19th Century Christian Benevolence and the Unwritten Constitution

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-05-01

indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness...Brought on by disestablishment and buoyed by the energy from the Second Great Awakening, ecumenical Protestantism jettisoned the artificial barriers of the...highest to the lowest, as coworkers in the same labour of love.’’ 23 Efficiency in distribution, however, required accurate communication between the

Is Your Love in Vain? Another Look at Premarital Cohabitation and Divorce

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Svarer, Michael

2004-01-01

In this paper we provide an empirical investigation of the association between premarital cohabitation and subsequent risk of divorce. Theoretically couples who cohabit before marriage should have a lower subsequent risk of divorce since cohabitation enables you to gather information about the match quality, and only good matches evolve into…

JPRS Report, East Europe

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-11-29

subject of parliamentary debate. At that time there was serious talk about recognizing the Jewry as a minority. And another reminder: The Lauder Javne...assimilating group will protest in vain, because judging by the statement and instant success of the Lauder Javne school there indeed exists a Jewry in...Szabo] Money , money , money . [Verebelyi] I know, everyone would want to milk the Treasury. Of course, central aid is also needed, but we have much

Behavioral Variability, Learning Processes, and Creativity

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-03-01

socio- logiques, 6conomiques ou iddologiques auxquels n𔄀chappent pas les entreprises dducatives. Nous retrouvons IA trois themes de d~bat assez courants...pour ne pas dire traditionnels, dans les milieux pidagogiques, trois arguments que I’on pourrait reforinuler de la maniere suivante: 1 . Les...vain de concevoir I’enseignement comme un domaine d’ap- plication de la psychologie de I’apprentissage. Sans doute aucune de ces trois propositions ne

The Coast Artillery Journal. Volume 83, Number 3, May-June 1940

DTIC Science & Technology

1940-06-01

remembers But the badly shattered rankswere incapable of immediate his troops and issues a Special Order: "The Major Gen - consolidation, so the...popular fanc )’ was a boule- vardier who wore a waxy black mus- tache and a pointed black beard; he was an effeminate, vain, and to Eng- lish and American...D. C. Lieutcnant Colonel \\V. C. Footc, to Gen - eral Staff Corps, 6th Corps Arca. l.ieutenant Colonel Ferdinand F. Gallag- her, to instructor

Train in vain: the role of the self in claimed self-handicapping strategies.

PubMed

Finez, Lucie; Sherman, David K

2012-10-01

Two field studies investigate the role of self in the tendency of athletes to engage in claimed handicapping strategies during training (anticipatively claiming that handicaps may interfere with their performance). Study 1 tested the relationship between trait self-esteem and athletes' engagement in claimed self-handicapping. As hypothesized, low physical self-esteem athletes claimed more handicaps than high physical self-esteem athletes. For stronger evidence for the causal role of the self, Study 2 tested whether securing athletes' self-worth through self-affirmation would lead to decreased claimed self-handicapping by using a mixed model design that allows for both between-subjects (affirmation vs. control condition) and within-subject comparisons (before vs. after self-affirmation intervention). Self-affirmed athletes had decreased levels of claimed self-handicapping. Studies 1 and 2 also demonstrate that athletes engage in claimed self-handicapping during training, which could have deleterious effects on subsequent performance. Discussion centers on theoretical implications and applications for coaches, sport teachers, and sport psychologists.

The sacrifice of knowledge: vain debates in the social scientific study of religion.

PubMed

Kramp, Joseph M

2013-03-01

Since its inception, the social scientific study of religion has been a battleground for scholars advocating for the advantages of one sort of methodology over against the other. I argue that these debates have more to do with the personalities of the researchers rather than any kind of justifiable proof that one method is better than another. I argue that the process by which scholars quarrel over methods is a sign of stagnation or regression in the academy; I draw broad implications for the health of the discipline of religious studies.

"Uproar, bulk, rage, suffocation, effort unceasing, frenzied and vain": Beckett's Transports of Rage.

PubMed

Smith, Russell

2016-06-01

In a 1961 interview, Beckett warded off philosophical interpretations of his work: 'I'm no intellectual. All I am is feeling'. Despite the emotional intensity of Beckett's post-war writing, Beckett criticism has tended to ignore this claim, preferring the kinds of philosophical readings that Beckett here rejects. In particular, Beckett criticism underestimates the element of rage in his work. This paper argues that Beckett's post-war breakthrough is enabled by a radical reconsideration of the nature of feeling and of rage in particular. It involves the rejection of the idea of rage as pathological and the embrace of a positive conception of rage as drive or compulsion, a locus of energy and even pleasure.This paper reads the 'Moran' section of Molloy as a kind of 'rage fable', drawing on the ancient Greek concept of thymos, of anger as a virtue. It draws on Alfred Adler's theory of the 'masculine protest', with which Beckett was familiar from his extensive note-taking on Adler in 1934-5, and Sianne Ngai's discussion of the distinction between irritation and rage. According to this reading, Moran's report charts a narrative of thymotic liberation from the irritations of servitude, prefiguring the Unnamable's abandonment to impersonal affective intensities. It ends by suggesting that the prose of the Trilogy might be better understood, not as a 'syntax of weakness' but as a 'syntax of rage', a stylistic correlative of the imperious drive of thymos. We might then begin to understand the Trilogy as the epic of a heroic, impersonal, implacable and liberated rage.

View of Apollo 16 lunar sample no. 68815

NASA Image and Video Library

1972-04-30

A closeup view or "mug shot" of Apollo 16 lunar sample no. 68815, a dislodged fragment from a parent boulder roughly four feet high and five feet long encountered at Station 8. The crew tried in vain to overturn the parent boulder. A fillet-soil sample was taken close to the boulder, allowing for study of the type and rate of erosion acting on lunar rocks. The fragment itself is very hard, has many veticles and a variety of inclusions. In addition, numerous metallic particles were observed in the black matrix.

Vulvar and vaginal cancers and dysplasia in France--an analysis of the hospital medical information system (PMSI) database.

PubMed

Rémy, Vanessa; Mathevet, Patrice; Vainchtock, Alexandre

2009-12-01

Literature on the epidemiology of vulvar and vaginal cancers is scarce. The incidence of these diseases seems to be increasing. It has been reported that about 40% of vulvar and 70% of vaginal cancers may be linked to human papillomavirus (HPV). This study aimed to assess the medical burden associated with hospitalizations and management of vulvar and vaginal cancers and dysplasia (VIN and VaIN) in France. A retrospective analysis using the French national hospital database (PMSI) was performed to assess the annual number of patients hospitalized for vulvar and vaginal cancers and VIN/VaIN, based on hospital admissions in 2006. Data for all stays and chemotherapy/radiotherapy sessions were extracted. SAE database (Statistiques annuelles des établissements de santé) was used to take into account patients who had radiotherapy sessions performed in the private sector which are not reported in the PMSI. In 2006, 1237 and 623 patients were hospitalized for vulvar cancer and VIN, respectively. There were also 728 and 244 patients hospitalized for vaginal cancer and VaIN, respectively. Overall, about 35% of all patients were hospitalized in the private setting. For all lesions except vaginal cancer, surgery was the most common type of management. For vaginal cancer, medical care was the most prevalent (52%), followed by surgery (31%). The burden of hospitalizations due to vulvar and vaginal cancers is substantial. Further research is needed to assess the outpatient burden due to these diseases especially for precancerous dysplasia which may be mostly managed in an outpatient setting.

Chylothorax after left side pneumothorax surgery managed by OK-432 pleurodesis: an effective alternative.

PubMed

Huang, Sheng-Yang; Yeh, Chou-Ming; Chou, Chia-Man; Chen, Hou-Chuan

2014-12-01

Chylothorax, a relatively rare complication of thoracic surgery, mostly occurs on the right side. We present a 16-year-old male who received thoracoscopic surgery for left spontaneous pneumothorax. Chylothorax developed on the postoperative 2(nd) day and resolved after diet control on the 4(th) day. Unfortunately, chylothorax recurred 2 weeks later. Chest drainage and nil per os with total parental nutrition were given but in vain. Thereafter, chemical pleurodesis with OK-432 was performed. Chylothorax resolved on the next day. The relevant literature is reviewed and possible pathogenesis clarified. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Taiwan.

Floquet Topological Insulators in Uranium Compounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pi, Shu-Ting; Savrasov, Sergey

2014-03-01

A major issue regarding the Uranium based nuclear fuels is to conduct the heat from the core area to its outer area. Unfortunately, those materials are notorious for their extremely low thermal conductivity due to the phonon-dominated-heat-transport properties in insulating states. Although metallic Uranium compounds are helpful in increasing the thermal conductivity, their low melting point still make those efforts in vain. In this report, we will figure out potential Uranium based Floquet topological insulators where the insulating bulk states accompanied with metallic surface states is achieved by applying periodic electrical fields which makes the coexistence of both benefits possible.

Cutting Your Losses: Could Best-Practice Pedagogy Involve Acknowledging that Even Robust Hope May Be Vain?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schuurmans-Stekhoven, James

2009-01-01

A recent special issue of "Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education" (Vol. 35, Issue 3, 2007) championed "robust hope" as fundamental to achieving educational utopias, and yet key features of hope were largely overlooked. Although hope feels good and has utility in some circumstances, in other situations different…

Yield of Cytology Surveillance After High-Grade Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia or Cancer.

PubMed

Kuroki, Lindsay M; Frolova, Antonina I; Wu, Ningying; Liu, Jingxia; Powell, Matthew; Thaker, Premal H; Massad, L Stewart

2017-07-01

The aim of the study was to estimate the risk of high-grade cervical and vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN/VAIN 2+) and cancer among women treated surgically for high-grade vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (HGVIN) and vulvar cancer. We performed a retrospective cohort study of women who underwent surgery for HGVIN/vulvar cancer between 2006 and 2010. Univariate and multivariate analyses using stepwise selection were used to identify correlates of abnormal cytology after treatment for VIN and vulvar cancer. Among 191 women under surveillance for a median of 3.7 years who underwent treatment for HGVIN/vulvar cancer, primary vulvar lesions included VIN 2 (10, 5%), VIN 3 (102, 53%), and carcinoma (79, 41%). During follow-up, 71 (37%) had abnormal cytology, including 47 (25%) low grade, 23 (12%) high grade, and 1 (0.5%) carcinoma. Subsequent risk for VAIN 2+ was 11% (6/57) after previous hysterectomy and 8% for CIN 2+ (10/124) with intact cervix. Overall risk for CIN 3+ was 5%. Correlates of high-grade cytology after treatment for HGVIN/vulvar cancer included nonwhite race (odds ratio [OR] = 3.3, 95% CI = 1.50-7.36), immunodeficiency (OR = 4.2, 95% CI = 1.76-9.94), and previous abnormal cytology (OR = 2.7, 95% CI = 1.29-5.78). Stepwise multivariate analysis revealed immunosuppression as the only significant correlate of high-grade cytology after vulvar treatment (adjusted OR = 3.7, 95% CI = 1.26-10.83). Women with HGVIN/cancer should have cervical/vaginal cytology before vulvar surgery. Those with a negative cervical or vaginal cytology result should undergo cytology testing at 1- to 3-year intervals, based on the threshold for CIN 3+ set forth by the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology.

A systematic review of the prevalence and attribution of human papillomavirus types among cervical, vaginal, and vulvar precancers and cancers in the United States.

PubMed

Insinga, Ralph P; Liaw, Kai-Li; Johnson, Lisa G; Madeleine, Margaret M

2008-07-01

To describe prevalence and estimated attribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) types in U.S. cervical, vaginal, and vulvar precancers and cancers. U.S. studies reporting HPV typing for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN), and vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VaIN) and/or invasive cancers of those sites were gathered from the PubMed database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/). Selected studies had PCR testing data for > or =10 cases for a disease endpoint. Analytic methods augmented prior reviews of cervical disease with an updated and expanded analysis (including vulvar and vaginal disease), new selection criteria for specimens, and adjustment for histologic type, where possible, among pooled cancer cases. In addition, for analyses of estimated attribution of HPV types, we incorporated accounting methods for lesions infected with multiple HPV types. Data from 22 U.S. studies meeting review eligibility criteria were tabulated. Following adjustment for the presence of multiple HPV types in a single specimen, the top two HPV types contributing to disease were CIN 1 (HPV 16/66; 15.3%), CIN 2/3 (HPV 16/31; 61.9%), cervical cancer (HPV 16/18; 79.2%), VIN 1 (HPV 6/11; 41.7%), VIN 3 (HPV 16/18; 84.0%), vulvar cancer (HPV 16/33; 55.5%), VaIN 3 (HPV 16/18; 65.1%), and vaginal cancer (HPV 16/18; 72.7%). The HPV type distribution and proportion of cases testing positive for any HPV type were observed to vary among U.S. cervical, vulvar, and vaginal neoplasias and by grade of disease. Adjustment for the presence of multitype HPV infections can have an important effect on the estimated attribution of HPV types to disease, particularly for types other than HPV 16.

A Systematic Review of the Prevalence and Attribution of Human Papillomavirus Types Among Cervical, Vaginal and Vulvar Pre-cancers and Cancers in the United States

PubMed Central

Insinga, Ralph P.; Liaw, Kai-Li; Johnson, Lisa G.; Madeleine, Margaret M.

2008-01-01

Objectives To describe (1) prevalence and (2) estimated attribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) types in U.S. cervical, vaginal and vulvar precancers and cancers. Methods U.S. studies reporting HPV typing for cervical (CIN), vulvar (VIN) and vaginal (VaIN) intraepithelial neoplasias and/or invasive cancers of those sites were gathered from the PubMed database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/). Selected studies had polymerase chain reaction testing data for ≥10 cases for a disease endpoint. Analytic methods augmented prior reviews of cervical disease with an updated and expanded analysis (including vulvar and vaginal disease), new selection criteria for specimens, and adjustment for histologic type, where possible, among pooled cancer cases. In addition, for analyses of estimated attribution of HPV types, we incorporated accounting methods for lesions infected with multiple HPV types. Results Data from 22 U.S. studies meeting review eligibility criteria were tabulated. Following adjustment for the presence of multiple HPV types in a single specimen, the top two HPV types contributing to disease were: CIN 1 (HPV 16/66) [15.3%], CIN 2/3 (16/31) [61.9%], cervical cancer (16/18) [79.2%], VIN 1 (6/11) [41.7%], VIN 3 (16/18) [84.0%], vulvar cancer (16/33) [55.5%], VaIN 3 (16/18) [65.1%], vaginal cancer (16/18) [72.7%]. Conclusions The HPV type distribution and proportion of cases testing positive for any HPV type were observed to vary among U.S. cervical, vulvar and vaginal neoplasias and by grade of disease. Adjustment for the presence of multi-type HPV infections can have an important impact on the estimated attribution of HPV types to disease, particularly for types other than HPV 16. PMID:18628412

Georg Friedrich Kordenbusch and astronomy in Nuremberg in the second half of the 18th century. (German Title: Georg Friedrich Kordenbusch und die Astronomie in Nürnberg in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaab, Hans

In the second half of the 18th century, Georg Friedrich Kordenbusch (1731 - 1802) was the best-known living mathematician and astronomer in Nuremberg. Being a physician by training, he obtained, in 1769, the post of lecturer in mathematics and physics at the Egidien secondary school. Subsequently, he tried in vain to re-erect the observatory, torn down in 1751. In the early 1770s, he became famous for preparing the second edition of Johann Leonhard Rost's Astronomisches Handbuch that was, in its first edition of 1718, the first compendium of astronomy written in German, and which had a wide circulation. In 1790, Kordenbusch was raised to the nobility for his achievements.

The economic-impact fallacy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moriarty, Philip

2009-06-01

Before the UK budget was announced in April, there had been excited expectations of an "Obama-style" £1bn stimulus package for science. That prospect prompted research councils and learned societies in the UK to rush to identify "shovel-ready" projects that could benefit from a fresh injection of funds. However, their efforts were in vain - the stimulus did not arrive. Instead, John Denham, secretary of state for Innovation, Universities and Skills, has had to put a brave face on an immensely disappointing budget settlement for science. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), which Denham runs, must now make £0.5bn in savings over the next two years.

[Chemical Laboratory of Celje Queen (at 580th Anniversary of Bohemian coronation of Queen Barbara of Celje)].

PubMed

Južnič, Stanislav

2017-06-01

Barbara Celjska je bila gotovo najbogatejša alkimistka vseh časov. Prispevek skuša pojasniti kakšni poskusi so potekali v njenem laboratoriju in nakazati, katere tehniške kemijske naprave je utegnila pri tem uporabljati. Ker je bila večina leteh iz zlahka lomljivih snovi, bi bilo njihovo iskanje brškone brez haska, saj ni veliko upanja za njihovo ohranitev. Barbara of Cilli was certainly the richest female alchemist of all times. The article tries to explain what kind of experiments she carried out in her laboratory and indicate which technical chemical plant she likely has used. The major part of her expensive tools was made from easily breakable materials, therefore any contemporary pursuit to locate them will be probably in vain, because there is not much hope for their preservation.

Discoursive Humanity as a Transcendental Basis for Cognitive (Dis)Ability Ethics and Policies.

PubMed

Häyry, Matti

2016-04-01

This article explicates two approaches to the basis of moral worth and status: Eva Kittay's relational view and Jeff McMahan's psychological personhood view. It is argued that these theories alone do not provide adequate support for the conclusions Kittay and McMahan want to draw concerning individuals whose entitlement to fundamental protections can be challenged-infants with severe cognitive disabilities and infants without the support of their families and social environments. The real justification can in each case be found in deeply held convictions regarding entities that must and entities that must not be included in the core community of moral equals. Philosophical discussions about these convictions would be more useful for the advancement of our moral thinking than vain attempts to show that the absolute truth lies on either side of the ongoing debate.

We Don't Train in Vain: A Dissemination Trial of Three Strategies of Training Clinicians in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sholomskas, Diane E.; Syracuse-Siewert, Gia; Rounsaville, Bruce J.; Ball, Samuel A.; Nuro, Kathryn F.; Carroll, Kathleen M.

2005-01-01

There has been little research on the effectiveness of different training strategies or the impact of exposure to treatment manuals alone on clinicians' ability to effectively implement empirically supported therapies. Seventy-eight community-based clinicians were assigned to 1 of 3 training conditions: review of a cognitive-behavioral therapy…

We Don't Train in Vain: A Dissemination Trial of Three Strategies of Training Clinicians in Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy

PubMed Central

Sholomskas, Diane E.; Syracuse-Siewert, Gia; Rounsaville, Bruce J.; Ball, Samuel A.; Nuro, Kathryn F.; Carroll, Kathleen M.

2008-01-01

There has been little research on the effectiveness of different training strategies or the impact of exposure to treatment manuals alone on clinicians' ability to effectively implement empirically supported therapies. Seventy-eight community-based clinicians were assigned to 1 of 3 training conditions: review of a cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) manual only, review of the manual plus access to a CBT training Web site, or review of the manual plus a didactic seminar followed by supervised casework. The primary outcome measure was the clinicians' ability to demonstrate key CBT interventions, as assessed by independent ratings of structured role plays. Statistically significant differences favoring the seminar plus supervision over the manual only condition were found for adherence and skill ratings for 2 of the 3 role plays, with intermediate scores for the Web condition. PMID:15709837

Identifying Marine Phytoplankton

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hargraves, Paul E.

Until recently, anyone who needed to accurately identify marine phytoplankton had one of four choices: use the outdated Englishlanguage volumes by E. E. Cupp and N. I. Hendey plus the more recent book by J. Dodge, acquire a working knowledge of German and use the old volumes by Schiller and Hustedt, spend huge amounts of time in an exceedingly well-equipped marine science library trying in vain to keep up with the rapidly evolving field of phytoplankton systematics and taxonomy, or track down one of the rarest of endangered species—a phytoplankton taxonomist—and beg for help.To these unfortunate choices is added one considerably more hopeful: Identifying Marine Phytoplankton. This volume, which has seven contributing authors, contains most of the taxonomic groups that make up the planktonic autotrophs and some heterotrophs of the seas, coasts, and estuaries of the world (missing are cyanobacteria and some of the picoplankton groups).

Successful management of multilineage autoimmune cytopenia complicated with severe infection and deep vein thrombosis in a patient with Hodgkin lymphoma post-autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

PubMed

Hsu, Wan-Yi; Chiou, Shyh-Shin; Liao, Yu-Mei; Shu, Hsiu-Lan; Zeng, Yu-Sheng; Wong, Cheong-Chew; Lin, Pei-Chin

2016-02-01

Autoimmune cytopenia (AIHA, AITP or AIN) were uncommon paraneoplastic manifestations of HL and have been recognized in patients after HSCT with dismal outcome. We presented a case of 16-yr-old male with Hodgkin's lymphoma who developed severe AIC involving all three cell lineages after autologus bone marrow transplantation. No disease relapse was noted. Treatments with steroid, IVIG and immunosuppresants were in vain and the disease course was complicated with sepsis and deep vein thrombosis. Rituximab was administered along with broad-spectrum antibiotics and low-molecular weight heparin. The condition became stable and pancytopenia recovered after four doses of rituximab treatment. Severe multi-lineage AIC post HSCT is usually refractory to first-line treatment and difficult to manage. Second-line treatment, such as rituximab, and dedicated care for pancytopenia-induced or treatment-related complications may provide a better outcome. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Educating medical students about anorexia nervosa: a potential method for reducing the volitional stigma associated with the disorder.

PubMed

Bannatyne, Amy; Stapleton, Peta

2015-01-01

It is frequently reported that clinicians across a range of professional disciplines experience strong negative reactions toward patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). The present study aimed to develop, evaluate, and compare the effectiveness of two different educational programs, based on an etiological framing model. Participants were medical students (N = 41) from an Australian University, who were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (biogenetic intervention vs. multifactorial intervention vs. control). Outcome attitudinal/stigma data were collected pre- and post-intervention, and at 8 weeks follow-up. Results indicated intervention participations exhibited significantly lower volitional stigma scores compared to the control group, who exhibited no change in attitudes or stigma. Specifically, intervention participants had significantly lower total ED stigma scores, levels of blame, perceptions of AN as a selfish/vain illness, and viewed sufferers as less responsible for their illness at post-intervention. These reductions were maintained at follow-up. Overall, the study provides preliminary evidence that brief targeted interventions can assist in reducing levels of volitional stigma toward AN.

Role of renal biomarkers as predictors of acute kidney injury in cardiac surgery.

PubMed

Ghatanatti, Ravi; Teli, Anita; Tirkey, Sundeep Sanjivan; Bhattacharya, Subhankar; Sengupta, Gautam; Mondal, Ansuman

2014-02-01

Cardiac surgery is unique in using cardiopulmonary bypass in various clinical scenarios. Injury of vital organs is unavoidable in the perioperative period. Acute kidney injury is a consequence of the systemic inflammatory response after bypass, emboli, ischemia, and low cardiac output states, reportedly occurring in 30%-40% of open heart surgeries. Acute kidney injury is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and cost. Many preventive measures (off-pump procedures, decreased crossclamp time, pulsatile flow, adequate hydration) are taken in the perioperative period to avoid organ injury, but in vain. Traditionally, blood urea, serum creatinine, and creatinine clearance rate were applied for prediction of acute kidney injury. The recent emergence of biomarkers such as neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, cystatin C, liver-type fatty acid binding protein, interleukin-18, kidney injury molecule-1, and tetrahydrobiopterin have helped in detecting acute kidney injury long before the rise of serum creatinine. These biomarkers can also be used as tools for predicting therapeutic effects in acute kidney injury and for monitoring drug toxicity. This review consolidates the knowledge of biomarkers and their application in acute kidney injury management.

[Control of scabies in the district of Ytre Nordhordland. An experiment within community medicine in the 1860's].

PubMed

Sandvik, H

1993-01-10

19th century Norway may be likened to the developing countries of today. Scabies was very prevalent, and traditional approaches to treatment were in vain. The poor peasant population would not spend money on such. Thomas Collett (1835-98), the local doctor in a rural district of western Norway, initiated a programme for community control of scabies. The local Board of Health agreed to purchase a large amount of sulphur ointment. 1/8 of a barrel of ointment was placed at the disposal of local teachers. The teachers were instructed to initiate treatment of school-children who were found to be infected with scabies. The household to which the child belonged was also to be treated, as well as the other children at the school. Gradually, the prevalence of scabies declined. Self-care increased, and eventually, the peasants ended up making their own sulphur ointment. Experiences and recommendations from developing countries of today agree with the strategy adopted by Collett. Individual medical treatment of cases and their contacts is too costly, and fails to reduce the total prevalence of scabies.

Children left unattended in parked vehicles: a focus on recent italian cases and a review of literature.

PubMed

Ferrara, Pietro; Vena, Flaminia; Caporale, Olga; Del Volgo, Valentina; Liberatore, Pio; Ianniello, Francesca; Chiaretti, Antonio; Riccardi, Riccardo

2013-11-06

Every year a lot of children die from heat stroke and hyperthermia because they have been left unattended in closed automobiles. These fatalities have augmented slightly in the past decade, but they are a poor recognized type of vehicle injury and little research has been done to discover the circumstances surrounding the fatal event. Two factors make children more prone to hyperthermia than adults: children have a greater surface area body mass ratio than adults and their thermoregulation is less efficient than adults. A scientific explanation about how it can happen that a parent leaves his child unattended in the car could be related to the Working Memory (WM): stress increases interference from irrelevant information, impairing selective attention and WM and influencing behavior. In the last two years in Italy 16 cases of child hyperthermia due to abandonment in motor vehicle were identified. These findings suggest that educational programs and literature for parents regarding automobile safety should include information about the potential dangers of heat stress, in fact, as these events are mostly unintentional, legislative efforts may be vain.

Children left unattended in parked vehicles: a focus on recent italian cases and a review of literature

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Every year a lot of children die from heat stroke and hyperthermia because they have been left unattended in closed automobiles. These fatalities have augmented slightly in the past decade, but they are a poor recognized type of vehicle injury and little research has been done to discover the circumstances surrounding the fatal event. Two factors make children more prone to hyperthermia than adults: children have a greater surface area body mass ratio than adults and their thermoregulation is less efficient than adults. A scientific explanation about how it can happen that a parent leaves his child unattended in the car could be related to the Working Memory (WM): stress increases interference from irrelevant information, impairing selective attention and WM and influencing behavior. In the last two years in Italy 16 cases of child hyperthermia due to abandonment in motor vehicle were identified. These findings suggest that educational programs and literature for parents regarding automobile safety should include information about the potential dangers of heat stress, in fact, as these events are mostly unintentional, legislative efforts may be vain. PMID:24195780

Nordisk ophthalmologisk tidsskrift 1889-1892: the Nordic Journal of Ophthalmology - a forerunner of Acta Ophthalmologica.

PubMed

Ehlers, Niels

2012-06-01

In the second half of the nineteenth century several ophthalmological journals appeared (Germany, England, France, United States). In the northern countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) an initiative lead to 'Nordisk ophthalmologisk Tidsskrift' published in the scandinavian languages in the years 1889-92. The 'driving force' behind the journal was the first professor in Ophthalmology in Copenhagen, Dr. Edmund Hansen Grut. The purpose with this presentation is to give the background for the rise and fall of the journal which was an attempt to promote Nordic Ophthalmology. The authors turned out, however, to be mainly those involved as editors. The journal never gained broad acceptance and it simply stopped in 1892, without any closing remarks. In spite of its short life the journal should be remembered for the very first publication on the arcuate scotoma, the Bjerrum scotoma from 1889. Although shortlived the initiative was not in vain, as can be read in the preface to the very first volume of Acta ophthalmologica. © 2011 The Author. Acta Ophthalmologica © 2011 Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Foundation.

[The shutdown point and the output volume limit (OVL) in the present situation of healthcare in Hungary (or a little economics for practicing physicians)].

PubMed

Gresz, Miklós

2008-09-07

In the present situation of health care, financing has become so complicated that the treating doctor has to know not only his profession but also has to consider the different regulations, laws and book of rules. The work of the physician cannot be carried out only through the fact that he is a master of his art, that is healing. All healing practice, diagnostic abilities, intuition, empathy and other things are in vain: if he is not familiar with the basics of financing he can lead his institution to insolvency. This article tries to give a view of a small part of financing, the output volume limit (OVL) from another aspect. According to the basics of economy and general rules of leadership it tries to show up the practical difficulties of the output volume limit. The study enlightens that by defining the output volume limit one has to consider the shutdown point of the hospital and knowing this, the actual output volume limit should be defined in the way that it does not make the proper activity of the hospital completely impossible.

Vaginal carcinoma in a young woman who underwent fertility-sparing treatment involving chemotherapy and conservative surgery.

PubMed

Mabuchi, Yasushi; Yahata, Tamaki; Kobayashi, Aya; Tanizaki, Yuko; Minami, Sawako; Ino, Kazuhiko

2015-06-01

Vaginal carcinoma is a rare gynecological malignancy that is usually treated by radiation therapy and/or surgery combined with chemotherapy. Here, we report a case of invasive vaginal carcinoma in a young woman who underwent fertility-sparing treatment involving neoadjuvant chemotherapy and conservative surgery. A 36-year-old non-parous woman had a solid tumor in the vagina. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography showed a tumor in the vagina with high FDG uptake (SUV = 17.33) but no metastatic lesions. The patient was diagnosed with vaginal squamous cell carcinoma, FIGO stage I, T1N0M0. Because she wished to retain her fertility, neoadjuvant chemotherapy consisting of irinotecan hydrochloride and nedaplatin was initiated. After four courses of chemotherapy, partial vaginectomy was carried out and the pathological diagnosis of the residual lesion was VAIN 3. Following two further courses of the same chemotherapy, she obtained complete response, and has shown no evidence of disease for 14 months. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research © 2014 Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Food losses and waste in China and their implication for water and land.

PubMed

Liu, Junguo; Lundqvist, Jan; Weinberg, Josh; Gustafsson, Josephine

2013-09-17

Conventional approaches to food security are questionable due to their emphasis on food production and corresponding neglect of the huge amount of food losses and waste. We provide a comprehensive review on available information concerning China's food losses and waste. The results show that the food loss rate (FLR) of grains in the entire supply chain is 19.0% ± 5.8% in China, with the consumer segment having the single largest portion of food waste of 7.3% ± 4.8%. The total water footprint (WF) related to food losses and waste in China in 2010 was estimated to be 135 ± 60 billion m(3), equivalent to the WF of Canada. Such losses also imply that 26 ± 11 million hectares of land were used in vain, equivalent to the total arable land of Mexico. There is an urgent need for dialogue between actors in the supply chain, from farmer to the consumer, on strategies to reduce the high rates of food losses and waste and thereby make a more worthwhile use of scarce natural resources.

Modified perianal/pericapsular anesthesia for transrectal biopsy of prostate in patients with anal rectal problems.

PubMed

Kravchick, Sergey; Yoffe, Boris; Cytron, Shmuel

2007-01-01

To modify our technique of perianal anesthesia and use it in patients with painful conditions of the rectum and/or anus. A total of 31 consecutive patients with anal-rectal problems underwent prostate needle biopsy. Of these, 17 were referred to our hospital after vain attempts to insert a transrectal ultrasound probe. Patients received a perianal-pericapsular injection of 1% lidocaine. Pain perception was separately assessed for probe insertion and biopsies using a visual pain analog score. Only in 1 patient were we unable to insert the transrectal ultrasound probe. The mean patient age was 65.28 +/- 5.35 years. We performed a mean of 12.25 biopsies per case. At probe insertion, the mean pain score was 2.2 +/- 0.83. During the biopsy punctures, the mean pain level was 2.53 +/- 1.054. We did not find any increase in the complication rate related to the anesthesia method. Modified perianal anesthesia can be used for transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy of the prostate in patients with anal-rectal problems, because it provides significant pain relief.

To Mrs. Roosevelt, Who "Looks for the Poor" and to FDR: The CCC Is "A Vain Effort to Placate Youth." Teaching Ideas.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Robert

1996-01-01

Utilizes letters to the First Lady and President Roosevelt as primary sources for a series of activities supporting a unit on the Great Depression. The letter to Mrs. Roosevelt asks for some old clothes for a needy family. The letter to President Roosevelt expresses dissatisfaction with his efforts. (MJP)

Oral health and 22q11 deletion syndrome: thoughts and experiences from the parents' perspectives.

PubMed

Klingberg, Gunilla; Hallberg, Ulrika; Oskarsdóttir, Sólveig

2010-07-01

22q11 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is one of the most common multiple anomaly syndromes, and many dentists are likely to meet patients with the syndrome. Odontological research has focused on describing and analysing conditions/concepts based on the current state of knowledge within the dental profession. Yet, these research topics are not necessarily the most important issues for the patients. To explore and describe, by use of Grounded theory, parents' experiences of oral health issues and needs for dental care in their children with 22q11DS. Twelve parents from different regions in Sweden were interviewed. Analyses were carried out according to Grounded theory. Parents recognised good oral health as important for the wellbeing of their children. Oral health was a concern and the parents described the fight for this as struggling in vain for good oral health in their child. Parents not only described their children's oral health as important but also hard to gain. Thus, it is important that all patients with disabilities, regardless of whether there is a defined medical diagnosis or not, are identified and well taken care of in the dental care system.

Hawking's bid to save quantum theory from black holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cho, Adrian

2018-03-01

When Albert Einstein died in 1955, he had spent lonely decades trying in vain to unify the theories of gravity and electromagnetism. Stephen Hawking, the great British physicist who died last week at age 76, also worked until the end. But he focused on perhaps the most important problem in his area of physics, one his own work had posed: How do black holes preserve information encoded in the material that falls into them? Hawking realized in 1974 that through a subtle quantum effect a black hole can radiate energy and evaporate. But then a black hole should destroy any infalling information, which cannot come back out in the random radiation. Such information loss would wreck quantum mechanics, and Hawking spent much of his later years trying to figure out how a black hole could preserve information after all, even as the degenerative nerve disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis rendered him immobile and able to speak only through a computerized voice synthesizer. Ironically, Hawking's disability may have helped him avoid the isolation that enveloped Einstein, as Hawking had to rely on collaborators to flesh out his ideas and so remained connected to his peers.

Franklin and Mesmer: an encounter.

PubMed Central

Lopez, C. A.

1993-01-01

In 1784, as the Enlightenment was on the wane, Paris faced a debate in which reason confronted the supernatural and the mysterious. Dr. Mesmer, a graduate of the medical school in Vienna, had been running a "magnetic clinic" based on the belief that magnetic fluid, flowing from the stars, permeated all living beings and that every disease was due to an obstruction in the flow. By manipulating that fluid, he launched the concept of animal as opposed to mineral magnetism and claimed to cure all ills. This got him into trouble with the medical faculty, and in 1778 he emigrated to Paris, creating secret societies all over France. Six years later, mesmerism was considered a threat, possibly deleterious to both mind and body. Louis XVI appointed two commissions to investigate this likely fraud. Dr. Guillotin headed one; the other, made up of five members of the Academy of Sciences, included an astronomer and was headed by Franklin, American Ambassador to France. Both commissions concluded that the success of mesmerism was due to the manipulation of the imagination. Mesmer protested vigorously but in vain. He left France and died in obscurity in 1815. PMID:8209564

Cycles of abuse nurtured by concealment: a clinical report.

PubMed

Wijma, Barbro; Thapar-Björkert, Suruchi; Hammarström, Nevija Cah; Swahnberg, Katarina

2007-09-01

At present, health care staff do not seem to have sufficient knowledge about their patients' abusive experiences. The aim of the present study is to analyze and discuss what the implications might be for the encounter between patients and health care professionals, when experiences of abuse are concealed. The methodology of this article is varied: a personal narrative, medical records, sociological theoretical literature and empirical evidence. From the narrative we learn that concealment of abuse was devastating for the patient. She was "treated" in vain as a correct diagnosis was not made, while abuse by her father continued. Health care staff also violated her, which she told her therapist, but her protests were not acknowledged. Ten years of treatment thus made her even more sick. This case story focuses on the mechanisms which nurture concealment of a patient's history of abuse, such as structural and symbolic violence. We also suggest ways to break "cycles of abuse". Help the patient to stop concealing also means that she/he leaves a victim role, gets in charge of the situation and takes a first step towards empowerment. In this way, health care settings can become enabling and empowering environments.

The Concept of Ideology in Analysis of Fundamental Questions in Science Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Säther, Jostein

The use of the concept of `ideology' in interpretation of science education curricula, textbooks and various practises is reviewed, and examples are given by referring to Norwegian curricula and textbooks. The term is proposed to be used in a broad sense about any kind of action-oriented theory based on a system of ideas, or any attempt to approach politics in the light of a system of ideas. Politics in this context is about shaping of education, and is related to forces (i.e., hypothetical impacts of idea systems) which may legitimise, change, or criticise social practices. The focus is (although not in every case) on the hidden, unconscious and critical aspects. The notion ideological aspects is proposed to be related to metaphysical-ontological, epistemological and axiological claims and connotations. Examples of educational issues concerning e.g., aims, compartmentalisation, integration, and fundamentally different ideas about truth, learning and man are mentioned. Searching for a single and unifying concept for the discussing of all of science education's fundamental questions seems however in vain. Therefore a wide range of concepts seems necessary to deepen our understanding of ``the fundamental questions''.

'[A]ll Our Scottish Education is in Vain': The Construction of Scottish National Identity in and by the Early Dominie Books of A. S. Neill.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Limond, David

1999-01-01

Provides descriptions of two books written by Alexander Sutherland Neill: "A Dominie's Log" and "Dominie Dismissed." Considers the nature of the Dominie books as fact or fiction, looking at rhetoric and the controversy of the nature of Scottish schooling. Explores the influence Neill had on Scottish historians' writings. (CMK)

Attitudes towards anorexia nervosa: volitional stigma differences in a sample of pre-clinical medicine and psychology students.

PubMed

Bannatyne, Amy Jean; Stapleton, Peta Berenice

2017-10-01

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a highly stigmatised condition, with treatment often involving multidisciplinary care. As such, understanding and comparing the attitudes of emerging mental health and medical professionals towards AN, within the content of sex-based differences, is pertinent to facilitate the development of targeted stigma interventions. Examine the volitional stigmatisation of AN in emerging medical and mental health professionals. Participants (N = 126) were medical (n = 41) and psychology students (n = 85) who completed a range of attitudinal outcome measures (e.g. Causal Attributions Scale, Eating Disorder Stigma Scale, Opinions Scale, Characteristics Scale and Affective Reaction Scale). Across both disciplines, men were found to exhibit significantly higher eating disorder (ED) stigma, considered AN to be a more trivial and weak illness, and attributed greater levels of blame and responsibility to AN sufferers. Men also had significantly lower biogenetic causal attributions. Compared with psychology students, medicine students exhibited slightly greater anticipation of negative reactions in response to AN, obtained higher selfish/vain scores and considered sociocultural factors to contribute "a lot" in the development and maintenance of AN. Overall, results indicate interventions aimed at improving ED mental health literacy are needed, specifically targeting males and potentially medical students.

Ben Franklin: A Curiosity-Driven Scientist, a Service-Driven Citizen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herschbach, Dudley

2003-04-01

At the age of 42, Franklin retired from his prosperous printing business, ``to have leisure to read, study, and make experiments." The scope of his scientific work was remarkable. Beyond his key contributions to understanding electrcity, Franklin wrote major papers on population growth, on meterology, on heat conduction and evaporation, charted the Gulf Stream, studied bioluminescence and the stilling of water waves by a surface layer of oil. He also advanced arguments in favor of conservation of mass and the wave theory of light. Although always alert for practical applications, his style was that of an explorer, eager for adventure and insight. However, Franklin did not consider science as important as public service. He promoted many civic projects in Philadelphia, including a circulating library, fire department, paving of streets, hospital, and was the prime mover in founding the American Philosophical Society and an academy that evolved into the University of Pennsylvania. As well as publishing the most widely read newspaper in the colonies and his bestselling almanac, he became public printer for several of the colonies and postmaster. He lived in England 14 years as a trade representative, largely struggling in vain. At the age of 70, he undertook a decade of service as minister to France, achieving against great odds crucial diplomatic triumphs.

Bad outcomes in black babies: race or racism?

PubMed

David, R J; Collins, J W

1991-01-01

The gap between black and white infant death rates in the United States has grown over the last three decades. Epidemiologic and medical studies by investigators seeking to understand and reverse this adverse trend have been unsuccessful. Researchers have looked in vain for the combination of social and environmental risk factors that are more common among blacks and would therefore explain this group's poor reproductive outcomes. The implicit alternate hypothesis is genetic differences between blacks and whites. In fact, there is more of a gap between black and white mothers of higher socioeconomic position than between overall black and white rates without socioeconomic stratification. An alternative to the genetic theory explains these results, however, on the basis of social risk factors that, because of the presence of widespread discrimination in the society under study, apply only to blacks. Such factors are the effects of racism, not race per se. Several lines of research are needed to investigate the effects of racism on perinatal outcomes, including studies on psychophysiological reactions to racial discrimination and on ethnic group differences in coping mechanisms, social supports, and physical environment. Analysis of trends over the past 37 years indicates that improvements in white (and total US) infant mortality rates cannot be anticipated until the racial gap is closed.

Abraham's discovery of the 'bad mother'. A contribution to the history of the theory of depression.

PubMed

May, U

2001-04-01

The author shows how, after Freud struggled in vain from the 1890s to develop a theory of depression, Abraham succeeded for the first time in finding an approach to the understanding of depression a few years before the publication of Freud's 'Mourning and melancholia'. It is contained in his study of the painter Giovanni Segantini (1911), which also includes a description, imbued with a new atmospheric quality, of the mother-son relationship that centres on the concept of the 'bad mother'. The author points out that Abraham's 'good/bad' dimension is effectively absent from Freud's published work up to 1911 and is also at variance with his view of the relationship between son and mother. In later contributions, too, Abraham maintained that unconscious hate directed at the mother, who is experienced as 'bad' but longed for as 'good', was a central factor in the aetiology of depression, a view he had to defend vis-à-vis Freud. The author contends that in the Segantini paper Abraham was describing an inner world similar to that evinced by the work of Melanie Klein and significantly different from Freud's. It is characterised by hate, revenge, death wishes and guilt feelings on the one hand and tranquillity and inner peace on the other.

Oxidative transformation of a tunichrome model compound provides new insight into the crosslinking and defense reaction of tunichromes.

PubMed

Abebe, Adal; Kuang, Qun F; Evans, Jason; Robinson, William E; Sugumaran, Manickam

2017-04-01

Tunichromes, small oligopeptides with dehydrodopa units isolated from the blood cells of ascidians, have been implicated in the defense reactions, metal binding, wound repair, or tunic formation. Their instability and high reactivity has severely hampered the assessment of their biological role. Experiments conducted with the model compound, 1,2-dehydro-N-acetyldopamine, indicated that the instability of tunichromes is due to this basic structure. Exposure of this catecholamine derivative to even mild alkaline condition such as pH 7.5 causes rapid nonenzymatic oxidation. High performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry studies confirmed the production of dimeric and other oligomeric products in the reaction mixture. The nonenzymatic reaction seemed to proceed through the intermediary formation of semiquinone free radical and superoxide anion. Ultraviolet and visible spectral studies associated with the oxidation of tunichromes isolated from Ascidia nigra by tyrosinase indicated the probable formation of oligomeric tunichrome products. Attempts to monitor the polymerization reaction by mass spectrometry ended in vain. Tunichrome also exhibited instability in mild alkaline conditions generating superoxide anions. Based on these studies, a possible role for oxidative transformation of tunichrome in defense reaction, tunic formation and wound healing is proposed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Helminth Infections and Cardiovascular Diseases: Toxocara Species is Contributing to the Disease

PubMed Central

Zibaei, Mohammad

2017-01-01

Toxocariasis is the clinical term used to describe human infection with either the dog ascarid Toxocara canis or the feline ascarid Toxocara cati. As with other helminths zoonoses, the infective larvae of these Toxocara species cannot mature into adults in the human host. Instead, the worms wander through organs and tissues, mainly the liver, lungs, myocardium, kidney and central nervous system, in a vain attempt to find that, which they need to mature into adults. The migration of these immature nematode larvae causes local and systemic inflammation, resulting in the “larva migrans” syndrome. The clinical manifestations of toxocariasis are divided into visceral larva migrans, ocular larva migrans and neurotoxocariasis. Subclinical infection is often referred to as covert toxocariasis. One of the primary causes of death all around the world is cardiovascular disease that accounted for up to 30 percent of all-cause mortality. Cardiovascular disease and more precisely atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, is predicted to remain the single leading cause of death (23.3 million deaths by 2030). A-quarter of people presenting the disease does not show any of the known cardiovascular risk factors. Therefore, there is considerable interest in looking for novel components affecting cardiovascular health, especially for those that could improve global cardiovascular risk prediction. This review endeavours to summarize the clinical aspects, new diagnostic and therapeutic perspectives of toxocaral disease with cardiovascular manifestations. PMID:27492228

Early Patient Access to Medicines: Health Technology Assessment Bodies Need to Catch Up with New Marketing Authorization Methods.

PubMed

Leyens, Lada; Brand, Angela

National and international medicines agencies have developed innovative methods to expedite promising new medicines to the market and facilitate early patient access. Some of these approval pathways are the conditional approval and the adaptive pathways by the European Medicines Agency (EMA); the Promising Innovative Medicine (PIM) designation and the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS) by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), as well as the Fast Track, Breakthrough or Accelerated Approval methods by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, at least in Europe, these methods cannot achieve the goal of improving timely access for patients to new medicines on their own; the reimbursement process also has to become adaptive and flexible. In the past 2 years, the effective access (national patient access) to newly approved oncology drugs ranged from 1 to 30 months, with an extremely high variability between European countries. The goal of early patient access in Europe can only be achieved if the national health technology assessment bodies, such as NICE (ENG), HAS (FR), G-BA (DE) or AIFA (IT), provide harmonized, transparent, flexible, conditional and adaptive methods that adopt the level of evidence accepted by the medicines agencies. The efforts from medicines agencies are welcome but will be in vain if health technology assessments do not follow with similar initiatives, and the European 'postcode' lottery will continue. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Energy minimization in nematic liquid crystal systems driven by geometric confinement and temperature gradients with applications in colloidal systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolacz, Jakub

We first explore the topology of liquid crystals and look at the fundamental limitations of liquid crystals in confined geometries. The properties of liquid crystal droplets are studied both theoretically and through simulations. We then demonstrate a method of chemically patterning surfaces that allows us to generate periodic arrays of micron-sized liquid crystal droplets and compare them to our simulation results. The parallelizable method of self-localizing liquid crystals using 2D chemical patterning developed here has applications in liquid crystal biosensors and lens arrays. We also present the first work looking at colloidal liquid crystals under the guise of thermophoresis. We observe that strong negative thermophoresis occurs in these systems and develop a theory based on elastic energy minimization. We also calculate a Soret coefficient two orders of magnitude larger than those present in the literature. This large Soret coefficient has considerable potential for improving thermophoretic sorting mechanisms such as Thermal-Field Flow Fractionation and MicroScale Thermophoresis. The final piece of this work demonstrates a method of using projection lithography to polymerize liquid crystal colloids with a defined internal director. While still a work in progress, there is potential for generating systems of active colloids that can change shape upon external stimulus and in the generation of self-folding shapes by selective polymerization and director predetermination in the vain of micro-kirigami.

Action-based flood forecasting for triggering humanitarian action

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coughlan de Perez, Erin; van den Hurk, Bart; van Aalst, Maarten K.; Amuron, Irene; Bamanya, Deus; Hauser, Tristan; Jongma, Brenden; Lopez, Ana; Mason, Simon; Mendler de Suarez, Janot; Pappenberger, Florian; Rueth, Alexandra; Stephens, Elisabeth; Suarez, Pablo; Wagemaker, Jurjen; Zsoter, Ervin

2016-09-01

Too often, credible scientific early warning information of increased disaster risk does not result in humanitarian action. With financial resources tilted heavily towards response after a disaster, disaster managers have limited incentive and ability to process complex scientific data, including uncertainties. These incentives are beginning to change, with the advent of several new forecast-based financing systems that provide funding based on a forecast of an extreme event. Given the changing landscape, here we demonstrate a method to select and use appropriate forecasts for specific humanitarian disaster prevention actions, even in a data-scarce location. This action-based forecasting methodology takes into account the parameters of each action, such as action lifetime, when verifying a forecast. Forecasts are linked with action based on an understanding of (1) the magnitude of previous flooding events and (2) the willingness to act "in vain" for specific actions. This is applied in the context of the Uganda Red Cross Society forecast-based financing pilot project, with forecasts from the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS). Using this method, we define the "danger level" of flooding, and we select the probabilistic forecast triggers that are appropriate for specific actions. Results from this methodology can be applied globally across hazards and fed into a financing system that ensures that automatic, pre-funded early action will be triggered by forecasts.

Public titles of clinical trials should have ethics review.

PubMed

Saenz, Carla; Reveiz, Ludovic; Tisdale, John F

2015-09-01

A key aspect to guarantee that research with human subjects is ethical is being overlooked. Ethics review committees invest great effort examining the informed consent documents of research protocols to ensure that potential participants can provide consent validly and are not deluded into thinking that the experimental intervention they may sign up for is already known to be therapeutic. However, these efforts to avoid what is called the "therapeutic misconception" might be in vain if the title with which the studies are being introduced to the potential participants escapes ethics review. Research participants might be deceived by clinical trials entitled "novel therapy" when the point of the trial is precisely to find out whether the intervention at stake is therapeutic or not. Providing potential research participants with such misleading information hampers their ability to make informed decisions. The well-established scrutiny that ethics review committees exercise with regard to consent forms is limited if the registration of clinical trials, for which a public title is chosen, constitutes a process that is independent from the ethics review. In this article, we examine this problem, assess recent measures to integrate clinical trial registration with ethics review processes, and provide specific recommendations to solve the problem and ultimately enhance the accountability, transparency, and ethics of research with human subjects. Copyright © 2015 Pan American Health Organization. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Limitation of the therapeutic effort].

PubMed

Herreros, B; Palacios, G; Pacho, E

2012-03-01

The limitation of the therapeutic effort (LTE) consists in not applying extraordinary or disproportionate measures for therapeutic purposes that are proposed for a patient with poor life prognosis and/or poor quality of life. There are two types. The first is to not initiate certain measures or to withdraw them when they are established. A decision of the LTE should be based on some rigorous criteria, so that we make the following proposal. First, it is necessary to know the most relevant details of the case to make a decision: the preferences of the patient, the preferences of the family when pertinent, the prognosis (severity), the quality of life and distribution of the limited resources. After, the decision should be made. In this phase, participatory deliberation should be established to clarify the end of the intervention. Finally, if it is decided to perform an LTE, it should be decided how to do it. Special procedures, disproportionate measures, that are useless and vain should not be initiated for the therapeutic objective designed (withdraw them if they have been established). When it has been decided to treat a condition (interim measures), the treatment should be maintained. This complex phase may need stratification of he measures. Finally, the necessary palliative measures should be established. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Design, implementation, and evaluation of a community financing scheme for hospital care in developing countries: a pre-paid health plan in the Bwamanda health zone, Zaire.

PubMed

Moens, F

1990-01-01

Unless scarce resources can be mobilized and used efficiently, health for all by the year 2000 will remain a vain attempt. Innovative financing schemes exploring increased cost recovery from the users of the health system are explored throughout the world. In Bwamanda, Zaire, a community financing scheme for hospital care was developed through the application of operations research. A preference heuristic with considerable involvement of health providers and the community was used to identify the type of financing scheme and resulted in a pre-paid health plan, while a mathematical model was developed to determine the premiums to charge. The implementation of the health plant is briefly described. An evaluation of the effects of the pre-paid plan on the accessibility and equity of health care, as well as on the financial sustainability of the hospital, is presented and discussed: a steadily increasing membership of the health plan illustrates its appropriateness, while a doubling of the cost recovery of the hospital's operating costs after two years seems promising; the hospitalization rate of members of the health plan was significantly higher than for non-members. These findings suggest that a health zone may be an appropriate level for the organization of a regional pre-paid health plan. Problems of equity, full cost recovery, and replicability of the financing scheme are discussed.

A strategy to assist management in workforce engagement and employee retention in the high tech engineering environment.

PubMed

Kennedy, Elizabeth; Daim, Tugrul U

2010-11-01

Many companies use survey methods in an attempt to gauge employees' attitudes and opinions toward the company. These attitudes and opinions are directly related to an employee's engagement within the company. In many instances, employees wait in vain for the survey response and the subsequent employer actions, but the truth is sometimes management does not know what to do with the results. For this reason, we theorize that this type of survey, typically utilizing the Likert-scale, is not adequately assisting management in addressing employee engagement and retention issues. For instance, in many occasions, once the survey results are tabulated, companies are doing little or nothing to address the issues. In fact, far too many companies make the mistake of conducting employee engagement surveys, and then ignore the answers. Thus, we propose that a company should take advantage of the survey results, and utilize them to provide data to bridge employees' needs and goals with stakeholders' responsibilities and goals by refining and incorporating them into a hierarchical decision model (HDM). Thus, this would essentially be utilizing the quantitative data to determine what to measure qualitatively. We use a case from the high tech industry, specifically focusing on the engineering environment. Engineering environments are known to be more creative and such approaches would be more beneficial. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Does the U.S. Supreme Court's Recent Activism in Reviewing Educational Disputes Make the Attempt To Implement a Code of Professional Ethics for Educators a Vain Effort?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petronicolos, Loucas

This paper explores whether or not the recent increase of interest by the U.S. Supreme Court in educational disputes results in a gradual reduction in the role that professional ethics plays in educators' everyday decisions. It is argued that there are links between an educator's professional ethics and constitutional justice. The increase in…

[Clinical research XXIV. From clinical judgment to ethics in research on humans].

PubMed

Pérez-Rodríguez, Marcela; Palacios-Cruz, Lino; Rivas-Ruiz, Rodolfo; Talavera, Juan O

2014-01-01

Bioethics in research is an essential part of the structured review process of an article and it is based on three fundamental principles: respect for persons, beneficence and justice. In addition to not providing valid knowledge, a research with inadequate design, execution and statistical analysis is not ethical either, since these methodological deficiencies will produce information that will not be useful and, therefore, the risks that the participants were exposed to will have been in vain. Beyond scientific validity, there are other aspects that outline if an investigation is ethical, such as the clinical and social value of a study, a fair selection of participants, favorable risk-benefit balance, an independent review, the informed consent and respect for participants and potential participants. Throughout the article here presented, the documents that profile the behavior of investigators to protect the participants, such as the Declaration of Helsinki, the national regulations that rule us and the differences between research without risk, with minimal risk and with greater than minimal risk are discussed. That like in daily life, behavior in research involving human participants must be self-regulated, ie, people with knowledge of the existence of the law discover that the man is outside the realm of nature where work is done under the necessity of natural causality, and falls within the scope of the will; only if the man is free to decide their actions may be a law regulating their action.

[A crisis of ginseng capital and the countermeasures of the ginseng-cultivating people during Daehan empire].

PubMed

Yang, Jeong Pil

2009-12-01

This thesis examines a crisis of ginseng capital and the source of crisis during Daehan empire. After the China-Japan war of 1894, the Japanese merchants actively engaged in taking over the ginseng fields, so that ginseng-cultivating Koreans suffered substantial economic losses. After the Russo-Japanese war, the Japanese imperialists undertook the 'Currency Arranging Business'(CAB) in order to set a cornerstone for their invasion of Korea. The CAB eventually provoked a wide depression which in turn produced massive number of Korean merchants going bankrupt. The Kaesong merchants were no exception, since CAB stroke a severe blow on the ginseng industry, which relied heavily on the commercial capitals of the Kaesong merchants. Moreover, the Japanese imperialists broke the previous promise and bought ginseng at a dirt-cheap price, which put ginseng-cultivating Koreans in serious trouble. In order to combat such crisis, ginseng field-owners protested against such injustice by petitioning or stirring up Kaesong popular riot in vain, and consequently the number of ginseng field-owners decreased sharply. A few of the ginseng field-owners survived, and managed to maintain and even flourish more than before. These successful owners were characterized with their strong link with the official circle, utilizing their influence in ginseng industry. Their original background was not identical as some came from the influential families of Kaesong area for generations, while others made their own fortunes and continue to prosper through the difficult times of the late of the Daehan empire period.

On criticism in bio-medical research--a tribute to Uffe Ravnskov.

PubMed

Folkow, Björn

2008-08-01

The great importance of criticism in science--and its ups-and-downs due to human prejudices and emotions--is discussed in a historical perspective. Towards such a background, attempts are made to evaluate present controversies concerning the widely assumed cause-effect relations between diet-adipositas per se and disorders, like diabetes 2 and atherosclerosis. Seen from a physiological angle, it appears that the real culprits are to a great extent of a different nature, though easily overlooked in e.g. mass screenings. Thus, the human brain reacts to the many mental challenges of modern hectic-competitive life with the same protective response patterns as seen in all mammals, i.e. with defeat- and/or defence-reactions. Here the hypothalamic-hypophyseal-glucocorticoid axis, respectively the hypothalamic-sympatho-adrenomedullary one, serves to support the associated behavioural expressions. Experiments in group-living mammals show how mentally induced prolonged engagements of these neuro-endocrine links end up in serious metabolic and organ-system disturbances, also if factors like diet are kept unchanged. To this comes that in 'civilized' man the respective behavioural expressions are commonly suppressed, whereby most 'inside' neuro-hormonally induced changes occur in vain. An aggravating component is inherent in generally dwindling physical activity, implying that the many bodily and mental advantages of regular exercise are much reduced. Towards such a background, it appears strange that 'The metabolic syndrome' and its sequalae are not even more common today.

[Factitious fevers as a cause of prolonged fevers. Apropos of 5 clinical cases].

PubMed

Potin, M; Regamey, C; Glauser, M P

1983-10-22

Among the numerous causes of prolonged fever of unknown origin, the factitious fevers are frequently considered last after much diagnostic and therapeutic effort. Five observations of factitious fever are presented including 2 cases of thermometer manipulation in men aged 45 and 80. The latter patient is the oldest in whom such a case has been reported. In the first case the prolonged fever led to exploratory laparotomy with splenectomy followed by antilymphoma chemotherapy before the thermometer manipulation was discovered. This patient had previously been treated successfully for stage Ib Hodgkin lymphoma. In the other case hospitalization had lasted several weeks, and much antibiotic and steroid treatment had been administered, before the manipulation was suspected. A third case of thermometer manipulation was observed in a 57-year-old woman who had been presenting with factitious symptoms for over 10 years. Two other cases of factitious fever due to self-induced infections have been observed in two young women aged 23 and 27, both in paramedical professions. These self-induced infections led to polymicrobial bacteremia, exploratory laparotomy and hemicolectomy in one case, and to probable bacterial meningitis in the other. Certain aspects of these cases agree well with the diagnostic criteria of factitious fever described in the literature. We feel it is important to recognize this cause of febrile states, even if there is an apparent etiology, in order to avoid much vain investigation and prolonged hospitalization.

Iterative Evolution in Triassic Gondolelloidea (Conodonta)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murat Kilic, Ali; Plasencia, Pablo; Guex, Jean; Hirsch, Francis

2017-04-01

The phylogeny and distribution of Triassic gondolelloid conodont multi-elements reveals aspects of their natural history. In conodont phylogeny, taxonomy incorporates the morphologic riposte to temperature as well as to eustatic cycles, expressed in speciation, radiation and extinction as these are not fortuitous and evolution uses diverse strategies such as heterochrony (progenesis and neoteny) in response to stress generating events. Proteromorphosis (reappearance of ancestral morphs) and paedomorphosis (retention of juvenile traits) is a reaction to sublethal environmental stress. It is often followed by radiation of fully developed forms, in the recovery stage after extinction, timely matching transgressions. Evolutionary retrogradation (neoteny) during eustatic high stands often precedes extinction. This was the case of the Alaunian Mockina whereafter the ultimate Misikella brought no post-Rhaetian recovery. The Late Triassic, an extremely long time span of 37 Ma represents 70 % of the total length of the period. Evolutionary rebounds after quasi extinction of subfamily Neogondolellinae, by radiation, out of the single surviving genus Paragondolella: Julian Metapolygnathus and Mazzaella, and Tuvalian-Lacian Metapolygnathus-Carnepigondolella-Ancyrogondolella. The survival of the clade throughout Alaunian and Sevatian took place by successive retrogradations (proteromorphosis) of the Alaunian Mockina and Sevatian-Rhaetian Misikella, bringing no ultimate post-Rhaetian recovery. The cryptic gondolellid features, encoded in "neospathid" proteromorphs permitted the conodont survival throughout the entire Triassic, signaling Dienerian, Anisian, Ladinian, Carnian, and Norian crises, extreme and ultimately vain in the terminal Rhaetian. Key words: Triassic; Conodonts; Phylogeny; Evolution; Proteromorphosis.

Laser treatment in gynecology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Riese, Cornelia

2004-07-01

This presentation is designed as a brief overview of laser use in gynecology, for non-medical researchers involved in development of new laser techniques. The literature of the past decade is reviewed. Differences in penetration, absorption, and suitable delivery media for the beams dictate clinical application. The use of CO2 laser in the treatment of uterine cervical intraepithelial lesions is well established and indications as well as techniques have not changed over 30 years. The Cochrane Systematic Review from 2000 suggests no obviously superior technique. CO2 laser ablation of the vagina is also established as a safe treatment modality for VAIN. CO2 laser permits treatment of lesions with excellent cosmetic and functional results. The treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding by destruction of the endometrial lining using various techniques has been the subject of a 2002 Cochran Database Review. Among the compared treatment modalities are newer and modified laser techniques. Conclusion by reviewers is that outcomes and complication profiles of newer techniques compare favorably with the gold standard of endometrial resection. The ELITT diode laser system is one of the new successful additions. CO2 laser is also the dominant laser type used with laparoscopy for ablation of endometriotic implants. Myoma coagulation or myolysis with Nd:Yag laser through the laparoscope or hysteroscope is a conservative treatment option. Even MRI guided percutaneous approaches have been described. No long-term data are available.

Accounts from 19th-century Canadian Arctic explorers' logs reflect present climate conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Overland, James E.; Wood, Kevin

The widely perceived failure of 19th-century expeditions to find and transit the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic is often attributed to extraordinary cold climatic conditions associated with the “Little Ice Age” evident in proxy records. However, examination of 44 explorers' logs for the western Arctic from 1818 to 1910 reveals that climate indicators such as navigability, the distribution and thickness of annual sea ice, monthly surface air temperature, and the onset of melt and freeze were within the present range of variability.The quest for the Northwest Passage through the Canadian archipelago during the 19th century is frequently seen as a vain and tragic failure. Polar exploration during the Victorian era seems to us today to have been a costly exercise in heroic futility, which in many respects it was. This perspective has been reinforced since the 1970s, when paleoclimate reconstructions based on Arctic ice core stratigraphy appeared to confirm the existence of exceptionally cold conditions consistent with the period glaciologists had termed the “Little Ice Age” (Figure 1a), with temperatures more than one standard deviation colder relative to an early 20th-century mean [Koerner, 1977; Koerner and Fisher, 1990; Overpeck et al., 1998]. In recent years, the view of the Little Ice Age as a synchronous worldwide and prolonged cold epoch that ended with modern warming has been questioned [Bradley and Jones, 1993; Jones and Briffa, 2001 ;Ogilvie, 2001].

Prospective evaluation of antibiotic treatment for urological procedure in patients presenting with neurogenic bladder.

PubMed

Weglinski, L; Rouzaud, C; Even, A; Bouchand, F; Davido, B; Duran, C; Salomon, J; Perronne, C; Denys, P; Chartier-Kastler, E; Dinh, A

2016-09-01

Patients presenting with neurogenic bladder often require urological procedures (urodynamic testing and botulinum toxin injections) and a preventive antibiotic therapy. We aimed to assess the efficacy of this little known strategy in a cohort of patients. All patients presenting with neurogenic bladder who underwent urological procedure were included in the study. They received an antibiotic therapy in accordance with the urine cytobacteriological examination results. The antibiotic therapy was initiated two days before the procedure and prolonged up until two days after the procedure if the culture was positive. Patients were treated with a single dose of fosfomycin-trometamol in case of a negative culture. The main study outcome was the occurrence of urinary tract infection (UTI), defined by a positive urine culture and symptoms, up until 14 days after the procedure. A total of 80 urological procedures were performed. Mean patient age was 47±13.1 years (sex ratio 1.22); 59 (73.8%) presented with asymptomatic bacteriuria before the procedure. Nine (11.1%) UTIs were recorded on Day 14, of which one (1.2%) was febrile. Two patients required an additional curative antibiotic therapy. No patient was hospitalized. Overall, 77.8% of UTIs were cured without antibiotic therapy. Screening and treating asymptomatic bacteriuria before urological procedures seems unnecessary and vainly exposes this population at high risk of infectious diseases to antibiotic therapies. This data should be confirmed by a randomized clinical trial. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Policy implications of differential health status in East and West Europe. The case of Hungary.

PubMed

Makara, P

1994-11-01

Morbidity and mortality trends in Western and Eastern Europe have differed considerably during the past three decades, although the major unfavourable processes have been essentially the same in each of the Central European countries. The most striking feature has been the decline in average life expectancy and deterioration of age-specific mortality rates for the middle-aged, especially men. The former socialist government took no effective action. Due to the denial of social and environmental problems, social, health and environmental policy were underdeveloped and deformed. Partly inherited from previous historical traditions, wishful thinking, victimization and a patronizing attitude were primary ways of dealing with problems. In these circumstances even the few specially supported health education campaigns were doomed to fail. People depended on the omnipotent central state in vain to solve their problems so that health promotion based on the community and self-empowerment did not develop. During the early nineties, in Eastern and Central Europe no central political strategies were initiated or launched to combat the mortality and morbidity tendences. The economic and social prerequisites of a long-term gradual improvement in the health status are missing in Central and Eastern Europe. A declining standard of living due to recession, growing deprivation, poverty, unemployment and migration are unfavourable to improvements in health. In a time of crisis, with stress but without adequate skills of coping, forced adaptation associated with sudden changes and perceived failure have only made matters worse. There are no short-term 'solutions'.

Skill, Judgement and Conduct for the First Generation of Neurosurgeons, 1900-1930.

PubMed

Gavrus, Delia

2015-07-01

Historical contingency complicates a reading of skill as a self-explanatory and always positive attribute. By focusing on the attempts of the first generation of neurosurgeons to build a community and fashion a collective neurosurgical self, this article highlights the extent to which the relationship between surgical skill and professional judgement is reflected in broader concerns that shape the landscape of medicine at a given time. Some early twentieth-century surgeons expressed concern about the spectacularisation of surgery and the skilful but problematic work of 'brilliant operators'. The neurosurgeons' policies of inclusion and exclusion show that in the process of fashioning a neurosurgical persona, this first generation sanctioned specific norms of conduct underwritten by similar moral imperatives, such as self-control. These norms governed the doctors' work both in the operating room and on the public stage (in their engagement with the press). The meetings of the first neurosurgical society staged a critical encounter between the host neurosurgeon and the members who watched him perform surgery. These technical performances in the operating theatre, followed by discussions, were designed to encourage particular norms, to negotiate surgical knowledge, and to demonstrate the skills and character of the neurosurgeon. The performances acted as a technology of the self that aligned the operator to a community and helped that community refine its norms of surgical conduct. The awkward surgeon with inferior technical ability was preferable to the brilliant but vain operator who lacked the capacity to judge when he should not deploy his spectacular skills.

Relations between people, relations about things: gendered investment and the case of the Lake Victoria fishery, Tanzania.

PubMed

Medard, Modesta

2012-01-01

Using the example of one of the African fisheries that has been most significantly transformed from family based to commercialized—that on Lake Victoria in Tanzania—this article considers the social nexus of decision making and focuses on analyzing women’s place. It is true that women have never been more than a minority in fisheries due to traditional inheritance patterns and new market structures, both of which bypass women in questions of ownership and decision making. We look in vain for fishwives, if this means female fish producers acting with a highly visible degree of economic and social autonomy. There is no vernacular term to identify women who work with fish or those rare women who own fishing vessels. And yet the absence of derogatory representation suggests that there have been few attempts to detract from women who are active in the fishery. Should we thus be aiming at more subtlety in our analytical approaches to fishing relations on Lake Victoria? The article unveils the ways in which women’s relations with fishermen are negotiated and how agreements are reached on behalf of their families. It explores for women’s empowerment via the customary social relations and management arrangements that exist in these riparian communities. The lake fishery has a basis for development, but its potential for the kind of growth that will have returns for future generations rests on an appreciation of how fisher-wives conceive of, and respond to, the opportunities, constraints and risks of investing in this fishery.

Why patients may not exercise their choice when referred for hospital care. An exploratory study based on interviews with patients.

PubMed

Victoor, Aafke; Delnoij, Diana; Friele, Roland; Rademakers, Jany

2016-06-01

Various north-western European health-care systems encourage patients to make an active choice of health-care provider. This study explores, qualitatively, patients' hospital selection processes and provides insight into the reasons why patients do or do not make active choices. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 142 patients in two departments of three Dutch hospitals. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed in accordance with the grounded theory approach. Three levels of choice activation were identified - passive, semi-active and active. The majority of the patients, however, visited the default hospital without having used quality information or considered alternatives. Various factors relating to patient, provider and health-care system characteristics were identified that influenced patients' level of choice activation. On the whole, the patients interviewed could be classified into five types with regard to how they chose, or 'ended up at' a hospital. These types varied from patients who did not have a choice to patients who made an active choice. A large variation exists in the way patients choose a hospital. However, most patients tend to visit the default without being concerned about choice. Generally, they do not see any reason to choose another hospital. In addition, barriers exist to making choices. The idea of a patient who actively makes a choice originates from neoclassical microeconomic theory. However, policy makers may try in vain to bring principles originating from this theory into health care. Even so, patients do value the opportunity of attending 'their' own hospital. © 2014 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Chimeric creatures in Greek mythology and reflections in science.

PubMed

Bazopoulou-Kyrkanidou, E

2001-04-15

"The Chimaera" in Homer's Iliad, "was of divine stock, not of men, in the forepart a lion, in the hinder a serpent, and in the midst a goat, ellipsis Bellerophon slew her, trusting in the signs of the gods." In Hesiod's Theogony it is emphasized that "Chimaera ellipsis had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion, another of a goat, and another of a snakeellipsis". In addition to this interspecies animal chimera, human/animal chimeras are referred to in Greek mythology, preeminent among them the Centaurs and the Minotaur. The Centaurs, as horse/men, first appear in Geometric and early Archaic art, but in the literature not until early in the fifth century B.C. The bullheaded-man Minotaur, who is not certainly attested in the literary evidence until circa 500 B.C., first appears in art about 650 B.C. Attempts, in the fourth century B.C. and thereafter, to rationalize their mythical appearance were in vain; their chimeric nature retained its fascinating and archetypal form over the centuries. Early in the 1980s, experimental sheep/goat chimeras were produced removing the reproductive barrier between these two animal species. Late in the 1990s, legal, political, ethical, and moral fights loomed over a patent bid on human/animal chimeras. Chimeric technology is recently developed; however, the concept of chimerism has existed in literary and artistic form in ancient mythology. This is yet another example where art and literature precede scientific research and development. Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss. Inc.

Seeking for the Definition of "Culture": Current Concerns and their Implications. A Comment on Gustav Jahoda's Article "Critical Reflections on some Recent Definitions of "Culture'"'.

PubMed

Mironenko, Irina A; Sorokin, Pavel S

2018-06-01

This article takes as a starting point the critical analysis of attempts to define "culture", offered by Jahoda in 2012. Basing on the observed proliferation of various, often contradicting, definitions of "culture" (for instance, trying to refer to its both internal and external aspects), Jahoda arrives at the conclusion that attempts to define the concept of "culture" are vain and useless and it is quite practicable simply to use the term without seeking to define it. We find it hard to agree with this statement. Elaborating on Jahoda reflections and drawing on the recent debates in social sciences, cultural studies and philosophy, we argue that seeking for the definition of culture is necessary in the context of contemporary development of social and humanitarian knowledge. Moreover, we claim that the debates about culture indicate the need for a large-scale methodological reorganization of the social and humanitarian sciences, in response to the novel ontological congruence between internal and external, the fundamental "ontological shift", "reversing the poles" of the human-related reality. The human individual becomes its core element and pivot. Other "objects", "external" in relation to the individual (for instance, social structures and institutions), undergo such massive and rapid changes that grow progressively fuzzy and sometimes even less "real", comparing to the individual. The "inner" nature of the individual also transforms: from being "subjected" to think, act and feel according to certain external conditions, an individual becomes an Actor, who is empowered to change the environment following his purposive plans, desires and visions.

Skinning vulvectomy for the treatment of vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia 2-3: a study of 21 cases.

PubMed

Ayhan, A; Tuncer, Z S; Doğan, L; Yüce, K; Küçükali, T

1998-01-01

Twenty-one cases of patients with vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) 2-3 were reviewed. The mean age at diagnosis was 45.4 years. All of the patients presented with vulvar pruritus. Five of the patients had hypertension, two had coronary heart disease and two had diabetes mellitus as complicating medical illnesses. None of the patients had history or evidence of vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VAIN) or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and only one patient had invasive cervical cancer at diagnosis. Provided the histology confirmed VIN, the patients were subjected to a skinning vulvectomy procedure. Of the patients, 15 (71.4%) had VIN 2, and the remaining 6 (28.6%) had VIN 3 at preoperative evaluation. Histologic analysis of skinning vulvectomy specimens revealed no evidence of neoplasia in three patients (14.2%). Multifocality was observed in only three patients (14.2%). The areas involved were the perineum in four patients, labia in 15 and clitoris in two patients. Associated vulvar pathologies were condyloma acuminata in one, squamous vulvar hyperplasia in three and lichen sclerosus with squamous hyperplasia in one patient. The complications of the procedure included febrile morbidity in three patients and minor wound break-down in one patient. None of the patients in this series experienced recurrence. Skinning vulvectomy seems to have a high success rate in treatment of VIN 2-3 with minimal postoperative complications and satisfactory cosmetic results. However, observation of only three patients with multifocal lesions as well as no patient with invasive cancer adds credence to an ablative procedure after appropriate evaluation under colposcopy.

Skill, Judgement and Conduct for the First Generation of Neurosurgeons, 1900–1930

PubMed Central

Gavrus, Delia

2015-01-01

Historical contingency complicates a reading of skill as a self-explanatory and always positive attribute. By focusing on the attempts of the first generation of neurosurgeons to build a community and fashion a collective neurosurgical self, this article highlights the extent to which the relationship between surgical skill and professional judgement is reflected in broader concerns that shape the landscape of medicine at a given time. Some early twentieth-century surgeons expressed concern about the spectacularisation of surgery and the skilful but problematic work of ‘brilliant operators’. The neurosurgeons’ policies of inclusion and exclusion show that in the process of fashioning a neurosurgical persona, this first generation sanctioned specific norms of conduct underwritten by similar moral imperatives, such as self-control. These norms governed the doctors’ work both in the operating room and on the public stage (in their engagement with the press). The meetings of the first neurosurgical society staged a critical encounter between the host neurosurgeon and the members who watched him perform surgery. These technical performances in the operating theatre, followed by discussions, were designed to encourage particular norms, to negotiate surgical knowledge, and to demonstrate the skills and character of the neurosurgeon. The performances acted as a technology of the self that aligned the operator to a community and helped that community refine its norms of surgical conduct. The awkward surgeon with inferior technical ability was preferable to the brilliant but vain operator who lacked the capacity to judge when he should not deploy his spectacular skills. PMID:26090734

Why do I stand against the movement for cardiac transplantation in Japan?

PubMed

Watanabe, Y

1994-11-01

In order to clarify the reason the author stands against the movement for cardiac transplantation in Japan, certain crucial differences between death judged by the classical criteria and so-called brain death are briefly discussed, followed by the presentation of three major arguments. First, various problems associated with postoperative care of organ recipients are delineated, particularly side effects of immunosuppressive drugs and long term prognosis with reference of life expectancy as well as quality of life. Second, it is emphasized that transplantation involves prejudice and inequality, since the number of potential organ recipients far exceeds that of donors and only a small portion of transplant candidates can actually receive the organs while others have to wait in vain. Third, once organ transplantation from brain dead patients is allowed, numerous ethical and social problems would arise including an arbitrary expansion of the criteria for brain death, selection of donors and recipients by taking non-medial factors into consideration, development of organ commerce leading to the involvement of organized crime, and the birth of a trend in transplant candidates to wish for an early death of histocompatible donors. Finally, it is pointed out that we must give serious thought to the danger of "from neck down" transplantation creating a new person from two bodies (which is a brain transplant in actuality) in the future, since the difference between such a procedure and the multiorgan transplantation presently practiced in many developed countries is only quantitative and one cannot find a logical reason to ban the former while retaining the latter.

One system's journey in creating a disclosure and apology program.

PubMed

Peto, Randolph R; Tenerowicz, Lynn M; Benjamin, Evan M; Morsi, Deborah S; Burger, Pamela K

2009-10-01

Patients experience adverse events more frequently than the public appreciates. A number of health systems have led the movement toward open, prompt, and compassionate disclosure of adverse events. In 2006 Baystate Health (BH) formed a disclosure advisory committee to design and implement an enhanced program to support prompt and skillful disclosure of adverse events. The proposed model for a disclosure and apology program resembled a consultation service, similar to a hospital ethics consultation service. BH hired an outside trainer to teach coaches/facilitators. Emotional support services were formalized and expanded not only for patients and families but also clinicians. THE EXPERIENCE SO FAR: Implementation of a formal disclosure and apology program has placed internal pressure on the organization to more promptly determine causality of adverse events and to respond to patient/family requests for information and/or assistance. Root causes and degree of system culpability are often not clear early after an event and sometimes are debated among the clinical team and the trained coaches/facilitators and risk managers. After a medical error, patients and families expect the organization to make changes to the system to prevent other patients from being harmed by the same mistake. To minimize the chance that patients and families feel that their suffering has been "in vain," health care systems will need to put systems in place to deliver on the promise to reduce the risk of future harm. Some of the challenges in sustaining such a program include the ability to promptly investigate, to accurately determine liability, to communicate empathetically even if unable to meet all patient/family expectations, and to ensure establishment of a just culture.

The impact of donor policies in Europe: a steady increase, but not everywhere

PubMed Central

Coppen, Remco; Friele, Roland D; Gevers, Sjef KM; Blok, Geke A; van der Zee, Jouke

2008-01-01

Background Transplantable organs are scarce everywhere. Therefore, countries have developed policies to support the efficient use of potential donors. Nevertheless, the shortage of organs remains. Were these policies in vain? The aim of this study is to assess the impact of donor policies on donor procurement in 10 Western European countries from 1995 to 2005. Method To assess the impact of the donor policies we studied the conversion of potential donors into effectuated donors. 80% of the donors died from CVAs or a (traffic) accident. We considered these mortality rates to be a good proxy for potential donors. Here we call the conversion of potential donors into actual donors 'the donor efficiency rate by proxy'. Results The mortality rates for CVA and (traffic) accidents have decreased in the countries under study. At the same time, in most countries the donor efficiency rates have steadily increased. The variance in donor efficiency rates between countries has also increased from 1995 to 2005. Four countries introduced a new consent system or changed their existing system, without (visible) long-term effects. Conclusion The overall increase in donor efficiency means that the efforts to improve donor policies have paid off. However, substantial differences between countries were found. The success of donor policies in terms of the number of absolute donors is blurred by the success of policies on traffic safety and CVA treatment. It remains unclear which specific policy measures are responsible for the increase in donor efficiency rates. This increase is not related to having a presumed consent system. Furthermore, an analysis of countries that introduced a new consent system or changed their system showed no effect on donor efficiency. PMID:19014536

Computers, Nanotechnology and Mind

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ekdahl, Bertil

2008-10-01

In 1958, two years after the Dartmouth conference, where the term artificial intelligence was coined, Herbert Simon and Allen Newell asserted the existence of "machines that think, that learn and create." They were further prophesying that the machines' capacity would increase and be on par with the human mind. Now, 50 years later, computers perform many more tasks than one could imagine in the 1950s but, virtually, no computer can do more than could the first digital computer, developed by John von Neumann in the 1940s. Computers still follow algorithms, they do not create them. However, the development of nanotechnology seems to have given rise to new hopes. With nanotechnology two things are supposed to happen. Firstly, due to the small scale it will be possible to construct huge computer memories which are supposed to be the precondition for building an artificial brain, secondly, nanotechnology will make it possible to scan the brain which in turn will make reverse engineering possible; the mind will be decoded by studying the brain. The consequence of such a belief is that the brain is no more than a calculator, i.e., all that the mind can do is in principle the results of arithmetical operations. Computers are equivalent to formal systems which in turn was an answer to an idea by Hilbert that proofs should contain ideal statements for which operations cannot be applied in a contentual way. The advocates of artificial intelligence will place content in a machine that is developed not only to be free of content but also cannot contain content. In this paper I argue that the hope for artificial intelligence is in vain.

Computational Breakthrough of Natural Lead Hits from the Genus of Arisaema against Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

PubMed

Kant, Kamal; Lal, Uma Ranjan; Ghosh, Manik

2018-01-01

To date, efforts for the prevention and treatment of human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection have been still vain, and there is no safe and effective clinical accepted vaccine. Arisaema genus has claimed for various traditional bioactivities, but scientific assessments are quite limited. This encouraged us to carry out our present study on around 60 phytoconstituents of different Arisaema species as a natural inhibitor against the human RSV. Selected 60 phytochemical entities were evaluated on the docking behavior of human RSV receptor (PDB: 4UCC) using Maestro 9.3 (Schrödinger, LLC, Cambridge, USA). Furthermore, kinetic properties and toxicity nature of top graded ligands were analyzed through QikProp and ProTox tools. Notably, rutin (glide score: -8.49), schaftoside (glide score: -8.18) and apigenin-6,8-di-C-β-D-galactoside (glide score - 7.29) have resulted in hopeful natural lead hits with an ideal range of kinetic descriptors values. ProTox tool (oral rodent toxicity) has resulted in likely toxicity targets of apex-graded tested ligands. Finally, the whole efforts can be explored further as a model to confirm its anti-human RSV potential with wet laboratory experiments. Rutin, schaftoside, and apigenin-6,8-di-C-β-D-galactoside showed promising top hits docking profile against human respiratory syncytial virusMoreover, absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion properties (QikProp) of top hits resulted within an ideal range of kinetic descriptorsProTox tool highlighted toxicity class ranges, LD 50 values, and possible toxicity targets of apex-graded tested ligands. Abbreviations used: RSV: Respiratory syncytial virus, PRRSV: Porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus, ADME-T: Absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity.

Long-Term Clinical Outcome after Treatment for High-Grade Cervical Lesions: A Retrospective Monoinstitutional Cohort Study

PubMed Central

Del Mistro, Annarosa; Matteucci, Mario; Insacco, Egle Alba; Onnis, GianLibero; Da Re, Filippo; Baboci, Lorena; Minucci, Daria

2015-01-01

Background. The aim of this retrospective observational study of women treated for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (CIN2+) was to assess the long-term risk of residual/recurrent high-grade CIN. Materials and Methods. We evaluated 760 women treated by loop electrosurgical excision procedure (684) or conization (76) between 2000 and 2009, and followed up to June 30, 2014 (median follow-up 6.7 years, range 4–14). Visits every 6 months for the first year after treatment and yearly for up to the following 10 years included cytology, colposcopy when indicated, and HPV testing (search and typing). Results. CIN2+ or vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (VAIN2+) was detected in 67 cases (8.8%), 39 at first follow-up and 28 after one/more negative visits. The risk of CIN2+ was higher in case of positive margins (odds ratio (OR) 8.04, 95% CI 4.31–15.0), type 3 transformation zone (OR for CIN3 27.7, 95% CI 2.07–36.9), CIN3+ excision (OR 6.02, 95% CI 1.73–20.9), and positive high-risk HPV test at first follow-up (OR for HPV16: 20.6, 95% CI 6.8–62.6; OR for other hrHPV types: 18.3, 95% CI 5.9–57.0). Conclusion. Residual/recurrent high-grade CIN occurred in <9% cases, and the risk was associated with transformation zone type, lesion grade, margins status, and hrHPV test result at 6–12 months of follow-up. PMID:26180819

Abortion, value and the sanctity of life.

PubMed

Belshaw, Christopher

1997-04-01

In Life's Dominion Dworkin argues that the debate about abortion is habitually misconstrued. Substantial areas of agreement are overlooked, while areas of disagreement are, mistakenly, seen as central. If we uncover a truer picture, then hope of a certain accord may no longer seem vain. I dispute many of these claims. Dworkin argues that both sides in the debate are united in believing that life is sacred, or intrinsically valuable. I disagree. I maintain that only in a very attenuated sense of intrinsic value will this be agreed upon. I consider how an account of such value might be further fleshed out, but suggest, if this is done on any plausible lines, agreement will fall away. Dworkin argues, also, that the issue of personhood, does not, contrary to widespread belief, keep the parties apart. Again I disagree. We need to distinguish the question of whether there is in fact dispute over this issue from that of whether there is, in truth, good reason for dispute. And I argue that, rightly or wrongly, the issue of personhood remains central. Dworkin suggests that the purported proximity between the two sides offers some hope of an eventual reconciliation. At least, they will agree to differ, accepting that in this area freedom of choice is paramount. I am sceptical. Even this measure of reconciliation depends upon conservatives giving up positions which, I argue, they will continue to maintain. There is a further point. Dworkin appears to be, in many ways, cautiously optimistic. I appear, in contrast, to be pessimistic. I argue, however, that only so long as we do disagree over matters of substance is there much hope that our differences might be resolved.

When the Earth Speaks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Freund, F. T.

2005-12-01

Earthquake forecasting is an elusive goal, not only for seismology. It has been reported that, before major earthquakes, the Earth sends out signals. Most of these signals point to transient electric currents in the Earth's crust. To search for the cause of such currents attention has focused - for decades, but in vain - on piezoelectricity, a property of quartz, an abundant mineral in certain rocks. The fact that no generally accepted, physics-based mechanism for the generation of large currents was available has caused considerable confusion. As part of a program to study electrical signals during rock deformation we have made an amazing discovery: when we squeeze one end of a 1.2 m long slab of granite (or quartz-free rocks such as anorthosite or gabbro), we record two electric currents. The currents flow out of the stressed rock without any externally applied voltage. One current, carried by electrons, flows from the stressed rock volume directly to ground. The other current, carried by defect electrons or holes, flows through the full length of the unstressed rock and out the far end. The two currents are of equal magnitude and opposite sign. They are coupled and fluctuate. We understand where the currents come from, how the two types of electronic charge carriers are activated by stress, and how they propagate through the rocks. The discovery of these currents offers a physical basis to re-evaluate a range of electric and electromagnetic signals that have long been reported in connection with impending earthquake activity but seemed to be so difficult, if not impossible, to explain. It offers the opportunity to re-evaluate non-seismic (and non-geodesic) pre-earthquake signals as tools to forecast impending earthquake activity.

[Edward Blyth (1810-1873). Father of the Indian ornitology].

PubMed

Malec, Grzegorz

2014-01-01

Edward Blyth was born on 23 December 1810. When he was ayoung man he took an interest with the zoology which became his life's passion. As a young naturalist he was a conscientious observer of the nature and a man gifted with a superb memory. Unfortunately his career was not successful in London because of the conflict with the younger of the Gray brothers. Facing the prospect of no employment in The British Museum, Blyth decided to leave England for Calcutta where he was offered a post of a museum curator. The English naturalist spent in India the years from 1841 to 1862. During that time he greatly enriched the zoological collection of the museum and consequently the place had much more visitors. Regarding his private life he got married in 1854 to Elisabeth Mary Turner Hodges. Undoubtedly the next four year were the happiest in Blyth's life. After his wife's death Blyth's health condition deteriorated. The ongoing conflicts he kept having while the first stay in India and constant struggle to improve his financial status made him decide to return to England. Blyth left India in 1862. After coming back to his homeland he continued the naturalistic passions. Nevertheless Blyth was constantly troubled by the financial problems. Also, his health, both mental and physical, systematically deteriorated. Finally the death came on 27 December 1873, in London. Blyth tried in vain to gain the recognition and join the scientific establishment of the 19th century England. Constant lack of satisfactory income and often problems with health prevented the ornithologist to be fully devote to his passion. The aim of this article is to highlight some of the most important and interesting events of Blyth's life. Moreover, another objective is to popularise Blyth and his work since he was one of the greatest naturalists of that time.

To mutilate in the name of Jehovah or Allah: legitimization of male and female circumcision.

PubMed

Abu-Sahlieh, S A

1994-01-01

Female circumcison is practised in Sudan, Somalia, Egypt and a few other Arab and Muslim countries. It has triggered a passionate public debate in the West. This debate has found somewhat of an echo in the Arab and Muslim world, but some Muslim religious circles such as Al-Azhar (Egypt), the most important Islamic centre in the world, try to justify it on the basis of sunnah (that is, to conform with the tradition of the prophet Mohammed). Male circumcision is practised by all Muslims and Jews and also by some Christians in Egypt, in the United States and Canada). For different reasons, the debate on this topic is still taboo in Western and in Arab and Muslim countries. The object of this study is to define the role of Islamic law and Muslim religious leaders in female and male circumcision. On purpose, it avoids any use of the word 'Islam', and concentrates on the written sources of Islamic law and the opinions of contemporary Arab authors, mostly of Egyptian origin. Juridical logic cannot acknowledge the distinction between female and male circumcision, both being the mutilation of healthy organs which is damaging to the physical integrity of the child, whatever the underlying religious motivations. Furthermore, both practices violate the Koran: 'Our Lord, You did not create all this in vain' (3:191), and '[He] perfected everything He created' (32:7). In our opinion, a god who demands that his believers be mutilated and branded on their genitals the same as cattle, is a god of questionable ethics. To mutilate children, boys or girls, under the pretext that it is for their own good, shows the influence of cynicism and fanaticism.

A triangular climate-based decision model to forecast crop anomalies in Kenya

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guimarães Nobre, G.; Davenport, F.; Veldkamp, T.; Jongman, B.; Funk, C. C.; Husak, G. J.; Ward, P.; Aerts, J.

2017-12-01

By the end of 2017, the world is expected to experience unprecedented demands for food assistance where, across 45 countries, some 81 million people will face a food security crisis. Prolonged droughts in Eastern Africa are playing a major role in these crises. To mitigate famine risk and save lives, government bodies and international donor organisations are increasingly building up efforts to resolve conflicts and secure humanitarian relief. Disaster-relief and financing organizations traditionally focus on emergency response, providing aid after an extreme drought event, instead of taking actions in advance based on early warning. One of the reasons for this approach is that the seasonal risk information provided by early warning systems is often considered highly uncertain. Overcoming the reluctance to act based on early warnings greatly relies on understanding the risk of acting in vain, and assessing the cost-effectiveness of early actions. This research develops a triangular climate-based decision model for multiple seasonal time-scales to forecast strong anomalies in crop yield shortages in Kenya using Casual Discovery Algorithms and Fast and Frugal Decision Trees. This Triangular decision model (1) estimates the causality and strength of the relationship between crop yields and hydro climatological predictors (extracted from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network's data archive) during the crop growing season; (2) provides probabilistic forecasts of crop yield shortages in multiple time scales before the harvesting season; and (3) evaluates the cost-effectiveness of different financial mechanisms to respond to early warning indicators of crop yield shortages obtained from the model. Furthermore, we reflect on how such a model complements and advances the current state-of-art FEWS Net system, and examine its potential application to improve the management of agricultural risks in Kenya.

Prior human papillomavirus-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccination prevents recurrent high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia after definitive surgical therapy: Post-hoc analysis from a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Garland, Suzanne M; Paavonen, Jorma; Jaisamrarn, Unnop; Naud, Paulo; Salmerón, Jorge; Chow, Song-Nan; Apter, Dan; Castellsagué, Xavier; Teixeira, Júlio C; Skinner, S Rachel; Hedrick, James; Limson, Genara; Schwarz, Tino F; Poppe, Willy A J; Bosch, F Xavier; de Carvalho, Newton S; Germar, Maria Julieta V; Peters, Klaus; Del Rosario-Raymundo, M Rowena; Catteau, Grégory; Descamps, Dominique; Struyf, Frank; Lehtinen, Matti; Dubin, Gary

2016-12-15

We evaluated the efficacy of the human papillomavirus (HPV)-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine in preventing HPV-related disease after surgery for cervical lesions in a post-hoc analysis of the PApilloma TRIal against Cancer In young Adults (PATRICIA; NCT00122681). Healthy women aged 15-25 years were randomized (1:1) to receive vaccine or control at months 0, 1 and 6 and followed for 4 years. Women were enrolled regardless of their baseline HPV DNA status, HPV-16/18 serostatus, or cytology, but excluded if they had previous or planned colposcopy. The primary and secondary endpoints of PATRICIA have been reported previously; the present post-hoc analysis evaluated efficacy in a subset of women who underwent an excisional procedure for cervical lesions after vaccination. The main outcome was the incidence of subsequent HPV-related cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or greater (CIN2+) 60 days or more post-surgery. Other outcomes included the incidence of HPV-related CIN1+, and vulvar or vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN/VaIN) 60 days or more post-surgery. Of the total vaccinated cohort of 18,644 women (vaccine = 9,319; control = 9,325), 454 (vaccine = 190, control = 264) underwent an excisional procedure during the trial. Efficacy 60 days or more post-surgery for a first lesion, irrespective of HPV DNA results, was 88.2% (95% CI: 14.8, 99.7) against CIN2+ and 42.6% (-21.1, 74.1) against CIN1+. No VIN was reported and one woman in each group had VaIN2+ 60 days or more post-surgery. Women who undergo surgical therapy for cervical lesions after vaccination with the HPV-16/18 vaccine may continue to benefit from vaccination, with a reduced risk of developing subsequent CIN2+. © 2016 UICC.

Polio Eradication–Lessons from the Past and Future Perspective

PubMed Central

P, Basavaraj; Singh, Shilpi; Singla, Ashish; Kundu, Hansa; Singh, Khushboo

2014-01-01

formulate appropriate programs for coming years so that the efforts so far don’t go in vain and we secure a healthy Polio free nation for our future generations. PMID:25177640

[An alchemist or swindler? The case of Zbigniew Dunikowski].

PubMed

Łotysz, Sławomir

2009-01-01

In early 1930s the newspapers and street journals in Europe and the United States were frequently reporting on a case of Zbigniew Dunikowski, a Polish engineer, who claimed to be in possession of a secret formula allowing production of gold from ordinary sand and rocks. He believed that most of those materials contain some particles of gold. For the precious metal however, it takes millions of years to precipitate into the ledges that could be mined. His method was based on a conviction, that the process can be accelerated. Although he was nicknamed "Polish alchemist" very soon, his vain promises attracted attention of financiers and even some European political leaders. After few years of futile experiments, he was sued by his impatient financial backers, and arrested. While in detention, he was allowed to make the last attempt to produce gold and regain his repute and freedom. When this attempt failed, the judge sentenced him for two years in prison and ordered him to repay some 3 million francs ($100,000) to his investors. He was also fined with ... 100 francs fine (some 4 dollars). It can not be definitively stated, whether Dunikowski was truly convicted that his formula for making gold could have been working or he acted as a swindler from the very beginning. He exclaimed that the accusation of fraud was caused by bankers, who would never let his method to undermine the status quo of world's economy. The experiments conducted in Ecole Centrale in Paris during his trial, were assisted buy several eminent French scientist. But although the judge sentenced, that Dunikowki's "secret process for turning sand into gold is an impracticable combination of absurdities and contradictions," Polish engineer was still able to find other backers after being released from French prison. We find the traces of his further activity in Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Philippines. Finally, in early 1950s he ended his journey in the United States as a political refugee.

[Occupational exposure induced human transmissible highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in one patient].

PubMed

Zhou, Hong-sheng; Liu, Jing-hu; Wang, Xiu-quan; Guo, Jiang-hua; Song, Xiao-lin

2007-03-01

To describe the clinical manifestations and lung imaging characteristics of the human transmissible highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza. The clinical manifestations and lung imaging characteristics of human transmissible highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in one patient were reviewed and analyzed. The patient had the clear history of occupational exposure. The fever and symptoms of influenza were prominent at onset and associated with the symptoms of the digestive tract. The laboratory findings comprised the significant decrease of the white blood cell count and the lymphocyte number and the impairment of the liver function and the myocardial enzymes. The disease progressed rapidly and multiple organs including lung, heart, liver and kidneys were involved. It was ineffective to administer anti-fungal, anti-virus and anti-inflammation medicines. It was in vain to use mechanical ventilation and pneumothorax intubation and closed drainage as well as the support therapy. In the X-ray film, the lesions progressed quickly and changed diversely with absorption and development at the same time. The nasal and throat swabs and the gargle specimen were detected with RT-PCR and real time PCR by Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The results showed that both the specific HA and NA genes of the avian influenza virus H5N1 subtype were positive and in the same time a strain of avian influenza virus A/jiangxi/1/2005H5N1) was separated and obtained from the nasal and throat swabs. The autopsy showed that diffuse injury of alveolus in lungs, DIC and multiple organ injury. The human transmissible highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza is a lethal disease. The disease progresses rapidly with the absorption and development at the same time in the lungs and unfortunately there are no effective therapeutic measures. The prevention of the contagious disease for the occupationally exposed population should be emphasized.

[ENCODE apophenia or a panglossian analysis of the human genome].

PubMed

Casane, Didier; Fumey, Julien; Laurenti, Patrick

2015-01-01

In September 2012, a batch of more than 30 articles presenting the results of the ENCODE (Encyclopaedia of DNA Elements) project was released. Many of these articles appeared in Nature and Science, the two most prestigious interdisciplinary scientific journals. Since that time, hundreds of other articles dedicated to the further analyses of the Encode data have been published. The time of hundreds of scientists and hundreds of millions of dollars were not invested in vain since this project had led to an apparent paradigm shift: contrary to the classical view, 80% of the human genome is not junk DNA, but is functional. This hypothesis has been criticized by evolutionary biologists, sometimes eagerly, and detailed refutations have been published in specialized journals with impact factors far below those that published the main contribution of the Encode project to our understanding of genome architecture. In 2014, the Encode consortium released a new batch of articles that neither suggested that 80% of the genome is functional nor commented on the disappearance of their 2012 scientific breakthrough. Unfortunately, by that time many biologists had accepted the idea that 80% of the genome is functional, or at least, that this idea is a valid alternative to the long held evolutionary genetic view that it is not. In order to understand the dynamics of the genome, it is necessary to re-examine the basics of evolutionary genetics because, not only are they well established, they also will allow us to avoid the pitfall of a panglossian interpretation of Encode. Actually, the architecture of the genome and its dynamics are the product of trade-offs between various evolutionary forces, and many structural features are not related to functional properties. In other words, evolution does not produce the best of all worlds, not even the best of all possible worlds, but only one possible world. © 2015 médecine/sciences – Inserm.

Internalizing the threat of risk--a qualitative study about adolescents' experience living with screening-detected celiac disease 5 years after diagnosis.

PubMed

Nordyke, Katrina; Rosén, Anna; Emmelin, Maria; Ivarsson, Anneli

2014-06-11

Mass screening could identify those with unrecognized celiac disease (CD), but the experience of being detected through screening and living with screening-detected CD should be explored before considering this as acceptable intervention. For this study we invited screening-detected adolescents to describe their experience living with screening-detected CD five years after diagnosis with the aim to explore how their perceptions, practices, and beliefs evolved. Adolescents who were diagnosed through a population-based CD screening were invited to write narratives after being diagnosed. Of 153 adolescents who were eventually diagnosed through the screening, 91 wrote narratives one year after diagnosis and 72 five years after diagnosis. A qualitative content analysis resulted in a theme and categories that describe the experience living with screening-detected CD five years after diagnosis. The overall theme--Internalizing the threat of risk--illustrates that being detected through screening and the internalized threat of future health complications have impacted how these adolescents felt about the diagnosis, coped with the gluten-free diet (GFD), and thought about CD screening. This theme is supported by four categories: maintaining an imposed disease identity describes how they continued to define their diagnosis in relation to the screening. They also expressed moving from forced food changes to adapted diet routines by describing habits, routines, coping strategies, and the financial burden of the GFD. They had enduring beliefs of being spared negative consequences, however, even after five years, some doubted they had CD and worried that being detected and eating a GFD might not be beneficial, i.e. continuing to fear it is "all in vain". There was maintenance and evolution in the perceptions, practices, and beliefs of the adolescents after five years. Some have adjusted to the disease and adapted new habits and coping strategies to deal with the GFD, while

Therapeutic strategies of drug repositioning targeting autophagy to induce cancer cell death: from pathophysiology to treatment.

PubMed

Yoshida, Go J

2017-03-09

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to the researcher that discovered autophagy, which is an evolutionally conserved catabolic process which degrades cytoplasmic constituents and organelles in the lysosome. Autophagy plays a crucial role in both normal tissue homeostasis and tumor development and is necessary for cancer cells to adapt efficiently to an unfavorable tumor microenvironment characterized by hypo-nutrient conditions. This protein degradation process leads to amino acid recycling, which provides sufficient amino acid substrates for cellular survival and proliferation. Autophagy is constitutively activated in cancer cells due to the deregulation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway, which enables them to adapt to hypo-nutrient microenvironment and exhibit the robust proliferation at the pre-metastatic niche. That is why just the activation of autophagy with mTOR inhibitor often fails in vain. In contrast, disturbance of autophagy-lysosome flux leads to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and an unfolded protein response (UPR), which finally leads to increased apoptotic cell death in the tumor tissue. Accumulating evidence suggests that autophagy has a close relationship with programmed cell death, while uncontrolled autophagy itself often induces autophagic cell death in tumor cells. Autophagic cell death was originally defined as cell death accompanied by large-scale autophagic vacuolization of the cytoplasm. However, autophagy is a "double-edged sword" for cancer cells as it can either promote or suppress the survival and proliferation in the tumor microenvironment. Furthermore, several studies of drug re-positioning suggest that "conventional" agents used to treat diseases other than cancer can have antitumor therapeutic effects by activating/suppressing autophagy. Because of ever increasing failure rates and high cost associated with anticancer drug development, this therapeutic development strategy has attracted increasing

Sheared Layers in the Continental Crust: Nonlinear and Linearized inversion for Ps receiver functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, J. J.

2017-12-01

Sheared Layers in the Continental Crust: Nonlinear and Linearized inversion for Ps receiver functions Jeffrey Park, Yale University The interpretation of seismic receiver functions (RFs) in terms of isotropic and anisotropic layered structure can be complex. The relationship between structure and body-wave scattering is nonlinear. The anisotropy can involve more parameters than the observations can readily constrain. Finally, reflectivity-predicted layer reverberations are often not prominent in data, so that nonlinear waveform inversion can search in vain to match ghost signals. Multiple-taper correlation (MTC) receiver functions have uncertainties in the frequency domain that follow Gaussian statistics [Park and Levin, 2016a], so grid-searches for the best-fitting collections of interfaces can be performed rapidly to minimize weighted misfit variance. Tests for layer-reverberations can be performed in the frequency domain without reflectivity calculations, allowing flexible modelling of weak, but nonzero, reverberations. Park and Levin [2016b] linearized the hybridization of P and S body waves in an anisotropic layer to predict first-order Ps conversion amplitudes at crust and mantle interfaces. In an anisotropic layer, the P wave acquires small SV and SH components. To ensure continuity of displacement and traction at the top and bottom boundaries of the layer, shear waves are generated. Assuming hexagonal symmetry with an arbitrary symmetry axis, theory confirms the empirical stacking trick of phase-shifting transverse RFs by 90 degrees in back-azimuth [Shiomi and Park, 2008; Schulte-Pelkum and Mahan, 2014] to enhance 2-lobed and 4-lobed harmonic variation. Ps scattering is generated by sharp interfaces, so that RFs resemble the first derivative of the model. MTC RFs in the frequency domain can be manipulated to obtain a first-order reconstruction of the layered anisotropy, under the above modeling constraints and neglecting reverberations. Examples from long

Development and evaluation of a novel drug delivery: Soluplus®/TPGS mixed micelles loaded with piperine in vitro and in vivo.

PubMed

Ding, Yingying; Wang, Changyuan; Wang, Yutong; Xu, Youwei; Zhao, Jing; Gao, Meng; Ding, Yanfang; Peng, Jinyong; Li, Lei

2018-05-27

Although piperine can inhibit cells of tumors, the poor water solubility restricted its clinical application. This paper aimed to develop mixed micelles based on Soluplus ® and D-α-tocopherol polyethylene glycol succinate (TPGS) to improve the aqueous solubility and anti-cancer effect. Piperine-loaded mixed micelles were prepared using a thin-film hydration method, and their physicochemical properties were characterized. The cellular uptake of the micelles was confirmed by confocal laser scanning microscopy in A549 lung cancer cells and HepG 2 liver cancer cells. In addition, cytotoxicity of the piperine mixed micelles was studied in A549 lung cancer cells and HepG 2 liver cancer cells. Free piperine or piperine-loaded Soluplus ® /TPGS mixed micelles were administered at an equivalent dose of piperine at 3.2 mg/kg via a single intravenous injection in the tail vain for the pharmacokinetic study in vivo. The diameter of piperine-loaded Soluplus ® /TPGS (4:1) mixed micelles was about 61.9 nm and the zeta potential -1.16 ± 1.06 mV with 90.9% of drug encapsulation efficiency and 4.67% of drug-loading efficiency. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies confirmed that piperine is encapsulated by the Soluplus ® /TPGS. The release results in vitro showed that the piperine-loaded Soluplus ® /TPGS mixed micelles presented sustained release behavior compared to the free piperine. The mixed micelles exhibited better antitumor efficacy compared to free piperine and physical mixture against in A549 and HepG 2 cells by MTT assay. The pharmacokinetic study revealed that the AUC of piperine-loaded mixed micelles was 2.56 times higher than that of piperine and the MRT for piperine-loaded mixed micelles was 1.2-fold higher than piperine (p < .05). The results of the study suggested that the piperine-loaded mixed micelles developed might be a potential nano-drug delivery system for cancer chemotherapy. These results demonstrated that piperine

Exxon and AGU; Denying Deniers A Platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robock, A.

2016-12-01

Solution to the global warming problem is being stymied in the U.S. by a well-funded disinformation and lobbying campaign by fossil fuel interests. There is a long history of this, and today one need look no farther than the Republican Party, their 2016 Platform, and the actions of the House "Science" Committee Chair, Lamar Smith on their behalf. It is no coincidence that oil and gas interests are the top contributors to Mr. Smith during his political career, 1989-2016. So how is a professional organization of scientists like AGU to deal with this influence? At the 2006 Fall AGU Meeting, I was shocked to see a full-page ad in the written program for the ExxonMobil Student Breakfast. I was a member of the AGU Council at the time, as Atmospheric Sciences Section President-Elect. My motion at the December 2006 Council Meeting resulted in Exxon no longer being able to do this. Some geology members of the Council saw nothing wrong with Exxon, but I explained that AGU is a science organization, and as far as climate science, goes, Exxon is anti-science. Still, 10 years later, AGU accepts donations from Exxon to support, although no longer control, the Student Breakfast, in the vain hope that AGU can engage Exxon to change its ways. I will discuss what I see as the continuing responsibility of scientists to speak out on dangers to society that they discover in their work, and how to deal with the consequences. For example, I was targeted by fossil fuel interests with demands for my emails after signing a letter supporting investigation of them, and I now find in the 2016 Democratic Platform, "Democrats also respectfully request the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies accused of misleading shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change." How do scientists and professional societies deal with this politicization of science? I find that my most useful activity is educating students

Forensic botany II, DNA barcode for land plants: Which markers after the international agreement?

PubMed

Ferri, G; Corradini, B; Ferrari, F; Santunione, A L; Palazzoli, F; Alu', M

2015-03-01

The ambitious idea of using a short piece of DNA for large-scale species identification (DNA barcoding) is already a powerful tool for scientists and the application of this standard technique seems promising in a range of fields including forensic genetics. While DNA barcoding enjoyed a remarkable success for animal identification through cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) analysis, the attempts to identify a single barcode for plants remained a vain hope for a longtime. From the beginning, the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) showed a lack of agreement on a core plant barcode, reflecting the diversity of viewpoints. Different research groups advocated various markers with divergent set of criteria until the recent publication by the CBOL-Plant Working Group. After a four-year effort, in 2009 the International Team concluded to agree on standard markers promoting a multilocus solution (rbcL and matK), with 70-75% of discrimination to the species level. In 2009 our group firstly proposed the broad application of DNA barcoding principles as a tool for identification of trace botanical evidence through the analysis of two chloroplast loci (trnH-psbA and trnL-trnF) in plant species belonging to local flora. Difficulties and drawbacks that were encountered included a poor coverage of species in specific databases and the lack of authenticated reference sequences for the selected markers. Successful preliminary results were obtained providing an approach to progressively identify unknown plant specimens to a given taxonomic rank, usable by any non-specialist botanist or in case of a shortage of taxonomic expertise. Now we considered mandatory to update and to compare our previous findings with the new selected plastid markers (matK+rbcL), taking into account forensic requirements. Features of all the four loci (the two previously analyzed trnH-psbA+trnL-trnF and matK+rbcL) were compared singly and in multilocus solutions to assess the most suitable combination for

Alterations of Innate Immunity Reactants in Transition Dairy Cows before Clinical Signs of Lameness

PubMed Central

Zhang, Guanshi; Hailemariam, Dagnachew; Dervishi, Elda; Deng, Qilan; Goldansaz, Seyed A.; Dunn, Suzanna M.; Ametaj, Burim N.

2015-01-01

Simple Summary Lameness is prevalent in dairy cows and early diagnosis and timely treatment of the disease can lower animal suffering, improve recovery rate, increase longevity, and minimize cow loss. However, there are no indications of disease until it appears clinically, and presently the only approach to deal with the sick cow is intensive treatment or culling. The results suggest that lameness affected serum concentrations of the several parameters related to innate immunity and carbohydrate metabolism that might be used to monitor health status of transition dairy cows in the near future. Abstract The objectives of this study were to evaluate metabolic and innate immunity alterations in the blood of transition dairy cows before, during, and after diagnosis of lameness during periparturient period. Blood samples were collected from the coccygeal vain once per week before morning feeding from 100 multiparous Holstein dairy cows during −8, −4, disease diagnosis, and +4 weeks (wks) relative to parturition. Six healthy cows (CON) and six cows that showed clinical signs of lameness were selected for intensive serum analyses. Concentrations of interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), haptoglobin (Hp), serum amyloid A (SAA), lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP), lactate, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), and β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) were measured in serum by ELISA or colorimetric methods. Health status, DMI, rectal temperature, milk yield, and milk composition also were monitored for each cow during the whole experimental period. Results showed that cows affected by lameness had greater concentrations of lactate, IL-6, and SAA in the serum vs. CON cows. Concentrations of TNF tended to be greater in cows with lameness compared with CON. In addition, there was a health status (Hs) by time (week) interaction for IL-1, TNF, and Hp in lameness cows vs. CON ones. Enhanced serum concentrations of lactate, IL-6, and SAA at −8 and �

Quantification of food waste in public catering services - A case study from a Swedish municipality.

PubMed

Eriksson, Mattias; Persson Osowski, Christine; Malefors, Christopher; Björkman, Jesper; Eriksson, Emelie

2017-03-01

Food waste is a major problem that must be reduced in order to achieve a sustainable food supply chain. Since food waste valorisation measures, like energy recovery, have limited possibilities to fully recover the resources invested in food production, there is a need to prevent food waste. Prevention is most important at the end of the value chain, where the largest number of sub-processes have already taken place and occur in vain if the food is not used for its intended purpose, i.e. consumption. Catering facilities and households are at the very end of the food supply chain, and in Sweden the public catering sector serves a large number of meals through municipal organisations, including schools, preschools and elderly care homes. Since the first step in waste reduction is to establish a baseline measurement in order to identify problems, this study sought to quantify food waste in schools, preschools and elderly care homes in one municipality in Sweden. The quantification was conducted during three months, spread out over three semesters, and was performed in all 30 public kitchen units in the municipality of Sala. The kitchen staff used kitchen scales to quantify the mass of wasted and served food divided into serving waste (with sub-categories), plate waste and other food waste. The food waste level was quantified as 75g of food waste per portion served, or 23% of the mass of food served. However, there was great variation between kitchens, with the waste level ranging from 33g waste per portion served (13%) to 131g waste per portion served (34%). Wasted food consisted of 64% serving waste, 33% plate waste and 3% other food waste. Preschools had a lower waste level than schools, possibly due to preschool carers eating together with the children. Kitchens that received warm food prepared in another kitchen (satellite kitchens) had a 42% higher waste level than kitchens preparing all food themselves (production units), possibly due to the latter having higher

Estimation of the overall burden of cancers, precancerous lesions, and genital warts attributable to 9-valent HPV vaccine types in women and men in Europe.

PubMed

Hartwig, Susanne; St Guily, Jean Lacau; Dominiak-Felden, Géraldine; Alemany, Laia; de Sanjosé, Silvia

2017-01-01

In addition to cervical cancer, human papillomavirus (HPV) is responsible for a significant proportion of cancers and precancerous lesions of the vulva, vagina, anus, penis, head and neck, as well as genital warts. We estimated the annual number of new cases of these diseases attributable to 9-valent HPV vaccine types in women and men in Europe. The annual number of new cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina, anus, penis, and selected head and neck sites in the population of the European Medicines Agency territory was estimated based on age-specific incidence rates extracted from Cancer Incidence in 5 Continents, Volume X and Eurostat population data for 2015. The annual number of new cancers attributable to 9-valent HPV vaccine types was estimated by applying the HPV attributable fraction from reference publications based on a large European multicenter study. For non-cervical cancers, HPV attributable fractions were based on oncogenically-active HPV infections only (i.e., detection of HPV DNA and either mRNA and/or p16 positivity). For precancerous lesions of the cervix, vulva, vagina, and anus, and for genital warts, previously published estimations were updated for the 2015 population. The annual number of new cancers attributable to 9-valent HPV vaccine types was estimated at 47,992 (95% bound: 39,785-58,511). Cervical cancer showed the highest burden (31,130 cases), followed by head and neck cancer (6,786 cases), anal cancer (6,137 cases), vulvar cancer (1,466 cases), vaginal cancer (1,360 cases), and penile cancer (1,113 cases). About 81% were estimated to occur in women and 19% in men. The annual number of new precancerous lesions (CIN2+, VIN2/3, VaIN2/3, and AIN2/3) and genital warts attributable to 9-valent HPV vaccine types was estimated at 232,103 to 442,347 and 680,344 to 844,391, respectively. The burden of cancers associated with 9-valent HPV vaccine types in Europe is substantial in both sexes. Head and neck cancers constitute a heavy burden

[What should be known for the introduction of an HPV vaccine?].

PubMed

Muñoz, Nubia; Jacquard, Anne-Carole

2008-10-01

Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections worldwide. Two HPV vaccines are now available in many countries: (i) the first vaccine is quadrivalent and indicated in the prevention of CIN 2/3, cervical cancers, VIN 2/3, VaIN 2/3 and genital warts associated with the HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18, (ii) the second vaccine is bivalent and indicated in the prevention of CIN 2+ and cervical cancers associated with the HPV types 16 and 18. To critically review all epidemiological aspects of the HPV infection and its relation with preneoplasic lesions of the cervix and cervical cancer to assist the relevant public health authorities to make plans for the introduction of HPV vaccines that have been recently commercialized. Only articles published in English in peer reviewed journals have been selected in Date base PubMed (National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health) with Keywords HPV, risk factor, cervical cancer, CIN2/3, incidence, prevalence, transmission, prevention, genital cancer, HPV vaccines, screening. A critical review of most papers published during the last 10 years was made. The topics covered included: diseases caused by HPV, prevalence, incidence and transmission of HPV, risk factors for the acquisition of HPV, natural history of HPV infection, risk factors determining the progression from HPV to cancer, protective factors blocking the progression from infection to cancer (screening) and primary prevention of HPV by vaccines and other methods. The information was interpreted and summarized. It was concluded that HPV infection is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, that it is the necessary cause of cervical cancer and the cause of other genital cancers and cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract. Fortunately most infections regress, but those infections that persist are the ones leading to cancer. Primary prevention by the introduction of prophylactic vaccines is the

The Hydrometallurgical Extraction and Recovery of High-Purity Silver

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoffmann, James E.

2012-06-01

With the continuous reduction in the availability of extractive metallurgical curricula in colleges and universities, the concern has in part been from where will the next generation of extractive metallurgists come? One objective of this article is to emphasize the fact that extractive metallurgy is, in fact, one of many areas of chemical engineering technology. Thus, although the extractive metallurgist may have disappeared in name, its activity is alive and well, subsumed in the field of chemical engineering. One goal of this lecture is to demonstrate the applicability of chemical engineering principles to what is typically considered "the field of extractive metallurgy." Two processes will be described that have supplanted typical pyrometallurgical fire refining of precious metals, particularly silver. The origins of fire refining can be traced back to biblical times. There are numerous references to it in the old testament: Ezekiel 22:20, "As men gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace to blow the fire upon it in order melt it"; Jeremiah 6:29, "The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on"; and Malachi 3:2 (The Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha), "For he is like a refiners fire." Many references to it will also be found in "De Re Metallurgica" and as well in Lazarus Ercker's 1574 Manual "Treatise on Ores and Refining." Today, fire refining has been improved greatly by innovative furnace design, new fluxing technologies, and the improved use of oxygen. However, fundamentally, the process chemistry has not changed much in the last millennium. Illustrations of hydrometallurgical processing of silver-bearing inputs will be provided by the treatment of sulfated silver-bearing materials and chlorinated slimes. The first of these technologies will be described briefly as practiced by the Phelps Dodge Refining Corporation for several years. The second, the treatment of silver chloride

Discovery of Prehistoric Skies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gurshtein, A. A.

1995-12-01

pharaoh Ekhnaton (Amenhotep 1V) attempted to inaugurate a new four constellation set to fixate the Sun track. The attempt was in vain but it seems the knowledge to go via Moses and the tribes left Egypt for Canaan. According our precessional dating the final design of the Zodiac with 12 houses appeared at 1,200 +/- 400 years B.C. In opposite to the figure 7 which was from the Paleolithic, the first great opus where figure 12 appeared as a sacred one was the Holy Bible. Many other details of the concept proposed are discussed.

Newly discovered hydrothermal system on the Alarcón Rise, Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paduan, J. B.; Clague, D. A.; Caress, D. W.; Lundsten, L.; Martin, J. F.; Nieves-Cardoso, C.

2012-12-01

The Alarcón Rise lies at the mouth of the Gulf of California, and is the last segment of the East Pacific Rise before the plate boundary redirects into the gulf. As part of MBARI's expedition to the gulf in 2012, the neovolcanic zone of the entire ridge segment was mapped by MBARI's mapping AUV. 110 potential hydrothermal chimneys were identified in the new high resolution maps, and 70 were visited with the ROV Doc Ricketts, after having been sought in vain without the maps on an expedition in 2003. Two active vent fields were found, and have been named Meyibó and Ja sít from local native languages. They lie 2.5km apart at ~2300m depth, and are associated with a large, young sheet flow 1/3 of the way along the ridge from the south, on the most inflated part of the ridge. The southern field, Meyibó, contains 14 active chimneys (confirmed with ROV observations) nestled in grabens of several highly fractured cones surrounded by the sheet flow, and generally aligned with its discontinuous, 8km-long fissure system. The northern field, Ja sít, is a broad cluster of 8 active chimneys (also confirmed) rising above the sheet flow's channel system, more than 150m from the fissure. The chimneys stand as tall as 18 m. The most vigorous vent "black smoke" (mineral-rich fluid) >300°C and others are bathed in "white smoke". The active chimneys are populated with bacterial mat and dense clumps of Riftia pachyptila with tubes as long as 1.5m. Abundant limpets, Bythograea thermydron and galatheid crabs, and the pink vent fish Thermarces cerberus were on and near the giant tube worms. Alvinellid worms were observed at 2 chimneys. Some cracks in nearby lava flows vented clear fluid and were populated with tubeworms or Calyptogena magnifica clams. Several chimneys exhibited signs of waning activity: dead tubeworms were still attached and only a minor portion of the edifice supported bacterial mat and live tubeworms. Inactive chimneys are more numerous (48 were confirmed with ROV

Indications for a CO2-rich fluid cap in the uppermost part of the Laacher See Magma Chamber

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aßbichler, Donjá; Heuss-Aßbichler, Soraya; Kunzmann, Thomas

2017-04-01

the content of Ca and SO4 decreases. Clinopyroxene observed in the haüyne-sanidinite has diospidic to hedenbergitic composition while in the nosean-sanidinites it is enriched in Mn (ferroan johannsenite with up to 0.55 apfu Mn; 15.5 wt.-% MnO). Several features indicate the presence of an aggressive fluid phase during formation of the nosean-sanidinites: all silicates expose etching structures such as jagged or rounded mineral surfaces, and/or holes and channels within the mineral grains. To a lesser extent these structures are also observed in the silicates of the bright haüyne-sanidinites. In nosean-sanidinites the etching holes are often filled by calcite. Occasionally these fillings are bounded by a calcite filled fluid vain. All these observations indicate the presence of a CO2-rich fluid phase. The sanidinites are suggested to be formed at late magmatic conditions from a phonolitic melt. The systematics in the textures indicates, that the minerals within the miarolithic cavities of the haüyne-sanidinites crystallized from an evolved, volatile rich phonolitic melt. In contrast the crystallization within the miarolithic pore space of the nosean-sanidinites took place in the rigid zone of the uppermost part of the magma chamber where the mineral forming processes are induced by CO2-rich fluid.

[Becoming medical doctors in colonial Korea: focusing on the faculty of medical colleges in early north Korea].

PubMed

Kim, Geun Bae

2014-12-01

PhD degree, especially, was the significant mark for clearly displaying the abilities and outcomes of the doctors. Lastly, the research career, education experience, clinical training and such that the Korean doctors of the period had built up were weak at the time, however, they were important sources for the future medical science development. Indeed, after Liberation, the rapid settlement and growth of Korea's medical science field were largely beholden to thus. Therefore, the growth of the Koreans as doctors did not cease in colonial Korea, but instead continued onto the history of future generations. In spite of the fact that the Korean doctors's growth and activities were greatly limited under the forceful policy of colonial domination of the era, the efforts the Korean doctors had put were not in vain. Likewise, if we do not fix our attention at the dominating policy and system, but rather put together the actors' correspondence and struggles of the period, then the Korean doctors will be a part of the living history. Hereby, the clue to the paradox between the suppression of medical science in colonial Korea and its leap after Liberation can be untied.

STS Approach and Landing Test (ALT): Flight 5 - Slow Motion video of pilot-induced oscillation (PIO)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1977-01-01

'spot' landing on the concrete runway and flying the orbiter without it's tail-cone fairing, since the previous lakebed landing without the fairing had been made by Joe Engle and Richard Truly. Both Haise and Fullerton had prepared as well as possible for the variables of this mission by flying simulated approach profiles in NASA's shuttle training aircraft. However, as with most simulations, the performance wasn't completely identical to that of the real vehicle. Consequently Haise, the mission commander in the left seat, was too fast on the orbiter's landing approach. Deploying the speed brakes, he tried vainly to hit the assigned landing mark but in the stress of the moment, began to overcorrect the vehicle. The orbiter entered a pilot-induced oscillation or PIO along both it's roll and pitch axis causing the vehicle to begin to 'porpoise' down the runway. As it settled down to land it began to bounce from one main landing gear to the next before being brought under control and finally landed by the crew. Engineers at Dryden later determined that a roughly 270-millisecond time delay in the space shuttle's fly-by-wire system had been the cause of the problem, which was then explored with NASA Dryden's F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire aircraft and corrected with a suppression filter integrated into the orbiter's flight control system.

STS Approach and Landing Test (ALT): Flight 5 - pilot-induced oscillation (PIO) on landing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1977-01-01

'spot' landing on the concrete runway and flying the orbiter without it's tail-cone fairing, since the previous lakebed landing without the fairing had been made by Joe Engle and Richard Truly. Both Haise and Fullerton had prepared as well as possible for the variables of this mission by flying simulated approach profiles in NASA's shuttle training aircraft. However, as with most simulations, the performance wasn't completely identical to that of the real vehicle. Consequently Haise, the mission commander in the left seat, was too fast on the orbiter's landing approach. Deploying the speed brakes, he tried vainly to hit the assigned landing mark but in the stress of the moment, began to overcorrect the vehicle. The orbiter entered a pilot-induced oscillation or PIO along both it's roll and pitch axis causing the vehicle to begin to 'porpoise' down the runway. As it settled down to land it began to bounce from one main landing gear to the next before being brought under control and finally landed by the crew. Engineers at Dryden later determined that a roughly 270-millisecond time delay in the space shuttle's fly-by-wire system had been the cause of the problem, which was then explored with NASA Dryden's F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire aircraft and corrected with a suppression filter integrated into the orbiter's flight control system.

Obituary: Helen Dodson Prince, 1905-2002

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lindner, Rudi Paul

2009-01-01

result of a number of summers spent, during her Wellesley years, at the solar observatory at Meudon, near Paris. When she returned to Michigan, Dodson became involved in the study of solar flares, based upon the long series of daily observations made with the tower telescopes at Lake Angelus and the improved spectroscopic equipment developed by Robert McMath, Orren Mohler, Leo Goldberg, Keith Pierce, and others. Her colleague during most of these years was Emma Ruth Hedeman, who co-authored many articles with her. Among her great accomplishments was the Comprehensive Flare Index, a widely used measure of flare activity. A "real live wire" and "a marvelous woman," in the words of students and colleagues, Dodson was also a kind and effective teacher, not at all vain about her accomplishments: She held that solar behavior has a way of making people humble. Dodoson was married to Edmund L. Prince and lived across Lake Angelus from the McMath-Hulbert Observatory; often she sailed to work, a joy denied to almost all other astronomers. During her years at McMath-Hulbert, The University of Michigan was the sole major American research university to have two women holding professorial positions in astronomy: Helen Dodson Prince and Hazel Marie Losh. One of the founding members of the Solar Physics Division, Professor Prince was a major factor in the rise and success of the McMath-Hulbert Observatory, even when, after the 1950s, urban growth and upper Midwestern weather conditions conspired to cripple the advantages the observatory's technologies had once conferred. Her colleagues and students recall her with great respect and affection.

A partial solution: a local mental health authority for the UK.

PubMed

Hadley, Trevor R.; Goldman, Howard H.

1998-07-01

to the seriously mentally ill. This is the expressed priority of government, advocates and providers, alike.These new entities could be created at either the purchaser or provider level or, as exists in a number of jurisdictions in the US, at both levels, where a single purchaser may be responsible for multiple consolidated providers. This combination is now the emerging model for innovative services in the US. In the UK, the development of a local mental health authority at the purchaser and/or provider level might be relatively simple. Although the creation of a statutory authority would require primary legislation and is therefore probably not a short-term solution, there appears to be a variety of administrative options that would have the same effect. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICY FORMULATION: The creation of a local mental health authority may be a necessary first step towards the development of a coordinated and comprehensive system of care. It seems likely that there is currently more "political" support for the development of a purchaser model but the development of a sophisticated purchsaer is also likely to take considerable time and effort. Although all the structural and policy problems of the mental health system in the UK will not all be solved by local mental health authorities, they may be beneficial if responsibility for mental illness care is to be centralized and fragmentation is to be reduced. Without making structural changes, the best efforts by clinicians, policymakers and managers are most likely to be in vain. Without a clear point of ultimate purchasing and service responsibility, the fragmentation and inefficiency of the current system will remain (Hadley et al., 1996).

BOOK REVIEW: Joseph Henry: The Rise of an American Scientist

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crawford, Elspeth

1998-09-01

's marriage and family, and his beliefs are addressed; we hear how his work kept him from his family at times, but also how much they meant to him. And, of course, there are scientific questions and factual information about the field in which he is renowned - electromagnetism. It is hard to find fault with the quantity and breadth of what is offered, and very easy to criticize the way in which it is offered; nevertheless it seems to me that this is a superb record of events, but without the themes or pictures that would make it a biography. Before reading the book, I was acquainted with some of Henry's writing on electromagnetism (researched as part of my own work on Michael Faraday). I looked in vain for the personality whom I had met in a few scientific papers, a person who had written of new experimentation and results, who knew that new theory was needed also, and who, when he could not think of any, said disarmingly, `this part of the investigation, was, for a time, given up almost in despair'. Moyer does not seem to convey this personality whose words engage other people, even at a distance in time. In spite of this severe criticism, the book has an enticing quality, probably best summarized by its introduction. This recounts the quite staggering attendance at Henry's funeral service and the tenor of obituary notices: this man was loved, by many. Hence, while reading, one continually looks for biography which would in some measure account for this loving and high regard. That is, we are given a measure of this man, and then it is as if the nature of the measure remains unknown however often mentioned. Maybe this beginning in a sense creates the disappointment. It would seem that Henry signifies something greater than wide achievements for those who actually knew him or who read his writing. Could this be the willingness to learn and keep trying, to put others' needs in front of his own, to have both modesty and enthusiasm for enquiry, not-knowing as well as knowing

Aqueous Electrochemical Mechanisms in Actinide Residue Processing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morris, David E.; Burns, Carol J.; Smith, Wayne H.

2000-12-31

Plutonium and uranium residues (e.g., incinerator ash, combustibles, and sand/slag/crucibles) resulting from the purification and processing of nuclear materials constitute an enormous volume of ''lean'' processing waste and represent a significant fraction of the U. S. Department of Energy's (DOE) legacy waste from fifty years of nuclear weapons production activities. Much of this material is presently in storage at sites throughout the DOE weapons production complex (most notably Rocky Flats, Savannah River and Hanford) awaiting further processing and/or final disposition. The chemical and physical stability of much of this material has been called into question recently by the Defense Nuclearmore » Facility Safety Board (DNFSB) and resulted in the issuance of a mandate by the DNFSB to undertake a program to stabilize these materials [1]. The ultimate disposition for much of these materials is anticipated to be geologic repositories such as the proposed Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. However, in light of the mandate to stabilize existing residues and the probable concomitant increase in the volume of material to be disposed as a result of stabilization (e.g., from repackaging at lower residue densities), the projected storage volume for these wastes within anticipated geologic repositories will likely be exceeded simply to handle existing wastes. Additional processing of some of these residue waste streams to reduce radionuclide activity levels, matrix volume, or both is a potentially important strategy to achieve both stabilization and volume reduction so that the anticipated geologic repositories will provide adequate storage volume. In general, the plutonium and uranium that remains in solid residue materials exists in a very stable chemical form (e.g., as binary oxides), and the options available to remove the actinides are limited. However, there have been some demonstrated successes in this vain using aqueous phase electrochemical methods such

BOOK REVIEW: Jean-Charles Houzeau et son temps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sterken, C.; Verhas, P.

2002-12-01

part, "The separation", is a very interesting account of Houzeau's emigration to North America, in vain search for his revolutionary dream. Of course he also ran into trouble in the US due to publications such as "The white terror in Texas" and because of his loyalty with the slaves, his advocacy for black civil rights and his refusal to join the confederate army, so he had to flee Texas too. The book gives many details on the civil war era. His absence from Belgium led to a very significant scientific work, in the first place his most homogeneous and extensive star atlas (6000 stars to declination -65) which was made in very good atmospheric conditions by one and only one observer, totally independent from previously published catalogues. The last part "The builder" tells the story of the construction of the new Royal Observatory in the suburb of Uccle, a new and better site than the one established in the city center by the Dutch regime in 1826. When the succession of Adolphe Quetelet was discussed, Houzeau was about the only candidate with a vast publication record and a broad observational expertise. Surprisingly, he was appointed as the second director of the Observatory and remained in function till 1883. One chapter in the fourth part of the book deals with Houzeau's participation at a Venus transit expedition of 1882. Jean-Charles Houzeau made very significant contributions to astronomy and his major works include "Vade-mecum de l'Astronomie", the "Uranometrie Generale" and his monumental "Bibliographie Generale de l'Astronomie", an early precursor of our modern web-based ADS (NASA Astrophysics Data System). This is a book which every Belgian astronomer should read because it is an eye opener on the history of the establishment of the kingdom, and because it explains the roots and difficult early development of astronomy in this country. This history is internationally linked and refers to many contemporary scientists such as Argelander, Heis, Herschel, von

Book Review:

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peacock, John

2007-04-01

), but the latter is surprising in the context of a subject whose whole purpose is to observe the properties of primordial perturbations that may have arisen from inflation. Instead, the text concentrates on the technical heartland of the transport theory for CMB photons, and the Newtonian and relativistic theory for the development of CMB anisotropies, including polarization. It closes with more observationally-based chapters on general statistical aspects of the CMB sky, a digest of the recent results from WMAP, and an outlook. These are welcome, but the book really stands or falls on its treatment of the core physics of anisotropies. Without going too much into specifics, it can be fairly stated that the treatment given of the main material on CMB fluctuations is geared more to working professionals than to students. There is a good deal of useful technical detail, but it is not always derived systematically, and sometimes arises by reference to the research literature. There are no problem sets or worked examples, and not much attempt at intuitive illumination. As an example, one might point to the large-angle anisotropies of the CMB, which were first analysed in the classic Sachs Wolfe paper of 1967. The relativistic transport equation is there, but one looks in vain for the separation into the Sachs Wolfe effect proper (potential perturbations at last scattering) and the integrated effect of evolution since then. This latter ISW effect is in fact of huge interest in current research, since it is one of the methods for probing whether the vacuum energy differs from a cosmological constant. In general, the text seems strangely patchy on issues of contemporary interest, certainly in terms of its emphasis. It is as if the three authors contributed material separately without achieving a full integration. On the more positive side, the book has the advantage that it presents a Russian view of the subject. So much of the initial work on the `Relic Radiation' (a much

Gold placers of the historical Fortymile River region, Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Yeend, Warren E.

1996-01-01

(about 100 to 130 feet or 30 to 40 meters) terraces along the north side of Walker Fork and east side of Cherry Creek. Considering the locations of where most gold has been found in the South Fork valley both by the older bucket dredges and the modern suction dredges, it seems likely that the tributary drainages of Lost Chicken, Napoleon, Franklin, and Buckskin Creeks have supplied the bulk of the gold to the South Fork valley. A quarter acre (0.10 hectare), 130-foot-thick ( 40 meters) section of the high terrace gravels on the north side of Napoleon Creek was mined for placer gold and yielded values estimated to be $8.50 per cubic yard (or $6.50 per cubic meter) at $350 per troy ounce. The unmined high terrace gravels on the south side of Buckskin Creek contain gold; however, this gravel is only 3 to 6.5 feet (1 to 2 meters) thick. The search for a lode gold source in the Fortymile River region may be in vain, because substantially more gold than has been recovered from the placers can be derived by the gradual erosion of large volumes of source rocks that contain background mean gold amounts. Using Leon's mass balance equation, 5,167 metric tons of gold may exist in the placers of the Fortymile River region, less than 1 percent of the recovered amount of 15.6 tons. The largest gold resource remaining in the Fortymile River region is probably in the high terrace gravels exposed along many of the creeks and rivers. Until there is exploratory drilling or a comprehensive sampling program, the amount of gold in these gravels will remain unknown. Environmental constraints imposed by Federal and State agencies have slowed, but not stopped, placer mining in the Fortymile River area, and a significant gold price rise would result in more mining.

RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS: REPRODUCIBILITY OF INTERBLASTOMERE DIFFERENCES OF mRNA EXPRESSION IN 2-CELL STAGE MOUSE EMBRYOS IS REMARKABLY POOR DUE TO COMBINATORIAL MECHANISMS OF BLASTOMERE DIVERSIFICATION.

PubMed

Casser, E; Israel, S; Schlatt, S; Nordhoff, V; Boiani, M

2018-05-09

endomembrane system. Although there are many dimensions to the issue of reproducibility (biological, experimental, analytical), we consider that the sister blastomeres are poised to escape high interblastomere correlations of mRNA levels, because at least five sources of diversity superimpose on each other, accounting for at least 25 = 32 different states. As a result, interblastomere mRNA differences of a given 2-cell embryo are necessarily difficult to reproduce in another 2-cell embryo. Data were as provided by the original studies (GSE21688, GSE22182, GSE27396, GSE45719, GSE57249, E-MTAB-3321, GSE94050). The original studies present similarities (e.g. fertilization in vivo after ovarian stimulation) as well as differences (e.g. mouse strains, method and timing of blastomere separation). We identified robust mRNA differences between the sister blastomeres, but these differences are underestimated because our double cut-off method works with thresholds and affords more protection against false positives than false negatives. Regarding the false negatives, transcriptome analysis may have captured only part of the interblastomere differences due to: 1) the twofold cut-off not being sensitive enough to detect the remaining part of the interblastomere differences, 2) the detection limit of the transcriptomic methods not being sufficient, or 3) interblastomere differences being oblivious to transcriptomic identification because transcriptional changes are oscillatory or because differences are mediated non-transcriptionally or post-transcriptionally. Regarding the false positives, it seems unlikely that a difference was found just by chance for the same group of transcripts due to the same technical error, given that different laboratories produced the data. It is clear that the sister blastomeres are distinguishable from each other by mRNA analysis even at the 2-cell stage; however, efforts to identify large stable patterns may be in vain. This elicits thoughts about the

European team gauges a gamma-ray star

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1996-03-01

neutron star. The background of a few brighter but more distant stars displayed by Hubble's camera provided a frame of reference. In the course of a year, Geminga moved northeastwards by 0.17 arc-seconds, equivalent to one degree in 21,000 years. That was due to Geminga's high-speed motion through the Galaxy. But the neutron star also seemed to shift to either side of its interstellar track, because of changes in Hubble's viewpoint as the Earth orbited around the Sun. At opposite seasons, spring and autumn in this case, the Earth is on opposite sides of the Sun, at vantage points 300 million kilometres apart. As a result, the bearings of stars change a little, by the effect called parallax. Nearby stars shift more than very distant stars, and astronomers can measure their distances by trigonometry. The sideways displacement measured using the Hubble Space Telescope was 0.00636 arc-seconds, less than two millionths of a degree. From this figure the astronomers calculate that Geminga is 512 light-years away (157 parsecs) with an uncertainty of the order of 100 light-years. The strong gamma-rays and weak light observed today left Geminga around the time that Columbus discovered America. "We are pleased to have measured a parallax for an object at the limit of detection, which was never done before," says Patrizia Caraveo. "But what really matters is that we have pinned down an important object that has puzzled us for more than 20 years." From "it's not there" to "here it is" Geminga has tested the patience of the Milanese astronomers for twenty years. NASA's shortlived SAS-2 satellite (1973) first recorded a mysterious source of gamma-rays in the constellation of Gemini. In 1976 Giovanni Bignami named it Geminga. This is a pun signifying either "Gemini gamma" or "gh'è minga" which in the Milanese argot means "it's not there". Geminga lived up to its name when Bignami and his colleagues looked in vain for radio emissions from it. By 1981, data from ESA's longlived gamma

Obituary: Kevin H. Prendergast, 1929-2004

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spiegel, Edward A.

2005-12-01

shown quite widely in colloquia and symposia. The films revealed phenomena of qualitative interest such as mergers, bridges, and tails, and the formation of bars. Similar results were also being obtained by Hohl around that time and both pieces of work were no doubt influential in shaping the thinking of people working in this field. One striking feature of the calculations was that spiral arms formed initially but were transient. To keep the spiral patterns from collapsing it seemed necessary to artificially heat the disks. Only later, when the existence of massive halos was recognized (by Ostriker and Peebles), could the true cause of stability be surmised. From the mid-seventies on, Kevin worked on topics in astrophysical fluid dynamics and applied mathematics, largely with students. Some of this work was published, but it has to be said that much of his best work was not. A good example of the latter is his three-part handwritten manuscript on the dynamics of barred spirals that he distributed to several people over thirty years ago. Many of his other unpublished calculations have been deposited in the Columbia Library, and there are no doubt several things of interest to be found among his papers. While one can only speculate on why so much of his work went unpublished, I find a remark by de Kooning quite helpful in thinking about it. In a review of book about the painter, Peter Schjeldahl reported that "He [de Kooning] made ...paintings...and destroyed nearly all of them, to his subsequent regret....He explained `I was so modest then that I was vain.'" When I accused Kevin of a similar mindset, he chuckled and said "You are right, but don't tell anyone." Kevin was widely read and he had a remarkable awareness ofliterature. He was especially devoted to the work of P.G. Wodehouse. He also loved the Marx Brothers and late in life discovered Zero Mostel of whom he became an instant fan. He was a sailor and a snorkler, and enjoyed trading quips with anyone who was

Is journalism failing on climate?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahmstorf, Stefan

2012-12-01

year likened those who accept the facts of global warming to mass murderers (Hickman 2012). Yet the public also needs to understand the background story about where the 'climate sceptics' claims originate and who finances their dissemination. Let us hope that the study by Painter and Ashe will help to initiate a critical discussion on climate science coverage in the media, particularly in 'Anglo-Saxon' countries, and help to improve it in future. There are so many science journalists out there who work hard every day, striving for quality under most difficult working conditions. Their efforts should not be in vain. References Anderegg W R L et al 2010 Expert credibility in climate change Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107 12107-9 Boykoff M T and Boykoff J M 2004 Balance as bias: global warming and the US prestige press Glob. Environ. Change—Human Policy Dimen. 14 125-36 Doran P and Kendall Zimmerman M 2009 Examining the scientific consensus on climate change EOS Trans. Am. Geophys. Union 90 22 Gerlach T 2011 Volcanic versus anthropogenic carbon dioxide EOS Trans. Am. Geophys. Union 92 201-8 Hickman L 2012 Heartland Institute compares belief in global warming to mass murder Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/may/04/heartland-institute-global-warming-murder) Leiserowitz A et al 2011 Global Warming's Six Americas, May 2011 (New Haven, CT: Yale University and George Mason University) p 57(http:/environment.yale.edu/climate/files/SixAmericasMay2011.pdf) Oreskes N 2004 Beyond the ivory tower—the scientific consensus on climate change Science 306 1686 Painter J and Ashe T 2012 Cross-national comparison of the presence of climate scepticism in the print media in six countries, 2007-10 Environ. Res. Lett. 7 044005 Rahmstorf S 2004 The climate skeptics Weather Catastrophes and Climate Change—Is There Still Hope for Us? ed Re Munich (Munich: Munich Re) pp 76-83 Wikipedia 2012 The Great Global Warming Swindle (http