scholarly journals ENDOCRINE HISTORY: The history of discovery, synthesis and development of testosterone for clinical use

2019 ◽  
Vol 180 (6) ◽  
pp. R201-R212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eberhard Nieschlag ◽  
Susan Nieschlag

As the most important male hormone, testosterone has an impact on almost all organs and body functions. The biological effects of testosterone and the testes have been known since antiquity, long before testosterone was identified as the active agent. Practical applications of this knowledge were castration of males to produce obedient servants, for punishment, for preservation of the prepubertal soprano voice and even for treatment of diseases. Testes were used in organotherapy and transplanted as treatment for symptoms of hypogonadism on a large scale, although these practices had only placebo effects. In reaction to such malpractice in the first half of the 20th century science and the young pharmaceutical industry initiated the search for the male hormone. After several detours together with their teams in 1935, Ernst Laqueur (Amsterdam) isolated and Adolf Butenandt (Gdansk) as well as Leopold Ruzicka (Zürich) synthesized testosterone. Since then testosterone has been available for clinical use. However, when given orally, testosterone is inactivated in the liver, so that parenteral forms of administration or modifications of the molecule had to be found. Over 85 years the testosterone preparations have been slowly improved so that now physiological serum levels can be achieved.

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1888) ◽  
pp. 20181314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Christina Miller ◽  
Kenji T. Hayashi ◽  
Dongyuan Song ◽  
John J. Wiens

For most marine organisms, species richness peaks in the Central Indo-Pacific region and declines longitudinally, a striking pattern that remains poorly understood. Here, we used phylogenetic approaches to address the causes of richness patterns among global marine regions, comparing the relative importance of colonization time, number of colonization events, and diversification rates (speciation minus extinction). We estimated regional richness using distributional data for almost all percomorph fishes (17 435 species total, including approximately 72% of all marine fishes and approximately 33% of all freshwater fishes). The high diversity of the Central Indo-Pacific was explained by its colonization by many lineages 5.3–34 million years ago. These relatively old colonizations allowed more time for richness to build up through in situ diversification compared to other warm-marine regions. Surprisingly, diversification rates were decoupled from marine richness patterns, with clades in low-richness cold-marine habitats having the highest rates. Unlike marine richness, freshwater diversity was largely derived from a few ancient colonizations, coupled with high diversification rates. Our results are congruent with the geological history of the marine tropics, and thus may apply to many other organisms. Beyond marine biogeography, we add to the growing number of cases where colonization and time-for-speciation explain large-scale richness patterns instead of diversification rates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel V. Jimenez ◽  
Alexander J. Szalai

In the blood of healthy individuals C-reactive protein (CRP) is typically quite scarce, whereas its blood concentration can rise robustly and rapidly in response to tissue damage and inflammation associated with trauma and infectious and non-infectious diseases. Consequently, CRP plasma or serum levels are routinely monitored in inpatients to gauge the severity of their initial illness and injury and their subsequent response to therapy and return to health. Its clinical utility as a faithful barometer of inflammation notwithstanding, it is often wrongly concluded that the biological actions of CRP (whatever they may be) are manifested only when blood CRP is elevated. In fact over the last decades, studies done in humans and animals (e.g. human CRP transgenic and CRP knockout mice) have shown that CRP is an important mediator of biological activities even in the absence of significant blood elevation, i.e. even at baseline levels. In this review we briefly recap the history of CRP, including a description of its discovery, early clinical use, and biosynthesis at baseline and during the acute phase response. Next we overview evidence that we and others have generated using animal models of arthritis, neointimal hyperplasia, and acute kidney injury that baseline CRP exerts important biological effects. In closing we discuss the possibility that therapeutic lowering of baseline CRP might be a useful way to treat certain diseases, including cancer.


Author(s):  
Y. M. Cho

The electroweak monopole in the standard model, the existence, characteristic features, cosmological production and physical implications are discussed. The discovery of the Higgs particle has been thought to be the ‘final’ test of the standard model. If the standard model is correct, however, it must have the electroweak monopole as the electroweak generalization of the Dirac monopole. This means that the detection of this monopole should become the final and topological test of the standard model. If detected, it becomes the first magnetically charged and stable topological elementary particle in the history of physics. Moreover, it has deep implications in physics. In cosmology, it could generate the primordial magnetic black holes which could explain the dark matter, become the seed of the large-scale structures of the universe, and be the source of the intergalactic magnetic field. Just as importantly, it could generate the hitherto unknown magnetic current which could have huge practical applications. Furthermore, the existence of the monopole requires us to reformulate the perturbative expansion in quantum field theory. This makes the detection of the electroweak monopole a most urgent issue. We discuss useful tips for the MoEDAL detector at LHC and similar experiments on how to detect the monopole successfully. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Topological avatars of new physics’.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1228-1240
Author(s):  
Vitaly G. Ananiev ◽  

The revolutions of 1917 prompted a large-scale reorganization of almost all aspects of life in Russia. An important actor in its implementation was intelligentsia. Studying the biographies of the participants in that processes is important for two reasons. Firstly, it allows us to fill the gaps in the history of certain phenomena (i.e., the history of museum education in Russia). Secondly, it’s important from the point of view of prosopography, as biographies help a better understanding of certain historical types. That is important in the context of the anthropological approach to the study of revolutionary events. The object of this article is the biography of one of the personalities of the first post-revolutionary years, Nikolai Emmanuilovich Soum (1879–1926). Studying chemistry at St. Petersburg University in the 1890s–1900s, Soum to a great extent followed the path laid by his father's professional activities. However, he didn’t succeed in accomplishing his studies, perhaps on the account of his father’s death and failed family finances. In the 1910s, when working as a chemist, he joined in the activities of scientific and educational societies. The enlightenment pathos and practical application of science (his interest in photography) prepared the changes, which took place immediately after the revolution. Since 1918 Soum served in the Petrograd gubernia department of public education, and from 1919 headed the Museum department of the Petrograd Institute of Out-of-School Education. One of his first projects was system of training of museum workers, one of the first in Russia. Structural changes and unfavorable political conditions hindered the implementation of the initiative. Soum, same as earlier in the pre-revolutionary period, was pushed to the periphery of cultural life.


2017 ◽  
pp. 63-69
Author(s):  
Tatiana Nugmanova

Russian biopreparations cover almost all aspects of the problem of growing plants. The history of development and implementation of industrial large-scale production of biopreparations in Russia goes back more than 40 years. Biopreparations have a purposeful action and are divided into the following main types: bioinsecticides, biofungicides, biofertilizers, immunomodulators and regulators of plant growth and development, as well as land-fertilizing biopreparations. The variety of Russian biopreparations can fully ensure the implementation of the potential varietal properties of agricultural plants, minimize damage from adverse weather conditions, reduce the cost of chemicals, restore soil humus and obtain environmentally friendly food.


Bibliosphere ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 85-90
Author(s):  
I. I. Komarova ◽  
A. L. Tretyakov

Studying the architectural science bibliography has shown that during 150 years of its history few indices have been created, and recent decades almost all architectural bibliography has not gone beyond the framework of the nation-wide index «Chronicles of Book Chamber». This article examines the fundamental nature of bibliographic science for purposes of architectural research. The article objective is determining ways of architectural bibliography development and generating a unified database of architectural knowledge in the context of contemporary socio-economic and socio-cultural realities. It considers defended dissertations on specialty «Architecture»; describes information resources containing in their thesis structure on the subject area. Attention is focused on the distribution of defended dissertations by years, cities and thematic nests. The paper has revealed thesis devoted to the theory and history of foreign architecture. It emphasizes the need of further large-scale research with an analysis of the entire spectrum of human knowledge, which includes dissertations related to architectural science. The authors conclude: 1. There is no complete systematically presented unified catalog of dissertations on architecture, including resources of the Russian Book Chamber. 2. It is necessary to create such resource, which would satisfy the information needs of different groups of users.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miklos Szocska ◽  
Peter Pollner ◽  
Istvan Schiszler ◽  
Tamas Joo ◽  
Tamas Palicz ◽  
...  

AbstractMobile phones have been used to monitor mobility changes during the COVID-19 pandemic but surprisingly few studies addressed in detail the implementation of practical applications involving whole populations. We report a method of generating a “mobility-index” and a “stay-at-home/resting-index” based on aggregated anonymous Call Detail Records of almost all subscribers in Hungary, which tracks all phones, examining their strengths and weaknesses, comparing it with Community Mobility Reports from Google, limited to smartphone data. The impact of policy changes, such as school closures, could be identified with sufficient granularity to capture a rush to shops prior to imposition of restrictions. Anecdotal reports of large scale movement of Hungarians to holiday homes were confirmed. At the national level, our results correlated well with Google mobility data, but there were some differences at weekends and national holidays, which can be explained by methodological differences. Mobile phones offer a means to analyse population movement but there are several technical and privacy issues. Overcoming these, our method is a practical and inexpensive way forward, achieving high levels of accuracy and resolution, especially where uptake of smartphones is modest, although it is not an alternative to smartphone-based solutions used for contact tracing and quarantine monitoring.


1996 ◽  
pp. 4-15
Author(s):  
S. Golovaschenko ◽  
Petro Kosuha

The report is based on the first results of the study "The History of the Evangelical Christians-Baptists in Ukraine", carried out in 1994-1996 by the joint efforts of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Odessa Theological Seminary of Evangelical Christian Baptists. A large-scale description and research of archival sources on the history of evangelical movements in our country gave the first experience of fruitful cooperation between secular and church researchers.


Moreana ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (Number 164) (4) ◽  
pp. 187-206
Author(s):  
Clare M. Murphy

The Thomas More Society of Buenos Aires begins or ends almost all its events by reciting in both English and Spanish a prayer written by More in the margins of his Book of Hours probably while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. After a short history of what is called Thomas More’s Prayer Book, the author studies the prayer as a poem written in the form of a psalm according to the structure of Hebrew poetry, and looks at the poem’s content as a psalm of lament.


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