Physician assisted suicide and the Supreme Court: putting the constitutional claim to rest

Like the debate about many controversial questions of ethics and medical care in America, public debate about physician assisted suicide became focused on questions of constitutional law. On June 26, 1997, the United States Supreme Court unanimously rejected any constitutional right of terminally ill patients to physician assisted suicide. An analysis of the Court's reasoning reveals that its decisions resolved only a narrow constitutional question that affects relatively few people--mentally competent, terminally ill patients who wish to hasten their imminent deaths by having a physician prescribe medication that they intend to use to commit suicide. Although suicide is not a crime, states remain free to prohibit assisted suicide. One consequence of the Court's decisions may be renewed debate on state laws. A more productive result would be to address the broader public health concerns that gave rise to support for physician assisted suicide--inadequate care for the terminally ill and prevention of suicide.     

Novel cytokine release inhibitors. Part I: Triterpenes

Tripterine and closely related triterpenoid derivatives as IL-1 beta release inhibitors are discussed.     

大方坯连铸结晶器伸入式水口结构类型研究

从建立合理的结晶器内流场角度出发，提出了结晶器伸入式水口设计与评价原则。通过水模实验和计算结果表明攀钢大方坯连铸结晶器采用向上角度的四孔水口结构形式最为合理。     

Internet based software system for surface texture and form analysis

With the emergence of a global market and the recent trend of outsourcing, it has become increasingly necessary for companies to have remote access to data for process diagnostics and quality control. This paper presents an Internet based surface texture and form analysis system that will allow a user at one geographic location to upload surface profiles into a database that another user can later analyze. This system has all the features found on commercial instruments and also some special analysis tools such as wavelet analysis, valley removal algorithms etc. The capabilities include surface texture analysis with database support, straightness, flatness, roundness and cylindricity analysis.     

Accelerated growth of melanomas after specific immune destruction of tumor stroma in a mouse model

Destruction of the entire stroma in a tumor could provide a stringent test of the prospects for tumor eradication in a single treatment. This possibility was investigated by experimental immune destruction of the stroma in a mouse melanoma model. Melanomas were first produced by grafting skin from transgenic C57BL/6 females of high-melanoma susceptibility to low-susceptibility transgenic males so that the malignant cells would be genetically female and the stromal cells genetically male. Subcutaneous transplant lines were then established from the melanotic and the amelanotic zones of such a melanoma and were carried in transgenic male hosts to ensure the male composition of the stroma. Thus, the male-specific H-Y histocompatibility antigen, which is ubiquitously expressed on male cells, could provide the target for an immune attack against the stroma. The transplant lines were next passaged once in transgenic females preimmunized against the H-Y antigen by having received and rejected a graft of C57BL/6 nontransgenic male skin. The antistromal immune response of these hosts did not prevent recovery of the tumors, which required a substantially prolonged latency. However, after retransplantation to nonimmunized males and females, the latency was markedly shortened from the original level. Thus, the treatment had indirectly selected for more rapidly growing tumor cells and hastened malignant progression.