Using a Smartphone App to Teach Students Practical Epidemiological Skills

Background: Despite the evidence that shows the pedagogical benefits of experiential education, epidemiology instructors rarely utlize experiential activities to teach epidemiological concepts and skills. Poster presented at 8th annual 2016 Thomas Jefferson University Faculty Days

Cytoplasmic human TDP-43 mislocalization induces widespread dendritic spine loss in mouse upper motor neurons

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is defined by the destruction of upper- and lowermotor neurons. Post-mortem, nearly all ALS cases are positive for cytoplasmic aggregates containingthe DNA/RNA binding protein TDP-43. Recent studies indicate that this pathogenic mislocalizationof TDP-43 may participate in generating hyperexcitability of the upper motor neurons, the earliestdetectable change in ALS patients, yet the mechanisms driving this remain unclear. We investigatedhow mislocalisation of TDP-43 could initiate network dysfunction in ALS. We employed a tetracyclineinducible system to express either human wildtype TDP-43 (TDP-43WT) or human TDP-43 that cannotenter the nucleus (TDP-43∆NLS) in excitatory neurons (Camk2α promoter), crossed Thy1-YFPH miceto visualize dendritic spines, the major site of excitatory synapses. In comparison to both TDP-43WTand controls, TDP-43∆NLS drove a robust loss in spine density in all the dendrite regions of theupper motor neurons, most affecting thin spines. This indicates that TDP-43 is involved in thegeneration of network dysfunction in ALS likely through impacting the formation or durability ofexcitatory synapses. These findings are relevant to the vast majority of ALS cases, and providesfurther evidence that upper motor neurons may need to be protected from TDP-43 mediated synapticexcitatory changes early in disease

Developing and Integrating the Management of Elder Abuse in Primary Practice: A Case Study Using A Web-Based CME Course Format

Introduction: As the population in the United States continues to age, more attention in primary practice settings is now devoted toward managing the care of the elderly. The occurrence of elder abuse is a growing problem. It is a condition many professionals in primary care may be ill prepared with the knowledge or resources to identify and manage. [See PDF for complete abstract

Improving the impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions during COVID-19: examining the factors that influence engagement and the impact on individuals

Background: During an evolving outbreak or pandemic, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) including physicaldistancing, isolation, and mask use may flatten the peak in communities. However, these strategies rely on communityunderstanding and motivation to engage to ensure appropriate compliance and impact. To support current activitiesfor COVID-19, the objectives of this narrative review was to identify the key determinants impacting on engagement.Methods: An integrative narrative literature review focused on NPIs. We aimed to identify published peer-reviewedarticles that focused on the general community (excluding healthcare workers), NPIs (including school closure,quarantine, isolation, physical distancing and hygiene behaviours), and factors/characteristics (including social, physical,psychological, capacity, motivation, economic and demographic) that impact on engagement.Results: The results revealed that there are a range of demographic, social and psychological factors underpinningengagement with quarantine, school closures, and personal protective behaviours. Aside from the factors impacting onacceptance and compliance, there are several key community concerns about their use that need to be addressedincluding the potential for economic consequences.Conclusion: It is important that we acknowledge that these strategies will have an impact on an individual and thecommunity. By understanding the barriers, we can identify what strategies need to be adopted to motivate individualsand improve community compliance. Using a behavioural framework to plan interventions based on these key barriers,will also ensure countries implement appropriate and targeted responses

Modular Design via Multiple Anion Chemistry of the High Mobility van der Waals Semiconductor Bi₄O₄SeCl₂

Making new van der Waals materials with electronic or magnetic functionality is a chemical design challenge for the development of two-dimensional nanoelectronic and energy conversion devices. We present the synthesis and properties of the van der Waals material Bi4O4SeCl2, which is a 1:1 superlattice of the structural units present in the van der Waals insulator BiOCl and the three-dimensionally connected semiconductor Bi2O2Se. The presence of three anions gives the new structure both the bridging selenide anion sites that connect pairs of Bi2O2 layers in Bi2O2Se and the terminal chloride sites that produce the van der Waals gap in BiOCl. This retains the electronic properties of Bi2O2Se while reducing the dimensionality of the bonding network connecting the Bi2O2Se units to allow exfoliation of Bi4O4SeCl2 to 1.4 nm height. The superlattice structure is stabilized by the configurational entropy of anion disorder across the terminal and bridging sites. The reduction in connective dimensionality with retention of electronic functionality stems from the expanded anion compositional diversity

Detection of weak gravitational lensing distortions of distant galaxies by cosmic dark matter at large scales

Most of the matter in the universe is not luminous and can be observed directly only through its gravitational effect. An emerging technique called weak gravitational lensing uses background galaxies to reveal the foreground dark matter distribution on large scales. Light from very distant galaxies travels to us through many intervening overdensities which gravitationally distort their apparent shapes. The observed ellipticity pattern of these distant galaxies thus encodes information about the large-scale structure of the universe, but attempts to measure this effect have been inconclusive due to systematic errors. We report the first detection of this ``cosmic shear'' using 145,000 background galaxies to reveal the dark matter distribution on angular scales up to half a degree in three separate lines of sight. The observed angular dependence of this effect is consistent with that predicted by two leading cosmological models, providing new and independent support for these models.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures: To appear in Nature. (This replacement fixes tex errors and typos.

Highly Absorbing Lead-Free Semiconductor Cu₂AgBiI₆ for Photovoltaic Applications from the Quaternary CuI-AgI-BiI₃ Phase Space

Since the emergence of lead halide perovskites for photovoltaic research, there has been mounting effort in the search for alternative compounds with improved or complementary physical, chemical, or optoelectronic properties. Here, we report the discovery of Cu_{2}AgBiI_{6}: a stable, inorganic, lead-free wide-band-gap semiconductor, well suited for use in lead-free tandem photovoltaics. We measure a very high absorption coefficient of 1.0 × 10^{5} cm^{–1} near the absorption onset, several times that of CH_{3}NH_{3}PbI_{3}. Solution-processed Cu2AgBiI6 thin films show a direct band gap of 2.06(1) eV, an exciton binding energy of 25 meV, a substantial charge-carrier mobility (1.7 cm^{2} V^{–1} s^{–1}), a long photoluminescence lifetime (33 ns), and a relatively small Stokes shift between absorption and emission. Crucially, we solve the structure of the first quaternary compound in the phase space among CuI, AgI and BiI_{3}. The structure includes both tetrahedral and octahedral species which are open to compositional tuning and chemical substitution to further enhance properties. Since the proposed double-perovskite Cs2AgBiI6 thin films have not been synthesized to date, Cu_{2}AgBiI_{6} is a valuable example of a stable Ag^{+}/Bi^{3+} octahedral motif in a close-packed iodide sublattice that is accessed via the enhanced chemical diversity of the quaternary phase space