Structure of Equilenin at 100 K: an estrone-related steroid

The structure of the estrone-related steroid, Equilenin, C18H18O2 (systematic name 3-hy-droxy-13-methyl-11,12,13,14,15,16-hexa-hydro-cyclo-penta-[a]phen-anthren-17-one), has been determined at 100 K. The crystals are ortho-rhom-bic, P212121, and the absolute structure of the mol-ecule in the crystal has been determined by resonant scattering [Flack parameter = -0.05 (4)]. The C atoms of the A and B rings are almost coplanar, with an r.m.s. deviation from planarity of 0.0104 Å. The C ring has a sofa conformation, while the D ring has an envelope conformation with the methine C atom as the flap. The keto O atom and the methyl group are translated 0.78 and 0.79 Å, respectively, from the equivalent positions on 17β-estrone. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked by O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains parallel to the c-axis direction

'It feels like being trapped in an abusive relationship': bullying prevalence and consequences in the New Zealand senior medical workforce: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate prevalence of and factors contributing to bullying among senior doctors and dentists in New Zealand's public health system, to ascertain rates of reporting bullying behaviour, perceived barriers to reporting and the effects of bullying professionally and personally. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, mixed methods study. SETTING: New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS: Members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (40.8% response rate). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of bullying was measured using the Negative Acts Questionnaire (revised) (NAQ-r). Workplace demands and level of peer and managerial support were measured with the Health and Safety Executive Management Standards Analysis tool. Categories of perpetrators for self-reported and witnessed bullying and barriers to reporting bullying were obtained and qualitative data detailing the consequence of bullying were analysed thematically. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of bullying, measured by the NAQ-r, was 38% (at least one negative act on a weekly or daily basis), 37.2% self-reported and 67.5% witnessed. There were significant differences in rates of bullying by specialty (P=0.001) with emergency medicine reporting the highest bullying prevalence (47.9%). The most commonly cited perpetrators were other senior medical or dental specialists. 69.6% declined to report their bullying. Bullying across all measures was significantly associated with increasing work demands and lower peer and managerial support (P=0.001). Consequences of bullying were wide ranging, affecting workplace environments, personal well-being and subjective quality of patient care. CONCLUSIONS: Bullying is prevalent in New Zealand's senior medical workforce and is associated with high workloads and low peer and managerial support. These findings help identify conditions and pressures that may encourage bullying and highlight the significant risk of bullying for individuals and their patients

Burnout prevalence in New Zealand's public hospital senior medical workforce: a cross-sectional mixed methods study.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the prevalence of, and associated factors contributing to burnout among senior doctors and dentists working in the New Zealand's public health system. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, mixed methods study. SETTING: New Zealand's 20 district health boards (DHBs). PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1487 of 3740 senior doctors and dentists who are members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists working in DHBs were recruited (response rate 40%). PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Gender, age, self-rated health status, vocation and hours of work per week were obtained from an electronic questionnaire. Burnout was measured using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Qualitative data taken from an open-ended comments section was coded using grounded theory and used for contextual data. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of high personal burnout was 50%. Women aged 60). Qualitative data emphasised intense and unrelenting workloads, under-staffing, onerous on-call duties and frustrations with management as factors contributing to burnout. CONCLUSIONS: High burnout appears prevalent in New Zealand's senior doctors and dentists. Many attribute their feelings of burnout to work conditions. These findings may assist with understanding contributors to burnout and with developing strategies to ameliorate the high burnout found across this cohort

An association between lifespan and variation in insulin-like growth factor I receptor in sheep

Longevity in livestock is a valuable trait. When productive animals live longer, fewer replacement animals need to be raised. However, selection for longevity is not commonly the focus of breeding programs as direct selection for long-lived breeding stock is virtually impossible until late in the reproductive life of the animal. Additionally the underlying genetic factors or genes associated with longevity are either not known, or not well understood. In humans, there is evidence that IGF 1 receptor (IGF1R) is involved in longevity. Polymorphism in the IGF1R gene has been associated with longevity in a number of species. Recently, 3 alleles of ovine IGF1R were identified, but no analysis of the effect of IGF1R variation on sheep longevity has been reported. In this study, associations between ovine IGF1R variation, longevity and fertility were investigated. Polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) was used to type IGF1R variation in 1,716 New Zealand sheep belonging to 6 breeds and 36 flocks. Ovine IGF1R C was associated with age when adjusting for flock (present 5.5 ± 0.2 yr, absent 5.0 ± 0.1 yr, P = 0.02). A general linear mixed effects model suggested an association (P = 0.06) between age and genotype, when correcting for flock. Pairwise comparison (least significant difference) of specific genotypes revealed the difference to be between AA (5.0± 0.1 yr) and AC (5.6 ± 0.2 yr, P = 0.02). A weak negative Pearson correlation between fertility and longevity traits was observed (r = -0.25, P < 0.01). The finding of an association between variation in IGF1R and lifespan in sheep may be useful in prolonging the lifespan of sheep

Engineering robust polar chiral clathrate crystals

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ Royal Society of Chemistry 2013.The R-(+)-enantiomeric form of Dianin's compound and the S-(+)-enantiomeric form of its direct thiachroman analogue both obtained chromatographically employing a cellulose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) column, are shown to undergo supramolecular assembly to form a polar clathrate lattice which is stable even in the absence of a consolidating guest component

Introduction to empowered partnerships: community-based participatory action research for environmental justice

This article introduces a special section on empowered partnerships that deepens a dialogue initiated during the 2010 symposium titled EmPowered Partnerships: Community-Based Participatory Action Research for Environmental Justice. The articles in this section will be divided between issues 1 and 2 of the Journal. After briefly reviewing the definitions and the steps associated with community-based participatory action research (CBPAR), we identify the synergies connecting the underlying principles and values of the environmental justice (EJ) movement and CBPAR. The principles-based comparison is part of an ongoing effort to craft a framework that produces research partnerships that are simultaneously more responsive to community aspirations and increase the rigor and accuracy of the findings. The action step is among the most difficult challenges for both CBPAR and EJ processes; we address this challenge as we encourage partners to think more strategically about the role of law and legal scholarship. This article closes with insight from environmental justice leaders that participated in this symposium and introductions to the in-depth case studies in rural and urban settings and from both ends of the university- community partnerships that constitute this special section. The articles that make up this section unpack empowered partnerships in practice and explore the scientific, cultural, institutional, and democratic pitfalls and possibilities in this arena of inquiry and social action

The utility of presentation and 4-hour high sensitivity troponin I to rule-out acute myocardial infarction in the emergency department

Objectives: International guidance recommends that early serial sampling of high sensitivity troponin be used to accurately identify acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in chest pain patients. The background evidence for this approach is limited. We evaluated whether on presentation and 4-hour high-sensitivity troponin I (hs-cTnI) could be used to accurately rule-out AMI. Design and methods: hs-cTnI was measured on presentation and at 4-hours in adult patients attending an emergency department with possible acute coronary syndrome. We determined the sensitivity for AMI for at least one hs-cTnI above the 99th percentile for a healthy population or alone or in combination with new ischemic ECG changes. Both overall and sex-specific 99th percentiles were assessed. Patients with negative tests were designated low-risk. Results: 63 (17.1%) of 368 patients had AMI. The median (interquartile range) time from symptom onset to first blood sampling was 4.8. h (2.8-8.6). The sensitivity of the presentation and 4. h hs-cTnI using the overall 99th percentile was 92.1% (95% CI 82.4% to 97.4%) and negative predictive value 95.4% (92.3% to 97.4%) with 78.3% low-risk. Applying the sex-specific 99th percentile did not change the sensitivity. The addition of ECG did not change the sensitivity. Conclusion: Hs-cTnI >. 99th percentile thresholds measured on presentation and at 4-hours was not a safe strategy to rule-out AMI in this clinical setting irrespective of whether sex-specific 99th percentiles were used, or whether hs-cTnI was combined with ECG results

A Hexagonal Theory of Flavor

We construct a supersymmetric theory of flavor based on the discrete gauge group (D_6)^2, where D_6 describes the symmetry of a regular hexagon under proper rotations in three dimensions. The representation structure of the group allows one to distinguish the third from the lighter two generations of matter fields, so that in the symmetry limit only the top quark Yukawa coupling is allowed and scalar superpartners of the first two generations are degenerate. Light fermion Yukawa couplings arise from a sequential breaking of the flavor symmetry, and supersymmetric flavor-changing processes remain adequately suppressed. We contrast our model with others based on non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetries described in the literature, and discuss the challenges in constructing more minimal flavor models based on this approach.Comment: 19 pages, ReVTeX, 1 eps figur

U(2)-like Flavor Symmetries and Approximate Bimaximal Neutrino Mixing

Models involving a U(2) flavor symmetry, or any of a number of its non-Abelian discrete subgroups, can explain the observed hierarchy of charged fermion masses and CKM angles. It is known that a large neutrino mixing angle connecting second and third generation fields may arise via the seesaw mechanism in these models, without a fine tuning of parameters. Here we show that it is possible to obtain approximate bimaximal mixing in a class of models with U(2)-like Yukawa textures. We find a minimal form for Dirac and Majorana neutrino mass matrices that leads to two large mixing angles, and show that our result can quantitatively explain atmospheric neutrino oscillations while accommodating the favored, large angle MSW solution to the solar neutrino problem. We demonstrate that these textures can arise in models by presenting a number of explicit examples.Comment: 20 pages RevTex4, 2 figure

Maximal Neutrino Mixing from a Minimal Flavor Symmetry

We study a number of models, based on a non-Abelian discrete group, that successfully reproduce the simple and predictive Yukawa textures usually associated with U(2) theories of flavor. These models allow for solutions to the solar and atmospheric neutrino problems that do not require altering successful predictions for the charged fermions or introducing sterile neutrinos. Although Yukawa matrices are hierarchical in the models we consider, the mixing between second- and third-generation neutrinos is naturally large. We first present a quantitative analysis of a minimal model proposed in earlier work, consisting of a global fit to fermion masses and mixing angles, including the most important renormalization group effects. We then propose two new variant models: The first reproduces all important features of the SU(5)xU(2) unified theory with neither SU(5) nor U(2). The second demonstrates that discrete subgroups of SU(2) can be used in constructing viable supersymmetric theories of flavor without scalar universality even though SU(2) by itself cannot.Comment: 34 pages LaTeX, 1 eps figure, minor revisions and references adde