Academic institutions are facing a crisis in scholarly publishing at multiple levels: presses are stressed as never before, library budgets are squeezed, faculty are having difficulty publishing ...their work, and promotion and tenure committees are facing a range of new ways of working without a clear sense of how to understand and evaluate them. Planned Obsolescence is both a provocation to think more broadly about the academy's future and an argument for reconceiving that future in more communally-oriented ways. Facing these issues head-on, Kathleen Fitzpatrick focuses on the technological changes - especially greater utilization of internet publication technologies, including digital archives, social networking tools, and multimedia - necessary to allow academic publishing to thrive into the future. But she goes further, insisting that the key issues that must be addressed are social and institutional in origin. Springing from original research as well as Fitzpatrick's own hands-on experiments in new modes of scholarly communication through MediaCommons, the digital scholarly network she co-founded, Planned Obsolescence explores these aspects of scholarly work, as well as issues surrounding the preservation of digital scholarship and the place of publishing within the structure of the contemporary university. Written in an approachable style designed to bring administrators and scholars into a conversation, Planned Obsolescence explores both symptom and cure to ensure that scholarly communication will remain relevant in the digital future.
Web-based cognitive-behavioral therapeutic (CBT) apps have demonstrated efficacy but are characterized by poor adherence. Conversational agents may offer a convenient, engaging way of getting support ...at any time.
The objective of the study was to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a fully automated conversational agent to deliver a self-help program for college students who self-identify as having symptoms of anxiety and depression.
In an unblinded trial, 70 individuals age 18-28 years were recruited online from a university community social media site and were randomized to receive either 2 weeks (up to 20 sessions) of self-help content derived from CBT principles in a conversational format with a text-based conversational agent (Woebot) (n=34) or were directed to the National Institute of Mental Health ebook, "Depression in College Students," as an information-only control group (n=36). All participants completed Web-based versions of the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale at baseline and 2-3 weeks later (T2).
Participants were on average 22.2 years old (SD 2.33), 67% female (47/70), mostly non-Hispanic (93%, 54/58), and Caucasian (79%, 46/58). Participants in the Woebot group engaged with the conversational agent an average of 12.14 (SD 2.23) times over the study period. No significant differences existed between the groups at baseline, and 83% (58/70) of participants provided data at T2 (17% attrition). Intent-to-treat univariate analysis of covariance revealed a significant group difference on depression such that those in the Woebot group significantly reduced their symptoms of depression over the study period as measured by the PHQ-9 (F=6.47; P=.01) while those in the information control group did not. In an analysis of completers, participants in both groups significantly reduced anxiety as measured by the GAD-7 (F
= 9.24; P=.004). Participants' comments suggest that process factors were more influential on their acceptability of the program than content factors mirroring traditional therapy.
Conversational agents appear to be a feasible, engaging, and effective way to deliver CBT.
AimsTo explore factors associated with nurses' moral distress during the first COVID‐19 surge and their longer‐term mental health.DesignCross‐sectional, correlational survey study.MethodsRegistered ...nurses were surveyed in September 2020 about their experiences during the first peak month of COVID‐19 using the new, validated, COVID‐19 Moral Distress Scale for Nurses. Nurses' mental health was measured by recently experienced symptoms. Analyses included descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Outcome variables were moral distress and mental health. Explanatory variables were frequency of COVID‐19 patients, leadership communication and personal protective equipment/cleaning supplies access. The sample comprised 307 nurses (43% response rate) from two academic medical centres. ResultsMany respondents had difficulty accessing personal protective equipment. Most nurses reported that hospital leadership communication was transparent, effective and timely. The most distressing situations were the transmission risk to nurses' family members, caring for patients without family members present, and caring for patients dying without family or clergy present. These occurred occasionally with moderate distress. Nurses reported 2.5 days each in the past week of feeling anxiety, withdrawn and having difficulty sleeping. Moral distress decreased with effective communication and access to personal protective equipment. Moral distress was associated with longer‐term mental health.ConclusionPandemic patient care situations are the greatest sources of nurses' moral distress. Effective leadership communication, fewer COVID‐19 patients, and access to protective equipment decrease moral distress, which influences longer‐term mental health.ImpactLittle was known about the impact of COVID‐19 on nurses' moral distress. We found that nurses' moral distress was associated with the volume of care for infected patients, access to personal protective equipment, and communication from leaders. We found that moral distress was associated with longer‐term mental health. Leaders should communicate transparently to decrease nurses' moral distress and the negative effects of global crises on nurses' longer‐term mental health.
Higher education occupies a difficult place in twenty-first-century American culture. Universities--the institutions that bear so much responsibility for the future health of our nation--are at odds ...with the very publics they are intended to serve. As Kathleen Fitzpatrick asserts, it is imperative that we re-center the mission of the university to rebuild that lost trust. Critical thinking--the heart of what academics do--can today often negate, refuse, and reject new ideas. In an age characterized by rampant anti-intellectualism, Fitzpatrick charges the academy with thinking constructively rather than competitively, building new ideas rather than tearing old ones down. She urges us to rethink how we teach the humanities and to refocus our attention on the very human ends--the desire for community and connection--that the humanities can best serve. One key aspect of that transformation involves fostering an atmosphere of what Fitzpatrick dubs "generous thinking," a mode of engagement that emphasizes listening over speaking, community over individualism, and collaboration over competition. Fitzpatrick proposes ways that anyone who cares about the future of higher education can work to build better relationships between our colleges and universities and the public, thereby transforming the way our society functions. She encourages interested stakeholders to listen to and engage openly with one another's concerns by reading and exploring ideas together; by creating collective projects focused around common interests; and by ensuring that our institutions of higher education are structured to support and promote work toward the public good. Meditating on how and why we teach the humanities, "Generous Thinking" is an audacious book that privileges the ability to empathize and build rather than simply tear apart.
Since 2002, the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index has been used worldwide to evaluate nurse work environments. High quality translations in different languages can help advance ...science and inform practice globally. The study purposes were to conduct a systematic review of published translations of the instrument and to assess their linguistic equivalence and psychometric performance. We conducted a comprehensive search, a quality assessment and synthesis of linguistic equivalence, reliability, and validity data. Studies published through July 2021 were identified in the CINAHL, LILACS, EMCare, and Scopus databases. Thirty-eight publications were selected, comprising 46 translations into 24 languages and 15 language variants, and 35 countries. Translations are in predominantly European, Southeast Asian, and Middle Eastern languages. Two-thirds of the translations reflected medium to high fulfillment of translation quality criteria. The GRADE ratings, reflecting satisfactory fulfillment of cross-cultural equivalence and psychometric properties, were predominantly high (n = 23), then low (n = 15), then moderate (n = 8). The identified translations will support the advancement of global science and the improvement of nurses' work environments.
Supporting student development of clear science communication skills is critically important and incredibly challenging. In this activity, to help students understand the importance of clear written ...communication, students work in pairs with LEGO bricks.
ABSTRACT
Supporting student development of clear science communication skills is critically important and incredibly challenging. In this activity, to help students understand the importance of clear written communication, students work in pairs with LEGO bricks. One student with a completed LEGO structure describes a small LEGO construction, directing a second student to build it, sight unseen. This exercise serves three aims. First, it acts as an icebreaker in the beginning of this writing-intensive course; second, it prompts thinking about the features of clear communication; and finally, it highlights challenges in written communication. The exercise is followed by a short debrief and an in-class writing assignment. Most students found the exercise to be enjoyable and useful and advised including it in future course offerings. With modifications, it also runs well in an online format, and is easily adaptable to many other course contexts.
Investigation of the Vpu protein of HIV-1 recently uncovered a novel aspect of the mammalian innate response to enveloped viruses: retention of progeny virions on the surface of infected cells by the ...interferon-induced, transmembrane and GPI-anchored protein BST-2 (CD317; tetherin). BST-2 inhibits diverse families of enveloped viruses, but how it restricts viral release is unclear. Here, immuno-electron microscopic data indicate that BST-2 is positioned to directly retain nascent HIV virions on the plasma membrane of infected cells and is incorporated into virions. Virion-incorporation was confirmed by capture of infectivity using antibody to the ectodomain of BST-2. Consistent with a direct tethering mechanism, we confirmed that proteolysis releases restricted virions and further show that this removed the ectodomain of BST-2 from the cell surface. Unexpectedly, enzymatic cleavage of GPI anchors did not release restricted virions, weighing against models in which individual BST-2 molecules span the virion and host cell membranes. Although the exact molecular topology of restriction remains unsolved, we suggest that the incorporation of BST-2 into viral envelopes underlies its broad restrictive activity, whereas its relative exclusion from virions and sites of viral assembly by proteins such as HIV-1 Vpu may provide viral antagonism of restriction.
In eukaryotes, the post-translational addition of methyl groups to histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) plays key roles in maintenance and establishment of appropriate gene expression patterns and chromatin ...states. We report here that an essential locus within chromosome 3L centric heterochromatin encodes the previously uncharacterized Drosophila melanogaster ortholog (dSet1, CG40351) of the Set1 H3K4 histone methyltransferase (HMT). Our results suggest that dSet1 acts as a "global" or general H3K4 di- and trimethyl HMT in Drosophila. Levels of H3K4 di- and trimethylation are significantly reduced in dSet1 mutants during late larval and post-larval stages, but not in animals carrying mutations in genes encoding other well-characterized H3K4 HMTs such as trr, trx, and ash1. The latter results suggest that Trr, Trx, and Ash1 may play more specific roles in regulating key cellular targets and pathways and/or act as global H3K4 HMTs earlier in development. In yeast and mammalian cells, the HMT activity of Set1 proteins is mediated through an evolutionarily conserved protein complex known as Complex of Proteins Associated with Set1 (COMPASS). We present biochemical evidence that dSet1 interacts with members of a putative Drosophila COMPASS complex and genetic evidence that these members are functionally required for H3K4 methylation. Taken together, our results suggest that dSet1 is responsible for the bulk of H3K4 di- and trimethylation throughout Drosophila development, thus providing a model system for better understanding the requirements for and functions of these modifications in metazoans.
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