¿Posee el conocimiento biológico un interés específico? : Notas sobre Habermas, el realismo y otras hierbas

En Conocimiento e interés, Habermas enumera tres intereses que constituirí­an otras tantas condiciones de posibilidad de la objetividad de tres tipos de ciencias: el in­terés tecnológico vinculado a las ciencias naturales, el interés práctico vinculado a las ciencias histórico-hermenéuticas y el interés emancipatorio vinculado a la teoría social crítica y el psicoanálisis. Aunque Habermas explícitamente enmarca toda su argumenta­ción en el hecho de la evolución biológica de la especie humana, paradójicamente no se ocupa del estatuto epistemológico de la ciencia biológica, a la que tácitamente incluye en las ciencias naturales regidas por el interés técnico, manipulatorio. ¿Es realmente satisfactoria esta ubicación de la biología? ¿Acaso ella está regida por un interés técnico-manipulatorio o podría hablarse, por el contrario, de un interés y tipo de objetividad específicamente biológicos? Sugiero que corresponde a la ciencia biológica un interés bio-ecológico específico. Habermas rechaza esta posibilidad.Departamento de Filosofí

¿Posee el conocimiento biológico un interés específico? : Notas sobre Habermas, el realismo y otras hierbas

En Conocimiento e interés, Habermas enumera tres intereses que constituirí­an otras tantas condiciones de posibilidad de la objetividad de tres tipos de ciencias: el in­terés tecnológico vinculado a las ciencias naturales, el interés práctico vinculado a las ciencias histórico-hermenéuticas y el interés emancipatorio vinculado a la teoría social crítica y el psicoanálisis. Aunque Habermas explícitamente enmarca toda su argumenta­ción en el hecho de la evolución biológica de la especie humana, paradójicamente no se ocupa del estatuto epistemológico de la ciencia biológica, a la que tácitamente incluye en las ciencias naturales regidas por el interés técnico, manipulatorio. ¿Es realmente satisfactoria esta ubicación de la biología? ¿Acaso ella está regida por un interés técnico-manipulatorio o podría hablarse, por el contrario, de un interés y tipo de objetividad específicamente biológicos? Sugiero que corresponde a la ciencia biológica un interés bio-ecológico específico. Habermas rechaza esta posibilidad.Departamento de Filosofí

VO: Vaccine Ontology

Vaccine research, as well as the development, testing, clinical trials, and commercial uses of vaccines involve complex processes with various biological data that include gene and protein expression, analysis of molecular and cellular interactions, study of tissue and whole body responses, and extensive epidemiological modeling. Although many data resources are available to meet different aspects of vaccine needs, it remains a challenge how we are to standardize vaccine annotation, integrate data about varied vaccine types and resources, and support advanced vaccine data analysis and inference. To address these problems, the community-based Vaccine Ontology (VO, "http://www.violinet.org/vaccineontology":http://www.violinet.org/vaccineontology) has been developed through collaboration with vaccine researchers and many national and international centers and programs, including the National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO), the Infectious Disease Ontology (IDO) Initiative, and the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI). VO utilizes the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) as the top ontology and the Relation Ontology (RO) for definition of term relationships. VO is represented in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and edited using the Protégé-OWL. Currently VO contains more than 2000 terms and relationships. VO emphasizes on classification of vaccines and vaccine components, vaccine quality and phenotypes, and host immune response to vaccines. These reflect different aspects of vaccine composition and biology and can thus be used to model individual vaccines. More than 200 licensed vaccines and many vaccine candidates in research or clinical trials have been modeled in VO. VO is being used for vaccine literature mining through collaboration with the National Center for Integrative Biomedical Informatics (NCIBI). Multiple VO applications will be presented.
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Liver and intestine transplantation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73604/1/j.1600-6135.2004.00400.x.pd

Biomineralisation in the Palaeozoic oceans: evidence for simultaneous crystallisation of high and low magnesium calcite by phacopine trilobites

The chemical composition and microstructure of the calcite cuticles of eleven species of phacopine trilobites have been investigated by electron beam imaging, diffraction, and microanalysis, and results reveal that the lenses of their schizochroal eyes differed significantly in chemical composition from the rest of the cuticle in vivo. Apart from the eye lenses, most cuticles are inferred to have escaped extensive recrystallisation because their constituent crystals are sub-micrometre in size and have a preferred orientation that is consistent between species. Their current compositions of ~1.4 to 2.4 mol% MgCO3 are likely to be close to original values, although as they commonly luminesce and contain detectable manganese and iron, some diagenetic alteration has taken place. The associated lenses have a microstructure that is suitable for focusing light, yet are optically turbid owing to the presence within calcite of micropores and crystals of microdolomite, apatite, celestite and pyrite. The microdolomite indicates that lenses recrystallised from an original high-Mg calcite composition and this is supported by the presence of nanometre-scale modulated microstructures in both the calcite and dolomite. These lenses currently contain ~1 to 6 mol% MgCO3, and by comparison with the proportion of magnesium lost from echinoderm stereom in the same thin sections, may have contained ~7.5 mol% MgCO3 in vivo. In some samples, more extensive diagenetic alteration is evidenced by recrystallisation of the cuticle including lenses to coarse equant calcite or enrichment of the cuticle, but not necessarily the lenses, in magnesium accompanying replacement by a Mg–Fe phyllosilicate. The phacopine trilobites had to modify partition coefficients for magnesium considerably in order to grow lenses with contrasting compositions to the rest of their cuticles, and such a strong vital effect on biomineralisation suggests that incorporation of magnesium was essential for functioning of their calcite optical s

Improving communication between postgraduate researchers and the university library: a case study at De Montfort University Library and Learning Services

A well-established postgraduate researcher development program has existed at De Montfort University for many years. Library and Learning Services include modules on literature searching skills and critical appraisal. However, we recognized that researchers seemed to be disengaged with the services on offer. This concern informed a research project that considered the ways we could communicate better with researchers based on their needs. This paper explores the essential components of successful communication, such as context, timeliness and communication channels. An action-research approach was taken including focus groups and online surveys. The outcomes highlighted three significant crisis points, emphasizing the key times when researchers might need some intervention. The findings of this research identified the distinct needs of Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and how relevant and timely communication from the library can meet these needs. It also considers the impact of how communication has improved with researchers as a result of some of our interventions

VO: Vaccine Ontology

The collaborative, community-based Vaccine Ontology (VO) was developed to promote vaccine data standardization, integration, and computer-assisted reasoning. Currently VO covers a variety of aspects of the vaccine domain, with an emphasis on classification of vaccines and vaccine components, and on host immune response to vaccines. VO can be used for a number of applications, e.g., ontology-based vaccine literature mining through collaboration with the National Center for Integrative Biomedical Informatics (NCIBI)

A comparison of nefazodone, the cognitive behavioral-analysis system of psychotherapy, and their combination for the treatment of chronic depression

Background Patients with chronic forms of major depression are difficult to treat, and the relative efficacy of medications and psychotherapy is uncertain. Methods We randomly assigned 681 adults with a chronic nonpsychotic major depressive disorder to 12 weeks of outpatient treatment with nefazodone (maximal dose, 600 mg per day), the cognitive behavioral-analysis system of psychotherapy (16 to 20 sessions), or both. At base line, all patients had scores of at least 20 on the 24-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (indicating clinically significant depression). Remission was defined as a score of 8 or less at weeks 10 and 12. For patients who did not have remission, a satisfactory response was defined as a reduction in the score by at least 50 percent from base line and a score of 15 or less. Raters were unaware of the patients’ treatment assignments. Results Of the 681 patients, 662 attended at least one treatment session and were included in the analysis of response. The overall rate of response (both remission and satisfactory response) was 48 percent in both the nefazodone group and the psychotherapy group, as compared with 73 percent in the combined-treatment group (P Conclusions Although about half of patients with chronic forms of major depression have a response to short-term treatment with either nefazodone or a cognitive behavioral-analysis system of psychotherapy, the combination of the two is significantly more efficacious than either treatment alone

Clinical correlates of sleep onset rem periods in depression

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26497/1/0000033.pd