A Telehealth Technicality: Pennsylvania's Outdated Insurance Reimbursement Policies Deter Investment in Modern Telehealth Technology

Abstrac

A Comparison of Guided Notes and Video Modules in an Online Course

The purpose of the study was to compare the effects of guided notes versus video modules as a supplement to textbook readings on student quiz scores and to evaluate the overall effectiveness of guided notes in a fully online course. A total of 15 graduate students, aged 22 to 30, participated in this study. The study combined an adapted alternating treatments design and a pretest-posttest design with all participants experienced in both teaching methods in the same sequence. The experimental conditions contained the textbook readings supplemented with guided notes versus video modules. Results indicated both guided notes and video modules were effective, but students’ quiz scores were significantly higher under the video modules condition than the guided notes condition. No difference was found in students’ perceived helpfulness of the materials, but the students enjoyed video modules significantly more than guided notes

Fatty Acid Synthase Expression Under Obese Conditions in Breast Cancer Cells

Purpose: In women, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death, and one in eight will develop breast cancer during their lifetime. Furthermore, studies have shown that obesity has been associated with worse prognosis in some breast cancer patients. These facts led to this study on the effects of obesity on the fatty acid synthase (FASN) in breast cancer. FASN catalyzes the formation of long-chain fatty acids such as palmitate. Palmitate is commonly used as a component of the phospholipid membrane and for energy. Other types of cancer have been shown to harness the activity of the FASN in order for increased proliferation and energy. This study has two aims: 1) To determine if obesity modulates FASN expression in breast cancer cells, and 2) To determine the mechanism behind how obesity modulates FASN. Conclusions: Exposure to sera from obese women increases the presence of FASN for energy and for membrane formation in breast cancer cells. Furthermore, cells produce various factors that increase FASN expression under hypoxic conditions.Nutritional Science

Who’s teaching science: meeting the demand for qualified science teachers in Australian secondary schools

Foreword Call to Action The data presented in this report highlight a number of serious problems that will inhibit the growth of Australia, both economically and culturally. It is imperative that all governments and education authorities implement rigorous workplace planning for teaching of science in schools as a matter of urgency, in order to remedy the current situation and prevent its reoccurrence. Such planning should be focused at the discipline level and not simply at the generic area of “science”. It must involve upgrading the discipline background of science teachers along with their pedagogical skills. It should be across sectors and states. Background: Previous commissioned surveys by the Australian Council of Deans of Science (ACDS) reported a continuing decline in enrolments in the enabling sciences and mathematics at the secondary and tertiary levels of education. Furthermore, it is recognised that very few science graduates are selecting a teaching career. The Council feared that the nation was entering a cycle with the only possible outcome being a dearth of graduates with qualifications in the enabling sciences and mathematics. Certainly there would be insufficient graduates skilled in science to support the development of a knowledgebased economy. Australia suffers from an absence of comprehensive data on the age profile of secondary school science teachers, their qualifications in the discipline areas they are required to teach and their views regarding the teaching profession. This lack of information hampered the review by Professor Kwong Lee Dow titled Australia’s Teachers: Australia’s Future which looked at, among other things, future workplace needs. The ACDS strongly believes that the future of science is too important for this paucity of data to continue. Hence it commissioned this report. Anecdotal evidence abounds concerning the number of teachers who are unqualified to teach science in particular discipline areas, but are required to do so for various reasons. The ACDS recognizes the enormous contribution of science and mathematics teachers in our schools – both at primary and secondary level. The ACDS sees this report as a basis for providing them with further support. The report should also further link science as taught at university with science as taught in the school sector

Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Social Environment

The purpose of this study is to explore and then narrate the lives of women of color from South Carolina and their personal experiences with regard to their social environments. Much adverse childhood experience research is focused on the immediate family system, and research regarding the social environment is typically broken down into segments, failing to address a more holistic approach to promoting child well-being. Using the ecosystems perspective as a framework for exploration, the researchers used a semi-structured interview schedule, the BFRSS ACEs Survey, and a resilience scale to collect data with participants. Using Facebook as a recruitment tool, the researchers collected data with a convenience sample of five women. Interviews ranged from 18 to 34 minutes in length and occurred in various locations of choice for participants. After data collection, the researchers used case study analysis to identify emergent primary, secondary, and tertiary themes. Brief contextual profiles of each participant are provided to give background information about each individual. Qualitative data reveal themes of internal and external social pressures, coping mechanisms, values, and life-shaping experiences among participants. ACEs Scale data and Resilience Scale data are provided. The primary and secondary research questions, methodology, findings, limitations, and implications of the study are shared, and next steps are discussed

Evaluating the Use of an Online Video Training Program to Supplement a Graduate Course in Applied Behavior Analysis

The primary purpose of the present article was to evaluate the effects of a supplemental online video program on student quiz performance for an online course in applied behavior analysis. Nineteen graduate students, in ages ranging from 22 to 40, agreed to participate in this study. A within-subject group design was used. The control condition contained textbook readings and accompanied selfguided notes, while an online video training program was added to supplement the experimental condition. Results indicated that the students scored significantly higher in their weekly quizzes under the condition supplemented with the online video training program. The students perceived the video training program as equally helpful as the textbook, but they enjoyed the online videos significantly more than the textbook. Students’ self-reported enjoyment of the online videos was also positively correlated to their quiz performance under the condition supplemented with the videos

Detection and Analysis of Molecular Interactions with Backscattering Interferometry

Back-scattering Interferometry (BSI) is an analytical technique that measures changes in refractive index (RI) as two species interact in solution. A high-contrast interference fringe pattern in generated, and the fringes shift spatially as molecular interactions such as binding occur. Experiments can be performed label-free in free solution, eliminating the potential perturbations that can arise with surface immobilization or fluorescent labeling. The source of this signal change derives from intrinsic property changes as a new species, the complex, is formed in solution, particularly changes in conformation and solvation. Recently an expression for the source of this signal, the Free Solution Response Function (FreeSRF) was developed in an effort to more fully describe and quantify it.1 A binding curve is generated from the data, from which dissociation constants can be determined for a measure of binding affinity. The work in this dissertation covers three different types of binding systems analyzed with BSI. First, a series of known and novel inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) were screened, the former to benchmark the technique and the latter to evaluate potential anti-Alzheimer’s disease (AD) agents. By comparing KD results from BSI to IC50 values obtained using Ellman’s assay,2 insight into the inhibition mechanism for each inhibitor could be obtained based on the Cheng-Prusoff relationship.3 Specifically, BSI KD values that were equal to Ellman IC50 indicated the inhibitor was acting via noncompetitive inhibition, while inhibitors with KD \u3c IC50 acted as competitive or mixed inhibitors. These results make BSI an especially good technique for evaluating potential anti-AD agents that act as noncompetitive inhibitors and target the peripheral site of the enzyme, where beta amyloids are known to aggregate and accelerate plaque formation.4 Additionally, using a high-affinity inhibitor, BW284c51, we showed that BSI is capable of detecting less than 23,000 AChE molecules at the lowest limit, a level that matches or exceeds detection limits of other techniques.5,6 Next, we evaluated BSI’s ability to distinguish between several 20-base pair DNA oligomers: a perfect complement and a sequence containing a SNP. The SNP-containing sequences had either a mismatch or a deleted base located in the middle of the sequence or five base pairs from the 3’-end. By comparing the BSI KD values of each duplex and comparing those to melting transition temperatures obtained from hyperchromicity experiments, we confirmed our hypothesis that the complement duplex was significantly more stable than any of the duplexes containing a SNP, having a KD ca. 18-130% lower than the SNP duplexes. Additionally, SNPs located in the middle of the sequence were more destabilizing than the same SNP located closer to the end of the sequence, and when comparing two different SNPs at the same location, the A/G mismatch was more destabilizing than the T deletion. The complement duplex also had at least a 35% larger signal compared to the SNP duplexes. SNP research is an important field for personalized medicine and disease diagnostics, and this work showed BSI could play a role in advancing those fields. Lastly, BSI was used to detect selection ion recognition of 18-crown-6 and three ionophores to potassium. These small molecules in nonaqueous media were expected to produce a much smaller signal compared to the large biochemical systems typically studied with BSI due to a lack of major conformation and solvation changes as seen with protein binding or DNA hybridization. Experiments with ITC benchmarked the BSI results. The goal was to quantify the smallest possible signal BSI could detect and evaluate the FreeSRF expression for nonaqueous, small molecule systems. Formation of potassium complexes with potassium ionophores I and II generated signals more than an order of magnitude smaller than complement DNA hybridization. Potassium ionophore I, also known as valinomycin, folds into a “tennis ball seam” conformation upon binding with potassium while potassium ionophore II forms a “closed clamshell” structure; these complexes generated a signal over 30% larger than that of the potassium-18C6 complex, which undergoes only a minor shift in conformation from a S6 or Ci structure to D3d upon complexation.7,8 Conversely, Na+ with 18C6 experiments generated no readable signal above the noise, highlighting BSI’s ability to selectively detect ion recognition. Interesting observations into the direction of the signal were also made, particularly with ionophore III, which features a dodecyl tail in the middle of the linker between the two 15C5 ends and caused the signal to reverse direction as potassium was added. Signal direction is thought to be related to hydrodynamic radius, which this hydrocarbon tail would significantly alter as the ionophore forms the “closed clamshell” complex. Other experiments show BSI has potential to examine the stoichiometry of binding systems, and decomplexation, rather than complexation, of the ionophore I-potassium complex in water. BSI offers many advantages compared to other techniques, including its ability to run experiments label-free and in free solution, its small sample size (with a probe volume of just 7.52 nL), and high sensitivity even in small-molecule systems with very minor conformational changes. These experiments show it has potential for many uses, from diagnostics, drug screening, and metal ion detection. As research into the signal origin and FreeSRF evaluation progress, it will continue to be a valuable refractive index detector for various chemical fields

Using Mand Training to Increase Vocalization Rates in Infants

The present study examined the effects of a mand training procedure on the rates of vocalizations in two infants. Both typically developing girls were less than six months old at the onset of the study. An ABCBC reversal design was employed to compare the rates of vocalizations in baseline conditions, a mand-training condition, and a differential reinforcement for other (DRO) condition. A state of deprivation was held constant for both infants across all three conditions in which neither infant was fed for one hour prior to the experimental session. The order of conditions was reversed for the second infant and sessions lasted no longer than three minutes one time per day. Findings suggested significant effects of the mand-training condition on increased rates of vocalizations for both infants. These results are discussed in terms of verbal behavior analysis, our assumptions about the developmental trajectory of the function of language, and the implications for early language intervention programs

Using Intraverbal Prompts to Increase Divergent Intraverbal Responses by a Child with Autism

We examined the effectiveness of intraverbal prompts to increase the number of divergent responses to categorical questions comprised of compound stimuli (e.g., Name some red things) for a 6-year-old child with autism. The intraverbal prompts involved providing the function, feature, and class of the target responses. A multiple probe across behaviors design was used. Results indicated that the child’s total number of divergent responses was increased and maintained during two-week follow-up trials. Novel responses were observed across conditions