Health Care Rationing: What it Means

Examines issues related to rationing health care by applying its principles to radiology, and using examples from the budget limited British health system. Includes analysis of expenditures on life saving technology, and evaluation research

BOOK REVIEWS: Two Cheers for Capitalism / Does Freedom Work?

Although Kristol\u27s book is vastly better than Devine\u27s--both in style and in content--the two books suffer from a common short-coming. Kristol sees a central institution of modern capitalism--the corporation-under aggressive attack, and seeks to defend it. One may disagree with his appraisal of the risks, and resent his tendency to tar all critics with the inanities of the most extreme, but he has a strong case to make-that the rise of modern American capitalism has been a magnificent success story. This success has required an uneasy cooperation between free-market institutions and collective restraints and modifications of market outcomes. By seeing evil in critics of some of the workings of the American economy and over-simplifying complex problems, Kristol fails to contribute to under-standing the nature of this partnership. Devine all but denies that there is such a partnership. But such a partnership indubitably exists, even if one yearns for a simpler world in which it would not be necessary. Those who would deny any constructive role for collective action and those at the other end of the political spectrum who deny the accomplishments and strengths of the market economy both retard the needed discussion on whether the balance between these two elements of the partnership is correct and how it should be changed in specific instances. Unfortunately, both Kristol and Devine obstruct such a discussion and instead tend to polarize complex questions from one particular point of view

The Perpetual Object of Regulation: Privacy As Pacification

This article theorizes the relationship of privacy to capital and projects of security and, in doing so, situates privacy in context to pacification. In particular, the article provides an interrogation of the contradictory structuring of privacy as both an object threatened by security and the role of privacy as a means to resist or limit projects of security. Through an analysis of Thomas Hobbes’ writings, this contradictory dual-deployment of privacy is unseated to reveal that far from challenging security, privacy has historically been presupposed and structured by security projects. Moreover, by acclimatizing us to our existence as atomized individuals, alienated from our collective social power, privacy in fact pacifies us. This process is explored through an examination of the Passenger Flight List agreement (PNR) between the United States and EU member states. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of our reliance on privacy has for challenging the logics of security and pacification, especially with the emergent technology of Drones

The Internet and Civic Engagement

Based on a survey, analyzes how socioeconomic status and other demographics correlate with online and offline political and civic engagement. Explores suggestions that younger generations' political use of social media may alter such patterns

Freedom Now!: Four Hard Bop and Avant-Garde Jazz Musicians\u27 Musical Commentary on the Civil Rights Movement, 1958-1964.

In this study, I examined musical recordings from the jazz idiom that relate to events or ideas involved in the Civil Rights Movement during the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s. The study focused on the four following musicians\u27 recordings: Charles Mingus, Fables of Faubus; Sonny Rollins, The Freedom Suite; Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz; and John Coltrane, A Love Supreme. The study relies primarily on the aforementioned recordings, critics analysis of those recordings, and events that took place during the Civil Right Movement. The study concludes that these recordings are not only commentary about ideas and events but historically representative of the movement as well

Novel drug delivery systems: pH-responsive expansile nanoparticles & drug concentrating devices as tools for treating cancer

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityNew strategies for treatment and methods of drug delivery are required for patients suffering from cancer-the second leading cause of death worldwide. Current chemotherapeutic treatments frequently suffer from poor water solubility, systemic toxicity, poor accumulation within the target tissues and an inability to eradicate all remaining tumor following resection procedures. Nanoparticles (NPs) are extensively investigated as a means to increase drug solubility, alter biodistribution, target specific sites within the body, and minimize drug side effects and, as such, numerous NP formulations are being investigated as drug delivery devices to assist in the treatment and management of cancer. We have developed a pH-responsive expansile nanoparticle (eNP) that can encapsulate the hydrophobic chemotherapeutic agent Paclitaxel (Pax) (a poorly water soluble, yet potent chemotherapeutic agent), and deliver it specifically to the intracellular compartment of tumor cells. Paclitaxel-loaded-eNPs (Pax-eNPs) localize specifically to regions of intraperitoneal (IP) tumors and, once taken up by tumor cells, undergo a conformational change upon exposure to the mildly acidic cellular endosome that results in eNP swelling and intratumoral drug release. In this work, we describe: 1) the clinical problem and cost (both humanitarian and fmancial) of local cancer recurrence following tumor resection; 2) the eNP delivery system and, specifically, we characterize the swelling of eNPs using microscopy and tunable resistive pulse sensing techniques; 3) the in vitro activity of Pax-eNPs in breast cancer cells; 4) the improved efficacy of Pax- eNPs compared to the standard clinical formulation of Pax (i.e., Pax dissolved in Cremophor/Ethanol) in a murine model of established peritoneal mesothelioma; and, 5) the ability of eNPs to act as intratumoral, intracellular drug concentrating devices. Further investigation of this NP-based drug delivery system will facilitate a greater understanding of the materials and devices used in the delivery of chemotherapeutic agents and may lead to the clinical translation and application of eNPs

Wave forces on bridge decks and damping techniques to reduce damages

The population of the Gulf Coast has grown immensely since 1960. Bridges along the coast are a vital part of this area’s infrastructure. They impact the transportation of goods and services, as well as the tourism in these areas. Many of these coastal bridges are at risk of being damaged or even destroyed during extreme weather events. This can cause not only short and long-term monetary problems, but the damage also can exacerbate the issues in getting people out of dangerous areas and getting help into areas in need, after an event. Damages during extreme weather events are the result of the storm surge being able to raise the water level enough for waves to impact the bridge superstructures, unseating or shifting the bridge superstructures. Even though some bridges are designed to be fixed to the supports, wave forces can be greater than the capacity of the supports. Therefore, new technologies need to be, and have been, developed to make these bridges safer and stronger during these events. This research has set forth to determine the impact that the different parts of a bridge have on the total forces experienced by bridges. Research and tests have been performed on some of the recommended methods of damping that would reduce these damages. Some methods can be implemented only on new bridges, and others may be able to be implemented on existing bridges. Five different clearances were tested along with seven different bridge models that ranged from a flat plate to a fully developed slab-on-girder bridge model. Two different support systems were also tested: a fixed support system and a system that allowed for some horizontal and rotational movement. It was found that the girders of a bridge play the largest role in increasing the experienced forces, with open, closed, and vented girder systems changing this increase in force. It was also determined that the different support systems do have an effect on the wave forces, with the fixed support system giving less predictable data, while also showing more wave force for certain deck clearances and less wave force for others