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1. Community interest and feasibility of using a novel smartphone‐based formaldehyde exposure detection technology

   https://doi.org/10.1111/phn.12384  

   Castner, Jessica ; Gehrke, Gretchen E. ; Shapiro, Nicholas ; Dannemiller, Karen C. ( January 2018 , Public Health Nursing)

   This study is the first community engagement phase of a project to develop a residential formaldehyde detection system. The objectives were to conduct a feasibility assessment for device use, and identify factors associated with concerns about environmental exposure and community interest in this device.

   A cross‐sectional, internet‐based survey employing community‐based participatory research principles was utilized. 147 individuals participated from a focused Waycross, Georgia (58.5%) and broader national sample (41.5%).

   Variables included acceptable cost and number of testing samples, interest in conducting tests, levels of concern over pollutants, health status, housing, and demographics.

   The majority of participants desired a system with fewer than 10 samples at ≤$15.00 per sample. Statistically significant higher levels of concern over air quality, formaldehyde exposure, and interest in testing formaldehyde were observed for those with overall worse health status and living in the Waycross, Georgia geographic region. Significant differences in formaldehyde testing interest were observed by health status (OR = 0.31, 95%CI = 0.12–0.81 for home testing) and geographic location (OR = 3.16, 95%CI = 1.22–8.14 for home andOR = 4.06, 95%CI = 1.48–11.12 for ambient testing) in multivariate models.

   Geographic location and poorer general health status were associated with concerns over and interest in formaldehyde testing.

    

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2. The International Tree‐Ring Data Bank ( ITRDB ) revisited: Data availability and global ecological representativity

   https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13488  

   Zhao, Shoudong ; Pederson, Neil ; D'Orangeville, Loïc ; HilleRisLambers, Janneke ; Boose, Emery ; Penone, Caterina ; Bauer, Bruce ; Jiang, Yuan ; Manzanedo, Rubén D. ( December 2018 , Journal of Biogeography)

   The International Tree‐Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) is the most comprehensive database of tree growth. To evaluate its usefulness and improve its accessibility to the broad scientific community, we aimed to: (a) quantify its biases, (b) assess how well it represents global forests, (c) develop tools to identify priority areas to improve its representativity, and d) make available the corrected database.

   Worldwide.

   Contributed datasets between 1974 and 2017.

   Trees.

   We identified and corrected formatting issues in all individual datasets of theITRDB. We then calculated the representativity of theITRDBwith respect to species, spatial coverage, climatic regions, elevations, need for data update, climatic limitations on growth, vascular plant diversity, and associated animal diversity. We combined these metrics into a global Priority Sampling Index (PSI) to highlight ways to improveITRDBrepresentativity.

   Our refined dataset provides access to a network of >52 million growth data points worldwide. We found, however, that the database is dominated by trees from forests with low diversity, in semi‐arid climates, coniferous species, and in western North America. Conifers represented 81% of theITRDBand even in well‐sampled areas, broadleaves were poorly represented. OurPSIstressed the need to increase the database diversity in terms of broadleaf species and identified poorly represented regions that require scientific attention. Great gains will be made by increasing research and data sharing in African, Asian, and South American forests.

   The extensive data and coverage of theITRDBshow great promise to address macroecological questions. To achieve this, however, we have to overcome the significant gaps in the representativity of theITRDB. A strategic and organized group effort is required, and we hope the tools and data provided here can guide the efforts to improve this invaluable database.

    

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3. A Change Model that Helps Faculty Mentor Underrepresented Minorities (URM) Doctoral Students for the STEM Professoriate

   Grasso, M and ( January 2020 , The chronicle of mentoring coaching)

   In response to the well-documented themes of unique challenges URM doctoral student experience (tokenism, stereotyping, microaggressions, etc.), faculty mentoring remains an especially critical resource to change the trajectory for URM students in graduate education. The purpose of this study is to examine the frst two years of change in institutional culture which will increase the number of URM doctoral students who pursue the STEM professoriate. The primary research question asked is “Can a focus on developing and mentoring faculty catalyze change in the culture and practices of their doctoral programs to increase faculty diversity?” Based on the idea that faculty are drivers of lasting institutional change, three diverse public universities collaborate to adapt and implement an institutional change project, called “AGEP-NC Alliance: A Change Model for Doctoral to Faculty Diversity in STEM,” that prioritizes cultural frameworks for deep change in postsecondary education (Gumpertz et al., 2019). Key model components include faculty learning communities; use of national faculty mentoring networks; and use of institutional diversity data. Culturally relevant mentoring is among several approaches of interest to STEM reformers to shift the focus to institutional-level change and not student defciencies. Operationalized as “cultural integrity,” the approach calls upon students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds as assets for reform in pedagogies and learning activities, while valuing those backgrounds as critical ingredients for acquiring academic capital and career success (Tierney, 1999). Kezar’s (2018) cultural framework for institutional change emphasizes knowledge formation in context as well as analysis of espoused meaning and values organizational members maintain. The researchers present the AGEP-NC Alliance as a narrative, rich case study and collaborative mentoring model, an approach allowing participant researchers to detail sustained data use in collaborative social interaction (Patton, 1990). Results will be shared that highlight faculty as cultural change agents, and organizational learning as a cultural process. Preliminary results show evidence of institutional change at several levels from classroom and laboratory practices to key departmental policies. 

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4. A Change Model that Helps Faculty Mentor Underrepresented Minorities (URM) Doctoral Students for the STEM Professoriate

   Grasso, M ; Campbell, CD. ( December 2020 , The chronicle of mentoring coaching)

   In response to the well-documented themes of unique challenges URM doctoral student experience (tokenism, stereotyping, microaggressions, etc.), faculty mentoring remains an especially critical resource to change the trajectory for URM students in graduate education. The purpose of this study is to examine the first two years of change in institutional culture which will increase the number of URM doctoral students who pursue the STEM professoriate. The primary research question asked is “Can a focus on developing and mentoring faculty catalyze change in the culture and practices of their doctoral programs to increase faculty diversity?” Based on the idea that faculty are drivers of lasting institutional change, three diverse public universities collaborate to adapt and implement an institutional change project, called “AGEP-NC Alliance: A Change Model for Doctoral to Faculty Diversity in STEM,” that prioritizes cultural frameworks for deep change in postsecondary education (Gumpertz et al., 2019). Key model components include faculty learning communities; use of national faculty mentoring networks; and use of institutional diversity data. Culturally relevant mentoring is among several approaches of interest to STEM reformers to shift the focus to institutional-level change and not student deficiencies. Operationalized as “cultural integrity,” the approach calls upon students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds as assets for reform in pedagogies and learning activities, while valuing those backgrounds as critical ingredients for acquiring academic capital and career success (Tierney, 1999). Kezar’s (2018) cultural framework for institutional change emphasizes knowledge formation in context as well as analysis of espoused meaning and values organizational members maintain. The researchers present the AGEP-NC Alliance as a narrative, rich case study and collaborative mentoring model, an approach allowing participant researchers to detail sustained data use in collaborative social interaction (Patton, 1990). Results will be shared that highlight faculty as cultural change agents, and organizational learning as a cultural process. Preliminary results show evidence of institutional change at several levels from classroom and laboratory practices to key departmental policies. 

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5. Straight From the Girls: The Importance of Incorporating the EDGE Design Attributes at Exhibits

   https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.12310  

   Garcia‐Luis, Veronica ; Dancstep, Toni ( April 2019 , Curator: The Museum Journal)

   This paper describes a follow‐up focus group study for the larger Exhibit Designs for Girls’ Engagement (EDGE) project. Grounded in Culturally Responsive Pedagogical theory (CRP), the project aimed to understand the relationship between female responsive designs and girls’ engagement atSTEMexhibits. After developing a Female‐Responsive Design (FRD) Framework and conducting a large‐scale study to determine the most important design attributes for engaging girls at exhibits, the final step involved a qualitative investigation into those design attributes. Four focus groups with 22 girls aged 8–13 explored their exhibit experiences and discourse. Participants were videotaped while using four exhibits, half of which incorporated theEDGEDesign Attributes. Focus group results replicate the previous quantitative study: participants had a largely positive response to theEDGEDesign Attributes and evinced greater engagement when the attributes were present at exhibits. As expected, girls’ responsiveness to the design attributes varied— aligning with theCRPapproach and highlighting the important fact that not all attributes will work for all girls. To share girls’ voices more broadly with practitioners we provide direct quotes for each design attribute. Finally, of the kinds of learning expressed, girls more often practiced scientific skills by repeating or varying activities at theEDGEexhibits. The results of this study, and the larger project, provide evidence thatCRPworks well when designing for females and serves as a valuable theory for creating museums that are truly inclusive.

    

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