1137. What Do We Know? Teaching Medical Students to Deal with Uncertainty as a Pandemic Unfolds

Background The global COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on medical student education. As the pandemic spread nationwide, numerous universities shut down with only days’ notice, and medical students were removed from all patient care settings and restricted from campuses. Yet, the need and curiosity of these future physicians to understand this new disease was great, including how to interpret and integrate rapidly evolving information on the underlying viral and immune mechanisms, pathophysiology, and epidemiology. Time students spent away from patient care settings presented an opportunity to rapidly develop and deliver new curriculum covering SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. Methods A team of students and faculty at Indiana University developed a Fundamentals of COVID-19 course that included up-to-date information on the virology, immunology, and pathophysiology of COVID-19. The course was delivered online, with both synchronous and asynchronous activities. Virology and immunology of the coronavirus family, including current knowledge to-date of SARS-CoV-2, were delivered using a series of readings and brief videos, followed by a small group exercise that required students to choose and present to their peers a paper from the scientific literature on COVID-19. A similar approach was used to deliver content about the pathophysiology of COVID-19. To place the COVID-19 experience in context of other pandemics, students researched and educated their small group cohort on another historical pandemic. Results To measure course effectiveness, we administered a pre-course survey gauging students’ self-confidence in their knowledge of these topics; the same survey was administered after completion of the course. Surveys from 645 (89% of enrolled) 3rd and 4th year medical students who completed both surveys were analyzed. Results showed that the course elicited a 57% increase (p< 0.001) in students’ confidence in their knowledge of COVID-19 virology and immunology and a 64% increase (p< 0.001) in knowledge of the pathophysiology. Conclusion Data showed that the asynchronous content and group activities were successful in engaging and educating the students on foundational knowledge of COVID-19 and were an effective approach to rapidly evolving information when faced with a novel disease

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): testing galaxy formation models through the most massive galaxies in the Universe

We have analysed the growth of Brightest Group Galaxies and Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BGGs/BCGs) over the last 3 billion years using a large sample of 883 galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. By comparing the stellar mass of BGGs and BCGs in groups and clusters of similar dynamical masses, we find no significant growth between redshift z = 0.27 and 0.09. We also examine the number of BGGs/BCGs that have line emission, finding that approximately 65 per cent of BGGs/BCGs show Hα in emission. From the galaxies where the necessary spectroscopic lines were accurately recovered (54 per cent of the sample), we find that half of this (i.e. 27 per cent of the sample) harbour ongoing star formation with rates up to 10 M⊙ yr−1, and the other half (i.e. 27 per cent of the sample) have an active nucleus (AGN) at the centre. BGGs are more likely to have ongoing star formation, while BCGs show a higher fraction of AGN activity. By examining the position of the BGGs/BCGs with respect to their host dark matter halo, we find that around 13 per cent of them do not lie at the centre of the dark matter halo. This could be an indicator of recent cluster–cluster mergers. We conclude that BGGs and BCGs acquired their stellar mass rapidly at higher redshifts as predicted by semi-analytic models, mildly slowing down at low redshifts

Spectroscopy of the N=Z-2 nucleus Cr46 and mirror energy differences

Excited states in Cr46 were sought using the C12(Ar36,2n) reaction. Gamma rays were detected with the Gammasphere array, and the Z value of the reaction products was determined with an ionization chamber located at the focal plane of the Fragment Mass Analyzer. In addition to the ground-state band observed up to IÏ€=10+ (tentatively 12+), five states are proposed to belong to the 3- band. The mirror energy differences with the analog states in Ti46 present a pronounced staggering effect between the odd and even spin members that is reproduced well by shell-model calculations incorporating the different Coulomb contributions, monopole, multipole, and single-particle effects together with an isospin-nonconserving interaction that accounts for the so-called J=2 anomaly. Dramatically different E1 decay patterns for members of the 3- band between the Cr46 and Ti46 mirrors are also observed

Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) for resection of metastatic adenocarcinoma as an acceptable alternative

Adenocarcinomas commonly metastasize to the lungs and can be resected using open thoracotomy or video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). This study reviews metastatic resections in primary adenocarcinoma patients, using both thoracotomy and VATS. We aim to compare long-term prognoses to test the efficacy and viability of VATS. A retrospective review of primary adenocarcinoma patients who underwent resection of pulmonary metastases from 1990 to 2006 was carried out. Information was obtained by chart review. Endpoints analyzed were disease-free interval (DFI), survival time, and recurrence-free survival (RFS). In a total of 42 (16 male, 26 female; median age 58.5 years) primary adenocarcinoma patients, 21 patients underwent first pulmonary metastatic resection using VATS (7 male, 14 female; median age 57 years) and 21 using thoracotomy (9 male, 12 female; median age 59 years). Primary adenocarcinomas were mainly 27 colorectal (64%) and 11 breast (26%). Two VATS (10%) and three open patients (14%) had local recurrences of the original cancer. Median postoperative follow was 13.3 months [interquartile range (IQR) 4.5–32.8 months] for VATS and 36.9 months (IQR 19.3–48.6 months) after thoracotomy. Median DFI–1 was 22.3 months (IQR 13.5–40.6 months) for VATS patients and 35.6 months (IQR 26.7–61.3 months) for open patients. Second thoracic occurrences were noted in six VATS patients (median DFI–2 9.2 months), and in seven open patients (median DFI-2 21.5 months). Third thoracic occurrences were noted in one VATS patient (DFI-3 18.7 months) and in one thoracotomy patient (DFI-3 21.8 months). Odds ratio of recurrence showed 12.5% less chance of developing recurrence in VATS patients. Five-year RFS was 53% in VATS and 57% in thoracotomy patients. VATS has become a viable alternative to open thoracotomy for resection of pulmonary metastases. In cases of primary adenocarcinoma, VATS showed no increase in number of thoracic recurrences, and comparable RFS. Short-term follow-up is encouraging; long-term follow-up will be needed to confirm these results

The genomes of two key bumblebee species with primitive eusocial organization

Background: The shift from solitary to social behavior is one of the major evolutionary transitions. Primitively eusocial bumblebees are uniquely placed to illuminate the evolution of highly eusocial insect societies. Bumblebees are also invaluable natural and agricultural pollinators, and there is widespread concern over recent population declines in some species. High-quality genomic data will inform key aspects of bumblebee biology, including susceptibility to implicated population viability threats. Results: We report the high quality draft genome sequences of Bombus terrestris and Bombus impatiens, two ecologically dominant bumblebees and widely utilized study species. Comparing these new genomes to those of the highly eusocial honeybee Apis mellifera and other Hymenoptera, we identify deeply conserved similarities, as well as novelties key to the biology of these organisms. Some honeybee genome features thought to underpin advanced eusociality are also present in bumblebees, indicating an earlier evolution in the bee lineage. Xenobiotic detoxification and immune genes are similarly depauperate in bumblebees and honeybees, and multiple categories of genes linked to social organization, including development and behavior, show high conservation. Key differences identified include a bias in bumblebee chemoreception towards gustation from olfaction, and striking differences in microRNAs, potentially responsible for gene regulation underlying social and other traits. Conclusions: These two bumblebee genomes provide a foundation for post-genomic research on these key pollinators and insect societies. Overall, gene repertoires suggest that the route to advanced eusociality in bees was mediated by many small changes in many genes and processes, and not by notable expansion or depauperation

Observation of 46Cr and testing and isobaric multiplet mass equation at high spin

An experimental study was carried out to observe excited states in 46Cr using the 12C(36Ar,2n) reaction with GAMMASPHERE and the FMA. The yrast band in 46Cr and the T=1 states in 46V were established up to (tentatively) 12+, the highest spin T=1 triplet unknown. The results were used to test f p-shell model calculations

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): galaxy environments and star formation rate variations

We present a detailed investigation into the effects of galaxy environment on their star formation rates (SFRs) using galaxies observed in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. We use three independent volume-limited samples of galaxies within z < 0.2 and Mr < −17.8. We investigate the known SFR-density relationship and explore in detail the dependence of SFR on stellar mass and density. We show that the SFR-density trend is only visible when we include the passive galaxy population along with the star-forming population. This SFR-density relation is absent when we consider only the star-forming population of galaxies, consistent with previous work. While there is a strong dependence of the EWHα on density we find, as in previous studies, that these trends are largely due to the passive galaxy population and this relationship is absent when considering a ‘star-forming' sample of galaxies. We find that stellar mass has the strongest influence on SFR and EWHα with the environment having no significant effect on the star formation properties of the star-forming population. We also show that the SFR-density relationship is absent for both early- and late-type star-forming galaxies. We conclude that the stellar mass has the largest impact on the current SFR of a galaxy, and any environmental effect is not detectable. The observation that the trends with density are due to the changing morphology fraction with density implies that the time-scales must be very short for any quenching of the SFR in infalling galaxies. Alternatively, galaxies may in fact undergo predominantly in situ evolution where the infall and quenching of galaxies from the field into dense environments is not the dominant evolutionary mod