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Introduction: The term continuing professional developmentencompasses competencies required to practice the high qualitymedicine, including medical, managerial, ethical, social, andpersonal skills, whereas continuing medical education refers onlyto expanding the knowledge and skills required by physicians. Thecompetencies for basic science faculty identified are managementand administration, teaching, assessments, curriculumdevelopment, and research. This study aimed to evaluate theoutcomes of faculty development initiatives at Avalon UniversitySchool of Medicine and examine the optimal approach to facultydevelopment activities.Methods: This is a survey-based quantitative study. A crosssectionalsurvey was conducted after implementing the facultydevelopment activities. We took thirteen basic science facultymembers as a unit and recruited them for different facultydevelopment activities from 2015. Faculty members were involvedin various faculty development courses, workshops, and trainingsessions. A survey was conducted among faculty membersusing a questionnaire on the Likert scale to identify if there areany increased knowledge or skills on teaching and assessmentmethods, educational scholarship, and scholarly activities afterimplementing faculty development initiatives. The facultyresponses were tabulated and quantified in the Excel sheet andanalyzed by SPSS software. Results: All thirteen faculty members responded to thequestionnaire (100% response rate). There was an increased selfreportedknowledge and skills of faculty members. 70% of thefaculty agreed that they are able to get involved in designing theircourse learning objectives. 100% of the faculty were aware ofdifferent teaching methods, and 93% of them were implementingdifferent types of teaching methods, including small groupdiscussions, flipped classrooms, standardized patient-basedteaching, and problem-based learning. 100% of the faculty wereaware of different assessment methods and implementing them.There were self-reported and observed behavioral changes.Conclusions: Faculty development activities at Avalon UniversitySchool of Medicine have shown to be effective. At larger institutions,the department chair can lead the faculty development activities.

Magnetic nanomaterials (MNMs) with metallic and semiconducting properties are useful in energy conversion, energy storage, environmental, biomedical, agricultural applications thanks to their large surface area, charge carrier mobility, optical band structure, non-toxic nature, and ability to recover and recycle. However, their poor stability, agglomeration, lack of biocompatibility, fast electron-hole recombination, and leaching in acidic environments restrict bare MNMs for real-time applications. There are several approaches employed to overcome these issues, such as elemental doping, defect formation, nanocomposites, and surface functionalization. Among them, functionalization is one of the promising techniques to alter various properties of MNMs such as specific morphology, size, facet, crystalline phase, and electron mobility. Functionalized MNMs have been explored for various areas of research, including biomedical and environmental applications such as MRI, drug delivery, catalysis, solar hydrogen production, sensors, water and air purification. In this short perspective, promising advances in various functionalization strategies such as surface modification, amino functionalization, polymer functionalization, and biomolecule functionalization, techniques were consolidated, reviewed and their various applications are discussed in detail.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common pregnancy disorder associated with an increased risk of pre-eclampsia and macrosomia. Recent research has shown that the buildup of excess lipids within the placental trophoblast impairs mitochondrial function. However, the exact lipids that impact the placental trophoblast and the underlying mechanism remain unclear. GDM cases and healthy controls were recruited at Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital. The placenta and cord blood were taken during birth. Confocal and electron microscopy were utilized to examine the morphology of the placenta and mitochondria. We determined the lipid composition using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry in data-independent analysis mode (LC/MSE). In vitro studies were carried out on choriocarcinoma cells (JEG3) to investigate the mechanism of trophoblast mitochondrial dysfunction. Results showed that the GDM placenta was distinguished by increased syncytial knots, chorangiosis, lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-1 (LOX-1) overexpression, and mitochondrial dysfunction. Lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) 16:0 was significantly elevated in the cord blood LDL of GDM patients. In vitro, we demonstrated that LPC dose-dependently disrupts mitochondrial function by increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and HIF-1α signaling. In conclusion, highly elevated LPC in cord blood plays a pivotal role in GDM, contributing to trophoblast impairment and pregnancy complications.

The polymer purpald (4-amino-3-hydrazino-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole) film on glassy carbon electrode (p-Purpald@GCE) was fabricated using purpald monomer by electropolymerization method, and the modified electrode was applied as a probe for the simultaneous sensing of ascorbic acid (AA), uric acid (UA), L-cysteine (L-Cys) and lipoic acid (LA). The modified p-Purpald@GCE was well characterized by Scanning electrode microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Differential Pulse Voltammetry (DPV) techniques. CV, EIS results were confirmed the good electrocatayst nature of p-Purpald@GCE. Independent and simultaneous detection of AA, UA, L-Cys, and LA ware performed by DPV method. For Independent detection, based on the oxidation current changes, we have calculated the limit of detection (LOD) of 392, 137, 341 and 200 nM (LOD) = 3S/m) for AA, UA, L-Cys and LA, respectively. The simultaneous detection of AA, UA, L-Cys, and LA executed and LOD found to be 364, 132, 275 and 192 nM, respectively. The modified electrode shows the high selectivity towards AA, UA, L-Cys and LA even in the presence of high concentration of other interferences. The developed sensor technique will be useful for the sensitive and simultaneous detection of AA, UA, L-Cys, and LA in food and clinical samples.

School-age children living near large petrochemical factories may be at high risk of exposure to benzene released during manufacturing processes. We aimed to investigate the urinary concentrations of trans, trans-muconic acid (t,t-MA) in school-age children living near a petrochemical complex and to estimate their cumulative risk of benzene exposure. We examined an established cohort (Taiwan Petrochemical Complex Cohort for Children, TPE3C) of school-age children (aged 6–13 years) who lived near large petrochemical factories in central Taiwan between October 2013 and September 2014. The cohort comprised 297 children from five elementary schools, namely S.-C. Branch (n = 63, school A, ~0.9 km), F.-A. (n = 51, school B, ~2.7 km), C.-T. (n = 63, school C, ~5.5 km), M.-L. (n = 54, school D, ~6.9 km), and L.-F. (n = 66, school E, ~8.6 km). We analyzed the urinary t,t-MA levels of each participant and estimated their daily intake of benzene. We also performed multiple regression analysis to investigate potential risk factors for a high urinary t,t-MA level in the study cohort. The median urinary t,t-MA levels and median estimated benzene daily intake of the children from each school were as follows: school A, 64.07 ng/mL, 11.13 μg/kg/day; school B, 61.01 ng/mL, 15.32 μg/kg/day; school C, 59.38 ng/mL, 14.81 μg/kg/day; school D, 42.35 ng/mL, 11.67 μg/kg/day; school E, undetected, 0.14 μg/kg/day. The distance between a school and a petrochemical complex (greater distance: β = −0.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.52 to 0.00, p = 0.053), and the age of the children (older age: β = −3.44, 95% CI = −5.90 to −1.46, p < 0.001) were identified as potential risk factors. After confounders were adjusted for, the creatinine adjusted urinary t,t-MA levels of the school-age children tended to be lower when the distance between their school and a petrochemical complex was greater.

Abstract This study attempts to synthesize biodiesel as a green liquid fuel from Jatropha curcas oil (JCO) utilizing waste eggshell (WES) as an effective and excellent sustainable source of the heterogeneous catalyst under the application of environmentally benign microwave heating technique. After preparing the CaO-based catalyst, diverse characterization techniques such as X-Ray Diffraction, Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller were employed for characterization measurements. Under different optimized conditions, a considerable high biodiesel yield of 92% was attained while employing the following reaction conditions; methanol to oil molar ratio of 9:1, 5 wt% catalyst loading, 165 min reaction time with a microwave power of 800 W, and a 65 °C reaction temperature. The developed catalyst had significantly retained its reusability up to the 5th cycle of reuse. The catalysed transesterification process's activation energy of 38.5 kJ mol−1 demonstrated that the reaction is chemically controlled. Therefore, the WES has been utilized as a renewable base heterogeneous catalyst for novel biodiesel synthesis from JCO, which can be applied in diesel engines to lessen air pollution, specifically pollutant emissions from diesel vehicles. The results of this study are not for academic purposes only. They can also serve as models for industrial biodiesel production by exploiting bio-waste as catalysts and non-edible oils as feedstocks in microwave heating systems as environmentally friendly chemistry systems. In addition, our study uses non-consumable oil feedstock and bio-waste materials in an economical way to produce biofuel while contributing to environmental sustainability and sustainable bio-waste management. This approach extends to the existing state-of-the-art research.