Compulsory continuing professional development: a questionnaire-based survey of the UK dietetic profession.

Background: Continuing professional development (CPD) for Health Professions Council (HPC) registrants became mandatory in July 2006. Some health professions have identified external barriers to CPD participation, and other research suggests that mandatory CPD can devalue learning. The present study aimed to investigate current CPD practices of UK dietitians and to identify their attitudes towards the new mandatory requirement.

Activation of protein kinase C alters p34(cdc2) phosphorylation state and kinase activity in early sea urchin embryos by abolishing intracellular Ca2+ transients.

The p34(cdc2) protein kinase, a universal regulator of mitosis, is controlled positively and negatively by phosphorylation, and by association with B-type mitotic cyclins. In addition, activation and inactivation of p34(cdc2) are induced by Ca(2+) and prevented by Ca(2+) chelators in permeabilized cells and cell-free systems. This suggests that intracellular Ca(2+) transients may play an important physiological role in the control of p34(cdc2) kinase activity.

EDI experts realistic and optimistic.

Recently, Healthcare Financial Management contacted five EDI experts to discuss a variety of issues related to EDI and the healthcare industry. Their answers to our questions, presented below, are both optimistic and realistic. Our experts feel that EDI can transform the healthcare industry into a model of efficiency, but their enthusiasm is tempered by the realization that politics, bureaucracy, budgets, and resistance to change can take a toll on even the most ardent of EDI supporters.

Effects of oxygen on pulmonary macrophages and alveolar epithelial type II cells in culture.

Cultures of Chinese hamster lung fibroblasts and explants of 20-day-old rat lungs were exposed to 95% oxygen with 5% CO2 in vitro. The Chinese hamster cells had stopped dividing after 17 hours exposure and cell death occurred at a mean time of 67 hours (s.d.