The Precautionary Principle (with Application to the Genetic Modification of Organisms)

We present a non-naive version of the Precautionary (PP) that allows us to avoid paranoia and paralysis by confining precaution to specific domains and problems. PP is intended to deal with uncertainty and risk in cases where the absence of evidence and the incompleteness of scientific knowledge carries profound implications and in the presence of risks of "black swans", unforeseen and unforeseable events of extreme consequence. We formalize PP, placing it within the statistical and probabilistic structure of ruin problems, in which a system is at risk of total failure, and in place of risk we use a formal fragility based approach. We make a central distinction between 1) thin and fat tails, 2) Local and systemic risks and place PP in the joint Fat Tails and systemic cases. We discuss the implications for GMOs (compared to Nuclear energy) and show that GMOs represent a public risk of global harm (while harm from nuclear energy is comparatively limited and better characterized). PP should be used to prescribe severe limits on GMOs

Contingent Bank Capital Facility

Blog post from HKMA Chief Executive Joseph Yam discussing CBCF

Phylogeny of Stenopodidea (Crustacea: Decapoda) shrimps inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial genes reveals non-monophyly of the families Spongicolidae and Stenopididae, and most of their composite genera

The infraorder Stenopodidea is a relatively small group of marine decapod crustaceans including the well known cleaner shrimps, but their higher taxonomy has been rather controversial. This study provides the most comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analyses of Stenopodidea using sequence data from two mitochondrial (16S and 12S rRNA) and two nuclear (histone H3 and sodium–potassium ATPase α-subunit (NaK)) genes. We included all 12 nominal genera from the three stenopodidean families in order to test the proposed evolutionary hypothesis and taxonomic scheme of the group. The inferred phylogeny did not support the familial ranking of Macromaxillocarididae and rejected the reciprocal monophyly of Spongicolidae and Stenopididae. The genera Stenopus, Richardina, Spongiocaris, Odontozona, Spongicola and Spongicoloides are showed to be poly- or paraphyletic, with monophyly of only the latter three genera strongly rejected in the analysis. The present results only strongly support the monophyly of Microprosthema and suggest that Paraspongiola should be synonymised with Spongicola. The three remaining genera, Engystenopus, Juxtastenopus and Globospongicola, may need to be expanded to include species from other genera if their statuses are maintained. All findings suggest that the morphological characters currently adopted to define genera are mostly invalid and substantial taxonomic revisions are required. As the intergeneric relationships were largely unresolved in the present attempt, the hypothesis of evolution of deep-sea sponge-associated taxa from shallow-water free-living species could not be verified here. The present molecular phylogeny, nevertheless, provides some support that stenopoididean shrimps colonised the deep sea in multiple circumstances

Advancing Pharmacist Collaborative Care within Academic Health Systems.

INTRODUCTION:The scope of pharmacy practice has evolved over the last few decades to focus on the optimization of medication therapy. Despite this positive impact, the lack of reimbursement remains a significant barrier to the implementation of innovative pharmacist practice models. SUMMARY:We describe the successful development, implementation and outcomes of three types of pharmacist collaborative care models: (1) a pharmacist with physician oversight, (2) pharmacist-interprofessional teams and (3) physician-pharmacist teams. The outcome measurement of these pharmacist care models varied from the design phase to patient volume measurement and to comprehensive quality dashboards. All of these practice models have been successfully funded by affiliated health systems or grants. CONCLUSIONS:The expansion of pharmacist services delivered by clinical faculty has several benefits to affiliated health systems: (1) significant improvements in patient care quality, (2) access to experts in specialty areas, and (3) the dissemination of outcomes with national and international recognition, increasing the visibility of the health system

Detection of SARS Coronavirus in Patients with Suspected SARS

Cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) were investigated for SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) through RNA tests, serologic response, and viral culture. Of 537 specimens from patients in whom SARS was clinically diagnosed, 332 (60%) had SARS-CoV RNA in one or more clinical specimens, compared with 1 (0.3%) of 332 samples from controls. Of 417 patients with clinical SARS from whom paired serum samples were available, 92% had an antibody response. Rates of viral RNA positivity increased progressively and peaked at day 11 after onset of illness. Although viral RNA remained detectable in respiratory secretions and stool and urine specimens for >30 days in some patients, virus could not be cultured after week 3 of illness. Nasopharyngeal aspirates, throat swabs, or sputum samples were the most useful clinical specimens in the first 5 days of illness, but later in the illness viral RNA could be detected more readily in stool specimens