Evaluating Evidence of Mechanisms in Medicine
Evaluating Evidence of Mechanisms in Medicine

Author: Veli-Pekka Parkkinen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-07-13

Total Pages: 131

ISBN-13: 3319946102

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This book is open access under a CC BY license. This book is the first to develop explicit methods for evaluating evidence of mechanisms in the field of medicine. It explains why it can be important to make this evidence explicit, and describes how to take such evidence into account in the evidence appraisal process. In addition, it develops procedures for seeking evidence of mechanisms, for evaluating evidence of mechanisms, and for combining this evaluation with evidence of association in order to yield an overall assessment of effectiveness. Evidence-based medicine seeks to achieve improved health outcomes by making evidence explicit and by developing explicit methods for evaluating it. To date, evidence-based medicine has largely focused on evidence of association produced by clinical studies. As such, it has tended to overlook evidence of pathophysiological mechanisms and evidence of the mechanisms of action of interventions. The book offers a useful guide for all those whose work involves evaluating evidence in the health sciences, including those who need to determine the effectiveness of health interventions and those who need to ascertain the effects of environmental exposures.

The Mechanism of Human Facial Expression
The Mechanism of Human Facial Expression

Author: G. -B. Duchenne de Boulogne

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-11-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780521032063

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In Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine, the great nineteenth-century French neurologist Duchenne de Boulogne combined his intimate knowledge of facial anatomy with his skill in photography and expertise in using electricity to stimulate individual facial muscles to produce a fascinating interpretation of the ways in which the human face portrays emotions. This book was pivotal in the development of psychology and physiology as it marked the first time that photography had been used to illustrate, and therefore "prove," a series of experiments. Duchenne's book, which contained over 100 original photographic prints pasted into an accompanying Album, was rare, even when it first appeared in 1862. Duchenne was a superb clinical neurologist and in this study he applied his enormous experience in neurological research to the question of the mechanism of human facial expression. Duchenne has been little cited and little known in this century; his book has been virtually unobtainable, and copies are available in only a few libraries in the United States and Europe.

Mechanism
Mechanism

Author: Domenico Bertoloni Meli

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

Published: 2019-04-18

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0822986523

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The mechanical philosophy first emerged as a leading player on the intellectual scene in the early modern period—seeking to explain all natural phenomena through the physics of matter and motion—and the term mechanism was coined. Over time, natural phenomena came to be understood through machine analogies and explanations and the very word mechanism, a suggestive and ambiguous expression, took on a host of different meanings. Emphasizing the important role of key ancient and early modern protagonists, from Galen to Robert Boyle, this book offers a historical investigation of the term mechanism from the late Renaissance to the end of the seventeenth century, at a time when it was used rather frequently in complex debates about the nature of the notion of the soul. In this rich and detailed study, Domenico Bertoloni Melifocuses on strategies for discussing the notion of mechanism in historically sensitive ways; the relation between mechanism, visual representation, and anatomy; the usage and meaning of the term in early modern times; and Marcello Malpighi and the problems of fecundation and generation, among the most challenging topics to investigate from a mechanistic standpoint.

Beyond Mechanism
Beyond Mechanism

Author: Brian G. Henning

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2013-02-01

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 0739174371

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It has been said that new discoveries and developments in the human, social, and natural sciences hang “in the air” (Bowler, 1983; 2008) prior to their consummation. While neo-Darwinist biology has been powerfully served by its mechanistic metaphysic and a reductionist methodology in which living organisms are considered machines, many of the chapters in this volume place this paradigm into question. Pairing scientists and philosophers together, this volume explores what might be termed “the New Frontiers” of biology, namely contemporary areas of research that appear to call an updating, a supplementation, or a relaxation of some of the main tenets of the Modern Synthesis. Such areas of investigation include: Emergence Theory, Systems Biology, Biosemiotics, Homeostasis, Symbiogenesis, Niche Construction, the Theory of Organic Selection (also known as “the Baldwin Effect”), Self-Organization and Teleodynamics, as well as Epigenetics. Most of the chapters in this book offer critical reflections on the neo-Darwinist outlook and work to promote a novel synthesis that is open to a greater degree of inclusivity as well as to a more holistic orientation in the biological sciences.

In Search of Mechanisms
In Search of Mechanisms

Author: Carl F. Craver

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-10-03

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 022603982X

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Neuroscientists investigate the mechanisms of spatial memory. Molecular biologists study the mechanisms of protein synthesis and the myriad mechanisms of gene regulation. Ecologists study nutrient cycling mechanisms and their devastating imbalances in estuaries such as the Chesapeake Bay. In fact, much of biology and its history involves biologists constructing, evaluating, and revising their understanding of mechanisms. With In Search of Mechanisms, Carl F. Craver and Lindley Darden offer both a descriptive and an instructional account of how biologists discover mechanisms. Drawing on examples from across the life sciences and through the centuries, Craver and Darden compile an impressive toolbox of strategies that biologists have used and will use again to reveal the mechanisms that produce, underlie, or maintain the phenomena characteristic of living things. They discuss the questions that figure in the search for mechanisms, characterizing the experimental, observational, and conceptual considerations used to answer them, all the while providing examples from the history of biology to highlight the kinds of evidence and reasoning strategies employed to assess mechanisms. At a deeper level, Craver and Darden pose a systematic view of what biology is, of how biology makes progress, of how biological discoveries are and might be made, and of why knowledge of biological mechanisms is important for the future of the human species.

Human Biochemistry
Human Biochemistry

Author: Gerald Litwack

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2021-11-28

Total Pages: 883

ISBN-13: 032391053X

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**Selected for Doody's Core Titles® 2024 in Biochemistry** Human Biochemistry, Second Edition provides a comprehensive, pragmatic introduction to biochemistry as it relates to human development and disease. Here, Gerald Litwack, award-wining researcher and longtime teacher, discusses the biochemical aspects of organ systems and tissue, cells, proteins, enzymes, insulins and sugars, lipids, nucleic acids, amino acids, polypeptides, steroids, and vitamins and nutrition, among other topics. Fully updated to address recent advances, the new edition features fresh discussions on hypothalamic releasing hormones, DNA editing with CRISPR, new functions of cellular prions, plant-based diet and nutrition, and much more. Grounded in problem-driven learning, this new edition features clinical case studies, applications, chapter summaries, and review-based questions that translate basic biochemistry into clinical practice, thus empowering active clinicians, students and researchers. - Presents an update on a past edition winner of the 2018 Most Promising New Textbook (College) Award (Texty) from the Textbook and Academic Authors Association and the PROSE Award of the Association of American Publishers - Provides a fully updated resource on current research in human and medical biochemistry - Includes clinical case studies, applications, chapter summaries and review-based questions - Adopts a practice-based approach, reflecting the needs of both researchers and clinically oriented readers