External assessment of medical education quality: indicative model development considering paradox of skill.

This study proposes an approach to the external evaluation of medical education programs' quality based on a combination of indicators, including international rankings, external stakeholders' input, and independent agencies' assessments. We modify the success equation with a detailed consideration of the skill component and its decomposition into internal and external quality assurance elements along with authority. We carried out a bibliometric analysis regarding the problem of medical education quality assessment in the context of achieving sustainable development goals.

The Behavioral and Social Dimension of the Public Health System of European Countries: Descriptive, Canonical, and Factor Analysis.

Background: The state and prospects of the healthcare industry of a country are among its top priorities because the quality of life and health of its citizens are indicators of its success and competitiveness. The aim of this study is to conduct a theoretical analysis and qualitative and quantitative assessments of indicators by developing an integral indicator in the context of behavioral, social, demographic, and economic factors that characterize the level of healthcare system development in European countries using multivariate statistical modeling methods.

Methods: The study was implemented using Statistica 10 and Statistica Portable statistical packages.

Health Policies in Romania to Reduce the Mortality Caused by Cardiovascular Diseases.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the main cause of death in Romania. The objective of the paper is to explain the number of deaths caused by the diseases of circulatory system in relation to health expenditures per capita, the number of public hospitals with cardiology sections and the number of cardiologists. The analysis in the paper is based on panel data models and Bayesian linear models.

Fatty acids modulate cytokine and chemokine secretion of stimulated human whole blood cultures in diabetes.

Fatty acids, uric acid and glucose are thought to contribute to subclinical inflammation associated with diabetes mellitus. We tested whether co-incubation of free fatty acids and uric acid or glucose influences the secretion of immune mediators from stimulated human whole blood in vitro. Fresh whole blood samples from 20 healthy subjects, 20 patients with type 1 diabetes and 23 patients with type 2 diabetes were incubated for 24 h with palmitic acid (PAL), linolenic acid (LIN) or eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) alone or together with elevated concentrations of uric acid or glucose.

Carbon-fiber tips for scanning probe microscopes and molecular electronics experiments.

We fabricate and characterize carbon-fiber tips for their use in combined scanning tunneling and force microscopy based on piezoelectric quartz tuning fork force sensors. An electrochemical fabrication procedure to etch the tips is used to yield reproducible sub-100-nm apex. We also study electron transport through single-molecule junctions formed by a single octanethiol molecule bonded by the thiol anchoring group to a gold electrode and linked to a carbon tip by the methyl group.