An investigation of the attitudes and fears of vocational dental practitioners in England and wales in 2007

AIM

The aim of this study was to investigate whether recent changes in the National Health Service (NHS) dental contract may have caused increased anxiety and concern among vocational dental practitioners (VDPs).

METHOD

A total of 606 questionnaires, which had previously been piloted, were distributed to VDPs across England and Wales at the end of the vocational training (VT) year in 2007. The questionnaires contained a range of questions about VDPs' attitudes and fears, the influence that they perceived the new dental contract for the General Dental Services of the NHS had on their VT training experience, and their expectations for the future.

RESULTS

A 71% response rate was achieved. The results reflected changes in opinion about the dental profession among VDPs between when they applied for university and six years later on their completion of VT. During this period, they reported that their feelings of job security had declined from 93.1% (n=390) to 34.1% (n=145) and financial security from 94.8% (n=405) to 51.5% (n=219). Anxiety about the potential lack of funding in the NHS was felt by 77.6% (n=330). The effect of increasing numbers of dental graduates on employment prospects produced anxiety in 72.5% (n=305) of VDPs. On completion of VT, 19.4% (n=83) of VDPs did not have employment for the following year.

CONCLUSION

At present, the future is more uncertain for new dental graduates than in the past. The dental profession needs to become more aware of the pressures that graduates are facing and further research is needed to investigate them and the effects that they are having on the future of dentistry.

Response to stimulation-evoked eccentric muscle contractions in hypertensive rats

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the functional deficits observed in the skeletal muscles of adult, spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) arise because of an inability of injured muscles to regenerate normally in the hypertensive environment.

METHODS

Force decline and recovery were evaluated in SHR tibialis anterior (TA) at various times after a series of 192 eccentric contractions (EC). EC were produced by supramaximal electrical stimulation of the sciatic nerve in anesthetized rats. Experiments compared TA muscles in 3- and 6-month-old SHR with TA in age-matched, normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) after one or three exposures to the EC protocol. The repeat exposures were separated by 10 d.

RESULTS

TA in SHR and WKY rats experienced a similar decline in strength and a similar level of recovery after one or three exposures to 192 EC. TA in both strains showed a similar 10-15% increase in dry weight and cross-sectional area after three exposures to the EC protocol. Contractile strength increased by 16-28% in WKY TA after three exposures to EC, but the increase was limited to 7% in 3-month SHR TA and was not evident in 6-month SHR TA, despite the 15% increase in muscle mass.

CONCLUSIONS

The data indicate that muscle mass and strength can increase in response to electrically evoked EC and that an increase in strength can be significantly greater than an increase in mass after the first few exposures to EC in normotensive animals. Maintained hypertension does not increase the loss of contractile strength after vigorous EC but limits or prevents the EC-induced increase in muscle strength that accompanies repeated exposure to the protocol.

Electrospray ionization-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry at 11.5 tesla: instrument design and initial results

Initial results obtained using a new electrospray ionization (ESI) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer operated at a magnetic field 11.5 tesla are presented. The new instrument utilized an electrostatic ion guide between the ESI source and FTICR trap that provided up to 5% overall transmission efficiency for light ions and up to 30% efficiency for heavier biomolecules. The higher magnetic field in combination with an enlarged FTICR ion trap made it possible to substantially improve resolving power and operate in a more robust fashion for large biopolymers compared to lower field instruments. Mass resolution up to 10(6) has been achieved for intermediate size biopolymers such as bovine ubiquitin (8.6 kDa) and bovine cytochrome c (12.4 kDa) without the use of frequency drift correction methods. A mass resolution of 370,000 has been demonstrated for isotopically resolved molecular ions of bovine serum albumin (66.5 kDa). Comparative measurements were made with the same spectrometer using a lower field 3.5-tesla magnet allowing the performance gains to be more readily quantified. Further improvements in pumping capacity of the vacuum system and efficiency of ion transmission from the source are expected to lead to further substantial sensitivity gains.

A low-cost microcomputer-based data acquisition and analysis system for an electron spin resonance spectrometer: data handling of dilute spin labeled nucleic acids

This article describes the construction of an inexpensive and reliable data acquisition system for a Varian E-line Century Series ESR spectrometer utilizing an Apple II Plus microcomputer. All necessary hardware is readily available and used without modification. A BASIC program for routine collection, display, plotting and disk storage of experimental data has been written and subsequently compiled into machine code for high speed operation. The interface offers distinct advantages in spectral resolution as well as instrument control. An example of signal enhancement via computer controlled time averaging is presented for a spin labeled DNA experiment. The technique has recently been applied to studies of relative binding affinities of gene-32 protein for various spin-labeled polynucleotides.