In the public interest?

Restrictive patenting and licensing for cell-free fetal DNA testing has serious consequences for technology advances and benefits to public health.     

Parents’ interest in whole-genome sequencing of newborns

PurposeThe aim of this study was to assess parents’ interest in whole-genome sequencing for newborns.MethodsWe conducted a survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,539 parents about their interest in whole-genome sequencing of newborns. Participants were randomly presented with one of two scenarios that differed in the venue of testing: one offered whole-genome sequencing through a state newborn screening program, whereas the other offered whole-genome sequencing in a pediatrician’s office.ResultsOverall interest in having future newborns undergo whole-genome sequencing was generally high among parents. If whole-genome sequencing were offered through a state’s newborn-screening program, 74% of parents were either definitely or somewhat interested in utilizing this technology. If offered in a pediatrician’s office, 70% of parents were either definitely or somewhat interested. Parents in both groups most frequently identified test accuracy and the ability to prevent a child from developing a disease as “very important” in making a decision to have a newborn’s whole genome sequenced.ConclusionThese data may help health departments and children’s health-care providers anticipate parents’ level of interest in genomic screening for newborns. As whole-genome sequencing is integrated into clinical and public health services, these findings may inform the development of educational strategies and outreach messages for parents.Genet Med16 1, 78–84.     

Perceived family climate of black adolescents: A function of parental marital status or perceived conflict?

Real and ideal family climate as perceived by Black lower middle SES adolescents from divorced and intact homes was investigated using the Moos Family Environment Scale. Results revealed that perceived family climate was unrelated to paternal marital status, but significantly related to perceived conflict within the home. High conflict was related to less cohesion, less intellectual-cultural orientation, and less organization than low conflict. Independent of paternal marital status or degree of perceived conflict, adolescents as a group perceived their current family climate as less cohesive, more conflicted, less intellectually oriented and less organized than the ideal family climate.     

The role of the right temporoparietal junction in intersensory conflict: detection or resolution?

The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) is a polysensory cortical area that plays a key role in perception and awareness. Neuroimaging evidence shows activation of rTPJ in intersensory and sensorimotor conflict situations, but it remains unclear whether this activity reflects detection or resolution of such conflicts. To address this question, we manipulated the relationship between touch and vision using the so-called mirror-box illusion. Participants’ hands lay on either side of a mirror, which occluded their left hand and reflected their right hand, but created the illusion that they were looking directly at their left hand. The experimenter simultaneously touched either the middle (D3) or the ring finger (D4) of each hand. Participants judged, which finger was touched on their occluded left hand. The visual stimulus corresponding to the touch on the right hand was therefore either congruent (same finger as touch) or incongruent (different finger from touch) with the task-relevant touch on the left hand. Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was delivered to the rTPJ immediately after touch. Accuracy in localizing the left touch was worse for D4 than for D3, particularly when visual stimulation was incongruent. However, following TMS, accuracy improved selectively for D4 in incongruent trials, suggesting that the effects of the conflicting visual information were reduced. These findings suggest a role of rTPJ in detecting, rather than resolving, intersensory conflict.     

Social psychological factors of interest in lay personality theories: why is ABO blood-typing popular?

We hypothesized that one of the reasons that not a few Japanese are interested in lay personality theories of ABO blood-typing and similar unsupported beliefs on human nature, was unsatisfied needs of having clear collective and personal identities. To test the hypothesis, we asked 149 married women, 34 to 62 years of age, to describe themselves as in self introduction to strangers, and then separately indicate the degree of interest in lay personality theories. We then counted the number of references to personal/private aspects (an index of personal identity) and the number to social groups whose membership was known to be exclusive and limited (an index of collective one). Results showed that those who were high on both indices were less interested in lay theories than those low on one or both of personal and collective indices.     

Addressing conflicts of interest in the research paper: a societal demand in contemporary science?

In the last decade, dialogue between science and society has found a forum in an increasing number of publications on topics such as public engagement with science and public trust in science. Concerning the latter, issues that include cases of research misconduct, accountability in research, and conflicts of interest (COIs) have shaped global discussions on the communication of science. In the publication setting, the perception that hiding COIs and/or not managing them well may affect public trust in the research record has grown among editors. We conducted a search for editorials addressing COIs between 1989 and 2011, using four major databases: Medline/PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Knowledge. We explored the content of these editorials and the relationship they established between COIs and the public trust in science. Our results demonstrate that the relationship between disclosure of COIs and public trust in science has become a major concern among editors. We, thus, argue that COIs should be discussed more openly and frequently in graduate courses in the sciences, around the globe, not only in biomedical but also in non-biomedical areas. This is a critical issue in contemporary science, as graduate students are the future voices and decision-makers of the research community. Therefore, COIs, especially in the broader context of science and society, merit closer attention from policymakers, researchers, and educators. At times of great expectations for public engagement with science, mishandling of COIs may have undesirable consequences for public engagement with science and confidence in the scientific endeavor.     

Is “conflict adaptation” driven by conflict? Behavioral and EEG evidence for the underappreciated role of congruent trials

Theories of cognitive control argue that response conflict in speeded performance tasks leads to adaptive changes, such that irrelevant information is better ignored on subsequent trials. This study tested whether trial-by-trial changes are driven primarily by conflict on incongruent trials or instead by congruent trials, in which irrelevant and relevant stimulus dimensions match. In a Stroop task including congruent, incongruent, and neutral trials, interference was greater following congruent compared to incongruent and neutral trials, which did not differ. During the intertrial interval, EEG alpha power, an inverse measure of cerebral activation, was significantly lower following congruent than neutral trials, whereas incongruent and neutral trials did not differ. These results imply that trial-by-trial changes in performance may not be driven solely by conflict, but rather by changes in attention triggered by congruent information.     

Public interest or public meddling? Towards an objective framework for the regulation of assisted reproduction technologies

BACKGROUND: Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) bear a heavy regulatory burden in some jurisdictions. This burden constrains patient autonomy and the professional autonomy of doctors and scientists. METHODS: We question why this should be by analyzing the possible public interests in ART regulation under the headings: health, financial, ethico-legal and socio-political. Throughout, we try to identify whether comparable public interest claims are made for other areas of medicine, but accommodated without the requirement for specialized statutory frameworks such as those exemplified in the UK and Victoria (Australia). RESULTS: We identify a small core of public interest concerns that seem to justify some sort of special regulatory structure, but not one as elaborate as those currently in place. We then develop a five-step quality control model, familiar to biomedical practice but novel in the context of legal thinking, to aid development and review of regulatory policy and practice. This model is applied both prospectively to the proposal to record 'by donation' on birth certificates, and retrospectively to the regulation of parental choice about the genetic make-up of offspring in UK and Victorian jurisdictions. CONCLUSIONS: The model provides a useful and robust framework for pin-pointing problems with regulatory regimes, to stimulate empirical research, and to facilitate both the review and development of regulatory policy.     

Children’s appraisals of interparental conflict predict event-related potential components

Interparental conflict and neural correlates of children’s emotion processing were examined. Event-related potential (ERP) data were collected from 87 children (9–11 years old) with stimuli depicting interpersonal anger, happiness, and neutrality. Three ERP components were modulated by child-reported measures of conflict, reflecting a progression from early sensory attention to cognitive control to stimulus categorization. Negative conflict predicted larger N1 and N2 amplitudes on happy than on angry trials. Greater self-blame for conflict predicted larger N2 amplitudes across emotions and larger P3 amplitudes on angry than on neutral or happy trials. Results suggest conflict-related experiences shape processing of interpersonal emotion.     

Does your diagnostic and clinical expertise conflict with your leadership?

Research evidence demonstrates that more and better medical leadership leads to higher quality patient care and improved clinical outcomes. Well-rehearsed challenges facing the leadership of healthcare systems across the world call for the ability to lead through growing complexity. Evidence suggests this requires different competencies to the well-honed skills which make clinicians so valued in managing clinically complicated problems. Those ‘new’ skills can be learned but that requires a shift in culture within the profession and the system as a whole, starting with recognition of the importance of leadership and recognition of the need to support and develop medical leaders. That will require significant investment and ingenuity to incorporate development into already over-full curricula. As most leadership learning is experiential, the bulk of learning must be at the coal-face, not in the classroom and training the trainers would seem to be an inescapable, urgent early step.