Evaluating student understanding of core pharmacokinetic concepts.

Both educators and graduates have expressed concern about a perceived pharmacology knowledge gap that includes difficulty applying fundamental principles to clinical and research problems. Consequently, we sought to determine the extent to which current students can explain the meaning of, and appropriately apply, a subset of core concepts, and to identify any misconceptions arising from the responses. Of the twenty-four pharmacology core concepts arising from the recent international collaboration, four pharmacokinetic concepts were chosen, namely drug bioavailability, drug clearance, volume of distribution, and steady-state concentration.

Evaluating student understanding of pharmacodynamics core concepts.

Pharmacodynamics is an essential subdiscipline of pharmacology that underpins safe and effective prescribing and therapeutic decision-making, as well as drug discovery and development. The exponential increase in the number of therapeutic drugs has prompted members of the pharmacology educator community to question existing pharmacology curricula focused on individual drugs and move toward a curriculum focused on conceptual understanding. A first step towards conceptual understanding is to establish what students currently know about pharmacodynamic core concepts.

The Built Environment, PTSD Symptoms, and Tobacco Use among Permanent Supportive Housing Residents.

Introduction: 50% of permanent supportive housing (PSH) residents in the U.S. smoke cigarettes, and tobacco-related mortality is their number one cause of death.

Mapping Disciplinary Competencies and Learning Outcomes to the Competency-Based Veterinary Education Framework Using Veterinary Pharmacology as an Example.

The competency-based veterinary education (CBVE) framework describes essential domains of competence and related abilities for veterinary graduates. Translating these outcomes into daily teaching is a challenge, particularly regarding the underpinning basic and clinical science knowledge. In this article, we identified a lack of specific reference to the selection and use of drugs within the CBVE framework; this requires pharmacological knowledge and pharmacology-specific competencies.

Social Media Activities and Affective Well-being in the Daily Life of Emerging Adults.

Previous work suggests that some social media (SM) activities may have detrimental effects on users' affective well-being, whereas other activities can be more adaptive. SM use is typically assessed with global or retrospective measures; it remains unclear how its relation with affect may play out in real-time and in regard to specific SM activities, as opposed to general SM use. The current study investigated the association between specific SM activities (posting, viewing others' posts, liking/commenting, checking replies to one's own posts, direct messaging) and concurrent positive and negative affect in a sample of  = 349 18-year-old emerging adults.

Dorsal root ganglion toxicity after AAV intra-CSF delivery of a RNAi expression construct into non-human primates and mice.

Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) toxicity has been consistently reported as a potential safety concern after delivery of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) containing gene-replacement vectors but has yet to be reported for RNAi-based vectors. Here, we report DRG toxicity after AAV intra-CSF delivery of an RNAi expression construct-artificial microRNA targeting superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1)-in non-human primates (NHPs) and provide evidence that this can be recapitulated within mice. Histopathology evaluation showed that NHPs and mice develop DRG toxicity after AAV delivery, including DRG neuron degeneration and necrosis and nerve-fiber degeneration that were associated with increases in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum phosphorylated neurofilament heavy chain (pNF-H).

Obesity and leptin in breast cancer angiogenesis.

At the time of breast cancer diagnosis, most patients meet the diagnostic criteria to be classified as obese or overweight. This can significantly impact patient outcome: breast cancer patients with obesity (body mass index > 30) have a poorer prognosis compared to patients with a lean BMI. Obesity is associated with hyperleptinemia, and leptin is a well-established driver of metastasis in breast cancer.

Evaluating the quality of multiple-choice question pilot database: A global educator-created tool for concept-based pharmacology learning.

The Core Concepts of Pharmacology (CCP) initiative is developing educational resources to transform pharmacology education into a concept-based approach. This study evaluated the quality of global educator-created MCQs in generating items for the pharmacology concept inventory (PCI) instrument and developed as a resource for learning pharmacology fundamental concepts. A panel of 22 global pharmacology experts recruited from the CCP initiative research team participated in the MCQ pilot database design and evaluation.

Collaborative wildlife disease outbreak investigation and response at Bells Swamp Victoria, February 2023.

In February 2023, a report of morbidity and mortality in waterbirds triggered a collaborative regional wildlife disease outbreak investigation and response, led by Parks Victoria. Triage, rehabilitation and diagnosis of sick and dead birds were undertaken by Zoos Victoria (ZV), Agriculture Victoria, Vets for Compassion, Wildlife Victoria and Melbourne Veterinary School (MVS). The field response focused on collection of sick and dead birds for wildlife welfare, for diagnosis, and to reduce environmental contamination.

Irritability: associations with real-time affect dynamics, social interactions, and daily substance use in older adolescents.

Irritability is a common and clinically significant symptom associated with a wide range of negative outcomes. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a valuable tool for capturing experiences, such as emotions, social interactions, and substance use in real-time, and may be useful in understanding how irritability is related to everyday functioning. We investigated cross-sectional associations between a widely used self-report irritability rating scale and affect dynamics, social interactions, and substance use captured with EMA (5 surveys daily for 14 days) in 349 18-year-olds.

Childhood anhedonia symptoms and stressful life events predict the development of reward-related brain activity across adolescence.

The reward positivity (RewP) is an event-related potential that indexes reinforcement learning and reward system activation. The RewP has been shown to increase across adolescence; however, most studies have examined the RewP across two assessments, and no studies have examined within-person changes across adolescence into young adulthood. Moreover, the RewP has been identified as a neurobiological risk factor for adolescent-onset depression, but it is unclear whether childhood psychosocial risk factors might predict RewP development across adolescence.

Emotion dynamics in current and remitted depression: an ecological momentary assessment study.

Background: Individuals in a depressive episode and healthy controls exhibit robust differences on affect dynamics captured with ecological momentary assessment (EMA). However, few studies have explored affect dynamics in individuals in remission from depression, and results have been mixed.

Methods: A community sample of 18-year-olds ( = 345) completed diagnostic interviews and EMA probing emotions and low interest/motivation 5× daily for 2 weeks.

Obesity-associated epigenetic alterations and the obesity-breast cancer axis.

Both breast cancer and obesity can regulate epigenetic changes or be regulated by epigenetic changes. Due to the well-established link between obesity and an increased risk of developing breast cancer, understanding how obesity-mediated epigenetic changes affect breast cancer pathogenesis is critical. Researchers have described how obesity and breast cancer modulate the epigenome individually and synergistically.

Dirigent isoflavene-forming PsPTS2: 3D structure, stereochemical, and kinetic characterization comparison with pterocarpan-forming PsPTS1 homolog in pea.

Pea phytoalexins (-)-maackiain and (+)-pisatin have opposite C6a/C11a configurations, but biosynthetically how this occurs is unknown. Pea dirigent-protein (DP) PsPTS2 generates 7,2'-dihydroxy-4',5'-methylenedioxyisoflav-3-ene (DMDIF), and stereoselectivity toward four possible 7,2'-dihydroxy-4',5'-methylenedioxyisoflavan-4-ol (DMDI) stereoisomers was investigated. Stereoisomer configurations were determined using NMR spectroscopy, electronic circular dichroism, and molecular orbital analyses.

Irritability and Temperament: Concurrent and Prospective Relationships in Childhood and Adolescence.

Objective: Irritability symptoms are closely associated with, and may reflect, temperament traits, particularly negative affectivity (NA). However, there are few empirical data on the relationships between child temperament and irritability symptoms.

Method: We investigated cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between irritability symptoms and temperament traits from age 3-15 in a community sample of 609 children and their parents.

Developing an international concept-based curriculum for pharmacology education: The promise of core concepts and concept inventories.

Over recent years, studies have shown that science and health profession graduates demonstrate gaps in their fundamental pharmacology knowledge and ability to apply pharmacology concepts in practice. This article reviews the current challenges faced by pharmacology educators, including the exponential growth in discipline knowledge and competition for curricular time. We then argue that pharmacology education should focus on essential concepts that enable students to develop beyond 'know' towards 'know how to'.

Efficacy and safety of a SOD1-targeting artificial miRNA delivered by AAV9 in mice are impacted by miRNA scaffold selection.

Toxic gain-of-function mutations in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) contribute to approximately 2%-3% of all amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) cases. Artificial microRNAs (amiRs) delivered by adeno-associated virus (AAV) have been proposed as a potential treatment option to silence SOD1 expression and mitigate disease progression. Primary microRNA (pri-miRNA) scaffolds are used in amiRs to shuttle a hairpin RNA into the endogenous miRNA pathway, but it is unclear whether different primary miRNA (pri-miRNA) scaffolds impact the potency and safety profile of the expressed amiR .

Using the matrixed multiple case study methodology to understand site differences in the outcomes of a Hybrid Type 1 trial of a peer-led healthy lifestyle intervention for people with serious mental illness.

Site differences in implementation trial outcomes are common but often not examined. In a Hybrid Type 1 trial examining the effectiveness-implementation of a peer-led group life-style balance (PGLB) intervention for people with serious mental illness (SMI) in three supportive housing agencies, we found that PGLB recipients' physical health outcomes differed by study sites. The matrixed multiple case study methodology was used to explore how implementation outcomes and changes in context of usual care (UC) services contributed to these site differences.

An in-depth examination of requirements for disclosure risk assessment.

The use of formal privacy to protect the confidentiality of responses in the 2020 Decennial Census of Population and Housing has triggered renewed interest and debate over how to measure the disclosure risks and societal benefits of the published data products. We argue that any proposal for quantifying disclosure risk should be based on prespecified, objective criteria. We illustrate this approach to evaluate the absolute disclosure risk framework, the counterfactual framework underlying differential privacy, and prior-to-posterior comparisons.

Defining and unpacking the core concepts of pharmacology: A global initiative.

Background And Purpose: Development of core concepts in disciplines such as biochemistry, microbiology and physiology have transformed teaching. They provide the foundation for the development of teaching resources for global educators, as well as valid and reliable approaches to assessment. An international research consensus recently identified 25 core concepts of pharmacology.

A retrospective study of subcutaneous anchor securement systems in oncology patients.

Introduction: Maintaining optimal central venous catheter tip position requires reliable catheter securement. A vital decision about the choice of engineered securement device is often made by what is conveniently available in the insertion kit or default clinical routine. The importance of continuous securement for oncology patients prompted the need for an evaluation of securement options currently available.