Intestinal Cells-on-Chip for Permeability Studies.

Background: To accurately measure permeability of compounds in the intestine, there is a need for preclinical in vitro models that accurately represent the specificity, integrity and complexity of the human small intestinal barrier. Intestine-on-chip systems hold considerable promise as testing platforms, but several characteristics still require optimization and further development.

Methods: An established intestine-on-chip model for tissue explants was adopted for intestinal cell monolayer culture.

Elevated risk of adverse effects from foodborne contaminants and drugs in inflammatory bowel disease: a review.

The global burden of Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been rising over the last decades. IBD is an intestinal disorder with a complex and largely unknown etiology. The disease is characterized by a chronically inflamed gastrointestinal tract, with intermittent phases of exacerbation and remission.

Computer Adaptive vs. Non-adaptive Medical Progress Testing: Feasibility, Test Performance, and Student Experiences.

Background: Computerized adaptive testing tailors test items to students' abilities by adapting difficulty level. This more efficient, and reliable assessment form may provide advantages over a conventional medical progress test (PT). Prior to our study, a direct comparison of students' performance on a computer adaptive progress test (CA-PT) and a conventional PT, which is crucial for nationwide implementation of the CA-PT, was missing.

A host-microbial metabolite interaction gut-on-a-chip model of the adult human intestine demonstrates beneficial effects upon inulin treatment of gut microbiome.

The gut and its microbiome have a major impact on many aspects of health and are therefore also an attractive target for drug- or food-based therapies. Here, we report on the added value of combining a microbiome screening model, the i-screen, with fresh intestinal tissue explants in a microfluidic gut-on-a-chip model, the Intestinal Explant Barrier Chip (IEBC). Adult human gut microbiome (fecal pool of 6 healthy donors) was cultured anaerobically in the i-screen platform for 24 h, without and with exposure to 4 mg/mL inulin.

Does 'summative' count? The influence of the awarding of study credits on feedback use and test-taking motivation in medical progress testing.

Despite the increasing implementation of formative assessment in medical education, its' effect on learning behaviour remains questionable. This effect may depend on how students value formative, and summative assessments differently. Informed by Expectancy Value Theory, we compared test preparation, feedback use, and test-taking motivation of medical students who either took a purely formative progress test (formative PT-group) or a progress test that yielded study credits (summative PT-group).

Developing student-centred perspectives in PBL: how teacher profiles reveal educational needs for faculty development programmes.

Background: In Asian higher education, PBL is not always successful, as few teachers have embraced a student-centred perspective. To cultivate such essential perspectives, faculty development programmes should address teachers' specific educational needs, which sadly is currently not sufficiently the case. This study aimed to identify teacher profiles that would reveal these specific educational needs of teachers and to investigate the relationship between these profiles and the amount of PBL training previously received.

The application of organ-on-chip models for the prediction of human pharmacokinetic profiles during drug development.

Organ-on-chip (OoC) technology has led to in vitro models with many new possibilities compared to conventional in vitro and in vivo models. In this review, the potential of OoC models to improve the prediction of human oral bioavailability and intrinsic clearance is discussed, with a focus on the functionality of the models and the application in current drug development practice. Multi-OoC models demonstrating the application for pharmacokinetic (PK) studies are summarized and existing challenges are identified.

Gut-on-a-Chip Research for Drug Development: Implications of Chip Design on Preclinical Oral Bioavailability or Intestinal Disease Studies.

The gut plays a key role in drug absorption and metabolism of orally ingested drugs. Additionally, the characterization of intestinal disease processes is increasingly gaining more attention, as gut health is an important contributor to our overall health. The most recent innovation to study intestinal processes in vitro is the development of gut-on-a-chip (GOC) systems.

The Effects of Reflective Pauses on Performance in Simulation Training.

Introduction: The reflective pause, taking a pause during performance to reflect, is an important practice in simulation-based learning. However, for novice learners, it is a highly complex self-regulatory skill that cannot stand alone without guidance. Using educational theories, we propose how to design cognitive and metacognitive aids to guide learners with the reflective pause and investigate its effects on performance in a simulation training environment.

Novel Explanted Human Liver Model to Assess Hepatic Extraction, Biliary Excretion and Transporter Function.

Realistic models predicting hepatobiliary processes in health and disease are lacking. We therefore aimed to develop a physiologically relevant human liver model consisting of normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) of explanted diseased human livers that can assess hepatic extraction, clearance, biliary excretion, and drug-drug interaction (DDI). Eleven livers were included in the study, seven with a cirrhotic and four with a noncirrhotic disease background.

Supervisors' transformational leadership style and residents' job crafting in surgical training: the residents' views.

Objectives: This study aims to explore the effects of three supervisors' leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire) on residents' job crafting.

Methods: Sequential explanatory mixed-methods. First, a purposive sample of residents rated the leadership style of their supervisors and their own job crafting on the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and the Dutch Job Crafting Scale.

The Progress of Intestinal Epithelial Models from Cell Lines to Gut-On-Chip.

Over the past years, several preclinical in vitro and ex vivo models have been developed that helped to understand some of the critical aspects of intestinal functions in health and disease such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the translation to the human in vivo situation remains problematic. The main reason for this is that these approaches fail to fully reflect the multifactorial and complex in vivo environment (e.

Intestinal explant barrier chip: long-term intestinal absorption screening in a novel microphysiological system using tissue explants.

The majority of intestinal screening models use cell lines that do not reflect the complexity of the human intestinal tract and hence often fail to accurately predict intestinal drug absorption. Tissue explants have intact intestinal architecture and cell type diversity, but show short viability in static conditions. Here, we present a medium throughput microphysiological system, Intestinal Explant Barrier Chip (IEBC), that creates a dynamic microfluidic microenvironment and prolongs tissue viability.

Monitoring Molecular Weight Changes during Technical Lignin Depolymerization by Operando Attenuated Total Reflectance Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometrics.

Technical lignins are increasingly available at industrial scale, offering opportunities for valorization, such as by (partial) depolymerization. Any downstream lignin application requires careful tailoring of structural properties, such as molecular weight or functional group density, properties that are difficult to control or predict given the structure variability and recalcitrance of technical lignins. Online insight into changes in molecular weight (M ), to gauge the extent of lignin depolymerization and repolymerization, would be highly desired to improve such control, but cannot be readily provided by the standard ex-situ techniques, such as size exclusion chromatography (SEC).

Evaluation of Normothermic Machine Perfusion of Porcine Livers as a Novel Preclinical Model to Predict Biliary Clearance and Transporter-Mediated Drug-Drug Interactions Using Statins.

There is a lack of translational preclinical models that can predict hepatic handling of drugs. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the applicability of normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) of porcine livers as a novel ex vivo model to predict hepatic clearance, biliary excretion, and plasma exposure of drugs. For this evaluation, we dosed atorvastatin, pitavastatin, and rosuvastatin as model drugs to porcine livers and studied the effect of common drug-drug interactions (DDIs) on these processes.

Characterisation of mass distributions of solvent-fractionated lignins using analytical ultracentrifugation and size exclusion chromatography methods.

Lignins are valuable renewable resources for the potential production of a large array of biofuels, aromatic chemicals and biopolymers. Yet native and industrial lignins are complex, highly branched and heterogenous macromolecules, properties that have to date often undermined their use as starting materials in lignin valorisation strategies. Reliable knowledge of weight average molar mass, conformation and polydispersity of lignin starting materials can be proven to be crucial to and improve the prospects for the success of such strategies.

Assessment of teamwork in interprofessional education.

The aim of this study was to offer new insight into assessments of interprofessional education (IPE) by evaluating the association between students' self-assessment for teamwork and expert assessment of simulation and team-based writing examination. We also evaluated the relationship between students' demographic factors and their teamwork skill. A total 112 of medical and pharmacology students were divided into 36 interprofessional groups and participated interprofessional patient safety session.

Relationships between medical students' co-regulatory network characteristics and self-regulated learning: a social network study.

Introduction: Recent conceptualizations of self-regulated learning acknowledge the importance of co-regulation, i.e., students' interactions with others in their networks to support self-regulation.

The medical pause: Importance, processes and training.

Research has shown that taking 'timeouts' in medical practice improves performance and patient safety. However, the benefits of taking timeouts, or pausing, are not sufficiently acknowledged in workplaces and training programmes. To promote this acknowledgement, we suggest a systematic conceptualisation of the medical pause, focusing on its importance, processes and implementation in training programmes.

The effect of a three-dimensional instructional video on performance of a spatially complex procedure in surgical residents in relation to their visual-spatial abilities.

Background: The effect of three-dimensional (3D) vs. two-dimensional (2D) video on performance of a spatially complex procedure and perceived cognitive load were examined among residents in relation to their visual-spatial abilities (VSA).

Methods: In a randomized controlled trial, 108 surgical residents performed a 5-Flap Z-plasty on a simulation model after watching the instructional video either in a 3D or 2D mode.

Extending the use of the conceptions of learning and teaching (COLT) instrument to the postgraduate setting.

Background: Several studies have shown that conceptions of teachers on teaching and learning can influence the teaching practices and behavior in higher education. This association is also found in undergraduate medical education but not yet established in postgraduate medical setting. An instrument, Conceptions of Learning and Teaching (COLT) was developed to measure conception of teachers in undergraduate medical education.

Ex Vivo Culture Models to Indicate Therapy Response in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is characterized by a poor 5 year survival and varying response rates to both standard-of-care and new treatments. Despite advances in medicine and treatment methods, mortality rates have hardly decreased in recent decades. Reliable patient-derived tumor models offer the chance to predict therapy response in a personalized setting, thereby improving treatment efficacy by identifying the most appropriate treatment regimen for each patient.

Beta-alanine supplementation in patients with COPD receiving non-linear periodised exercise training or neuromuscular electrical stimulation: protocol of two randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials.

Introduction: Exercise intolerance is common in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and, although multifactorial, it is largely caused by lower-limb muscle dysfunction. Research has shown that patients with severe to very severe COPD have significantly lower levels of muscle carnosine, which acts as a pH buffer and antioxidant. Beta-alanine (BA) supplementation has been shown to consistently elevate muscle carnosine in a variety of populations and may therefore improve exercise tolerance and lower-limb muscle function.

Understanding teaching and learning conceptions among clinical faculty as a means to improve postgraduate training.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the conceptions of teaching and learning of postgraduate medical teachers.

Methods: We invited postgraduate clinical teachers to fill out COLT (Conceptions on Learning and Teaching) questionnaire, an 18-item instrument designed to measure the conceptions of faculty in undergraduate medical education, and did a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test if it was valid to be used in a postgraduate situation. Cluster analysis was done to determine different teacher profiles.

Towards human organ perfusion models to elucidate drug pharmacokinetics in health and disease.

To predict the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) profile of candidate drugs a variety of preclinical models can be applied. The ADME and toxicological behavior of newly developed drugs are often investigated prior to assessment in humans, which is associated with long time-lines and high costs. Therefore, good predictions of ADME profiles earlier in the drug development process are very valuable.