Covid-19: Emerging Considerations for Body Sourcing and Handling. A Perspective View from Nigeria

The current Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has spread to about 220 countries of the world and has resulted in a significant number of deaths globally. Infections are still on the rise, and the impact on the global death rate could be devastating. There are fears over the likely impact of a large number of deaths on body sourcing and handling of cadavers for teaching and research. Historically, epidemics come with several challenges and have often led to some level of negligence of ethical practices and health and safety regulations associated with body sourcing and handling. The authors highlighted some emerging problems in this article, focusing on Africa and Nigeria in particular. These problems include a higher risk of coronavirus exposure for body handlers, shortage of cadavers for teaching and learning, a lack of standard regulations leading to unethical body sourcing and handling, and a lack of monitoring and collaboration needed for a well-coordinated Covid-19 pandemic response strategy. If these issues are ignored, the previous gains made in anatomical ethical practices may be destroyed. Some useful recommendations for policymaking geared toward prevention or curtailing these emerging issues have been instilled in this article.     

The Unintentional Effects on Body Donation Programs of a Competency-Based Curriculum in Postgraduate Medical Education

As medical programs place increasing importance on competency-based training and surgical simulations for residents, anatomy laboratories, and body donation programs find themselves in a position of adapting to changing demands. To better assess the demand for “life-like” cadaveric specimens and evaluate the possible impacts that competency-based medical education could have upon the body donation program of McGill University, Canada, the authors tracked, over the course of the last 10 years, the number of soft-embalmed specimens, along with the number of teaching sessions and the residents enrolled in competency-based programs that are using cadaveric material. The results reveal that the number of soft-embalmed specimens used within residency training increased from 5 in 2009 to 35 in 2019, representing an increase from 6% of bodies to 36.5% of the total number of body donors embalmed in this institution. Correspondingly, the number of annual teaching sessions for residents increased from 19 in 2012 to 116 in 2019. These increases in teaching are correlated with increasing number of residents enrolled in competency-based programs over the last 3 years (Pearson r ranging from 0.9705 to 0.9903, and R² ranging from 0.9418 to 0.9808). Those results suggest that the new skill-centered curricula which require residents to perform specific tasks within realistic settings, exhibit a growing demand for “life-like” cadaveric specimens. Institutions’ body donation programs must, therefore, adapt to those greater need for cadaveric specimens, which presents many challenges, ranging from the logistical to the ethical.     

基于专利引用跨越度计量的两国间间接创新合作机会发现

[目的/意义] 两个国家间的创新合作机会有些是显性直接的，有些是潜在间接的。在此试图构建一种计量和分析专利引用关系的方法，用于发现两国间潜在的间接创新合作机会。[方法/过程] 全球价值链上不同环节专利之间的引用关系中，蕴含着相互衔接、配套的间接合作关系，而不同环节的专利通常具有不同的功能，即IPC存在一定跨越度。因此，设计"专利引用跨越度"指标及算法，用于计量和筛选专利引用网络中"引用跨越度"达到预设阈值的专利引用关系，作为发现间接创新合作机会的基础数据。以新加坡在中国获得授权的发明专利为样本，基于专利引用跨越度计量并配合人工解读和识别，发现中新两国间一系列的间接创新合作机会。[结果/结论] 基于专利引用跨越度计量的两国间间接创新合作机会发现的方法，被实验检验为有效。     

Best of both worlds or refusal to comply? The rich kids of Tehran on Instagram

ABSTRACT

This article offers a textual analysis and semiotic reading of the Rich Kids of Tehran's (RKOT’s) Instagram page. Contributing to scholarship on Iranian youth media practices, this article interrogates how the RKOT navigate urban and rural space to engage in everyday processes of resistance against global and local systemic oppression. Grounding their visual representations on Instagram in historical and cultural context, the author questions how and when quotidian actions are transformed into political transgressions when posted on social media. This article emphasizes the RKOT's agency in shaping their brand by analyzing representations of gender performance, intertextuality, and national identity on Instagram.     

Between Policy and Practice: Archival Descriptions,Digital Returns and a Place for Coalescing Narratives

ABSTRACT

The Strathfieldsaye Estate collection at the University of Melbourne Archives is discussed in relation to recognising, protecting and reclaiming Koori (First Peoples of southeast Australia) heritage. The settler collection includes early 1900s photographs of Koori people within two distinct albums – a family album that includes a series of studio portraits of Koori adults and children, and an album depicting Koori families on Ramahyuck Aboriginal Mission Station. In the past, these albums have been defined by, and limited to, traditional archiving practices excluding Koori interpretation, authorship and social context. Restoring Koori ownership and authorship of intangible heritage plays a large part in consolidating ancestor photographs with Koori perspectives of identity and culture.     

A Bioethos for Bodies: Respecting a Priceless Resource

The value that willed body donors provide to medical education is priceless. Their precious gift helps to teach anatomy, spatial relationships between morphological structures, anatomical variation, and professionalism to medical students in a way that plastic models, podcasts, and lectures cannot. They are also an important resource for medical research and a wide variety of postgraduate training opportunities. While many body donation programs throughout the world are nonprofit organizations, there are body donation companies in the United States that sell donors for-profit. These “body brokers” have accumulated large profits from this business. It is incongruous that others would profit from such a priceless, freely donated gift. To prevent this incongruity, it is proposed that the international anatomical community develop a normative culture (a bioethos) for body donation programs. This would involve the conscious and systematic development of ethical principles for the day-to-day policies and practices of institutions that collect and use human bodies. With the development of this bioethos, a cultural shift in how donors are treated would occur and, over time, this would become the normal practice. These principles would become fundamental and foundational for the procurement and use of priceless human tissues.     

馆藏文献是人类文明的共同记忆——《中国图书馆员职业道德准则》试行有感

爱护文献资源是《中国图书馆员职业道德准则》规定的每个馆员应遵守的道德准则。图书馆员应树立馆藏文献是人类文明记忆的理念 ,建立科学管理制度 ,做到片纸不丢。规范职业行为 ,必须具有爱护文献资源的理念和品格。参考文献 3。     

Canaletto’s paintings open a new window on the relative sea-level rise in Venice

The paintings by Canaletto (1697–1768), made with the help of a camera obscura, are just like real photographs, documenting as they do the Venice of the XVIII century with an accurate reproduction of all the details. The brown–green front left by the Laminaria, an alga living between the high and low tide, constitutes a precise biological indication of the average level of the high tide. By comparing the level of this front at Canaletto’s time with the present level, we can calculate/discover the relative sea level rise which has occurred in the last two and a half centuries.     

人的主体性及其道德思考

人的主体性一直是西方近现代哲学的中心问题 ,也是现代文明的核心内容。人类主体积极、能动的创造性活动推动了人类社会文明发展 ,也带来了一系列的社会问题。人的主体性活动由于本身所具有的局限性 ,必然要受到各种主客观条件的制约 ,其中 ,道德是主体实践活动健康发展的重要条件。道德一方面制约人的行为 ,另一方面激励人们去追求和发展 ,为主体性的发挥提供更广阔的空间     

论经济全球化背景下我国价值观念的变革

我国的传统价值观念在经济全球化的浪潮中,将发生一系列深刻的变革:第一,由封闭的价值取向向开放的价值取向转变;第二,由重形式的价值标准向重实效的价值标准转变;第三,由激进的价值目标向现实的价值目标转变;第四,价值实践转变为主观改造和客观改造相结合的价值实践;第五,由“人治”价值观念向“法治”价值观念转变;第六,人生理想由“君子型”向“能力型”转变。