Evidence for on-line visual guidance during saccadic gaze shifts.

Rapid orientating movements of the eyes are believed to be controlled ballistically. The mechanism underlying this control is thought to involve a comparison between the desired displacement of the eye and an estimate of its actual position (obtained from the integration of the eye velocity signal). This study shows, however, that under certain circumstances fast gaze movements may be controlled quite differently and may involve mechanisms which use visual information to guide movements prospectively. Subjects were required to make large gaze shifts in yaw towards a target whose location and motion were unknown prior to movement onset. Six of those tested demonstrated remarkable accuracy when making gaze shifts towards a target that appeared during their ongoing movement. In fact their level of accuracy was not significantly different from that shown when they performed a 'remembered' gaze shift to a known stationary target (F-3,F-15 = 0.15, p > 0.05). The lack of a stereotypical relationship between the skew of the gaze velocity profile and movement duration indicates that on-line modifications were being made. It is suggested that a fast route from the retina to the superior colliculus could account for this behaviour and that models of oculomotor control need to be updated.

Masks as self-study. Challenging and sustaining teachers’ personal and professional personae in early–mid career life phases

Drawing on previous research identifying how teachers’ capacities to sustain their effectiveness in different phases of their professional lives are affected positively and/or negatively by their sense of identity, this paper illuminates three early–mid career teachers’ self-study inquiries, centring on mask work. The creative development of individual masks discloses teachers’ complex, occasionally
dislocated narratives of personal/professional identity. Subsequent improvisation with their masks is shown to engage teachers emotionally with tensions and dissonances within and between their various personae and personal, professional and political contexts at each of their respective career life phases. Storylines ultimately become reframed and, in a number of instances, lay claim to reinvigorated commitment, self-determination and initiatives for change.

Medical Students' views of a career in Geriatric Medicine; Multi-Centre Qualitative Analysis

Medical students frequently have negative preconceptions of a career in Geriatric Medicine. In ta qualitative analysis of the free text from 789 response from Medical students in Scotland and Northern Ireland, we show that clinical attachment seffectively challenge negative student views and more positive statements about future careers in Geriatric Medicine emerged at the end of the attachment.

Donor identification and consent for deceased organ donation: summary of NICE guidance.

Organ donation plays a major role in the management of patients with single organ failure of the kidneys, liver, pancreas, heart, or lung, or with combined organ failure of heart and lung (such as in cystic fibrosis) or of kidney and pancreas (such as in diabetes). A shortage of transplant organs has resulted in long waits for transplantation. Currently about 500 people in the United Kingdom die each year because of a shortage of donated organs,1 and at 31 March 2011 almost 7000 patients were waiting for a kidney transplant1 and would be having costly dialysis with serious morbidity and impact on quality of life. This shortage of organs is partly the result of relatively low numbers of road traffic deaths (lower than in many countries) but is also the result of inefficiencies in the donor identification and consent processes. This article summarises the most recent recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on improving donor identification and consent rates for deceased organ donation.2