589 research outputs found
Reshaping ophthalmology training after COVID-19 pandemic
Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on practical activities and didactic teaching of residents and fellows. This survey aimed to propose long-term changes for ophthalmology training based on the changes experienced by trainees and their perception of new training opportunities. Methods An online survey was distributed to ophthalmology trainees in multiple countries. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Results A total of 504 analyzable responses were collected from 32 different countries. The current impact of COVID-19 pandemic was described as "severe" by most trainees (55.2%); however, the future perspective was more optimistic as demonstrated by the greater number of responses reporting a presumed "moderate" (37.3%), "mild" (14.1%) or "slight" (4.2%) long-term impact. The vast majority of trainees reported a decrease >= 50% of clinical activity (76.4%) and >75% of surgical activity (74.6%). Although an initial gap in didactic teaching has been experienced by many (55.4%), regular web-based teaching was reportedly attended by 67.7% of the respondents. A strong agreement was found regarding the worthwhile role of web-based case-presentations in clinical training (91.7%), web-based discussion of edited surgical videos (85.7%) and simulation-based practice (86.9%) in surgical training. Conclusions This survey, focusing on trainees' perspective, strongly reinforces the need to promptly include new technology-based training tools, such as web-based teaching, virtual surgical simulators, and telementoring, in long-term reorganisation of ophthalmology training to ensure its continuity and effectiveness, which would remain available even in the face of another unpredictable crisis within the health system
Reshaping ophthalmology training after COVID-19 pandemic
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on practical activities and didactic teaching of residents and fellows. This survey aimed to propose long-term changes for ophthalmology training based on the changes experienced by trainees and their perception of new training opportunities. Methods: An online survey was distributed to ophthalmology trainees in multiple countries. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Results: A total of 504 analyzable responses were collected from 32 different countries. The current impact of COVID-19 pandemic was described as “severe” by most trainees (55.2%); however, the future perspective was more optimistic as demonstrated by the greater number of responses reporting a presumed “moderate” (37.3%), “mild” (14.1%) or “slight” (4.2%) long-term impact. The vast majority of trainees reported a decrease ≥50% of clinical activity (76.4%) and >75% of surgical activity (74.6%). Although an initial gap in didactic teaching has been experienced by many (55.4%), regular web-based teaching was reportedly attended by 67.7% of the respondents. A strong agreement was found regarding the worthwhile role of web-based case-presentations in clinical training (91.7%), web-based discussion of edited surgical videos (85.7%) and simulation-based practice (86.9%) in surgical training. Conclusions: This survey, focusing on trainees’ perspective, strongly reinforces the need to promptly include new technology-based training tools, such as web-based teaching, virtual surgical simulators, and telementoring, in long-term reorganisation of ophthalmology training to ensure its continuity and effectiveness, which would remain available even in the face of another unpredictable crisis within the health systempublishersversionPeer reviewe
Observation of in
Using a sample of events recorded with
the BESIII detector at the symmetric electron positron collider BEPCII, we
report the observation of the decay of the charmonium state
into a pair of mesons in the process
. The branching fraction is measured for the first
time to be , where the first uncertainty is
statistical, the second systematic and the third is from the uncertainty of
. The mass and width of the are
determined as MeV/ and
MeV.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Measurement of proton electromagnetic form factors in in the energy region 2.00-3.08 GeV
The process of is studied at 22 center-of-mass
energy points () from 2.00 to 3.08 GeV, exploiting 688.5~pb of
data collected with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII collider. The
Born cross section~() of is
measured with the energy-scan technique and it is found to be consistent with
previously published data, but with much improved accuracy. In addition, the
electromagnetic form-factor ratio () and the value of the
effective (), electric () and magnetic () form
factors are measured by studying the helicity angle of the proton at 16
center-of-mass energy points. and are determined with
high accuracy, providing uncertainties comparable to data in the space-like
region, and is measured for the first time. We reach unprecedented
accuracy, and precision results in the time-like region provide information to
improve our understanding of the proton inner structure and to test theoretical
models which depend on non-perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics
Search for the decay
We search for radiative decays into a weakly interacting neutral
particle, namely an invisible particle, using the produced through the
process in a data sample of
decays collected by the BESIII detector
at BEPCII. No significant signal is observed. Using a modified frequentist
method, upper limits on the branching fractions are set under different
assumptions of invisible particle masses up to 1.2 . The upper limit corresponding to an invisible particle with zero mass
is 7.0 at the 90\% confidence level
Precise Measurements of Branching Fractions for Meson Decays to Two Pseudoscalar Mesons
We measure the branching fractions for seven two-body decays to
pseudo-scalar mesons, by analyzing data collected at
GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. The branching fractions
are determined to be ,
,
,
,
,
,
,
where the first uncertainties are statistical, the second are systematic, and
the third are from external input branching fraction of the normalization mode
. Precision of our measurements is significantly improved
compared with that of the current world average values
First observations of hadrons
Based on events collected with
the BESIII detector, five hadronic decays are searched for via process
. Three of them, ,
, and are observed for the first
time, with statistical significances of 7.4, , and
9.1, and branching fractions of ,
, and ,
respectively, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second
systematic. No significant signal is observed for the other two decay modes,
and the corresponding upper limits of the branching fractions are determined to
be and at 90% confidence level.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figure
The obesity and inflammatory marker haptoglobin attracts monocytes via interaction with chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 2 (CCR2)
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Obesity is a chronic low inflammatory state. In the obesity condition the white adipose tissue (WAT) is massively infiltrated with monocytes/macrophages, and the nature of the signals recruiting these inflammatory cells has yet to be fully elucidated. Haptoglobin (Hp) is an inflammatory marker and its expression is induced in the WAT of obese subjects. In an effort to elucidate the biological significance of Hp presence in the WAT and of its upregulation in obesity we formulated the hypothesis that Hp may serve as a macrophage chemoattractant.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We demonstrated by chemotaxis assay that Hp is able to attract chemokine (C-C motif) receptor 2 (CCR2)-transfected pre-B lymphocytes and monocytes in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, Hp-mediated migration of monocytes is impaired by CCR2-specific inhibition or previous cell exposure to monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP1) (also known as CCR2 ligand or chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 2 (CCL2)). Downstream effects of Hp/CCR2 interaction were also investigated: flow cytometry proved that monocytes treated with Hp show reduced CCR2 expression on their surface; Hp interaction induces calcium release that is reduced upon pretreatment with CCR2 antagonist; extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2, a signal transducer activated by CCR2, is phosphorylated following Hp treatment and this phosphorylation is reduced when cells are pretreated with a specific CCR2 inhibitor. Consistently, blocking the ERK1/2 pathway with U0126, the selective inhibitor of the ERK upstream mitogen-activated protein (MAP)-ERK kinase (MEK), results in a dramatic reduction (by almost 100%) of the capability of Hp to induce monocyte migration.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data show that Hp is a novel monocyte chemoattractant and that its chemotactic potential is mediated, at least in part. by its interaction with CCR2.</p
Observation of the -Annihilation Decay and Evidence for
We report on the observation of the -annihilation decay and the evidence for with a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.19
fb collected with the BESIII detector at the center-of-mass energy
GeV. We obtain the branching fractions
and , respectively
Measurements of Weak Decay Asymmetries of , , , and
Using production from a 567 pb
data sample collected by BESIII at 4.6 GeV, a full angular analysis is carried
out simultaneously on the four decay modes of , , , and . For the first time, the
transverse polarization is studied in unpolarized
collisions, where a non-zero effect is observed with a statistical significance
of 2.1. The decay asymmetry parameters of the weak
hadronic decays into , , and
are measured to be ,
,
, and
, respectively. In comparison with
previous results, the measurements for the and
modes are consistent but with improved precision, while the parameters for the
and modes are measured for the first time
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