Father fails in attempt to stop girlfriend's abortion

The British Court of Appeal turned down an Oxford student's request for an injunction to stop his pregnant former girlfriend from going ahead with a planned abortion. The father's application for a hearing by the House of Lords was then rejected by three law lords. Dyer describes an earlier case, Paton v. British Pregnancy Advisory Service, in which a judge held that a husband had no right to stop his wife from having an abortion. In the current case, however, the Court of Appeal's and law lords' decisions were based on the finding that the fetus was so underdeveloped that it would be unable to breathe either naturally or through a ventilator and was therefore not capable of being born alive. The effect of the Court of Appeals's ruling is to equate the words "capable of being born alive" in the 1929 Infant Life (Preservation) Act with viability, although the meaning of viability has not yet been clearly defined.     

教授对作假行为失查而受处罚

上周 ,英国伦敦帝国大学口腔医学院临床生化系教授ＴｉｍｏｔｈｙＰｅｔｅｒｓ被判定犯有严重的失职罪。他之所以遭到英国国家医学委员会的严厉谴责是因为他指导的一名低年资医师ＡｎｊａｎＢａｎｅｒｊｅｅ发表了一篇捏造的研究报告 ,而他却失于督查和阻止。ＡｎｊａｎＢａｎｅｒｊｅｅ医生现年 4 1岁 ,曾于1988年至 1991年期间在帝国大学医院作低年资医师 ,当时Ｐｅｔｅｒｓ教授是他的科研项目负责人。去年 ,他在《英国医学杂志》(ＢＭＪ 2 0 0 0 ;32 1:14 2 9)上发表了一篇伪造的研究报告 ,经英国国家医学委员会核实 ,认为存在欺骗行为 ,…     

Attenuation of diet-induced atherosclerosis in rabbits with a highly selective 15-lipoxygenase inhibitor lacking significant antioxidant properties

1. 15-Lipoxygenase (15-LO) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis because of its localization in lesions and the many biological activities exhibited by its products. To provide further evidence for a role of 15-LO, the effects of PD 146176 on the development of atherosclerosis in cholesterol-fed rabbits were assessed. This novel drug is a specific inhibitor of the enzyme in vitro and lacks significant non specific antioxidant properties.
2. PD 146176 inhibited rabbit reticulocyte 15-LO through a mixed noncompetitive mode with a K_i of 197 nM. The drug had minimal effects on either copper or 2,2′-azobis(2-amidinopropane)hydrochloride (ABAP) induced oxidation of LDL except at concentrations 2 orders higher than the K_i.
3. Control New Zealand rabbits were fed a high-fat diet containing 0.25% wt./wt. cholesterol; treated animals received inhibitor in this diet (175 mg kg⁻¹, b.i.d.). Plasma concentrations of inhibitor were similar to the estimated K_i (197 nM). During the 12 week study, there were no significant differences in weight gain, haematocrit, plasma total cholesterol concentrations, or distribution of lipoprotein cholesterol.
4. The drug plasma concentrations achieved in vivo did not inhibit low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation in vitro. Furthermore, LDL isolated from PD 146176-treated animals was as susceptible as that from controls to oxidation ex vivo by either copper or ABAP.
5. PD 146176 was very effective in suppressing atherogenesis, especially in the aortic arch where lesion coverage diminished from 15±4 to 0% (P<0.02); esterified cholesterol content was reduced from 2.1±0.7 to 0 μg mg⁻¹ (P<0.02) in this region. Immunostainable lipid-laden macrophages present in aortic intima of control animals were totally absent in the drug-treated group.
6. Results of these studies are consistent with a role for 15-LO in atherogenesis.