“Broadening horizons” optional modules in the Nottingham MPharm degree

In Year 3 of the MPharm degree at the University of Nottingham, many of the students undertake 20-credits of “broadening horizons” optional modules, chosen from a wide and diverse range from across the university. This study presents student views regarding their module choices and on their performances with such diverse module choices of varied levels. Follow-up surveys and focus group discussions with alumni will determine the contribution of this breadth to a student’s education, in providing them with a different perspective on life, to their chosen profession and future career paths.Keywords: Electives, optional modules, MPharm, pharmac

Short-term gain, long-term pain: the senescence life cycle and cancer.

Originally thought of as a stress response end point, the view of cellular senescence has since evolved into one encompassing a wide range of physiological and pathological functions, including both protumorignic and antitumorigenic features. It has also become evident that senescence is a highly dynamic and heterogenous process. Efforts to reconcile the beneficial and detrimental features of senescence suggest that physiological functions require the transient presence of senescent cells in the tissue microenvironment. Here, we propose the concept of a physiological "senescence life cycle," which has pathological consequences if not executed in its entirety.The Narita laboratory is funded by a Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute Core Grant (C14303/A17197). Masashi Narita is also supported by Cancer Research UK Early Detection Pump Priming award (C20/A20976), Medical Research Council (MR/R010013/1) and the Tokyo Tech World Research Hub Initiative (WRHI)

Efficacy of abbreviated progressive muscle relaxation and active relaxation training on improvement of attentiveness mediated by transient feelings and psychobiological indices of anxiety

The present study was undertaken with an objective to determine differential efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions, namely abbreviated progressive muscle relaxation (APMR) exercise training and active relaxation in enhancing attentive capacity in young active female participants. Twenty seven female students of Universiti Sains Malaysia in the age ranging from 18 to 24 years volunteered as participants, who were assessed with dispositional and transient anxiety by employing Spielberger’s State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Thereafter, they were randomly categorized into three groups; viz. - Group A- control group; Group B - participants received training of APMR and Group C - participants received training of Active relaxation. All of the participants were subjected to evaluation of transient anxiety; both simple and complex reaction ability; psychobiological measures of tonic and phasic skin conductance activity as measure of pre-intervention analyses. Thereafter the participants of intervention conditions were introduced to their respective intervention training programs following standardized protocol (15 minutes/day; 2 days/week for 6 weeks). Mid-term analyses (all of the parameters of pre-intervention analyses were repeated) were done three weeks after the introduction of intervention sessions. Thereafter the similar protocol of intervention was followed for three more weeks. Thereafter all of the participants were assessed once again for the post-intervention analyses (following similar analyses protocols). Findings of the analyses suggested that both APMR and active relaxation intervention had beneficial impacts on attentive performance, characterized by psychomotor simple muscular reaction time and on cognitively dominated complex reaction performance. Furthermore, both of the interventions have been observed to result in alteration in the psychobiological make-up of the participants, which finally resulted in improvements in attentive performances

Enantiospecificity Of Polyclonal Antibodies Raised Against Racemic And Pure Enantiomers Of Salbutamol And The Implications Of Their Use In Enzyme Immunoassay

Salbutamol (albuterol) adalah agonis β2-adrenergik yang popular digunakan dalam rawatan asma dan gangguan obstruktif pulmonari kronik (COPD). Salbutamol (albuterol) is a β2-adrenergic agonist popularly used in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), and is also commonly abused as a performance enhancer in sports as well as an effective growth promoter in livestock

Collective futures: cultivating creative collectives.

Collective Futures was a partnership project between three highly regarded institutions operating in the creative industries: Gray's School of Art, University of The West of Scotland (UWS) and the Glasgow School of Art. The partners undertook a unique exploration of creative collectives as a route to economic success and talent development for designer-makers. The collaborative nature of the partnership working throughout the project was recognised by the partners as a form of Creative Academic Collective. The aims of the project were consistent with Creative Scotland's strategic intention to support talent hubs for creative practitioners, and also aligned with recent reports (EKOS) and initiatives such as the South of Scotland Social Enterprise Initiative (SOSCEI), Creative Arts Business Network (CABN) and Emergents, that reinforced the importance of scale, networking, collaboration and the notion of creative places around the country to support creative industries. Central to the success of the project was a meaningful connection and engagement of designer/maker communities and creative practitioners in several parts of Scotland. This project sought to explore effective models of collective working that support designer/makers in the development of their own talent and to sustain and grow their creative businesses

Evaluation of Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium training recommendations on modified Rodnan skin score assessment in scleroderma

AimThe modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) is a validated outcome measure for skin thickness in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Training has been shown to reduce variability in the measurement of mRSS. Our objective was to assess the interâ and intraâ observer variability of mRSS scoring using the proposed recommendations for training by the Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium (SCTC) and World Scleroderma Foundation (WSF).MethodFiftyâ two trainees and eight adult SSc patients participated in the SSc skin scoring workshop that was conducted in two sessions by four teachers. Each session, attended by 26 trainees, had a teaching and evaluation phase. The teaching phase comprised of: (a) lecture on mRSS scoring; (b) video demonstration of mRSS scoring; and (c) live demonstration of mRSS on one SSc patient. In the evaluation phase, each trainee independently assessed the mRSS in four SSc patients. For intraâ observer reliability, 14 trainees reâ assessed the mRSS of two SSc patients whom they had previously examined. We computed the interâ and intraâ observer variability using a linear mixed model.ResultsFor the evaluation phase, 34 (65.4%) trainees were within five units of the established teachers’ score in 3 out of 4 patients. Overall, the whole group had acceptable interâ observer variability (intraâ class correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.71, mean = 8.64 and withinâ patient standard deviation [SD] = 4.25). The intraâ observer ICC was 0.85 and withinâ patient SD was 2.73.ConclusionThere was good interâ observer and excellent intraâ observer reliability. This is the first study examining the training of assessors using the SCTC/WSF recommendations and our results support the importance of standardized training for skin scoring.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149705/1/apl13523.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149705/2/apl13523_am.pd

Living in a 2.2 World: ERA, Capacity Building and the Topography of Australian Educational Research

Early in 2011, the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) and the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE) established a joint working party to create a strategic plan for strengthening national research capacity in the field of Education. This proposal followed the publication of Excellence of Research in Australia (ERA) 2010 results, which revealed that the national average weighting of Australian research in Field of Research 13 (FoR 13) - Education was well below the 'world standard' rating of 3.0. Moreover, the 2010 ERA data demonstrated that we had no up-to-date picture of who is involved in educational research, what their strengths are, or how they relate to one another. As an input into strategic research capacity building in Australian educational research, this project begins the process of documenting who 'we' are as educational researchers. The research described within the report used an ecological model to address the project's overarching question, which was: What is the topography of Australian educational research