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Unlocking Musculoskeletal Anatomy: Enhancing Second-Year Medical Students’ Knowledge Recall and Self-Efficacy with a Physician-Led Ultrasound Session
No full textIntroduction: The purpose of this study was to determine whether exposure to musculoskeletal (MSK) ultrasound (US) enhanced medical students’ knowledge and self-efficacy in understanding basic US principles, MSK anatomy and physical examination, and use of US to evaluate MSK structures. Materials and Methods: Forty-three second-year medical students were divided into control (n = 22) and experimental (n = 21) groups. All participants completed a pre-session self-efficacy questionnaire and were encouraged to view a recorded 20-min MSK US lecture. All participants then attended a physician-led 35-min MSK US hands-on scanning session covering the shoulder and knee. The control group took a multiple-choice assessment before the session, while the experimental group took the same assessment after the session. All participants completed a post-session self-efficacy questionnaire. After the session, the physician instructors attended a 30-min Zoom focus group. Results: Participants’ self-efficacy in understanding basic US principles, knee and shoulder anatomy, physical examination, and sonoanatomy significantly improved after the MSK US session (all p \u3c 0.01). Participants who took the content assessment after the MSK US session outperformed participants who took the assessment before the MSK US session (p = 0.02). Qualitative open-ended question responses from students and instructor focus group discussion detailed strengths and shortcomings and proposed actionable improvements for future iterations of the MSK US curriculum. Conclusion: When implemented at a point in the preclinical curriculum where US experience was previously absent, a single, focused physician-led 35-min US session covering the shoulder and knee is an effective adjunct educational tool for preclinical medical students to reinforce US basics, MSK anatomy and physical examination and improve self-efficacy in MSK US scanning
Hierarchical Analysis of US Electric Vehicle Subsidies for Carbon Emission Mitigation
No full textElectric vehicle (EV) adoptions are promoted with subsidies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ground transportation. In this paper, a hierarchical analysis is presented on the potential of greenhouse gas emission mitigation via the electric vehicle subsidy policy at state level in the US, through research of environmental and economic fundamentals of electric vehicle operations, energy consumptions, battery degradation and service life. It has been found that restructuring the federal subsidies to promote EV adoption can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the US. The reduction costs of greenhouse gas emissions vary between 6880.13/ton in Wyoming. A case study reveals that 15.24 % more greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced with a tiered federal subsidy structure. The restructuring of subsidies will also encourage the adoption of clean energies in the grid fuel mix and drive technological advancements to extend the battery lifetime in the future
Aging is Associated with Decreased Lactobacillus and Increased Cervicovaginal Inflammation in Canadian Women
No full textProblem: Aging is characterized by a general dysregulation of systemic immune responses that increases susceptibility to infections and malignancies. Immune cells in the female genital tract (FGT) are regulated by sex hormones, but little is known about the impact of aging and menopause on immunology in the FGT. Method of Study: This study conducted an age-focused sub-analysis of cervicovaginal samples collected from 47 women enrolled in the Vaginal Mucosal Systems study in Winnipeg, Canada. Paired cervicovaginal lavage and cervical cytobrush were collected and analyzed by Luminex cytokine array, mass spectrometry based metaproteomics, metabolomics, and high dimensional flow cytometry. Results: The median age of study participants was 38 (range 19–88), with 12 over the age of 50. Increasing age was significantly correlated with increased cervicovaginal inflammation, including inflammatory cytokine MIP-1β (r = 0.335, p = 0.023), and activated T cells (CD4+HLA-DR+ r = 0406, p = 0.009; CD8+HLA-DR+ r = 0.399, p = 0.010; CD8+CD38+HLA-DR+ r = 0.386, p = 0.013). Proteomic analysis of cervicovaginal mucus identified 925 human proteins, with 108 (11.7%) significantly correlated with age. Pathway analysis indicated biofunctions related to immune response, migration, and myeloid cell phagocytosis increased with age. Interestingly, neutrophil related pathways decreased with age, including G-CSF (r = −0.396, p = 0.006) and reactive oxygen species (z-score = −2.607, p = 2.31E-4). Vaginal Lactobacillus crispatus, a species associated with mucosal health, significantly decreased with age (r = −0.340, p = 0.022), with participants over the age of 50 more likely to have non-Lactobacillus dominant microbiomes compared to those under 40. Conclusions: Together, our data suggests that there is an increase in cervicovaginal inflammation and a decrease in L. crispatus that occurs with aging
Peripheral Calcifying Odontogenic Cyst in Maxillary Anterior Gingiva: A Case Report
No full textBACKGROUND: Calcifying odontogenic cysts (Gorlin cysts) most commonly present centrally and have only rarely been reported in peripheral locations. The purpose of this report is to describe a new case of peripheral calcifying odontogenic cyst (PCOC) occurring in the anterior maxillary gingiva and to review the management and differential diagnosis of such a lesion. METHODS: A 37-year-old female presented with a long-standing submucosal nodule on the gingiva between the maxillary central incisors, with asymptomatic growth over the last three years. Following an initial incisional biopsy, a diagnosis of PCOC was established. To exclude the possibility of a central process, a corresponding small field of view cone beam CT scan was obtained and the patient returned for a 6 mm excisional biopsy to the depth of the periosteum. RESULTS: Results of these additional assessments supported the original diagnosis of PCOC. Following uneventful healing of the second biopsy, no recurrence or other clinical findings were noted at 1-year follow-up. CONCLUSION: While rare, the peripheral variant of calcifying odontogenic cyst, and other peripheral counterparts to recognized central cysts and tumors, should be considered in a differential diagnosis for a benign gingival nodule. Gingival tissue should be submitted for histologic evaluation to ensure a neoplastic process is not present. KEY POINTS: Various lesions may present on the gingiva as a bump ; these can represent common clinical entities, such as pyogenic granuloma, peripheral ossifying fibroma, peripheral giant cell granuloma, and fibroma, or more rare conditions that may not be adequately considered in the differential diagnosis. A rarely documented case of peripheral calcifying odontogenic cyst (PCOC; Gorlin cyst) on the maxillary anterior gingiva of an adult female is reported here and compared with the few other similar PCOC cases in the literature. A biopsy of gingival lesions is always necessary to establish the correct diagnosis and provide the appropriate treatment. PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: Several different lesions can appear on the gingiva (gums). Some are quite common, and some are rare. This report documents the occurrence of a new case of calcifying odontogenic cyst (Gorlin cyst), a type of cyst that has been rarely found outside the jawbone, presenting as a bump on the gingiva between the maxillary central incisor teeth of an adult female. Because of the patient history, a peripheral calcifying odontogenic cyst (PCOC) was not initially suspected. Following a biopsy, a PCOC diagnosis was given. The possibility of a lesion within the bone was then excluded by an X-ray (cone beam CT) scan examination. A second, more extensive biopsy confirmed the diagnosis and the removal of the lesion. The patient had no complications or recurrence for the following 12 months. This case highlights the need to always biopsy lesions presenting on the gums to obtain a proper diagnosis and provide the correct treatment
Can ChatGPT Implement Finite Element Models for Geotechnical Engineering Applications?
No full textThis study assesses the capability of ChatGPT to generate finite element code for geotechnical engineering applications from a set of prompts. We tested three different initial boundary value problems using a hydro-mechanically coupled formulation for unsaturated soils, including the dissipation of excess pore water pressure through fluid mass diffusion in one-dimensional space, time-dependent differential settlement of a strip footing, and gravity-driven seepage. For each case, initial prompting involved providing ChatGPT with necessary information for finite element implementation, such as balance and constitutive equations, problem geometry, initial and boundary conditions, material properties, and spatiotemporal discretization and solution strategies. Any errors and unexpected results were further addressed through prompt augmentation processes until the ChatGPT-generated finite element code passed the verification/validation test. Our results demonstrate that ChatGPT required minimal code revisions when using the FEniCS finite element library, owing to its high-level interfaces that enable efficient programming. In contrast, the MATLAB code generated by ChatGPT necessitated extensive prompt augmentations and/or direct human intervention, as it involves a significant amount of low-level programming required for finite element analysis, such as constructing shape functions or assembling global matrices. Given that prompt engineering for this task requires an understanding of the mathematical formulation and numerical techniques, this study suggests that while a large language model may not yet replace human programmers, it can greatly assist in the implementation of numerical models
Dietary Effects on the Retina of Hamsters
No full textThe retina is a sensory tissue in the back of the eye, which captures visual information and relays it to the brain. The retinal pigment epithelium separates the neural retina from the choroidal (systemic) circulation and is thereby exposed to circulating lipoprotein particles. Herein, we used hamsters and conducted various retinal evaluations of animals fed either a normal diet or a Western-type diet (WTD). Prior to evaluations, hamsters were injected with indocyanine green (ICG), a fluorescent dye that binds to various proteins and lipids in the systemic circulation. The WTD increased plasma levels of total and HDL cholesterol 1.8- and 2.1-fold, respectively, and led to additional HDL₂ and HDL₃ subpopulations. The diet also increased the ICG fluorescence in the retinal pigment epithelium and the underlying choroidal circulation on histological tracking and altered retinal protein abundance as assessed by proteomics. Functional enrichments were found in the retinal gene expression, energy production, intracellular transport, cytoskeleton- and synapse-related processes, and protein ubiquitination. The biochemical basis linking the WTD, retinal energy production, and retinal neurotransmission was suggested as well. The data obtained were then compared with those from our previous investigations of hamsters and different mouse genotypes. We identified common retinal processes that can be affected by circulating lipoprotein particles regardless of the mechanism by which their levels and subpopulations were altered (through diet or genetic modification). Thus, we obtained novel mechanistic insights into how lipids in the systemic circulation can affect the retina
Stable Heteroclinic Channels as a Decision-Making Model: Overcoming Low Signal-To-Noise Ratio with Mutual Inhibition
No full textBio-inspired robot controllers are becoming more complex as we strive to make them more robust to, and flexible in, noisy, real-world environments. A stable heteroclinic network (SHN) is a dynamical system that produces cyclical state transitions using noisy input. SHN-based robot controllers enable sensory input to be integrated at the phase-space level of the controller, thus simplifying sensor-integrated, robot control methods. In this work, we investigate the mechanism that drives branching state trajectories in SHNs. We liken the branching state trajectories to decision-splits imposed into the system, which opens the door for more sophisticated controls-all driven by sensory input. This work provides guidelines to systematically define an SHN topology, and increase the rate at which desired decision states in the topology are chosen. Ultimately, we are able to control the rate at which desired decision states activate for input signal-to-noise ratios across six orders of magnitude
Heterogeneity of Layer 1 Interneurons in the Mouse Medial Prefrontal Cortex
No full textCortical Layer 1 (L1) acts as a critical relay for processing long-range inputs. GABAergic inhibitory interneurons (INs) in this layer (Layer 1 interneurons [L1INs]) function as inhibitory gates, regulating these inputs and modulating the activity of deeper cortical layers. However, their characteristics and circuits in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) remain poorly understood. Using biocytin labeling, we identified three distinct morphological types of mPFC L1INs: neurogliaform cells (NGCs), elongated NGCs (eNGCs), and single-bouquet cell-like (SBC-like) cells. Whole-cell recordings revealed distinct firing patterns across these subtypes: NGCs and eNGCs predominantly exhibited late-spiking (LS) patterns, and SBC-like cells displayed a higher prevalence of non-LS (NLS) patterns. We observed both electrical and chemical connections among mPFC L1INs. Optogenetic activation of NDNF+ L1INs demonstrated broad inhibitory effects on deeper layer neurons. The strength of inhibition on pyramidal neurons (PyNs) and INs displayed layer-specific preference. These findings highlight the functional diversity of L1INs in modulating mPFC circuits and suggest their potential role in supporting higher order cognitive functions
Women in the Construction Skilled Trades: Career Progression, Challenges, and Motivational Factors
Full text linkWomen remain significantly underrepresented in the construction industry, particularly in the skilled trades. Through qualitative exploratory interviews with six women, this study investigates the career trajectories, worksite barriers, and motivational influences shaping women’s experiences in the construction skilled trades. The research is framed using Donald Super’s Life-Span, Life-Space theory and expectancy-value theory (EVT) to explore how career stages and career value affect women’s experiences. Participants described gender bias, limited mentorship, and restricted advancement opportunities as primary challenges. This study highlights the need for industry-led initiatives to increase early exposure to trades, improve mentorship and sponsorship programs, and create structured pathways for career advancement
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