Darwin’s hypothesis that all extant life forms are descendants of a last common ancestor cell and diversification of life forms results from gradual mutation plus natural selection represents a mainstream view that has influenced biology and even society for over a century. However, this Darwinian view on life is contradicted by many observations and lacks a plausible physico-chemical explanati...

PURPOSE To describe the observed sequence of withdrawal of eight different forms of life-sustaining treatment and to determine whether aspects of those treatments determine the order of withdrawal. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We observed 211 consecutive patients dying in four midwestern US hospitals from whom at least one of eight specific life-sustaining treatments was or could have been withdrawn....

background: cardiovascular disease (cvd) is one of the leading causes of death in the world. one of its most insidious forms is coronary heart disease (chd) which decreases patient's quality of life. research indicates that psychological factors are interrelated with coronary heart disease patients' quality of life. in the present study, the role of type d personality and emotional intelligence...

BACKGROUND Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) are the first line of defense against pandemic influenza. These interventions dampen virus spread by reducing contact between infected and susceptible persons. Because they curtail essential societal activities, they must be applied judiciously. Optimal control theory is an approach for modeling and balancing competing objectives such as epidemi...

Improving the consent rate for solid organ donation from deceased donors is a key component of strategies in the UK and other countries to increase the availability of organs for transplantation. In the UK, the law is currently clear on what forms consent may take, with the views of the individual expressed previously in life taking priority. Such views may have been expressed prospectively, vi...

The recent death of teenager Jesse Gelsinger in a drug therapy trial has drawn attention to how financial conflicts of interest may compromise patient protection. While research institutions throughout the world have instituted a variety of conflict of interest guidelines, the potential conflicts associated with investigators receiving direct payment from private companies for both the recruitm...

Angela Holder was to give the Grover Powers Memorial Lecture at the weekly Grand Rounds conducted by the Yale Department of Pediatrics on Wednesday, May 27, 2009, but unfortunately, she died one month earlier, on April 22, leaving behind her prepared address, "From Chattel to Consenter: Adolescents and Informed Consent," which she had regarded as the pinnacle of a remarkable career, much of it ...

Pharmaceuticals designed for humans and animals often remain unused for a variety of reasons, ranging from expiration to a patient's non-compliance. These leftover, accumulated drugs represent sub-optimal delivery of health care and the potential for environmentally unsound disposal, which can pose exposure risks for humans and wildlife. A major unknown with respect to drugs as pollutants is wh...