Research ethics, publication ethics and the dialectics of scientists trying not to behave badly: a comment on the advantages and limitations of Twin Assessment of Clinical Trials (TACT)

Aim: This comment addresses conflicts of interest in the publication of research results. Subject and Methods: Based on the concept of values in science, the problem of scientific misconduct related to publishing research results is treated hermeneutically. Franz Porzsolt’s approach to assessing studies and the implications for solving conflicts of interest are evaluated. Results: It is argued that conflicts of interest reflect the difficulty of balancing values in science and that science would become arbitrary and worthless for sponsors of research if it lacked its traditional values. Conclusion: Keeping scientific values and coping with conflicts of interest are essential for the future credibility and accountability of scientific endeavors. The communitarian approach to Twin Assessment of Clinical Studies might answer both demands

Interactive Similarity Analysis for 3D+t Cell Trajectory Data

Recent data acquisition techniques permit an improved analysis of living organisms. These techniques produce 3D+t information of cell developments in unprecedentedly high resolution. Biologists have a strong desire to analyze these cell evolutions in order to find similarities in their migration and division behaviors. The exploration of such patterns helps them in understanding how cells and hence organisms are able to ensure a regular shape development. However, the enormous size of the time-dependent data with several tens of thousands of cells and the need to analyze it in 3D hinder an interactive analysis. Visualizing the data to identify and extract relevant features provides a solution to this problem. For this, new visualization approaches are required that reduce the complexity of the data to detect important features in the visual analysis. In this thesis, novel visual similarity analysis methods are presented to interactively process very large 3D+t data of cell developments. Three main methods are developed that allow different visual analysis strategies. The usefulness of them is demonstrated by applications to cells from zebrafish embryos and Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Both data sets feature a high regularity in the shape formation of the organs and domain experts seek to research similar cell behaviors that are responsible for this development. For example, the identification of 3D division behaviors in plants is still an unresolved issue. The first method is a novel visualization approach that can automatically classify cell division types in plant data sets with high memory and time efficiency. The visualization is based on the generation of newly introduced cell isosurfaces that allow a quantitative and spatial comparison of cell division behaviors among individual plants. The method is applied to cells of the lateral root of Arabidopsis plants and reveals similar division schemes with respect to their temporal order. The second method enables a new visual similarity analysis for arbitrary 3D trajectory data in order to extract similar movement behaviors. The algorithm performs a grouping of thousands of trajectories with an optional level of detail modification. The clustering is based on a newly weighted combination of geometry and migratory features for which the weights are used to emphasize feature combinations. As a result, similar collective cell movements in zebrafish as well as a hitherto unknown correlation between division types and subsequent nuclei migrations in the Arabidopsis plants are detected. The third method is a novel visualization technique called the structure map. It permits a compact and interactive similarity analysis of thousands of binary tree structures. Unique trees are pre-ordered in the map based on spectral similarities and substructures are highlighted according to user-selected tree descriptors. Applied to cell developments from zebrafish depicted as trees, the map achieves compression rates up to 95% according to spectral analysis and facilitates an immediate identification of biologically implausible events and outliers. Additionally, similar quantities of feature appearances are detected in the center of the lateral root of several Arabidopsis plants

A New Medical History Journal

This is the first issue of the European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health (ehmh), a new platform of scholarly research and exchange in the vibrant, diverse and expanding field of history of medicine and health. The intention of the journal is to offer a platform to scholars interested in all possible aspects of the history of medicine and health. The journal is a joint undertaking of the Swiss Society for the History of Medicine and the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health. It is a continuation of Gesnerus: Swiss Journal for the History of Medicine and Science, which was published between 1943 and 2020

Individual risk assessment of adverse pregnancy outcome by multivariate regression analysis may serve as basis for drug intervention studies: retrospective analysis of 426 high-risk patients including ethical aspects

OBJECTIVE: To identify patients at very high risk for adverse pregnancy outcome (APO) at the 20- to 23-week scan and to assess the effectiveness of Aspirin (ASS) and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) starting after this examination. PATIENTS AND METHODS: By applying an algorithm based on multivariate logistic regression analysis using the parameters maternal age, parity, body mass index (BMI), mean pulsatility index of both uterine arteries (meanPI), presence of uni- or bilateral notch, and depth of notch (mean notch index (meanNI), we retrospectively calculated the individual risk for APO of 21,302 singleton pregnancies. We isolated a subgroup of 426 patients with the highest calculated probability for APO (cpAPO > 27.8 %). 147 had been treated with ASS; 73 with LMWH, 15 patients with a combination of ASS and LMWH, and 191 patients had not received anticoagulants. RESULTS: Administration of ASS starting after 20 gestational weeks in comparison to non-treated patients significantly reduced the frequency of intrauterine/neonatal death (IUD/NND), preeclampsia <33 weeks (PE < 33), and preterm delivery <33 weeks (PD < 33), while the frequency of IUGR showed a tendency to be elevated (P = 0.061). The subgroup of high-risk patients treated with LMWH was characterised by a higher a priori risk for APO and showed no significant reduction of any form of APO but an increased frequency of PE. CONCLUSION: Individual assessment of risk for APO by applying a simple algorithm based on biometrical/biographical as well as sonographic parameters may serve as basis for drug intervention studies. The administration of ASS in high-risk patients starting after 20 gestational weeks reduced the frequency of most of the severe forms of adverse pregnancy outcome in high-risk patients. A complication-reducing effect of LMWH starting after 20 weeks of gestation in patients could not be proven. From an ethical point of view, it may not be justified any more to preclude high-risk patients from administration of ASS or to perform studies of ASS against placebo

Evidenzen der Bilder

Evidenz beschreibt etwas, das unmittelbar einleuchtet. Wissenschaftliche Abbildungen erheben zwar den Anspruch, evident zu sein, aber ihre Evidenz ist nicht natürlich. Sie ist nur mittelbar für diejenigen einleuchtend, die sie lesen können. Das gilt auch für Bilder in der medizinischen Diagnostik: Im Visualisierungsprozess diagnostischer Abbildungen werden zum einen Strukturen und Zusammenhänge sichtbar gemacht, die zuvor unsichtbar waren. Zum anderen muss über Lese- und Denkprozesse die Evidenz in das Bild implementiert werden. Allerdings sind diese Bilder primär durch Mehrdeutigkeit und Unbestimmtheit geprägt, was Strategien der Evidenzproduktion erfordert. Hierzu gehören der Einsatz geschulter Zeichner am Mikroskop, die Produktion von Diagrammen auf Basis von Messwerten, der versierte Einsatz von Endoskopen sowie die physikalisch-chemische Erzeugung von Radiogrammen zur Sichtbarmachung des Körperinneren. Die Evidenz diagnostischer Abbildungen unterliegt also immer bestimmten Verfahren und Strategien der Evidenzzuschreibung. Sie bleibt eine nützliche Fiktion, die überaus vielfältig und immer kontextabhängig ist. Heiner Fangerau und Michael Martin sprechen deshalb statt von Evidenz im Singular von den Evidenzen diagnostischer Bilder im Plural

Evidenzen der Bilder

Evidenz beschreibt etwas, das unmittelbar einleuchtet. Wissenschaftliche Abbildungen erheben zwar den Anspruch, evident zu sein, aber ihre Evidenz ist nicht natürlich. Sie ist nur mittelbar für diejenigen einleuchtend, die sie lesen können. Das gilt auch für Bilder in der medizinischen Diagnostik: Im Visualisierungsprozess diagnostischer Abbildungen werden zum einen Strukturen und Zusammenhänge sichtbar gemacht, die zuvor unsichtbar waren. Zum anderen muss über Lese- und Denkprozesse die Evidenz in das Bild implementiert werden. Allerdings sind diese Bilder primär durch Mehrdeutigkeit und Unbestimmtheit geprägt, was Strategien der Evidenzproduktion erfordert. Hierzu gehören der Einsatz geschulter Zeichner am Mikroskop, die Produktion von Diagrammen auf Basis von Messwerten, der versierte Einsatz von Endoskopen sowie die physikalisch-chemische Erzeugung von Radiogrammen zur Sichtbarmachung des Körperinneren. Die Evidenz diagnostischer Abbildungen unterliegt also immer bestimmten Verfahren und Strategien der Evidenzzuschreibung. Sie bleibt eine nützliche Fiktion, die überaus vielfältig und immer kontextabhängig ist. Heiner Fangerau und Michael Martin sprechen deshalb statt von Evidenz im Singular von den Evidenzen diagnostischer Bilder im Plural

Esteem in the sciences made visible: How bibliometry receives new impulse from social network analysis

The article intends to show how a way of combining methods of social network analysis with methods of classical bibliometry meaningfully may be applied within historical studies. Going beyond bibliometry the argument is supported that a set of driving forces which build relationships among scientific actors via scientific activities might be subsumed in the pluri-dimensional term ‘esteem’ (Anerkennung) which should be distinguished from pure reputation. The method of a historical reconstruction of scientific networks seems to be especially useful for representing esteem within the sciences and implementing it as a sort of “currency system“ or social capital in the sense of Pierre Bourdieu. The concept of network serves as an abstract model in this context. The history of eugenics is uses as an example for data collection, data processing, data visualization and data interpretation. Three textbooks (including translations) are selected for analysis, the German Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer, Fritz Lenz, Grundriß der menschlichen Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene (1st ed. 1921); the US-American Charles Davenport, Heredity in Relation to Eugenics; and the Swedish Gunnar Dahlberg, Arv och Ras. The proposed approach shows not only differentiated picture of the structure of the reception of these works but also the shift of interest from a variety of fields of medical research to the history of sciences.The article intends to show how a way of combining methods of social network analysis with methods of classical bibliometry meaningfully may be applied within historical studies. Going beyond bibliometry the argument is supported that a set of driving forces which build relationships among scientific actors via scientific activities might be subsumed in the pluri-dimensional term ‘esteem’ (Anerkennung) which should be distinguished from pure reputation. The method of a historical reconstruction of scientific networks seems to be especially useful for representing esteem within the sciences and implementing it as a sort of “currency system“ or social capital in the sense of Pierre Bourdieu. The concept of network serves as an abstract model in this context. The history of eugenics is uses as an example for data collection, data processing, data visualization and data interpretation. Three textbooks (including translations) are selected for analysis, the German Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer, Fritz Lenz, Grundriß der menschlichen Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene (1st ed. 1921); the US-American Charles Davenport, Heredity in Relation to Eugenics; and the Swedish Gunnar Dahlberg, Arv och Ras. The proposed approach shows not only differentiated picture of the structure of the reception of these works but also the shift of interest from a variety of fields of medical research to the history of sciences

COVID-19 in different cultures : East and West

陶徳民教授古稀記念