Four ways to define the growing season.

What is addressed as growing season in terrestrial ecosystems is one of the main determinants of annual plant biomass production globally. However, there is no well-defined concept behind. Here, we show different facets of what might be termed growing season, each with a distinct meaning: (1) the time period during which a plant or a part of it actually grows and produces new tissue, irrespective of net carbon gain (growing season sensu stricto).

Growth of alpine grassland will start and stop earlier under climate warming.

Alpine plants have evolved a tight seasonal cycle of growth and senescence to cope with a short growing season. The potential growing season length (GSL) is increasing because of climate warming, possibly prolonging plant growth above- and belowground. We tested whether growth dynamics in typical alpine grassland are altered when the natural GSL (2-3 months) is experimentally advanced and thus, prolonged by 2-4 months.

Halving sunlight reveals no carbon limitation of aboveground biomass production in alpine grassland.

In temperate alpine environments, the short growing season, low temperature and a slow nutrient cycle may restrict plant growth more than carbon (C) assimilation does. To test whether C is a limiting resource, we applied a shade gradient from ambient light to 44% (maximum shade) of incident photon flux density (PFD) in late successional, Carex curvula-dominated alpine grassland at 2,580 m elevation in the Swiss central Alps for 3 years (2014-2016). Total aboveground biomass did not significantly decrease under reduced PFD, with a confidence interval ranging from +4% to -15% biomass in maximum shade.

Can we predict "problem residents"?

Purpose: This study investigates whether data available at the time of residency application can be used to predict more accurately future problems of performance, both during and after residency.

Method: The authors identified all residents with reported problematic behavior across 20 years (1987-2007) at a single residency program and created a set of matched controls. Problems were further divided into "major" (leading to significant disruptions of performance and disciplinary action) and "minor" (remediable and resolved).

Veterans affairs and academic medical center affiliations: the north Texas experience.

Objective: The authors review the more than 30-year history of the academic affiliation between the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and the Mental Health Service at the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System.

Methods: The authors interviewed individuals involved at various stages in developing this affiliation about decisions and challenges.

Results: The academic association has been very successful on the whole, though not consistently so.

Psychiatric training program engagement with the pharmaceutical industry: an educational issue, not strictly an ethical one.

Objective: To analyze the educational and ethical issues involved in interactions between departments of psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry.

Methods: The author analyzes the history of attitudes toward pharmaceutical companies, various conflicting ethical principles that apply, and areas of confluence and conflict of interest between psychiatric education and the drug industry. These attitudes are applied to a variety of specific types of interactions with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry.

Moonlighting by psychiatric residents.

Much of the literature on resident moonlighting has been editorial in nature. Very little information on psychiatric residents' moonlighting practices and attitudes exists. The authors developed an instrument that was mailed to survey the chief residents of all 203 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-approved psychiatry residencies, with 137 (67.

Downsizing psychiatric residency programs : a pilot study.

Under the varied pressures of decreasing recruitment of American medical school graduates into psychiatry, the thrust of health care policymakers to decrease the production of specialist physicians, and financial cutbacks for training by hospitals, universities, and governments at all levels, many psychiatric training programs are considering downsizing or have already implemented plans to do so. The authors describe the motivations, early experiences, anticipated concerns, and thoughts regarding downsizing obtained from interviews or questionnaires provided by 17 programs in 1993. On the basis of the authors' experiences, some recommendations are offered for the many programs likely to deal with this issue in the future.

Self-directed learning in a psychopathology course.

Self-directed learning has been identified as an essential element of professional development. In this approach, students receive in advance a complete set of objectives and didactic knowledge (cognitive) learning materials, are provided opportunities to develop skills with actual or simulated clinical experiences, and adapt a broad and flexible array of educational media to their individual learning styles. In the development of a self-directed psychopa-thology course for second-year medical students, the authors incorporated four modifications to the traditional lecture and small group (faculty-directed) approach: 1) independent (self-directed) learning with no prescribed study times or sequence to the material, 2) use of student and facult y-directed interviews of patients, 3) greater freedom for selecting teaching methods in small groups, and 4) elimination of formal lectures.

Confessions of a concurrent reviewer.

The author describes his two years of experience as a physician reviewer for two managed care companies. With case examples, he illustrates how the training process and his early activities as a reviewer increased his awareness of the need for accountability in psychiatric practice. He describes several issues that he had to clarify before he felt comfortable in the reviewer's role.

What is a balanced program?

"Balance" has become the watchword of psychiatry programs. It seems that almost all residency training programs claim to be balanced. But what do we mean by this term? This article summarizes the author's evolving thinking about what makes for a balanced program and suggests that diversity may be a better term.

Psychiatric resident moonlighting : a review and modest proposal.

Moonlighting by psychiatric residents remains controversial, with debate surrounding the ethical, legal, financial, and educational risks involved in the practice. The authors present a literature review of resident moonlighting, which encompasses the policy positions of various organizations responsible for graduate medical education; surveys of various groups and specialties regarding the prevalence, form, and justification for moonlighting; and models of moonlighting programs in several institutions. The authors conclude with specific proposals for research regarding psychiatric resident moonlighting and, more importantly, emphasize the need for research on the effects of moonlighting on resident performance and education.

What components should be evaluated in a psychiatry residency.

In this pilot study, the authors examined faculty responses to a proposed new evaluation form for residents. Because past research on priorities for psychiatric residency curricula have depended on direct surveys, previous findings may represent auricular ideals instead of what faculty actually evaluate. The goal of the study was to draw inferences about priorities in psychiatric education by studying what components (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) of a psychiatry residency that faculty are willing to spend their time evaluating.

A value-added methodology for assessing the effectiveness of psychiatric residency training.

Educators often find it difficult to identify variables that accurately assess the knowledge that residents have gained due to their training. Recently in professional education circles, attention has shifted from process to outcome variables, with more emphasis being placed on student gains rather than on program resources. A methodology used extensively to assess undergraduate education is the value-added approach.