The experiences of medical students and junior doctors with dyslexia: a survey study

Little research exists concerning dyslexia in medical education. A qualitative study highlighted issues such as bullying and a lack of support. This project aimed to quantify those findings. An online survey was sent to junior doctors in parts of the United Kingdom. Seventy-five participated. Most (53%) were diagnosed with dyslexia at university / medical school. Most reported that dyslexia impacted upon their self-image (59%) and self-esteem (73%). Nearly half (46%) felt it influenced their career pathway choices within medicine. Participants reported bullying at medical school-from peers (24%), from academic teachers (14%), and from clinical teachers (27%); and also at work-from peers (25%), from academic teachers (13%), and from clinical teachers (23%). 88% reported that foundation schools provided no support, 92% that NHS Trusts provided none, and 90% that their deaneries provided none. The sorts of supports which seemed to be lacking were "psychological" or "pastoral" supports

In Vitro Studies of the Prp9·Prp11·Prp21 Complex Indicate a Pathway for U2 Small Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Activation

Pre-mRNA splicing takes place on a large ribonucleoprotein particle, the spliceosome which contains the five small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs), U1, U2, U4, U5, and U6. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae the mRNA splicing factors, Prp9, Prp11, and Prp21, are necessary for addition of the U2 snRNP to the pre-mRNA in an early step of spliceosome assembly. This paper describes a study of interactions between these proteins and their role in spliceosome assembly. The proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli. Prp9 and Prp11 were purified by metal affinity chromatography. Prp21 was purified using a solubilization/renaturation protocol. We have combined these separately purified proteins and present direct evidence of a Prp9·Prp11·Prp21 protein complex that is functional in in vitro splicing assays. Characteristics of this Prp9·Prp11·Prp21 complex were further investigated using proteins synthesized in vitro. In addition, we found that Prp9, Prp11, and Prp21 influence the structure of the U2 snRNP in a manner that alters the accessibility of the branch point pairing region of the U2 snRNA to oligonucleotide-directed RNaseH cleavage. We present a model, based on the data presented here and in the accompanying paper, for a combined role of Prp9, Prp11, Prp21, and Prp5 in activating the U2 snRNP for assembly into the pre-spliceosome

Measuring Nothing

Measurement is integral to quantum information processing and communication; it is how information encoded in the state of a system is transformed into classical signals for further use. In quantum optics, measurements are typically destructive, so that the state is not available afterwards for further steps - crucial for sequential measurement schemes. The development of practical methods for non-destructive measurements on optical fields is therefore an important topic for future practical quantum information processing systems. Here we show how to measure the presence or absence of the vacuum in a quantum optical field without destroying the state, implementing the ideal projections onto the respective subspaces. This not only enables sequential measurements, useful for quantum communication, but it can also be adapted to create novel states of light via bare raising and lowering operators.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

European Springtails Orchesella cincta (L.) and O. villosa (L.) (Collembola: Entomobryidae): Vagabond Species of the Nearctic Region

North American specimens of the European invasive springtail Orchesella cincta (L.) were compared to several published European haplotypes in a phylogenetic framework using likelihood methods based on a portion of cytochrome oxidase II (cox2). Our analyses provide direct evidence of at least two distinct introductions of this invasive to North America from different regions of Europe. Additional introduction events cannot be ruled out because detection is limited by extremely low sequence divergence among populations inhabiting different regions of the continent. Orchesella villosa (L.), another invasive from Europe, is another candidate for multiple introductions. Herein we include the cox2 sequence from single specimens of O. villosa from Maine and Oregon. Although these two specimens are identical in sequence, they differ from a published sequence from a European specimen by 15%, indicating significant undocumented genetic variation in the natal range of O. villosa. Additional sampling of Nearctic populations of O. villosa might reveal the same situation reported herein for O. cincta

Effect of Edwardsiella ictaluri Infection on Plasma Corticosterone Levels in Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)

Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) were innoculated with a new host specific bacterium, Edwardsiella ictaluri, to observe the influence of bacterial infection on plasma corticosterone levels at various temperatures. The fish were innoculated intraperitoneally. The infected fish were separated from the controls. Plasma corticosterone concentrations were determined by radioimmunoassay. The plasma corticosterone concentrations in non-innoculated catfish were about 6.15 ng/ml and nearly 5.63 ng/ml in the infected fish. The lower level of the hormone in the infected catfish was not significantly different from the control level. High temperature was a stress factor which increased plasma corticosterone levels whereas E. ictaluri retarded the response of corticosterone secreting cells of the fish kidneys

Pseudo-potential treatment of two aligned dipoles under external harmonic confinement

Dipolar Bose and Fermi gases, which are currently being studied extensively experimentally and theoretically, interact through anisotropic, long-range potentials. Here, we replace the long-range potential by a zero-range pseudo-potential that simplifies the theoretical treatment of two dipolar particles in a harmonic trap. Our zero-range pseudo-potential description reproduces the energy spectrum of two dipoles interacting through a shape-dependent potential under external confinement very well, provided that sufficiently many partial waves are included, and readily leads to a classification scheme of the energy spectrum in terms of approximate angular momentum quantum numbers. The results may be directly relevant to the physics of dipolar gases loaded into optical lattices.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure