Medical hypotheses
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Editorial Historical Article
Which are the best nations and institutions for revolutionary science 1987-2006? Analysis using a combined metric of Nobel prizes, Fields medals, Lasker awards and Turing awards (NFLT metric).
I have previously suggested that Nobel prizes can be used as a scientometric measurement of 'revolutionary science'; and that for this purpose it would be better if more Nobel prizes were awarded, especially in three new subjects of mathematics, medicine and computing science which have become major sciences over recent decades. In the following analysis of the last 20 years from 1987 to 2006, I use three prestigious prizes in mathematics (Fields medal), medicine (Lasker award for Clinical Medical Research) and computing science (A. M. ⋯ Second is France, with three institutions having three or more winners; the UK and Norway have one each. The NFLT metric confirms previous observations that many public universities in the Western USA have now become a major focus of revolutionary science; and that Harvard has declined from its previous status as the top world centre of revolutionary science to about seventh-place. This analysis confirms the potential value of increasing the number of Nobel prizes as a means of identifying and monitoring centres of excellence in revolutionary science.
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The pathological role of the non-enzymatic modification of proteins by reducing sugars has become increasingly evident in various disorders. It is now well established that early glycation products undergo progressive modification over time in vivo to the formation of irreversible cross-links, after which these molecules are termed "AGEs (advanced glycation end products)". AGEs have been implicated in the development of many of the pathological sequelae of diabetes and aging, such as diabetic microangiopathy, ischemic heart disease and neurodegenerative diseases. ⋯ If our speculation is correct, AST-120 may have therapeutic potentials for the treatment of patients with various AGE-related disorders as well. In this paper, we would like to propose the possible ways of testing our hypotheses. Does the long-term treatment of AST-120 decrease serum and tissue levels of AGEs in diabetic patients? Does this treatment also reduce the risk for the development and progression of diabetic vascular complications such as diabetic retinopathy or ischemic heart disease? If the answers are yes, do the serum and/or tissue levels of AGEs after AST-120 treatment predict its beneficial effects on diabetic vascular complications? How about the effects of AST-120 on Alzheimer's disease, another AGE-related neurodegenerative disorder? Does the treatment of AST-120 reduce the risk for Alzheimer's disease and/or improve the cognitive impairment of patients with this disorder? These prospective studies will provide further valuable information whether the inhibition of absorption of dietary AGEs by AST-120 could be clinically relevant.
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Every pain syndrome has an inflammatory profile consisting of the inflammatory mediators that are present in the pain syndrome. The inflammatory profile may have variations from one person to another and may have variations in the same person at different times. The key to treatment of Pain Syndromes is an understanding of their inflammatory profile. ⋯ Activation of pain receptors, transmission and modulation of pain signals, neuro plasticity and central sensitization are all one continuum of inflammation and the inflammatory response. Irrespective of the characteristic of the pain, whether it is sharp, dull, aching, burning, stabbing, numbing or tingling, all pain arise from inflammation and the inflammatory response. We are proposing a re-classification and treatment of pain syndromes based upon their inflammatory profile.
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In scientific writing, although clarity and precision of language are vital to effective communication, it seems undeniable that content is more important than form. Potentially valuable knowledge should not be excluded from the scientific literature merely because the researchers lack advanced language skills. Given that global scientific literature is overwhelmingly in the English-language, this presents a problem for non-native speakers. ⋯ This model bears some conceptual relationship to the recent trend in computing science for component-based or component-oriented software engineering - in which new programs are constructed by reusing programme components, which may be available in libraries. A new functionality is constructed by linking-together many pre-existing chunks of software. I suggest that journal editors should, in their instructions to authors, explicitly allow this 'component-oriented' method of constructing scientific articles; and carefully describe how it can be accomplished in such a way that proper referencing is enforced, and full credit is allocated to the authors of the reused linguistic components.
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This article complements Dr. Charlton's follow-up of David Horrobin's suggestion in Nature two decades ago to offer sizeable prizes for practical approaches to either eliminate a problem in medicine or reduce the cost of its solution. Examples from the 20th and 21st centuries illustrate that prizes--small and big--have generated sustained and successful attacks on defined problems in biology, physics and, lately, mathematics. Provided that glittering prizes are offered and awarded with care, they can lead to effective problem-solving in medicine and related biomedical sciences as well.