Enteric-Coated Fenoprofen in Large-Joint Osteoarthritis

Enteric-coated fenoprofen was compared with standard fenoprofen (Nalfon, Dista, Indianapolis, IN) in a randomized, double-blind, parallel, three-month trial of 113 outpatients (mean age, 64 years) with large-joint osteoarthritis. A previous study showed that enteric coating of fenoprofen reduces gastrointestinal microbleeding and may offer a safety advantage. Both treatments provided statistically significant improvement in pain measures (tenderness on pressure, pain at rest, pain with weight-bearing activity, and pain on passive motion). Adverse experiences were similar with both treatments and of an expected type, severity, and incidence for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Enteric-coated fenoprofen was found to be as effective and safe as standard fenoprofen for large-joint osteoarthritis

Response to issues on GM agriculture in Africa: Are transgenic crops safe?

The controversies surrounding transgenic crops, often called Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), call for a need to raise the level of public awareness of Genetic Modification (GM) technology in Africa. This should be accomplished by educating the public about the potential benefits and risks that may be associated with this new technology. In the last 15 years, GM crop producing countries have benefited from adoption of this new technology in the form of improved crop productivity, food security, and quality of life. The increased income to resource-poor farmers is a key benefit at the individual level especially as most countries using this technology are in the developing world, including three African countries (South Africa, Burkina Faso and Egypt). Despite clear benefits to countries and farmers who grow GMOs, many people are concerned about suspected potential risks associated with GMOs. This sparks debate as to whether GM technology should be adopted or not. Given the concerns regarding the safety of GMO products, thorough scientific investigation of safe application of GMOs is required. The objective of this paper is to respond to the issues of GM agriculture in Africa and some of the issues surrounding the adoption of GM crops between developed and developing countries. In this article, I analyse relevant papers relating to the adoption of GM technology particularly in developing countries including the few African countries that have adopted GM crops. The issues discussed span a wide range including: safety; potential benefits and risks; disputes between the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) over adoption of GM crops with a focus on Africa continent. This article is concluded by summarising the issues raised and how GM technology can be adopted for agricultural development in Africa

Institutional Collaboration in Plastic Surgery Research: A Solution to Resource Limitations

Background: The current climate of health care reform and research funding restrictions presents new challenges for academic plastic surgery. Collaboration with private enterprise has been associated with greater research productivity in the general biomedical literature. This study seeks to analyze publication trends in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (PRS) to evaluate any changes in institutional collaboration over time. Methods: Bibliographic data were retrospectively analyzed for all original research and discussion articles published in PRS from 2012 to 2016. The institutional affiliation for each publication was characterized from its author list as solely academic, private, government, or combinations of these (defined here as "institutional collaborations"). Annual National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding data were also collected over the same period, and associations were analyzed by linear regression. Results: In total, 2,595 publications were retrieved from PRS between 2012 and 2016, of which 2,027 (78.1%) originated solely from academic institutions and 411 (15.8%) from institutional collaborations. Although the proportion of academiconly publications decreased from 82% to 74%, the proportion of institutional collaborations increased from 10% to 20% (P = 0.038). Concurrently, NIH funding declined from $33.4 billion to a low of$30.7 billion, which was associated with the decreasing proportion of academic-only publications (P = 0.025) and increasing proportion of institutional collaborations (P = 0.0053). Conclusions: Traditional sources of academic research funding have been restricted during the politically and financially tumultuous recent years. With no signs of improving access to financial resources from the NIH, academic plastic surgeons may consider diversifying their institutional partnerships to continue pioneering advances in the field

Solid‐phase synthesis of the aged‐nonapeptide‐nerve‐agent adduct of butyrylcholinesterase as reference materials for analytical verification

Two pathways were developed and investigated for the synthesis of the ‘aged’- nonapeptide nerve-agent bioadduct of human butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). Considering the fast ageing of nerve-agent adducts of BuChE in patients and biomedical samples this target molecule is of paramount relevance for quantitative analysis with respect to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Two approaches using a precursor bearing a hydroxyl on its phosphonyl moiety and a benzyl protected precursor were considered. Several impurities were identified and circumvented during the optimization of the peptide synthesis step. The ‘aged’-nonapeptide adduct was successfully synthesized by solid-phase-peptide-synthesis (SPPS)

The effectiveness of counter-terrorism strategies

Since September 11th, there have been massive increases in personal, commercial, and governmental expenditures on anti-terrorism strategies, as well as a proliferation of programs designed to fight terrorism. These increases in spending and program development have focused attention on the most significant and central policy question related to these interventions: Do these programs work? To explore research evidence regarding this question, we conducted a Campbell systematic review on counter-terrorism strategies to determine the scope and strength of evaluation research in this area. In the course of our review, we discovered that there is an almost complete absence of evaluation research on counter-terrorism strategies. From over 20,000 studies we located on terrorism, we found only seven which contained moderately rigorous evaluations of counterterrorism programs. We conclude that there is little scientific knowledge about the effectiveness of most counter-terrorism interventions. Further, from the evidence we were able to locate, it appears that some evaluated interventions either didn’t work or sometimes increased the likelihood of terrorism and terrorism-related harm. The findings of this review dramatically emphasize the need for government leaders, policy makers, researchers, and funding agencies to include and insist on evaluations of the effectiveness of these programs in their agendas. These agendas would include identifying ways to overcome methodological and data challenges often associated with terrorism research, increasing funding to evaluate existing programs through methodologically rigorous evaluation designs, and paying attention to existing evaluations of programs when implementing them. Further, programs should be assessed to establish if they cause more harm than good or if they create unanticipated consequences