ELSI priorities for brain imaging. (9/30)

As one of the most compelling technologies for imaging the brain, functional MRI (fMRI) produces measurements and persuasive pictures of research subjects making cognitive judgments and even reasoning through difficult moral decisions. Even after centuries of studying the link between brain and behavior, this capability presents a number of novel significant questions. For example, what are the implications of biologizing human experience? How might neuroimaging disrupt the mysteries of human nature, spirituality, and personal identity? Rather than waiting for an ethical agenda to emerge from some unpredictable combination of the concerns of ethicists and researchers, the attention of journalists, or after controversy is sparked by research that cannot be retracted, we queried key figures in bioethics and the humanities, neuroscience, media, industry, and patient advocacy in focus groups and interviews. We identified specific ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) that highlight researcher obligations and the nonclinical impact of the technology at this new frontier.  (+info)

Studying the striving and opposing forces in newspaper journalism: the actantial model of health promotion. (10/30)

The cultural aspects of health promotion are important in policy development as well as in assessing effectiveness of health promotion activities. The discourses on promoting health and well-being in journalism reflect the health promotion culture in society. This article illustrates how health promotion is portrayed by 147 newspaper items from the two Finnish quality dailies during the period 2002-2004 and introduces a semiotic Actantial Model of Health Promotion (AMHP) for studying health promotion cultures. The most popular news themes on health promotion were physical and social environment, welfare services, nutrition and obesity, and mental well-being. The actants (actors, actions and abstract factor) of health promotion were identified and the AMHP with seven key actants (generator, health-object, public, tool, executor, threat and obstacle) was constructed. The model sheds light on two sides of health promotion discourses in journalism. The dominant culture of health promotion was represented by policy actions, information, education and scientific research, which were defined by health experts, decision-makers and researchers. Representations of the opposite culture--'the otherness' of health promotion included external harmful factors and unhealthy behaviours, mentalities opposed to being health-oriented, rationally uncontrolled living, disorder, disharmony and insecurity. The opposing factors were presented by people and institutions lacking the will, ability or motivation for a health-oriented life. To understand better the values of health promotion, it is necessary to assess the characteristics of the opposite side of health promotion culture, because the current dominant values can be described more clearly by the boundaries--by 'otherness'. The study argues that the AMHP can be used as a semiotic method to identify the value dimensions and the boundaries between the dominant and the opposite discourses of health promotion in various communications such as advertising and health education. Also, it provides a tool for the analysis of the media's role in 'victimization' or 'heroization' of various population groups.  (+info)

Mapping selected general literature of international nursing. (11/30)

OBJECTIVES: This study, part of a wider project to map the literature of nursing, identifies core journals cited in non-US nursing journals and determines the extent of their coverage by indexing services. METHODS: Four general English-language journals were analyzed for format types and publication dates. Core titles were identified and nine bibliographic databases were scanned for indexing coverage. RESULTS: Findings show that 57.5% (13,391/23,271) of the cited references from the 4 core journals were to journal articles, 27.8% (6,471/23,271) to books, 9.5% (2,208/23,271) to government documents, 4.9% (1,131/23,271) to miscellaneous sources, and less than 1% (70/23,271) to Internet resources. Eleven journals produced one-third of the citations; the next third included 146 journals, followed by a dispersion of 1,622 titles. PubMed received the best database coverage scores, followed by CINAHL and Science Citation Index. None of the databases provided complete coverage of all 11 core titles. CONCLUSION: The four source journals contain a diverse group of cited references. The currency of citations to government documents makes these journals a good source for regulatory and legislative awareness. Nurses consult nursing and biomedical journals and must search both nursing and biomedical databases to cover the literature.  (+info)

Scientists enter the blogosphere. (12/30)

Blogs are one of the latest tools that scientists use to communicate their ideas to other scientists or to the general public. But who are the science bloggers and why do they blog?  (+info)

Number and impact of published scholarly works by pharmacy practice faculty members at accredited US colleges and schools of pharmacy (2001-2003). (13/30)

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quantity and quality of published literature conducted by pharmacy practice faculty members in US colleges and schools of pharmacy for the years 2001-2003. METHODS: The Web of Science bibliographic database was used to identify publication citations for the years 2001-2003, which were then evaluated in a number of different ways. Faculty members were identified using American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy rosters for the 2000-2001, 2001-2002, and 2002-2003 academic years. RESULTS: Two thousand three hundred seventy-four pharmacy practice faculty members generated 1,896 publications in Web of Science searchable journals. A small number of faculty members (2.1%) were responsible for a large proportion of publications (30.6%), and only 4.9% of faculty members published 2 or more publications in these journals per year. The average impact factor for the top 200 publications was 7.6. CONCLUSION: Pharmacy practice faculty members contributed substantially to the biomedical literature and their work has had an important impact. A substantial portion of this work has come from a small subset of faculty members.  (+info)

Citation classics in occupational medicine journals. (14/30)

OBJECTIVES: The number of citations an article receives after its publication not only reflects its impact on the scientific community, but also the impact of the institutions or countries in the field studied. In 1987, Garfield introduced the concept of "citation classics" for the best-cited articles. An analysis of top-cited articles coming from journals in the field of occupational medicine (eg, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health) has not yet been reported. The purpose of this study was to assess whether or not such citation classics exist in this field and to analyze their characteristics. METHODS: The most frequently cited articles published in the five major journals in occupational medicine were identified using the database of Science Citation Index Expanded. The data were obtained by searching one year and one journal at a time. All of the articles cited more than 100 times were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 15 553 articles published by the five journals since 1949, only 85 articles had been cited more than 100 times. The oldest had been published in 1950 and the latest in 1997. The United Kingdom contributed 28% of the citation classics and the United States or Sweden produced 19%. The most cited article had been cited 979 times. The main topics of articles were metabolism, occupational neoplasms, and work-related musculoskeletal disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Since the 1980s, Scandinavia and the United States have taken the leadership in the publication of citation classic papers. Nevertheless, according to the level of citations, the influence of literature published in occupational medicine journals remains limited.  (+info)

Open access: a giant leap towards bridging health inequities. (15/30)

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High job control enhances vagal recovery in media work. (16/30)

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