WATCH LIVE: Barbara Bush funeral

Psychiatry Investig. 2018 Apr;15(4):336-343. doi: 10.30773/pi.2017.11.08.2. Epub 2018 Apr 18.

Psychiatric Sequelae of Former "Comfort Women," Survivors of the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery during World War II.

Lee J1, Kwak YS2, Kim YJ3, Kim EJ4, Park EJ5, Shin Y6, Lee BH7, Lee SH8, Jung HY9, Lee I10, Hwang JI10, Kim D10, Lee SI1.

Author information

1

Department of Psychiatry, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Bucheon, Republic of Korea.

2

Department of Psychiatry, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea.

3

Mentor Clinic, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

4

Maumtodac Clinic, Ansan, Republic of Korea.

5

Department of Psychiatry, Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, Incheon, Republic of Korea.

6

Department of Psychiatry, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea.

7

Department of Psychiatry, Seoul Metropolitan Enpyeong Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

8

Department of Psychiatry, National Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

9

Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

10

Korean Women's Development Institute, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

"Comfort women" refers to young women and girls who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese military during World War II. They were abducted from their homes in countries under Imperial Japanese rule, mostly from Korea, and the rest from China, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Netherlands, etc. "Comfort women" endured extreme trauma involving rape, sexual torture, physical abuse, starvation, threats of death, and witnessed many others being tortured and killed. This article reviews all the studies that have investigated the psychiatric or psychosocial sequelae of the survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery. Most importantly, a recent study which conducted a psychiatric evaluation on the former "comfort women" currently alive in South Korea is introduced. The participants' unmarried rate was relatively high and their total fertility rate was relatively low. Majority of the participants reported having no education and being the low economic status. They showed high current and lifetime prevalence of posttraumatic disorder, major depressive disorder, somatic symptom disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and alcohol use disorder. Participants showed high suicidality and majority of the participants still reported being ashamed of being former "comfort women" after all these years. This article high-lights the fact that the trauma has affected the mental health and social functioning of former "comfort women" throughout their lives, and even to the present day.

"...when the night owl tries to live in a morning-lark world..."

Here’s why night owls are likely to die early

New study reveals alarming side-effects of sleep deprivation

"It’s unclear exactly why night owls are more likely to die than the early risers in this time period — and the study only established a correlation between the two, not cause and effect. But the researchers had some ideas.

'We think the problem is really when the night owl tries to live in a morning-lark world,' Knutson said. 'So they want to be up late but they have to be up early for work and so the time that they’re doing things, like waking up or eating, is not at the correct time for them.'

That tension between an evening person’s preferred routine and the routine of their environment also tends to lead to more irregular schedules, she added."

"I was embarrassingly pro-active..." #lcsm

Lung cancer survivor running to spread the word

"I was embarrassingly pro-active," Hollenbeck, 41, can now laugh three years later. 'I kept yelling, "Somebody has got to do something.'""

What is empathy?

ANDREW SCULL

In making moral choices, many would claim that empathy in this sense makes us more likely to care about others and to consider their interests when choosing our own course of action. Siep Stuurman, for instance, in his huge study The Invention of Humanity, sees the emergence of a sense of common humanity, and the widening and deepening of a discourse of human rights, as depending on long processes of cultural change and intellectual argument whereby the deeply ingrained ethnocentrism that was omnipresent at the dawn of history was increasingly modified and left behind, moving towards (though never entirely realizing) a changed mental universe where “people came to see foreigners as fellow human beings or even as equals”.

"Just because politics is mostly a representation of opinions, this does not imply that truth has become irrelevant. Quite the opposite..."

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2018 Apr 19. doi: 10.1002/anie.201802088. [Epub ahead of print]

Thoughts on Chemistry and Scientific Truth in Post-Factual Times.

Schreiner PR1.

Author information

1

Institut für Organische Chemie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, 35392, Giessen, Germany.

Abstract

"… The value and meaning of scientific truth has not been overcome by postmodernism or post-factual tendencies. Just because politics is mostly a representation of opinions, this does not imply that truth has become irrelevant. Quite the opposite, the value of truth is growing in turbulent times and for scientists it constitutes the currency of credibility and accountability …" Read more in the Guest Editorial by Peter R. Schreiner.

Med Clin North Am. 2018 May;102(3):485-493. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2017.12.010.

Communication and Ethics in the Clinical Examination.

Onguti S1, Mathew S2, Todd C2.

Author information

1

Department of Internal Medicine, SIU Medicine, Southern Illinois University, School of Medicine, 801 North Rutledge, PO Box 19628, Springfield, IL 62794-9628, USA. Electronic address: sharon.onguti@gmail.com.

2

Department of Internal Medicine, SIU Medicine, Southern Illinois University, School of Medicine, 801 North Rutledge, PO Box 19628, Springfield, IL 62794-9628, USA.

Abstract

At the heart of every effective patient-physician interaction is a relationship that is built on trust. Cultivating sound communication skills coupled with the awareness and application of ethical principles is integral to this process. One of the foremost challenges in competent practice is negotiating situations that arise at the bedside when such issues as patient autonomy, differing world views, honesty, and cost stewardship come into conflict. It is essential for health care providers to consider how to detect and prioritize these issues as they advocate for high-quality and patient-centered care.

Geroethics

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Bioethics. 2018 May;32(4):261-268. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12445.

Toward a global geroethics - gerontology and the theory of the good human life.

Ehni HJ, Kadi S, Schermer M, Venkatapuram S.

Abstract

Gerontologists have proposed different concepts for ageing well such as 'successful ageing', 'active ageing', and 'healthy ageing'. These conceptions are primarily focused on maintaining health and preventing disease. But they also raise the questions: what is a good life in old age and how can it be achieved? While medical in origin, these concepts and strategies for ageing well also contain ethical advice for individuals and societies on how to act regarding ageing and old age. This connection between gerontology and ethics is overlooked by both schools of thought. We thus develop this research programme for a systematic geroethics in four steps. First, we analyze 'successful ageing' as put forward by Rowe and Kahn as a paradigmatic example of a gerontological conception of ageing well. Then, in a second step, we move from criticisms within gerontology to an ethical perspective; in particular, we want to clarify the problem of the claim of universal validity of conceptions of the good life. In a third constructive step, we explain how the 'capabilities approach' could be applied in this context as a normative foundation for the implicit normative assumptions of gerontological conceptions of ageing well, such as a particular choice of functionings, the ethical relevance of human agency, and the resulting claims of individuals towards society. Finally, using a concept developed by the German philosopher Ursula Wolf, we systematically develop the different aspects of the connection between ageing well and the theory of the good life in their full complexity and show their interconnectedness.

A Detailed Breakdown of Strength Training — and Why You Need to Do It

A Detailed Breakdown of Strength Training — and Why You Need to Do It

"Along with the fact that your body greatly benefits from increasing muscle mass when you strength train, your body also begins to burn more calories. Strength training can include a wide variety of physical activities and sports including weightlifting, push-ups, use of resistance bands, and basically any activity that requires you to use the weight of your body against gravity."

Study: Big belly bad for your heart even if not obese

"Exercise more, decrease sedentary time by taking the stairs or getting off the train one stop early and walking, increase your muscle mass with strength and resistance training, and cut out refined carbohydrates," he advised.

He added that doctors shouldn't assume that people with a normal BMI are not at risk of heart problems.

"Our study provides evidence that doctors should also measure central obesity [belly fat] to get a better picture of whether a patient is at risk," Medina-Inojosa said.

Ashish Saxena (2018) Molecular Testing for Stage IV Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Targetable Mutations Following Disease Progression. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine In-Press.

Early Online Release

Molecular Testing for Stage IV Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Targetable Mutations Following Disease Progression

Ashish Saxena, MD, PhD

From the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology, Thoracic Oncology Service, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York. Dr Saxena has received honoraria and consulting fees from Genentech, Lily Oncology, Clovis Oncology, AstraZeneca, Takeda, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, GfK, and Guardant Health.

"...the updated guidelines from the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) have sought to give guidance on the testing that is indicated for patients with actionable mutations who have relapsed on targeted therapy."

I am a candidate for College of American Pathologists' President-Elect, 2019-2021 term. Quality is a major focus of pathologists. Here are some thoughts on that.

I am a candidate for College of American Pathologists' President-Elect, 2019-2021 term.  My vision is here.

Quality is a major focus of pathologists. Here are some thoughts on that.

Membership Growth. Pathologist Payment.

"Algorithms promise: If you like this, you will get more of it, forever."

Style Is an Algorithm

No one is original anymore, not even you.

By Kyle Chayka  Apr 17, 2018, 10:00am EDT

"Algorithms promise: If you like this, you will get more of it, forever. This experience is leaking from the internet of Google ads for the bag you just bought into the physical world. Look to the artist Jenny Odell’s investigation of “free watch” offers on Instagram for an example. The watches appear, at a minimum, stylish, with small variations on minimalist faces and metal bands. But they are not the result of an enlightened sense of taste, per Pieratt’s definition. The brands that sell them are thin fictions whipped up in Squarespace and the actual products are the result of Alibaba manufacturing and Amazon drop-shipping, in which a product moves directly from manufacturer to consumer having never entered a store. The phantom watches are empty fashion language, objects without content.

Other ways in which our experiences are warped by algorithmic platforms include Spotify possibly commissioning original music from “fake” artists to match the latent content desires of its audience, as Noisey noticed; delivery restaurants that are only virtual, conjuring a digital brand out of a shadowy group kitchen and serving food via Uber Eats; the surreal kids’ YouTube videos, which exist because they are rewarded with views by the feed algorithm and thus earn their creators advertising profit; and the globalized visual vernacular of Airbnb interior decorating, which approximates a certain style emerging from the platform itself. Having analyzed the data from some platform or another, these are things the machine thinks you want, and it can serve them up immediately and infinitely."

"The bottom line for obesity is that we are eating too much of everything, not only sugar."

A sugar tax alone will not reduce obesity

"Related to sugar and calories, an interesting “natural experiment” occurred in Cuba during the 1990s. After the Soviet Union’s collapse, Cubans’ life turned difficult and in the diet the proportion of energy from sugar cane increased. 

Still, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease decreased, because total calories were reduced. The bottom line for obesity is that we are eating too much of everything, not only sugar. Pizzas, fries and salty pastries do not include much sugar, still they can make one obese and their saturated fat increases risk for vascular disease. A sugar tax may be a good start in the prevention of obesity, but on the other hand may give a misguiding signal that shunning sugar corrects everything. Maybe a calorie tax on food items would be a better idea."

1,500 invited to attend funeral of former First Lady Barbara Bush

The list of family, dignitaries and invited guests attending funeral of former First Lady Barbara Bush Saturday is long and distinguished.

Blank & Jones - Glow

Blank & Jones - Glow (Official Video)

Obesity linked with higher chance of developing rapid, irregular heart rate

“When the heart is strained, it can lead to changes in the atrium — the top chambers of the heart — and it’s here where we believe structural abnormalities can precipitate atrial fibrillation,” Foy said. “Patients with obesity tend to have more fibrosis, higher pressures and more fatty infiltration in the top chamber of their hearts, so atrial fibrillation could be related to these types of changes.”

Celebrating Richard Epstein: "It was the greatest compliment—that he was willing to teach and engage us with his incredible mind."

Celebrating Richard Epstein

Colleagues Honor a Prolific Scholar with a Festschrift Conference and a Collection of Tribute Essays

Law School Communications

April 19, 2018

"It was the greatest compliment—that he was willing to teach and engage us with his incredible mind."

HT:MN

"...the concept of healthy obesity is crude and problematic and may best be laid to rest..."

Is There Such a Thing as ‘Healthy Obesity’?

A new research paper states that the term should be retired. Other experts say the assumption obese people are unhealthy causes a variety of problems.

Johnson explains that the term “healthy obesity” is flawed since people who are obese, even those who are “metabolically” healthy, are still at increased risk for a host of health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and overall increased risk of mortality.

“While the concept of healthy obesity is crude and problematic and may best be laid to rest, there is great opportunity for human biological investigation of the levels, causes, and consequences of heterogeneity in health among people with the same BMI,” Johnson said, pointing out people with the same BMI can have different health risks.

Sociol Health Illn. 2018 Apr 16. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12731. [Epub ahead of print]

At, with[,] and beyond risk: expectations of living with the possibility of future dementia.

Milne R1, Diaz A2, Badger S1, Bunnik E3, Fauria K4, Wells K5.

Author information

1

Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, UK.

2

Alzheimer Europe, Luxembourg.

3

Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

4

Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.

5

Imperial College, London, UK.

Abstract

Biomedical research aimed at the development of therapies for chronic and late-onset conditions increasingly concentrates on the early treatment of symptom-less disease. This broad trend is evidenced in prominent shifts in contemporary dementia research. Revised diagnostic criteria and new approaches to clinical trials propose a focus on earlier stages of disease and prompt concerns about the implications of communicating test results associated with the risk of developing dementia when no effective treatments are available. This article examines expectations of the implications of learning test results related to dementia risk, based on focus group research conducted in the UK and Spain. It points to the extended social and temporal aspects of the dementia risk experience. Three key dimensions of this risk experience are elaborated: living 'at risk', represented in efforts to reduce risk and plan for the future; 'with risk', through vigilance towards cognitive health and earlier or prolonged contact with healthcare services; and finally, 'beyond risk' through a cessation of the self in its current social, legal and financial form. A virtual abstract of this paper can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_979cmCmR9rLrKuD7z0ycA.

Link between lack of sleep and obesity in children

"The findings showed that children and adolescents who get less than the recommended amount of sleep for their age are at a higher risk of gaining more weight.

Overall, they were 58 per cent more likely to become overweight or obese — a common risk factor for various cardio-metabolic diseases."

Dave Brubeck's Timeless Take Five

Always fun. 

Dave Brubeck - Take Five

Differences In Muscle Mass May Explain The Obesity Paradox

• The likelihood of having a stroke, heart attack, heart failure or cardiovascular death in overweight middle-aged men 40 to 59 years old was 21 percent higher than in normal weight men. The odds were 32 percent higher in overweight women than normal weight women.

From Liron Pantanowitz and colleagues: Augmented Reality Technology Using Microsoft HoloLens in Anatomic Pathology

Matthew G. Hanna, Ishtiaque Ahmed, Jeffrey Nine, Shyam Prajapati, and Liron Pantanowitz (2018) Augmented Reality Technology Using Microsoft HoloLens in Anatomic Pathology. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine In-Press.

Early Online Release

Augmented Reality Technology Using Microsoft HoloLens in Anatomic Pathology

Matthew G. Hanna, MD;

Ishtiaque Ahmed, BS;

Jeffrey Nine, MD;

Shyam Prajapati, DO;

Liron Pantanowitz, MD

Corresponding author: Liron Pantanowitz, MD, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Shadyside Hospital, Suite 201, 5150 Centre Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 (email: pantanowitzl@upmc.edu).

Context.— Augmented reality (AR) devices such as the Microsoft HoloLens have not been well used in the medical field.

Objective.— To test the HoloLens for clinical and nonclinical applications in pathology.

Design.— A Microsoft HoloLens was tested for virtual annotation during autopsy, viewing 3D gross and microscopic pathology specimens, navigating whole slide images, telepathology, as well as real-time pathology-radiology correlation.

Results.— Pathology residents performing an autopsy wearing the HoloLens were remotely instructed with real-time diagrams, annotations, and voice instruction. 3D-scanned gross pathology specimens could be viewed as holograms and easily manipulated. Telepathology was supported during gross examination and at the time of intraoperative consultation, allowing users to remotely access a pathologist for guidance and to virtually annotate areas of interest on specimens in real-time. The HoloLens permitted radiographs to be coregistered on gross specimens and thereby enhanced locating important pathologic findings. The HoloLens also allowed easy viewing and navigation of whole slide images, using an AR workstation, including multiple coregistered tissue sections facilitating volumetric pathology evaluation.

Conclusions.— The HoloLens is a novel AR tool with multiple clinical and nonclinical applications in pathology. The device was comfortable to wear, easy to use, provided sufficient computing power, and supported high-resolution imaging. It was useful for autopsy, gross and microscopic examination, and ideally suited for digital pathology. Unique applications include remote supervision and annotation, 3D image viewing and manipulation, telepathology in a mixed-reality environment, and real-time pathology-radiology correlation.

"There was a significant risk of dying for every 2 inches increase in the waist even if the person was not overweight."

Studies show connection between excess weight, cancer

A Mayo Clinic study found there was a significant risk of dying for every 2 inches increase in the waist.

"In 2014, the Mayo Clinic reported on studies done on 650,000 white men and women ages 20 to 83. There was a significant risk of dying for every 2 inches increase in the waist even if the person was not overweight."

J.T. Donaldson - New Tempo

J.T. Donaldson - New Tempo 

Front Psychol. 2018 Mar 27;9:418. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00418. eCollection 2018.

The Importance of Protesters' Morals: Moral Obligation as a Key Variable to Understand Collective Action.

Sabucedo JM1, Dono M1, Alzate M1, Seoane G1.

Author information

1

Departamento de Psicoloxía Social, Básica e Metodoloxía, Facultade de Psicoloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Abstract

Collective action and protest have become a normalized political behavior that in many cases defines the political agenda. The reasons why people take to the streets constitute a central subject within the study of social psychology. In the literature, three precedents of protest that have been established as central to the study of this phenomenon are: injustice, efficacy, and identity. But political action is also deeply related to moral values. This explains why in recent years some moral constructs have also been pointed out as predictors of collective action. Moral variables have been introduced into the literature with little consideration to how they relate to each other. Thus, work in this direction is needed. The general aim of this research is to differentiate moral obligation from moral norms and moral conviction, as well as to compare their ability to predict collective action. In order to do so, the research objectives are: (a) conceptualize and operationalize moral obligation (Study 1, N = 171); (b) test its predictive power for intention to participate in protests (Study 2, N = 622); and (c) test moral obligation in a real context (Study 3, N = 407). Results are encouraging, showing not only that moral obligation is different to moral conviction and moral norm, but also that it is a more effective predictor working both for intention and real participation. This work therefore presents moral obligation as a key precedent of protest participation, prompting its future use as a variable that can enhance existing predictive models of collective action. Results regarding other variables are also discussed.

Physicians' political preferences and the delivery of end of life care in the United States

BMJ. 2018 Apr 11;361:k1161. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k1161.

Physicians' political preferences and the delivery of end of life care in the United States: retrospective observational study.

Jena AB1,2,3, Olenski AR4, Khullar D5,6, Bonica A7, Rosenthal H8.

Author information

1

Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA jena@hcp.med.harvard.edu.

2

Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

3

National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, USA.

4

Department of Economics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.

5

Department of Healthcare Policy and Research, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA.

6

Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA.

7

Department of Political Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

8

Department of Politics, New York University, New York, NY, USA.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

To compare the delivery of end of life care given to US Medicare beneficiaries in hospital by internal medicine physicians with Republican versus Democrat political affiliations.

DESIGN:

Retrospective observational study.

SETTING:

US Medicare.

PARTICIPANTS:

Random sample of Medicare beneficiaries, who were admitted to hospital in 2008-12 with a general medical condition, and died in hospital or shortly thereafter.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:

Total inpatient spending, intensive care unit use, and intensive end of life treatments (eg, mechanical ventilation and gastrostomy tube insertion) among patients dying in hospital, and hospice referral among patients discharged but at high predicted risk of 30 day mortality after discharge. Physicians were categorized as Democrat, Republican, or non-donors, using federal political contribution data.

RESULTS:

Among 1 480 808 patients, 93 976 (6.3%) were treated by 1523 Democratic physicians, 58 876 (4.0%) by 768 Republican physicians, and 1 327 956 (89.6%) by 23 627 non-donor physicians. Patient demographics and clinical characteristics were similar between groups. Democrat physicians were younger, more likely to be female, and more likely to have graduated from a top 20 US medical school than Republican physicians. Mean end of life spending, after adjustment for patient covariates and hospital specific fixed effects, was US$17 938 (£12 872; €14 612) among Democrat physicians (95% confidence interval $17 176 to $18 700) and $18 409 among Republican physicians ($17 362 to $19 456; adjusted Republican v Democrat difference, $472 (-$803 to $1747), P=0.47). Intensive end of life treatments for patients who died in hospital did not vary by physician political affiliation. The proportion of patients discharged from hospital to hospice did not vary with physician political affiliation. Among patients in the top 5% of predicted risk of death 30 days after hospital discharge, adjusted proportions of patients discharged to hospice were 15.8%, 15.0%, and 15.2% among Democrat, Republican, and non-donor physicians, respectively (adjusted difference in proportion between Republicans v Democrats, -0.8% (-2.7% to 0.9%), P=0.43).

CONCLUSIONS:

This study provided no evidence that physician political affiliation is associated with the intensity of end of life care received by patients in hospital. Other treatments for politically polarised healthcare issues should be investigated.