Azileretsis: August 2011 Archives

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August 31, 2011

obesity

Today, we heard a talk from a Jianping Ye discussing the positive effects of chronic inflammation to obesity. The discussion made me curious to acute inflammation effects on fat cells (adipocytes) which lead me to HIV-associated lipodistrophy that has also demonstrated an increase in inflammation factor, TNF-alpha. Then, it lead me to another virus (Adenovirus-36) that has the opposite effect. I also learned more about Avandia (PPAR inhibitor). This is why I love my area of study.

Posted by azileretsis at 04:51 PM | Comments (0)

August 30, 2011

ideas

Last month, MIT researcher published in PLos ONE about a broad-spectrum antiviral treatment. This treatment uses the idea that if the host's natural defense detects dsRNA, why not help the process along. So this researcher created a chimeric molecule that one end detects dsRNA (which occurs in most virus infections) and the other end activates the alarm response (apoptosis pathway) within the cell.

Initial responses to the article has been broad from MIT touting their own horn to many people doubting the efficacy in clinical models. Like one of the commenters, such a grandiose idea would never fly in my lab. Yet, I believe the idea was bold and the experiments were carried out in depth including testing in in vivo models and showed efficacy in blocking viral transference. It was even bolder for the researcher to incorporate it into his patent. This is yet another example why I think the PTO is nuts sometimes.

I can appreciate a paper where a researcher is showing more creativity in idea than is sometimes acceptable. I do not appreciate that the US government is letting him patent an idea that is essentially putting two items together and may stifle more interesting ideas later on.

Posted by azileretsis at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2011

story

BofA story gets even more interesting with Warren Buffet. How BAC is doing now.

Posted by azileretsis at 01:24 PM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2011

anecdotes

Here's the view from immigration lawyers (pdf). Write-up in The Economist. The anecdotal stories are funny until you are ready to cry.

In Texas police demanded identification from a man leaving a convenience store; when he couldn't produce any he was taken to a sheriff's office, charged with no crime and handed over to immigration authorities...Another woman was pulled over for making an illegal right turn; before she said anything, an officer said, "I know you're illegal."

Recently, in a debate with a friend, he brought up the lack of historical racism against the Hispanic Americans as obvious as against African Americans and Asian Americans. Other than the colonialism stories, I found that my American history knowledge had a weakness when it came to Mexican Americans. Now, I know.

It is estimated that at least 597 Mexican Americans were lynched between 1848 and 1928. Mexicans were lynched at a rate of 27.4 per 100,000 of population between 1880 and 1930. This statistic is second only to that of the African American community during that period, which suffered an average of 37.1 per 100,000 population.

We live in an imperfect world.

In other news, China passes US as largest PC market.

More news about upcoming changes in grad student loans.

Posted by azileretsis at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2011

boy scout

Living in an earthquake prone area is no fun but experiencing an earthquake while living in an area that isn't prone to earthquake is shocking. So, if you are interested in being prepared, USGS has an email earthquake notification service that can be linked up to your cell phone. (xkcd)

Posted by azileretsis at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)

solid

This entry is a yet another praise of Macromedia. This software is the only one that I currently use on a regular basis from my IT days and I use a very dated copy. Yet, it still works 100x better than some of the other tools I use in my current work in life sciences.

Posted by azileretsis at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2011

artificial

Interesting use of synthetic biology to kill Pseudomonas with biofilm mechanism however, that paradigm will lead to positive selection for resistance. Paper.

Another reason to clean up after your dog, feces in the air.

This weekend, like many others, I debated quite a bit about picking up a tablet. HP dropped the price on their tablet over the weekend. Because of the price drop, other tablets reduced their prices. I am no fan of HP right now since they have shown reluctance to support their existing product line much less one that is disappearing. However, I saw an opportunity to pick up a solid tablet (not Apple) at a good price. The problem is figuring out my own personal price point and deciding whether this weekend represented a temporary drop in tablets or a more permanent one. I had to conclude that since we are entering the best tech shopping season, I could afford to wait.

Posted by azileretsis at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2011

tax benefit

Good article about why the American middle class and poor do not advocate raising taxes on the rich. Of course, this article is slanted and the American rich and their companies can choose to live in countries that require lower taxes however, their financial advantage would have to outweigh any comforts they would lose. Also, from my encounters with the Swedes which includes working with them, I would disagree with the author's ideas that their taxation attitudes would be different toward immigrants. Culturally, Swedes value in the good of the collective much more highly than Americans.

This leads me to unemployment benefits. I would say that my generation has felt the pain of unemployment as documented below.

Yet as someone who has never used unemployment, due to the economic downturn, my attitude has changed drastically about unemployment benefits, from why would someone ever use it to unemployment benefit extensions might be a good idea. We currently have a large group of people who will have increasing difficulty in finding employment (9% unemployed according to Gallup polls). The deeper they sink into the bottom class, it will be more costly for society as a whole.

So, again, I'm advocating for more understanding.

As an aside, my professor mentioned today about the youthfulness of smallpox (human history of smallpox (pdf)) and that got me wondering what other virus might be at a tipping point. Do I dare to hope that it will be another dsDNA virus?

Posted by azileretsis at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2011

hack

I can even see the admin's hacking mistakes. If you want to hack, it behooves you to be a good hacker.

This Economist article about China International Fund has been on my mind. It seems like a mongoose/snake story. What motivates business when corruption is at the heart? At some point, one would think entropy would rule.

Posted by azileretsis at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2011

abuse

Thinking about abuse of power recently and I came across this article:
Complaint Reveals That Roger Williams U.'s Chief Left Amid Harassment Inquiry (Sub req)

I would argue that harassment by any person of power is cause for concern. Is this behavior believed to be acceptable by the bureaucracy or system in place? Does this behavior stem from deeper issues? Is this behavior infringing on another person's dignity or respect? Again, we seek professionalism but do we fight for it?

Posted by azileretsis at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2011

debt

I recently went to a political group's meeting. As I sat, pails were passed around twice to ensure that people would contribute to their cause. Maybe, an idea for debt crisis isn't compulsory taxes, the US government should just pass a plate around to collect money from volunteers. If people are willing to provide twice the amount of a tax increase to political groups to not pay for taxes, they may be encouraged to pay for a country's debts voluntarily. I would vote for a national Contribute to the US Debt day.

Posted by azileretsis at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2011

screening

Genome screening and the tough questions to come. (subscription req)

Posted by azileretsis at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2011

innovation

Blurb about Life Sciences innovation in China. I see this as a common problem, I have met very few people who have both the knowledge and business sense, not just in China. Research involves a certain set of personality traits for one to truly love it. These traits like tenacity and control tend to work against one's self in the business realm. In addition, there is a level of contentment in research.

A treatment for prostate cancer costs $100,000.

An Interracial Fix for Black Marriage

This article about spermless mosquitoes lead me to Ambion which lead me to this statement:

These siRNA sequences are generated with a new algorithm.

Blah, blah, blah, proprietary. So many projects, so little time.

Posted by azileretsis at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2011

mooning

So tempted to buy Uncle Milton Moon In My Room but realizing that I have too many Kids.Woot items in my room already.

Posted by azileretsis at 01:18 AM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2011

outdated

I just spent the last two hours trying to do one task on an out-dated Seqman. In the end, I get a program error, specifically, the program can't find a seq file that I have already loaded. Imagine using Microsoft Office for Windows 3.0. Forget that. Office for Windows 3.0 would be a step up for this program. Hoping that reinstalling the software works tomorrow. Academic upgrade starts at $1500.

Azileretsis

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