Dogs like humans are wired to run

As we do, dogs experience a « runner’s high » i.e. a jump of their endocannabinoid blood level after running.

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It appears that we and our dogs are wired to run, a scientist says, as a consequence of the brain production of endocannabinoid that triggers our shared appetite for running.
Prof Raichlen and colleagues wanted to “to test the hypothesis that neurobiological rewards are linked to high-intensity exercise in cursorial mammals” (quoted). Their results just confirmed their hypothesis: “We show that humans and dogs share significantly increased exercise-induced eCB signaling following high-intensity endurance running” (quoted).

There are many similarities between the dogs and us, beside being mammals, loving our babies, loving to play (especially with balls or balloons), having a great sense of property, we also share, as I just have discovered it, thanks to Professor David Raichlen, the delights of the runner’s high.

As for us, human beings, running is for dogs a necessity, be it for hunting and chasing their prey or fleeing a danger such as a mightier predator.

So the evolution made the fact of running a real pleasure for our two species using for that purpose a little molecule secreted by our brain: the endocannabinoid. It acts as a reward for the individuals who manage to train and maintain their running capacities.

Professor Raichlen’s merit, as an anthropologist, stands in the fact that he demonstrates the phenomenon is not a human specificity but exists also for some other mammals close to us like dogs. (Note that non cursorial mammals like ferrets are excluded from this encouraging, rewarding mechanism).

Photos credits and writting by Philippe Ha-Vinh

More information and content:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22442371

Raichlen DA, Foster AD, Gerdeman GL, Seillier A, Giuffrida A. Wired to run: exercise-induced endocannabinoid signaling in humans and cursorial mammals with implications for the ‘runner’s high’. The Journal of experimental biology. 2012 Apr;215(Pt 8):1331-1336. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.063677.

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To the North

I woke up early this morning a 3:30 AM with the intention to go northerly by train.

Marseille (Photo credit: -eko-)

The Calanque of Sugiton in the 9th arrondissement of Marseille (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Entrance of the Paris gare de Lyon station (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: TGV hall of the “Gare de Lyon” railway station, Paris, France. Français : Hall TGV de la gare de Lyon, Paris, France. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gare de Lyon, Paris, France (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Though it is useless to stipulate your direction when you plan to leave the southern suburbs of Marseille because the only one direction that is possible to take is precisely the North since the South and the West are occupied by the Mediterranean sea and the bay of Marseille and the East is blocked by the Calanques which are as you may not know, a desert of rocks absolutely deprived of any road, not to mention railway.

So as I said, I woke up early to go to the North by train and more accurately by TGV a.k.a. Train à Grande Vitesse (which can be translated in High Speed Train).
The TGV represents in France the equivalent of what the plane represents in the USA: the easiest way to travel across the country; be it fo visiting family or for work. This early morning of May the 22nd my destination was a professional meeting in the northern suburb of Paris called “La plaine Saint Denis”. For that purpose I stepped down in the subway station Rond Point du Prado at 5:00 AM precisely in the southern suburb of Marseille. A moment later, comfortably seated in a TGV first class wagon I was glazing at a screen indicating the speed: the numbers oscillated between 260 and 301 kilometres per hour (i.e. 161 and 187 miles per hour). 3 hours and 20 minutes later after my departure I stood on the pier of the railways station called “Gare de Lyon” which, as its name does not indicate, is precisely located in Paris (French are not always logical persons). Like Marseille’s ones, the railways stations of Paris are in dead ends (trains have to go back to were they come from). But for different reasons: Marseille is at an extremity of the land route while Paris is the rail network centre. After a chat with my colleagues and a lunch I am now on my way home, coming back, crossing at 300 kilometres per hour speed the green landscape of France. If all goes well I would enjoy the diner in my place of abode next my beloved wife in Marseille around half past eight.

So it is not an exaggeration to say that, with the TGV, Paris nears Marseille more than it has ever done before. Indeed I have made the journey Marseille Paris and back in less than 15 hours, this time including a working session and a lunch. Never the less, despite this miracle of the technology, why have I the fuzzy feeling of having just wasting my time? Would it be because the wisdom teaches us that “the goal is the way”? ; For sure, 300 kilometres per hour might be a speed too high to enjoy mindfully the way.

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A trip in Buthan

If you wish to follow the journey of my cousin in Buthan click here.

As a former head of education services at the international red cross committee in Geneva, he has been hired by the King of Buthan and his Prime minister to coordinate a mission at an international level to promote the Buthan’s Gross national Happiness policy.

The PIP prosthesis lawsuit

It is not the first time in France that a lawsuit is intended on the basis of the bad quality of a health product.

The photograph shows grade IV capsular contracture in the right breast of a 29-year-old woman seven years after subglandular placement of 560cc silicone gel-filled breast implants. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mastectomie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Figure of the anatomical position of a subglandular breast implant. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Chest X-ray showing bilateral breast implants. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We all remember the case of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus contaminated blood in the transfusion centers case. Now the lights of the actuality are focused on the Poly Implant Prosthèse, a brand of breast implants made in France. At the difference with the transfusion scandal where the French health services where solely implicated, in the PIP case, there are some intermediaries. Indeed those devices were guarantied by a Community European (CE) label and controlled, on behalf of the governments agencies by a private audit society, in that case a German certifying company called TÜV Rheinland Holding. Recently Dominique Maraninchi the director since February 2011 of the former Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Produits de Santé (French Agency for the Safety of Health Products AFSSAPS), now called since May 1st 2012 the Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament et des Produits de Santé ( National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products ANSM), which, in parentheses, is not much easier to pronounce and far of the simplicity of the name of its American counterpart the FDA, said that (quoted): “Our oversight system isn’t adequate. It allowed a fraud of this size to take place for years. The system is based on certifying companies that check only what is presented to them”, end of quotation. It is interesting to notice that the Professor Maraninchi being a specialist in oncology has been at the head of the Regional Centre of Cancer of Marseille during 16 years and that the PIP prosthesis were for a large part implanted in the aftermath of breast cancer treatments. Thus we can think that the Professor Maraninchi has at heart that the cancer patients will be heard and exactly compensated be they victim of a PIP defective breast implant. It is also an other Doctor from Marseille, the plastic surgeon Christian Marinetti, who whistle blowed years ago against the particular fragility of the PIP implants.
So the less that we can say is that the responsibilities where diluted between the European Community label (CE), countries governmental agencies and the private certifying company. As the lawyers use to proceed pragmatically and knowing that PIP has just run into bankruptcy, guess whom they will attack first.

More content:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-29/europe-weighs-tougher-breast-implant-scrutiny

http://www.tuv.com/en/geschaeftsbericht/auf_einen_blick/unternehmensprofil/unternehmensprofil.jsp

http://www.ansm.sante.fr/

http://www.ansm.sante.fr/var/ansm_site/storage/original/application/0262abf0685c8e136443cd73f0986a12.pdf

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French drugmaker on trial

Until now the pharmaceutical enterprises in France were spared by lawyers and plaintiffs.

i take drugs (Photo credit: the|G|™)

On its side the French State, instead of launching lawsuits as many States of North America did, preferred on one hand to raise public taxes based on the pharmaceutical industry’s revenues and on the other hand to regulate heavily the prices of the drugs approved for the French market. But recently the trend changed. And the consumers now ask to civil or penal courts to evaluate the damages they think they have been victim of. And more than that, the state is held for responsible in the mind of many citizens for not having asked the trial to be held before.
The risk of such trials, if they lead to plenty of punitive verdicts against the pharmaceutical firms is the future increases of the prices of medicines (because no enterprise can afford itself to lose money at the end of the day).

More content
French drugmaker on trial over weight-loss pill

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A health services author blog

I would like to share an interesting Blog written by a French physician adviser of the French Social Security.

Drug companies use direct-to-prescriber advertising in an effort to convince prescribers to dispense as written with brand-name products rather than generic drugs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Written in French it gives good advises to insured people but also to care providers for dealing with the administrative rules which, as every body knows, are some times indubitably complicated. I congratulate this health services author for giving a consequent part of his time to the writing of this useful website accessible to the lay person as well as to the professional.
As often when the author of a blog belongs to an administration or a company under the supervision of the government, the blogger seems to prefer to stay anonymous since I was unable to find the name of the author. But nevertheless the content is noticeable since it addresses such sensitive topics as work loss compensation, pay for performance, off label prescription, psycho social disorders at work, disability, generic drugs, new drug approval etc…

More content:

• google reader index of the blog quoted above.

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Instead of exporting manufactured products to Africa you should form its engineers

I recently saw two videos reproduced here and they provoked the thought stated above in the title of this post.
The first video advertised a carbon for water program consisting in sending to Africa a lot of water filters. The second was about solar-powered internet schools manufactured by Samsung and placed on the African soil.

And then I remembered this young engineer, whose name is Tsengue Tsengue, student of the Ecole Centrale de Paris, who came back in his native country, namely the Congo, to patent several of his invention and install a factory which hired numerous young unemployed.

What should be the best: bringing materials and devices already packaged to Africa or bringing well-educated African engineers to Africa? Neither of the two propositions aren’t good in my view. Instead, the best would be to form directly engineers in Africa with exchange of students between Africa and other countries. Indeed I think that it serves better the African’s interests to develop enterprises leaded by African entrepreneurs than to carry toward Africa devices and goods already manufactured abroad. That’s why the OAPI (African Intellectual Property Organization) must be strongly supported. Patented African innovations would be the only pathway to reduce the unemployment of the youth and to enhance the proud of African nations.

Here below is another video in French about Tsenge Tsenge and his enterprise called Challenge Futura, click below:
http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xkcffn_rencontre-avec-l-inventeur-tsengue-tsengue_news
Rencontre avec l’inventeur Tsengue-Tsengue par Congo-SiteOfficiel

My husband, your president

Presidential election: a meeting at the Virginia Commonwealth University.

Today France votes for electing its president. We have seen a lot of discourses and meeting an debates by our beloved French candidates. But let’s take a look at how a candidate to the presidential election expresses his program in a foreign country like the US of America for example.
A one and a half hour-long broadcast of a Barack’s and Michelle Obama’s speak in Virginia yesterday (May 5th 2012) in view of the November election in North America. The meeting begin with good sound (soul and rock music) and good vibe, then a lecture by Michelle, the spouse of the current president. We believe that in this country nobody should be bankrupted because he is sick 23 she says among other thoughts. And at the end of her speak, she says: Virginia I introduce to you my Husband and your president: President Barack Obama 32: 59.

In his program he puts education in the first place and then he makes choices for a cleaner energy than oil. He wants to end the war in Irak and Afghanistan after a decade of war. For budget balance he wants the healthiest Americans to pay a little bit more. He wants to allow young people to stay covered by their parents health care insurance. He wants an affordable birth control.

He also says: “We want our businesses to succeed but corporations aren’t people, people are people, in this country people succeed when they have a chance to get decent education and learn new skills 47:54. And by the way so do the businesses that hire those people or the companies that those people start. Our country is stronger when we can count on affordable health care and medicare and social security 49:20″

Near the end of his intervention Barack Obama declares that his campaign is about hope, changes and ordinary people 1:10
He concludes by God bless you and god bless the United States of America 1:12 and Michelle joins him on stage and makes some steps of rock and roll dance. And finally they leave the congress hall together, shaking hands. What a wonderful couple!

It seems that exactly like the two French candidates does in May the 6th, Barack will need a little help of his supporters in November the 6th.

Note: the numbers spread all over the text are the minutes (and hour in the end) of the video’s time counter.

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Inspiring stories and beautiful pictures about humankind

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Photographers, poets and writers often focus on topics related to health or at least well-being which is a concept very near from health.
I have just discovered this wonderful Blog which tales us short stories along with heart minded photographs, all of them talking about humankind and inner feelings. An other Blog reminds me this kind of inspiration, and precisely its name his “inspiration and Chai”. Inspiration nurtures the mind and Chai warmth the body can we read under the title of this Blog as a mission statement. Surfing those kinds of Blogs makes you feel much better afterward. We could say that they play a mindfulness inducing role. Better than antidepressant isn’t it?

Above are examples of  photographs I dug up in one of those  Blogs referenced below.

More content:

1) Pictoryblog. View true daily photo stories from contributors around the world, or submit your own.

http://blog.pictorymag.com/

2) Inspiration and Chai

http://www.inspirationandchai.com/
3) WrittenImpact. Let us tell your Compelling Human and Business Story.
http://www.writtenimpact.com/blog/2011/12/do-this-one-thing-now/

4) Humankind, voices of hope and humanity

http://www.humanmedia.org/catalog/home.php

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IT Arrogance vs. Academic Culture -- Why the Outcome Is Virtually Certain

Reblogged from The Scholarly Kitchen:

• 

Trip to Tibet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Does scholarly publishing drive information technology (IT)? Or does IT drive scholarly publishing?

If you believe the former, you essentially agree that academic culture trumps technology — that incentives reflecting a deeper belief system ultimately blunt and shape any intrusion of technology; legal and cultural precedents largely withstand the whims of technological change; and human nature remains fundamentally the same despite a new veneer of technological capabilities.

Read more… 1,756 more words

A tremendous post on the question to know whether information technologies trump the scholarly publishing or whether the academic publishing subordinates itself to the information technologies. In my view the response is that both statements are true because the respective influence is not at all linear but instead pretty much interactive. As for the sponsored payments by the tobacco industry for author-paid open access publishing, the expression of concern is also relevant for the traditional publishing because private corporations can very well sponsor subscriptions in reader-paid publishing. The key point is the conflict of interest disclosure (which is perhaps more easy to uncover in the open access publishing where the payment is made on behalf of the author).

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