Probiotics: from bench to market

"Probiotics: From Bench to Market" was a one-day conference convened by the New York Academy of Sciences on June 11, 2010, with the goal of stimulating discussion of the physiological effects of probiotics on the gastrointestinal, nervous, and immune systems. The program included speakers from academia, industry, and government to give conference participants a full understanding of the state of the field of probiotics. The overall goal of the program was to increase communication and collaboration among these groups to advance probiotic research and probiotic contributions to public health. The conference was divided into three sessions and included both oral and visual presentations as well as panel discussions.     

Extrapolation in Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessments: Proceedings of a Symposium

A symposium was conducted in April 1998 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) to explore issues of extrapolation in human health and ecological risk assessments. Over the course of three and one half days, leading health and ecology experts presented and discussed research methods and approaches for extrapolating data among taxa and across levels of biological organization, through time, and across spatial scales. The intended result of this symposium was enhanced interaction among a diverse array of scientists, policymakers, and risk assessors to promote identification of approaches for reducing the uncertainties of extrapolation in risk assessment.     

Postal workers' perspectives on communication during the anthrax attack

In 2001, the nation experienced its first bioterrorism attack, in the form of anthrax sent through the U.S. Postal Service, and public health professionals were challenged to communicate with a critical audience, U.S. postal workers. Postal workers, the first cohort to receive public health messages during a bioterrorist crisis, offer a crucial viewpoint that can be used in the development of best practices in crisis and emergency risk communication. This article reports results of qualitative interviews and focus groups with 65 postal workers employed at three facilities: Trenton, New Jersey; New York City; and Washington, DC. The social context and changing messages were among the factors that damaged trust between postal workers and public health professionals. Lessons learned from this attack contribute to the growing body of knowledge available to guide communications experts and public health professionals charged with crisis and emergency risk communication with the public.     

Darwin��s Busts and Public Evolutionary Outreach and Education

For the 1909 Darwin Centennial, the New York Academy of Sciences gave a large bronze bust of Charles Darwin to the American Museum of Natural History. Created by the well-known sculptor, William Couper, the bust was placed on its tall granite pedestal at the entrance at the newly designated exhibition hall, the Charles Darwin Hall of Invertebrate Zoology. Later that year, the American Museum ordered a bronze copy of the bust and presented it to Christ’s College, in Cambridge, England at the British Darwinian celebration. In 1935, Victor Von Hagen requested a plaster copy of the bust for a monument he was erecting on San Cristóbal in the Galapagos Islands to celebrate Darwin’s arrival in the Galapagos. During 1960, the American Museum of Natural History returned the original bronze bust to the New York Academy of Science, where it is now on display at its headquarters in New York City. To celebrate the Darwin bicentennial, the National Academy of Sciences recreated the bust in a computer-generated copy for display at their Washington, DC headquarters.     

自然资本科学和决策实践:宜居城市和可持续发展——2018年自然资本项目年会述评

2018年自然资本项目年会(Natural Capital Project Symposium)于3月19日至22日在美国斯坦福大学举行。自然资本项目由美国斯坦福大学、世界自然基金会和大自然保护协会发起,旨在推进将科学和融入自然多元价值的实践纳入管理决策过程。本次会议正式邀请并宣布中国科学院生态环境研究中心为项目伙伴。会议吸引了来自33个国家363名政府工作人员、非政府组织成员、企业家和专家学者参加。本届年会的两大主题是宜居城市和可持续发展。会议包含9个大会主题报告和3个平行分会场,平行分会场归纳为宜居城市、可持续发展、淡水和流域管理、海岸带恢复力、投资标准化制定、模型培训和探索等六个方面;会议同时设有专题讨论和小组研讨、InVEST模型培训和讨论、墙报展示等。会议推进了生态系统服务的科学发展和实践应用,将自然资本纳入科学决策体系,在全球范围内推动科学和决策的融合、促进可持续发展。     

Book reviews

THE NORTH SEA: CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY, Edited by M. M. Sibthorp. Published for the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies, by Europa Publications Ltd. 1975, 324 pp. £6.95.

MAMMALS OF THE SEA; INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE; PHARAOHS OF THE SEA; Jacques Cousteau, 1975, Angus and Robertson, London. All £2.80.

PYCNOGONIDS, P. E. King, 1974, St. Martin's Press, New York. $8.95.

GEOGRAPHICAL AND SEASONAL VARIABILITY OF MARINE PLANKTON. Edited by Zh. A. Zvereva. Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., Zoological Institute (Translated from Russian—Israel Programme for Scientific translations, Jerusalem, 1975). 303 pp.     

Evidence-based review of probiotics for antibiotic-associated diarrhea and Clostridium difficile infections

Probiotics are living microbes taken to confer a health benefit on the host. Although probiotics have a long history of use in Europe and Asia and have been on the U.S. market for over 14 years, there is still confusion about how to effectively use them. The use of probiotics for the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) and the treatment of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) has been tested in randomized controlled clinical trials.This paper will review the evidence supporting probiotic therapy for these two diseases and also review the advantages and disadvantages of probiotics. The advantages of probiotic therapy include multiple mechanisms of action against pathogens, the ability to interact with the host's natural defense systems, survival to the target organ and a good risk to benefit ratio. Disadvantages of probiotics include lack of standardization for clinical trial designs, variations in regulatory standards, poor quality control for some products and infrequent serious adverse reactions. Overall, probiotics offer a promising strategy for the prevention and treatment for AAD and CDI     

Health-Based Criteria for Sediment Disposal Options: A Case Study of the Port of New York/New Jersey

Approximately 4 million cubic yards of sediment are dredged annually from the Port of New York and New Jersey in order to maintain navigable channels. In many cases, the sediments contain elevated levels of numerous contaminants. The New York District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region II employ a framework of sediment quality evaluation to determine whether contaminated sediments are suitable for open ocean disposal (i.e., do not pose a health risk from bioaccumulation in human food chain) or whether more extensive and costly disposal methods are required. The degree to which chemicals can bioaccumulate from sediments into benthic invertebrates is a key determinant in the permitting decision. The maximally “acceptable” levels of bioaccumulation (bioaccumulation criteria) have been developed over a period of several years, using a variety of different methods. We reviewed the technical bases of these criteria and found that, while some values can be considered “risk-based,” others are based on historical background concentrations, Food and Drug Administration Action Levels, limits of detection, and other non-“risk-based” methodologies. Hence, the degree of uncertainty and health protection (or lack thereof) in the criteria varies considerably among the chemicals. We also reviewed the outcomes of several permit applications and found that the bioaccumulation criteria were not applied consistently. We propose the following refinements to the decision-making process: (1) bioaccumulation screening values based only upon risk-based criteria, using a single method that is applied for all chemicals; (2) increased consistency in decision-making and considerations of site-specific information where appropriate; and (3) assured availability of testing results for review and analysis by interested parties.     

Changing U.S. Urban Neighborhoods: Patterns, Postmodern Analysis, and Policy Relevance

Left Behind in Rosedale: Race Relations and the Collapse of Community Institutions. Scott Cummings. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998. 223 pp.
The Unknown City: The Lives of Poor and Working-Class Young Adults. Michelle Fine and Lois Weis. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1998. 328 pp.
The Anthropology of Lower Income Urban Enclaves: The Case of East Harlem. Judith Freidenberg. ed. New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1995. 286 pp.     

生物膜研究在生物物理研究所的兴起与发展

生物膜研究是现代生物学研究的前沿方向之一,本文对文革结束以后生物膜研究在中国科学院生物物理研究所(下称生物物理所)的兴起与发展进行了系统回顾.文革结束后,中国科学院领导了解到国外生物膜研究迅速发展的情况,迅即派遣以生物物理所杨福愉为组长,包括生物化学研究所、动物研究所、植物研究所、上海实验生物研究所等六人的代表团前往联邦德国进行考察.考察结束后院领导根据多学科交叉对生物膜研究的重要作用,组织了生物物理所、植物所、中国医学科学院、北京医科大学等单位联合申报国家自然科学基金委员会重大项目"膜脂-膜蛋白的相互作用及其在医学和农业上的应用",并获得立项.与此同时,院领导建议由中国生物物理学会、中国生化学会和中国细胞生物学会共同组织生物膜学术讨论会.首次会议于1979年3月在北京友谊宾馆举行,以后每3年召开1次,从未中断,有力地促进了生物膜研究的交流与发展.2003年举行的第200届香山会议专门组织讨论21世纪生物膜研究在中国的布局,进一步推动了生物膜研究的发展.本文还重点阐述了中国科学院生物物理研究所在生物膜研究方面所取得的代表性成果:a.金属离子通过膜脂-膜蛋白相互作用调控生物膜能量转换、物质运输及信号转导的分子机制;b.提出"克山病是一种心肌线粒体病"的重要观点;c.发现溶酶体内含有为量甚微、一般认为是消化酶的胰凝乳蛋白酶,并阐明了它通过溶酶体膜外泄后参与细胞凋亡的作用机制;d.确定了通过调控线粒体动态变化而干预肿瘤细胞迁移侵袭的新靶标.最后,特别值得一提的是,2004年,常文瑞与植物研究所匡廷云等在《自然》(Nature)发表了《菠菜中主要捕光色素复合体2.72魡分辨率的晶体结构分析》的研究论文,2005年饶子和与徐建兴等在《细胞》(Cell)发表了《猪心线粒体呼吸链复合体Ⅱ的晶体结构》的研究论文,充分标志着我国生物膜研究已在国际上占据一席之地.2004年,徐涛研究员因其在囊泡转运方面的丰厚学术积淀,作为首席科学家组织一批生物膜专家承担了国内首个生物膜973项目,这标志着国内生物膜研究开始进入一个新的发展时期.     

Science and society: Asilomar and after: A decade of the new biology

In February 1975, in Pacific Grove, California, the Asilomar Conference took place, sponsored by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and convened by the Academy's Committee on Recombinant DNA Molecules, of which Paul Berg was the Chairman. This conference recommended guidelines for recombinant DNA research, and the history of subsequent sets of guidelines formed the major theme of six articles that appeared in Vol. 1 of BioEssays, authored by Dewitt Stetten, Jr, with the collaboration of William Gartland and Bernard Talbot and entitled ‘The Road to Asilomar: Reminiscences of the Recombinant DNA Story’.¹ The U.S. National Research Council recently commissioned for its News Report (volume XXXV, March 1985, 1A–16A) a retrospective article on Asilomar, written by Susan Walton. That article is exerpted here with the permission of the National Research Council.     

Causality in medicine

This article is the result of a symposium organized at the French Academy of Sciences on May 31, 2016, entitled: Do we need to know the causes to understand and intervene? Questions on causality in the biological and medical sciences, and published in French in a book entitled: Causality in the biological and medical sciences (EDP Sciences, 2017).     

第三届全国食用菌学术讨论会在上海召开

<正> 第三届全国食用菌学术讨论会于1987年11月9日至13日在上海市农科院食用菌研究所举行。出席这次学术讨论会的代表、列席代表和特邀代表共250余人,来自全国27个省、市、自治区的184个科研、生产和教学单位,是我国食用菌工作者的一次空前盛会。会议由中国植物学会真菌学会、中国微生物学会联合主持。会议中还参观了食用菌研究所以及马陆、嘉西公社蘑菇种植厂。大会共收到论文300余篇,印发了《全国第三届食用菌学术讨论会论文摘要汇编》。会议学术空气浓厚、安排紧凑,进行了大会与分组学术报告,开展了学术交流与讨论,内容包括研究综述、资源开发、遗传育种、制种技术、营养基质、栽培技术、生理生化、病虫防治、测试技术、贮藏加工、食菌保健等十一个方面。出席今年在西德召开的第十二届国际食用菌学术讨论会的六位代表也在会上介绍了情况,传递了食用菌科研成果的最新信息。为使我国早日跻身于世界食用菌强国之林,与会代表提出了许多宝贵的建议。在会上宣布成立真菌学会下的“食用菌专业组”,组长:杨新美;副组长:卯晓岚、黄年来;组员:方自若、刘日新、毕志树、罗信昌、赵震宇、贺学洋。下届全国食用菌学术讨论会将于1990年召开。     

Client and Provider Perspectives on New HIV Prevention Tools for MSM in the Americas

Men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Americas require targeted, combination HIV prevention approaches. We solicited client and provider perspectives on emerging prevention interventions including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV self-tests through focus groups and in-depth interviews with 130 MSM and 41 providers across four sites: New York, San Francisco, Lima, and Rio de Janeiro. Among the MSM participants, we identified three prevention typologies: non-condom users, inconsistent condom users, and consistent condom users. Northern and Southern MSM differed in the variety of harm reduction strategies utilized: where U.S. MSM relied on condom use as well as disclosure and seroadaptive behaviors for prevention, condom use without disclosure or serostatus discussions was the norm in South America. Interest in new prevention technologies was shaped by the social context. U.S. MSM preferences differed by typology, such that non-condom users were interested in taking PrEP and using home HIV tests. MSM in Brazil, regardless of typology, were interested in exploring new prevention options. MSM in Peru demonstrated moderate interest but were less comfortable with adopting new strategies. MSM and providers’ opinions differed substantially with respect to new prevention options. Across sites, most providers were reticent to engage with new prevention options, though some NGO-based providers were more supportive of exploring new prevention tools. Both clients and providers will need to be engaged in developing integrated prevention strategies for MSM.     

The use of non-human primates in biological and medical research: evidence submitted by FRAME to the Academy of Medical Sciences/Medical Research Council/Royal Society/Wellcome Trust Working Group

The Academy of Medical Sciences, the Medical Research Council, the Royal Society and the Wellcome Trust are undertaking a study into the use of non-human primates in biological and medical research. An independent working group of scientific experts, led by Sir David Weatherall, aims to produce a report summarising the findings of this study, early in 2006. The trends in primate research, and the nature and effects of recent and proposed changes in the global use of non-human primates in research, will be investigated. The associated ethical, welfare and regulatory issues, and the role and impact of the Three Rs principles of refinement, reduction and replacement will also be reviewed. As part of this study, a call for evidence was made. The evidence submitted by FRAME emphasised that the use of non-human primates for fundamental research or for regulatory testing still fails to take into account the fact that, although non-human primates are anatomically and physiologically similar to humans, they are not necessarily relevant models for studies on human disease or human physiology. FRAME continues to believe that we have a duty to ensure that these animals are not used without overwhelming evidence that they are the only suitable and relevant models for use in work of undeniable significance.     

Making the grade in human evolution

Getting Here: The Story of Human Evolution By WW Howells (1997). Washington: Compass Press. 266 pp. $19.95 (cloth) ISBN 0-929590-16-3. $36.95 (paper) ISBN 0-929590-17-1. From Lucy to Language By DC Johanson and B Edgar. Principal Photography by David Brill (1996). New York: Simon and Schuster, 272 pp. $50.00 (cloth) ISBN 0-684-81023-9. Reconstructing Human Origins: A Modern Synthesis By GC Conroy (1997). New York: WW. Norton.xii + 557 pp. $43.13 (paper) ISBN 0-393-97042-6. Humans Before Humanity By R Foley (1997) Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.vii + 248 pp. $21.95 paper ISBN 0-631-20528-4. Contemporary Issues in Human Evolution By E Meickle, FC Howell and N Jablonski (1996) Wattis Symposium Series in Anthropology. Nina G. Jablonski, Series Editor. California Academy of Sciences Memoir 21. San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences.viii+193pp $35.00 cloth ISBN 0-940228-45-9. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Advances in purine and pyrimidine metabolism in health and diseases

ABSTRACT

In June, 2015, the Purine and Pyrimidine Society organized the 16th biennial symposium on Purine and Pyrimidine metabolism at the Faculty House of Columbia University, New York City. This exciting meeting focused on these important molecules, new developments in inborn errors of metabolism; therapeutic analogs. In addition, the biochemistry of mammalian and non-mammalian systems were discussed. Due to significant advances in molecular medicine, the boundaries between clinical and basic sciences have merged into exciting translational research, of which a small portion was highlighted in the presymposium.     

Genetic‐hygienic impairment through incestuous matings

THE EFFECT OF EXPOSURE TO THE ATOMIC BOMBS ON PREGNANCY TERMINATION IN HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI: J. V. Neel and W. J. Schull, Publication No. 461, National Academy of Sciences—National Research Council, Washington, 1956, 241 pp., $2.00.

DEMOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS: SELECTED READINGS: Edited by Joseph J. Spengler and Otis Dudley Duncan. The Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois, 1956. xvi, 820 pp. $9.50.

POPULATION THEORY AND POLICY: SELECTED READINGS: Edited by Joseph S. Spengler and Otis Dudley Duncan. The Free Press, Glencoe, Illinois, 1956. x, 522 pp. $7.50.

HEALTH AND DEMOGRAPHY: Halbert L. Dunn; U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Bureau of State Services, National Office of Vital Statistics; Washington, October, 1956, 94 pp., $.50.

SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF URBAN AND RURAL COMMUNITIES, 1950: Otis Dudley Duncan and Albert J. Reiss, Jr., John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1956, XVIII + 421 pp. $6.50.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN DIFFERENCES: Leona E. Tyler. 2nd Edition. New York, Appleton‐Century‐Crofts, 1956. pp. VIII + 562.     

Public health measures and mortality in U.S. cities in the late nineteenth century

In this paper we examine the decline in mortality rates by cause of death in U.S. cities during the last decade of the. 19th century. Causes of death are grouped according to their probable relationship to specific public health measures. The reduction which occurred in the death rates from some diseases, e.g., typhoid and diarrheal diseases, can probably be attributed in part to the provision of sewers and waterworks. Large declines also occurred in the death rates from tuberculosis and diphtheria, but the relationship between the declines in these diseases and public health practices designed to combat them is more ambiguous. We therefore conclude that public health measures had some impact on the decline in mortality, but that these measures do not provide a complete explanation of the mortality decline.The research on which this paper is based was supported by NICHD Grant 1-R01-HD-05427. A version of this article was presented at the meetings of the American Sociological Association, New York, August 30–September 3, 1976.     

More Than Class: Studying Power in U.S. Workplaces

More Than Class: Studying Power in U.S. Workplaces. Ann E. Kingsolver. ed. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998. 222 pp.