St. Catherine University (St. Kate's) is a private Catholic liberal arts university in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was established as one of the first institutions of higher learning specifically for women in the Midwest and was known as the College of St. Catherine until 2009. Today, St. Kate's offers baccalaureate programs for women, plus graduate and associate programs for women and men.The university averages about 5,000 students annually. It focuses on recruiting and enrolling minority students and non-traditional aged students. St. Catherine's Weekend College — now College for Adults — was the second such program in the nation and the first in the Upper Midwest. St. Kate's was also the first private college in the nation to launch an effort to attract, welcome, and retain Hmong students, making it home to one of the largest populations of Hmong scholars in the nation. St. St.St.St.St.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has been a viable technology for decades, yet widespread adoption in healthcare and academic settings has remained limited to research. One possible explanation for this is limited understanding about the beliefs around GenAI use amongst faculty and students training in biomedical disciplines that frequently lead to non-physician healthcare careers, including physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), allied health (AH), and biomedical engineering (BME). Furthermore, no known studies exist assessing differences that may exist across those disciplines. Given the significant number of professionals in those disciplines and the outsized impact they have on the healthcare system, investigating their beliefs around GenAI use is vital before widespread adoption. Accordingly, we investigated the perceptions of GenAI among students and faculty in the aforementioned fields that frequently lead to careers in healthcare. We found that knowledge of GenAI significantly influences comfort with its use completing college coursework including whether respondents believed it contributed to the process of completing that coursework and whether use of GenAI enhances learning. Interestingly, however, there were no statistically significant differences in perceptions of GenAI across disciplines, roles, or institution sizes. Qualitative findings revealed concerns about plagiarism, decline of critical thinking skills, and ethical challenges, while also recognizing GenAI's potential to enhance learning efficiency and idea generation. Critically, the study results emphasize the need for proper training and guidelines to ensure GenAI is integrated responsibly into healthcare-related education.
The research in this article examines a "Data Fest" approach that combines big data and social issues with a collaborative and community-engaged event. The authors describe Data Fest and present quantitative and qualitative analyses from three years of pre- and post-survey data collected at Data Fest events. Changes from pre- to post-surveys suggest Data Fest was associated with increased economic analysis skills, an increased sense that econometrics was relevant to real-world issues, a greater growth (rather than fixed) mindset toward learning economics, and enhanced confidence. Student narratives illustrate the importance of a fun and supportive environment as well as the accountability to a community stakeholder.
The well-being of university students is deteriorating, highlighting the need for accessible, non-stigmatizing supports beyond clinical care. Positive psychology (PP) interventions have shown strong potential for improving mental well-being, yet they remain largely underutilized in Nigerian universities. This pilot study evaluated the impact of an eight-week education and intervention incorporating acts of kindness, gratitude, positive reframing, and character strengths in improving subjective well-being among university students in Nigeria. Students were assigned randomly to an education + PP group or an education-only control group and assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Independent-samples t-tests were used to examine group differences in outcomes, while mixed-design ANOVA models assessed the effects of group and time. Compared with controls, the intervention group showed significantly higher mental well-being, positive affect, and resilience, with moderate to large effects. While significant main effects emerged across outcomes, time-by-group interactions were observed only for positive affect and resilience. Given rising psychological distress among Nigerian university students, these preliminary results showed that brief, strengths-based PP exercises can meaningfully improve students’ subjective well-being. They can serve as low-cost, non-stigmatizing additions to university mental health services and a scalable complement to traditional care in low-resource settings.
Polymorphic behavior has significant consequences in solid-state properties relevant to functional materials and pharmaceutical applications. This study reports the single-crystal X-ray structure of a new third unique polymorph of the photoluminescent compound [Cu(dmp)2](BF4) (dmp = 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline). A detailed analysis of how this new polymorph compares with the two previously reported polymorphs was carried out including intramolecular metrics (τ4, twisting, flattening, rocking measures) and intermolecular differences (π-stacking, Hirshfeld surfaces). The new polymorph reported here has larger twisting and flattening distortions from an idealized tetrahedral geometry and the largest displacement of Cu from one dmp plane than the other polymorphs. This new polymorph also exhibits enhanced π-stacking that leads to more dense packing than previous reported polymorphs. Hirshfeld surface comparisons are consistent with a larger percentage of C…C short contacts and lower percentage of C…H contacts present in this new polymorph. The variability of intra- and intermolecular differences within this family of three polymorphs compared demonstrates the large degree of flexibility of both the coordination sphere and packing, even with the expected rigid planar bis-bidentate dmp binding to copper. As the polymorphs each show unique inter- and intramolecular features, differences in solid-state properties including solid-state photoluminescence are expected. This demonstrates the importance of phase purity in the construction of solid-state device applications.
Quantitative appreciation of electronic substituent effects is beneficial across the chemical sciences, from reaction kinetics and catalysis to functional materials design and enzymatic processes. While Hammett parameters (σ constants) constitute the most widely invoked paradigm, their determination for structurally complex functional groups is often impractical by traditional empirical means. Herein, we demonstrate that the reversible one-step, 2-e- reduction of linearly functionalized 1,1',3,3'-tetraethoxycarbonyl-6,6'-biazulene provides a simple electrochemical readout of effective Hammett constants. By design, the values obtained align closely with the conventional σ p descriptors pertaining to benzenoid systems. This approach not only helps reevaluate previously reported Hammett values but also quantifies the role of intramolecular hydrogen bonding (e.g., C[double bond, length as m-dash]O⋯H-S) and enables determining effective σ constants (σ eff) for "designer" functional groups, such as -SAuPPh3 and -NCCr(CO)5. Moreover, the long-range net electron donor/acceptor influence of the substituents -S-, -SAuPPh3, -SH, -SCH2CH2CO2CH2CH3, and -NCCr(CO)5 on the [(-NC)Cr(CO)5] 13C NMR reporter across the 6,6'-biazulenic π-linker was unveiled through inverse-linear δ(13 COtrans) vs. δ(13 CN) and δ(13 COcis) vs. δ(13 CN) correlations. The π-communication along the molecular axis of the 6,6'-biazulenic scaffold was further confirmed via Reflection-Absorption Infrared (RAIR) spectroscopic analysis of [(OC)5Cr(η1-2-isocyano-2'-mercapto-1,1',3,3'-tetraethoxycarbonyl-6,6'-biazulene)] self-assembled on the Au(111) surface. By uniting redox tunability with rigorous linear free-energy correlations, this work offers both a versatile molecular platform and a straightforward electrochemical strategy for expanding and refining the Hammett parameter domain.
