Assessing Student Mindset, Interest, Participation, and Rapport in the Post-Pandemic Public Speaking Classroom: Effects of Modality Change and Communication Growth Mindset

The COVID-19 pandemic created an exigency for educators to reevaluate their approaches to the classroom with one major dimension being course modality. This study uses the Instructional Beliefs Model to examine the impacts of course modality (i.e., hybrid versus face-to-face formats) and students’ communication growth mindset on student engagement in the foundational public speaking course. Consistent with pre-COVID-19 findings, the results indicated that modality does not significantly impact student engagement, with one exception: higher cognitive interest scores were reported among students in the hybrid modality. Communication growth mindset associated positively with all student engagement variables examined: student interest–emotional, student interest–cognitive, participation, and class rapport. The findings offer tentative optimism about the promise of blended public speaking course modalities, and evidence for the necessity of mindset intervention to maximize student success

European Registry on Helicobacter pylori management (Hp-EuReg): Patterns and trends in first-line empirical eradication prescription and outcomes of 5 years and 21 533 patients

Objective The best approach for Helicobacter pylori management remains unclear. An audit process is essential to ensure clinical practice is aligned with best standards of care. Design International multicentre prospective non-interventional registry starting in 2013 aimed to evaluate the decisions and outcomes in H. pylori management by European gastroenterologists. Patients were registered in an e-CRF by AEG-REDCap. Variables included demographics, previous eradication attempts, prescribed treatment, adverse events and outcomes. Data monitoring was performed to ensure data quality. Time-trend and geographical analyses were performed. Results 30 394 patients from 27 European countries were evaluated and 21 533 (78%) first-line empirical H. pylori treatments were included for analysis. Pretreatment resistance rates were 23% to clarithromycin, 32% to metronidazole and 13% to both. Triple therapy with amoxicillin and clarithromycin was most commonly prescribed (39%), achieving 81.5% modified intention-to-treat eradication rate. Over 90% eradication was obtained only with 10-day bismuth quadruple or 14-day concomitant treatments. Longer treatment duration, higher acid inhibition and compliance were associated with higher eradication rates. Time-trend analysis showed a region-dependent shift in prescriptions including abandoning triple therapies, using higher acid-inhibition and longer treatments, which was associated with an overall effectiveness increase (84%-90%). Conclusion Management of H. pylori infection by European gastroenterologists is heterogeneous, suboptimal and discrepant with current recommendations. Only quadruple therapies lasting at least 10 days are able to achieve over 90% eradication rates. European recommendations are being slowly and heterogeneously incorporated into routine clinical practice, which was associated with a corresponding increase in effectiveness

Pooled sample-based GWAS: a cost-effective alternative for identifying colorectal and prostate cancer risk variants in the Polish population.

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer (PCa) and colorectal cancer (CRC) are the most commonly diagnosed cancers and cancer-related causes of death in Poland. To date, numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with susceptibility to both cancer types have been identified, but their effect on disease risk may differ among populations. METHODS: To identify new SNPs associated with PCa and CRC in the Polish population, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed using DNA sample pools on Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP 6.0 arrays. A total of 135 PCa patients and 270 healthy men (PCa sub-study) and 525 patients with adenoma (AD), 630 patients with CRC and 690 controls (AD/CRC sub-study) were included in the analysis. Allele frequency distributions were compared with t-tests and χ(2)-tests. Only those significantly associated SNPs with a proxy SNP (p<0.001; distance of 100 kb; r(2)>0.7) were selected. GWAS marker selection was conducted using PLINK. The study was replicated using extended cohorts of patients and controls. The association with previously reported PCa and CRC susceptibility variants was also examined. Individual patients were genotyped using TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assays. RESULTS: The GWAS selected six and 24 new candidate SNPs associated with PCa and CRC susceptibility, respectively. In the replication study, 17 of these associations were confirmed as significant in additive model of inheritance. Seven of them remained significant after correction for multiple hypothesis testing. Additionally, 17 previously reported risk variants have been identified, five of which remained significant after correction. CONCLUSION: Pooled-DNA GWAS enabled the identification of new susceptibility loci for CRC in the Polish population. Previously reported CRC and PCa predisposition variants were also identified, validating the global nature of their associations. Further independent replication studies are required to confirm significance of the newly uncovered candidate susceptibility loci

The GWAS-selected SNPs association with AD, CRC or PCa, considering allelic and additive models.

<p>Bold denotes significant association (<i>p</i><0.05). G1 vs. G2; compared groups of cases and controls, respectively, MA; minor allele (+) strand, F1, F2; frequency of MA in the case and control groups, respectively, OR; odds ratio, CI; confidence interval, N; control, PCa; prostate cancer, AD; adenoma, CRC; colorectal cancer, F; female, M; male.</p>a<p>^/SNP identifier based on NCBI SNP database;</p>b<p>^/NCBI ID of genes localized in proximity to the SNPs of interest (source: HapMap).</p