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This paper is set in the framework of the Eurolect Observatory Project, which is studying the differences between the EU varieties of legislative language (Eurolects) and their corresponding national legal varieties in 11 languages (Mori 2018). In this paper, our focus is on ethics and legislation: more specifically, the research question is whether any differences can be detected in the discursive construction of ethically sensitive issues in the English version of EU directives, their related national transposition measures adopted in the UK, and press articles reporting on the introduction, revision or implementation of such laws. In this sense, news reports and comments are seen as sitting at the end of a genre chain covering the whole spectre of knowledge dissemination, from the expert (legislation) to the popularising level (newspaper article). The ethically sensitive issues in question concern human health and animal welfare, and the corpora used for the study were selected from the English section of the EOMC (Eurolect Observatory Multilingual Corpus) and from the Lexis-Nexis database of press articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents insights on the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying (LCP) in England. Topics discussed include the advantages of the specialist palliative medicine training programme, move of nursing towards the medical model, use of established integrated care pathway methods to birth the LCP as a response to poor care and uncertainty of diagnosing the dying. Also included is a parable of six blind men and its application on the palliative care setting.

The article presents the results of bibliometric analysis of published stem cell research between 1999 and 2008. The study's goals and methodology are described, and an overview of the aims and methodology of bibliometrics is presented. The author's emphasis on the importance of stem cell research and the usefulness of the study for highlighting what research has been done is commented on, and findings including the primacy of the U.S., England, and the Netherlands in stem cell research and India's substantial contributions among developing countries are discussed.

The article analyzes regulatory design strategies and enforcement approaches in Australia and Great Britain concerning research on human embryos and cloning. The Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and the Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Act 2006 (Cth) was given Royal Assent on December 12, 2006 in Britain. Australia adopted a similar regulatory system in 2002 for research involving human embryos and cloning.

In recent decades the traditional model of policy making, which strongly relies on expert advice, came under pressure and calls for increased public participation in decision making became louder. Advocates of the latter expect that this will contribute to a democratisation of decision making processes. This article presents a comparative analysis of organised public involvement in processes leading to the regulation of embryonic stem cell research in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. My analysis shows that the articulation of public views was closely related to the form in which public engagements were structured. An open structure attracted knowledgeable publics capable of articulating views and concerns which were considerably different from those identified by experts. This public was primarily concerned about the long-term social and cultural impacts, whereas experts assessing the new developments tended to focus on benefits and risks. The discussion of these more inclusive legislative processes suggests that the expectations regarding democratisation should be tempered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the regulatory framework on stem cell research in relation to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act 1990 in Great Britain. It presents an analysis of the ethical and policy debates leading to the legal controls on embryo research as incorporated in the HFE Act 1990. Moreover, it notes the background to Parliament's adoption of the regulations and court rulings relevant to the HFE Act 1990.

Objective To investigate the impact of GDC registration and mandatory CPD on dental nurses' views, job satisfaction and intention to leave.Design Postal/online survey, conducted in parallel with a survey of dental technicians.Setting UK private and NHS practices, community services, dental hospitals.Subjects and methods Representative sample of General Dental Council registrants.Main outcome measures Job satisfaction; intention to leave profession (dependent variable in regression analysis).Results Eleven were ineligible (left profession, moved abroad); 267 (44% of those eligible) responded, all female. Respondents' mean age was 38.2 years (sd 10.74). The general principle of registration was endorsed by 67%, and compulsory registration by 51%, but the fee level by only 6%. Most nurses did not feel that registration had affected their view of dental nursing as a career (56%), their role (74%) or status (86%) within the dental team, or that CPD helped them to do their job better (76%). Fiftly-six percent were not satisfied with their job, and 22% intended to leave the profession. Intention to leave was predicted by younger age and greater dissatisfaction with physical working conditions and opportunities to progress.Conclusions Widely held criticisms regarding the costs and relevance of registration and CPD coupled with a potentially high level of attrition from the profession suggest a review of the fee and salary structure and greater financial support for CPD is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diet is a modifiable risk factor for pancreatic cancer. We hypothesized that specific dietary patterns would increase/decrease pancreatic cancer risk. We evaluated the association of dietary patterns with pancreatic cancer risk in the UK Women's Cohort Study. Dietary patterns were assessed at enrollment using: (1) self-reported practice of vegan/vegetarian dietary habits, (2) diet quality indices (World Health Organization Healthy Diet Indicator and Mediterranean Diet Score), and (3) principal component analysis-derived dietary patterns. The association of dietary patterns with pancreatic cancer incidence was quantified using Cox regression survival analysis. Over a median follow-up of 19 years of 35,365 respondents, there were 136 incident cases of pancreatic cancer. No association between dietary habits/quality and pancreatic cancer incidence was evident after adjustments (hazard ratio (95% confidence interval): self-reported omnivores vs vegan/vegetarian dietary habit: 1.13 (0.73-1.76); per-unit increase in World Health Organization Healthy Diet Indicator scores: 0.99 (0.91-1.09); per-unit increase in Mediterranean Diet Score: 0.92 (0.83-1.02). Similarly, no association of principal component analysis-derived dietary patterns with pancreatic cancer risk was evident ("prudent:" 1.02 [0.94-1.10]; ''meat-based:'' 1.00 [0.92-1.09]; ''fast-food, sugar-sweetened beverages, and carbohydrate-rich snacks:'' 0.96 [0.86-1.07]; ''cereal and dairy-rich:'' 1.04 [0.94-1.16], and ''low-diversity and lowfat:'' 1.00 [0.89-1.13]). In this prospective cohort of women, several major dietary patterns were of poor quality. There was no evidence of a prospective association between any of the dietary patterns explored and pancreatic cancer incidence. Dietary patterns in the United Kingdom (UK) Women's Cohort Study were assessed in 3 ways: (1) self-reported vegan/vegetarian practice, (2) World Health Organization and Mediterranean Diet Scores, and (3) data-driven approach. Major dietary patterns in the UK Women's Cohort Study described using these 3 methods showed no association with pancreatic cancer risk. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Adrenal insufficiency can happen because of decreased cortisol production as a result of negative feedback on the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, caused by excess exogenous glucocorticoids (GC). The most common cause of adrenal insufficiency is, in fact, abrupt stoppage of exogenous GC. Patients with adrenal insufficiency are at risk of developing life-threatening adrenal crisis if GC is reduced or stopped abruptly, or if GC dose is not increased during periods of increased stress. The adrenal crises should be preventable with education of patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) about "sick-day" rules, the importance of "steroid cards," and the utility of parenteral steroids. Methods This study was aimed at assessing the knowledge of sick-day rules in patients on long-term GC as well as HCPs. Patients aged above 18 years on long-term GC presenting to the endocrinology clinic over 6 weeks were included after audit-committee approval. Results We assessed 18 consecutive patients in total, 61% (11/18) of whom said that they have received information about sick-day rules from an HCP. Only 38% (7/18) had access to emergency hydrocortisone-kit. We assessed 36 HCPs. Thirty-six (13/36) percent were aware of steroid emergency card and 50% (18/36) HCPs exhibited awareness regarding steroid dose during acute event and 27% of (10/36) HCPs were aware of accessible hospital intranet resources. Conclusion This study revealed significant lack of awareness of sick-day rules among patients and HCPs alike. Majority of patients failed to carry steroid emergency card or medic alert bracelet and majority of HCPs and patients lacked knowledge of sick-day rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Pancreatic cancer has a poor survival rate and its modifiable risks are poorly understood. We investigated the association between both traditional (BMI, waist and hip circumference and waist–hip ratio) and novel (standard UK clothing sizes) adiposity indicators as predictors of pancreatic cancer risk among women enrolled in the UK women's cohort study (UKWCS). When adjusted for known confounders like age, education, smoking and physical activity, hip circumference and skirt size were both significant predictors of pancreatic cancer risk in the median follow-up of approximately 19 years. BMI became a significant predictor of pancreatic cancer risk when potential latent cases of pancreatic cancer were excluded from the analysis. Thus, adiposity indicators, specifically hip circumference and standard skirt size, are useful to predict pancreatic cancer among women and should therefore be routinely documented in both national surveys and epidemiological studies. (1) Background: We studied the association of both conventional (BMI, waist and hip circumference and waist–hip ratio) and novel (UK clothing sizes) obesity indices with pancreatic cancer risk in the UK women's cohort study (UKWCS). (2) Methods: The UKWCS recruited 35,792 women from England, Wales and Scotland from 1995 to 1998. Cancer diagnosis and death information were obtained from the National Health Service (NHS) Central Register. Cox's proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the association between baseline obesity indicators and pancreatic cancer risk. (3) Results: This analysis included 35,364 participants with a median follow-up of 19.3 years. During the 654,566 person-years follow up, there were 136 incident pancreatic cancer cases. After adjustments for age, smoking, education and physical activity, each centimetre increase in hip circumference (HR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01–1.05, p = 0.009) and each size increase in skirt size (HR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.02–1.23, p = 0.041) at baseline increased pancreatic cancer risk. Baseline BMI became a significant predictor of pancreatic cancer risk (HR: 1.04, 95% CI: 1.00–1.08, p = 0.050) when latent pancreatic cancer cases were removed. Only baseline hip circumference was associated with pancreatic cancer risk (HR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.00–1.05, p = 0.017) when participants with diabetes at baseline were excluded to control for reverse causality. (4) Conclusion: Hip circumference and skirt size were significant predictors of pancreatic cancer risk in the primary analysis. Thus, hip circumference is useful to assess body shape relationships. Additionally, standard skirt sizes offer an economical and objective alternative to conventional obesity indices for evaluating pancreatic cancer risk in women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]