Celebrating Bin Laden’s Death - Ugly, Perhaps, but Only Human

“It was appropriate to go after Bin Laden, just to try to cut the head off that serpent, but I don’t think it’s decent to celebrate a killing like that,” said George Horwitz, a retired meat cutter and Army veteran in Bynum, N.C.

Others were much more critical.“The worst kind of jingoistic hubris,” aUniversity of Virginiastudent wrote in the college newspaper, The Cavalier Daily. In blogs and online forums, some people asked: Doesn’t taking revenge and glorying in it make us look just like the terrorists?

The answer is no, social scientists say: it makes us look like human beings. In an array of research, both inside laboratories and out in the world,psychologistshave shown that the appetite for revenge is a sensitive measure of how a society perceives both the seriousness of a crime and any larger threat that its perpetrator may pose.

Revenge is most satisfying when there are strong reasons for exacting it, both practical and emotional.

“Revenge evolved as a deterrent, to impose a cost on people who threaten a community and to reach into the heads of others who may be contemplating similar behavior,” said Michael McCullough, a psychologist at theUniversity of Miamiand author of“Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct” (Jossey-Bass, 2008).“In that sense it is a very natural response.”

Many of the sources of the joyous outburst were obvious: A clear victory after so many drawn-out conflicts. A demonstration of American competence, and of consequences delivered. The public relations value of delivering a public blow to a worldwide terror network. And, it needs to be said, the timing: The news hit just as many bars were starting to clear out for the night.

But this was much more than a simple excuse to party.

“Pure existential release,” said Tom Pyszczynski, a social psychologist at theUniversity of Coloradoat Colorado Springs, who has studied reactions to 9/11.“Whether or not the killing makes any difference in the effectiveness ofAl Qaedahardly matters; defeating an enemy who threatens your worldview, the very values you believe are most protective, is the quickest way to calm existential anxiety.”

After almost 10 years, the end was nothing if not final.“The emotions were so strong, I think, because the event was compacted: Bin Laden was found and killed, and it was done— done and over, just like that,” said Kevin Carlsmith, a social psychologist atColgate Universityand the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.“We’re so used to people being brought in, held at Guantánamo, the trials, the appeals; it feels like justice is never done.”

As a rule, people are far more forgiving than they might guess, studies find. After most betrayals, like being dumped by a love interest or insulted, the urge for revenge erodes around the same rate that certain memories do: sharply in the first few weeks, and much more slowly afterward. The same kind of pattern can follow even physical assaults, depending on the circumstances and the personality of the victim.

“The intensity of the emotion falls off precipitously, simply because the body can’t carry such a giant load of outrage and function very well,” Dr. McCullough said.

But the urge for payback— especially for a crime like the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which killed almost 3,000 civilians— never goes to zero.“There is a stubborn part of the memory that hangs on to the urge, to a little piece of it,” and the pain is refreshed every time the memory is recalled, Dr. McCullough said.

It is easy to forget how much fear was in the air after the 9/11 attacks: theanthraxmailings, the airport lines, the color-coded terror alerts. Many of those celebrating late on Sunday and early Monday were teenagers during those years, young people who have lived much of their lives under the threat of terrorism— and this terrorist in particular— and who had the time and energy to hit the streets and share the moment.

“For them this was a chance to be a part of history,” Dr. Pyszczynski said.

In a long series of studies, psychologists have shown that when people are reminded that they will one day die, they fixate on attributes they consider central to their self worth. Those who are religious become more so; those who value strength or physical attractiveness intensify their focus on these qualities; and people generally become more patriotic, more supportive of aggressive military action.

“Even subtle reminders of 9/11 have the same effect,” Dr. Pyszczynski said.

The sight of Bin Laden’s face on television or a smartphone news feed might have been enough to move people from the sidelines into the streets, to cheer for the home team.

Finally, people everywhere have a strong belief in“just deserts” punishment.In a 2002 study, psychologists atPrinceton Universityhad more than 1,000 participants evaluate specific crimes and give sentencing recommendations for each. The subjects carefully tailored each recommended sentence to the details of the infraction, its brutality and the record of the perpetrator.

The drive to enforce those sentences varies widely from person to person. But in a crowd of like-minded people, the most intense drives for justice become the norm: People who may have felt a mix of emotions in response to the news can be swept up in the general revelry.

Thus the natural urge for revenge— satisfied so suddenly, releasing a decade of background anxiety, stoked by peers— feeds on itself. Delight turns to chanting turns to climbing on lamp posts.

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Hormone Gel Is Said to Reduce Risk of Premature Birth

“This is a big advance,” said Dr. Mary D’Alton, the chairwoman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University.

Premature birth is the leading cause of death and illness among newborns. An estimated 12.9 million babies worldwide, 500,000 of them in the United States, are born prematurely every year.

In the United States, about a third of early births result from decisions by doctors that the health of either the mother or child is threatened enough to end thepregnancyearly, usually with aCaesarean section. But two-thirds of those early births are spontaneous, and any intervention that could reduce them could have significant public health consequences.

The hormone treatment, aprogesteronegel inserted vaginally every day during the second half of a pregnancy, reduced the risk of premature birth in women with a short cervix, which can soften too early.

Dr. Roberto Romero, chief of theperinatology research branchat theNational Institutes of Health, estimated that as many as 2 percent of the nation’s 500,000 annual preterm births could be prevented, leading 10,000 more babies a year to be born at full term. Screening all pregnant women and treating those found to have short cervixes would save the nation’s health system $12 million a year, Dr. Romero said.

In the study, researchers financed by the federal government gave sonograms to more than 32,000 women who were about halfway through their pregnancies. Doctors found about 465 women in that group whose cervix was unusually short. Half were treated with vaginal progesterone and the other half got a placebo.

Using the progesterone gel, which is relatively easy for women to administer to themselves, led to a 45 percent reduction in the rate of preterm birth before 33 weeks of gestation, and it led to improved outcomes for babies. Fourteen women with unusually short cervixes would need to be treated to prevent one preterm birth, the study found.

Dr. Sonia Hassan, director of theCenter for Advanced Obstetrical Care and Researchat the National Health Institutes, a co-author of the study, said the study’s findings should lead all women to have sonograms around the 20th week of their pregnancies to see if they have short cervixes that put their pregnancies at increased risk.

“The important thing is to screen all pregnant women,” Dr. Hassan said.

Dr. Gary Hankins, chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, said the study offered great hope for many women.

“If we can delay birth by just a few weeks, that can make a massive difference,” Dr. Hankins said.

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Latisse, Not Just for Eyelashes Anymore - Skin Deep

“I just put three or four drops on each side of my temple once a day,” said Mr. Paduda, 32, an insurance worker from Boca Raton, Fla.“The hair in that area, which was real thin and wispy— all those hairs got thick again, dark.”

Mr. Paduda is one of a growing number of men experimenting with Latisse as an antidote to encroachingbaldness. Made by Allergan, the drug has already won a following among women for helping them grow long, fluttery eyelashes. It was only a matter of time before it made the leap to denuded pates.

Indeed, dermatologists’ offices and Web forums for bald men (yes, they exist:baldtruthtalk.com) began buzzing with excitement over Latisse nearly the moment theFood and Drug Administrationgave it the thumbs-up in December 2008.

“First question everyone was asking was,‘Gosh, if it grows eyelashes, what is it going to do on the scalp?’ ” said Dr. Alan Bauman, the dermatologist and hair-restoration specialist who prescribed the drug to Mr. Paduda as part of an informal study.

While the F.D.A. has not approved Latisse as a hair-loss treatment— only two drugs have that designation: minoxidil (Rogaine, also a topical medication) and finasteride (Propecia, which is administered in pill form)— there are no laws preventing doctors from prescribing it for that purpose. Dr. Bauman said he has been prescribing a generic form of bimatoprost, the active ingredient in Latisse, to combat hair loss since 2007, and that it has worked for about 70 percent of his patients.

“What we found is that where patients were applying Latisse, especially in areas where the hair was thinner and wispier and less pigmented, the hair grew thicker, stronger and healthier,” he said.

Though some users of Latisse have experienced skin discoloration, Dr. Bauman said he had never seen any such reaction on the scalp of his patients.

Certainly, Mr. Paduda, who used Latisse daily from November through February, is a happy customer. By the third week, he said, both he and friends he asked for reactions were seeing results.“I even busted out the old‘before’ and‘after’ pictures,” he said.“It was a noticeable difference.”

But Latisse does not appear to be a silver bullet for hair loss. Instead, it appears to work in much the same way as Rogaine or Propecia: All three can strengthen and darken hair that grows from a dying follicle, but none can bring a dead one back to life. The result is an enhanced, refortified hairline rather than a brand new head of hair.

Aside from hair transplants, which can cost about $10,000 each and do not always look natural, the only current hope for complete replacement is hair cloning, the act of producing entirely new hair from the DNA of an existing one, which researchers have been attempting, unsuccessfully, for years.

A pair of researchers last year claimed to grow new hair by combining plucked hair with a wound-healing powder made by ACell, a regenerative-medicine company in Columbia, Md. Though the claim was met with some skepticism by other clinicians, the idea that ACell’s powder, which has been approved by the government, could facilitate new hair growth has breathed new life into the race to clone hair.

Dr. Robert M. Bernstein, clinical professor of dermatology atColumbia University, is now one of several researchers experimenting with the product.

“It’s just a question of time now” before hair cloning becomes a reality, Dr. Bernstein said.“We keep on moving back that time, but I think there’s absolutely no doubt that it’s going to be done.”

He believes hair cloning will be commercially available within 10 years. This may sound like a long time to wait, but“it’s important to remember that baldness is unlike other conditions where you can progress past the point of being helped,” Dr. Bernstein said.“Once we have a cure for hair loss, everyone will be able to benefit.”

It has been been 14 years since the F.D.A. approved a new hair-loss remedy (Propecia, in 1997), so it is understandable that anticipation for a new one might be running high. One advantage of Latisse is that it needs to be applied only once a day (Rogaine needs to be applied twice; Propecia is taken once daily), and does not seem to cause reactions in people who are allergic to minoxidil.

It is, however, expensive: a month’s supply of Latisse can cost up to $150, and that is in amounts appropriate for use merely on the eyelashes. Rogaine, which is also available over the counter now, costs about $25 a month, and a month’s supply of Propecia runs about $75. (Even Mr. Paduda has now switched to Propecia, citing cost.)

The potential for Latisse is not lost on Allergan. The company initiated a Phase 1 clinical study in August to determine whether bimatoprost can be used as a treatment in men and women suffering from hair loss (alopecia).

“There is a great deal of interest in developing other uses of bimatoprost,” Heather Katt, a spokeswoman for Allergan, wrote in an e-mail message,“and Allergan is exploring ways to pursue that pathway through the F.D.A. approval process.”

For those too impatient to wait, there is also the bold and fashionable solution of shaving one’s head.

But the fact is that many men— and women— simply do not accept baldness easily.

“Hair has been an evolutionary sign of health and sexuality and youth, and that doesn’t change,” Dr. Bernstein said.“Shaved heads look cool, but not everyone wants one, and not everyone looks good with one.”

Mr. Paduda concurs.

“I have really dark eyebrows,” he said.“I would look like a psycho if I shaved my head.”

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Olive Oil Crackers - Recipes for Health

1 1/2 cups whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup unbleached flour (or use all whole wheat flour)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup water

2 large eggs

1/4 cup plus up to 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

2 tablespoons za’atar (see below)

1.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment. Sift together the flours and the salt. Combine the water, eggs and 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a measuring cup. Place the flour mixture in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, and turn on the processor. Add the liquids with the machine running, and process until the dough comes together. The dough will be soft. If it seems wet, add another tablespoon of flour.

2.Remove from the food processor, and wrap in plastic. Let rest 15 minutes. Divide into two portions, and roll out each portion into thin sheets. Brush the top of the sheets with the remaining olive oil, and sprinkle with Parmesan and za’atar. Using the rolling pin gently press the topping into the surface by rolling the pin over the dough. Cut the dough into squares or rectangles, and transfer to the baking sheets.

3.Bake 15 minutes until lightly browned and crisp.

Note:To make za’ater, mix together 1/4 cup finely crumbled dried thyme, 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon sumac (available in Middle Eastern markets) and a pinch of salt. Place in a jar, and keep in a cool, dark place. A number of seeds can stand in for the za’tar. I like charnushka, also known as nigella, as well as sesame seeds, cumin seeds, poppy seeds and flax seeds. Try different combinations.

Yield:Eighty to 90 crackers.

Advance preparation:These crackers will keep for a week in an airtight container.

Nutritional information per cracker:23calories; 0 gramssaturated fat; 0g polyunsaturated fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 5 milligramscholesterol; 3 gramscarbohydrates; 0 gramsdietary fiber; 28 milligrams sodium; 1 gram protein

Martha Rose Shulmanis the author of"The Very Best of Recipes for Health."

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Hearts Beat as One During a Fire-Walking Ritual

They do it every June 23, at midnight, celebrating the summer solstice by crossing a 23-foot-long carpet of oak embers that have burned for hours before sizzling down to a glowing red. The event is full of pageantry and symbolism: processions with religious statues, trumpets sounding before each fire-walk, and three virgins (or, these days, three women who are unmarried).

So when scientists wanted to measure the physiological effects of fire-walking to see if there were biological underpinnings of communal rituals, they encountered a few hurdles.

“We talked about measuringblood pressure,cortisollevels, pain tolerance,” said Ivana Konvalinka, a bioengineering doctoral student at Aarhus University in Denmark who helped lead the team.“We even talked about oxytocin,” a hormone involved in pleasure.

But with such readings difficult to obtain, they settled onheart rate, strapping monitors on fire-walkers and spectators to see whether the rates of spectators increased like those of people actually walking barefoot on hot coals.

Still, even persuading people to wear heart monitors was no easy feat. Before arriving, the research team of anthropologists,psychologistsand religion experts had received permission from San Pedro Manrique’s mayor, but later he demurred, Ms. Konvalinka said.

“He said to us, if we are able to recruit people, then fine,” she said,“but he didn’t approve, and he told people not to participate.”

Some people dropped out or refused, including the people the fire-walkers carry on their backs, a group researchers considered monitoring. But others approached researchers at the last minute. Ultimately, they monitored 12 fire-walkers, 9 spectators related to fire-walkers, and 17 unrelated spectators who were just visiting. The mayor also required monitors to be concealed so they were invisible to the crowd, which filled the town’s special fire-walking amphitheater, built for 3,000 spectators, five times the number of villagers.

The researchers wanted to investigate what draws people to communal rituals like fire-walking.

“There’s the idea about rituals that they enhance group cohesion, but what creates this group?” Ms. Konvalinka said.“We figured there was some kind of autonomic nervous system measure that could capture the emotional effects of the ritual.”

The results surprised them. The heart rates of relatives and friends of the fire-walkers followed an almost identical pattern to the fire-walkers’ rates, spiking and dropping almost in synchrony. The heart rates of visiting spectators did not. The relatives’ rates synchronized throughout the event, which lasted 30 minutes, with 28 fire-walkers each making five-second walks. So relatives or friends’ heart rates matched a fire-walker’s rate before, during and after his walk. Even people related to other fire-walkers showed similar patterns.

Experts not involved in the study said despite the small number of participants, the results were intriguing. They build on research showing heart rates of fans of team sports surge when their teams score, and on studies demonstrating that people rocking in rocking chairs or tapping their fingers eventually synchronize their movements.

“It’s one study, but it’s a great study,” said Michael Richardson, an assistant professor ofpsychologyat theUniversity of Cincinnati.“It shows that being connected to someone is not just in the mind. There are these fundamental physiological behavioral moments that are occurring continuously with other people that we’re not aware of. There is a solid grounding of laboratory research which is completely consistent with their findings. It’s always hard to do these studies in the real world. This is the first study that has kind of done it on a big scale in a natural situation.”

Richard Sosis, an associate professor of anthropology at theUniversity of Connecticut, said the study was“quite exciting,” contradicting the“assumption that rituals produce cohesion and solidarity only if there are shared movements, shared vocalizations or shared rhythms,” activities like singing, dancing or marching together. With fire-walking, spectators simply watched, without sharing activity or rhythm with the walkers. And different types of spectators had different results, with villagers in sync but out-of-towners not.

Dr. Sosis, co-editor of a new journal, Religion, Brain and Behavior, said there could be parallels with more common rituals, like weddings, baptisms or bar mitzvahs. He cited an experiment in which Paul Zak, a neuroeconomist, attended a wedding and measured oxytocin levels of the bride, groom and some relatives and friends, finding that several experienced surges in oxytocin as if bonding with the couple.

David Willey, a physicist atUniversity of Pittsburghat Johnstown, fire-walks himself and hasreasonedthat it does not normally burn because the embers do not transmit enough heat in their brief contact with feet. Heart-rate synchronization makes sense, he said, based on his fire-walking parties, where“there is very much a group feeling.”

Researchers might find similar heart-rate synchronization in other high-arousal rituals like“bending rebar with your throat, walking on broken glass, bungee jumping,” he said.“They can come to my backyard if they want.”

Ms. Konvalinka said the team plans another fire-walking study, this time in Mauritius. But they may also return to San Pedro Manrique.“At the end,” she said,“I think the mayor was O.K. with us being there.”

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Containing the Costs of Pet Care

Last year the Nocella family adopted two puppies, a pit bull mix named Pokie and a“puggle” named Browny. Since then, Ms. Nocella estimates, the family has spent as much as $5,000 on veterinarian bills.

The dogs have had routine checkups and shots, of course. But then there were unexpected costs: Pokie arrived with a bad case of worms and kennel cough; some strange bumps on her paws turned out, after $700 worth of tests, to bewarts. Browny has severeallergiesand requires frequent trips to the vet.

Last November, Pokie swallowed Advil pills, which are toxic to dogs. She went intorenal failureand required emergency treatment overnight in a nearby animal hospital. The treatment was successful and Pokie is fine, but the incident set the Nocellas back $2,300.

Pet owners like Ms. Nocella are spending more on veterinarian bills than ever before. The American Pet Products Association estimates that Americans will spend $12.2 billion on veterinary care this year, up from $11 billion last year and $8.2 billion in 2006.

Advances in veterinary medicine mean more extensive, and expensive, treatments are available for animals, but even ordinary costs like flea and tick protection can add up quickly. Here are some ways to curb those costs while still giving your pet the best of care.

LOW-COST ALTERNATIVESLocal shelters often offer free or low-cost spaying and neutering for dogs and cats, said Dr. Louise Murray, vice president at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal’s Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in New York and author of“Vet Confidential.” To find a shelter near you, check the A.S.P.C.A. Web site atwww.aspca.org/pet-care/spayneuter.

Shelters where pets can be adopted may offer low-costvaccinationsand checkups. Mobile clinics, usually sponsored by local governments or animal protection agencies, also provide routine pet care for far less than a traditional vet would charge.

Veterinarian schools are another good source of low-cost care. Students are carefully supervised by qualified veterinarians, so pets receive quality care— everything from heartworm tests to major surgery, often for as little as a third of the price at a veterinarian’s office.

THE RIGHT VACCINESKeeping up with a pet’s shots will save money, not to mention misery, in the long run by preventing many serious illnesses. But that does not mean a pet needs every vaccine available.

“A corgi who lives on the Upper East Side doesn’t need the same protocol as a Labrador in Connecticut,” Dr. Murray said.“Your veterinarian should customize a vaccine plan that fits your pet.”

A HEALTHY DIETMany vets sellprescriptionsand high-quality pet food, but the same brands are sold for much less at many pet supply stores or Web sites. Still, do not skimp on quality.

“Cats, for example, are carnivores and aren’t meant to eatcarbohydrates,” Dr. Murray said.“Feeding them only the cheap dried food can lead todiabetesor blockages that will cost you a lot more in the long run than the price you’ll pay for the right food.”

DRUG DISCOUNTSIf a pet needs regular medication, discount chains such as Costco can be cheaper than a regular drug store or the vet’s office, said Dr. Sharon Friedman, a veterinarian at the Berkley Animal Clinic in Berkley, Mich. But consult a veterinarian first, she advised, to be sure to buy the right medicine at the right dosage.

On the other hand, do not assume that tick and flea treatments or heartworm medications are cheaper at the big discount chains. Manufacturers want to distribute these medicines through veterinarians’ offices, so they often offer promotions and discounts there that are not available elsewhere.

“One company recently offered two free tick and flea treatments if you bought six doses. That worked out to be less expensive than PetMeds, a popular online store, or Costco,” Dr. Friedman said.“It often pays to ask.”

Many Web sites sell high-quality pet medications at good prices, buta recent Food and Drug. Administration. investigation caught some sites selling counterfeit, unapproved or expired drugs. Beware of any site that sells medications without requiring a veterinarian’s prescription.

The F.D.A. also recommends that consumers look for sites accredited as a Veterinary-Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site, part of a voluntary accreditation program.

CONSIDERINSURANCEPethealth insuranceis a booming industry, growing more than 20 percent every year, although only an estimated 3 percent of pet owners have bought policies. While Ms. Nocella has never seriously considered buying pet insurance, she does acknowledge it might have come in handy the day Pokie ate the Advil.

But like health insurance for humans, pet insurance can be complicated and highly restricted. Some policies will not cover older pets or genetic conditions that certain breeds are known to have, such as hip dysplasia in retrievers.

Others limit coverage to only one treatment per illness. So if your dog developsasthma, for instance, some policies will cover just the first trip to the vet although treatment will require multiple visits.

Prices for pet insurance can range from $12 to $50 a month, depending on the type and age of the pet and any pre-existing conditions. In almost all cases the pet owner pays up front, then files a claim for reimbursement.

Costs are higher to insure older, sicker pets, or for policies that cover preventive care, such as vaccines and veterinarian office visits.

Many pet owners prefer to save for unexpected vet expenses in an emergency fund instead of paying premiums for coverage they may not use. Dr. Murray suggested putting away a little each week until savings reach $2,000 to $3,000.

“That’s the minimum you’ll need if a serious situation arises and your pet needs lifesaving care,” she said.

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J.&J. to Buy Synthes for $21.3 Billion

The $21.3 billion deal for Synthes, a Swiss-American medical device maker, would make Johnson&Johnson the largest player in the market for surgical tools and implants to treat trauma patients, and would make it a more powerful competitor in the $37 billion worldwide market for orthopedic medical devices.

Synthes is a leading maker of screws, plates and surgical tools used to stabilize traumatic injuries. The deal is a move aimed at appealing to investors who have been troubled by Johnson&Johnson’s failure to quickly resolve significant and apparently systemic problems in the company’s consumer products division, which have tarnished once-golden brands like Tylenol.

Johnson&Johnson’s chief executive, William C. Weldon, championed the new deal in an interview on Wednesday, citing what he hoped would be cooperation between the company’s existing orthopedic and spinal implant division, DePuy, and Synthes.“We’ve got the opportunity to create the most innovative and comprehensive orthopedic business in the world,” Mr. Weldon said.

Trauma products are more profitable and less vulnerable than other kinds of medical devices to changes in broad economic trends, he said. The combination of Johnson&Johnson’s global presence and Synthes’s products, he said, created a new opening in emerging markets for the combined company.

Many Wall Street analysts praised the deal, even as some groused that it would not immediately add to earnings.

“J.&J. will be able to offerhospitalsan inescapable breadth and depth of products that will offer one-stop shopping in reconstructive implants and trauma repair,” said Rick Wise, an analyst at Leerink Swann.“You are going to have to do business with J.&J.”

Johnson&Johnson is offering 159 Swiss francs (about $181) a share for Synthes— of which 55.65 francs is cash and 103.35 francs is Johnson&Johnson common stock. Derrick Sung, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said some investors were disappointed that the company was not planning to make use of its stockpile of foreign cash for the deal.

“It’s dilutive, at least for the first year,” he said.“There was an expectation that it would be accretive in the first year.”

At the annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, some investors are expected to raise concerns about Mr. Weldon’s management and his compensation.“I don’t think they would have done the deal if they didn’t need a distraction,” said Erik Gordon, an assistant business professor at the University of Michigan who has been a frequent critic of Mr. Weldon’s leadership.

The company stands at a crossroads as Mr. Weldon nears the end of his tenure. Even as Johnson&Johnson plans to use the Synthes acquisition to improve its position in the device sector and its performance, the company must still resolve major manufacturing problems in its consumer division and work to regain consumer trust. During a conference call with investors on Wednesday morning, some analysts asked whether the company was equipped to handle both a substantial acquisition and significant remediation.

Some investors fault a lack of management oversight for major problems, like last year’s manufacturing lapses at the company’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit, which was responsible for the recalls of nearly 300 million items in 2010, including for popular brands like Motrin and Rolaids. McNeil closed its Fort Washington, Pa., manufacturing plant to overhaul it, and is now operating under a consent decree with federal regulators.

Johnson&Johnson bought Pfizer’s consumer business, including brands like Listerine, for $16.6 billion in 2006, and some analysts have speculated that the unwieldy acquisition, along with cost-cutting measures, may have contributed to the problems that developed at McNeil.

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