A Brief on Biological Thermodynamics for Human Physiology

2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhijit Dutta ◽  
Himadri Chattopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Human Physiology ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Biological Systems ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Cardiovascular Systems ◽  
Bio Engineering

Abstract Thermodynamics, the science of energy interactions, governs the direction of processes found in nature. While the subject finds wide applications in science and technology, its connection to biological sciences and in particular to bio-engineering is becoming increasingly important. In this work, after a brief introduction to the fundamental concepts in thermodynamics, we focus on its application in human physiology. A review of application of thermodynamics to the interaction between human body and environment is presented. Research works on biological systems such as the nervous system and the cardiovascular systems are summarized. The thermodynamics of metabolism is reviewed, and finally, the role of the subject in understanding and combating diseases is highlighted.

Mission and challenges of polymer science and technology

2003 ◽  
Vol 75 (10) ◽  
pp. 1359-1369 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Stepto ◽  
K. Horie ◽  
T. Kitayama ◽  
Akihiro Abe
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Panel Discussion ◽  
Polymer Science ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject

Following the first IUPAC Polymer Conference on the Mission and Challenges of Polymer Science and Technology (IUPAC PC2002), this article highlights and summarizes the historical development of polymer science and technology and the recent advances that have occurred and are occurring in the subject. It highlights the mission and challenges for the future, particularly as reflected in the papers presented at the conference and in the con- ference’s concluding panel discussion. The important role of IUPAC in defining and leading developments in polymer science and technology is also described. The central role of polymer science and technology and its close interactions with chemical, physical, and biological sciences are defined and discussed. The 21st century is shown to be the Age of Polymers.

scholarly journals The emerging role of mechanical and topographical factors in the development and treatment of nervous system disorders: dark and light sides of the force

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Bryniarska-Kubiak ◽  
Andrzej Kubiak ◽  
Małgorzata Lekka ◽  
Agnieszka Basta-Kaim
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Physical Factors ◽  
Nervous System Diseases ◽  
Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
System Disease ◽  
New Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Topographical Factors ◽  
New Treatment

AbstractNervous system diseases are the subject of intensive research due to their association with high mortality rates and their potential to cause irreversible disability. Most studies focus on targeting the biological factors related to disease pathogenesis, e.g. use of recombinant activator of plasminogen in the treatment of stroke. Nevertheless, multiple diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease still lack successful treatment. Recently, evidence has indicated that physical factors such as the mechanical properties of cells and tissue and topography play a crucial role in homeostasis as well as disease progression. This review aims to depict these factors’ roles in the progression of nervous system diseases and consequently discusses the possibility of new therapeutic approaches. The literature is reviewed to provide a deeper understanding of the roles played by physical factors in nervous system disease development to aid in the design of promising new treatment approaches. Graphic abstract

scholarly journals The Role of Vitamin D in Neurodegeneration and Other Pathological Processes of the Central Nervous System

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Nikolaus Homann
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Vitamin D ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Serum Levels ◽  
Nerve Cells ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Measured Response

The nervous system is the most complex organ in the human body, and it is the most essential. However nerve cells are particularly precious as, only like muscle cells, once formed, they do not replicate. This means that neural injuries cannot easily be replaced or repaired. Vitamin D seems to play a pivotal role in protecting these vulnerable and most important structures, but exactly how and to what extend is still subject to debate. Systematically reviewing the vast body of research on the influence of Vitamin D in various neuropathological processes, we found that Vitamin D particularly plays a mitigating role in the development of chronic neurodegeneration and the measured response to acutely acquired traumatic and non-traumatic nerve cells incidents. Adequate serum levels of Vitamin D before the initiation of these processes is increasingly viewed as being neuroprotective. However, comprehensive data on using it as a treatment during the ongoing process or after the injury to neurons is completed are much more ambiguous. A recommendation for testing and supplementation of insufficiencies seems to be well-founded.

Lessons Learned From Dopamine b-Hydroxylase Deficiency in Humans

Physiology ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Gary ◽  
D Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Human Physiology ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
System Identification ◽  
Peripheral Nervous System ◽  
Genetic Disorder ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Hydroxylase Deficiency ◽  
Physiological Disorder

Dopamine b-hydroxylase deficiency is a genetic disorder in which affected patients cannot synthesize norepinephrine and epinephrine, in either the central or peripheral nervous system. Identification and treatment of this novel human physiological disorder will continue to lead to better understanding of the role of catecholamines in human physiology.

The Cosmology of ‘Hippocrates’, De Hebdomadibus

1971 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. L. West
Keyword(s):  
Human Physiology ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Hippocratic Corpus ◽  
The World ◽  
Physical Composition ◽  
The Subject

Several of the treatises and lectures that make up the Hippocratic corpus begin with more or less extended statements about the physical composition and operation of the world at large, and approach the study of human physiology from this angle. We see this, for example, in De Natwra Hominis, De Flatibus, De Carnibus, De Victu; it was the approach of Alcmaeon of Croton, Diogenes of Apollonia, and according to Plato (Phaedr. 270 c) of Hippocrates himself.The work known as De Hebdomadibus would appear to be a prime example of the type. The first twelve chapters are cosmological. They are dominated by two ideas: that everything in nature is arranged in groups of seven, and that the human body is constructed on the same pattern as the whole world. In the later part of the book (13–52) we pass to the subject of fevers, their causation and treatment. But as Roscher observed, the cosmology and the pathology do not belong together.

Court and controversy: patenting science in the nineteenth century

1996 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Lucier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Institute ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Subject

In the autumn of 1851, on the occasion of the American Institute of New York's annual fair, the Boston chemist and geologist Charles Jackson chose as the subject of his address the ‘Encouragement and Cultivation of the Sciences in the United States’. Playing on popular enthusiasm for science and technology, Jackson rehearsed the wondrous progress of the arts and the role of science in that progress. Science was the ‘Hand-maiden of the Arts’, and most assuredly the ‘maid of honor’, he declared, for science was the ‘progressive power’ which inspired new inventions. These were commonplace assumptions of the time, and surely no one in his audience would have disputed them.

A Case of Syphilitic Insanity

1869 ◽  
Vol 15 (69) ◽  
pp. 119-127
Author(s):  
S. W. D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Great Care ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Brain

Although from an early period of medical enquiry syphilis has been known to affect, more or less seriously, the whole system, it is only within the last decade that attempts have been made, chiefly by foreign pathologists, to demonstrate that this fatal virus does not confine its ravages to the coarser structures of the human body; but that the delicate tissue of the nervous system may be alike destroyed, and the mind's balance unhinged, by its direful effects. MM. le Dr. Leon Gros et E. Lancereaux in a work, Des Affections Nerveuses Syphilitiques, published in Paris, in 1861, have with great care collected a mass of observations from different quarters, but have not added much to our knowledge in defining the symptoms which accrue from syphilitic disease of the brain and its membranes. Indeed the confusion and uncertainty which prevail in this path of pathology are so great, and the subject itself is of such paramount importance, that any cases at all authenticated bearing on this point ought surely to be recorded.

scholarly journals Agroecology for Food and Water Security in Times of Climate Consciousness: A Bibliometric Analysis of Peer-Reviewed Literature Published from 1990 to 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5064
Author(s):  
Tavseef Mairaj Shah ◽  
Sumbal Tasawwar ◽  
Ralf Otterpohl
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Published Research

The discrepancies in our food systems have become more pronounced in the last couple of years due to natural disasters of huge magnitude and the current pandemic, that have served to make them visible to a wider range of population. As a result, a shift to agroecological food and farming systems is currently being advocated at different levels. An agroecological approach to food systems involves consideration of all their interactions with the major challenges of our time—food security, water scarcity, climate change, socioeconomic disparity. This paper presents a bibliometric study of peer reviewed literature about the role of agroecology in relation to either or all of these challenges, published between 1990 and 2020. 1990 was the year in which IPCC published its first assessment report that set into motion many framework agreements and protocols regarding climate change. In 2019 and 2020, IPBES and iPES-Food released separate reports advocating an urgent agricultural transition based on agroecological methodologies. There has been an exponential increase in the published research in this field in this time period, whereas an overwhelming majority of the publications were filed under the subject areas of agricultural and biological sciences, environmental sciences, and social sciences. In addition to the increasing acceptance of the role of agroecology to address the challenges of our times, the results of this analysis point to the cross-cutting nature of issues agroecology caters to.

scholarly journals The role of ‘Teknikåttan’– a competition aimed at increasing interest in science and technology for grade 8 students.

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-217
Author(s):  
Lena Gumaelius ◽  
Tanja Kramer Nymark
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
School Year ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Grade 8

Since 1993, Swedish technical universities have engaged 15-year-old students and their teachers in the annual tournament “Teknikåttan” (technology for students in school year eight), which is aimed at increasing students’ interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, as well as at making them aware of career possibilities within these areas. Given its large number of participating students, Teknikåttan offers a unique opportunity to study students’ understanding of and interest in STEM subjects by analysing the results collected for the participating students. This paper gives a description of the Teknikåttan tournament and presents an analysis of the results from the first round of the 2014 tournament. The data collected came from the answers of students in the Stockholm region. All questions were characterised according to three parameters, which were used to analyse answers to high-score and low-score questions and differences in answers according to gender. The analysis indicates that a difference exists in answers according to gender, such that boys scored higher than girls overall, but that girls scored higher in questions related to the subject of biology. Finally, a possible expansion of the analysis involving future tournaments is discussed.

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