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Presents the medical studies featured in the 'British Medical Journal' in Great Britain. Focus of the majority of the papers on epidemiology; Number of citations received by the studies included in the list; Citation of pharmacologically oriented papers with the highest ratings. INSETS: 1940s;Concourse No 2;The BMJ's top 50.

Looks at the challenge of integrating conventional medicine, mind-body medicine and alternative medicine. Reference to a book published by Stephen C. Pepper; Growth of information about health and illness; Basic world hypotheses; Diversity of the solutions derived to questions asked; Belief that medical integration will occur naturally; Criticisms of the paper; Praise for the paper; Opinions of the other authors; Response to the opinions of other authors.

This paper is about power, medicine and the identity of the African as a patient of western medicine. From a conventional perspective and as encoded in the current "quest for wholeness" that characterises South African biomedical discourse, the African patient--like any other patient--has always existed as an authentic and subjectified being, whose true attributes and experiences have been denied by the "mechanistic," "reductionistic" and "ethnocentric" practices of clinical medicine. Against this liberal humanist perspective on the body as ontologically independent of power, this paper offers a Foucaultian reading of the African patient as-like any other patient--contingent upon the force relations immanent within and relayed through the clinical practices of biomedicine. A quintessential form of disciplinary micro-power, these fabricate the most intimate recesses of the human body as manageable objects of medical knowledge and social consciousness to make possible the great control strategies of repression, segmentation and liberation that are the usual focus of conventional investigations into the place and function of medicine in society. Since the 1930s when the African body first emerged as a discrete object of a secular clinical knowledge, these have repeatedly transformed the attributes and identity of the African patient, and the paper traces this archaeology of South African clinical perception from then until the 1990s to show how its "quest for wholeness" is not an end point of "discovery" or "liberation," but merely another ephemeral crystallization of socio-medical knowledge in a constantly changing force field of disciplinary power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of guidelines represents a new culture in medicine—a shift of emphasis away from reliance on individual discretion towards greater professionalism and accountability. Although they are important vehicles for those who wish to evaluate and monitor healthcare practice against recognized standards, this paper explores the legal problems surrounding the implementation of guidelines in the National Health Service in the UK. The topic is considered from the clinician's perspective, but there are also lessons to be learned by managers. There is discussion of the difficulty in defining and prioritizing the numerous guidelines, and advice is given as to which guidance is the most authoritative. The legal consequences of ignoring guidelines are explored, and the paper concludes with the view that the time is ripe for clinicians to take the initiative in preparing, drafting, and disseminating guidelines before they are pre-empted by managers and employers and the future of clinical freedom is called into question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent paper in Sociology of Health and Illness, Svensson (1996) makes the case for adopting the negotiated order perspective as the most appropriate theoretical framework for understanding patterns of doctor-nurse interaction. Analysing interview data with nursing staff from surgical and medical wards in five Swedish hospitals, Svensson identifies key changes in the health care context which he suggests have created 'negotiation space' for nurses, leading to the evolution of new working relationships with doctors. In examining the relationship between negotiation processes and the wider structural context, Svensson addresses a theme that has remained an enduring interest of critics and supporters of the negotiated order perspective alike. Drawing on data generated on a surgical and a medical ward in a UK District General Hospital, this paper attempts to make a further contribution to this debate and also to sociological understanding of doctor-nurse relationships, by analysing some features of hospital work which inhibited face-to face inter-occupational negotiations but which nevertheless resulted in the modification of the formal division of labour between nursing and medicine. The implications of these findings for the negotiated order perspective are considered, and the question is raised as to what researchers working within this tradition understand by 'negotiation' and how it can be studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we trace how mathematical models are made 'evidence enough' and 'useful for policy'. Working with the interview accounts of mathematical modellers and other scientists engaged in the UK Covid-19 response, we focus on two weeks in March 2020 prior to the announcement of an unprecedented national lockdown. A key thread in our analysis is how pandemics are made 'big'. We follow the work of one particular device, that of modelled 'doubling-time'. By following how modelled doubling-time entangles in its assemblage of evidence-making, we draw attention to multiple actors, including beyond models and metrics, which affect how evidence is performed in relation to the scale of epidemic and its policy response. We draw attention to: policy; Government scientific advice infrastructure; time; uncertainty; and leaps of faith. The 'bigness' of the pandemic, and its evidencing, is situated in social and affective practices, in which uncertainty and dis-ease are inseparable from calculus. This materialises modelling in policy as an 'uncomfortable science'. We argue that situational fit in-the-moment is at least as important as empirical fit when attending to what models perform in policy. • Pandemics are performed as crises of uncertain yet catastrophic potential. • Mathematical models are forms of scalar narrative affording epidemics their scale. • Models and projections are made useful as evidence in their situated policy events. • Calculations are given agency as affects in the evidencing of pandemics. • Modelling pandemics is a site of 'uncomfortable science' and 'dis-ease'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Both psychometric and social justice perspectives suggest fairness and bias issues with all application materials typically requested for admissions to health science programs. • Promising practices, such as holistic admissions, communities of support, financial support, and including members of underrepresented groups in the adjudication of applications from underrepresented applicants, could help health science programs increase the diversity of their student cohorts. • Framing health science program admissions in terms of the public good by positioning excellence as access could help with social responsiveness. The health sciences have a public calling to provide socially responsive health care for all of society, particularly those most in need. This call is reverberating in universities and has particular relevance for health science professions. Despite universities' public mission, admissions practices in the health sciences exhibit a fundamental tension between excellence and access, with excellence defined by rankings and research productivity, and access defined by broader public access both to universities themselves and to the knowledge created there. Health science programs' popularity among students intensifies the exclusivity of admissions processes, at the expense of access. This paper presents both a psychometric and social justice critique of existing admissions criteria and processes. A psychometric perspective demonstrates that admissions processes have inherent bias and fairness issues not limited to reliance on standardized test scores, but extending to measures such as interviews, grade point averages, personal statements, recommendation letters, and CVs. Evaluating admissions criteria using a social justice lens focuses attention on procedural, background, and stake fairness, as well as practices that tend to exclude underrepresented groups. Potential improvements to admissions include applying promising practices from holistic approaches, reducing applicants' financial burden, instituting admissions criteria that more broadly represent all groups, involving underrepresented groups in adjudicating candidate applications, implementing equitable educational strategies, and evaluating the degree to which programs' climate and theoretical underpinnings are conducive to recruiting from underrepresented groups. Finally, to fulfill our public call for social responsiveness, it is essential to frame admissions to health science programs in terms of serving the public good by training candidates from underrepresented groups and by positioning excellence as access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “rightness” of a technology for completing a particular task is negotiated by medical professionals, patients, state institutions, manufacturing companies, and non-governmental organizations. This paper shows how certain technologies may challenge the meaning of the “job” they are designed to accomplish. Manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) is a syringe device for uterine evacuation that can be used to treat complications of incomplete abortion, known as post-abortion care (PAC), or to terminate pregnancy. I explore how negotiations over the rightness of MVA as well as PAC unfold at the intersection of national and global reproductive politics during the daily treatment of abortion complications at three hospitals in Senegal, where PAC is permitted but induced abortion is legally prohibited. Although state health authorities have championed MVA as the “preferred” PAC technology, the primary donor for PAC, the United States Agency for International Development, does not support the purchase of abortifacient technologies. I conducted an ethnography of Senegal's PAC program between 2010 and 2011. Data collection methods included interviews with 49 health professionals, observation of PAC treatment and review of abortion records at three hospitals, and a review of transnational literature on MVA and PAC. While MVA was the most frequently employed form of uterine evacuation in hospitals, concerns about off-label MVA practices contributed to the persistence of less effective methods such as dilation and curettage (D&C) and digital curettage. Anxieties about MVA's capacity to induce abortion have constrained its integration into routine obstetric care. This capacity also raises questions about what the “job,” PAC, represents in Senegalese hospitals. The prioritization of MVA's security over women's access to the preferred technology reinforces gendered inequalities in health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnopharmacological relevance This paper speaks to the theme of the boundaries of food and medicine as constructed in the Greek and Roman worlds. It examines how physicians developed innovative ways of thinking about the body that did not attribute health and sickness to the intervention of gods. Ancient physicians and natural historians conceived of new potencies for substances and described their impact on the body׳s physiology between the late fifth century BC and the early third century AD. The legacy of these ideas and practices had great traction in the Mediterranean world and survived into Early Modern Times, and until the rise of new forms of science. Materials and methods This article analyses texts transmitted from the ancient world and considers how substances were attributed nutritional and medical potency. The texts relevant to this analysis include medical and philosophical treatises as well as cookery books. The article highlights discussions about the nature of food and drugs and the herbs thought to cross the boundaries between them. It interrogates different contexts within which foods were thought good or bad for the body, and the social and moral connotations attached to those perceptions. Conclusion Much of the analysis is devoted to understanding the flavours that were a key marker in the nutritional potencies attributed to foodstuffs. However there are clear and influential moral boundaries set by Plato in the discourse around food and pleasure. While every physician should be a chef, and many wrote cookery books that have been lost, a chef׳s talent was located in increasing pleasure, and therefore a less valuable skill. However the different literary genres show overlapping terminology and concerns, particularly with the quality of ingredients. Poor taste was not only a culinary concern. With regard to the setting of boundaries between foods and medicines, the transition between one category and another is frequently determined by the preparation and strengthening of a food׳s potency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper assesses both patients' perspectives on the differences in primary care quality between traditional Tibetan medicine (TTM) hospitals and western medicine (WM) hospitals and the efficacy of the government's investment in these two Prefecture-level primary care structures in Tibet. Method: A validated Tibetan version of the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT-T) was used to collect data on 692 patients aged over 18 years old, who reported the sampling site was their regular source of health care. T-tests were performed to compare the separate and total primary care attributes between WM hospitals and TTM hospitals. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the association of the health care setting with primary care attributes while controlling for socio-demographic, health service use and health status characteristics. Results: Compared to WM hospitals, the results showed that TTM hospitals had patients who were older (15.8 % versus 8.4 % over 60 years); with lower education levels (66.0 % versus 35.8 % with below junior high school ) and income levels (46.9 % versus 26.5 % with annual household income below 30,000RMB); more likely to be married (79.2 % versus 60.5 %); made less frequent health care visits; and had higher self-rated health status. Overall, patients assessed the primary care performance in TTM hospitals significantly higher (80.0) than WM hospitals (74.63). There were no differences in health care assessment by patient gender, age, income, education, marital status and occupation. Conclusions: TTM patients reported better primary care experiences than patients using WM hospitals, which validated the government's investment in traditional Tibetan medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the bioethical issues associated with the diagnosis and treatment of vulvar cancer for Indigenous women in East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Based on a qualitative study of a vulvar cancer cluster of Indigenous women, the article highlights four main topics of bioethical concern drawn from the findings: informed consent, removal of body parts, pain management, and issues at the interface of Indigenous and Western health care. The article seeks to make a contribution towards Indigenous health and bioethics and bring to light areas of further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-series classification has attracted considerable research attention due to the various domains where time-series data are observed, ranging from medicine to econometrics. Traditionally, the focus of time-series classification has been on short time-series data composed of a few patterns exhibiting variabilities, while recently there have been attempts to focus on longer series composed of multiple local patrepeating with an arbitrary irregularity. The primary contribution of this paper relies on presenting a method which can detect local patterns in repetitive time-series via fitting local polynomial functions of a specified degree. We capture the repetitiveness degrees of time-series datasets via a new measure. Furthermore, our method approximates local polynomials in linear time and ensures an overall linear running time complexity. The coefficients of the polynomial functions are converted to symbolic words via equi-area discretizations of the coefficients’ distributions. The symbolic polynomial words enable the detection of similar local patterns by assigning the same word to similar polynomials. Moreover, a histogram of the frequencies of the words is constructed from each time-series’ bag of words. Each row of the histogram enables a new representation for the series and symbolizes the occurrence of local patterns and their frequencies. In an experimental comparison against state-of-the-art baselines on repetitive datasets, our method demonstrates significant improvements in terms of prediction accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current management of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) includes an attempt at slowing down the degenerative process through therapies that use either Western or traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Novel therapies in Western medicine (WM) include use of tailor-made gene therapy, transplantation of stem cells, or neuroprotection treatment. TCM treatment includes two major approaches. These are orally applied herbal decoctions and acupuncture. In fact, all TCM treatments are based on the differentiation of a symptom-complex, which is the characteristic essence of TCM. Thus, diagnosed RP may be treated via the liver, the kidney, and the spleen. The principle behind these treatments is to invigorate the blood and brighten the eyes by toning up the liver and the kidney. Also treatments to cope with deficiencies in the two concepts that are unique and fundamental to TCM are considered: Qi or “vital energy” and Yin and Yang or the harmony of all the opposite elements and forces that make up existence. In particular, the Qi deficiency that results from blood stasis is addressed in these treatments. This paper also puts forward the existing problems and the prospect of the future development on integrating TCM with WM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hericium erinaceum (Bull.: Fr.) Pers. is an edible fungus of great significance in medicine. It is rarely found in Europe, in contrast, it is common in Japan and North America. Its fruitbodies have been well-known for hundreds of years in traditional Chinese medicine and cuisine. A cradle of H. erinaceum cultivation is Asia. In Eastern Europe is rare in natural habitats, but can be successfully cultivated. Both fruitbodies and mycelia are rich in active, health promoting substances. Tests of substances extracted from this mushroom carried out on animals and in vitro have given good results. They can be used in the treatment of cancer, hepatic disorders, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, wound healing. They improve cognitive abilities, support the nervous and immune systems. Promising results have been reported in clinical trials and case reports about the human treatment (e.g., recovery from schizophrenia, an improvement of the quality of sleep, alleviation of the menopause symptoms). The subject of this paper is to summarize information about the development of mycelium, the best conditions for cultivation of fruitbodies, bioactive substances and their use in medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An appreciation of the importance of interactions between microbes and multicellular organisms is currently driving research in biology and biomedicine. Many human diseases involve interactions between the host and the microbiota, so investigating the mechanisms involved is important for human health. Although microbial ecology measurements capture considerable diversity of the communities between individuals, this diversity is highly problematic for reproducible experimental animal models that seek to establish the mechanistic basis for interactions within the overall host-microbial superorganism. Conflicting experimental results may be explained away through unknown differences in the microbiota composition between vivaria or between the microenvironment of different isolated cages. In this position paper, we propose standardised criteria for stabilised and defined experimental animal microbiotas to generate reproducible models of human disease that are suitable for systematic experimentation and are reproducible across different institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Orphan Medicinal Products (OMP) Regulation has successfully encouraged research to develop treatments for rare diseases resulting in the authorisation of new OMPs in Europe. While decisions on OMP designation and marketing authorisation are made at the European Union level, reimbursement decisions are made at the national level. OMP value and affordability are high priority issues for policymakers and decisions regarding their pricing and funding are highly complex. There is currently no European consensus on how OMP value should be assessed and inequalities of access to OMPs have previously been observed. Against this background, policy makers in many countries are considering reforms to improve access to OMPs. This paper proposes ten principles to be considered when undertaking such reforms, from the perspective of an OMP manufacturer. We recommend the continued prioritisation of rare diseases by policymakers, an increased alignment between payer and regulatory frameworks, pricing centred on OMP value, and mechanisms to ensure long-term financial sustainability allowing a continuous and virtuous development of OMPs. Our recommendations support the development of more consistent frameworks and encourage collaboration between all stakeholders, including research-based industry, payers, clinicians, and patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report on the identification of batches of analgesic paracetamol (acetaminophen) tablets using nitrogen-14 nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopy (14N NQR). The high sensitivity of NQR to the electron charge distribution surrounding the quadrupolar nucleus enables the unique characterization of the crystal structure of the material. Two hypothesis were tested on batches of the same brand: the within the same batch variability and the difference between batches that varied in terms of their batch number and expiry date. The multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) did not provide any within-batches variations, indicating the natural deviation of a medicine manufactured under the same conditions. Alternatively, the statistical analysis revealed a significant discrimination between the different batches of paracetamol tablets. Therefore, the NQR signal is an indicator of factors that influence the physical and chemical integrity of the material. Those factors might be the aging of the medicine, the manufacturing, or storage conditions. The results of this study illustrate the potential of NQR as promising technique in applications such as detection and authentication of counterfeit medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the many forms and representations ofcyavanaprāsh, Ayurveda's best-selling medicine, already mentioned in Caraka's Compendium (c. 200 CE). The medicine's compositions, applications, and meanings, change over time and from locality to locality. Cyavanaprāshis, for example, a patriotic formula, a booster of the immune system, a modern geriatric drug, and one of the elements in canonical Ayurvedic treatments. In the beginning of the 19th centurycyavanaprāshwas a patriotic formula for fortifying Indian bodies and the nascent Indian nation. Nowadays the medicine is a Fast Moving Consumer Good (FMCG) and a money maker for Dabur India Ltd., the world largest Ayurvedic manufacturer. Instead of vitalising the nation its consumption now promises to make urban middle class consumers effectively modern. Branding and modern science must make Dabur Chyawanprash attractive in the eyes of these consumers. Ayurveda and cyavanaprāshare also part of a global counter culture marked by neo-Orientalism and Ayurvedic medicines as facilitators of spirituality. The marketing ofcyavanaprāshby India's largest Ayurvedic manufacturer is used as a case study for discussing the proliferation of Ayurvedic brands and its critics. The imaging of Ayurvedic brands such as Dabur Chyawanprash threatens to obscure the fact that Ayurveda represents a unique way of looking upon health, disease and the human body. The proliferation of brands also makes Ayurvedic medicines more expensive and puts pressure on the natural environment as the main supplier of Ayurvedic ingredients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of alternative health practitioners in primary healthcare delivery in Oyo State. It is aimed at determining the documentation and use of indigenous knowledge in primary healthcare by practitioners of alternative healthcare given the dearth of scholarly works in this area in library and information studies. The descriptive survey research design and stratified random sampling techniques were used for the study. The study reveals that practitioners of alternative healthcare use indigenous knowledge in the provision of primary healthcare in treating various health challenges including maternal healthcare and HIV/AIDS, documenting their indigenous knowledge through the forms of writing in books, audio recording, video taping, drawing, photographing and story telling. Adequate documentation of indigenous knowledge in various formats that can make it accessible for use in managing diseases has significant implications for facilitating alternative healthcare's access to the different therapeutic uses of the indigenous knowledge in their healthcare delivery efforts in Oyo State. It is recommended that further studies can be carried out on the storage and retrieval of indigenous knowledge, as well as dissemination and transfer of indigenous knowledge by practitioners of alternative health in primary healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, social network has been given much interest. The explosion of social network activity has lead to generation of massive volumes of user-related data and has given birth to a new area of data analysis. In parallel, the last decade witnessed a fastidious interest in the data mining which efficiently find hidden knowledge that can be extracted from applied information, namely, social data. Among the most used data mining techniques, we particularly focus on cyclic constraint-based association rules. In this paper, we aim to derive significant cyclic constraint-based association rules from social data. Thus, we introduce a new approach EMC2 for social mining through constraint-based cyclic association rules extraction. The encouraging experimental results carried out prove the usefulness of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurotransmitters are important biological molecules that are essential to many neurophysiological processes including memory, cognition, and behavioral states. The development of analytical methodologies to accurately detect neurotransmitters is of great importance in neurological and biological research. Specifically designed microelectrodes or microbiosensors have demonstrated potential for rapid, real-time measurements with high spatial resolution. Such devices can facilitate study of the role and mechanism of action of neurotransmitters and can find potential uses in biomedicine. This paper reviews the current status and recent advances in the development and application of electrochemical sensors for the detection of neurotransmitters. Measurement challenges and opportunities of electroanalytical methods to advance study and understanding of neurotransmitters in various biological models and disease conditions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Positive psychology is a recent branch psychology primarily concerned with using the psychological theory, research and intervention techniques to understand the positive, adaptive, creative and emotionally fulfilling aspects of human behaviour. Mental health in India has become a priority for the people, community, and the state in the last two decades. In place of focusing and concentrating on the negative aspect of a person, a trend is developing to promote positive aspect of one's personality. This paper explores the possibility of application of positive psychology in the area of mental health, specifically in the Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, intangible cultural heritage (hereafter, ICH), the significance which it possesses and the continuation of its myriad manifestations have reached unprecedented levels of recognition and attention on international and national policy agendas. Traditional Medicine (hereafter, TM) has long been included under the vast umbrella of ICH, yet there have been few attempts to explore that relationship. This paper examines the practical implications of applying the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage to TM, alongside the relationship of traditional medicine to the fields of human rights, public health and development. It considers, and reaches the conclusion that the cultural significance of traditional medicine combined with the fundamental principles of the Convention render the Convention significant in safeguarding traditional medicine for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will focus on telecommunication healthcare in Alaska as an institutional category of Gidden's theory of reconceptualizing institutions. Over the past fifty years, considerable advancements of Alaska Native health have occurred in which the Alaska Federal Health Care Access Network (AFHCAN) managed by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) has played a critical role. We began the discussion by defining telemedicine/telehealth as an institution of medicine and healthcare. Next, Gidden's theory of reconceptualizing institutions is examined, because it is a crucial frame of reference for examining the institution of telemedicine/telehealth in Alaska. Following the discussion of Gidden's theory, the AFHCAN telehealth system is discussed and explored to understand the basis for social interactions within the AFHCAN telehealth system and how healthcare is distributed. This telemedicine healthcare institution has resulted in rapid alteration in the overall mode of interactions between the patient, healthcare professionals, and the healthcare organization. As a result, it has had a direct influence on the medical establishment in rural and remote areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To overcome the problems stemming from antimicrobial resistance, there have been several attempts to develop new antimicrobials in recent years. Of the highly potent drugs targeting resistant Gram-positive bacteria, daptomycin has a number of attractive characteristics that suggest its possible use in the treatment of serious infections due to these organisms. Although several pharmacokinetic and clinical studies in adults have provided data to determine how this drug should be prescribed to obtain the maximal clinical efficacy without significant risks of severe adverse events, we have not yet solved all of the problems related to the use of this antibiotic in paediatric patients. In this paper, the resolved and lingering problems of daptomycin treatment in newborns and children are reviewed and discussed. Studies have indicated that daptomycin is a promising therapeutic option for the treatment of paediatric diseases caused by MDR Gram-positive bacilli. However, before daptomycin can be licensed for use in newborns and children, further studies are needed to establish the appropriate dosages for paediatric patients of different ages. The data collected in adults can only be transferred to children older than 12 years, and the information available is not sufficient to determine the dosage that will assure the highest antimicrobial efficacy with only marginal risks of adverse events in younger patients. Thus, studies in neonates and younger infants are urgently needed to permit the use of daptomycin in the first months of life, a period in which infections due to MDR Gram-positive pathogens are increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Cloud computing is a recent and fast growing area of development in healthcare. Ubiquitous, on-demand access to virtually endless resources in combination with a pay-per-use model allow for new ways of developing, delivering and using services. Cloud computing is often used in an "OMICS-context", e.g. for computing in genomics, proteomics and molecular medicine, while other field of application still seem to be underrepresented. Thus, the objective of this scoping review was to identify the current state and hot topics in research on cloud computing in healthcare beyond this traditional domain. Methods: MEDLINE was searched in July 2013 and in December 2014 for publications containing the terms "cloud computing" and "cloud-based". Each journal and conference article was categorized and summarized independently by two researchers who consolidated their findings. Results: 102 publications have been analyzed and 6 main topics have been found: telemedicine/teleconsultation, medical imaging, public health and patient self-management, hospital management and information systems, therapy, and secondary use of data. Commonly used features are broad network access for sharing and accessing data and rapid elasticity to dynamically adapt to computing demands. Eight articles favor the pay-for-use characteristics of cloud-based services avoiding upfront investments. Nevertheless, while 22 articles present very general potentials of cloud computing in the medical domain and 66 articles describe conceptual or prototypic projects, only 14 articles report from successful implementations. Further, in many articles cloud computing is seen as an analogy to internet-/web-based data sharing and the characteristics of the particular cloud computing approach are unfortunately not really illustrated. Conclusions: Even though cloud computing in healthcare is of growing interest only few successful implementations yet exist and many papers just use the term "cloud" synonymously for "using virtual machines" or "web-based" with no described benefit of the cloud paradigm. The biggest threat to the adoption in the healthcare domain is caused by involving external cloud partners: many issues of data safety and security are still to be solved. Until then, cloud computing is favored more for singular, individual features such as elasticity, pay-per-use and broad network access, rather than as cloud paradigm on its own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The palatability of medicines is likely to have a significant impact on patient adherence and consequently, on the safety and efficacy of a medicinal product. Palatability encompasses properties of medicines not limited to taste including swallowability (e.g. size, shape, texture). However, there has been limited work undertaken to measure the texture of medicines and how this may affect palatability and subsequent adherence. Tribology offers an understanding of oral processes and can allow physical properties of materials to be linked to “mouthfeel”. This paper describes a preliminary application of tribology to oral liquid medicines and demonstrates that this technique is useful in the development of future oral liquid medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores social scientists' and humanities (SSH) scholars' integration within the academic medical research environment. Three questions guided our investigation: Do SSH scholars adapt to the medical research environment? How do they navigate their career within a culture that may be inconsistent with their own? What strategies do they use to gain legitimacy? The study builds on three concepts: decoupling, doxa, and epistemic habitus. Twenty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with SSH scholars working in 11 faculties of medicine across Canada. Participants were selected through purposeful and snowball sampling. The data were analyzed by thematic content analysis. For most of our participants, moving into medicine has been a challenging experience, as their research practices and views of academic excellence collided with those of medicine. In order to achieve some level of legitimacy more than half of our participants altered their research practices. This resulted in a dissonance between their internalized appreciation of academic excellence and their new, altered, research practices. Only six participants experienced no form of challenge or dissonance after moving into medicine, while three decided to break with their social science and humanities past and make the medical research community their new home. We conclude that the work environment for SSH scholars in faculties of medicine does not deliver on the promise of inclusiveness made by calls for interdisciplinarity in Canadian health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, methods of quantitative elemental analysis of very small quantity of cultured cells were developed. First of all, an internal-standard method for the solution containing cells whose density is more than 1 × 106 cells/mL was established and then a standard-free method for cultured cells was developed. It was confirmed that the method allows us to quantitatively analyze more than 25 elements in the samples containing only 20,000 cells. Also, the methods for removing cultured cells from a flask were examined in order to improve accuracy and sensitivity of analysis since the use of trypsin and PBS sometimes brings a large amount of sodium, phosphorus and potassium, which have direct effect upon accuracy of analysis based on the standard-free method. It was found that the method of removing cells with a scraper without using trypsin and PBS is the best manner. Also, the effects of using thinner backing materials were examined in order to improve sensitivity of analyses. It is expected that accurate analysis of samples containing nearly two thousand cells is possible on the basis of the standard-free method when using a thinner backing material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of nanotechnology in medical practice has made possible great progress in the diagnosis and treatment of several diseases, with the subsequent increase in life expectancy. However, scanty knowledge on the science and its potentialities brings about an underexploited factor. The use of nanotechnological tools for the improvement of test images, drugs and biosensors seems to be one of the bases of modern medicine. Nanotechnology should transcend its futuristic stigma and be incorporated as part of the process in the evolution of basic and applied science, subsidizing all areas, medicine included. Studies on the understanding of nanotechnology bases and its applicability are instruments for the dissemination of the science, triggering a better positioning for researchers, students and health professionals with regard to future changes in medical practices. Current paper presents information on the scientific bases of nanotechnology by discussing its main applications in medicine. Results will be of use for a better understanding of potentialities in nanotechnology and will contribute towards health promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our postmodern, virtual, age, it is perhaps snot too bold to state that literature remains the last sanctuary of human meaning. The overall symbolical, religious, and cultural capital of contemporary civilizations undergoes the process of devaluation, whereby literature, although set aside on the margins of media and culture, remains to represent an opportunity to be humane. Therefore, it is in literature that we are to find the archetypal hidden figures of God, as well as the archetypal figures of the concealed cure for a depersonalized man. Sick with civilizational processes and virtual realities, man cannot be cured of his disease (the disease of existence) only by means of specialized medical treatment, but also by means of making sense of his existence within the universe. By repeating, but also disintegrating from their very onset, the conventions and stereotypes of social control, as well as socially and scientifically established and thus guaranteed "health" and "knowledge" (as one of the ultimate misconceptions of historical emancipation), we can perceive literature as the last anamnesis of our diseases and as the last pledge for a more comprehensive recovery of the Western man. Literature makes the diagnosis that man is "fatally ill", which is also the Biblical diagnosis and the diagnosis of church tradition. Yet, as is the case with every poison and remedy, literature also holds the cure. In opposition to Frankl's concept of logo therapy, this paper is focused on the (logo)therapy prescribed by literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers published in this issue including one by Li Longguo on pagan secularism, one by Zhu Xiaoyuan on the German Peasants' War and one by Chow Sze Ting on modern medicine in German regions.

As universities increase their focus on global health-related professional education, the need for specific competencies and outcomes to guide curriculum development is urgent. To address this need, the chair of the Education Committee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) appointed a Subcommittee to determine if there is a need for broad global health core competencies applicable across disciplines, and if so, what those competencies should be. Based on that work, this paper (a) discusses the benefits of developing interprofessional and discipline-specific global health competencies; (b) highlights themes that emerged from a preliminary review of existing related literature; and (c) reviews the process used to identify two levels of interprofessional global health competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dialogue about the future of health care in the US has been impeded by flawed conceptions about medicine and business. The present paper re-examines some of the underlying assumptions about both medicine and business, and uses more nuanced readings of both terms to frame debates about the ACA and the emerging health care environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This unconventional, nonfiction paper begins by exploring the entanglements of subjects and researchers in the inner city, a space marked by economic and political marginalization and disparities in health and well-being. Blurring genres, the imaginative ethnographic narrative begins with the story of the lives of two men-an impoverished, homeless, Aboriginal man and a privileged, white clinical epidemiologist-and then drifts to consider the politics of sharing such stories for the ethnographer. Reflecting on the telling of the story at an academic conference, it illuminates tensions, contradictions, and the messiness of anthropology and the everyday lives of the anthropologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although cases are central to the epistemic practices utilized within clinical medicine, they appear to be limited in their ability to provide evidence about causal relations because they provide detailed accounts of particular patients without explicit filtering of those attributes most likely to be relevant for explaining the phenomena observed. This paper uses a series of recent case reports to explore the role of cases in casual attribution in medical diagnosis. It is argued that cases are brought together by practitioners to generate causal attributions and testable predictions using a manipulability view of causation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparing patients for transitioning to self-managed care and subsequently transferring to the adult healthcare system has become a critical process for clinicians working with pediatric transplant recipients. This paper reviews several barriers to a successful transition. These include patient barriers, caregiver barriers, and considerations within pediatric and adult centers. To date, few approaches for improving the transition process have been empirically tested. This review details studies that have examined possible models including usage of a transition coordinator and transition clinics. Recommendations are offered to promote an optimal transition including the importance and content of preparation, assessing and addressing transition readiness, insuring the involvement of all stakeholders, and finally, at minimum providing services during the transfer period. Future directions are offered aiming to advance this important area of investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of trust in the medical profession, in medical institutions, and in the healthcare system, implicitly, has been brought to the scientists' attention lately, taking into account the erosion of trust, determined by the aggressive display in the media of medical personnel migration, of medical malpractice cases, of undefunding and bad management, of the high pressure on the system due to population ageing and to the increase in chronic disease incidence. Other explanations include the modifications in the attitudes, values, and expectations of the public concerning the healthcare system, the emergence of private health insurances and of private institutions, and the erosion of trust in State institutions because of incertitude and economic crises. This paper seeks to pinpoint, in the scientific literature, the definition of trust in the healthcare system, the determinants of trust in the patient -- physician -- institution -- system relationship and the importance of social capital in these types of relationships, as well as the way in which the relationship between the patient and the actors within the medical system is created and influences the patient's quality of life in the context of chronic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the application results of reverse engineering technology for planning the plastic surgery. First step is digitalization of the patient body. It is realized by 3D structured light scanner. The scanning data are transferred into 3dsMax software and used for planning plastic surgery. The planning effect is shown using stereoscopy visualization method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Male reproductive endocrine disorders mainly manifest the abnormalities of hypothalamic -pituitary -testicular axis, in which testicular lesion is the central position because of testicular functions of androgen synthesis and sperm production. The basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine that "the kidney essence leads reproduction" and "Liver leads dispersion", and that the "kidneys", "tiangui" and "liver" were newly understood in Chinese medicine, is similar to the theoretical understanding on modern reproductive endocrinology. In recent years, Chinese medicine has been generally used in male reproductive endocrine disorders with a certain efficiency. In this paper, we reviewed the application of Chinese medicine in disorders of adolescent development (including precocious and delayed puberty), late-onset hypogonadism and hyperprolactinemia. We emphasized that "kidney" in Chinese medicine, the core of reproductive endocrinology, presides over reproduction which is similar to the reproductive axis. "Kidney Qi" and "kidney essence" predict the function of reproductive endocrinology and fertility. The methods of "reinforcing kidney" and "soothing liver" by regulating reproductive axis with Chinese medicine is the most common therapeutic methods to regulate androgen level. However, it is necessary in future to do more study on evidence-based medicine with large samples and intensive study on mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an atmospheric pressure low-temperature plasma pencil generated in helium and helium/oxygen gas mixtures was characterized in detail for its discharge characteristics, plasma power, reactive plasma species produced, plasma density, and plasma temperatures using electrical and optical emission spectroscopy (OES) diagnostics, and its efficacy for biomedical application. A visible plasma plume length of approximately 27 mm was generated using a 60-kHz ac HV power supply. The OES results showed the most intensive plasma emission lines of OH transition A^2\Sigma^+(v=0,1)\toX^2\Pi(\Delta\nu=0) at 308 nm and OH transition A^2\Sigma^+(v=0,1)\toX^2\Pi(\Delta\nu=1) at 287 nm, O I transition 3p^5P\to 3s^5S^0 at 777.41 nm, O I transition 3p^3P\to 3s^3S^0 at 844.6 nm, and N2(C\-B) second positive system with electronic transition C^3\Piu{\to}B^3\Pig in the range 300–450 nm. The effects of controlled oxygen content on the plasma pencil and on various helium plasma emissions and electrical properties are studied. A spatial distribution of reactive plasma species produced by the plasma pencil is presented. The electron density of plasma jet was estimated to be in the order of 2.1\times 10^14~cm^-3 using Stark broadening line profile of the hydrogen alpha emission. The temperatures of afterglow plasma pencil were evaluated using OH rotational temperatures, and the results demonstrate temperatures of 316 and 362 K for pure He and He/ O2 gas mixtures (0.1% O2 ), respectively. Preliminary results on inactivation of Streptococcus pneumoniae on a solid surface and in liquid suspension were carried out using the plasma pencil for biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Summary The importation of infectious diseases during a mass gathering may result in outbreaks. Infectious diseases associated with mass gatherings vary depending on the type and location of the mass gathering. The annual Hajj to Makkah in Saudi Arabia is one of the largest annual religious mass gatherings in the world. Preparation for the Hajj encompasses multiple sectors to develop comprehensive plans. These plans include risk assessment, utilizing existing medical infrastructure, developing electronic and paper-based surveillance activity, and the use of information technology. In this review, we describe key features of the preparedness for the 2014 Hajj and Umra, review the recent impact of emerging viruses such as Ebola in West Africa and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in affected countries, and highlight the updated requirements and the required vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of mobile technology is transforming the biomedical landscape. By 2016 there will be 260 M active smartphones in the US and millions of health accessories and software “apps” running off them. In parallel with this have come major technical achievements in lab-on-a-chip technology leading to incredible new biochemical sensors and molecular diagnostic devices. Despite these advancements, the uptake of lab-on-a-chip technologies at the consumer level has been somewhat limited. We believe that the widespread availability of smartphone technology and the capabilities they offer in terms of computation, communication, social networking, and imaging will be transformative to the deployment of lab-on-a-chip type technology both in the developed and developing world. In this paper we outline why we believe this is the case, the new business models that may emerge, and detail some specific application areas in which this synergy will have long term impact, namely: nutrition monitoring and disease diagnostics in limited resource settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Producing medicines that meet the requirements of current legislation requires equipment that is designed, operated and repaired under conditions of Good manufacturing practice. For implementing this prerequisite, correct formulation of source data and technical design specification is needed. Producing solid dosage forms is realized in a typical technological process, where wet granulation and drying of the obtained molding compound is a significant part of production. Creating tablet machine for producing molded (triturate) tablets needs taking into account the specificity of the finished products and improving the technological process at combining several operations. In this paper, modern concept of technical specification in designing triturate tablet machine and its design, which takes into account achievements in pharmaceutical engineering and provides even distribution of ingredients, sterility and liophilicity are developed. The design of the developed triturate tablet machine allows significantly change the concept of producing molded tablets and creates modern principles in the wider use of this type of solid forms for technologies of sterile and non-sterile medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents several abstracts related to medicine paper submitted at the ICBM 2014 Meeting including clinical trials involving behavioral interventions, clinical psychology, and self regulation interventions.

Philosophers of science have recently focused on the scientific activity of modeling phenomena, and explicated several of its properties, as well as the activities embedded into it. A first approach to modeling has been elaborated in terms of representing a target system: yet other epistemic functions, such as producing data or detecting phenomena, are at least as relevant. Additional useful distinctions have emerged, such as the one between phenomenological and mechanistic models. In biological sciences, besides mathematical models, models now come in three forms: in vivo, in vitro and in silico. Each has been investigated separately, and many specific problems they raised have been laid out. Another relevant distinction is disciplinary: do models differ in significant ways according to the discipline involved-medicine or biology, evolutionary biology or earth science? Focusing on either this threefold distinction or the disciplinary boundaries reveals that they might not be sufficient from a philosophical perspective. On the contrary, focusing on the interaction between these various kinds of models, some interesting forms of explanation come to the fore, as is exemplified by the papers included in this issue. On the other hand, a focus on the use of models, rather than on their content, shows that the distinction between biological and medical models is theoretically sound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Anatomical landmarks play an important role in many biomedical image analysis applications (e.g., registration and segmentation). Landmark detection can be computationally very expensive, especially in 3D images, because every single voxel in a region of interest may need to be evaluated. In this paper, we introduce two 3D local image descriptors which can be computed simultaneously for every voxel in a volume. Both our proposed descriptors are extensions of the DAISY descriptor, a popular descriptor that is based on the histograms of oriented gradients and was named after its daisy-flower-like configuration. Our experiments on mouse brain gene expression images indicate that our descriptors are discriminative and are able to reduce the detection errors of landmark points more than 30% when compared with SIFT-3D, an extension in 3D of SIFT (scale-invariant feature transform). We also demonstrate that our descriptors are more computationally efficient than SIFT-3D and n-SIFT (an extension SIFT in n-dimensions) for densely sampled points. Therefore, our descriptors can be used in applications that require computation of the descriptors at densely sampled points (e.g., landmark point detection or feature-based registration). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Homosexual behaviour is combated by religion and medicine. There are situations when homosexuals want and can be useful to society in terms of organ donation. In these particular cases the status of the recipient of biological materials is not limited in any way, but the status of the donor, in case of homosexuals, may be considered sensitive. This paper attempts to highlight the main situations which can provoke a discussion about the situation of homosexuals in cases of organ transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his late historical and autobiographical writings (the late writings) Ernest Jones makes two interrelated claims. The first, which he passes off as an historical fact, is that by 1904 there were 'three sources of information available to [him]' about Freud (Jones, 1945b, p. 9). The second, which he makes by way of an autobiographical statement, is that he was already practising 'the new therapy' of psychoanalysis by 1906. Contemporaneous sources challenge the unspoken assumptions that run through Jones's late writings: that there was little or no discussion of Freud's ideas in Britain between 1904, when Jones claims he first started reading Freud, and November 1913 when he founded the London Psycho-Analytic Society. For reasons difficult to fathom Jones's version of history has been accepted almost without question. Lifting Jones's historical and autobiographical veils reveals a very different story: that when Jones first returned from Canada, in 1911, there was already a vibrant debate concerning the merits, or otherwise, of the new Freudian psychology and there were a number of doctors already treating patients with psychoanalysis or its variants. The paper concludes with a re-examination of Jones's relationship with M.D. Eder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]