Background Intensive and critical care nurses need to demonstrate ethical sensitivity especially in recognizing and dealing with ethical dilemmas particularly as they often care for patients living with life-threatening conditions. Theories suggest that there is a convergence between nurses’ empathy and ethical sensitivity. Evidence in the literature indicates that nurses’ emotional, demographic, and work characteristics are associated with their level of empathy and ethical sensitivity. Aim To investigate the relationship between nurses’ empathy and ethical sensitivity, considering their emotional states (depression, (...) anxiety, and stress), demographic and work characteristics, and test an empirical model describing potential predictors of empathy (as a mediator) and ethical sensitivity using path analysis. Research design Using a cross-sectional design, the philosophical theory of care ethics and empathy was extended and adopted as a conceptual framework for this study and tested by path analysis. Participants and research context Data were collected from 347 intensive care nurses recruited by ten educational-medical hospitals in Iran using a questionnaire between February and March 2021. Ethical considerations The study was reviewed by the Ethical Advisory Board in Iran and conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki. Findings Study participants demonstrated a mild level of stress, anxiety, and depression, alongside a relatively high level of empathy and ethical sensitivity. Nurses with good socioeconomic status had higher empathetic behavior with patients than those with weak status. Nurses aged over 40 who had received ethics training and had higher work experience were associated with higher ethical sensitivity compared to nurses under 20 years of age. Empathy directly affected ethical sensitivity; however, anxiety had an indirect effect on ethical sensitivity through empathy. Among demographic factors, age had a positive direct effect on ethical sensitivity. Conclusions Less anxiety and a high level of empathy contribute to higher levels of ethical sensitivity among intensive and critical care nurses. (shrink)

A team of professionals considers whether a patient in her early 50s is developing Alzheimer’s. The patient is not experiencing the memory symptoms typical of that disease, with so far a few years of sporadic attentional lapses as the predominant cognitive complaint. Her most dramatic symptom is her impression that two versions of her husband live with her. One is her real husband, the other a “fake.” There is no elaborated story about who the fake is or why he is (...) there, and there is little in the way of behavior consistent with the idea. To the patient, there is a vague sense that her husband doesn’t belong in the house, but no clearly articulated... (shrink)

Infant and young child electrophysiology studies have provided information regarding the maturation of face-encoding neural processes. A limitation of previous research is that very few studies have examined face-encoding processes in children 12–48 months of age, a developmental period characterized by rapid changes in the ability to encode facial information. The present study sought to fill this gap in the literature via a longitudinal study examining the maturation of a primary node in the face-encoding network—the left and right fusiform gyrus. (...) Whole-brain magnetoencephalography data were obtained from 25 infants with typical development at 4–12 months, and with follow-up MEG exams every ∼12 months until 3–4 years old. Children were presented with color images of Face stimuli and visual noise images that served as Non-Face stimuli. Using distributed source modeling, left and right face-sensitive FFG evoked waveforms were obtained from each child at each visit, with face-sensitive activity identified via examining the difference between the Non-Face and Face FFG timecourses. Before 24 months of age the face-sensitive FFG M290 response was the dominant response, observed in the left and right FFG ∼250–450 ms post-stimulus. By 3–4 years old, the left and right face-sensitive FFG response occurred at a latency consistent with a face-sensitive M170 response ∼100–250 ms post-stimulus. Face-sensitive left and right FFG peak latencies decreased as a function of age, and with an adult-like FFG latency observed at 3–4 years old. Study findings thus showed face-sensitive FFG maturational changes across the first 4 years of life. Whereas a face-sensitive M290 response was observed under 2 years of age, by 3–4 years old, an adult-like face-sensitive M170 response was observed bilaterally. Future studies evaluating the maturation of face-sensitive FFG activity in infants at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders are of interest, with the present findings suggesting age-specific face-sensitive neural markers of a priori interest. (shrink)

A formulation of relativistic quantum mechanics is presented independent of the theory of Hilbert space and also independent of the hypothesis of spacetime manifold. A hierarchy is established in the nondistributive lattice of physical ensembles, and it is shown that the projections relating different members of the hierarchy form a semigroup. It is shown how to develop a statistical theory based on the definition of a statistical operator. Involutions defined on the matrix representations of the semigroup are interpreted in terms (...) ofCPT conjugations. The theory of particles of spin one-half and systems with higher spin is developed from first principles. Methods are also developed for defining energy, momentum, orbital angular momentum, and weighted spacetime coordinates without reference to a manifold. (shrink)

Long ago, I set out to solve a problem, but something happened along the way: I was diverted by an unexpected observation. Thereafter, the direction of my research was guided at each stage by increasing familiarity with the experimental material and what could be done with it. The result was the birth of therapy with cultured keratinocytes. Subsequent developments soon led to the formation of the company Biosurface Technology (later taken over by the Genzyme Corporation), which provided autologous cultures for (...) burn victims in many parts of the world. Further progress by others led to new therapeutic applications of cultured keratinocytes, such as treatment of an ocular disease and gene therapy. Unfortunately, there have developed serious regulatory problems that are a danger to future progress. As described in this brief history, the initial stages of development of cell therapy for the treatment of human disease were possible only because there was no restraint by committees or governmental regulations. BioEssays 30:897–903, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The diagnosis of schizophrenia causes no end of contention. Controversial for almost as long as it has been classified, schizophrenia has been called "the sacred symbol of psychiatry", "the sublime object of psychiatry", and simply a "scientific delusion". Calls have been made to "reconstruct" schizophrenia, "reconceive" schizophrenia, and simply dispense with the term altogether.Meanwhile, high-profile psychiatrists promote the view that schizophrenia is a brain disease, although neither of these...