Adapting Under Pressure: A Case Study in Scaling Faculty Development for Emergency Remote Teaching

This case study examines the adaptation of an existing online, asynchronous faculty development resource at the University of New Mexico to support the unanticipated need for all instructors to teach remotely starting in spring 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The course—entitled Evidence-Based Practices for Teaching Online (EBPTO)—was previously utilized to support instructor transitions to distance education by applying constructivist principles to the development of evidence-based online teaching practices. The course was adapted to address institutional and instructor needs as a result of the pandemic, including increasing facilitation resources. The largest EBPTO cohort, with 117 participants, began in June 2020. Data were collected through a reflective journal administered at the mid-point and an end-of-course survey. Analysis of the reflective journal provided insight into participants’ learning experience in terms of key “takeaways,” LMS tools that they had the opportunity to practice, and “lingering questions” that they had. The top 3 takeaways were the usefulness of course mapping, the usefulness of backwards design, and the deepening familiarity with LMS tools. Results from the end-of-course survey showed positive feedback from participants regarding perceived achievement of the course learning objectives, even after scaling the course to accommodate the large number of instructors moving to remote instruction

Effect of Stocking Rate on a \u3cem\u3eStipa Breviflora\u3c/em\u3e Desert Steppe Community of Inner Mongolia

Stocking rate is an important factor in grazing management. The stocking rate defines utilization and ultimately grazing pressure, which in turn affects grassland sustainability. Grassland sustainability is partly defined by its species composition and ultimately by its productivity. These attributes are unique for specific plant communities and the effect of stocking rate must be established for each in order to understand the community response to grazing and to determine its carrying capacity. While some information exists on the effects of stocking rate on livestock production in the Stipa breviflora Griseb. Desert Steppe (Wei et al., 2000), the effects on the plant community are not understood well. This study aimed to determine the effects of stocking rate on the species composition and productivity of that community

Preparation of gem-difluorinated retrohydroxamic-fosmidomycin

International audienceFrom several decades, some organophosphorus compounds specifically designed to alterbiological systems were introduced on market as agrochemicals (ie glyphosate and glufosinate asherbicides). Nevertheless, it becomes necessary to find new compounds in order to counter plantresistances already observed with glyphosate. Fosmidomicyn and its N-acetyl analogues FR-900098 were perceived as starting points for elaboration of new herbicide candidates, targetingthe second enzyme of the non-mevalonate pathway in plants, the 1-deoxy-D-xylulose 5-phosphate reductoisomerase (DOXP reductoisomerase or DXR). It is expected that theenhancement of bioactivity compared to the parent compounds, might be reached by insertion oftwo fluorine atoms close to the phosphonate function. Indeed, the presence of both fluorineatoms could improve the lipophilicity, affect the pKa of the phosphonic acid function and theninduce better activities. Herein, the synthesis of gem-difluorinated analogues of retrohydroxamicfosmidomycin and FR-900098-ester is reported using a radical addition mediated by acobaloxime comple

Screening for Incidental Sars-Cov-2 Infection in a Neurocritical Care Unit: A Longitudinal Diagnostic Prediction Model

Background: Rapid diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients not primarily assigned with the diagnosis of COVID-19 is highly relevant to effectively rule out virus transmission among patients and medical staff. The purpose is to develop a model for the prediction of the actual presence of a SARS-CoV-2 infection before a valid test result is available and to avoid unnecessary testing in Critical Care Units. Methods: Datasets of laboratory and blood gas analysis tests were collected retrospectively for the development and subsequent validation of machine learning (ML) based models. The data set was composed of 1. 254 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases, collected in an ICU dedicated to patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, 2a. 914 SARS-CoV-2 negative patients treated in a Neurocritical Care Unit and 2b. 32 patients treated for severe influenza pneumonia in a Medical ICU at the same hospital. The models were subsequently validated on a dataset collected from the Neurocritical Care Unit that consisted of data from 7 positive and 42 negative patients. Models were adapted to newly available laboratory values throughout their ICU stay. Extremely Randomized Trees (ERT) and Random Forest (RF) models were evaluated. A baseline model comprising fully grown trees, an optimized model including optimal values for the maximum depth, and a simplified model that only uses the 6 most important features were trained. Results: The overall best model, evaluated via crossvalidation on the development set, is an optimized ERT model with a ROC AUC value of 0.946. The model performance on the validation set is best for the simplified RF model achieving a ROC AUC value of 0.701. Gini feature and permutation importance for the simplified RF model revealed hemoglobin, procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, glomerular filtration rate based on CKD-EPI equation, creatinine, and urea as the most important input features. Using the simplified RF model and a threshold of 0.012 for the probability, a sensitivity above 80% with a specificity of 43% is achieved. Compared to a hypothetical daily testing regimen, using a threshold of 0.145, the simplified RF model detects all positive cases, and, with a false positive rate of 35%, daily tests might be reduced by two thirds. Conclusions: The model developed may support the medical staff in the ICUs by enabling faster and more reliable recognition of COVID-19. Unnecessary serial test sampling might be reduced. To ensure the quality of the model before clinical use, it should be further validated in prospective patient cohorts

Preservice Teachers\u27 Experiences of America Reads Research

This article has two purposes. First, we want to make visible the experiences of undergraduate preservice teacher researchers who collaborated with university faculty to conduct three research studies of an America Reads Literacy Tutoring Program. Our second purpose is to offer evidence from the preservice teachers\u27 research logs, comments and reflections that supports or challenges current discussions about the effects of preservice teacher research. The article begins with a brief discussion of the America Reads investigations in which the preservice teachers participated. Next, we discuss the preservice teachers\u27 thoughts about their research experiences. Finally, we explore implications raised by this research

Endothelial-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Induce Cerebrovascular Dysfunction in Inflammation

Blood–brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction is a key hallmark in the pathology of many neuroinflammatory disorders. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid membrane-enclosed carriers of molecular cargo that are involved in cell-to-cell communication. Circulating endothelial EVs are increased in the plasma of patients with neurological disorders, and immune cell-derived EVs are known to modulate cerebrovascular functions. However, little is known about whether brain endothelial cell (BEC)-derived EVs themselves contribute to BBB dysfunction. Human cerebral microvascular cells (hCMEC/D3) were treated with TNFα and IFNy, and the EVs were isolated and characterised. The effect of EVs on BBB transendothelial resistance (TEER) and leukocyte adhesion in hCMEC/D3 cells was measured by electric substrate cell-substrate impedance sensing and the flow-based T-cell adhesion assay. EV-induced molecular changes in recipient hCMEC/D3 cells were analysed by RT-qPCR and Western blotting. A stimulation of naïve hCMEC/D3 cells with small EVs (sEVs) reduced the TEER and increased the shear-resistant T-cell adhesion. The levels of microRNA-155, VCAM1 and ICAM1 were increased in sEV-treated hCMEC/D3 cells. Blocking the expression of VCAM1, but not of ICAM1, prevented sEV-mediated T-cell adhesion to brain endothelia. These results suggest that sEVs derived from inflamed BECs promote cerebrovascular dysfunction. These findings may provide new insights into the mechanisms involving neuroinflammatory disorders

Visualization and 3D Reconstruction of Flame Cells of Taenia solium (Cestoda)

BACKGROUND: Flame cells are the terminal cells of protonephridial systems, which are part of the excretory systems of invertebrates. Although the knowledge of their biological role is incomplete, there is a consensus that these cells perform excretion/secretion activities. It has been suggested that the flame cells participate in the maintenance of the osmotic environment that the cestodes require to live inside their hosts. In live Platyhelminthes, by light microscopy, the cells appear beating their flames rapidly and, at the ultrastructural, the cells have a large body enclosing a tuft of cilia. Few studies have been performed to define the localization of the cytoskeletal proteins of these cells, and it is unclear how these proteins are involved in cell function. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Parasites of two different developmental stages of T. solium were used: cysticerci recovered from naturally infected pigs and intestinal adults obtained from immunosuppressed and experimentally infected golden hamsters. Hamsters were fed viable cysticerci to recover adult parasites after one month of infection. In the present studies focusing on flame cells of cysticerci tissues was performed. Using several methods such as video, confocal and electron microscopy, in addition to computational analysis for reconstruction and modeling, we have provided a 3D visual rendition of the cytoskeletal architecture of Taenia solium flame cells. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We consider that visual representations of cells open a new way for understanding the role of these cells in the excretory systems of Platyhelminths. After reconstruction, the observation of high resolution 3D images allowed for virtual observation of the interior composition of cells. A combination of microscopic images, computational reconstructions and 3D modeling of cells appears to be useful for inferring the cellular dynamics of the flame cell cytoskeleton

Interpretation time of serial chest CT examinations with stacked-metaphor workstation versus film alternator

PURPOSE: Interpretation time of serial staging chest CT cases, which each contained current and previous examinations, with a simple prototype workstation called filmstack was experimentally compared with interpretation time with a film alternator. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The filmstack displayed a "stack" of sections for each examination; user controls allowed rapid selection of preset attenuation windows and both synchronized and unsynchronized scrolling. Eight radiologists were timed as they used the filmstack and the film alternator to interpret four ergonomically complex serial CT cases. RESULTS: All reports dictated on the basis of findings with filmstack and film were of acceptable clinical accuracy. The time to examine a case with filmstack was significantly faster than the time with film, including the time to load and unload the alternator (99% confidence [P = .01]). There was no statistically significant difference in interpretation time between filmstack and prehung film. CONCLUSION: Use of a low-cost stacked CT workstation with a single 1,024 x 1,024 monitor is an effective means of interpreting cases that require comparison of multiple CT examinations