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Sunday, 14 October 2012

iSpy—Apple's Latest Technology

So, you're enjoying that shiny new Apple product, eh?
Showing it off to anyone who cares to listen to you, aren't you?
Well, guess what?
Your sexy new iPad/iPhone is tracking each and every move of yours. Yes, you read that right. Your iDevice is secretly tracking your moves. So, don't go off to places you aren't supposed to! ;)
Till now, the only company under the scanner for tracking users, was Google. But now, the 'oh-so-innovative' Apple's receiving the pressure. It now has to explain to its beloved users why their "cool" devices have been storing location data. The Privacy International Association has accused Apple of "astounding arrogance" over its "continued refusal to take part in any dialogue over privacy".
Eric King of Privacy International said, "Apple thinks it knows better than the rest of the industry when it comes to privacy. Other companies have faced heavy sanctions recently and now the finger is being pointed at Apple. They cannot continually refuse to engage."
But, what exactly does Apple do with all your data?
It's building a location database. Apple had earlier said in a 2010 letter that "These databases must be updated continuously to account for, among other things, the ever-changing physical landscape, more innovative uses of mobile technology, and the increasing number of Apple’s customers. Apple has always taken great care to protect the privacy of its customers."
So, if you switch off "Location Services" in Settings, Apple will remove personally identifying information and will encrypt the data before transmitting it from your phone to its servers. But, the only problem here is that the data stays on the phone (in form of a file that can't be viewed by the user) without the user's consent. Once you connect your iPad/iPhone to your computer, the file is transferred onto the computer automatically.
If a hacker chances upon that file in your computer, he can simply use one of the many freely available software programs on the Internet to decode that weakly encrypted file and see your detailed itinerary.
The file can also be viewed by an application available for the iPhone/iPad.
The icing on the cake is Pete Warden's (ex-Apple employee. Now, a British researcher) commented,"Apple has made it possible for almost anybody—a jealous spouse, a private detective—with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've been." It's 1984 all over again.
Here's a copy of Privacy International's letter to Steve Jobs.
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Corruption in India

Corruption in India - A quantitative analysis by Vani Baruah

Submitted by mgchandrakanth@... on July 12, 2012 .
This article on Corruption in India relies on a poor legal and a weak statistical base relying on mere opinions and impressions in the website www.ipaidabribe.com. Any one who visits this website can make out that neither there is accountability of the person who reports a bribe nor there is any sort of verification such as voter's ID or driving license number or ration card number or any such thing provided. Also there is no punitive clause for those who make a fake allegation. The website just asks to mention the Amount of bribe, City, Date paid, Office or Department and the Name of the Transaction towards which the bribe was paid. This does not stand a legal standing since the website hides more than what it reveals. In addition, the author has not considered the other three aspects "I did not pay a bribe", "I did not have to pay a bribe", "I don't want to pay a bribe" which also influences 'corruption'. Further, it is not the mean corruption which counts, since mean is influenced by extreme values. It is the 'modal' corruption which counts (corruption amount paid most frequently).
This comment does not mean that there is no corruption. It only means that the researcher needs to conduct a primary survey for obtaining information on the transaction costs. This vetting is crucial before totally believing the information posted on a website.
It is also crucial to note why there is such a great variation for the same operation (i.e. police verification) between the 'estimators' Mean and Median. The author draws no implication from the study. One implication could be to include the modal corruption (after due verification from primary data as suggested) paid as a 'search fee' or 'police verification fee' so that the Police Department gets this payment. Police have to maintain law and order and have other works to do and passport work needs to be accounted and involves a transaction cost which needs to be paid by the seeker. This also brings in accountability so that the seeker can always say that I have paid the fee and even though this would not guarantee that one would have a zero police verification fee, it brings in greater transparency.

Vague operational definition

Submitted by dionysian on July 12, 2012 .
In the case of passport application, policemen go to an applicant's place not only to verify his/her identity, but also to verify his/her address. This is especially true if it's a passport renewal application, wherein the applicant's identity has already been established at the time of issuing the first passport. So, the researcher's operational definition of 'passport verification' bribe is slightly vague. Say, I applied for passport for the first time and I paid a bride to the enquiry official - the policeman - when he came to my place. This includes a bribe to approve my identity as well as to verify that I stay at the given address with the knowledge of the authorities. Does the researcher's sample include passport renewal applicants? If yes, they've paid the bribe only for address verification and not for identity verification.
Otherwise, the attempt to quantify the corruption amount is commendable.

Corruption Free India

Submitted by Dr ShankarChatterjee on July 09, 2012 .
The article on Corruption in India: A Quantitative Analysis by Vani K Borooah (EPW 14 July 2012) is really sublime reading. First time an attempt has been made to quantify the level of corruption in India. After traveling across the country I have observed no one likes corruption. Corruption is the off shoot of British Policy and today our country has been getting bad name for few persons. To justify the statement, Lord Macaulay’s Address to the British Parliament on 2 February, 1835 may be mentioned here “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation”.
In recent years not only for Passport (as mentioned in the article) but to get ration card, driving license, or for any public services in most of the cities without bribe no work is complete. Need of the hour is to up-root corruption. In this context Central Vigilance Commission’s Draft Report on Anti corruption Strategy may be highlighted which inter alia, states that any anti-corruption strategy should fundamentally focus in the following manner - Character education, Citizenship and democracy education, Youth anti-corruption education, Organizing public awareness campaigns, Promoting ‘zero tolerance’ etc. Another important line of the Report is that, “Film shows and videos of people with integrity & how they grew in society through right Means”. Let us have corruption free India then the country can show path to others. No one can beat us.
Dr Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad
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Sunday, 7 October 2012

Women's Brains Contain Male DNA

The brains of women often contain male DNA, which is most likely acquired from a pregnancy with a male fetus.

Scientists have yet to discover what male DNA and male cells in the brain indicate, but there has been research of other kinds of microchimerism showing a link between the phenomenon to autoimmune diseases and cancer. Sometimes the connection is beneficial, but not always.

Microchimerism is the existence of a small number of cells that emerge from another person, which in turn, makes them genetically different from the cells of the host.

Most commonly, during pregnancy, the genetic material and cells are exchanged between fetus and mother. This form is called fetomaternal microchimerism.

Previous research has indicated that during pregnancy, some fetal cells can migrate into the mother's organs, and stay there long after the baby is born. For example, fetal cells have been found at tumor sites in women, but scientists have yet to discover whether the cells help destroy it or make matters worse.

This current study, published in PLoS One and conducted at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, is important because it is the first of its kind to report male microchimerism in the brains of women.

The discovery provides evidence for the probability that fetal cells often cross the human blood-brain barrier, while showing also that microchimerism in the brain is comparatively common. This is the first study to reveal that these cells can cross the barrier in humans.

Brain autopsy specimens from 59 females (26 had no neurological disease and 33 had Alzheimer's disease) who passed away between the ages of 32 and 101 were analyzed by the team, including William F. N. Chan, Ph.D., in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta, and J. Lee Nelson, M.D., a member of the Center's Clinical Research Division and a leading international authority on microchimerism.

The scientists detected male microchimerism in 63% of the women, which was spread across several regions of the brain. After learning that the oldest female in whom male fetal DNA was found in the brain was 94 years old, the experts believe there is a great chance that this was constant throughout the human lifespan.

A slightly lower prevalence of male microchimerism was seen in the patient's with Alzheimer's, which also appeared in lower concentrations in regions of their brains that were most influenced by the disease.

A link between Alzheimer's disease and the level of male cells of fetal origin can't yet be made, the researchers pointed out, because of the small number of women observed, and their history of pregnancy unknown.

The findings do not show a connection between male microchimerism in the female brain and relative health versus disease. "Currently, the biological significance of harboring male DNA and male cells in the human brain requires further investigation," Chan explained.

Other research conducted at Hutchinson Center of male microchimerism has demonstrated that this phenomenon affects a female's risk of some types of cancer and autoimmune disease.

Cells of fetal origin can be beneficial, for example in cases such as breast cancer. However in others, like colon cancer, the cells have been shown to cause an increased risk.

A link has also been identified in previous studies between lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis to women who had given birth to at least one child, as compared to those who never got pregnant.
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Omega 3 Could Help Improve Children's Reading Skills

New research from the UK suggests that taking a daily supplement of DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid, could be a simple and effective way to improve reading and behaviour in healthy but underperforming children.

Alex Richardson, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention at Oxford University, and colleagues, report the results of the DHA Oxford Learning and Behaviour (DOLAB) study in a paper that was published online in the open access journal PLoS ONE on 6 September.

DHA stands for Docosahexaenoic acid, an important omega-3 fatty acid that is found in fish, seafood and algae (seaweed). The type Richardson and colleagues used in the DOLAB study comes from algae, making it suitable for vegetarians.

People living in modern developed countries do not generally get enough essential omega-3 fatty acids, a lack of which is thought to contribute to a wide range of health problems, both physical and mental.


Child and mother reading a book
Omega 3 fish oils could help improve reading skills in under-performing children
Some previous clinical trials have suggested omega-3 supplements could improve child behaviour and learning, but most of these have involved children with neurodevelopmental disorders, for example ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and DCD (developmental coordination disorder).

Richardson and colleagues set out to investigate whether such benefits might extend to children in the general population.

To do this they designed a parallel group, fixed-dose, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that lasted for four months.

With help from the County Council's Education Department, they identified 362 healthy 7 to 9 year-olds attending mainstream Oxfordshire primary schools and who had underperformed in standardized reading tests. The researchers compared the effect of taking daily supplements of omega-3 DHA with placebo.

The treatment dose was 600mg per day of omega-3 DHA from algal oil, or a taste and colour-matched vegetable oil placebo, which the children took for 16 weeks. During school days, school staff administered the capsules, and on non-school days the parents gave them to the children.

Richardson told the press:

"Our results showed that taking daily supplements of omega-3 DHA improved reading performance for the poorest readers (those in the lowest fifth of the normal range) and helped these children to catch up with their peer group."


The overall study sample comprised children whose initial reading ability was in the lowest third of the general population range. The study results showed that the treatment had no effect on this overall group.

But, there was a significant improvement in reading ability in the children whose initial reading ability was in the lowest fifth of the general population range and who took DHA.

Children's reading age would normally increase by about 4 months over a 16 week period. The children whose initial reading ability was in the lowest fifth gained an extra 0.8 months if they took DHA rather than placebo. For those whose initial reading ability was in the lowest tenth, the improvement was an extra 1.9 months with DHA.

Parents of children whose initial reading perfomance was lowest and who showed improvements also said they saw an overall improvement in their children's behavior.

Funds for the study came from DSM Nutritional Products, who also provided the active and placebo supplements.

The University of Oxford is now doing a similar DHA supplementation study with a larger group of underperforming children.
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What Is Neuropathy? Neuropathy Causes And Treatments

What Is Neuropathy? Neuropathy Causes And Treatments

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Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Also Included In: Pain / Anesthetics;  Diabetes
Article Date: 20 Feb 2012 - 0:00 PDT

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What Is Neuropathy? Neuropathy Causes And Treatments

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Neuropathy is a collection of disorders that occurs when nerves of the peripheral nervous system (the part of the nervous system outside of the brain and spinal cord) are damaged. The condition is generally referred to as peripheral neuropathy, and it is most commonly due to damage to nerve axons. Neuropathy usually causes pain and numbness in the hands and feet. It can result from traumatic injuries, infections, metabolic disorders, and exposure to toxins. One of the most common causes of neuropathy is diabetes.

Neuropathy can affect nerves that control muscle movement (motor nerves) and those that detect sensations such as coldness or pain (sensory nerves). In some cases - autonomic neuropathy - it can affect internal organs, such as the heart, blood vessels, bladder, or intestines.

Pain from peripheral neuropathy is often described as a tingling or burning sensation. There is no specific length of time that the pain exists, but symptoms often improve with time - especially if the neuropathy has an underlying condition that can be cured. The condition is often associated with poor nutrition, a number of diseases, and pressure or trauma, but many cases have no known reason (called idiopathic neuropathy).

In the United States, about 20 million people suffer from neuropathy. Over half of diabetes patients also suffer from the condition.

How is neuropathy classified?

Peripheral neuropathy can be broadly classified into the following categories:
  • Mononeuropathy - involvement of a single nerve. Examples include carpal tunnel syndrome, ulnar nerve palsy, radial nerve palsy, and peroneal nerve palsy.
  • Multiple mononeuropathy - two or more nerves individually affected.
  • Polyneuropathy - generalized involvement of peripheral nerves. Examples include diabetic neuropathy and Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Neurophathies may also be categorized based on a functional classification (motor, sensory, autonomic, or mixed) or the type of onset (acute - hours or days, subacute - weeks or months, or chronic - months or years).

The most common form of neuropathy is (symmetrical) peripheral polyneuropathy, which mainly affects the feet and legs on both sides of the body.

What causes neuropathy?

About 30% of neuropathy cases are considered idiopathic, which means they are of unknown cause. Another 30% of neuropathies are due to diabetes. In fact, about 50% of people with diabetes develop some type of neuropathy. The remaining cases of neuropathy, called acquired neuropathies, have several possible causes, including:
  • Trauma or pressure on nerves, often from a cast or crutch or repetitive motion such as typing on a keyboard
  • Nutritional problems and vitamin deficiencies, often from a lack of B vitamins
  • Alcoholism, often through poor dietary habits and vitamin deficiencies
  • Autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Guillain-Barre syndrome
  • Tumors, which often press up against nerves
  • Other diseases and infections, such as kidney disease, liver disease, Lyme disease, HIV/AIDS, or an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism)
  • Inherited disorders (hereditary neuropathies), such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and amyloid polyneuropathy
  • Poison exposure, from toxins such as heavy metals, and certain medications and cancer treatments

Who gets neuropathy?

Risk factors for peripheral neuropathy include several conditions and behaviors. People with diabetes who poorly control their blood sugar levels are very likely to suffer from some neuropathy. Autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis also increase one's chance of developing a neuropathy. People who have received organ transplants, AIDS patients, and others who have had some type of immune system suppression have a higher risk of neuropathy. In addition, those who abuse alcohol or have vitamin deficiencies (especially B vitamins) are at an increased risk. Neuropathy is also more likely to occur in people with kidney, liver or thyroid disorders.

What are the symptoms of neuropathy?

Neuropathy symptoms depend on several factors, chiefly where the affected nerves are located and which type of nerves are affected (motor, sensory, autonomic). Several types of neuropathy affect all three types of nerves. Some neuropathies suddenly arise while others come on gradually over the course of years.

Motor nerve damage usually leads to symptoms that affect muscles such as muscle weakness, cramps, and spasms. It is not uncommon for this type of neuropathy to lead to a loss of balance and coordination. Patients may find it difficult to walk or run, feel like they have heavy legs, stumble, or tire easily. Damage to arm nerves may make it difficult to do routine tasks like carry bags, open jars, or turn door knobs.

Sensory nerve damage can cause various symptoms, such as an impaired sense of position, tingling, numbness, pinching and pain. Pain from this neuropathy is often described as burning, freezing, or electric-like, and many report a sensation of wearing an invisible "glove" or "stocking". These sensations tend to be worse at night, and can become painful and sever. On the contrary, sensory nerve damage may lead to a lessening or absence of sensation, where nothing at all is felt.

Autonomic nerve damage affects internal organs and involuntary functions and can lead to abnormal blood pressure and heart rate, reduced ability to perspire, constipation, bladder dysfunction, diarrhea, incontinence, sexual dysfunction, and thinning of the skin.

How is neuropathy diagnosed?

Nerve conduction velocity test
a nerve conduction test
Peripheral neuropathy is often not easy to diagnose. It is not a single disease, but a symptom with often several potential causes. The standard diagnostic process begins with a full medical history with physical and neurological exams that will examine tendon reflexes, muscle strength and tone, the ability to feel sensations, and posture and coordination. Blood tests are also common in order for doctors to measure levels of vitamin B-12. Other common tests include urinalysis, thyroid function tests, and a nerve conduction study that includes electromyography (to measure electrical discharges produced in muscles). Physicians may also recommend a nerve biopsy, where a small portion of nerve is removed and examined under a microscope.

How is neuropathy treated?

There are a variety of treatments available for peripheral neuropathy. They range from traditional pills and creams to special diets and therapies that stimulate the nervous system. Antidepressants, especially tricyclics and selective serotonin-norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitors (SNRI's), are a favored treatment for neuropathies. They will relieve neuropathic pain in non-depressed persons.

In June 2012, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Nursing reported that Cymbalta (duloxetine), an antidepressant, can relieve the symptoms of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Another class of medicines commonly prescribed for neuropathy is that of anticonvulsants. These medicines block calcium channels on neurons to limit pain. Opioid narcotic treatments for neuropathy are used as well to treat the condition, but are less favored because of the risk of dependency. However, opioids have been the most consistently effective in reducing pain.

For some types of neuropathy, such as post-herpes neuralgia, physicians recommend treatment with a topical anesthetic such as lidocaine. Topical applications of capsaicin (the chemical that makes peppers hot) has also been used to treat neuropathic pain.

Alternative therapies for peripheral neuropathy include cannabinoids (an class of chemicals found in marijuana), Botulinum Toxin Type A (better known as Botox), NMDA antagonists (such as ketamine), dietary supplements (such as alpha lipoic and benfotiamine), chiropractic massages, yoga, meditation, cognitive therapy, and accupuncture.

A final class of therapies for neuropathy are called neuromodulators. These include both implantable and non-implantable technologies (electrical and chemical) such as spinal cord stimulators, implanted spinal pumps, electrodes that stimulate the motor cortex of the brain, and methods called deep brain stimulation.

How can neuropathy be managed and prevented?

There are several ways to manage neuropathy and prevent its symptoms. Good foot health is important, especially for diabetics. Patients should check feet for blisters, cuts, or calluses and avoid tight fitting shoes and socks. Doctors can recommend an exercise plan that will reduce neuropathy pain and control blood sugar levels. Patients should also quit smoking and eat healthful meals. Massages of hands and feet may also aid neuropathy management by stimulating nerves and temporarily relieving pain. Finally, it is advised to avoid prolonged pressure on knees or elbows in order to prevent new nerve damage.
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Saturday, 6 October 2012

More spring cleaning

Technology offers so many opportunities to help improve users’ lives. This means it is really important to focus or we end up doing too much with too little impact. So today we’re winding down a bunch more features—bringing the total to nearly 60 since we started our “spring” clean last fall.

  • AdSense for Feeds was designed to help publishers earn revenue from their content by placing ads on their RSS feeds. Starting October 2, we’ll begin to retire this feature—and on December 3 we’ll close it. Publishers can continue to use FeedBurner URLs powered by Google, so they won’t need to redirect subscribers to different URLs. For more information visit the AdSense Help Center.
  • Classic Plus is a Google Search feature that lets people upload or select images to use as a background on Google.com. Users won’t be able to upload new pictures starting from October 16, and we'll turn the service off in November 2012. You'll continue to have access to any images you've uploaded.
  • Google storage in Picasa and Drive will be consolidated over the next few months, so users will have five GB of free storage across both services. If you’re paying for storage, your free storage will now be counted towards your total. So if you buy a 100GB plan, it will give you 100GB of total storage instead of adding to what you already had. We believe this approach will make it much easier for users. For both free and paid storage, people at or near their current storage limits will have the same amount of storage after this change.
  • Spreadsheet Gadgets were designed to allow people to add customized features to Google Spreadsheets. But most popular gadgets have now been added directly into charts in spreadsheets. So we will slowly start turning off Gadgets in Spreadsheets next year.
  • Starting on October 15, we'll stop issuing and displaying Google News Badges, as well as showing Recommended Sections. People can still tailor their Google News experience by adding custom sections or adjusting the frequency with which news sources appear.
  • We've merged Insights for Search into a revamped Google Trends. You can now see search trends and compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties in a single place: google.com/trends. We will no longer support Trends for Websites, which allowed people to compare traffic to and audiences of different websites.
  • Places Directory was an Android app that helped people find nearby places of interest. We've removed the app from Google Play and are taking down the Places Directory site because users can find everything in Google Maps for Mobile, which offers a much better user experience.
  • We introduced +1 Reports in Webmaster Tools to help publishers measure +1 activity on their pages. Given that webmasters now use Social Reports in Google Analytics to get a wider view of social activity (including +1’s), we'll be discontinuing the stand-alone +1 Reports on November 14. Measuring social media remains a priority for Google Analytics, so stay tuned for future improvements.
We want people to have a beautifully simple experience when using Google. These changes will enable us to focus better so that we can do more to help improve the products that millions of people use multiple times a day.
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Celebrating teachers who make a difference with Google

For most of us, there’s at least one teacher whose name we will never forget—that favorite teacher who made a difference in our education, whether they were our first grade art teacher or a professor in college. For me, that teacher was Ms. Taylor, my 8th grade science teacher. Ms. Taylor didn't just foster my love of science—she understood that 8th grade can be a tough time for students as they try to navigate social cliques and prepare for the pressure of high school. Ms. Taylor knew that taking the time to ask us if we were feeling okay was just as important as teaching us about geological formations. She didn’t just care about teaching us—she genuinely cared about us as people.

This Friday is World Teachers' Day, and we want to honor the teachers like Ms. Taylor who helped make us the people we are today. We’ve long supported education through technology, offering free tools like YouTube Edu and Google Apps for Education, and by developing cost-efficient devices like Chromebooks. But it’s the teachers who really make the difference by creatively incorporating that technology into their classrooms. As technology usage in schools increases, we hear even more amazing stories about how teachers and students are using our products to foster collaborative learning.

And that usage is growing quickly. As of today, more than 20 million students, faculty and staff worldwide use Google Apps for Education. In addition, in the last year we announced that:

  • 400+ universities are posting lectures and/or full courses online using YouTube Edu
  • 600,000 staff from the Philippines Department of Education will now be using Google Apps
  • Universities across the continents are signing up for Apps, including schools in Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Africa
  • More than 500 schools and districts went back to school with Chromebooks this fall
  • Seven of the eight Ivy League universities and 72 of this year’s top 100 U.S. universities (as determined by 2013 U.S. News and World Report’s ranking) have gone Google with Google Apps for Education
As a tribute to the educators who are putting these tools to work, this week we’ll be highlighting a few amazing teachers on our Google in Education page on Google+. To kick off the series, we want to celebrate Ms. Kornowski—a science teacher at Kettle-Moraine High School in Wales, WI, who is using Google Forms to bring her students together.
To all the Ms. Taylors and Ms. Kornowskis out there—thank you, both for the positive impact you have on your students and for letting Google be a part of that experience.
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