Assessing the reaction to and efficacy of the Screener drug discovery and development board game as a pedagogical tool in postgraduate courses

Screener, a board game supplemented with online resources, was introduced and distributed by the Brazilian Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics to postgraduate programs as an instructional tool for the process of drug discovery and development (DDD). In this study, we provided a comprehensive analysis of five critical aspects for evaluating the quality of educational games, namely: 1) description of the intervention; 2) underlying pedagogical theory; 3) identification of local educational gaps; 4) impact on diverse stakeholders; and 5) elucidation of iterative quality enhancement processes. We also present qualitative and quantitative assessments of the effectiveness of this game in 11 postgraduate courses. We employed the MEEGA+ online survey, comprising thirty-three close-ended unipolar items with 5-point Likert-type response scales, to assess student perceptions of the quality and utility of Screener. Based on 115 responses, the results indicated a highly positive outlook among students. In addition, we performed a preliminary evaluation of learning outcomes in two courses involving 28 students. Pre- and post-quizzes were applied, each consisting of 20 True/False questions directly aligned with the game's content. The analysis revealed significant improvement in students' performance following engagement with the game, with scores rising from 8.4 to 13.3 (P<0.0001, paired t-test) and 9.7 to 12.7 (P<0.0001, paired t-test). These findings underscore the utility of Screener as an enjoyable and effective tool for facilitating a positive learning experience in the DDD process. Notably, the game can also reduce the educational disparities across different regions of our continental country.

Redox states and associated interchain processes of thienylenevinylene oligomers

The electronic structure of successive redox states of two series of thienylenevinylene oligomers (nTVs, n=4, 5, 6, 8, and 12) that carry hexyl substituents at the alpha- or beta-positions in order to increase the solubility was investigated in detail by means of UV/ Vis/near-IR and ESR spectroscopy in solution. The nTV redox states have been fully characterized up to the dication for the shorter oligomers (n < or = 6) and up to the tetracation for the longer oligomers (n > or = 8). While the monocation radicals of the nTVs exhibit two dipole-allowed electronic transitions in the Vis/near-IR region, all the higher oxidized states invariably show a single strong absorption in the near-IR region. The electronic transitions of the various oxidized states and those of their vibronic replicas shift to lower energies with increasing conjugation length. The ESR spectra, recorded as a function of the degree of oxidation, provide evidence for the presence of electron spin in the odd-charged and the absence of spin in even-charged cations. Variable-temperature UV/Vis/near-IR and ESR spectroscopy establish that the tendency of the nTV monocation radicals to form spin-less alpha dimers in solution strongly depends on the number of solubilizing hexyl groups. While the oligomers that carry two hexyl chains at the a-positions of the terminal thiophenes (alpha-nTVs) readily form pi dimers at low temperature, the oligomers that carry hexyl groups on the beta- and beta'-positions of every thiophene ring (beta-nTVs) do not form pi dimers. Low-temperature UV/ Vis/near-IR and ESR experiments on solutions in which neutral and singly oxidized nTVs are simultaneously present, reveal the occurrence of interchain interactions between these two species, accompanied by a pronounced change in the existing disproportionation equilibrium.