assistant professor – Xing Wu

Heather Kitada Smalley receives Renjen Award for Faculty Excellence

Mark A. Tomlin — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 23:19:44 +0000

Heather Kitada Smalley, assistant professor of statistics at Albaugh, has been named the recipient of the 2022 Renjen Award for Faculty Excellence.

Heather Kitada Smalley

Created through a generous gift from Punit and Heather Renjen, the Renjen Prize supports academic and creative endeavors and is awarded annually to a faculty member of the College of Arts and Sciences or the Atkinson Graduate School of Management. The award recognizes the achievements of faculty members early in their careers, particularly those whose work has been widely publicized and recognized in the public sphere.

An applied statistician, interdisciplinary researcher, and teacher, Smalley views statistics as an essential part of liberal arts education and has revolutionized the way these courses are taught at Willamette since her debut in 2019.

His teaching and mentoring spans the curriculum extensively – from upper and lower level statistics courses for undergraduates, to a graduate course on data visualization and presentation, to research projects. high-level thesis in data science. She also has a thriving research program, with a peer-reviewed paper every year since she started at Willamette. Her main interest is in the area of survey methodology and sampling, and she is particularly interested in data quality issues and the development of statistical adjustment tools. Her work has broad implications in many areas of public policy and, in addition to her own scholarship, she engages in statistical consulting on a wide range of academic and non-academic research topics.

During the few years she taught at Willamette, Smalley’s contributions brought her significant recognition. Originally named Albaugh Visiting Professor of Statistics in 2019, Smalley was offered a direct tenure appointment in 2021. This year, she has a joint appointment with the Study Committee in Computing, Data, and Human Sciences. information and helped build its undergraduate and graduate programs from the ground up.

About Punit Renjen

Born and raised in India, Punish Renjen graduated in 1987 from the Atkinson Graduate School of Management. Renjen is Deloitte’s Global CEO and, over a career spanning more than 30 years, has held numerous leadership positions within Deloitte. A former Willamette University board member, Renjen is active on several boards. It was named one of the 100 most influential business leaders graduates from schools accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International.

The cradle of plasma medicine, 20 years later

Mark A. Tomlin — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 15:24:20 +0000

Suresh Joshi, PhD, MD, left, and Alexander Fridman, PhD, at the Drexel Plasma Institute in January 2022. Photo courtesy of Suresh Joshi.

In 2022, Drexel University C. & J. Nyheim Plasma Institute (NPI) celebrates 20 years not only as a multidisciplinary research and teaching institute at the University, but as a beacon and international birthplace of plasma medicine. In this branch of plasma biomedical engineering, plasma, the fourth state of matter in which neutral atoms and molecules are somewhat transformed into charged particles like electrons and ions, is used in various ways for medical applications, engineering and environmental sciences, from disease prevention and treatment to regenerative medicine to water disinfection to air cleaning. Plasma medicine is an emerging branch that integrates basic sciences and engineering with biomedical sciences, medicine and public health.

Suresh Joshi, MD, PhD, has been involved with the NPI since 2008 and is the director of the NPI Center for Plasma in Health & Biomedical Engineering. A professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems and NPI, and assistant professor in the College of Medicine, Joshi has written the following article on the history of the institute and highlights from the past two decades.

The Nyheim Plasma Institute at Drexel University is actually the birthplace of plasma medicine. This year, it celebrates 20 years since its creation at Drexel University. Originally founded in 2002 as the AJ Drexel Plasma Institute (DPI), it has gone through a roller coaster ride like any other traditional academic research institute, but is still doing consistently progressive research and innovation over the of all these years. In 2016, Drexel Plasma Institute was renamed “The C&J Nyheim Plasma Institute” (NPI) in honor of the generous gift of Christel and John Nyheim and their family to DPI and their support as passionate advocates of plasma science and engineering.

Since its inception, NPI’s founding director, Alexander Fridman, PhD, who is the John A. Nyheim Professor at the College of Engineering, and his team of researchers and faculty from all disciplines have successfully curated a portfolio of awesome research. Today, the Plasma Institute at Drexel University is the largest plasma research institution in the United States of America in an academic configuration. More than 25 international, global, and US patents have been generated by research at Drexel University by NPI, and many of Drexel’s patented plasma-based technologies are translated from field trials to commercialization phases. More than 30 Drexel faculty, scientists and staff, as well as numerous alumni, students and associates, have contributed significantly to its growth.

As you can see, the NPI has grown over the years at Drexel and has also expanded the field and capabilities of plasma medicine worldwide. Here are some important points:

In 2003, the idea of plasma medicine at Drexel came to fruition through effective collaborations between faculties, scientists, engineers, and physicians with the then DPI. In 2006, with the help of Drexel University, the Plasma Institute and collaborating departments took a step in a new direction, creating a major research initiative in plasma medicine. This five-year program has helped bring together many renowned faculties, scientists, technologies and physicians (inside and outside of Drexel, as well as international partners).

In 2006–2007, an NPI invention led to the modified floating electrode dielectric barrier discharge (FE-DBD) plasma application technique for healthcare, medicine, and biomedical sciences. The FE-DBD technique is now successfully tested in the field of treatment of wounds, living tissue, skin disinfection and surface sterilization.

From 2008 to 2011, NPI and the Drexel College of Medicine research team led by me and my former colleague Ari Brooks, MD, who was then Associate Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Surgical Oncology Unit at the College of Medicine , have conducted successful research on plasma-treated liquids as potent antimicrobial agents for surface-associated disinfection. During the same period, Jane Azizkhan-Clifford, PhD, who is now Emeritus Professor and Associate Dean for Medical Student Research at the College of Medicine, and her team explored the molecular mechanisms of mammalian cell death and the associated pathways in cellular systems exposed to plasma. During the same period, all of the people mentioned above, and many more, have been instrumental in shifting many research paradigms, including the current Drexel faculties at Drexel Schools and Colleges, as well as external collaborators. They are, I would say, a truly interdisciplinary team of investigators in all pillars of plasma medicine.

In 2009, the International Society of Plasma Medicine (ISPM) was officially launched here with Professor Alexander Fridman as founding president. ISPM meets every two years in different countries and has made substantial progress in the field of plasma medicine. This summer, the 9^and International Conference on Plasma Medicine (ICPM9) meets at Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, the Netherlands. These conferences have been instrumental in networking many of the world’s leading plasma scientists, biologists, technologists and healthcare professionals, and have progressed wonderfully through collaborations.

From 2011 to 2014, a team of NPI researchers, led by me, demonstrated for the first time the bacterial biofilm inhibiting properties of plasma-activated solutions. During the same period, our research team demonstrated in vitro how plasma-treated material enhances wound healing in established wound models (in vitro), and subsequently studied rapid pathogen inactivation. multidrug-resistant (MDR) wounds by plasma-alginate dressing. At the 2012 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) International Meeting, my team and I presented research on the plasma-activated alginate dressing that has the ability to not only inactivate multidrug-resistant pathogens, but also to disinfect wounds and promote healing. A year later, my colleagues at Drexel and I explored the exact underlying mechanisms of inactivation, but Bill Costerton, PhD, a renowned microbial ecologist considered “the father of biofilms,” wasn’t there to see. progress; I wish it had been. (During an interview with ASM, he had emphatically mentioned how amazed he was at the invention of the plasma-alginate dressing and wished to see the underlying mechanisms of pathogen inactivation.)

In 2011-2017, Margaret Wheatley, PhD, John M. Reid Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Sciences and Systems, and I led a team of researchers to demonstrate a successful application of a solution Non-thermal plasma-activated phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) in ultrasound contrast agent (UCA) sterilization. Currently, there is no other technology in the world that can safely sterilize ACU; chemical methods induce some changes in the UCA and are therefore not very suitable for this purpose.

From 2012 to 2013, NPI published another breakthrough, this time demonstrating that plasma-treated solutions not only inactivate biofilm-embedded microbes/pathogens and behave as broad-spectrum microbicides, but also retain their antimicrobial properties for longer. two years at room temperature. This discovery has changed the dynamics of approaches to how plasma-activated solutions can be generated, applied, and stored on the self. Thus, a potentially competent biocidal agent was found comparable to some of the traditional biocides.

In 2014-2017, an NPI team led by Vandana Millar, MD, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the College of Medicine; Fred Krebs, PhD, associate professor in the College of Medicine’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology; and Prof. Alexander Fridman demonstrated how non-thermal plasma exposure leads to immune cell activation and investigated the underlying mechanisms. In 2016, our NPI team demonstrated how plasma-charged non-thermal aerosols inactivate airborne bacteria within seconds and investigated the underlying mechanisms of airborne pathogen inactivation. . These experiments confirmed how plasma-based technologies could help keep operating rooms and hospital premises safe, as shown by mechanism-based studies. Thus, all these innovations contribute to the understanding of plasma-based technologies and their preventive and therapeutic approaches.

In December 2021, Professor Alexander Fridman and I were named United States Experts in Plasma Non-Thermal Technologies through the International commission in electrical engineering (IEC) in Geneva, Switzerland. This nomination is based on our expertise and contributions in non-thermal plasma technologies (Prof. Alexander Fridman for non-thermal plasma technologies, and myself for the application of plasma technologies in biology and medicine). This appointment was proposed by Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) through the American National Institute of Standards (ANSI) to IEC. the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and IEC are global organizations for international standards and are composed of technical experts and representatives of various national standards organizations of member countries. This honor has become a wonderful opportunity to look back on some of Drexel’s Plasma Institute’s outstanding accomplishments related to plasma medicine.

At Drexel, I will redirect my efforts and review some of the plasma medicine products such as plasma solutions, plasma lotion and plasma ointment, and plan interdisciplinary and collaborative research to bring these studies to the translational research phase and to the interventional trials. This research will also open the doors to plasma cosmetic science.

Drexel and NPI have several plasma-based products in various stages of development for healthcare applications. By reactivating collaborative plasma medicine research on campus and re-establishing an interdisciplinary team of researchers, we can achieve this success. I hope that one day our plasma products will reach the community, health centers and end users.

drama teacher Chancellor wins inaugural Longwood University Drama Teacher of the Year Award | Education

Mark A. Tomlin — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 22:00:00 +0000

On Friday morning, a parade of beaming alumni, Spotsylvania School Division administrators and members of Longwood University’s theater department surprised Matthew Armentrout in his class at Chancellor High School.

They announced to him that he was the first winner of Longwood’s High School Theater Teacher of the Year award.

“He was the biggest influence on my life as a theater person,” said Emma Masaitis, a 2018 graduate and acting student at Longwood, who along with her sister Natalie nominated Armentrout for the award.

Emma cried as she read her nomination aloud.

“He made sure we knew his door was always open to anyone for any reason,” she said. “He got me through some of my worst times in high school.”

It’s not unusual for high school drama teachers to take on this kind of outsized role, said Joyce Sweet, an adjunct teacher at Longwood and a former high school drama teacher herself. That’s why the theater department wanted to create the award to recognize the positive influence these specific educators can have on their students.

“High school drama teachers are advisers and friends,” Sweet said. “We know how much work they put in.”

Ronda Scarrow, assistant professor of drama and head of Longwood’s drama program, said the university also wanted to thank high school drama teachers for sending them excellent students.

“I think we have some really good theater students, and that seed was planted in high school theater,” she said.

It is a coincidence that Armentrout himself is an alumnus of Longwood University.

Emma Masaitis said Armentrout helped her get out of her own head in high school.

“He taught us positivity,” she said. “When you’re in high school, your life is the most miserable thing ever. He got us talking about our feelings, expressed them, and then moved on. Theater teaches you empathy and it has made it an important part of our upbringing.

Natalie Masaitis, a 2020 chancellor graduate, said Armentrout also encouraged her students to look for ways to be part of the wider community.

“He helped connect us with opportunities in local theater,” she said. “We volunteered with Stage Door Productions in downtown Fredericksburg. Growing up here, I had no idea there were so many local opportunities.

She said Armentrout took the time to really get to know each student he taught, in turn helping them grow in themselves.

Armentrout was teaching a class when the parade surprised him with news of the award. Several students in the class took the floor to thank their teacher.

“You teach us to stand out,” said one student.

“Thank you for the opportunities you give us all,” said another.

Scarrow asked Armentrout what made him want to be a teacher.

“I always knew I wanted to be a teacher,” he said.

He said he was in fifth grade and had been assigned to write his career aspirations for the yearbook.

“All the boys at the lunch table said they wanted to be professional sportsmen,” Armentrout said. “So I wrote ‘professional basketball player.’ But it didn’t sit well with me. I went to my mom and said, ‘I really want to be a teacher.’

The next day, Armentrout rushed to the directory office to ask if he could change his career aspiration.

“And then,” he added. “My high school drama teacher was important to me.”

Adele Uphaus-Conner:

540/735-1973

[email protected]

@flsadele

MSUB Faculty Receives Excellence Award | Straight from the source

Mark A. Tomlin — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 21:37:00 +0000

Here is a press release from Montana State University Billings:

MSU BILLING NEWS— Montana State University Billings held its annual convention Faculty Excellence Awards Ceremony Thursday, February 24. The annual event highlights the excellence of MSUB faculty members in their teaching, community outreach, research, and scholarship.

This year, 17 faculty members received honors for their exemplary efforts.

ASMSUB Outstanding Faculty recipients include John Roberts, Associate Professor of Music; Rodrigo Lobo, Ph.D., assistant professor of business administration; Matt Queen, Ph.D., professor of biological and physical sciences; Lance Mouser, professor of general education at City College.

The Montana Center for Inclusive Education Award for Support of Students with Disabilities was presented to Sarah Friedman, Ph.D., assistant professor of biological and physical sciences, and Charity Dewing, adjunct teacher of English, philosophy, and modern languages.

Melissa Boehm, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication, received the Dr. Tasneem Khaleel Award for Mentoring Young Professional Women.

The Promoting International Student Success award was presented to Ms. Erica Shea, general education teacher at City College. Ms. Cindy Millard, a City College business, construction and energy technology instructor, received the part-time faculty award, while her City College colleague, Heather Thompson-Bahm, Ph.D. , an instructor in business, construction, and energy technology, received the City College Leadership Award. Ms. Lynette Schwalbe, assistant professor of educational theory and practice, received the award of excellence for non-tenured professors.

Three recipients, Emily Arendt, Ph.D., associate professor of history; Tien Chih, assistant professor of mathematics; and Melanie Reaves, Ph.D., associate professor of educational theory and practice, received the Faculty Achievement Award.

The Winston and Helen Cox Fellowship Award was presented to Scott Jeppesen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Music, and Keara Rhoades, Assistant Professor of Art, for their significant impacts in their fields of study.

Twenty-four faculty members were recognized for their years of service and five were recognized for achieving tenure at the MSUB.

See the full list of 2022 winners.

University writing professor dies aged 63 – The GW Hatchet

Mark A. Tomlin — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 13:35:36 +0000

Katherine Larsen, an assistant professor in the university’s writing program, died earlier this month. She was 63 years old.

Feedback joined GW in 1995, with faculty recalling that she taught about seven college writing classes each year and interacted with more than 3,000 students during her tenure, officials said. Larsen – a notable scholar of fandom, which encompasses fans of media or people – was a founder and editor for the Journal of Fandom Studies, author several books on the subject and has regularly spoken at national conferences on the importance of fandom studies in higher education.

She was also a strong supporter of labor rights for GW faculty and staff, working to form the first part-time faculty union as an advocate and member of its bargaining committee nearly 15 years ago. feedback too served member of the faculty association steering committee and contract faculty group, who specifically advocated for non-tenured faculty at GW.

Gordon Mantler, executive director of the academic writing program, said officials are considering creating a student writing and research award dedicated to Larsen. He said talks were still preliminary and officials were still trying to determine which students would be eligible to apply and what the purpose of the award would be.

“Many of my memories of Kathy revolved around our shared belief in greater equity at the University through our work together in GWUFA – she was a pillar of the group’s steering committee for years,” he said. he said in a statement.

Professors and students who knew her said she was a dedicated scholar and a faculty member who pushed her students to study less explored academic topics in culture and media.

Abby Wilkerson, an associate professor of writing, said Larsen was a constant advocate for his colleagues and other faculty members. She said Larsen regularly critical University policies that prevented or discouraged casual or part-time faculty members from receiving promotions or serving in administrative positions.

“I will always be grateful for his tireless work on behalf of the contingent faculty,” she said in a statement. “At that time when the phrase ‘home of union organizing’ was being applied to GW, to the English department in particular, another colleague did some research and learned that over 60% of GW teachers had then contingent positions. That changed, and Kathy played a big part in that.

Wilkerson said Larsen was always a friendly face in the English department and would give colleagues personal and professional advice. She said Larsen would help with topics ranging from lesson plans to baking bread with yeast.

“I said I’d try throwing a sourdough starter (my first time), and soon Kathy was happily and concisely delivering a valuable on-the-spot tutorial on the ways and means of sourdough,” she said. . “Was there anything she couldn’t do, and do well?”

Heather Schell, assistant professor of writing, said Larsen’s work had visible effects on the entertainment industry as she researched the viewer base of different media and television networks for a series of books she wrote on the subject. She said Larsen worked with the directors and main cast of “Supernatural” — a dark fantasy television series — to shape the show’s storylines and references, and garnered academic respect for her targeted area of study.

“Kathy and I regularly attended the same national conference, so I got to see her star power in action on multiple occasions,” she said in a statement. “We were planning to have dinner one evening, and as we walked towards the restaurant, a number of enthusiastic co-workers would cluster around her, chatting animatedly and pushing their way through the group.”

Schell said students and faculty would physically gravitate toward Larsen because of his friendly attitude and helpful demeanor.

“I heard another teacher refer to Kathy as their ‘academic hero’,” she said. “Nearly all of the fandom tchotchkes in his office were offers from fans, colleagues and students.”

After Larsen passed away, staff at the Gelman Library added his name and “Fangasm” — the title of his book on “Supernatural” and what fans will do to contact their favorite actors — to the search bar on the premiere. page of their website to honor his research and his time at GW.

Anna Connelly, a senior English and communications student who took Larsen’s college writing course in her first year, said Larsen was one of the main reasons she decided to work as a consultant at the center. writing and continue his studies in the English department.

“She definitely had an impact on how I interacted with pop culture and intertwined college studies with that,” Connelly said. “But also, the path she helped me take through the Writing Center was very helpful, because after I came to the Writing Center, I was able to get many internships, and then after that, I was able to get a job even before I graduated.

Connelly said people who don’t view Fandom Studies as a legitimate area of academic expertise have often professionally “stigmatized” the subject without giving it much professional attention. But she said analyzing the media industry and its audience is a good way to teach students how to think and write critically.

“I think she was really great at encouraging students to lean into that instead of practicing that academic distance that we’re used to in a lot of other subjects,” she said. “So I think she’s been great at teaching us how to fit our own personal interests into — in quotes — ‘respectable fields of study’.”

Danika Myers, director of the freshman writing program, said Larsen was an avid member of the university’s writing program and regularly helped other professors develop their programs and develop lesson plans.

“She was sitting there working on three projects at once, with an episode of Supernatural playing in the background on her computer, but she never acted like it was an imposition to help me think through a lesson plan or listening to me tell her a story about my child because she had a generous heart,” she said.

This article originally appeared in the February 24, 2022 issue of The Hatchet.

Diversity among oncologists does not reflect US population

Mark A. Tomlin — Sun, 20 Feb 2022 02:23:45 +0000

While the representation of women in academic radiation oncology and medical oncology faculties has increased over time, racial and ethnic minorities are still vastly underrepresented in these fields, according to a cross-sectional study of data from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

“Creating and sustaining a diverse healthcare workforce is a priority to help address societal inequities and health disparities, especially in light of the changing demographics of the general U.S. population. “, wrote authors led by Sophia C. Kamran, MD, a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

the studywhich was published Dec. 9 in JAMA Oncology, surveyed full-time U.S. faculty in radiation therapy and medical oncology departments from 1970 to 2019.

Improved patient satisfaction, compliance, and outcomes have been documented when a healthcare workforce better reflects the demographics of those they serve, Kamran and associates wrote.

They point to recent increases in the number and urgency of calls for greater diversity in the healthcare workforce, also citing higher incidence and mortality of new cancer cases among Black, Indigenous and Hispanic populations, compared to their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Previous calls for diversity in the health workforce have led to the creation of opportunities and pathways for increased representation of women and racial and ethnic minority groups in medicine, and the overall diversity of medical school faculty has increased by race, ethnicity and gender.

The change, however, is less in magnitude than what has been observed among medical school applicants, students, and graduates, and medical school diversity gains have not kept pace with the growing diversity of medical schools. the American population. It remains unclear whether corresponding advances have taken place in the composition of radiation oncology and medical oncology departments over the past 5 decades.

Despite the lack of diversity, the total number of teachers has increased

Analysis by Kamran and associates found that the total number of faculty increased over time in radiation oncology and medical oncology, with faculty representation of underrepresented women in medicine (URM) increasing proportionally from 0, 1% per decade in radiation oncology (95% confidence interval, 0.005%-0.110%; P < . 001 for trend) and medical oncology (95% CI, -0.03% to 0.16%; P = 0.06 for the trend), compared to female non-URM professors, who increased by 0.4% (95% CI, 0.25% to 0.80%) per decade in radiation oncology and by 0 .7% (95% CI, 0.47% to 0.87%) per decade in medical oncology (P < 0.001 for the trend for both). Male faculty representation at URM did not change significantly for radiation oncology (0.03% per decade [95% CI, −0.008% to 0.065%]; P= 0.09 for trend) or for medical oncology (0.003% per decade [95% CI, −0.13% to 0.14%]; P = 0.94 for the trend).

In 2009 and 2019, the representation of women and URM people for both specialties was lower than their representation in the US population. The Faculty of Radiation Oncology had the lowest URM representation in 2019 at 5.1%. The total number of URM faculty represented in both medical oncology and radiation oncology remained low across all grades in 2019 (Medical oncology: instructor, 2 out of 44 [5%]; assistant professor, 18 of 274 [7%]; associate professor, 13 of 177 [7%]; tenured professor, 13 out of 276 [5%]. Radiation oncology: instructor, 9 out of 147 [6%]; assistant professor, 57 out of 927 [6%]; associate professor, 20 out of 510 [4%]; tenured professor, 18 out of 452 [4%]).

“Our results highlight significant diversity differences along the career ladder in both specialties, with women having lower academic rank than men throughout the study period and underrepresented [racial and ethnic groups] at all ranks,” the authors wrote.

And, although blacks, Hispanics and natives make up about 31% of the U.S. population, their inclusion in the health care workforce is lagging at all stages of the pipeline, investigators found.

Diversity among radiation oncologists and medical oncologists lags behind the diversity of medical schools in general, which has grown through the efforts of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Despite some improvements, the authors suggest the need for more initiatives to retain racial and ethnic minorities in an effort to reflect the diversity of the cancer population in the United States.

“This is a multifactor problem, with a focus not only on increasing diversity in the upstream pipeline, but on maintaining diversity across the pipeline, requiring difficult but necessary conversations about systemic racial and ethnic bias, lack of exposure and opportunity, and financial toxicities and pressures, to name a few. Until these factors are better defined and better addressed, focused and targeted mentoring is essential,” the authors wrote.

Small steps can have a collective impact

In a commentary published with the study, Frederick Lansigan, MD, and Charles R. Thomas Jr, MD, both of Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, called for systemic change in practices hiring.

“Any small step of change that helps support the issues highlighted by Kamran et al.’s study can have a collective positive impact. A holistic assessment of [underrepresented] applicants at all stages of education and training are paramount, and participation in selection committees is necessary to ensure fair processes. Mentoring programs, leadership courses, and addressing microaggressions and abuse can improve retention of [underrepresented] medical school graduates and oncology trainees. Cancer centers can build and lead visible and tangible efforts for diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and belonging as we do at our institution,” the physicians wrote.

Importantly, Lansigan and Thomas said the oncology community must agree that intentionally increasing the number of underrepresented physicians in the U.S. workforce is necessary to better address health care inequities.

“We need everyone on board to reduce structural barriers to early childhood education. We need STEM programs that start in elementary school and provide support through middle school. Oncologists can mentor these young learners to emphasize the positive aspects of a career in oncology, the importance of [underrepresented] oncology physicians and the resilience to care for people with critical illness, many of whom will come from underserved populations. “Physicians and public health experts themselves who want to tackle the gap between [underrepresented] and [non-underrepresented] medicine School [students] and oncology trainees must seek and be elected to positions that can begin to balance this equation. If more are willing to recognize the structural inequalities that exist in the oncology workforce pipeline, we can begin to solve the complex equation of structural inequalities.

Lansigan said he is the acting associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Geisel School of Medicine and the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the department of medicine at Dartmouth. -Hitchcock Medical Center. No other disclosures were reported.

This story originally appeared on MDedge.comwhich is part of the Medscape professional network.

Open Question in Theoretical Models of Memory Addressed — ScienceDaily

Mark A. Tomlin — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 00:29:08 +0000

A research team led by faculty members at Wayne State University has found that communication between two key memory regions in the brain determines how what we experience becomes part of what we remember, and how As these regions mature, the precise ways in which they interact make us better at forming lasting memories.

The study, “Dissociable Oscillatory Theta Signatures from Memory Formation in the Developing Brain,” was published in the February 15 issue of Current biology.

According to the researchers, it has long been suspected that interactions between the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and the prefrontal cortex (PFC), two regions of the brain that play a key role in supporting memory formation, are responsible for the robust increase in memory. abilities between childhood and adulthood. To understand the nature of these interactions, they examined rare electrocorticographic (ECoG) data recorded simultaneously from MTLs and PFCs in child and adult neurosurgical patients who were attempting to memorize scene images. With these unique data, the researchers examined how MTL-PFC interactions support memory development.

“We started by identifying two distinct brain signals – oscillations that can be thought of as fluctuations in coordinated electrical brain activity, both in theta frequency, a slower theta (~3 Hz) and a higher fast (~7 Hz) – that underlie memory formation in MTL. We then continued to isolate the unique effects that these fast and slow theta oscillations play in MTL-PFC interactions,” said Noa Ofen, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a faculty member of the Institute of Gerontology, the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, and the Translational Neuroscience Program at Wayne State. both oscillations emphasized MTL-PFC interactions, but in unique and complementary ways, and we were excited to also find that these distinct signatures of interactions between memory regions dictai ent if a memory was successfully formed.”

The team then asked whether these signatures of MTL-PFC interactions directly explained better memory in older people compared to younger people, and indeed they found that MTL-PFC interactions immediately preceding the onset of the stage differentiate high-performing adolescents from low-performing adolescents and children, showing direct relationships with memory development.

Another finding from the study is that there appear to be age differences in fast and slow theta oscillations – the slow theta frequency slows down with age and the fast rate quickens. This is a critical new finding that has potentially broad implications for understanding brain development and understanding age-related differences in recognition performance.

Curious about the underlying anatomical infrastructure that gives rise to the interactions that support memory, the team paired their findings with diffusion-weighted MRI data from a subset of subjects. They found that the neurophysiological signatures of memory development were linked to the structural maturation of a specific white matter tract – the cingulum.

“Putting the pieces together, this research reveals that key regions of memory interact via two increasingly dissociable mechanisms as memory improves with age,” said Elizabeth Johnson, Ph.D., professor Associate of Medical Social Sciences and Pediatrics at Northwestern University.

“The results suggest that the development of memory is rooted in the development of the brain’s ability to multitask – here, coordinating distinct slow and fast theta networks along the same tract. This tells us something fundamental about the how memory becomes what it is.”

The study’s lead authors are Elizabeth L. Johnson, Ph.D., former Wayne State postdoctoral fellow and assistant professor of medical social sciences and pediatrics at Northwestern University and Noa Ofen, Ph.D., professor Fellow in Psychology and Faculty Member of the Institute of Gerontology, Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, and Translational Neuroscience Program, Wayne State University. Other co-authors are Wayne State University graduate students Qin Yin and Nolan O’Hara; Dr. Lingfei Tang, postdoctoral student at Wayne State University; and Dr. Eishi Asano and Dr. Justin Jeong, Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Wayne State University School of Medicine and Michigan Children’s Hospital.

This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIMH R01MH107512, NINDS R00NS115918, NINDS R01NS64033, and NINDS R01089659.

UW professor co-publishes book that educates teachers on implementing STEM in the classroom | News

Mark A. Tomlin — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 17:49:02 +0000

February 14, 2022

Ali Bicer

A University of Wyoming faculty member served as co-editor of a recently published book on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education.

Ali Bicer, assistant professor at the UW School of Teacher Education, helped edit “Internalization of STEM Education.” The book aims to help teachers implement research-based teaching practices in their science and math classrooms.

“We live in a century that requires different skills to succeed than previous centuries,” says Bicer, who teaches math and scientific methods classes. “I want readers of this book to take home the idea that STEM teachers should integrate research-based pedagogical practices into their teaching so that students can solve the multifaceted problems of this century.”

The book is made up of three parts. The first section of the book explores two unique contexts in which STEM education is being developed. The second part explores aspects of the professional development of STEM teachers as well as the motivations of teachers to learn and improve their STEM pedagogy. The final section looks at issues related to STEM learning experiences for students.

Bicer’s role as co-editor was to work with the other editors to uncover gaps in current knowledge in STEM education to explore in the book; invite authors to participate; and make a final decision on which submitted content will be published.

The other editors of the book are Joseph Johnson, associate professor and chair of the department of physics at Mercyhurst University; Augusto Macalalag, associate professor of STEM education at Arcadia University; and Ismail Sahin, editor of the International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology.

Bicer is passionate about creating new, dynamic teaching practices for teachers so they can further develop their students’ education and utilize their problem-solving skills and creativity. Her research interests have focused on STEM education in the classroom and how it can be implemented and improved.

“I believe my work, in general, will have a positive impact on education in Wyoming,” Bicer says. “I am very proud when I visit my current students during their teaching internship. Each student is already doing a great job incorporating techniques that foster student creativity in STEM. »

“The Internalization of STEM Education” was published by the organization ISTES (International Society for Technology, Education and Science). It is available for download at www.istes.org/internalization-of-stem-education-21-b.html.

For more information, call Bicer at (307) 766-5044 or email [email protected].

‘Not a dumping ground’: Pacific condemns Fukushima water body | Nuclear Power News

Mark A. Tomlin — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 01:32:48 +0000

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands says there is a viable alternative to Japan’s plan to dump more than a million tonnes of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, and that it requires urgent examination.

The sewage is the product of efforts to cool the Fukushima nuclear reactors that were badly damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The Northern Mariana Islands, a territory of the United States with a population of approximately 51,659 people, are located just 2,500 km (1,553 miles) southeast of Japan. Island leaders have said Japan’s plan, officially announced last year, is unacceptable.

“The discharge is not expected to take place until 2023. It is time to reverse this decision,” Sheila J Babauta, a member of the House of Representatives for the Northern Mariana Islands, told Al Jazeera in an interview last month. In December, his government passed a joint resolution opposing any nation’s decision to dispose of nuclear waste in the Pacific Ocean.

“The effort that went into creating the joint resolution revealed research and reports from Greenpeace East Asia highlighting alternatives for the storage of Japanese nuclear waste, including the only acceptable option, long-term storage. term and treatment using the best available technology”, Babauta mentioned.

Currently, Japan intends to dispose of all sewage, which will be treated, over a period of about 30 years.

Anxiety is high among local Japanese fishermen and coastal communities. And his plan has faced fierce opposition from neighboring countries, including China, South Korea and Taiwan, as well as Pacific island nations and the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s intergovernmental organization.

“This water adds to the ocean already polluted by nuclear power. This threatens the lives and livelihoods of islanders heavily dependent on marine resources. These include inshore fishing as well as pelagic fish such as tuna. The former provides daily subsistence and food security, and the latter is in dire need of foreign exchange via fishing licenses for national distant water fishing fleets,” Vijay Naidu, assistant professor at the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, told Al Jazeera.

It was the use of the Pacific Islands for nuclear weapons testing by the United States, United Kingdom and France from the 1940s to the end of the last century that sparked strong opposition among islanders to any nuclear-related activity in the region.

Nuclear testing in the Pacific, including at Bikini Atoll in 1946, sparked strong opposition to nuclear activities in the region [File: AFP)

Radioactive contamination from more than 300 atmospheric and underwater nuclear tests rendered many locations, especially in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and French Polynesia, uninhabitable and led to irreversible long-term health disorders in affected communities.

Satyendra Prasad, the Chair of Pacific Islands Forum Ambassadors at the United Nations, reminded the world in September last year of the Pacific’s “ongoing struggle with the legacy of nuclear testing from the transboundary contamination of homes and habitats to higher numbers of birth defects and cancers”.

In 1985, regional leaders established the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, prohibiting the testing and use of nuclear explosive devices and the dumping of radioactive wastes in the sea by member states, including Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island nations.

“For us in the Pacific, the Pacific Ocean has become a proving ground, a theatre of war, a highway for nuclear submarines and waste. The Pacific is not a dumping ground for radioactive waste water,” Maureen Penjueli, Co-ordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalisation, added.

Running out of space

When the earthquake and tsunami struck the Fukushima power plant, three nuclear reactors went into meltdown.

The process of decommissioning the disaster-hit site, which could take up to four decades, includes pumping cooling water through the affected infrastructure to prevent overheating. About 170 cubic metres of treated wastewater is accumulating every day and now fills at least 1,000 tanks around the site.

The Japanese government says it needs to release the water because it is running out of space to store it all.

It says it consulted with other countries in the region after announcing its plan in April last year, conducting briefings with Pacific Island Forum countries and the organisation’s secretariat. It adds that it will cooperate with the international community and adhere to relevant international standards.

“In November last year, experts from laboratories of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], France, Germany and the Republic of Korea traveled to Japan to collect samples such as fish. These samples will be divided and sent to these laboratories for analysis,” a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Al Jazeera.

“The surveillance of the maritime area will be reinforced from one year before the discharge, which should start in spring 2022 under the current plan. Measurement of the concentration of legally regulated nuclides, including tritium and carbon-14, will be measured prior to discharge at sea, and reports of the results will be made public.

Last year, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the IAEA, expressed his support for Japan’s decision.

“We will work closely with Japan before, during and after the water spill,” Grossi said. “Our cooperation and presence will help build confidence, in Japan and beyond, that water disposal is carried out without negative impact on human health and the environment.”

The United States also lent its support to Japan.

Babauta believes storage space is available at the Fukushima Daiichi site and nearby land in Japan’s Futaba and Okuma districts.

In a 2020 report, Greenpeace claimed that “the only acceptable solutionwas for Japan to continue the long-term storage and treatment of contaminated water.

“It is logistically possible and will allow time to deploy more efficient treatment technology while allowing the threat of radioactive tritium to naturally diminish,” the environmental group said. Greenpeace said while the Japanese government had considered allocating land for storage in Okuma and Futaba, dumping at sea was considered easier and less time-consuming.

The option of storing wastewater is also favored by the expert civil society organization, the Citizens Committee on Nuclear Energy (CCNE), supported by Tilman Ruff, associate professor at the Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

“Their [CCNE’s] recommendation for water management is that the first thing to do would be to store it in large, properly constructed, secure and long-lived reservoirs, similar to those that Japan uses for its national oil and petroleum reserves… The point they make, which I think is really very valid, is that if this water hasn’t been stored for an indefinite period, but even for a period of about 50 to 60 years , so by then the tritium will have decayed to a tiny fraction of what it is today and will hardly be a problem,” Ruff told Al Jazeera.

An aerial view shows the treated water storage tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was devastated in the 2011 tsunami [File: Kyodo/via Reuters]

The Japanese government insists that the effect of radiation on human health as a result of the discharge is small, stating that it will amount to 0.00081 mSv/year (millisievert of radiation per year), a fraction the level of exposure to natural radiation, estimated at 2.1 mSv/year. But medical experts are seriously concerned about the huge volume of wastewater and the potential fallout of even small amounts of tritium, a radioactive isotope that will not be removed during treatment.

“Tritium is a normal contaminant in the releases, the cooling water from normal reactor operations, but that equates to several centuries of normal tritium production that’s in that water, so it’s a very large amount,” he said. said Ruff.

“The government says it will dilute the water so it doesn’t exceed regulated concentration limits… It might allow you to tick off a regulatory requirement, but it doesn’t actually reduce the amount of radioactivity that enters the environment and the amount of radioactivity released here is really critical,” added Ruff, Nobel laureate and co-chair of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

He says the human and environmental consequences of even very low levels of radiation exposure cannot be ignored.

“Obviously, the higher the level of exposure [to radiation], the greater the risk, but there is no level below which there is no effect,” Ruff said. “It’s now been proven quite conclusively, because over the last decade there have been impressive, very large studies of large numbers of people exposed to low doses of radiation. At levels even a fraction from those we receive from the normal fund [radiation] exposure of rocks, cosmic radiation. Even at these very low levels, harmful effects have been demonstrated.

For Babauta and other Pacific Islanders, any effect is unsustainable.

For now, she said, it is vital that the Northern Mariana Islands have “a place at the decision-making table. Major decisions like these impact at the heart of our lives as Pacific Islanders, impacting the future of our children and generations to come.

Hearts of Gold Gala, Grand Opening of LSC-K for Fire Training Center

Mark A. Tomlin — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 18:09:21 +0000

Suburb // Humble/Kingwood

David Taylor, Personal editor

February 12, 2022

Two organizations in the Lake Houston area held significant events in the life of their organizations. FamilyTime has been a staple in the Humble region for years and they recently hosted their annual Hearts of Gold Gala.

Lone Star College’s Kingwood campus also held a special grand opening for its new Fire Academy. With good weather and progress, facilities should be complete by the end of summer in time for fall classes.

Successful Women 2021

Giving, inspiring, helping are all traits of some of the women who were honored at the 29th Annual Hearts of Gold Gala celebrating their 2021 Women of Achievement. The ladies came from all walks of life and walks of life and were thanked for service to the community.

Inauguration of the LSC-Kingwood fire installation

Lone Star College-Kingwood held a groundbreaking ceremony for its future fire training center on February 11. The new building, which is expected to be completed in August 2022, will house all the necessary equipment for students to undergo fire drills and learn other essential skills needed to become certified firefighters in Texas. The college will be the second on the east side to have dedicated firefighting facilities. Houston Community College-Northeast has a fire academy at its I-10 and Loop 610 location.

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