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South African higher education institutions have been grappling with the high dropout rate, specifically at first year level. Despite universities' attempts to implement various strategies to increase student retention, there is very little or no empirical warrant to validate these attempts of research in the South African context. Hence, the aim of this study is to explore how disciplinespecific peer mentoring impacts first year students' academic performance. The two most significant findings of this study are that firstly, the mean continuous assessment mark of the mentees (73.6) is significantly higher compared to students who were not mentees and, secondly, the mentees' final examination performance was also higher (60.9 versus 52.9). This study highlights the possibilities of using peer mentoring to improve first years' academic performance. The evidence as revealed in the study provides insights into these possibilities. For example, the peer mentees indicated that they the peer mentors weekly motivational messages inspired them to continue with their studies and the continuous support from the peer mentors assisted them to understand the difficult concepts of Economics. While this study did not focus on the peer mentors, we also found that they were willing to participate voluntarily in this programme, as they believed that there are multiple benefits to being a peer mentor. We argue that the implementation of discipline-specific peer mentoring programmes across all disciplines could facilitate student retention and increase the overall pass rate of first year students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A promising strategy for cocaine addiction treatment is the anti-drug vaccine. These vaccines induce the production of anticocaine antibodies, capable of linking to cocaine, and decrease the passage of cocaine throughout the blood-brain barrier, decreasing drug activity in the brain. Our research group developed a new vaccine candidate, the UFMG-V4N2, to treat cocaine use disorders (CUD) using an innovative carrier based on calixarenes. This study assessed the safety and immunogenicity of the anti-cocaine vaccine UFMG-VAC-V4N2 in a non-human primate toxicity study using single and multiple vaccine doses. The UFMG-VAC-V4N2 yielded only mild effects in the injection site and did not influence the general health, feeding behavior, or hematological, renal, hepatic, or metabolic parameters in the vaccinated marmosets. The anti-cocaine vaccine UFMG-VAC-V4N2 presented a favorable safety profile and induced the expected immune response in a non-human primate model of Callithrix penicillata. This preclinical UFMG-VAC-V4N2 study responds to the criteria required by international regulatory agencies contributing to future anticocaine clinical trials of this anti-cocaine vaccine., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Major trauma has seen a demographic shift in recent years and it is expected that the elderly population will comprise a greater burden on the major trauma service in the near future. However, whether a similar trend exists in those undergoing operative intervention for spinal trauma remains to be elucidated., Aims: To compare the presentation and outcomes of patients ≥65 years of age sustaining spine trauma to those <65 years at a national tertiary referral spine centre., Methods: The local Trauma Audit Research Network (TARN) database was analysed to identify spinal patients referred to our institution, a national tertiary referral centre, between 01/2016 and 05/2019. Patients were divided into a young cohort (16-64 years old) and an elderly cohort (> 64 years old). No explicit distinction was made between major and minor spine trauma cases. Variables analysed included patient demographics, injury severity, mortality, interventions, mechanism of injury and length of hospital stay., Results: A total of 669 patients were admitted of which 480 patients underwent operative intervention for spinal trauma. Within the elderly cohort, this represented 75.3% of cases. Among the younger population, road traffic collisions were the most common mechanism of injury (37.1%), while low falls (<2 m) (57.4%) were the most common mechanism among the older population. Patients ≥65 years old had significantly longer length of stay (21 days [1-194] v 14 days [1-183]) and suffered higher 30-day mortality rates (4.6% [0-12] v 0.97% [0-4])., Conclusion: Orthopaedic spinal trauma in older people is associated with a significantly higher mortality rate as well as a longer duration of hospitalization. Even though severity of injury is similar for both young and old patients, the mechanism of injury for the older population is of typically much lower energy compared to the high energy trauma affecting younger patients., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest None., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Cellulose at the nanoparticle scale has been studied as a reinforcement for biodegradable matrices to improve film properties. The goal has been to investigate the properties of starch/gelatin/cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) films. Eleven treatments were considered using RCCD (rotatable central composite design), in addition to four control treatments. For each assay, the following dependent variables were measured: water vapor permeability (WVP), thickness, opacity and mechanical properties. The microstructure and thermal properties of the films were also assessed. Increases in gelatin and CNC concentrations lead to increases in film thickness, strength and elongation at break. The films containing only gelatin in their matrix displayed better results than the starch films, and the addition of CNC had a positive effect on the assessed response variables. The films exhibited homogeneous and cohesive structures, indicating strong interactions between the filler and matrix. Films with low levels of gelatin and CNC presented the maximum degradation temperature., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)