Swine/Avian flu comeback?

We've seen  the avian/bird flu to "fly away" from the media attention, as soon as a new wave of infection, called swine flu, popped out. There exist 3 main "types" (genus / species) of influenza virus - A, B and C. Their "subtypes" (serotypes / strains) are really easy to merge with each other and create a whole new subtype, which isn't covered by a vaccine. If you still didn't understand it, imagine crossing a black cow with a white cow and ending up getting a black cow with white spots (or vise versa) - that's a rather simplistic comparison!

Now, CDC and the pharmaceutical companies (and subsequently the doctors that cooperate with them) warn about the widespread influenza virus infection. They expect the same or similar strains that have appeared so far. To some of you, this might look like "a big game" played by medicament-related companies. I have no idea what's going in the background and in the behind-closed-doors meetings, but one thing is sure: You have to be prepared.

Note for employers: this really concerns you, if you don't want to have insufficient personnel unexpectedly!
CDC has a well-written article about how should businesses and employers be prepared for the winter: http://www.flu.gov/plan/workplaceplanning/guidance.html




It may statistically be a pandemic crisis, but if people and public areas are well-prepared there's nothing to be afraid of. Quite honestly, I doubt anyone of you reading this post will face any serious symptoms. Surely pre-schools, schools and libraries can provide better hygiene control, teaching children how to wash their hands properly is a great way to start. Secondly, liquid hand sanitizers should be available in some rooms. Moreover, it should be possible to "recycle" the air in the premises, providing a fresh set every now and then; for instance, leaving a window open for a couple of minutes while on break.


Sneezing, coughing and even talking might expel liquid (droplets) along with some particles (droplets nuclei). One of the best ways to trigger attention while warning other people is to show why sneezing and coughing are bad, and some pictures of the actual moment are a good way to start:
- http://pileofphotos.com/view/188/People-sneezing
- http://www.immediart.com/catalog/popup_image.php?pID=434



It's common sense that some people will get sick during the winter. That doesn't mean that they all will catch the bird or the swine flu. Babies should of course be taken care of and checked by a paediatrician, whereas adults and teenagers should also take precautional measures.

The easiest pathways for a micro-organism to enter our body is through the mouth, the eyes or the nose. The droplets from sneezing and coughing are really contagious. Therefore, "nose-picking", "eye-rubbing", "thumb-sucking" etc. should be avoided at all times; or at least until you get your hands cleaned! :-)


Also note that one of the first symptoms is almost always a sudden fever, followed by a runny nose/sore throat/higher fever after 8-12 hours; they might not all be expressed and might be in a different sequence!

There is one thing though in this whole bird/swine flu story that drives me nuts. The western capitalistic countries seem to be in a non-infective bubble. Many people in the least developed or developing countries don't have the adequate medical equipment nor the vaccines to combat and prevent the virus from spreading. Because of this, people might die, and only a few of us care. The media simply draw attention to what happens in the "western civilization", avoiding to show deaths that happen in other places of the world, where - under famine and food shortage - pathogenic micro-organisms spread wildly and only some of us provide help.

If the flu was just a marketing trick to cause mass hysteria and sell out their vaccine merchandise, I have a brutal comment for such companies, but then again I prefer not to  express my opinion.


Finally, I recommend taking the "Flu I.Q." test, it's a fun way of being informed about general information and facts regarding the influenza virus:

A second language - and a third one!

  One and a half year ago I wanted to comment an article about a second language. Sometimes people are having hard time learning new things, and it's not just their fault, it could be literally an anomaly in the brain structure or it could be related to the level of complication of the language someone chose to learn.
  To a personal background level, I believe I used to be a polyglot, a linguist if you will. I loved to learn new languages, I started English as a second language at the age of 9 (I think), all thanks to my wish to understand how to interact with the computer and read foreign literature. From there, I followed English until the GCE O'Level certificate. In the meantime, I began French for fun, having nothing to do during long summer days. The intensive 5-hour lessons proved to be a really attractive language and I continued learning for 3 consecutive years (during July/August). Then came preparation for the medical schools, which put a stop to all my other activities. Perhaps it was my teen-hormone years or my own free will that did not pursuit my love for new languages. Nevertheless, I've learned basic Latin and still continue to perfect my knowledge in Serbian language during my medical school years - I guess I still have a crave for languages deep down under the wish for wearing a white robe. :)
  No hard feelings to anyone, but I've recently compared the Serbian language to the German. Not that I know much about the German language, but I've noticed that in German there is the possibility to mix multiple words into one. Really cool once you get to know the basics of the language, but sometimes it is really hard for new learners. Basically, the grammar and the word pronounciation can be a reason for a person to pull back and not wanting to express themselves in that language. For example, Serbians from what I know have a hard time using "th" or "th"(d) - i.e. in the words "theatre" or "the" respectively - in English, which I think is one of the reasons they prefer not to use English at all.

  The fascinating thing as a child is that you can learn more stuff than an adult person, the so called "Tabula Rasa" thesis. My opinion is that gifted polyglots (people that speak a lot of languages) should nurture their languages by daily or weekly translating/reading text of headlines, otherwise the wealth of words and phrases of a language they might once perfectly knew will definitely decrease by time without giving it adequate practice. And it doesn't stop there, listening should adopt your hearing ability in order to rapidly process verbal requests or to better interact with other people. Remember, a dialogue needs "two to tango", so it might be better to find a partner for it. Exchanging opinions about your primary language for a secondary one through "The mixxer project" may prove really helpful. I haven't tried it yet, but some of the readers may have better solutions for this. I suppose that you'll have to make remarks about the difference in slang and normal language, so.. be very careful!
  Learning languages can be compared to other learning possibilities, such as playing the piano or the guitar or even writing code in various programming languages. There's a time when you might mix up words or phrases, but the brain learns to eventually adopt while multi-processing such requests - almost similar to other mechanical functions, like driving, eating a burger, talking to the phone and switching gears at the same time (not that I recommend it).
  To sum up, comparing time required, ability to learn and grace of use, as a child you'd have better results in learning a language, provided you often practice. And do practice, because in later years it will definitely prove worthy!

How to install Folding@home in Ubuntu using origami

This is a quick "how to" tutorial in order to provide some of your CPU time for a good cause, which is called Folding@home. As they explain it at the F@h website:

Folding@home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved.

There are other projects out there, like BOINC. In that case, I suggest to install boinc-manager (menu Applications → Add/Remove) and check out Rosetta.

Now let's get down to business. You need to pick a name, which can be anything you like, as long as it's not taken - you can also pick a team, but that's optional. You do not need a password for a username, but you need one in order to create your own team.
Tip #1: A person is called a "Donor" in F@h.

Next is the application. Ubuntu is based on GNU/Linux, and the (good? :P) people of Stanford have created a console client. Despite the fact that we are left without a graphical interface, we can still get the client program and use it.

It's time to visit our good ol' friend, the Terminal (or Konsole for KDE users). Once you start terminal (menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal) we will install the origami package:

sudo apt-get install origami

Tip #2: Type in your password and press enter if you are asked to do so

The following step is to download and install the f@h client program.
The origami manual has several examples:

origami install -u Joe -t 45104
This example will install the Folding @ Home client to the local
machine, reporting data as the Joe user as part of the 45104
(TeamUbuntu) Team.

origami install -u Joe -t 45104 -c1
This example will install the Folding @ home client to the local
machine, reporting data as the Joe user as part of the 45104
(TeamUbuntu) Team, using the i386 Folding @ Home client and
toggling the cron option to auto-stop between the hours of 8:00am
and 5:00pm.

origami install -u Joe -t 45104 -p amd64
This example will install the Folding @ home client to the local
machine, reporting data as the Joe user as part of the 45104
(TeamUbuntu) Team, using the amd64 Folding @ Home client and
toggling the cron option to auto-stop between the hours of 8:00am
and 5:00pm.

Tip: If you are on your own and don't have a team, I urge you to join TeamUbuntu ( 45104 ) or UbuntuForums ( 45399 ).

Tip #3: Don't know whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system (OS)? If you're not sure, execute this:

uname -m

It shows whether you have 32-bit (x86/i386) or 64-bit (x86_64/amd64) OS. 64-bit users will want to fully use their processors, so they need to use the -p amd64 argument.

In short, the recommended command for 32-bit is:

sudo origami install -u YourName -t 45104 -c1

..and for 64-bit is:

sudo origami install -u YourName -t 45104 -c1

Tip #4: origami installs a crontab if you use -c1 in its own system user 'origami'. If you want to edit the hours it starts/stops (after you install it), execute: sudo crontab -u origami -e

Once your f@h client is installed, you have finished the installation! You can see how your folding process goes:

sudo origami status

Tip #5: Your origami configuration files are found in the /var/lib/origami/ folder. For example, my current CPU #1 configuration file is /var/lib/origami/foldingathome/CPU1/client.cfg

Tip #6: You can give a small boost to your folding process by making it use really low CPU instead of running when it's just idle. Execute:

sudo origami 

Wait for it to stop, then run your text editor to edit the configuration file:

gksu gedit /var/lib/origami/foldingathome/CPU1/client.cfg

Add the following at the bottom of the file:

[core]
priority=96

Save and close your text editor, and restart origami:

sudo origami start

Enjoy folding proteins folks! :) You'll actually be helping out various medical fields, such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease researching.

Finally, take a look at these sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_distributed_computing_projects
http://www.gridrepublic.org/
http://game.bakerlab.org/portal/

Social life and recreational drugs: Smoking

  As modern humans, or homo sapiens sapiens, we have evolved greatly in a lot of areas - from creating ways of verbal and signal communication to the rapid development of economy, trading and science, as well as technology. While this exponential progression was successful so far, something has gone wrong the past century. In this errata belongs the use of recreational drugs.
  Drugs of this kind haven't been banned yet and people have a free choice of using them or not (most countries have an age-limit). Tobacco smoking, alcohol and caffeine are now three of the most powerful profit-making industries of the 21st century.


Smoking

  By the mid-17th century, most major civilizations had been introduced to tobacco and recreational smoking; We should probably forgive the past generations for using them in neglect of the consequences of this type of drug use, but nowadays a lot of studies have shown the nasty effects of these indelicate habits, is there really a reason to use them? I'm surely not referring to medical patients which have a couple of years to live and seek to live it pain-free and pass away peacefully.
  Despite the way tobacco is taken, smoked, snuffed or chewed, the effects in a human being are devastating after prolonged usage, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease have boosted over the years and despite these facts, tobacco consumption is still increasing.
In the false belief that nicotine "calms down", humans intake large amounts of this drug in small dosage. This brilliant way of  taking up poison without even realizing it has enormous negative effects just after several years of constant smoking. You first start small; either as a need for relaxation, a window out of dullness or to become accepted in the "cool" or audacious sect of a social group. You continue the uptake in normal dosages every now and then. But, just like the body adapts to high or low temperatures in a number of days or your nose to an awful smell in a matter of 5 minutes, the same exact way your body becomes accustomed to tobacco as a normal intake.
  Taking it down slowly, you may think you can control it, but you find yourself in need to "relax" after an attempt to break the habit for several days. A parasite of your own free will has taken over your wallet, your pocket money, and your years to live. People cannot understand this and keep taking nicotine.
  A lot of people believe that smoking can calm you or provide you with extra alertness and concentration (increase of a substance called acetylcholine), that it can drop the level of anxiety (due to the release of beta-endorphins), that you can afterwards endure large psychological stress, which is not always true. As mentioned earlier, after several years of using tobacco, you become a slave to a regular dosage that tends to increase day by day, while you grow up and face the world's problems. Arousal? Probably the first couple of years. But what could happen in several years later is to reach a state of sexual disfunction (genital haemodynamic disruption).
  Finally, most people don't understand the cost of the cigarettes, since they dosage is small and for. An accustomed male or female might smoke one pack of cigarettes per day. Multiply the cost of the pack by 30 for a month. Suppose they cost 3 €, you would save 60 or 90 € per month for this nasty habit, which could be used for two nights at a lovely appartment outside town.

  All in all, the "great" or "pleasing" effects of nicotine only apply for a short timeline usage, longterm usage comes with great negative effects and therefore problems, may these be financial or health related. Your body doesn't need to relax every day, your body is a temple made of hard stone and marble, that can re-enstate itself back to normal after a good sleep of just one hour. Outdoor activity can prove much helpful to decrease anxiety, since you stress out yourself in exercise - this way you get a sexy body, ladies/men to want you and keep it healthy. I dare you to compare that to a "sitting-eating-mcdonalds-and-smoking" syndrome that an obese person's lifestyle might include.

  Recreational drugs of such sort can be controlled by seeking professional/medical help - don't let yourself reach a stage where you need such help.

To be continued...

The reward for hard study

It's an examination period and I'm determined to pass the exams I have left, Biochemistry comes first. As all students, I don't have much to comment about my exams ;) I'm trying my best, with all the stuff going around my head, the birds flying and pretty girls walking by my apartment. It is not easy, I can tell you that! Bottom line is that I have to pass the year to go on with my life... and that actually means several sacrifices have to be made. As you can see, I haven't updated my blog lately, due to this - let's just call it "re-organizing priorities".
Sitting my rear all day long isn't something I always wanted to do, but there are really times when that is necessary, an exam period is a perfect moment to start practising! People that do extra study get a bonus reward for their hard work (besides passing grades): Hemorrhoids!
On the other hand, what I really don't like is that I've begun to forget my flawless English, with all the Serbian studying I start making critical spelling errors and pronunciation mistakes.

Concerning the "computer geek" world around me, ubuntucy.org has kicked off finally, and pretty well dare I say, the Ubuntu Cypriot Team has began its first steps to becoming a successful local team. It's still a bit foggy around the organization, but as theo said we could use some anarchy in our lives every once and a while.

Happenings of Mid-March 2008

It's been a while, lots of stuff to talk about. First and foremost, I'm beginning to get up again and stand on my own two feet, although my father's death will always be a painful memory. I've decided to prioritise my to-do list for this year, and guess what - it's more study time for me! That doesn't mean I won't post here, but it means that I will do it after I get to know with my books a little bit better. :) I don't need anyone watching over my shoulder to do this, I am aware that the buck stops with me, but biochemistry (one of the subjects left for me to pass) is a quite large subject with enormous books, it requires time, and it's not something you can test on a computer, run it and say "Ah, it works this way".
Secondly, I believe some of you must've heard about the fall of Serbia's Government. Although I am apathetic to the political scenery in Cyprus and Serbia, I must say it was a bomb waiting to explode, this way the two democratic parties get to bash each other about the fact that no-one was able to .
Thirdly, I signed up this puppy in blogrush, they say it's good for publicity, plus they have this nifty addon for blogs, that give you some interesting articles of what's going on in (their) blogosphere.
Bubbling thus, I have just made a bash script that checks whether you have duplicates of a screen -S something instance. I will personally use it along with "screen -S irc irssi". It helps in situations like when you want a connection waiting for you in the background, while you log in. I believe it can be used with gnome sessions. You can alter it in your own personal style, get it from here. Usage: bash screen-irc-check
Last but not least, I opened up my own personal reseller website named HellNetworks (not done yet, I'm working on it), providing people internet services such as IRC shells, logo design, web hosting, webspace, some programming skills, something for those extra funds for my medical studies.

Caregiving and ethics

Caring is such a simple word, especially when it comes to people very dear for you. Ever cared for someone so much that you simply don't know how to do it? There are a dozen of pages if you search right at Google for them using some of the google operators I blogged about in earlier posts (*hint* "how to" care *hint*).
Social care shouldn't just be shown for relatives, you have millions of persons waiting and deseve to be loved. I'm not allowed to name such groups of persons, everyone has their own pride and see this matter differently. Be gentle and reasonable, that is always the first step towards finding real solutions.
For example, while browsing the Internet, I stumbled upon a fresh caregiving service called bettercaring, giving people a literal opportunity for a care home. I don't know how reliable their services are, but it looks very promising from my browsing point of view.
On the other hand, some may not deserve it so much. If they see you care, they get very (and I mean VERY) impolite, using you around to get their job done and generally abusing your kindness.
Finally, there are some problems if there are patients that require better caring. As a student of medicine, I'm not allowed ethically to show that I care literally for my patient and that I should always keep a "status quo", but I believe I would be able to show my caring indirectly by running all the appropriate tests and diagnosing them carefully, while I do not express my inner thoughts. Racism is out of question of course. There are certain ways to hedge embarassing moments of racist and fascist criticism, I can give you two: 1) Keep it short when explaining, no need for adjectives of extra beautification. 2) If you do make the mistake and "cross the line" just kindly say "I'm sorry, let me rephrase that". If you follow these two golden rules you'll be able to overpass some misinterpreted situations or not come to them at all!

To sum it up, care for those that really need it, be kind to everybody (including the attention "hunters"), and watch your expressions while chatting or explaining.

Happy new year... with side-effects!

By the old calendar (see Julian calendar) today's the first day of 2008. It's sort of a family tradition to celebrate new year by the old calendar here in Serbia. Unfortunately for me, I got sick the day before.
What was the diagnosis? With my limited (yet) medical knowledge, I believe it was either cold (viral gastrointestinal infection?), gastroenteritis or just a grumpy stomach after so much eating these days - whatever it was, the emesis was inevitable! I remembered a movie scene, where people simply puked out some fake juice. In any case, mine was not just fake juice. We had a lot of dinners during my short stay in Cyprus, lots of friends wanted to see us, some of them just to see how we're doing, what have I achieved so far etc. It looks like I have overworked my poor stomach and it declared strike! :)
To make matters worse, a headache and fairly high temperature were presented shortly after the "sailing-at-sea" nausea feeling to the symptomas, therefore I had nothing else to do than start treating myself with a doze of a domperidone-based anti-emetic drug and paracetamol.

So, 2008 - new year, new expectations, new destinations, new romance, new... everything! May this year be the best for you and your family, enjoy it as much as you can, just don't forget to grab a book from time to time.

Update: Forgot to mention the celebration that happened yesterday at midnight, fireworks literally lit up the sky over the Cathedral of St. Sava, one of the biggest cathedrals in Europe. Here are some of the pictures, taken by B92:

R.I.P. Zorane

Zoran Radevic, my dear beloved father, has passed away at a middle age on the 6th of December, one day after my nameday (St. Savvas, Greek Christian Orthodox). As a medical doctor, specialised in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, he was great at his work, his patients can all confirm that. One of the main reasons he couldn't stay in life longer was because of his condition, Wilson's disease. He was diagnosed at an early age, about 9 years old, but the problems had already began to gather up due to the already piled Cuprum (copper). The problems became vivid day by day, until he decided to take his chances and do the inevitable transplantation about 2 years ago. After a whole of 3-4 months of waiting, a donor was found to be compatible with my father's body tissues and size (among other things). With a 60-70% of chance to survive, enormous inner strength and pride have made him a fighter, a fighter that wants to survive the worst moments in his life and yes, he did pull it through, the surgery was successful.
But compatibility problems have appeared 6 months after the surgery. The immunosuppressive drugs weren't doing their job anymore, so my parents decided to do a retransplantation to try once more, maybe he was lucky enough to find a donor in time. But, as all patients of immunosuppressive therapy, he faced the big problem: bacteria. A type of Klebsiella species has invaded his body and it made sure he couldn't do the tranplantation in time. Klebsiella spp. usually comes from the hospital staff, and it's probably the reason why my father had to confront with this nosocomial infection. 4 months have passed since that event, and the microbiological tests were still positive for bacteria. As long as those tests were positive, he couldn't do anything that involved surgery, since that would be characterized as a high-risk action and of course no one would do anything but to try and clear out the infection.
My dad was one of the main reasons I'm studying medicine, and again the reason why I've chosen to study at the Medical school of Belgrade university, since that's the place where my parents met during studies.
What surprised me the most was that at the day of his funeral and the first Sunday afterwards (Greek Cypriots call it μνημόσυνο, in memoriam of the deceased) it rained in Cyprus, 3 or 4 times - and Cyprus is an island known for its long drought seasons. It kind of makes you think about possibilities and coincidences as well as afterlife.
After his death and his funeral, I am proud to be his son, I cannot thank him enough for being there when he was needed the most, for trying so hard to raise his two children and give them a bright future and a good life. I love you dad, I'll always love you and I know that you will always be with me, every step of the way, to guide me through all my difficult moments.

Rest in peace and may the ground holding your body be blessed with the thousands of thankful souls you have saved.

Medicine: The power of memories

Yesterday I tried to make a tuna fish salad again, but with minimal ingredients this time; I didn't have cucumbers nor peppers! Anyway, one of the most amazing things just happened while I was squeezing a lemon over the freshly cut onion - my nose caught the scent which reminded me of souvlakia-sheftalia (σουβλάκια-σιεφταλιά, ражњићи), which I haven't tasted for almost two years!
Souvlakia-sheftalia is a Greek/Cypriot traditional specialty usually served with salad or half an onion and half a lemon, all packed in a nice pocket-shaped bread (pitta - yes double 't'). Memories can be quite amazing sometimes.

Now on to the real part: Memories! Your memories aren't but chemicals, nicely organised in neuron, waiting to be released. When the human nose catches a familiar smell within a respected range, the smell could be connected to some old memories, in my case, FOOD! I believe the term for this occasion is "Olfaction memory". But how is this connected?

I won't go into many details, but here's a brief road-map: The human nervous system has been divided into two big parts, the central (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (here is a short summary of the NS stucture I made). CNS consists of the brain and the spinal cord.
Somewhere in your brain, there's a Hippocampus is one of the main parts of the Limbic System, controlling emotion expression and memory. The amygdala play a big role for the expression of emotions such as sadness, need to reward/congratulate or fear, anger, etc. Don't forget that emotions can often be triggered by a smell - like the sweet, sweet smell of souvlakia! Argh, now I'm hungry again.

Anyway, the memory part is controlled mainly by hippocampus (thank God there's Wikipedia to show where it is, so I'll be able to keep this short). Its name is given from its shape - in greek (or latin for that matter), ιππόκαμπος means sea-horse. If you damage this baby you'll end up either losing your ability to memorise new things (anterograde amnesia) and probably access to memory before the damage (retrograde amnesia). At patients that suffer from Alzheimer's disease, the hippocampus is probably one of the primary parts of the brain that is damaged.
Before you start nagging that this is a huge and boring post, there is one more thing I'd like you to see, the rhinencephalon and the olfactory tract. Some thousands (correct me if I'm wrong) of olfactory neurons, that hang on the top border of your nose (ethmoid bone), send signals through the olfactory tract all the way to the olfactory or piriform cortex. As you can see, it is tightly connected to the Limbic system, hence the connection between the senses and emotion expression or memory recall. Each sniff you take is "encoded" to several bits of local depolarisations, if they're enough they're added up and create an action potential and finally sent towards your brain, an impulse to the limbic system in our case. Although the neurons between the limbic system parts go into an loop, the system has several cut-points, points where the axons are connected with other neurons, therefore points where new signals take place in the loop. From there, the amygdala send direct orders to the brain to bring me a sense of euphoria or satisfaction and the hippocampus retrieves the information from the long-term memory "database" about the specific smell.

Imagine this post as a backstage pass; not to a Madonna concert, but to one of your many body functions :-)
You disagree on anything of the above? State your opinion by writing a comment.

Homo bardus

bardus = stupid, slow, dull.

After the following videos, which probably represent the level of stupidity of the human race at its greatest peak in the 21st century, I believe you'll think twice before a McDonald's chow-down and just where you will take your child.





P.S. New blog design, new approach in life ;)

Something to get your day started!

A good day to start your day is by laughing. It doesn't only cheer you up, but laughter also stimulates your immune system. I bet this adorable baby is as healthy as much as it is happy :)

Baby Big Laugh - The best home videos are here

Why do babies cheer you up? Probably because you remember your baby movies and/or photographs. Memories can play a very important role in the brain, especially if they are thoughts of joy. See how much of this can be connected to a single video or photo?
Most feelings are expressed in a special part of the brain, called the limbic system. But anyway, let me not ruin your day with medical facts! I'll bore in some later posts. For now, enjoy your day! :)

Health: Work hours affect your sleep

Remember the two parts of the post Operation Sleepwalk? The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (catchy name!) have concluded, after thorough researches, that work time is a mega factor related to your sleep time:

Sleep time was minimal while work time was maximal in the age group 45-54 years, and sleep time increased both with lower and higher age.(1)

The weird thing is that if you watch a lot of TV you get more eye-shut time:

Except for time spent watching TV, which increased with longer sleep times, all waking activities decreased with increasing sleep time.(2)

Come to think of it, it's not that weird. Your eyes get tired, your eyesight deteriorates, you become a couch potato, need I continue? It's the same thing with gamers. The difference between gamers and TV viewers is the amount of adrenaline - Usually (and you didn't hear this from me) epinephrine (another geeky name for adrenaline) is more or less a deluge to persons that play action games, or games on which they get addicted. It's not bad, but too much is bad.

Keep your gaming skills sharp, your window to the world open (*hint hint* television), but don't stand/sit in front of a computer or a TV all day long!

Operation Sleepwalk (Part II)

Resuming from this article...

Relaxation - How relaxed are you? Were you feeling comfortable lying all day in bed? Well, studies have shown that relaxation level does not provide a good sleep. And this does not include yoga, since stretching your legs to a perfect 180 degree or curling it around your neck is actually a (painful at start?) form of exercise

Working out - Your body begs for attention, as does your brain. And I'm surely not recommending working out 10 consecutive hours. That is called exhaustion which further causes debilitation, not exercise! (double click for word definition) I personally have to say that my sleep is better after a 1km walk, 2x1=2km in total if you consider going back to your original starting point (For the American readers: 2 km is about a mile).

Computer gaze - As much as I hate to say it, hours you spend in front of your computer deteriorate your eyesight, make you fatigue (especially programmers gamers and article readers/researchers) and above all gazing at a computer all day can really worsen and aggrevate your sleep. Shut down your computer and take a look outside - there's a whole new world out there just waiting to be explored! You do not need Blizzard to make you a knight with +1 brain skill!

Well this article has come to an end. I hope you liked all the recommendations and suggestions pinpointing problems in sleep and sleepwalking (I might concentrate in insomnia next time). I also believe that after this article you will reconsider at least once before taking medicaments called sedatives :)

Medicine: Operation Sleepwalk

Sleepwalking (somnambulism or noctambulism)is a serious sleeping disorder, which can be caused by a number of reasons, all building up together to the event of sleepwalk. Sleepwalking does not necessary imply just 'walking', the persons who suffer from this usually begin activities that are normally associated with or supposed to be done while awake, but instead they occur while asleep or in a sleeplike state.
Sleepwalkers can remember several stuff that happened, but not everything, just like when a person tries to remember their younger years and all they get is just bits of memory (leftovers as I like to call them). On the other hand, they could also not remember anything.

What can cause it? I can name a million reasons, but let's be more specific for the real world:

• Smoking - Nicotine, one of the chief ingredients of cigarettes and a poisonous alkaloid (C10H14 N2), and the number of cigarettes you smoke daily may increase your awareness, but they also increase your stress and wrath levels disrupt your healthy portion of sleep each day.
• Stress level - Stress is an important part of nowadays life, people running around just to reach their goals - whatever they may be - always trying to achieve as much tasks possible for the day. This can make a person anxious and that's definitely not good for anything.
  

• Emotional state - It's very important to be or feel relaxed at least an hour before sleeping. Being tense even when going to sleep could resort to nightmares and of course sleepwalking.
  
• Food - Spicy food has been mark as bad for a good night sleep. Bad indigestion could also play an important role here.
  
• Alcohol - Wine, beer, whiskey and all beverages that contain alcohol
  
• Caffeine - Compared to nicotine, this baby actually tries to help you stay awake, even when your brain requires some rest. Drinking lots of coffee cups while you require to sleep is a really bad idea.

To be continued...

Medicine: Multiple sclerosis and risk genes

The Harvard Medical School and Duke University Medical Center have brought into the light the risk genes of multiple sclerosis and the first new multiple sclerosis gene found in 30 years. A very important discovery if you ask me.



What is multiple sclerosis (MS)? It's a disease that affects your brain and spinal cord (together the central nervous system). Most neurons are not covered with myelin sheath, but those that are, they can achieve some mega speeds while transferring important information, such as any coordinated movement, or reading and writing.
Myelin sheath could be paralleled with an isolating material that helps the action potential to be transferred to or from the brain by 'jumping' and 'making stops' in between the Schwann cells (these are the cells that actually provide the myelin sheath, the gaps between Schwann cells are called nodes of Ranvier or nodus Ranvieri). In short, the myelin sheath provides protection from losing while transferring the signal.

Now, the symptoms of such a disease can be really hard on a person:

• Visual disturbances
• Muscle weakness (includes speaking, writing, walking etc.)
  
• Incoordinated movement and trouble with balance
• Loss of sensations such as numbness, prickling, or "pins and needles"
• Thinking problems and memory loss

Why does it happen? It's believed to be an inherited disease, which the studies of Harvard and Duke universities have discovered and proved to be accurate. The other reason is that it could be an autoimmune disease, where cells from your own immune system attack your own cells. In fact, there could be a link between other autoimmune diseases and MS. So far, only genes within a region of chromosome 6 have to date been implicated in the disease, but quoting Simon Gregory, Ph.D.

We have identified a gene that increases an individual's risk of MS by 30 percent and that this variant has an effect on the function of the gene.

The new gene is found on chromosome 5. This particular gene is involved in providing guidance during the production interleukin-7 receptor alpha (IL-7R), an important receptor for the growth of crucial immune system cells. And there you have it, another theory almost proved to be accurate. The problem is how to cure it though, we're going to have to wait on that...

Medicine: Antibiotics prescribed still causing drug resistance

Antibiotics are still being used at a level that causes restistance on some bacteria. An antibiotic preserves its name only historically, thus it is not against all "bio" (forms of life), but only against several bacteria that are sensitive to some of them. Antibiotics DO NOT work against coughs and colds; common cold is a viral infection and should should not be treated with antibiotics. This occurance is a severe event and must be ceased immediately (bmj.com has published this article I'm blogging about today).
In short and quoting:

Resistant bacteria were identified by the presence of a gene which codes for antibiotic resistance.
In children who did not receive an antibiotic, there was no increase in the proportion carrying resistant bacteria in the throat from the initial level at 2 or 12 weeks.
However, in children who received an antibiotic, the number carrying resistant bacteria more than doubled at the two week follow-up, but fell back close to the initial level by 12 weeks.

The bacteria (the ones that are able to at least, and there's a bunch of them!) can adapt to the "harsh" effects of an antibiotic, making themselves resistant, therefore surviving. This farmacological misuse should be stopped by educating the greater public that antibiotics aren't the solution to every disease. A continuous misuse of antibiotics should be handled with great care, since it can lead to killing the natural flora in several parts of our body, mainly the gut flora, such as Escherichia coli.

Medicine: Circumcision for HIV/AIDS prevention?!

Quoting Eurekalert:

Three clinical trials in Africa found that adult male circumcision reduced the risk of men acquiring HIV infection from heterosexual sex by 51-60%. While adult male circumcision may also have a role to play in preventing HIV transmission in the US ... the extent of this role on a population basis is unknown.

Oh really? Maybe circumcision could help form keratocytes around the glans of penis but I still don't believe that would help a lot. Some scientists believe that HIV in semen(sperma) is extremely virulent, hence the main way of spreading the virus. Some others, as an assistant told me in my first year, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) uses macrophages located in the area of the genital organs as "trojan horses" during sexual intercourse. Remember how Greeks got into Troy? Somehow similar happens with HIV and our macrophages. They're also the depot (reservoir) of the infectious agent that transport it further to lymphocytes, thus spreading the virus.

Macrophages are infected early during HIV infection and are thought to play the role of a Trojan horse by spreading infection in tissues... Infected macrophages are a reservoir for HIV and modulate apoptosis of T cells present in their vicinity.

There could be some truth here, but the other method which might create an HIV vaccine, is much more efficient, although it would take a looong time to process it.

Belgrade: Hot line - literally!

If you happen to be in Belgrade, make sure you're wearing a T-Shirt! Due to the heat wave for the whole week, Belgrade has acquired a phone line for emergencies. The telephone number is: 011 2078600 or +381112078600 - A licensed doctor will answer your call and help you out with some medical tips on how to best avoid health problems.

Medicine: In search for an effective vaccine against HIV

While I'm searching for a place to spend my holidays, scientists have completed the first genome-wide association study of an infectious disease. Although it seems impossible (at least to me), they're trying to find out why some people can "bottle up" virus levels following HIV infection, which could lead to a better therapy (way of fighting the disease, i.e. medicament-wise) or to the developing of an effective vaccine.

They have designed the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) in order to "foster collaborative research to overcome roadblocks that have impeded HIV vaccine development", as stated by NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

The idea, in short, is to gather the genome of a lot of individuals who show all the symptoms of an HIV infection and compare it with the genome of persons who were resistant or didn't show any of the "hard" symptoms for quite some time. I'd like to quote Dr. Haynes here:

People vary greatly in their vulnerability to HIV infection. In particular, there are striking and largely unexplained differences between individuals in the degree to which they are able to hold viral levels to a low set point in the period soon after infection.

If scientists can locate the vulnerable genes by this differential study... well, we've got a way of fighting it ;)
Now, as I stated above, I believe it's impossible to make an all-around vaccine for HIV, because the type of this specific virus mutates easily, because of its genetic structure - It's wikipedia link alright, but I'm warning you, that link contains a lot of 'complexicated' medical stuff. Secondly, I'm wondering what the vaccine will do: will it be a gene-mutating vaccine or an production-halting one? Gene mutations on humans are absolutely out of question I guess, so that leaves us to an production-halting one, which disables one or more enzymes or halts the production of one of the key "ingredients" of the virus' reproduction cycle (takes out some substances that enhance their creation or puts in substances that disable enzymes). This method usually has several life-long side-effects, but if they is a vaccine that has far less side-effects than its willing effects, then I think it's good to go. The vaccine should also be low-cost one, since it will be used for the general public and not for posh people.