Pavlov and integrative physiology

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was the first physiologist to win the Nobel Prize. The Prize was given in 1904 for his research on the neural control of salivary, gastric, and pancreatic secretion. A major reason for the success and novelty of his research was the use of unanesthetized dogs surgically prepared with chronic fistulas or gastric pouches that permitted repeated experiments in the same animal for months. Pavlov invented this chronic method because of the limitations he perceived in the use of acute anesthetized animals for investigating physiological systems. By introducing the chronic method and by showing its experimental advantages, Pavlov founded modern integrative physiology. This paper reviews Pavlov's journey from his birthplace in a provincial village in Russia to Stockholm to receive the Prize. It begins with childhood influences, describes his training and mentors, summarizes the major points of his research by reviewing his book Lectures on the Work of the Digestive Glands, and discusses his views on the relationship between physiology and medicine.     

Child development; problems of discipline,authority and rebellion

It is only through the love and approval of the significant adults in a child's life that he is able to give up his primitive behavior for that which meets the demands of social living. Conflict over authority is only one of many conflicts. There are conflicts which arise inherently in a child's development. The task of the parents in the education of the child in our society is to enable the child to tolerate a certain amount of frustration and also a necessary degree of control of impulses so that he can live in a group and in conformity with the required standards. Increased rebelliousness and defiance are normally characteristic of certain periods of development in healthy children. These are when concerted discipline begins, and in early adolescence. But other events also may reactivate or stimulate attitudes of defiance and rebellion. Even in his rebellion, a child needs and expects his parents to stand for order, as well as for love. He expects that the parent will save him from the consequences of his own destructive impulses, which he as yet may not have the strength to withstand.Deep-seated or submerged factors in the parents may play a significant role in the discipline to which they subject their children. True permissiveness means allowing a child to develop according to his own rate of speed and his own potentialities as a unique individual. It includes refusing the child any type of behavior that will bring danger to him or to others.A parent who uses harsh and rigid forms of discipline may force a child into submission, rather than acceptance and understanding. This produces only surface conformity which hides insecurity and violent underlying destructiveness.     

CHILD DEVELOPMENT—Problems of Discipline,Authority and Rebellion

It is only through the love and approval of the significant adults in a child''s life that he is able to give up his primitive behavior for that which meets the demands of social living. Conflict over authority is only one of many conflicts. There are conflicts which arise inherently in a child''s development. The task of the parents in the education of the child in our society is to enable the child to tolerate a certain amount of frustration and also a necessary degree of control of impulses so that he can live in a group and in conformity with the required standards.Increased rebelliousness and defiance are normally characteristic of certain periods of development in healthy children. These are when concerted discipline begins, and in early adolescence. But other events also may reactivate or stimulate attitudes of defiance and rebellion. Even in his rebellion, a child needs and expects his parents to stand for order, as well as for love. He expects that the parent will save him from the consequences of his own destructive impulses, which he as yet may not have the strength to withstand.Deep-seated or submerged factors in the parents may play a significant role in the discipline to which they subject their children. True permissiveness means allowing a child to develop according to his own rate of speed and his own potentialities as a unique individual. It includes refusing the child any type of behavior that will bring danger to him or to others.A parent who uses harsh and rigid forms of discipline may force a child into submission, rather than acceptance and understanding. This produces only surface conformity which hides insecurity and violent underlying destructiveness.     

From Victim to Victor: “Breaking Bad” and the Dark Potential of the Terminally Empowered

As treatments for malignancies have improved incrementally over the preceding decades, patients with cancer have been encouraged to reject an attitude of hopelessness and to choose instead the role of fighters. The recasting of the cancer patient as warrior and winner, upheld through the Livestrong movement, reaches its monstrous apotheosis in the form of Walter White, the central figure in the AMC television series “Breaking Bad.” The story begins with Walt as the protagonist, but the arc of this conversion narrative transforms him into the antagonist, exploring the darkest potential of his post-diagnosis empowerment. His awareness of his own mortality enables him to take risks that his more rational, pre-cancer self would have avoided. Rather than being rendered impotent by fear of an impending death, he finds himself emboldened, liberated from behavioral norms, capable of heretofore-unthinkable violence and even murder. As Walt moves from victim to victor, the viewer realizes the perils of a survive-at-all-costs mentality and is forced to question their own, initially sympathetic perception of Walt. The series subverts the notion of the cancer patient made noble through struggle by portraying a man betrayed by his own body who then becomes willing to betray everything else in the amoral service of his pride.     

Names and naming: Instances from the ORU-IGBO

Conclusion People have many names. But, changing one's name is no small thing. It can signify a major step in life or an embarrassing story, as in the last case.A person has a complex individual identity. His collective identity is clear from the moment he is conceived. He is one with a body of people, his kinsmen, who share one common ancestor and through him access to land and resources. The continuation of this group and its name is perpetuated through paternal descent.Kingroup membership ensures a person's place in life, his right to exist, eat, live and enjoy. But, who is he, apart from being a kinsman? Which kinsman is he? How are people going to interact with him? His individual identity will become clear through time. He is a re-incarnation of ancestor x. The circumstances of his birth were such. He behaves like this. He has these personal traits. This has happened to him. He has achieved that. There is no permanent role attached to an individual. He is neither bound to class nor caste. He is dynamic and changes constantly. His life is one of achievement, constant striving and upward mobility till death — when it all begins again. His name signals his state of being in time and existence.Sabine Jell-Bahlsen is an anthropologist and filmmaker.     

Scientia sexualis versus ars erotica: Foucault, van Gulik, Needham

This paper begins with a discussion of the scientia sexualis/ars erotica distinction, which Foucault first advances in History of Sexuality Vol. 1, and which has been employed by many scholars to do a variety of analytical work. Though Foucault has expressed his doubts regarding his conceptualization of the differences between Western and Eastern discourses of desire, he never entirely disowns the distinction. In fact, Foucault remains convinced that China must have an ars erotica. I will explore Foucault’s sources of authority. To this end, I introduce the work of famous Dutch sinologist Robert Hans van Gulik, who published the tremendously influential Sexual Life in Ancient China in 1961, and also explore Joseph Needham’s view on Chinese sex. I argue that, Foucault, in his fierce polemic against the “Repressive Hypothesis”, himself imagined a utopian Other where pleasure and desire were organised differently. I end on a discuss on Orientalism and the project of “Sinography” of comparative literature scholars Haun Saussy, Eric Hayot and others.     

Age and sexual assault during robberies

We use data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System to examine the effects of offender and victim age on whether male offenders commit sexual assault while robbing women. Restricting analyses to robberies reveals the offenders' age preferences since it allows one to control for the effects of opportunity. We find that robbers of all ages are most likely to sexually assault women at ages 15-29 years, ages when their reproductive potential is highest. However, in contrast to the idea that rape is a direct adaptation, victims are no more likely to be raped than sexually assaulted at these ages. The age of the offender is also a strong predictor of sexual assault. The likelihood that a robber commits a sexual assault increases from age 12 years until he reaches his early thirties when it begins to decline. This age pattern corresponds, to some extent, to age differences in the male sex drive.     

Psoriasis in Childhood

Psoriasis beginning in childhood is more common in girls than in boys, and commonly other members of the patient''s family also have the disease. When it begins in childhood, the course of the disease is generally more severe than when it begins in adult life. It is important to avoid therapy or trauma that will aggravate the course of the disease. Care should be taken to fully educate the psoriatic patient and his family.     

The possibility of sex and nymph discrimination by the male cockroach,Nauphoeta cinerea

The possibility of sex and nymph discrimination by males was investigated in the cockroach,Nauphoeta cinerea (Olivier). A sexually mature male takes a courting position toward a sexually mature female when he comes into contact with her and recognizes her through antennal contact. In contrast, males often behave aggressively toward each other: they bite at each others; wings and/or legs, chase each other and antennate mutually. The male, however, does not show conspicuous behavior (mating behavior or aggressive behavior) toward nearby nymphs. The male produces audible sounds when he courts a sexually mature but non-receptive female who does not respond to his courtship behavior. We found that the male also stridulates after he repeatedly courts immature teneral females, males and (last-instar) nymphs. After the bodies of teneral insects are sclerotized, the male shows courship and stridulation behavior toward sexually mature but non-receptive females but not toward mature males and nymphs. At this stage the male begins to behave aggressively toward other post-teneral mature males. We think that the variability of the sexually mature male's behavior toward other conspecifics (courtship behavior toward female, aggressive behavior toward male and no conspicuous response toward nymph) results from the male's recognition of adult and nymph.     

Elihu Yale and the medicine he promoted: the government general hospital and Madras Medical College, India

Much has been written about the philanthropist Elihu Yale and his life in the Americas and England, where he spent his beginnings and end. Less publicized is his life in India, where he spent the majority of his adult life and where he raised his family. A major contribution of Elihu Yale to medicine in India was his promotion of a local hospital in the major Indian trading port city of Madras. This essay briefly describes the history of that hospital and the medical college that grew out of it.     

Osler and the Jewish people

In his writings and actions, Sir William Osler betrayed no evidence of anti-Semitism. In his era, this trait was unusual. Two of his articles, "Letter from Berlin" and "Israel and medicine," dealt directly with his thoughts on the Jewish people. In both he spoke out against anti-Semitism. Osler had friendships with Jewish colleagues--an example is the great regard in which he held US pediatrician Dr. Abraham Jacobi. Osler was not a saint, and he had his "rough side," but in his relationships with Jewish colleagues his example remains relevant.     

Thomas Hunt Morgan as an Embryologist: The View from Bryn Mawr

Thomas Hunt Morgan taught at Bryn Mawr College from 1891 until1904. During his years there he concentrated his research interestson embryology; he included regeneration as an integral partof development. This article maintains that Morgan did not abandonhis interest in embryology when he became a geneticist at Columbia,but it deals mainly with his teaching and research while atBryn Mawr. He worked on the development of a great diversityof organisms, plant and animal, he used widely differing experimentalmethods to investigate them, and he concerned himself with manydifferent general and special problems. He strove to investigateproblems that were directly soluble by experimental intervention,and was highly critical, in the best possible way, of the experimentsand interpretations made by his contemporaries, who regardedhim as a leader. He exerted his influence on developmental biologynot only through his research, but also through a number offine textbooks, and by his teaching. During his Bryn Mawr yearshe encouraged his students, undergraduate and graduate, to carryout independent research. He sometimes published with them asco-author, but dozens of articles by his students were publishedwithout carrying Morgan's name as co-author.     

XLVII.—Obituary

C harles B ygrave W harton , whose death we mentioned in our last number, was the second son of the late Rev. H. J. Wharton, Vicar of Mitcham, Surrey, and elder brother of the late H. T. Wharton (see 'Ibis,' 1896, p. 159). In early life he took an active interest in bird-life, and during a residence in New Zealand, where he took part in the campaign against the Maoris in 1868, he made, though he never published, many notes on ornithology. From September 1874 to May 1875 he lived in Corsica, and on his return he contributed to this journal (Ibis, 1876, pp. 17–29) a paper containing remarks on 113 species of birds obtained or identified in that island. Thence he proceeded to Vannes, in Brittany, which he made his headquarters for exploring Belle Ile and the neighbouring islets in search of the Roseate Tern, and, though unsuccessful, he undoubtedly deserved success. Subsequently he made excursions—chiefly in spring, for he was a keen birds'-nester—to the valley of the Seine and some of the forests of Normandy, to Holland, and to the Hebrides & c. in Great Britain. At his home at Hounsdown, near Totton, Hants, on the borders of the New Forest, he continued to study birds up to the close of his life, and his garden was well stocked with nesting-boxes, at which he could observe at leisure the habits of his feathered favourites. He wrote little, but he was emphatically a field-naturalist.     

Tschermak: a non-discoverer of mendelism. II. A critique

An examination of Tschermak's two papers of 1900 not only reinforces our conclusion cited in our first paper on Tschermak that he was not a rediscoverer of Mendelism, but also he did not understand Mendel when he had read it. His concept of dominance differed from that of Mendel, and his use of his own concept is inconsistent and contradictory. His discussion of his backcross data indicated that he had no idea of the nature of Mendelian ratios. Nowhere did he develop the ideas of segregation and independent assortment.     

Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden as Naturalist

SYNOPSIS. Like most American naturalists born during the firsthalf of the nineteenth century, Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (1829–1887)was fascinated with all living creatures from boyhood, and,like many others, he enriched his early proclivities by studyingmedicine. He worked in Cleveland under J. P. Kirtland and thenin Albany, where he came under the tutelage of James Hall, ofthe Geological Survey of New York. Hall sent him on his firstcollecting trip in the summer of 1853. Showing the independencefor which he became famous, Hayden broke with Hall, however,and with the encouragement of S. F. Baird, and partial sponsorshipfrom the Smithsonian Institution, he spent the remainder ofthe 1850s on a series of exploring and collecting expeditionsto the Upper Missouri River. During the 1860s and 1870s he gainedrenown as a geologist, in particular as director of the Surveyof the Territories, but he never lost his broader interestsin natural history. Both his writings and the unique collectionshe himself made illustrate his catholic curiosity. More importantto natural history were the voluminous publications he sponsoredthrough his Survey, which stimulated specialized research onan encyclopedic range of subjects.     

Hugh Ross's curious lymphocyte experiments

It is now almost 100 years since Hugh Campbell Ross began his experiments on white blood cells and cancer. By suspending peripheral blood cells in a solution of agar gel, he was able to observe changes in them provoked by various natural and artificial substances, which he named auxetics, kinetics, or augmentors, depending on the effects they produced. After his early experience he focused his attention particularly on lymphocytes in peripheral blood samples; he claimed to have observed rapid division in them, although at that time they were looked upon as end cells without a future. He contended that his results challenged what had become the orthodox view of the role of the nucleus in mitosis, asserting that cytologists had been led astray by relying on examination of fixed, dead structures. When doubt was cast on his claim to have induced cell division, his brother Ronald, Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine, came to his defense, but to no avail, and although he continued his experiments for a number of years they were quietly forgotten. Fifty years later the occurrence of mitotic division of peripheral blood lymphocytes was established beyond any doubt by Nowell and Hirschhorn.     

Prison became second home for psychiatrist (George Scott).

Retired prison psychiatrist George Scott recalls his career working in Canada''s penal system, including his peacemaking role in a hostage-taking incident and his work with Steven Truscott. Life "inside" is dangerous for guards, inmates, staff and psychiatrists, he says, but he never regretted his decision to devote his career to studying criminal behaviour.     

The Development of Motor Acts with Objects in the Preschool Child

Through the influence of his educative environment, the preschool child gradually learns to subjugate his actions to voluntary control. When the child has developed so far that he is able (at least partially) consciously to subordinate his actions to a specific goal, we can say that he has made an important step toward consciously assimilating the knowledge and complex skills he learns in school.     

Neuroscience was not even a word: an interview with Floyd Bloom

Floyd Bloom says that he grew up, surrounded by doctors and pills, in a drug store in Dallas, where his father and uncles were pharmacists. He is a natural storyteller, readily recalling the people and events that have shaped his career. His narrative skills were apparent as early as high school, where he was encouraged, partially on the basis of aptitude tests, to pursue a career in journalism or public relations, and to stay away from hard subjects like math and science. In college, he majored in German literature, although he pursued premedical studies in accordance with his father's wishes. During his medical school and residency experiences in St. Louis, he recounts, he always attempted to carry in his mind an organized way of explaining his academic and clinical activities to the professors and attending physicians that might quiz him. His subsequent research into the central nervous system similarly benefited from his ability not only to anticipate and formulate questions, the answers to which often required the development of new methods, technologies, and alliances, but also to place his findings in novel contexts where they could be conceptually appreciated and utilized. The prospect of telling good scientific stories was one of the factors that later drew Bloom to the position of Editor-in-Chief of Science magazine (1995-2000). While there, he was instrumental in widening the contexts in which the magazine presents science, and in shaping the ways that scientific information is electronically disseminated across the globe. Currently on sabbatical from Scripps, Floyd Bloom continues to explore, as CEO of a startup company in La Jolla, the entrepreneurial contexts in which his own research can be applied.