Mainstreaming of genomic medicine in gastroenterology, present and future: a nationwide survey of UK gastroenterology trainees

Objective: Genomics and personalised medicine are increasingly relevant for patients with gastroenterological conditions. We aim to capture the current state of genomics training in gastroenterology to review current understanding, clinical experience and long-term educational needs of UK trainees. // Design and setting: A web-based nationwide survey of all UK gastroenterology specialty trainees was conducted in 2017. // Results: 100 trainees (14% of UK gastroenterology trainees) completed this survey. Only 9% and 16% of respondents believe that their local training programme adequately prepares them for the future clinical practice using genomic medicine and personalised medicine, respectively. Barriers identified include the need for greater trainee education (95%), inadequate clinical guidance to base interventions on the results of genomic testing (53%), concerns over misinterpretation by patients (43%) and overuse/misuse of testing by clinicians (34%). Survey respondents felt prepared to perform HFE genotyping (98%), assess TPMT status (97%) and interpret HLA subtyping for suspected coeliac disease (85%). However, only a minority felt prepared to perform the following investigations: polyposis screening (34%), hereditary pancreatitis screening (30%), testing for Lynch yndrome (33%) and KRAS testing for colorectal cancer (20%). Most respondents would support holding dedicated training days on genomic medicine (83%), formal training provisions for the mainstreaming of genomic testing (64%), an update to the UK gastroenterology specialty training curriculum and examinations (57%) and better-defined referral pathways for local genomic services (91%). // Conclusion: Most gastroenterology trainees in this survey feel ill equipped to practise genomic and personalised medicine as consultants. We propose specific revisions to the UK gastroenterology specialty curriculum that addresses trainees needs

Which politicians receive abuse? Four factors illuminated in the UK general election 2019

The 2019 UK general election took place against a background of rising online hostility levels toward politicians, and concerns about the impact of this on democracy, as a record number of politicians cited the abuse they had been receiving as a reason for not standing for re-election. We present a four-factor framework in understanding who receives online abuse and why. The four factors are prominence, events, online engagement and personal characteristics. We collected 4.2 million tweets sent to or from election candidates in the six week period spanning from the start of November until shortly after the December 12th election. We found abuse in 4.46% of replies received by candidates, up from 3.27% in the matching period for the 2017 UK general election. Abuse levels have also been climbing month on month throughout 2019. Abuse also escalated throughout the campaign period. Abuse focused mainly on a small number of high profile politicians, with the most prominent individuals receiving not only more abuse by volume, but also as a percentage of replies. Abuse is ``spiky'', triggered by external events such as debates, or certain tweets. Some tweets may become viral targets for personal abuse. On average, men received more general and political abuse; women received more sexist abuse. Conservative candidates received more political and general abuse. We find that individuals choosing not to stand for re-election had received more abuse across the preceding year

Mainstreaming of genomic medicine in gastroenterology, present and future: a Nationwide Survey of UK Gastroenterology Trainees

Objective: Genomics and personalised medicine are increasingly relevant for patients with gastroenterological conditions. We aim to capture the current state of genomics training in gastroenterology to review current understanding, clinical experience and long-term educational needs of UK trainees.Design & Setting: A web-based nationwide survey of all UK gastroenterology specialty trainees was conducted in 2017.Results: 100 trainees (14% of UK gastroenterology trainees) completed this survey. Only 9% and 16% of respondents believe that their local training programme adequately prepares them for future clinical practice utilising genomic medicine and personalised medicine respectively. Barriers identified include the need for greater trainee education (95%), inadequate clinical guidance to base interventions on the results of genomic testing (53%), concerns over misinterpretation by patients (43%) and overuse/misuse of testing by clinicians (34%).Survey respondents felt prepared to perform HFE genotyping (98%), assess TPMT status (97%), and interpret HLA-subtyping for suspected coeliac disease (85%). However, only a minority felt prepared to perform the following investigations: polyposis screening (34%), hereditary pancreatitis screening (30%), testing for Lynch Syndrome (33%), and KRAS testing for colorectal cancer (20%).Most respondents would support holding dedicated training days on genomic medicine (83%), formal training provisions for the mainstreaming of genomic testing (64%), an update to the UK gastroenterology specialty training curriculum and examinations (57%), and better-defined referral pathways for local genomic services (91%).Conclusion: Most gastroenterology trainees in this survey feel ill-equipped to practice genomic and personalised medicine as consultants. We propose specific revisions to the UK gastroenterology specialty curriculum that address trainees needs

Online abuse toward candidates during the UK general election 2019 : working paper

The 2019 UK general election took place against a background of rising online hostility levels toward politicians and concerns about its impact on democracy. We collected 4.2 million tweets sent to or from election candidates in the six week period spanning from the start of November until shortly after the December 12th election. We found abuse in 4.46\% of replies received by candidates, up from 3.27\% in the matching period for the 2017 UK general election. Abuse levels have also been climbing month on month throughout 2019. Abuse also escalated throughout the campaign period. Abuse focused mainly on a small number of high profile politicians. Abuse is "spiky", triggered by external events such as debates, or certain tweets. Abuse increases when politicians discuss inflammatory topics such as borders and immigration. There may also be a backlash on topics such as social justice. Some tweets may become viral targets for personal abuse. On average, men received more general and political abuse; women received more sexist abuse. MPs choosing not to stand again had received more abuse during 2019

Study of several potato cultivars from EU countries in agro-ecological conditions of Kosovo

19 potato cultivars were studied in the stage of vegetation in 2010, on two agro-ecological regions of Kosovo. The points of re-search were the vegetation period, rudiment per hectare, dry ma-tter and others. Results analysed have shown differences between cultivars in all parameters analysed in comparison with the indi-cating standard.

Kyste epidermoide intracranien

Introduction: Aim : To evaluate the value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis of 2 cases of epidermoid cysts.Materieal and Methods: 2 cases of histopathologically proven epidermoid cysts were studied. All patients were examined with conventional MRI (T1WI, T2WI, FLAIR) and Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI).Results: the lesions were located in the right cerebellopontine angle and the right temporal fossa. All lesions were hyperintense on T2, hypointense on T1and strikingly hyperintense on DW.Conclusion: New MR techniques such as FLAIR and DWI are most helpful tools in the specific preoperative diagnosis which is important for surgical guidance

Quantifying media influence and partisan attention on Twitter during the UK EU referendum

User generated media, and their influence on the information individuals are exposed to, have the potential to affect political outcomes. This is increasingly a focus for attention and concern. The British EU membership referendum provided an opportunity for researchers to explore the nature and impact of the new infosphere in a politically charged situation. This work contributes by reviewing websites that were linked in a Brexit Tweet dataset of 13.2 million tweets, by 1.8 million distinct users, collected in the run-up to the referendum. In this dataset, 480,000 users have been classified according to their “Brexit” vote intent. Findings include that linked material on Twitter was mostly posted by those in favour of leaving the EU. Mainstream news media had the greatest impact in terms of number of links tweeted, with alternative media and campaign sites appearing to a much lesser extent. Of the 15 most linked mainstream media, half show a substantially greater appeal to the leave camp, with two of them very much so. No mainstream media had a consistent appeal among remain supporters. Among the sites that were highly favoured by one voter valence or the other, the leave sites had by far the greatest impact in terms of number of appearances in tweets. Remain-preferred sites were less linked, and dominated by explicit campaign sites. Leave-preferred sites were more numerously linked, and dominated by mainstream and alternative media

Race and religion in online abuse towards UK politicians : working paper

Against a backdrop of tensions related to EU membership, we find levels of online abuse toward UK MPs reach a new high. Race and religion have become pressing topics globally, and in the UK this interacts with "Brexit" and the rise of social media to create a complex social climate in which much can be learned about evolving attitudes. In 8 million tweets by and to UK MPs in the first half of 2019, religious intolerance scandals in the UK's two main political parties attracted significant attention. Furthermore, high profile ethnic minority MPs started conversations on Twitter about race and religion, the responses to which provide a valuable source of insight. We found a significant presence for disturbing racial and religious abuse. We also explore metrics relating to abuse patterns, which may affect its impact. We find "burstiness" of abuse doesn't depend on race or gender, but individual factors may lead to politicians having very different experiences online

An Alternative Treatment for Yukawa-Type Potentials

We propose a new approximation scheme to obtain analytic expressions for the bound state energies and eigenfunctions of Yukawa like potentials. The predicted energies are in excellent agreement with the accurate numerical values reported in the literature