The Model Physician-Assisted Suicide Act and Jurisprudence of Death

Your State has, let us suppose, a physician in one of its university-affiliated hospitals who is an admirer of Dr. Kevorkian, or a member of the Hemlock Society. The date is a year from now-December 1997. Your State has adopted the Model State Act to Authorize and Regulate Physician-Assisted Suicide (the Act ). You now have an unexpected interest in the effects of the Act. A friend or a relative-your eighteen-year-old daughter or your nineteen-year-old younger brother or your fifty-five-year-old father--has approached a hospital seeking counseling and relief. Concerned about the sort of advice your loved one may receive, and concerned even more deeply about what sort of procedures may be instituted, you pick up a copy of the Act. On a casual perusal, you feel reassured: the Act seems to be addressed to patients in dire straits, and not to cases like that of your daughter, your brother, or your father. Perhaps you are right not to be concerned. But perhaps you are wrong. This Article describes the Act and some of its background and effects in detail, showing that it goes further than at first appears, and comparing it in certain respects to the recently adopted Oregon statute on this subject and to the rights held to be constitutionally protected in recent decisions by the United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Second Circuits

Response to Comment on “Laser Desorption/Ionization Coupled to FTICR Mass Spectrometry for Studies of Natural Organic Matter”

Response to Comment on “Laser Desorption/Ionization Coupled to FTICR Mass Spectrometry for Studies of Natural Organic Matter

Nurses at risk for occupationally acquired blood-borne virus infection at a South African academic hospital

Aim. We aimed to ascertain if there had been any improvement in thenumber of nurses being immunised against hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in a large academic hospital in which, 10 years previously,only 30.6% of the nurses were immune to infection with the virus,and to ascertain the incidence of infection with hepatitis C virus(HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in these nurses.Methods. We studied 170 predominantly black nurses.Their blood was tested for the presence of active or past HBVinfection using appropriate immunoassays, HCV infection bychromatographic immunoassays confirmed by polymerase chainreaction assays, and HIV using a rapid test confirmed by enzymelinkedimmunosorbent assays.Results. Serum of 89 (52.4%) nurses was positive for hepatitisB surface antibody (anti-HBs). Of these nurses 18 said that theyhad not received the vaccine; the serum of 9 of these was positivefor anti-hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) as well as anti-HBs,indicating natural infection with the virus. Of the nurses positivefor anti-HBs, 89 were tested for anti-HBc; 28.2% tested positive foranti-HBc. Three nurses gave dates of immunisation that fell outsideof their nursing careers; 3 (1.8%) were actively infected with thevirus; 2 (1.8%) were infected with HCV; 10 nurses (5.9%) werepositive for HIV.Conclusion. Nurses at this academic hospital remain at high riskof work-related HBV infection

Laser desorption/ionization coupled to FT-ICR mass spectrometry for studies of natural organic matter

Laser desorption/ionization (LDI) was investigated as an ionization method for Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR MS) studies of natural organic matter (NOM). Using International Humic Substances Society standards, Suwannee River fulvic acid (SRFA) and Suwannee River natural organic matter (SRNOM), LDI was found to ionize a very similar set of compounds (>90% of molecular formulas identity) to the matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), while producing higher quality spectra. A comparison of electrospray ionization (ESI) and LDI spectra showed that different types of compounds are ionized by these methods with only 9.9% of molecular formulas common to both. The compounds ionized by LDI/MALDI belong to low oxygen classes (maximum number of species for O7–O9), while ESI compounds belong to higher oxygen classes (maximum number of species for O14–O16). Compounds ionized by LDI can be classified as aliphatic, aromatic, and condensed aromatics in approximately equal measure, while aliphatic compounds dominated the ESI spectra of SRFA. In order to maximize the coverage of molecular species, LDI, as a particularly convenient and readily deployable ionization method, should be used routinely in combination with other ionization methods, such as ESI, for FTICR MS studies of NOM

Screening of biocatalysts for synthesis of the Wieland-Miescher ketone.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedLipases, a versatile class of biocatalysts, have been shown to function in non-aqueous media/organic solvents and to possess “promiscuous� catalytic activity for a wide range of organic transformations. In this study, we explored the biocatalytic properties of a library of commercially available lipases by screening them for catalysis of a one-pot synthesis of Wieland–Miescher ketone, an important intermediate in the synthesis of biologically active compounds such as steroids and terpenoids, from methyl vinyl ketone and 2-methyl-1,3-cyclohexanedione. As a direct outgrowth of this screen, we created an optimized procedure for Wieland–Miescher ketone (WMK) synthesis using crude lipase preparations, characterizing both reaction yield and enantiomeric excess. We also identified principal components of the crude lipase mixture through proteomics and present evidence for a non-lipolytic origin of the observed catalysis. Finally, using the optimized conditions developed in this study, we propose a general absorbance-based screening methodology for assessing biocatalytic potential of crude enzyme preparations for synthesis of WMK.ECU Open Access Publishing Support Fun

Nurses at risk for occupationally acquired blood-borne virus infection at a South African academic hospital

Aim. We aimed to ascertain if there had been any improvement in the number of nurses being immunised against hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in a large academic hospital in which, 10 years previously, only 30.6% of the nurses were immune to infection with the virus, and to ascertain the incidence of infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in these nurses. Methods. We studied 170 predominantly black nurses. Their blood was tested for the presence of active or past HBV infection using appropriate immunoassays, HCV infection by chromatographic immunoassays confirmed by polymerase chain reaction assays, and HIV using a rapid test confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results. Serum of 89 (52.4%) nurses was positive for hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs). Of these nurses 18 said that they had not received the vaccine; the serum of 9 of these was positive for anti-hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) as well as anti-HBs, indicating natural infection with the virus. Of the nurses positive for anti-HBs, 89 were tested for anti-HBc; 28.2% tested positive for anti-HBc. Three nurses gave dates of immunisation that fell outside of their nursing careers; 3 (1.8%) were actively infected with the virus; 2 (1.8%) were infected with HCV; 10 nurses (5.9%) were positive for HIV. Conclusion. Nurses at this academic hospital remain at high risk of work-related HBV infection

From Emergence to Eradication: The Epidemiology of Poliomyelitis Deconstructed

Poliomyelitis has appeared in epidemic form, become endemic on a global scale, and been reduced to near-elimination, all within the span of documented medical history. Epidemics of the disease appeared in the late 19th century in many European countries and North America, following which polio became a global disease with annual epidemics. During the period of its epidemicity, 1900–1950, the age distribution of poliomyelitis cases increased gradually. Beginning in 1955, the creation of poliovirus vaccines led to a stepwise reduction in poliomyelitis, culminating in the unpredicted elimination of wild polioviruses in the United States by 1972. Global expansion of polio immunization resulted in a reduction of paralytic disease from an estimated annual prevaccine level of at least 600,000 cases to fewer than 1,000 cases in 2000. Indigenous wild type 2 poliovirus was eradicated in 1999, but unbroken localized circulation of poliovirus types 1 and 3 continues in 4 countries in Asia and Africa. Current challenges to the final eradication of paralytic poliomyelitis include the continued transmission of wild polioviruses in endemic reservoirs, reinfection of polio-free areas, outbreaks due to circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses, and persistent excretion of vaccine-derived poliovirus by a few vaccinees with B-cell immunodeficiencies. Beyond the current efforts to eradicate the last remaining wild polioviruses, global eradication efforts must safely navigate through an unprecedented series of endgame challenges to assure the permanent cessation of all human poliovirus infections