Coverage Competence via Collaboration: Overcoming Political Journalism Challenges in Local Television

Recent national media surveys point to relatively high levels of public trust in local political reporting. The problem, however, is that challenges with reporter training and experience mean that local television is not as equipped as it might be to provide quality political coverage. We assess how professional journalists and college students majoring in political science or journalism view their reporting competences. We find mixed results, including lower confidence across all groups in performing data and statistical analysis. These results drive our recommended collaboration strategies for local television newsrooms and university departments to improve training and experiential opportunities.

Synergistic therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment based on nanophototherapy

Treatment of malignant tumors has always been a worldwide challenge. The complexity, diversity, and heterogeneity of tumors have prompted the treatment strategies to gradually shift from monotherapy to combination therapy that can synergize multiple treatment modalities. With unique physical and chemical properties, nanomaterials have been widely used in different cancer therapies, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and phototherapy. Especially, the variability and integrity of nanomaterials make them ideal media for synergistic collaboration strategies. Here, we provide our perspective on the synergistic strategy of nanoplatform-mediated phototherapies and related combination therapies, specifically photochemotherapy, photoradiotherapy, and photoimmunotherapy. Besides, we provide an analysis and outlook on the current challenges faced by synergistic nanophototherapy.

Exploring novice Indian school counsellors’ experiences collaborating with teachers and administrators

Previous studies have shown that collaboration between school counsellors and other stakeholders such as teachers and administrators leads to improved outcomes for students and a better school climate. The current qualitative study explored the experiences and perceptions of novice school counsellors in India regarding collaboration with teachers and administrators. The sample included 11 novice school counsellors working in five different cities who were recruited using purposive sampling. The thematic analysis of the data collected via semistructured interviews revealed six main themes: ‘Counsellors’ perceptions about collaboration’, ‘Collaboration with teachers’, ‘Collaboration with administrators’, ‘Challenges faced during collaboration’, ‘Strategies helpful in collaboration’ and ‘Impact of training’. Implications discussed include the need for school counsellors to advocate for their role, the need for training programs to prepare stakeholders for collaboration, and the need for policies to integrate the role of a school counsellor into schools.

Strategically Addressing the Soft Skills Gap Among STEM Undergraduates

Employers are seeking candidates with uniquely human, or “soft” skills to survive and thrive in their future careers. This article aims to illuminate the soft skills gap of STEM undergraduate students by understanding the soft skills that will be needed in the future of work and the soft skills that students are currently missing. These skills include teamwork, collaboration, leadership, problem-solving, critical thinking, work ethic, persistence, emotional intelligence, organizational skills, creativity, interpersonal communication, and conflict resolution. To address this soft skills gap, this paper also explores various collaboration strategies between employers and academic institutions, such as working jointly on curriculum, raising awareness, establishing leadership support, and building communities of success. These can be implemented to enhance the soft skills capabilities of STEM undergraduate students entering the workforce. This qualitative research examined STEM employers’ perceptions of the most essential soft skills needed and missing among recently hired STEM undergraduates. Findings identified the top ten most in-demand soft skills needed for the next five years with leadership and human-connection on the top of the list. Furthermore, the result of this inquiry indicates that the soft skill gap in current STEM undergraduates is not only evident, but it is steadily increasing. To address this problem, this paper suggests that an ongoing synergy is needed between employers and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to guide students in developing and acquiring these essential skills. This effort will hopefully improve student employability, increase employer outcomes, and ultimately reduce the nationwide soft skills gap. Also, it provides insights into soft skills that organizations and HEIs should invest in the years ahead.

The Geophysical Sustainability Atlas: Mapping geophysics to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Geophysics is enhanced if the value it adds to society, economic systems, and the environment is assessed, understood, and communicated. A clear value proposition can inspire new generations of scientists to pursue careers in geophysics and motivate current geophysicists to expand their activities and utilize their skills in ways that could enable their long-term employability or entrepreneurship. One way to position geophysics and geophysicists as value creators is to map geophysical applications and practices to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. A Geophysical Sustainability Atlas was developed to illustrate how geophysics contributes to each of the SDGs and to provide examples of specific applications and collaboration strategies. The atlas aims to facilitate an understanding of the value geophysics brings toward achieving each SDG, providing geophysicists and stakeholders with a sense of being frontline contributors in the pursuit of these objectives and, at the same time, providing a visualization of current and future opportunities related to the sustainability of our world and our profession.