haploinsufficiency causes desynchronized growth of brain areas involved in sensory processing.

How changes in brain scaling relate to altered behavior is an important question in neurodevelopmental disorder research. Mice with germline haploinsufficiency ( ) closely mirror the abnormal brain scaling and behavioral deficits seen in humans with macrocephaly/autism syndrome, which is caused by mutations. We explored whether deviation from normal patterns of growth can predict behavioral abnormalities.

Leptin receptor-expressing pericytes mediate access of hypothalamic feeding centers to circulating leptin.

Knowledge of how leptin receptor (LepR) neurons of the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) access circulating leptin is still rudimentary. Employing intravital microscopy, we found that almost half of the blood-vessel-enwrapping pericytes in the MBH express LepR. Selective disruption of pericytic LepR led to increased food intake, increased fat mass, and loss of leptin-dependent signaling in nearby LepR neurons.

Assessment of matriculating medical students' knowledge and attitudes towards professionalism.

Background: Students' perceptions of traditional attributes of professionalism are important for understanding their professional development needs, and determining appropriate curricular initiatives and assessment methods.

Aim: This study assessed the knowledge and attitudes towards professionalism of three classes of matriculating students at two institutions.

Methods: Subjects completed four instruments: a multiple-choice test and a clinical scenario instrument assessed knowledge; and a semantic differential scale and Likert-format statement instrument assessed attitudes.

Viewpoint: professionalism and humanism beyond the academic health center.

Medical professionalism and humanism have long been integral to the practice of medicine, and they will continue to shape practice in the 21st century. In recent years, many advances have been made in understanding the nature of medical professionalism and in efforts to teach and assess professional values and behaviors. As more and more teaching of both medical students and residents occurs in settings outside of academic medical centers, it is critically important that community physicians demonstrate behaviors that resonate professionalism and humanism.

Medical education for a changing world: moving beyond cultural competence into transnational competence.

Given rapidly changing global demographic dynamics and the unimpressive evidence regarding health outcomes attributable to cultural competence (CC) education, it is time to consider a fresh and unencumbered approach to preparing physicians to reduce health disparities and care for ethnoculturally and socially diverse patients, including migrants. Transnational competence (TC) education offers a comprehensive set of core skills derived from international relations, cross-cultural psychology, and intercultural communication that are also applicable for medical education. The authors discuss five limitations (conceptual, vision, action, alliance, and pedagogical) of current CC approaches and explain how an educational model based on TC would address each problem area.