Competent to care. Are all doctors competent in nutrition?

Optimising nutrition is known to improve outcome in a variety of specialities from elderly care to orthopaedics. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines of 2006 have provided standards to positively influence the profile of nutrition within the National Health Service. However, what role do doctors have in this process? Clearly, not all doctors are competent in nutrition. In a recent US survey only 14% of resident physicians reported feeling adequately trained to provide nutrition counselling. A lack of knowledge has also been demonstrated by general practitioners (GP). The Intercollegiate Group on Nutrition is working to improve nutritional knowledge in British medical graduates. In addition, nutritional care is now a core competency assessed in the UK Foundation Programme curriculum, which can only be a positive step. The assessment process may even influence some of the supervising consultants. What about those doctors currently practising in the UK? Recently, a questionnaire study was undertaken to look at healthcare professionals' knowledge of the benefits and risks of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) feeding. Important gaps in knowledge were found that were positively correlated with whether respondents had received relevant education. Referral for a PEG was considered to be appropriate for patients with advanced dementia by 31% of the GP compared with 10% of the consultants. Only 4% of these GP had received any training in this ethically-sensitive area at a time when they may be asked to countersign consent forms for patients who lack competence. So, what is the way forward? Positive steps are being taken in the undergraduate curriculum and Foundation Programme. Perhaps it is the responsibility of those doctors with the skills and opportunities to promote good nutritional knowledge in those doctors already practising in the UK

Mystical orientation and the perceiving process : a study among Anglican clergymen

This study examines the hypothesised link between mystical orientation and the perceiving process within the Jungian model of psychological type. Data were provided by 232 Anglican clergymen serving in the Church in Wales who completed both the Francis-Louden Mystical Orientation Scale and the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data demonstrated that intuitive types recorded significantly higher scores than sensing types on the index of mystical orientation, supporting the hypothesis based on Ross' thesis

Evolution of Cooperation and Coordination in a Dynamically Networked Society

Situations of conflict giving rise to social dilemmas are widespread in society and game theory is one major way in which they can be investigated. Starting from the observation that individuals in society interact through networks of acquaintances, we model the co-evolution of the agents' strategies and of the social network itself using two prototypical games, the Prisoner's Dilemma and the Stag Hunt. Allowing agents to dismiss ties and establish new ones, we find that cooperation and coordination can be achieved through the self-organization of the social network, a result that is non-trivial, especially in the Prisoner's Dilemma case. The evolution and stability of cooperation implies the condensation of agents exploiting particular game strategies into strong and stable clusters which are more densely connected, even in the more difficult case of the Prisoner's Dilemma.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures. to appea

Thermodynamical Consistent Modeling and Analysis of Nematic Liquid Crystal Flows

The general Ericksen-Leslie system for the flow of nematic liquid crystals is reconsidered in the non-isothermal case aiming for thermodynamically consistent models. The non-isothermal model is then investigated analytically. A fairly complete dynamic theory is developed by analyzing these systems as quasilinear parabolic evolution equations in an $L^p-L^q$-setting. First, the existence of a unique, local strong solution is proved. It is then shown that this solution extends to a global strong solution provided the initial data are close to an equilibrium or the solution is eventually bounded in the natural norm of the underlying state space. In these cases, the solution converges exponentially to an equilibrium in the natural state manifold

A Triple Protostar System Formed via Fragmentation of a Gravitationally Unstable Disk

Binary and multiple star systems are a frequent outcome of the star formation process, and as a result, almost half of all sun-like stars have at least one companion star. Theoretical studies indicate that there are two main pathways that can operate concurrently to form binary/multiple star systems: large scale fragmentation of turbulent gas cores and filaments or smaller scale fragmentation of a massive protostellar disk due to gravitational instability. Observational evidence for turbulent fragmentation on scales of $>$1000~AU has recently emerged. Previous evidence for disk fragmentation was limited to inferences based on the separations of more-evolved pre-main sequence and protostellar multiple systems. The triple protostar system L1448 IRS3B is an ideal candidate to search for evidence of disk fragmentation. L1448 IRS3B is in an early phase of the star formation process, likely less than 150,000 years in age, and all protostars in the system are separated by $<$200~AU. Here we report observations of dust and molecular gas emission that reveal a disk with spiral structure surrounding the three protostars. Two protostars near the center of the disk are separated by 61 AU, and a tertiary protostar is coincident with a spiral arm in the outer disk at a 183 AU separation. The inferred mass of the central pair of protostellar objects is $\sim$1 M$_{sun}$, while the disk surrounding the three protostars has a total mass of $\sim$0.30 M_{\sun}. The tertiary protostar itself has a minimum mass of $\sim$0.085 M$_{sun}$. We demonstrate that the disk around L1448 IRS3B appears susceptible to disk fragmentation at radii between 150~AU and 320~AU, overlapping with the location of the tertiary protostar. This is consistent with models for a protostellar disk that has recently undergone gravitational instability, spawning one or two companion stars.Comment: Published in Nature on Oct. 27th. 24 pages, 8 figure

New insights for diagnosis of Pineapple Fusariosis by MALDI-TOF MS technique

Fusarium is one of the most economically important fungal genus, since it includes many pathogenic species which cause a wide range of plant diseases. Morphological or molecular biology identification of Fusarium species is a limiting step in the fast diagnosis and treatment of plant disease caused by these fungi. Mass spectrometry by matrix-assisted laser/desorption ionisation-time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF)-based fingerprinting approach was applied to the fungal growth monitoring and direct detection of strain Fusarium guttiforme E-480 inoculated in both pineapple cultivars Pérola and Imperial side shoots, that are susceptible and resistant, respectively, to this fungal strain. MALDI-TOF MS technique was capable to detect fungal molecular mass peaks in the susceptible pineapple stem side shoot tissue. It is assumed that these molecular masses are mainly constituted by ribosomal proteins. MALDI-TOF-based fingerprinting approach has herein been demonstrated to be sensitive and accurate for the direct detection of F. guttiforme E-480 molecular masses on both susceptible and resistant pineapple side stem free of any pre-treatment. According to the results obtained, the changing on molecular mass peaks of infected susceptible pineapple tissue together with the possibility of fungal molecular masses analysis into this pineapple tissue can be a good indication for an early diagnosis by MALDI-TOF MS of pineapple fusariosis

Effect of simplifications of bone and components inclination on the elastohydrodynamic lubrication modeling of metal-on-metal hip resurfacing prosthesis

It is important to study the lubrication mechanism of metal-on-metal hip resurfacing prosthesis in order to understand its overall tribological performance, thereby minimize the wear particles. Previous elastohydrodynamic lubrication studies of metal-on-metal hip resurfacing prosthesis neglected the effects of the orientations of the cup and head. Simplified pelvic and femoral bone models were also adopted for the previous studies. These simplifications may lead to unrealistic predictions. For the first time, an elastohydrodynamic lubrication model was developed and solved for a full metal-onmetal hip resurfacing arthroplasty. The effects of the orientations of components and the realistic bones on the lubrication performance of metal-on-metal hip resurfacing prosthesis were investigated by comparing the full model with simplified models. It was found that the orientation of the head played a very important role in the prediction of pressure distributions and film profiles of the metal-on-metal hip resurfacing prosthesis. The inclination of the hemispherical cup up to 45 had no appreciable effect on the lubrication performance of the metal-on-metal hip resurfacing prosthesis. Moreover, the combined effect of material properties and structures of bones was negligible. Future studies should focus on higher inclination angles, smaller coverage angle and microseparation related to the occurrences of edge loading. © IMechE 2012

Synthesis of an ordered mesoporous carbon with graphitic characteristics and its application for dye adsorption

An ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) was prepared by a chemical vapor deposition technique using liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as the carbon source. During synthesis, LPG was effectively adsorbed in the ordered mesopores of SBA-15 silica and converted to a graphitic carbon at 800 °C. X-ray diffraction and nitrogen adsorption/desorption data and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) of the OMC confirmed its ordered mesoporous structure. The OMC was utilized as an adsorbent in the removal of dyes from aqueous solution. A commercial powder activated carbon (AC) was also investigated to obtain comparative data. The efficiency of the OMC for dye adsorption was tested using acidic dye acid orange 8 (AO8) and basic dyes methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RB). The results show that adsorption was affected by the molecular size of the dye, the textural properties of carbon adsorbent and surface-dye interactions. The adsorption capacities of the OMC for acid orange 8 (AO8), methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RB) were determined to be 222, 833, and 233 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption capacities of the AC for AO8, MB, and RB were determined to be 141, 313, and 185 mg/ g, respectively. The OMC demonstrated to be an excellent adsorbent for the removal of MB from wastewater.Web of Scienc

The Yeast Tor Signaling Pathway Is Involved in G2/M Transition via Polo-Kinase

The target of rapamycin (Tor) protein plays central roles in cell growth. Rapamycin inhibits cell growth and promotes cell cycle arrest at G1 (G0). However, little is known about whether Tor is involved in other stages of the cell division cycle. Here we report that the rapamycin-sensitive Tor complex 1 (TORC1) is involved in G2/M transition in S. cerevisiae. Strains carrying a temperature-sensitive allele of KOG1 (kog1-105) encoding an essential component of TORC1, as well as yeast cell treated with rapamycin show mitotic delay with prolonged G2. Overexpression of Cdc5, the yeast polo-like kinase, rescues the growth defect of kog1-105, and in turn, Cdc5 activity is attenuated in kog1-105 cells. The TORC1-Type2A phosphatase pathway mediates nucleocytoplasmic transport of Cdc5, which is prerequisite for its proper localization and function. The C-terminal polo-box domain of Cdc5 has an inhibitory role in nuclear translocation. Taken together, our results indicate a novel function of Tor in the regulation of cell cycle and proliferation

Validity of claims made in weight management research: a narrative review of dietetic articles

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The best available evidence demonstrates that conventional weight management has a high long-term failure rate. The ethical implications of continued reliance on an energy deficit approach to weight management are under-explored.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A narrative literature review of journal articles in <it>The Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics </it>from 2004 to 2008.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although the energy deficit approach to weight management has a high long-term failure rate it continues to dominate research in the field. In the current research agenda, controversies and complexities in the evidence base are inadequately discussed, and claims about the likely success of weight management misrepresent available evidence.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Dietetic literature on weight management fails to meet the standards of evidence based medicine. Research in the field is characterised by speculative claims that fail to accurately represent the available data. There is a corresponding lack of debate on the ethical implications of continuing to promote ineffective treatment regimes and little research into alternative non-weight centred approaches. An alternative health at every size approach is recommended.</p