Appropriate training for northern physicians.

It remains difficult to find appropriately trained physicians to work in isolated northern areas. Urban-based family medicine programs have not been able to provide appropriate training. The Northern Family Medicine Education (NorFam) Program of Memorial University of Newfoundland was created to fill this need. This paper reviews the NorFam Program and discusses current practice locations and the relevance of the program as reported by its graduates. From 1993 to 1995, the NorFam Program trained 14 residents. The residents participate in a variety of educational and training activities--all chosen to be as relevant to northern practice as possible. When the graduates were surveyed, nine had remained in northern/remote or rural practice and three were doing further medical training. All respondents reported that the NorFam Program gave them more relevant training for northern practice than they would have received in an urban-based family medicine program.

Fluorescence microscopy of the dynamics of supercoiling, folding, and condensation of bacterial chromosomes, induced by acridine orange.

The fluorescent dye, acridine orange, was used to visualize bacterial chromosomes extending from bacteria attached to a glass surface. The acridine-induced condensation of these chromosomes was followed in real-time with a low light level video camera. Acridine orange induced the packing of the bacterial chromosome into thick bundles which underwent various forms of condensation, supercoiling, folding, and rolling into a compact particle. Filaments attached to the surface at both ends were topologically constrained and supercoiled rapidly; whereas all three patterns of condensation were noted among filaments attached at only one end or free from the surface. Kinks often appeared in the filaments prior to supercoiling or folding, and the dynamic events observed often occurred around these kinks. These observations identify several mechanisms of condensation available to higher order structures of DNA, and indicate that kinks are an important intermediate step in many of the transitions.

Differential polarization imaging. III. Theory confirmation. Patterns of polymerization of hemoglobin S in red blood sickle cells.

In this paper we test the predictions of the differential polarization imaging theory developed in the previous two papers. A characterization of the patterns of polymerization of hemoglobin in red blood cells from patients with sickle cell anemia is presented. This system was chosen because it is relatively easy to handle and because previous studies have been done on it. A differential polarization microscope designed and built in our laboratory was used to carry out this study. This microscope uses an image dissector camera, a photoelastic modulator, and a phase-lock amplifier. This design represents a substantial modification with respect to the instrumentation used in the previous results communicated on this system. Therefore, the results presented here also permit us to confirm the validity of our conclusions. On the basis of the differential polarization images obtained, models of the patterns of polymerization of the hemoglobin S inside the sickle cells are proposed and their M12 and regular images are calculated by the theory. Good agreement between those models and the experimental systems is found, as well as with the results previously reported.

Health Care Providers Inventory: a method for evaluating nursing aides.

The Health Care Providers Inventory (HCPI) is a 70-item questionnaire containing five primary scales and a validity scale. It is a pre-employment instrument designed to evaluate American nursing aides. In this study, I determined that the HCPI is a reliable, non-discriminatory test. Concurrent, construct, and predictive validity data are reported, which indicate that the HCPI measures significant personality characteristics, and is of value to administrators in their hiring of suitable applicants and in the reduction of employee turnover in nursing homes.

Differential polarization imaging. III. Theory confirmation. Patterns of polymerization of hemoglobin S in red blood sickle cells.

In this paper we test the predictions of the differential polarization imaging theory developed in the previous two papers. A characterization of the patterns of polymerization of hemoglobin in red blood cells from patients with sickle cell anemia is presented. This system was chosen because it is relatively easy to handle and because previous studies have been done on it. A differential polarization microscope designed and built in our laboratory was used to carry out this study. This microscope uses an image dissector camera, a photoelastic modulator, and a phase-lock amplifier. This design represents a substantial modification with respect to the instrumentation used in the previous results communicated on this system. Therefore, the results presented here also permit us to confirm the validity of our conclusions. On the basis of the differential polarization images obtained, models of the patterns of polymerization of the hemoglobin S inside the sickle cells are proposed and their M12 and regular images are calculated by the theory. Good agreement between those models and the experimental systems is found, as well as with the results previously reported.