Outcomes of a peer assessment/feedback training program in an undergraduate sports medicine course

Peer assessment/feedback is clearly occurring in athletic training education programs. However, it remains unclear whether students would improve their ability to assess their peers and provide corrective feedback if they received formal training in how to do so. The purpose of this study was to determine the following: 1) if a peer assessment/feedback (PAF) training program affected the quality of feedback students provided to their peers and if feedback improves over time, 2) if students’ perceptions of and preferences for PAF changed over time and as a result of a PAF training program, and 3) if PAF training affected skill performance. Two sections of an introductory sports medicine class were used to examine the effects of a PAF training program and time on different aspects of PAF. The subjects had three sets of laboratory skills with two days of lab practice for each set. One section received the PAF training after the first set of labs (n = 33); the control section received not training (n = 36). Two groups of four students from each section were videotaped in order to observe the feedback they provided. Surveys were completed at the beginning of the semester and the end of the semester to examine perceptions and preferences of all subjects. The videotaped data analysis suggests that PAF training potentially shaped the consistency of descriptive feedback, use of strategic questioning, staying on task and the amount of reaffirming feedback provided. Findings also suggest that other factors shaped the peer feedback, such as baseline ability to provide quality feedback, difficulty of the skill and the number of errors performed while executing the skills. Some of the strategies discussed in the PAF training were used by the control groups even though they did not receive training. The training could be beneficial for all students to either reinforce what they already do or to teach new strategies. Subjects in the PAF training found it beneficial, which may improve the acceptance of feedback and their wiliness to provide feedback. The subjects, regardless of group, overwhelmingly had positive perceptions of the benefits of peer learning, benefits of PAF and the PAF process. Students preferred peers for the activities related to practicing and refining skills while preferring instructors for initial learning and grading. Preferences for PAF increased for six of the 11 items with no differences between the experimental and control groups. Finally, there were no significant differences in exam grades thus the PAF training did not affect skill performance

Adaptive hospitality: identifying design strategies in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings as boutique hotels

Downtown revitalization has been at the forefront of many cities’ goals in the United States. Adaptive reuse of existing buildings is a crucial factor in this process by highlighting the uniqueness and identity of a place, maintaining the local sense of community, and differentiating it from the rest of the city. More and more historic structures are being adapted to boutique hotels in downtowns and becoming part of the main attraction of a city. The hospitality industry has recognized that there are a significant number of people that are looking for a different experience than traditional hotels can offer. Hotel chains and independent owners have turned to historic preservation and adaptive reuse to cover the needs of this market. Often the opportunities that adaptive reuse provides to a city are overlooked in favor of new structures, or if used there is no regard for the historic fabric of the building. The growing market of the boutique hotel industry and, the efforts to revitalize downtowns across the country, makes it necessary for a study that highlights the different possibilities in the creation of this type of hotel in a historic setting. This research focuses on identifying the different types of design strategies applied in the adaptive reuse of historic properties into boutique hotels. It also looks at how they provide the user experience associated with a historic-design boutique hotel and, how they incorporated the character-defining features into this design. The study examines the adaptive reuse of five historic-design boutique hotels in the state of North Carolina as case studies. Four successfully qualified for preservation tax credits. A database of historic-design boutique hotels in the state of North Carolina was created for this study, which had to comply with specific criteria to be eligible as samples. Archival research was then conducted using the Historic Preservation Tax Credit Applications to understand better what were the retained features and what changed. Site visits and a visual analysis were the final steps to understand the main reasons for change, the patterns found, and how they incorporated the boutique element

Climate change adaptation in European river basins

This paper contains an assessment and standardized comparative analysis of the current water management regimes in four case-studies in three European river basins: the Hungarian part of the Upper Tisza, the Ukrainian part of the Upper Tisza (also called Zacarpathian Tisza), Alentejo Region (including the Alqueva Reservoir) in the Lower Guadiana in Portugal, and Rivierenland in the Netherlands. The analysis comprises several regime elements considered to be important in adaptive and integrated water management: agency, awareness raising and education, type of governance and cooperation structures, information management and—exchange, policy development and—implementation, risk management, and finances and cost recovery. This comparative analysis has an explorative character intended to identify general patterns in adaptive and integrated water management and to determine its role in coping with the impacts of climate change on floods and droughts. The results show that there is a strong interdependence of the elements within a water management regime, and as such this interdependence is a stabilizing factor in current management regimes. For example, this research provides evidence that a lack of joint/participative knowledge is an important obstacle for cooperation, or vice versa. We argue that there is a two-way relationship between information management and collaboration. Moreover, this research suggests that bottom-up governance is not a straightforward solution to water management problems in large-scale, complex, multiple-use systems, such as river basins. Instead, all the regimes being analyzed are in a process of finding a balance between bottom-up and top–down governance. Finally, this research shows that in a basin where one type of extreme is dominant—like droughts in the Alentejo (Portugal) and floods in Rivierenland (Netherlands)—the potential impacts of other extremes are somehow ignored or not perceived with the urgency they might deserv

Potent Phototoxicity of Marine Bunker Oil to Translucent Herring Embryos after Prolonged Weathering

Pacific herring embryos (Clupea pallasi) spawned three months following the Cosco Busan bunker oil spill in San Francisco Bay showed high rates of late embryonic mortality in the intertidal zone at oiled sites. Dead embryos developed to the hatching stage (e.g. fully pigmented eyes) before suffering extensive tissue deterioration. In contrast, embryos incubated subtidally at oiled sites showed evidence of sublethal oil exposure (petroleum-induced cardiac toxicity) with very low rates of mortality. These field findings suggested an enhancement of oil toxicity through an interaction between oil and another environmental stressor in the intertidal zone, such as higher levels of sunlight-derived ultraviolet (UV) radiation. We tested this hypothesis by exposing herring embryos to both trace levels of weathered Cosco Busan bunker oil and sunlight, with and without protection from UV radiation. Cosco Busan oil and UV co-exposure were both necessary and sufficient to induce an acutely lethal necrotic syndrome in hatching stage embryos that closely mimicked the condition of dead embryos sampled from oiled sites. Tissue levels of known phototoxic polycyclic aromatic compounds were too low to explain the observed degree of phototoxicity, indicating the presence of other unidentified or unmeasured phototoxic compounds derived from bunker oil. These findings provide a parsimonious explanation for the unexpectedly high losses of intertidal herring spawn following the Cosco Busan spill. The chemical composition and associated toxicity of bunker oils should be more thoroughly evaluated to better understand and anticipate the ecological impacts of vessel-derived spills associated with an expanding global transportation network

Phase I study of docetaxel in combination with cyclophosphamide as first-line chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer

This phase I was study conducted to establish the maximum tolerated dose, dose-limiting toxicity, and recommended dose of docetaxel in combination with cyclophosphamide as first-line chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. Twenty-six patients were treated with cyclophosphamide (600 mg m−2, intravenous bolus) followed by docetaxel (60, 75 or 85 mg m−2, 1-h intravenous infusion) every 3 weeks. The maximum tolerated dose was docetaxel 85 mg m−2 with cyclophosphamide 600 mg m−2, the dose-limiting toxicity being febrile neutropenia. Grade 4 neutropenia was experienced by all patients, but was generally brief. Otherwise, the combination was well tolerated with few acute and no chronic non-haematological toxicities of grade 3/4. Activity was observed at all dose levels and disease sites, and the overall response rate was 42% (95% confidence interval 22–61%). The pharmacokinetics of docetaxel were not modified by cyclophosphamide coadministration. These findings establish a recommended dose of docetaxel 75 mg m−2 in combination with cyclophosphamide 600 mg m−2 every three weeks for phase II evaluation

Electroporation-Induced Electrosensitization

BACKGROUND: Electroporation is a method of disrupting the integrity of cell membrane by electric pulses (EPs). Electrical modeling is widely employed to explain and study electroporation, but even most advanced models show limited predictive power. No studies have accounted for the biological consequences of electroporation as a factor that alters the cell's susceptibility to forthcoming EPs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We focused first on the role of EP rate for membrane permeabilization and lethal effects in mammalian cells. The rate was varied from 0.001 to 2,000 Hz while keeping other parameters constant (2 to 3,750 pulses of 60-ns to 9-µs duration, 1.8 to 13.3 kV/cm). The efficiency of all EP treatments was minimal at high rates and started to increase gradually when the rate decreased below a certain value. Although this value ranged widely (0.1-500 Hz), it always corresponded to the overall treatment duration near 10 s. We further found that longer exposures were more efficient irrespective of the EP rate, and that splitting a high-rate EP train in two fractions with 1-5 min delay enhanced the effects severalfold. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: For varied experimental conditions, EPs triggered a delayed and gradual sensitization to EPs. When a portion of a multi-pulse exposure was delivered to already sensitized cells, the overall effect markedly increased. Because of the sensitization, the lethality in EP-treated cells could be increased from 0 to 90% simply by increasing the exposure duration, or the exposure dose could be reduced twofold without reducing the effect. Many applications of electroporation can benefit from accounting for sensitization, by organizing the exposure either to maximize sensitization (e.g., for sterilization) or, for other applications, to completely or partially avoid it. In particular, harmful side effects of electroporation-based therapies (electrochemotherapy, gene therapies, tumor ablation) include convulsions, pain, heart fibrillation, and thermal damage. Sensitization can potentially be employed to reduce these side effects while preserving or increasing therapeutic efficiency

Membrane remodeling by the M2 amphipathic helix drives influenza virus membrane scission

Membrane scission is a crucial step in all budding processes, from endocytosis to viral budding. Many proteins have been associated with scission, though the underlying molecular details of how scission is accomplished often remain unknown. Here, we investigate the process of M2-mediated membrane scission during the budding of influenza viruses. Residues 50–61 of the viral M2 protein bind membrane and form an amphipathic α-helix (AH). Membrane binding requires hydrophobic interactions with the lipid tails but not charged interactions with the lipid headgroups. Upon binding, the M2AH induces membrane curvature and lipid ordering, constricting and destabilizing the membrane neck, causing scission. We further show that AHs in the cellular proteins Arf1 and Epsin1 behave in a similar manner. Together, they represent a class of membrane-induced AH domains that alter membrane curvature and fluidity, mediating the scission of constricted membrane necks in multiple biological pathways