Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Natural Science Disciplines”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

[Significance of a theoretical pathology for the scientific cognitive process in medicine].

A critical examination of current trends in medicine demonstrates the need for a deepened theoretical foundation. Of particular importance is the development of theoretical pathology. The goals, methods and content of theoretical pathology are discussed and contrasted with those of general and special pathology. Although general pathology incorporates some elements of theoretical pathology, the latter is based on the theory of cognition rather than empirical science. Dialectic materialism is an essential element of this discipline. The development of theoretical pathology demands an interdisciplinary approach on the part of physicians, natural and social scientists and must be based on a broad concept of human disease.

Cognition↗
PubMed2005

Toward a consilient science of psychology.

From its inception, psychology has been characterized by conceptual fragmentation and slow scientific progress (Henriques, 2004; Meehl, 1978). In contrast, the natural sciences have achieved in recent decades a remarkable degree of consilience--the linking of fact, theory, and method across disciplines (and subdisciplines) and across nested levels of informational complexity (Wilson, 1998). Although such consilience serves as a potent catalyst of scientific discovery, there exists several barriers to the emergence of a consilient science of psychology (e.g., the persistent influence of dualism, longstanding internecine discord, resistance to perceived reductionism, etc.). We discuss the manner in which the development of metatheoretical frameworks (including Henriques' Tree of Knowledge model) may play an important role in addressing such barriers. Likewise, we describe the hybrid interdisciplinary domain of cognitive neuroscience, which provides an empirically testable metatheory and a promising consilient bridge between psychology and the natural sciences.

Cognitive Science↗
PubMed1993

Nursing's syntax revisited: a critique of philosophies said to influence nursing theories.

Lodged within the syntax of a discipline are the value systems and research constraints that influence theory development and research strategies. Humanism and postmodern philosophy have challenged natural science philosophical influences on nursing's syntax. This paper examines the construction of nursing's syntax from empiricist, hermeneuticist, feminist, and critical social theory views. In this critique, two requirements are placed on the world views: (1) they must accommodate theoretical (realist) terms important to nursing; and (2) they should provide explanatory power for these terms within nursing's disciplinary substance. Arguments are continued for a "within-the discipline" structure, a substantive and syntactical structure for the discipline of nursing that recognizes the centrality of biobehavioral processes in the practice of nursing [Gortner, IMAGE: J. Nurs. Scholarship 22, 101-105 (1990)].

Female↗
PubMed2001

The cognitive neuroscience paradigm: a unifying metatheoretical framework for the science and practice of clinical psychology.

The emerging discipline of cognitive neuroscience (CN) enjoins the efforts of cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, clinical neurologists, neurophilosophers, and many others working collaboratively across traditional disciplinary boundaries to elucidate the manner in which the physical operations of the brain give rise to the vast panoply of human mental and behavioral events. The present article describes the foundational tenets of the CN metatheoretical framework and contends that the CN framework is capable of providing a coherent, unifying scientific paradigm for the discipline of clinical psychology. Clinical psychology's adoption of the CN paradigm would facilitate (a) its consilient linkage with the natural sciences, (b) resolution of long-standing internecine theoretical schisms, and (c) enhanced understanding and treatment of numerous forms of psychopathology. Nevertheless, psychology's historically influential radical behavioral (RB) perspective is not easily reconciled with the CN paradigm. However, unlike CN, RB (a) is not fully consilient with the natural sciences, (b) fails to articulate the proximal causal mechanisms that mediate environment-behavior relations, and (c) engages in "greedy reductionism" in its disavowal of informational levels of complexity in the patterning of neural activity. The article concludes with a discussion of the possibility of theoretical rapprochement between CN and RB.

Behaviorism↗
PubMed2004

[Science, technique, and culture: relations between risk and health practices].

This article discusses the cultural consequences of discourses and practices aimed at training subjects for a rational, informed choice in relation to risks, calculated on the basis of scientific knowledge. The epidemiological risk concept is a central element in this process, especially in the context of health practices. The article begins by briefly characterizing the epidemiological risk concept, emphasizing that as an abstract model, it reduces the complexity of the phenomena it studies. Grasping reality through this abstraction generates values and meanings. Canguilhem's reflection on the relations between science, technique, and life is further discussed from the perspective of deepening an understanding of the cultural consequences of this process, contributing to the transformation of classical concepts of individuality, autonomy, and sociability. Such vital themes as individuality, alterity, and the relationship with death are present (albeit disguised) in issues that involve the central nature of risk in the contemporary world.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2001

[The patient and medicine in contemporary Kazakhstan, attitudes towards bio-medicine and complementary medicine].

The article discusses society's attitudes towards bio-medicine and complementary medicine in Kazakhstan around the end of the 20th century. It presents the transformation of the health-care system in independent Kazakhstan and its influence on the health situation of the population as well as public opinion on bio-medicine. Presented is a broad spectrum of various fields of complementary medicine which achieved great popularity especially during the 1990s. Among the reasons for that growing popularity appears to be public disenchantment with the collapsing state health-care system which is costly and ineffective. At the same time, an important factor is the durability of traditional beliefs of a magical type which is behind the wide use of nonconventional magic-religious practices -- spells and prayers. Overall public socio-economic malaise and a fear of the future are conducive to a general increase of interest in mystical beliefs and occult practices as well as a paranormal phenomena, and the flourishing of complementary medicine naturally fits into that scheme.

Biological Science Disciplines↗
PubMed2005

Slow relaxation and compaction of granular systems.

Granular materials are of substantial importance in many industrial and natural processes, yet their complex behaviours, ranging from mechanical properties of static packing to their dynamics, rheology and instabilities, are still poorly understood. Here we focus on the dynamics of compaction and its 'jamming' phenomena, outlining recent statistical mechanics approaches to describe it and their deep correspondence with thermal systems such as glass formers. In fact, granular media are often presented as ideal systems for studying complex relaxation towards equilibrium. Granular compaction is defined as an increase of the bulk density of a granular medium submitted to mechanical perturbation. This phenomenon, relevant in many industrial processes and widely studied by the soil mechanics community, is simple enough to be fully investigated and yet reveals all the complex nature of granular dynamics, attracting considerable attention in a broad range of disciplines ranging from chemical to physical sciences.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A primer on aspects of cognition for medical informatics.

As a multidisciplinary field, medical informatics draws on a range of disciplines, such as computer science, information science, and the social and cognitive sciences. The cognitive sciences can provide important insights into the nature of the processes involved in human- computer interaction and help improve the design of medical information systems by providing insight into the roles that knowledge, memory, and strategies play in a variety of cognitive activities. In this paper, the authors survey literature on aspects of medical cognition and provide a set of claims that they consider to be important in medical informatics.

Cognition↗
PubMed2006

From peptide-based material science to protein fibrils: discipline convergence in nanobiology.

This paper illustrates the merits of convergence in nanobiology of two seemingly disparate fields, material science and computational biology. Traditionally, material science has been a discipline involving design and fabrication of synthetic polymers consisting of repeating units. Collaboration with synthetic organic chemists allowed design of new polymers, with a range of altered conformations. Yet, naturally occurring proteins are also materials. Their varied sequences and structures should enrich material science providing more complex shapes, scaffolds and chemical properties. For material scientists, the enhanced coverage of chemical space obtained by integrating proteins and synthetic organic chemistry through the introduction of non-natural residues allows a range of new useful potential applications.

Biocompatible Materials↗
PubMed2004

The philosophy of medicine: development of a discipline.

This paper is a critical examination of the development of the philosophy of medicine as a discipline. It highlights two major themes in the contemporary debate about the philosophy of medicine: the scope of the discipline and the relation of the discipline to its cognate disciplines. A broad view of the philosophy of medicine is defended and the philosophy of medicine is seen as a philosophical sub-discipline. These views depend in important ways on three factors: a general metaphysical world view, particular understandings of the cognate disciplines, and the perspective from which one asks the questions about the nature of the discipline. It is proposed that the future of the philosophy of medicine may follow the philosophy of science in that philosophical, sociological and historical studies may combine in a mutually enriching way to form "medicine studies."

History, 18th Century↗
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↗
PubMed1992

[Teaching of psychiatry for undergraduates].

This paper postulates that Psychiatry does not fit in the group of the so called medical specialties. It should rather be recognized as a 5th basic clinical discipline if the graduating general practitioner is to cope effectively with the community's health needs. The methodology of natural sciences has prevailed in the teaching of undergraduate medicine, the human being considered mostly as an organism with somatic aspects. To improve upon this situation, rather than introducing humanistic courses, the multidisciplinary team of the Psychiatry Department should teach "Basic Psychiatry" and "Pre-clinical Psychiatry" programs. A list of the proposed contents is included and methodological aspects are discussed.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1981

Anthropology and nutrition: a perspective on two scientific subcultures.

In the last several years serious collaborative efforts between nutrition scientists and anthropologists have begun to bear fruit. To encourage the development of such collaboration, it is useful to consider the professional scientific subcultures of each discipline and how these condition the ways in which we view research problems and methodology. Anthropologists and nutrition scientists share many values and assumptions by virtue of common membership in the larger culture and in the subculture of science. There are substantial differences, however, many of them rooted in the fact that anthropology is primarily an observational science while nutritional science has been primarily experimental in nature. Successful collaboration will result from the formation of long-term communicative relationships rather than from ad hoc utilization of the other discipline. We offer some suggestions for how this may occur, and submit that understanding our own professional subcultures is essential to interdisciplinary efforts.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed2000

Exploring genome space.

The completion of entire genome sequences of many experimental organisms, and the promise that the human genome will be completed in the next year, find biology suddenly awash in genome-based data. Scientists are scrambling to develop new technologies that exploit genome data to ask entirely new kinds of questions about the complex nature of living cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Developing nursing knowledge: practice issues raised from four philosophical perspectives.

Analysis and comparison of emerging perspectives in nursing on some of the key issues of practice theory can create an enhanced vision of the discipline. Four philosophy-of-science perspectives--realism, relativism, interpretivism, and humanism--are catalysts for fruitful insights about practice. However, together they generate more questions than they answer, both from each perspective and from the intersection of the assumptions of the four philosophies about the nature of knowledge. The nature of knowledge for practice emerges from examining how the philosophical basis and the derived practice theories address such issues as the phenomena of the discipline, environment, teleology, and nursing theoretical frameworks. This is the time for good debate and collaborative knowledge-building among scholars of various persuasions within a milieu of ethos, pathos, and logic.

Humanism↗
PubMed2004

Théodule Ribot's ambiguous positivism: philosophical and epistemological strategies in the founding of French scientific psychology.

Théodule Ribot (1839-1916) is regarded by many historians of psychology as the "father" of the discipline in France. Ribot contributed to the development of a "new psychology" independent from philosophy, relying on the methods of the natural sciences. However, such an epistemological transition encountered fierce opposition from both the champions of the old-fashioned metaphysical psychology and the representatives of the "scientific spirit." This article focuses on the objections raised by the latter, and especially philosophers of science, against the possibility of a scientific psychology. For instance, according to Auguste Comte, psychology does not satisfy certain basic methodological requirements. To overcome these objections, Ribot, in his La Psychologie Anglaise Contemporaine (1870/1914), devised an epistemological strategy that amounted to invoking criticisms of Comte's views made by other representatives of the positivist school, such as John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer.

France↗