Ethical Allocation of Preexposure HIV Prophylaxis

Civil society-led movements transformed global AIDS action from deep skepticism about extending anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment in low and middle-income countries to an historic scaling up of treatment towards universal access. The AIDS movement, however, is at an inflection point due to the interplay of key health and economic determinants—the global financial downturn, tight foreign aid budgets, and intense resource competition. Policy makers will now have to consider implementation of a new intervention—pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which could mean a diversion of ARVs from treatment to prevention. The principle underlying PrEP is that ARVs could prevent HIV infection among people who are HIV-negative and at high risk. Unlike existing prevention strategies such as voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), condoms, and male circumcision, PrEP is a continuous biomedical intervention. Although it will take several years to fully establish the clinical efficacy of PrEP in varying populations, the encouraging early results from CAPRISA, iPrEx, and CDC 4323 have accelerated global dialogue on its proof of deliverability. The studies encompass diverse populations, including injecting drug users (IDUs), MSM, serodiscordant heterosexual couples, and sex workers. These studies will be completed at different times, raising the question: if a trial demonstrates effectiveness for a given study group, should PrEP be used for others? The ethical issues raised by PrEP are difficult, but not insurmountable. Examining comparative cost-effectiveness, good governance, overcoming access barriers, and ensuring quality improvement would help ensure ethical allocation under circumstances of scarcity

The O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law: Discovering Innovative Solutions for the Most Pressing Health Problems Facing the Nation and the World

The connection between health and an individual’s ability to function in society, as well as the importance of health to a society’s economic, political, and social wellbeing necessitates finding innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing health problems. The O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University seeks to demonstrate the role that academia can play in addressing complex national and global health problems in a comprehensive, evidence-based, intellectually-rigorous, and nonpartisan manner. The O’Neill Institute currently has three research programs: global health law, national health law, and the center for disease prevention and outcomes. Projects within these programs examine a broad range of health law and policy issues, such as global health governance, global tobacco control, health worker migration, emergency preparedness, national and Chinese health reform, HIV and AIDS issues, food safety, and personalized medicine. These projects merge the scholarly capacity within the institute with the resources of its partners, which include the World Health Organization, World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Additionally, the faculty and fellows of the O’Neill Institute regularly produce high-level scholarship and engage in teaching offering multi-disciplinary course offerings and innovative graduate degree programs. URL: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/oneillinstitute/documents/2010-03-09_oneill-solutions.pdf; http://mjlst.umn.edu/uploads/Pf/V1/PfV1QhiCT6lUOsv1AqDTCA/111_gostin.pdf

Child Abuse Reporting: Rethinking Child Protection

The general public has been bewildered by the magnitude of sex abuse cases and the widespread failure by pillars of the community to notify appropriate authorities. The crime of sexually abusing children is punishable in all jurisdictions and this article examines the duty to report suspected cases by individuals in positions of trust over young people, such as in the church or university sports. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) defines child maltreatment as an act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caregiver that results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, and establishes minimum federal standards. Each state has its own definitions of maltreatment and every state identifies persons who are required to report child abuse. As such, state law is highly variable in defining who has a mandatory duty to report, and clergy and other individuals in close supervision of children (e.g., athletic coaches, scout leaders, volunteers in religious programs, and university officials) may necessarily hold such duty. The article outlines why there are strong moral reasons the law should require all adults in close supervision of children to report any individual who they have good reason to believe has abused a child and moreover outlines how to ensure prompt reporting of abuse, while still ensuring that respected individuals are not falsely accused

Is Politeness Catalytic and Contagious? Effects on Participation in Online News Discussions

This study investigates how the politeness strategies of readers who comment on online news articles influence the participation and politeness behaviors of subsequent readers. We analyzed comments and replies collected from a South Korean news aggregator using a computer-mediated discourse analysis approach; the gender of commenters was considered as a potential moderating factor. Results show that the politeness of comments did not affect the frequency of replies, and violations of politeness were prevalent in replies to all types of comments and addressees, especially in threads with mostly male participants. However, significant differences were found in responses to polite comments in male-dominant versus female-dominant discussions. Polite comments served as a catalyst for active participation by repliers, but only when men dominated the discussions, and these comments elicited harsh replies. Conversely, only when women participated more did any replies tend to use polite language, and that was only when addressing the original commenter

Mission design and trajectory analysis for inspection of a host spacecraft by a microsatellite

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-179).The trajectory analysis and mission design for inspection of a host spacecraft by a microsatellite is motivated by the current developments in designing and building prototypes of a microsatellite inspector vehicle. Two different, mission scenarios are covered in this thesis - a host spacecraft in orbit about Earth and in deep space. Some of the key factors that affect the design of an inspection mission are presented and discussed. For the Earth orbiting case, the range of available trajectories - natural and forced - is analyzed using the solution to the Clohessy-Wiltshire (CW) differential equations. Utilizing the natural dynamics for inspection minimizes fuel costs, while still providing excellent opportunities to inspect and image the surface of the host spacecraft. The accessible natural motions are compiled to form a toolset, which may be employed in planning an inspection mission. A baseline mission concept for a microsatellite inspector is presented in this thesis. The mission is composed of four primary modes: deployment mode, global inspection mode, point inspection mode, and disposal mode. Some figures of merit that may be used to rate the success of the inspection mission are also presented.(cont.) A simulation of the baseline mission concept for the Earth orbiting scenario is developed from the trajectory toolset. The hardware simulation is based on the current microinspector hardware developments at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Through the figures of merit, the quality of the inspection mission is shown to be excellent, when the natural dynamics are utilized for trajectory design. The baseline inspection mission is also extended to the deep space case.by Susan C. Kim.S.M

Statistical Workflow for Feature Selection in Human Metabolomics Data.

High-throughput metabolomics investigations, when conducted in large human cohorts, represent a potentially powerful tool for elucidating the biochemical diversity underlying human health and disease. Large-scale metabolomics data sources, generated using either targeted or nontargeted platforms, are becoming more common. Appropriate statistical analysis of these complex high-dimensional data will be critical for extracting meaningful results from such large-scale human metabolomics studies. Therefore, we consider the statistical analytical approaches that have been employed in prior human metabolomics studies. Based on the lessons learned and collective experience to date in the field, we offer a step-by-step framework for pursuing statistical analyses of cohort-based human metabolomics data, with a focus on feature selection. We discuss the range of options and approaches that may be employed at each stage of data management, analysis, and interpretation and offer guidance on the analytical decisions that need to be considered over the course of implementing a data analysis workflow. Certain pervasive analytical challenges facing the field warrant ongoing focused research. Addressing these challenges, particularly those related to analyzing human metabolomics data, will allow for more standardization of as well as advances in how research in the field is practiced. In turn, such major analytical advances will lead to substantial improvements in the overall contributions of human metabolomics investigations

Do echinoderm genomes measure up?

Echinoderm genome sequences are a corpus of useful information about a clade of animals that serve as research models in fields ranging from marine ecology to cell and developmental biology. Genomic information from echinoids has contributed to insights into the gene interactions that drive the developmental process at the molecular level. Such insights often rely heavily on genomic information and the kinds of questions that can be asked thus depend on the quality of the sequence information. Here we describe the history of echinoderm genomic sequence assembly and present details about the quality of the data obtained. All of the sequence information discussed here is posted on the echinoderm information web system, Echinobase.org