Engaging the collective voice of physicians: Optimizing participation in research and policy development in the context of COVID-19 and physician burnout.

Physicians and governments work collaboratively to determine optimal healthcare policy options. Physicians are also engaged by health researchers to participate in studies. Physician engagement can be impeded by limits on physician time and remuneration for engagement, and the impact of physician burnout (exacerbated by COVID-19).

Variability of word discrimination scores in clinical practice and consequences on their sensitivity to hearing loss.

Speech perception scores are widely used to assess patient's functional hearing, yet most linguistic material used in these audiometric tests dates to before the availability of large computerized linguistic databases. In an ENT clinic population of 120 patients with median hearing loss of 43-dB HL, we quantified the variability and the sensitivity of speech perception scores to hearing loss, measured using disyllabic word lists, as a function of both the number of ten-word lists and type of scoring used (word, syllables or phonemes). The mean word recognition scores varied significantly across lists from 54 to 68%.

Systematic review of the quality of patient information on the internet regarding inflammatory bowel disease treatments.

Background & Aims: Patients use the Internet as a resource for information about their diseases. A systematic review evaluating the quality of information available for inflammatory bowel disease patients on the Internet regarding treatment options was performed.

Methods: Google was used to identify 50 websites on 3 occasions.

Growth cone response to ephrin gradients produced by microfluidic networks.

A microfluidic network (microFN) etched into a silicon wafer was used to deliver protein solutions containing different concentrations of the axonal guidance molecule ephrinA5 onto a silicone stamp. In a subsequent microcontact printing (microCP) step, the protein was transferred onto a polystyrene culture dish. In this way, stepwise substrate-bound concentration gradients of ephrinA5 were fabricated spanning a total distance of 320 microm.

A systematic review of patient inflammatory bowel disease information resources on the World Wide Web.

Background And Aims: The Internet is a widely used information resource for patients with inflammatory bowel disease, but there is variation in the quality of Web sites that have patient information regarding Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The purpose of the current study is to systematically evaluate the quality of these Web sites.

Methods: The top 50 Web sites appearing in Google using the terms "Crohn's disease" or "ulcerative colitis" were included in the study.

Microcontact printing of axon guidance molecules for generation of graded patterns.

Microcontact printing (microCP) of proteins has been successfully used for patterning surfaces in various contexts. Here we describe a simple 'lift-off' method to print precise patterns of axon guidance molecules, which are used as substrate for growing chick retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons. Briefly, the etched pattern of a silicon master is transferred to a protein-coated silicone cuboid (made from polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS), which is then used as a stamp on a glass coverslip.

Growth cone navigation in substrate-bound ephrin gradients.

Graded distributions of ephrin ligands are involved in the formation of topographic maps. However, it is still poorly understood how growth cones read gradients of membrane-bound guidance molecules. We used microcontact printing to produce discontinuous gradients of substrate-bound ephrinA5.

Microcontact printing of DNA molecules.

The controlled placement of DNA molecules onto solid surfaces is the first step in the fabrication of DNA arrays. The sequential deposition of tiny drops containing the probe DNA fragments using arrays of spotting needles or ink jet nozzles has become a standard. However, a caveat of liquid spotting is the drying of the deposited drop because this creates the typical inhomogeneities, i.

New insights into the fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) family in the small intestine.

The fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) superfamily is constituted by 14-15 kDa soluble proteins which bind with a high affinity either long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs), bile acids (BAs) or retinoids. In the small intestine, three different FABP isoforms exhibiting a high affinity for LCFAs and/or BAs are expressed: the intestinal and the liver-type (I-FABP and L-FABP) and the ileal bile acid-binding protein (I-BABP). Despite of extensive investigations, their respective physiological function(s) are not clearly established.