Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Evaluation of doctoral nursing education in Japan by students, graduates, and faculty: A comparative study based on a cross-sectional questionnaire survey

Evaluation of doctoral education in nursing is needed with the rapid increase in doctoral nursing programs in Japan. This study aimed to compare the evaluations of doctoral nursing education by students, graduates, and faculty. All 46 doctoral nursing programs in Japan were target settings. 127 students who had been in the doctoral program, 24 graduates and 87 faculty members had responded to the survey. A questionnaire with 17 items for program evaluation, 12 items for faculty evaluation, 9 items for resource evaluation, and 3 for overall evaluations was distributed in November and December 2008. Responses to 1 program evaluation item, 2 faculty evaluation items and 4 resource evaluation items indicated significant differences among evaluators. While 79.2% of graduates responded positively that the number of faculty members was sufficient to facilitate learning, only 36.1% of faculty members and 49.6% of students responded affirmatively. Graduates' ratings were the most positive and faculty members were the least positive, especially for infrastructure or equipment such as libraries, computers, and the number of technical and support staff. The significant differences among the evaluators suggested that having evaluators in various roles is important to evaluate the quality of doctoral nursing education