Effectiveness and tolerability of parenteral testosterone undecanoate: a post-marketing surveillance study

This observational post-marketing study of parenteral testosterone undecanoate (TU) in a non-selected population aimed to: examine the effectiveness of TU as treatment of hypogonadism; record adverse drug reactions (ADR) quantitatively particularly regarding polycythemia, prostate safety and cardiovascular-related metabolic risk factors; and verify whether recommended injection intervals apply to routine clinical practice. Eight hundred and seventy subjects from 259 outpatient units scheduled to visit the clinic six times were included. Effectiveness and tolerability of TU administration were assessed on a 4-point scale. Body weight, waist girth, blood pressure, hemoglobin levels, hematocrit, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and digital rectal prostate examination were assessed. Over 90% of subjects completed the observational duration of 52.8?±?9.7 weeks (mean?±?SD) and 56% judged effectiveness as very good, 30.8% as good. 63.1% judged tolerability as very good, and 24.4% as good. No adverse effects on indicators of cardiovascular risk were observed. Polycythemia occurred in one subject and a supranormal hematocrit in one subject. Four subjects developed supranormal PSA levels. Prostate carcinoma was found in one subject, one subject had recurrence of a previously surgically treated prostate carcinoma, and the other two showed no indication of malignancy. Parenteral TU is safe, effective, and well-tolerated in clinical practice proving a good therapeutic option for hypogonadism.     

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Abstract

Growing Up with Philosophy, edited by Matthew Lipman and Margaret Sharp. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978), 410 pp. $20.00. Reviewed by William Proefriedt.     

ASN-minimax double sampling plans for variables

X be a continuous quality characteristic, with one-sided lower specification limit, having either normal distribution with known σ or exponential distribution. We report on an algorithm allowing the calculation of the so-called ASN-Minimax plan. This plan has minimal maximal average sample size among all double sampling plans for variables that obey the classical two-points-condition on the operating characteristic. We give examples and tables of the ASN-Minimax plans in the normal as well as in the exponential case. Received: March 20, 2000; revised version: January 22, 2001     

A non standard χ2-test of fit for testing uniformity with unknown limits

A χ²-test of fit for testingH ₀ “X～U(a,b), a,b unknown” is suggested. It is nonstandard because the usual regularity assumptions are not satisfied. The asymptotic distribution of the test statistic underH ₀ is derived. The error probabilities of the first kind are investigated by Monte Carlo simulation for samples of small and medium size.     

An Evaluation of Alternative Safety Criteria for Nuclear Power Plants

Safety criteria for frequency of nuclear-reactor accidents and for reactor-induced risk to individuals and to society are evaluated on the basis of their comprehensiveness, clarity, recognition of uncertainty, practicability, defensibility, simplicity, and internal consistency. Many criteria were found to be comprehensive and practicable; few completely satisfied the other evaluation standards. A consensus inferred from the most favorably evaluated criteria would allow between 1.0time10^-4 and 1.0time10^-3 core melts per reactor year, between 1.0time10^-6 and 2.0time10^-5 fatalities per reactor year per individual, and a total exposure in the United States of between 1000 and 10,000 person rems per reactor year. This consensus is consistent with the criteria proposed in NUREG0880.     

Legitimation of Oppression: Response and Reflexivity

The basic question addressed in this article is why people in inferior and devalued strata submit to oppression. It is my thesis that the legitimation of oppression is one of the key issues for subordinate people and that the study of the creation and processes of legitimation among such groups will shed light on the phenomenon of human obedience or of resistance to oppressive rule. The core of the study consists of (1) the development of a model of the legitimation process and (2) the use of examples from the experiences of oppressed groups to illustrate dimensions of this process.     

The Growing Threat to the Lives of Handicapped People in the Context of Modernistic Values[1]

The Western world is in the throes of a profound revolution of values and lifestyles. The new ones can neither sustain a functional societal polity, nor positive valuing of the lives of all sorts of impaired people. How such people are made dead—i.e. have their lives abbreviated, or taken outright—is briefly sketched. It is also shown how impaired people suffer more than others when societal polity collapses. However, societal deathmaking is widely disguised, denied, or even glorified by modernistic values, aided by a corrupt and intellectually dishonest bioethics culture, and some of its propagandist idiom of deathmaking is sketched. As an alternative, the author offers an unequivocal position on the value of all human life, including the lives of impaired people of all ages at any stage of life, at any level of capacity, and of any degree of moral goodness. Bodies that claim to represent, and to advocate for, impaired people are called upon to uphold a coherent position on the sanctity of all human life.