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Viruses pose a huge burden on public health systems and the economy worldwide. In the case of humans, viruses make up about two-thirds of all new human pathogens. Both DNA and RNA viruses can cause acute, persistent, or latent infections, as they can integrate their genome into the host DNA, such as the endogenous retroviruses, which can be associated with a wide variety of cancers in animals and humans. In recent years, viruses have emerged not only as a health threat but also as a potential alternative for producing new diagnostic tools as well as prophylactic/therapeutic approaches to defeat viral diseases. This book provides a broadly comprehensive series of reviews describing the replication strategies used for both DNA and RNA viruses, their interaction with the host immune system, and their potential role in tumorigenicity and cancer immunotherapy as applied to various viruses of critical relevance for human or animal diseases.
Rapid antigen tests became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic as affordable diagnostic tools to help control the spread of infection, thanks to their cost-effectiveness and simplicity of use. These features enabled their widespread employment at point-of-care, even in those countries where access to care is still limited. The advantages of this diagnostic approach have been demonstrated in practical applications and have envisaged their utilization in other diagnostic fields in which access to prevention is beneficial, such as in the fight against neglected diseases and cancer. As such, the need to further improve the performance of rapid antigen assays is urgent. At the same time, the replacement of natural bioligands with synthetic ones to increase sustainability is likely to support the future development of the technique. The boundaries of applications of rapid antigen tests are still expanding towards several fields, beyond clinical diagnostics to food safety, forensics, and veterinary testing. This book provides a comprehensive overview of rapid antigen testing, discussing both its benefits and limitations.
Language is the most essential medium of scientific activity. Many historians, sociologists and science studies scholars have investigated scientific language for this reason, but only few have examined those cases where language itself has become an object of scientific discussion. Over the centuries scientists have sought to control, refine and engineer language for various epistemological, communicative and nationalistic purposes. This book seeks to explore cases in the history of science in which questions or concerns with language have bubbled to the surface in scientific discourse. This opens a window into the particular ways in which scientists have conceived of and construed language...
This book provides a unique perspective on the biomedical and societal implications of personalized medicine and how it helps to mitigate the healthcare crisis and rein in ever-growing expenditure. It introduces the reader to the underlying concepts at the heart of personalized medicine. An innovative second edition, this book functions as an update to the successful first edition to include new, state-of-the-art information and advancements in the fast-paced field of personalized medicine. Chapters examine pharmacogenomics, targeted therapies, individualized diagnosis and treatment, and cancer immunotherapies. The book also features an essential discussion on how the advent of genomic techn...
It has become a truism that we all think in the narrative mode, both in everyday life and in science. But what does this mean precisely? Scholars tend to use the term ‘narrative’ in a broad sense, implying not only event-sequencing but also the representation of emotions, basic perceptual processes or complex analyses of data sets. The volume addresses this blind spot by using clear selection criteria: only non-fictional texts by experts are analysed through the lens of both classical and postclassical narratology – from Aristotle to quantum physics and from nineteenth-century psychiatry to early childhood psychology; they fall under various genres such as philosophical treatises, case histories, textbooks, medical reports, video clips, and public lectures. The articles of this volume examine the central but continuously shifting role that event-sequencing plays within scholarly and scientific communication at various points in history – and the diverse functions it serves such as eye witnessing, making an argument, inferencing or reasoning. Thus, they provide a new methodological framework for both literary scholars and historians of science and medicine.
Our contemporary societies place more and more emphasis on the singular and the unique. The industrial societies of the early 20th century produced standardized products, cities, subjects and organizations which tended to look the same, but in our late-modern societies, we value the exceptional - unique objects, experiences, places, individuals, events and communities which are beyond the ordinary and which claim a certain authenticity. Industrial society’s logic of the general has been replaced by late modernity’s logic of the particular. In this major new book, Andreas Reckwitz examines the causes, structures and consequences of the society of singularities in which we now live. The tr...
This interdisciplinary book develops a dialectical narrative about the beginning of the universe by combining Hegel’s philosophy with texts about the Big Bang theory. Scientific accounts of the Big Bang indicate that the first second of existence was an eventful period in which the universe progressed through six different epochs. Bringing together cosmological narratives and Hegel’s writings (particularly The Science of Logic), Gregory Phipps reads this movement as a dialectical progression, a sequence of transitions among interlinked concepts like being and nothing, finitude and infinitude, and space and time. He also draws upon Hegel’s concept of absolutes to outline a model of the ...
This book brings together two different discussions on the value of the humanities and a broader debate on interdisciplinary scholarship in order to propose a new way beyond current threats to the humanities. Petar Ramadanovic offers nothing short of a drastic rehaul of our approaches to literary scholarship, the humanities, and university systems. Beginning with an analysis of what is often referred to as the "crises" in the humanities, the author looks at the specifics of literary studies, but also issues around working conditions for academics. From precarity and pay conditions to peer review, the book has practical as well as theoretical implications that will resonate throughout the hum...
Molecular Biology in Narrative Form is a groundbreaking, interdisciplinary study that shows a connection between molecular biology and French narrative theory, and, from a unique perspective, bridges the gap between two disciplines that seem mutually exclusive. With many new insights on the link between science (in the form of DNA, a set of codes) and literature (in the form of language, another set of codes), this book looks at modern experimental science within the framework of semiotics. Priya Venkatesan reveals the extraordinary parallel between the work of scientists and the work of narratologists who develop narrative paradigms and analyze literary texts. Molecular Biology in Narrative Form will be a useful resource for scientists and literary theorists interested in the epistemological workings of science, as well as, anyone that desires to explore the linkages between scientific theory and literary analysis.