Small group activities within academic communities improve the connectedness of students and faculty.

BackgroundThe University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine implemented a curriculum change that included reduction of lectures, incorporation of problem-based learning and other small group activities. Six academic communities were introduced for teaching longitudinal curricular content and organizing extracurricular activities.MethodsSurveys were collected from 904 first- and second-year medical students over 6 years. Student satisfaction data with their sense of connectedness and community support were collected before and after the implementation of the new curriculum. In a follow-up survey, medical students rated factors that contributed to their sense of connectedness with faculty and students (n = 134).ResultsStudents' perception of connectedness to faculty significantly increased following implementation of a curriculum change that included academic communities. Students ranked small group clinical skills activities within academic communities significantly higher than other activities concerning their sense of connectedness with faculty. Students' perception of connectedness among each other was high at baseline and did not significantly change. Small group activities scored higher than extracurricular activities regarding students' connectedness among themselves.ConclusionsThe implementation of a new curriculum with more small group educational activities including academic communities enhanced connectedness between students and faculty and resulted in an increased sense of community

CpG Island microarray probe sequences derived from a physical library are representative of CpG Islands annotated on the human genome

An effective tool for the global analysis of both DNA methylation status and protein–chromatin interactions is a microarray constructed with sequences containing regulatory elements. One type of array suited for this purpose takes advantage of the strong association between CpG Islands (CGIs) and gene regulatory regions. We have obtained 20 736 clones from a CGI Library and used these to construct CGI arrays. The utility of this library requires proper annotation and assessment of the clones, including CpG content, genomic origin and proximity to neighboring genes. Alignment of clone sequences to the human genome (UCSC hg17) identified 9595 distinct genomic loci; 64% were defined by a single clone while the remaining 36% were represented by multiple, redundant clones. Approximately 68% of the loci were located near a transcription start site. The distribution of these loci covered all 23 chromosomes, with 63% overlapping a bioinformatically identified CGI. The high representation of genomic CGI in this rich collection of clones supports the utilization of microarrays produced with this library for the study of global epigenetic mechanisms and protein–chromatin interactions. A browsable database is available on-line to facilitate exploration of the CGIs in this library and their association with annotated genes or promoter elements

Prevalence of prehypertension and associated cardiovascular risk profiles among prediabetic Omani adults

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The importance of prediabetes and prehypertension has been demonstrated in several studies especially for primary prevention of CVD. A recent community based cross-sectional study revealed that 40.9 percent Omani adults are prediabetics. This study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of prehypertension and associated cardiovascular risk profiles in prediabetics. To best of our knowledge, this is the first report on this subject.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study included 327 confirmed pre-diabetic Omani adults, who were analysed for their demographic, metabolic and behavioral characteristics. These characteristics were compared between the three different blood pressure groups to determine the CVD risk factors. Univariate and step-wise multiple logistic regression methods were used to carry out the analysis of the data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, the prevalence of prehypertension was 54.1 percent. Males were at higher risk of developing prehypertension as compared to females (OR = 2.30, 95% CI: 1.21, 4.38; P < 0.01). The individuals with higher BMI have two fold more risk of developing prehypertension (OR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.26, 4.02; P < 0.01). The increased level of OGT enhanced the risk of developing prehypertension (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.50; P < 0.01).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A high prevalence of prehypertension (54.1%) exists in this study population. The major determinants of prehypertension in these prediabetic subjects were male gender, increasing dysglycemia and BMI. Appropriate intervention strategies have been suggested.</p

Stress-Induced PARP Activation Mediates Recruitment of Drosophila Mi-2 to Promote Heat Shock Gene Expression

Eukaryotic cells respond to genomic and environmental stresses, such as DNA damage and heat shock (HS), with the synthesis of poly-[ADP-ribose] (PAR) at specific chromatin regions, such as DNA breaks or HS genes, by PAR polymerases (PARP). Little is known about the role of this modification during cellular stress responses. We show here that the nucleosome remodeler dMi-2 is recruited to active HS genes in a PARP–dependent manner. dMi-2 binds PAR suggesting that this physical interaction is important for recruitment. Indeed, a dMi-2 mutant unable to bind PAR does not localise to active HS loci in vivo. We have identified several dMi-2 regions which bind PAR independently in vitro, including the chromodomains and regions near the N-terminus containing motifs rich in K and R residues. Moreover, upon HS gene activation, dMi-2 associates with nascent HS gene transcripts, and its catalytic activity is required for efficient transcription and co-transcriptional RNA processing. RNA and PAR compete for dMi-2 binding in vitro, suggesting a two step process for dMi-2 association with active HS genes: initial recruitment to the locus via PAR interaction, followed by binding to nascent RNA transcripts. We suggest that stress-induced chromatin PARylation serves to rapidly attract factors that are required for an efficient and timely transcriptional response

The Minimum Wage and LatinoWorkers

Latinos comprise a large and growing share of the low-skilled labor force in the U.S. and may be disproportionately affected by minimum wage laws as a result. We compare the effects of minimum wage laws on employment and earnings among Hispanic immigrants and natives compared with non-Hispanic whites and blacks. We focus on adults who have not finished high school and on teenagers, groups likely to earn low wages. Conventional economic theory predicts that higher minimum wages lead to higher hourly earnings among people who are employed but lower employment rates. Data from the Current Population Survey during the period 1994-2007 indicate that there is a significant disemployment effect of higher minimum wages on Latino teenagers, although it is smaller for foreign- than native-born Latinos. Adult Latino immigrants' earnings are less affected by minimum wage laws than other low-education natives, and their employment rates appear to increase when the minimum wage rises. We investigate whether skill levels and undocumented status help explain these findings

Medical student attitudes toward complementary, alternative and integrative medicine

While the use of complementary, alternative and integrative medicine (CAIM) is substantial, it continues to exist at the periphery of allopathic medicine. Understanding the attitudes of medical students toward CAIM will be useful in understanding future integration of CAIM and allopathic medicine. This study was conducted to develop and evaluate an instrument and assess medical students' attitudes toward CAIM. The Complementary, Alternative and Integrative Medicine Attitudes Questionnaire (CAIMAQ) was developed by a panel of experts in CAIM, allopathic medicine, medical education and survey development. A total of 1770 CAIMAQ surveys (51 of US medical schools participated) were obtained in a national sample of medical students in 2007. Factor analysis of the CAIMAQ revealed five distinct attitudinal domains: desirability of CAIM therapies, progressive patient/physician health care roles, mind-body-spirit connection, principles of allostasis and a holistic understanding of disease. The students held the most positive attitude for the mind-body-spirit connection and the least positive for the desirability of CAIM therapies. This study provided initial support for the reliability of the CAIMAQ. The survey results indicated that in general students responded more positively to the principles of CAIM than to CAIM treatment. A higher quality of CAIM-related medical education and expanded research into CAIM therapies would facilitate appropriate integration of CAIM into medical curricula. The most significant limitation of this study is a low response rate, and further work is required to assess more representative populations in order to determine whether the relationships found in this study are generalizable. Copyright © 2011 Ryan B. Abbott et al