In memoriam: Harry Meinardi (February 20, 1932-December 20, 2013)

Rous Sarcoma virus or RSV was discovered by F. Peyton Rous in the year 1911 as a filterable transmissible agent that could cause tumors in chickens. He won a Nobel Prize for this discovery in 1966. His experiments clearly demonstrated that some cancers could be caused by infectious agents and led to the discovery of many more cancer-causing viruses in animals as well as humans.
RSV is a retrovirus that contains two copies of a plus-strand  RNA genome. Its genome consists of four main open...

Huntington disease or HD is a progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disorder inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern.PathophysiologyIt is caused by expansion of the CAG trinucleotide repeat in the HTT gene on chromosome 4 (4p16.3), producing an abnormal huntingtin protein with an expanded polyglutamine tract. This misfolded protein disrupts cellular function, leading to neuronal death. Normal alleles have ≤26 repeats, 27–35 are intermediate (risk of expansion), 36–39 show...

Dementia is a collective term for cognitive disorders primarily affecting memory, thinking, and reasoning. It is not a specific disease but a syndrome, with Alzheimer's disease being the most common cause, accounting for approximately 60-80% of cases. Other types include vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. Dementia affects millions worldwide, particularly older adults, though it is not a normal part of aging.
The progression of dementia is generally gradual....

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross significantly advanced psychology's understanding of the process of dying with her influential book, On Death and Dying (1969). She focused on studying terminally ill individuals and outlined five stages commonly experienced when coping with death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
In denial, individuals reject the reality of their condition, often thinking, "This isn't true; I feel fine," as a way to protect themselves from...

McNemar's Test is a nonparametric statistical test used to determine if there is a significant difference in proportions between two related groups when the outcome is binary (e.g., yes/no, success/failure). It is beneficial when we have paired data, such as pre-test/post-test designs, where the same subjects are measured under two different conditions. The test is named after the statistician Quinn McNemar, who introduced it in 1947. It is commonly used in situations where subjects are...