Examining the Role of Medical School Faculty in Developing Students' Cultural Humility Skills: Insights From a Single-Center Multimethod Study.

Background: While the Liaison Committee on Medical Education emphasizes the teaching of cultural competence in medical education, the concept of cultural humility, focusing on self-reflection and lifelong learning, has been proposed as a more effective approach. Although there have been numerous discussions on both topics, understanding how faculty in clinical settings help students develop cultural humility skills remains limited.

Objective: Our multimethod study utilized a survey and semi-structured interviews to identify strategies that faculty at one institution use to help students develop cultural humility skills.

Assessment of the medical school learning environment at United Arab Emirates University.

Background: The purpose of the article was to assess students' perception of the learning environment at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University using the 'Medical School Learning Environment Survey' (MSLES). Evaluating the learning environment and working towards its improvement is crucial for the physical and mental well-being of medical students, as it contributes to fostering an optimal learning environment.

Methods: Students participated in four groups: Year-1 (pre-medical), Year-2 (pre-medical), Year-3/Year-4 (pre-clinical), and Year-5/Year-6 (clinical).

Validation of a novel, low-fidelity virtual reality simulator and an artificial intelligence assessment approach for peg transfer laparoscopic training.

Simulators are widely used in medical education, but objective and automatic assessment is not feasible with low-fidelity simulators, which can be solved with artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) solutions. The effectiveness of a custom-made VR simulator and an AI-based evaluator of a laparoscopic peg transfer exercise was investigated. Sixty medical students were involved in a single-blinded randomised controlled study to compare the VR simulator with the traditional box trainer.

Gamified versus non-gamified online educational modules for teaching clinical laboratory medicine to first-year medical students at a large allopathic medical school in the United States.

Background: Medical educators seek innovative ways to engage learners efficiently and effectively. Gamification has been explored as one way to accomplish this feat; however, questions remain about which contexts gamification would be most useful. Time constraints and student interest present major barriers for teaching laboratory medicine to students.

Using cognitive load theory to evaluate and improve preparatory materials and study time for the flipped classroom.

Background: Preclinical medical education is content-dense and time-constrained. Flipped classroom approaches promote durable learning, but challenges with unsatisfactory student preparation and high workload remain. Cognitive load theory defines instructional design as "efficient" if learners can master the presented concepts without cognitive overload.

The Student-Generated Reasoning Tool (SGRT): Linking medical knowledge and clinical reasoning in preclinical education.

Introduction: The simultaneous integration of knowledge acquisition and development of clinical reasoning in preclinical medical education remains a challenge. To help address this challenge, the authors developed and implemented the Student-Generated Reasoning Tool (SGRT)-a tool asking students to propose and justify pathophysiological hypotheses, generate findings, and critically appraise information.

Methods: In 2019, students in a first-year preclinical course ( = 171; SGRT group) were assigned to one of 20 teams.

Assessing the Effectiveness of Using Mechanistic Concept Maps in Case-Based Collaborative Learning.

Problem: Despite the advantages of using mechanistic concept maps (MCMs)-diagrams created individually or collaboratively by a team to foster inductive analysis of a clinical problem-in individual learning, very little is known about their benefits in collaborative learning.

Approach: First-year medical and dental students (n = 170) were assigned to one of four learning groups in the Homeostasis I course, Harvard Medical School, February-March 2016. One group (n = 43) was randomly assigned to the MCM intervention; students in the remaining groups (n = 127) served as controls.

Effects on P-Glycoprotein Expression after Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption Using Focused Ultrasound and Microbubbles.

Many blood-borne substances attempting to pass through the luminal membrane of brain endothelial cells are acted upon by a variety of metabolizing enzymes or are actively expelled back into the capillary lumen by embedded efflux transporters, such as Permeability-glycoprotein (Pgp). Overexpression of this protein has also been linked to multidrug resistance in cancer cells. Previous studies have shown that focused ultrasound (FUS), when combined with a microbubble agent, has ability to temporarily disrupt blood-brain barrier (BBBD).

High-resolution renal perfusion mapping using contrast-enhanced ultrasonography in ischemia-reperfusion injury monitors changes in renal microperfusion.

Alterations in renal microperfusion play an important role in the development of acute kidney injury with long-term consequences. Here we used contrast-enhanced ultrasonography as a novel method for depicting intrarenal distribution of blood flow. After infusion of microbubble contrast agent, bubbles were collapsed in the kidney and postbubble destruction refilling was measured in various regions of the kidney.

Potential of minimally invasive procedures in the treatment of uterine fibroids: a focus on magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound therapy.

Minimally invasive treatment options are an important part of the uterine fibroid-treatment arsenal, especially among younger patients and in those who plan future pregnancies. This article provides an overview of the currently available minimally invasive therapy options, with a special emphasis on a completely noninvasive option: magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS). In this review, we describe the background of MRgFUS, the patient-selection criteria for MRgFUS, and how the procedure is performed.

Image-Guided Focused Ultrasound-Mediated Regional Brain Stimulation in Sheep.

Non-invasive brain stimulation using focused ultrasound has largely been carried out in small animals. In the present study, we applied stimulatory focused ultrasound transcranially to the primary sensorimotor (SM1) and visual (V1) brain areas in sheep (Dorset, all female, n = 8), under the guidance of magnetic resonance imaging, and examined the electrophysiologic responses. By use of a 250-kHz focused ultrasound transducer, the area was sonicated in pulsed mode (tone-burst duration of 1 ms, duty cycle of 50%) for 300 ms.

Focused ultrasound-mediated non-invasive brain stimulation: examination of sonication parameters.

Background: Transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) has emerged as a new brain stimulation modality. The range of sonication parameters for successful brain stimulation warrants further investigation.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the range of FUS sonication parameters that minimize the acoustic intensity/energy deposition while successfully stimulating the motor brain area in Sprague-Dawley rats.

PET∕CT imaging evidence of FUS-mediated (18)F-FDG uptake changes in rat brain.

Purpose: Transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) delivers highly focused acoustic energy to a small region of the brain in a noninvasive manner. Recent studies have revealed that FUS, which is administered either in pulsed or continuous waves, can elicit or suppress neural tissue excitability. This neuromodulatory property of FUS has been demonstrated via direct motion detection, electrophysiological recordings, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), confocal imaging, and microdialysis sampling of neurotransmitters.

Noninvasive transcranial stimulation of rat abducens nerve by focused ultrasound.

Nonpharmacologic and nonsurgical transcranial modulation of the nerve function may provide new opportunities in evaluation and treatment of cranial nerve diseases. This study investigates the possibility of using low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) to selectively stimulate the rat abducens nerve located above the base of the skull. FUS (frequencies of 350 kHz and 650 kHz) operating in a pulsed mode was applied to the abducens nerve of Sprague-Dawley rats under stereotactic guidance.

Focused ultrasound-mediated suppression of chemically-induced acute epileptic EEG activity.

Background: Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder, which is attributed to uncontrollable abnormal hyper-excitability of neurons. We investigated the feasibility of using low-intensity, pulsed radiation of focused ultrasound (FUS) to non-invasively suppress epileptic activity in an animal model (rat), which was induced by the intraperitonial injection of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ).

Results: After the onset of induced seizures, FUS was transcranially administered to the brain twice for three minutes each while undergoing electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring.

Focused ultrasound modulates region-specific brain activity.

We demonstrated the in vivo feasibility of using focused ultrasound (FUS) to transiently modulate (through either stimulation or suppression) the function of regional brain tissue in rabbits. FUS was delivered in a train of pulses at low acoustic energy, far below the cavitation threshold, to the animal's somatomotor and visual areas, as guided by anatomical and functional information from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The temporary alterations in the brain function affected by the sonication were characterized by both electrophysiological recordings and functional brain mapping achieved through the use of functional MRI (fMRI).

Focused ultrasound as a local therapy for liver cancer.

Conventional surgical treatments of liver cancer are invasive (including minimally invasive) with a high incidence of new metastasis and poor success, even after multiple resections or ablations. These limitations motivated research into new, less invasive solutions for liver cancer treatment.Focused ultrasound surgery (FUS), or high-intensity focused ultrasound, has been recognized as a noninvasive technology for benign and malignant tumor treatment.

On-demand three-dimensional freeform fabrication of multi-layered hydrogel scaffold with fluidic channels.

One of the challenges in tissue engineering is to provide adequate supplies of oxygen and nutrients to cells within the engineered tissue construct. Soft-lithographic techniques have allowed the generation of hydrogel scaffolds containing a network of fluidic channels, but at the cost of complicated and often time-consuming manufacturing steps. We report a three-dimensional (3D) direct printing technique to construct hydrogel scaffolds containing fluidic channels.

Renal ultrafiltration changes induced by focused US.

Purpose: To determine if focused ultrasonography (US) combined with a diagnostic microbubble-based US contrast agent can be used to modulate glomerular ultrafiltration and size selectivity.

Materials And Methods: The experiments were approved by the animal care committee. The left kidney of 17 healthy rabbits was sonicated by using a 260-kHz focused US transducer in the presence of a microbubble-based US contrast agent.

Composite MR Contrast Agents for Conditional Cell-Labeling.

Gadolinium-chelates (Gd-DTPA) and superparamagnetic particles of iron oxide (SPIO) are two commonly used MR contrast agents that exhibit inherently different relaxation properties. These two agents have been used to label cells ex-vivo to generate signal contrast with respect to background tissue when introduced to a tissue-of-interest. Assuming minimal mutual interaction between these two agents, we were motivated to investigate the creation of composite relaxation properties by mixing the two in aqueous solutions for conditioning cell labeling.

Three-dimensional bioprinting of rat embryonic neural cells.

We present a direct cell printing technique to pattern neural cells in a three-dimensional (3D) multilayered collagen gel. A layer of collagen precursor was printed to provide a scaffold for the cells, and the rat embryonic neurons and astrocytes were subsequently printed on the layer. A solution of sodium bicarbonate was applied to the cell containing collagen layer as nebulized aerosols, which allowed the gelation of the collagen.

Multi-layered culture of human skin fibroblasts and keratinocytes through three-dimensional freeform fabrication.

We present a method to create multi-layered engineered tissue composites consisting of human skin fibroblasts and keratinocytes which mimic skin layers. Three-dimensional (3D) freeform fabrication (FF) technique, based on direct cell dispensing, was implemented using a robotic platform that prints collagen hydrogel precursor, fibroblasts and keratinocytes. A printed layer of cell-containing collagen was crosslinked by coating the layer with nebulized aqueous sodium bicarbonate.

[RNA expression as a prognostic tool in idiopathic nephrotic syndrome].

Approximately 90% of children with nephrotic syndrome have idiopathic nephrotic syndrome. Idiopathic nephrotic syndrome includes three histologic types: minimal change disease, mesangial proliferation and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. These diseases have similar clinical presentation but different prognosis.

The results of the expression array studies correlate and enhance the known genetic basis of gastric and colorectal cancer.

Gastric and colorectal cancers belong to the most frequent cancer types in the world today. This fact emphasizes the importance of identification of useful diagnostic and prognostic markers, in the earliest stage of the disease. The examination of gene expression profile in gastric and colorectal cancer may develop the bases of early diagnosis and of individual therapeutic strategies.