Telomere length, measured by terminal restriction fragments, was examined in tissues from human fetuses of gestational ages estimated as 15-19 weeks. The length of telomeres was similar in most fetal tissues. However, there were significant variations in telomere length among fetuses, with no apparent relationship between gestational age and telomere length. We conclude that synchrony in telomere length exists among tissues of the human fetus. This synchrony is apparently lost during extrauterine life.

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IntroductionMatching into residency has become increasingly competitive.1-5 As a result, medical student applicants are submitting an increasing number of applications to the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). These additional applications can have a deleterious effect on the match in 3 ways: (1) they create an added cost for applicants, (2) they result in an additional time commitment for program directors who need to review these applications, and (3) they cause congestion in the application review process; therefore, program directors may overlook preferred applicants as a result. There is no study investigating whether these additional applications are associated with a benefit to match participants.Game theory is the economic study of decision making. The prisoner's dilemma game illustrates the counterintuitive phenomenon of all members of a group being worse off when each member of the group acts in his or her selfinterest (F I G U R E 1). 6,7 Applying the prisoner's dilemma model to the residency match in aggregate, we hypothesize that applicants may be better off if they could agree to submit a finite number of applications rather than trying to out-apply each other. We have previously published on the possibility of a prisoner's dilemma existing in the urology match, suggesting that the urology match could do without such a large number of applications, and that participants would be served by a reasonably set application limit. 8In this study, we investigated whether other medical specialty matching markets and applicants are benefited by a higher number of applications submitted. We also investigated if there is a related improvement in the match rate in years when larger numbers of applications were submitted. AbstractBackground There has been an increase in the number of applications medical students have submitted for the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). These additional applications are associated with significant costs and may contribute to match inefficiency.

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