The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease

This open access book is a systematic update of the philosophical and scientific foundations of the biopsychosocial model of health, disease and healthcare. First proposed by George Engel 40 years ago, the Biopsychosocial Model is much cited in healthcare settings worldwide, but has been increasingly criticised for being vague, lacking in content, and in need of reworking in the light of recent developments. The book confronts the rapid changes to psychological science, neuroscience, healthcare, and philosophy that have occurred since the model was first proposed and addresses key issues such as the model’s scientific basis, clinical utility, and philosophical coherence. The authors conceptualise biology and the psychosocial as in the same ontological space, interlinked by systems of communication-based regulatory control which constitute a new kind of causation. These are distinguished from physical and chemical laws, most clearly because they can break down, thus providing the basis for difference between health and disease. This work offers an urgent update to the model’s scientific and philosophical foundations, providing a new and coherent account of causal interactions between the biological, the psychological and social

Identifying Barriers to Justice for Formerly Incarcerated Women of Color in Connecticut

Identifying specific challenges faced by women of color transitioning out of the prison system in Connecticut is critical to developing comprehensive support services following incarceration. However, there is little research on how race, gender, and past incarceration intersect to form unique barriers to justice for formerly incarcerated women of color. Disseminating a digital survey to formerly incarcerated women of color affiliated with the Connecticut nonprofit, Her Time, we collected primarily quantitative data to assess which social services were and were not received and identify the role of Her Time in supporting clients following incarceration. We found that transportation, housing, and employment support were the most frequently requested services following incarceration for respondents, that Her Time was most effective in providing participants with community support, PTSD resources, and education services. These findings have implications for Her Time, the Connecticut re-entry system, and formerly incarcerated Black and Brown women

PubChem3D: Diversity of shape

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The shape diversity of 16.4 million biologically relevant molecules from the PubChem Compound database and their 1.46 billion diverse conformers was explored as a function of molecular volume.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The diversity of shape space was investigated by determining the shape similarity threshold to achieve a maximum on the count of reference shapes per unit of conformer volume. The rate of growth in shape space, as represented by a decreasing shape similarity threshold, was found to be remarkably smooth as a function of volume. There was no apparent correlation between the count of conformers per unit volume and their diversity, meaning that a single reference shape can describe the shape space of many chemical structures. The ability of a volume to describe the shape space of lesser volumes was also examined. It was shown that a given volume was able to describe 40-70% of the shape diversity of lesser volumes, for the majority of the volume range considered in this study.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The relative growth of shape diversity as a function of volume and shape similarity is surprisingly uniform. Given the distribution of chemicals in PubChem versus what is theoretically synthetically possible, the results from this analysis should be considered a conservative estimate to the true diversity of shape space.</p

Emotional labour and wellbeing: what protects nurses?

Although compassionate care has wide-ranging benefits for patients, it can be emotionally demanding for healthcare staff. This may be a particular problem for those with little experience in a caring role. This study utilises the job demands-resources model to examine links between “emotional labour” and emotional exhaustion in student nurses. In line with the triple-match principle—whereby interactive effects are more likely when job demands, resources, and outcomes are within the same qualitative domain—the protective role of emotional support and emotion-focused coping (i.e., emotional venting) in the relationship between emotional labour and exhaustion is also explored. An online questionnaire was completed by 351 student nurses with experience working in healthcare settings. A strong positive relationship was found between emotional labour and emotional exhaustion, and some support was found for the moderating effects of emotional support and emotion-focused coping. Ways to help student and qualified nurses develop the emotional resilience required to protect their wellbeing, while providing high-quality compassionate care to patients are considered

PubChem3D: Similar conformers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>PubChem is a free and open public resource for the biological activities of small molecules. With many tens of millions of both chemical structures and biological test results, PubChem is a sizeable system with an uneven degree of available information. Some chemical structures in PubChem include a great deal of biological annotation, while others have little to none. To help users, PubChem pre-computes "neighboring" relationships to relate similar chemical structures, which may have similar biological function. In this work, we introduce a "Similar Conformers" neighboring relationship to identify compounds with similar 3-D shape and similar 3-D orientation of functional groups typically used to define pharmacophore features.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The first two diverse 3-D conformers of 26.1 million PubChem Compound records were compared to each other, using a shape Tanimoto (ST) of 0.8 or greater and a color Tanimoto (CT) of 0.5 or greater, yielding 8.16 billion conformer neighbor pairs and 6.62 billion compound neighbor pairs, with an average of 253 "Similar Conformers" compound neighbors per compound. Comparing the 3-D neighboring relationship to the corresponding 2-D neighboring relationship ("Similar Compounds") for molecules such as caffeine, aspirin, and morphine, one finds unique sets of related chemical structures, providing additional significant biological annotation. The PubChem 3-D neighboring relationship is also shown to be able to group a set of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), despite limited PubChem 2-D similarity.</p> <p>In a study of 4,218 chemical structures of biomedical interest, consisting of many known drugs, using more diverse conformers per compound results in more 3-D compound neighbors per compound; however, the overlap of the compound neighbor lists per conformer also increasingly resemble each other, being 38% identical at three conformers and 68% at ten conformers. Perhaps surprising is that the average count of conformer neighbors per conformer increases rather slowly as a function of diverse conformers considered, with only a 70% increase for a ten times growth in conformers per compound (a 68-fold increase in the conformer pairs considered).</p> <p>Neighboring 3-D conformers on the scale performed, if implemented naively, is an intractable problem using a modest sized compute cluster. Methodology developed in this work relies on a series of filters to prevent performing 3-D superposition optimization, when it can be determined that two conformers cannot possibly be a neighbor. Most filters are based on Tanimoto equation volume constraints, avoiding incompatible conformers; however, others consider preliminary superposition between conformers using reference shapes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The "Similar Conformers" 3-D neighboring relationship locates similar small molecules of biological interest that may go unnoticed when using traditional 2-D chemical structure graph-based methods, making it complementary to such methodologies. The computational cost of 3-D similarity methodology on a wide scale, such as PubChem contents, is a considerable issue to overcome. Using a series of efficient filters, an effective throughput rate of more than 150,000 conformers per second per processor core was achieved, more than two orders of magnitude faster than without filtering.</p

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 1, Edition 2

Contents: Developing Subject Knowledge for Secondary English teaching during a pandemic by Fiona Darby Are teachers trained to deliver the kind of education needed for the twentyfirst century? by Joanne Hill and Simon Spencer Reflections on preparing university staff for a non-judgemental, inquirybased model of peer observation: opportunities and challenges by Ilana Pressick, Kath MinettWaller, Joanne Thomas and Matt O’Leary How prepared are primary pre-service teachers in delivering physical education as they approach their NQT Year? by Grant Huddleston Evaluation of a Social Constructivist approach to education: How questioning, scaffolding and modelling can be used to address said misconception by Siobhan Taylor Current Enquiry and Practice Classroom Behaviour: The relationship between self-efficacy and its impact on newly qualified teachers by Izaaz Varachhia Tune-Up Tuesday: Re-valuing the role of arts in education by Dr. Chris Bolton and Adele Waites The Problems with PEE-ing by Nina Matthews ‘Bringing Construction into the Classroom’ – A trainee teacher’s experience of developing the Construction and Built Environment programme at Halesowen College by Alexandra Roche The Importance of Physical Education within the National Curriculum by Oliver Quinton Individual Enquiry and Scholarship Tackling the issue of Race on pupil’s attainment and wellbeing by Faizah Mehmood A critical analysis of the aims of the English Baccalaureate, and its implications for professional practice and student learning: a conference paper by David Weber Being a Gay Male PE teacher: a biographical insight by Andrew Prestidge How much do you really know about eating disorders? by Carolina Mountford Too blessed to be stressed: What are the implications of work related stress on teacher retention? by Elise Jones Be Wary Of Hattie’s Use Of Meta-Analyses And Effect Sizes by Nikki Booth UK Education and the Covid-19 Pandemic 2020-21 by Megan Daly From mathematician to all-rounder - an autoethnographic account of training to teach and evolving identities by Beth Garret

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 1, Edition 1

Welcome to the Birmingham City University (BCU) Education Journal Magazine (EJM). We are excited to be publishing ten fantastic articles from across our education degrees and partnership in this edition. As we are all aware, 2020 has proven to be a very challenging year for everybody, regardless of who they are and what they do. Education in particular has faced its own challenges, remaining open throughout a national lockdown and for schools to plan for this within a very short time frame. How schools move forwards with current social distancing guidelines has also proven to be challenging; so hopefully this publication can offer some support, ideas and suggestions on how you could reflect and develop your own practice moving forwards. Contents: The Role of the ITT Subject Mentor by Kerry Taylor Facilitating Mentoring in Secondary Physical Education: A Mentor’s Perspective by Mike Stimpson How can trainee teachers manage pupil behaviour and differentiate appropriately to ensure effective progress is made by all pupils? by Kelly Slade Economies of Performance, Ecologies of Practice and Communities of Discovery: A collaborative approach to support Newly Qualified Teachers and their teacher identity by Dr. Chris Bolton Think POSH and use SPACE by Grant Huddleston The Rise of the ‘Tweecher’ by Kelly Davey-Nicklin The Gordian Knot of Teaching: Lockdown by Jessica Murtagh Expanding Low-Ability Students Vocabulary via Vygotsky’s Principles by Jasmin Gill There’s Always an Alternative by Stephen Sharp Academic Ableism in Higher Education by Dr. Shrehan Lynch & Dr. John Mackli

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 1, Edition 3

Contents: Eight reasons why contributing to the journal is worthwhile by Grant Huddleston My approach to the pastoral life of the school: a biographical journey towards becoming an effective pastoral lead by Nicky McManus Variation between Policy and Practice? A Critical Examination of Variation Theory in Primary Mathematics Policy and Practice by Declan Forde To what extent does children’s literature, written to address sensitive topics, support the emotional well-being of children during personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education in UK primary schools? Part One by Katie Goodacre To what extent does children’s literature, written to address sensitive topics, support the emotional well-being of children during personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education in UK primary schools? Part Two by Katie Goodacre What can you say without even saying it? By Emily Marsden Current Enquiry and Practice English as an Additional Language: My Journey of Training to Teach by Airina Trincheri Gordon Commonly heard abbreviations in English schools: A help sheet for new teachers and teachers with EAL by Grant Huddleston Teaching and Assessing Early Acquisition by Rebecca Harrison-Brandon Should we app-prove digital parental communication? By Emily Marsden Differing approaches to the education of five to seven year olds: A comparison of England and Estonia by Laura Williams Individual Enquiry and Scholarship The Introduction of School Resource Management: How the government is changing the way schools set their budgets by Ian Dawes Overcoming colour blindness in the classroom- an inquiry into race and ethnicity in practice by Nancy Ling Where are tomorrow’s female scientists? By Harriet Field Involving everyday machines in computing education by Alex Ghimic

PubChem3D: a new resource for scientists

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>PubChem is an open repository for small molecules and their experimental biological activity. PubChem integrates and provides search, retrieval, visualization, analysis, and programmatic access tools in an effort to maximize the utility of contributed information. There are many diverse chemical structures with similar biological efficacies against targets available in PubChem that are difficult to interrelate using traditional 2-D similarity methods. A new layer called PubChem3D is added to PubChem to assist in this analysis.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>PubChem generates a 3-D conformer model description for 92.3% of all records in the PubChem Compound database (when considering the parent compound of salts). Each of these conformer models is sampled to remove redundancy, guaranteeing a minimum (non-hydrogen atom pair-wise) RMSD between conformers. A diverse conformer ordering gives a maximal description of the conformational diversity of a molecule when only a subset of available conformers is used. A pre-computed search per compound record gives immediate access to a set of 3-D similar compounds (called "Similar Conformers") in PubChem and their respective superpositions. Systematic augmentation of PubChem resources to include a 3-D layer provides users with new capabilities to search, subset, visualize, analyze, and download data.</p> <p>A series of retrospective studies help to demonstrate important connections between chemical structures and their biological function that are not obvious using 2-D similarity but are readily apparent by 3-D similarity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The addition of PubChem3D to the existing contents of PubChem is a considerable achievement, given the scope, scale, and the fact that the resource is publicly accessible and free. With the ability to uncover latent structure-activity relationships of chemical structures, while complementing 2-D similarity analysis approaches, PubChem3D represents a new resource for scientists to exploit when exploring the biological annotations in PubChem.</p

Dose-dependent alkaloid sequestration and N-methylation of decahydroquinoline in poison frogs

Sequestration of chemical defenses from dietary sources is dependent on the availability of compounds in the environment and the mechanism of sequestration. Previous experiments have shown that sequestration efficiency varies among alkaloids in poison frogs, but little is known about the underlying mechanism. The aim of this study was to quantify the extent to which alkaloid sequestration and modification are dependent on alkaloid availability and/or sequestration mechanism. To do this, we administered different doses of histrionicotoxin (HTX) 235A and decahydroquinoline (DHQ) to captive‐bred Adelphobates galactonotus and measured alkaloid quantity in muscle, kidney, liver, and feces. HTX 235A and DHQ were detected in all organs, whereas only DHQ was present in trace amounts in feces. For both liver and skin, the quantity of alkaloid accumulated increased at higher doses for both alkaloids. Accumulation efficiency in the skin increased at higher doses for HTX 235A but remained constant for DHQ. In contrast, the efficiency of HTX 235A accumulation in the liver was inversely related to dose and a similar, albeit statistically nonsignificant, pattern was observed for DHQ. We identified and quantified the N‐methylation of DHQ in A. galactonotus, which represents a previously unknown example of alkaloid modification in poison frogs. Our study suggests that variation in alkaloid composition among individuals and species can result from differences in sequestration efficiency related to the type and amount of alkaloids available in the environment