Western Scientific Community Research Articles

Intraocular infestation with Thelazia callipaeda

To the EditorIn their recently published manuscript, Kim and colleagues[1] describe a case of human intraocular infestation byworms. The authors erroneously identify the nematodecollected in the conjunctiva as Thelazia callipaeda (Spiru-rida: Thelaziidae). However, the morphological identifica-tion of T. callipaeda adult nematodes relies on evidence ofthe presence of a buccal capsule with the internal marginseverted and subdivided by excavations into six festoons andthe mouth opening with a hexagonal profile. These mor-phological features clearly differ from those of the nema-tode in the figure presented by Kim and colleagues [1]. Theauthors also state that the life cycle of T. callipaeda remainsunclear and discuss the possibility of human infectionthrough the skin or by drinking untreated water. It isimportant for physicians and ophthalmologists who may notbe experts in parasitology to realize that, similarly to othermembers of the Thelaziidae, and at a higher taxonomicallevel of the order Spirurida, T. callipaeda is transmittedonly by secretophagous flies [2]. T. callipaeda develops thefirst to third infective stages of larvae within its body andthese are then deposited into the eyes of receptive hostswhen flies feed on lachrymal secretions.The lack of knowledge of this helminth’s infestation isprobably due to the fact that, until the last decade, the bodyof literature on this nematode was published in languagesother than English (mainly Chinese) and thus it was notaccessible to a great part of the western scientific commu-nity. This nematode was commonly known as the ‘‘orientaleye-worm’’ because of its distribution in Asian countrieswhere it is still frequently reported as being responsible forthelaziosis in humans, carnivores (dogs, cats and foxes) andrabbits, causing mild to severe clinical signs (includingepiphora, conjunctivitis, keratitis and/or even cornealulcers) [2]. The little attention medical researchers tend topay human thelaziosis may also be attributable to the dif-ficulties in its clinical diagnosis and differentiation fromallergic conjunctivitis, particularly when small numbers ofadult or larval stages are present in affected patients. Overthe last decades, however, infestation by T. callipaeda hasgained the interest of the scientific community and there isevidence of its spreading throughout Europe, with a highprevalence (up to 60%) in dogs being recorded in someareas of southern Italy [2]. In the same areas the frequencyof wolves, beech martens, brown hares and wild cats asdefinitive hosts for T. callipaeda has been recently dem-onstrated. In addition, there is evidence for its occurrence indogs in France, Germany and Switzerland. Recently, thefirst four cases of human thelaziosis in Europe have alsobeen diagnosed [3]. Correct knowledge of the biology ofT. callipaeda is, therefore, pivotal in addressing the pre-vention of human thelaziosis (e.g., use of nets to protectchildren while sleeping, keeping their faces and eyes clean).Domenico OtrantoDepartment of Veterinary Public Healthand Animal SciencesFaculty of Veterinary Medicine of BariStrada Provinciale per Casamassima km 370010 Valenzano (Bari), ItalyReferences

ECAM: Integrative Genomics and Fecundity

<i>eCAM</i>: Integrative Genomics and Fecundity

Ursodeoxycholic acid in chronic hepatitis C

Cytoprotective but anti-apoptotic The history of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) therapy has been provided by Makino and Tanaka.1 Identified in 1902 from polar bear bile by Hammarsten, UDCA was isolated and...

Science and worldviews in the marxist tradition

This paper is about the relationship between Marxism, Science and Worldviews. In Section I, the paper gives a descriptive definition of the scientific viewpoint based on a materialist ontology, a realist epistemology, and the recognition that science is a social activity. The paper shows in Section II that there are currents in contemporary Marxism which relate favourably to science. In Section III, the paper examines Marx's encounter with Natural Philosophy and Materialism by analysing the influence of Epicurus on Marx. Section IV examines Marx's positive attitude towards natural science. Section V discusses the relation between science and ideology and proposes a scheme to defend the thesis that science establishes a conceptual autonomy from the forms of social consciousness existing in the social formation. Finally Section VI examines the historical infusion of Marxism into the Western scientific community in the 1930s, and the positions adopted by Marxists when they have considered science education.

Research ethics committees in developing countries and informed consent: with special reference to Turkey

Research ethics committees (RECs) are the institutional equivalent of institutional review boards (IRBs) with respect to their role in the ethical analysis of research projects. In Turkey, as in most developing countries, these committees were initiated as a result of pressure from the Western scientific community. Since their formation, RECs have faced problems because of an underdeveloped scientific culture and the absence of established ethical standards. On the one hand, the standards of the RECs and IRBs in the developed world seemed too hard to achieve; on the other, some of the international regulatory rules, such as respect for autonomy, are not culturally sensitive. In addition to problems facing RECs, researchers have had difficulties in fulfilling RECs&rsquo; requisites. Respect for autonomy is a good example for Turkey. The social construct of Turkish society is not based on the Western concept of autonomy; it is based on &ldquo;collective autonomy,&rdquo; which is completely different from the Western definition. Cultural interpretation of concepts is the perception of concepts effected by their cultural connections with other concepts. For example, &ldquo;motherhood&rdquo; as a concept has many cultural connections, so when it is used we have to consider those culturally determined contexts. In some countries, the familiar concept and term are kept separated from the one that is imported. In others, the imported concept alters the original concepts content. Although its course varies in different countries, it always puts extraordinary pressure on RECs and researchers in their relationship between themselves and other parties with conflicting interests. In this article, some of the main concerns of RECs in developing countries are discussed, with special reference to Turkey. The universality of regulatory norms is questioned and the importance of culturally sensitive and effective safeguards emphasized.

«Новий історизм» як постмодерністський дискурс сучасності

The classical historicist paradigm of cognition of historical reality has been subjected to devastating criticism by the latest postmodern concepts. The article is devoted to one of these concepts - the «new historicism». Based on the classics of the «new historicism», the author identifies its main features, which include a) textualisation of history (transition of historical research into literary analysis and vice versa), b) contextual analysis of a literary work (marking «representations»), c) denial of the idea of «neutrality» of literature in relation to specific historical conditions, d) coexistence of determinism of the text and certainty of discursive practices. The «new historicism» is distinguished from the deconstruction methodology by the historicisation of modernity and the principle of recontextualisation, and from the post-structuralist methodology by the distinction between text and context. The author concludes that the «new historicism» does not claim to have universal significance or methodological perfection of its postulates. It only offers to look at the process of human development outside the limited framework of classical historical, philosophical and literary constructions, thus gaining popularity and significance in the wider Western scientific community.

Aiding African Agriculture

As Conway and Sechler state in their Editorial “Helping Africa feed itself” ( Science 's Compass, 8 Sept., p. [1685][1]), “Now is the time for the Western scientific community to apply its knowledge, in genuine partnerships with African scientists, to help Africa escape the tyranny of hunger.” One such partnership began in the 1980s with the creation of a worldwide consortium of scientists focused on development of a safe strain of the grass pea ( Lathyrus sativus ). This is an environmentally tolerant plant with a high protein content that is cultivated by poor farmers without tillage or inputs in the Greater Horn of Africa ([1][2]) where famine has been a recurrent phenomenon, a topic discussed by Broad and Agrawala in the same issue in their Policy Forum, “The Ethiopia food crisis—uses and limits of climate forecasts” (p. [1693][3]). These efforts culminated in the development of grass pea strains with low concentrations of a neurotoxic excitant amino acid (b- N -oxalylamino-L-alanine) that can cause a crippling disease (lathyrism) in poor communities where grass pea is heavily consumed ([2][4], [3][5]). Studies conducted by African scientists of various disciplines, working with Western colleagues, played a key role in the grass pea research effort. This model of international and cross-disciplinary collaboration should now be applied to cassava ( Manihot esculenta ), a drought-resistant root crop that feeds at least 200 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. This, too, is an indispensable and environmentally tolerant food plant for Africa and elsewhere, but the tuber is protein-poor and contains cyanogenic glucosides that yield significant concentrations of cyanide in the consumer ([4][6]). Although the effects of this diet on development are not understood, dietary dependence on cassava may result in an irreversible spastic paraparesis in children and adults that is clinically comparable to lathyrism ([2][4]). In sum, therefore, research for the long-term relief of hunger in Africa must contemporaneously address issues of toxicology as well as those of plant science and nutrition. 1. [↵][7]1. A. K. Kaul, 2. D. Combes , Lathyrus and Lathyrism Third World Medical Research Foundation, New York, (1986)P. S. Spencer, The Grass Pea: Threat and Promise (Third World Medical Research Foundation, New York, 1989). 2. [↵][8]1. P. S. Spencer , Drug Metab. Rev. 31, 561 (1999). [OpenUrl][9][CrossRef][10][PubMed][11][Web of Science][12] 3. [↵][13]1. J. Raloff , Sci. News 158, 75 (2000). [OpenUrl][14] 4. [↵][15]1. M. Bokanga 2. et al. , Acta Horticult. 375, 1 (1994). [OpenUrl][16] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.289.5485.1685 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.289.5485.1693 [4]: #ref-2 [5]: #ref-3 [6]: #ref-4 [7]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [8]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [9]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DDrug%2Bmetabolism%2Breviews%26rft.stitle%253DDrug%2BMetab%2BRev%26rft.aulast%253DSpencer%26rft.auinit1%253DP.%2BS.%26rft.volume%253D31%26rft.issue%253D3%26rft.spage%253D561%26rft.epage%253D587%26rft.atitle%253DFood%2Btoxins%252C%2Bampa%2Breceptors%252C%2Band%2Bmotor%2Bneuron%2Bdiseases.%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1081%252FDMR-100101936%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F10461541%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [10]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1081/DMR-100101936&link_type=DOI [11]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10461541&link_type=MED&atom=%2Fsci%2F289%2F5488%2F2281.2.atom [12]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000082178200001&link_type=ISI [13]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3 in text [14]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DSci.%2BNews%26rft.volume%253D158%26rft.spage%253D75%26rft.atitle%253DSCI%2BNEWS%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [15]: #xref-ref-4-1 View reference 4 in text [16]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DActa%2BHorticult.%26rft.volume%253D375%26rft.spage%253D1%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx

Helping Africa Feed Itself

“ I challenge the foremost experts in the world to think through the barrier of low agricultural productivity in Africa. I implore the great philanthropic foundations—which have stimulated so much good and practical research on agriculture—to rise to this vital challenge.” Kofi Annan, Secretary General, The United Nations. The 3-day United Nations Millennium Assembly of Heads of State, which ends today (8 September 2000), addresses a critical issue raised by Kofi Annan in his millennium report[*][1]: helping Africa feed itself. Hunger is commonplace in sub-Saharan Africa: Of the 600 million people who live there, nearly 200 million are chronically undernourished; some 40 million children are severely underweight; over 50 million people, mostly children, suffer from vitamin A deficiency; and 65% of women of childbearing age are anemic. Africa is getting poorer and hungrier. Decades of war, weak governments, one-party democracies, and widespread corruption are part of the problem. But these human-made tragedies obscure another, in some ways more enduring, set of problems for African farmers and their families that scientists could help address. Elsewhere, agricultural production and economic growth received a big boost from the Green Revolution. Yet few of the technologies were aimed at Africa's staple crops or growing conditions. Green Revolution technology allows plants to channel more photosynthate into grain production, dramatically increasing yields if fertilizer and irrigation are provided. But it diminishes other useful traits, such as vigorous deep roots, sturdy stems, and ability to compete with weeds. Asking African farmers to invest in Green Revolution technology meant asking them to invest in fragile plants in a harsh landscape. Cereal yields in Africe have barely increased over the past 30 years and stand at a meager 1 ton per hectare; per capita food production is stagnant. First, the science must be tailored to Africa's circumstances. Traditionally, the poor rely on governments to do their research. But today the United States and other donors have greatly scaled down their aid for agricultural research aimed at poor farmers; about 80% of new biotechnology products and processes, for example, are being developed by the private sector. Biotechnology offers tremendous possibilities for developing plants suitable to Africa, but neither governments nor companies are bending biotech toward these ends. Second, Africa needs cheap agrotechnologies just when agriculture is becoming bound up in privatized intellectual property rights regimes. The great agricultural universities that helped generate the Green Revolution technologies no longer make their inventions available to the poor. We have to find innovative ways to encourage public-private partnerships that deliver new technologies where they are most needed. The partnership (involving AstraZeneca; the ETH Institute of Plant Science, Zurich; and international and national crop improvement centers) to deliver vitamin A rice to poor farmers is a promising example. Third, Africa needs more sustainable agricultural technologies—not just more fertilizer or advanced organic approaches, but the integration of both, together with other techniques such as water harvesting, zero tillage, legume rotations, crop-livestock systems, and composts and mulches. Fourth, Africans know their lands and soils, and this knowledge needs to be harnessed by the growing number of farmer-participatory field trials and experiments. Why should new varieties not emerge from genuine on-the-ground cooperation between farmers and scientists? Africa has long suffered from bullying by richer countries concerned with their own programs: to shift food surpluses and call it aid; to unload hazardous chemicals; to provide advanced training for Africa's brightest young scientists but fail to encourage them to return home. Now is the time for the Western scientific community to apply its knowledge, in genuine partnerships with African scientists, to help Africa escape from the tyranny of hunger. In the 1960s, we began to conquer hunger in the United States. We are at a similar moment for world hunger. Let us hope that our children and grandchildren do not look back and say: How could scientists and policymakers at the prosperous end of the past millennium have let hunger persist for so long? Gordon Conway is the president and Susan Sechler is the director of global inclusion at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City. [1]: #fn-1

Acupuncture modulates the limbic system and subcortical gray structures of the human brain: evidence from fMRI studies in normal subjects.

Acupuncture, an ancient therapeutic technique, is emerging as an important modality of complementary medicine in the United States. The use and efficacy of acupuncture treatment are not yet widely accepted in Western scientific and medical communities. Demonstration of regionally specific, quantifiable acupuncture effects on relevant structures of the human brain would facilitate acceptance and integration of this therapeutic modality into the practice of modern medicine. Research with animal models of acupuncture indicates that many of the beneficial effects may be mediated at the subcortical level in the brain. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the effects of acupuncture in normal subjects and to provide a foundation for future studies on mechanisms of acupuncture action in therapeutic interventions. Acupuncture needle manipulation was performed at Large Intestine 4 (LI 4, Hegu) on the hand in 13 subjects [Stux, 1997]. Needle manipulation on either hand produced prominent decreases of fMRI signals in the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampus, hypothalamus, ventral tegmental area, anterior cingulate gyrus (BA 24), caudate, putamen, temporal pole, and insula in all 11 subjects who experienced acupuncture sensation. In marked contrast, signal increases were observed primarily in the somatosensory cortex. The two subjects who experienced pain instead of acupuncture sensation exhibited signal increases instead of decreases in the anterior cingulate gyrus (BA 24), caudate, putamen, anterior thalamus, and posterior insula. Superficial tactile stimulation to the same area elicited signal increases in the somatosensory cortex as expected, but no signal decreases in the deep structures. These preliminary results suggest that acupuncture needle manipulation modulates the activity of the limbic system and subcortical structures. We hypothesize that modulation of subcortical structures may be an important mechanism by which acupuncture exerts its complex multisystem effects.

Science in Isolation: American Marine Geophysics Research, 1950-1968

The emergence of plate tectonics theory during the 1960s stemmed from large-scale efforts to investigate the sea floor and to interpret results in terms of a horizontally mobile crust. Many scientists, particularly those within the Soviet bloc, refused to accept the new ideas about the earth. Most authors fault the conservative Soviet scientific leadership for halting the progress of geophysics in the East. By contrast, this article examines facets of the Western scientific community that begin to explain both the exclusion of Soviet scientists from participating in the “plate tectonics revolution” and also the meteoric success of the theory in the West.

Phrenology in the science and culture of the 19th century.

In the last decade of the 18th century, Franz Joseph Gall of Vienna invented a combination of physiognomy and brain localization that he originally called "craniology" (the science of the head) and later called "organology" (the science of the organs of the brain). Between 1800 and 1812, he worked with Johann Christoph Spurzheim on a variety of important neuroanatomic studies to support this new science. By 1812, when they parted company in Paris, Spurzheim had become intrigued with the psychosocial potential of the undertaking, which he renamed "phrenology" (the science of the mind). Because a phrenological examination (palpation of skull prominences) could provide an analysis of a person's strengths and weaknesses, Spurzheim thought that his system could lead to personal improvement for everyone, including the laboring classes. He was thus a 19th century reformer, generally on the liberal side of the political and social spectrum. Spurzheim spread his gospel to Britain through several long lecture tours, and phrenology became briefly popular through the efforts of other British reformers, especially George Combe. In 1832, Spurzheim came to the United States. Three months later, he died in Boston, a martyr to his cause. Phrenology then spread widely into American popular culture, encouraged by the entrepreneurial efforts of "the phrenological Fowlers" and others like them. By 1843, the entire Western scientific community rejected organology and phrenology. All forms of cerebral localization were lumped with phrenology and similarly repudiated. Nonetheless, Gall's organology was the first comprehensive, premodern statement of a theory of cerebral localization. The early pioneers of modern localization, especially Paul Broca and David Ferrier, were careful to define how their theories differed from phrenology, even as they provided the clinical and scientific data that confirmed some of its basic tenets.

Acupuncture — from empiricism to science: Functional background to acupuncture effects in pain and disease Pain and disease

Acupuncture is part of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a system with an empirical basis which has been used in the treatment and prevention of disease for centuries. A lack of scientific studies to prove or disprove its claimed effects led to rejection by many of the western scientific community. Now that the mechanisms can be partly explained in terms of endogenous pain inhibitory systems, the integration of acupuncture with conventional medicine may be possible. Its use for pain relief has been supported by clinical trials and this has facilitated its acceptance in pain clinics in most countries. Acupuncture effects must devolve from physiological and/or psychological mechanisms with biological foundations, and needle stimulation could represent the artificial activation of systems obtained by natural biological effects in functional situations. Acupuncture and some other forms of sensory stimulation elicit similar effects in man and other mammals, suggesting that they bring about fundamental physiological changes. Acupuncture excites receptors or nerve fibres in the stimulated tissue which are also physiologically activated by strong muscle contractions and the effects on certain organ functions are similar to those obtained by protracted exercise. Both exercise and acupuncture produce rhythmic discharges in nerve fibres, and cause the release of endogenous opioids and oxytocin essential to the induction of functional changes in different organ systems. Beta-endorphin levels, important in pain control as well as in the regulation of blood pressure and body temperature, have been observed to rise in the brain tissue of animals after both acupuncture and strong exercise. Experimental and clinical evidence suggest that acupuncture may affect the sympathetic system via mechanisms at the hypothalamic and brainstem levels, and that the hypothalamic beta-endorphinergic system has inhibitory effects on the vasomotorcenter, VMC. Post-stimulatory sympathetic inhibition which proceeds to a maximum after a few hours and can be sustained for more than 12 hours, has been demonstrated in both man and animals. Experimental and clinical studies suggest that afferent input in somatic nerve fibres has a significant effect on autonomic functions. Hypothetically, the physiological counterpart lies in physical exercise, and the effect can be artificially reproduced via various types of electrical or manual stimulation of certain nerve fibres.

Yugoslav seismological research threatened

We in the Western scientific community have had the luxury, throughout most of our careers, of working in an environment insulated from the terrors of war and political violence. Well distanced from these horrors, we are often numbed by headlines reporting political turmoil elsewhere in the world—whether in Afghanistan, South Africa, or Yugoslavia. There are times, however, when personal contact with a colleague caught within one of these political wildfires reminds us of the very human tragedy that underlies these headlines.In studying a number of large earthquakes that took place in Central Asia in the 1930s and 1940s, we have been collecting seismograms from the well established European seismic observatories that recorded the events. Among them was the Zagreb Observatory, operated by the Mohorovicic Geophysical Institute of the University of Zagreb. The city of Zagreb—along with its scientific and cultural institutions—is now under siege, a result of the violent military conflict between the Yugoslav federal government and the Republic of Croatia. The following letter, which accompanied the Zagreb seismograms, provides a vivid picture of the daily hardships that our colleagues in Yugoslavia must be facing and a call to members of the international scientific community to help put an end to the rapidly escalating violence in Yugoslavia.