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Future Progress (future + progress)
Selected AbstractsFuture Progress In Diabetic NeuropathyJOURNAL OF THE PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, Issue 3 2000Jd Ward Over three decades much knowledge regarding the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy has been gathered but sadly this has led to very little understanding. This final review lecture of the symposium will attempt to analyse why progress has been so slow and look to the future for signs of inventive improvement. Papers presented during the symposium will be reviewed to allow estimate of future success and where perhaps efforts should be focused. At present the best we can do for our patients is to control blood glucose as rigidly as possible for preventative therapy and logical interventional drugs are not available. Hopefully the symposium will provide new insights into future investigations and potential pathways. [source] Parasites in food webs: the ultimate missing linksECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 6 2008Kevin D. Lafferty Abstract Parasitism is the most common consumer strategy among organisms, yet only recently has there been a call for the inclusion of infectious disease agents in food webs. The value of this effort hinges on whether parasites affect food-web properties. Increasing evidence suggests that parasites have the potential to uniquely alter food-web topology in terms of chain length, connectance and robustness. In addition, parasites might affect food-web stability, interaction strength and energy flow. Food-web structure also affects infectious disease dynamics because parasites depend on the ecological networks in which they live. Empirically, incorporating parasites into food webs is straightforward. We may start with existing food webs and add parasites as nodes, or we may try to build food webs around systems for which we already have a good understanding of infectious processes. In the future, perhaps researchers will add parasites while they construct food webs. Less clear is how food-web theory can accommodate parasites. This is a deep and central problem in theoretical biology and applied mathematics. For instance, is representing parasites with complex life cycles as a single node equivalent to representing other species with ontogenetic niche shifts as a single node? Can parasitism fit into fundamental frameworks such as the niche model? Can we integrate infectious disease models into the emerging field of dynamic food-web modelling? Future progress will benefit from interdisciplinary collaborations between ecologists and infectious disease biologists. [source] Equilibrium and growth shapes of crystals: how do they differ and why should we care?CRYSTAL RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 4-5 2005Robert F. SekerkaArticle first published online: 15 MAR 200 Abstract Since the death of Prof. Dr. Jan Czochralski nearly 50 years ago, crystals grown by the Czochralski method have increased remarkably in size and perfection, resulting today in the industrial production of silicon crystals about 30 cm in diameter and two meters in length. The Czochralski method is of great technological and economic importance for semiconductors and optical crystals. Over this same time period, there have been equally dramatic improvements in our theoretical understanding of crystal growth morphology. Today we can compute complex crystal growth shapes from robust models that reproduce most of the features and phenomena observed experimentally. We should care about this because it is likely to result in the development of powerful and economical design tools to enable future progress. Crystal growth morphology results from an interplay of crystallographic anisotropy and growth kinetics by means of interfacial processes and long-range transport. The equilibrium shape of a crystal results from minimizing its anisotropic surface free energy under the constraint of constant volume; it is given by the classical Wulff construction but can also be represented by an analytical formula based on the ,-vector formalism of Hoffman and Cahn. We now have analytic criteria for missing orientations (sharp corners or edges) on the equilibrium shape, both in two (classical) and three (new) dimensions. Crystals that grow under the control of interfacial kinetic processes tend asymptotically toward a "kinetic Wulff shape", the analogue of the Wulff shape, except it is based on the anisotropic interfacial kinetic coefficient. If it were not for long range transport, crystals would presumably nucleate with their equilibrium shape and then evolve toward their "kinetic Wulff shape". Allowing for long range transport leads to morphological instabilities on the scale of the geometric mean of a transport length (typically a diffusivity divided by the growth speed) and a capillary length (of the order of atomic dimensions). Resulting crystal growth shapes can be cellular or dendritic, but can also exhibit corners and facets related to the underlying crystallographic anisotropy. Within the last decade, powerful phase field models, based on a diffuse interface, have been used to treat simultaneously all of the above phenomena. Computed morphologies can exhibit cells, dendrites and facets, and the geometry of isotherms and isoconcentrates can also be determined. Results of such computations are illustrated in both two and three dimensions. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Quantitative and qualitative methods in UK health research: then, now and . . . ?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER CARE, Issue 3 2002K. Mcpherson phd Quantitative and qualitative methods in UK health research: then, now and . . . ? This paper examines the current status of qualitative and quantitative research in the context of UK (public) health research in cancer. It is proposed that barren competition between qualitative and quantitative methods is inevitable, but that effective synergy between them continues to be essential to research excellence. The perceived methodological utility, with respect to understanding residual uncertainties, can account for the status accorded various research techniques and these will help to explain shifts witnessed in recent years and contribute towards an understanding of what can be realistically expected in terms of future progress. It is argued that the methodological debate, though familiar to many, is worthy of rearticulation in the context of cancer research where the psychosocial aspects of living with a cancer and the related complexity of providing appropriate cancer care are being addressed across Europe, as evidenced in recent directions in policy and research. [source] Geometrical properties of nodal surfaces of many-electron wave functionsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF QUANTUM CHEMISTRY, Issue 10 2010Nikolai D. Chuvylkin Abstract Hypothesis of the exclusion of equipotential surfaces for many-electron wave functions (MWF) has been enunciated. This hypothesis clarifies the physical meaning of the Pauli exclusion principle and opens the way for future progress of new quantum-chemical methods for the construction of approximate MWFs differing from the traditional Hartree,Fock approximation. The equipotential surface exclusion principle has been tested on traditional representative "test systems" of quantum mechanics: the helium atom, the lithium atom, and the hydrogen molecule. Judging by the results of these tests, the use of the suggested approach can lead to a considerable increase in the efficiency of high-accuracy quantum-chemical calculations. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010 [source] Robotics in neurosurgery: state of the art and future technological challengesTHE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ROBOTICS AND COMPUTER ASSISTED SURGERY, Issue 1 2004L Zamorano Abstract The use of robotic technologies to assist surgeons was conceptually described almost thirty years ago but has only recently become feasible. In Neurosurgery, medical robots have been applied to neurosurgery for over 19 years. Nevertheless this field remains unknown to most neurosurgeons. The intrinsic characteristics of robots, such as high precision, repeatability and endurance make them ideal surgeon's assistants. Unfortunately, limitations in the current available systems make its use limited to very few centers in the world. During the last decade, important efforts have been made between academic and industry partnerships to develop robots suitable for use in the operating room environment. Although some applications have been successful in areas of laparoscopic surgery and orthopaedics, Neurosurgery has presented a major challenge due to the eloquence of the surrounding anatomy. This review focuses on the application of medical robotics in neurosurgery. The paper begins with an overview of the development of the medical robotics, followed by the current clinical applications in neurosurgery and an analysis of current limitations. We discuss robotic applications based in our own experience in the field. Next, we discuss the technological challenges and research areas to overcome those limitations, including some of our current research approaches for future progress in the field Copyright © 2004 Robotic Publications Ltd. [source] Heavy LYFTing: KASting Pearls Before SwineAMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 7 2009J. Bromberg The use of "Life Years from Transplant" (LYFT) to allocate kidneys is controversial. Several articles in this issue of AJT present critiques and analysis of KAS and LYFT and provide a road map for future progress. See Special Feature on pages 1500,1532. [source] Mity model: Tetranychus urticae, a candidate for chelicerate model organismBIOESSAYS, Issue 5 2007Miodrag Grbic Chelicerates (scorpions, horseshoe crabs, spiders, mites and ticks) are the second largest group of arthropods and are of immense importance for fundamental and applied science. They occupy a basal phylogenetic position within the phylum Arthropoda, and are of crucial significance for understanding the evolution of various arthropod lineages. Chelicerates are vectors of human diseases, such as ticks, and major agricultural pests, such as spider mites, thus this group is also of importance for both medicine and agriculture. The developmental genetics of chelicerates is poorly understood and a challenge for the future progress for many aspects of chelicerate biology is the development of a model organism for this group. Toward this end, we are developing a chelicerate genetic model: the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae. T. urticae has the smallest genome of any arthropod determined so far (75 Mbp, 60% of the size of the Drosophila genome), undergoes rapid development and is easy to maintain in the laboratory. These features make T. urticae a promising reference organism for the economically important, poorly studied and species-rich chelicerate lineage. BioEssays 29:489,496, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The new World Health Organization classification of haematopoietic and lymphoid tumours: a dermatopathological perspectiveBRITISH JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 4 2002D.N. Slater Summary The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new consensus classification of tumours of haematopoietic and lymphoid tissue, based on recognizable disease entities defined by clinical and scientific criteria. The WHO does not support the use of stand-alone organ-related classifications, such as for skin. The Royal College of Pathologists (London) has adopted the WHO classification in its minimum dataset for the histopathological reporting of lymphoma and this will be used in the National Health Service Skin Cancer Dataset. The purpose of this review is to highlight the principal primary and secondary cutaneous haematopoietic and lymphoid tumours that are defined in the WHO classification. The review also discusses selected problematical areas in the WHO classification relevant to the skin and contains suggestions to encourage a unified approach in the use of the WHO coded summary. These represent an attempt to facilitate future progress and research in the field of cutaneous lymphoma. They are perceived as possible building-blocks for wider discussion and not as alterations to the classification. The WHO classification has been compared with a road map that indicates directions for future clinical and scientific research. [source] | |||||||||||||