East-West Dialogues on the Ethics of Sex Robots.

The purpose of this essay is to review and evaluate chapters in Fan and Cherry's Sex Robots: Social Impact and the Future of Human Relations. In this edited volume, the authors of the various chapters present dialogues from the East and West to explore the social and cultural implications of sex robots. They also discuss whether sex robots have a positive, negative, or neutral impact on society and human relationships.

Enhanced Interrogation, Consequential Evaluation, and Human Rights to Health.

Balfe argues against enhanced interrogation. He particularly focuses on the involvement of U.S.

Social Media's Initial Reaction to Information and Misinformation on Ebola, August 2014: Facts and Rumors.

Objective: We analyzed misinformation about Ebola circulating on Twitter and Sina Weibo, the leading Chinese microblog platform, at the outset of the global response to the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic to help public health agencies develop their social media communication strategies.

Methods: We retrieved Twitter and Sina Weibo data created within 24 hours of the World Health Organization announcement of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (Batch 1 from August 8, 2014, 06:50:00 Greenwich Mean Time [GMT] to August 9, 2014, 06:49:59 GMT) and seven days later (Batch 2 from August 15, 2014, 06:50:00 GMT to August 16, 2014, 06:49:59 GMT). We obtained and analyzed a 1% random sample of tweets containing the keyword Ebola.

Global Handwashing Day 2012: a qualitative content analysis of Chinese social media reaction to a health promotion event.

Background: Global Handwashing Day (GHD) is a handwashing promotion campaign organized by the Global Public-Private Partnership of Handwashing with Soap. In China, it has been promoted by the Chinese public health authorities, international organizations and multinational corporations through various channels including social media such as Sina Weibo, the leading Chinese microblogging site similar to Twitter. The objective of this study is to qualitatively assess Chinese social media users' reactions to a health promotion campaign using Global Handwashing Day (GHD) 2012 as an example.

Resequencing microarray for detection of human adenoviruses in patients with conjunctivitis.

Background: Although high-density resequencing microarray is useful for detection and tracking the evolution of viruses associated with respiratory tract infections, no report on using this technology for the detection of viruses in patients with conjunctivitis is available.

Objectives: To test if high-density resequencing microarray can be applied to detection of viruses in conjunctival swabs for patients with conjunctivitis.

Study Design: In this prospective proof-of-concept study, every 4 or 5 bacterial culture-negative conjunctival swab samples were pooled and subject to viral detection using TessArray Resequencing Pathogen Microarrays-Flu 3.

Granulicatella adiacens and Abiotrophia defectiva bacteraemia characterized by 16S rRNA gene sequencing.

Traditionally, the identification, epidemiology and spectrum of clinical diseases caused by Granulicatella adiacens and Abiotrophia defectiva are dependent upon their phenotypic characterization. During a 6-year period (July 1995-June 2001), seven and two alpha-haemolytic streptococci were identified as G. adiacens and A.

Haemophilus segnis polymicrobial and monomicrobial bacteraemia identified by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing.

This paper reports a case of Haemophilus segnis polymicrobial bacteraemia and a case of H. segnis monomicrobial bacteraemia identified by 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. In the first case, a gram-negative aerobic coccobacillus was isolated with Streptococcus intermedius and S.

Characterization of a novel insertion sequence, IS Bp1, in Burkholderia pseudomallei.

During screening for antigenic proteins in Burkholderia pseudomallei, a novel insertion sequence, IS Bp1, was found by sequence similarity searches. IS Bp1 contains two overlapping ORFs of 261 bp ( orfA) and 852 bp ( orfB), encoding 87 and 284 amino acid residues, respectively, and an imperfect inverted repeat. The putative protein encoded by orfA (OrfA) is similar to the OrfA in insertion sequences of the IS 3 family in other bacteria, showing 49% and 76% amino acid identity and similarity, respectively, with the transposase encoded by IS D1 of Desulfovibrio vulgaris vulgaris.