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PubMed2026

Ross River virus transmission, infection, and disease: two and a half decades of research progress-an updated cross-disciplinary review.

SUMMARYRoss River virus (RRV) causes the most mosquito-borne disease notifications in Australia and a considerable burden of non-fatal, yet frequently prolonged rheumatic illness across the Australia-Pacific region, reflected in thousands of notifications each year and notable economic and quality-of-life losses. Research on RRV spans multiple disciplines, encompassing viral genomics, immunopathology, transmission ecology, epidemiology, entomology, and environmental science. This review synthesizes two decades of cross-disciplinary investigations to present an integrated perspective on the biological, clinical, ecological, and environmental dimensions of RRV infection. By consolidating findings from diverse fields, the review enhances understanding of the complex factors influencing RRV transmission and disease outcomes throughout its endemic range.

Humans↗
PubMed2005

Influence of a fat layer on the near infrared spectra of human muscle: quantitative analysis based on two-layered Monte Carlo simulations and phantom experiments.

The influence of fat thickness on the diffuse reflectance spectra of muscle in the near infrared (NIR) region is studied by Monte Carlo simulations of a two-layer structure and with phantom experiments. A polynomial relationship was established between the fat thickness and the detected diffuse reflectance. The influence of a range of optical coefficients (absorption and reduced scattering) for fat and muscle over the known range of human physiological values was also investigated. Subject-to-subject variation in the fat optical coefficients and thickness can be ignored if the fat thickness is less than 5 mm. A method was proposed to correct the fat thickness influence.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Optic coherent tomography: a new high-resolution technology of visualization of tissue structures. Part 1. Principle of the technique. Objects of OCT applications and technical decisions for their study].

The authors present a series of three papers dedicated to studies made in Russia in the field of optic coherent tomography (OCT), the latest noninvasive high-resolution technology of visualization of the structure of biological tissues. A group of medical specialists of different disciplines has been examined over 2,000 patients for 8 years of the use of an original class of the Russian OCT devices developed at the Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, and awarded a RF State Prize in the field of science and technology in 1999. The first paper discusses the basic aspects of OCT, the objects of study, and technical decisions for the clinical application of the technique. The paper shows a place of OCT, whose resolving capacity is close to the cellular level (approximately 10-15 microns), among classical methods for imaging biological tissues. The optical images of different types of normal tissues and the method of their identification are demonstrated. It has been found that different optical properties of investing tissues and dentin permit their tomographic differentiation by showing their regular bedded structure. The tomographic pattern of investing tissues is affected by their specific features, such as the type of the lining epithelium, its keratosic processes, and the architecture of the basilar membrane.

Epithelium↗
PubMed1999

Genetic information resources: a new field for medical librarians.

The Human Genome Project is generating unprecedented quantities of new genetic information. The new discipline of bioinformatics has created many new molecular biology databanks to store the results of the Human Genome Project. This data is expected to be the information source for biomedical science in the 21st century. As molecular biology research moves out of the laboratory and becomes molecular medicine, a growing number of people need access to genetic information. Medical students, healthcare practitioners and patients need help in finding appropriate information. Medical librarians should know how to search key genetic information resources and should have a basic understanding of the type of information contained in each.

Databases, Bibliographic↗
PubMed1990

Medicinal chemistry: a support or a driving force in drug research?

The foregoing has demonstrated most emphatically the significant and central role which chemistry plays in modern and future drug research. It does not mean to diminish the important role of biology but it does serve to show that chemistry is not merely a support for the needs of biology but is a powerful driving force in itself. The two disciplines are essentially interdependent and each relies on the other for success in drug design, discovery and eventual delivery of a useful medicament to the patient. Finally, the medicinal chemist today is faced with as many if not more formidable challenges in medicinal research as his counterpart of a generation ago. The sciences of genetics, molecular biology, neuro-pharmacology and electrophysiology have expanded the knowledge base of cellular function many fold. This new knowledge when coupled with the fundamental role of biochemistry in outlining in chemical terms both normal and abnormal cellular events offers the researcher a much more sophisticated appreciation of the cause of disease states. Knowing which enzymes or receptors are involved is a crucial step towards correcting the malfunctioning cellular conditions. With powerful new methods for determining the three-dimensional structure of molecules and computer graphics which give insight on rational drug design and modification, the medicinal chemist can explore with greater confidence than ever before the road to new drugs. The new biology, the new physical methodology and the computer have enhanced the role of chemistry in modern drug research and have given the medicinal chemist a more profound grasp of cellular aberrations leading to disease. This knowledge is a golden rod in the hands of an imaginative chemist in the search of innovative drugs.

Biochemical Phenomena↗
PubMed1999

The origins and evolution of bioethics: some personal reflections.

Bioethics was officially baptized in 1972, but its birth took place a decade or so before that date. Since its birth, what is known today as bioethics has undergone a complex conceptual metamorphosis. This essay loosely divides that metamorphosis into three stages: an educational, an ethical, and a global stage. In the educational era, bioethics focused on a perceived "dehumanization" of medicine by the rising power of science and technology. Remedies were sought by introducing humanities, ethics, and human "values" into the medical curriculum. Ethics was one among the humanistic disciplines, but not the dominant one. In the second era, ethics assumed a dominant role as ever more complex dilemmas emerged from the rapid pace of biological research. As such dilemmas were applied to medical practice, the need for a more rigorous and more formal analysis of their moral status was clear. Philosophically-trained ethicists had an obvious role. They began to teach, write, and profoundly influence medical education and practice. In the third -- and present -- period, the breadth of problems has become so broad that ethicists must, themselves, draw on disciplines well beyond their expertise -- e.g., law, religion, anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and the like. The era of bioethics as a global enterprise is upon us. The original hope for humanizing medicine has not been overtly successful; however, much has been accomplished of value to patients, the profession, and society. Medical morality has been transformed into a formal, systematic study of a whole range of issues of the greatest significance to humanity. Now the major challenge is one of identity, or inter-relationships and connections between the theoretical and the practical. Bioethics has outgrown its beginnings.

Academies and Institutes↗
PubMed2003

The application of atomic force microscopy to the study of living vertebrate cells in culture.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM), a relatively new variant of scanning probe microscopy developed for the material sciences, is becoming an increasingly important tool in other disciplines. In this review I describe in nontechnical terms some of the basic aspects of using AFM to study living vertebrate cells. Although AFM has some unusual attributes such as an ability to be used with living cells, AFM also has attributes that make its use in cell biology a real challenge. This review was written to encourage researchers in the biological and biomedical sciences to consider AFM as a potential (and potent) tool for their cell biological research.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Genetics and biology: a comment on the significance of the Elston-Stewart algorithm.

This article recounts the background to the development of the Elston-Stewart algorithm for the genetic analysis of pedigree data. The algorithm can be used in the context of two contrasting research programmes. The first approach is analytical and reductionist. Traditional biological disciplines, such as physiology, embryology and comparative biology, describe phenomenological domains in which biological organisms are treated as complex systems with emergent properties. In the reductionist approach, these biological domains are largely abandoned in favour of descriptions in the domain of the component elements of these systems, resulting in a concentration on molecular genetics as the central object of biological science. In the second approach, it is explicitly recognized that genes and molecules, per se, cannot be explanatory with respect to emergent systemic properties. However, since the genetic variation which occurs in natural populations can influence virtually every aspect and level of biological organization, from cell lineages to ecology, the study of such variation opens new possibilities for establishing meaningful articulations between the various biological disciplines. The author's expressed preference is for the second alternative.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1980

The behavioral and social sciences.

In the social sciences, as in other sciences, progress is often placed by advances in observational techniques and instruments. This article reviews some of the recent technical progress in the social sciences ans then discusses three substantive frontier areas that are particularly exciting at present: evolutionary theory, especially in relation to sociobiology, the theory of human rational choice, and the newly christened discipline of cognitive science. All three claim to provide explanations for broad areas of human behavior.

Behavior↗
PubMed2005

Complementary medicine and genetic medicine: polar disciplines or dynamic partners?

For more than a decade, a powerful movement promoting the integration of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and conventional medicine has evolved. Throughout the same period, there has been a monumental shift in the biologic sciences, and in perspectives on disease, resulting from advances in genetics. It is noteworthy, and perhaps not coincidental, that these "movements" have been occurring in parallel. The simultaneous growth of complementary medicine and genetic medicine may be fueled by a deep interest in the development of "personalized" medicine. There is a prevailing view that the metaphysical visions of these two fields are in conflict. To advance discussion of this question, we describe what we believe are the common philosophies and goals of these apparently disparate fields, and why it would be advantageous for them to work together in the service of the public's health.

Complementary Therapies↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Evolutionary physiology and related sciences].

A brief historical review of development of the evolutionary physiology as an independent discipline. Description of the problems and methodology of the evolutionary physiology in the historical perspective. Interrelation of the evolutionary physiology and the related physiological and biological disciplines, specific features of the evolutionary physiology as an independent research discipline. The proceedings of 10 workshops on the evolutionary physiology, and the national and international bibliographic publications on evolution of the organic world are used to demonstrate the structure and the changes in time of the thematic spectrum explored by the evolutionary physiology.

Biological Evolution↗
PubMed1975

A pair comparison study of the relevance of nine basic science courses.

A judgment of the relevance of nine basic sciences courses was tested by the pair comparison method. The test groups consisted of first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year medical students; interns and residents; basic sciences faculty; and clinical faculty. The data obtained from all groups proved to be consistent. Three strata of relevance were detected. Physiology, pathology, and pharmacology comprised the stratum of maximum relevance. The anatomy sciences (gross anatomy, histology, cell biology, and embryology) formed a stratum of lowest relevancy. The comparative relevancy of biochemisty and microbiology fell between the two extremes. Two approaches for making the anatomy disciplines more relevant are discussed.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1995

An interactive histology image-barcode manual for a videodisc image library.

UNLABELLED: Cell Biology and HISTOLOGY (alias Microanatomy, alias Microscopic Anatomy) is a required course for first-year medical and dental students in most health science centers. The traditional approach used in teaching this discipline is to present photomicrographic images of structures to students in lecture using 35 mm slides of fields seen through the microscope. The students then spend many hours viewing and studying specimens of tissues using a light microscope in a laboratory setting. Students in traditional courses of histology spend an inordinate amount of time learning the component structures by attempting to find and identify them in tissue sections using a microscope, where the structure being sought is surrounded by a multitude of other structures with which they are also not familiar. With the recent availability of videodisc stored image libraries of histological samples, it is now possible to study histological principles without the use of the microscope as the primary learning tool. A videodisc entitled " HISTOLOGY: A Photographic Atlas" by S. Downing (published by Image Premastering Services Limited, Minneapolis, MN, 1991) has been incorporated into our histology course. Fifteen videodisc player stations are provided for 150 students. Images are retrieved by students using a bar code scanner attached to a videodisc player (Pioneer CLD-2400). Using this kind of image library, students can now learn basic histological structure, such as cell and tissue types, without the use of a microscope or as a tool for facilitating microscopy. The use of a videodisc library of randomly accessible images simplifies learning the basic components which all organs are composed of by presenting the learner with clear-cut examples to avoid confusion with other structures. However, videodisc players and TV monitors are still not appropriately priced for every student to own. This presents a problem in that the same images studied in class are not available to study and review outside of class. There is a need for resources for additional study outside of the institutional setting, for students to have and interact with to reinforce the learning experience in the teaching laboratory. A hard copy manual was created and is being used in our course; it incorporates photos captured from the videodisc. The images displayed in the manual are chosen to give the student one example of each histological component. Additional labeling is added to the images, and each image is accompanied by a bar code that may be used at a videodisc player with a bar code reader to retrieve the same color image from the disc displayed in larger format on a TV monitor. Each topic in the manual is accompanied by learning objectives and a statement of clinical relevance. Following the presentation of the images in each section of the manual, the students are encouraged to practice by viewing multiple examples of each structural component presented in the lesson. They can do this by using the bar-coded catalog supplied with each disc. The presentation of each topic concludes with a quiz composed of questions about images that the student can retrieve from the videodisc using barcodes in the text of the manual. Some of the images on the quiz are printed in miniature in the manual to provide the student with an opportunity for personal review at home when hardware to obtain and display images from a video disc is not available. This manual provides an answer to the dilemma faced by the learner when access to hardware is not available; reinforcement is therefore facilitated outside the teaching laboratory. This allows learning to continue outside of the classroom, using the same materials. (abstract truncated)

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗
PubMed2004

Towards a systems biology understanding of human health: interplay between genotype, environment and nutrition.

Sequencing of the human genome has opened the door to the most exciting new era for the holistic system description of human health. It is now possible to study the underlying mechanisms of human health in relation to diet and other environmental factors such as drugs and toxic pollutants. Technological advances make it feasible to envisage that in the future personalized drug treatment and dietary advice and possibly tailored food products can be used for promoting optimal health on an individual basis, in relation to genotype and lifestyle. Life-Science research has in the past very much focused on diseases and how to reestablish human health after illness. Today, the role of food and nutrition in human health and especially prevention of illness is gaining recognition. Diseases of modern civilization, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer have been shown to be effected by dietary patterns. The risk of disease is often associated with genetic polymorphisms, but the effect is dependent on dietary intake and nutritional status. To understand the link between diet and health, nutritional-research must cover a broad range of areas, from the molecular level to whole body studies. Therefore it provides an excellent example of integrative biology requiring a systems biology approach. The current state and implications of systems biology in the understanding of human health are reviewed. It becomes clear that a complete mechanistic description of the human organism is not yet possible. However, recent advances in systems biology provide a trajectory for future research in order to improve health of individuals and populations. Disease prevention through personalized nutrition will become more important as the obvious avenue of research in life sciences and more focus will need to be put upon those natural ways of disease prevention. In particular, the new discipline of nutrigenomics, which investigates how nutrients interact with humans, taking predetermined genetic factors into account, will mediate new insights into human health that will finally have significant positive impact on our quality of life.

Environment↗
PubMed2006

Translational proteomics: developing a predictive capacity -- a review.

Over the past decade, proteomics has undergone a rapid development and radiation, diversifying across the biochemical landscape. While no single technique yet delivers complete proteomic coverage, application-specific adaptations afford significant opportunity for discovery and the development of predictive capacity (e.g. surrogate biomarker and clinical diagnostics). Targeted proteomic approaches, protein profiling strategies using affinity capture mass spectrometry and solution array represent realistic opportunities to deliver predictive capacity. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of proteomic technologies and how the outcomes delivered by such platforms may be translated into applications of predictive utility in clinical and basic science. In particular, recent applications in protein/peptide profiling (solid-phase affinity capture mass spectrometry and the targeted approach of antibody arrays) and the opportunities they afford researchers within the discipline of reproductive biology to develop new diagnostic and prognostic tests and surrogate biomarkers to improve the delivery of women's health care are considered.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Issues in the analysis of oligonucleotide tiling microarrays for transcript mapping.

Traditional microarrays use probes complementary to known genes to quantitate the differential gene expression between two or more conditions. Genomic tiling microarray experiments differ in that probes that span a genomic region at regular intervals are used to detect the presence or absence of transcription. This difference means the same sets of biases and the methods for addressing them are unlikely to be relevant to both types of experiment. We introduce the informatics challenges arising in the analysis of tiling microarray experiments as open problems to the scientific community and present initial approaches for the analysis of this nascent technology.

Algorithms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Transgenic science.

The ability to manipulate the genome of the whole animal has, for the past 10 years, provided researchers with an alternative route of inquiry into many complex biological processes. Transgenic animals have numerous applications, encompassing a wide range of different disciplines, but they have proved especially useful in the investigation of gene regulation and gene function within the context of the living animal. This review describes the different techniques which have been used to produce transgenic animals and highlights advances which have been achieved using the transgenic approach.

Animals↗