Associationism

Uncorreted proofDefines "associationism" and discusses historical and contemporary issues with associationist explanation

COMPORTAMENTO E A PELE

Skinner (1938) once defined behavior as a proper subset of organismic activities—those that involve commerce with the outside world. Here I reexamine and reformulate Skinner’s definition to make the underlying conceptual framework more explicit. This framework turns out to be partly morphological and to rely on biological concepts of organism and adaptation. I propose a reformulation of Skinner’s definition along these lines, and I underscore the importance of the skin, not only in the life of an organism, but in the very definition of its behavior. Keywords: definition, behavior, environment, organism, boundary. Skinner (1938) uma vez definiu comportamento como um certo subconjunto de atividades do organismo – aquelas que envolvem intercâmbio com o mundo exterior. Neste artigo reexamino e reformulo a definição de Skinner para tornar mais explícito o quadro conceitual subjacente. Esse quadro resulta ser parcialmente morfológico e apoiado em conceitos biológicos de organismo e adaptação. Proponho uma reformulação da definição de Skinner numa perspectiva semelhante e ressalto a importância da pele, não apenas na vida de um organismo, mas na definição de seu comportamento. Palavras-chave: definição, comportamento, ambiente, organismo, fronteira.

Host-pathogen-drug interactions in the context of antibiotic resistance: How host xenobiotic metabolism can affect antibiotic efficacy in a Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection

Our arsenal of weapons to fight against bacterial infections is weakening: bacteria are gaining resistance to the common antibiotics, while industries are struggling to develop new effective ones. To avoid triggering de-novo antibiotic resistance, we need the right antibiotic for the specific bacteria, at a dose adapted to the patient genetics. Genes driving the degradation of antibiotics have indeed known genetic variants that can dramatically affect the kinetics of antibiotic metabolism from one patient to another. This could lead to treatment failure, excessive side effects or emergence of resistance. I first investigated the clinical relevance of the vancomycin-rifampicin combination to treat Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections (Chapter 3). I showed in various experimental settings that these two antibiotics may promote an environment prone for antibiotic resistance. Their interaction might be unstable in vitro because of environmental factors, one could wonder how the host environment might generate such instability. I then explored how interactions between antibiotics and host xenobiotic genetics could influence antibiotic concentrations, potentially triggering increased treatment failure, side-effects and antibiotic resistance in patients carrying particular variants. In silico, I estimated the effects of genetic variants of the Cytochrome P450 3A4 gene to its enzyme, and, as they are unequally distributed in the world, their global relevance (Chapter 4). In vivo, I focused on the Carboxylesterase 2 gene and I found two of its variants, rs11075646 and rs8192925, capable of significantly altering the degradation of various drugs, including rifampicin and mycophenolate mofetil. A clinical study was designed, to explore possible correlations between genotype for these variants and treatment response in patients (Chapter 5). Altogether, this body of work highlights the prescribing importance of considering not only the strain in bacterial infections, but also the genetics of the human host. This raises a need to make sure the right antibiotics are used in practices, at doses adapted to the patients. As part of personalised medicine, checking their genotype for these biomarkers could tailor their therapy, improving recovery while avoiding antibiotic resistance

Holt's realism: new reasons for behavior analysis

Behavior analysts and ecological psychologists may be more aware than before of the commonalities between their respective approaches (Costall, 1984; Morris, 2009). It is time for behavior analysis to come back to its realist roots (O’Neil, 1968) and face the hard issue of perceptio