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PubMed2003

Scientific foundations of hormesis. Part 2. Maturation, strengths, limitations, and possible applications in toxicology, pharmacology, and epidemiology.

The notion of hormesis has undergone numerous modifications in the course of the 20th century. Because of its unfortunate association with homeopathy, hormesis did not gain acceptance among biomedical professionals. The lack of a plausible mechanism for its occurrence may have contributed much to the rejection of this concept. This treatise outlines the conceptual struggle for an understanding of the widespread occurrence of low dose effects that appear to be opposite to those caused by high doses as also seen in hormesis. An incomplete conceptualization of time as a fundamental variable of effects (in addition to dose) is identified as one of the major reasons why hermetic responses were not observed more frequently than was reported by Calabrese and Baldwin. The definition of hormesis as an (over)compensation response to an inhibitory signal lacks a designation for (over)compensation responses to stimulatory signals in the other direction. Hormoligosis, which was coined by Luckey for all low-dose stimulatory responses of toxins, is suggested as a suitable term for generalizing the latter types of effects. Both types of effects are recognized as originating in a homeostatic overcompensation response that optimizes the ability of an organism to meet challenges beyond the limits of normal (unexercised) adaptation. Thus, repeated biochemical/physiologic/immunological, etc. exercises like physical exercise make an organism more fit and hence both hormetic and hormoligotic effects will have life-prolonging consequences. A more complete generalization was developed by linking hormesis/hormoligosis with the vast literature on Selye's general adaptation syndrome to stress. According to this broader view, stress is just one type of homeostatic exercise making organisms more fit for future biochemical/physiological/immunological, etc.challenges. Therefore, both hormesis and hormoligosis are manifestations of two nonmutational evolutionary principles--homeostasis and optimization.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1997

"A lab of one's own". The Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women at Cambridge University, 1884-1914.

The Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women was established at Cambridge University in 1884 to prepare the students of Newnham and Girton Colleges to sit the Natural Sciences Tripos, first opened to women in 1881. For thirty years, until its closure in 1914, the Balfour Laboratory served as the central conduit for biological instruction for the women of Cambridge, introducing them to the new program of experimental biology developed by the physiologist Michael Foster and the embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour. Directed by distinguished women graduates, the Balfour Laboratory became recognized as the leading center for women's biological instruction in Britain. Its significance, however, extends beyond its nominal status as a teaching laboratory. It provided university positions for able scientists who otherwise would not have been placed, offered advanced students the opportunity to engage in independent research, and, most important, formed the locus for the scientific subculture created by women at Cambridge to compensate for their exclusion from the social community of science. Drawing upon college and university archival records, this essay offers institutional, social, and biographical research that broadens our understanding of the experience of the first generation of women to pursue a higher education in the life sciences at one of the world's premier universities.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2003

The microscopist of modern life.

This is an essay in the history of observation of the natural and social worlds. It explores how nineteenth-century Paris became a field and object of scientific observation and how the everyday lives, and even the health, of scientists living in the city and leaving the city for the "country" modeled observations and theoretical interpretation. The story concerns the first important work in the research school of Louis Pasteur to focus on a human and urban disease, diphtheria, rather than animal and rural ones. An urban field practice emerged from characteristically Parisian forms and literary fictions of street life and public space, leisure, spectacle, and crowds. Some of these, such as transcience, were (and still are) viewed as not only characteristic of "modern life," but also the source of new practices and sensibilities in painting and literature. Microbiological studies elsewhere --such as in New York and Hamburg--were based on very different urban structures, patterns of everyday life, national cultures, and aspects of modernity.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2004

Biological citizenship: the science and politics of Chernobyl-exposed populations.

In the transition out of socialism to market capitalism, bodies, populations, and categories of citizenship have been reordered. The rational-technical management of group affected by the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine is a window into this contested process. Chernobyl exemplifies a moment when scientific knowability collapsed and new maps and categories of entitlement emerged. Older models of welfare rely on precise definitions situating citizens and their attributes on a cross-mesh of known categories upon which claims rights are based. Here one observes how ambiguities related to categorizing suffering created a political field in which a state, forms of citizenship, and informal economies were remade.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2004

The scanning laser ophthalmoscope--a review of its role in bioscience and medicine.

The scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) offers the potential for retinal imaging that is complementary both to that of the fundus camera and also the newly developing technique of optical coherence tomography (OCT). It has the ability to produce rapid images at low light levels using light of specific wavelengths. This permits temporal studies of fluorescent-labelled cells which offer a unique insight into inflammatory processes in the eye. The facility to image with several different wavelengths simultaneously offers the potential for spectral imaging of retinal tissue with the aim of revealing those early changes in tissue perfusion that indicate the onset of retinal disease, so increasing the probability of successful therapy.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Diagnostic imaging over the last 50 years: research and development in medical imaging science and technology.

Over the last 50 years, diagnostic imaging has grown from a state of infancy to a high level of maturity. Many new imaging modalities have been developed. However, modern medical imaging includes not only image production but also image processing, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD), image recording and storage, and image transmission, most of which are included in a picture archiving and communication system (PACS). The content of this paper includes a short review of research and development in medical imaging science and technology, which covers (a) diagnostic imaging in the 1950s, (b) the importance of image quality and diagnostic performance, (c) MTF, Wiener spectrum, NEQ and DQE, (d) ROC analysis, (e) analogue imaging systems, (f) digital imaging systems, (g) image processing, (h) computer-aided diagnosis, (i) PACS, (j) 3D imaging and (k) future directions. Although some of the modalities are already very sophisticated, further improvements will be made in image quality for MRI, ultrasound and molecular imaging. The infrastructure of PACS is likely to be improved further in terms of its reliability, speed and capacity. However, CAD is currently still in its infancy, and is likely to be a subject of research for a long time.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2000

Academic industry relationships in biotechnology: a primer on policy and practice.

Academic industry relationships (AIRs) in biotechnology are part of the modern life science economy. They cannot and should not be prevented. But their benefits should not be exaggerated, nor their risks minimized or ignored. It is essential that these relationships be understood, monitored, and managed in a manner that protects the investments and the integrity of involved individuals, institutions, and science in general. Failure to do so could result in loss of public confidence and support for research enterprise--a priceless resource whose integrity and independence are critical to the future of the scientific endeavor.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Nanotechnology: the next big thing, or much ado about nothing?

Nanotechnology encompasses an increasingly sophisticated ability to manipulate matter at the nanoscale, resulting in new materials, products and devices that demonstrate new and unusual behaviour. While emerging nanotechnologies have great potential for good, there are increasing concerns that the selfsame attributes that make them attractive will also lead to new risks to human health. Research to date suggests that some purposely made nanomaterials will present hazards based on their structure--as well as their chemistry--thus challenging many conventional approaches to risk assessment and management. People involved in making and using these materials need to know what the risks are and how to manage them, if safe nanotechnology-based businesses are to emerge. Yet the challenges faced by the occupational hygiene community in ensuring safe nano-workplaces are substantial. We currently know enough to suggest that some engineered nanomaterials will present new and unusual risks, but there is very little information on how these risks can be identified, assessed and controlled. And many nanomaterials are in production and use now. Good occupational hygiene practices and existing knowledge on working with hazardous substances provide a useful basis for working safely with nanomaterials. But where existing knowledge fails, new research is needed to fill the gaps: this must be strategically administered and targeted to addressing specific issues in a timely manner. Failing to take these steps will ultimately lead to people's health being endangered and emerging nanotechnologies floundering. However, with foresight, sound science and strategic research, we have the opportunity to ensure that emerging nanotechnologies are as safe as possible, while reaching their full potential.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2005

Online tools to support literature-based discovery in the life sciences.

In biomedical research, the amount of experimental data and published scientific information is overwhelming and ever increasing, which may inhibit rather than stimulate scientific progress. Not only are text-mining and information extraction tools needed to render the biomedical literature accessible but the results of these tools can also assist researchers in the formulation and evaluation of novel hypotheses. This requires an additional set of technological approaches that are defined here as literature-based discovery (LBD) tools. Recently, several LBD tools have been developed for this purpose and a few well-motivated, specific and directly testable hypotheses have been published, some of which have even been validated experimentally. This paper presents an overview of recent LBD research and discusses methodology, results and online tools that are available to the scientific community.

Abstracting and Indexing↗
PubMed1998

Zomit: biological data visualization and browsing.

MOTIVATION: The problems caused by the difficulty in visualizing and browsing biological databases have become crucial. Scientists can no longer interact directly with the huge amount of available data. However, future breakthroughs in biology depend on this interaction. We propose a new metaphor for biological data visualization and browsing that allows navigation in very large databases in an intuitive way. The concepts underlying our approach are based on navigation and visualization with zooming, semantic zooming and portals; and on data transformation via magic lenses. We think that these new visualization and navigation techniques should be applied globally to a federation of biological databases. RESULTS: We have implemented a generic tool, called Zomit, that provides an application programming interface for developing servers for such navigation and visualization, and a generic architecture-independent client (Javatrade mark applet) that queries such servers. As an illustration of the capabilities of our approach, we have developed ZoomMap, a prototype browser for the HuGeMap human genome map database. AVAILABILITY: Zomit and ZoomMap are available at the URL http://www.infobiogen.fr/services/zomit.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2004

Robust PCA and classification in biosciences.

MOTIVATION: Principal components analysis (PCA) is a very popular dimension reduction technique that is widely used as a first step in the analysis of high-dimensional microarray data. However, the classical approach that is based on the mean and the sample covariance matrix of the data is very sensitive to outliers. Also, classification methods based on this covariance matrix do not give good results in the presence of outlying measurements. RESULTS: First, we propose a robust PCA (ROBPCA) method for high-dimensional data. It combines projection-pursuit ideas with robust estimation of low-dimensional data. We also propose a diagnostic plot to display and classify the outliers. This ROBPCA method is applied to several bio-chemical datasets. In one example, we also apply a robust discriminant method on the scores obtained with ROBPCA. We show that this combination of robust methods leads to better classifications than classical PCA and quadratic discriminant analysis. AVAILABILITY: All the programs are part of the Matlab Toolbox for Robust Calibration, available at http://www.wis.kuleuven.ac.be/stat/robust.html.

Algorithms↗