The pedagogy and principles of teaching therapeutic practice with children and young people.

Technical approaches suggesting that systematically produced, generalized, and scientific knowledge are the most solid foundations for practice present significant challenges for the social work profession, in which the decisions faced often are not technical but rather moral, requiring the application of ethically based and intuitive skills. Meanwhile, the command, control, and measurement of outcomes in social work practice also present significant conundrums for the delivery of relational person-centered social work and social care. With a focus too often on efficiency rather than on effectiveness, this managerialistic approach frequently fails to acknowledge the complexity inherent in the act of caring. In this context and framework, teaching therapeutic practice with children draws a balance between traditional systematic teaching methods and use of creative media including art, play, and music. This article outlines the positive contribution to professional social work practice that the teaching of therapeutic approaches to child care can make

Determinants of abstract acceptance for the Digestive Diseases Week – a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: The Digestive Diseases Week (DDW) is the major meeting for presentation of research in gastroenterology. The acceptance of an abstract for presentation at this meeting is the most important determinant of subsequent full publication. We wished to examine the determinants of abstract acceptance for this meeting. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed, based on abstracts submitted to the DDW. All 17,205 abstracts submitted from 1992 to 1995 were reviewed for acceptance, country of origin and research type (controlled clinical trials (CCT), other clinical research (OCR), basic science (BSS)). A random sub-sample (n = 1,000) was further evaluated for formal abstract quality, statistical significance of study results and sample size. RESULTS: 326 CCT, 455 OCR and 219 BSS abstracts were evaluated in detail. Abstracts from N/W Europe (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.3–0.6), S/E Europe (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2–0.6) and non-Western countries (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.2–0.5) were less likely to be accepted than North-American contributions when controlling for research type. In addition, the OR for the acceptance for studies with negative results as compared to those with positive results was 0.4 (95% CI 0.3–0.7). A high abstract quality score was also weakly associated with acceptance rates (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0–2.0). CONCLUSIONS: North-American contributions and reports with statistically positive results have higher acceptance rates at the AGA. Formal abstract quality was also predictive for acceptance

More insight into the fate of biomedical meeting abstracts: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: It has been estimated that about 45% of abstracts that are accepted for presentation at biomedical meetings will subsequently be published in full. The acceptance of abstracts at meetings and their fate after initial rejection are less well understood. We set out to estimate the proportion of abstracts submitted to meetings that are eventually published as full reports, and to explore factors that are associated with meeting acceptance and successful publication. METHODS: Studies analysing acceptance of abstracts at biomedical meetings or their subsequent full publication were searched in MEDLINE, OLDMEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, BIOSIS, Science Citation Index Expanded, and by hand searching of bibliographies and proceedings. We estimated rates of abstract acceptance and of subsequent full publication, and identified abstract and meeting characteristics associated with acceptance and publication, using logistic regression analysis, survival-type analysis, and meta-analysis. RESULTS: Analysed meetings were held between 1957 and 1999. Of 14945 abstracts that were submitted to 43 meetings, 46% were accepted. The rate of full publication was studied with 19123 abstracts that were presented at 234 meetings. Using survival-type analysis, we estimated that 27% were published after two, 41% after four, and 44% after six years. Of 2412 abstracts that were rejected at 24 meetings, 27% were published despite rejection. Factors associated with both abstract acceptance and subsequent publication were basic science and positive study outcome. Large meetings and those held outside the US were more likely to accept abstracts. Abstracts were more likely to be published subsequently if presented either orally, at small meetings, or at a US meeting. Abstract acceptance itself was strongly associated with full publication. CONCLUSIONS: About one third of abstracts submitted to biomedical meetings were published as full reports. Acceptance at meetings and publication were associated with specific characteristics of abstracts and meetings

A Full Suite of Histone and Histone Modifying Genes Are Transcribed in the Dinoflagellate Lingulodinium

BACKGROUND: Dinoflagellates typically lack histones and nucleosomes are not observed in DNA spreads. However, recent studies have shown the presence of core histone mRNA sequences scattered among different dinoflagellate species. To date, the presence of all components required for manufacturing and modifying nucleosomes in a single dinoflagellate species has not been confirmed. METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS: Analysis of a Lingulodinium transcriptome obtained by Illumina sequencing of mRNA shows several different copies of each of the four core histones as well as a suite of histone modifying enzymes and histone chaperone proteins. Phylogenetic analysis shows one of each Lingulodinium histone copies belongs to the dinoflagellate clade while the second is more divergent and does not share a common ancestor. All histone mRNAs are in low abundance (roughly 25 times lower than higher plants) and transcript levels do not vary over the cell cycle. We also tested Lingulodinium extracts for histone proteins using immunoblotting and LC-MS/MS, but were unable to confirm histone expression at the protein level. CONCLUSION: We show that all core histone sequences are present in the Lingulodinium transcriptome. The conservation of these sequences, even though histone protein accumulation remains below currently detectable levels, strongly suggests dinoflagellates possess histones