The road from The Microbial world to Microbe.
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The year 2007 commemorates the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Microbial World, the seminal microbiology textbook that shattered the microbiology world and whose first edition was coauthored by Roger Y. Stanier, Michael Doudoroff and Edward A. Adelberg. The year 2007 marks also twenty-five years of Stanier's passing away. The Spanish Society for Microbiology (SEM) with the support of Fundacion Ramon Areces has organized a Symposium, in the frame of the 21st national congress of the SEM (Seville, 17-20 September 2007), to commemorate those anniversaries, and has invited us (Schaechter, Ingraham and Neidhardt) to contribute to this celebration. (+info)
The hidden side of the prokaryotic cell: rediscovering the microbial world.
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How many different forms of life exist and how they are evolutionarily related is one of the most challenging problems in biology. In 1962, Roger Y. Stanier and Cornelis B. van Niel proposed "the concept of a bacterium" and thus allowed (micro)biologists to divide living organisms into two primary groups: prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Initially, prokaryotes were believed to be devoid of any internal organization or other characteristics typical of eukaryotes, due to their minute size and deceptively simple appearance. However, the last few decades have demonstrated that the structure and function of the prokaryotic cell are much more intricate than initially thought. We will discuss here two characteristics of prokaryotic cells that were not known to Stanier and van Niel but which now allow us to understand the basis of many characteristics that are fully developed in eukaryotic cells: First, it has recently become clear that bacteria contain all of the cytoskeletal elements present in eukaryotic cells, demonstrating that the cytoskeleton was not a eukaryotic invention; on the contrary, it evolved early in evolution. Essential processes of the prokaryotic cell, such as the maintenance of cell shape, DNA segregation, and cell division, rely on the cytoskeleton. Second, the accumulation of intracellular storage polymers, such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (a property studied in detail by Stanier and colleagues), provides a clear evolutionary advantage to bacteria. These compounds act as a "time-binding" mechanism, one of several prokaryotic strategies to increases survival in the Earth's everchanging environments. (+info)
Beyond the printed page: physiology education without a textbook?
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Theodore E. Woodward Award: spare me the PowerPoint and bring back the medical textbook.
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A tutorial for 4(th) year medical students revealed absent long-term retention of microbiology and infectious disease facts taught during the 2(nd) year. Students were suffering from the Ziegarnik effect, the loss of memory after completion of a task. PowerPoint lectures and PowerPoint notes combined with multiple-choice questions may have encouraged this outcome; this teaching format was also associated with minimal use of the course textbook. During the subsequent year, active learning techniques, Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) and Peer Instruction (PI) were used, and instructors specifically taught from the textbook. Essays and short answer questions were combined with multiple-choice questions to encourage understanding and recall. Performance on the National Board Shelf exam improved from the 59(th) percentile (2002-2004) to the 83(rd) percentile (2005), and textbook use increased from 1.6% to 79%. This experience demonstrates that strategies incorporating active learning and textbook use correlate with striking improvement in medical student performance. (+info)
Reiter's syndrome is an eponym used to denote the triad of arthritis, urethritis and conjunctivitis. This syndrome is named after Hans Conrad Julius Reiter, who was involved in the activities of the Nazi Racial Hygiene Program related to involuntary sterilization, euthanasia and criminal research projects. Reiter defamed the entire medical profession and it was therefore suggested that the term Reiter's syndrome be changed to reactive arthritis. We undertook to investigate the use of the eponym Reiter syndrome in medical literature, medical schools in Israel and medical textbooks, compared to the term reactive arthritis, by searching Medline between the years 2003 and 2007, 14 current medical textbooks, curricula of the four medical schools in Israel, and computerized patient file systems in Israel. We found a decline in the use of the eponym in articles published between 2003 (18%) and 2007 (9%); however, most textbooks (13/14) still use it. Two of the four medical schools in Israel continue to use the eponym. The eponym appears in the computerized patient files of all four healthcare providers in Israel. We hold that the continued use of the eponym Reiter syndrome in medical textbooks, medical schools and computerized patients files in Israel is honoring an abomination and is inconsistent with medical principles. Awareness is still lacking and we suggest deleting the Reiter syndrome eponym from use, and replacing it with the more appropriate term--reactive arthritis. (+info)
Perceived barriers to information access among medical residents in Iran: obstacles to answering clinical queries in settings with limited Internet accessibility.
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Studies performed in the US and other Western countries have documented that physicians generate many clinical questions during a typical day and rely on various information sources for answers. Little is known about the information seeking behaviors of physicians practicing in other countries, particularly those with limited Internet connectivity. We conducted this study to document the perceived barriers to information resources used by medical residents in Iran. Our findings reveal that different perceived barriers exist for electronic versus paper-based resources. Notably, paper-based resources are perceived to be limited by resident time-constraints and availability of resources, whereas electronic resources are limited by cost decentralized resources (such as PDAs) and accessibility of centralized, Internet access. These findings add to the limited literature regarding health information-seeking activities in international healthcare settings, particularly those with limited Internet connectivity, and will supplement future studies of and interventions in such settings. (+info)
Evidence-based practice among a group of Malaysian dental practitioners.
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The objective of this study was to assess dentists' knowledge and use of evidence-based practice (EBP), including their attitudes toward and perceptions of barriers that limit the use of EBP. A cross-sectional survey was used with self-administered questionnaires involving dental practitioners in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. One hundred ninety-three replies were returned, for a response rate of 50.3 percent. More than two-thirds (135/193, 69.9 percent) of the respondents had heard of EBP. Out of the 135 respondents who had heard of EBP, a majority agreed it was a decision-making process based on evidence (127/135, 94.2 percent) and involved a series of steps from formulating the research question, locating and assessing the evidence, to applying it if suitable (129/135, 95.6 percent). Out of the 135 respondents who had heard of EBP, a high percentage agreed that EBP improved their knowledge and skills (132/135, 97.8 percent) and treatment quality (132/135, 97.8 percent). For advice, a majority of the 135 respondents frequently consulted friends and colleagues (123/135, 91.1 percent), made referrals (120/135, 88.9 percent), consulted textbooks (112/135, 83.0 percent), and referred to electronic databases (90/135, 66.7 percent). Out of the 135 respondents, many perceived EBP as very important (59/135, 43.7 percent) and important (58/135, 43.0 percent) and were interested to learn further information about EBP (132/135, 97.8 percent). The main reported barriers were lack of time (87/135, 64.4 percent), financial constraints (54/135, 40.0 percent), and lack of knowledge (38/135, 28.1 percent). A majority of the 135 respondents had knowledge of and positive attitudes towards EBP. However, due to barriers, a majority of them preferred colleagues, textbooks, and referrals for advice instead of seeking evidence from electronic databases. (+info)
Tales from the field: what the nursing research textbooks will not tell you.
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