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Return to basic sciences after clinical experience in undergraduate medical training.

As part of the restructured undergraduate medical curriculum at McGill Medical School, a return to basic sciences was introduced in the students' final year. This follows the completion of the formal portion of their undergraduate clinical education. This paper describes this unique return to the basic science programme including the rationale behind the change and the effects of this programme on student learning, and student attitudes towards the programme. Final-year medical students in 1978 and 1981 were tested on educational and attitudinal variables. Data were collected using achievement tests, questionnaires and interviews. The findings of the study indicated that the major objectives of the programme, which were to facilitate student learning in greater depth and to integrate basic sciences with clinical knowledge, were achieved. The programme was enthusiastically received by the students in 1978 and also in 1981, indicating the outcome of the return to the basic science programme to be more than a 'Hawthorne effect' as suspected in 1978. The concept of a return to basic science is recommended for consideration by medical faculties.

Anatomy↗

Conservation science and forest service policy for roadless areas.

Questions persist regarding whether the science of conservation biology can successfully affect environmental decision making. One of the most prominent fields of intersection between conservation science and environmental policy is public-lands debates in the United States. I reviewed the role of conservation science in the roadless-area policies of the U.S. Forest Service. Since 1971, the Forest Service has systematically evaluated roadless areas on national forests three times, most recently during the Clinton administration's Roadless Area Conservation Review (1998-2000) (U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service 2000b). Drawing on the agency's environmental impact statements and supporting documents and the internal records of conservation organizations, I examined the changing goals, methodology, and outcome of roadless-area advocacy and policy Since the 1970s, conservation science has successfully informed public and administrative concern for roadless-area protection. Conservation science has transformed public discourse regarding roadless areas and has changed the scope and rationale of national conservation organizations' goals for roadless-area policy from protecting some to protecting all remaining national forest roadless areas. The Forest Service has increasingly drawn on the lessons of conservation biology to justify its methodology and its administrative recommendations to protect roadless areas. The 2000 Roadless Area Conservation Review resulted in a recommendation to protect all remaining national forest roadless areas, up from 22% of roadless areas in the first roadless review. Despite the scientific merits of recent roadless-area advocacy and policy, however such initiatives have faced political difficulties. The emphasis on large-scale, top-down, national approaches to conservation policy has rendered such policies politically problematic.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗

Amersham Pharmacia Biotech & Science Prize. Transposition and evolution of antigen-specific immunity.

Alka Agrawal grew up in Farmington Hills, near Detroit, Michigan, and earned her bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan. Dr. Agrawal entered the pharmacology graduate school program at Yale University and began working in the laboratory of David Schatz, investigating the role of DNA repair proteins in V(D)J recombination. The development of an in vitro V(D)J cleavage system in the laboratory changed her focus and she began studying the cleavage mechanism as part of her doctoral research. Exposure to science policy at the National Academy of Sciences, and to science journalism through the AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows Program, prompted Dr. Agrawal to pursue a career in science writing.

Allergens↗

Ignatius of Loyola on medical education. Or: Should today's Jesuits continue to run health sciences schools?

There are present 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States, which together offer more than 50 health sciences degree programs. But as the Society's membership is shrinking and the financial risks involved in sponsoring health sciences education are rising, the question arises whether the Society should continue to sponsor health sciences degree programs. In fact, at least eight Jesuit health sciences schools have already closed their doors. This paper attempts to contribute to the resolution of this urgent question by reexamining Ignatius own views on health sciences education and, more specifically, his prohibition of the Society's sponsoring medical education. It concludes on the basis of an historical analysis of Ignatius' views that there is insufficient support for today's Jesuits to maintain their engagement in medical and health care education.

Catholicism↗

The three modes of the science of psychoanalysis.

Three modes of the science of psychoanalysis are identified: (1) the domain mode is established when claim is laid for investigation of a distinctive area of nature for investigation. For psychoanalysis, this territory involves human adaptation, mentation, and communication in the emotional arena. This mode essentially is one in which a scientific spirit is central and gross, qualitative observation the source of data and theory; (2) the statistical mode is characterized by quantification (measurement), prediction, controlled study, and global correlational or probability methods. In general, this mode of science serves to confirm, refute, or revise postulates derived from domain-mode observations. An advanced aspect of this mode is termed stochastics, a form of science that deals with events that are both random and deterministic, and which introduces post hoc mathematical equations that are probabilistic in nature. (3) the formal mode is grounded in moment-to-moment observations (time-series data); its results are defined entirely through mathematical treatments of quantified data. The unique quest in this mode is for laws of nature. Each mode of the science of psychoanalysis is discussed for its actual and potential contributions to the field and for its limitations and pitfalls. Finally, the paper discusses aspects of recent research that has, we believe, established a heretofore absent formal mode of science for the field of psychoanalysis.

Female↗

Psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic science, and psychoanalytic research--1986.

The present standing of psychoanalysis as a science and the vitality of psychoanalytic research effort are reviewed. The two are interdependent, since the possibilities for empirical research rest on the necessary assumption that psychoanalysis is indeed enough a science to be susceptible to knowledge advance by the (research) methods of science. Concerning our status as a science, I review attacks on our scientific credentials (both from within our ranks and without) by the logical positivists, by the hermeneuticists (a rubric comprising a variety of hermeneutic, phenomenological, exclusively subjectivistic, and/or linguistically based conceptualizations of our field), and the most recent by the philosopher of science, Adolf Grünbaum. I try to demonstrate what I feel to be the failure of each of these assaults, and why I feel there is no reason to see psychoanalysis as anything other than a scientific psychology and, therefore, in theory amenable to empirical research approaches. I then review the history and the current status of these systematic research efforts in psychoanalysis, and the reasons why these have been far less in scope and in accomplishment than has been possible or than has been needed. Here I have focused especially on research involving technique and our theory of change and cure--i.e., research on the analytic process; on what changes take place (outcome) and how those changes come about or are brought about (process).

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Practising infanticide, observing narrative: controversial texts in a field science.

In recent recent years, social studies of science have developed a deep interest in the conduct of science in the field. However, studies of controversial field science remain relatively rare. This paper presents an analysis of a controversy about the origin of primate infanticide that began in the 1970s, and discusses the ways in which controversies in the field differ from those in the laboratory. Particularly important here is the inability of researchers to control the behaviour of their research subjects; to an important extent, the conduct of their research is dependent on the agency of their research subjects. Finally, it also points to the rôle played by the sciences of animal behaviour in the constructions of stories about the biological basis of human culture, a rôle that means that the investigation of controversy in these sciences is of paramount public importance.

Animal Welfare↗

Three options for citation tracking: Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science.

BACKGROUND: Researchers turn to citation tracking to find the most influential articles for a particular topic and to see how often their own published papers are cited. For years researchers looking for this type of information had only one resource to consult: the Web of Science from Thomson Scientific. In 2004 two competitors emerged--Scopus from Elsevier and Google Scholar from Google. The research reported here uses citation analysis in an observational study examining these three databases; comparing citation counts for articles from two disciplines (oncology and condensed matter physics) and two years (1993 and 2003) to test the hypothesis that the different scholarly publication coverage provided by the three search tools will lead to different citation counts from each. METHODS: Eleven journal titles with varying impact factors were selected from each discipline (oncology and condensed matter physics) using the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). All articles published in the selected titles were retrieved for the years 1993 and 2003, and a stratified random sample of articles was chosen, resulting in four sets of articles. During the week of November 7-12, 2005, the citation counts for each research article were extracted from the three sources. The actual citing references for a subset of the articles published in 2003 were also gathered from each of the three sources. RESULTS: For oncology 1993 Web of Science returned the highest average number of citations, 45.3. Scopus returned the highest average number of citations (8.9) for oncology 2003. Web of Science returned the highest number of citations for condensed matter physics 1993 and 2003 (22.5 and 3.9 respectively). The data showed a significant difference in the mean citation rates between all pairs of resources except between Google Scholar and Scopus for condensed matter physics 2003. For articles published in 2003 Google Scholar returned the largest amount of unique citing material for oncology and Web of Science returned the most for condensed matter physics. CONCLUSION: This study did not identify any one of these three resources as the answer to all citation tracking needs. Scopus showed strength in providing citing literature for current (2003) oncology articles, while Web of Science produced more citing material for 2003 and 1993 condensed matter physics, and 1993 oncology articles. All three tools returned some unique material. Our data indicate that the question of which tool provides the most complete set of citing literature may depend on the subject and publication year of a given article.

Journal Article↗

Thirty years after Brambell: whither animal welfare science?

It has been just over 30 years since the Brambell Committee issued its clarion call for research on the welfare of animals used in agriculture. What progress has farm animal welfare science made in those 30 years, and what challenges will it face in the next 30? In this article, I discuss the ways in which the Brambell report, with its emphasis on behavioral needs and suffering, both propelled and constrained the development of animal welfare science. The role that economic factors play and the ways in which they have imposed other kinds of constraints on scientists working with farm animals are also mentioned. Despite these constraints, animal welfare science has contributed to a number of significant improvements in the welfare of farm animals. There is, however, a growing sense that animal welfare science has reached an impasse and that ethical and scientific questions about animal welfare have become hopelessly entangled. In this context, I address what I view to be the principal challenge facing farm animal welfare science, namely to move the issue of beyond suffering to an evaluation of broader quality-of-life questions and their application to improvements in welfare.

Journal Article↗

Chemical carcinogens: a review of the science and its associated principles. U.S. Interagency Staff Group on Carcinogens.

In order to articulate a view of chemical carcinogenesis that scientists generally hold in common today and to draw upon this understanding to compose guiding principles that can be used as a bases for the efforts of the regulatory agencies to establish guidelines for assessing carcinogenic risk to meet the specific requirements of the legislative acts they are charged to implement, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office, the White House drew on the expertise of a number of regulatory agencies to elucidate present scientific views in critical areas of the major disciplines important to the process of risk assessment. The document is composed of two major sections, Principles and the State-of-the-Science. The latter consists of subsections on the mechanisms of carcinogenesis, short-term and long-term testing, and epidemiology, which are important components in the risk assessment step of hazard identification. These subsections are followed by one on exposure assessment, and a final section which includes analyses of dose-response (hazard) assessment and risk characterization. The principles are derived from considerations in each of the subsections. Because of present gaps in understanding, the principles contain judgmental (science policy) decisions on major unresolved issues as well as statements of what is generally accepted as fact. These judgments are basically assumptions which are responsible for much of the uncertainty in the process of risk assessment. There was an attempt to clearly distinguish policy and fact. The subsections of the State-of-the-Science portion provide the underlying support to the principles articulated, and to read the "Principles" section without a full appreciation of the State-of-the-Science section is to invite oversimplification and misinterpretation. Finally, suggestions are made for future research efforts which will improve the process of risk assessment.

Animals↗

A meeting of minds: interdisciplinary research in the health sciences in Canada.

Brought together by the newly formed Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS), recognized national leaders in the 6 health sciences disciplines consider the environment for conducting interdisciplinary health research (IDHR) in Canada. Based on first-hand knowledge and thoughtful reflection, the authors argue that although much progress has been made in support of IDHR in Canada, the practical experience of researchers does not always bear this out. This article examines government, industry and academia to identify the cultural and structural characteristics that demand, promote or prevent IDHR in each sector. At its heart is the question, How can universities best support and enhance IDHR, not only for the benefit of science, but also to meet the growing needs of industry and government for intellectual capital? Focusing on the predominant health sciences disciplines, the authors define IDHR as a team of researchers, solidly grounded in their respective disciplines, who come together around an important and challenging health issue, the research question for which is determined by a shared understanding in an interactive and iterative process. In addition, they suggest that IDHR is directly linked to translational research, which is the application of basic science to clinical practice and the generation of scientific questions through clinical observation. This analysis of academic, industry and government sectors is not intended to offer rigorous data on the current state of IDHR in Canada. Rather, the goal is to stimulate research-policy dialogue by suggesting a number of immediate measures that can help promote IDHR in Canada. Recommended measures to support IDHR are aimed at better resourcing and recognition (by universities and granting agencies), along with novel approaches to training, such as government-and industry-based studentships. In addition, we recommend that professional organizations reconsider their policies on publication and governance. Although intended to maintain professional scopes of practice, these policies also serve to entrench disciplinary boundaries in research. We conclude by suggesting a number of research questions for a more rigorous assessment of the climate for IDHR in Canada. We call for an inventory and comparative analysis of academic centres, institutes and consortiums in Canada that strive to facilitate IDHR; an examination of the impact of professional organizations on health research, and on IDHR in particular; and a systematic review of research training opportunities that promote IDHR, with a view to identifying and replicating proven models.

Canada↗

[Psychiatric science and social service policy: the creation of the University of Brazil's Institute of Psychiatry].

The article analyzes the relations between psychiatric science and social services in Rio de Janeiro from the late 1930s to mid-1950s. The historical development of psychiatric science and social services in France and Germany, each country with its own distinct features, serves as an analytical reference in investigating the Brazilian context, starting with the emergence of psychiatry in Brazil in 1852, when the Hospício Pedro II was founded. In 1938, this asylum was transformed into the University of Brazil's Institute of Psychiatry, bringing the model of German research institutes up to date and reflecting a new correlation of forces between the provision of social services and the production of a Brazilian psychiatric science. At the close of the 1930s, social services and psychiatric science in Rio de Janeiro were taking separate paths: social services still pivoted primarily around asylums while the institutionally, autonomous science of psychiatry focused on the research of mental diseases as manifestations of organic illness.

Brazil↗

The seduction of science to perfect an imperfect race.

The author reflects on the lessons of the Holocaust Memorial Museum's exhibition "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race." The exhibition is about problems universal to science and medicine. Eugenics was not a crazed Hitlerian fantasy, and eugenicists were within the scientific mainstream. To the extent that American science pursues an openness and transparency that was absent from Nazi science, it may insulate itself from ethical dangers. But "Deadly Medicine" diagnoses patterns of thought that persist in science and social thinking. The exhibition reminds us that when faced with fears and anxieties similar to those that led to Auschwitz, we have scientific, historical, legal, and social precedents that can turn us toward an ethical confusion and uncertainty that is healthier than the certainty with which Nazi science proceeded down its grisly road.

Bioethics↗

Surfing the wave of clinical laboratory science evolution in Hawai'i.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the steps taken by the Hawaii Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, an affiliate of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, to inform local laboratory professionals of current trends and to prepare for the future. RESULTS: A Strategic Planning workshop was conducted at the 1997 Hawaii Society for Clinical Laboratory Science Annual Meeting where participants reviewed the essential (but non-traditional) functions of clinical laboratory scientists, and described current realities, identified forces and players affecting the changes, and envisioned the future of our profession. CONCLUSION: As the way health care is provided changes in response to economics and advances in technology, the role of clinical laboratory scientists needs to be redefined. The Hawaii Society for Clinical Laboratory Science continues to provide timely support for members, and plans to work collaboratively with the local chapter of the Clinical Laboratory Managers' Association to advance clinical laboratory science to an appropriate place in the health care community.

Clinical Laboratory Techniques↗

[The state's physics examinations for medical students and the construction of a natural science basis for academic medical training between 1865-1880].

Betweem 1865, when the new Dutch Health Acts introduced the legal monopoly of the academic medical profession, and 1879, when a new law for higher education provided the basis for the integration of the non-academic teaching of medicine within the universities, non-academic students could pass state medical examinations in order to become a physician. In this article I studied in detail the first phase of this examination route, when students were questioned about their knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry and the life sciences. The state commissions responsible for taking these examinations have certainly played an important role in the process of the introduction of scientific medicine into the universities as well as the introduction of the sciences into secondary schools, preparing scholars for academic medical training. Moreover, because scientists, physicians and secondary school teachers participated together in these commissions, the science examination boards linked the several educational echelons and divisions in science and medicine concerned with this process of transformation of the medical professions and medical science in the 1860s and 1870s.

Education, Medical↗

A survey of statistical methodology used in Ethiopian health science research journals.

Results from many research efforts have been generated from the use of statistical methods. However, most researchers use data analysis as the only component of statistics to arrive at their results. There is a concern that this alone may not yield the appropriate result if it is not done with due understanding of and regard for study design, data acquisition techniques, choice of sample, and methods of statistical analysis. This paper attempts to document how much of these statistical methods are in use in Ethiopian health science research journals. All the original articles, in the two health science research journals--Ethiopian Medical Journal and The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development published between 1995 and 1999 were surveyed. A total of 232 papers were evaluated to see how far their authors have complied to these basic requirements as well as the statistical software used. The results of the survey demonstrate that in about 80% of the papers, the study design has been specified, 50% employed cross-sectional or survey designs, 14% provided detailed information on how sample size was determined and of this group 37% employed probabilistic selection methods. About 84% of the papers did not mention clearly what statistical methods they intended to employ to answer their research questions. Compared to others, attaching variability to a statistic using +/- SD or SE, t-statistics and P values were more frequently misused. Only 57% used computers to manage their data and do statistical analysis. EPI-INFO (a statistical software for Epidemiology) was used in 61% among the users of computer software. Considering the important roles of health science journals in guiding and updating good medical practice, low level and inappropriate use of statistical methodologies in the surveyed journals should give cause for concern. It is, therefore, recommended that a series of continuing education in statistics is done periodically to enhance the knowledge of health science researchers as well as editors and peer reviewers of health science journals to expand their background in statistical methods and acquaint them with new techniques.

Ethiopia↗

The current status of the anatomical sciences curriculum in U.S. and Canadian dental schools.

The anatomical sciences form one of the major building blocks of the basic medical sciences in the professional training of dentists. This paper defines the courses and classifies the formats of teaching for each course within the anatomical sciences curriculum. Information was gathered from the Internet, specifically the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) website links to U.S. and Canadian dental schools and their online catalogues or bulletins as well as online course syllabi. The results demonstrate the distribution of schools in the United States and Canada teaching anatomical sciences in the following categories: stand-alone, sequential, and multifaceted courses for gross anatomy; stand-alone and integrated courses for histology; stand-alone, integrated, incorporated, and no course for neuroanatomy; and stand-alone, incorporated, and no course in embryology. This paper concludes with the proposition that a survey of the usage of anatomical knowledge in use in a typical dental general practice needs to be conducted. The results of such a survey need to be evaluated with the intention of determining what should be taught in a dental clinical anatomical sciences curriculum.

Anatomy↗

Learning developmental biology has priority in the life sciences curriculum in Singapore.

Singapore has embraced the life sciences as an important discipline to be emphasized in schools and universities. This is part of the nation's strategic move towards a knowledge-based economy, with the life sciences poised as a new engine for economic growth. In the life sciences, the area of developmental biology is of prime interest, since it is not just intriguing for students to know how a single cell can give rise to a complex, coordinated, functional life that is multicellular and multifaceted, but more importantly, there is much in developmental biology that can have biomedical implications. At different levels in the Singapore educational system, students are exposed to various aspects of developmental biology. The author has given many guest lectures to secondary (ages 12-16) and high school (ages 17-18) students to enthuse them about topics such as embryo cloning and stem cell biology. At the university level, some selected topics in developmental biology are part of a broader course which caters for students not majoring in the life sciences, so that they will learn to comprehend how development takes place and the significance of the knowledge and impacts of the technologies derived in the field. For students majoring in the life sciences, the subject is taught progressively in years two and three, so that students will gain specialist knowledge in developmental biology. As they learn, students are exposed to concepts, principles and mechanisms that underlie development. Different model organisms are studied to demonstrate the rapid advances in this field and to show the interconnectivity of developmental themes among living things. The course inevitably touches on life and death matters, and the social and ethical implications of recent technologies which enable scientists to manipulate life are discussed accordingly, either in class, in a discussion forum, or through essay writing.

Curriculum↗