“WE CAME TO TALK WITH THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE DISEASE:” COMMUNICATION AND CONTROL IN MEDICAL EDUCATION

To explore the ways in which biomedical culture responds to the new curricular addition of communication skills training, we observed activities related to the communication skills training of a class of 70 first-year medical students in an Israeli medical school during 2002–3. In addition, focus groups were conducted with medical students (n = 210) during 1998–2001. A gap was found between the rhetoric of “patient-centered communication” and “empathy” and the traditional concerns of medical authority, efficiency, and scientism. Communication skills and empathy training were appropriated into medical socialization by being reconstructed as clinical competence. Findings are further discussed in the context of medical professionalism, Israeli culture, service acting and service roles, and organizational learning.     

Developmental instability of vascular plants in contrasting microclimates at ‘Evolution Canyon’

Rocellaria dubia bores into subtidal rocks of karsted limestone in the Adriatic Sea and elsewhere. It also bores into the shells of various bivalve species. The mechanism of boring has hitherto been debated, but examination of occupied shells suggest that this is achieved by mechanical (the shell) abrasion and chemical etching using secretions produced from glands in the anterior mantle. Fast‐growing bivalves such as Ostrea edulis and Pinna nobilis carry heavy R. dubia burdens, and encapsulate the borer in secreted calluses. Slow‐growing bivalves such as the burrowing Venus verrucosa and Glycymeris violacescens carry low R. dubia burdens, are less able to encapsulate the borers, and probably incur enhanced mortalities as a result. Individuals of R. dubia removed from their limestone boreholes re‐secreted adventitious tubes around their siphons, probably from glands in the posterior mantle. The lifestyle of R. dubia is now better understood, and its ability to bore bivalve shells in particular suggests how the more advanced tropical gastrochaenids Cucurbitula and Eufistulana have evolved from initial (as juveniles) bivalve shell borers into occupants of adventitious crypts and tubes, respectively. It is further argued that the Gastrochaenidae show convergent similarities with the similar crypt‐ and tube‐building representatives of the Clavagelloidea. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 104 , 786–804.     

Gastropod biodiversity at the 'Evolution Canyon' microsite, lower Nahal Oren, Mount Carmel, Israel

Twenty-six species of gastropods (terrestrial, shell-bearing snails and slugs) were recorded at the 'Evolution Canyon' microsite, lower Nahal Oren, Mount Carmel, Israel. Twenty-five species were recorded at the temperate, mesic north-facing slope (NFS) and 20 species at the xeric south-facing slope (SFS). Out of these species, six were NFS specific ( Pilorcula raymondi hebraica , Euchondrus septemdentatus , Monacha crispulata , Pyramidula rupestris hierosolymitana , Truncatellina haasi , and Vitrea contracta ) and one was SFS specific ( Prolimax eustrictus ). The interslope difference was probably partly due to missing forest species at the SFS in comparison with the NFS. Twenty-two species were Levantine endemics (84.6%) and four species were more widely distributed in the Palaearctic region (15.4%). The Levantine species are inhabitants of the mesic and mainly mountainous regions, but four species ( Granopupa granum , Calaxis hierosolymarum , Cecilioides acicula , and Helix engaddensis ) also penetrate the deserts. Seven species ( Buliminus labrosus , H. engaddensis , Levantina spiriplana caesareana , Metafruticicola fourousi , Monacha syriaca , Sphincterochila cariosa , and Xeropicta vestalis joppensis ) were significantly more abundant on the SFS than on the NFS. The local physical microclimatic sharp divergence leads to gastropod adaptive interslope biotic divergence caused by natural selection.  © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2008, 93 , 147–155.     

Flower development in the passion fruit Passiflora edulis requires a photoperiod‐induced systemic graft‐transmissible signal

Different organisms use gradual seasonal changes in photoperiod to correctly time diverse developmental processes, such as transition to flowering in plants. Florigen is a systemic signal formed in leaves exposed to specific environmental cues, mainly photoperiodic, and capable of triggering flower induction in several species. Here we show that in Passiflora edulis, a perennial climbing vine, flower initiation occurs throughout the year; however, without long photoperiods, flower primordia show arrested growth and differentiation at an early stage. Our results support the existence of a positive, systemic, graft‐transmissible signal, produced in mature leaves under LDs, that is required for normal flower development beyond sepal formation. Our results also suggest that Gibberellin acts to inhibit flower development. We provide evidence for genetic variation in the response to short photoperiods. A genotype capable of forming developed flowers under short photoperiods produces a positive graft transmissible signal allowing normal flower development under short days in a cultivar which normally aborts flower development under these conditions. We believe these findings contribute towards discovering the chemical nature of this interesting mobile signal involved in flower development.