Pediatric Psychologists’ Career Satisfaction: 2015 Society of Pediatric Psychology Workforce Survey Results.

Little is known about the career satisfaction of pediatric psychologists, who specialize in psychological research, teaching, and clinical service in the context of pediatric health care. As part of the larger Society of Pediatric Psychology Workforce Survey and in collaboration with the American Psychological Association Center for Workforce Studies, this study aimed to (1) describe the career domains which pediatric psychologists perceive to be important and their satisfaction in each domain, and (2) compare satisfaction of pediatric psychologists across work settings, number of positions, appointment duration, professional roles, career stage, academic rank, and gender. Responses from 336 pediatric psychologists demonstrated high career satisfaction. Domains of career satisfaction that received mean scores indicating high importance include balance of work and personal lives, peer/collegial support, and flexibility and choice in the workplace, but on average respondents reported being only somewhat satisfied in these domains. Total satisfaction scores were significantly higher among pediatric psychologists in 9–10-month appointments, primarily research careers, and at higher academic ranks, but scores were similar across employment settings and genders. To enhance career satisfaction and retention, pediatric psychologists may seek additional mentorship or explore new employment roles, and administrators and managers may consider adopting workplace policies or making environmental changes that could address specific areas of need

Investigative approaches: Lessons learned from the RaDonda Vaught case

Accidental patient harms occur frequently in healthcare, but their exact prevalence and interventions that will best prevent them are still poorly understood. In rare cases, healthcare providers who have contributed to accidental patient harm may be criminally prosecuted to obtain justice for the patient and family or to set an example, which theoretically prevents other providers from making similar mistakes due to fear of punishment. A recent case where this strategy was chosen is the RaDonda L. Vaught vs. Tennessee (2022) criminal case. The present article discusses this case and its ramifications, as well as provides concrete recommendations for actions that healthcare organizations should take to foster a safer and more resilient healthcare system. Recommendations include placing an emphasis on just culture; ensuring timely, systems-level investigations of all incidents; creating and facilitating participation in a national reporting system; incorporating Human Factors professionals at multiple levels of organizations; and establishing a national safety board for medicine

Plasma heat shock protein 27 is associated with coronary artery disease, abdominal aortic aneurysm and peripheral artery disease

Low protein levels of Hsp27 have been reported in atherosclerotic plaques. In addition, human studies have indicated that circulating Hsp27 levels are lower in coronary artery disease patients compared with controls. It remains, however, unclear whether this applies to other forms of atherosclerotic disease. Plasma Hsp27 from 280 subjects was examined by ELISA. The cohort included 80 coronary artery disease (CAD), 40 peripheral artery disease (PAD) and 80 abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) patients. Eighty elderly subjects, without any clinical history of vascular diseases, were used as a control group. Receiver operating curve (ROC) and logistic regression model analysis were performed to evaluate the potential value of Hsp27 as a circulating biomarker. Patients with atherosclerotic vascular diseases had significantly lower levels of Hsp27 than control subjects (p < 0.001). Moreover, Hsp27 was significantly lower in CAD patients than other atherosclerotic vascular disease groups (p < 0.001). There was no difference in Hsp27 levels between the AAA and PAD groups. Using the ROC-generated optimal cut-off values for Hsp27, logistic regression modeling indicated that low plasma Hsp27 was independently associated with the presence of multiple forms of atherosclerotic disease. In conclusion, circulating Hsp27 is significantly lower in patients with multiple forms of atherosclerotic arterial disease

Diabetes, Abdominal Adiposity, and Atherogenic Dyslipoproteinemia in Women Compared With Men

OBJECTIVE—To understand why atherogenic risk differs more between diabetic and nondiabetic women than between diabetic and nondiabetic men

CSLM, XCT Couple interrogation of the emulsification interaction between free steel droplets suspended in steel making slags

Small Fe-based droplets have been heated to a molten phase suspended within a slag medium to replicate a partial environment within the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF). The confocal scanning laser microscope (CSLM) has been used as a heating platform as it offers the high heating rates necessary for slag and metal to become molten in close time proximity avoiding gradual equilibration during heating. The effect of impurities and their transfer across the metal/slag interface, on the emulsification of the droplet into the slag medium was then examined through X-ray Computer Tomography (XCT) scanning of the quenched sample. This gives the mapping of emulsion dispersion in 3D space, calculating the changing of interfacial area between the two materials, and changes of material volume due to material transfer between metal and slag. Samples were then sectioned and radial chemical analysis is used to identify component surface enrichment or lack thereof. Replication of the previously reported study by Assis et al1 has also been carried out, to show repeatability of the experimental set up and conditions through different users

Diabetes, Abdominal Adiposity, and Atherogenic Dyslipoproteinemia in Women Compared With Men

OBJECTIVE—To understand why atherogenic risk differs more between diabetic and nondiabetic women than between diabetic and nondiabetic men

Contrasting histopathology and crystal deposits in kidneys of idiopathic stone formers who produce hydroxy apatite, brushite, or calcium oxalate stones

Our previous work has shown that stone formers who form calcium phosphate (CaP) stones that contain any brushite (BRSF) have a distinctive renal histopathology and surgical anatomy when compared with idiopathic calcium oxalate stone formers (ICSF). Here we report on another group of idiopathic CaP stone formers, those forming stone containing primarily hydroxyapatite, in order to clarify in what ways their pathology differs from BRSF and ICSF. Eleven hydroxyapatite stone formers (HASF) (2 males, 9 females) were studied using intra-operative digital photography and biopsy of papillary and cortical regions to measure tissue changes associated with stone formation. Our main finding is that HASF and BRSF differ significantly from each other and that both differ greatly from ICSF. Both BRSF and ICSF patients have significant levels of Randall's plaque compared with HASF. Intra-tubular deposit number is greater in HASF than BRSF and nonexistent in ICSF while deposit size is smaller in HASF than BRSF. Cortical pathology is distinctly greater in BRSF than HASF. Four attached stones were observed in HASF, three in 25 BRSF and 5-10 per ICSF patient. HASF and BRSF differ clinically in that both have higher average urine pH, supersaturation of CaP, and calcium excretion than ICSF. Our work suggests that HASF and BRSF are two distinct and separate diseases and both differ greatly from ICSF

Biopsy proven medullary sponge kidney: clinical findings, histopathology, and role of osteogenesis in stone and plaque formation

Medullary sponge kidney (MSK) is associated with recurrent stone formation, but the clinical phenotype is unclear because patients with other disorders may be incorrectly labeled MSK. We studied 12 patients with histologic findings pathognomonic of MSK. All patients had an endoscopically recognizable pattern of papillary malformation, which may be segmental or diffuse. Affected papillae are enlarged and billowy, due to markedly enlarged inner medullary collecting ducts (IMCD), which contain small, mobile ductal stones. Patients had frequent dilation of Bellini ducts, with occasional mineral plugs. Stones may form over white (Randall's) plaque, but most renal pelvic stones are not attached, and have a similar morphology as ductal stones, which are a mixture of calcium oxalate and apatite. Patients had no abnormalities of urinary acidification or acid excretion; the most frequent metabolic abnormality was idiopathic hypercalciuria. Although both Runx2 and Osterix are expressed in papillae of MSK patients, no mineral deposition was seen at the sites of gene expression, arguing against a role of these genes in this process. Similar studies in idiopathic calcium stone formers showed no expression of these genes at sites of Randall's plaque. The most likely mechanism for stone formation in MSK appears to be crystallization due to urinary stasis in dilated IMCD with subsequent passage of ductal stones into the renal pelvis where they may serve as nuclei for stone formation

Interferometric multi-wavelength (sub)millimeter continuum study of the young high-mass protocluster IRAS05358+3543

The young massive star-forming region IRAS05358+3543 was observed at high-spatial resolution in the continuum emission at 3.1 and 1.2mm with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, and at 875 and 438mum with the Submillimeter Array. We resolve at least four continuum sub-sources that are likely of protostellar nature. Two of them are potentially part of a proto-binary system with a projected separation of 1700AU. Additional (sub)mm continuum peaks are not necessarily harboring protostars but maybe caused by the multiple molecular outflows. The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the sub-sources show several features. The main power house mm1, which is associated with CH3OH maser emission, a hypercompact HII region and a mid-infrared source, exhibits a typical SED with a free-free emission component at cm and long mm wavelengths and a cold dust component in the (sub)mm part of the spectrum (spectral index between 1.2mm and 438mum alpha~3.6). The free-free emission corresponds to a Lyman continuum flux of an embedded 13Msun B1 star. The coldest source of the region, mm3, has alpha~3.7 between 1.2mm and 875mum, but has lower than expected fluxes in the shorter wavelength 438mum band. This turnover of the Planck-function sets an upper limit on the dust temperature of mm3 of approximately 20K. The uv-data analysis of the density structure of individual sub-cores reveals distributions with power-law indices between 1.5 and 2. This resembles the density distributions of the larger-scale cluster-forming clump as well as those from typical low-mass cores.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, accepted for Astronomy and Astrophysics, a high-resolution version of the paper is also available at http://www.mpia.de/homes/beuther/papers.htm

Estimating multivariate similarity between neuroimaging datasets with sparse canonical correlation analysis:an application to perfusion imaging

An increasing number of neuroimaging studies are based on either combining more than one data modality (inter-modal) or combining more than one measurement from the same modality (intra-modal). To date, most intra-modal studies using multivariate statistics have focused on differences between datasets, for instance relying on classifiers to differentiate between effects in the data. However, to fully characterize these effects, multivariate methods able to measure similarities between datasets are needed. One classical technique for estimating the relationship between two datasets is canonical correlation analysis (CCA). However, in the context of high-dimensional data the application of CCA is extremely challenging. A recent extension of CCA, sparse CCA (SCCA), overcomes this limitation, by regularizing the model parameters while yielding a sparse solution. In this work, we modify SCCA with the aim of facilitating its application to high-dimensional neuroimaging data and finding meaningful multivariate image-to-image correspondences in intra-modal studies. In particular, we show how the optimal subset of variables can be estimated independently and we look at the information encoded in more than one set of SCCA transformations. We illustrate our framework using Arterial Spin Labeling data to investigate multivariate similarities between the effects of two antipsychotic drugs on cerebral blood flow