Ionizing Radiation as an Industrial Health Problem

Ionizing radiation, first as x-rays, later in natural form, was discovered in Europe in the late 1890''s. Immediate practical uses were found for these discoveries, particularly in medicine. Unfortunately, because of the crude early equipment and ignorance of the harmful effects of radiation, many people were injured, some fatally. Because of these experiences, committees and regulatory bodies were set up to study the problem. These have built up an impressive fund of knowledge useful in radiation protection.With the recent development of the peaceful uses of atomic energy, sources of radioactivity have appeared cheaply and in abundance. A rapidly growing number are finding industrial application. Because of their potential risk to humans, the industrial physician must acquire new knowledge and skills so that he may give proper guidance in this new realm of preventive medicine.The Radiation Protection Program of one such industry, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, is summarized.     

From the laboratory to the patient and back--an interview with Marc Mareel. Interview by Marc E. Bracke

The career of Marc Mareel is a synthesis of scientific research and clinical activity. During his medical studies, he already made his first enthusiastic steps in research via experimental work on avian developmental biology. Later, during his training as a radiotherapist, he founded his own laboratory for experimental cancer research. There he built up his international reputation as a pioneer in invasion research. Although invasion is the hallmark of tumor malignancy, he also kept an open mind about invasion in non-cancer conditions, such as in placental behavior, developmental biology, immunology and parasitology. His contribution to our understanding of invasion mechanisms has been both technical and conceptual. A number of assays have been developed in his lab, such as the embryonic chick heart and collagen gel invasion models, that have been (and still are) useful for many other research teams. He also contributed to the discovery of a number of key elements in the process of invasion, such as the stromal influence (including its extracellular matrix) and the cadherin family of cell-cell adhesion molecules. Concerning metastasis formation, he developed the original concept that a number of interacting eco-systems are implicated, such as the primary tumor, regional lymph nodes, the bone marrow and the (pre)metastatic niches in distant organs. Since his retirement, Marc Mareel has continued to integrate clinical practice with research creativity. He favours the idea of translational research bringing the results of laboratory findings to medical applications, and exploiting the feedback to the laboratory. The team in the Laboratory of Experimental Cancer Research at Ghent University currently consists of about 25 collaborators, who continue to appreciate his inspiring ideas and suggestions.     

Explaining the freemartin: Tandler and Keller vs. Lillie and the question of priority

The correct explanation for the freemartin phenotype in the female twin of a female-male pair in cattle was first reported by Tandler and Keller (1911. Deutsche Tier?rzt Wochenschr 19:148-149). This same explanation for the freemartin was independently discovered by Lillie (1916. Science 43:611-613). Today both set of scientists are given credit for this discovery; it is the basis for much of the subsequent work on the developmental basis for sex differentiation in vertebrates. Even though Lillie published after Keller and Tandler, he gets credit for this discovery because: (1) Keller and Tandler published in a veterinary journal and as a consequence their work was not disseminated as broadly throughout the larger scientific community; this problem was compounded by the fact that their definitive 1916 paper was published under wartime conditions during World War I, and (2) Lillie was an influential scientist with a group of graduate students who could elaborate on and extend his work; they published a number of papers on the freemartin. At some point while Lillie was doing his initial work on the freemartin he may have become aware that Keller and Tandler were also working on the freemartin problem; this information may have shaped his decision on when to publish.     

Correlates of Research Effort in Carnivores: Body Size,Range Size and Diet Matter

Given the budgetary restrictions on scientific research and the increasing need to better inform conservation actions, it is important to identify the patterns and causes of biases in research effort. We combine bibliometric information from a literature review of almost 16,500 peer-reviewed publications on a well-known group of 286 species, the Order Carnivora, with global datasets on species'' life history and ecological traits to explore patterns in research effort. Our study explores how species'' characteristics influenced the degree to which they were studied (measured as the number of publications). We identified a wide variation in intensity of research effort at both Family and Species levels, with some of the least studied being those which may need protection in future. Our findings hint at the complex role of human perspectives in setting research agendas. We found that better-studied species tended to be large-bodied and have a large geographic range whilst omnivory had a negative relationship with research effort. IUCN threat status did not exhibit a strong relationship with research effort which suggests that the conservation needs of individual species are not major drivers of research interest. This work is the first to use a combination of bibliometric analysis and biological data to quantify and interpret gaps in research knowledge across an entire Order. Our results could be combined with other resources, such as Biodiversity Action Plans, to prioritise and co-ordinate future research effort, whilst our methods can be applied across many scientific disciplines to describe knowledge gaps.     

Human liver proteome project: plan, progress, and perspectives

The Human Liver Proteome Project is the first initiative of the human proteome project for human organs/tissues and aims at writing a modern Prometheus myth. Its global scientific objectives are to reveal the "solar system" of the human liver proteome, expression profiles, modification profiles, a protein linkage (protein-protein interaction) map, and a proteome localization map, and to define an ORFeome, physiome, and pathome. Since it was first proposed in April 2002, the Human Liver Proteome Project has attracted more than 100 laboratories from all over the world. In the ensuing 3 years, we set up a management infrastructure, identified reference laboratories, confirmed standard operating procedures, initiated international research collaborations, and finally achieved the first set of expression profile data.     

A Numerical Study of the Hydrodynamic Stable Concentration Boundary Layers in a Membrane System Under Microgravitational Conditions

On the basis of the classic formula of the concentration Rayleigh number and the Kedem–Katchalsky equation for diffusive membrane transport, we derived the equations of sixteenth order which show the dependence of the thicknesses of the concentration boundary layers on the difference of the solution concentrations, the concentration Rayleigh number, the solute permeability coefficient of the membrane and the diffusion coefficients in the solution, the kinematic viscosity of the solution, the density of solutions, the temperature and gravitational acceleration. The obtained equation has numerical solutions in the first, third and fourth quadrant of a co-ordinate system. However, only two solutions from the first quadrant of the co-ordinate system have physical meaning. Confining ourselves to the set of solutions with physical meaning only, the thicknesses of concentration boundary layers for different parameters occurring in the obtained equation were calculated numerically.     

Some Notes on David Nicholson's Contributions to Modelling Adsorption

Abstract

During his career David has built up a very large number of scientific contacts throughout the world. Many of these became friends and collaborators. Imperial College was, of course, a good place to start from: R.M. Barrer was from New Zealand and John Petropoulos from Greece. Subsequently, he collaborated with scientists from other European Union countries, especially from France and Germany as well as more researchers from Greece. He also made many contacts in the US. A very important example was the sabbatical he had with W.A. Steele at Penn State, where he made his first big incursion into intermolecular forces. He also had very useful exchanges of visits with K.E. Gubbins, which led to joint work. More recently he developed working relationships with scientists from Japan and from South Korea. The scientific value of these contacts may be gauged from the large number of his publications, which involve researchers from these countries as co-authors. However, I am sure the readiness with which overseas researchers participated was in part also due to the friendly and helpful manner with which David received them here.     

A polar co-ordinate system for positional information in the vertebrate neural retina

Pattern formation in many developing systems has been traditionally understood in terms of a prior signalling of positional information along mutually orthogonal axes, thus setting up a Cartesian co-ordinate grid. Existing data from the vertebrate neural retina has here been reinterpreted in terms of a non-Cartesian system. Results bearing on regeneration and duplication in eye fragments, “axial determination” and polarity alterations in fused eye fragments are considered and interpreted in terms of a polar co-ordinate system. On this model the position of each region of the retina is defined by a co-ordinate (radial) expressing distance from the centre and another (circumferential) expressing position around the circumference. The radial co-ordinate accords with the radial nature of retinal growth and it is possible that the spatially ordered sequence of cell divisions may itself specify the sequence of radial positions. The circumferential co-ordinate, unlike the radial counterpart, is specified in interaction with the extra-ocular tissue such that it may be oriented in the embryo with reference to a primary embryo Cartesian grid. The ability of the model to account for ultrastructural findings, problematic for the Cartesian model, is discussed.     

Bird conservation and the U.K. Biodiversity Action Plan

The Biodiversity Convention requires parties to prepare national plans with strategies for the conservation of biodiversity. The U.K. produced its Action Plan in January 1994, one of the first countries to do so. The document of nearly 200 pages sets out the rationale for conserving biodiversity and the U.K. scientific tradition which underpins our understanding of biodiversity and describes in very summary form the key characteristics of U.K. biodiversity and the resources we devote to sustaining it, both in situ and ex situ, as well as our contribution to assisting conservation outside the U.K. It goes on to consider the role of education and public information and the need to improve the coordination and accessibility of scientific data and monitoring. Finally, it sets out a range of targets and commitments including a proposal to set up machinery, involving non-governmental interests, to agree on specific targets for key species and habitats in 1995. The main emphasis of the Plan and the work ahead is to create a collaborative framework for the large but fragmented efforts by the public voluntary sectors to reverse recent losses of biodiversity. In many ways bird conservation and population monitoring provide a benchmark for other species work. Bird conservation will benefit from the increased integration of effort and scientific analysis which looks at the interaction of species, habitats and wider land use issues and the effect of sectoral policies such as agriculture, energy and transport.     

Tut-tut Tutt, not so fast. Did Kettlewell really test Tutt's explanation of industrial melanism?

Over the past fifty years a legend has developed surrounding H.B.D. Kettlewell's pioneering research on the phenomenon of industrial melanism as illustrated in the peppered moth, Biston betularia. This legend is particularly pernicious in that it unfairly diminishes Kettlewell's intellectual involvement in the work for which he is most famous (Rudge 2006). One of the most persistent allegations made is that Kettlewell's published work neglects or ignores his debt to J.W. Tutt, identified as the first to propose the explanation of industrial melanism at issue in Kettlewell's original investigations (Owen 1997). The following essay first examines whether J.W. Tutt was indeed the first to explain the phenomenon of industrial melanism in terms of differential bird predation and the long term effects of air pollution, before considering further whether J.W. Tutt's explanation was, in point of fact, the explanation at issue in Kettlewell's investigations.     

Genes and generalizations: Darden's strategies and the question of context

In her recent book Lindley Darden has endeavored to reclaim for philosophy an active role in the elaboration of good science. She has done this, not by holding up some set of rational standards derived from outside of scientific practice, but rather by delving into the history of science and coming out with a set of scientific strategies. Unconcerned about whether any particular strategy wasin fact employed in a given historical case her project depends upon two claims, first that these strategiescould have been successfully deployed in the particular cases from which they were construed, and second and more importantly, that these strategies can be generalized beyond any particular context and be put to future use. It will be argued that Darden's conception of the possible context independence of scientific strategies is based upon an overly cognitivist misconstrual. An alternative account of the relationship of context dependent and context independent aspects of scientific theory formation will be offered as well as its implications for philosophy.     

The effective method of gene transfer into mammalian cells cultured in vitro

Efficiency of transformation by a number of vectors with the different selective markers of a set of cell lines has been studied for three different methods based on using calcium phosphate, polybrene, or electroporation. Electroporation is shown to be the most efficient one. Using this method with the system rat2k-cells-pAGO vector we have obtained the frequencies of transformation up to 2-3.10(-3). We suggest to use this system as a model for investigation of homologous recombination in the framework of the gene therapy project.     

A Data Reduction Exercise to Detect Threshold Samples for Regression Models to Predict Key Water Variables

Inherent uncertainties in empirical data limit our understanding of interrelationships among variables and constrain our possibilities to identify critical thresholds as well as our possibilities to develop practically useful predictive models for water management. This work concerns key water variables for water management and the first aim is to utilize a very comprehensive set of data set for Ringkobing Fjord, Denmark. The paper first presents the methods and data used, then a reference regression for chlorophyll, coefficients of variation (CV = SD/MV; MV = mean value; SD = standard deviation) for a variety of water variables and how these CV‐values influence n, the number of data used to determine coastal area characteristic mean or median values (note that the interest here is not on the conditions in sampling bottle but on the conditions in entire coastal areas, the ecosystem perspective). The main part of the work presents a data reduction exercise including a definition of an error function where the focus is on “large N”, i.e., the number of data in a regression. The results are summarized in a diagram relating the error in the regression to different water variables with different inherent CVs in rivers, lakes and coastal areas. Given the inherently high CV‐values of many of these water variables, more samples than generally taken in most regular monitoring programs are needed if scientific unassailable conclusions are to be made concerning interrelationships among the variables and to produce scientifically meaningful information to detect critical ecosystem changes and threshold values. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The construction of a scientific model: Otto Warburg and the building block strategy

In the years 1919 to 1923, Otto Warburg published four papers that were to revolutionise the field of photosynthesis. In these articles, he introduced a number of new techniques to measure the rate of photosynthesis, put forward a new model of the mechanism and added a completely new perspective to the topic by attempting to establish the process’s efficiency in terms of the light quantum requirement. In this paper I trace the roots of Warburg’s series of contributions to photosynthesis research by exploring three different contexts of inspiration: Warburg’s own research into cell respiration, his father’s work on the quantum yield of photochemical reactions in general and the photosynthesis work carried out by Richard Willstätter and Arthur Stoll. When these influences are considered together, it becomes clear that Warburg implemented a Building Block Strategy in his research: rather than inventing his photosynthesis model from scratch, he availed himself of fragments from other contexts, which he then recombined in a new and innovative way. This way of working is considered to be standard practice in scientific research.     

中国科学院微生物研究所 真菌地衣系统学开放研究实验室简介

中国科学院微生物研究所真菌地衣系统学开放研究实验室创建于1985年8月12日,为中国科学院第一批对外开放的19个实验室(所)之一.该实验室是以中国科学院微生物研究所真菌研究室为基础建立的.     

Ernst Chain: a great man of science

This paper is a tribute to the scientific accomplishments of Ernst Chain and the influence he exerted over the fields of industrial microbiology and biotechnology. Chain is the father of the modern antibiotic era and all the benefits that these therapeutic agents have brought, i.e., longer life spans, greater levels of public health, widespread modern surgery, and control of debilitating infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, gonorrhea, syphilis, etc. Penicillin was the first antibiotic to become commercially available, and its use ushered in the age of antibiotics. The discovery of penicillin’s bactericidal action had been made by Alexander Fleming in London in 1928. After publishing his observations in 1929, no further progress was made until the work was picked up in 1939 by scientists at Oxford University. The group was headed by Howard Florey, and Chain was the group’s lead scientist. Chain was born and educated in Germany, and he fled in 1933 as a Jewish refugee from Nazism to England. Other important members of the Oxford research team were Norman Heatley and Edward Abraham. The team was able to produce and isolate penicillin under conditions of scarce resources and many technical challenges. Sufficient material was collected and tested on mice to successfully demonstrate penicillin’s bactericidal action on pathogens, while being nontoxic to mammals. Chain directed the microbiological methods for producing penicillin and the chemical engineering methods to extract the material. This technology was transferred to US government facilities in 1941 for commercial production of penicillin, becoming an important element in the Allied war effort. In 1945, the Nobel Prize for medicine was shared by Fleming, Florey, and Chain in recognition of their work in developing penicillin as a therapeutic agent. After World War II, Chain tried to persuade the British government to fund a new national antibiotic industry with both research and production facilities. As resources were scarce in postwar Britain, the British government declined the project. Chain then took a post in 1948 at Rome’s Instituto Superiore di Sanitá, establishing a new biochemistry department with a pilot plant. During that period, his department developed important new antibiotics (including the first semisynthetic antibiotics) as well as improved technological processes to produce a wide variety of important microbial metabolites that are still in wide use today. Chain was also responsible for helping several countries to start up a modern penicillin industry following World War II, including the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. In 1964, Chain returned to England to establish a new biochemistry department and industrial scale fermentation pilot plant at Imperial College in London. Imperial College became the preeminent biochemical department in Europe. Chain was also a pioneer in changing the relationship between government, private universities, and private industry for collaboration and funding to support medical research. Ernst Chain has left a lasting impact as a great scientist and internationalist.     

The bacteriophage, its role in immunology: how Macfarlane Burnet's phage research shaped his scientific style

The Australian scientist Frank Macfarlane Burnet-winner of the Nobel Prize in 1960 for his contributions to the understanding of immunological tolerance-is perhaps best recognized as one of the formulators of the clonal selection theory of antibody production, widely regarded as the 'central dogma' of modern immunology. His work in studies in animal virology, particularly the influenza virus, and rickettsial diseases is also well known. Somewhat less known and publicized is Burnet's research on bacteriophages, which he conducted in the first decade of his research career, immediately after completing medical school. For his part, Burnet made valuable contributions to the understanding of the nature of bacteriophages, a matter of considerable debate at the time he began his work. Reciprocally, it was while working on the phages that Burnet developed the scientific styles, the habits of mind and laboratory techniques and practices that characterized him for the rest of his career. Using evidence from Burnet's published work, as well as personal papers from the period he worked on the phages, this paper demonstrates the direct impact that his experiments with phages had on the development of his characteristic scientific style and approaches, which manifested themselves in his later career and theories, and especially in his thinking regarding various immunological problems.     

Raphael Meldola, his blue and his times

Raphael Meldola (1849-1915), English industrial and academic chemist, spectroscopist, naturalist, educator and lobbyist for science, is today almost a forgotten scientist whose life is celebrated only with a medal awarded by the Royal Society of Chemistry that honors achievement by younger chemists. In the 1870-80s, however, he invented a number of important synthetic dyestuffs including the cotton dyes isamine blue and Meldola's blue, and also naphthol green B, all of which have had application in biology and medicine. I describe here the early emergence of the synthetic dye industry, the first science-based industry, Meldola's role in its development, and his own inventions. Meldola's wide ranging achievements in science led to appointments as president of important professional scientific and manufacturers' societies. He was a fervent disciple of natural selection, a correspondent of Charles Darwin, and a prominent 19(th)-century neo-Darwinian. In 1886, drawing on analogies with evolutionary theory, he warned the British that neglect of science, particularly chemistry, would lead to industrial decline and even extinction, though his message generally was ignored, at least until 1914.     

DNA-based random number generation in security circuitry

DNA-based circuit design is an area of research in which traditional silicon-based technologies are replaced by naturally occurring phenomena taken from biochemistry and molecular biology. This research focuses on further developing DNA-based methodologies to mimic digital data manipulation. While exhibiting fundamental principles, this work was done in conjunction with the vision that DNA-based circuitry, when the technology matures, will form the basis for a tamper-proof security module, revolutionizing the meaning and concept of tamper-proofing and possibly preventing it altogether based on accurate scientific observations. A paramount part of such a solution would be self-generation of random numbers. A novel prototype schema employs solid phase synthesis of oligonucleotides for random construction of DNA sequences; temporary storage and retrieval is achieved through plasmid vectors. A discussion of how to evaluate sequence randomness is included, as well as how these techniques are applied to a simulation of the random number generation circuitry. Simulation results show generated sequences successfully pass three selected NIST random number generation tests specified for security applications.