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Vigorous Debate (vigorous + debate)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Medical Sciences33%
Humanities and Social Sciences33%

Selected Abstracts

Regulation of skeletal muscle mitochondrial function: genes to proteins

ACTA PHYSIOLOGICA, Issue 4 2010
I. R. Lanza
Abstract The impact of ageing on mitochondrial function and the deterministic role of mitochondria on senescence continue to be topics of vigorous debate. Many studies report that skeletal muscle mitochondrial content and function are reduced with ageing and metabolic diseases associated with insulin resistance. However, an accumulating body of literature suggests that physical inactivity typical of ageing may be a more important determinant of mitochondrial function than chronological age, per se. Reports of age-related declines in mitochondrial function have spawned a vast body of literature devoted to understanding the underlying mechanisms. These mechanisms include decreased abundance of mtDNA, reduced mRNA levels, as well as decreased synthesis and expression of mitochondrial proteins, ultimately resulting in decreased function of the whole organelle. Effective therapies to prevent, reverse or delay the onset of the aforementioned mitochondrial changes, regardless of their inevitability or precise underlying causes, require an intimate understanding of the processes that regulate mitochondrial biogenesis, which necessitates the coordinated regulation of nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. Herein we review the current thinking on regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis by transcription factors and transcriptional co-activators and the role of hormones and exercise in initiating this process. We review how exercise may help preserve mitochondrial content and functionality across the lifespan, and how physical inactivity is emerging as a major determinant of many age-associated changes at the level of the mitochondrion. We also review evidence that some mitochondrial changes with ageing are independent of exercise or physical activity and appear to be inevitable consequences of old age. [source]

Middle Meningeal Artery Dilatation in Migraine

HEADACHE, Issue 10 2009
Dip MFOS, Elliot Shevel BDS, MB BCh
Objective., To show that migraine pain is not related to dilatation of the dural meningeal arteries. Background., The origin of the pain in migraine has not yet been adequately explained and remains the subject of vigorous debate. Current theories implicate changes in the trigeminovascular system, which is defined as comprising the large intracranial vessels, and in particular, the dural meningeal vessels, the dura mater, and their neural connections. Methods., The anatomical relationships of the dural meningeal arteries to the dura mater and the inner surface of the calvarium are described. Results., The dural meningeal arteries lie in grooves in the inner table of the calvarium, are encased in the unyielding fibrous dura mater, and are consequently unable to dilate. Conclusion., The pain of migraine is not related to dilatation of the dural meningeal arteries. [source]

Health Financing in Singapore: A Case for Systemic Reforms

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2006
Mukul G. Asher
This paper assesses Singapore's healthcare financing arrangements in terms of their efficiency, fairness, and adequacy. Singapore represents an interesting case study because it is perhaps the only high-income, rapidly ageing country to rely on mandatory savings to finance healthcare, thus eschewing extensive risk-pooling arrangements, generally regarded as efficient and equitable. The paper argues that parametric reforms, i.e. relatively minor changes in the parameters of current schemes which preserve the existing philosophy and system design, will not be sufficient to meet healthcare financing objectives. Systemic reforms, which will bring Singapore into the mainstream of health financing arrangements found in the OECD countries, are urgently needed. Their design and timing should be based on good quality, timely and relevant data, and an environment conducive to vigorous debate. [source]

Is child nudity in art ever pornographic?

JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 7-8 2010
Professor David Isaacs
In 2008, police raided an art gallery in Sydney just prior to the opening of an exhibition of photographs by the famous Australian artist and photographer Bill Henson. The images depicted naked 12- and 13-year-old children. The photographs were seized, although later released and Henson was never prosecuted. This prompted vigorous debate about censorship. In this article, a paediatrician and a Fine Arts Honours graduate argue that censorship laws regarding the depiction of children in art are needed but only to protect children from exploitation, not to protect the public from being corrupted by viewing pornographic material. [source]

The individual and "the general situation": The tension barometer and the race problem at the University of Chicago, 1947,1954

JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, Issue 1 2010
Leah N. Gordon
This article explains how social theories that posited white attitudes as the root of racial injustice gained traction in postwar social thought. Examining the production of a "tension barometer," an attitude survey that scholars from the University of Chicago's Committee on Education, Training, and Research in Race Relations created to predict interracial violence, I chart vigorous debate over the nature and causes of racial oppression in the critical postwar decades. Available,and unavailable,social scientific frameworks, activists" interests, and emerging anticommunism, the Committee's history shows, created an environment where individualistic conceptions of the race problem won out, despite critique. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Race, Ethnicity, and Racism in Medical Anthropology, 1977,2002

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2008
Clarence C. Gravlee
Researchers across the health sciences are engaged in a vigorous debate over the role that the concepts of "race" and "ethnicity" play in health research and clinical practice. Here we contribute to that debate by examining how the concepts of race, ethnicity, and racism are used in medical,anthropological research. We present a content analysis of Medical Anthropology and Medical Anthropology Quarterly, based on a systematic random sample of empirical research articles (n =283) published in these journals from 1977 to 2002. We identify both differences and similarities in the use of race, ethnicity, and racism concepts in medical anthropology and neighboring disciplines, and we offer recommendations for ways that medical anthropologists can contribute to the broader debate over racial and ethnic inequalities in health. [source]