A survey of factors influencing career preference in new-entrant and exiting medical students from four UK medical schools

Our thanks to Professor Gillian Needham and Dr Murray Lough for their encouragement and support, and their comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Our thanks also to NHS Education for Scotland [NES] for funding, and the Scottish Medical Deans Education Group [SMDEG] for supporting this project. We are grateful to all the students who gave their time to complete the survey questionnaire and to those who helped organise and carry out data collection.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Relationship between sociodemographic factors and specialty destination of UK trainee doctors:a national cohort study

We are grateful to UKMED for releasing the data for this project. We also are grateful to the following for their support of the application to UKMED for this and other research projects: Dr Sally Curtis (University of Southampton, UK), Dr Sandra Nicholson (Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, UK). We thank Daniel Smith and Andy Knapton of the General Medical Council of the UK for their support for the application and throughout the project, particularly regarding data linkage and troubleshooting.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A 62-kD protein required for mitotic progression is associated with the mitotic apparatus during M-phase and with the nucleus during interphase

A protein of 62 kD is a substrate of a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase, and both proteins copurify with isolated mitotic apparatuses (Dinsmore, J. H., and R. D. Sloboda. 1988. Cell. 53:769- 780). Phosphorylation of the 62-kD protein increases after fertilization; maximum incorporation of phosphate occurs during late metaphase and anaphase and correlates directly with microtubule disassembly as determined by in vitro experiments with isolated mitotic apparatuses. Because 62-kD protein phosphorylation occurs in a pattern similar to the accumulation of the mitotic cyclin proteins, experiments were performed to determine the relationship between cyclin and the 62- kD protein. Continuous labeling of marine embryos with [35S]methionine, as well as immunoblots of marine embryo proteins using specific antibodies, were used to identify both cyclin and the 62-kD protein. These results clearly demonstrate that the 62-kD protein is distinct from cyclin and, unlike cyclin, is a constant member of the cellular protein pool during the first two cell cycles in sea urchin and surf clam embryos. Similar results were obtained using immunofluorescence microscopy of intact eggs and embryos. In addition, immunogold electron microscopy reveals that the 62-kD protein associates with the microtubules of the mitotic apparatus in dividing cells. Interestingly, the protein changes its subcellular distribution with respect to microtubules during the cell cycle. Specifically, during mitosis the 62- kD protein associates with the mitotic apparatus; before nuclear envelope breakdown, however, the 62-kD protein is confined to the nucleus. After anaphase, the 62-kD protein returns to the nucleus, where it resides until nuclear envelope disassembly of the next cell cycle

Effect of permafrost thaw on CO2 and CH4 exchange in a western Alaska peatland chronosequence

Permafrost soils store over half of global soil carbon (C), and northern frozen peatlands store about 10% of global permafrost C. With thaw, inundation of high latitude lowland peatlands typically increases the surface-atmosphere flux of methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas. To examine the effects of lowland permafrost thaw over millennial timescales, we measured carbon dioxide (CO2) and CH4 exchange along sites that constitute a ~1000 yr thaw chronosequence of thermokarst collapse bogs and adjacent fen locations at Innoko Flats Wildlife Refuge in western Alaska. Peak CH4 exchange in July (123 ± 71 mg CH4–C m−2 d−1) was observed in features that have been thawed for 30 to 70 (\u3c100) yr, where soils were warmer than at more recently thawed sites (14 to 21 yr; emitting 1.37 ± 0.67 mg CH4–C m−2 d−1 in July) and had shallower water tables than at older sites (200 to 1400 yr; emitting 6.55 ± 2.23 mg CH4–C m−2 d−1 in July). Carbon lost via CH4 efflux during the growing season at these intermediate age sites was 8% of uptake by net ecosystem exchange. Our results provide evidence that CH4 emissions following lowland permafrost thaw are enhanced over decadal time scales, but limited over millennia. Over larger spatial scales, adjacent fen systems may contribute sustained CH4 emission, CO2 uptake, and DOC export. We argue that over timescales of decades to centuries, thaw features in high-latitude lowland peatlands, particularly those developed on poorly drained mineral substrates, are a key locus of elevated CH4 emission to the atmosphere that must be considered for a complete understanding of high latitude CH4 dynamics

A Description of Parent Input in IEP Development Through Analysis of IEP Documents

Parent input in Individualized Education Program (IEP) development is the clear expectation in U.S. education law. Every IEP team must include parents, and their input must be equally considered when developing IEPs. The present study used content analysis of 88 IEPs of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to explore team membership, concerns parents raised during IEP meetings, and evidence that parent concerns and priorities are reflected in IEP goals and supplementary aids and services. Findings reveal that while parents express a range of concerns and priorities, these are translated into goals or services only two-thirds of the time. We provide implications of these findings for research and practice

Types of Supplementary Aids and Services for Students with Significant Support Needs

Supplementary aids and services have been a provision in special education law since PL 94- 142, however, almost no guidance has been provided to help teams make decisions about their appropriate selection and use. In this exploratory study, we explore the types of supplementary aids and services selected for students with significant support needs using a conventional content analysis of Individual Education Program (IEPs) from 88 students in grades K-12. Results illustrate the wide variation in types of supplementary aids and services chosen for students overall. Curricular accommodations and personnel supports were the most commonly identified supports, while supports to assist students to communicate and make meaning of curriculum (e.g., curricular modifications) were less common, as were less intrusive supports such as peer assisted learning. Implications for policy, practice, and research are provided

Making Structural Sense of Dimerization Interfaces of Delta Opioid Receptor Homodimers†

ABSTRACT: Opioid receptors, like other members of theG protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) family, have been shown to associate to form dimers and/or oligomers at the plasma membrane. Whether this association is stable or transient is not known. Recent compelling evidence suggests that at least some GPCRs rapidly associate and dissociate. We have recently calculated binding affinities from free energy estimates to predict transient association between mouse delta opioid receptor (DOR) protomers at a symmetric interface involving the fourth transmembrane (TM4) helix (herein termed “4 ” dimer). Here we present disulfide cross-linking experiments with DOR constructs with cysteines substituted at the extracellular ends of TM4 or TM5 that confirm the formation of DOR complexes involving these helices. Our results are consistent with the involvement of TM4 and/or TM5 at the DOR homodimer interface, but possibly with differing association propensities. Coarse-grained (CG) well-tempered metadynamics simulations of two different dimeric arrangements of DOR involving TM4 alone or with TM5 (herein termed “4/5 ” dimer) in an explicit lipid-water environment confirmed the presence of two structurally and energetically similar configurations of the 4 dimer, as previously assessed by umbrella sampling calculations, and revealed a single energetic minimum of the 4/5 dimer. Additional CG umbrella sampling simulations of the 4/5 dimer indicated that the strength of association between DOR protomers varies depending on the protein region at the interface, wit

Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars. XV. Discovery of a Connection between the Monoceros Ring and the Triangulum-Andromeda Overdensity?

Thanks to modern sky surveys, over twenty stellar streams and overdensity structures have been discovered in the halo of the Milky Way. In this paper, we present an analysis of spectroscopic observations of individual stars from one such structure, "A13", first identified as an overdensity using the M giant catalog from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey. Our spectroscopic observations show that stars identified with A13 have a velocity dispersion of $\lesssim$ 40 $\mathrm{km~s^{-1}}$, implying that it is a genuine coherent structure rather than a chance super-position of random halo stars. From its position on the sky, distance ($\sim$15~kpc heliocentric), and kinematical properties, A13 is likely to be an extension of another low Galactic latitude substructure -- the Galactic Anticenter Stellar Structure (also known as the Monoceros Ring) -- towards smaller Galactic longitude and farther distance. Furthermore, the kinematics of A13 also connect it with another structure in the southern Galactic hemisphere -- the Triangulum-Andromeda overdensity. We discuss these three connected structures within the context of a previously proposed scenario that one or all of these features originate from the disk of the Milky Way.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap