Digital learning of clinical skills and its impact on medical students' academic performance: a systematic review.

Background: The constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the rapid development and implementation of digital methods for teaching clinical skills in medical education. This systematic review presents both the benefits, challenges, and effectiveness of this transition.

Methods: A systematic search of six electronic databases (SCOPUS, Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC & Informit) was conducted on 1st October 2023 and updated on 1st April 2024 to identify peer- reviewed articles, from 2019 onwards, which used any type of digital tool (online or otherwise) to teach clinical skills to medical trainees (undergraduate or postgraduate) and were published in English language.

Impact of internet addiction and gaming disorder on body weight in children and adolescents: A systematic review.

Aim: Internet use and gaming have increased in daily life. Internet addiction has not been recognised in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition or 11th Revision of International Classification of Diseases despite gaming addiction having been listed since 2013. Previous studies have shown an association between internet use and weight gain or disordered eating patterns in the general population, however none have addressed this association in a paediatric population.

Proteomics analysis of round and wrinkled pea (Pisum sativum L.) seeds during different development periods.

Seed development is complex, influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Understanding proteome profiles at different seed developmental stages is key to improving seed composition and quality. We used label-free quantitative proteomics to analyze round and wrinkled pea seeds at five growth stages: 4, 7, 12, 15, and days after anthesis (DAA), and at maturity.

A content analysis of parents' reflections on pathogenic and uncertain pediatric oncology germline sequencing results.

Germline genomic sequencing is increasingly integrated into pediatric cancer care, with pathogenic cancer-predisposing variants identified among 5-18% of affected children and variants of uncertain significance (VUS) in up to 70%. Given the potential medical implications for children and their families, parents' psychosocial responses to learning results are important to understand. Parents of children with cancer who learned their children's germline pathogenic or VUS results following paired tumor and germline genomic sequencing described their cognitive and affective responses to results in an open-ended write-in question after disclosure (M = 10 months post-disclosure; range = 1-28).

Evaluation of a Virtual Culturally Aware Mentoring Workshop for Biomedical Faculty.

The Culturally Aware Mentoring (CAM) workshop was developed to help biomedical faculty gain awareness and skills to work more effectively with racially and ethnically minoritized mentees. The purpose of this paper is to present evaluation findings from a national cluster randomized comparative study in which CAM was delivered in an online format. We evaluated data from the primary arm of this study, which included 231 biomedical faculty from 12 universities.

Effects of instructed visual imagining on emergent conditional discriminations.

Visual imagining has been proposed to play a role in the emergence of derived stimulus relations. We examined whether test-relevant visual imagining during baseline training would, accordingly, facilitate emergent visual-visual conditional discriminations at test. Adult participants (n = 75) were randomly assigned to three groups.

Topological Structures in the Space of Treatment-Naïve Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

Patients are complex and heterogeneous; clinical data sets are complicated by noise, missing data, and the presence of mixed-type data. Using such data sets requires understanding the high-dimensional "space of patients", composed of all measurements that define all relevant phenotypes. The current state-of-the-art merely defines spatial groupings of patients using cluster analyses.

Association study of crude seed protein and fat concentration in a USDA pea diversity panel.

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is a key rotational crop and is increasingly important in the food processing sector for its protein. This study focused on identifying diverse high seed protein concentration (SPC) lines in pea plant genetic resources.

Improving the Accuracy of Bulk Fitness Assays by Correcting Barcode Processing Biases.

Measuring the fitnesses of genetic variants is a fundamental objective in evolutionary biology. A standard approach for measuring microbial fitnesses in bulk involves labeling a library of genetic variants with unique sequence barcodes, competing the labeled strains in batch culture, and using deep sequencing to track changes in the barcode abundances over time. However, idiosyncratic properties of barcodes can induce nonuniform amplification or uneven sequencing coverage that causes some barcodes to be over- or under-represented in samples.

Update on Genetic Counselor Practice and Recommendations for Pediatric Cancer Predisposition Evaluation and Surveillance.

In July 2023, the American Association for Cancer Research held the second Childhood Cancer Predisposition Workshop, at which international experts in pediatric cancer predisposition met to update the previously published 2017 consensus statements on pediatric cancer predisposition syndromes. Since 2017, advances in tumor and germline genetic testing and increased understanding of cancer predisposition in patients with pediatric cancer have led to significant changes in clinical care. Here, we provide an updated genetic counseling framework for pediatric oncology professionals.

Effective population size in field pea.

Background: Effective population size (N) is a pivotal parameter in population genetics as it can provide information on the rate of inbreeding and the contemporary status of genetic diversity in breeding populations. The population with smaller N can lead to faster inbreeding, with little potential for genetic gain making selections ineffective. The importance of N has become increasingly recognized in plant breeding, which can help breeders monitor and enhance the genetic variability or redesign their selection protocols.

Playing Russian Roulette: Parent and Adolescent Perspectives on Tumor Surveillance for Adolescents with Cancer Predisposition Syndromes.

Purpose: Cancer predisposition syndrome (CPS) surveillance allows for the early detection and treatment of neoplasms; however, the psychosocial impact of tumor surveillance is poorly understood for cancer-affected adolescents with CPS and their parents. To gain further insight, we qualitatively characterized the affective and cognitive experience of adolescents undergoing tumor surveillance.

Experimental Design: Adolescents with a history of cancer and their parents independently completed semistructured interviews querying their experience with the adolescent's tumor surveillance.

Performance of Tumor Surveillance for Children With Cancer Predisposition.

Importance: Pediatric oncology patients are increasingly recognized as having an underlying cancer predisposition syndrome (CPS). Surveillance is often recommended to detect new tumors at their earliest and most curable stages. Data on the effectiveness and outcomes of surveillance for children with CPS are limited.

Enduring relief or fleeting respite? Bitcoin as a hedge and safe haven for the US dollar.

Can technology protect investors from extreme losses? This paper investigates the short- and long-run hedging and safe haven properties of Bitcoin for the US dollar over the period 2010-2023, incorporating the COVID-19-related market turmoil. Our findings reveal that (i) Bitcoin acts as a strong hedge for all US dollar currency pairs examined, (ii) Bitcoin functions as a weak safe haven for the US dollar at short investment horizons, as indicated by a limited relationship during acute negative price movements, (iii) Bitcoin, instead of acting as a safe haven may, instead, increase aggregate risk at long horizons during periods of extreme losses. The analysis, performed using a series of horizon-dependent econometric tests, provides evidence of some US dollar risk-reduction benefits from Bitcoin but limited potential for enduring relief from long-run extreme negative US dollar rate movements.

Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into Preclinical, Clinical, and Public Health Mathematical Models.

Mathematical modelling applied to preclinical, clinical, and public health research is critical for our understanding of a multitude of biological principles. Biology is fundamentally heterogeneous, and mathematical modelling must meet the challenge of variability head on to ensure the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are integrated into quantitative analyses. Here we provide a follow-up perspective on the DEI plenary session held at the 2023 Society for Mathematical Biology Annual Meeting to discuss key issues for the increased integration of DEI in mathematical modelling in biology.

Using longitudinal qualitative research to understand the experiences of minoritized people.

This paper demonstrates how Longitudinal Qualitative Research (LQR) is an innovative method to understand the lived experiences of members of minoritized groups when temporality is a structuring element of their experiences. Most qualitative research in psychology is cross-sectional, which limits our understanding of individuals whose experiences are context-dependent and linked to the temporal norms of specific social environments. LQR is unique for allowing researchers to compare change and stability over time and reveal how social challenges and barriers impact perspective shifts and long-term decision-making.

Clinical and biological landscape of constitutional mismatch-repair deficiency syndrome: an International Replication Repair Deficiency Consortium cohort study.

Background: Constitutional mismatch repair deficiency (CMMRD) syndrome is a rare and aggressive cancer predisposition syndrome. Because a scarcity of data on this condition contributes to management challenges and poor outcomes, we aimed to describe the clinical spectrum, cancer biology, and impact of genetics on patient survival in CMMRD.

Methods: In this cohort study, we collected cross-sectional and longitudinal data on all patients with CMMRD, with no age limits, registered with the International Replication Repair Deficiency Consortium (IRRDC) across more than 50 countries.

A pulse crop dataset of agronomic traits and multispectral images from multiple environments.

Crop yield potential in breeding trials can be captured using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based multispectral imagery. Several digital traits or phenotypes such as vegetation indices can represent canopy crop vigor and overall plant health, which can be used to evaluate differences in performance across varieties in crop breeding programs. This dataset contains agronomic data for named cultivars and breeding lines of spring-sown dry pea and chickpea, and over 275 multispectral images from advanced and preliminary breeding trials.

Genomes for Nurses: Understanding and Overcoming Barriers to Nurses Utilizing Genomics.

Genomic testing is an increasingly important technology within pediatric oncology that aids in cancer diagnosis, provides prognostic information, identifies therapeutic targets, and reveals underlying cancer predisposition. However, nurses lack basic knowledge of genomics and have limited self-assurance in using genomic information in their daily practice. This single-institution project was carried out at an academic pediatric cancer hospital in the United States with the aim to explore the barriers to achieving genomics literacy for pediatric oncology nurses.

Parental Understanding of Their Child's Germline Genomic Testing: Intent of Disclosure to Their Child and Family.

Genomic testing is becoming increasingly common in the care of pediatric patients with cancer. Parental understanding of germline results and their intent and timing of results disclosure to their child and family may have significant implications on the family unit. The purpose of this study was to examine parental understanding of germline genomic results and plans for disclosure to their child and other relatives.

Breaking Down Barriers to Detection and Care in Early-Age-Onset Colorectal Cancer in Canada.

The second Early-Age-Onset Colorectal Cancer Symposium, convened in October 2022, sought solutions to the barriers to early detection and care for colorectal cancer in Canada. This meeting built on a previous symposium, held in 2021 and reported in this journal. Early-age-onset colorectal cancer (EAOCRC) affects increasing numbers of people under the age of 50 in Canada and throughout the developed world.