Sunday, April 29, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Paper Sculptures
Nature
Harpy
Bridge
Obi Wan Kenobi
Writer
Paper Skull
Reflection Sagrada Familia
Chinese Warriors
Buffalo Spirit Dancer
Over time, populace has been using normal things to generate something strange out of it and for case a very essential material such as paper. You might suppose that papers in connection with arts is only controlled to drawings, sketch and something imaginative like origami, but those are irony because there are plenty more that paper master can create by just using papers. Paper sculptor is an artwork shaped by determining or combining dissimilar types of papers that wants a huge accuracy. In this post, you will find extra and attractive examples of paper sculptures and the artist behind it. As you will see from these images, paper sculptures can be enthused by anything, starting from trash papers. We hope this post will give you a superior sympathetic of this type of art .-
Post-cancer fatigue “overestimated"
| THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES |
Previous studies had stated that up to 50% of breast cancer survivors suffered fatigued for many months after treatment ends, but the new research suggests the number is as small as 6%.
Image: MorePixels/iStockphoto
Despite widespread belief to the contrary, as few as 6% of women experience cancer-related persistent fatigue a year after undergoing treatment for breast cancer, a new study has found.
Prolonged and disabling fatigue is a common side-effect of many cancer treatments, with large numbers of women reporting that cancer-related fatigue persists for many months after treatment ends. Some studies put the figure as high as 50%.
But a study of breast cancer survivors from a group of collaborating hospitals in Sydney together with staff of the UNSW’s newly established Cancer Survivors’ Centre has found that figure is overstated, with the previously reported high rates of fatigue most likely attributable to factors unrelated to the cancer or its treatment.
And while the study, published this month in Journal of Clinical Oncology, looked at breast cancer, the researchers believe the same results would apply to survivors of other cancers.
“The good news is that the vast majority of women who have undergone cancer treatment either never experience ongoing debilitating fatigue in the weeks and months after treatment ends or if they do, it passes relatively quickly,” said study author, Professor David Goldstein, from UNSW’s Prince of Wales Clinical School.
“This is not to say that cancer-related fatigue is not a problem. It is still one of the main symptoms of cancer and a major side effect of treatment, but people can be reassured that for the vast majority receiving adjuvant treatment, it is not an ongoing or long term debilitating experience,” Professor Goldstein said.
The 5-year prospective study followed 218 women with early-stage breast cancer. The women were observed and questioned at three-monthly intervals for a year after treatment and again at five years. A rigorous definition of fatigue was used to rule out any “background” fatigue.
The study found the case rate for cancer-related fatigue fell from 31% at the end of treatment to 11% at six months and 6% at 12 months.
The findings suggest that previous studies have overestimated the prevalence of cancer-related fatigue and included transient fatigue states associated with unrelated infections, surgery and minor psychiatric disorders and chronic fatigue states attributable to other conditions.
The researchers say for the significant minority of people (6%) who do experience ongoing fatigue, attention can now be focussed on early identification and directing resources where they are most needed.
The success of cancer treatments and the increasing number of cancer survivors makes finding find better ways to manage survivorship essential. Researchers believe exercise may be one key element.
To that end, the UNSW Cancer Survivors’ Centre, in conjunction with one of its partners the UNSW Lifestyle Clinic, has begun trials of a twelve-week intensive program of exercise and cognitive behaviour therapy to help people with established cancer-related fatigue.
“Exercise is increasingly being identified as a medicine, potentially even with a dose response, and it may have a very important role as a therapy not only in cancer recovery but also in the treatment process itself,” Professor Goldstein said.
UNSW’s Cancer Survivor Centre is the first comprehensive centre in Australia and is also one of very few worldwide to focus on survivors of both childhood and adult cancers.
Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.
|
Billa 2 Teaser
Staring: Ajith Kumar
Directed By: Chakri Toleti
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Produced By: Sunir Kheterpal, Suresh Balaje, George Pius
Position: Full-time Research Scientist
1. Position: Full-time Research Scientist
Data Mining Department, Institute for Infocomm Research (www.i2r.a-star.edu.sg), Singapore
2. Job description:
You will be involved in a research project about differential privacy on medical data. The project will be done by collaboration between ADSC, I2R, GIS, NUS, and NTU. You will work with top researchers to design new cut-edge techniques about differential privacy and secure data mining. You will work with technologists and other researchers to understand the application of DP into the real-life sensitive data. ?
3. Qualification:
A Ph.D in Computer Science/ Computer Engineering/Mathematics/Engineering or related fields
4. Work experience: ?? A research background with good publications is desired.;
5. Technical skills:
A strong R&D; tack record with good publications in differential privacy/ Privacy preserving data-mining/privacy or security issues. Having knowledge of both randomization as well as multi-party computation based approaches would be an advantage. Experience in software development is a plus.
6. Soft skills: Good analytical and communication skills
7. Abilities /Aptitudes: Self-motivated; Independent; Team player
Contact:
Dr. Han Shuguo (shan@i2r.a-star.edu.sg) or Prof. Ng See Kiong (skng@cs.cmu.edu)
Faculty Positions at the Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus
Faculty Positions at the
Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus
Applications are currently being requested at Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor or Instructor levels in the following programs :
POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW in eScience Data Management and Preservation
Indiana University
The Indiana University (IU) Data to Insight Center and the IU University Libraries, is offering a two-year CLIR/DLF Data Curation Fellowship. The Fellow will be based organizationally within the Data to Insight Center but will focus on collaborative initiatives between D2I and the IU Libraries. These include cornerstone research projects of the center such as the National Science Foundation-funded DataNet SEAD (Sustainable Environment-Actionable Data) Virtual Archive, the HathiTrust Research Center, and our Sloan funded work on non-consumptive research methodologies. This fellowship will work on projects that will provide direct experience in non-consumptive research methodologies, policies, principles, and applied tools for data curation and management and involvement in novel applications of data provenance management, as well as working with tools and methods for mass-scale data mining.
While we will consider applications from a broad range of fields, we are particularly interested in scholars with a strong background in informatics, computer science, or information studies; or discipline-based scholars with a research record in data management, data mining, or analytics but who are interested in working on other large-scale data cyberinfrastructure projects. The Fellow will work under the guidance of the Director and Co-Director of the Data to Insight Center (the latter is also an Associate Dean in the University Libraries), and will engage with the other faculty and staff of the Center, as well as with IU System Wide groups working on data management and curation services. This includes faculty with tenure homes in the IU Libraries, the School of Library and Information Science, the School of Informatics and Computing, University Information Technology Services-Research Technologies, and other centers in the Pervasive Technology Institute.
The Fellow will participate in national meetings with other CLIR/DLF Data Curation Fellows and will attend at least one relevant conference such as SC (SuperComputing), ASIS&T RDAP (Research Data Access and Preservation), IDCC (International Digital Curation Conference) or other related events In addition, the Fellow will learn about the different departments and operations of a nationally renowned research cyberinfrastructure program, a world-class research center, and a nationally recognized research library that is actively engaging with our university partners on data management and curation issues. The Fellow will have access to a variety of mentors during this timeframe and will have ample opportunity for pursuing scholarship in this area in the form of presentations and papers. At the end of the first year, the Fellow will have developed an understanding of many of the issues facing universities and research centers that are actively involved in data cyberinfrastruc!
ture support and will have had an opportunity to work with scholars involved in the HathiTrust Research Center and the SEAD Project. By the end of the second year, the Fellow will have developed a long-range plan for extending the reach of the Center and the Libraries based on our current research thrusts around large-scale data and will have made connections within the data curation landscape of libraries, archives, and computational cyberinfrastructure centers.
Desired Qualifications:
• Doctoral work in informatics, computer science, or information studies; or discipline-based scholars who have worked in areas of data management and data mining
• Experience working with large-scale data and text-mining tools such as Hadoop, Cassandra, and Monk/SEASR
• Excellent project management skills
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues of diverse backgrounds
• Ability to set priorities and manage work and deadlines independently
• Excellent oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills
How Science and Occult Science work
By: Dr. Edi Bilimoria ....
The Inductive Method of Science
Science adopts the Aristotelian, inductive method to move from the particular to the general, rather like assembling individual pieces of a jigsaw puzzle: discrete observational data are collected and gradually fitted into a broad picture, the latter being a mental representational model of the physical effects observed. The mind process is predominantly intellectual, applied in a linear mode. The instruments of investigation are limited to and conditioned by the five physical senses and their extensions, such as telescopes and microscopes, etc. The result is a precise description of the Universe's appearances, behaviour and biological mechanisms—Nature in her manifold appearances. The prevailing scientific paradigm of materialism has many unsupported and unsubstantiated assumptions. Physical or mathematical modelling is a central feature of the scientific method of inquiry. This means that science is not about truth or knowledge, per se—rather an interpretation of the physical world.
The Deductive Approach of Occult Science
By contrast, Occult Science works in the Platonic tradition of moving from the general to the particular within the Ring Pass-Not (i.e. limiting boundaries of evolutionary growth) of every world system: the overall, grand picture is first realised in its essential nature, and the way this presents itself as particular effects then expounded. The mind process is essentially ‘lateral thinking’ and intuitive, applied in an all-inclusive mode. The instruments of investigation are not limited to the physical senses. This gives profound insights into the origin, essential nature and manifestation of Nature in her true self.
CONFLUENCE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND OCCULT SCIENCE
Why Many Scientists Are Also Embracing Mysticism
These days we find increasing numbers of scientists turning towards mysticism as a complement to the rational scientific method. A review of the world-wide Directory of Members of The Scientific and Medical Network will indicate this fact. Furthermore, teachers and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have formed an alchemical society and regularly study The Secret Doctrine. During Millikan’s tenure at Cal Tech, a copy of The Secret Doctrine lodged in the library was so much in demand that one had to put one’s name on a long waiting list. This work is also discussed periodically at the Harvard Club in New York by several chemistry teachers, including MIT professors.
Why then, such an upsurge in interest in mysticism and occult science? We explained above that in investigating something by the scientific method, we can describe its appearance, behaviour and characteristics by standing apart from it (the discoveries from quantum physics notwithstanding). But by the occult approach in order to understand its inner nature, we have literally to become the very thing we wish to investigate—or at least to participate in it. This is why the occult system always operates from within to without, and prefers to investigate Nature by participating with her processes, rather than interrogating her outward behaviour.
It is by virtue of such interior insights that Blavatsky was able to make prophetic remarks in The Secret Doctrine about future developments in natural science, for example:
The wave motion of living particles becomes comprehensible on the theory of a spiritual ONE LIFE, of a universal Vital principle, independent of our matter, and manifesting as atomic energy only on our plane of consciousness.
The above statement displays foreknowledge about three facts that are now commonly accepted by science, namely: (a) the energy within the atom; (b) the wave-like nature of particles, and the particle-like nature of waves; and (c) the vitality and ‘consciousness’ of particles. Blavatsky was in all probability the first person to use the terms ‘atomic energy’ and the ‘wave motion of living particles’, which science has discovered for itself, using its own methods of investigation.
In the field of life sciences, we find similar portentous statements, such as:
It is not against zoological and anthropological discoveries, based on the fossils of man and animal, that every mystic and believer in a divine soul inwardly revolts, but only against the uncalled-for conclusions built on preconceived theories and made to fit in with certain prejudices.
Driven inexorably by the pressure of their own discoveries, and increasingly inconsistent theories to account for them, scientists are slowly awakening to the truth of Blavatsky’s assertion. This will soon become apparent.
Hence in view of the foregoing, it is not surprising that the greatest scientists, past and present, have realized the limits of the process of scientific inquiry and sensed the need for more intuitive approaches.
These days we find increasing numbers of scientists turning towards mysticism to complement the rational scientific method. To know more about how science and occult science work, keep reading……..
Edi is the Director of the Theoversity Project. Edi has published his written work extensively in science, theosophy and occultism. His work is on Religion and Spiritualities. He is the author of Mirages in Western Science Resolved by Occult Science and The Snake and the Rope, showing how current problems in Western science in the broad fields of cosmology life sciences.
Note: The content of this article solely conveys the opinion of its author, Dr. Edi Bilimoria
Watching neurons learn
What happens at the level of individual neurons while we learn? This question intrigued the neuroscientist Daniel Huber, who recently arrived at the Department of Basic Neuroscience at the University of Geneva. During his stay in the United States, he and his team tried to unravel the network mechanisms underlying learning and memory at the level of the cerebral cortex.
What's the role of individual neurons in behavior? Do they always participate in the same functions? How do their responses evolve during learning?" asks the professor. One way to address these questions is to follow the activity of a large set of neurons while the subject learns a novel task. The goal is to link the behavioral changes with the changes in neuronal representations.
It's currently impossible to follow the activity of a large number of individual neurons in humans, but the team of researchers quickly realized that mice are excellent subjects for such studies. "We were surprised by capacities of these small rodents. They learn novel associations quickly and are able to focus for hours on complex behavioral tasks. However, it is important to keep them motivated by rewarding them accordingly. They are very similar to us in that way."
The behavioral task of the mice consisted in sampling the area in front of their snout with their whiskers to search for a small object. The object was presented either within reach and out of reach of their whiskers. Each time the object was detected with the whiskers, the mouse had to respond by licking to a reward spout. The correct choices were rewarded with a drop of liquid. "In this task different sensory and motor circuits have to interact in order to establish a novel association, leading to better and better performance".
Remained the problem of how to follow the activity of the large number of neurons across many days of learning. The researchers replaced a small part of the bone overlying motor cortex with a tiny glass window. The neurons underneath the window were genetically modified to express a fluorescent marker which changes its intensity according to the activity of the neurons. This window into the brain allowed the researches around Daniel Huber to use two-photon microscopy to record the activity of the same set of 500 neurons during days of learning.
"We then correlated the activity of the individual neurons with the different actions of the mouse, such as moving the whiskers, touching the object or licking at the right moment. It's like synchronizing the soundtrack with the images in a movie" adds the neuroscientist. The researchers analyzed this data using a series of computational approaches to establish a link between the neuronal activity and the different sensory and motor features of the task. This allowed them to build algorithmic models that can predict different motor outputs by solely monitoring the neuronal activity. Decoding the neuronal activity allowed the researchers then to construct functional maps of the recorded neurons and quantify each neuron's link with the different aspects of the behavior.
These functional maps revealed several fundamental findings: "Although the movements of the whiskers became more and more precise and targeted to search for the object during the learning, their relative neuronal representation remained relatively stable. In contrast, the representation of licking to respond and collect the rewards became more and more pronounced". Taken together, only selected aspects of the learned behavior induced changes it the neuronal representation in the cortex. The scientists also found that different sensory and motor representations are spatially intermingled in the rodent brain.
Other analysis revealed that individual neurons remain stably linked to a given behavioral function, but they have a flexibility to remain silent on a given day. This functional stability despite a flexibility to join (or not) a given representation was actually suggested by different theoretical work on learning.
"If these characteristics are limited to the motor cortex or if these are more general rules that are apply across the cerebral cortex remains open" says Daniel Huber. That in fact this is one of the questions we are currently investigating in my lab in Geneva".
Provided by University of Geneva
"Watching neurons learn." April 26th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-neurons.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
Analytic thinking can decrease religious belief, research shows
A new University of British Columbia study finds that analytic thinking can decrease religious belief, even in devout believers.
The study, published today in the journal Science, finds that thinking analytically increases disbelief among believers and skeptics alike, shedding important new light on the psychology of religious belief.
"Our goal was to explore the fundamental question of why people believe in a God to different degrees," says lead author Will Gervais, a PhD student in UBC's Dept. of Psychology. "A combination of complex factors influence matters of personal spirituality, and these new findings suggest that the cognitive system related to analytic thoughts is one factor that can influence disbelief."
Researchers used problem-solving tasks and subtle experimental priming – including showing participants Rodin's sculpture The Thinker or asking participants to complete questionnaires in hard-to-read fonts – to successfully produce "analytic" thinking. The researchers, who assessed participants' belief levels using a variety of self-reported measures, found that religious belief decreased when participants engaged in analytic tasks, compared to participants who engaged in tasks that did not involve analytic thinking.
The findings, Gervais says, are based on a longstanding human psychology model of two distinct, but related cognitive systems to process information: an "intuitive" system that relies on mental shortcuts to yield fast and efficient responses, and a more "analytic" system that yields more deliberate, reasoned responses.
"Our study builds on previous research that links religious beliefs to 'intuitive' thinking," says study co-author and Associate Prof. Ara Norenzayan, UBC Dept. of Psychology. "Our findings suggest that activating the 'analytic' cognitive system in the brain can undermine the 'intuitive' support for religious belief, at least temporarily."
The study involved more than 650 participants in the U.S. and Canada. Gervais says future studies will explore whether the increase in religious disbelief is temporary or long-lasting, and how the findings apply to non-Western cultures.
Recent figures suggest that the majority of the world's population believes in a God, however atheists and agnostics number in the hundreds of millions, says Norenzayan, a co-director of UBC's Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition and Culture. Religious convictions are shaped by psychological and cultural factors and fluctuate across time and situations, he says.
Provided by University of British Columbia
"Analytic thinking can decrease religious belief, research shows." April 26th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-analytic-decrease-religious-belief.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
New study suggests gender gap around homophobic bullying
A new study from Educational and Psychological Measurement (published by SAGE) found that when it comes to homophobic bullying, there could be a gender gap. While male victims are more likely to be bullied by male homophobic bullies, female victims are bullied by both males and females equally. Additionally, those surveyed for the research reported hearing a low number of verbal homophobic remarks towards gay men compared to other forms of non-verbal homophobic bullying.
"One explanation may be that verbal forms of homophobic aggression toward (supposed) gay men … have been the most frequent and, therefore, may be perceived as 'normal,'" wrote Author Gabriele Prati.
Using a survey of 863 public high school students, Prati obtained data from bullies of students who were perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT), witnesses of homophobic bullying incidents, and the actual victims themselves. Ten percent of the students surveyed were classified as homophobic bullies because they reported engaging in bullying behavior based on sexual prejudice at least once a week. 3.5% of students were considered victims of homophobic bullying because they were harassed by homophobic aggressors at least once a week.
The study also created a new tool called the Homophobic Bullying Scale. The scale records and measures all forms of bullying motivated by homophobia beyond just the traditional name-calling. The Homophobic Bullying Scale includes physical bullying, property bullying, sexual harassment, cyber-bullying, and relational bullying such as spreading rumors and giving the silent treatment. The researcher found that previous tools that measured incidents of bullying in general could not capture the nuances of homophobia specifically.
"The use of measures not specifically designed for homophobic bullying may underestimate it," wrote Prati. "The items of the Homophobic Bullying Scale were created to measure high school students' bullying behaviors motivated by homophobia, including verbal bullying."
More information: The article "Development and Psychometric Properties of the Homophobic Bullying Scale" by Gabriele Prati in Educational and Psychological Measurement (EPM) is available free for a limited time at: http://intl-epm.sa … ull.pdf+html
Provided by SAGE Publications
"New study suggests gender gap around homophobic bullying." April 26th, 2012. http://phys.org/news/2012-04-gender-gap-homophobic-bullying.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
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