Information services in medical mycology

The need for information services in medical mycology is discussed. The information service provided by the Review of Medical and Veterinary Mycology is described and compared with other information services.     

Against autonomy: How proposed solutions to the problems of living wills forgot its underlying principle

Significant criticisms have been raised regarding the ethical and psychological basis of living wills. Various solutions to address these criticisms have been advanced, such as the use of surrogate decision makers alone or data science-driven algorithms. These proposals share a fundamental weakness: they focus on resolving the problems of living wills, and, in the process, lose sight of the underlying ethical principle of advance care planning, autonomy. By suggesting that the same sweeping solutions, without opportunities for choice, be applied to all, individual patients are treated as population-level groups—as a theoretical patient who represents a population, not the specific patient crafting his or her individualized future care plans. Instead, advance care planning can be improved through a multimodal approach that both mitigates cognitive biases and allows for customization of the decision-making process by allowing for the incorporation of a variety of methods of advance care planning.     

Quantitative and qualitative assessment on the suitability of seed oil from water plant (Trichilia emetica) for soap making

Despite widespread and its local available as a naturalized hedge and shade plant, the potential of Trichilia emetica was not utilized in soap making by the majority of local community in various parts of Dodoma, Tanzania. This study aimed to assess the quantity (yields) and quality (Acid Values (AVs), %Free Fatty Acids (%FFAs) and Saponification Values (SVs) of seed oil from water plant (T. emetica), suitable for soap making application. Solvent extraction method was used during oil extraction, where by 50gm of preheated and powdered seed materials were immersed in 250 ml of n-hexane in 1:5 (w/v) to dissolve the oil contained in the seed cake. The oil was collected by vaporizing solvent out through Rotary evaporation at 60 °C. Also standard titration methods were used to obtain SVs, AVs and %FFAs of the extracted oil. Results showed that T. emetica seeds contained higher quantity of oil (48.4%−50.2%) than many reported commercial plant seed oils. Also, the study found higher AV (7.4 mgKOH/g−7.8 mgKOH/g), %FFA (3.7% to 3.9%) and SVs (189.5 mgKOH/g − 191.4 mgKOH/g) than the maximum acceptable limits of 0.50 mg KOH/g, 0.020% and 175 mgKOH/g − 187 mgKOH/g prescribed by ASTM standards (2002). The obtained results showed that, T. emetica seeds yielded high oil quantity with low qualities due to higher levels of acidity. But high SVs guarantees the possibility of using T. emetica seed oil in soap making. However, the oil requires purification in order to bring levels of acidity to acceptable standards and guarantee its normal use in soap making.     

Understanding the Development and Perception of Global Health for More Effective Student Education

The concept of “global health” that led to the establishment of the World Health Organization in the 1940s is still promoting a global health movement 70 years later. Today’s global health acts first as a guiding principle for our effort to improve people’s health across the globe. Furthermore, global health has become a branch of science, “global health science,” supporting institutionalized education. Lastly, as a discipline, global health should focus on medical and health issues that: 1) are determined primarily by factors with a cross-cultural, cross-national, cross-regional, or global scope; 2) are local but have global significance if not appropriately managed; and 3) can only be efficiently managed through international or global efforts. Therefore, effective global health education must train students 1) to understand global health status; 2) to investigate both global and local health issues with a global perspective; and 3) to devise interventions to deal with these issues.     

Not the doctor’s business: Privacy,personal responsibility and data rights in medical settings

This paper argues that assessing personal responsibility in healthcare settings for the allocation of medical resources would be too privacy-invasive to be morally justifiable. In addition to being an inappropriate and moralizing intrusion into the private lives of patients, it would put patients’ sensitive data at risk, making data subjects vulnerable to a variety of privacy-related harms. Even though we allow privacy-invasive investigations to take place in legal trials, the justice and healthcare systems are not analogous. The duty of doctors and healthcare professionals is to help patients as best they can—not to judge them. Patients should not be forced into giving up any more personal information than what is strictly necessary to receive an adequate treatment, and their medical data should only be used for appropriate purposes. Medical ethics codes should reflect these data rights. When a doctor asks personal questions that are irrelevant to diagnose or treat a patient, the appropriate response from the patient is: ‘none of your business’.     

茶树CsCCD1和CsCCD4基因的克隆和表达分析

该研究以‘铁观音’茶树为材料,同源克隆了茶树类胡萝卜素裂解双加氧酶基因CsCCD1和CsCCD4 (NCBI登录号分别为MH119136和MH119137)全长cDNA。序列分析结果显示,CsCCD1序列全长1 766 bp,包含1 641 bp开放阅读框(ORF),编码545个氨基酸,定位于细胞质中,不存在跨膜结构和信号肽;CsCCD4序列全长1 942 bp,包含1 842 bp ORF,编码612个氨基酸,不存在跨膜结构,但在N端具有叶绿体转运肽,定位于质体中。进化树分析显示,CsCCD1和CsCCD4与杜鹃聚为一类。荧光定量检测显示,CsCCD1和CsCCD4在叶、茎和花中表达量较高。在乌龙茶做青过程中,CsCCD1和CsCCD4基因都是从鲜叶到晒青表达量下调,而CsCCD1在一摇和二摇显著上调表达,在三摇后下降;CsCCD4只在一摇后上调表达,之后表达量迅速降低。推测CsCCD1和CsCCD4基因可能与乌龙茶做青香气品质形成关系密切。     

医药价格综合改革形势下三甲公立医院运行机制变革

医药价格综合改革利国利民,需采取有效措施以保证改革顺利进行。在总结各地区医药价格综合改革做法基础上,结合某三甲公立医院改革前后运行数据,分析改革对三甲公立医院运行机制影响,并提出医药价格综合改革形势下三甲公立医院可持续发展的路径。