Fredonia designs socioethical assessment measures

Since the Slate University of New York (SUNY) College at Fredonia revised its general education program seven years ago, all students have been required to take courses in international or cross-cultural subjects. Under the same program, faculty now connect introductory courses with other disciplines, teach the history of subjects, and discuss biases, values, and contradictory views. Minda Rae Amiran, dean for liberal and continuing education, describes the program designed at her institution.     

A longitudinal study of how women's prenatal and postnatal concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic predicts their infants' social–emotional development

Infant social–emotional development may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigated associations between maternal pre- and postnatal pandemic-related concerns and social–emotional developmental risk. Data, collected in 2020–2021, came from 220 mothers (87% white, 6% Hispanic, 1% Black, 3% Asian, 1% American Indian, M_age = 32.46 years), and infants (53.18% male, M_age = 12.98 months) in the United States. Maternal postnatal pandemic-related concerns were associated with total risk scores (B = 6.09, p-value <.001) and offspring risk of scoring positive for problems related to inflexibility (B = 4.07, p-value = .006). The total score association was moderated by self-reported social support. Infants may be detrimentally impacted by the pandemic via maternal pandemic-related concerns. Maternal social support may buffer infants.     

Designing learning environments to promote competent lay engagement with science

An important goal of science education is promoting scientific literacy—the competence to interact with science as laypeople to solve problems and make decisions in their personal and community lives. This is made more challenging in an age of increasing science denialism. In this article, we discuss how to design learning environments for science education that can help students attain scientific literacy. We argue that science curricula should encompass lessons with two distinguishable foci. One focus engages students in understanding the reliability of science. The second focus engages students as laypeople interacting with science in the public sphere. We discuss these two curricular foci, presenting examples from our own work on designing and implementing instruction with the first focus.     

Empowering Marginalized Youth: A Self‐Transformative Intervention for Promoting Positive Youth Development

This article reports the results of a positive youth development (PYD) intervention for adolescents in alternative high schools (209 African American and Hispanic American adolescents, aged 14–18; 118 females and 91 males). The intervention was guided by a self‐transformative model of PYD (Eichas, Meca, Montgomery, & Kurtines, 2014). This model proposes that the actions youth take to define themselves function as active ingredients in positive development over the life course. Consistent with the self‐transformative model, results provided support for direct or mediated intervention effects on the self‐transformative processes of self‐construction and self‐discovery, life goal development, identity synthesis, and internalizing problems. The findings illustrate the utility of using a self‐transformative approach to PYD in work with marginalized youth populations.     

The influence of a response format test accommodation for college students with and without disabilities

Standardised and other multiple-choice examinations often require the use of an answer sheet with fill-in bubbles (i.e. ‘bubble’ or Scantron sheet). Students with disabilities causing impairments in attention, learning and/or visual-motor skill may have difficulties with multiple-choice examinations that employ such a response style. Such students may request and receive testing accommodations that intend to mitigate these impairments, such as circling responses in a test booklet, which contains both the questions and corresponding multiple-choice answers. The current study evaluated this test accommodation as compared to using a bubble sheet or Scantron on a multiple-choice vocabulary test. College students with (n = 25) and without (n = 76) disabilities completed a vocabulary test under both booklet (accommodated) and bubble sheet (standard) conditions. Results demonstrated that answering in a test booklet, a much preferred response mode, allowed students to attempt significantly more items than using a bubble sheet, improving their overall test scores. Booklet responding tends to improve overall performance, even for students without disabilities, calling into question the specificity and validity of this accommodation.     

Effects of active, passive or no warm-up on metabolism and performance during high-intensity exercise

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of type of warm-up on metabolism and performance during high-intensity exercise. Eight males performed 30 s of intense exercise at 120% of their maximal power output followed, 1 min later, by a performance cycle to exhaustion, again at 120% of maximal power output. Exercise was preceded by active, passive or no warm-up (control). Muscle temperature, immediately before exercise, was significantly elevated after active and passive warm-ups compared to the control condition (36.9 +/- 0.18 degrees C, 36.8 +/- 0.18 degrees C and 33.6 +/- 0.25 degrees C respectively; mean +/- sx) (P< 0.05). Total oxygen consumption during the 30 s exercise bout was significantly greater in the active and passive warm-up trials than in the control trial (1017 +/- 22, 943 +/- 53 and 838 +/- 45 ml O2 respectively). Active warm-up resulted in a blunted blood lactate response during high-intensity exercise compared to the passive and control trials (change = 5.53 +/- 0.52, 8.09 +/- 0.57 and 7.90 +/- 0.38 mmol x l(-1) respectively) (P < 0.05). There was no difference in exercise time to exhaustion between the active, passive and control trials (43.9 +/- 4.1, 48.3 +/- 2.7 and 46.9 +/- 6.2 s respectively) (P= 0.69). These results indicate that, although the mechanism by which muscle temperature is elevated influences certain metabolic responses during subsequent high-intensity exercise, cycling performance is not significantly affected.     

Molecular diffusion analysis of dynamic blood flow and plasma separation driven by self-powered microfluidic devices

Integration of microfluidic devices with pressure-driven, self-powered fluid flow propulsion methods has provided a very effective solution for on-chip, droplet blood testing applications. However, precise understanding of the physical process governing fluid dynamics in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based microfluidic devices remains unclear. Here, we propose a pressure-driven diffusion model using Fick''s law and the ideal gas law, the results of which agree well with the experimental fluid dynamics observed in our vacuum pocket-assisted, self-powered microfluidic devices. Notably, this model enables us to precisely tune the flow rate by adjusting two geometrical parameters of the vacuum pocket. By linking the self-powered fluid flow propulsion method to the sedimentation, we also show that direct plasma separation from a drop of whole blood can be achieved using only a simple construction without the need for external power sources, connectors, or a complex operational procedure. Finally, the potential of the vacuum pocket, along with a removable vacuum battery to be integrated with non-PDMS microfluidic devices to drive and control the fluid flow, is demonstrated.