Associate Professor Research Articles

Perspectives of medical faculty regarding implementation of Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) in Uttarakhand, India

: Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) introduced in 2019, by the National Medical Commission Erstwhile Medical Council of India, involves restructuring the medical training and planning of curriculum and assessment with a focus on developing competent Indian Medical Graduates.: To assess the perception of medical faculties towards the implementation of new Competency-Based Medical Education.: A cross-sectional study was conducted for 1 Month (July 2023). 42 Faculty Members were enrolled in the study after obtaining their informed consent. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire using Google Forms was used to assess the perception of faculty regarding CBME implementation. Data was entered using MS Excel. Statistical analysis was performed using Stata software (version 11.0, Stata, College Station, Texas). Out of 42 Faculty members,16 were Professors and 26 were Associate Professor. The majority (97.6%) of faculty members were trained in medical education training through various workshops. The majority (69%) of faculty members agreed that CBME is essential as per changing time scenario. Although 81% of faculty members were not happy with frequent changes in regulations as released by NMC after the implementation of CBME. The majority (76%) of faculty members also shared that CBME changed their way of Teaching. Faculty members also unanimously shared that faculty and infrastructure recommended by NMC are less and there is a need to revise recommended requirements for effective implementation of CBME. Faculty members unanimously agreed that Competency-Based Medical Education is very much-needed in India as per evolving and challenging healthcare needs across the globe. However, there is a need to revise (increase) recommended manpower, and infrastructure by NMC for the effective implementation of CBME.

Equity Analysis on IT Sector Stocks

The investment in share market is highly rewarding but highly risky. The concept of analysis comes into picture when decision must be made on choosing a particular company's shares for investment. Analysis includes fundamental analysis. Fundamental analysis is a method of forecasting the future price movements of a financial instrument based on economic, political, environmental, and other relevant factors and statistics that will affect the basic supply and demand. This paper examined fundamental analysis of IT sector of the selected companies from the Information Technology sector, since IT sector is one of the most upcoming sectors in the Indian Market Secondary Data of last 5 year (2019-2023). The sample of the stocks for the purpose of collecting secondary data has been selected based on Random Sampling. For analysis the monthly share prices of the last 5 financial years is collected for ten leading IT companies. for the study through fundamental analysis is carried out by tools like Economic analysis, Industrial analysis and Company Analysis Key ratios include ROA, ROI, ROE, EPS, DPS, dividend payout ratio, dividend yield, and P/E ratio. The stocks are chosen in an unbiased manner and each stock is chosen independent of the other stocks chosen. The major findings are all IT sector companies performing very well and their fundamentals are very strong based on P/E ratio, EPS and Payout ratio. It is recommended to the investor that to invest in IT sector company for long term will be benefited. Key Words: IT Sector, Fundamental Analysis, Investment, Equity, Market [1] Student, B. V. Patel Institute of Management, Uka Tarsadia University [2] Associate Professor, B. V. Patel Institute of Management, Uka Tarsadia University

Mental health and positive aging: a positive autoethnographic case study of Joyce Shaffer

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to meet Dr Joyce Shaffer, PhD, ABPP, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington. Design/methodology/approach This case study is presented in two sections: a positive autoethnography written by Joyce Shaffer, followed by her answers to ten questions. Findings In this positive autoethnography, Shaffer shares her life story and reveals numerous mental health and positive aging recommendations and insights for us to reflect on. Research limitations/implications This is a personal narrative, albeit from someone who has been a clinical psychologist and active in the field of aging for many decades. Practical implications A pragmatic approach to aging is recommended. According to Shaffer, “those of us who can recognize the beat of the historical drummer can harvest the best of it and learn from the rest of it.” Social implications Positive aging has strong social implications. Shaffer considers that it is not only about maximizing our own physical, mental, emotional and social health but also about maximizing that of others, to make our world a better place for everyone. Originality/value Positive aging can be experienced despite adversity. As Shaffer says, “Adversity used for growth and healed by love is the answer.”

The time is now: Increasing competitive integrated employment opportunities for all Americans with disabilities

We are pleased to share with you an important written testimony submitted for Senator Bob Casey’s Hearing in the U.S. Senate on “All Means All: Empowering People with Disabilities in Careers and in the Workplace.” This testimony was provided by Dr. Lauren Avellone, Associate Professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University –Rehabilitation Research and Training Center. This testimony took place on Thursday February 29, 2024. Her testimony focused on the positive impact of competitive integrated employment on people with high support needs working within the United States, the need to eliminate 14c certificates which enable subminimum wages to be paid to people with disabilities, and solutions for achieving greater employment outcomes for all people with disabilities who would like to obtain employment. Statement from Dr. Paul Wehman, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation

Professor Carla Bottoli, an enthusiastic scientific researcher, kindly spoke to BrJAC

Carla Beatriz Grespan Bottoli holds a degree in Industrial Chemistry from the Federal University of Santa Maria (1996), as well as a Ph.D. in Chemistry (2002), and a postdoctoral degree in Chemistry (2002-2004), both from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). In 2005, she undertook an internship at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) to study radiolysis in vitamins using gamma radiation from a source of Cobalt 60. In 2017, she presented her habilitation thesis (associate professor's thesis) at Unicamp. Currently, she is Associate Professor and Postgraduate Advisor at the Institute of Chemistry at Unicamp (IQ-Unicamp), where she works in the area of analytical chemistry, with emphasis on separation methods, mainly liquid chromatography. Prof. Bottoli coordinates the NovaCrom – Liquid Chromatography Laboratory (https://novacromlab.wixsite.com/novacrom), which is a research group that has been working on the development of new monolithic stationary phases for capillary liquid chromatography. Research is also focused on the development of analytical methods that employ liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry to study the translocation of pesticides in plants such as coconut, palm, and soybean. Between 2019 and 2021, Prof. Bottoli was an associate coordinator of the Research Commission of the IQ-Unicamp and is currently a member of the Research Integrity Commission at Unicamp. She is a member of the Brazilian Chemical Society and a researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology in Bioanalytics (INCTBio). Carla Bottoli is the mother of Murilo, 13 and Mateus, 10.

Life is Too Short to Be Serious All the Time

In this food for thought article, we introduce the ‘Donald Duck Phenomenon’ to consider ten of the more unconventional reasons for publishing in academia. These include (i) symbolic immortality, (ii) personal satisfaction, (iii) a sense of pride, (iv) serious leisure, (v) cause credibility, (vi) altruism, (vii) collaboration with a friend or family member, (viii) collaboration with a hero, (ix) conflict or revenge, and (x) for amusement. The article was inspired by the lead author’s social media search for a co-author with the surname ‘Duck’. Through LinkedIn, the lead author, Associate Professor William E. Donald, who is based in the UK and specialises in Sustainable Careers and Human Resource Management, found a collaborator, Dr Nicholas Duck, who is based in Australia and specialises in Organisational Psychology. While the collaboration may appear to be somewhat ‘quackers’, per one of Donald Duck’s famous phrases “Life is too short to be serious all the time, so if you can’t laugh at yourself then call me… I’ll laugh at you, for you”. We hope that this article offers some interesting insights and acts as a way to stimulate conversation around unconventional reasons for publishing in academia.

Perceptions of Teaching Importance Among Associate and Full Professors at Regional, Public Universities

Background: Research on perceptions of the promotion process among psychology faculty at teaching-intensive institutions is missing. Objective: We examine whether perceptions vary by academic rank and faculty gender. Method: We surveyed 386 associate and full psychology professors at regional, public universities in the United States to measure perceptions of (1) the importance of effective teaching, scholarly productivity, and service activities and (2) the clarity of the criteria and standards, for promotion from associate to full professor. Results: Teaching was regarded as the most important criterion for promotion to full professor. However, full professors regarded teaching as more important than did associate professors. Perceived teaching importance was positively correlated with perceived clarity of criteria and standards for promotion. Women regarded promotion criteria as less clear than men. Mentoring was positively correlated with the intention to apply for promotion. Conclusion: Faculty who perceive that their institution strongly values teaching perceive greater clarity regarding the relative importance of teaching, research, and service for promotion, as well as how excellence in these areas is judged. Teaching Implications: Teaching is the most important criterion for promotion to full professor among faculty at regional public universities.

The people behind the papers - Gabriela Krejčová and Adam Bajgar.

Macrophages maintain tissue homeostasis by removing old, damaged and apoptotic cells. During metamorphosis, the fruit fly larval fat body undergoes cell death and is eventually replaced by the adult fat body. In a new study, Adam Bajgar and colleagues find that macrophages convert dying larval adipocytes into nutrients to be utilised by other tissues during post-metamorphic development. To find out more about the story behind the paper, we caught up with first author Gabriela Krejčová and corresponding author Adam Bajgar, Associate Professor at the University of South Bohemia.

Steel Structures Research Update: Innovative Steel Deck System for Highway Bridge Applications

Ongoing research on innovative steel bridge decks is highlighted. This study, currently under way at the University of Kansas, is led by Dr. William Collins, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering. Dr. Collins’s research interests include fatigue and fracture of metallic structures; bridge design, fabrication, construction, and performance; and evaluation and preservation of historic structures. Among Dr. Collins’s accolades are the Robert J. Dexter Memorial Award, a Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct fracture mechanics research in Finland, and the AISC Milek Fellowship. The four-year Milek Fellowship is supporting this research on innovative steel deck systems for highway bridge applications—the first Milek Fellowship project to focus on bridges. Selected highlights from the work to date are presented, along with a preview of future research tasks.

Data Science Has Exploded Across the Industry Over the Past 75 Years

In 1957, the Journal of Petroleum Technology published an article titled “Application of Large Computers to Reservoir Engineering Problems.” That was the first reference in JPT to what became known as supercomputers. The high-speed computers used in the 1957 article were capable of performing 60 million operations in about 3½ hours. They were proposed to analyze the thorny problem of multiphase flow. “It presently appears that the large computer will be required to investigate multiphase flow and to predict the flow behavior of oil and gas reservoirs considering two- and three-space dimensions.” Now, 67 years later, supercomputer speeds are measured in trillions of operations per second, and investigating multiphase flow is just one of the many uses. This extreme growth in speed has given rise to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), which has found its way into almost every corner of the petroleum industry. The Society of Petroleum Engineers and JPT has kept up with the digital advances in the industry, holding countless conferences, symposia, and other meetings centered on the digital aspects of the industry and recently creating the Data Science and Engineering Analytics (DSEA) technical discipline. In 2019, SPE launched the Data Science and Digital Engineering in Upstream Oil and Gas online publication. Four leaders in the oil and gas digital space shared their views on the current state of data science in the industry and the future of the discipline. Sushma Bhan, currently on the board of directors for Ikon Science, is SPE’s Technical Director for DSEA. Before joining Ikon, she worked for Shell for 32 years, eventually rising to the role of chief data officer for subsurface and wells. “My journey in the oil and gas industry began in 1988, when I joined Shell’s Production Computing Assisted Operations team as a programmer analyst,” Bhan said. “During my time there, I gained valuable exposure to field production operations and developed a deep understanding of real‑time data.” Jim Crompton, who claims he is mostly retired, is an associate professor of petroleum engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, a faculty fellow at the school’s Payne Institute for Public Policy, and director of Reflections Data Consulting. “My academic career started out in exploration geophysics, so my first introduction to engineering analytics came from processing seismic data at Chevron Geophysical Company in Houston,” Crompton said. “I studied earthquake seismology in graduate school, but, when I graduated, I learned the oil and gas industry paid a lot more than the USGS did, so my career goals changed.” Shahab D. Mohaghegh is a professor at West Virginia University and the president of Intelligent Solutions. “Since I started working for the petroleum industry throughout the world using artificial intelligence in 2000, I was able to work with actual data (field measurements) that has been saved by all the companies,” Mohaghegh said. “Working with actual data using AI provided several technologies that have been incredibly fantastic compared to what we have done in the past.” Pushpesh Sharma, the chair of the DSEA Technical Section, holds a PhD degree in chemical engineering from the University of Houston and is senior product manager for Aspen Technology. “Till a few years ago, the focus was on proving the efficacy of data science/machine learning methods for energy use cases,” Sharma said. “However, in recent years, the concerns are around large-scale deployment, maintenance, and the black‑box nature of ML models. Because of that, I started seeing increased focus on the deployment, explainability, and trust of ML models.”

«Он видел особую миссию русского народа». Почему философ Владимир Соловьев считал, что Россия объединит все человечество?

The conversation of the correspondent of “Lenta.ru” within the framework of the History of Russian Thought project, with Boris Mezhuyev, Associate Professor of the Department of History of Russian Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of Lomonosov Moscow State University, devoted to the modern significance of V. Solovyov's philosophy of unity, his social mission, as well as about the complex aspects of his religious worldview, which have recently caused acute controversy. It is reported that V. Solovyov managed to create a philosophical system that meets the deep features of the national consciousness, that he tried to give Christianity a kind of social mission and, on the other hand, point out that the main problems of humanity will not be solved if it rejects the Gospels and leaves the church. The conversation emphasizes that Vladimir Solovyov remained the number one thinker in Russia for his contemporaries throughout almost his entire life. And he strengthened his status as a prophet by predicting the coming unification of Europe, the power of China and even the confrontation of Western countries with the Islamic world. It is argued that the philosopher saw the future of humanity in the unification of all Christians, which would end the wars that were inevitable until then. And Russia and the Russian people, with their idea of self-denial and striving for integrity, had to play a key role in this unification. The conversation also tells how Solovyov explained the contradictions of the West and the East and how he saw the future of the Russian people.

Soul with beautiful and amazing creatures (to commemorate Nadezhda Petrovna Savchenko's 80th birthday and 50th anniversary of her scientific and educational endeavors)

Nadezhda Petrovna Slavchenko, a soil zoologist, spent forty years of her life and career as a teache r and scientist at the Karaganda Pedagogical Institute, Karaganda University, and the Department of Zoology. The process of educating scientific and pedagogical staff of the greatest educational institution in Central Kazakhstan is depicted retrospectively on the example of the creative fate of a professional biologist. It was difficult to go from being an assistant to the department chair and a prominent associate professor, but it was made possible by senior colleagues' encouragement and the direction of the newly established University of Karaganda. Soil zoology specialization led to contacts with renowned scientists and great individuals, as well as a fantastic unexplored world. The sole stationary soil-zoological research of invertebrate creatures conducted in Central Kazakhstan by N.P. Slavchenko soil organisms contributed to a better understanding of the relict nature of the Pleistocene island forests' faunistic complex inside the folded nation of Kazakhstan. Invertebrate representatives from over 200 species and 57 families were described; some were reported for the first time for the Sary-Arka or Kazakhstan region. The post-glacial fauna's migration paths were taken into consideration. N.P. Slavchenko's students went on to become naturalists and professors, defended scientific theses, and maintained a passion for zoological study.

Биологично производство – ефективност и ефикасност в контекста на агроекологията

Over the past 70 years, farming in Europe has changed thanks to policies, technologies and practices that aimed to ensure a stable supply of food at affordable prices. But this success was achieved at the cost of an increasingly deteriorating environment. It is therefore important to highlight the potential of more sustainable alternatives. Organic farming (OF) is an integral part and instrument of the state policy in the field of agriculture in terms of sustainable management of natural resources, compliance with high standards for food quality and safety, and animal welfare. At the same time, OF contributes to the development of viable rural areas. That is why it is a key priority in the agricultural development policy in the EU and in the Republic of Bulgaria and one of the highlights of the CAP for the next program period. Organic production benefits nature and society as a production system that contributes to the reduction of air, soil and water pollution; to increase biodiversity, strengthen the sustainability of agriculture, to ensure healthy food and clean nature for current and future generations, and as such it organically fits into the requirements of the new CAP. The research aims to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of organic production in our country, in the context of the changes, development and dimensions that the implementation of the CAP has on agriculture and more specifically on agroecology. For the purposes of the study, data for the efficiency are compared for Bulgaria and on average for the European Union, by calculating the efficiency coefficient of OF. The calculation of the coefficients of efficiency and effectiveness is done in a way borrowed from Ivanov (Bachev et al., 2020), and the efficiency is considered in relation to the role of the provided compensatory payments (subsidies) in the sector by year. The years from 2010 to 2019 were mainly tracked, and for some of the indicators, data up to 2020 was used. The study is based on and is part of the work on the research project “Perspectives for Bulgarian agriculture and rural areas in the context of CAP 2021 – 2027 and the EU Recovery Plan”, developed by a team led by associate professor Bozhidar Ivanov, IAE, Agricultural Academy – Sofia in 2021 – 2022. The research used the methodology developed for the purposes of the above-mentioned project, using a corresponding algorithm, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, literature research, comparative, institutional and multi-criteria analysis, method of groupings, value-measurement and qualitative analysis, method of relative comparative assessment, indicator method, including efficiency and effectiveness coefficients (Ivanov et al., 2023). The current research establishes that organic production in our country has a changing performance during the period 2010 – 2019. Efficiency – increasing in almost all indicators until 2014 – 2017, and decreasing thereafter. This is calculated on the basis of public support for the sector and shows that support plays an essential role in the development and effectiveness of OF, but also that the change of the funds spent is not always synchronized and in accordance with the expected and obtained results, like a number of others factors also have their important role in increasing the efficiency of the sector. The efficiency of the OF sector is relatively low, although it shows an upward trend (starting, however, from a low base). The share of OF in UAA is still small and there is a need for further support and promotion of OF in our country in order to increase this share and reach the EU average level. The compensatory support per ha and animal, in combination with the provided priority support for investment measures and the higher intensity of financial support are an incentive for farmers to switch to organic production, as a result of which both the areas in the control system and the number of organic producers grew many times in the studied period.

Editorial

Dear Readers, It gives me great pleasure to announce the third regular issue of 2024. In this issue, 6 papers by 20 authors from 6 countries - China, Ecuador, Spain, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom - cover various topical aspects of computer science. In a continuous effort to further strengthen our journal, I would like to expand the editorial board: If you are a tenured associate professor or above with a strong publication record, you are welcome to apply to join our editorial board. We are also interested in high-quality proposals for special issues on new topics and trends.  As always, I would like to thank all the authors for their sound research and the editorial board for their extremely valuable review effort and suggestions for improvement. I also want to thank the readers for their interest on our articles indicated by an increasing access number and PDF downloads. These contributions, together with the generous support of the consortium members, sustain the quality of our journal.  In the third regular issue, I am very pleased to introduce the following 6 accepted articles: In a collaboration between researchers from The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, Jan Bergstra and John V. Tucker discuss their research on synthetic fracterm calculus, more specifically they introduce a new intermediate and informal axiomatisation of elementary arithmetic. Yasir Yakup Demircan and Serhat Ozekes from Turkey highlight their research on least significant bit steganography technique based on image segmentation. In a collaborative research effort between Spain and Ecuador, Alberto Jimenez-Macias, Pedro Muñoz-Merino, Margarita Ortiz-Rojas, Mario Muñoz-Organero, and Carlos Delgado-Kloos present their study on a systematic literature review on content modeling using machine learning algorithms in smart learning environments considering content indicators based on student interaction. Melih Kuncan, Kaplan Kaplan, Yılmaz Kaya, Mehmet Recep Minaz, and H. Metin Ertunç from Turkey focus on computer numerical control (CNC) systems, more specifically on classification of CNC vibration speeds by Heralick features. Lifang Ren, Jing Li, and Wenjian Wang from China address in their research support vector regression (SVR) and the location-aware method for mobile QoS prediction to overcome the difficulty caused by the sparsity of data and to predict the unknown QoS more accurately. Last but not least, Emre Sadıkoğlu, İrfan Kösesoy, and Murat Gök from Turkey look into the vulnerability of artificial systems to cyber-attacks by applying a gradient descent-based method to generate fake data. Enjoy Reading! Cordially,  Christian Gütl, Managing Editor-in-Chief Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

Abstracts From the First Annual Research Day Hosted by the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Novi, Michigan, May 15, 2023.

The Spartan Medical Research Journal (SMRJ) is pleased to publish abstracts from the First Annual Research Day hosted by the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSUCOM), held in Novi, Michigan, on May 15, 2023. Sponsored by MSUCOM, the Statewide Campus System (SCS), and Research, Innovation, and Scholarly Engagement (RISE), this event showcased a total of 139 selected research abstracts following a meticulous blinded review by the MSUCOM Research Day Planning Committee and SMRJ editorial staff. These abstracts were subsequently presented at the MSUCOM First Annual Research Day in 2023, with awards for exceptional oral and poster presentations conferred on May 15, 2023. Of the 139 presentations that were ultimately chosen, 45 authors consented and elected to have their abstracts published in SMRJ. The abstracts from 2023 encompass a wide array of contemporary medical and clinical subjects, incorporating a variety of research designs that cover basic science, clinical research, case reports, medical education, and quality improvement. While abstracts offer concise overview of research projects or presentations, they do not permit a comprehensive evaluation of the scientific rigor employed in the respective works. Although these abstracts offer preliminary results that may necessitate further refinement and validation, they serve a vital function in disseminating novel research concepts and advancements in the discipline of medicine. This knowledge-sharing promotes meaningful dialogue among researchers, clinicians, and educators, thereby making a valuable contribution to the collective body of knowledge in the fields of medical sciences and osteopathic medicine. Andrea Amalfitano, DO, PhD Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Professor, BioMolecular Science Gateway Editor-in-Chief, Spartan Medical Research Journal (SMRJ) MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine- Statewide Campus System C. Patricia Obando S., PhD Associate Dean and DIO, Graduate Medical Education Associate Professor- MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine- Statewide Campus System Rana Ismail, PhD, MSc, CPHQ Director of Research Editor, Spartan Medical Research Journal (SMRJ) MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine- Statewide Campus System Francis Akenami, BMLS, PhD, MSc, FIMLS Managing Editor Spartan Medical Research Journal (SMRJ) MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine- Statewide Campus System

“All we do has humans at its heart”: Linguistic Landscape’s Value in Scholarship and Pedagogy

Four prominent Linguistic Landscape (LL) scholars reflect on the value of LL research and its utility in education. Elana Shohamy is a Professor Emerita in the Multilingual Education program at Tel Aviv University. She has carried out extensive research on language policy, language testing, and LL, with a recent focus on injustices in the public space. David Malinowski is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Language Development at San José State University. His recent work focuses on education, language pedagogy and learning, and intersections between these areas and LL. Amiena Peck is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Linguistics at the University of the Western Cape. She has led innovative research in skinscapes, with a recent focus on autoethnography. Robert Blackwood is a Professor of French Sociolinguistics at the University of Liverpool. His recent work examines processes of memorialization in postcolonial Africa.

Lack of Diversity in Transplant Hepatology Fellowship Program Directorship.

Diversity in medicine has garnered significant attention in recent medical workforce research, as studies consistently reveal the beneficial impact of race-concordant visits on patient outcomes, adherence, and satisfaction. While diversity among residency and fellowship program directors has been studied in other fields, little is known about the diversity within niche fellowship programs such as transplant hepatology. This study aims to investigate the demographic information of program directors in transplant hepatology fellowship programs. We identified transplant hepatology fellowship programs and their program directors from the American College of Gastroenterology website. Multiple reviewers compiled demographic and training information from internet searches, which was analyzed using chi-square analysis. In assessing racial diversity, researchers identified perceived race using multiple indicators, including name, physical appearance, and affiliation with identity associations. Our study analyzed data from 72 program directors, with 61.11% being male. Among the program directors, 55.6% appeared non-Hispanic White, 36.11% appeared Asian, while apparent Hispanics and Blacks represented 5.56% and 4.17%, respectively. Our analysis also found that male program directors appeared largely non-Hispanic white (72.72%) and were significantly more likely to be professors (p = 0.045) rather than associate or assistant professors. Our findings indicate that transplant hepatology fellowship programs are primarily led by male and non-Hispanic White physicians. To attract underrepresented medical students and residents, it is critical to make meaningful efforts to improve diversity and ensure equitable representation of leaders. Future research should focus on developing strategies to build a more inclusive workforce while addressing existing leadership inequities.

Identification and analysis of e-Learning development components and validation of e-LDC questionnaire based on four-lens model

The development of e-learning in recent decades is one of the main policies of higher education administrators, but it requires the identification of development requirements and infrastructure. The aim of this study was to achieve two objectives: identifying the components of e-learning development (e-LDC) and validation of the eLDC tools. The study was conducted in 2020 on 156 faculty members of the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The research utilized random sampling through email and e-questionnaires. The research tool employed was a valid questionnaire based on a four-dimensional model . The research tool was a valid questionnaire based on the four-dimensional model (Bolman and Deal, 2003) with 32 items in four components: human resource (9), structural (8), political (6) and symbolic (9). The validity of the instrument was confirmed by CVI = 0.914, CVR = 0.83 and Cronbach’s-alpha of 0.969. 18 (11.5%) were instructors, 80 (51.3%) were assistant professors, 39 (25%) were associate professors, and 19 (12.2%) were professors. In the factor analysis test, KMO = 0.944 and the significance of Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity with ( p < 0.0001) confirmed the adequacy of the sample and the appropriateness of the test. According to the Scree Polt diagram and the variance explained, the four factors are cultural, structural, political, and manpower, respectively, influencing the development of e-learning. The explained common value of all items was more than 0.5 and the fit of the questionnaire at the special point was 67.12%. The development of e-learning in the universities requires a comprehensive view on the provision of infrastructure and e-learning requirements. But cultural development and modification of faculty members’ beliefs in e-learning is the most important factor and can be effective in the development of other factors.

Identifying the prevalence and characteristics of diversity, equity, and inclusion leaders in academic emergency medicine.

Our study aims to better understand and describe the current state of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leadership in emergency medicine (EM) by identifying the prevalence of department DEI leadership positions, their demographics, and their job duty characteristics. We disseminated an electronic survey from April to July 2022 to Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine, Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine, and the Equity and Inclusion Committee to identify department DEI leads. From July to August 2022, a 45-question survey was sent to all identified DEI leaders on individual characteristics, DEI experience, and DEI lead job description. We received a response from 79 out of 120 academic EM departments identified (65.8%). Of the responding institutions, 59 (74.7%) reported a DEI leader. A total of 74.6% of these DEI leaders responded at least partially to our survey and 57.6% responded in full. The most common titles were vice/associate chair of DEI (34.4%), director of DEI (28.1%), and DEI committee chair (18.8%). Most respondents (84.4%) were the inaugural DEI lead in their department and 84.4% of respondents did not have a formal DEI role in their department previously. On average, respondents have had their DEI title for 2 years (range 0-7 years) with an average of 7 years (range 0-30 years) of experience performing DEI work. Many (63.4%) do not receive any funded effort for their DEI roles. Most DEI leads were not tenure track (72.2%) and most commonly at the rank of assistant professor (47.2%) followed by associate professor (33.3%), full professor (16.7%), and instructor (2.8%). This is the first known study to assess the characteristics of DEI department leaders in EM. EM DEI leadership positions are new, common, and led by diverse personal identities and are often not funded. Future directions could gain qualitative insight into this workforce to guide best practices in EM DEI leadership.

CSI Launches Autism Mentorship STEM Program

As the academic year got underway, Dr. Kristen Gillespie‐Lynch launched Making Mentors: Enhancing Access to STEM Careers for Autistic Youth through Mentorship Programs and Makerspaces. Gillespie‐Lynch, Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of Project REACH at the College of Staten Island (CSI), is partnering with the Education Development Center (EDC) and New York University's (NYU) Maker Program on this project, which is funded by a $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).