Impact of a Mock OSCE on Student Confidence in Applying the Pharmacists' Patient Care Process.

The Medical and Pharmacy Student Collaboration (MAPSC) student organization at the University of Southern California, Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, created an extracurricular, peer-led, virtual group mock objective structured clinical examination (MOSCE) to expose first-year pharmacy students (P1s) to the Pharmacists' Patient Care Process (PPCP). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a MAPSC MOSCE on P1s self-reported confidence in applying the PPCP and on patient communication, medication knowledge, and clinical skills. An anonymous, optional, self-reported survey was administered to P1s before and after the event, where they rated their confidence on a scale of 0-100 (0 = not confident, 100 = certainly confident). The statistical analysis was a paired two-tailed t-test with a significance level of p < 0.05. A total of 152 P1s and 30 facilitators attended the MOSCE. One hundred thirty-nine students met the inclusion criteria and were included in the data analysis. There was a statistically significant difference in the change in self-reported confidence for all PPCP components and learning outcomes. The results of our study strongly indicate that introducing P1 students to the PPCP through a MAPSC MOSCE format is a valuable experience.

Precision sirolimus dosing in children: The potential for model-informed dosing and novel drug monitoring.

The mTOR inhibitor sirolimus is prescribed to treat children with varying diseases, ranging from vascular anomalies to sporadic lymphangioleiomyomatosis to transplantation (solid organ or hematopoietic cell). Precision dosing of sirolimus using therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of sirolimus concentrations in whole blood drawn at the trough (before the next dose) time-point is the current standard of care. For sirolimus, trough concentrations are only modestly correlated with the area under the curve, with R 2 values ranging from 0.52 to 0.84. Thus, it should not be surprising, even with the use of sirolimus TDM, that patients treated with sirolimus have variable pharmacokinetics, toxicity, and effectiveness. Model-informed precision dosing (MIPD) will be beneficial and should be implemented. The data do not suggest dried blood spots point-of-care sampling of sirolimus concentrations for precision dosing of sirolimus. Future research on precision dosing of sirolimus should focus on pharmacogenomic and pharmacometabolomic tools to predict sirolimus pharmacokinetics and wearables for point-of-care quantitation and MIPD.

What's on the Gay (Legal) Agenda? An Analysis of Press Releases From LGBT Legal Advocacy Organizations, 2010-2019.

What's on the gay (legal) agenda? This study addresses this question by examining the press releases of national LGBT legal advocacy organizations in response to both new opportunities, after decisions such as U.S. v. Windsor (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), and significant challenges such as the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and his subsequent conservative judicial appointments. Using original data from more than 2,800 press releases filed by the largest LGBT legal advocacy organizations from 2010 to 2019, we analyze the LGBT legal agenda and explore how it evolved throughout this period in reaction to changes in the legal opportunity structure. We find that LGBT legal advocacy organizations are strategic and adapt their agendas to shifts in their legal opportunities to achieve social movement goals. Specifically, we find that after marriage equality was achieved, significant shifts in the legal opportunity structure, including conservative countermobilization and new cultural and legal frames, placed transgender rights at the top of the LGBT legal agenda. These findings shed light on the politics of LGBT legal advocacy organizations, provide insight into LGBT politics after Obergefell, and contribute to our understanding of how legal advocacy organizations respond to changing legal opportunities in social movements.

Willful lives: Self-determination in lesbian and trans feminisms.

Challenging the determinism evident in assigning gender at birth, this commentary examines how lesbian and trans feminisms resist gender fatalism through willful self-determination. Conceptualizing gender fatalism as a prophecy and drawing on Sara Ahmed's (2016) work on gender fatalism and willfulness and Talia Mae Bettcher's (2014) work on reality enforcement, I argue that most lesbian and trans feminisms defy the fated outcomes predicted by gender assignment and coerced by the biopolitical regimes of gender enforcement. Instead, these feminisms share a common thread of self-determination that is a site for coalition building and solidarity. I echo this call for a rejection of gender fatalism and for the collective work of gender liberation through living willful lives built from self-determination through bodily, sexual, reproductive, and gender autonomy.

An emerging form of public engagement with science: Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions on Reddit r/science.

Originally, online public engagement with science tended to be one directional-from experts to the general population via news media. Such an arrangement allowed for little to no direct interaction between the public and scientists. However, the emergence of social media has opened the door to meaningful engagement between scientists and the general public. The current study examines scientists' perspectives on the interactions between laypeople and scientists by asking questions and sharing information on social media platforms, specifically, through Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions on Reddit's "Science" subreddit (r/science). By analyzing the content of six different r/science AMAs and surveying scientists who participated as r/science AMA hosts, our research attempts to gain a richer understanding of direct communication between scientists and lay audiences online. We had three main questions: (1) who are the participant scientists hosting r/science AMAs, (2) what are their experiences like as hosts, and (3) what type of discussions do they have on this platform? Survey results suggested that these scientists recognize the promising interactive nature of Reddit and are interested in continuing to use this platform as a tool for public engagement. Survey respondents generally had positive experiences as AMA hosts, but further research is needed to examine negative experiences. Overall, this study has significant implications for how scientists can engage public audiences online and more effectively communicate scientific findings to the general populace.

Succession and physiological health of freshwater microalgal fouling in a Tasmanian hydropower canal.

Freshwater microalgal biofouling in hydropower canals in Tarraleah, Tasmania, is dominated by a single diatom species, Gomphonema tarraleahae. The microfouling community is under investigation with the aim of reducing its impact on electricity generation. Species succession was investigated using removable glass slides. Fouled slides were examined microscopically and for chlorophyll a biomass. Chl a biomass increased steeply after 8 weeks (0.09-0.87 mg m(-2)), but increased much earlier on slides surrounded by a biofouled inoculum. Succession began with low profile diatoms such as Tabellaria flocculosa, progressing to stalked diatoms such as Gomphonema spp. and Cymbella aspera. Few chlorophytes and no filamentous algae were present. Pulse amplitude modulated fluorometry was used to measure the physiological health of fouling on the canal wall. Maximum quantum yield (F(v)/F(m)) measurements were consistently <0.18, indicating that the fouling mat consisted of dead or dying algae. The succession and physiological health of cells in the fouling community has broad implications for mitigation techniques used.

Characterizing the roughness of freshwater biofilms using a photogrammetric methodology.

The physical roughness of a surface changes when freshwater biofilms colonize and grow on it and this has significant implications for surfaces enclosing water conveying systems such as pipelines and canals. Plates with surfaces initially artificially roughened with varying grit size were deployed in an open channel system and biofilms were allowed to grow on the exposed surface. The plates were retrieved at intervals in time and their surfaces mapped using close range photogrammetry. For a fine grit surface (0.5-4 mm particles), diatom-dominated biofilms initially grew between the roughness elements; they subsequently developed as a mat to create a physically smoother outer surface than the underlying rough surface. For a coarse grit surface (2-4 mm), biofilms colonized faster; in one instance, larger clumps of biofilm were observed as transverse ripples across the plate.