The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' views of a career in general practice: a focus group study.

Background: General practice is an essential part of healthcare systems in the UK and internationally but continues to struggle with recruitment. Despite this, few studies have explored factors that influence medical students' career choices around primary care.

Aim: We aimed to revisit factors that had previously been proposed following new ways of working adopted since the COVID-19 pandemic, including the impact of these changes on learning experiences in primary care.

Training healthcare professionals to be ready for practice in an era of social distancing: a realist evaluation.

Background: Programme changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted variably on preparation for practice of healthcare professional students. Explanations for such variability need exploration. The aim of our study was to understand what clinical learning, whilst under socially distanced restrictions, worked and why (or why not).

Identification of the rice Rc gene as a main regulator of seed survival under dry storage conditions.

Seed deterioration during storage results in poor germination, reduced vigour, and non-uniform seedling emergence. The aging rate depends on storage conditions and genetic factors. This study aims to identify these genetic factors determining the longevity of rice (Oryza sativa L.

Experimental rice seed aging under elevated oxygen pressure: Methodology and mechanism.

Seed aging during storage results in loss of vigor and germination ability due to the accumulation of damage by oxidation reactions. Experimental aging tests, for instance to study genetic variation, aim to mimic natural aging in a shorter timeframe. As the oxidation rate is increased by elevating the temperature, moisture, and oxygen levels, this study aimed to (1) investigate the effect of experimental rice seed aging by an elevated partial pressure of oxygen (EPPO), (2) elucidate the mechanism of dry-EPPO aging and (3) compare aging under dry-EPPO conditions to aging under traditional moist-controlled deterioration (CD) conditions and to long-term ambient storage.

Seed Moisture Isotherms, Sorption Models, and Longevity.

Seed moisture sorption isotherms show the equilibrium relationship between water content and equilibrium relative humidity (eRH) when seeds are either losing water from a hydrated state (desorption isotherm) or gaining water from a dry state (adsorption isotherm). They have been used in food science to predict the stability of different products and to optimize drying and/or processing. Isotherms have also been applied to understand the physiological processes occurring in viable seeds and how sorption properties differ in relation to, for example, developmental maturity, degree of desiccation tolerance, or dormancy status.

A Performance Management System for Long-Term Germplasm Conservation in CGIAR Genebanks: Aiming for Quality, Efficiency and Improvement.

UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 Target 2.5 focuses on the conservation of genetic diversity in soundly managed genebanks. In examining the term "soundly managed", it becomes quickly evident that there is much more to long-term conservation than placing samples of seeds or other germplasm in long-term conservation conditions.

'I'm just ringing to get a repeat prescription for my contraceptive pill, doctor': developing authentic simulated telephone consultations for medical students.

Within normal surgery hours telephone consultations have been previously shown to make up between 10-20% of patient contacts with General Practitioners (GPs) and to comprise a large proportion of a GP's daily workload. Although obviously very useful, such doctor-patient interactions can be fraught with risk. The General Medical Council (GMC) requires that newly graduated doctors should be adaptable to the challenge of delivering treatment advice and management remotely.

Variation in Seed Metabolites between Two Indica Rice Accessions Differing in Seed Longevity.

For a better understanding of germination after seed storage, metabolite profiling was conducted using hybrid triple quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) mass spectrometry. After moisture content (MC) equilibration, seeds of "WAS170" (short-lived) and "IR65483" (long-lived) were stored at 10.9% MC and 45 °C.

Why Seed Physiology Is Important for Genebanking.

Genebank management is a field in its own right; it is multifaceted, requiring a diverse set of skills and knowledge. Seed physiology is one area that is critical to the successful operation of seed genebanks, requiring understanding of seed quality during development and maturation, seed dormancy and germination, and seed longevity in storage of the target species. Careful management of the workflow between these activities, as seeds move from harvest to storage, and the recording and management of all relevant associated data, is key to ensuring the effective conservation of plant genetic resources.

Temporal patterns of seed germination in early spring-flowering temperate woodland geophytes are modified by warming.

Background And Aims: Understorey species in temperate deciduous woodlands such as wild daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) and common snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) have complex dormancy: seeds that are shed in late spring require warm summer temperatures for embryo elongation and dormancy alleviation, but then cooler temperatures for germination in autumn. As seasons warm and tree canopies alter, how will different seasonal temperature sequences affect these complex dormancy responses?

Methods: The effect of different sequences of warmer (+5 °C), current or cooler (-5 °C) seasons (summer to spring) on seed germination patterns over seven successive seasons were investigated, with all sequences combined factorially to determine the consequences of differential seasonal temperature change for the temporal pattern of germination (and so seedling recruitment).

Key Results: Little (<1 %, G.

Variation in seed longevity among diverse Indica rice varieties.

Background And Aims: Understanding variation in seed longevity, especially within closely related germplasm, will lead to better understanding of the molecular basis of this trait, which is particularly important for seed genebanks, but is also relevant to anyone handling seeds. We therefore set out to determine the relative seed longevity of diverse Indica rice accessions through storage experiments. Since antioxidants are purported to play a role in seed storability, the antioxidant activity and phenolic content of caryopses were determined.

Further Evidence That the Genebank Standards for Drying Orthodox Seeds May Not Be Optimal for Subsequent Seed Longevity.

Maximizing seed longevity is important for genebanks to efficiently manage their accessions, reducing the frequency of costly regeneration cycles and the loss of genetic integrity. Research on rice seeds has shown that subsequent longevity in air-dry storage can be improved by drying seeds, which are metabolically active at harvest (moisture contents above a critical value close to 16.5%), for an initial period at a higher temperature (40°C-60°C) than that currently recommended by the current genebank standards (5°C-20°C).

Seed longevity phenotyping: recommendations on research methodology.

The length of time for which seed lots maintain their viability and vigour in storage has become a trait of interest for rice and other crop and model species. However, different research groups have taken different approaches to measuring this trait, including storing seeds under 'natural ageing', accelerated ageing, and controlled deterioration test conditions. There has also been a tendency to use only a single germination test result to assess the relative longevity of different genotypes.

Rethinking the approach to viability monitoring in seed genebanks.

Seed viability monitoring, usually through a germination test, is a key aspect of genebank management; a low viability result triggers the regeneration of an accession in order to ensure that the genetic diversity of the accession is conserved and available for distribution. However, regular viability monitoring of large collections is costly in terms of seeds, labour and other resources. Genebanks differ in how they conduct their viability monitoring and how they collect, manage and store the data that are generated.

Resilience of rice (Oryza spp.) pollen germination and tube growth to temperature stress.

Resilience of rice cropping systems to potential global climate change will partly depend on the temperature tolerance of pollen germination (PG) and tube growth (PTG). Pollen germination of high temperature-susceptible Oryza glaberrima Steud. (cv.

Seed development and maturation in early spring-flowering Galanthus nivalis and Narcissus pseudonarcissus continues post-shedding with little evidence of maturation in planta.

Background And Aims: Seeds of the moist temperate woodland species Galanthus nivalis and Narcissus pseudonarcissus, dispersed during spring or early summer, germinated poorly in laboratory tests. Seed development and maturation were studied to better understand the progression from developmental to germinable mode in order to improve seed collection and germination practices in these and similar species.

Methods: Phenology, seed mass, moisture content and ability to germinate and tolerate desiccation were monitored during seed development until shedding.

Advances in seed conservation of wild plant species: a review of recent research.

Seed banking is now widely used for the ex situ conservation of wild plant species. Many seed banks that conserve wild species broadly follow international genebank guidelines for seed collection, processing, storage, and management. However, over the last 10-20 years, problems and knowledge gaps have been identified, which have led to more focused seed conservation research on diverse species.

Seeds of alpine plants are short lived: implications for long-term conservation.

Background And Aims: Alpine plants are considered one of the groups of species most sensitive to the direct and indirect threats to ecosystems caused by land use and climate change. Collecting and banking seeds of plant species is recognized as an effective tool for providing propagating material to re-establish wild plant populations and for habitat repair. However, seeds from cold wet environments have been shown to be relatively short lived in storage, and therefore successful long-term seed conservation for alpine plants may be difficult.

A new type of specialized morphophysiological dormancy and seed storage behaviour in Hydatellaceae, an early-divergent angiosperm family.

Background And Aims: Recent phylogenetic analysis has placed the aquatic family Hydatellaceae as an early-divergent angiosperm. Understanding seed dormancy, germination and desiccation tolerance of Hydatellaceae will facilitate ex situ conservation and advance hypotheses regarding angiosperm evolution.

Methods: Seed germination experiments were completed on three species of south-west Australian Hydatellaceae, Trithuria austinensis, T.

Ecological correlates of ex situ seed longevity: a comparative study on 195 species.

Background And Aims: Extended seed longevity in the dry state is the basis for the ex situ conservation of 'orthodox' seeds. However, even under identical storage conditions there is wide variation in seed life-span between species. Here, the effects of seed traits and environmental conditions at the site of collection on seed longevity is explored for195 wild species from 71 families from environments ranging from cold deserts to tropical forests.

One-step analysis of seed storage data and the longevity of Arabidopsis thaliana seeds.

Seeds of two ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana, NW20 and N1601, were aged over a range of saturated salt solutions at temperatures between 6 degrees C and 55 degrees C. For each ecotype, the results from 37 storage experiments were summarized using the Ellis and Roberts viability equations and a modified version of these equations which allows for a proportion of 'non-respondents'. For both models, two approaches were taken in order to model the effect of moisture content (MC) and temperature on seed longevity.