Interest is growing in specialty-specific assessments of student candidates based on clinical clerkship performance to assist in the selection process for postgraduate training. The most established ...and extensively used is the emergency medicine (EM) Standardized Letter of Evaluation (SLOE), serving as a substitute for the letter of recommendation. Typically developed by a program's leadership, the group SLOE strives to provide a unified institutional perspective on performance. The group SLOE lacks guidelines to direct its development raising questions regarding the assessments, processes, and standardization programs employ. This study surveys EM programs to gather validity evidence regarding the inputs and processes involved in developing group SLOEs.
A structured telephone interview was administered to assess the input data and processes employed by United States EM programs when generating group SLOEs.
With 156/178 (87.6%) of Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education-approved programs responding, 146 (93.6%) reported developing group SLOEs. Issues identified in development include the following: (1) 84.9% (124/146) of programs limit the consensus process by not employing rigorous methodology; (2) several stakeholder groups (nurses, patients) do not participate in candidate assessment placing final decisions at risk for construct under-representation; and (3) clinical shift assessments don't reflect the task-specific expertise of each stakeholder group nor has the validity of each been assessed.
Success of the group SLOE in its role as a summative workplace-based assessment is dependent upon valid input data and appropriate processes. This study of current program practices provides specific recommendations that would strengthen the validity arguments for the group SLOE.
Most eukaryotes encode a substantial number of small noncoding RNAs termed micro RNAs (miRNAs). Previously, we have demonstrated that miR-30, a 22-nucleotide human miRNA, can be processed from a ...longer transcript bearing the proposed miR-30 stem-loop precursor and can translationally inhibit an mRNA-bearing artificial target sites. We also demonstrated that the miR-30 precursor stem can be substituted with a heterologous stem, which can be processed to yield novel miRNAs and can block the expression of endogenous mRNAs. Here, we show that a second human miRNA, termed miR-21, can also be effectively expressed when its precursor forms part of a longer mRNA. For both miR-30 and miR-21, mature miRNA production was highly dependent on the integrity of the precursor RNA stem, although the underlying sequence had little effect. In contrast, the sequence of the terminal loop affected miRNA production only moderately. Processing of the initial, miR-30-containing transcript led to the production of not only mature miR-30 but also to the largely nuclear excision of an approximately 65-nucleotide RNA that is likely to represent an important intermediate in miR-30 processing. Consistent with this hypothesis, mutations that affected mature miR-30 production inhibited expression of this miR-30 pre-miRNA to an equivalent degree. Although point mutations could block the ability of both miR-30 and miR-21 to inhibit the translation of mRNAs bearing multiple artificial miRNA target sites, single point mutations only attenuated the miRNA-mediated inhibition of genes bearing single, fully complementary targets. These results suggest that miRNAs, and the closely similar small interfering RNAs, cannot totally discriminate between RNA targets differing by a single nucleotide.
Emergency physicians supervise residents performing rare clinical procedures, but they infrequently perform those procedures independently. Simulation offers a forum to practice procedural skills, ...but simulation labs often target resident learners, and barriers exist to faculty as learners in simulation-based training. Simulation-based curricula focused on improving emergency medicine (EM) faculty's rare procedure skills were not discovered on review of published literature. Our objective was to create a sustainable, simulation-based faculty education curriculum for rare procedural skills in EM. Between 2012 and 2019, most EM teaching faculty at a single, urban, Level 1 trauma center completed an annual two-hour simulation-based rare procedure lab with small-group learning and guided hands-on instruction, covering 30 different procedural education sessions for faculty learners. A questionnaire administered before and after each session assessed EM faculty physicians' self-perceived ability to perform these rare procedures. Participants' self-reported confidence in their performance improved for all procedures, regardless of prior procedural experience. Faculty participation was initially mandatory, but is now voluntary. Diverse strategies were used to address barriers in this learner group including eliciting learner feedback, offering continuing medical education credits, gradual roll-out of checklist assessments, and welcoming expertise of faculty leaders from EM and other specialties and professions. Participants perceived training to be most helpful for the most rarely-encountered clinical procedures. Similar curricula could be implemented with minimal risk at other institutions.
Recent scholarship (Goodwin & Darley, 2008) on the meta-ethical debate between objectivism and relativism has found people to be mixed: they are objectivists about some issues, but relativists about ...others. The studies discussed here sought to explore this further. Study 1 explored whether giving people the ability to identify moral issues for themselves would reveal them to be more globally objectivist. Study 2 explored people's meta-ethical commitments more deeply, asking them to provide verbal explanations for their judgments. This revealed that while people think they are relativists, this may not always be the case. The explanations people gave were sometimes rated by outside (blind) coders as being objective, even when given a relativist response. Nonetheless, people remained meta-ethical pluralists. Why this might be is discussed.
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In pasture-based automatic milking systems (AMS), a decrease in robot utilization (RU) often occurs in the early morning hours. Novel feeding strategies that encourage voluntary cow traffic ...throughout 24 h could help mitigate this problem. We determined the effect of 3 distinct pasture allocation methods on RU patterns throughout a 24-h period. The experiment was conducted at the University of Melbourne's Dookie research farm in northern Victoria, Australia. Three Lely Astronaut A3 robotic milking units (Lely, Maassluis, the Netherlands) milked 133 cows, grazing pasture, with concentrate offered at milking in the robots. The farm operated a system of 3-way grazing, with active access to each pasture allocation: 2030–0400 h (allocation A), 0400–1330 h (allocation B), and 1330–2030 h (allocation C). Treatments varied in the quantity of feed offered per hour of active access to each of the 3 pasture allocations. The control treatment offered the same proportion of feed (corrected for active access time) in all 3 pasture allocations (allocation A = 31.3%, B = 39.6%, and C = 29.2%). The day treatment offered the largest proportion of feed during the day (allocation A = 20%, B = 40%, and C = 40%), following the cows' diurnal pattern of feeding activity. The night treatment offered the largest proportion of feed at night (allocation A = 42%, B = 40%, and C = 18%). Due to the nature of pasture-based AMS, treatments could not be applied simultaneously. Therefore, treatments were applied to the entire herd and repeated twice over 42 d, lasting 7 d/treatment, with the first 3 d for habituation, followed by 4 d of data collection. Robot utilization (milkings/h) varied throughout 24 h between treatments, with the night treatment recording greater RU at 0800, 1800, and 1900 h and lower RU between 2100 to 0100 h, compared with the day treatment. The proportion of the herd milking between 0000 and 0600 h was greater for the control (43.3%) and day (45.3%) treatments compared with the night treatment (25.8%). Herd-average daily pasture intake was similar (10.5 kg of dry matter) for all treatments. This experiment is the first to demonstrate the manipulation of RU by varying the quantity of pasture offered. However, the use of variable allocation alone did not eliminate the decrease in RU between 0000 and 0600 h, with the timing of allocation also likely to play a role. We recommend a further research focus on combining both timing and quantity of pasture allocated to improve RU in pasture-based AMS.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The challenge for agriculture is to increase production in warmer climates in order to meet the demands of an increasing global population, while also meeting targets for reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) ...emissions. Our aim was to quantify the net effect of future climate scenarios on the productivity and total GHG emissions from pasture based dairy systems in 4 regions of south-eastern Australia using the biophysical model DairyMod. In each region, a single paddock in the grazing rotation of a dairy farm was simulated. This paddock was grazed at a stocking density of 50 lactating dairy cows/ha for a period of one day each time the pasture biomass reached 2.2t dry matter (DM)/ha. In this way, the annual stocking rate (i.e., cows/ha) reflected the number of times that the paddock was grazed annually. No supplementary feed was offered to the animals. Model estimates of annual pasture intake, stocking rate, milk production, CH4 and N2O emissions were compared at each site in a baseline climate (1971–2000) and 3 future climate scenarios representing increasingly warm and dry conditions, termed the ‘2030’, ‘2070 mid’ and ‘2070 high’ scenarios. At Kyabram (northern Victoria) summer irrigated perennial pastures were modelled in the baseline scenario, with supplementary irrigated annual pasture systems simulated in the baseline scenario for comparison, and in the future scenarios. At Terang (south-western Victoria), Ellinbank (south-eastern Victoria) and Elliott (north-western Tasmania) dryland perennial pastures were modelled. In dryland systems, increased pasture intake, stocking rate and milk production was modelled in all future scenarios for the cool temperate climate at Elliott, with reduced production in the ‘2070 mid’ and ‘2070 high’ scenarios at Ellinbank and Terang. At Kyabram, productivity of the annual system was lower than the perennial system in the baseline scenario, but increased in future climates, assuming adequate irrigation water availability. Among sites and climate scenarios, annual per cow GHG emissions were 3.4–5.5t CO2 equivalents (CO2e), with CH4 making 0.63–0.89 of total emissions. Annual emissions per unit area ranged from 2.6 to 13.1t CO2e/ha among sites and climate scenarios, and generally reflected stocking rates. However, in the future scenarios, there were changes in N2O emissions at dryland sites due to increased direct N2O losses and lower indirect N2O through volatilisation and leaching. Annual emission intensities ranged from 7.5 to 10.9t CO2e/t milk protein plus fat among sites and climate scenarios. The lowest emissions intensity was at Elliott, which also had little change in future climates. At Terang and Ellinbank, the emission intensity was 8.8t CO2e/t MS in the baseline climate, but this increased by more than 20% in the 2070 high scenario. Results suggest that pasture based production systems can continue as the basis of the dairy industry in north-western Tasmania, but lower production and higher emission intensity at Terang and Ellinbank suggest that systems adaptations are required to meet future GHG emissions reduction goals.
This paper is part of the special issue entitled: Greenhouse Gases in Animal Agriculture – Finding a Balance between Food and Emissions, Guest Edited by T.A. McAllister, Section Guest Editors: K.A. Beauchemin, X. Hao, S. McGinn and Editor for Animal Feed Science and Technology, P.H. Robinson.
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Climate variability and increasing drought events have become significant concerns in recent years. However, there is limited published research on body weight (BW) change of dairy heifers with ...different genetic merit when grazing on drought impacted pastures in southern Australia. Achieving target body weight (BW) is vital for dairy heifers, especially during critical stages like mating and calving. This study aimed to assess dry matter (DM) intake, BW change, urinary nitrogen excretion, and grazing behaviours of high vs. low genetic dairy heifers grazing pasture during a 43-day experimental period in a drought season. Forty-eight Holstein Friesian heifers grazed on ryegrass-dominant pasture and were divided into two groups based on their high and low Balanced Performance Index (HBPI and LBPI, respectively). Each group was further stratified into six plots, with similar BW, resulting in four heifers per replication group. Data from the five measurement days were averaged for individual cows to analyse the dry matter intake, nitrogen intake and nitrogen excretion. The statistical model included the treatment effect of BPI (H and L) and means were analysed using ANOVA. The pasture quality was poor, with metabolizable energy 9.3 MJ/Kg DM and crude protein 5.9% on a DM basis. Nitrogen intake and urinary nitrogen excretion were significantly higher (
p
< 0.05) in HBPI compared to the LBPI. However, despite these differences, the study did not find any advantages of having HBPI heifer grazing on low quality forage in terms of BW performance.
With globalization, understanding unethical conduct from a cross-national perspective is becoming more important. We used institutional anomie theory to develop hypotheses relating four national ...culture variables (achievement, individualism, universalism, and pecuniary materialism) and social institutions (economy, polity, family, and education) to managers' willingness to justify behaviors generally considered ethically suspect. Data from 3,450 managers from 28 countries support our hypotheses for universalism, pecuniary materialism, economy, family, and education. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
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49.
Nuclear RNA export Cullen, Bryan R
Journal of cell science,
02/2003, Volume:
116, Issue:
Pt 4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Eukaryotic cells export several different classes of RNA molecule from the nucleus, where they are transcribed, to the cytoplasm, where the majority participate in different aspects of protein ...synthesis. It is now clear that these different classes of RNA, including rRNAs, tRNAs, mRNAs and snRNAs, are specifically directed into distinct but in some cases partially overlapping nuclear export pathways. All non-coding RNAs are now known to depend on members of the karyopherin family of Ran-dependent nucleocytoplasmic transport factors for their nuclear export. In contrast, mRNA export is generally mediated by a distinct, Ran-independent nuclear export pathway that is both complex and, as yet, incompletely understood. However, for all classes of RNA molecules, nuclear export is dependent on the assembly of the RNA into the appropriate ribonucleoprotein complex, and nuclear export therefore also appears to function as an important proofreading mechanism.
Cerebellar plasticity is a critical mechanism for optimal feedback control. While Purkinje cell activity of the oculomotor vermis predicts eye movement speed and direction, more lateral areas of the ...cerebellum may play a role in more complex tasks, including decision-making. It is still under question how this motor-cognitive functional dichotomy between medial and lateral areas of the cerebellum plays a role in optimal feedback control. Here we show that elite athletes subjected to a trajectory prediction, go/no-go task manifest superior subsecond trajectory prediction accompanied by optimal eye movements and changes in cognitive load dynamics. Moreover, while interacting with the cerebral cortex, both the medial and lateral cerebellar networks are prominently activated during the fast feedback stage of the task, regardless of whether or not a motor response was required for the correct response. Our results show that cortico-cerebellar interactions are widespread during dynamic feedback and that experience can result in superior task-specific decision skills.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
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