bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Workplace‐based assessment: assessing technical skill throughout the continuum of surgical training
Authors: Beard Jonathan , Rowley David , Bussey Maria , Pitts David 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThe Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Surgical Specialty Associations in the UK have introduced competence‐based syllabi and curricula for surgical training. The syllabi of the Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme (ISCP) and Orthopaedic Curriculum and Assessment Programme (OCAP) define the core competencies, that is, the observable and measureable behaviours required of a surgical trainee. The curricula define when, where and how these will be assessed.Procedure‐based assessment (PBA) has been adopted as the principal method of assessing surgical skills. It combines competencies specific to the procedure with generic competencies such as safe handling of instruments. It covers the entire procedure, including preoperative and postoperative planning. A global summary of the level at which the trainee performed the assessed elements of the procedure is also included. The form has been designed to be completed quickly by the assessor (clinical supervisor) and fed‐back to the trainee between operations. PBA forms have been developed for all index procedures in all surgical specialties. The forms are intended to be used as frequently as possible when performing index procedures, as their primary aim is to aid learning. At the end of a training placement the aggregated PBA forms, together with the logbook, enable the Educational Supervisor and/or Programme Director to make a summary judgement about the competence of a trainee to perform index procedures to a given standard.
Development of the surgical science examination of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons surgical education and training programme: putting the chicken before the egg
Authors: Martin Jenepher , Blennerhassett John , Hardman David , Mundy Julie 
Published: March 2009

AbstractBasic science knowledge is a foundational element of surgical practice. Increasing surgical specialization may merit a reconsideration of the ‘whole‐body’ approach to basic science curriculum in favour of specialty specific depth. The conundrum of depth or breadth of basic science curriculum is currently being addressed by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, which introduced a new surgical education and training programme for nine surgical specialties in 2008. This paper describes an innovative solution to the design of a basic science curriculum in the nine different surgical specialty streams of this programme. The task was to develop a curriculum and rigorous assessment in basic sciences to meet the needs of the training programme, for implementation within the first year. A number of political/cultural and technical issues were identified as critical to success. To achieve a robust assessment within the required time frame attention was paid to engagement, governance, curriculum definition, assessment development, and implementation. The pragmatic solution to curriculum and assessment was to use the existing assessment items and blueprint to determine a new curriculum definition and assessment. The resulting curriculum comprises a generic component, undertaken by all trainees, and specialty specific components. In a time critical environment, a pragmatic solution to curriculum, applied with predetermined, structured and meticulous methodology, allowed explicit definition of breadth for the generic basic science curriculum for surgical training in Australia and New Zealand. Implicit definition of specialty specific‐basic science curricula was through the creation of a blueprinted assessment.
Identification and management of the underperforming surgical trainee
Authors: Paice Elisabeth 
Published: March 2009

AbstractMost surgical trainee make steady progress, delivering a safe and reliable service at an appropriate level at the same time as they as learn new skills under supervision. Trainees learn at different rates, and progress that is safe and steady although slower than the norm should not be classed as underperformance. Clinical performance issues may arise at any stage of a doctor’s cancer, and should be addressed promptly and constructively. Factors that may impact on performance, such as the personality of the trainee, their personal pressures, and the training and working environment, should be considered and where possible mitigated. Enhanced supervision; regular constructive feedback; psychological support; coaching and mentoring may all be required. A change of trainer or working environment may sometimes be necessary, and the duration of training may need to be extended. A supportive working and learning environment with a sound educational framework will help to ensure that trainees in difficulty are identified early and managed supportively and constructively.
Equipping surgeons as educators*
Authors: Fry Heather 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThere is a developing interest in equipping surgeons as educators but a perceived lack of knowledge and evidence about how to do this effectively, or how to reward and recognize educational expertise within the surgical career structure. A brief consideration of the surgical educator role is offered. The findings and conclusions of a meta‐analysis of the influence of faculty development in medical education are summarized. Various sources are drawn on to present an overview of master’s level provision in medical education and a master’s in surgical education is outlined. Issues relating to developing suitable curricula, educational accreditation, recognition, reward and career structure are raised and some UK approaches to these areas summarized. Evidence indicates the importance of context in training medical educators, the value of experiential learning, training that is spread over time and training that mixes theory, practice and reflection. A schema for recognizing educational expertise, created as an outcome of analysis of the evidence and current provision, is presented. The effect of a possible change from educational training being voluntary to the introduction of a compulsory regime is raised as an area requiring further discussion and evidence collection. Mechanisms by which to acknowledge, reward and recognize education expertise in surgeons do not generally exist; it is suggested their development would be timely.
Managing the complexity of change in postgraduate surgical education and training
Authors: Hillis David J. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractPressure of workforce shortages, educational reform, heightened regulatory requirements and increased community expectations and scrutiny, has led to demand for substantial change in the provision of surgical education and training. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons has responded positively to these external factors through an extensive review of local and worldwide practice and opinion, providing ongoing realignment of its governance and committee structure, substantially adjusting the structure of its educational program and increasing the educational support to trainees and supervisors. The College looks to the Council and its senior Fellows to create the direction and drive, but these changes need to be supported and implemented with care by the management and administrative staff of the College and specialist societies. This is in an opinion‐rich zone with substantial regulatory scrutiny.
Role of trainees’ (residents’) associations in surgical education and training
Authors: Peters Matthew J , Pappalardo Juanita , Cresswell Adrian B 
Published: March 2009

AbstractSurgical education and training is evolving as new educational techniques are developed amidst a greater societal requirement and pressure for a greater number of surgeons. The methods of delivering this education and training vary between institutions, but all have the common aim to produce effective well‐rounded surgeons who are capable of providing a safe and competent service that is relevant to the society within which they work.
Distorted Agricultural Incentives and Economic Development: Asia's Experience
Authors: Anderson Kym 
Published: March 2009

AbstractEarnings from farming in many low‐income countries have been depressed by a pro‐urban bias in own‐country policies, as well as by governments of richer countries favouring their farmers with import barriers and subsidies. Both sets of policies reduce national and global economic welfare. The rapid development of many Asian emerging economies has been accompanied by a gradual reduction in their anti‐agricultural policies, but many distortions remain and some countries have moved from negative to positive assistance for farmers, following the earlier examples of first Japan and then Korea and Taiwan. Drawing on results from a new multi‐country research project, this paper examines the extent of these changes relative to those of other developing countries over the past five decades. It concludes by pointing to prospects for further policy reform in Asia.
Credit Availability and Capital Crunch: On the Role of the Heterogeneity of the Banking System
Authors: BRUNO OLIVIER 
Published: March 2009

AbstractWe analyze the impact of a credit crunch on aggregate investment via the heterogeneous structure of the banking system. We develop a model of endogenous credit allocation in which investors and two banks differ according to their level of capital and monitoring technology. In a context of moral hazard problem, we show that banks' cost advantage in the monitoring of small businesses must be compared to their relative amount of capital in order to explain firms' optimal choice of financing, the credit allocation in the economy and the asymmetric impact of a credit crunch on aggregate investment. A shock of the same magnitude on the two banks level of capital may have a different effect on total investment. We stress that the credit crunch is maximum when the shock hits the bank specialized in the financing of small businesses and when this bank is also the less capitalized. This result is supported by recent empirical studies (Hancock and Wilcox 1998).
A Distortive Wage Tax and a Countervailing Commuting Subsidy
Authors: WREDE MATTHIAS 
Published: March 2009

AbstractWithin a second‐best duocentric urban economics framework where labor income taxation distorts workplace choices on account of commuting costs, this paper studies a commuting subsidy, which distorts land use. It is shown that a commuting subsidy increases welfare if and only if it shifts labor supply from less to more productive business districts.
Optimal Income Taxation and Public Good Provision with Endogenous Interest Groups
Authors: BIERBRAUER FELIX 
Published: March 2009

AbstractThis paper studies public goods provision when agents differ in earning abilities as well as preferences. Heterogeneity in skills makes redistribution desirable and generates an equity‐efficiency trade‐off. If tax revenues are devoted to a public good, this trade‐off is affected in such a way that income transfers are less desirable. High‐skilled individuals thus have an incentive to exaggerate their preferences for public goods. Analogously, low‐skilled individuals lobby against public good provision. A requirement of collective incentive compatibility eliminates these biases. It implies that income transfers are increased whenever a public good is provided and are decreased otherwise.
Evolutionary relationships of sprint speed in Australian varanid lizards
Authors: Clemente C. J. , Thompson G. G. , Withers P. C. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractEcomorphological studies often seek to link morphology and performance to relevant ecological characteristics. Varanid lizards are unique in that species can vary in body size by almost four orders of magnitude within a single genus, and a question of considerable interest is whether similar ecomorphological relationships exist when constraints on body size are reduced. We studied sprint speed in relation to size, shape and ecology for 18 species of varanid lizards. Maximal speed scaled positively with mass0.166 using least squares regression, and mass0.21 using reduced major‐axis regression. However, a curvilinear trend better described this relationship, suggesting an optimal mass of 2.83 kg with respect to speed. Including data for the komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis moves the optimum mass to 2.23 kg. We use this relationship to predict the sprint speed of the Komodo's giant extinct relative Varanus (Megalania) prisca to be 2.6–3 m s−1 similar to that of extant freshwater crocodiles Crocodylus johnstoni. When differences in speed were compared to ecological characteristics, species from open habitats were significantly faster than species from semi‐open or closed habitat types, and remained so after correction for size and phylogeny. Thus, despite large variation in body size, varanids appear to share similar associations between performance and ecology as seen in other lizard groups. Varanids did, however, differ in morphological relationships with sprint speed. Differences in relative speed were not related to relative hindlimb length, as is commonly reported for other lizard groups. Instead, size‐free forefoot length was negatively related to speed as was the size‐free thorax–abdomen length. While shorter forefeet were thought to be an adaptation to burrowing, and thus open habitats, rather than speed per se, the reduction in the thorax–abdomen length may have significant advantages to increasing speed. Biomechanical models predicting this advantage are discussed in relation to a trade‐off between speed and manoeuvrability.
Direct paternal care in black‐and‐white snub‐nosed monkeys
Authors: Xiang Z.‐F. , Sayers K. , Grueter C. C. 
Published: March 2009

AbstractMothers of many colobines permit other females or juveniles to have contact with their infants, but paternal care has rarely been reported. This paper reports paternal care in free‐ranging black‐and‐white snub‐nosed monkeysRhinopithecus bietian endangered and little‐known high‐altitude species. Direct infant care, carrying or grooming infants, was observed in 2115 of 3988 infant behavioral samples, and 30 of these observations involved direct paternal care. Yearly paternal care was 1.63%, with highest rates in February and March. Monthly paternal care was negatively correlated with infant age, food availability and ambient temperature. Thus, energetic stress may be selective pressure favoring paternal care.
Spatiotemporal changes of beetle communities across a tree diversity gradient
Authors: Sobek Stephanie , Steffan‐Dewenter Ingolf , Scherber Christoph , Tscharntke Teja 
Published: March 2009

AbstractAim  Plant and arthropod diversity are often related, but data on the role of mature tree diversity on canopy insect communities are fragmentary. We compare species richness of canopy beetles across a tree diversity gradient ranging from mono‐dominant beech to mixed stands within a deciduous forest, and analyse community composition changes across space and time.Location  Germany’s largest exclusively deciduous forest, the Hainich National Park (Thuringia).Methods  We used flight interception traps to assess the beetle fauna of various tree species, and applied additive partitioning to examine spatiotemporal patterns of diversity.Results  Species richness of beetle communities increased across the tree diversity gradient from 99 to 181 species per forest stand. Intra‐ and interspecific spatial turnover among trees contributed more than temporal turnover among months to the total γ‐beetle diversity of the sampled stands. However, due to parallel increases in the number of habitat generalists and the number of species in each feeding guild (herbivores, predators and fungivores), no proportional changes in community composition could be observed. If only beech trees were analysed across the gradient, patterns were similar but temporal (monthly) species turnover was higher compared to spatial turnover among trees and not related to tree diversity.Main conclusions  The changes in species richness and community composition across the gradient can be explained by habitat heterogeneity, which increased with the mix of tree species. We conclude that understanding temporal and spatial species turnover is the key to understanding biodiversity patterns. Mono‐dominant beech stands are insufficient to conserve fully the regional species richness of the remaining semi‐natural deciduous forest habitats in Central Europe, and analysing beech alone would have resulted in the misleading conclusion that temporal (monthly) turnover contributes more to beetle diversity than spatial turnover among different tree species or tree individuals.
An animal model of testicular toxicity by cyclosporine: evaluation and protection
Authors: Ali Ridha Ben , Klouz Anis , Boubaker Samir , Lakhal Mohamed , Belkahia Chalbi 
Published: March 2009

AbstractCyclosporineA (CsA) improves the survival of patients who benefited from transplantation. However, its use is generally limited by its side effects. The aim of our study was to measure, in an experimental model, the changes of the testosterone plasma levels after 21 days of CsA treatment and to explain the mechanism of this modification. After treatment, the levels of CsA, testosterone, corticosterone, transaminases were measured. The cytotoxic effect of CsA was evaluated by microscopic observation. The experimental study showed that CsA had no effect on the plasmatic levels of hepatic enzymes ‐ alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and gamma‐glutamyl‐transferase – because their plasma concentrations in treated rats did not differ from those of the sham group. The plasma concentration of corticosterone was not modified, the plasma level of testosterone decreased when the dose of cyclosporine was increased to 4 mg/kg/day. The photonic microscope observation showed that the number of Leydig cells was increased and the electronic microscope observation showed mitochondria alteration. The treatment by CsA and trimetazidine did not correct the alteration caused by CsA. N‐benzyl‐N’‐(2‐hydrox‐3, 4‐dimethyloxybenzyl)‐pipeazine did not protect the mitochondrial function but partially protected mitochondria structure from the deleterious effect induced by CsA. The decrease of the plasma level of testosterone induced by CsA was due to the inhibition of the mitochondrial 20–22 desmolase which blocked the formation of the testosterone precursor and the destruction of the mitochondria structure.
The core‐aldehyde 9‐oxononanoyl cholesterol increases the level of transforming growth factor β1‐specific receptors on promonocytic U937 cell membranes
Authors: Gargiulo Simona , Gamba Paola , Sottero Barbara , Biasi Fiorella , Chiarpotto Elena , Serviddio Gaetano , Vendemiale Gianluigi , Poli Giuseppe , Leonarduzzi Gabriella 
Published: March 2009

SummaryAmong the broad variety of compounds generated via oxidative reactions in low‐density lipoproteins (LDL) and subsequently found in the atherosclerotic plaque are aldehydes that are still esterified to the parent lipid, termed core aldehydes. The most represented cholesterol core aldehyde in LDL is 9‐oxononanoyl cholesterol (9‐ONC), an oxidation product of cholesteryl linoleate. 9‐ONC, at a concentration detectable in biological material, markedly up‐regulates mRNA expression and protein level of both the pro‐fibrogenic and pro‐apoptotic cytokine transforming growth factor β1 (TGF‐β1) and the TGF‐β receptor type I (TβRI) in human U937 promonocytic cells. We also observed increased membrane presentation of TGF‐β receptor type II (TβRII). Experiments employing the TβRI inhibitor SB431542, or the TGFβ antagonist DANFc chimera, have shown that the effect on TβRI is directly induced by 9‐ONC, while TβRII up‐regulation seems stimulated by its specific ligand, i.e. TGFβ1, over‐secreted meanwhile by treated cells. Increased levels of the cytokine and of its specific receptors in 9‐ONC‐treated cells clearly occurs through stimulation of extracellular signal‐regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2), as demonstrated by ERK1/2 knockdown experiments using mitogen‐activated protein kinase/extracellular signal‐regulated kinase 1 and 2 (MEK1 and MEK2) siRNAs, or PD98059, a selective MEK1/2 inhibitor. 9‐ONC might thus sustain further vascular remodeling due to atherosclerosis, not simply by stimulating synthesis of the pro‐fibrogenic cytokine TGF‐β1 in vascular cells, but also and chiefly by enhancing the TGF‐β1 autocrine loop, because of the marked up‐regulation of the cytokine's specific receptors TβRI and TβRII.
Effects of dietary restriction on mortality and age‐related phenotypes in the short‐lived fish Nothobranchius furzeri
Authors: Terzibasi Eva , Lefrançois Christel , Domenici Paolo , Hartmann Nils , Graf Michael , Cellerino Alessandro 
Published: March 2009

SummaryThe short‐lived annual fish Nothobranchius furzeri shows extremely short captive life span and accelerated expression of age markers, making it an interesting model system to investigate the effects of experimental manipulations on longevity and age‐related pathologies. Here, we tested the effects of dietary restriction (DR) on mortality and age‐related markers in N. furzeri. DR was induced by every other day feeding and the treatment was performed both in an inbred laboratory line and a longer‐lived wild‐derived line. In the inbred laboratory line, DR reduced age‐related risk and prolonged maximum life span. In the wild‐derived line, DR induced early mortality, did not reduce general age‐related risk and caused a small but significant extension of maximum life span. Analysis of age‐dependent mortality revealed that DR reduced demographic rate of aging, but increased baseline mortality in the wild‐derived strain. In both inbred‐ and wild‐derived lines, DR prevented the expression of the age markers lipofuscin in the liver and Fluoro‐Jade B (neurodegeneration) in the brain. DR also improved performance in a learning test based on conditioning (active avoidance in a shuttle box). Finally, DR induced a paradoxical up‐regulation of glial fibrillary acidic protein in the brain.
S‐nitrosylation of caspase‐3 is the mechanism by which adhesion fibroblasts manifest lower apoptosis
Authors: Jiang Zhong L. , Fletcher Nicole M. , Diamond Michael P. , Abu‐Soud Husam M. , Saed Ghassan M. 
Published: March 2009

ABSTRACTWe have previously found that adhesion fibroblasts exhibit lower apoptosis and higher protein nitration as compared with normal peritoneal fibroblasts. In this study, we sought to determine whether the decreased apoptosis observed in adhesion fibroblasts is caused by lower caspase‐3 activity due to an increase in caspase‐3 S‐nitrosylation. For this study, we have utilized primary cultures of fibroblasts obtained from normal peritoneum and adhesion tissues of the same patient(s). Cells were treated with increasing concentrations of peroxynitrite and cell lysates were immunoprecipitated with anti‐caspase‐3 polyclonal antibody. The biotinylated proteins were detected using a nitrosylation detection kit. Caspase‐3 activity and apoptosis were measured by colorimetric and TUNEL assays, respectively. Our results showed that caspase‐3 S‐nitrosylation is significantly higher in adhesion fibroblasts as compared with normal peritoneal fibroblasts. This increase in S‐nitrosylation resulted in a 30% decrease in caspase‐3 activity in adhesion fibroblasts. Peroxynitrite treatment resulted in a dose response increase in caspase‐3 S‐nitrosylation, leading to a decrease in caspase‐3 activity and apoptosis in normal peritoneal fibroblasts. We conclude that S‐nitrosylation of caspase‐3 is the reason for its decreased activity and subsequent decrease in apoptosis of adhesion fibroblasts. The mechanism by which caspase‐3 S‐nitrosylation occurs is not fully understood. However, the role of hypoxia in the formation of peroxynitrite via superoxide production may suggest a possible mechanism.