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When plants of Sedum rosea (L.) Scop. and S. telephium L. ssp. fabaria Syme are grown in competition at different altitudes it is found that the growth of the species is affected differentially. This effect is such that at low altitudes S. telephium is a larger plant than S. rosea, while the reverse is the case at high attitudes. The observed differences are caused by a marked sensitivity of the growth of S. telephium to differences in altitude, whileS. rosea is very insensitive. The most probable cause of these responses would appear to be differences of climate. The influence of altitude in northern England on air temperature, saturation deficit and irradiance has been investigated in order to establish the magnitude of the differences which may cause these responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In contrast to other medical specialties, trainees in Geriatrics have historically provided an increased contribution to clinical workload in General Internal Medicine and a reduced output of academic achievements. More recently, development of non-clinical skills has been recognised to have similar importance to clinical skills and the South East (SE) London Geriatrics Training Programme has thus supported trainees in applications for Out of Programme (OOP) opportunities to optimise career progression. Methods: Doctors who had undertaken specialist registrar training in the SE London Geriatrics Training Programme at any time between 2011 and 2019 were sent a questionnaire to assess whether they had completed time OOP and whether they had been awarded research grants, published papers in peer-reviewed journals, had abstracts accepted for presentation at conferences, and/or published book chapters during their training programme. Chisquared and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to compare data between registrars who had completed time OOP and those who had not taken time OOP. Results: 77 (24 male; 53 female) registrars completed training in the SE London Geriatrics Training Programme between 2011 and 2019. 71 registrars (92%) completed the questionnaire, of whom 31 (44%) completed time OOP. In total, registrars were awarded 15 research grants, published 86 papers in peer-reviewed journals, had abstracts accepted for 184 conference presentations and published 20 book chapters. A notably increased proportion of registrars who took time OOP had an output of research grants, papers published in peer reviewed journals, abstracts accepted for presentation at conferences and/or book chapters respectively compared with registrars who had not taken time OOP (23% vs 5% ; 61% vs 23%; 84% vs 33%; 45% vs 5%). This equated to a combined academic output in 94% of registrars who completed time OOP compared with 48% who did not (p <0.001). Conclusions: A very strong association existed between registrars in Geriatrics taking time OOP and academic achievement substantiating the training programme’s aspiration to support development of non-clinical skills that may be helpful to trainees in their future careers. It would be worthwhile further work being undertaken in this area in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]