Antenatal prediction of mother-infant difficulties

A prospective study of 143 "low risk" pregnant women expecting their first baby was conducted in Newcastle, Australia. The study was designed to examine the contribution of a woman's perception of her own childhood experiences, her trait anxiety level, socioeconomic status, and social support network to difficulties in her relationship with her baby during the baby's first year. The women were initially interviewed during pregnancy and followed up 3 and 12 months postpartum. Follow-up measures included the Dimensions of Perinatal Adjustment, the Neonatal Perception Inventory, the Ainsworth Strange Situation, and information from hospital records, family doctors, and baby health centre sisters. Women who perceived their social network as less supportive during pregnancy were likely to see their one-year-old babies (p less than .05) as more difficult. The other antenatal measures were not significantly predictive of outcome.     

The Journey Project: a case study in providing health information to mitigate health disparities

The Journey Project, part of the Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries' Social Work Information Specialist in Context Fellowship, was designed to merge social work and consumer health librarianship skills in order to improve the provision of health information to patients. A resource notebook was created encompassing the many dimensions of cancer health information. A social work informationist distributed the notebooks and provided individualized consultations with respect to patients' health information needs. Areas of congruence as well as key differences between social work and consumer health librarianship emerged during the course of the project. Merging the two professions into the role of a social work informationist increased the ability to attend holistically to clients' health information needs.     

Personality type and occupational preference: Testing Holland's theory in the Caribbean

Holland's theory of career choice, which predicts a relationship between personality type and occupational preference and satisfaction, was tested in Dominica, a small and relatively underdeveloped Caribbean nation. Data from 101 14–16 year olds in their final year of schooling were consistent with Holland's ideas in some respects, but the close relationship observed between Social and Realistic categories contradicted theoretical predictions. Explanations for this finding, and wider implications for use of North American materials in Caribbean guidance and counselling programmes, are discussed.This research was conducted by the second author in partial fulfilment of requirements for the B.E.d. degree, University of the West Indies, under the supervision of the first author who also prepared the article for publication.     

Changes in anatomy instruction and USMLE performance: Empirical evidence on the absence of a relationship

Anatomy instruction has evolved over the past two decades as many medical schools have undergone various types of curricular reform. To provide empirical evidence about whether or not curricular changes impact the acquisition and retention of anatomy knowledge, this study investigated the effect of variation in gross anatomy course hours, curricular approach (stand‐alone versus integrated), and laboratory experience (dissection versus dissection and prosection) on USMLE Steps 1 and 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) scores. Gross anatomy course directors at 54 United States schools provided information about their gross anatomy courses via an online survey (response rate of 42%). Survey responses were matched with USMLE scores for 6,411 examinees entering LCME‐accredited schools in 2007 and taking Step 1 for the first time in 2009. Regression analyses were conducted to examine relationships between gross anatomy instructional characteristics and USMLE performance. Step 1 total scores, Step 1 gross anatomy sub‐scores, and Step 2 CK scores were unrelated to instructional hours, controlling for MCAT scores. Examinees from schools with integrated curricula scored slightly lower on Steps 1 and 2 CK than those from stand‐alone courses (effect sizes of 2.1 and 1.9 on score scales with SDs of 22 and 20, respectively). Examinees with dissection and prosection experience performed slightly better on Step 2 CK than examinees in courses with dissection only laboratories (effect size of 1.2). Results suggest variation in course hours is unrelated to performance on Steps 1 and 2 CK. Although differences were observed in relation to curricular approach and laboratory experience, effect sizes were small. Anat Sci Educ 6: 3–10. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

National science training policy and early scientific careers in France and the United States

The economic health of nations and regions is increasingly coming to rest on the scientific and technical labor force conducting scientific research. As such, enormous social resources are directed to educating and training those who will fire the engines of economic growth. In the first part of this paper, we compare recent investment in the scientific and technical labor forces by two giants of nationally-supported research endeavors: France and the United States. We find that France is more invested in scientific and technical training, but that both nations invest directly and indirectly in the scientific and technical labor force. French policy is more likely to support the individual graduate student directly through a national grant, while graduate students in the US tend to rely indirectly on federal support through research grants to other researchers. We then use duration models on individual data to predict entry into a permanent academic position within three years of completing a Ph.D. We do not find that industrial support of graduate training has any effect on later success in obtaining a position. There is, however, evidence of different academic labor markets operating in each country. In France, entry into a position has not depended on period factors, while in the US more recent cohorts have been more successful in obtaining permanent employment. Furthermore, postdoctoral positions in France delay or deter academic careers, but have no impact on entry in the US: this suggest that two different modes of scientific human resources management operate in France and in the USA. In the USA, Ph.D.s are seen as an essential element in the process of knowledge transfer, and early mobility does not affect entry into permanent academic careers. In France, few incentives are given to encourage mobility, which merely deters the access to permanent jobs. Finally, we found that graduates of the most prestigious undergraduate institutions were systematically advantaged in obtaining permanent academic employment, suggesting that academic stratification occurs very early in the training path in each country.     

Impacts of grants and contracts on academic researchers’ interactions with industry

Based on a representative national sample of 1564 academic researchers, we investigate the impacts of research grants and contracts on the nature and extent of faculty research and technology activities with industry. A particular focus is on understanding the independent contributions of industry and government grant sources on levels of industrial involvement. In addition to examining the source of grants, the study controls for a number of independent factors including: scientific field, research center affiliation, tenure status, and gender. Results suggest independent effects of grants and contracts on industrial activities. Grants and contracts from industry have a significant effect on academic researchers’ propensity to work with industry, as measured by an “industrial involvement scale.” Federally-sponsored grants also have an impact in increasing work with industry, but a more moderate one. Further, those with more grants and contracts (of each type) have a greater propensity for industrial involvement than those who have such contracts but fewer. This holds even when proxies for productivity and career stage are introduced in regression equations. The analysis also considers whether provision of grants and contracts is best viewed as a predictor of industrial involvement or just another type of industrial involvement using factor analysis and nested multivariate modeling to compare effects.     

Bottom Lines and Deadlines: Examining Local Digital News Startups’ Content Across Different Revenue-earning Sites

This study examines independent news startups with self-reported revenue earnings in high-, middle-, and low-income categories and compares them in the areas of news content creation. The findings, based on a content analysis of 704 articles, reveal that low-revenue earners publish fewer stories than middle- and high-revenue earning sites. For-profit sites publish significantly more in low- and mid-revenue earning categories but non-profits publish significantly more in high-revenue earning sites. Most stories are still covered by editorial staff, including articles in the field of entertainment, lifestyle/health and community events about people, usually considered the domain of citizen reporters. The discussion section contextualizes these findings and recommends future research could consider examining these sites separately rather than clubbing them under the umbrella of “digital local independent startups.”     

Assessing Library Customer Interactions and Staff Satisfaction

In 2016, two service departments–the office of information technology (OIT) and the academic resource center (ARC) at the college–physically relocated into the library. To ensure consistent customer service and staffing for the ARC, OIT, and library, the departments collaborated to discuss the implications for their new shared space. They decided to use a common online customer service form in Qualtrics to track and assess library customer interactions and staff satisfaction.