Comparison of competency priorities between UK occupational physicians and occupational health nurses

Objectives: The competencies required of occupational physicians (OPs) and occupational health nurses (OHNs) separately have been studied in various countries but little research has made direct comparisons between these two key occupational health (OH) professional groups. The aim of this study was to compare current competency priorities between UK OPs and OHNs. Methods: A modified Delphi study conducted among professional organisations and networks of UK OPs and OHNs. This formed part of a larger Delphi, including international OPs. It was undertaken in two rounds (round 1—‘rating’, round 2—‘ranking’), using a questionnaire based on available OH competency guidance, the literature, expert panel reviews and conference discussions. Results: In each round (rating/ranking), 57/49 and 48/54 responses were received for OPs and OHNs respectively. The principle domain (PD) competency ranks were very highly correlated (Spearman’s r=0.972) with the same PDs featuring in the top four and bottom three positions. OPs and OHNs ranked identically for the top two PDs (good clinical care and general principles of assessment and management of occupational hazards to health). Research methods was ranked lowest by both groups. Conclusions: This study has observed a high level of agreement among UK OPs and OHNs on current competency priorities. The ‘clinically focused’ competency priorities likely reflect that although OH practice will broaden in response to various factors, traditional ‘core’ OH activities will still be required. These mutually identified priorities can serve to strengthen collaboration between these groups, develop joint education/training programmes and identify common professional development opportunities

Screening of Irish Fruit and Vegetable Germplasm for Novel Anti-tumour and Pesticidal Compounds

Conference paperPhytochemicals are a rich source of novel therapeutic and insecticidal agents (McLaughlin and Chang, 1999). Considerable research effort has been directed at screening exotic and medicinal plants in the search for novel products. However, plants which have traditional food uses have been little explored. In addition the range, type and level of individual bioactive compounds can vary significantly between different species, different cultivars of the same species and different tissue types of the plant (Reilly, in press) Therefore, the objective of this study was to screen a range of fruits and vegetables which can be grown in Ireland for novel bioactive compounds for use in food production and as bio-pesticides.The author wishes to acknowledge the financial support from the Dublin Institute of Technology through an ABBEST fellowshi

Capturing the "Whole Tale" of Computational Research: Reproducibility in Computing Environments

We present an overview of the recently funded "Merging Science and Cyberinfrastructure Pathways: The Whole Tale" project (NSF award #1541450). Our approach has two nested goals: 1) deliver an environment that enables researchers to create a complete narrative of the research process including exposure of the data-to-publication lifecycle, and 2) systematically and persistently link research publications to their associated digital scholarly objects such as the data, code, and workflows. To enable this, Whole Tale will create an environment where researchers can collaborate on data, workspaces, and workflows and then publish them for future adoption or modification. Published data and applications will be consumed either directly by users using the Whole Tale environment or can be integrated into existing or future domain Science Gateways

Energy dependence of ratios of multiplicities and their slopes for gluon and quark jets

The difference between the ratio of multiplicities and the ratio of their derivatives on energy for gluon and quark jets is calculated up to next-to-next-to leading order of perturbative QCD. Its non-zero value is uniquely defined by the running property of the QCD coupling constant. It is shown that this difference is rather small compared to values which can be obtained from experimental data. This disagreement can be ascribed either to strong non-perturbative terms or to experimental problems with a scale choice, jets separation and inadequate assignement of soft particles to jets.Comment: 5 pages, LATEX, no Figs; submitted to JETP Let

A Conscience Sensitive Approach To Ethics and Teaching Caring Attitudes

An I.U. Conscience Project and HELP Collaboration. The article describes models for teaching ethics and caring attitudes to undergraduate medical students in both formal and informal medical education curriculum. Competency based curriculum is discussed