Learning at large conferences:from the 'sage on the stage' to contemporary models of learning

AimTo explore and evaluate the affordances of a flipped classroom model applied to a research paper session within the professional development opportunity of a large conference setting.MethodAuthors were invited to present their research papers in a flipped classroom presentation format at two large, multi-national conferences. Before the session, authors and moderators met online to clarify features of the session, and preparation of the material. The research material was then posted online before the conference, to allow access by meeting attendees. During the sessions, moderators encouraged the audience to actively participate. An evaluation form was collected from the audience at the end of each session.ResultsParticipants found the session valuable, and appreciated the opportunity to engage in a meaningful dialogue with colleagues. However, the majority of the audience did not access the materials in advance. Lack of time, or technology-related issues were mentioned as potential challenges to such format.ConclusionIn the context of a large conference, a 'flipped session' format can facilitate active learning and a participatory culture of inquiry. However, to change the nature of how individuals learn collaboratively at large conferences means a change in the culture of continuous professional learning

Proteomic analysis identifies key differences in the cardiac interactomes of dystrophin and micro-dystrophin

ΔR4-R23/ΔCT micro-dystrophin (μDys) is a miniaturized version of dystrophin currently evaluated in a Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene therapy trial to treat skeletal and cardiac muscle disease. In pre-clinical studies, μDys efficiently rescues cardiac histopathology, but only partially normalizes cardiac function. To gain insights into factors that may impact the cardiac therapeutic efficacy of μDys, we compared by mass spectrometry the composition of purified dystrophin and μDys protein complexes in the mouse heart. We report that compared to dystrophin, μDys has altered associations with α1- and β2-syntrophins, as well as cavins, a group of caveolae-associated signaling proteins. In particular, we found that membrane localization of cavins −1 and − 4 in cardiomyocytes requires dystrophin and is profoundly disrupted in the heart of mdx^{5cv} mice,a model of DMD. Following cardiac stress/damage, membrane-associated cavin-4 recruits the signaling molecule ERK to caveolae, which activates key cardio-protective responses. Evaluation of ERK signaling revealed a profound inhibition, below physiological baseline, in the mdx^{5cv} mouse heart. Expression of μDys in mdx^{5cv} mice prevented the development of cardiac histopathology but did not rescue membrane localization of cavins nor did it normalize ERK signaling. Our study provides the first comparative analysis of purified protein complexes assembled in vivo by full-length dystrophin and a therapeutic micro-dystrophin construct. This has revealed disruptions in cavins and ERK signaling that may contribute to DMD cardiomyopathy. This new knowledge is important for ongoing efforts to prevent and treat heart disease in DMD patients

Sports safety matting diminishes cardiopulmonary resuscitation quality and increases rescuer perceived exertion

Objectives Compliant surfaces beneath a casualty diminish the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in clinical environments. To examine this issue in a sporting environment, we assessed chest compression quality and rescuer exertion upon compliant sports safety matting. Methods Twenty-seven advanced life support providers volunteered (13 male/14 female; mass = 79.0 ± 12.5 kg; stature = 1.77 ± 0.09 m). Participants performed 5 × 2 min, randomized bouts of continuous chest compressions on a mannequin, upon five surfaces: solid floor; low-compliance matting; low-compliance matting with a backboard; high-compliance matting; high-compliance matting with a backboard. Measures included chest compression depth and rate, percentage of adequate compressions, and rescuer heart rate and perceived exertion. Results Chest compression depth and rate were significantly lower upon high-compliance matting relative to other surfaces (p<0.05). The percentage of adequate compressions (depth ≥50 mm) was lowest upon high-compliance matting (40 ± 39%) versus low-compliance matting (60 ± 36%) and low-compliance matting with a backboard (59 ± 39%). Perceived exertion was significantly greater upon high-compliance matting versus floor, low-compliance matting, and low-compliance matting with a backboard (p<0.05). Conclusion Providers of CPR should be alerted to the detrimental effects of compliant safety matting in a sporting environment and prepare to alter the targeted compression depth and rescuer rotation intervals accordingly

Syntactic generation of practice novice programs in Python

Abstract: In the present day, computer programs are written in high level languages and parsed syntactically as part of a compilation process. These parsers are defined with context-free grammars (CFGs), a language recogniser for the respective programming language. Formal grammars in general are used for language recognition or generation. In this paper, we present the automatic generation of procedural programs in Python using a CFG. We have defined CFG rules to model program templates and implemented these rules to produce infinitely many distinct practice programs in Python. Each generated program is designed to test a novice programmer’s knowledge of functions, expressions, loops, and/or conditional statements. The CFG rules are highly generic and can be extended to generate programs in other procedural languages. The resulting programs can be used as practice, test or examination problems in introductory programming courses. 500,000 iterations of generated programs can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/ pythonprogramgenerator. A survey of 103 students’ perception showed that 93.1% strongly agreed that these programs can help them in practice and improve their programming skills

The Evolution of Bat Vestibular Systems in the Face of Potential Antagonistic Selection Pressures for Flight and Echolocation

PMCID: PMC3634842This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

An improved microtiter assay for evaluating anti-HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies from sera or plasma

BACKGROUND: The anti-HIV-1 neutralizing antibody assay is widely used in AIDS vaccine research and other experimental and clinical studies. The vital dye staining method applied in the detection of anti-HIV-1 neutralizing antibody has been used in many laboratories. However, the unknown factor(s) in sera or plasma affected cell growth and caused protection when the tested sera or plasma was continuously maintained in cell culture. In addition, the poor solubility of neutral red in medium (such as RPMI-1640) also limited the use of this assay. METHODS: In this study, human T cell line C8166 was used as host cells, and 3-(4,5-Dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) instead of neutral red was used as vital dye. In order to avoid the effect of the unknown factor(s), the tested sera or plasma was removed by a washout procedure after initial 3–6 h culture in the assay. RESULT: This new assay eliminated the effect of the tested sera or plasma on cell growth, improved the reliability of detection of anti-HIV-1 neutralizing antibody, and showed excellent agreement with the p24 antigen method. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the improved assay is relatively simple, highly duplicable, cost-effective, and well reliable for evaluating anti-HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies from sera or plasma

Spot the Difference-Development of a Syndrome Based Protein Microarray for Specific Serological Detection of Multiple Flavivirus Infections in Travelers

Background The family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, holds many of the world’s most prevalent arboviral diseases that are also considered the most important travel related arboviral infections. In most cases, flavivirus diagnosis in travelers is primarily based on serology as viremia is often low and typically has already been reduced to undetectable levels when symptoms set in and patients seek medical attention. Serological differentiation between flaviviruses and the false-positive results caused by vaccination and cross-reactivity among the different species, are problematic for surveillance and diagnostics of flaviviruses. Their partially overlapping geographic distribution and symptoms, combined with increase in travel, and preexisting antibodies due to flavivirus vaccinations, expand the need for rapid and reliable multiplex diagnostic tests to supplement currently used methods. Goal We describe the development of a multiplex serological protein microarray using recombinant NS1 proteins for detection of medically important viruses within the genus Flavivirus. Sera from clinical flavivirus patients were used for primary development of the protein microarray. Results Results show a high IgG and IgM sensitivity and specificity for individual NS1 antigens, and limited cross reactivity, even within serocomplexes. In addition, the serology based on this array allows for discrimination between infection and vaccination response for JEV vaccine, and no cross-reactivity with TBEV and YFV vaccine induced antibodies when testing for antibodies to other flaviviruses. Conclusion Based on these data, multiplex NS1-based protein microarray is a promising tool for surveillance and diagnosis of flaviviruses.

Using smartphone technology to reduce health impacts from atmospheric environmental hazards

Background: Global environmental change is exacerbating human vulnerability to adverse atmospheric conditions including air pollution, aeroallergens such as pollen, and extreme weather events. Public information and advisories are a central component of responses to mitigate the human impacts of environmental hazards. Digital technologies are emerging as a means of providing personalised, timely and accessible warnings. Method: We describe AirRater, an integrated online platform that combines symptom surveillance, environmental monitoring, and notifications of changing environmental conditions via a free smartphone app. It was developed and launched in Tasmania, Australia (population 510,000), with the aim of reducing health impacts and improving quality of life in people with conditions such as asthma and allergic rhinitis. We present environmental data, user uptake and results from three online evaluation surveys conducted during the first 22 months of operation, from October 2015 through August 2017.Results: There were 3,443 downloads of the app from all parts of Tasmania. Of the 1,959 individuals who registered, 79% reported having either asthma or allergic rhinitis. Downloads increased during adverse environmental conditions and following publicity. Symptom reports per active user were highest during spring (72%), lowest in autumn (37%) and spiked during periods of reduced air quality. In response to online surveys, most users reported that the app was useful and had improved their understanding of how environmental conditions affect their health, and in some cases had prompted action such as the timely use of medication.Conclusion: Active engagement and consistent positive feedback from users demonstrates the potential for considerable individual clinical and wider public health benefits from integrated and personalised monitoring systems such as AirRater. The perceived health benefits require objective verification, and such systems need to address several challenges in providing timely, reliable and valid environmental data

The development and growth of tissues derived from cranial neural crest and primitive mesoderm is dependent on the ligation status of retinoic acid receptor γ:evidence that retinoic acid receptor γ functions to maintain stem/progenitor cells in the absence of retinoic acid

Retinoic acid (RA) signaling is important to normal development. However, the function of the different RA receptors (RARs)-RARα, RARβ, and RARγ-is as yet unclear. We have used wild-type and transgenic zebrafish to examine the role of RARγ. Treatment of zebrafish embryos with an RARγ-specific agonist reduced somite formation and axial length, which was associated with a loss of hoxb13a expression and less-clear alterations in hoxc11a or myoD expression. Treatment with the RARγ agonist also disrupted formation of tissues arising from cranial neural crest, including cranial bones and anterior neural ganglia. There was a loss of Sox 9-immunopositive neural crest stem/progenitor cells in the same anterior regions. Pectoral fin outgrowth was blocked by RARγ agonist treatment. However, there was no loss of Tbx-5-immunopositive lateral plate mesodermal stem/progenitor cells and the block was reversed by agonist washout or by cotreatment with an RARγ antagonist. Regeneration of the caudal fin was also blocked by RARγ agonist treatment, which was associated with a loss of canonical Wnt signaling. This regenerative response was restored by agonist washout or cotreatment with the RARγ antagonist. These findings suggest that RARγ plays an essential role in maintaining stem/progenitor cells during embryonic development and tissue regeneration when the receptor is in its nonligated state