State of Affairs

Rhapsody : An exalted or exaggeratedly enthusiastic expression of sentiment or feeling; an effusion (e.g. a speech, letter, poem) marked by extravagance of idea and expression, but without connected thought or sound argument. Also without article.
Oxford English Dictionary; www.oed.com




We do not yet have developed the theory for how to combine the physics of Macro and Micro (quantum)!!
BBC Radio 4 - The material world






Math Relations

To solve a problem, we need to analyse the problem, we need to play with the problem, spend time with it, in order to eventually solve it with fantasy, with sense for elegance, symmetry. Mathematical problems are the natural way to learn these abilities. When studying, your aim should not be to constantly think about how to prepare for the examinations. It is the other way around: the examination will test whether you learned to solve problems.

Take the maximal time span to think about the problems. This means thinking, rethinking, trying repeatedly, eventually improving the solution, finding alternative solutions. Repeatedly return to the problems you have not yet solved. Many ideas need to ripen first in your subconscious, before you see light. It is vital that you really know the problem.

Working in groups can be a good way of learning, only if there is a healthy balance between giving and taking. In the end you are measured on your own abilities.

When you found a solution, it could prove helpful to see how other
people solve the problem, or to let other people criticise your own solution.


Source: LINEAR ALGEBRA I, 2007/08, ANNE HENKE, Oxford Univ., Mathematical Institute.












Red Tape and Public Service Motivation

Findings from a National Survey of Managers in State Health and Human Services Agencies

This article examines the relationship between red tape and public-service motivation. Using a recent national survey of public managers in various state health and human service organizations, the authors examine whether perceptions of red tape are determined by differences in the level of public-service motivation. Across a variety of dependent measures, the results showed a consistent linkage between managerial perceptions of red tape and public-service motivation. Managers reporting higher levels of public-service motivation were less likely to perceive high levels of red tape. Among the dimensions of public-service motivation, attraction to public policy making provided the greatest influence on perceptions of red tape.
Key Words: public service motivation • red tape • bureaucrac
Patrick G. Scott
Missouri State University
Sanjay K. Pandey
Rutgers University, Campus at Camden







The Big Picture

People on average seem unable to increase their output per hour at better than 3% a year over a protracted period. That is apparently the maximum rate at which human innovation can move standards of living forward. We are apparently not smart enough to do better.

The new world in which we now live is giving many citizens much to fear including the uprooting of many previously stable sources of identity and security.

Despite the many short comings of human beings, it is no accident that we persevere and advance in the face of adversity. It is in our nature - a fact that has buoyed optimism about the future.

People exhibit remarkable similarity in appearing motivated by an inbred striving for self esteem that is in large part fostered by the approval of others. What contribute to self esteem depends on values people believe will enhance their lives. The need for values is inbred. Their content is not......Exuberance is celebration of life.

In an economy as sophisticated as ours, people have to interact and exchange goods and services constantly, and the division of labour is so finely articulated that every household depends on commerce simply to survive, if investors dump their stocks, or business people back away from trades, or citizens stay home for fear of going to malls and being exposed to suicide bombers - there’s a snowball effect - it’s a psychology that leads to panic and recessions. A shock like the one we’d sustained at Sept 11 could cause a massive withdrawal from, and major contraction in, economic activity. The misery could multiply.



....The defining moment for the world’s economics was the fall of the Berlin wall in 89, revealing a state of economic ruin behind the iron curtain far beyond the expectations of the most knowledgeable western economists. Central planning was exposed as an unredeemable failure, coupled with and supported by the disillusionment over the interventionist economic policies of the western democracies. Market capitalism began quietly to displace these policies in much of the world.



.......China’s shift in protecting the property rights of foreigners, while subtle, was substantial enough to induce a veritable explosion in foreign direct investment, FDI, into China following 1991, from a level of $57 m in 1980, FDI drifted upward, reaching $4b in 1991, and then accelerated at a 21% annual rates reaching $70 b in 2006. The investment joined with the abundance of low cost labour resulted in a potent combination that exerted downward pressure on wages and prices through out the developed world.



............With 14 years under my observation as Fed chairman I'd seen the economy pull through a lot of crises-including the largest one-day crash in the history of the stock market, which happened 5 weeks after I took the job. We'd survived the real-estate boom and bust of 1980s. The saving and loan crisis and the Asian financial upheavals, not to mention the recession of 1990. We'd enjoyoed the longest stock market boom in history and then weathered the ensuing dot-com crash. I was gradually coming to believe that the US economy's great strength was its resiliency - its ability to absorb disruption and recover often in ways and at a pace you'd never be able to predict, much less dictate.

by Alan Greenspan, Age of Turbulence, 2007



A man of very deep learning must have employed the greatest part of his time in books; and a skilful negotiator must necessarily have employed much the greater part of his time with man. ......................The other necessary talent for negotiation is the great art of pleasing and engaging the affection and confidence, not only of those with whom you are to cooperate, but even of those whom you are to oppose: to conceal your own thoughts and views, and to discover other people’s to engage other people’s confidence by a seeming cheerful frankness and openness, without going a step too far: to gain the absolute command over your temper and your countenance, that no heat may provoke you to say, nor no change of countenance to betray, what should be a secret

Earl of Chesterfield, Man of the World, 16 Nov. 1752



Deja Vu

In futurism basic knowledge written in 1920, political aims were clearly defined as: “establishment of a volunteer army, modernisation of public security forces, and a government led by young front-line soldiers.” Their radical agendas always aimed at international audience. Its protagonists carried the movement’s message with typical actionism to the cultured centres.

………..“Nothing being taught in schools or studios as the truth holds valid for us any longer. Our hands are free and clean enough to start over from the beginning.” the first futuristic manifesto with its notorious statement , “We shall glorify wars - that sole hygiene for the world - militarism, patriotism, the destructive deeds of the anarchists, the great ideas one dies for, and a disdain of woman.” At the time the WW1 broke out in 1914, many futurists went enthusiastically to war, thinking it the only way to break up the centuries of encrustation that blocked social progress.

It was out of the same conviction that the futurists envisioned jettisoning the moribund past and celebrating the emergence of universal dynamism.

Teaching

A man of very deep learning must have employed the greatest part of his time in books; and a skilful negotiator must necessarily have employed much the greater part of his time with man.


.................You must be well bred and polite, but without stiffness of ceremony. You must be respectful and assenting, but without being servile and abject. You must be frank, but without indiscretion; and close, without being costive. You must keep up dignity of character, without the least pride of birth or rank. You must be gay within all the bounds of decency and respect; and grave without the affectation of wisdom. You must be essentially secret, without being dark and mysterious. You must be firm, and even bold, but with great seeming modesty.

Earl of Chesterfield, Man of the World, 16 Nov. 1752

Measuring Brain Activities

Introduction
Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or FMRI, is a technique for measuring brain activity. It works by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur in response to neural activity – when a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen and to meet this increased demand blood flow increases to the active area. FMRI can be used to produce activation maps showing which parts of the brain are involved in a particular mental process.

Background
FMRI is one of the most recently developed forms of neuroimaging but the idea underpinning the technique - inferring brain activity by measuring changes in blood flow - is not new.

The development of FMRI in the 1990s, generally credited to Seiji Ogawa and Ken Kwong, is the latest in long line of innovations, including positron emission tomography (PET) and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which use blood flow and oxygen metabolism to infer brain activity. As a brain imaging technique FMRI has several significant advantages:

It is non-invasive and doesn’t involve radiation, making it safe for the subject.
It has excellent spatial and good temporal resolution.
It is easy for the experimenter to use.
The attractions of FMRI have made it a popular tool for imaging normal brain function – especially for psychologists. Over the last decade it has provided new insight to the investigation of how memories are formed, language, pain, learning and emotion to name but a few areas of research. FMRI is also being applied in clinical and commercial settings.



What does MRI measure?

The cylindrical tube of an MRI scanner houses a very powerful electro-magnet. A typical research scanner (such as the FMRIB Centre scanner) has a field strength of 3 teslas (T), about 50,000 times greater than the Earth’s field. The magnetic field inside the scanner affects the magnetic nuclei of atoms. Normally atomic nuclei are randomly oriented but under the influence of a magnetic field the nuclei become aligned with the direction of the field. The stronger the field the greater the degree of alignment. When pointing in the same direction, the tiny magnetic signals from individual nuclei add up coherently resulting in a signal that is large enough to measure. In FMRI it is the magnetic signal from hydrogen nuclei in water (H2O) that is detected.

The key to MRI is that the signal from hydrogen nuclei varies in strength depending on the surroundings. This provides a means of discriminating between grey matter, white matter and cerebral spinal fluid in structural images of the brain.


What does FMRI measure?
Oxygen is delivered to neurons by haemoglobin in capillary red blood cells. When neuronal activity increases there is an increased demand for oxygen and the local response is an increase in blood flow to regions of increased neural activity.

Haemoglobin is diamagnetic when oxygenated but paramagnetic when deoxygenated. This difference in magnetic properties leads to small differences in the MR signal of blood depending on the degree of oxygenation. Since blood oxygenation varies according to the levels of neural activity these differences can be used to detect brain activity. This form of MRI is known as blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) imaging.
One point to note is the direction of oxygenation change with increased activity. You might expect blood oxygenation to decrease with activation, but the reality is a little more complex. There is a momentary decrease in blood oxygenation immediately after neural activity increases, known as the “initial dip” in the haemodynamic response. This is followed by a period where the blood flow increases, not just to a level where oxygen demand is met, but overcompensating for the increased demand. This means the blood oxygenation actually increases following neural activation. The blood flow peaks after around 6 seconds and then falls back to baseline, often accompanied by a “post-stimulus undershoot”.

Activation Maps
The image shown is the result of the simplest kind of FMRI experiment. While lying in the MRI scanner the subject watched a screen which alternated between showing a visual stimulus and being dark every 30 second. Meanwhile the MRI scanner tracked the signal throughout the brain. In brain areas responding to the visual stimulus you would expect the signal to go up and down as the stimulus is turned on and off, albeit blurred slightly by the delay in the blood flow response. The ‘activity’ in a voxel is defined as how closely the time-course of the signal from that voxel matches the expected time-course. Voxels whose signal corresponds tightly are given a high activation score, voxels showing no correlation have a low score and voxels showing the opposite (deactivation) are given a negative score. These can then be translated into activation maps.

Source: University of Oxford, FMRIB,
http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/education/fmri/introduction-to-fmri/background/

Causes of Poverty

Poverty cannot be viewed in exclusively material terms. In many cases, people are poor as a result of experiencing a debilitating event in their lives – such as becoming addicted to drugs, or having dropped out of education. The five aspects of poverty that Iain Duncan Smith has identified - addictions, family breakdown, educational failure, indebtedness and worklessnessare - “pathways to poverty” that must be tackled in themselves as a precondition to eradicating poverty.


Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clark
www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=141356

Clinical Trial

The Fast Assessment of Stroke and Transient ischemic attack to prevent Early Recurrence (FASTER) is a randomized clinical trial designed to investigate the effect of hyper-acute initiation of stroke prevention treatments in patients with a minor stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA).

This group of individuals has been recognized as being at high risk of recurrent events. Johnston et al. (2000) were the first to suggest that the risk of stroke after TIA was front-loaded in the first few days. This has been confirmed elsewhere with Lovett et al. (2003) having shown in the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project that the 7-day risk of recurrent stroke was 8.6%, and a 30-day risk of 12.0%. These findings are similarly found in the Oxford Vascular Study; 8.0% and 11.5% respectively for a recurrent event (Coull et al., 2004). The NASCET (North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial) study also supports the finding of high risk of early recurrent stroke. 8.5% of patients with a hemispheric TIA suffered a recurrent stroke within one week rising to 20% at 90-days (Eliasziw et al., 2004). This data suggest that patients with carotid stenosis are at the highest risk of early recurrent stoke.

Only one in four patients with acute ischemic stroke presenting within three hours of symptom onset are being treated with t-PA (Barber et al., 2001). The most common reason for exclusion from treatment is that a patient’s deficit will be too mild for treatment or will have completely resolved thereby not meriting the risks of treatment with tPA. These are the patients that have a higher risk of early recurrence. The clinical imperative is to identify hyper-acute treatment strategies to minimize that risk.

FASTER is a double blind, randomized controlled trial with a 2x2 factorial design with patients followed for 90-days. Patients will be randomized within 24 hours of symptom onset to one of four possible treatment arms:

Aspirin
Aspirin and Clopidogrel
Aspirin and Simvastatin
Aspirin and Clopidogrel and Simvastatin
Study Hypotheses

A. A rapid commencement of clopidogrel plus aspirin within 24 hours of acute TIA or minor stroke is more effective than aspirin in reducing the 90-day risk of stroke by an absolute difference of 2%.

B. A rapid commencement of simvastatin plus aspirin within 24 hours of acute TIA or minor stroke is more effective than aspirin in reducing the 90-day risk of stroke by an absolute difference of 2%.

C. A rapid commencement of clopidogrel plus aspirin plus simvastatin within 24 hours of acute TIA or minor stroke is more effective than aspirin alone in reducing the 90-day risk of stroke by an absolute difference of 4%.

D. The incidence of adverse events is not different among treatment groups.

Eligibility
Ages Eligible for Study: 40 Years and older
Genders Eligible for Study: Both

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients with TIA or minor acute ischemic stroke (NIHSS < 4 at the time of randomization) who must NOT be candidates for acute thrombolysis or other acute intervention indicated as the current standard of care
Aged 40 years or older
Patients with: (a) weakness at time of TIA/minor stroke and/or language disturbance at time of TIA/minor stroke and; (b) duration of neurological deficit (TIA) > 5 minutes
Patients can be randomized within 24 hours of symptom onset. Symptom onset is defined by the "last seen well" principle
Patients must have provided written, informed consent to participate in the FASTER trial.

Exclusion Criteria:

Patients with pure sensory symptoms, pure vertigo or dizziness, pure ataxia or pure visual loss
Patients for whom thrombolysis or other acute intervention is indicated as the current standard of care
Patients who are currently on statin therapy, antiplatelet therapy (not including aspirin), or long-term non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs but not COX inhibitors), or anticoagulation
Patients who in the opinion of the site Investigator, should be commenced on statin therapy
Patients with neurological deficit due to intracranial hemorrhage (intracranial hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hematoma, epidural hematoma), tumor, infection or any finding not consistent with acute brain ischemia as the cause of presenting symptoms
Presumed cardiac source of embolus (e.g. atrial fibrillation, prosthetic cardiac valve, known/suspected endocarditis)
Patient with a concomitant acute coronary syndrome (acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina)
Modified Rankin Score 3 or more (pre-morbid historical assessment)
Patients in whom the qualifying event was due to a complication of cerebral angiography, a revascularization procedure or trauma
Uncontrolled hypertension at baseline (systolic blood pressure >180 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure >110 mmHg), or malignant hypertension defined by brain plus acute organ involvement due to acute hypertension
Women who are breast-feeding or pregnant. Women of childbearing potential must have a negative pregnancy test prior to randomization. Women of childbearing potential may still participate in the trial but must plan on not becoming pregnant during the course of the study and must practice a suitable method of birth control. If a patient becomes pregnant or begins breast-feeding during the study, both study drugs will be discontinued immediately, and the patient followed for the duration of the study
Evidence of contraindication for use of Trial Medication: (i) serious systemic bleeding precluding antiplatelet therapy; (ii) hypersensitivity to aspirin, thienopyridine drugs (clopidogrel or ticlopidine) or statins; (iii) current or past history of renal insufficiency [serum Creatinine >150 umol]; (iv) hepatic dysfunction indicated by any or all of the following [ALT >3xULN, AST >3xULN, ALP >3xULN]; (v) thrombocytopenia [platelet count < 150 x10^9/L]; (vi) neutropenia [neutrophil count < 0.5 x10^9/L]; (vii) bleeding diathesis or coagulopathy indicated by any or all of the following [INR >1.2, PT >1.2xULN, PTT >1.2xULN]
Life expectancy of less than 90 days
Participation in another clinical therapeutic trial (drug or device) either concurrently or within the previous 30 days, or prior participation in FASTER
Geographical or other factors that render follow-up impractical or that render evaluation of outcome events impossible (e.g. severe dementia). Patients may be randomized who could and are willing to complete their follow-up at a participating centre.



Investigators


Principal Investigator: Alastair M Buchan Dept of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary

Study Director: James Kennedy Nuffield Dept of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford




Publications indexed to this study:

Kennedy J, Hill MD, Ryckborst KJ, Eliasziw M, Demchuk AM, Buchan AM; FASTER Investigators. Fast assessment of stroke and transient ischaemic attack to prevent early recurrence (FASTER): a randomised controlled pilot trial. Lancet Neurol. 2007 Nov;6(11):961-9. Epub 2007 Oct 10.



Study placed in the following topic categories:
Ischemic Attack, Transient
Cerebral Infarction
Simvastatin
Vascular Diseases
Central Nervous System Diseases
Ischemia
Brain Diseases
Cerebrovascular Disorders
Recurrence
Signs and Symptoms
Cerebrovascular Accident
Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain
Pathologic Processes
Aspirin
Clopidogrel
Brain Ischemia
Brain Infarction
Infarction




Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Antimetabolites
Disease Attributes
Antilipemic Agents
Nervous System Diseases
Hematologic Agents
Enzyme Inhibitors
Anticholesteremic Agents
Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors
Pharmacologic Actions
Molecular Mechanisms of Action
Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms
Therapeutic Uses
Cardiovascular Diseases
Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors



ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on December 14, 2007

Source: http://www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/ndmjr/researchunits/geratology/abuchan

Uncertainties

Dr Ngaire Woods gives the opening lecture on The Silent Revolution in Global Economic Governance. Although analysts of multilateral economic institutions have devoted a great deal of attention to the importance of NGOs and market-actors, a more important ‘silent revolution’ was taking place whose implications have not been sufficiently appreciated. The lecture began by examining the shifts in global economic power away from the states that have dominated the multilateral institutions created in the aftermath of the Second World and by arguing that a US-led system was no longer able to provide a stable set of shared public goods that were of interest to all the major players in the system. A power shift has been taking place to new players, especially emerging economies and societies, that are not currently sitting at the top table but whose involvement and participation will be crucial if effective multilateralism is to be re-established. This power shift can be seen in the areas of monetary relations, the trading order and the oil market. Existing institutions were ossified. Reform from within was proving difficult because of the ‘political toxicity’ created by earlier policies (as with the way in which the IMF handled the Asian Financial Crisis) and because of the unwillingness to consider more than minor concessions and reforms (as with limited voting reform within the financial institutions or ad hoc invitations to G8 summits). The result was a combination of rebellion (as with the role of the G20 within the WTO Doha Round) and exit (as with the marginalization of the IFIs in the financial policies of most major emerging governments and the growth of regional arrangements). The lecture considered the monetary order and global development finance as illustrations of these developments. Dr Woods argued that multilateral economic governance was in crisis because of the limits to coercive management and as a result of a reform discussion in which the currently dominant powers only listen to their own voices. Progress needed both a fundamental rethinking of relations between the institutions and the newly emerging powers and an intellectual debate driven by a far wider group of intellectuals and scholars.

Source: Dr Ngaire Woods gives the opening lecture on The Silent Revolution in Global Economic Governance, 08/10/07. (posted 01/10/2007)
http://gtg.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/





I suspect everyone is hoping that all conspiracy theories to be true, and that somebody somewhere is in control - otherwise such uncertain future of such out of hand world is! unthinkable!








It is sometimes said that God cannot be a fundamental explanation of things since explanations must be simpler than the things they purport to explain, and God is nothing if not a complex idea. If this is taken as true then that would rule out a theological theory of everything. But, Ward continued, this is a false argument for at least two reasons. First, God is traditionally taken as in fact being simple, in the sense of being indivisible, fully realised, one. Second, not all explanations of things are simpler than the things they are explaining. The multiverse is an obvious case in point.

What would God's role be in this account of creation? In short, Ward proposed, to allow only the universes that actually exist, to exist. God would decide, as it were, which universe or universes were to be realised on the basis that it is good that they are.

It goes without saying that this is speculative theology - though what is not speculative when it comes to modern cosmology? But apart from satisfying Occam's razor, it also has the advantage of integrating material observations with moral concerns, something that is natural for humans to do. To put it another way, it would be the presence of self-aware consciousness with the capacity of acting for the good that leads to a possible universe becoming actual. If that sounds a bit like certain interpretations of quantum theory, with a moral twist, then I'm sure Ward meant it.

Mark Vernon, God and the multiverse, Guardian, CiF, 7 Dec.



An optimist's sociological musings, 9 Oct 2000
By A Customer

The book of Nonzero is written in two parts, the first sociological in orientation and the second biological, and finishes up with a few guesses as to the future of mankind. The basic topic is a game-theoretical take on the positive consequences of mutually self-interested cooperation, which the author enshrines in the unfortunately ugly phrase "nonzero-summness". In a defensively apologetic appendix, Wright confesses he wanted to use this as the title. I'm glad he didn't.

The phrase "zero sum" is in fairly common use in the US, although I have not heard it much in Europe; it means an interaction where there is no overall, net gain for the parties concerned. A boxing match is a zero sum game, one man wins, another loses. In contrast, Wright's interest is in interactions whose results are positive for all parties, generating "progress". Examples are easy - consider the organisation between different people with different expertise it takes to, say, build a house.

In a necessarily thin history of the human race, Wright finds this nonzero-summness wherever he looks, elevating it, more or less, to the level of an over-arching principle of the development of life and, inevitably, the development of human society.

There is a great deal of high talk, provocative nudges, and suggestions of the perception of higher things. But Wright never seems to bite the bullet and take a controversial stance, preferring to adopt a generally optimistic attitude, rather like Rodin's thinker, looking upward, with a goofy smile on his face - cute, perhaps, but not nearly so interesting. The result is a vague sort of impression that because things have gone well in the past, Wright thinks it likely, possibly even (but not explicitly) necessary, that they will continue to go well in the future. (Perhaps only a modern American, even a Californian, could have written this book.)

A brief duel near the middle of the book with Popper's ideas on the inability of historical studies to predict future developments is unconvincing. Popper was surely discussing something considerably more refined than Wright's generalist approach - after all, one buys into mutual funds which have performed well in the past on the odds that they will continue to do so, but this still does not mean that the behaviour of the stock exchange is predictable.

This is an optimist's sociology book - read it for a nice, warm and fuzzy feel of an idea of the universe as a place built for progress, but don't expect any paradigm-changing revelations. Overall, I rate it an interesting read, but ultimately dissappointing.

The Life Stages of Health Data

To enable effective sharing, data must be properly curated over its life-cycle and released with the appropriate high-quality metadata. This is the responsibility of the data owners who are usually those individuals or institutes that have received
funding to create or collect the primary data. ...From 1 January 2006, all applicants submitting funding proposals to Medical Research Centre, MRC, must include a statement explaining their strategy for data preservation and sharing. ... Applicants who consider data arising from their MRC-funded proposals not amenable to
sharing must provide explicit reasons for not making the data available.1


The life stages of data

Data sets go through several stages, and this has implications as regards access. Data begin as raw data, data as initially measured and recorded. These are transformed into cleaned data by being qualitycontrolled and having redundancies removed, evident errors of transcription or coding corrected, and so on, and their filing and indexing improved. As they are studied they become augmented data by
incorporating derivative or ‘built’ data, i.e. inferences drawn from multiple initial data (such as the date of onset of illness, established by reviewing clinical
measurements along with interview data), or by receiving new data from studies based on the resource, or by having data from the analysis of materials added to them. As mature data, which means different things for different data, data sets are held in databases, stored, or archived. Anonymised versions may be prepared.


Collections evolve in other ways over time. Paper files may be translated into electronic format, and earlier electronic data systems may be upgraded to more
modern ones. Newer coding systems may be adopted. Phenotypic health or social data collections may have genotypic data spliced onto or linked with them. Data may be linked with materials. Once dynamic collections may reach the fullness of age,
or lose support and become legacy collections, for which decisions have to be made about caretaking or destruction. At any time custodianship or financial sponsorship may change.

- Whether in any instance secondary access is appropriate depends on, among other things, how mature the data set is, how thoroughly it is documented, and how searchable it is. Raw data are rarely of use to people outside the unit collecting
them. Although the original collectors may know how the subjects were selected and why, what questionnaires were used, what measurement techniques were employed, how samples were treated, what codes were used, and so on, they may not have taken the (considerable) trouble to write all this up in a way that would allow a competent but
‘cold’ accessor to analyse the data properly. Moreover, because the current custodians may not have been involved in earlier stages, even they may be unaware of
all the soft areas and pitfalls. Data sets cannot be used effectively by secondary researchers – or by primary researchers either, for that matter – unless the
collection and its variables are thoroughly documented. Access decisions must take all of this into account.


Upon any transferring of data to third-party archives or depositing of samples in storage centres beyond the direct custodianship reach of the resource builders,
a variety of safeguarding, documentation, and access issues must be attended to.


1.‘MRC Statement on Data Sharing and Preservation Policy’. Medical Research Council; September 2005. www.mrc.ac.uk/index/
strategy-strategy/strategy-science_strategy/strategy-strategy_implementation/strategy-other_initiatives/strategy-data_sharing/
strategy-data_sharing_policy.htm [accessed 21 December 2005].

Source: Wellcome Trust; www.wellcome.ac.uk
ACCESS TO COLLECTIONS OF DATA AND MATERIALS FOR HEALTH RESEARCH;
A report to the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, By William W Lowrance





Health Research

Oxfam believes that the potential for pharmaceutical companies to contribute more substantially and effectively towards increasing access to medicines for poor people in developing countries is not being met, and that there are three factors that have prevented companies from moving forward.

First, companies’ pursuit of strategies that address access to medicines merely as a reputational problem has resulted in patchy, ad-hoc approaches which have failed to deliver sustainable solutions.

Second, the industry’s responses to flagging financial performance – hiking up prices, aggressively defending patents and prolonging existing ones through ‘ever greening’ rather than investing in research and development of new medicines – have undermined needs for lower prices, flexible approaches to patenting, and R&D investment into diseases relevant to the developing world.

Third, the industry’s failure to comprehend access to medicines as a fundamental human right enshrined in international law, and to recognise that pharmaceutical companies have responsibilities in this context, has prevented the adoption of appropriate strategies.

It is clear that there are pressures on the pharmaceutical industry to change course. Increased financial burdens on health systems due to ageing populations and changing disease burdens are stimulating calls for lower prices from both North and South. The industry is now challenged to be more transparent about its price rationale so that governments and public-health advocates can request greater alignment between the prices set and purchasing power. The intellectual property regime and the market-driven model of drug development are criticised for not delivering real innovation required to relieve the global public-health crisis.
At the same time, investors are clearly concerned that this industry is not delivering the profits that it used to. Emerging market economies are being identified as the possible panacea to this flagging growth. There are enormous opportunities in these markets, including lower costs to conduct R&D and clinical trials, and low-cost manufacturing. These economies also offer substantial market potential. However, for this to be realised, the industry will have to recognise that serving these markets requires a vastly different approach: one which reflects the significance of massive income disparities, the impacts of high prices on increasing vulnerability and insecurity, and the need for medicines that are relevant and adaptable to poor settings.

Pressures on the industry to meet society’s expectations of access to medicines will continue for a number of reasons:

First, a growing number of developing-country governments are making serious commitments towards achieving viable health services and equity of access. Without a solution to the problem of access to medicines, they cannot meet their goals and obligations to their populations. In the developing world, where the majority of people live in poverty and are highly sensitive to price rises, companies will have to respond by implementing sophisticated differential pricing policies correlated to different income levels or by instituting flexible patent policies to ensure the desirable low price is achieved.

Second, the epidemiology of public health is changing, with a more diverse range of diseases that require appropriate products. For developing countries particularly, their specific contextual realities need to be taken seriously: new products are needed, formulations need to be usable, and drug information and labelling should be comprehensible. R&D will have to be tailored to end-use realities.

Third, demands from civil society for the industry to deliver their end of the social contract are likely to grow and become more exacting. As the current models and incentives for delivering medicines that are suitable, usable, and affordable for poor people come under increasing scrutiny, this will add to the growing pressure upon the pharmaceutical industry to adopt different strategies that better meet global health needs.

If companies continue a slow evolution of the existing approach without addressing society’s expectations, they are likely to fall seriously short of meeting the challenges of access to medicines.

Now is the time for companies to take a bold look at new ways of doing business, incorporating a social equity bottom line into their thinking, working more flexibly, transparently, and practically with a wide range of stakeholders. The current inertia on access to medicines can be overcome by placing concerns about affordability and availability at the core of business decision-making processes and operations. To do so will require strong leadership and long-term vision.

Investing for life, Oxfam Briefing Paper, November 2007

Our decisions

Learning the value of information in an uncertain world.
Nat Neurosci.

Abstract
Our decisions are guided by outcomes that are associated with decisions made in the past. However, the amount of influence each past outcome has on our next decision remains unclear. To ensure optimal decision-making, the weight given to decision outcomes should reflect their salience in predicting future outcomes, and this salience should be modulated by the volatility of the reward environment. We show that human subjects assess volatility in an optimal manner and adjust decision-making accordingly. This optimal estimate of volatility is reflected in the fMRI signal in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) when each trial outcome is observed. When a new piece of information is witnessed, activity levels reflect its salience for predicting future outcomes. Furthermore, variations in this ACC signal across the population predict variations in subject learning rates. Our results provide a formal account of how we weigh our different experiences in guiding our future actions.

source: Oxford Neuroscience
http://www.neuroscience.ox.ac.uk/pubs/experimental-psychology-publications/copy_of_BehrensEtAl2007

Taking Account

Previously we found that the solution of a system of two linear equations in two unknowns gives the point of intersection of the graphs of the two equations involved. In particular, if one of the equations represents a linear cost function and the other a revenue function, then this point of intersection is called the break-even point.

Linear Algebra, Calculus, and Probability; Lloyd Emerson, Western New England College



Panel Data

In statistics and econometrics, the term panel data refers to two-dimensional data. In marketing, panel data refers to data collected at the point-of-sale (also called scanner data).

Data are broadly classified according to the number of dimensions. A data set containing observations on a single phenomenon observed over multiple time periods is called time series. In time series data, both the values and the ordering of the data points have meaning. A data set containing observations on multiple phenomena observed at a single point in time is called cross-sectional. In cross-sectional data sets, the values of the data points have meaning, but the ordering of the data points does not. A data set containing observations on multiple phenomena observed over multiple time periods is called panel data. Alternatively, the second dimension of data may be some entity other than time. For example, when there is a sample of groups, such as siblings or families, and several observations from every group, the data is panel data. Whereas time series and cross-sectional data are both one-dimensional, panel data sets are two-dimensional.

Data sets with more than two dimensions are typically called multi-dimensional panel data.
Arellano, M. Panel Data Econometrics, Oxford University Press 2003.
cited in wikipedia






The truthiness, the whole truthiness and nothing but the truthiness?
In 2005 the American Dialect Society voted truthiness as the word of the year. Recently popularized on the Colbert Report, a satirical mock news show on US television, truthiness refers to the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true.

Taking a closer look at truthiness from R. W. Holder's How Not To Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms.

Source: www.askoxford.com





How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1850

Of the World

As you observed very well the indecency of that inattention, I am sure you will never be guilty of anything like it yourself. There is no surer sign in the world of a little, weak mind, than inattention. Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well; and nothing can be well done without attention. It is the sure answer of a fool, when you ask him about anything that was said or done where he was present, that "truly he did not mind it." and why did not the fool mind it? What had he else to do there, but to mind what was doing?

A man of sense sees, hears, and retains, everything that passes where he is. I desire I may never hear you talk of not minding, nor complain, as most fools do, of a treacherous memory. Mind not only what people say, but how they say it; and if you have any sagacity, you may discover more truth by your eyes than by your ears. People can say what they will, but they cannot look just as they will; and their looks frequently discover what their words are calculated to conceal. Observe, therefore, people's looks carefully, when they speak, not only to you, but to each other.

The most material knowledge of all, I mean the knowledge of the world, is never to be acquired without great attention; and I know many old people, who, though they have lived long in the world, are but children still as to the knowledge of it, from their levity and inattention. Certain forms, which all people comply with, and certain arts, which all people aim at, hide, in some degree, the truth, and give a general exterior resemblance to almost everybody. Attention and sagacity must see through that veil, and discover the natural character. You are of an age now to reflect, to observe and compare characters, and to arm yourself against the common arts, at least, of the world. If a man, with whom you are but barely acquainted, and to whom you have made no offers nor given any marks of friendship, makes you, on a sudden, strong professions of his, receive them with civility, but do not repay them with confidence: he certainly means to deceive you; for one man does not confide in another at sight.

To leave allegory, I tell you very seriously, that I both expect and require a great deal from you, and if you should disappoint me, I would not advise you to expect much from me. I ask nothing of you but what is entirely in your own power; to be an honest, a learned, and a well-bred man. As for the first, I cannot, I will not doubt it; I think you know already the infamy, the horrors, and the misfortunes that always attend a dishonest and dishonorable man. As to learning, that is wholly in your own power; application will bring it about; and you must have it.

Good-breeding is the natural result of common sense and common observation. Common sense points out civility, and observation teaches you the manner of it, which makes it good-breeding.

Though you have not yet seen enough of the world to be well-bred, you have sense enough to know what it is to be civil.

Good-night Sir !

Letters to His Son, by the Earl of Chesterfield, on the fine art of becoming a Man Of The World and a Gentleman; 1901

Society has changed

The prospect of human genetic interventions, like gene therapy, raises our hopes that one day we may be able to combat more effectively the often tragic consequences of the natural lottery of life. There are currently 721 approved gene-therapy trials in America and 304 in Europe.1

New genetic technologies could have an important impact on human health, longevity and even intelligence, and thus we must take seriously the question of what constitutes a just regulation of such technologies. What will the demands of distributive justice be in the post-genetic revolutionary society?

What values and principles should inform the regulation of these new genetic technologies? To adequately answer these questions we need an account of genetic justice. That is, an account of what constitutes a fair distribution of genetic endowments that influence our expected life-time acquisition of natural primary goods (health and vigour, intelligence and imagination). These are goods that every rational person has an interest in (Rawls, 1971).

A necessary condition of a defensible account of genetic justice is that it must track genetic complexity. Genetic complexity encompasses phenomena such as polygenetic traits, gene-gene interactions and complex environmental influences (Alper, 2002, p. 22). By tracking genetic complexity, the principles of genetic justice will (at least for the foreseeable future) be largely indeterminate. Such indeterminacies should not be regarded as a failure to utilise or properly execute
the skills of analytic philosophy. Rather, such indeterminacy simply reflects the realities of the complex nature of both human genetics and the demands of justice in the real, non-ideal world. That is, a world that is characterised by both scarcity and pervasive disadvantage.


footnotes:
1 Taken from Journal of Gene Medicine Clinical trial site at: http://www.wiley.co.uk/genmed/clinical/
2 James Wilson, Editorial, Human Gene Therapy, Vol. 16: 1014, 2005.


Source:
Genetic Justice Must Track Genetic Complexity, Dr Colin Farrelly (Research Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Social Justice, Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University) Working Paper Series, SJ005, February 2007




Modified stem cells from muscular dystrophy patients eased symptoms of the disease in mice, says a small study that raises hopes for treating patients with tissue from their own bodies. The mice showed stronger muscles and ran longer on a treadmill than diseased mice that weren't treated. Other experimental treatments for muscular dystrophy have also produced encouraging results in lab animals, but experts said the new study shows promise for yet another approach.

Stem cells may ease muscular dystrophy, NYTimes, By MALCOLM RITTER, 12 Dec 2007

Cognitive reserve

Studies indicate that up to two-thirds of people with autopsy findings of Alzheimer’s disease were cognitively intact when they died.

“Something must account for the disjunction between the degree of brain damage and its outcome,” the Columbia scientists deduced. And that something, they and others suggest, is “cognitive reserve.”

The brains of animals exposed to greater physical and mental stimulation appear to have a greater number of healthy nerve cells and connections between them. Scientists theorize that this excess of working neurons and interconnections compensates for damaged ones to ward off dementia.

Observing this, neuropsychologists, set out to determine how people can develop cognitive reserve. They have learned thus far that there is no “quick fix” for the aging brain.

Nonetheless, well-designed studies suggest several ways to improve the brain’s viability. Though best to start early to build up cognitive reserve, there is evidence that this account can be replenished even late in life.

Cognitive reserve is greater in people who complete higher levels of education. The more intellectual challenges to the brain early in life, the more neurons and connections the brain is likely to develop and perhaps maintain into later years. Several studies of normal aging have found that higher levels of educational attainment were associated with slower cognitive and functional decline.

Cognitive reserve probably reflects an interconnection between genetic intelligence and education, since more intelligent people are likely to complete higher levels of education.

Better-educated people may go on to choose more intellectually demanding occupations and pursue brain-stimulating hobbies, resulting in a form of lifelong learning. Novelty is crucial to providing stimulation for the aging brain.

Repetition without introducing new mental challenges won’t be beneficial, brain requires continued stresses to maintain or enhance its strength.

New York Times, Mental reserves keep the brain agile, Dec 12



Natural Human hormone as the next antidepressant?

Kamilla Miskowiak, a DPhil Student from the Department of Experimental Psychology, said: ‘Although depression is often related to problems in the chemistry of the brain, recent evidence also suggests that there may be structural problems as well with nerve cells not being regenerated as fast as normal, or suffering from toxic effects of stress and stress hormones.’


The researchers evaluated the effects of Epo on the neural and cognitive processing of emotional information in 23 healthy volunteers using pictures of happy and fearful faces, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Facial expressions of emotion provide important biological signals in human interaction. Expressions of fear may signal threat and are the most salient of our basic emotions. The researchers focused on the effects of Epo on this ‘threat relevant information.’

Results showed that Epo regulated the emotional responses of those volunteers that received it, similar to the effects of current antidepressants. A single dose of Epo reduced the cognitive and neural processing of threat relevant information in a remarkably similar way to established anti-depressant drugs, even though the test was performed seven days after administration.

The World Health Organisation has identified depression as an urgent health priority with the need for better and more effective treatment options, and Miskowiak said: ‘This finding provides support to the idea that Epo affects neurocognitive function in ways compatible with an antidepressant action and may be a candidate agent for future treatment strategies for depression.’

Oxford Univ., 6 Dec, www.ox.ac.uk/media







The Social Services dept, though staffed with some really tremendous people, seem to me to be better named the 'Social Judgement Dept.' as that seems to be their function as deemed by the State, particularly this government.

Here's the science:
Mixed anxiety & depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain, with almost 9 percent of people meeting criteria for diagnosis.
- The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report (2001)
Between 8-12% of the population experience depression in any year
- The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report (2001)
About half of people with common mental health problems are no longer affected after 18 months, but poorer people, the long-term sick and unemployed people are more likely to be still affected than the general population.
- Better Or Worse: A Longitudinal Study Of The Mental Health Of Adults In Great Britain, National Statistics (2003)
Depression is more common in women than men. 1 in 4 women will require treatment for depression at some time, compared to 1 in 10 men.
- National Institute For Clinical Excellence (2003)

- The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report (2001)
More than 70% of the prison population has two or more mental health disorders. Male prisoners are 14 times more likely to have two or more disorders than men in general, and female prisoners 35 times more likely than women in general

- Social Exclusion Unit (2004) quoting, Psychiatric Morbidity Among Prisoners In England And Wales, (1998)

One in four unemployed people has a common mental health problem
- The Office for National Statistics Psychiatric Morbidity report (2001)
So around 10% of the population experience depression in any year.

www.boris-johnson.com, Comments



The cost is enormous, the report says, with 70m working days a year written off because of sickness. Mental health problems cost British businesses an average of £1,000 a year for every employee, researchers say. The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health said the overall annual cost to employers, including time off work and lost productivity, is nearly £26bn.

BBC, Mental health costs UK billions, 3 Dec, 2007

Responsible practices

A new report on the pharmaceutical industry has just been released by the international NGO, Oxfam. 'Investing for life: Meeting poor people's needs for access to medicines through responsible business practices' is available to download at:

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/health/bp109_pharma.html [PDF
document, 57 pages, 948Kb]

Setting the background, Oxfam quotes the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health: "Almost 2 billion people lack access to essential medicines. Improving access to existing medicines could save 10 million lives each year, 4 million of them in Africa and South-East Asia. Access to medicines is characterised by profound global inequity. 15% of theworld's population consumes over 90% of the world's pharmaceuticals."

"The industry must put access to medicines at the heart of its decision-making and practices," says the report.

Oxfam draws attention to "lack of research and development (R&D) to address the dearth of dedicated products for diseases that predominantly affect poor people in developing countries. This includes drug formulations that are applicable and usable in the developing world. Between 1999 and 2004, there were only three new drugs for neglected diseases out of 163 new chemical entities (NCEs)"

Examples include:
- "60 million people are at risk of contracting sleeping sickness.
Treatment is based on a highly toxic arsenic derivative in use since 1940s
and a former cancer drug from the 1980s.
- TB is responsible for nearly two million deaths each year but treatment
takes six months and is difficult to implement. The most recent medicine
is 30 years old.
- 340 million sexually transmitted infections occur every year. Simple,
effective treatment exists but many are not getting it because of lack of
simple, reliable tests."

HR4D net



Taking Action to Improve Vital Statistics

Accurate statistics on births, deaths and the causes of death generated by a functioning vital-statistics system are the foundation of rational health and public policy. Yet these data are lacking for the vast majority of the world's poorest countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, fewer than 10 countries have routine vital statistics systems that produce usable data. In particular, data on both the number and causes of death in developing countries are virtually non-existent. Reliable data on levels of adult death - let alone causes of death - simply do not exist for most developing countries, where most people die at home. Mortality
estimates, particularly for adults, that are patched together and modeled from limited sources of information have not provided an adequate foundation for setting health-sector priorities or for assessing program progress and impact.

Given this reality, a major global public health goal is to move from a situation in which knowledge of most events that take place in communities and households is lost, to one in which information about those vital events is brought into the health-information system. While the preferred, long-term goal for vital-events data is to achieve civil registration of births and deaths and medical certification of causes of death with high and representative coverage, it is widely accepted that attaining this objective for most countries will take years, if not decades. Given the present inadequacies of current knowledge, what are the best ways to measure and monitor vital events and related socio-demographic information in the short- to medium-term?

The international community, including the Health Metrics Network, has made many recommendations to solve this problem. While they cannot substitute for universal civil registration, complementary methods for vital events measurement such as those contained in the SAmple Vital registration with Verbal autopsY (SAVVY) library can fill this crucial void in the public-health evidence base. Implementing these methods should help developing countries move from a situation in which no reliable routinely collected vital statistics exist to a long-term goal of having vital statistics derived from civil registration with high coverage and reliable cause of death attribution.

This resource library provides all the necessary reference materials to establish a complete system capable of generating nationally representative vital events information, including information on causes of death, or strengthening existing sources of data. All materials included are the product of extensive field application and expert review, and are consistent with agreed-upon international standards and best practices.

To download the SAVVY library and to gain more information, visit
http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/leadership/savvy.html.

Science and Mathematics' Teaching

One study to uncover the teacher characteristics and teaching practices that matter most to pupil achievement, found that teachers characteristics do not effect pupil achievement, while teaching process variables mater significantly to student achievement but there are important differences across school types. This is done using unique, school-base data, collected in 2002-2003 from government and private schools from one district in Punjab province in Pakistan. The data allow exploitation of an identification strategy that permits the matching of students` test scores in language and mathematics to the characteristics of teachers that teach those subjects. Within pupil (across subject rather than across time) variation is used to examine whether the characteristics of different subject teachers are related to a students` mark across subjects. The data is also unique in asking all subject teachers questions pertaining to their teaching practices and these, often unobserved, `process` variables are included in achievement function estimates. Our pupil fixed-effects findings reveal that the standard resume characteristics of teachers do not significantly matter to pupil achievement. Perversely, however, teachers are found to be rewarded for possessing these characteristics highlighting the highly inefficient nature of teacher pay schedules.
June, 2007

For the past decade education has been deluged with many national initiatives, which none were piloted before being rolled out across the country. Many of them, like the national literacy hour, now seem to have been hugely expensive failures. It would be infinitely more sensible if the ideas in the plan were to be tested before being made national policy, so that theory could meet reality.

Schools in recent plans will be expected to offer parenting advice, mental health clinics and youth offending workers under one roof, as part of proposals outlined today in the Government's flagship Children's Plan.

The plan is also likely to lead to school-based speech and language therapists, social workers and children's health care as well as help with housing and benefits. It could also lead to police officers being present in schools to provide positive role models and prevent antisocial behaviour.

Looks to me like they are going to be asked to perform miracles. Expecting cure all social evils from schools, just added in to the mix of tasks that schools already have to fulfil. At this rate every school's going to be busier than Piccadilly Circus, having to socially engineer away all of life's troubles. With scarce resources the matter of delivering lessons will be affected..

A London teacher Guardian spoke to at a comprehensive is equally sceptical. She says schools' main job will still be the delivery of test results, because that's what they are judged on. That pressure will not change, but now they will be expected to deliver much wider social goals in the same time. It's nonsense. "We've reached the limits of what we can do with the resources we've got," she says. "If ministers really want to see a change now, we need much smaller classes, and the freedom to respond to what the real kids in front of us need, rather than following a national plan laid down in Whitehall."

Ref.:
- Monazza Aslam Geeta Kingdon , What can Teachers do to Raise Pupil Achievement?, June 2007, Oxford Univ., www.economics.ox.ac.uk

- Jennie Russell, Theory and reality, Guardian, Comments, 12 Dec,






10/12/07 Royal Society Report on Science and Mathematics' teaching
CaSE welcomes the thorough report and analysis of the science and mathematics teaching workforce released by the Royal Society today. The discussion detailed the Government’s lack of knowledge of the current workforce while it generates inaccurate targets to try to improve the situation. To reach the Government’s own targets for teachers in schools for 2014, there would need to be 1000 new physics recruits into teacher training each year and 3000 in mathematics. Recent recruitment figures are 350 in physics and 2000 in mathematics. The Government has many new initiatives to increase recruits in shortage subjects, but it must recognise that its own targets are not being met and were conservative to say the least. These targets could be lower if the appalling retention of teachers, could be improved. Currently only 50% are still in the profession 5 years after graduating.
The report highlights a worrying trend for recruits to train in combined rather than separate sciences. Although combined science teachers may be suitable for teaching core science GCSEs, specialists should teach separate science GCSEs in physics, chemistry and biology. From next year all science specialist schools will have to offer separate science GCSEs and all students in any schools achieving above level 6 at Key Stage 3 will also be entitled to study them. This will of course heighten the current shortages. The report also notes an alarming trend for fewer science and mathematics graduates to train as primary school teachers, with numbers dropping from 428 to 227 in two years. A passion for these crucial subjects is often inspired by good teaching in the early years and there are already many primary schools without any teachers knowledgeable in science or mathematics.
CaSE supports the Royal Society in all of its recommendations and continues to urge the Government to set teacher training targets within physics, chemistry and biology instead of overall the sciences. In addition, headteachers should be encouraged to utilise the flexibilities they have in teachers’ pay to increase recruitment and retention in shortage subjects.


4/12/07 PISA report
The Programme for International Student Assessment released its detailed survey of the science and mathematics knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 2006. Of the 57 countries surveyed, 12 ranked higher than the UK in science, although the UK did score above average. The UK ranked lower than 15 other countries in mathematics and was comparable with the OECD average. There was some regional variation, with performance in Wales worryingly lower than England for both mathematics and science. UK students had an unusually broad distribution of performance, indicating a wide range of achievement. The vast majority of students were positive about the importance of science to themselves and the world. Overall, coming from a higher socio-economic background increased student's appreciation and enjoyment of science as well as their performance and these relationships were disappointingly strong in the UK, although there were many exceptions.

"The report revealed the importance of exciting students about science although, sadly, only 55% of English students reported that they had fun when learning about it (OECD average of 63%). Hopefully new changes to the curriculum and various outreach and engagement programmes will convince more students of the pleasure that a science education can bring.
"Worryingly, 83% of English students were in schools with science teacher vacancies (OECD average 62%) and 27% of students were in schools in which a shortage of mathematics teachers hindered teaching. Although less than the OECD average (42%), 28% of English students were in schools in which headteachers reported that shortage or inadequacy of equipment was a problem.
"Finland performed amazingly well and above all other countries and also has one of the least divisive education systems, with little impact of social background. There is nothing special about Finland that means we cannot learn from its successes and achieve them here in the UK and this report provides a great opportunity to do just that. We hope that the Government utilises this detailed report to full effect in guiding education policy decisions."

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX030843.html
http://www.savebritishscience.org.uk/about/diary/index.htm

Altruism

The gene AVPR1a plays a key role in allowing a hormone called arginine vasopressin to act on brain cells.

Vasopressin, in turn, has been implicated in social bonding.

The researchers found greater altruism in players in which a key section of the gene, called its promoter, was longer.

The promoter is the region that determines how active a gene is. In this case a longer promoter makes the gene more active.

Long history

The researchers point out that a version of AVPR1a also exists in voles, where it also promotes social bonding.

This, they say, suggests that altruism has a long rooted genetic history.

Dr George Fieldman, a lecturer in psychology at Buckinghamshire New University, said carrying genes which promoted altruism and social bonding made evolutionary sense.

BBC on line, Generosity maybe in the genes, 9 Dec.

To Confound the Wise

What is a teacher? It is not someone who teaches something but some one who inspires the student to give of her best in order to discover what she already knows.


‘But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty’ Corinthians 1:27

‘I thank thee, O father, thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes’ Mathew 11:25



Cited in the Witch of Portobello; P. Coelho

Freedom