Leading Change from Within: Student-Led Reforms to Advance Anti-Racism within Medical Education.

Racism, physician biases against Indigenous, Black, and racialized people, and the resultant poor health outcomes have been the subject of many institutional position statements and calls to action. Across Canada, undergraduate medical education programs have recognized the importance of addressing racism, but material changes to curriculum and learning environments to incorporate anti-racist lenses have yet to be actualized. To bridge a gap seen within the curriculum, the authors of this manuscript led the co-development, organization, and implementation of a student-led anti-racism initiative at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine.

The slides: An evaluation of planetary health lecture slides for medical education.

Educational Challenge: There is an urgent need for innovations in planetary health medical education. Physicians must be prepared to provide high-value, low-carbon healthcare for patients increasingly impacted by the health consequences of climate change.

Proposed Solution: The slides, an evidence-based, open-access pedagogical tool that provides didactic planetary health medical education organized by medical subspecialty, was developed and evaluated by a virtual lecture session that presented a subset of the slides to  = 75 Canadian medical students.

A spirocyclic backbone accesses new conformational space in an extended, dipole-stabilized foldamer.

Most aromatic foldamers adopt uniform secondary structures, offering limited potential for the exploration of conformational space and the formation of tertiary structures. Here we report the incorporation of spiro bis-lactams to allow controlled rotation of the backbone of an iteratively synthesised foldamer. This enables precise control of foldamer shape along two orthogonal directions, likened to the aeronautical yaw and roll axes.

Lectin binding and gel secretion within Lorenzinian electroreceptors of Polyodon.

We imaged the carbohydrate-selective spatial binding of 8 lectins in the ampullary organs (AOs) of electroreceptors on the rostrum of freshwater paddlefish (Polyodon spathula), by fluorescence imaging and morphometry of frozen sections. A focus was candidate sites of secretion of the glycoprotein gel filling the lumen of AOs. The rostrum of Polyodon is an electrosensory appendage anterior of the head, covered with >50,000 AOs, each homologous with the ampulla of Lorenzini electroreceptors of marine rays and sharks.

Chiral, sequence-definable foldamer-derived macrocycles.

Nature's oligomeric macromolecules have been a long-standing source of inspiration for chemists producing foldamers. Natural systems are frequently conformationally stabilised by macrocyclisation, yet this approach has been rarely adopted in the field of foldamer chemistry. Here we present a new class of chiral cyclic trimers and tetramers formed by macrocyclisation of open-chain foldamer precursors.

Large-Scale Convergence of Receptor Cell Arrays Onto Afferent Terminal Arbors in the Lorenzinian Electroreceptors of .

Certain sensory receptors contain many transducers, converging onto few afferents. Convergence creates star-topology neural networks, of iterative parallel organization, that may yield special functional properties. We quantitated large-scale convergence in electroreceptors on the rostrum of preadult paddlefish, (Acipenseriforme vertebrates), and analyzed the afferent terminal branching underlying the convergence.

A high-throughput alpha particle irradiation system for monitoring DNA damage repair, genome instability and screening in human cell and yeast model systems.

Ionizing radiation (IR) is environmentally prevalent and, depending on dose and linear energy transfer (LET), can elicit serious health effects by damaging DNA. Relative to low LET photon radiation (X-rays, gamma rays), higher LET particle radiation produces more disease causing, complex DNA damage that is substantially more challenging to resolve quickly or accurately. Despite the majority of human lifetime IR exposure involving long-term, repetitive, low doses of high LET alpha particles (e.

Effect of castration technique on beef calf performance, feed efficiency, and inflammatory response.

The objective of this experiment was to examine the effect of castration technique on daily feed intake (DFI), daily water intake (DWI), growth performance, residual feed intake (RFI), and inflammatory response in weaned beef calves. Seventy-five beef calves (214 ± 3.2 kg; 200 ± 26 d of age) were housed in a GrowSafe 4000 feed intake facility 7 d post weaning (15 calves/pen).

Effect of ractopamine-HCl supplementation for 28 days on carcass characteristics, muscle fiber morphometrics, and whole muscle yields of six distinct muscles of the loin and round.

This study evaluated the effects of ractopamine-HCl (RAC) supplementation on carcass characteristics, muscle fiber morphometrics, and tenderness. Thirty-four steers (2 groups, 4 replicates) were fed RAC or carrier for 28 days prior to harvest. Seventy-two hours postmortem, the Longissimus lumborum (LL), Gracilis (GRA), Vastus lateralis (VL), Rectus femoris (RF), Semimembranosus (SM), and Adductor (ADD) were dissected from each carcass.

Fulminant hepatitis A in indigenous children in north Queensland.

Since 1993, three Indigenous children in north Queensland have died of fulminant hepatitis A. Even if the children had been able to undergo liver transplantation, prolonged immunosuppressant therapy and the likelihood of opportunistic infections would inevitably have jeopardised any chance of long-term survival. As hepatitis A has become a leading infectious cause of death in young Indigenous children in north Queensland, hepatitis A vaccine has recently been introduced into the vaccination schedule for these children.

Cytokine overproduction in healthy first degree relatives of patients with IDDM.

Healthy family members of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) are known to share a number of immunological abnormalities with their affected relatives. Since monocyte and type 1 T-cell-derived cytokines contribute to the pathogenesis of IDDM, we studied the production of these cytokines in the healthy first degree relatives of 29 children with IDDM. We report that circulating tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and soluble interleukin-2 (sIL-2) receptor were present in increased amounts in non-diabetic family members at levels similar to those found in the diabetic children (duration of disease 3 months-5 years).

Salmonella meningitis in children in far north Queensland.

Seven cases of Salmonella meningitis have occurred in infants in Far North Queensland since 1982. The mean age of onset was 2.8 months, and at least five of the cases were caused by Salmonella virchow.

Lymphocyte subset abnormalities, autoantibodies and their relationship with HLA DR types in children with type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes and their first degree relatives.

Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus is associated with abnormalities of circulating lymphocyte subsets and autoantibodies. To investigate the prevalence of these in non-diabetic siblings and non-diabetic patients of children with Type 1 diabetes, we analysed T-cell subsets of function and activation in 31 families with an index case of Type 1 diabetes and related these to autoantibodies and HLA DR type. Using two and three colour cytofluorimetry, we studied total and activated (HLA-DR+) CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, lymphocytes and on CD4+ lymphocytes the CD45RA/RO "naive" and "memory" cell phenotypes.

A multicentre comparison of the efficacy of terbutaline Turbuhaler and salbutamol pressurized metered dose inhaler in hot, humid regions.

Twenty seven adults and 20 children with previously diagnosed stable asthma, using a salbutamol pressurized metered dose inhaler (P-MDI) and living in Cairns, Townsville and Southport, Queensland, Australia participated in a randomized, open-label cross-over comparison of terbutaline administered via Turbuhaler and salbutamol administered via P-MDI. The aim of the study was to compare the clinical effectiveness and patient acceptance of the two treatments in hot, humid regions. Terbutaline was administered via Turbuhaler and salbutamol via P-MDI on at least two occasions per day during each four week treatment period.

Suprasellar arachnoid cysts: management by cyst wall resection.

Five children with ventricular dilatation (4 boys, 1 girl) had features seen on computer tomographic scan that were consistent with suprasellar arachnoid cysts. All children were investigated with a CT ventriculogram and/or CT cisternogram, and no communication with the cyst was demonstrated. Three children were seen in the 1st year of life and the remaining 2 children were between 1 and 5 years of age.