External Colleagues Research Articles

A journey in Noble Gas Cosmochemistry and Geochemistry

I started my journey in science by studying noble gases implanted by the solar wind in dust grains on the surface of the Moon, and with many colleagues I have studied solar wind implanted noble gases in natural and artificial samples throughout my career, the latter exposed primarily by the Genesis space mission. Major questions are what noble gases in the solar wind can tell us about the present and the past Sun, and how they can contribute to understanding the formation and history of the planets and their building blocks, represented, for example, by meteorites. Since my early years as a postdoc, I have also been interested in noble gases (and radioactive nuclides) produced in meteorites and other extraterrestrial samples by interactions with energetic elementary particles from galactic cosmic radiation (and the Sun). These so called “cosmogenic” nuclides allow us to study the transport of meteorites to Earth, and the dynamics of the top surface layers (“regoliths”) on the Moon, asteroids, and comets. Cosmogenic noble gases are also crucial for studying even more exotic topics such as the history of tiny presolar grains that formed in the cooling envelopes of earlier generations of stars towards the end of their lives and were eventually incorporated into the meteoritic matter where they are found today. Cosmogenic noble gases in some tiny phases in meteorites are also likely tracers of our highly active Sun at a very early stage in its history. A few years later, I started my third major research topic in cosmochemistry, the study of primordial noble gases in meteorites and other extraterrestrial samples. These noble gases were incorporated into meteorites or their precursors in the early solar system or even in a presolar environment. I also participated in studies by colleagues of isotopic anomalies of other elements important in cosmochemistry, my expertise being mainly in aspects of the influence of cosmic rays on these elements. Although working in an Earth Science institution, it took quite a while before I started to also study noble gases (and radionuclides) in terrestrial samples. This is described in the second part of this contribution. A major focus was on cosmogenic noble gases and radionuclides produced in samples near the Earth’s surface. Although production rates of cosmogenic nuclides on Earth are several orders of magnitude lower than in space, making their analysis more challenging, they have become an important tool in geomorphology. Because stable noble gas nuclides are particularly well suited to the study of ancient landscapes, much of our work focused on areas with arid climates, such as Antarctica and the Andes in Chile, in collaboration with geoscience colleagues. We also participated in the large multinational CRONUS collaboration, funded by the European Union, a community effort to improve our knowledge of nuclide production rates at the Earth’s surface. In another major collaboration with external colleagues we are involved in noble gas analyses of water samples, ranging from lakes to aquifers to tiny inclusions in stalagmites. This research focuses on studying lake and groundwater dynamics, including contributions of mantle-derived noble gases such as in volcanic lakes. Atmospheric noble gases dissolved in suitable samples are also palaeotemperature indicators, supplementing information from other proxies such as oxygen isotopes.

Ethical Modelling of the Accounting Profession Based on the Value Judgements of Romanian Accounting Professionals

There is a great contrast between the real role of accounting and its public perception. Accounting can be regarded as the language of business operations, but it is also the representative and manipulator of corporate operations and culture. The major challenge of accounting is whether it allows the most honest and knowledgeable managers to make outstanding reporting decisions while preventing the others on the other side of the honesty competence scale from distorting what they know about their company. This study presents the results of the authors’ empirical research about the opinions of accounting practitioners in Romaine on the values, career opportunities and ethical behaviour of the profession. The findings are interpreted at the various levels of accounting professions (administrators, accountants, auditors) by the number of years spent in accounting and groups of internal and external colleagues, focusing on causal relations. The conclusions are drawn through structural-equations-based causal models by the qualification of accounting professionals and the time spent by them in their jobs.Implications for Central European audience: The paper is examining the role and ethics of accountants within the small and medium-sized sectors. In Central Europe, we have a similar cultural and historical background which might be touchable even in the business environment. Accountants influence how business works and what is disclosed about it. For the aim of a clear view, accountants must behave ethically, and they have to learn about business ethics and professional ethic topics.

End of Life Care on a Neuropsychiatric Inpatient Ward for Patients with Huntington's Disease: An Overview of Issues and a Project to Optimise Care

AimsMill Lodge is a 14-bed inpatient neuropsychiatric ward in Leicestershire, UK. The service primarily functions for patients with Huntington's Disease (HD), a disorder that significantly reduces life expectancy. End of Life (EoL) care is necessitated in the inpatient setting. This project therefore aims to optimise EoL care in our specialist HD unit. Specific objectives are to: establish the levels of staff confidence in dealing with EoL care; identify specific areas of EoL care that staff felt could be improved; and to introduce a series of initiatives to optimise EoL care for our patients using a QI framework.MethodsWe commenced involvement with the local QI team to develop the project. The first stage of intervention included the planning and delivery of a stakeholder event on EoL care specific to HD with the assistance of regional palliative care colleagues.As well as our inpatient nursing and medical staff and the palliative care teams, local GPs, district nursing colleagues, speech and language therapists and psychologists attended. The session comprised an educational overview for all colleagues of HD itself and palliation was discussed at length.The meeting also comprised an open forum where we were able to identify barriers and facilitators to optimal care from all aspects of the assembled MDT.ResultsTo date our interactions have revealed that staff confidence in dealing with the different aspects of EoL care was low. This included issues with care-planning; medications; communication with patients and staff; and when to refer for specialist help.Other processes identified as difficult included paperwork that was not consistent across teams; district nursing colleagues having to liaise with multiple medical team members to ensure continuity of care; and the doses of EoL medications required in this patient group to mitigate involuntary movements that were previously controlled with multiple high-dose oral medications.ConclusionStaff without specialist knowledge require support. The efforts made to improve collaboration with external colleagues broke down barriers that were preventing optimal care and allowed all parties to express their opinions and feelings. This allowed us to transparently appraise our current processes and provide guidance on this difficult area.The journey of optimisation continues, with further practical educational interventions planned, such as syringe-driver training, and efforts to improve shared documentation and enhanced communication and collaborative working between different disciplines.Optimal, collaborative EoL care from a confident staff-group is possible and a most important part of care for this unique patient group.

ALTECH 2021 – Analytical Techniques for Precise Characterization of Nano Materials

ALTECH 2021 – Analytical Techniques for Precise Characterization of Nano Materials

Workplace violence toward emergency medicine physicians in the hospitals of Taif city, Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional survey

BackgroundWorkplace violence against health care workers is an emerging concern in various global health settings and the documentation of physical and verbal attacks against physicians in tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia is uncommon. This study aimed to determine the incidence of workplace violence against physicians in the emergency department of selected tertiary hospitals in Taif City, Saudi Arabia from June to July 2021. Associations between the incidence of violence and interventions and type of physicians and years of experience were also investigated.MethodologyUsing a cross-sectional design, a total of 96 physicians were recruited to answer the World Health Organization Questionnaire on Violence against Health Care Workers last June to July 2021.ResultsIt was found out that 75 physicians (78.1%) experienced verbal violence while 14 physicians (14.6%) experienced physical violence. Most of the workplace violence happened within hospital premises (84.4%). Despite having an experience of verbal and physical violence, only 44.8% of the respondents reported the incidents. The most common instigators were patients (55.21%), their relatives (78.00%), external colleagues (9.37%) and staff members (6.25%). Most respondents took no action, or reported the incidence to the police or senior staff member. The incidence of workplace violence and type of physician showed significant association. The number of years of practice in emergency medicine also exhibited statistically significant association with the incidence of verbal attack, frequency of violence, and location of incident.ConclusionThere is high incidence of workplace violence among physicians in tertiary hospitals, and younger physicians with less experience in emergency medicine were the most susceptible to both verbal and physical violence. There is a need to strengthen policies to protect physicians against workplace violence.

American/Medieval Future(s) and the Transit of Whiteness

The American/Medieval project began as an interdisciplinary faculty research seminar at Wake Forest University some ten years ago. It aimed to look beyond, or differently, at current understandings of medievalism and, in particular, to identify geographically distinct currents of connection between the 'American' and the Western-centric European 'Medieval'. The collaborative work of Wake Forest scholars and external colleagues who subsequently joined the project resulted in two co-edited volumes of essays, American/Medieval: Nature and Mind in Cultural Transfer and American/Medieval Goes North: Earth and Water in Transit (V&R UniPress, 2016 and 2019). This essay outlines the project's genesis and development and considers what direction(s) future iterations might take. How might it address questions about the ongoing effects of settler identity, environmental crises, systemic racism, and Indigeneity in the United States; about the continuing co-optation of the European medieval in white supremacist contexts; about the current divisions and exclusions within our field; about the pandemic-related revisions of our relations to community? The A/M project does not (yet?) look to the medieval as a solution to contemporary challenges but seeks to comprehend the entanglement that is American/Medieval and how our work as medievalists might be inextricably dependent on the contemporary moment in place and time, whether aesthetic, political, or both, or more.

3Rs-Related and Objective Indicators to Help Assess the Culture of Care.

Simple Summary‘Culture of Care’ within animal research and testing refers to a commitment to improve animal welfare, the quality of the science, staff morale, and openness with the public. An effective Culture of Care should also promote the replacement of animal experiments with humane alternatives, reductions in animal numbers and suffering, and better welfare through the refinement of procedures, housing, husbandry and care (collectively known as the 3Rs). The Culture of Care is recognized as the foundation of humane and responsible science, but the concept should be applied in a meaningful way and not simply used as a ‘buzzword’. Recognizing this, some establishments have begun to define and assess their individual Culture of Care. This paper provides some examples of their approaches to surveying staff and external colleagues. It also sets out some suggestions for objective criteria for assessing the Culture of Care, and for indicators that capture progress with each of the 3Rs. The aim is to complement the growing literature on the Culture of Care and highlight some sources of information and inspiration to help establishments tailor their own assessments.Within animal research and testing, the need for an effective Culture of Care is widely recognized and described in terms of an establishment-wide commitment to improving the implementation of the 3Rs, animal welfare, scientific quality, care of the staff, and transparency for all stakeholders, including the public. Ideally, each establishment would determine what the Culture of Care means for them, and be able to assess and potentially benchmark their own culture. Some establishments already do this, using various indicators and formal or informal assessments. This paper provides examples of these approaches to assessing the Culture of Care, including surveys and surrogate measures. Many currently-used criteria and indicators tend to be human-centric and subjective, and we suggest using further objective indicators and animal-centric, 3Rs-based criteria. It is preferable to consider each of the 3Rs separately when assessing culture, and some indicators are suggested to facilitate this. Several documents produced by regulators in the UK and European Union are good sources of objective indicators of a good Culture of Care. This concept paper aims to complement the literature on assessing the Culture of Care, providing ideas and sources of information to help identify relevant and measurable criteria.

How primary health care staff working in rural and remote areas access skill development and expertise to support health promotion practice.

Health promotion is a key component of comprehensive primary health care. Health promotion approaches complement healthcare management by enabling individuals to increase control over their health. Many primary healthcare staff have a role to play in health promotion practice, but their ability to integrate health promotion into practice is influenced by their previous training and experience. For primary healthcare staff working in rural and remote locations, access to professional development can be limited by what is locally available and prohibitive in terms of cost for travel and accommodation. This study provides insight into how staff at a large north Queensland Aboriginal community controlled health service access skill development and health promotion expertise to support their work. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted. Small group and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff at Apunipima Cape York Health Council (n=9). A purposive sampling method was used to recruit participants from a number of primary healthcare teams that were more likely to be involved in health promotion work. Both on-the-ground staff and managers were interviewed. All participants were asked how they access skill development and expertise in health promotion practice and what approaches they prefer for ongoing health promotion support. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. All participants valued access to skill development, advice and support that would assist their health promotion practice. Skill development and expertise in health promotion was accessed from a variety of sources: conferences, workshops, mentoring or shared learning from internal and external colleagues, and access to online information and resources. With limited funds and limited access to professional development locally, participants fostered external and internal organisational relationships to seek in-kind advice and support. Irrespective of where the advice came from, it needed to be applicable to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote communities. To improve health outcomes in rural and remote communities, the focus on health promotion and prevention approaches must be strengthened. Primary healthcare staff require ongoing access to health promotion skill development and expertise to increase their capacity to deliver comprehensive primary health care. Practice-based evidence from staff working in the field provides a greater understanding of how skill development and advice are accessed. Many of these strategies can be formalised through organisational plans and systems, which would ensure that a skilled health promotion workforce is sustained.

Implementing an innovative intervention to increase research capacity for enhancing early psychosis care in Indonesia.

Aim To strengthen research capacity for nurses and early career researchers in Indonesia and the UK to develop a local evidence base in Indonesia to inform policy and improve the nation's health. These strategies can strengthen research institutions, enhance trial capacity, improve quality standards and improve attitudes towards the importance of health research. Methods Four days of workshops were held in Jakarta, Indonesia developing collaborative groups of academic nurses and early career researchers from the UK and Indonesia (30 people including mentors) to produce competitive grant bids to evaluate aspects of early psychosis care. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations were conducted. Results Participants evaluated the workshops positively finding benefit in the structure, content and delivery. Research impact was shown by attaining several successful small and large grants and developing offshoot collaborative relationships. Discussion These novel findings demonstrate that collaborative workshops can strengthen research capacity by developing partnerships and instigating new collaborations and networks. No other studies of international research partnerships among mental health nurses have reported this outcome to our knowledge. Implications for Practice This method could be implemented to improve networking and collaboration between UK academics and early career researchers and also with external colleagues in other LMICs.

Looking at the Skeleton of University Research Performance A Pilot Study on an Italian University

Though university research performance is very much depending on the specific structure of its collaboration patterns between internal and external colleagues, extant studies did not focus on this aspect. Aimed at filling in this gap, this pilot study investigates into the inner structure of an Italian medium-large sized university, and shows a number of features concerning university knowledge production and transfer, like the high heterogeneity of productivity and collaboration propensity among colleagues, departments and disciplinary areas, topological properties common to other kinds of socio-economic networks, and high positive collaboration between direct and indirect collaboration and impact factor.

Building Workforce for Chronic Disease and Complex Conditions: A Qualitative Investigation of Care Coordinators' Role Perceptions

Background: Within interdisciplinary fields of healthcare that focus on chronic disease and complex condition management across an integrated continuum of services, there is growing emphasis on workforce reform strategies to update and expand clinical roles. In particular, different configurations of clinician teams have emerged to support older adults and others with complex health and social needs. This qualitative study sought perspectives from an emergent care coordination workforce that provide such support. The purpose of the study was to capture the views and experiences from this workforce as a means to understand the characteristics of their role; and the values care coordinators perceived to be placed on the role by external clinical colleagues. Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was supported by purposive sampling of 57 care coordinators located at a metropolitan Local Health Network in Victoria, Australia. Data was obtained from several focus groups in the form of detailed notes and verbatim quotes then analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Care coordinators’ held values about their role that were conceptually related to three key characteristics: 1) The whole person approach: making a difference to people’s lives; 2) Autonomy; and 3) Practice wisdom. With regard to their viewpoints about how external colleagues perceived the role, content themes of ‘picking up all loose ends’ and ‘waving the magic wand’ emerged. Conclusion: These qualitative findings suggest that care coordinators bring a unique and somewhat sharedpractice perspective that could significantly build the interface between acute episode-based and chronic care. The findings are of interest to healthcare organizations investing in holistic workforce capability to support chronic disease and complex condition management within integrated service delivery models.

Research projects and collaboration: Lessons for Learning Advisors?

Since its inception in 2008, Ako Aotearoa (Ako), the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence, has funded numerous research and development projects, nationally and within the three Regional Hubs: Northern, Central and Southern. Many of the Association of Tertiary Learning Advisors of Aotearoa New Zealand (ATLAANZ) members have been involved at some level: as team leaders, members, participants and reviewers. Their experience and learnings have been the subject of a number of conference presentations and papers. There is a natural link here, given that both organisations are focussed on improving outcomes for students and fostering excellence in tertiary teaching and learning. A further endorsement of this close alignment of purpose can be seen in Ako Aotearoa’s sponsorship of the annual conference over the last few years. The research we are engaged on at present represents a first for Regional Hub projects, with a national evaluation of the strength and sustainability of inter-institutional collaborations receiving support from all three centres. Using our amendments to an established inventory tool for measuring effectiveness in teamwork, we have completed a survey of over 40 projects where members of multiple organisations cooperated to reach a successful, published completion of their work. This will be followed up with interviews to extend the data and allow us to research characteristics of collaborative teams. Above all we want to document and promote the benefits of involvement for team members during and after the initial project – and then to produce a good practice publication to assist future Regional Hub funding recipients. We believe the conference would be an excellent avenue for promoting the opportunities for inter-institutional research to the Learning Advisor fraternity and sharing strategies for effective interactive practice with internal and external colleagues.

Analytical techniques for precise characterization of nanomaterials

AbstractThis special edition contains the proceedings of ALTECH 2014 – Analytical Techniques for Precise Characterisation of Nanomaterials, Symposium H of the European Materials Research Society (E‐MRS) Spring Meeting 2014 that was held in Lille, France, from 26th–30th May. ALTECH is a series of conferences initiated in 1989. The conference was offered as a satellite of symposium of semiconductor conferences in Europe or, on occasion, in the U.S., with a strong focus on analytical techniques for microelectronics manufacturing and research. In 2012, the German metrology institute PTB joined the executive board of the ALTECH and proposing a broadening of the ALTECH scope towards the characterization of nanomaterials. While imec has ensured the organizational continuity, further European metrology institutes adhered to the organizational board which made ALTECH to an important European metrology event on nanomaterials characterisation.Our conference covered recent and innovative developments in analytical techniques that can provide precise characterization of surfaces and materials, characterization of nanostructures and study of thin films with nanoscale and/or atomic resolution. In total, 167 contributions were presented, including 11 invited presentations, 87 contributed oral presentations and 69 poster presentations. The event also included significant contributions from the European Metrology Research Program projects 'Metrology for the manufacturing of thin films', 'Traceable characterization of nanostructured devices', 'Novel electronic devices based on control of strain at the nanoscale', and 'Chemical metrology tools for manufacture of advanced biomaterials in the medical device industry' including related tutorial sessions.Nanomaterials have unique properties associated with their small dimensionality. Functional nanomaterials are rapidly finding wider use in modern technological products in many areas, for example, displays, energy conversion, energy storage, sensors and biosensors. The accurate characterization of nanoscale materials is essential for the development of such innovative products. Conversely, properly engineered nanomaterials are currently seen as one of the most promising tools for high resolution optical microscopy.The objective of ALTECH was to highlight metrology capabilities for both the determination of the key structural and material property parameters in view of a better understanding of the related functional properties. One major focus was the application of these techniques to new and complex material systems with high potential of industrial impact, including nanoscale objects (nanowires, quantum dots), nanostructured thin films of organic, hybrid, or inorganic semiconductors, and functionalized surfaces. A special focus was given to complementary metrology in terms of using different analytical techniques with the aim of ensuring accuracy and traceability, i.e. the inclusion of a well‐described uncertainty budget. As many of these techniques depend on modelling to achieve reliable results, effective material analysis and computational analysis of materials and thin layers were also a key topic.These proceedings contain a selection of 23 manuscripts published in pss (a) and pss (c). pss (c) is organized in three sections:– Analysis of surfaces and materials– Characterization of nanostructures– Study of thin films.We would like to thank all invited speakers, contributors and attendees for their high‐quality contributions and excellent discussions which made ALTECH a very successful meeting. We are grateful to the scientific committee and external colleagues who supported the symposium and the organisation of these proceedings as well as acted as session chairs and reviewers.We thank the E‐MRS headquarter staff for their assistance in organising the symposium as well as Wiley‐VCH for helping with the publication of these proceedings. We also would like to acknowledge the sponsorship of several companies and institutions (NPL, Berlin Partner, Rigaku, Elexience, EXSA, INRIM, AXO Dresden, Sentech), as well as the support of the European Union through the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP), projects IND07 ThinFilms and NEW01 TReND, IND54 Nanostrain, and IND56 Q‐AIMDS. The EMRP is jointly funded by the EMRP participating countries within EURAMET and the European Union.Andreas Nutsch, PTB, GermanyFernando Araujo de Castro, NPL, U.K.Christoph Adelmann, Imec, BelgiumBlanka Detlefs, CEA‐Leti, FranceGuest Editors

The viability of photocatalysis for air purification.

Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) air purification technology is reviewed based on the decades of research conducted by the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) and their external colleagues. UTRC conducted basic research on the reaction rates of various volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The knowledge gained allowed validation of 1D and 3D prototype reactor models that guided further purifier development. Colleagues worldwide validated purifier prototypes in simulated realistic indoor environments. Prototype products were deployed in office environments both in the United States and France. As a result of these validation studies, it was discovered that both catalyst lifetime and byproduct formation are barriers to implementing this technology. Research is ongoing at the University of Connecticut that is applicable to extending catalyst lifetime, increasing catalyst efficiency and extending activation wavelength from the ultraviolet to the visible wavelengths. It is critical that catalyst lifetime is extended to realize cost effective implementation of PCO air purification.

'Heinz' Harcourt's Collaborations: Over 57 Varieties

Harcourt’s experience with 57 collaborators has been both happenstance and deterministic. His record contains an impressive list of interactions that include two types of collaborators: present or past graduate students, and internal or external colleagues. Harcourt’s adventures in collaboration have involved personalities in the post-Keynesian world including Joan Robinson, Piero Sraffa, Paolo Sylos-Labini, John Hicks, Maurice Dobb and Luigi Pasinetti.

Launch of Brain and Behavior's Career Corner

Has your heart ever started racing when you are sitting in a scientific meeting and an insight suddenly hits you, but there is no question and answer session? Have you ever mulled over the seed of a really interesting new idea but cannot quite see how to develop it as a research proposal? Have you ever worked long and hard on a grant application, but have a nagging feeling that there is something about the significance that a review section might not see the same way you do? If the answer is yes to any of these questions then you are in good company. These experiences are common among those early in their career trying to make a transition from trainee to faculty or from mentored researcher to independent investigator. Fortunately for you, a unique opportunity has arrived. A new online scientific forum, just launched by Wiley Open Access, will allow you to jump into the scientific fray with both feet. You might even make a splash. Career Corner is a Wiley Open Access journal blog site linked to Wiley's newest online journal, Brain and Behavior. Its purpose is to promote intellectual exchange between clinician scientists at early stages of their careers and the larger scientific community. By serving as a forum for early career scientists to share their findings and discuss the process that led them to their research outcomes, Career Corner aims to facilitate mainstream scientific discourse while highlighting what training grants are capable of producing. Our audience is any research scientist in the early stages of career development (K-applicants, other early career award applicants, early career development grant awardees, trainees, residents, and faculty up to the associate professor level). As editor and coordinator of Career Corner, and member of the editorial board of Brain and Behavior, I invite you to join our effort. Primary content will be updated regularly in coordination with the main journal publication, but the blog will also run as an open dialogue of scientific debate between early career scientists and their senior and junior colleagues. Career Corner will provide both a ready forum for early career scientists to comment on articles of significant interest to them and a means by which early career scientists can have their ideas critiqued by established researchers from the international community. In pursuit of the content listed below, I will be soliciting editorial board members as well as pertinent external colleagues to review contributions and to write commentaries on early career original research articles published in the main journal. Early career scientists will also be strongly encouraged to enter the scientific debate by submitting their comments on both early career articles and those of established scientists. In addition, the blog will also encourage submission onto the blog site itself nascent research ideas, methodological questions, preliminary data, and other components of research proposals for commentary and advice by our members. Information will be cross-linked between the journal website and the blog. On the journal homepage, there will be a section pointing readers to the blog, as well as links to the blog on the article page for any article that is featured in the blog. For any blog entry pertaining to an article in the journal, there will be links provided to the original journal article. The following is a list of potential content for Career Corner. Because this is a unique enterprise among biomedical journals, we will welcome comments and suggestions from participants to help shape this forum and share in its evolution. Planned content is as follows: Invited commentaries about articles published in Brain and Behavior, along with blog posts of discussion between the corresponding author and other readers. Descriptions of proposed research studies under early career awards. Pilot data and proposed research methodology. Trial/experiment rational with power/sample size calculations. Hypothesis-driven approaches with literature review. Opinions describing the need for research in a chosen direction. Descriptions of pending applications (both basic and clinical pathways K-08 and K-23). Ongoing doctorate/postdoctorate research descriptions. Links to preliminary findings if individuals are interested in getting feedback about something that might lead to a Brain and Behavior full publication. Undergraduate students may also provide a contribution with a letter of support from supervising faculty assuring quality of research environment and plans to complete/publish the project. By establishing a single location where early career researchers can view examples of good work that is advancing the field, we anticipate enhancing the career development process for all who participate. Early careers will also be fostered by coordinating the blog with application cycles of NIH, EU, and other worldwide foundations (e.g., the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation) that fund early career investigators in neurology, neuroscience, and behavioral sciences. We look forward to your contributions, and cannot wait to see how far this enterprise can go.

Leading by learning, learning by leading

Data from a study of 81 exemplary secondary school teachers across the United States provide a portrait of how these teachers have become leaders whose influence and partnerships extend well beyond their classrooms and schools. Propelled by a deep personal desire to learn and a commitment to help students learn, the teachers are learners first, leaders second: their leadership occurs as a by-product of their learning. As teachers, they become pedagogical innovators in their quest to learn what helps students learn. They develop deep knowledge of students, curricula and pedagogy, in part by changing grade levels and schools, observing and learning from students, and consulting with parents. They seek specific professional development, internal and external colleagues and partnerships, professional organisations, and opportunities to team teach and observe peers. As they learn, they refine who they are as a person. Over time, the teachers find, accept or create ways to help colleagues by sharing innovations, ideas and insights. They contribute to and influence the profession by writing grants, serving as members or leaders of influential committees, providing professional development and leading change. Always focusing on learning, they quickly learn that leading opens many new possibilities for learning.

Building on Success: Assessment Categories for Experimental Noncancer End Points

Since 1978 the National Toxicology Program (NTP) has coordinated, developed, carried out, and informed the public about toxicology testing within the federal government. For chemical carcinogenesis bioassays, the NTP has long used a set of standardized criteria for classifying the relative strength of experimental outcomes. These criteria have enabled the NTP to assess the potential carcinogenicity of nearly 600 substances. Now the program is launching similar criteria for assessing other types of adverse effects, such as damage to the immune system, the reproductive system, and the developing organism. The new criteria attempt to impose a sense of uniformity to different types of toxicology data. “It’s very difficult to develop criteria for noncancer end points,” says Nancy Kerkvliet, a professor of immunotoxicology at Oregon State University, a former member of the NTP Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC), and chair of the Working Group that reviewed the new immunotoxicity classification criteria. “There’s such a variety of end points. It’s difficult to rank them for importance.” The NTP, aware of this inherent difficulty, hopes the levels-of-evidence criteria will allow better transference to public health decisions. Decades of cancer studies have provided a widely accepted template for assessing and evaluating the relative comparability and importance of various cancer study outcomes. First created in 1983, the NTP’s 5-tiered classification system describes the strength of evidence for conclusions for NTP chemical carcinogenesis studies. These classifications—which include 1) clear evidence, 2) some evidence, 3) equivocal evidence, 4) no evidence, and 5) inadequate study—are used to frame the conclusions per sex/species in the experiment cited in each NTP technical report. “These classifications have stood the test of time,” says Paul Foster, NTP discipline leader for reproductive and developmental toxicology. The strongest findings, which can be considered “clear evidence” of carcinogenic activity, are demonstrated by studies that are interpreted as showing a dose-related increase of malignant neoplasms, a combination of malignant and benign neoplasms, or benign neoplasms if there is any indication that such tumors could progress to malignancy. To help NTP staff decide on borderline cases, there are 15 additional reference points, or factors to be considered in addressing various aspects, such as “presence or absence of dose relationships” and “statistical significance of the observed tumor increase.” Using these criteria allows NTP staff to better develop consistent conclusions for multiple studies of the same substance and for comparing different chemicals under these same criteria. The NTP classification system is applied only to those studies conducted by the program. The 5 designations are intended to be solely a conclusion about whether a substance may potentially pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans. They are not intended to describe a carcinogenic risk to human health, but to be an integral part of the more formal risk assessment process that takes place at state and other federal agencies. This formal risk assessment requires additional evaluation of factors such as specific doses, routes, and likelihood of exposure as well as a whole host of other information including published bioassays and toxicology studies conducted by different organizations.

NIH consulting ban a matter of ethics

After months of deliberation, NIH director Elias A. Zerhouni formally announced on February 1, 2005, that federal scientists would be prohibited from consulting for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies, as well as for any research institute that receives funding from the NIH. The new rules, which are expected to be put into effect quickly, also limit NIH researchers' stock investments in drug and biotech companies to $15,000 and earnings from prizes and honorariums to only $200. The guidelines on consulting and accepting speaking fees were made liberal in the 1990s when former NIH director Harold Varmus was at the helm. Varmus encouraged outside consulting with the goal of recruiting better scientists to the NIH. But this policy drew widespread criticism for presenting researchers with potential conflicts of interest. In some cases, NIH employees accepted exorbitant, and perhaps unethical, consulting fees. The new guidelines have brought about mixed reactions from the research community. Some argue that the rules put federal scientists at a disadvantage compared with their academic colleagues, many of whom engage in outside pursuits to boost their salaries and promote scientific discovery. They also fear this will discourage good scientists from working for the NIH. Supporters of the plan feel that these rules are needed to ensure the public's trust in the NIH and that they will not negatively affect scientific exchange. Of course, NIH collaboration with academia and industry is critical to the advancement of science and for bench-to-bedside translation of research. The impact of the new regulations on NIH recruitment and interaction with external colleagues will be monitored as these guidelines are implemented.

Collaboration: An Essential Element in Curricular Reform

ABSTRACTPharmacy education, like other professional schools and higher education in general, is in the process of transforming its curriculum. It is the premise of this article that such curriculum revision must include not only changing curricular content but developing new organizational structures and environments in which the curriculum will be designed and delivered. One approach to creating new organizational structures is to engage in collaboration with internal and external colleagues and constituencies as part of the curriculum revision process. This article presents one school's experience in doing so, along with five guidelines for those who are attempting similar curricular reform.