Implementation of team-based learning (TBL) in a second year medical school course: does prior experience with TBL improve the impact of this pedagogy?

Background: We have shown that use of Team-based learning (TBL) in a first-year Infectious Diseases (ID) course improved final examination and course performance. Therefore, we implemented TBL in the second-year Women's Health (WH) course to improve acquisition of course content. We hypothesized that prior experience with TBL in the first-year of medical school would lead to a strong correlation between TBL performance in the first and second years.

Protective Adaptive Immunity Against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronaviruses 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Implications for Vaccines.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an emerging human coronavirus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a predominantly respiratory disease that has become a global pandemic. Millions of people worldwide are suffering from COVID-19, and hundreds of thousands of those infected have died. Nevertheless, many more people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 are asymptomatic or suffer a mild disease characterized by dry cough and mild fever.

Implementation of Team-Based Learning: a Tale of Two New Medical Schools.

Team-based learning (TBL) is gaining popularity at medical schools transitioning from lecture-based to active learning curricula. Here, we review challenges and opportunities faced in implementing TBL at 2 new medical schools. We discuss the importance of using meaningful TBL grades as well as the role TBL plays in developing critical reasoning skills and in early identification of struggling students.

Participation in Active Learning Correlates to Higher Female Performance in a Pipeline Course for Underrepresented Students in Medicine.

This study was designed to explore the relationship between participation (measured by percentage of time spoken) in team-based learning (TBL) exercises and final examination in a 4-week medical microbiology course for college students from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine (URM). A significant correlation was found between participation and examination scores in lower performing students. Although male participation was higher, a significant correlation between participation and examination scores was found only in females.

First year medical student performance on weekly team-based learning exercises in an infectious diseases course: insights from top performers and struggling students.

Background: In Team-Based Learning (TBL) preparation of relevant coursework during self-directed learning time is evaluated by the individual readiness assurance test (iRAT). We recently reported that student performance on iRATs is strongly correlated with final examination scores in an infectious diseases (ID) course. We now investigated how student preparation for each individual iRAT exercise relates to course performance.

A Novel Grading Strategy for Team-Based Learning Exercises in a Hands-on Course in Molecular Biology for Senior Undergraduate Underrepresented Students in Medicine Resulted in Stronger Student Performance.

We developed a hands-on course in molecular biology for undergraduate underrepresented in medicine (URM) students. To incentivize student preparation for team-based learning (TBL) activities, we implemented a novel grading schema that requires a minimum individual readiness assurance test (iRAT) score to share the team group readiness assurance test (gRAT) score. Fifty-one students participated in this 2-year study and were divided in teams of five or six students that worked throughout the course on a unique, hands-on project and also participated in TBL exercises.

Evaluation of the role of incentive structure on student participation and performance in active learning strategies: A comparison of case-based and team-based learning.

Background: Student participation is important for the success of active learning strategies, but participation is often linked to the level of preparation. At our institution, we use two types of active learning activities, a modified case-based learning exercise called active learning groups (ALG) and team-based learning (TBL). These strategies have different assessment and incentive structures for participation.

3D printed liner for treatment of periprosthetic joint infections.

In the United States, long standing deep infections of joint arthroplasty, such as total knee and total hip replacements, are treated with two-stage exchange. This requires the removal of the prior implant, placement of an antibiotic eluting spacer block made of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), followed by re-implantation of a new implant after treatment with intravenous antibiotics for six to eight weeks. Unfortunately, the use of PMMA as a spacer material has limitations in terms of mechanical and drug-eluting properties.

Rapid kinetics of serum IgA after vaccination with Prevnar13 followed by Pneumovax23.

is a causative agent of community-acquired pneumonias. The recommendations of the 2012 Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices include vaccination with Prevnar13 (protein-polysaccharide conjugate vaccine; PCV), followed by Pneumovax23 (polysaccharide-based vaccine; PSV) in adults 65+ or the immunocompromised. In this experiment, a group of 4 healthy volunteers were vaccinated with PCV followed by PSV 60 days later.

Rapid and sensitive method to identify Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in cow's milk by DNA methylase genotyping.

Paratuberculosis is an infectious, chronic, and incurable disease that affects ruminants, caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. This bacterium is shed primarily through feces of infected cows but can be also excreted in colostrum and milk and might survive pasteurization.

Mouse x pig chimeric antibodies expressed in Baculovirus retain the same properties of their parent antibodies.

The development of hybridoma and recombinant DNA technologies has made it possible to use antibodies against cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases in humans. These advances in therapy, as well as immunoprophylaxis, could also make it possible to use these technologies in agricultural species of economic importance such as pigs. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is an arterivirus causing very important economic losses to the industry.

The early protective thymus-independent antibody response to foot-and-mouth disease virus is mediated by splenic CD9+ B lymphocytes.

Infection of mice with cytopathic foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) induces a rapid and specific thymus-independent (TI) neutralizing antibody response that promptly clears the virus. Herein, it is shown that FMDV-infected dendritic cells (DCs) directly stimulate splenic innate-like CD9(+) B lymphocytes to rapidly (3 days) produce neutralizing anti-FMDV immunoglobulin M antibodies without T-lymphocyte collaboration. In contrast, neither follicular (CD9(-)) B lymphocytes from the spleen nor B lymphocytes from lymph nodes efficiently respond to stimulation with FMDV-infected DCs.

Impairment of thymus-dependent responses by murine dendritic cells infected with foot-and-mouth disease virus.

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is a cytopathic virus that experimentally infects mice, inducing a thymus-independent neutralizing Ab response that rapidly clears the virus. In contrast, vaccination with UV-inactivated virus induces a typical thymus-dependent (TD) response. In this study we show that dendritic cells (DCs) are susceptible to infection with FMDV in vitro, although viral replication is abortive.

Genotyping of DNA using sequence-specific methyltransferases followed by immunochemical detection.

Modern molecular genetics relies on the ability to map the positions of genes on chromosomes, relative to known DNA markers. The first such DNA markers described were Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms, but any restriction endonuclease used for RFLP mapping is just one member of a restriction-modification pair. For each restriction endonuclease, there is a companion methyltransferase (MTase) that has the same DNA sequence specificity.