Euthanasia and Other Medical Decisions at the End of Life: Societal Control and Cultural Aspects

Death is a socially and culturally embedded phenomenon.1 It is inevitably understood and experienced within a complex web of cultural meanings that differ within and across countries. During the past century, acute death due to infectious diseases has to a great extent been replaced by death due to conditions that involve a more protracted dying process, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases.2 Currently, approximately 70% of all deaths are non-sudden3 and are likely to involve some form of end-of-life care. Advances in medicine have greatly improved the possibilities to treat seriously ill patients and to prolong life and postpone death. It is also increasingly recognized that prolonging life is not always the most appropriate goal of medicine. Preserving quality of life and alleviating the patient’s suffering are other important care goals at the end of life. In some cases hastening of death can be an acceptable or even desired result of end of life care as well. Euthanasia, that is, deliberately ending a person’s life at the person’s request, and physician-assisted suicide, where the person self-administers lethal medication that is prescribed by a physician, are among the most controversial acts

Why Ni3_3Al is an itinerant ferromagnet but Ni3_3Ga is not

Ni$_3$Al and Ni$_3$Ga are closely related materials on opposite sides of a ferromagnetic quantum critical point. The Stoner factor of Ni is virtually the same in both compounds and the density of states is larger in Ni$_3$Ga. So, according to the Stoner theory, it should be more magnetic, and, in LDA calculations, it is. However, experimentally, it is a paramagnet, while Ni$_3$Al is an itinerant ferromagnet. We show that the critical spin fluctuations are stronger than in Ni$_3$Ga, due to a weaker q-dependence of the susceptibility, and this effect is strong enough to reverse the trend. The approach combines LDA calculations with the Landau theory and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem using the same momentum cut-off for both materials. The calculations provide evidence for strong, beyond LDA, spin fluctuations associated with the critical point in both materials, but stronger in Ni$_3$Ga than in Ni$_3$Al.Comment: replaced (incorrect version submitted

Catálogo sobre edad media y musicología

Sección: NoticiasEntre los catálogos informatizados de la Red de Bibliotecas del CSIC en Cataluña se puede consultar el de referencias bibliográficas sobre edad media y musicologíaN

Информационные технологии в управлении интеллектуальным капиталом организации

The report examines how organization can use information technologies for management of intellectual capital

A recurrent 14q32.2 microdeletion mediated by expanded TGG repeats

Nearly all recurrent microdeletion/duplication syndromes described to date are characterized by the presence of flanking low copy repeats that act as substrates for non-allelic homologous recombination (NAHR) leading to the loss, gain or disruption of dosage sensitive genes. We describe an identical 1.11 Mb heterozygous deletion of 14q32.2 including the DLK1/GTL2 imprinted gene cluster in two unrelated patients. In both patients, the deleted chromosome 14 was of paternal origin, and consistent with this both exhibit clinical features compatible with uniparental disomy (UPD) (14)mat. Using a high-resolution oligonucleotide array, we mapped the breakpoints of this recurrent deletion to large flanking (TGG)n tandem repeats, each approximately 500 bp in size and sharing ≥88% homology. These expanded (TGG)n motifs share features with known fragile sites and are predicted to form strong guanine quadruplex secondary structures. We suggest that this recurrent deletion is mediated either by NAHR between the TGG repeats, or alternatively results from their inherent instability and/or strong secondary structure. Our results define a recurrent microdeletion of the 14q32.2 imprinted gene cluster mediated by flanking (TGG)n repeats, identifying a novel mechanism of recurrent genomic rearrangement. Our observation that expanded repeats can act as catalysts for genomic rearrangement extends the role of triplet repeats in human disease, raising the possibility that similar repeat structures may act as substrates for pathogenic rearrangements genome-wid

Detection of aberrant DNA methylation in unique Prader — Willi syndrome patients and its diagnostic implications

Most patients with Prader - Willi syndrome have a deletion of 15q11 - 13 or maternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 15. The shortest region of deletion overlap is presently defined by the gene for the small nuclear ribonucleoprotein N (SNRPN). We have investigated the integrity of SNRPN as well as the methylation status of D15S63 (PW71) in two patients with apparently normal chromosomes 15 of biparental origin. SNRPN is normal in one patient and deleted in the other one. Both patients are intact at the D15S63 locus, but have an abnormal methylation pattern. These results suggest that a DNA sequence close to SNRPN determines the methylation status of D15S63 and that the methylation test does not only detect the common deletions and uniparental disomy, but other rare lesions as wel

Исследование и разработка гистерезисных электрических машин на основе деформируемого сплава Fe-Cr-Co

В ходе научно-квалификационной работы исследован материал ротора синхронного гистерезисного двигателя (СГД) из сплава 22Х15КА ГОСТ 24897-81. Получены динамические магнитные характеристики сплава на частотах перемагничивания от 50 Гц до 2 кГц. Представлены результаты исследования СГД в программной среде AnsysMaxwell 2D/3D.In the course of the scientific and qualifying work, the rotor material of the synchronous hysteresis motor from alloy 22Х15КА GOST 24897-81 was investigated. Dynamic magnetic characteristics of the alloy at the magnetization reversal frequencies from 50 Hz to 2 kHz are obtained. The results of the study of a synchronous hysteresis motor in the software environment of AnsysMaxwell 2D / 3D are presented

Brengt ultraschone lucht op de OK meer veiligheid?

• Het ‘Beheersplan luchtbehandeling voor de operatieafdeling’ (2005) beschrijft het beheer en het onderhoud van de luchtbehandelingsinstallatie. • In dit Beheersplan wordt een norm voorgesteld voor luchtkwaliteit op operatieafdelingen type 1, die is aangenomen door de Nederlandse Orthopedische Vereniging, doch niet door andere wetenschappelijke verenigingen. • De Britse studie die ten grondslag ligt aan de voorgestelde norm voor luchtkwaliteit van operatieafdelingen type 1 is van 1982, en onvoldoende gecorrigeerd voor profylaxe met antibiotica. Die profylaxe leidt op zich namelijk ook al tot minder postoperatieve wondinfecties. • Recentere studies naar ultraschone lucht op de operatieafdeling laten geen infectiepreventief effect zien. • Er ligt een ta

A global disorder of imprinting in the human female germ line

Imprinted genes are expressed differently depending on whether they are carried by a chromosome of maternal or paternal origin. Correct imprinting is established by germline-specific modifications; failure of this process underlies several inherited human syndromes. All these imprinting control defects are cis-acting, disrupting establishment or maintenance of allele-specific epigenetic modifications across one contiguous segment of the genome. In contrast, we report here an inherited global imprinting defect. This recessive maternal-effect mutation disrupts the specification of imprints at multiple, non-contiguous loci, with the result that genes normally carrying a maternal methylation imprint assume a paternal epigenetic pattern on the maternal allele. The resulting conception is phenotypically indistinguishable from an androgenetic complete hydatidiform mole, in which abnormal extra-embryonic tissue proliferates while development of the embryo is absent or nearly so. This disorder offers a genetic route to the identification of trans-acting oocyte factors that mediate maternal imprint establishment