Mental health research projects: a practical integration of mental health into a medical curriculum

Abstract of a paper presented at the 65th Annual National Conference of Indian Psychiatric Society, Bangalor, 10-13 Jan, 2013. Aims aJld Objectives: The University of Wollongong (UoW) graduate-entry medical course embeds research and critical analysis within the curriculum, concluding with students undertaking a regional/ nlrsl conmlUnity-based ro earch project. Students are encouraged to design a research project of interest to them and the local community. T.his Indy analyzed whether conducting research projects enhanced learning/understanding about rural/regional mental health issues amongst UoW medical students

GWIPS-viz: 2018 update

The GWIPS-viz browser (http://gwips.ucc.ie/) is an on-line genome browser which is tailored for exploring ribosome profiling (Ribo-seq) data. Since its publication in 2014, GWIPS-viz provides Ribo-seq data for an additional 14 genomes bringing the current total to 23. The integration of new Ribo-seq data has been automated thereby increasing the number of available tracks to 1792, a 10-fold increase in the last three years. The increase is particularly substantial for data derived from human sources. Following user requests, we added the functionality to download these tracks in bigWig format. We also incorporated new types of data (e.g. TCP-seq) as well as auxiliary tracks from other sources that help with the interpretation of Ribo-seq data. Improvements in the visualization of the data have been carried out particularly for bacterial genomes where the Ribo-seq data are now shown in a strand specific manner. For higher eukaryotic datasets, we provide characteristics of individual datasets using the RUST program which includes the triplet periodicity, sequencing biases and relative inferred A-site dwell times. This information can be used for assessing the quality of Ribo-seq datasets. To improve the power of the signal, we aggregate Ribo-seq data from several studies into Global aggregate tracks for each genome

Kramers rate theory of ionization and dissociation of bound states

Calculating the microscopic dissociation rate of a bound state, such as a classical diatomic molecule, has been difficult so far. The problem was that standard theories require an energy barrier over which the bound particle (or state) escapes into the preferred low-energy state. This is not the case when the long-range repulsion responsible for the barrier is either absent or screened (as in Cooper pairs, ionized plasma, or biomolecular complexes). We solve this classical problem by accounting for entropic memory at the microscopic level. The theory predicts dissociation rates for arbitrary potentials and is successfully tested on the example of plasma, where it yields an estimate of ionization in the core of Sun in excellent agreement with experiments. In biology, the new theory accounts for crowding in receptor-ligand kinetics and protein aggregation

The rapid rotation and complex magnetic field geometry of Vega

The recent discovery of a weak surface magnetic field on the normal intermediate-mass star Vega raises the question of the origin of this magnetism in a class of stars that was not known to host magnetic fields. We aim to confirm the field detection and provide additional observational constraints about the field characteristics, by modelling the magnetic geometry of the star and by investigating the seasonal variability of the reconstructed field. We analyse a total of 799 circularly-polarized spectra collected with the NARVAL and ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeters during 2008 and 2009. We employ a cross-correlation procedure to compute, from each spectrum, a mean polarized line profile with a signal-to-noise ratio of about 20,000. The technique of Zeeman-Doppler Imaging is then used to determine the rotation period of the star and reconstruct the large-scale magnetic geometry of Vega at two different epochs. We confirm the detection of circularly polarized signatures in the mean line profiles. The amplitude of the signatures is larger when spectral lines of higher magnetic sensitivity are selected for the analysis, as expected for a signal of magnetic origin. The short-term evolution of polarized signatures is consistent with a rotational period of 0.732 \pm 0.008 d. The reconstructed magnetic topology unveils a magnetic region of radial field orientation, closely concentrated around the rotation pole. This polar feature is accompanied by a small number of magnetic patches at lower latitudes. No significant variability in the field structure is observed over a time span of one year. The repeated observation of a weak photospheric magnetic field on Vega suggests that a previously unknown type of magnetic stars exists in the intermediate-mass domain. Vega may well be the first confirmed member of a much larger, as yet unexplored, class of weakly-magnetic stars.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics. Abstract shortened to respect the arXiv limit of 1920 character