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More about Girls and STEM




In case you missed this story, a recent study finds that boys and girls are performing the same academically in math. The results of this research beg the question - why aren't women in STEM careers at the same rates as men? Significant recent research has found that parents, especially fathers, impact how girls view themselves and their career options and that interest in STEM careers is a better predictor of eventual career paths than math test scores. If you have not read Engagement, Capacity, and Continuity, this may be a good time to do that. The evidence continues to grow that schools alone cannot form the pathway to STEM careers.



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Other Articles:


Development and Application of an Internet Electron Microscopy System for the Outreach Program in Japan
Research Articles
Miyoko Tanaka, Akane Tameike, Nobuhiro Ishikawa, Kazuo Furuya,
Microscopy and Microanalysis, Volume 14 Issue 02 , pp 176-183

Abstract
The development of a remotely operated scanning electron microscopy (SEM) system and its use by high school students and the public as an outreach program are reported. The SEM and the server are located in the National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan, with client computers installed at a science museum and high schools. Using a secure virtual private network system and scheduling management groupware, observation of SEM images and energy dispersive X-ray analysis are widely and frequently performed throughout Japan.
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Personality and Colorectal Cancer: The Fukuoka Colorectal Cancer Study
Objective

Although personality factors, especially emotional suppression and loss-hopelessness, have been linked to the occurrence and progression of cancer, little is reported specifically on colorectal cancer. It has also been claimed that a ‘hysterical’ personality characterized by exaggerated emotional expressions, egocentricity and ambivalent connection may be protective from cancer. This community-based case–control study examined whether personality factors relevant to emotional suppression or loss-hopelessness are associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer, and whether factors related to the hysterical personality are associated with a decreased risk.

Methods

The stress inventory (SI), a self-administered questionnaire to assess the possible disease-prone and other relevant personalities in Japanese, was completed by 497 patients with newly diagnosed colorectal cancer and 809 controls randomly selected in the Fukuoka area of Japan.

Results

After controlling for age, sex and residence using a logistic regression model, none of the SI scales relevant to emotional suppression (‘unfulfilled needs for acceptance’, ‘altruism’, ‘rationalizing conflicts/frustrations’) or loss-hopelessness (‘low sense of control’, ‘object-dependence/loss’, ‘object-dependence/happiness’) was related to colorectal cancer. On the other hand, two scales representing elements of the hysterical personality, ‘object-dependence/ambivalence’ and ‘egoism’ were protectively associated with risk. Additional adjustment for body-mass index and lifestyle factors did not materially change these associations.

Conclusions

Although personalities relevant to the emotional suppression or loss-hopelessness may not be a risk factor for colorectal cancer in the Japanese population, ambivalent connection and egocentricity may be protective.

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Science 2.0 - a new way of doing research?
Web 2.0 as a platform has begun to transform the web and already divides users into first generation and second generation internet users. Certainly in the online travel arena, which I know well, for many younger people, there is increasing evidence that email and static web content is no longer being used, with dynamic content, interactive websites, chat forums and instant messaging the norm for this second generation - in particular social networking is becoming the dominant form of web traffic through the popularity of review sites for travel and purchasing like Tripadvisor, social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo and social contribution sites like wikipedia.

There is now a move online to take science research into the social networking category also, with research publications being released into the wild for instant review in the form of online commentary from the science community rather than peer review prior to publication as happens most often now. Science 2.0 could bring information on stream much more quickly, but of course does so with a caveat that the work has yet to be tested. A project that began in MIT is set to go more mainstream - OpenNetWare in the biological sciences. The approach is likely to proliferate among younger scientists in the coming years. Scientific American discusses whether this will be a good thing or a bad thing for science.

See Scientific American.
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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Case-Control Study Evaluating Its Relationship with Body Mass Index and Hand and Wrist Measurements

This case–control study investigated the associations between the body mass index (BMI), hand and wrist measurements and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). The hands and wrists of 50 patients with CTS and 50 age- and sex-matched controls were measured. The right and left wrist indices (wrist depth/wrist width) were significantly greater in CTS patients (mean = 0.71. SD = 0.04) than in the controls (mean = 0.69 SD = 0.04). The hand index (hand length/palm width) and BMI were not significantly different in the two groups. The hand, but not the wrist, index was found to correlate with the BMI. These results provide some support for a causative association between wrist morphometry, as measured by the wrist index, and CTS, but this difference is too small to be of diagnostic value in clinical or epidemiological practice. The results could also suggest that the previously reported association between CTS and the hand index may be secondary to differences in the BMI.

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Surface replicas of normal and vitrified leaves of Datura insignis, Barb Rodr

Vitrification is a morphological and physiological disorder affecting plants during their in vitro vegetative propagation. Vitrified plants have a poor survival rate when transferred from in vitro to greenhouse conditions, a fact mainly due to water loss and dissecation. It has been shown that normal and vitreous leaves of Datura insignis differ in the frequency of normal and abnormal stomata. The purpose of this work was to compare the surface of normal and vitreous leaves of D. insignis, using a modification of the platinum/carbon replica method. Adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces of normal plantlets have a smooth and homogenous cuticle. A granular aspect, probably due to leaf age, rarely occurs at the periphery of the epidermal cells. Both adaxial and abaxial leaf surfaces of vitrified plantlets show discontinuities in the cuticle, occurring at several regions of the outer periclinal cell walls. However, such discontinuities are most noticeable in the region between adjacent epidermal cells. Fibrils 20–30 nm thick show a random arrangement or an oriented pattern in cuticular discontinuities. In D. insignis vitrified plantlets, adaxial and abaxial leaf cuticle has discontinuities or gaps which may cause an increase in cuticular transpiration contributing to the low survival rate of vitrified plantlets.

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Science After School
By noreply@blogger.com (Jason) - version: v1.5 build A