Sleepwalking into lock-in? Avoiding wrongs to future people in the governance of solar radiation management research

This paper argues for two ways in which we can avoid the reckless endangerment of future people in the governance of solar radiation management (SRM) research, which could happen through lock-in to SRM deployment from research. SRM research is at an early stage, one at which the mechanisms of lock-in could start to operate. However, lock-in fit to endanger future people could be slowed or stopped through targeted governance. This paper argues that governance of SRM research that does not include provisions to detect, slow, or stop lock-in fails the test of an intergenerationally adequate precautionary principle, and that research governed without these provisions cannot itself be justified as a precaution against the impacts of climate change

False Beliefs About Asylum Seekers to Australia: The Role of Confidence in Such Beliefs, Prejudice, and the Third Person Effect

There has been much controversy about the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia in recent years, with the Australian Government continuing to enforce a very hard-line stance on asylum seekers who arrive to Australia by boat. The present study examined attitudes towards asylum seekers using 164 Australian community members during June 2015 by way of questionnaire. Our primary research question involved how five variables predicted false beliefs about asylum seekers. Specifically, we measured prejudice, the third-person effect, and confidence in the answers given to false beliefs about asylum seekers. Regression results indicated that the main predictors of false beliefs were right-wing political orientation, prejudice, confidence in espousing false beliefs, and the third-person effect (politicians). Furthermore, most of our community participants accepted a large number of false beliefs as being true, with approximately two-thirds of our participants scoring above the midpoint. This reflects similar findings over the last decade or so. Our results indicate that, if one believes in bottom-up change, a more nuanced approach needs to be undertaken with community anti-prejudice interventions

Indications for haematopoietic cell transplantation for haematological diseases, solid tumours and immune disorders: current practice in Europe, 2022

For over two decades, the EBMT has updated recommendations on indications for haematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) practice based on clinical and scientific developments in the field. This is the eighth special EBMT report on the indications for HCT for haematological diseases, solid tumours and immune disorders. Our aim is to provide general guidance on HCT indications according to prevailing clinical practice in EBMT countries and centres. In order to inform patient decisions, these recommendations must be considered in conjunction with the risk of the disease, risk of HCT procedure and non-transplant strategies, including evolving cellular therapies. HCT techniques are constantly evolving and we make no specific recommendations, but encourage harmonisation of practice, where possible, to ensure experience across indications can be meaningfully aggregated via registry outputs. We also recommend working according to JACIE accreditation standards to maintain quality in clinical and laboratory components of practice, including benchmarking of survival outcomes. Since the last edition, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected clinical decision making and activity across indications. Although the full impact of the pandemic is yet to be determined, we recommend that decision making across indications is delivered with ongoing reference to EBMT and national COVID-19 guidance, in accordance with current local conditions

A review of diagnostic and functional imaging in headache

The neuroimaging of headache patients has revolutionised our understanding of the pathophysiology of primary headaches and provided unique insights into these syndromes. Modern imaging studies point, together with the clinical picture, towards a central triggering cause. The early functional imaging work using positron emission tomography shed light on the genesis of some syndromes, and has recently been refined, implying that the observed activation in migraine (brainstem) and in several trigeminal-autonomic headaches (hypothalamic grey) is involved in the pain process in either a permissive or triggering manner rather than simply as a response to first-division nociception per se. Using the advanced method of voxel-based morphometry, it has been suggested that there is a correlation between the brain area activated specifically in acute cluster headache — the posterior hypothalamic grey matter — and an increase in grey matter in the same region. No structural changes have been found for migraine and medication overuse headache, whereas patients with chronic tension-type headache demonstrated a significant grey matter decrease in regions known to be involved in pain processing. Modern neuroimaging thus clearly suggests that most primary headache syndromes are predominantly driven from the brain, activating the trigeminovascular reflex and needing therapeutics that act on both sides: centrally and peripherally