The pleasures and perils of inheritance

Facing death, reflecting on one’s legacies (material and ethical, personal and political) and the legal and interpersonal attempts to resolve or prevent inheritance conflicts, all bring to the fore constructions of memory and identity, intergenerational relations, and the complexities of doing and undoing family and kinship. Consequently, drawing attention to inheritance, keeping sight of it, and bringing it into play is a useful piece of the puzzle of ageing across a range of disciplines and this article provides an overview of some of the key themes in this emerging field

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals

Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in the Boston area highlights the role of recurrent importation and superspreading events [preprint]

SARS-CoV-2 has caused a severe, ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 in Massachusetts with 111,070 confirmed cases and 8,433 deaths as of August 1, 2020. To investigate the introduction, spread, and epidemiology of COVID-19 in the Boston area, we sequenced and analyzed 772 complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes from the region, including nearly all confirmed cases within the first week of the epidemic and hundreds of cases from major outbreaks at a conference, a nursing facility, and among homeless shelter guests and staff. The data reveal over 80 introductions into the Boston area, predominantly from elsewhere in the United States and Europe. We studied two superspreading events covered by the data, events that led to very different outcomes because of the timing and populations involved. One produced rapid spread in a vulnerable population but little onward transmission, while the other was a major contributor to sustained community transmission, including outbreaks in homeless populations, and was exported to several other domestic and international sites. The same two events differed significantly in the number of new mutations seen, raising the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 superspreading might encompass disparate transmission dynamics. Our results highlight the failure of measures to prevent importation into MA early in the outbreak, underscore the role of superspreading in amplifying an outbreak in a major urban area, and lay a foundation for contact tracing informed by genetic data

A Natural Experiment on Innovation Without Patents

Innovation occurs within a complex web of law. Of the myriad legal doctrines that affect innovation, the most directly relevant is intellectual property, particularly patent law. The United States Constitution, in Article I, Section 8, states a strong public policy goal for the granting of patents (and copyrights) to inventors: “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Despite the Founding Fathers’ apparent faith in the societal benefits afforded by patent protection, a crescendo of recent critics have accused the patent system of complicating, slowing, or even thwarting innovation. Patents certainly present significant hurdles for open and user innovation. Moreover, von Hippel (2005) and Strandburg (2008) have demonstrated that user innovators, especially individuals, tend to be poorly served, and often harmed, by the patent system

COVID-19 travel restrictions and the International Health Regulations – Call for an open debate on easing of travel restrictions

CITATION: Petersen, E. et al. 2020. COVID-19 travel restrictions and the International Health Regulations : call for an open debate on easing of travel restrictions. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 94:88–90, doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2020.04.029.The original publication is available at https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-infectious-diseasesENGLISH ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has caused national governments worldwide to mandate several generic infection control measures such as physical distancing, self-isolation, and closure of non-essential shops, restaurants schools, among others. Some models suggest physical distancing would have to persist for 3 months to mitigate the peak effects on health systems and could be required on an intermittent basis for 12 to 18 months (Flaxman et al., 2020).Publisher's versio

Mycoplasma hominis deep wound infection after neuromuscular scoliosis surgery: the use of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Mycoplasma hominis is a commensal of the genitourinary tract. It mostly causes infections to associated structures of this system; however, occasionally it is a pathogen in nongenitourinary tract infections. Since, M. hominis strains require special growth conditions and cannot be Gram stained, they may be missed or delay diagnosis. This report describes a deep wound infection caused by M. hominis after neuromuscular scoliosis surgery; M. hominis was recovered by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). An awareness of the role of M. hominis as an extragenital pathogen in musculoskeletal infections, especially in neuromuscular scoliosis, being a high-risk group for postoperative wound infection, it is necessary to identify this pathogen. Real-time PCR for postoperative deep wound infection, in patients with a history of genitourinary infections, decreases the delay in diagnosis and treatment. In these cases rapid real-time PCR on deep cultures should be considered

Can the outcome of pelvic-floor rehabilitation in patients with fecal incontinence be predicted?

Purpose: Pelvic-floor rehabilitation does not provide the same degree of relief in all fecal incontinent patients. We aimed at studying prospectively the ability of tests to predict the outcome of pelvic-floor rehabilitation in patients with fecal incontinence. Materials and methods: Two hundred fifty consecutive patients (228 women) underwent medical history and a standardized series of tests, including physical examination, anal manometry, pudendal nerve latency testing, anal sensitivity testing, rectal capacity measurement, defecography, endoanal sonography, and endoanal magnetic resonance imaging. Subsequently, patients were referred for pelvic-floor rehabilitation. Outcome of pelvic-floor rehabilitation was quantified by the Vaizey incontinence score. Linear regression analyses were used to identify candidate predictors and to construct a multivariable prediction model for the posttreatment Vaizey score. Results: After pelvic-floor rehabilitation, the mean baseline Vaizey score (18, SD±3) was reduced with 3.2 points (p<0.001). In addition to the baseline Vaizey score, three elements from medical history were significantly associated with the posttreatment Vaizey score (presence of passive incontinence, thin stool consistency, primary repair of a rupture after vaginal delivery at childbed) (R2, 0.18). Th