The Impact of Tele-Education on Family Medicine Clerkship Students' Learning Outcomes.

Background And Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated rapid changes to medical education for student and patient protection. A dearth of published US studies examine resulting clinical education outcomes due to pandemic-induced curricula changes. We describe adaptations made to a family medicine clerkship to move it from traditional in-person delivery to virtual only, and then from virtual to hybrid; and compare educational outcomes of students across delivery types.

Modeling the Potential of Treg-Based Therapies for Transplant Rejection: Effect of Dose, Timing, and Accumulation Site.

The adoptive transfer of regulatory T cells (Tregs) has emerged as a method to promote graft tolerance. Clinical trials have demonstrated the safety of adoptive transfer and are now assessing their therapeutic efficacy. Strategies that generate large numbers of antigen specific Tregs are even more efficacious.

Response of diamond detectors in ultra-high dose-per-pulse electron beams for dosimetry at FLASH radiotherapy.

With increasing investigation of the so-called FLASH effect, the need for accurate real time dosimetry for ultra-high dose rates is also growing. Considering the ultra-high dose-per-pulse (DPP) necessary to produce the ultra-high dose rates for investigations of the FLASH effect, real time dosimetry is a major challenge. In particular, vented ionization chambers, as used for dosimetry in conventional radiotherapy, show significant deviations from linearity with increasing DPP.

Developing and deploying an integrated workshop curriculum teaching computational skills for reproducible research.

Inspired by well-established material and pedagogy provided by The Carpentries (Wilson, 2016), we developed a two-day workshop curriculum that teaches introductory R programming for managing, analyzing, plotting and reporting data using packages from the tidyverse (Wickham et al., 2019), the Unix shell, version control with git, and GitHub. While the official Software Carpentry curriculum is comprehensive, we found that it contains too much content for a two-day workshop.

Communicating safety precautions can help maintain in-person voter turnout during a pandemic.

Scholars have linked cost and life stress to lower voter turnout with clear implications for voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask whether COVID-19 reduces turnout intention and how election agencies can mitigate this effect. We use a series of six survey and conjoint experiments implemented in samples totalling over 28,000 Canadian respondents collected between July and November of 2020 to show that: 1) priming people to think about COVID-19 reduces turnout intention, especially among those who feel most threatened by the disease; 2) safety measures for in-person voting, such as mandatory masks and physical distancing, can improve safety perceptions and willingness to vote in-person, and 3) providing people information about safety precautions for in-person voting mitigates the negative effect of priming COVID-19.

[Anatomy of the vegetative organs of two species of Atriplex (Chenopodiaceae) from Venezuela].

In Venezuela, Atriplex is represented by A. cristata and A. oestophora, the latter being endemic; they inhabit coastal areas with high temperatures, high solar radiation and sandy soils with high salt content.

Do antidepressants influence mood patterns? A naturalistic study in bipolar disorder.

This prospective, longitudinal study compared the frequency and pattern of mood changes between outpatients receiving usual care for bipolar disorder who were either taking or not taking antidepressants. One hundred and eighty-two patients with bipolar disorder self-reported mood and psychiatric medications for 4 months using a computerized system (ChronoRecord) and returned 22,626 days of data. One hundred and four patients took antidepressants, 78 did not.

Dosimetric characteristics of a new unshielded silicon diode and its application in clinical photon and electron beams.

Shielded p-silicon diodes, frequently applied in general photon-beam dosimetry, show certain imperfections when applied in the small photon fields occurring in stereotactic or intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), in electron beams and in the buildup region of photon beam dose distributions. Using as a study object the shielded p-silicon diode PTW 60008, well known for its reliable performance in general photon dosimetry, we have identified these imperfections as effects of electron scattering at the metallic parts of the shielding. In order to overcome these difficulties a new, unshielded diode PTW 60012 has been designed and manufactured by PTW Freiburg.

Mood changes related to antidepressants: a longitudinal study of patients with bipolar disorder in a naturalistic setting.

This prospective, longitudinal study investigated the frequency and pattern of mood changes between outpatients receiving usual care for bipolar disorder who were either taking or not taking antidepressants. Eighty patients with bipolar disorder self-reported mood and psychiatric medications daily for 3 months using a computerized system (ChronoRecord) and returned 8662 days of data. Of the total group of 80 patients, 47 took antidepressants; 33 did not.

Mesh cages for spinal deformity in adults.

Correction of deformity including restoration of sagittal plane malalignment in patients with spinal disorders is facilitated by placement of structural allografts and cages into the anterior column. The effectiveness of these implants will be reviewed with a focus on anterior column implantation of titanium mesh cages. In a consecutive study of adult patients who had spinal fusions for sagittal plane deformities using structural titanium mesh cages, cage status, fusion status, and outcome were assessed.

Multisurgeon assessment of surgical decision-making in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: curve classification, operative approach, and fusion levels.

Study Design: A multisurgeon assessment of curve classification, selection of operative approach, and fusion levels via a case study presentation.

Objectives: To evaluate the ability of a group of scoliosis surgeons, not involved in the development of a new classification system, to accurately choose the corresponding curve classification of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) cases and to evaluate the variability in the selection of operative approaches and both proximal and distal fusion levels in accordance with the new classification system in operative adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Summary Of Background Data: Recent evaluations using the King method for classifying AIS has shown poor intraobserver and interobserver reliability.

Complications and results of long adult deformity fusions down to l4, l5, and the sacrum.

Study Design: This is a consecutive study of patients having undergone surgical treatment of adult lumbar scoliosis. Follow-up ranged from 2 to 13 years (average 5 years).

Objectives: To assess the complications and outcomes of patients with long fusions to L4 (n=23), L5 (n=21), or the sacrum (n=15) and determine if a "deeply seated" L5 segment is protective.

Long-term complications in adult spinal deformity patients having combined surgery a comparison of primary to revision patients.

Study Design: This is a comparison of primary (N = 18) to revision (N = 26) combined (anterior and posterior surgery) adult spinal deformity patients with regard to late (>6 months) complications and radiographic/functional outcomes at a minimum 2-year follow-up.

Objectives: To determine whether revision status increases the risk of late complications or offers a poor prognosis for functional outcome in adult deformity patients.

Summary Of Background Data: It is known that patients who have combined surgery for adult deformity have a high incidence of perioperative complications.

Prospective randomization of parenteral hyperalimentation for long fusions with spinal deformity: its effect on complications and recovery from postoperative malnutrition.

Study Design: A prospective randomized study of total parenteral nutrition for long spinal deformity fusions as well as its effect on complications and recovery from postoperative malnutrition was performed.

Objectives: To determine whether the administration of total parenteral nutrition to patients undergoing same-day or staged long spinal fusions has an effect on postoperative nutritional parameter depletion, time for return to preoperative nutritional baseline, and complication rate.

Summary Of Background Data: Several studies have suggested, but only one has demonstrated, that perioperative administration of total parenteral nutrition to patients undergoing spinal reconstructive surgery may reduce postoperative nutritional depletion, thereby decreasing postoperative complications.

Analysis of titanium mesh cages in adults with minimum two-year follow-up.

Study Design: This is a study of 66 consecutive adult patients (ages 20-81 years) with sagittal deformities who underwent surgery in which structural titanium mesh cages were implanted into the anterior column during posterior instrumentation and fusion. Follow-up ranged from 24 to 62 months (mean, 33 months).

Objectives: To assess the complications and outcomes of patients with structural cages implanted into the anterior column.

In vivo anteroposterior femorotibial translation of total knee arthroplasty: a multicenter analysis.

A study was conducted to determine in vivo femorotibial contact patterns for subjects having a posterior cruciate retaining or posterior cruciate substituting total knee arthroplasty. Femorotibial contact of 72 subjects implanted with a total knee replacement, performed by five surgeons, was analyzed using video fluoroscopy. Thirty-one subjects were implanted with a posterior cruciate retaining total knee replacement with a flat polyethylene posterior lipped insert, 12 with a posterior cruciate retaining total knee replacement with a curved insert, and 29 with a posterior cruciate substituting total knee replacement.

Microculture of western white pine (Pinus monticola) by induction of shoots on bud explants from 1- to 7-year-old trees.

We developed a protocol for the production of shoots from bud explants from 1- to 7-year-old trees of western white pine (Pinus monticola Dougl.). The best explant was a 2-mm-thick cross-sectional slice of the early winter bud.

Micropropagation of western white pine (Pinus monticola) starting with mature embryos.

As part of a program to develop micropropagation protocols for western white pine, the production of adventitious shoots from mature embryos was investigated. Litvay's medium proved to be the best of the six media formulations tried. The optimum concentration of N6-benzyladenine was 30 μM for 21 days.

Acoustically modulated optical transmission for low level gaseous species measurement.

A new optical technique has been developed for low level optical extinction measurements in gaseous media. It is a variation on direct light transmission where the sample gas density in a cell is modulated acoustically by a loudspeaker. The amplitude variation of the light transmission is proportional to the gas density and is insensitive to window contamination and detector instabilities.

Visualization of turbulent flame fronts with planar laser-induced fluorescence.

This report concerns the quantitative time-resolved visualization of reaction zones in laminar, transitional, and turbulent nonpremixed flames. Two-dimensional OH molecular concentrations were measured with planar laser-induced fluorescence excited by a sheet of light (formed from a single tunable ultraviolet laser pulse) and detected with a two-dimensional, image-intensified photodiode array camera. From the resulting data details of instantaneous flame front structures (including positions, shapes, and widths) were obtained.

Single-pulse, laser-saturated fluorescence measurements of OH in turbulent nonpremixed flames.

A single-pulse, laser-saturated fluorescence technique has been developed for absolute OH concentration measurements with a temporal resolution of 2 nsec, a spatial resolution of <0.1 mm(3), and an estimated accuracy of +/-30%. It has been applied in laminar, transitional, and turbulent hydrogen-air diffusion flames, providing the first reported quantitative measurements of average values, rms fluctuations, and probability density functions of OH radical concentration in nonpremixed flames.

Fatty acid composition of Rhizobium spp.

The fatty acid composition of 42 isolates belonging to the major plant affinity groups of Rhizobium has been determined and found to vary reproducible with culture age. Numerical taxonomic techniques applied to the 15 major fatty acid components of log-phase cultures of comparable physiological age showed that the rhizobia constitute a uniform group. However, two clusters comprising soybean-cowpea isolates and pea-bean isolates were evident.