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Saleh Alrakaf,1 Ahmed Abdelmageed,2 Mary Kiersma,2 Sion A Coulman,3 Dai N John,3 June Tordoff,4 Claire Anderson,5 Ayman Noreddin,6 Erica Sainsbury,1 Grenville Rose,7 Lorraine Smith11Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; 2Faculty of Pharmacy, Manchester University, Fort Wayne, IN, USA; 3School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK; 4School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ; 5School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; 6School of Pharmacy, Hampton University, Hampton, VA, USA; 7Aftercare, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaBackground: Achievement goal theory helps us understand what motivates students to participate in educational activities. However, measuring achievement goals in a precise manner is problematic. Elliot and McGregor's Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ) and Elliot and Murayama's revised Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ-R) are widely used to assess students' achievement goals. Both instruments were developed and validated using undergraduate psychology students in the USA.Methods: In this study, our aims were to first of all, assess the construct validity of both questionnaires using a cohort of Australian pharmacy students and, subsequently, to test the generalizability and replicability of these tools more widely in schools of pharmacy in other English-speaking countries. The AGQ and the AGQ-R were administered during tutorial class time. Confirmatory factor analysis procedures, using AMOS 19 software, were performed to determine model fit.Results: In contrast to the scale developers' findings, confirmatory factor analysis supported a superior model fit for the AGQ compared with the AGQ-R, in all countries under study.Conclusion: Validating measures of achievement goal motivation for use in pharmacy education is necessary and has implications for future research. Based on these results, the AGQ will be used to conduct future cross-sec

Flipped learning, where the teaching content is delivered prior to the contact session, is an effective pedagogy. Most commonly, video is used for flipped approaches, although many other media are also effective, such as written, audio or electronic resources. The ideal medium used for information delivery is likely to vary, depending on the needs and learning approaches of each individual learner. Is there, therefore, a medium which is ideal for most students, or would flipped learning best be delivered using a suite of multimedia sources for the core information? This project aims to investigate the preferences shown by undergraduate students for different media in a series of flipped pedagogic settings. The project also aims to investigate whether there are any correlations between media preferences and student personality types and study approaches. Initial findings suggest that students engage readily with flipped learning pedagogies, although it is rare for students to engage with teaching materials well in advance of the class session. Early findings suggests that students show a preference for video as a medium of delivery for taught content.

In order for hard-shell capsules to function effectively as drug reservoirs in dry powder inhalers, the capsule must be punctured with sharpened pins to release the powdered medicament upon inspiration. Capsule performance in this setting is poorly understood. This study aims to develop a methodology to characterise hard shell capsule penetration by needles from commercial dry powder inhalers, to determine whether changes to capsule materials impact on their performance. Two pin types from two commercial dry powder inhalers were mounted in a material-testing machine, equipped with a 500 N load cell. A stainless steel bush was used to secure a capsule directly below the steel pin. Hypromellose (n = 10) and gelatin capsules (n = 10) were conditioned in ‘normal’ or low humidity conditions and were subsequently punctured with both types of pin. Each puncture event was recorded on a load–displacement curve. The force required for puncture was 2.82 ± 0.26 N for hypromellose capsules and 4.54 ± 0.26 N for gelatin capsules, stored in normal humidity. Different capsule materials possessed distinguishable signature profiles but repeated force–displacement profiles were highly reproducible i.e. intra-individual variability was minimal. A rapid, robust yet sensitive methodology has therefore been developed that is able to characterise hard shell capsule materials based on the puncture performance.

Cutaneous delivery of macromolecules is significantly impeded by the inherent barrier properties of the stratum corneum (SC). Within the last decade sophisticated engineering techniques have enabled the manufacture of microneedle arrays. These are innovative devices consisting of micron-sized needles which when inserted into the skin create physical conduits across the SC but do not impinge upon underlying nerve fibres or blood vessels. This study assessed the ability of microfabricated silicon microneedle arrays to penetrate the SC of ex vivo human skin for the localised delivery and subsequent expression of non-viral gene therapy formulations. Cutaneous gene therapy may represent a new method for the treatment of, or vaccination against, a range of candidate diseases. Microneedle arrays of variant geometries and morphologies, created using dry- and wet-etch microfabrication methods, were characterised by scanning electron microscopy. The potential of these devices for the cutaneous delivery of gene therapy formulations was initially demonstrated by permeation of a size and surface representative fluorescent nanoparticle across microneedle treated human epidermal membrane and observation of these nanoparticles in micron-sized conduits created in excised human skin. The ability to express exogenous genes within ex vivo human skin was subsequently proven by intradermal injection of the pCMVp reporter plasmid. However, a non-viral gene therapy vector failed to enhance cutaneous transfection. Cutaneous plasmid DNA delivery using the microneedle device facilitated effective, if somewhat limited and irreproducible, transfection of epidermal cells proximal to microchannels created in the skin. These investigations confirmed the ability of a silicon microneedle device to deliver macromolecular formulations, including plasmid DNA, to the viable epidermis and have demonstrated exogenous gene expression within human skin. However, limited and unpredictable gene expression fol

Cutaneous delivery of macromolecules is significantly impeded by the inherent barrier properties of the stratum corneum (SC). Within the last decade sophisticated engineering techniques have enabled the manufacture of microneedle arrays. These are innovative devices consisting of micron-sized needles which when inserted into the skin create physical conduits across the SC but do not impinge upon underlying nerve fibres or blood vessels. This study assessed the ability of microfabricated silicon microneedle arrays to penetrate the SC of ex vivo human skin for the localised delivery and subsequent expression of non-viral gene therapy formulations. Cutaneous gene therapy may represent a new method for the treatment of, or vaccination against, a range of candidate diseases. Microneedle arrays of variant geometries and morphologies, created using dry- and wet-etch microfabrication methods, were characterised by scanning electron microscopy. The potential of these devices for the cutaneous delivery of gene therapy formulations was initially demonstrated by permeation of a size and surface representative fluorescent nanoparticle across microneedle treated human epidermal membrane and observation of these nanoparticles in micron-sized conduits created in excised human skin. The ability to express exogenous genes within ex vivo human skin was subsequently proven by intradermal injection of the pCMVp reporter plasmid. However, a non-viral gene therapy vector failed to enhance cutaneous transfection. Cutaneous plasmid DNA delivery using the microneedle device facilitated effective, if somewhat limited and irreproducible, transfection of epidermal cells proximal to microchannels created in the skin. These investigations confirmed the ability of a silicon microneedle device to deliver macromolecular formulations, including plasmid DNA, to the viable epidermis and have demonstrated exogenous gene expression within human skin. However, limited and unpredictable gene expression fol