You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

This is a review of You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

All Writings Great and Small: Reading James Herriot’s Stories as Travel Literature

The world of James Herriot has expanded far beyond its British beginnings. The stories of this Yorkshire veterinarian and his work in the fictitious town of Darrowby, have reached around the globe. His works have been translated into dozens of languages and read in numerous countries. Despite (or perhaps because of) his popularity, there has been little critical examination of Herriot’s literary corpus. With a handful of exceptions, the Academy has largely turned a blind eye to his efforts. This essay suggests that we reread this popular author and explore the possibility that when we encounter the stories of life in the Yorkshire dales, we are in fact, encountering an important work of travel literature. Following a brief examination of his life, this essay focuses on themes in Herriot’s books that share much in common with other works of travel writing

Evaluation of systematic review utilization in the development of OB-GYN randomized controlled trials

Introduction: The issue of research waste has been raised due to the fact that 85% of funding for biomedical research has been improperly utilized. A prominent issue is the frequency of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) being conducted without prior consultation of existing support, such as systematic reviews (SRs). Meticulous monitoring is necessary to ensure that clinical recommendations are being made with confidence in high-quality biomedical practices. The aim of this study was to survey Obstetric and Gynecology journals to analyze their published articles for citation of SR for justification of conducting the RCT.Methods: We conducted a search of PubMed for RCTs published between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2017, in the top ten Obstetric and Gynecology journals. Each included study was evaluated to determine the number of SRs cited within the introduction, methods, and discussion sections. We further analyzed whether the SR was cited verbatim or indirectly, number of participants, type of intervention being studied, funding source, type of trial, and how the outcome was perceived.Results: Of the 720 articles from our initial search, 458 (63.61%) met inclusion criteria. Of the 458 included studies, 279 (60.92%) cited an SR in the introduction, 34 (7.42%) cited an SR in the methods, and 207 (45.2%) cited an SR in the discussion as justification for conducting the study.Conclusion: A large portion of the RCTs being published in clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology journals are not citing SRs as justification for conducting their studies, which may be leading to an increase in research waste

Scholarly research productivity among ophthalmology residency graduates

Purpose: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that ophthalmology residents participate in scholarly activity during residency. However, to our knowledge it is unknown whether research publications during undergraduate, medical school, residency or fellowship training predict future academic publication performance among ophthalmologists. The aim of this study was to (1) measure scholarly research productivity (as measured by the H-index) among ophthalmology residency graduates, as measured by peer-reviewed publication output, and its relation to future publication output, and (2) evaluate whether scholarly impact of academic ophthalmologists is correlated with any specific characteristics.Methods: This study is cross-sectional in nature and included a random sample of 50 ophthalmology residency programs. From each program, a list of graduating residents from years 2013, 2014, and 2015 was compiled and each graduate was search on Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar. The publications of each graduate were then identified and data was extracted and collected in a double blind, duplicate fashion by 2 investigators. Research publication output was then stratified and analyzed.Results: Graduates that had a higher mean total publication (M = 9.11, SD=12.91) were significantly more likely to pursue a fellowship than those that did not (M=2.68, SD=3.16) (t234= -3.9, p = .0001). Graduates with more first person publications and higher H-index values were also significantly more likely to pursue fellowships (t234= -3.78, p = 0.0002) (t234= -3.93, p = 0.0001).Graduates that had a higher mean total publication (M = 14.2, SD= 18.19) were more likely to pursue academic careers than those that did not (M=4.57, SD = 4.88) (t234= -6.3, p = 0 .0001). Graduates with more first person publications and higher H-index values were also significantly more likely to pursue academic careers (t234= -5.17, p = 0.001) (t234= -4.84, p <0.0001). Gender proved to not be a significant determination of research pursuit in terms of publication or first person publication numbers (t234= -1.01, p = .3107) (t234= -0.53, p = .5949). However, H-index values for men (M = 3.06, SD= 3.47 ) and women (M = 2.52, SD=2.64) were significantly different (t234= -3.9, p = 0.0406).Conclusion: The positive correlation between the between graduates' research productivity and career and future research outcomes could present an interesting aspect for viewing candidates for fellowship or careers. The correlation demonstrates that students who performed research before and during residency were more productive with research after residency. This could present a positive reason to select an individual for a fellowship or academic program. The lack of research conversely indicates a likelihood of low research productivity. This could potentially negatively impact candidates. The evaluation of an individual's H-value, first-person publications, or total number of publications can then possibly be supplementary for decision making or gauge potential

Cross-sectional analysis of psychiatry residency graduate peer-reviewed publication trends

Background: Scholarly activity through research is widely considered to be an integral component of medical training, and residency or fellowship match success. However, the rate of these scholarly practices in psychiatry residency graduates is relatively unknown. Here, we aim to (1) describe factors associated with scholarly research activities, as measured by peer-reviewed publications, among psychiatry residency graduates, and (2) determine if an association exists between publication rates before, during, or after psychiatry residency.Methods: We employed a cross-sectional study design analyzing research output by psychiatry residency graduates in relation to future publications and academic accomplishments from a random sample of 50 psychiatry residency rosters. Data were extracted for each graduate and analyzed using STATA 15.1 and Microsoft Excel. A protocol is publicly available here: https://osf.io/pwa6d/.Results: We identified 249 residency programs of which we randomly sampled 50. Among the 50 programs, 7 were included, totaling 122 graduates from psychiatry residencies to be analyzed. Of the 122 graduated residents, 57% (69) produced no publications. Of the graduates who pursued a fellowship, 25.4% (31/67) entered into Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Of the 53 published graduates, most of their publications were received before residency, making up 68 of the 183 publications (37.2%). Compared to before residency, the total number of publications during residency reduced by 29.4% (20/68).Conclusion: While a majority of psychiatry graduate's publications were pre-residency, many publications occurred post- residency and the average number of publications was lowest during residency training

Using Administrative Databases to Calculate Framingham Scores within a Large Healthcare Organization

Background and Purpose—Framingham calculators are typically implemented in 1-on-1 settings to determine if a patient is at high risk for development of cardiovascular disease in the next 10 years. Because health care administrative datasets are including more clinical information, we explored how well administrative data-derived Framingham scores could identify persons who would have stroke develop in the next year. Methods—Using a nested case-control design, we compared all 313 persons who had a first-time stroke at 5 Veterans Administration Medical Centers with a random sample of 25 361 persons who did not have a first-time stroke in 2008. We compared Framingham scores and risk using administrative data available at the end of 2007. Results—Stroke patients had higher risk profile than controls: older age, higher systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol, more likely to have diabetes, cardiovascular disease, left ventricular hypertrophy, and more likely to use treatment for blood pressure (P<0.05). The mean Framingham generalized cardiovascular disease score (18.0 versus 14.5) as well as the mean Framingham stroke-specific score (13.2 versus 10.2) was higher for stroke cases than controls (both P<0.0001). The c-statistic for the generalized cardiovascular disease score was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.65–0.70) and for the stroke score was 0.64 (95% CI, 0.62–0.67). Conclusions—Persons who had a stroke develop in the next year had a worse Framingham risk profile, as determined by administrative data. Future studies should examine how to improve the stroke predictive tools and to identify the appropriate populations and uses for applying stroke risk predictive tools

Scholarly research productivity among otolaryngology residency graduates and its relationship to future academic achievement

Background: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that all residencies participate in research. This growing emphasis on research during residency has made it increasingly important for medical students to gain familiarity with the basic principles of research before beginning residency training. Thus, our goal is to determine if an association exists between publication rates before, during, or after otolaryngology residency training and whether publication efforts may predict future academic achievement. If such an association exists, perhaps otolaryngology residency program directors and education policymakers could use it as a predictive tool to screen future applicants.Methods: In this cross-sectional analysis, we selected a random sample of 50 otolaryngology residency programs listed on Doximity. From these programs, we assembled a list of graduating residents from 2013, 2014, and 2015. Using SCOPUS, PubMed, and Google Scholar, a list of publications for each graduate was compiled and data were extracted in an independent, double-blinded fashion by two investigators.Results: Of the 50 randomly selected otolaryngology residency programs included in this analysis, 27 (54%) programs representing 207 residents were included. Before residency, graduates published a mean of 0.7 (SD=2.3) articles and a mean of 0.2 (SD=0.8) first author publications. During residency, graduates published a mean of 4.1 (SD=5.0) articles and a mean of 2.2 (SD=3.2) first author publications. After residency, graduates published a mean of 5.4 (SD= 9.6) articles and a mean of 1.8 (SD=2.8) first author publications. Residents who pursued a fellowship had more publications (t205=-5.5, p <.001) and more first author publications (t205=-5.3, p <.001) than residents who did not pursue fellowship training. Residents who chose careers in academic medicine had a higher number of mean total publications (t205=-7.2, p <.001) and first author publications (t205=-7.0, p <.001) than those in private practice.Conclusion: Otolaryngology residency graduates are actively involved in research opportunities throughout their medical training. Research productivity significantly correlated with future fellowship training, the pursuit of an academic career, and overall h-index. Residents who published more research were more likely to enter fellowship training and academic careers. Our results indicate that promoting greater physician involvement in the research process may strengthen confidence in the interpretation and application of research findings and ultimately lead to future academic success

The Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer -- Astrometry for the New Millennium

FAME is designed to perform an all-sky, astrometric survey with unprecedented accuracy. It will create a rigid astrometric catalog of 4x10^7 stars with 5 < m_V < 15. For bright stars, 5 < m_V < 9, FAME will determine positions and parallaxes accurate to < 50 microarcseconds, with proper motion errors < 50 microarcseconds/year. For fainter stars, 9 < m_V < 15, FAME will determine positions and parallaxes accurate to < 500 microarcseconds, with proper motion errors < 500 microarcseconds/year. It will also collect photometric data on these 4 x 10^7 stars in four Sloan DSS colors.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to appear in "Working on the Fringe

APP mouse models for Alzheimer's disease preclinical studies

Animal models of human diseases that accurately recapitulate clinical pathology are indispensable for understanding molecular mechanisms and advancing preclinical studies. The Alzheimer's disease (AD) research community has historically used first-generation transgenic (Tg) mouse models that overexpress proteins linked to familial AD (FAD), mutant amyloid precursor protein (APP), or APP and presenilin (PS). These mice exhibit AD pathology, but the overexpression paradigm may cause additional phenotypes unrelated to AD Second-generation mouse models contain humanized sequences and clinical mutations in the endogenous mouse App gene. These mice show Aβ accumulation without phenotypes related to overexpression but are not yet a clinical recapitulation of human AD In this review, we evaluate different APP mouse models of AD, and review recent studies using the second-generation mice. We advise AD researchers to consider the comparative strengths and limitations of each model against the scientific and therapeutic goal of a prospective preclinical study