Physician-patient privilege: the legal assault continues.

The confidentiality of patient records, particularly in cases where sexual assault is alleged, has been called into question by two recent Supreme Court decisions. Toronto lawyer Marilou McPhedran discusses the recent Beharriell and O''Connor decisions and how they affect physicians.     

Physician-patient sexual contact. Prevalence and problems.

To document the current prevalence of physician-patient sexual contact and to estimate its effect on involved patients, 10,000 family practitioners, internists, obstetrician-gynecologists, and surgeons were surveyed. Of the 1,891 respondents, 9% acknowledged sexual contact with 1 or more patients. Even in the unlikely case that none of the nonrespondents had sexual contact with patients, its prevalence among all 10,000 physicians surveyed would still be 2%. Of respondents, 23% had at least 1 patient who reported sexual contact with another physician; 63% thought this contact was "always harmful" to the patients. Almost all (94%) responding physicians opposed sexual contact with current patients; 37% also opposed sexual contact with former patients. More than half of respondents (56%) indicated that physician-patient sexual contact had never been addressed in their training; only 3% had participated in a continuing education course focusing on this issue. Clear and enforceable medical ethics codes concerning physician-patient sexual contact are needed, as well as preventive educational programs for medical schools and residency programs.     

Phages as friends and enemies in food processing

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Fiends,friends and fools: screen images and/as rural struggle

Dialectical Anthropology -     

Chemoreception: identifying friends and foes

The vomeronasal organ detects chemical cues that trigger sexual, aggressive and defensive behaviors. An in situ hybridization analysis has identified the specificities of nearly a hundred VNO receptors and elucidated the logic by which they encode these cues.     

Cooperation: close friends and common enemies

The Prisoner's dilemma game has been a key conceptual tool for analyzing social behavior for over 50 years. A recent study shows how the spatial scale of competition in this game critically determines when cooperation can emerge.     

Large herbivores that strive mightily but eat and drink as friends

Summary Grazing in patches of Cynodon dactylon and of Sporobolus spicatus by four large herbivores, and the interaction between these sedentary herbivores was studied in Lake Manyara National Park, northern Tanzania. The herbivores were the African buffalo, Syncerus caffer; the African elephan, Loxodonta africana; the Burchell's zebra, Equus burchelli; and the wildebeest, Connochaetus taurinus. Four different hypotheses of the interactions between the herbivores were tested, viz., increased predator detection/protection through association of species, facilitation of the food intake through the influence of other species, use by other species of the food manipulation strategy of buffalo, and interspecific competition for food. On the level of a single day, zebra and wildebeest were symbiotic, which could have been caused by an increased chance of predator detection. A similar association between buffalo and wildebeest or zebra was also detected on C. dactylon grasslands. There was no indication of facilitation between any of the herbivores. Buffalo had a despotic relationship with elephant, that is the elephant's consumption was lowered when buffalo had visited a patch prior to their arrival. When elephant and buffalo arrived at the same time there appeared to be scramble competition between them.Habitat overlap was calculated for four pairs of species. In conjunction with the analyses of the patch visits, it was concluded that a small overlap was associated with interspecific competition and a large habitat overlap was associated with symbiosis.     

Polycations as prostaglandin sythesis inducers. II. structure-activity relationships

Moderately high molecular weight polycations stimulate arachidonic acid release with concomitant synthesis and release of prostaglandins in cultured 3T3 mouse fibroblasts. We have examined a series of synthetic polycations for prostaglandin synthesis-inducing activity as an approach to defining the structural features required for activity. Extensive (>80%) acetylation of poly(vinylamine) was tolerated without loss of activity, indicating that a uniform high density of charges is not required. However, complete acetylation of poly(vinylamine) abolished activity, indicating that some positive charges are required for activity. Full activity was observed for charge densities in the range of one per two to one per six atoms of polymer backbone. Branched and linear polycations activated equally well. Location of the charge with respect to the polymer backbone did not affect activity in polymers bearing charges located up to seven atoms away from the backbone. Polycations lacking primary or secondary amino groups exhibited full activity, indicating that Schiff base formation is not required for activity. These results are consistent with a model in which activation involves electrostatic interactions with discrete anionic sites on the target cell.     

Testosterone levels in women and men who are single, in long-distance relationships, or same-city relationships

Research points to an association between testosterone (T) and partnering in some women and men, and this association has been interpreted as an effect of either relationship status (i.e. differences in relationship status lead to differences in T) or relationship orientation (i.e. T is associated with the likelihood of entering relationships). To address whether physical partner presence was associated with decreased T, we examined T levels in people (72 women; 49 men) who were single, in long-distance relationships, or in same-city relationships. No participants were using exogenous hormones, including hormonal contraceptives. Participants provided a saliva sample and responded to questions about their relationship status. Single men had higher T than long-distance and same-city partnered men, which supports the relationship orientation interpretation. In contrast, same-city partnered women had lower T than single women and women in long-distance relationships, which supports the relationship status interpretation. We conclude that physical partner presence is not necessary to see an association between partnering and hormones in men (since same-city and long-distance partnered men had similar T levels), but may be necessary in women (since same-city partnered women had lower T than long-distance partnered women).     

Polycations as prostaglandin synthesis inducers. II. Structure-activity relationships

Moderately high molecular weight polycations stimulate arachidonic acid release with concomitant synthesis and release of prostaglandins in cultured 3T3 mouse fibroblasts. We have examined a series of synthetic polycations for prostaglandin synthesis-inducing activity as an approach to defining the structural features required for activity. Extensive (greater than 80%) acetylation of poly(vinylamine) was tolerated without loss of activity, indicating that a uniform high density of charges is not required. However, complete acetylation of poly(vinylamine) abolished activity, indicating that some positive charges are required for activity. full activity was observed for charge densities in the range of one per two to one per six atoms of polymer backbone. Branched and linear polycations activated equally well. Location of the charge with respect to the polymer backbone did not affect activity in polymers bearing charges located up to seven atoms away from the backbone. Polycations lacking primary or secondary amino groups exhibited full activity, indicating that Schiff base formation is not required for activity. These results are consistent with a model in which activation involves electrostatic interactions with discrete anionic sites on the target cell.     

Brassinosteroids and analogs as neuroprotectors: synthesis and structure-activity relationships

We have demonstrated previously that the brassinosteroid (BR) 24-epibrassinolide exerts neuroprotective effects deriving from its antioxidative properties. In this study, we synthesized 2 natural BRs and 5 synthetic analogs and analyzed their neuroprotective actions in neuronal PC12 cells, against 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP(+)), a neurotoxin known to induce oxidative stress and degenerescence of dopaminergic neurons characteristic of Parkinsonian brains. We also tested the neuroprotective potential of 2 commercially available BRs. Our results disclosed that 6 of the 9 BRs and analogs tested protected neuronal PC12 cells against MPP(+) toxicity. In addition, our structure-activity study suggests that the steroid B-ring and lateral chain play an important role for their neuroprotective action.     

Structure-activity relationships of biphenyl tetrazoles as metallo-beta-lactamase inhibitors.

Resistance to carbapenem antibiotics in gram-negative bacteria is due, in part, to expression of a wide spectrum metallo-beta-lactamase, which renders the drug inactive. Biphenyl tetrazoles containing 3-n-butyl-1-phenylpyrazole-5-carboxylates or the corresponding 5-ethyl esters were found to inhibit metallo-beta-lactamases as well as renal dehydropeptidase I to a lesser extent.