Cisnormative Language and Erasure of Trans* and Genderqueer Student Representation in Biology Education Research.

Trans* and genderqueer student retention and liberation is integral for equity in undergraduate education. While STEM leadership calls for data-supported systemic change, the erasure and othering of trans* and genderqueer identities in STEM research perpetuates cisnormative narratives. We sought to characterize how sex and gender data are collected, analyzed, and described in biology education research.

Type 2 diabetes pathway-specific polygenic risk scores elucidate heterogeneity in clinical presentation, disease progression and diabetic complications in 18,217 Chinese individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Aims/hypothesis: Type 2 diabetes is a complex and heterogeneous disease and the aetiological components underlying the heterogeneity remain unclear in the Chinese and East Asian population. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether specific pathophysiological pathways drive the clinical heterogeneity in type 2 diabetes.

Methods: We employed newly developed type 2 diabetes hard-clustering and soft-clustering pathway-specific polygenic risk scores (psPRSs) to characterise individual genetic susceptibility to pathophysiological pathways implicated in type 2 diabetes in 18,217 Chinese patients from Hong Kong.

Bilirubin measurements in neonates: uniform neonatal treatment can only be achieved by improved standardization.

Measurement of total bilirubin (TBil) concentration in serum is the gold standard approach for diagnosing neonatal unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia. It is of utmost importance that the measured TBil concentration is sufficiently accurate to prevent under treatment, unnecessary escalation of care, or overtreatment. However, it is widely recognized that TBil measurements urgently require improvement in neonatal clinical chemistry.

Instructional Influencers: Teaching Professors as Potential Departmental Change Agents in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

At many research-intensive universities in North America, there is a disproportionate loss of minoritized undergraduate students from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors. Efforts to confront this diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenge, such as faculty adoption of evidenced-based instructional approaches that promote student success, have been slow. Instructional and pedagogical change efforts at the academic department level have been demonstrated to be effective at enacting reform.

Mentorship for Transfer Student Success in STEM Research: Mentor Approaches and Reflections.

Mentorship has been widely recognized as an effective means to promote student learning and engagement in undergraduate research experiences. However, little work exists for understanding different mentors' perceived approaches to mentorship, including mentorship of students from backgrounds and educational trajectories not well represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Transfer students, in particular, face unique trajectories in their pursuit of research opportunities, yet few studies investigate how mentors describe their approaches to supporting these students.

Variations in Student Approaches to Problem Solving in Undergraduate Biology Education.

Existing research has investigated student problem-solving strategies across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; however, there is limited work in undergraduate biology education on how various aspects that influence learning combine to generate holistic approaches to problem solving. Through the lens of situated cognition, we consider problem solving as a learning phenomenon that involves the interactions between internal cognition of the learner and the external learning environment. Using phenomenography as a methodology, we investigated undergraduate student approaches to problem solving in biology through interviews.

Circulating metabolomic markers linking diabetic kidney disease and incident cardiovascular disease in type 2 diabetes: analyses from the Hong Kong Diabetes Biobank.

Aims/hypothesis: The aim of this study was to describe the metabolome in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and its association with incident CVD in type 2 diabetes, and identify prognostic biomarkers.

Methods: From a prospective cohort of individuals with type 2 diabetes, baseline sera (N=1991) were quantified for 170 metabolites using NMR spectroscopy with median 5.2 years of follow-up.

Augmenting Polymer Datasets by Iterative Rearrangement.

One of the biggest obstacles to successful polymer property prediction is an effective representation that accurately captures the sequence of repeat units in a polymer. Motivated by the success of data augmentation in computer vision and natural language processing, we explore augmenting polymer data by iteratively rearranging the molecular representation while preserving the correct connectivity, revealing additional substructural information that is not present in a single representation. We evaluate the effects of this technique on the performance of machine learning models trained on three polymer datasets and compare them to common molecular representations.

Consensus Statements from the Diabetologists & Endocrinologists Alliance for the Management of People with Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are important, intertwined public health issues. People with both conditions face significantly elevated risks of cardiovascular (CV) and renal complications. To optimize patient care, a multidisciplinary expert panel met to review recent evidence on optimal blood pressure (BP) targets, implications of albuminuria, and treatment regimens for hypertensive patients with T2DM, with the aim of providing recommendations for physicians in Hong Kong.

Variability in Celiac Serology Testing by Provider Type: A Single-Center Experience.

Unlabelled: To evaluate the ordering practices of celiac disease (CD) serologies by providers at a tertiary, academic, Children's Hospital and compare them to guidelines and best practices.

Methods: We analyzed celiac serologies ordered in 2018 by provider type (pediatric gastrointestinal (GI) specialists, primary care providers (PCPs), and nonpediatric GI specialists), and identified causes for variability and nonadherence.

Results: The antitissue transglutaminase antibody (tTG) IgA was ordered (n = 2504) most frequently by gastroenterologists (43%), endocrinologists (22%), and other (35%).

Identification of a Common Variant for Coronary Heart Disease at PDE1A Contributes to Individualized Treatment Goals and Risk Stratification of Cardiovascular Complications in Chinese Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

Objective: In this study we aim to unravel genetic determinants of coronary heart disease (CHD) in type 2 diabetes (T2D) and explore their applications.

Research Design And Methods: We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study for CHD in Chinese patients with T2D (3,596 case and 8,898 control subjects), followed by replications in European patients with T2D (764 case and 4,276 control subjects) and general populations (n = 51,442-547,261). Each identified variant was examined for its association with a wide range of phenotypes and its interactions with glycemic, blood pressure (BP), and lipid controls in incident cardiovascular diseases.

A case study on genomic imprinting facilitates student learning.

Problem-based learning encourages students to deepen their understanding of a concept by working through a real-world example of course content. Case studies represent a form of problem-based learning that engages students in realistic scenarios to achieve a deeper understanding of concepts. Case studies have been shown to facilitate the learning of challenging subject matter.

Identification of Urine Organic Acids for the Detection of Inborn Errors of Metabolism Using Urease and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS).

A patient suspected of an inborn error of metabolism will commonly have urine organic acid analysis performed as part of their workup. The traditional urine organic acid method involves extraction of the acidic fraction from urine samples using an organic solvent, derivatization of extracted compounds, and identification using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Unfortunately, the extraction step results in the loss of many neutral and positively charged compounds which may be of interest to metabolic physicians and biochemical geneticists.

Probing Internal Assumptions of the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

Bloom's taxonomy is a classification of learning objectives originally developed for general educational purposes. The taxonomy was revised to expand beyond cognitive processes and to include knowledge types as an orthogonal dimension. As Bloom's taxonomy is a tool widely used in biology education by researchers and instructors, it is important to examine the underlying assumptions embedded within how people may implicitly understand and use the taxonomy.

Moving towards More Diverse and Welcoming Conference Spaces: Data-Driven Perspectives from Biology Education Research Scholars.

Academic conferences are integral to the dissemination of novel research findings and discussion of pioneering ideas across all postsecondary disciplines. For some participants, these environments are spaces to develop new collaborations, research projects, and social bonds; however, for others, conferences can be a place of marginalization and outright hostility. To assess how diverse individuals experience conference spaces, we interpreted results from a conference climate survey filled out by 198 of 482 registrants of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) West 2021 conference.

Examining the Variations in Undergraduate Students' Conceptions of Successful Researchers: A Phenomenographic Study.

Undergraduate education represents an important transitional stage in which students make career decisions, and undergraduate research experiences (UREs) play a critical role in training the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics researchers. Extensive studies have identified the different ways in which researchers and graduate students understand their profession, but little work has focused on undergraduate students. To contribute to this gap in literature, this study examines how undergraduate students conceptualize successful researchers.

Predicting implementation of active learning by tenure-track teaching faculty using robust cluster analysis.

Background: The University of California system has a novel tenure-track education-focused faculty position called Lecturer with Security of Employment (working titles: Teaching Professor or Professor of Teaching). We focus on the potential difference in implementation of active-learning strategies by faculty type, including tenure-track education-focused faculty, tenure-track research-focused faculty, and non-tenure-track lecturers. In addition, we consider other instructor characteristics (faculty rank, years of teaching, and gender) and classroom characteristics (campus, discipline, and class size).

We Can't Fail Again: Arguments for Professional Development in the Wake of COVID-19.

The majority of academic institutions were underprepared for a global pandemic, leading to spikes in instructor anxiety and drops in student engagement with STEM courses. With many STEM professors teaching online for the first time, they independently sought out training in distance education and inclusive teaching practices. Had institutions been proactive in providing such professional development prior to the pandemic, the negative impacts of transitioning to online education would have been reduced.

Clinical Predictors and Long-term Impact of Acute Kidney Injury on Progression of Diabetic Kidney Disease in Chinese Patients With Type 2 Diabetes.

We aim to assess the long-term impact of acute kidney injury (AKI) on progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and all-cause mortality and investigate determinants of AKI in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). A consecutive cohort of 9,096 Chinese patients with T2D from the Hong Kong Diabetes Register was followed for 12 years (mean ± SD age 57 ± 13.2 years; 46.

Nonalbuminuric Diabetic Kidney Disease and Risk of All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular and Kidney Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes: Findings From the Hong Kong Diabetes Biobank.

Rationale & Objective: Nonalbuminuric diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has become the prevailing DKD phenotype. We compared the risks of adverse outcomes among patients with this phenotype compared with other DKD phenotypes.

Study Design: Multicenter prospective cohort study.

Characterizing Biology Education Research: Perspectives from Practitioners and Scholars in the Field.

Biology education research (BER) is a recently emerging field mainly focused on the learning and teaching of biology in postsecondary education. As BER continues to grow, exploring what goals, questions, and scholarship the field encompasses will provide an opportunity for the community to reflect on what new lines of inquiry could be pursued in the future. There have been top-down approaches at characterizing BER, such as aims and scope provided by professional societies or peer-reviewed journals, and literature analyses with evidence for current and historical research trends.