Also, I discuss the accumulating literature addressing the importance of assessment and treatment of PTSD in patients recently diagnosed with HIV, and the push for this becoming standard practice in primary care settings.  Another aim is to consider whether patients for whom the HIV diagnosis is the primary or sole traumatic event differ from patients who have experienced a significant number of traumatic events prior to HIV diagnosis.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000a), the defining characteristic of a traumatic stressor is presence of a life-threat or threat to one’s physical integrity where the individual’s response is great fear, horror or helplessness.  Traumatic stressors are generally thought of as involvement or proximity to war combat, witnessing or being subjected to violent acts, torture, and natural or man-made disaster.  Individuals may have intrusive thoughts about these past experiences, or avoidant/numbing reactions to them.  While this may be true of receiving a diagnosis for a life-threatening medical illness or disease, additional circumstances specific to living with the medical condition warrant consideration as contributing to continued trauma.

The biological aspects of trauma were explored as well as the psychological effects of traumatic stressors.  For example, the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) has led to evidence of alteration in brain neurocircuitry in response to trauma.  Specifically, patients with PTSD show greater activation of the amygdala and insula and lesser activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (Friedman & Pitman, 2007; Shin et al., 2007).  Chronically applied stress can inhibit development of hippocampal neurons, cause certain neurons of the hippocampus to atrophy, and elevate cortisol levels.  These effects of stress could have detrimental effects on the optimal functioning of the immune system (Sapolsky, 2004).

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Medical Illness as Trauma

There are a number of research studies examining coexistence of PTSD and life-threatening medical illnesses and diagnoses.  The subject of medical events as traumatic stressors has gained considerable interest, and is becoming a focus of research.  Medical diagnoses and events surrounding medical illness have been found to result in extreme fear, helplessness, or horror (Baum & Mundy, 2004).  In fact, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1995), it was recognized that PTSD may be precipitated by life-threatening medical illness or diagnosis.

Much research on PTSD in the medical population began with adult cancer patients, noting incidence of cancer-related PTSD ranging from 0% to 32%. A cancer diagnosis and treatment effects may also produce trauma and stress, although rates of distress in this population are low and patients seem to cope effectively overall.  Nonetheless, traumatic stress syndrome has been observed (Kangas, Henry, & Bryant, 2002).  Research on PTSD following medical diagnosis and treatment were reviewed in the areas of cardiac medicine, vascular medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, and HIV.  Studies also included patient awareness under anesthesia and the experience of intensive care treatment.  The purpose of reviewing the literature was to determine whether the experience of severe physical illness, an event internal to the individual, satisfied the traumatic stress criterion for PTSD (Tedstone & Tarrier, 2003).  As research on psychological trauma continues, issues surrounding the differences between medical stressors and more traditional sources of trauma are being highlighted.  There is advocacy and disagreement on the application of PTSD to those diagnosed with medical disease or illness (Mundy & Baum, 2004).

Experiencing a subjective sense of life-threat as a result of some event is vital for the development of PTSD.  Medical diagnoses and events, including myocardial infarction, a cancer diagnosis and the severe effects of treatment, and HIV with its chronic course, have been found to result in extreme fear, helplessness, or horror.  The intrusions and re-experiencing symptoms that occur as part of posttraumatic stress experienced by those receiving life-threatening medical diagnoses, however, may be of a different type than those experienced by individuals exposed to traditional traumas (Mundy & Baum, 2004).

Tedstone and Tarrier (2003) examined the occurrence of PTSD in adults with medical conditions by identifying studies from a search of relevant articles in the Medline and PsychINFO databases between 1985 to 2003.  It was concluded that PTSD prevalence rates were highest in patients who had been in a life-threatening medical situation or received the diagnosis of a terminal illness in comparison to the general population.  One possible explanation of this is knowledge about disease recurrence and progression can produce greater PTSD symptoms compared to the initial diagnosis, if the degree of life threat is perceived as more intense.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and HIV Disease

Understanding PTSD in people living with HIV or AIDS is necessary, as mental health impacts overall HIV treatment, health-related behaviors, and quality of life.  Given the uncertainty and disruption in every area of life for individuals living with HIV, anxiety and PTSD is not a surprising facet of life with HIV/AIDS.  Some research exists on anxiety disorders resulting from HIV infection, and coping mechanisms or self-management strategies by those living with HIV.  Phillips and Morrow (1998) emphasized that anxiety is a universal problem for patients with HIV/AIDS because the disease creates uncertainty and disruption in every aspect of patients’ lives.  Although many anxiety-proving factors are similar across groups, it may vary by degree and type for some.  In other words, gay men, women and children may experience anxiety-provoking factors specific to them.  The growing body of research suggests that rates of probable anxiety disorders are roughly two to three times higher in persons with HIV/AIDS as compared to the general population (Kaplan et al., 1997; Perretta et al., 1996).

While prevalence rates of PTSD in HIV/AIDS have ranged from 30% to 64% (Botha, 1996; Kelly et al., 1998; Martinez et al., 2002), studying the nature of this relationship and assessing the impact of the HIV/AIDS diagnosis on mental health has been problematic.  PTSD may be particularly relevant to HIV/AIDS due to the traumatic impact of being infected (Kelly et al., 1998), which consists of various “crisis points” such as learning one’s seropositive status, receiving the diagnosis of AIDS, beginning new treatment, discontinuing treatment, appearance of new symptoms, recurrence and relapse and terminal illness (Flaskerud, 1995).

The future-oriented aspect of HIV disease requires those patients to confront and re-experience the trauma over and over again with each doctor’s visit, blood draw, discussion or disclosure of the condition, changes in drug treatment, anticipated treatment failure, and disease stage.  Mundy and Baum noted that in addition to flashbacks or intrusive thoughts of receiving the initial diagnosis, re-experiencing occurs in thoughts about future-oriented events and may cause significant distress.  (e.g., Will I live to watch my child graduate or get married?  Will I have excruciating pain once the disease takes me?  Will my family be cared for after I am gone?)  Thus, the focus of threat to life is not only based on a past event for medical patients but also on the future.  Of course, the question arises – if these events are future-oriented, is this still PTSD?

The Current Issues

Olley, Zeier, Seedat, and Stein (2005) conducted exploratory research to examine the prevalence of and factors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder in 149 recently diagnosed HIV/AIDS patients in South Africa (mean time since diagnosis = 5.8 months,SD = 4.1).  Multivariate analysis was used to investigate the discriminating factors for a positive history of PTSD.  Independent variables were derived from sociodemographic characteristics, medical status and disability, stressful life events and social support, coping styles and risky sexual behaviors.  Researchers used the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI; Sheehan et al., 1998), a 42-item clinician-administered checklist measuring stressful life events and degree of impact during brief structured diagnostic interviews for major psychiatric disorders.

The findings of the study indicate that 22 patients (14.8%) met criteria for current PTSD.  In eight patients, the index trauma was knowledge of the diagnosis of HIV/AIDS.  The study concluded that those patients with HIV-related PTSD did not differ significantly from other patients with non-HIV related PTSD on demographic or clinical features.  Similar to the findings of Hutton and colleagues (2001), results suggest that “many features of PTSD in HIV/AIDS are similar to those reported in PTSD patients in general” (Olley et. al, 2005). 

The HIV/PTSD+ patients’ mean time since diagnosis (6.2 months, SD = 4.6) suggests that while trauma resulting from the initial HIV diagnosis was assessed, little else regarding the experience of living with HIV was explored.  Given the progressive nature of HIV/AIDS, there are various “crisis points” (Flaskerud, 1995) associated with PTSD symptoms.  Olley et al. concluded that for eight HIV/PTSD+ patients, the HIV diagnosis was the single most traumatic time point, but did not evaluate whether any PTSD symptoms such as intrusions were future oriented.  When determining what is measured as the criterion, observational research and qualitative analyses of intrusive thoughts experienced by patients, in addition to categorizing those experiences as being future or past event oriented, are critical to the overall understanding of medical disorders as a cause of psychological trauma (Mundy & Baum, 2004).  In the sample as a whole, Olley et al. reported that the majority of the participants were asymptomatic, but none were receiving antiretroviral drug treatment for the HIV despite a mean CD4 count of 397.0 (SD = 294.9).  Additionally, there is no discussion about the stage of disease progression for any of the participants at the time of initial diagnosis other than CD4 counts.  Even years later, a diagnosis with a life-threatening disease such as HIV can result in significant PTSD symptomatology (Delahanty, Bogart & Figler, 2004).

The research concedes that the relationship between HIV/AIDS and PTSD remains unclear.  Also, prior traumatic events in the HIV patient population impact the severity of PTSD.  Nonetheless, PTSD patients reported significantly more work impairment and poor coping skills, such as the abuse of substances (Olley et al., 2005).  This research adds to the growing body of knowledge about the HIV population being burdened with significant stressors surrounding their medical condition.

Safren, Gershuny and Hendriksen (2003) examined the frequency and correlates of self-reported symptoms of posttraumatic stress among patients with HIV and self-reported medication adherence problems.  The sample consisted of 59 men and 16 women with HIV infection, the majority being white or African American, who were using the services of a community health center serving primarily lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered individuals.  98% of the men in the sample indicated their sexual orientation (29% heterosexual, 7% bisexual, 64% gay) as did 94% of the women (80% heterosexual, 13% bisexual, 7% lesbian).  Safren and colleagues used the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS) and substituted “the trauma” in the original measure with “being diagnosed with/having HIV.”

Safren and colleagues found that more than half (n = 48/75 = 64%) of the sample met criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD related to the diagnosis of and living with HIV.  Using a series of multiple regression analyses, the researchers found that death anxiety was uniquely associated with total PTSD severity scores, contributing unique variance over and above the other predictor variables of depression and satisfaction with social support.  They also concluded that comprehensive psychosocial screening as a part of the medical care of patients with HIV is needed, especially because many individuals with HIV are disenfranchised in some way before their diagnosis.

The use of self-report instruments, a narrow sample of patients with HIV, and the missing assessment of additional traumatic events in addition to the HIV diagnosis were considered limitations to the study.  Safren and colleagues suggested further research that examines whether patients with HIV reporting PTSD related to the diagnosis have additional traumatic stressors prior the HIV diagnosis, and if diagnosis constitutes a “retraumatizing experience.”

There is growing debate about PTSD being the appropriate model to represent the psychological distress experienced by those diagnosed with medical conditions such as HIV.  Some urge that a new diagnosis may need to be formulated surrounding medical life-threatening illness and disease (Kagee, 2008; Mundy & Baum, 2004).  In a recent article published in the Journal of Health Psychology, Kagee (2008) questioned the appropriateness of a PTSD diagnosis for people living with HIV and AIDS.  He argued that “neither the experience of being HIV positive nor living with AIDS is traumatic in DSM-IV-TR sense” (p.1010).  Patients with HIV have an abundance of future-oriented concerns, but the “anchoring event” for PTSD must be the “receipt of notification” of one’s HIV status in order for there to be a PTSD diagnosis (p.1009).  Kagee argues that the anxiety, fear of physical decline and death because of having HIV does not qualify as a valid PTSD symptom.  Essentially, for there to be a valid PTSD diagnosis, one must suffer recurrent and intrusive recollections, dreams, or physiological reactivity from cues about the informer, and being informed of (e.g., place, time, etc.) the HIV positive status.

In response to Kagee's assertion that medical diagnoses do not fit well with criterion A1, it is important to make clear that the DSM-IV-TR states “a threat to the physical integrityof self or others” (emphasis added) and that there is no reference to time and place.  Not only does the individual experience the ambit of receiving a diagnosis of HIV for which no cure is available, but also, having HIV can be considered a threat to the individual’s physical integrity where fear and helplessness are common reactions to the initial diagnosis and ongoing treatment with aggressive antiretroviral medications.  Kagee (2008) argued that conceptualizing an HIV+ patient’s psychological status in terms of PTSD nosology is likely inaccurate.  However, it is important for the psychologist or future researcher to carefully define the construct being measured.  Advocacy of current conceptual and methodological approaches to PTSD and stressful medical conditions is beneficial to the research community despite differences that may be seen in the medical population and the traditional population being assessed for PTSD (Mundy & Baum, 2004).

Is PTSD an Appropriate Diagnosis for People with HIV?

It is an assumption that the assessment of psychopathology in patients diagnosed with HIV or AIDS is paramount to their overall treatment plan.  However, questions have arisen regarding the appropriateness of PTSD as a mental health diagnosis given the specific nature of medical disease or illness.  Is generalized anxiety disorder more appropriate, or should an anxiety disorder more specific to this population be considered in the publication of the DSM-V.

What important differences exist between “knowledge of the HIV diagnosis” and “initial notification of the HIV diagnosis?”  "Knowledge of" is an ongoing state, yet trauma was defined in this way by the Olley et al. study.  Similarly, trauma was defined as “being diagnosed with HIV” and “having HIV” in the Safren et al. study.  Yet, others would argue that a much narrower definition of the trauma is required.  For example, there must be intrusive recollections of the health care worker who informed the patient about the diagnosis, and the experience of being informed. Yet, do all of these concepts of trauma surrounding HIV have similar impacts on people with HIV?

Relatively little is known about the course of symptoms over time following trauma exposure (Orcutt, Erickson & Wolfe, 2005; Perkonigg, Pfister, Stein, Hofler, Lieb, Maercker, & Wittchen, 2005).  There is general agreement that a growing number of studies are demonstrating HIV diagnosis as a traumatic stressor often leading to PTSD.  Also, people living with HIV tend to present with a significant number of traumatic events prior to HIV diagnosis.  Does this then require an alteration in the approach to psychological and possibly medical treatment?  Indeed, not all persons experiencing traumatic medical events get PTSD.  However, help with effective coping tools and with the psychological distress that ensues following an HIV or AIDS diagnosis is instrumental.  Medical and mental health professionals must recognize and intervene as necessary to help patients cope with stigma surrounding HIV disease and the disenfranchisement that tends to plague people with HIV.  Better HIV treatment adherence and outcomes correlate with primary care physicians screening patients for PTSD, anxiety and depression.  (Olley et al., 2005; Safren et al., 2003; Phillips & Morrow, 1998; Delahanty, Bogart & Figler, 2004).  Yet, the literature suggests that medical patients are rarely screened routinely for PTSD (Tedstone & Tarrier, 2003; Olley et al.).

Conclusions

One must wonder whether it is important at all to determine whether the PTSD symptoms arise from the HIV diagnosis, or if simply knowing that a patient with HIV also suffers with PTSD, regardless of the traumatic event(s), is enough so long as some treatment is sought.  It seems that non-HIV-related PTSD has a similar effect on biology and psychosocial functioning of the individual as does HIV-related PTSD.  However, for patients without prior history of PTSD or trauma, it is important to know whether a diagnosis of HIV can cause PTSD.  Having the best model for exploring the effects of a life-threatening diagnosis or terminal illness is paramount to moving forward with best treatment practices.

Based on a review of all of the research articles discussed, an accurate definition of the construct “trauma” is required to correctly determine the impact of HIV on mental health aside from other traumatic events.  Whether the PTSD model can accommodate the differences that exist with medical traumas (e.g., future-oriented events) is a worthy topic for further exploration.  It is true that there is the single anchoring event, as referred to by some researchers.  However, these future-oriented events can retraumatize some patients, returning them to the experience of being initially diagnosed with HIV.  How should those individuals be best treated in their mental health care to ensure successful medical treatment?  How does an individual’s appraisal of stress and coping mechanisms hinder or complement HIV medical treatment?  Further research could explore these issues, as well as whether this population differs significantly from patients with prior traumas, thus warranting a different mental health treatment approach.

Some gaps in the research are noted.  There is a tremendous need for further research into this area with the Latino and Asian population.  Also, given the fact that women have unique stressors and suffer from PTSD at a disproportionately higher rate, more research on women with HIV is needed.  Other suggestions for research include outcome studies of medical settings serving individuals being diagnosed with and treated for HIV disease.  Research should assess the differences in a patient’s overall treatment success in medical settings where ongoing mental health treatment is integrated compared to those medical settings without a mental health component.

References

• American Psychiatric Association. (1995). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th ed.).     Washington, D.C.: Author.
• Baum, A. & Mundy, E. (2004). Medical disorders as a cause of psychological trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 17, 123-128.
• Delahanty, D. L., Bogart, L. M., & Figler, J. L. (2004). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, salivary cortisol, medication adherence, and CD4 levels in HIV-positive individuals. AIDS Care, 16, 247-260.
• Flaskerud, J. H. (1995). Psychosocial and psychiatric aspects. In J. H. Flaskerud & P. J. Ungvarski (Eds.), HIV/AIDS: A guide to nursing care (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Saunders.
• Friedman, M. J., & Pitman, R. K., (2007). New findings on the neurobiology of posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 20, 653-655.
• Gore-Felton, C., Koopman, C., & Spiegel, D. (2001). The influence of traumatic stress responses in HIV risk behavior. Presentation from the 22nd Annual Scientific Conference of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, Seattle, Washington.
• Hutton, H. E., Treisman, G. J., Hunt, W. R., Fishman, M., Kendig, N., Swetz, A., & Lyketsos, C.G. (2001). HIV risk behaviors and their relationship to post-traumatic stress disorder among women prisoners. Psychiatric Services, 52, 508-513.
• Kagee, A. (2008). Application of the DSM-IV criteria to the experience of living with AIDS: some concerns. Journal of Health Psychology. 13, 1008-1011.
• Kangas, M., Henry, J., & Bryant, R. (2002). Posttraumatic stress disorder following cancer: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 22, 499-524.
• Kimerling, R., Calhoun, K. S., Forehand, R., Armistead, L., Morse, E., Morse, P., Clark, R., & Clark, L. (1999). Traumatic stress in HIV-infected women. AIDS Education and Prevention, 11, 321-330.
• Martinez, A., Israelski, D., Walker, C., & Koopman, C. (2002). Posttraumatic stress disorder in women attending human immunodeficiency virus outpatient clinics. AIDS Patient Care and STDs, 16, 283-291.
• Mellins, C. A., Ehrardt, A. A., & Grant, W. F. (1997). Psychiatric symptomatology and psychological functioning in HIV-infected mothers. AIDS Behavior, 1, 233-245.
• Olley, B. O., Zeier, M. D., Seedat, S., & Stein, D. J. (2005). Post-traumatic stress disorder among recently diagnosed patients with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. AIDS Care, 17, 550-557.
• Orcutt, H., Erickson, D. J., & Wolfe, J. (2005). The course of PTSD symptoms among Gulf War veterans: A growth mixture modeling approach. Journal of Traumatic Stress.17, 195-202.
• Perkonigg, A., Pfister, H., Stein, M., Hofler, M., Lieb, R., Maercker, A., & Wittchen, H. (2005). Longitudinal course of posttraumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in a community sample of adolescents and young adults. Am J Psychiatry, 162, 1320-1327.
• Phillips, K. D., & Morrow, J. H. (1998). Nursing management of anxiety in HIV infection. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 19, 375-397.
• Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why zebras don’t get ulcers: The acclaimed guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• Shin, L. M., Bush, G., Whalen, P. J., Handwerger, K., Cannistraro, P. A., Wright, C. I., et al. (2007). Dorsal anterior cingulated function in posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 20, 701-712.
• Tedstone, J., & Tarrier, N. (2003). Posttraumatic stress disorder following medical illness and treatment. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 409-448.

These stem cells called granulation-tissue stem cells (GTSC) can be multiplied infinitely outside the body, and are rich in growth and other stem cell factors. GTSC readily differentiated to bone, cartilage and fat cells when cultured in specialized media, an important property of multi-potent stem cells. When injected into the body with an injured organ, GTSC recognized and engrafted only to the injured organ and not to normal organs. It was possible to freeze GTSC for long-term storage without loss of potency. Because GTSC can be easily obtained from the patient’s own body and can be stored long-term, it can serve as an excellent source of stem cells for use in repair of damaged organs.

Stem cells are by and large categorized as either

• a) embryonic stem cells, that are obtained from the inner cell mass of an embryo or
• b) adult stem cells, those that are derived from adult tissues.

The use of embryonic stem cells is controversial as it is hampered by ethical, political and safety concerns. In contrast, the use of adult tissue derived stem cells (bone marrow cells being the commonest of adult stem cells) is free of such concerns and therefore of immediate utility.  Adult stem cells have been obtained from many tissue including bone marrow, adipose tissue, skin, hair, dental pulp, and omentum. Because granulation tissue derived stem cells described by Dr. Jilpa Patel in this study are obtained from a rapidly regenerating granulation tissue, they are activated stem cells, and therefore they could prove to be more potent than other adult tissue-derived stem cells.  Presently, the authors are conducting further studies to assess the utility of GTSC in kidney disease, liver disease and osteoarthritis.

This article is based on the manuscript ‘Foreign body-induced granulation tissue is a source of adult stem cells’ published in the journal Translational Research. (Citation: doi: 10.1016/j.trsl.2009.08.010)

"...Enter ResearchGATE, which its founder Dr. Ijad Madisch (pictured) fairly describes as “Facebook for scientists.” In close to two years of operation, ResearchGate has built a social network of more than 250,000 researchers from 196 countries. Over 1,000 subgroups have been formed for specific disciplines, and 60,000 research documents have been uploaded for sharing with others on the site. These guys aren’t pretending they’re farmers.

“People ask a question, presenting an issue they have in the lab, and anyone can answer the question. This is happening on a daily basis,” said Madisch, who was in Silicon Valley this week drumming up support for ResearchGATE from researchers at universities and private research labs, while also networking with potential investors, although he added the company is currently “well funded.”

Genes: A string of binary numbers (0 and 1).
Chromosomes: A group of genes.
Population/Generation: A group of chromosomes.

To setup your values, you must first look at your problem and find what are the values required. Let's take a simple example, we want to find what equation gives us the number 30. What we need here are numbers and operators and let's say we want to have an equation with 3 numbers in it. We would setup our genes like this (note that you can give them the value you want):

0000 = 0
0001 = 1
0010 = 2
0011 = 3
0100 = 4
0101 = 5
0110 = 6
0111 = 7
1000 = 8
1001 = 9
1010 = +
1011 = -
1100 = *
1101 = /

These are our genes. To generate a chromosome, we need to choose random genes and put them together. When you generate a chromosome, you can make it completely random which could give something like "1+-+3" or make it generate valid equation from the beginning like "1+2+3". Now, we need 5 genes (3 numbers + 2 operators), so we would have a chromosome like:

00111100011110101001 <- which is 3 * 7 + 9

You can see the genes as values in the DNA, every pair of bits have their own value. We generate a population using the same function. The population can have as many chromosomes as you want. In this example, you can generate 100 chromosomes, it would be enough. To save your chromosomes you can create a string and consider every 0 and 1 as a character, or save it in an array of short (8 bits) /int (32 bits depending on your OS) which will take less memory.

Analysis

Once you have your generation, loop through every generated chromosomes and see if one of them gives you the solution you seek (in this case, 30). For every chromosome, set a fitness score which is a value that specifies how far the chromosome is to the solution. An example of a fitness score for our problem would be:

01011010011110110111 <- we will calculate the fitness score of this chromosome, which is 5 + 7 - 7
5 + 7 - 7 = 5
1/(30-5) = 0.04 <- this is the fitness score of our chromosome, in our case, the closer it is to 1, the closer it is to the solution.

If you don't find the solution, you need to generate a new generation by creating babies.

Generate New Population

There are many ways to generate a new population. We will use the one called 'Crossover Rate'. First you need to choose 2 chromosomes at random (this is where the fitness score comes handy, if you match 2 chromosomes that are near your solution, it increases the chance to find the solution) and generate a random number between 1 and the length of your chromosomes (in this case, 20). Take the 2 chromosomes and switch each parts:

1. 00111100 011110101001
2. 01011010 011110110111
---------------------------------
1. 00111100 011110110111
2. 01011010 011110101001

You can see here the random number was 8 and we switched every parts (before and after 8) and created 2 babies using their parents' DNA. Do the same until you made babies with all the chromosomes. You will now have a population of 200 chromosomes.

You can set a mutation rate for every gene, which should be at a very low level, such as 1%. If a gene mutates, you need to change it to a random gene, which can go better or worse.

Invalid Chromosomes

You can either keep them or kill them. I prefer to kill them as when they are invalid they become very useless, but you can make a function that fixes an invalid chromosome.

Conclusion

This is the very basic of the algorithm. Using this algo, you can solve many problems such as where can we fit the biggest circle in a given GUI or how many boxes can fit in a containers. It is an algo that you must program yourself to understand it well, so open your IDE and start coding!

"Self-regulation of the internet has been controversial from the very beginning. Liberal voices have emphasized the positive effects of a truly global medium of unrestricted communication where new ways of collaboration amongst creators, users and providers may be implemented. For conservatives, the internet provides a biotope for all types of illegal activity including copyright ‘piracy’. However,state-driven regulation is hardly ever effective due to the decentralized architecture of the internet andthe territorially restricted sovereignty of states.

The conference highlights three different models of regulation for copyright issues; the self-regulation of free software and content communities, the de-regulation of ISP‘s liability and the strict regulation of personal and other privileged use by copyright limitations and exceptions."

Those three models will be discussed in three conference sessions, each with very well renommed speakers, including, for example, Prof Eben Moglen (Columbia University, New York City), who played a vital role in the process of drafting the General Public Licence (GPL) version 3.

More information is available at the conference website.

In order to understand why this might be, it is important to recognize the fact that the 40 hertz signal noted in a recent article on anesthesia, and Facilitation might be connected. What the anesthetist discovered, was a link between the 40 hertz signal, and Long-term Implicit Memory.

One model of Cerebral Plasticity, suggests that the Facilitation effect, is just as much a trigger of cerebral plasticity, as LTP is a trigger of Hippocampal Plasticity. To understand how this might work, we need to look at the nature of the biochemical pathway that links synapses to the DNA, something that is well characterized for the hippocampal neurons and the NMDA ion channel.

The Facilitation effect, which reverses almost instantly cellular habituation, is triggered by the S synapse, which is a Calcium synapse that pumps calcium into the cell. The primary difference between this and the NMDA synapse, is the fact that the S synapse does not also, pump Potasium out of the cell, potentiating the cell.

What facilitation makes possible is strings of activation of the same cell. Habituation would attenuate the firing of the cell, as Calcium content dropped in the Axial Buds. This is thought to be because Calcium makes it practical for NeuroTransmitter Vessicles to bond to the Presynaptic surface so that they can secrete the NeuroTransmitter into the synaptic gap.

A shortage of calcium, due to a supply shortage, would therefore result in a gradual attenuation of the signal, as the same neuron fires multiple times. This effect called habituation will reverse as soon as a calcium supply hits the axion buds.

The Facilitative effect is therefore a result of an increase in supply of Calcium to the Axion.

However this is not all that is happening when the S synapse fires. The calcium reacts with other chemicals in the cell, causing the formation of a secondary messenger called cAMP The combination of increased calcium, and a supply of cAMP causes a number of chemical pathways to operate, which trigger eventually DNA expression, that triggers the growth of new Synaptic Spikes, and new Neural processes such as dendrites, and Axions.

The link between the 40 hertz signal and implicit memory probably happens because of activation of the S synpase.

The link to Attention however that is suggested by the new work linking Facilitation to Attention, probably lies in the direction of the 40 hertz signal during pre-activation of cortex areas by the Thalamus in the bottom-up attention system. 

Other blog entries written by Graeme Smith:

• Phosphorylation, the link between Bipolar and Schizophrenia
• A possible role for the anterior cingulate cortex in hypnosis

A 2008 paper, "Open access publishing, article downloads, and citations: randomised controlled trial" (Davis et al) took a suitably scientific approach to this question by randomly assigning 247 articles published in 11 journals of the American Physiological Society to open access status between January and April 2007. The control group of 1372 articles was articles available via subscription, the traditional access model for the American Physiological Society’s journals for the first year of an articles life. The researchers looked at a number of related variables- the number of abstract and full article downloads, and the number of times a given article was cited in the year following its publication.

Unsurprisingly removing subscription restriction lead to a significant increase in full text downloads (89% higher for open access articles compared to subscription articles). Interestingly, however, despite the increased number of downloads this did not translate into an increased level of citation. While 59% of the open access articles were cited a year later, 63% of the subscription articles were cited. The authors concluded that open access to articles in fact reduced the chance of the article being cited (although not significantly) compared to subscription articles, and that "open access increases the readership of articles but has no effect on the number of citations in the first year after publication."

The main issues with these findings, however, is that the researchers made the articles open access at random, when in fact there is nothing random about the articles made available in the real world. Indeed a number of studies have shown that open access articles are consistently cited more often than subscription ones (an interesting look at the issue here), with the suggestion being that it is this very non-random nature of article availability which drives the perceived benefit of making a paper open access. In other words, there is self-selection bias in open access papers, in that only the "best" papers are made available this way, and hence they inevitably will be cited more. 

However a paper from the start of this year, "Self-Selected or Mandated, Open Access Increases Citation Impact for Higher Quality Research" (Gargouri et al, 2010) has questioned this very assumption, by comparing the impact of self-selective self-archiving (i.e. researchers choosing to make their articles freely available), with that of mandated open access (i.e. research institutions forcing their staff to make all research freely available as it is produced) for 27,197 articles published between 2002-2006 in 1,984 journals. As expected, when controlling for a number of other variables linked to citation, open access articles were cited significantly more than non-open access articles.

Most interesting however was the finding that it didn't matter whether the article had been chosen to be make open access, or was merely made available due to institution policy, the open access citation advantage was still found. The authors concluded that it is "highly unlikely that the OA advantage is either entirely or mostly the result of an author bias toward selectively self-archiving higher quality – hence higher citeability – articles." Higher quality articles were cited more, but this was independent of whether the author had chosen to make the article available themselves.

Making your research open access gets it cited more. Is there anything more a scientist could ask for? The dissemination of knowledge is one of the core tenets of science and should be, in my opinion, one of the core principles of any society. As an added bonus, with original research freely available online anyone making dodgy claims, such as poor media reporting, could be fact checked far more easily by members of the public. It's win-win in my eyes.

Engel (1977) had published a seminal paper titled "The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine" Science, 196, pages 129-36 as one of the figurative chorus of researchers who had perceived Kuhnian anomalies in biomedical research and hence the need for a paradigm shift in the scientific understanding of disease. The proposed paradigm shift implied multifactorial concepts of causality in which psychosocial and mental factors, including such unconscious variables as ego-defences and affects would be encompassed in the derivation of robust and useful scientific predictions of illness morbidity and mortality.

The biological mediators of the impact of psychosocial and mental factors would need to be included in research studies which would move the psychosomatic and psychoneuroimmunological fields beyond mere correlations without necessarily implying causality. In the HIV/AIDS field, the simultaneous analysis of psychosocial factors, biological mediators including neuroendocrine, cytokine and immune system variables and HIV progression still remains an important issue for future psychoneuroimmunological research. Perhaps partly because of funding priorities in HIV related research.

My recent paper "Unconscious Mental Factors in HIV Infection", published in the journal "Mind and Matter", Volume 6, Issue 2, (2009) explores the history of psychoneuroimmunology while suggesting a new paradigm of scientific understanding due to Kuhnian anomalies (such as multiple drug resistance and rapid mutation) with the traditional medical and Jenner/Pasteur models of infectious disease. The traditional medical model is neither multifactorial nor biopsychosocial in its understanding of the determinants of disease onset, morbidity and mortaity.

I would value comments.

Peter B. Todd 

 Possibly, at future school there will be no classes, divisions of children into groups on abilities. There are not many teachers, but  lots of parents, students and  scholars of various high schools, grandmothers and grandfathers, businessmen, usual inhabitants from local communities, not always having a pedagogical education, but loving children and wishing them to something to learn. Children learn to think,   do  and love. All of them work under individual plans and programs with separate pupils and small groups of children of various ages. At one school all children, with no respect to social and marital status, race and national origin, religion, psycho-physiological features, sex and sexual orientation. The school works in a mode of non-stop and its doors are opened  24 hours a day and seven days a week. School sections, clubs are open not only for children, but also interested adults.  

 The public, business, parents actively participate in school management. Through mass media the school informs all interested on its successes.

 The evaluation  of  educational quality is carried out by means of test results, student's ePortfolios, achievements of social projects and students field practice.

 The pupil himself disposes allocated to him money using a personal magnetic card by paying for school  service  from food to work of teachers: management of training, professional tests, projects, excursions, educational travel, innovative activity, work to mugs and sections, clubs and laboratories. The lesson will cease to be the prevailing form of learning. In the nonlinear schedule - excursions, campaigns, employment "open air" events, workshops and master classes, club work, team work, projects and public work, field practice, professional tests, tele-lectures and tele-conferences, seminars, trainings, educational exchanges, role games, intellectual marathons, tournaments,  students  Olympic Games, competitions, debates etc.

 At school there are no textbooks, writing-books, diaries and school magazines. Instead - considerable quantity of stationary and mobile computers, faxes, smart phones and other technologies. IT is a basis of the future school. They open to pupils access to unlimited sources of  information, allowing them to establish Internet contacts to other students and teachers country and world wide. Access to a school server is logic continuation of educational process - didactic materials in all studied subjects. By means of SMS parents can learn a lot of helpful information on school life and life of their children.

 At school there is lots of air and light, many cozy nature corners, places for playing sports. At future school there is only one monopoly - the right of the child to a quality education which helps him/her to find and realize the natural identity. The educators of suchlike school praise student's individual world and do their utmost to develop his/her inner potentials. 

Such a school will not appear tomorrow by itself, it is necessary to build it already now. And it is necessary to start already now with a Teacher. 

It's role, seems to be the selective suppression of processing in areas that are not of current interest to the brain. What this means, is that when the brain is idling, there is significant processing going on, but it is unselective, and chaotic in nature. Work such as David LaBerges Triangular Circuit theory of Attention, has suggested that it is the attention mechanism that limits processing and that therefore the ACC is an important part of the Attention system. As a proponent of Weak Attention, the idea that attention actually is used to guide information between processing centers to improve the signal to noise ratio, and the author of a Model, of memory that involves both bottom-up attention and Top-down attention at even the lowest levels of memory processing, I believe I understand a plausible mechanism for attention to direct processing in the implicit memory which lies at the bottom of the cerebral cortex circuits. If so the way that the ACC works, is likely to be in conjunction with other centers in the PFC, that direct it what clusters of inputs are best NOT to suppress, probably via some link to the Synchronous Activity in the cerebral cortex. Essentially, each process, is tagged with a different frequency, and the ventro-lateral PFC is thought to be sensitive to the frequencies, so that it can help the ACC decide which clusters are most likely to be useful, possibly in conjunction with the executive processes that are also thought to cluster in the PFC.

Recent MRI studies done on Hypnotism seem to suggest that the Idling processes of the brain are suppressed during Hypnotic states. This seems to suggest, that Hypnosis is a form of Attention, which involves significant activity in the ACC, (In order to suppress the natual idling processes) This should be visible if a comparative study, is done using an fMRI.

In my Memory Model, I have proposed a concept I call complicit attention, where the direction of processing in some centers of the brain, forms the equivalent of a processing command. I have also noted the utility of the cerebellum, for offering pseudo-sequences of these commands, in much the same way it produces pseudo-sequences of actions in Skill Memory. This being the basis of Automation and eventually what is sometimes called Intention, sub-conscious processing that is thought to determine what is consciously processed from 7 seconds before it is actually processed, to 500 milliseconds before it is processed depending on which model of sub-conscious processing you use.

What is important to realize is that this supports the idea that Consciousness is a control mechanism, rather than an executive function. What hypnosis seems to do is suppress the control mechanism of consciousness in order to replace it with default sub-conscious processing, during the trance.

The Idling processes are probably related to spontaneous attempts for the brain to make sense of ambiguities in the environment, and involves some conscious processing. The ACC is the location in the brain where ambiguities are isolated, so it makes sense that the ACC is controlling not only the data flowing into consciousness, but also the amount of conscious processing that occurs. If we train the ACC to shut down the speculative processing, it also throttles down consciousness, and with it the more abstract processes that act as barriers to suggestion. A clue that defenses against suggestion are in fact a form of abstract processing is suggested by the lateness in the development of the brain, to the susceptibility to hypnotism. It has been suggested that children before about 7 years of age, are not capable of supporting hypnotic trance states. This indicates to me that about the time of the development of an advanced theory of mind, people build defenses against suggestion.

Although there is still growth in the brain at this piont, I suggest that it is growth in the multi-modal Associative areas, that are the targets for my Complicit Attention, and as a result, the ACC can selectively suppress activity in these areas if the PFC is motivated to indicate it should. This might explain the apparrent conflict between the Hypnotic Communities statement that "You will not do anything that you do not want to" while under the influence, and the seemingly ethically questionable influence that the Mind Control sub-community of the hypnotic community has, in that it suggests that the YOU that decides is about as sophisticated as a 5 year old child, because it has suppressed the abstract defenses that are linked to Ethics and an advanced theory of mind.

A paper was published that provides a fresh analysis and new vision of how biodiversity helps towards better stability of aquatic habitats, i.e. water quality.  To my mind, the paper mentioned below is a contribution to better understanding of the positive role of biodiversity in increasing stability of aquatic habitats and by doing so, to increasing the stability of aquatic ecosystem as a whole. I will be happy to know the opinion of other members of the network.

Biodiversity protection and quality of water: the role of feedbacks in ecosystems.- Doklady Biological Sciences. Volume 382, Numbers 1-6, p.18-21.; ISSN0012-4966 (Print) 1608-3105 (Online). DOI 10.1023/A:1014465220673]. Springerlink and Google Sites

Herwig, J., Kittenberger, A., Nentwich, M. und Schmirmund, J., 2009, Microblogging und die Wissenschaft. Das Beispiel Twitter. Steckbrief 4 im Rahmen des Projekts "Interactive Science". ITA-Reports, Nr. a52-4 hrsg. v. Institut für Technikfolgen-Abschätzung, Wien: ITA
http://epub.oeaw.ac.at/ita/ita-projektberichte/d2-2a52-4.pdf

The report is in German language - here is the abstract in English:

This report investigates the potentials of microblogging in an academic context, drawing on the example of Twitter. In the introductory chapter we present the basics of Twitter in connection with the principles of blogs and social network services (SNS). As a sort of condensed form of blogging Twitter allows the writing of public, log-like entries; as a variation of a SNS it enables the communication between users and maps their relationships. Apart from introducing the basic functions with relation to communication, interaction, publication and archiving, we discuss the demographics and growth tendencies as well as alternative platforms.

In the main part we ask the question how microblogging is already being used in the academic realm and what the potential is for its use. Twitter is not only used for answering the question given by Twitter, namely what one is doing or what is just happening, but for a number of further communicative purposes. In particular, researchers refer to scientific events and publications, ask questions and coordinate their activities. Furthermore, Twitter shows a potential for informal communication and hence as a substitute for the “Café” among scientists who are not co-present. In the framework of scientific conferences, microblogging is used both as a feedback channel and as an organizational tool, hence establishing an additional informal communication layer among those participating locally or at distance at the conference. With a view to external science communication or public relations we need to consider whether microblogging is only one more publication channel or whether it should serve as a means to enter into dialogue with the public. In the latter case, separation between the professional and personal spheres is non-trivial, if individual scholars act for their research institutions or if this is expected. In a digression we present the preliminary results of an empirical study of current Twitter activities of a few researchers. Inter alia, these results confirm the difficulty of the above-mentioned separation and show that professional exceeds non-professional content. Finally, we illustrate the individual attempts to adopt Twitter in teaching. This shows that one needs to be aware of the sensitive change between a non-public and a more or less public communication situation.

Finally, we ask what microblogging is able to deliver for scientific practices and what major application opportunities there are, and conclude with a forecast. The major results of this study are: Microblogging is used by a growing number of scientists for a growing diversity of purposes. As far as one can tell at this early stage, it seems to be used for academic practices, whereby individual usage patterns and cultural (e.g. subject-related) factors play an important role. So far there are no classical incentive systems for using microblogging, but a number of indirect factors, e.g. that users may potentially acquire reputation or that the information exchange is extremely easy and swift. The main application fields for microblogging in science are consequently in the field of context-augmented searching and publishing and with a view to reputation management; also in teaching and at conferences, microblogging may become established as a parallel communication channel; and the social components of open and informal communication may gain importance. In the end we conclude that microblogging is still a dynamic and fast developing new communication medium, which is not only offered by the market champion Twitter but is also increasingly embedded in other social media platforms. Consequently we reckon that microblogging will continue to function as a platform-independent communication principle, not least in academia.

Further blogposts:

• digiom: Unsert Twitter-Steckbrief ist da!

• J_SCH: Microblogging und die Wissenschaft und Glossar

• axkibe: Microblogging und die Wissenschaft
• textundblog: Wann erkennt die Wissenschaft die Bedeutung der Digitalen Medien?
  

   

Phosphorylation is important because the cellular energy chemicals AMP, ADP, ATP, GMP, GDP, GTP all operate by attaching a phosphate group, to a reactive substrate, thus releasing the energy of the phosphate bond, which increases the likelihood of related chemical reactions.

Normally these energy chemicals, are protected from reaction by negative charges, but enzymes can increase the speed of a reaction to one of these chemicals, using stereo-chemistry to overcome the static repulsion.

One such enzyme is Adenosine Cyclase. Of interest to human health, is the link between PACAP, a pituitary secretion, and phosphorylation. Both Bipolar populations and Schizophrenic populations have vulnerability to PACAP based risk factors.

In PACAP knock out mice, researchers have found evidence of:

1. Energy level changes
2. Sleep disorders
3. An increase in Anxiety/Depression

The energy level changes, are of course linked to regulation of energy within the cell, The sleep disorders and anxiety are not however as easily explained, unless you accept a cellular circadian rhythm model, based on Phosphorylation

If PACAP's job is to advance phosphorylation, as it's name implies, then there is probably another enzyme that acts to slow phosphorylation. It is the nature of these regulatory chemicals, that true health can only be achieved when there is a balance between the two enzymes. This balance must be struck in such a way that the body stabilizes in a pattern associated with the day/night rhythm.

Failure to regulate the cellular circadian rhythm, results in inefficient bio-chemistry in the cell, and either hyperactivity, or hypoactivity. However, the cellular bio-chemical rhythms, are just one of the factors that is important to health. Evidence of sleep disturbances, in PACAP knockout mice, indicates that regulation of sleep is also affected by this same enzymic balance.

Those silly bio-rhyth horoscopes, are also based on the fact that the body has distinctive rhythms, and that at least 5 major rhythms have been found. These bio-rhythms, are simply cyclical processes in the body such as intellectual, sexual, cycles etc. What is important to note is that when these rhythms are in sync with the environment, the individual is relatively healthy. However consider that some of these rhythms are interdependent, and have other health risks associated with them. When the day/night rhythm of the bio-chemistry of the brain changes, so do these longer cycles, and they increase the risk of disorders related to the longer cycles.

This is why the pituitary tries to regulate the phosphorylation of the brain.

The link to Bipolar and Schizophrenia, lies in the fact that sometimes due to genetic, environmental, or other factors, the complex bio-chemical pathways that regulate these cyclic systems, break down. Like a clock, they often fail by running fast or slow. In essence creating an advanced phase, or a delayed phase, which have sometimes been called early phase or late phase error.

When this happens each cyclic system that fails to synchronize with the environment adds a stress factor on top of their inefficiencies, partly created by the inefficiencies, and partly created by inverse phase, situation where the bio-rhythms effect is to promote an inappropriate response, such as increasing the amount of sweat produced in the winter-time, or increasing the energy level during normal sleep periods.

Bipolar disorder is a periodic disorder that affects mood, The periodicity of the disorder is a clue that it is linked to circadian rhythms. However, people who have had this disorder untreated, or who's treatments have failed, tend to slowly become schizophrenic. Schizo-Affective Disorder is a case in point.

Many people question the connection between Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder, since schizophrenics are less likely to report depression, than psychotic conditions. However there is a connection, and that connection has to do with the stress the body is under due to circadian rhythms.

Stress itself affects sleep, so there is a chicken and an egg problem that science finds it difficult to resolve, a low grade of sleep disorder does not seem dangerous, so it would not be seen to be germane in a study of major stressors. Psychotic episodes happen only at major stress peaks, so environmental factors might play a role, but if we factor into account the cumulative stress associated with bio-chemical inefficiencies, at multiple levels in the organism, it makes sense that a circadian upset, might trigger periodic stress peaks in the cumulative stress wave. If these stress peaks happen in an otherwise healthy individual, we don't notice the minor sleep disturbance associated with them, so we assume that they are based on some life stress, instead of a genetic anomaly, and relatively minor sleep disturbance.

However finding the PACAP gene as a risk factor in both Bipolar and Schizophrenic populations indicates that the speed of phosphorylation is critical to mental health.

The principles of BIF system include the following:  

1. Scientific crop rotation
2. Mixed farming systems
3. Optimization of organic recycling 
4. Participatory and sustainable management of natural resources
5. Participatory research, extension and advocacy
6. Networking and cooperation
7. Attainment of high degree of self-reliance of farm households.  

Features of bio-intensive farming system: The participants are provided with insight about the features on BIF system. Leader farmers (LF) and Technical Assistants share their experiences with other local farmers about a number of these features. The characteristic features of BIF system within the framework of its principles are as follows:

1. Empowerment of people and their independent democratic organizations
2. Conservation and utilization of biodiversity
3. Eco- and health-friendly biologically intensive production systems
4. Equitable access to natural productive resources and public services
5. Sustainable technologies  

Approaches of BIF system  

Some clarity is given to the participants on the approaches of BIF system programme that has been implemented in Udayapur for the last eight years and Siraha district for the last 5 years. The approaches include:

1. Participatory approach
2. Holistic system approach focusing on experiential learning and knowledge generation
3. Collective empowerment and self-reliance building  

Implementation strategies and components of BIFS  

BIF system ensures access of marginalised/small farmers and women to resources, information, technology, and market. More specifically, in the process of planning and implementation of the BIF system, the local farmers' groups /cooperatives and networks address and do advocacy on the following issues.  

1. Ensuring women's leadership role in agricultural cooperatives, extension and marketing
2. Issues of land rights of the marginalized farmers and women
3. Issues of food security and sustainability of rural enterprises
4. Issues of conservation of diversity (biological, social, environmental)
5. Issues of women’s and marginalised household's role and access to and control over resources   Farmer's groups (FG) or cooperatives/ farmer's networks (FN), Model Demonstration Farms (MDF) cum Farmer’s Field School (FFS) are the major components of BIF system. FGs are the main implementing communities at local level. Their cooperatives and FNs are engaged in extension, marketing and advocacy activities. MDF of BIF system is a component developed by Dr B P Rajbhandari in 1992 and was first implemented in Nuwakot district. It is a space for participatory action research, farmer-to-farmer extension and promotion/development of new technologies. It also serves as a FFS where local farmers learn from the active engagement and experience of LFs.  

Major achievements  

1. Farmer's groups/cooperatives/networks strengthened
2. FG/FN doing advocacy
3. MDF/FFS attain success in meeting its goal
4. Farm households socio-economic status upgraded
5. Soil fertility and local bio-diversity conserved/improved
6. Food insecurity level declining substantially        

From January, 2010,  under this program, UAE students will join U.S. students in a research project administered by the Education Associates Program at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. This new partnership and NASA's many other education programs play a key role in preparing students in the critical disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Read more on NASA.gov...

"Today we start streaming the best content produced by the ResearchGATE community here by sharing selected blog entries and microarticles. Blog entries will cover a wide variety of topics from all disciplines while microarticles are a summary of a peer-reviewed publication in 300 characters or less. We hope you find this blog useful and if you are a researcher, academic, journalist, or someone who uses research, we encourage you to join our community."

But now there is nothing to worry about. You only have to check some of the best blog entries of November and you hopefully will write your own ones for December.

• 200 repetative vulnerabilities in the Human Genome
• Why do we still use adenoviral type 5 backbones for Gene Therapy?
• My Phd Study
• Social Networking
• Did we make any significant in-roads into the health effects research of non-ionizing radiation?
• Teaching Artificial Intelligence

See you on ResearchBLOG (BQ27EW3WA5MG).

Benno Barnitzke, who is Alumnus of IRI's masters programme EULISP and presented the forum, gave a short introduction to the legal issues: Secondary Exploitation is mainly a question of exhaustion of copyright, and this again depends on the way the software is distributed: For software distrubuted on a physical medium, the distribution right of the coyright holder clearly exhausts. But disputes start when it comes to volume licenses that are distributed with "master media" and later re-bundled by the secondary distrubutor, and how to deal with software that is distributed without any physical media by internet download is again another question.

Dr Reiner Hirschberg, who is CTO and head of license management of UsedSoft AG, presented the view of a secondary distributor and their business model. He showed that his company buys software licenses that are not needed any longer by other companies, mainly due to insolvency, dismissals, mergers, and technical or organisational restructuring. Usedsoft's customers again can safe money not only on the license fees, but also on hardware and training, especially if older software is used that is not on sale by the publisher any longer (such as Windows 2000, Office 2003...).

Andreas Kammholz, attorney-at-law in Berlin and specialised on intellectutal property and competition law, and mandated by UsedSoft, presented his point of view on the exhaustion of distribution rights in respect to distribution without physical media. He admitted that the wording of § 69c UrhG (German copyright act) is clear and requires distribution of physical media for exhaustion. But he sees room for an anology, as the legislator had not taken distribution by download into consideration, and the relation of interests of the first purchaser and the primary distributor/copyright holder are the same, especially considering that exhaustion limits the copyright holders' control over distribution, which is an interest of the first purchaser and alsoa common interest, as merchantibility of pre-owned software licenses is an economic benefit.

Dr Andreas Wiebe, Professor on a chair for intellectual propery and competition law at Georg August Universität Göttingen, presented his view and took a counter-position. Wiebe argued that, de lege lata,  the legislator did consider this form of distribution, which was visible in the reasons of some EC directives. Furthermore, the interests were not the same as for physical distribution, as the interest of the copyright holder were more in danger.

Thomas Feil, who is attorney-at-law in Hannover and specialised on IT law, showed the relevance of the issues for the consultation practice of lawyers. The legal obstacles and uncertainties prevent careful companies from using the business model to sell unused licenses aswell as to buy pre-owned licenses, Feil reported. He also mentioned that major software labels make use of this uncertainties to take legal actions against secondary distributors, in order to intimidate them.

After the presentation, a lively debate with the audience came up. If there was a common point, it was probably that there is a lack of clear legislation or jurisdiction in this field. The legislator should clearify the situation of pre-owned licenses without physical media soon, in the one or other direction.

I want to share some thoughts and ideas in the following paragraphs on  C5 backbone gene therapy vectors:

It is well known that Loop1 and Loop2 of the adenoviral hexon gene is responsible for antibody binding and for subsequently neutralizing the adenovirus. Most vectors today are based on an adenoviral Type 5 (species C) backbone. The obvious problem is that most humans have antibodies against this type as there is a high probability of becoming infected with a wild type C5 in a lifetime. Loop1 and Loop2 - located in the hexon gene - are very important for the structure of human adenoviruses. However, knocking these genes out is also not a solution. In my opinion, it is not understandable why Merck is starting a large trial with a virus as a backbone (Type 5 species C), where the probability is relatively high that the vaccine will be destroyed by preformed antibodies.

Just recently a PNAS paper demonstrated the following:"This suggests that adenoviral-based vaccination against HIV-1 in individuals with pre-existing immunity against Ad5 results in preferential expansion of HIV-susceptible activated CD4 T cells that home to mucosal tissues, increases the number of virus targets, and leads to a higher susceptibility to HIV acquisition." This paper is extensive and it underlines my findings.

I suggested in my papers (this and this) published in Journal of Virology in 2005  and 2007  that we should use adenoviral vector therapy backbones from either bovine adenoviruses or adenoviruses from species D, or at least swap the hexon gene.

I also demonstrated in my research (Analysis of a unique adenoviral prime strain, p'17H30, Madisch et al.) that our immune systems are building antibodies against the penton protein and fiber gene, which may also affect the efficiency of an adenoviral vector. I recently co-authored a paper published in PLoS One, where we detected a new adenoviral type: This type was interesting because the backbone of the adenovirus does not usually induce disease, but this virus recombinated in a specific way and the virus acquired a pathogen. This virus was "created" by nature and we should look more closely at these naturally occuring recombinated adenoviruses, which give us bold insights into how we should structure adenoviral vectors for gene therapy.

As a conclusion, I want to make the point that we have to move away from the adenoviral 5 backbones to other backbones or swap the antibody neutralization determinants.

IV Congress of Cybersociety 2009, Analog crisis, digital future is the only conference dedicated to virtual Internet that takes place in the Hispanic area, and specifically based virtual (virtual platform), as a meeting of participants in reading and discussion of communications in different formats.

CyberSociety Congress is the most important event of reflection on new technologies in the Hispanic environment, but with participation of people around the world.

In this fourth edition, over 400 communications were presented, from places like Finland, England, Japan and Portugal. These communications (conferences online) will be discussed online from 12 to 29 November.

Oral sources, bridge analysis implicit theories of university's technology convergence.

The paper identifies the oral history as a major element in the analysis of cognitive representations of academics in their implementation through the implicit theories in technology integration, technology integration in education has not yet been able to consolidate or has only been achieved in some sectors of society which is far away from the overall vision of the so-called "information age". It is through the recovery of the protagonists of education and no political speeches will be known as representations, beliefs and concepts that can facilitate the process of inclusion of information technology to educational practice.

Research at Stanford has implicated the repetitive sections as being important for the regulation of protein synthesis, and has developed the disease model, where both deletions in these segments of DNA and Duplications within these segments can cause disease. This has been used to propose a disease model for two types of Autism, for which drugs are in trial, or soon to be in trial. In one case a deletion of a segment of repetitive DNA can cause a reduction in a protein that regulates a process within the cell, and in another case a duplication of a segment of DNA can cause an up-regulation in the supply of a protein that regulates a process in the cell. When this happens, the effect, is to destroy the regulation of the process.

Now, because the net effect of both errors is to deregulate a process, similar symptoms may appear in both genetic populations, if they deregulate the same process. A case was described of one family where each generation one more repetition of a sequence was removed, causing the symptoms to appear earlier each generation.. Stanfords success at building it's disease model of two types of Autism, is based on simple chemical interventions that are associated within sub-populations of the Autism diagnosis, where the particular symptoms made genetic analysis more directed Fragile X, and Rett's Syndrome. Most Autism is yet undifferentiated, but a possible role of multiple proteins in the same biochemical pathway, suggests that there might be a spectrum of diseases that in different ways have an impact on that pathway, and that the disease is related to the disruption of the pathway.

MIT however is working on a different disease, that is just as difficult, the relationship between bipolar and schizophrenic diseases. They too have found, a spectrum of possible genetic disorders at least some of which are coding for regulatory proteins that regulate a pathway within the biochemistry of the cell. What they say, is that there are only 200 sites in the human genome where there are repetitive codes, that seem to be vulnerable to these duplication and deletion errors. because they involve long sequences of repetitive codes If each of these sites is one of a number of regulatory proteins, then evaluating these sites will probably result in disease models similar to those found by first Stanford and now MIT. Once such a model is available knock-out mice can probably be designed that show the symptoms of the disease, helping in determining what disesases are likely to be most prevalent as spectrum type diseases.

If both the autism spectrum and the bipolar-schizophrenic spectrum are caused by regulatory failure in protein synthesis for specific pathways in the cell, then it makes sense that other diseases may also be related to such failures.

Today I ask you ... "Did we make any significant in-roads into the health effects research of non-ionizing radiation"?

Back in 1989 after spending about 7-years monitoring information flow on this contentious public health topic, I concluded in frustration that it would take a genius to make a meaningful breakthrough as we continue to gain greater understanding of the non-linear phenomena in physics and biological sciences. One should ponder could "Chaos Theory" apply at the molecular, cellular levels in complex biological systems?  

Having an occasional ‘peak’ at the NIR (non-ionizing radiation) discussions these days, it remains obvious to me that we tend to be going in "circles" with our health effects research dollars and continue to reinvent the wheel.  The 17th century Descartes rationalism translated into the “dose and effect” approach in the scientific milieu continues to rule our thinking, as do the lawmakers and lawyers dating their foundations back to 13th century the Magna Carta.  

For example listen to the cross examination of the evidence by the U.S. Senator Arlene Specter as presented before the September 14, 2009 U.S Senate Hearing on 'Health Effects of Cell Phone Use'

It must make one think of the "Spanish Inquisition"!

Sincerely,

Andrew Cutz, CIH
Markham, Ontario, Canada

In spite of the general philosophical hope that we all are equal while also not adhering to 1984 (George Orwell's landmark book) surely there are people that are a little bit ahead of the crowd. What is the technical foundation that entitles a person to hold such skills? If any?

After several years prospecting scientists, politicians (front and rear row), famous criminals, philosophers and other prominent people whose personal data was available while deep scrutinizing & researching it at an energized Philosophical Temple an answer was timely gathered and it did match those Men whose main skills on their fields were (badly) remarkable for mankind.

Some facts depend on their birth hour, others on life grown-up experiences and finally the surviving challenges shared with some others. Obviously a good academic background is always a must!

On the other hand in trying to compare with the front row one's a cross reference was also handled with most recent great disasters promoters in order to due balance it and taking out those whose main task was exactly to promote a disaster (no one could deny that without World War II deep suffering and scientific breakthroughs we would have not reach nowadays 6.5 billionth people and more than 70 years of life on average) a confirmation gathered by opposites results was also obtained.

There is an old motto: "You may say a person is stupid, just don't prove it".

This is a technical basic truth in case you need to hire a responsible and yet trustee person or to appoint some other one to hold a position of decision and/or command. From now on no one could say: "I didn't know!"

Cogito - Ergo Sum! A famous phrase of Rene Descartes. Always keep in mind that philosophy standpoints are clearly Philosophical Orders Temples outcomes transliterated into discussions; allegories; lineages and the like.

The thing we need to do is to simplify the concept and to provide an example application with adequate program, so that the learners can put it to experiment and learn, since students have a common tendency to learn faster by experimenting...lots of bookish learning create boredom for them.

This is the responsibility of teachers and researchers to:

1. Simplify the technology, and
2. Provide the practicle aspects of the technology in an experimental way. 

What we want now is to make the students properly prepared to take up the task independently in hand the moment they finish their study, and for this they must be practically oriented before they drop down to the real job assignment.

All the members of scientific community must think together and to spare some moments for the generation to follow. We all need to be in constant communication to each other to perform this greatest task.

Image: Neil Carey on Flickr

Even more important in Future

Water and feed scarcity is one of the major challenges in the arid and semi arid lands. The globe is already changed and warmed. The camel has no way to meet the cabinet meeting under the water of ocean like the Maldives cabinet, but the camel scientists can realize. Desertification is continuing and the UN has alarmed the world that millions of acres of land is engulfing by the desert each year. Camel can tolerate a temperature up to 55 c easily. It even absorbs the surrounding temperature in the hot time of the day and dissipates in the cool period of the night. The model of commercial and intensive livestock is in competition with man on the use of cereals, camel doesn’t need that. The disease register of camel is too short and few diseases are fatal to camel health. Camel is resistant to the notorious zoonotic diseases like swine flu, avian influenza, mad cow disease and FMD. Also the land is shrinking of agro pastoral purposes because of the creeping urbanization and the fertile lands are converting in the jungle of concrete and sements.

Humps under threat

The camel is the animal of poor and neglected populace, hence it is seldom considered in research and development policies of the country. Camels catch good prices but their products cannot reach to the markets; therefore, earning of camel herders is quite low. The herders in the country earn modest as compared to other parts of the world where value addition to camel milk is practiced. The camel herders are poor, illiterate and unable to find markets for their products. They live in poverty and cannot financially invest in their camels, which results in low production and low economic returns.
The camels catch high prices offered by merchants from Iran and other countries. The camels are then transported to those countries and never return to its homelands unfortunately. This sad state of situation create social problems like the young boys escaping from the camel production systems and are being attracted by the war seeking groups in the region.
 

Can we keep the humps viable?

No doubt, camel can be a tool to combat the future challenges of draught, environmental changes, global warming and threats of new disease etc. Camel is the animal of future, i.e. everlasting threat to the environment, global warming, creeping desertification and competition on feed & water resources are the future challenges which can be beat by camel only.
Camel has a good potential as meat export to the rich Gulf courtiers. Only the harvested animals are slaughtered in the country and interest from Pakistani consumers is limited, therefore, camel beef is mixed with other meats or minced. Fattening units and feed lots can obtain a growth of 1.5 kg/day. Camel meat is produced organically and is free of zoonotic diseases like mad cow disease, swine flu and avian influenza etc.

Value addition is a tool to make camel production profitable i.e. Kurth, Sorain, ice cream, chocolates and other products can be made from it. With the collaboration of WHO the milk products can be made available for the school goings to fight with malnutrition on one hand and to support camel herders on the other hand. Camel milk can also be used as a tool for poverty elevation.

Niche products exploitation is another tool, being used by many small breeders for the conservation of the breeds in many parts of the world. Eco-tourism (racing, safaris) is one more avenue for fortifying camel production. Camel fairs and safaris are attracting thousands of people from around the world.

 

The research will use a qualitative case study approach.  Anonymised patient case records will be used by participating volunteer clinicians to generate discharge summary reports (DSR). Case records from a number of specialities ranging from uncomplicated clinical care to those of increasing complexity will be selected. Volunteer clinician participants will be asked to create a DSR based on a patient case using a template (Royal College of Physicians [RCP]) designed to standardise content.

Subsequently, they will be interviewed to discuss the semantic and pragmatic aspects contained in the report. The unit of study is the template based DSR, the original DSR from the anonymised case records and the interview transcript. All data will be analysed thematically to identify the relationships between the expressions in the reports and their underlying semantic and pragmatic aspects. The template DSR will then be translated (coded) into an electronic version.

The translation process will allow the evaluation of capabilities and limitations of current health information technology and standards to capture the semantic and pragmatic aspects of this form of clinical communication. The study will contribute to a better understanding of the semantic and pragmatic aspects of clinical communication and inform how current health information technology and standards can be improved

Everything from Facebook to Youtube, Wikipedia, and many other networking programs to many to mention have developed to keep people in touch with one another on a daily and hourly basis. I used to think it was cute when a friend IMed me in the middle or doing a report on Word. Now I consider it an intrusion and breaks the cycle of getting things done on time.

The day will soon arrive I predict when the US Government will have it's own IRS social networking software where the IRS will contact you to remind you to get your taxes in on time or to ask you where you spent the entertainment money in your recent tax return? When will the Senate and Assembly start their own social network software keeping you informed on a daily basis what the Senate or Assembly is doing? When will it all end? When we run out of memory on our computers.

The other day I saw the first tera-byte backup portable storage device for only $80.00.  A tera-byte is a lot of memory, a real lot. It is the kind of extra memory you would find in a server. Memory storage makes it possible to store movies, social network e-mails and on and on until our computers are completely junked up with the massive triva of society.

Is it possible for us to over communicate? Perhaps it is time to go to an island with no WAN or wireless access? 

Dr. Pelham Mead, Director of NYCOM Faculty Development, Old Westbury, NY

Each year, the French newspaper Le Monde gives a prize to the five best theses in science and allows the winners to write an article on their work in the newspaper.  Cédric Sueur's article, published the 15th of October, explained how macaques are able to vote and live in democracy. Macaques live in groups like many animal species. In order to stay cohesive, animals have to take collective decisions, reach consensus and move collectively. Sometimes, however, individuals have different motivations and want to go in different directions at the same time. One solution to stay together and satisfy the majority of group members is to vote.

This process was found in macaques: some individuals advance and displayed unique behaviors in one direction, some other individuals do these behaviors in the other direction but at one moment, all individuals decide to go in only one direction, the one the majority decided. Macaques count the number of individuals in each direction, wait for a quorum, i.e. a minimum number of participants and then choose one direction when this quorum is reached.

However, some scientist may suggest that primates use insights, manipulations or intentions in this voting process but this is not the case. Macaques respond to a sequence of simple rules found in ants, bees and fishes. It seems that general principles underlie collective decision making in animals, whatever the species.

This work was supervised by Dr. Odile Petit from Strasbourg University, president of the French Society for the Study of Animal Behavior and Prof. Jean-Louis Deneubourg from the Free University of Brussels, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium.

Working from these constraints, creates a need for architectural conventinos that would not be required in a computer or analog electronic circuit. As such, it puts a particular stress on the nature of the tissue that makes up the brain, and how it is organized. Further it suggests that how the tissue is organized, might be particularly important to understanding how the brain works, and how it evolved.

My work suggests that the Allocortical (Three Layer) Cortex Tissue acts as an implicit memory, and that in order to address that tissue so that discrete memories can be accessed, requires Isocortical Tissues, such as the 6 layer tissues commonly found in the neo-cortex, 5 layer agranular tissue such as is found in certain other areas of the neo-cortex, and even 9 layer tissues such as found in the Occipital Cortex.

Current Information Theory, has suggested that there are really only two types of memory, Place Code memory, which is suitable for addressing discrete memories, and Content Addressable Memory, which is accessed by content. If this is true, then implicit memory must be a form of Content Addresable Memory, because it does not lend itself to addressing discrete memories, unless accessed by at least two more layers of neurons. (The difference between Allocortical and Agranular cortex tissues.)

Interpreting the Micro-Architecture of brain tissues, becomes more important when we realize that constraints such as these, will affect the psychology, by limiting the functions that cortex tissues can achieve. It suggests that Allocortical Tissues are precursors to Isocortical Tissues, and that animals with primarily allocortical memories are incapable of accessing discrete memories. It also calls into question the assumption that consciousness is a universal phenomena, and that all animals are conscious, since the ability to address discrete memories is considered highly important in perception.

While this research opens the door for further hope of gene therapy involved in human eye conditions, including blindness, it also raises some interesting questions. It was previously thought that the brain of adult monkeys would be too "hard-wired" to gain a beneficial effect from the restoration of deficient pathways. The recent paper proves that gene therapy can be utilized in "middle aged" monkeys, and is not solely an avenue to be pursued during early development. This adds a lot of significance to work already begun in human patients, to restore an enzyme involved in a type of hereditary blindness.

Original Article:

Gene therapy for red-green colour blindness in adult primates

Katherine Mancuso, William W. Hauswirth, Qiuhong Li, Thomas B. Connor, James A. Kuchenbecker, Matthew C. Mauck, Jay Neitz & Maureen Neitz

In an interesting twist, Michael Katze and Shawn Iadonato discuss the result in the News and Views article in the same issue of Nature. They comment on the usefulness of data collected in this way and the application of the results to research resulting in treatments. They cite the disease of Cystic Fibrosis as an example, where researchers have known for 20 years that a mutation on the CFTR gene is the sole cause of the disease. Even after twenty years of research, no suitable treatment option has been released based upon this knowledge. The two new drug treatments soon available did not rely on research involving this genetic mutation, yet show more promise than the failed gene delivery experiments resulting in Leukemia. They highlight the inefficiency of genetics as a tool for drug discovery.

Despite this gloomy outlook, scientists remain hopeful that genetic discoveries such as this will provide a tool for new research hopefully resulting in new clinical treatment options.

Original Article:

Genetic variation in IL28B predicts hepatitis C treatment-induced viral clearance

Dongliang Ge, Jacques Fellay, Alexander J. Thompson, Jason S. Simon, Kevin V. Shianna, Thomas J. Urban, Erin L. Heinzen, Ping Qiu, Arthur H. Bertelsen, Andrew J. Muir, Mark Sulkowski, John G. McHutchison & David B. Goldstein

Nature 461, 399-401 (17 September 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature08309;

News and Views:

Genomics: Hepatitis C virus gets personal

Shawn P. Iadonato & Michael G. Katze

The internet has witnessed a tipping point: users have moved from the passive role of consumers, to the active role of producers and publishers. This change is fostering dynamic interaction within and between communities. It is a positive thing for progression in science to have technologies that are both dynamic and accessible.

Publishing allows us to share theories, results, and engage in constructive debate. It also serves to preserve the work in a way that is archivable and retrievable. But the traditional model of scientific publishing has been relatively static and restrictive since its inception nearly 400 years ago. Open access and self-archiving movements are making positive ground in challenging this model, and reputable, citable, high-quality science communicated through blogs is proving to be another component in facilitating a scientific publishing revolution.

Like science, this blog is produced by a community, and here at ResearchBLOG we are looking forward to facilitating the community in changing how science is communicated and built upon. We welcome your suggestions and comments as we embark on this endeavour.