Assessing Peer Mentor Skill Development in Participating in a Novel Medical Student Mentoring Initiative

BackgroundLearning communities in medical schools create a bridge for senior students to engage with junior peers, providing advice and support as mentors. In this process, mentors are likely to gain skills in communication, empathy, and leadership - well received traits for residency. Methods We aim to elucidate an objective measure of mentor growth and development during the mentorship program. We will evaluate opinions on the program\u27s ability to foster professional attributes including leadership, communication, and empathy; determining features that benefit them while assessing for paradigms of improvement. We will survey 24 M2-students through self-rated queries on a Likert scale. This survey will be administered to mentors at two time-points: half-way and at the end of the program. Results From the mid-point survey, 22 out of 24 total mentors responded. Most mentors feel satisfied with the support that they receive from the program, specifically with the time commitment while not feeling overwhelmed with their duties. Finally, mentors find an importance in building mentee confidence and helping mentees to meet their goals, but most do not feel skilled at this. Conclusion The survey results provide valuable insight regarding mentors’ personal and professional development. We identified mentors’ needs for increased support. In a follow-up study, we will assess how the program can develop educational interventions to aid mentors in developing abilities to communicate, lead, and mentor. We additionally hope to establish a rigorous quality-assessment tool to be used year-over-year in assessing program development while also defining avenues to improve mentors’ professional development

Response function analysis of excited-state kinetic energy functional constructed by splitting k-space

Over the past decade, fundamentals of time independent density functional theory for excited state have been established. However, construction of the corresponding energy functionals for excited states remains a challenging problem. We have developed a method for constructing functionals for excited states by splitting k-space according to the occupation of orbitals. In this paper we first show the accuracy of kinetic energy functional thus obtained. We then perform a response function analysis of the kinetic energy functional proposed by us and show why method of splitting the k-space could be the method of choice for construction of energy functionals for excited states.Comment: 11 page

Learning Community Student-Resident Physician Mentorship

Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM) in 2018 formed Learning Communities (LCs), that facilitate student engagement, comradery, and mentoring. These programs include medical student-premed, near-peer, and faculty/attending mentorships. There has been an identified gap in mentorship between near-peer and faculty/attending mentorship, and that is near-peer mentors at WSUSOM have yet to complete the residency process to guide other students through it. Moreover, faculty/attending mentors are more removed from residency and may not have relevant advice for students. As resident physicians are recent graduates, they are more likely to provide relevant insight about residency applications, academic challenges, and efficiency than attendings. We aim to assess the extent of the gap between faculty/attending and peer mentorships. MS4 at WSUSOM (N=33) self-reported their: confidence in transitioning to residency; the gaps they believe such mentorship will fill; and whether they, themselves, would participate in an MS-resident fellowship program. Results indicated that MS4s feel somewhat confident in their abilities to transition to residency. They believe that a resident-MS mentorship would help in the interview and application process, as well as, the residency program choosing process. Furthermore, if given the opportunity, all the students would consider joining the program. We hope to implement a student-resident mentorship program, to reassure students on their journey to residency

Lessons Learned from 17 Years of Multidisciplinary Care for DSD Patients at A Single Indonesian Center

Background: Our Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) is a large specialized team based in Semarang,Indonesia that cares for a wide variety of pediatric and adult individuals with Differences of SexDevelopment (DSD) from across Indonesia. Here we describe our work over the last 17 years.Methods: We analyzed phenotypic, hormonal and genetic findings from clinical records for allpatients referred to our MDT during the period 2004 to 2020.Results: Among 1184 DSD patients, 10% had sex chromosome DSD, 67% had 46,XY DSD and 23% had46,XX DSD. The most common sex chromosome anomaly was Turner syndrome (45,X) (55 cases). Forpatients with 46,XY DSD under-masculinization was the most common diagnosis (311 cases) and for46,XX DSD a defect of Müllerian development was most common (131 cases) followed by CongenitalAdrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) (116 cases). Sanger sequencing, MLPA and targeted gene sequencing ofDownloaded from http://karger.com/sxd/article-pdf/doi/10.1159/000534085/3998946/000534085.pdf by guest on 03 October 2023257 patients with 46,XY DSD found likely causative variants in 21% (55 cases), with 13 diagnosticgenes implicated. The most affected gene coded for the Androgen Receptor. Molecular analysisidentified a diagnosis for 69 of 116 patients with CAH, with 62 carrying variants in CYP21A2 includingfour novel variants, and seven patients carrying variants in CYP11B1. In many cases these geneticdiagnoses influenced the clinical management of patients and families.Conclusions: Our work has highlighted the occurrence of different DSDs in Indonesia. By applyingsequencing technologies as part of our clinical care, we have delivered a number of geneticdiagnoses and identified novel pathogenic variants in some genes, which may be clinically specific toIndonesia. Genetics can inform many aspects of DSD clinical management, and whilst many of ourpatients remain undiagnosed, we hope that future testing may provide answers for even more

Brief Online Self-help Exercises for Postnatal Women to Improve Mood: A Pilot Study

OBJECTIVES: Giving birth and adjusting to a new baby can be difficult and stressful for new mothers. Negative mood may occur during this time and can affect women, their parenting and the infant's development. This pilot study evaluated a brief online self-help intervention designed to promote positive mood in mothers of babies and toddlers. METHODS: Women in the UK who had given birth within the previous 18 months were randomly allocated to the online self-help intervention (n = 40) or active comparison group exercise (n = 40) which was matched for time and structure. Mood was measured before and after the intervention. Acceptability was examined at the end of the trial. RESULTS: The self-help intervention was acceptable to the majority of women and significantly increased positive mood compared to the comparison condition. This effect persisted after controlling for self-esteem, anxiety and depression. These results suggest that a simple self-help intervention focused on changing beliefs about oneself as a mother can have an immediate impact on women's mood. CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: Further research is need to see whether these improvements continue long-term and what processes underlie these improvements

Insights into the regulation of DMSP synthesis in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana through APR activity, proteomics and gene expression analyses on cells acclimating to changes in salinity, light and nitrogen

Despite the importance of dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) in the global sulphur cycle and climate regulation, the biological pathways underpinning its synthesis in marine phytoplankton remain poorly understood. The intracellular concentration of DMSP increases with increased salinity, increased light intensity and nitrogen starvation in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. We used these conditions to investigate DMSP synthesis at the cellular level via analysis of enzyme activity, gene expression and proteome comparison. The activity of the key sulphur assimilatory enzyme, adenosine 5′- phosphosulphate reductase was not coordinated with increasing intracellular DMSP concentration. Under all three treatments coordination in the expression of sulphur assimilation genes was limited to increases in sulphite reductase transcripts. Similarly, proteomic 2D gel analysis only revealed an increase in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase following increases in DMSP concentration. Our findings suggest that increased sulphur assimilation might not be required for increased DMSP synthesis, instead the availability of carbon and nitrogen substrates may be important in the regulation of this pathway. This contrasts with the regulation of sulphur metabolism in higher plants, which generally involves upregulation of several sulphur assimilatory enzymes. In T. pseudonana changes relating to sulphur metabolism were specific to the individual treatments and, given that little coordination was seen in transcript and protein responses across the three growth conditions, different patterns of regulation might be responsible for the increase in DMSP concentration seen under each treatment

Sediment Delivery to Sustain the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta Under Climate Change and Anthropogenic Impacts

The principal nature-based solution for offsetting relative sea-level rise in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta is the unabated delivery, dispersal, and deposition of the rivers’ ~1 billion-tonne annual sediment load. Recent hydrological transport modeling suggests that strengthening monsoon precipitation in the 21st century could increase this sediment delivery 34-60%; yet other studies demonstrate that sediment could decline 15-80% if planned dams and river diversions are fully implemented. We validate these modeled ranges by developing a comprehensive field-based sediment budget that quantifies the supply of Ganges-Brahmaputra river sediment under varying Holocene climate conditions. Our data reveal natural responses in sediment supply comparable to previously modeled results and suggest that increased sediment delivery may be capable of offsetting accelerated sea-level rise. This prospect for a naturally sustained Ganges-Brahmaputra delta presents possibilities beyond the dystopian future often posed for this system, but the implementation of currently proposed dams and diversions would preclude such opportunities

Identification of vertebra-like elements and their possible differentiation from sclerotomes in the hagfish

The hagfish, a group of extant jawless fish, are known to lack true vertebrae and, for this reason, have often been excluded from the group Vertebrata. However, it has yet to be conclusively shown whether hagfish lack all vertebra-like structures, and whether their somites follow developmental processes and patterning distinct from those in lampreys and gnathostomes. Here we report the presence of vertebra-like cartilages in the in-shore hagfish, Eptatretus burgeri. These elements arise as small nodules occupying anatomical positions comparable to those of gnathostome vertebrae. Examination of hagfish embryos suggests that the ventromedial portion of a somite transforms into mesenchymal cells that express cognates of Pax1/9 and Twist, strikingly similar to the pattern of sclerotome development in gnathostomes. We conclude that the vertebra-like elements in the hagfish are homologous to gnathostome vertebrae, implying that this animal underwent secondary reduction of vertebrae in most of the trunk

Rising incidence of breast cancer among female cancer survivors: implications for surveillance

The number of female cancer survivors has been rising rapidly. We assessed the occurrence of breast cancer in these survivors over time. We computed incidence of primary breast cancer in two cohorts of female cancer survivors with a first diagnosis of cancer at ages 30+ in the periods 1975–1979 and 1990–1994. Cohorts were followed for 10 years through a population-based cancer registry. Over a period of 15 years, the incidence rate of breast cancer among female cancer survivors increased by 30% (age-standardised rate ratio (RR-adj): 1.30; 95% CI: 1.03–1.68). The increase was significant for non-breast cancer survivors (RR-adj: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.04–2.75). During the study period, the rate of second breast cancer stage II tripled (RR-adj: 3.10, 95% CI: 1.73–5.78). Non-breast cancer survivors had a significantly (P value=0.005) more unfavourable stage distribution (62% stage II and III) than breast cancer survivors (32% stage II and III). A marked rise in breast cancer incidence among female cancer survivors was observed. Research to optimise follow-up strategies for these women to detect breast cancer at an early stage is warranted

The effect of the stromal component of breast tumours on prediction of clinical outcome using gene expression microarray analysis

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the cellular composition of biopsies on the error rates of multigene predictors of response of breast tumours to neoadjuvant adriamycin and cyclophosphamide (AC) chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Core biopsies were taken from primary breast tumours of 43 patients prior to AC, and subsequent clinical response was recorded. Post-chemotherapy (day 21) samples were available for 16 of these samples. Frozen sections of each core were used to estimate the proportion of invasive cancer and other tissue components at three levels. Transcriptional profiling was performed using a cDNA array containing 4,600 elements. RESULTS: Twenty-three (53%) patients demonstrated a 'good' and 20 (47%) a 'poor' clinical response. The percentage invasive tumour in core biopsies collected from these patients varied markedly. Despite this, agglomerative clustering of sample expression profiles showed that almost all biopsies from the same tumour aggregated as nearest neighbours. SAM (significance analysis of microarrays) regression analysis identified 144 genes which distinguished high- and low-percentage invasive tumour biopsies at a false discovery rate of not more than 5%. The misclassification error of prediction of clinical response using microarray data from pre-treatment biopsies (on leave-one-out cross-validation) was 28%. When prediction was performed on subsets of samples which were more homogeneous in their proportions of malignant and stromal cells, the misclassification error was considerably lower (8%–13%, p < 0.05 on permutation). CONCLUSION: The non-tumour content of breast cancer samples has a significant effect on gene expression profiles. Consideration of this factor improves accuracy of response prediction by expression array profiling. Future gene expression array prediction studies should be planned taking this into account