iPads, iBooks, Apps! What\u27s all the iFuss about?

The iVolution is here. It is iThis and iThat every way you turn. Is this just another iFad, or is it truly revolutionizing education? In a recent survey conducted by EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research on undergraduates and technology, 31% of students reported owning tablet technology a 15% increase from the previous year and 76% of students reported owning smart phones. This finding was a 14% increase from the previous year. Students also reported using smart devices in class to access material, participate in activities, look up information and photograph material as learning strategies. Thomas Jefferson University is riding the iWave and taking strides to better integrate technology at all levels of medical training; leading the forefront of the iVolution, syllabi, course materials, and textbooks are now delivered in some of our courses via iPads. In the past few years, the Jefferson Health Mentors Program has embraced the use of new technologies, including Wikis, online discussion boards, Google docs, and Skype platforms to facilitate asynchronous IPE interactions. These platforms have helped to promote IPE by easing scheduling logistics and by allowing students to collaborate electronically on team-based assignments. Over the past summer, JCIPE, the Jefferson Health Mentors Program (JHMP), faculty from Jefferson Medical College and the School of Health Professions, Academic & Instructional Support & Resources (AISR) and Jeff Information Technology (IT) assembled a working group and developed yet another innovative tool to better integrate technology into our IPE efforts – the product was a new iBook, entitled “Assessing Patient Safety.

Norovirus Infection and Disease in an Ecuadorian Birth Cohort: Association of Certain Norovirus Genotypes With Host FUT2 Secretor Status.

BACKGROUND: Although norovirus is the most common cause of gastroenteritis, there are few data on the community incidence of infection/disease or the patterns of acquired immunity or innate resistance to norovirus. METHODS: We followed a community-based birth cohort of 194 children in Ecuador with the aim to estimate (1) the incidence of norovirus gastroenteritis from birth to age 3 years, (2) the protective effect of norovirus infection against subsequent infection/disease, and (3) the association of infection and disease with FUT2 secretor status. RESULTS: Over the 3-year period, we detected a mean of 2.26 diarrheal episodes per child (range, 0-12 episodes). Norovirus was detected in 260 samples (18%) but was not found more frequently in diarrheal samples (79 of 438 [18%]), compared with diarrhea-free samples (181 of 1016 [18%]; P = .919). A total of 66% of children had at least 1 norovirus infection during the first 3 years of life, and 40% of children had 2 infections. Previous norovirus infections were not associated with the risk of subsequent infection. All genogroup II, genotype 4 (GII.4) infections were among secretor-positive children (P < .001), but higher rates of non-GII.4 infections were found in secretor-negative children (relative risk, 0.56; P = .029). CONCLUSIONS: GII.4 infections were uniquely detected in secretor-positive children, while non-GII.4 infections were more often found in secretor-negative children

Thin-Skin Electromagnetic Fields Around Surface-Breaking Cracks in Metals

In situations where the electrical skin depth δ is small compared with a typical crack dimension l, substantial progress has been achieved in recent years in modeling surface electromagnetic fields and the perturbations that are produced in them by surface-breaking flaws [1,2,3]. The development of an unfolding theory at UCL for thin-skin surface fields was based on the approximation that the electric and magnetic field vectors E and H are essentially tangential to the surface of the material in the surface skin. It was motivated by the desire to measure fatigue cracks in ferrous materials used in large-scale steel structures such as offshore oil rigs [2], and the method to which it was applied was the a.c. field measurement technique. Auld et al [4,5] later adapted the unfolding approach in considering thin-skin field models for the eddy current method, and their major concern was with applications to non-ferrous materials used in airframe and aero-engine manufacture. For acfm work, the unfolding theory leads to a surface Laplacian field on both the metal surface and the crack face and information on the crack presence is deduced by measuring perturbations in the surface field. Auld’s model for eddy currents also has a plane Laplacian field on the crack face, but it is assumed that the crack produces no change in the field on the metal surface. Field lines in the unfolded plane for both models are shown schematically in Figure 1(b,c) for the case when the interrogating field is uniform and the crack is semi-circular. Auld’s model has been described as a Born type of approximation from an analogy with wave scattering theory which ignores the scattered field when calculating scattering cross-sections

Multi-lepton signals from the top-prime quark at the LHC

We analyze the collider signatures of models with a vector-like top-prime quark and a massive color-octet boson. The top-prime quark mixes with the top quark in the Standard Model, leading to richer final states than ones that are investigated by experimental collaborations. We discuss the multi-lepton final states, and show that they can provide increased sensitivity to models with a top-prime quark and gluon-prime. Searches for new physics in high multiplicity events are an important component of the LHC program and complementary to analyses that have been performed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 table

Structural control of mixed ionic and electronic transport in conducting polymers.

UNLABELLED: Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrenesulfonate), PEDOT: PSS, has been utilized for over two decades as a stable, solution-processable hole conductor. While its hole transport properties have been the subject of intense investigation, recent work has turned to PEDOT: PSS as a mixed ionic/electronic conductor in applications including bioelectronics, energy storage and management, and soft robotics. Conducting polymers can efficiently transport both holes and ions when sufficiently hydrated, however, little is known about the role of morphology on mixed conduction. Here, we show that bulk ionic and electronic mobilities are simultaneously affected by processing-induced changes in nano- and meso-scale structure in PEDOT: PSS films. We quantify domain composition, and find that domain purification on addition of dispersion co-solvents limits ion mobility, even while electronic conductivity improves. We show that an optimal morphology allows for the balanced ionic and electronic transport that is critical for prototypical mixed conductor devices. These findings may pave the way for the rational design of polymeric materials and processing routes to enhance devices reliant on mixed conduction

A multi-phenotypic imaging screen to identify bacterial effectors by exogenous expression in a HeLa cell line

We present a high-content screen (HCS) for the simultaneous analysis of multiple phenotypes in HeLa cells expressing an autophagy reporter (mcherry-LC3) and one of 209 GFP-fused proteins from the Crohn’s Disease (CD)-associated bacterium, Adherent Invasive E. coli (AIEC) strain LF82. Using automated confocal microscopy and image analysis (CellProfiler), we localised GFP fusions within cells, and monitored their effects upon autophagy (an important innate cellular defence mechanism), cellular and nuclear morphology, and the actin cytoskeleton. This data will provide an atlas for the localisation of 209 AIEC proteins within human cells, as well as a dataset to analyse their effects upon many aspects of host cell morphology. We also describe an open-source, automated, image-analysis workflow to identify bacterial effectors and their roles via the perturbations induced in reporter cell lines when candidate effectors are exogenously expressed

The Impact of Student Hotspotting on Patients & the Jefferson Health System

Introduction “Super-utilizers”, patients with five or more hospital admissions in the past year, account for half of all healthcare expenditures and present a significant financial burden to our healthcare system. In Pennsylvania “super-utilizers” result in $1.25 billion of healthcare spending and Philadelphia has the highest number of “super-utilizers” in the state. To address this crisis, Jefferson University serves as one of four new national hubs for student hotspotting. Teams of interprofessional health professions students along with faculty and staff advisors enroll “super-utilizers” and provide targeted interventions to address social determinants of health, reduce hospitalizations and improve patient outcomes. Methods To examine the impact of this program on patients, objective healthcare outcomes were obtained from EPIC. Costs were obtained from the hospital Care Coordination team and national average figures to examine the impact on the Jefferson health system. Data were collected from six months pre-, during, and post-intervention for the hotspotting intervention group and for a matched control group of non-program participants. Pre- and post-intervention analysis was performed using random effects Poisson regression. Results Pre- and post-intervention analysis found a 6% reduction in ED visits, 48% reduction in the number of outpatient visits, 18% reduction in total days in hospital, and 14% reduction in 30 day readmissions for the intervention vs. the control group. Average total costs of care decreased for both the experimental and control group with a 36% cost reduction per patient in the intervention group. Conclusion Participation in student hotspotting is a promising way to help address the needs of “super-utilizes”. Student hotspotting appears to have a positive impact on reducing the costs of care and improving health outcomes for high utilizer patients

Genetic testing of children for adult-onset conditions: opinions of the British adult population and implications for clinical practice

This study set out to explore the attitudes of a representative sample of the British public towards genetic testing in children to predict disease in the future. We sought opinions about genetic testing for adult-onset conditions for which no prevention/treatment is available during childhood, and about genetic 'carrier' status to assess future reproductive risks. The study also examined participants' level of agreement with the reasons professional organisations give in favour of deferring such testing. Participants (n=2998) completed a specially designed questionnaire, distributed by email. Nearly half of the sample (47%) agreed that parents should be able to test their child for adult-onset conditions, even if there is no treatment or prevention at time of testing. This runs contrary to professional guidance about genetic testing in children. Testing for carrier status was supported by a larger proportion (60%). A child's future ability to decide for her/himself if and when to be tested was the least supported argument in favour of deferring testing.European Journal of Human Genetics advance online publication, 5 November 2014; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2014.221