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A comprehensive CAD/CAM dentistry curriculum that includes broad aspects of single tooth restoration has been implemented at the University of Illinois College of Dentistry (COD) since 2010. The purpose of the program is to promote an educational environment that utilizes current technology to enhance the quality and efficiency of single-tooth dental treatment offered to patients, while also preparing graduating students to apply recent and future clinical advances. This article describes the history, organization, rationale, and objectives of the tooth-supported restorative aspects of our comprehensive pre-clinical and clinical CAD/CAM curriculum and presents the educational and clinical outcomes of this program.

Peer leader programs train students in supporting introductory learners in traditional classrooms via instructional sessions of peer-to-peer learning. Assessments of these programs typically focus on benefits to learners rather than leaders, with any gains for leaders shown via self-reported growth measures. This study examined benefits to leaders using additional indexes such as standardized scores of content knowledge and grade point average. Participants were high-achieving psychology students who underwent a pedagogical training program and led instructional sessions for learners weekly. We found evidence that peer leaders experience gains in content knowledge, academic success, and career readiness. Peer leader programs serve as useful additions to academic programs by aiding learning in classrooms and improving leadership abilities and content knowledge in advanced students.

Social media is riddled with memes (i.e., captioned images intended to convey cultural ideas or beliefs) that often promote maladaptive and unsupported beliefs about human development and parenting. This paper presents a scientific writing assignment designed to help spread accurate information on human development beyond the classroom through creation and sharing of original material on social media. Students were tasked with identifying applicable themes of the course, transforming these themes into scientific memes with supporting research articles, posting these materials to social media, and reflecting on their experiences. This assignment helps students develop critical thinking and scientific literacy, as well as their ability to apply course concepts to everyday life and share those applications with others. Student outcomes from several sections of Lifespan Development--those with the scientific meme assignment versus those with a traditional writing assignment--were analyzed for differences in quantitative measures of student success (i.e., grades). Students' written reflections were also assessed for common themes. Findings suggest advantages of social media assignments with regard to students' sense of purpose, experience with scholarly discourse, and student growth, and may inspire creation of additional innovative assignments that promote student learning and application.

Many studies report that comorbid borderline personality pathology is associated with poorer outcomes in the treatment of Axis I disorders. Given the high rates of comorbidity between borderline personality pathology and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it is essential to determine whether borderline symptomatology affects PTSD treatment outcome. This study examined the effects of borderline personality characteristics (BPC) on 131 female rape victims receiving cognitive-behavioral treatment for PTSD. Higher BPC scores were associated with greater pretreatment PTSD severity; however, individuals with higher levels of BPC were just as likely to complete treatment and also as likely to show significant treatment response on several outcome measures. There were no significant interactions between type of treatment and BPC on the outcome variables. Findings suggest that women with borderline pathology may be able to benefit significantly from cognitive-behavioral treatment for PTSD.