Rice Research： Past, Present and Future

Rice （Oryza sativa L.） is a major crop in the world and provides the staple food for over half of the world＇s population. From thousands of years of cultivation and breeding to recent genomics, rice has been the focus of agriculture and plant research.     

Protein–Protein Docking: Past,Present, and Future

The Protein Journal - The biological significance of proteins attracted the scientific community in exploring their characteristics. The studies shed light on the interaction patterns and functions...     

Russia–UK Collaboration in Paleontology: Past,Present, and Future

There is a long history of collaboration between Russia and the United Kingdom in paleontology. This began, arguably, in 1821, with the seminal work by William Fox-Strangways, who produced a geological map of the area around St Petersburg. Most famously, Roderick Murchison carried out extensive surveying and observations throughout European Russia in 1840 and 1841, and published a major monograph on geology and paleontology of European Russia in 1845. Since then, and continuing today, there have been many fruitful collaborations on Precambrian life, Paleozoic marine organisms, terrestrialization of plants and vertebrates, the Permian–Triassic mass extinction, fossil mammals, human evolution, and conservation paleobiology.     

PSYCHOSURGERY—Present Indications and Future Prospects

Although the advent and widespread use of ataractic drugs has more or less eclipsed lobotomy as a method of dealing with severe psychotic states, variations and adaptations of the operation still can be used with benefit in certain pretty well defined circumstances.“Chemical lobotomy” and regressive electroshock bring about alterations in behavior superficially resembling those of lobotomy, but without the changes in personality that are the object of lobotomy. These desirable changes consist in increased extraversion, decreased preoccupation with self and decreased sensitivity to the opinions of others. With restricted operations, undesirable changes—the “frontal lobe syndrome”—do not occur.Operative failures are due to three main causes: (a) Preoperative emotional deterioration; (b) progress of the underlying disease; (c) relapse, possibly due to inadequate operation.Lobotomy is advisable if the patient does not show sustained improvement after a year of active treatment by other indicated means. The operation often represents the turning point in effective treatment. After the first year of ineffective treatment valuable time is being lost, with danger of fixation and deterioration. Then it is safer to operate than to wait.The future of psychosurgery lies in prompt application, in favorable patients, of selective operations that will reverse the trend of illness.There is particular need for further exploration of the temporal lobes in the hope of finding some procedure that will suppress hallucinations. Some 90 per cent of patients remaining in hospitals after psychosurgery are experiencing hallucinations. If these phenomena can be eliminated without producing serious personality defects, another large field for the application of psychosurgery will be opened.     

The Special Orthopedic Hospital—Past and Present

Pioneer orthopedic institutions established in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and in the U.S.A. in the second half of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century, can trace their ancestry in ideas back to the practice and teachings of Hippocrates. Experience in treatment of great numbers of injured soldiers in the First World War opened a new era in reconstructive surgery of the locomotor system.After the Second World War, in advanced nations the pattern of crippling diseases showed a spectacular change. Problems that justify the existence of large special orthopedic hospitals are, in children, the more complex congenital deformities, cerebral palsies, and the increasing number of injuries due to hazards of modern life; in the adult, the reconstructive surgery of trauma and of arthritis.In modern orthopedic hospitals physicians have joined orthopedic surgeons in the study of the natural history of the various forms of arthritis. These centres provide facilities for biomechanical research and postgraduate training which acute general hospitals cannot offer.     

Huntington’s Disease: The Past,Present, and Future Search for Disease Modifiers

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder thatspecifically causes neurodegeneration of striatal neurons, resulting in a triadof symptoms that includes emotional, cognitive, and motor disturbances. The HDmutation causes a polyglutamine repeat expansion within the N-terminal of thehuntingtin (Htt) protein. This expansion causes aggregate formation within thecytosol and nucleus due to the presence of misfolded mutant Htt, as well asaltered interactions with Htt’s multiple binding partners, and changes inpost-translational Htt modifications. The present review charts efforts toward atherapy that delays age of onset or slows symptom progression in patientsaffected by HD, as there is currently no effective treatment. Although silencingHtt expression appears promising as a disease modifying treatment, it should beattempted with caution in light of Htt’s essential roles in neural maintenanceand development. Other therapeutic targets include those that boost aggregatedissolution, target excitotoxicity and metabolic issues, and supplement growthfactors.     

IAEA/NUS Distance Learning Diploma Training Course for Tissue Bank Operators – Past, Present and Future

National University Hospital (NUH) Tissue Bank as the Regional Training Centre for Asia Pacific Region provided National University of Singapore (NUS) Diploma Course in Tissue Banking - a long distance diploma course since 1997. To date, five batches have participated - 94 tissue bank operators. Sixty-three tissue bank operators have convocated with NUS Diploma in Tissue Banking.From Regional Co-operative Agreement (RCA) Project, RAS 7/008 technology transfer was effected to Latin America and to Africa.A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and NUS in July 2002 making Singapore the International Training Centre. An Internet NUS Diploma Course in Tissue Banking has been developed by IAEA and NUS. The first on-line diploma course will be launched in 2003.     

Agroforestry and Biodiversity Conservation – Traditional Practices, Present Dynamics, and Lessons for the Future

The environmental services that agroforestry practices can provide, and especially their potential contribution to the conservation of biodiversity, have only recently attracted wider attention among agroforestry and conservation scientists. This new view is consistent with the ecosystem approach to natural resource management advocated by the Convention on Biological Diversity. This collection of six papers, which is based on a Workshop held in June–July 2004, brings together studies of biodiversity impacts of traditional agroforestry practices from Central and South America, Africa and Asia. The contributions highlight the considerable potential of traditional agroforestry practices to support biodiversity conservation, but also show their limits. These include the importance of sufficient areas of natural habitat and of appropriate hunting regulations for maintaining high levels of biodiversity in agroforestry land use mosaics, as well as the critical role of markets for tree products and of a favourable policy environment for agroforestry land uses. In combination the case studies suggest that maintaining diversity in approaches to management of agroforestry systems, along with a pragmatic, undogmatic view on natural resource management, will provide the widest range of options for adapting to changing land use conditions.