Direct Education Scheduler
Homogeneous tuberculosis treatment ineffective in children
DALLAS Feb. 10, 2011 The realization of medically treating different children uniquely may start with one of the deadliest diseases in existence: tuberculosis.
New findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers indicate that the type of medications and the dosage routinely used to treat children with the disease should be individualized to each young patient in order to be effective.
The findings, available online and in the February issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, show that currently recommended doses are much too low and that a childs weight, age and medical history are among a myriad of factors that can affect his or her response to a particular drug used to combat the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium, which causes the disease.
Children are growing and changing and, unlike in adults, Mycobacterium tuberculosis manifests itself in children as many different diseases, causing problems all over the body, said Dr. Tawanda Gumbo, associate professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern and the studys lead author.
Texas scientists seek better drug-addiction treatments
DALLAS Feb. 3, 2011 UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatry researchers are leading the Texas arm of a national network that conducts clinical trials aimed at finding effective treatments for drug addiction.
More than 100 community treatment providers and academic medical centers throughout the country are funded in part through the National Institute on Drug Abuses Clinical Trials Network (CTN). The Texas component includes partnerships between academic and community treatment providers in Dallas, El Paso, Austin and Houston. It is led by Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern.
The effects of drugs on the brain are very clear, but we still need long-term answers that cure people who abuse drugs and prevent them from relapse, Dr. Trivedi said. I applaud NIDA for funding the infrastructure at academic institutions to research therapies in real-world treatment centers that will lead to ready-to-launch cures.
Standing out and finding success
When the economy is in trouble and the job market isn’t brilliant, a standard choice for many is to stay in education (or return to it) and take a higher qualification.
Getting another shiny new piece of paper that sets you above the rest seems like a good idea.
But how distinctive is it really?
BBC’s Director of the North, Peter Salmon, spoke to students at Edge Hill University recently about opportunities and finding success. He said something that may lead you to question why another qualification isn’t necessarily enough to truly make you stand out:
“You have to be able to develop your own voice and make yourself distinctive and ask yourself how far you’re prepared to go to make it.”
The sentence may appear quite vague and difficult to achieve, but there’s a deeper point here. Another BBC employee, the head of editorial development, Pete Clifton, said to Salford students:
“When somebody like me looks at job applications, I’ve got to come up with a way of distinguishing between people. One of those ways i
10 things to check when reading for research purposes
Just because it’s published, doesn’t mean it’s true.
When you’re researching, think about the following ten things before you accept what you’re reading:
- Who wrote the piece – What’s their perspective, intention, bias, belief, and so on?
- When it was written – Is the information relevant and accurate to today?
- The methodology – Is it clear and does it cover enough ground to be accurate, consistent & useful?
- Any obvious bias – Is it written in a searching way, or is it trying to persuade you it’s correct?
- References & sources used – Have they covered enough ground and are the sources trustworthy and worthy of use?
- Missing links & blind spots – If something is missing, has it been left out deliberately, or is it merely an oversight?
- Lack of references, generalisation and stating points as if they are facts (but are not) – Are you reading an opinion piece or an academic study?
- Your own understanding & opinion - You should never believe what you read just because it’s in a journal or written by a respected academic. What perspective do you have