Spatiotemporal switching signals for cancer stem cell activation in pediatric origins of adulthood cancer: Towards a watch-and-wait lifetime strategy for cancer treatment.

Pediatric origin of cancer stem cell hypothesis holds great promise and potential in adult cancer treatment, however; the road to innovation is full of obstacles as there are plenty of questions left unanswered. First, the key question is to characterize the nature of such stem cells (concept). Second, the quantitative imaging of pediatric stem cells should be implemented (technology). Conceptually, pediatric stem cell origins of adult cancer are based on the notion that plasticity in early life developmental programming evolves local environments to cancer. Technologically, such imaging in children is lacking as all imaging is designed for adult patients. We postulate that the need for quantitative imaging to measure space-time changes of plasticity in early life developmental programming in children may trigger research and development of the imaging technology. Such quantitative imaging of pediatric origin of adulthood cancer will help develop a spatiotemporal monitoring system to determine cancer initiation and progression. Clinical validation of such speculative hypothesis-that cancer originates in a pediatric environment-will help implement a wait-and-watch strategy for cancer treatment

Open problems in artificial life

This article lists fourteen open problems in artificial life, each of which is a grand challenge requiring a major advance on a fundamental issue for its solution. Each problem is briefly explained, and, where deemed helpful, some promising paths to its solution are indicated

The Search for the American Dream:Interpersonal, Cultural, and Structural Constraints on Immigrants

The American Dream is a goal sought out by many people from around the globe. But immigrants must overcome many barriers that may inhibit that dream. This study attempted to understand, how structural (community distress and institutional prejudice), interpersonal, and bilingual constraints negatively impacted immigrant socioeconomic achievements and wealth accumulation. The study used a mixed methods approach; findings from a secondary quantitative survey data (Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles) were elaborated on with qualitative interviews with six professionals who work with immigrants. Findings supported Feagin’s systemic racism, viewed as a fundamental cause, which set up structural, interpersonal, and cultural constraints that hindered immigrant progress towards the American Dream. Suggestions for future research included oral history interviews, both with immigrants who have successfully achieved the American Dream as well as with those at varying stages of progress towards the dream

Is the God Hypothesis Improbable? A Response to Dawkins

In this chapter, Logan Paul Gage examines the only real attempt to disprove God’s existence by a New Atheist: Richard Dawkins’s “Ultimate 747 Gambit.” Central to Dawkins’s argument is the claim that God is more complex than what he is invoked to explain. Gage evaluates this claim using the main extant notions of simplicity in the literature. Gage concludes that on no reading does this claim survive scrutiny. Along the way, Dawkins claims that there are no good positive arguments for God’s existence. Gage attempts to show that Dawkins’s argument depends upon distinctively philosophical assumptions that do not appear to withstand scrutiny