scholarly journals The The paradox of contemporary Medicine

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-13
Author(s):  
Florindo Pirone

In the medical field, between the end of the 19th century and the half of last century, great results were obtained in the discovery of the causes (microbial agents) and cures (antibiotics) of infectious diseases, which in the previous centuries had determined catastrophic epidemics. The successes of this model of disease led to apply it in the cases of other pathologies including cardiovascular, respiratory and oncological ones. Despite the great effort during the following years, with all the innovations both in diagnostic field (sophisticated lab and instrumental tests) and in therapies (the development of numerous heart and circulatory drugs or against neoplasia), improvements have been proportionally less impressive. Compared to the first half of last century, 27 years of life have been gained, from an average life span of 55 years to 81 for men and 84 for women. The 17-year gain has been possible thanks to the decisive action on the infectious diseases, whereas the intervention on heart diseases led to a gain of 7 years of life, and that on the neoplastic ones resulted in a gain of 3/4 years. This discrepancy depends on several reasons, among which a fundamental one is the difference between the models of the infectious disease and other pathologies: the first ones are characterized by only one agent attacking the organism in a short time and can be eliminated only by one drug (the antibiotic), used for a short time as well; in the case of other diseases, the pathogens are multifactorial, the damaging actions take place over many years and possible therapies must be multiple and performed over a long period of time. There has been a shift from a simple to a complex issue, to the extent that some believe that only new technologies of artificial intelligence (AI) will be able to offer effective remedies. If we add to all this the idea that for several reasons, both socio-cultural and inherent to this discipline, Medicine has been taking on more and more reductionism and detached stands, one might understand the current perceptive paradox We have never been better, we have never felt so bad. Thus, it has become necessary to meditate upon these topics in order to better understand the real problems and possible solutions to the benefit of that essential good for everyone, our health.

Author(s):  
Anna Luhovska

The article describes the stages of formation and the main reasons for the transformation of the current art institutional system. Its characteristics, conventional to Europe at the end of the 18th century, became common to most countries by the second half of the 19th century. Globalization processes that accompany the entire history of the previous century are the key factor of the rapid changes in society, including the art sphere. The role of global economic changes with the orientation on the society of consumption, on the growing importance of art market, commercialization of culture in general, emergence of new technologies and changes in attitudes to contemporary art in all its manifestations were observed. The reasons for shifting the emphasis and rethinking the role of artist, curator and spectator in the modern mode of existence of art institutions were analyzed. The conditions for updating existing and new forms of art representation, as well as expanding the concept of an artwork and the difference in understanding its value in historical and commercial terms that do not always coincide, were described.


Author(s):  
P. Maupin-Szamier ◽  
T. D. Pollard

We have studied the destruction of rabbit muscle actin filaments by osmium tetroxide (OSO4) to develop methods which will preserve the structure of actin filaments during preparation for transmission electron microscopy.Negatively stained F-actin, which appears as smooth, gently curved filaments in control samples (Fig. 1a), acquire an angular, distorted profile and break into progressively shorter pieces after exposure to OSO4 (Fig. 1b,c). We followed the time course of the reaction with viscometry since it is a simple, quantitative method to assess filament integrity. The difference in rates of decay in viscosity of polymerized actin solutions after the addition of four concentrations of OSO4 is illustrated in Fig. 2. Viscometry indicated that the rate of actin filament destruction is also dependent upon temperature, buffer type, buffer concentration, and pH, and requires the continued presence of OSO4. The conditions most favorable to filament preservation are fixation in a low concentration of OSO4 for a short time at 0°C in 100mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.0.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-130
Author(s):  
Rifatun Hasanah ◽  
Setyowati Setyowati ◽  
Noor Tifauzah

Background:One of the efforts in preventing congenital food disease is by washing the cutlery perfectly. The cutlery used by patients with infectious diseases should be noted more, because it has a risk in disease transmission through cutlery. The process of washing the cutlery for infected patients in Queen Latifa Hospital use three compartement sink method with hot water, while the three compartement sink method with clorine solvent has never been tested. Purpose: Research was to determine the difference in the number of germs in the tool was washed using three compartement sink method with hot water and with clorine solvent. Method:Types of research is experiment with rancangan percobaan acak kelompok (RAK). The object of this research is 4 plates and 4 bowls. The number of experimental units in this research were 2 treatments x 2 cutlery x 2 checks x 2 reapetitions = 16 experimental units. The analysis used independent t-test with 95% confidence level. Result :The average number of germs in the cutlery washed using the three compartment sink method with hot water was 1 x 101 cfu / cm2, whereas with chlorine solvent is 0.2 cfu / cm2. Independent test t-test shows p = 0.049 which means the hypothesis is accepted. onclusion : There are differences in the number of germs in the washing cutlery using the three compartment sink method with hot water and with chlorine solvent.   Keywords: number of germs, cutlery, three compartment sink


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 126
Author(s):  
Rifatun Hasanah ◽  
Setyowati Setyowati ◽  
Noor Tifauzah

Background:One of the efforts in preventing congenital food disease is by washing the cutlery perfectly. The cutlery used by patients with infectious diseases should be noted more, because it has a risk in disease transmission through cutlery. The process of washing the cutlery for infected patients in Queen Latifa Hospital use three compartement sink method with hot water, while the three compartement sink method with clorine solvent has never been tested. Purpose: Research was to determine the difference in the number of germs in the tool was washed using three compartement sink method with hot water and with clorine solvent. Method:Types of research is experiment with rancangan percobaan acak kelompok (RAK). The object of this research is 4 plates and 4 bowls. The number of experimental units in this research were 2 treatments x 2 cutlery x 2 checks x 2 reapetitions = 16 experimental units. The analysis used independent t-test with 95% confidence level. Result :The average number of germs in the cutlery washed using the three compartment sink method with hot water was 1 x 101 cfu / cm2, whereas with chlorine solvent is 0.2 cfu / cm2. Independent test t-test shows p = 0.049 which means the hypothesis is accepted. Conclusion : There are differences in the number of germs in the washing cutlery using the three compartment sink method with hot water and with chlorine solvent.


Author(s):  
D. Shevchenko ◽  
V. Mihaylov

The article is devoted to the problems of digital transformation of companies in the service sector. The article describes the concepts of "digitization", "digitalization", "digital transformation", "automation". The analysis of the main sectors of the public services sector, the processes of transformation into a new business model of their development is carried out. Specific examples show the role of digital technologies implemented by individual companies, the leaders of their industry: "Internet of Things" (IoT); virtual diagnostics of the service; mobile applications and portals; artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI / ML); remote maintenance; UX design; virtual reality; cloud technologies; online services and others. The authors proceed from understanding the difference between automation and digitalization, the strategic goal of which is to create a new digital business model that creates new value. The result of digital transformation is the reconfiguration of processes that change the business logic of the company and the process of creating value. The article concludes that the rapid development of new technologies leads to the fact that companies face not only a dilemma when choosing the most suitable technologies for investment, but also the problem of staffing and finding an adequate organizational structure to create and maintain a new business model of the company.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Yuji Murayama ◽  
Yuki Iwai

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> This presentation discusses the regional changes quantitatively in the 200 years through the overlay analysis of the present map and the INŌ’s map made by Tadataka INO in 1821 (Figure 1). INO surveyed the coastline and major roads on foot. He investigated not only survey lines, but also various geographic information such as rivers, lakes, mountains, village names, castles, temples, administrative boundaries, etc. Visualizing all of the 214 sheets of the INŌ’s large-scale map with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we can analyse the national land condition seamlessly at the end of the Edo era.</p><p>Methodological point of view, we have serious problems including the scale, projection, identification of geographic features and so on, when we compare the old map with the present. In this connection, digitalizing the INŌ’s map as the GIS data is very useful to examine the spatial transformation scientifically during the 200 years. The digital INŌ’s map was constructed by employing the geo-reference function of GIS with the triangulation method. The survey line was converted into the line feature of vector data, and the place names were converted into the point feature of raster data. The distance of the survey line was measured by GIS-based geometric operation.</p><p>We obtained the following findings. The distributions of villages, ports, and facilities in western Japan were denser than those in eastern Japan in the 19th century. This was caused not only by the difference in natural environment and landform but also by socioeconomic factors including the locations of the castle towns and industrial activities. The regional structure has been dramatically transformed by the modernization of the political system, transportation system, and industrial development in reclaimed areas (Figure 2). It is concluded that most parts of changes in regional characteristics have been attained by overcoming the natural constraints. However, the difference in the political system has also been influential to the formation of the present regional system.</p>


Author(s):  
Dr. Pradipta Mukhopadhyay

Digital Economy refers to an economy which is based on digital computing technologies and can also be referred to as internet economy or web economy as the business activities are conducted through markets based on the internet or the World Wide Web. A Digital Economy also refers to the usage of various digitised information and knowledge to perform various economic activities and uses various new technologies like Internet, Cloud Computing, Big Data Analytics to collect, store and analyse information digitally. This way the modern digital economies are helping the local and regional business organisations to come out of their local boundaries and step into the global scenario to take advantages of the modern liberalisation policies of the governments along with reduced trade barriers throughout the world. This paper will study the importance of digital economy in the modern world along with the difference between the traditional economy and the digital economy and the current state of digital economy in India. This Study has been casual, exploratory and empirical in nature and the data needed for research work has been collected by using both direct and indirect method of data collection.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-216
Author(s):  
Pablo J. Torres Carbonell

Abstract. High-quality research developed during the 19th century established the foundations of rock strain investigations. Careful observation and description of rock fabrics and deformed objects in rocks allowed early researchers to obtain mathematical expressions that are still used today to quantify strain. Thus, in a span of a few decades, and applying basic scientific methodology, these researchers developed the concept of the strain ellipsoid, defined mathematically the difference between constant-volume and volume-loss deformation, constructed the basic equations that define pure and simple shear deformation, and discovered the mechanism of pressure–solution deformation. These advances were fundamental to seminal works on strain analysis and deformation fabrics in the mid-20th century. However, they are rarely addressed in modern studies, which suggests a lack of awareness among current researchers. In order to bring attention to these landmarks of strain research, I provide a historical review of the high standards of analysis that led to the definition of the fundamental equations and concepts on strain during the 19th century.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nhat Thanh Hoang Le ◽  
Nhan Thi Ho ◽  
Bryan Grenfell ◽  
Stephen Baker ◽  
Ronald B. Geskus

Abstract Background Infection with measles virus (MeV) causes immunosuppression and increased susceptibility to other infectious diseases. Only few studies reported a duration of immunosuppression, with varying results. We investigated the effect of immunosuppression on the incidence of hospital admissions for infectious diseases in Vietnamese children. Methods We used retrospective data (2005 to 2015; N = 4419) from the two pediatric hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We compared the age-specific incidence of hospital admission for infectious diseases before and after hospitalization for measles. We fitted a Poisson regression model that included gender, current age, and time since measles to obtain a multiplicative effect measure. Estimates were transformed to the additive scale. Results We observed two phases in the incidence of hospital admission after measles. The first phase started with a fourfold increased rate of admissions during the first month after measles, dropping to a level quite comparable to children of the same age before measles. In the second phase, lasting until at least 6 years after measles, the admission rate decreased further, with values up to 20 times lower than in children of the same age before measles. However, on the additive scale the effect size in the second phase was much smaller than in the first phase. Conclusion The first phase highlights the public health benefits of measles vaccination by preventing measles and immune amnesia. The beneficial second phase is interesting, but its strength strongly depends on the scale. It suggests a complicated interaction between MeV infection and the host immunity.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (51) ◽  
pp. E7118-E7127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Laurent Casanova

The key problem in human infectious diseases was posed at the turn of the 20th century: their pathogenesis. For almost any given virus, bacterium, fungus, or parasite, life-threatening clinical disease develops in only a small minority of infected individuals. Solving this infection enigma is important clinically, for diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, and treatment. Some microbes will inevitably remain refractory to, or escape vaccination, or chemotherapy, or both. The solution also is important biologically, because the emergence and evolution of eukaryotes alongside more rapidly evolving prokaryotes, archaea, and viruses posed immunological challenges of an ecological and evolutionary nature. We need to study these challenges in natural, as opposed to experimental, conditions, and also at the molecular and cellular levels. According to the human genetic theory of infectious diseases, inborn variants underlie life-threatening infectious diseases. Here I review the history of the field of human genetics of infectious diseases from the turn of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th century. This paper thus sets the scene, providing the background information required to understand and appreciate the more recently described monogenic forms of resistance or predisposition to specific infections discussed in a second paper in this issue.


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