Patterns in Evolution

Well Established Theories on Patterns
in Evolution Might Be Wrong

Uppsala University – September 27, 2018 -- How do the large-scale patterns we observe in evolution arise? A new paper in the journal Evolution by researchers at Uppsala University and University of Leeds argues that many of them are a type of statistical artefact caused by our unavoidably recent viewpoint looking back into the past. As a result, it might not be possible to draw any conclusions about what caused the enormous changes in diversity we see through time.

The diversity of life through time shows some striking patterns. For example, the animals appear in the fossil record about 550 million years ago, in an enormous burst of diversification called the "Cambrian Explosion". Many groups of organisms appear to originate like this, but later on in their evolutionary history, their rates of diversification and morphological change seem to slow down. These sorts of patterns can be seen both in the fossil record, and also in reconstructions of past diversity by looking at the relationships between living organisms, and they have given rise to a great deal of debate.

Do organisms have more evolutionary flexibility when they first evolve? Or do ecosystems get "filled up" as more species evolve, giving fewer opportunities for further diversification later on? In their new paper, Graham Budd and Richard Mann make the provocative argument that these patterns may be largely illusory, and that we would still expect to see them even if rates of evolutionary change stay the same on average through time.

Biologists and palaeontologists use statistical models called "birth-death models" to model how random events of speciation and extinction give rise to patterns of diversity. Just as one can roll a dice five times and get five sixes or none, the outcomes of these random models are very variable. These statistical fluctuations are particularly important at the origin of a group, when there are only a few species. It turns out that the only groups that survive this early period are those that happen to diversify quickly - all the others go extinct. As is it exactly those groups that go on to be the large successful groups we see living today, and that fill most of the fossil record, it follows that they are likely to show this rapid pattern of diversification at their origin - but only because they are a biased subset of all groups. Later in their history, when such groups are diverse, statistical fluctuations have much less effect, and therefore their rate of evolution appears to slows down to the background average.

As a result, the patterns we discover by analyzing such groups are not general features of evolution as a whole, but rather represent a remarkable bias that emerges by only studying groups we already know were successful. This bias, called "the push of the past", has indeed been known about theoretically for about 25 years, but it has been almost completely ignored, probably because it was assumed to be negligible in size. However, Budd and Mann show that the effect is very large, and can in fact account for much of the variation we see in past diversity, especially when we combine it with the effects of the great "mass extinctions" such as the one that killed off the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago. Because the resulting patterns are an inevitable feature of the sorts of groups available for us to study, Budd and Mann argue, it follows that we cannot perceive any particular cause of them: they simply arise from statistical fluctuation.

The push of the past is an example of a much more general type of pattern called "survivorship bias" which can be seen in many other areas of life, for example in business start-ups and finance and the study of history. In all these cases, failure to recognize the bias can lead to highly misleading conclusions. Budd and Mann argue that the history of life itself is not immune to such effects, and that many traditional explanations for why diversity changes through time may need to be reconsidered - a viewpoint that is bound to prove controversial.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-09/uu-wet092718.php

Yerevan, Capital of Armenia

Yerevan (sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia as well as one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country. It has been the capital since 1918, the thirteenth in the history of Armenia, and the seventh located in or around the Ararat plain. The city also serves as the seat of the Araratian Pontifical Diocese; the largest diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and one of the oldest dioceses in the world.

                                        Yerevan with Mount Ararat dominating the skyline

The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, with the founding of the fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC by king Argishti I at the western extreme of the Ararat plain. Erebuni was "designed as a great administrative and religious centre, a fully royal capital." By the late ancient Armenian Kingdom, new capital cities were established and Yerevan declined in importance. Under Iranian and Russian rule, it was the center of the Erivan Khanate from 1736 to 1828 and the Erivan Governorate from 1850 to 1917, respectively. After World War I, Yerevan became the capital of the First Republic of Armenia as thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire arrived in the area. The city expanded rapidly during the 20th century as Armenia became part of the Soviet Union. In a few decades, Yerevan was transformed from a provincial town within the Russian Empire to Armenia's principal cultural, artistic, and industrial center, as well as becoming the seat of national government.

With the growth of the Armenian economy, Yerevan has undergone major transformation. Much construction has been done throughout the city since the early 2000s, and retail outlets such as restaurants, shops, and street cafés, which were rare during Soviet times, have multiplied. As of 2011, the population of Yerevan was 1,060,138, just over 35% of the Republic of Armenia's total population. According to the official estimate of 2016, the current population of the city is 1,073,700. Yerevan was named the 2012 World Book Capital by UNESCO. Yerevan is an associate member of Eurocities.

Of the notable landmarks of Yerevan, Erebuni Fortress is considered to be the birthplace of the city, the Katoghike Tsiranavor church is the oldest surviving church of Yerevan and Saint Gregory Cathedral is the largest Armenian cathedral in the world, Tsitsernakaberd is the official memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, and several opera houses, theatres, museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions. Yerevan Opera Theatre is the main spectacle hall of the Armenian capital, the National Gallery of Armenia is the largest art museum in the Republic of Armenia and shares a building with the History Museum of Armenia, and the Matenadaran repository contains one of the largest depositories of ancient books and manuscripts in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerevan

Software for Mars Landings

Program users can tinker with landing and path planning scenarios to identify optimal landing sites for Mars rovers.
Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office

September 26, 2018 -- Selecting a landing site for a rover headed to Mars is a lengthy process that normally involves large committees of scientists and engineers. These committees typically spend several years weighing a mission’s science objectives against a vehicle’s engineering constraints, to identify sites that are both scientifically interesting and safe to land on.

For instance, a mission’s science team may want to explore certain geological sites for signs of water, life, and habitability. But engineers may find that those sites are too steep for a vehicle to land safely, or the locations may not receive enough sunlight to power the vehicle’s solar panels once it has landed. Finding a suitable landing site therefore involves piecing together information collected over the years by past Mars missions. These data, though growing with each mission, are patchy and incomplete.

Now researchers at MIT have developed a software tool for computer-aided discovery that could help mission planners make these decisions. It automatically produces maps of favorable landing sites, using the available data on Mars’ geology and terrain, as well as a list of scientific priorities and engineering constraints that a user can specify.

As an example, a user can stipulate that a rover should land in a site where it can explore certain geological targets, such as open-basin lakes. At the same time, the landing site should not exceed a certain slope, otherwise the vehicle would topple over while attempting to land. The program then generates a “favorability map” of landing sites that meet both constraints. These locations can shift and change as a user adds additional specifications.

The program can also lay out possible paths that a rover can take from a given landing site to certain geological features. For instance, if a user specifies that a rover should explore sedimentary rock exposures, the program produces paths to any such nearby structures and calculates the time that it would take to reach them.

Victor Pankratius, principal research scientist in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, says mission planners can use the program to quickly and efficiently consider different landing and exploratory scenarios.

“This is never going to replace the actual committee, but it can make things much more efficient, because you can play with different scenarios while you’re talking,” Pankratius says.

The team’s study was published online on Aug. 31 by Earth and Space Science and is part of the journal’s Sept. 8 online issue.

New sites

Pankratius and postdoc Guillaume Rongier, in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, created the program to identify favorable landing sites for a conceptual mission similar to NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, which is engineered to land in horizontal, even, dust-free areas and aims to explore an ancient, potentially habitable, site with magmatic outcrops.

They found the program identified many landing sites for the rover that have been considered in the past, and it highlighted other promising landing sites that were rarely proposed. “We see there are sites we could explore with existing rover technologies, that landing site committees may want to reconsider,” Pankratius says.

The program could also be used to explore engineering requirements for future generations of Mars rovers. “Assuming you can land on steeper curves, or drive faster, then we can derive which new regions you can explore,” Pankratius says.

A fuzzy landing

The software relies partly on “fuzzy logic,” a mathematical logic scheme that groups things not in a binary fashion like Boolean logic, such as yes/no, true/false, or safe/unsafe, but in a more fluid, probability-based fashion.

“Traditionally this idea comes from mathematics, where instead of saying an element belongs to a set, yes or no, fuzzy logic says it belongs with a certain probability,” thus reflecting incomplete or imprecise information, Pankratius explains.

In the context of finding a suitable landing site, the program calculates the probability that a rover can climb a certain slope, with the probability decreasing as the a location becomes more steep.

“With fuzzy logic we can expresses this probability spatially — how bad is it if I’m this steep, versus this steep,” Pankratius says. “It’s is a way to deal with imprecision, in a way.”

Using algorithms related to fuzzy logic, the team creates raw, or initial, favorability maps of possible landing sites over the entire planet. These maps are gridded into individual cells, each representing about 3 square kilometers on the surface of Mars. The program calculates, for each cell, the probability that it is a favorable landing site, and generates a map that is color-graded to represent probabilities between 0 and 1. Darker cells represent sites with a near-zero probability of being a favorable landing site, while lighter locations have a higher chance of a safe landing with interesting scientific prospects.

Once they generate a raw map of possible landing sites, the researchers take into account various uncertainties in the landing location, such as changes in trajectory and potential navigation errors during descent. Considering these uncertainties, the program then generates landing ellipses, or circular targets where a rover is likely to land to maximize safety and scientific exploration.

The program also uses an algorithm known as fast marching to chart out paths that a rover can take over a given terrain once it’s landed. Fast marching is typically used to calculate the propagation of a front, such as how fast a front of wind reaches a shore if traveling at a given speed. For the first time, Pankratius and Rongier applied fast marching to compute a rover’s travel time as it travels from a starting point to a geological structure of interest.

“If you are somewhere on Mars and you get this processed map, you can ask, ‘From here, how fast can I go to any point in my surroundings? And this algorithm will tell you,” Pankratius says.

The algorithm can also map out routes to avoid certain obstacles that may slow down a rover’s trip, and chart out probabilities of hitting certain types of geological structures in a landing area.

“It’s more difficult for a rover to drive through dust, so it’ll go at a slower pace, and dust isn’t necessarily everywhere, just in patches,” Rongier says. “The algorithm will consider such obstacles when mapping out the fastest traverse paths.”

The team says operators of current rovers on the Martian surface can use the software program to direct the vehicles more efficiently to sites of scientific interest. In the future, Pankratius envisions this technique or something similar to be integrated into increasingly autonomous rovers that don’t require humans to operate the vehicles all the time from Earth.

“One day, if we have fully autonomous rovers, they can factor in all these things to know where they can go, and be able to adapt to unforeseen situations,” Pankratius says. “You want autonomy, otherwise it can take a long time to communicate back and forth when you have to make critical decisions quickly.”

The team is also looking into applications of the techniques in geothermal site exploration on Earth in collaboration with the MIT Earth Resources Lab in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.

“It’s a very similar problem,” Pankratius says. “Instead of saying ‘Is this a good site, yes or no?’ you can say, ‘Show me a map of all the areas that would likely be viable for geothermal exploration.’”

As data improve, both for Mars and for geothermal structures on Earth, he says that that data can be fed into the existing program to provide more accurate analyses.

“The program is incrementally enhanceable,” he says.

This research was funded, in part, by NASA and the National Science Foundation.

http://news.mit.edu/2018/software-finds-best-mars-landing-0926

Sinus Infections

Sinusitis, also known as a sinus infection or rhinosinusitis, is inflammation of the sinuses resulting in symptoms. Common symptoms include thick nasal mucus, a plugged nose, and pain in the face. Other signs and symptoms may include, headaches, poor sense of smell, sore throat, and cough. The cough is often worse at night. Serious complications are rare. It is defined as acute rhinosinusitis (ARS) if it lasts less than 4 weeks, and as chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) if it lasts for more than 12 weeks.

Sinusitis can be caused by infection, allergies, air pollution, or structural problems in the nose. Most cases are caused by a viral infection. A bacterial infection may be present if symptoms last more than ten days or if a person worsens after starting to improve. Recurrent episodes are more likely in people with asthma, cystic fibrosis, and poor immune function. X-rays are not typically needed unless complications are suspected. In chronic cases confirmatory testing is recommended by either direct visualization or computed tomography.

Some cases may be prevented by hand washing, avoiding smoking, and immunization. Pain killers such as naproxen, nasal steroids, and nasal irrigation may be used to help with symptoms. Recommended initial treatment for ARS is watchful waiting. If symptoms do not improve in 7–10 days or get worse, then an antibiotic may be used or changed. In those in whom antibiotics are used, either amoxicillin or amoxicillin/clavulanate is recommended first line. Surgery may occasionally be used in people with chronic disease.

Sinusitis is a common condition. It affects between about 10% and 30% of people each year in the United States and Europe. Women are more often affected than men. Chronic sinusitis affects approximately 12.5% of people. Treatment of sinusitis in the United States results in more than US$11 billion in costs. The unnecessary and ineffective treatment of viral sinusitis with antibiotics is common.

Signs and Symptoms

Headache/facial pain or pressure of a dull, constant, or aching sort over the affected sinuses is common with both acute and chronic stages of sinusitis. This pain is typically localized to the involved sinus and may worsen when the affected person bends over or when lying down. Pain often starts on one side of the head and progresses to both sides. Acute sinusitis may be accompanied by thick nasal discharge that is usually green in color and may contain pus (purulent) and/or blood. Often a localized headache or toothache is present, and it is these symptoms that distinguish a sinus-related headache from other types of headaches, such as tension and migraine headaches. Another way to distinguish between toothache and sinusitis is that the pain in sinusitis is usually worsened by tilting the head forwards and with valsalva maneuvers.

Infection of the eye socket is possible, which may result in the loss of sight and is accompanied by fever and severe illness. Another possible complication is the infection of the bones (osteomyelitis) of the forehead and other facial bones – Pott's puffy tumor.

Sinus infections can also cause middle ear problems due to the congestion of the nasal passages. This can be demonstrated by dizziness, "a pressurized or heavy head", or vibrating sensations in the head. Post-nasal drip is also a symptom of chronic rhinosinusitis.

Halitosis (bad breath) is often stated to be a symptom of chronic rhinosinusitis; however, gold standard breath analysis techniques have not been applied. Theoretically, there are several possible mechanisms of both objective and subjective halitosis that may be involved.

A 2004 study suggested that up to 90% of "sinus headaches" are actually migraines. The confusion occurs in part because migraine involves activation of the trigeminal nerves, which innervate both the sinus region and the meninges surrounding the brain. As a result, it is difficult to accurately determine the site from which the pain originates. People with migraines do not typically have the thick nasal discharge that is a common symptom of a sinus infection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinusitis

Cheap Uncontaminated Water

Liquid Metal Discovery to Make
Toxic Water Safe and Drinkable
An innovation in liquid metal chemistry could help one tenth of the planet’s population get access to clean drinking water at very low cost following breakthrough research from UNSW [University of New South Wales] Sydney and RMIT [in Melbourne].

By Lachlan Gilbert – September 24, 2018 -- UNSW and RMIT researchers have discovered a revolutionary and cheap way to make filters that can turn water contaminated with heavy metals into safe drinking water in a matter of minutes.

Recent UNSW SHARP hire Professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh and his former colleagues at RMIT showed that nano-filters made of aluminium oxide could be cheaply produced using virtually no energy from a fixed amount of liquid metal gallium.

In a paper published in Advanced Functional Materials, lead author Dr Ali Zavabeti (RMIT) and Professor Kalantar-zadeh explained that when a chunk of aluminium is added to the core of liquid gallium at room temperature, layers of aluminium oxide are quickly produced at the surface of the gallium.

The authors discovered that these aluminium oxide nano-sheets were highly porous and went on to prove they were suitable for filtering both heavy metal ions and oil contamination at unprecedented, ultra-fast rates.

Professor Kalantar-zadeh, who was recently awarded an ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship soon after joining UNSW's School of Chemical Engineering, said that low cost and portable filters produced by this new liquid metal based manufacturing process could be used by people without access to clean drinking water to remove substances like lead and other toxic metals in a matter of minutes.

“Because it's super porous, water passes through very rapidly,” Professor Kalantar-zadeh said.

“Lead and other heavy metals have a very high affinity to aluminium oxide. As the water passes through billions of layers, each one of these lead ions get attracted to one of these aluminium oxide sheets.

“But at the same time, it's very safe because with repeated use, the water flow cannot detach the heavy metal ions from the aluminium oxide.”

Professor Kalantar-zadeh believes the technology could be put to good use in Africa and Asia in places where heavy metal ions in the water are at levels well beyond safe human consumption. It is estimated that 790 million people, or one in 10 of the Earth’s population, do not have access to clean water.

“If you've got bad quality water, you just take a gadget with one of these filters with you,” he said.

“You pour the contaminated water in the top of a flask with the aluminium oxide filter. Wait two minutes and the water that passes through the filter is now very clean water, completely drinkable.

“And the good thing is, this filter is cheap.”

There are portable filtration products available that do remove heavy metals from water, but they are comparatively expensive, often costing more than $100.

By contrast, aluminium oxide filters produced from liquid gallium could be produced for as little as 10 cents, making them attractive to prospective manufacturers.

 “Up until now, to produce aluminium oxide, you need to process aluminium at above 1000 degrees or use other energy intensive processes,” Professor Kalantar-zadeh said.

“It would normally consume so much energy to make anything like this filter, making it hugely expensive.

“Now we're talking about something you can do even under the sun in summer at 35 degrees.”

While aluminium is a plentiful and cheap metal, gallium is relatively expensive. But what makes gallium the hero in the process is the fact that it remains pure and unchanged after each production of aluminium oxide.

“You just add aluminium to the gallium and out comes aluminium oxide when its surface is exposed to water. You can use gallium again and again. Gallium never participates in the reaction,” Professor Kalanter-zadeh said.

Professor Kalantar-zadeh said the manufacture process is so cheap and requiring such low expenditure of energy, these filters could even be made out of a kitchen.

“We are publishing this concept and releasing it to the public domain, so people around the world can use the idea for free and implement it for enhancing the quality of their lives,” he said.

“This is all about a new paradigm. We haven’t even begun to explore how we can use liquid metals as a base for manufacturing things that are cheap, green and safe for humans.”

http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/liquid-metal-discovery-make-toxic-water-safe-and-drinkable

Early Detection of Alzheimer's?

A Biomarker in the Brain's Circulation System May Be Alzheimer's Earliest Warning
Breakdown of blood vessel lining is seen in multiple
neurodegenerative diseases

University of Southern California – September 24, 2018 -- USC scientists say Alzheimer's could be diagnosed earlier if scientists focus on an early warning within the brain's circulation system.

That's important because researchers believe that the earlier Alzheimer's is spotted, the better chance there is to stop or slow the disease.

"Cognitive impairment, and accumulation in the brain of the abnormal proteins amyloid and tau, are what we currently rely upon to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, but blood-brain barrier breakdown and cerebral blood flow changes can be seen much earlier," said Berislav Zlokovic, the Mary Hayley and Selim Zilkha Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Research at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "This shows why healthy blood vessels are so important for normal brain functioning."

In a new review article in the Sept. 24 issue of Nature Neuroscience, Zlokovic and his colleagues recommend that the blood-brain barrier, or BBB, be considered an important biomarker -- and potential drug target -- for Alzheimer's disease. Because Alzheimer's is irreversible, and not fully understood, understanding the first step in the disease process is a critical step in fighting it.

Alzheimer's afflicts 5.7 million Americans and is expected to impair about 14 million by 2050, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Treatment costs total hundreds of billions of dollars annually in the United States. Alzheimer's kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.

The blood-brain barrier is a filtration system, letting in good things (glucose, amino acids) and keeping out bad things (viruses, bacteria, blood). It's mostly comprised of endothelial cells lining the 400 miles of arteries, veins and capillaries that feed our brains.

Some evidence indicates that leaks in the blood-brain barrier may allow a protein called amyloid into the brain where it sticks to neurons. This triggers the accumulation of more amyloid, which eventually overwhelms and kills brain cells.

"Something is off with the system when that happens," said Arthur Toga, director of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) and the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute at the Keck School of Medicine. "Healthy people have amyloid in their bodies. When the system is dysregulated, amyloid can build up and cells die off."

Blood-to-brain leaks are seen in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington's disease, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.

BBB leaks can be detected with an intravenously administered contrast substance in concert with magnetic resonance imaging. Brain microbleeds, another sign of leakage, also can be picked up with MRI. A slowdown in the brain's uptake of glucose, visible via PET scan, can be a another result of BBB breakdown.

Zlokovic notes that these aren't tests routinely offered at a doctor's office.

                            https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-09/uosc-abi092418.php

Positive Quiddity: Democritus

Democritus (Greek: Δημόκριτος, Dēmókritos, meaning "chosen of the people"; c.460 — c.370 BC) was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe.

Democritus was born in Abdera, Thrace, around 460 BC, although there are disagreements about the exact year. His exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from those of his mentor Leucippus, as they are often mentioned together in texts. Their speculation on atoms, taken from Leucippus, bears a passing and partial resemblance to the 19th-century understanding of atomic structure that has led some to regard Democritus as more of a scientist than other Greek philosophers; however, their ideas rested on very different bases. Largely ignored in ancient Athens, Democritus is said to have been disliked so much by Plato that the latter wished all of his books burned. He was nevertheless well known to his fellow northern-born philosopher Aristotle. Many consider Democritus to be the "father of modern science". None of his writings have survived; only fragments are known from his vast body of work.

Ethics and Politics

The ethics and politics of Democritus come to us mostly in the form of maxims. As such, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has gone as far as to say that: "despite the large number of ethical sayings, it is difficult to construct a coherent account of Democritus's ethical views," noting that there is a "difficulty of deciding which fragments are genuinely Democritean".

He says that "Equality is everywhere noble", but he is not encompassing enough to include women or slaves in this sentiment. Poverty in a democracy is better than prosperity under tyrants, for the same reason one is to prefer liberty over slavery. In his, Bertrand Russell writes that Democritus was in love with "what the Greeks called democracy." Democritus said that "the wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world." Democritus wrote that those in power should "take it upon themselves to lend to the poor and to aid them and to favor them, then is there pity and no isolation but companionship and mutual defense and concord among the citizens and other good things too many to catalogue". Money when used with sense leads to generosity and charity, while money used in folly leads to a common expense for the whole society—excessive hoarding of money for one's children is avarice. While making money is not useless, he says, doing so as a result of wrongdoing is the "worst of all things". He is on the whole ambivalent towards wealth, and values it much less than self-sufficiency. He disliked violence but was not a pacifist: he urged cities to be prepared for war, and believed that a society had the right to execute a criminal or enemy so long as this did not violate some law, treaty, or oath.

Goodness, he believed, came more from practice and discipline than from innate human nature. He believed that one should distance oneself from the wicked, stating that such association increases disposition to vice. Anger, while difficult to control, must be mastered in order for one to be rational. Those who take pleasure from the disasters of their neighbors fail to understand that their fortunes are tied to the society in which they live, and they rob themselves of any joy of their own. Democritus believed that happiness was a property of the soul. He advocated a life of contentment with as little grief as possible, which he said could not be achieved through either idleness or preoccupation with worldly pleasures. Contentment would be gained, he said, through moderation and a measured life; to be content one must set one's judgment on the possible and be satisfied with what one has—giving little thought to envy or admiration. Democritus approved of extravagance on occasion, as he held that feasts and celebrations were necessary for joy and relaxation. He considers education to be the noblest of pursuits, but cautioned that learning without sense leads to error.

Twentieth-Century Appraisals

According to Bertrand Russell, the point of view of Leucippus and Democritus "was remarkably like that of modern science, and avoided most of the faults to which Greek speculation was prone."

Karl R. Popper admired Democritus's rationalism, humanism, and love of freedom and writes that Democritus, along with fellow countryman Protagoras, "formulated the doctrine that human institutions of language, custom, and law are not taboos but man-made, not natural but conventional, insisting, at the same time, that we are responsible for them."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democritus

The Golden Sayings of Democritus

• If any one hearken with understanding to these sayings of mine many a deed worthy of a good man shall he perform and many a foolish deed be spared.

• If one choose the goods of the soul, he chooses the diviner [portion]; if the goods of the body, the merely mortal.

• 'Tis well to restrain the wicked, and in any case not to join him in his wrong-doing.

• 'Tis not in strength of body nor in gold that men find happiness, but in uprightness and in fulness of understanding.

• Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.

• Repentance for one's evil deeds is the safeguard of life.

• He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.

• 'Tis a grievous thing to be subject to an inferior.

• Many who have not learned wisdom live wisely, and many who do the basest deeds can make most learned speeches.

• Fools learn wisdom through misfortune.

• One should emulate works and deeds of virtue, not arguments about it.

• Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of character is nobility in men.

• The hopes of the right-minded may be realized, those of fools are impossible.

• Neither art nor wisdom may be attained without learning.

• It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.

• Those who have a well-ordered character lead also a well-ordered life.

• Good means not [merely] not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

• There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.

• Fame and wealth without wisdom are unsafe possessions.

• Making money is not without its value, but nothing is baser than to make it by wrong-doing.

• You can tell the man who rings true from the man who rings false, not by his deeds alone, but also by his desires.

• False men and shams talk big and do nothing.

• My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.

• The enmity of one's kindred is far more bitter than the enmity of strangers.

• The friendship of one wise man is better than the friendship of a host of fools.

• No one deserves to live who has not at least one good-man-and-true for a friend.

• Seek after the good, and with much toil shall ye find it; the evil turns up of itself without your seeking it.

• For a man petticoat government is the limit of insolence.

• (Democritus said he would rather discover a single demonstration than win the throne of Persia.)

• Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness. Luck seldom measures swords with wisdom. Most things in life quick wit and sharp vision can set right.

• In the weightiest matters we must go to school to the animals, and learn spinning and weaving from the spider, building from the swallow, singing from the birds,—from the swan and the nightingale, imitating their art.

• An evil and foolish and intemperate and irreligious life should not be called a bad life, but rather, dying long drawn out.

• Fortune is lavish with her favors, but not to be depended on. Nature on the other hand is self-sufficing, and therefore with her feebler but trustworthy [resources] she wins the greater [meed] of hope.

• The right-minded man, ever inclined to righteous and lawful deeds, is joyous day and night, and strong, and free from care. But if a man take no heed of the right, and leave undone the things he ought to do, then will the recollection of no one of all his transgressions bring him any joy, but only anxiety and self-reproaching.

• Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.

• Of all things the worst to teach the young is dalliance, for it is this that is the parent of those pleasures from which wickedness springs.

• A sensible man takes pleasure in what he has instead of pining for what he has not.

• A life without a holiday is like a long journey without an inn to rest at.

• The pleasures that give most joy are the ones that most rarely come.

• Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

• Men in their prayers beg the gods for health, not knowing that this is a thing they have in their own power. Through their incontinence undermining it, they themselves become, because of their passions, the betrayers of their own health.

• Men achieve tranquillity through moderation in pleasure and through the symmetry of life. Want and superfluity are apt to upset them and to cause great perturbations in the soul. The souls that are rent by violent conflicts are neither stable nor tranquil. One should therefore set his mind upon the things that are within his power, and be content with his opportunities, nor let his memory dwell very long on the envied and admired of men, nor idly sit and dream of them. Rather, he should contemplate the lives of those who suffer hardship, and vividly bring to mind their sufferings, so that your own present situation may appear to you important and to be envied, and so that it may no longer be your portion to suffer torture in your soul by your longing for more. For he who admires those who have, and whom other men deem blest of fortune, and who spends all his time idly dreaming of them, will be forced to be always contriving some new device because of his [insatiable] desire, until he ends by doing some desperate deed forbidden by the laws. And therefore one ought not to desire other men's blessings, and one ought not to envy those who have more, but rather, comparing his life with that of those who fare worse, and laying to heart their sufferings, deem himself blest of fortune in that he lives and fares so much better than they. Holding fast to this saying you will pass your life in greater tranquillity and will avert not a few of the plagues of life—envy and jealousy and bitterness of mind.

• All who delight in the pleasures of the belly, exceeding all measure in eating and drinking and love, find that the pleasures are brief and last but a short while—only so long as they are eating and drinking—but the pains that come after are many and endure. The longing for the same things keeps ever returning, and whenever the objects of one's desire are realized forthwith the pleasure vanishes, and one has no further use for them. The pleasure is brief, and once more the need for the same things returns.

• We ought to regard the interests of the state as of far greater moment than all else, in order that they may be administered well; and we ought not to engage in eager rivalry in despite of equity, nor arrogate to ourselves any power contrary to the common welfare. For a state well administered is our greatest safeguard. In this all is summed up: When the state is in a healthy condition all things prosper; when it is corrupt, all things go to ruin.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Democritus

Geriatric Sex and Dementia

The Link Between Cognitive Function
and Sexuality in Older Adults

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society Research Summary – September 20, 2018 -- The number of people who live at home with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), a brain disease that causes abnormal changes that kill brain cells, is expected to grow from 3.2 million today to more than 8 million in 2050.

Experts agree that we know very little about sexuality among people living at home with AD or other cognitive problems. Older adults who have cognitive problems that impact the way they think and make decisions may ask physicians to help managing sexual problems. And caregivers may ask physicians about sexuality in the older adults for whom they provide care.

One frequently asked question is: Do older adults always have the capacity to consent to sexual activity?

Researchers have previously shown that the majority of people aged 57 to 85 have a spouse or other intimate partner and, among those with a partner, most are sexually active. Having an active sexual life is linked to better physical and mental health, higher quality of life, and lower rates of loneliness.

To learn more about the connection between sexuality and cognitive status, researchers designed a new study. They analyzed data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project to learn more about the relationship between sexual behavior, function, and cognition (people’s ability to think and make decisions). Their study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Based on their study, the researchers reported that:

·               83 percent of men and 57 percent of women had an intimate partner. The more impaired participants’ abilities to think and make decisions were, the less likely they were to have an intimate partner.

·               Women with lower cognitive scores were less likely than men with lower cognitive scores to have intimate partners.

·               Nearly half of all men with dementia were sexually active, as were 18 percent of women.

·               Among people with an intimate partner, the majority of men (59 percent) and women (51 percent) with dementia were sexually active. More than 40 percent of partnered men and women ages 80 to 91 living with dementia were sexually active.

·               More than 1 in 10 people living with a partner reported feeling threatened or frightened by a partner. This finding was similar among women and men and across different levels of cognitive problems. Experts and guidelines call on physicians to screen for elder abuse (the mistreatment of older people, which can take many forms, including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect), including sexual abuse, but definitions of abuse and standards of consent for sex vary widely.

The researchers estimate that, among people living at home who are aged 62 and older, at least 1.8 million men and 1.4 million women with suspected or diagnosed dementia are sexually active. This number will more than double by 2050. However, rarely do these people (especially women) receive a physician’s counseling about sexual changes that may occur with dementia or other medical conditions.

The researchers suggested that these findings can inform improved counseling, treatment, and person-centered decision-making by physicians and other healthcare providers caring for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Sexual activity is an important aspect of human function throughout your lifetime, said the researchers. They added that respectful care for older adults, including people with cognitive impairments, requires an understanding of sexual norms and problems—and effective strategies to manage sexual concerns with dignity.

This summary is from “Sexuality and Cognitive Status: a U.S. Nationally-Representative Study of Home-Dwelling Older Adults.” It appears online ahead of print in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study authors are Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, MAPP; William Dale, MD, PhD; Gillian Feldmeth, BS; Natalia Gavrilova, PhD; Kenneth M. Langa, MD, PhD; Jennifer A. Makelarski, PhD, MPH; and Kristen Wroblewski, MS.

http://www.healthinaging.org/blog/the-link-between-cognitive-function-and-sexuality-in-older-adults/

New Marathon World Record

The 2018 Berlin Marathon was the 45th edition of the Berlin Marathon. The marathon took place in Berlin, Germany, on 16 September 2018 and was the fourth World Marathon Majors race of the year. The men's race was won by Eliud Kipchoge, who set a new world record time [of 2 hours, one minute and 39 seconds].

                                                               Eliud Kipchoge in 2015

[Runners from Kenya, Japan and Eritrea took all eight of the fastest eight finishes in the men’s marathon in Berlin for 2018.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Berlin_Marathon

Artificial Intelligence and Auditing

Transforming the Audit in the Digital Age

BY KPMG, LLP

“Intelligent robots. Self-driving cars. Neuro-technological brain enhancements. Genetic editing.” We are at the beginning of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” says Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. “The evidence of dramatic change is all around us and it’s happening at exponential speed.”

More data is created in a day than was created in a lifetime just a generation ago—and requires tools that can analyze this data at a high level to perform quality audit services. That’s where digital solutions, including cognitive technology and intelligent automation, are critical to success.

The audit profession must continue to invest in digital tools to serve the capital markets, enable its professionals and promote the public trust. These tools include workflow automation, which enables the seamless use of data, robotic process automation, which allows the use of intellectual property to assess great volumes of data for risks and anomalies, and intelligent automation, which uses cognitive technology to read unstructured data, identify relevant attributes and perform predictive analytics.

What is cognitive technology?

Cognitive systems assist human knowledge workers in two fundamental ways:

• Evidence gathering. Cognitive systems are adept at finding information within the unstructured, semi-structured and mixed formats of documents that underlie many audit processes. They assist knowledge workers in obtaining evidence and generating hypotheses that support decision-making.
• Judgment-based decisions. Once evidence is gathered, cognitive technologies convert knowledge into machine-interpretable logics and data into insights that auditors can apply to their interpretations, recommendations, diagnoses and conclusions. The systems consist of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques that not only aid knowledge workers in their current workflow, but have the capacity to monitor user behavior to eventually learn to perform more complex tasks.

Cognitive systems mimic human brain functions in three ways:

• Perception. They interpret sensory input beyond traditional data.
• Reasoning. They can hypothesize and weigh supporting evidence.
• Learning. They improve confidence levels with experience.

With these abilities, cognitive technologies can process data in the forms of natural language processing, artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning, text analytics, predictive analytics, image recognition and voice recognition.

Digitizing the audit

Audit firms are increasingly using digital tools for a number of reasons:

• Audit quality. These tools deliver sustained high-quality audits in a world of ubiquitous information and exploding data.
• Empowerment. They position audit professionals for success in a digital and mobile world.
• Insights. They provide richer, more detailed audit evidence, enhanced transparency, consistency and depth of audit procedures, and deeper views into a company, its risks, its controls and its operating environment.
• Confidence. They identify anomalies and focus audit professionals on risk to provide high-confidence outcomes.

In the near future, unprecedented advances in computing technology will enhance auditing by making it possible to generate deeper analytical insights on a range of financial and operational areas such as:

• Predictive analytics.
• Enabling a deeper and more robust understanding of business risks by using client’s data combined with an analysis of industry or market data.
• Providing auditors with refined analytical capabilities and knowledge.
• Cognitive technologies.
• Enabling the analysis of larger volumes of data, in particular unstructured data.
• Allowing auditors to dig deeper into identified exceptions.
• Augmenting professional judgment and decision-making.
• Digital automation.
• Allowing for evaluation of larger data sets.
• Enabling a more granular analysis of underlying data and use of algorithms and rules.
• Supporting the auditor’s ability to identify unique transactions and pinpoint data or performance anomalies.
• Enhancing visualizations of results to facilitate interpretation.

Learn more about how cognitive technologies are transforming the audit profession.

https://partners.wsj.com/kpmg/transforming-the-audit-in-the-digital-age/

Cristo Rey High Schools

The Cristo Rey Network is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2000 to increase the number of schools modeled after Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, which was founded in 1996 to prepare youth from low-income families for post-secondary educational opportunities. Schools within the Network integrate four years of college preparatory academics with continuous professional work experience that pays most of the cost of a student's education. The Network includes 35 Catholic work-study preparatory schools in the United States. Cristo Rey schools admit students of all faiths and cultures, and on average 46% of Cristo Rey students are not Catholic.

History

In 1996, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago was opened by the Society of Jesus to help "students from underserved, low-income communities" prepare for college. To subsidize this effort, the school partnered with businesses, using a work-study approach, which over time became the hallmark of the Cristo Rey model. It proved helpful in preparing students for college and for entry into the business world.

In 2004, a segment on CBS 60 Minutes drew attention to the model. Some Catholic educators nationwide and some prominent philanthropists who were committed to educational reform also joined the Network.

Cristo Rey graduates began enrolling in college at rates consistent with the enrollment levels of high-income students, and completing college at a rate considerably higher than high school graduates from low-income families nationwide. The peer-reviewed Catholic Education, A Journal of Inquiry and Practice documented the replication of the model nationally and the standardization of the norms for membership. By 2015, 7,000 graduates of Cristo Rey had either earned their undergraduate degree or were currently enrolled in college. A Lexington Institute study in 2014 described Cristo Rey schools as "one of the nation’s most powerful urban education success stories.”

Corporate Work Study Program

The Corporate Work Study Program was created in 1995 by Richard R. Murray, when he was approached by the founders of Cristo Rey to help find a way to finance their new school. Each Cristo Rey school partners with a Corporate Work Study Program. The Corporate Work Study Program (a separately incorporated entity) operates like a temporary employment agency within Cristo Rey schools and employs every student five days a month in an entry-level, professional job all four years of high school. Students earn much of their education cost through participation in the work study program. Typically a student, from the age of 14, will be earning about $18/hour in tuition support. The program has been praised for allowing students to gain real-world work experience across many different fields, including law, finance, healthcare, technology, marketing, university, and many other professional offices. The Corporate Work Study Program has been shown to have a significant formative impact on students – demystifying the world outside their neighborhoods, developing workplace readiness skills, introducing them to role models and supportive mentors, and building competence, confidence, and aspiration for college and career success.

University Partners

In 2009 the Network began its University Partners program which includes 45 university partners across the country. University Partners recruit, mentor, and support the Cristo Rey graduates, along guidelines supplied by the Network.

Religious Sponsors and Endorsers

Thirty-eight religious sponsors and endorsers are primarily responsible for the religious charism and Catholicity of the schools. While the first Cristo Rey school was started by the Society of Jesus and today the Jesuits sponsor and endorse 13 schools, the Cristo Rey Network partners with 38 dioceses, orders, and congregations. The curriculum of each school includes religious studies and student a ministry program through which they explore religion, faith, and spirituality. Youth of all faiths and no faiths are welcome, and 46% of the students in the Network are not Catholic.

Growth

The process of opening a new school begins after receiving approval from the local Bishop. Every Cristo Rey Network school must complete a 12-18 month feasibility study, an assessment of need and interest, to determine if a school could succeed in that community.

Recognition

In 2008, Fr. John P. Foley, S.J., received the Presidential Citizen's Medal for his leadership in introducing this new model to Catholic education. The same year Loyola Press released More than A Dream: How One School's Vision is Changing the World. The book documents the success of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, along with the development of the Cristo Rey model and of the Cristo Rey Network of schools. The network received the 2012 Classy Award for Educational Advancement.

In 2004 "the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation had announced plans "to grant $18.9 million to create 12 new small college-preparatory high schools across the country... modeled after the highly successful Cristo Rey Jesuit High School of Chicago," and by 2008 the Gates Foundation had contributed $15.9 million for the spread of the model. In 2017 the Network was chosen as the primary beneficiary of the NFL's Corporate Cup Celebrity Challenge.

Schools in the Network

In order of the year they joined the Network, these are the current 35 Cristo Rey Network high schools:

• Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Chicago, IL (1996)
• De La Salle North Catholic High School, Portland, OR (2001)
• Verbum Dei High School*, Los Angeles, CA (2002)
• Arrupe Jesuit High School, Denver, CO (2003)
• Cristo Rey Boston High School*, Boston, MA (2004)
• St. Martin de Porres High School (Cleveland), OH (2004)
• Cristo Rey St. Martin College Prep, Waukegan, IL (2004)
• Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School, Lawrence, MA (2004)
• Cristo Rey New York High School, New York City (2004)
• San Miguel High School, Tucson (2004)
• Cristo Rey Kansas City High School, Kansas City, MO (2006)
• Cristo Rey High School, Sacramento, CA (2006)
• Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Baltimore, MD (2007)
• Holy Family Cristo Rey High School*, Birmingham, AL (2007)
• Providence Cristo Rey High School, Indianapolis, IN (2007)
• Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Minneapolis, MN (2007)
• Christ the King Preparatory School, Newark, NJ (2007)
• Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School, Takoma Park, MD (serves Washington, DC metro area) (2007)
• Cristo Rey Brooklyn High School, Brooklyn, NY (2008)
• Detroit Cristo Rey High School, Detroit, MI (2008)
• Christ the King Jesuit College Prep High School, Chicago (West Side), IL (2008)
• Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory of Houston, Houston, TX (2009)
• Immaculate Conception Academy* (All-Girls), San Francisco, CA (2009)
• DePaul Cristo Rey High School, Cincinnati, OH (2011)
• Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School, Philadelphia, PA (2012)
• Cristo Rey Columbus High School, Columbus, OH (2013)
• Cristo Rey San José Jesuit High School, San Jose, CA (2014)
• Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School. Atlanta, GA (2014)
• Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI (2015)
• Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep, Dallas, TX (2015)
• Cristo Rey Tampa High School, Tampa, FL (2016)
• Cristo Rey Baton Rouge Franciscan High School, Baton Rouge, LA (2016)
• Cristo Rey OKC, Oklahoma City, OK (2018)
• Cristo Rey Fort Worth High School, Fort Worth, TX (2018)
• Cristo Rey De La Salle East Bay High School, Oakland, CA (2018)
• Cristo Rey Richmond High School, (Richmond,VA) will open its doors to its first class of students in Fall of 2019.

*Existing school converted to Cristo Rey Network program.

Future schools

Other schools are in development in:

• Las Vegas, NV (2019)
• Richmond, VA (2019)
• Miami, FL
• San Diego, CA

                                                    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristo_Rey_Network