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PubMed1978

Faculty qualifications and teaching responsibilities of community college dental hygiene faculty.

The purpose of this survey was to assess the current status of community college dental hygiene faculty qualifications in relationship to assigned teaching responsibilities. Data were collected on 508 full-time and part-time faculty from 92 of the 101 community college dental hygiene programs active in the spring of 1977. The majority of faculty degrees were in nondental hygiene disciplines, particularly at the graduate level. The predominant degree was in education. Teaching assignments were generally independent of degree levels and dental hygienists had major teaching assignments in all biomedical, dental, and clinical science areas. Of the dental hygienists serving as program directors, 71% had degrees at or above the master's level. The hypothesis that newer programs tend to have less qualified faculty was not supported. These findings should be of assistance to academic programs preparing dental hygienists for teaching careers by delineating the nature of current teaching assignments in community college settings.

Administrative Personnel↗

PubMed1991

Nursing and the philosophy of science.

Throughout its history, nursing has struggled with definitional issues. Embedded firmly in tradition mothering roles according to McCloskey and Grace (1985), nursing has found it difficult to make transitions into the professional and scientific realms. The professional and scientific status of nursing may not be as gloomy as McCloskey and Grace put it. Leddy and Pepper (1989) for instance claim that nursing has, since the 1960s, dramatically evolved into a scientific discipline. The purpose of this paper is to: 1. redefine science in order to establish the basis of the debate on nursing as a science; 2. outline at least one philosophical position in science and examine how nursing might benefit from it; 3. assess or evaluate, in the light of the above points the possible usefulness of nursing science especially the use of paradigm concepts in nursing; 4. finally question whether nursing wants to work towards paradigm status. In a small way this paper contributes to the debate on the nature of science as applied to nursing. It reflects on the progress being made through nursing models' paradigm concepts. The conclusion suggests that the concept of paradigm as used in nursing is in keeping with Kuhn's and therefore can be adopted as a potentially useful framework.

Humans↗

PubMed2000

View of life sciences in the 21st century.

As we contemplate the nature of life sciences in the 21st century, we should briefly consider the changes that have occurred in the past century. Surely, the sources of progress of this science in the next century are the advances emerging now. Furthermore, the likely pace of discovery and change in life sciences in the next century can best be estimated by a reflection on its history.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Emergency management: does it have a sufficiently comprehensive understanding of decision-making, process and context?

It is widely recognised in the social and management sciences that the effective support of decision-making requires a multidisciplinary perspective. This trend is also clear in nuclear emergency management (EM). However, communication between disciplines is not easy to maintain in EM contexts when the decision makers (DMs) are likely to be highly stressed. Such circumstances can lead them to revert to the instinctive patterns of perception of their core disciplines, making communication between disciplines difficult and, perhaps, obscuring complex interactions that have not been rehearsed in practice exercises. This paper explores decision making in EM and the nature of the socio-technical issues that will arise, suggesting that despite the lessons of past accidents the research EM community is still not taking a broad enough view of what future incidents may entail.

Decision Support Systems, Management↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Nursing research and solving problems of Alzheimer disease.

This article discusses the applied science of the nursing discipline and nursing issues related to Alzheimer disease. Three models are presented and illustrated with interdisciplinary research ideas to improve the care of persons who suffer from dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT). Phases of Nursing Research is a five-component model to (1) identify problems, (2) conduct the study, (3) disseminate results, (4) utilize findings that are to the central component, (5) practical knowledge. Promoting evidence-based care for making a recommendation against artificial feeding and providing the tools to promote natural feeding illustrates the Interdisciplinary Collaboration model. The Program of Research model is described by studies of late-stage DAT, intercurrent infections, and decision making. Issues framing nursing research are discussed and specific suggestions for research projects developed from recent funding priorities of the National Institutes of Health are given.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

[Progress in molecular biology study of DNA computer].

DNA (deoxyribonucleotide acids) computer is an emerging new study area that basically combines molecular biology study of DNA molecules and computational study on how to employ these specific molecules to calculate. In 1994 Adleman described his pioneering research on DNA computing in Science. This is the first experimental report on DNA computer study. In 2001 Benenson et al published a paper in Nature regarding a programmable and autonomous DNA computing device. Because of its Turing-like functions, the device is regarded as another milestone progress for DNA computer study. The main features of DNA computer are massively parallel computing ability and potential enormous data storage capacity. Comparing with conventional electronic computers, DNA molecules provide conceptually a revolution in computing, and more and more implications have been found in various disciplines. DNA computer studies have brought great progress not only in its own computing mechanisms, but also in DNA manipulation technologies especially nano-technology. This article presents the basic principles of DNA computer, its applications, its important relationship with genomic research and our comments on all above issues.

Computers, Molecular↗

PubMed1998

Health informatics and the humanities.

Researchers and professionals from the Humanities are new within the science of health informatics, where researchers and professionals from the natural sciences have so far de-fined the problems and their solutions. A cross-disciplinary collaboration can be difficult due to factors such as status and competition, to insufficient co-operation qualifications, and due to different definitions of problems. This paper presents examples of differently formulated health informatics problems. Cross-disciplinary collaboration is necessary but collaboration demands openness, curiosity, and readiness from researchers and professionals as well as it demands know-edge of the processes in cross-disciplinary cooperation. Considerations for cross-disciplines were actualized with the foundation in Denmark of the cross-disciplinary institution: The Virtual Centre for Health Informatics.

Cooperative Behavior↗

PubMed2001

Psychological perspective on human developmental stability and fluctuating asymmetry: sources, applications and implications.

In recent years researchers from diverse disciplines in the life sciences have turned their attention to the issue of developmental stability in the organism. Their key measure, fluctuating asymmetry (FA), is defined as the random, stress-induced deviations from perfect symmetry that develop during the development of bilaterally symmetrical traits. This is regarded as a promising measure of the stress experienced by individuals during their development, as well as the interaction between genetic and environmental forces which affect that development. FA also sheds light on several domains within psychological research, such as the interplay between nature and nurture during human development, etiology of mental health, mating and choice of partners, and even perception of facial beauty. This study reviews the manifestation and sources of FA in humans, and seeks to provide some insight regarding their relevance and possible application to various domains in psychology.

Biological Evolution↗

PubMed2001

Psychological perspective on human developmental stability and fluctuating asymmetry: Sources, applications and implications.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Course enhancement: a road map for devising active-learning and inquiry-based science courses.

Many college science faculties are frustrated at the performance of students in their courses. While faculty may not have much control over the nature of the students, we do have a great deal of control regarding what and how we teach. Lately, research and policy experts have been calling for college faculty to use new ways of teaching that are "inquiry-based"or use "active-learning techniques. "These calls, however, do not provide a clear pathway for making changes that are likely to succeed and that are relevant to specific disciplines. Course development can be approached in much the same way as our research. This paper develops a strategy for "course development" in terms that are familiar to developmental biologists. Just as research on gastrulation movements benefited from the use of a variety of activities (e.g., vital dye tracking, scanning electron microscopy), course development needs to consider multiple techniques and to make changes in straightforward and purposive ways. Examples from the literature and questions to consider will help the reader find their way to a new style of teaching.

Developmental Biology↗

PubMed2004

Research methods for promotion of lung health.

The goal of health research is to develop new knowledge for action to improve health. Relevant health research includes study of diseases, their causes and their treatment/prevention as well as structure and utilisation of health services and policies to improve lung health. As resources are not infinite, priorities must be established. These are determined by the relative frequency of a condition, how much dysfunction or disability it produces and whether there are cost-effective means to deal with it. Epidemiology is the discipline used to address these issues. Using it, one can describe the distribution and relative importance of a condition (the descriptive study), identify determinants and define its natural history (the analytical study), assess methods of prevention, cure and amelioration (the experimental study) and evaluate the process and outcome of services (health services or operational research). Epidemiology addresses itself to determining causation among associated variables. Characteristics associated with causation include consistency, strength of association, specificity, dose response, temporal relationship, coherence, and experimental evidence. Epidemiology can truly be described as the 'basic science of public health.' When used strategically, it can create the new knowledge that is the cornerstone for improving the health of the whole population.

Biomedical Research↗

PubMed1986

Community living long before man: fossil and living microbial mats and early life.

Microbial mats are layered communities of bacteria that form cohesive structures, some of which are preserved in sedimentary rocks as stromatolites. Certain rocks, approximately three and a half thousand million years old and representing the oldest known fossils, are interpreted to derive from microbial mats and to contain fossils of microorganisms. Modern microbial mats (such as the one described here from Matanzas, Cuba) and their fossil counterparts are of great interest in the interpretation of early life on Earth. Since examination of microbial mats and stromatolites increases our understanding of long-term stability and change, within the global environment, such structures should be protected wherever possible as natural science preserves. Furthermore, since they have existed virtually from the time of life's origin, microbial mats have developed exemplary mechanisms of local community persistence and may even play roles in the larger global environment that we do not understand.

Bacteria↗

PubMed2004

Psychology's dilemma: an institutional neurosis?

The term psychology refers both to an institutional discipline and to a subject matter. Henriques, in his article "Psychology Defined" (this issue) , emphasizes the second reference, and its focus can be sharpened by taking into account the first reference. On the one hand, epistemic progress in science is a dynamic process, which, as often as not, cuts across institutional divisions. However, on the other hand there are some problems of disunity that solely concern the institution. That the latter falls within the scope of the Tree of Knowledge is illustrated in how Henriques' "Justification Hypothesis" sheds light on the nature of institutional disunity.

Animals↗

PubMed1990

The information-processing approach.

The information-processing (IP) approach to perception and cognition arose as a reaction to behaviourism. This reaction mainly concerned the nature of explanation in scientific psychology. The "standard" account of behaviour, phrased in strictly external terms, was replaced by a "realist" account, phrased in terms of internal entities and processes. An analysis of the theoretical language used in IP psychology shows an undisciplined state of affairs. A great number of languages is simultaneously in use; no level of analysis is unambiguously referred to; and basic concepts such as information and processing remain largely undefined. Nevertheless, over the past 25 years the IP approach has developed into a disciplined and sophisticated experimental science. A look at actual practice hints at the basic reason for its success. The approach is not so much concerned with absolute or intrinsic properties of the human information processor, but with what can be called its relative or differential properties. A further analysis of this feature of the IP approach in terms of the formal language of a logical system makes explicit the basis of its success. The IP approach can be regarded as developing an empirical difference calculus on an unspecified class of objects, phrased in terms of a simulated "theory-neutral" observation language, and with operators that are structurally analogous to logical operators. This reinterpretation of what the IP approach is about brings a number of advantages. It strengthens its position as an independent science, clarifies its relation with other approaches within psychology and other sciences within the cognitive science group, and makes it independent of philosophical subtleties.

Cognition↗

PubMed2006

Inference and uncertainty in radiology.

This paper seeks to enhance understanding of the philosophical underpinnings of our discipline and the resulting practical implications. Radiology reports exist in order to convey new knowledge about a patient's condition based on empiric observations from anatomic or functional images of the body. The route to explanation and prediction from empiric evidence is mostly through inference based on inductive (and sometimes abductive) arguments. The conclusions of inductive arguments are, by definition, contingent and provisional. Therefore, it is necessary to deal in some way with the uncertainty of inferential conclusions (i.e. interpretations) made in radiology reports. Two paradigms for managing uncertainty in natural sciences exist in dialectic tension with each other. These are the frequentist and Bayesian theories of probability. Tension between them is mirrored during routine interactions among radiologists and clinicians. I will describe these core issues and argue that they are quite relevant to routine image interpretation and reporting.

Bayes Theorem↗

PubMed2001

Complexity and non-linearity in shock research: reductionism or synthesis?

The various analytical techniques used to explain the many supposed mediators of sepsis and septic shock have outpaced the integrative approaches that simplify this complexity for the physiologist and the clinician. In this article we discuss the pros and cons of reductionism and its limitations in the field of shock research and emphasize the need for synthesis research. Taking account of the historical development of natural science, we will discuss the question of how far a reductionist approach can help to explain biological phenomena and conclude that reductionism, although essential to the scientific process, reduces the evidence absurdity if exaggerated. The part is never the whole, and it is impossible to understand the whole through limited dissections of its parts. The understanding of complex systems requires approaches other than those of explanatory reductionism. We emphasize a different approach-systems thinking. Systems scientists are not interested in the underlying components; they describe and characterize complex relations. Other disciplines that use systems thinking should be studied. However, to follow the concept of synthesis, reductionists must describe the components of the system. Reductionism and synthesis are therefore the two sides of a coin. Professional synthesis research is a serious challenge in shock research.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

A comprehensive analysis of forensic science training in forensic pathology fellowship programs.

The purpose of this study is to assess the current nature and extent of forensic science training in the nation's 43 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited forensic pathology fellowship programs. This manuscript describes the results of a survey of training program directors performed as a project for the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Forensic Identity Committee. The results show a considerable diversity in the forensic sciences training in forensic pathology programs, ranging from one to ten weeks, with an average of 4.1 weeks. However, almost one half of programs provide no training in at least one of the surveyed disciplines. Only 58.1% of responding programs meet the ACGME requirements for forensic science training, and a similar percentage (56.0%) currently provides the duration of forensic science training recommended by the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME). The deficit in the NAME training recommendations, surprisingly, was strictly in the field of toxicology.

Accreditation↗

PubMed2004

Uses and abuses of mathematics in biology.

In the physical sciences, mathematical theory and experimental investigation have always marched together. Mathematics has been less intrusive in the life sciences, possibly because they have until recently been largely descriptive, lacking the invariance principles and fundamental natural constants of physics. Increasingly in recent decades, however, mathematics has become pervasive in biology, taking many different forms: statistics in experimental design; pattern seeking in bioinformatics; models in evolution, ecology, and epidemiology; and much else. I offer an opinionated overview of such uses--and abuses.

Allergy and Immunology↗