scholarly journals Risk, uncertainty and regulation

2011 ◽  
Vol 369 (1956) ◽  
pp. 4842-4852 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Bovine Tuberculosis ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Objective Assessment ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Excessive Drinking ◽  
Perceptions Of Risk ◽  
Subjective Perceptions ◽  
Scientific Experts ◽  
The Relationship

This paper reviews the relationship between scientific evidence, uncertainty, risk and regulation. Risk has many different meanings. Furthermore, if risk is defined as the likelihood of an event happening multiplied by its impact, subjective perceptions of risk often diverge from the objective assessment. Scientific evidence may be ambiguous. Scientific experts are called upon to assess risks, but there is often uncertainty in their assessment, or disagreement about the magnitude of the risk. The translation of risk assessments into policy is a political judgement that includes consideration of the acceptability of the risk and the costs and benefits of legislation to reduce the risk. These general points are illustrated with reference to three examples: regulation of risk from pesticides, control of bovine tuberculosis and pricing of alcohol as a means to discourage excessive drinking.

Independence of Experts and Standards for Evaluation of Scientific Evidence under the SPS Agreement – New Directions in the SPS Case Law

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Arcuri ◽  
Lukasz Gruszczynski ◽  
Alexia Herwig
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Objective Assessment ◽  
Standard Setting ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Institutional Affiliation ◽  
International Standard ◽  
New Directions ◽  
The Relationship

Under Section II of the Rules of Conduct for the DSU, the institutional affiliation of experts may be considered as an element that casts doubts on their impartiality and independence. Under Articles 5.1 and 5.7 of the SPS Agreement, the level of protection that a particular country is ready to tolerate may inform risk assessment and have an impact on the determination of insufficiency of scientific evidence. In a situation in which there is sufficient scientific evidence for performance of risk assessment in one of the international standard setting-organizations, one may still find insufficiency as provided by Article 5.7 if new data puts into question the relationship between the relevant scientific evidence and the conclusions in relation to risk, thereby not permitting the performance of a sufficiently objective assessment of risk (authors’ headnote).

Influence of the Intestinal Microbiota on Diabetes Management

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 1603-1615
Author(s):  
Eva Alvarez-Vieites ◽  
Arora López-Santamarina ◽  
José M. Miranda ◽  
Alicia del Carmen Mondragón ◽  
Alexandre Lamas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Intestinal Microbiota ◽  
Diabetes Management ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Experimental Animals ◽  
Low Intensity ◽  
New Treatments ◽  
The Relationship

In recent decades, there has been a very rapid increase in the prevalence of diabetes globally, with serious health and economic implications. Although today there are several therapeutic treatments for this disease, these do not address the causes of the disease and have serious side effects, so it is necessary to seek new treatments to replace or complement the existing ones. Among these complementary treatments, a strong link between the intestinal microbiota and diabetes has been demonstrated, which has focused attention on the use of biotherapy to regulate the function of the intestinal microbiota and, thus, treat diabetes. In this way, the main objective of this work is to provide a review of the latest scientific evidence on diabetes, gathering information about new trends in its management, and especially, the influence of the intestinal microbiota and microbiome on this pathology. It is possible to conclude that the relationship between the intestinal microbiota and diabetes is carried out through alterations in energy metabolism, the immune system, changes in intestinal permeability, and a state of low-intensity systemic inflammation. Although, currently, most of the experimental work, using probiotics for diabetes management, has been done on experimental animals, the results obtained are promising. Thus, the modification of the microbiota through biotherapy has shown to improve the symptoms and severity of diabetes through various mechanisms related to these alterations.

scholarly journals New Insights into Molecular Mechanism behind Anti-Cancer Activities of Lycopene

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (13) ◽  
pp. 3888
Author(s):  
Boon-Peng Puah ◽  
Juriyati Jalil ◽  
Ali Attiq ◽  
Yusof Kamisah
Keyword(s):  
Immune Cells ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Real Potential ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Anti Cancer ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cancer Activity ◽  
Reduced Risk

Lycopene is a well-known compound found commonly in tomatoes which brings wide range of health benefits against cardiovascular diseases and cancers. From an anti-cancer perspective, lycopene is often associated with reduced risk of prostate cancer and people often look for it as a dietary supplement which may help to prevent cancer. Previous scientific evidence exhibited that the anti-cancer activity of lycopene relies on its ability to suppress oncogene expressions and induce proapoptotic pathways. To further explore the real potential of lycopene in cancer prevention, this review discusses the new insights and perspectives on the anti-cancer activities of lycopene which could help to drive new direction for research. The relationship between inflammation and cancer is being highlighted, whereby lycopene suppresses cancer via resolution of inflammation are also discussed herein. The immune system was found to be a part of the anti-cancer system of lycopene as it modulates immune cells to suppress tumor growth and progression. Lycopene, which is under the family of carotenoids, was found to play special role in suppressing lung cancer.

Desire for Attention

1977 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. T. Welford
Keyword(s):  
Social Skills ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Community Attitudes ◽  
Inhibit Action ◽  
The World ◽  
Inhibitory Feedback ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship

Seeking of attention appears to be intimately bound up with certain principles of motivation, especially the seeking of observable results of action and of optimum levels of stimulation, variety and challenge, and the relationship between results and the cost of achieving them—a high cost will tend to inhibit action but enhance the value subsequently placed upon what is achieved. These principles can be applied to personal relationships: thus friendship can be regarded as a situation involving facilitative feedback between persons, hostility as involving inhibitory feedback and loneliness as occurring when there is no feedback. Which of these situations occurs appears to depend upon the relationships between the costs and benefits of interaction between the persons concerned. The care of psychiatric or senile patients in the community appears likely to impose demands for attention which are unreasonably severe (“costly”). Any attempt to change community attitudes in the hope of securing greater acceptance of such demands appears to be unrealistic. Substantial benefits could probably be attained in many cases from training in skills, especially social skills, which would enable patients to cope more effectively with the world as it is.

scholarly journals How much is too much? (Part 1) International Olympic Committee consensus statement on load in sport and risk of injury

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (17) ◽  
pp. 1030-1041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torbjørn Soligard ◽  
Martin Schwellnus ◽  
Juan-Manuel Alonso ◽  
Roald Bahr ◽  
Ben Clarsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Consensus Statement ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
International Olympic Committee ◽  
Load Management ◽  
Risk Of Injury ◽  
Practical Guidelines ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Athletes participating in elite sports are exposed to high training loads and increasingly saturated competition calendars. Emerging evidence indicates that poor load management is a major risk factor for injury. The International Olympic Committee convened an expert group to review the scientific evidence for the relationship of load (defined broadly to include rapid changes in training and competition load, competition calendar congestion, psychological load and travel) and health outcomes in sport. We summarise the results linking load to risk of injury in athletes, and provide athletes, coaches and support staff with practical guidelines to manage load in sport. This consensus statement includes guidelines for (1) prescription of training and competition load, as well as for (2) monitoring of training, competition and psychological load, athlete well-being and injury. In the process, we identified research priorities.

scholarly journals Scientific Trust, Risk Assessment, and Conspiracy Beliefs about COVID-19 - Four Patterns of Consensus and Disagreement between Scientific Experts and the German Public

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Rothmund ◽  
Fahima Farkhari ◽  
Flavio Azevedo ◽  
Carolin-Theresa Ziemer
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
General Public ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Scientific Experts ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Motivational Structure

We investigated laypersons’ agreement with technical claims about the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 virus and with claims about the risk from COVID-19 in the general public in Germany (N = 1,575) and compared these with the evaluations of scientific experts (N = 128). Using Latent Class Analysis, we distinguished four segments in the general public. Two groups (mainstream and cautious, 73%) are generally consistent with scientific experts in their evaluations. Two groups (doubters and deniers, 27%) differ distinctively from expert evaluations and tend to believe in conspiracies about COVID-19. Deniers (8%) are characterized by low risk assessments, anti-elitist sentiments and low compliance with containment measures. Doubters (19%) are characterized by general uncertainty in the distinction between true and false claims and by low scientific literacy in terms of cognitive ability and style. Our research indicates that conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 cannot be linked to a single and distinct motivational structure.

scholarly journals Surveying the Chemical Anthropocene

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-202
Author(s):  
Yogi Hale Hendlin
Keyword(s):  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Chemical Exposure ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Toxic Chemical ◽  
Chemical Safety ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Sociotechnical Imaginaries ◽  
Financial Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Safety Assessments

Faced with the non-optional acceptance of toxic chemical artifacts, the ubiquitous interweaving of chemicals in our social fabric oft en exists out of sight and out of mind. Yet, for many, toxic exposures signal life-changing or life-ending events, phantom threats that fail to appear as such until they become too late to mitigate. Assessments of toxicological risk consist of what Sheila Jasanoff calls “sociotechnical imaginaries,” arbitrations between calculated costs and benefits, known risks and scientifically wrought justifications of safety. Prevalent financial conflicts of interest and the socially determined hazards posed by chemical exposure suggest that chemical safety assessments and regulations are a form of postnormal science. Focusing on the histories of risk assessments of pesticides such as DDT, atrazine, PFAS, and glyphosate, this article critically reviews Michel Serres’s notion of “appropriation by contamination.”

scholarly journals Ankyloglossia and breastfeeding: what is the evidence of association between them?

Revista CEFAC ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana do Rêgo Barros de Andrade Fraga ◽  
Kamilla Azoubel Barreto ◽  
Thaís Christine Barbosa Lira ◽  
Pâmella Robertha Rosselinne Paixão Celerino ◽  
Izi Tuanny da Silva Tavares ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neonatal Screening ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Integrative Review ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Evaluation Instrument ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Early Weaning ◽  
Maternity Hospitals ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACT Purpose: to investigate the scientific evidence, in the literature, of the relationship between ankyloglossia and breastfeeding difficulties. Methods: an integrative review of the literature. The MEDLINE and PubMed databases were searched, using the following descriptors in combination: "ankyloglossia", "newborn" and "breastfeeding". The searches included articles published between 2014 and 2019, in Portuguese, English and Spanish. Original articles demonstrating an association between ankyloglossia and breastfeeding issues were selected. Results: a total of 31 articles was fully read in the analysis, 22 of which were excluded and 9 included in the review. There was a diversity of instruments used for the diagnosis of ankyloglossia. In four studies, no standardized evaluation instrument was used for the diagnosis of ankyloglossia, which may limit the analysis of the results. However, most studies have evidenced a possible influence of ankyloglossia on breastfeeding. According to the studies, babies with altered lingual frenulum were more likely to experience difficulties in sucking, showing early weaning, which shows the importance of neonatal screening as a routine protocol in maternity hospitals for the cases of ankyloglossia. Conclusions: ankyloglossia may be related to impaired breastfeeding. The standardization of instruments for the diagnosis of ankyloglossia is necessary to improve the evidence in future research.

scholarly journals Antidepressants and Circadian Rhythm: Exploring Their Bidirectional Interaction for the Treatment of Depression

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1975
Author(s):  
Soraia Silva ◽  
Joana Bicker ◽  
Amílcar Falcão ◽  
Ana Fortuna
Keyword(s):  
Circadian Rhythms ◽  
Intracellular Signaling ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Antidepressant Drugs ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Drug Dosing ◽  
Signaling Systems ◽  
Treatment Of Depression ◽  
Target Molecules ◽  
The Relationship

Scientific evidence that circadian rhythms affect pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics has highlighted the importance of drug dosing-time. Circadian oscillations alter drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) as well as intracellular signaling systems, target molecules (e.g., receptors, transporters, and enzymes), and gene transcription. Although several antidepressant drugs are clinically available, less than 50% of depressed patients respond to first-line pharmacological treatments. Chronotherapeutic approaches to enhance the effectiveness of antidepressants are not completely known. Even so, experimental results found until this day suggest a positive influence of drug dosing-time on the efficacy of depression therapy. On the other hand, antidepressants have also demonstrated to modulate circadian rhythmicity and sleep–wake cycles. This review aims to evidence the potential of chronotherapy to improve the efficacy and/or safety of antidepressants. It includes pre-clinical and clinical studies that demonstrate the relevance of determining the most appropriate time of administration for antidepressant drugs. In parallel, their positive influence on the resynchronization of disrupted circadian rhythms is also herein discussed. It is expected that this review will promote the investigation of chronotherapy for the treatment of depression, contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between antidepressants and circadian rhythms, and consequently promote the development of new therapeutics.

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