Trajectories of physicians in Manitoba, Canada: the influence of contact points of rural-focused professional learning

Background: The Manitoba Office of Rural and Northern Health (ORNH) provided a multi-year series of elective opportunities for undergraduate medical students to support rural/remote medical practice. The purpose of this study was to examine the career trajectories of Manitoba physicians in eight matched cohorts over the period 2004-2007 between: 1) those who experienced a required rural clinical block rotation only during their undergraduate medicine training in Manitoba (Med 1 and Med 3), and; 2) those who engaged in and completed additional elective programs referred to here as “contact points”.                Methods: The study utilized a retrospective/longitudinal matched cohort design which included the common factor of a mandated rural clinical one-week rotation and the differentiating factors of experiences in elective programming offered by the ORNH (contact points).Results: Of the 344 Manitoba-trained physicians whose location of current practice could be determined, 74 are presently in rural/remote communities and 270 in urban settings. Those physicians who are now in rural/remote practice were significantly more likely (p ≤ 0.05) to have continued contact with ORNH in addition to the mandatory rural rotation alone. For practitioners now located in rural/remote settings, a mean of 0.903 contact points per learner with ORNH programs is observed. For those now in urban practice the mean number of contact points per learner was 0.233.Conclusion: We conclude that there is an association between rural-focused contact points and rural and remote practice in Manitoba. Targeted professional learning where physician recruitment and retention remains a continuing challenge is discussed

Use of Different Types and Amounts of Dietary Fats to Redesign Pork

Title: Use of different types and amounts of dietary fats to redesign pork. Background: Using high energy fat-supplemented diets in pork production can offer several economic advantages to producers when fat sources are cost effectively priced. Because of a decreased heat increment, dietary fat supplementation allows a greater proportion of dietary calories to be available for tissue synthesis when pigs are maintained at or above the thermo neutral zone. Previous research has indicated that diets that have increasing dietary saturated fatty acids (SFA) cause hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis development, and greater coronary heart disease risk in humans. When dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are substituted for saturated fatty acids (SFA), decreased blood cholesterol concentration occurs. This information has caused the consumer to question the consumption of meat products, such as pork, which are perceived as being rich in SFAs. The objective of this study was to alter the polyunsaturated (PUFA) to saturated fatty acid (SFA) ratio in pork for better human nutrition. Methods and findings: Pigs were fed either choice white grease or soybean oil at 10, 20, 30, or 40% of total dietary calories. All diets were based on corn and soybean meal. The study used 54 pigs with six pigs per treatment. Initial and slaughter weights were 54 and 110 kg, respectively. Skeletal muscle samples were taken from the longissimus dorsi, biceps femoris, and triceps brachii muscles. Adipose tissue samples were taken from the outer, middle, and inner 10th rib backfat layers, perirenal adipose tissue, and an inter muscular adipose deposit within the ham. Total lipids were extracted; fatty acid methyl esters were formed by trans esterification and quantified by gas chromatography. Adding choice white grease or soybean oil to diets fed growing swine did not alter animal growth rates. The PUFA from the outer 10th rib backfat layer showed linear increases (P \u3c 0.05) when pigs were fed diets with increasingly greater soybean oil content, whereas the backfat from pigs fed diets containing greater choice white grease contents resulted in a linear increase (P \u3c 0.05) of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). Including soybean oil in the low-fat control diet at 30 and 40% increased the PUFA to SFA ratios (P:S) to 0.9 and 1.26 (P \u3c 0.05), respectively, in longissimus muscle. The MUFA content in the longissimus muscle was decreased by 30% (P \u3c 0.05) with the 40% soybean oil diet. Myristate, palmitate, and total SFA in longiIIssimus muscle decreased 27 (P \u3c 0.05), 30 (P \u3c 0.05), and 29% (P \u3c 0.05), respectively, with the 40% soybean oil diet. Conclusions: Including choice white grease in the diet had minimal effects on the unsaturated to SFA muscular lipid ratios. In conclusion, high fat diets rich in unsaturated fatty acids can be used effectively to redesign pork for consumers wanting to decrease their consumption of saturated fatty acids

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors - National ADAP Monitoring Project Annual Report

Based on a survey of AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which provide prescription drugs to low-income, uninsured, and underinsured HIV/AIDS patients, provides an overview of ADAPs' operations, developments, challenges, and policy and program changes

Validation of empirical yield curves for natural-origin stands in boreal

ABSTRACT In Ontario, yield tables for forest management planning have remained relatively unchanged since initial work in the 1950s that was based on a limited number of temporary sample plots. In 2000, the Forestry Research Partnership accelerated work on the Benchmark Yield Curve Project (initiated several years earlier by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, OMNR) to update these tables. The resulting yield curves incorporated data from more than 3000 permanent sample plots (PSPs) maintained in Ontario as well as PSPs from neighbouring and ecologically similar jurisdictions. Two stratifications were considered: OMNR's Northeast Region standard forest units and leading species. The 10 forest units considered cover the major commercial species in the boreal forest in Ontario. Equations were fit to the data to predict the growth and yield by stratum. The equations were validated against independently collected data and compared to predictions from the current wood supply yield curves in Ontario: Plonski's yield tables, modified Plonski, and northeast regional curves. Results of the validation showed that, with the exception of the MW2 and SF1 forest units, the new yield curves generally had less bias for gross total volume than Plonski and modified Plonski. Results for net merchantable volume were consistent with those for gross merchantable volume. The MW2 and SF1 forest units are more mixed in terms of species type, species light tolerance, and age. A leading species approach resulted in better predictions and is recommended for these forest units

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation - National ADAP Monitoring Project Annual Report 2007

Provides the latest data on state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which provide HIV/AIDS-related prescription drugs to low-income, uninsured, and underinsured individuals living with HIV/AIDS

O- vs. N-protonation of 1-dimethylaminonaphthalene-8-ketones: formation of a peri N–C bond or a hydrogen bond to the pi-electron density of a carbonyl group

X-ray crystallography and solid-state NMR measurements show that protonation of a series of 1-dimethylaminonaphthalene-8-ketones leads either to O protonation with formation of a long N–C bond (1.637–1.669 Å) between peri groups, or to N protonation and formation of a hydrogen bond to the π surface of the carbonyl group, the latter occurring for the larger ketone groups (C(O)R, R = t-butyl and phenyl). Solid state 15N MAS NMR studies clearly differentiate the two series, with the former yielding significantly more deshielded resonances. This is accurately corroborated by DFT calculation of the relevant chemical shift parameters. In the parent ketones X-ray crystallography shows that the nitrogen lone pair is directed towards the carbonyl group in all cases

The lady vanishes: what's missing from the stem cell debate

Most opponents of somatic cell nuclear transfer and embryonic stem cell technologies base their arguments on the twin assertions that the embryo is either a human being or a potential human being, and that it is wrong to destroy a human being or potential human being in order to produce stem cell lines. Proponents’ justifications of stem cell research are more varied, but not enough to escape the charge of obsession with the status of the embryo. What unites the two warring sides in ‘the stem cell wars’ is that women are equally invisible to both: ‘the lady vanishes’. Yet the only legitimate property in the body is that which women possess in their reproductive tissue and the products of their reproductive labour. By drawing on the accepted characterisation in law of property as a bundle of rights, and on a Hegelian model of contract as mutual recognition, we can lessen the impact of the tendency to regard women and their eggs as merely receptacles and women’s reproductive labour as unimportant