Amid concerns about the pediatrician-scientist workforce, we hypothesized that declining numbers of pediatric subspecialists devote at least 25% of their professional time to research with fewer ...younger and female pediatricians engaged in research over the study period.
Board-certified pediatricians enrolling online in the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP's) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program October 2009 through 2016 were invited to complete a survey with questions about the allocation of their professional time. Responses from individuals in the 14 ABP-certified subspecialties were analyzed. The number and proportions of respondents devoting 25-49% and 50% or more of professional time to research were calculated over time. Age and gender were also examined.
We analyzed 21,367 responses over 8 years. A small number of pediatric subspecialists engaged in research with 5.2-6.7% devoting 25-49% and 5.6-8.4% at least 50% of their professional time to research across subspecialties. There was no discernable increase or decrease over time or pattern by age or gender.
Less than 10% of pediatric medical subspecialists devote at least 50% of their professional time to research. Efforts to promote research among pediatric subspecialists have not increased the size of the population that reports engaging in research at this level.
While much of the contemporary quantitative research in intra-state conflicts focuses on explaining the causes of these conflicts using large-N studies, these models have limited forecasting power, ...i.e., they cannot be used in making predictions about whether or not an intra-state conflict will occur with a high degree of certainty. To that end this paper utilizes a forecasting model developed by D'Orazio, Yonamine and Schrodt and applies it for predicting the onset of intra-state conflict in Eurasia, which encompasses the former Soviet republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The region was chosen due to a high incidence of intra-state conflict and proximity to the states analyzed by D'Orazio. Sample size was kept small due to manpower limitations. Event data was collected from news sources and a bivariate logit model was used to analyze patterns in the event data sequences in the 12 weeks preceding onsets of conflict and peace from 1990-2011. Although the results indicated that the model was not able to predict onsets of conflict with a high level of accuracy, this level of predicting power is attributed to the limitations of the original data rather than the model itself. The Eurasian model showed patterns similar to that of the original model, providing support for the observation that conflicts do not have a similar escalation pattern. Rather each conflict tends to be preceded by an event sequence, which is dissimilar both to peace sequences and other conflict onsets. In other words, the events leading up to intra-state conflicts tend to be unique to each conflict; there is no one pattern of events which leads to conflict.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been shown to be immunomodulatory, tissue regenerative, and graft promoting; however, several questions remain with regard to ideal MSC source and timing of ...administration. In this study, we utilized a rigorous preclinical model of allogeneic islet cell transplantation, incorporating reduced immune suppression and near to complete mismatch of major histocompatibility antigens between the diabetic cynomolgus monkey recipient and the islet donor, to evaluate both the graft promoting impact of MSC source, that is, derived from the islet recipient, the islet donor or an unrelated third party as well as the impact of timing. Co‐transplant of MSC and islets on post‐operative day 0, followed by additional IV MSC infusions in the first posttransplant month, resulted in prolongation of rejection free and overall islet survival and superior metabolic control for animals treated with recipient as compared to donor or third‐party MSC. Immunological analyses demonstrated that infusion of MSC from either source did not prevent alloantibody formation to the islet or MSC donor; however, treatment with recipient MSC resulted in significant downregulation of memory T cells, decreased anti‐donor T cell proliferation, and a trend toward increased Tregulatory:Tconventional ratios.
Intrahepatic cotransplantation of islet and recipient‐derived, compared to donor‐ or third party‐derived mesenchymal stem cells, followed by additional mesenchymal stem cell infusions in the first posttransplant month, prolongs overall and rejection‐free islet survival and superior metabolic control.
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