Normative and conceptual ELSI research: what it is, and why it's important.

The Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Research Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute sponsors research examining ethical, legal, and social issues arising in the context of genetics/genomics. The ELSI Program endorses an understanding of research not as the sole province of empirical study, but instead as systematic study or inquiry, of which there are many types and methods. ELSI research employs both empirical and nonempirical methods. Because the latter remain relatively unfamiliar to biomedical and translational scientists, this paper seeks to elucidate the relationship between empirical and nonempirical methods in ELSI research. It pays particular attention to the research questions and methods of normative and conceptual research, which examine questions of value and meaning, respectively. To illustrate the distinct but interrelated roles of empirical and nonempirical methods in ELSI research, including normative and conceptual research, the paper demonstrates how a range of methods may be employed both to examine the evolution of the concept of incidental findings (including the recent step toward terming them 'secondary findings'), and to address the normative question of how genomic researchers and clinicians should manage incidental such findings.

A test for occlusal function. The value of a masticatory efficiency test in the assessment of occlusal function.

A sample consisting of 50 adult subjects aged between 21-23 years was assessed for their masticatory ability, by the use of a masticatory efficiency test. The occlusal status was assessed from study models using five occlusal indices. The scores obtained from the masticatory efficiency tests were correlated to those obtained from the occlusal analyses, using a correlation coefficient test. Significant correlations were found between the two scores. A multiple regression analysis was used to predict the masticatory efficiency from the occlusal scores. The findings revealed that only a small proportion of the masticatory efficiency could be predicted. This suggested that factors other than those used in these indices may have an effect on the masticatory efficiency.