An Analysis of State-Level Policies and Opioid Overdose Deaths.

Many legislative and regulatory changes have occurred at the state level in response to the opioid crisis in an attempt to decrease overdose deaths. We conducted a negative binomial, regression-based, interrupted time series analysis to evaluate the effects of policies on opioid overdose death counts for 2008-2017 in five Midwestern states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio. Except for the Good Samaritan laws in Illinois, no single policy change was statistically significant in decreasing overdose deaths. Governmental involvement as a whole was significantly associated with an increase in overdose deaths in Indiana. Policies created to address opioid overdose mortality have had minimal impact in these five Midwestern states. Most of the legislation and regulation that have been created lack educational components for prescribers and community members, which may explain why these policies have not had the intended effect.

Calibrated peer review for computer-assisted learning of biological research competencies.

Recently, both science and technology faculty have been recognizing biological research competencies that are valued but rarely assessed. Some of these valued learning outcomes include scientific methods and thinking, critical assessment of primary papers, quantitative reasoning, communication, and putting biological research into a historical and broader social context. This article presents examples of Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) assignments that illustrate a computer-assisted method to help students achieve biological research competencies. A new release of CPR is appropriate for engaging students online in reading and writing about investigations. A participant perception inventory was designed for use as a repeated measure to discriminate among beginning, middle, and ending student perceptions. Examples are provided to demonstrate how to assess student perceptions of what they gain from instruction related to science research competencies. Results suggest that students in a large enrollment class consider CPR to be useful for helping them learn about quantitative and categorical research variables; the use of the experimental method to test ideas; the use of controls; analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data; and how to critically read primary papers.