The BEST approaches to online mentoring

The beginning year of teaching is arguably a critical year for determining the longevity and success of a teachers career, and the one that would most benefit from induction and mentoring. This paper describes the design and development of a theoretically based, generic website template for online communities of practice for beginning teachers that provides independent and experienced mentoring support. It includes a rich range of resources that are automatically updated, and links to professional websites and other relevant sources of support. The paper illustrates and compares the ways in which the online resource can be used as a model to meet the professional needs of different cohorts of beginning and experienced practitioners, using different models of mentoring suited to various levels of funding and professional support

Temporal dissociation of phencyclidine: Induced locomotor and social alterations in rats using an automated homecage monitoring system – implications for the 3Rs and preclinical drug discovery

Background: Rodent behavioural assays are widely used to delineate the mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and predict the efficacy of drug candidates. Conventional behavioural paradigms are restricted to short time windows and involve transferring animals from the homecage to unfamiliar apparatus which induces stress. Additionally, factors including environmental perturbations, handling and the presence of an experimenter can impact behaviour and confound data interpretation. To improve welfare and reproducibility these issues must be resolved. Automated homecage monitoring offers a more ethologically relevant approach with reduced experimenter bias. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of an automated homecage system at detecting locomotor and social alterations induced by phencyclidine (PCP) in group-housed rats. PCP is an NMDA receptor antagonist commonly utilised to model aspects of schizophrenia. Methods: Rats housed in groups of 3 were implanted with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Each homecage was placed over a RFID reader baseplate for the automated monitoring of the social and locomotor activity of each individual rat. For all rats, we acquired homecage data for 24 h following administration of both saline and PCP (2.5 mg/kg). Results: PCP resulted in significantly increased distance travelled from 15 to 60 min post injection. Furthermore, PCP significantly enhanced time spent isolated from cage-mates and this asociality lasted from 60 to 105 min post treatment. Conclusions: Unlike conventional assays, in-cage monitoring captures the temporal duration of drug effects on multiple behaviours in the same group of animals. This approach could benefit psychiatric preclinical drug discovery though improved welfare and increased between-laboratory replicability

Preliminary evidence of increased striatal dopamine in a nonhuman primate model of maternal immune activation.

Women exposed to a variety of viral and bacterial infections during pregnancy have an increased risk of giving birth to a child with autism, schizophrenia or other neurodevelopmental disorders. Preclinical maternal immune activation (MIA) models are powerful translational tools to investigate mechanisms underlying epidemiological links between infection during pregnancy and offspring neurodevelopmental disorders. Our previous studies documenting the emergence of aberrant behavior in rhesus monkey offspring born to MIA-treated dams extends the rodent MIA model into a species more closely related to humans. Here we present novel neuroimaging data from these animals to further explore the translational potential of the nonhuman primate MIA model. Nine male MIA-treated offspring and 4 controls from our original cohort underwent in vivo positron emission tomography (PET) scanning at approximately 3.5-years of age using [18F] fluoro-l-m-tyrosine (FMT) to measure presynaptic dopamine levels in the striatum, which are consistently elevated in individuals with schizophrenia. Analysis of [18F]FMT signal in the striatum of these nonhuman primates showed that MIA animals had significantly higher [18F]FMT index of influx compared to control animals. In spite of the modest sample size, this group difference reflects a large effect size (Cohen's d = 0.998). Nonhuman primates born to MIA-treated dams exhibited increased striatal dopamine in late adolescence-a hallmark molecular biomarker of schizophrenia. These results validate the MIA model in a species more closely related to humans and open up new avenues for understanding the neurodevelopmental biology of schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders associated with prenatal immune challenge

Dynamics of River Mouth Deposits

Bars and subaqueous levees often form at river mouths due to high sediment availability. Once these deposits emerge and develop into islands, they become important elements of the coastal landscape, hosting rich ecosystems. Sea level rise and sediment starvation are jeopardizing these landforms, motivating a thorough analysis of the mechanisms responsible for their formation and evolution. Here we present recent studies on the dynamics of mouth bars and subaqueous levees. The review encompasses both hydrodynamic and morphological results. We first analyze the hydrodynamics of the water jet exiting a river mouth. We then show how this dynamics coupled to sediment transport leads to the formation of mouth bars and levees. Specifically, we discuss the role of sediment eddy diffusivity and potential vorticity on sediment redistribution and related deposits. The effect of waves, tides, sediment characteristics, and vegetation on river mouth deposits is included in our analysis, thus accounting for the inherent complexity of the coastal environment where these landforms are common. Based on the results presented herein, we discuss in detail how river mouth deposits can be used to build new land or restore deltaic shorelines threatened by erosion

2020-04-06 DAILY UNM GLOBAL HEALTH COVID-19 BRIEFING

Executive Summary: NM case updates. Several NM policy and legislative actions. Federal vs. state conflict over medical supply lines. Healthcare workers sleep in cars to prevent family exposure. Same-day in-house testing at Cedars-Sinai. Debate over hydroxychloroquine Tx. Death rate differences: Germany and Italy. African innovations. Testing recommended with mild symptoms. CDC guidelines for law enforcement PPE. New WHO first responder training and CDC sign language resources. COVID-19 droplets can travel up to 27 feet. Transmission from the asymptomatic. Humidifiers help. Drug and vaccine progress

2020-04-17/18 DAILY UNM GLOBAL HEALTH COVID-19 BRIEFING

Executive Summary: Daily NM Recap. Stimulus checks. Whitehouse reopening guidelines. Increased suicide calls. Commentary on COVID and African Americans. NYC ventilation rate. 300K African deaths predicted. Thai horse virus outbreak. Europe eases lockdown. UK vaccine research. Chinese death undercount. Biosafety breaches. General wearing of masks. PPE for emergency physician. FDA approves safer swabs. Mental health lockdown impact. Intermittent social distancing. Undetected US cases. NYC hospitalization characteristics. Adapting veterinary surveillance. Infectious disease” hospital. NIH vaccine and treatment partnership. Repurposing anesthetic machines as ventilators. Guidance for psychiatrists. Elective surgery risk stratification. Hemodialysis facility. Pathologist on IgG/M tests. Abnormal coagulation and ECMO. Paramedic guidance. Dialysis and transplants. Critically ill management. GI guidance. Otorhinolaryngology head & neck surgery. Emergency nursing management. Lung surgery. Metabolic & bariatric surgery. Convalescent plasma therapy effectiveness. Potential antivirals. UK testing. Spike proteins for potential vaccine. Cytokines suggest IL-6 antagonist treatments. Mental health messaging. $483 million for mRNA-1273 vaccine trial. WHO unsure about antibody protection. Complications for IBD. Hospitalizations characterized. Social distancing and personality. Digital COVID-19 literature database available