Summary This study examined how triploidization and species hybridization affects skeletal related meristic characteristics in salmonids with the goal of understanding the maternal and paternal contribution. The study also investigated the hybrid sea louse infection rate in hybrid salmonids. In order to do so, a number of vertebrae, scales along the lateral line, and dorsal fin rays were measured in diploid and triploid Atlantic salmon, Arctic char, and Atlantic salmon (female) X Arctic char (male) hybrids. The success of triploidization was 100%, and some spontaneous triploid individuals (~15%) were found among the hybrids. In general, hybrids displayed intermediate counts for all three characteristics with salmon displaying the highest number of dorsal fin rays, and char displaying the highest number of scales and vertebrae. The effect of triploidization was always strongest among the hybrids. However, the direction of the effect differed between structures in the hybrid; triploidization increased the number of vertebrae and reduced the number of fin rays towards the level observed in diploid char, and reduced the number of scales towards the level observed in diploid salmon. We conducted a second experiment whereby diploid Atlantic salmon and Atlantic salmon (female) X Arctic char (male) hybrids were exposed to an experimental challenge with the parasitic salmon louse (Lepeophtheirus salmonis). There was no difference in the sea‐lice infection level between Atlantic salmon and the hybrids. This study shows that the present model with diploid and triploid Atlantic salmon (female) X Arctic char (male) hybrids may be a useful tool for the study of which traits are maternally and paternally inherited in salmonids. The understanding of morphological development with regard to meristic traits could be advantageous for both hybrid and triploid fish domestication.

The Health Sciences and Technology Academy's, (HSTA) goals are to increase college attendance of African American, financially disadvantaged, first generation college and rural Appalachian youth and increase health-care providers and STEM professionals in underserved communities. Students enter in the 9th grade and remain in HSTA four years. They engage in a rigorous academic program within the nurturing environment of small after-school clubs punctuated by yearly summer camps on multiple college campuses. A distinctive piece of HSTA is its students' development of research projects under the mentorship of teachers and researchers that examine and address health issues faced by their communities. The projects help HSTA students to understand the health dynamics in their local community, transforming them into community advocates who address health and social issues at home as they prepare to move on to college and beyond. Substantial in-state tuition waivers inspire 99% of the 3,021 HSTA graduates to attend college versus 56% of WV high school graduates. Approximately 85% of matriculating HSTA students graduate with a four-year degree or higher versus less than 50% of all college entrants. To date, 57% of HSTA students go into health and other STEM majors, much higher than the state and national figures.

This paper examines the perspectives of Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) participants as they navigate through their West Virginia (WV) high school learning environments (i.e., in-person, blended/hybrid, complete virtual) during the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. In March of 2020, the participants in this out-of-school-time (OST) academic enrichment program for exceptionally driven, yet underprivileged, at-risk students, with over 70% living in rural areas, started receiving remote learning instruction through learning management systems or via paper packets. In August of 2020, school systems provided parents and caregivers alternative learning environments for their student(s). In order to understand the learning experiences of HSTA students during these unprecedented times, HSTA released the 2020 Learning Outcomes Survey to participants in December of 2020. We performed chi-square test of independence to test the relationship between participants' learning environments, their satisfaction with the education they were receiving, their ability to keep up with their school-work, teacher availability to help when needed and teacher feedback supporting them in their learning environment. The results show significant differences between the learning environments and keeping up with school-work as well as teacher feedback supporting them in their learning; however, Phi and Cramer's V tests for effect size show weak correlations. This study provides a small glimpse into HSTA students' learning experiences as they attempted to continue to learn in their regular school environment during the COVID-19 pandemic while in HSTA.

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Background Arthritis is a major cause of pain and disability. Arthritis New Zealand (Arthritis NZ) is a nongovernmental organization that provides advocacy, information, and advice and support services for people with arthritis in New Zealand. Since many people seek health information on the Web, Arthritis NZ has a webpage and a Facebook page. In addition to static content, Arthritis NZ provides synchronous discussions with an arthritis educator each week via Facebook. Objective The aim of this study was to describe participation and structure of synchronous discussion with a health educator on a social media platform and the type of information and support provided to people with arthritis during discussions on this social media platform. Methods Interpretive multimethods were used. Facebook Analytics were used to describe the users of the Arthritis NZ Facebook page and to provide descriptive summary statistics. Graphic analysis was used to summarize activity during a convenience sample of 10 arthritis educator–led synchronous discussions. Principles of thematic analysis were used to interpret transcripts of all comments from these 10 weekly arthritis educator–led discussions. Results Users of the Arthritis NZ Facebook page were predominantly female (1437/1778, 80.82%), aged 18 to 54 years. Three major activities occurred during arthritis educator–led synchronous discussions: (1) seeking or giving support; (2) information enquiry; and (3) information sharing across a broad range of topic areas, largely related to symptoms and maintaining physical functioning. There was limited peer-to-peer interaction, with most threads consisting of two-comment exchanges between the users and arthritis educators. Conclusions Arthritis educator–led discussions provided a forum for informational and emotional support for users. The facilitated discussion forum for people with arthritis on Facebook could be enhanced by encouraging increased user participation and increasing peer-to-peer interactions and further training of arthritis educators in facilitation of Web-based discussion. Future research should focus on addressing barriers to user participation and assessing the impact of arthritis educator facilitation training, with the latter leveraging the Action Research paradigm.