The Clinical Trials of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Therapy

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are a heterogeneous population of adult stem cells, which are multipotent and possess the ability to differentiate/transdifferentiate into mesodermal and nonmesodermal cell lineages. MSCs display broad immunomodulatory properties since they are capable of secreting growth factors and chemotactic cytokines. Safety, accessibility, and isolation from patients without ethical concern make MSCs valuable sources for cell therapy approaches in autoimmune, inflammatory, and degenerative diseases. Many studies have been conducted on the application of MSCs as a new therapy, but it seems that a low percentage of them is related to clinical trials, especially completed clinical trials. Considering the importance of clinical trials to develop this type of therapy as a new treatment, the current paper is aimed at describing characteristics of MSCs and reviewing relevant clinical studies registered on the NIH database during 2016-2020 to discuss recent advances on MSC-based therapeutic approaches being used in different diseases.

Evaluation of the Food Choice Motives before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study of 1232 Adults from Croatia

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic brought changes to almost every segment of our lives, including dietary habits. We present one among several studies, and the first on the Croatian population, aiming at investigating changes of food choice motives before and during the pandemic. The study was performed in June 2021 as an online-based survey, using a 36-item Food Choice Questionnaire applied for both the periods before and during the pandemic. The final sample consisted of 1232 adults living in Croatia. Sensory appeal was ranked as the number one most important food choice motive before, whereas health was ranked as the number one most important food choice motive during the pandemic. Ethical concern was reported as the least important food choice motive both before and during the pandemic. In women, natural content (p = 0.002), health, convenience, price, weight control, familiarity, and ethical concern (all p < 0.001) became more important during the pandemic, while price (p = 0.009), weight control, familiarity, and ethical concern (all p < 0.001) became more relevant for men. All together, these can be considered favorable changes toward optimal diets and may result in beneficial influences on health and lifestyle. Education strategies and efficiently tackling misinformation are prerequisites for informed food choice, which will ensure long-lasting positive effects of such changes.

Bortom mitt barn och andras ungar. Omsorgsetisk grammatik för skolväljande föräldrar

A grammar of ethics of care for school choosing parents. To choose a school for one’s child is part and parcel of urban parenting in the contemporary Swedish educational system. While previous studies have investigated the consequences of the school choice empirically through both qualitative and quantitative methods, there are no previous studies investigating the issue of school choice as an ethical concern. Through the author’s situated experience of being a school choosing parent in Sweden’s third largest city, Malmö, the author uses educational philosopher Nel Nodding’s work on ethics of care and applies it to the question of what situated, responsible parenting in Malmö could mean today. The author introduces the metaphor of a grammar of ethics of care where the relationship between “our kid” and “our kids” is seen as relational, with an opening for caring for children outside the immediate family.

Persuasion, Representation, and Emotional Heightening

Synthesising real events with creative treatment, increasingly emotive and cinematic documentary presents now more than ever an ethically challenging dichotomy between factual broadcasting and fictional entertainment. Within the discussions of documentary ethics, this dichotomy is largely explored in relation to visual and editorial decisions which might be accused of manipulating or reframing the ‘truth’. However, within both ethical guidelines for documentary production, and academic debate around documentary ethics, reference to music is somewhat scarce. Potential challenges faced by non-music academics in asserting the role of music within documentary, a perceived precedence of visual over auditory components, and the notion of the documentarist as an ‘artist’ all participate in defending and deflecting the ethical responsibility of music in the contemporary audio-visual documentary. Through exploring the use of music in three different documentaries, this research proposes a typology outlining music’s areas of ethical concern, including persuasion, representation, and emotional heightening. Music’s ethical precariousness emerges in recognising its capacity to influence audience perception of ‘reality’ through emotional and semiotic capacity, and crucially, in the degree to which its influence often remains unnoticed.

Conceptualising ethical consumption within theories of practice

Since the turn of the century, sociological consumer research has had a strong focus on ordinary, routinised consumption, especially within the sustainability context. This approach has been a welcome alternative when understanding sustainable consumption compared with relying on individualistic psychological or identity-communicative approaches. However, with the shift towards a practice theoretical approach, there has been a tendency to ignore variation in consumer practices. Specifically, questions regarding the extent to which ethical concern can explain variance have not yet been included. Important questions, such as whether and how ethics takes part in changing practices in more sustainable directions, have similarly been neglected. This theoretically based article intends to contribute to further developing theories of practice by bringing together three discussions: how variation in carrying and performing practices can be conceptualised, how different approaches to consumption have conceptualised ethics and how ethics of care and the concept of general understandings can be used to conceptualise ethical aspects of consumption within theories of practice. The article concludes by summarising the findings from these discussions and raising questions of further empirical and theoretical concern.

Why Protect Decapod Crustaceans Used as Models in Biomedical Research and in Ecotoxicology? Ethical and Legislative Considerations

Decapod crustaceans are widely used as experimental models, due to their biology, their sensitivity to pollutants and/or their convenience of collection and use. Decapods have been viewed as being non-sentient, and are not covered by current legislation from the European Parliament. However, recent studies suggest it is likely that they experience pain and may have the capacity to suffer. Accordingly, there is ethical concern regarding their continued use in research in the absence of protective measures. We argue that their welfare should be taken into account and included in ethical review processes that include the assessment of welfare and the minimization or alleviation of potential pain. We review the current use of these animals in research and the recent experiments that suggest sentience in this group. We also review recent changes in the views of scientists, veterinary scientists and animal charity groups, and their conclusion that these animals are likely to be sentient, and that changes in legislation are needed to protect them. A precautionary approach should be adopted to safeguard these animals from possible pain and suffering. Finally, we recommend that decapods be included in the European legislation concerning the welfare of animals used in experimentation.