The emerging dental workforce: long-term career expectations and influences. A quantitative study of final year dental students' views on their long-term career from one London Dental School

Background  

Research into the motivation and expectations of the emerging workforce and their short-term expectations has already been reported with a view to informing professional and policy decisions. The objective of this component of the research programme was to examine the long-term goals and perceived influences on final year dental students' professional careers.     

Is chronic non-specific low back pain chronic? Definitions of a problem and problems of a definition.

BACKGROUND: Chronic low back pain (LBP) accounts for the majority of the disability and costs for LBP. However, the definition of chronicity is unclear. AIM: To elicit practitioners' definitions of chronic LBP patients, both in general and in the patients they were treating; to assess the most common characteristics of these practitioners' chronic LBP patients; and to assess the stability of chronicity in a sample of the general population. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 practitioners working in private practice, 71 LBP patients and their therapists, and 252 employees of a chain store who were assessed yearly in a prospective study. RESULTS: The therapists' definitions of chronic LBP patients generally included psychosocial aspects. Only physical symptoms and signs were stressed in the patients they were treating. These patients displayed common characteristics with reference to pain, functional problems, and contact with health care services. Duration of symptoms was not sufficient to define chronicity. In the employee population, chronicity defined according to pain duration was unstable. However, the same was true when chronicity was measured according to the criteria defined in the patient population. CONCLUSION: There is a discrepancy between theory and practice regarding the definition of chronic LBP. This discrepancy concerns not only the literature but also clinical practice itself. The term 'chronic' LBP as currently used is therefore equivocal.     

The development of lateral-line receptors in Eigenmannia (Teleostei, Gymnotiformes). I. The mechanoreceptive lateral-line system

The South American weakly electric fish of the genus Eigenmannia were induced to spawn by simulating the conditions of the rainy season. Whole animals were viewed using scanning electron microscopy, and skin from embryos and larvae of different ages was prepared for histological examination. Additional live fish were stained with vital dyes. Neuromasts develop within the epidermis and then rise to the surface, at which time a cupula is forming. The first neuromasts appear on the head, forming the temporal, mechanoreceptive lateral line, at 3.5 days after spawning, and 1 day later neuromasts appear on the trunk as a ventral trunk line. On day 8 all the cephalic neuromasts have appeared and a secondary, medial trunk line begins to form. A dorsal trunk line forms when the fish are juvenile. Eight neuromasts of the cephalic lines, 7 neuromasts of the medial trunk line and all neuromasts of the ventral and dorsal trunk lines remain at the surface and do not become enclosed in canals. The opercular neuromasts and 7 neuromasts of the ventral trunk line degenerate later. The formation of the head canals begins on day 17, whereas the canal of the medial trunk line starts to develop on day 25, and both head and trunk canal systems are completed by day 33. The mechanosensory system develops before the electrosensory system. Behavioral observations also indicate that the mechanoreceptive system is functional as early as day 5.     

EMPHYSEMATOUS PYELONEPHRITIS RESPONDING TO MEDICAL THERAPY

We describe two type 2 diabetic patients with unilateral emphysematous pyelonephritis who responded to medical treatment alone. Escherichia coli was isolated in both patients. The presence of gas was confirmed early by ultrasound and CT scan of abdomen. Following treatment, good functional recovery was demonstrable in the affected kidneys by isotope renogram. We stress the need for early diagnosis of this condition and aggressive treatment with broad spectrum antibiotics.     

The cochlear implant--evolution of hearing and language with an artificial inner ear

One of the most spectacular progresses in modern medicine is the possibility to replace a deaf ear, a sensory organ in total by an implantable electronic prosthesis, a so-called cochlear implant (CI). The CI stimulates the auditory nerve by electrical pulses and thus generates the sensation of hearing along the auditory pathway. One of the most impressive aspects of cochlear implantation is the fact that small children with profound deafness who were able a few years ago to learn spoken language only to very limited extent may achieve nowadays an almost normal language development. Duration and intensity of the training of listening and spoken language vary considerably as a function of etiology and time of deafness. Most important for the development of language is sufficient stimulation of the auditory pathway during early childhood. Early diagnosis of a severe to profound deafness is most important in order to fit hearing aids or a cochlear implant without a time delay. Affected children need intensive training by professionals specialized in education and speech therapy. Adults and adolescents who lost their hearing when language acquisition was established may understand spoken language only a few weeks after receiving a cochlear implant. Several individuals are able to use the telephone. Preliminary results after bilateral cochlear implantation of children and adults show advantages. Not only do these subjects report "better hearing with two CI as compared to hearing with one CI," but some of them developed directional hearing in a rather short time lag after fitting the second implant. And in addition they achieve better speech discrimination in environmental noise.     

胶原-壳聚糖复合材料的制备及生物安全性检测

目的:制备胶原-壳聚糖复合细胞载体,并对该载体进行系统的生物学性能检测。方法:实验于2003-07/2006-06在天津市医药科学研究所完成。将胶原溶液和壳聚糖溶液按照一定比例(9∶1)混匀,交联后真空冷冻干燥,制成胶原-壳聚糖复合载体,对该载体进行复合材料性状及理化性能检测。并采用急性全身毒性试验、皮内刺激试验、皮肤致敏试验、溶血试验、细胞毒性试验和致突变试验进行生物学性能检测。结果:①胶原-壳聚糖复合材料具有三维立体多孔结构,适合细胞的三维生长,能为新生组织提供良好的支架。②急性全身毒性试验、皮内刺激试验均阴性,致敏率仅为6.25%,细胞毒性为0级,无诱变能力。结论:从仿生学角度出发,制备出可生物降解的胶原-壳聚糖复合材料,经过系统的生物学评价发现,胶原-壳聚糖复合材料具有良好的生物安全性,对机体无毒,不致突变,对细胞有较强的亲和作用,利于细胞生长和分化。     

HOMOLOGOUS DISEASE IN THE ADULT RAT, A MODEL FOR AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE : II. FINDINGS IN THE JOINTS, HEART, AND OTHER TISSUES

Polyarthritis and cardiac lesions have been observed in the adult rat with homologous disease. Changes in the lymphoid tissue and kidney have also been noted. A migratory polyarthritis occurred in over half of the affected animals, and cardiac involvement of varying intensity was present in all. Histologically, the arthritis was characterized by a mononuclear synovial inflammatory reaction. In the heart, the valves and myocardium demonstrated a similar type of response. Cultures of involved joints and hearts for pyogens and pleuropneumonia-like organisms were negative. The lymphoid tissues showed progressive changes in three stages: (a) disappearance of follicles; (b) increase in plasma-like cells and histiocytes; and (c) fibrosis. The second stage tended to coincide with the development of the polyarthritis. The kidney showed mild interstitial mononuclear infiltration. The pathologic changes described appear to be a consequence of reaction between foreign immunologically competent cells and host antigens, but the possibility that these lesions represent a response to antigens derived from unknown infectious agents is, however, not ruled out.