As previous pandemics, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has direct and indirect effects on mental health and well-being. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether meaning in life mediated the association between coronavirus suffering and satisfaction with life and whether stress-related growth moderated the mediating effect of meaning in life on the association between these variables. Stress-Related Growth Measure (SGM) was also conducted for the purpose of this study. The participants were 402 (66% women) young adults who (...) completed the Suffering Measure During COVID-19, Meaningful Living Measure, Satisfaction With Life Scale, and SGM. The results indicated that the SGM has adequate psychometric properties with unidimensional structure of stress-related growth in the face of adversity. Moderated mediation analysis revealed that coronavirus suffering directly influenced satisfaction with life as well as indirectly by its effect on meaning in life. Additionally, stress-related growth was found as a moderator in the relationship between coronavirus suffering–meaning in life and coronavirus suffering–satisfaction with life. These results suggest that meaning in life mitigates the effect of coronavirus suffering on satisfaction with life, and this mediating effect is moderated by stress-related growth in young adults. While meaning in life helps explain the relationship between coronavirus suffering and satisfaction with life, the stress-related growth functions as a protective factor against the adverse effect of coronavirus experiences. (shrink)

Objective: Ethical guidelines are designed to ensure benefits, protection and respect of participants in clinical research. Clinical trials must now be registered on open-access databases and provide details on ethical considerations. This systematic survey aimed to determine the extent to which recently registered clinical trials report the use of standard of care and post-trial obligations in trial registries, and whether trial characteristics vary according to setting. Methods: We selected global randomized trials registered on http://www.clinicaltrials.gov and http://www.controlled-trials.com. We searched for intervention (...) trials of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis from 9 October 2004, the date of the most recent version of the Helsinki Declaration, to 10 April 2007. Results: We collected data from 312 trials. Fifty-eight percent (58%, 95% CI = 53 to 64) of trial protocols report informed consent. Fifty-eight percent (58%, 95% CI = 53 to 64) of trials report active controls. Almost no trials (1%, 95% CI = 0.5 to 3) mention post-trial provisions. Most trials measure surrogate outcomes. Twenty percent (20%, 95% CI = 16 to 25) of trials measure patient-important outcomes, such as death; and the odds that these outcomes are in a low income country are five times greater than for a developed country (odds ratio (OR) 5.03, 95% CI = 2.70 to 9.35, p = < 0.001). Pharmaceutical companies are involved in 28% (CI = 23 to 33) of trials and measure surrogate outcomes more often than nonpharmaceutical companies (OR 2.45, 95% CI = 1.18 to 5.09, p = 0.31). Conclusion: We found a large discrepancy in the quality of reporting and approaches used in trials in developing settings compared to wealthier settings. (shrink)

Formal training in clinical ethics must become a central part of residency curricula to prepare practitioners to manage the ethical dimensions of patient care. Residency educators must ground their teaching in an understanding of the conceptual, biomedical, and psychosocial aspects of the important ethical issues that arise in that field of practice. Four aspects of professional competence in clinical ethics provide a useful framework for curricular planning. The physician should learn to: (1) recognize ethical issues as they arise in clinical (...) care and identify hidden values and unacknowledged conflicts; (2) think clearly and critically about these issues in ways that lead to ethically justifiable courses of action; (3) apply those practical skills needed to implement an ethically justifiably course of action; and (4) judge when the management of a clinical situation requires consultation with individuals or institutional bodies with additional expertise or authority. We argue that these practical goals can be accomplished with a relatively modest emphasis on the theoretical aspects of medical ethics. (shrink)

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, vol. 52, number 1, pp.44-63. R.M. Nugayev, Kazan State |University, USSR. -/- THE HISTORY OF QUANTUM THEORY AS A DECISIVE ARGUMENT FAVORING EINSTEIN OVER LJRENTZ. -/- Abstract. Einstein’s papers on relativity, quantum theory and statistical mechanics were all part of a single research programme ; the aim was to unify mechanics and electrodynamics. It was this broader program – which eventually split into relativistic physics and quantummmechanics – that superseded Lorentz’s theory. The argument of this paper is (...) partly historical and partly methodological. A notion of “crossbred objects” – theoretical objects with contradictory properties which are part of the domain of application of two different research programs – is developed that explains the dynamics of revolutionary theory change. (shrink)

Tüm dünyayı etkisi altına alan koronavirüs pandemisinin siyasi tutumlarla ilişkisini öğrenmek ve siyasetin kriz durumlarında halkın tutum ve davranışlarını yönlendirip yönlendirmediğini öğrenmek amacıyla 767 kişiyle çevrimiçi anket yapılmıştır. Yapılan nicel araştırma sonucunda, alınan önleyici tedbirlere uymanın, bu tedbirlerin yerinde oluşuna/haklılığına olan tutumun, aşı olma niyetinin ve aşının koruyuculuğuna olan inancın siyasi görüşlere göre farklılaştığı bulunmuştur. Ayrıca katılımcıların yapılan Covid-19 açıklamaları bakımından siyasi partilerine, parti temsilcilerinden daha çok güvendikleri, alınan önlem ve tedbirleri kısmen yerinde/haklı buldukları ve çok büyük çoğunluğun bu önlemlere (...) uyduğu görülmüştür. Araştırma sonucunda virüsün kökenine yönelik inançlar bakımından virüsün gerçek olduğuna inanıldığı, ortaya çıkış nedeni bakımından ise ülkelerin ekonomilerini kötüleştirmek ve dünya nüfusunu azaltmak için ortaya çıktığına inanıldığı görülmüştür. Araştırmadan çıkan bir başka sonuç ise katılımcıların televizyon, dergi ve gazetelerin ideolojik nedenlerle ve siyasi yanlılıklarına bağlı olarak virüs haberlerini halka farklı yansıttığını düşündükleridir. Sosyal medyadaki haberlerin ise yanıltıcı, yanlış olduğu görüşündelerdir. Bu çalışma sonucunda salgın hastalık, afet, savaş, ekonomik krizler gibi olağanüstü durumlarda siyasetin, siyasi görüşlerin dikkate alınmasının hem krizin üstesinden gelmede hem de toplumun tüm üyelerini kapsamada önemli bir rol oynayacağı vurgulanmaktadır. (shrink)

The coronavirus disease possesses an important threat to people's health and well-being. The purpose of the present study is to longitudinally examine whether meaning in life before the pandemic increases resilience and mental well-being during the coronavirus pandemic. The sample of the study comprised 172 young adults in a public university in an urban city of Turkey. Participants ranged in age between 18 and 40 years. Mediation analyses were performed to examine the impacts of meaning in life on the outcomes (...) across the two waves of data. Findings from these analyses revealed that meaning in life before the pandemic had a significant predictive effect on resilience and mental well-being of young adults during the coronavirus disease. Resilience also mediated the impacts of meaning in life on mental well-being indicators at the second time. These results suggest the importance of meaning-based preventions and interventions designed to build up resilience experiences for improving psychological health and well-being during a public health crisis. (shrink)