Oral-contraceptive use may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in women with pathogenic mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene.

A weighted scoring system (Dental Panoramic Radiograph Score) taking into consideration the nature, extent, and site of osseous and dental changes on dental panoramic radiographs in familial adenomatous polyposis is described. The weighting takes into consideration the incidence of the anomaly in the general population. The reliability of the system was tested by application to 85 people known to be affected by clinical or mutation analysis, 30 people lacking mutation in the adenomatous polyposis gene, and 19 people shown to be at low risk (<1%) by linkage analysis. Using the highest thresholds, a specificity of 100% and sensitivity of -68% was obtained. Ifall positive findings were considered as significant, sensitivity was increased to -82% but the specificity was reduced to -88%. Significant DPRS findings were observed at a significantly higher frequency in patients aged over 20 compared to the patients aged 20 and under. Overall, 68% ofthe affected subjects had significant changes, and -18% had normal appearance on DPR, with the remainder having changes classified as minimal or equivocal.(J Med Genet 1995;32:458-464)

This article describes a flexible track system model (FTSM) that represents the track structure for a typical ballasted track, taking into account the flexibility of the rails, the sleeper mass and the resilience of the pad/fastening elements, as well as the ballast support stiffness condition. The detailed track model is integrated into a commercial railway vehicle dynamics software, thus allowing for any vehicle to be simulated onto the flexible track while at the same time taking into account the detailed calculation of the non-linear wheel-rail contact interaction. As an example, the application of the FTSM to the study of hanging sleepers, with respect to the UK Railway Group Standard limits, is presented. This example shows the impact of forces because of hanging sleepers on the vehicle and on the track, and attempts at quantifying the damage made to the track components for the specific conditions simulated.

No abstract

How far did the unanimous agreement on the responsibility to protect at the 2005 UN World Summit really mark the international community's acceptance of a new norm supporting collective action -including ultimately military action -when governments through either incapacity or ill-will fail to protect their own people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity? This article describes the rapid initial emergence and acceptance of the concept, but also the subsequent denial and evasion by a number of governments of the commitments they signed up to in 2005. It addresses the fi ve main conceptual misunderstandings and misapprehensions evident in the public debate that need to be overcome if the argument in support of the responsibility to protect is to be won.