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In 1735 the physician Samuel Theodor Quellmalz invented a machine which imitated the movements of a horse and was designed for medical treatment as well as general fitness. The invention paradigmaticlly characterizes the dominant medical discourse of that time and demonstrates a new confidence in technical innovations
OBJECTIVE: An electric monitor of bruxism had been invented in order to evaluate the curative effect of cuspid occlusal upheaving splint and stabilization splint. METHODS: 20 patients with bruxism were randomly divided into two groups. A cuspid occlusal upheaving splint or a stabilization splint was fabricated respectively for patients. The vertical dimension for each splint was 0.5 mm lower than mandibular postural position. Sleeping time, bruxist time and times of bruxism were recorded with bruxism monitor that was invented for studying bruxing. RESULTS: The bruxist time and the times of bruxism were decreased obviously in patients with cuspid occlusal upheaving splint, while no significant difference was shown before and after using the stabilization splint. CONCLUSIONS: The bruxism monitor can automatically measure and record the data of bruxism with splint, which is valuable for clinic. The curative effect of cuspid occlusal upheaving splint is better than that of stabilization splint for treating bruxism.
The hypodermic needle popularized by Edward Tuohy, MD for use in his method of continuous spinal anesthesia has been incorrectly called the "Tuohy needle" since he first popularized it in 1945. It was recently determined that Ralph L. Huber, a Seattle dentist, was the inventor of this widely used needle. However, very little is known about Huber. There is no mention of him in the medical literature, and until recently, he was forgotten. Through the location of various primary sources, including the original needle point invented by Dr. Huber, this essay introduces the fascinating life of Dr. Huber, and also his personal notes about his inventions. Not only was he a prominent Seattle dentist, but also a prolific inventor.
SN biopsy (SNB) has evolved rapidly during the past decade and has now become a standard of surgical care for patients with breast cancer. The primary purpose of SNB is to minimize patient morbidity from axillary staging, but SNB also presents research opportunities to further understand the role of the sentinel node in the natural history of breast cancer. We have attempted to highlight several issues regarding SN and its biopsy in this review, including:(1) Investigation of the optimal particle size for radiotracers. The success of SNB is, in large part, attributed to the particle size of radiolabeled tracers. Electron microscopy demonstrated significant accumulation of the tracer (tin colloid) in harvested SN, of which particle sizes were in the range of 100-150 nm. Therefore, this appeared to be a suitable particle size for SN identification. (2) Invention of a new gamma probe. A cord-and boxless handheld gamma probe was invented, which was more sensitive to radioactivity and involved a background subtraction function based on defined criteria. (3) Characterization of the immunologic response against tumor antigens. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analyses were performed to determine the phenotypic characteristics of B cells and T cells in SN. They revealed an increase in B cells expressing co-stimulated molecules as antigen-presenting cells in SN, compared with non-SN. With respect to T cells, a heterogeneous pattern of naive and memory T cells (TCM) was demonstrated in SN, in contrast to homogeneous pattern with TCM in non-SN. These results may support the concept that B cells play a significant role in antigen presentation required for T cell activation. Studies are currently in progress to test these possibilities.
Some time ago I proposed in an Editorial in this journal some considerations on the language of biology. I concluded that, to realize an autonomy of such a language (and therefore of biology), we have to develop a valid language for biology. In such a context, it seemed to me that the term "metaphors" referred to the concepts concerning the information carried by genetic code, was a reasonable one. However, Barbieri's article in this issue of Rivista di Biologia / Biology Forum calls for a reply. Of course, we do not know very much in this field, even if we have some evidence that a sequence of bases on a DNA is not determined only by chance. In any case we can exclude that nature in this occasion has "invented" a code. Nature doesn't "invent" anything: it only follows its rules, that we name "laws of nature". Barbieri quotes the Morse code, but forgets to say that such a code is "conventional" in the sense that it is valid only because it is the result of an "agreement" between Morse and the users of that code. There is nothing more unnatural than a "code": with whom nature should actually have to "reach an agreement"? As a matter of fact, we interpret as "information" what happens by law of nature. Also Barbieri's thesis that genes and proteins are molecular artifacts, assembled by external agents, whereas generally molecules are determined by their bonds, i.e. by internal factors, is a disputable one. It is examined how much an external structure plays a role in ordinary chemical reactions. The "information" of physics is not a semantic information. For such information we can refer to history of literature, telegraphic offices, genetics or biochemistry.
The paper considers a significant episode in the history of eighteenth-century electricity: the controversy over the "medicated tubes". Invented by the Italian erudite Gianfrancesco Pivati, the tubes were said to produce instantaneous cures. Jean Antoine Nollet was one of the main actors of the controversy. In 1749, after touring Italy to see for himself the Italian tubes and their effects, he published a report, discrediting Pivati's accounts. This study shows that the report, which has since been the main source for interpretations of the controversy, hides the key role of the Bologna Istituto delle Scienze in promoting Pivati's invention. Relying on manuscript sources, I propose a change of perspective on the controversy that illuminates the world of Italian experimental philosophy during the Enlightenment and its place in the Republic of Letters. I also analyze the reasons for Nollet's silence over the involvement of the Istituto delle Scienze in the controversy and the relevance of medical electricity in the wider context of contemporary electrical experimental philosophy.
J.C. Bose (1858-1937) was one of the world's first biophysicists. He was the first person to use a semi conducting crystal to detect radio waves, and the ingenious inventor of a portable apparatus for generating and detecting microwaves (approximately 1 cm to 5 mm radio waves, frequency 12-60 GHz), as well as inventing many instruments now routinely used in microwave technology. Bose extended his specialist knowledge of the physics of electromagnetic radiation into insightful experiments on the life-processes of plants. He became a controversial figure in the west. He invented unique, delicate instruments for simultaneously measuring bioelectric potentials and for quantifying very small movements in plants. He worked with touch-sensitive plants, including Mimosa pudica, with plants that perform spontaneous movements, including the Indian telegraph plant Desmodium, and with plants and trees that did not make obvious rapid movements. Bose concluded that plants and animals have essentially the same fundamental physiological mechanisms. All plants co-ordinate their movements and responses to the environment through electrical signalling. All plants are sensitive explorers of their world, responding to it through a fundamental, pulsatile, motif involving coupled oscillations in electric potential, turgor pressure, contractility, and growth. His overall conclusion that plants have an electromechanical pulse, a nervous system, a form of intelligence, and are capable of remembering and learning, was not well received in its time. A hundred years later, concepts of plant intelligence, learning, and long-distance electrical signalling in plants have entered the mainstream literature.
A multiple lineage is proposed for the invention of the obstetric forceps. Having been conceived by a member of the Chamberlen family in fifteenth- or seventeenth-century England, the instrument seems to have been reinvented in Flanders by Jan Palfyn and in Holland by Rogier Roonhuyse. Later, Roonhuyse invented a more effective instrument for coping with the impacted head: the obstetric lever. Palfyn's "Iron Hands" inspired Dussé to produce the "French" forceps which bears his name.
Many programs have been invented or re-invented to help cope with nursing shortages. Although re-entry is not a new program, most are thought not to be successful. Emory Hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia designed a Re-entry Program in 2000 that is still in place and has had 105 nurses successfully complete the program.
The invention relates to the influence of period of time and storage conditions on microbiological, physical-and-chemical, sensory indices of mushrooms in brine salted (enzyme mushrooms). The invention establishes the fact that mushroom tin storage in a refrigerator at temperature between 0 degrees C and + 4 degrees C provides high quality and microbiological stability of the product during 2 years, storage in a warehouse with temperature between +10 degrees C and +18 degrees C - for 1 year.
Democritus Junior, the alleged author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, resembles his creator, Robert Burton, in that he is melancholy. If Burton, who must have practised the art of memory, who has been called a belated survivor of the Middle Ages, and who read too many books for his own good, was melancholy, it was probably because he lived at the time when the great research libraries were being created and when the invention of the printing press led to an extraordinary proliferation of books. Democritus Junior, Robert Burton's invention, attempts to reinvent the book which the real Democritus was writing when the pseudo-Hippocrates arrived "to visite him one day in his garden at Abdera" supposedly to cure him of his alleged madness; this book, like all of Democritus's books, has not come down to us.
The breadth of claims in patents relating to genetic inventions has been controversial for some time. Possible adverse effects of broad claims include inhibiting research and higher costs, restricting patient access to genetic testing. The Australian Law Reform Commission's Report on Genes and Ingenuity--Gene Patenting and Human Health examined this issue, and concluded that the existing disclosure requirements contained in s 40 of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) provide adequate mechanisms to control the breadth of claims. However, application of these requirements may be problematical in practice due to lack of relevant case law to provide guidance to patent examiners. It has been suggested that this deficit in direct judicial guidance can be obviated by developing appropriate analogies with other chemical systems in decided cases. This article focuses on gene-based diagnostic patents for human diseases, such as those held by Myriad Genetics for testing predisposition towards breast and ovarian cancer using the gene BRCA1. By examining the application of disclosure requirement by courts in genetic and non-genetic chemical inventions, it is possible to provide insight into how this might be applied by courts considering the validity of patent claims for diagnostic testing methods based on mutations in a gene such as BRCA1.
Since the Chinese inuented the uaniolation with human pox vaccine and Jenner invented the vaccine for cowpox, the great achievements of vaccination in preventing and treating many diseases are universally acknowledged. In 1995, the New York Academy of Sciences of America sponsored a symposium on DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) vaccine, which is called the third revolution of vaccine and new epoch for vaccinology. The first revolution was the invention of inactivated vaccines and live attenuated vaccines represented by Pasteur at the end of the nineteenth century. The second one was the subunit of vaccine prepared by DNA recombination technique and techniques of protein chemistry in 1980s.
Possibilities of an application for a patent abroad in foreign countries are discussed concerning monoclonal antibodies which will have good chances as diagnostics in future. To obtain firmly patent rights, prerequisites as sufficient explanation of the invention, novelty and inventive accomplishment as well as a survey of the intensity of application are given.
Problems are a part of life. They can be viewed as minor annoyances or major obstacles. In any event, they invariably offer the opportunity to learn, discover, and grow. How often have we solved problems without even thinking about them? Research is nothing more than problem solving coupled with a special type of thinking, that is, analytical thinking in regard to the nature of what we are seeking an answer to. The what will almost always provide us with the method we must follow. Social research has shown us that methods need not be conventional and may, in many instances, be the product of new invention. Nursing research proposals of the social order, although not a new invention, can offer new insights and contributions to our knowledge base.
The researches of tumor markers started at the discovery of Bence Jones protein in 1848. Now, alpha-fetoprotein and carcinoembryonic antigen are popular tumor markers and recently several tumor markers using the methods of monoclonal antibodies have been invented. Usually we measure the tumor markers in sera, so the early diagnosis of cancer by the tumor markers are sometimes difficult. For the early diagnosis by tumor markers, inventions of new tumor markers, improvement of assay systems and materials and the combination assays of several tumor markers have been tried. The researches of tumor markers are progressing with those of cancer. We hope we will be able to diagnose early cancer or precancerous state by tumor markers.
Laser invention is one of the most important scientific inventions which has found its application in medicine. Biologic effects of laser radiation are biostimulating and destructive. For various purposes carbon dioxide, argon and Nd: YAG lasers have been applied in medicine. The use of laser in gynecology is particularly suitable for the treatment of condyloma, vaginal and cervical intraepithelial neoplasias as well as for the surgical treatment of sterility.
Approximately 50 years after the Scottish chemist Thomas Graham described the process of selective diffusion in solutions (dialysis) in 1861, a Johns Hopkins University team led by John J. Abel purified animal blood using celloidin membranes. Termed "vividiffusion" by Abel, these limited but successful experiments were abandoned in 1914. The most successful artificial kidney machine was later devised by Willem J. Kolff in Holland during the early 1940s; this basic design later developed into a commercially successful venture in America. Other mechanical hemodialysis equipment was also invented, such as that of Canadian surgeon George Murray (1894-1976), who devised the first artificial kidney machine in North America in 1946. Blood to be filtered was gently pumped through a vertical helical coil of cellulose acetate tubing (the dialyzing membrane) placed in a salt-buffered tapwater solution. Four patients were treated in this manner, all of whose blood was purified; however, two of this group later died due to chronic kidney problems. Murray's artificial kidney was never developed commercially owing to Kolff's more efficacious design and, it is contended here, due to the failure of Canadians to capitalize on domestic technological innovations. It is also suggested that as it is an example of simultaneous invention, a further exploration of the artificial kidney might reveal insights into the historical development of modern medical technology.