Students' perception of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in pharmacy school.

Introduction: The increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) among college students, particularly in pharmacy education, raises ethical concerns and prompts debates on responsible usage. The promise of the potential to reduce workload is met with concerns of accuracy issues, algorithmic bias, and the lack of AI education and training. This study aims to understand pharmacy students' perspectives on the use of AI in pharmacy education.

Characterization of the ruminal microbiota in sheep and goats fed different levels of tannin-rich Sericea lespedeza hay.

Understanding ruminal microbiota and diet-host breed interactions under forage feeding conditions is essential for optimizing rumen fermentation and improving feed efficiency in small ruminants. This study aimed to investigate the effects of different ratios of condensed tannin-rich Sericea lespedeza (SL; Lespedeza cuneata) in the diets on changes and interactions of ruminal microbiota and host species (i.e.

Epigenetic Modulation of GPER Expression in Gastric and Colonic Smooth Muscle of Male and Female Non-Obese Diabetic (NOD) Mice: Insights into H3K4me3 and H3K27ac Modifications.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) affects gastrointestinal (GI) motility, favoring gastroparesis, constipation, and fecal incontinence, which are more prevalent in women. The mechanisms are unknown. Given the G-protein-coupled estrogen receptor's (GPER) role in GI motility, we investigated sex-related diabetes-induced epigenetic changes in GPER.

A Mixed Methods Study of Resources Available for the Professional Development of Mid-Career Faculty.

Objective: To determine what resources are available and useful for the professional development of mid-career faculty (MCF) in pharmacy education to foster career advancement.

Methods: A 37-question survey was sent to 7236 members of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, an estimated 4640 of whom represented the target population of associate professors, full professors, and administrators. Semi-structured focus groups involving these 3 groups of faculty were held to provide additional insight.

A Call to Action for the Professional Development of Mid-Career Faculty.

Despite taking on heavier teaching and service loads, an expanding research program, and serving as mentors to junior faculty, mid-career faculty often feel unsupported. Providing a solid foundation through resource allocation and sharing between and within institutions can facilitate establishment or improvement of faculty development initiatives, workload equity, transparent policies, routine performance evaluation, a process for faculty recognition, and a system of mentoring to create an environment where this essential group of faculty can continue to grow. The following discussion, which includes suggested methods to achieve these goals with a focus on mid-career faculty, serves as a call to action for pharmacy school administrators to assess the state of mid-career faculty at their institution, and if indicated, implement systems that promote success among this group.

Point of care assay for blood aripiprazole concentrations: development, validation and utility.

Background: The antipsychotic aripiprazole is often used in the treatment of first-episode psychosis. Measuring aripiprazole blood levels provides an objective measure of treatment adherence, but this currently involves taking a venous blood sample and sending to a laboratory for analysis.

Aims: To detail the development, validation and utility of a new point of care (POC) test for finger-stick capillary blood concentrations of aripiprazole.

Best Practices in Syllabus Design.

The syllabus is the cornerstone for directing faculty and student interaction within the didactic and experiential settings. Within each syllabus is both essential and optional information to guide students, faculty, and administration in course expectations as well as to explain how the course aligns within current curricular requirements to maintain program accreditation. Most syllabi contain a plethora of information that continues to grow each year, warranting concerns of syllabus bloat combined with dwindling student attention to syllabus detail.

Dysregulation of iron metabolism in cardiovascular diseases: From iron deficiency to iron overload.

Iron deficiency and iron overload are the most prevalent and opposite forms of dysregulated iron metabolism that affect approximately 30 percent of the world population, in particularly, elderly and patients with chronic diseases. Both iron deficiency and overload are frequently observed in a wide range of cardiovascular diseases, contributing to the onset and progression of these diseases. One of the devastating seqeulae for iron overload is the induction of ferroptosis, a newly defined form of regulated cell death which heavily impacts cardiac function through ferroptotic cell death in cardiomyocytes.

Evaluation of a Nanoparticle-Based Busulfan Immunoassay for Rapid Analysis on Routine Clinical Analyzers.

Background: Busulfan is an alkylating agent used in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for various malignant and nonmalignant disorders. Therapeutic drug monitoring of busulfan is common because busulfan exposure has been linked to veno-occlusive disease, disease relapse, and failed engraftment. The authors developed an automated immunoassay, along with stable calibrators and controls, and quantified busulfan in sodium heparin plasma.

Tissue-restricted control of established central nervous system autoimmunity by TNF receptor 2-expressing Treg cells.

CD4Foxp3 regulatory T (Treg) cells are central modulators of autoimmune diseases. However, the timing and location of Treg cell-mediated suppression of tissue-specific autoimmunity remain undefined. Here, we addressed these questions by investigating the role of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor 2 (TNFR2) signaling in Treg cells during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model of multiple sclerosis.

Growth and neurodevelopment in low birth weight versus normal birth weight infants from birth to 24 months, born in an obstetric emergency hospital in Haiti, a prospective cohort study.

Background: Low birthweight (LBW) infants are at higher risk of mortality and morbidity (growth, chronic disease and neurological problems) during their life. Due to the high incidence of (pre-) eclampsia in Haiti, LBW infants are common. We assessed the anthropometric growth (weight and length) and neurodevelopmental delay in LBW and normal birthweight (NBW) infants born at an obstetric emergency hospital in Port au Prince, Haiti, between 2014 and 2017.

Evidence for Early and Regular Physical Therapy and Exercise in Parkinson's Disease.

Advances in medical management of Parkinson's disease (PD) have resulted in living longer with disability. Although disability worsens over the course of the disease, there are signs of disability even in the early stages. Several studies reveal an early decline in gait and balance and a high prevalence of nonmotor signs in the prodromal period that contribute to early disability.

Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance by promoting Antimicrobial stewardship in Medical and Allied Health Professional Curricula.

Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance poses a serious threat to global health with significantly higher morbidity, mortality, and economic burden. This review aims to discuss the importance of the promotion of antimicrobial stewardship in medical and allied health professional curricula and training/educating tomorrow's doctors in combatting antimicrobial resistance. A narrative literature review was conducted to retrieve relevant information related to antimicrobial resistance and stewardship and their implications on medical and allied health professional education and training from searches of computerized databases, hand searches, and authoritative texts.

Recent advances in modeling sleep: from the clinic to society and disease.

In the past few decades, advances in understanding sleep-wake neurophysiology have occurred hand-in-hand with advances in mathematical modeling of sleep and wake. In this review, we summarize recent updates in modeling the timing and durations of sleep and wake, the underlying neurophysiology of sleep and wake, and the application of these models in understanding cognition and disease. Throughout, we highlight the role modeling has played in developing our understanding of sleep and its underlying mechanisms.

Knockout of macrophage migration inhibitory factor accentuates side-stream smoke exposure-induced myocardial contractile dysfunction through dysregulated mitophagy.

Second hand smoke exposure increases the prevalence of chronic diseases partly attributed to inflammatory responses. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a proinflammatory cytokine, is involved in the pathogenesis of multiple diseases although its role in second hand smoke exposure-induced cardiac anomalies remains elusive. This study evaluated the impact of MIF knockout on side-stream smoke exposure-induced cardiac pathology and underlying mechanisms.

Myelin-associated glycoprotein inhibits neurite outgrowth through inactivation of the small GTPase Rap1.

Rap1 is a small GTPase that has been implicated in dendritic development and plasticity. In this study, we investigated the role of Rap1 in axonal growth and its activation in response to neurotrophins and myelin-associated inhibitors. We report that Rap1 is activated by brain-derived neurotrophic factor and that this activation can be blocked by myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) or central nervous system myelin, which also induced increases in Rap1GAP1 levels.

7-Cyanoindole fluorescence as a local hydration reporter: application to probe the microheterogeneity of nine water-organic binary mixtures.

Considerable efforts have been devoted to the development of spectroscopic probes that are sensitive to water and can be used to monitor, for example, biological and chemical processes involving dehydration or hydration. Continuing this line of research, herein we show that 7-cyanoindole can serve as a sensitive fluorescence probe of hydration as its fluorescence properties, including intensity, peak wavelength and lifetime, depend on the amount of water in nine water-organic solvent mixtures. Our results indicate that 7-cyanoindole is not only able to reveal the underlying microheterogeneity of these binary solvent systems, but also offers distinct advantages.

Possible Existence of α-Sheets in the Amyloid Fibrils Formed by a TTR Mutant.

Herein, we combine several methods to characterize the fibrils formed by a TTR mutant in which Leu111 is replaced by the unnatural amino acid aspartic acid 4-methyl ester. We find that this mutant peptide exhibits significantly different aggregation behavior than the wild-type peptide: (1) it forms fibrils with a much faster rate, (2) its fibrils lack the long-range helical twists observed in TTR fibrils, (3) its fibrils exhibit a giant far-UV circular dichroism signal, and (4) its fibrils give rise to an unusual amide I' band consisting of four distinct and sharp peaks. On the basis of these results and also several previous computational studies, we hypothesize that the fibrils formed by this TTR mutant peptide contain both β- and α-sheets.

Solvent Dependence of Cyanoindole Fluorescence Lifetime.

Several cyanotryptophans have been shown to be useful biological fluorophores. However, how their fluorescence lifetimes vary with solvent has not been examined. In this regard, herein we measure the fluorescence decay kinetics as well as the absorption and emission spectra of six cyanoindoles in different solvents.

Behaviorally-determined sleep phenotypes are robustly associated with adaptive functioning in individuals with low functioning autism.

Despite sleep disturbance being a common complaint in individuals with autism, specific sleep phenotypes and their relationship to adaptive functioning have yet to be identified. This study used cluster analysis to find distinct sleep patterns and relate them to independent measures of adaptive functioning in individuals with autism. Approximately 50,000 nights of care-giver sleep/wake logs were collected on school-days for 106 individuals with low functioning autism (87 boys, 14.

Marijuana Use in the Elderly: Implications and Considerations.

Objective: This article reviews the literature on the use of marijuana in the elderly. Pharmacists play an important role in the management of medications including drug use of potentially illegal drugs, including marijuana. The use of both recreational and medical marijuana has grown exponentially in the general population, including in older adults.