Medical students’ view on the use of animals in biomedical research

The purpose of this survey was to describe medical students’ views of animals and the use of animals in biomedical research. The three explanation variables used were gender, age and year of study. A vast majority (95%) of the respondents considered that animals have rights. Possible explanations to this result could be that the term has been used by the media during a relatively long period. which has made the expression common. and the students do not consider what itphilosophically and logically infers to have rights. Younger students and female students seemed to value animals higher and had a more restricted view on animals and animal research compared to other groups. More than 95% of the respondents were positive toward the possibility to use animals for scientific purposes. There was a relationship between commitment to environmental issues and caring about animal rights. A conclusion of the present study. is that more information about laboratory animals and biomedical research should be made available to the students. as well as to the general public

Ar mfinniskor och djurjfimlika? — En idéhistorisk essä

This paper deals wilh the human altitudes lo animals and the relalions between humans and animals in a Weslem hislorical perspective. Initially, we analyse some significant quotations from the Old Tesament, in particular from lhe book ofGenesis. There are two possible inlerprelalions in the Biblical tradition in which man is a metaphysical being at a higher level than all animals: the “hard" interprelalion and the “soft" one. The hard interpretation regards man as a despot or as anabsolule monarch, who can treat animals more or less arbitrarily wilhoul any respect and compassion towards them. The soft interpretation looks at the individual as a constitulional monarch, with obligations both towards the nature and olhcrspecies. He has the power over the animals, but this power demands responsibility and man acts as custodian or steward in relation to animals. These two interpretations are still valid in the current debale, even though the latter is nearly complelely dominant among most debaters today. Thereafter we describe Aristotle’s views on these issues from the Greek lradilion, early Christian notions. for example those of St Augustin, and Medieval Christian thoughts. especially Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas wrote about lhe three teachings that have anchored Christian reflection ever since: teachings on the instrumental value of animals. the indirect obligations of humans toward animals and the nature of animal souls.Thereafler the thoughts of the Renaissance are briefly described. This part of the text also deals wilh Descartes‘ and Hobbes” views on animals in relation to humans. The thoughts of Bentham, Kant, Schopenhauer, Wagner and Hume are alsomentioned. Finally, we discuss Singers‘ controversial and well-known book Animal Liberation, published in 1975. We disagree with his arguments and conclusions. since we find them both manipulative and unrealistic.As a conclusion we quote the Medieval mystician Sl Bernhard of Clairvaux’ thoughts: that humans combine a highly developed ralionalily with an awareness of the unavoidable death. This rationality helps us lo govern the nature, but our awareness about death forces us to create a symbolical infra slruclure we call culture, civilisation, religion, science, art and philosophy that makes it possible to survive ourselves. Thanks to this symbolic infra structure we humans change fromhighly developed animals to culture individuals. Individuals that treat other creatures with care and responsibility

Digital nerve injuries: Epidemiology, results, costs, and impact on daily life.

Epidemiology, results of treatment, impact on activity of daily living (ADL), and costs for treatment of digital nerve injuries have not been considered consistently. Case notes of patients of 0-99 years of age living in Malmö municipality, Sweden, who presented with a digital nerve injury and were referred to the Department of Hand Surgery in 1995-2005 were analysed retrospectively. The incidence was 6.2/100 000 inhabitants and year. Most commonly men (75%; median age 29 years) were injured. Isolated nerve injuries and concomitant tendon injuries were equally common. The direct costs (hospital stay, operation, outpatient visits, visits to a nurse and/or a hand therapist) for a concomitant tendon injury was almost double compared with an isolated digital nerve injury (6136 EUR [range, 744-29 689 EUR] vs 2653 EUR [range, 468-6949 EUR]). More than 50% of the patients who worked were injured at work and 79% lost time from work (median 59 days [range 3-337]). Permanent nerve dysfunction for the individual patient with ADL problems and subjective complaints of fumbleness, cold sensitivity, and pain occur in the patients despite surgery. It is concluded that digital nerve injuries, often considered as a minor injury and that affect young people at productive age, cause costs, and disability. Focus should be directed against prevention of the injury and to improve nerve regeneration from different aspects

Envisioning future forested landscapes in Sweden – Revealing local-national discrepancies through participatory action research

Governance of forested landscapes must account for multiple interests and perspectives through public and stakeholder participation. In the context of Swedish forestry, participation has mainly been implemented as a top-down venture, without adequate integration of all interests. Linking local interests to national policy-making through participatory action research and future-oriented methodologies has not yet been tried in Sweden. We develop and implement a participatory action research model with the objectives to (i) facilitate a discussion among local stakeholders about their common future in relation to their forested landscapes and, (ii) to connect the local level with the national, institutional level. First, local stakeholders are brought together to create commonly desired visions in case studies of two forested landscapes in Sweden. Second, national policy-makers are engaged in a discussion on how to achieve the locally-desired visions. The ability of the two-step participatory action research model to achieve these objectives is then evaluated based on norms of Communicative Action and criteria of participatory planning. The results demonstrate the positive opportunity to engage local stakeholders in a constructive discussion about their common future, but also show some practical constraints of participatory methods, in particular the risk of institutional authorities disregarding local knowledge and claims

Measuring Strategic Uncertainty in Coordination Games

Lecture on the first SFB/TR 15 meeting, Gummersbach, July, 18 - 20, 2004This paper explores predictability of behavior in coordination games with multiple equilibria. In a laboratory experiment we measure subjects' certainty equivalents for three coordination games and one lottery. Attitudes towards strategic uncertainty in coordination games are related to risk aversion, experience seeking, gender and age. From the distribution of certainty equivalents among participating students we estimate probabilities for successful coordination in a wide range of coordination games. For many games success of coordination is predictable with a reasonable error rate. The best response of a risk neutral player is close to the global-game solution. Comparing choices in coordination games with revealed risk aversion, we estimate subjective probabilities for successful coordination. In games with a low coordination requirement, most subjects underestimate the probability of success. In games with a high coordination requirement, most subjects overestimate this probability. Data indicate that subjects have probabilistic beliefs about success or failure of coordination rather than beliefs about individual behavior of other players

Prostate cancer mortality in areas with high and low prostate cancer incidence

BACKGROUND: The effect of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening on prostate cancer mortality remains debated, despite evidence from randomized trials. We investigated the association between prostate cancer incidence, reflecting uptake of PSA testing, and prostate cancer mortality. METHODS: The study population consisted of all men aged 50 to 74 years residing in eight counties in Sweden with an early increase in prostate cancer incidence and six counties with a late increase during two time periods. Incidence of metastatic prostate cancer was investigated in the period from 2000 to 2009, and prostate cancer-specific mortality and excess mortality were investigated in the period from 1990 to 1999 and the period from 2000 to 2009 by calculating rate ratios for high- vs low-incidence counties and rate ratios for the period from 2000 to 2009 vs the period from 1990 to 1999 within these two groups. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: There were 4528134 person-years at risk, 1577 deaths from prostate cancer, and 1210 excess deaths in men with prostate cancer in high-incidence counties and 2471373 person-years at risk, 985 prostate cancer deaths, and 878 excess deaths in low-incidence counties in the period from 2000 to 2009. Rate ratios in counties with high vs low incidence adjusted for time period were 0.81 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.73 to 0.90) for prostate cancer- specific mortality and 0.74 (95% CI = 0.64 to 0.86) for excess mortality, and the rate ratio of metastatic prostate cancer was 0.85 (95% CI = 0.79 to 0.92). CONCLUSIONS: The lower prostate cancer mortality in high-incidence counties reflecting a high PSA uptake suggests that more-intense as compared with less-intense opportunistic PSA screening reduces prostate cancer mortality