Using critical friends to build writing success

The academic land-scape at institutions places demands on academic staff to increase publication output. In resource-poor higher education environments, experienced and published researchers are in short supply and consequently unavailable, or unwilling, to provide much-needed support and guidance to novice writers. Critical readers are able to bridge this gap by providing useful feedback and stimulating learning while pointing out weaknesses without negativityhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-29232017-08-31hb2017School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH

Undergraduate research - a tale of three African institutions

BACKGROUND : The inclusion of research in undergraduate medical curricula benefits students as well as the scientific community. Multiple studies report the presence of one or more barriers to research training in these curricula. OBJECTIVES : This paper presents and compares three studies done regarding the teaching of research in undergraduate medical curricula in South Africa, Sudan and Uganda. METHODS : Two cross-sectional study designs (South Africa and Sudan) and one interventional study design (Uganda) were conducted. Both cross-sectional studies used mixed methods while the Ugandan study used a quantitative method. A total of 41 faculty members and 554 students participated. The studies used a combination of surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and document analysis. RESULTS : Participants from all three studies valued research and considered it useful and relevant to their studies. The findings from the South African and Sudanese studies align with the ‘Four I’s’ framework that summarise the barriers to research training as lack of initiative, impulse, incentive and idols. The Ugandan study demonstrated improved self-reported knowledge and attitude (specifically anxiety) among participants after completion of a short course on research.http://www.bioline.org.br/hsFamily MedicineSchool of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH

The birth of an association : creating African leaders in health professions education

No abstract available.http://www.ajhpe.org.zadm2022Pharmacolog

A paired-kidney allocation study found superior survival with HLA-DR compatible kidney transplants in the Eurotransplant Senior Program

The Eurotransplant Senior Program (ESP) has expedited the chance for elderly patients with kidney failure to receive a timely transplant. This current study evaluated survival parameters of kidneys donated after brain death with or without matching for HLA-DR antigens. This cohort study evaluated the period within ESP with paired allocation of 675 kidneys from donors 65 years and older to transplant candidates 65 years and older, the first kidney to 341 patients within the Eurotransplant Senior DR-compatible Program and 334 contralateral kidneys without (ESP) HLA-DR antigen matching. We used Kaplan-Meier estimates and competing risk analysis to assess all cause mortality and kidney graft failure, respectively. The log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards regression were used for comparisons. Within ESP, matching for HLA-DR antigens was associated with a significantly lower five-year risk of mortality (hazard ratio 0.71; 95% confidence interval 0.53-0.95) and significantly lower cause-specific hazards for kidney graft failure and return to dialysis at one year (0.55; 0.35-0.87) and five years (0.73; 0.53-0.99) post-transplant. Allocation based on HLA-DR matching resulted in longer cold ischemia (mean difference 1.00 hours; 95% confidence interval: 0.32-1.68) and kidney offers with a significantly shorter median dialysis vintage of 2.4 versus 4.1 yrs. in ESP without matching. Thus, our allocation based on HLA-DR matching improved five-year patient and kidney allograft survival. Hence, our paired allocation study suggests a superior outcome of HLA-DR matching in the context of old-for-old kidney transplantation.</p

iAnn: an event sharing platform for the life sciences

Summary: We present iAnn, an open source community-driven platform for dissemination of life science events, such as courses, conferences and workshops. iAnn allows automatic visualisation and integration of customised event reports. A central repository lies at the core of the platform: curators add submitted events, and these are subsequently accessed via web services. Thus, once an iAnn widget is incorporated into a website, it permanently shows timely relevant information as if it were native to the remote site. At the same time, announcements submitted to the repository are automatically disseminated to all portals that query the system. To facilitate the visualization of announcements, iAnn provides powerful filtering options and views, integrated in Google Maps and Google Calendar. All iAnn widgets are freely available. Availability: http://iann.pro/iannviewer Contact: [email protected]

Incidência e mortalidade pelos principais tipos de câncer no município de Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, entre os anos de 2008 e 2016

Objective: To analyze the temporal trend of the incidence and mortality rate for prostate, breast, colorectal, lung, cervical, stomach and larynx cancer among residents in the city of Cuiabá between 2008 and 2016. Methods: Time series study with data from the Mortality Information System and the Population-Based Cancer Registry. Stratified by sex, the proportional distribution of new cases and deaths by age group and cancer incidence and mortality rates standardized by the world population were calculated. Linear regression was used and annual percentage change (ACP) was estimated. Results: In males, most new cases and deaths, for the main types of cancer, occurred among those aged 50 years or more, and the incidence rate of prostate cancer showed a tendency to decrease in the period (ACP=-4.33%). For females, the proportion of new cases and deaths, due to breast and cervical cancer, were more frequent among women aged 50 years or less, and lung, stomach and colorectal cancer among women aged 50 years or more. The incidence rate of breast cancer showed an increasing trend (ACP=3.60%).&nbsp; For both sexes, the mortality rate was stable. Conclusion: The incidence rate trend varied between sexes, an increase was observed for breast cancer among women and a reduction for prostate cancer among men. The mortality rate for the main types of cancer was stable.Objetivo: Analisar a tendência temporal da taxa de incidência e mortalidade por câncer de próstata, mama, colorretal, pulmão, colo de útero, estômago e laringe entre residentes no município de Cuiabá entre 2008 e 2016. Métodos: Estudo de séries temporais com informações do Sistema de Informação sobre Mortalidade e do Registro de Câncer de Base Populacional. Foram calculadas, estratificado por sexo, a distribuição proporcional dos casos novos e óbitos por faixa etária e as taxas de incidência e mortalidade por câncer padronizadas pela população mundial. Foi empregada a regressão linear e estimada a variação percentual anual (VPA). Resultados: No sexo masculino, a maioria dos casos novos e óbitos, para os principais tipos de câncer, ocorreu entre aqueles com 50 anos ou mais, e a taxa de incidência de câncer de próstata apresentou tendência de redução no período (VPA=-4,33%). Para o sexo feminino, a proporção de casos novos e óbitos, por câncer de mama e colo de útero, foram mais frequentes entre mulheres com 50 anos ou menos, e câncer de pulmão, estômago e colorretal entre as mulheres com 60 anos ou mais. A tendência da taxa de incidência de câncer de mama foi crescente (VPA=3,60%). Para ambos os sexos, a taxa de mortalidade apresentou estabilidade.&nbsp; Conclusão: A tendência da taxa de incidência variou entre os sexos, foi observado aumento para câncer de mama entre mulheres e redução para câncer de próstata entre homens. A taxa de mortalidade para os principais tipos de câncer apresentou estabilidade

The cosipy library: COSI's high-level analysis software

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a selected Small Explorer (SMEX) mission launching in 2027. It consists of a large field-of-view Compton telescope that will probe with increased sensitivity the under-explored MeV gamma-ray sky (0.2-5 MeV). We will present the current status of cosipy, a Python library that will perform spectral and polarization fits, image deconvolution, and all high-level analysis tasks required by COSI's broad science goals: uncovering the origin of the Galactic positrons, mapping the sites of Galactic nucleosynthesis, improving our models of the jet and emission mechanism of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and detecting and localizing gravitational wave and neutrino sources. The cosipy library builds on the experience gained during the COSI balloon campaigns and will bring the analysis of data in the Compton regime to a modern open-source likelihood-based code, capable of performing coherent joint fits with other instruments using the Multi-Mission Maximum Likelihood framework (3ML). In this contribution, we will also discuss our plans to receive feedback from the community by having yearly software releases accompanied by publicly-available data challenges

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager

The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) satellite mission in development with a planned launch in 2027. COSI is a wide-field gamma-ray telescope designed to survey the entire sky at 0.2-5 MeV. It provides imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry of astrophysical sources, and its germanium detectors provide excellent energy resolution for emission line measurements. Science goals for COSI include studies of 0.511 MeV emission from antimatter annihilation in the Galaxy, mapping radioactive elements from nucleosynthesis, determining emission mechanisms and source geometries with polarization measurements, and detecting and localizing multimessenger sources. The instantaneous field of view for the germanium detectors is >25% of the sky, and they are surrounded on the sides and bottom by active shields, providing background rejection as well as allowing for detection of gamma-ray bursts and other gamma-ray flares over most of the sky. In the following, we provide an overview of the COSI mission, including the science, the technical design, and the project status.Comment: 8 page

Globale Regulatoren des pilzlichen Sekundärmetabolismus

Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde die Isolierung und Charakterisierung des globalen Regulators Velvet im Cephalosporin C produzenten $\textit {A. chrysogenum}$ durchgeführt. Zwei unterschiedliche Disruptionsstämme wurden hergestellt. Northern Hybridisierungen und quantitative Real Time-PCR Analysen zeigten, dass in beiden Stämmen alle sechs bekannten Cephalosporin C-Gene runter reguliert wurden. Diese Daten der transkriptionellen Expression stimmen mit den Ergebnissen der HPLC-Analyse des Cephalosporin C-Gehalts überein. Beide Disruptionsstämme zeigen eine um 80 % reduzierte Cephalosporin C Produktmenge. $\textit {AcveA}$ ist auch in der entwicklungsabhängigen Hyphenfragmentierung beteiligt. In beiden Disruptionsstämmen trat eine verfrühte Hyphenfragmentierung ein. Zusätzlich zeigten beide Stämme eine Hyperverzweigung an den Hyphenspitzen, die auf einen Zellwand-Defekt hindeutet. Mikroskopische Analysen demonstrierten, dass das ACVEA-EGFP Fusionsprotein im Kern lokalisiert ist