Internet has become an essential source for acquiring knowledge. In fact it is a very fascinating thing. Take the example of a newspaper. Every morning you get a hard copy of the newspaper delivered at your doorsteps. We eagerly grab it and start reading as it has something new to offer. Humans by nature seek new things everyday. Research findings revealed that not more than 10% of the readers read beyond first chapter after they buy a book. So it is obvious that the remaining people, after reading some more pages or chapters shelve it because it has become old and it no longer attracts their attention. But in case of a newspaper every morning we get a new copy and that is why we get fascinated by it. But take Internet. It has something new to show us every minute in fact every second. So when I sit in front of my networked computer I rarely turn my eyes from it. It has got every thing I want. I can not only access information but even share the information with others. 

So to improve the educational standards in our country we need to device a plan to provide every school going child with a networked laptop. In fact there is a program called One Laptop per Child started by MIT labs. This laptop is very sturdy and runs on open source LINUX based software called Sugar.

OLPC Project has made a start in India with a pilot deployment in a rural village at Khairat near Navi Mumbai where laptops have been deployed and every child carries one laptop home.

Just imagine a teacher teaching Geography lesson and the students in the classroom use Google Earth to locate the countries, water bodies and observe the terrain of different locations. How effective the teaching-learning process would be!

Note: For full version visit  (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/eggheadedram/bridging-digital-divide-india-create-equal-opportunities)

The bill contains the following main provisions:

• If a photo is taken under circumvention of a visual protection, it shall not to be considered publicly available data;
• An obligation to inform the competent authorities and the public, for anyone who wants to take photos of the public systematically, referenced to geographical data;
• An obligation to blur faces and license plates not only for display purposes, but for the raw data;
• A right for anyone to request to disable access to photos of his/her house.

The bill would limit the "Freedom of Panorama" in German law, that allows anyone to take, publish and distribute pictures of the public. Already now, that freedom can be limited by the individual rights of persons displayed. The bill is clearly limited to systematically geo-referenced images, and thus does not affect ordinary press photos.

1. we can legally bind the owner of the biometric sample with the idenfication or verification process
2. passwords need not be remembered or stored anywhere e.g. a smartcard thus avoiding the implications of password being cracked by guessing, brute force attacks or other methods.

Yet there has been no single solution that will absolutely resolve key management issue for public key infrastructure, reason being biometrics do not change over a period of time. So, there is need for better solution to generate multiple keys from the same biometrics in case there is a need for new key. Other major reason is that biometrics are not 100% accurate i.e. there is some deviation (though small) between biometric template captured during registration and that during verification due to several reasons like noise from the camera, disorientation of the biometric sample on the scanner, cuts and wear and tear of the biometrics during a period of time etc. 

Biometric authentication takes place on the basis of percentage match with reference to a threshold. If the match is above the threshold, authentication is successful otherwise not. Hence, accuracy of biometrics solution is measured in terms of False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and False Reject Rate (FRR). FAR and FRR are inversely related to each other. If one increases, the other decreases and vica versa.

Since, iris is the most accurate biometrics known amongst all, it has drawn more attention in recent times from researchers around the globe in addition to fingerprint recognition technology. Governments are planning to deploy biometrics based solution for creating database of its nationals for identification and verification using multimodel biometric technology. India's UIDIA and USA government's biometric passport projects are good examples of it.

One of the major issues with biometrics technology is people's acceptance. People think that biometrics would open doors to breach of privacy. This perception needs to be changed. 

The relatively recent definition that was proposed in the paper (S. A. Ostroumov, “New Definitions of the Concepts and Terms Ecosystem and Biogeocenosis” Doklady Biological Sciences, 383 (2002): 141–143. Translated from Doklady Akademii Nauk, 383, no. 4 (2002): 571–573), was often cited by other authors. The definition is:

An “ecosystem is the complex of interconnected living organisms inhabiting particular area or unit of space, together with their environment and all their interrelationships and relationships with the environment. An ecosystem is characterized by the description of populations; the abundance of individual species; interspecies relationships; activity of organisms; physical and chemical characteristics of environment; flows of matter, energy, and information; and description of changes of these parameters with time.”

An example of a paper that cited and used this definition, with the reference to the abovementioned article: 

Community Resilience: A function of resources and adaptability. (WHITE PAPER)

Patricia H. Longstaff, Nicholas J. Armstrong, Keli A. Perrin, Whitney May Parker, Matthew Hidek (JUNE 2010; INSCT.SYR.EDU)

Executive Summary: This white paper is intended for people who must help communities prepare for surprises. It assumes that no community can protect itself from every conceivable threat, but can increase its ability to be resilient or ‘bounce back.’ The resilience approach described below is written in plain language and as culturally-neutral as possible in order to make it globally applicable across a broad range of communities. We recommend that communities assess their resources and adaptive capacity for a variety of community systems: ecological, economic, civil society, government, and infrastructure in order to find the balance that achieves the degree of resilience most appropriate for them. This approach also requires attention to the intersections and overlaps of these systems. The ideas presented here are consistent with the most current efforts at defining and assessing resilience, even if the terminology varies. The paper concludes by outlining the next steps for concept refinement and validation through case-based research and development of assessment tools for practitioners.

The full text of the paper is accessible in PDF.

König, R., Nentwich, M., 2010, Google, Google Scholar und Google Books in der Wissenschaft. Steckbrief III im Rahmen des Projekts Interactive Science. ITA-Reports, Nr. a52-3 hrsg. v. Institut für Technikfolgen-Abschätzung, Wien: ITA (PDF)

The 69-pages report is in German language - here is the abstract in English:

In this report we examine three Google services that can be used for textual searches and assess their impact on (primarily internal) scholarly communication: The universal web search engine Google, the academic search engine Google Scholar and the book search Google Books.

Firstly, we present basic information about the company Google Inc. and its roots. We then introduce each service by outlining important functional principles, namely the searchable databases, the way content is delivered and the available options for users. Starting with Google web search, we also describe some general aspects of search engines.

We found that all three services have effects on (internal) scholarly communication. They seem to be relevant especially with regard to searches for academic information. Since the observed platforms follow functional principles that differ from traditional information systems (e.g. libraries), possible changes are outlined and discussed. We also focus on various other aspects of the specific services, such as the effects of the Google web search on public relations, Google Scholar’s citation analysis functionality, or the legal problems that arise from the Google Books project.

We conclude that despite the preliminary character of this assessment, which results from the dynamics in the field observed, certain aspects seem striking and almost certainly persistent. Due to Google’s market power and popularity and the fact that it shares some goals with academics (gathering and organizing information), it will probably continue to have major effects on scholarly communication. While some of them can be dealt with in the academic system itself, others raise fundamental questions that require a wider perspective.

When a business/producer takes fewer inputs to produce the same output as its rival is efficient. Therefore, efficiency is the ratio of input costs to output, thus it is positively related to productivity. However, productivity measures the performance of the factors of production (i.e. labour and capital). The high productivity means no wastage or misuse of resources thus leads to high levels of production without wastage. In simply words efficiency means the use of least costs to produce the same level of output.  This leads to low production costs and consequently to low prices[2] of the final good as we know that the price of a product is equally to production costs plus surplus value[3]. 

A producer is effective when he reaches his/her targets of production/ output. For example if a farmer targeted 10 bags of maize in a week and by Friday has 10 bags of maize, it means the farmer is effective. Effectiveness does not take into account costs used to produce these bags. Therefore, being effective does not necessarily mean a farmer or company is efficient. One (economist) may wonder that you have reached your target but at what costs, meaning how many inputs (resources) did you use to produce those 10 bags and how long did it take you to produce one bag of maize? These questions arise because one producer may take fewer inputs and time to produce the same bags, for example may take 3 days. In such case both producers are effective but are they efficient, that is where the issue of efficiency comes in. Based on definition of efficiency, the one who took fewer days to produce the same level of output is efficient. 

The third term is slightly difficult and challenging too. Being competitive means having any kind (excluding subsidies and protectionism) of advantage over your competitors or rivals that leads to a large volume of sales. That advantage could be:

• Better location than competitors
• Better production means
• Low price etc 

Therefore, there is a positive correlation between efficiency and competitiveness simply because anything that brings low cost and efficiency yields low prices which gives you an advantage over your rivals. At the same time, I can conclude and say being effective does not mean one is competitive. 

To me all these three terms are equally important, as effectiveness allows you to reach your targets (economics does not apply here), efficiency (where economists come in) gives economies of scale while competitiveness gives an advantage of large volume of sales and profit. Therefore, amongst other things being competitive is as a result of cost advantage resulting from efficiency. 

• [1] An unrealistic assumption but it does give a clear picture and I am an economist so assumptions form bases of my arguments.
• [2] This only happens under the assumption of  a perfect market competition.
• [3] Surplus value is the term referring to profit, this term was constantly used by Carl Marx.

The murine“natural”  hemagglutinin and hemolysin activities, reacting strongly with human blood group A erythrocytes, were inhibited exclusively by autologous, water-soluble A-specific glycosphingolipids detected in the ovary, and the respective measurements were saved at statistically significant levels using multiple comparisons with the other male and female  tissues (1, 8). Markedly age-dependent, the ovarian glycosphingolipids reach their peak of activity at the onset of puberty (1, 2) and did not show any A-like expression at birth. Their production always precedes the appearance of their corresponding antibody, which was demonstrated at extremely low levels, if at all, in early ovariectomized animals.  Its autoreactive hemagglutinin and hemolysin specificities were shown to be distinct from a human anti-A antibody  which discovers growth-dependent xenoreactive A-like structures in several other murine tissues, and it is not a Forssman antibody (9). Moreover, there is no comparable murine anti-B antibody of endogenous origin. While an anti-B can be exogenously induced in the C57BL/10J inbred mouse by the B-reactive lipopolysaccharide of Escherichia coli O86, it is always accociated with a cross-reactive immune anti-A, which can easily be absorbed by the microbial glycolipid and separated from the “natural” anti-A (10).  

Today “natural" antibodies are known to reflect various origins (11) and believed to be produced also without any exogenous stimulation, but nevertheless are polyreactive with exogenous and endogenous structures and so are always (auto)-antibodies as well (12, 13)). Their appearance in healthy man and animals excludes autoimmune diseases and perhaps displays self control procedures of autologous cell growth under physiological and pathological conditions (14). 

The particular association, or even cooperation of specific surface receptors with their corresponding antibody, apparently controlled not by the thymus but peripheral mechanisms, as demonstrated for anti-A (auto) antibodies in normal human sera (15), may raise again the intriguing question whether the genetic background, identifiable by cell surface properties, could be of significance in disease and survival, i.e. evolutionary advantage. Cancer biology here is a large field of discussion, blood groups as genetic markers always played a role. The molecular structures of the ABH, Lewis, Tn - and related systems in tumor development were a matter of extensive experiments.  And the discovery of Tn structures and derivatives as diagnostic markers and vaccines in tumor therapy and prophylaxis was one of the first important results (16).

But statistics about a direct correlation between cancer and blood groups were up to now not satisfying. While earlier reports appeared to reveal a modest predominance for malignant growth in people with the expression of blood group A, especially concerning certain organs such as the ovary and intestinal tract, the latest prospective study could not confirm these investigations considering ovarian cancer; it here demonstrated some predominance of of “B” instead of “A” (17). Moreover, in earlier studies the preservation of A-like structures in the tumor cells of blood group A patients was shown to be even a favorable factor in the prognosis of non-small-cell cancer of the lung (18). 

However, although a blood group dependency of malignant growth, especially a predominance of blood group A could up to now not be verified, A-like structures per se on the other hand, may be of significance for growth processes in general, as suggested by the neo expressions of “inappropriate” A-like structures in tumors of animals not expressing blood group A in their normal tissues or in blood  group O persons (19, 20, 21). Although these neo expressions are relatively rare, the anti-A (auto) antibodies detected in any normal human serum (15) and the majority of the human “natural” anti-A  “iso” antibody populations in healthy persons could reflect a steady response to invisible “inappropriate” A-like growth.  

In fact, A-like structures may exhibit some biological predominance as shown by their distribution in the C57BL/10J inbred female mouse. The great polymorphism of the common, species independent (blood group) antigen A complex, a complete structure of the human ABH blood group system was presented by a single inbred organism which distinguishes between xeno- and auto-reactive A-like activities and their related Forrsman type specificity. And the growth dependent appearance of “inappropriate” A-like activities in the ovaries of unfertilized females strongly suggest a genetic polymorphism due to parthenogenetic processes in unfertilized eggs.      

The reproductive pressure of inbreeding apparently promotes parthenogenesis (22). Increased developmental potentials were already observed after pharmacological or hormonal manipulations respectively, particularly in inbred mice (23). And even viable chimaeras were already produced from normal and parthogenetic mouse embryos (24)). They perhaps also explain the observations in the C57/BL10J female mouse, as the polymorphism of the A-like complex, exerted by the distribution of its xeno-reactive - and auto-reactive structures, could reflect the developmental process during tissue maturation. 

In man parthenogenetic potentials were recognized to be essential in stem cell research (25, 26, 27) and may be of significance in “natural” immunity as well. But they are neither restricted to germinal tissue nor always concentrated or over-expressed as in the ovary of the C57/BL10J inbred mouse, used as experimental tool (1, 2, 8). During maturation they are preserved to some somatic cells, which dependent from the tissue, display different amounts up to the pluripotent cells. They dictate the developmental procedures in non reproductive tissues exerting the genetic polymorphisms, which explain the production of the “inappropriate” neoantigens such as “A”.

This genetically otherwise unexplainable structure was detected up to now only occasionally on malignant cells, but the blood group independent production of anti-A auto- and/or iso antibodies (15) may consistently reflect the “inappropriate” A-like activity.  It is so hypothesized that a polyclonal antibody production, represents the response to a common, species-independent polymorphic endogenous structure, which by some biological predominance arises or escapes from the genetical polymorphism of developmental processes in physiolocal and pathological conditions.  

1. Arend, P. and Nissen, J.: Immunobiology 1977, (153), 74-84.
2. Arend, P. and Nijssen, J. : Nature 1977, (269), 255-257.
3. Rocher, J.: Diplome,  Ecole Pratiqu des Hautes Etudes (Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre),    Nantes 2005. 
4. Eisler, M. : Z. Immun.-Forsch. 1930,  (67), 38 - 49.
5. Landsteiner, K.: Science 1931, (73) 403 ff.
6. Springer, G.F.et al.: 1961, J. Exp. Med. (113)), 1077-1093.
7. Springer, G. F. and Horton, R. E.:  J. Clin. Invest. 1969 July; 48 (7): 1280–1291. 
8. Arend, P. and Njissen, : J.: J. Immunogenetics 1976, (3), 373-382. 
9. Arend, P.: Immunobiology 1979, (156), 410-417.
10. Arend, P.: Eur. J. Immunol. 1971, (5), 398-402.
11. Casali, P. and Schettino, E.W.: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology 1996 (210), 167-179.
12. Baumgarth, N. et al. : Springer Seminars in Immunopathology, Springer  2005 (4), 347-362
13. Duk, M. et al.: Glycobiology 2005 (15), 109-118.
14. Wang, H. and Chow, D.A.: Immunology 2000, 101 (4), 456-467.
15. Spalter, S.: Blood 1999 (93), 4418-4424.          
16. Lo-Man, R.. et al.: J. Immunol.2001 (166) 2849-2854
17. Gates, M.A. et al.: Internatl. J. Cancer 2010, March 22 .
18. Lee, J.S. et al.: NEJM 1991 (324) 1084-1090.
19. Hirota, M. et al.: Carcinogenesis 1992 (13) 1829-1833.
20. Hakomori, S.: Cancer Res 1985 (45) 2405-2414
21. Okada, Y.J. et al. : J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 1987 78 (1), 19-28.
22. Uyenoyama,  Marcy. K. : Evolution 1985 (39) 1194-1206.
23. Downs, S.: Biology of Reproduction 1990 (43) 427-436.
24. Leroy, C. et al.: Nature 1977 (269) 515- 517.
25. Isaev, D.A. et al. : Russian Journal of Developmental Biology 2001 (32) 292-297
26. Kim, K., et al.: Cell Stem Cell 2007 (1) 346-352.
27. Polak de Fried, Ester et al.: Fertility and Sterility 2008 (89)943-947  

Four different Plasmodium species infect humans and cause distinct disease patterns:

• P. falciparum (malaria tropica),
• P. vivax (malaria tertiana),
• P. malariae (malaria tertiana) and
• P. ovale (malaria quartana) 

P. falciparum and P. vivax account for 95% of malaria infections. Of these two parasites, P. falciparum is the most deadly one, causing cerebral malaria which, if remain untreated, leads to coma and ultimately death of the patient. 40% of the world populations live in areas with the risk of malaria.

Around 300-500 million clinical cases of malaria are reported every year, of which more than a million die of severe and complicated cases of malaria. Malaria is known to kill one child every 30 sec, 3000 children per day under the age of 5 years.

Malaria ranks third among the major infectious diseases in causing deaths after pneumococcal acute respiratory infections and tuberculosis, and accounts for approximately 2.6% of the total disease burden of the world.

Although malaria has been widely eradicated in many parts of the world, the global number of cases continues to rise. The most important reason for this alarming situation is the rapid spread of malaria parasites that are resistant to antimalarial drugs.

In 1967, the Chinese government launched a program to discover new antimalarial drugs from indigenous plants. The first written record of the antipyretic activity of tea-brewed leaves of Artemisia annua was described in "The Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergency Treatments" written by Ge Hong (281-340 A.D.).    

In 1971, Chinese researchers isolated, by extraction at low temperature from A. annua (Sweet wormwood), a stable easily crystallizable compound that they named Qinghaosu and later on named artemisinin . 

In the past 36 years, out of all antimalarial drugs discovered during this period, artemisinin was the only natural product whose medicinal properties were known for more than 2000 years. The only one synthetic antimalarial drug, mefloquine, has been discovered during this period.

Since its discovery, artemisinin has distinguished itself as a rapidly acting plasmodial agent against the blood phase of P. falciparum, and  is potent against both chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant strains of the parasite in vitro,in vivo animal studies, and most importantly, in humans. 1,2,4-trioxane is the basic pharmacophore responsible for antimalarial activity. 

Owing to the fact that the peroxy linkage is essential for the antimalarial activity of artemisinin activity of artemisine and its derivatives, many 1,2,4-trioxane have been synthesized in different laboratory from inexpensive and readily available starting material. 

References

• http://malaria.who.int/
• Qinghaosu Antimalarial Coordinating Research Group. Chin. Med. J. 1979, 92, 811.
• Meshnick, S. R.; Taylor, T. E.; Kamchonwongpaisan, S. Microbiol. Rev. 1996, 60, 301. 

Psychology deals with and collects data at the level of the individual, Social Psychology deals with the behavior of individuals as they interact as groups and Sociology deals with the investigation of human institutions, the largest of which are presently nations and religions. Worldology would deal with the newly emerging unit of the whole “world” as its unit of measurement.  

Global consciousness would be the ultimate unit of organization possible for the human race. A journey that began some 100,000 years ago with the possibilities born from the evolution of the language organ giving us the ability to form progressively complex and increasingly encompassing social dimensions. After over a 100 millennium of ebb and flow, we stand at the verge of the possibility of a world unite. Social systems of reciprocally predictable behavior, which began with tiny groups of isolated humans towards its ultimate capacity of the complete world, have evolved to a point where today we stand at the threshold of our final human frontier of global consciousness.    

Generation from here on in will be faced with the daunting task of human organization at a scale that was neither possible nor that can be exceeded. Worldology is conceived of as a social scientific discipline that acts as a platform for the evaluation, investigation and facilitation of this newly emerging opportunity. An opportunity to preserve the biodiversity of our planet in all its forms and to work together toward global awareness and a world at peace, cognizant that we all live in one ecologically whole unit. There is only one world; the boundaries that we have drawn are mere blots of ink, meaningful only to the minds of one creature, humans. Boundaries have come and gone and they will for ever transform as we realign our allegiances and paradigms of co-existence.    

The idea of Worldology came to me after writing a final paper for my MA degree in Social Psychology at Bogazici University (Istanbul, Turkey). In the paper which was titled "Critical Review of Social Psychological Theories" one of the dimensions that I compared various theories upon was -how universally appropriate the theories were. In other words, were theoretical findings universally applicable cross culturally. I had concluded that most theorists agreed that when social psychological theories were reduced beyond social attribution of meaning that they lost their usefulness, and that meaning was anchored in language.  

Having grown up nearly symmetrically bicultural between Swissvale, a small suburb of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and Istanbul a megalopolis of the East, I was well aware of the impact and importance of language and culture on perception. It dawned on me that for social psychological theories to be universally applicable that all people would need to be speaking the same language and thus be referring to the same source of extracting meaning.  

The next question was, would, at some point in time, everyone in the world speak the same language and truly understand each other, and if so how quickly would such a global reciprocity of awareness develop. Back in 1984 the globalization craze was just beginning to unfold as new technologies emancipated the individual with increasingly more power. Individuals were being bombarded with new opportunities to participate in novel situations and expand their perceptions beyond the boundaries of their own nations. The flattening of the world, to use Thomas Friedman's term, was just beginning to compress cultures into one big playing field.  

Globalization was well on its way but to speak of a global consciousness was still the stuff of musical imagination. The real world seemed to be launched into a spiral of polarization rather than moving toward world peace. The concept of Worldology was more of a deduction from the relationship between language and behavior rather than an observation induced by reality.  For years it was hard to discuss the concept with anyone other than a close group of academic friends.  But those days are past and after some 25 years, it's time to discuss how this process will unfold and nurture the emergence of a discipline that will work on behalf of the needs of the world as one ecologically diverse whole. 

 George Lekkas, Plotinus. Towards an ontology of mode, Editions Papazisi, Athens 2009, 134 pp. in Critica - A Greek Online Journal of Philosophical Reviews (in Greek)  

This is a corpus of studies, which cast new light on the interpretation of Enneads, striving to reveal the relations, the Neoplatonic hypostases develop in their articulation. Particularly focusing on the mode itself as exegetical tool, examines the mode of existence or the existence of the mode. This is an original approach, introducing the existential factor of relation, of which the inherent indeterminacy is combined with the metaphysical potentiality.  

Emanation  

According to Neoplatonism the whole universe, in its material and metaphysical aspects, is a product of the first hypostasis, the One. Through the process of emanation, the hierarchy of hypostases, One-Intelligence-Soul, ends at the non being of the region of matter. The intelligibles, being inside the hypostasis of Intelligence, form and embellish everything exists under them, of which nothing is considered without having a part of it inside the third hypostasis, the Soul. Human bodies, as being material, are also inside the hypostasis of Soul, by their individual souls. The river of creative and generative power of One flows into the dark region of non being, watering it. Everything is under the influence of this immense power, including matter, which is only a privation of good.    

The kind of relations between the hypostases guarantees the overflowing of power. Nothing exists for itself; even the Intelligence and the Soul need the dependence on the first hypostasis, the One, as they need themselves. Since the first hypostasis stands beyond everything, beyond being, this means that nothing owes its existence to the existence itself.  

Return 

 But the opposite course of ascend through the hypostases is to be accomplished, which comes right after every ensouled being realizes its destiny and of what is made of.  

 The mode of Soul’s existence gives rise to the question: of what special and general characteristics is that mode, since there is always in relation to itself and to the other? The answer is that the mode of psychic existence tends always to become intelligible, in order to find something it hasn’t. If the mode of the ensouled being presupposes the way of being intelligible, then what means to be intelligible? The answer to this, brings to mind that the higher destination of Intelligence is to cease being in itself. The only way the Intelligence has of not being in itself, is to succeed the complete unification with the One. Oness for some people looks very simple, and in reality it is as simple as it is the simplicity itself (πάντῃ ἁπλοῦν).

In fact the Soul and the Intelligence are related to the One by various ways, but always the ascending course for approaching the higher level of hypostases, is a return to the source of being, life and reason. Nevertheless, the extremely unapproachable nature and knowledge of the One make It a resident of beyond being. In final analysis the One isn’t related to anything; they are not humans those who find It, bud godlike and blessed men.  

Rest  

The mode of being hasn't only a single meaning. But when we come at the One, there is no meaning other than being One, as we exist as nothing and everything, as no one and as all. This ambiguity characterizes the absolute hypostasis not due to the lack of being, but due to the superabundance of being; its ambiguity is not common: it is a fundamental ambiguity. In reverse, if any kind of certainty exists, this is to be found where no one can really look: at the One Itself. The contradictions and the apophatic language is only our insufficient way to understand what the mystical union would be, when someone experiences it. In reality it is an inexpressible situation.  

By determining and generating the Being, the One resides at the same time at the heart of everything, as the absolute otherness to Being and the complete identity to Itself. If the One tries only a little to make everything similar to It, this is not why it doesn't care, but because everything and everybody must earn the kind of freedom which exists inside It. In any case, the name Absolute (ἀπολλελυμένον), which fits for the One, means "the free", "the without bond". The final rest inside One is an achievement of freedom, because by coming to this abode means to leave everything behind. The experience of mystical union (Unio Mystica), the ecstasy, is accomplished in this world and life as a flight to our real fatherland that is God or Good or One.    

The existence of the One everywhere, doesn't mean that Its absence isn't felt sometimes somewhere. If the One is the biggest attraction for everything, this is because everything yearns for unity, beauty and goodness. The union with the One becomes the most secret and valuable hope for mankind, having take through the course of history various forms, in every field of activity. In reality, nature and history cannot be considered and viewed otherwise, without being connected with what constantly makes them coherent, including any particularity and totality may constitute.         

This is contradictory with the well known Warburg Effect (Warburg 1924), i.e. an elevated level of glycolysis and glucose consumption as a hallmark of tumor growth, hypothesized to provide a growth advantage for the tumor cells.

However, another gene p53 (on human chromosome 17p13.1), also promoting OXPHOS, is a well known tumor suppressor. p53 could inhance expression of Cytochrome c Oxidase II (also a part of complex IV of ETC), which is essential for OXPHOS in mitochondria. p53 is found to have mutated in many cancer cells, causing a shift from OXPHOS to glycolysis (Matoba 2006) during tumor growth. This is in turn consistent with Warburg Effect.

As the result we see two genes located on the same chromosome regulating the balance between OXPHOS and glycolysis in the same way. However, they seem to play opposite roles in carcinogenesis. So why are they so different?

One possible reason may lie in their roles in inducing apoptosis. Over-expression of p32 could induce apoptosis only when p53 functions in normal status (Itahana & Zhang 2008). So once p53 is disfunctional in cancer cells as said above, the overexpression of p32 won't cause apoptosis alone, and thus won't give any disadvantage against the tumor cells. On the other hand, overexpression of p32 could produce ATPs for tumor cells in a higher efficiency. In such a hypothesis p32 would not be an oncogene, but is only overexpressed as a consequence of carcinogenesis. And in such a case, the Warburg Effect is not rejected but irrelevant to the mechanisms here.

Anyway, the Warburg Effect has been questioned more than once (Weinhouse et al 1956; Zu & Guppy 2004; Dang 2010). Although the inhibition of OXPHOS and promotion of glycolysis have been correlated to carcinogenesis either as a cause or as a consequence in numerous studies throughout the last 80 years (too many literatures), the underlying mechanisms seem still unsolved. And it is still possible to answer the above question in the context of metabolism regulation based on the framework raised by Warburg.

Many studies have been proposing an evolutionary perspective onto the correlation between ATP synthesis and carcinogenesis (e.g. Gatenby & Vincent 2003; Pfeiffer & Schuster 2005; Vincent 2006), by considering the tumor/normal cells within the same tissue/organ as a population, in which individual cells compete with each other in a series of cell generations within the life span of the human body. Such a micro-evolution process could be investigated with methods from population genetics, adaptation dynamics, theories of competition and coexistence, etc. These Darwinist have provided interesting viewpoints and they never forgot about the important roles of mitochondrial functions and mtDNA mutations in tumor growth. However, they seldom considered the cooperation between the mitochondrial genome and the nuclear genome, as de Bivort et al (2007) did in their effort to correlate such an coevolutionary force behind ATP synthesis with the progression of some mitochondrial diseases.

It is known that many proteins and enzymes involved in mitochondrial functions, including complexes I, III, IV and V of the ETC, are composed of both mtDNA-encoded and nDNA-encoded subunits (Wallace 2005). Interestingly, both p32 and p53 could regulate complex IV, but not complex II, which is encoded solely by nDNA. Considering that the two genomes belong to different hierarchies of life forms, some delicate cooperation mechanisms may have evolved to keep them match in a cell. Such mechanisms could be vulnerable to novel influences in the modern world, either environmental or physical, causing cyto-nuclear conflict. It is worth including such cyto-nuclear mismatch/incompatibility patterns when constructing an evolutionary model to answer the above question.

Vital references

• Fogal, V., Richardson, A. D., Karmali, P. P., Scheffler, I. E., Smith, J. W., & Ruoslahti, E. 2010. Mitochondrial p32 protein is a critical regulator of tumor metabolism via maintenance of oxidative phosphorylation. Molecular and Cellular Biology 30: 1303-1318.
• Matoba, S., Kang, J., Patino, W. D., Wragg, A., Boehm, M., Gavrilova, O., Hurley, P. J., Bunz, F., & Hwang, P. M. 2006. p53 regulates mitochondrial respiration. Science 312: 1650-1653.
• de Bivort, B. L., Chen, C., Perretti, F., Negro, G., Philip, T. M., & Bar-Yam, Y. 2007. Metabolic implications for the mechanism of mitochondrial endosymbiosis and human hereditary disorders. Journal of Theoretical Biology 248: 26-36.

Until now, more than 1 million of SNPs have already been investigated for an association with IQ by Plomin, Deary et al. and others. No major effect has been discovered which could explain the high heritability of general cognitive ability and the known pattern of Mendelian segregation of IQ in the normal range of variation. Plomin et al. found only very small and mostly non-replicable effects. Therefore, our mind should be open for a broader outlook and new hypotheses. 

MicroRNAs as regulatory factors in gene expression renders them attractive candidates for harbouring genetic variants with effects on IQ. There is already ample evidence that miRNA-mediated gene regulation plays an important role in a number of neurodegenerative diseases. MiRNAs bind to complementary sequences in the three prime untranslated regions (3' UTRs) of target messenger RNA transcripts. MiRNA genes are found in intergenic regions or in anti-sense orientation to genes and contain their own miRNA gene promoter and regulatory units. As much as 40% of miRNA genes may lie in the near-gene introns of protein and non-protein coding genes or even in exons. 

Our first example:

Harold, D. et al. have found out and replicated compelling evidence that rs3851179 of the PICALM gene is associated with alzheimer. The homozygotes and heterozygotes of the rare allele A of rs3851179 have a 0,86x decreased risk for alzheimer. Since many years I am looking for such findings, because we should expect that probands of high general intelligence (high IQ) have a later onset of alzheimer and a decreased risk. Surprisingly, the allele frequencies not only of rs3851179, but even more of rs669556 and of at least 30 other SNPs in this near gene region exhibit the frequencies of a hypothetical major gene locus of general intelligence, see http://www.v-weiss.de/majgenes.html and http://knol.google.com/k/national-iq-means.

As it seems, at the moment, nobody has an explanation why the non-coding SNP rs3851179 is associated with Alzheimer and why in a large chunk of DNA with copy number variation a high number of SNPs exhibits similar allele frequencies in all the populations of the HapMap project. In which way could such a phenomenon have been stabilized by natural selection? Could this region be coding for miRNA or be its binding target?

The second example:

By checking routinely the bibliographical details of paper published together with A. Payton et al. on "Investigation of a functional quinine oxireductase (NQO2) polymorphism and cognitive decline" in  Neurobiol. Aging 31 (2010) 351, I became aware of a publication on "Genetic variant of glutathione peroxidase 1 in autism" Brain Dev. 32 (2010) 105.

Since 1982 I did collect evidence on a relationship between glutathione peroxidase activity, general cognitive ability (IQ) and social status. I quote in the following from an editorial published by me 1994 in the journal "Intelligence":

"In 1982 I became aware of a paper published by Sinet, Lejeune & Jerome (1979) in which a correlation of .58 between IQ and erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity (GSHPx, now GPX1) was reported for 50 trisomy 21 patients. None of the other enzymes studied correlated with IQ. Sinet et al. thought the correlation to be trisomy-specific, because an increase of about 50% in the superoxide dismutase activity (SOD-1) can be observed in cells from trisomy 21 patients. There is a feedback control of GSHPx concentration by the amount of superoxide, which explains the elevated activity of GSHPx in cells of trisomy 21 patients. However, Fraser and Sadovnick (1976) had found that the correlations of IQ between trisomy 21 probands with their fathers, mothers and sibs are about .50, consequently of the same size as with healthy  children despite the mean IQ of trisomy 21 probands being about 70 points lower. Therefore already Lenz (1978) had concluded that individual differences in trisomy-IQ have generally the same biochemical background as in normal persons. And Brugge et al. (1992) confirmed a correlation of .73 between erythrocyte GSHPxactivity anda short-term memory score. ...  By Gerli et al. (1984) GSHPx was assayed in families and the results support the existence of two Mendelian alleles.” 

In the following years I instigated a number of colleagues from all over the world to discover the underlying genetic cause of the cited correlations, but nearly completely in vain. We investigated SNPs of GST transferases, NQO and many, many others. Therefore I came to the conclusion that the major contribution to the correlation between lipid peroxidation and IQ could or should be the effect of a gene with copy number variations and repeat polymorphisms for which data are still not available or incomplete.
 

In April 2010, at the present state of knowledge, GPX1 is such a gene for which at least 4 common frameshift polymorphisms are already known. The arguments in favor of a relationship between trinucleotide repeat polymorphisms of GPX1 and general cognitive ability are holding for GCLC and its repeat polymorphisms, too.  Glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCL) is the rate limiting enzyme in glutathione synthesis. GCLC repeat polymorphisms are located in the 3' UTR and 5’UTR regions and therefore a likely binding target of miRNA. In view of the claimed relationship of GSH/GSSG redox status with schizophrenia and other neurodegenerative diseases, we should be eager to see whether a correlation between GCLC and its trinucleotide repeats and IQ can be confirmed or not. For the GLCL GAG-repeat status ethnic differences of allele frequencies are known.

As I see, new publications and reviews on the relationship between glutathione status and brain function are not aware of some older publications. In the appendix „Memory as a Macroscopic Ordered State by Entrainment and Resonance in Energy Pathways”, pp. 201-221, of the monograph “Psychogenetik der Intelligenz”. Dortmund. Verlag Modernes Lernen 1986, I wrote on p. 210ff:

“It would defy the most fundamental laws of thermodynamics, when individual differences in brain power would not find their counterpart in individual differences of brain energy metabolism. … Reactions involving S-S or S-H groups of proteins may readily account for the apparently opposite effects of the same control mechanism.  … . At this point we direct attention to the correlation (.58) between IQ and glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx, now GPX) activity (SINET et. 1979) … In modulating the GSH/GSSG ratio, GSHPx not only contributes to the regulation of glycolysis (GILBERT 1984) but consequently also the adenylate energy charge (REHNCRONA et al. 1980) and the NADP/NADPH ratio (GRIMM 1978) are prefectly correlated (r = 1.00!) with glutathione status. Thus the fundamental chemical needs of a living cell, high-energy phosphate stores (ATP) and reducing power (NADPH) depend upon the cortical concentration of glutathione, and the dynamic behavior of a complex system can be reduced to the molecular properties of a master enzyme in an energy pathway.”

The combination of autozygosity mapping and microarray RNA expression analysis has led to the discovery of new genetic polymorphisms underlying nonsyndromic mental retardation with autosomal-recessive inheritance, see Medical News Today and Cell.  

Conclusion

We can be convinced that the application of similar methods to consanguineous families with several members in the high IQ range will lead to the discovery of gene polymorphisms underlying variability of IQ in the upper and normal range of the distribution.  Sites where miRNA are coded or binding and those are especially regions with trinucleotid repeats in the UTRs as in the case of GCLC should be investigated as soon as possible. Until now, all known cases of a causal relationship between copy number variation of trinucleotid repeats and disease have been neurodegenerative diseases and are associated with different degrees of  mental retardation . Therefore the idea, that also the hitherto unknown genetic variation underlying the normal range of IQ could have similar causes (see Tam et al,  Anthony et al, and Barbato et al) , seems not be far fetched.

1. It's not bad people, it's bad systems.  Quaid and the doctor were very good at praising performers within the systems and emphasizing that the 98,000 deaths per year identified by the Institute on Medical Organizations report from 1999 were a product of flawed systems, not evil people.
2. There are cross-industry lessons to be learned.  Quaid and the doctor referred several times to the fact that their friendship and their work was accelerated by the fact that they are both pilots.  They called for a National Transportation Safety Board for medicine. They noted that the nurses' "Five Rights" -- right patient, right prescription, right dosage, right time, and right method -- was a low-cost and helpful checklist that can reduce errors.  I kept waiting for them to recognize Chris Hart's "near-miss" data set as one of the things that could be transferred between industry contexts, but didn't hear that mentioned.
3. Awareness is important. They talked frequently about how little people care about medical errors until it affects them directly, and Quaid's twins' experience -- and his celebrity -- put "wind in the sails" of the project.  I suppose that Katie Couric will be talking about Quaid's project in a couple of hours on the evening news, and USA Today might have an article on the event tomorrow morning -- and it's a little sad that the American public has the attention span of a baby monkey -- but perhaps we can learn to leverage celebrity in the service of high-reliability better than we have in the past.

If I ever get an intern to help me with this blog, this would be a good place to put a link to the CSPAN video on Washington Journal on April 12, 2010, this would be a good place to put a link to the National Press Club event on April 12, 2010; and this would be a good place to put a link to media coverage of the event.  Quick core dump on HRO and medical error:

1. Kathie Sutcliffe co-edited a book with the title Medical Error several years' ago.
2. George Washington University doctoral student Kip Rollins is finishing a strong dissertation on team-based cardio surgical teams and the structuring actitivities that take place in them.
3. I'm a huge fan, recently, of a Katherine Klein et al. article in Administrative Science Quarterly on Trauma Resuscitation Units and the process of "dynamic delegation." 
4. And Amy Edmondson's research on cardio surgical teams learning to collaborate even more tightly than before due to a new surgical procedure is very impressive at driving home the importance of "psychological safety" in team cultures.
5. Finally, for now, Jenny Rudolph's dissertation data on anaesthesiology residents' leadership of teams in response to a complex 25-minute simulation convinces me that individuals do not have the cognitive bandwidth to solve wickedly complex problems, and teams can be built to be smart enough to accomplish those tasks.

“What is unique about the conference and make it an attractive option to submit your work:

• the registration/publication fee is very reasonable;
• a distant participation is possible, no need to attend in person;
• the proceedings are published as a series that is included  in the international Ulrich’s databases of reviewed serial editions; the reference to the proceedings has a format of a reviewed journal;
• the event is widely covered by mass media…"

This is the 12th of the series of International Poster Session Conferences started in 1999.  Abstracts of the conferences are published.

SCIENCE DISCIPLINES: Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Earth Sciences, Geography Science, Chemical Science, Agricultural Science, Biotechnology, Education, Other.

ORGANIZERS: Independent organizing committee, including scientists and representatives of Moscow State University, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Hydrobiological Society (associated with RAS), SIL, EcoEthics International Union (EEIU), and other national and international scientific organizations; the permanent organizing committee started in 1999, and organized 11 conferences of this series.

DEADLINES: May 11, 2010 for  registration fees; May 20 (17:00 Moscow time), 2010  for the abstracts (by e-mail),  June 2 for posters (by paper mail). We also accept the materials and the fee after the deadline, but in that case the registration fee increases for all categories of participants. Sending preliminary information on your intention to submit an abstract/poster is strongly encouraged.

DETAILS: No personal attendance is needed. The posters sent by mail will be displayed/exhibited by organizers on behalf of the authors. Non-attendees can receive some feedback from other participants by e-mail. The best posters presented by students (including those sent by mail) will receive honorary diplomas.

PUBLICATION OF PROCEEDINGS: in the next volume  (No. 16) of the serial ‘Ecological Studies, Hazards, Solutions’, which is included in the authoritative international Ulrich’s databases of reviewed serial editions; the reference to your work will have the format: J. Smith. Discovery of a new phenomenon in biology and environmental science. -  Ecological Studies, Hazards, Solutions, 2010, vol. 16, p. 21.

COVERAGE OF THE CONFERENCE BY MASS MEDIA. The conference is regularly covered by several editions, including journals and newspapers. Some examples.

Also, we invite nominations for candidates to receive the honorary titles of Aquatic Ecologist of the Year and Ecologist of the Year, with your rationale for your nomination. The process of nomination and selection of the finalists will be finished at the conference.

More information is available here. 

“There is no question that our present universe displays a thermodynamic arrow of time: We all have observed phenomena in our everyday lives where entropy is seen to increase significantly, but no one has ever reliably reported an observation of entropy decrease in a macroscopic system.”

We can have a different approach. After the Big Bang all visible matter undergoes temperature decrease and its entropy is changing due to dS=dQ/T=mcdT/T, where m - mass, c - the heat capacity. After integrating we get the entropy change  ΔS=mc lnT/T0, where T0 – the temperature at which all molecules of matter have zero kinetic energy.

Besides we have step-by-step entropy decreases due to phase changes: radiation – atoms – molecules – gas – liquid – solid.

Some say that after the heat deaf the entropy of the Universe is maximal. It depends on approach, depends on POV, or on distribution we look at. At heat deaf the atoms and molecules are maintained, so is the information originated at their formation. Robert Ayres in his book “Information, Entropy and Progress”  names it the ‘morphological information’.

The Second Law was formulated by observations on Earth: by all physical processes where labor or heat is exchanged entropy increases. For example, Earth radiates the heat dQ into the environment. Earth’s entropy change dS=–dQ/300 (when heat is received, it is designated by +dQ, when heat is given away, it is designated by –dQ), environment receives the radiated heat, its entropy changes dS= +dQ/2,7. The system’s ‘Earth-environment’ total entropy changes dS =dQ/2,7–dQ/300 is positive.

What is ‘the environment’? Vacuum + photons (I don’t discuss dark matter). On a cosmic scale all the photons emitted by stars get redshifted due to expansion of the Universe. Does their entropy get decreased too?

It seems that we are not forced always to say that there is a global increase of entropy due to the Second Law. It seems that we can reliably report “an observation of entropy decrease in a macroscopic system.”   

The physical paradigm contains serious distortions or inconsistencies:

1. The Brain is seen as the ultimate "perceiver". But who perceives the brain? The brain again? This is a circle, where my concept of circumscription comes in.
2. Reality is seen as physical after all, and by "physical" our paradigm is meant. From this a limited view of information derives. Here, my infinitesimality structure suggests a deeper view from which "information" derives.
3. "Physical" also means "objective", and objectivity is considered to be "not part of the observer" (the term "observer" contains this misunderstanding in itself). So where in this world is the observer? Observed by whom? Or not observed at all?

Infinitesimality structure means, that there is no object in itself. Objects only condense from universal change by circumscription. This change is an alternation between individuals, and these individuals are condensations of this change, too. So neither firm objects nor objective individuals exist. There is only change or alternation in itself (structure of alternation).

Quantum physics describes another form of alternation than classical physics. There seems to be a basic unity, an elementary quantum. To perceive (or think) such a quantum, however, needs circumscription of "it", condensation of a movement. Again, there is no quantum in itself, although we treat it as such – and limit our focus on it.

How than can it be circumscribed so stable? This is the question to be asked, while not simplifying it to an object in itself (except for practical use).

In this concept there is no exclusive observer, there are only individual views (= individuals). Every view is unlimited at the end (and so are the individuals), but is limited asymptotically by self-reflection aimed at a controllable world and at building structures at all. (A continuous plenum reflects on limited structure to define itself.)

To view the world infinitesimality-structured means to think beyond elementary quantum and quantum information, because "information" is already a condensation, a permanent attuning of alternating individuals (individual views). No information is transmitted: An attunement takes place – by condensating a change, changing position, and decondensating individually. The whole process is precondensated before of course by developing a "common" language, establishing a "common" infrastructure etc., and by unknown processes, too.

Alternation is unlimited, because logically there cannot be a limit without the possibility to cross it in principle. I know that logic is thought by humans, but on the other hand thinking is seen as an appropriate tool to relate to the bigger world. It must be so, otherwise we would not (self-) exist in it. Although our thinking may be inconsistent, it cannot be meaningless to the bigger extent. Although the "ultimate" observer does not exist, individual standpoints do exist; and so does their attunement.

Infinitesimality and infinity are consequences of limitlessness with respect to the existent meaning of the individual thinking. They can be well a camouflage for unperceived structures, but they always point beyond the perceived ones and they always remain essential values to deal with.

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.