Community engagement and professionalization: Emerging tensions

© 2019 by Emerald Publishing Limited. An increase in community engagement by governments across Australia’s three-tiered federal polity conforms to international trends. It represents a multidimensional institutionalization of participatory democracy designed to involve the public in decision-making. Increasingly, it is a practice which displays the markers of professionalization, including (self-described) professionals, professional associations and a code of ethics. The individuals who design, communicate, and facilitate community engagement are placed in a unique position, whereas most professions claim to serve both their client or employer and a greater public good, community engagement practitioners play these roles while also claiming to serve as “guardians” of democratic processes. Yet the claimed professionalization of community engagement is raising some questions: Is community engagement really a profession – and by what criteria ought this be assessed? What tensions do community engagement practitioners face by “serving multiple masters,” and how do they manage these? More pointedly, how can ethics inform our understanding of community engagement and its professionalization? This chapter examines the case for the practice of community engagement as a profession using Noordegraaf’s (2007) pillars of pure professionalism as a guide. It then explores some practical examples of the tensions practitioners may experience. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the future direction of community engagement given its positioning

Informed consent for MRI and fMRI research: Analysis of a sample of Canadian consent documents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Research ethics and the measures deployed to ensure ethical oversight of research (e.g., informed consent forms, ethics review) are vested with extremely important ethical and practical goals. Accordingly, these measures need to function effectively in real-world research and to follow high level standards.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined approved consent forms for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies approved by Canadian research ethics boards (REBs).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found evidence of variability in consent forms in matters of physical and psychological risk reporting. Approaches used to tackle the emerging issue of incidental findings exposed extensive variability between and within research sites.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The causes of variability in approved consent forms and studies need to be better understood. However, mounting evidence of administrative and practical hurdles within current ethics governance systems combined with potential sub-optimal provision of information to and protection of research subjects support other calls for more scrutiny of research ethics practices and applicable revisions.</p

Drosophila DNA polymerase theta utilizes both helicase-like and polymerase domains during microhomology-mediated end joining and interstrand crosslink repair

Double strand breaks (DSBs) and interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) are toxic DNA lesions that can be repaired through multiple pathways, some of which involve shared proteins. One of these proteins, DNA Polymerase theta (Pol theta), coordinates a mutagenic DSB repair pathway named microhomology-mediated end joining (MMEJ) and is also a critical component for bypass or repair of ICLs in several organisms. Pol theta contains both polymerase and helicase-like domains that are tethered by an unstructured central region. While the role of the polymerase domain in promoting MMEJ has been studied extensively both in vitro and in vivo, a function for the helicase-like domain, which possesses DNA-dependent ATPase activity, remains unclear. Here, we utilize genetic and biochemical analyses to examine the roles of the helicase-like and polymerase domains of Drosophila Pol theta. We demonstrate an absolute requirement for both polymerase and ATPase activities during ICL repair in vivo. However, similar to mammalian systems, polymerase activity, but not ATPase activity, is required for ionizing radiation-induced DSB repair. Using a site-specific break repair assay, we show that overall end-joining efficiency is not affected in ATPase-dead mutants, but there is a significant decrease in templated insertion events. In vitro, Pol theta can efficiently bypass a model unhooked nitrogen mustard crosslink and promote DNA synthesis following microhomology annealing, although ATPase activity is not required for these functions. Together, our data illustrate the functional importance of the helicase-like domain of Pol theta and suggest that its tethering to the polymerase domain is important for its multiple functions in DNA repair and damage tolerance

Family physicians\u27 professional identity formation: a study protocol to explore impression management processes in institutional academic contexts.

BACKGROUND: Despite significant differences in terms of medical training and health care context, the phenomenon of medical students\u27 declining interest in family medicine has been well documented in North America and in many other developed countries as well. As part of a research program on family physicians\u27 professional identity formation initiated in 2007, the purpose of the present investigation is to examine in-depth how family physicians construct their professional image in academic contexts; in other words, this study will allow us to identify and understand the processes whereby family physicians with an academic appointment seek to control the ideas others form about them as a professional group, i.e. impression management. METHODS/DESIGN: The methodology consists of a multiple case study embedded in the perspective of institutional theory. Four international cases from Canada, France, Ireland and Spain will be conducted; the \u22case\u22 is the medical school. Four levels of analysis will be considered: individual family physicians, interpersonal relationships, family physician professional group, and organization (medical school). Individual interviews and focus groups with academic family physicians will constitute the main technique for data generation, which will be complemented with a variety of documentary sources. Discourse techniques, more particularly rhetorical analysis, will be used to analyze the data gathered. Within- and cross-case analysis will then be performed. DISCUSSION: This empirical study is strongly grounded in theory and will contribute to the scant body of literature on family physicians\u27 professional identity formation processes in medical schools. Findings will potentially have important implications for the practice of family medicine, medical education and health and educational policies