Undergraduate research programs build skills for diverse students

While many professional societies, colleges, and universities offer undergraduate summer research experience (URE) programs for students, few have systematically evaluated their programs for impacts on the fellows. The American Physiological Society (APS) developed and administered multiple UREs with varying target groups: students with and without prior research experiences and students from disadvantaged groups, including underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities (URM), persons with disabilities, first generation college students, and persons with financial or social disadvantages. Each program had specific goals and measurable objectives. To assess the impact of these programs, APS both documented student completion of program tasks (e.g., designing experiments, analyzing data, writing abstracts) and developed reliable and valid survey instruments to quantify students’ self-ratings on a variety of research and career planning skills related to the program objectives. Results indicate that fellows as a whole and for most individual programs gained skills and knowledge in numerous areas: experimental design, data management, lab safety, statistical analysis, data presentation, scientific writing, scientific presentation, professional networking, professional networking at scientific meetings, authorship attribution, animal use in research, human subjects in research, roles of lab mates and mentors, and research career training and planning. Furthermore, there were few differences within the diversity comparison groups (women vs. men, URM fellows vs. non-URM fellows, etc.). Suggestions for improvement of URE programs are proposed.

Trends in the developing Ukrainian non-bank financial service markets assessed using a mixture separation method

Non-bank financial institutions play an important role in the non-bank financial service markets expressed in expanding the access to financial services for individuals and legal entities. The non-bank financial service markets demonstrate their performance peculiarities in the pre-crisis and post-crisis periods that bring up to date the need to form a scientific presentation of their development trends. Therefore, it is necessary to provide scientific background and identify the regress and progress processes in the non-bank financial service markets. The research aim is to develop an analytical approach to determining the peculiarities of the development processes in the non-bank financial service markets. The research assesses the key indicators of the non-bank financial service markets in terms of quantity by dividing a set of values into groups by cluster analysis and multidimensional object clustering by a system of indicators, as well as identifying the progress and regress patterns in the non-bank financial service markets. Achieving the research results requires taking into account the above-mentioned objectives fulfilled in seven stages. The research results reflect the influence on the financial service markets exerted by the governmental regulation policy and the consumer protection level in these markets.

Does sponsorship of electrophysiology and devices presentations alter conflict of interest disclosures?

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Interaction with industry is often required for the development of electrophysiology (EP) and devices research. Findings from industry-funded research are often presented at sponsored sessions during international conferences. However, industry interactions produce potential conflict of interests (COIs). Such COIs must be disclosed appropriately when presenting research findings to allow viewers to interpret the results correctly. This is particularly true during sponsored sessions. Purpose To assess whether session sponsorship affects the presentation of potential COIs in EP and devices presentations. Methods Recorded presentations from the Arrhythmia & Devices section of ESC Annual Congresses 2016-2020 were assessed. Presentations were excluded if the original presentation contained no slides, was a panel discussion, it was a non-scientific presentation, or part of the presentation was missing. Sponsorship information was gathered from presentation meta-data. Chi-squared and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to assess differences between groups for dichotomous and continuous data respectively. Results Of 1,153 presentations assessed, 1,017 were suitable for inclusion. Of these 14% (n = 142) were sponsored sessions. COI disclosure slides were more likely to be missing in sponsored sessions (13.4%, n = 19) compared with non-sponsored sessions (6.2%, n = 54), p = 0.002. In those with COI disclosure slides, sponsored presentations contained a greater median number of COIs (12, IQR 6-19) compared with non-sponsored sessions (1, IQR 0-5), p < 0.0001. Conversely, the time-per-word spent on COI disclosures was approximately 50% lower in sponsored sessions (125ms, IQR 76-217ms) compared with non-sponsored sessions (250ms, IQR 125-375ms), p < 0.0001. Furthermore, presenters at sponsored sessions were much less likely than those at non-sponsored sessions to provide sufficient verbal details of their conflicts (0% vs 8.5% respectively, p = 0.0008). These findings were not materially altered when limited to only those presentations with COIs. Conclusions Sponsored sessions make up about one seventh of all EP/devices presentations at the ESC annual congress. Presenters at sponsored sessions were less likely to present a COI disclosure slide. Sponsored presentations had a higher number or of potential COIs, yet they were displayed for a far shorter time. This suggests that sponsored sessions have a higher risk of potential bias which viewers are not provided sufficient opportunity to assess.

Does industry funding differ between men and women in electrophysiology and devices research?

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background A significant gender bias has been identified in cardiology. Industry funding may be important developing electrophysiology (EP) and devices research. Such funding leads to potential conflicts of interest (COI) which must be disclosed on research presentations. There is limited evidence whether the gender bias in cardiology extends to industry funding of research. Purpose To assess whether COI disclosures in EP and devices presentations at the ESC Annual Congress differ between men and women. Methods Recorded presentations from the Arrhythmia & Devices section of ESC Annual Congresses 2016-2020 were assessed. Presentations were excluded if the original presentation contained no slides, it was a panel discussion, it was a non-scientific presentation, or part of the presentation was missing. Presentations with multiple speakers were also excluded. Chi-squared and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to assess differences between groups for dichotomous and continuous data respectively. Results Of 1,153 presentations assessed, 999 were suitable for inclusion. Women made up 22% (n = 221) of presenters. There was no difference in whether COI declaration slides were missing between women (5.9%, n = 13) and men (7.6%, n = 56), p = 0.38. In those with COI disclosure slides (n = 927), women declared significantly lower median number of COIs (0, IQR 0-3) compared with men (2, IQR 0-8), p < 0.0001. In contrast, women spent a greater time-per-word on their COI disclosure slides (250ms, IQR 125-375ms) compared with men (200ms, IQR 118-333ms), p < 0.0001. Conclusions Women made up a minority of presenters in EP/devices talks at the ESC annual congress. Women were less likely to have COIs which may suggest that they are less likely to receive industry funding. Despite this, women spent a greater amount of time-per-word on their COI slides. The lower number of declared COIs in women highlights another potential area of gender bias in cardiology that needs further investigation so that it can be addressed.

Building sustainable research capacity at higher learning institutions in Tanzania through mentoring of the Young Research Peers

Background Sustainability of research culture in Sub-Saharan Africa is threatened in part by the lack of a critical mass of young researchers with the requisite skills and interest to undertake research careers. This paper describes an intensive mentorship programme combining hierarchical (vertical) and peer-to-peer (horizontal) mentoring strategies among young researchers in a resource limited setting in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods A consortium of three partnering large Tanzanian health training institutions (MUHAS, CUHAS and KCMUCo) and two collaborating US institutions (UCSF and Duke University) was formed as part of the five-year Transforming Health Professions Education in Tanzania (THET) project, funded by the NIH through Health Professional Education Partnership Initiative (HEPI). Within THET, the Community of Young Research Peers (CYRP) was formed, comprising of inter-professional and cross-institutional team of 12 Master-level Young Research Peers and 10 co-opted fellows from the former MEPI-Junior Faculty (MEPI-JF) project. The Young Peers received mentorship from senior researchers from the consortium through mentored research awards and research training, and in turn provided reciprocal peer-to-peer mentorship as well as mentorship to undergraduate students. Results At the end of the first 2 years of the project, all 12 Young Peers were proceeding well with mentored research awards, and some were at more advanced stages. For example, three articles were already published in peer reviewed journals and two other manuscripts were in final stages of preparation. All 12 Young Peers participated in CYRP-wide thematic training workshops on mentoring and secondary data analysis; 11 had undertaken at least three research training short courses in identified areas of need; 9 joined at least one other ongoing research project; 5 made at least one scientific presentation, and 5 participated in at least one submitted grant application. Half of the Young Peers have enrolled in PhD programmes. A collective total of 41 undergraduate students were actively mentored by the Young Peers in research. Conclusion The CYRP has demonstrated to be an effective model for dual vertical and horizontal mentorship in research to young investigators in resource-limited settings. This model is recommended to educators working on developing research competence of early career researchers, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.