• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.31-56
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• 2000

A purpose of this study is to study on Rene Descartes's mind-body theory in medical aspect. Though Rene Descartes was not so much a doctor as a philosopher, he had health and medical science at heart. When he came into the world in 1596, he was in poor health. Therefore, he suffered from his bad health. Descartes's ideas absolutely colored Western thought for three hundred years, especially, his mind-body theory, mechanistic life-view, and reductionism had important effect on medical study and science of public health. As a rule, we know that his mind-body theory was applicable to mind-body dualism, and his mind-body dualism was connected with biomedical model of medicine. But by this study, his mind-body theory was not only mind-body dualism but also mind-body monoism. And he asserted mind-body interaction too. In other words, he advocated mind-body dualism in scientific aspect, but he knew mind-body monoism from his experence. He confessed this fact to Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, he wrote mind-body interaction in $\boxDr$Discours de la methode$\boxUl$, $\boxDr$Meditationes de prima philosophia$\boxUl$, and $\boxDr$Traite des passions de 1'ame$\boxUl$ etc. However, only mind-body dualism of his mind-body theories was written in our medical text book, morever mental realm was excluded from the persuit of learning Descartes advocated a mechanistic world-view and mechanistic life-view, he regarded human body as a machine part. And a paticent corresponds to a troubled machine, a doctor deserves a repairman. But this point of view made holistic understanding of man impossible. Descartes divide the whole into basic building blocks, we named the approach Reductionism. Reductionism led to ontological concept in medical science, bacteriology established 'specific cause-specific disease-specific therapy'. We examined medical influence of Descartes's thought, we need to draw out a philosophic basis of medical science and science of public health by a close study of his records.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.246-261
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• 1996

Organophosphorus pesticides, which are an important part of synthetic pesticides in current use contain sulfur atom in their molecules and can be activated or detoxified by environmental and/or biological metabolism. Among the related metabolic reactions, oxidative processes are particularly important with their final products and the study on the reactive intermediates formed in those reactions is essential to elucidate the metabolic pathways and mechanisms and to understand the toxicological properties. This review dealt with the reactive intermediates formed in various reactions from the structural and mechanistic point of view for organophosphorus pesticides and related compounds.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.937-959
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• 2009

The Queen of the Air, John Ruskin-s highly elliptical publication of 1869, elaborates a complex mythology as a way of responding to the prevalence of scientific thinking, widespread environmental degradation, the pernicious effects of political economy, and mechanistic labor. Benjamin-s desire to rescue human experience from prevailing scientific conceptions is reminiscent of Ruskin-s fear that the peculiar power that shapes the unities of the natural world is simultaneously being "beaten down by the philosophers into a metal or evolved by them into a gas" and obscured by the dreams and theories of philosophers and theologians. As a critic remarks, in Benjamin-s-and, we would add, Ruskin-s-view, "what the modern era lacked was a basis for continuity which would prevent experience from disintegrating into a desultory and meaningless series of events." Despite its frenetic hyper-associativity, then, The Queen of the Air contains a key element that Benjamin believes is necessary for "redemption": the desire for a new form of consciousness that recognizes links to the past and thus to the longings and dreams of our forebears. Thus, although Ruskin most immediately influences Proust, who in turn influences Benjamin, Benjamin-s thought is far more Ruskinian than critics have heretofore observed. Just as Benjamin helps us make sense of the ways in which The Queen of the Air is caught in the grip of the shocking associativity of modern life, so Ruskin assists us in discerning similar impulses in Benjamin-s attraction to a form of archaic consciousness that can, by altering the modern form of perception, reenchant the present.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.7.1-7.7
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• 2009

"To be, or not to be?" This question is not only Hamlet's agony but also the dilemma of mitochondria in a cancer cell. Cancer cells have a high glycolysis rate even in the presence of oxygen. This feature of cancer cells is known as the Warburg effect, named for the first scientist to observe it, Otto Warburg, who assumed that because of mitochondrial malfunction, cancer cells had to depend on anaerobic glycolysis to generate ATP. It was demonstrated, however, that cancer cells with intact mitochondria also showed evidence of the Warburg effect. Thus, an alternative explanation was proposed: the Warburg effect helps cancer cells harness additional ATP to meet the high energy demand required for their extraordinary growth while providing a basic building block of metabolites for their proliferation. A third view suggests that the Warburg effect is a defense mechanism, protecting cancer cells from the higher than usual oxidative environment in which they survive. Interestingly, the latter view does not conflict with the high-energy production view, as increased glucose metabolism enables cancer cells to produce larger amounts of both antioxidants to fight oxidative stress and ATP and metabolites for growth. The combination of these two different hypotheses may explain the Warburg effect, but critical questions at the mechanistic level remain to be explored. Cancer shows complex and multi-faceted behaviors. Previously, there has been no overall plan or systematic approach to integrate and interpret the complex signaling in cancer cells. A new paradigm of collaboration and a well-designed systemic approach will supply answers to fill the gaps in current cancer knowledge and will accelerate the discovery of the connections behind the Warburg mystery. An integrated understanding of cancer complexity and tumorigenesis is necessary to expand the frontiers of cancer cell biology.

• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.335-340
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• 2011

In this study, we attempted to isolate novel mast cell-stimulating molecules from Staphylococcus aureus. Water-soluble extract of S. aureus cell lysate strongly induced human interleukin-8 in human mast cell line-1 and mouse interleukin-6 in mouse bone marrow-derived mast cells. The active molecule was purified to homogeneity through a $C_{18}$ reverse phase HPLC column. By determination of its structure by MALDITOF and $^1H$- and $^{13}C$-NMR, adenosine was revealed to be responsible for the observed cytokine induction activities. Further studies using 8-sulfophenyl theophylline, a selective adenosine receptor blocker, verified that purified adenosine can induce interleukin-8 production via adenosine receptors on mast cells. Moreover, adenosine was purified from S. aureus-engulfed RAW264.7 cells, a murine macrophage cell line, used to induce phagocytosis of S. aureus. These results show a novel view of the source of exogenous adenosine in vivo and provide a mechanistic link between inflammatory disease and bacterial infection.