"Teaching capital"- a sociological analysis of medical educator portfolios for promotion.

Medical educator portfolios (MEP) are increasingly recognized as a tool for developing and documenting teaching performance in Health Professions Education. However, there is a need to better understand the complex interplay between institutional guidelines and how teachers decode those guidelines and assign value to teaching merits. To gain a deeper understanding of this dynamic, this study employed a sociological analysis to understand how medical educators aspiring to professorships use MEPs to display their teaching merits and how cultural capital is reflected in these artefacts. We collected 36 medical educator portfolios for promotion from a large research-intensive university and conducted a deductive content analysis using institutional guidelines that distinguished between mandatory (accounting for the total body of teaching conducted) and optional content (arguing for pedagogical choices and evidencing the quality, respectively). Our analysis showed that the portfolios primarily included quantifiable data about teaching activities, e.g., numbers of students, topics and classes taught. Notably, they often lacked evidence of quality and scholarship of teaching. Looking at these findings through a Bourdieusian lens revealed that teachers in this social field exchange objectified evidence of hours spent on teaching into teaching capital recognized by their institution. Our findings highlight how institutional guidelines for MEPs construct a pedagogical battlefield, where educators try to decode and exchange the "right" and recognized teaching capital. This indicates that MEPs reflect the norms and practices of the academic field more than individual teaching quality.

miR-151a induces partial EMT by regulating E-cadherin in NSCLC cells.

miR-151a and its host gene, focal adhesion kinase, FAK, are located in a region of chromosome 8q that is frequently amplified in solid tumors, including lung cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide and metastasis remains the major challenge in battling lung cancer mortality. Here, we demonstrate that miR-151a is overexpressed in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patient specimens, as compared to healthy lung. In addition, miR-151a overexpression promotes proliferation, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and induces tumor cell migration and invasion of NSCLC cells. Blocking miR-151a expression using anti-miR-151a approaches significantly reduced NCSLC cell proliferative and motility potential. Furthermore, we determined that miR-151a significantly regulates E-cadherin expression. Finally, functional rescue experiments determined that overexpression of E-cadherin in miR-151a NSCLC cell lines potently repressed miR-151a-induced partial EMT and cell migration of NSCLC cells. In conclusion, our findings suggest that miR-151a functions as an oncomiR in NSCLC by targeting E-cadherin mRNA and inducing proliferation, migration and partial EMT.

Legal and ethical aspects of Danish elder policy--progress, dilemmas, and challenges.

The article deals with the fundamental principles of Danish social and health law: individual rights to basic benefits for all elderly citizens, but also a right to supplementary benefits earned by one's own efforts. The principle of informed consent has been accepted by the medical and legal professions and has, from there, spread to care giving activities within the social services. There are many unsolved ethical and legal problems concerning the care of the frail and vulnerable elderly, especially those who are not capable of giving or refusing consent.

[Infertility and a mild degree of endometriosis]. / Infertilitet og mild grad af endometriose.

Laparoscopy of barren women in whom no other causes of impaired fertility can be demonstrated frequently reveals minimal areas of endometriosis. This review of the literature on infertility and mild endometriosis shows that there is no convincing study of the effectiveness of either surgical or specific forms of medical therapy for infertility and mild endometriosis. Continual treatment with gestagen may be tried. If this does not succeed the GIFT method may be applied.

Prevention of breast pain and milk secretion with bromocriptine after second-trimester abortion.

Within 24 hours after abortion, 62 patients with a mean gestational age of 19 weeks, who had either induced (n = 50) or spontaneous (n = 12) abortions were randomly allocated to three groups: Group 1, bromocriptine 2.5 mg twice daily for 2 weeks; Group 2, placebo tablets 1 tablet twice daily for 2 weeks; Group 3, no treatment. Fifty-two patients completed the study (bromocriptine n = 18, placebo n = 18 and no treatment n = 16). Placebo had no apparent influence on breast symptoms. In both the placebo group and the untreated group, breast pain and milk secretion peaked on days 3 to 7, and milk secretion often continued for 3 weeks. Only 3/34 (9%) of untreated and placebo treated patients were free of breast symptoms. Compared with placebo, bromocriptine caused a significant reduction in the objective assessment score of breast tenderness (p less than 0.05) and milk secretion (p less than 0.01), in serum prolactin (PRL) (p less than 0.001) and in the subjective assessment score of breast pain (p less than 0.01) and milk secretion (p less than 0.01). Alleviation of breast pain and prevention of milk secretion appears to be indicated after second-trimester abortion, and treatment with bromocriptine is efficacious.

[The LUF syndrome. A possible cause of unexplained infertility]. / LUF-syndromet. En årsag til "uforklarlig" infertilitet?

It is probable that one or several conditions may exist in which the oocyte is not released at the expected time of ovulation but where the follicle luteinizes around it. This cannot be demonstrated with the usual criteria for ovulation. A diphasic temperature curve, normal increase in progesterone and secretory development in the endometrium are observed. The reason for this phenomenon is not known but it may be induced experimentally by intake of prostaglandin-synthesis-inhibitors. It is difficult to determine with certainty in the individual case whether the egg has been released. The presence of an ovulation opening, a stigma which may be seen on the follicle by laparoscopy, marked increase in the concentration of progesterone and 17-beta-oestradiol in the peritoneal fluid and ultrasound demonstration of a collapsed follicle are good indicies. Defective release of the egg cell probably occurs periodically in cycli in normal fertile women but the condition appears to be more frequent in infertile women with endometriosis, with changes after pelvic inflammation and with "unexplained" infertility. As definite criteria for the condition are not available, no convincing investigations of the frequency are available and no controlled investigations of therapeutic method exist. Gametic intrafallopian transfer and in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer have been proposed as therapeutic measures.