Should all medical research be published? the moral responsibility of medical journal editors

This article reinvigorates a key question in publication ethics: Is there research that it is permissible to conduct but that ought not to be published? The article raises the question in relation to two recent medical studies. It is argued (1) that the publication of these studies may cause significant harm to individuals, (2) that editors of medical journals have a moral responsibility for such harm, (3) that denial of publication is inadequate as an instrument to fulfil this moral responsibility and (4) that internationally acknowledged publication ethics codes should incorporate this aspect of editors’ moral responsibility.</jats:p

Beauvoir i oversættelse: Om at læse Det andet køn på dansk

Simone de Beauvoir:Det andet køn, Bind I. Kendsgerninger og Myter &amp; Bind II. Erfaringer og oplevelser.Gyldendal, 2019, 388 hhv. 608 sider. Pris: 350 kr. Oversat fra fransk af Karen Stougaard Hansen, Svend Johansen og Mette Olesen. Revideret af Claus Clausen

Beginning with the Unlimited: Badiou and Plotinus on What Comes First

The philosophical system of L'être et l'événement is launched with the explicit denial of ‘The One’ as grounding principle, because any philosophy that begins by positing an original unity (whether a unique, absolute being or an atom) will, according to Alain Badiou, inevitably turn out to be nothing but disguised theology. This denial, captured in the formula ”l'un, en effet, n'est pas" (Badiou 1988, 47), constitutes the precursory decision taken by Badiou in order to develop an ontological architecture, which permits pure multiplicity as its base.         Who would be a more obvious counterpart for this announcement than Plotinus, the ultimate thinker of The One? While Badiou is not concerned specifically with reading or criticising neither Plotinus nor Neoplatonism as such, all the necessary aspects that he seeks to escape are present in the latter: The One of the Enneads is a transcendent unity, inaccessible to thought and beyond being. Badiou, on his part, insists that since The One is not, what originally is rather amounts to ‘inconsistent’ multiplicity, the pur multiple. Furthermore, he points to the process of ‘structuring situations’, i.e. arranging utter differentiation into consistent wholes, as the only place for unity: unity is nothing more than the operation of unifying, the compte-pour-un. However, I will argue that our understanding can benefit from subjecting certain schemes in the two authors to reconciliation instead of merely accepting the seeming antagonism. More specifically, I will show that there can be found a decisive resemblance in their perspectives on what comes first

Pre-Embedding Staining of Single Muscle Fibers for Light and Electron Microscopy Studies of Subcellular Organization

Skeletal muscle fibers are large, multinucleated cells which pose a challenge to the morphologist. In the course of studies of the distribution of the glucose transporter GLUT4, in muscle, we have compared different preparative procedures, for both light (LM) and electron microscopy (EM) immunocytochemistry. Here we show that pre-embedding staining of single teased fibers, or of single enzymatically dissociated fibers, has several advantages over the use of sections for observing discrete patterns that extend over long distances in the cells. We report on an optimization study carried out to establish fixation and permeabilization conditions for EM immunogold labeling of the fibers. We find that a simple fixation with depolymerized paraformaldehyde alone, followed by permeabilization with 0.01% saponin, offers the best compromise between the conflicting demands of unhindered tissue penetration and morphology preservation

Narrative journalism as complementary inquiry

Narrative journalism is a method to craft stories worth reading about real people. In this article, we explore the ability of that communicative power to produce insights complementary to those obtainable through traditional qualitative and quantitative research methods. With examples from a study of journalistic narrative as patient involvement in professional rehabilitation, interview data transcribed as stories are analyzed for qualities of heterogeneity, sensibility, transparency, and reflexivity. Building on sociological theories of thinking with stories, writing as inquiry, and public journalism as ethnography, we suggest that narrative journalism as a common practice might unfold dimensions of subjective otherness of the self. Aspiring to unite writing in both transparently confrontational and empathetically dialogic ways, the narrative journalistic method holds a potential to expose dynamics of power within the interview

Photovoltaic OLED Driver for Low-Power Stand-Alone Light-to-Light Systems

Photovoltaic (PV) stand-alone systems need to achieve multiple energy conversion modes. I.e. the energy conversion from PV to a local energy storage as well as energy conversion from the energy storage to the load. This paper documents the practical design considerations for the development of a three-port-converter for this purpose optimized for the specifications for driving an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) panel intended for lighting purposes. By using a three-port-converter, featuring shared components for each conversion mode, the converter reaches 97 % efficiency at 1.8 W during conversion from photovoltaic panel to the battery, and 97 % in the area 1.4 W to 2 W for power delivery to the OLED

Glucagon-Like Peptide 1:A Predictor of Type 2 Diabetes?

Background. The incretin effect is impaired in patients with type 2 diabetes. Aim. To assess the relation between the incretin hormone GLP-1 and the prediabetic subtypes: impaired fasting glucose (IFG), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and the combined IFG/IGT to investigate whether a low GLP-1 response may be a predictor of prediabetes in adults. Method. 298 articles were found using a broad search phrase on the PubMed database and after the assessment of titles and abstracts 19 articles were included. Results and Discussion. Studies assessing i-IFG/IFG and i-IGT/IGT found both increased, unaltered, and reduced GLP-1 levels. Studies assessing IFG/IGT found unaltered or reduced GLP-1 levels. When assessing the five studies with the largest sample size, it clearly suggests a decreased GLP-1 response in IFG/IGT subjects. Several other factors (BMI, glucagon, age, and nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA)), including medications (metformin), may also influence the secretion of GLP-1. Conclusion. This review suggests that the GLP-1 response is a variable in prediabetes possibly due to a varying GLP-1-secreting profile during the development and progression of type 2 diabetes or difference in the measurement technique. Longitudinal prospective studies are needed to assess whether a reduced GLP-1 response is a predictor of diabetes