Boston College Chemists use nanowires to power photosynthesis

In this study, Boston College chemists use nanowires to power photosynthesis - collecting sunlight energy that powers reactions capable of synthesizing basic compounds of two popular pain-killing, and anti-inflammatory drugs.

NIST silicon nanowires. A nanowire is a wire of dimensions the size of a nanometer (a billionth of a meter). Alternatively, nanowires can be defined as structures that have a lateral size constrained to tens of nanometers or less and an unconstrained longitudinal size. (Photo: Softpedia)

Harnessing the power of the sun has inspired scientists and engineers to look for ways to turn sunlight into clean energy to heat houses, fuel factories and power devices. While a majority of this research focuses on energy production, some researchers are looking at the potential uses of these novel solar technologies in other areas.

Boston College Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dunwei Wang’s work with silicon nanowires and his related construct, Nanonets, has shown these stable, tiny wire-like structures can be used in processes ranging from energy collection to hydrogen-generating water-splitting.

Teaming up with fellow Boston College Assistant Professor of Chemistry Kian L. Tan, the researchers have taken aim at a role for nanowires in photosynthesis.

Their work has produced a process that closely resembles photosynthesis, employing silicon nanowires to collect light energy to power reactions capable of synthesizing the basic compounds of two popular pain-killing, anti-inflammatory drugs, they report in the current edition of Angewandte Chemie, the journal of the German Chemical Society.

The reaction sequence offers an approach that differs from earlier attempts to sequester carbon dioxide with sunlight and solves the vexing problem of carbon’s low selectivity, which so far has limited earlier methods to the production of fuels. Tan and Wang report their process offers the selectivity required to produce complex organic intermediaries capable of developing pharmaceuticals and high-value chemicals.

The process succeeds in taming stubborn carbon, which structurally resists most efforts to harness it for a single chemical product. Typically, refined forms of carbon molecules must first be produced to produce the necessary results.

“If we can start to use carbon dioxide and light to power reactions in organic chemistry, there’s a huge benefit to that. It allows you to bypass the middle man of fossil fuels by using light to drive the chemical reaction,” said Tan. “The key is the interaction of two fields – materials and synthetic chemistry. Separately, these fields may not have accomplished this on their own. But together, we combined our knowledge to make it work.”

During photosynthesis, plants capture sunlight and use this solar energy and carbon dioxide to fuel chemical reactions.

Tan and Wang used silicon nanowires as a photocathode, exploiting the wire’s efficient means of converting solar energy to electrical energy. Electrons released from the atoms in the nanowires are then transferred to organic molecules to trigger chemical reactions.

In this case, the researchers used aromatic ketones, which when struck by electrons become active and attack and bind carbon dioxide. Further steps produced an acid that allowed the team to create the precursors to ibuprofen and naproxen with high selectivity and high yield, the team reports.

Tan and Wang were joined in the research by Research Assistant Guangbi Yuan, PhD ’12, graduate student Rui Liu, doctoral student Candice L. Joe, and former doctoral student Thomas E. Lightburn, PhD ’11.

Tan said it is no accident that the process so closely resembles natural photosynthesis, as chemists are constantly drawing inspiration from nature in their work.

“Researchers in my field are always drawing inspiration from nature,” said Tan. “You take the basic lessons and you try to do it in an artificial way. In this work, we’re trying to learn lessons from nature, although we can’t copy nature directly.”

_________

For more info, contact: 

Ed Hayward
ed.hayward@bc.edu
617-552-4826 

Boston College 

Why chronic pain is all in your head (Neuroscience)

First study to show early brain changes predict which patients develop chronic pain

When people have similar injuries, why do some end up with chronic pain while others recover and are pain free? The first longitudinal brain imaging study to track participants with a new back injury has found the chronic pain is all in their heads –- quite literally.

A new Northwestern Medicine study shows for the first time that chronic pain develops the more two sections of the brain — related to emotional and motivational behavior — talk to each other. The more they communicate, the greater the chance a patient will develop chronic pain.

Chronic pain is one of the most expensive health care conditions in the U. S. yet there still is not a scientifically validated therapy for this condition.

The finding provides a new direction for developing therapies to treat intractable pain, which affects 30 to 40 million adults in the United States.

Researchers were able to predict, with 85 percent accuracy at the beginning of the study, which participants would go on to develop chronic pain based on the level of interaction between the frontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens.

The study is published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

“For the first time we can explain why people who may have the exact same initial pain either go on to recover or develop chronic pain,” said A. Vania Apakarian, senior author of the paper and professor of physiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“The injury by itself is not enough to explain the ongoing pain. It has to do with the injury combined with the state of the brain. This finding is the culmination of 10 years of our research.”

The more emotionally the brain reacts to the initial injury, the more likely the pain will persist after the injury has healed. “It may be that these sections of the brain are more excited to begin with in certain individuals, or there may be genetic and environmental influences that predispose these brain regions to interact at an excitable level,” Apkarian said.

The nucleus accumbens is an important center for teaching the rest of the brain how to evaluate and react to the outside world, Apkarian noted, and this brain region may use the pain signal to teach the rest of the brain to develop chronic pain.

“Now we hope to develop new therapies for treatment based on this finding,” Apkarian added.

Chronic pain participants in the study also lost gray matter density, which is likely linked to fewer synaptic connections or neuronal and glial shrinkage, Apkarian said. Brain synapses are essential for communication between neurons.

“Chronic pain is one of the most expensive health care conditions in the U. S. yet there still is not a scientifically validated therapy for this condition,” Apkarian said. Chronic pain costs an estimated $600 billion a year, according to a 2011 National Academy of Sciences report. Back pain is the most prevalent chronic pain condition.

A total of 40 participants who had an episode of back pain that lasted four to 16 weeks — but with no prior history of back pain — were studied. All subjects were diagnosed with back pain by a clinician. Brain scans were conducted on each participant at study entry and for three more visits during one year.

___________

Other Northwestern authors on the paper include lead author Marwan N. Baliki, Bogdan Petre, Souraya Torbey, Kristina M. Herrmann, Lejian Huang and Thomas J. Schnitzer.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health grant NS35115.

Scientists identify gene linked to facial, skull and cognitive impairment

A gene whose mutation results in malformed faces and skulls as well as mental retardation has been found by scientists. Credit: Phil Jones

A gene whose mutation results in malformed faces and skulls as well as mental retardation has been found by scientists.

They looked at patients with Potocki-Shaffer syndrome, a rare disorder that can result in significant abnormalities such as a small head and chin and intellectual disability, and found the gene PHF21A was mutated, said Dr. Hyung-Goo Kim, molecular geneticist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University.

The scientists confirmed PHF21A's role by suppressing it in zebrafish, which developed head and brain abnormalities similar to those in patients. "With less PHF21A, brain cells died, so this gene must play a big role in neuron survival," said Kim, lead and corresponding author of the study published in The American Journal of Human Genetics. They reconfirmed the role by giving the gene back to the malformed fish – studied for their adeptness at regeneration – which then became essentially normal. They also documented the gene's presence in the craniofacial area of normal mice.

While giving the normal gene unfortunately can't cure patients as it does zebrafish, the scientists believe the finding will eventually enable genetic screening and possibly early intervention during fetal development, including therapy to increase PHF21A levels, Kim said. It also provides a compass for learning more about face, skull and brain formation.

The scientists zeroed in on the gene by using a distinctive chromosomal break found in patients with Potocki-Shaffer syndrome as a starting point. Chromosomes – packages of DNA and protein – aren't supposed to break, and when they do, it can damage genes in the vicinity.

"We call this breakpoint mapping and the breakpoint is where the trouble is," said Dr. Lawrence C. Layman, study co-author and Chief of the MCG Section of Reproductive Endocrinology, Infertility and Genetics. Damaged genes may no longer function optimally; in PHF21A's case it's about half the norm.

"When you see the chromosome translocation, you don't know which gene is disrupted," Layman said. "You use the break as a focus then use a bunch of molecular techniques to zoom in on the gene." Causes of chromosomal breaks are essentially unknown but likely are environmental and/or genetic, Kim said.

Little was known about PHF21A other than its role in determining how tightly DNA is wound in a package with proteins called histones. How tightly DNA is wound determines whether proteins called transcription factors have the access needed to regulate gene expression, which is important, for example, when a gene needs to be expressed only at a specific time or tissue. PHF21A is believed to primarily work by suppressing other genes, for example, ensuring that genes that should be expressed only in brain cells don't show up in other cell types, Kim said.

Next steps include using PHF21A as a sort of geographic positioning system to identify other "depressor" genes it regulates then screening patients to look for mutations in those genes as well. "We want to find other people with different genes causing the same problem," Layman said, and they suspect the genes PHF21A interacts with or regulates are the most likely suspects. It's too early to know what percentage of Potocki-Shaffer syndrome patients have the PHF21A mutation, Kim noted. "Now that we know the causative gene, we can sequence the gene in more patients and see if they have a mutation," Layman said.

They also want to look at less-severe forms of mental deficiency, including autism, for potentially milder mutations of PHF21A. More than a dozen of the 25,000 human genes are known to cause craniofacial defects and mental retardation, which often occur together, Kim said.

Provided by Georgia Health Sciences University

"Scientists identify gene linked to facial, skull and cognitive impairment." July 5th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-scientists-gene-linked-facial-skull.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

What is the difference between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder?

What is Multiple Personality Disorder

One of the biggest confusions people have is - 'what is multiple personality disorder, and how is it different from schizophrenia'. In reality, these two mental illnesses are quite different. While schizophrenia impairs the ability of an individual to think and function properly, multiple personality disorder (MPD) leads to several split personalities. In schizophrenia, a person may have hallucinations and delusions; however, in MPD, the person is completely lost and detached from emotions and feelings. 

Definition

Now known as dissociative personality disorder (DID), multiple personality disorder is a medical condition that affects an individual to such an extent that his lifestyle is spent in daydreaming, and he or she is completely lost in the moment. We all often experience mild dissociation from our thoughts and surroundings. There are moments when we're completely lost in our thoughts. Still, in multiple personality disorder cases, there is a complete alienation of the person's thoughts, feelings, memories, actions, and sense of identity, and he/she cannot make any possible connections with any of his thoughts and feelings in the real world. Some of the most prominent symptoms of split personality are disassociating himself from any emotions, violent trauma or painful experience from himself and remaining aloof from any feelings. 

Causes

Multiple personality disorder is believed to stem from severe mental trauma during childhood, especially repetitive forms of physical and sexual abuse. In fact, theoretically, this disorder is linked to the interaction of some overwhelming stress due to any form of abuse in childhood or poor upbringing (parental neglect, poor child care) of the child in formative years. Statistics state that most patients suffering from dissociative personality disorder have gone through some form of child abuse during their formative years. 

The theory that is related to the causes of multiple personality disorder is known as developmental theory. According to this theory, split personality symptoms begin to appear during adulthood or teenage; the person consciously tries to avoid relating to or thinking of any feelings of sexual abuse and torture during his childhood. This avoidance creates deep dissociation of the person from the surroundings and from any emotions. The development theory also states that the memories and feelings of any traumatic experience may go into the subconscious mind and resurface in the later years of life. Besides these, the development theory also signifies that the alienation from past occurs many times in the child's growing phase, leading to the development of split personalities during adulthood.

Treatments Multiple personality disorder treatment is complicated owing to the difficulties in diagnosing this disorder, which is done with the help of a multiple personality disorder test. Psychotherapy is the primary tool for the treatment of MPD. While dealing with MPD or DID, therapists and psychologists help patients get comfortable with people related to them. They first try to open the person emotionally so that they can express themselves without any fear of the past. This is very important because the person can become very pessimistic and suffer severe attacks of past trauma and may go more into depression and anxiety.

Many therapists work together to help the person co-exist in many personalities which is a very difficult task. Developing techniques that help to heal patients from memory lapses, forms the most essential part of a medical treatment. Medications are other options for the treatment of MPDs. However, they've to be carefully monitored. In recent years, self-help groups for MPDs are coming openly on online communities to help each other with these disorders.

Understanding multiple personality disorders is very difficult, and cases of MPD must be referred to experts who have treated people with such disorders. Only experts have the ability and understanding of various symptoms and solutions of this disorder. So expert consultation is a must.

By Kundan Pandey

"What will I have for dinner?"

"Is it going to rain later?"

"I wonder what she meant by that."

Questions or comments silently passing through our minds reflect how most of us think; they’re normal. When the comments heard internally are the voices of other people, however, then psychiatrists suspect schizophrenia.

Among the myths surrounding schizophrenia, one of the most persistent is that it involves a "split personality," two separate and conflicting identities sharing one brain. A National Alliance on Mental Illness survey found that 64 per cent of the public shares this misconception.

"It’s a widespread misunderstanding," says Randon Welton, assistant professor of psychiatry at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. "It’s based on the name. If you go to the Greek roots of the word—schizein, meaning splitting and phren, meaning mind—you have "split brain" or "split mind." However, the intended reference is to a split between rationality and emotions, not a split within a personality, explains Welton.

More appropriately, Split personality is an old name for multiple personality disorder, which is an outdated name for dissociative identity disorder (DID), an officially recognized but still controversial diagnosis. Welton notes that DID came to the public’s attention following the release of books and films such as The Three Faces of Eve and Sybil, accounts of women who developed multiple, distinct personalities following severe abuse as children.

"I would describe DID as a trauma-based illness," Welton says. Those affected by it have "at least two and often more distinct identity states which each have fairly consistent patterns of relating to the environment." The American Psychiatric Association definition specifies that "at least two of these identities or personality states recurrently take control of the person's behaviour."

By contrast, Welton describes schizophrenia as "a largely genetic illness that seems to be clustered within families. It seems to be more neurodevelopmental, influenced by how the brain develops. It usually presents in late teens to young adulthood and is more common than DID, with 2.2 million Americans living with the disease. Explains Welton, "You see a gradual, overall decrease in functioning with acute exacerbation, lasting weeks or months, of overtly psychotic symptoms--unless they are caught and treated."

While trauma is associated with both disorders, Welton explains that "the traditional difference is that with schizophrenia, the trauma tends to follow the disease. It is a consequence of the illness; it is not causative. Trauma doesn’t make someone have schizophrenia, whereas it is a reaction to the trauma for almost everyone with DID I’ve ever heard about." Schizophrenia is classified as a psychotic disorder and managed primarily through drugs, whereas DID is considered a developmental disorder more responsive to psychotherapy and behavioural modifications.

On the surface, the difference between the two disorders seems clear-cut. But some psychiatrists, such as Brad Foote of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, warn their peers that it may be possible to confuse the two conditions early in treatment. This may happen if voices of alternate personalities in a case of DID "leak through" and comment on events or talk directly to the core, central personality without completely taking it over.

"Traditionally, any time a patient reports hearing voices like this, it was a strong indication of schizophrenia," Welton says. "Psychosis is not a diagnostic key for DID, but it is a common finding in that they will hear one personality talking to another or a personality commenting on them."

If these observations are accurate, Welton says "it would be very easy to put that person into a psychotic disorder category because you did not ask the right questions or you didn’t ask in the right way."

Hearing voices may be more complicated than doctors or patients knew.

—Dean A. Haycock

Schizophrenia is NOT Multiple Personality Disorder

“Acting is not that far from mental disease: An actor works on splitting his character into others. It is like a kind of schizophrenia.” -Vittorio Gassman

Most people erroneously believe schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by alter egos or multiple personalities. This is probably because of simple linguistic confusion and the recurring mistakes in popular culture and online. I just want to set the record straight because it’s important not to perpetuate misinformation.

“Schizophrenia beats dining alone.” -Oscar Levant

Schizophrenia is characterized by emotional numbness, auditory hallucinations, paranoid or grandiose delusions, and disorganized thoughts and speech. People with schizophrenia have a diminished sense of reality – a completely different experience than multiple personalities.

“Never get into an argument with a schizophrenic person and say, ‘Who do you think you are?’” -Ray Combs

In fact, the terms multiple personalities, split personalities, or alter egos are all outdated. Dissociative Identity Disorder is the current name for this disorder.

“Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m schizophrenic, and so am I.” -Oscar Levant

So where did the confusion come from? It may have been from the translation of the Greek words “skhizein” and “phren,” from which “schizophrenia” is derived. The former means “split,” and the latter means “mind,” but the word was intended to mean that the functions of the mind were split.

“The idea of stardom was difficult to grasp. It was like being schizophrenic; there was her, the woman on television, and the real me.” -Jessica Savitch

And nowadays, people use the word “schizophrenic” colloquially, which makes even less sense. For example:

“I’m really schizophrenic about that, because on the one hand I would say, yes there is, there’s something inherently, even violent about it, it’s wild and raw and all this.” -Lester Bangs

“I feel a little schizophrenic because my life is so totally different from here, obviously. And the French values are so different from American values.” -Adrian Lyne

“In Poland, my audience is all women between 18 and 30. At U.S. conventions, you have the fantasy and science fiction crowd. At Harvard you have an entirely different audience. It’s so schizophrenic.” -Jonathan Carroll

As Ann Kring – a clinical psychology professor at the University of California at Berkeley – says, it’s a little bit like saying “Oh, quit being so diabetic about it.” It makes no sense. Furthermore, Kring says we should not label people as schizophrenics but “people with schizophrenia.” Dehumanizing someone with a stigmatic label should obviously be avoided, just as misusing schizophrenia should. As HealthyPlace aptly puts it, Dissociative Identity Disorder and schizophrenia “are not even remotely the same. Continuing to treat them as such perpetuates gross misunderstandings that isolate people with both of these disorders.”

“There’s a fine line between the Method actor and the schizophrenic.” -Nicolas Cage

Maa Paapalu Song - Sri Shiridi Saibaba Mahatyam

Sagar lake

Located just behind the City Palace, Sagar lake was constructed in 1815 AD. Formerly used as a holy bathing ghat, Sagar lake has been able to withstand the beatings of time. Over centuries, people has been following the sacred tradition of feeding the pigeons. It is this lovely pond that separates the City Palace from the surrounding pebbly hills. The local belief is that water in the pond is bestowed with some therapeutic tendencies !! Pic Posted by Varun Gupta In Message Box !!

 

The Scent of a Cat Woman

Is the secret to Chanel No. 5’s success a parasite?

By Patrick House|

While creating Chanel No. 5, Coco resorted to an old perfumer’s trick: scrapings of sexual pheromones from the perianal gland of the Abyssinian civet cat

Photograph by Thinkstock.

On the fifth day of the fifth month of 1921, Coco Chanel changed the scent of the world. She released Chanel No. 5 as her final vaudeville act—her only child. The perfume would grow to be “le monstre" of the perfume industry, a $300-per-ounce, elegant mist still anchoring the multibillion-dollar Chanel empire. It succeeded where others had never tried by combining the cheap, musky scent of the courtesan demi-mondaines—the “women of the half-world,” as Coco herself was—with the light, single florals reserved for the upper class of Parisian women. Needing a musky base note, Coco resorted to an old perfumer’s trick: scrapings of sexual pheromones from the perianal gland of the Abyssinian civet cat.

Fast-forward to 1998. French chemists discovered something unexpected in a 1995 sauvignon blanc from Bordeaux: 3-mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol, a grape breakdown product that doubles as a fragrant pheromone in cat pee. We now know this is common to sauvignon blanc, and not always unwelcome among wine critics: “Compare [cat pee] to an off-note that adds complexity to a piece of music.” One New Zealand winery even named a bottle after the scent—“Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush.”

Why is it that the elite French perfumers (known as “noses”) and sommeliers (“upturned noses”) of the world spend so much of their time inhaling cat effluvia from expensive glass bottles? A guess: It may have to do with a mind-control parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. The tiny protozoan may be getting into our brains and tricking us into liking cats—not to mention certain perfumes and wines.

In a recent study, Czech scientists gave men and women towels scented with the urine of various animals—horses, lions, hyenas, cats, dogs—which they rated for “pleasantness.” Turns out, men who tested positive for Toxo found the smell of cat urine more pleasant than men without Toxo. For Toxo researchers like me, this was a shock but not entirely surprising. Why? Toxo does approximately the same thing to rats.

Toxo reproduces only in a cat’s stomach and needs an intermediate host to taxi from one cat to the next. Enter le rat. Toxo infects the rat brain and scrambles neurons to make the rat less afraid of cat urine. How? The neural circuitry for fear is right next to the neural circuitry for sexual attraction in male rats, and it seems Toxo can hijack the sexual attraction circuit to respond to cat urine. A less-afraid (and maybe even a little turned-on) rat is thus a likelier-to-be-eaten rat, allowing Toxo to settle in the new feline host and start the lifecycle anew.

Sometimes, though, Toxo ends up in a human’s brain (an evolutionary dead end for the parasite, unless you are Val Kilmer), courtesy of forgetting to wash one’s hands after cleaning cat litter—the parasite is in cat feces—or eating undercooked meat with Toxo in it—livestock often stomp around on beds of fertilizer made from, yes, cat feces. Worldwide, 1 billion to 2 billion people have the tiny Toxo parasite in their brains.

Once you play host to Toxo, you have it for life. But unlike most anything else that finds a way into your brain, it’s basically harmless as long as your immune system is working and you aren’t pregnant. It’s possible that Toxo is doing something to the host human brain—we just don’t yet know what.

Now, maybe the men with Toxo from the Czech study have pet cats at home (making them more likely to pick up Toxo) and the cat pee evokes Elysian fondness for their Fluffypuss. In this case, Toxo does absolutely nothing but is still correlated with preferring the smell of cat urine. Or maybe these men with Toxo romantically incline to cat-ladies—women with Toxo might be more promiscuous, after all.

Or maybe, like with the rats, Toxo is changing something about the way the brain processes cat smells, making the men with Toxo find it more pleasant. Could it be that Toxo is the perfumer par excellance, with privileged access to the very seat of smell itself? Is it a coincidence that “le monstre” of the perfume industry and the Bordeaux sauvignon blanc both come from France, a country with one of the highest rates of Toxo in the world?

Why would a perfumer spend her days perfecting aldehydes and tinctures to recreate the smell of water at midnight when she could—if unintentionally—exploit the fact that 45 percent of her French countrymen have parasites in their brains that may be skewing the inner, subjective world of smell?

Musk gives durability and stubbornness to otherwise ephemeral scents in perfumes and almost always comes from the dark nether regions of solitary animals, which is probably why even the New York Times’ perfume critic Chandler Burr balks at the open-air smells of Givaudan, one of the world’s great perfume schools. There are a few options for the perfumer: Musk proper comes from sexual pheromones of a musk deer, castoreum (a musk alternative) from urine-filled castor sacs of beavers, and civet from a sexual perianal gland the civet cat. (The African civet cat is not technically a cat, in the Feline sense, but a Feliformia, a broader class of “cat-like” carnivores that includes both cats and civet cats—though both prey on rats and mark their territory with sexual and urinary pheromones.)

The history of perfume is an intimate history of animal come-hithers. Despite rampant speculation the human pheromone, like dark matter, has yet to be discovered, let alone bottled (“pheromone parties” in Los Angeles and New York notwithstanding.) So instead we outsource production to animals. But why some over others? It may be a coincidence, but it is nevertheless worthy of note that in ancient Egypt, home of the world’s first perfumers, home of some of the earliest domesticated cats, where the penalty for killing cats was death, where it was a crime to not save a cat from a burning building, Bastet served as god of both perfume and cats.

Clearly most of these ideas are unprovable, a fancy feast of unfalsifiable theory—often both the most interesting and the most useless line of inquiry for the scientist. Do civets and domestic cats use similar pheromones? Unknown. Is Toxo really altering human response to cat odors, like in the rats? Unknown. Do people with Toxo prefer Chanel No. 5 over those without Toxo? We may never know. Chanel stopped using civet in 1998 in No. 5 for animal rights reasons, replacing it with a synthetic version (though you can still buy vintage). No word on if the new No. 5 is any less popular.

As a company, Chanel marks its territory like a cat does its palm fronds. Decades of spokesmodels from Keira Knightley to Audrey Tautou to Nicole Kidman all leave an elegant Chanel No. 5 sillage in their wake long after they leave both the room and their suitors behind. Marilyn Monroe, arch-queen of the human come-hither, claims she wore to bed nothing but “two drops of Chanel No. 5.” Perhaps instead we should think of her bedroom as not her own territory, nor DiMaggio’s, nor Arthur Miller’s, nor JFK’s—but, rather, the extended territory of a lonely civet cat.

Source: Slate
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/07/chanel_no_5_a_brain_parasite_may_be_the_secret_to_the_famous_perfume_.single.html

Comment:Never eat undercooked cat faeces...

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Beets and Cancer

shirdi sai baba (kannada song)

Understanding multiple personality disorder

The Ackworth School in England, United Kingdom kindly gave permission to use the artwork.

(Medical Xpress) -- New research from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry brings us closer to understanding the mechanisms behind multiple personality disorders.  The study is the first of its kind and finds evidence suggesting that the condition is not linked to fantasy, strengthening the idea that it is related to trauma.

It is estimated that multiple personality disorder, more recently known as dissociative identity disorder (DID), may affect approximately one per cent of the general population, similar to levels reported for schizophrenia. People eventually diagnosed with DID often have several earlier misdiagnoses, including schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. DID is characterized by two or more distinct `identities' or `personality states' - each with their own perception of the environment and themselves. 

Despite being recognised in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), controversy remains around the diagnosis. Some experts argue that DID is linked to trauma such as chronic emotional neglect and/or emotional, physical, or sexual abuse from early childhood. Others hold a non-trauma-related view of DID, whereby the condition is believed to be related to fantasy proneness, suggestibility, simulation or enactment. 

Dr. A.A.T. Simone Reinders from the Department of Psychosis Studies at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s and lead author of the study published in PLoS ONE says: ‘Whether dissociative identity disorder is considered a genuine mental disorder is subject to passionate debate amongst scientists, clinicians and psychiatrists.'

‘We aimed to test the validity of the non-trauma related view. By comparing people with dissociative identity disorder to both high and low-fantasy-prone participants enacting the condition, we found stark differences in their psychological and biological responses to recalling trauma, suggesting that the condition is not related to enactment or fantasy. The study is an interesting and important step forward in the condition debate.’

The trauma-related view implies that DID is a coping strategy where different types of identities can develop. For example, neutral identity states (NIS), where DID patients concentrate on functioning in daily life and deactivate access to any traumatic memories, and trauma-related identity states (TIS), where DID patients have conscious access to the traumatic memories.

The researchers studied 29 people: 11 patients diagnosed with DID, 10 high fantasy prone and 8 low fantasy-prone healthy controls simulating DID. The level of fantasy proneness is an indication of how easily an individual can engage in fantasy, imagery and/or daydreaming.  The researchers measured participants' reactions, cardiovascular responses and brain activity with positron emission tomography (PET) scans when genuine and simulated NIS and TIS were exposed to autobiographical trauma-related or neutral information.

They found strong differences in regional cerebral blood flow and psychophysiological responses between the DID patients and both high and low-fantasy-prone controls, suggesting that the different identity states in DID were not convincingly enacted by DID-simulating controls. 

The study was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and in collaboration with the University Medical Centre Groningen at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. 

More information: Reinders, A.A.T. S. et al. ‘Fact or factitious: a psychobiological study of authentic and simulated dissociative identity states’ PLoS ONE (29 June 2012) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0039279

Provided by King's College London

"Understanding multiple personality disorder." July 2nd, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-multiple-personality-disorder.html

Comment:The Internet version is called 'Multiple font Disorder'.  Sufferers frequenctly change font and have no recollection of anything they wrote in the other font...

Robert

Nagarjuna shirdi sai baba New HD Song

Study shows loss of control leads to paranormal beliefs

(Medical Xpress) -- People who felt a lack of control in their lives were more likely to believe in the claimed “psychic abilities” of a famous octopus, a University of Queensland (UQ) study has found.

Paul the Octopus gained notoriety during the 2010 soccer World Cup for correctly “predicting" the winner of all games in the competition.

The eight-armed “psychic” was the subject of Dr Katharine Greenaway's experiment involving 40 participants.

Dr Greenaway said half of the participants were induced to feel a sense of high control and the other half to feel in low control.

“We did this by having half the people recall and write about an incident in their lives over which they had no control and having the other half recall and write about an incident over which they had control,” Dr Greenaway said.

Participants were then asked to indicate the extent to which they thought Paul would have made all those correct decisions based on chance alone.

She said 40 per cent of people in the low-control category believed the octopus had psychic abilities.

Only five per cent of people with a condition of high control were believers.

“The people with a low sense of control believed Paul must have precognitive ability – in other words, the ability to predict the future,” Dr Greenaway said.

“It seems that belief in precognition is one way that people can ‘trick' themselves to feeling in control in situations they have no control over.”

Dr Greenaway said it had been known for a long time that control was important to people, but her research provided insights into the lengths people would go to maintain the feeling of control in their lives.

“The bottom line is that people don't like feeling out of control, so they go through a series of psychological ‘gymnastics' to help maintain the perception that they are in control of their lives - and it seems to work,” she said.

Dr Greenaway also looked at how "in control" people felt when in a threatening situation – such as being exposed to terrorism or the global financial crisis.

She found that when people felt low in control in these threatening contexts they were more likely to become hostile and prejudiced towards other people — particularly foreigners.

“This research highlights how when people feel threatened and out of control they take it out on others in an effort to make themselves feel better,” she said.

The findings showed that loss of control had a profound psychological impact that caused people to change their individual beliefs and orientations towards others.

Provided by University of Queensland

"Study shows loss of control leads to paranormal beliefs." July 2nd, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-loss-paranormal-beliefs.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Ashadhi Ekadashi

Shayani Ekadashi (lit. "sleeping eleventh") or Maha-ekadashi (lit. "The great eleventh") or Prathama-ekadashi (lit. "The first eleventh") or Padma Ekadashi is the eleventh lunar day (Ekadashi) of the bright fortnight (Shukla paksha) of the Hindu month of Ashadha (June - July). Thus it is also known as Ashadhi Ekadashi or Ashadhi.

 

This day, a huge yatra or religious procession of pilgrims known as Pandharpur Ashadi Ekadasi Waari Yatra [4]culminates at Pandharpur, in Solapur district in south Maharashtra, situated on the banks of the Bhima River. Pandharpur is main center of worship of the deityVithoba, a local form of Vishnu. Thousands of pilgrims come to Pandharpur on this day from different parts of Maharashtra. Some of them carry Palkhis (palanquins) with the images of the saints of Maharashtra. Dnyaneshwar's image is carried from Alandi, Tukaram's fromDehu, Eknath's from Paithan, Nivruttinath's from Trimbakeshwar, Muktabai's from Muktainagar, Sopan's from Sasvad and Saint Gajanan Maharaj from Shegaon. These pilgrims are referred to as Warkaris. They sing Abhangas (chanting hymns) of Saint Tukaram and Saint Dnyaneshwar, dedicated to Vithoba.

 

As per the legend,Pundalik,was the devoted son of Janudev and Satyavati.After his marriage he ill treated them.Annoyed with his behaviour,the parents left for the pilgrimage to Kashi ,Varanasi etc.

 

Pundalik and his wife also joined them and continued with their harassment to them.Pundalik made his old parents walk while he and his young wife rode on a horse.On the way, they reached the hermitage of the sage, Kukkutswami. 
All of them being tired of journey,decided to rest for some days there itself.The next morning,just before the dawn,Pundalik saw a group of beautiful, young women dressed in dirty clothes who entered the hermitage.They cleaned the floor,washed the Sage’s clothes and did other such jobs.On finishing their jobs, they went to the prayer room and came out with spotlessly clean clothes and they disappeared.

 

Pundalik was very happy to see all this but thought he was dreaming.The next day when the incident was repeated,he talked to the women and asked curiously,'Who are you ?'They replied,'We are Ganga, Yamuna and all the holy rivers of India.People wipe away their sins by taking a bath in us.But you are a biggest sinner,because of the way you treat your parents.'

Pundalik was shaken with their statement.He realized his mistake and wanted to improve his ways.He soon started serving his parents well and looked after all their needs and comforts.

 

Lord Vishnu was extremely pleased by seeing Pundalik’s sincere devotion towards his parents.He left his abode,Vaikauntha-Lok, to bless Pundalik.Lord Vishnu came to Pundalik’s house and knocked his door.Pundalik was engrossed serving his parents and his devotion to his parents was so sincere that he wanted to finish his duties first and then attend to whoever was at the door.
 

Pundalik flung a brick(Vit) towards the door to offer a platform for the guest,to wait at the door.The Lord Vishnu was very much pleased with Pundalik's devotion to his parents and he waited for him on the brick.When came to know the fact,Pundalik apologised Lord Vishnu,for keeping him waiting,but the Lord instead offered him to get a boon to be fulfilled.

Pundalik soon requested him to remain on earth and bless all his devotees.His wish was granted and the Lord remained behind and is known as Vithoba(Lord who stands on a brick).This form of the Lord Vishnu is Swayambhu(came into existence on its own).He is always seen accompanied by his consort Rakhumai or Rukmini.

 

*In the scripture Bhavishyottara Purana,God narrated significance of Shayani Ekadashi to king Yudhisthira, as the creator-god Brahma did it to his son Narada.The story of king Mandata has reference to this.The country of king Mandata was struck by drought for three years,but the king could not to find a solution to come out of it and to please the rain god.

 

Later on,the sage Angiras advised the king Mandata to observe the 'Vrat' of Dev-shayani ekadashi.King Mandata followed his advise and on doing so Lord Vishnu was pleased and blessed king Mandata and there was rain in the kingdom and all were happy.

பெண்கள் வாழ தகுதியான நாடு - கனடா நம்பர் 1, இந்தியாவுக்கு கடைசி இடம்

பெண்கள் வாழ தகுதியான நாடுகளின் பட்டியலில் கனடா முதலிடத்தை பிடித்துள்ளது. இந்தியாவில் பெண்களுக்கு எதிரான வன்முறைகள் அதிகம் உள்ளதால் நம்நாடு கடைசி இடத்தில் உள்ளது.   உடல் ரீதியாகவும், தொழில்ரீதியாகவும், அரசியல் ரீதியாகவும் பெண்களுக்கு தேவையான அடிப்படை உரிமைகளை நிறைவேற்றுதல், வன்கொடுமைகளை தடுத்தல் போன்றவைகளை கனடா நாட்டு அரசாங்கம் சிறப்பாக நிறைவேற்றி வருகிறது. இதனால்தான் ஜி 20 நாடுகளிலேயே பெண்கள் வாழ தகுதியான நாடுகளின் பட்டியலில் கனடா முதலிடத்தை பிடித்துள்ளது. மேலும் பெண்களின் வன்முறைக்கு எதிரான நடவடிக்கைகள், பெண்களின் சுகாதாரத்தைப் பேணும் திட்டங்கள் சிறப்பாக இருப்பதும் முக்கிய காரணம் ஆகும்.   கனடாவைத் தொடர்ந்து ஜெர்மனி, பிரிட்டன், ஆஸ்திரேலியா, பிரான்ஸ் ஆகிய நாடுகள் முதல் 5 இடங்களைப் பிடித்துள்ளன.   பெண்கள் மற்றும் குழந்தைகளை பாலியல் தொழிலுக்காக விற்றல்,குழந்தை திருமணம், வரதட்சணை கொடுமை, வீட்டுப் பணிப்பெண்கள் பாலியல் கொடுமைக்கு உள்ளாவது போன்ற காரணங்களால் பெண்கள் வாழ தகுதியான நாடுகளின் பட்டியலில் இந்தியாவுக்கு கடைசி இடம் கிடைத்துள்ளது என்பதுதான் வேதனையான தகவல்.   இந்தியாவிற்கு முன்னதாக உள்ள இடங்களில் சவுதி அரேபியா, இந்தோனேசியா, தென்னாப்ரிக்கா, மெக்சிகோ ஆகிய நாடுகள் இடம்பெற்றுள்ளன என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.   இணையத்திலிருந்து நீலாம்பரி