Energy accounting: Some new proposals

This article presents a concept of energy accounting that is novel because of two features. One is the valuation of human labor in terms of the workers' shares of their societies' energy use, which allows that workers in different societies or time periods may be more or less intensive energy users. The other is the valuation of resources in units of renewal time, which allows renewable resources to be treated as less ecologically costly than depletable ones. These new proposals are used for a reconsideration of the energy balances of Spanish agriculture.This article is an outcome of my doctoral thesis. I am grateful to J. M. Naredo for inspiration and to J. Martinez-Alier and P. J. Richerson for detailed comments.     

Strengthening medical appraisal: reactions to proposals for a new appraisal system to support revalidation

This paper introduces the first stage of the NHS Revalidation Support Team's (RST) proposals to strengthen medical appraisal. It reports on four focus groups held at London Deanery in 2010, with the aim of gauging initial reactions from general practitioners (GPs). The four groups consisted of two groups of appraisers and two groups of appraisees. After presentation of the proposals to strengthen appraisal, participants were invited to make comparisons between existing appraisal, and the new proposals, Interestingly, the matter which attracted most discussion was a proposal to include an element of self-assessment by the appraisee prior to appraisal, and not, as might have been expected, the proposals for assessment of the appraisee's progress towards revalidation by the appraiser. Since these focus groups, the model of strengthened medical appraisal referred to in this paper has been the subject of testing in the pathfinder pilot, a large scale pilot involving 3000 doctors in various settings in England. The evaluation of the pathfinder pilot was published (July 2011). After further refinement of the appraisal process, including taking into account new GMC and Royal College publications and more testing and piloting, the final version of medical appraisal to support revalidation, known as the Medical Appraisal Guide (MAG) is due to be published in March 2012, in time to permit the expected commencement of revalidation in late 2012.     

Molecular homochirality and the parity-violating energy difference. A critique with new proposals

Previous proposals for the origin of molecular homochirality, based on the effect of the weak neutral current (WNC) on enantiomers, and the amplification of the resultant parity-violating energy difference (PVED), are possibly flawed. The additive amplification of PVED in crystals and polymers ("Yamagata hypothesis") cannot lead to detectable levels of optical activity, the original theory apparently overestimating PVED by a factor equal to Avogadro's number. An alternative theory based on the irreversible and spontaneous evolution of a dynamically fluctuating system is apparently impractical. However, the nonlinear amplification of PVED via autocatalytic polymerization may be possible as indicated by a simplified physico-chemical approach. This may also occur during crystallization and melting, and form the basis of the second order asymmetric transformation. (Thus, reported differences in the melting points of enantiomers in several cases may well be real). Also, the preponderance of racemic compounds over conglomerates may be based on the destabilization of the conglomerate by the action of the WNC on the crystalline lattice. The WNC may also be involved in the anomalous scattering of X-rays, which possibly arises from their circular polarization: the current theory would need to be revised accordingly.     

构建培养新型医学人才的医学遗传学课程体系改革

传统的医学课程体系已经远不能适应信息时代新知识技术所带来的巨大冲击.因此,构建新型课程体系,培养适应21世纪社会发展需要的新型医学人才,是人才培养模式改革的主要落脚点,也是教学改革的重点和难点.医学遗传学是遗传学与医学相互渗透、相互结合的边缘学科,是一门横跨基础医学和临床医学的桥梁课程,是现代医学的重要组成部分.近年来,随着现代生物学和现代遗传学研究技术的蓬勃发展,医学遗传学突飞猛进.医学遗传学作为专业性较强的基础学科,内容比较抽象,不易理解,一直是教学难点.针对医学遗传学迅猛发展的现状和难以理解的特点,进行医学遗传学课程体系改革和实践,进一步尝试建立新型课程体系,培养新型医学人才意义深远.本文探讨了医学遗传学课程体系改革的必要怀,过程及其意义.