Focus On The Positive

“When the positive form is realized, the negative forms are automatically eliminated. Therefore, with the development of the bhakti cult, with the application of positive service to the positive form, one naturally becomes detached from inferior things, and he becomes attached to superior things.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.2.7 Purport) If something is bad for you, just avoid it. If you keep inviting pain into the mind by thinking about something traumatic from the past, just stop thinking about it. If certain foods give you bodily discomfort after consumption, don’t eat them. If you feel lingering pains in the stomach and have to constantly vomit from intoxication, stop drinking. These solutions seem simple enough, no? The problem is that to actually consciously avoid something is very difficult. Imagine being forced to sit in one place for hours on end knowing that you aren’t allowed to get up or leave the room. This is what passengers aboard long flights face all the time. Yet instead of just trying to not think about their journey, they try to focus on something else, keeping the mind engaged on those positive things that simultaneously maintain their emotional wellbeing. This technique works with something trivial like an airline flight, and it can work with spirituality as well, which represents activity on the most macro level. Spiritual life is the antithesis of material life. By antithesis, we mean the opposite in terms of both engagement and outcome. Eating soup is somewhat the opposite of eating ice cream, but the outcomes aren’t that much different. The body is nourished in both cases, and depending on the disposition of the consuming person, the food items can be quite tasty. Spiritual life exists for finding a permanent happiness, which is secured through activities not immediately known. Are there naturally known activities? Think of what a child does. Play all day, eat to refuel, sleep when you get tired, and then continue playing. With proper conditioning, there is some regulation imposed, and the kinds of play may change a little, but the natural instincts are still there. While the mind may be driven to indulge in specific activities, the outcomes aren’t always palatable. For instance, if the instinct is to play instead of study, the outcome from following that inclination is a failing grade on an assignment or test, which further harms the chances of successfully completing the course. Education for children is required for becoming self-sufficient later on in life, when parents aren’t around to clean up after your messes, when you are yourself responsible for paying for life’s essentials. “O best among the Bharatas [Arjuna], four kinds of pious men render devotional service unto Me — the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.16) When the enjoyment from activities following natural inclinations wears thin, when the mind is tired of the repeating cycle of happiness and dejection, when the living entity has grown fatigued of swinging on the pendulum of acceptance and rejection, answers are sought to life’s most difficult questions. In the Bhagavad-gita, it is said that the people who initially approach God in a devotional mood are of four kinds. There are the inquisitive, the desirers of wealth, those looking for alleviation from suffering, and those in knowledge who are looking to go beyond their realization of a formless Absolute Truth. The last group, when following the devotional path, is considered the best because they are already in a good position, though it doesn’t matter at what point one starts. Where they end up is what counts. The fact that activities in spiritual life are considered different from our other indulgences is well known. This is because the beginning of any dive into spirituality involves a review of the restrictions. “Okay, if I follow this religion, I won’t be allowed to do this. In this other religion, this is allowed but other things are not. This particular religion seems way too strict for me.” The prohibitions are there for a reason. Just as activities that cause us pain should be avoided, those pursuits with a faulty aim need to be rejected outright; otherwise no progress can be made towards a higher destination. Lest we think we’re all going to the same place, in no other area of endeavor does just any behavior result in a uniform destination. You can’t just board any train and expect to go where you want to. You can’t just follow any tract in life and expect to have the same results that others who follow different tracts have. The initial restrictions in spiritual life are not meant to be the end though. They are meant to foster a change in consciousness, a mindset where the proper outlook in life can be used. Why is this necessary? Imagine trying to read a book while you are intoxicated. Imagine trying to pay attention during a conversation with your friend while your mind constantly replays the traumatic incident that just occurred. Imagine trying to sit through a play performance while you are in constant pain due to indigestion. Obviously these negative conditions are distractions; they don’t allow you to focus on the task at hand. In a similar manner, if the living entity is mired in activity that keeps it distracted, there is no way to properly decipher which actions should be adopted and which ones shouldn’t. The restrictions in spiritual life are there to bring about sobriety of thought, so that when the decision is voluntarily made in favor of service to that one person who can accept everyone’s service without interruption, the enjoyment that results will be unmatched. Moreover, the commitment to the decision will be firmer once negative distractions are eliminated. So, what are the most important restrictions? What works best at keeping the mind away from sobriety? In the Vedic tradition, the spiritual law codes passed down since the beginning of time, the most harmful sinful activities are meat eating, gambling, intoxication and illicit sex. A sin is an act that carries a negative consequence. Think of doing something the wrong way and paying for it later on. Stealing is wrong not only because of the potential for punishment from governing bodies it carries, but also because of the harmful effects it has on one’s karma. That good and bad reactions come as the result of previous work applied is inherently understood by so many people, though its scientific basis may not be. The fact that the reactions can continue to arrive after the fact isn’t given consideration either. “Just as a tree starts to blossom during the proper season, so the doer of sinful deeds inevitably reaps the horrible fruit of their actions at the appropriate time.” (Lord Rama speaking to Khara, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 29.8) But time delivers all results at the appropriate moments. For instance, if we were to mail in our absentee ballot in a particular election, if election day comes without the voting board receiving our ballot, this doesn’t stop the old mail from being delivered. Indeed, in close elections, the people counting the votes wait a few weeks for absentee ballots that might have been mailed from overseas to arrive. The end point of the election is reached, but the reactions to past work are still coming in. In a similar manner, the sinful and pious acts we take up accumulate future effects. They don’t always arrive when we want them to. Death is not the end; it’s the beginning of a new life. The circumstances of the next birth are determined by the results that come pouring in like the absentee ballots after an election. From this example we have a rudimentary understanding of karma and how it continuously operates. Taking away sin not only removes the harmful effects due to arrive in the future, it also has a positive effect on consciousness. One who doesn’t perpetrate unnecessary violence against animals has a better chance of understanding Brahman, the all-pervading spirit. Think of every life form you see on a given day. They are all equal in their constitutional position, but the dresses they assume are different. Spend a day at the shopping mall and you’ll see people dressed in so many different ways, but this doesn’t mean that they are inherently different. The physical characteristics assumed as the result of past karma don’t create dualities in existence. The ant, the germ, thecow, the learned man, the poor man, the woman, the child, and so on are all the same. One who thinks that the animal has no soul will be stupefied by the concept of Brahman, and thus be stunted in their spiritual growth. Gambling, intoxication and illicit sex are the most effective weapons at keeping consciousness unsteady. This should be rather obvious based on an honest personal assessment made by anyone who has ever indulged in these activities. Give up drinking and you won’t have to worry about so many problems. Gambling can not only make you lose your house, it can make you lose your mind. Illicit connection with members of the opposite sex leads to the most problems, both financial and emotional. The marriage system was instituted by the original person to allow for sex life to be conducted in a regulated manner, where the mental disturbances would be limited. A sober person has a better chance at realizing Brahman and thus knowing that the forms accepted by spirit souls in their travels through reincarnation are composed of ignorance. Attachment to temporary things and aversion to divine love accompany a material existence. Therefore the restrictions in a bona fide discipline of spirituality focus on detaching one from their senses tied to their temporary form. If I know that my clothes will be taken off at the end of the day, I have a better chance of understanding that the clothes aren’t the most important thing in my life. One who knows the temporary nature of material life understands that their spiritual identity is what counts and that temporary gains and losses aren’t that important. But detachment from the negative forms is not the ultimate aim, and neither is focusing on elimination of the negative the best way to make progress. Spiritual life is so difficult to accept for the person attached to sense gratification because all that is known is the negative. Why would someone want to voluntarily punish themselves when all that is promised is a better condition in the afterlife, of which nothing is concretely known? In the highest system of spirituality, which champions transcendental love, the focus on the positive is emphasized more. While the material forms give us so much misery and act as the playing field that yields future fruits of karma, there is a positive form that is meant to be our eternal source of pleasure. This positive form belongs to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna. Not to be confused with a sectarian figure important to just the Hindus, Krishna is the very embodiment of pure spirit. He is all-attractive, kind to His devotees, and universally benevolent. Every type of energy emanates from Him, and all knowledge and renunciation are meant to culminate in service to Him in unalloyed devotion, a spirit of work that is accepted voluntarily. What’s so amazing about Krishna’s positive form is that association with it automatically purifies the other forms that were formerly negative. What does this mean exactly? Think of using a spoon to try to cut something. A spoon is not sharp, so it is practically useless in trying to cut food. In this scenario we can think of the spoon as negative, something to be renounced. But if we want to eat something like soup, the spoon is the handiest tool. When the spoon is used properly, it becomes an invaluable utensil. Similarly, the material bodies we are given by nature are meant to act in God’s service. We have ears so that we can listen to talks about Krishna and songs glorifying Him. We have hands so that we can wash the floors of the sacred houses holding discussions about Krishna. We have eyes so that we can gaze at the deity manifestation, which uses material elements to show forms that depict Krishna’s spiritual attributes. We have a stomach to enjoy foodstuff that is first offered to Krishna and then returned as His mercy, or prasadam. The positive form reveals that service to God is done for our enjoyment. It is not meant as a punishment or a way to get people to stop following others that we may or may not like. If the negative forms are used properly, then there is no question of renunciation. If I am immersed in Krishna consciousness, what need do I have to constantly worry about avoiding certain behavior? If someone completely quits drinking, do they have to worry about driving drunk? Or even better, if a person is constantly high on life, do they have to worry about the temptation to drink? The superior things in life are those that are related to God. The Lord has many forms, not just His original of Krishna. Though everything is God, not all objects carry His personal presence. Following the instructions of a bona fide spiritual master dedicated to the Personality of Godhead can help us decipher where the personal presence is present and where it isn’t. In the highest state of understanding, Krishna is remembered everywhere; thus eliminating the need for focusing on the negative. Ascension to God consciousness is best facilitated through constant recitation of the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. In Closing: Focus on Shri Krishna, the most positive form, To hearing His names recited let your heart warm. Realization of the Lord’s form more important, Than just knowing that spirit and body are different. Rejection of the bad leads to our benefit, But bliss must be found before body we quit. Otherwise the cycle of karma will continue, Which brings misery and pleasures that are few. Material body is nature’s gift to you, For connecting with God to be used.

New truck ‘clean and green’

RMIT UNIVERSITY

Trucks account for about 20 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse emissions by road vehicles. Image: LUGO/iStockphoto RMIT University researchers have developed Australia’s first hydrogen fuel cell truck, demonstrating how vehicle design and new sustainable technologies can make freight transport clean, green and silent. The small-scale model – an exact replica of the Scania Highline series – is operated by remote control and simulates the performance of a long-haul diesel truck, typically used between Melbourne and Sydney. Professor Aleksandar Subic, Head of the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, said given the carbon tax, emissions trading and rising diesel costs, new sustainable technologies offered industry a way of stabilising costs. “For residents worried about fumes and noise, the prospect of a silent, zero-emission truck is exciting. “This latest innovation stems from our comprehensive research into sustainable mobility involving hydrogen technologies. We are also researching production of hydrogen using photovoltaic arrays and electrolysers, and solid state hydrogen storage,” Professor Subic said. The hydrogen-powered electrical system could also supply power for truck air-conditioning and radio, along with a trailer refrigeration unit. Hydrogen refilling stations are powered through solar PV panels. RMIT Associate Professor John Andrews said students were testing the small-scale truck against pre-defined dynamic loads, with the result being scaled up using mathematical models to predict the performance of a full-scale truck. “A wireless data system is being used to monitor truck performance and collect the critical data such as hydrogen consumption rate and electrical power supply,” Associate Professor Andrews said. Road freight transport is a $35 billion industry in Australia, and the nation has some of the highest freight levels per capita in the world. Trucks account for about 20 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse emissions by road vehicles. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

‘Not all corals’ victims of CO2

AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE

The studies provide a world-first look at how the ocean acidification threat to coral reefs varies with reef type. Image: fototrav]/iStockphoto Coral reefs can both positively and negatively influence the acidity of their surrounding seawater. That is the take-home message of two papers recently published in the international journalGlobal Change Biology, by a group of scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (Dr Ken Anthony), the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the US (Dr Joanie Kleypas), and from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France (Prof Jean-Pierre Gattuso). The studies provide a world-first look at how the ocean acidification threat to coral reefs varies with reef type. As the CO2 concentration in Earth's atmosphere increases, so does the acidity of the world's oceans. This phenomenon, called "ocean acidification", threatens the life of shell- and reef-forming organisms in the sea. Coral reefs are highly vulnerable to ocean acidification as it reduces their ability to maintain coral structures and fish habitats. But so far, assessments of the threat from ocean acidification to coral reefs have not considered how some reef areas can locally reduce this risk by decreasing acidity, whereas other areas naturally acidify their water, adding to the ocean acidification stress. "Overall, CO2 enrichment and ocean acidification is bad news for coral reefs", says Dr Ken Anthony, Research Team Leader for the Climate Change and Ocean Acidification team at AIMS. "But some reef areas take up more CO2 than they produce (through photosynthesis), which can lower the vulnerability of neighbouring reef areas to ocean acidification. On the other hand, reef areas with greater coral cover produce more CO2 than they consume (through calcification and respiration) and that adds locally to the ocean acidification threat". "If we can start to understand which areas of large reef systems such as the Great Barrier Reef can counteract pH changes locally and which areas cannot, then we are better able to assess the relative risks of ocean acidification", says Dr Joanie Kleypas. The studies' findings emphasise the severity of the global ocean acidification threat to the healthy function of coral reefs, but add a new - and potentially positive - dimension to the problem. "Reef managers have been faced with the problem of ocean acidification as a uniform threat affecting all reef areas equally. These new studies are a first step to help reef managers understand how some areas might in fact lower the impact of ocean acidification in neighbouring areas, whereas others will further acidify themselves. Seagrass beds, for example, can significantly reduce CO2 levels in the water, providing more favourable chemical conditions for neighbouring reefs", says Dr Anthony. "Our studies showed that shallow-water reef areas with longer water circulation times have greater potential to influence their seawater pH, whereas reef areas more exposed to ocean currents will experience pH levels set more by the atmospheric CO2 concentration", says Dr Gattuso. The team is continuing their work, and aims to produce new models for how ocean acidification risks will vary over the scale of the Great Barrier Reef.  They conclude by stating: "By studying how reef, ocean and atmospheric processes interact, we hope to give reef managers a clearer picture of potential ocean acidification buffering capacity, or vulnerability, within reef areas. The creation of ocean acidification risk maps can assist in the planning of management efforts in different reef areas as the ocean pH continues to drop under increasing atmospheric CO2." Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Vitamin B cuts work stress

SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Vitamin B is usually found in whole unprocessed foods such as meat, beans and wholegrains. Image: vfoto/iStockphoto Increasing your Vitamin B intake could significantly reduce work-related stress, a clinical trial conducted at Swinburne University of Technology has shown. The results of the three-month trial, where participants were given a course of either high dose vitamin B supplements or a placebo, have been accepted for publication in the journalHuman Psychopharmacology. According to study leader Professor Con Stough, at the beginning of the trial the researchers assessed sixty participants against factors such as personality, work demands, mood, anxiety and strain, and then re-evaluated them at 30 and 90 days.  “At the end of the three-month period, those in the Vitamin B group reported much lower levels of work stress than they did at the beginning of the trial,” he said.  “In fact, participants experienced an almost 20 per cent improvement in stress levels. “On the other hand, those in the placebo group showed no significant change.” While this was the first study of its kind, Professor Stough said that the results were perhaps unsurprising, given the important role Vitamin B plays in cognitive function. “Vitamin B, which is found in whole unprocessed foods such as meat, beans and wholegrains, is integral to the synthesis of neurotransmitters critical to psychological wellbeing,” he said. “But the reality is that many people don’t get enough Vitamin B from their diet, so they are turning to vitamin supplementation.” With occupational stress increasing in Australian society, Professor Stough said that it is having a significant impact on individuals, organisations and the community. “Anything we can do to reduce work-related stress is a good thing,” he said. “By lowering stress, we also lower the risk of health problems such as cardiovascular disease, depression and anxiety. “And from an organisational perspective, reducing your workers’ stress is likely to improve productivity and minimise stress claims made due to workplace pressures.” While the results of the study present a strong case for Vitamin B supplementation, according to Professor Stough further research is still needed. “Ideally we’d like to conduct a larger trial with more participants that would investigate the effects of Vitamin B supplementation over two-to-three years.” The study used Blackmores’ Executive B Stress Formula. It was jointly funded by Blackmores and Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre for Psychopharmacology, which is the largest research group in the world examining the cognitive and mood effects of natural products, nutritional supplements and nutritional interventions. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

SHIRDI SAI BABA Miracle Golden Pratima Statue YouTube

A rare photo of Mahatma Gandhi

Home 3-D Viewing Equipment Is Getting Smaller and Smaller and Smaller

By Steve Morgenstern

LG LW9800 Nano Full LED Cinema 3D HDTV LG

3-D TV is still experiencing some growing pains, in large part because of its reliance on bulky, uncomfortable and expensive active-shutter glasses. That’s now changing. A new wave of 3-D sets are using lighter glasses to make immersing yourself in the third dimension less cumbersome. Eventually, believable 3-D won’t require specs at all.

3-D Glasses:  iStock

NOW: LIGHTER GLASSES

Instead of flickering the screen between left and right images, as is necessary with active glasses, LG’s system puts both images onscreen at once. A filter polarizes each alternating horizontal line on the screen to match the polarization of pairs of passive glasses. The trade-off with this type of 3-D: Each eye receives only half of a high-def image—540 horizontal lines per frame, instead of 1,080. LG LW9800 Nano full LED Cinema 3D HDTV $3,800 (includes four pairs of glasses)

RealD RDZ 3D:  RealD

SOON: LIGHTER GLASSES, BETTER PICTURE

RealD, a company that makes movie theaters 3-D, is developing a screen that will work with polarized glasses without halving resolution. While the TV flickers at 120 hertz between left and right images, a polarizing filter shifts with it, directing the light alternately toward either side, providing each eye with a full 1080p picture. The display will pop up in Samsung computer monitors next year and HDTVs soon after. RealD RDZ 3D Price not set

MIT HR3D:  MIT Media Lab

LATER: NO GLASSES AT ALL

Current glasses-free 3-D TV prototypes use a static, thinly striped LCD overlay to point images left and right, but such displays have limited viewing angles and can come out looking like cheap holograms. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab have refinedthat technique, replacing the old pinstripe overlay with a matrix of thousands of tiny slits. A processor pre-scans the images to identify the subject of each frame. The system then configures the overlay to match the contours of the picture, so there’s the illusion of depth only where it’s needed. A Mini Cooper’s roof, for example, gains a more pronounced curve.

How Computer Modeling Lets Doctors Predict Heart Attacks Before They Happen

GPU-driven processing is bringing the predictive power of supercomputers to the radiology suite

By Clay Dillow

Digitally Modeling the Heart NVIDIA

Heart attacks strike about 1.2 million people every year in America alone, many of them fatally. Of those, most are caused by coronary artery disease--the biggest killer of both men and women in the U.S.--and something like 70 per cent of those strike without warning. Coronary artery disease is sneaky like that. Symptoms generally don’t outwardly manifest themselves until someone is on the floor, short of breath, wondering what just kicked them in the chest. Doctors battling these cardiac blockages generally enter the fight at a severe disadvantage. The disease almost always benefits from the element of surprise.

“We have no way to predict where the blockages will be, and a lot of the time we catch the stenoses too late,” says Dr. Frank Rybicki, director of the Applied Imaging Science Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, referring to arterial blockages by their clinical name. “Wouldn’t it be great and lifesaving if we could predict where a lesion will be ahead of time? If you could catch a lesion before it causes symptoms, before it causes a heart attack, you could do a lot of good.”

Rybicki and his professional peers can’t see the future, but increasingly computers can. The same capacity for the algorithmic prediction that allows Netflix to know what movies you want to watch or astronomers to model the complexity of the cosmos is helping an international team of researchers--including computer scientists and doctors from Harvard, medical doctors and imaging experts from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (including Rybicki), a team of computer scientists and physicists in Italy, and chip designers at NVIDIA--to mash up fluid dynamics, computer science, physics, and cardiac medicine via a computer custom-built from graphics processors.

Called multiscale hemodynamics, the technology not only lets doctors see exactly how blood is moving through a particular patient’s heart but also predicts where future arterial blockages are likely to form, tipping the scales back in doctors’ favour. In essence, it predicts heart attacks before they happen. And it does all of this using nothing more than a simple CT scan.

That’s a marked improvement over the current method of peering into the inner workings of the heart. Heart attacks occur when plaque builds up in the coronary arteries around the heart, leading to blockages that restrict blood flow. That plaque develops in areas within the arterial trees where stress on the arterial walls is low. It’s like an eddy in a stream--the places in the stream where blood slows and pools are the places where life-threatening plaque develops.

“This was completely outside the realm of possibility a year or two ago.”

But doctors currently have no idea where those places are. Every patient’s arterial trees are different, possessing unique geometries that affect the way blood flows through them, so there’s no universal model. If a doctor suspects a patient may be developing coronary artery disease for any reason, the current standard course of action involves threading a camera-equipped catheter through the circulatory system and into the heart so doctors can look for the plaque directly. In other words, patients undergo surgery before doctors are even sure there is a problem. It’s invasive, expensive, and physically taxing on the human body.

Compare that to computed tomography (CT). CT is cheap, a non-invasive imaging technology used for everything from identifying and mapping complex bone fractures to hunting for tumours. Every radiology lab has a CT scanner, and though CT technology has been around for decades the machines are still improving at an admirable tick, delivering higher spatial resolutions all the time. Better inputs. Richer data.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Applied Imaging Science Laboratory could see the potential in this richer CT data emerging in recent years, but they weren’t equipped to create the kinds of models that can predict myocardial infarctions. Recognizing their medical imaging problem was also a computer science problem, they enlisted the help of various computer scientists, like Dr Efthimios Kaxiras, director of the Institute for Applied Computational Science at Harvard.

Applying complex physics and fluid dynamics equations--formulas requiring mind-numbing numbers of individual computations--Kaxiras and his colleagues began modelling the way blood flows through the arterial trees of an individual patient from CT scans of the patient's heart. And just like that, doctors could now peer inside a patient’s heart without actually venturing inside. Their holy grail--the ability to see heart blockages forming before they turn into heart attacks--was within reach.

But from a computer modelling standpoint this was anything but easy, Kaxiras says. Blood is a tricky medium to model, even for high-powered computing platforms, because it is made up of so many particles of varying sizes and characteristics. Variables abound: there are red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma, particulate matter, etc. Then you have to take into account things like the degree to which the blood is oxygenated, which affects the way it behaves as a fluid.

Tapping the resources of some of the country’s biggest, baddest supercomputers--IBM’s Blue Gene ran an early version of their models--the team was able to generate these working fluid dynamics models of the heart. But if they were going to revolutionize personalized medicine, they needed to somehow port their software away from these massive, expensive, water-cooled machines and bring it down to the clinical level.

“So we turned to this new technology that NVIDIA is providing through its graphics cards, and recoded the whole approach,” Kaxiras says. “These graphics cards offer a much, much cheaper way of doing the same calculation without losing any of the accuracy.”

GPUs are designed to manage the values of multiple pixels on a screen, distributing the workload between various cores rather than one (in other words, they have a special knack for addressing parallel computing problems). And while they are not ideal for every kind of processing, they are particularly good at certain kinds of math problems. In the last few years, NVIDIA has been exploring ways to use their powerful GPU arrays to solve these complex mathematical problems, and it just so happens one of the many computer science labs NVIDIA tapped to help them develop best practices for their GPUs was Kaxiras’s lab at Harvard.

Peering Inside the Heart via Digital Models Derived from CT Scans: Using detailed models created on GPU-powered supercomputer analogs, doctors may soon be able to see inside a patients arterial trees using nothing more than data from a simple CT scan.  NVIDIA

Between Brigham and Women’s computer science problem and NVIDIA’s GPUs, Kaxiras and his computer science colleagues found a harmonious fit. At this point, the work went overseas where a team of Italian researchers--two computational physicists and two computer scientists with specialized experience programming these graphics processors--programmed a GPU-driven platform capable of running the multiscale hemodynamics models at a fraction of the cost and complexity of a supercomputer.

“This is completely new,” Kaxiras says. “This was completely outside the realm of possibility a year or two ago. This can be deployed in a hospital setting. A year or two ago, doctors would have to collaborate with someone like me to get these kinds of results, and that can take weeks or months.”

Now it takes an afternoon, and with every incremental improvement in the technology--in the quality of the CT scans, in the efficiency of the software, in the power of the GPUs, in the strength of the equations--the process grows a little faster.

“In five to ten years this technology is going to be so good and so well-oiled that you are going to be able to push a single button on the CT scanner and get all of this information in a few hours,” Rybicki says. “Or maybe in a few minutes. All of the pieces are there.”

Right now, Kaxiras, Rybicki, and their myriad collaborators on two continents are working to pull together a clinical prototype that puts all of the computational hardware in one package so it can be easily deployed in any radiology suite. That means multiscale hemodynamics could soon become a normal part of any patient’s regular medical care. Doctors will be able--for the price of a CT scan--to regularly peer inside their patients’ hearts and see them not only as they look right now, but as they will likely look in the future, enabling them to predict heart attacks before they happen and preemptively attack problems before they even have a chance to become threats.

How’s that for the element of surprise?

Heart anatomy and physiology

ஜேர்மனியின் விதியை மாற்றி அமைத்த நவம்பர் 9

ஜேர்மனியின் வரலாற்றில் பல்வேறு முக்கிய நிகழ்வுகளை நினைவு கூறும் தினமாக நவம்பர் 9ம் திகதி அமைந்துள்ளது. 1923ல் நவம்பர் ஒன்பதன்று அடால்ப் ஹிட்லர் தலைமையில் நாஜிப் படைகள் மூனிச் நகரத்தில் புகுந்தன. 1938ல் அதே நவம்பர் ஒன்பதன்று இரண்டாம் உலகப் போர் தொடங்கியது. 41 ஆண்டுகள் கிழக்கு, மேற்கு என்று பிளவுபட்டுக் கிடந்த ஜேர்மனி 1989ல் நவம்பர் மாதம் ஒன்பதாம் நாள் மீண்டும் இணைந்தது. மன்னராட்சி ஒழிந்தது: ஜேர்மன் நாட்டில் 1918ல் மன்னராட்சி ஒழிந்து மக்களாட்சி தோன்றியது. சோசலிசக் குடியரசுத் தலைவர் ஃபிலிப் ஸ்கீடேமன் இரண்டாம் வில்லியம் கெய்சர் என்ற மன்னரின் ஆட்சி ஒழிந்ததை பறைசாற்றினார். பெர்லின் நகரத்து ரீக்ஸ் டாக்கின் பால்கனியில் நின்றவாறு விடுதலைப் பேருரையாற்றினார். புதிய ஜனநாயகம் மலர்ந்தது குறித்து விளக்கினார். அவர் கூறுகையில், உழைப்பாளிகளே, போர் வீரர்களே இன்றைய நாளின் வரலாற்றுச் சிறப்பு குறித்து அறிந்து மகிழ்வீர். இதுவரை எந்த வரலாற்றிலும் நடைபெறாத ஒரு நிகழ்வு நடந்திருக்கிறது. கணக்கிட முடியாத அரும்பெரும் பணிகள் நம் முன்னே இருக்கின்றன. இனி எல்லாமே மக்களால் நடக்கும், மக்களுக்காக நடக்கும். உழைப்பாளிகளுக்கு எதிராக எதுவும் நடக்காது. ஒன்றுபடுங்கள் நம்பிக்கையோடிருங்கள், கடமையைச் செய்யுங்கள். பழைய நாற்றமெடுத்த மன்னராட்சி சிதைந்துவிட்டது. புதிய ஜேர்மன் குடியரசு நீடுழி வாழ்க என்றார். ஆரம்பத்தில் ஜேர்மன் குடியரசில் மக்களாட்சி நடத்துவது சற்று சிரமமாகத்தான் இருந்தது. வலது – இடது சாரிக் கட்சியினர் மக்களாட்சித் தத்துவதத்தை உடனே விலக்கி வைக்கத் துடித்தனர். ஆனால் 1923ல் நாஜிப் படை உள்ளே நுழைந்தது, பத்தாண்டுகளுக்குப் பிறகு உலகின் வரலாற்று முக்கியத்துவம் வாய்ந்த இரண்டாம் உலகப்போரை நடத்தியது. எரிந்து சாம்பலான யூதவழிபாட்டுக் கூடங்கள்: இரண்டாம் உலகப் போர் முறையாக 1938 நவம்பர் திங்கள் ஒன்பதாம் நாள் ஆரம்பிக்கும் முன்பே ஜேர்மனியில் யூதர்களின் வழிபாட்டுக் கூடங்கள் நாஜிகளால் தீக்கிரையாக்கப்பட்டன. யூதர்களின் தொழிற்கூடங்கள் அபகரிக்கப்பட்டன. 1942ல் இனப்படுகொலை தொடங்கும் முன்பே ஆங்காங்கே யூதர்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டுவந்தனர். 26000 யூதர்கள் நாடு கடத்தப்பட்டனர். நூறுபேர் கொல்லப்பட்டனர். இந்த இனப்படுகொலையை “உடைந்த கண்ணாடியின் இரவுப் பொழுது” என்று குறிப்பிட்டனர். அந்த நிகழ்ச்சியே பின்னர் நடக்கவிருந்த பேரழிவுக்கான சோதனை முயற்சி என்று நாஜிகளின் தொழிற்சங்கத்தின் தலைவர் ராபர்ட் லே குறிப்பிட்டார். யூதப் பேரழிவை நியாயப்படுத்தும் வகையில் இவர், யூதர்கள் அழிக்கப்பட வேண்டும், அதுவே எங்களின் புனித நம்பிக்கை என்று உரத்த குரலில் உறுதிபடக் கூறினார். ஆக யூதப் பேரழிவுக்கு முன்னோடியாக 1938 நவம்பர் ஒன்பது அன்று யூதர்களைக் கொன்று அவர்களின் சொத்துக்களைப் பறித்து வழிபாட்டுக் கூடங்களைத் தீ வைத்துக் கொளுத்தும் நிகழ்ச்சி நடந்தேறியது. இணைந்த ஜேர்மனி: கிழக்கு ஜேர்மனியின் கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சியின் பொலிட்பீரோவை எதிர்த்து பல மாதங்களாக அங்கு போராட்டம் நடந்து வந்தது. ஆயிரக்கணக்கானோர் ஹங்கேரி வழியாக மேற்கு ஜேர்மன் தூதரகங்களை அணுகினர். ஜேர்மன் டெமாக்ரடிக் ரிபப்ளிக் என்று அழைக்கப்பட்ட GDR குடிமக்களுக்குரிய போக்குவரத்துக் கட்டுப்பாடுகளைத் தளர்த்த வேண்டும் என்ற அழுத்தம் நாளுக்கு நாள் அதிகரித்தது. ஒரு நாள் கிழக்கு பெர்லினில் நடந்த சர்வதேச பத்திரிக்கையாளர் மாநாட்டில் புதிய போக்குவரத்து விதிமுறைகள் அறிவிக்கப்பட்டன. இந்த விதிமுறைகள் உடனடியாக நடைமுறைக்கு வருவதாகவும் அறிவிப்பு வெளியானது. உடனே மக்கள் அலை அலையாகப் புறப்பட்டனர். அந்த நாளின் மகிழ்ச்சியை விளக்க வார்த்தைகளே கிடையாது. மக்கள் அளவற்ற மகிழ்ச்சி அடைந்தனர். பெர்லின் சுவரிலிருந்து 1989 ஆம் ஆண்டு நவம்பர் திங்கள் ஒன்பதாம் நாள் ஒரு கல்லைப் பெயர்த்தெடுத்ததும் மக்களிடையே இருந்து வந்த போக்குவரத்துத் தயக்கம் முற்றிலும் விலகியது. மக்கள் கடலெனத் திரண்டனர். அலைகடலென ஆர்ப்பரித்தனர். கிழக்கும் மேற்கும் சங்கமமாயிற்று. பிரிந்து கிடந்த ஜேர்மனி ஒன்றாயிற்று.