The Zone of Proximal Self Model to Improve Equity in Higher Education

This paper introduces a sociocultural framework called the zone of proximal self to reimagine how higher education institutions can support students from first-generation, low-income, and marginalized backgrounds. Employing mixed-method approaches, we analyze diary entries, surveys, and interviews of 50 students who met with a counselor/advisor during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thematic qualitative analyses reveal a model of effective practices characterized by creating a brave space, validation, and strengthening students' social-emotional competencies in culturally mindful ways. Case examples highlight features of this model including building working partnerships, understanding students' cultural backgrounds, validating students' experiences, and organizational brokering. Results from multiple linear regression models suggest that students, on average, have higher growth towards their professional and personal goals when exposed to more of these model practices. Taken together, the findings call for future research directions and designs of learning environments to consider cultural, relational, and social-emotional interactions in improving equity in higher education. © ISLS.

Understanding the United States' 50 most populous counties' COVID-19 healthcare outcomes through multiple regression across the Delta variant and Omicron variant times of dominance

As new variants of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continuously evolve and mutate, it is vital to understand how novel and emerging variants affect public health outcomes. Our understanding of COVID-19 can have significant impacts on how we approach measures to mitigate the virus's deleterious effects on the world Therefore, in this study, we aim to 1) quantify the relationships between county-characteristics, such as the proportion of residents vaccinated, and certain countylevel health outcomes related to COVID-19 such as: case counts, death counts, positivity rates, infection rates, ICU occupancy levels, hospitalizations, and the proportion of ICU admissions due to COVID-19. We also aim to 2) compare these relationships across three different time periods - two periods where Delia was the dominant strain of the U.S. and one period where Omicron was the dominant strain ofthe U.S. In this study, we used multiple regression to measure the strength of relationships between healthcare outcomes and county characteristics from June 20, 2021 to March 19, 2022, which span across three time periods. The first two time periods, June 20, 2021 to September 18, 2021 and September 19, 2021 to December 18, 2021, are when Delia was dominant (> 50% of cases) in the U.S. and the thirdperiod, December 19, 2021 to March 19, 2022, is during Omicron's dominance (up to March 19, 2022).

Effect of surgical and N95 facial masks on exercise tolerance, heart rate, respiratory rate and blood oxygen saturation

Background - Although wearing masks is inevitable these days, the effects of wearing them on physiologic parameters have not been reported. This study aimed to assess the effects of wearing no mask, a three-layer standard surgical mask, and wearing an N95 mask on blood oxygen saturation, aerobic tolerance, and performance during exercise. Methods - Twenty-one participants were enrolled in the study. Each participant was monitored with electrocardiography (ECG) while performing an exercise tolerance test using the Bruce treadmill protocol. Testing was conducted three times on different dates. Participants did not use any mask in the first test but did wear surgical and N95 masks during the second and third tests respectively. Respiratory rate (RR) was assessed for 10 seconds and then multiplied by 6. Heart rate (HR) was monitored by ECG, and oxygen saturation levels were monitored (O2Sat) via digital pulse-oximetry. Assessments were done before warm-up, at the middle and end of each Bruce stage, and as well at 1, 2, and 5 minutes into recovery (masks were worn during recovery). Results - HR, RR, and O2Sat measured data were all significantly different between the three trials at end-stage 3 of Bruce treadmill protocol (p<0.05). Although HR was still higher through the recovery period in the N95 trial in comparison with other trials (p<0.05), RR and O2Sat measured data were not different in the recovery phase. Conclusion - HR, RR, O2Sat and exercise tolerance are significantly affected by wearing surgical and N95 masks.