Interdisciplinary teaching in family medicine teaching units: the residents’ points of view

Background:  Interdisciplinary teaching (IDT) is the norm in Canadian family medicine residency programs. Literature on IDT reports many academic, collaborative and organizational benefits, but little is known about family medicine residents’ own perspectives of IDT. The purpose of this study was to explore family medicine residents’ points of view on IDT in family medicine teaching units (FMTU).       Methods: A mixed methods design combined interviews and self-completed online questionnaires to explore participants’ perceptions of IDT during residency. Content analysis was conducted on the qualitative data and univariate analysis statistical tests on means and proportions were conducted on the quantitative survey questions.Results: A total of 125 family medicine residents from 12 FMTU affiliated with Université Laval (Quebec City) participated in the study (11 interviews and 114 online questionnaires). Participants perceived significant benefits of IDT, including clinical knowledge, complementary perspectives and interprofessional collaboration skills. However, they believe that IDT works best when the educators adapt their teaching to the specific needs of residents in family medicine.Conclusion: These findings support those of previous IDT research and highlight the positive impacts of interdisciplinary education in family medicine residency, especially on interprofessional collaboration. IDT should remain an essential component of the family medicine curricula._____ Contexte: L’enseignement interdisciplinaire (EID) constitue une norme dans les programmes canadiens de résidence en médecine familiale. La littérature disponible sur l’EID fait état de plusieurs bénéfices académiques, collaboratifs et organisationnels, mais elle rend peu compte des points de vue des résidents sur ce type d’enseignement. Cette étude a pour objectif d’explorer les points de vue des résidents en médecine familiale quant à l’EID offert dans les unités de médecine familiale (UMF).Méthodes: Un devis mixte a été utilisé, s’appuyant sur des entrevues semi-dirigées et des questionnaires auto-administrés en ligne. Une analyse de contenu a été effectuée pour le volet qualitatif, et des analyses univariées et bi-variées ont été réalisées pour les données obtenues dans les questionnaires auto-administrés.Résultats: Un total de 125 résidents en médecine familiale, rattachés aux 12 UMF relevant de l’Université Laval (Québec), a participé à l’étude (11 entrevues et 114 questionnaires en ligne). Les participants reconnaissent des bénéfices significatifs à l’EID, tels l’acquisition et l’approfondissement de connaissances cliniques essentielles, l’intégration de perspectives complémentaires sur les problèmes de santé, et le développement d’habiletés à la collaboration interprofessionnelle. Ils estiment toutefois que l’EID peut s’optimiser en s’adaptant davantage aux besoins spécifiques des résidents en médecine familiale.Conclusions: À l’instar des études antérieures, les résultats de cette recherche mettent en relief les impacts positifs de l’EID pendant la résidence en médecine familiale, particulièrement ceux qui sont liés à l’apprentissage de la collaboration interprofessionnelle. L’EID devrait par conséquent demeurer une caractéristique essentielle des programmes de résidence en médecine familiale

Whole genome sequencing of an avipoxvirus associated with infections in a group of aviary-housed snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis)

Avipoxvirus infections have been reported in both free-ranging and domestic birds worldwide. Fowlpox and canarypox viruses belong to the genus Avipoxvirus among the virus family Poxviridae. They cause cutaneous lesions with proliferative growths on the unfeathered parts of the skin and/or diphtheritic lesions generally associated with necrosis in the upper respiratory and digestive tracts. In this study, a poxvirus has been identified in wild-caught snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) housed in an outdoor aviary in the region of Rimouski, Quebec. During the falls and winters of 2015 and 2016, eight snow buntings affected by this infection were examined. Macroscopic and microscopic lesions observed were characteristic of an avipoxvirus infection. Electron microscopy imaging of an ultrathin section of the histopathological lesions of two birds confirmed the presence of the poxvirus. Afterward, the presence of the poxvirus was confirmed in three birds by a specific polymerase chain reaction assay that amplified a segment of the gene encoding the fowlpox virus 4b core protein. A 576-nucleotide amplicon was obtained from one of them and sequenced. The analyses revealed a 99% homology to other previously described avipoxviruses. Using high-throughput sequencing, almost the entire viral genome of this avipoxvirus was revealed and found to possess a 359,853-nucleotide sequence in length. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that the virus was genetically related to canarypox virus. To our knowledge, this is the first confirmed case and full description of a poxviral infection in this species. This episode suggests a high susceptibility of this northern species of passerine to avipoxviruses circulating in southeastern Canada during the summer months. Even if the source of the viral infections remains undetermined, transmission by local biological vectors is suspected. Management of poxviral infections in snow buntings housed outdoors in southeastern Canada could rely on the control of biting insects

Eastern part of Lukiškės suburb till the middle of the XVIIth century according to the archaeological data

Phenotypic flexibility allows animals to adjust their physiology to diverse environmental conditions encountered over the year. Examining how these varying traits covary gives insights into potential constraints or freedoms that may shape evolutionary trajectories. In this study we examined relationships among hematocrit, baseline corticosterone concentration, constitutive immune function and basal metabolic rate in red knot Calidris canutus islandica individuals subjected to experimentally manipulated temperature treatments over an entire annual cycle. If covariation among traits is constrained, we predict consistent covariation within and among individuals. We further predict consistent correlations between physiological and metabolic traits if constraints underlie species level patterns found along the slow-fast pace-of-life continuum. We found no consistent correlations among hematocrit, baseline corticosterone concentration, immune function and basal metabolic rate either within or among individuals. This provides no evidence for constraints limiting relationships among these measures of the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune and metabolic systems in individual red knots. Rather, our data suggest that knots are free to adjust individual parts of their physiology independently. This makes good sense if one places the animal within its ecological context where different aspects of the environment might put different pressures on different aspects of physiology

Physiological data

Physiological data taken from individual birds over an annual cycle. The birds were part of a year long experiment and this file contains experimental and temporal categories as well as physiological variables

Historical human remains identification through maternal and paternal genetic signatures in a founder population with extensive genealogical record

[Objectives] We describe a method to identify human remains excavated from unmarked graves in historical Québec cemeteries by combining parental‐lineage genetic markers with the whole‐population genealogy of Québec contained in the BALSAC database.[Materials and methods] The remains of six men were exhumed from four historical cemeteries in the province of Québec, Canada. DNA was extracted from the remains and genotyped to reveal their mitochondrial and Y‐chromosome haplotypes, which were compared to a collection of haplotypes of genealogically‐anchored modern volunteers. Maternal and paternal genealogies were searched in the BALSAC genealogical record for parental couples matching the mitochondrial and the Y‐chromosome haplotypic signatures, to identify candidate sons from whom the remains could have originated.[Results] Analysis of the matching genealogies identified the parents of one man inhumed in the cemetery of the investigated parish during its operating time. The candidate individual died in 1833 at the age of 58, a plausible age at death in light of osteological analysis of the remains.[Discussion] This study demonstrates the promising potential of coupling genetic information from living individuals to genealogical data in BALSAC to identify historical human remains. If genetic coverage is increased, the genealogical information in BALSAC could enable the identification of 87% of the men (n = 178,435) married in Québec before 1850, with high discriminatory power in most cases since >75% of the parental couples have unique biparental signatures in most regions. Genotyping and identifying Québec's historical human remains are a key to reconstructing the genomes of the founders of Québec and reinhuming archeological remains with a marked grave.European Regional Development Fund, Grant/Award Number: PGC2018‐095931‐B‐100; Fonds de Recherche du Québec ‐ Santé; Fonds de Recherche du Québec‐Société et Culture; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.Peer reviewe