PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

P B Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to P B Thompson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

From a philosopher's perspective, how should animal scientists meet the challenge of contentious issues?

This article reviews how professional ethics can be useful in helping animal scientists meet new responsibilities. The transition to a postindustrial period in animal production signals a shift in the nature of contentious issues that animal producers face. Whereas farm income was once the most controversial issue in animal production, producers and animal scientists now face complex risk issues that have overlapping constituencies. Animal scientists need to develop a professional ethic that will stress open and active debate on these issues. Discussion of these issues must take place in the animal science classroom. The new professional ethic should be based on core values required for scientific research. However, departments and professional societies must develop institutions that will permit the values and methods of rationality and truth seeking to be applied in areas where measurement and experimental method are unlikely to resolve disputes, (i.e., to controversial issues that require public discussion and debate). Several specific proposals for such institution building are discussed.

Animal Husbandry↗
PubMed1998

Use of competing conceptions of risk in animal agriculture.

This study considers a theory of risk as a means of coping with risk and uncertainty that have become a growing reality for animal agriculture. Microbial contaminations of food, waste management, animal products in the human diet, and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) incorporate different conceptions of risk and require different approaches to handling the uncertainty involved. A dichotomous schema is suggested to assist understanding risk that may be adapted to recognizing and handling risk. The polar aspects of the proposal are the probabilistic approach at one end and the contextual understanding at the other. Probabilist conceptions of risk presume that risk is determined by probability and consequence. Contextual conceptions presume that management, law, regulation, media, and public perceptions, as well as the severity of the consequence, will figure prominently in decision making in the face of uncertainty. Relative emphasis on probabilistic characteristics shapes distinct understandings of risk that can be plotted between the poles. We are proposing that these conceptualizations need not be issues only for debate but also for recognition of the probabilistic or contextual nature of the risk. Specific actions and policy may be constructed on the basis of the conceptualization. The bovine spongiform encephalopathy/new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease complex is examined philosophically and methodologically as a contextual challenge to animal agriculture and associated industries. As such, the TSE serve as a case study of effective application of risk theory to risks in animal agriculture.

Animal Husbandry↗
PubMed1995

Touch sensitivity through latex examination gloves.

Two studies were conducted to empirically evaluate individuals' touch sensitivity while wearing latex medical-examination gloves. In Experiment 1, three sensitivity threshold measures (two-point, von Frey, and thumb-index finger opposition) were used in three conditions--no glove, best-fitting glove, and ill-fitting glove. No effect of glove condition was found for the two-point measure, but significant effects were found for the von Frey and finger-opposition measures. In Experiment 2, participants attempted to sense the presence or absence of monofilament fibers of different diameters. Glove condition (no glove, best-fitting, and ill-fitting) and touch strategy (active vs. passive) were manipulated for each participant. Although there was no overall effect for glove condition, active touch proved consistently superior to passive touch.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Designing animals: ethical issues for genetic engineers.

Two general philosophical approaches to ethical issues in property rights are described. Instrumental approaches take property rights to be means for achieving goals such as social efficiency or economic growth. Labor approaches take property rights to be fundamental human rights that protect liberty or that assign ownership of goods based on criteria of desert. A thought experiment is used to illustrate the relevance of these theories to intellectual property. Alternative strategies for application of ethical theory to animal biotechnology are surveyed. The choice of an approach determines a burden of proof that must be met before property claims can be ethically sanctioned, but the question of which approach should be applied to animal biotechnology remains open. Ethical issues raised by unwanted consequences of biotechnology and religious objections to gene transfer are briefly summarized with emphasis on how these issues have influenced public debate on animal patents.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Cutaneous nerve elimination following punch biopsy.

We report the first case of cutaneous nerve elimination following routine punch biopsy and primary closure. The appearance of a delicate whitish strand from a healed biopsy site, which produces lancinating pain, may represent an extruded cutaneous nerve. This case was treated successfully with simple transection of the nerve at its portal of exit.

Biopsy↗
PubMed1986

Effect on mortality of inhalation injury.

A retrospective analysis of 1,018 consecutive admissions with cutaneous burn injury over 32 months was carried out. Mortality probabilities as related to age, per cent TBSA burn, and presence of inhalation injury are presented. Incidence of and mortality from inhalation injury both rose with increasing burn area. The incidence of inhalation injury also rose with advancing age; mortality was lowest in the 5- to 14-year old age group and highest in those more than 59 years of age.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Aneurysmal malformation of the extrahepatic portal vein.

Malformations of the extrahepatic portal vein are quite rare. A 6-cm aneurysmal malformation of the extrahepatic portal vein, thought to be congenital in origin, is described. An English language literature review yielded only six similar cases, each of which was associated with portal hypertension, primary hepatocellular disease, or both. The patient reported herein had cholelithiasis with chronic cholecystitis, but no primary liver disease or vascular disease. We believe this is the first report of such an anomaly.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Treatment of burns in children.

Decreases in mortality from major thermal injury over the last 20 years have been due to advances in resuscitation, control of infection, support of the hypermetabolic response, and early closure of the burn wound. Of these advances in burn care, early wound closure has progressed the most in the last five years. The restoration of the protective functions of the skin is of primary importance to the recovery of the burn patient. Biologic dressings (pigskin, amnion, human skin allograft) when applied to fully debrided, relatively uncontaminated wounds have been shown to adhere to the wound surface, reduce the wound colony counts, limit fluid and protein loss, reduce pain, and increase the rate of epithelialization over that obtained with application of topical antimicrobial agents.

Administration, Topical↗
PubMed1985

Pulmonary injury in burned patients.

1. With improvements in treatment of burn shock and wound sepsis, inhalation injury has emerged as the number one cause of fatality in the burn patient; it accounts for 20 to 84 per cent of burn mortality. 2. Only steam is capable of inflicting direct thermal damage; most injury is caused by incomplete products of combustion, the most important being aldehydes. 3. More accurate diagnostic techniques, including fiberoptic bronchoscopy and 133Xe scanning, have been added to the traditional clinical signs of inhalation injury, such as facial burns, singed nasal vibrissae, and closed space injury, and have led to a new estimation of a 30 per cent incidence among patients with major burns. 4. Patients with inhalation injury typically pass through three stages, those of acute pulmonary insufficiency, pulmonary edema, and bronchopneumonia. 5. The major early pathophysiologic changes seen in the lungs of burned patients related to edema. With inhalation injury this is probably mediated by the products of activated neutrophils. Later changes are the result of the reduction of surfactant and thus lung compliance. 6. Treatment consists of intubation at the first hint of respiratory distress; the issue of tracheostomy versus endotracheal intubation has not been scientifically resolved, but most centers employ prolonged nasotracheal intubation. Prophylactic antibiotics or steroids are not of benefit. Further care is only supportive and includes CPAP, PEEP, vigorous pulmonary toilet, humidification of inspired air, and antibiotics for documented infection. 7. Further advances await the development of pharmacologic methods of affecting the lung's response to injury, which includes altered capillary permeability and decreased immune function.

Burns, Inhalation↗
PubMed1983

Photosensitive recurrent erythema multiforme.

A case report of photosensitive recurrent erythema multiforme occurring in a 31-year-old man is presented herein. Lesions clinically and histologically resembling erythema multiforme were reproduced with light testing. The patient's lesions appeared to respond to both oral prednisone and hydroxychloroquine.

Adult↗