Individual Education: being an account of an experiment in operation at the Thebarton Technical High School, South Australia

The experiment which is dealt With in this paper arose out of a stimulating discussion regarding the Dalton Plan, which took place in the Education Section at the Perth meeting of the Association in 1926. The experiment at the Thebarton Technical High School was put into operation from the beginning of 1927, and a preliminary account was read at the Hobart meeting in 1928. That account was published in abstract in Volume XIX of the Proceedings of the Association, and in full as Bulletin No. 2 of the South Australian Education Department (S.A. Education Gazette, 1928, pp. 148-150 and 182-184). During the past two and a half years the scheme has been further extended, and has been enthusiastically carried on with continuous modification and adaptation of the work and the methods, with the aim ever in view of achieving all that is most valuable under the class system, plus something more of independence and individuality and resourcefulness in the character of the pupils who come under the influence of this school. Serious difficulties have been met with. Some of the methods used have proved impracticable or unsuccessful. Others have been tried and adopted in part only. The main result, however, has been sufficiently sound to justify a firm belief that the experiment is along the right lines-that of those boys ·who have received training under these methods none has lost thereby, and that the great majority of the students have left the school with some additional valuable equipment for their future lives and vocations. [p.7

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We wish to thank Manyozo et al for their comments. We agree that police data tend to underreport injuries and death due to poor traffic police response and follow up on injured victims (e.g. fatalities on route or upon arrival to the hospital)

Transitions in surgical education

There are multiple transitions in surgical education. Among the most significant are those from medical student to intern, from junior resident to senior resident, and from senior resident/fellow to independent practice. While there are new expectations and responsibilities associated with each of these roles, a surgeon's development should be thought of as more of a continuum with distinct points of greatest change and challenge. There are common themes at these various transitions that may be highlighted for both trainees and educators

Delayed development of extrathoracic lung herniation after blunt thoracic trauma

A 51-year-old African American male with history of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma was transferred to our institution after sustaining blunt thoracic trauma as a result of a truck falling off its jack onto his chest. According to EMS report, the patient was apneic and pulseless after the truck was removed and bystanders initiated CPR on the scene

Risk of perforation in the era of nonemergent management for acute appendicitis

Prompt appendectomy has long been the standard of care for acute appendicitis because of the risk of progression to perforation. Recently, studies have suggested nonemergent management of acute appendicitis. Our study aimed to determine changes in risk of rupture and complications in patients with appendicitis, with increasing time from symptom onset to treatment. Retrospective study of patients aged ≥18 years presenting to the University of North Carolina Hospitals with signs and symptoms of acute appendicitis who subsequently underwent appendectomy from 2011 to 2015 was performed. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and pathologic data were reviewed. Bivariate analysis was performed to assess variables associated with increased risk of perforation. Poisson regression modeling was completed to evaluate the risk of perforation and postoperative abscess based on time from symptoms to treatment. Within our database of 1007 patients, the mean time from onset of symptoms to operative intervention was 3.24 ± 2.2 days. Modified Poisson regression modeling demonstrated the relative risk for perforation increases by 9% (RR 1.09, P < 0.001) for each day delay. Age (RR 1.03), male gender (RR 1.50), temperature on admission (RR 1.32), and the presence of fecalith (RR 1.89) statistically significantly increased the risk of perforation. Furthermore, for each day delay, there is an 8% increased risk of postoperative abscess (RR 1.08, P 5 0.027). The relative risk for appendiceal perforation is 9 per cent per day delay with a resultant 8 per cent increased risk of postoperative abscess. Thus, appendectomy for acute appendicitis should remain an emergent procedure, given that delays in operative management lead to complications and increases in cost of care

Moving Beyond Identifying Problems to Finding Solutions

Over the past two decades, global surgery has evolved into a well-recognized surgical discipline. This has come about for several reasons beyond the moral imperative. With the emphasis in global health shifting from communicable to non-communicable diseases, global surgery is now uniquely positioned to expand and take its rightful place within global public health

Application of in-vitro micropropagation technique for sustainable production of four local taro cultivars [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] in Cameroon

Open Access JournalTaro leaf blight disease has recently been reported in Cameroon to cause between 50 and 100% yields loss of taro in most of the agro-ecological crop growing regions. This has led to a significant reduction in disease-free planting materials, edible crop and increased. The Meristem culture technique has been used to produce crop plants free of viruses and fungi especially in vegetative propagated colocassia plants. This aimed at applying in-vitro micro-propagation technique for sustainable production of four local taro cultivars in Cameroon. This study was conducted at the Root and Tuber Tissue Culture Laboratory, of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Bambui from April 2015 to November 2016. Micro-plants from four local taro cultivars were produced in vitro from apical meristem tips. The tip meristems were excised from corms of the four local taro cultivars. The excised explants were surface sterilized with alcohol and sodium hypochlorite in sequence steps at different concentrations. Meristems were cultured at establishment stage on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 30 g of sugar, 1.1 ml of 6-benzylaminopurine and 7 g of agar. Shoots proliferation was induced in MS with 2.2 ml of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). Result shows a significant difference at p≤0.5 in number of shoots, petiole length, open leaf and corm diameter among the cultivars and no significant variation in mean number of senescence leaf with respect to all the cultivars, at 60 days of shoot tip culture. At rooting stage, taro shoots were cultured on MS media supplemented with 10 ml of 0.1 mg/ml naphthalene acetic-acid (NAA). Roots were produced on all the cultivars with excellent mean growth rate of 14.7 ± 0.69 recorded in cultivar with dark green petiole and small leaves

Challenges of centralizing cancer care in the US

Cancer is a major global public health problem and is the second leading cause of death in the United States (US). Unfortunately, despite tremendous medical advances in early diagnosis and treatment of several cancer types, socioeconomic inequalities persist in cancer survival. Cancer incidence and death rates vary considerably between racial and ethnic groups. Economic status is also a determinant for appropriate cancer care. Within the four cancer types for which screening is widely recommended (colorectal, breast, cervix, and prostate), the proportion of cases diagnosed at advanced stage is higher in high-poverty census groups

Sub-Saharan African hospitals have a unique opportunity to address intentional injury to children

Intentional injury to children is a major, but neglected public health and human rights issue with devastating consequences on families and societies, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Intentional injury is defined by the World Health Organization as ‘‘the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.

Appendiceal malignancy: The hidden risks of nonoperative management for acute appendicitis

One potential harm of nonoperative management for acute appendicitis is missed appendiceal cancer, a rare and often aggressive malignancy due to the frequency of late stage of diagnosis. Previous studies have reported an increasing incidence of appendiceal neoplasms in the population. This is a retrospective case-control study of 1007 adult patients, who presented to the University of North Carolina-Memorial Hospital (UNC-MH) between 2011 and 2015 with clinical signs and symptoms of appendicitis. We evaluated the incidence of primary appendiceal cancer in this population and determined factors that predict appendiceal cancer diagnosis using multivariate logistic regression analysis. The overall incidence of appendiceal neoplasm for adult patients presenting to UNC-MH with appendicitis from 2011 to 2015 was 2.3 per cent (23/1007). The incidence in patients without appendiceal perforation on pathology was 1.9 per cent (16/832). Age (odds ratio (OR) 1.03), number of days of abdominal pain (OR 1.16), self-reported fever (OR 2.08), appendiceal width (OR 1.95), and appendiceal wall thickness (OR 1.30) were predictors of appendiceal neoplasm diagnosis in patients that present with acute appendicitis. We recommend that an operative approach to acute appendicitis should remain the standard of care because operative management may not only be diagnostic but potentially therapeutic