Don't worry, be APPE: Developing and refining a skills-based assessment of student preparedness for advanced pharmacy practice experiences.

Background: The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) 2025 Standards charge pharmacy programs to assess student readiness for Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs), but the method of assessment is not defined. This report describes the process of developing, implementing, and refining an APPE readiness assessment (ARA) that can be adapted to individual institutional needs and learning outcomes.

Educational Activity: The ARA at The University of Texas at El Paso School of Pharmacy, a Hispanic-serving institution, is comprised of two practice areas: drug information and the Pharmacist Patient Care Process, each with multiple objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) to mimic how students will apply these skills in required APPE rotations.

The Molecular Basis of Differentiation Wave Activity in Embryogenesis.

As development varies greatly across the tree of life, it may seem difficult to suggest a model that proposes a single mechanism for understanding collective cell behaviors and the coordination of tissue formation. Here we propose a mechanism called differentiation waves, which unify many disparate results involving developmental systems from across the tree of life. We demonstrate how a relatively simple model of differentiation proceeds not from function-related molecular mechanisms, but from so-called differentiation waves.

Enabling educator oral health literacy: An impetus for oral health promotion in early childhood development.

Introduction: This study reports on the process evaluation of an oral health promotion intervention for educators (principals and teachers) at early childhood development (ECD) centres within a low-socioeconomic community in South Africa. This approach was based on the premise that oral health literacy plays a significant role in shaping personal health and serves as an impetus to influence change in others.

Methods: Using a cross-sectional, descriptive study design, 91 educators participated in the oral health intervention as part of their 1-year ECD training programme.

Retrospective testing for mpox virus in routine STI screens from men who have sex with men in England, August-October 2022.

Objectives: A global outbreak of mpox (monkeypox) has been ongoing since 2022, with most cases in the UK detected in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM). Asymptomatic and pauci-symptomatic mpox infection has been reported outside of the UK. We aimed to investigate whether mpox could be detected in specimens from GBMSM in England who were attending sexual health services (SHSs) for asymptomatic sexually transmitted infection screening.

French flag gradients and Turing reaction-diffusion versus differentiation waves as models of morphogenesis.

The Turing reaction-diffusion model and the French Flag Model are widely accepted in the field of development as the best models for explaining embryogenesis. Virtually all current attempts to understand cell differentiation in embryos begin and end with the assumption that some combination of these two models works. The result may become a bias in embryogenesis in assuming the problem has been solved by these two-chemical substance-based models.

The differentiation code.

In code biology we seek a presumably arbitrary, and thus symbolic relationship between two or more entities, such as the relationship of the DNA triplet code to amino acids. Here we review the differentiation code from the code biology point of view. We observe that lineage trees of mosaic organisms can be subsumed as special cases of differentiation trees of regulating embryos.

Rethinking the voluntary act requirement: Implications from neuroscience and behavioral science research.

Criminal responsibility in the American legal system requires the presence of an actus reus-a harmful act that was committed voluntarily-and a mens rea, or guilty mind. Courts frequently consider questions surrounding mens rea but rarely question whether an act was committed voluntarily. Thus, courts presume that acts have been committed voluntarily and with an ill will; retribution, which serves the primary basis for punishment in the USA, relies on this presumption.

Nature, nurture, and capital punishment: How evidence of a genetic-environment interaction, future dangerousness, and deliberation affect sentencing decisions.

Research has shown that the low-activity MAOA genotype in conjunction with a history of childhood maltreatment increases the likelihood of violent behaviors. This genetic-environment (G × E) interaction has been introduced as mitigation during the sentencing phase of capital trials, yet there is scant data on its effectiveness. This study addressed that issue.

The organelle of differentiation in embryos: the cell state splitter.

The cell state splitter is a membraneless organelle at the apical end of each epithelial cell in a developing embryo. It consists of a microfilament ring and an intermediate filament ring subtending a microtubule mat. The microtubules and microfilament ring are in mechanical opposition as in a tensegrity structure.

The integrin coactivator kindlin-2 plays a critical role in angiogenesis in mice and zebrafish.

Kindlin-2, a widely distributed cytoskeletal protein, has been implicated in integrin activation, and its absence is embryonically lethal in mice and causes severe developmental defects in zebrafish. Knockdown of kindlin-2 levels in endothelial cells resulted in defective adhesive and migratory responses, suggesting that angiogenesis might be aberrant even with partial reduction of kindlin-2. This hypothesis has now been tested in the kindlin-2(+/-) mice.

More than just skin deep? Personality information influences men's ratings of the attractiveness of women's body sizes.

This study examined the influence of personality information on perceptions of the physical attractiveness of a range of female body sizes. A sample of 2,157 male university students were randomly assigned to one of 10 groups in which they received personality information about women they were rating, or a control group in which they received no personality information. Controlling for participants' age and body mass index, results showed no significant between-group differences in the body size that participants found most attractive.

Using an oral health-related quality of life measure in three cultural settings.

Aim: To assess the application of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (OIDP) index for use in three different language and cultural settings;

Objectives: To develop a Spanish and Afrikaans version of the OIDP for use in the USA and South Africa and to assess its reliability and validity in three counties: UK, USA and South Africa.

Design: Co-ordinated pilot studies using the OIDP questionnaire and clinical examination using WHO criteria in the three countries using cross-sectional convenience samples of children.

Settings: Two populations in each country: relatively well-off and more socially disadvantaged in three age groups 40 years+, 15-16 and 11-12 year-olds.

The school, a viable educational site for interdisciplinary health promotion.

Background: An interdisciplinary health promotion module, using the community-based teaching approach, is offered by the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Schools in Delft, a poor socio-economic area with high unemployment, crime and a range of social problems, are used as the teaching site.

Aim: To assess the status of the health promotion initiatives in schools where students were placed.