The Spanish Conquest of Mexico: History and Legacy

Components: “The Spanish Conquest of Mexico” and “Chamula: A small indigenous village in Chiapas” (World History; Grade 10)Latin American Studie

Hand sanitizer intoxication in disguise: A case study

Background Hand Sanitizer intoxication often presents nonspecific symptoms like tachycardia, drowsiness, vomiting, and abdominal pain that can delay diagnosis and lead to more serious consequences like seizure and coma (Slaughter, 2014; Lacouture, 1983). This case describes a patient with sudden onset of altered mental status that resolved within 24 hour that was later found to be secondary to hand sanitizer intoxication. Case Patient is a 33-year-old female with history unspecified depressive disorder, alcohol dependence, and generalized anxiety disorder admitted to medicine floor in hospital for treatment of alcohol withdrawal. Patient was placed on CIWA protocol, given IV thiamine, and treated as indicated by CIWA and the patient improved. On day 5 of her hospital stay, the patient experienced an unwitnessed fall and was found on the floor with altered mental status. The patient’s UDS was negative and she returned back to her baseline within 24 hours. After being transferred to Crisis Center for language suspicious for suicidality, the patient revealed that she had ingested 2 large cups of hand sanitizer before her unwitnessed fall. Discussion As hand sanitizer use has become essential to the hospital experience and infectious disease control, knowledge of the complications of hand sanitizer ingestion and poison education should also be as widespread. Understanding hand sanitizer intoxication, the way it presents, and its complications are important for early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of further disease

Overcoming barriers to engaging socio-economically disadvantaged populations in CHD primary prevention: a qualitative study

<p><b>Background:</b> Preventative medicine has become increasingly important in efforts to reduce the burden of chronic disease in industrialised countries. However, interventions that fail to recruit socio-economically representative samples may widen existing health inequalities. This paper explores the barriers and facilitators to engaging a socio-economically disadvantaged (SED) population in primary prevention for coronary heart disease (CHD).</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> The primary prevention element of Have a Heart Paisley (HaHP) offered risk screening to all eligible individuals. The programme employed two approaches to engaging with the community: a) a social marketing campaign and b) a community development project adopting primarily face-to-face canvassing. Individuals living in areas of SED were under-recruited via the social marketing approach, but successfully recruited via face-to-face canvassing. This paper reports on focus group discussions with participants, exploring their perceptions about and experiences of both approaches.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Various reasons were identified for low uptake of risk screening amongst individuals living in areas of high SED in response to the social marketing campaign and a number of ways in which the face-to-face canvassing approach overcame these barriers were identified. These have been categorised into four main themes: (1) processes of engagement; (2) issues of understanding; (3) design of the screening service and (4) the priority accorded to screening. The most immediate barriers to recruitment were the invitation letter, which often failed to reach its target, and the general distrust of postal correspondence. In contrast, participants were positive about the face-to-face canvassing approach. Participants expressed a lack of knowledge and understanding about CHD and their risk of developing it and felt there was a lack of clarity in the information provided in the mailing in terms of the process and value of screening. In contrast, direct face-to-face contact meant that outreach workers could explain what to expect. Participants felt that the procedure for uptake of screening was demanding and inflexible, but that the drop-in sessions employed by the community development project had a major impact on recruitment and retention.</p> <p><b>Conclusion:</b> Socio-economically disadvantaged individuals can be hard-to-reach; engagement requires strategies tailored to the needs of the target population rather than a population-wide approach.</p&gt

Transiting Exoplanet Studies and Community Targets for JWST's Early Release Science Program

The James Webb Space Telescope will revolutionize transiting exoplanet atmospheric science due to its capability for continuous, long-duration observations and its larger collecting area, spectral coverage, and spectral resolution compared to existing space-based facilities. However, it is unclear precisely how well JWST will perform and which of its myriad instruments and observing modes will be best suited for transiting exoplanet studies. In this article, we describe a prefatory JWST Early Release Science (ERS) program that focuses on testing specific observing modes to quickly give the community the data and experience it needs to plan more efficient and successful future transiting exoplanet characterization programs. We propose a multi-pronged approach wherein one aspect of the program focuses on observing transits of a single target with all of the recommended observing modes to identify and understand potential systematics, compare transmission spectra at overlapping and neighboring wavelength regions, confirm throughputs, and determine overall performances. In our search for transiting exoplanets that are well suited to achieving these goals, we identify 12 objects (dubbed "community targets") that meet our defined criteria. Currently, the most favorable target is WASP-62b because of its large predicted signal size, relatively bright host star, and location in JWST's continuous viewing zone. Since most of the community targets do not have well-characterized atmospheres, we recommend initiating preparatory observing programs to determine the presence of obscuring clouds/hazes within their atmospheres. Measurable spectroscopic features are needed to establish the optimal resolution and wavelength regions for exoplanet characterization. Other initiatives from our proposed ERS program include testing the instrument brightness limits and performing phase-curve observations.(Abridged)Comment: This is a white paper that originated from an open discussion at the Enabling Transiting Exoplanet Science with JWST workshop held November 16 - 18, 2015 at STScI (http://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science/exoplanets). Accepted for publication in PAS

Eradication of intracellular Francisella tularensis in THP-1 human macrophages with a novel autophagy inducing agent

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Where am I now and where do I want to be? Developing awareness of graduate attributes in pre-honours students.

There is increasing emphasis on the importance of making Graduate Attributes (GAs) explicit to students as part of their degree programme and the role of students themselves in proactively developing GAs. The aim of the present project was to encourage students to actively develop and reflect upon curricular and extra-curricular attributes at an earlier stage in their degree programme. To this end we developed and evaluated short-self-reflection exercises in second year (pre-honours) psychology practical classes which asked students to reflect on their curricular and extra-curricular activities and on how the practical skills gained from these activities are linked to graduate attributes.  Activities were followed by careers workshops focused on gaining confidence in communicating graduate attributes in an interview context, and the benefits of engaging with professional networking sites. We evaluated the impact of these activities on: 1) students’ levels of self-efficacy in specific GAs before and after the in-class exercises; 2) students' confidence in presenting their GAs in an interview situation; 3) student awareness of professional networking sites.  The activities resulted in increased self- efficacy ratings after the GAS reflection, increased confidence in presenting their GAs after the careers workshops, and an increased awareness of professional networking sites. The effectiveness of these activities as a method to increase student engagement in developing their GAs will be discussed in the wider context of embedding GAs and employability in pre-honours programmes across STEM disciplines. Keywords: Graduate attributes, employability, self-efficacy, pre-honours, professional networkin

Reliability of Surgical Margin Labels Using 3D Radiographic Software

Introduction: Surgical resection is a primary treatment for head and neck cancers that improves prognosis and quality of life for patients. Margin assessment is a critical component in this process as positive margins are associated with poor clinical outcomes. However, there is a lack of consensus on how surgical margins should be labeled for accurate origin identification. The objective of this project is to determine the difference in interpretation of surgical margin labels between and within Thomas Jefferson otolaryngologists and pathologists. Methods: Adults with head and neck cancer who underwent surgical resection were identified. Pre-operative head and neck CT DICOM files were obtained, and a 3D segmentation of the tumor was generated and validated by radiology. For each surgical specimen, the pathology report designating the text-based label for each surgical margin was obtained. Study subjects include Thomas Jefferson otolaryngologists and pathologists. Each subject will identify and mark surgical margins on each segmented tumor based on the text-based label. The mean difference for each surgical margin coordinate dimension (x, y, z) will be calculated and compared between and within each group using a paired t-test. Results: Anticipated results include variation in surgical margin origin between and within Thomas Jefferson otolaryngologists and pathologists. Preliminary data indicates lack of significant inter-surgeon reliability in the x dimension (p \u3e 0.02). Discussion: This study demonstrates inconsistent surgical margin labeling interpretation, suggesting a need for optimization and standardization. An optimized protocol has the potential to improve clinical outcomes for patients with head and neck cancers

Needle-Free Delivery of Acetalated Dextran-Encapsulated AR-12 Protects Mice from Francisella tularensis Lethal Challenge

ABSTRACT Francisella tularensis causes tularemia and is a potential biothreat. Given the limited antibiotics for treating tularemia and the possible use of antibiotic-resistant strains as a biowarfare agent, new antibacterial agents are needed. AR-12 is an FDA-approved investigational new drug (IND) compound that induces autophagy and has shown host-directed, broad-spectrum activity in vitro against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and F. tularensis . We have shown that AR-12 encapsulated within acetalated dextran (Ace-DEX) microparticles (AR-12/MPs) significantly reduces host cell cytotoxicity compared to that with free AR-12, while retaining the ability to control S. Typhimurium within infected human macrophages. In the present study, the toxicity and efficacy of AR-12/MPs in controlling virulent type A F. tularensis SchuS4 infection were examined in vitro and in vivo . No significant toxicity of blank MPs or AR-12/MPs was observed in lung histology sections when the formulations were given intranasally to uninfected mice. In histology sections from the lungs of intranasally infected mice treated with the formulations, increased macrophage infiltration was observed for AR-12/MPs, with or without suboptimal gentamicin treatment, but not for blank MPs, soluble AR-12, or suboptimal gentamicin alone. AR-12/MPs dramatically reduced the burden of F. tularensis in infected human macrophages, in a manner similar to that of free AR-12. However, in vivo , AR-12/MPs significantly enhanced the survival of F. tularensis SchuS4-infected mice compared to that seen with free AR-12. In combination with suboptimal gentamicin treatment, AR-12/MPs further improved the survival of F. tularensis SchuS4-infected mice. These studies provide support for Ace-DEX-encapsulated AR-12 as a promising new therapeutic agent for tularemia