Biochip measures glucose in saliva, not blood

  by Biomechanism 

Engineers at Brown University have designed a biological device that can measure glucose concentrations in human saliva. The technique could eliminate the need for diabetics to draw blood to check their glucose levels. The biochip uses plasmonic interferometers and could be used to measure a range of biological and environmental substances. Results are published in Nano Letters. 

Each plasmonic interferometer – thousands of them per square millimeter – consists of a slit flanked by two grooves etched in a silver metal film. The schematic shows glucose molecules “dancing” on the sensor surface illuminated by light with different colors. Changes in light intensity transmitted through the slit of each plasmonic interferometer yield information about the concentration of glucose molecules in solution. Credit: Domenico Pacifici

For the 26 million Americans with diabetes, drawing blood is the most prevalent way to check glucose levels. It is invasive and at least minimally painful. Researchers at Brown University are working on a new sensor that can check blood sugar levels by measuring glucose concentrations in saliva instead.
The technique takes advantage of a convergence of nanotechnology and surface plasmonics, which explores the interaction of electrons and photons (light). The engineers at Brown etched thousands of plasmonic interferometers onto a fingernail-size biochip and measured the concentration of glucose molecules in water on the chip. Their results showed that the specially designed biochip could detect glucose levels similar to the levels found in human saliva. Glucose in human saliva is typically about 100 times less concentrated than in the blood.

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“This is proof of concept that plasmonic interferometers can be used to detect molecules in low concentrations, using a footprint that is ten times smaller than a human hair,” said Domenico Pacifici, assistant professor of engineering and lead author of the paper published in Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
The technique can be used to detect other chemicals or substances, from anthrax to biological compounds, Pacifici said, “and to detect them all at once, in parallel, using the same chip.”
To create the sensor, the researchers carved a slit about 100 nanometers wide and etched two 200 nanometer-wide grooves on either side of the slit. The slit captures incoming photons and confines them. The grooves, meanwhile, scatter the incoming photons, which interact with the free electrons bounding around on the sensor’s metal surface. Those free electron-photon interactions create a surface plasmon polariton, a special wave with a wavelength that is narrower than a photon in free space. These surface plasmon waves move along the sensor’s surface until they encounter the photons in the slit, much like two ocean waves coming from different directions and colliding with each other.
This “interference” between the two waves determines maxima and minima in the light intensity transmitted through the slit. The presence of an analyte (the chemical being measured) on the sensor surface generates a change in the relative phase difference between the two surface plasmon waves, which in turns causes a change in light intensity, measured by the researchers in real time.
“The slit is acting as a mixer for the three beams — the incident light and the surface plasmon waves,” Pacifici said.
The engineers learned they could vary the phase shift for an interferometer by changing the distance between the grooves and the slit, meaning they could tune the interference generated by the waves. The researchers could tune the thousands of interferometers to establish baselines, which could then be used to accurately measure concentrations of glucose in water as low as 0.36 milligrams per deciliter.
“It could be possible to use these biochips to carry out the screening of multiple biomarkers for individual patients, all at once and in parallel, with unprecedented sensitivity,” Pacifici said.
The engineers next plan to build sensors tailored for glucose and for other substances to further test the devices. “The proposed approach will enable very high throughput detection of environmentally and biologically relevant analytes in an extremely compact design. We can do it with a sensitivity that rivals modern technologies,” Pacifici said.
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Tayhas Palmore, professor of engineering, is a contributing author on the paper. Graduate students Jing Feng (engineering) and Vince Siu (biology), who designed the microfluidic channels and carried out the experiments, are listed as the first two authors on the paper. Other authors include Brown engineering graduate student Steve Rhieu and undergraduates Vihang Mehta, Alec Roelke.
The National Science Foundation and Brown (through a Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award) funded the research.

Patterns of Chromosome Abnormality: The Key to Cancer?

  by Biomechanism 

A healthy genome is characterized by 23 pairs of chromosomes, and even a small change in this structure — such as an extra copy of a single chromosome — can lead to severe physical impairment. So it’s no surprise that when it comes to cancer, chromosomal structure is frequently a contributing factor, says Prof. Ron Shamir of the Blavatnik School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University.

A lung cancer karyotype. Source: University of Cambridge Department of Pathology.

Now Prof. Shamir and his former doctoral students Michal Ozery-Flato and Chaim Linhart, along with fellow researchers Prof. Shai Izraeli and Dr. Luba Trakhtenbrot from the Sheba Medical Center, have combined techniques from computer science and statistics to discover that many chromosomal pairs are lost or gained together across various cancer types. Moreover, the researchers discovered a new commonality of chromosomal aberrations among embryonic cancer types, such as kidney, skeleton, and liver cancers.
These findings, recently published in Genome Biology, could reveal more about the nature of cancer. As cancer develops, the genome becomes increasingly mutated — and identifying the pattern of mutation can help us to understand the nature and the progression of many different kinds of cancer, says Prof. Shamir.

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Looking at the big picture

As cancer progresses, the structure of chromosomes is rearranged, individual chromosomes are duplicated or lost, and the genome becomes abnormal. Some forms of cancer can even be diagnosed by identifying individual chromosomal aberrations, notes Prof. Shamir, pointing to the example of a specific type of leukemia that is caused by small piece of chromosome 9 being moved to chromosome 22.
When analyzing many different kinds of cancer, however, the researchers discovered that chromosomal aberrations among different cancers happen together in a noticeable and significant way. The researchers studied a collection of more than fifty thousand cancer karyotypes — representations of chromosomal layouts in a single cell — and charted them according to commonalities. The researchers were not only able to confirm different chromosomal aberrations that appeared in specific cancer types, but also for the first time identified a broader effect of pairs of chromosomes being lost or gained together across different cancer types.
It was also the first time that researchers saw a connection among solid kidney, skeleton, and liver cancers. While it was known that these cancers all develop in the embryo, they were previously analyzed independently. The TAU researchers have now confirmed that they share chromosomal characteristics and aberrations, much like various forms of leukemia or lymphomas.

Aberrations a driving force for cancer

Under normal circumstances, even a small change to a person’s chromosomal structure can be devastating. For example, Down’s syndrome is caused by a single extra copy of Chromosome 21. “But in cancer, there are many cases of extra or missing chromosomes. Yet cancer cells thrive more effectively than other cells,” Prof. Shamir says.
Prof. Shamir hopes that future investigation into these chromosomal aberrations will give researchers more clues into why something that is so detrimental to our healthy development is so beneficial to this disease. Cancer is the result of sequences of events, he says, each causing the genome to become more mutated, mixed, and duplicated. Tracking these changes could aid our understanding of the driving forces of cancer’s progress.
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Prof. Shamir heads the Edmond J. Safra Program for Bioinformatics and holds the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Chair in Bioinformatics.

Entry point for hepatitis C infection identified

  by Biomechanism 

A molecule embedded in the membrane of human liver cells that aids in cholesterol absorption also allows the entry of hepatitis C virus, the first step in hepatitis C infection, according to research at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
The cholesterol receptor offers a promising new target for anti-viral therapy, for which an approved drug may already exist, say the researchers, whose findings were reported online in advance of publication in Nature Medicine.

An overview of HCV (Hepatitis C virus) entry into the cell with suggested role of NPC1L1 and potential pathway for blocking by Zetia. Photo: Bruno Sainz/University of Illinois

An estimated 4.1 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C virus, or HCV, which attacks the liver and leads to inflammation, according to the National Institutes of Health. Most people have no symptoms initially and may not know they have the infection until liver damage shows up decades later during routine medical tests. Continue reading below…

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Previous studies showed that cholesterol was somehow involved in HCV infection. The UIC researchers suspected that a receptor called NPC1L1, known to help maintain cholesterol balance might also be transporting the virus into the cell.

The receptor is common in the gut of many species — but is found on liver cells only in humans and chimpanzees, says Susan Uprichard, assistant professor in medicine and microbiology and immunology and principal investigator in the study. These primates, she said, are the only animals that can be infected by HCV.
Uprichard and her coworkers showed that knocking down or blocking access to the NPC1L1 receptor prevented the virus from entering and infecting cells.
Bruno Sainz, Jr., UIC postdoctoral research associate in medicine and first author of the paper, said because the receptor is involved in cholesterol metabolism it was already well-studied. A drug that “specifically and uniquely targets NPC1L1″ already exists and is approved for use to lower cholesterol levels, he said.
The FDA-approved drug ezetimibe (sold under the trade-name Zetia) is readily available and perfectly targeted to the receptor, Sainz said, so the researchers had an ideal method for testing NPC1L1′s involvement in HCV infection.
They used the drug to block the receptor before, during and after inoculation with the virus, in cell culture and in a small-animal model, to evaluate the receptor’s role in infection and the drug’s potential as an anti-hepatitis agent.
The researchers showed that ezetimibe inhibited HCV infection in cell culture and in mice transplanted with human liver cells. And, unlike any currently available drugs, ezetimibe was able to inhibit infection by all six types of HCV.
The study, Uprichard said, opens up a number of possibilities for therapeutics.
Hepatitis C is the leading cause for liver transplantation in the U.S., but infected patients have problems after transplant because the virus attacks the new liver, Uprichard said.
While current drugs are highly toxic and often cannot be tolerated by transplant patients taking immunosuppressant drugs, ezetimibe is quite safe and has been used long-term without harm by people to control their cholesterol, Uprichard said. Because it prevents entry of the virus into cells, ezetimibe may help protect the new liver from infection.
For patients with chronic hepatitis C, ezetimibe may be able to be used in combination with current drugs.
“We forsee future HCV therapy as a drug-cocktail approach, like that used against AIDS,” Uprichard said. “Based on cell culture and mouse model data, we expect ezetimibe, an entry inhibitor, may have tremendous synergy with current anti-HCV drugs resulting in an improvement in the effectiveness of treatment.”
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The study was supported by NIH Public Health Service grants, the American Cancer Society Research Scholar grant, the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science NIH grant, the UIC Council to Support Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease, and a grant from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.
Naina Barretto, Danyelle Martin, Snawar Hussain, Katherine Marsh and Xuemei Yu, of UIC; Nobuhiko Hiraga, Michio Imamura and Kazuaki Chayama, of Hiroshima University in Japan; and Waddah Alrefai of UIC and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago also contributed to the study.

High fructose consumption by adolescents may put them at cardiovascular risk

  by Biomechanism 

Evidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk is present in the blood of adolescents who consume a lot of fructose, a scenario that worsens in the face of excess belly fat, researchers report. 
An analysis of 559 adolescents age 14-18 correlated high-fructose diets with higher blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin resistance and inflammatory factors that contribute to heart and vascular disease.
Heavy consumers of the mega-sweetener also tend to have lower levels of cardiovascular protectors such as such as HDL cholesterol and adiponectin, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University.

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These dangerous trends are exacerbated by fat around their midsection, called visceral adiposity, another known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The association did not hold up for adolescents with more generalized, subcutaneous fat.

“It is so very important to provide a healthy balance of high-quality food to our children and to really pay close attention to the fructose and sucrose they are consuming at their home or anyone else’s,” said Dr. Vanessa Bundy, an MCG pediatric resident. Drs. Bundy and Norman Pollock, bone biologist at MCG’s Georgia Prevention Institute are co-first authors on the study published in The Journal of Nutrition.
“The nutrition that caregivers provide their children will either contribute to their overall health and development or potentially contribute to cardiovascular disease at an early age,” Bundy said. The best way caregivers can support healthy nutrition is to be good role models, she said. A healthy diet with plenty of physical activity – not dieting – is the best prescription for growing children.
“Adolescents consume the most fructose so it’s really important to not only measure the levels of fructose but to look at what it might be doing to their bodies currently and, hopefully, to look at cardiovascular disease outcomes as they grow,” Pollock said.

Dr. Vanessa Bundy is an MCG Pediatric Resident and Dr. Norman Pollock is a bone biologist at MCG's Georgia Prevention Institute. Credit: Phil Jones, GHSU photographer

While animal studies have had similar findings, evidence in children is needed to support dramatic steps to curb consumption, such as asking schools to remove soda and other vending machines or, at least, to limit access, Pollock said. The researchers noted that more study is needed to flesh out the relationship between high fructose consumption and cardiovascular risk and whether these early associations forebode adult disease.
Fructose, or fruit sugar, is found in fruits and veggies but also in high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener used liberally in processed foods and beverages. Researchers suspect growing bodies crave the cheap, strong sweetener and companies often target young consumers in ads.
“Fructose itself is metabolized differently than other sugars and has some byproducts that are believed to be bad for us,” Bundy said. “The overall amount of fructose that is in high fructose corn syrup is not much different than the amount in table sugar but it’s believed there’s something in the syrup processing that plays a role in the bad byproducts of metabolism.”
The study took a “snapshot” of the adolescents’ lives, looking at overall fructose consumption, general diet history and body fat.
“A unique aspect of our study design is that we took into account the fructose released from sucrose during digestion along with the fructose found in foods and beverages,” Pollock said. “Because sucrose is broken down into fructose and glucose before it arrives at the liver for metabolism, it is important to consider the additional fructose from sucrose when determining the overall health effect of fructose.”
-Health Research News
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Courtesy Georgia Health Sciences University

Teens have fewer behavioral issues when parents stay involved

When parents of middle school students participate in school-based, family interventions, it can reduce problem behavior, according to new research released online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The transition to adolescence can be particularly challenging, as during this period, children are more likely to engage in potentially harmful behavior with their peers while having less monitoring from and communication with their parents.  The researchers were interested in whether an intervention called the Family Check-Up (FCU)—a short program that provides feedback and skill training for parents—could mitigate some of the troubles many parents and teens face. “We hypothesized that we would find significant intervention effects on all four outcomes—family conflict, parental monitoring, antisocial behavior and alcohol use,” said Mark J. Van Ryzin, Ph.D., of the University of Oregon and lead author of the study. “We were pleased that these hypotheses were confirmed.”
Van Ryzin and his colleagues followed 593 seventh and eighth graders and their families in a randomized controlled trial, with families assigned either to participate in the FCU program or to a control group of “school as usual” students at three public schools in the Pacific Northwest. The researchers gathered data primarily from students' self-reports to provide a broad assessment of family interaction. Researchers also videotaped parents interacting with their teens at home and school. Both parents and teens received comprehensive feedback about their interaction with each other.
One of the program’s strengths is its short duration. “The average participating family only received about 4 and half hours of intervention time,” said Van Ryzin.
“Most adolescents with behavioral problems see professionals after they are in trouble instead of beforehand, which is why this program is unique; there are few preventive programs like it,” said Garry Sigman, M.D., director of adolescent medicine at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. “It requires either a school district willing to incur the time and financial costs of trained professionals or collaboration between schools and mental health professionals. In either case, most districts do not have funds or interest in this type of endeavor.”
While no simple answer exists for decreasing teenagers’ behavioral problems, Sigman said, “I only wish more young adolescents would have the opportunity for their parents to get the type of education offered by the Family Check-Up.  To be sure, it doesn’t happen very often in primary care offices.”
Sigman said he helps parents understand that adolescence is not a time to pull back on involvement in their children’s lives. “I suggest parents know where their teens are, have curfew rules, and make their values and wishes explicit regarding teen drinking, substance use and sex.”

“If support and services like the Family Check-Up are available, it can help implement reasonable strategies for change,” said Van Ryzin. “The key is to involve the whole family in the process, not just the adolescent.”

More information: Van Ryzin, M.J., et al. (2012). Engaging Parents in the Family Check-Up in Middle School: Longitudinal Effects on Family Conflict and Problem Behavior Through the High School Transition. Journal of Adolescent Health. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.10.255
Provided by Health Behavior News Service
"Teens have fewer behavioral issues when parents stay involved." January 20th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-teens-behavioral-issues-parents-involved.html
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Robert Karl Stonjek

PCE in drinking water linked to an increased risk of mental illness

PCE in drinking water linked to an increased risk of mental illness
The solvent tetrachloroethylene (PCE) widely used in industry and to dry clean clothes is a neurotoxin known to cause mood changes, anxiety, and depression in people who work with it. To date the long-term effect of this chemical on children exposed to PCE has been less clear, although there is some evidence that children of people who work in the dry cleaning industry have an increased risk of schizophrenia. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health found that exposure to PCE as a child was associated with an increased risk of bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

From 1968, until the early 1980s, water companies in Massachusetts installed vinyl-lined (VL/AC) water pipes that were subsequently found to be leaching PCE into the drinking water supply. Researchers from Boston University followed the incidence of mental illness amongst adults from Cape Cod, born between 1969 and 1983, who were consequently exposed to PCE both before birth and during early childhood.

While there was no increase seen in the incidence of depression, regardless of PCE exposure, people with prenatal and early childhood exposure to PCE had almost twice the risk of bipolar disorder, compared to an unexposed group, and their risk of PTSD was raised by 50%.
Dr Ann Aschengrau from Boston University School of Public Health warned, "It is impossible to calculate the exact amount of PCE these people were exposed to - levels of PCE were recorded as high as 1,550 times the currently recommended safe limit. While the water companies flushed the pipes to address this problem, people are still being exposed to PCE in the dry cleaning and textile industries, and from consumer products, and so the potential for an increased risk of illness remains real."
More information: Occurrence of mental illness following prenatal and early childhood exposure to tetrachloroethylene (PCE)-contaminated drinking water: a retrospective cohort study. Ann Aschengrau, Janice M Weinberg, Patricia A Janulewicz, Megan E Romano, Lisa G Gallagher, Michael R Winter, Brett R Martin, Veronica M Vieira, Thomas F Webster, Roberta F White and David M Ozonoff Environmental Health (in press)
Provided by BioMed Central
"PCE in drinking water linked to an increased risk of mental illness." January 20th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-pce-linked-mental-illness.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Violin and subatomic particle duet set to be performed at leading UK particle physics lab

One of the world’s leading physics laboratories is set to stage a unique musical duet between a violinist and radioactive subatomic particles later this month. ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, based at the Rutherton Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, is regarded as one of the UK’s major scientific achievements in the last 30 years and has played a part in a number of breakthroughs in physics and chemistry since it was commissioned in 1985.
Now it will play host to an experiment of a different kind as innovative music composer Alexis Kirke brings his contemporary Cloud Chamber composition to the ‘venue’ later this month.
Alexis, a member of Plymouth University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research, rose to prominence when he used the rising sun and the city’s iconic Roland Levinsky Building as musical instruments in his Sunlight Symphony in 2010.
Now his latest work operates on an altogether smaller scale. Alexis said: “A piece of physical apparatus, called a cloud chamber, will be saturated with ethanol and cooled by liquid nitrogen.
“The subatomic particle tracks are made visible by this cloud chamber and a camera above the chamber will follow some of the particle tracks, converting them into synthesized music which accompanies the violin. The image from the camera is also magnified onto a screen for the audience to see.”
Musician Ben Heaney will play the violin, which will be connected electrically to the chamber. The instrument’s amplified sound will also be sent to an electronic field system positioned near the particles, which will create a force field in the chamber, directly affecting the behaviour of the particle tracks, effectively enabling the ions and the violinist to influence each other musically.
Cloud Chamber debuted at the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival in Plymouth in February 2011, and this will be only the second public performance of the piece. Alexis, who is also composer-in-residence of the Marine Institute at Plymouth University, has been keen to collaborate with ISIS since he visited in 2010
ISIS is owned and operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Spokesman Dr Martyn Bull said: “We are very pleased that our collaboration with Alexis to create music inspired by the research at ISIS will be performed at the second target station. Cloud Chamber composition is an extremely imaginative and creative convergence of ground-breaking science research and music performance.”

The performance will take place on January 28th at the £145 million Second Target station, which was completed in 2008. ISIS is currently building a second set of instruments, one of which, called Chipir, will be a unique facility in Europe for testing for the effects of cosmic radiation particles on the electronics found in aircraft, mobile phones and medical equipment.”

Provided by University of Plymouth
"Violin and subatomic particle duet set to be performed at leading UK particle physics lab." January 20th, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-violin-subatomic-particle-duet-uk.html
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Robert Karl Stonjek

Notre Dame psychologist developing new math learning strategies

What do children know about mathematics before they start learning it in school? How do external factors like language, education and culture affect children’s understanding? What is the best way to structure an environment so they have the building blocks needed for success in math? These are just some of the questions Notre Dame psychologist Nicole McNeil seeks to answer in her research, for which she recently received a three-year, $565,000 grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
“The development of mathematical thinking presents a paradox,” says the Mary Hesburgh Flaherty and James F. Flaherty Assistant Professor of Psychology, whose scholarship focuses on cognitive development, specifically mathematical cognition.
“On one hand, young children and even infants have been shown to have a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of abstract math concepts,” she says. “On the other hand, math is a notoriously difficult subject to learn in school, with many children and adults failing to achieve basic competence.”
This is McNeil’s second IES award. In 2007, she received a four-year grant totaling more than $750,000 to determine whether modifications to traditional arithmetic practice could improve children’s understanding of mathematical equivalence.
The new funding will allow McNeil to build on what she learned during the first study in order to “develop and test a comprehensive intervention that is affordable, effective at producing mastery, and easy for teachers and parents to administer in schools, after-school programs and homes.”
Her goal, she says, is to create a program that has the potential to have “real and lasting benefits for children’s mathematical achievement and algebra readiness in the long term.”
To further support her work, McNeil has also recently been awarded a five-year CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) worth approximately $750,000. CAREER grants are NSF’s “most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”
As part of the NSF grant, McNeil will conduct a longitudinal study to see if a better understanding of math equivalence in the second grade leads to greater success in higher grades, especially algebra readiness in the sixth grade.
As an undergraduate, McNeil planned to become a doctor and was double majoring in chemistry and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. One of her professors suggested she build her medical school application resume by working in a research lab on campus, and she found her way into one focused on cognitive development and communication.
“I developed a passion for cognitive development research—I couldn’t get enough of it—so I abandoned my idea of going to medical school and instead chose to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology,” she says.
Inspired by that experience, McNeil now challenges her students in the Department of Psychology to discover their own academic passions. She encourages them to find a “big question” that intrigues them and then works to provide the tools and guidance they need to pursue an answer.
“I feel strongly that students need to have one-on-one attention from faculty members,” McNeil says. “It gives them the opportunity to bounce ideas off and ask questions of an expert in the field. This type of intellectual discourse puts them in the position to eventually make a real contribution to the field.
“Students in my lab also get to be involved in every aspect of research, from conceptualization to dissemination.”
Through all this work on her own scholarly projects and with her students, McNeil hopes she can help parents and teachers determine the best ways to structure each child’s mathematical education so that all children can learn to be successful in school—and beyond.
Provided by University of Notre Dame

"Notre Dame psychologist developing new math learning strategies." January 20th, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-notre-dame-psychologist-math-strategies.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Measuring Efficiency

“Advancement of material vision or material civilization is a great stumbling block for spiritual advancement. Such material advancement entangles the living being in the bondage of a material body followed by all sorts of material miseries. Such material advancement is called anartha, or things not wanted.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.8.27 Purport)
“Son, back in my day, we used to walk five miles in the snow to school and back. We didn’t have the comfortable, air conditioned and heated bus to take us places. We would go to work on the farm right after school. None of this video game playing, television watching, and general time wasting. We also got married at a young age and didn’t get divorced. In my day, we didn’t have so many of the things that you have now, and yet we liked everything that we did have.” The classic old fuddy-duddy grumbles about how much life has changed since their time and how the newer generation doesn’t know how good they have it. Though it is natural for the human being to get into this mindset as they grow older, the attitude actually uncovers the secret of how easy it is to find a baseline of happiness. Though the advanced lifestyle hinged on progress seems the better option, by comparing the disposition of the consciousness and the minimum requirement for having peace of mind, there is no question which system is superior.
How can there be any contest in this matter? Nowadays we have microwaves, internet, cellular telephones, high definition television sets, automobiles and airplanes. Just from these basic advancements so much of everyday life has changed. No longer do you have to worry about the harsh winter coming to wreak havoc on your family. The drought in the summer is also okay, for you can buy your food from some other source. The vital provisions can be shipped in from an area where the harvest is bountiful. Because of these options there is not so much of a reliance on aspects of the past lifestyle which now seem primitive.
Easy to overlook in this analysis is attachment. With each new gadget and advancement of technology comes a new source of misery. You can take something as simple as the automobile to see evidence of this. In days past, you had to walk many miles to get to places. Correspondingly, the places you needed to get to weren’t too far away. The neighborhood school served the people living within close proximity. The larger plots of land allowed for food to be grown locally; you didn’t have to travel very far to eat. With the requirement for walking, exercise was automatically accounted for. This not only helped in keeping one’s physical health strong, but it aided in mental faculties as well. A sedentary lifestyle can become so mentally debilitating that it can lead to depression. Obesity in children is now an epidemic, though this is a veritable enigma. Children have the most energy, so why should they ever become excessively overweight? They can handle a tremendous amount of food because of how much energy they can burn off in a given day.
With the automobile comes the responsibility of insurance payments and maintenance. If the car stops working, you have to find a way to fix it. This is going to cost money, which means that part of the time that you travel to work is spent on maintaining your car, which, ironically enough, you use to get to work. In one sense you’re working just so that you can maintain something that can ensure that you keep working.
The automobile also brings an increased risk of accidental death. The news media pays much attention to soldiers killed in action overseas, but the number of deaths on the highway each year dwarfs that by a significant amount. On one side you have people killed while carrying out their occupational duties, namely the protection and defense of the innocent, and on the other you have people travelling to work, school, or the homes of family and friends. Obviously the number of deaths should be higher for those involved in dangerous combat, but the total number of traffic fatalities is much greater. Though the number is so high, it is just brushed aside as being part of the collateral damage that comes with having the freedom to drive on the open road.
For the champions of advancement the underlying appeal of progress is the ability to travel to new destinations. A person can now explore outer space if they want instead of being stuck in a tiny little area with no way out. Why would a person choose prison life over a life of freedom? Why would someone want to remain complacent and follow the same behavior every day when they can continuously explore and discover new things about this complex place that we call the creation?
The questions can be turned around though. Who is actually more advanced, the person who is content with a simple lifestyle dedicated to service to one particular entity or the person who requires constant expensive change to feel stimulated in the mind? Let’s think of it another way. Say we have two cellular telephone devices. They are identical except for the performance of the battery. One phone has a battery that can allow the phone to operate for up to a week with average use. The other phone’s battery goes dead in a few days. Obviously the phone with the stronger battery is superior, as it is more efficient. It can do more work with the same amount of energy as can the other phone with the inferior battery.
Applying the same principle, the living entity who requires costly advancement simply to find mental felicity is less efficient than the person who can find happiness at any time and in any circumstance. Lest we think the latter person is a myth, the Vedic principles provide instructions to create that very disposition for all of us. At the heart of activity is the search for ananda, or bliss. The external appearances can cloud this fact, but when the wise person abstracts behavior, both present and past, it is seen that this desire for pleasure is the instigator of every single action. Even austerity measures like dieting and observing ritualistic functions are undertaken for eventually furthering a better mental condition.
As consciousness is the key determining factor in a person’s happiness, when it can be focused on something that has an inexhaustible supply of bliss, pleasure can be found in any circumstance, regardless of the time period or how advanced society may be. That ultimate source of pleasure is, not surprisingly, the Supreme Lord, who thus gets a specific description based on this feature. Since He is the reservoir of pleasure and all-attractive, He is known as Krishna in the Vedic tradition.
How do we connect with Krishna? Do we need the simple life of the farm or the hustle and bustle of the city? While for the spiritualist it is easy to put down the latest advancements in technology, can’t things like e-readers and internet videos help one to connect with God? Aren’t these outlets easier to use than the past requirements of having to travel to a place where discussions on Krishna were being held? Shri Krishna, being absolute, can be found through His holy names, which are put together nicely in the perfect prayer known as the maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”.
The maha-mantra addresses Krishna and His energy and asks them to be allowed to be engaged in the Lord’s service without motivation and without interruption. The same desire for pleasure is there, but since it is directed at connecting with Krishna, the devotee is considered free of desire, akama. Since there is no personal desire, the service can continue without interruption, for there is no stage of maturity that causes the outflow of service to cease.
For the spiritualist who makes the chanting of the maha-mantra a serious occupation and follows the prescribed regulations of reciting it for sixteen rounds a day on a set of japa beads coupled with abstention from meat eating, gambling, intoxication and illicit sex, the Supreme Lord and His smiling face can be remembered at any time and at any place. Shrila Haridasa Thakura, the acharya of the holy name, would find tremendous pleasure by living in a cave and chanting the maha-mantra in front of the sacred tulasi plant, who as a goddess grants devotion to Krishna to those who honor her.
On the other side, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and his disciples found supreme pleasure by travelling around the world and distributing the holy names to as many people as possible. This endeavor required travelling on airplanes, using typewriters and computers, and making use of basically everything the modern advanced society had to offer. Therefore in either situation, in the primitive or the modern, the soul desperately craving lasting happiness can find it.
In general, the simplified, renounced lifestyle is considered superior, for at least there are less distractions. But all in all, it is the efficiency of the mind which determines whether one’s condition is superior or not. The person who doesn’t need to travel far and wide to find happiness is much better situated than one who is aimlessly looking for that elusive happiness in all places around the world. As inside of every living being rests the Supreme Lord within the heart next to the individual soul, we don’t have to go far to find God. Through following the simple instructions of the bona fide spiritual masters, the mind can turn into a very efficient machine that uses the strong attachment to God to fuel further activities, which in turn keep the flame of devotion alive.

“For one who remembers Me without deviation, I am easy to obtain, O son of Pritha, because of his constant engagement in devotional service.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.14)

More than just finding happiness in the present, it is promised by Shri Krishna Himself, who is the source of that pleasure, that into the next life the same engagement will continue for the devoted soul. The lower animals find sense pleasure through basic activities, but we don’t consider the animals to be advanced because they don’t know anything about the soul. Repeatedly taking birth as a pig is considered a punishment because one never learns how to connect with God, who brings the highest pleasure anyone can ask for. In this respect there can be no comparison between the person immersed in bhakti and the living entity comfortably situated in material affairs. One side has an engagement that will continue for lifetime after lifetime, while the other is both burdened by many unwanted responsibilities and limited by the duration of their body’s existence.
The supremacy of bhakti is proved by the efficiency of the workers who follow it. Moreover, their superior standing validates the position of Shri Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Material life in an advanced society requires exploitation of resources that aren’t so abundant. With scarcity comes fierce competition, and with competition comes a loss of compassion, leading to the predicament where everyone is always suspicious of one another. Therefore it shouldn’t surprise us that there are so many wars and constant strife in a life focused on material pursuits.

The fact that those things we actually need are the most abundantly available shows that God exists. Water, grains, milk and sunlight are available to practically everyone, and they are not expensive. Those things that we don’t require - elegant jewelry, modern electronic gadgets, and fancy cars - are more expensive on purpose. In a similar manner, in spirituality, Krishna is most fully represented in the processes that are the easiest to implement, that are applicable to the most number of people. The holy name is thus His greatest blessing, a sound vibration that is Krishna Himself. Anyone can recite it and find their way towards a most advanced consciousness.

In Closing:
Primitive better than advanced lifestyle, say we dare?
Before you scoff, the efficiency levels do you compare.
One side to so many amenities is attached,
While the other from everything is detached.
To find mental stimulation must travel far and wide,
While simple take pleasure having God by their side.
No need for expense, chanting holy name is free,
From the benefits supremacy of bhakti you’ll see.
Whether old or new, use everything that is around,
To serve Krishna, to maintain His name’s sound.

Voltaire's English alter-ego unmasked by new letters

14 newly-discovered letters by Francois Voltaire have allowed an Oxford University team to shed light on his brief but important time in England. Two of the new letters shed new light on the extent of the author’s interactions with the English aristocracy and in one letter he even signs his name ‘Francis Voltaire’ – something he has never before been recorded as doing.
The letters have been edited by Professor Nicholas Cronk, director of Oxford University’s Voltaire Foundation and lecturer in the Medieval and Modern Languages Faculty, and are being made available online in the Bodleian Library’s Electronic Enlightenment project.
Professor Cronk said: ‘Voltaire spent two important but relatively undocumented years in England in his early thirties at a time when he was best known as a poet – he arrived with only a recommendation from the British Ambassador to Paris. While here, he was exposed to ideas of English writers and later took empiricism back to the Continent where it became the basis for the Enlightenment. These newly-discovered letters are therefore very interesting because they show how Voltaire’s close interaction with the English aristocracy exposed him to Enlightenment ideas and help us to piece together the nature of those interactions.’
One letter is from Voltaire to Lord Bathurst, a patron of the arts who often hosted great English thinkers at his manor, Richings, including Alexander Pope who wrote much of his translation of Homer there. In this letter Voltaire thanks Bathurst for ‘the freedom of your house and the many liberties I enjoyed in that fine library’. ‘This shows us one way in which Voltaire would have been exposed to so much of Shakespeare, Newton, Locke, Swift, Pope and others – both by reading their books in the library at Richings and perhaps even by meeting contemporary English thinkers,’ Professor Cronk explained.
In another letter, Voltaire writes to the Treasury to confirm receipt of a £200 grant from George II and signs his name ‘Francis Voltaire’. Professor Cronk said: ‘This is interesting in itself – the name ‘Voltaire’ was an invention (he was born ‘Francois Arouet’) so to call himself ‘Francis’ is an English invention of his original invention. But the letter’s significance lies in the fact that this grant probably came to Voltaire at the request of Queen Caroline, a protector of the arts, which reinforces just how closely Voltaire had integrated himself into the English aristocracy in such a short time.’
Professor Cronk came across the new letters during the course of his archival research - 11 were found in the New York Public Library, whose former president Paul LeClerc is himself a Voltaire scholar; two were found in the University of Morgan library and one in the library at the University of Columbia.
Professor Cronk added: ‘Voltaire came to England as a relatively unknown poet with only a recommendation from the British ambassador to Paris, so to make the aristocratic connections that he did shows him to be a brilliant social climber. Sarkozy referred to the stay when during his pre-election campaign he told French businessman in England that they were following in Voltaire’s footsteps so it is exciting to be able to add to the existing knowledge of this short but important visit.’

These letters have been put on the Bodleian Library’s Electronic Enlightenment website, which now houses the most complete collection of Voltaire’s works and correspondence, along with commentary by academics and other digital resources. This is expected to open up the study of Voltaire, allowing interested members to see his original text for themselves without having to travel to the relevant library, and the high-resolution imaging that is possible has already solved one riddle about Voltaire.

Professor Cronk explained: ‘There is one famous letter from Voltaire addressing Alexander Pope as ‘Master Pope’ which we had previously been unable to date. Using the digital archive, which shows every page rather than missing some while photocopying, a post office stamp on the reverse side of the letter reveals this letter to be from October 7 1727.
More than 20,000 letters of Voltaire are known about and Professor Cronk estimates that there must be as many still in existence.
The Voltaire Foundation is carrying out a fifty year project to produce the definitive scholarly edition of Voltaire's complete writings and the project is estimated for completion in 2018.
Provided by Oxford University
"Voltaire's English alter-ego unmasked by new letters." January 20th, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-voltaire-english-alter-ego-unmasked-letters.html
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Robert Karl Stonjek

Women report feeling pain more intensely than men: study

Women report more-intense pain than men in virtually every disease category, according to Stanford University School of Medicine investigators who mined a huge collection of electronic medical records to establish the broad gender difference to a high level of statistical significance.
Their study, to be published online Jan. 23 in the Journal of Pain, suggests that stronger efforts should be made to recruit women subjects in population and clinical studies in order to find out why this gender difference exists.
The study also shows the value of EMR data mining for research purposes. Using a novel database designed especially for research, the Stanford scientists examined more than 160,000 pain scores reported for more than 72,000 adult patients. From these, they extracted cases where disease-associated pain was first reported, and then stratified these findings by disease and gender.
"None of these data were initially collected for research, but this study shows that we can use it in that capacity," said Atul Butte, MD, PhD, the study's senior author.
The medical literature contains numerous reports indicating that women report more pain than men for one or another particular disease, noted Butte, a professor of systems medicine in pediatrics. "We're certainly not the first to find differences in pain among men and women. But we focused on pain intensity, whereas most previous studies have looked at prevalence: the percentage of men vs. women with a particular clinical problem who are in pain. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first-ever systematic use of data from electronic medical records to examine pain on this large a scale, or across such a broad range of diseases."
The study's first authors were Butte's graduate student Linda Liu and postdoctoral scholar David Ruau, PhD, who splits his time between Butte's group and that of co-author Martin Angst, MD, professor of anesthesia. David Clark, MD, PhD, a professor of anesthesia, was another co-author.
Electronic medical records are deployed in about 1-2 percent of hospitals now, but that should approach 100 percent within the next few years as the United States continues to move toward EMRs, Butte said. Thus, large-scale research using clinically collected data will become increasingly feasible.
In this case, the scientists tapped an existing data archive that has been designed specifically for ease of research: the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment, or STRIDE. Pioneered by the medical school's chief information officer, Henry Lowe, MD (who is also an associate professor of systems medicine in pediatrics and director of Stanford's Center for Clinical Informatics), STRIDE aggregates clinical data on patients cared for at Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, making this data searchable for approved research projects.
Butte's team selected only adult records and looked for gender-related differences in pain intensity as reported on 1-to-10 scales, in which a zero stands for "no pain" and 10 for "worst imaginable." Their search algorithm combed through de-identified EMR data for more than 72,000 patients, and came up with more than 160,000 instances, ranging across some 250 different disease categories, in which a pain score had been reported.
"If someone's reporting that they're in pain, they're probably going to be given medication, which might reduce any subsequently measured pain score," said Butte. To get pain estimates that weren't as confounded by subsequent pain-relief medications or procedures, his group analyzed only the first pain-intensity score reported by a patient per encounter with a hospital-associated health professional.
The search identified 47 separate diagnostic categories for which there were more than 40 pain reports for each gender. The sample included more than 11,000 individual adult patients, of which 56 percent were women and 51 percent of them white. The researchers were able to further analyze these 47 categories by condensing them into 16 disease clusters: "musculoskeletal and connective tissue" (in which the biggest gender differences in reported pain intensity were observed), "circulatory" and so forth.
"We saw higher pain scores for female patients practically across the board," said Butte. Those reported differences were not only statistically significant, but also clinically significant. "In many cases, the reported difference approached a full point on the 1-to-10 scale. How big is that? A pain-score improvement of one point is what clinical researchers view as indicating that a pain medication is working."
While the overall results tended to confirm previous clinical findings — for example, that female fibromyalgia or migraine patients report more pain than their male counterparts — the search also unearthed previously unreported gender differences in pain intensity for particular diseases, for example acute sinusitis and "cervical spine disorders," more commonly known as neck pain.
The study's results come with a few caveats. First, the investigators made the assumption that patients' pain hadn't already been treated—for example, that they hadn't already self-medicated with over-the-counter painkillers — by the time they showed up in the emergency room, doctor's office or neighborhood health clinic (or, equivalently, that the men and women were equally likely to have done so).
Other possible confounders include the setting in which pain was reported, Butte said. "Will an 18-year-old male report the same pain intensity with or without his mom present, or in the presence of a male vs. a female nurse? We can't be sure." But the sheer size of the study probably washes these concerns out at least to some extent, he said.
The third caveat is perhaps the most controversial. "It's still not clear if women actually feel more pain than men do," said Butte. "But they're certainly reporting more pain than men do. We don't know why. But it's not just a few diseases here and there, it's a bunch of them — in fact, it may well turn out to be all of them. No matter what the disease, women appear to report more-intense levels of pain than men do."
To get to the bottom of this, Butte's team plans to search EMRs to see if they can find some objective measurement — an already commonly measured blood-test variable, for instance — that correlates highly with reported pain. "We want to find a biomarker for pain," he said.
Provided by Stanford University Medical Center

"Women report feeling pain more intensely than men: study." January 23rd, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-women-pain-intensely-men.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

Neuropathy patients more likely to receive high-cost, screening instead of more effective tests

Researchers at the University of Michigan analyzed the tremendous cost of diagnosing peripheral neuropathy and found that less expensive, more effective tests are less likely to be used.
Almost one-quarter of patients receiving neuropathy diagnoses undergo high-cost, low-yield MRIs while very few receive low-cost, high-yield glucose tolerance tests, according to the study that will be published Jan. 23 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The research was led by Brian Callaghan, M.D., assistant professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Patients diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy typically are given many tests but physicians are highly variable in their approach, says Callaghan.
"We spend a lot of money to work up a diagnosis of neuropathy. The question is whether that money is well spent," Callaghan says.
For patients with peripheral neuropathy, the nerves that carry information to and from the brain don't work property. This commonly leads to tingling or burning in arms or legs and loss of feeling — and the symptoms can go from subtle to severe.
Diabetes is the most common cause of this type of nerve problem. Peripheral neuropathy is found in about 15 percent of those over age 40.
Researchers used the 1996-2007 Health and Retirement Study to identify individuals with a diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy. They focused on 15 relevant tests and examined the number and patterns of tests six months before and after the initial diagnosis.
"Our findings, that MRIs were frequently ordered by physicians, but a lower-cost glucose tolerance test was rarely ordered, show that there is substantial opportunity to improve efficiency in the evaluation of peripheral neuropathy," Callaghan says.
"Currently no standard approach to the evaluation of peripheral neuropathy exists . We need more research to determine an optimal approach.
"We do a lot of tests that cost a lot of money, and there's no agreement on what we're doing."
The climbing rates of diabetes in the U.S. make this research even more important, says co-author Kenneth M. Langa, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of Internal Medicine at U-M, a Research Scientist at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System's Center for Clinical Management Research, and Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research.

"We know more and more people may develop peripheral neuropathy because it is commonly caused by diabetes. Our study suggests that the work-up currently used for neuropathy isn't standardized and tests that are less useful and more expensive may be used too often," says Langa. "We need a more efficient way to handle this increasingly common diagnosis."

More information: Arch Intern Med. 2012; 172[2]:127-132.
Provided by University of Michigan
"Neuropathy patients more likely to receive high-cost, screening instead of more effective tests." January 23rd, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-neuropathy-patients-high-cost-screening-effective.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Socioeconomic status more influential than race in determination of child abuse

An Indiana University School of Medicine study has determined that a patient's socioeconomic status has more influence than race on physician diagnosis of whether a child's injury was accidental or caused by abuse.
When presented with scenarios that could possibly but not obviously indicate child abuse, 2,109 physicians from across the United States who participated in the study were most likely to suspect maltreatment rather than accident for white children from families with low socioeconomic status than for black children with low socioeconomic status or for either black or white children of high socioeconomic status. These findings contradict previous studies that linked differentiated diagnosis to race, reporting increased likelihood to consider abuse in black patients.
The new study appears online in advance of publication in the Journal of Pediatrics.
"It is possible that we were able to determine that socioeconomic status has a more significant impact on the physician's diagnosis than race, when previous studies did not see this, because most of these earlier studies did not include a significant number of low-income white patients and thus were unable to evaluate the influence of family income level," said Antoinette Laskey, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine, a Regenstrief Institute affiliated scientist and a physician with Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health and with Wishard Health Services.
Even among pediatricians with expertise in child abuse evaluations, broad variability exists in determination of abuse.
"Interactions with patients are driven by past experiences and stereotypes. Neither are necessarily negative," Dr. Laskey said. "Past experiences provide valuable information. A stereotype is a rule of thumb, such as 'police are authority figures and should be obeyed' or 'a hooded figure who walks toward you in the dark should be considered a potential threat,' that helps us categorize complicated environments. It is important to understand what stereotypes — socioeconomic status, as we found in this study — influence physician decision-making."
Her next study investigates the multiple factors that drive physician decision-making in child neglect situations as the health care team determines whether an incident was a tragic accident or was avoidable.
More information: "Influence of Race and Socioeconomic Status on the Diagnosis of Child Abuse: A Randomized Study" Journal of Pediatrics.
Provided by Indiana University School of Medicine

"Socioeconomic status more influential than race in determination of child abuse." January 23rd, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-socioeconomic-status-influential-child-abuse.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Concern For Our Friends

“Seeing Rama in such a condition, the king of monkeys, Sugriva, who is grateful and true to his promise, will give up his life. Being depressed, aggrieved, sad, and full of miseries, poor Ruma will give up her life, being tortured by the grief for her husband.” (Hanuman, Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kand, 13.28-29)
kṛtajñaḥ satya samdhaḥ ca sugrīvaḥ plavaga adhipaḥ ||
rāmam tathā gatam dṛṣṭvā tataḥ tyakṣyanti jīvitam |
durmanā vyathitā dīnā nirānandā tapasvinī ||
pīḍitā bhartṛ śokena rumā tyakṣyati jīvitam |
Shri Hanuman, the faithful Vanara warrior, the eternally celebrated divine figure of the Vedic tradition, has concern for every living being. Not sidetracked by his own interests, he uses his love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead to guide all of his decisions, his choices in life. In others this natural impetus for action can get sullied through a desire for self-aggrandizement or personal profit. Hanuman would become famous for his successes in one of the most difficult missions in history, yet his concern was always directed at the innocent people of his village back home, especially because of their close ties to Shri Rama and His younger brother Lakshmana.
Depending on your angle of vision, bhakti-yoga can be considered a method of mysticism aimed at removing distresses in life or it can be viewed as the foremost occupational duty for the spirit soul. Bhakti is multi-faceted, so we can’t just point to one activity and say that it is the definitive embodiment of bhakti. Meditational yoga has its sitting postures and breathing exercises, jnana-yoga has its study of Vedanta philosophy, and karma-yoga has its fruitive work where the results are renounced for a higher cause. Yet bhakti, which is nothing more than pure love for God, can follow any activity. Even assuming a false guise, infiltrating an enemy territory, and looking through different rooms inside of a palace for a woman can be part of bhakti.
Just as the soldier is not punished for his act of killing an enemy fighter, one who takes to seemingly sinful behavior but for the proper cause does not suffer the negative consequences. Just as if we let go of an object from our hand it will fall to the ground, any action taken against the injunctions of scripture will lead to a negative reaction in the future. Because of this property the prohibited actions are considered sinful. If not for the negative consequence, there would be no question of sin.
Lest we think the guaranteed delivery of the unwanted side effects is just a sectarian belief, we can see evidence of the negative reactions from our own lives. If we were to run a red light, not only is there a chance of getting a ticket, but there is every possibility of colliding with traffic crossing from the sides, for they have a green light. If we eat too much food, we will feel physical discomfort. If we don’t pay our taxes, the government will eventually come after us. Each of these actions goes against standard codes of conduct.
The scriptures, the law codes instituted by the Supreme Lord at the beginning of creation, are meant to guide human behavior. The animals are excluded because they don’t have the intelligence to understand right and wrong and the purpose to their existence. Children are also excluded, as the responsibility for their actions falls squarely with the guardians. But the adult human being, who has the capability to make a sober choice in his pursuits, is advised to follow scriptural injunctions to avoid punishment. Following the recommended rules and regulations allows for advancement in consciousness, and going against the same obviously leads the worker in the opposite direction. Like trying to reach the sky by catching hold of falling raindrops, one who lives a life of sin and is wholly averse to bhakti has no chance of advancing the plight of the soul.

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.20)

How can the soul advance? Does not the soul reside within a particular body? Therefore if we want to move the soul somewhere, shouldn’t we just take our body to that place? Though the soul dwells in a particular form, it is known that it doesn’t stay there forever. The soul existed prior to our birth, for Lord Krishna reveals in the Bhagavad-gita that the soul does not ever have birth or death. Hence we know that the soul will continue on long after the current life is finished. Something must determine where the soul ends up, and according to revealed information, that something is the sum collection of work and desires. Just as if someone works hard to become physically fit and desires to eat healthy they will get a lean and properly functioning body, someone who desires the best end for the soul and takes to the necessary work will be granted that reward in the future.
Yet bhakti is so nice that one who practices it doesn’t have to wait until the distant future to see results. They can place the soul in a happy place right away, just by accepting the need to serve God. He is a singular entity, the Supreme Lord, but based on time and circumstance He can be viewed differently. Bhakti is considered the highest practice because only in this discipline is the Supreme Personality taken for who He is, the best friend of the living entities. God is most certainly the original proprietor of everything and the ultimate enjoyer, but His inherent friendship to everyone makes the spirit soul a candidate to act in the Lord’s interests at all times, to enjoy His company. As God is not limited to a single residence or personal form, He can accompany the lonely soul in its travels just by appearing in a sound vibration. The devotees practicing bhakti thus always chant sacred mantras like, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, to keep their beloved’s company close by.
Hanuman, though using deceit and risking sinful behavior, was completely immersed in bhakti. Since Hanuman had Lord Rama’s image within his mind and was acting to please his beloved Rama, his actions in Lanka were not sinful at all. Moreover, he turned a playing field considered the “sin city” of its time into his sacrificial arena. Just as a church is a building turned place of worship, any area can be used to formally adore the Supreme Lord if it is sanctified properly. In the Vedic tradition, the sacrificial arena is where the relevant parties sit down together, chant sacred hymns, and offer oblations into a fire to please the Lord of sacrifice, Yajneshvara. The Vedas tag God with thousands of names to describe His limitless features and to give the devoted souls more ways to address Him.
The land of Lanka, an island hosting thousands of ghoulish creatures given to the worst kind of sinful behavior, was Hanuman’s sacrificial arena, where he would pour oblations into the fire to please Shri Rama. Sita Devi, Rama’s wife, had been taken to Lanka against her will by Ravana, the king of the island. Hanuman’s duty was to find where Sita was and return that information to Rama, who was stationed back at the camp in Kishkindha. Hanuman was part of a monkey race known as Vanaras who lived in the forests. Rama and His younger brother Lakshmana were there looking for Sita, and through Hanuman’s efforts they formed an alliance with the king of Vanaras, Sugriva.
Though on a reconnaissance mission, Hanuman remained in the bhakti spirit. Because of this he didn’t have to worry about sin. Though different actions carry small and large consequences relating to future fortunes, if one has the image of the Supreme Lord firmly etched within their mind, how can any temporary consequence be considered beneficial or negative? Hanuman already had Rama, so he didn’t need to worry about where his soul would end up next or what type of situation he would enjoy or suffer in the future.
Normally, if we were to reach such a state of mind, the obvious effect would be to become callous to the welfare of our friends, family, and community. I have God in my mind, after all, so what do I care whether someone else is happy or not? With the other kinds of yoga the aim is to find some level of detachment. If we work hard and renounce the fruits of our labor, we aren’t bound by the concern for loss or gain. If we study Vedanta and learn that we are spirit soul not attached to the body, we will not have concern over happiness or failure. By steady meditation in specific asanas, the effects of the senses will be mitigated, thus allowing for the mind to ease its attachment to friends and family.
As bhakti is the culmination of every kind of yoga practice, it would make sense if Hanuman didn’t care about anyone except Rama. But God is the source of everything, as the Vedanta-sutras so nicely state, janmady asya yatah. From one comes everything; from God has sprung forth the entire creation. One who knows this understands that every creature has an inherent link to the Supreme Lord, even if they are unaware of it. By serving God in a mood of pure love, the compassionate attitude derived from devotion will automatically extend to others. The topmost transcendentalist is referred to as a paramahamsa, or supreme swan. He can extract the good from any situation. Even if he sees a world full of sinners, since he knows they are linked to the Supreme Lord, he thinks of how best he can bring about their salvation.
Conversely, if the devotee should feel they are letting down the Supreme Lord, they automatically think of how that failure will affect others. This is what Hanuman faced in the situation in the above referenced verse. After having braved every obstacle and searched far and wide, Hanuman had yet to find Sita. Not surprisingly, he started pondering over what might happen if he did actually fail in his mission. He had convinced himself that Rama would renounce his life, Lakshmana right after, and then all of Rama’s family in Ayodhya following them. Hanuman knew that Sugriva was also hoping for Sita to be found, so if Hanuman returned to Kishkindha and announced failure, the monkey king would surely give up his body. The king’s wife Ruma would then have nothing to live for, so she would also give up her body.
In this way Hanuman essentially made himself responsible for the deaths of everyone he loved and adored. Yet he had done nothing wrong up to this point. He hadn’t taken Sita away, nor had he hidden her in a distant island. Hanuman tried everything in his power to find Sita, so why should he feel bad? Love is impossible to explain, especially when talking about those who practice bhakti at the highest levels. Hanuman would not settle for anything less than Rama’s complete satisfaction. The pressure was already great on Hanuman, as he had no friends or family with him while in a hostile territory. Rather, everyone in the immediate vicinity was rooting for his failure, even though they didn’t know he was there. Now that he made himself believe that everyone back home would die from disappointment should he fail, Hanuman put even more emphasis on his bhakti practices.

“O son of Kunti [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 7.8)

With this kind of devotion, how could Hanuman ever fail? Shri Rama is the ability in man, as He so nicely points out as Krishna in the Gita while discussing matters of life and death and the properties of spirit with His disciple and cousin Arjuna. Hanuman’s bhakti would lead to happiness not only for Rama, but also for all of the Lord’s friends and family. Hanuman was keenly aware of this, and he took the responsibility assigned to him very seriously. Therefore it should be known without a doubt that bhakti only increases our love for our fellow man, something no other kind of yoga can claim to do. As everyone’s constitutional position is to be engaged in God’s service, the bhakta isn’t shy about sharing their wisdom about the meaning of life with others. This is the kindest welfare work, as no temporary reward or sweet speech can provide lasting benefits to the soul looking to match their loving propensity with the proper beneficiary.
Just as Hanuman could survive in enemy territory by remembering Rama, so we can manage our way through the rough waters of the current age of quarrel and hypocrisy by remembering Hanuman and his dedication. Time after time, in situation after situation, Hanuman stepped up to the plate and delivered a top notch performance. When he faced doubt and worried over what might happen to his loved ones, he still didn’t give up. He kept fighting and eventually succeeded. Not giving up remembering Hanuman will similarly bring success in bhakti.
In Closing:
When on Supreme Lord only you depend,
Compassion for all humanity does extend.
For Hanuman, sea of doubt his mind did engulf,
But still only cared about others, not himself.
Shri Rama’s sadness Sugriva also would affect,
Then his wife Ruma too, body to reject.

This chain reaction Shri Hanuman saw,

Making himself ruination’s sole cause.
No matter, fight on with mission instead,
In finding Sita full speed ahead.

Research team applies mathematical modeling and algorithms to learning process

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people inherently understand that they have a unique way of studying material for a test that suits their unique personality. Unfortunately, such differences between people tend to create problems for educators when trying to teach students how to study. Now, a team of applied mathematicians from Cornel have developed a model that they believe can be used by virtually any student to maximize the benefit they receive from studying. The model they’ve built, as the team describes in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is based on mathematical algorithms and information provided by the student.
The researchers started with the well worn proposition that in order for people to learn new material they need to have it presented to them more than once. Combined with that is the realization that the optimal time span between presentations of the same material is different for different people. There are also, of course, differences between individuals in the number of times material needs to be presented before it is sufficiently retained.
Then because each of these learning constraints can be theoretically measured, it should be possible to build a simple model describing how many times new material should be presented to a student and when, based on numbers obtained by the individual student. That’s just what the team has done, but they’ve taken the whole thing a step further, because facts and concepts don’t come one by one. During the learning process, students are bombarded with many different ideas and facts, some of which aren’t even related. Nonetheless, they are expected to make sense of it all and then in the end prove their understanding when taking a test.
This is where new models comes in. They use statistical analysis and mathematical algorithms to take into account all the various scenarios that are likely involved in the studying process and then provide best guesses for the student regarding how they should go about their study habits.
The team believes the models they’ve built will work for most students, though there will be exceptions of course. Some learn slower than average, some faster, and there are of course sometimes greater than average differences in intelligence which can obviously impact the learning process. Also there is the problem of differentiating between learning goals, such as studying to pass a test and learning as a means of supporting a lifelong career.
The results of the research done by the team is not purely academic, one of its members, Tim Novikoff owns a company that makes a computerized educational application that might just benefit from the models developed by the team.
More information: Education of a model student, PNAS, Published online before print January 23, 2012, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1109863109

Abstract
A dilemma faced by teachers, and increasingly by designers of educational software, is the trade-off between teaching new material and reviewing what has already been taught. Complicating matters, review is useful only if it is neither too soon nor too late. Moreover, different students need to review at different rates. We present a mathematical model that captures these issues in idealized form. The student’s needs are modeled as constraints on the schedule according to which educational material and review are spaced over time. Our results include algorithms to construct schedules that adhere to various spacing constraints, and bounds on the rate at which new material can be introduced under these schedules.

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"Research team applies mathematical modeling and algorithms to learning process." January 24th, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-team-mathematical-algorithms.html
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Robert Karl Stonjek