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Objective: Identify the role(s) and support(s), if any, that family members provide to first-generation and historically marginalized doctoral students, including strengths and challenges of this support. Background: Nonfinancial family support is important for the success and retention of first-generation and historically marginalized graduate students. More empirical studies of the role(s) and support of family members of these doctoral students are needed. Method: During an intervention designed for firstgeneration and historically marginalized doctoral students and their families, we conducted four focus groups with doctoral students (n = 22) and three focus groups with the family members they chose to accompany them (n = 15). Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Two themes emerged from the data: support and connection. In addition to providing distinct types of support, families play both supportive and connective roles. There are challenges to family roles and support in areas such as communication, doctoral student stress, and different ways that family members and doctoral students think about and approach life. Conclusion: The study provided key insights to understanding the roles and support of family of doctoral students; more efforts are needed across graduate schools in the United States. Implications: Family science faculty and graduate schools may collaborate to provide meaningful interventions for graduate students and their families for the goal of promoting graduate student retention and success. 

Polydimethylsiloxane-based optofluidics provides a powerful platform for a complete analytical lab-on-chip. Here, we report on a novel on-chip laser source that can be integrated with sample preparation and analysis functions. A corrugated sidewall structure is integrated into a microfluidic channel to form a distributed feedback (DFB) laser using rhodamine 6G dissolved in an ethylene glycol and water solution. Lasing is demonstrated with a threshold pump power of 87.9 µW, corresponding to a pump intensity of$52.7{\mathrm{m}\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^2$. Laser threshold and output power are optimized with respect to rhodamine 6G concentration and core index and found to be in good agreement with a rate equation model. Additionally, the laser can be switched on and off mechanically using a pneumatic cell inducing positive pressure on the grating.

 

Historically, teachers’ uptake and implementation of empirically supported classroom interventions have involved substantial face-to-face consultation. However, most schools do not have the resources to provide this intensive level of support and many teachers may not need it. Thus, evaluation of alternative supports is warranted. In this pilot study, we evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of an interactive web-based technology [i.e., the Daily Report Card.Online (DRC.O)] designed to facilitate teachers’ use of the DRC with minimal external support and examined individual teacher characteristics associated with DRC use. Elementary school teachers (N = 54) were given access to the DRC.O Web site and asked to use it to implement a DRC with one child. With regard to implementation, 16% were short-term adopters (less than 1 month) and 39% were long-term adopters (1–7 months of use). On average, short-term adopters adhered to 37% of data entry procedures, whereas long-term adopters adhered to 74% of data entry procedures. Higher teacher stress was associated with shorter use and lower adherence. Web site analytics revealed that, on average, long-term adopters completed all steps of DRC development in less than 1 h and spent only 3 min per day engaged in data entry for progress monitoring. The magnitude of change in student target behaviors and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire scores was moderate to large. These results reveal the feasibility and promise of the DRC.O and generate hypotheses for future research. Implications for additional evaluation of technology-driven implementation supports for teachers are discussed. 

Despite the presence of reproductive barriers between species, interspecific gene introgression has been documented in a range of natural systems. Comparing patterns of genetic introgression in biparental versus matrilineal markers can potentially reveal sex‐specific barriers to interspecific gene flow. Hybridization has been documented in the freshwater turtlesGraptemys geographicaandG. pseudogeographica, whose ranges are largely sympatric. Morphological differentiation between the species is restricted to females, with femaleG. geographicapossessing large heads and jaws compared to the narrow heads ofG. pseudogeographicafemales. If hybrid females are morphologically intermediate, they may be less successful at exploiting parental feeding niches, thereby limiting the introgression of maternally inherited, but not biparental, molecular markers. We paired sequence data with stable isotope analysis and examined sex‐specific genetic introgression and trophic differentiation in sympatric populations ofG. geographicaandG. pseudogeographica. We observed introgression fromG. pseudogeographicaintoG. geographicaat three nuclear loci, but not at the mitochondrial locus. Analysis of ∂¹⁵N and ∂¹³C was consistent with species differences in trophic positioning in females, but not males. These results suggest that ecological divergence in females may reduce the opportunity for gene flow in this system.