Charles In The Middle
on life…!Teaching Computers to See Like a Human
For all their sophistication, computers still can’t compete with nature’s gift. Seeking the way forward, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are looking to advances in neuroscience for ways to improve artificial intelligence, and vice versa.
The cross-disciplinary approach began to produce results a year ago, when a group of researchers used a brain inspired computer model to interpret a series of photographs. Although the neurological model had been developed as a theoretical analysis of how certain visual pathways in the brain work, it turned out to be as good as, or even better than, the best existing computer vision systems at rapidly recognizing some complex scenes. When the neurological model was used, it was the first time a computer model was able to reproduce human behavior on that kind of task, researchers say, and it brought them closer to understanding how the visual cortex recognizes objects and scenes.
When a person is shown a picture, even for just a fraction of a second, the brain’s visual cortex recognizes what it sees immediately. The visual cortex is a large part of the brain’s processing system and one of the most complex. Scientists say that understanding how it works could be a significant step toward knowing how the whole brain operates. “Vision is just a proxy for intelligence,” he says. The human brain is much more aware of how it solves complex problems such as playing chess or solving algebra equations, which is why computer programmers have had so much success building machines that emulate this type of activity.
Thus far, developments have modeled “feedforward” vision, which occurs when an image is first presented to the eye. He and his colleagues are now looking to develop new models that help them better understand how the brain works once the eye begins to scan the scene portrayed in an image and interpret spatial relationships among objects in the scene. The hope is that this will ultimately lead to computer software that can do the same thing and eventually explain not only rapid cognition by humans but also other aspects of our visual intelligence. Keep your eyes peeled.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN — by Larry Greenemier (February 20, 2008): Visionary Research:Teaching Computers to See Like a Human
The Strange Way of Reasoning (1- Strangeness)
In this post I will try to show the strangeness of the Darwinian reasoning to explain how things work.
Consider a horse; The powerful legs that can speed it up as fast as 60 km per hour, the powerful body which can pull hundreds of kilograms. Consider inside its body ; there is a heart, beating 30(rest) to 180(running) times a minute and circulates all the blood in every part in its body, there is a digestion system which digests the food and chases only the right material for living and eject the rest -even though the horse has no idea about what kind of elements and compounds it needs. The horse can see, with its brain it manage to understand when to jump if there is an obstacle in front of it, it can turn when necessary, it can find food, and it knows the difference between bad grass and good grass (what is best to eat). On a closer look, the horse has around 100 trillion cells while each of these cells has numerous interactions going on inside of them. None of these cells do not care about who the horse is, or what it needs to survive, but as a whole- when they are put together they will made a system which is designed so magnificently that does everything that it takes for the horse to satisfy its needs.
According to the strange reasoning of Darwin nature absolutely needs no knowledge of how this magnificent systems work together to make such complicated and extremely accurate behaviors. Absolute ignorance can result in super complicated machines and basically the creation of all these systems can be referred to the random accidents rather than determined intellectually designed process. As the random accidents in the nature by definition need no more than the rules of the nature, these random accidents do not need an intelligence to lead them. Therefore, shockingly Darwin seems to suggest that absolute ignorance can take the place of absolute wisdom for designing sophisticated systems.
Let’s compare the horse internal systems with a human made system like the engine of a car. The motor is very well designed. Human can not rely on the accidents to make the machine work so every part of the mechanism is as determined as possible. We have to have enough knowledge about the engine to make such determination. The lack of determination might even result in a disaster for the system. Worst of all, we can not ever imagine such a complicated system is made by accidents in the nature. Can well working engine be created randomly in the nature? How about a random process? So what is it that makes the horse –which might arguably be even more complicated and sophisticated than the engine of a car- different?
As you see, it is undeniable that the evolution theory suggests things very challenging for our common sense. Making sense of such a theory might seem impossible at the first glance.
In this post I do not try to defend the evolution theory but rather try to explain its strangeness. However I shall mention that it turns out this strange reasoning of Darwin is proven true. Not just true in a sense that it seems like an acceptable theory but evolution is true and it is as true as the following sentences:
- The existence of a chair is true.
- The world have at least 3 special dimensions.
Pouya
21 July 2009
Neurology of Dance 3::: so you are dancing or trying to say something?!
for our ancestors, everywhere was their dance club!
it is believed that dance was firstly evolved as a sounding phenomenon. for example, many ancient tribes had some noise making objects bound to their body so as they moved they could make sounds. hence it is postulated that music and dance were evolved together.
however, unlike music dancing has a great capacity of presentation and imitation. for this reason, it is also believed that humans used to communicate via dancing in old ages. as Steven brown and Lawrence parsons(from Neurology of Dance 1 ) claim, in every experiment that they conducted a region homologous to Broca was activated on the right brain hemisphere.
***Broca: Broca’s area is a part of the frontal lobe on left hemisohere classically associated with speech production. In the past decade research has revealed that Broca’s area also contains a representation of the hands.***
as they claim, they have been among the first to show a relation between the activity of this area and movement of legs. they postulate that this area has an important role in learning movements and imitation which are important skills for learning and spreading culture.
as broca helps with sequencing words and making sentences that make sense. they guess maybe the broca’s homologous region is also responsible of ordering the movements in the way they should be imitated. an experiment held in UCLA provides further evidence for this hypothesis as damage of any of these two regions causes difficulties in imitation using fingers.
END of the series on dance! 
and of course when we talk of dance! we should not forget michael jackson! R.I.P
Neurology of Dance 2::: A ballet room of our own!
Researchers have found there are parts in our brain that rehearse dance moves and help us to learn a specific move.
Beatriz Calvo-Merino and Patrick Haggard of University College London and their colleagues investigated whether specific brain areas become active preferentially when people view dances they have mastered. They recruited volunteers mastered in Ballet and Capoeira as well as non dancers. While showing each individual a silent dancing clip, an MRI record of their brain was obtained. Interestingly a greater activity was observed on pre motor cortex of all dancers when they were watching a clip of their own type of dance. In a follow up experiment, it was reviled that the respond is also gender specific. So the premotor cortex would be more active in a male ballet dancer while watching the clip of a male dancing ballet rather than a clip of a female ballerina.
Furthermore a weekly set of MRI records from dancing students, after watching a dancing clip of their own type, showed a general increase in activity of premotor cortex for each week.( 2006 Emily S. Cross, Scott T. Grafton)
Developing complex movements like dancing or golf swing are not simply evolved through visual learning but also kinestethik perception. Those who master such movements have developed a better neural network and can imagine and postulate the further movements and position better. For example in a study held in San Deigo state university indicates that the ballerinas who have not been dancing for a while can correct their mistakes faster than the junior learners.
Neurology of Dance 1::: how we do not fall?!
So you think you can dance?! well do you also know how we dance?!! dancing and rhythmical movements are important means of communication in many species and are specially used in mating rituals. of course you have also experienced the urge to tap your feet to the beat or rock and sway when you hear the rhyme of music. but how do we dance?
Dancing is the most synchronized activity of human. we should have a spatial awareness and balance so we do not break anything or step on our mate’s feet! in addition our movements should be synced with the music rhythm and our partners. All these are regulated in our brain at the same time and we are going to see how?!
Steven brown and Lawrence M. Parsons in conjunction with Micheal Martinez from university of Texas had an attempt to explore the answer through their experiments. Their results indicated in which parts of the human brain the dancing movements are planned and in which parts the music and body movement is synced.
they recruited a group of amateur dancers and asked them to move their foots to the music while laying on bed. Their heads was also fixed, so the researchers could record a PET scan of their brain activity.
*** PET (positron emission topography) records changes in cerebral blood flow. it is supposed that an increase in blood flow is equivalent to an increase in the activity of that specific spot.***
two similar experiments were also conducted. In the first experiment, the participants were asked just to just flex their feet to music instead of dancing. In the second experiments they were asked to dance in absence of music. by comparing the PET results of the two recent experiments with the first one and subtraction of common active regions, researchers could home in on brain areas vital to movement planning and music synchronization.
what remained from the first comparison was an area in parietal lobe which is known to take part in spatial perception in human and other mamas. however, a huge share of activity was found to be in “precuneus” ; it is a region in parietal lobe which is near the area that the kinesthetic representation of legs reside. researchers believe that precuneus has a kinesthetic map of entire body that helps brain to plan an egocentric path for any kind of movement that we have( walking, waltz, tango and…)
*** kinesthetic: a sense mediated by receptors located in muscles, tendons, and joints and stimulated by bodily movements and tensions. these are important as they help brain to make an articulated map of body and help spatial awareness.***from the second comparison it was found the cerebellum and a sub cortical region in brain are responsible of synchronizing the movements with music. the cerebellum was found to have a higher activity rate in presence of music. considering the cerebellum’s data entry and its connections with other parts of brain, it can be a great candidate for synchronizing different parts of the brain. in addition, a sub cortical structure called the medial geniculate nucleus (MGN) was also found to be active only in presence of music. at first, it was assumed that the nucleus is only an auditory centre that responds to the presence of music, however it was found that the nucleus is only active when the subject dances with the music. considering that the MGN is connected to cerebellum, this explains why we may swing or tap with the music unconsciously; as many of cerebellum conducted activities are unconsciously orchestrated.
and here is a video of Georgia’s national ballet! just to make my point of spatial awareness and those stuff:P continued…
Don’t you feel that your MGN and cerebellum are trying to convince you to dance?!!! if yes! give it a go, because the precuneus region of your parietal lobe and kinesthetic feedback makes sure you do not break anything or fall!:D
Harmless Prion proteins and alzheimer!!!
Stephen Strittmatter and his colleagues at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut have recently found some new facts about the mechanism of Alzheimer.
But, before explaining what these people have done i would like to give an introduction on prions. Is there a harmless prion?! It was surprising for me to find that the answer is YES! (this is how we learn!:D)
Prion Proteins are referred to as PrP. Furthermore there are two types of PrP:
PrPC: PrPC stands for PrP-Cellular or PrP-Common. This variant of PrP has no harm and is found on cell membrane. Moreover it may function in cell-cell adhesion of neural cells, and/or be involved in cell-cell signaling in the brain.
PrPSc: PrPSc stands for PrP-Scrapie (or maybe you can say for PrP-SCARY!). Unlike the other, this one is infectious. it also has a structure completely different from PrP-C. Also, it can convert harmlessPrPC to PrPsc.
Now back to main topic.
Alzheimer disease has long been associated with amyloid-Βeta peptides. But what are amyloid-Beta peptides? these are main constituent of amyloid plaques in the brain. These sticky fibrils make plaques and have a negative impact on function of neurons. Scientist believe that there is a relation between amyloid-Beta peptides and Alzheimer, However, they still do not know how this relation exactly works out!
While looking for proteins that interact with amyloid-Beta peptides, Stephen Strittmatter and his colleagues bumped in to PrPc . They did two experiments to figure out how PrPC, amyloid-Beta peptides and Alzheimer are linked together.
First Experiment: they genetically manipulated a mouse, so it could not produce PrPc.
Second Experiment: they used antigens to bind the PrPC in some other mouse and so stop its activity.
Then Strittmatters’s team sliced brain of both mice and found that amyloid-Beta peptides had not caused defect in process of long-term potentiation. long-term potentiation,has a crucial role in forming long term memory.
But does PrPC do any good except causing trouble? seems like it does! PrPC is normally produced in brain and in some cases mice appeared to have deficiency in the generation of new neurons and responses to stress. Also, a recent study has shown a relation between PrPC and having a normal sense of smell.
Considering this, it is not safe and wise to just block PrPC. However, an enzyme called α-secretase can cleave both PrPC and amyloid- Beta peptides and hence prevent their negative impacts.
All in all, this has created glimmers of hope to find a treatment for Alzheimer; particularly because most of the current treatments are symptomatic and there is a need for treatments that go beyond the mechanism of disease.
Breast Augmentation and Stem Cell Technology
Earlier this year, the London Breast Institute introduced their novel Breast augmentation surgery technique based on stem cell technology. Fat cells are sucked out of adipose tissue, then filtered to increase the ratio of fat stem cells, and then injected into the breast. Although the surgery is currently limited to use amongst women who have lost breasts to cancer, it is about to undergo testing in healthy women in the UK.
“This is a very exciting advance in breast surgery,” said Mokbel of the London Breast Institute. “They [breasts treated with stem cells] feel more natural because this tissue has the same softness as the rest of the breast.” He said the treatment offered the potential of considerable improvement on implants: “Implants are a foreign body. They are associated with long-term complications and require replacement.” Similar attempts in the past were not successful as unfiltered fat cell—injected in to the breast tissue—were reabsorbed by the body, probably due to lack of blood vessels to feed the injected cells. However, by increasing the number of stem cells in the mixture to be injected to the breast, both fat and vasculature will take place.
The cells will be isolated from a woman’s adipose tissue (from the thighs or stomach). The concentrated stem cells will then be mixed with another batch of adipose tissue before being injected into the breast. It takes several months for the breast to achieve the desired size and shape. Although the breasts will reach the desired volume, the will not achieve the natural firmness.
So far more than a dozen British cancer patients have been treated with this new technique and the results are astonishing. But this does not justify offering the treatment to healthy women. While breast cancer patients regularly attend follow-up appointments, young women who have had cosmetic surgery are less likely to do so and complications could be missed.
Ask expert ones for Doctor Fish!!
In the south east Asia , armor therapy is really popular. you can see these kind of HEALTH CENTRE,POTENTIAL AND WELL_STABLISHED SPAS, etc. in every shopping malls, in city center streets and every common place that you may think of! But the more remarkable thing is that people are really fond of this strange creature.
-so named for their ability to produce healthy, glowing results from even the most flaky, dried or diseased epidermis-are the key ingredient in FISHO treatment-which are becoming increasingly popular in Japan, China, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. The term FISHO treatment is that we immerse our feet, hands or sometimes even the entire body in a pool with hundreds of little hungry Doctor Fishes. This creature is used to nibble away the crusty and scabby epidermis to reveal the fresh layer beneath. I’ve heard that it’s mostly used in medical field to treat Psoriasis and various skin diseases. And also FISHO is the pioneer in incorporating natural science technology straight into beauty and health industries. FISHO treatment consist of following procedure:
1)body cleaning exfoliation( removal of dead skin layers , with no PAIN 
, as long as these fishes have no teeth )
2)micro-massage(which reaches the deepest skin layers while improving blood circulation, thus the skin is better supplied with the oxygen, and it may become much softer and smoother)
3)disinfection of injured skin spots(like scratches, wound and etc.)
As I searched for the biologic feature of this fish I found the following information:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Orded: Cypriniformes
Family: Cyprinidae
Genus: Garra
Species: G.rufa
As far as I found, Doctor fish is the name given to two species : Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus. Other nicknames include nibble fish, kangal fish, little dermatologists and doctorfishen; in non-medical contexts, Garra rufa is called the reddish log sucker.and they live in Turkish Spas. Garra rufa occurs in the river basins of the Northern and Central Middle East, mainly in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. It is legally protected from commercial exploitation in Turkey due to concerns of overharvesting for export. And also I’ve found in the internet that : In 2006, doctor fish spa resorts opened in Japan, where the fish are used to clean the bathers at the spa. There are also spas in resorts in China, such as Hainan, Belgium, The Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, India and Malaysia. In 2008, the first widely known doctor fish pedicure service was opened in the United States by John Ho in Alexandria, Virginia.so it is spreading Through the world so increasingly to use these little dermatologists to give relief to people with various skin disorders, including Eczema, Psoriasis and Dermatitis too.
importance of data
Biology is science and like any other scientific field of research and study, it follows a particular methodology.
like other scientific subjects, new questions rise from observations and potential answers of these questions are examined through experiments. At last, the only answer that successfully comes out of trials is adopted as the explanation of the question. well! it looks like a pretty straight forward method but in reality it is not which is why we still have lots of not answered questions.
To get the answer, scientist should collect the RIGHT set of data CORRECTLY. It is for sure that you can not find something , when you do not have any correct as well as relevant information about. Furthermore, collected data should also be meaningful.
if you have to measure something, your choice of unit is important. if you are to study a sample population, it is important how you take your participants out of source population and …etc.
Under this category, working with data, we are going to speak about skills of collecting data and avoiding bias.
Introduction or On Us…!!!
Here is an introduction on who we are and what we are going to do in this blog.
We are living in a world which is growing with an increasing speed. We are surrounded by numbers, statistics and data which are produced on a daily basis in an enormous number of institutes,labs, universities and other scientific bodies around the world.
This huge amount of data which is produced in different scientific disciplines urges a great deal of communication among those from same discipline as well as people from different disciplines, if their endeavors is to result in success and not get abort. Here is the role that weblogs can play, as they relay this communication. In addition, weblogs can help students as well as those who are generally interested in science to pick something and learn as they go through these weblogs or maybe build their very first scientific relations!!!
we are four undergraduate students studying in different countries around the world…so, in sense of what I discussed in last paragraph, technically we are classified in the second group:D:D moving on to first i hope!:D
This is a collective blog on LIFE! so we are going to write on how we and our fellow creatures are committing life or in other words, live.
Currently, all four of us are studying biology or medicine but, i hope to get some member or guest author from other fields as well.
check for updates;)
Cheers.
