Using a modified nominal group technique to develop complex interventions for a randomised controlled trial in children with symptomatic pes planus.

Background: Children with symptomatic flat feet (pes planus) frequently present for care but there remains uncertainty about how best to manage their condition. There is considerable variation in practice between and within professions. We intend to conduct a three-arm trial to evaluate three frequently used interventions for pes planus (exercise and advice, exercise and advice plus prefabricated orthoses, and exercise and advice plus custom made orthoses).

Locus coeruleus anchors a trisynaptic circuit controlling fear-induced suppression of feeding.

The circuit mechanisms underlying fear-induced suppression of feeding are poorly understood. To help fill this gap, mice were fear conditioned, and the resulting changes in synaptic connectivity among the locus coeruleus (LC), the parabrachial nucleus (PBN), and the central nucleus of amygdala (CeA)-all of which are implicated in fear and feeding-were studied. LC neurons co-released noradrenaline and glutamate to excite PBN neurons and suppress feeding.

Preparing dental students for independent practice: a scoping review of methods and trends in undergraduate clinical skills teaching in the UK and Ireland.

Introduction The governing bodies for dentistry in the UK and Ireland require dentists, at graduation, to possess the knowledge, skills and attributes which enable them to practise safely, without supervision. The means by which dental schools achieve this may differ and may undergo modification in response to changes in the expectations of governing bodies and challenges within the teaching environment. It is therefore important to identify which of these approaches works well and to disseminate good practice described in the literature.

Cooler temperatures slow the repair of DNA damage in tadpoles exposed to ultraviolet radiation: Implications for amphibian declines at high altitude.

Ultraviolet B radiation (UVBR) damages the DNA of exposed cells, causing dimers to form between adjacent pyrimidine nucleotides. These dimers block DNA replication, causing mutations and apoptosis. Most organisms utilize biochemical or biophysical DNA repair strategies to restore DNA structure; however, as with most biological reactions, these processes are likely to be thermally sensitive.

Women in academic leadership: A chance to shape the future.

This paper explores the importance of academic leadership within dentistry and its relevance to women. In doing so, it considers the context of women's leadership opportunities, emphasising the importance of women embracing senior roles, highlighting some of the challenges they may face in doing so and suggesting solutions. It is argued that leadership is an essential component of any career in academic dentistry and this is a career with great privilege - not just a job.

Brain region-specific effects of cGMP-dependent kinase II knockout on AMPA receptor trafficking and animal behavior.

Phosphorylation of GluA1, a subunit of AMPA receptors (AMPARs), is critical for AMPAR synaptic trafficking and control of synaptic transmission. cGMP-dependent protein kinase II (cGKII) mediates this phosphorylation, and cGKII knockout (KO) affects GluA1 phosphorylation and alters animal behavior. Notably, GluA1 phosphorylation in the KO hippocampus is increased as a functional compensation for gene deletion, while such compensation is absent in the prefrontal cortex.

Physiotherapists' understanding of red flags for back pain.

Introduction: The expanding role of physiotherapists, with increasing use of services such as self-referral, means that demonstrating an ability to understanding and ask red-flag questions appropriately has never been more important. The present study investigated how physiotherapists define common red flags, how they ask red-flag questions, which red flags they routinely record and the importance that therapists attribute to individual red-flags.

Methods: In this qualitative study, an online questionnaire survey was circulated to physiotherapists using various UK special interests networks.

Preparing for the future: challenges and opportunities for management and leadership skills.

Objective: The aim of the study was to explore dental leaders' perceptions of the current position of leadership in the dental profession.

Design: A qualitative, key informant, exploratory research study was used with semi-structured interviews as the means of data collection.

Materials And Methods: Participants were invited based on their role in dental services in the UK and their ability to act as a key informant.

Educating the dental team: exploring perceptions of roles and identities.

Interprofessional education (IPE) should help to promote a team-based approach to professional practice but there are barriers to its implementation including professional identity. The aim of this study was to use a qualitative research methodology to explore dental and dental care professional (DCP) students' perceptions of professional roles and identities in the dental team. Data were collected by means of focus groups from a purposive sample of dental and DCP students and were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using an explanatory framework.

Preparing students for interprofessional practice: exploring the intra-personal dimension.

The need for interprofessional education is now firmly embedded in undergraduate healthcare curricula frameworks in Northern Ireland and has a role to play in preparation for professional practice. A questionnaire determining students' "readiness" for interprofessional education has been widely used and reported in the literature but there are other factors that contribute to students' abilities to learn in an interprofessional context. Pre-qualification healthcare education can be viewed as having three inter-related components, intra-professional, interprofessional and intra-personal learning; the third of these underpinning the other two.

Developing pre-qualification inter-professional education for nursing and medical students: sampling student attitudes to guide development.

Teamwork and collaboration are regarded as important goals for health and social care education and inter-professional education (IPE) the vehicle to achieve this. However, there is debate concerning the best strategies for implementation, location and delivery of IPE. This exploratory study was undertaken to anticipate some of the problems of implementing a pre-qualification IPE programme for Children's Branch nursing students and medical students undertaking a Paediatrics module and to identify strategies to maximise success.

Preparing for the dental team: investigating the views of dental and dental care professional students.

There is growing evidence to support the contention that interprofessional education (IPE) at both pre and post-qualification levels will improve professionals' abilities to work more effectively in a team and to communicate more effectively with colleagues and patients. This body of evidence, however, is primarily concerned with nursing, medical and associated professionals and students, and there are few studies that include dental students and particularly where learning occurs with the dental care professions (DCP). The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of dental and DCP students to IPE and to highlight some of the barriers to developing programmes for these students.

Sustained effects of interprofessional shared learning on student attitudes to communication and team working depend on shared learning opportunities on clinical placement as well as in the classroom.

Background: Delivering high quality healthcare increasingly requires effective team working, and interprofessional shared learning (SL) is crucial to this. This study compares the attitudes, 1 year after experience of an undergraduate SL programme, of students who had participated in the programme with their peers who had not.

Methods: 207 students were invited to complete a questionnaire to assess the impact of SL on attitudes to clinical competence and behaviour.

Are there developmentally distinct motor indicators of pain in preterm infants?

The aims of this study were to examine preterm infant reactions to pain in detail over prolonged time periods using multiple measures, and to assess the value of including specific body movements of the Neonatal Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) system to evaluate pain. Ten preterm infants born at 31 weeks mean gestational age (GA) and mean birth weight 1676 g were studied during a routine blood collection in a Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). At 32-week post-conceptional age, computerized physiologic and video recordings were obtained continuously for 60 min (prior to, during and after lance).

Relations between behavioral and cardiac autonomic reactivity to acute pain in preterm neonates.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess relations and concordance between behavioral and physiologic reactivity to pain in preterm neonates at 32 weeks postconceptional age as a function of gestational age at birth.

Setting: Level III neonatal intensive care unit.

Design/patients: The study group comprised 136 preterm neonates (mean [range] birthweight, 1,020 g [445-1,500 g]: gestational age at birth, 28 weeks [23-32 weeks]) separated into three groups according to gestational age at birth as follows: 23 to 26 weeks (n = 48), 27 to 29 weeks (n = 52), and 30 to 32 weeks (n = 36).

Salivary cortisol levels in children adopted from romanian orphanages.

Six and a half years after adoption. 6- to 12-year-old children reared in Romanian orphanages for more than 8 months in their first years of life (RO. n = 18) had higher cortisol levels over the daytime hours than did early adopted (EA, < or = 4 months of age, n = 15) and Canadian born (CB, n = 27) children.

Birthing at home: the resolution of expectations.

Objective: To describe the experience of ten couples who have had a home birth in Western Australia.

Design, Setting And Participants: Using a phenomenological approach, ten parent couples were interviewed and three home-birth videos observed. Of the ten couples, four discussed their first child's home birth.

Survival estimates for adults with cystic fibrosis born in the United Kingdom between 1947 and 1967. The UK Cystic Fibrosis Survey Management Committee.

Background: The UK has published observed cohort survival figures for subjects with cystic fibrosis born since 1968. Prior to 1968 cohorts cannot be established directly from routine data as cystic fibrosis was classified with a number of unrelated conditions in ICD7. Reported here are interrupted survival curves from 1978 for patients with cystic fibrosis born before 1968.

Constructing a home birth environment through assuming control.

Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experience of couples who have had a home birth.

Design, Setting And Participants: A phenomenological approach was used to provide an understanding of the human experience of home birth in Western Australia. The research design consisted of a field study, in which 10 parent couples were interviewed and three videos of home births observed.

Height and weight in cystic fibrosis: a cross sectional study. UK Cystic Fibrosis Survey Management Committee.

Cross sectional data reporting the height, weight, and body mass index of UK patients with cystic fibrosis are presented. During the first decade of life height and weight in patients with cystic fibrosis are maintained at about 0.5 SD below those of the general population, which reflects an improvement over earlier published observations.

Incidence, population, and survival of cystic fibrosis in the UK, 1968-95. UK Cystic Fibrosis Survey Management Committee.

The UK Cystic Fibrosis Survey holds data on all people resident in the UK who were diagnosed as having cystic fibrosis and born either since 1968 or before 1968 and alive in 1977. Thus, incidence may be reported from 1968 and prevalence from 1977. The previous estimates are updated to the end of 1995 from data held in the database on 23 August 1996.

Cystic fibrosis in the United Kingdom, 1968-1988: incidence, population and survival.

A thorough survey was conducted of patients with cystic fibrosis living in the UK from 1977 onwards. This was supplemented with death certificate data back to 1968. There was one case identified for each 2475 births.

Juror and expert knowledge of child sexual abuse.

Mental health professionals with expertise in child sexual abuse (CSA) often testify as expert witnesses in court. There is significant controversy over the admissibility of this type of evidence. To be admissible, the testimony of an expert must be beyond the common knowledge of the jury and based on information generally considered to be reliable within the professional community in which it is used.