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Editorial
Prof.
Nezih OKTAR M.D.
Open access publishing and our
e-journal in a nutshell
Mind
the Brain
Nanobiotechnology: A new world of nanomaterials
Brain asymmetry , sleeping , dreaming , and REM
Stimulated repairing nerves, laser beam guide and
progenitor cells of human brain
After 50 years beyond DNA & improving human brain intelligence
Bioterrorism and scientific freedom arguments
Quantum mechanics and Brain
Malpractice in Neurosciences
Neurolinguistics and the language gene
Neuroelectronics: Combines nerve cells and microchips
The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (The
CONSORT statement)
Book review enthusiasm
The Nobel Prize & Neuroscientists
Neurological aspects of entering to a new millenium
Progenitor and stem cell research
Gene therapy for neurological disorders
Optical Coherence Tomography
Being a Neurosurgeon of the Century
Brain-quake
E-biomed proposal and peer-review in indexed biomedical
journals
Scientific fraud
Uniforming electronic material
Journal of Neurological Science (Turkish) and "electronic
linking" plan
Future of scientific e-journals
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Norol Bil D 2004:21(3) July-September Neuro-libido In the classical period, Paris, the young prince of Troy had to choose
"the fairest" of the three goddesses. Hera presented him richest
and dominion over mankind, Athena offered him wisdom and reputation as the
bravest of heroes. Then Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, whispered
with a soft, caressing voice, "Choose me and I will give you love and
the most beautiful woman in the world for your wife." Without further
hesitation, Paris chose Aphrodite; therefore she presented him the cutest of
the all women, Helen, who was the wife of the King of Sparta. In those times, it was believed that love had four subdivisions;
libido, eros, philia, and agape. Freud's psychoanalytic techniques have also
accepted this categorization of love. Therefore love is not a special
instinct to a certain culture, but an essential human characteristic,
identified by a specific set of chemicals, so-called "love chemicals.”
As soon as the idea of "love chemicals" was accepted, scientists
commenced to question "what it is that makes your knees go weak, causes
your palms to sweat, creates the sensation of butterflies in your stomach,
and makes you stammer when you fall in love." As a result of their
research, they found out the formula of love: Love = dopamine + oxytocin +
norepinephrine + vasopressin + testosterone. Symbol for the love may be the heart as misdiagnosed but brain is the
mastermind. Nicoli & Nicoli in their article of the “Biochemistry of
Eros” stated that the study of those
many exoactones in both sexes; hormonomediation, leading to the intervention
of the hypotalamo-adeno-hypophyso-(cortico)-gonadal axis, with such effectors
as sexosteroids, the hypothalamo-adenohypophyseal with the prolactin, the
neuro-hypopheseal level (vasopressin, ocytocyne), and the epiphyseal level
(melatonin), the terminal effector agents appearing either as libido
(androgens, P-Rih), or counter-libido (oestrogens, prolactin) with the
involvement of two systems of vertical and horizontal libidinization;
neuromediation, with the intervention of the catecholaminergic, cholinergic,
indolaminergic (serotonin); neuromodulation, with a rise in the endorphin
rate when there is an orgasm; very precise enzymatic phenomena (depolymerases
appearing in the vaginal content when there is an orgasm), which cannot be
ignored any longer. Neurotransmitters are molecules that is used to communicate messages
from a transmitting nerve cell to a receiving nerve cell. If the receptor is
clogged, one will have trouble communicating. There are several different
neurotransmitters. The main ones are called Noradrenaline (NA), which is
sometimes referred to as "norepinehprine", Dopamine (DA), Serotonin
(5HT), and GABA. No one has been able to isolate an area of the brain responsible for
libido. Loss of libido may be a symptom of depression. Hypersexuality in men or women is a rare but well-documented
complication of neurologic disease. Kleist pointed out that lesions of the
orbital parts of the frontal lobes may remove moral-ethical restraints and
lead to indiscriminate sexual behavior, and that superior frontal lesions may
be associated with a general loss of initiative which reduces all
impulsivity, including sexual. Hyposexuality, on the other hand, meaning loss
of libido, is most often due to a depressive illness. Certain chemical agents
- notably antihypertensive, anticonvulsant, serotoninergic antidepressant and
neuroleptic drugs - may cause a loss of libido. A variety of cerebral
diseases may also have this effect. The arousal of libido in men and women may result from a variety of
stimuli, some purely imaginary. Such neocortical influences are transmitted
to the limbic system and thence to the hypothalamus and spinal centers. The difference aspects of sexual function may be affected separately.
Loss of libido may depend upon both psychic and somatic factors. It may be
complete, as in old age or in medical and endocrine diseases, or it may occur
only in certain circumstances or in relation to a certain situation or individual. The autonomic nervous system functions outside of voluntary control
and is influenced by external events (for example, stress, drugs) and
internal events (hypothalamic, limbic, and cortical stimuli). It is not
surprising, therefore, that erection and orgasm are so vulnerable to
dysfunction. A vast array of neurotransmitters are produced by the brain. They
include dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. All have
effects on sexual function. For example, an increase in dopamine is presumed
to increase libido. Serotonin produced in the upper pons and mid-brain is
presumed to have an inhibitory effect on sexual function. Within the central nervous system (CNS), androgen receptors are
heavily located in specific places. Androgens and other steroid hormones are
able to penetrate the blood brain barrier and interact with their appropriate
CNS cytosolic receptors. The hypothalamus and anterior pituitary gland are
particularly dense in androgen receptors, and here they help regulate the
secretion of androgens as well as other hormones that control a wide variety
of biological functions. Androgen receptors are also located in parts of the
cerebral cortex, medulla, and amygdala. Here their specific functions are not
as well characterized. The processes of androgen action that involve receptor binding and DNA
translation are known as receptor mediated, or "genomic", hormone
actions. However, there are also lesser known actions of steroid hormones
that are non-genomic in mechanism. Non-genomic activities are particularly
key in the central nervous system where they combine with genomic activities
to produce specific effects. Non-genomic actions of steroid hormones differ in a very important way
from genomic actions. Genomic effects are manifested over a relatively long
period of time (days) because they require a complex cascade of events
(binding, translation, transcription, accumulation of active enzyme products)
before the actual physiology of the target organ is altered. On the other
hand, genomic actions are extremely rapid (<1 minute). They are rapid
because their effects involve an immediate modulation of the membranes of
cells (particularly neural cells). These modulations may include changes to
the permeability of the membrane, as well as effects on the opening of vital
ligand gated ion channels. The end result is a quick and significant
influence upon the activities of key areas of the brain, and the relevance of
this to the medicinal use of androgenic hormones or prohormones should not be
overlooked. A group of former East German scientists performed what is probably
the most elaborate "practical" research on the psychological
benefits of androgens. Their research did not center much on the prosexual
effects of androgens, but rather on what they termed the
"psychophysical" properties. The psychophysiological capacity, as the researchers describe it, is
the ability of an individual to handle stress (physical, mental, and
emotional). This capacity is determined by one's ability to activate
appropriate centers in the central nervous system. Psychophysiological
capacity can be evaluated by applying stressful stimuli and measuring shifts
in the alpha-frequency of an encephalogram. Specifically, the researchers
found that physical or psychic stresses lead to increases of approximately 4
to 6 Hertz compared to the starting value in individuals possessing the
psychophysiological capacity to handle the particular stress. If the stress
becomes excessive for an individual, the alpha frequency decreases after
passing through the 4-6 Hertz optimum, and can then sink to levels below the
original baseline. Now keep in mind that the matter of this research is not
just applicable to athletes, but also to any one with decreased
psychophysiological capacity (i.e. elderly), or who have to handle large
amounts of stress (i.e. university, college exam studiers). Libido’s switch is in the brain, as having a mastermind role in love. Editor Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D. REFERENCES Adam’s and Victor’s Principals of Neurology by
Victor, and Ropper, Seventh Edition, 2001; McGraw-Hill, pp 574 Altin
Ceren: First learn the secret formula and then you may fall in love Kingdom
Robertea April 2002 Kaplan
& Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, Volume I, Seventh
Edition, by Sadock BJ and Sadock VA, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2000 Mattern C,
Hacker R, "Method for Nasally Administering Aerosols of Therapeutic
Agents to Enhance Penetration of the Blood Brain Barrier", German Patent
Application DE9300442A1 Mattern C,
Hacker R, "Medicament for Influencing the Degree of Activation of the
Central Nervous System", German Patent Application DE9300473A1 Mooradian
AD, et.al. "Biological Actions of Androgens", Endocr Rev 1987,
8(1): 1-28 Poisson M,
et.al., "Steroid Receptors in the Central Nervous System. Implications
in Neurology", Rev Neurol 1984, 140(4): 233-248 Roselli CE, et.al., "The Distribution and
Regulation of Aromatase Activity in the Central Nervous System",
Steroids 1987, 50(4-6): 495-508 Norol Bil D 2004:21(2) April-June Open access
publishing and our e-journal in a nutshell Electronic publication is obviously attractive for its speed, easy global
access and low cost. All these are considerable advantages over print, and
seen as the most desirable factors in professional publishing by all
interested: authors, readers and publishers. However, it remains unclear how
to assess the credibility of new online only journals. The key role in this
process seems to be given to international bibliographical databases, such as
Medline, EMBASE or Index Copernicus, which can certify the bona fides of an
electronic publisher. The role of such indexing sites will evolve in time
into complex bibliographical information sites, and they will eventually
become ports of meta-journals. There are a lot of such journals which
declares these benefits [Aqil , Banks , Mayor , Pandey et al., Savla , Varki
]. In our opinion it is not fair to shift publication costs to authors or
readers. Research funds should share equitably by authors, publishers and
even readers during the publication period. A “fair access publishing” system
should be designed in a way that allows, scientist living in developing
countries to fully participate in the true development of science on a global
scale [Momen , Delamothe et al.]. Since
we have published electronically we documented the submitted materials to our
journal. In the evaluation and peer-review process 20% of the manuscripts
found not suitable for the e-publication by our consultant editors and
referees. Majority of the source of the scientific materials comes from
Turkish authors. Meanwhile we evaluate and published 29 articles between 1998
till this last issue of 2004(2), which were submitted to us from abroad
(Table 1). Turkish authors concerning the source of provinces are given in
Table 2.
We started open review opportunity to all our readers
from the beginning of this year. Peer-review process will continue just
beside. We all thank to our authors, readers, peer or
open-reviewers for their contribution to our world of neurological sciences
as we gradually join to more esteemed scientific databases. REFERENCES Aqil M.:
Open access publishing: A boon for scientific community. Med Sci Monit. 2004 May 1;10(5):LE5-LE5. Epub 2004
Apr 28. Banks M.: Connections between open access publishing and access to gray
literature. J Med Libr
Assoc. 2004 Apr;92(2):164-6. Delamothe T, Smith R.: Open access publishing takes off. BMJ. 2004 Jan 3;328(7430):1-3. Graczynski MR. , Moses L.: Open access publishing- Panacea or Trojan
horse. Med Sci Monit. 2004; 10(1): ED-3 http://www.MedSciMonit.com/pub/vol_10/no_1/4457.pdf Mayor
S. Open access could reduce cost of scientific publishing.BMJ. 2004
May 8;328(7448):1094. Momen H.: Equitable access to scientific and technical information in
health. Saudi Med
J. 2004 Jan;25 Suppl:S39. Pandey M, Varki A.: Open access: the JCI has already shown it works. Nature. 2003 Nov 27;426(6965):383. Editor Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D. Norol
Bil D 2004:21:(1) January-March Mind
the Brain The
mind-body problem has lain at the heart of the way we think about human
nature throughout modern thought. It became a problem for science in the
early nineteenth century when efforts were first made to provide systematic
observations on the relationship between mind and brain (16). Today
we are witnessing a revolution in neuroscience, as researchers chart the
circuitry of memory, cognition, and emotion, offering the promise of a
chemically based medicine of the mind (5) But these same words would have
been use as apt over 300 years ago, when neurology first emerged as an
experimental science (3,17) From the Greeks came the speculation that the mind is made
up of a series of innate powers or faculties which were localized in the
hollow ventricles of the brain: Sensation and Imagination in the anterior
chamber, Reason in the middle, and Memory in the posterior. When attention
shifted to the solid parts of the brain, the faculties were speculatively
localized in different areas by different schools. When the innateness of the
faculties was challenged by the belief that there is nothing in the intellect
that was not first in the senses, it was not the classification of the
faculties which was questioned, but their origin. The question of the mind's
role in the economy of the organism in its intercourse with the environment
was not a central issue. Attention was diverted from this by the separation
of the mind from the brain and from the external world, and the related
separation of man from other organisms. Both the
empirical study of cerebral localization and the attempt to determine a set
of functions which could explain the thought and behaviour of men and animals
in their natural environments began with the work of Franz Joseph Gall
(1758-1828). While remaining agnostic on the philosophical mind-body problem,
he thought he had discovered a method for demonstrating the correlation of
innate faculties and identifiable brain areas. With the assessment of one of
the major figures in the development of evolutionary psychology, G. H. Lewes,
who said, Gall rescued the problem of mental functions from Metaphysics, and
made it one of Biology.(16) One of the
seven Da Vincian
principles, “corporalita” expresses the balance of
body and mind. The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise.
Leonardo’s extraordinary physical gifts complemented his intellectual and
artistic genius. He was familiar with his body. Walking, riding, swimming,
and fencing were his preferred forms of regular exercise. Also, he believed
that we should accept personal responsibility for our health and well-being.
(4) The brain is the body's first line of defence against illness, and the
mind is the emergent functioning of the brain. This mind-body approach
incorporates ideas, belief systems, and hopes as well as biochemistry,
physiology, and anatomy. Changing thoughts imply a changing brain and thus a
changing biology and body. Belief systems provide a baseline for the
functioning brain upon which other variables act and have their effects. (10) Steno, a
far more conservative student of the brain, castigated Willis and Descartes
for their unwarranted certainty, “I frankly and openly confess that I know
nothing about it [the function of the brain],” he declared and warned that it
would be many generations before the brain was deciphered (7,16) A fundamental goal in neuroscience is to link mind and brain, connecting changes in behaviour with changes in the brain. State-of-the-art brain mapping technologies allow non-invasive measures to be made across the lifespan. Both brain and behaviour are measured in the same individuals and across time. Scientists have discovered that learning is not equivalent over the lifespan. In many domains, young children learn more quickly and efficiently than adults, demonstrating "windows of opportunity" for learning. Humans are exquisite learning machines. Our brains are wired to learn in interaction with the world, re-programming them over time. Computers, on the other hand, do not readily learn by experience. This opens an exciting interface between computer and child learning. Life-span learning processes arise and continuously develop in a dynamically complex body, brain, and the mind they support as essential features of development and aging over the life course. Life-span learning processes are established by evolutionary adaptive mechanisms, enriched by challenging environments, and continuously developed in supportive social structures. These ideas are derived from evolutionary biology and psychology, the cognitive sciences, life-span development and aging research, and adult development and learning studies. It is argued that life-span learning activities that challenge the body-mind-brain nexus are indispensable to optimize individual development and aging. (14) Evidence
from developmental psychology suggests that understanding other minds
constitutes a special domain of cognition with at least two components: an
early-developing system for reasoning about goals, perceptions, and emotions,
and a later-developing system for representing the contents of beliefs.
Neuroimaging reinforces and elaborates upon this view by providing evidence
that (a) domain-specific brain regions exist for representing belief
contents, (b) these regions are apparently distinct from other regions
engaged in reasoning about goals and actions (suggesting that the two
developmental stages reflect the emergence of two distinct systems, rather
than the elaboration of a single system), and (c) these regions are distinct from
brain regions engaged in inhibitory control and in syntactic processing. The
clear neural distinction between these processes is evidence that belief
attribution is not dependent on either inhibitory control or syntax, but is subserved by a specialized neural system for theory of
mind.(11) There is also an attempt at mapping the mind-brain-self
relationship from a uniquely Jungian perspective.(15) The
frontomedian cortex (FMC) has been shown to be important for coherence
processes in language comprehension, i.e., for establishing the pragmatic
connection between successively presented sentences. The same brain region
has a role during theory-of-mind processes, i.e., during the attribution of
other people's actions to their motivations, beliefs, or emotions. The
findings support the view of this cortex having a domain-independent
functionality related to volitional aspects of the initiation and maintenance
of nonautomatic cognitive processes.(2) Specifically,
person judgments were expected to activate cortical areas associated with
theory of mind (ToM) reasoning. The results
supported this prediction. Whereas action-related judgments about dogs were
associated with activity in various regions, including the occipital and
parahippocampal gyri; identical judgments about
people yielded activity in areas of prefrontal cortex, notably the right
middle and medial frontal gyri.(6)
Theory of mind (TOM), or "mentalizing,"
refers to the ability to attribute mental states to self and others.
Inferring what people are thinking and feeling is an important aspect of
human social interaction, and it is also an important aspect of both
psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.(1) The
ability to attribute mental states to others, and therefore to predict
others' behaviour, is particularly advanced in humans. A controversial but
untested idea is that this is achieved by simulating the other person's
mental processes in one's own mind. If this is the case, then the same neural
systems activated by a mental function should re-activate when one thinks
about that function performed by another. Using functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI), Rammani
and Miall tested whether the neural processes
involved in preparing one's own actions are also used for predicting the
future actions of others. They provide compelling evidence that areas within
the action control system of the human brain are indeed activated when
predicting others' actions, but a different action sub-system is activated
when preparing one's own actions. (9) Bimanual
coordination, a prototype of a complex motor skill, has recently become the
subject of intensive investigation. Whereas past research focused mainly on
the identification of the elementary coordination constraints that limit
performance, the focus is now shifting towards overcoming these coordination
constraints by means of task symbolization or perceptual transformation rules
that promote the integration of the task components into a meaningful
'gestalt'. The study of these cognitive penetrations into action will narrow
the brain-mind gap and will facilitate the development of a cognitive
neuroscience perspective on bimanual movement control.(13) Posner
believes that the study of neuroimaging has supported localization of mental
operations within the human brain. Most studies have shown a small number of
widely distributed brain areas that must be orchestrated to carry out a
cognitive task. Although, as in all sciences, there are disagreements, the
convergence of results in areas of attention and language in particular seem
impressive. Moreover, the anatomical data has helped us to specify the
computations that are used by the brain to carry out cognitive tasks. Building upon localization of cognitive operations, imaging
methods are being applied to studies of the circuitry, plasticity and
individual development of neural networks. Working together with cellular and
genetic methods, there is movement towards a more unified view of the role of
the human brain in supporting the mind. (8) Strumwasser proposes the existence of four
unique behavioural characteristics that distinguish Homo sapiens from its
nearest evolutionary kin, the great apes. These are inventiveness, capacity
for language, curiosity, and self-reflection or self-analysis. Some would counter
argue that none of these features are "unique" to humans. For those
in the mental health field, one would hope that this overview of the most
highly evolved systems in human brain may provide a useful framework where
creative therapeutic processes can be applied to the ultimate beneficiary,
the client or patient. (12) As you
often heard the announcement of “mind the gap” while travelling in REFERENCES 1.Calarge C, 2.Ferstl EC, von Cramon DY. What does the
frontomedian cortex contribute to language processing: coherence or theory of
mind? Neuroimage. 2002 Nov;17(3):1599-612[MedLine-Abstract] 3.Finger S: The Minds Behind the Brain 4.Gelb MJ:How to think like Leonardo da Vinci Delacorte
Press 1998 pp192-219 5.Kandel ER, Squire LR Neuroscience: breaking down scientific barriers to
the study of brain and mind. Science
2000; 290: 1113[MedLine] 6.Mason MF, Banfield JF, Macrae CN. Thinking about
actions: the neural substrates of person knowledge. Cereb Cortex. 2004
Feb;14(2):209-14.[MedLine-Abstract] 7.Neuburger M: The Historical Development of
Experimental Brain and Spinal Cord Physiology before 8.Flourens E.Clarke,
Transl. And Ed., John Hopkins Univ.Pres.,Baltimore, 1981 8.Posner MI. Imaging a science of mind. Trends Cogn
Sci. 2003 Oct;7(10):450-453.[MedLine-Abstract] 9.Ramnani N, Miall RC. A system in the human brain
for predicting the actions of others. Nat Neurosci. 2004 Jan;7(1):85-90. Epub
2003 Dec 21.[MedLine-Abstract] 10.Ray O. How the mind hurts and heals the body. Am
Psychol. 2004 Jan;59(1):29-40[MedLine-Abstract] 11.Saxe R, Carey S, Kanwisher N. UNDERSTANDING OTHER
MINDS: Linking Developmental Psychology and Functional Neuroimaging. Annu Rev
Psychol. 2004;55:87-124[MedLine-Abstract] 12.Strumwasser F. The human mind: building bridges between
neuroscience and psychiatry. Psychiatry. 2003 Spring;66(1):22-31.[MedLine-Abstract] 13.Swinnen SP, Wenderoth N. Two hands, one brain:
cognitive neuroscience of bimanual skill. Trends Cogn Sci. 2004
Jan;8(1):18-25.[MedLine-Abstract] 14.Thornton JE. Life-span learning: a developmental
perspective.Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2003;57(1):55-76.[MedLine-Abstract] 15.Wilkinson M. The mind-brain relationship: the
emergent self. J Anal Psychol. 2004 Feb;49(1):83-101[MedLine-Abstract] 16.Young RM: Mind, Brain
and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century: Cerebral Localization and Its
Biological Context from Gall to Ferrier Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1970; reprinted New York: Oxford University Press, History of
Neuroscience Series, 1990 Pp. xxiv+278 17.Zimmer C: Beyond the ivory tower:A distant mirror
for the brain. Science 2004;303:43-4[MedLine] Editor Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D. Norol
Bil D 2003:20:(4) October-December Nanobiotechnology: A new world of
nanomaterials Nanoparticles, nanospheres, and
other nanostructrured materials are products of the current interest in
nanomaterials. While they may not yet have revolutionized our daily life,
nanomaterials are set to become key components in future high technology
markets. Nanotechnology is the science, engineering, and manufacturing of
nano-sized systems (1 nm = 1billionth of a meter) that perform specific
electrical, mechanical, biological, chemical, or computing tasks.
Nanotechnology is based on the phenomena that nano-structures, devices, and
systems exhibit novel properties and functions as a result of their small
size, typically 1-100 nanometers. The development of nanotechnologies has
created great interest in the worlds of materials and life sciences.
Nanobiotechnology is the application of nanotechnology to the life sciences
(Figure 1). The attraction of nanosciences can be explained by two principal
reasons. On the one hand, nanotechnologies have been shown to be at the root
of the process of miniaturization, which underpin many current industrial
developments. In addition, it is likely that many completely new applications
can be exploited since it has been shown that materials can have completely
different properties in the world where dimensions are less than 100nm. Figure 1. Leading segments in
nanobiotechnology
The physical sciences offer tools
for synthesis and fabrication of devices for measuring the characteristics of
cells and sub-cellular components, and of materials useful in cell and
molecular biology; biology offers a window into the most sophisticated
collection of functional nanostructures that exists.More recently, over the
last couple of years, the science of “nanobiotechnology” has come into vogue.
From the life sciences view some of the examples are; DNA microchip,
nanocrystal materials in the medical imaging market, nanospheres in the development
of the new drug delivery systems, nanostructures for more sensitive
biosensors, monorobots for cancer cells and so on… Nanotubes, also known as
buckytubes, consist of C60 (Carbon-60) molecules and are characterized by
graphene cylinders closed at either end with caps containing pentagonal
rings. Nanotubes are simply hollow, straw-like tubes with single atom-thick
walls. Perhaps the most widely known nanomaterial, nanotubes are currently
manufactured in laboratories worldwide. Sumio Iijima, the Japanese electron
microscopist, discovered them in 1991. Later, Iijima’s colleagues, Thomas
Ebbesen and Pulickel Ajayan, found that nanotubes can be produced in bulk
quantities by varying the conditions during arc-evaporation synthesis. This
discovery was followed by expansive worldwide research into the chemical and
physical properties of nanotubes. Nanotubes are commonly used in tandem with
the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) for the directed-assembly of polymers.
Nanotubes are expensive to make. However they are lighter and stronger than
steel, making them a highly desirable nanomaterial (Figure 2). Figure 2. Nanotubes
Using a smaller measuring device makes it possible to
measure smaller objects. Thus, using nanotechnology in measuring devices
allows for resolution at or below the nanometer scale. One goal for such
instrumentation is the measurement of molecular activity at specific
locations within a cell. Using an atomic force microscope (AFM) with a carbon
nanotube tip, it is possible to penetrate a cell membrane with only the
nanotube tip, for the purpose of obtaining imagery from the inside of the
cell. Nanobiotechnology is predicted to provide a means for
earlier and improved diagnosis of illnesses, leading to better treatment. It
also shows promise in increasing the efficiency of the drug development
process. The relatively well understood manufacturing processes of liposome
and other lipid-based vesicles have made them the leading nanobiotechnology
for drug delivery along with nanoparticle technology. However, polymer-based
carriers constructed with unique properties and silicon based nanomembranes
are in development for the drug delivery. market. References Front
Line Strategic Consulting, Inc.; National Institutes of Health;
Techtarget.com; Space.com; Nanobiotechnology Center; National Science
Foundation: Nanobiotechnology: Opportunities and Technical Analysis For
Sample Pages 2003 Galvin
P: A nanobidtechnolog roadmap for high-throughput single nucleotide
polymorphism analysis. Psychiatr. Genet. 2002; 12:75-82[MedLine-Abstract] Haruyama
T: Micro-and nanobiotechnology for biosensing cellular responses. Adv Drug
Deliv Rev 2003; 55:393-401[MedLine-Abstract] Lowe
CR: Nanobiotechnology: the fabrication and application of chemical and
biological nanostructures. Curr. Opin. Struct Biol. 2000; 10:428-34[MedLine-Abstract] Paris
A, Pessey V: The future of nanomaterials and nanobiotechnology. LabPlus
International 2003; 17: 14-18 Whitesides
GM:The “right” size in nanobiotechnology. Nat. Biotechnol. 2003;
21(10):1161-5 [MedLine-Abstract] Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D. Norol Bil D
2003:20:(3) July-September Brain asymmetry, sleeping, dreaming, and REM Brain asymmetry is the main
subject in this issue by in coincidence submitted review and research
articles both from Gunturkun et al. and Sürekli. I would like to focus on the
sleeping, dreaming and REM from the brain asymmetry aspect. Asymmetry of waking electroencephalography
(EEG) alpha power in frontal regions has been correlated with waking
emotional reactivity and the emotional content of dream reports [1]. Little
is known regarding alpha asymmetry during sleep. Recent studies of sleep in
cetaceans ( dolphins, whales, and porpoises ) marked asymmetry of the EEG was
observed during behavioral sleep posture [10]. The different interhemispheric
asymmetries in non-REM and REM sleep suggest that the two sleep states may
subserve different functions in the brain [11, 12]. Alpha power was highest
during slow-wave sleep and lowest during REM sleep [2]. The present findings
in awake and sleeping dogs confirm the early observations in anesthetized
cats, and more recent studies in awake and sleeping humans, that suggest an
asymmetry in pattern of respiratory motoneuron and muscle activation by
central and peripheral chemoreceptor stimulation, with central chemoreceptor
stimulation driving both inspiratory and expiratory mechanisms, and
peripheral chemoreceptor stimulation driving inspiratory and inhibiting
expiratory mechanisms. Because REM sleep inhibits the nondiaphragmatic
muscles, which include the expiratory muscles, there is a reduction in CO2
response during this sleep stage. In contrast because the response to hypoxia
is mediated predominantly by the diaphragm, which is not generally inhibited
by REM sleep, there is less effect of REM sleep on the overall response to
hypoxia [9]. The peculiarities of sleep in water and on land were
investigated in four adult Northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) of both
sexes. The electrocorticogram of both hemispheres, the neck electromyogram,
the electrooculogram and electrocardiogram were recorded with implanted
electrodes. The interhemispheric asymmetry of EEG during slow wave sleep was
observed in all the animals sleeping in water and on land. The relative
amount of interhemispheric slow wave asymmetry was higher during the sleep in
water comparing to that on land. The fur seals maintain their special sleep
posture on the water surface by moving only one of their front flippers. The
asymmetric EEG in fur seals sleeping in the water may be attributed to the
asymmetric motor activity of their flippers [7]. Bicoherence is generally an
invisible feature: one cannot usually recognize the responsible form of
non-linearity or any obvious correlate in the raw EEG. During stage II/III
sleep overall mean bicoherence is generally higher than in the waking state.
During seizures the diverse EEG patterns average a significant elevation in
bicoherence but have a wide variance. Maximum bispectrum, maximum power
spectrum, maximum and mean bicoherence, skewness and asymmetry all vary
independently of each other [3]. As we learn from Chiron et al. about the
right brain hemisphere is dominant in infants [4], some stimulating areas in
the field of neuropsychological research on sleep-wake behaviour are
presented in Cluydts’s introductory paper using recent publications by
eminent researchers. In the first part the cerebral asymmetry theory proposed
by Ornstein is presented. Do the rhythmic oscillations of the sleeping brain
go together with different forms of cognitive information processing? In the
second part the work of some Italian researchers on dreaming experience in
neurological patients is presented and commented. At a moment when the
emphasis in sleep research is on medical-biological aspects, psychologists
are challenged to produce some creative ideas in the field of neurocognition
of sleep-wake behaviour [5]. The dreams of 103 children and adolescents, aged
10-17 years, have been studied by Russian authors. They believe that the left
hemisphere seems to provide dream origin while the right hemisphere provides
dream vividness, figurativeness, and affective activation level [6]. References 1.Achermann
P, Finelli LA, Borbely AA.:Unihemispheric enhancement of delta power in human
frontal sleep EEG by prolonged wakefulness. Brain Res. 2001 Sep
21;913(2):220-3.[MedLine-Abstract] 2.Benca
RM, Obermeyer WH, Larson CL, Yun B, Dolski I, Kleist KD, Weber SM, Davidson
RJ.: EEG alpha power and alpha power asymmetry in sleep and wakefulness.
Psychophysiology. 1999 Jul;36(4):430-6.[MedLine-Abstract] 3.Bullock TH, Achimowicz JZ, Duckrow RB, Spencer SS,
Iragui-Madoz VJ.: Bicoherence of intracranial EEG in sleep, wakefulness and
seizures. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1997
Dec;103(6):661-78.[MedLine-Abstract] 4.Chiron
C, Jambaque I, Nabbout R, Lounes R, Syrota A, Dulac O. The right brain
hemisphere is dominant in human infants. Brain. 1997 Jun;120 ( Pt 6):1057-65[MedLine-Abstract] 5.Cluydts
RJ.: The neuropsychological investigation of sleep: practical and
methodological aspects. Acta Psychiatr Belg. 1994 Mar-Apr;94(2):68-72[MedLine-Abstract] 6.Korabel'nikova
EA, Golubev VL.:[Dreams and interhemispheric asymmetry] Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr
Im S S Korsakova. 2001;101(12):51-4.[MedLine-Abstract] 7.Liamin
OI, Mukhametov LM, Poliakova IG.: [Features of sleep in the water by the
northern fur seal Callorhinus ursinus] [Article in Russian] Zh Vyssh Nerv
Deiat Im I P Pavlova. 1986 Nov-Dec;36(6):1039-44[MedLine-Abstract] 8.Sekimoto
M, Kato M, Kajimura N, Watanabe T, Takahashi K, Okuma T. Asymmetric
interhemispheric delta waves during all-night sleep in humans. Clin
Neurophysiol. 2000 May;111(5):924-8[MedLine-Abstract] 9.Phillipson
EA, Yasuma F, Kozar LF, England SJ.: Respiratory muscle activation by
chemical stimuli in awake and sleeping dogs. Prog Clin Biol Res.
1990;345:201-11; discussion 211-3[MedLine-Abstract] 10.Ridgway SH.: Asymmetry and symmetry in brain
waves from dolphin left and right hemispheres: some observations after
anesthesia, during quiescent hanging behavior, and during visual obstruction.
Brain Behav Evol. 2002;60(5):265-74.[MedLine-Abstract] 11.Vyazovskiy
V, Borbely AA, Tobler I. Unilateral vibrissae stimulation during waking
induces interhemispheric EEG asymmetry during subsequent sleep in the rat. J
Sleep Res. 2000 Dec;9(4):367-71[MedLine-Abstract] 12.Vyazovskiy
VV, Borbely AA, Tobler I. Interhemispheric sleep EEG asymmetry in the rat is
enhanced by sleep deprivation. J Neurophysiol. 2002 Nov;88(5):2280-6.[MedLine-Abstract] Editor Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D. Norol Bil D 2003:20:(2) April-June Stimulated repairing nerves, laser beam guide and
progenitor cells of human brain Using a mix of two standard serums, Masato Nakafuku of
Japan Science and Technology Corporation and his group stimulated new nerve
cells to grow in the animals' injured hippocampus, a region involved in
storing memories4. The mice did not develop some of the learning difficulties usually
associated with such an injury. Researchers had assumed that the brain was
unable to repair these cells, called pyramidal neurons. Patients who suffer
stroke in this area have severe and irreversible memory problems. "It's really quite remarkable," says Sally
Temple, who studies nerve regeneration at Albany Medical College in New York.
Temple warns that the results need to be repeated before she is fully
convinced. The findings add to growing evidence that treatments might
one day coax people's brains into repairing themselves after stroke3,
Parkinson's disease or other disorders.6 "I'm extremely
confident," says neuroscientist Steven Goldman of Cornell University in
New York. Several areas of the adult brain spontaneously make new
cells throughout life. Recently, researchers have begun to alter the type or
number of new cells using certain growth promoters. Hippocampal pyramidal neurons, however, were thought
unable to regenerate. "It's surprising," says Goldman, "but I
don't think anyone had bothered to look." Nakafuku's team starved mice of oxygen, damaging their
brains. Then they infused the animals' brains for three days with two
proteins that trigger cell division. They found that cells outside the
hippocampus made new nerve cells that migrated into the damaged area, and
appeared to form normal connections with other cells. It is unlikely that the same serums could be used as human
drugs, however, as they could trigger other cells into becoming tumours.
Researchers will need to find new drugs that stimulate cells to make very
specific cell types that travel to a damaged area. They also have to work out
an efficient way to deliver these drugs to brain cells. This work is "at
a pretty primitive stage", says Goldman. A laser beam can guide nerve cells to grow in a particular
direction, researchers have shown. The technique might help damaged nerves to
regrow or could connect them to electronic implants, such as artificial retinas
and prosthetic limbs.1 Rat and mouse nerve cells growing over a glass plate take
the path pointed out by a red laser, report Allen Ehrlicher, of the
University of Leipzig in Germany, and colleagues2. The cells move towards the spot of laser light, travelling as if
down a gentle slope, they think. Moreover, the laser does not harm the cells, the
researchers report, even if it leads them along a zigzag. Normally, cells
don't like making sharp turns; forced to do so, they soon try to straighten
out. Previous attempts to guide cells in channels or on adhesive tracks
damaged their delicate walls. To repair spinal-cord injuries, say, nerves on either side
of a rupture must be guided to join up. Researchers have had some success,
using tubular plastic channels, for example. But they haven't been able to
make joins good enough to restore movement to paralysed patients. The new
study hints that fibre optics might help the ends of damaged nerves to meet
and merge. Nerve cells grow by extending a finger called a
lamellipodium. Stiff filaments of the protein actin push the lamellipodium
forwards. The filaments lengthen as new blobs of actin are added - this
polymerization process prods the cell membrane like a pole pushing up the
roof of a tent. Lasers have been used to manipulate microscopic objects
such as cells since the 1970s. Normally, focused laser beams are used like
tweezers to trap an object and drag it. One way to guide a nerve cell's growth would be to pinch
the tip of its lamellipodium between optical tweezers and pull. But this
approach could simply rip the cell. Ehrlicher's team use a laser beam too dim
and unfocused to create a light trap. They aim the spot so that it overlaps
the tip of the lamellipodium. As they move the beam slowly, the cell's finger
follows. They can thus alter the direction of nerve growth by angles of up to
90°. Laser guidance also makes the lamellipodium grow about five times faster
than normal, the team reckons. Ehrlicher and colleagues admit that they don't know why
the laser has this effect. They suggest that light may marshal actin
molecules, enhancing filament growth. The subcortical white matter of the adult human brain
harbors a pool of glial progenitor cells. These cells can be isolated by
fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) after either transfection with
green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of the CNP2 promoter, or
A2B5-targeted immunotagging. Although these cells give rise largely to oligodendrocytes,
in low-density culture Goldman et al. observed that some also generated
neurons. They thus asked whether these nominally glial progenitors might
include multipotential progenitor cells capable of neurogenesis. They found
that adult human white-matter progenitor cells (WMPCs) could be passaged as
neurospheres in vitro and that these cells generated functionally competent
neurons and glia both in vitro and after xenograft to the fetal rat brain.
WMPCs were able to produce neurons after their initial isolation and did not
require in vitro expansion or reprogramming to do so. These experiments
indicate that an abundant pool of mitotically competent neurogenic progenitor
cells resides in the adult human white matter.5 A distinct population of white matter progenitor cells
(WMPCs), competent but not committed to generate oligodendrocytes, remains
ubiquitous in the adult human subcortical white matter. These cells are
present in both sexes and into senescence and may constitute as much as 4% of
the cells of adult human capsular white matter. Transduction of adult human
white matter dissociates with plasmids bearing early oligodendrocytic
promoters driving fluorescent reporters permits the separation of these cells
at high yield and purity, as does separation based on their expression of
A2B5 immunoreactivity. Isolates of these cells survive xenograft to
lysolecithin-demyelinated brain and migrate rapidly to infiltrate these
lesions, without extending into normal white matter. Within several weeks, implanted
progenitors mature as oligodendrocytes, and develop myelin-associated
antigens. Lentiviral tagging with green fluorescent protein confirmed that
A2B5-sorted progenitors develop myelin basic protein expression within
regions of demyelination and that they fail to migrate when implanted into
normal brain. Adult human white matter progenitor cells can thus disperse
widely through regions of experimental demyelination and are able to
differentiate as myelinating oligodendrocytes. This being the case, they may
constitute appropriate vectors for cell-based remyelination strategies.7 References
Editor Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D. Norol Bil D 2003:20:(1) January-March After 50 years beyond DNA and improving human brain
intelligence On February 28, 1953 Francis
Crick walked into an English pub to announce that he and James Watson
had discovered the secret of life. Almost 50 years after Watson and Crick
made their discovery -- determining the structure of DNA -- the
question remains: What will we do with our genetic knowledge? Table 1. Determine Intelligence
People of low intelligence who do not have a recognised mental
disability are suffering from an inherited disorder as real as cystic
fibrosis or haemophilia, Mr Watson told a TV program that is to air next
month in Britain. In the series, Mr Watson, 75, is sceptical of theories
that blamed learning disabilities or poverty for poor intellectual
performance and says the true cause of poor intelligence and achievement is
more likely to be genetic. "If you really are stupid,
I would call that a disease," he said. Mr Watson says it is unfair some
people receive less opportunity and warns that some will resort to genetic
means. "Those parents who enhance their children, then their children
are going to be the ones who dominate the world," he said. Turning to
beauty, Mr Watson says this too could be engineered. "People say it
would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be
great," he says. Oliver James, a clinical
psychologist and author, accused Watson of "ropy thinking" about
the balance between nature and nurture, saying the ideas were "science
fiction". Tom Shakespeare, a bioethics
expert at the University of Newcastle, told The Times newspaper:
"He is talking about altering something that most people see as part of
normal human variation, and that, I think, is wrong." Sir John Sulston,
who ran Britain's contribution to the Human Genome Project, said Watson was
exploring an "extremely dangerous area", but was not wrong to speak
out. "It is foolish to put our heads in the sand," he said. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice
Wilkins jointly shared the Nobel prize for Medicine in 1962, almost 10
years after their discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA was
published in April 1953. The discovery came on February 28 that year.
"It was simple; instantly you could explain this idea to anyone -- you
didn't have to be a high-powered scientist to see how the genetic material
was copied," he said. In the 1950's we had our first
glimmerings of the structure of DNA, and dreamed of being able to read the
genetic code. Today we can sequence a DNA strand - if not yet a routine
process, it soon will be. Today we have a rudimentary ability to scan human
brains and understand the neuron structure and the way that experience and
learning is stored. Perhaps in another 50 years our ability to scan and
understand brain structures will be similar to today's ability to understand
DNA. References DNA: In the Next 50 Years, What Will We Do with Our
Genetic Knowledge? WILLINGTON, Ct., January 20, 2003 http://www.prweb.com/releases/2003/1/prweb55296.php THE WORLD TRANSHUMANIST ASSOCIATION
http://www.transhumanism.org Creature Generation Chart
http://cc.oulu.fi/~count/sm/files/creature%20generation.doc DNA 'clue to stupidity'
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,6059313,00.html Double Helix With a Twist osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/index.html Editor noktar@med.ege.edu.tr Norol Bil D 2002:19:(4) October-December Bioterrorism and scientific freedom arguments Faced with requests by
investigators to withhold crucial details in papers that could be related to
bioterrorism, American
Society for Microbiology (ASM) President Ronald Atlas is
calling for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to convene a meeting to
discuss the handling of such articles. In a 23 July letter to NAS
President Bruce Alberts, Atlas said that a meeting of publishers in the life
sciences is urgently needed to "initiate discussions about the possible
development of common publication policies in
today's atmosphere, where there is increasing concern that technical articles
may inadvertently aid those engaged in acts of terrorism." Atlas, who publishes 11 journals through the ASM, made this
request because he has been asked by several investigators to publish
articles lacking certain critical details for fear that such details could be
"misappropriated or misused." Atlas said in an interview with The
Scientist that honoring such requests would set a bad precedent and that
omitting data would alter the fundamental tenets of scientific research. The letter comes as UK academics
secure an amendment to the much-criticized export control
bill. The amendment should protect researchers' freedom
to publish new data and share their findings. University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan finds
the notion of keeping scientific publishing blindly open
"puzzling." Some information should obviously not be made public,
according to Caplan. Rather than having a strict policy of classifying such
information, which history shows has led to overly restrictive policy, Caplan
sees the solution as a blue-ribbon panel representing the interests of the
researchers and government to vet publications. Against the backdrop of the
nation's current war on terrorism, AAAS will sponsor a symposium this
December to consider the delicate balance between the demands of national
security and the need to protect scientific freedom and human rights. While
many of the new security measures are clearly necessary, it is essential that
the scientific community be engaged in evaluating them and their impacts on
the environment for research," says Al Teich, director of the AAAS
Directorate for Science and Policy Programs. "Scientists and engineers
must also carefully consider their own professional and personal roles in
this very dynamic and highly charged political environment."The
symposium, entitled "The War on Terrorism: What Does It Mean for
Science?," is scheduled for 18 December The symposium will raise several
questions regarding how scientists should respond to the new climate:
It is clear the war on
terrorism will be different than past wars due to the new technologies that
are available. Dr. Gerald Yonas, Vice President and Principal Scientist at
Sandia National Laboratories, stressed that point along with the importance
of understanding how technologies that can affect the mind can be used
against terrorism and the need for a body of rules governing "just
war" in the future of mind war. We wish you a happy
2003 year without any terrorism or war at all. Editor noktar@med.ege.edu.tr References *Bioterrorism papers under scrutiny: American Society
for Microbiology president calls for meeting to discuss withholding of
critical data by journals | By Laura DeFrancesco; http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20020729/03%20
*Coimbra Sirica: Maintaining
the Balance Between Scientific Freedom and National Security http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/waronterror.shtml *The war on Terrorism:What
does it mean for science? A symposium: Tuesday, December 18, 2001American
Association for the Advancement of Science,Washington, DC http://www.aaas.org/spp/scifree/terrorism/ *http://www.aaas.org/spp/scifree/terrorism/report.shtml *AAAS Directoraten for
Science & Policy, Scientific freedom, responsibility & law; http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/about.htm *Wendy A. Laurin :
Scientific freedom vs terrorism: Bioinformatics International Sept 2002
Vol:9No:7pp.8 Norol Bil D 2002:19:(3) July-September Kuantum mekaniği ve Beyin Geçen yüzyılın en önemli bilimsel gelişmeleri sıralansa
genel görecelik , kuantum mekaniği , big-bang kozmolojisi , genetik kodların
çözümlenmesi , evrimsel biyoloji v.b. gibi konular ön sıraları alır kuşkusuz.
Bunların içinde kuantum mekaniği köklü dayanağı ile oldukça ayrıcalıklıdır.
Öyle ki bu durum gerçeklerle ilgili fikirlerin yeniden şekillenmesine, en
derin seviyede doğasal olayların yeniden düşünülmesine, pozisyon ve hız
olgularının gözden geçirilmesine ve hatta neden-sonuç ilişkilerine değin
uzanmaktadır. Atomik dünyayı tanımlayan bir kuram olan kuantum mekaniği
günlük yaşamımızdan ne kadar uzak gibi görünse de özellikle kimya, biyoloji
ve tıptaki şaşırtıcı gelişmeler kuantum mekaniği sayesinde gerçekleşmiştir.
Bilgisayar çağı kuantum mekaniğinin çocuğudur. Foton devrimi bizi bilgi
çağına ulaştırmıştır. Kuantum mekaniği tek bir sıçrama basamağı atlanarak
ortaya çıkmamıştır. Bir çok dahinin belli bir süreçte katkıları ile öncelikle
1900’lerde kuantanın babası sayılan Max Planck’ın kuantum kavramını ortaya
atışı ile başlamıştır. Termal radyasyon konusundaki bir yazısında titreşim
halindeki bir sistemin total enerjisinin sürekli olarak değişmeyeceği
hipotezi ile enerjinin bir basamaktan diğerine bir kuanta değeri enerji
olarak sıçraması gerektiğini ortaya atmıştır. Bu kuanta enerjisi fikri o
derece radikal idi ki Planck bu savı bir süre nadasa bırakacaktı. Ta ki
Einstein’ın 1905 yılında ışık için kuantizasyon göstergesinin tamınına kadar.
O zaman fizikçiler arasında bile çok tuhaf karşılanan bu kavram fazla gelişme
göstermedi.
Modern kuantum teorisinin yaratılması için yirmi yıl sonra
gelen yeni bir fizikçi generasyonu gerekti. 1913’te Niels Bohr kuantum
fiziğini atom dünyasına uyarladı. 1923’te Louis de Broglie partiküllerin de
ışık gibi dalgalar halinde davrandığını gösterdi. 1924’te Albert Einstein ve
Satyendra Nath Bose kendi adlarında anılan (Bose-Einstein) istatistiği ile
kuantum partiküllerini ölçen yeni bir yöntem geliştirdiler. Böylece son
derece soğuk atomların yoğunlaşarak tek bir kuantum evresine ulaştığı durum
daha sonraları Bose-Einstein kondansatörü olarak adlandırıldı. 1925’te
kuantum mekaniğinin ilk versiyonu olan matriks mekaniğini Werner-Heisenberg
geliştirerek kuantum alan teorisinin temelini atmış oldu. 1926’da Erwin
Schrödinger kuantum fiziğinde ikinci bir tanımı geliştirerek buna “dalga
mekaniği” adını verdi. Bu tanım daha sonra fen alanında en ünlü formüllerden
biri olan Schrödinger denklemi olarak adlandırıldı. Paul Dirac’ın çalışmaları
kuantum alan teorisine önderlik ettiği gibi “anti-madde” gibi buluşlarına da
neden oldu. 1960’da Theodore Mainman ilk pratik laseri yapılandırdı. Laser
üreten halkaların kesişme yerlerinde dolaşan fotonların kuantumu paylaşan
partiküllerin oluşturulması, yeni kuantum bilgisayarların gelişmesine neden
oldu. 1995’de Bose-Einstein kondansatörü pratiğe geçirilerek atom laseri ve
süperakışkan gazlar bulundu. İlki 1999’da Kuzey Arizona’da yapılan “Kuantum ve Zeka”
konferansı sonrası kuantum ölçümü, kuantum kriptografisi, kuantum
teleportasyonu gibi devrimsel bilgi teknolojilerinin ışığında bilinç düzeyi,
kuantum fiziği ve beyin ile ilgili toplantılarda kuantum bilgisi ile beyin
arasında bir sentez amaçlanmakta. Beynin sinaptik bağlantıları çalışmaları
nöral-ağların yapısının, biyolojik kuantum bilgisi de kuantum bilgi
teknolojilerinin gelişmesine yardımcı olacaktır. Nöronlar-arası birleşkede
elektronların kuantum tüneli 1970’de Evan Harris Walker tarafından ileri
sürülmüştü. Dendritler arasındaki sıkı bağlantılar da kuantum tünelleşmesini
olanaklı kılmaktadır. Hafıza, nöral ağlarda bilginin saklanması, anımsanması,
kuantum bilincinin birleştirici tubulin elektron olayı ile tanımlanmaktadır.
Biyojenik ferrimanyetik maddenin beyindeki fonksiyonu, iyon kanalları, hangi
boyuttaki beyin bilinci yaşar? sorularına yanıt aranmaktadır kuantum
bilgileri ışıgında. Kuantum bilinç durumu ile biyolojik siklus
süperpozisyonu, nöronları birleştiren sinapsın her iki tarafındaki
mikrotubulinlerin kuantum siklüsünü sürdürmesi çalışmaları ön planda
gözükmektedir. Nöro-kuantolojinin diğer ilgi alanları ise görsel dikkat,
fotonlardan fenomolojiye vizyon, gama ossilasyon, ayrık beyin, kaos ve beyin,
v.b. gibi bilimsel gizemini koruyan konulardır.
Geçen yüzyılda fiziksel dünyayı
tanımamız amprikti. Kuantum fiziği, madde ve alan teorileri bilgileri ile
dünyamızı değiştirdi. Önümüzdeki yüzyıl kuantum mekaniği temel nörolojik
bilimler yanı sıra tüm bilim dallarında temel bir kavram ve asal bir araç
olarak önemini sürdürecektir. En iyi dileklerimle Editör KAYNAKLAR Kleppner D, Jackiw R.: One hundred years of quantum
physics. Science. 289:893-8, 2000 www.timeline.aps.org/APS/index.html Manoharan, Lutz, Eigler Nature 403:512-515, 2000 Consiousness, Quantum physics and Brain- Quantum Mind
2003 http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/quantum-mind2 Norol Bil D 2002:19:(2) April-June Malpractice in Neurological Sciences Türkiye'nin Avrupa Birliği ile ilişkileri
gözden geçirilirken gündeme geç te olsa gelen tıpta kötü uygulama
(malpractice) yasa tasarısı tartışılıyor. Türk Tabipler Birliğinin (TTB) bu
konudaki girişimlerini http://www.ttb.tr/malpractice.html (4) URL
adresindeki Tıbbi Hizmetlerin Kötü Uygulanmasından Doğan Sorumluluk Kanun
Tasarısı bölümünden ayrıntıları ile inceleyebilirsiniz. Hazırlanan bu yasa
tasarısı ile ilgili görüş ve eleştirilerinizi lütfen bu siteye
bildirin. Bu yasa gereği mesleki sorumluluk
sigortası uygulamasında en yüksek prim ödeyecek uzmanlık dalları olarak
jinekoloji ve nöroşirürji gelmektedir. TTB Yüksek Onur Kurulunda 1986-2002
tarihleri arasında 704 dosya görüşülmüştür. Ayrıca 1990-2000 arasındaAdli Tıp
Kurumu'na hekim hatası iddiası ile 636 dava dosyası gelmiştir. Yüksek Sağlık
Şurası dosyalarında da büyük çoğunluğunun tıp doktorları için yapılan
başvurular olduğu göz önüne alındığında bu sayılar her 30 hekimden birinin
yasal şikayete uğradığını göstermektedir. Bu oran, şikayetlerin bazı
toplumsal mekanizmalar ve meslekler tarafından kışkırtıldığı ABD’de yaklaşık
12’de bir olup, diğer ülkeler Türkiye ile benzerlikler göstermektedir.
Amerikalı bir nöroşirürjiyene kariyeri sırasında ortalama on kez dava açılır
ve genel pratisyene göre bu nedenle malpraktis sigorta primi on kez daha
yüksektir (3). Bazı İskandinav ülkelerinde mahkemeye dava açmanın ekonomik
boyutu zorunlu hasta sigorta yasaları ile azaltılmaya çalışılmaktadır. Bu
ekonomik boyut hastaneler tarafından karşılanmakta ve hataya-bağlı olmayan
komplikasyonlar kısmen makul ücretlerle uzman bir kurul tarafından
incelenerek çözüme gidebilmektedir. Bununla birlikte Avrupa'da mahkemeye dava
açmak giderek yaygınlaşmakta ve bu durum her zaman her iki tarafa da acı
veren bir deneyim olmaktadır. Bu durum modern bir toplumda tamamen ortadan
kaldırılamaz, hastaların da hakları mevcuttur (1). Pratik olarak, dava açılmasını
önlemek üzere, yapılan önerileri şöylece sıralayabiliriz: -Meslektaşınızı gereksiz yere,
özellikle de yazılı olarak, eleştirmekten sakınınız ve dikkatli olunuz. -Hastanızı ve yakınlarını işlem
öncesi ve sonrasında çok iyi bilgilendiriniz. -Her olan olayı hasta kayıtlarına
geçiriniz. -Tedavi kalitesini her zaman
yüksek düzeyde tutunuz. Mahkemede sizi bir uzmanlar kurulu
sınamayacaktır. Unutmamak gerekir ki hukuk dili medikal dilden tamamen
farklıdır (2). References 1-Loew F: Ethics in Neurosurgery ACTA NEUROCHIR
(Wien) 116:187, 1992 2-Mayfield FH: Historical vignette "perjury is
not a crime" SURG NEUROL 31:71-75, 1989 3-Quam L, Dingwall R, Fenn P: Medical malpractice in
perspective. The American experience. BMJ 294:1529-32, 1987 4- http://www.ttb.org.tr/malpractice.html Nezih Oktar M.D. Norol Bil D 2002:19:(1)
January-March Neurolinguistics
and the language gene Human language is a unique faculty of the mind. It has been the
ultimate mystery throughout the history of neuroscience. Despite many aphasia
and functional imaging studies, the exact correlation between cortical
language areas and subcomponents of the linguistic system has not been
established. One notable drawback is that most functional imaging studies
have tested language tasks at the word level, such as lexical decision and
word generation tasks, thereby neglecting the syntactic aspects of the
language faculty. As proposed by Chomsky, the critical knowledge of language
involves universal grammar (UG), which governs the syntactic structure of
sentences. Recent studies on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
study intended to identify cortical areas specifically involved in syntactic
processing. A study of sentence processing that employs a newly developed
technique, optical topography (OT), proposing a modular specialization of
Broca's area, Wernicke's area, and the angular gyrus/supramarginal gyrus [6]. The FOXP2 gene, located on human 7q31 (at the SPCH1 locus), encodes a
transcription factor containing a polyglutamine tract and a forkhead domain.
FOXP2 is mutated in a severe monogenic form of speech and language
impairment, segregating within a single large pedigree, and is also disrupted
by a translocation in an isolated case. Several studies of autistic disorder
have demonstrated linkage to a similar region of 7q (the AUTS1 locus),
leading to the proposal that a single genetic factor on 7q31 contributes to
both autism and language disorders [2]. But in some studies as Newbury
et al. coding-region variants in FOXP2 do not underlie the AUTS1 linkage and
that the gene is unlikely to play a role in autism or more common forms of
language impairment [3]. Neurolinguistics (NLP) is the study of subjectivity; it looks at the way people think, learn,
communicate and act. It is learning the components of language, perception,
and behavior that not only determine our experiences, but make understanding
one another possible [4]. "The application of NLP techniques and
strategies ... will revolutionize the way you think about teaching and
learning says van Nagel and et al.in their book of Mega-Teaching And
Learning gives parents and educators new diagnostic models that will help
them understand how students develop learning blocks and disabilities. With
step-by-step instructions in the concepts of Neurolinguistics, you can learn
methods for remediating these blocks [7]. The genes and brains of unusually gifted linguists, people who can
speak many different languages fluently, for example, might also reveal other
genetic contributions to language learning [8] and even faciliated by
the disappearance of a linguistic barrier between them [1]. The current direction of research in neuroscience is beginning to
establish the existence of distinct modules responsible for our knowledge of
language.
References 1-Di Benedetto G, Erguven A,
Stenico M, Castri L, Bertorelle G, Togan I, Barbujani G. 2-Lai CS, Fisher SE, Hurst JA,
Vargha-Khadem F, Monaco AP.:A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech
and language disorder. Nature 2001 Oct 4;413(6855):519-23 3-Newbury DF, Bonora E, Lamb JA,
Fisher SE, Lai CS, Baird G, Jannoun L, Slonims V, Stott CM, Merricks MJ,
Bolton PF, Bailey AJ, Monaco AP.: FOXP2 Is Not a Major Susceptibility Gene
for Autism or Specific Language Impairment. Am J Hum Genet 2002 Mar 13;70(5) 4-Neurolinguistics (NLP) www.leadinc.com/new_page_8.htm 5-Nopola-Hemmi J, Myllyluoma B, Haltia
T, Taipale M, Ollikainen V, Ahonen T, Voutilainen A, Kere J, Widen E.: A
dominant gene for developmental dyslexia on chromosome 3. J Med Genet 2001
Oct;38(10):658-64 6-Sakai KL, Hashimoto R, Homae F.:
Sentence processing in the cerebral cortex. Neurosci Res 2001 Jan;39(1):1-10 7-Van Nagel C. , Siudzinski
R, Reese M and Reese E: Mega-Teaching And Learning: Neurolinguistic
Programming in Education http://www.metamodels.com/meta/bks/edu3.htm 8-Whitfield John: Language gene
found Nature 4 October 2001 Editor Nezih Oktar M.D. Norol Bil D 2001:18:(4) October-December Neuroelectronics: Combines nerve cells and
microchips Peter Fromberz and Gunther Zeck of
the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich placed pond snail (
Lymnaea Stagnalis) neurons on a silicon chip, fencing them in place with
microscopic plastic pegs. Neighbouring cells grew connections with each other
and with the chip (1) (Figure 1*). A stimulator beneath each nerve cell
created a change in voltage that triggered an electrical impulse to travel
through the cell. Electrical pulses applied to the chip passed from one nerve
cell to another, and back to the chip to trip a silicon switch. The circuit
literally went live.
Eve Marder who studies neural
networks at Brandies University in Waltham, Massachusetts says that by
letting us create nerve-based circuits at will, the technique is a lovely way
to probe the workings of the nervous system, for example to investigate how
memories are formed (2). The main obstacle to neuroelectronics is the
difficulty of reliably connecting devices and living tissue. Fromherz and
Zeck solved this problem by using silicon means electronic devices can be
built into a standard chip. Biosensors for testing toxic or pharmaceutical
substances on nerve cells and neuroprosthetics are among the ambitious
applications for such chips. For example, chips could bridge a damaged
section of the spinal cord. But such projects are still the realms of science
fiction, as are "neurocomputers with living neurons or brains",
says Fromherz. The method is suitable for long-term studies on synaptic modulation
in small networks of intervertebrate neurons that are connected by chemical
synapses. Meanwhile nerve networks will hopefully teach us how to mimic the
brain's properties. References 3. Tarlaci S: Nöroelektronik aglar: Bir hayale
dogru. Bilim ve Teknik Aralik 2001 Nöroelektronik: Nöron ile
yongalarin birlesimi Münih'teki Max Planck
Enstitüsünden Peter Fromberz ve Günther Zeck'in gecen aylarda silikon yonga
(microchip) üzerine havuz salyangozu (Lymnaea Stagnalis) nöronlarini basari
ile yerlestirme ve islevsel olarak birbirleri ile baglanti kurmalarini
göstermeleri nöroelektronik devrenin ilk adimi sayilmaktadir (1) (Şekil 1*).
Her nöronun altindaki uyaran voltajda bir degisiklik olusturmus ve hücre
boyunca iletisim saglamistir. Yongaya uygulanan elektriksel uyarim bir
nörondan digerine nakledilmis ve yongaya geri dönerek silikon salterli bir
yolculuk yapmistir. Bu devre genel anlamda canli bir devredir.
Sekil 1. L.Stagnalis’in ayak ganglionundan alinan her bir
nöronun mikro-yonga ile kültüründeki üç gün sonraki elektromikrografisi;
hücre gövdelerinde yer değiştirme olmadan dokunma yerlerinde uzantılar, sinir
hücrelerinde filizlenmelerin olusumu (ölcek: 20µm) [*Bu resim "Copyright
(2001) National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A." "Noninvasive
neuroelectronic interfacing with synaptically connected snail neurons on a
semiconductor chip." by, Zeck, G. & Fromherz, P. published in PNAS,
August 28, 2001;98,10457-10462.izni ile elektronik ortamda yayimlanmaktadir.
Kendilerine tesekkur ederim] Nöral aglar ile ugrasan
Waltham'daki Brandeis Üniversitesinden Eve Marder bu nöron-kaynakli
devrelerin sinir sisteminin nasil calistigini gözlemleyebilecegimiz bir
arastirma araci olacagi, örnegin bellegin nasil olustuguna iliskin bilgilerimizi gelistirebilecegimiz düsüncesinde.
Nöroelektronikte ana engel güvenli bir sekilde yongalar ile yasayan dokulari
birlestirebilmek. Bu sorunu Fromherz ve Zeck silikon kullanarak asmislar ve
elektronik aygitlari standard bir yonga içinde kurmuslardir. Bu nöronal
yongalarla ilk olarak hedeflenenler toksik ve farmakolojik maddelerin
nöronlar üzerindeki etkilerini deneyecek biyolojik sensörler ve nöroprotezler
gibi projelerdir. Bu heyecan verici projelerden bir örnek olarak medülla
spinalisin hasarli bölgesini onarmada bir köprü görevi görmeleri olabilir.
Ancak bütün bu projeler bilim kurgu alaninda Fromherz'e göre "beyin ya
da nöronlarla yasayan nöro-bilgisayarlar" olarak adlandirilmaktadirlar.
Bu yöntem kimyasal sinapslarla baglanmis kücük nöronal-aglarin
sinaptik modülasyonunun uzun etkilerini irdelemek icin uygundur. Ayni zamanda
bu sinir-aglari ile beynin özelliklerini taklit ederek nasil calistigini ögrenmeyi
de umut edebiliriz. Saygilarimla Editor Norol Bil D 2001:18:(3) July-September The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (The
CONSORT statement) Increased number of randomised clinical
trials in all aspects of medical research has prompted the introduction of guidelines that are intended to improve the quality of the research
and of the published papers derived from such investigations. The
Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials ( the CONSORT statement) were set
forth by a group of journal editors, statisticians, biomedical investigators.
The CONSORT statement's critical value to researchers, health care providers,
and health policy makers is its commitment to integrity in the reported
results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). It provides users with
consistent, high quality data that they can rely upon for making treatment
decisions. The CONSORT statement has been published in several major
medical journals and is likely to have a major impact on editorial policies
as well as the design of such investigations. CONSORT is an evidence-based research tool that provides
authors with a standard way to report RCTs through the use of a 21-item
checklist and a flow diagram. The CONSORT statement can also be used by
readers, peer-reviewers and editors to identify reports with inadequate
description of trials and those with potentially biased results. To incorporate new evidence and improve on the original
effort, the CONSORT group has revised the CONSORT statement as you may
download with new checklist and flow diagram which is available at http://www.cosort-statement.org . Now on our e-journal support
the CONSORT statement for randomized controlled trials as we stated in our instructions for authors. Best regards. Editor Schulz KF: The quest for unbiased research: Randomized
clinical trials and the CONSORT reporting guidelines. CONSORT reporting
guidelines [from American Neurological Association] 1997 [Download PDF file - 110K] Norol Bil D 2001:18:(2) April-June Book review enthusiasm As we peer-review the submitted
articles in our e-journal we should consider to review books, as well. We
received two precious books for "book review" last month. Ilhan Elmaci MD, in his recent
book, has done a remarkable job presenting, both biographically and
scientifically, an important personage in Neurosurgery: Hami Dilek MD was
indeed a pioneer in the history of Neurosurgery in Turkey. As Elmaci's
previous work on an historical article published in Neurosurgery concerning
Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu (AD 1385-1468) who was the author of
Cerrahiyyetü'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery), which was written in Turkish in
1465. It was the first illustrated textbook of surgery in the Turkish medical
literature, containing color illustrations of surgical procedures, incisions,
and instruments.(1) It is my fervent hope that other biographical vignettes
will be published with meticulous work exposing more "documented
stories" from the younger generation, like this out as under-scope in
"book review" section of this electronic issue. "Computing the Brain" is another contemporary
work by a distinguished author of computing: Michael A. Arbib (2). His epistomology breaks new
ground in an undiscovered globes of brain. From USC, edited by Arbib &
Grethe "Computing the Brain- A guide to Neuroinformatics (3)" provides with an integrated view of current informatics
research related to the field of neuroscience. Now with our new committed editorial staff we are keen on
"book review" sharing the excitement of the authors fraught with
arduousness while creating their "world of books". (1) Elmaci I: Color illustrations and
neurosurgical techniques of Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu in the 15th
century.Neurosurgery. 2000 Oct;47(4):951-4; discussion 954-5. Norol Bil D 2001:18:(1) January-March The Nobel Prize & Neuroscientists In the year of 2000, the Nobel
Committee awarded the Prize for Physiology or Medicine to three distinguished
neuroscientists, Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard, and Eric R. Kandel. Their
contributions opened a molecular window onto the brain*. However, neurologist
Oleh Hornyhiesicz of Vienna University Medical School discovered in the 1960s
that the neurotransmitter dopamine was the underlying deficit in Parkinson's
disease and designed the first replacement treatment using a dopamine
precursor*. Carlsson by identifying dopamine as the first brain
neurotransmitter found uniquely in the brain, Greengard by illuminating the
molecular cascade triggered inside the neuron by dopamine, and Kandel by
recognizing that the molecular basis of cognitive processes such as learning
must first be worked out in simpler systems before they can be understood in
the brains of complex mammals such as ourselves. In this first issue of JNS[T],
while entering to the third millenium we had the privilege of publishing the
original paper from the owner of Nobel prize, Eric R. Kandel. I thank on
behalf of readers of our e-journal to Kandel & Mayford for contributing
such a valuable paper on "The genetic basis of memory storage" to
our e-journal. * L.Orlando, Nobel objections, Trends in
Neurosciences 2001, 24:4:202 Editor Norol Bil D 2000:17:(4) October-December Neurological
aspects of entering to a new millenium As a result of our latest monthly poll we're going to
review the subjects of gene therapy, epilepsy & surgery, and
hydrocephalus treated by neuroendoscopy in our early millenium issues. While entering to a new millenium I would like to mention
some aspects and expectations of the neurological sciences. The use of
computers in medicine will revolutionize the current methods of diagnosing
neurological diseases. Data from patients will be compared with other patient
information compiled in large databases to more accurately select
differential diagnoses and therapeutic programs. Computer simulation of
various therapeutic approaches to the treatment of diseases, based on the
compilation of a large amount of data, including patient information, will be
commonplace and will eliminate the need to conduct randomized clinical
studies because each individual treatment will be tailored specifically to
the patient (1). The advances in biology will be keyed by a continued
understanding to the genetics of the nervous system. Genetic abnormalities
will be detected in utero, thereby averting developmental problems. The
genetic basis of malformations, tumor, degenerative diseases, and a variety
of other problems will be discovered. These discoveries in genetics will
eventually lead to genetic manipulation, treatment, or reversal of the
disease processes mentioned herein. Neurosurgeons will become more
specialized and work in teams with neurologists and basic scientist in
academic centers to provide detailed multidisciplinary approaches to
problems. The 21st century looks very exiting for neurological
sciences. Please do not hesitate to contact us for a better on-line
e-journal of the neurological sciences. For the foreseeable events in the new millenium we wish
the best on in minds coming earliest to all of us in the year of 2001. (1)
Ausman JI: Achivement of the last century in Neurosurgery and a view to the
21st century. Surg Neurol 2000;53:301-2 Editor Norol Bil D 2000:17:(3)
July-September Progenitor
& Stem Cell Research The
biomedical community is moving quickly to take advantage of new guidelines
from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for use of human pluripotent
stem cells. The U.K. goverment leaped into an ethical minefield recently,
endorsing a report it had commissioned that calls for an expansion of
research on human embryos. The report advocates tapping embryos for their
stem cells, unspecialized cells that may ultimately serve as seed material
for growing tissues to treat diseases. It also opens the door to cloning
human embryos for research- an activity that has triggered sharp debate.
Legislation implementing the recommendations will go to parliament for a vote
this fall. If passed, the new U.K. regulations would likely be more
permissive than guidelines expected out shorthly from the US NIH. With
Canada, Germany, and Japan also hammering out guidelines, says stem cell
researcher John Gearhart of the John Hopkins University School of Medicine,
"you'll soon see other players in the field." (Table 1)(4) TABLE
1.
Neural stem cells (NSCs) are
multipotential progenitor cells that have self-renewal activities. A single
NSC is capable of generating various kinds of cells within the CNS, including
neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Because of these characteristics,
there is an increasing interest in NSCs and neural progenitor cells from the
aspects of both basic developmental biology and therapeutic applications for
damaged brain. By understanding the nature of NSCs present in the CNS,
extracellular factors and signal transduction cascades involved in the
differentiation and maintenance of NSCs, population dynamics and localization
of NSCs in embryonic and adult brains, prospective identification and isolation
of NSCs, and induction of NSCs into particular neuronal phenotypes, it would
be possible to develop a feasible strategy to manipulate cells in situ to
treat damaged brain.(3) Endogenous oligodendrocyte progenitor cells for
example, may represent a viable target for future therapies intended to
enhance remyelination in MS patients. (1) Current U.K. rules allow research on
human embryos only for studies aimed at improving infertility treatment,
devising better contraceptives, and screening for genetic abnormalities
before implantation. Nearly all embryos used in such studies are leftovers
from in vitro fertilization clinics, and research is limited to embryos less
than 2 weeks old, before neural development occurs. But recent advances in stem cell research
prompted the U.K. Department of Health to ask its chief medical officer, Liam
Donaldson, to appoint an independent panel to review the science and ethics
of human embryo research. The panel delivered its report in May, and last
week the Department of Health unveiled both the report and the government's
response. The department is now discussing with the research councils, which
dole out much of the government's science funding, how to fund more human
embryo research. Topping the panel's list of recommendations
is a call for allowing researchers to extract embryonic stem cells, which can
be coaxed to form various cell types. Culled from 5- to 6-day-old embryos,
such cells might be grown in the test tube into tissues suitable for
transplantation. The hope is that embryonic stem cells would serve as a
stopgap until scientists learn to reprogram adult cells to serve as stem
cells. "Winding the clock back on adult cells is very much the Holy
Grail of stem cell research," says Donaldson. But scientists shouldn't
count on adult cells, warns Peter Andrews of the University of Sheffield, who
studies human embryonal tumor cells. "In the end," he says,
"the therapeutic approach will be the one that's easiest to
follow." The final guidelines, issued last
week, allow NIH- funded researchers to derive pluripotent stem cells from
fetal tissue, but not from embryos. Scientists may also work with embryonic
stem cells, but may obtain them only from private sources and must ensure
that derivation meets certain ethical conditions. (Table 2)(5). TABLE 2.
There is reason for the scientific
community to be mildly pleased by the recent NIH rules, but unconfined joy is
not in order. The political terrain is well planted with land mines--and the new
guidelines, welcome though they are, fall short of perfection. The forces
that have placed stem cell research in peril are powerful, and they are among
a number of voices challenging science, whether the issue is research on
embryos, reproductive biology, or the teaching of evolution in the
schools.(2) Literature 1-Chang A, Nishiyama A, Peterson J,
Prineas J, Trapp BD: NG2-Positive Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cells in Adult
Human Brain and Multiple Sclerosis Lesions. J Neurosci 2000 Sep 1;20(17):6404-6412[MedLine-Abstract] 2-Kennedy D: Two cheers for new stem
cell rules SCIENCE Sept. 1; 2000; 289:1469 3-Okano H: Neural stem cells: the
basic biology and prospects for brain repair NIHON SHINKEI SEISHIN YAKURIGAKU
ZASSHI 2000; Feb; 20(1): 21-6[MedLine-Abstract] 4-Stone R: U.K. Backs use of
embryos, sets vote. SCIENCE Aug. 25; 2000; 289; 1269-70 5-Vogel G: Researchers get green
light for work on stem cells SCIENCE 1 Sept. 2000; 289:1442-3 Editor Norol Bil D 2000:17:(2) April-June Gene Therapy for Neurological
Disorders As gene transfer technology has
evolved, its applicability to a wide range of disease has become apparent.
Attribution of many neurological diseases to single gene defects has made these
diseases attractive candidates for gene therapy. The progress in developing
gene therapies for lysosomal storage diseases, muscular dystrophy, and
Parkinson disease are well-known. Latest developments achieved by
complete coding of chromosomes 22 and 21 of humankind by human genome project
on the one course, also an unpredictable death of a patient during a gene
therapy using an adenovirus vector in Philadelphia on the other end ,
willy-nilly to cease to care for gene treatment clinically for a while. Laboratory and technical improvements
are well ahead on clinical studies and therapies if you considered gene
therapy. Ethical issues on one side, demoralizing clinical results achieved on
malignant brain tumor gene therapies using viral vectors on the other side
for example. All efforts are now mobilized for a
vaccine for cancer or searching reliable other forms of vectors and to be
more strict on clinical protocoles in general terms, before attempting for a
realistic, safe and effective gene therapy for all of our patients. Best regards Editor Literature MA Eglitis: Gene therapy for
neurodegenerative diseases. In. The molecular basis of neurosurgical
Disease.Concepts in Neurosurgery Vol.8 Ed.(s) Raffel C, Harsh GR Williams
& Wilkins 1996 pp.374-84 E. Marshall: Gene therapy death
prompts review of adenovirus vector SCIENCE 17 Dec. 1999; 286(5448):2244-5 Norol Bil D 2000:17:(1) January-March Optical Coherence Tomography Optical coherence tomography ( OCT )
continues to be one of the few light-based technologies gaining a commercial
foothold in the medical field. And if Coherent Diagnostic Technology ( CDT;
Westford, MA) is successful in its efforts to commercialize technology
licensed from Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT; Cambridge, MA),
OCT could well become a standard diagnostic tool for multiple medical
applications. OCT offers several advantages over existing
diagnostic technologies. It is optically based, noncontact, and achieves
resolution in the 2-10µm range - one to two orders of magnitude greater than
ultrasound or other tomographic imaging technologies such as computed
tomography or magnetic resonance. In addition, it precludes the need for
surgical biopsies. Simply put, OCT involves directing
infrared light waves onto an object, organ, or tissue specimen and measuring
how long it takes for the light to return. The basic OCT system works by
gating out the reflections from different depths in the tissue or material
using an interferometer [Fig.1]. Fig.1 Basic
OCT system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge,
MA), and being commercialized by Coherent Diagnostic Technology, works by
gating out the reflection from different depths in a tissue or material using
an interferometer. These data are then recompiled into a computerized image
within seconds. By moving the mirror once the
interferometer has extracted the optical signals from the reflected light,
the data are processed and high-resolution, cross-sectional (that is, 3-D)
digital images of microstructures are produced on an attached computer monitor
- all in a matter of seconds. And, because the resolution is so high, the
process reveals an enormous amount of data, with the possibility of imaging
at the cellular level [Fig.2]. Fig. 2 Images of brain tissue from a frog
(with the skull removed) were obtained in real time (12 frames/s) with a
resolution of 15 µm in the range dimension and 25 µm in the lateral
dimension. Literature K. Kincade: OCT moves closer to
broad-based commercialization LASER FOCUS WORLD Dec. 1999; 35(12):47-8 http://www.optoelectronics-world.com
Norol Bil D 1999:16:(4) October-December Being a Neurosurgeon of the Century Yüzyılın Beyin-cerrahı olmak
Yeni bir yüzyılın eşiğinde benim de
yanında kısa bir süre bulunma şansım olduğu Gazi M. Yaşargil tüm dünya saygın
nöroşirürjiyenleri arasında yapılan bir seçim sonucu 1900-50 yılları için
Nöroşirürjinin kurucusu Cushing'in ardı sıra 1950-2000 arasına vurduğu
inanılmaz damgası ile tartışmasız olarak seçildi. "Neurosurgery"
dergisi son sayısında 30 sayfaya yakın yer verdiği Yaşargil, nöroşirürjide
devrim yaratan sisternal cerrahi, mikronöroşirürji, nöral dokuya saygı v.b.
yöntemleri ile yeni ve imkansızı olanaklı kılan genç bir nörolojik cerrah
generasyonunun ülkemizde olduğu gibi tüm dünyada yetişmesinde öncülük
etti. Yaşargil nörolojik cerrahide bir usta
olmasının yanı sıra insani değerlerin ürünleri, sanat ve yaşam ile ilgili
olarak da yaşantısında ortaya koyduğu değerlerle onu yakından tanıma olanağı
olanlara yön vererek etkili olmuştur. Emekli olmasına karşın halen ABD'de
kopamadığı Nöroşirürji ile içiçedir ve hala ameliyat yapmaktadır. Adam olmak kolay değildir. Hele hele
yüzyılın adamı olmak hiç kolay değildir. Geçmişte bırakacağımız yüz yılda
devrimci bir devlet adamımız büyük Atatürk'ün Dünyada yankılandığı izleri
yaşıtlarının fikirlerinin teker teker tükendiği dönemde, Yaşargil'in
nöroşirürjideki devrimleri de yaşıtlarının koyduğu cerrahi ilkelere göre daha
uzun ömürlü olacağı hatta önümüzdeki bir yüz yıl daha yaşayacak güçte olması
bizlere ancak onur vermektedir. Daha nice bir yüz yıla sığmayacak
"yüzyılın adamlar"ına... En iyi dileklerimle Editör Norol Bil D 1999:16:(3) July-September Brain-quake Beyin-depremi 17 Ağustos 1999 günü yaşanan deprem
felaketi ardından AKUT örneğinde
kanıtlanan bilinçli, gönüllü, yürekli, sivil örgütlenmenin gücü yanı sıra
bilimsel verilere duyulan aymazlık, ahlaksızlık ve dinsel ağırlıklı içgüdüsel
propagandalar, uluslararası hele komşumuz Yunanistan'ın ulaştırdığı insani
yardımlar altında umarım ezilmiştir. Bu felaket umarım yine beyinlerde de bir
depreme neden olarak çürük, temelsiz, insani olmayan, bilim dışı düşünceleri
de sarsarak yerle bir etmiştir. Science dergisinin domino-taşları örneği
olarak körfezdeki bu son deprem konusu ile ilgili bir yazısı sitemizden link
edilerek okurlarımıza sunulmuştur. EARTHQUAKES: Dergimizin nöro-radyolog ve
nöro-patologlarla ortaklaşa düzenledikleri kış toplantımızı 18
Aralık 1999 tarihinde Fransa'dan konuk konuşmacılarımız sayın
Prof.Daumas-Duport ve Prof.Meder'in katılımları ile gerçekleştireceğiz.
Konularında şu anda bir numara olan bu değerli meslektaşlarımızı İzmir'de
ağırlayacagız. Robot-Medline adı altında
şu anda İsrail Devlet Başkanı olarak görev yapan, aslında temel bilimlerde
saygın bir bilim adamı niteliği de olan meslektaşımız sayın Weizmann'ın
öncülüğünde haftalık MEDLINE taraması ile ilgili size devamlı bir bilgi akışı
sağlayacak araştırıcılar için yararlı ve tamamen ücretsiz bir inter-net
programını da sitemizin "editor's
link" bölümünden bulabilirsiniz. Böyle devlet başkanlarını tüm dünya
ülkelerinin başında görmek acaba olası olacak mıdır? Yerküremizi sarsan depremler hiç bir
zaman son bulmayacaklardır. Umarım beyin fonksiyonlarımızı sarsan
beyin-depremlerinden de sağlıklı olarak kurtulmak için beyin gücümüzü sağlam
tutacak yöntemleri bulma yönündeki çabalarımız da son bulmaz. En iyi dileklerimle Editör Norol Bil D 1999:16:(2) April-June E-biomed proposal and peer-review in
indexed biomedical journals Biyomedikal dergilerde hakemlik işlevi ve E-biomed tasarısı Amerikan Ulusal
Sağlık Enstitüsünün (NIH) önerdiği taslak eğer onaylanırsa yakın bir
gelecekte internet üzerinde daha ekonomik boyutta bir biyomedikal yayımcılık
devreye girmiş olacak. NIH başkanı Harold Varmus ve arkadaşlarının önerisi
ile özgün biyomedikal çalışmaların sunum ve erişimi internetin daha hızlı ve
geniş kapsamlı kullanımı ile yaygınlaşacaktır. Zaten sadece mecmualar ve
süreli yayınlar için en geniş arşivleme sistemine sahip olan Amerikan Milli
Tıp Kütüphanesi’nin PC ve internet servisi MEDLINE yanı sıra her türlü tıbbi
yayın (indekslenmeye girmeyen mecmualar, kitaplar v.b.) arşivi de artık
internet üzerinden ulaşıma açılmış durumdadır (LOCATORPlus). Elektronik
(On-line) yayımcılık servisi kurma aşamasına gelen ve E-biomed olarak adlandırılan
bu yeni sistem için NIH başkanı Varmus’a Ulusal Biyoteknoloji Bilgi Merkezi
başkanı David Lipman ve Stanford Universitesi genetik uzmanı Pat Brown’un da
yardımları ile 22 Nisan’da tüm ilgililere e-posta ile duyuru yapılmış ve
gelecek öneriler ile birlikte bu yeni sistem gözden geçirilerek bir dergide
basılı halde yayımlanmış olacaktır. Bu taslağa göre düşünülen yeni sisteme
ulaşım birkaç şekilde olabilecektir. Bu sisteme uygun olarak gönderilecek bir
çalışma / makale, eğer yüksek bir kalite seçilecekse büyük olasılıkla
şu anda zaten çeşitli dergilerde hakemlik görevi üstlenen bilinen kişilerden
oluşan uluslararası bir network ağına girecek ve gizli-hakemlik işlevi
yürütülecektir. Warmus’a göre bu yol güncel, geçerli ve düzenli olacak. Eğer
bu yolla gönderilen yazı red olursa, yazar bu kez çalışmasını daha az
prestiji olan web-değerlendirme site alanına kaydıracaktır. Ancak yazarların
aynı zamanda hiç bir editör ya da hakemlik işlevine girmeden basit bir yol
seçim hakkı da olacaktır. Bunun için yazar ya da yazarların geniş bir
bilimsel kadro panelinde yer alan en az iki üyeden yazısı ile ilgili
“geçerlilik” notu alması koşulu aranacaktır. Öte yandan saygın
bir adı olan “Index medicus”ta arşivlenen mecmualar arasında gizli-hakemlik
işlevinin irdelendiği 1994 yılında sonuçlanan bir araştırmada makalelerin
ancak %56 ila %65’inin gizli konsültan editörlük sürecinden geçtiği ve
şaşırtıcı olarak yayımlanan makalelerin yarısına yakın bir bölümünde hakemlik
işlevinin editörlerce çeşitli nedenlerle yürütülemediği ortaya konmuştur.
(JAMA 1994, 272:156-158) Klasik yöntemlerle yürütülen hakemlik işlevinin bu
düzeyde aksaklık göstermesi son derece düşündürücüdür. Bu çarpıcı sonuçlar
ve önerilen yeni sistemler, bana göre, yayımcılıkta bilimsel etik ve
hakemlik işlevi sorunlarını çözmeye yönelik yeni bir boyutta daha sağlıklı
bir yaklaşım sürecine girmekte olduğumuzun habercileridir. Bu sayımızda
epilepsi cerrahisi, nöroendoskopi ve spinal enstrüman kullanımı ile ilgili
özgün yazılar yanı sıra yine ilginç, güncel araştırma, derleme ve olgu
sunumları ile karşınızdayız. Elektronik olarak
yayımlanan bu son sayımız ile internet dergicilikte bir yılımızı doldurduk.
Önümüzdeki sayılar ile ilgili bazı özel hazırlıklarımız ve 2000 yılı için
bazı özel sürprizlerimiz olacak; her zaman olduğu gibi eleştiri ve
önerilerinizi beklemekteyiz. En iyi dileklerimle Editör Kaynaklar Colaianni LA. Peer
review in journals indexed in Index Medicus JAMA 1994; 272:156-8 Marshall E.
Scientific publishing: Varmus Circulates Proposal for NIH-backed online
Venture Science ________________________________________________________ Norol Bil D 1999:16:(1) January-March Scientific fraud Until a few decades ago, fraud in science was generally believed to
be uncommon and, when it happened, it was perceived as the action of the
deranged. Science is supposedly self-correcting, and so the discovery of
fraud was seen as inevitable. However, as laboratory life has become more
competitive, and especially where experiments are difficult to replicate,
fraud and other types of serious misconduct have become less rare. As one of
our e-journal's peer-reviewer Prof.Ertekin quoted on his speech which had
been held on 5th of February, at the Winter Meeting of our journal , in
Izmir that there was an about 0.1 to 0.4% of scientific misconduct has been
found in biomedical research all over the world . (As published in this
week's of CBT) The extent of scientific misconduct of the
'fabrication-falsification-plagiarism' type is hotly - and usually rather
unscientifically - debated in both the United States and Europe. Some
scientists fear that publicized cases are merely the tip of an iceberg.
Others remain convinced that the overall incidence remains low, and even
those with direct experience of misconduct cases are often optimistic. I also
recommend to you to read over the briefing written by Alison Abbott with
additional reporting by Rex Dalton and Asako Saegusa in the last issue of Nature:
Science comes to
terms with the lessons of fraud The other area of argument among the journal editors is
in now on developing for misconduct watchdog. The all for a fraud-busting
body comes from the authors of a report published 2 weeks ago by the
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), an alliance of journal editors. This
and similar organizations, alarmed at the rising number of misconduct
accusations and the lack of any mechanism for investigating them, believe
that Britain needs a national watchdog body, along the lines of the US Office
of Research Integrity or the Danish National Committee for scientific
dishonesty. “It should have the power to investigate, which we don’t have”
says Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Smith et al.
first met 12 months ago to discuss growing concerns about the lack of clear
guidelines on how to deal with breaches of research and publication ethics.
The group founded COPE, and since then it has heard of numerous dubious
studies sent by researchers to medical journals. ________________________________________________________ Norol Bil D 1998:15:(4) October-December Uniforming electronic material The uniform requirements for submission of medical manuscripts (URM)
as indicated for the members of the World Association of Medical Editors
(WAME) http://www.wame.org/rsources.htm
recently revised also in French and in Portuguese. As guidelines of the
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors style of references for
the electronic material http://www.ama-assn.org/public/journals/jama/sc6336.htm#electronic
has proposed for journal article in electronic format as : the name of the
author(s). Title of the manuscript. Name of the e-journal [serial online].
Publication date (as month,year) and the URL address. We should uniform the style and format
of the electronic publications in the act of referring which appearing widely
as a seamless scientific cyberlibrary. My proposal will be as follows: Name
of the author(s). Title of the article. Name(official abbr.) of the e-journal
[URL address] / year of the publication / archive code of the file (as .htm,
.html, or .pdf) as we use in our on-line publication of Turkish Neurological
Sciences ( http://www.med.ege.edu.tr/~norolbil
) (This editorial note has sent to
"Science"- Letters to the editor- on 11th of December,
1998) ________________________________________________________ Norol Bil D 1998:15:(3) July-September Journal of Neurological Science
(Turkish) and "electronic linking" plan A vision of the Web as a seamless scientific cyberlibrary has just
come a step closer to reality. Many scientific publishers have endorsed an
"electronic linking" proposal under which the National Library of
Medicine (NLM), home of the online MedLine biomedical abstracts, would create
a new data base so that electronic citations could be linked across
all scientific and engineering fields from astronomy to zoology. PubRef, as it has been dubbed, would not be directly searchable and
would in fact be invisible to users, says Kenneth Fulton, executive director
of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), which is spearheading the plan.
Instead, behind the scenes, PubRef would supply hyperlinks for references in
online articles. The result would be that for someone reading, say, an
astrophysics paper in Science, a referenced paper or its abstract in Physical
Review Letters would be just a mouse click away. (Depending on the journal,
viewing the paper might require a subscription or fee.) "This is
something that's clearly going to be very useful for the community, and we
can do it at minimal cost," says NLM's David Lipman. More than 40 scientific publishers and societies (including AAAS,
which publishes Science) and other groups have signed on to a 31 July letter
from NAS president Bruce Alberts to NLM director Donald Lindberg describing
the plan. Lipman says it's now up to journals to submit citation URLs, but
once that happens PubRef could be up and running in 5 months. Journal of Neurological Sciences (Turkish) has been started as an
"electronic link" since June, 1998. With a further step converting
to PDF (portable downloadable format) with hyperlinking to URL address of the
references in published on-line articles, if available in Inter-Net starting
from the next issue. ________________________________________________________ Norol Bil D
1998:15:(1-2) January-June Future of scientific e-journals Recently there have been different
arguments about the electronic journals appeared in inter-net and spread
widely all across the planet. I would like to discuss the advantages of
electronic journals to be gained from saving time for their preparation while
printing and for their publication. Besides that, this new method seems to be
particularly advantageous to the publisher with respect to the quality of
presentation (with video, sound, etc.) without any problems of postage or distribution
and without any cost of printing. These are crucially important issues in a
developing country. I have been an editor of a locally published scientific
journal (Turkish Journal of Neurological Sciences) for 15 years. Now we have
an URL address (http://www.med.ege.edu.tr/~norolbil)
and decided to carry on as an e-journal. As Einstein said "Imagination
is more important than the knowledge", the simplest and easiest way of
accessing to knowledge has been through the inter-net (think of Med-line).
For example, I can get the opportunity to read "SCIENCE" two weeks
before I receive the hard-copy. Yet, as Y.Poumay
(Science no.5367, May 22, p.1171) indicated, there are some questions
about the functions of the e-journals; such as "will the peer-reviewed
e-journal material be admitted as a published article?"; "how can
we store them?"; "how can we rely on authors and editors?";
"how can we classify the sources of literature?" and so forth. In
order to protect our scientific credibility, we should not ban anything but
just imagine more profoundly with the help of any kind of scientific
knowledge. (This editorial note has sent to
"Science"- Letters to the editor- on 31st of May, 1998) |
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