A person-practice-program fit - Evaluation of a GP training placement process

Copyright © 2007 Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Copyright to Australian Family Physician. Reproduced with permission. Permission to reproduce must be sought from the publisher, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.BACKGROUND The placement of general practice registrars in vocational training practices can be a difficult process if both educational and organisational needs are to be met. METHODS A telephone survey of 22 registrars and 24 supervisors was conducted to evaluate the placement matching process used by the Adelaide To Outback (A2O) GP Training Program. RESULTS Overall, registrars and supervisors were satisfied with all components of the placement matching process. The majority of interviewees reported the interview component of the process as being a positive experience. DISCUSSION The evaluation has shown that the model developed by A2O is successful, allowing input by registrars and supervisors while remaining manageable for the training provider. It is also a transparent and equitable process for all involved and is flexible enough to meet different regional needs. A number of suggested areas for improvement can be integrated easily into the model.Caroline Laurence; Linda E Blac

A Possible Detection of Occultation by a Proto-planetary Clump in GM Cephei

GM Cep in the young (~ 4 Myr) open cluster Trumpler 37 has been known to be an abrupt variable and to have a circumstellar disk with very active accretion. Our monitoring observations in 2009–2011 revealed the star to show sporadic ?are events, each with brightening of . 0.5 mag lasting for days. These brightening events, associated with a color change toward the blue, should originate from an increased accretion activity. Moreover, the star also underwent a brightness drop of ~ 1 mag lasting for about a month, during which the star became bluer when fainter. Such brightness drops seem to have a recurrence time scale of a year, as evidenced in our data and the photometric behavior of GM Cep over a century. Between consecutive drops, the star brightened gradually by about 1 mag and became blue at peak luminosity. We propose that the drop is caused by obscuration of the central star by an orbiting dust concentration. The UX Orionis type of activity in GM Cep therefore exemplifies the disk inhomogeneity process in transition between grain coagulation and planetesimal formation in a young circumstellar disk

The Ha Luminosity Function and Star Formation Rate at z\sim 0.2

We have measured the Ha+[N II] fluxes of the I-selected Canada-France Redshift Survey (CFRS) galaxies lying at a redshift z below 0.3, and hence derived the Ha luminosity function. The magnitude limits of the CFRS mean that only the galaxies with M(B) > -21 mag were observed at these redshifts. We obtained a total Ha luminosity density of at least 10^{39.44\pm 0.04} erg/s/Mpc^{3} at a mean z=0.2 for galaxies with rest-fame EW(Ha+[N II]) > 10 Angs. This is twice the value found in the local universe by Gallego et al. 1995. Our Ha star formation rate, derived from Madau (1997) is higher than the UV observations at same z, implying a UV dust extinction of about 1 mag. We found a strong correlation between the Ha luminosity and the absolute magnitude in the B-band: M(B(AB)) = 46.7 - 1.6 log L(Ha). This work will serve as a basis of future studies of Ha luminosity distributions measured from optically-selected spectroscopic surveys of the distant universe, and it will provide a better understanding of the physical processes responsible for the observed galaxy evolution.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 14 pages, LaTeX (macro aas2pp4.sty), 6 figure

Identification of Functionally Distinct TRAF Proinflammatory and PI3K/MEK Transforming Activities Emanating from the RET/PTC Fusion Oncoprotein

Thyroid carcinomas that harbor RET/PTC oncogenes are well differentiated, relatively benign neoplasms compared with those expressing oncogenic RAS or BRAF mutations despite signaling through shared transforming pathways. A distinction, however, is that RET/PTCs induce immunostimulatory programs, suggesting that, in the case of this tumor type, the additional pro-inflammatory pathway reduces aggressiveness. Here, we demonstrate that pro-inflammatory programs are selectively activated by TRAF2 and TRAF6 association with RET/PTC oncoproteins. Eliminating this mechanism reduces pro-inflammatory cytokine production without decreasing transformation efficiency. Conversely, ablating MEK/ERK or PI3K/AKT signaling eliminates transformation but not pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion. Functional uncoupling of the two pathways demonstrates that intrinsic pro-inflammatory pathways are not required for cellular transformation and suggests a need for further investigation into the role inflammation plays in thyroid tumor progression

Closing International Law\u27s Innocence Gap

Over the last decade, a growing number of countries have adopted new laws and other mechanisms to address a gap in national criminal legal systems: the absence of meaningful procedures to raise post-conviction claims of factual innocence. These legal and policy reforms have responded to a global surge of exonerations facilitated by the growth of national innocence organizations that increasingly collaborate across borders. It is striking that these developments have occurred with little direct help from international law. Although many treaties recognize extensive fair trial and appeal rights, no international human rights instrument—in its text, existing interpretation, or implementation—explicitly and fully recognizes the right to assert a claim of factual innocence. We label this omission international law’s innocence gap. The gap appears increasingly anomalous given how foundational innocence protection has become at the national level, as well as international law’s longstanding commitment to the presumption of innocence, fair trial, and other criminal process guarantees. We argue the time has come to close this innocence gap by recognizing a new international human right to assert post-trial claims of factual innocence

Cause specific mortality, social position, and obesity among women who had never smoked: 28 year cohort study

Objective To investigate the relations between causes of death, social position, and obesity in women who had never smoked

Shear-melting of a hexagonal columnar crystal by proliferation of dislocations

A hexagonal columnar crystal undergoes a shear-melting transition above a critical shear rate or stress. We combine the analysis of the shear-thinning regime below the melting with that of synchrotron X-ray scattering data under shear and propose the melting to be due to a proliferation of dislocations, whose density is determined by both techniques to vary as a power law of the shear rate with a 2/3 exponent, as expected for a creep model of crystalline solids. Moreover, our data suggest the existence under shear of a line hexatic phase, between the columnar crystal and the liquid phase

O(^3P) +CO_2 Collisions at Hyperthermal Energies: Dynamics of Nonreactive Scattering, Oxygen Isotope Exchange, and Oxygen-Atom Abstraction

The dynamics of O(^3P) + CO_2 collisions at hyperthermal energies were investigated experimentally and theoretically. Crossed-molecular-beams experiments at Ecoll = 98.8 kcal mol^(–1) were performed with isotopically labeled ^(12)C^(18)O_2 to distinguish products of nonreactive scattering from those of reactive scattering. The following product channels were observed: elastic and inelastic scattering (^(16)O(^3P) + ^(12)C^(18)O^2), isotope exchange (^(18)O + ^(16)O^(12)C^(18)O), and oxygen-atom abstraction (^(18)O^(16)O + ^(12)C^(18)O). Stationary points on the two lowest triplet potential energy surfaces of the O(^3P) + CO_2 system were characterized at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory and by means of W4 theory, which represents an approximation to the relativistic basis set limit, full-configuration-interaction (FCI) energy. The calculations predict a planar CO_3(C_(2v),^3A″) intermediate that lies 16.3 kcal mol^(–1) (W4 FCI excluding zero point energy) above reactants and is approached by a C_(2v) transition state with energy 24.08 kcal mol^(–1). Quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) calculations with collision energies in the range 23–150 kcal mol^(–1) were performed at the B3LYP/6-311G(d) and BMK/6-311G(d) levels. Both reactive channels observed in the experiment were predicted by these calculations. In the isotope exchange reaction, the experimental center-of-mass (c.m.) angular distribution, T(θ_(c.m.)), of the ^(16)O^(12)C^(18)O products peaked along the initial CO_2 direction (backward relative to the direction of the reagent O atoms), with a smaller isotropic component. The product translational energy distribution, P(E_T), had a relatively low average of E_T = 35 kcal mol^(–1), indicating that the ^(16)O^(12)C^(18)O products were formed with substantial internal energy. The QCT calculations give c.m. P(E_T) and T(θ_(c.m.)) distributions and a relative product yield that agree qualitatively with the experimental results, and the trajectories indicate that exchange occurs through a short-lived CO_3^* intermediate. A low yield for the abstraction reaction was seen in both the experiment and the theory. Experimentally, a fast and weak ^(16)O^(18)O product signal from an abstraction reaction was observed, which could only be detected in the forward direction. A small number of QCT trajectories leading to abstraction were observed to occur primarily via a transient CO_3 intermediate, albeit only at high collision energies (149 kcal mol^(–1)). The oxygen isotope exchange mechanism for CO_2 in collisions with ground state O atoms is a newly discovered pathway through which oxygen isotopes may be cycled in the upper atmosphere, where O(^3P) atoms with hyperthermal translational energies can be generated by photodissociation of O_3 and O_2

Investigating the association between diabetes mellitus, depression and psychological distress in a cohort of South African teachers

Background. Diabetes mellitus (DM) may increase the risk of depression as a result of a sense of threat of debilitating complications or because of associated lifestyle changes. Depression may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes as a result of poor health behaviours.Objective. To determine the association between diabetes mellitus, depression and psychological  distress in a cohort of South African (SA) teachers.Methods. Teachers from 111 public schools in the Metro South District of the Cape Metropolitan area,  SA, were invited to participate in this study. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale  (CES-D) and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) were used to assess depression and psychological distress, respectively. A professional nurse completed a physical examination and  collected blood for measurement of glucose, cholesterol and serum creatinine.Results. Of the 388 teachers who completed the questionnaires, 67.5% were female and the average age  was 46.2 years (standard deviation 8.7). Psychological distress was identified in 28.1% of the cohort and depression in 15.5%, and 7.7% were found to fulfil criteria for DM. A diagnosis of DM was associated with an increased risk of depression (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 3.90; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.33 - 11.37) and psychological distress (AOR 3.62; 95% CI 1.31 - 10.00).Conclusion. The high prevalence of obesity and DM in this cohort of SA teachers is of concern. A  diagnosis of DM was strongly associated with an increased risk of depression and psychological distress