Headline 19th March, 2012 / Part 2: "Most Students Would Rather Die

Part2:

Most Students Would Rather Die Than To Think. 

Many Do!

Respectful Dedication 2 Great SAM Founders 

Darakshan Wajid & Ali Aizaz Zahid 

One loving dedication from all the founders of Student Angel Mother

The critics may call her 'molar eclipse' but Author Zaddie Smith has a bite!! She refers to the present generation as "FutureMouse!" - a genetically modified mouse!!? And adds 'they spout a lot of talk based on feeling rather than fact. They have a lot to say about themselves but are clueless about most things!? Or the subject of sweaty fantasy and ardent dreams!!'

Be that it so, given the amount of attention the students are now enjoying, fascination with true fame is on! Any keen, keen observer of human nature or the student's nature would most easily have found much of his cereberal material in the mundane: the everyday situations and rituals that form a bond between students.

We would have had much better world, had the students been positive, participatory , and in close contact with each other. The students could most easily have been more viral long before the Internet!!!?

The internet is sloppy without the students. But the use of word "why" never took favour with the students. For if had, the students would have gone 'viral' much before while killing the demons of doubts, insecurity and low self esteem, from which, most of the world now suffers as 'emotionally infantalized'.
All this can only provide rich acreage to future psychohistorians.

Depression is rising in lockstep with prosperity!!? Alas, that is why we never provide a complete answer to anything. The bottom line is "A student is his own fault"

Goodnight and sweet dreams!

SAM Daily Times - The Voice Of The Voiceless

How good is daydreaming ?!

The mental workspace that allows the brain to handle multiple thoughts simultaneously is called working memory. The more working memory a person has, the more daydreaming they can do without forgetting the task at hand. The study researcher Jonathan Smallwood  of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science, said in a statement : ""Our results suggest that the sorts of planning that people do quite often in daily life — when they're on the bus, when they're cycling to work, when they're in the shower — are probably supported by working memory.Their brains are trying to allocate resources to the most pressing problems."


When our minds run out of working memory, these off-topic thoughts can take the main stage without us consciously meaning them to; for instance, arriving at home with no recollection of the actual trip, or suddenly realizing that they've turned several pages in a book without comprehending any of the words.

"It's almost like your attention was so absorbed in the mind wandering that there wasn't any left over to remember your goal to read," study researcher Daniel Levinson, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, a part of the Waisman Center for Brain Imaging and Behavior, said in a statement.

People with overall higher working memory were better able to stay focused when the task at hand required it. Those who had low working memory often had their thoughts drift away from the task, and did less well at it.

The findings add to past research suggesting these mind drifts can be positive moments. For instance, daydreaming has often been associated with creativity — researchers think that our most creative and inventive moments come when daydreaming. It's likely that the most intelligent among us also have high levels of working memory, Levinson noted.

China's biggest health threat - Air pollution

Article by Jonathan Watts 

The Guardian, UK

Leading respiratory disease specialist warns of consequences if government fails to monitor and publicise the dangers of smog.

Air pollution will become the biggest health threat in China unless the government takes greater steps to monitor and publicise the dangers of smog, the country's leading respiratory disease specialist warned this week.

Lung cancer and cardiovascular illnesses are already rising and could get worse in the future because of factory emissions, vehicle exhausts and cigarette smoke, Zhong Nanshan, the president of the China Medical Association, told the Guardian.

The outspoken doctor – who won nationwide respect for revealing the cover-up of the Sars epidemic in 2002 – said the authorities are starting to learn the lessons of past health crises by being more transparent about the risks posed by contaminated air. Unless there is more openness, he said, public trust will be eroded.

"Air pollution is getting worse and worse in China, but the government data showed it was getting better and better. People don't believe that. Now we know it's because they didn't measure some pollutants," said Zhong. "If the government neglects this matter, it will be the biggest health problem facing China."

Earlier this month, the government promised to be more open.

It has been a long time coming. Beijing and other major cities have experienced dire levels of air pollution for more than a decade, but the government has been reluctant to investigate and publicly disclose the medical consequences.

Zhong said he has been concerned about the problem for 10 years, but his efforts to press for official data have met with silence. During the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he said he asked the environment department for information about ozone and carbon levels, but made no headway.

"They never answered. I understand this is because they did not collect such data. But it is also because they didn't want to announce this," Zhong said. "Maybe they are afraid of showing that levels are too high, which might have a negative impact on society."

Until recently, the government did not include ozone and small particulate matter known as PM2.5 in its air quality index, even though these two pollutants pose the greatest risk to human health.

Insiders say some cities quietly and selectively measured these pollutants for many years, but never made the results public. Scientific studies of this crucial public health issue have been notable by their absence.

Zhong says public awareness has come slowly because, compared to acute epidemics like Sars that results in sudden clusters of death, pollution is a chronic, slow-burning problem with consequences that are not apparent for many years.

But there is strong evidence of the risks. He said outpatient cases at his clinic in Guangdong province increase by 10% on hazy days. He also cited a US study that showed that cases of cardio failure increased by 1.28% for every increase of 10 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic metre.

Understanding of the problems in China has been promoted by the US embassy in Beijing, which has released its own hourly measurements of PM2.5. In response, Beijing, Guangdong and several other provincial and municipal governments has belatedly followed suit.

Zhong said state promises to introduce nationwide monitoring need to be quickly honoured. He also called for detailed epidemiological research into the problem. Controversially, he said it would be a good thing if every embassy in Beijing monitored and publicised pollution data.

"We need data. We don't have that," he said. "We need to do something. We should start an annual study."

It is difficult to separate the impacts of pollution and tobacco, which is also a major contributor to PM2.5. But Zhong said lung cancer rates are two or three times higher in cities than in the countryside, even though smoking rates are the same.

On heavily polluted days, he advised city dwellers to wear face masks and not to exercise. But he said there was ultimately little that individuals could do unless greater efforts were made to check the source of the pollution.

Although the nature of the health risk posed by smog is different from that of Sars, he said the two shared similarities in terms of the importance of information disclosure.

"It takes time to make local governments move on transparency," he said. "But the situation now is better than during Sars. At the very beginning of that epidemic, it was really terrible. We have learned a lesson."

He said the environment was now a key public health concern, which was not the case in the past.

After polluted air, he said contaminated water, food and the chemicals found in furniture were recognised as major risks in addition to those previously identified from smoking and alcohol.

"We all have to breathe. It's no longer enough just to have a good lifestyle. A green environment is one of the most important elements in deciding people's health. People are more aware of that. I'm happy about that."

Spray seawater into the air and cool the Arctic: scientists‎

An eminent UK engineer is suggesting building cloud-whitening towers in the Faroe Islands as a "technical fix" for warming across the Arctic.

Scientists told UK MPs this week that the possibility of a major methane rele-

The original idea called for cloud-whitening ships -
 but it could be done from land 

ase triggered by melting Arctic ice constitutes a "planetary emergency".

The Arctic could be sea-ice free each September within a few years.

Wave energy pioneer Stephen Salter has shown that pumping seawater sprays into the atmosphere could cool the planet.

The Edinburgh University academic has previously suggested whitening clouds using specially-built ships.

At a meeting in Westminster organised by the Arctic Methane Emergency Group (Ameg), Prof Salter told MPs that the situation in the Arctic was so serious that ships might take too long.

"I don't think there's time to do ships for the Arctic now," he said.

"We'd need a bit of land, in clean air and the right distance north... where you can cool water flowing into the Arctic."

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

Everybody working in geo-engineering hopes it won't be needed - but we fear it will be”

Stephen Salter
Edinburgh University
Favoured locations would be the Faroes and islands in the Bering Strait, he said.

Towers would be constructed, simplified versions of what has been planned for ships.

In summer, seawater would be pumped up to the top using some kind of renewable energy, and out through the nozzles that are now being developed at Edinburgh University, which achieve incredibly fine droplet size.

In an idea first proposed by US physicist John Latham, the fine droplets of seawater provide nuclei around which water vapour can condense.

This makes the average droplet size in the clouds smaller, meaning they appear whiter and reflect more of the Sun's incoming energy back into space, cooling the Earth.

On melting ice
The area of Arctic Ocean covered by ice each summer has declined significantly over the last few decades as air and sea temperatures have risen.

For each of the last four years, the September minimum has seen about two-thirds of the average cover for the years 1979-2000, which is used a baseline. The extent covered at other times of the year has also been shrinking.

What more concerns some scientists is the falling volume of ice.

Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, presented an analysis drawing on data and modelling from the PIOMAS ice volume project at the University of Washington in Seattle.

It suggests, he said, that Septembers could be ice-free within just a few years.

Source: BBC

West Kirby student named UK's top young scientist

A Merseyside student has been named as the UK Young Scientist of the Year.

West Kirby Grammar School's Kirtana Vallabhaneni beat 360 other entrants to be awarded the prize at The Big Bang Fair at Birmingham's NEC on Friday.

The 17-year-old was part of University of Liverpool's research project aimed at identifying the harmful cells that cause pancreatic cancer.

She said she hoped her win could help "instil the same kind of passion I have for science in other young people".

The judging panel for the national award, open to 11 to 18-year-olds who completed a science, technology, engineering or maths project, included renowned space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Nobel Prize winning biochemist Sir Tim Hunt, and the Science Museum's inventor in residence Mark Champkins.

Dr Aderin-Pocock said she was "delighted" with Ms Vallabhaneni's work.

"The country's science and engineering industry has an incredibly bright future ahead of it if Kirtana and her fellow finalists are anything to go by," she said.

"It's these talented individuals who will inspire others to think about science and engineering in a new and exciting light."

Ms Vallabhaneni, who was part of the project team working to isolate cells in the pancreas that can be targeted with chemotherapy, said she was "so happy" with the win.

"Everything that I've worked for over the last year has come together," she said.

"The fact four finalists were female shows that there are strong opportunities for women in science and it proves they don't have to follow convention and stereotypes.

"I'm so passionate about what I do and I hope that with this success, I can instil the same kind of passion I have for science in other young people.

"If I can do it, they definitely can."
    
Source: BBC

Sleep well, lose weight !

A medical study released this week made some interesting and important discoveries regarding sleep and weight loss. Weight gain is apparently very directly tied to a lack of sleep and as such doctors are beginning to realize that treating sleep issues may be quite a bit more important than previously though. The fact that yet another major medical breakthrough has been made in the weight loss area is very good news for millions of overweight or obese people. Of course this still is not a magical fix for weight issues but many analysts are hopeful that the information will be useful in the near future.

The reasons behind this link are quite well understood following this study as well. It appears that people that sleep little or have trouble sleeping do not properly gauge or calculate their food intake. Even a few days of sleeping properly make a very significant impact in eating habits which, according to researchers, should have a very significant impact on weight over the course of a year.
The good news is that this is a relatively easy place to begin for many people to start losing weight. Sleeping well and sleeping consistently is not usually a difficult task with enough work and with the added motivation of possibly losing weight it seems like this is great news for anyone any everyone that needs to lose a little.

Amazingnews.

Better Than Battery Power?

Advancing Science, Serving Society (AAAS) has suggested that a new technique could make Supercapacitors more competitive with batteries

Researchers used a standard DVD drive to hone carbon into ultrathin, high-performance energy storage devices, which may inspire a new generation of flexible electronics.

The laser inside a standard DVD drive can be used to produce sheets of carbon a single atom thick, which store nearly as much energy as a battery but charge hundreds of times faster, researchers report in the 16 March issue of Science.

The thin sheets act as supercapacitors, an energy storage alternative to batteries that has undergone intense research in the past two decades. Flexible and tough, the capacitors built by Maher El-Kady of the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues someday could power a new generation of roll-up computer displays, or electronic fabrics that harvest and store energy produced by body movements.

Supercapacitors can charge and discharge more rapidly than batteries, but tend to hold less energy than battery designs. To solve this problem, scientists have been experimenting with single-atom-thick sheets of carbon called graphene. Carbon is excellent at conducting electricity, and spreading it thin creates an exceptionally large surface area on which to store more energy.

Source: AAAS.org

'Reluctant Heiress' Jewels Set for $10 Million Auction

Just three months after its record-smashing sale of Elizabeth Taylor's renowned jewels, Christie's has nabbed another storied collection belonging to "reluctant heiress" Huguette Clark which is poised to take in more than $10 million.

Clark, who died last year at age 104, was heir to a copper, timber and railroad fortune and had no children. Married once briefly, she shunned the social limelight and trappings of wealth, preferring to spend time with her doll collection that was worth millions.

As such, she earned the nickname "the reluctant heiress," eschewing lavish homes in New York and California, choosing instead to live out her years in hospitals.

Christie's said on Tuesday it would sell 17 pieces of Clark's jewels, led by an extremely rare 9-carat pink diamond ring and a 20-carat D-color diamond ring, estimated to sell for about $7 million and $2.5 million, respectively, when they are auctioned in New York on April 17.

"This is truly a fairytale collection," said Rahul Kadakia, Christie's Americas head of jewelry, in announcing the sale.

Kadakia said it was an extraordinary moment "opening the vault to find this treasure trove of period jewels from the best French houses of the early 1900s."

"The iconic Art Deco design and exceptional craftsmanship of these meticulously preserved jewels are emblematic of the great Gilded Age in American history," he added.

The auction house said Clark's collection was believed to have been stored in a bank vault since the 1940s and includes signed Art Deco Cartier, Dreicer & Co. and Tiffany & Co. jewels.

In December, Christie's broke records with a series of auctions of Taylor's storied jewelry collection which took in more than $135 million.

Clark's estate was valued at about $400 million when she died, according to the law firm Holland & Knight.

Her will stipulated the establishment of a foundation to promote and foster the arts, to be called the Bellosguardo Foundation after her 24-acre oceanfront home in Santa Barbara.

She had not been to the home since 1963 when her mother died, but kept it well-maintained for nearly 50 years. The estate, estimated to be worth over $100 million, will become a museum to house her collection of books, musical instruments, art that includes paintings by Renoir and other fine objects.

Clark left nothing to any members of her family, but bequeathed millions to a nurse assigned to her in 1991 who became Clark's closest companion. The will is being contested.

After her father's death in 1925, Clark and her mother moved to an Italian palazzo-style residence on Fifth Ave., where they maintained three apartments overlooking Central Park.

Christie's International Real Estate, in partnership with Brown Harris Stevens, said on Tuesday that the three properties were hitting the market. The reported asking prices are $12 million, $19 million and $24 million.

(Reuters)

Occupy Wall Street Anniversary Ends With Police Sweep

(NEW YORK) Dozens of police officers cleared the park where the Occupy movement was born six months ago and made several arrests after hundreds of protesters returned in an anniversary observance and defiantly resisted calls to clear out.

Some demonstrators locked arms and sat down in the middle of Zuccotti Park near Wall Street after police announced on a bullhorn at around 11:30 p.m. Saturday that the park was closed. Officers then poured into the park, forcing most of the crowd out and surrounding a small group that stayed behind. Police formed a human ring around the park to keep protesters out.

Several people were arrested, police said. An unused public transit bus was brought in to cart away about a dozen demonstrators in plastic handcuffs. One female under arrest had difficulty breathing and was taken away in an ambulance to be treated.

For hours, the demonstrators had been chanting and holding impromptu meetings in the park to celebrate the anniversary of the movement that has brought attention to economic inequality, as police mainly kept their distance.

But New York Police Det. Brian Sessa said the tipping point came when the protesters started breaking the park rules.

“They set up tents. They had sleeping bags,” he said. Electrical boxes also were tampered with and there was evidence of graffiti.

Sessa said Brookfield Properties, the park owner, sent in security to advise the protesters to stop pitching tents and to leave the park. The protesters, in turn, became agitated with them. The company then asked the police to help them clear out the park, the detective said.  (AP)

Twitter's new guide for artists

Twitter has created a new section of the guide which uses famous musicians' twitter accounts as case studies on its site. It will help artists know how to use twitter to their advantage. The Twitter guide for musicians recommends that artists include photos in their tweets, create official hashtags for their tours and reply to their fans.

After MySpace, it is Twitter that is catching on as a place where all musicians can promote their work and connect with fans.Earlier this month, Lady Gaga broke Twitter records becoming the first tweeter to reach 20 million followers.

“For music fans, Twitter is the next best thing to being backstage,” the guide explains. “And for performers, connecting with your fans in an authentic way is one key to your success. A Twitter connection tells fans how much you appreciate them, and it also enables you to tailor your messages. The fact is, Twitter provides more authenticity and creative control than any other online medium. Tweets come straight from you, and go right to your followers all over the world, in real-time.

Fast Pace Of Higher Education Enrolment Growth Predicted To Slow

A combination of demographic and economic changes will resize the global higher education landscape by 2020, according to a new report by the British Council.

The largest higher education systems are likely to be China with some 37 million students, India with 28 million, the US with 20 million and Brazil with nine million.

However higher education, currently one of the fastest growing sectors globally, is predicted to experience a significant slowdown in the rate of growth in enrolments in the coming decades.

This is according to the report The Shape of Things to Come: Higher education global trends and emerging opportunities to 2020, drawn up for the British Council by Oxford Economics. It is to be published officially next month, but a preview was released ahead of the British Council’s “Going Global” conference being held in London from 13-15 March.

The study forecasts enrolments to grow by 21 million students by 2020 – a huge rise in overall numbers and an average growth rate of 1.4% per year across 50 selected countries that account for almost 90% of higher education enrolments globally.

But this represents a considerable slowdown compared to the 5% a year global enrolment growth typical of the previous two decades, and record enrolment growth of almost 6% between 2002 and 2009.

Tertiary enrolments have grown by 160% globally since 1990, or by some 170 million new students.

This slowing in growth “should be expected with the sector maturing or slowing in some markets, and demographic trends no longer as favourable as a result of declining birth rates over the last 20 to 30 years,” says the report.

China and India

China, India, the US and Brazil are forecast to account for more than half of tertiary sector enrolments of the 50 countries studied, while Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and Nigeria will become increasingly important players in the global higher education sector, the report predicts.

China and India dominated global growth in higher education enrolments between 2002 and 2009, accounting for 26 million of the overall increase of 55 million in student numbers during that period.

But the pace of growth in these two countries could fall in the future. Their predicted additional enrolments between now and 2020 is likely to be around 12 million.

Growth in enrolments in China are predicted to fall from a 17 million increase to five million, according to the report’s projections. India’s tertiary enrolment growth overall is forecast to outpace China’s during the period.

“This does not take into account the political ambitions and aspirations of these countries,” said Janet Illieva, the British Council’s head of research, who will be presenting some of the research findings at the “Going Global” conference this week.

“If India manages to double participation rates in the next five years, this will be a phenomenal increase,” she said, referring to Indian government plans to increase gross enrolments from 17% of the cohort now to around 30% in the next decade.

Economic growth fuels enrolments

Over the last 20 years, growth in global higher education enrolments and internationally mobile students has closely followed world trade growth and has far outpaced world economic growth.

“What is changing is GDP (economic wealth), and economic growth which has a very significant impact on tertiary enrolment,” Illieva told University World News.

A country’s average wealth is seen as a clear driver of future tertiary education demand. “Not only is the relationship positive and statistically significant, but perhaps more importantly, at low GDP per capita levels, gross tertiary enrolment ratios tend to increase quickly for relatively small increases in GDP per capita,” the report says.

Around half the 50 countries studied currently have GDP per capita levels below US$10,000 a year. “Provided these economies grow strongly over the next decade, as many are forecast to, there is significant scope for their tertiary enrolment ratios to increase.”

But despite strong economic growth, many of the shortlisted economies are forecast to still have GDP per capita (adjusted for purchasing power parity) below US$10,000 in 2020 – including Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Morocco, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

This is likely to constrain how quickly these countries close the gap in enrolment rates compared to advanced economies. But it also means continued rises in enrolment ratios and strong growth in tertiary education demand beyond 2020.

“Where income is below US$10,000 a year, a proportional increase in income results in a much higher rise in the rate of enrolments than you would expect,” said Illieva.

Following China and India, other emerging economies with predicted significant enrolment growth over the next decade will include Brazil which could add 2.6 million students, Indonesia projected to increase enrolments by 2.4 million, Nigeria with an increase of 1.4 million and the Philippines, Bangladesh and Turkey with increases of around 700,000.

“We looked at where the youth population is likely to come from by 2020. This can be predicted because many of these children are already born,” Illieva said. “The youth population is an indication of how quickly tertiary education is likely to expand for the country.”

Demographically India, China, US and Indonesia will account for over half of the world’s population aged 18-22 by 2020. A further quarter will come from Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Philippines, Mexico, Egypt and Vietnam.

Russia, Iran and South Korea’s respective global market shares are forecast to fall mainly for demographic reasons.

But drops in the number of 18-22 year olds coming through the system could mean increased participation rates as university places become available for a larger proportion of the population.

“Based on demographic and macroeconomic factors, China, Colombia and Brazil should start closing the gap in tertiary education enrolments on advanced economies,” the study

Original source here.

Art Education Crucial For School Children

Many people argue that art education for children, particularly in primary school, is not as important as mathematics and natural science. Some point out there is no choice, for whoever wants to fight in the future must deal with mathematics and science. I agree to some extent; however, saying art education is not important is also hasty and unreasonable.

Art education holds a strong position in developing children’s skill and creativity. Many parents do not recognize the tremendous potential and are unaware how important it is to educate their children in this field in addition to other disciplines in school. Children are sometimes forced to take courses relating to science such as mathematics, biology, physics and statistics without being asked whether they like the subjects.

Commonly we hear negative statements from some parents; what do you want to be as an artist, and how can you fulfill your life as a painter or musician?

Becoming an artist nowadays is so open and full of possibilities to be successful. Art has become a sphere of development and reservoir of humankind, especially in the developed world. In the United States and Europe, art has a strategic position in the society and deserves a highly respected space. Painting and sculpture in the house symbolize modern people and the presence of artwork can explain to us the history of human beings by seeing what art earlier generations produced.

Every child has tendencies and inclinations for specific fields. Parents sometimes force children into one specific field because of their desire to see their children “seem” smart. A doctor or astronaut must be smarter than a child who wants to play the piano, the thinking goes. This kind of thinking, though, is detrimental to a child’s development.

Children will follow a parent’s chosen course of study without conviction because they think it’s only the desire of their parents. Children then turn lazy. They like music or painting, so why should they follow a course of study that is not their desire?

Pushing them and neglecting their potential in the art field will not only create a stark identity, when perhaps in their future career they will be successful as an expert in one of the science fields, but also they will lose their empathy, care and feeling. And this is so sad.

By learning art education, children will exercise how to apply their feelings by respecting the environment, other people, animals, etc. The essence of art education is to teach them how to respect life itself. Exercising the sense, care, heart, mind and feeling will be able to drive children to go forward and spread peace and pure knowledge. Of course, we do not hope to have our children become “robots”, being smart on thinking but losing their humanity as human beings.

There are also some obvious examples that art offers a wide space to be successful. Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan (a former artist and U.S. president), Arnold Schwarzenegger (governor of California), etc, are examples of where we can benefit by going beyond in this field.

I believe shaping a smart identity for children must involve an artistic attitude and should begin when our children enter primary school. Looking at their potential and not pushing them to like what we like will bear Indonesian leaders who understand how to build this country as a nation of dignity.

In this age, every discipline fuses in an interdisciplinary manner, and art holds the same value as other disciplines to establish a smart, fighting identity for our children.

Original source here.

West Kirby Student Named UK's Top Young Scientist

A Merseyside student has been named as the UK Young Scientist of the Year.

West Kirby Grammar School's Kirtana Vallabhaneni beat 360 other entrants to be awarded the prize at The Big Bang Fair at Birmingham's NEC on Friday.

The 17-year-old was part of University of Liverpool's research project aimed at identifying the harmful cells that cause pancreatic cancer. She said she hoped her win could help "instil the same kind of passion I have for science in other young people".

The judging panel for the national award, open to 11 to 18-year-olds who completed a science, technology, engineering or maths project, included renowned space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Nobel Prize winning biochemist Sir Tim Hunt, and the Science Museum's inventor in residence Mark Champkins.

Dr Aderin-Pocock said she was "delighted" with Ms Vallabhaneni's work. "The country's science and engineering industry has an incredibly bright future ahead of it if Kirtana and her fellow finalists are anything to go by," she said.

"It's these talented individuals who will inspire others to think about science and engineering in a new and exciting light." Ms Vallabhaneni, who was part of the project team working to isolate cells in the pancreas that can be targeted with chemotherapy, said she was "so happy" with the win.

"Everything that I've worked for over the last year has come together," she said. "The fact four finalists were female shows that there are strong opportunities for women in science and it proves they don't have to follow convention and stereotypes. "I'm so passionate about what I do and I hope that with this success, I can instil the same kind of passion I have for science in other young people.

"If I can do it, they definitely can."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-17414965

US Boosts Higher Education Exchanges With Indonesia

Nearly a year after the Obama administration set a priority of boosting higher education exchanges with Indonesia, the U.S. is repeating its commitment to cultural diplomacy. As part of that outreach, it aims to double the number of Indonesian students studying in the U.S., a solution officials say will help the U.S. economy and improve relations with the rapidly developing Muslim-majority nation.

Thousands of Indonesian students mill about the marble rotunda of the medieval-looking Sampoerna building, where recruiters from more than 50 American universities pass out information on entrance requirements, program offerings and tuition.

The education fair was part of a bilateral trade and education mission headed by visiting U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez. He said educational exchanges can provided an added boost to the U.S. economy.

"It’s good to expose our students, to create long-term relationships, and it doesn’t hurt the economy either, when people come and live in our country and study in our universities."

Last June, the Obama administration earmarked $165 million over five years to support university partnerships and student exchange programs in subjects such as agriculture, business and information technology.

The science arm of the Fulbright scholarship program will receive $15 million, while micro-scholarships will support intensive language training programs for both Americans and Indonesians.

The U.S. is reaching out to fast-growing economies like Indonesia and Vietnam as new markets for U.S. goods and services. International students injected nearly $19 billion into the U.S. economy last year, and Indonesia’s large population and rising middle class could open new opportunities for U.S. universities to bring in more tuition dollars.

The U.S. says it also wants to send more American students to Indonesia in the hope of improving understanding between the two countries. U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Scot Marciel said student exchanges create a personal basis for better relations.

But to entice more Indonesians to American schools, Marciel said the U.S. has some homework to do. "We have to do a much better job of A, marketing our universities, which are the best in the world; and B, changing this terrible perception that you can’t get a student visa. So I’m literally almost out on the streets grabbing people as they walk by saying, 'hey, we’ll give you a visa if you go study in America.'"



Marciel said more than 90 percent of Indonesian applicants get visas to study in the United States, but many people from Muslim-majority countries, like Indonesia, still feel unwelcome because of obstacles put in place after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The number of Indonesians studying in the U.S. has fallen steadily since 1998, when the Asian financial crisis sapped some families’ abilities to send children abroad. Visa issues depressed the numbers, which still have not rebounded. Fewer than 7,000 Indonesians studied in the United States last year, down about eight percent from 2009.

With improvements in universities elsewhere, as well as cheaper options closer to home, more Indonesians are choosing to study in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

But the U.S. is still home to many of the world’s most prestigious universities and research institutions. Many Indonesians who have studied abroad say the combination of strong academics and unique life experience is invaluable.

Erfan Lumban-Gaol, a former high school exchange student and recent graduate of University of Arkansas, explains. "The seven years I was out there, I believe I’ve changed a lot in a lot of ways. In a lot of thinking ways, and I take a lot of positives from American culture."

Lumban-Gaol studied management, a popular major among Indonesians. While English is still a favorite subject, many students also are choosing business and science, hoping their American experience can assist them in setting up their own businesses in a country where entrepreneurs are rare.

One student at the educational fair said she wants to apply the lessons she would learn in the United States to creating new leadership for her country. That fits well with a goal expressed by U.S. officials, who say American security is linked to Indonesia’s success.

For Education Minister Mohammad Nur, the exchange is a part of enhanced cultural diplomacy that will help develop Indonesia and strengthen bilateral friendships.

There is a lot of history behind Indonesia’s relationship with America, he said. That is why it needs to be strengthened. But Indonesia also wants to strengthen ties with Europe and other countries that can give it new insights.

At the education fair, some students said it does not matter which country they study in, as long as they can afford it. Others said they want to experience life in the United States, as long as there are good scholarship opportunities.

Original source here.

The Impact Of The Economic Crisis On Higher Education

Higher education has been placed at the centre of public debate as a result of the 2008 financial collapse and the ongoing economic crisis. The main thrust of this debate centres around a rejustification of the role of higher education and a redefinition of its funding relationship with government.

Nevertheless, most of the discussion fails to mention the impact of the economic crisis on higher education. To me, this is important because the economic crisis has changed higher education at both the micro and macro levels.

The immediate shorter-term impact of the economic crisis has been at the institutional micro level. Lower student numbers on certain programmes – the most expensive ones and those with lower job prospects – has led senior managers in universities to prepare for the worst by making plans to reduce staff at all levels and rationalise their portfolio of programmes.

To me, this is a cyclical problem and is not new in higher education. What I think is more important is the longer-term impact of the economic crisis on higher education macro planning and policy. The economic crisis has legitimised the long-existing argument that higher education should be treated the same as any other service in the economy and, as such, should be subject to ever-more accountability and managerialist practices.

It is important to note that all this has come about in a period when financial neo-liberalism has dominated policy-making globally.

As a result, higher education policy has entered a phase of extreme rationalisation with an emphasis on ‘cutting the excess fat’ and ‘balancing the budget’. One may argue that this is also not a new development. However, what is new is a consensus among governments, at least in the co-called developed countries, that prioritises fiscal rationality as a result of fear about public debt problems.

It seems to me that the economic crisis has created a neo-liberal policy and management framework in higher education that has resulted in moves to shift the financial burden for higher education from governments to students and their families.

So increasingly we see governments attempting to turn direct funding and public debt into indirect funding via student loans and private debt. This transformation serves the macroeconomic objectives of governments and legitimises talk about students getting ‘value for money’ and a ‘return on their investment’ in a ‘service provider-customer’ model of higher education.

As a result, higher education institutions now have to pursue plans to create alternative streams of income more aggressively, while imposing severe cuts on their provision by cutting academic programmes that are not competitive.

At the same time, globally, higher education institutions compete more fiercely than ever before to recruit international students and pursue more aggressive transnational education activities.

In my opinion, the economic crisis will cement the transformation of traditional destination countries for international students to exporters of transnational higher education services.

This is already happening. In 2011 the number of students studying abroad on a UK higher education programme offered by transnational partnerships was greater than the number of international students studying in the UK.

Increasingly, countries like the UK consider transnational higher education to be a more profitable and less risky – in terms of immigration issues – alternative to international student mobility.

Also, students in source countries consider international mobility less and less attractive. The reason for this is twofold.

First, there are increasing costs – tuition fees and living expenses – along with stricter immigration rules in traditional destination countries. These are discouraging international students from going abroad.

Second, the growth of transnational higher education providers in the source countries of international students, coupled with a wider acceptance of transnational provision as a recognised form of higher education, has made it more attractive.

For countries with longstanding structural problems in their higher education systems – for example, Greece – the impact of the economic crisis will be more severe. These countries have either completely abandoned alternative providers of higher education (that is, transnational higher education partnerships) or left them completely unregulated.

Abandoning alternative providers has reduced the available choices for domestic students who want to study without going abroad – and, as we have seen above, going abroad is now problematic, for a number of reasons.

Lack of regulation leads to problems of consumer protection and creates significant risks for foreign university partners engaged in these unregulated transnational higher education activities.

Finally, another issue both governments and higher education have failed to address is unemployment. The economic crisis has driven the unemployment rate of young graduates to its highest peak in years.

The global economy is promoted as being a ‘knowledge economy’, which is used to justify ongoing attempts to increase participation rates in higher education. However, there is growing scepticism about the capacity of the global economy to create enough jobs for graduates.

So what does the future hold for higher education? In a recent online discussion in which I took part, I wrote: “Allow me to argue, wearing my economist’s hat, that higher education will be shaped by the pursuit of monetary objectives (low inflation, balanced budgets, reduction in expenditure on ‘public goods’)…

“If governments continue to move away from the ‘higher education as public good’ approach, higher education will continue to become more marketised and less research focused.”

Thus, it seems to me that the future of higher education has been handed over to economists and is now less about higher education as such and more about the political economy.


Read the original story here.

What Matters Most by Luanne Rice

From the Publisher:
Sister Bernadette Ignatius has returned to Ireland in the company of Tom Kelly to search for the past and the son they left behind. For it was here that these two long-ago lovers spent a season of magic before Bernadette's calling led her to a vocation as Mother Superior at Star of the Sea Academy on the sea-tossed Connecticut shore. For Tom, Bernadette's choice meant giving up his fortune and taking the job as caretaker at Star of the Sea, where he could be close to the woman he could no longer have but whom he never stopped loving. And while one miracle drew them apart, another is about to bring them together again.

For somewhere in Dublin a young man named Seamus Sullivan is also on a search, dreaming of being reunited with his own first love, the only "family" he's ever known. They'd been inseparable growing up together at St. Augustine's Children's Home, until Kathleen Murphy's parents claimed her and she vanished across the sea to America. Now, in a Newport mansion, that very girl, grown to womanhood, works as a maid and waits with a faith that defies all reason for the miracle that will bring back the only boy she's ever loved.

That miracle is at hand--but like most miracles, it can come only after the darkest of nights and the deepest of heartbreaks. For life can be as precarious as a walk along a cliff, and its greatest rewards reached only by those who dare to risk everything...for what matters most.

Metropolis (2001)

Metropolis is a 2001 anime film loosely based on the 1949 Metropolis manga created by the late Osamu Tezuka, itself inspired by the 1927 German silent film of the same name, though the two do not share plot elements. The anime, however, does draw aspects of its storyline directly from the 1927 film. The anime had an all-star production team, including renowned anime director Rintaro, Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo as script writer, and animation by Madhouse Studios with conceptual support from Tezuka Productions. In the United States, the anime was given a PG-13 rating by the MPAA for "violence and images of destruction" and TV-14-LV rating when it aired on Adult Swim.

Plot Summary: Kenichi and his detective uncle, Shunsaku Ban, leave Japan to visit Metropolis, in search of the criminal, Dr. Laughton. However, when they finally find Dr. Laughton, Kenichi and Shunsaku find themselves seperated and plunged into the middle of a larger conspiracy. While Shunsaku searches for his nephew and explanations, Kenichi tries to protect Tima (a mysterious young girl), from Duke Red and his adopted son Rock, both of whom have very different reasons for wanting to find her.

Pakistan revamps Taliban fortress for skiing gala

When Taliban fanatics led by cleric Maulana Fazlullah took control of the scenic Swat valley in 2007, they turned the Malam Jabba resort into their stronghold, blowing up the ski lift and setting fire to the only hotel.

Western holidaymakers and Pakistani skiers became a distant memory as Fazlullah’s men effectively ruled Swat through fear and intimidation, bombing and beheading opponents of their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

But the army retook Swat after launching a major offensive against the Taliban in 2009, and recently organised a four-day amateur skiing competition in an attempt to get winter sports back on piste for the first time since 2007.

One of the competitors at the gala, Yasir Khan, still shudders when he remembers how “well-armed” Taliban snatched his skis and equipment and threatened him with death on his last visit, in his mid-teens in 2007.

“I was shocked when they offered me military training instead of learning how to ski. They said I should better go for jihad,” he told AFP.

“They broke my skis and warned they’d slaughter me if I came here again,”said the 19-year-old, as he prepared to launch himself down Malam Jabba’s ski slope, part of the Hindu Kush mountain range.

The Taliban warning — “You should avoid this place if you want to keep your head on your shoulders” — still echoes in Khan’s mind. “I’d lost hope of ever visiting this place again,” he said.

Malam Jabba’s flip-flopping fortunes, from holiday destination to Taliban breeding ground and now back to a symbol of fun, encapsulate Pakistan’s struggle with religious extremism and deteriorating security.

Towering 2,630 metres (8,630 feet) above sea level, the lone ski slope at Malam Jabba is 1,200 metres (yards) long and 400 metres wide. The resort lies 300 kilometres (190 miles) northwest of the capital Islamabad.

Fiercely opposed to any form of entertainment, Fazlullah’s followers had burnt down schools and video shops, closed cinemas and banned people from listening to music, plunging the thriving tourist centre into fear and boredom.

The ski resort was no exception. The militants destroyed its 72-room hotel owned by the state-run Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation and its only chair-lift, installed by the Austrian government in 1988.

Since Pakistan’s apparently decisive battle in 2009, which displaced an estimated two million people, the authorities are still making only tentative efforts to kick-start development and revive the local economy.

Late last month, more than 40 enthusiasts took part in the alpine contest — 27 local residents, members of the military and some government employees — watched by hundreds who flocked to Malam Jabba for a taste of downhill skiing.

“We have organised this event to tell the world that peace has been established in Swat,” army Colonel Irfanullah Khan told AFP.

“The Taliban practically paralysed the whole valley… but the dark days have ended,” said Matiullah Khan, president of Pakistan’s Skiing Federation, who effectively runs the resort and a skiing school in the Swat valley.

Nonetheless most Pakistanis remain circumspect, the appalling memories of Taliban intimidation and lack of government control only too recent.

“People are scared,” said skier Rehmat Ali, 24. “They still fear Taliban may have some pockets, that they may emerge again.

“Nobody will become a militant if we have facilities here,” he added. “I think the government should focus on education and sports to discourage militancy.” – AFP

Source: dawn

Obama & Hollywood: Politicians And The Stars Who Love Them

ATLANTA -- No presidential candidate worth his chauffeured SUV has reached his personal zenith without this: celebrities to vouch for them. They are the glam and glitter of political campaigns, sure to turn even jaded political operatives into fawning celeb watchers.

Nobody commands the nexus of stardom and politics more than President Barack Obama. Mocked by opponents during his 2008 campaign for being a celebrity himself, he draws from a broad assortment of personalities – Hollywood liberals, NBA stars and more.

Friday offered a case in point. Obama raised money in film producer Tyler Perry's sprawling southwest Atlanta studio at a gala event featuring a performance by pop star Cee Lo Green. Then he spoke to those in a more elite group, including Oprah Winfrey, at Perry's 30,000-square-foot French provincial mansion along the Chattahoochee River.

His just-released campaign biopic is narrated by actor Tom Hanks. On Thursday, a White House visit by Obama backer and Oscar winner George Clooney to meet with the president over conditions in Sudan drew a gaggle of press coverage.

Obama, though, has no monopoly on big names.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has campaigned with Jeff Foxworthy, the genial comedian with a repertoire of redneck jokes, convinced rocker-rapper Kid Rock to perform at a campaign rally and won supportive words from KISS lead singer Gene Simmons.

Newt Gingrich has action film star Chuck Norris in his corner. Rick Santorum has been endorsed by Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine, and Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, stars of TLC's "19 Kids and Counting," have made campaign appearances with him. Ron Paul has an eclectic list of shout outs from the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Snoop Dogg, Oliver Stone, Juliette Lewis, Vince Vaughn, Joe Rogan, and Jesse Ventura.

Such proximity to stardom can reap big benefits for a politician. Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant who's had his brush with the stars working for Al Gore and Bill Clinton, says personalities help alter the typical, antiseptic look of a political event.

"These celebrities, one of the reasons they are celebrities, is they have a unique ability to connect with people," he said. "You're using them as a bridge to connect with their fans and their audiences."

Or as Obama neatly summed it up, when he thanked Winfrey on Friday at Perry's home: "Just like books and skin cream, when Oprah decides she likes you, then other people like you, too."

For Obama, whose campaign so far has focused primarily on fundraising, celebrities such as Clooney, Will Smith, Magic Johnson and Antonio Banderas help attract the big-dollar givers. First lady Michelle Obama was fundraising Monday in New York with actor Robert De Niro at a TriBeCa Italian restaurant.

On Friday, Obama was on a furious fundraising pace, hitting five events in two cities in one day and raising at least $4.8 million. At day's end, Obama will have participated in 108 fundraisers since last April when he filed for re-election last April with the Federal Election Commission. During the same period in 2004, President George W. Bush had attended 54 such events, according to CBS News' Mark Knoller, the unofficial but authoritative keeper of such statistics in the White House press corps.

Last month in Los Angeles, Obama had a star-studded evening – a performance by Grammy-winning rock band Foo Fighters for about 1,000 supporters followed by a more intimate dinner featuring Clooney and actor Jim Belushi.

Friday's activities in Atlanta are similar. Cee Lo opened for Obama at Tyler Perry Studios – tickets ranged from $500 for general admission to $2,500 and $10,000 for VIP. Then he was off to a $35,800 per person dinner at Perry's house, where about 40 guests awaited him.

Perry, introducing Obama to a predominantly African-American audience, said seeing the presidential motorcade drive through southwest Atlanta offered "a glimpse of what destiny looks like."

To which Obama said: "There's something about America where somebody from my background can do what I'm doing and someone from Tyler's background can do what he's doing."

Republicans, in the midst of their primary contests, have turned to celebrities for validation with voters.

Norris recorded robocalls for Gingrich before last week's primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. Norris, active in Republican politics for many years, endorsed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the 2008 presidential primary.

Santorum, who has scooped up endorsements from sports figures, has also tapped into a well-known band of reality TV stars. The Duggar family has fanned out across the country during the primary season to vouch for the former Pennsylvania senator. Josh Duggar, the oldest of 19 children, made the rounds Friday at a central Missouri rally for Santorum after previously doing the same in Iowa, Oklahoma, Georgia and many places in between.

"Our family is like the epitome of conservative values," Duggar said. "People connect to us in that way."

The entire family planned to assemble Saturday in Illinois to give Santorum a push ahead of that state's primary.

Some celebrities play down their onstage personas when traveling with candidates. Last Monday, Foxworthy, the Southern comedian, skipped the jokes when he campaigned with Romney in Mobile, Ala., telling audiences he had never bothered with politics before.

But it was Romney who riffed on Foxworthy's TV quiz show, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Obama is clearly smarter than an elementary school pupil, Romney said, but "this president has done almost everything wrong."

Stars, Lehane says, are a net benefit. But they can be loose cannons; they don't always subscribe or adhere to the campaign talking points. Lehane recalls Cher attracting a group of reporters at a campaign event for Gore in the fall of 2000 where she was advocating views about the Middle East at odds with the Gore campaign ticket.

"You always have to be a little bit careful when you're dealing with a celebrity," Lehane said., "First of all, they can be unscripted. Stuff that they can say and typically do that works in their space sometimes doesn't translate when the political prism is put over it. Sometimes you end up having to disassociate yourself form other aspects of that celebrity's life."

Consider Cee Lo, the pop star who performed for 1,000 donors Friday at Tyler Perry Studios. Cee Lo has an expletive-filled hit song titled with an expletive that translates, in the cleaned up version, to "Forget You." Not exactly Obama's appeal for hope, or civility or of perseverance.

Asked about any incongruity between performer song and presidential message, White House spokesman Jay Carney said of Obama: "I know he's fan. I don't know about specific songs."

Source: huffingtonpost

MAN LOOKING FOR CAT FINDS BURIED 'UFO'

According to news reports, an Austrian farmer discovered a mysterious, deep, perfectly round hole that apparently had appeared in his field overnight. And, of course, extraterrestrial activity was assumed.

Farmer Franz Knoglinger discovered the hole while looking for a lost pet. In an interview with the Austrian Times newspaper, Knoglinger said: "I was looking for our family cat, Murlimann, when I noticed the hole. I didn't know how deep it was, so I dropped the stone down there and heard a metallic clunk. From the time it took for the stone to reach the bottom, I realized it was very deep."

Intrigued, Knoglinger used a rope to lower a magnet into the hole, and he concluded that whatever was at the bottom was metallic. This only deepened the puzzle, and soon the mystery drew local, national and, finally, international attention. Curiosity-seekers, geologists and UFO buffs flocked to the farm to see the hole for themselves. A buried UFO became a favorite explanation.

A few clues shed some light on the mystery.If the hole was indeed erfectly round, then the obvious source was a drill. In fact, the hole's perfect roundness would make it less mysterious, if anything, because drills leave round holes. A perfectly square, rectangular, or even oval shape would be more extraordinary. 

Perhaps a more interesting question was why, of all the possible explanations — an abandoned well, a long-forgotten underground storage tank — the idea of an underground extraterrestrial spacecraft was the one Knoglinger and others focused on. 

Part of the answer is that an extraterrestrial craft has become a default explanation in recent years for any large unknown (and presumably round and/or metallic) object. For example, a large round object was recorded on sonar on the ocean floor by a Swedish archaeology team last year. The image has not been confirmed as real (and many experts suspect it's actually a false reading), but by far the most popular explanation is that the round object is a spacecraft. Human imagination almost always creates far more exotic and interesting possibilities than reality can provide, and anything just out of reach, be it deep underwater or underground, can conjure visions of alien spaceships.

The case in Austria stumped many until a local historian decided to do a bit of digging — not in the dusty field but in the local land-use archives. It turns out the hole had not appeared overnight as Knoglinger assumed, but had been there for decades.

In fact, a half-century ago an oil company had drilled there looking for oil. A large metal drill bit became stuck and broke before workers could find anything, so they left the drill bit at the bottom of the hole and never bothered to fill it in. That's what attracted the magnet dropped down to the bottom: not a spaceship but a large metal bit stuck in rock.

Over the years the area became farmland and people stopped noticing the hole, either because it had been covered by grass or a piece of wood or simply because, with the advent of modern farming machinery, there were fewer people working in the field.

As for the missing cat, it was eventually found hiding in a cupboard.

Source:DNEWS

Precision-Tinted Lenses Offer Real Migraine Relief, Reveals New Study

Precision tinted lenses have been used widely to reduce visual perceptual distortions in poor readers, and are increasingly used for migraine sufferers, but until now the science behind these effects has been unclear. Now research published in the journal Cephalalgia, uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for the first time to suggest a neurological basis for these visual remedies. 

The new research shows how coloured glasses tuned to each migraine sufferer work by normalizing activity in the brain. The researchers saw specific abnormal brain activity (known as hyperactivation) when migraine sufferers saw intense patterns. The tinted lenses considerably reduced the effect.

Jie Huang along with colleagues from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, US, and the University of Essex, UK, homed in on specific visual stimuli known to trigger migraines. These patterns, high contrast stripes or 'gratings,' can give the illusion of shape, colour and movement. These not only trigger migraines but also may cause seizures in those with photosensitive epilepsy.

Before the brain imaging took place, participants were tested and prescribed precision ophthalmic tints (POTs) with an Intuitive Colorimeter. Previous studies have suggested that some 42% of migraine with aura sufferers saw their migraine frequency halved on days when they wore POTs. The researchers used the colorimeter to illuminate text with coloured light, manipulating hue and saturation at constant luminance. For each test participant this gave an optimal hue and saturation (chromaticity) of light that led to the greatest comfort, reducing perceptual distortion. The test subjects then viewed stressful striped patterns illuminated with their optimal coloured light settings to screen for efficacy. The researchers used these readings to generate both effective POTs for each migraine sufferer and also two other pairs of grey and coloured lenses with slightly different properties as controls. 11 patients who frequently suffered from migraine enrolled in the fMRI study. Each patient was paired with a migraine-free control, who was also tested with that patient's three sets of lenses.

Once in the fMRI machine, the researchers exposed subjects to a range of striped patterns -- these had varying likelihood of triggering distortion and discomfort. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the POTs on the cortical activation induced by the stressful pattern in each of the visual areas of the brain. Although patients reported some relief using all of the lenses (by around 40%), the POT lenses had a significant effect when viewing the stressful stripes (70% discomfort reduction). Both control and migraine patients responded similarly to the non-stressful stripe patterns, and in these cases all three lenses made no difference to the result. The POTs specifically suppressed cortical activation for migraine sufferers in visual area V2 of the occipital cortex of the brain, and this POT-suppressed cortical activation was also extended to the other extra-striate visual areas V3, V3A, and V4

"The reduced cortical activation in V2 by the POTs may have been responsible for the POT-induced suppression of the illusions and distortions, considering that V2 neurons but not V1 neurons in macaque monkeys respond to illusory contour stimuli," Huang suggests.

The cause of these responses to specific visual stimuli is likely to differ from the photophobia (light sensitivity) migraine sufferers often report during an attack. Going forward, the authors suggest that the specific characteristic of the cortical activation in the extra-striate visual areas they recorded could provide a potential biomarker for identifying those migraine patients suffering cortical hyperactivation. This biomarker could prove useful not only for further evaluation of POTs but also for studying the effectiveness of drugs to prevent migraine.


Source:Science Daily