COVID-19 pandemic challenges and lessons learned by pharmacy educators around the globe

The coronavirus identified in 2019 (COVID-19) has affected peoples’ lives worldwide. This pandemic forced both pharmacy faculty members and students to adapt to a new teaching and learning environment not only in the United States but around the globe. Pharmacy educators faced challenges and opportunities to convert classroom learning and experiences, as well as student assessments, to a remote or online format. The unique approaches taken to overcome difficulties in various countries showed pharmacy faculty members’ resilience in the face of adversity and their determination to continue providing education to students. The pandemic also shed light on areas needing improvement for pharmacy educators to work on in the future

Soil Improvements of an Inhomogeneous Reclaimed Ground

A coal storage yard for an electric power plant was to be constructed on reclaimed land in northern Japan. As the reclaimed land consisted of loose sand and soft silt, a deep well excavation method, a dynamic compaction method and a sand compaction method were selected to improve clayey grounds, sandy grounds and intermediate grounds, respectively. After the improvement, no obvious settlement and no liquefaction has been induced

Correlated diffusion of membrane proteins and their effect on membrane viscosity

We extend the Saffman theory of membrane hydrodynamics to account for the correlated motion of membrane proteins, along with the effect of protein concentration on that correlation and on the response of the membrane to stresses. Expressions for the coupling diffusion coefficients of protein pairs and their concentration dependence are derived in the limit of small protein size relative to the inter-protein separation. The additional role of membrane viscosity as determining the characteristic length scale for membrane response leads to unusual concentration effects at large separation -- the transverse coupling increases with protein concentration, whereas the longitudinal one becomes concentration-independent.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Therapeutic angiogenesis by transplantation of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived Flk-1 positive cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are the novel stem cell population induced from somatic cells. It is anticipated that iPS will be used in the expanding field of regenerative medicine. Here, we investigated whether implantation of fetal liver kinase-1 positive (Flk-1⁺) cells derived from iPS cells could improve angiogenesis in a mouse hind limb model of ischemia.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Flk-1⁺cells were induced from iPS cells after four to five days of culture. Hind limb ischemia was surgically induced and sorted Flk-1⁺cells were directly injected into ischemic hind limbs of athymic nude mice. Revascularization of the ischemic hind limb was accelerated in mice that were transplanted with Flk-1⁺cells compared with control mice, which were transplanted with vehicle, as evaluated by laser Doppler blood flowmetry. Transplantation of Flk-1⁺cells also increased expression of VEGF mRNA in ischemic tissue compared to controls.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Direct local implantation of iPS cell-derived Flk-1⁺cells would salvage tissues from ischemia. These data indicate that iPS cells could be valuable in the therapeutic induction of angiogenesis.</p