Search

Rationale: Public health and preventive medicine (PHPM) has been recognized internationally as a physician specialty, but national parallels and differences exist between training contexts. This paper reviews PHPM training and employment in Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Methods: Information gathered from relevant accreditation bodies and literature searches was used to create descriptive profiles of national training demographics and structure and a narrative outlining trends and challenges facing the specialty. Results: Notable similarities and differences exist between national contexts. Key themes were differences in training strategies and practice scope, specialty stakeholders, certification structure, and funding. Recognition challenges faced the specialty across all six countries. Other challenges included unclear competencies and training strategies and a need for PHPM specialists to highlight their role in combating population health threats. Additional differences existed between comparator countries on the structure of training, funding sources for training programs, availability of training posts, and linkages with other physician specialties. Conclusion: Highlighting these themes is a first step to fostering training collaborations between PHPM specialist physicians to augment transnational action on global public health challenges and also supports PHPM physician educators with innovative solutions from abroad that might address domestic specialty challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tunnel Sealing Experiment (TSX) was an international project developed by Canada, Japan, France, and the United States. The TSX consisted of a clay bulkhead and a concrete bulkhead. The two bulkheads were at opposite ends of a 12-m-long sand-filled chamber. The heating phase involved the circulation of heated water through the TSX chamber to raise the temperature of the sealing system. This was done to evaluate the influence of elevated temperature on the performance of the bulkheads. Numerical analyses to simulate the thermohydromechanical evolution of the clay bulkhead and the surrounding rock of the TSX were performed using MOTIF finite-element program and compared with measured data. This paper focuses on a preliminary interpretation of the results from the fully coupled thermohydromechanical modeling of the clay bulkhead and the adjacent rock during heating. Discussion of the issues that will affect the ability to model a field application is provided in the course of comparing simulated and measured results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]