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Veiledning av studenter er blitt beskrevet som den mest private undervisningsformen ved høyskoler og universiteter, men det finnes relativt lite empirisk forskning som utforsker hva som karakteriserer veiledning av studenter pa° dette niva° et. Denne artikkelen søker a° utforske hvordan veiledere og masterstudenter erfarer og vurderer ulike veiledningsformer samt hvordan veiledningen er organisert. Studien tar utgangspunkt i ba° de læreres og studenters betraktninger i et masterstudie i sykepleie og i et masterstudie i journalistikk. Funnene viser at veiledning forsta° s og erfares pa° ulike ma° ter av veiledere og studenter, men noen særtrekk skiller de to utdanningene fra hverandre. Veiledere og studenter ved masterstudiet i journalistikk ser ut til a° praktisere en mer tradisjonell undervisningsmodell, der studenten innehar en passiv, mottagende rolle. Veiledere og studenter ved masterstudiet i sykepleie lener seg i større grad mot en partnerskapsmodell, der ba° de studenter og lærere er opptatt av maktutjevning og likeverdighet i dialogen. Artikkelen skisserer noen mulige forklaringer til denne ulikheten. En forklaring kan ligge i selve organiseringen av veiledningen ved masterutdanningen i sykepleie. I tillegg til individuell veiledning, arrangeres jevnlige seminarer der lærere og studenter diskuterer ulike sider ved den enkelte students masteroppgave. Det arrangeres ogsa° seminarer hvor ulike sider ved veiledningspraksis diskuteres kollegaer imellom. Denne typen organisering ser ut til a° ha forankring i bevisste pedagogiske strategier, og er med pa° a° sikre transparente og refleksive veiledningsprosesser. Studien aktualiserer spørsma° l om hvorvidt veiledning bør profesjonaliseres i større grad, og derav potensielt øke kvaliteten pa° en viktig dimensjon av arbeidet med masterstudenter. Nøkkelord:Supervision of students has been described as the most private form of instruction in colleges and universities, but there is relatively little empirical research that explores what characterizes supervision of students at this level. This article explores how supervisors and Master students experience and view different forms of supervision, as well as how supervision is organized. The study is based on both professors’ and students’ considerations, in a Master of Nursing program and a Master of Journalism program. The findings show that supervision is understood and experienced in different ways by supervisors and students, and some results demonstrate clear differences between nursing and journalism studies. Supervisors and students in the journalism program tend to practice a more traditional teaching model where the students hold a passive, receiving role. Supervisors and students in the nursing program to a greater extent lean towards a partnership model, where both students and professors seek power equalization and symmetry in the dialogue. The article outlines some possible explanations for these differences. One explanation seems to relate to how supervision is organized in the Master’s program in Nursing. In addition to individual supervision, there are regular seminars where different aspects of the students’ master theses are discussed among professors and fellow students. Different challenges related to supervision are regularly discussed in seminars in between colleagues. This type of organization seems to be founded in conscious pedagogical strategies, and contributes to securing transparent and reflective processes of supervision. The study raises a question of whether a more professionalized supervision model will increase the quality of an important dimension of the work with master students

The Cancer Exome Generated by Alternative mRNA Splicing Dilutes Predicted HLA Class I Epitope Density

Several studies have shown that cancers actively regulate alternative splicing. Altered splicing mechanisms in cancer lead to cancer-specific transcripts different from the pool of transcripts occurring only in healthy tissue. At the same time, altered presentation of HLA class I epitopes is frequently observed in various types of cancer. Down-regulation of genes related to HLA class I antigen processing has been observed in several cancer types, leading to fewer HLA class I antigens on the cell surface. Here, we use a peptidome wide analysis of predicted alternative splice forms, based on a publicly available database, to show that peptides over-represented in cancer splice variants comprise significantly fewer predicted HLA class I epitopes compared to peptides from normal transcripts. Peptides over-represented in cancer transcripts are in the case of the three most common HLA class I supertype representatives consistently found to contain fewer predicted epitopes compared to normal tissue. We observed a significant difference in amino acid composition between protein sequences associated with normal versus cancer tissue, as transcripts found in cancer are enriched with hydrophilic amino acids. This variation contributes to the observed significant lower likelihood of cancer-specific peptides to be predicted epitopes compared to peptides found in normal tissue

Does the Finnish intervention prevent obstetric anal sphincter injuries?:a systematic review of the literature

OBJECTIVES: A rise in obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASIS) has been observed and a preventive approach, originating in Finland, has been introduced in several European hospitals. The aim of this paper was to systematically evaluate the evidence behind the ‘Finnish intervention’. DESIGN: A systematic review of the literature conducted according to the Preferred Reporting for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was OASIS. Secondary outcomes were (perinatal): Apgar scores, pH and standard base excess in the umbilical cord, and (maternal): episiotomy, intact perineum, first and second-degree perineal lacerations, duration of second stage, birth position and women's perceptions/birth experiences. METHODS: Multiple databases (Cochrane, Embase, Pubmed and SveMed) were systematically searched for studies published up to December 2014. Both randomised controlled trials and observational studies were eligible for inclusion. Studies were excluded if a full-text article was not available. Studies were evaluated by use of international reporting guidelines (eg, STROBE). RESULTS: Overall, 1042 articles were screened and 65 retrieved for full-text evaluation. Seven studies, all observational and with a level of evidence at 2c or lower, were included and consistently reported a significant reduction in OASIS. All evaluated episiotomy and found a significant increase. Three studies evaluated perinatal outcomes and reported conflicting results. No study reported on other perineal outcomes, duration of the second stage, birth positions or women's perceptions. CONCLUSIONS: A reduction in OASIS has been contributed to the Finnish intervention in seven observational studies, all with a low level of evidence. Knowledge about the potential perinatal and maternal side effects and women's perceptions of the intervention is extremely limited and the biological mechanisms underlying the Finnish intervention are not well documented. Studies with a high level of evidence are needed to assess the effects of the intervention before implementation in clinical settings can be recommended

Spatio-temporal coupling of attosecond pulses

The shortest light pulses produced to date are of the order of a few tens of attoseconds, with central frequencies in the extreme ultraviolet range and bandwidths exceeding tens of eV. They are often produced as a train of pulses separated by half the driving laser period, leading in the frequency domain to a spectrum of high, odd-order harmonics. As light pulses become shorter and more spectrally wide, the widely-used approximation consisting in writing the optical waveform as a product of temporal and spatial amplitudes does not apply anymore. Here, we investigate the interplay of temporal and spatial properties of attosecond pulses. We show that the divergence and focus position of the generated harmonics often strongly depend on their frequency, leading to strong chromatic aberrations of the broadband attosecond pulses. Our argumentation uses a simple analytical model based on Gaussian optics, numerical propagation calculations and experimental harmonic divergence measurements. This effect needs to be considered for future applications requiring high quality focusing while retaining the broadband/ultrashort characteristics of the radiation

Repeated examination of natural sapovirus infections in pig litters raised under experimental conditions

Porcine sapovirus, belonging to the family Caliciviridae, is an enteric virus that is widespread in the swine industry worldwide. A total of 14 sapovirus genogroups have been suggested and the most commonly found genogroup in swine is genogroup III (GIII). The goal of the present experiment was to examine the presence of sapovirus in 51 naturally infected pigs at two different time points. The pigs were kept under experimental conditions after weaning. Previous studies on sapovirus have primarily been of a cross sectional nature, typically prevalence studies performed on farms and abattoirs. In the present study, faecal samples, collected from each pig at 5½ weeks and 15-18 weeks of age, were analysed for sapovirus by reverse transciptase polymerase chain reaction and positive findings were genotyped by sequencing. At 5½ weeks of age, sapovirus was detected in the majority of the pigs. Sequencing revealed four different strains in the 5½ week olds-belonging to genogroups GIII and GVII. Ten to 13 weeks later, the virus was no longer detectable from stools of infected pigs. However, at this time point 13 pigs were infected with another GIII sapovirus strain not previously detected in the pigs studied. This GIII strain was only found in pigs that, in the initial samples, were virus-negative or positive for GVII. At 5 weeks of age 74 % of the pigs were infected with sapovirus. At 15-18 weeks of age all pigs had cleared their initial infection, but a new sapovirus GIII strain was detected in 25 % of the pigs. None of the pigs initially infected with the first GIII strain were reinfected with this new GIII strain, which may indicate the presence of a genogroup-specific immunity

Planning for better animal health and welfare, Report from the 1st ANIPLAN project workshop, Hellevad, October 2007

’Minimising medicine use in organic dairy herds through animal health and welfare planning’, ANIPLAN, is a CORE-Organic project which was initiated in June 2007. The main aim of the project is to investigate active and well planned animal health and welfare promotion and disease prevention as a means of minimising medicine use in organic dairy herds. This aim will be met through the development of animal health and welfare planning principles for organic dairy farms under diverse conditions based on an evaluation of current experiences. This also includes application of animal health and welfare assessment across Europe. In order to bring this into practice the project also aims at developing guidelines for communication about animal health and welfare promotion in different settings, for example, as part of existing animal health advisory services or farmer groups such as the Danish Stable School system and the Dutch network programme. The project is divided into the following five work packages, four of which comprise research activities with the other focused on coordination and knowledge transfer, through meetings, workshops and publications. These proceedings represent our first results in terms of presented papers and discussions at our first project workshop in Hellevad Vandmølle as well as a review of Animal Health Planning in UK. The content of the workshop proceedings reflect the aim and starting points of all work packages, both in terms of analyses prior to the workshop, and developments during the workshop emanating from group work. Besides a general introduction to the project and the ideas of the project, Christoph Winckler provides an overview of the use of animal based parameters based on the results of the WelfareQuality project. Christopher Atkinson and Madeleine Neale presented concepts, principles and the practicalities of Animal Health Planning and Animal Health Plans based on UK experiences. Pip Nicholas from The University of Wales, Aberystwyth produced a report reviewing the current use of animal health and welfare planning. The entire document is included in these workshop proceedings. This was supplemented through presentations from all countries regarding animal health and welfare planning processes and research. These are summarised together with the concepts developed through dialogue at the workshop in the paper by Nicholas, Vaarst and Roderick. Finally, the Danish Stable School principles were presented by Mette Vaarst followed by discussion on different approaches of communication in farmer groups and at the individual level between farmers and advisors. One important outcome from this workshop is a set of preliminary principles for a good health planning process. We concluded through group discussions followed by a plenary session that a health planning process should aim at continuous development and improvement, and should incorporate health promotion and disease handling, based on a strategy where the current situation is evaluated and form basis for action, which is then reviewed in a new evaluation. It is important that any health plan is farm specific and based on farmer ownership, although an external person(s) should be involved, as well as external knowledge. The organic principles should form the framework for any action (meaning that a systems approach is needed), and the plan should be written. The good and positive aspects on each farm – things that other farmers potentially can learn from. The work and studies in dairy farms within the project will be based on these principles and comprise evaluation and review using animal based parameters as well as finding ways of communication with farmers about animal health and welfare