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At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Power and visibility: the invention of teenage pregnancy.

The term 'teenage pregnancy' replaced the morally loaded terms 'illegitimate child' and 'unwed mother' around 1970. Instead of understanding the change in terminology as 'becoming more accurate', 'compelling more humane treatment' or simply as 'good', we should try to understand the meaning of the shift from treating pregnant adolescents as moral problems to treating them as scientific problems. Power organized around a moral discourse punished by exclusion, by placing its object on the other side of a moral boundary. Power organized around a scientific discourse on sexual desire makes its objects of knowledge visible and subject to unending inquiry. This paper explores the political implications of the emergence of this new form of power which disciplines its subjects not to obey the Law, but to become true to their own nature, a nature known by scientific experts.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Secondary metabolism, inventive evolution and biochemical diversity--a review.

Evidence now being obtained through nucleotide (nt) sequence analysis supports the concept that secondary metabolism has arisen by modification of existing primary metabolic reactions. Although amino acid sequence identity deduced from nt sequences of genes encoding proteins from related primary and secondary metabolic pathways is sufficient to indicate a common ancestry, the match is often better when genes in different rather than in the same species are compared. The information so far available suggests that gene transfer between organisms has been an important factor in the evolution of secondary metabolism. Many secondary pathways may be of relatively ancient origin and they may have arisen only infrequently. Much subsequent elaboration of the pathways has probably taken place after their acquisition by other species and so has been influenced by a variety of selective conditions. The characteristic diversity of secondary metabolites and their functions can be accounted for by the random manner in which the pathways initially evolved and have subsequently been exploited.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed2004

Whither T-suppressors: if they didn't exist would we have to invent them?

Arriving at an understanding of the role of suppressor T-cells (regulatory T-cells, CD4(+)CD25+) depends on whether their functional repertoire is somatically selected to be anti-Self or anti-Nonself. Immunologists are ambivalent; often publications espousing opposite views share an author. Here the arguments are detailed that the suppressor repertoire is not somatically selected to be anti-Self, but rather it is anti-Nonself. Therefore, suppression cannot regulate the Self-Nonself discrimination; its function is to regulate the magnitude and class of the anti-Nonself effector response.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

Oogamy: inventing the sexes.

The male-female dichotomy has evolved independently in nearly all lineages of multicellular organisms. Why this should be the case is still uncertain, but recent studies of mating-type genes in green algae open a promising new way to explore molecular-genetic aspects of the evolution of dichotomous sexes.

Algal Proteins↗
PubMed2006

The diffusion of medical technology, local conditions, and technology re-invention: a comparative case study on coronary stenting.

Innovation of medical technology is a major driving force behind the increase in medical expenditures in developed countries. Previous studies identified that the diffusion of medical technology varied across countries according to the characteristics of regulatory policy and payment systems. Based on Roger's diffusion of innovation theory, this study purported to see how local practice norms, the evolving nature of diffusing technology, and local clinical needs in addition to differences in politico-economic systems would affect the process of innovation diffusion. Taking a case of coronary stenting, an innovative therapeutic technology in early 1990s, we provided a case study of hospital-based data between two teaching high-tech hospitals in Japan and the US for discussion. Stenting began to be widely used in both countries when complementary new technology modified its clinical efficacy, but the diffusion process still differed between the two hospitals due to (1) distinctive payment systems for hospitals and physicians, (2) practice norms in favor of percutaneous intervention rather than bypass surgery that was shaped by payment incentives and cultural attitudes, and (3) local patient's clinical characteristics that the technology had to be tailored for. The case study described the diffusion of stent technology as a dynamic process between patients, physicians, hospitals, health care systems, and technology under global and local conditions.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

The best defence against bioweapons has already been invented by evolution.

Bioweapons are considered from the viewpoint of the mutual evolution of microbe/victim ecological systems. Cases considered include accidental, experimental, and real exploitation of bioweapons as well as other cases in the history of epidemics, and also experimental investigations. It is proposed here that speculations about bioweapon's very high mass annihilating ability are based on over-extrapolation from limited data selected from the ancient history of epidemics and on a false supposition that all people are susceptible to any bioweapon's infectious agent. The history of epidemics, clinical and genetic observations, data from experimental investigations, and results of accidental, experimental, and real exploitation of bioweapons do not confirm the mass annihilating capability of bioweapons. Many people possess constitutional (genetic) immunity presumably formed by natural selection over many human generations. This genetic protection exists in an individual prior to infection. The power of constitutional immunity played an important role during all human evolution. Its protective capability continues to defend humanity from mass annihilation by both epidemics and bioweapons. In this context of constitutional immunity for the majority of individuals, the main goal of modern medicine is to identify and defend the defenseless ones.

Biodiversity↗
PubMed2004

Vesicular stomatitis virus: re-inventing the bullet.

As our understanding of the molecular aspects of human disease increases, it is becoming possible to create designer therapeutics that are exquisitely targeted and have greater efficacy and fewer side effects. One class of targeted biological agents that has benefited from recent advances in molecular biology is designer viruses. Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is normally relatively innocuous but can be engineered to target cancer cells or to stimulate immunity against diseases such as AIDS or influenza. Strains of VSV that induce or direct the production of interferon are superior to wild-type strains of the virus for inducing oncolysis. These strains might also make better vaccine vectors. In this review, some of the features that make VSV an excellent platform for the development of a range of viral therapeutics are discussed.

Animals↗