Discussing options between patients and health care professionals in genetic diagnosis: ethical and legal criteria

The specific characteristics of genetic data lead to ethical-legal conflicts in the framework of genetic diagnosis. Several international organisations, including UNESCO and the Council of Europe, have enacted rules referring to the use of genetic information. This paper discusses possible legal and ethical criteria that could be used in genetic testing.     

Evidence that drug flux across synthetic membranes is described by normally distributed permeability coefficients.

Over recent decades, the use of in vitro diffusion cell studies to assess skin permeability has evolved into a major research tool, providing key insights into the relationships between skin, drug and formulation. Sometimes, such studies involve synthetic membranes as this approach can yield useful inferences with respect to drug-skin partitioning and diffusion phenomena. Yet despite the popularity of such studies, it is still not at all known whether typical solute transport across synthetic barriers results in a normal distribution of permeability coefficients or alternatively some type of skewed distribution. The present study aims to shed light on this issue. To this end, five compounds (testosterone, oestradiol, corticosterone, aldosterone and adenosine) exhibiting a broad range of octanol-water partition coefficient values were selected as test penetrants. The protocol involved taking multiple replicate measurements of each drug's passive steady state flux through poly(dimethylsiloxane) membrane. Each penetrant's resultant permeability coefficient database was subjected to a Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test for normality. It was found that the permeability coefficients of all five drugs were distributed in a Gaussian-normal fashion. The theoretical significance and practical impact of these findings are discussed.     

A Spanish version of the Family Assessment Device

Introduction  

This paper presents the results of a study on the psychometric properties of an authorized Spanish version of the McMaster Family Assessment Device, a self-report measure of family functioning.     

The genetic and epigenetic basis of ependymoma

Introduction  

Although ependymoma is the third most common pediatric brain tumor, we know little about the genetic/epigenetic basis of its initiation, maintenance, or progression. This is due in part to the heterogeneity of the disease, as well as the small sample size of the cohorts analyzed in most studies.