The swan song of dying cells

The Journal: A Swan-Song

Swan song for schizophrenia?

A bad wound will heal but a bad name will kill. —Scottish proverb Schizophrenia is a word that frightens people, is replete with stigma, is used pejoratively in daily speech and is ety-mologically absurd. There is now widespread international interest in In this Editorial, we examine the justification for giving up the term and consider strategies for finding an alternative. In a recent article...

Metropolis and Symmetric Functions: A Swan Song

The class of symmetric functions is based on the OneMax function by a subsequent assigning application of a real valued function. In this work we derive a sharp boundary between those problem instances that are solvable in polynomial time by the Metropolis algorithm and those that need at least exponential time. This result is both proven theoretically and illustrated by experimental data. The ...

A dying Swan: FACTT or fiction?

The use of pulmonary artery catheters is under debate yet again. We look at two recent trials evaluating their impact on mortality. Our suspicions regarding obesity are proven and we also look at a simple, cost effective method of reducing ventilator-associated pneumonia. Finally, an intervention to improve the poor outcome associated with out-of hospital cardiac arrests is evaluated. A dying S...

Tamiflu Swan Song?: Building Resistance to Top Avian Flu Drug

As the WHO has begun warning of the potential for an avian flu pandemic, governments worldwide have been stockpiling Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate). Tamiflu minimizes flu symptoms and duration by preventing the virus from escaping the cells it infects. It also reduces the likelihood of spreading the virus. Now British researchers are predicting that heavy use of Tamiflu, as during a pandemic, ...