The impersonalizing role passive voice plays in scientific discourse is well known. Analysis of the Methods sections of nine medical research articles shows that metonymy is another frequent strategy used to create anonymous authors/agents. Discourse agents were categorized into four semantic domains: familial lay, nonfamilial lay, authorial…

Aside from the appeal to administrators as a tool to reduce costs by combining less robust departments with heftier relations, interdisciplinarity is a powerful idea because it implies that different branches of knowledge can benefit from talking to one another: a grand, unified theory of knowledge in which each discipline contributes building…

Background: While clozapine is an effective treatment for refractory schizophrenia, its use is limited by haematological side effects. Treatment options that allow continued prescription of clozapine by tackling these side effects will greatly aid patients for whom this medication is all too often their only hope of recovery. Method: In this case…

Research is conducted in a variety of cultural settings. Ethical standards developed in Europe and the Americas are increasingly applied in these settings, many of which are culturally different from the countries in which these standards originated. To overcome these cultural differences, investigators may be tempted to deviate from ethical…

Introduction: A significant gap exists between science and clinical practice guidelines, on the one hand, and actual clinical practice, on the other. An in-depth understanding of the barriers and incentives contributing to the gap can lead to interventions that effect change toward optimal practice and thus to better care. Methods: A systematic…

This study examined the linkage between elevated blood serotonin in autism and the presence of circulating autoantibodies against the serotonin 5HT receptor. Results showed elevated blood serotonin was not closely related to inhibition of serotonin binding by antibody-rich blood fractions. Data were insufficient to determine whether people with…

The concept of premature discovery in science entails the publication of an important idea which remains uncited for a long period. Thereafter, a deluge of citations of its substance would occur. An overlooked example concerns the discovery in 1963 of how lung cancer cells stimulate the formation of new lymph vessels in man. Subsequently called…

A student's inability to keep pace with the demands of the classroom can produce feelings of inadequacy, performance anxiety, depleted motivation, and even behavioral maladjustment. Too often, schools respond to such students with well-intentioned procedures or guidelines that fail to meet the needs of the thwarted learner. However, in recent…

The reporting, analysis, and management of adverse events (AEs) provide an ongoing assessment of risk in the context of a clinical trial and enhance the protection of human research participants and the informed consent process. Effective and efficient review of AEs has been a long-standing challenge for Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and…

With National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Aging (NIH/NIA) (R15/AREA) funding, the authors offered a four-credit hour undergraduate research course that was cross-listed in gerontology and sociology. This capstone course was aimed at providing students with the opportunity to (1) gain knowledge about diabetes and racial/ethnic…

Discussion of contrast enhancement techniques focuses on the use of histogram equalization with a data compression technique, i.e., tree-structured vector quantization. The enhancement technique of intensity windowing is described, and the use of enhancement techniques for medical images is explained, including adaptive histogram equalization.…

Presents an interim report on work with writer's cramp patients, suggesting that a wider view of this condition is needed. Discusses aspects inherent in the act of writing, and in taught strategies, that influence the attitudes to, and treatment of, this movement disorder. Describes simple practical measures aimed at alleviating the symptoms. (SR)

Using a question-and-answer format, this section addresses questions and concerns about the role of institutional review boards (IRBs) in monitoring the treatment of human participants in evaluation. According to the American Evaluation Associations Guiding Principles for Evaluators, Evaluators should abide by current professional ethics,…