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Biomedical subjects

S Kanani

Publications and source records attributed to S Kanani.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Pinning force in active media.

Pinning of vortices by defects plays an important role in various physical (superconductivity, superfluidity, etc.) or biological (propagation in cardiac muscle) situations. Which defects act as pinning centers? We propose a way to study this general problem by using an advection field to quantify the attraction between an obstacle and a vortex. A full solution is obtained for the real Ginzburg-Landau equation (RGLE). Two pinning mechanisms are found in excitable media. Our results suggest strong analogies with the RGLE when the heterogeneity is excitable. Unpinning from an unexcitable obstacle is qualitatively harder, resulting in a stronger pinning force. We discuss the implications of our results to control vortices and propose experiments in a chemical active medium and in cardiac tissue.

Heart↗

Towards quality of care in child health programmes: a challenge for the partnership in health and social sciences.

Several child health care programmes, though often well conceived, are poorly implemented at field level and focus primarily on quantitative achievements to the neglect of quality of care. This paper presents a quality of care (QOC) framework for child health programmes from the perspectives of the management system of an organization and the provider-client interface at point of service delivery. The paper subsequently describes the application of qualitative and quantitative research tools drawn from the social sciences and health sciences for planning and evaluating quality of care. An integrated and complementary use of these tools is recommended. It is suggested that minimum standards, which are region specific, be articulated for quality maintenance in child health programmes. These standards may be upgraded as quality improves. Finally, the challenges which a partnership of the health and social sciences may have to take up are discussed. These include advocacy for prioritization of QOC in child health programmes, facilitating an environment which supports quality of care, promoting inter-disciplinary action research, training students in social science research in universities and research organizations, documenting success stories.

Child↗

Ethical and legal dilemmas arising during predictive testing for adult-onset disease: the experience of Huntington disease.

The goal of predictive testing is to modify the risk for currently healthy individuals to develop a genetic disease in the future. Such testing using polymorphic DNA markers has had major application in Huntington disease. The Canadian Collaborative Study of Predictive Testing for Huntington Disease has been guided by major principles of medical ethics, including autonomy, beneficence, confidentiality, and justice. Numerous ethical and legal dilemmas have arisen in this program, challenging these principles and occasionally casting them into conflict. The present report describes these dilemmas and offers our approach to resolving them. These issues will have relevance to predictive-testing programs for other adult-onset disorders.

Abortion, Eugenic↗

Non-random association between alleles detected at D4S95 and D4S98 and the Huntington's disease gene.

Analysis of many families with linked DNA markers has provided support for the Huntington's disease (HD) gene being close to the telomere on the short arm of chromosome 4. However, analysis of recombination events in particular families has provided conflicting results about the precise location of the HD gene relative to these closely linked DNA markers. Here we report an investigation of linkage disequilibrium between six DNA markers and the HD gene in 75 separate families of varied ancestry. We show significant non-random association between alleles detected at D4S95 and D4S98 and the mutant gene. These data suggest that it may be possible to construct high and low risk haplotypes, which may be helpful in DNA analysis and genetic counselling for HD, and represent independent evidence that the gene for HD is centromeric to more distally located DNA markers such as D4S90. This information may be helpful in defining a strategy to clone the gene for HD based on its location in the human genome.

Alleles↗