| 1. |
- Frisch, M, et al.
(författare)
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Cultural bias in the AAP's 2012 Technical Report and Policy Statement on male circumcision
- 2013
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Ingår i: Pediatrics. - : American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). - 1098-4275 .- 0031-4005. ; 131:4, s. 796-800
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The American Academy of Pediatrics recently released its new Technical Report and Policy Statement on male circumcision, concluding that current evidence indicates that the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks. The technical report is based on the scrutiny of a large number of complex scientific articles. Therefore, while striving for objectivity, the conclusions drawn by the 8 task force members reflect what these individual physicians perceived as trustworthy evidence. Seen from the outside, cultural bias reflecting the normality of nontherapeutic male circumcision in the United States seems obvious, and the report’s conclusions are different from those reached by physicians in other parts of the Western world, including Europe, Canada, and Australia. In this commentary, a different view is presented by non–US-based physicians and representatives of general medical associations and societies for pediatrics, pediatric surgery, and pediatric urology in Northern Europe. To these authors, only 1 of the arguments put forward by the American Academy of Pediatrics has some theoretical relevance in relation to infant male circumcision; namely, the possible protection against urinary tract infections in infant boys, which can easily be treated with antibiotics without tissue loss. The other claimed health benefits, including protection against HIV/AIDS, genital herpes, genital warts, and penile cancer, are questionable, weak, and likely to have little public health relevance in a Western context, and they do not represent compelling reasons for surgery before boys are old enough to decide for themselves.
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| 2. |
- Brennan, Jennifer L., et al.
(författare)
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Enzymatic Activity of Lipase-Nanoparticle Conjugates and the Digestion of Lipid Liquid Crystalline Assemblies
- 2010
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Ingår i: Langmuir. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0743-7463 .- 1520-5827. ; 26:16, s. 13590-13599
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Variants of lipase were attached to gold nanoparticles (NPs) and their enzymatic activity was studied. The two bioengineered lipase variants have been prepared with biotin groups attached to different residues on the protein outer surface. The biotinylation was evidenced by denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and quantified by the ([2-(4'-hydroxyazobenzene)]benzoic acid spectrophotometric test. NPs of 14 +/- 1 nm diameter coated with thiolated-polyethylene glycol ligands containing controlled proportions of biotin moieties have been prepared and characterized by transmission electron microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, small angle neutron scattering, and elemental analysis. These biotin-functionalized NPs were conjugated to lipase using streptavidin as a linker molecule. Enzyme activity assays on the lipase-nanoparticle conjugates show that the lipase loading and activity of the NPs can be controlled by varying the percentage of biotin groups in the particle protecting coat. The lipase-NP conjugates prepared using one variant display higher activity than those prepared using the other variant, demonstrating orientation-dependent enzyme activity. Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy was used to visualize the enzymatic activity of lipase-NP on well-defined lipid substrates. It was found that lipase-coated NPs are able to digest the substrates in a different manner in comparison to the free lipase.
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