Why I'm moving to Blogger:

On Blogger...

1. You have complete control of your blog's layout.
2. You can accept comments from anyone (they don't have to be registered with Blogger).
3. There are no ads.
4. You can backup your entire blog and save it whenever you want.
5. You get virtually limitless media hosting. (I use youtube and flickr anyways, so it doesn't matter for me.).
6. You can use Google Analytics. It's like xanga footprints or Suhock but way better (see screenshot: http://students.washington.edu/kgc/analytics.png)
7. You can use ANY code (flash, javascript, css, html, etc) you want. (see: http://dom.net/word/ look at the sidebars)
8. You have the option to host it on your own server, such as dante.washington.edu (http://students.washington.edu/yourname)
9. You can allow multiple people to post to the blog. Each post will have the appropriate author's name underneath it.
10. Essentially, you can do anything.

I haven't really done much with my blog yet, but here's an example of what you can do: http://cgindia.blogspot.com/

Hi guys,

My serious blog is moving to kevingc.blogspot.com

See ya there (no login needed for comments).

The non-serious stuff will still be here on xanga I suppose.

Kevin

Public release date: 22-Aug-2006

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Contact: Melanie Fridl Ross
ufcardiac@aol.com
352-690-7051
University of Florida

Cigarette smoke blocks cell repair mechanism, University of Florida study shows

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Cigarette smoke
can turn normal breast cells cancerous by blocking their ability to
repair themselves, eventually triggering tumor development, University
of Florida scientists report.

While some cells nonetheless
rally and are able to fix their damaged DNA, many others become unable
to access their own cellular first aid kit, according to findings from
a UF study published today (Aug. 21) in the journal Oncogene. If they
survive long enough to divide and multiply, they pass along their
mutations, acquiring malignant properties.

Past research has
been controversial. Tobacco smoke contains dozens of cancer-causing
chemicals, but until more recently many studies found only weak
correlations between smoking and breast cancer risk, or none at all.
Those findings are increasingly being challenged by newer studies that
are focusing on more than just single chemical components of tobacco,
as past research often has done. In the UF study, researchers instead
used a tar that contains all of the 4,000 chemicals found in cigarette
smoke.

"Our study suggests the mechanism by which this may be
happening," said Satya Narayan, Ph.D., an associate professor of
anatomy and cell biology at UF's College of Medicine. "This is
basically the important finding in our case: We are now describing how
cigarette smoke condensate, which is a surrogate for cigarette smoke,
can cause DNA damage and can block the DNA repair of a cell or
compromise the DNA repair capacity of a cell. That can be detrimental
for the cell and can lead to transformation or carcinogenesis."

In
their study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the
Miami-based Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute, UF researchers
exposed normal breast epithelial cells to cigarette smoke condensate-a
tar derived from a machine that literally "smokes" a cigarette in the
laboratory-and found the cells acquired mutations characteristic of
malignant cells.

The scientists say DNA repair appears to be
compromised when chemical components of smoke activate a key gene. That
gene interacts with an enzyme that plays a crucial role in repairing
damaged DNA, preventing it from doing its job. The cell, despite its
mutated form, can then multiply wildly.

A cell with damaged DNA has one of two fates, said Narayan, also a member of the UF Shands Cancer Center.

"Its
DNA repair machinery can be enhanced and it can fix the damaged DNA and
restore genomic stability, or if the DNA repair machinery becomes
compromised within the cell, then it can lead to an accumulation of
mutations because the DNA is not fixed before the cell begins to
divide," he said. "The mutation then becomes a permanent part of the
genome and causes genomic instability, and genomic instability can
bring about several cellular dysfunctions, and one of them can lead to
tumor formation."

Other UF research led by Xingming Deng,
M.D., Ph.D., and published last month in the Journal of Biological
Chemistry revealed that nicotine activates a protein in cancer cells
that helps them live long, spread to new sites and grow resistant to
chemotherapy.

Narayan's team has previously studied cells that
were exposed to the chemicals found in cigarette smoke yet did not die.
In general, about two-thirds of these cells will be growth-retarded,
and some actually acquire cancer-like characteristics, he said.

"Some
of these cells that survive are really acquiring true mutagenic
characteristics," Narayan said. "A defect in only one cell is important
for growth of a full-blown tumor. You don't need 1,000 or 1 million
cells to be affected. Only a single cell which may have genomic
instability due to compromised DNA repair capacity of the cell can be
sufficient for a tumor to develop. That has to be considered also when
we do these kinds of studies."

Narayan said the next step will be to find ways to manipulate cells' capacity for DNA repair and to prevent tumor formation.

Meanwhile,
he cautions people to avoid smoking, especially teenagers. A study last
year found teenage smokers are at especially high risk of breast cancer
development later in life, he said.

"Teenagers should realize
they are inhaling 4,000 chemicals, and these chemicals can do so much
harm in the body, not only posing a breast cancer risk but for so many
other things," Narayan said. "The consequence of these chemicals is not
apparent in one day or two days or in months; it takes years and years
for cancers to develop. Once the gene is damaged and sitting there it's
going to provide some harmful effect later on."

Jose Russo,
M.D., a researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia who
has studied how breast epithelial cells transform after exposure to the
chemical benzo[a]pyrine, which is found in tobacco smoke, called the UF
findings very interesting.

"We found significant alteration in
many of the chromosomes in these cells induced by the effect of
benzo[a]pyrine," Russo said. "We were the first ones to demonstrate in
normal-like epithelial cells this compound produced a transformation.
Cigarette smoke condensate contains more than one compound, so the UF
experiment is more similar to the way any human being would be exposed
to the carcinogens. It mimics the human situation more closely."

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From Ars Technica

For many years now physicists have discussed how one might make a
universe in the laboratory. The essential idea is that the vacuum is
not completely empty but has a set of intrinsic energy levels, which
can be excited. It is this energy that drove the early inflation of the
universe and continues to accelerate the expansion of the universe
today. However, these properties, combined with some fairly exotic
theory, may point the way towards making a new universe.

Early work on making a universe started with a pre-created bubble from
within our pre-existing universe. Then the behavior of the bubble was
examined as it expanded. If the bubble is larger than a critical value
then it too will experience inflation and expand. This bubble is also
inside a horizon, like that of black holes and is causally disconnected
from the universe in which it was created. These universes have been
termed child universes. Unfortunately for hopeful experimental
physicists, the creation of a bubble large enough to inflate was
thought to require the creation of a singularity first, which seemed
pretty unachievable. Recasting the problem to include quantum effects
makes the singularity unnecessary, unfortunately, it also causes the
bubble to vanish before it can expand.

What must be realized is that including quantum mechanics in such
circumstances is never straightforward. It turns out that if a
different version of inflation is used, the instability vanishes. The
theory of inflation used by the theoreticians is one that is based
around monopoles, which are theoretical magnets with a north or a south
pole but never both. Monopoles were thought to exist very early in the
universe and are used to explain why our universe is not finely tuned.
They are extremely heavy particles, which would, with a small extra
kick, contain sufficient energy to create a vacuum bubble that is
stable and large enough to experience inflation. The new universe will
disconnect from our own and continue on its merry way. From our point
of view, the child universe will look like a microscopic black hole
that emits a bit of Hawking radiation and then vanishes.

The paper is entirely theoretical, however, this website
reports the story as if it were something that Japanese particle
physicists have funding to try this experimentally. No doubt, the fact
that it can't be used as a doomsday weapon is limiting funding
opportunities elsewhere. I am suitably impressed that the Japanese may
be willing to try this and eagerly await the results.

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 17-Aug-2006
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Contact: Veronica McGuire
vmcguir@mcmaster.ca
90-552-591-402-2169
McMaster University
Global study shows all tobacco bad for the heart

A major Canadian-led global study has found all forms of tobacco exposure, whether that be smoking, chewing or inhaling second hand smoke, increase the risk of heart attack.

The study by professors Salim Yusuf and Koon Teo of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Hamilton, is published in this week's issue of The Lancet.

In collaboration with colleagues from 52 countries, they calculated the risk of heart attack for various forms of active tobacco use (both smoking and non-smoking) and second hand smoking in all areas of the world. The INTERHEART study included data from more than 27,000 people in 52 countries. In their calculations, the investigators accounted for other lifestyle factors that could affect the heart attack risk, such as diet and age.

They found that tobacco use in any form, including sheesha smoking popular in the Middle East and beedie smoking common in South Asia, was harmful. Compared to people who had never smoked, smokers had a three-fold increased risk of a heart attack. Even those with relatively low levels of exposure of eight to 10 cigarettes a day doubled their risk of heart attack. Each cigarette smoked per day, increased the risk by 5.6 per cent.

However, the researchers did find that the risk of heart attack decreased with time after stopping smoking. Light smokers, those who consume fewer than 10 cigarettes a day, benefit the most. They have no excess risk three to five years after quitting. By contrast, moderate and heavy smokers of 20 or more cigarettes a day still had an excess risk of around 22 per cent, 20 years after quitting.

The team also found that exposure to second hand smoke increased the risk of heart attack in both former and non-smokers. The findings suggest that individuals with the highest levels of exposure to second hand smoke of 22 hours or more per week may increase their risk of heart attack by around 45%.

"Chewing tobacco also increased the risk of a heart attack two fold, indicating that all forms of tobacco use or exposure are harmful," said Dr. Koon Teo.

Dr. Yusuf said: "Since the risks of heart attack associated with smoking dissipate substantially after smoking cessation, public-health efforts to prevent people from starting the habit, and promote quitting in current smokers, will have a large impact in prevention of heart attack worldwide."

The number of smokers worldwide is currently estimated to be 1.3 billion, of which 82% are in developing countries. However, most large studies on smoking and heart disease to date have focused on developed countries.

"Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death, killing 47,000 Canadians each year through direct smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke," said Rocco Rossi, CEO, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. "We have been a successful advocate for a smoke free Ontario and have achieved one of the strongest pieces of anti-tobacco legislation in North America. This study provides more evidence why it's critical for everyone to become and remain smoke free, and will encourage governments to take effective action to protect their people from the dangers of tobacco."

"People around the world should pay attention to the message that it's never too late to quit. This is an important study documenting the powerful and persistent dangers of tobacco use worldwide," said Dr. Peter Liu, scientific director for CIHR's Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH). "Canadians can be proud that we lead the world in efforts to prevent and reverse the trend in smoking. But we cannot rest on our laurels, and must do better still to protect our citizens."

"Data like this bolsters anti-smoking efforts worldwide," said Dr. Jennifer Everson, a family physician and vice president, medical at Hamilton Health Sciences. "It's important, additional evidence that we can share with our patients to help them make choices that could save their lives."
###

The INTERHEART study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and 37 funding sources, including unrestricted support from several pharmaceutical companies.

The study was endorsed by the World Health Organization, the World Heart Federation and the International Clinical Epidemiology Network.

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'Thirst for knowledge' may be opium craving
The brain's reward for getting a concept is a shot of natural opiates
Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix.

The "click" of comprehension triggers a biochemical cascade that rewards the brain with a shot of natural opium-like substances, said Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California. He presents his theory in an invited article in the latest issue of American Scientist.

"While you're trying to understand a difficult theorem, it's not fun," said Biederman, professor of neuroscience in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

"But once you get it, you just feel fabulous."

Article Link

I think I'm addicted to learning.

Do not go to eurekalert.org or you WILL NOT be able to SLEEP.

Here's a summary:

Drive to Vancouver BC. (got sort of lost)
Dim Sum. (mmm, tasty)
Listen to dad talk to his friend. (didn't understand that much of it)
Dinner. (mmm, tasty)
Drive home. (fun talking about stuff with dad and trying to (unsuccessfully) understand the mandarin radio station)

This didn't actually taste good, but it looked very cool, like a clam.

If you viewed this site in Internet Explorer, the tracks in the music playlist were TOTALLY WRONG!

Just to be clear: I am 100% straight! I'm not even bicurious!

The music player has been removed. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

Here's another blooper:

After reading the SIFT paper at work today, I had an epiphany.
I'll reveal it after we apply for the patent, or we discover someone else already invented this algorithm.