The medical matters wiki: building a library Web site 2.0

New and innovative information technologies drive the ever-evolving library profession. From clay tablet to parchment scroll to manufactured paper to computer screen pixel, information storage, retrieval, and delivery methods continue to evolve, and each advance irrevocably affects the way libraries, and librarians, work. The Internet has forever altered information and library science, both in theory and practice, but even within this context the progression continues. Though ambiguously defined, Web 2.0 offers a new outlook and new software, presenting librarians with potentially invaluable new tools and methods. This paper discusses the creation, implementation, and maintenance of a Web 2.0 technology, the wiki, as a resource tool for an academic biomedical library.     

Teacher Control over Interagency Collaboration: A Roadblock for Effective Transitioning of Youth with Disabilities

Poor post-school outcomes for youth with disabilities have consistently been reported internationally. Interagency collaboration between school systems and post-school services is critical and key to improving post-school life for these youth. An initial Queensland study that benchmarked the teacher practice of 104 transition teachers and associated personnel indicated that interagency collaboration practices had the lowest levels of implementation. These results were the motivation behind a second study which investigated the hypothesis that lack of teacher control over interagency collaboration practice formed a roadblock for effective transitioning of youth with disabilities. Results generally confirmed the hypothesis and provide further understanding about the multi-faceted nature of interagency collaboration and the stakeholders involved in this process. Three interconnected actions are proposed to bypass identified roadblocks. If these actions are put in place, schools should improve their connections with post-school services, teachers should enhance their practice, and students should achieve improved post-school outcomes.     

Sars-Cov2 Induced Biochemical Mechanisms in Liver Damage and Intestinal Lesions

Multiple pathogenic mechanisms are found in SARS-CoV2 systemic inflammation. Oxidative stress, altered proteolysis, hypercoagulation, and metabolic disorders are significant in virus-induced lesions.The study aimed to investigate the biochemical mechanism of virus-induced disorders and determine the biochemical features in SARS-CoV2-associated liver damage and intestine lesions.A retrospective case series of ninety-two patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pnemonia. The ACE, α1-proteinase inhibitor, trypsin-like proteinase, and elastase activity were measured. Nitrites level was detected in reaction with Griess reagent. The ELISA kit measured Troponin, C-peptide, leptin, adiponectin, PAR4, and neuropilin level.It was obtained an increase in ACE activity and nitrites ions content in SARS-CoV2 associated patients. The hyperglycemia and an increase in adipose tissue-derived hormones guided the virus-induced metabolic disorders. Proteolysis activation was revealed in SARS-CoV2 pneumonia patients. The found molecular event was accompanied by hyperglycemia induction. Multiorgan lesions manifest in in cardiac failure, which was detected in patients with ARDS. Moreover, high arterial blood pressure in patients with COVID-19 was associated with the hyperglycemia and increased ACE activity and NO ions level. Liver damage was specific for COVID-19-associated patients with severe ARDS and heart failure. Proteolysis overactivation resulting in vasoactive substances imbalance was detected in patients with the intestinal lesions. The obtained data shows the the neuropilin-dependent axis in damage prevalence in the intestine.Metabolic disorders resulting in the growth of adipose-derived tissue hormones, nitrites, and neuropilin levels was triggered by prolonged inflammation. So, the impaired metabolism and SARS-CoV2 associated hyperglycemia influence on SARS-CoV2 multiple mechanisms. Gastrointestinal manifestations in SARS-CoV2 infection was found to be related to various biochemical and molecular tools. ACE2 receptors axis is prevalent for liver damage, but NRP-1 protein (neuropilin), NO derivatives, and adipose tissue-derived hormones are essential for intestinal lesions.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12291-022-01089-x.     

Bioresistive identification of heat shock protein 90

90 kDa heat shock protein (HSP90) is a ubiquitous molecular chaperone and is one of the abundant proteins present in a cell under normal and stressed conditions. The adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding region of HSP90 is currently under a great degree of study because of the interest of its role in cancer and protein maintenance; the binding of ATP to HSP90 induces a large conformational change in the protein as a result of the activity of different types of stressors within the cells. In the present paper, a simple microfluidic biosensor is proposed for the characterization of ATP-HSP90 interactions through the principle of bioresistive variation. The experimental results prove that the present biosensor system is highly suitable for the detection of heat shock proteins present in a real-time biological sample, which is very useful for in-situ biomedical applications and rapid pathogenic detections.     

The Unique Contributions of Verbal Analogical Reasoning and Nonverbal Matrix Reasoning to Science and Maths Problem‐Solving in Adolescence

Relational reasoning, the ability to detect meaningful patterns, matures through adolescence. The unique contributions of verbal analogical and nonverbal matrix relational reasoning to science and maths are not well understood. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected during science and maths problem‐solving, and participants (N = 36, 11–15 years) also completed relational reasoning and executive function tasks. Higher verbal analogical reasoning associated with higher accuracy and faster reaction times in science and maths, and higher activation in the left anterior temporal cortex during maths problem‐solving. Higher nonverbal matrix reasoning associated with higher science accuracy, higher science activation in regions across the brain, and lower maths activation in the right middle temporal gyrus. Science associations mostly remained significant when individual differences in executive functions and verbal IQ were taken into account, while maths associations typically did not. The findings indicate the potential importance of supporting relational reasoning in adolescent science and maths learning.     

School Processes That Can Drive Scaling-Up of an Innovation or Contribute to Its Abandonment

This five-year study focused on school processes that promoted the scaling-up of a high school academic literacy framework, Reading Apprenticeship, developed by WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI). Implementing an innovative strategy for scaling-up involving school-based cross-disciplinary teacher teams, SLI brought the framework to 274 schools across five states. Our study was guided by research literature that viewed scale-up as increasing local ownership and depth of commitment. Our goal was to measure SLI's success in terms of the numbers of students, teachers, and schools reached, and to evaluate the success of SLI's innovation through metrics that would be indicative of the program taking hold in schools, and ultimately, its scalability.

We developed a longitudinal data set based on teacher and principal surveys, participant records, and school demographics that allowed us to measure implementation over time and to identify program and school characteristics that predicted the increase or decrease in participation. We found early indications of uptake and enthusiasm for Reading Apprenticeship, but greater variation in responses across schools by the third year. Using regression analysis, we found that initial teacher participation in team meetings and schoolwide commitment predicted “scaling-in” within a school. We hypothesized that a process, consistent with SLI's use of cross-disciplinary teacher teams, led to increased and sustained program participation. This study contributes to the field of scale-up research through identifying intermediate teacher outcomes that predict scaling-in and that were not as prevalent in an RCT conducted in parallel, illustrating the weakness of large-scale RCTs as an appropriate context for measuring impact of an innovation that is being scaled up.