Influence of Aqueous Phase Salt and Oil Phase Surfactants and Viscosity on the Dynamic Interfacial Tension and Coalescence Timescales.

Liquid-liquid separation is a critically important process in the treatment of emulsions that can occur in our environment, such as oily stormwater, shipboard bilgewater, or off-shore oil spill treatment. Effective filtration systems, including coalescing filters, are essential for mitigating these environmental pollutants. Achieving this requires a comprehensive understanding of liquid-liquid interface dynamics influenced by additives and surfactants.

Comparative analysis of Physician Assistant/Associate National Certifying Examination (PANCE) performance trends: pre and during COVID-19 era.

Background: COVID-19 significantly impacted physician assistant/associate (PA) education programs. Most programs transitioned didactic and clinical education from in-person to remote, and clinical training opportunities diminished. Graduates of accredited PA programs take the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE), a five-hour exam with 300 multiple-choice questions, and must attain or exceed the scaled passing score of 350 (range: 200-800).

GCN2 is a determinant of the response to WEE1 kinase inhibition in small-cell lung cancer.

Patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) are in dire need of more effective therapeutic options. Frequent disruption of the G1 checkpoint in SCLC cells creates a dependency on the G2/M checkpoint to maintain genomic integrity. Indeed, in pre-clinical models, inhibiting the G2/M checkpoint kinase WEE1 shows promise in inhibiting SCLC growth.

Use of Therapeutic RNAs to Accelerate Wound Healing in Diabetic Rabbit Wounds.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) affects over 422 million people globally. Patients with DM are subject to a myriad of complications, of which diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are the most common with ∼25% chance of developing these wounds throughout their lifetime. Currently there are no therapeutic RNAs approved for use in DFUs.

Family and Provider Experiences With Longitudinal Care Coordination for Infants With Medical Complexity.

Background: Parents in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) report low self-confidence managing their children's ongoing medical and social needs. While bedside nurses provide critical support for families throughout their NICU admission, there may be a role for nursing coordination throughout hospitalization, discharge, and in the transition to outpatient care.

Purpose: This program evaluation explores parent and provider experiences of a novel longitudinal care coordination program for infants with medical complexity from the NICU through their first year of life post-discharge.

Medical students value-adding to general practice.

Background And Objectives: Medical students can make valuable contributions to patient care during clinical placements. The aim of this study was to investigate student perceptions of the value of general practice placements for their learning, and their sense of contribution during their placements.

Method: The study used a qualitative design to gather in-depth student perspectives on learning and contributions, using focus groups of final-year medical students on general practice placement.

Immediate and delayed antibiotic prescribing strategies used by Australian early-career GPs: a cross-sectional analysis.

Background: Antibiotics are overused for non-pneumonia acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs).

Aim: To establish prevalence and explore associations of delayed and immediate antibiotic prescribing strategies of Australian early-career GPs (specialist GP vocational trainees, also known as GP registrars) for non-pneumonia ARTIs.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional analysis of data collected between September 2016 and December 2017 from the Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training cohort (ReCEnT) study, an ongoing cohort study of GP registrars' in-practice clinical experiences in four Australian states and territories.

Dilatational rheology of water-in-diesel fuel interfaces: effect of surfactant concentration and bulk-to-interface exchange.

Micrometer-sized water droplets dispersed in diesel fuel are stabilized by the fuel's surface-active additives, such as mono-olein and poly(isobutylene)succinimide (PIBSI), making the droplets challenging for coalescing filters to separate. Dynamic material properties found from interfacial rheology are known to influence the behavior of microscale droplets in coalescing filters. In this work, we study the interfacial dilatational properties of water-in-fuel interfaces laden with mono-olein and PIBSI, with a fuel phase of clay-treated ultra-low sulphur diesel (CT ULSD).

Student contributions in residential aged care.

Background: Health care professional students can develop knowledge and skills to care for elderly patients during placements in residential aged care facilities (RACF). Enabling student contribution during clinical placements can enhance student learning and quality of care. Our medical student RACF placement includes a learning task where students recommend improvements to resident care.

Insights into the Microscale Coalescence Behavior of Surfactant-Stabilized Droplets Using a Microfluidic Hydrodynamic Trap.

Coalescence of micrometer-scale droplets is impacted by several parameters, including droplet size, viscosities of the two phases, droplet velocity, angle of approach, as well as interfacial tension and surfactant coverage. The thinning dynamics of films between coalescing droplets can be particularly complex in the presence of surfactants, due to the generation of Marangoni stresses and reduced film mobility. Here, a microfluidic hydrodynamic "Stokes" trap is used to gently steer and trap surfactant-laden micrometer-sized droplets at the center of a cross-slot.

Delayed prescribing of antibiotics for acute respiratory infections by GP registrars: a qualitative study.

Background: Antibiotic prescribing for acute self-limiting respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) in Australia is higher than international benchmarks. Antibiotics have little or no efficacy in these conditions, and unnecessary use contributes to antibiotic resistance. Delayed prescribing has been shown to reduce antibiotic use.

PA practice analysis: Multidisciplinary tasks, knowledge, and skills.

In conducting its practice analysis, the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants incorporated new approaches in 2015. Twelve groups of PAs identified knowledge, tasks, and skills required for practice not only in primary care, but also in 11 practice focus areas (specialties). In addition, a list of diseases and disorders likely to be encountered was identified for each specialty.

Decreasing miRNA sequencing bias using a single adapter and circularization approach.

The ability to accurately quantify all the microRNAs (miRNAs) in a sample is important for understanding miRNA biology and for development of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets. We develop a new method for preparing miRNA sequencing libraries, RealSeq®-AC, that involves ligating the miRNAs with a single adapter and circularizing the ligation products. When compared to other methods, RealSeq®-AC provides greatly reduced miRNA sequencing bias and allows the identification of the largest variety of miRNAs in biological samples.

A Retrospective Review of Physician Assistant Education Association End of Rotation Examinations.

The PAEA End of Rotation™ exams were developed to assess medical knowledge of the 7 core supervised clinical practice experiences, including Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Pediatrics, Women's Health, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. The examinations were created by experienced PA educators and national exam experts with continual review and content updates. This paper summarizes changes since the inception of the exam program, including test construction and development, reliability, validity, and scale scoring.

Acceleration of Diabetic Wound Healing with PHD2- and miR-210-Targeting Oligonucleotides.

In diabetes-associated chronic wounds, the normal response to hypoxia is impaired and many cellular processes involved in wound healing are hindered. Central to the hypoxia response is hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), which activates multiple factors that enhance wound healing by promoting cellular motility and proliferation, new vessel formation, and re-epithelialization. Prolyl hydroxylase domain-containing protein 2 (PHD2) regulates HIF-1α activity by targeting it for degradation under normoxia.

Reducing early career general practitioners' antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections: a pragmatic prospective non-randomised controlled trial.

Background: Inappropriate antibiotic prescription and consequent antibacterial resistance is a major threat to healthcare.

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of a multifaceted intervention in reducing early career general practitioners' (GPs') antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and acute bronchitis/bronchiolitis.

Methods: A pragmatic non-randomized trial employing a non-equivalent control group design nested within an existing cohort study of GP registrars' (trainees') clinical practice.

Antibiotic prescribing for acute otitis media and acute sinusitis: a cross-sectional analysis of the ReCEnT study exploring the habits of early career doctors in family practice.

Background: Antibiotic resistance is a public health concern, and is linked to over-prescribing. In self-limiting infections such as acute otitis media (AOM) and acute sinusitis, prescribing remains high despite strong guideline recommendations against the routine use of antibiotics. Early career General Practitioners may find evidence-based prescribing challenging.

Changing the Antibiotic Prescribing of general practice registrars: the ChAP study protocol for a prospective controlled study of a multimodal educational intervention.

Background: Australian General Practitioners (GPs) are generous prescribers of antibiotics, prompting concerns including increasing antimicrobial resistance in the community. Recent data show that GPs in vocational training have prescribing patterns comparable with the high prescribing rate of their established GP supervisors. Evidence-based guidelines consistently advise that antibiotics are not indicated for uncomplicated upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) and are rarely indicated for acute bronchitis.

Changes in early-career family physicians' antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infection and acute bronchitis: a multicentre longitudinal study.

Background: Inappropriate antibiotic prescription and subsequent antibacterial resistance are major threats to health worldwide.

Objectives: We aimed to establish whether early-career 'apprenticeship-model' experience in family practice influences antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections and to also establish other associations of antibiotic prescribing changes during this early-career experience.

Methods: A longitudinal analysis (2010-2014) of a cohort study of Australian GP registrars' (vocational trainees') consultations.

Workplace Digital Health Is Associated with Improved Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Frequency-Dependent Fashion: A Large Prospective Observational Cohort Study.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the US. Emerging employer-sponsored work health programs (WHP) and Digital Health Intervention (DHI) provide monitoring and guidance based on participants' health risk assessments, but with uncertain success. DHI--mobile technology including online and smartphone interventions--has previously been found to be beneficial in reducing CVD outcomes and risk factors, however its use and efficacy in a large, multisite, primary prevention cohort has not been described to date.

Reducing general practice trainees' antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections: an evaluation of a combined face-to-face workshop and online educational intervention.

Over-prescription of antibiotics for non-pneumonia respiratory tract infections (RTIs) is a major concern in general practice. Australian general practice registrars (trainees) have inappropriately high rates of prescription of antibiotics for RTIs. The 'apprenticeship' educational model and the trainee-trainer relationship are drivers of this inappropriate prescribing.