Publications by authors named "Consuelo Alvarez"

Objective: To determine the mental health conditions of adolescents in the city of Manizales, Colombia, and explore risk regarding gender-based differences.

Materials And Methods: Quantitative, nonexperimental, descriptive research with associative scope. A total of 316 adolescents were assessed using five scales to evaluate mental health conditions: the Perceived Stress Scale, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, Penn Alcohol Craving Scale and The Substance Dependence Severity Scale.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Genomics Education Partnership (GEP) engages students in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). To better understand the student attributes that support success in this CURE, we asked students about their attitudes using previously published scales that measure epistemic beliefs about work and science, interest in science, and grit. We found, in general, that the attitudes students bring with them into the classroom contribute to two outcome measures, namely, learning as assessed by a pre- and postquiz and perceived self-reported benefits.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A hallmark of the research experience is encountering difficulty and working through those challenges to achieve success. This ability is essential to being a successful scientist, but replicating such challenges in a teaching setting can be difficult. The Genomics Education Partnership (GEP) is a consortium of faculty who engage their students in a genomics Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Synthetic biology offers an ideal opportunity to promote undergraduate laboratory courses with research-style projects, immersing students in an inquiry-based program that enhances the experience of the scientific process. We designed a semester-long, project-based laboratory curriculum using synthetic biology principles to develop a novel sensory device. Students develop subject matter knowledge of molecular genetics and practical skills relevant to molecular biology, recombinant DNA techniques, and information literacy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In their 2012 report, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology advocated "replacing standard science laboratory courses with discovery-based research courses"-a challenging proposition that presents practical and pedagogical difficulties. In this paper, we describe our collective experiences working with the Genomics Education Partnership, a nationwide faculty consortium that aims to provide undergraduates with a research experience in genomics through a scheduled course (a classroom-based undergraduate research experience, or CURE). We examine the common barriers encountered in implementing a CURE, program elements of most value to faculty, ways in which a shared core support system can help, and the incentives for and rewards of establishing a CURE on our diverse campuses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is widespread agreement that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs should provide undergraduates with research experience. Practical issues and limited resources, however, make this a challenge. We have developed a bioinformatics project that provides a course-based research experience for students at a diverse group of schools and offers the opportunity to tailor this experience to local curriculum and institution-specific student needs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death by cancer in women in the United States. The occurrence of high numbers of macrophages in the tumor stroma has been associated with tumor progression and poor prognosis in breast and other solid malignancies. However, macrophage numbers in tumors have not been validated as a prognostic factor in clinical practice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Genomics is not only essential for students to understand biology but also provides unprecedented opportunities for undergraduate research. The goal of the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP), a collaboration between a growing number of colleges and universities around the country and the Department of Biology and Genome Center of Washington University in St. Louis, is to provide such research opportunities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We evaluated the estrogen receptor (ER) phenotype of recurrent and/or metastatic breast cancers and compared it with the ER status of the primary tumor in 278 cases. All patients had undergone surgical excision of the primary tumor, followed by observation only or treatment modalities that included radiation and/or chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. The immunohistochemical expression of ER was evaluated by using monoclonal antibody ER-1D5 and heat-induced antigen retrieval.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Integrating advanced biological techniques into instruction at non-R1 institutions can prove to be a challenge. Here, we report the creation of a model for the introduction of gene expression microarray technology into a research laboratory. A student assessment tool was used to evaluate 1) technical skill development, 2) cross-disciplinary issues, 3) development of trouble-shooting skills, and 4) career evaluation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The management of behavior problems is one of the most difficult challenges a clinician must face when treating patients with dementia. This article presents a qualitative analysis of the responses of 7 nursing home physicians and 1 nurse practitioner to open-ended questions regarding their experiences in treating behavior problems in dementia with an emphasis on nonpharmalogical methods. This study serves to highlight both the issues encountered by those commonly asked to treat behavior problems in the nursing home, and the thoughtfulness and insight developed by some clinicians to address the problems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Questions of reproducibility and efficacy of histologic malignancy grading relative to alternative proliferation index measurements for outcome prediction remain unanswered. Microsections of specimens from the Cooperative Breast Cancer Tissue Resource (CBCTR) were evaluated by seven pathologists for reproducibility of grade and classification. Nuclear figure classification was assessed using photographs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF