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Students at the Monastir Faculty of Dental Medicine were required to remain inside during the COVID-19 pandemic for their own safety and in accordance with official directives. It is evident that learners' perceptions are a recognized indicator of the efficiency of any teaching approach. Therefore, we focused on students' input on the validity of online biochemistry laboratories to assure their preferences with the finest teaching approaches. The study included 116 undergraduate dental students from the Faculty of Dental Medicine of Monastir. The survey has 40 questions. This investigation covered (i) information technology tool accessibility, (ii) course presentation, interactions in a virtual classroom, teachers' availability, and (iii) preferred learning styles. The percentages were then determined for each item and assessed. Our results showed that almost students were equipped with computers, smartphones and tablets but have encountered some connectivity issues. Moreover, participants find courses well presented, approved class interactions, and were satisfied with teachers' availability. Nevertheless, students were not already prepared for entirely online learning. Despite, the overall positive perception among students toward remote education during the COVID-19 outbreak; they preferred considering shared learning between face-to-face and online once the pandemic is over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work is presented the procedure of the solution method of the experimental tasks in the General Chemistry laboratory, with the objective of introducing elements of the investigative method, in the teaching-learning process through the experimental tasks, which allow to specify the actions and operations to be carried out by the students. This procedure also leads to the appropriation of knowledge and experimental and investigative skills in students. To carry it out, systematic observation, interviews with teachers and students and the analysis of the documents of the teaching-learning process were used as empirical research methods. From the application of the procedure, it is evident that the proposal turns out to be flexible and applicable to the General Chemistry subject, since it allows promoting independent work and perfecting the scientific training of students from laboratory practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We previously showed, in patients with diabetes, that >50% of monitoring tests for glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) are outside recommended intervals and that this is linked to diabetes control. Here, we examined the effect of tests/year on achievement of commonly utilised HbA1c targets and on HbA1c changes over time. Methods: Data on 20,690 adults with diabetes with a baseline HbA1c of >53 mmol/mol (7%) were extracted from Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory records at three UK hospitals. We examined the effect of HbA1c tests/year on (i) the probability of achieving targets of ≤53 mmol/mol (7%) and ≤48 mmol/mol (6.5%) in a year using multi-state modelling and (ii) the changes in mean HbA1c using a linear mixed-effects model. Results: The probabilities of achieving ≤53 mmol/mol (7%) and ≤48 mmol/mol (6.5%) targets within 1 year were 0.20 (95% confidence interval: 0.19–0.21) and 0.10 (0.09–0.10), respectively. Compared with four tests/year, having one test or more than four tests/year were associated with lower likelihoods of achieving either target; two to three tests/year gave similar likelihoods to four tests/year. Mean HbA1c levels were higher in patients who had one test/year compared to those with four tests/year (mean difference: 2.64 mmol/mol [0.24%], p<0.001). Conclusions: We showed that ≥80% of patients with suboptimal control are not achieving commonly recommended HbA1c targets within 1 year, highlighting the major challenge facing healthcare services. We also demonstrated that, although appropriate monitoring frequency is important, testing every 6 months is as effective as quarterly testing, supporting international recommendations. We suggest that the importance HbA1c monitoring frequency is being insufficiently recognised in diabetes management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is a serious problem in many places all over the world. Many efforts have been made to discover the causal relationships between air pollutants. Some of the air pollutants are highly correlated with others and environmental scientists detect the mutual transformations. This paper aims to reproduce the results of environmental scientists by computing the causal directions from the observational data instead of performing chemistry laboratory experiments. A causal direction inference method based on the Gaussian process model and the information geometric causal inference criterion is proposed. Simulations show satisfactory results on air pollutant data collected by automatic monitoring stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most biochemical transformations involve more than one substrate. Bisubstrate enzymes catalyze multiple chemical reactions in living systems and include members of the transferase, oxidoreductase, and ligase enzyme classes. Working knowledge of bisubstrate enzyme kinetic models is thus of clear importance to the practicing biochemist. However, such models are infrequently explored in the undergraduate biochemistry laboratory. This deficiency suggests the need for well-defined, tractable, and economical methods for characterization of bisubstrate enzyme activity. The application of an established real-time colorimetric assay to investigate kinetic parameters of glutathione transfer by glutathione S-transferase is described. The reported method relies on commercially available materials and uses experimental conditions that are suited to application in the introductory biochemistry laboratory. Investigation of bisubstrate kinetic parameters was performed as part of a three-week laboratory experiment that emphasized protein extraction, purification, and characterization, leading to guided student development of bisubstrate enzyme kinetic models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reformed experimental activities (REActivities) are an innovative approach to the delivery of the traditional material in an undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory. A description of the design and implementation of REActivities at both a four- and two-year institution is discussed. The results obtained using a reformed teaching observational protocol are described and correlated to the transferability of REActivities between different instructors and their transportability between different institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laboratory courses are often designed using step-by-step protocols which encourage students to conduct experiments without thinking about what they are doing or why they are doing it. Such course design limits the growth of our students as scientists and can make it more difficult for a student to transition to the expectations of a research laboratory experience. To facilitate student growth in the process skills necessary to transition from the teaching laboratory to the research laboratory, an advanced biochemistry laboratory was redesigned to be team-taught and project-based culminating in a 7 week group research project in which the students worked collaboratively to propose, design, and troubleshoot their own experiments. Here, we report perceived student learning gains which provide additional evidence that inquiry- and research-based pedagogies impact student confidence with respect to the process skills required for self-directed research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we provide fertile ground for students to simultaneously explore a breadth of foundational knowledge, develop cross-disciplinary problem-solving skills, gain resiliency, and learn to work as a member of a team? One way is to integrate original research in the context of an undergraduate biochemistry course. In this Commentary, we discuss the development and execution of an interdisciplinary and cross-departmental undergraduate biochemistry laboratory course. We present a template for how a similar course can be replicated at other institutions and provide pedagogical and research results from a sample module in which we challenged our students to study the binding interface between 2 important biosynthetic proteins. Finally, we address the community and invite others to join us in making a larger impact on undergraduate education and the field of biochemistry by coordinating efforts to integrate research and teaching across campuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we present a 13-week research-based biochemistry laboratory curriculum designed to provide the students with the experience of engaging in original research while introducing foundational biochemistry laboratory techniques. The laboratory experience has been developed around the directed evolution of an enzyme chosen by the instructor, with mutations designed by the students. Ideal enzymes for this curriculum are able to be structurally modeled, solubly expressed, and monitored for activity by UV/Vis spectroscopy, and an example curriculum for haloalkane dehalogenase is given. Unique to this curriculum is a successful implementation of saturation mutagenesis and high-throughput screening of enzyme function, along with bioinformatics analysis, homology modeling, structural analysis, protein expression and purification, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, UV/Vis spectroscopy, and enzyme kinetics. Each of these techniques is carried out using a novel student-designed mutant library or enzyme variant unique to the lab team and, importantly, not described previously in the literature. Use of a well-established set of protocols promotes student data quality. Publication may result from the original student-generated hypotheses and data, either from the class as a whole or individual students that continue their independent projects upon course completion. © 2017 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(5):437-448, 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This biochemistry laboratory course was designed to provide significant learning experiences to expose students to different ways of succeeding as scientists in academia and foster development and improvement of their potential and competency as the next generation of investigators. To meet these goals, the laboratory course employs three different practices that support an 'Integrated Course Design' approach: (1) incorporating basic laboratory techniques with faculty research projects, (2) promoting team-based learning, and (3) developing, de novo, a mini-NIH grant proposal that serves as a capstone project. On course evaluations, students give the biochemistry laboratory course the highest ratings for course and teaching effectiveness, and these ratings are a higher percentage overall compared to similar chemistry laboratory courses offered in the program. Students also state that the practices of the laboratory course went beyond their prior experiences in traditional lab courses. They have reported that they were excited to be involved in current research, were intellectually challenged to think in new ways, were impressed by the work accomplished with their teams, were encouraged by the growth in understanding and ability to formulate new questions, and better realized the impact of chemistry on numerous aspects of human health and everyday life. Thus, the biochemistry laboratory course experience has positively affected student satisfaction in the chemistry program, as well as student self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For students who are not science majors, problem-based (PB) laboratories for first-year chemistry provide a more comprehensive experience than conventional expository ones. Implementing PB labs is reasonably easy, as the lab experiments may not need to change; % what changes is the way the lab manual is set up and how the actual session is carried out. Rather than having a step-by-step procedure, the PB manual has general guidelines for the experiment, enabling students to develop experimental procedures of their own. During the lab session, a prelaboratory discussion is driven by the students' input and clarifies the details for each individual procedure. In addition to the engagement of the students in the lab, the result of this approach has been the development of students who are capable of formulating hypotheses and, more importantly, sound experimental procedures to test these hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional undergraduate science classes often include a laboratory component aimed at enabling the students to experience the classroom topics firsthand. Typically, these experiments are chosen because they have known outcomes that will clearly demonstrate particular aspects of scientific theory. While this approach has its benefits in skill development and concept reinforcement, the lack of novelty inherent in repeating experiments that have been repeated for many years does not accurately convey the feeling of true scientific discovery to the students. In this work, we have designed and implemented a series of experiments into an undergraduate biochemistry curriculum that incorporates the opportunity for scientific discovery, while simultaneously creating an environment for learning routine laboratory techniques. Through this set of experiments, students enrolled in the course were successful in identifying and beginning to characterize an unknown bacterial gene that confers increased tolerance to triclosan on its host. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new heterogeneous Fenton-like system, consisting of supported Au catalysts and hydrogen peroxide, was proved to be effective in removing low level organic compounds (ca. 100 ppm) such as phenol, ethanol, formaldehyde, and acetone in aqueous solution. Among all gold catalysts the Au/hydroxyapatite (Au/HAp) exhibits the highest activity, and even better than the conventional iron ions exchanged zeolite (Fe/ZSM-5) catalyst In particular, unlike the limited operational pH range (pH: 2∼5) for the other heterogeneous Fenton catalysts such as Fe/ZSM-5, Au/HAp shows higher stability even in strong acid solution (pH ∼ 2), due to almost no leaching of active metal from supports into solution. It can be potentially applied in treating the industrial wastewaters with strong acidity and purifying drinking water. In addition, in the case of complete oxidation of phenol, a plausible route was suggested for deep understanding of this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the chemical indicators, textural and sensorial characteristics of the Pastilacid cheese in different formats and its comparison with those of the cheese type Mozzarella. The Pastilacid cheese was elaborated with sour milk by means of enzymatic clotting under industrial conditions and it was modelled in two formats. Chemical indicators, the firmness measured with the penetrometer cone, the texture profile analyzed with the INSTRON texturometer and the melting capacity were evaluated. It was concluded that the Pastilacid is a paste filata fresh cheese that differs of the Mozzarella for its humidity content without fatty matter, fat dry extract and it presents bighest firmness, elasticity, cohesivity and masticability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the incorporation and teaching of technical writing in concept-based lab report format to students. Basics of keeping a laboratory notebook; Components of the concept-based lab report; Effectiveness of the method in chemistry.

Presents information on organic laboratory and lecture textbooks which emphasize the equilibrium aspect of the aldol condensation while focusing on the development of a microscale experiment for students in two versions. Listing of the versions; How the experiment is carried out; Identification of all major components in the reaction mixtures; Information on the experimental procedure.

Abstract: Chemically tagged hexaphenylbenzene molecules physisorbed on Au(111) surface display their tag differently under STM as compared to their physisorption on a Cu(111) surface. Our STM findings complemented by First Principles and Quantum Chemistry calculations have attributed this difference to two different conformations adopted by these molecules on Au(111) in comparison to its one conformation on Cu(111). The demonstration of the sensitivity of the tag to its electronic or chemical environment would have important implications in designing single molecule machinery where the motion of the molecule is to be discerned by tracking its tag induced intramolecular STM contrast. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]