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Nonprint media as information resources: software and hardware.

Nonprint materials are rapidly becoming important information and learning resource materials for the health science library. Because of their long experience in organizing and utilizing informational materials, libraries represent highly appropriate repositories and sites for utilization of these new materials. Nonprint materials differ from printed materials in several ways, and this may account for the resistance of some librarians to dealing with them. One of the most important differences is that a machine must serve as mediator between the information and the user of nonprint materials. Also, the great variety of formats and machines can confuse the novice. The librarian must learn to deal with these differences in a creative way through a process of cooperation and collaboration with media and educational technology specialists.

Attitude↗

[The effect of ubiquinone Q10 and biotin on the growth and development of premature animals].

Biotin (0.3 mg/kg per os) and ubiquinone Q10 (50 mg/kg, per os) during chronic administration were found to produce stimulating effects on premature animals. The two drugs contributed to a more rapid development of memory and learning processes in premature new-born rats than in mature ones, normalized the major parameters of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Some specific features and differences were ascertained in the stimulating effects of biotin and ubiquinone Q10.

Animals↗

Functional MRI evidence for adult motor cortex plasticity during motor skill learning.

Performance of complex motor tasks, such as rapid sequences of finger movements, can be improved in terms of speed and accuracy over several weeks by daily practice sessions. This improvement does not generalize to a matched sequence of identical component movements, nor to the contralateral hand. Here we report a study of the neural changes underlying this learning using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of local blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals evoked in primary motor cortex (M1). Before training, a comparable extent of M1 was activated by both sequences. However, two ordering effects were observed: repeating a sequence within a brief time window initially resulted in a smaller area of activation (habituation), but later in larger area of activation (enhancement), suggesting a switch in M1 processing mode within the first session (fast learning). By week 4 of training, concurrent with asymptotic performance, the extent of cortex activated by the practised sequence enlarged compared with the unpractised sequence, irrespective of order (slow learning). These changes persisted for several months. The results suggest a slowly evolving, long-term, experience-dependent reorganization of the adult M1, which may underlie the acquisition and retention of the motor skill.

Adult↗

Comprehensive, technology-based clinical education: the "virtual practicum".

This article discusses the application of technology to promote more comprehensive clinical education in the biopsychosocial aspects of primary care. Comprehensive refers to the inclusion, in addition to scientific and technical knowledge, of knowledge that is less easily characterized, quantified, and taught: empathy, intuition, the demonstration of artistry. Clinical education will be increasingly facilitated by the proliferation of computers capable of displaying combinations of text, graphics, video, and sound; broadband networks capable of delivering these multiple media to the home or office; and new methods for using these technologies for education and training. However, current models for technology-based learning are limiting, lagging behind the rapid technological evolution driving our entry into the Information Age. Some recent educational models (Schon's reflection-in-action and reflective practicums [1], Boisot's E-space [2], Kolb's learning cycle [3]) provide for a more comprehensive and complete view of health professional education. This article describes these models in depth and proposes a new model for technology-based clinical training, the "Virtual Practicum," based on them. The Virtual Practicum is illustrated with a new interactive CD-ROM program, dealing with primary care of patients with HIV/AIDS. The concepts presented here are generally useful in thinking about clinical education, regardless of the means used.

CD-ROM↗

How necessary is the activation of the immediate early gene zif268 in synaptic plasticity and learning?

The immediate early genes (IEGs) are activated rapidly and transiently in response to a multitude of stimuli. The zif268 belongs to a category of regulatory IEGs that activate downstream target genes and is considered to be a triggering mechanism to activate the genomic response in neurons. Several studies have shown that zif268 mRNA is upregulated during different forms of associative learning, and following tetanic stimulation that induces long-lasting LTP. To date, there is a general consensus that zif268 activation may constitute a critical mechanism for the encoding of long-lasting memories, however this is based on relatively few studies. Given the fact that zif268 can be activated by a number of different types of stimuli, it becomes important to determine exactly how it may be implicated in memory. Examination of the current literature suggests that zif268 is necessary in the processing of several types of memory, however, it is not entirely clear what aspects of memory zif268 may be implicated in. Here, we review the existing literature and emphasise that understanding the signalling pathways that lead to activation of the IEGs and the downstream targets of these genes will advance our understanding of how functional activation of zif268 may be implicated in processing long-term memories.

Animals↗

Preexposure effects on infant learning and memory.

The effect of passively exposing infants to visual information in a sensory preconditioning paradigm was assessed in five experiments with seventy-eight 6-month-olds. In the basic paradigm, infants were simultaneously exposed to two contexts (S1 and S2), trained in one of them (S1), and tested in the other (S2). Infants learned an association between S1 and S2 and exhibited transfer to S2 after preexposures of 1 hr/day for 1 week but not after 2 min or 1 hr on a single occasion. When S1 was the focal cue, however, infants transferred responding after a single preexposure lasting only 2 min. Extended preexposure also produced learned irrelevance, biasing subsequent selective attention, but there was no evidence of latent inhibition. These findings demonstrate that young infants pick up fairly sophisticated information about specific stimuli in their visual surround and the relationships between them merely as a result of passive observation, without explicitly being trained to do so. Moreover, infants may not express this knowledge for several days, until finally given an opportunity to do so. Sensory preconditioning may be an instance of "unitization"-a special type of infantile learning that enables immature organisms to acquire some associations more rapidly than adults.

Adult↗

Social learning and innovation are positively correlated in pigeons (Columba livia).

When animals show both frequent innovation and fast social learning, new behaviours can spread more rapidly through populations and potentially increase rates of natural selection and speciation, as proposed by A.C. Wilson in his behavioural drive hypothesis. Comparative work on primates suggests that more innovative species also show more social learning. In this study, we look at intra-specific variation in innovation and social learning in captive wild-caught pigeons. Performances on an innovative problem-solving task and a social learning task are positively correlated in 42 individuals. The correlation remains significant when the effects of neophobia on the two abilities are removed. Neither sex nor dominance rank are associated with performance on the two tasks. Free-flying flocks of urban pigeons are able to solve the innovative food-finding problem used on captive birds, demonstrating it is within the range of their natural capacities. Taken together with the comparative literature, the positive correlation between innovation and social learning suggests that the two abilities are not traded-off.

Animals↗

Suppression of long-term potentiation induction during alert wakefulness but not during 'enhanced' REM sleep after avoidance learning.

Major learning events are typically followed by a period during which the number and/or duration of rapid-eye movement sleep episodes is increased. Processes critical to memory formation are thought to take place during this interval of 'enhanced' rapid-eye movement sleep. We therefore compared the capacity for long-term potentiation during rapid-eye movement sleep and alert wakefulness after learning. Rats were chronically implanted with electrodes for stimulation of the perforant path and recording of evoked potentials and EEG in the dentate gyrus. After obtaining baseline recordings, rats were trained on a 40-trial two-way active avoidance task. Conditioned rats exhibited a two-fold increase in the mean duration of rapid-eye movement sleep episodes, as reflected by a prolongation of the hippocampal theta rhythm. There was no change in the sleep pattern of pseudoconditioned controls, which received explicitly unpaired tones and foot shocks in a yoked design. High-frequency stimulation was applied during the second, third, and fourth major rapid-eye movement sleep episodes after active avoidance training. Another group was tetanized at matching time points during alert wakefulness. After pseudoconditioning, tetanus applied during wakefulness or rapid-eye movement sleep readily induced long-term potentiation, and there was no difference between groups in the magnitude of increase for the population excitatory postsynaptic potential slope or the population spike height as measured 1 h, 24 h, and 5 days post-tetanus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗

Different hippocampal activity profiles for PKA and PKC in spatial discrimination learning.

Protein kinases are considered essential for the processing and storage of information in the brain. However, the dynamics of protein kinase activation in the hippocampus during spatial learning are poorly understood. In this study, rats were trained to learn a holeboard spatial discrinmination task and the activity profiles for cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase (PKA) and Ca2+/ phospholipid-dependent protein kinase C (PKC) in the hippocampus were examined. Hippocampal PKA activity increased rapidly on Day 1 of spatial learning and remained moderately high at later stages of acquisition. In contrast, PKC activity increased in particulate fractions compared with cytosolic fractions after habituation training and was maximal at Day 3 of spatial acquisition. The results establish a temporal dissociation between PKA and PKC during acquisition of spatial discrimination learning.

Animals↗

Reading level, learning presentation preference, and desire for information among cancer patients.

BACKGROUND AND METHODS: Cancer patients may face a number of obstacles to learning, including complexity of information, inappropriateness of timing and method of presentation, avoidance as a way of coping, and inability to read. Patients' reading levels, preferred learning methods, and desires for information and the usefulness of two instruments in a clinical setting were investigated. One instrument provided information about sociodemographics, desire for information, and learning preferences; the second instrument, the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), assessed reading ability. RESULTS: The 63 patients studied, most of whom were African American, wanted all available information (90%), desired participation in care decisions (68%), and preferred personal interactive learning (77%). The REALM mean score was 50.8, indicating a seventh-to-eighth-grade reading level. Over half read below their stated educational levels and would be unable to read most available patient education materials. CONCLUSIONS: Educational level did not indicate reading ability; the patients could state their desires for information and their learning preferences, and the REALM was easy to use.

Adult↗

Rapid regulation of GAD67 mRNA and protein level in cortical neurons after sensory learning.

Cortical representations of different modalities can be modified by sensory learning. Our previous studies in the barrel cortex showed that expansion of the cortical representation of a row of vibrissae could be induced by pairing stimulation of a row of vibrissae with a tail shock. The plastic change in cortical reactivity to the input used during the training was accompanied by increased density of GABA immunoreactive neurons in the involved row of cortical barrels. Using the same paradigm, the present study examined the pathway of GABA synthesis-expression of GAD67 mRNA and immunoreactivity of GAD67 isoenzyme in the barrel cortex of mice after sensory learning. In situ hybridization revealed that the GAD67 mRNA level was elevated in one row of barrels in the trained group as well as in controls receiving vibrissae stimulation alone. In contrast, elevation of immunoreactivity of the GAD67 protein occurred only in the trained group. The density of GABA-immunoreactive neurons in the hollows of barrels representing the row of vibrissae activated during the training was increased by 50%. These data indicated that sensory stimulation alone affected expression of the 67 kDa glutamate decarboxylase isoenzyme synthesis pathway, whereas the processes involved in cortical plasticity induced by associative learning modified this pathway additionally at the level of translation.

Animals↗

Learning manual skills in spinal anesthesia and orotracheal intubation: is there any recommended number of cases for anesthesia residency training program?

Wide variability exists in the number of anesthetic procedures to which anesthesia residents are exposed during their training. The number of attempts at various procedures before a trainee becomes proficient at performing each anesthetic procedure is not known. To determine the learning process of 150 attempts of spinal anesthesia and 100 attempts of orotracheal intubation, the two most frequent anesthetic procedures, we evaluated 9 first-year anesthesia residents according to their rate of success or failure. The learning curves of both procedures revealed an initial rapid improvement of success during the first 20 attempts. Spinal anesthesia was more difficult to learn (p=0.0002) but the learning curves of spinal anesthesia and orotracheal intubation reached a nondifferent high success rate of 82 per cent and 88.9 per cent respectively (p=0.13). According to this study the institutional recommended number of cases for spinal anesthesia and orotracheal intubation were 112 and 27 cases respectively.

Adult↗

Aversive experiences are associated with a rapid and transient activation of ERKs in the rat hippocampus.

The extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) family of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) has been shown to participate in memory formation. We recently found that a hippocampal ERK/MAPK cascade is required for memory formation of an inhibitory avoidance training in rats. Here we reported that this learning task is accompanied by a rapid increase in the phosphorylation of hippocampal p44 MAPK. A single mild foot shock produced a similar effect and three consecutive foot shocks provoked the activation of both p44 and p42 MAPKs. In contrast, a brief exposure to the training box or the habituation to an open field did not alter hippocampal ERK/MAPK levels. Together, these findings indicate that aversive behavioral experiences induced a rapid and transient activation of ERK/MAPKs in the hippocampus.

Animals↗

Disc arthroplasty: lessons learned from total joint arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: With the rapid emergence of new disc arthroplasty designs and ongoing clinical trials, there is great anticipation among clinicians. Inevitably there will be challenges associated with adoption of this new technology. Potential lessons learned from the extensive experience with extremity arthroplasty may predict some of the perils and pitfalls associated with motion-preserving devices in spinal applications. PURPOSE: To review the extremity total joint literature for lessons that may be transferable to disc arthroplasty and anticipate predictable problems that will occur. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING: A literature review and conjectural analysis of key lessons learned from the experience of extremity total joint arthroplasty and anterior lumbar interbody fusion devices with subsequent application of these lessons to disc arthroplasty in the lumbar spine. METHODS: Limited data are available on disc arthroplasty. RESULTS: Particular areas of controversy and uncertainty exist. The ongoing US Food and Drug Administration Investigational Device Exemption clinical trials may provide additional insight into these questions. CONCLUSIONS: Complications will occur. These will be approach related, device related and patient-selection related. Studying the experience of extremity joint arthroplasty may accelerate the learning curve for lumbar disc arthroplasty.

Arthroplasty, Replacement↗

An animal model of perinatal hypoxic brain damage: behavioural aspects.

Long-lasting alterations of spontaneous motor as well as learning behaviour of rats after an early postnatal mild chronic hypoxia were examined. The exposure to hypoxia was 10 h daily from the 2nd to the 6th day of life. In adulthood these rats were hyperactive and learned the active avoidance response later than the controls. The rough indices of brain development air righting response and swimming posture did not show any retardation shortly after hypoxia. Hypoxia exposed rats learned in the T-maze more rapidly than the controls.

Animals↗

A systematic approach to faculty development in Women's health: lessons from education, feminism, and conflict theory.

The authors present a strategy for residency faculty development in women's health, the reasons that such a strategy is necessary (e.g., women's health encompasses much more than reproductive and disease issues, and is cross-disciplinary and intrinsic to all of family practice), and their residency program's experience with its development and implementation from 1994 to the present. In creating the program, the residency program's faculty used as a context some lessons learned from family medicine, since the rapid growth of family medicine provides a historical example of dealing with a critical shortage of faculty for new residency programs and the need for a new way to train educators. Also, the faculty reviewed the literature about faculty development in medicine, models of teaching and learning from women's studies, and group theory, specifically the skills concerning conflict and diversity. They used the salient elements from each (which the authors outline) in fashioning their new faculty development program. The resulting program also grew out of focus groups with patients, input from staff, residents, and faculty, and meetings and workshops, including some intense and highly charged discussions in which the faculty participants, both men and women, confronted their own views and biases and worked hard to successfully forge a common and relevant vision of women's health. The program has fostered faculty who are knowledgeable about the diverse educational skills required to teach women's health. They use these skills in all curricular content, thus demonstrating a new way to educate residents as well as faculty.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Learning patterns of eye motion for foveal pursuit.

Two human subjects fixated a small light oscillating sinusoidally. After the light disappeared, sinusoidal post-pursuit eye motion (PPEM) continued to follow the unexpected trajectory of targets oscillating at 0.8 and 1.0 Hz. Saccades corrected differences between eye and expected target position during PPEM in complete darkness. Predictive tracking, the ability of primates to accurately fixate even rapidly moving targets, may thus involve learning specific eye movement patterns that mimic target motion.

Darkness↗