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.     

Production of green surfactants: Market prospects

Science has greatly contributed to the advancement of technology and to the innovation of production processes and their applications. Cleaning products have become indispensable in today’s world, as personal and environmental hygiene is important to all societies worldwide. Such products are used in the home, in most work environments and in the industrial sectors. Most of the detergents on the market are synthesised from petrochemical products. However, the interest in reducing the use of products harmful to human health and the environment has led to the search for detergents formulated with natural, biodegradable surfactant components of biological (plant or microbiological) origin or chemically synthesised from natural raw materials usually referred to as green surfactants. This review addresses the different types, properties, and uses of surfactants, with a focus on green surfactants, and describes the current scenario as well as the projections for the future market economy related to the production of the different types of green surfactants marketed in the world.How to cite: Farias CBB, Almeida FCG, Silva IA, et al. Production of green surfactants: Market prospects. Electron J Biotechnol 2021;51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2021.02.002     

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.     

奇效骨伤散在治疗老年运动性骨损伤中的应用

老年运动性骨损伤是近期逐渐增多的疾患 ,本门诊部近 1年半以来接诊此类病人 38例 ,应用外敷自拟奇效骨伤散为主进行治疗 ,可迅速使骨折端达到牢靠连接 ,解除制动进行功能锻炼 ,肢体功能恢复快。与常规骨损伤疗效相比 ,疗程显著缩短 ,具快捷安全、方便经济、适用范围广等特点。优良率达 10 0 % ,且无明显并发症及后遗症。     

对我国企业体育目前的现状、不足和发展趋势的研究

通过分析我国目前企业体育在市场经济制度下存在的不足 ,找出原因。借鉴国外企业体育的发展过程 ,从而得知职工体育俱乐部是我国企业体育的必然发展趋势。     

论我国媒体与体育的合作态势及前景

运用文献资料法，讨论了电视、报纸、杂志和网络4种媒体与体育的关系；分析了各类媒体在开发体育市场过程中的特点；提出各类媒体的相应市场策略；揭示了各媒体与体育的合作态势及潜在的市场变化。认为，体育电视行业如何拓展盈利模式是当务之急；网络将是电视最强有力的竞争对手；体育报纸的转型已不可避免；体育杂志则应通过精致化和娱乐化来吸引读者。整合各种体育媒体资源，组成跨媒体平台，节约成本，获得更大的利润。是未来体育媒体的发展趋势。     

论大众竞技运动与精英竞技运动的协调发展

体育与竞技运动是两个不同的概念 ,两者都有普及与提高的问题 ,精英竞技运动的发展不是建立在大众体育和学校体育的基础之上的 ,其发展的基础是竞技运动在全社会的普及。传统的认识存在许多缺陷 ,导致在实践中产生很多偏差。讨论了大众竞技运动与精英竞技运动的异同 ,分析了西方国家管理与发展竞技运动的模式、中国发展竞技运动成功的经验及存在的问题 ,说明了应如何理解所谓大众竞技运动与精英竞技运动协调发展的问题 ,最后从 5个方面探讨了大众竞技运动与精英竞技运动协调发展的基本对策。     

信息时代的医学资料室与人文精神

针对信息时代技术主义的上亢和医疗行业中一些有违人愿的现象，认为医学资料室在高扬人文精神的同时应倡导医学人道精神、善美人格精神、敬业奉献精神和开拓、进取、创新精神。     

中外竞技体育后备人才培养体制的比较研究

运用文献资料法、专家咨询等方法,对中外竞技体育后备人才培养体制进行了比较研究。结论:中国应借鉴国外社会自治型的经验,转变政府职能,在充分保障原有体制运行效率的基础上,构建教育系统一体化人才培养体系;引入市场机制,动员社会力量参与竞技体育后备人才培养。