Self-Study In Patient Safety And Quality Improvement To Enhance Student Experience In Interprofessional Case Competition

Objective: The Interprofessional Student Advisory Team (IPSAT) at the University of New England (UNE) organized its 2nd interprofessional student case competition, modeled after the CLARION competition from the University of Minnesota. Completion of an online certificate in patient safety and quality improvement from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Open School was added as a pre-requisite to participation in the 2014 competition. Completion of this program was predicted to improve student preparedness and confidence and facilitate interprofessional teamwork during their case preparation. Conclusions: Survey results indicate an increase in student confidence and preparedness for interprofessional teamwork during the 2014 UNE IPSAT case competition. Survey research was limited by a small number of completed surveys, a delay in IRB approval and unfamiliarity with the IRB suggested survey software. IPSAT student leaders at UNE will continue to require completion of the IHI Open School Basic Certificate as a prerequisite for enrollment in future IPSAT case competitions.https://dune.une.edu/minigrant_ipsat2014/1000/thumbnail.jp

Zephyr: The Thirteenth Issue

This is the thirteenth issue of Zephyr, the University of New England\u27s journal of creative expression. Since 2000, Zephyr has published original drawings, paintings, photography, prose, and verse created by current and former members of the University community. Zephyr\u27s Editorial Board is made up exclusively of matriculating students.https://dune.une.edu/zephyr/1012/thumbnail.jp

Iron Complexes With Tetradentate Aromatic Ligands For Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation

Fossil fuels are a critical component of the world’s current energy system and have sustained a 10-fold global population growth since the Industrial Revolution. However, the combustion of fossil fuels has negatively impacted the health of the environment and atmosphere. Artificial photosynthesis (AP) is a promising energy alternative to fossil fuels that can generate hydrogen gas as a fuel source from aqueous solutions with a catalyst, chromophore, and electron donor system. Hydrogen is a highly desirable fuel source, as the only products from hydrogen fuel cells are electricity and pure water. It is vital to discover novel catalysts for hydrogen generation. Precious metal catalysts are cost prohibitive and rare, which can restrict scaling hydrogen production up to industrial levels. Optimizing catalysts using earth-abundant first row transition metals to be covalently bonded to TiO2 nanoparticles (NP) can be a stable, efficient, and cost-effective alternative to precious metal catalytic systems. By immobilizing effective molecular catalysts on TiO2, the catalyst can be recycled after the degradation of the chromophore and electron donor for additional hydrogen generation, and can be utilized in sea water to produce fuel and pure water from impure water systems

The impact of premorbid and current intellect in schizophrenia:Cognitive, symptom, and functional outcomes

BACKGROUND: Cognitive heterogeneity among people with schizophrenia has been defined on the basis of premorbid and current intelligence quotient (IQ) estimates. In a relatively large, community cohort, we aimed to independently replicate and extend cognitive subtyping work by determining the extent of symptom severity and functional deficits in each group. METHODS: A total of 635 healthy controls and 534 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were recruited through the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank. Patients were classified into cognitive subgroups on the basis of the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (a premorbid IQ estimate) and current overall cognitive abilities into preserved, deteriorated, and compromised groups using both clinical and empirical (k-means clustering) methods. Additional cognitive, functional, and symptom outcomes were compared among the resulting groups. RESULTS: A total of 157 patients (29%) classified as 'preserved' performed within one s.d. of control means in all cognitive domains. Patients classified as 'deteriorated' (n = 239, 44%) performed more than one s.d. below control means in all cognitive domains except estimated premorbid IQ and current visuospatial abilities. A separate 138 patients (26%), classified as 'compromised,' performed more than one s.d. below control means in all cognitive domains and displayed greater impairment than other groups on symptom and functional measures. CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, we independently replicated our previous cognitive classifications of people with schizophrenia. In addition, we extended previous work by demonstrating worse functional outcomes and symptom severity in the compromised group