\u3ci\u3eReflective Insight:\u3c/i\u3e Lessons Learned

After returning from my study abroad experience, many people have asked me how was the trip? What did you experience? Was it fun? Not many people asked me what I learned, or how I felt. The emotions and knowledge that I have encountered on this trip is a complex subject to grapple with. The Holocaust, or Shoah as Europeans call it, was a tragedy that devastated millions of families. I often thought what would I have done if this happened to my family? How would I be able to move forward after the slaughter of the people that I held near and dear to my heart? The sadness of Auschwitz, Drancy, and Płaszów will never leave me nor will the knowledge I have obtained

Benefits of a Group Exercise Program on a Student With Congenital Hydrocephalus and Multiple Co-Diagnoses

Congenital Hydrocephalus (CH) is a condition at birth where excess cerebral spinal fluid accumulates in the ventricles of the brain due to inadequate drainage, resulting in an increase in intracranial pressure and damage to the surrounding nervous tissue. Although hydrocephalus is successfully treated at birth, a resulting diagnosis of a memory-related learning disorder is common. However, having multiple independent subsequent diagnoses is unique. This report mainly describes a 13 year-old boy who was diagnosed and treated for congenital hydrocephalus at birth and then was subsequently diagnosed with multiple co-morbidities, such as partial agenesis of the Corpus Callosum, Cerebral Palsy with ataxic gait (CP), mild spasticity of the quadriceps group, Developmental Encephalopathy, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In addition to Occupational and Physical Therapy, this student also participated in a weekly group exercise program, which not only attended to individual movement goals, but also added a social component to treatment. Activities were structured to incorporate the individual needs of each student, but to also foster a group atmosphere and a need to work together to successfully complete the activity. Some activities included baseball, kickball, and Zumba dancing. After the conclusion of the 12-week program, the social gains and adaptations were clearly evident, however more time would have been required to identify specific physical benefits

Modeling Living Shorelines in a Wave Tank: Quantifying Wave Attenuation to Find the Most Effective Shoreline Restoration

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Senior Recital, Neil Walters, double bass

The presentation of this senior recital will fulfill in part the requirements for the Bachelor of Music degree in Performance. Neil Walters studies double bass with Kelly Ali

Identifying governance problems and solutions for forest landscape restoration in protected area landscapes

Governance challenges – including ownership, decision-making, accountability, and sharing of costs and benefits – can impede forest landscape restoration in protected area landscapes. Understanding and addressing these challenges can improve the outcomes of forest landscape restoration. We tested the utility of applying an existing framework that focuses on three actions to understand governance – mapping stakeholders, contextualising and rescaling. The framework was applied to large-scale restoration initiatives in New Caledonia’s dry forest, Canada’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park and a Community Resource Management Area in Ghana’s Western Region to identify governance challenges and solutions in forest landscape restoration implementation in different contexts. Application of the framework revealed four types of governance challenges: overlapping jurisdictions, interinstitutional relationships, tenure and property rights conflict, and stakeholder power dynamics, and five types of governance solutions: supportive national-level policies, clarifying tenure, convening structures, benefit sharing and compensation, and cultural incentives. Overall, we found that the framework helped interviewees to conceptualise governance challenges and identify ways to address them

Enhancing the integration of governance in landscape restoration opportunities assessments

Governance is a crucial factor in the equity, effectiveness and sustainability of forest landscape restoration (FLR). The Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) provides a framework for governments, rights-holders and stakeholders to define and prioritise FLR options. This publication presents lessons learned and offers recommendations on governance aspects of the ROAM framework and process. It aims to reinforce the ability of ROAM to inform effective, equitable and sustainable FLR. The analysis uses the IUCN Natural Resource Governance Framework as its primary lens and also takes into account the FLR principles agreed to by the Global Partnership on FLR

Improving teaching about medically unexplained symptoms for newly-qualified doctors in the UK: findings from a questionnaire survey and expert workshop

Objectives Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) present frequently in healthcare, can be complex and frustrating for clinicians and patients and are often associated with overinvestigation and significant costs. Doctors need to be aware of appropriate management strategies for such patients early in their training. A previous qualitative study with foundation year doctors (junior doctors in their first 2 years postqualification) indicated significant lack of knowledge about this topic and appropriate management strategies. This study reviewed whether, and in what format, UK foundation training programmes for newly qualified doctors include any teaching about MUS and sought recommendations for further development of such training. Design Mixed-methods design comprising a web-based questionnaire survey and an expert consultation workshop. Setting Nineteen foundation schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland Participants Questionnaire administered via email to 155 foundation training programme directors (FTPDs) attached to the 19 foundation schools, followed by an expert consultation workshop attended by 13 medical educationalists, FTPDs and junior doctors. Results The 53/155 (34.2%) FTPDs responding to the questionnaire represented 15 of the 19 foundation schools, but only 6/53 (11%) reported any current formal teaching about MUS within their programmes. However, most recognised the importance of providing such teaching, suggesting 2–3 hours per year. All those attending the expert consultation workshop recommended case-based discussions, role-play and the use of videos to illustrate positive and negative examples of doctor–patient interactions as educational methods of choice. Educational sessions should cover the skills needed to provide appropriate explanations for patients’ symptoms as well as avoid unnecessary investigations, and providing information about suitable treatment options. Conclusions There is an urgent need to improve foundation level training about MUS, as current provision is very limited. An interactive approach covering a range of topics is recommended, but must be delivered within a realistic time frame for the curriculum

Interactive molecular dynamics in virtual reality for accurate flexible protein-ligand docking

Simulating drug binding and unbinding is a challenge, as the rugged energy landscapes that separate bound and unbound states require extensive sampling that consumes significant computational resources. Here, we describe the use of interactive molecular dynamics in virtual reality (iMD-VR) as an accurate low-cost strategy for flexible protein-ligand docking. We outline an experimental protocol which enables expert iMD-VR users to guide ligands into and out of the binding pockets of trypsin, neuraminidase, and HIV-1 protease, and recreate their respective crystallographic protein-ligand binding poses within 5 - 10 minutes. Following a brief training phase, our studies shown that iMD-VR novices were able to generate unbinding and rebinding pathways on similar timescales as iMD-VR experts, with the majority able to recover binding poses within 2.15 Angstrom RMSD of the crystallographic binding pose. These results indicate that iMD-VR affords sufficient control for users to carry out the detailed atomic manipulations required to dock flexible ligands into dynamic enzyme active sites and recover crystallographic poses, offering an interesting new approach for simulating drug docking and generating binding hypotheses.Comment: PLOS ON

Sustained microglial depletion with CSF1R inhibitor impairs parenchymal plaque development in an Alzheimer's disease model.

Many risk genes for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are exclusively or highly expressed in myeloid cells. Microglia are dependent on colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) signaling for their survival. We designed and synthesized a highly selective brain-penetrant CSF1R inhibitor (PLX5622) allowing for extended and specific microglial elimination, preceding and during pathology development. We find that in the 5xFAD mouse model of AD, plaques fail to form in the parenchymal space following microglial depletion, except in areas containing surviving microglia. Instead, Aβ deposits in cortical blood vessels reminiscent of cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Altered gene expression in the 5xFAD hippocampus is also reversed by the absence of microglia. Transcriptional analyses of the residual plaque-forming microglia show they exhibit a disease-associated microglia profile. Collectively, we describe the structure, formulation, and efficacy of PLX5622, which allows for sustained microglial depletion and identify roles of microglia in initiating plaque pathogenesis