Denial of Human Rights: We Must Change the Paradigm of Dementia Care

In far too many instances treatment of persons with dementia has reflected a fundamental denial of basic human rights. At times, these individuals are treated worse than the treatment of animals when the five basic freedoms of animals, described by Pachana in her editorial, are implemented. A number of such examples of dehumanizing (and “de-animalizing”) persons with dementia are presented. A case is made for the position that this is the direct result of the “medicalization” of dementia and “Alzheimer Disease.” This has led to the disenfranchisement of persons with dementia and their caregivers regarding the treatment of dementia, while medical “expertise” has led to a paradigm of learned helplessness while waiting for “the cure.” While the medicalization of dementia has been a financial success in terms of funding failed researcher to find a cure, it has been a catastrophe for the quality of life of persons with dementia and their caregivers. It is time to take control of the treatment of dementia back, and especially to listen to the voices of persons with dementia. It is time to take action NOW – to become disruptive to the current paradigm. The emperor and his cure have no clothes. We deserve better. We must make this change in paradigm our mission, to demand it, and to accept nothing less. Power to the people.     

Use of CO2 to move structures as an aid to percutaneous procedures

By injecting small amounts of CO2 through a needle, one can move bowel or bladder from the intended path of instruments during interventional procedures. The technique worked well in six of seven cases in the pelvis and retroperitoneum; it was not effective in the mediastinum or midabdomen (n = 6).     

外科手术中产生的烟气:仅仅是大量的热空气吗?

外科医生和手术室人员经常接触手术设备产生的烟气,病人也会暴露于烟气中,特别是腹腔镜手术中产生的烟气滞留于腹腔内这一密闭空间并被吸收.这些烟气是一种与香烟烟气相似的毒性物质,然而对这种毒性物质的影响还未引起足够重视.应该采取必要措施尽可能减少手术中烟气的不良影响.     

Core body temperature in the elderly and factors which influence its measurement

Several studies have reported that core body temperature decreases with age and has greater variability in older populations. Furthermore, oral measurement, the most frequently used clinical method for determining fever, may not accurately reflect core body temperature. This study was designed to compare accurate measurements of oral and core body temperatures in a group of 93 healthy subjects, aged 62-96, under controlled conditions. Increasing age, presence of dentures, and type of thermometer were examined to determine if they affect body temperature measurements. Core temperatures did not show a negative relationship with advancing age (r = -0.02) nor did variation in temperatures increase with age. Neither the type of thermometer nor the presence of dentures significantly affected the measurement of temperature.     

Transient occurrence of extrachromosomal DNA of an Arabidopsis thaliana transposon-like element, Tat1.

Analysis of 11 genomic clones containing the S-adenosylmethionine synthetase 1 gene (sam1) of Arabidopsis thaliana revealed the presence of a 431-base-pair (bp) insertion in the 3' end of sam1 in one of these clones. The inserted sequence, called Tat1, shows structural features of a transposon. It is flanked by a 5-bp duplication of the target site DNA and has 13-bp inverted repeats at its termini. Two highly homologous elements situated in a different genomic context were isolated from a genomic library. Genomic Southern analysis indicates that there are at least four copies of Tat1 present in the A. thaliana ecotype Columbia genome. Different hybridization patterns are observed with DNAs derived from different ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana, indicating that the element has moved since the divergence of these ecotypes. In two populations of A. thaliana, linear extrachromosomal Tat1-homologous DNA has been observed. The presented data are consistent with the hypothesis that Tat1 is an active transposable element.