Assistive technology has great potential to contribute to health, functioning, and quality of life. To date, as exemplified in the Canadian context, variations and inequities in access to assistive technology are evident; the development of legislation, policies, and programs has not kept up with the increasing use of assistive technology. In this article, we apply ;Daniels’s (2008) theory of just health to argue that equitable access to assistive technology funding and services is necessary for justice. In doing so, we offer (...) theoretical guidance for the development of legislation, policies, and programs to guide such access in health and social services. (shrink)

The application of genetic technologies in China, especially in the area of prenatal genetic testing, is rapidly increasing in China. In the wealthy regions of China, prenatal genetic testing is already very widely adopted. We argue that the government should actively promote prenatal genetic testing to the poor areas of the country. In fact, the government should prioritize resources first to make prenatal genetic testing a standard routine care with an opt-out model in these area. Healthcare professions would be required (...) to inform pregnant women about the availability of genetic testing and provide free testing on a routine basis unless the parents choose not to do so. We argue that this proposal will allow parents to make a more informed decision about their reproductive choices. Secondarily, this proposal will attract more healthcare professionals and other healthcare resources to improve the healthcare infrastructures in the less-developed regions of the country. This will help to reduce the inequity of accessing healthcare services between in different regions of China. We further argue that this policy proposal is not practicing eugenics. (shrink)

FoLLI-LNCS is the publication platform for the Association of Logic, Language and Information. The Association was founded in 1991 to advance research and education on the interface between logic, linguistics, computer science, and cognitive science. The FoLLI Publications on Logic, Language and Information aim to disseminate results of cutting-edge research and tutorial materials in these interdisciplinary areas. This LNCS volume is part of FoLLi book serie and contains the papers presented at the 5th International Workshop on Logic, Rationality and Interaction/, (...) held in October 2015 in Taipei, Taiwan. The topics covered in this program well represent the span and depth that hasby now become a trademark of the LORI workshop series, where logic interfaceswith disciplines as diverse as game theory and decision theory, philosophyand epistemology, linguistics, computer science and artificial intelligence. (shrink)

Previous studies have found that P1 and P2 components were more sensitive to configural and featural face processing, respectively, when attentional resources were sufficient, suggesting that face processing follows a coarse-to-fine sequence. However, the role of working memory load in the time course of configural and featural face processing is poorly understood, especially whether it differs during encoding and retrieval stages. This study employed a delayed recognition task with varying WM load and face spatial frequency. Our behavioral and ERP results (...) showed that WM load modulated face SF processing. Specifically, for the encoding stage, P1 and P2 were more sensitive to broadband SF faces, while N170 was more sensitive to low SF and BSF faces. For the retrieval stage, P1 on the right hemisphere was more sensitive to BSF faces relative to HSF faces, N170 was more sensitive to LSF faces than HSF faces, especially under the load 1 condition, while P2 was more sensitive to high SF faces than HSF faces, especially under load 3 condition. These results indicate that faces are perceived less finely during the encoding stage, whereas face perception follows a coarse-to-fine sequence during the retrieval stage, which is influenced by WM load. The coarse and fine information were processed especially under the low and high load conditions, respectively. (shrink)

In the last decade, Family Group Conferences have increasingly been used to help people and their networks deal with their problems. The FGC fits well with the call for equal rights and self-management coming from clients and client movements, as well as the economy-driven pressure towards more informal and less professional care coming from governments. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the underlying theory to explain how the FGC works. In this article, we aim to provide such a (...) theoretical basis by examining how the concept of empowerment can be linked with the basic assumptions underlying the FGC. Can making a plan of their own indeed help to empower people and if so, how does the process of empowerment proceed? Empowerment is often mentioned as a goal of the FGC, but authors are not unanimous when it comes to the operationalisation of empowerment, especially on the relational level of the person in his or her social context. In the article, we use the concepts of relational autonomy and resilience to conceptualize empowerment on the relational and individual level. (shrink)

Based on a survey of 2,361 directors in 291 of the largest companies of the Southeast States, this study empirically examined boards of directors' stakeholder orientations. The results indicate that there exist distinct stakeholder groups perceived by directors, directors have high stakeholder orientations, directors view some stakeholders differently depending on their occupation and type.

The RecA family proteins mediate homologous recombination, a ubiquitous mechanism for repairing DNA double‐strand breaks (DSBs) and stalled replication forks. Members of this family include bacterial RecA, archaeal RadA and Rad51, and eukaryotic Rad51 and Dmc1. These proteins bind to single‐stranded DNA at a DSB site to form a presynaptic nucleoprotein filament, align this presynaptic filament with homologous sequences in another double‐stranded DNA segment, promote DNA strand exchange and then dissociate. It was generally accepted that RecA family proteins function throughout (...) their catalytic cycles as right‐handed helical filaments with six protomers per helical turn. However, we recently reported that archaeal RadA proteins can also form an extended right‐handed filament with three monomers per helical turn and a left‐handed protein filament with four monomers per helical turn. Subsequent structural and functional analyses suggest that RecA family protein filaments, similar to the F1‐ATPase rotary motor, perform ATP‐dependent clockwise axial rotation during their catalytic cycles. This new hypothesis has opened a new avenue for understanding the molecular mechanism of RecA family proteins in homologous recombination. BioEssays 30:48–56, 2008. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The RecA family proteins mediate homologous recombination, a ubiquitous mechanism for repairing DNA double‐strand breaks (DSBs) and stalled replication forks. Members of this family include bacterial RecA, archaeal RadA and Rad51, and eukaryotic Rad51 and Dmc1. These proteins bind to single‐stranded DNA at a DSB site to form a presynaptic nucleoprotein filament, align this presynaptic filament with homologous sequences in another double‐stranded DNA segment, promote DNA strand exchange and then dissociate. It was generally accepted that RecA family proteins function throughout (...) their catalytic cycles as right‐handed helical filaments with six protomers per helical turn. However, we recently reported that archaeal RadA proteins can also form an extended right‐handed filament with three monomers per helical turn and a left‐handed protein filament with four monomers per helical turn. Subsequent structural and functional analyses suggest that RecA family protein filaments, similar to the F1‐ATPase rotary motor, perform ATP‐dependent clockwise axial rotation during their catalytic cycles. This new hypothesis has opened a new avenue for understanding the molecular mechanism of RecA family proteins in homologous recombination. BioEssays 30:48–56, 2008. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Recently, several studies have demonstrated that tetracyclines, the antibiotics most intensively used in livestock and that are also widely applied in biomedical research, interrupt mitochondrial proteostasis and physiology in animals ranging from round worms, fruit flies, and mice to human cell lines. Importantly, plant chloroplasts, like their mitochondria, are also under certain conditions vulnerable to these and other antibiotics that are leached into our environment. Together these endosymbiotic organelles are not only essential for cellular and organismal homeostasis stricto sensu, but (...) also have an important role to play in the sustainability of our ecosystem as they maintain the delicate balance between autotrophs and heterotrophs, which fix and utilize energy, respectively. Therefore, stricter policies on antibiotic usage are absolutely required as their use in research confounds experimental outcomes, and their uncontrolled applications in medicine and agriculture pose a significant threat to a balanced ecosystem and the well‐being of these endosymbionts that are essential to sustain health.Also watch the Video Abstract. (shrink)

The WHO Consultative Group on Equity and Universal Health Coverage published a comprehensive report titled “Making Fair Choices on the Path to Universal Health Coverage” detailing strategies that countries should adopt when moving towards providing healthcare coverage to the entire population. The report provides detailed guidelines on how to expand coverage to more people, what services should be covered, and how to prioritize these healthcare resources in achieving universal healthcare coverage. The main goal of this WHO report is to ensure (...) fair and equitable access for all population groups within a country during the implementation of UHC. In principle, the group’s approach is sound and fair, but we argue that each country must take into account its own unique situations in designing a pathway towards UHC. China has achieved near UHC but did so by an approach that would have been deemed completely unacceptable based on this group’s recommendations. In this article, we provide a brief review of the Chinese healthcare system and argue that the implementation of the recommendations in the report is not always feasible. We argue that there are alternate pathways towards achieving UHC and there are good reasons for China’s departure from the approach outlined by the WHO report. Nevertheless, we acknowledge substantial inequities still exist for various segments of the population and among the diverse areas of China in accessing healthcare services and make suggestions on how to reduce such inequities within the system. (shrink)

The evolution of a variety of important chromophore‐dependent biological processes, including microbial light sensing and mammalian color vision, relies on protein modifications that alter the spectral characteristics of a bound chromophore. Three different color opsins share the same chromophore, but have three distinct absorptions that together cover the entire visible spectrum, giving rise to trichromatic vision. The influence of opsins on the absorbance of the chromophore has been studied through methods such as model compounds, opsin mutagenesis, and computational modeling. The (...) recent development of rhodopsin mimic that uses small soluble proteins to recapitulate the binding and wavelength tuning of the native opsins provides a new platform for studying protein‐regulated spectral tuning. The ability to achieve far‐red shifted absorption in the rhodopsin mimic system was attributed to a combination of the lack of a counteranion proximal to the iminium, and a uniformly neutral electrostatic environment surrounding the chromophore. (shrink)

The question as to why some hosts can eradicate their tumors while others succumb to tumor‐progression remains unanswered. Here, a provocative concept is proposed that intrinsic differences in the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire of individuals may influence the outcome of anti‐tumor immunity by affecting the frequency and/or variety of tumor‐reactive CD8 and/or CD4 tumor‐infiltrating lymphocytes. This idea implicates that the TCR repertoire in a given patient might not provide sufficiently different TCR clones that can recognize tumor antigens, namely, “a (...) hole in the TCR repertoire” might exist. This idea may provide a novel perspective to further dissect the mechanisms underlying heterogeneous anti‐tumor immune responses in different hosts. Besides tumor‐intrinsic heterogeneity and host microbiome, the various factors that may constantly shape the dynamic TCR repertoire are also discussed. Elucidating mechanistic differences in different individuals’ immune systems will allow to better harness immune system to design new personalized cancer immunotherapy. (shrink)