The dangers of neglecting non-financial conflicts of interest in health and medicine

Non-financial interests, and the conflicts of interest that may result from them, are frequently overlooked in biomedicine. This is partly due to the complex and varied nature of these interests, and the limited evidence available regarding their prevalence and impact on biomedical research and clinical practice. We suggest that there are no meaningful conceptual distinctions, and few practical differences, between financial and non-financial conflicts of interest, and accordingly, that both require careful consideration. Further, a better understanding of the complexities of non-financial conflicts of interest, and their entanglement with financial conflicts of interest, may assist in the development of a more sophisticated approach to all forms of conflicts of interest.NHMRC Project Grant (APP1059732)

Status, respect and stigma: a qualitative study of non-financial interests in medicine

Conflicts of interest (COI) in health and medicine have been the source of considerable public and professional debate. Much of this debate has focused on financial, rather than non-financial COI, which is a significant lacuna because non-financial COI can be just as influential as financial COI. In an effort to explore the nature and effects of non-financial, as well as financial COI, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 Australian medical professionals regarding their experiences of, and attitudes towards, COI. We found that this group of medical professionals saw non-financial interests—most notably the pursuit of status and respect, and the avoidance of stigma—as potentially conflicting with other important interests (such as patient care).NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (APP1036539

Light scattering from an amplifying medium bounded by a randomly rough surface: A numerical study

We study by numerical simulations the scattering of $s$-polarized light from a rough dielectric film deposited on the planar surface of a semi-infinite perfect conductor. The dielectric film is allowed to be either active or passive, situations that we model by assigning negative and positive values, respectively, to the imaginary part $\epsilon_2$ of the dielectric constant of the film. We study the reflectance ${\cal R}$ and the total scattered energy ${\cal U}$ for the system as functions of both $\epsilon_2$ and the angle of incidence of the light. Furthermore, the positions and widths of the enhanced backscattering and satellite peaks are discussed. It is found that these peaks become narrower and higher when the amplification of the system is increased, and that their widths scale linearly with $\epsilon_2$. The positions of the backscattering peaks are found to be independent of $\epsilon_2$, while we find a weak dependence on this quantity in the positions of the satellite peaks.Comment: Revtex, 9 pages, 9 figure

TB202: Composition and Biomass of Forest Floor Vegetation in Experimentally Acidified Paired Watersheds at the Bear Brook Watershed in Maine

The percentage cover (abundance), frequency of occurrence, biomass, species richness, and species diversity of understory herbs was measured on a paired watershed ecosystem in eastern Maine, USA. This paired watershed site (Bear Brook Watershed in Maine, BBWM) has had the West Bear Brook Watershed treated bi-monthly with granular ammonium sulfate at a rate of 28.8 kg S ha-1 yr-1 and 25.2 kg N ha-1 yr-1 since 1989. East Bear Brook Watershed serves as the reference site. More than 100 plots were randomly located across the two watersheds. The data suggest that there is generally a lower frequency of occurrence of understory plants on the treated watershed. In addition there was a significant difference in species richness with the treated watershed (West Bear) being lower than the reference watershed (East Bear). Biomass measures generally followed this same trend although there were not significant differences detected. These differences reflect treatment effects in light of biogeochemical changes shown to be occurring in other studies due to treatments.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_techbulletin/1007/thumbnail.jp

Beam propagation in a Randomly Inhomogeneous Medium

An integro-differential equation describing the angular distribution of beams is analyzed for a medium with random inhomogeneities. Beams are trapped because inhomogeneities give rise to wave localization at random locations and random times. The expressions obtained for the mean square deviation from the initial direction of beam propagation generalize the "3/2 law".Comment: 4 page

Smoothing effect and delocalization of interacting Bose-Einstein condensates in random potentials

We theoretically investigate the physics of interacting Bose-Einstein condensates at equilibrium in a weak (possibly random) potential. We develop a perturbation approach to derive the condensate wavefunction for an amplitude of the potential smaller than the chemical potential of the condensate and for an arbitrary spatial variation scale of the potential. Applying this theory to disordered potentials, we find in particular that, if the healing length is smaller than the correlation length of the disorder, the condensate assumes a delocalized Thomas-Fermi profile. In the opposite situation where the correlation length is smaller than the healing length, we show that the random potential can be significantly smoothed and, in the meanfield regime, the condensate wavefunction can remain delocalized, even for very small correlation lengths of the disorder.Comment: The word "screening" has been changed to "smoothing" to avoid confusions with other effects discussed in the literature. This does not affect the content of paper, nor the results, nor the physical discussio

Determination of the diffusion constant using phase-sensitive measurements

We apply a pulsed-light interferometer to measure both the intensity and the phase of light that is transmitted through a strongly scattering disordered material. From a single set of measurements we obtain the time-resolved intensity, frequency correlations and statistical phase information simultaneously. We compare several independent techniques of measuring the diffusion constant for diffuse propagation of light. By comparing these independent measurements, we obtain experimental proof of the consistency of the diffusion model and corroborate phase statistics theory.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Statistics of transmission in one-dimensional disordered systems: universal characteristics of states in the fluctuation tails

We numerically study the distribution function of the conductance (transmission) in the one-dimensional tight-binding Anderson and periodic-on-average superlattice models in the region of fluctuation states where single parameter scaling is not valid. We show that the scaling properties of the distribution function depend upon the relation between the system's length $L$ and the length $l_s$ determined by the integral density of states. For long enough systems, $L \gg l_s$, the distribution can still be described within a new scaling approach based upon the ratio of the localization length $l_{loc}$ and $l_s$. In an intermediate interval of the system's length $L$, $l_{loc}\ll L\ll l_s$, the variance of the Lyapunov exponent does not follow the predictions of the central limit theorem and this scaling becomes invalid.Comment: 22 pages, 12 eps figure

Experimental observation of speckle instability in nonlinear disordered media

Temporal fluctuations of the speckle pattern formed upon backscattering of a laser beam from an interface between gold and nonlinear polymer film have been observed as a function of optical power. The instability can be explained by coupling of laser light to surface plasmons and other guided modes, which experience multiple scattering while propagating in the film along the interface. The speckle pattern produced in this process is extremely sensitive to fluctuations of the scattering potential near the interface.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Beyond platitudes: a qualitative study of Australian Aboriginal people's perspectives on biobanking.

BACKGROUND: Biobanks are vital resources for genetics and genomics, and it is broadly recognised that for maximal benefit it is essential that they include samples and data from diverse ancestral groups. The inclusion of First Nations people, in particular, is important to prevent biobanking research from exacerbating existing health inequities, and to ensure that these communities share in the benefits arising from research. AIMS: To explore the perspectives of Australian Aboriginal people whose tissue - or that of their family members - has been stored in the biobank of the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics (NCIG). METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with 42 Aboriginal people from the Titjikala, Galiwinku, Tiwi Islands, Yarrabah, Fitzroy Crossing, Derby, One Arm Point and Mulan communities, as well as a formal discussion with A. Hermes, an Indigenous Community Engagement Coordinator at the NCIG who had conducted the interviews. The interviews and the structured discussion were double coded using a procedure informed by Charmaz's outline of grounded theory analysis and Morse's outline of the cognitive basis of qualitative research. RESULTS: In this article, we report on A. Hermes' interviews with members from the above Aboriginal communities, as well as on her personal views, experiences, and interpretations of the interviews she conducted with other community members. We found that participation in the NCIG biobank raised issues around broken trust, grief and loss, but also - somewhat unexpectedly - was perceived as a source of empowerment, hope and reconnection. CONCLUSIONS: This research reminds us (again) of the need to engage deeply with communities in order to respond appropriately with respect for their cultural values and norms, and to develop culturally relevant policies and processes that enhance the benefits of biobank participation and minimise potential harms