Paradigm Shift in Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease: Zinc Therapy Now a Conscientious Choice for Care of Individual Patients

Breakthrough in treatment of Alzheimer's disease with a shift from irrational dangerous chelation therapy to rational safe evidence based oral zinc therapy. Evidence based medicine: After synthesizing the best available clinical evidence I conclude that oral zinc therapy is a conscientious choice for treatment of free copper toxicosis in individual patients with Alzheimer's disease. Hypothesis 1: Age related free copper toxicosis is a causal factor in pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. There are 2 neurodegenerative diseases with abnormalities in copper metabolism: (a) the juvenile form with degeneration in the basal ganglia (Wilson's disease) and (b) the age related form with cortical neurodegeneration (Alzheimer's disease). Initially the hypothesis has been that neurodegeneration was caused by accumulation of copper in the brain but later experiences with treatment of Wilson's disease led to the conviction that free plasma copper is the toxic form of copper: it catalyzes amyloid formation thereby generating oxidative stress, free radicals and degeneration of cortical neurons. Hypothesis 2: Oral zinc therapy is an effective and safe treatment of free copper toxicosis in Alzheimer's disease. Proposed dosage: 50 mg elementary zinc/day. Warning: Chelation therapy is irrational and dangerous in treatment of copper toxicosis in Alzheimer's disease

Slide to the Left and Slide to the Right: Motor Coordination in Neurons

Molecular motors employ specific adaptor proteins to dock on transport cargos. Reporting in The Journal of Cell Biology, Fu and Holzbaur (2013) show that the adaptor JNK interacting protein 1 (JIP1) binds kinesin-1 and dynactin and controls bidirectional axonal amyloid precursor protein trafficking, suggesting a regulatory role for adaptors during cargo transport

Basic mechanisms for recognition and transport of synaptic cargos

Synaptic cargo trafficking is essential for synapse formation, function and plasticity. In order to transport synaptic cargo, such as synaptic vesicle precursors, mitochondria, neurotransmitter receptors and signaling proteins to their site of action, neurons make use of molecular motor proteins. These motors operate on the microtubule and actin cytoskeleton and are highly regulated so that different cargos can be transported to distinct synaptic specializations at both pre- and post-synaptic sites. How synaptic cargos achieve specificity, directionality and timing of transport is a developing area of investigation. Recent studies demonstrate that the docking of motors to their cargos is a key control point. Moreover, precise spatial and temporal regulation of motor-cargo interactions is important for transport specificity and cargo recruitment. Local signaling pathways - Ca2+ influx, CaMKII signaling and Rab GTPase activity - regulate motor activity and cargo release at synaptic locations. We discuss here how different motors recognize their synaptic cargo and how motor-cargo interactions are regulated by neuronal activity

Hormonal Regulation of AMPA Receptor Trafficking and Memory Formation

Humans and rodents retain memories for stressful events very well. The facilitated retention of these memories is normally very useful. However, in susceptible individuals a variety of pathological conditions may develop in which memories related to stressful events remain inappropriately present, such as in post-traumatic stress disorder. The memory enhancing effects of stress are mediated by hormones, such as norepinephrine and glucocorticoids which are released during stressful experiences. Here we review recently identified molecular mechanisms that underlie the effects of stress hormones on synaptic efficacy and learning and memory. We discuss AMPA receptors as major target for stress hormones and describe a model in which norepinephrine and glucocorticoids are able to strengthen and prolong different phases of stressful memories

MOOSBEWOHNENDE THEKAMOEBE RHIZOPODEN VON JAVA UND SUMATRA.

abstract not availabl

Great Expectations: African-Australian Marriage Migration in an Ethnography of Aspirational Happiness and Everyday Racism

This thesis ethnographically examines journeys of marriage migration among couples consisting of an Australian woman and a migrant man from the continent of Africa. It narrates these marriage migration journeys as ‘happiness projects’ leading to a good life. For the interlocutors in this study, happiness is connected to dreams for a life-long partnership that begins with the visa application process. And while there are moments of joy along the way, happiness is often invoked as an aspired state rather than an achieved goal; as such, it provides a sense of orientation—a guiding light. Despite the best of intentions, however, the obstacles of government bureaucracy, institutional and everyday racism, and unrealistic expectations of romance often prevent the hoped-for happy endings. I argue that it is under the strain of these pressures that many of the relationships forged with high hopes of lasting love and happiness deteriorate, creating emotional, mental and physical duress. The personal experiences of such obstructions to happiness are the focal point of the thesis. In the process of looking at the external and interpersonal factors that disrupt and even sever relationships, this thesis upsets a dominant narrative that migrant men from various parts of Africa seek to be with Australian women—many of who may not necessarily conform to normative notions of beauty and femininity—for the sole purpose of obtaining a visa. This ‘scam artist’ narrative generalises migrant men and their sponsoring partners, and it also overlooks and obscures the very difficult process of crossing borders both physical and intimate. To ground the principle assertions, and to upset this scam artist narrative, the ethnographic data serving as the basis for this thesis consists of participant observation, informal conversations and unstructured interviews among 36 partners and ex-partners. The data was collected over 15 months in 2014 and 2015 in Adelaide and Melbourne, with follow-up conversations over the course of 2016. Conceptually, the thesis intertwines a ‘dark’ anthropology perspective with an anthropology of ‘happiness’ in seeing marriage migration as a happiness project that generates ambivalence, conflict, and suffering, but also hope and joy. This happiness scholarship—which narrates what happiness does, and how it serves as a motive for people to improve their everyday lives—is a reaction to, rather than a replacement of, a dark anthropology that predominantly focuses on human suffering and the lives of the ‘downtrodden’. And while on the surface the thesis may seem to focus on the ‘suffering others’, I also emphasise how select interlocutors do not necessarily experience their lived realities as suffering paths or continuous struggles. Rather, I focus on ‘what gets in the way’ of their aspired happy endings to illustrate interlocutors’ desires and aspirations. Since institutional and everyday racism is often what prevents the successful pairing of cross-border couples, the thesis also utilises a Critical Race Theory approach. Critical Race Theory adds value by outlining the kinds of subtle racism that often goes unnamed, but which can be harmful nonetheless.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 201

Die rol en bydrae van die Stedelike Stigting tot die politieke hervorming van Suid-Afrika

Die Stedelike Stigting/Urban Foundation is in reaksie op die 1976-onluste en kwynende ekonomie gestig. Die doel was om die sakegemeenskap te verenig om toenemende verstedeliking te bestuur, sodat politieke onrus bekamp kon word, stedelike swartes se lewens verbeter kon word en 'n rol in die ekonomie aan swartes gegee kon word. Die Stigting het buiten vir 'n ontwikkelingsagentskapsrol, ook 'n veranderingsagentskapsrol gespeel. Die gemeenskapsontwikkelingsrol van die Stigting was baie suksesvol. Die veranderingsagentskapsrol was op verandering van die sakegemeenskap, maar ook van die politiek gerig. Dit het daartoe bygedra dat die sakegemeenskap verdemokratiseer het en beperkende en diskriminerende wetgewing gewysig is. Meer nog: die Stigting het 'n wesenlike en selfs deurslaggewende rol in die politieke hervorming in Suid-Afrika gespeel