Educating Pharmacy Students to Improve Quality (EPIQ) in Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy

Objective. To assess course instructors’ and students’ perceptions of the Educating Pharmacy Students and Pharmacists to Improve Quality (EPIQ) curriculum. Methods. Seven colleges and schools of pharmacy that were using the EPIQ program in their curricula agreed to participate in the study. Five of the 7 collected student retrospective pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Changes in students’ perceptions were evaluated to assess their relationships with demographics and course variables. Instructors who implemented the EPIQ program at each of the 7 colleges and schools were also asked to complete a questionnaire. Results. Scores on all questionnaire items indicated improvement in students’ perceived knowledge of quality improvement. The university the students attended, completion of a class project, and length of coverage of material were significantly related to improvement in the students’ scores. Instructors at all colleges and schools felt the EPIQ curriculum was a strong program that fulfilled the criteria for quality improvement and medication error reduction education. Conclusion. The EPIQ program is a viable, turnkey option for colleges and schools of pharmacy to use in teaching students about quality improvement

A large-scale magnetic shield with 10^6 damping at mHz frequencies

We present a magnetically shielded environment with a damping factor larger than one million at the mHz frequency regime and an extremely low field and gradient over an extended volume. This extraordinary shielding performance represents an improvement of the state of the art in damping the difficult regime of very low-frequency distortions by more than an order of magnitude. This technology enables a new generation of high precision measurements in fundamental physics and metrology, including searches for new physics far beyond the reach of accelerator-based experiments. We discuss the technical realization of the shield with its improvements in design.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Centerscope

Centerscope, formerly Scope, was published by the Boston University Medical Center "to communicate the concern of the Medical Center for the development and maintenance of improved health care in contemporary society.

Medical Student Characteristics and Intent to Work with the Underserved: A study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Using demographic data and a questionnaire developed by the Education for Lifelong Service program that was administered to first year medical students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this study examined student characteristics that are associated with an expressed intent to serve the underserved population after completion of medical school through the following two research questions: Research Question #1: To determine if associations exist between the primary outcome statement from the Education for Lifelong Service pre-intervention survey "When I am in practice, I would like to work at least half of my time with underserved populations" and data extracted from both the Education for Lifelong Service and demographic surveys including attitudes towards the underserved, gender, race, marital status, previous experience with the underserved, preferred specialty choice, and expected debt load upon completion of medical school. Research Question #2: To determine if any associations exist between the secondary outcome statements from the Education for Lifelong Service preintervention survey "I plan to practice in a rural area," and "I plan to regularly provide medical care as a volunteer when I am in practice" and data extracted from both the Education for Lifelong Service and demographic surveys including attitudes towards the underserved, gender, race, marital status, previous experience with the underserved, preferred specialty choice, and expected debt load upon completion of medical school. If an association between certain student characteristics and intent to serve does in fact exist, then this study may ultimately assist medical school admissions committees in creating policies that will better capture students who are more committed to working with the underserved. In addition, this study could also assist curricula development committees in creating service-learning programs, rotations, and classes that could develop as well as promote a student's interest in working with underserved populations.Master of Public Healt

miR-132/212 knockout mice reveal roles for these miRNAs in regulating cortical synaptic transmission and plasticity

miR-132 and miR-212 are two closely related miRNAs encoded in the same intron of a small non-coding gene, which have been suggested to play roles in both immune and neuronal function. We describe here the generation and initial characterisation of a miR-132/212 double knockout mouse. These mice were viable and fertile with no overt adverse phenotype. Analysis of innate immune responses, including TLR-induced cytokine production and IFNβ induction in response to viral infection of primary fibroblasts did not reveal any phenotype in the knockouts. In contrast, the loss of miR-132 and miR-212, while not overtly affecting neuronal morphology, did affect synaptic function. In both hippocampal and neocortical slices miR-132/212 knockout reduced basal synaptic transmission, without affecting paired-pulse facilitation. Hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) induced by tetanic stimulation was not affected by miR-132/212 deletion, whilst theta burst LTP was enhanced. In contrast, neocortical theta burst-induced LTP was inhibited by loss of miR-132/212. Together these results indicate that miR-132 and/or miR-212 play a significant role in synaptic function, possibly by regulating the number of postsynaptic AMPA receptors under basal conditions and during activity-dependent synaptic plasticity

UV-curable glassy material for the manufacture of bulk and nano-structured elements

An ultra violet (UV) -cured glassy material with less than 30% organic residues was fabricated by the fast sol-gel method. The material presents high thermal stability, good optical quality and high adhesive strength. It is suitable for optical bonding and, for manufacture of optical elements and micro-structured optical devices. Either soft-lithography or photo-lithography may be used for manufacture of the material while its curing can be thermal (few hours) or UV (few seconds). In this work we present the technology to fabricate optical elements at scales spanning the sub-micron to centimeter range. This technology enables mass-production of optical elements at low cost

Extreme behavioural shifts by baboons exploiting risky, resource-rich, human-modified environments

Abstract A range of species exploit anthropogenic food resources in behaviour known as ‘raiding’. Such behavioural flexibility is considered a central component of a species’ ability to cope with human-induced environmental changes. Here, we study the behavioural processes by which raiding male chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) exploit the opportunities and mitigate the risks presented by raiding in the suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. Ecological sampling and interviews conducted with ‘rangers’ (employed to manage the baboons’ space use) revealed that baboons are at risk of being herded out of urban spaces that contain high-energy anthropogenic food sources. Baboon-attached motion/GPS tracking collars showed that raiding male baboons spent almost all of their time at the urban edge, engaging in short, high-activity forays into the urban space. Moreover, activity levels were increased where the likelihood of deterrence by rangers was greater. Overall, these raiding baboons display a time-activity balance that is drastically altered in comparison to individuals living in more remote regions. We suggest our methods can be used to obtain precise estimates of management impact for this and other species in conflict with people