Andrew Wakefield and the Mmr Autism Fraud

ANDREW WAKEFIELD AND THE MMR AUTISM FRAUD In February 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist, published a research paper in which he linked autism and bowel disease to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine – creating a public health crisis in England and raising questions about vaccine safety in North America. Additional studies have since shown that the data presented was fraudulent, and after ten years of controversy and investigation, Dr. Wakefield was discredited, his licence revoked and his research discarded.The damage, however, had been done – vaccination rates in the industrialized world are down to such an extent that it has brought back diseases that have not been seen for decades. The article in the British medical journal The Lancet claimed that the three-in-one measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) was causing inflammatory bowel syndrome and brain damage in children. The five-page paper, which was backed by a press conference, p rovoked substantial media interest. Dr.Wakefield reported on twelve cases of children with what he called â€Å"regressive autism†, who had been admitted to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead (London) between July 1996 and February 1997, all within 14 days of receiving the MMR vaccine. These previously healthy children, the study claimed, suddenly lost basic language and communication skills. Wakefield theorized that the three vaccines, given together, can alter a child’s immune system, allowing the measles virus in the vaccine to infiltrate the intestines; certain proteins, escaping from the intestines, could then reach and harm neurons in the brain. It's a moral issue for me,† he announced at the 1998 press conference, where he advocated breaking up the triple MMR vaccine into single measles, mumps and rubella shots, to be given at yearly intervals. â€Å"I can't support the continued use of these three vaccines, given in combination,† he said, â€Å" until this issue has been resolved. † As the doctor campaigned, vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland dropped sharply. Wakefield supporters even involved Prime Minister Tony Blair by suggesting that his youngest son was not vaccinated with MMR.Although at the time, Mr. Blair refused to discuss the issue for privacy reasons, he did say that, â€Å"For the record, Cherie and I both entirely support the advice, as we have consistently said. It is not true that we believe the MMR vaccine to be dangerous or believe that it is better to have separate injections, or believe that it is linked to autism. On the contrary, the vaccine, which is used throughout the world, helps prevent the spread of diseases that can, if contracted, cause very serious damage to children. It was later confirmed that Leo Blair had been inoculated. In November 2000, Wakefield appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes, linking the â€Å"epidemic of autism† to the MMR vaccine. This set off a spiral of theor ies that all vaccines are suspect: either due to their content, or because children receive too many of them at the same time. The US movement attracted celebrities such as actress Jenny McCarthy, who blamed MMR for her own son’s autism. â€Å"In 1983 the shot schedule was ten. That's when autism was one in 10,000. Now there's 36, and autism is one in 150,† she argued. All arrows point to one direction. † Although the number of children diagnosed with autism has increased dramatically over the last twenty years, it is difficult to say if this is due to improved diagnostic practices or an actual increased prevalence of the disease. Several major studies, however, have ruled out a link with vaccines: †¢The October 2004 edition of Vaccine published a meta review that looked at 120 studies to assess potential side effects of the MMR vaccine. The authors concluded that a connection between MMR and autism is â€Å"unlikely†. A 2005 study compared autism rat es in Japan before and after 1993, when the triple MMR vaccine was broken into three separate vaccines that are administered at different times. It was found that autism is still on the rise. †¢In October 2005, the Cochrance Library published a review of 31 scientific studies, none of which found a link between MMR and either autism or bowel disease. Similarly, a 2007 review of independent studies performed after Wakefield’s publication in the Lancet demonstrated overwhelming evidence against the hypothesis of associating MMR with autism.In addition to the overwhelming scientific evidence contradicting Wakefield’s claims, British journalist Brian Deer discovered that in fact, the research had been funded to create evidence against the MMR vaccine. Wakefield had concealed, misreported and changed information about the children in his study. It turned out that two years before embarking on his â€Å"research†, he had been hired by a lawyer who planned to make big money from several class action lawsuits against companies manufacturing the triple MMR vaccine. â€Å"I have mentioned to you before hat the prime objective is to produce unassailable evidence in court so as to convince a court that these vaccines are dangerous,† the lawyer reminded the doctor in a confidential letter, six months before the Lancet report. The Sunday Times investigation also discovered that in June 1997, Wakefield had filed for a patent on a single measles vaccine – for the success of which he needed to discredit the triple MMR. After the fraud came to light in February 2004, the Lancet retracted the conclusion section of the report (they would eventually retract the whole article in 2010).From July 2007 to May 2010, the General Medical Council conducted the longest ever professional misconduct hearing. Eventually, they revoked Dr. Wakefield’s medical licence, citing medical, scientific and ethical misconduct. So why do parents still believ e in Wakefield’s hypothesis? Probably because anecdotes are more satisfying than scientific methodology, and the media are very good at telling the bad story and very bad at telling the real story. In the UK and Ireland, fueled by sensationalist media coverage, MMR uptake levels between 1998 and 2008 dropped from 92 percent to 73 percent. 5 percent vaccine uptake levels are required for herd immunity (i. e. , the point when diseases cannot spread in a population). In 2008, measles was declared endemic again in the UK. There were a total of 1,348 cases that year, up 36 per cent from the previous year and up a staggering 2,400 per cent from 1998, when there were just 56 cases. In 2006 a 13-year-old boy became the first person to die of measles in Britain since 1992, with a second child dying in 2008. In the United States, the herd immunity is crumbling as states make it easier for parents to opt out of the vaccinations that are usually required to enroll in school.A study publi shed in the journal Pediatrics (2010) by researchers from the University of Michigan showed that 12 percent of parents have refused at least one recommended vaccine for their children. As a result, diseases such as whooping cough and measles are making a comeback. In 2010, 9,500 cases of whooping cough were reported in California, the most in 65 years. Ten patients died, all of them infants too young to be vaccinated. And even though measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, 2011 saw the highest number of measles cases in 15 years. None of these cases resulted in death, but one out of three people had to be hospitalized.This then is Andrew Wakefield’s legacy – an elaborate hoax for financial gain that has set back the medical clock 100 years for millions of children whose parents refuse to accept overwhelming and sound scientific evidence and would rather expose them to the very real dangers of infectious disease. Another casualty, ironically, is autism itself . Significant time, energy and financial resources were wasted that could have been spent on research and developing new treatments. Mr. Wakefield has taken up residence in an affluent suburb of Austin, Texas. Although not allowed to practice medicine, he still lectures to an adoring audience. To our community, Andrew Wakefield is Nelson Mandela and Jesus Christ rolled up into one,† according to J. B. Handley of Generation Rescue. The WHO estimates that 380 people die of measles every day. ? SOURCES: Ahmed, Kamal. â€Å"Blair Baby ‘Has Had' MMR Jab. † The Guardian 23 December 2001. Asaithambi, Rathi. â€Å"Time to Get Tough on Vaccine Refusal. † Baltimore Sun 11 April 2012. Chivers, Tom. â€Å"MMR – Autism Scare: So, Farewell Then, Dr Andrew Wakefield. † The Telegraph 24 May 2010. Deer, Brian. â€Å"MMR: The Truth behind the Crisis. † The Sunday Times 14 November 2004. Deer, Brian. Revealed: MMR Research Scandal. † The Sunday Time s 22 February 2004. DeStefano, F. â€Å"Vaccines and Autism: Evidence Does Not Support a Causal Association. † Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics December 2007: 756-759. Dominus, Susan. â€Å"The Crash and Burn of an Autism Guru. † The New York Times 20 April 2011. Freeper, Berlin. â€Å"The Autism Vaccine Hoax. † The Wall Street Journal 8 January 2011. Mascarelli, Amanda. â€Å"Vaccine Opt-Outs Causing Breaks in ‘Herd Immunity'. † Los Angeles Times 5 August 2011. Sifferlin, Alexandria. â€Å"Measles: 2011 Was the Worst in the U. S. in 15 Years. † Time 19 April 2012.

A Perspective of the Modern World

â€Å"What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, the modern universe? † My encephalon rapidly leapt to that of a functioning economic system. An economic system that leads to the formation of more sophisticated Torahs in which society starts to develop and map about. That made sense to me at the clip, but now when I read that back in print I wonder what the heck I was even believing about. My ideas were centered on the constitution of the U.S. settlements and get downing a new society. I was non even needfully believing about post-revolution U.S. , but instead the beginnings of a new state that was puting the tone for the universe that we know today. It made sense to me that the â€Å"modern world† would necessitate holding the concept of the universe that presently exists, even if it was merely in its babyhood phases. Diging in to that thought though led me to the realisation that the U.S. was far from the first economic system in the universe. In fact, economic system day of the months back good in to the early antediluvian times. I slightly seem to remember larning about early economic system when being taught about Mesopotamia in my secondary instruction old ages. So possibly holding all that exists in the current universe is non necessary for the â€Å"modern† , but instead merely holding that avenue for its growing. If a working economic system was non the driving force of the modern universe, what was? Through the hebdomads of the category we had the chance to discourse at least eight different countries that saw important alteration from about the mid 15th century until the late 20th century. And while there will ever be many lending factors to the development of civilization and society over clip, our modern universe seemed to be launched chiefly from one major influence†¦a alteration in position. Perspective is what allowed the modern universe to get down to develop and would finally take us to what we have today. The Renaissance motion in Italy helped catapult a wholly new mentality of that which was standard in antediluvian and mediaeval times. It was a period in clip where a new position began to originate. The displacement from a God-centered point of view to a man-centered 1 developed a whole new originative manner of nearing political, societal, economic and cultural countries, and brought approximately great alteration in each of them. It marked a gradual displacement from a agriculture focussed society to an urban one, where metropoliss assumed a greater importance than in the past because of trade. It was besides a clip when originative thought and new engineering Lashkar-e-Taiba people comprehend and describe the universe more accurately. Science, doctrine, faith, art, and history combined to make a humanist attack to understanding the universe. Switching off from a society dominated by God-focused thought allowed creative persons and scientists likewise to get down progressing some reasonably extremist constructs. In ancient times the justification for anything that seemed unaccountable was based on a intent that the Gods had put away. The Gods brought the rain, pulled the Sun across the sky, changed the seasons, etc. When the Renaissance brought about a displacement in the manner we thought and saw things, there started to be a more scientific attack in the logical thinking behind the inquiries that were raised. Columbus challenged that the universe was round as opposed to level. Copernicus, pant, stated that the Sun is more likely to be the centre of our solar system and non the Earth. It was forward minds like these gentleman that brought about a alteration in society that would get down taking to a patterned advance of alteration instead than a stale and dead being that had been most outstanding in the clip period merely before the outgrowth of the Renaissance. A displacement in the manner society thought would be the accelerator for transmutation of the universe. Critically of import to this displacement in thought was the innovation of Gutenberg’s publishing imperativeness with movable type, which aided the spread of the Renaissance. Prior to holding the printed word, humanity relied on unwritten conveyance of cognition. Perpetrating information to memory was critical to successful life. The passage to books may hold damned memory as was one time known, but it besides provided chances to a turning displacement in idea to the multitudes. Printed books became more readily available and people learned to read and derive entree to a wide scope of cognition. As printing imperativenesss were established in Italy and other parts of Europe, printed books exposed educated Europeans to new thoughts and new topographic points. The add-on of printed plants, made available to the multitudes, added a more finite being to the constructs being fed to the populace. Opinions and ideas on social things were now being published for anyone with the ability to read to devour. Changing positions had a new friend that would assist present them to more people across the Earth, motivating quicker and more efficient transmutation. The general populace now had entree to the ideas of people like Martin Luther thanks in big portion to the printing imperativeness. This sort of handiness to positions such as Luther’s led to legion persons oppugning the current being of established establishments such as faith and authorities. In many ways the printed word helped launch positions to people that may hold been less prone to hearing those same constructs by word of oral cavity. These ideas were now able to be readily accessed by many, fostering an development of thought and construct that would alter the class of social development. Monarchial foundations would get down to be questioned as displacements in position led manner to an epoch of enlightenment. Past traditions and undisputed religion would be challenged by philosophers like Bacon, Locke, and Voltaire. Debating thoughts about authorities and single rights finally led to dispute of traditional regulation. Ultimately a path was paved for rebellion, most notably with the American and Gallic revolutions. Timess were switching from authorities of a supreme swayer to that of a way for single privileges. It makes perfect sense that when freedom comes from that which has kept us down, it is clip to get down to spread out and come on in efficiency. Emancipating ourselves from old traditions allows us to travel frontward and to boom more creatively. This is what the industrial revolution was to me. It was a clip following the separation of traditional authorities in which we could now develop ourselves and challenge ourselves in engineerings. Science and engineering progressed at such a rapid gait and new inventions were doing growing non merely feasible but at hand. Steam engines led to go and efficiency in machinery. Advanced fabrication procedures were made available because of growing in machining tools. It is a spot phantasmagoric to believe of the monumental displacements in industry from the late 18th century to mid 20th century. However, when you start to believe of how displacements in position and ways of idea can impact a civilization so rapidly, the concatenation reaction of development seems a small less incredible. It is still astonishing, but credible. Probably my favourite epoch that we had the chance to reflect upon and discuss was that in response to the industrial revolution, the romantic period. Puting accent on emotions and promoting art, literature, and music to new degrees was the halfway phase of this epoch. Switching from modern worlds, the romantic age stressed utilizing imaginativeness to visualise an flight. Poets like Keats, Shelley, and Lord Byron provided a more facile usage of linguistic communication that brought about power and beauty to the mundane. Romantic art centres more on the unmanageable, unpredictable nature as opposed to the controlled order seen in the enlightenment period. Romanticism was and still is all about experiencing no affair what the topic. There is no uncertainty that the promotions we have been able to analyze dating back to the Renaissance have come about quick, comparatively talking. The fact that we have seen geographic expeditions to new lands, freedoms won over oppressors, people able to wing, atomic arms created all in a small over five hundred old ages is mind blowing to state the least. To believe that merely about five centuries ago our universe was still perceived to be the centre of the existence and a level land. No uncertainty about it that a displacement in position was required to convey about a concatenation reaction of alteration. Challenging old thoughts and puting out to turn out new 1s is no original construct. The cardinal difference that enabled the point of view displacements in the Renaissance period to alter the class of our universe was the ability to acquire those new ideas in to the custodies of the multitudes. I wouldn’t needfully travel so far as to state that Gutenberg singlehandedly altered our class by his innovation. But he surely played a major portion in acquiring that class apparatus so that the driving force of disputing idea and position had a topographic point to travel. Once the class of the printed word was set, original positions were now able to travel frontward and convey about inquiries that institute planetary alteration. It about seems that now we have entered in to a period where we have become complacent with where we are. At least from a engineering point of view. Possibly there isn’t much more to contrive or alter. Possibly. I tend to believe that’s far from the truth nevertheless, and hopefully there’s a whole batch more philosophers on the skyline that will go on disputing and forcing us to the following epoch. It’s a good thing to acquire a alteration in position from clip to clip. A Perspective of the Modern World â€Å"What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, the modern universe? † My encephalon rapidly leapt to that of a functioning economic system. An economic system that leads to the formation of more sophisticated Torahs in which society starts to develop and map about. That made sense to me at the clip, but now when I read that back in print I wonder what the heck I was even believing about. My ideas were centered on the constitution of the U.S. settlements and get downing a new society. I was non even needfully believing about post-revolution U.S. , but instead the beginnings of a new state that was puting the tone for the universe that we know today. It made sense to me that the â€Å"modern world† would necessitate holding the concept of the universe that presently exists, even if it was merely in its babyhood phases. Diging in to that thought though led me to the realisation that the U.S. was far from the first economic system in the universe. In fact, economic system day of the months back good in to the early antediluvian times. I slightly seem to remember larning about early economic system when being taught about Mesopotamia in my secondary instruction old ages. So possibly holding all that exists in the current universe is non necessary for the â€Å"modern† , but instead merely holding that avenue for its growing. If a working economic system was non the driving force of the modern universe, what was? Through the hebdomads of the category we had the chance to discourse at least eight different countries that saw important alteration from about the mid 15th century until the late 20th century. And while there will ever be many lending factors to the development of civilization and society over clip, our modern universe seemed to be launched chiefly from one major influence†¦a alteration in position. Perspective is what allowed the modern universe to get down to develop and would finally take us to what we have today. The Renaissance motion in Italy helped catapult a wholly new mentality of that which was standard in antediluvian and mediaeval times. It was a period in clip where a new position began to originate. The displacement from a God-centered point of view to a man-centered 1 developed a whole new originative manner of nearing political, societal, economic and cultural countries, and brought approximately great alteration in each of them. It marked a gradual displacement from a agriculture focussed society to an urban one, where metropoliss assumed a greater importance than in the past because of trade. It was besides a clip when originative thought and new engineering Lashkar-e-Taiba people comprehend and describe the universe more accurately. Science, doctrine, faith, art, and history combined to make a humanist attack to understanding the universe. Switching off from a society dominated by God-focused thought allowed creative persons and scientists likewise to get down progressing some reasonably extremist constructs. In ancient times the justification for anything that seemed unaccountable was based on a intent that the Gods had put away. The Gods brought the rain, pulled the Sun across the sky, changed the seasons, etc. When the Renaissance brought about a displacement in the manner we thought and saw things, there started to be a more scientific attack in the logical thinking behind the inquiries that were raised. Columbus challenged that the universe was round as opposed to level. Copernicus, pant, stated that the Sun is more likely to be the centre of our solar system and non the Earth. It was forward minds like these gentleman that brought about a alteration in society that would get down taking to a patterned advance of alteration instead than a stale and dead being that had been most outstanding in the clip period merely before the outgrowth of the Renaissance. A displacement in the manner society thought would be the accelerator for transmutation of the universe. Critically of import to this displacement in thought was the innovation of Gutenberg’s publishing imperativeness with movable type, which aided the spread of the Renaissance. Prior to holding the printed word, humanity relied on unwritten conveyance of cognition. Perpetrating information to memory was critical to successful life. The passage to books may hold damned memory as was one time known, but it besides provided chances to a turning displacement in idea to the multitudes. Printed books became more readily available and people learned to read and derive entree to a wide scope of cognition. As printing imperativenesss were established in Italy and other parts of Europe, printed books exposed educated Europeans to new thoughts and new topographic points. The add-on of printed plants, made available to the multitudes, added a more finite being to the constructs being fed to the populace. Opinions and ideas on social things were now being published for anyone with the ability to read to devour. Changing positions had a new friend that would assist present them to more people across the Earth, motivating quicker and more efficient transmutation. The general populace now had entree to the ideas of people like Martin Luther thanks in big portion to the printing imperativeness. This sort of handiness to positions such as Luther’s led to legion persons oppugning the current being of established establishments such as faith and authorities. In many ways the printed word helped launch positions to people that may hold been less prone to hearing those same constructs by word of oral cavity. These ideas were now able to be readily accessed by many, fostering an development of thought and construct that would alter the class of social development. Monarchial foundations would get down to be questioned as displacements in position led manner to an epoch of enlightenment. Past traditions and undisputed religion would be challenged by philosophers like Bacon, Locke, and Voltaire. Debating thoughts about authorities and single rights finally led to dispute of traditional regulation. Ultimately a path was paved for rebellion, most notably with the American and Gallic revolutions. Timess were switching from authorities of a supreme swayer to that of a way for single privileges. It makes perfect sense that when freedom comes from that which has kept us down, it is clip to get down to spread out and come on in efficiency. Emancipating ourselves from old traditions allows us to travel frontward and to boom more creatively. This is what the industrial revolution was to me. It was a clip following the separation of traditional authorities in which we could now develop ourselves and challenge ourselves in engineerings. Science and engineering progressed at such a rapid gait and new inventions were doing growing non merely feasible but at hand. Steam engines led to go and efficiency in machinery. Advanced fabrication procedures were made available because of growing in machining tools. It is a spot phantasmagoric to believe of the monumental displacements in industry from the late 18th century to mid 20th century. However, when you start to believe of how displacements in position and ways of idea can impact a civilization so rapidly, the concatenation reaction of development seems a small less incredible. It is still astonishing, but credible. Probably my favourite epoch that we had the chance to reflect upon and discuss was that in response to the industrial revolution, the romantic period. Puting accent on emotions and promoting art, literature, and music to new degrees was the halfway phase of this epoch. Switching from modern worlds, the romantic age stressed utilizing imaginativeness to visualise an flight. Poets like Keats, Shelley, and Lord Byron provided a more facile usage of linguistic communication that brought about power and beauty to the mundane. Romantic art centres more on the unmanageable, unpredictable nature as opposed to the controlled order seen in the enlightenment period. Romanticism was and still is all about experiencing no affair what the topic. There is no uncertainty that the promotions we have been able to analyze dating back to the Renaissance have come about quick, comparatively talking. The fact that we have seen geographic expeditions to new lands, freedoms won over oppressors, people able to wing, atomic arms created all in a small over five hundred old ages is mind blowing to state the least. To believe that merely about five centuries ago our universe was still perceived to be the centre of the existence and a level land. No uncertainty about it that a displacement in position was required to convey about a concatenation reaction of alteration. Challenging old thoughts and puting out to turn out new 1s is no original construct. The cardinal difference that enabled the point of view displacements in the Renaissance period to alter the class of our universe was the ability to acquire those new ideas in to the custodies of the multitudes. I wouldn’t needfully travel so far as to state that Gutenberg singlehandedly altered our class by his innovation. But he surely played a major portion in acquiring that class apparatus so that the driving force of disputing idea and position had a topographic point to travel. Once the class of the printed word was set, original positions were now able to travel frontward and convey about inquiries that institute planetary alteration. It about seems that now we have entered in to a period where we have become complacent with where we are. At least from a engineering point of view. Possibly there isn’t much more to contrive or alter. Possibly. I tend to believe that’s far from the truth nevertheless, and hopefully there’s a whole batch more philosophers on the skyline that will go on disputing and forcing us to the following epoch. It’s a good thing to acquire a alteration in position from clip to clip.

Reflections Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Reflections - Assignment Example There are also other researches that have been recommended to be conducted in future about all the topics learned in the lecture. However, the lecture is quite wide thus lack of concentration could lead to an individual failing in the entire lecture. There are four projects that are presented in the transportation engineering lecture. The first one is travel behaviors that investigate the behaviors that individuals undertake in the course of their travelling. The second one is SUT RN, automated cars and finally in food deserts. Automated cars make it easier for individuals to drive than the manual cars. One of the engineering projects that I found interesting is automated cars. This topic is interesting since I was able to learn more about this self driving car. It is capable of fulfilling the capabilities of a manual car. I was interested in learning that this car is able to sense the surrounding environment and navigate without any human input. Overall, the lecture was an interesting one to learn. I was able to know new things and understand what happens in transportation engineering. The lecturer was able to ensure that all students understood what was being taught. In addition, the lecturer made the lecture more fun by ensuring that all students were thoroughly

NURSES' RESPONSIBILITY in the Prevention of Medication Errors Assignment

NURSES' RESPONSIBILITY in the Prevention of Medication Errors - Assignment Example ‘‘The problem of medication errors can be avoided only when the nurses take a keen interest on their jobs by being highly skilled in their profession’’ (Joint Commission Resources, Inc. 2001, 13). Nurses Responsibility in the Prevention of Medication Errors Have you ever imagined a world where there are no nurses? Individuals would be succumbing to deaths from various causes like injuries to sickness. Nurses’ role can never be underestimated as they play a significant part in saving lives in both public and hospital hospitals since in most cases medication errors leads to ‘‘complex sorrows’’ (Cohen, 2007, 50). This essay discusses nurses’ responsibility in the prevention of medications errors. One of the duties of a nurse is the administration of drugs. Even when the other processes of treatment have been properly completed, wrong administration of drugs can lead to serious problems to the patient. ‘‘Some o f the worst medication errors involve some of the best and experienced practitioners’’ (Cohen, 2007, 49) It is therefore necessary for the nurse to ensure that the drugs reach the patient through the correct route. An example, oral liquid medications meant for administration through a gastric tube have been given intravenously ear drops have been instilled in the eye and eye drops in the ear (Joint Commission Resources, Inc. 2001). Another role of the nurse is patient education. It is the responsibility of the nurse to educate their patients on safe medication use. The patient should be fully aware of what each of the medications are for, the way they should be taken, how it appears, and how they functions to be to help reduce the likelihood of medication errors. Nurses should, therefore, counsel and educate their patients about their medications at all times. Since nurses administer medicines and injections to patients; they are also bound to ensure that there are no dose miscalculations to help reduce medication errors. Dose miscalculations are extremely common medications drugs administered intravenously and medications used for pediatric patients. Studies have shown that errors in dose calculations in pediatric, are not only common but also fatal: mistakes of 10 fold or more happen up to 1.5% of the time (Joint Commission Resources, Inc. 2001). Nurses should accurately apply the three methods before administering doses to their patients to prevent medication errors. They are the basic formula which is commonly used by nurses in most hospitals, ratio and proportion methods which is outdated as it was used before the advent of technology, and the fractional calculation method. Accurate administration of calculated doses assist in the medication administration process as it leads to better quality information with which a doctor or nurse should prescribe a treatment. Nurses are also tasked with admitting and discharging patients; therefore, they are expected to get the information regarding the patients’ history and other medical details. This information is helpful in cases where the patient has an allergy to the same medication he is to be put on. ‘Failure by the nurse to take correct history of allergy can lead to serious problems in the event of administration of drugs that causes allergic reactions to the patient’. The Lesar and colleagues study on factors associated with prescribing errors found out that the allergy to drug rate was 11.7%, a

Telomeres and Tumors Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Telomeres and Tumors - Research Paper Example At one time, the DNA at the ends of chromosomes seemed to be static. Yet in most organisms that have been studied, the tips, called telomeres, are actually ever changing; they shorten and lengthen repeatedly† (Glieder and Blackburn). Since the past fifteen years, there have been remarkable findings, with respect to this change. Getting to the specifics, it has led to the discovery of theastonishing enzyme, telomerase that acts on telomeres and is considered a pre requisite for the maintenance of cancer in human being. Geneticists, Barbara McClintock, of University of Missouri at Columbia, and Hermann J. Muller, from the University of Edinburgh, are credited with having done extensive work on the intricate subjects of telomeres and telomerase. These scientists workedunconnectedly and with dissimilar organisms, however both of them realized that chromosomes were stabilized by a special component on their ends. â€Å"Muller coined the term telomere, from the Greek for end (telos) and part (meros). McClintock noted that without these end caps, chromosomes stick to one another, undergo structural changes and misbehave in other ways. These activities threaten the survival and faithful replication of chromosomes and, consequently, of the cells housing them.† (Glieder and Blackburn). ... â€Å"The observed heterogeneity led Blackburn, who had moved to the University of California at Berkeley, Jack W. Szostak of Harvard University and Janis Shampay of Berkeley to propose a new solution to what has been called the end-replication problem† (Glieder and Blackburn). â€Å"In 1972 James D. Watson, working at both Harvard and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, noted that DNA polymerases, the enzymes that replicate DNA, could not copy linear chromosomes all the way to the tip. Hence, the replication machinery had to leave a small region at the end (a piece of the telomere) un-copied.† (Glieder and Blackburn). Theoretically, if the cells were unable to reimburse for this fluke, chromosomes would decrease in their respective lengths, with each level of mitosis. The corrosion henceforth eradicating the telomeres and perilous genes in some group of the cells. The variations in the length of telomere, for the scientists, were an indicator that cells uphold telomeres at a constant size, or at least they try to. The telomeres decrease in length during mitosis, but their length also increases as freshly formed subunits attach themselves to them. â€Å"The researchers suspected that the source of these additional repeats was some undiscovered enzyme capable of a trick that standard DNA polymerases could not perform.† (Glieder and Blackburn). â€Å"When cells replicate their chromosomes, which consist of two strands of DNA twisted around each other, they begin by separating the double helix. The polymerases use each of these parentstrands as a template for constructing a new partner. The special enzyme the workers envisioned would be able to build extensions to single strands of DNA from scratch, without benefit of an existing DNA template.† (Glieder

Development of Research Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Development of Research Questions - Essay Example This study has therefore posed a broad based primary research question as follows: In order to arrive at meaningful answers to this research question, a qualitative questionnaire survey approach is proposed. This method of inquiry appears to be best suited to answer the main research question posed above, because such a questionnaire directed towards former juvenile prison inmates would help to elicit their first hand views on the nature of the prison programs. Since the questionnaire would also seek to determine what the former inmates are engaged in presently, it would also help in providing some insight into how many of them have been able to move into a gainful existence in terms of employment or education. This would also provide a means of inferring whether the prison programs those former inmates experienced were effective or not. If the survey questionnaire is to function effectively in answering the research question, it must also contain questions that can elicit information on some other aspects. Firstly, the questionnaire must contain demographic information, such as the age and sex of the respondent, as well as their current occupation and education levels. Secondly, the questionnaire should also seek to determine whether these former juvenile inmates have committed crimes after their release from prison. Thirdly, the questionnaire should also attempt to determine why they chose to offend again, if they had pursued that path. Research has suggested that while the experience of incarceration does place juvenile inmates into a position of readiness to accept positive changes and modify their conduct, prison fails to provide these inmates with the skills they need to bring about these changes (Ashker & Kenny, 2008). Their opinions and views of the prison programs will have to be determined, to arrive at in ferences about whether or not they found these

Statistic with word and excel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Statistic with word and excel - Essay Example Factors that are expected to influence female fertility rate are the country’s wealth, the women’s position in society, the general state of health of the country, and the strength of family planning programmes adopted in the country. The following variables are designated for the study: OBS = observation, i.e. record count TFR = the total fertility rate, proxy of the growth of the population GNPPC = Gross National Product per capita in US Dollars, the proxy for country wealth FL = the percentage of the female population who are literate, the proxy for women’s social position CM = the child mortality rate per 1000 of live births, as proxy of the country’s state of health FP = an index of the strength of family planning in the country This study shall seek to determine the extent to which population growth (TFR) may be explained by the country wealth (GNPPC), women’s social position (FL), the country’s state of health (CM), and the strength of family planning in the country (FP). 2. Descriptive statistics Data have been gathered for 64 periods, indicating the variables TFR, GNPPC, FP, CM, and FL. The tabulated values have been collated and their descriptive statistics follow: Descriptive statistics of data gathered    TFR GNPPC FP CM FL Mean 5.55 1401.25 36.60 141.50 51.19 Mode 6.50 300.00 16.70 142.00 22.00 Median 6.04 620.00 28.65 138.50 48.00 Max 8.49 19830.00 101.10 312.00 95.00 Min 1.69 120.00 3.70 12.00 9.00 Std Dev 1.51 2725.70 27.03 75.98 26.01 Six descriptive statistics have been garnered: mean, which is the average of the data items; the mode which is the value that appears most frequently, and the median which is the value of the term in the middle of the range of values. The range is indicated by the maximum and the minimum, which are also determined above. Finally, the standard deviation, which is a measure of how much the individual observations in each term differ from the mean value for the group; it is a measure of the dispersion of the data from the mean. The graph following shows the observations for the variables except GNPPC. The reason why GNPPC was left out of the graph was because the values of this variable are of a much higher order than the other variables, rendering the latter indistinguishable in a graph scaled to meet GNPPC. The line graphs do not appear to show any strong correlations in the variation of any of the variables with each other. A cursory inspection of the descriptive statistics shows that the mean is higher than the median and mode for the GNPPC, FP and FL, and higher than the median, but not the mode, for CM. This indicates that the distribution tends to converge towards the higher end of the value range for these independent variables. On the other hand, the mean for TFR is lower than both the mode and the median, suggesting that the values for the dependent variable tended towards the lower end of the value range. The difference in directions betwee n dependent and independent variables appears to suggest a negatively correlated relationship. Moreover, outliers appear to exist in GNPPC, given the very high maximum value compared to either mean, mode or median. The high outlier may account for the abnormally high mean in comparison to the mode and median. In this