Social software for virtual mobility: an online community of practice-based learners

International internship programmes are now embedded into the mainstream delivery of the majority of HE institutions, offering learners the opportunity to link theory and practice while developing linguistic and intercultural competences. Virtual mobility is also being recognised as a viable and practical alternative to physical mobility, with educational cultures and behaviours being transformed as new technologies and tools allow learners to share knowledge and experiences across boundaries of time and space. This paper reports on the EU funded Socrates-Minerva ESMOS project, where group blogs are being used to nurture online communities of professional practice in clinical education. A key aspect of the project has been the paradigm shift from tutor-student dialogue to tripartite online communication between tutors and learners, with tutors facilitating peer-to-peer mentoring and support between students in the UK and those based overseas. This type of virtual mobility has enabled learners to gain an international perspective on the link between theory and practice during their clinical experiences while developing a culture of reflection, critical analysis and collaborative learning. The case study presented here demonstrates the benefits of blogging as a learner-centred support tool, connecting geographically dispersed peers in an online community of practice

Top ten tips palliative care clinicians should know about cachexia

Cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome that is common in cancer and chronic disease. It is often underdiagnosed and therefore goes untreated or undertreated. Cachexia causes suffering across biopsychosocial domains and affects patients and their loved ones. In this article, a group of clinicians and researchers across cancer care, nutrition, and exercise offers tips about assessment, classification, and management of cachexia, with attention to its stage. The required multimodal management of cachexia mirrors well the interprofessional collaboration that is the mainstay of interdisciplinary palliative care and attention to screening, diagnosis, and management of cachexia is critical to maximize patients' quality of life

Usefulness of the discrete choice methodology for marketing decision-making in new product development: an example from the European functional foods market

Understanding consumer needs should be a high-priority strategic objective in new product development (NPD). Despite their importance, however, NPD processes do not take full advantage of the consumer survey methodologies available. The authors investigate+ parents” preferences for three new functional children's snacks marketed in Greece. Using a very simple discrete choice experimental design, the authors aim (a) to provide an example of consumer research implementation in food-related NPD and to assess its marketing value, and (b) to evaluate the quality of the acquired consumer-related information for marketing decision-making in food consumer-led NPD processes against a number of criteria set in the relevant literature. “Functionality” is found to be a statistically significant attribute for all three children's snacks of the research design compared to other attributes such as flavor and price. Parents seem to perceive the functional snack alternative as offering greater utility as compared to its conventional (i.e., nonfunctional) counterpart. Overall, the authors conclude that, despite some inherent weaknesses, the advantage of the discrete choice methodology in connection with consumer-led food NPD lies in its ability to describe current consumer needs and desires realistically and to contribute to the optimization of existing products. [EconLit Classification: M310, C920, C930, D100]. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effects of tyrosine kinase inhibitors on cell death induced by sodium fluoride and pertussis toxin in the pancreatic β-cell line, RINm5F

1. Sodium fluoride causes apoptosis of pancreatic β-cells and this response is enhanced by pre-treatment with pertussis toxin. In the present study, tyrosine kinase inhibitors were used to investigate the mechanisms of action of NaF and pertussis toxin in the β-cell line, RINm5F. 2. Exposure of RINm5F cells to low concentrations of genistein or tyrphostin A25 resulted in significant inhibition of cell death induced by 5 mM NaF. Higher concentrations (>25 μM) were cytotoxic in the absence of NaF but, paradoxically, the combination of genistein and NaF induced less cell death than when each agent was used alone. 3. The increase in cell death induced by 100 μM genistein was markedly inhibited by ciprofloxacin, a drug which binds to topoisomerase II. Etoposide (which inhibits topoisomerase II but has no effect on tyrosine kinase activity) also caused an increase in RINm5F cell death. Neither etoposide nor ciprofloxacin altered the response to 5 mM NaF. 4. Pertussis toxin markedly enhanced the extent of RINm5F cell death induced by NaF and this effect was completely prevented by 25 μM genistein. The inhibition caused by genistein was not affected by ciprofloxacin but was reproduced by a structurally dissimilar tyrosine kinase inhibitor, herbimycin A. 5. The results demonstrate that RINm5F β-cells express a pertussis toxin sensitive pathway that is anti-apoptotic. The activity of this pathway is most evident in cells exposed to pro-apoptotic stimuli where the effects of pertussis toxin can be blocked by inhibitors of tyrosine kinase enzymes. A genistein-sensitive tyrosine kinase does not appear to be involved in RINm5F cell survival under basal conditions