///////////////////ADHD Candidate Gene Study in a Population-Based Birth Cohort: Association with DBH and DRD2 Nyman, E.S., et al. - Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood-onset disorder with a significant impact on public health...Our study supports the involvement of the dopamine pathway in the etiology of ADHD; specifically the genes DBH and DRD2 deserve more attention in further studies [more...]
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 11/28/07
////////////////////Rheumatic Chorea: Relationship to Systemic Manifestations and Response to Corticosteroids Walker, A.R., et al. - To describe Sydenham chorea among children in a cohort of patients with rheumatic fever (RF)...Chorea affected one-third of the children with RF. Patients with chorea were less likely to have severe cardiac or rheumatologic complications of RF. Therapy with prednisone shortened the duration of rheumatic chorea; some reported recurrences of chorea and had minor neurologic sequelae [more...]
Journal of Pediatrics, 11/28/07
//////////////////////Disability in Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer: A Swedish National Cohort Study Hjern, A., et al. - Childhood cancer survivors more often have persistent needs of supportive measures provided by community and/or the parental household. The survivors of CNS tumors were at particular risk, indicating a need of safer treatment protocols, and tailored follow-up, prevention, and rehabilitation to address this persistent social disability [more...]
Journal of Clinical Oncology, 11/21/07
///////////////////////Pediatric onset Crohn's colitis is characterized by genotype-dependent age-related susceptibility Levine, A., et al. - In early-onset pediatric CD, children with NOD2/CARD15 mutations demonstrate more ileocolitis and less isolated ileitis. Young children without NOD2/CARD15 mutations have an isolated colonic disease distribution, suggesting that this phenotype is associated with genes that lead to a specific phenotype of early-onset disease [more...]
Inflammatory Bowel Disease, 11/26/07
//////////////////////Serum and Glucocorticoid-Inducible Kinase in Pulmonary Tissue of Preterm Fetuses Exposed to Chorioamnionitis Wirbelauer, J., et al. - Human serine threonine kinase SGK1 mRNA is observed in fetal lung tissue. On the basis of this study, we speculate that exposure to chorioamnionitis is associated with a downregulation of SGK1 in fetal lung tissue. The possible consequences of a decreased rate of SGK1 mRNA could be an impaired ability to clear the lungs from excessive fluid immediately after preterm birth [more...]
Biology of the Neonate, 11/26/07
////////////////////Mutation of SBDS and SH2D1A is not associated with aplastic anemia in Japanese children Wang, Y., et al. - During the last decade, the genetic basis of inherited bone marrow failure syndromes has been identified. Recently, genetic factors predisposing to aplastic anemia (AA) have been found in a few patients with apparently acquired AA. Here we present the genetic analysis of SBDS and SH2D1A in Japanese children with AA [more...]
Haematologica, 11/16/07 Free Full Text
////////////////////Childhood Predictors of Young-Onset Type 2 Diabetes Franks, P.W., et al. - We have determined the relative value of the features of the metabolic syndrome in childhood for the prediction of subsequent type 2 diabetes. Our findings suggest that strategies targeting obesity, dysregulated glucose homeostasis, and low HDL cholesterol during childhood and adolescence may have the most success in preventing diabetes [more...]
Diabetes, 11/28/07
/////////////////////Now that I've been here in India for 6 months for the first time in almost 4 decades, I'm predisposed to voicing, in response to that statement, platitudes such as: "India is the world's biggest democracy, and it WORKS!" It sucks big-time, too, but much of the time, in SO MANY institutions, in so many ways, it bloody works. In particular, about letting others be -- others who think and eat and dress and pray differently -- they beat each other up and hack each other up and put stakes through each other's live fetuses, but they do this about 0.000001% of the time. The rest of the time they exist peacefully. AND they're becoming an economic (if polluted) giant on the world stage.There aren't too many societal success stories in history to equal present day India's.- AjitD
SASIALIT
//////////////////India's 'pink' vigilante women By Soutik Biswas BBC News, Banda The 'pink' gang has staged protests against corrupt officialsThey wear pink saris and go after corrupt officials and boorish men with sticks and axes. The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials. The pink women of Banda shun political parties and NGOs because, in the words of their feisty leader, Sampat Pal Devi, "they are always looking for kickbacks when they offer to fund us". Two years after they gave themselves a name and an attire, the women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor. They have also stormed a police station and attacked a policeman after they took in an untouchable man and refused to register a case. Poorest "Nobody comes to our help in these parts. The officials and the police are corrupt and anti-poor. So sometimes we have to take the law in our hands. At other times, we prefer to shame the wrongdoers," says Sampat Pal Devi, between teaching a "gang" member on how to use a lathi (traditional Indian stick) in self defence.
/////////////////////BEFORE THE END If fate means you to lose, give him a good fight anyhow.William McFee Casuals Of The Sea It’s how you show up at the showdown that counts.Homer Norton (1896-1965)College football coach
FIND AT THE END=FATE
//////////////////////////
Thursday 29 November 2007
WF-OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANCE
FOX NEBULA-HUBBLE//////////////////Performance of a rapid antigen test for the diagnosis of congenital malaria Sotimehin, S.A., et al. - To assess the performance of OptiMAL, a rapid malaria antigen capture dipstick, in diagnosing congenital malaria...OptiMAL rapid malaria antigen capture dipstick might not be useful for diagnosing malaria parasitaemia in newborns. Blood film microscopy remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of congenital malaria [more...]
Annals of Tropical Paediatrics: International Child Health, 11/28/07
Annals of Tropical Paediatrics: International Child Health, 11/28/07
////////////////////Normal Dimercaptosuccinic Acid Scintigraphy Makes Voiding Cystourethrography Unnecessary after Urinary Tract Infection Preda, I., et al. - DMSA scintigraphy results were abnormal in all 27 infants with dilating VUR except 1. This single false-negative finding should be compared with 140 unnecessary VCU investigations. This supports our hypothesis that DMSA scintigraphy results are abnormal when there is dilating VUR. Thus, a normal DMSA scan makes VCU unnecessary in the primary examination of infants with UTI [more...]
Journal of Pediatrics, 11/28/07
Journal of Pediatrics, 11/28/07
/////////////////////Cord Blood KL-6, a Specific Lung Injury Marker, Correlates with the Subsequent Development and Severity of Atypical Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Kim, D.-H., et al. - To determine the impact of antenatal lung injury and inflammatory response on the pathogenesis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) according to its clinical pattern, using KL-6 (as a lung injury marker) and C-reactive protein (CRP) (as a marker of inflammatory response)...The present study shows that cord plasma KL-6, a specific lung injury marker, is increased and objectively reflects disease severity in atypical BPD [more...]
Biology of the Neonate, 11/28/07
Biology of the Neonate, 11/28/07
PED LINX
////////////////////Congenital Cerebellar Malignant Rhabdoid Tumor in an Infant with Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa Krous, H.F., et al. - Epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a hereditary blistering condition of the skin, is divided into simplex, hemidesmosomal, junctional, and dystrophic types. It may be complicated by the development of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, but other neoplasms, especially those separate from involved skin, are distinctly rare [more...]
Pediatric and Developmental Pathology, 11/28/07
Pediatric and Developmental Pathology, 11/28/07
////////////////////Detecting Lies: 10 Subtle Signs of Lying
Posted on November 29, 2007 Filed Under Psychology, Personal Development
It is human nature to lie. Lies are spoken everyday, by the people you see at work, your family and your friends. The following techniques to telling if someone is lying are often used by police, and security experts. This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other deceptions.
A person who is lying to you will avoid making eye contact. If they won’t look you in the eye’s or if they look you in the eye’s while saying “I’m looking you in the eye’s, so I’m not lying.” They are probably lying. They will normally raise their voice, get defensive and will totally want to change the subject. Go with your first gut feeling that feeling is normally right.
Hands touching their face, throat & mouth. Touching or scratching the nose or behind their ear. Not likely to touch his chest/heart with an open hand.
The guilty person may speak more than natural, adding unnecessary details to convince you… they are not comfortable with silence or pauses in the conversation. Also, the guilty person use humor or sarcasm to avoid a subject.
Timing and duration of emotional gestures and emotions are off a normal pace. The display of emotion is delayed, stays longer it would naturally, and then stops suddenly. Timing is off between emotions gestures/expressions and words. Example: Someone says “I love it!” when receiving a gift, and then smile after making that statement, rather then at the same time the statement is made.
A liar will use your words to make answer a question. When asked, “Did you eat the last cookie?” The liar answers, “No, I did not eat the last cookie.”A statement with a contraction is more likely to be truthful: “ I didn’t do it” instead of “I did not do it”.
If you believe someone is lying, then change subject of a conversation quickly, a liar follows along willingly and becomes more relaxed. The guilty wants the subject changed; an innocent person may be confused by the sudden change in topics and will want to back to the previous subject.
Excessive gestures are important body language signs indicating lies. In a subconscious effort to enhance believability, a liar will promote his/her words with unnaturally pronounced gesturing. Also on a subconscious level, the body language serves to divert attention from the dishonest words and face.
Shifting from foot to foot is often the body language of a liar. Similarly, a liar doesn’t always keep his/her feet flat on the ground (whether standing or sitting). This body language generally falls under signs of the “flight instinct” category, which stems from fear or discomfort–both emotions that are triggered by telling lies.
A liar frequently mumbles or speaks in a lowered, monotonous tone, especially at the exact time lies are being uttered. Such modulations in speech are primarily signs that either the liar lacks confidence that the lies are believable, or that the liar feels guilty about telling the lies. From a body language standpoint, these signs are often accompanied by a lowered head and slouching shoulders.
Justification - Attempting to justify every detail with lengthy explanations . Also, the lies uses (and particularly overuses) language like “honestly,” “believe me,” “to tell the truth,” etc. S/he is almost certainly being deceptive.
Life would be far easier for some people if there were a foolproof method for spotting lies. However, whatever method we use there is always the possibility that our assumptions or estimations will be incorrect. Clearly, it would be far easier still if people simply didn’t lie in the first place. But then how would you keep children from learning the truth about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy?
Posted on November 29, 2007 Filed Under Psychology, Personal Development
It is human nature to lie. Lies are spoken everyday, by the people you see at work, your family and your friends. The following techniques to telling if someone is lying are often used by police, and security experts. This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other deceptions.
A person who is lying to you will avoid making eye contact. If they won’t look you in the eye’s or if they look you in the eye’s while saying “I’m looking you in the eye’s, so I’m not lying.” They are probably lying. They will normally raise their voice, get defensive and will totally want to change the subject. Go with your first gut feeling that feeling is normally right.
Hands touching their face, throat & mouth. Touching or scratching the nose or behind their ear. Not likely to touch his chest/heart with an open hand.
The guilty person may speak more than natural, adding unnecessary details to convince you… they are not comfortable with silence or pauses in the conversation. Also, the guilty person use humor or sarcasm to avoid a subject.
Timing and duration of emotional gestures and emotions are off a normal pace. The display of emotion is delayed, stays longer it would naturally, and then stops suddenly. Timing is off between emotions gestures/expressions and words. Example: Someone says “I love it!” when receiving a gift, and then smile after making that statement, rather then at the same time the statement is made.
A liar will use your words to make answer a question. When asked, “Did you eat the last cookie?” The liar answers, “No, I did not eat the last cookie.”A statement with a contraction is more likely to be truthful: “ I didn’t do it” instead of “I did not do it”.
If you believe someone is lying, then change subject of a conversation quickly, a liar follows along willingly and becomes more relaxed. The guilty wants the subject changed; an innocent person may be confused by the sudden change in topics and will want to back to the previous subject.
Excessive gestures are important body language signs indicating lies. In a subconscious effort to enhance believability, a liar will promote his/her words with unnaturally pronounced gesturing. Also on a subconscious level, the body language serves to divert attention from the dishonest words and face.
Shifting from foot to foot is often the body language of a liar. Similarly, a liar doesn’t always keep his/her feet flat on the ground (whether standing or sitting). This body language generally falls under signs of the “flight instinct” category, which stems from fear or discomfort–both emotions that are triggered by telling lies.
A liar frequently mumbles or speaks in a lowered, monotonous tone, especially at the exact time lies are being uttered. Such modulations in speech are primarily signs that either the liar lacks confidence that the lies are believable, or that the liar feels guilty about telling the lies. From a body language standpoint, these signs are often accompanied by a lowered head and slouching shoulders.
Justification - Attempting to justify every detail with lengthy explanations . Also, the lies uses (and particularly overuses) language like “honestly,” “believe me,” “to tell the truth,” etc. S/he is almost certainly being deceptive.
Life would be far easier for some people if there were a foolproof method for spotting lies. However, whatever method we use there is always the possibility that our assumptions or estimations will be incorrect. Clearly, it would be far easier still if people simply didn’t lie in the first place. But then how would you keep children from learning the truth about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy?
//////////////////////Clinical Use of Ibuprofen Is Associated with Slower FEV1 Decline in Children with Cystic Fibrosis Konstan, M.W., et al. - To assess the effect of ibuprofen therapy on FEV1 decline in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis, using observational data from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Patient Registry...Slower rates of FEV1 decline are seen in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis who are treated with ibuprofen. The apparent benefits of ibuprofen therapy outweigh the small risk of gastrointestinal bleeding [more...]
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 11/28/07
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 11/28/07
/////////////////////
ME60-DTR23/ME65-DTR28-KKNDH
///////////////////KAL KISNE DEKHA HAI=EMIS-BTKAT-140+
//////////////////////OPPORTUNITIES"Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat." -- Napoleon Hill"There's no way you can look into the game of life and determine whether or not you'll get that big break tomorrow or whether it will take another week, month, year or even longer. But it will come!" -- Zig Ziglar"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes." -- Benjamin Disraeli"Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies Opportunity." -- Albert Einstein
//////////////////FRAME OF MINDThink of yourself as an athlete. I guarantee you it will change the way you walk, the way you work, and the decisions you make about teamwork, leadership, and success.Mariah Burton NelsonColumnist and basketball playerOptimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and of true progress.Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947)Educator
/////////////////////////Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends.-- Czech Proverb Friends are relatives you make for yourself.-- Eustache Deschamps
//////////////////3RD WORLD=CLIMATE/INFRASTRUCTURE/POLLUTION/CORRUPTION/OVERPOPULN
///////////////////When a man knows God, he is free: his sorrows have an end, and birth and death are no more. When in inner union he is beyond the world of the body, then the third world, the world of the spirit is found, where the power of the All is, and man has all: for he is one with the ONE. -Upanishads (Hindu)
/////////////////////
Stage eight:
This stage is called variously by the Tibetans the attainment-clear light, the clear light of bliss, or the fundamental clear light of the nature of the mind. Actually, it is not properly speaking a ‘stage’ at all, but simply a continuation of the mind of black-near-attainment, only now Recognized to be Consciousness, Itself. And while this Consciousness remains momentarily empty of all phenomena, It is not a mere “nothingness” (in the sense of a vacuity). Rather, It is Realized to be simultaneously the Actual Fullness (or Ultimate Reality) which contains within Itself every possible manifestation, and that Primordial Awareness (like a “clear light") which both projects and perceives these manifestations as apparent ‘worlds’ and ‘beings’.
This is the Realization or Gnosis which “sets you free” from suffering and death forever because It makes absolutely clear that all your experiences of being a limited, transitory entity, ‘I’ , or ‘self’ (which could be subject to birth, suffering, and death) have been, from the very beginning, a delusion. Put differently, you will see that every ‘thing’ is simply a form of your True Self, or that Consciousness which is, Itself, intrinsically free of all things.
IV THIOPENTAL IN SUICD CLINIC
/////////////////DUKKHO EBONG KOSHTO
/////////////////
//////////////////////OPPORTUNITIES"Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat." -- Napoleon Hill"There's no way you can look into the game of life and determine whether or not you'll get that big break tomorrow or whether it will take another week, month, year or even longer. But it will come!" -- Zig Ziglar"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes." -- Benjamin Disraeli"Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies Opportunity." -- Albert Einstein
//////////////////FRAME OF MINDThink of yourself as an athlete. I guarantee you it will change the way you walk, the way you work, and the decisions you make about teamwork, leadership, and success.Mariah Burton NelsonColumnist and basketball playerOptimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and of true progress.Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947)Educator
/////////////////////////Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends.-- Czech Proverb Friends are relatives you make for yourself.-- Eustache Deschamps
//////////////////3RD WORLD=CLIMATE/INFRASTRUCTURE/POLLUTION/CORRUPTION/OVERPOPULN
///////////////////When a man knows God, he is free: his sorrows have an end, and birth and death are no more. When in inner union he is beyond the world of the body, then the third world, the world of the spirit is found, where the power of the All is, and man has all: for he is one with the ONE. -Upanishads (Hindu)
/////////////////////
Stage eight:
This stage is called variously by the Tibetans the attainment-clear light, the clear light of bliss, or the fundamental clear light of the nature of the mind. Actually, it is not properly speaking a ‘stage’ at all, but simply a continuation of the mind of black-near-attainment, only now Recognized to be Consciousness, Itself. And while this Consciousness remains momentarily empty of all phenomena, It is not a mere “nothingness” (in the sense of a vacuity). Rather, It is Realized to be simultaneously the Actual Fullness (or Ultimate Reality) which contains within Itself every possible manifestation, and that Primordial Awareness (like a “clear light") which both projects and perceives these manifestations as apparent ‘worlds’ and ‘beings’.
This is the Realization or Gnosis which “sets you free” from suffering and death forever because It makes absolutely clear that all your experiences of being a limited, transitory entity, ‘I’ , or ‘self’ (which could be subject to birth, suffering, and death) have been, from the very beginning, a delusion. Put differently, you will see that every ‘thing’ is simply a form of your True Self, or that Consciousness which is, Itself, intrinsically free of all things.
IV THIOPENTAL IN SUICD CLINIC
/////////////////DUKKHO EBONG KOSHTO
/////////////////
Wednesday 28 November 2007
CWDOD-BBTBR-MCLWP
///////////////////WILLED EXTINCN
/////////////////////BHRMPUR PED DTH CRSS
//////////////////////Early Treatment With Oseltamivir Improves Influenza Outcomes in Children Expeditious treatment with oseltamivir (Tamiflu) can markedly reduce illness duration, symptom severity, and secondary complications in children with influenza, according to study findings presented earlier this month at the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Disease meeting in Bangkok.Reuters Health Information 2007
///////////////////////Most Cases of T-Cell Precursor ALL Appear to Develop After Birth A retrospective study of children diagnosed with T-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (TCP ALL) concludes, based on PCR studies of stored neonatal blood spots, that most cases of the disease develop after birth, not in utero.Reuters Health Information 2007
/////////////////////Obesity Common in Children With Heart Disease Among children with congenital or acquired heart disease, more than 1 in 4 is overweight or obese, according to results of a study published in the November issue of Pediatrics.Reuters Health Information 2007
////////////////////////////Fexofenadine Well Tolerated in Preschool-Aged Children With Allergic Rhinitis Results of a study published in the October issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology suggest that fexofenadine hydrochloride is safe and well tolerated in children younger than 6 years with allergic rhinitis.Reuters Health Information 2007
/////////////////Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy Effective for Persistent IBS in Children Gut-directed hypnotherapy is "highly effective" for children with longstanding functional abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), clinicians from the Netherlands report in the November issue of Gastroenterology.Reuters Health Information 2007
////////////////////CX=EMPATHY+PLACEBO
///////////////////Rapid Auditory Processing Disrupted in Children With Dyslexia The neural response to rapid auditory stimuli is disrupted in children with developmental dyslexia, but it can be improved with training, according to a report in the October 16th issue of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.Reuters Health Information 2007
/////////////////////
In 2002, late-preterm infants were 3 times more likely than term infants to die before their first birthday and 6 times more likely to die in their first week of life. This difference in mortality remained relatively stable from 1995. Among late-preterm infants, 38% of all infant deaths occurred during the early-neonatal period (vs 22% for term infants).
Death caused by congenital malformations accounted for 42% of deaths for late-preterm infants and for 31% of deaths for term infants. During infancy, late-preterm infants were approximately 4 times more likely than term infants to die of congenital malformations; newborn bacterial sepsis; and complications of the placenta, cord, or membranes. Differences between cause-specific mortality rates in late-preterm vs term infants were most pronounced during the early neonatal period.
///////////////////New Budesonide Treatment Effective Against Eosinophilic Esophagitis in Children A new therapy that uses budesonide in an oral viscous preparation appears to be safe and effective for eosinophilic esophagitis in young children, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.Reuters Health Information 2007
/////////////////////SHIRT BLOT CRSS=GUAMO=GV UP AND MV ON
/////////////////////New Virulent Adenovirus Type 14 Variant Emerging in US: CDC A rare strain of adenovirus (serotype 14) that can cause severe and sometimes fatal acute respiratory illness in people of all ages -- including healthy young adults -- is becoming more common in the United States, health officials warn in Thursday's edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Reuters Health Information 2007
////////////////////Specific Oral Tolerance Induction May Benefit Children With Food Allergy
-->
Information from Industry
Advertisement – For symptoms of allergic rhinitis Learn more about relieving symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis in patients 12 years and older: Nasal and ocular symptoms. Click here.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Nov 21 - Children with persistent food allergy may benefit from specific oral tolerance induction, according to results of a study published in the November issue of Allergy.
"The prevalence of food allergy is increasing," Dr. Bodo Niggemann, from the University Children's Hospital Charite, Berlin, and colleagues write. "Around 2% to 3% of adults and up to 6% of children suffer from food allergy. Specific oral tolerance induction (SOTI) achieved by oral exposure to increasing doses of the specific food allergen seems to be a promising causal approach to therapy, improving both quality of life and safety in the event of accidental ingestion of the offending food."
/////////////////////MISSION BAMBOO-JHARKHAND
////////////////////S DUTT=REC UFTOE
/////////////////PTB=How to Achieve the Creative State of Flow
Have you ever been so engaged in an activity that you lost track of time or even your surroundings? A bomb could of gone off (figuratively) and you wouldn’t have noticed?
That’s called “flow” – a state of consciousness where we experience a task so deeply that it truly becomes enjoyable and satisfying. For me this usually happens while I’m reading, writing, or developing software. For you, it could happen during any number of tasks — golfing, cooking, hiking, etc.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the architect of Flow and after decades of researching the characteristics of the “optimal experience†(a fancy word for enjoyment) he wrote Flow: The Psychology of the Optimal Experience. A guide that shows us how to add more enjoyment in our lives by increasing the time we spend in Flow.
The Conditions of Flow
Flow can be achieved by anyone with any task, as long as the conditions are right. I usually get into a state of Flow while writing. I listen to music through my headphones and after a few minutes I really get into my work I’m oblivious to my surroundings.
Sometimes I can’t type fast enough. Other times I type so s-l-o-w-l-y and the words don’t come easily. But, either way, I’m in a state of Flow. According to Mihaly there are eight characteristics to an optimal experience:
You’re challenged by the task at hand. This seems to be the ‘prime directive’ to achieving Flow and can actually prevent you from being in a state of Flow. The difficulty of your task has to be “just rightâ€. If the task is to easy, you’ll get bored and eventually stop. If the task is to difficult, you’ll get frustrated and eventually stop. Either way, you loose.
The ability to concentrate is key. If there are to many interruptions or it’s noisy, you won’t be able to concentrate on your task. No concentration, no Flow.
You have clear goals to achieve. Goals establish a mechanism to measure your progress and provide a sense of achievement. People in Flow achieve their goals.
You receive immediate feedback. Either your ball landed in the cup or it didn’t. You know immediately if your goal was reached or not.
Your worries and frustrations of everyday life recede into the background. This perhaps is one of the greatest benefit of Flow. You’re busy concentrating on your task and the rest of your world just “goes away†for a short while. Even though you’re challenged, you end up relaxed, satisfied and you achieved something meaningful (all this, and it’s legal too).
Your sense of self disappears (only for a while). When it re-appears, you’re refreshed with an even stronger sense of self.
You have a level of control over your actions while performing your task.
You loose track of time and feel great when you’re done with your task.
The Paradox of Leisure Time
With all the “modern conveniences†available today, we have more free time than ever before. But, with all this free time, people rarely reported being in a Flow state.
What is the largest single pastime for Americans? Watching TV. It’s a national obsession – sports, soaps, reality TV, it doesn’t matter, we’ll watch anything. The interesting thing is this – Flow is rarely achieved while watching TV!
I wonder if it has anything to do with your brain being more active while you’re sleeping than when you’re watching TV? Even though we have plenty of free time, our single most leisure activity is producing the poorest quality of enjoyment. If you’re looking to take one small step to improve the quality of your life - then turn off your TV.
The State of Flow at Work
Engaging in a challenging activity is a primary condition to achieve Flow and for many of us, this occurs while at work. You’re given a task or you volunteer for a project that’s just beyond your current skill level. Deep down you know you can do it and maybe it’s a stretch. But it’s the challenge that intrigues you and ultimately expands your knowledge.
This is how one grows – expanding your skills by continuously challenging oneself and moving to that “next levelâ€. It’s at work where the opportunity to grow occurs most frequently. There is nothing wrong with this. My point is that we need to find activities outside of work where we can achieve Flow.
Your Personal Plan for Flow
Find a challenging activity. This could be anything. Reading, suduko, learning a language, cooking, or even playing a video game. Whatever you decide to do, just do it.
Commit to yourself. Remember, you’re doing this for one person and one person only. Yourself. This is your chance to finally get on the road to happiness and accomplishment.
Set a series of realistic goals. By setting goals you automatically know the level of skills needed to accomplish those goals and you provide yourself a framework for achieving a sense of accomplishment. Just as a video game has levels that you try to achieve, so should your activity. Define the levels, work to achieve them and realize your goals.
Turn off the T.V. “Everything in moderation†is what my father used to tell me – so it goes for TV. Some is good, a lot is bad. Give yourself a chance to get into a Flow state by turning off the TV.
Remove any interruptions. It nearly impossible to be engrossed in an activity when you’re bombarded with interruptions. I tell my kids “Please don’t interrupt me unless you’re bleeding or a dinosaur is crashing through our houseâ€. They usually giggle and give me the time I need.
Track your progress. Create a simple way to track your daily progress. Place a mark on a calendar, write a short entry in a journal or scratch a line in your bedroom wall.
Enjoy your experience. Achieving flow takes determination. But remember to enjoy your experience along the way. As they say “it’s the journey that’s importantâ€.
Have you achieved a state of Flow today?
////////////////////Neutron Star Seen Hurtling Out of the Milky Way
Like a baseball struck by a bat, there's a neutron star out there that's going, going, gone. Discovered using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the neutron star appears to be the result of a lopsided supernova explosion. It's now hurtling away from the Milky Way faster than 4.8 million km/h (3 million mph). And it's never coming back. (more…)
//////////////////////November 28, 2007
Three Revolutionary Alternative-Energy Sources
It's official: sucking dead-dinosaur juice out of the ground and burning it is officially uncool. Whether you object to the way you can't breathe the resulting fumes, or it's the thought of a hundred dollars a barrel that leaves you gasping for air, people from both ends of the political spectrum agree that it's time to find a new way to power our playthings. The mathematics of a fuel-based economy are a vast and complicated field but the simple summary is:
a) The number of people using energy continues to increaseb) The number of new dead animals turning into oil remains constant at zero
This compelling argument has led to increasingly odd research into alternative energy sources. And even if "the fate of modern society" doesn't motivate them, the idea that their oil-based business rivals use a unique "constantly increase the price of our product" strategy means they have a good chance of making money.
1) Wind based x 1000
Wind farms, while undeniably renewable, have run into a multitude of objections including cost, limited applicability, and people whining "They may eliminate the need for the local coal-burning plant but we think it ruins the view from our bay windows". While the latter can be rightly ignored, and maybe mocked a little bit for being extremely small-minded simpletons, the other problems remained valid - which is why a group of engineers said "Why don't we just make it a thousand times better?"
This kilo-improvement isn't a playground boast but exactly what Chinese developers at the Guangzhou Energy Research Institute claim to have achieved by using permanent magnets to float the turbines - making them much easier to turn and scale up in size. A single power plant could replace thousands of old-model windmills and utilise much lower wind speeds, increasing the areas over which they design can be applied. Big words need proof, of course, and we could have it soon - Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Technology is already building a factory to make this ecological and economic fantasy into a reality.
2) Handy home nuclear power plant
You want to know the real solution to the power problem? Nuclear Energy, and lots of it! That's the strategy of Hyperion Power Generation who, in a plan straight out of a 50s black and white movie reel, picture a safe and friendly nuclear reactor in every backyard! A hydrogen atmosphere surrounds a uranium hydride core, the whole thing is encased in concrete and then buried somewhere to power 25,000 homes for up to five years. Exactly what you're meant to do with the buried nuclear material in a container designed never to be opened, operated or ideally even approached by humans after the five years elapse is not exactly clear - doubtless Hyperion would suggest buying another reactor and burying it next door.
The makers say they prefer not to call it a "reactor", which is probably a good idea when you're talking about something you intend to drop in a hole and then leave unsupervised, but if they think changing the name will get people to overlook the problems inherent in running around the place randomly burying uranium then they need to hire a seriously upgraded PR team. Environmentalists are not reacting well to these plans, in the same way they wouldn't react well to plans to deploy whale blubber powered oil-derricks on top of a orphaned kitten hospital. Considering the efforts people have made to render nuclear waste grounds like Yucca mountain dangerous and scary looking even to aliens, future humans or even the descendants of ants, the odds of this scheme being approved are worse than Jack Thompson's of being voted "Video-game developer of the year: Swimsuit edition".
3) Taming tornadoes
In what can only be an attempt to get notice by COBRA's recruiting division, retired engineer Louis Michaud has filed a patent for a device that would generate tornadoes and then harness them for power generation. Think of it as the Xtreme version of wind power. Also, unless you're reading this on a holographic display generated by a cybernetic cheerleader in your secret mountain lair, you should really think of it as the coolest thing you've ever heard.
The principle is that you can set up the conditions that create the tornado, then harvest the energy after it has naturally grown from "pattern of hot and cold air" to "terrifying twisting column capable of scarring the earth like God's own drill bit". Mr Michaud suggests that we can be even more economical by using hot water generated by a nearby nuclear power plant to provide those initial conditions. Since this hot water is normally generated as a waste product, this is both an inventive and efficient use existing technology and a demonstration that - if sufficiently diabolical - a person can sit down and produce a complete design and patent application without ever realizing "Wait a minute, I'm telling people to create tornadoes right next to a nuclear reactor!"
Posted by Luke McKinney
Related Galaxy posts:
////////////////////Today is Nov 29, 2007.Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all.~James Brown~
//////////////////WAKING NIGHTMARE
//////////////////The Longevity Pill?
Drugs much more powerful than the resveratrol found in red wine will be tested to treat diabetes.
By Emily Singer
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Revving up resveratrol: A new class of drugs 1,000 times more potent than resveratrol, the compound thought to underlie the health benefits of red wine, shows promise in treating diabetes. Credit: Technology Review
Related Articles:
•
The Fountain of Health03/01/2006
•
A Life-Extending Pill for Fat Mice11/02/2006
•
The Enthusiast08/15/2007
A novel group of drugs that target a gene linked to longevity could provide a way to turn back the clock on the diseases of aging. The compounds are 1,000 times more potent than resveratrol, the molecule thought to underlie the health benefits of red wine, and have shown promise in treating rodent models of obesity and diabetes.
Human clinical trials to test the compounds in diabetes are slated to begin early next year, according to Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, based in Cambridge, MA, which developed the drugs. "As far as I'm aware, this is the first anti-aging molecule going into [testing in] man," says David Sinclair, a biologist at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, and cofounder of Sirtris. (See "The Enthusiast.") "From that standpoint, this is a major milestone in medicine."
The new drugs target an enzyme called SIRT1, which belongs to a class of proteins known as sirtuins that have been shown to lengthen life span in lower organisms. Sinclair and others theorize that activating these enzymes, which play a role in cell metabolism, mimics the effects of caloric restriction--a low-calorie but nutritionally complete diet that dampens disease and boosts longevity in both invertebrates and mammals.
For several years, scientists have been on the hunt for a drug that could bring the benefits of caloric restriction without the strict diet. (See "The Fountain of Health.") Last fall, Sinclair and his colleagues took a first step when they showed that mice given resveratrol, a molecule that activates SIRT1, stayed healthy when fed high-fat foods. (See "A Life-Extending Pill for Fat Mice.") But there was a catch: mice were dosed with the human equivalent of more than 1,000 wine bottles' worth of the compound, an amount not possible for humans to imbibe or take in pill form.
Now a team at Sirtris, led by CEO Christoph Westphal, has identified a group of compounds that activate SIRT1 1,000 times more potently than resveratrol does. According to findings published today in the journal Nature, the compounds bind to the enzyme and dramatically increase its activity. Because the new compounds are more powerful, much lower doses are likely needed to achieve the same beneficial effects. "We believe doses needed in humans for the novel compounds are probably on the order of hundreds of milligrams, similar to many marketed drugs," says Westphal.
The Sirtris team focused initial animal tests on type 2 diabetes, a disease that results from the impaired ability to use insulin, and whose risk increases with aging. They found that the drugs improved insulin sensitivity and blood glucose levels in three rodent models: diet-induced obese mice, genetically obese mice, and a rat model of type 2 diabetes. "Theoretically, this is a perfect drug," says Charles Burant, head of the Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. "Animals seem to have no change in weight, yet they have improved metabolic status."
///////////////////Youthful Star Sprouts Planets Early Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Nov 29, 2007 - A stellar prodigy has been spotted about 450 light-years away in a system called UX Tau A by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers suspect this system's central sun-like star, which is just one million years old, may already be surrounded by young planets. Scientists hope the finding will provide insight into when planets began to form in our own solar system. "This result is excitin ... more
///////////////////Brain wiring link to paedophiliaScans have shown that paedophilia may be the result of faulty connections in the brain.
BBC
//////////////////Instead of chips eat baked tortillasWhen you are craving chips or need something for dip, bake tortillas in the oven, and then cut them up. They are the perfect substitute for chips - without the calories.
//////////////////FAMILY How to encourage kids to readI let my daughter stay up later and read. She'd do it because she was excited she didn't have to go to bed. It made reading seem like a privilege because to do it, she could stay up later. Now, she's in the reading habit and I let her read every night until she's tired. It helps her relax. She is 10 and has already read several classic novels.
///////////////////RELATIONSHIPS Do it now and do it foreverBe conscious of the things you do at the beginning of any relationship. These are the things you will be expected to do for the duration of the relationship. If you don't want to buy expensive gifts or cook gourmet meals for the rest of your life, don't make a habit of these things at the start. Still do them, just not so that they become expected. Don’t let them become routine. They will be taken for granted and you won’t enjoy doing them either.
/////////////////////BHRMPUR PED DTH CRSS
//////////////////////Early Treatment With Oseltamivir Improves Influenza Outcomes in Children Expeditious treatment with oseltamivir (Tamiflu) can markedly reduce illness duration, symptom severity, and secondary complications in children with influenza, according to study findings presented earlier this month at the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Disease meeting in Bangkok.Reuters Health Information 2007
///////////////////////Most Cases of T-Cell Precursor ALL Appear to Develop After Birth A retrospective study of children diagnosed with T-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (TCP ALL) concludes, based on PCR studies of stored neonatal blood spots, that most cases of the disease develop after birth, not in utero.Reuters Health Information 2007
/////////////////////Obesity Common in Children With Heart Disease Among children with congenital or acquired heart disease, more than 1 in 4 is overweight or obese, according to results of a study published in the November issue of Pediatrics.Reuters Health Information 2007
////////////////////////////Fexofenadine Well Tolerated in Preschool-Aged Children With Allergic Rhinitis Results of a study published in the October issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology suggest that fexofenadine hydrochloride is safe and well tolerated in children younger than 6 years with allergic rhinitis.Reuters Health Information 2007
/////////////////Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy Effective for Persistent IBS in Children Gut-directed hypnotherapy is "highly effective" for children with longstanding functional abdominal pain or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), clinicians from the Netherlands report in the November issue of Gastroenterology.Reuters Health Information 2007
////////////////////CX=EMPATHY+PLACEBO
///////////////////Rapid Auditory Processing Disrupted in Children With Dyslexia The neural response to rapid auditory stimuli is disrupted in children with developmental dyslexia, but it can be improved with training, according to a report in the October 16th issue of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.Reuters Health Information 2007
/////////////////////
In 2002, late-preterm infants were 3 times more likely than term infants to die before their first birthday and 6 times more likely to die in their first week of life. This difference in mortality remained relatively stable from 1995. Among late-preterm infants, 38% of all infant deaths occurred during the early-neonatal period (vs 22% for term infants).
Death caused by congenital malformations accounted for 42% of deaths for late-preterm infants and for 31% of deaths for term infants. During infancy, late-preterm infants were approximately 4 times more likely than term infants to die of congenital malformations; newborn bacterial sepsis; and complications of the placenta, cord, or membranes. Differences between cause-specific mortality rates in late-preterm vs term infants were most pronounced during the early neonatal period.
///////////////////New Budesonide Treatment Effective Against Eosinophilic Esophagitis in Children A new therapy that uses budesonide in an oral viscous preparation appears to be safe and effective for eosinophilic esophagitis in young children, according to a study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.Reuters Health Information 2007
/////////////////////SHIRT BLOT CRSS=GUAMO=GV UP AND MV ON
/////////////////////New Virulent Adenovirus Type 14 Variant Emerging in US: CDC A rare strain of adenovirus (serotype 14) that can cause severe and sometimes fatal acute respiratory illness in people of all ages -- including healthy young adults -- is becoming more common in the United States, health officials warn in Thursday's edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Reuters Health Information 2007
////////////////////Specific Oral Tolerance Induction May Benefit Children With Food Allergy
-->
Information from Industry
Advertisement – For symptoms of allergic rhinitis Learn more about relieving symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis in patients 12 years and older: Nasal and ocular symptoms. Click here.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Nov 21 - Children with persistent food allergy may benefit from specific oral tolerance induction, according to results of a study published in the November issue of Allergy.
"The prevalence of food allergy is increasing," Dr. Bodo Niggemann, from the University Children's Hospital Charite, Berlin, and colleagues write. "Around 2% to 3% of adults and up to 6% of children suffer from food allergy. Specific oral tolerance induction (SOTI) achieved by oral exposure to increasing doses of the specific food allergen seems to be a promising causal approach to therapy, improving both quality of life and safety in the event of accidental ingestion of the offending food."
/////////////////////MISSION BAMBOO-JHARKHAND
////////////////////S DUTT=REC UFTOE
/////////////////PTB=How to Achieve the Creative State of Flow
Have you ever been so engaged in an activity that you lost track of time or even your surroundings? A bomb could of gone off (figuratively) and you wouldn’t have noticed?
That’s called “flow” – a state of consciousness where we experience a task so deeply that it truly becomes enjoyable and satisfying. For me this usually happens while I’m reading, writing, or developing software. For you, it could happen during any number of tasks — golfing, cooking, hiking, etc.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the architect of Flow and after decades of researching the characteristics of the “optimal experience†(a fancy word for enjoyment) he wrote Flow: The Psychology of the Optimal Experience. A guide that shows us how to add more enjoyment in our lives by increasing the time we spend in Flow.
The Conditions of Flow
Flow can be achieved by anyone with any task, as long as the conditions are right. I usually get into a state of Flow while writing. I listen to music through my headphones and after a few minutes I really get into my work I’m oblivious to my surroundings.
Sometimes I can’t type fast enough. Other times I type so s-l-o-w-l-y and the words don’t come easily. But, either way, I’m in a state of Flow. According to Mihaly there are eight characteristics to an optimal experience:
You’re challenged by the task at hand. This seems to be the ‘prime directive’ to achieving Flow and can actually prevent you from being in a state of Flow. The difficulty of your task has to be “just rightâ€. If the task is to easy, you’ll get bored and eventually stop. If the task is to difficult, you’ll get frustrated and eventually stop. Either way, you loose.
The ability to concentrate is key. If there are to many interruptions or it’s noisy, you won’t be able to concentrate on your task. No concentration, no Flow.
You have clear goals to achieve. Goals establish a mechanism to measure your progress and provide a sense of achievement. People in Flow achieve their goals.
You receive immediate feedback. Either your ball landed in the cup or it didn’t. You know immediately if your goal was reached or not.
Your worries and frustrations of everyday life recede into the background. This perhaps is one of the greatest benefit of Flow. You’re busy concentrating on your task and the rest of your world just “goes away†for a short while. Even though you’re challenged, you end up relaxed, satisfied and you achieved something meaningful (all this, and it’s legal too).
Your sense of self disappears (only for a while). When it re-appears, you’re refreshed with an even stronger sense of self.
You have a level of control over your actions while performing your task.
You loose track of time and feel great when you’re done with your task.
The Paradox of Leisure Time
With all the “modern conveniences†available today, we have more free time than ever before. But, with all this free time, people rarely reported being in a Flow state.
What is the largest single pastime for Americans? Watching TV. It’s a national obsession – sports, soaps, reality TV, it doesn’t matter, we’ll watch anything. The interesting thing is this – Flow is rarely achieved while watching TV!
I wonder if it has anything to do with your brain being more active while you’re sleeping than when you’re watching TV? Even though we have plenty of free time, our single most leisure activity is producing the poorest quality of enjoyment. If you’re looking to take one small step to improve the quality of your life - then turn off your TV.
The State of Flow at Work
Engaging in a challenging activity is a primary condition to achieve Flow and for many of us, this occurs while at work. You’re given a task or you volunteer for a project that’s just beyond your current skill level. Deep down you know you can do it and maybe it’s a stretch. But it’s the challenge that intrigues you and ultimately expands your knowledge.
This is how one grows – expanding your skills by continuously challenging oneself and moving to that “next levelâ€. It’s at work where the opportunity to grow occurs most frequently. There is nothing wrong with this. My point is that we need to find activities outside of work where we can achieve Flow.
Your Personal Plan for Flow
Find a challenging activity. This could be anything. Reading, suduko, learning a language, cooking, or even playing a video game. Whatever you decide to do, just do it.
Commit to yourself. Remember, you’re doing this for one person and one person only. Yourself. This is your chance to finally get on the road to happiness and accomplishment.
Set a series of realistic goals. By setting goals you automatically know the level of skills needed to accomplish those goals and you provide yourself a framework for achieving a sense of accomplishment. Just as a video game has levels that you try to achieve, so should your activity. Define the levels, work to achieve them and realize your goals.
Turn off the T.V. “Everything in moderation†is what my father used to tell me – so it goes for TV. Some is good, a lot is bad. Give yourself a chance to get into a Flow state by turning off the TV.
Remove any interruptions. It nearly impossible to be engrossed in an activity when you’re bombarded with interruptions. I tell my kids “Please don’t interrupt me unless you’re bleeding or a dinosaur is crashing through our houseâ€. They usually giggle and give me the time I need.
Track your progress. Create a simple way to track your daily progress. Place a mark on a calendar, write a short entry in a journal or scratch a line in your bedroom wall.
Enjoy your experience. Achieving flow takes determination. But remember to enjoy your experience along the way. As they say “it’s the journey that’s importantâ€.
Have you achieved a state of Flow today?
////////////////////Neutron Star Seen Hurtling Out of the Milky Way
Like a baseball struck by a bat, there's a neutron star out there that's going, going, gone. Discovered using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the neutron star appears to be the result of a lopsided supernova explosion. It's now hurtling away from the Milky Way faster than 4.8 million km/h (3 million mph). And it's never coming back. (more…)
//////////////////////November 28, 2007
Three Revolutionary Alternative-Energy Sources
It's official: sucking dead-dinosaur juice out of the ground and burning it is officially uncool. Whether you object to the way you can't breathe the resulting fumes, or it's the thought of a hundred dollars a barrel that leaves you gasping for air, people from both ends of the political spectrum agree that it's time to find a new way to power our playthings. The mathematics of a fuel-based economy are a vast and complicated field but the simple summary is:
a) The number of people using energy continues to increaseb) The number of new dead animals turning into oil remains constant at zero
This compelling argument has led to increasingly odd research into alternative energy sources. And even if "the fate of modern society" doesn't motivate them, the idea that their oil-based business rivals use a unique "constantly increase the price of our product" strategy means they have a good chance of making money.
1) Wind based x 1000
Wind farms, while undeniably renewable, have run into a multitude of objections including cost, limited applicability, and people whining "They may eliminate the need for the local coal-burning plant but we think it ruins the view from our bay windows". While the latter can be rightly ignored, and maybe mocked a little bit for being extremely small-minded simpletons, the other problems remained valid - which is why a group of engineers said "Why don't we just make it a thousand times better?"
This kilo-improvement isn't a playground boast but exactly what Chinese developers at the Guangzhou Energy Research Institute claim to have achieved by using permanent magnets to float the turbines - making them much easier to turn and scale up in size. A single power plant could replace thousands of old-model windmills and utilise much lower wind speeds, increasing the areas over which they design can be applied. Big words need proof, of course, and we could have it soon - Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Technology is already building a factory to make this ecological and economic fantasy into a reality.
2) Handy home nuclear power plant
You want to know the real solution to the power problem? Nuclear Energy, and lots of it! That's the strategy of Hyperion Power Generation who, in a plan straight out of a 50s black and white movie reel, picture a safe and friendly nuclear reactor in every backyard! A hydrogen atmosphere surrounds a uranium hydride core, the whole thing is encased in concrete and then buried somewhere to power 25,000 homes for up to five years. Exactly what you're meant to do with the buried nuclear material in a container designed never to be opened, operated or ideally even approached by humans after the five years elapse is not exactly clear - doubtless Hyperion would suggest buying another reactor and burying it next door.
The makers say they prefer not to call it a "reactor", which is probably a good idea when you're talking about something you intend to drop in a hole and then leave unsupervised, but if they think changing the name will get people to overlook the problems inherent in running around the place randomly burying uranium then they need to hire a seriously upgraded PR team. Environmentalists are not reacting well to these plans, in the same way they wouldn't react well to plans to deploy whale blubber powered oil-derricks on top of a orphaned kitten hospital. Considering the efforts people have made to render nuclear waste grounds like Yucca mountain dangerous and scary looking even to aliens, future humans or even the descendants of ants, the odds of this scheme being approved are worse than Jack Thompson's of being voted "Video-game developer of the year: Swimsuit edition".
3) Taming tornadoes
In what can only be an attempt to get notice by COBRA's recruiting division, retired engineer Louis Michaud has filed a patent for a device that would generate tornadoes and then harness them for power generation. Think of it as the Xtreme version of wind power. Also, unless you're reading this on a holographic display generated by a cybernetic cheerleader in your secret mountain lair, you should really think of it as the coolest thing you've ever heard.
The principle is that you can set up the conditions that create the tornado, then harvest the energy after it has naturally grown from "pattern of hot and cold air" to "terrifying twisting column capable of scarring the earth like God's own drill bit". Mr Michaud suggests that we can be even more economical by using hot water generated by a nearby nuclear power plant to provide those initial conditions. Since this hot water is normally generated as a waste product, this is both an inventive and efficient use existing technology and a demonstration that - if sufficiently diabolical - a person can sit down and produce a complete design and patent application without ever realizing "Wait a minute, I'm telling people to create tornadoes right next to a nuclear reactor!"
Posted by Luke McKinney
Related Galaxy posts:
////////////////////Today is Nov 29, 2007.Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all.~James Brown~
//////////////////WAKING NIGHTMARE
//////////////////The Longevity Pill?
Drugs much more powerful than the resveratrol found in red wine will be tested to treat diabetes.
By Emily Singer
Audio » New!
Listen - Flash Listen now-->
Listen - MP3
Subscribe to podcast What is this?-->
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Revving up resveratrol: A new class of drugs 1,000 times more potent than resveratrol, the compound thought to underlie the health benefits of red wine, shows promise in treating diabetes. Credit: Technology Review
Related Articles:
•
The Fountain of Health03/01/2006
•
A Life-Extending Pill for Fat Mice11/02/2006
•
The Enthusiast08/15/2007
A novel group of drugs that target a gene linked to longevity could provide a way to turn back the clock on the diseases of aging. The compounds are 1,000 times more potent than resveratrol, the molecule thought to underlie the health benefits of red wine, and have shown promise in treating rodent models of obesity and diabetes.
Human clinical trials to test the compounds in diabetes are slated to begin early next year, according to Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, based in Cambridge, MA, which developed the drugs. "As far as I'm aware, this is the first anti-aging molecule going into [testing in] man," says David Sinclair, a biologist at Harvard Medical School, in Boston, and cofounder of Sirtris. (See "The Enthusiast.") "From that standpoint, this is a major milestone in medicine."
The new drugs target an enzyme called SIRT1, which belongs to a class of proteins known as sirtuins that have been shown to lengthen life span in lower organisms. Sinclair and others theorize that activating these enzymes, which play a role in cell metabolism, mimics the effects of caloric restriction--a low-calorie but nutritionally complete diet that dampens disease and boosts longevity in both invertebrates and mammals.
For several years, scientists have been on the hunt for a drug that could bring the benefits of caloric restriction without the strict diet. (See "The Fountain of Health.") Last fall, Sinclair and his colleagues took a first step when they showed that mice given resveratrol, a molecule that activates SIRT1, stayed healthy when fed high-fat foods. (See "A Life-Extending Pill for Fat Mice.") But there was a catch: mice were dosed with the human equivalent of more than 1,000 wine bottles' worth of the compound, an amount not possible for humans to imbibe or take in pill form.
Now a team at Sirtris, led by CEO Christoph Westphal, has identified a group of compounds that activate SIRT1 1,000 times more potently than resveratrol does. According to findings published today in the journal Nature, the compounds bind to the enzyme and dramatically increase its activity. Because the new compounds are more powerful, much lower doses are likely needed to achieve the same beneficial effects. "We believe doses needed in humans for the novel compounds are probably on the order of hundreds of milligrams, similar to many marketed drugs," says Westphal.
The Sirtris team focused initial animal tests on type 2 diabetes, a disease that results from the impaired ability to use insulin, and whose risk increases with aging. They found that the drugs improved insulin sensitivity and blood glucose levels in three rodent models: diet-induced obese mice, genetically obese mice, and a rat model of type 2 diabetes. "Theoretically, this is a perfect drug," says Charles Burant, head of the Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. "Animals seem to have no change in weight, yet they have improved metabolic status."
///////////////////Youthful Star Sprouts Planets Early Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Nov 29, 2007 - A stellar prodigy has been spotted about 450 light-years away in a system called UX Tau A by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers suspect this system's central sun-like star, which is just one million years old, may already be surrounded by young planets. Scientists hope the finding will provide insight into when planets began to form in our own solar system. "This result is excitin ... more
///////////////////Brain wiring link to paedophiliaScans have shown that paedophilia may be the result of faulty connections in the brain.
BBC
//////////////////Instead of chips eat baked tortillasWhen you are craving chips or need something for dip, bake tortillas in the oven, and then cut them up. They are the perfect substitute for chips - without the calories.
//////////////////FAMILY How to encourage kids to readI let my daughter stay up later and read. She'd do it because she was excited she didn't have to go to bed. It made reading seem like a privilege because to do it, she could stay up later. Now, she's in the reading habit and I let her read every night until she's tired. It helps her relax. She is 10 and has already read several classic novels.
///////////////////RELATIONSHIPS Do it now and do it foreverBe conscious of the things you do at the beginning of any relationship. These are the things you will be expected to do for the duration of the relationship. If you don't want to buy expensive gifts or cook gourmet meals for the rest of your life, don't make a habit of these things at the start. Still do them, just not so that they become expected. Don’t let them become routine. They will be taken for granted and you won’t enjoy doing them either.
Monday 26 November 2007
UNIVERSE-BIOGRAPHY-GRIBBIN
/////////////////////////SARTRE=ROAD TO FREEDOM=EXISTENTIAL FREEDOM=http://bestdocumentaries.blogspot.com/2007/11/sartre-road-to-freedom.html
//////////////////////BEING AND NOTHING
//////////////////////////FREEDOM EXPLODES IN MANS SOUL/SELF=EXISTENTIAL
/////////////////////////FREEDOM OF CHOICE
////////////////////////How do we spell relief? O-B-L-I-V-I-O-N =LWP
///////////////What price peace of mind? And ultimate security? The pill may cost quite a bit, in the beginning. But hey, it's kind of like insurance, you know? A lot of people will want to get their own death control pill just in case. For instance, if the world ever did go crazy and launch an all out nuclear war, that pill could come in darn handy in the aftermath. Or, say you were in an accident and paralyzed from the waist down; or your legs amputated completely. Or you got Alzheimer's and your mind began to go. And let us not forget AIDs and the other nasty beasties running around infecting people from all sorts of unexpected quarters. Many might prefer death to life in such instances. So what price would be too high for escape? Escape from all our problems, forever and ever?
A lot of people might already have killed themselves if they weren't afraid of the pain of slashed wrists or blown out brains. Or of making a mistake and living beyond the act, with a disfigurement or handicap, and the humiliation in facing those who knew them before the attempt.
////////////////////Final flings Some users may choose to enjoy a brief but extravagant shopping spree or vacation before popping a pill at the end to avoid the financial consequences. It could take some years before institutions could put up adequate defenses against such morbid shenanigans. If it were allowed to run too far afield, it might actually create its own banking and insurance crisis, akin to that of the U.S. Savings and Loan fiasco of the eighties. However, the magnitude of damage inflicted could far exceed that earlier case.
////////////////////////The countries hardest hit and why Among the developed nations use of the pill will be further concentrated in those countries enduring the greatest magnitude of 'future shock' as described by Alvin Toffler in his book of the same name; those nations where the pace of cultural, technological, and economic change are the most progressive, the fastest and most violent in nature: the United States, Canada, and Germany being among the prime candidates. The states of the old Soviet Union and most progressive of the Eastern European states may follow.
Why won't Japan be among the hardest hit? Its homogeneous population and culture, and confidence gained from recent economic successes may shield it somewhat from many of the pressures faced by others.
//////////////////////////Opening the floodgates of wealth and opportunity The loss of a significant portion of the world population could force the powers that be to open the floodgates of innovation and economic opportunity to an unprecedented scale.
Business, financial, and educational bias in areas of race, sex, and religion would finally be stamped out entirely by tough new laws and the cold reality of shrinking populations. Every bit of realized human potential, regardless of its source, would be desperately needed by society. Prejudice would simply become too expensive in the new order
////////////////////////JRM=
2001 AD-2049 AD: Human civilization is rocked by technological upheaval and growing uncertainties...
2009 AD-2017 AD: The net reshapes the world; 'perfect' organ replacements for the wealthy; contagious insanity; the introduction of 'second skins'; and the rise of the vigilantesThe internet permeates our lives and begins radically reshaping our institutions, even as breakthroughs in other fields promise fundamental changes in living standards and all future human endeavor; personal computing gets still more powerful even as costs drop further; net users in the developed nations are becoming increasingly isolated in terms of typical historical human interaction; the first crude 'second skin' applications arrive; some forms of insanity and other surprising afflictions prove to be literally contagious; the danger of mass effect biochemical weapons use peaks for most developed states; the wealthy enjoy 'perfect' organ replacements; there are significant increases in the numbers of people taking to the sea to live and work; vigilante organizations rise in prominence and influence.
2018 AD-2025 AD: Consumer robotics and personal virtual realities go mainstreamPersonal virtual realities are taking marketshare from TV, radio, films, and other media; near paperless offices, wireless appliances becoming the norm; consumer robotics go mainstream; do-it-yourself medical care becoming ever more practical and effective for many ailments; adequate hardware to support human level intelligence at consumer level prices becomes available (but suitable software remains elusive).
The true source of this page is
2026 AD-2049 AD: Accelerated environmental decline, increased religious conflict, and a wholesale plunge into VR by citizens in the developed nations (to escape mounting stresses)The emergence of the 'Bounty Economy'; rampant identity theft and other cybercrimes lead to the first and most important privacy vs. security issues being resolved; substantial religion-related conflict erupts; budgetary priorities undergo fierce turf fights in the developed nations, with education and other consumer services usually winning; the human senses are technologically expanded in wondrous new ways; the final elements fall into place to allow software-based human level intelligence to become widely available; 98% of all cancers become curable; mini-subs and STOL/VTOL warplanes (both unmanned) are the cutting edge of warfare; tactical nuclear, biological, and space-based weapons use in conflicts not uncommon; traditional aircraft carriers now obsolete; troops enjoy numerous micromachine-based aids and supplements; environmental decline due to pollution, accidents, terrorism, war, and excessive harvests becomes alarmingly obvious now, but business continues to actively lobby governments for minimal regulatory remedies.
////////////////////////ECO-FATIGUE
//////////////////////By the year 2050, what the reports calls the "E7" economies — China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey — will have outstripped the current G7 — US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada — by between 25% when comparing GDP using market exchange rates to around 75% when using purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates.
But this should create major new market opportunities, allowing companies in the established OECD economies to specialise in areas of comparative advantage, while their consumers benefit from low cost imports from the emerging economies — a "win-win" outcome rather than "one winner takes all".
/////////////////////////Aggressive behavior can be divided into two types: proactive and reactive. Proactive aggressors plan how they're going to hurt and bully others. Reactive aggression, however, is not premeditated; it occurs in response to an upsetting trigger from the environment.
"Reactively aggressive adolescents -- most commonly boys -- frequently misinterpret their surroundings, feel threatened, and act inappropriately aggressive," Frank says. "They tend to strike back when being teased, blame others when getting into a fight, and overreact to accidents. Their behavior is emotionally 'hot,' defensive, and impulsive."
The term "reactive-affective-defensive-impulsive" (RADI) has recently been created to describe such behavior. Research suggests that adolescents with RADI behavior are at an increased risk for a lifetime of problems associated with impulsive aggression. "A major problem in researching this topic is stigma and a notion that children will grow out of aggressive behaviors," Frank says. "It's often difficult to recruit such youngsters and their families to participate in research."
Little is known about how the brain works in reactive aggression. In their most recent studies, Frank and his colleagues recruited two groups of male adolescents: one group diagnosed with RADI behavior and the other group without any history of mental illness or aggression problems. While being scanned by a brain imaging machine, both sets of teenagers were asked to perform tasks that involved reacting to age-appropriate, fear-inducing images. The tasks also tested the teenagers' impulsivity.
Preliminary data reveal that the brains of RADI teenagers exhibited greater activity in the amygdala and lesser activity in the frontal lobe in response to the images than the brains of the teenagers in the control group. In a related study, Frank and his colleagues are investigating whether these changes in brain activity are associated with an abnormal increase in cortisol levels, a marker of the stress response.
The brain chemical serotonin has long been known to play an important role in regulating anger and aggression. Low cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of serotonin have even been cited as both a marker and predictor of aggressive behavior.
New studies from the Netherlands, however, indicate that this serotonin-deficiency hypothesis of aggressiveness may be too simple. "Serotonin deficiency appears to be related to pathological, violent forms of aggressiveness, but not to the normal aggressive behavior that animals and humans use to adapt to everyday survival," says Sietse de Boer, PhD, of the University of Groningen.
Furthermore, research now suggests that unchecked aggressive behavior can eventually change the brain in ways that cause serotonin activity to decrease-and, perhaps, violent behavior to increase.
To perform their most recent studies, de Boer and his colleagues engendered violent characteristics of aggressive behavior in feral mice and rats by permitting them to physically dominate other rodents repeatedly. With such positive reinforcement, the animals' initially normal aggressiveness gradually became transformed into a more pathological form-the kind also seen in pathologically violent people.
During this transformation, de Boer studied the chemical changes that occurred in the rodents' aggression-related brain circuits, particularly those circuits involved with serotonin. They found that serotonin activity decreased as a result of the animals experiencing repeated victorious episodes of aggression but not as a result of normal, functional acts of aggression.
"Our findings support meta-analyses of serotonin activity in aggressive humans," says de Boer. "That data showed that serotonin deficiency is most readily detected in people who engage in impulsive and violent forms of aggressive behavior rather than in individuals with more functional forms of aggression."
More recently, de Boer and his colleagues have found that the transition from normal, adaptive aggressive behavior into abnormal forms that inflict harm and injury is due to functional, but not structural, changes in certain serotonin receptors in the brain. In animal studies, treatment with selective serotonin receptor agonist compounds has been found to restore the normal function of these receptors-and suppress aggressive behavior, including its escalated forms. These findings may one day lead to more effective treatments for violent behavior in humans.
Researchers have identified, for the first time, that the release of a neurotransmitter called arginine-vasopressin (AVP) in an area of the brain called the amygdala helps regulate maternal aggression-a behavior that ensures the survival of the offspring. Although the study was conducted using rat dams, maternal aggression occurs in all mammals, including humans.
"By understanding the brain pathways underlying maternal aggression in rodents, we're also gaining deeper understanding of regulation of maternal behavior in general," says Oliver Bosch, PhD, of the University of Regensburg, in Germany.
Much of the past research into the neurobiology of maternal aggression has focused on oxytocin, a neurotransmitter released in the brain during birth and breastfeeding. Oxytocin reduces anxiety and fear, a factor that is believed to enable new mothers to more aggressively face intruders that might harm their offspring.
In his new study, Bosch investigated whether AVP also plays a role in the regulation of maternal aggressiveness. Found in all mammals, AVP is synthesized in the brain and then released to the kidneys, where it helps regulate the body's retention of water. More recently, AVP has been implicated in male aggression and other social behavior, particularly pair-bonding between sexual partners.
Using tiny probes that enabled the real-time collection of samples of brain fluid, Bosch and his colleagues measured the release of AVP within the amygdala, an area of the brain associated with both maternal anxiety and aggression, while rat dams moved around their cages with their pups. Some of the dams had been selectively bred for high anxiety-related behavior; others had been bred for low anxiety-related behavior. High-anxiety dams are not only more anxious, but also show more maternal aggression towards intruders. In addition, they spend more time nursing and in direct contact with their pups.
During the study, the rat dams were sometimes left undisturbed and were at other times confronted for 10 minutes with an intruder. The more aggressive, high-anxiety dams released more AVP within the amygdala while defending their offspring from the intruder than did the less aggressive, low-anxiety dams-a finding that strongly suggests a role for AVP in maternal aggression.
The researchers also found they could use the brain's AVP system to manipulate the aggression shown by the dams. When the animals were given an AVP receptor antagonist, which blocks the brain's receptors for AVP, the dams became less anxious and less aggressive. When synthetic AVP was infused into the animals' brains, however, the dams became more anxious and increasingly aggressive.
"While AVP's effects on maternal aggression are similar to what we found earlier for oxytocin, these neuropeptides act differently on anxiety," Bosch says. "So it's the brain's AVP system itself, not AVP acting on oxytocin receptors, that causes these changes in maternal behavior."
Being the recipient of an aggressive social encounter can cause changes in the brain that lead to depression, anxiety, and susceptibility to immune-related illnesses, according to new animal studies from Carleton University in Ottawa. Surprisingly, some of these negative effects appear to be as strong in animals that successfully dominate social situations as in those that react with submission.
"It seems that aggression, which is clearly deleterious to the well-being of the victim, also has several negative repercussions for the aggressor as well," says Marie-Claude Audet, PhD.
Social stressors and negative relationships are believed to contribute to stress-related disorders, including depression and anxiety. Stressful events have a profound influence on the neuroendocrine and neurochemical systems, causing chemical changes in many areas of the brain, including several that are strongly involved in emotions: the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the amygdala. Among the neurotransmitters and hormones altered by stress are dopamine, serotonin, noradrenalin, and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) (which affects blood levels of corticosterone). Recent research also has suggested a link between stress and cytokines (signaling molecules within the immune system). Cytokines may inform the brain of the presence of pathogens in the body, thus triggering a stress-like response.
To more precisely determine how a social stressor disturbs neuroendocrine, neurochemical, and cytokine function as well as behavior, Audet and her colleagues designed a study in which naive mice (ones not previously exposed to any social situation) were introduced to the home cage of dominant mice for 15 minutes on either a single day or on three consecutive days. As a control, some mice were not exposed to any social stressor. The animals' basal motor activity was monitored, and blood and brain samples were taken and analyzed either 3 minutes or 75 minutes after the end of the stressor.
The study found that aggressive social interactions caused both dominant and submissive mice to become hyperactive relative to the controls. However, although motor activity remained high in dominant mice, particularly in those that engaged in vigorous behavior, it declined gradually in the submissive mice. Corticosterone levels-a marker of stress-were significantly increased soon after the end of the stressor session, and those levels remained elevated for protracted periods over the course of the experiment. The increase was similar in both submissive and dominant mice. Some cytokines also became elevated in the prefrontal cortex of both groups of mice, and this effect was greater after the stressful social encounters were repeated.
Measurements of stress-related neurotransmitters and hormones, however, revealed some significant differences between the dominant and submissive animals. For example, brain levels of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, which may help mediate the effects of stress on the body, fell in the hippocampus of the dominant mice, but increased in the central amygdala of the submissive mice. The expression of CRH also fell in the prefrontal cortex of the dominant mice, but only after repeated encounters with an intruding mouse.
In further studies, Audet observed that chronic exposure to social stress increased the sensitivity to a bacterial challenge and that this effect was more apparent in dominant mice.
"Our findings suggest that stressful social experiences, by affecting central neurotransmitters and cytokines, may influence vulnerability to depression and susceptibility to immune-related illness," says Audet. "Moreover, it appears that in addition to markedly affecting the victim's existence, aggression may have detrimental consequences also for the one that dominates the interaction."
Adapted from materials provided by Society For Neuroscience.
AMT
////////////////////////
//////////////////////BEING AND NOTHING
//////////////////////////FREEDOM EXPLODES IN MANS SOUL/SELF=EXISTENTIAL
/////////////////////////FREEDOM OF CHOICE
////////////////////////How do we spell relief? O-B-L-I-V-I-O-N =LWP
///////////////What price peace of mind? And ultimate security? The pill may cost quite a bit, in the beginning. But hey, it's kind of like insurance, you know? A lot of people will want to get their own death control pill just in case. For instance, if the world ever did go crazy and launch an all out nuclear war, that pill could come in darn handy in the aftermath. Or, say you were in an accident and paralyzed from the waist down; or your legs amputated completely. Or you got Alzheimer's and your mind began to go. And let us not forget AIDs and the other nasty beasties running around infecting people from all sorts of unexpected quarters. Many might prefer death to life in such instances. So what price would be too high for escape? Escape from all our problems, forever and ever?
A lot of people might already have killed themselves if they weren't afraid of the pain of slashed wrists or blown out brains. Or of making a mistake and living beyond the act, with a disfigurement or handicap, and the humiliation in facing those who knew them before the attempt.
////////////////////Final flings Some users may choose to enjoy a brief but extravagant shopping spree or vacation before popping a pill at the end to avoid the financial consequences. It could take some years before institutions could put up adequate defenses against such morbid shenanigans. If it were allowed to run too far afield, it might actually create its own banking and insurance crisis, akin to that of the U.S. Savings and Loan fiasco of the eighties. However, the magnitude of damage inflicted could far exceed that earlier case.
////////////////////////The countries hardest hit and why Among the developed nations use of the pill will be further concentrated in those countries enduring the greatest magnitude of 'future shock' as described by Alvin Toffler in his book of the same name; those nations where the pace of cultural, technological, and economic change are the most progressive, the fastest and most violent in nature: the United States, Canada, and Germany being among the prime candidates. The states of the old Soviet Union and most progressive of the Eastern European states may follow.
Why won't Japan be among the hardest hit? Its homogeneous population and culture, and confidence gained from recent economic successes may shield it somewhat from many of the pressures faced by others.
//////////////////////////Opening the floodgates of wealth and opportunity The loss of a significant portion of the world population could force the powers that be to open the floodgates of innovation and economic opportunity to an unprecedented scale.
Business, financial, and educational bias in areas of race, sex, and religion would finally be stamped out entirely by tough new laws and the cold reality of shrinking populations. Every bit of realized human potential, regardless of its source, would be desperately needed by society. Prejudice would simply become too expensive in the new order
////////////////////////JRM=
2001 AD-2049 AD: Human civilization is rocked by technological upheaval and growing uncertainties...
2009 AD-2017 AD: The net reshapes the world; 'perfect' organ replacements for the wealthy; contagious insanity; the introduction of 'second skins'; and the rise of the vigilantesThe internet permeates our lives and begins radically reshaping our institutions, even as breakthroughs in other fields promise fundamental changes in living standards and all future human endeavor; personal computing gets still more powerful even as costs drop further; net users in the developed nations are becoming increasingly isolated in terms of typical historical human interaction; the first crude 'second skin' applications arrive; some forms of insanity and other surprising afflictions prove to be literally contagious; the danger of mass effect biochemical weapons use peaks for most developed states; the wealthy enjoy 'perfect' organ replacements; there are significant increases in the numbers of people taking to the sea to live and work; vigilante organizations rise in prominence and influence.
2018 AD-2025 AD: Consumer robotics and personal virtual realities go mainstreamPersonal virtual realities are taking marketshare from TV, radio, films, and other media; near paperless offices, wireless appliances becoming the norm; consumer robotics go mainstream; do-it-yourself medical care becoming ever more practical and effective for many ailments; adequate hardware to support human level intelligence at consumer level prices becomes available (but suitable software remains elusive).
The true source of this page is
2026 AD-2049 AD: Accelerated environmental decline, increased religious conflict, and a wholesale plunge into VR by citizens in the developed nations (to escape mounting stresses)The emergence of the 'Bounty Economy'; rampant identity theft and other cybercrimes lead to the first and most important privacy vs. security issues being resolved; substantial religion-related conflict erupts; budgetary priorities undergo fierce turf fights in the developed nations, with education and other consumer services usually winning; the human senses are technologically expanded in wondrous new ways; the final elements fall into place to allow software-based human level intelligence to become widely available; 98% of all cancers become curable; mini-subs and STOL/VTOL warplanes (both unmanned) are the cutting edge of warfare; tactical nuclear, biological, and space-based weapons use in conflicts not uncommon; traditional aircraft carriers now obsolete; troops enjoy numerous micromachine-based aids and supplements; environmental decline due to pollution, accidents, terrorism, war, and excessive harvests becomes alarmingly obvious now, but business continues to actively lobby governments for minimal regulatory remedies.
////////////////////////ECO-FATIGUE
//////////////////////By the year 2050, what the reports calls the "E7" economies — China, India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey — will have outstripped the current G7 — US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada — by between 25% when comparing GDP using market exchange rates to around 75% when using purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates.
But this should create major new market opportunities, allowing companies in the established OECD economies to specialise in areas of comparative advantage, while their consumers benefit from low cost imports from the emerging economies — a "win-win" outcome rather than "one winner takes all".
/////////////////////////Aggressive behavior can be divided into two types: proactive and reactive. Proactive aggressors plan how they're going to hurt and bully others. Reactive aggression, however, is not premeditated; it occurs in response to an upsetting trigger from the environment.
"Reactively aggressive adolescents -- most commonly boys -- frequently misinterpret their surroundings, feel threatened, and act inappropriately aggressive," Frank says. "They tend to strike back when being teased, blame others when getting into a fight, and overreact to accidents. Their behavior is emotionally 'hot,' defensive, and impulsive."
The term "reactive-affective-defensive-impulsive" (RADI) has recently been created to describe such behavior. Research suggests that adolescents with RADI behavior are at an increased risk for a lifetime of problems associated with impulsive aggression. "A major problem in researching this topic is stigma and a notion that children will grow out of aggressive behaviors," Frank says. "It's often difficult to recruit such youngsters and their families to participate in research."
Little is known about how the brain works in reactive aggression. In their most recent studies, Frank and his colleagues recruited two groups of male adolescents: one group diagnosed with RADI behavior and the other group without any history of mental illness or aggression problems. While being scanned by a brain imaging machine, both sets of teenagers were asked to perform tasks that involved reacting to age-appropriate, fear-inducing images. The tasks also tested the teenagers' impulsivity.
Preliminary data reveal that the brains of RADI teenagers exhibited greater activity in the amygdala and lesser activity in the frontal lobe in response to the images than the brains of the teenagers in the control group. In a related study, Frank and his colleagues are investigating whether these changes in brain activity are associated with an abnormal increase in cortisol levels, a marker of the stress response.
The brain chemical serotonin has long been known to play an important role in regulating anger and aggression. Low cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of serotonin have even been cited as both a marker and predictor of aggressive behavior.
New studies from the Netherlands, however, indicate that this serotonin-deficiency hypothesis of aggressiveness may be too simple. "Serotonin deficiency appears to be related to pathological, violent forms of aggressiveness, but not to the normal aggressive behavior that animals and humans use to adapt to everyday survival," says Sietse de Boer, PhD, of the University of Groningen.
Furthermore, research now suggests that unchecked aggressive behavior can eventually change the brain in ways that cause serotonin activity to decrease-and, perhaps, violent behavior to increase.
To perform their most recent studies, de Boer and his colleagues engendered violent characteristics of aggressive behavior in feral mice and rats by permitting them to physically dominate other rodents repeatedly. With such positive reinforcement, the animals' initially normal aggressiveness gradually became transformed into a more pathological form-the kind also seen in pathologically violent people.
During this transformation, de Boer studied the chemical changes that occurred in the rodents' aggression-related brain circuits, particularly those circuits involved with serotonin. They found that serotonin activity decreased as a result of the animals experiencing repeated victorious episodes of aggression but not as a result of normal, functional acts of aggression.
"Our findings support meta-analyses of serotonin activity in aggressive humans," says de Boer. "That data showed that serotonin deficiency is most readily detected in people who engage in impulsive and violent forms of aggressive behavior rather than in individuals with more functional forms of aggression."
More recently, de Boer and his colleagues have found that the transition from normal, adaptive aggressive behavior into abnormal forms that inflict harm and injury is due to functional, but not structural, changes in certain serotonin receptors in the brain. In animal studies, treatment with selective serotonin receptor agonist compounds has been found to restore the normal function of these receptors-and suppress aggressive behavior, including its escalated forms. These findings may one day lead to more effective treatments for violent behavior in humans.
Researchers have identified, for the first time, that the release of a neurotransmitter called arginine-vasopressin (AVP) in an area of the brain called the amygdala helps regulate maternal aggression-a behavior that ensures the survival of the offspring. Although the study was conducted using rat dams, maternal aggression occurs in all mammals, including humans.
"By understanding the brain pathways underlying maternal aggression in rodents, we're also gaining deeper understanding of regulation of maternal behavior in general," says Oliver Bosch, PhD, of the University of Regensburg, in Germany.
Much of the past research into the neurobiology of maternal aggression has focused on oxytocin, a neurotransmitter released in the brain during birth and breastfeeding. Oxytocin reduces anxiety and fear, a factor that is believed to enable new mothers to more aggressively face intruders that might harm their offspring.
In his new study, Bosch investigated whether AVP also plays a role in the regulation of maternal aggressiveness. Found in all mammals, AVP is synthesized in the brain and then released to the kidneys, where it helps regulate the body's retention of water. More recently, AVP has been implicated in male aggression and other social behavior, particularly pair-bonding between sexual partners.
Using tiny probes that enabled the real-time collection of samples of brain fluid, Bosch and his colleagues measured the release of AVP within the amygdala, an area of the brain associated with both maternal anxiety and aggression, while rat dams moved around their cages with their pups. Some of the dams had been selectively bred for high anxiety-related behavior; others had been bred for low anxiety-related behavior. High-anxiety dams are not only more anxious, but also show more maternal aggression towards intruders. In addition, they spend more time nursing and in direct contact with their pups.
During the study, the rat dams were sometimes left undisturbed and were at other times confronted for 10 minutes with an intruder. The more aggressive, high-anxiety dams released more AVP within the amygdala while defending their offspring from the intruder than did the less aggressive, low-anxiety dams-a finding that strongly suggests a role for AVP in maternal aggression.
The researchers also found they could use the brain's AVP system to manipulate the aggression shown by the dams. When the animals were given an AVP receptor antagonist, which blocks the brain's receptors for AVP, the dams became less anxious and less aggressive. When synthetic AVP was infused into the animals' brains, however, the dams became more anxious and increasingly aggressive.
"While AVP's effects on maternal aggression are similar to what we found earlier for oxytocin, these neuropeptides act differently on anxiety," Bosch says. "So it's the brain's AVP system itself, not AVP acting on oxytocin receptors, that causes these changes in maternal behavior."
Being the recipient of an aggressive social encounter can cause changes in the brain that lead to depression, anxiety, and susceptibility to immune-related illnesses, according to new animal studies from Carleton University in Ottawa. Surprisingly, some of these negative effects appear to be as strong in animals that successfully dominate social situations as in those that react with submission.
"It seems that aggression, which is clearly deleterious to the well-being of the victim, also has several negative repercussions for the aggressor as well," says Marie-Claude Audet, PhD.
Social stressors and negative relationships are believed to contribute to stress-related disorders, including depression and anxiety. Stressful events have a profound influence on the neuroendocrine and neurochemical systems, causing chemical changes in many areas of the brain, including several that are strongly involved in emotions: the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the amygdala. Among the neurotransmitters and hormones altered by stress are dopamine, serotonin, noradrenalin, and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) (which affects blood levels of corticosterone). Recent research also has suggested a link between stress and cytokines (signaling molecules within the immune system). Cytokines may inform the brain of the presence of pathogens in the body, thus triggering a stress-like response.
To more precisely determine how a social stressor disturbs neuroendocrine, neurochemical, and cytokine function as well as behavior, Audet and her colleagues designed a study in which naive mice (ones not previously exposed to any social situation) were introduced to the home cage of dominant mice for 15 minutes on either a single day or on three consecutive days. As a control, some mice were not exposed to any social stressor. The animals' basal motor activity was monitored, and blood and brain samples were taken and analyzed either 3 minutes or 75 minutes after the end of the stressor.
The study found that aggressive social interactions caused both dominant and submissive mice to become hyperactive relative to the controls. However, although motor activity remained high in dominant mice, particularly in those that engaged in vigorous behavior, it declined gradually in the submissive mice. Corticosterone levels-a marker of stress-were significantly increased soon after the end of the stressor session, and those levels remained elevated for protracted periods over the course of the experiment. The increase was similar in both submissive and dominant mice. Some cytokines also became elevated in the prefrontal cortex of both groups of mice, and this effect was greater after the stressful social encounters were repeated.
Measurements of stress-related neurotransmitters and hormones, however, revealed some significant differences between the dominant and submissive animals. For example, brain levels of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, which may help mediate the effects of stress on the body, fell in the hippocampus of the dominant mice, but increased in the central amygdala of the submissive mice. The expression of CRH also fell in the prefrontal cortex of the dominant mice, but only after repeated encounters with an intruding mouse.
In further studies, Audet observed that chronic exposure to social stress increased the sensitivity to a bacterial challenge and that this effect was more apparent in dominant mice.
"Our findings suggest that stressful social experiences, by affecting central neurotransmitters and cytokines, may influence vulnerability to depression and susceptibility to immune-related illness," says Audet. "Moreover, it appears that in addition to markedly affecting the victim's existence, aggression may have detrimental consequences also for the one that dominates the interaction."
Adapted from materials provided by Society For Neuroscience.
AMT
////////////////////////
MAKING UP A DRS MIND
/////////////////
RICHARD HANDLER: THE IDEAS GUY
Mistrust certainty, it might save your life
November 21, 2007
A friend of mine was ventilating the other day. She was angry that a doctor, a specialist, waved off her upset stomach without much more than a cursory examination and a prescription for antacids.
"You know how long he took to look at me," she asked?
"Eighteen seconds," I said. I knew that from an interview I'd heard with the renowned doctor and writer, Jerome Groopman. Eighteen seconds is apparently all the time it takes for most doctors to make up their minds.
Groopman is the author of How Doctors Think and a specialist in the field of experimental medicine. He also teaches at Harvard Medical School and is a staff writer at the New Yorker (he's a busy man, indeed).
His message is that, in many ways, doctors don't think that differently than the rest of us. It's just that what they think has more consequences.
When you make an error, does anyone die? Not usually, unless you're driving and do something stupid or, perhaps, if you are an air traffic controller with a planeload of lives in your hands.
But if a doctor makes the wrong diagnosis, it is usually someone else — you the patient — who lives with the result.
The error factor
Groopman tells us that doctors' mistakes have been well studied and that, most of the time anyway, physicians get it right. In fact they get it right, four out of five times.
Turn that positive news around, though, and it means that doctors misdiagnose patients 20 per cent of the time, which Groopman feels is a conservative number.
It gets worse. About half of that 20 per cent will suffer serious consequences as a result of medical error.
That means patients are misdiagnosed roughly 10 per cent of the time they visit a doctor.
Can you think of anyone you know who would fit this seemingly small but plentiful number? I think probably everybody can.
My doctors didn't catch my brain tumour for years. Groopman himself had two episodes of misdiagnosis, for a painful hand and a back condition. And he's a Harvard doctor!
I would have thought doctors received special treatment. But the more attention Groopman sought and the more specialists he saw, the more opportunities for his misdiagnoses to multiply like viruses.
Groopman is a doctor, so he's also seen this phenomenon from the other side of the stethoscope. Sadly, he too has misdiagnosed patients.
When he was a resident, a woman came to see him with a pain in her chest. He dispatched her quickly with a prescription for antacids. Two weeks later she was dead from a hole in her aorta, the main artery carrying blood from the heart.
He missed it. He still hasn't forgiven himself.
Diagnosis momentum
Antacids seem to be a favourite medicine for doctors who want to hurry you along. And it's probably true that 80 per cent of the time when there is a problem, stomach acid is at fault.
Groopman handed out a prescription to his patient. My friend received her script after a cursory inspection.
My father was sent off with antacids after he visited an emergency room, complaining of chest pain. He died later that morning of a heart attack.
So what's going on here? Are doctors simply too busy? Sloppy? Irritated? Groopman tells us that doctors are especially prone to misdiagnose patients if they don't like them.
The real problem, though, he says, is that doctors, like all human beings, are caught up with what's called anchoring.
That's what happens when data floods our minds like a blizzard and our brains erect filters to sort and guide what we're processing.
What often happens in these cases is that when the mind seizes on one explanation, it quickly interprets all evidence that way.
That's why first impressions are so important: The mind simply freezes up around them.
Put four doctors in a room, says Groopman, and what you can end up with is a case of "diagnosis momentum." During every episode of the TV series House, this probably happens a dozen times.
Doctors and jihadists
Medicine, we are constantly told, is a notoriously tricky enterprise, a combination of science, guesswork and diagnostic art.
Doctors, as with so many other people, dislike ambiguity. They can rush to a solution to end the mental discomfort of not really knowing what's going on.
Very good (and humble) doctors try to avoid the problem of anchoring by learning to become comfortable with uncertainty, often against the wishes of their colleagues and patients.
But doctors are not the only people anxious about uncertainty.
Recently, the National Post ran a lead editorial that asked: Why do so many Islamic jihadists and suicide bombers come from technical fields such as engineering.
Eight of the 25 known participants in the Sept. 11 plot had engineering backgrounds. Mohammed Atta, a ringleader, was an architectural engineer.
The Post cites a working paper by the Oxford sociologists Diego Gambetta and Steffen Herzog, who study Islamist movements.
According to them, almost 7 in 10 violent Islamists were educated men. In one study of "educated fanatics," says the Post, "a whopping 78 had studied engineering."
The sociologists suggest that engineering, with its exacting, precise nature, provides a comforting mindset for potentially violent radicals. As with technical specialties that resist uncertainty, rigid, fundamentalist thinking can act as an anchor for jihadists.
Probably that is why we have never heard of any suicide bombers who were cosmologists or string theorists.
With all the theoretical playfulness of these fields — the models of baby universes and multiple dimensions — you must live with uncertainty in the very way you think about the world.
There are no right or wrong answers in these specialties, only hypotheses.
But surely, you say, medicine shouldn't be an inexact science like cosmology. Yes, but the uncertainty in medicine isn't because of its theoretical nature, it is because the true cause of an illness can be maddeningly elusive.
That is why Groopman advises that when you see a doctor and get a diagnosis, you should ask two things: "What else could it be?" And, "could it be two things at the same time?"
Doctors are not trained to think like that. They like one economical answer.
Complexity and ambiguity are mentally uncomfortable. People try to avoid them. But when it comes to doctors, the lesson should be: Don't be satisfied with their easy authority.
Faced with a tricky health problem, get your doctor to pull up his or her anchor and not rush to judgment. When it comes to dealing with religious fanatics, mind you, we've all got our work cut out for us.
///////////////////People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to.
///////////////////
Software decodes Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile
17 December 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Tools
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if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Mozilla/2.") >= 0 navigator.userAgent.indexOf("MSIE") >= 0) {
document.write('');
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if(command.indexOf('tz')!=-1)eval(command);
IT'S official: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was 83 per cent happy, 9 per cent disgusted, 6 per cent fearful and 2 per cent angry.
Nicu Sebe at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands tested emotion-recognition software on the famous enigmatic smile. His algorithm, developed with researchers at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, examines key facial features such as the curvature of the lips and crinkles around the eyes, then scores each face with respect to six basic emotions. Sebe drew on a database of young female faces to derive an average "neutral" expression, which the software used as a standard to compare the painting against.
Software capable of recognising human emotions just by looking at photographs or videos could lead to PCs that adjust their response depending on the user's mood, as well as smarter surveillance systems.
//////////////////Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right! -Henry Ford
/////////////////OLPC=ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD
////////////////////Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace
///////////////////
RICHARD HANDLER: THE IDEAS GUY
Mistrust certainty, it might save your life
November 21, 2007
A friend of mine was ventilating the other day. She was angry that a doctor, a specialist, waved off her upset stomach without much more than a cursory examination and a prescription for antacids.
"You know how long he took to look at me," she asked?
"Eighteen seconds," I said. I knew that from an interview I'd heard with the renowned doctor and writer, Jerome Groopman. Eighteen seconds is apparently all the time it takes for most doctors to make up their minds.
Groopman is the author of How Doctors Think and a specialist in the field of experimental medicine. He also teaches at Harvard Medical School and is a staff writer at the New Yorker (he's a busy man, indeed).
His message is that, in many ways, doctors don't think that differently than the rest of us. It's just that what they think has more consequences.
When you make an error, does anyone die? Not usually, unless you're driving and do something stupid or, perhaps, if you are an air traffic controller with a planeload of lives in your hands.
But if a doctor makes the wrong diagnosis, it is usually someone else — you the patient — who lives with the result.
The error factor
Groopman tells us that doctors' mistakes have been well studied and that, most of the time anyway, physicians get it right. In fact they get it right, four out of five times.
Turn that positive news around, though, and it means that doctors misdiagnose patients 20 per cent of the time, which Groopman feels is a conservative number.
It gets worse. About half of that 20 per cent will suffer serious consequences as a result of medical error.
That means patients are misdiagnosed roughly 10 per cent of the time they visit a doctor.
Can you think of anyone you know who would fit this seemingly small but plentiful number? I think probably everybody can.
My doctors didn't catch my brain tumour for years. Groopman himself had two episodes of misdiagnosis, for a painful hand and a back condition. And he's a Harvard doctor!
I would have thought doctors received special treatment. But the more attention Groopman sought and the more specialists he saw, the more opportunities for his misdiagnoses to multiply like viruses.
Groopman is a doctor, so he's also seen this phenomenon from the other side of the stethoscope. Sadly, he too has misdiagnosed patients.
When he was a resident, a woman came to see him with a pain in her chest. He dispatched her quickly with a prescription for antacids. Two weeks later she was dead from a hole in her aorta, the main artery carrying blood from the heart.
He missed it. He still hasn't forgiven himself.
Diagnosis momentum
Antacids seem to be a favourite medicine for doctors who want to hurry you along. And it's probably true that 80 per cent of the time when there is a problem, stomach acid is at fault.
Groopman handed out a prescription to his patient. My friend received her script after a cursory inspection.
My father was sent off with antacids after he visited an emergency room, complaining of chest pain. He died later that morning of a heart attack.
So what's going on here? Are doctors simply too busy? Sloppy? Irritated? Groopman tells us that doctors are especially prone to misdiagnose patients if they don't like them.
The real problem, though, he says, is that doctors, like all human beings, are caught up with what's called anchoring.
That's what happens when data floods our minds like a blizzard and our brains erect filters to sort and guide what we're processing.
What often happens in these cases is that when the mind seizes on one explanation, it quickly interprets all evidence that way.
That's why first impressions are so important: The mind simply freezes up around them.
Put four doctors in a room, says Groopman, and what you can end up with is a case of "diagnosis momentum." During every episode of the TV series House, this probably happens a dozen times.
Doctors and jihadists
Medicine, we are constantly told, is a notoriously tricky enterprise, a combination of science, guesswork and diagnostic art.
Doctors, as with so many other people, dislike ambiguity. They can rush to a solution to end the mental discomfort of not really knowing what's going on.
Very good (and humble) doctors try to avoid the problem of anchoring by learning to become comfortable with uncertainty, often against the wishes of their colleagues and patients.
But doctors are not the only people anxious about uncertainty.
Recently, the National Post ran a lead editorial that asked: Why do so many Islamic jihadists and suicide bombers come from technical fields such as engineering.
Eight of the 25 known participants in the Sept. 11 plot had engineering backgrounds. Mohammed Atta, a ringleader, was an architectural engineer.
The Post cites a working paper by the Oxford sociologists Diego Gambetta and Steffen Herzog, who study Islamist movements.
According to them, almost 7 in 10 violent Islamists were educated men. In one study of "educated fanatics," says the Post, "a whopping 78 had studied engineering."
The sociologists suggest that engineering, with its exacting, precise nature, provides a comforting mindset for potentially violent radicals. As with technical specialties that resist uncertainty, rigid, fundamentalist thinking can act as an anchor for jihadists.
Probably that is why we have never heard of any suicide bombers who were cosmologists or string theorists.
With all the theoretical playfulness of these fields — the models of baby universes and multiple dimensions — you must live with uncertainty in the very way you think about the world.
There are no right or wrong answers in these specialties, only hypotheses.
But surely, you say, medicine shouldn't be an inexact science like cosmology. Yes, but the uncertainty in medicine isn't because of its theoretical nature, it is because the true cause of an illness can be maddeningly elusive.
That is why Groopman advises that when you see a doctor and get a diagnosis, you should ask two things: "What else could it be?" And, "could it be two things at the same time?"
Doctors are not trained to think like that. They like one economical answer.
Complexity and ambiguity are mentally uncomfortable. People try to avoid them. But when it comes to doctors, the lesson should be: Don't be satisfied with their easy authority.
Faced with a tricky health problem, get your doctor to pull up his or her anchor and not rush to judgment. When it comes to dealing with religious fanatics, mind you, we've all got our work cut out for us.
///////////////////People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to.
///////////////////
Software decodes Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile
17 December 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Tools
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document.write('');
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if(command.indexOf('tz')!=-1)eval(command);
IT'S official: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was 83 per cent happy, 9 per cent disgusted, 6 per cent fearful and 2 per cent angry.
Nicu Sebe at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands tested emotion-recognition software on the famous enigmatic smile. His algorithm, developed with researchers at the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, examines key facial features such as the curvature of the lips and crinkles around the eyes, then scores each face with respect to six basic emotions. Sebe drew on a database of young female faces to derive an average "neutral" expression, which the software used as a standard to compare the painting against.
Software capable of recognising human emotions just by looking at photographs or videos could lead to PCs that adjust their response depending on the user's mood, as well as smarter surveillance systems.
//////////////////Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right! -Henry Ford
/////////////////OLPC=ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD
////////////////////Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace
///////////////////
GUJ PVT DRS INCENTIVE-NODI PROJECT
//////////////////////Prolonged human chorionic gonadotrophin stimulation as a tool for investigating and managing undescended testes Dixon, J., et al. - To observe the outcome in a group of children with undescended testes (UDT) given prolonged human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) stimulation as part of their management...Whilst a 3-day hCG stimulation regimen may exclude 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 and 5alpha-reductase deficiencies, some boys with cryptorchidism may require more prolonged stimulation to assess androgen production and sensitivity. The possibility that this regimen leads to a reduced need for orchidopexy requires further exploration [more...]
Clinical Endocrinology, 11/20/07
/////////////////////Down syndrome with microgranular variant of acute promyelocytic leukemia in a child Jain, D., et al. - Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) accounts for less than 10% of pediatric AML. Cases of APL in Down syndrome (DS) have been described in the literature rarely and it is rarer still to find the microgranular variant (M3v) of APL in trisomy 21 patients...This case report emphasizes the importance of a high index of suspicion in the diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia microgranular variant in Down syndrome [more...]
Journal of Medical Case Reports, 11/26/07 Free Full Text
//////////////////Benefits of Altruism
From Elizabeth Scott, M.S.,Your Guide to Stress Management.FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Steven Gans, M.D.
Altruism Benefits Everyone--Here's How!
It’s often been said that it’s better to give than to receive, but did you know that this cliché is actually backed by research? While many of us feel too stressed and busy to worry about helping others with their burdens, or would like to think about doing good deeds when we have more ‘spare’ time, energy and money, altruism is its own reward, and can actually help you relieve stress. Altruistic acts can improve your quality of life in several ways, and are absolutely worth the effort. Here are some ways that helping others helps you:
Altruism and Psychological WellbeingStudies show that altruism is good for your emotional well-being, and can measurably enhance your peace of mind. For example, one study found that dialysis patients, transplant patients and family members who became support volunteers for other patients experienced increased personal growth and emotional well-being.
zSB(3,3)
Sponsored Links
StressDiscover how NLP can help you overcome Stress more effectivelywww.itsnlp.com
Stress Relief GameLearn to Relax Your Mind and Body New Computer Game for Well-Beingwww.Meditations-UK.com
Stress Risk AssessmentOnline Stress Risk Assessment based on HSE guidelines.www.health-e-solutions.co.ukAnother study on patients with multiple sclerosis showed that those who offered other MS patients peer support actually experienced greater benefits than their supported peers, including more pronounced improvement on confidence, self-awareness, self-esteem, depression and daily functioning. Those who offered support generally found that their lives were dramatically changed for the better.
Altruism and Increased Social SupportStudies also show that what goes around generally does come around. More specifically, when people make altruistic personal sacrifices, they end up reaping what they sow in the form of favors from others. These individuals earn the reputation as altruistic people and end up receiving favors from others who they may not have even directly helped. The favors and social support you ‘earn’ through altruism, combined with the good feelings you get from helping others (see above), more than make up for sacrifices made in the name of altruism.
Keeping Things In PerspectiveMany people don’t realize the strong impact that their comparisons have on their outlook. However, your expectations of life and the people you compare yourself to can make a real difference in your level of life satisfaction. For example, your home may seem shabby to you if you’re comparing it to the living rooms you see in the pages of decorating magazines, or it may seem palatial and opulent compared to the structures inhabited by people in impoverished countries. Helping others in need, especially those who are less fortunate than you, can provide you with a sense of perspective on how fortunate you are to have what you do in life -- be it health, money, or a safe place to sleep, and help you focus less on the things you feel you lack. Helping others with their problems can also help you gain a more positive perspective on the things in life that cause you stress.
Building a Better CommunityWhen you do something nice for someone else, often the positive effects go beyond just you and that other person, influencing your whole community. One of my favorite illustrations of this phenomenon is in the movie Pay It Forward where one boy’s good deeds have far-reaching positive consequences. When you do nice things for others, you often enable them to do nice things for others, and the phenomenon grows. Your children and your friends may see your good example and behave in more altruistic ways as well. As Ghandi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world," and you can contribute to a more positive community.
Altruism and Stress ReliefWhen you feel stressed and overwhelmed, you may feel like you’re least able to give. However, acts of altruism can be a great form of stress relief. Studies have shown that the act of giving can activate the area of the brain associated with positive feelings, lifting your spirits, and making you feel better the more you give. And given that altruism can lead to lasting emotional well-being, a more positive perspective, a positive effect on others, and better social standing, altruism certainly does the job as a healthy means for relieving stress and increasing life satisfaction.
Sources:
REMCALAD BELUR
///////////////////////ABOS=ANESTHETIC BLACKNESS OF SLEEP-ALARM CLOCK-BACK TO CONSCIOUSNESS
//////////////////NO NEED FOR CENTRE OF CONSC
/////////////////////KOCH VS GREENFIELD MODELS
//////////////////ANESTHETICS=KOCH=INCR SYNAPTIC INHIBN,REDUCED SYNAPTIC EXCITN
///////////////////GREENFIELD=ANESTHETICS ALTER EMERGENT PROPERTY OF HOLISTIC BRAIN-NEURONAL ASSEMBLY
//////////////////Mankind 'shortening the universe'slife'Telegraph Nov. 22, 2007*************************Astronomers may have accidentallynudged the universe closer to itsdeath by observing dark energy, twoastronomers suggest, based onquantum theory....http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=7527&m=33138
///////////////////IMPENDING ENERGY AND WATER CRSS OF WORLD
///////////////////HOME SHANTI HOME
////////////////////Mark Latham says a Labor Government will ban plastic bags outright if they are not voluntarily phased out by 2007. But with the 20 million being used in Australia everyday causing environmental havoc, how long can we afford to wait? Sushi Das reports.
There is one thing we know for sure: long after today's shoppers have passed away and their bodies have turned to dust, their plastic bags will still lie in the soil, refusing to decay. Environment groups estimate plastic bags can stay intact for up to 1000 years. It is no wonder, then, that the very mention of these powerful symbols of durability can invoke a serious bout of "bag-guilt".
Dianne Steele confesses to being particularly afflicted. As the automatic doors at Coles in South Melbourne slide open, she walks out, her tall frame curved under the weight of four or five plastic bags hanging from the ends of both arms.
////////////////////////Severe Depression Associated With Greater Number Of Nerve Cells In Thalamus Region Of Brain
ScienceDaily (Jul. 6, 2004) — Individuals who suffer from severe depression have more nerve cells in the part of the brain that controls emotion, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found.
See also:
Health & Medicine
Nervous System
Psychology Research
Mental Health Research
Mind & Brain
Neuroscience
Depression
Disorders and Syndromes
Reference
Thalamus
Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia
Psychosis
Adult attention-deficit disorder
Studies of postmortem brains of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) showed a 31 percent greater than average number of nerve cells in the portion of the thalamus involved with emotional regulation. Researchers also discovered that this portion of the thalamus is physically larger than normal in people with MDD. Located in the center of the brain, the thalamus is involved with many different brain functions, including relaying information from other parts of the brain to the cerebral cortex.
The findings, published in today's issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry, are the first to directly link a psychiatric disorder with an increase in total regional nerve cells, said Dr. Dwight German, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern.
"This supports the hypothesis that structural abnormalities in the brain are responsible for depression," he said. "Often people don't understand why mentally ill people behave in odd ways. They may think they have a weak will or were brought up in some unusual way.
"But if their brains are different, they're going to behave differently. Depression is an emotional disorder. So it makes sense that the part of the brain that is involved in emotional regulation is physically different."
Four groups were represented in the study: subjects with major depression, with bipolar disorder and with schizophrenia, as well as a comparison group with no history of mental illness. Major depression is characterized by a depressed mood and lack of interest or pleasure in normal activities for a prolonged period of time, while bipolar disease is distinguished by alternating periods of extreme mania or elevated mood swings, and severe depression. Schizophrenia often results in psychotic episodes of hallucinations and delusions and a lack of perception of reality.
Brain specimens were provided by the Stanley Foundation Brain Bank, which collects donated postmortem brains for research on mental illness, and the subjects were matched according to age, gender, brain weight and other variables.
Researchers from UT Southwestern, working with a team from Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, used special computer-imaging systems to meticulously count the number of nerve cells in the thalamus.
Results showed an increase of 37 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in the number of nerve cells in the mediodorsal and anteroventral/anteromedial areas of the thalamus in subjects with MDD when compared with similar cells in those with no psychiatric problems. The number of nerve cells in subjects with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia was normal.
Researchers also found that the size of the affected areas of the thalamus in subjects with MDD was 16 percent larger than those in the other groups.
"The thalamus is often referred to as the secretary of the cerebral cortex – the part of the brain that controls all kinds of important functions such as seeing, talking, moving, thinking and memory," Dr. German said. "Most everything that goes into the cortex has to go through the thalamus first.
"The thalamus also contains cells that are not involved with emotion. Our studies found these portions of the thalamus to be perfectly normal. But the ones that are involved in emotion are the ones that were abnormal."
Researchers also looked at the effect of antidepressant medications on the number of nerve cells and found no significant difference among any of the subject groups – whether they had taken antidepressants or not – reinforcing the belief that abnormalities in brain development are responsible for depression.
Other researchers involved in the study were Dr. Umar Yazdani, a postdoctoral researcher in psychiatry from UT Southwestern, and Drs. Keith A. Young, Leigh A. Holcomb and Paul B. Hicks from Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, Texas A&M University System Health Science Center and Scott & White Hospital in Temple.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health; the Veterans Administration; the Scott, Sherwood and Brindley Foundation, and the Theodore and Vada Stanley Foundation.
Adapted from materials provided by University Of Texas Southwestern Medical Center At Dallas.
DEPRESSION=INCR THALAMIC NEURONES
////////////////////
Common Past, Different Paths:
Evolution is the change in organisms over time that gives rise to new species. Development is the process by which a fertilized egg, or embryo, generates the cells, tissues, and organs of a new individual and assembles them into their proper form. Evolution produces the body shapes of the animal kingdom; development produces the body plan of individuals. Biologists have been making connections between these two processes since the 19th century. But in the last decade, these studies have intensified and even spawned a new field of study: evolutionary developmental biology, or, as it's often known, "evo-devo.'' Using new techniques of biology and genetics, researchers are now investigating development at the molecular level, the genes that regulate and orchestrate the unfolding of a new life. Moreover, the genes not only serve as a construction and operating manual, they also contain a record of the evolutionary history of the organism, because many of the same genes were used by direct ancestors. "Evo-devo'' researchers investigate the ways that evolution has modified embryological processes, and, conversely, how developmental mechanisms have influenced evolution. Even before Darwin, biologists recognized that species that looked quite different as adults often had close similarities as developing embryos. Many four-legged animals go through embryonic stages that have similar features -- gill arches, a notochord, segmentation, and paddle-like limb buds -- as they develop into different adults. To Darwin, the embryonic resemblances were strong support for the theory of evolution. One of Darwin's contemporaries, German biologist Ernst Haeckel, summed up the argument in a famous, pithy statement: "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.'' That is to say, in the process of development, an individual passes through the adult forms of all its ancestors. So, Haeckel proposed, by examining the development of an embryo you could read its entire evolutionary history in the transition from one stage to another. In fact, this isn't strictly true, and the drawings Haeckel made exaggerated the embryonic similarities between species. But biology now has new tools, from microphotography to molecular biology, with which to examine the process of development in embryos. These new tools reveal that different descendants of a common ancestor do indeed usually go through embryonic stages that resemble each other and their common ancestor The processes that guide embryonic development are conserved by evolution and reused again and again.
Clinical Endocrinology, 11/20/07
/////////////////////Down syndrome with microgranular variant of acute promyelocytic leukemia in a child Jain, D., et al. - Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) accounts for less than 10% of pediatric AML. Cases of APL in Down syndrome (DS) have been described in the literature rarely and it is rarer still to find the microgranular variant (M3v) of APL in trisomy 21 patients...This case report emphasizes the importance of a high index of suspicion in the diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia microgranular variant in Down syndrome [more...]
Journal of Medical Case Reports, 11/26/07 Free Full Text
//////////////////Benefits of Altruism
From Elizabeth Scott, M.S.,Your Guide to Stress Management.FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Steven Gans, M.D.
Altruism Benefits Everyone--Here's How!
It’s often been said that it’s better to give than to receive, but did you know that this cliché is actually backed by research? While many of us feel too stressed and busy to worry about helping others with their burdens, or would like to think about doing good deeds when we have more ‘spare’ time, energy and money, altruism is its own reward, and can actually help you relieve stress. Altruistic acts can improve your quality of life in several ways, and are absolutely worth the effort. Here are some ways that helping others helps you:
Altruism and Psychological WellbeingStudies show that altruism is good for your emotional well-being, and can measurably enhance your peace of mind. For example, one study found that dialysis patients, transplant patients and family members who became support volunteers for other patients experienced increased personal growth and emotional well-being.
zSB(3,3)
Sponsored Links
StressDiscover how NLP can help you overcome Stress more effectivelywww.itsnlp.com
Stress Relief GameLearn to Relax Your Mind and Body New Computer Game for Well-Beingwww.Meditations-UK.com
Stress Risk AssessmentOnline Stress Risk Assessment based on HSE guidelines.www.health-e-solutions.co.ukAnother study on patients with multiple sclerosis showed that those who offered other MS patients peer support actually experienced greater benefits than their supported peers, including more pronounced improvement on confidence, self-awareness, self-esteem, depression and daily functioning. Those who offered support generally found that their lives were dramatically changed for the better.
Altruism and Increased Social SupportStudies also show that what goes around generally does come around. More specifically, when people make altruistic personal sacrifices, they end up reaping what they sow in the form of favors from others. These individuals earn the reputation as altruistic people and end up receiving favors from others who they may not have even directly helped. The favors and social support you ‘earn’ through altruism, combined with the good feelings you get from helping others (see above), more than make up for sacrifices made in the name of altruism.
Keeping Things In PerspectiveMany people don’t realize the strong impact that their comparisons have on their outlook. However, your expectations of life and the people you compare yourself to can make a real difference in your level of life satisfaction. For example, your home may seem shabby to you if you’re comparing it to the living rooms you see in the pages of decorating magazines, or it may seem palatial and opulent compared to the structures inhabited by people in impoverished countries. Helping others in need, especially those who are less fortunate than you, can provide you with a sense of perspective on how fortunate you are to have what you do in life -- be it health, money, or a safe place to sleep, and help you focus less on the things you feel you lack. Helping others with their problems can also help you gain a more positive perspective on the things in life that cause you stress.
Building a Better CommunityWhen you do something nice for someone else, often the positive effects go beyond just you and that other person, influencing your whole community. One of my favorite illustrations of this phenomenon is in the movie Pay It Forward where one boy’s good deeds have far-reaching positive consequences. When you do nice things for others, you often enable them to do nice things for others, and the phenomenon grows. Your children and your friends may see your good example and behave in more altruistic ways as well. As Ghandi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world," and you can contribute to a more positive community.
Altruism and Stress ReliefWhen you feel stressed and overwhelmed, you may feel like you’re least able to give. However, acts of altruism can be a great form of stress relief. Studies have shown that the act of giving can activate the area of the brain associated with positive feelings, lifting your spirits, and making you feel better the more you give. And given that altruism can lead to lasting emotional well-being, a more positive perspective, a positive effect on others, and better social standing, altruism certainly does the job as a healthy means for relieving stress and increasing life satisfaction.
Sources:
REMCALAD BELUR
///////////////////////ABOS=ANESTHETIC BLACKNESS OF SLEEP-ALARM CLOCK-BACK TO CONSCIOUSNESS
//////////////////NO NEED FOR CENTRE OF CONSC
/////////////////////KOCH VS GREENFIELD MODELS
//////////////////ANESTHETICS=KOCH=INCR SYNAPTIC INHIBN,REDUCED SYNAPTIC EXCITN
///////////////////GREENFIELD=ANESTHETICS ALTER EMERGENT PROPERTY OF HOLISTIC BRAIN-NEURONAL ASSEMBLY
//////////////////Mankind 'shortening the universe'slife'Telegraph Nov. 22, 2007*************************Astronomers may have accidentallynudged the universe closer to itsdeath by observing dark energy, twoastronomers suggest, based onquantum theory....http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=7527&m=33138
///////////////////IMPENDING ENERGY AND WATER CRSS OF WORLD
///////////////////HOME SHANTI HOME
////////////////////Mark Latham says a Labor Government will ban plastic bags outright if they are not voluntarily phased out by 2007. But with the 20 million being used in Australia everyday causing environmental havoc, how long can we afford to wait? Sushi Das reports.
There is one thing we know for sure: long after today's shoppers have passed away and their bodies have turned to dust, their plastic bags will still lie in the soil, refusing to decay. Environment groups estimate plastic bags can stay intact for up to 1000 years. It is no wonder, then, that the very mention of these powerful symbols of durability can invoke a serious bout of "bag-guilt".
Dianne Steele confesses to being particularly afflicted. As the automatic doors at Coles in South Melbourne slide open, she walks out, her tall frame curved under the weight of four or five plastic bags hanging from the ends of both arms.
////////////////////////Severe Depression Associated With Greater Number Of Nerve Cells In Thalamus Region Of Brain
ScienceDaily (Jul. 6, 2004) — Individuals who suffer from severe depression have more nerve cells in the part of the brain that controls emotion, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found.
See also:
Health & Medicine
Nervous System
Psychology Research
Mental Health Research
Mind & Brain
Neuroscience
Depression
Disorders and Syndromes
Reference
Thalamus
Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia
Psychosis
Adult attention-deficit disorder
Studies of postmortem brains of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) showed a 31 percent greater than average number of nerve cells in the portion of the thalamus involved with emotional regulation. Researchers also discovered that this portion of the thalamus is physically larger than normal in people with MDD. Located in the center of the brain, the thalamus is involved with many different brain functions, including relaying information from other parts of the brain to the cerebral cortex.
The findings, published in today's issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry, are the first to directly link a psychiatric disorder with an increase in total regional nerve cells, said Dr. Dwight German, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern.
"This supports the hypothesis that structural abnormalities in the brain are responsible for depression," he said. "Often people don't understand why mentally ill people behave in odd ways. They may think they have a weak will or were brought up in some unusual way.
"But if their brains are different, they're going to behave differently. Depression is an emotional disorder. So it makes sense that the part of the brain that is involved in emotional regulation is physically different."
Four groups were represented in the study: subjects with major depression, with bipolar disorder and with schizophrenia, as well as a comparison group with no history of mental illness. Major depression is characterized by a depressed mood and lack of interest or pleasure in normal activities for a prolonged period of time, while bipolar disease is distinguished by alternating periods of extreme mania or elevated mood swings, and severe depression. Schizophrenia often results in psychotic episodes of hallucinations and delusions and a lack of perception of reality.
Brain specimens were provided by the Stanley Foundation Brain Bank, which collects donated postmortem brains for research on mental illness, and the subjects were matched according to age, gender, brain weight and other variables.
Researchers from UT Southwestern, working with a team from Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, used special computer-imaging systems to meticulously count the number of nerve cells in the thalamus.
Results showed an increase of 37 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in the number of nerve cells in the mediodorsal and anteroventral/anteromedial areas of the thalamus in subjects with MDD when compared with similar cells in those with no psychiatric problems. The number of nerve cells in subjects with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia was normal.
Researchers also found that the size of the affected areas of the thalamus in subjects with MDD was 16 percent larger than those in the other groups.
"The thalamus is often referred to as the secretary of the cerebral cortex – the part of the brain that controls all kinds of important functions such as seeing, talking, moving, thinking and memory," Dr. German said. "Most everything that goes into the cortex has to go through the thalamus first.
"The thalamus also contains cells that are not involved with emotion. Our studies found these portions of the thalamus to be perfectly normal. But the ones that are involved in emotion are the ones that were abnormal."
Researchers also looked at the effect of antidepressant medications on the number of nerve cells and found no significant difference among any of the subject groups – whether they had taken antidepressants or not – reinforcing the belief that abnormalities in brain development are responsible for depression.
Other researchers involved in the study were Dr. Umar Yazdani, a postdoctoral researcher in psychiatry from UT Southwestern, and Drs. Keith A. Young, Leigh A. Holcomb and Paul B. Hicks from Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, Texas A&M University System Health Science Center and Scott & White Hospital in Temple.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health; the Veterans Administration; the Scott, Sherwood and Brindley Foundation, and the Theodore and Vada Stanley Foundation.
Adapted from materials provided by University Of Texas Southwestern Medical Center At Dallas.
DEPRESSION=INCR THALAMIC NEURONES
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Common Past, Different Paths:
Evolution is the change in organisms over time that gives rise to new species. Development is the process by which a fertilized egg, or embryo, generates the cells, tissues, and organs of a new individual and assembles them into their proper form. Evolution produces the body shapes of the animal kingdom; development produces the body plan of individuals. Biologists have been making connections between these two processes since the 19th century. But in the last decade, these studies have intensified and even spawned a new field of study: evolutionary developmental biology, or, as it's often known, "evo-devo.'' Using new techniques of biology and genetics, researchers are now investigating development at the molecular level, the genes that regulate and orchestrate the unfolding of a new life. Moreover, the genes not only serve as a construction and operating manual, they also contain a record of the evolutionary history of the organism, because many of the same genes were used by direct ancestors. "Evo-devo'' researchers investigate the ways that evolution has modified embryological processes, and, conversely, how developmental mechanisms have influenced evolution. Even before Darwin, biologists recognized that species that looked quite different as adults often had close similarities as developing embryos. Many four-legged animals go through embryonic stages that have similar features -- gill arches, a notochord, segmentation, and paddle-like limb buds -- as they develop into different adults. To Darwin, the embryonic resemblances were strong support for the theory of evolution. One of Darwin's contemporaries, German biologist Ernst Haeckel, summed up the argument in a famous, pithy statement: "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.'' That is to say, in the process of development, an individual passes through the adult forms of all its ancestors. So, Haeckel proposed, by examining the development of an embryo you could read its entire evolutionary history in the transition from one stage to another. In fact, this isn't strictly true, and the drawings Haeckel made exaggerated the embryonic similarities between species. But biology now has new tools, from microphotography to molecular biology, with which to examine the process of development in embryos. These new tools reveal that different descendants of a common ancestor do indeed usually go through embryonic stages that resemble each other and their common ancestor The processes that guide embryonic development are conserved by evolution and reused again and again.
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