The neurosurgical treatment of epilepsy

Despite the new advancements in antiepileptic drug development, thousands of people with epilepsy will remain intractable to medication. For a considerable proportion of these people, epilepsy surgery is a consideration for better control of their seizures. Resective surgery is now standard practice for patients with medication-refractory epilepsy. Temporal lobectomy continues to be the most common surgery performed. Once patients fail 2 to 3 optimal trials of antiepileptic medication, further drug therapy offers a minimal number of patients freedom from seizures. In contrast, temporal lobectomy in carefully selected patients may result in seizure-free outcomes in more than 70% to 90% of patients with intractable seizures. As technology and drug availability increases in the new millennium, it is important for the primary care physician to be aware of epilepsy surgery as a means to treat patients with antiepileptic drug-refractory epilepsy. Arch Fam Med. 2000;9:1142-1147     

Students' perception of good and bad teaching: report of a critical incident study

Evaluation of teaching by the use of questionnaires to students is now commonplace. If it is to be useful the data obtained must be reliable and valid. One criterion of reliability is the response rate, and a low response rate may indicate low validity, i.e. that the questions asked do not reflect the students' real concerns. In order to inform questionnaire design a critical incident study was undertaken. A 20% random sample of students in each of the 5 years of the course were asked to describe one piece of good teaching and one piece of bad teaching, and say why they were good or bad. There was a 65% response rate, and replies were independently categorized by three people. The factors identified fell into three 'domains': interpersonal behaviour of teachers; planning and preparation; and the ability to run the session well. There was no evidence that teaching which 'played to the gallery' or was very examination-oriented would earn high ratings from students.     

Evaluation of low-cost electro-chemical sensors for environmental monitoring of ozone,nitrogen dioxide,and carbon monoxide

Development of an air quality monitoring network with high spatio-temporal resolution requires installation of a large number of air pollutant monitors. However, state-of-the-art monitors are costly and may not be compatible with wireless data logging systems. In this study, low-cost electro-chemical sensors manufactured by Alphasense Ltd. for detection of CO and oxidative gases (predominantly O₃ and NO₂) were evaluated. The voltages from three oxidative gas sensors and three CO sensors were recorded every 2.5 sec when exposed to controlled gas concentrations in a 0.125-m³ acrylic glass chamber. Electro-chemical sensors for detection of oxidative gases demonstrated sensitivity to both NO₂ and O₃ with similar voltages recorded when exposed to equivalent environmental concentrations of NO₂ or O₃ gases, when evaluated separately. There was a strong linear relationship between the recorded voltages and target concentrations of oxidative gases (R² > 0.98) over a wide range of concentrations. Although a strong linear relationship was also observed for CO concentrations below 12 ppm, a saturation effect was observed wherein the voltage only changes minimally for higher CO concentrations (12–50 ppm). The nonlinear behavior of the CO sensors implied their unsuitability for environments where high CO concentrations are expected. Using a manufacturer-supplied shroud, sensors were tested at 2 different flow rates (0.25 and 0.5 Lpm) to mimic field calibration of the sensors with zero air and a span gas concentration (2 ppm NO2 or 15 ppm CO). As with all electrochemical sensors, the tested devices were subject to drift with a bias up to 20% after 9 months of continuous operation. Alphasense CO sensors were found to be a proper choice for occupational and environmental CO monitoring with maximum concentration of 12 ppm, especially due to the field-ready calibration capability. Alphasense oxidative gas sensors are usable only if it is valuable to know the sum of the NO₂ and O₃ concentrations.     

Medical students' attitudes toward gay men

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Healthcare providers' attitudes toward sexual minorities influence patient comfort and outcomes. This study characterized medical student attitudes toward gay men, focusing on behavior, personhood, gay civil rights, and male toughness. A cross-sectional web-based anonymous survey was sent to medical students enrolled at the University of California, Davis (N= 371) with a response rate of 68%. RESULTS: Few respondents expressed negative attitudes toward gay men or would deny them civil rights. More negative responses were seen with respect to aspects of intimate behavior and homosexuality as a natural form of sexual expression. Men and students younger than 25 years old were more likely to endorse negative attitudes toward behavior as well as more traditional views on male toughness. CONCLUSIONS: We show that an important minority of students express discomfort with the behavior of gay men and hold to a narrow construction of male identity. These findings suggest that competency training must move beyond conceptual discussions and address attitudes toward behaviors through new pedagogical approaches.     

Induction by RNA of inositol independence in Neurospora crassa.

The effect of purified wild-type RNA (allo-RNA) on genetic reversion of inositol-requiring mutant 89601 of Neurospora crassa is described. The mutant (inos minus) strain, on treatment with the wild-type RNA preparation, was found to revert to wild type (inos+) in significant numbers. RNA from the mutant (iso-RNA) and allo-RNA digested by RNase were ineffective in causing genetic reversion at the inositol locus. The allo-RNA-induced revertants were stable and showed a Mendelian transmission of the inos+ character.