A three-tiered experiment for undergraduate Instrumental Analysis students is presented in which students characterize the solid-state thermal behavior of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (acetaminophen) and excipient (a-lactose hydrate) using differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and thermal microscopy. Students are…

Three educational interventions were simulated in a system dynamics model of the medical use, trafficking, and nonmedical use of pharmaceutical opioids. The study relied on secondary data obtained in the literature for the period of 1995 to 2008 as well as expert panel recommendations regarding model parameters and structure. The behavior of the…

Information and communication technologies have become important tools for teaching scientific subjects such as anatomy and histology as well as other, nondescriptive subjects like physiology and pharmacology. Software has been used to facilitate the learning of specific concepts at the cellular and molecular levels in the biological and health…

Objective: In 2006, the Housestaff Association presented the Dean at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) with a proposal to effectively end the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on campus. The Dean convened a workgroup to examine the issue, and faculty, residents, and medical students were surveyed on their views and interactions.…

This paper presents a systematic review, rating and synthesis of the empirical evidence for the use of psychotropic medications in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Thirty-three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in peer-reviewed journals qualified for inclusion and were coded and analyzed using a systematic evaluative…

The current study analyzes a sample of questions about drugs asked online by youth who participated in the National Institute on Drug Abuse's (NIDA) "Drug Facts Chat Day." The types of drugs youth asked about were coded into 17 substance categories, and the topics they raised were coded into seven thematic categories. The top five…

Using current research and real-life scenarios to motivate students to understand chemistry principles is a key strategy in learning and teaching. An illustration of psychoactive drugs referred to as "legal highs" used in the U.K. and Europe is presented to highlight key chemistry principles and relate the importance of chemistry…

This study aims at evaluating perceived service quality in Zanjan University of Medical Sciences (ZUMS). This study was cross-sectional and authors surveyed educational services at ZUMS. Through stratified random sampling, 384 students were selected and an adapted SERVQUAL instrument was used for data collection. Data analysis was performed by…

As part of a university-wide project to explore Shakespeare's classic play, "Romeo and Juliet," from a variety of perspectives, an interdisciplinary talk was presented to the university community on the chemistry of the potions and poisons referenced in "Romeo and Juliet." To draw the multidisciplinary audience in and to teach…

This article describes an approach to general chemistry that involves teaching chemical concepts in the context of two thematic laboratory modules: environmental remediation and the fate of pharmaceuticals in the environment. These modules were designed based on active-learning pedagogies and involve multiple-week projects that dictate what…

The sale of bodily goods or services--"body commodification"--is nothing new among college students. But strides in medical technology, the encroachment of market values on all facets of life, and the reach and culture of the Internet have combined to create a fertile environment for people who want or need to exploit the value of their skin or…

NMR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for characterizing and identifying molecules and nowadays is even used to characterize complex systems in biology. In the experiment presented here, students learned how to apply this modern technique to probe interactions between small molecules and proteins. With the use of simple organic synthesis, students…

Nature is a well-recognized source of compounds of interest, but access is often an issue. One pertinent example is the cinchona alkaloids from the bark of "Cinchona calisaya." In this experiment, students at the third-year undergraduate level undertake the selective isolation and characterization of two of the four main alkaloids present in the…

Classification, clustering and association mining are major tasks of data mining and have been widely used for knowledge discovery. Associative classification mining, the combination of both association rule mining and classification, has emerged as an indispensable way to support decision making and scientific research. In particular, it offers a…

A series of laboratory experiments that complement a medicinal chemistry lecture course in drug design and development have been developed. The synthesis of ethyl nalidixate covers three separate experimental procedures, all of which can be completed in three, standard three-hour lab classes and incorporate aspects of green chemistry such as…