Bringing Conservation Medicine into the Veterinary Curriculum: The Tufts Example

The Center for Conservation Medicine at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine (TuftsCCM), has helped to define the concept of conservation medicine as a new science that examines the interaction between human, animal, and environmental health. One the Center’s main objectives in pursuing this new science has been to incorporate conservation medicine and ecosystem health principles into the veterinary curriculum. Environmental influences on disease dynamics in animals has always had a place in veterinary medicine, but often has not been adequately explored. Many opportunities exist within a traditional veterinary curriculum to strengthen this perspective, and to bring depth and new meaning to the understanding of disease and the role of animals in ecosystem health. The Tufts program is designed to reach both the general veterinary student and the student interested in a career in conservation medicine through core teaching, elective opportunities, research opportunities, and extracurricular seminars and workshops. The core curriculum exposes every veterinary student to an ecosystem health perspective of veterinary medicine that helps them realize the impact that this approach can have on their professional lives, regardless of their chosen specialty. Committed conservation medicine students benefit from specialty courses, a wide range of experiential and field research opportunities and active mentoring. Future challenges call for development of more graduate opportunities, continued interdisciplinary collaboration with other educational institutions, and continued curricular integration of this new paradigm of health and disease into veterinary medical education.     

5-HT1A受体阻断剂对乙醇引起大鼠低体温和行为性体温调节反应的影响

目的：观察5-羟色胺1A （5-HT_1A）受体阻断剂p-MPPI对乙醇引起大鼠低体温和行为性体温调节反应的影响。方法：用无线遥控测温技术记录成年雄性SD大鼠体核温度和活动的变化。用无线遥测温度梯度仪监测大鼠体核温度和行为性体温调节活动,将大鼠置于15℃~40℃的温度梯度箱内,并允许动物自由选择箱内温度,观察乙醇（3 g/kg）引起低体温和行为性体温调节的反应以及5-HT_1A受体阻断剂p-MPPI （1 mg/kg）对其效应的影响。结果：①乙醇能引起大鼠快速的体温降低反应,同时动物选择较低的环境温度。②5-HT_1A受体阻断剂p-MPPI能明显阻断乙醇引起的低体温和行为性体温调节变化。结论：①乙醇能使体温调定点降低,因为乙醇引起低体温时,大鼠选择较冷环境温度区;②5-HT可能参与乙醇引起低体温与行为性体温调节活动。     

Competencies in premedical and medical education: the AAMC-HHMI report

One hundred years ago, Flexner emphasized the importance of science in medicine and medical education. Over the subsequent years, science education in the premedical and medical curricula has changed little, in spite of the vast changes in the biomedical sciences. The National Research Council, in their report Bio 2010, noted that the premedical curriculum caused many students to lose interest in medicine and in the biological sciences in general. Many medical students and physicians have come to view the premedical curriculum as of limited relevance to medicine and designed more as a screening mechanism for medical school admission. To address this, the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute formed a committee to evaluate the premedical and medical school science curricula. The committee made a number of recommendations that are summarized in this essay. Most important were that competencies replace course requirements and that the physical sciences and mathematics be better integrated with the biological sciences and medicine. The goal is that all physicians possess a strong scientific knowledge base and come to appreciate the importance of this to the practice of medicine. While science education needs to evolve, Flexner's vision is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago.     

Cognitive status and behavioral problems in older hospitalized patients

OBJECTIVES: (a) To determine the quantity and quality of behavioral problems in older hospitalized patients on acute care units; (b) to determine the burden of these behaviors on staff; and (c) to identify predictors of behavioral problems. METHODS: Upon admission, patients performed the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and information was obtained on age, ethnicity, level of education, living arrangement, and psychiatric history. Two days post-admission, a clinical staff member caring for each patient, performed the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Questionnaire (NPI-Q) to assess patients' behavioral problems and staff distress. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING : Forty-two patients, over 60 years of age, admitted to medical and surgical units of the Veterans Affairs Hospitals in Palo Alto and San Francisco, participated. RESULTS: Twenty-three of 42 (55%) patients exhibited behavioral problems. Anxiety, depression, irritability, and agitation/aggression were the most frequently observed behaviors. The severity of the behavioral problems was significantly correlated with staff distress. Lower performance on the MMSE at admission was significantly associated with higher NPI-Q ratings. Specifically, of those cases with scores less than or equal to 27 on the MMSE, 66% had behavioral problems during hospitalization, compared to only 31% of those with scores greater than 27. CONCLUSION: Behavioral problems in older hospitalized patients appear to occur frequently, are a significant source of distress to staff, and can result in the need for psychiatric consultation. Assessment of the mental status of older adults at admission to hospital may be valuable in identifying individuals at increased risk for behavioral problems during hospitalization.     

Association between morningness-eveningness and behavioral/emotional problems among adolescents

Adolescent eveningness is associated with age, parental monitoring, daytime sleepiness, sleep problems, moodiness, and the use of coffee. This study investigated the association between adolescent morningness-eveningness and psychopathology, substance use, and suicidality in 1332 students ages 12 to 13. Each student-participant completed the Chinese version of the Child Morningness/Eveningness Scale (CMES), the Pubertal Development Scale, and a questionnaire about their sleep schedule, trouble sleeping, habitual substance use, and suicidality. Their mothers completed the Child Behavioral Checklist and Chinese Health Questionnaire. The morning (n = 412), intermediate (n = 740), and evening (n = 180) groups were operationally defined by the CMES t scores. The mixed model was used for data analysis. The evening group had shorter weekday sleep time, longer weekend sleep time, more daytime napping, and greater sleep compensation on weekends and was more likely than the other 2 groups to have behavioral/emotional problems, suicidality, and habitual substance use. Internalizing and externalizing problems partially explained the association between eveningness, substance use, and suicidality. The findings suggest that eveningness may be an indicator for adolescents with behavioral/emotional problems and risky behaviors and suggest an investigation for possible intervention.     

医学生科研创新能力培养“3+X”模式的探索与实践

针对长期以来培养医学生的科研创新能力主要依靠零散的课外科研活动、受众面窄、没有系统性课程教学及其相关制度保障、致使对医学生科研创新能力培养明显乏力低效这一共性瓶颈教学问题,自2002年起,汕头大学医学院生物化学与分子生物学教学团队,在“科教相辅相佐”、“以学生为中心”、“以问题为导向”等先进教育理念指导下,倚重汕头大学医学院“医者之心”系列课程与书院育人文化之特色,发挥汕头大学的生物学、基础医学和临床医学一级学科均拥有本/硕/博/博后完整人才培养体系之优势,联合其他相关专业教学团队,在建立充分体现医学生科研创新能力培养内涵,覆盖医学本科5年全过程的核心课程体系的基础之上,历经20载的不懈努力,补充修善,成功构建了“3+X”模式,着力培养医学生的科研创新能力。所谓“3”意指对医学生的“全人培养”、“全程培养”和“全方位培养”。所谓“X”意指针对“3+X”模式运行效能的若干个验证性维度,主要包括组织医学生参加各种形式的全国大学生创新实验研究大赛、国际大学生学术研讨会,由医学本科生作为第一作者撰写发表学术论文等。培养医学生科研创新能力的成效十分显著,为有效解决上述共性瓶颈教学问题提供了一个有重要借鉴价值的范例。     

A behavioral profile for stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides)

Behavioral observations made on a group of 15 stumptail macaques living in a seminatural environment are used to delineate an activity profile for the species which embraces numerous locomotor, self-directed, environment-directed and social behaviors. Data indicating that certain animals direct or receive particular behaviors at markedly different rates than the rest of the group are noted. The data from 39,000 10-sec observational samples are used to construct a detailed behavioral time-budget for the group. The budget takes into account the co-occurrence rates of the most frequently observed behaviors with each other and with the other behaviors recorded. The activity profile constructed in this way is compared with the results of four other studies which estimate daily behavioral rates for the species. Environmental, social group composition and sampling-technique variables are considered for their probable effects upon the behavioral rates reported in both the present and the compared studies. A detailed comparison of data from the different studies permits the estimate of a species-typical rate for each of the behavioral patterns reported and commented upon. The estimated rates, expressed as a range of values indicating the percentage of time that an average group member dedicates to various behaviors, should be valid in a wide variety of environments.     

Enrichment strategies for laboratory animals from the viewpoint of clinical veterinary behavioral medicine: emphasis on cats on dogs

Behavioral wellness has become a recent focus for the care of laboratory animals, farm and zoo animals, and pets. Behavioral enrichment issues for these groups are more similar than dissimilar, and each group can learn from the other. The emphasis on overall enhancement for laboratory dogs and cats in this review includes an emphasis on behavioral enrichment. Understanding the range of behaviors, behavioral choices, and cognitive stimulation that cats and dogs exhibit under non-laboratory conditions can increase the ability of investigators to predict which enrichments are likely to be the most successful in the laboratory. Many of the enrichment strategies described are surprisingly straightforward and inexpensive to implement.     

Evolution and Medicine: An Inquiry-Based High School Curriculum Supplement

Evolution and Medicine is a curriculum supplement designed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) for high school students. The supplement is freely available from NIH’s Office of Science Education (OSE) as a part of the NIH curriculum supplement series. Development of the supplement was a collaborative effort that included input from a panel of experts in medicine, evolution, education, and educational technology. In total, the curriculum supplement includes five inquiry-based lessons that are integrated into the BSCS 5E instructional model (based on constructivist learning theory). The goal was to develop a 2-week curriculum to help students understand major concepts of evolution using the dynamic, modern, and relevant context of medicine. A diverse group of students and teachers across the US participated in a formative evaluation of a field test version of the curriculum. High school students made significant learning gains from pretest to posttest, with a relatively large effect size for student understanding of common ancestry and a relatively small effect size for student understanding of natural selection. There was no statistically significant difference in achievement gains between white students and all other racial/ethnic categories. Overall, the evaluation suggests that a curriculum that emphasizes the role of evolution in medicine, uses a constructivist instructional model, and is grounded in inquiry is relatively well-received by teachers and students and shows promise for increasing student learning in evolution.     

Evolution of the New Pathway curriculum at Harvard Medical School: the new integrated curriculum

In 1985, Harvard Medical School adopted a "New Pathway" curriculum, based on active, adult learning through problem-based, faculty-facilitated small-group tutorials designed to promote lifelong skills of self-directed learning. Despite the successful integration of clinically relevant material in basic science courses, the New Pathway goals were confined primarily to the preclinical years. In addition, the shifting balance in the delivery of health care from inpatient to ambulatory settings limited the richness of clinical education in clinical clerkships, creating obstacles for faculty in their traditional roles as teachers. In 2006, Harvard Medical School adopted a more integrated curriculum based on four principles that emerged after half a decade of self-reflection and planning: (1) integrate the teaching of basic/population science and clinical medicine throughout the entire student experience; (2) reestablish meaningful and intensive faculty-student interactions and reengage the faculty; (3) develop a new model of clinical education that offers longitudinal continuity of patient experience, cross-disciplinary curriculum, faculty mentoring, and student evaluation; and (4) provide opportunities for all students to pursue an in-depth, faculty-mentored scholarly project. These principles of our New Integrated Curriculum reflect our vision for a curriculum that fosters a partnership between students and faculty in the pursuit of scholarship and leadership.     

Kibos: A microcomputerized system for the continuous collection and analysis of behavioral data

This paper describes the design and use of an observation and recording system in which data on behavioral patterns exhibited by socially-living primates are recorded as present or absent within recurring units of time. Behavioral observations and initial editing are carried out on-line on a microcomputer. The checklist of observed behavious is open-ended and modifiable, as required by the selection of subject species and by experimental goals. Summary statistical reports are available immediately after data entry has been completed. Further editing and organization of data files take plance when data are transferred to a large computer. The virtues of this system are its ease of use by observers who can be trained rapidly, its cost-effectiveness, and its ability to record simultaneously a larger number of behaviors than other systems usually can. Included are examples of data-analytic programs which are executed after data have been transferred to a large computer.     

Constructing a Cotton-Ball Catapult: An Interdisciplinary STS Learning Experience

The need for all students to develop a stronger ability to express their science knowledge in writing is important. In this article, the authors take you on a journey in an elementary school classroom with tools to help foster deeper learning and stronger writing skills in science content. With many students in high school required to pass end-of-semester science exams to receive a diploma, teaching writing at an early age across various content areas is an even more critical component of today’s curriculum. Presenting curriculum material through multiple means (Universal Design for Learning-Representation) allows students to gain information through a learning approach that best fits the students’ learning needs. The authors examine multiple means of representing science curriculum to engage students in creating detailed and comprehensive concept maps and to provide supportive scientific evidence in written explanations as they gain more content knowledge in science.     

Application of the biogenetic law to behavioral ontogeny: a test using nest architecture in paper wasps

General principles derived from studies of morphological ontogeny are useful in ethology. Behavioral ontogeny may be interpreted from an holistic view in which a series of behaviors is treated as an ontogeny toward a larger, complex, behavioral product. If the component behaviors are defined broadly, many taxa may be compared to find general principles that are not evident when behaviors are dissected to their smallest recognizable units. Flow charts can illustrate such general ontogenetic sequences in a manner that shows what sorts of modifications have evolved from the general pattern. Certain changes may illustrate forms of ontogenetic evolution that are well known for morphological development, such as addition or embellishment of terminal ontogenetic steps, or compression of ontogeny by acceleration or deletion of early steps. The major modifications in nest construction behavior of 28 genera of paper wasps are presented to test the predictions of the biogenetic rule with respect to character polarity. Cladistic analyses of separate morphological and behavioral data sets show that polarity is accurately inferred with respect to the five major patterns of nest construction in paper wasps.     

The fallacy of behavioral phenotyping without standardisation

Behavioral phenotyping of mutant mice is a new and challenging task for the behavioral neuroscientist. Therefore, standardisation of the experimental conditions is required to permit comparisons between the results of experiments within and between laboratories. Once mutation-induced behavioral changes have been identified, phenotyping of mouse mutants should be performed along a systematic trajectory, which allows for an in-depth characterisation of the mutant under investigation.     

中国非人灵长类物种的行为偏侧研究进展

行为偏侧是指动物进行某一行为时偏好使用某一侧肢体或感觉器官。行为偏侧作为脑偏侧所对应的可观测的行为指标,是动物行为适应性进化的代表性特征之一,它在个体水平上影响着个体适合度,在群体水平上是社会性物种的一种进化稳定策略,具有重要的生态和进化意义。中国非人灵长类资源丰富,而中国非人灵长类的行为偏侧研究起步较晚,始于二十世纪八十年代。本文系统归纳中国非人灵长类物种的行为偏侧研究进展,并基于当前研究现状,为今后发展提出积极建议。     

数学原理在遗传学教学中的应用与实践

遗传学在生命科学中具有举足轻重的作用,其建立、发展和完善与数学紧密相连。由于遗传学自身具有较强的理论性和实践性,其内容较为抽象,导致部分学生缺乏学习兴趣。采用"渗透式"教学的方法,把遗传学知识和数学思维有机结合,巧妙应用数学的方法和技巧,将部分遗传现象进行数学抽象和逻辑推理,提升学生对遗传学的认识和理解层次,进一步提高学生的学习和研究能力。     

Altered endocrine and behavioral responses with reproductive aging in the male Japanese quail

Experiments were conducted to further characterize the age-related decline in reproductive capability previously described in the male Japanese quail. Behavioral testing of a large number of males in several age groups confirmed earlier results that showed a significant reduction in courtship and mating behavior by 80 weeks of age. Intact males, 78 weeks of age, that showed no reproductive behavior were given Silastic implants containing testosterone. This treatment restored behavior in 80% of the males. Gonadal regression induced by exposure to shortened photoperiod followed by transfer to a stimulatory photoperiod did not successfully restore the endocrine or behavioral components of reproduction. Males of two age groups, 42 and 208 weeks of age, were categorized as behaviorally active or inactive and then castrated. Eight weeks later they were given implants containing testosterone. Older males required longer exposure time to the exogenous steroid and in some cases, an additional implant to restore mating behavior as compared to younger males. The presence or absence of behavioral activity prior to castration did not affect the length of time required for restoration of behavior. Challenge with exogenous luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone revealed that there was reduced release of luteinizing hormone in aged, behaviorally inactive males as compared to young males. Results of these experiments in addition to previous data give evidence that age-related changes occur at the level of the hypothalamus and pituitary as well as at the level of the gonads.     

Acetylcholinesterase induces neuronal cell loss,astrocyte hypertrophy and behavioral deficits in mammalian hippocampus

Previous studies have demonstrated that acetylcholinesterase (AChE) promotes the assembly of amyloid-beta-peptides into neurotoxic amyloid fibrils and is toxic for chick retina neuronal cultures and neuroblastoma cells. Moreover, AChE is present in senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains. Here we have studied the effect of AChE on astrocytes and hippocampal neurons in vivo. Morphological as well as behavioral disturbances were analyzed after intrahippocampal injection of AChE. Rats were trained in the Morris water maze and assayed for behavioral parameters. Neuronal cell loss was found in the upper leaf of the dentate gyrus in rats injected with AChE in comparison with control animals. Glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoreactivity showed astrocytic hypertrophy and the magnitude of the response was associated with neuronal cell loss. Behavioral results show that injection of AChE produces cognitive impairment demonstrated by an altered water maze performance including (i) a higher escape latency score, (ii) a decreased spatial acuity and (iii) a shorter time of swimming in the platform quadrant. These findings indicate that a local increment in neuronal AChE concentration at the mammalian hippocampus, such as those present in amyloid deposits, may play a role in triggering neuropathological and behavioral changes such as those observed in AD brains.     

Closing the Gap: Inverting the Genetics Curriculum to Ensure an Informed Public

Over the past 20 years, the focus of national efforts to improve K-12 science education has ranged from curriculum and professional development of teachers to the adoption of science standards and high-stakes testing. In spite of this work, students in the United States continue to lag behind their peers in other countries. This underperformance is true for genetics, as well as for science and math in general, and is particularly worrisome given the accelerating need for scientists and engineers in our increasingly technology-driven economy. A scientifically literate public is essential if citizens are to engage effectively with policymakers on issues of scientific importance. Perhaps nowhere is this conjunction more personally meaningful than in human genetics and medicine. Rapid changes in our field have the potential to revolutionize healthcare, but the public is ill prepared to participate in this transformation. One potential solution is to modernize the genetics curriculum so that it matches the science of the 21^st century. This paper highlights changes in human genetics that support a curricular reorganization, outlines the problems with current genetics instruction, and proposes a new genetics curriculum.