MOST IMPORTANT CAMPAIGN EVER ORGANISED

£1.25 billion Campaign for Oxford University launched with major donations
28 May 2008


Donations totalling £575 million today launched the most important campaign ever organised by the University of Oxford, aiming to raise a minimum of £1.25 billion for the University.

This sum includes the new gift of £25 million pledged to the development of the New Bodleian Library by the Garfield Weston Foundation, the largest gift ever made by the Foundation.

Mr Wafic Rida Saïd is creating a Strategic Development Fund for the Saïd Business School with a capital value of £25m. The Fund will support initiatives and opportunities at the School which are of strategic value in its development.
There have been more than 20,000 donors (individuals, foundations and other organisations) to the University during the pre-launch phase of the Campaign from 1 August 2004 to 31 March 2008.

The vast majority of gifts have been £25,000 and below, clearly underlying the importance of a broad base of giving.


CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE

Teaching and Learning
Oxford’s collegiate system is at the heart of the University’s success, giving students and academics the benefits of belonging both to a large, internationally-renowned institution and to a small, interdisciplinary academic community. Oxford’s collegiate system fosters a strong sense of community, bringing together leading academics and students across subjects and year groups, and from different cultures and countries. The tutorial is at the core of undergraduate teaching and learning at Oxford and offers students a unique learning experience, in which they meet regularly with their tutor, either on a one-to-one basis or with one or two other students, to discuss and debate written work or a set of problems prepared in advance. Teaching is carried out by leading academics at the forefront of their fields, and students will often find themselves talking through a topic with the person who wrote the seminal book on it. This exposure to the cutting edge of research, and the close contact of regular tutorials, is what sets the Oxford student experience apart. Currently, 99.8 per cent of successful applicants to Oxford go on to achieve A-level scores of AAB or better, with an A grade in the subject equivalent to the subject they propose to study at Oxford. The average A level points score achieved by new entrants is 29.9.

Within Oxford

Staff at Oxford spend around 36,000 hours each year selecting students using one of the most rigorous and transparent admissions systems in the UK, and 800 college tutors spend a week of their working year on this important task. Oxford’s academic community includes over 70 Fellows of the Royal Society and around 90 Fellows of the British Academy. In 2007 alone, nine Oxford academics were elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy. This represents almost a quarter of new Fellowships awarded in this year, and is more than from any other institution. In 2007, three Oxford researchers were also elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, and four to the Academy of Medical Sciences. The successes of Oxford’s academics are recognised regularly in the award of prestigious international prizes, such as the Gairdner International Award for achievements in medical research, awarded in 2007 to Professor Kim Nasmyth, and a Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research, won in 2005 by Professor Sir Ed Southern. Five University centres have received the biennial Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education: the Clinical Trial Service Unit (2005); the Refugee Studies Centre (2002); the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology & Tropical Medicine (2000); the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (1996); Isis Innovation Ltd (1994).



OXFORD IS UNIQUE

The Campaign for the University of Oxford aims to sustain and enhance Oxford's international reputation and provide security in a world of uncertain state funding and growing global competition. It will ensure Oxford can attract the most gifted students from around the world, irrespective of their financial situation. It will allow Oxford to compete for the best scholars, tutors and researchers internationally and provide the infrastructure and facilities needed to support world-class students and academics and cutting-edge research programmes. A key element of the Campaign is to preserve and develop Oxford's unique tutorial system, which is at the heart of the University’s educational experience.

The Campaign will bring some of the most important changes to the physical face of Oxford for a generation. New buildings will be constructed, housing some of the world’s most advanced research centres and teaching facilities. The Radcliffe Observatory Quarter will provide a campus for the Humanities and a Mathematical Institute on the site of the former Radcliffe Infirmary in the heart of the city. The New Bodleian Library will ensure the security, safety and long-term preservation of its world-class collections and make them accessible to the public for the first time.

Britain’s oldest public museum, the Ashmolean is undergoing the most important development in its history. A new building is being inserted into the old, housing new galleries, a dedicated education centre and state-of-the-art conservation facilities. The second phase of the Saïd Business School will bring together top academic, business and political leaders from around the world in programmes to transform the ethical standards of management practice. In only 10 years, it has earned a ranking among the top 20 business schools in the world. A new Institute of Cancer Medicine will open in 2008, which will be Europe’s leading centre devoted to cancer medicine, uniting more than 250 leading scientists, researchers and clinicians.

The Campaign was launched by The Chancellor of the University of Oxford, the Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes, CH, The Vice-Chancellor, Dr John Hood and the Chairman of the Campaign for The University of Oxford, Dame Vivien Duffield, with leading Oxonians including Michael Palin, Richard Dawkins and Sir Roger Bannister.

Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said: "Through centuries, Oxford’s great minds have changed and bettered the world by their discoveries, their innovations and their insights. Our new Campaign will advance the University’s historical strengths and draw upon its enormous potential for the future. It is a bold endeavour, requiring courage and commitment, but the rewards will be great. I urge all of those who care about the University of Oxford and its work to join with us."

Dr John Hood, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, said: "We have launched the Campaign for the University of Oxford: the most sustained, co-ordinated fundraising effort ever undertaken by a European university. It is a Campaign driven by the University and by its Colleges. It must significantly increase the University’s endowment if it is to establish a strong philanthropic foundation for the future."

Dame Vivien Duffield, Chairman of the Campaign, said: "We are the custodians of the spirit, and the intellectual brilliance, of the University of Oxford. I passionately believe that the task before us is to guarantee Oxford’s future pre-eminence in a world now changing so fast that we must lead or fall behind. For learning and progress in the world, and Britain’s place in it, there can be no greater investment than in the University of Oxford. I urge you to join with us."

source: www.ox.ac.uk/media






Quote on behalf of the Garfield Weston Foundation:

"Our Foundation has long sought to support centres of excellence. A decade ago we assisted the restoration of Oxford’s Old Bodleian Library. Today we have a chance to help transform the New Bodleian Library, which we hope will become a home to inspiring world-class collections for future generations."

Cognitive Enhancer: Protctive Factors

Carers of people with dementia

Providing care for a person with dementia is stressful and demanding, and carers of people with dementia have poorer physical and mental health than do carers of people with other conditions.1 Carers who find caring a stressful experience are at higher risk of mortality than are non-carers.2 Social aspects of burden include loss of relationship with the recipient of care and reduced social network owing to stigma or lack of opportunities to socialise. In addition, chronic illness can result in family conflicts that reduce the available emotional support, and family and friends may "distance" themselves physically or psychologically from carers. Carers can feel lonely, and loneliness has been associated with increased mortality and physical and psychiatric morbidity.

In the United Kingdom, one to one social support is commonly provided through voluntary sector based befriending services. Britain has a long tradition of voluntary action, and the emphasis on partnership in recent government policies has given voluntary, community, and users’ organisations a more central role in the delivery of services.3 4

We could identify only one published trial of befriending for family carers of people with dementia; it evaluated the provision of a short term (eight week) peer support intervention that showed no significant impact.5 We may anticipate that friendships take time to evolve, and therefore befriending should be evaluated over the long term. In this paper, we describe the clinical outcomes of the befriending and costs of caring (BECCA) multi-site randomised controlled trial of a long term voluntary sector based befriending intervention.6

All participants and recipients of care received usual care as provided in their area by health, social, or voluntary services. Typical services included community psychiatric services, day hospitals, day centres, home care or personal care, respite care, and carers’ information or support groups.

We assumed that the HADS, PANAS, MSPSS, and loneliness scores followed a normal distribution, on the basis of summary statistics and plots. We initially used a two sample t test with pooled variance to test for a difference in means between groups. We used a general linear model to compare groups while adjusting for baseline scores and by stratification variables (that is, kinship and population density). We constructed confidence intervals for unadjusted and adjusted (least squares) mean differences. We used the log-rank test to test for a difference in median time to institutionalisation between the two groups.

Most participants were white, female, above retirement age, and living with and usually married to the person with dementia. Almost all were providing daily assistance. The mean age of carers was 68 (range 36-91) years, and the mean duration of caring was just under four years. The mean age of the people with dementia was older, at 78 years. One in five (17%) carers reached case levels of depression (HADS depression score 11).

Source: BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.39549.548831.AE (published 27 May 2008)






Smoking has consistently been found to be inversely related to the risk of endometrial cancer, but cancers of the breast and colon seem unrelated to smoking. Inverse associations with venous thrombosis and fatality after myocardial infarction are probably not causal, but indications of benefits with regard to recurrent aphthous ulcers, ulcerative colitis, and control of body weight may well reflect a genuine benefit. Evidence is growing that cigarette smoking and nicotine may prevent or ameliorate Parkinson's disease, and could do so in Alzheimer's dementia. A variety of mechanisms for potentially beneficial effects of smoking have been proposed, but three predominate: the ‘anti-estrogenic effect’ of smoking; alterations in prostaglandin production; and stimulation of nicotinic cholinergic receptors in the central nervous system.

John A. Baron, British Medical Bulletin 52:58-73 (1996), Beneficial effects of nicotine and cigarette smoking: the real, the possible and the spurious
www.oxfordjournals.org




Increasing age, fewer years of education, and the apolipoprotein E 4 allele were significantly associated with increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, wine consumption, coffee consumption, and regular physical activity were associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. No statistically significant association was found for family history of dementia, sex, history of depression, estrogen replacement therapy, head trauma, antiperspirant or antacid use, smoking, high blood pressure, heart disease, or stroke. The protective associations warrant further study. In particular, regular physical activity could be an important component of a preventive strategy against Alzheimer’s disease and many other conditions.

Lindsay J, Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease: A Prospective Analysis from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, Epidemiol 2002, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, www.oxfordjournals.org






Cognitive Enhancer


............The report fails, however, to recognize the urgent need for research to develop better cognitive enhancers. Progress on developing effective cognitive enhancers, and on understanding their long-term effects, is hampered by a shortage of focused research in this area. In general, the potential of enhancement medicine has yet to be fully appreciated.

Prevailing patterns of medical funding and regulation are organized around the concept of disease. Every pharmaceutical on the market with alleged cognitive-enhancing effects was developed as a treatment for some pathology. Its good effects on healthy adults' brains were discovered as fortuitous side effects. This disease-centred framework impedes the development of safe and effective enhancing medicines and has several consequences.

First, it makes funding hard to come by; it also makes it difficult to obtainregulatory approval for enhancement drugs. The result is that those who wish to research cognitive enhancement must often mask their work under the guise of addressing some 'respectable' disease.Second, in order to gain access to the benefits of a cognitive enhancer, the user must first be classified as sick. This leads to the expansion of diagnostic categories and the invention of new pathological conditions - sometimes to cover cases that in earlier times would have been regarded as within normal human variation.

Nick Bostrom cited in James Martin School:
http://www.21school.ox.ac.uk/blog




Access (and skill in accessing) online information sources, software tools and mental training can likely achieve far larger effects. Recent developments of computer training of working memory and fluid intelligence suggest that cognition enhancement can be done without chemicals: the ethical and social challenges remain largely the same, but the enhancement would be outside of any drug policy.

Anders Sandberg




There is an ‘in principle’ restriction too. Measurement involves interactions: a system must be disturbed, ever so slightly, in order for it to affect the system that is our measurement device. We are forced to meddle and manipulate the natural world in ways that render uncertain the precise state of the system. This has two consequences. First, measurement alters the state of the system, meaning we are never able to know the precise premeasurement state (Bishop [2003], section 5). This is even more pressing if we consider the limitations that quantum mechanics places on simultaneous measurement of complementary quantities. Second, measurement introduces
errors into the specification of the state. Repetition does only so much to counter these errors; physical magnitudes are always accompanied by their experimental margin of error.

Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 56 (2005), 749–790
Randomness Is Unpredictability, A. Eagle






The Transparent Disposition Fallacy

The transparent disposition fallacy asks us to beleive two doubtful propositions. The first is that rational people have the willpower to commit themselves in advance to playing games in a particular way. The second is that other people can read our boy language well enough to know when we are telling the truth. If we truthfully claim that we have made a commitment, we will therefore be believed.

If these propositions were correct, our world would certainly be very different! Rationality would be a defence against drug addiction...............


Complete Information

Information is perfect when the players always know everything that has happened so far in the game. Information is complete when everything needed to specify a game is common knowledge among the players - including the preferences and beliefs of the other players.

In the Prisoner's Dilemma, the players need know only that hawk is a strongly dominant strategy in order to optimize, but changing th epayoffs only a little yields the game of Chicken, in which we certainly do need complete information to get anywhere.

When is it reasonable to assume that information is complete?

John Hersanyi's theory of incomplete information is a technique for completing a strategic structure in which information is incomplete. The theory leaves a great deal to the judgement of those who use it. It points a finger at what is missing in an informational structure but doesnt say where the missing information is to be found. What it offers is the right questions. Coming up with the right answers is something that Harsanyi leaves to you and me.

Ken Binmore, 2007, Playing for Real, OUP

Confidence Intervals Illuminates Absence of Evidence: Guidelines

CONFIDENCE INTERVALS ILLUMINATES ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE

Others may judge that a smaller benefit would be clinically useful. Even when a clinically useful effect has been ruled out, phrases such as "is not effective," "did not reduce," and "has no effect" are not justified. Also, confidence intervals reflect only uncertainty owing to random allocation, not that owing to failure to follow the protocol, non-random loss to follow up, and so on. True uncertainty is greater, therefore, than indicated by confidence intervals. Lastly, we cannot claim priority with the title "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence": a paper with this title was published in 1983.
Altman D., Oxford University Research Archive, ORA
www.ora.ouls.ox.ac.uk



STROBE Statement STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology
A paper intended as to provide a checklist following several workshops and consultation with medical researchers, as guideline on how to report observational research:

http://www.strobe-statement.org/Checklist.html

STROBE asks authors to ‘Give a cautious overall interpretation of results, considering objectives, limitations, multiplicity of analyses, results from similar studies, and other relevant evidence’, in line with Richard Doll's important statement (cited by Ebrahim and Clarke1) on the need to confirm unexpected results with potential implications for public health in further studies. The need for replication, which is an important point in science in general,8 is well taken, but has little to do with good reporting of an individual study: it is not the responsibility of the scientists who report that study. Nevertheless, in the explanatory paper,6 we discuss the scope of observational studies, from reporting a first hint of a potential cause of a disease, to verifying the magnitude of previously reported associations and stress that further studies to confirm or refute initial observations are often needed.9 STROBE tries to accommodate these diverse uses of observational research—from discovery to refutation or confirmation.

.... Does this mean authors should be asked to ‘conduct a systematic review of other similar studies’?1 As a previous editorial in the International Journal of Epidemiology argued,11 systematic reviews should be seen as original research and be published as such, rather than be reported in a paragraph of a discussion section. Interestingly, The Lancet recently updated their policy, asking authors of randomized trials to illustrate the relation between existing and new evidence by referring to a systematic review and meta-analysis.12 We believe that in many situations this requirement is also appropriate for reports of observational research. But note that both The Lancet and the CONSORT recommendations for the reporting of randomized trials (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials)13 stop short of asking authors to do a systematic review and meta-analysis.





Treatments Results Reporting

Most evidence on harms from medical treatments is obtained from observational research. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are often not useful in determining rates of adverse effects: the frequency of such events during RCTs may be low owing to restrictive inclusion and exclusion criteria; in addition, follow-up periods are relatively short, and the number of participants included in an RCT is limited. As a result, systematic reviews based on evidence from RCTs often fail to provide accurate
data on adverse events. Evidence from nonrandomized studies on adverse effects is often dismissed, simply because the studies were not randomized; however, this philosophy should not be considered the best approach to practising evidence-based medicine.2
What is the best evidence for determining harms of medical treatment?
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/174/5/645?ijkey=457418909ad1c21f316a85b2c11e7b008cfb17bf
Glasziou P, Vandenbroucke JP, Chalmers I. Assessing the quality of research. BMJ
2004;328:39-41.




Genetic variants may be trading one illness with another, research shows


Scientists have identified a genetic trade-off between prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes. Genes have been discovered that can raise the risk of one condition, but protect against the other. Mark McCarthy, Professor of Diabetes at the University of Oxford, Fellows of Green College and a leader of the JAZF1 study, said that the discovery of three 'see-saw' genes makes it more likely that there is interaction rather than just a fluke.

www.green.ox.ac.uk

Addictive group habits

Since smoking has become wide spread as a trendy habit within networks, it is evident that smoking habits spread exponentially through group and social ties - hence, giving up smoking is extremely contagious and therefore, is relevant to group behaviour. One study shows that smoking cessation by a spouse decreased a person's chances of smoking by 67% (95% confidence interval [CI], 59 to 73). Smoking cessation by a sibling decreased the chances by 25% (95% CI, 14 to 35). Smoking cessation by a friend decreased the chances by 36% (95% CI, 12 to 55 ). Among persons working in small firms, smoking cessation by a coworker decreased the chances by 34% (95% CI, 5 to 56). Friends with more education influenced one another more than those with less education. These effects were not seen among neighbors in the immediate geographic area.


Ref:http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/358/21/2249



All on the Mind

Provigil and Ritalin really do enhance cognition in healthy people. Provigil, for example, adds the ability to remember an extra digit or so to an individual's working memory (most people can hold seven random digits in their memory, but have difficulty with eight). It also improves people's performance in tests of their ability to plan. Because of such positive effects on normal people, says the report, there is growing use of these drugs to stave off fatigue, help shift-workers, boost exam performance and aid recovery from the effects of long-distance flights.

............One such neurotransmitter is glutamate. This throws switches to the “on” position in memory-forming circuits. Members of a newly discovered class of compounds, ampakines, boost the activity of glutamate and thus make it easier to form memories.

Cortex Pharmaceuticals, based in Irvine, California, is one firm that is developing ampakine drugs. One of its compounds, code-named CX717 to disguise its exact identity, is undergoing testing for Alzheimer's disease in elderly patients. Early trials have already shown that the drug can make people more alert. Unlike caffeine, amphetamines and other stimulants, CX717 causes no increase in blood pressure or heart rate. Nor does it offer any “high”, so is unlikely to be addictive.

Paradoxically, another glutamate-booster, D-cycloserine, is being tested not to enhance memory, but to abolish it. The paradox is resolved because unlearning (or “extinction”, in neurological parlance) is a process similar in its details to learning.

By binding to certain glutamate receptors, D-cycloserine selectively enhances extinction, suppressing the effects of conditioned associations such as anxiety, addiction and phobias. According to Dr Robbins, experiments have shown that if a rat is given a cue that it previously associated with fear at the same time as it receives D-cycloserine, the bad memory can be eliminated. Not only may this help remove unpleasant memories, such as those involved in post-traumatic stress disorder, but it may also help to return the brains of addicts to their pre-addicted states. It may, for example, be able to remove the triggers that cause smoking.

All on the Mind, Economist, May 22

Black death

The Black Death arrived in Sicily in 1347 and within two years had swept northwards to Scandinavia, at a time when rats appear to have been absent from much of Europe (Twigg, 1984, 2003). Even if introduced at ports, rat populations could not feasibly have colonized such large areas so quickly. New examination of contemporary accounts, and local parish records, reveal patterns of death that are consistent with a directly transmitted infection among family members and neighbours, with symptoms consistent with some sort of viral haemorrhagia. The real ‘vector’ appears to have been man: occasional introductions to certain nearby towns and villages coincided with the arrival of travellers on foot or horseback (Scott and Duncan, 2004). People at the time were aware of the effectiveness of isolation and quarantine within affected households, which would not have prevented infection spread by rats and fleas. It seems that only the limited transport and movement patterns of the time prevented even greater impacts on the European human population.

http://www.map.ox.ac.uk/PDF/Tatem_etal_2006.pdf

Global Transport Networks and Infectious Disease Spread
A.J. Tatem1, D.J. Rogers1 and S.I. Hay1,2
1TALA Research Group, Tinbergen Building, Department of Zoology,
University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
2Malaria Public Health & Epidemiology Group, Centre for Geographic
Medicine, KEMRI, PO Box 43640, 00100 Nairobi GPO, Kenya

Exposure Risks

Studies show three different health effects of exposure to Radiofrequency RFR need to be investigated:

1) neurological effects of RFR describe mainly disturbances of noxious sensation (dysaesthesia)
2) thermal effects due to exposure
3) and electro-stimulatory effects



Safety Levels

Most safety standards for radiofrequency radiation (RFR) exposure (3 kHz–300 GHz) are based on either the avoidance of (i) heating effect sufficient to harm tissue due to frequencies >10 MHz or (ii) electrostimulatory effects of frequencies <10 MHz [1,2]. The ‘basic restrictions’ of the safety standard are based on RFR energy deposition into tissue, expressed as W/kg (watts per kilogram of tissue). On the basis of no consistent health effects having been observed at exposures <4 W/kg, and allowing a 10-fold safety factor, exposure standards are based on limiting exposures to <0.4 W/kg for occupational exposures. A further safety factor of 5 is used to protect the public to give a whole-body exposure limit of 0.08 W/kg. These data are then translated into ‘reference levels’, i.e. exposure levels expressed in mW/cm2 (or V/m or A/m) for compliance purposes, e.g. 1 mW/cm2 for occupational, or 0.2 mW/cm2 for public, exposures at 300 MHz. The underlying assumptions are that no health effects will occur other than ones with a thermal or electrostimulatory basis, and that RFR does not cause effects due to other means. Empirical confirmation of the hypothesis that no effects will occur in humans exposed below the safety levels and/or from other mechanisms than heating or electrostimulation has come mainly from epidemiological studies of cancer (which have not found clear evidence of a harmful effect). Another source of data is case reports, of which there have been several regarding peripheral neurological effects (dysaesthesia).

Occupational Medicine 2003;53:123–127; Neurological effects of radiofrequency radiation, Bruce Hocking1 and R.Westerman
Source: www.oxfordjournals.org



In general, both measured and predicted field strength values tended to show a decline in average field strength or power density with distance from the transmitter, although there are undulations in predicted field strength up to distances of about 6 km from the transmitter resulting from the vertical radiation pattern. The maximum total power density equivalent summed across frequencies at any one measurement point (at 2.5 m above ground) was 0.013 W/m2 for TV, and 0.057 W/m2 for FM. However, there was considerable variability between different measurement points at any one distance from the transmitter, as would be expected from the impact of reflections from the ground and buildings, and this variability was as great as that related to distance. Power density on average declines by a factor of at least 5 to 10 over 10 km. Field strength varies as the square root of power density, thus declining less steeply, and it is not clear which exposure measure would be biologically more relevant for athermal effects. These measurements cannot of course be converted to personal dose to residents, which depends on numerous factors, including building type, the amount of time spent inside the home as well as away from home, and the number of years spent at the residence.


Source: Cancer Incidence near Radio and Television Transmitters in Great Britain, OUP, 1997; www.oxfordjournals.org



Risk exposure due to Mobile Mast's radiation:



Facilitating Effects

Previous findings suggested the facilitating effect of the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones on human attention. This study aimed to examine the relationship between the facilitating effect and the duration of exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones on human attention. Seventy-eight university students were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group. Their performance in the administered attention tasks was compared. Participants in the experimental group performed better on one of the two measures of attention only after they had been exposed to the electromagnetic field emitted by the mobile phone for some time. The results seem to suggest that attention functions may be differentially enhanced after exposing to the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones. Furthermore, this transient facilitation effect might be dose dependent.

The effect of the duration of exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones on human attention; Neuroreport, 2003 Jul 18;14(10):1361-4, Pubmed



Some studies have reported that pineal gland exposure to EMFs from electric blanket use could be 10-40 times greater than exposure to EMFs associated with electrical wiring in or around the home (1-3). Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain the potential relation between EMF exposure and breast cancer risk.

Source: Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields from Use of Electric Blankets and Other In-Home Electrical Appliances and Breast Cancer Risk, Am. J. Epidemiol. 151:1103-1111, 2000, OUP.

References:
1. Florig HK, Hoburg JF. Power-frequency magnetic fields from electric blankets. Health Phys 1990;58:493-500.
2. Florig HK, Hoburg JF. Magnetic field exposure associated with electric blankets. In: Proceedings of the 1988 contractors review. Biological effects from electric and magnetic fields, air ions, and ion currents associated with high voltage transmission lines, Phoenix, AZ, October 30-November 3, 1988.
3. Preston-Martin S, Peters JM, Yu MC, et al. Myelogenous leukemia and electric blanket use. Bioelectromagnetics 1988; 9:207-13


Occupational Exposure to Radio Frequency/Microwave Radiation and the Risk of Brain Tumors
No significant association between occupational exposure to RF/MW-EMF and brain tumors was found. For glioma, the adjusted odds ratio for highly exposed persons compared with persons not highly exposed was 1.21 (95% confidence interval: 0.69, 2.13); for meningioma, it was 1.34 (95% confidence interval: 0.64, 2.81). However, the slight increase in risk observed with increasing duration of exposure merits further research with larger sample sizes.

www.oxfordjournals.org; American Journal of Epidemiology, July 27, 2006




Lack of effect of 94 GHz radio frequency radiation exposure in an animal model of skin carcinogenesis

Recent developments in electromagnetic technology have resulted in the manufacture of RFR sources capable of generating frequencies in the millimeter wavelength (MMW) range (30–300 GHz). Because absorption of MMW energy occurs in the skin, it is to be expected that long-term detrimental health effects, if any, would most likely be manifest in the skin. In this study we investigated whether a single (1.0 W/cm2 for 10 s) or repeated (2 exposures/week for 12 weeks, 333 mW/cm2 for 10 s) exposure to 94 GHz RFR serves as a promoter or co-promoter in the 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced SENCAR mouse model of skin carcinogenesis. Neither paradigm of MMW exposure significantly affected papilloma development, as evidenced by a lack of effect on tumor incidence and multiplicity. There was also no evidence that MMW exposure served as a co-promoter in DMBA-induced animals repeatedly treated with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate. Therefore, we conclude that exposure to 94 GHz RFR under these conditions does not promote or co-promote papilloma development in this animal model of skin carcinogenesis.

As stated above only three studies have investigated carcinogenic effects of RFR in models of skin cancer. In two of these studies (performed in the same laboratory), exposure to 2450 MHZ RFR, either prior to or during initiation and promotion with 3,4-benzopyrene, accelerated the development of skin cancer and consequently decreased animal survival time(1,2).............It is therefore most likely that if any long term carcinogenic effects exist, they would be observed in the skin. If such effects exist, it is also probable that MMW exposure would promote rather than initiate carcinogenesis. Hence, the goal of this study was to determine whether a single or repeated exposure to 94 GHZ RFR serves as either a promoter or a co-promoter in the development of skin cancer.

Source: Carcinogenesis, Vol. 22, No. 10, 1701-1708, October 2001







RADIO FREQUENCY RADIATION: Case Report


Effects of exposure to very high frequency radiofrequency radiation on six antenna engineers in two separate incidents

Six men are likely to have been accidentally exposed to high levels of very high frequency (VHF) radiofrequency radiation (100 MHz) while working on transmission masts; four men in one incident and two in another. They experienced symptoms and signs which included headache, parasthesiae, diarrhoea, malaise and lassitude. The condition of four men, two men from each incident likely to have had the highest exposure, has shown no significant improvement. The first incident occurred in 19 and the second in 1996.


.........The term radiofrequency, when applied to the electromagnetic spectrum, covers the frequency range 3 kHz-300 GHz. The range 30-300 MHz is denoted very high frequency (VHF). The effect of exposure to VHF radiofrequency is primarily that of heating, in which the rate of energy absorption per unit mass of body tissue is described as
the specific absorption rate (SAR) expressed as watts per kilogram (W/kg) and depends on the frequency (Hz) and the power density expressed in watts per square metre (W/m2) or milliwatts per square centimetre (mW/cm2). (1 mW/cm2 equals 10 watts per square metre (10 W/m2). Power density can be described as the power crossing a unit area normal to the direction of wave propagation. The deposition of RF energy in body tissue varies with their absorption characteristics, which depend to a considerable extent on their water content.

Tissue such as blood, skin, muscle, brain and peripheral nerves will absorb much more energy than fat and bone, with the result that much of the incident radiofrequency energy tends to pass through the surface of fatty tissue to be deposited in deeper tissue such as muscle and brain. The degree to which radiofrequency penetrates the body depends also on the frequency.

Radiofrequency results in an electric and a magnetic field. Meters used to measure RF fields generally measure the electric field (£) expressed as volts per metre (V/m) although some express the E field in terms of equivalent plane wave power density in mW/cm2 or W/m2. Instruments which measure magnetic field (H) measure amps per metre (A/m) although these meters often express this in terms of equivalent plane wave power density.

Radiofrequency fields can be divided into near and far fields, the border between them being approximately A/ 2k, where A is the longest dimension of the antenna and X
is the wavelength. Far fields can be predicted quite accurately from the power of the antenna and the electric and magnetic fields are in phase and measuring one allows the other to be determined. In the near field this relationship breaks down and it is necessary to measure both components to establish RF power. This is difficult to achieve in the field. Additionally, on transmitter masts the lattice structure, antennas and feeders can cause complex reflections and fields, which can give rise to local 'hot spots' typically the size of a football, giving meter indications two or three times ambient.

- Radiofrequency radiation is difficult to measure in the near field, even in ideal conditions.
- Radiofrequency exposures at 100 MHz VHF are not detectable by the body unless they are significantly higher than the NRPB investigation levels and as a result can go undetected for relatively long periods, which makes the task of minimizing the risk of high levels of exposure all the more problematic.
- The effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation, particularly those on the nervous system, appear to be greater than would be expected from tissue heating.
The question arises as to whether or not the NRPB investigation levels, based on calculations of power absorption in the human body expressed as specific absorption rate, give sufficient protection against the type of effects that have been experienced by the men in these case reports.

- The symptoms and signs are consistent with effects on the nervous system with central effects resulting in headache, fatigue and malaise; peripheral effects resulting in parasthesiae, dysathesia, impaired perception of light touch and pain; effects on the ganglia of autonomic system either in the neck or splanchnic region causing diarrhoea. It is possible that diarrhoea is caused by a direct effect on the cells of the lining of the gastrointestinal tract.

- Further research needs to be undertaken into systems of monitoring radiofrequency fields and into the acute and long-term effects of exposure to radiofrequency.

Occupational Medicine; Occup. Med. Vol. 50, 49-56, 2000
www.oxfordjournals.org


What are the limitations of Meta-analysis study? In general, the administered meta-analysis is a very useful technique to objectively aggregate single results of a number of separate studies. It not only gives a conclusive overview about a certain field of research, but also overcomes the problem of reduced power due to small sample sizes by an enhanced pooled sample size, and therefore leads to more accurate estimations of the effect size. However, to conduct a conclusive meta-analysis the requirements already mentioned in the statistical section must be fulfilled. Moreover, the main problem was the fact that many instruments were applied in only one study and therefore could not be included in the meta-analysis—for example, spatial item recognition task (FACE) used by Eliyahu et al,7 word-recall task used by Smythe and Costall3 or tests from the Cognitive Drug Research (CDR) used by Preece et al.2 From a scientific point of view, it is not efficacious to apply new and non-standardised test procedures. Moreover, some studies omitted certain statistics—for example, Hladky et al14 and Smythe and Costall3 did not include means and standard deviations in their results. As meta-analyses will be used more frequently in the future, a statistical standard should be set, such as documenting effect sizes or correlations in the case of repeated measurements.

A meta-analysis for neurobehavioural effects due to electromagnetic field exposure emitted by GSM mobile phones.Barth A, Winker R, Ponocny-Seliger E, Mayrhofer W, Ponocny I, Sauter C, Vana N.

Institute of Management Science, Division Ergonomics and Organization, Vienna University of Technology, Theresianumgasse 27, A-1040 Vienna, Austria. barth@imw.tuwien.ac.at; Published Online First: 10 October 2007. doi:10.1136/oem.2006.031450
Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2008;65:342-346
Copyright © 2008 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

Dementia: Protective factors

Knowledge gaps

Thus far, no pharmaceutical agents have been shown to delay or prevent conversion to dementia, although mentally stimulating activities are showing promise. Agents that interfere with the production of insoluble amyloid fragments in the brain, or accelerate their clearance, are being actively pursued. Despite previous disappointments, it is possible that a vaccine may eventually be found. With regard to genetic risk factors, new susceptibility genes for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease continue to be found with increasing regularity.

This review highlights significant gaps in our current knowledge of risk factors for Alzheimer disease. Although we now know much about individual risk factors for dementia, we do not know how they interact or which risk factors account for what proportion of dementia cases. Also lacking is a clear picture of which specific interventions can lower this risk, and at what age and in whom they need to be implemented. Large (and expensive) longitudinal intervention studies are needed to
define the optimal preventive strategies.

In multivariate-adjusted longitudinal studies, the incidence of dementia independently increased with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, the metabolic syndrome, skinfold thickness, body mass index, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, hyperhomocysteinemia, smoking, and/or high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, whereas higher education, more exercise at middle age, and moderate alcohol consumption were protective.

Source: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/49/3/389

Forette F et al, Prevention of dementia in randomised double-blind placebo-controlled Systolic Hypertension in Europe (Syst-Eur) trial. Lancet. 1998;352:1347–1351.


Although there is insufficient evidence to make a firm recommendation for the primary prevention of dementia, physicians may advocate for appropriate levels of education and strategies to retain students in appropriate learning environments [grade C recommendation, level 2 evidence; new recommendation].

Intellectually challenging activity of various types has been associated with a reduced risk of dementia in longitudinal studies. Daily mental activities were associated with a decreased risk of all-cause dementia (relative risk 0.59) in the Kungsholmen study.(1) Similarly, the Washington Heights Study (New York) showed a reduced risk of all-cause dementia (relative risk 0.62) among participants who engaged in a higher level of leisure activity (self-reported participation in > 6 of 13 activities v. < 6 activities [low level] in the previous month).(2)

There is emerging evidence that cognitive training, especially involving novel or unfamiliar tasks, may delay cognitive decline. A recently published follow-up study of a randomized controlled trial of cognitive training appeared to show sustained improvement in specific cognitive performance up to 5 years after the intervention.(2) Whether this type of endeavour translates into a reduced risk of dementia remains to be proven.


Early case–control studies had suggested that tobacco smoking actually reduced the risk of dementia, but longitudinal cohort studies have identified a significantly increased risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease among tobacco smokers.




(1) Wang H-X, Karp A, Winblad B, et al. Late-life engagement in social and leisure activities is associated with a decreased risk of dementia: a longitudinal study from the Kungsholmen Project. Am J Epidemiol 2002;155:1081-7.
(2) Scarmeas N, Levy G, Tang M-X, et al. Influence of leisure activity on the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Neurology 2001;57:2236-42.
(3) Willis SL, Tennstedt SL, Marsiske M, et al. Long-term effects of cognitive training on everyday functional outcomes in older adults. JAMA 2006;296:2805-14.


Source: Chris Patterson, Diagnosis and treatment of dementia: 1. Risk assessment and primary prevention of Alzheimer disease;http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/178/5/548





Those participants who had at least one APOE4 allele had 3.28 times the risk of Alzheimer’s disease compared with those who had two ε3 alleles. Of the antecedent or coexisting chronic conditions included in the risk factor questionnaire, only arthritis was significantly related to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. No statistically significant relation was observed between Alzheimer’s disease risk and high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, depression, head trauma, diabetes, thyroid condition, cancer (any type), or stomach ulcer.

Contradictory Results

We studied prevalence of dementia in 1642 subjects aged 75-101 and found that those with relatively low blood pressure (lower or equal 140 mm Hg systolic, lower or equal 75 mm Hg diastolic) were significantly more likely to have dementia.

source:Low blood pressure and dementia in elderly people: the Kungsholmen project, BMJ 1996;312:805-808 (30 March); http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/312/7034/805



We conclude that AD patients have mildly impaired autonomic functions, mainly in vagal parasympathetic functions. The pathogenesis and clinical significance of low blood pressure in AD needs further study.

source: Cardiovascular Autonomic Functions in Alzheimer's Disease, 1994
http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org






Conclusions A history of hypertension is related to a higher risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment. The association seems to be stronger with the nonamnestic than the amnestic type of MCI in the elderly. These findings suggest that prevention and treatment of hypertension may have an important impact in lowering the risk of cognitive impairment.

source:Hypertension and the Risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment, http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/64/12/1734




We cross-sectionally assessed the relation between S. Blood Pressure and cognition in a cohort extending from mid- to late-life……….Thus, even in the normotensive range increasing systolic blood pressure is inversely related to cognition.

source: High-Normal Blood Pressure Is Associated With Poor Cognitive Performance, http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/51/3/663



Increasing age, fewer years of education, and the apolipoprotein E 4 allele were significantly associated with increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, wine consumption, coffee consumption, and regular physical activity were associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. No statistically significant association was found for family history of dementia, sex, history of depression, estrogen replacement therapy, head trauma, antiperspirant or antacid use, smoking, high blood pressure, heart disease, or stroke.

source: Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease: A Prospective Analysis from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, American Journal of Epidemiology, Am J Epidemiol 2002; 156:445-453. http://aje.oxfordjournals.org


Nonlinear Relations of Blood Pressure to Cognitive Function

Cross-sectional findings, across testing sessions, indicated moderated U- and J-shaped relations between BP and cognitive function. Both high and low diastolic BP were associated with poorer performance on tests of executive function and confrontation naming among less-educated persons; with tests of perceptuo-motor speed and confrontation naming among nonmedicated (antihypertensives) individuals; and with executive function among older individuals. Cross-sectional linear relations included higher systolic BP and poorer nonverbal memory in nondrinkers, and higher diastolic BP and poorer working memory among less-educated individuals. Results indicate that cross-sectional and longitudinal relations of BP to cognitive function are predominantly nonlinear and moderated by age, education, and antihypertensive medications. Careful monitoring and treatment of both high and low BP levels may be critical to the preservation of cognitive function.

Source: American Journal of Hypertension, (Hypertension. 2005;45:374.)
http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/45/3/374

Problems in Clinical Trials

‘There are three problems with undertaking clinical trials,’ says Professor David Matthews of OCDEM and co-Director of the Diabetes Research Network. ‘They are recruitment, recruitment, and recruitment. All other problems pale into insignificance in comparison to recruiting participants.’


www.ox.ac.uk/media
http://www.ocdem.com/index.php

Aetiologic Insight

Epidemiologists understand that disease processes have an historical (time) component, and formal methods of time series and hazard analyses are well-developed to study them.
Few, however, recognize that every epidemic also has a geography (space). Some epidemiologists may not be aware that evaluation of the spatial distribution of measures of disease risk may provide aetiologic insight.


Spatial Analytical Methods and Geographic Information Systems: Use in
Health Research and Epidemiology, Dale A. Moore and Tim E. Carpenter, Epidemiological Reviews, Oxford Journals, OUP





Embryo Bill:

The Conservative leader said he believed it was vital for medical research to be allowed using stem cells derived from the new hybrid embryos. David Cameron has said that the suffering of his disabled son Ivan was behind his decision to support controversial new laws to allow the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos.
Daily Telegraph, May 20




Too much information is bad for you

If all the players in a game become better informed, they may suffer. This observation can be confirmed by studying a game in which Adam and Eve each choose dove or hawk without observing the roll of a fair die. Unless a six is rolled, a player who chose dove receives a payoff of 1, and a player who chose hawk receives a payoff of 0. If a six is rolled, the payoffs are determined by the payoff table for the Prisoner's Dilemma. This can confirm that the players get smaller expected payoff if the roll of the dice becomes common knowledge before they choose.

Binmore K., Playing for Real, OUP

Alzheimer Risk Factors

Background Among potential environmental risk factors for Alzheimer disease (AD), occupational exposures have received some attention, including extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF). A systematic review and meta-analysis of published epidemiological studies on this subject was carried out.

Methods The search was concluded in April 2006. Bibliographic databases consulted included PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and NIOSHTIC2. Pooled estimates wereobtained using random-effects meta-analysis. Sources of heterogeneity between studies were explored, as was publication bias.

Results Fourteen different studies (nine case-control and five cohort studies) accomplished inclusion criteria. All these studies followed standardized criteria for AD diagnosis and most of them obtained quantitative estimates of exposure. Pooled estimates suggest an increased risk of AD from case-control studies (ORpooled 2.03; 95% CI 1.38–3.00) and from cohort studies (RRpooled 1.62; 95% CI 1.16–2.27), with moderate to high statistical heterogeneity in both cases (respectively, I2 = 58% and I2 = 54%). Cohort studies showed consistently increased risks for exposed men (RRpooled 2.05; 95% CI 1.51–2.80, I2 = 0%). Evidence of dose–response relationship was not present. Test for publication bias suggests small study effects, mostly for case-control studies.

Conclusions Available epidemiological evidence suggests an association between occupational exposure to ELF-EMF and AD. However, some limitations affecting the results from this meta-analysis should be considered. More information on relevant duration and time windows of exposure, on biological mechanisms for this potential association and on interactions between electromagnetic fields exposure and established risk factors for AD is needed.

Keywords Alzheimer disease, electromagnetic fields, occupational exposure, review literature, meta-analysis

Source: International Journal of Epidemiology, OUP
IJE Advance Access originally published online on February 1, 2008
International Journal of Epidemiology 2008 37(2):329-340; doi:10.1093/ije/dym295



Exposure risks

In 2006 the worldwide prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease was estimated to be 26.6 million; and by 2050, Alzheimer’s disease prevalence is expected to quadruple because of the increasing life expectancy in many countries. Although the years of life lost per Alzheimer’s disease case are relatively small, the disease causes considerable distress for afflicted families. Moreover, Alzheimer’s disease patients need substantial care resulting in substantial costs for the health care system.

Many environmental, occupational or lifestyle risk factors have been hypothesized to increase the risk for Alzheimer’s disease, which include exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF). Given the ubiquity of ELF-MF in our everyday environment, such an association would be of high public health relevance.

In view of the large statistical heterogeneity and the observed publication bias, pooled effect estimates of the risk for Alzheimer's disease due to exposure are not meaningful and they should be considered with caution. On the other hand, the approach of Garcı´a and colleagues in comparing pooled estimates according to different study characteristics is appreciated. This allows evaluation of whether the heterogeneity between studies is explained by different methodological approaches. Overall, Garcia et al. found little evidence that heterogeneity between studies was explained by study type, gender, or differences in the exposure level. Surprisingly, studies based on death certificates reported similar risk estimates like studies based on clinical examinations.

This finding contradicts a recent statement from the WHO in the Environmental Health Criteria Monograph 238. The statement concluded that ‘the evidence for an association between ELF-MF exposure and Alzheimer’s disease is inadequate because the higher quality studies that focused on Alzheimer morbidity rather than mortality do not indicate an association’.

International Journal of Epidemiology 2008;37:341–343, OUP
Commentary: Epidemiological research on extremely low frequency magnetic fields and
Alzheimer’s disease—biased or informative? Martin Roosli, Jan 2008
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/37/2/341


In a case– control study nested within the Framingham cohort, the relative risk of dementia in stroke survivors compared with controls varied from 2.0 to 2.8, depending on the covariates considered for adjustment. Of the incident dementia cases, 51% were diagnosed as having VaD or mixed dementia, whereas this proportion was only 4% among the control subjects without a history of stroke.

source: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/49/3/389

Ivan CS, Seshadri S, Beiser A, Au R, Kase CS, Kelly-Hayes M, Wolf PA.
Dementia after stroke. The Framingham study. Stroke. 2004;35:
1264–1269.

Playing for Real

“Measure twice because you can only cut once.” (Unknown source)



“Obstacles are things people see when they take their eyes off the goal.” (Robert Thorpe)



Game theorists argue that it would be unwise for Adam to trust Eve's word if they were about to play the Prisoners' Dilemma. He should get her signature on a legally binding contract before counting on her cooperation. However, the games we play with those we trust are much more complicated. An important assumption built into the Prisoners' Dilemma is that the players will never interact again. If Adam and Eve believed they might meet in the future to play again, they would have to take into account the impact that their choice of dove or hawk in the present might have on the choices their opponent might make in the future. The Prisoners' Dilemma is therefore not capable of modelling long-term relationships in which a player's reputation for honesty can be very valuable-and easily lost.

Ken Binmore, (2007), Playing for Real, Oxford, OUP, p. 22 QA269B475

Tyneside Event

Caring for Swans
BBC News online, 15 May

Conjectural

1768 JOHNSON Pref. to Shaks. Wks. IX. 298 Conjectural criticism has been of great use in the learned world.

Johnson, Bryan Stanley, Travelling people 1963
source: www.oed.com




Normal Distribution function;

The definitions of the Normal distribution are often vague, and incomplete. How does one explain the Normal curve defined by the function:

y= 1/σ √2π exp- 1/2 (t-µ/σ)^2 (tϵ R)

.........the normal distribution is sometimes described simply as a bell-shaped distribution. This description leaves a good deal to be desired: it is true that normal distribution curves, often called normal curves, are bell-shaped, but not all bell-shaped distribution curves are necessarily those of normal distributions.

Mills T M, 2001, Problems in Probability, World Scientific, QA273M55

Systematic Review of Learning Environment

Systematic Review of Learning Environment

Who, what, when, where, why, how
Who is it intended for?
What are the particularities?
When learning environment is of concern?
Where are areas of learning environment?
Why an enriched learning environment?
How environment affect learning?
And further areas of interest….


Nomenclature of Learning Environment

Variability, History, Background, Content, Exposure, Power, Culture, Commerce, Society, Community, Relationships, Intelligence, Receptivity, Possibility, Senses , Measures, Dynamics, Probability , Complexity, Norms , Access, Interactions , Networks, Uncoupled Rules, Uncertainty , Risks , Subjects - Learners Tutors - teachers – lecturers, Presenters, Stakeholders, Observers

SCALE

IT IS MAN'S MISCALCULATION OF REALITY THAT BRINGS ABOUT THE TRAGEDY.

JAMES MARTIN













Survey Results for teachers on-line learning:

Almost none of the teachers have not taken an online course before. (17/18)
Teachers often use the internet, for teaching materials, to do research and to check their e-mails. (17/18)
They primarily access web materials at home. (14/4)
Teachers often spend time online.(17/1)
Online format is an effective way for teachers to learn. The main reason is its time saving and experimental learning but they complain about difficulty in being able to find the exact thing. (15/3)
Finding ELT materials and resources online is convenient but not easy. They have to spend hours on the internet because they do not know the appropriate sites. (14/3)
Teachers are comfortable with online interactions. They haven’t used a blog before.(14/3)
Teachers use the internet to prepare, revise and update materials.
All of the teachers enjoy exploring new technology. (16/2)
All of the teachers have basic technology skills. (18)
Most of the teachers (12/18) are comfortable with online reading. They have difficulty on long readings.
Most of the teachers are comfortable with working and communicating with people they have never seen (12/18). The rest thinks that this is a matter of trust and they prefer familiar friends.
All teachers have an active email addressee. (18)
The internet, online technologies and information technology is partially successful for effective language teaching. (10)

Source:British Council Teacher Development

Clinical

Coldly detached and dispassionate, like a medical report or examination; diagnostic or therapeutic, like medical investigation or treatment; treating a subject-matter as if it were a case of disease, esp. with close attention to detail; serving as part of a case-study. Also Comb.

source: Oxford English Dictionary, www.oed.com

My Null hypothesis:

I am interested in testing the null hypothesis of no difference between effective time of drug use for herbal medicine and manufactured medicine. That is to say herbal drugs do not produce the outcome of interest with the same pace as manufactured drugs - such as the case control trial on trekkers, regarding the effects of Ginko on acute mountain sickness. I have tested my hypothesis on myself, and have paid prolonged attention to this process that found effects of natural medicine are rather preventive, encompassing, long lasting, but moderate. Hence, my disapproval about the results inferred from the trial mentioned below!

Randomised, double blind, placebo controlled comparison of ginkgo biloba and acetazolamide for prevention of acute mountain sickness among Himalayan trekkers: the prevention of high altitude illness trial (PHAIT)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/328/7443/797

Radiation and all that:

A significant excess of breast cancer was found among female workers exposed to radiation; concentration of the excess risks to primary sites sensitive to radiation suggests that ionising radiation during flights may add to the cancer risk of all flight personnel. Female cabin attendants had a significant 1.9-fold incidence of breast cancer and a 15-fold incidence of bone cancer compared with the national average.
source: BMJ 1995;311:649-652 (9 September)

Starting before you’re ready

YOU MUST START BEFORE YOU ARE READY!
•If you wait to prove that what you’re going to do will work and is the best possible use of resources, you’ll never do anything
•In this sense, taking no risks is the biggest risk of all
•The keys are therefore:
–Gather what evidence you can in the time available, do the analysis that you can and make sure you’ve involved everyone who can contribute
–Give yourself space to scale up or down if possible
–Continue to listen and develop good monitoring and feedback loops
–Prepare to learn as you go –and to make changes and refinements in the light of experience

ROYAL SOCIETY OF STATISTICS: COLES J., 10 RULES FOR EVIDENCE BASED POLICY MAKERS
http://www.rss.org.uk/pdf/080123%20rss1.pdf

Oxford Scholarship online

Causal fators: Brain Disorder

Hence it is established from multiple, independent studies, that EMR from ELF to RF/MW reduces melatonin in animals and human beings.

Confirmation of the electromagnetic sensitivity of the human pineal comes from therapeutic uses of picoTesla ELF fields in the successful treatment of a range of neurological diseases, Sandyk (1993, 1994), Sandyk and Derpapas (1993) and Sandyk and Iacono (1993). These studies specifically involve Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis. The authors identify the magneto-sensitivity of the pineal gland and the role of melatonin as the biological mechanism for this therapy.

Melatonine acts as scavenger of free radicals. This,... reduces the risk of heart attack, cancer, viral replication. Melatonin plays a vital free radical scavenging role in the brain where, because it is high in iron, has a high production rate of hydroxyl radicals (OH· ). Free radical damage is now known to play a formative role in most brain disorders, including Alzheimer’ disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. While the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) denies access to most free radical scavengers, melatonin has free access.

Neil Cherry, EMR Reduces Melatonin in Animals and People
http://www.feb.se/EMFguru/Research/emf-emr/EMR-Reduces-Melatonin.htm

Education

Disraeli in History

Disraeli certainly did not offer electors a programme of legislation, or even speak in public to any significant extent. In 1879–80 he was contemptuous of Gladstone's ‘spouting all over the country, like an irresponsible demagogue’, which was ‘wholly inexcusable in a man who was a statesman’ (Monypenny and Buckle, 6.524). After the 1880 election he asserted the right of politicians to challenge the spirit of the age, which was ‘generally public sentiment’ and ‘frequently … public passion’ (Hansard 3, 255, 107–8).

His success there was due to his devastating capacity to discern his opponents' weak (and strong) points: his epigrammatic sarcasm increasingly intimidated them from attacking him, and dissuaded rivals from seeking to supplant him and banish him to a dangerous exile below the gangway. Disraeli held tenaciously to the party leadership in the Commons for twenty-eight years; but he did so by dint of rhetorical bravado and dextrous party management, not by exploiting his position outside parliament….

Even so, the conclusion must be that, though only intermittently, Disraeli still succeeded, infinitely more than anyone could have imagined, in realizing the object of political life that he set out in the poem he wrote for his wife's birthday in 1846: ‘to sway the race that sways the world’ (Letters, 4.250).

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography




The Making also delivered flashes of profound insight on unexpected topics. A brief discussion of the medieval conception of freedom described the paradox that the more freedom one had the more laws one had to obey.

Sir Richard Southern: The Making of the Middle Ages


die feine englische Art (ugs.) the proper way to behave;

Geben Sie Text oder eine Website-Adresse ein oder lassen Sie ein Dokument übersetzen.

Abbrechen

Anhören

40 Jahre deutsch-deutsche Beziehnungen Staats und völkerrechtliche Fragen

Prof. Dres h.c. Jochen Abr. Frowein

Max Planck Institute

Dusseldorf - Heinrich Heine University

...................................Before 1967 there was only a very limited scope relations between official bodies of the federal republic of Germany and the GDR. An important exception was the area known as inter-zone trade. This was due to the completed Agreement of 20/09/1951. After this the inter-trade zone for the Federal Republic of Germany was no foreign trade. This training was effective by a Protocol to the Treaty and an addition to the GATT and in third countries.

With the choice of social-liberal coalition in the fall of 1969 began a fundamental change in German policy towards the GDR, but also against the Soviet Union and Poland. Even the Government's statement of Brandt used the new formulation: even if two states exist in Germany, but they are not foreign for one another and their relationships to each other can only be of a particular kind. Here a breakthrough had occurred. The GDR was clearly identified as a state, on the other hand, however stressed, this relationship between West Germany and East Germany is not the type between other independent states in general.

German politics admitted to something that was discussed intensively in the working group of 1967. The example of the British Commonwealth at that time, so-called inter dual-relationships between states that had once belonged to a federation was presented. These special relationships were indirectlz recognized in the Basic Treaty with East Germany, although the East course, always made an attempt to deny the special character of these relations, wanting to be treated by the Federal Republic in its entirety as a sovereign state.

Very quickly after the formation of the social-liberal coalition negotiations began with Moscow. They were initially led by a small delegation from the Chancellor's Office, Egon Bahr. For about 50 hours there was an intensive exchange of views between Bahr and Gromyko. The result was the so-called Bahr-paper, which was the basis for the formal negotiations in July 1970 in Moscow. Although the paper was extremely controversial in the Federal Republic of Germany, but it was clearly the basis for further development.

The Delegation of Federal Minister Scheel, to which I belonged, negotiated in July 1970 in Moscow. Regarding the relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and East Germany, the border line was of essential importance particularly in their nonviolence involvement. They stated that both parties today and in the future consider borders of all states in Europe as infrangible as the day of signature of this treaty, including the Oder-Neiße line, which reshaped the western borderline of Poland and the border between the Federal Republic Germany and the East Germany GDR.

Politically in the Federal Republic, this gave a massive dispute on the question whether this is not sealing the division of Germany.

Here one has to initially point out that the term "infrangible" merely protected the border against international law, which excludes actions in any way other than the peaceful reunification, like it was then 20 years later.
But in political discussion this was seen as great accomodation to the Soviet Union.
It was therefore also of greater importance that  the signing of the Treaty, the so-called Paper of German Unity has been accepted without protest by the Soviet Foreign Ministry for the Foreign Minister Gromyko.

Large number of small changes

The methods that Newton uses to prove 1/r2 are highly geometrical; .......At first sight, too, this geometry looks classical,......Yet, on closer inspection, we see that it is slightly different; Newton is doing new things with it that had not been done before. For time and again, Newton, approaches a deep and difficult dynamical problem by imagining the whole motion as split up into a very large number of very small changes.

And this deceptively simple idea is the basis for one of the greatest advances in the whole of mathmatics...

Acheson D., 1089 and all that, OUP

Punishment is not Education

In 1854 Charles Adderley was responsible for the Young Offenders Act (a part of his ‘reformatory’ policy), and he introduced the Manchester and Salford Education Bill, in which a local education rate was first proposed. In Punishment is not Education (1856) and in his Tract on Tickets of Leave (1857) he pushed further his plea that education might cure crime more effectively than punishment.

On 21 June 1858, in moving the education vote, he gave the first official estimate of the cost of a national system of elementary education: he put the amount at a million pounds per annum. At the same time he pointed out that that was the first day on which the University of Oxford was conducting its middle-class examinations throughout the country, and was thereby inaugurating a new correlation of the universities to national life. Next day the first royal commission on elementary education was announced.




Oxford dictionary of National Biography
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/articleHL/30341?docPos=5&anchor=match


.............In the same year he introduced without success an education bill which aimed at making education compulsory. In Derby's third administration of 1866 Adderley became under-secretary for the colonies, and was immediately confronted by the difficult case of Governor Edward John Eyre whom he controversially defended from the attacks of John Stuart Mill and others. In the same session he carried through the House of Commons the British North America Act (1867), which created the dominion of Canada. Amid his parliamentary occupations, Adderley published Europe Incapable of American Democracy (1867), in which he sought to reconcile his Conservative faith with advanced ideas of social freedom and progress.

.....In his speech in the upper house on the education code of May 1882 (reprinted as a pamphlet) he practically advocated free education and protested against the complexity of the code with its detailed system of payment by results. He sat on the reformatory and industrial schools commission (1883) and on the education commissions of 1883–4 and 1887.