The Social Construction of Choice within Screening Mammography: Implications for Policy, Practice, and Communication

There are increasing efforts to support cisgender women to make an informed decision before participating in biennial screening mammography. I adopted a feminist-relational perspective to explore women’s knowledge about screening and determine how screening mammography is socially constructed by women, healthcare providers, and the media. The findings indicated that opportunities for women to make an informed choice regarding their participation in screening mammography are limited and underscore the need to reconceptualise informed decision-making

Students' Experiences of Undergraduate Dissertation Supervision

Increasingly, students completing undergraduate dissertations in Australia are expected by their supervisors to produce publishable research. Despite this, limited resources are available for supervisors of undergraduate dissertation students on how best to supervise students toward this aim. Building on our previous research on the perspectives of supervisors and dissertation coordinators of what constitutes good undergraduate dissertation supervision, we present here the findings on student perspectives of good supervision. Twenty-five students (seventeen students who were currently completing an undergraduate dissertation and eight who had recently completed an undergraduate dissertation) were interviewed about their experiences in being supervised. A critical incident methodology was used to invite students to reflect on times when supervision had gone well, and times when it had not. Interviews were recorded and transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Key themes to emerge were that students viewed “good” supervisors as those that were supportive and empowering, directed learning, and whose style and interests aligned with those of the students. Challenges in supervision related to lack of clarity and inconsistencies, perceived power imbalances between students and supervisors, and perceived inequities in the amount of supervision provided across students. Whilst the publication of undergraduate research is a worthy aim, the pressure to publish for some students resulted in feelings of inadequacy and perceptions of supervisors losing interest when findings were not deemed publishable

Osteoarthritis: Natural Supplements for Joint Health

An estimated 46 million adults in the U.S. are affected by arthritis, with osteoarthritis (OA) being the most common. Due to the limited pharmacologic therapy available to treat this condition, many patients are turning to dietary supplements to relieve their symptoms. Some of the most popular supplements available for the treatment of OA are glucosamine, chrondroitin and methylsulfonylmethane (MSM), but many less studied products are also available. Due to limited evidence of efficacy, it is difficult to make a strong recommendation for any of these products; however, pharmacists must be able to educate the patients that choose to use these supplements in the treatment of their OA

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Good undergraduate dissertation supervision: perspectives of supervisors and dissertation coordinators

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group There is a paucity of research, training, and material available to support supervisors of undergraduate dissertation students. This article explores what ‘good’ supervision might look like at this level. Interviews were conducted with eight new supervisors and six dissertation coordinators using a critical incident methodology. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts indicated that both supervisors (themes ‘directed and clear advice’ and ‘instilling confidence’) and students (themes ‘interest in topic’ and ‘ownership’) contributed to ‘good’ supervisory experiences (theme ‘evolving relationships’). Issues affecting this process were identified. Resources developed from these findings may be adapted by academic developers for supporting new dissertation supervisors

Is COVID-19 an opportunity for students to understand graduate attributes?

“Some units that I have taken in the past seemed to be useless to my course." This is a statement provided by an undergraduate student when prompted to reflect on their studies during a trial of a new curriculum mapping tool

Are We on Our Way to Becoming a “Helicopter University”? Academics’ Views on Learning Analytics

Higher education institutions are developing the capacity for learning analytics. However, the technical development of learning analytics has far exceeded the consideration of ethical issues around learning analytics. We examined higher education academics’ knowledge, attitudes, and concerns about the use of learning analytics though four focus groups (N = 35). Thematic analysis of the focus group transcripts identified five key themes. The first theme, ‘Facilitating learning’, represents academics’ perceptions that, while currently unrealized, there could be several benefits to learning analytics that would help their students. Three themes; ‘Where are the ethics?’, ‘What about the students!’, and ‘What about me!’ represented academics’ perceptions of how learning analytics could pose some considerable difficulties within a higher education context. A final theme ‘Let’s move forward together’ reflected that despite some challenges and concerns about learning analytics, academics perceived scope for learning analytics to be beneficial if there is collaboration between academics, students, and the university. The findings highlight the need to include academics in the development of learning analytics policies and procedures to promote the suitability and widespread adoption of learning analytics in the higher education sector