Exploring the effects of clinical simulation on nursing students’ learning and practice

In simulation-based learning, nursing or medical students are exposed to hypothetical scenarios that mimic the realities of clinical practice. This provides them with an opportunity to practise and reflect on clinical skills in a safe environment. This article details a small-scale evaluation that was undertaken to explore two nursing students’ perspectives on clinical simulation. The aim of this evaluation was to identify what these students learned from clinical simulation and the effects it had on their practice. It also aimed to inform the programme’s academic revalidation and therefore improve the university’s offering. Taking part in simulation before undertaking their first clinical placement increased the students’ confidence and it improved their fundamental nursing, communication, psychomotor and reflective skills

Mindfulness session

The University of Cumbria's Scott Inglis (Senior Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing) and Dave Wilson (Psychological & Wellbeing Manager) deliver a mindfulness session

Development of a freehand three-dimensional radial endoscopic ultrasonography system

Oesophageal cancer is an aggressive malignancy with an overall five-year survival of 5-10% and two-thirds of patients have irresectable disease at diagnosis. Accurate staging of oesophageal cancer is important as survival closely correlates with the stage of the tumour, nodal involvement and presence of metastases (TNM staging). Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is currently the most reliable modality for providing accurate T and N staging. Depending on findings of the staging, various treatment options including endoscopic, oncological, and surgical treatments may be performed. It was theorised that the development of three-dimensional radial endoscopic ultrasonography would reduce the operator dependence of EUS and provide accurate dimensional and volume measurements to aid planning and monitoring of treatment. This thesis investigates the development of a three dimensional endoscopic ultrasound technique that can be used with the radial echoendoscopes. Various agar-based tissue mimicking material (TMM) recipes were characterised using a scanning acoustic macroscope to obtain the acoustic properties of attenuation, backscatter and speed of sound. Using these results, a number of endoscopic ultrasound phantoms were developed for the in-vitro investigation and evaluation of 3D-EUS techniques. To increase my understanding of EUS equipment, the imaging and acoustic properties of the EUS endoscopes were characterised using a pipe phantom and a hydrophone. The dual ‘single element’ mechanical and ‘multi-element’ electronic echoendoscopes were investigated. Measured imaging properties included dead space, low contrast penetration, and pipe length. The measured acoustic properties included transmitted beam plots, active working frequency and peak pressures. Three-dimensional ultrasound techniques were developed for specific application to EUS. This included the study of positional monitoring systems, reconstruction algorithms and measurement techniques. A 3D-EUS system was developed using a Microscribe positional arm and frame grabber card, to acquire the 3D dataset. A Matlab 3D-EUS toolbox was written to reconstruct and analyse the volumes. The 3D-EUS systems were evaluated on the EUS phantom and in clinical cases. The usefulness of the 3D-EUS systems was evaluated in a cohort of patients, who were routinely investigated by conventional EUS for a variety of upper gastrointestinal pathology. 3D-EUS accurately staged early tumours and provided the necessary anatomical information to facilitate treatment. With regards to more advanced tumours, 3D-EUS was more accurate than EUS in T and N staging. 3D-EUS gave useful anatomical details in a variety of benign conditions such as varicies and GISTs

Junior Recital: Josh Inglis, saxophone

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Mr. Inglis studies saxophone with Sam Skelton.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2065/thumbnail.jp

Junior Recital: Zack Wilson, piano

This recital is presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree Bachelor of Music in Performance. Mr. Wilson studies piano with Tyrone Jackson.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2085/thumbnail.jp

Transgenerational effects of ancestral prenatal stress on the gut-brain axis

The effects of ancestral prenatal stress can propagate across generations to alter the well-being of directly and indirectly exposed descendants via epigenetic mechanisms. Prenatal stress has been shown to alter the function of the gut-brain axis, a bi-directional signaling pathway between the gut microbiome and the enteric and central nervous systems. There has been no study investigating the impact of remote prenatal stress in ancestors on the gut-microbiome connection. Here we investigated if exposure to transgenerational ancestral stress affects the gut-brain axis through changes in the microbiome and microbiota. A multigenerational rat cohort consisting of a F0, F1, F2, and F3 generation was utilized in this study. Pregnant dams in the F0 generation were exposed to repeated restraint stress and overnight social isolation from gestational days 12-18. Breeding of three successive generations occurred in the absence of gestational stress along with a lineage of yoked controls. Fecal collection occurred for males and female in each generation at the age of 30 days, 90 days, and 115 days. Fecal samples were analyzed using 1H-NMR spectroscopy to examine the metabolome. The data are being analysed using supervised and unsupervised machine learning approaches. The data are expected to reveal that the fecal metabolome is characteristically altered by ancestral prenatal stress in each generation, resulting in a biomarker signature that is linked to the behavioural phenotype. We predict changes in the gut metabolome and microbiome to be most significant in the F3 generation. These findings could lead to further understanding of intestinal dysbiosis and its impact on the brain, and sex-specific metabolic biomarkers that are predictive of stress-associated adverse health outcomes

Aspidoderid Nematodes from Bolivian Armadillos, with the Description of a New Species of Lauroia (Heterakoidea: Aspidoderidae)

One nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) and 1 yellow armadillo (Euphractus sexcinctus) were necropsied in the field during an expedition to collect parasites of mammals in Bolivia. A total of 205 Aspidodera binansata Railliet and Henry, 1913 (Heterakoidea: Aspidoderidae), and 40 specimens of Lauroia bolivari n. sp. (Heterakoidea: Aspidoderidae) were recovered from the cecum and large intestines of D. novemcinctus and E. sexcinctus. Aspidodera esperanzae Fujita et al., 1995, is proposed as a junior synonym of A. binansata based on the structure of the cordons on the hood. Lauroia bolivari n. sp. has an undercut cephalic cap and unequal spicules. It differs from other species in the genus in the shape of the cephalic cap and from Lauroia travassosi Proença, 1938, in the relative proportion of the spicules. This is the first record of a member of Lauroia Proença, 1938, for Bolivia

A Superglass Phase of Interacting Bosons

We introduce a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian with random disordered interactions as a model to study the interplay of superfluidity and glassiness in a system of three-dimensional hard-core bosons at half-filling. Solving the model using large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show that these disordered interactions promote a stable superglass phase, where superflow and glassy density localization coexist in equilibrium without exhibiting phase separation. The robustness of the superglass phase is underlined by its existence in a replica mean-field calculation on the infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian.Comment: 4 pages 3 figures: to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett