Increasing Accessibility Through Popular Press Books into Neuroscience Coursework.

Utilizing popular press books can increase accessibility and aid in retention of marginalized groups; by increasing student engagement, improving material accessibility through real-world examples, and helping ease the financial burden of textbooks. The current article outlines how several popular press books have been successfully implemented in different levels of neuroscience coursework, including an introductory neuroscience course, a mid-level drugs and behavior course, and a senior seminar. Implementation strategies and pitfalls are discussed, including best practices for assessment and incorporation of popular press books into course material.

PopScience: Teaching students to Communicate Scientific Findings to the General Public.

Scientific communication has become more important than ever before, yet most scientists are not trained in how to communicate their research findings to the general public. The PopScience assignment is a semester-long writing and oral communication project that focuses on how to communicate primary scientific literature to the general public. The overall goals of the PopScience project are to teach students how to: 1) critically evaluate neuroscience primary literature, and 2) translate and convey primary literature findings to a lay audience.

Bridging the gap between science and food policy: nutrition as a driver of policy drawing on Scotland as a case study.

Access to adequate food is one of the Human Rights set out in international law and hence its delivery (through policy) is the role of government. 'Food policy' cannot be the role of a single government department, however, since regulations must take care of public goods (e.g.

Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of testing pregnant women for penicillin allergy.

Introduction: True penicillin allergy is rare and is commonly incorrectly reported. In fact, less than five percent of patients who report a penicillin allergy will have a currently active clinically-significant IgE- or T-cell-mediated hypersensitivity when appropriately tested. Penicillin is the agent of choice for intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis to reduce the risk of group B streptococcus early-onset disease in the newborn.

Improving routine prenatal penicillin allergy testing for reported penicillin allergy.

Background: Patients with self-reported antibiotic allergies have a higher cost of care, more frequent infections with resistant bacteria and worse health outcomes than patients without antibiotic allergies. Ultimately, less than 5% of patients who report a penicillin allergy have a clinically significant immune-mediated hypersensitivity reaction when tested. As 10%-30% of the population of pregnant patients are colonised for group B (GBS) and guidelines recommend penicillin as the treatment of choice for GBS, current recommendations support penicillin allergy testing in pregnant patients who report an allergy.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Questions and Answers for Effective Care.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a heterogeneous group of conditions related to specific biologic and cellular abnormalities that are not fully understood. Psychological factors do not cause IBS, but many people with IBS also have anxiety or depressed mood, a history of adverse life events, or psychosocial stressors. Physicians must understand the fears and expectations of patients and how they think about their symptoms and should also respond empathetically to psychosocial cues.

Visit Entropy Associated with Diabetic Control Outcomes.

Background: Chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes place a large burden on the health care system and are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. A team-based multidisciplinary approach that organizes care to improve chronic disease management may actually decrease traditional continuity of care metrics. Visit entropy (VE) provides a novel measure of care organization produced by team-based approaches.

Effects of differential rearing on amphetamine-induced c-fos expression in rats.

Background: Rearing rats in environmental enrichment alters psychostimulant-induced locomotor activity as well as neurotransmitter expression. Exposure to novelty and psychostimulants induces c-fos expression in neurons in the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway. Here we investigated changes in the expression of the immediate early gene c-fos in the mesolimbic DA pathway of enriched, isolated, or socially reared rats due to the neurobiological changes that result from rearing conditions and influence drug taking behavior.

Inactivation of the lateral habenula reduces anxiogenic behavior and cocaine seeking under conditions of heightened stress.

Recent anatomical and functional studies have renewed interest in the lateral habenula (LHb), a critical brain region that works in an opponent manner to modulate aversive and appetitive processes. In particular, increased LHb activation is believed to drive anxiogenic states during stressful conditions. Here, we reversibly inactivated the LHb with GABA receptor agonists (baclofen/muscimol) in rats prior to testing in an open field, elevated plus maze, and defensive burying task in the presence or absence of yohimbine, a noradrenergic α2-receptor antagonist that acts as an anxiogenic stressor.

Dose-dependent effects of differential rearing on amphetamine-induced hyperactivity.

Differential rearing decreases psychostimulant-induced hyperactivity. In general, environmental enrichment decreases the locomotor response to low unit doses of psychostimuluants, whereas isolation increases the response. It is not clear whether the changes in locomotor activity are due to an enrichment-induced decrease or an isolation-induced increase.

Impact of mGluR5 during amphetamine-induced hyperactivity and conditioned hyperactivity in differentially reared rats.

Rationale: 3-((2-Methyl-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)ethynyl)pyridine hydrochloride (MTEP) is a metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) antagonist that may alter drug sensitivity in differentially reared rats due to its involvement in the psychostimulant reward pathway and plasticity.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of MTEP on acute amphetamine-induced hyperactivity, conditioned hyperactivity, and sensitization.

Methods: Rats were reared in an enriched (EC), isolated (IC), or standard (SC) condition after which rats were either administered MTEP (1.

Effects of satiety on operant responding in rats raised in enrichment.

Rats reared in enriched environmental conditions (EC) show altered responding for visual novelty and psychostimulants compared with rats reared in isolated conditions (IC). This study investigated whether response rate was altered in EC and IC rats when a visual stimulus was or was not paired with sucrose delivery in food-deprived and free-fed rats. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were reared in EC, IC, or social conditions (SC) before training to lever press for liquid sucrose on a fixed ratio 5 schedule.

The contribution of the central nucleus of the amygdala to individual differences in amphetamine-induced hyperactivity.

Rats classified as high responders (HR) based on their response to an inescapable novel environment self-administer more amphetamine and have greater amphetamine-induced sensitization than rats classified as low responders (LR). Recent research suggests that the central nucleus of the amygdala (ACe) contributes to the elevated self-administration in HR rats. Therefore, the current study examined the role of the ACe in the expression of both amphetamine-induced sensitization and conditioned hyperactivity in HR and LR rats.

On board short-time high temperature heat treatment of ballast water: a field trial under operational conditions.

A ballast water short-time high temperature heat treatment technique was applied on board a car-carrier during a voyage from Egypt to Belgium. Ballast water from three tanks was subjected for a few seconds to temperatures ranging from 55 degrees C to 80 degrees C. The water was heated using the vessel's heat exchanger steam and a second heat exchanger was used to pre-heat and cool down the water.

Ship board testing of a deoxygenation ballast water treatment.

A ship board trial of a deoxygenation method for treating ballast water was carried out during a voyage from Southampton (United Kingdom) to Manzanillo (Panama). A nutrient solution added to two ballast tanks encouraged bacterial growth, resulting in a gradual change to an anoxic environment. Samples were taken from two treated tanks and two untreated tanks to assess changes in the abundance and viability of zooplankton, phytoplankton and bacteria.