A case study of a microsystems MSc curriculum

This paper tries to define the contents of master's programmes in Nanotechnology or Nanoengineering. This emerging technology holds large promises for industrial innovation and we need to prepare graduates properly as they will be confronted for most of their future careers with these new developments. The nano-world is a multidisciplinary world and the shortest way to a bad curriculum is filling it with a conglomerate of subjects from all disciplines. We should look for a philosophy and try to integrate disciplinary knowledge. Some of these questions are discussed and an implementation for a master's programme under the umbrella of Electrical Engineering is presented

Investment in Sustainable Development: A UK Perspective on the Business and Academic Challenges

There are many legislative, stakeholder and supply chain pressures on business to be more ‘sustainable’. Universities have recognised the need for graduate knowledge and understanding of sustainable development issues. Many businesses and universities have responded and introduced Sustainable Development models into their operations with much of the current effort directed at climate change. However, as the current worldwide financial crisis slowly improves, the expectations upon how businesses operate and behave are changing. It will require improved transparency and relationships with all stakeholders, which is the essence of sustainable development. The challenges and opportunities for both business and universities are to understand the requirements of sustainable development and the transformation that is required. They should ensure that knowledge is embedded within the culture of the organisation and wider society in order to achieve a sustainable future

A gentle transition from Java programming to Web Services using XML-RPC

Exposing students to leading edge vocational areas of relevance such as Web Services can be difficult. We show a lightweight approach by embedding a key component of Web Services within a Level 3 BSc module in Distributed Computing. We present a ready to use collection of lecture slides and student activities based on XML-RPC. In addition we show that this material addresses the central topics in the context of web services as identified by Draganova (2003)

The Person-centred Curriculum Framework: a universal curriculum framework for person-centred healthcare practitioner education

Background: Globally, humanising healthcare is a strategic response to a distinct need for person-centred approaches to practice. This movement has largely focused on the artefacts of healthcare practice, with an emergent focus on the role of healthcare education in instilling and espousing the core principles of person-centredness. It is increasingly recognised that how healthcare professionals are educated is fundamental to creating learning cultures where person-centred philosophies can be lived out and aligned with workforce and healthcare policy strategies. In 2019, six European countries began collaboration on an Erasmus+ project, Person-centredness in Healthcare Curricula, to develop a Person-centred Curriculum Framework. The other articles in this Special Issue focus on the methodologies employed by the project team, and this article describes the framework. Aim: While curricula exist with person-centredness as a focus, aim or component, few embrace person-centredness as an underpinning philosophy and theory, or use a whole-systems approach. This project aimed to develop a universal curricular framework with the agility to work synergistically with existing curricular processes, in pursuit of the development of person-centred healthcare practitioners and cultures. Methods: The project used an iterative multiphase, mixed methods approach, including an e-survey and interviews. Drawing on authentic co-design principles, to create our framework we engaged with stakeholders in clinical practice and academic institutions as well as healthcare students and those working in health policy and strategic workforce planning. Results: We present a framework for the design, delivery and evaluation of curricula, structured using a modified version of McKinsey’s 7S methodology, resulting in each component having a statement, outcomes, and thematic actions to support the realisation of a person-centred curriculum. Conclusion: Our Person-centred Curriculum Framework can facilitate congruency between healthcare education and practice in the way person-centredness is defined and lived out through healthful cultures. Given the iterative origins of the framework, we anticipate its evolution over time through further exploration following its implementation and evaluation

The use of stem cells as a therapeutic modality for amelioration of chronic renal damage after warm or cold ischaemic insults

Several epidemiological studies have shown that AKI is a risk factor for progression to CKD. IRI is one of the main causes of AKI, and for that reason, murine models of AKI are mostly based on renal ischaemia, although in most cases the observation time of these studies is too short to draw reliable conclusions regarding the long-term outcomes. This study provides a description of the long-term renal outcomes of murine models of warm ischaemia and addresses the current discrepancies in scientific literature concerning the role of the renal mass at the time of ischaemic injury. Furthermore, the transcutaneous evaluation of kidney function was implemented measuring FITC-S clearance, which was a very useful, non-invasive and sensible technique, particularly in animals with mild to moderate kidney function impairment, but proved troublesome in animals with severe kidney function deterioration. In the context of warm ischaemia models, unilateral ischaemia without contralateral nephrectomy at the time of injury led to long-term kidney function deterioration, once the non-ischaemic kidney was removed. Additionally, histopathological analysis revealed cyst formation, increased number of ED1+ macrophages and a higher extent of interstitial fibrosis compared to the animals nephrectomised right after ischaemic injury. Thus, this model makes a good candidate for interventional studies. Since AKI patients have to rely in supportive care and renal replacement therapy, new therapeutic modalities are greatly needed. Thus, MSC as well as MSC conditioned media therapies have become an interesting choice because of their many attributed properties. Therefore, in this study the treatment with hASC was implemented in the aforementioned warm ischaemia model, with a single injection 14 days after injury. The main finding was a strong reduction of ED1+ macrophages in the post-ischaemic kidneys of the cell treated animals vs. vehicle-treated. This might be explained by the notion that in a pro-inflammatory milieu, hASC adopt an immunosuppressive phenotype that might lead to PGE2 production by hASC, causing monocyte polarization to M2 macrophages. Cold ischaemia and minor MHC disparity were implemented in order to increase the severity of the model and achieve strong clinical and morphological end-points. This was indeed attained using a Fischer-Lewis kidney transplantation model with 8 hours of cold ischaemia. Thereafter, the treatment with ABCB5+ cells and its derived CM was implemented, one day before and seventeen days after KTx. Neither of the treatments was able to significantly ameliorate any kidney function parameter, although a trend toward worsened kidney function was observed in the cell-treated group. Likewise, the number of ED1+ macrophages and CD3+ T cells in the kidney grafts was not significantly reduced by either treatment. This lack of inhibition might be explained by the cell pre-treatment, as it has been reported that when no inflammation is present MSC can switch to a pro-inflammatory phenotype. As for the Banff classification scores, this model leads to lesions mostly associated mostly to T-cell mediated rejection, namely tubulitis, vasculitis, tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis. In this context, cell-treated animals presented the worst scores in all four criteria and no great difference between the control group and CM-treated group were observed, besides a trend toward improved vasculitis and interstitial fibrosis in the CM-treated group. This might be attributed to the angiogenic and anti-fibrotic potential of MSC secretome components

a narrative review

Through development, a child?s varied movement contexts provide different opportunities or affordances for action that are fundamental to promoting motor competence. Although home is the primary environment for infants, as children age, school and sport environments gain importance. Studies focusing on affordances for motor behavior in children have mainly addressed the home microsystem, providing an incomplete picture of affordances across different settings, particularly later in development. Here, we undertook a narrative literature review of various affordances for children?s motor development. This review revealed that prior studies of school and sports contexts have not specifically focused on those environmental properties that promote or hinder motor learning opportunities, meaning that future research should assess these relationships through manipulations of environmental features in these different microsystems.4811-99FE-2ECD | Luis Paulo RodriguesN/

Chemical & Nuclear Engineering 2009 APR Self-Study & Documents

UNM Chemical & Nuclear Engineering APR self-study report, review team report, response to report, and initial action plan for Spring 2009, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission

Mechanical stimulation of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells in a bioreactor system: An approach to mobilize cells into scaffolds

Articular cartilage (AC) is a viscoelastic avascular tissue mainly composed of chondrocytes embedded in a rich extracellular matrix that covers the joints and supports load distribution of the joints. The absence of vessels restricts its regenerative capability. Hence, joint motion facilitates nutrient deposition and cell waste disposal. Mechanical stimulation contributes to the homeostasis of functional AC by supporting delivery of nutrients, cytokines and growth factors between the distant chondrocytes. Current techniques to treat AC defects still fail to entirely heal and to achieve a native-like AC. As the knee joint has neighboring niches of stem cells, we hypothesized that mechanical stimulation might enhance the mobilization of endogenous mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) from nearby niches as the bone marrow (BM), when the subchondral bone is opened. To test this hypothesis, we developed a compression bioreactor system in vitro for simultaneous application of mechanical stimulation and cell cultivation. This study aimed to evaluate the role of dynamic of mechanical stimulation on mobilizing MSCs toward scaffolds in a bioreactor system. The novel mechanical system for evaluating mobilization of MSCs in a 3D context in vitro consisted of a) a compression bioreactor able to induce loading on scaffolds, b) custom-made software for settings for management and data recording, c) cell loading experiments, and d) 3D image-based biological evaluation. The mechanical stimulation acted on an acellular scaffold made of alginate, functionalized-alginate with laminin-521(alginate-Ln) or collagen-I (col-I), and a cell reservoir containing porcine or human BM-MSCs (pBM-MSCs and hBM-MSCs, respectively) below it. The mechanical loading program was set up as 10 % strain regarding the original height of the scaffold, 24 hours at 0.3 Hz, using dynamic continuous or intermittent loading regime, with breaks of 10 seconds each 180 cycles, when intermittent loading was used. Supporting our hypothesis, we found that intermittent mechanical stimulation induced the mobilization of hBM-MSCs in col-I scaffolds 10-fold compared to the unloaded control (245 ± 42 viable cells/mm3 vs. 22 ± 6 viable cells/mm3, respectively; p-value < 0.0001), as well as pBM-MSCs mobilized 4-fold in alginate-Ln scaffold when intermittently loaded (194 ± 39 cells/mm3 vs. 48 ± 21 cells/mm3 for the unloaded control. In addition, we found that the bioreactor was able to stimulate the scaffolds and the cells for 23.99 ± 0.94 hours in 137.72 ± 13.21 periods, exerting compression with vertical piston displacements of 230.08 ± 54.07 μm, force of 1.08 ± 0.13 N for hBM-MSCs and force-amplitude of 1.86 ± 1.46 N for pBM-MSCs. Remarkably, the viability of mobilized cells was not compromised by intermittent mechanical loading application as evaluated with an optimized and validated protocol for counting and viability cell detection in 3D. As a first step to induce cartilage regeneration in situ, this study shows enriched acellular scaffolds with viable MSCs after mechanical stimulation, and provides an useful tool to understand better the regeneration of AC in situ