sense of community and belonging, which is crucial for retaining individuals from underrepresented groups in STEM.
The transition from the Late Archaic to the Late Early Formative period witnessed profound changes in the Maya lowlands. In addition to the establishment of the first settlements and agrarian communities, this critical phase of cultural development heralded the introduction of ceramics, saw changes in lithic technology, gave rise to inter-regional trade and exchange, and witnessed the introduction of a complex symbolic system expressed on portable objects. In this article, we synthesize data collected over the past several decades by various archaeological projects in western Belize to provide an overview of the cultural changes that unfolded during the Late Archaic to Late Early Formative period in the Upper Belize River Valley. We also provide evidence indicating that it was during this critical transitional period that we begin to see the establishment of several cultural traditions that became uniquely lowland Maya.
Atrial septal defects are a common form of CHD and dependent on the size and nature of atrial septal defects, closure may be warranted. The paper aims to compare outcomes of transcatheter versus surgical repair of atrial septal defects.
Methods:
A comprehensive electronic literature search was conducted. Primary studies were included if they compared both closure techniques. Primary outcomes included procedural success, mortality, and reintervention rate. Secondary outcomes included residual defect and mean hospital stay.
Results:
A total of 33 studies were included in meta-analysis. Mean total hospital stay was significantly shorter in the transcatheter cohort across both the adult (95% confidence interval, mean difference −4.05 (−4.78, −3.32) p < 0.00001) and paediatric populations (95% confidence interval, mean difference −4.78 (−5.97, −3.60) p < 0.00001). There were significantly fewer complications in the transcatheter group across both the adult (odds ratio 0.45, 95% confidence interval, [0.28, 0.72], p < 0.00001) and paediatric cohorts (odds ratio 0.26, 95% confidence interval, [0.14, 0.49], p < 0.00001). No significant difference in overall mortality was found between transcatheter versus surgical closure across the two groups, adult (odds ratio 0.76, 95% confidence interval, [0.40, 1.45], p = 0.41), paediatrics (odds ratio 0.62, 95% confidence interval, [0.21, 1.83], p = 0.39).
Conclusion:
Both transcatheter and surgical approaches are safe and effective techniques for atrial septal defect closure. Our study has demonstrated the benefits of transcatheter closure in terms of lower complication rates and mean hospital stay. However, surgery still has a place for more complex closure and, as we have demonstrated, shows no difference in mortality.
To characterize and compare severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–specific immune responses in plasma and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) from nursing home residents during and after natural infection.
Design:
Prospective cohort.
Setting:
Nursing home.
Participants:
SARS-CoV-2–infected nursing home residents.
Methods:
A convenience sample of 14 SARS-CoV-2–infected nursing home residents, enrolled 4–13 days after real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction diagnosis, were followed for 42 days. After diagnosis, plasma SARS-CoV-2–specific pan-Immunoglobulin (Ig), IgG, IgA, IgM, and neutralizing antibodies were measured at 5 time points, and GCF SARS-CoV-2–specific IgG and IgA were measured at 4 time points.
Results:
All participants demonstrated immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among 12 phlebotomized participants, plasma was positive for pan-Ig and IgG in all 12 participants. Neutralizing antibodies were positive in 11 participants; IgM was positive in 10 participants, and IgA was positive in 9 participants. Among 14 participants with GCF specimens, GCF was positive for IgG in 13 participants and for IgA in 12 participants. Immunoglobulin responses in plasma and GCF had similar kinetics; median times to peak antibody response were similar across specimen types (4 weeks for IgG; 3 weeks for IgA). Participants with pan-Ig, IgG, and IgA detected in plasma and GCF IgG remained positive throughout this evaluation, 46–55 days after diagnosis. All participants were viral-culture negative by the first detection of antibodies.
Conclusions:
Nursing home residents had detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in plasma and GCF after infection. Kinetics of antibodies detected in GCF mirrored those from plasma. Noninvasive GCF may be useful for detecting and monitoring immunologic responses in populations unable or unwilling to be phlebotomized.
Healthcare personnel with severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection were interviewed to describe activities and practices in and outside the workplace. Among 2,625 healthcare personnel, workplace-related factors that may increase infection risk were more common among nursing-home personnel than hospital personnel, whereas selected factors outside the workplace were more common among hospital personnel.
The visual system is recognized as an important site of pathology and dysfunction in schizophrenia. In this study, we evaluated different visual perceptual functions in patients with psychotic disorders using a potentially clinically applicable task battery and assessed their relationship with symptom severity in patients, and with schizotypal features in healthy participants.
Methods
Five different areas of visual functioning were evaluated in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (n = 28) and healthy control subjects (n = 31) using a battery that included visuospatial working memory (VSWM), velocity discrimination (VD), contour integration, visual context processing, and backward masking tasks.
Results
The patient group demonstrated significantly lower performance in VD, contour integration, and VSWM tasks. Performance did not differ between the two groups on the visual context processing task and did not differ across levels of interstimulus intervals in the backward masking task. Performances on VSWM, VD, and contour integration tasks were correlated with negative symptom severity but not with other symptom dimensions in the patient group. VSWM and VD performances were also correlated with negative sychizotypal features in healthy controls.
Conclusion
Taken together, these results demonstrate significant abnormalities in multiple visual processing tasks in patients with psychotic disorders, adding to the literature implicating visual abnormalities in these conditions. Furthermore, our results show that visual processing impairments are associated with the negative symptom dimension in patients as well as healthy individuals.
This collection of essays pays tribute to Nancy Freeman Regalado, a ground-breaking scholar in the field of medieval French literature whose research has always pushed beyond disciplinary boundaries. The articles in the volume reflect the depth and diversity of her scholarship, as well as her collaborations with literary critics, philologists, historians, art historians, musicologists, and vocalists - in France, England, and the United States. Inspired by her most recent work, these twenty-four essays are tied together by a single question, rich in ramifications: how does performance shape our understanding of medieval and pre-modern literature and culture, whether the nature of that performance is visual, linguistic, theatrical, musical, religious, didactic, socio-political, or editorial? The studies presented here invite us to look afresh at the interrelationship of audience, author, text, and artifact, to imagine new ways of conceptualizing the creation, transmission, and reception of medieval literature, music, and art.
EGLAL DOSS-QUINBY is Professor of French at Smith College; ROBERTA L. KRUEGER is Professor of French at Hamilton College; E. JANE BURNS is Professor of Women's Studies and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Contributors: ANNE AZÉMA, RENATE BLUMENFELD-KOSINSKI, CYNTHIA J. BROWN, ELIZABETH A. R. BROWN, MATILDA TOMARYN BRUCKNER, E. JANE BURNS, ARDIS BUTTERFIELD, KIMBERLEE CAMPBELL, ROBERT L. A. CLARK, MARK CRUSE, KATHRYN A. DUYS, ELIZABETH EMERY, SYLVIA HUOT, MARILYN LAWRENCE, KATHLEEN A. LOYSEN, LAURIE POSTLEWATE, EDWARD H. ROESNER, SAMUEL N. ROSENBERG, LUCY FREEMAN SANDLER, PAMELA SHEINGORN, HELEN SOLTERER, JANE H. M. TAYLOR, EVELYN BIRGE VITZ, LORI J. WALTERS, AND MICHEL ZINK.
To estimate the folate status of New Zealand women of childbearing age following the introduction, in 2010, of a new voluntary folic acid fortification of bread programme.
Design
The 2011 Folate and Women’s Health Survey was a cross-sectional survey of women aged 18–44 years carried out in 2011. The survey used a stratified random sampling technique with the Electoral Roll as the sampling frame. Women were asked about consumption of folic-acid-fortified breads and breakfast cereals in a telephone interview. During a clinic visit, blood was collected for serum and erythrocyte folate measurement by microbiological assay.
Setting
A North Island (Wellington) and South Island (Dunedin) city centre in New Zealand.
Subjects
Two hundred and eighty-eight women, of whom 278 completed a clinic visit.
Results
Geometric mean serum and erythrocyte folate concentrations were 30 nmol/l and 996 nmol/l, respectively. Folate status was 30–40 % higher compared with women of childbearing age sampled as part of a national survey in 2008/09, prior to the introduction of the voluntary folic acid bread fortification programme. In the 2011 Folate and Women’s Health Survey, reported consumption of fortified bread and fortified breakfast cereal in the past week was associated with 25 % (P=0·01) and 15 % (P=0·04) higher serum folate concentrations, respectively.
Conclusions
Serum and erythrocyte folate concentrations have increased in New Zealand women of childbearing age since the number of folic-acid-fortified breads was increased voluntarily in 2010. Consumption of fortified breads and breakfast cereals was associated with a higher folate status.
Activity monitors are increasingly being used to quantify the activity of pet dogs. The aim of the present study was to investigate associations between signalment and activity of free-living pet dogs. Healthy pet dogs were recruited to wear an Actical activity monitor on their collars continuously for 2 weeks in their home environment. At least fifteen dogs were enrolled in each of the following weight ranges: <10, 10–20, 21–30, 31–40, >40 kg and their age, sex and reproductive status recorded. Each dog's intensity of activity for each minute of recording was classified using the total counts for that minute and our pre-established cut-points. The percentage of time dogs spent in sedentary, light or moderate/vigorous activity each day was calculated. Median total daily activity counts and median percentages of time dogs spent in activities of differing intensity were used for the analysis. Associations between signalment characteristics and activity parameters were evaluated with the Mann–Whitney test, the Kruskal–Wallis test and Spearman rank correlations. Ninety-eight dogs were enrolled with ≥17 dogs in each weight category. Time that dogs were sedentary correlated positively with age (r 0·50, uncorrected P < 0·001), while the median total daily activity count (r −0·47, uncorrected P < 0·001), time spent in light (r −0·46, uncorrected P < 0·001) and more vigorous activity (r −0·50, uncorrected P < 0·001) were negatively associated with age. No other significant associations between signalment and activity parameters were found. The lack of differences in activity across weight categories may reflect the impact of lifestyle negating any potential behavioural differences across breeds.
Two fundamental processes associated with shock compression of energetic materials (EM) are initiation and ignition. Initiation occurs just behind a shock front and ignition occurs anywhere from a few nanoseconds to hundreds of nanoseconds later. Experiments are described that probe the fundamental mechanisms of these processes on relevant length and time scales: picosecond vibrational spectroscopy of nanometer thick layers of energetic materials (EM) with laser-driven shock waves, and nanosecond emission spectroscopy of micrometer thick layers of EM using laser-driven flyer plates.
