Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Ciencias
Médicas
University
of Puerto Rico ,
Medical Sciences Campus
Decanato de Asuntos Académicos, Office of the Dean for Academic Affairs
XXV ANNUAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION FORUM
“Diversidad
en Investigación y Educación de Avanzada en las Ciencias y la Salud:
De la Academia a la Práctica”
March 16-18, 2005
GENERAL GUIDELINES
This package contains the following:
Guidelines for Abstract Submission
Instructions for Preparation of the Abstract
Instructions and Information for Presentations
Guidelines and Criteria for Student Competition
GUIDELINES FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
Authors: Authors may appear in an
unlimited number of abstracts but only one abstract from each first author will
be selected for presentation at the forum. The first author must present
the work at the forum. It is required that a submission form
“Formulario de Resumen” accompanies each abstract.
Eligibility
Criteria:
Faculty members and students throughout Puerto Rico are invited to submit their
abstracts. Only complete and properly prepared abstracts will be considered for
acceptance. Incomplete or improperly prepared abstracts will be returned to the
first author.
Corrections,
Substitutions & Withdrawals: Abstracts submitted before January 13, 2005 can be withdrawn for amendments or correction of
errors via an official written request to the Scientific Forum Sub-Committee. However,
corrected abstracts are still subject to the deadline requirement. After
the deadline of January 13, 2005, the
committee will no longer receive new or amended abstracts. Abstracts that are
selected by the committee for an oral or poster presentation cannot be
withdrawn. Errors in selected abstracts must be acknowledged and corrected
during the presentation. Substitute
abstracts will not be accepted after the deadline.
Abstract
Selection:
Abstracts will be selected by the Scientific Forum Sub-Committee for either an
oral or a poster presentation. The prime criteria will be the quality of the
research or education project as reflected in the abstract. Selections will be made according to the
following criteria: general objectives and relevance to the central theme of
the forum, congruency of the title with the content, information is in
accordance to the guidelines, relation with the areas of the forum, and
inclusion of the elements solicited in the guidelines. The number of abstracts
chosen for presentation, as well as the format of presentation, will depend on
time and space available during the forum. Special attention
will be given to the inclusion of statistical analysis when deemed essential in
research projects.
Publication
of Abstracts:
Abstracts will be published without editing in “Abstracts of the Annual
Research and Education Forum” – by direct photographic reproduction of the
abstract submission form – via an offset printing process. Errors in the
submitted form will also appear in the printed abstract. Authors must
carefully review all abstracts that include his or her name. The abstracts will
be published in the Puerto Rico Health Sciences Journal.
Notification of programming: The first author will be
notified via E-mail during the first week of February whether his or her abstract
is selected for an oral or poster presentation.
INSTRUCTIONS
FOR PREPARATION OF THE ABSTRACT
- Read all the Instructions and Guidelines First!
- All abstracts must be submitted together with the submission form
in an ELECTRONIC FORMAT. This
can be either by e-mail or on-line at the XXV Forum Web Page FORO2005.rcm.upr.edu, All
abstracts should be received NO LATER THAN
- Submit your abstract as a Microsoft
Word document. All text should be
in Arial, 10-point font.
- Practice first – Type your abstract drawing a box measuring 4 x
6.5 inches on plain paper.
- Begin the Title of the abstract inside the left margin. Maintain
indentation until title, names and institutions are completed.
- List authors, capitalizing initials and last names. Each author
should be listed by department and institution. The addresses should
follow the last author’s name. Addresses may be abbreviated.
- Start the text of the abstract on a new line, without indentation,
and use the entire width of space.
- Type the original within the 4 x 6.5 space indicated. The body of
the abstract should be no more than 250 words.
- Proofread the abstract carefully before submission. Abstracts not
suitable for reproduction will be rejected. Only the original Abstract is
acceptable for reproduction.
TITLE
Use a short, specific title
with upper and lower case letters that indicates the content of the abstract.
Capitalize only the first letter of each major word, except prepositions,
articles, and species names. Do not abbreviate compounds in the title of the
abstract. The title should be in bold.
Example: Analysis of the
Modulation of Functional Output in the Callinectes
sapidus Cardiac System
CONTENT OF THE ABSTRACT
The entire abstract should
be typed single-spaced, as one (1) uninterrupted paragraph with no margins.
- Capitalize the initial
letters of trade names
- Use standard
abbreviations for units of measure.
- Other abbreviations
should be spelled out in full at the first mention, followed by the
abbreviation in parentheses (except DNA, RNA, etc.).
An abstract for a research project should
be informative and contain (see
sample below):
·
A justification for the project
·
A sentence stating the study’s specific objectives.
·
A brief description of the methods.
·
A short summary of the results obtained. It is NOT satisfactory
to say: “The results will be discussed”
·
A statement of the conclusions.
·
The source of funding must be acknowledged at the end of the abstract (i.e. NIH, MBRS, RCMI, etc.).
An abstract for an education
project should be descriptive
and contain (see sample below):
·
A rationale for the project.
·
A sentence stating the
main objective and/or specific objectives.
·
A brief description of strategies and/or activities.
·
A short summary of the results and/or
outcomes obtained.
·
A statement of the conclusions and/ or
projections.
·
The source of funding must be acknowledged at the end of the abstract
(i.e. HRSA, DOED, etc.).
INSTRUCTIONS
AND INFORMATION FOR PRESENTATIONS
Presentations: Abstracts will be selected for oral or poster
presentations.
Oral presentations: Will be limited to 15 minutes, 10 minutes for
the presentation and 5 minutes for the discussion session that will be monitored
by the moderator of the session. Each of the rooms for oral sessions will
be equipped with a video projector and a laptop computer. It is suggested that the presenter be at the
room 15 minutes before the starting time of the oral session. The presenter will bring the presentation on
a Windows readable USB flash drive, a CD-ROM or a 250 MB Zip Disk. If the presentation
requires multiple floppy disks, please utilize PowerPoint’s Pack and Go feature.
When preparing your presentation, make sure
to include in the same folder as your presentation any external files utilized,
e.g. movie files. Copy the entire folder to the disk. Review these specifications
when preparing your presentation. It is recommended to bring a backup presentation
format to cover the possibility of any technical problem.
Poster presentation sessions: Poster presentation sessions
for research and education projects will be scheduled during the first and second
day of the Forum. Each session will have
duration of one hour and a half. The
presenter should mount the poster at
Poster preparation: Purpose: A poster is a graphically
based approach to presenting research and education projects that should cover
the KEY POINTS of the research work. It is able to: attract attention, provide
a brief overview of your work, generate active discussion and questioning
during a short time frame. Format: The
standard format for a poster is: Title: A banner with the title should
appear at the top-center over the complete width of the board. Below the title, put the author(s)' name(s) and institutions(s). Summary: Shortly summarize the
justification or rationale for the project, the methods, activities or
strategies and the main results or outcomes, and conclusions. Introduction:
Provide clear statements about the background of the problem and/or hypothesis
and its relevance. Also describe the main and specifics aims and objectives. Methods: Explain the methodologies, strategies
or activities that have been used to address the problem. Also state and
justify any assumptions, so that your results or outcomes can be viewed in the
proper context. Results: Show the main results or outcomes. Use graphs,
diagrams and/or photos. Conclusion: List the main findings. References: Cite only a few of the most important
references. Acknowledgements: Acknowledge collaborators as well as the
funding sponsors. Further Work: May include recommendations and
thoughts about future work. Design and Layout: Must be mounted on a 4’ * 8’ board, but
does not necessarily have to fill the entire dimension and must be oriented in
the "landscape" position. A banner displaying your poster title,
name, and department (or class, if appropriate) should be positioned at
top-center of the board. Make it obvious to the viewer how to progressively
view the poster and read (from left to right, and top to bottom), numbering the individual panels, or
connecting them with arrows is a standard "guidance system" (see Figure 1 below). Leave some open
space in the design. An open layout is less tiring to the eye and mind.
Figure 1: Conventional layouts for a
poster. Long panel at top-center is title/author banner. Individual panels can
be connected by numbers and arrows. Also, note the use of space between panels
to achieve visual appeal.
Graphs and
diagrams: A picture can replace lots
of words. All visuals should be labeled
with a figure number and title, identifying axes labels, units etc. Choose
appropriate graph types (e.g. bar-graphs, line-graphs, pie-charts). Drawings and labels should be large and clear
enough to be legible from a distance. Tables can be useful to present information concisely, not
only statistical information, but also other categories. Make sure they are
simple, and do not contain excessive information. General Ideas: The
most effective posters provide minimal text and keep the material simple. Make full use of the space, but do not cramp
a page full of information. Use headings to indicate each poster section. Use
only pertinent information. Be selective
when showing results or outcomes. Present only those that illustrate the main
findings. However, do keep other results handy so that you may refer to them
when asked. Consider using "bullet
statements" to make your points short and clear. The rules on text are
"less is more" and "bigger is better." Limit the text to
about one-fourth of the poster space, and use "visuals" (graphs,
photographs, schematics, maps, etc.) to tell the "story." Colors should be used only to emphasize,
differentiate and to add interest. Do not use colors just to impress! Equations should be kept to a minimum. Poster
preparation with Power Point: Crate a blank presentation. Go to File –
Page Setup- set size to desired stats (examples: 56”x 36”, 48”x 36”). Posters can be printed up to 56” long, but
they should always be 36”wide. Text font
size should be from16 to 30 and titles usually from 60 to 100. It is preferable to us ipg format to incorporate graphics to your slide. If a background is going to be used, it
should be a light color or a mix with white.
GUIDELINES
AND CRITERIA FOR STUDENT COMPETITION: AWARDS FOR ORAL OR POSTER PRESENTATIONS
The student competition
consists in the selection and recognition by the Awards Subcommittee of the
best oral or poster presentations during the Forum by students in each of the
following four categories:
1. Masters,
Certificates and Fellows
2. Philosophy
(Ph.D.) and Public Health (Dr. PH) Doctorates
3.
Professional Doctorates
4.
Undergraduates
And in each of the five
content areas:
1. Applied
Sciences
2. Basic
Sciences
3. Clinical
Sciences
4. Education
5. Epidemiology
For the student competition evaluation
criteria please refer to the appendix: Oral and Poster Presentations Awards
Criteria.
A first and second prize will be awarded for
those presentations that obtain the highest scores.
A vacancy will be announced in any of the categories or areas for the
following reasons: No competitors available in the category or area; the
competitor(s) did not obtain the minimal points required for the prize.
Medical
Sciences Campus students will compete for award certificates plus seed money
for expenses related to their research and education project. This money will
be administered by the Medical Sciences Campus, Deanship for Academic Affairs.
Students from other Universities will compete for award certificates only.
The awards will be announced and the certificates
will be handed out at the closing session of the forum scheduled
on Friday 18, 2005,
SAMPLE
ABSTRACT FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS
Differential Expression of Caveolins During
C6 Glia Differentiation.
W.I. Silva; J.D. Miranda; M. Rubio-Dávila; J. Jardón; G. VelázquezI.
Salgado; C. Torres; F. Valentín; M. Quiñones; N. Mayol; H. Maldonado.
The
discovery of caveolae (CAV) and caveolins (Cav) isoforms 1, 2 and 3 in the
brain has led to an increased interest to elucidate their neurobiological
role(s). We evaluated the expression of Cav isoforms in the differentiation of
C6 glioma cells. Time course analysis using RT-PCR and western blot analysis
showed a gradual increase in Cav-1 expression after induction of
differentiation with a peak of expression at 48 hrs. A significant increase (p
0.05) in Cav-2 mRNA expression was observed during the first 4 hrs after
differentiation and later at 48 hrs as in the case of Cav-1. Western blot
analysis showed an increase in protein expression after 12 hrs of
differentiation. These results indicate that Cav-2 gradual up-regulation seen
after 12 hrs, is preceded by an early increase in the
expression of its mRNA. In Cav-3, an early peak was observed during the first 4
to 8 hrs. This isoform seems to be an early differentiation marker, revealing
parallel changes in mRNA and protein expression. These results suggested that
Cav-3 expression is regulated at the transcriptional level. Immunocytochemical
studies using antibodies against all Cav's revealed that Cav-1 and Cav-2
displayed similar subcellular distribution patterns before and after 48 hrs of
differentiation, suggesting their co-localization. Co-localization observed
between Cav-1 and Cav-3 isoforms may relate to their levels of expression. The
C6 astroglia model system permits the assessment of the role of CAV and Cav in
glial cell maturation and differentiation. The C6 differentiation process is
akin to developmental events of gliogenesis, and to the astrogliosis, seen in
neurological insults. Therefore, the value of this model system is to further
the understanding of the relevance of CAV and Cav in these physiological and
pathophysiological events. Supported by NIH grant GM61838 (JJ) and partially
supported by NIH grant GM08224 awarded to WIS.
SAMPLE ABSTRACT FOR EDUCATION PROJECTS
Uso de la Informática para la
Enseñanza en la Escuela de Medicina del Recinto de Ciencias Médicas de la
Universidad de Puerto Rico.
R. Rivera González; D. Herreño-Sáenz. Microbiología y Zoología Médica,
Farmacología y Toxicología, UPR Escuela de Medicina,
El propósito del estudio
fue buscar el sentir, la experiencia y el conocimiento de la facultad de la
Escuela de Medicina sobre el uso de la informática en la enseñanza de los
cursos de medicina e identificar los recursos disponibles y las necesidades de
equipo y entrenamiento. El estudio se realizó entre agosto de 2002 y febrero de
2003. Se preparó y validó un cuestionario que se distribuyó entre los 393
miembros de la facultad de la Escuela de Medicina del Recinto de Ciencias
Médicas y se obtuvo una respuesta de 203 facultativos que corresponde a un 52%
de la facultad. El análisis de la data recopilada presenta los siguientes
resultados: 70% de la muestra tiene acceso a la red electrónica del Recinto de
Ciencias Médicas desde su oficina y solamente el 46% de la muestra la accesa
desde fuera del Recinto. En la preparación de las conferencias para los
estudiantes, el 93% de la facultad utiliza programas de presentaciones, 92%
utiliza bancos de datos y el 86% utiliza motores de búsqueda. El 71% considera
que domina los programas de presentación de información, el 61% el manejo de los
bancos bibliográficos y el 57% los motores de búsquedas. Menos del 50% de la
facultad indica haber recibido algún tipo de apoyo como equipo, programado,
apoyo técnico y adiestramiento en informática por parte de la institución. Mas
del 50% de la facultad indica que no ha participado en los talleres de
mejoramiento profesional ofrecidos por el Programa de Desarrollo de Facultad.
Algunos de los tópicos que la Facultad considera importantes para su
mejoramiento profesional son: Como utilizar WebCT como recurso para la
enseñanza y para el desarrollo de cursos a distancia, como incorporar la
tecnología y multi-medios en la enseñanza, como desarrollar destrezas
pedagógicas y estrategias de enseñanza utilizando recursos de informática.
Auspiciado por: Centro Hispano de Excelencia de la Escuela de Medicina, UPR.
These
guidelines were developed by the Planning Committee for the Annual Research and
Education Forum of the Medical Sciences Campus,
Revised Version: October, 2004