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For English as a foreign language (EFL) graduate students in STEM, with the need to publish in an international journal comes the double burden of developing general English language skills and discipline-specific writing skills. To help these students effectively, discipline-specific scientific writing (SW) instruction is necessary but has been scarce in Asian contexts. This study investigates how discipline-specific SW courses were developed for graduate students at a Korean science and engineering university, if the courses were successfully implemented, and what could be done to improve the offering of such courses. The study uses a mixed methods research design, informed by the research paradigm of pragmatism. The dataset used in the present study includes interviews, questionnaire surveys, and performance measurement. Interviews were conducted with six language and five content professors and nine teaching assistants, and 42 students involved in the development and offering of the SW courses. A purposive sampling approach was used in selecting interviewees. In addition, two types of questionnaire surveys were conducted among the students who had taken the courses: 225 participated in the university survey and 312 in the program survey. In addition, a pretest and posttest were given to measure students' improvement in their SW performances. For data analysis, text analysis and descriptive statistics were used. The results show that the courses were well received by all those involved. Students expressed appreciation for their instructor's individual attention and feedback on their writing. Moreover, students' posttest scores showed substantial improvement. On the other hand, the study raises such issues as difficulties in collaboration between the language and content professors and the need to enhance the course's relevance to students' major fields. The study concludes by offering suggestions on how to improve the interdisciplinary aspect of SW courses for STEM students and by providing a recommended model of interdisciplinary collaboration among language and content professors and teaching assistants.

Note-taking is a commonly applied pedagogical strategy across all areas of education. In higher education specifically, there has been an increasing push to get students involved in collaborative note-taking in order to increase their engagement with the contents and to inspire deeper and more meaningful learning. However, there is a lack of clarity as to whether collaborative note-taking positively influences student performance. For this reason, the present study (n = 189) compares the learning performances of students in a collaborative note-taking condition to those of students in an individual note-taking condition. The students were compared in regards to their retention of information and their performance on academic writing. The study found that students from the collaborative note-taking group performed better on measures of retention, while the individual note-taking group performed better on measures of academic writing. These results suggest that while the collaborative processes of group note-taking lead students to retain more information, these processes do not lead to better performance in academic writing. The present study fills a gap in the research by showing how the effectiveness of collaborative note-taking might depend on the learning context or on the desired result of the class.

Rationale: Two distinct subphenotypes have been identified in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), but the presence of subgroups in ARDS associated with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is unknown. Objectives: To identify clinically relevant, novel subgroups in COVID-19-related ARDS and compare them with previously described ARDS subphenotypes. Methods: Eligible participants were adults with COVID-19 and ARDS at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups with baseline clinical, respiratory, and laboratory data serving as partitioning variables. A previously developed machine learning model was used to classify patients as the hypoinflammatory and hyperinflammatory subphenotypes. Baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes were compared between subgroups. Heterogeneity of treatment effect for corticosteroid use in subgroups was tested. Measurements and Main Results: From March 2, 2020, to April 30, 2020, 483 patients with COVID-19-related ARDS met study criteria. A two-class latent class analysis model best fit the population (P = 0.0075). Class 2 (23%) had higher proinflammatory markers, troponin, creatinine, and lactate, lower bicarbonate, and lower blood pressure than class 1 (77%). Ninety-day mortality was higher in class 2 versus class 1 (75% vs. 48%; P

Media diversity within video lectures has been shown to have an effect on students who participate in both flipped classes as well as online courses. While some research claims that content delivered through multiple sources leads to more learning, contrasting research makes the claim that too much media hinders cognitive processing. The present study investigated the effects of varying levels of instructional media delivered to students (n=110) within a flipped scientific writing course to investigate the relationship between higher levels of media diversity and student performance. Results showed that more diversity led to lower levels of performance. It was also found that higher levels of media diversity correlated with higher levels of students' scanning between different forms of media, possibly contributing to the lower levels of performance. The implications of these results provide insight into the optimal level of media diversity, and on student behavior that can affect learning.

When viewed through a generic, one-size-fits-all perspective, use of input enhancement does not appear effective. Through analysis of individual grammatical features and different learner proficiency levels, a significant impact may be revealed. To study the impact of input enhancement on diverse grammatical features, 16 short reading texts and writing activities (both timed) were given to a treatment group (n = 11) and control group (n = 9). While results suggest that average grammatical accuracy of the treatment group did not significantly differ from that of the control group (U = 11559.00; p = 0.30), input enhancement on individual morphosyntactic features yielded a significant result for the plural-s feature at (U = 122.50; p = 0.04). In addition to this less salient, redundant feature, input enhancement at specific proficiency levels appears to promote learner accuracy for some grammatical features. At CEFR level B1, for example, learners benefited most from input enhancement of grammatical features at intermediary stages of the Processability and Natural Orders of acquisition. Tailoring emphasis of grammatical features to learner proficiency during the communication process may foster greater accuracy.

BackgroundMoral distress is a reason for burnout in healthcare professionals, but the clinical settings in which moral distress is most often experienced by medical students, and whether moral distress is associated with burnout and career choices in medical students is unknown. We assessed moral distress in medical students while caring for older patients, and examined associations with burnout and interest in geriatrics.MethodsA cross-sectional survey study of second-, third-, and fourth-year medical students at an American medical school. The survey described 12 potentially morally distressing clinical scenarios involving older adult patients. Students reported if they encountered each scenario, and whether they experienced moral distress, graded on a 1-10 scale. We conducted a principal axis factor analysis to assess the dimensionality of the survey scenarios. A composite moral distress score was calculated as the sum of moral distress scores across all 12 scenarios. Burnout was assessed using the Maslach Abbreviated Burnout Inventory, and interest in geriatrics was rated on a 7-point Likert scale.ResultsTwo-hundred and nine students responded (47%), of whom 90% (188/209) reported moral distress in response to ≥1 scenario with a median (IQR) score of 6 (4-7). Factor analysis suggested a unidimensional factor structure of the 12 survey questions that reliably measured individual distress (Cronbach alpha = 0.78). Those in the highest tertile of composite moral distress scores were more likely to be burnt out (51%) than those in the middle tertile of scores (34%), or lowest tertile of scores (31%) (p = 0.02). There was a trend towards greater interest in geriatrics among those in the higher tertiles of composite moral distress scores (16% lowest tertile, 20% middle tertile, 25% highest tertile, p-for-tend = 0.21). Respondents suggested that moral distress might be mitigated with didactic sessions in inpatient geriatric care, and debriefing sessions with peers and faculty on the inpatient clerkships on medicine, neurology, and surgery, where students most often reported experiencing moral distress.ConclusionsMoral distress is highly prevalent among medical students while caring for older patients, and associated with burnout. Incorporating geriatrics education and debriefing sessions into inpatient clerkships could alleviate medical student moral distress and burnout.

CT measurement of body composition may improve lung transplant candidate selection. We assessed whether skeletal muscle adipose deposition on abdominal and thigh CT scans was associated with 6 min walk distance (6MWD) and wait-list survival in lung transplant candidates. Each ½-SD decrease in abdominal muscle attenuation (indicating greater lipid content) was associated with 14 m decrease in 6MWD (95% CI -20 to -8) and 20% increased risk of death or delisting (95% CI 10% to 40%). Each ½-standard deviation decrease in thigh muscle attenuation was associated with 15 m decrease in 6MWD (95% CI -21 to -10). CT imaging may improve candidate risk stratification.

The thermal transport and elastic properties of materials are often measured using the laser-induced transient grating spectroscopy (TGS) technique. The analysis of the TGS signal usually involves fitting well-known expressions, derived assuming the limiting cases of opaque or transparent materials, to the measured data. In this paper, the system of thermoelastic equations is analytically solved for an isotropic homogeneous material assuming finite laser penetration depth, which is an important consideration when the penetration depth is on the order of the acoustic wavelength. The need to use such a solution is discussed and compared to the expression for opaque material. The solution is benchmarked against TGS signal measured on single-crystal silicon with {100} surface orientation and is found to significantly improve the accuracy of the calculated thermal diffusivity as compared to using the expression for opaque material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lecture videos have become an increasingly prevalent and important source of learning content. Lecturergenerated summaries may be used during a video lecture to improve student recall. Furthermore, the integration of a guest lecturer into the classroom may be a beneficial educational practice drawing the learner's attention to specific content or providing a change of pace. The current study measures the effects of lecturer-generated summaries and the inclusion of a guest lecturer on students' ability to recall online video lecture contents. Seven sections of a flipped scientific writing course were divided into three groups. The control group videos featured a lecturer speaking with PowerPoint slides in the background. The "Summaries Only" group viewed the same videos as those of the control, with the addition of lecturergenerated summaries spliced into the middles and ends of the videos, respectively, and these summaries were delivered by the same lecturers of the original video. The "Summaries with a Guest Lecturer" group viewed the same videos as the control, but with the addition of lecturer-generated summaries respectively spliced into the middles and ends of the videos, and these summaries were instead delivered by a guest lecturer. Student recall was measured through two online multiple-choice quizzes. The results of the study show that the Summaries Only group significantly outperformed the other two groups, while no significant difference was found between the performances of the control and the Summaries with a Guest Lecturer group. The results suggest that lecturer-generated summaries help to improve student recall of online video lecture contents. However, the introduction of a guest lecturer shown in a different setting may cause learners to lose concentration, nullifying the benefit of the summaries.

Ideally, instruction should be delivered in a way that reduces the processing of information that does not contribute to learning (extraneous load) and increases cognitive processing that contributes to learning (germane load). One way students might effectively manage extraneous load is through specific video lecture viewing strategies to control the flow of information. Extant research provides conflicting perspectives regarding the role of viewing strategies within video lectures in improving learning. This study analyzed survey responses from a group of university students (n = 2012) participating in online classes in South Korea and looked at the mediating effect of video lecture viewing strategies on the relationship between extraneous load and germane load. The results showed that viewing strategies mediated the relationship between extraneous load and germane load. When viewing strategies were added to the model, the large negative relationship between extraneous load and germane load reversed to become a small positive relationship, implying that the negative correlation between extraneous load and germane load can be largely mitigated by students engaging in specific viewing strategies to better understand the content.

Integrating content and language (ICL) has been a widely applied methodology of language learning and teaching in the last 20 years. However, ICL studies for first-year undergraduate students of science and engineering are scarce. This study examined perceptions of incoming students and professors who participated in ICL classes at a Korean science and engineering school. Most of the participants found the ICL classes helpful for students to develop a better understanding of content lectures and what to expect in regular content lectures. Also, many students found student-centered activities, consisting of group work, particularly motivating and effective. The study recommends a formula of ICL instruction for students entering a university with an EMI policy and concludes with suggestions for the successful implementation of ICL classes for content lectures in the areas of science and engineering.

RationaleThe frail phenotype has gained popularity as a clinically relevant measure in adults with advanced lung disease and in critical illness survivors. Because respiratory disease and chronic illness can greatly limit physical activity, the measurement of participation in traditional leisure time activities as a frailty component may lead to substantial misclassification of frailty in pulmonary and critical care patients.ObjectivesTo test and validate substituting the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI), a simple 12-item questionnaire, for the Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity (MLTA) questionnaire, a detailed questionnaire covering 18 leisure time activities, as the measure of low activity in the Fried frailty phenotype (FFP) instrument.MethodsIn separate multicenter prospective cohort studies of adults with advanced lung disease who were candidates for lung transplant and older survivors of acute respiratory failure, we assessed the FFP using either the MLTA or the DASI. For both the DASI and MLTA, we evaluated content validity by testing floor effects and construct validity through comparisons with conceptually related factors. We tested the predictive validity of substituting the DASI for the MLTA in the FFP assessment using Cox models to estimate associations between the FFP and delisting/death before transplant in those with advanced lung disease and 6-month mortality in older intensive care unit (ICU) survivors.ResultsAmong 618 adults with advanced lung disease and 130 older ICU survivors, the MLTA had a substantially greater floor effect than the DASI (42% vs. 1%, and 49% vs. 12%, respectively). The DASI correlated more strongly with strength and function measures than did the MLTA in both cohorts. In models adjusting for age, sex, comorbidities, and illness severity, substitution of the DASI for the MLTA led to stronger associations of the FFP with delisting/death in lung transplant candidates (FFP-MLTA hazard ratio [HR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.55-3.65; FFP-DASI HR, 2.99; 95% CI, 1.03-8.65) and with mortality in older ICU survivors (FFP-MLTA HR, 2.68; 95% CI, 0.62-11.6; FFP-DASI HR, 5.71; 95% CI, 1.34-24.3).ConclusionsThe DASI improves the construct and predictive validity of frailty assessment in adults with advanced lung disease or recent critical illness. This simple questionnaire should replace the more complex MLTA in assessing the frailty phenotype in these populations.

Conceptualized first in the field of geriatrics, frailty is a syndrome characterized by a generalized vulnerability to stressors resulting from an accumulation of physiologic deficits across multiple interrelated systems. This accumulation of deficits results in poorer functional status and disability. Frailty is a "state of risk" for subsequent disproportionate declines in health status following new exposure to a physiologic stressor. Two predominant models have emerged to operationalize the measurement of frailty. The phenotype model defines frailty as a distinct clinical syndrome that includes conceptual domains such as strength, activity, wasting, and mobility. The cumulative deficit model defines frailty by enumerating the number of age-related things wrong with a person. The biological pathways driving frailty include chronic systemic inflammation, sarcopenia, and neuroendocrine dysregulation, among others. In adults with chronic lung disease, frailty is independently associated with more frequent exacerbations of lung disease, all-cause hospitalization, declines in functional status, and all-cause mortality. In addition, frail adults who become critically ill are more likely develop chronic critical illness or severe disability and have higher in-hospital and long-term mortality rates. The evaluation of frailty appears to provide important prognostic information above and beyond routinely collected measures in adults with chronic lung disease and the critically ill. The study of frailty in these populations, however, requires multipronged efforts aimed at refining clinical assessments, understanding the mechanisms, and developing therapeutic interventions.

Understanding hot carrier dynamics in semiconductor nanocrystals is an important research focus due to their applications in photonics and photovoltaic devices. In this report, we investigated the effects of surface‐bound exciton‐delocalizing ligands (EDLs) on the lifetimes of hot electrons in CdSe quantum dots (QDs). After treatment of CdSe with two different phenylithiocarbamates (PTCs), a class of EDLs, the depletion times of the band‐edge exciton bleach were roughly equivalent as observed through ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy. However, following the initial ultrafast depletion, the PTC‐treated samples continued to deplete while the untreated CdSe began recovering. Inspection of other transient features – such as the 3rd exciton and hot biexciton – reveal a general trend in which the PTC‐treated samples relax more slowly at short times (<10 ps) when compared with the untreated CdSe. At longer delay times, in the range of nanoseconds, the CdSe+CF3OPTC loses nearly 80 % of its excited state populations, while the CdSe+MeOPTC loses only 20–40 %. We discuss the role that exciton delocalization plays in determining these observed rates as well as how they compare to previous studies. Kinetic differences between the two ligands are attributed to their electron donating/withdrawing abilities and coupling to the CdSe QD. Coherent vibrational wavepacket analysis supports this line of reasoning, showing increased coupling between the exciton and the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon due to increased Coulombic field strength around the hole and electron‐donating MeOPTC. These results indicate that electron‐rich PTCs are especially good candidates for use in QD devices that would make use of hot carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate self-appraisals over time using a cognitive–ecological approach. We assume that ecologically, negative person attributes are more diverse than positive ones, while positive person attributes are more frequent than negative ones. We combine these ecological properties with the cognitive process of similarity- and differences-based social comparisons to predict temporal self-appraisals. The resulting cognitive–ecological model predicts that people should evaluate similarities with themselves over time positively, whereas differences would be evaluated more negatively. However, because positive attributes are reinforced over time relative to negative attributes, we predicted an asymmetry to emerge such that distinct attributes of the past self (past differences) would be most negative. Six experiments (total N = 1,796) and an integrative data analysis confirmed the cognitive–ecological model's predictions for temporal self-appraisals. However, we found no evidence for motivated self-perception across time. We discuss the implications of these findings for temporal self-appraisal theory and other aspects of self and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim/Purpose: Extant research provides conflicting information regarding the role that lecture behaviors play within e-learning lectures. This study sought to understand what role motivation plays in increasing the likelihood that students engage in lecture behaviors in general, and how motivation affects the differing types of lecture behaviors. Background: The growth of online learning has increased the importance of video lectures as a means of delivering content. As with offline lectures, students may find it useful to adapt and change the way they interact with lectures to improve their learning. One possible approach that allows students to effectively manage any challenges they have in understanding a lesson is to initiate lecture behaviors to alter the flow of information. Methodology: In the present study, a survey was administered to cyber university students (n = 2434) in order to examine at the relationship between intrinsic goal orientation (a type of motivation) and levels of lecture behaviors. Contribution: This research fills an important gap by showing the effects that motivation can have on how students interact with video lectures and suggests the ways in which students engaging in specific lecture behaviors do so in order to gain a better understanding of the content. As lecture behaviors are an important part of how students are interacting with this important and new method of teaching, it is important to understand which characteristics make students more likely to engage in lecture behaviors. Findings: Students who have higher levels of motivation are more likely to engage in lecture behaviors. These lecture behaviors may include splitting attention between media sources, pausing the video lecture, rewatching parts of the video lecture, and diverting attention to obtain better audio or visual clarity. Recommendations for Practitioners: Instead of just tracking students' viewing progress on each course lecture video, instructors should further endeavor to measure their students' use lecture behaviors in relation to online course lecture content. Doing so can provide valuable insight into students' level of engagement with course lecture materials and overall levels of intrinsic goal orientation. Recommendations for Researchers: Researchers need to start factoring in how student characteristics interact with instructional engagement when investigating online learning. Impact on Society: Improvement in our understanding of online learning helps improve the quality of instruction, which provides a net gain for society. Future Research This paper is a broad overview using a survey, so future research should focus on a more detailed analysis of lecture behaviors, possibly using controlled experiments.