Voting behavior of institutionalized mentally retarded.
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PURPOSE: Memory deficits in epileptic patients have been found in some, but not all studies assessing the effects of side of seizures and resection from a temporal lobe on cognitive performance. The purpose of this study was to provide a quantitative review of previous studies on this issue. METHODS: Based on conventional meta-analytic procedures, we identified 33 studies that assessed verbal and nonverbal memory performance before and after anterior temporal lobectomy. The Logical Memory and Visual Reproduction subtests from the Wechsler Memory Scale were used. These studies were then subjected to two levels of analyses: (a) vote-counting procedure, and (b) effect-size calculations and comparisons. RESULTS: Overall, the data confirmed previous findings that verbal memory tasks are sensitive to left hemisphere dysfunction. The efficacy of a "nonverbal" task for tapping function in the nondominant (right) hemisphere was not confirmed, although a trend supporting this speculation was observed. With regard to the comparison of changes in verbal and nonverbal memory before and after resection from a temporal lobe, a clear trend was observed for decline in verbal memory function after resection from the left, especially significant for immediate verbal recall. A trend for contralateral improvement on nonverbal memory also was observed. The pattern of memory change after resection from the right temporal lobe was less clear. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that side of epileptic seizure and surgical resection from a temporal lobe affect verbal memory functions. The relations between the laterality of epileptic seizure, surgical resection from the temporal lobe, and nonverbal memory are to be verified by further research.
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With Governor Dale Bumpers' approval on March 7, Arkansas formally adopted as a state policy the availability of "all medically acceptable contraceptive procedures, supplies and information ... through legally recognized channels to each and every person desirous of the same regardless of sex, race, age, income, number of children, marital status, citizenship or motive (Act 235, Laws 1973)." The new law further declares that the dissemination of contraceptive information in state and county health and welfare departments, in medical facilities, and at institutions of higher learning is consistent with the state's public policy. The newly enacted bill, sponsored by Representative Boyce Alford, specifically gives any persone 18 and older the authority to consent to voluntary sterilization. Persons under 18 may also consent to the operation if they are married. It gives any institution, doctor, or pharmacist the right to refuse to furnish contraceptive information or supplies and it does not require them to refer the patient elsewhere for services. The bill passed the legislature by votes of 62-0 in the House on February 7 and 26-1 in the Senate on February 20.
INTRODUCTION: Politically motivated violence around elections in Zimbabwe has been documented before. A fact-finding mission was planned and undertaken two months ahead of the presidential election March 2002. METHODOLOGY: We interviewed and examined persons who alleged exposure to politically motivated torture, ill treatment and other human rights abuses. We assessed the validity of individual statements of torture and ill treatment and assessed existing similarities between histories of individual interviewees, e.g., as to timing of the assault and use of torture instruments to further appraise the validity. We analysed the results of our findings in relation to a newly introduced law restricting civil rights, and to the experiences of disrespect for the rule of law in Zimbabwe. RESULTS: Four men gave accounts of being beaten systematically with barbed wire and electrical cable all over their bodies. The clinical findings were in complete agreement herewith and their histories were mutually consistent. In ten additional interviews, we collected evidence of killing, ill treatment and harassment including robbing of ID cards from torture victims. Apart from losing their vote in the forthcoming election, according to the new law, victims with stolen ID cards will be liable to up to six months imprisonment. According to precedents, perpetrators of election violence and torture can expect impunity. The rule of law and the new law undermines democratic rights and free and fair elections and facilitates election violence including torture. We received statements about interference by the police in the delivery of health care services in hospitals and the new law could impede health professionals in documenting and reporting crimes including torture. CONCLUSION: The rule of law, the law points to the deepest disrespect for democratic and human rights in Zimbabwe. Our findings fit into this pattern. Any election under these conditions cannot be free and fair. Health professionals are hindered in exercising their duties both in terms of offering services and in terms of documentation and surveillance of human rights abuses. The international community should monitor the situation in Zimbabwe and strengthen the sanctions if torture systematically is used against opponents of the government or if the food aid is provided selectively to supporters of the government.
As the showdown over HMO patient protection nears in the House, the managed-care lobby realizes it probably has already lost the key battle over whether patients will have the right to sue their health plans. It's only a matter of how strong the final bill will be. The legislation also presents a dilemma for GOP leaders, who are trying to contain the issue and keep it from becoming campaign fodder.
Health professionals are being impacted by a major reform in 2002. Indeed, after 4 years of dialogues the French parliament has adopted a particularly innovative law of which title "Law in relation to patients rights and to the quality of the Health System" leads us to predict the dimension of the disruptions to come affecting the relation between physicians and patients in its legislative way. This law is directly descended from the "Huriet Law"--voted on December the 20th, 1988--outlining the every day process of clinical research. This constitutes a significant challenge to rethink the medical informations we communicate to patients. The low number of oncologists in France is more than ever affected by this law, despite the will of the health professionals. More time spent with patients could only occur should there be increased human resources.
A computer-based classification system has been designed capable of distinguishing patients with depression from normal controls by event-related potential (ERP) signals using the P600 component. Clinical material comprised 25 patients with depression and an equal number of gender and aged-matched healthy controls. All subjects were evaluated by a computerized version of the digit span Wechsler test. EEG activity was recorded and digitized from 15 scalp electrodes (leads). Seventeen features related to the shape of the waveform were generated and were employed in the design of an optimum support vector machine (SVM) classifier at each lead. The outcomes of those SVM classifiers were selected by a majority-vote engine (MVE), which assigned each subject to either the normal or depressive classes. MVE classification accuracy was 94% when using all leads and 92% or 82% when using only the right or left scalp leads, respectively. These findings support the hypothesis that depression is associated with dysfunction of right hemisphere mechanisms mediating the processing of information that assigns a specific response to a specific stimulus, as those mechanisms are reflected by the P600 component of ERPs. Our method may aid the further understanding of the neurophysiology underlying depression, due to its potentiality to integrate theories of depression and psychophysiology.
Should we set any limits on patenting? More specifically, must we set any limits on patenting in the field of biotechnology? There should be general agreement on the exclusion of humans from patentability. The European Parliament voted unanimously on an amendment to the Community Directive regarding patenting stating that the human body and its parts are not patentable as such. Patenting of humans indeed would be against fundamental human rights; against the shared principles of freedom, autonomy, and dignity of each single human being. The same reasons apply to requests to reject the "commercialization of the human body." However, much more difficult is reaching a consensus on what are the parts of humans that should not be marketed--organs, tissues, cells, genes, smaller DNA fragments? Probably there is no consensus on where to draw the line when we deal with parts of the human body. Nevertheless, an ethical component is very strong in raising opposition to patenting human DNA. Whatever our personal view on the issue, we cannot deny that ethical aspects must be considered in granting patents on human DNA. With reference to animals, the fears raised are that the patenting of transgenic animals could amplify the instrumental use (reification) and the neglect of their sentient nonobjectual nature: patenting could motivate, instead, the tendency to consider animals as the standard of things invented and as new consumer products. Moreover, animal patenting increases production and thus brings about the great suffering of animals. In regard to plants, the ethical implications of patenting have more to do with their socioeconomic effects, in particular on Third World countries, than for the organisms involved.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Due to persistent misinformation about voter qualifications in Pennsylvania, we looked up the facts on the official state Web site. Other states face similar problems.
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In the 1970s, Paris and many other French cities named streets in honor of Alexis Carrel, the French physician, scientist, and Nobel laureate. Controversy erupted in the 1990s, when Carrel's right-wing political views were espoused by the National Front party. Honors such as street names require not only respected contributions to society, but also high standards of personal conduct. Paris has recently followed the lead of other French cities and has voted to remove Carrel's name from its streets.
In the last 5 years, vaginosonography has become a routine procedure in obstetrics and gynecology. Many obstetricians, gynecologists, radiologists and ultrasonographers have recognized the advantages of this method. Nearly all manufacturers of ultrasound equipment offer several types of vaginal probes. The rapid spread of vaginosonography has also led to some disadvantages concerning the lack of standardized terminology and image display. In this study, we collected data about the current standards of vaginosonography. To obtain data, questionnaires were sent out to the 1107 Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the FIG0 Registry 1985. In the accompanying letter, the chairman was asked to hand over the questionnaire to the appropriate specialist. The questionnaire was designed to gather information about the personnel performing vaginosonography and the techniques, transducer frequency, position of the patient and image display used. A total of 369 responses were received. Vaginosonographic investigations were performed in 84% of the University Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In 90% of these, vaginosonography was performed by the obstetrician or gynecologist, in 4% by the radiologist and in 6% by the technician. Most departments preferred end-firing transducers. The numbers of electronic and mechanical probes were nearly identical (56% vs. 44%). The preferences for a scanner with a narrow (less than 120 degrees ) or wide angle (more than 120 degrees ) were very similar (53% vs. 47%). More than half of the responders (54%) used a transducer frequency of 5 MHz, while 46% preferred scanners with a frequency between 5.5 and 7.5 MHz. In 55%, the gynecological examination table was considered to be superior to a flat table. Of the responders, 52% projected the apex of the vaginal probe to the bottom of the ultrasound monitor. This was particularly the case in Europe (63%). Questioned about a preference for a particular orientation in the future, an additional 7% voted to change to this mode of image display world-wide. When performing a sagittal section, if the probe was projected to the bottom of the screen, dorsally located to the structures were projected twice as often to the left of the screen as to the right.
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The Supreme Court's recent decisions in United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison articulate a vision of federalism under which Congress's regulatory authority under the Commerce Clause is severely limited in favor of returning traditional areas of state concern, particularly criminal law enforcement, to local or state control. The Court's decisions in these cases coincide with ballot initiatives legalizing the medical use of marijuana garnering a majority of the vote in California, Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Maine, and Washington D.C. Those who use marijuana for medical purposes under sanction of state law, however, still face the threat of federal prosecution under the Controlled Substances Act. Medical marijuana proponents have traditionally, and unsuccessfully, contested federal prosecution using individual rights arguments under theories of equal protection or substantive due process. This Comment argues that after Lopez and Morrison, the federal government's authority to regulate intrastate use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is not the foregone conclusion it once was. The author suggests that proponents of medical marijuana use should invoke the federalism arguments of Lopez and Morrison and argue for state legislative independence from the federal government on this issue.
The government-sponsored health system, once looked on as a political asset and certain "vote getter," has now become a financial and political liability as governments struggle to slow down the spiral of increasing costs.