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A special-topics undergraduate course about the history of statistics which was taught in Spring 2023 at the University of South Carolina is described. We review other similar courses (past and current) and explain the discussion-based nature of this course. The conception and planning of the course are detailed, and the unique experiences (activities, guest speakers, presentations, etc.) are described. The course emphasized substantial amounts of independent reading outside of class and lively discussions during class. Topics covered in the class include the early development of probability, the normal distribution, and the central limit theorem; the development of modern statistical science by British statisticians; the rise of formal mathematical statistics; and increasing specialization and modern computational and data-analytic advances. An assessment of the course's effectiveness based on qualitative student survey data is given. Students were highly complimentary of the course, praising the in-class discussion format, the benefits of doing the outside readings, the invited guest speakers, and the in-class activities. There were occasional comments that the amount of required reading was excessive. Based on this, suggestions for future offerings of the course are presented, including developing a more carefully curated set of readings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Richard T. Greener was the first Black graduate of Harvard College in 1870, and he served briefly as a professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina from 1873 to 1877. Historians and biographers have uncovered many of the facts of his unusual life, but to date his philosophy has remained unappreciated. This essay reconstructs his philosophy from published and archival sources, evaluating it in relationship to the work of his better-known mentor, Frederick Douglass. I argue that Greener's account of Reconstruction politics, especially his arguments on land redistribution, race, and Black intellectual history, possess notable advantages over Douglass's views. Of particular importance is that he defended a more robust republican state than did his hero, while rejecting the originalism and constitutionalism that characterize Douglass's liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galectins are innate immune system regulators associated with disease progression in cancer. This paper aims to investigate the correlation between mutated cancer-critical genes and galectin levels in breast cancer patients to determine whether galectins and genetic profiles can be used as biomarkers for disease and potential therapy targets. Prisma Health Cancer Institute's Biorepository provided seventy-one breast cancer samples, including all four stages spanning the major molecular subtypes and histologies. Hotspot mutation statuses of cancer-critical genes were determined using multiplex PCR in tumor samples from the same patients by Precision Genetics and the University of South Carolina Functional Genomics Core Facility. The galectin-1, -3, and -9 levels in patients' sera were analyzed using Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). An analysis was performed using JMP software to compare mean and median serum galectin levels between samples with and without specific cancer-critical genes, including pooled t-test, Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test, ANOVA, and Steel Dwass Test ( α = 0.05 ). Our analysis indicates that KIT mutations correlate with elevated serum levels of galectin-9 in patients with breast cancer. In patients with Luminal A subtype, FLT3 mutation correlates with lower serum galectin-1 and -9 levels and TP53 mutations correlate with higher serum galectin-3 levels. Patients with invasive ductal carcinoma had significantly higher serum galectin-3 levels than patients with ductal carcinoma in situ. Patients with both TP53 and PIK3CA mutations exhibit elevated serum galectin-3 levels, while patients with one or neither mutation show no significant difference in serum galectin-3 levels. In addition, metastatic breast cancer samples were more likely to have a KIT or PIK3CA mutation compared to primary breast cancer samples. The relationship between genetic mutations and galectin levels has the potential to identify appropriate candidates for combined therapy, targeting genetic mutations and galectins. Further understanding of the effect of genetic mutations and galectin levels on cancer progression and metastasis could aid in the search for biomarkers for breast cancer diagnosis, disease progression, and prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioner-focused educational doctoral programs have grown substantially in recent years. Dissertations in Practice (DiPs), which are the culminating research report and evaluation method in these programs, differ from traditional PhD dissertations in their focus on addressing a problem of practice and on connecting theories with practice. As part of our ongoing program evaluation, we reviewed DiPs from doctoral students who graduated from an online asynchronous Educational Doctoral program in Learning Design and Technologies at the University of South Carolina. Findings revealed that most students chose a pragmatic philosophical paradigm, adopted a mixed methods research design, reported an action research intervention implemented with populations in K-12 schools, used surveys and interviews as data sources, and analyzed data with descriptive/inferential statistics and thematic analysis. Implications for the program curriculum are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the potential benefits of eliminating the requirement of a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) for branch library management positions. Waiving the requirement attracts a wider range of candidates, including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) applicants. Many of the skills necessary for library jobs—such as building community relationships and overseeing budgets—do not necessarily come from acquiring an MLIS and, in fact, are more likely to come from other experiences. At the same time, the MLIS does offer foundational knowledge about library values and professional ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keynote Lecture Blind Sailing Unlimited Kris Scheppe, Blind Sailing Unlimited Kris was born with a genetic eye disorder leaving him with very limited peripheral vision. Despite this, his sense of [...]

Maintaining class participation and engagement poses a unique challenge in teaching online courses at postsecondary institutions. With the distinctive rise of online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a critical need to develop innovative and exciting opportunities in online course concept learning, application, and peer-to-peer engagement. To fulfill this need, I utilized the popular social media app TikTok to help students engage with sociological insights and concepts during course participation activities in two asynchronous, online Sociology of Sex and Gender courses at the University of South Carolina. TikTok is an online-sharing platform that allows users to create short videos with music and visual effects. TikTok can also be a valuable tool for increasing student engagement in online sociology courses. In this article, I describe this teaching activity, present findings of the preliminary teaching evaluation, and discuss the potential impact of using TikTok in online sociology courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Cerebral hypoperfusion has been described in both severe and mild forms of symptomatic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) infection. The purpose of this study was to investigate global and regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) in asymptomatic COVID‐19 patients. Methods: Cases with mild COVID‐19 infection and age‐, sex‐, and race‐matched healthy controls were drawn from the Aging Brain Consortium at The University of South Carolina data repository. Demographics, risk factors, and data from the Montreal Cognitive Assessment were collected. Mean CBF values for gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and the whole brain were calculated by averaging CBF values of standard space‐normalized CBF image values falling within GM and WM masks. Whole brain region of interest‐based analyses were used to create standardized CBF maps and explore differences between groups. Results: Twenty‐eight cases with prior mild COVID‐19 infection were compared with 28 controls. Whole‐brain CBF (46.7 ± 5.6 vs. 49.3 ± 3.7, p =.05) and WM CBF (29.3 ± 2.6 vs. 31.0 ± 1.6, p =.03) were noted to be significantly lower in COVID‐19 cases as compared to controls. Predictive models based on these data predicted COVID‐19 group membership with a high degree of accuracy (85.2%, p <.001), suggesting CBF patterns are an imaging marker of mild COVID‐19 infection. Conclusion: In this study, lower WM CBF, as well as widespread regional CBF changes identified using quantitative MRI, was found in mild COVID‐19 patients. Further studies are needed to determine the reliability of this newly identified COVID‐19 brain imaging marker and determine what drives these CBF changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This invited Team Profile was created by the scientists in the Highly Operational Team (HOT) led by the Shustova group from the University of South Carolina (USA). HOT researchers are located at four universities (the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, the University of Florida, and Chulalongkorn University) and one national laboratory (Savannah River National Laboratory) from two different countries, USA and Thailand. The team recently published an article using the synergy among the HOT participants to reveal the synthetic pathways toward preparation of transuranic heterometallic extended metal–organic materials, providing mechanistic details for their formation, and establishing a structure–property relationship: "f‐block MOFs: A Pathway to Heterometallic Transuranics", K. C. Park, P. Kittikhunnatham, J. Lim, G. C. Thaggard, Y. Liu, C. R. Martin, G. A. Leith, D. J. Toler, A. T. Ta, N. Birkner, I. Lehman‐Andino, A. Hernandez‐Jimenez, G. Morrison, J. W. Amoroso, H.‐C. zur Loye, D. P. DiPrete, M. D. Smith, K. S. Brinkman, S. R. Phillpot, N. B. Shustova, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2023, 62, e202216349. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This invited Team Profile was created by the scientists in the Highly Operational Team (HOT) led by the Shustova group from the University of South Carolina (USA). HOT researchers are located at four universities (the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, the University of Florida, and Chulalongkorn University) and one national laboratory (Savannah River National Laboratory) from two different countries, USA and Thailand. The team recently published an article using the synergy among the HOT participants to reveal the synthetic pathways toward preparation of transuranic heterometallic extended metal–organic materials, providing mechanistic details for their formation, and establishing a structure–property relationship: "f‐block MOFs: A Pathway to Heterometallic Transuranics", K. C. Park, P. Kittikhunnatham, J. Lim, G. C. Thaggard, Y. Liu, C. R. Martin, G. A. Leith, D. J. Toler, A. T. Ta, N. Birkner, I. Lehman‐Andino, A. Hernandez‐Jimenez, G. Morrison, J. W. Amoroso, H.‐C. zur Loye, D. P. DiPrete, M. D. Smith, K. S. Brinkman, S. R. Phillpot, N. B. Shustova, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2023, 62, e202216349. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anxiety levels in medical students have been reported as higher than the aged-matched general population, yet medical students are less likely to seek care for mental health issues. Medical students carry high levels of self-stigma about their own mental health and fear the negative consequences of seeking care. The purpose of this study was to examine the student population at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (UofSC SOMG) for anxiety levels and determine the self-stigma attitudes this population carries. UofSC SOMG students were surveyed using the GAD7, questions about mental health stigma, and open-ended questions on barriers to mental health care in medical students. Anxiety levels were compared to student responses. 31% of students reported moderate-severe anxiety levels. Stigma was the most frequently listed barrier to care, however, students with moderate-severe anxiety were more likely to report cost as a barrier to care than students with minimal anxiety levels. Despite free and accessible mental health care, medical students at UofSC SOMG still have anxiety at rates higher than the general population. Future work should help to provide interventions to the barriers of care, so medical students can better utilize mental health care resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advancing environmental health literacy in support of environmental management requires inclusive science communication, especially with environmental justice communities. In order to understand experiences of environmental practitioners in the realm of science communication, the Center for Oceans and Human Health and Climate Change Interactions at the University of South Carolina conducted two studies on science communication and research translation with the center's researchers and partners. This qualitative case study follows up with a select group of environmental practitioners on emergent themes from the initial work. It explores the specific topics of understanding, trust, and access and how those can become barriers or facilitators of public engagement with environmental activities and decision making. The authors conducted seven in-depth qualitative interviews with center partners whose work focuses on environmental water quality and impacts on human and environmental health. Key results indicate that the public may have limited understanding of scientific processes, establishing trust takes time, and access should be incorporated into the design of programs and activities to ensure broader reach. Findings from this research are relevant to other partner-engaged work and environmental management initiatives and provide insights on experiences, practices, and actions for equitable and effective stakeholder engagement and collaborative partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]