PATH30080 Disease Mechanisms And Pharmacological Principles Continuous Assessment (CA) Assignment 2025/26 | UCD

PATH30080 Continuous Assessment (CA) Assignment 2025/26

Worth 20% of the total marks for PATH30080: Disease Mechanisms and Pharmacological Principles

Dear Students,

1. Your Continuous Assessment (CA) assignment is to complete two (2) reviews by presenting, for each topic, two (2) diagrammatic or pathologic images of each topic, together with a legend containing a concise description of what is presented in each image and how it exemplifies the topic under discussion. You should have two (2) separate A4 pages, each labelled with your name and student number at the top and converted to PDF format prior to uploading.

Topics – pick 2 of the following:

1: Coagulative necrosis

2: Metaplasia

3: Lymphadenopathy

4: Purulent inflammation

2. For each submission, display the same topic/representative pathology from two different perspectives, apportioned into Panel A and Panel B as shown by the layout on the template document below. Do not describe the topic in two different pathologies.

3. Possible representative images may include:

• Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E)-stained histology section
• Gross Pathology Specimen
• Schema/Cartoon [Hand-drawn by yourself]
• X-Ray
• CT scan
• Electron microscopy/scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image
• Any other imaging technique that accurately displays an aspect of the chosen topic
• Do not use two of the same image types; so, for example, do not use two H&E images, two gross specimen images etc. Rather, use one of each type of image; so, for example a Gross Pathology Specimen and a H&E section, or an SEM image and cartoon.
• No veterinary images are to be used (do not use an image of mouse/rat/non-human primate tissue)
• Try to include magnification or scale bars on H&E sections and SEM images where available

5. Include a 2-line Topic definition at the start of each assignment, as indicated on the template.
6. Write a Figure Legend for Panel A and Panel B, as shown in the template and example documents below, in Font Calibri, Size 11 single spacing.
7. This Figure legend should clearly and succinctly describe what the figure is showing so that the reader can learn about the topic. Please use labelled arrows on each image to guide the reader to the features you are describing on the image you have chosen.
8. At the bottom, please list the websites, textbooks or literature that you have accessed to secure the appropriate images. (Font size can be smaller for bibliography if required – but must be legible).
9.Do not exceed the one-page limit. If you exceed this page limit per topic, your assessment will not be graded.
10.Completed assignments should be converted to PDF before uploading to the appropriate slot in “Assignments”, under the “Assessments” drop-down on Brightspace.
11. You must also submit one (1) signed UCD School of Medicine Academic Integrity Protocol declaration form, available in the Biomedical Sciences Section in My Learning in Brightspace. A submission slot for this declaration is also available in the assignments section of Brightspace.

CA submission before end Friday, October 31st 2025

CA FAQs

1. You are allowed to change the size of the text boxes as long as you still use the correct size font and have room for your references at the bottom of the page.
2. Your title and topic definition can go anywhere but are probably best at the top of the page, above the images.
3. Your topic definition can be longer than 2 lines, but try to be concise.
4. For topics like “The lymph node”, you can choose to describe the normal (healthy) structure/function of these glands or a pathological case related to them (e.g. sarcoidosis).
5. You can use the same type of image (or schema) in both of your assignments if you like. Just don’t use two of the same type of image in the same
6. Any type of radiological, pathological, histological or other relevant image is acceptable. Those listed in the CA instructions on Brightspace are merely examples of the types of image you might use.
7. It is OK to use images from previous examples or from the lecture material for your assignments.
8. You should use two different images to explain the same topic from different perspectives. You should not describe two pathologies in one assignment. You should explain how a particular pathology manifests histologically or radiologically, for example, or the details of a particular biological structure or process.
9. It is OK to insert two images into one box as long as the reader can clearly see what it is you are representing, i.e. the magnification and picture quality are sufficient. In addition, you might use arrows, circles, text etc on the images to identify the structures you are referencing in the text in the figure legend.
10. It is OK, and even encouraged, to write words or draw arrows on your images, to reference what you are talking about in the text beneath.
11. For the purposes of transparency and academic integrity, and to prevent sharing and manipulation of these images by other students in what is an individual assignment, you will have to provide hand-drawn schema where this is your chosen image. It can be a very basic drawing and you may use a stylus on a tablet if that helps, but it should be unique to your own research on the topic, i.e. do not use BioRender, PowerPoint, etc to generate “handdrawn” images.
12. If you are drawing a schema/diagram by hand you do not need to reference your sources of inspiration. You can adapt other diagrams as needed to explain your topic.
13. Vancouver style referencing means you use a numerical approach in the text (see the ICL Vancouver referencing guide in BrightSpace).
14. Try not to get too bogged down in any other minutiae related to referencing styles.
    Smaller font is acceptable for the references.
15. You don’t need to reference lecture material.
16. One plagiarism form per student to be uploaded in BrightSpace. This is not a box-ticking exercise – be sure to check your own text in advance of submission to be certain you are using your own description of these images. This has been an issue that led to plagiarism committee referrals in the past.