Mariah Devereux Herbeck. Wandering Women in French Film and Literature: A Study of Narrative Drift. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Review of Mariah Devereux Herbeck. Wandering Women in French Film and Literature: A Study of Narrative Drift. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Chirality in charge-transfer salts of BEDT-TTF of tris(oxalato)chromate(III)

Crystallisation from chiral electrolyte (R)-(−)-carvone has produced three new chiral semiconducting salts of BEDT-TTF from racemic anion tri(oxalato)chromate(III)

IBM, Elsevier Science, and Academic Freedom

Elsevier Science refused to publish a study of IBM workers that IBM sought to keep from public view. Occupational and environmental health (OEH) suffers from the absence of a level playing field on which science can thrive. Industry pays for a substantial portion of OEH research. Studies done by private consulting firms or academic institutions may be published if the results suit the sponsoring companies, or they may be censored. OEH journals often reflect the dominance of industry influence on research in the papers they publish, sometimes withdrawing or modifying papers in line with industry and advertising agendas. Although such practices are widely recognized, no fundamental change is supported by government and industry or by professional organizations

Effectiveness of Strategies to Improve Health-Care Provider Practices in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries: a Systematic Review

Inadequate health-care provider performance is a major challenge to the delivery of high-quality health care in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Health Care Provider Performance Review (HCPPR) is a comprehensive systematic review of strategies to improve health-care provider performance in LMICs

Does a homeopathic ultramolecular dilution of Thyroidinum 30cH affect the rate of body weight reduction in fasting patients? A randomised placebo-controlled double-blind clinical trial

Objective: To test whether an ultramolecular dilution of homeopathic Thyroidinum has an effect over placebo on weight reduction of fasting patients in so-called ‘fasting crisis’. Design: Randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel group, monocentre study. Setting/location: Hospital for internal and complementary medicine in Munich, Germany. Subjects: Two hundred and eight fasting patients encountering a stagnation or increase of weight after a weight reduction of at least 100 g/day in the preceding 3 days. Intervention: One oral dose ofThyroidinum 30cH (preparation of thyroid gland) or placebo. Outcome Measures: Main outcome measure was reduction of body weight 2 days after treatment. Secondary outcome measures were weight reduction on days 1 and 3, 15 complaints on days 1–3, and 34 laboratory findings on days 1–2 after treatment. Results: Weight reduction on the second day after medication in the Thyroidinum group was less than in the placebo group (mean difference 92 g, 95% confidence interval 7–176 g, P=0.034). Adjustment for baseline differences in body weight and rate of weight reduction before medication, however, weakened the result to a non-significant level (P=0.094). There were no differences between groups in the secondary outcome measures. Conclusions: Patients receiving Thyroidinum had less weight reduction on day 2 after treatment than those receiving placebo. Yet, since no significant differences were found in other outcomes and since adjustment for baseline differences rendered the difference for the main outcome measure non-significant, this result must be interpreted with caution. Post hoc evaluation of the data, however, suggests that by predefining the primary outcome measure in a different way, an augmented reduction of weight on day 1 after treatment with Thyroidinum may be demonstrated. Both results would be compatible with homeopathic doctrine (primary and secondary effect) as well as with findings from animal research