Welcome to the twelfth edition of scientia pro publica (science for the public) hosted here on Lab Rat. This is a blog carnival, designed to collect some of the most interesting posts on anything scientifically minded, written for people to understand and enjoy.
Biologically speaking, the goal of every male is to produce as many offspring as possible. To do this, males need to have some kick-ass sperm, but according to a recent study, too much kick-ass sperm can cause problems.
If you watch a fake hand standing in for your right hand, and it is touched with a brush while at the same time your left hand, hidden from view, is similarly touched, you feel your right hand being touched. This spooky finding is called “phantom touch”
During residency new doctors are faced with several assessments. The 360-degree feedback is just one of them.
It involves the evaluation of performance on various tasks by, firstly, peers with knowledge of a similar scope of practice, secondly, co-workers from allied health professions and, thirdly, patients. Or: ‘letting future behaviour be guided by a systematic and critical analysis of past actions and their consequences’.
How the 360-degree feedback is put into practice differs with were they work. The most often heard complaint by residents about these 360-degree feedback is: “how can a secretary judge me”. Well the secretary is not there to judge nor to give feedback on medical competence but to give feedback on other competences such as communicating, administrative functioning etc.
Studies showed that 360-degree feedback improved the performance of consultants receiving the feedback. But which factors promote or block implementation of the suggestions received by consultants during a 360-degree feedback?
Of 23 consultants only 11 made concrete steps towards performance improvement.
an internist who forced himself to wait for 5 minutes before beginning to speak in multidisciplinary sessions in order to give other people the opportunity to think and speak
Overall, 360-feedback can work if skilled facilitators are available to encourage reflection, concrete goals are set and follow-up interviews are planned. The main obstruction to the good use of 360-degree feedback is an existing lack of openness in hospitals, departments, or consultant groups. The other important factor is absence of constructive feedback.
That brings us to the subject of giving good feedback:
Be clear about what you want to say.
Start by emphasizing the positive
Be specific. Avoid general comments and clarify pronouns such as “it,” “that,” etc.
Focus on behavior that you have seen or observed rather than the person.
Refer to behavior that can be changed.
Be descriptive rather than evaluative. Avoid qualifications
Own the feedback. Use ‘I’ statements.
Generalizations have to be avoided, be specific with observed examples
If possible let them work out an advice to improve performance
These are just a few suggestions.
How was this research done?
a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 23 of these consultants, purposively sampled based on gender, hospital, work experience, specialty and views expressed in a previous questionnaire.
Limitations
Participants were all volunteers, this doesn’t exclude selection bias. Participants were working in a Dutch non academic hospital setting which limits generalization.
Is it a good thing the 360-degree feedback? I don’t know. It’s dependent on a lot of factors such as those found in this study. Especially changing a culture with lack of openness seems a tough cookie to me. What do you think?
Overeem, K., Wollersheim, H., Driessen, E., Lombarts, K., van de Ven, G., Grol, R., & Arah, O. (2009). Doctors’ perceptions of why 360-degree feedback does (not) work: a qualitative study Medical Education, 43 (9), 874-882 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03439.x
BBC’s Darwin season featured ‘Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life’ – an animation which illustrates an idea that Darwin and his contemporaries used to explain the evolutionary links between living things. This amazing animation was narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
It’s the time of year again, the time for Seasonal Affective Disorder or Winter Depression. In the beginning of this year I posted the criteria for seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Very characteristic for SAD is that most SAD patients develop ‘atypical’ symptoms of increased fatigue, increased sleep duration and increased appetite and weight. Not only do SAD patients crave carbohydrates, but also they actually report eating more carbohydrate-rich foods in the winter.
Treatment
For mild to moderate seasonal affective disorder, bright light therapy is often effective. This involves sitting in front of full-spectrum lights that mimic sunlight on a regular basis — typically for about 30 minutes to 60 minutes before 10 each morning. (These are specially designed lights for this purpose that are made to minimize eye and skin damage; don’t just go buy bright lights.) Starting before the darkest days in September each year
For severe SAD, lights are often inadequate. The treatment is medication, psychotherapy and possibly the lights.
An entrepreneur is someone is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. An entrepreneur is also someone who wants to be his own boss and make a good living, which entails living where one wants, working with people one likes, and doing work one wants to do.
With Web 2.0 an increase in entrepreneurship was seen. Hardware became cheap, free open source infrastructure is the norm, access to the world with web 2.0 leading to a growth of entrepreneurs on the web. These entrepreneurs are often portrayed as passionate, enthusiastic, and persistent even in the face of challenge and adversity. They have to deliver high levels of effort in order to attain their success and increase sales and profit.
In the affect-as-information theory it is well documented that affect influences information processing, even when the cause of the affect is irrelevant to the current situation. However, the impact of this information component of affect on behavior is unclear. In other words, mood has an impact on information processing which is of importance for entrepreneurs. This mood also has an effect on behavior.
In a recent study in which 46 entrepreneurs used cell phones to provide reports on their affect, future temporal focus, and venture effort twice daily for 24 days, the effect of feelings on efforts was studied. It was found that with negative affect entrepreneurs’ effort is focused on tasks that need immediate attention or action. The study also found that positive affect predicts venture effort beyond what is immediately required and that this relationship is mediated by future temporal focus. In other words, when feeling good the entrepreneur is more capable of planning for the future.
This could mean that the entrepreneurs’ affect plays a significant role in the process of new venture creation.
It is precisely because positive affect signals that things are going well at the moment that the entrepreneur’s focus can shift to the future, and such focus motivates the entrepreneur to work harder because it promotes behaviors to achieve desired future outcomes.
Foo, M., Uy, M., & Baron, R. (2009). How do feelings influence effort? An empirical study of entrepreneurs’ affect and venture effort. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94 (4), 1086-1094 DOI: 10.1037/a0015599
Today received an update from ResearchGATE. Did not yet participate in this scientific network, already a member of a lot of networks such as Connotea, CiteULike, Mendeley, can’t keep up with them.
But yesterday got sensitized by Sciencebase: File Sharing for Scientists about this network.
So what’s up?
They have launched a Self-Archiving Repository. This will make free full-text articles available to the public.
Currently, there is no way for researchers to access millions of publications in their full version online. ResearchGATE is now changing this by enabling users to upload their published research directly to their profile pages (a system called the “green route” to Open Access). Our publication index, containing metadata for 35 million publications, will be automatically matched with the SHERPA RoMEO data set of journal and publisher’s self-archiving agreements. As a result, authors will know which versions of their articles they can legally upload. Since nine out of ten journals allow self-archiving, this project could give thousands of researchers immediate access to articles that are not yet freely available.
Each profile page in this network, your own personal profile page is considered to be a personal website of the user. The majority of publishers allow articles to be openly accessible on personal homepages. Each user can upload his published article which is searchable resulting in a large pool of research for the members of this network. Waiting for a law to prohibit this but until than, Elsevier and the like eat your heart out.
The latest edition of Grand Rounds, the weekly compilation of the best of the medical blogosphere has a theme: “Around the World in Eighty Days”. A theme very well done with excellent posts, check them out on Suture for a Living.
The trip takes you to all the continents, an impressive collection of posts.
Really, the polyphenolen in cocoa inhibit the growth of bacteria responsible for the creation of plaques. Polyphenolen from cocao significantly reduce biofilm formation and acid production by these bacteria. The acid production from sucrose was significantly inhibited resulting in a reduction of localized demineralization.. Be aware that chocolate not only contains cacao but also fat and sugar each with their own effects on weight and caries.
The formation of dental plaque, which plays an important role in the development of caries and periodontal disease in humans, could be initiated by several strains of oral streptococci, a kind of bacteria.
There are two roads from carbohydrates to caries pictured in the next figure. The formation of dental plaque leads to localized demineralization due to the accumulation of acids.
Chocolate contains polyphenolen The health benefits of polyphenols include antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory effects. We previously discussed underlying mechanisms of cardioprotective properties of chocolate. But how do they protect against dental caries?
In animal research it has been shown that cocoa polyphenols inhibit the growth of bacteria responsible for the creation of plaques. Polyphenolen from cocao significantly reduce biofilm formation and acid production by these bacteria. The acid production from sucrose was significantly inhibited resulting in a reduction of localized demineralization.
This antibacterial effect of polyphenolen from coca is shared with coffee and green tea.
But hold on, these are mostly animal data, the effect of green tea is based on a larger body of evidence than coffee and cocoa. There is still a long way to go, to quote the authors of this review
The effectiveness of polyphenols from these beverages as anti-cariogenic agents needs to be confirmed by larger in vivo studies carried out on different age-groups, and in different geographical areas. Further research on anti-cariogenic activity of cocoa, coffee, and tea could open a promising avenue of applications, since they are relatively safe, have taste and odor largely appreciated and could be used at a reasonable cost in the preparation of specific anti-cariogenic remedies.
Hoping for chocolate tooth paste, and you?
Related posts on this blog on the benefits and dosage of chocolate: chocolate.
Ferrazzano, G., Amato, I., Ingenito, A., De Natale, A., & Pollio, A. (2009). Anti-cariogenic effects of polyphenols from plant stimulant beverages (cocoa, coffee, tea) Fitoterapia, 80 (5), 255-262 DOI: 10.1016/j.fitote.2009.04.006
A great step forward, patients don’t have to be awake during the procedure. This video shows a clear description of the old and new procedure for deep brain stimulation (DBS). In the old procedure a frame has to applied after which a brain mapping procedure has to follow, up to 6-8 hours while the patient has to be awake. At the end the patient has to undergo a MRI to see whether the electrodes are in the right place. All very tedious and time consuming. The new procedure takes place in the MRI with anesthesia and takes less time (50%). Have a look at this new procedure in the video.
Is there new hope for Parkinson’s patients? Imaging scientist, Alastair Martin, and neurosurgeon, Dr. Paul Larson, have teamed up to develop a way to perform Deep Brain Stimulation surgery that’s more comfortable for the patients, more accurate and cuts the regular procedure time in half to 3 1/2 hours. The pair, working at the University of California in San Francisco perform DBI surgery while the patient is inside the MRI . The advantage to the procedure is that the patient does not have to be awake, it detects complications on the spot and allows for precise placement of the electrodes in the brain.
SMART implants in the brains of people with neurological disorders could eventually help develop treatments for people with Parkinson’s disease, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century.
Egon Schiele’s work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele’s paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism, although still strongly associated with the art nouveau movement (Jugendstil).
Schiele developed a taut, linear style, emphasizing attenuated anatomical structure in drawings and paintings that often have strong sexual subject matter. Best known for his gaunt self-portraits and erotic figure studies, he also painted haunting portraits of his contemporaries and dark, brooding landscapes.
Flickr
Twitter
FriendFeed
LinkedIn
Facebook