Enriching Medical Student Learning Experiences

Objective: Medical students should develop skills in assessing their own learning needs and developing strategies to meet those needs. Medical curricula should be designed to provide active and enriching ways to explore medicine beyond the classroom. The program should enrich the elements of motivation, discovery, innovation, social services, cultural exploration, and personal development. The University of Kansas School of Medicine instituted a new curriculum in 2017 called ACE (Active, Competency-based, and Excellence-driven). Eight 1-week courses of enrichment experiences are embedded within the first 2 years of the curriculum. Methods: After each of 8 medical content blocks, students are required to participate in a 1-week, nongraded enrichment experience according to their own learning needs and interests. Students choose the type of enrichment activities including clinical experiences, professional development, leadership development, research and scholarly activity, and community engagement. Students select their top enrichment choices and a computer lottery makes the assignments from their designations. Students engaged in research and scholarly activity are guided to appropriate research mentors. Results: A total of 196 enrichment activities at 3 campuses were developed for 211 students during the first 2 years of medical school. Most students selected clinical experiences with enrichments available in most medical specialties and subspecialties. Students also use enrichment weeks to conduct research/scholarly activity, particularly those students pursuing the Honors Track. A total of 2071 enrichment experiences were completed in the first 2 years. Conclusions: Most enrichments involved clinical experiences, although research/scholarly activity and professional development enrichments also were popular. Evaluations from students and antidotal data suggested enrichments are popular among students and a good change of pace from the usual rigorous activities of the curriculum. Because of the large number of experiences required to conduct the enrichment weeks, a continuous process of evaluation is required to maintain the program. Therefore, flexibility is required to administer the program. </jats:sec

Glycosome biogenesis in trypanosomes and the de novo dilemma

Trypanosomatid parasites, including Trypanosoma and Leishmania, are the causative agents of lethal diseases threatening millions of people around the world. These organisms compartmentalize glycolysis in essential, specialized peroxisomes called glycosomes. Peroxisome proliferation can occur through growth and division of existing organelles and de novo biogenesis from the endoplasmic reticulum. The level that each pathway contributes is debated. Current evidence supports the concerted contribution of both mechanisms in an equilibrium that can vary depending on environmental conditions and metabolic requirements of the cell. Homologs of a number of peroxins, the proteins involved in peroxisome biogenesis and matrix protein import, have been identified in T. brucei. Based on these findings, it is widely accepted that glycosomes proliferate through growth and division of existing organelles; however, to our knowledge, a de novo mechanism of biogenesis has not been directly demonstrated. Here, we review recent findings that provide support for the existence of an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-derived de novo pathway of glycosome biogenesis in T. brucei. Two studies recently identified PEX13.1, a peroxin involved in matrix protein import, in the ER of procyclic form T. brucei. In other eukaryotes, peroxins including PEX13 have been found in the ER of cells undergoing de novo biogenesis of peroxisomes. In addition, PEX16 and PEX19 have been characterized in T. brucei, both of which are important for de novo biogenesis in other eukaryotes. Because glycosomes are rapidly remodeled via autophagy during life cycle differentiation, de novo biogenesis could provide a method of restoring glycosome populations following turnover. Together, the findings we summarize provide support for the hypothesis that glycosome proliferation occurs through growth and division of pre-existing organelles and de novo biogenesis of new organelles from the ER and that the level each mechanism contributes is influenced by glucose availability

Beam-helicity asymmetry arising from deeply virtual Compton scattering measured with kinematically complete event reconstruction

The beam-helicity asymmetry in exclusive electroproduction of real photons by the longitudinally polarized HERA positron beam scattering off an unpolarized hydrogen target is measured at HERMES. The asymmetry arises from deeply virtual Compton scattering and its interference with the Bethe--Heitler process. Azimuthal amplitudes of the beam-helicity asymmetry are extracted from a data sample consisting of $ep\rightarrow ep\gamma$ events with detection of all particles in the final state including the recoiling proton. The installation of a recoil detector, while reducing the acceptance of the experiment, allows the elimination of background from $ep\rightarrow eN\pi\gamma$ events, which was estimated to contribute an average of about 12% to the signal in previous HERMES publications. The removal of this background from the present data sample is shown to increase the magnitude of the leading asymmetry amplitude by 0.054 +/- 0.016 to -0.328 +/- 0.027 (stat.) +/- 0.045 (syst.)

Infective Endocarditis in Patients on Chronic Hemodialysis

International audienceInfective endocarditis (IE) is a common and serious complication in patients receiving chronic hemodialysis (HD)