Our Solar Siblings: A high school focused robotic telescope-based astronomy education project

In this paper, a robotic telescope-centric high-school level astronomy education project, Our Solar Siblings (OSS) is outlined. The project, an LCO official education partner, was formed as an institution-independent non-profit collaboration of volunteers officially in 2014, although the first version of the curriculum materials and approach was initially first designed in 2010. We outline the five goals of the project and the three approaches (formal classroom, independent student research and providing support to similar endeavours) we implement to try and achieve these goals. The curriculum materials, a central part of the project, are outlined as are their connections to various curriculum. The independent research project aspect and recent activity is presented. The article concludes with a brief update on the OSS evaluation which drives the educational design and the project’s future directions as of 2017

Evaluation of the prescribing practice of guideline-directed medical therapy among ambulatory chronic heart failure patients

Background: Studies have demonstrated that heart failure (HF) patients who receive direct pharmacist input as part of multidisciplinary care have better clinical outcomes. This study evaluated/compared the difference in prescribing practices of guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) for chronic HF patients between two multidisciplinary clinics—with and without the direct involvement of a pharmacist. Methods: A retrospective audit of chronic HF patients, presenting to two multidisciplinary outpatient clinics between March 2005 and January 2017, was performed; a Multidisciplinary Ambulatory Consulting Service (MACS) with an integrated pharmacist model of care and a General Cardiology Heart Failure Service (GCHFS) clinic, without the active involvement of a pharmacist. Results: MACS clinic patients were significantly older (80 vs. 73 years, p <.001), more likely to be female (p <.001), and had significantly higher systolic (123 vs. 112 mmHg, p <.001) and diastolic (67 vs. 60 mmHg, p <.05) blood pressures compared to the GCHF clinic patients. Moreover, the MACS clinic patients showed more polypharmacy and higher prevalence of multiple comorbidities. Both clinics had similar prescribing rates of GDMT and achieved maximal tolerated doses of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) in HFrEF. However, HFpEF patients in the MACS clinic were significantly more likely to be prescribed ACEIs/ARBs (70.5% vs. 56.2%, p = 0.0314) than the GCHFS patients. Patients with both HFrEF and HFpEF (MACS clinic) were significantly less likely to be prescribe

The impact of a pilot continuing professional development module on hospital pharmacists’ preparedness to provide contemporary advice on the clinical use of vancomycin

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.BACKGROUND: Revised international clinical guidelines for the antibiotic vancomycin have changed the advice pharmacists need to provide to medical and nursing colleagues. OBJECTIVES: (1) To determine the self-reported confidence of hospital pharmacists to provide contemporary advice on vancomycin and (2) to evaluate hospital pharmacists' knowledge to provide contemporary advice on vancomycin following a pilot continuing professional development (CPD) module. METHODS: The study was a prospective two-phase design in an Australian teaching hospital. Phase one: a survey of pharmacist self-reported confidence to eight questions on providing contemporary advice on vancomycin. Responses were recorded using a Likert scales. Phase two: The provision of a pilot online CPD module on vancomycin containing knowledge-based assessment based on a clinical vignette. Likert scales recorded self-reported confidence were reported as median and interquartile range (IQR). Knowledge assessment was reported using descriptive statistics. The main outcome measure were the self-reported confidence, and knowledge of pharmacists regarding provision of contemporary advice on clinical vancomycin use. RESULTS: Response rates for surveys; confidence n = 35 (72.9 %) and knowledge n = 31 (58.5 %). Phase one: confidence was highest regarding vancomycin dosing and monitoring with 71.4-81.6 % of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that they were confident in these domains. Respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing were least confident regarding intravenous administration and infusion related reactions, 57.1 and 45.7 % respectively. Respondents who provided advice on vancomycin >10 times in the prior 12 months reported significantly higher confidence in; therapeutic range 1 (IQR 1-2) versus 2 (IQR 1-3) p = 0.02; amending dosage based on therapeutic drug monitoring results 2 (IQR 1-3) versus 3 (IQR 2-3) p = 75 % of pharmacists. CONCLUSION: Pharmacists' self-reported confidence to managing vancomycin was variable but generally high. Knowledge scores were consistently high after pharmacists completed a pilot CPD module on vancomycin. These data provides impetus for a randomised controlled study across multiple sites to determine the extent to which pharmacist knowledge on vancomycin can be attributed to completion of an online CPD

Silicon waveguide modulator based on carrier depletion in periodically interleaved PN junctions

We present the design and numerical simulation results for a silicon waveguide modulator based on carrier depletion in a linear array of periodically interleaved PN junctions that are oriented perpendicular to the light propagation direction. In this geometry the overlap of the optical waveguide mode with the depletion region is much larger than in designs using a single PN junction aligned parallel to the waveguide propagation direction. Simulations predict that an optimized modulator will have a high modulation efficiency of 0.56 V.cm for a 3V bias, with a 3 dB frequency bandwidth of over 40 GHz. This device has a length of 1.86 mm with a maximum intrinsic loss of 4.3 dB at 0V bias, due to free carrier absorption. (C) 2009 Optical Society of Americ

Micromanaging aerobic respiration and glycolysis in cancer cells

© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)Background Cancer cells possess a common metabolic phenotype, rewiring their metabolic pathways from mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis and anabolic circuits, to support the energetic and biosynthetic requirements of continuous proliferation and migration. While, over the past decade, molecular and cellular studies have clearly highlighted the association of oncogenes and tumor suppressors with cancer-associated glycolysis, more recent attention has focused on the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in mediating this metabolic shift. Accumulating studies have connected aberrant expression of miRNAs with direct and indirect regulation of aerobic glycolysis and associated pathways. Scope of review This review discusses the underlying mechanisms of metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells and provides arguments that the earlier paradigm of cancer glycolysis needs to be updated to a broader concept, which involves interconnecting biological pathways that include miRNA-mediated regulation of metabolism. For these reasons and in light of recent knowledge, we illustrate the relationships between metabolic pathways in cancer cells. We further summarize our current understanding of the interplay between miRNAs and these metabolic pathways. This review aims to highlight important metabolism-associated molecular components in the hunt for selective preventive and therapeutic treatments. Major conclusions Metabolism in cancer cells is influenced by driver mutations but is also regulated by posttranscriptional gene silencing. Understanding the nuanced regulation of gene expression in these cells and distinguishing rapid cellular responses from chronic adaptive mechanisms provides a basis for rational drug design and novel therapeutic strategies

Archimedean spiral cavity ring resonators in silicon as ultra-compact optical comb filters

We present an ultra-compact comb filter using an add-drop ring resonator with an Archimedean spiral cavity. The cavity consists of two interleaved spiral branches which are connected in the center using arcs of circle of a radius that causes minimum bend loss. We describe the design procedure and examine the physical parameters governing the resonator performance. As an example, we demonstrate experimentally a comb filter with a 25 GHz channel spacing made of silicon photonic wires and only occupies an area of 80 × 90 µm2, approximately a 70 fold size reduction compared to a racetrack resonator. The filter transmission is free of spurious reflections, attesting to the smooth transition between different sections of the resonator cavity. Over a 40 channel wavelength span, the filter exhibits a quality factor Q > 35,000, extinction ratios > 10 dB, and an excellent power uniformity with variations < 0.5 dB for both the through and drop ports

Achirality in the low temperature structure and lattice modes of tris(acetylacetonate)iron(iii)

Tris(acetylacteonate) iron(III) is a relatively ubiquitous mononuclear inorganic coordination complex. The bidentate nature of the three acetylacteonate ligands coordinating around a single centre inevitably leads to structural isomeric forms, however whether or not this relates to chirality in the solid state has been questioned in the literature. Variable temperature neutron diffraction data down to T = 3 K, highlights the dynamic nature of the ligand environment, including the motions of the hydrogen atoms. The Fourier transform of the molecular dynamics simulation based on the experimentally determined structure was shown to closely reproduce the low temperature vibrational density of states obtained using inelastic neutron scattering