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Persons excluded due to ethnicity or race (PEERs) leave STEM at disproportionate rates; therefore, efforts to engage undergraduate PEERs are critical to creating a diverse STEM workforce. Through a Howard Hughes Medical Institute funded Inclusive Excellence grant (HHMI-IE), the REALISE (REALizing Inclusive Science Excellence) program was developed with the goal to increase student retention and success. As part of this project, an extensive faculty development program, including a backward course design module, workshops on microaggressions and implicit bias, and teamwork training, was created to help faculty implement inclusive pedagogy strategies. There were 33 faculty members who participated in the trainings within faculty learning communities (FLCs) and were further supported with STEM-Education (STEM-Ed) reading groups, faculty mixers, minigrants, and engagement from the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL). Evaluation of 10 faculty members' change narratives and reflective prompts revealed that low-stakes opportunities such as STEM-Ed reading groups had the most influence for instituting learner-centered classroom practices, and the workshops on microaggressions and implicit biases prompted faculty to create opportunities to build respectful relationships with students. Here, we share lessons learned from our program evaluation so that others can successfully implement inclusive pedagogy in chemistry.

Designed in response to students' requests for a capstone where they could form their own individual partnerships in the communities of their choosing, Effective Change Agent offers a structure for community-based learning that allows for high levels of student choice-making and agency. In this article, the authors describe the course; connect it to literature on grassroots change-making, integrative learning, and service-learning; and, through the inclusion of student authors, allow the sharing of insights in the students' own voices.

Due to the stringent population bottleneck that occurs during sexual HIV-1 transmission, systemic infection is typically established by a limited number of founder viruses. Elucidation of the precise forces influencing the selection of founder viruses may reveal key vulnerabilities that could aid in the development of a vaccine or other clinical interventions. Here, we utilize deep sequencing data and apply a genetic distance-based method to investigate whether the mode of sexual transmission shapes the nascent founder viral genome. Analysis of 74 acute and early HIV-1 infected subjects revealed that 83% of men who have sex with men (MSM) exhibit a single founder virus, levels similar to those previously observed in heterosexual (HSX) transmission. In a metadata analysis of a total of 354 subjects, including HSX, MSM and injecting drug users (IDU), we also observed no significant differences in the frequency of single founder virus infections between HSX and MSM transmissions. However, comparison of HIV-1 envelope sequences revealed that HSX founder viruses exhibited a greater number of codon sites under positive selection, as well as stronger transmission indices possibly reflective of higher fitness variants. Moreover, specific genetic "signatures" within MSM and HSX founder viruses were identified, with single polymorphisms within gp41 enriched among HSX viruses while more complex patterns, including clustered polymorphisms surrounding the CD4 binding site, were enriched in MSM viruses. While our findings do not support an influence of the mode of sexual transmission on the number of founder viruses, they do demonstrate that there are marked differences in the selection bottleneck that can significantly shape their genetic composition. This study illustrates the complex dynamics of the transmission bottleneck and reveals that distinct genetic bottleneck processes exist dependent upon the mode of HIV-1 transmission.

This article chronicles the development and implementation of a lesson sequence in a high school art course that utilized "Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed," a special exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute from December 6, 2001-March 17, 2002. This project took place over a 3-week period in the spring semester 2002 at The Heritage School, a public high school in New York City. As collaborators in this project, the authors each had their own objectives associated with their professional roles as school cultural visits coordinator (Lisa Hochtritt), art teacher (Kimberly Lane), and museum exhibition associate (Shannon Bell Price). They began planning for the project 3 months prior to its start and together developed a unit that exceeded their individual goals and met the four New York State Art Standards: (1) Creating, performing, and participating in the arts; (2) Knowing and using art materials and resources; (3) Responding to and analyzing works of art; and (4) Understanding the cultural dimensions and contributions of the arts. The process of bringing the Heritage students into the Extreme Beauty exhibition moved to the forefront an issue that had not been looked at for many years--that high-school groups were not permitted to tour in The Costume Institute galleries in any sort of organized way. Collectively, the collaborators of this project believe that their pedagogic goals were met through this collaborative, partnership approach. Furthermore, essential components of the success of this collaboration are mentioned. (Contains 2 notes.)

Abstract Background Obesity is associated with increased cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. Guidelines call for intensified glucose and lipid screening among overweight and obese patients. Data on compliance with these guidelines are scarce. The purpose of this study was to assess rates of diabetes and lipid screening in primary care according to demographic variables and weight status. Methods Over a 3-year follow-up period, we assessed screening rates for blood glucose, triglycerides, and HDL- and LDL-cholesterol among 5025 patients in primary care. From proportional hazards models we estimated screening rates among low, moderate, high, and very-high risk patients and compared them with recommendations of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), National Cholesterol Education Program (ATP III) and U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Results Mean (SD) age was 47.4 (15.6); 69% were female, 21% were non-white, and 30% of males and 25% of females were obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2). For both diabetes and lipid screening, the adjusted hazard was 260–330% higher among ≥65 than 2, 10–30% lower for females than males, and not lower among racial/ethnic minorities. Screening rates were at least 80% among very-high risk persons, which we defined as 55–64 years old, BMI ≥ 35 kg/m2, non-white, with baseline hypertension. In contrast, high-risk persons who were younger (35–44 years old) and less obese (BMI 30–2) were screened less often (43% for LDL-cholesterol among females to 83% for diabetes among males) even though ADA, ATP III and USPSTF recommend diabetes and lipid screening among them. Conclusion Patients with higher BMI or age were more likely to be screened for cardiometabolic risk factors. Women were screened at lower rates than men. Even in a highly structured medical group practice, some obese patients were under-screened for diabetes and dyslipidemia.