Decoding the secrets of balance

ScienceDaily (July 26, 2012) ? If you have ever looked over the edge of a cliff and felt dizzy, you understand the challenges faced by people who suffer from symptoms of vestibular dysfunction such as vertigo and dizziness. There are over 70 million of them in North America. For people with vestibular loss, performing basic daily living activities that we take for granted (e.g. dressing, eating, getting in and out of bed, getting around inside as well as outside the home) becomes difficult since even small head movements are accompanied by dizziness and the risk of falling.

We've known for a while that a sensory system in the inner ear (the vestibular system) is responsible for helping us keep our balance by giving us a stable visual field as we move around. And while researchers have already developed a basic understanding of how the brain constructs our perceptions of ourselves in motion, until now no one has understood the crucial step by which the neurons in the brain select the information needed to keep us in balance.

The way that the brain takes in and decodes information sent by neurons in the inner ear is complex. The peripheral vestibular sensory neurons in the inner ear take in the time varying acceleration and velocity stimuli caused by our movement in the outside world (such as those experienced while riding in a car that moves from a stationary position to 50 km per hour). These neurons transmit detailed information about these stimuli to the brain (i.e. information that allows one to reconstruct how these stimuli vary over time) in the form of nerve impulses.

Scientists had previously believed that the brain decoded this information linearly and therefore actually attempted to reconstruct the time course of velocity and acceleration stimuli. But by combining electrophysiological and computational approaches, Kathleen Cullen and Maurice Chacron, two professors in McGill University's Department of Physiology, have been able to show for the first time that the neurons in the vestibular nuclei in the brain instead decode incoming information nonlinearly as they respond preferentially to unexpected, sudden changes in stimuli.

It is known that representations of the outside world change at each stage in this sensory pathway. For example, in the visual system neurons located closer to the periphery of the sensory system (e.g. ganglion cells in the retina) tend to respond to a wide range of sensory stimuli (a "dense" code), whereas central neurons (e.g. in the primary visual cortex at the back of the head tend to respond much more selectively (a "sparse" code). Chacron and Cullen have discovered that the selective transmission of vestibular information they were able to document for the first time occurs as early as the first synapse in the brain. "We were able to show that the brain has developed this very sophisticated computational strategy to represent sudden changes in movement in order to generate quick accurate responses and maintain balance," explained Prof. Cullen. "I keep describing it as elegant, because that's really how it strikes me."

This kind of selectivity in response is important for everyday life, since it enhances the brain's perception of sudden changes in body posture. So that if you step off an unseen curb, within milliseconds, your brain has both received the essential information and performed the sophisticated computation needed to help you readjust your position. This discovery is expected to apply to other sensory systems and eventually to the development of better treatments for patients who suffer from vertigo, dizziness, and disorientation during their daily activities. It should also lead to treatments that will help alleviate the symptoms that accompany motion and/or space sickness produced in more challenging environments.

The research was conducted by Corentin Massot a Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physiology, and Adam Schneider a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Physics.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by McGill University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Corentin Massot, Adam D. Schneider, Maurice J. Chacron, Kathleen E. Cullen. The Vestibular System Implements a Linear?Nonlinear Transformation In Order to Encode Self-Motion. PLoS Biology, 2012; 10 (7): e1001365 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001365

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120726153959.htm

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Insurance fraud must be punished ? TalkVietnam

Nguyen Hung Cuong, deputy director of the Social Insurance Implementation Department under Viet Nam Social Insurance (VSI), speaks to the Government?s online portal about increasing cases of fraud.

Do you think the recent discovery of so many forgeries has started alarm bells ringing in the VSI?

During the process of handling unemployment insurance claims, staff in some VSI offices detect a certain number of forgeries. The claims are denied and referred to the police for investigation.

However, in late 2011 and early 2012, the number of violations has been rising and spreading, particularly in big cities and industrial parks in HCM City and the neighbouring provinces of Binh Duong and Dong Nai.

I think the situation has reached an alarming level, with some organisations and individuals abusing our social insurance policy to make a profit and destabilise production.

Could you elaborate about how the certificates are forged?

There are various ways to forge insurance certificates, including photocopying an original and changing the details, among others.

In some cases, the claimants bribe people such as doctors and pharmacists to provide them with false medical certificates.

In the worse case, a company was established with the sheer objective of defrauding the VSI. The company recruited pregnant women, and labour contracts were signed by both parties to make the women eligible for maternity insurance. Once their social insurance contributions were completed, the maternity money started rolling in and was split between the company and the women.

Does this sort of behaviour undermine the VSI policy?

A huge sum of the VSI money is lost in this way, as well as overheads for expenses such as staff salaries.

In addition, it affects the rights and benefits of people who participate in the VSI.

Such bad practices have negatively impacted on social law and order and the production stability of enterprises.

Some social insurance violations have recently been punished. What are your comments on that?

I can say that with efforts from the central and local governments, the situation has improved.

Social insurance departments in provinces and cities have co-ordinated with relevant agencies to investigate alleged cases and punish them.

In Binh Duong and Dong Nai, some 1,000 fake social insurance certificates were detected, and the culprits were ordered to return the money to the social insurance fund.

What measures are needed to protect the social insurance fund?

First of all, we need to investigate, detect and punish fraudulent behaviour, ranging from issuing false documents to forging certificates.

Second, employers must abide by insurance laws and uphold their responsibilities.

Provincial/city people?s committees should co-operate with relevant agencies to step up their state management role to make sure insurance payments go to the right people. ? VNS

Source: http://talkvietnam.com/2012/07/insurance-fraud-must-be-punished/

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Commercial hub Aleppo becomes new Syria front

A commercial hub and home to 2.5 million people, Syria's second city Aleppo has become a new front in the country's 16-month uprising, after being largely excluded from the violence.

For decades, the city has been known as an industrial manufacturing base, particularly for textiles, thanks to rich cotton resources.

The major metropolis in the north of the country, it was also considered the second city of the Ottoman empire.

As a stop on the Silk Route, the city sits in a region with a strong artisan tradition, and also once served as the capital of a vast province stretching across southeast Anatolia and the plains of the Syrian north.

The city suffered the wrath of the Baathist regime in power since 1963 after an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood between 1979 and 1982 when many of its businessmen backed the rebellion.

But it has been able to profit from a free-trade agreement signed with Turkey in 2005, though some small local businesses in the city found themselves unable to compete with their Turkish counterparts.

Residents, known for their business sense, developed the local food and pharmaceutical industries, and focused on producing the local products for which they are reknowned, including soap, and saw trade with Turkey soar.

"Aleppo was calm because it is an industrial and commercial town that found favour with the regime after 10 years of punishment for its support for the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1980s," according to geographer Fabrice Balanche.

"The security apparatus has been very powerful since then. The rebels come from the countryside but Aleppo's residents are staying home," added Balanche, head of the Mediterranean and Middle East Studies and Research Group in Paris.

The lure of the big city as well as the search for jobs has pushed large numbers of residents of the rural region around Aleppo to move to the town, which covers some 120 square kilometres (46 square miles).

Around 45 percent of the city is made up of informal neighbourhoods, whose residents are mostly Sunnis and Kurds.

Overall, the majority of its residents are Sunnis, around 65 percent of them Sunni Arabs, and 20 percent Kurds, who are also Sunni Muslims.

Christians represent around 10 percent of the population of the city, around half of them Armenians, with the remainder from the Syrian, Greek Orthodox and Maronite churches.

Members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad and his family belong, make up around five percent of the population.

But unlike in Damascus and the southern city of Homs, the community is not concentrated in any particular districts.

With the exception of Hamdaniyeh, home to numerous government employees, among them large numbers of Alawites, the community is dispersed throughout the city's districts, particularly its Christian quarters.

Balanche said the neighbourhoods under rebel control include the northeastern Tareq al-Bab, southeastern Salaheddin and unnamed areas where most of the population comes from Aleppo province.

The rebels do not yet control the city's central districts or those in the west, which are home to the city's elite, Christian residents, and others originally from Aleppo rather than from its outskirts.

The city's more upscale districts include Shahba, Halab al-Jadida (New Aleppo) and the city centre. Aleppo's historic Old City quarter was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1986.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/commercial-hub-aleppo-becomes-syria-front-203439896.html

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Colbert To EPA Head: 'Why Do You Hate Jobs?'

Last Thursday night, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson made an appearance on Comedy Central?s "The Colbert Report? to discuss job creation, the importance of the EPA and Colbert?s childhood pet ingot, Leady.

Jackson defended her position against critics. ?Of course we want jobs,? she argued, adding that job growth should occur in a way that "ensures our kids are going be healthy.?

In fact, the EPA toxics regulations could lead "to the creation of 84,500 jobs between now and 2015," says the think tank Economic Policy Institute.

Jackson also brushed off Colbert?s facetious suggestions that burning water is ?alternative energy" and ?Cleveland could have been powered by the Cuyahoga River!?

However, when comparing the role of the EPA 40 years ago to today, Jackson was serious about the importance of the organization in the future. She specifically pointed out how environmental legislation still has a ways to go, noting that mercury regulations were only recently passed, which Jackson considered a major triumph.

In an interview with ?The Daily Show? host Jon Stewart last year, before the regulations were put into effect, Jackson discussed the need for mercury standards, arguing ?Mercury is a neurotoxin. It destroys our children?s brains before they are born.?

Only a few months later, Jackson?s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) were finalized, with the regulations set to be fully implemented by 2016.

Although a review of MATS was announced Friday, EPA officials say it is just "a routine step" with "no impact for standards already set for existing power plants," reported the Associated Press.

Jackson?s commitment to a healthy future for children extends beyond mercury regulations. The EPA recently signed a 5-year commitment between the EPA, USDA, and 1,890 universities and launched the Youth Sustainability Challenge in an effort to involve younger generations in environmental efforts.

When Colbert jokingly asked Jackson why he should care about all environmental issues (since he controls his own climate change in his Audi S5), Jackson reminded him that these regulations are about more than just a comfortable car temperature. ?The EPA is actually all about health,? Jackson insisted in the above clip. ?If (the air and the water) aren't clean, we can?t have a healthy and safe community.?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/lisa-jackson-colbert-report_n_1690137.html

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