Meeting Report: The 24th Fungal Genetics Conference at Asilomar, California, USA

<正>The 24~(th) Fungal Genetics Conference was recently held at the Asilomar Conference Center in the coastal town of Pacific Grove,Monterey County,California,USA,between March 20~(th) and 25~(th),2007.At this conference,there were 750 participants representing 33 countries,with the number of participants reaching the maximum holding capacity of the conference center.About 200 people were on the waiting list and could not attend the meeting because of space limitations.     

Ethical Research Issues: Going Beyond the Declaration of Helsinki

La Vaque and Rossiter made a strong, supported argument that it is unethical to use a no treatment control group in a research study if a known, effective treatment is available. Their argument is based on the supposition that the Declaration of Helsinki is the ethical world standard for research with humans. Their argument appears to be straightforward, but is not simple to apply. The issues are very complex, include issues not discussed in their argument, and can lead to a different conclusion as pointed out in this paper. The World Medical Association developed the Declaration of Helsinki as one of their official policies. The Declaration of Helsinki, however, is not accepted as the world ethical standard, as demonstrated by its lack of adoption by many professional associations or even by the United States Federal Government. Perhaps it is not mentioned because its ethical provisions are aspirational rather than mandatory as implied by La Vaque and Rossiter. Researchers and clinicians should also be aware of other ethical issues not directly discussed in the La Vaque and Rossiter paper. The Belmont Report is the basis for the ethical protection of human research subjects for at least 17 federal agencies and does not mention the Declaration of Helsinki. The Belmont Report mentions several ethical principles that form the basis for informed consent, risk/benefit assessment, confidentiality of data, subject selection, Institutional Review Boards, and other protections needed when doing research with human subjects. At least 2 of these core principles have direct implications to the discussion related to the use of placebo controls. The ethical principle of fidelity is also important in guiding research activities with human subjects. Researchers should be familiar with the La Vaque and Rossiter argument, the Belmont Report, and the federal policies developed to implement the provisions of that report, for example, Regulation 45 CFR 46.     

Extending the Boundaries,Bridging the Gaps: Crafting Mental Health: Culture,Race, and Ethnicity,a Supplement to the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health

The August 2001 issuance of Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity--A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, represents a landmark in the dialogue--political and scientific--regarding health disparities in the United States. This paper offers a critical appraisal of the process and structure of generating these reports, paying particular attention to issues that marked serious epistemological tensions among the participants. These issues revolved around the relative emphasis placed on (1) mental illness and mental health; (2) risk, etiology, and treatment versus prevention and promotion; (3) large-scale, population-based surveys and randomized clinical trials as the standard bearers of scientific evidence; (4) variation related to gender, social class, and culture; (5) ethnicity and culture as dispositional variables or individual glosses as opposed to dynamic, collective phenomena; and (6) the historical forces that shaped the contemporary context for much of this discussion. It describes the sometimes subtle, other times stark differences in assumptions and experience that sprang from disciplinary orientations, investigative methods, institutional affiliations, and personal histories and agendas.     

An Ecosystem Health Index for a large and variable river basin: Methodology,challenges and continuous improvement in Queensland’s Fitzroy Basin

Report cards are an increasingly popular method for summarising and communicating relative environmental performance and ecosystem health, including in aquatic environments. They are usually underpinned by an Ecosystem Health Index (EHI) that combines various individual indicators to produce an overall ecosystem health “score”. As a result of public water quality concerns, an integrated means of monitoring and reporting on aquatic ecosystem health was needed for the Fitzroy Basin in central Queensland, Australia. The Fitzroy Partnership for River Health was formed to address this need, and developed an EHI and report card for the Basin using existing monitoring data collected from various third parties including regulated companies operations and government. At 142,000 square kilometres, the Fitzroy Basin is the largest catchment draining to the World Heritage Listed Great Barrier Reef. The Fitzroy Basin provides an example of how to deliver an effective aquatic ecosystem health reporting system in a large and complex river basin. We describe the methodology used to develop an adaptive EHI for the Fitzroy Basin that addresses variability, complexity and scale issues associated with reporting across large areas. As well, we report how to manage the design and reporting stages given limitations in data collection and scientific understanding.     

A simple photograph‐based approach for discriminating between free‐ranging long‐finned (Globicephala melas) and short‐finned (G. macrorhynchus) pilot whales off the east coast of the United States

Line transect based abundance estimation is complicated for long‐finned (LFPW, Globicephala melas) and short‐finned (SFPW, G. macrorhynchus) pilot whales because of their similarity in appearance and their overlapping summertime range in some areas. We developed a photograph‐based approach to distinguish between species of free‐ranging pilot whales in the northwest Atlantic. We collected skin samples and photographs during the summers of 2004–2007 and used skin samples to distinguish species based on mitochondrial DNA. Relative morphometric measurements from photographs were examined using mixed‐effect models and logistic regression. The best model among 94 candidate models had an overall classification error rate of 2.5%. We tested the presence/absence of pigmentation in four regions of the dorsal body (melon, eye, cape, and saddle) for differences. Pigmentation was present in all four regions in 100% of the SFPWs sampled. Melon patch, blaze, and saddle patch pigmentation were present in 6%, 68%, and 50%, respectively, of the LFPWs, but the cape was completely absent. Both types of analyses provided positive species discrimination of free‐ranging animals. We created a cost‐effective, simple tool which could ultimately assist in providing appropriate management, mitigation, and conservation strategies for both northwest Atlantic species of pilot whales.     

双报告基因真核表达载体的构建及其功能鉴定

目的:构建绿色荧光蛋白和海肾荧光素酶共同高效表达的双报告基因真核表达载体。方法:将增强型绿色荧光蛋白基因和海肾荧光素酶基因以昆虫病毒T2A序列相连接而后克隆进入pcDNA3.1(-)质粒,构建双报告基因真核表达载体。将该载体转染至COS-7细胞,通过荧光显微镜观察、照度计定量分析检测绿色荧光蛋白和海肾荧光素酶生物活性,Western Bolt检测T2A序列自剪切效率。结果:双报告基因真核表达载体能够同时表达非融合的绿色荧光蛋白和海肾荧光素酶,与单独表达载体产物具有相似的生物活性和表达效率。结论:双报告基因真核表达载体建立成功,为基因表达调控等相关领域研究提供辅助工具。     

2009 年-2010 年我院212 例不良反应报告分析

目的:总结医院药品不良反应(ADR)发生的特点。方法:通过ADR网上检索工具统计2009年1月～2010年12月不良反应报告表,采用回顾性分析全院不良反应分布情况。结果:60岁以上老年人ADR发生率较高(27.36%);静脉滴注方式导致的不良反应例数最多(75.00%);导致不良反应的药品以抗微生物药物最多(45.28%);临床表现以皮肤及其附件损害和全身性损害为主(44.35%)。结论:全院不良反应工作有所提高,但仍应加强全院用药监测工作,确保患者用药安全。     

浅谈医院传染病信息网络直报管理工作

目的为进一步加强医院传染病管理,评价干预措施对降低医院传染病疫情报告迟报率、漏报率的效果,提出合理化建议。方法回顾性分析医院疫情网络直报的问题,比较采取干预措施前后的传染病报告及时率、漏报率,找出影响网络直报工作质量及影响传染病疫情报告及时率、漏报率的因素,探讨提高传染病监测质量的应对对策。结果网络直报的目的不明确,漏报、迟报仍然存在,各种填写不规范及网络直报系统运行是影响网络直报的主要因素。结论采取有效的干预措施能有效地降低医院传染病疫情报告的迟报率、漏报率。从多方面不断完善疾病监测体系,提高疫情报告工作的质量。