“Positive biology”: the centenarian lesson

The extraordinary increase of the elderly in developed countries underscore the importance of studies on ageing and longevity and the need for the prompt spread of knowledge about ageing in order to satisfactorily decrease the medical, economic and social problems associated to advancing years, because of the increased number of individuals not autonomous and affected by invalidating pathologies. Centenarians are equipped to reach the extreme limits of human life span and, most importantly, to show relatively good health, being able to perform their routine daily life and to escape fatal age-related diseases. Thus, they are the best example of extreme longevity, representing selected people in which the appearance of major age-related diseases, such as cancer, and cardiovascular diseases among others, has been consistently delayed or escaped. To discuss the relevance of genetics and life style in the attainment of longevity, five papers mostly focused on Italian centenarians have been assembled in this series. The aim is to realize, through a?? positive biology?? approach (rather than making diseases the central focus of research, ??positive biology?? seeks to understand the causes of positive phenotypes, trying to explain the biological mechanisms of health and well-being) how to prevent and/or reduce elderly frailty and disability.     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

正The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the fall of 2017)on the topic of‘‘Microbiome and Health’’.In the era of precision medicine,the human‘‘2ndgenome’’,namely the human microbiome,is of increasing interest worldwide.Firstly,the human microbiome has been linked to various     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

<正>The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the Fall of 2017)on the topic of"Microbiome and Health".In the era of precision medicine,the human"2ndgenome",namely the human microbiome,is of increasing interest worldwide.Firstly,the human microbiome has been linked to various diseases including metabolic diseases,cancers,heart diseases,or brain disorders,and autoimmune diseases.Secondly,changes in the microbiome are known or hypothesized to be proxies for     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

<正>The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the summer of 2018)on the topic of‘‘Microbiome and Health’’.In the era of precision medicine,the human‘‘2~(nd) genome’’,namely the human microbiome,is     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

<正>The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the Fall of 2017)on the topic of‘‘Microbiome and Health’’.In the era of precision medicine,the human‘‘2ndgenome’’,namely the human microbiome,is of increasing interest worldwide.Firstly,the human microbiome has been linked to various     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

正The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the fall of 2018)on the topic of‘‘Microbiome and Health’’.In the era of precision medicine,the humannamely the human microbiome,is of increasing interest worldwide.Firstly,the human microbiome has been linked to various diseases including metabolic diseases,cancers,heart diseases,or brain disorders,and autoimmune diseases.Secondly,changes in the microbiome are known or hypothesized to be proxies for environmental or host phenotypical changes.Thirdly,the rational alteration of disturbed human     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

正The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the fall of 2017)on the topic of‘‘Microbiome and Health’’.In the era of precision medicine,the human‘‘2ndgenome’’,namely the human microbiome,is of increasing interest worldwide.Firstly,the human microbiome has been linked to various diseases including metabolic diseases,cancers,heart diseases,or brain disorders,and autoimmune     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

正The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the fall of 2018)on the topic of"Microbiome and Health".In the era of precision medicine,the human"2ndgenome",namely the human microbiome,is of increasing interest worldwide.Firstly,the human microbiome has been linked to various diseases including metabolic diseases,cancers,heart diseases,or brain disorders,and autoimmune diseases.Secondly,changes in the microbiome are known or hypothesized to be proxies for     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

<正>The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the fall of 2017)on the topic of‘‘Microbiome and Health’’.In the era of precision medicine,the human‘‘2nd genome’’,namely the human microbiome,is of increasing interest worldwide.Firstly,the human microbiome has been linked to various     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

正The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the Fall of 2017)on the topic ofMicrobiome and Health.In the era of precision medicine,the human 2ndgenome,namely the human microbiome,is of increasing interest worldwide.Firstly,the human microbiome has been linked to various diseases including metabolic diseases,cancers,heart diseases,or brain disorders,and autoimmune     

Special Issue on “Microbiome and Health”

<正>The journal Genomics,ProteomicsBioinformatics(GPB)is now inviting submissions to a special issue(to be published in the summer of 2018)on the topic ofMicrobiome and Health.In the era of precision medicine,the human 2~(nd) genome,namely the human microbiome,is of     

“One Health” or Three? Publication Silos Among the One Health Disciplines

The One Health initiative is a global effort fostering interdisciplinary collaborations to address challenges in human, animal, and environmental health. While One Health has received considerable press, its benefits remain unclear because its effects have not been quantitatively described. We systematically surveyed the published literature and used social network analysis to measure interdisciplinarity in One Health studies constructing dynamic pathogen transmission models. The number of publications fulfilling our search criteria increased by 14.6% per year, which is faster than growth rates for life sciences as a whole and for most biology subdisciplines. Surveyed publications clustered into three communities: one used by ecologists, one used by veterinarians, and a third diverse-authorship community used by population biologists, mathematicians, epidemiologists, and experts in human health. Overlap between these communities increased through time in terms of author number, diversity of co-author affiliations, and diversity of citations. However, communities continue to differ in the systems studied, questions asked, and methods employed. While the infectious disease research community has made significant progress toward integrating its participating disciplines, some segregation—especially along the veterinary/ecological research interface—remains.     

“Positive” Results Increase Down the Hierarchy of the Sciences

The hypothesis of a Hierarchy of the Sciences with physical sciences at the top, social sciences at the bottom, and biological sciences in-between is nearly 200 years old. This order is intuitive and reflected in many features of academic life, but whether it reflects the “hardness” of scientific research—i.e., the extent to which research questions and results are determined by data and theories as opposed to non-cognitive factors—is controversial. This study analysed 2434 papers published in all disciplines and that declared to have tested a hypothesis. It was determined how many papers reported a “positive” (full or partial) or “negative” support for the tested hypothesis. If the hierarchy hypothesis is correct, then researchers in “softer” sciences should have fewer constraints to their conscious and unconscious biases, and therefore report more positive outcomes. Results confirmed the predictions at all levels considered: discipline, domain and methodology broadly defined. Controlling for observed differences between pure and applied disciplines, and between papers testing one or several hypotheses, the odds of reporting a positive result were around 5 times higher among papers in the disciplines of Psychology and Psychiatry and Economics and Business compared to Space Science, 2.3 times higher in the domain of social sciences compared to the physical sciences, and 3.4 times higher in studies applying behavioural and social methodologies on people compared to physical and chemical studies on non-biological material. In all comparisons, biological studies had intermediate values. These results suggest that the nature of hypotheses tested and the logical and methodological rigour employed to test them vary systematically across disciplines and fields, depending on the complexity of the subject matter and possibly other factors (e.g., a field''s level of historical and/or intellectual development). On the other hand, these results support the scientific status of the social sciences against claims that they are completely subjective, by showing that, when they adopt a scientific approach to discovery, they differ from the natural sciences only by a matter of degree.     

Quantification Methodology of “Health Human Resources” Related to “Health Technologies” Based on Indicators “RhSan”, “TechSan” and “RhTech”: Application to Senegal

ObjectivesAfter a century of spectacular advances, healthcare systems are facing unprecedented crisis, linked to shortage of health human resources and health technologies. In fact, availability of care depends on both technological and human resources of health. The objective of this study is to develop indicators that can measure qualitatively human resources and technologies of health in healthcare facilities, in order to assess availability of care in sub-Saharan African countries.Materials and MethodsRegarding “health technology” related to “medical devices”, an indicator called “TechSan” for “Technologies de Santé” was previously developed and published (Ndione FB et al. (2019) [6]). To address the deficiencies in usual indicators related to health human resources, a second indicator called “RhSan” for “Ressources humaines de santé” in French is proposed. This indicator assigns a weight to each health worker taking into account his specific “level of medical knowledge” and “experience”. In order to correlate “RhSan” with “TechSan”, a third indicator called “RhTech” is also developed to assess matches between “health technologies” and “health human resources” and establish realistic availability of care. These indicators have the advantage to be consolidated by specialty such as laboratory, imaging, surgery, and “mother and child care”.ResultsThe application of TechSan, RhSan and RhTech to data collected in Senegal in 2016, enabled to assess the distribution of “health technology” and “health human resources” in this country. They also permit the mapping of care availability per specialty in Senegal. The results show a strong oversupply of Dakar in terms of both human resources and technologies of health compared to other Senegalese regions. Oppositely, Sedhiou, Kaffrine, Matam and Kédougou are poorly endowed showing limits of the Senegalese health pyramid system.ConclusionTechSan, RhSan and RhTech can provide reliable decision-making tools in order to elaborate health policies in sub-Saharan African countries on more rigorous basis.