Stay Positive


"In the midst of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."

- Alert Camus








Saturday, August 30, 2014

Job talks about his suffering


And wearisome nights are apointed to me,
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise,
and the night begone? and I am full of tossings
to and frow unto the dawning of the day.
Job 7:3 - 4

Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
My bones are pierced in me in the night season
and my sinews take  no rest.
Job 30:16 - 17


Friday, August 29, 2014

Exploring the Impact of Music on Brain Function



Published on Aug 26, 2013


NCCAM Integrative Medicine Research Lecture



Aniruddh (Ani) Patel, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Tufts University. Dr. Patel's research focuses on how the brain processes music and language, focusing on what the similarities and differences between the two reveal about each other and about the brain itself. He has pursued this topic with a variety of techniques, including neuroimaging, theoretical analyses, acoustic research, and comparative studies of nonhuman animals. Dr. Patel has published more than 50 research articles and a scholarly book (Music, Language, and the Brain, 2008, Oxford Univ. Press). Dr. Patel was awarded the 2009 Music Has Power award from the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function in New York City. In this lecture, Dr. Patel will examine what measurable impacts musical listening and musical training have on the human brain, and what neurobiological mechanisms support these effects. These impacts can be divided into two broad categories: effects that occur while the music is being heard, and longer-lasting effects on other cognitive and emotional functions. Of particular interest in the latter category are impacts of musical training on nonmusical brain functions such as language and attention, as mediated by mechanism of experience-dependent neural plasticity. This talk will discuss existing studies pertinent to these issues, and point out directions for future research.



For more information go to http://nccam.nih.gov/news/events/IMle...





Exploring the Impact of Music on Brain Function - YouTube:

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIWFV9XiYZM

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The synapse


I finally found a resource that talks to my level of understanding:

Neuroscience For Kids


The Synapse



Neurons have specialized projections calleddendrites and axons. Dendrites bring information to the cell body and axons take information away from the cell body.

Information from one neuron flows to another neuron across a synapse. The synapse contains a small gap separating neurons. The synapse consists of:
a presynaptic ending that containsneurotransmitters, mitochondria and other cell organelles
a postsynaptic ending that contains receptor sites for neurotransmitters
a synaptic cleft or space between the presynaptic and postsynaptic endings.



Hear IT!: Axon | Dendrite | Myelin |Neuron | Neurotransmitter | Soma |Synapse | Vesicle
Electrical Trigger for Neurotransmission

For communication between neurons to occur, an electrical impulse must travel down an axon to the synaptic terminal.
Neurotransmitter Mobilization and Release


At the synaptic terminal (the presynaptic ending), an electrical impulse will trigger the migration of vesicles (the red dots in the figure above) containing neurotransmitters toward the presynaptic membrane. The vesicle membrane will fuse with the presynaptic membrane releasing the neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft. 

Until recently, it was thought that a neuron produced and released only one type of neurotransmitter. This was called "Dale's Law."  However, there is now evidence that neurons can contain and release more than one kind of neurotransmitter.


Diffusion of Neurotransmitters Across the Synaptic Cleft

The neurotransmitter molecules then diffuse across the synaptic cleft where they can bind with receptor sites on the postsynaptic ending to influence the electrical response in the postsynaptic neuron. In the figure on the right, the postsynaptic ending is a dendrite
(axodendritic synapse), but synapses can occur on axons (axoaxonic synapse) and cell bodies (axosomatic synapse).

When a neurotransmitter binds to a receptor on the postsynaptic side of the synapse, it changes the postsynaptic cell's excitability: it makes the postsynaptic cell either more or less likely to fire an action potential. If the number of excitatory postsynaptic events is large enough, they will add to cause an action potential in the postsynaptic cell and a continuation of the "message."

Many psychoactive drugs and neurotoxins can change the properties of neurotransmitter release, neurotransmitter reuptake and the availability of receptor binding sites.

Types of Synapses




Happy 116th Birthday to the word "SYNAPSE."

 In 2013, the word "synapse" turned 116 years old. The word synapse was first used in a book called A Textbook of Physiology, part three: The Central Nervous System, by Michael Foster and assisted by Charles S. Sherrington, in 1897. It was probably Charles S. Sherrington who coined the term synapse. The word "synapse" is derived from the Greek words "syn" and "haptein" that mean "together" and "to clasp," respectively.

"You are your synapses. They are who you are."
--- Joseph LeDoux, 2002 (in Synaptic Self)


Play an Outside Game to reinforce what you have learned about the synapse. 

Color the synapse online: Picture 1| Picture 2




Google for Education: Welcome to the Google for Education blog

Google for Education: Welcome to the Google for Education blog: "
(Cross-posted on the Google Enterprise Blog)

We love to focus on solving problems. Sometimes practically and other times with wild, imaginative—or even highly unexpected—ideas. These ideas are born through education, when curiosity meets access to information. That’s why we have a vested interest in, and commitment to, learning in all forms. It’s also why we’re starting this Google for Education Blog: a new destination to share our work that’s happening across education, from products to programs, from the practical to the unimaginable.

One of our goals is to help more students feel engaged and love learning, to encourage their curiosity, to let them work together, to try something new, to make stuff, and to always try again. Through Programs like Made with Code, Doodle 4 Google, and the Google Science Fair, we strive to help students discover the problems they are passionate about solving. Time and time again youth prove that you don’t always have to be a grown-up to bring forward extraordinary solutions. This blog will be a place to hear about those programs and talented young people.

Since behind every student are great teachers, we also focus on building products and tools designed for the classroom that help educators do what they do best, even better. Collaborative tools like Google Apps for Education with Classroom, easy-to-manage affordable devices like Chromebooks and tablets, and limitless educational content in Google Play for Education and YouTube help make learning possible—and fun—outside the four walls of the classroom.

The future is upon us, which is so apparent when working on learning. As former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley says, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” We hope you’ll find this blog useful—along with our Google+ and Twitter channels—as we continue to share more updates and stories from across Google for Education, our dedicated partners, innovative teachers, and inspiring students.
"



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Link:

http://googleforeducation.blogspot.ca/2014/08/welcome-to-google-for-education-blog.html?utm_campaign=entblog&utm_source=EduBlog08282014&utm_medium=twitter












M.S. Tweets

Recent studies suggesting that exercise therapy may be a good way to treat fatigue and maybe even cognitive symptoms of MS

Take the time to appreciate what you have.


Be selective in your battles. Sometimes peace is better than being right.

Embedded image permalink
Be a Warrior NOT a worrier

We react intensely to a trait in others that we fail to see in ourselves.

5 Tips To Manage Cravings & Quit Sugar by  



Google updates business, education, cloud security certifications

Brush up on your Google Docs skills with this crash course from :
 



Repair and neuroprotection are part of our vocabulary now, this was just a dream a few years ago!
Retweeted by AAN
Join us TODAY to ask experts about emerging and current MS treatments. Tweet chat begins at 12:00 pm ET






Sharing Feels Good

Suicide From A Metaphysical Point Of View
Share your umbrella and your feelings.



Podcast: 7 Steps To Living Well With A Chronic Illness | JenningsWire









Listen Here:

Podcast: 7 Steps To Living Well With A Chronic IllnessMatt Cavallo is an author, motivational speaker, chronic illness coach and patients advocate who has dedicated his life and career to helping others living with chronic illness. He himself was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 28 and his most recent book, 7 Steps to Living Well with a Chronic Illness is the culmination of Matt’s education and personal experience to give readers hope and guidance to live their best life in spite of their disease.

7 Steps To Living Well With A Chronic Illness

  • Your life flipped upside down in 2005, when at age 28, you were diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. What was that like emotionally – and physically – for you?
  • At what point did you decide to write a book about it?
  • How will your memoir, The Dog Story, help readers?
  • Your second book, 7 Steps to Living Well with a Chronic Illness, is an educational guide to living your best life with a chronic illness. What will readers learn from this book?
  • What is the best piece of advice you can offer to someone who was recently diagnosed with a chronic illness?
To learn more about Matt Cavallo, his books and the services he offers, visit his websiteMattCavallo.com. Matt’s books are available for purchase on Amazon.com
This podcast is presented by Annie Jennings, of the National Publicity Firm, Annie Jennings PR and the creator of JenningsWire online magazine. JenningsWire is capturing the heart of America with its rich community of talented, insightful and relevant bloggers and podcasters! Please visit Jenningswire.com and discover the blogger just right for you.

Listen Here:



Podcast: 7 Steps To Living Well With A Chronic Illness | JenningsWire:



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Assistive Technology

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Dan Harris: Hack Your Brain's Default Mode with Meditation - YouTube








Published on Aug 19, 2014
Dan Harris explains the neuroscience behind meditation, but reminds us that the ancient practice isn't magic and likely won't send one floating into the cosmic ooze. He predicts that the exercise will soon become regularly scheduled maintenance, as commonplace as brushing your teeth or eating your veggies. Harris, an ABC News correspondent, was turned on to mediation after a live, on-air panic attack. His latest book is 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story (http://goo.gl/wfSX4E).



Don't miss new Big Think videos!  Subscribe by clicking here: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5



Transcript - There’s no way a fidgety and skeptical news anchor would ever have started meditating were it not for the science. The science is really compelling. It shows that meditation can boost your immune system, lower your blood pressure, help you deal with problems ranging from irritable bowel syndrome to psoriasis. And the neuroscience is where it really gets sci-fi. There was a study out of Harvard that shows that short daily doses of meditation can literally grow the gray matter in key areas of your brain having to do with self-awareness and compassion and shrink the gray matter in the area associated with stress.



There was also a study out of Yale that looked at what’s called the default mode network of the brain. It’s a connected series of brain regions that are active during most of our waking hours when we’re doing that thing that human beings do all the time which is obsessing about ourselves, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, doing anything but being focused on what’s happening right now. Meditators not only turn off the default mode network of their brain while they’re meditating but even when they’re not meditating. In other words, meditators are setting a new default mode. And what’s that default mode? They’re focused on what’s happening right now.



In sports this is called being in the zone. It’s nothing mystical. It’s not magical. You’re not floating off into cosmic ooze. You are just being where you are – big cliché in self-help circles is being in the now. You can use that term if you want but because it’s accurate. It’s slightly annoying but it’s accurate. It’s more just being focused on what you’re doing. And the benefits of that are enormous. And this is why you’re seeing these unlikely meditators now, why you’re seeing the U.S. Marines adopting it, the U.S. Army, corporate executives from the head of Ford to the founders of Twitter. Athletes from Phil Jackson to many, many Olympians. Scientists, doctors, lawyers, school children. There’s this sort of elite subculture of high achievers who are adopting this because they know it can help you be more focused on what you’re doing and it can stop you from being yanked around by the voice in your head.



My powers of prognostication are not great. I bought a lot of stock in a company that made Palm Pilot back in 2000 and that didn’t go so well for me. But having said that I’m going to make a prediction. I think we’re looking at meditation as the next big public health revolution. In the 1940s if you told people that you went running they would say, who’s chasing you. Right now if you tell people you meditate – and I have a lot of experience with telling people this, they’re going to look at you like you’re a little weird most of the time. That’s going to change. Meditation is going to join the pantheon of no brainers like exercise, brushing your teeth and taking the meds that your doctor prescribes to you. These are all things that if you don’t do you feel guilty about. And that is where I think we’re heading with meditation because the science is so strongly suggestive that meditation can do really, really great things for your brain and for your body.



The common assumption that we have, and it may be subconscious, is that our happiness really depends on external factors – how was our childhood, have we won the lottery recently, did we marry well, did we marry at all. But, in fact, meditation suggests that happiness is actually a skill, something you can train just the way you can train your body in the gym. It’s a self-generated thing. And that’s a really radical notion. It doesn’t mean that external circumstances aren’t going to impact your happiness. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to be subject to the vagaries of an impermanent, entropic universe. It just means you are going to be able to navigate this with a little bit more ease.



Directed / Produced by Jonathan Fowler, Elizabeth Rodd, and Dillon Fitton
  • Category

  • License

    • Standard YouTube License




Dan Harris: Hack Your Brain's Default Mode with Meditation - YouTube:

Link: http://youtu.be/FAcTIrA2Qhk

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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Could Reprogrammed Cells Fight 'Untreatable' Diseases? | Techonomy

Could Reprogrammed Cells Fight 'Untreatable' Diseases? | Techonomy:



 "Techonomy Become a fan
How Tech Transforms Business and Society

\Could Reprogrammed Cells Fight 'Untreatable' Diseases?

Posted: 08/27/2014 1:58 pm EDT



 By Ciara Curtin



Loring (front row, center) with the Loring Lab Group at the Center for Regenerative Medicine

Jeanne Loring and her Scripps Research Institute colleagues transplanted a set of cells into the spinal cords of mice that had lost use of their hind limbs to multiple sclerosis. As the experimentalists expected, within a week, the mice rejected the cells. But after another week, the mice began to walk.

"We thought that they wouldn't do anything," says Loring, who directs the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Scripps. But as her lab has since shown numerous times, and published in Stem Cell Reports, something that these particular so-called "neural precursor cells" do before the immune system kicks them out seems to make the mouse better.

The cells Loring's team used are derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, which are mature cells, such as skin cells, that have been coaxed with a combination of chemicals to return to an earlier stage of development.

Induced pluripotent cells, also known as iPS cells, pose a number of opportunities for medicine. For instance, Loring is using iPS cells from Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis patients to reconstitute cell types that may be damaged in people with those conditions. She is also using them to test how certain drugs or treatments may affect damaged cells in people with conditions such as autism spectrum disorders.

Loring says no viable long-term treatments exist for the diseases her team has been working on, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. "That's where the need is," she says.

The neural precursor cells that Loring has been using in the mice with MS are young cells that haven't quite gotten to the point of being nerves yet. Only certain types of these cells have such a dramatic Lazarus-like effect on the affected mice, but Loring's team can readily identify them based on DNA analysis.

Even so, they're not yet ready to treat human MS patients with the approach, she says. First, the researchers want to identify what the cells produce -- a protein, perhaps, or a set of proteins -- that allows the mice to walk.

For other diseases, however, researchers are closer to being ready to transplant working versions of reprogrammed cells into sick people.

For instance, Loring is exploring whether it's possible to reprogram skin cells from patients with Parkinson's disease so they turn into iPS cells and then into working dopamine neurons, which are the cells affected in the disease.

It seems to work in animals: Loring's lab has transformed skin cells from eight human Parkinson's disease patients into iPS cells and transplanted them as neurons into animal models.

A local Southern California Parkinson's disease association has funded the research so far. Now Loring and colleagues are seeking additional funds to move through regulatory approval and toward the clinic.

Meanwhile, iPS cells separately suggest a way to test how disease-affected cells may or may not respond to treatment in diseases like autism, by in effect creating "dummy" cells on which drugs could be tested.

After making iPS cells from the cells of fragile X syndrome patients, a genetic condition that often co-occurs with some forms of autism, Loring's lab turned them into cortical neurons -- cells that she suspects don't develop as they should in people with the disorder.

Indeed, the cortical neurons her lab grew from those iPS cells looked different than other cortical neurons and suffered delayed development. These neurons, she explains, could be used to test different molecules and compounds to see whether drugs could treat cells affected by autism.

This sort of approach, in which so-called "derived cells" are used for drug screening, Loring said, is the likely way that iPS cells will first be used in medicine, especially as more and more people have their genomes analyzed. Treatment with reprogrammed iPS cells will take longer to develop.

Loring says she hopes soon to be able to set up simple assays "that will allow us to find out what sort of drugs will work for people with particular genotypes." That could offer a significant boost to drug development. iPS cells are an important new opportunity to attack diseases that otherwise have vexed researchers and doctors for decades.



 Original article published on Techonomy.com.

Follow Techonomy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/techonomy
MORE: Scripps Research Institute Jeanne Loring Center for Regenerative Medicine"



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Canada has highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world: Study - Multiple Sclerosis - C-Health

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Canada has highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world: Study

Written by: Jonathan Sher, QMI Agency
Dec. 30, 2013


(Fotolia)


London, Ont. - It's a disease that strikes down adults at their prime - and it's found Ground Zero in Canada.

Multiple sclerosis afflicts Canadians at a rate that far outpaces anyplace else the world, a new survey has found.

"It's really shocking...It is almost like a Canadian disease," said Karen Lee of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.

Nearly 100,000 Canadians have the disease, a rate that's 28% higher than the country with the second-highest mark, Denmark, and nine times higher than the global average, according to the survey by the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation.

Ad


While Canadians are the most likely in the world to get the disease, they're waiting longer than most to get diagnosed, and no wonder - Canada lags behind most developed countries when it comes to the number of neurologists and MRI machines:
There's no doubt speedy diagnosis and treatment play a big role in how many patients fare, said Lee, a neuroscientist who tracks research so the society can choose how to allocate money it raises - $12 million in 2013.

"The earlier the treatment, the better the prognosis, generally," she said.

In people with MS, their immune system attacks the sheath that insulates the body's central nervous system, causing damage that can leave victims unable to walk and suffering from physical and cognitive deficits.

Most MS sufferers can be treated with a range of medications that suppress the immune system, but doctors often have to try several to find which one works best for a patient.

When doctors quickly diagnose the disease and find the best treatment, patients fare better, experts say.

Just why Canadians are so afflicted has been the subject of debate and research has uncovered several theories. Among them: Canadians live so far from the equator, the sun is too low in the sky much of the year to cause our skin to make vitamin D; we may have earlier exposure to viruses that might play a role in triggering MS; - Canadians may share a genetic predisposition to the disease, and those who smoke appear at higher risk.

"We don't have an answer," said Dr. Christine Wolford, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University. She studied the prevalence of MS in the Americas in a study published last year in the journal Neuroepidemiology.

The search for answers has become more challenging because many factors are at play, both genetic and environmental, she said.

The Multiple Sclerosis International Federation first published a survey of MS rates in 2008 and Canada topped the list. Since then, the rate here has jumped another 18%.

Canadians shouldn't put too much stock in those exact numbers, since both here and across the globe, no one has done an adequate job precisely tracking MS, Wolford said.

But there's no doubt Canadians are more afflicted than others.

"Canada keeps coming up on top," she said.

jonathan.sher@sunmedia.ca

THE MS TOP 10

(Disease prevalance per 100,000 population)

Canada: 291

Denmark: 227

Sweden: 189

Hungary: 176

Cyprus: 175

U.K.: 164

Czech Rep.: 160

Norway: 160

Germany: 149

Austria: 140

-- Source: Multiple Sclerosis International Federation, World Health Organization

ABOUT MS

-- Immune system attacks sheath around nerve cells in spine/brain.

-- Sufferers lose physical, cognitive function.

-- Canada has world's highest incidence, with about 100,000 afflicted.

-- Avg. age of onset in Canada: 31

-- Time from medical consult to diagnosis: 3rd-longest among 39 countries at 36 days.

View more news"







Canada has highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world: Study - Multiple Sclerosis - C-Health: "Multiple Sclerosis  Health Home >> Multiple Sclerosis >> Health news



Canada has highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world: Study

Written by: Jonathan Sher, QMI Agency
Dec. 30, 2013


(Fotolia)


London, Ont. - It's a disease that strikes down adults at their prime - and it's found Ground Zero in Canada.
Multiple sclerosis afflicts Canadians at a rate that far outpaces anyplace else the world, a new survey has found.
"It's really shocking...It is almost like a Canadian disease," said Karen Lee of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
Nearly 100,000 Canadians have the disease, a rate that's 28% higher than the country with the second-highest mark, Denmark, and nine times higher than the global average, according to the survey by the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation.
Ad
While Canadians are the most likely in the world to get the disease, they're waiting longer than most to get diagnosed, and no wonder - Canada lags behind most developed countries when it comes to the number of neurologists and MRI machines:

There's no doubt speedy diagnosis and treatment play a big role in how many patients fare, said Lee, a neuroscientist who tracks research so the society can choose how to allocate money it raises - $12 million in 2013.
"The earlier the treatment, the better the prognosis, generally," she said.
In people with MS, their immune system attacks the sheath that insulates the body's central nervous system, causing damage that can leave victims unable to walk and suffering from physical and cognitive deficits.
Most MS sufferers can be treated with a range of medications that suppress the immune system, but doctors often have to try several to find which one works best for a patient.
When doctors quickly diagnose the disease and find the best treatment, patients fare better, experts say.
Just why Canadians are so afflicted has been the subject of debate and research has uncovered several theories. Among them: Canadians live so far from the equator, the sun is too low in the sky much of the year to cause our skin to make vitamin D; we may have earlier exposure to viruses that might play a role in triggering MS; - Canadians may share a genetic predisposition to the disease, and those who smoke appear at higher risk.
"We don't have an answer," said Dr. Christine Wolford, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University. She studied the prevalence of MS in the Americas in a study published last year in the journal Neuroepidemiology.
The search for answers has become more challenging because many factors are at play, both genetic and environmental, she said.
The Multiple Sclerosis International Federation first published a survey of MS rates in 2008 and Canada topped the list. Since then, the rate here has jumped another 18%.
Canadians shouldn't put too much stock in those exact numbers, since both here and across the globe, no one has done an adequate job precisely tracking MS, Wolford said.
But there's no doubt Canadians are more afflicted than others.
"Canada keeps coming up on top," she said.
jonathan.sher@sunmedia.ca
THE MS TOP 10
(Disease prevalance per 100,000 population)
Canada: 291
Denmark: 227
Sweden: 189
Hungary: 176
Cyprus: 175
U.K.: 164
Czech Rep.: 160
Norway: 160
Germany: 149
Austria: 140
-- Source: Multiple Sclerosis International Federation, World Health Organization
ABOUT MS
-- Immune system attacks sheath around nerve cells in spine/brain.
-- Sufferers lose physical, cognitive function.
-- Canada has world's highest incidence, with about 100,000 afflicted.
-- Avg. age of onset in Canada: 31
-- Time from medical consult to diagnosis: 3rd-longest among 39 countries at 36 days.






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