Subspecialty Selection and Fellowship Training Satisfaction among American and Canadian Geriatric Psychiatry Fellows.

The Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Subspecialty survey aimed to identify key motivating factors associated with choosing geriatric psychiatry as a career, and to assess training satisfaction among geriatric psychiatry fellows/residents in Canada and the United States. American and Canadian geriatric psychiatry program directors were asked to distribute an online survey to their fellows. Descriptive statistics for quantitative items and Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to assess for differences by country of training. Thirty-one geriatric psychiatry fellows completed the survey. The most important motivating factors for pursuing a career in geriatric psychiatry were found to be "working with patients and families", "working in an interdisciplinary environment", and "intellectual stimulation". Fellows' overall training satisfaction was high, with American fellows more satisfied than Canadian residents (p = .047) on average, especially with regard to biomedical aspects of training (p = .01).

Potential analytical applications of lysenin channels for detection of multivalent ions.

Transmembrane protein transporters possessing binding sites for ions, toxins, pharmaceutical drugs, and other molecules constitute excellent candidates for developing sensitive and selective biosensing devices. Their attractiveness for analytical purposes is enhanced by the intrinsic amplification capabilities shown when the binding event leads to major changes in the transportation of ions or molecules other than the analyte itself. The large-scale implementation of such transmembrane proteins in biosensing devices is limited by the difficulties encountered in inserting functional transporters into artificial bilayer lipid membranes and by the limitations in understanding and exploiting the changes induced by the interaction with the analyte for sensing purposes. Here, we show that lysenin, a pore-forming toxin extracted from earthworm Eisenia foetida, which inserts stable and large conductance channels into artificial bilayer lipid membranes, functions as a multivalent ion-sensing device. The analytical response consists of concentration and ionic-species-dependent macroscopic conductance inhibition most probably linked to a ligand-induced gating mechanism. Multivalent ion removal by chelation or precipitation restores, in most cases, the initial conductance and demonstrates reversibility. Changes in lipid bilayer membrane compositions leading to the absence of voltage-induced gating do not affect the analytical response to multivalent ions. Microscopic current analysis performed on individual lysenin channels in the presence of Cu(2+) revealed complex open-closed transitions characterized by unstable intermediate sub-conducting states. Lysenin channels provide an analytical tool with a built-in sensing mechanism for inorganic and organic multivalent ions, and the excellent stability in an artificial environment recommend lysenin as a potential candidate for single-molecule detection and analysis.

Variability in Nontarget Terrestrial Plant Studies Should Inform Endpoint Selection.

Inherent variability in nontarget terrestrial plant (NTTP) testing of pesticides creates challenges for using and interpreting these data for risk assessment. Standardized NTTP testing protocols were initially designed to calculate the application rate causing a 25% effect (ER25, used in the United States) or a 50% effect (ER50, used in Europe) for various measures based on the observed dose-response. More recently, the requirement to generate a no-observed-effect rate (NOER), or, in the absence of an NOER, the rate causing a 5% effect (ER05), has raised questions about the inherent variability in, and statistical detectability of, these tests. Statistically significant differences observed between test and control groups may be a product of this inherent variability and may not represent biological relevance. Attempting to derive an ER05 and the associated risk-assessment conclusions drawn from these values can overestimate risk. To address these concerns, we evaluated historical data from approximately 100 seedling emergence and vegetative vigor guideline studies on pesticides to assess the variability of control results across studies for each plant species, examined potential causes for the variation in control results, and defined the minimum percent effect that can be reliably detected. The results indicate that with current test design and implementation, the ER05 cannot be reliably estimated. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:639-648. © 2018 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).