Vol. 39, No. 3

Possible Wisdom and Wit Regarding the Arbitration of Discipline By Jerry Marzullo, Esq., and Catherine Humphreyhttps://scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/iperr/1127/thumbnail.jp

Interprofessional Education: A Team Approach in the Classroom

Interprofessional education is an increasingly common component of course work for health care professionals. Extant research provides examples of these collaborations across multiple health disciplines, however, there is no research that addresses interprofessional education between the fields of occupational therapy and dietetics. This study was conducted in order to fill the gap of extant research related to unique collaborations between occupational therapy and dietetics. The Interprofessional Attitudes Scale was given to occupational therapy and dietetic students pre/post participation in an interprofessional, active learning, educational case-study. There was one item on the scale that demonstrated a statistically significant change (“shared learning before graduation will help me become a better team worker”), while all other items showed only a slight positive increase. While this study suggests that students value interprofessional education, there is further research needed to determine what types of interprofessional education are most impactful for students at various levels of education

ANTIDEPRESSANTS AND HYPONATREMIA IN A PATIENT WITH COLECTOMY – A CASE REPORT

Antidepressants are routinely used by General Practitioners (GP) as well as Psychiatrists to treat Depression. They are tolerated well. However, in certain patient populations, they are associated with SIADH (Syndrome of Inappropriate Anti-Diuretic Hormone Secretion) and Hyponatremia. Various research studies have shown that all antidepressants are associated with Hyponatremia. Hyponatremia as a side effect of antidepressant therapy is more commonly seen in old age, chronic Kidney disease and Hypothyroidism. Untreated Hyponatremia could lead to life threatening emergencies including Cerebral oedema, brain damage and coma. In this article, the authors discuss a 63 year old patient who suffered from Bipolar Disorder Type 2. He was treated with antidepressants (mainly Paroxetine) on and off for 30 years, without much side effects, until 2014. In July 2012, he underwent subtotal colectomy with ileorectal anastomosis as a management of adeno carcinoma of Colon. In April 2013, Paroxetine was stopped as he was well. He developed first episode of mania in July 2014. This was managed with Olanzapine. However, he soon developed a Depressive episode and severe Anxiety. He was restarted on Paroxetine and the dose was increased up to 50 mg along with Olanzapine 15 mg per day. As he did not improve, he was switched to Sertraline with which he developed Hyponatremia. Further to this, he was tried on Venlafaxine and Lofepramine and he developed Hyponatremia with both of them. Considering the severity of Depression, he was started on Mirtazapine and the dose was titrated to 45 mg. With this dose his serum Sodium levels were stable but his Depression persisted. Fluoxetine augmentation at this stage by the GP led to another episode of Hyponatremia. Hence, he was started on Aripiprazole 5 mg as an augmentation agent. His Depression improved reasonably (though he did not remit fully). Recently, he has been started on Vortioxetine and the dose has been titrated to 15 mg OD and in addition, he is on Mirtazapine 45 mg OD and Aripiprazole 5 mg OD. His Sodium levels have been stable and his Depression has improved. This is the first time we have come across a patient with colectomy developing severe Hyponatremia. In this article, we have discussed possible reasons for Hyponatremia following colectomy and the management strategies that could help

It Takes a Community to Raise the Prevalence of a Zoonotic Pathogen

By definition, zoonotic pathogens are not strict host-species specialists in that they infect humans and at least one nonhuman reservoir species. The majority of zoonotic pathogens infect and are amplified by multiple vertebrate species in nature, each of which has a quantitatively different impact on the distribution and abundance of the pathogen and thus on disease risk. Unfortunately, when new zoonotic pathogens emerge, the dominant response by public health scientists is to search for a few, or even the single, most important reservoirs and to ignore other species that might strongly influence transmission. This focus on the single “primary” reservoir host species can delay biological understanding, and potentially public health interventions as species important in either amplifying or regulating the pathogen are overlooked. Investigating the evolutionary and ecological strategy of newly discovered or emerging pathogens within the community of potential and actual host species will be fruitful to both biological understanding and public health

Supporting parent-child conversations in a history museum

BACKGROUND: Museums can serve as rich resources for families to learn about the social world through engagement with exhibits and parent-child conversation about exhibits. AIMS: This study examined ways of engaging parents and child about two related exhibits at a cultural and history museum. Sample participants consisted of families visiting the Animal Antics and the Gone Potty exhibits at the British Museum. METHODS: Whilst visiting two exhibits at the British Museum, 30 families were assigned to use a backpack of activities, 13 were assigned to a booklet of activities, and 15 were assigned to visit the exhibits without props (control condition). RESULTS: Compared to the families in the control condition, the interventions increased the amount of time parents and children engaged together with the exhibit. Additionally, recordings of the conversations revealed that adults asked more questions related to the exhibits when assigned to the two intervention conditions compared to the control group. Children engaged in more historical talk when using the booklets than in the other two conditions. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that providing support with either booklets or activities for children at exhibits may prove beneficial to parent-child conversations and engagement with museum exhibits

Telescoped approach to aryl hydroxymethylation in the synthesis of a key pharmaceutical intermediate

An efficient synthetic approach leading to introduction of the hydroxymethyl group to an aryl moiety via combination of the Bouveault formylation and hydride reduction has been optimized using a rational, mechanistic-based approach. This approach enabled telescoping of the two steps into a single efficient process, readily amenable to scaleup

Validation of a Lysis Buffer Containing 4 M Guanidinium Thiocyanate (GITC)/ Triton X-100 for Extraction of SARS-CoV-2 RNA for COVID-19 Testing: Comparison of Formulated Lysis Buffers Containing 4 to 6 M GITC, Roche External Lysis Buffer and Qiagen RTL Lysis Buffer

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased need for diagnostic testing using reverse transcriptase real-time PCR (RT-PCR). An exponential increase in demand has resulted in a shortage of numerous reagents in particular those associated with the lysis buffer required to extract the viral RNA. Herein, we describe a rapid collective effort by hospital laboratory scientists, academic researchers and the biopharma industry to generate a validated lysis buffer. We have formulated a 4M Guanidinium thiocyanate (GITC)/ Triton X-100 Lysis buffer which provides comparable results with the recommended reagents. This buffer will ease the burden on hospital labs in their heroic efforts diagnose a large population of patients

Direct purification and immobilization of his-tagged enzymes using unmodified nickel ferrite NiFe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles

Purification of valuable engineered proteins and enzymes can be laborious, costly, and generating large amount of chemical waste. Whilst enzyme immobilization can enhance recycling and reuse of enzymes, conventional methods for immobilizing engineered enzymes from purified samples are also inefficient with multiple-step protocols, regarding both the carrier preparation and enzyme binding. Nickel ferrite magnetic nanoparticles (NiFe2O4 MNPs) offer distinct advantages in both purification and immobilization of enzymes. In this work, we demonstrate the preparation of NiFe2O4 MNPs via a one-step solvothermal synthesis and their use in direct enzyme binding from cell lysates. These NiFe2O4 MNPs have showed an average diameter of 8.9 ± 1.7 nm from TEM analysis and a magnetization at saturation (Ms) value of 53.0 emu g–1 from SQUID measurement. The nickel binding sites of the MNP surface allow direct binding of three his-tagged enzymes, D-phenylglycine aminotransferase (D-PhgAT), Halomonas elongata ω-transaminase (HeωT), and glucose dehydrogenase from Bacillus subtilis (BsGDH). It was found that the enzymatic activities of all immobilized samples directly prepared from cell lysates were comparable to those prepared from the conventional immobilization method using purified enzymes. Remarkably, D-PhgAT supported on NiFe2O4 MNPs also showed similar activity to the purified free enzyme. By comparing on both carrier preparation and enzyme immobilization protocols, use of NiFe2O4 MNPs for direct enzyme immobilization from cell lysate can significantly reduce the number of steps, time, and use of chemicals. Therefore, NiFe2O4 MNPs can offer considerable advantages for use in both enzyme immobilization and protein purification in pharmaceutical and other chemical industries