Is H5N1 really highly lethal?

Medicine for Policymakers is a Journal column that provides decision makers with brief explanations of the meaning and implications for biosecurity of clinical issues. The articles describe, for a nonmedical audience, hospital practices, medical challenges, healthcare delivery issues, and other topics of current interest. Readers may submit ideas to the column's editor, Amesh A. Adalja, MD, through the Journal's editorial office at jfox@upmc-biosecurity.org .     

The Globalization of US Medical Countermeasure Production and Its Implications for National Security

Medicine for Policymakers is a Journal column that provides decision makers with brief explanations of the meaning and implications for biosecurity of clinical issues. The articles describe, for a nonmedical audience, hospital practices, medical challenges, healthcare delivery issues, and other topics of current interest. Readers may submit ideas to the column's editor, Amesh A. Adalja, MD, through the Journal's editorial office at jfox@upmc-biosecurity.org .     

Religious pluralism and the ethics of healthcare

Democratic societies that separate church and state face major challenges in accommodating religious convictions. This applies especially to determining healthcare policies. Building on our prior work on the demands and limits of religious accommodation in democratic societies, we propose a set of ethical standards that can guide societies in meeting this challenge. In applying and defending these standards, we explore three topics: vaccine resistance, abortion, and concerns about rights to healthcare. We clarify these and other issues of religious accommodation and propose ethical standards for approaching these and other problems.     

The molecular biology of inflammatory bowel diseases

IBDs (inflammatory bowel diseases) are a group of diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract. The diseases are multifactorial and cover genetic aspects: susceptibility genes, innate and adaptive responses to inflammation, and structure and efficacy of the mucosal protective barrier. Animal models of IBD have been developed to gain further knowledge of the disease mechanisms. These topics form an overlapping background to enable an improved understanding of the molecular features of these diseases. A series of articles is presented based on the topics covered at the Biochemical Society Focused Meeting The Molecular Biology of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.     

Other issues

Other issues: HIV/AIDS in East Africa: addressing legal, ethical and human rights dilemmas facing healthcare workers; Building research ethics capacity in Haiti: leading the way in the Caribbean; Bioethics and academic freedom in Brazil; Non-consensual HIV testing and confidentiality breaches common in India     

In Process Citation

Highlights & Happenings provides brief, informative updates on important events and newsworthy items related to biosecurity and bioterrorism. It covers a broad array of topics, including, for example, new advances in bioresearch that could affect national security, the status of biopreparedness and response, emerging legal issues affecting vaccine and other countermeasure development and delivery, and noteworthy meetings, conferences, and reports. Readers may submit items of interest to the column's editor, Crystal Franco, through the Journal's editorial office at jfox@upmc-biosecurity.org .     

Obesity Research in Canada: Literature Overview of the Last 3 Decades

Objective: To identify research published on obesity in Canada, to explore the range of areas studied, and to identify gaps and areas that merit future research attention. Research Methods and Procedures: Medline and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts databases were searched from 1970 onwards. Original articles were identified and categorized by areas of interest. Results: A total of 1186 relevant articles were identified: 17, 136, 687, and 346 articles during the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000 to 2003, respectively. Of the articles, 816 were considered original studies and accepted for this analysis. Twelve research areas were identified: basic science involving animal experiments (29%), human experiments (16%), populations surveys (14%), obesity‐related comorbidities (13%), diagnostic/surgical issues (11%), nonpharmacological approaches (7%), drug‐related issues (4%), anthropometrics (2%), impact of weight loss (2%), cost/healthcare use (1%), attitudes/perceptions (0.9%), and models/procedures (0.5%). Two‐thirds of all research was conducted in Quebec (34%) and Ontario (33%). Discussion: Given the multifactorial nature of obesity, Canadian obesity research covers a broad range of areas with a predominance of basic science but lesser emphasis on community and primary care studies. Furthermore, there was a paucity of research on either clinical management of medical conditions in obese patients or clinical aspects that go beyond weight loss. Thus, although Canada appears well represented in basic research, more attention to exploration of clinical issues and healthcare delivery for obese patients appears warranted.     

Editorial

This special section of Genes and Nutrition presents a baseline analysis of ethical and legal issues undertaken within the EU FP7 research project Food4Me, which investigates the feasibility today of the vision for delivering personalized nutrition. Four major topics are addressed: Do we know enough for offering personalized nutritional advice? How can personal, cultural, and scientific perspectives on food and health be integrated? How does personalized nutrition affect individual autonomy? Which urgent ethical and legal matters stand out when personalized nutrition is commercialized?     

医疗健康大数据发展现状研究

通过介绍国内外医疗健康大数据发展计划、学术组织、标准化组织、研究领域、研究项目和开放数据资源等相关主题,反映了医疗健康大数据的发展现状与动态,可为医疗健康大数据应用和研究提供参考。     

Critical review of articles regarding pregnancy exposures in popular magazines

To determine the scope of teratogen information available to the public through the media, a survey of 15 popular magazines was conducted. All 1985 issues of the selected magazines were reviewed for articles addressing pregnancy exposure concerns, yielding 56 articles from 10 magazines. The remaining 5 publications provided no pertinent articles. Two health professionals, both experienced teratology counselors, independently rated each article for accuracy of content and quality of presentation based on standardized evaluation criteria. The findings were compared and agreement for all criteria in each article was reached by the 2 reviewers. Regarding the quality of the information in the 56 articles, 31 (55.4%) were scored as misleading or inaccurate. On examination of overall presentation, 26 (46.4%) were rated as alarming and 8 (14.3%) presented a false sense of security; 22 (39.3%) provided a balanced presentation. A review of the types of articles rated revealed 19 (33.9%) general overviews of pregnancy issues, 18 (32.1%) news stories, 17 (30.4%) question-and-answer columns, and 2 (3.6%) feature stories. Of the reviewed papers, 7 (12.5%) included a citation from which the primary data could be obtained and only 14 of the articles (25%) suggested that the reader contact her/his healthcare provider regarding the issues. We conclude that the information available in popular magazines regarding exposures in pregnancy is frequently misleading, alarming, and unsupported by the scientific literature.     

Antigen retrieval techniques: current perspectives.

Development of the antigen retrieval (AR) technique, a simple method of boiling archival paraffin-embedded tissue sections in water to enhance the signal of immunohistochemistry (IHC), was the fruit of pioneering efforts guided by the philosophy of rendering IHC applicable to routine formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues for wide application of IHC in research and clinical pathology. On the basis of thousands of articles and many reviews, a book has recently been published that summarizes basic principles for practice and further development of the AR technique. Major topics with respect to several critical issues, such as the definition, application, technical principles, and further studies of the AR technique, are highlighted in this article. In particular, a further application of the heat-induced retrieval approach for sufficient extraction of nucleic acids in addition to proteins, and standardization of routine IHC based on the AR technique in terms of a test battery approach, are also addressed. Furthermore, understanding the mechanism of the AR technique may shed light on facilitating the development of molecular morphology.     

New Publications Received

The following publications on anthropological and closely related topics have been received since the previous list was closed. Only books, monographs, and the initial issues of new journals are listed; space limitations prevent inclusion of subsequent journal issues and of offprints of single articles from journals. No exchanges are conducted, nor can any item be returned. Books that publishers or authors send to the Book Review Editor before or immediately after their publication dates are more likely to be reviewed, and usually will be reviewed sooner, than those he must discover himself. This listing serves to acknowledge receipt of such items, but neither promises nor precludes subsequent publication of reviews.     

New Publications Received

The following publications on anthropological and closely related topics have been received since the previous list was closed. Only books, monographs, and the initial issues of new journals are listed; space limitations prevent inclusion of subsequent journal issues and of offprints of single articles from journals. No exchanges are conducted, nor can any item be returned. Books that publishers or authors send to the Book Review Editor before or immediately after their publication dates are more likely to be reviewed, and usually will be reviewed sooner, than those he must discover himself This listing serves to acknowledge receipt of such items, but neither promises nor precludes subsequent publication of reviews.     

Evolution of research on circular economy and related trends and topics. A thirteen-year review

Environmental concern has been on the rise in recent years and a proposal for a circular economy (CE) as a tool for sustainable development has received attention from governments, practitioners, and academics. In this sense, the literature on the topic has grown from 12 scientific articles published in 2008 to 2355 in 2020, which represents an almost two hundredfold increase in around a decade. However, CE is a relatively new subject, and much research remains to be conducted; it is therefore important to gain an adequate understanding of the subject to address more specific, related issues. The purpose of this review is to identify the main trends in CE and their evolution. It presents an advanced bibliometric method consisting of a combination of co-word analysis and social network analysis developed to identify the main topics and trends in this field. The results show the evolution of research, frequency, and relevance of the terms studied, links between them, and their density and network visualisation. Bibliometric tools have further been applied to obtain the research outputs of the main journals, as well as the authors and research topics that have been addressed during this period. New directions for future research lines are also proposed.     

Video‐recording complex health interactions in a diverse setting: Ethical dilemmas,reflections and recommendations

Video‐recording healthcare interactions provides important opportunities for research and service improvement. However, this method brings about tensions, especially when recording sensitive topics. Subsequent reflection may compel the researcher to engage in ethical and moral deliberations. This paper presents experiences from a South African genetic counselling study which made use of video‐recordings to understand communicative processes in routine practice. Video‐recording as a research method, as well as contextual and process considerations are discussed, such as researching one's own field, issues of trust and anonymity, the challenge of providing true informed consent and capturing details which may cause psychological harm. Several recommendations for research practice in diverse healthcare settings are made. This includes the value of reflective pieces, the importance of retrospective consent, disclosure of the limitations to anonymity, as well as the collective responsibility of those involved to produce ethical research. These recommendations have value for genetic counselling and other healthcare fields.     

New Publications Received

The following publications on anthropological and closely related topics have been received since the previous list was closed. Only books, monographs, and the initial issues of new journals are listed; space limitations prevent the inclusion of subsequent journal issues and of offprints of single articles from journals. No exchanges are conducted, nor can any item be returned. Books that publishers or authors send to the Book Review Editor before or immediately after their publication dates are more likely to be reviewed, and usually will be reviewed sooner, than those he must discover himself. This listing serves to acknowledge receipt of such items, but neither promises nor precludes subsequent publication of reviews.     

New Publications Received

The following publications on anthropological and closely related topics have been received since the previous list was closed. Only books, monographs, and the initial issues of new journals are listed; space limitations prevent inclusion of subsequent journal issues and of offprints of single articles from journals. No exchanges are conducted, nor can any item be returned, Books that publishers or authors send to the Book Review Editor before or immediately after their publication dates are more likely to be reviewed, and usually will be reviewed sooner, than those he must discover himself. This listing serves to acknowledge receipt of such items, but neither promises nor precludes subsequent publication of reviews.     

As of March 25, 1971

The following publications on anthropological and closely related topics have been received since the previous list was closed. Only books, monographs, and the initial issues of new journals are listed; space limitations prevent inclusion of subsequent journal issues and of offprints of single articles from journals. No exchanges are conducted, nor can any item be returned. Books that publishers or authors send to the Book Review Editor before or immediately after their publication dates are more likely to be reviewed, and usually will be reviewed sooner, than those he must discover himself. This listing serves to acknowledge receipt of such items, but neither promises nor precludes subsequent publication of reviews.     

New Publications Received

The following publications on anthropological and closely related topics have been received since the previous list was closed. Only books, monographs, and the initial issues of new journals are listed; space limitations prevent inclusion of subsequent journal issues and of offprints of single articles from journals. No exchanges are conducted, nor can any item be returned. Books that publishers or authors send to the Book Review Editor before or immediately after their publication dates are more likely to be reviewed, and usually will be reviewed sooner, than those he must discover himself. This listing serves to acknowledge receipt of such items, but neither promises nor precludes subsequent publication of reviews.