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Background: Undergraduate students need to possess the skills to read a nursing textbook critically. Professor-made guided reading podcasts were added to a junior-level first medical-surgical nursing course to develop textbook reading skills and focus on essential knowledge points for success., Method: A total of 148 students were asked to complete a voluntary, anonymous, cross-sectional, descriptive survey about their use and perceptions of the podcasts, with 36.49% ( n = 54) of students consenting to participate., Results: Of the participants, 61.11% ( n = 33) of students listened to all or most podcasts, and 78% ( n = 39) of students agreed or strongly agreed that the podcasts were helpful to their learning., Conclusion: Implementing professor-made guided reading podcasts was a helpful educational innovation to assist nursing students in critically reading the textbook, which will be continued for future course iterations. [ J Nurs Educ . 2024;63(X):XXX-XXX.] .

Introduction: Peer mentoring programs can be a valuable support mechanism for new faculty transitioning from clinical practice to academia. Mentors play a crucial role in this process. This study described mentors' perceived competence in 21 areas of the mentor role and their experiences as mentors following the first year of a structured peer mentoring program., Methods: This study employed a mixed-methods approach, using the Mentoring Competency Assessment-21 alongside open-ended questions. These instruments were electronically administered to a convenience sample consisting of eight mentors with varying experience ranging from 2 to 16 years in the nursing program at a mid-sized university, following an intentional first-year peer mentoring program., Results: The highest-performing items were "Establishing a relationship based on trust" (M 6.50, SD 0.53), "Considering how personal and professional differences may impact expectations" (M 6.25, 0.83), and "Acknowledging your mentee's professional contributions" (M 6.13, SD 0.99). The lowest scores were focused on estimating scientific knowledge and scholarly productivity. Responses to the Mentoring Competency Assessment-21 indicated that mentors felt at least moderately competent in the various aspects of the faculty mentor role. Mentors valued the professional development and supporting materials provided by the development team. An identified area for improvement was the support provided to assist the mentees' scholarly development., Discussion: This study underscores the importance of supportive materials, such as handbooks and regular communication, in fostering mentor competence and facilitating successful nursing faculty peer mentoring programs. Future research implications include assessment of mentor competence by mentees and long-term follow-up of program outcomes., Competing Interests: Disclosures: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions, the Association for Hospital Medical Education, and the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education.)

Eukaryotes utilize different communication strategies to coordinate processes between different cellular compartments either indirectly, through vesicular transport, or directly, via membrane contact sites (MCSs). MCSs have been implicated in lipid metabolism, calcium signaling and the regulation of organelle biogenesis in various cell types. Several studies have shown that MCSs play a crucial role in the regulation of macroautophagy, an intracellular catabolic transport route that is characterized by the delivery of cargoes (proteins, protein complexes or aggregates, organelles and pathogens) to yeast and plant vacuoles or mammalian lysosomes, for their degradation and recycling into basic metabolites. Macroautophagy is characterized by the de novo formation of double-membrane vesicles called autophagosomes, and their biogenesis requires an enormous amount of lipids. MCSs appear to have a central role in this supply, as well as in the organization of the autophagy-related (ATG) machinery. In this review, we will summarize the evidence for the participation of specific MCSs in autophagosome formation, with a focus on the budding yeast and mammalian systems.

Macroautophagy/autophagy is a conserved catabolic pathway during which cellular material is sequestered within newly formed double-membrane vesicles called autophagosomes and delivered to the lytic compartment of eukaryotic cells for degradation. Autophagosome biogenesis depends on the core autophagy-related (Atg) machinery, and involves a massive supply and remodelling of membranes. To gain insight into the lipid remodelling mechanisms during autophagy, we have systematically investigated whether lipid flippases are required for this pathway in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae . We found that the flippase Drs2, which transfers phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine from the lumenal to the cytosolic leaflet of the limiting membrane at the trans-Golgi network, is required for normal progression of autophagy. We also show that Drs2 is important for the trafficking of the core Atg protein Atg9. Atg9 is a transmembrane protein important for autophagosome biogenesis and its anterograde transport from its post-Golgi reservoirs to the site of autophagosome formation is severely impaired in the absence of Drs2. Thus, our results identify a novel autophagy player and highlight that membrane asymmetry regulates early autophagy steps.

To meet the anabolic demands of the proliferative potential of tumor cells, malignant cells tend to rewire their metabolic pathways. Although different types of malignant cells share this phenomenon, there is a large intracellular variability how these metabolic patterns are altered. Fortunately, differences in metabolic patterns between normal tissue and malignant cells can be exploited to increase the therapeutic ratio. Modulation of cellular metabolism to improve treatment outcome is an emerging field proposing a variety of promising strategies in primary tumor and metastatic lesion treatment. These strategies, capable of either sensitizing or protecting tissues, target either tumor or normal tissue and are often focused on modulating of tissue oxygenation, hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) stabilization, glucose metabolism, mitochondrial function and the redox balance. Several compounds or therapies are still in under (pre-)clinical development, while others are already used in clinical practice. Here, we describe different strategies from bench to bedside to optimize the therapeutic ratio through modulation of the cellular metabolism. This review gives an overview of the current state on development and the mechanism of action of modulators affecting cellular metabolism with the aim to improve the radiotherapy response on tumors or to protect the normal tissue and therefore contribute to an improved therapeutic ratio., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 van Gisbergen, Zwilling and Dubois.)