Convening Interdisciplinary Communities of Practice in an Institution of Higher Education

Communities of practice (CoP) are rich learning spaces that support knowledge creation, social engagement and practice improvement. In some university settings, there is a buoyant interest in creating and supporting interdisciplinary knowledge and practice. The purpose of the study was to apply an action research approach to explore the emergence of interdisciplinary communities of practice in a university context and to reflect on the practice of convening a CoP. How do communities of practice emerge and what approaches and practices nourish these groups? The authors of this study share a reflection on their role as convenors of CoP and on their work facilitating the emergence of these interdisciplinary groups

Some Factors that Influence Students’ Experiences, Engagement, and Retention in a Practical Nursing Program

This paper reports on qualitative data from a larger study that was designed to identify some of the factors that influence practical nursing students’ experiences, engagement, resilience, attrition, performance in the program and professional licensing examination. Some descriptive statistics were included in this paper in order to provide context of the demographics of the students in the program. We explored and identified some factors that influence practical nursing students’ experiences and attrition in the practical nursing program at a community college in the Prairie Region in Alberta. Students enrolled in the program during Winter 2015 term were invited to participate in the study. 263 students consented to participate in the study and completed an online survey on student engagement and belongingness. A total of three focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to gather more information on students’ experiences. Exit interviews were completed with 21 students who dropped out of the program. Thematic analysis was done on FGDs and exit interviews. The themes that emerged from the data as main factors that influenced student experiences include institutional, social, and cognitive factors. Exit interview data shows that students “depart” due to financial, academic, family, and career choice changes.Cet article fait état de données qualitatives tirées d’une plus grande étude conçue pour identifier quelques-uns des facteurs qui influencent les expériences, la participation, la résilience, le taux d’attrition et le rendement des étudiantes infirmières au sein du programme et lors de l’examen d’accréditation professionnelle. Des statistiques descriptives sont présentées de sorte à fournir un contexte démographique des étudiants dans le programme. Nous avons exploré et identifié des facteurs qui influencent les expériences et le taux d’attrition des étudiantes infirmières dans un programme de soins infirmiers auxiliaires d’un collège communautaire dans la Prairie Region en Alberta. Nous avons invité les étudiants inscrits au programme pendant le semestre d’hiver 2015 à participer à l’étude. Au total, 263 étudiants ont accepté d’y participer et ont complété une enquête en ligne portant sur la participation des étudiants et leur sentiment d’appartenance. Trois discussions ont eu lieu avec des groupes de consultation afin de recueillir davantage d’information sur les expériences des étudiants. Des entrevues de départ ont eu lieu avec 21 étudiants qui ont quitté le programme. Les discussions des groupes de consultation et les entrevues de départ ont été soumises à une analyse thématique. L’analyse a permis d’identifier des facteurs qui influencent les expériences des étudiants. Parmi ceux-ci, notons des facteurs institutionnels, sociaux et cognitifs. Les données des entrevues de départ indiquent que les étudiants quittent le programme pour des motifs financiers, académiques, familiaux ou en raison d’un changement de choix de carrière. Mots clés : sentiment d’appartenance; décrochage; soins infirmiers auxiliaires; participation des étudiants; rétention des étudiant

Finding the Middle Path Between Dependence and Autonomy: Recent Trainee Experiences in Dialectical Behavior Therapy Supervision

Originally published in DBT Bulletin Volume 3, Issue 1 pages 28-32 (2020). The DBT Bulletin is published by DBT California

Patient and public involvement in research:the need for budgeting PPI staff costs in funding applications

BACKGROUND: Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) groups are becoming more established as collaborators with academic researchers and institutions to ensure that research is important and relevant to end users, and to identify areas that might have ethical considerations, as well as to advise on solutions. The National Institute for Health and Care Research UK Standards for Public Involvement in Research embody best practice for PPI, including support and learning opportunities that build confidence and skills for members of the public to play an invaluable and mutually productive role in research. However, the pivotal role of research and professional services (management and administrative) staff within academic institutions for sustaining and making this involvement successful is often overlooked. MAIN BODY: It takes significant effort to develop and sustain effective PPI in research. The six UK Standards for Public Involvement highlight the need for consistent, inclusive, well-governed and mutually respectful working relationships to sustain effective PPI contributions in health research. Productivity across a team of lay and academic members requires organisation and experience of implementing these standards by a dedicated PPI team, yet advice on PPI finances is usually focused on costs for patient panel members, and budgets in funding applications rarely consider the wider PPI team behind this involvement. As an exemplar, we reflect on how the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (AUKCAR) has developed a dedicated PPI Platform, with guidance for how PPI should be embedded throughout the research lifecycle, and detailed information to support the costing of PPI in funding applications. AUKCAR's work with established researchers, as well as Early Career Researchers and PhD students, is at the heart of a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of PPI in effective research planning. CONCLUSION: Focusing attention on the staff behind best practice involvement in health research may stimulate a much-needed discussion to ensure flourishing PPI capacity, with significant patient and public benefit. With adaptation, the PPI expertise within AUKCAR can be translated more widely

The cerebellum ages slowly according to the epigenetic clock

Studies that elucidate why some human tissues age faster than others may shed light on how we age, and ultimately suggest what interventions may be possible. Here we utilize a recent biomarker of aging (referred to as epigenetic clock) to assess the epigenetic ages of up to 30 anatomic sites from supercentenarians (subjects who reached an age of 110 or older) and younger subjects. Using three novel and three published human DNA methylation data sets, we demonstrate that the cerebellum ages more slowly than other parts of the human body. We used both transcriptional data and genetic data to elucidate molecular mechanisms which may explain this finding. The two largest superfamilies of helicases (SF1 and SF2) are significantly over-represented (p=9.2x10-9) among gene transcripts that are over-expressed in the cerebellum compared to other brain regions from the same subject. Furthermore, SNPs that are associated with epigenetic age acceleration in the cerebellum tend to be located near genes from helicase superfamilies SF1 and SF2 (enrichment p=5.8x10-3). Our genetic and transcriptional studies of epigenetic age acceleration support the hypothesis that the slow aging rate of the cerebellum is due to processes that involve RNA helicases

InnateDB: facilitating systems-level analyses of the mammalian innate immune response

Although considerable progress has been made in dissecting the signaling pathways involved in the innate immune response, it is now apparent that this response can no longer be productively thought of in terms of simple linear pathways. InnateDB (www.innatedb.ca) has been developed to facilitate systems-level analyses that will provide better insight into the complex networks of pathways and interactions that govern the innate immune response. InnateDB is a publicly available, manually curated, integrative biology database of the human and mouse molecules, experimentally verified interactions and pathways involved in innate immunity, along with centralized annotation on the broader human and mouse interactomes. To date, more than 3500 innate immunity-relevant interactions have been contextually annotated through the review of 1000 plus publications. Integrated into InnateDB are novel bioinformatics resources, including network visualization software, pathway analysis, orthologous interaction network construction and the ability to overlay user-supplied gene expression data in an intuitively displayed molecular interaction network and pathway context, which will enable biologists without a computational background to explore their data in a more systems-oriented manner

Gene expression in cardiac tissues from infants with idiopathic conotruncal defects

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) is the most commonly observed conotruncal congenital heart defect. Treatment of these patients has evolved dramatically in the last few decades, yet a genetic explanation is lacking for the failure of cardiac development for the majority of children with TOF. Our goal was to perform genome wide analyses and characterize expression patterns in cardiovascular tissue (right ventricle, pulmonary valve and pulmonary artery) obtained at the time of reconstructive surgery from 19 children with tetralogy of Fallot.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We employed genome wide gene expression microarrays to characterize cardiovascular tissue (right ventricle, pulmonary valve and pulmonary artery) obtained at the time of reconstructive surgery from 19 children with TOF (16 idiopathic and three with 22q11.2 deletions) and compared gene expression patterns to normally developing subjects.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We detected a signal from approximately 26,000 probes reflecting expression from about half of all genes, ranging from 35% to 49% of array probes in the three tissues. More than 1,000 genes had a 2-fold change in expression in the right ventricle (RV) of children with TOF as compared to the RV from matched control infants. Most of these genes were involved in compensatory functions (e.g., hypertrophy, cardiac fibrosis and cardiac dilation). However, two canonical pathways involved in spatial and temporal cell differentiation (WNT, <it>p </it>= 0.017 and Notch, <it>p </it>= 0.003) appeared to be generally suppressed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The suppression of developmental networks may represent a remnant of a broad malfunction of regulatory pathways leading to inaccurate boundary formation and improper structural development in the embryonic heart. We suggest that small tissue specific genomic and/or epigenetic fluctuations could be cumulative, leading to regulatory network disruption and failure of proper cardiac development.</p

LongSAGE profiling of nine human embryonic stem cell lines

Analysis of a 2.6 million longSAGE sequence tag resource generated from nine human embryonic stem cell lines reveals an enrichment of RNA binding proteins and novel ES-specific transcripts