The Effects of Culture and Ethnicity on Cognitive Test Performance: Some Necessary Cautions

Symposium Topic: The Misuse of Psychological Testing in the Courtroom Chair: David L. Shapiro, PhD, Nova Southeastern University Participants: Thomas Kennedy, PhD, Nova Southeastern. University. The Effects of Culture and Ethnicity on Cognitive Test Performance: Some Necessary Cautions Ryan Black, PhD, Nova Southeastern University. Use of Differential Item Analysis in the Validation of Psychological Tests CE Credits: 1. No additional fees to attend CES. There is a one-time fee to claim unlimited CE Session credits. (See page 48 for instructions.

An unexpected diagnosis of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus septic arthritis

Hand infections can result in serious tissue damage and gross functional impairment. This is particularly true in the case of septic arthritis, the most destructive of all joint disease. We report the first case of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus septic arthritis of the distal interphalangeal joint to have occurred in a patient devoid of all risk factors traditionally associated with a hospital-associated infection (HA-MRSA). The afflicted patient's only exposure to the pathogen was during her role as a community carer for an asymptomatic carrier. Delayed treatment allowed the infection to rapidly destroy surrounding soft tissue and necessitate in the need for arthrodesis. It is, therefore imperative that clinicians maintain a low index of suspicion for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as the causative pathogen in similar cases. Consequently, consideration of empirical antibiotic therapy for this patient subgroup is discussed

Who Guards the Guardians? Ian Kennedy, Bioethics and the ‘Ideology of Accountability’ in British Medicine

This article charts the history of bioethics in Britain through the work of the academic lawyer Ian Kennedy. From the late 1970s, Kennedy claimed that external oversight, which he termed ‘bioethics’, was needed to make medicine accountable to patients and the public. I believe these arguments provide a window onto the historical factors that generated the demand for bioethics, and help us determine why it became influential in recent decades. I detail how Kennedy's argument resonated with the Conservative enthusiasm for audit and consumer choice in the 1980s. Contrary to traditional portrayals of bioethics as a critique of medicine, I also show that Kennedy promised it would benefit doctors by improving decision making and maintaining public confidence. This analysis reframes bioethics as an important constituent of the ‘audit society’: fulfilling the neo-liberal demand for oversight and the medical demand for legitimacy

CHK1 inhibition as a strategy for targeting fanconi anemia (FA) DNA repair pathway deficient tumors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>DNA repair deficient tumor cells have been shown to accumulate high levels of DNA damage. Consequently, these cells become hyper-dependent on DNA damage response pathways, including the CHK1-kinase-mediated response. These observations suggest that DNA repair deficient tumors should exhibit increased sensitivity to CHK1 inhibition. Here we offer experimental evidence in support of this hypothesis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using isogenic pairs of cell lines differing only in the Fanconi Anemia (FA) DNA repair pathway, we showed that FA deficient cell lines were hypersensitive to <it>CHK1 </it>silencing by independent siRNAs as well as CHK1 pharmacologic inhibition by Gö6976 and UCN-01. In parallel, an siRNA screen designed to identify gene silencings synthetically lethal with CHK1 inhibition identified genes required for FA pathway function. To confirm these findings <it>in vivo</it>, we demonstrated that whole zebrafish embryos, depleted for <it>FANCD2 </it>by a morpholino approach, were hypersensitive to Gö6976. Silencing of FA genes led to hyper-activation of CHK1 and vice versa. Furthermore, inactivation of CHK1 in FA deficient cell lines caused increased accumulation of DNA strand and chromosomal breakages. These results suggest that the functions subserved by CHK1 and the FA pathway mutually compensate in maintaining genome integrity. As CHK1 inhibition has been under clinical trial in combination with cisplatin, we showed that the FA specific tumoricidal effect of CHK1 inhibition and cisplatin was synergistic.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken together, these results suggest CHK1 inhibition as a strategy for targeting FA deficient tumors.</p