A new test of inheritance, S, is proposed, which uses information from affected as well as unaffected siblings in the fam­ ily. The siblings are analyzed in terms of similarities of haplotypes. The distribution of the proposed S­test is derived under the null hypothesis of random inheritance. Mean and variance are obtained for the distribution. The test is then applied to data sets publ...

This issue of Journal of Medical Ethics features an “Author meets critics” discussion of Michelle Taylor-Sands’ recent book Saviour Siblings. In Saviour Siblings, Taylor-Sands departs from standard approaches to the ethics of selective reproduction that (she argues) usually focus on ‘the individual interests of the child to be born’. Instead she proposes ‘a new relational model for selective re...

CHRONIC LUNG DISEASES such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema are anticipated to become the third most common cause of death by 2030 (30). Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), the chronic lung disease that develops as a consequence of preterm birth, remains the main complication of extreme prematurity (19). The long-term consequences of extreme premature birth on lung gr...

Puerperal fever was common in mid-19(th)-century hospitals and often fatal, with mortality at 10%-35%. Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was a Hungarian gynecologist who is known as a pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics. He is also described as the "savior of mothers"...

Fiber-optic technology can be considered our savior for meeting our ever increasing needs because of it’s potentially limitless capabilities like huge bandwidth, low signal attenuation, minimal power requirement and low cost. DWDM is a technology that enables multiple wavelengths to be multiplexed onto one single fiber thereby creating many virtual fibers each capable of carrying a different si...

OBJECTIVE Screening siblings of index patients with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) has been proposed to identify children who are at risk for renal damage. However, screening siblings for VUR remains controversial. We investigated the prevalence of VUR and renal cortical abnormalities in the sibling population in a large cohort of families with VUR. METHODS Between 1998 and 2012, parents of inde...