Challenge of culture, conscience, and contract to general practitioners' care of their own health: qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: To explore general practitioners' perceptions of the effects of their profession and training on their attitudes to illness in themselves and colleagues. DESIGN: Qualitative study using focus groups and in depth interviews. SETTING: Primary care in Northern Ireland. PARTICIPANTS: 27 general practitioners, including six recently appointed principals and six who also practised occupational medicine part time. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants' views about their own and colleagues' health. RESULTS: Participants were concerned about the current level of illness within the profession. They described their need to portray a healthy image to both patients and colleagues. This hindered acknowledgement of personal illness and engaging in health screening. Embarrassment in adopting the role of a patient and concerns about confidentiality also influenced their reactions to personal illness. Doctors' attitudes can impede their access to appropriate health care for themselves, their families, and their colleagues. A sense of conscience towards patients and colleagues and the working arrangements of the practice were cited as reasons for working through illness and expecting colleagues to do likewise. CONCLUSIONS: General practitioners perceive that their professional position and training adversely influence their attitudes to illness in themselves and their colleagues. Organisational changes within general practice, including revalidation, must take account of barriers experienced by general practitioners in accessing health care. Medical education and culture should strive to promote appropriate self care among doctors.

Intercalibration of SUMER and CDS on SOHO. II. SUMER Detectors A and B and CDS NIS.

Results of an intercalibration between the extreme-ultraviolet spectrometers Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) and Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are reported. The results of the joint observing program Intercal_01 are described, and intercalibration results up to July 2000 of both SUMER detectors A and B and of the CDS Normal Incidence Spectrometer (NIS) are presented. The instruments simultaneously observed radiance of emission lines at the center of the Sun, and three lines have been chosen for intercomparison: He i 584 A, Mg x 609 A, and Mg x 624 A. Initially the same area was observed by both instruments, but, after restrictions were imposed by the scanning mechanism of SUMER in November 1996, the instruments viewed areas of different sizes. Nevertheless, the temporal correlation between the two instruments remained good through June 1998, when contact with the SOHO spacecraft was lost. Until then the CDS instrument measured (33 ? 5)% and (38 ? 7)% (?1varsigma) higher intensity than SUMER in the He i 584-A line on average for detectors A and B, respectively. Data from SUMER detector B agreed well for Mg x 609 A and Mg x 624 A with the CDS intensities, showing offsets of (2 ? 10)% and (9 ? 15)%, much less than the data of detector A with offsets of (7 ? 8)% and (16 ? 7)% for the two lines, respectively, relative to CDS. Finally, the intercalibration measurements after the loss and recovery of the SOHO spacecraft are analyzed. The data for observations from November 1998 to July 2000 are compared, and it is shown that, although the responses of the instruments have changed, the CDS and the SUMER still perform well, and their temporal correlation is good.

Resorbable bioceramics based on stabilized calcium phosphates. Part I: rational design, sample preparation and material characterization.

It has long been the goal of biomaterials research in the field of orthopedics to develop synthetic structures exhibiting comprehensive bioactivity. In particular, an ideal bone-biomaterial would support the activity of osteoblasts in the development of new bone, while simultaneously being resorbed by osteoclasts as part of the lifelong orderly process of bone remodelling. Such resorbable calcium phosphate-based thin films and bulk ceramics have now been created by the high-temperature processing of a fine precipitate, formed from a colloidal sol and stabilized using an additive such as silicon. The materials have two characteristic features: a phase composition which is a mixture of calcium hydroxyapatite and a silicon stabilized tricalcium phosphate, and a microporous morphology based on inter-connected particles (0.2-1 microm in diameter). X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and light scattering experiments indicate that the characteristic phase composition arises during sintering through substitution reactions where silicon enters the calcium phosphate lattice under conditions of high chemical reactivity. The crystallographic features are linked through the glaserite form of the apatite structure.

Intercalibration of SUMER and CDS on SOHO. I. SUMER detector A and CDS NIS.

The results of an intercalibration between the extreme ultraviolet spectrometers Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) and Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are presented. During the joint observing program Intercal_01, CDS and SUMER were pointed at the same locations in quiet Sun areas and observed in the same wavelength bands located around the spectral lines He i 584 A, Mg x 609 A, and Mg x 624 A. The data sets analyzed here consist of raster images recorded by the CDS normal-incidence spectrometer and SUMER detector A and span the time from March 1996 to August 1996. Effects of the different spatial and spectral resolutions of both instruments have been investigated and taken into account in the analysis. We find that CDS measures generally a 30% higher intensity than SUMER in the He i 584-A line, while it measures 9% and 17% higher intensities in Mg x 609 A and Mg x 624 A, respectively. Both instruments show very good temporal correlation and stability, indicating that solar variations dominate over changes in instrumental sensitivity. Our analysis also provides in-flight estimates of the CDS spatial point-spread functions.