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UK Government Supports Moves For Pharma Companies To Communicate Directly With Patients
The UK government would like to allow pharmaceutical companies to provide patients with more information about prescription drugs, according to an article published in Pulse. UK ministers view the European Commission"s proposals positively - these proposals would greatly extend the communication permitted between companies and patients. Currently, European Law limits such communication to patient safety leaflets.
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Viewing Child Porn Not A Risk Factor For Future Sex Offenses
For people without a prior conviction for a hands-on sex offense, the consumption of child pornography alone does not, in itself, seem to represent a risk factor for committing such an offense. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry studied 231 men convicted of consuming child pornography in 2002 and found that only 1% had gone on to commit a hands-on sex offense in the following six years. Drugshop to buy zoloft online and other pills.
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Editorials Respond To Kansas Abortion Provider Tiller's Murder
The following summarizes recent editorials responding to the shooting death of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, who was one of the few physicians in the country providing care for women in need of the procedure later in pregnancy.~ Los Angeles Times: Tiller"s murder "is a reminder that fringe adherents of the "pro-life" movement are willing to desecrate the very value they claim to champion," but "it distorts reality to insinuate that millions of Americans who oppose abortion condone such tactics," a Times editorial states. The editorial continues, "Tiller"s killing shouldn"t be exploited by activists on either side to score political points." According to the Times, "Sadly, Tiller"s assailant is not one of a kind, but neither is he typical of the antiabortion movement," as "[p]rominent pro-life organizations long have condemned violence against abortion providers while working to restrict the late-term abortions for which Tiller was known." The editorial also notes that the murder "was forthrightly condemned by the National Right to Life Committee, Americans United for Life and Kansas" four Catholic bishops." It continues that despite this, "some pro-choice activists are suggesting, overtly or subtly, that the responsibility for Tiller"s death is shared by the broader pro-life movement," and the "implication is that the mainstream pro-life movement has to be nudged into opposing violence." According to the Times, "Some "arguments" are thinly veiled incitements to violence against individuals and should be punished for the crimes they are," but "the basic premise of the antiabortion movement -- that a fetus is a person -- is by definition a "dehumanization" of abortion providers, even if it"s expressed in decorous language." The editorial states, "The militancy of some pro-life groups constitutes an alarming assault on a constitutionally protected right, but the answer is not to limit expression." It concludes, "It"s unfair to ask antiabortion activists to muffle their message because it might inspire an unbalanced individual to commit an atrocity" (Los Angeles Times, 6/2).~ New York Times: Tiller"s killing "was a reprehensible act of domestic terrorism directed toward the dwindling cadre of physicians who risk their safety to perform legal medical procedures," a Times editorial states. The editorial continues that for Tiller "and physicians like him, the threatening protests and incidents of violence and harassment never really stopped." According to the Times, "For his principled devotion to women"s health and constitutionally protected rights, [Tiller] was the target of protests at his clinic, his house and his church," all of which forced him "to fend off trumped up legal challenges aimed at shutting down his operations." Although U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the U.S. Marshal Service will begin providing protection to certain abortion clinics and doctors, he should "consider taking the additional step of revitalizing the National Task Force on Violence against Health Care Providers that former Attorney General Janet Reno established during the Clinton years," the editorial continues. According to the Times, "There must be a sustained focus by federal and state officials to prevent further acts of violence and intimidation," and "[i]f it turns out that additional laws are needed, Congress should take action." The editorial concludes, "Over time, the combination of anti-choice restrictions and ongoing harassment by protest groups even short of violence have served to make abortions harder and harder to obtain. That trend must be stopped" (New York Times, 6/2).
Endocrinology

Proteomics: Finding The Key Ingredients Of Disease

The winner of the chilli cook-off, usually has a key secret ingredient, which is hard to identify. Similarly, many diseases have crucial proteins, which change the dynamics of cells from benign to deadly. New findings from an international collaboration, involving McGill University, the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) just made identifying these changes one step easier. Their findings published in Nature Methods, show how to improve protein analysis to tease out relevant potential disease-causing molecules. "Proteomics is the field that singles out the few significant proteins from the hundreds that may be present in a diagnostic sample," says co-author and recent new recruit of the Research Institute of the MUHC and of McGill Unversity, Dr. Tommy Nilsson. "It is important to associate the correct proteins with the correct condition. This process is incredibly complex. The aim of our study was to benchmark current analysis techniques worldwide and to identify potential bottlenecks." Putting them to the test Twenty-seven labs worldwide were sent a standard sample of proteins to analyse using their usual techniques. Only seven of the 27 participating labs were accurate in detecting all the proteins and in the more challenging part of the study, only one lab succeeded. However, further analysis of their raw data, showed that all the proteins had been initially detected by all the labs involved but they had been rejected in later analyses. "Our centralized analysis showed us the problems encountered while conducting this type of testing," says Dr. John Bergeron, senior author from McGill University and HUPO. "We found that a major contributing factor to erroneous reporting is at the database level. We expect once databases and search engines improve, the accuracy of reporting will as well." Importance of proteomics The goal of proteomics is to characterise all the proteins that are encoded from human DNA, similar to how all genes were identified as a result of the Human Genome Project. It is expected that proteomics will accelerate the identification of cause of many human diseases and that improved diagnosis and therapy will emerge using proteomic techniques. "The new technology described in our paper will potentially enable clinicians to determine the causes of disease," adds Dr. Bergeron. Funding This study was funded through grants the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Genome Quebec and McGill University. Dr Tommy Nilsson Dr Tommy Nilsson is the Director of Proteomics and Systems Medicine at the Research Institute of the MUHC and Professor of Endocrinology and metabolism at McGill University. Dr John Bergeron Dr John Bergeron is the McGill chair of the Anatomy and Cell Biology Department, and a member of HUPO. Partners "HUPO test sample study reveals common problems in mass spectrometry-based proteomics", was authored by Alexander Bell (McGill University), Eric Deutsch (Research Institute, MUHC), Catherine Au (McGill University), Robert Kearney (CODA Genomics), Ron Beavis (BioGrammatics), Salvatore Sechi (NIDDK (NIH)), Tommy Nilsson (Research Institute, MUHC0, John Bergeron (McGill University) and the HUPO Test Sample Working Group. This release is available in French. Isabelle Kling McGill University Health Centre


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