Early community-based family practice elective positively influences medical students’ career considerations – a Pre-post-comparison

BACKGROUND: Demographic change and recruitment problems in family practice are increasingly threatening an adequate primary care workforce in many countries. Thus, it is important to attract young physicians to the field. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of an early community-based 28-h family practice elective with one-to-one mentoring on medical students’ consideration of family practice as a career option, their interest in working office-based, and several perceptions with regard to specific aspects of a family physician’s work. METHODS: First- and second-year medical students completed questionnaires before and after a short community-based family practice elective, consisting of a preparatory course and a community-based practical experience with one-to-one mentoring by trained family physicians. RESULTS: We found a significantly higher rate of students favoring family practice as a career option after the elective (32.7% vs. 26.0%, p = 0.039). Furthermore, the ranking of family practice among other considered career options improved (p = 0.002). Considerations to work office-based in the future did not change significantly. Perceptions regarding a family physician’s job changed positively with regard to the possibility of long-term doctor-patient relationships and treatment of complex disease patterns. The majority of the students described identification with the respective family physician tutor as a professional role model and an increased interest in the specialty. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that a short community-based family practice elective early in medical education may positively influence medical students’ considerations of a career in family practice. Furthermore, perceptions regarding the specialty with significant impact on its attractiveness may be positively adjusted. Further research is needed to evaluate the influence of different components of a family practice curriculum on the de facto career decisions of young physicians after graduation

(A) Vision for 2050 - Context-Based Image Understanding for a Human-Robot Soccer Match

We believe it is possible to create the visual subsystem needed for the RoboCup 2050 challenge - a soccer match between humans and robots - within the next decade.  In this position paper, we argue, that the basic techniques are available, but the main challenge will be to achieve the necessary robustness. We propose to address this challenge through the use of probabilistically modeled context, so for instance a visually indistinct circle is  accepted as the ball, if it fits well with the ball's motion model and vice versa.Our vision is accompanied by a sequence of (partially already conducted) experiments for its verification.  In these experiments, a human soccer player carries a helmet with a camera and an inertial sensor and the vision system has to extract all information from that data, a humanoid robot would need to take the human's place

Prostaglandin D2 synthase induces apoptosis in pig kidney LLC-PK1 cells

Prostaglandin D2 synthase induces apoptosis in pig kidney LLC-PK1 cells.BackgroundProstaglandin D2 synthase (PGD2S), a unique member of the lipocalin family, is found at elevated levels in the serum of patients with renal impairment and has recently been implicated as a new biochemical marker of renal insufficiency. The aim of this study was to investigate the apoptotic effects of PGD2S on a pig kidney epithelial cell line (LLC-PK1) and to investigate the effects of prostaglandins and growth factors on this process.MethodsApoptosis was detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL), annexin V staining, and electron microscopy.ResultsA four- to fivefold increase in apoptosis was observed in PGD2S-treated cells as compared with controls and the apoptosis appeared to act via caspase-3. A cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, anti-PGD2S antibody, and selenium all significantly inhibited the apoptosis induced by PGD2S; however, none had any effect on the apoptosis induced by the known apoptotic inducer camptothecin. Furthermore, prostaglandins E1 and E2, known to induce mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase phosphorylation and exhibit cytoprotective effects, both inhibited PGD2S-induced apoptosis, while prostaglandin H2 had no significant effect. Growth factors such as insulin, insulin-like growth factor-1, and platelet-derived growth factor also decreased PGD2S-induced apoptosis. In addition, PGD2S isolated from human serum seemed slightly more effective at inducing apoptosis than recombinantly expressed protein.ConclusionsWe report on the induction of apoptosis by PGD2S in LLC-PK1 pig kidney epithelial cells, and speculate that the accumulation of PGD2S in the serum of kidney failure patients may further exacerbate renal problems and is most likely regulated by other prostaglandins and growth factors