Embedded or Modular? Preliminary Findings From a Study of Pre-Registration Nursing EBP Teaching Delivery Methods.

Aim: This study explores the impact of teaching delivery method (embedded vs. modular) on undergraduate pre-registration nursing students’ self-reported Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) implementation, attitudes, knowledge and skills. Background: For the past 20 years EBP has been increasingly emphasised as an effective approach and goal in healthcare. Although research has identified a number of barriers to its adoption and implementation, little research has focused on nurses’ pre-registration training; particularly on the impact of teaching delivery-method EBP throughout the learning process. Method: The study represents an on-going educational audit. Two cohorts of undergraduate nursing students were recruited for a longitudinal, cross-sectional survey study: cohort one (N=57, response rate= 90.1%) were being taught EBP modularly, but cohort two (N=88, response rate= 63.8%) had EBP embedded across their modules. Data was collected using the Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire (EBPQ; Upton & Upton, 2006), administered at six-monthly intervals across the duration of students’ courses. Results: Preliminary analysis of students’ EBP 6-months into their courses identified no statistically significant differences between the cohorts on EBP Practice (U=2,138.00, Z=-0.13, p=.894). However, statistically significant differences between the two cohorts were identified on EBP attitudes (U=1, 852.00, Z=-2.43, p=.015; embedded group Md= 5.67, modular group Md=6.33) and Knowledge/skills (U=2,802.00, Z=3.68, p<.001; embedded group Md= 4.89, modular group Md=4.29). Conclusions: Although the project is still in its infancy, preliminary findings raise important questions about the relationship between EBP attitudes, practice and skill. The embedded cohort’s lower attitude scores may reflect social-desirability effects: modules dedicated to EBP may instil greater importance of displaying positive EBP attitudes. Embedding EBP may provide an effective means of developing students’ practice, knowledge and skills, without requiring dedicated modules (thereby reducing resource demands)

Barriers to flexible sigmoidoscopy colorectal cancer screening in low uptake socio-demographic groups: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To synthesise qualitative evidence related to barriers and facilitators of flexible sigmoidoscopy screening (FSS) intention and uptake, particularly within low socio-demographic uptake groups. FSS uptake is lower amongst women, lower socio-economic status (SES), and Asian ethnic groups within the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America. METHODS: A total of 12 168 articles were identified from searches of four databases: EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Web of Science. Eligibility criteria included: individuals eligible to attend FSS and empirical peer-reviewed studies that analysed qualitative data. The Critical Appraisal Skills Program tool evaluated the methodological quality of included studies, and thematic synthesis was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Ten qualitative studies met the inclusion criteria. Key barriers to FSS intention and uptake centred upon procedural anxieties. Women, including UK Asian women, reported shame and embarrassment, anticipated pain, perforation risk, and test preparation difficulties to elevate anxiety levels. Religious and cultural-influenced health beliefs amongst UK Asian groups were reported to inhibit FSS intention and uptake. Competing priorities, such as caring commitments, particularly impeded women's ability to attend certain FSS appointments. The review identified a knowledge gap concerning factors especially associated with FSS participation amongst lower SES groups. CONCLUSIONS: Studies mostly focussed on barriers and facilitators of intention to participate in FSS, particularly within UK Asian groups. To determine the barriers associated with FSS uptake, and further understand how screening intention translates to behaviour, it is important that future qualitative research is equally directed towards factors associated with screening behaviour

Beliefs About Cancer and Diet among Those Considering Genetic Testing for Colon Cancer

To assess beliefs about the role of diet in cancer prevention among individuals considering genetic testing for Lynch Syndrome

3D-cultured blastoids model human embryogenesis from pre-implantation to early gastrulation stages

Naive human pluripotent stem cells have the remarkable ability to self-organize into blastocyst-like structures ( blastoids ) that model lineage segregation in the pre-implantation embryo. However, the extent to which blastoids can recapitulate the defining features of human post-implantation development remains unexplored. Here, we report that blastoids cultured on thick three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrices capture hallmarks of early post-implantation development, including epiblast lumenogenesis, rapid expansion and diversification of trophoblast lineages, and robust invasion of extravillous trophoblast cells by day 14. Extended blastoid culture results in the localized activation of primitive streak marker TBXT and the emergence of embryonic germ layers by day 21. We also show that the modulation of WNT signaling alters the balance between epiblast and trophoblast fates in post-implantation blastoids. This work demonstrates that 3D-cultured blastoids offer a continuous and integrated in vitro model system of human embryonic and extraembryonic development from pre-implantation to early gastrulation stages

Strain-engineering of the charge and spin-orbital interactions in Sr2IrO4

In the high spin-orbit coupled Sr2IrO4, the high sensitivity of the ground state to the details of the local lattice structure shows a large potential for the manipulation of the functional properties by inducing local lattice distortions. We use epitaxial strain to modify the Ir-O bond geometry in Sr2IrO4 and perform momentum-dependent Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) at the metal and at the ligand sites to unveil the response of the low energy elementary excitations. We observe that the pseudospin-wave dispersion for tensile-strained Sr2IrO4 films displays large softening along the [h,0] direction, while along the [h,h] direction it shows hardening. This evolution reveals a renormalization of the magnetic interactions caused by a strain-driven crossover from anisotropic to isotropic interactions between the magnetic moments. Moreover, we detect dispersive electron-hole pair excitations which shift to lower (higher) energies upon compressive (tensile) strain, manifesting a reduction (increase) in the size of the charge gap. This behavior shows an intimate coupling between charge excitations and lattice distortions in Sr2IrO4, originating from the modified hopping elements between the t2g orbitals. Our work highlights the central role played by the lattice degrees of freedom in determining both the pseudospin and charge excitations of Sr2IrO4 and provides valuable information towards the control of the ground state of complex oxides in the presence of high spin-orbit coupling.Comment: Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 202

Orexin receptors in GtoPdb v.2023.1

Orexin receptors (nomenclature as agreed by the NC-IUPHAR Subcommittee on Orexin receptors [43]) are activated by the endogenous polypeptides orexin-A and orexin-B (also known as hypocretin-1 and -2; 33 and 28 aa) derived from a common precursor, preproorexin or orexin precursor, by proteolytic cleavage and some typical peptide modifications [117]. Orexin signaling has been associated with regulation of sleep and wakefulness, reward and addiction, appetite and feeding, pain gating, stress response, anxiety and depression. Currently the orexin receptor ligands in clinical use are the dual orexin receptor antagonists suvorexant and lemborexant and daridorexant, which are used as hypnotics, and several dual and OX2-selective antagonists are under development. Multiple orexin agonists are in development for the treatment of narcolepsy and other sleep disorders. Orexin receptor 3D structures have been solved [146, 144, 55, 126, 47, 109, 7, 145]

Epidemiology of Cryptococcus gattii, British Columbia, Canada, 1999–2007

Incidence is high, but the predominant strain does not seem to cause greater illness or death than do other strains

Integration of Aspergillus niger transcriptomic profile with metabolic model identifies potential targets to optimise citric acid production from lignocellulosic hydrolysate

BACKGROUND: Citric acid is typically produced industrially by Aspergillus niger-mediated fermentation of a sucrose-based feedstock, such as molasses. The fungus Aspergillus niger has the potential to utilise lignocellulosic biomass, such as bagasse, for industrial-scale citric acid production, but realising this potential requires strain optimisation. Systems biology can accelerate strain engineering by systematic target identification, facilitated by methods for the integration of omics data into a high-quality metabolic model. In this work, we perform transcriptomic analysis to determine the temporal expression changes during fermentation of bagasse hydrolysate and develop an evolutionary algorithm to integrate the transcriptomic data with the available metabolic model to identify potential targets for strain engineering. RESULTS: The novel integrated procedure matures our understanding of suboptimal citric acid production and reveals potential targets for strain engineering, including targets consistent with the literature such as the up-regulation of citrate export and pyruvate carboxylase as well as novel targets such as the down-regulation of inorganic diphosphatase. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we demonstrate the production of citric acid from lignocellulosic hydrolysate and show how transcriptomic data across multiple timepoints can be coupled with evolutionary and metabolic modelling to identify potential targets for further engineering to maximise productivity from a chosen feedstock. The in silico strategies employed in this study can be applied to other biotechnological goals, assisting efforts to harness the potential of microorganisms for bio-based production of valuable chemicals