Результаты поиска

Vaccine development as a 'doable problem': The case of the meningococcal A vaccines 1962-1969.

During the period from 1962 to 1967, the development of a meningococcal A vaccine could be considered as feasible despite all the drawbacks of working with cerebrospinal meningitis A. In this paper, I analyse why and how this programme for vaccine development was put into place, and in particular how the problem was perceived as feasible. Deploying the concept of Doable Problems developed by Joan Fujimura, I examine the complex range of factors that led to the outcome of the trial in Yako in 1967. Thus I show how the different protagonists were mobilized and their work organized at different l

Rhetoric versus reality: The role of research in deconstructing concepts of caring.

Our aim was to employ a critical analytic lens to explicate the role of nursing research in supporting the notion of caring realities. To do this, we used case exemplars to illustrate the infusion of such discourses. The first exemplar examines the fundamental concept of caring: using Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing, the case study surfaces caring as originally grounded in ritualized practice and subsequently describes its transmutation, via competing discourses, to a more holistic concept. It is argued that in the many and varied attempts to define the dynamic concept of care, caring

Cancer is a propagandist.

Communication among cells (also known as cross-talk) plays a prominent role in the current knowledge of the pathophysiology of cancer and of cancer-associated conditions such as paraneoplastic syndromes and cachexia that are responsible for much of cancer's morbidity and mortality. Yet, biomedical scientists lack an explicit unifying frame that places this exchange of molecular information at the core of their understanding of cancer as a systemic disease. Propaganda is a type of information that aims at misleading, a form of communication intended primarily to serve the messenger. The biased

Robustness and evidence of mechanisms in early experimental atherosclerosis research.

This article considers the evaluation of experimental evidence for a causal relation between cholesterol and atherosclerosis from the beginning of the 1900s until the late 1950s. It has been argued that the medical community failed to see the implications of this early research, and at first unjustifiably rejected a causal link between cholesterol and atherosclerosis. This article argues to the contrary that the medical community was justified to conclude based on the experimental evidence that cholesterol (dietary or blood) is probably not an effective target for preventive treatment. However

Mapping the methodologies of Burkitt lymphoma.

While recent accounts have emphasised the planned, large-scale and systematic character of cancer virus research in the mid-C20, I argue here that a distinctive kind of small-scale scientific research existed, and made a distinctive contribution to the development of the field as a whole. Using the case of the research carried out to understand the causes of Burkitt lymphoma in Africa during the 1960s, I highlight two distinctive practices--geographical mapping and the re-purposing of existing disease infrastructure--that played a central role in this episode. My intention here is threefold: f

Science in the service of colonial agro-industrialism: the case of cinchona cultivation in the Dutch and British East Indies, 1852-1900.

The isolation of quinine from cinchona bark in 1820 opened new possibilities for the mass-production and consumption of a popular medicine that was suitable for the treatment of intermittent (malarial) fevers and other diseases. As the 19th century European empires expanded in Africa and Asia, control of tropical diseases such as malaria was seen as crucial. Consequently, quinine and cinchona became a pivotal tool of British, French, German and Dutch empire-builders. This comparative study shows how the interplay between science, industry and government resulted in different historical traject

Physiology or psychic powers? William Carpenter and the debate over spiritualism in Victorian Britain.

This paper analyses the attitude of the British Physiologist William Benjamin Carpenter (1813-1885) to spiritualist claims and other alleged psychical phenomena in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. It argues that existing portraits of Carpenter as a critic of psychical studies need to be refined so as to include his curiosity about certain 'unexplained phenomena', as well as broadened so as to take into account his overarching epistemological approach in a context of theological and social fluidity within nineteenth-century British Unitarianism. Carpenter's hostility towards spiritual

Food, growth and time: Elsie Widdowson's and Robert McCance's research into prenatal and early postnatal growth.

Cambridge scientists Robert McCance and Elsie Widdowson are best known for their work on the British food tables and wartime food rations, but it is their research on prenatal and early postnatal growth that is today seen as a foundation of the fields studying the impact of environment upon prenatal development and, consequently, adult disease. In this essay I situate McCance's and Widdowson's 1940s human and 1950s experimental studies in the context of pre-war concerns with fetal growth and development, especially within biochemistry, physiology and agriculture; and the Second World War and p

Is an account of identity necessary for bioethics? What post-genomic biomedicine can teach us.

Is a theory of identity necessary for bioethics? In this paper I investigate that question starting from an empirical explication of identity based on post-genomics, in particular on epigenetics. After analysing whether the classic problems a theory of identity has to cope with (fictional transplants; conjoined twins; and definition of death) also affect the proposed epigenetic account of identity, I deal with three topics (the assumption of moral responsibility; decision maintenance in the case of advance directives; and the attribution of value to human beings at given developmental stages)

The introduction of chlorpromazine in Belgium and the Netherlands (1951-1968); tango between old and new treatment features.

The introduction of chlorpromazine in Belgium and the Netherlands demonstrates an intriguing tango between old and new treatments. Chlorpromazine, marketed by the French company Rhône Poulenc entered psychiatry as an adjunct to existing therapies. Instead of promoting chlorpromazine as a revolutionary therapy, we see early efforts to market Largactil as a supplement to the armoury of psychiatric treatments. These marketing efforts matched the idiosyncrasies of national and local styles and cultures. Despite continuities with earlier therapeutic developments, we support the notion of a therapeu

Blockbusters and controlled substances: Miltown, Quaalude, and consumer demand for drugs in postwar America.

In 1955 Carter Products launched its new tranquilizer Miltown with a huge marketing blitz; Miltown soon became one of America's earliest "blockbuster" celebrity drugs. In 1981, federal agents shut down a network of "stress clinics" and arrested the owners, medical staff, and other personnel for illegally trafficking in the sedative Quaalude; Quaalude soon became a "Schedule I Controlled Substance." Both of these stories are familiar, indeed archetypal, moments from America's postwar medical system. As the Miltown example reminds us, this fundamentally commercial system was built on the creatio

Tibetan 'wind' and 'wind' illnesses: towards a multicultural approach to health and illness.

This article discusses the Tibetan notion of rlung, usually translated as: 'wind', but perhaps better understood as a close equivalent of pneuma in the Greek tradition, or qi in the Chinese tradition. The article focuses on the way rlung provides a useful prism through which concepts of health, illness and disease may be observed in a cross-cultural perspective. An analysis of syndromes linked with rlung in a Tibetan cultural context illuminates some of the ways in which culture determines particular syndromes. The article raises a number of questions which are relevant for a more general mult

From 'public service' to artificial insemination: animal breeding science and reproductive research in early twentieth-century Britain.

Artificial insemination (AI) was the first conceptive technology to be widely used in agriculture. Whereas at the beginning of the twentieth century all cows in England and Wales were mated to bulls, by the end of the 1950s 60% conceived through artificial insemination. By then a national network of 'cattle breeding centres' brought AI within the reach of every farmer. In this paper I explore how artificial insemination, which had few supporters in the 1920s and 1930s, was transformed into an 'indispensable' method for reproducing cattle. I discuss the factors that made organised AI possible (

Managing cows: an ethnography of breeding practices and uses of reproductive technology in contemporary dairy farming in Lombardy (Italy).

The aim of this article is to contribute detailed ethnographic material to broaden the scope of what we mean by reproductive technology. Technology can be defined not only by a series of laboratory techniques (such as artificial insemination and embryo transfer) that are drafted into the daily management of the animal body, but also by a range of on-farm management strategies and working routines, as well as the cultural dispositions, social networks and tacit knowledge of the actors involved. RT is communicated to lay operators and disseminated amongst semi-professional figures such as breed

The work of the Animal Research Station, Cambridge.

This paper traces the history of the Animal Research Station, Cambridge from its establishment in 1932 to its closure in 1986. The author worked there for forty years and was Director from 1979. Originally set up as a field station for Cambridge University's School of Agriculture, the Station was expanded after World War II as the Agricultural Research Council's Unit of Animal Reproduction. Beginning with semen and artificial insemination, research at the Station soon embraced superovulation and embryo transfer in farm animals. Many other technologies were also developed here, including IVF in

Resister's logic: the anti-vaccination arguments of Alfred Russel Wallace and their role in the debates over compulsory vaccination in England, 1870-1907.

In the 1880s, Alfred Russel Wallace, the celebrated co-discoverer of natural selection, launched himself into the centre of a politicised and polarised debate over the unpopular compulsory vaccination laws in England. Wallace never wavered in his belief that smallpox vaccination was useless and likely dangerous. Six years before his death, the anti-vaccinationists successfully secured a conscience clause that effectively dismantled the compulsory vaccination laws. Several other important Victorian scientists joined Wallace in the fight to repeal compulsory vaccination arguing that widely held

The shifting sands of self: a framework for the experience of self in addiction.

The self is a common yet unclear theme in addiction studies. William James's model of self provides a framework to explore the experience of self. His model details the subjective and objective constituents, the sense of self-continuity through time, and the ephemeral and plural nature of the changing self. This exploration yields insights into the self that can be usefully applied to subjective experiences with psychoactive drugs of addiction. Results of this application add depth to the common understanding of self in addiction, acknowledge the importance of feelings and choice in the sense

Biotherapies of chronic diseases in the inter-war period: from Witte's peptone to Penicillium extract.

In the inter-war period physicians elaborated numerous 'biotherapies' grounded in the complex interactions between physiology, bacteriology and immunology. The elaboration of these non-specific biological treatments was stimulated by the theory of generalized anaphylaxis that linked the violent reaction to a foreign protein to a broad array of chronic diseases, from asthma and urticaria to rheumatism or chronic colitis. Such diseases were perceived as the result of an 'abnormal reactivity' to a sensitisation of tissues and organs by bacteria and by foreign proteins, a view that provided an eff

Appropriation and commercialization of the Pasteur anthrax vaccine.

Whereas Pasteur patented the biotechnological processes that he invented between 1857 and 1873 in the agro-food domain, he did not file any patents on the artificial vaccine preparation processes that he subsequently developed. This absence of patents can probably be explained by the 1844 patent law in France that established the non-patentable status of pharmaceutical preparations and remedies, including those for use in veterinary medicine. Despite the absence of patents, the commercial exploitation of the anthrax vaccine in the 1880s and 1890s led to a technical and commercial monopoly by P

Explanation of near-death experiences: a systematic analysis of case reports and qualitative research.

Background and objectiveSome individuals report a near-death experience (NDE) after a life-threatening crisis, which refers to a range of subjective experiences related to impending death. This experience is a phenomenon with transcendental elements, which leads to deep permanent changes in both the individual and the social lives of the NDEr's. Therefore, this study aims to review the near-death experiences of individuals with different religious and cultural views.MethodologyThis is a systematic analysis study. All the case report, case series and qualitative research studies which presented

Совпадение в полном тексте источника
… Examining these experiences may pose challenges to the researchers of sciences such as psychology, parapsychology, psychiatry, medicine, philosophy of religion, and psychology of religion, each of which requires competent and well-reasoned answers. … Soul, in religion and philosophy, the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being that which confers individuality and humanity, often considered to be synonymous with the mind or the self. …