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The purpose of this article was to propose and test an integrative model on the role of perfectionism, academic motivation, and psychological adjustment difficulties in undergraduate students. The model posits that self-oriented perfectionism facilitates self-determined academic motivation, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism enhances non-self-determined academic motivation. In turn, self-determined and non-self-determined academic motivations, respectively, lead to lower and higher levels of psychological adjustment difficulties. Results from two studies using structural equation modeling analyses provided support for the model.

Most of the inherited epilepsies do not follow a Mendelian inheritance pattern but rather are complex disorders. This leads us to reconsider the traditional ethical framework applying to genetics, which is still based largely on the understanding of Mendelian inheritance, to ethically use the genetic tests likely to be forthcoming for the prevention and surveillance of epilepsies. This article is a review of the ethical issues raised by family studies of the epilepsies, in both a clinical and a research context. These issues include the use of genetic tests, the scope of genetic counseling, the upholding of the risk-benefit ratio in pharmacogenetics, as well as those related to the availability of treatments, health professionals' changing responsibilities, and the communication within families. A reasonable approach calls for a case-by-case determination of whether the benefit and harm of genetic testing outweigh benefit and harm of protecting autonomy and nonmaleficence.

We analysed the cost-effectiveness of a teleconsultation service after five years of operation. The service provides diagnostic consultation at a distance for children suffering from cardiac pathologies. A retrospective study was performed with all 78 infants who had received a paediatric cardiology teleconsultation over a four-year period from January 1998. The cost-effectiveness of telecardiology was compared with that of the conventional means of providing services. Teleconsultation proved to be an effective and reliable method of enhancing access to tertiary care. The number of patient journeys (both emergency transfers and semi-urgent or elective visits to the tertiary care centre) was reduced by 42%. However, the cost analysis demonstrated that teleconsultation did not result in overall cost savings: the total cost of telecardiology was C dollars 272,327 and the total cost of conventional care would have been C dollars 157,212. There were direct savings for patients but not for the health-care system, because of the high cost of the equipment and telecommunication fees. Telemedicine therefore represented a supplementary cost of C dollars 1500 per patient. In summary, telemedicine added to cost but increased effectiveness. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of teleconsultation was estimated to C dollars 3488 per patient journey avoided.

Recent changes to the legal and ethical criteria that govern the inclusion of children and incompetent adults in genetic research are likely to lead to advances in research, but might leave the rights of the participants in this research in need of additional safeguards. Here, we discuss why this might be and propose policy considerations that could help to protect the rights of these particularly vulnerable groups of research participants.

Canada has recently seen significant commercial growth in biotechnology; at the same time we have witnessed a considerable reduction in public funding for research. One result is the development of partnerships between academic institutions and industry, which has had important effects on the relationships between researchers, companies, research subjects and society, particularly in the field of genetics. Commercialization of research creates obstacles to the diffusion of research results which is fundamental to the advancement of science. Several recent studies and cases, which are briefly reviewed here, have highlighted these problems. In this paper, the author examines clauses in research contracts in order to analyze and categorize the types of provisions these contracts may contain regarding publication and disclosure of research results. She then discusses the relationships between various actors in genetic research and the issues and conflicts that may arise. Finally, an examination of some recently developed policies in this area reveals the complex network of norms to which a researcher must adhere. The normative framework must take into account the interests of all the various actors, should apply to the broadest possible population, and its various parts must be consistent. Researchers must then be vigilant that they do not enter into contracts which conflict with their rights and obligations regarding publication and dissemination of results.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen frequently found in nosocomial infections and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis. To facilitate molecular studies of this organism, we have generated a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library. Genomic DNA was isolated from the prototype strain PAO1, partially digested with HindIII, size selected after pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and used to construct a BAC library using the pBeloBAC11 vector. DNAs from approximately 850 clones, representing more than 9.5-fold physical coverage of the 5.9-Mb PAO1 genome, were analyzed after SpeI and HindIII digestions and agarose gel electrophoresis. The BAC library had clones with insert fragments ranging from 20 to more than 290 kb. A subset of 264 BACs having inserts > 80 kb, representing > 4 genome equivalents, were rearrayed into 96-well plates, and a clone pooling and PCR screening strategy was developed. The PCR library screening enabled the identification and recovery of BACs containing genes implicated in cell division and in cell wall biosynthesis, as well as a series of known genes mapping to different regions of the PAO1 chromosome. A physical and genetic map was constructed for the 98-kb pMOC5 BAC clone, which spans the entire fts-mur locus. Chromosome walking from each end of the pMOC5 clone placed it within a contig spanning 243 kb. The BAC library and screening resources now allow a PCR-based screening of a P. aeruginosa genomic library for any gene of interest. The restriction fragment analysis of overlapping clones indicated that BAC clones stably maintain and propagate Pseudomonas DNA, providing evidence that the PAO1 BAC library is an appropriate reagent for genome sequencing.

We studied two systems of multilocus markers revealed by PCR using primers directing amplification between Alu repeats in a tail-to-tail orientation. Genomic polymorphisms were detected as the presence or absence of the electrophoretic bands representing DNA fragments of a given length. A total of 104 such fragments segregating as Mendelian markers in a panel of eight CEPH families were analyzed by two-point linkage analysis. Fifty-one of these fragments were localized with respect to CEPH markers; they represented 33 loci, 7 of which were multiallelic. Locus-specific oligonucleotides were developed and used as hybridization probes to identify the mapped loci within a complex pattern of inter-Alu PCR products. A great proportion of inter-Alu PCR polymorphisms represented length variants within amplified DNA segments, while others were presumably due to mutations within the priming sites. To describe the expected number of informative loci per typing experiment we introduced a parameter called overall informativity (OI), which provides a single measure of the multiplex ratio and the informativity of markers contributing to a multilocus system (OI of a single locus is equivalent to its heterozygosity and cannot exceed 0.5 for a biallelic codominant marker). High OI values (5.8 and 11.5) of the two presented systems of inter-Alu PCR markers of random chromosomal distribution render them suitable for mapping genomic rearrangements such as genomic deletions in tumoral tissues. This was illustrated by the detection of loss of heterozygosity in the 9q22-qter region in sporadic colon cancer.