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PubMed2002

Lessons not learned from the generalist initiatives.

The grouping of the primary care specialties (general internal medicine, general pediatrics, and family medicine) for research purposes is at best limiting the value of the information that is found and, at worst, leading researchers to erroneous conclusions. For example, three large studies each showed differences in abilities to predict students' specialty choices in primary care (e.g., in one study, the investigators correctly predicted 3% of those choosing general internal medicine, 29% considering general pediatrics, and 51% considering family medicine). These and related findings suggest that medical students entering the three primary care specialties are not a homogeneous group. While there were some factors predictive for all primary care specialties, there were more factors that were unique to the individual specialties Grouping the specialties may not reveal factors that are significantly related to only one of the specialties. In addition, when a variable operates in different ways for different specialties, findings where the specialties are combined can show a reduced effect of that variable or even no effect, because the directions of effects cancel each other. Researchers can fruitfully examine the primary care specialties as a group but at the same time report their data for the individual specialties, which would greatly increase our knowledge both of primary care and also about the similarities and dissimilarities of its component specialties. However, the best models continue to be either research in which the sample size is large enough to compare specialty groups statistically or research with a focus on just one of the primary care specialties.

Career Choice↗
PubMed2006

Nutritional value of cannibalism and the role of starvation and nutrient imbalance for cannibalistic tendencies in a generalist predator.

1. Cannibalism is considered an adaptive foraging strategy for animals of various trophic positions, including carnivores. However, previous studies on wolf spiders have questioned the high nutritional value of cannibalism. We therefore analysed two different aspects of nutritional quality of conspecifics in the wolf spider Pardosaprativaga: their value for survival, growth and development; and the growth efficiency of feeding on conspecifics. We also measured the propensity for cannibalistic attacks and the consumption rate of conspecifics in an experiment where hunger level and nutrient balance were manipulated. In all experiments, cannibalism was compared with predation on fruit flies as control prey. 2. The growth experiment gave ambiguous results regarding the nutritional quality of conspecifics. Spiders on pure cannibalistic diets split into two distinct groups, one performing much better and the other much worse than spiders on fruit fly diets. We discuss the possibility that the population is dimorphic in its cannibalistic propensity, with the latter group of individuals showing a high level of inhibition against cannibalistic attacks in spite of a high nutritional value of cannibalism. 3. The food utilization experiment confirmed the high nutritional quality of conspecifics, as cannibalistic spiders had the same growth rate as spiders fed insect prey in spite of a much lower consumption rate. 4. Inhibition against cannibalistic attacks was demonstrated in medium-sized juveniles: only half of the spiders attacked a prescribed victim of 50% the size of their opponents, and the latency for those that did attack was more than half an hour, compared with a few minutes for spiders fed fruit flies. 5. Nutrient-imbalanced spiders utilized an alternative insect diet less efficiently than balanced spiders, whereas no difference was present in efficiency of utilizing conspecifics. This result indicates that spiders can remedy at least part of a nutrient imbalance through cannibalism. 6. As spiders can escape nutritional imbalance as well as restore energy reserves through cannibalism, we predicted both nutrient imbalance and hunger to stimulate cannibalism. This prediction was confirmed only with respect to hunger. Nutrient-imbalanced spiders had reduced cannibalistic consumption, perhaps due to lowered predatory aggressiveness as a result of bad condition.

Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena↗
PubMed2005

Electronic delivery of research summaries for academic generalist doctors: a randomised trial of an educational intervention.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether weekly e-mails of structured, critically appraised summaries of new articles, within the format of a Weekly Browsing Journal Club (WBJC), would encourage use of evidence in practice. DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial. METHOD: A sample of 107 academic general internists were randomly assigned to receive either the WBJC (n = 54) or a health news website (n = 53) by e-mail on a weekly basis for 3 months. Participants completed a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire that measured their use of evidence in practice, attitudes about the role of evidence in practice, critical appraisal ability and reading habits. RESULTS: Of 107 participants, 90% completed the trial. At baseline, when faced with questions, they found answers on which to base their clinical decisions 67% of the time. Participants incorporated evidence into patient care for 60% of patients and read evidence to help make decisions for 25%. After 3 months, the groups did not differ in the use of evidence in practice. Changes in attitudes toward the role of evidence in practice and in self-perceived critical appraisal ability were also similar. The subjects spent 2.2 hours reading 4.3 journals per week. Weekly reading time decreased by 10 minutes in the WBJC group, but increased by 26 minutes in the control group (P = 0.02). At study completion, 82% of the WBJC group were satisfied with the intervention and 90% asked to continue. CONCLUSION: While doctors appreciated these summaries, which improved their reading efficiency, the intervention had little impact on their use of research evidence in practice.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Barcoding generalist predators by polymerase chain reaction: carabids and spiders.

Identification of arthropod predators is challenging when closely related species are found at a given locality. Identification of the immature stages is especially problematic, because distinguishing morphological features are difficult to use or have not been described. We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to distinguish closely related carabids and spiders, and to match eggs and larvae (or nymphs) with identified adult parents. Within the Carabidae, we amplified species-specific mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) fragments for three species each in the genera Poecilus and Harpalus, and two each in Chlaenius and Bembidion. Within the Araneae, we amplified species-specific COI fragments for two Hibana species (Anyphaenidae), Pardosa milvina and Rabidosa rabida (Lycosidae), Frontinella communis and Grammonota texana (Linyphiidae), and Cheiracanthium inclusum (Miturgidae). We are able to correctly identify all immature stages tested--eggs, larvae (or nymphs) and pupae--by comparison of the amplified fragments with those of the adults. Using COI markers as species identifiers is a tenet of the Barcode of Life initiative, an international consortium to provide a molecular identifier for every animal species.

Animals↗