unlikelihood of being

The incredible unlikelihood of being

July 24, 2014

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(credit: iStock)

Hello Ray,

The universe existed several billion years before humans were conscious, and will exist several billion years after we are conscious.

So, it is statistically improbable for the chronological timeline of the universe to be located at this precise moment, when we are conscious, that is, an 80 year lifespan within some 30 billion years.

Are you aware of any theories, besides survivorship bias from statistics, that could address this question?

Why humans happened to be alive during precise moments in the development timeline of the universe?

The universe developed before our birth, and will continue on.

To clarify, by improbable I mean extremely low probability. Empirical probability would say, “I’m alive, therefore the universe coincidentally exists at the moment during which I’m alive. And that is all there is to it.”

However, this coincidence seems so unlikely, in terms of probability, that it makes me to wonder if there are other theories you know of to explain this coincidence, whether from philosophy or physics.

Thanks,
Kent/.../

brain’s genetic codes for aging

Global ENIGMA consortium cracks brain’s genetic codes for aging

Finds 8 common gene mutations leading to brain aging in over 30,000 brain scans that may one day unlock mysteries of Alzheimer’s, autism, and other neurological disorders

January 23, 2015

(Credit: ENIGMA)

In the largest collaborative study of the brain to date, about 300 researchers in a global consortium of 190 institutions identified eight common genetic mutations that appear to age the brain an average of three years.

The discovery could lead to targeted therapies and interventions for Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and other neurological conditions.

Led by the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC), an international team known as the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis (ENIGMA) Network, pooled brain scans and genetic data worldwide to pinpoint genes that enhance or break down key brain regions in people from 33 countries./.../

Richest 1%and the rest

Richest 1% to own more than rest of world, Oxfam says

COMMENTS (1933)

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The wealthiest 1% will soon own more than the rest of the world's population, according to a study by anti-poverty charity Oxfam.

The charity's research shows that the share of the world's wealth owned by the richest 1% increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% last year.

On current trends, Oxfam says it expects the wealthiest 1% to own more than 50% of the world's wealth by 2016.

The research coincides with the start of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

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Are you in 'club 1%'? The BBC examines what you need

Continue reading the main story

Elderly Diabetics

Glycemic Control Too Tight in Elderly Diabetics with Dementia

Marlene Busko

January 22, 2015

• Comment

EDITORS' RECOMMENDATIONS

• New Research Suggests Diabetes Overtreatment in Older Adults
• New IDF Guidelines Target Diabetes Care in the Elderly
• Hypoglycemia Common, Rivaling CVD, in Old-Age Diabetes

In a large study of older male veterans with type 2 diabetes and dementia, about half had HbA1c levels below 7%, even though guidelines caution against such tight glycemic control in this type of patient population.

Moreover, three-quarters of the patients with tight glycemic control were receiving sulfonylureas and/or insulin, medications that are known to cause hypoglycemia.

This study of more than 15,000 community-dwelling veterans was published online January 15 in Diabetes Care./.../

National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health

Web version / Version web Forward / Transférer

A Year in Review As we begin 2015, I want to share with you some highlights from 2014 and what the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health has planned for 2015. Our focus continues to be to translate useful knowledge to help public health organizations and practitioners advance health equity within their public health practice. Last year, we launched a Health Equity Specialist Network to support knowledge exchange among the growing number of public health staff with a dedicated focus on determinants of health and health equity. Colleagues at Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Capital Health (N.S.) are co-chairs.

blood stem cells taking root

Live zebrafish imaging captures how blood stem cells take root in the body

January 19, 2015

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This image captures a blood stem cell (green) as it is “cuddled,” en route to taking root in a zebrafish (credit: Boston Children’s Hospital)

A see-through zebrafish and enhanced imaging provide the first direct glimpse of how blood stem cells take root in the body to generate blood.

Reporting in the journal Cell, researchers in Boston Children’s Hospital’s Stem Cell Research Program describe a surprisingly dynamic system that offers several clues for improving bone marrow transplants in patients with cancer, severe immune deficiencies, and blood disorders, and for helping those transplants “take.”

The steps are detailed in an animation (video below) narrated by senior investigator Leonard Zon, MD, director of the Stem Cell Research Program. The Cell version offers a more technical explanation/.../

Memcomputers

 Memcomputers: Faster, More Energy-Efficient Devices That Work Like a Human Brain

New types of electronic components, closer to neurons than to transistors, are leading to tremendously efficient and faster “memcomputing”

Jan 20, 2015 |By Massimiliano Di Ventra and Yuriy V. Pershin

Adam Simpson

When we wrote the words you are now reading, we were typing on the best computers that technology now offers: machines that are terribly wasteful of energy and slow when tackling important scientific calculations. And they are typical of every computer that exists today, from the smartphone in your hand to the multimillion-dollar supercomputers humming along in the world's most advanced computing facilities.

In Brief

• Modern computers all use a unit that does calculations and a separate memory unit that holds programs and data. Shuttling information back and forth takes lots of energy and time.
• A new idea, memcomputing works in a way that is similar to the neurons in the human brain, which form computing and memory storage units that are physically the same.
• This could mean a giant leap in computer speed and efficiency, as well as new computing architectures, so scientists are trying to learn the best ways to use different memcomputing components.

Roots of terrorism

Anthropologist Seeks the Roots of Terrorism

In spite of massive challenges, Scott Atran has managed to conduct extensive field interviews with would-be and convicted terrorists

January 20, 2015 |By Sara Reardon and Nature magazine

Scott Atran during a visit to Damascus to conduct fieldwork.

Credit: Richard Davis/Artis Research

In the wake of terrorist attacks last week on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Paris supermarket, the world has struggled to understand the combination of religion, European culture and influence from terrorist organizations that drove the gunmen. Scott Atran, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, studies such questions by interviewing would-be and convicted terrorists about their extreme commitment to their organizations and ideals. Atran recently returned from Paris, where he talked with members of the shooters’ communities. He spoke with Nature about what he discovered.

Aristocracy: intellectual capital

America’s new aristocracy

As the importance of intellectual capital grows, privilege has become increasingly heritable

Jan 24th 2015 | From the print edition

WHEN the candidates for the
Republican presidential nomination line up on stage for their first debate in August, there may be three contenders whose fathers also ran for president. Whoever wins may face the wife of a former president next year. It is odd that a country founded on the principle of hostility to inherited status should be so tolerant of dynasties. Because America never had kings or lords, it sometimes seems less inclined to worry about signs that its elite is calcifying./.../

missão social da educação médica

De:

Francisco Arsego de Oliveira	16:41 (Há 16 horas)
para saude-urbana

Em setembro, participei de uma interessante reunião em Manaus, promovida pela OPAS, sobre a missão social da educação médica em busca da equidade.

Saiu recentemente a página desse encontro, com as palestras e outros documentos.

As melhores palestras (além da minha, é claro... hahaha) foram do Arthur Kaufman e do Daniel Blumenthal. Recomendo fortemente!

O link é o seguinte: http://www.observatoriorh.org/?q=node/640

Too much sitting

Too Much Sitting Increases Mortality Risk Despite ExerciseAnn Intern Med. 2015;162:123-132, 146-147.Jenni Laidman. January 20, 2015

Prolonged sitting was associated with higher mortality from all causes, as well as increased incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes, even among people who exercise regularly, according to a meta-analysis published in the January 20 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

However, the analysis of 47 previously published articles also shows that the association between all-cause mortality and sedentary behavior is greatest among people who exercise the least.

Aviroop Biswas, BSc, from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues analyzed 14 studies on cardiovascular disease and diabetes, 14 studies on cancer, and 13 studies on all-cause mortality, all but three of which were prospective cohort designs. All but one of the studies used participant self-reporting to track sedentary time.

Sedentary lifestyle was linked to a hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause mortality of 1.240 in the meta-analysis (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.090 - 1.410). Further, sedentary behavior was associated with an increase in cardiovascular disease mortality (HR, 1.179; 95% CI, 1.106 - 1.257), cardiovascular disease incidence (HR, 1.143; 95% CI, 1.002 - 1.729), cancer mortality (HR, 1.173; 95% CI, 1.108 - 1.242), cancer incidence (HR, 1.130; 95% CI, 1.053 - 1.213), and type 2 diabetes incidence (HR, 1.910; 95% CI, 1.642 - 2.222)./.../

Rain distinctive smell

Slow-mo video of raindrops reveals how rain gets
its distinctive smell

By Rachel Feltman January 16  

Petrichor: It's a great word and an even better smell — the one that hangs in the air after a rain storm. By filming raindrops in super-slow-motion, MIT researchers think they've figured out how this smell works.

Screening for Diseases

[SDOH] John Ioannidis: "Screening for diseases that can lead to death typically does not prolong life substantially; a few screening tests may avert some deaths caused by the disease being screened, but even then it is difficult to document an improvement in overall survival"

Entrada

x

From: Mohammad Zakaria Pezeshki	06:42 (Há 8 horas)

http://earthcitizenshealth.blogspot.com/2015/01/john-ioannidis-screening-for-diseases.html

Mohammad Zakaria Pezeshki, M.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Community Medicine,
Tabriz Medical School, Golgasht Avenue, Tabriz, Iran,
Tel: 0098 411  336 46 73
Fax: 0098 411 336 46 68

2689 - AMICOR 17

Professor Luiz Eduardo Robinson Achutti. Paraninfo IA/UFRGS

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 6 minutos

*Nosso filho Luiz Eduardo foi paraninfo de turma de formandos do Instituto de Artes da UFRGS, no dia de hoje. Seguem a foto e seu discurso.* *IA, ritos e alegria.* Boa tarde a todos, primeiramente uma confissão, ou melhor, duas: - antes de eu vir para cá minha mulher disse que eu estava proibido de chorar, pois a formatura não era minha. Vou tentar. Outra: nunca assisti ou participei de uma formatura, nem da minha, lá nos idos tempos das Ciências Sociais. Dito isto, desde já quero agradecer aos meus queridos alunos, que se formam nesta tarde, por esta oportunidade. Muito em breve ... mais »

Healthy weight

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 7 horas

A 12-Hour Window for a Healthy Weight By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS JANUARY 15, 2015 10:00 AM January 15, 2015 10:00 am 263 Comments PhotoCreditIllustration by Ben Wiseman - *This article appeared in the January 18, 2015 issue of The New York Times Magazine.* Scientists, like mothers, have long suspected that midnight snacking is inadvisable. But until a few years ago, there was little in the way of science behind those suspicions. Now, a new study shows that mice prevented from eating at all hours avoided obesity and metabolic problems — even if their diet was sometimes unhealthful./.../

Kinesin

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 11 horas

Tweet of the Week: Walk This WayHave you ever seen a motor protein in action? - SAVESAVED - - - - "> - - by MedPage Today Staff - Welcome to another edition of the *MedPage Today* Tweet of the Week! Every Friday, the editorial team highlights its favorite 140-character contribution from the healthcare twittersphere. This week's winner is ... TIL, a Twitter page that dedicates its posts to learning something new every day. They shared this hypnotizing animation of a confident kinesin at work. Today I Learned @TILSomethingNew Follow Kinesin (a motor... mais »

Health Professionals elearning

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 11 horas

*Recomendado por Cristiane Famer Rocha*eLearning for undergraduate health professional education - a systematic review informing a radical transformation of health workforce development Publication details Authors: Imperial College London, World Health Organization Edited by Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, Rifat Atun, Josip Car, Azeem Majeed, Erica Wheeler Date: January 2015 Number of pages: 156 ISBN: 978 92 4 150826 1 Download eLearning systematic review *(pdf, 4.99 Mb)* Overview This publication on ‘eLearning for Undergraduate Health Professional Education’ responds to a need at the country lev... mais »

Controlling Fly aging

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 12 horas

‘Methuselah fly’ created by selecting best cells January 16, 2015 [image: A deceased Drosophila melanogaster. (Credit: Institute for Cell Biology, University of Bern)] University of Bern researchers have prolonged the lifespan of flies by activating a gene that destroys unhealthy cells. The results could also open new possibilities in human anti-aging research. The researchers at the Institute of Cell Biology from the University of Bern in Switzerland, led by Eduardo Moreno, developed a new method to extend the … more…

Exoplanets

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 12 horas

Planets outside our solar system more hospitable to life than thought January 16, 2015 [image: Exoplanet, artist's impression] A study by astrophysicists at the University of Toronto suggests that exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — are more likely to have liquid water and be more habitable than we thought. Scientists have thought that exoplanets behave in a manner contrary to that of Earth — that is, they always show their same … more…

Obesity control

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 12 horas

How the brain controls fat burningJanuary 16, 2015 (Credit: Monash University) In case the “imaginary meal” approach to burning fat doesn’t work, now there’s a backup. Monash University researchers have discovered that two naturally occurring hormones stimulate neurons in the brain’s hypothalamus, causing them to send signals through the nervous system that promote the conversion of white fat into brown fat. This leads to burning off excess fat. The findings, published Thursday (Jan. 15) in the journal *Cell*, give new insights into how the brain regulates body fat, and may lead to mor... mais »

Smell

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há um dia

You Don’t Just Smell Through Your Nose By Debra Kelly on Wednesday, January 7, 2015 [image: 87809857] “And ever since then, when the clock strikes two, / She walks unbidden from room to room, / And the air is filled that she passes through / With a subtle, sad perfume.” —Bret Harte, “Newport Legend” In A Nutshell We tend to think that we smell with our nose, but we’ve recently found that nearly every single organ in our bodies is capable of smell. More precisely, our organs have been found to contain olfactory receptors that are keyed to react in certain ways to certain scents. When r... mais »

Población Mundial 2014

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

El Cuadro de Datos de la Población Mundial 2014 Carl Haub y Toshiko Kaneda Descargue el informe completoResumen (enero 2015) *El Cuadro de Datos de la Población Mundial 2014* del PRB contiene las más recientes estimaciones y proyecciones demográficas y otros indicadores clave correspondientes a más de 200 países. El Cuadro de Datos 2014 es especial atención sobre el progreso y los retos./.../

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 3 dias

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Wrong Name, Real Illness Miriam E. Tucker Disclosures January 08, 2015 221 comments - A *Real* Condition - What Is ME/CFS? - Physical Findings and Biomarkers - Clinical Approaches - Federal Efforts, Funding, and Future Directions - References Topic Alert Receive an email from Medscape whenever new articles on this topic are available. - [image: Personal Alert] Add Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to My Topic Alert Introduction Sufferers of what has been called chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are challenging patients, presenting with complai... mais »

Medical Research

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 3 dias

The U.S. Loses Its Edge in Medical ResearchResearch funding from the United States dropped from 57% of the global pool in 2004 to 50% in 2012. Asia on the other hand tripled its investment in research over the same period

Facebook

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 4 dias

Here’s Proof That Facebook Knows You Better Than Your Friends - Alice Park @aliceparkny Jan. 12, 2015 Nobody knows us better than our family and friends, right? Who else could predict how we’ll react to good and bad news, or whether to pick the pie or ice cream for dessert?[image: 175277055] Fonte: *http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/01/07/1418680112.full.pdf+html*

On Bats

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 4 dias

No Time for Bats to Rest Easy By NATALIE ANGIERJAN. 12, 2015 Photo Pallas’s long-tongued bat, above, is a valuable pollinator. Hibernating bats are vulnerable to white-nose syndrome, which has killed at least six million of them in North America.CreditMerlin D. Tuttle/Bat Conservation International LEWISBURG, PA. — The 10 hibernating little brown bats hang from a corner of their tailor-made refrigeration chamber at Bucknell University like a clump of old potato skins, only less animated. In torpor, bats become one with their wintry surroundings, their body temperatures fal... mais »

NEJM Journal Watch 2014

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 5 dias

NEJM Journal WatchGeneral Medicine [image: YEAR IN REVIEW 2014] TOPICS INCLUDED IN THIS COLLECTION: - Can We Do a Better Job of Keeping Patients Out of the Hospital? - Fecal DNA Testing: Finally Ready for Prime Time? - Has Risk for Contrast-Induced Nephropathy Been Exaggerated? - Direct Oral Anticoagulants Are Safe and Effective Compared with Warfarin - A New Era Unfolds in HCV Treatment - When Is Conservative Treatment Better? Nearly Always, for Some Patients with Chronic Orthopedic Pain Studies Suggest - We Should Modify Our Approach to Sepsis Treatment ... mais »

Plasmonics

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 5 dias

Plasmônica - um novo campo de trabalho Mais que uma nova área de estudo. A plasmônica é a revolução, ou não?

Aging Brain Care

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 6 dias

HABC MonitorImproving screening, diagnosis and management * free with registration Obtain a copyHABC Monitor - Caregiver editionPDFFree*HABC Monitor - Patient editionPDFFree*HABC Monitor - Caregiver editionPrint$9.99HABC Monitor - Patient editionPrint$9.99 Improving dementia care requires three key building blocks often lacking in clinical practice. These are: - a standardized, reliable means of screening (finding patients with a high probability of having dementia); - diagnosis (confirming the presence of dementia in these patients; and - management (monitoring the respons...mais »

Metformin and cancer

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 6 dias

Can we use an anti-diabetic drug to treat cancer?Metformin—a drug used to lower blood sugar levels in patients with diabetes—is able to slow the growth of cancer cells. Metformin is widely used to reduce the high blood sugar levels caused by diabetes. Recently, several studies have suggested that patients taking metformin who also develop cancer have tumors that grow more slowly than average. As clinical trials have already started to investigate if metformin is an effective anti-cancer treatment, it is important to understand how it might restrict tumor growth. Researchers have pro... mais »

Laughter and Terror

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 6 dias

- Laughter and TerrorRobert Darnton Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris “The Patriotic De-Fattening Machine,” a cartoon from the French Revolution, circa 1790. One of the many cartoons published in homage to the cartoonists and journalists assassinated on Wednesday in the office of *Charlie Hebdo* showed a gravestone with the inscription “Died of Laughter.” No one is laughing these days in Paris. In fact, the massacre raises questions about laughter itself./.../