Sketchnoting A Methodology: Fostering Team Based Learning Conversations

Sketchnoting is a methodology that uses simple shapes, frames, and connectors to visualize complex information, concepts, and physical objects, thus it has a low barrier entry for skilled and non-skilled drawers, as well as for designers or non-designers alike. It is situated at the lower end of the visualization fidelity spectrum, which ranges from napkin style sketches to photo-realistic renderings or high fidelity info-graphics

Multilevel Mentoring Using TBL

Produce an action plan for using TBL in existing classroom applications, training programs, training faculty and future faculty, research teams, capstone projects, faculty learning community, scholarship using TBL

Photo-elicitation and time-lining to enhance the research interview: Exploring the quarterlife crisis of young adults in India and the UK

The aim of this article is to convey our experience of using photo-elicitation along with time-lining to enhance the research interview. We reflect on a study on the ‘quarterlife crisis’ in India and the UK. Participants were aged 22-30 years and self-defined as having experienced difficulties ‘finding their place in the world.’ There were 16 British (8 women, 8 men) and 8 Indian participants (4 women; 4 men). First, we consider how photo-elicitation proved highly compatible with our method of analysis – interpretative phenomenological analysis – through affording a deep connection with participant experience. Second, we explore how participants engaged with photo-elicitation and time-lining, providing examples of image content (events and feelings), image form (literal and symbolic), and creative use of timelines. Third, we reflect on how photo-elicitation and time-lining appeared to enhance participant agency, and to have a therapeutic value for participants, as well as providing particularly rich material for analysis

Haplotype differences for copy number variants in the 22q11.23 region among human populations: a pigmentation-based model for selective pressure.

Two gene clusters are tightly linked in a narrow region of chromosome 22q11.23: the macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) gene family and the glutathione S-transferase theta class. Within 120 kb in this region, two 30-kb deletions reach high frequencies in human populations. This gives rise to four haplotypic arrangements, which modulate the number of genes in both families. The variable patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) between these copy number variants (CNVs) in diverse human populations remain poorly understood. We analyzed 2469 individuals belonging to 27 human populations with different ethnic origins. Then we correlated the genetic variability of 22q11.23 CNVs with environmental variables. We confirmed an increasing strength of LD from Africa to Asia and to Europe. Further, we highlighted strongly significant correlations between the frequency of one of the haplotypes and pigmentation-related variables: skin color (R2=0.675, P<0.001), distance from the equator (R2=0.454, P<0.001), UVA radiation (R2=0.439, P<0.001), and UVB radiation (R2=0.313, P=0.002). The fact that all MIF-related genes are retained on this haplotype and the evidences gleaned from experimental systems seem to agree with the role of MIF-related genes in melanogenesis. As such, we propose a model that explains the geographic and ethnic distribution of 22q11.23 CNVs among human populations, assuming that MIF-related gene dosage could be associated with adaptation to low UV radiatio

Architecture and Gender : Lessons from Building Archaeology in Africa

Peer reviewe

Microbial Diversity of a Brazilian Coastal Region Influenced by an Upwelling System and Anthropogenic Activity

BACKGROUND: Upwelling systems are characterised by an intense primary biomass production in the surface (warmest) water after the outcrop of the bottom (coldest) water, which is rich in nutrients. Although it is known that the microbial assemblage plays an important role in the food chain of marine systems and that the upwelling systems that occur in southwest Brazil drive the complex dynamics of the food chain, little is known about the microbial composition present in this region. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We carried out a molecular survey based on SSU rRNA gene from the three domains of the phylogenetic tree of life present in a tropical upwelling region (Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). The aim was to analyse the horizontal and vertical variations of the microbial composition in two geographically close areas influenced by anthropogenic activity (sewage disposal/port activity) and upwelling phenomena, respectively. A lower estimated diversity of microorganisms of the three domains of the phylogenetic tree of life was found in the water of the area influenced by anthropogenic activity compared to the area influenced by upwelling phenomena. We observed a heterogenic distribution of the relative abundance of taxonomic groups, especially in the Archaea and Eukarya domains. The bacterial community was dominated by Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria and Bacteroidetes phyla, whereas the microeukaryotic community was dominated by Metazoa, Fungi, Alveolata and Stramenopile. The estimated archaeal diversity was the lowest of the three domains and was dominated by uncharacterised marine Crenarchaeota that were most closely related to Marine Group I. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The variety of conditions and the presence of different microbial assemblages indicated that the area of Arraial do Cabo can be used as a model for detailed studies that contemplate the correlation between pollution-indicating parameters and the depletion of microbial diversity in areas close to anthropogenic activity; functional roles and geochemical processes; phylogeny of the uncharacterised diversity; and seasonal variations of the microbial assemblages

Targeting the hypoxic fraction of tumours using hypoxia activated prodrugs

The presence of a microenvironment within most tumours containing regions of low oxygen tension or hypoxia has profound biological and therapeutic implications. Tumour hypoxia is known to promote the development of an aggressive phenotype, resistance to both chemotherapy and radiotherapy and is strongly associated with poor clinical outcome. Paradoxically, it is recognised as a high priority target and one therapeutic strategies designed to eradicate hypoxic cells in tumours are a group of compounds known collectively as hypoxia activated prodrugs (HAPs) or bioreductive drugs. These drugs are inactive prodrugs that require enzymatic activation (typically by 1 or 2 electron oxidoreductases) to generate cytotoxic species with selectivity for hypoxic cells being determined by (i) the ability of oxygen to either reverse or inhibit the activation process and (ii) the presence of elevated expression of oxidoreductases in tumours. The concepts underpinning HAP development were established over 40 years ago and have been refined over the years to produce a new generation of HAPs that are under preclinical and clinical development. The purpose of this article is to describe current progress in the development of HAPs focusing on the mechanisms of action, preclinical properties and clinical progress of leading examples