Quinoline derivatives are known to possess a range of bioactive and medicinal activities, which have been exploited in the design of antibacterial, antifungal and antimalarial compounds. In this study, we report on the microbiological toxicity of a series of 1-alkylquinolinium bromides against a range of clinically relevant microorganisms, in both planktonic and sessile (biofilm) cultures. A comparison of antimicrobial activity against planktonic bacteria and established biofilms is presented. In general, 1-alkylquinolinium ionic liquids possess excellent, broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against microorganisms grown in both the planktonic and sessile, or biofilm, mode of growth. Importantly, these compounds are potent against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, as well as fungi, with a clear dependency on length of the alkyl substituent for activity, with compounds containing twelve and fourteen carbons in the alkyl group exhibiting highest antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity.

No abstract

No abstract

Anatomy education research has identified neuroanatomy and pelvic anatomy as particularly challenging to medical students. However, perceptions of the whole undergraduate anatomy curriculum have not been properly determined. One hundred eightyfive second year medical student evaluations showed that neuroanatomy and head and neck and pelvic anatomy were rated significantly harder than the remainder of the curriculum (p < 0.0001). However, students at the National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition did not rate neuroanatomy harder than the other subjects. This study identifies topics which are perceived to be the most difficult to learn and targeting these will make the biggest differences in medical student learning experience.

Abstract:It is important that clinicians are able to adequately assess their level of knowledge and competence in order to be safe practitioners of medicine. The medical literature is rife with examples of poor self-assessment accuracy amongst medical students over a range of subjects however this ability in neuroanatomy has yet to be observed. Second year medical students attending neuroanatomy revision sessions at the University of Southampton and the competitors of the National Undergraduate Neuroanatomy Competition (NUNC) were asked to rate their level of knowledge in neuroanatomy. The responses from the former group were compared to performance on a 10 item MCQ examination and the latter group were compared to their performance within the competition. In both cohorts self-assessments of perceived level of knowledge correlated weakly to their performance in their respective objective knowledge assessments (r=0.30 and r=0.41). Within the NUNC this correlation improved when students were instead asked to rate their performance on a specific examination within the competition (spotter, r=0.64; MCQ, r=0.6). Despite its inherent difficulty, medical student self-assessment accuracy in neuroanatomy is comparable to other subjects within the medical curriculum.