Twenty Years of Reflections in Mutation Research.

Reflections is a component of Mutation Research Reviews devoted to historical and philosophical themes pertaining to the subject of mutation. Reflections was initiated in 1999 and has included a broad array of topics centered on mutation research, but overlapping other scientific fields and touching upon history, sociology, politics, philosophy and ethics. This commentary offers an editor's reflections on the 44 papers in the Reflections series, including the people who contributed to the series and the topics that they discussed.

Comparison of GC stationary phases for the separation of fatty acid methyl esters in biodiesel fuels.

The fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) content of biodiesel fuels has traditionally been determined using gas chromatography with a polar stationary phase. In this study, a direct comparison of the separation of FAMEs present in various biodiesel samples on three polar stationary phases and one moderately polar stationary phase (with comparable column dimensions) was performed. Retention on each column was based on solubility in and polarity of the phase.

The evolution, development and skeletal identity of the crocodylian pelvis: revisiting a forgotten scientific debate.

Unlike most tetrapods, in extant crocodylians the acetabulum is formed by only two of the three skeletal elements that constitute the pelvis, the ilium, and ischium. This peculiar arrangement is further confused by various observations that suggest the crocodylian pelvis initially develops from four skeletal elements: the ilium, ischium, pubis, and a novel element, the prepubis. According to one popular historical hypothesis, in crocodylians (and many extinct archosaurs), the pubis fuses with the ischium during skeletogenesis, leaving the prepubis as a distinct element, albeit one which is excluded from the acetabulum.

Negotiating the joint career: couples adapting to Alzheimer's and aging in place.

To understand the impact of memory loss on aging in place, this paper investigated dyads where one spouse had been diagnosed with memory loss. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with ten couples (N = 20). Grounded theory methods were used to collect, code, and analyze data into themes.

Curtin-Hammett and steric effects in HOBt acylation regiochemistry.

While hydroxybenzotriazole is commonly used in a variety of bond-forming reactions, its acylation has been shown to produce a regiochemical (O vs N) mixture with complex kinetic behavior. Increased steric bulk on the electrophile favors formation of the oxygen-acylated product. Upon standing as a solid, the mixture can isomerize completely to the nitrogen adduct.

The role of religion in the debate about physician-assisted dying.

This paper explores the role of religious belief in public debate about physician-assisted dying and argues that the role is essential because any discussion about the way we die raises the deepest questions about the meaning of human life and death. For religious people, such questions are essentially religious ones, even when the religious elements are framed in secular political or philosophical language. The paper begins by reviewing some of the empirical data about religious belief and practice in the United States and Europe.

Clinical reasoning: new challenges.

This article is an introduction to a special issue of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics on clinical reasoning. Clinical reasoning encompasses the gamut of thinking about clinical medical practice--the evaluation and management of patients' medical problems. Theories of clinical reasoning may be normative or descriptive; that is, they may offer recommendations on how clinicians ought to think or they may simply attempt to describe how clinicians actually do think.

A perspective on the scientific, philosophical, and policy dimensions of hormesis.

The hormesis concept has broad implications for biology and the biomedical sciences. This perspective on hormesis concentrates on toxicology and toxicological risk assessment and secondarily explores observations from other fields. It considers the varied manifestations of hormesis in the context of a broad family of biological stress responses.

Medical humanities: introduction to the theme.

The Twentieth European Conference on Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care was held in Helsinki, Finland, in August 2006 and highlighted the theme "Medicine, Philosophy and the Humanities." The four papers in this thematic section are developed from presentations made at that conference. They are the work of physicians and philosophers and present fundamentally philosophical reflections on the medical humanities.

Medical humanities and philosophy: is the universe expanding or contracting?

The question of whether the universe is expanding or contracting serves as a model for current questions facing the medical humanities. The medical humanities might aptly be described as a metamedical multiverse encompassing many separate universes of discourse, the most prominent of which is probably bioethics. Bioethics, however, is increasingly developing into a new interdisciplinary discipline, and threatens to engulf the other medical humanities, robbing them of their own distinctive contributions to metamedicine.

Modulation of the genotoxicity of bleomycin by amines through noncovalent DNA interactions and alteration of physiological conditions in yeast.

The effects of amines on the induction of mitotic gene conversion by bleomycin (BLM) were studied at the trp5 locus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain D7. BLM induces double-strand breaks in DNA and is a potent recombinagen in this assay. The polyamine spermidine causes concentration-dependent protection against the genotoxicity of BLM, reducing the convertant frequency by over 90% under the most protective conditions.

Frequencies of mutagen-induced coincident mitotic recombination at unlinked loci in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Frequencies of coincident genetic events were measured in strain D7 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This diploid strain permits the detection of mitotic gene conversion involving the trp5-12 and trp5-27 alleles, mitotic crossing-over and gene conversion leading to the expression of the ade2-40 and ade2-119 alleles as red and pink colonies, and reversion of the ilv1-92 allele. The three genes are on different chromosomes, and one might expect that coincident (simultaneous) genetic alterations at two loci would occur at frequencies predicted by those of the single alterations acting as independent events.

Emerging medical technologies and emerging conceptions of health.

Using ideas gleaned from the philosophy of technology of Martin Heidegger and Hans Jonas and the philosophy of health of Georges Canguilhem, I argue that one of the characteristics of emerging medical technologies is that these technologies lead to new conceptions of health. When technologies enable the body to respond to more and more challenges of disease, we thus establish new norms of health. Given the continued development of successful technologies, we come to expect more and more that our bodies should be able to respond to ever-new challenges of environment and disease by establishing ever-new norms of health.

The geneticization of diagnostics.

"Geneticization" is a term used to describe the ways in which the science of genetics is influencing society at large and medicine in particular; it has important implications for the process of diagnostics. Because genetic diagnostics produces knowledge about genetic disease and predisposition to disease, it is essentially influenced by these innovations in the disease concept. In this paper, I argue that genetic diagnostics presents new ethical challenges not because the diagnostic process or method in genetic diagnostics is ethically different in kind from traditional medical diagnostics, but because it relies on a neo-ontological concept of disease in a context of genetic reductionism.

Changes in sleep patterns and depressive symptoms in first-time mothers: last trimester to 1-year postpartum.

Thirty-eight 1st-time mothers were recruited from childbirth classes and were assessed at 4 different time periods: the last trimester of pregnancy, 2-4 weeks postpartum, 12-16 weeks postpartum, and 12-15 months postpartum. Measures included a daily sleep-wake diary and a depression scale (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, CES-D). Results reveal significant differences in week-day night sleep schedules (rise time, time awake due to disruptions, and nap time) at 2-4 weeks postpartum in comparison to other times of measurement.

Plato and holistic medicine.

Popular visions of holistic health and holistic medicine are not so much reactions to perceived excesses of technological medicine as they are visions of the good life itself and how to attain it. This paper attempts to clarify some of the concepts associated with holistic health and medicine. The particular vision of holistic health presented here is well exemplified in the writings of Plato.