Continuing education: The 1998 survey of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons

The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Background: Continuing education (CE) is an essential professional activity. In the last decade, CE has been actively pursued by the medical profession in Australia and abroad. However, the uptake of CE in dentistry has been much slower and there is minimal Australian data on dental CE. Methods: To determine the level of CE activity, in 1998, postal questionnaires were sent to all fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons. The responses were analysed. Results: There was a high reponse rate (90 per cent) but a moderate usable rate (54 per cent). The results show a biphasic distribution between high and low CE activity. The average amount of activity of those involved in CE was 116 hours per year, above the usually accepted minimum of 100 hours/year. Some groups, particularly members of the specialist divisions of oral and maxillofacial surgeons (215 hours) and periodontists (205 hours), have high levels of CE. However, approximately 25 per cent of college fellows reported little or no CE activity. The survey revealed that inactive fellows are more likely to be older and in general practice. Inactive fellows were also tardy in replying to the questionnaire. Conclusion: The high activity CE group needs to be recognised and encouraged to continue. Specific plans to help the low CE activity group should be developed. Although these findings relate directly to the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons, they are presented as they have implications for the dental profession at large.P Sambrook, D Thomson, R Bastiaan and A Gos

Sequence variation in the haemagglutinin-neuraminidase gene of human parainfluenza virus type 3 isolates in the UK

The sequence variation in a 934 base-pair region of the gene encoding the haemagglutinin-neuraminidase of five human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3) isolates was determined together with that of a prototype UK strain. All of the clinical isolates were from the Manchester area of the UK and were obtained in 1990. 1991 and 1993. The gene segment was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction using HPIVB-specific oligonucleotide primers. The nucleotide homology of the strains was high, around 99% and specific differences in the UK sequences when compared with that of the US prototype strain were identified. In addition, a number of isolate-specific differences were seen. No correlation was detected between the observed nucleotide mutations and the year of isolation, which supports the hypothesis that HPIV3 shows cocirculation of a heterogeneous population of viruses rather than varying with time in a linear fashion. However, the data suggested that geographically-defined genetic lineages of HPIV3 may exist

Knee kinematics of total knee replacement patients: pre and post operative analysis using computer generated images

This project aims to show a comparison of knee kinematics in pre- and post-operative knee replacement surgery, using computer animation to represent a patient specific model of the knee joint interactions under every day conditions

The historical development of human resource development in the United Kingdom

We construct the historical development of the term “human resource development” (HRD) within the United Kingdom. We argue that HRD has been introduced and employed extensively by academics but not taken up with such enthusiasm by professionals and governments. We trace the development of the term and evaluate its use in these three distinct domains. This includes reference to multiple stakeholders, such as governments, employing organizations, academics, and professional bodies, and their influences including national policy interventions and legislation shaping academic and professional practices and qualifications. We conclude that HRD as a concept and a term to describe an area of academic study and professional practice has had variable impact in different sites of practice. </jats:p

Have 24 hour news channels had their day?

Are 24 hour news channels - which transformed news broadcasting 30 years ago, still fit for purpose? Or in an age of open interactive media are these closed, linear channels no longer providing the service consumers increasingly want

Cold Induction of EARLI1, a Putative Arabidopsis Lipid Transfer Protein, Is Light and Calcium Dependent

As sessile organisms, plants must adapt to their environment. One approach toward understanding this adaptation is to investigate environmental regulation of gene expression. Our focus is on the environmental regulation of EARLI1, which is activated by cold and long-day photoperiods. Cold activation of EARLI1 in short-day photoperiods is slow, requiring several hours at 4ºC to detect an increase in mRNA abundance. EARLI1 is not efficiently cold-activated in etiolated seedlings, suggesting that photomorphogenesis is necessary for its cold activation. Cold activation of EARLI1 is inhibited in the presence of the calcium channel blocker lanthanum chloride or the calcium chelator EGTA. Addition of the calcium ionophore Bay K8644 results in cold-independent activation of EARLI1. These data suggest that EARLI1 is not an immediate target of the cold response, and that calcium flux affects its expression. EARLI1 is a putative secreted protein and has motifs found in lipid transfer proteins. Over-expression of EARLI1 in transgenic plants results in reduced electrolyte leakage during freezing damage, suggesting that EARLI1 may affect membrane or cell wall stability in response to low temperature stress

A neural reward prediction error revealed by a meta-analysis of ERPs using great grand averages

Economic approaches to decision making assume that people attach values to prospective goods and act to maximize their obtained value. Neuroeconomics strives to observe these values directly in the brain. A widely used valuation term in formal learning and decision-making models is the reward prediction error: the value of an outcome relative to its expected value. An influential theory (Holroyd & Coles, 2002) claims that an electrophysiological component, feedback related negativity (FRN), codes a reward prediction error in the human brain. Such a component should be sensitive to both the prior likelihood of reward and its magnitude on receipt. A number of studies have found the FRN to be insensitive to reward magnitude, thus questioning the Holroyd and Coles account. However, because of marked inconsistencies in how the FRN is measured, a meaningful synthesis of this evidence is highly problematic. We conducted a meta-analysis of the FRN’s response to both reward magnitude and likelihood using a novel method in which published effect sizes were disregarded in favor of direct measurement of the published waveforms themselves, with these waveforms then averaged to produce “great grand averages.” Under this standardized measure, the meta-analysis revealed strong effects of magnitude and likelihood on the FRN, consistent with it encoding a reward prediction error. In addition, it revealed strong main effects of reward magnitude and likelihood across much of the waveform, indicating sensitivity to unsigned prediction errors or “salience.” The great grand average technique is proposed as a general method for meta-analysis of event-related potential (ERP). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved

Antibiotic prophylaxis for dentoalveolar surgery: is it indicated?

The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Usually dentists in Australia give patients oral antibiotics after dentoalveolar surgery as a prophylaxis against wound infection. When this practice is compared to the principle of antibiotic prophylaxis in major surgery it is found to be at variance in a number of ways. In major surgery, the risk of infection should be high, and the consequences of infection severe or catastrophic, before antibiotic prophylaxis is ordered. If it is provided then a high dose of an appropriate spectrum antibiotic must be present in the blood prior to the first incision. Other factors which need to be considered are the degree of tissue trauma, the extent of host compromise, other medical comorbidities and length of hospitalization. Standardized protocols of administration have been determined and evaluated for most major surgical procedures. Dentoalveolar surgery is undoubtedly a skilled and technically challenging procedure. However, in contrast to major surgical procedures, it has a less than five per cent infection rate and rarely has severe adverse consequences. Dentoalveolar surgery should be of short duration with minimal tissue damage and performed in the dental chair under local anaesthesia. Controlled studies for both mandibular third molar surgery and placement of dental implants show little or no evidence of benefit from antibiotic prophylaxis and there is an adverse risk from the antibiotic. This review concludes that there is no case for antibiotic prophylaxis for most dentoalveolar surgery in fit patients. In the few cases where it can be considered, a single high preoperative dose should be given.B Lawler, PJ Sambrook, AN Gos