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James Arwyn-Jones,1,* Sanjana Bhalla,1,* Vikas Acharya,1 Issa Beegun,2 Zaid Awad,1 Neil Tolley1 1Otolaryngology Department, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, The Bays, London W2 1NY, UK; 2Otolaryngology Department, Barts Health NHS Trust, Trust Headquarters, The Royal London Hospital, London, E1 2ES, UK*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: James Arwyn-JonesUndergraduate Education Office, Reynolds Building, Imperial College London, Charing Cross Campus, St Dunstan’s Road, London W6 8RP, UKTel +442033115811Email james.jones12@nhs.netObjective: We hypothesize that poor consideration of specialist surgery is due to a lack of exposure to information about careers and practice itself. Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) surgery is given little weight in medical school curricula, despite ENT problems being extremely common. Our objective is to assess whether a specialty showcase day was sufficient to boost informed consideration of this career.Design: We designed a half-day course involving an interactive careers workshop exploring ENT as a specialty choice, alongside simulation stations of commonly presenting ENT problems led by ENT doctors. We used pre- and post-course evaluation sheets to explore factors that encourage and discourage students from surgical careers and perceptions of ENT.Setting: A large proportion of UK medical schools do not offer ENT placements, and of those that do, nearly half are not compulsory. This leaves students unaware of ENT as a career option and unclear about what an ENT career comprises. Our half-day course took place in the simulation suite at St Mary’s Hospital, London.Participants: Medical students were mainly in their third year of study and had aspirations towards a variety of surgical and non-surgical careers, with a minority aspiring towards ENT before the course.Results: Our results demonstrate that all students found the session useful and had a much better understanding of ENT practice, with almost all students leaving more likely to consider a career in ENT.Conclusion: We would like to repeat this session in different student year groups and compare their perceptions with our results. We find our results a good case for including informative careers workshops as part of medical school teaching. We pose that interactive workshops exploring specialist surgical careers are a valid way to enable students in making informed career decisions – particularly in specialties that are under-represented at medical school.Keywords: undergraduate education, careers, specialist surgery, otorhinolaryngology, simulation

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; illusion; neural network; perception EN Artificial Intelligence illusion neural network perception 1 3 3 08/09/22 20220714 NES 220714 How do we interpret patterns of light on our retina, and recreate from this our perception of landscapes, objects, and people? It could be argued that the cell remains a face neuron, but since the input is a degraded image of a face, it is just a bit less active. Exceptions to this "semantic" view of face neurons have already been reported to some extent by showing that these neurons respond somewhat to round objects and other subsets of face features. [Extracted from the article]

The current study was undertaken to identify the sources of tolerance to bruchid in cowpea, by screening a set of germplasm accessions as a source for natural resistance. A total of 103 diverse accessions of cowpea were evaluated for resistance to Callosobruchus maculatus Fab. under no-choice artificial infestation conditions. Significant differences among the cowpea accessions were observed for oviposition, adult emergence, exit holes and per cent seed weight loss (PSWL) caused by the bruchid infestation. The accessions showed variation in physical seed parameters viz., colour, shape, testa texture, length, width and seed hardness. Among the seed biochemical parameters studied, per cent sugar content ranged from 0.322 (IC330950) to 1.493 (IC249137), and per cent phenol content ranged from 0.0326 (EC390261) to 1.081 (EC528423). Correlation studies indicated that PSWL had significant positive correlation (r = 0.335) with exit holes, oviposition (r = 0.219), adult emergence (r = 0.534) and seed roundness (r = 0.219). Adult emergence had a significant negative correlation with seed hardness (r = −0.332). Correlation with biochemical parameters indicated that PSWL had a significant positive correlation (r = 0.231) with sugar content and a significant negative correlation with phenol content (r = −0.219). None of the accessions were found to be immune to bruchid infestation. However, out of studied accessions, EC528425 and EC528387 were identified as resistant based on PSWL and moderately resistant based on adult emergence. These resistance sources of cowpea germplasm can be used as potential donors for development of bruchid tolerant/resistant cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To ascertain whether simulation-based teaching is superior to lecture-based teaching for an induction programme using a home-made induction model. Methods: A simulation-based induction programme was designed and separate lecture-based teaching covering the same content was organised for junior doctors. The junior doctors were asked to complete pre- and post-induction surveys regarding confidence and anxiety levels. The skills taught included microsuction, flexible nasendoscopy, and anterior and posterior nasal packing. Structured interviews were conducted after the programme to gain qualitative data for analysis. The trainees' knowledge retention was compared using a standardised written assessment one month after the session. Results: Simulation-based teaching using the induction model was associated with a statistically significant increase in confidence levels and reduction in anxiety levels, and was associated with greater knowledge retention. Conclusion: A regular simulation induction programme should be introduced using the induction model, as it leads to better knowledge retention and increased confidence levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The north-western Himalaya is one of the rich repositories of wheat genetic resources because of the preponderance of locally developed traditional crop varieties owing to high agro-climatic heterogeneity and local socio-cultural diversity. In the present study, 100 wheat landraces of this diversity rich region were evaluated for variability in physical parameters of seed to understand the basis of resistance against rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae. The evaluation was based on the parameter of growth index (GI) of S. oryzae in different landraces. GI was correlated with different quantitative physical seed parameters, viz. hardness, length, width, length × width, test weight and qualitative parameter seed colour were studied to work out if these were related to resistance/susceptibility. Based on the parameter of GI, the six landraces viz. IC266831, IC266872, IC393109, IC392578, IC444217 and IC589276 were identified as resistant. Correlation coefficients between GI of S. oryzae and physical parameters of wheat landraces indicated that GI had significant positive relation with length × width (r = +0.573) and test weight (r = +0.549) indicated that small seeds confer resistance to S. oryzae. Also significant negative relation (r = −0.457) with GI of S. oryzae and seed hardness, indicated that hard seeds were relatively more resistant to S. oryzae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the possibility of using the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) technique for structural health monitoring (SHM) of underground rock structures. The underground structures are complex in design and require continuous inspection for their maintenance. However, some of the underground areas are inaccessible for the inspection team or might warrant a special clearing arrangement, leaving the structure out of service. The complexity in their design, their construction, and the conditions encountered during service life necessitate the deployment of a dedicated SHM system. Sometimes the stress ratio in rock because of overburden stress and tectonic activities may reach a high value exceeding threshold, which may lead to rock bursts and subsequent failure of the structure. The SHM technique becomes important for underground infrastructure to enable timely detection of the damage caused by any anticipated or unanticipated loads. In the present study, rock specimens have been tested in a laboratory environment under saturated, as well as dry, conditions, under pre-loaded stress conditions by applying continuous quasi-static loading, so as to simulate the near-real-life underground conditions. The EMI technique is used for damage monitoring. The vibrations generated by the actuation of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) patch are sensed by the same PZT patch and recorded in the form of conductance and susceptance signatures. The signatures have been quantified using root-mean-square-deviation (RMSD) method. The test results clearly establish the potential of the EMI technique in detecting and quantifying load-induced damage in dry, as well as saturated, conditions in the underground structures, opening avenues for applications in real-life situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Gastric carcinoma is a leading cause of death worldwide with a five year survival of 10-15% even after curative resection. Trastuzumab has emerged as a potential targeted therapy in treatment of Her 2 positive gastric cancer. Her2 positivity ranges from 7-34% in studies across the world. There is a paucity of Indian studies hence a need for determination of Her2 expression in Indian population for better patient management. This study was carried out to determine the frequency of Her 2 expression in gastric carcinoma by immunohistochemistry (IHC) technique and to evaluate its association with histopathological parameters.Material and Methods: A total of 110 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma diagnosed on histopathological examination from July 2013 to June 2015 were included. Of these, 40 cases were resection specimens and 70 were biopsies. Histological typing of gastric carcinoma was done on the basis of Lauren classification. IHC for Her2 was done in all 110 cases. Her 2 expression was correlated with various histopathological parameters.Results: Positive Her 2 expression (IHC 3+) was seen in 24.5% cases of gastric carcinoma. Patients in older age group(> 60 years) showed higher Her 2 positivity rate as compared to middle age (40-60 years) and younger population (<40 years). Higher percentage of Her 2 positivity was noted in male patients as compared to female patients. Her 2 positivity was seen more commonly in intestinal type of tumor as compared to diffuse and mixed types. Her 2 positivity was seen more in well differentiated carcinoma and higher stage tumors (pT3 and pT4). However, out of all, a statistically significant association of Her2 expression was found only with (intestinal) type of tumors (p= 0.005) and no significant association was seen with age, gender, site of tumor, tumor stage, lymph node status, lymphovascular, perineural and perinodal invasion or survival.Conclusion: Inspired by promising results of Trastuzumab therapy in Her 2 positive gastric carcinoma worldwide, it is recommended to routinely test all cases of gastric carcinoma for Her 2 expression and to use the targeted therapy with curative intentions in Indian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of 51 accessions of different Lens spp. viz., Lens culinaris (cultivated) and L. culinaris subsp. odemensis, L. culinaris subsp. orientalis, L. orientalis, L. nigricans, L. lamottei and L. ervoides (wild species) were screened for their reaction to Callosobruchus chinensis under no-choice artificial infestation conditions to find the sources of resistance. Significant differences among the accessions in terms of number of eggs laid, development period, adult emergence, number of emergence holes of C. chinensis loss in seed weight on different Lens spp. were observed. Of the seven species tested, L. culinaris was the most preferred one for egg laying while L. ervoides was the least preferred. Based on Growth Index (GI), accessions were categorised as highly resistant (15 accessions, GI = 0.00), resistant (14, GI=0.00 to 1.00), moderately resistant (16, GI=1.01 to 2.00) moderately susceptible (3, GI 2.01 to 3.00) susceptible (3, >3.01) to C. chinensis and the species have been arranged in the order of their resistance to C. chinensis. viz L. ervoides > L. lamottei > L. nigricans= L. orientalis > L. culinaris subsp. orientalis=L. culinaris subsp. odemensis > L. culnaris, i.e. L. ervoides was highly resistant and L. culnaris was the most susceptible. Correlation between GI and growth parameters of pulse beetle on different Lens spp. accessions indicated that GI had negative relationship with mean development period (-0.22) and significant positive relationship with adult emergence (+0.73), weight loss (+0.77) and eggs laid (+0.75). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]