A Wisdom Archive on Treat

The Shriners, or Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, are an Order appendant to Freemasonry. Until 2000, one had to complete the Scottish Rite or York Rite degrees of Masonry to be eligible for Shrine membership, but now any Master Mason can join. The Shrine was established in New York City in the 1870s as the fun part of the Masonic movement. The group adopted a theme of the Middle East and soon established "Temples" meeting in "Mosques" across the continent. Another Masonic group, the Mysteri ... Including:

• Shriners - Imperial Potentates

Read more here: » Shriners: Encyclopedia - Shriners

Antiviral drugs are a class of medication used specifically for treating viral infections. Like antibiotics, specific antivirals are used for specific viruses. Antiviral drugs are one class of antimicrobials, a larger group which also includes antibiotics, anti-fungal and anti-parasitic drugs. They are relatively harmless to the host, and therefore can be used to treat infections. Most of the antivirals now available are designed to help deal with HIV; herpesvirus, which are best known for causing cold sores but actually cover ... Including:

• Antiviral drug - History
• Antiviral drug - Development of antiviral drugs
• Antiviral drug - Antiviral drug design strategies

Read more here: » Antiviral drug: Encyclopedia - Antiviral drug

An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. Antibiotics are one class of antimicrobials, a larger group which also includes anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-parasitic drugs. They are relatively harmless to the host, and therefore can be used to treat infections. The term, coined by Selman Waksman, originally described only those formulations derived from living organisms, in contradistinction to "chemotherapeutic agents", which were purely synthetic. Nowadays the term "antibiotic" is also applied to synthetic antimicrobials, such as the sulfonamides. Antibiotics are small molecules with a molec ... Including:

• Antibiotic - History
• Antibiotic - Classes of Antibiotics
• Antibiotic - Production
• Antibiotic - Side effects
• Antibiotic - Antibiotic misuse
• Antibiotic - Antibiotic resistance
• Antibiotic - Beyond antibiotics

Read more here: » Antibiotic: Encyclopedia - Antibiotic

Paul Anastas, then of the EPA, and John C Warner developed 12 principles to green chemistry [2], which go someway in explaining what the definition means in practice. The principles cover such concepts as: the design of processes to maximise the amount of raw material that ends up in the product; the use of safe, environment-benign solvents where possible; the design of energy efficient processes; the best fo ...

Read more here: » Green chemistry: Encyclopedia II - Green chemistry - The 12 principles of green chemistry

Main article: Antibiotic resistance Use or misuse of antibiotics may result in the development of antibiotic resistance by the infecting organisms, similar to the development of pesticide resistance in insects. Evolutionary theory of genetic selection requires that as close as possible to 100% of the infecting organisms be killed off to avoid selection of resistance; if a small subset of the population survives the treatment and is allowed to multiply, the average susceptibility of this new population to the compound wil ...

Read more here: » Antibiotic: Encyclopedia II - Antibiotic - Antibiotic resistance

Researchers working on such "rational design" strategies for developing antivirals have tried to attack viruses at every stage of their life cycles. Viral life cycles vary in their precise details depending on the species of virus, but they all share a general pattern: Attachment to a host cell. Release of viral genes and possibly enzymes into the host cell. Replication of viral components using host-cell machinery. Assembly of viral components into complete viral particles.

Read more here: » Antiviral drug: Encyclopedia II - Antiviral drug - Antiviral drug design strategies

Since few markets would naturally exist to create these goods, as the costs of developing, researching and producing this drug would likely exceed any revenues, government intervention is required, usually to establish such a market or to produce the goods itself. This need for government intervention is often called a market failure in free market economic systems. The intervention by government can take a variety of forms: Tax benefits to companies who produce or research these drugs Granting of additional righ ...

Read more here: » Orphan drug: Encyclopedia II - Orphan drug - Development of orphan drugs

Main article: Production of antibiotics Since the first pioneering efforts of Florey and Chain in 1939, the importance of antibiotics to medicine has led to much research into discovering and producing them. The process of production usually involves screening of wide ranges of microorganisms, testing and modification. Production is carried out using fermentation. ...

Read more here: » Antibiotic: Encyclopedia II - Antibiotic - Production

Read more here: » Antibiotic: Encyclopedia II - Antibiotic - History

It originated in the British Isles, and is still popular in Ireland, and in some parts of England and Scotland. In Scotland and the North of England, it is called guising because of the disguise or costume worn by the children. However there is a significant difference from the way the practice has developed in the States. In Scotland, the children are only supposed to receive treats if they perform tricks for the households they go to. These tricks normally take the form of a simple joke, song or funny poem which the child has memori ...

Read more here: » Trick-or-treat: Encyclopedia II - Trick-or-treat - History

Viruses are primitive entities, not quite proper living things, consisting of a genome and sometimes a few enzymes (biocatalysts) stored in a capsule made of protein, and sometimes covered with a lipid (fat) layer. Viruses cannot reproduce on their own, and so they propagate by hijacking cells to do the job for them. To develop early antivirals, researchers grew cultures of cells and infected them with the target virus. They then introduced chemicals into the cultures thought likely to inhibit viral activity, and observed whether the level of virus in the cultures rose or fell. Chemic ...

Read more here: » Antiviral drug: Encyclopedia II - Antiviral drug - Development of antiviral drugs

Antibiotic misuse includes taking an antibiotic for the wrong reason, in particular the use of antibacterials for viral infections such as the common cold, and failure to take the entire prescribed course of the antibiotic. In addition to treatment failure, these practices can result in antibiotic resistance in bacteria that survive the abbreviated treatment. Some would include in this category using antibiotics broadly applied to healthy organisms, as is commonly done in farming to promote growth of livestock. Excessive use of prophylactic antibiotic ...

Read more here: » Antibiotic: Encyclopedia II - Antibiotic - Antibiotic misuse

Possible side effects are varied, and range from fever and nausea to major allergic reactions. One of the more common side effects is diarrhea, which results from the antibiotic disrupting the normal balance of intestinal flora. Other side effects can result from interaction with other drugs, such as elevated risk of tendon damage from administration of a quinolone antibiotic with a systemic corticosteroid. Some antibiotics can interfere with the efficacy of birth control pills. Such effects were found to be unusual, and have been studie ...

Read more here: » Antibiotic: Encyclopedia II - Antibiotic - Side effects

Modern medical science and practice has something of an armory of effective tools, ranging from antiseptics and anesthetics to vaccines and antibiotics. One field in which medicine has been traditionally weak, however, is in finding drugs to deal with viral infections. To be sure, highly effective vaccines have been developed to prevent such diseases, but traditionally, once somebody came down sick with a virus, there was little that could be done but recommend rest and plenty o ...

Read more here: » Antiviral drug: Encyclopedia II - Antiviral drug - History

The majority of Christians ascribe no doctrinal significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular entity devoted to celebrating imaginary spooks and handing out candy. The secular celebration of Halloween may loom larger in contemporary imagination than does All Saints Day. The mingling of Christian and Pagan traditions in the development of Halloween, and its real or assumed preoccupation with evil and the supernatural, have left many modern Christians uncertain of how they should react towards the holiday. Some fundamentali ...

Read more here: » Halloween: Encyclopedia II - Halloween - Religious viewpoints