Relativity Theory May not Have the Last Word on the Nature of Time: Quantum Theory and Probabilism

Two radically different views about time are possible. According to the first, the universe is three dimensional. It has a past and a future, but that does not mean it is spread out in time as it is spread out in the three dimensions of space. This view requires that there is an unambiguous, absolute, cosmic-wide "now" at each instant. According to the second view about time, the universe is four dimensional. It is spread out in both space and time - in space-time in short. Special and general relativity rule out the first view. There is, according to relativity theory, no such thing as an unambiguous, absolute cosmic-wide "now" at each instant. However, we have every reason to hold that both special and general relativity are false. Not only does the historical record tell us that physics advances from one false theory to another. Furthermore, elsewhere I have shown that we must interpret physics as having established physicalism - in so far as physics can ever establish anything theoretical. Physicalism, here, is to be interpreted as the thesis that the universe is such that some unified "theory of everything" is true. Granted physicalism, it follows immediately that any physical theory that is about a restricted range of phenomena only, cannot be true, whatever its empirical success may be. It follows that both special and general relativity are false. This does not mean of course that the implication of these two theories that there is no unambiguous cosmic-wide "now" at each instant is false. It still may be the case that the first view of time, indicated at the outset, is false. Are there grounds for holding that an unambiguous cosmic-wide "now" does exist, despite special and general relativity, both of which imply that it does not exist? There are such grounds. Elsewhere I have argued that, in order to solve the quantum wave/particle problem and make sense of the quantum domain we need to interpret quantum theory as a fundamentally probabilistic theory, a theory which specifies how quantum entities - electrons, photons, atoms - interact with one another probabilistically. It is conceivable that this is correct, and the ultimate laws of the universe are probabilistic in character. If so, probabilistic transitions could define unambiguous, absolute cosmic-wide "nows" at each instant. It is entirely unsurprising that special and general relativity have nothing to say about the matter. Both theories are pre-quantum mechanical, classical theories, and general relativity in particular is deterministic. The universe may indeed be three dimensional, with a past and a future, but not spread out in four dimensional space-time, despite the fact that relativity theories appear to rule this out. These considerations, finally, have implications for views about the arrow of time and free will

Epidemiology of Malaria in an Area Prepared for Clinical Trials in Korogwe, North-eastern Tanzania.

Site preparation is a pre-requesite in conducting malaria vaccines trials. This study was conducted in 12 villages to determine malariometric indices and associated risk factors, during long and short rainy seasons, in an area with varying malaria transmission intensities in Korogwe district, Tanzania. Four villages had passive case detection (PCD) of fever system using village health workers. Four malariometric cross-sectional surveys were conducted between November 2005 and May 2007 among individuals aged 0-19 years, living in lowland urban, lowland rural and highland strata. A total of 10,766 blood samples were collected for malaria parasite diagnosis and anaemia estimation. Blood smears were stained with Giemsa while haemoglobin level was measured by HaemoCue. Socio-economic data were collected between Jan-Apr 2006. Adjusting for the effect of age, the risk of Plasmodium falciparum parasitaemia was significantly lower in both lowland urban, (OR = 0.26; 95%CI: 0.23-0.29, p < 0.001) and highlands, (OR = 0.21; 95%CI: 0.17-0.25, p < 0.001) compared to lowland rural. Individuals aged 6-9 years in the lowland rural and 4-19 years in both lowland urban and highlands had the highest parasite prevalence, whilst children below five years in all strata had the highest parasite density. Prevalence of splenomegaly and gametocyte were also lower in both lowland urban and highlands than in lowland rural. Anaemia (Hb <11 g/dl) prevalence was lowest in the lowland urban. Availability of PCD and higher socio-economic status (SES) were associated with reduced malaria and anaemia prevalence. Higher SES and use of bed nets in the lowland urban could be the important factors for low malaria infections in this stratum. Results obtained here were used together with those from PCD and DSS in selecting a village for Phase 1b MSP3 vaccine trial, which was conducted in the study area in year 2008

Conscious monitoring and control (reinvestment) in surgical performance under pressure.

Research on intraoperative stressors has focused on external factors without considering individual differences in the ability to cope with stress. One individual difference that is implicated in adverse effects of stress on performance is "reinvestment," the propensity for conscious monitoring and control of movements. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of reinvestment on laparoscopic performance under time pressure

Conducting Health Research in Korean American Churches: Perspectives from Church Leaders

Korean Americans experience many challenges to obtaining adequate health care coverage and access to needed services. Because a large proportion of Korean Americans attend churches on a regular basis, churches may be a promising venue where health programs can be delivered. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of Korean American churches with respect to conducting future health intervention research, we conducted exploratory interviews and focus groups with 58 leaders from 23 Korean American churches and three community organizations. From these interviews and focus groups, we found that Korean churches and church leaders seek to meet a variety of social and health needs of their congregation and their surrounding community. Several leaders have stated that assisting with social and medical needs of their members is an important component of their current ministry. They described profound health needs of their congregations and have suggested various ways in which the university can partner with the local churches to help address these needs through research. Additionally, they described various resources churches can provide to researchers such as: their personal assistance, church volunteer base, church facility, and church network and contacts. Our findings suggest that Korean churches have a high potential to serve an important role in the health of Korean Americans. On the basis of the promising results of the present study, we are planning to conduct a cross sectional survey of Korean church leaders and members in Los Angeles County to substantiate our findings in a larger representative sample

Clinical-pathological study on β-APP, IL-1β, GFAP, NFL, Spectrin II, 8OHdG, TUNEL, miR-21, miR-16, miR-92 expressions to verify DAI-diagnosis, grade and prognosis

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most important death and disability cause, involving substantial costs, also in economic terms, when considering the young age of the involved subject. Aim of this paper is to report a series of patients treated at our institutions, to verify neurological results at six months or survival; in fatal cases we searched for βAPP, GFAP, IL-1β, NFL, Spectrin II, TUNEL and miR-21, miR-16, and miR-92 expressions in brain samples, to verify DAI diagnosis and grade as strong predictor of survival and inflammatory response. Concentrations of 8OHdG as measurement of oxidative stress was performed. Immunoreaction of β-APP, IL-1β, GFAP, NFL, Spectrin II and 8OHdG were significantly increased in the TBI group with respect to control group subjects. Cell apoptosis, measured by TUNEL assay, were significantly higher in the study group than control cases. Results indicated that miR-21, miR-92 and miR-16 have a high predictive power in discriminating trauma brain cases from controls and could represent promising biomarkers as strong predictor of survival, and for the diagnosis of postmortem traumatic brain injury

La mutación de la biblioteca en los inicios del siglo XXI

El papel que las bibliotecas desempeñan en la actualidad ha sido cuestionado en numerosas ocasiones, a causa de la revolución tecnológica a la que se está asistiendo, la cual pondría en amenaza el papel básico que hasta ahora tenían éstas. Pero la realidad es que se observa una tendencia en la que cada vez se construyen más bibliotecas y más complejas. Por lo que se torna harto interesante descubrir hacia dónde camina la arquitectura en este sentido. A este respecto, se advierte un cambio de paradigma respecto al papel que juega la biblioteca en la actualidad, provocando a su vez una respuesta en cuanto a la arquitectura bibliotecaria. Los cambios sociales que se han producido de la mano del desarrollo de la tecnología, se han visto implicados de forma directa e indirecta en este cambio de paradigma, presentando los desafíos a los que se enfrenta la arquitectura actual. Debido a la incertidumbre que se presenta de cara a este nuevo periodo, en base a los constantes cambios que se manifiestan debido a la rápida evolución que sufren las nuevas tecnologías, y de cara a las demandas de esta nueva sociedad, se torna fundamental la aplicación del principio de la flexibilidad en los nuevos espacios bibliotecarios, pero se rehúye de la clásica solución espacial donde el espacio se vuelve uniforme, sin apenas expresión plástica ni variedad. Por otro lado, se presentan los temidos efectos que la globalización tiene sobre el planeta, a cualquier escala, y que parecen llevar todo hacia una tendencia universalista. Por lo que se hace interesante el estudio de la arquitectura bibliotecaria desde diferentes ópticas a nivel cultural, tomando como referencia la cultura occidental, debido a su importante papel de cara al origen de este proceso, así como la cultura oriental, definida prácticamente como la antítesis de ésta. Sobre la base de lo planteado, la presente investigación, a modo de primera toma de contacto, ha pretendido abrir un campo de estudio a través del cual se puedan identificar nuevas formas de aplicar la flexibilidad en los espacios bibliotecarios, de cara a que éstos no se vuelvan caducos en cuanto al diseño que presentan, además de poner el causa los procesos de globalización que pretenden reducir la realidad actual, en base a procesos de homogeneización; por lo que se busca identificar procesos de hibridación en la arquitectura actual, a través de los cuales poder identificar si se producen diferencias entre las distintas culturas, valorando en qué medida se incluyen las cuestiones de carácter local en las obras que representan cada una de estas culturas. A través de la metodología empleada, basada en los estudios de caso individual y en el análisis comparativo de éstos, se han podido evidenciar líneas que muestran esa evolución de la arquitectura actual, en la que se torna evidente la importancia que tiene la flexibilidad en el nuevo escenario, así como la posibilidad de aplicarla de diversa manera, además de reconocerse los mencionados procesos de hibridación, permitiendo establecer diferencias entre las dos culturas, desmontando así la ambiciosa visión de carácter unilateral que se tenía sobre la globalización.Abstract: The role played by libraries nowadays has been frequently questioned in view of the technological revolution currently underway, which would seem to threaten the basic function libraries had up until now. However, what we are actually seeing is a trend in which a growing number of increasingly complex libraries are being built. Therefore, it is of interest to take a look at where architecture in this sector is heading. The truth is, a change can be observed in what is considered to be the model role of libraries today, which in turn leads to a different response in terms of their architecture. The social changes that have taken place as a result of developments in technology have played both a direct and indirect role in such a change of model and represent the challenges facing current architecture. Given the uncertainty that exists these days due to the constant changes occurring as a result of the rapid evolution of new technologies and of society’s new demands, it has become essential to build a flexibility component into all new library design concepts, while shying away from the classic solution of uniform spaces with little plastic variety or expression. On the other hand, the effects of globalisation present at all scales of life on this planet inevitably arise and tend to drive everything towards a common universality. So it is interesting to study the architecture of libraries from different cultural perspectives, firstly in Western culture, given the important role it has played in the origin of this process, and subsequently from the viewpoint of Oriental culture, practically defined as the antithesis of the former. On the basis of the above premises, this paper seeks to stand as the initial contact in a line of research that identifies new ways of applying flexibility into the architecture of libraries so that they do not become obsolete in terms of their design, as well as identifying the globalisation processes that seek to reduce current reality through homogenisation procedures. Therefore, it aims to identify hybridisation processes in current architecture that serve to ascertain whether distinctions occur between different cultures and to assess the extent to which local issues find a place in iconic buildings representing each of those cultures. By means of the methodology used, based on individual case studies and comparative analysis of each, certain traits have been revealed that show an evolution in contemporary architecture, in which greater importance is given in this new scenario to flexibility and the ability to apply it in different ways, as well as acknowledging the aforementioned hybridization processes, enabling differences between the two cultures to be identified and thus any narrow-minded view of globalization as a unilateral phenomenon to be dismantled

Dextral and sinistral Amphidromus inversus (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Camaenidae) produce dextral sperm

Coiling direction in pulmonate gastropods is determined by a single gene via a maternal effect, which causes cytoskeletal dynamics in the early embryo of dextral gastropods to be the mirror image of the same in sinistral ones. We note that pulmonate gastropod spermatids also go through a helical twisting during their maturation. Moreover, we suspect that the coiling direction of the helical elements of the spermatozoa may affect their behaviour in the female reproductive tract, giving rise to the possibility that sperm chirality plays a role in the maintenance of whole-body chiral dimorphism in the tropical arboreal gastropod Amphidromus inversus (Müller, 1774). For these reasons, we investigated whether there is a relationship between a gastropod’s body chirality and the chirality of the spermatozoa it produces. We found that spermatozoa in A. inversus are always dextrally coiled, regardless of the coiling direction of the animal itself. However, a partial review of the literature on sperm morphology in the Pulmonata revealed that chiral dimorphism does exist in certain species, apparently without any relationship with the coiling direction of the body. Though our study shows that body and sperm chirality follows independent developmental pathways, it gives rise to several questions that may be relevant to the understanding of the chirality of spermatid ultrastructure and spermatozoan motility and sexual selection

Kinetics of ATP release following compression injury of a peripheral nerve trunk

Compression and/or contusion of a peripheral nerve trunk can result in painful sensations. It is possible that release of ATP into the extracellular space may contribute to this symptom. In the present study, we used real-time measurements of ATP-induced bioluminescence together with electrophysiological recordings of compound action potentials to follow changes in the extracellular ATP concentration of isolated rat spinal roots exposed to mechanical stimuli. Nerve compression for about 8 s resulted in an immediate release of ATP into the extracellular space and in a decrease in the amplitude of compound action potentials. On average, a rise in ATP to 60 nM was observed when nerve compression blocked 50% of the myelinated axons. After the compression, the extracellular concentration of ATP returned to the resting level within a few minutes. The importance of ecto-nucleotidases for the recovery period was determined by exposure of isolated spinal roots to high concentrations of ATP and by use of inhibitors of ecto-nucleotidases. It was observed that spinal roots have a high capacity for ATP hydrolysis which is only partially blocked by βγ-methylene ATP and ARL 67156. In conclusion, acute nerve compression produces an increase in the extracellular concentration of ATP and of its metabolites which may be sufficient for activation of purinergic P2 and/or P1 receptors on axons of nociceptive afferent neurons

X-ray fluorescence analysis of long-term changes in the levels and distributions of trace elements in the rat brain following mechanical injury

This paper describes the results of the application of X-ray fluorescence microscopy to the qualitative, topographic and quantitative elemental analysis of nervous tissue from rats with neocortical brain injury. The tissue samples were analyzed with a 15 μm beam defined by the size of the polycapillary focus. Raster scanning of the samples generated 2D cartographies, revealing the distributions of elements such as P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Fe, Cu, and Zn. Special emphasis was placed on the analysis of the areas neighboring the lesion site and the hippocampal formation tissue. The results obtained for rats with mechanical brain injuries were compared with those recorded for controls and animals with pilocarpine-induced seizures. There were no significant differences in the elemental compositions of gray and white matter between injured and uninjured brain hemispheres. A higher level of Ca was observed in the gray matter of both of the hemispheres in brains with neocortical injuries. A similar relation was noticed for Fe in the white matter. A comparative study of hippocampal formation tissue showed a statistically significant decrease in the mass per unit area of P in the dentate gyrus (DG) and the hilus (H) of DG for animals with brain lesions in comparison with the control group. Analogous relations were found for Cu in the DG and Zn in sector 3 of Ammon’s horn (CA3) and the DG. It is important to note that identical changes in the same areas were observed for animals with pilocarpine-induced seizures in our previous study

Gene therapy for carcinoma of the breast: Genetic toxins

Gene therapy was initially envisaged as a potential treatment for genetically inherited, monogenic disorders. The applications of gene therapy have now become wider, however, and include cardiovascular diseases, vaccination and cancers in which conventional therapies have failed. With regard to oncology, various gene therapy approaches have been developed. Among them, the use of genetic toxins to kill cancer cells selectively is emerging. Two different types of genetic toxins have been developed so far: the metabolic toxins and the dominant-negative class of toxins. This review describes these two different approaches, and discusses their potential applications in cancer gene therapy