The experiences of medical students and junior doctors with dyslexia: a survey study

Little research exists concerning dyslexia in medical education. A qualitative study highlighted issues such as bullying and a lack of support. This project aimed to quantify those findings. An online survey was sent to junior doctors in parts of the United Kingdom. Seventy-five participated. Most (53%) were diagnosed with dyslexia at university / medical school. Most reported that dyslexia impacted upon their self-image (59%) and self-esteem (73%). Nearly half (46%) felt it influenced their career pathway choices within medicine. Participants reported bullying at medical school-from peers (24%), from academic teachers (14%), and from clinical teachers (27%); and also at work-from peers (25%), from academic teachers (13%), and from clinical teachers (23%). 88% reported that foundation schools provided no support, 92% that NHS Trusts provided none, and 90% that their deaneries provided none. The sorts of supports which seemed to be lacking were "psychological" or "pastoral" supports

The Energy Transfer Process in Planetary Flybys

We illustrate the energy transfer during planetary flybys as a function of time using a number of flight mission examples. The energy transfer process is rather more complicated than a monotonic increase (or decrease) of energy with time. It exhibits temporary maxima and minima with time which then partially moderate before the asymptotic condition is obtained. The energy transfer to angular momentum is exhibited by an approximate Jacobi constant for the system. We demonstrate this with flybys that have shown unexplained behaviors: i) the possible onset of the "Pioneer anomaly" with the gravity assist of Pioneer 11 by Saturn to hyperbolic orbit (as well as the Pioneer 10 hyperbolic gravity assist by Jupiter) and ii) the Earth flyby anomalies of small increases in energy {\it in the geocentric system} (Galileo-I, NEAR, and Rosetta, in additioon discussing the Cassini and Messenger flybys). Perhaps some small, as yet unrecognized effect in the energy-transfer process can shed light on these anomalies.Comment: 29 pages, 43 images combined into 13 figures. Additions to answer comments of refere

SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF FEEDER CATTLE HEDGING RISK

Optimal hedge ratios are estimated for various weights of feeder cattle in four cash markets based on CME data from 1992 to 1999. Three-month uniform hedges are simulated for every weight, contract, and cash market combination. Hedging effectiveness is compared empirically across locations to identify spatial differences in hedging risk.feeder cattle, hedging risk, hedge ratios, Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

OPTIMAL HEDGING RATIOS AND HEDGING RISK FOR GRAIN BY-PRODUCTS

Optimal cross hedge ratios are estimated for a number of grain by-products used as livestock feed. Risk associated with these cross hedge ratios is measured to determine if cross hedging reduces grain by-product price risk. Results provide useful risk management guidelines for livestock and dairy producers.Marketing,

POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF SUBSIDIZED LIVESTOCK INSURANCE ON LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION

Recent legislation has cleared the way for subsidized livestock price insurance. Such programs could increase production. Expected feeder cattle prices with and without subsidized insurance will be analyzed using E-V and Stochastic Dominance. Results will highlight the potential effects of the program on marketing risk and production decisions.Livestock Production/Industries, Risk and Uncertainty,

Robo-line storage: Low latency, high capacity storage systems over geographically distributed networks

Rapid advances in high performance computing are making possible more complete and accurate computer-based modeling of complex physical phenomena, such as weather front interactions, dynamics of chemical reactions, numerical aerodynamic analysis of airframes, and ocean-land-atmosphere interactions. Many of these 'grand challenge' applications are as demanding of the underlying storage system, in terms of their capacity and bandwidth requirements, as they are on the computational power of the processor. A global view of the Earth's ocean chlorophyll and land vegetation requires over 2 terabytes of raw satellite image data. In this paper, we describe our planned research program in high capacity, high bandwidth storage systems. The project has four overall goals. First, we will examine new methods for high capacity storage systems, made possible by low cost, small form factor magnetic and optical tape systems. Second, access to the storage system will be low latency and high bandwidth. To achieve this, we must interleave data transfer at all levels of the storage system, including devices, controllers, servers, and communications links. Latency will be reduced by extensive caching throughout the storage hierarchy. Third, we will provide effective management of a storage hierarchy, extending the techniques already developed for the Log Structured File System. Finally, we will construct a protototype high capacity file server, suitable for use on the National Research and Education Network (NREN). Such research must be a Cornerstone of any coherent program in high performance computing and communications

Name-Your-Own Price Auction Mechanisms – Modeling and Future Implications

A popular method for selling excess inventory over the Internet is via a Name-Your-Own Price auction, where the bidder bids on an item and the seller immediately decides on whether or not to accept the bid. The analytical modeling of such auctions is still in its infancy. A number of papers have appeared over the last few years making various assumptions about buyers and sellers. The intent of this article is to carefully delineate the various assumptions and modeling approaches and, consequently, suggest avenues for further research

Neuregulin-1 attenuates mortality associated with experimental cerebral malaria.

BackgroundCerebral Malaria (CM) is a diffuse encephalopathy caused by Plasmodium falciparum infection. Despite availability of antimalarial drugs, CM-associated mortality remains high at approximately 30% and a subset of survivors develop neurological and cognitive disabilities. While antimalarials are effective at clearing Plasmodium parasites they do little to protect against CM pathophysiology and parasite-induced brain inflammation that leads to seizures, coma and long-term neurological sequelae in CM patients. Thus, there is urgent need to explore therapeutics that can reduce or prevent CM pathogenesis and associated brain inflammation to improve survival. Neuregulin-1 (NRG-1) is a neurotrophic growth factor shown to protect against brain injury associated with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and neurotoxin exposure. However, this drug has not been tested against CM-associated brain injury. Since CM-associated brain injuries and AIS share similar pathophysiological features, we hypothesized that NRG-1 will reduce or prevent neuroinflammation and brain damage as well as improve survival in mice with late-stage experimental cerebral malaria (ECM).MethodsWe tested the effects of NRG-1 on ECM-associated brain inflammation and mortality in P. berghei ANKA (PbA)-infected mice and compared to artemether (ARM) treatment; an antimalarial currently used in various combination therapies against malaria.ResultsTreatment with ARM (25 mg/kg/day) effectively cleared parasites and reduced mortality in PbA-infected mice by 82%. Remarkably, NRG-1 therapy (1.25 ng/kg/day) significantly improved survival against ECM by 73% despite increase in parasite burden within NRG-1-treated mice. Additionally, NRG-1 therapy reduced systemic and brain pro-inflammatory factors TNFalpha, IL-6, IL-1alpha and CXCL10 and enhanced anti-inflammatory factors, IL-5 and IL-13 while decreasing leukocyte accumulation in brain microvessels.ConclusionsThis study suggests that NRG-1 attenuates ECM-associated brain inflammation and injuries and may represent a novel supportive therapy for the management of CM

The exam performance of medical students with dyslexia: a review of the literature

Introduction: Dyslexia is a common condition. Estimates suggest it effects approximately 10% of the worldwide population, and 1.7% of UK medical students. This review aimed to explore the existing literature concerning the exam performance of medical students with dyslexia. Methods: A Review of Medline, ERIC, PsychInfo, The Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA checklist. Papers were accepted if they concerned the exam performance of medical students with dyslexia. Results: Three papers were selected for review. These were all cross-sectional studies comparing exam results in students with dyslexia and without dyslexia – and the impacts of extra time in exams. A risk of bias assessment determined that all three were appropriate to include in this review. A meta-analysis was planned but could not be performed because the number of studies was low and heterogeneity between the studies too high. There was consensus that Multiple Choice Question exams were fair for students with dyslexia, when extra time was allowed. Essay type exams were found to be particularly challenging for students with dyslexia. Students with dyslexia were also found to be at a disadvantage in their first year. Discussion: Overall, the evidence suggests that medical students with dyslexia are slower to adapt to medical school and under-perform early in the course. However, with appropriate supports, they appear to perform on a par with their non-dyslexic peers as they progress through their course. Our review highlights the need for more research in the medical student population. Keywords: Dyslexia, Specific Learning Difficulties, Neurodiversity, Literature Review, Medical Student

Symmetric hyperbolic systems for Bianchi equations

We obtain a family of first-order symmetric hyperbolic systems for the Bianchi equations. They have only physical characteristics: the light cone and timelike hypersurfaces. In the proof of the hyperbolicity, new positivity properties of the Bel tensor are used.Comment: latex, 7 pages, accepted for publication in Class. Quantum Gra