Conflicting interpretations and FDA reputation: the case of post-market surveillance of breast implants.

Conflicting interpretations regarding the severity of the adverse effects associated with FDA-approved drugs and therapies are common among the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the medical community, patients, and the general public. However, scholars have paid little attention to how these conflicting interpretations may affect the FDA's reputation for facilitating inclusive dialogue between competing policy actors. Focusing on breast implants, a medical device characterized by a stormy regulatory past, we observe that the design properties of post-market surveillance are adjusted to low-quality information.

Women Who Perform Social Egg Freezing as Moral Pioneers: The Case of Ultra-Orthodox Communities in Israel.

Social egg freezing (SEF) is a new reproductive technology that is increasingly used within ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, stirring tensions between tradition and modernity. Based on in-depth semi-structured interviews, this study examined how ultra-Orthodox singles who employ SEF engage in social negotiations over gender- and body-related norms. Findings show that participants successfully assimilated SEF by establishing facts on the ground and discreetly spreading information while actively avoiding tensions that may threaten religious tradition.

Does older mean flexible? Psychological flexibility and illness cognitions in chronic medical conditions - the moderating effect of age.

Adjustment to a Chronic Medical Condition (CMC) is associated with developing hypotheses regarding one's symptoms, known as illness cognition (IC). Aging is associated with a higher rate of CMC. We assessed the effects of aging and psychological flexibility (PF)-one's ability to be open to change, and to alter or persist in behaviors according to environmental circumstances - on IC development in CMC.

Late Effects of Craniospinal Irradiation Using Electron Spinal Fields for Pediatric Patients With Cancer.

Purpose: For children, craniospinal irradiation (CSI) with photons is associated with significant toxic effects. The use of electrons for spinal fields is hypothesized to spare anterior structures but the long-term effects remain uncertain. We studied late effects of CSI using electrons for spinal radiation therapy (RT).

Beyond illness perception: the effects of psychological flexibility when coping with a chronic medical condition.

Several factors have been suggested to affect well-being among patients with a Chronic Medical Condition (CMC). Using self-report questionnaires, the effects of Illness Cognitions (IC) and Psychological Flexibility (PF) on well-being (Subjective Happiness) was explored in two groups of patients at a large medical center in Tel Aviv, Israel. This included 79 patients with psoriasis and 71 patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), the former representing moderate, and the latter severe, chronic medical conditions.

"I Had to Rediscover Our Healthy Food": An Indigenous Perspective on Coping with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is disproportionally prevalent among the Bedouin minority in Israel, with especially poor treatment outcomes compared to other indigenous groups. This study uses the perspective of the Bedouins themselves to explore the distinct challenges they face, as well as their coping strategies. The study is based on an interpretive interactionist analysis of 49 semi-structured interviews with Bedouin men and women.

Psychological well-being and adjustment among type 2 diabetes patients: the role of psychological flexibility.

Elevated rates of psychological disorders are reported among those with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Thus, research into factors enhancing psychological aspects of well-being is critical in T2D. We examine the association between a multifaceted measure of Psychological Flexibility (PF), and its relationship to adjustment and well-being, among this population.

When COVID-19, constitutional crisis, and political deadlock meet: the Israeli case from a disproportionate policy perspective.

This article describes the efforts made by the Israeli government to contain the spread of COVID-19, which were implemented amidst a constitutional crisis and a yearlong electoral impasse, under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was awaiting a trial for charges of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust. It thereafter draws on the disproportionate policy perspective to ascertain the ideas and sensitivities that placed key policy responses on trajectories which prioritized differential policy responses over general, nation-wide solutions (and vice versa), even though data in the public domain supported the selection of opposing policy solutions on epidemiological or social welfare grounds. The article also gauges the consequences and implications of the policy choices made in the fight against COVID-19 for the disproportionate policy perspective.

Policy over- and under-design: an information quality perspective.

This article seeks to improve our understanding of what policy over- and under-design mean; what are the consequences of these suboptimal designs; and how politics matters to these designs. Based on the review of the literature and a variety of examples that focus on the role of information quality in policy design, and drawing on two phenomena from the field of epidemiology (namely, - and ), the article enhances the definitional clarity of the terms under investigation and allows us to address the difficulty in reconciling technical problem solving with politics. The article proposes new definitional statements of proportionate and disproportionate policy designs that vary according to the extent to which the main design properties are adjusted to low-quality information.

Scapular dyskinesis among competitive swimmers.

Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of scapular dyskinesis (SD) in competitive swimmers during training sessions.

Methods: Repeated measurement observational study.20 young competitive swimmers were filmed before, at midpoint and at the end of a training session, performing shoulder flexion and abduction.

The implications of the emerging disproportionate policy perspective for the new policy design studies.

This paper articulates the and uses it to mount four challenges for the new policy design orientation. First, in contrast to the new policy design thinking, disproportionate policy options may be systematically designed, and at times, successfully implemented. Second, in contrast to the new policy design thinking, there are certain conditions under which policymakers may tend to develop effective response, with cost considerations becoming only secondary in importance if at all (read, policy overreaction), or cost-conscious response, with effectiveness considerations becoming only secondary in importance if at all (read, policy underreaction).

Sense of meaning as a predictor of burnout in emergency physicians in Israel: a national survey.

Objective: Burnout is common in physicians and particularly acute in emergency physicians. Physician burnout may adversely affect physicians' lives and the quality of care they provide, but much remains unknown about its main contributing factors. The present study evaluated burnout rates and contributing factors in emergency physicians in Israel, specifically focusing on the role of a sense of meaning, which has received little attention in the literature concerning burnout in emergency physicians.

Complications after percutaneous ablation of liver tumors: a systematic review.

Background: Although ablation therapy has been accepted as a promising and safe technique for treatment of unrespectable hepatic tumors, investigation of its complications has been limited. A physician who performs ablation treatment of hepatic malignancies should be aware of the broad spectrum of complications. Proper management is possible only if the physician Performing ablation understands the broad spectrum of complications encountered after ablation.

Outcomes after surgery and radiotherapy for spinal myxopapillary ependymoma: update of the MD Anderson Cancer Center experience.

Background: The role of radiotherapy after surgery for myxopapillary ependymoma (MPE) is unclear.

Objective: To review long-term outcomes after surgery, with or without radiation, for spinal MPE.

Methods: Fifty-one patients with spinal MPE treated from 1968 to 2007 were included.

Central nervous system cancers.

Primary and metastatic tumors of the central nervous system are a heterogeneous group of neoplasms with varied outcomes and management strategies. Recently, improved survival observed in 2 randomized clinical trials established combined chemotherapy and radiation as the new standard for treating patients with pure or mixed anaplastic oligodendroglioma harboring the 1p/19q codeletion. For metastatic disease, increasing evidence supports the efficacy of stereotactic radiosurgery in treating patients with multiple metastatic lesions but low overall tumor volume.

Long-term results of RTOG 91-11: a comparison of three nonsurgical treatment strategies to preserve the larynx in patients with locally advanced larynx cancer.

Purpose: To report the long-term results of the Intergroup Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 91-11 study evaluating the contribution of chemotherapy added to radiation therapy (RT) for larynx preservation.

Patients And Methods: Patients with stage III or IV glottic or supraglottic squamous cell cancer were randomly assigned to induction cisplatin/fluorouracil (PF) followed by RT (control arm), concomitant cisplatin/RT, or RT alone. The composite end point of laryngectomy-free survival (LFS) was the primary end point.

The body that does not diminish itself: fat acceptance in Israel's lesbian queer communities.

This article follows Charlotte Cooper's call to widen fat studies scholarship to contexts outside the United States, and Adrianne Hill's call to locate historically specific connections between lesbian communities and promotion of fat acceptance. Three in-depth interviews were conducted with Jewish-Israeli fat women. Through the development of their ability to appreciate their fat body and the fat bodies of other women, participants employed a mixture of disparate feminist-lesbian and queer discourses, in a similar, albeit not identical manner to the one used in the U.

Increased iNOS, MMP-2, and HSP-72 in skeletal muscle following high-intensity exercise training.

Skeletal muscle adapts to exercise by an upregulation of cellular defenses, such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and matrix metalloproteinase type 2 (MMP-2) and heat shock protein type-72 (HSP-72). The aims of the study were to examine iNOS, MMP-2, and HSP-72 mRNA and protein expression after high-intensity exercise training and to examine whether the expression levels are fiber type dependent. Young Wistar rats were assigned to either 2 or 4 weeks of a high-intensity (32 m/min) running exercise for 40 minutes 5 day per week.

Emergency preparedness consultants at the local government level: the Israeli experience.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Municipal Emergency Consultation project in eight Israeli local authorities. The initiative centres on the appointment of independent emergency preparedness consultants entrusted with tailoring an emergency preparedness package to suit the specific needs of each locality. Regarding emergency preparedness improvements, in all of the municipalities examined, a concept of municipal emergency operation was consolidated and the derived emergency plan tested.

Expression of superoxide dismutase and matrix metalloproteinase type 2 in diaphragm muscles of young rats.

Moderate physical activity increases antioxidant defenses, whereas intensive activity is associated with oxidative stress. In this study we investigated the expression of superoxide dismutase (Cu,Zn-SOD), a major antioxidant defense enzyme, and that of the proteolytic enzyme matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) in exercising muscle tissue. Treadmill running was used as a model to investigate the mechanism involved in muscle use and over use.

Pretreatment verification of IMSRT using electronic portal imaging and Monte Carlo calculations.

The use of an amorphous silicon electronic portal imaging device (EPID) and Monte Carlo calculations were investigated for pretreatment fluence verification in intensity modulated stereotactic radiotherapy (IMSRT). Monte Carlo calculations were performed using BEAM, a general purpose Monte Carlo code to simulate radiation beams from radiotherapy units. The dose distribution to the EPID phosphor was calculated by BEAM and then converted to pixel value using a pixel calibration curve.

Neurocognition in patients with brain metastases treated with radiosurgery or radiosurgery plus whole-brain irradiation: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: It is unclear whether the benefit of adding whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) to stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for the control of brain-tumours outweighs the potential neurocognitive risks. We proposed that the learning and memory functions of patients who undergo SRS plus WBRT are worse than those of patients who undergo SRS alone. We did a randomised controlled trial to test our prediction.