Curriculum mapping of accredited pharmacy programs in the United States.

INTRODUCTION: No current guidance exists to inform the content area credit hours for doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) programs in the United States (US). METHODS: Public websites were accessed for all Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) accredited PharmD programs in the US to record the credit hours devoted to drug therapy, clinical skills, experiential learning, scholarship, social and administrative sciences, physiology/pathophysiology, pharmacogenomics, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics in the didactic curricula. Due to the high prevalence of programs that integrate drug therapy, pharmacology, and medicinal chemistry into a single course, we subdivided programs based upon whether drug therapy courses were "integrated" or "non-integrated." A regression analyses was conducted to explore the relationship between each content area and North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) pass rates and residency match rates. RESULTS: Data were available for 140 accredited PharmD programs. Drug therapy had the highest credit hours in programs with both integrated and non-integrated drug therapy courses. Programs with integrated drug therapy courses had significantly more credit hours in experiential and scholarship and fewer credit hours in stand-alone courses for pathophysiology, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacology. Credit hours in content areas did not predict NAPLEX pass rate nor residency match success rate. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first comprehensive description of all ACPE accredited pharmacy schools with credit hours broken down by content areas. While content areas did not directly predict success criteria, these results may still be useful to describe curricular norms or inform the design of future pharmacy curricula.

Disorder agnostic network structure of psychopathology symptoms in youth.

BACKGROUND: Youth mental health disorders are strong predictors of adult mental health disorders. Early identification of mental health disorders in youth is important as it could aid early intervention and prevention. In a disorder agnostic manner, we aimed to identify influential psychopathology symptoms that could impact mental health in youth. METHODS: This study sampled 6063 participants from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort and comprised of youth of ages 12-21 years. A mixed graphical model was used to estimate the network structure of 115 symptoms corresponding to 16 psychopathology domains. Importance of individual symptoms in the network were assessed using node influence measures such as strength centrality and predictability. RESULTS: The generated network had stronger associations between symptoms within a psychopathological domain; overall had no negative associations. A conduct disorder symptom eliciting threatening others and a depression symptom - persistent sadness or depressed mood - had the greatest strength centralities (ß = 2.85). Fear of traveling in a car and compulsively going in and out a door had the largest predictability (classification accuracy = 0.99). Conduct disorder, depression, and obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms generally had the largest strength centralities. Suicidal thoughts had the largest bridge strength centrality (ß = 2.85). Subgroup networks revealed that network structure differed by socioeconomic status (low versus high, p = 0.04) and network connectivity patterns differed by sex (p = 0.01), but not for age or race. CONCLUSIONS: Psychopathology symptom networks offer insights that could be leveraged for early identification, intervention, and possibly prevention of mental health disorders.

Simulated biological fluid exposure changes nanoceria's surface properties but not its biological response.

Nanoscale cerium dioxide (nanoceria) has industrial applications, capitalizing on its catalytic, abrasive, and energy storage properties. It auto-catalytically cycles between Ce3+ and Ce4+, giving it pro-and anti-oxidative properties. The latter mediates beneficial effects in models of diseases that have oxidative stress/inflammation components. Engineered nanoparticles become coated after body fluid exposure, creating a corona, which can greatly influence their fate and effects. Very little has been reported about nanoceria surface changes and biological effects after pulmonary or gastrointestinal fluid exposure. The study objective was to address the hypothesis that simulated biological fluid (SBF) exposure changes nanoceria's surface properties and biological activity. This was investigated by measuring the physicochemical properties of nanoceria with a citric acid coating (size; morphology; crystal structure; surface elemental composition, charge, and functional groups; and weight) before and after exposure to simulated lung, gastric, and intestinal fluids. SBF-exposed nanoceria biological effect was assessed as A549 or Caco-2 cell resazurin metabolism and mitochondrial oxygen consumption rate. SBF exposure resulted in loss or overcoating of nanoceria's surface citrate, greater nanoceria agglomeration, deposition of some SBF components on nanoceria's surface, and small changes in its zeta potential. The engineered nanoceria and SBF-exposed nanoceria produced no statistically significant changes in cell viability or cellular oxygen consumption rates.