Dissecting the Workforce and Workplace for Clinical Endocrinology, and the Work of Endocrinologists Early in Their Careers

[Excerpt] No national mechanism is in place for an informed, penetrating, and systematic assessment of the physician workforce such as that achieved by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the periodic evaluation of the nation’s scientists and engineers. Likewise, knowledge of the workforce for clinical research is enigmatic and fragmentary despite the serial recommendations of “blue-ribbon” panels to establish a protocol for the recurrent assessment of clinical investigators early in their careers. Failure to adopt a national system for producing timely, high-quality data on the professional activities of physicians limits the application of improvement tools for advancing clinical investigation and ultimately improving clinical practice. The present study was designed as a pilot project to test the feasibility of using Web-based surveys to estimate the administrative, clinical, didactic, and research work of subspecialty physicians employed in academic, clinical, federal, and pharmaceutical workplaces. Physician members of The Endocrine Society (TES) were used as surrogate prototypes of a subspecialty workforce because of their manageable number and investigative tradition. The results establish that Web-based surveys provide a tool to assess the activities of a decentralized workforce employed in disparate workplaces and underscore the value of focusing on physician work within the context of particular workplaces within a subspecialty. Our report also provides a new and timely snapshot of the amount and types of research performed by clinically trained endocrinologists and offers an evidenced-based framework for improving the investigative workforce in this medical subspecialty

Exploring the Use of Video-Recorded Practical Examination Performance to Enhance Student Self-Assessment

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purposes of this study were to explore the ability of doctor of physical therapy students to self-assess performance during a video-recorded practical examination, to evaluate student perceptions of the experience, and to determine their perception of their ability to self-assess. Method: A cross-sectional design with students from 2 consecutive cohorts was utilized. Participants worked in groups of three conducting a video-recorded gait training session. Students graded their own performance immediately upon completing the practical examination. Students then regraded their performance from the video recording. The instructor graded each student’s video-recorded performance using the same rubric as the students. Following the experience, students completed a 7-question survey administered via Survey Monkey. Data were analyzed using Friedman’s ANOVA with post-hoc Wilcoxon signed-rank test to compare median scores. Cohen’s Kappa and percent agreement calculations assessed inter- and intra-rater reliability. Student perception data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: The only significant difference in scores was between student-live and faculty examiner assessments for Cohort 2. Inter-rater reliability (.09-.17) and percent agreement (20.7%-26.3%) were low across all comparisons. Intra-rater reliability (.12-.23) and percent agreement (23.7%-34.5%) were also low for both cohorts. Students rated their ability to self-assess from the video-recorded performance significantly higher than from the live performance (pConclusions:Students’ ability to self-assess performance does not appear to be well developed in the early stages of physical therapy education. The use of video-recorded performance, in conjunction with instructor feedback, could enhance this ability, ideally leading to independent and effective self-assessment as students proceed through the curriculum

Cross-language activation in bimodal bilinguals: Do mouthings affect the co-activation of speech during sign recognition?

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 January 2022The present study provides insight into cross-language activation in hearing bimodal bilinguals by (1) examining co-activation of spoken words during processing of signs by hearing bimodal bilingual users of Dutch (their L1) and Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT; late learners) and (2) investigating the contribution of mouthings to bimodal cross-language activation. NGT signs were presented with or without mouthings in two sign-picture verification experiments. In both experiments the phonological relation (unrelated, cohort overlap or final rhyme overlap) between the Dutch translation equivalents of the NGT signs and pictures was manipulated. Across both experiments, the results showed slower responses for sign-picture pairs with final rhyme overlap relative to phonologically unrelated sign-picture pairs, indicating co-activation of the spoken language during sign processing, but no significant effect for sign-picture pairs with cohort overlap in Dutch. In addition, co-activation was not affected by the presence or absence of mouthings

PENGARUH OBJEK WISATA TASIKRIA TERHADAP PERUBAHAN SOSIAL MASYARAKAT DI DESA MOKUPA KECAMATAN TOMBARIRI

The objective of this research is to know the effect of social change especially attitude and social value to the decrease of Tasikria tourism object at Mokupa Village Tombariri Dictrict.The collecting has been conducted for one year, from December, 2014 to December, 2015. The obtained data are primary and decundary data. The primary data are obtained directly from the government at Mokupa Village, Tombariri Sub-Disctrit. The sampling uses purposive sampling chosen at Mokupa Village involving village society such as teacher, government employee, To know the effect of social change especially attitude, it uses Likert Scale Analysis. The research result showed that the effect of social change to tourism object at Mokupa Village Tombariri Sub-Dictrict was high based on attitude and social value of local society.*jnkd

Dust heating by the interstellar radiation field in models of turbulent molecular clouds

We have calculated the radiation field, dust grain temperatures, and far infrared emissivity of numerical models of turbulent molecular clouds. When compared to a uniform cloud of the same mean optical depth, most of the volume inside the turbulent cloud is brighter, but most of the mass is darker. There is little mean attenuation from center to edge, and clumping causes the radiation field to be somewhat bluer. There is also a large dispersion, typically by a few orders of magnitude, of all quantities relative to their means. However, despite the scatter, the 850 micron emission maps are well correlated with surface density. The fraction of mass as a function of intensity can be reproduced by a simple hierarchical model of density structure.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Ap

Evolution of Chloroplast Transcript Processing in Plasmodium and Its Chromerid Algal Relatives

Chloroplasts contain their own genomes, containing two broad functional types of gene: genes encoding proteins directly involved in photosynthesis, and genes with a non-photosynthesis function, such as cofactor biosynthesis, assembly of protein complexes, or expression of the chloroplast genome. Thus far, to our knowledge, no chloroplast gene expression pathways in any lineage have been found to target one functional category of gene specifically. Here, we show that a chloroplast RNA processing pathway – the addition of a 3′ poly(U) tail – is specifically associated with photosynthesis genes in two species of algae, the ‘chromerids’ Chromera and Vitrella. The addition of the poly(U) tail enables the precise processing of mature photosynthesis gene transcripts from precursor RNA, and is likely to be essential for expression of the chromerid photosynthesis machinery. The chromerid algae are the closest photosynthetic relatives of a parasitic group of eukaryotes, the apicomplexans, which include the malaria pathogen Plasmodium. Apicomplexans are descended from algae, and retain a reduced chloroplast, which contains genes only of non-photosynthesis function. We have confirmed that 3′ poly(U) tails are not added to Plasmodium chloroplast transcripts. The expression pathways associated with photosynthesis genes have therefore been lost in the evolution of the apicomplexan chloroplast, and this loss could potentially have driven the transition from photosynthesis to parasitism

PARTISIPASI TENAGA KERJA WANITA DI USAHA BUNGA POTONG DI KELURAHAN KAKASKASEN II, KECAMATAN TOMOHON UTARA, KOTA TOMOHON

In this era of globalization, many efforts have done in order to earn money for the family. Efforts in agriculture be one choice of families and communities. In general, the development has opened up opportunities for women to engage in various businesses in the agricultural sector which has been dominated by men. The purpose of this study was to determine the participation of women owners or workers in the cut flower business in Kakaskasen II Village, North Tomohon sub district, Tomohon. The study lasted for 3 months, namely in November 2015 until January 2016, ranging from research preparation to the formulation of a research report. The data used in this study are primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through direct interview to the respondents. Method of sample selection has used purposive sampling technique on nine women from 11 women as population who are owners or workers in the cut flower business. Data collection is a direct interview and observation (observation). Secondary data was collected from previous studies conducted by other researchers, but at the same location. Data analysis in this research using descriptive analysis and also using a Likert scale, with level 1 (underactive), 2 (active), 3 (highly active). This study found, based on an analysis using a Likert scale, that the number of female labor force participation index in the cut flower business (including planting, maintenance, cutting/ harvesting/buying, stringing, or sales) are at a point that 85.6% were categorized as high. Further analysis showed that the labor force participation rate of women in cut flower business with a score of up to 185 of the range of the number of ideal scoring the highest score was 216 and the lowest score was 72. Suggestions in this study, based on the conclusions derived, is the government should open up more opportunities to increase the number of business opportunities and work for women in cut flower business in order to alleviate the problem of female unemployment and poverty that exist in Tomohon City.*eprm

Metazoans of redoxcline sediments in Mediterranean deep-sea hypersaline anoxic basins

Background: The deep-sea hypersaline anoxic basins (DHABs) of the Mediterranean (water depth similar to 3500 m) are some of the most extreme oceanic habitats known. Brines of DHABs are nearly saturated with salt, leading many to suspect they are uninhabitable for eukaryotes. While diverse bacterial and protistan communities are reported from some DHAB haloclines and brines, loriciferans are the only metazoan reported to inhabit the anoxic DHAB brines. Our goal was to further investigate metazoan communities in DHAB haloclines and brines. Results: We report observations from sediments of three DHAB (Urania, Discovery, L'Atalante) haloclines, comparing these to observations from sediments underlying normoxic waters of typical Mediterranean salinity. Due to technical difficulties, sampling of the brines was not possible. Morphotype analysis indicates nematodes are the most abundant taxon; crustaceans, loriciferans and bryozoans were also noted. Among nematodes, Daptonema was the most abundant genus; three morphotypes were noted with a degree of endemicity. The majority of rRNA sequences were from planktonic taxa, suggesting that at least some individual metazoans were preserved and inactive. Nematode abundance data, in some cases determined from direct counts of sediments incubated in situ with CellTracker (TM) Green, was patchy but generally indicates the highest abundances in either normoxic control samples or in upper halocline samples; nematodes were absent or very rare in lower halocline samples. Ultrastructural analysis indicates the nematodes in L'Atalante normoxic control sediments were fit, while specimens from L'Atalante upper halocline were healthy or had only recently died and those from the lower halocline had no identifiable organelles. Loriciferans, which were only rarely encountered, were found in both normoxic control samples as well as in Discovery and L'Atalante haloclines. It is not clear how a metazoan taxon could remain viable under this wide range of conditions. Conclusions: We document a community of living nematodes in normoxic, normal saline deep-sea Mediterranean sediments and in the upper halocline portions of the DHABs. Occurrences of nematodes in mid-halocline and lower halocline samples did not provide compelling evidence of a living community in those zones. The possibility of a viable metazoan community in brines of DHABs is not supported by our data at this time

Partitioning the impact of environmental drivers and species interactions in dynamic aquatic communities

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Musters, C. J. M., Ieromina, O., Barmentlo, S. H., Hunting, E. R., Schrama, M., Cieraad, E., Vijver, M. G., & van Bodegom, P. M. Partitioning the impact of environmental drivers and species interactions in dynamic aquatic communities. Ecosphere, 10(11), (2019): e02910, doi:10.1002/ecs2.2910.Temperate aquatic communities are highly diverse and seasonally variable, due to internal biotic processes and environmental drivers, including human‐induced stressors. The impact of drivers on species abundance is supposed to differ fundamentally depending on whether populations are experiencing limitations, which may shift over the season. However, an integrated understanding of how drivers structure communities seasonally is currently lacking. In order to partition the effect of drivers, we used random forests to quantify interactions between all taxa and environmental factors using macrofaunal data from 18 agricultural ditches sampled over two years. We found that, over the agricultural season, taxon abundance became increasingly better predicted by the abundances of co‐occurring taxa and nutrients compared to other abiotic factors, including pesticides. Our approach provides fundamental insights in community dynamics and highlights the need to consider changes in species interactions to understand the effects of anthropogenic stressors.The authors are grateful to B. Schaub of Water Board Rijnland for his help, E. Gertenaar for assistance in the fieldwork, M. Wouterse for DOC measurements, and B. Koese for help with taxonomic identification of macrofaunal samples. CM designed the study, did the statistical modeling and analyses, and wrote the draft paper; OI did field sampling and taxonomic identification and constructed the datasets; OI and HB structured the data; EH, MS, ES, MV, and PvB contributed to the study design and the conceptual improvement of the manuscript; all authors substantially revised the subsequent drafts