Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Ang computer simulation ay isang uri ng eksperimento



Hindi ko mapigilang i-share itong isang pag-uusap sa isang episode ng palabas na CSI Las Vegas kung saan naghuhulog ng mga manikin si Dr. Grissom mula sa iba't ibang palapag ng isang gusali para makita kung saan nahulog ang isang biktima. Kung gagamitan ng teorya ng projectile motion ay hindi na kailangan nilang gawin ang paghuhulog ng mga manikin para malaman kung saan nahulog ang katawan. Ang binanggit niya na computer simulation ay maaari ng gawin gamit ang teoryang ito. Tama nga yung sinabi ni Sara na "old school" si Grissom sa pag-imply na hindi "science" ang paggamit ng computer simulation.

Umusbong ang computer simulation bilang isang pamamaraan para masagot ang mga katanungan sa larangan ng meteorology at nuclear physics pagkatapos ng World War II ayon sa isang libro ni Eric Winsberg (mababasa din ito sa isang article niya sa journal na Philosophy Compass). Ngunit sa panahon ngayon ay marami pa ring mga siyentista ang hindi ito naiintindihan o duda pa rin dito. Talaga ngang nag-aapply ang "law of uneven development" maging sa mga siyentista.


UPDATE (12:03 AM): Pasalamat naman ako at may napaisip sa post na ito, at heto ang palitan ng mga ideya.

N: May tanong pala ako. Kaya mo bang magsimulate ng walang modelo?

Me: hindi yata.

N: So yun yata ang sagot. Kase kung may modelo kana at kaya mo nang makita sa computer ang results, ano pang sense ng experimento?

Me: hindi ko gets ang tanong. sorry. paki-elaborate please. :)

N: Iniisip ko kase parang ganito...simulation ay hindi kapareho ng true experiments. 1) hindi yata* nagwowork ang simulation kapag walang model at 2) kung may model ka naman, malamang wala kanang makukuhang novel insights sa simulation kase nasa model na iyon. Tama ba iniisip ko?

Me: ay hindi. marami ding insights na nanggagaling sa computer simulations. wala akong ma-cite sa ngayon pero next time pag may maisip ako, i-share ko sayo. syempre ang computer experiments ay napapailalim pa rin sa walang tigil na proseso ng teorya-eksperimento-teorya.

N: Sa experiments, malalaman mong tama o mali ang model based sa experiment mo. Ang totoong arbiter ng truth ay kung ano ang pinakamalapit na nangyayari sa kalawakan. Anung silbi nang nangyayari sa loob ng computer kung hindi ito tugma sa tunay na nangyayari. Anung basehang ng tama o mali?

Me: syempre ang model galing sa actual na obserbasyon pero pinasimple (kaya model). tapos kapag pinagpatuloy ang proseso sa simpleng bersyon (model) sa pamamagitan ng computer (eksperimento) ay nagkakaroon tayo (hopefully) ng idea kung ano kulang sa model (teorya). tapos pwedeng maging motivation para sa totoong laboratory eksperimento para kumpirmahin.

N: But I agree, nagsisimulate din ako at may nakukuha rin akong mga bago pero hindi katulad ng nakukuha ko sa tunay na pagbubutingting.

Me: op kors. hindi ko naman sinasabi na stand-alone ang computer experiments. parte lang sya ng buong proseso. salamat sa comments. :)

N: salamat din sa pagpost. napaisip ako. kase nagsisimulate ako ngayon. pareho ang nakukuha ko sa simulation at experiments. napaisip ako tuloy kung ano ang silbi ng experiments.

Me: HAHAHA. wag mong iwanan ang totoong experiments. yan ang mas may value. kumbaga resulta lang naman ng teorya ang simulation results mo. at kung pareho sila ay maaaring tama ang teorya mo. walang katapusang proseso ito. walang katapusan. hehe ;)

N: oo nga. Minsan sa mga post, mapapaisip ka talaga. salamat.

Link

Friday, September 21, 2012

Pag-uusap sa dalawang pulis sa estasyon ng tren sa Leer

Photo source: The Hindu
The Leer train station is a border station between the Netherlands and Germany. I took a train from Groningen to Leer in order to transfer to a train to Bremen. Immediately after getting off at Leer two German policemen walked towards me. One policeman asked for my passport while the other policeman approached a black guy who also boarded off from the same train. After giving him my Dutch residence permit, I asked him if he was checking everyone.

Policeman 1: No.
Me: Why are checking me?
Policeman 1: It's in the law.

He asked for my passport because, according to him, my residence permit was not complete. I don't know what else he wanted to know about me. I gave him my Philippine passport.

Me: So it's in the law that you check me but not everyone else?
Policeman 1: Because you don't look German.
Me: That is discrimination. How does a German citizen look anyway?
Policeman 1: (Maybe a bit annoyed already) You can look it up under Schengen Law Article 20.
Me: I think that law is discriminatory.
Policeman 1: You can write the authorities if you want.

I was a bit taken aback by his next question after he looked at my passport.

Policeman 1: Are you a seaman?

Me: No, I'm not a seaman although there are many Filipinos who are because big shipping companies can exploit them for cheaper labor. I am studying in the Netherlands.
Policeman 1: What are you studying?
Me: Is it also in the law?
Policeman 1: No, I'm just curious.
Me: I usually want to discuss about my studies, but I am not in the mood to do so. Sorry.

He dialed a number in his cellphone and mentioned my name to the other person on the phone aside from talking about other stuff which I didn't get. The second policeman joined in. Smiling, he asked me something in German. He asked me if I speak German.

Me: Nee. (I don't know why, but my brain suddenly switched to Dutch.)
Policeman 2: Only English?
Me: Not just English. I also speak Filipino and Cebuano, which is my mother tongue. There are more than 80 languages in our country.

Policeman 1 returned my documents and I proceeded to the train. What a wonderful way of saying "Welcome to Germany!"

Link

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Bakit tayo natutulog at nagigising araw-araw?

This is my original reply to Pinay Observer for her Pinoy Scientists website. As you can see, the second photo is different as well as the answer to the fourth question. The photo was changed because she could not find me in this photo, and I won't tell where I am in the photo. Haha. The answer to the fourth question was too long for the website.

1) What do you do?
I am doing a PhD in Chronobiology. We try to explain several properties of biological clocks using mathematical models. We focus on circadian oscillations which have periods close to 24 hours.

2) Where do you work?
I work in the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

3) Tell us about the photos?
(a) Discussing chronobiology problems with a group of PhD students at the 2009 European Summer School in Chronobiology which was held in Krakow, Poland.


(b) Expressing solidarity with the cleaners in the Netherlands at a nationally-coordinated March for Respect organized by the FNV (Federation of Dutch Trade Union).


4) Anything else you want to share?
We all sleep and wake up everyday. Our sleep-wake schedule is governed by the circadian clock system in our body. It is mainly orchestrated by a master circadian clock which is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a group of around 10,000 neurons in the hypothalamus and directly sits at the gate where the optic nerve enters the brain. The location of the SCN may have a functional role as its important function is to synchronize the entire body to the environmental light-dark cycle.

If we live in a cave for several days without any information of the 24-hour light-dark cycle, we will eventually sleep and wake up with a period different from 24 hours. This period is our so-called freerunning period and there is diversity in its value from individual to individual: some have short (meaning less than 24 hours) and others have long periods. It was found from several experiments that humans have an average period of around 24 hours and 15 minutes. There is a relationship between a person's freerunning period and his/her so-called chronotype. A person of early chronotype is sometimes called a morning person while those of late chronotype evening persons. Although there are other factors involved, a morning person usually have a short freerunning period and an evening person a long freerunning period. Circadian biologists are looking into this and other related questions on animal behavior. Researches in this field has implications in our understanding of human evolution and in improvement of human health and well-being.

Link

Monday, July 02, 2012

Ren Qing: Paano ka makikilala ng ibang tao?



Ito ang paborito kong Chinese character. Nakuha ko ito sa isang kaibigang Intsik na nag-aaral din dito at nakilala ko sa isang poster session ng aming research school. Napag-usapan kasi namin kasama ng isa pang estudyanteng Intsik na bago pa lang dito ang tungkol sa sitwasyon nya sa kanyang opisina partikular kung paano sya pakitunguhan ng kanyang mga katrabaho. Ang pagkaalala ko ay parang hindi nya gaanong gusto kung paano sya pakitunguhan nila. Nabanggit ko na dapat syang sumama sa araw-araw nila na coffee break kahit pa hindi sya mahilig magkape kasi isang pagkakataon iyon na makilala nya ang kanyang mga katrabaho at makikilala din sya nila. Sabi ko na maaaring magbabago ang pakikitungo sa kanya ng mga katrabaho nya kung siya din ay mas makilala nila. Sumang-ayon naman ang isang Intsik at binanggit itong "ren qing" at pinasulat ko sa kanya ang karakter nito. Kung tama itong intindi ko, ang "ren qing" daw ay yung personalidad ng isang tao na malalaman lamang ng iba kapag lagi siyang nakikisalamuha nila.

Link

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Magpasalamat tayo sa mga magsasaka



Sa Pilipinas, marami sa mamamayan ay nagdadasal bago kumain. Sa mga taong madasalin, sa susunod ay huwag nating kalimutang magpasalamat sa mga magsasaka na siyang nagbanat ng buto para lang may aanihin na siyang kakainin natin. Ang malungkot nito ay kalakhan ng lupa sa bansa ay pagmamay-ari ng iilang pamilya lamang, samantalang ang mga magsasaka ay nananatiling walang lupa at hawak sa leeg ng mga nagmamay-ari ng lupa o yung mga tinatawag na panginoong maylupa (landlord). Karamihan ng mga magsasaka sa Pilipinas ay nagugutom, baon sa utang, at hindi kayang pag-aralin ang mga anak.

Sa susunod na dasal, pasalamatan natin ang mga magsasaka. Sa susunod, ipagdasal din natin na magkaroon na sila ng sariling lupang sasakahin. Higit pa sa dasal, makiisa tayo sa kanilang pakikibaka para sa tunay na reporma sa lupa.

Link

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Paano ba gumawa ng bagong uri ng nilalang?

Simple lang. Magculture ng yeast. I-shake ito araw-araw. Ilan sa mga yeast cells ay lulubog at didikit sa sahig ng bote. Kunin ang mga yeast na ito at gumawa ng bagong culture nila. I-shake ang bagong culture araw-araw at kunin ang mga mabilis dumikit sa ilalim. Ulitin ito at pagkatapos ng dalawang buwan may isang uri na ng yeast na may kakaibang ugali kaysa sa ordinaryong yeast, isang bagong nilalang. Ito ay isang halimbawa ng tinatawag na "artificial selection". Ginagawa ito ng mga agrikulturista at magsasaka sa mahabang panahon para makapagpayabong ng binhi na may kaaya-ayang ugali.

Anong klaseng yeast ba ang nabubuo sa ganitong paraan? Basahin ang buong balita dito (in English).













Original paper:
Ratcliff, Denisona, Borrelloa, & Travisanoa, Experimental evolution of multicellularity PNAS January 31, 2012

Link

Monday, June 11, 2012

Bakit ba may mga taong masungit?

Heto ang isang interview na ginawa ko para sa June 2012 issue ng BCN newsletter. Basically pinapakilala lang ang mga bagong myembro ng research school kaya tinatanong din ang background ng researcher. Kung gusto nyo na basahin agad ang tungkol sa kanyang saliksik, pumunta dito. Hindi po ako psychologist kaya pagpasensyahan nyo na kung medyo mababaw ang ilang tanong.


Dr. Marije aan het Rot: Unraveling the psychology and biology of social interactions


"One third of our life involves interaction with other people."
Have you ever wondered why on some days you feel blooming in the morning only to feel blue in the afternoon? Or have you encountered a person who cannot seem to hold a conversation without making sarcastic remarks all the time? Or a person you want to be with because of the positive energy he projects every time you talk to him? These and other related questions about mood and social interactions are what keeps Dr. Marije aan het Rot busy.

Dr. aan het Rot is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. With a PhD degree in Neuroscience in 2007 from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and a postdoctoral fellowship in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York, USA) until 2009, she has been working in the University of Groningen (RuG) since August 2009 where she studies serotonin and social interactions in the context of psychopathology. She received a VENI award from NWO to study the regulation of social functioning by serotonin in people at risk for depression. She is very curious about the interplay between social and biological factors in determining mood and influencing risk for mood disorders.

In the university website, under your research impression page, it says “for positive social interactions, you need both psychology and biology.” What’s the difference between the two fields?

“I don’t think there is necessarily a difference. You have a lot of people arguing that there is mind on one side and the brain on the other side, but that’s already a philosophical debate. Here in our department, I’m the only one who does experimental manipulations on the biological level, everybody else does cognitive manipulations, which is equally interesting and I learn a lot about that. For example, they let people read a very sad story; how does that influence people’s mood? Or they let people listen to a certain piece of music; how does that influence mood? So those are more psychological experiments, but at some level, I believe, they must get to the biology. Similarly, if I do a biological experiment, I am getting to the psychology because I am eliciting effects on mood.”

In February 2012, aan het Rot formally joined BCN, but she started supervising Kristina Miloserdov, a BCN Master student, before that, together with Marijke Gordijn (Chronobiology).

Who introduced you to BCN?
“I knew several people in BCN (Marijke Gordijn, Mark Nieuwenstein, Deniz Baskent) and I am currently co-advising a Master student on a joint project with Marijke. Also my PhD student Koen Hogenelst is a former BCN Master student.”

When you joined RuG you did not immediately become a member of BCN?
“No, I did not. I started working in Psychology, but the VENI project I am doing and also some other projects that I would like to do, but with unsuccessful grant applications so far, are very much interdisciplinary. One of them has something to do with light exposure and that is how I got to know Marijke. Then I knew Deniz Baskent through one of my colleagues here in psychology who is her husband. He is working in auditory psychology. Mark Nieuwenstein is involved in the teaching in BCN. He works here in the building and I talked to him about my projects that BCN Master students might be interested in joining. Through them I realized that I should really join BCN.”

You like the interdisciplinary nature of the BCN research school?
“Yes, because there’s people with all different kinds of backgrounds like engineering, psychology, genetics, physics, and hardcore neuroscience, of course, biochemistry, nutrition, who knows. It makes it more diverse.”

What would be your advice to students who are thinking of doing projects in BCN?
“To really find a project that somehow you connect with. One of the reasons I always ask students to write a motivation letter is that it forces them to put into words why they might be interested in working with me. Oftentimes, students, at least the ones here in psychology, get very nervous when I ask them to give a motivation letter and a CV. But it’s very helpful because it’s an effective way for me to get to know them. They get nervous but they have to make a choice; why choose to do this project and not another project. It’s important to look around I think but to also make a decision with something that somehow feels good because you’re going to spend a lot of time on it, and if you’re not enthusiastic about the research question, it’s going to be hard to pursue it.”

What can be improved in BCN, if anything?
“Perhaps I haven’t been a member long enough to give a good answer to this question, but on the website I could not find the list of members. I know that individual staff can add their discipline to their staff website. In my case, the default is psychology but I can add other disciplines myself like, for example, neuroscience, and then I suddenly show up in the BCN website. But I have to do it myself. I don’t think those in the database of BCN are automatically affiliated on the BCN website. Some people might do this and some don’t. I could not readily find in the BCN website who are the members. I personally think that increasing transparency at this level might be helpful to all members (faculty and students).”

Marijke told me about an incident at an international conference. A participant from Canada, Diane Boivin, approached her and asked her if she knew this really good Dutch scientist that Diane had worked with. Marijke said she did not know you at that time but she recalled that incident later when she met you.
“I worked with Diane Boivin during my PhD studies. It is nice to hear this, because when you work with her, she teaches you very strict lab methods. She’s very precise and thorough; time is very important, of course, because she does chronobiology studies. I did not do a chronobiology study so for me sometimes it was a little bit like “Do I have to do this? I will lose research participants, and it’s not essential”. But she told me a lot of valuable things about the importance of time-keeping and being very precise and good about data recording. Things like that. So I had to learn that. And I think that once I learned that, we got along very well. I know she was happy when I left, especially because the paper got published in a nice journal.

It’s nice to hear that I made a good impression on her especially because I know it is difficult to get to that level with her. She sets her standards very high.”

You live in Zwolle. Why not closer to Groningen?
“The way it worked is that my husband got an offer to work at the University of Twente. He does work in medical robotics. So if one of us is in Enschede and the other one is in Groningen, then the only place you can be is in the middle, and that is in Zwolle.”

How did you meet your husband?
“I was a student in Maastricht. In my last year, I did an internship in McGill, in this group where eventually I did my PhD. My husband was doing his master’s at McGill at the time. He worked on space robotics, and then he switched to medical robotics for his PhD.”

Tell us about your education prior to your PhD.
“I did my undergraduate degree in Maastricht. It usually takes four years to finish this degree but I did five years because there was one more year of my scholarship. That is why I went to Canada in the fifth year. I did 9 months research in McGill then I had to come back to the Netherlands because I had decided to apply for the PhD program, and that took one year. So I got my degree from Maastricht in 2000 and I started my PhD in 2001. In between, I took courses in psychology in Amsterdam, because I did my research project in the psychology department. I did not study psychology before so I wanted to learn many things specifically about that. I studied Biological Health Sciences; it’s like human biology but more focused on nutrition. It was a study on food and the brain.”

You were supervising BCN Research Master students before you became a BCN member?
“Yes, Kristina Miloserdov. She’s a great student; veryproactive and excited about her study; and she’s very precise. She started her 6-month project officially in January. It’s very, very pleasant to work with her. It’s a collaboration project with Marijke. Also like I said Koen Hogenelst, my PhD student, is a former BCN Research Master student. I am very happy with him as well.”

Let’s talk about your research. I am not familiar with psychology so I should ask this question first before we proceed to your research findings so far: how do you define “mood”?
(After about 15 seconds of silence) “I think that is already a very hard question. For me, what I find interesting most about it is how much it may vary, not so much on how it is at the general level but on the variability around the mean that people have. Some people feel the same – whether you call that mood, affect, or emotion, I don’t really care – but some people feel the same pretty much all the time, while other people are very much influenced by their environment. I am really interested in what might cause that variability around the mean. Again, I don’t really care if you call that mood, or emotion, or feeling.”

Can we call it a subjective interpretation of the individual about himself?
“I think it also has something to do with wellbeing. I think I would mostly equate it with that in some way, at least over longer periods of time.”

From your 2006 paper, my impression is that tryptophan can make a person less quarrelsome and more agreeable to others. Is this an accurate interpretation of your results?
“Sure. What I like about this study, and, in fact, I still use the method is that when you ask about social interactions, you can ask people to come in to the lab and either do a computer task or interact with one random person. It does not really tell you much about how most people go about their daily lives. So what I like about the method used in this study is it asks people to keep a ‘diary’, to simply fill-out forms every time they had a social interaction, and on that form there’s a list of behaviors which you might have such as, for example, ‘making a sarcastic comment’ while you talk with someone else. That would be a good example of a ‘quarrelsome behavior’. You can also ‘compliment or praise’ the other person in the social interaction, and that would be an example of an ‘agreeable behavior’. What I like about this is that the very concrete behaviour that a lot of people have all the time depends on who they talk to, whether it’s Monday or Friday, and what time of the day, and so forth, they record it in the diary. They fill out forms every time. (Showing the form) So there is a defined number of items in each of the forms, and the forms change from day to day.”

This looks to me as a simple task. If I were a subject in your experiment and without any formal background in psychology, I could easily fill out that form.
“So what I like about it is (a) that we use that method and (b) when you read the serotonin literature on behavior you often see links with aggression. However, there’s much less information about agreeable behavior, so in my study when I gave people tryptophan not only did it inhibit some sort of undesirable behavior and people made fewer sarcastic comments, but also people effectively became more pleasant towards others, which I think was the most interesting part of the finding.”

Sa palabas na Mara Clara, dalawang personahe ang tampok, ang isa ay masungit.
You selected people who were relatively more hostile or quarrelsome than others?
“Exactly. This was specifically done with a group of people who responded to my ads in the newspaper that said things like ‘Do you easily get upset with others?’ or something along those lines. So people came in and said ‘Yes I have so many troubles at work because I can’t keep my mouth shut, et cetera.”

Being a non-psychologist myself, I wonder if it is safe to say that eating tryptophan-rich food will make a person less quarrelsome and more agreeable to others.
“Can you give an example of a tryptophan-high food?”

Well, in Wikipedia, there’s a list of food items and their tryptophan content.
“This is in line with what people commonly think and in a way it may indeed be correct. However, foods that are high in tryptophan are usually also high in other amino acids. For tryptophan to increase the serotonin levels in the brain, tryptophan has to be high relative to other amino acid levels because they compete for transport into the brain. So if you give a tryptophan pill then of course you are changing the balance in favor of tryptophan so it becomes easier, but if you increase tryptophan by eating a protein-rich food that also has other amino acids then the balance doesn’t really change. If anything, when you eat a protein-rich food, because tryptophan is one of the least abundant amino acids in protein-rich food, you usually decrease it a little bit.”

So does eating protein makes us more quarrelsome?
“No, because most people eat it with at least a small amount of carbohydrate and it nullifies the effect. There are people who will say that you might be influenced to some degree, but I think this research is mostly based on animal studies, and animals ingest a much larger proportion of their body weight with each meal so of course you can imagine that the effects in the brain will be higher than in humans. At least that’s the theoretical idea about it. There is some debate about it but I would be the last person to convince people that that is true. And I would be the last person to say that everybody should start taking tryptophan, for example.”

In your 2010 paper about the effects of bright light in relation to tryptophan depletion, it seems that bright light can shield a person from the negative effects of tryptophan depletion. First of all, can you describe what tryptophan depletion is and how it occurs in an individual?
“Tryptophan depletion is very much the opposite of what I just told you. If you give people a protein shake, an amino acid mixture, and you specifically leave out tryptophan, then the competition at the level of the brain will not be in favor of tryptophan so there is less tryptophan going into the brain and, temporarily, the serotonin level is known to decrease.”

So that’s the way you do it in your experiment?
“Yes, we give people an amino acid mixture that lacks tryptophan, or not in the placebo.”

Sounds like an easy and straightforward experimental procedure.
“Well, that protein shake does not exactly taste like a McDonald’s milk shake and people tend to become full from them, but otherwise, yes it’s a relatively simple experiment. That’s what I like about the method. That’s how I ended up working in McGill because I used this method in Maastricht and I liked it and went to McGill to work with the person who invented the method, and I did my PhD with him.”

What comes to mind are protein supplements used by people who, for example, want to build muscles in their body. Do you know the tryptophan component of these supplements?
“Usually they are mixed on the spot. I asked actually at my gym about that and I even asked what’s in the tryptophan bottle, but it’s mixed with other things as well. So it’s not only tryptophan that people are getting, usually they get a mixture of things. It’s not as clean as what we use in our experiment. We get those protein mixtures from the pharmacy; they are specially made at the UMCG.”

In relation to the bright light aspect of your study, would you say that people closer to the equator, where light is more abundant, are more sensitive to the emotions of others?
“I don’t know if you can generalize it that way, but people who live close to the equator are known to be less sensitive to seasonal affective disorder (SAD). They’re less likely to develop winter depression, effectively. If I would continue along that line, their mood is less influenced by the environment, in this case their physical environment in terms of light exposure, but maybe it also means that they are less emotional towards other people. I don’t think I can make that claim but the question surprises me because based on the prevalence rate of SAD, it might be easier for me to explain the opposite.”

So they are less sensitive to the emotions of others? My understanding of your study is that bright light can suppress the negative effects of tryptophan depletion on recognizing emotions in faces.
“Yes, bright light helps to regulate mood. So if you get more light throughout the year, in some ways your mood is going to be more regular. But it’s very hard to make that claim because you have to keep in mind that, for example, temperature also affects mood. High temperatures in tropical areas can affect your mood in terms of increasing irritability and so forth. So temperature plays a role as well. And maybe people in more northern places have developed cognitive ways in dealing with their emotions.”

So it is clear that bright light affects mood. Could you explain the biological basis of this effect?
“Marijke Gordijn can better tell you about this. There is a recently discovered photoreceptor (melanopsin) that has nothing to do with vision, but it goes to more emotional pathways, that’s my understanding of it. It’s also present in other species. The idea is that it helps regulate mood either through serotonin pathways, or by dopamine pathways, or melatonin pathways.”

Which is more effective: antidepressants or sunlight?
“When I said that I would not be the first person to recommend tryptophan to everybody, it is because it is related to the fact that tryptophan increases serotonin and you can argue that antidepressants often do it as well. I am the last person to say that all depressed people should start taking antidepressants. However, there certainly is evidence,such as the tryptophan depletion study that I did, that suggests that bright light can help regulate the serotonin system as well. You know that most people these days sit in an office. Well I have a nice window where much light can come in, but I live in Groningen where there’s not that much
sunlight. You can argue that I may be getting a lot less sunlight than a lot of people in places with better weather. It is also possible that before the industrial
revolution people would get a lot more light exposure. You might even argue that maybe depression is now more prevalent because people don’t get enough light exposure. In the US, especially in the northern part, and in Canada, there are so many people who go to Florida during winter, that’s not without reason. I don’t think I can argue that one is better than the other, but I certainly think that getting light exposure for the sake of stimulating your brain is not a bad thing.”

“One third of our life involves interaction with other people.” What is the basis for this estimate?
“Of course, it’s just an estimate. I think I read it somewhere. But I think I can argue that as well. There’s 24 hours in a day and I work in 8 of them. I spend a lot of my time at work talking to people. Even if I’m sitting in my office and I don’t talk to people, I’m at home or I go to places and I talk to people, so 8 hours is easy to achieve.”

Can using Facebook be considered a kind of social interaction? If so, what would be the difference in effect on mood between using Facebook and face-to-face interactions?
“I cannot answer that question right now. Actually, in the diary study that I am doing now, I ask people to distinguish in-person or on-the-phone social interactions, and I want one of the Psychology Master students currently working with me to see if people’s behavior and mood during those social interactions are different. I don’t think people have really looked at it in that much detail. For people who are participating in this study, they ask the students: what about text messaging, can we use it? For this study, we decided no, because it creates a variable that we cannot control right now. We would have to change the forms and add it. For future study, I would be interested to look at this question. If you can call it an interaction, I would probably argue that the interactions might be very short, and you might be distracted by other things happening as well. Whereas if you are sitting at someone’s house and you’re having dinner together, for starters the interaction is longer and you’re probably much more focused on the person, unless of course you’re checking your phone all the time.”

Many students use Facebook nowadays, do you think professors should also start using it?
“I have a Facebook account, but I set it such that people, unless they are my direct friends, cannot look at it. I use LinkedIn and people can look at that because I think that’s a professional alternative. For example, in my LinkedIn page I refer to my staff website, and also to BluesClues.nl, which is the Dutch website that is talking about the research that my PhD student is
doing.”

Would you like to invite students to work with you?
“I honestly think that the projects that I am currently running and one that I am thinking of as well can actually be very interesting especially to BCN students. I think their background will be fairly similar to mine. There are suitable projects to be helping out on and for half a year. In one of the projects that I’m thinking of, I don’t think I can actually do it otherwise.”

Other things you would like to add?
“One thing that has not come up which I like is that, we’ve talked about this diary method and I supplement it with laboratory methods of looking at social behaviour because you need the two in order to be able to really say something. In the lab you have a much more controlled environment, so having people do computer tasks and just trying to find ecologically valid ones with respect to social interaction is going to be helpful in terms of finding out what I want to know.”

References
[1] M. aan het Rot, D.S. Moskowitz, G. Pinard, & S.N. Young (2006), Social behaviour and mood in everyday life: the effects of tryptophan in quarrelsome individuals, J Psychiatry Neurosci 31(4), 253-62

[2] M. aan het Rot, N. Coupland, D.B. Boivin, C. Benkelfat, & S.N. Young (2010), Recognizing emotions in faces: effects of acute tryptophan depletion and bright light, J Psychopharmacol 24(10), 1447-54

Link

Friday, June 08, 2012

Bayani kamo ang hinahanap mo?

BAES, Aloysius U.
Source: Bantayog ng mga Bayani

Immortality comes in two ways for Aloysius ‘Ochie’ Baes, an eminent scientist who led a heroic life by casting his lot with the poor, the downtrodden and the oppressed. First, future scientists will surely oft quote his detailed and competent scientific work, especially those that deal with toxic wastes and environmental safeguards; and second, the songs that he composed during his years in prison will certainly be sung by generations yet to come.

Ochie’s family had a passion for music. was born to a family of in Los Banos, Laguna to a family where music was a daily fare. His father was a tenor and a band leader who instilled in him a passion for music while his mother sang and played the organ at the local parish church. Ochie learned how to play the piano, the flute, the guitar, the clarinet and other horn instruments. The family was so deep into music that apart from Ochie, a younger sibling, Jonas, would soon become a renowned faculty member at the College of Music in UP Diliman.

A different kind of music, however, stirred inside Ochie that like a siren song totally captivated his imagination and entire being. It was, after all, the sixties in the Age of Aquarius, civil rights, Student Power, and the Vietnam War. As early as in his fourth year in high school, Ochie would lead a one-day protest against an oppressive teacher.

But it was only a prelude to bigger things. College at UP Los Baños would see him in full bloom. In 1967, he became one of the founders of the Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK) UPLB Chapter. The next year, Ochie would run and win as the Chairman of the University Student Council. Under Ochie’s leadership, the student council organized a regular Friday book review where students would discuss and debate progressive ideas among themselves. Simultaneously, the student council also undertook Learning from the People Summer Work Camps where the student-participants stayed in selected rural communities and integrated with the rural folks in their daily routines. These programs raised the level of awareness and consciousness of many UPLB students on the need for Philippine society to undergo radical changes. Soon, more and more students responded and were promptly primed for action. In protest of an oil price increase in 1970, a successful two-week boycott of UPLB classes soon followed and was capped by a barricade on the national highway that led to the UPLB entrance.

The barricade was a success because Ochie’s leadership went beyond the confines of the State University. Years earlier, Ochie led the establishment of SDK chapters among the youth in the immediate vicinities of UPLB. This was not the climax, however, of Ochie’s student leadership. The following year when then President Marcos suspended the writ of habeas corpus, Ochie led a long protest march from UPLB to Manila under the glaring heat of the summer sun. It was a tough, gritty march that would presage the epic Lakbayans of later decades.

All throughout this intense period when Ochie wore several hats—as a tireless organization man, a helpful comrade and guru, and crush ng bayan he never forsook his studies. Though Ochie graduated as a cum laude in 1969, contemporaries would relate that had he not incur the ire of the Dean, he would have graduated with higher honors as a magna cum laude. Ochie then promptly joined the ranks of the UPLB faculty as a Chemistry instructor.

When Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, Ochie was among the personalities that the military targeted for immediate arrest. Left with no choice, Ochie, along with thousands of students situated similarly, worked full-time in the underground resistance. Ochie immersed himself in organizing the farmers in Laguna until he was arrested the following year. Detained at first at Camp Crame then to Ipil and finally to Bicutan, it was during this period of incarceration that Ochie composed the songs Huwad na Kalayaan, Mutya, Kay Taas ng Pader, among other songs still sung today among progressive circles. All the while Ochie and his friends were turning prison into a music factory of sorts; friends would relate that Ochie never forgot to send messages of affection to his family, especially to his mother.

He was released from detention in 1974 and resumed his teaching duties as a Chemistry instructor this time in UP Diliman. Despite the hectic demands of his teaching duties, Ochie continued his work in the underground by organizing and educating activists to fight the Marcos dictatorship. In 1982, he left the country to pursue his graduate studies at the University of Minnesota. While in the United States, Ochie got actively involved in the solidarity movement of US-based Filipinos who, despite the great distance, supported the struggles in the home front. Friends at the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace-USA would testify that Ochie’s expertise in organizational work proved invaluable in helping the organization map out tactics and strategies in its various campaigns.

After completing his doctorate degree with distinction, Ochie went to Japan in 1988 to teach in a university. This sojourn, however, was to be a very brief one. Being so near to his native homeland, Ochie could not resist coming back home and sharing his intelligence and talents to his own compatriots. So the following year, Ochie went back to the country to resume his teaching career at UPLB.

Among the first things that Ochie did after settling down a bit was to gather kindred scientists and form the Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC-Phil.). He was also instrumental in the founding of AGHAM, an organization of nationalist and pro-people scientists. Colleagues in these two organizations would relate that Ochie proved once again to be a key figure in clarifying what role scientists need to play in environmental advocacy in view of the hardships and struggles of the Filipino people. Oftentimes, it was Ochie who provided the clear-cut framework for a truly effective, pro-people science and technology movement. Many environmental groups and network are eternally grateful to Ochie for helping them spell out their vision, mission and goals in their environmental work.

Ochie’s brilliance is best summarized by a colleague in this manner: imagine a Filipino who went to Japan to teach Toyota how to make cars. Ochie did something similar when he conducted classes in water, wastewater and air quality monitoring to graduate students of Hiroshima and Kinki University in Japan. “Ochie did the country proud by being recognized as the expert in Japan on matters that Japan does best, like pollution control,” wrote this colleague.

Ochie, however, would reserve his brilliance to serve his country best. During the period 1989-2003 when Ochie served as the Managing Director of CEC-Phil., he tirelessly demonstrated what his pro-people framework consisted of and how does one put it into the concrete. In 1990, Ochie conducted joint researches with his students and exposed the adverse environmental and health effects of the coal-fired power plant in Calaca, Batangas. Around this period also, Ochie became one of the brains behind the national campaign against the toxic wastes of the US military in the Subic and Clark bases. He initiated toxicity pathway researches that linked the rising incidence of cancers among the people in the local communities to the lingering presence of toxic contaminants, such as fuel and armaments, in effect demonstrating the culpability of the US military.

In 2003, Ochie also initiated a series of field visits and community education to the direct impact areas of Marcopper and Placer Dome mining operations in the province-island of Marinduque. These field studies encouraged the people and the local government officials to pursue their campaign for environmental justice, rehabilitation and mining moratorium in the island.

When the Ormoc tragedy happened in 2004, Ochie correctly predicted that other landslide disasters are bound to happen and called upon the government to henceforth immediately identify critical areas and prepare such areas to impending disasters. Colleagues and other experts all agree that had the government listened to such pleas, the subsequent tragedies in Quezon, Aurora, St. Bernard in Leyte and other regions would have been less disastrous had Ochie’s recommendations been put into operation.

He thereafter worked as a member of the Rapu-Rapu Fact-Finding Commission that scrutinized the controversial Lafayette polymetallic flagship mining project of the Arroyo administration. Despite failing health, Ochie worked tirelessly once more in studying the mine tailing incidents, exposing the adverse consequences and flaws of the entire project, and subsequently recommend its termination.

Colleagues who worked with Ochie at this time already noticed his failing health. One time, they noticed that Ochie was having difficulty in breathing while ascending the stairs to a conference room. Ochie never complained, though, and would use his sense of humor to lighten up everybody. At that time, Ochie already had developed an enlarged heart and was already experiencing its complications.

In retrospect, a colleague had this to say about Ochie’s condition: Because he shirked no tasks however burdensome and whatever the toll on his own health, he never complained. He never took a vacation from being so kind to everyone around even in the heat of righteous anger. He developed an enlarged heart because truly that heart of Ochie was already so large in the first place.

Ochie quietly died on December 21, 2006 due to complications arising from kidney failure at the National Kidney Institute. With his passing, the country may have lost a dedicated, uncomplaining son who gave all his time, energies and talents in its service but have definitely added in the pantheon of its heroes another immortal Filipino worthy of emulation and respect for all times.

Related Articles:
Aloysius “Ochie” Baes, People's Scientist, December 18, 2008, www.agham.org
Dr. Aloysius Baes: Scientist, Composer and Revolutionary Par Excellence, February 2007, Lisa Ito, www.bulatlat.com
For Ochie Baes, January 2007, Mon Ramirez
NDF pays tribute to UPLB chemist and environmentalist, December 26, 2006, Manila Bulletin

Birth: July 28, 1948
Place of Birth: Los Baños, Laguna
Death: December 21, 2006
Place of Death: Quezon City
Related Works:
Mutya

Basahin ang kwento ng iba pang Bayani.

Link

Mga libreng sopwer na madalas kong ginagamit

Ito ang listahan ng mga libreng sopwer na kailangan meron ako sa aking computer.
  1. TeXmaker
  2. JabRef
  3. Scribus
  4. PortableApps
  5. VLC Media Player
  6. GIMP
  7. Freepascal/Lazarus
  8. Notepad++
  9. Scilab
  10. PDFCreator
  11. Create Synchronicity
  12. Audacity
  13. PDFSAM
  14. Briss
  15. BeCyPDFMetaEdit
  16. Mp3tag
  17. Plus iba pa na hindi ko na babanggitin dito ;)

Link

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Mount Malindang

Mount Malindang kumusta ka na?
Ilang taon na ring di kita nakasalamuha.
Tubig sa mga ilog mo at batis
Sana'y manatili ang kanilang angking tamis.

Mount Malindang view from the sea

Link

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Monday, April 23, 2012

Gaano kalaki ang Mindanao?

Ang pulo ng Mindanao ang pangalawa sa pinakamalaking pulo sa Pilipinas. Mas malaki pa ito sa doble ng laki ng bansang Netherlands o ng Denmark, dalawa sa mga mayayamang bansa sa kanlurang Europa. Halos kasinlaki nito ang bansang South Korea, isang napakaindustriyalisadong bansa sa silangang Asya. Mas malaki ito ng kaunti sa bansang Portugal, isang bansa na minsan ay makapangyarihan sa buong mundo bilang bansa sa Europa na nanguna sa pagpapadala ng maraming ekspedisyon sa buong mundo upang manakop. Mahigit isang daang bansa o teritoryo ang mas maliit pa sa Mindanao batay sa lawak ng lupain. Tingnan ang graph sa baba.


Link

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Ang hindi-makalimutang kwento ng aking unang pagdating sa Netherlands

Galing dito ang larawan.
Mahigit tatlong taon na mula noong dumating ako dito sa Netherlands. Tuwing natatanong ako kung ano ang pakiramdam noong una akong dumating ay lagi kong nakukwento itong dalawang karanasan ko sa Schiphol. Napakalaki ng Schiphol, andaming pasikot-sikot at sobrang busy ang mga tao sa paghahanap ng kung anu-anong bagay lalo na kanilang mga destinasyon.

Ang unang kwento

Bago pa man ako lumipad mula sa Maynila ay inalam ko na kung magkano ang pamasahe sa tren mula sa Schiphol papuntang Groningen. May susundo naman sa akin sa Groningen at ihahatid ako sa aking temporary na bahay kaya yung pamasahe lang sa tren ang kailangan may pambayad ako. Saktong 30 euros ang perang dala ko kasi yun naman ang nakalagay sa website ng train company (ngayon ay 40 euros na! grabe ang inflation.) Hindi ko alam na ang presyo pala ay may dagdag na 50 cents kapag sa counter bumili ng ticket at hindi sa machine. Mabuti na lang ay mabait at hindi strikto ang ale sa counter kaya tinanggap nya ang aking saktong 30 euros. Whew! Naisip ko noon na ang una kong gagawin kung sakali ay manglimos sa Schiphol.

Ang pangalawang kwento

Hindi ko inabutan ang tren na gusto kong kunin pagbaba ko sa train platform. Kinabahan ako kasi gabi na noon at hindi ko alam kung paano malalaman ang susunod o kung may susunod pa na tren. Syempre pa ay natatakot din akong lumapit sa mga tao kasi hindi ako pamilyar sa mga ugali dito. Lumingon-lingon ako at nakakita ako ng Intsik na babae na nakaupo at tila naghihintay din ng tren. Hindi ko alam kung bakit pero sa loob-loob ko ay mas magtitiwala ako sa parehong asyano kaysa mga puti. Nilapitan ko sya at tinanong kung anong oras dadating ang susunod na tren papuntang Groningen. Sinuswerte talaga ako sa gabing iyon kasi sa Groningen din pala ang punta nya so kailangan lang akong sumabay sa kanya para hindi ako maligaw. Nabasa ko na mahahati sa dalawa ang tren papuntang Groningen mula Schiphol (ang isa ay pupuntang Leeuwarden) kaya kabado ako na ang maling tren ang masakyan ko.

Hindi pa dyan natatapos ang kwento. So syempre nakipagkwentuhan na ako sa kanya habang nasa tren. Nabanggit nya na galing siyang Munich sa isang conference. Naalala ko na sa parehong petsa din may conference ang aking magiging supervisor sa parehong lugar so tinanong ko sya kung dun din sya pumunta sa meeting na iyon. Medyo nagulat sya na alam ko kung saang conference sya galing. Nalaman ko kinabukasan pagdating ko sa lab na kasama ko pala sya sa parehong lab. Magkatabi pa kami ng mesa sa kwarto ng mga PhD students.

Link

Thursday, April 19, 2012

RNA interference



RNA interference (RNAi) is an important pathway that is used in many different organisms to regulate gene expression. This animation introduces the principles of RNAi involving small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). We take you on an audio-visual journey through the steps of gene expression and show you an up-to-date view of how RNAi can silence specific mRNAs in the cytoplasm.

The accompanying slideshow provides further information about RNAi and small RNAs.

When the video is streamed, the resolution will adjust to match the speed of your internet connection. To view the animation in full-screen mode, please click the icon showing the square with arrows.

To expand the slideshow, please click the icon showing the square and an arrow.

Link

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Ang Batang Musmos (Turkish: Kız Çocuğu)



Ang Batang Musmos
ni Nâzım Hikmet
(Salin mula sa English version ng Turkong orihinal)

Ako itong kumakatok sa iyong pinto
Ilang pinto na ang napuntahan ko
Ngunit walang makakakita sa akin
Sapagkat mga patay ay hindi na mapapansin

Namatay ako sa Hiroshima
Nakalipas ay sampung taon na
Ako ay pitong taong gulang na bata
Ang mga patay ay hindi na tumatanda

Una nag-apoy ang aking buhok
Pagkatapos mga mata'y nasunog
Aking katawan ay naging abo
Sa ihip ng hangin ito'y naglaho

Wala akong pangarap para sa sarili
Dahil ang batang natupok ng apoy
Ay hindi na nga makakain ng kendi

Ako ay kumakatok sa inyong pinto
Para makuha ang inyong pirma, mga tita at tito
Upang kailanman ay wala ng magliyab na bata
At sila ay makakatikim pa ng matamis na umaga




Kiz Çocugu

Kapıları çalan benim
Kapıları birer birer
Gözünüze görünemem
Göze görünmez ölüler

Hiroşima’da öleli
Oluyor bir on yıl kadar
Yedi yaşında bir kızım
Büyümez ölü çocuklar

Saçlarım tutuştu önce
Gözlerim yandı kavruldu
Bir avuç kül oluverdim
külüm havaya savruldu

Benim sizden kendim için hiçbir şey istediğim yok
Şeker bile yiyemez ki, kâat gibi yanan çocuk

Çalıyorum kapınızı…
Teyze, Amca, bir imza ver…
Çocuklar öldürülmesin
Şeker de yiyebilsinler




The Little Girl

It is me knocking at your door
At how many doors I’ve been
But no one can see me
Since the dead are invisible

I died at Hiroshima
That was ten years ago
I am a girl of seven
Dead children do not grow

First my hair caught fire
Then my eyes burnt out
I became a handful of ashes
blown away by the wind

I don’t wish anything for myself
For a child who is burnt to cinders
Cannot even eat sweets

I’m knocking at your doors
Aunts and uncles, to get your signatures
So that never again children will burn
And so they can eat sweets

Link

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Funny thoughts of a foreign bursary

This column was my contribution to the March 2010 issue of the BCN newsletter. BCN is a research school in the University of Groningen focusing on behavioural and cognitive neuroscience.

Image taken from here
It is very flattering to be invited to write a column for the very prestigious BCN newsletter. My first reaction was to decline the invitation because it would be added work for me, and as typical PhD student here in Groningen, I have a busy schedule. This busy schedule, of course, includes hanging out sometimes with friends discussing wide-ranging topics, practicing my less-than-prodigious-cycling skills, occasionally visiting Filipino migrants in Amsterdam, and online chatting with my wife, among other non-work-related activities that I am fond of calling social life. But on second thought, why waste this rare opportunity to fill this precious space for commentary on pressing issues of PhD bursaries like me and hopefully contribute to further understanding or, at least, interest on these issues? So with the assumption that this country promotes free speech—a kind of freedom also much spoken about in the Philippines but seldom respected and often violated by those in power—I’d like to give my two cents’ worth on the bursary situation.

I don’t really mind that I don’t receive the same pay and benefits as employee-PhDs do. So what if I produce the same output that they do? I enjoy my work anyway. I strongly believe in the wisdom of the University policymakers when they decided to implement the bursary system. Why don’t we just believe them when they say that the amount that bursaries are receiving is enough for them to survive? I am surviving so far. Honestly, I consider this position a privilege in comparison to that of my compatriots here in the Netherlands who came here away from their family to work as housecleaners, waiters, and other “professions” of similar nature because our government back home do not provide enough jobs. So there is no reason for me to complain. (This paragraph is meant to influence my first-year evaluation.)

How about the Dutch bursaries? I think they should be the ones to think this issue over, and it is inspiring to hear that many of them actually do. They should know better because they were here when the bursary system was popularised among Dutch universities. I am curious how they reacted when this system began many years ago. According to one Dutch bursary, this is a result of declining budget given to education in general. This bursary student also mentioned, though, that when a Dutch citizen loses his job, he can apply for social welfare (I’m not sure though if that’s the accurate term) in order to receive for two years without a new job the
same amount as he did in his most recent job. I suddenly wished I were a Dutch citizen when I heard that.

I have to apologize to Léon, who asked me to write this column, for having started the column with the bursary issue in mind. He actually asked me to forget about serious matters for this column. Just write about funny experiences while studying here. He is right, the bursary case is not funny. What I find funny though is how the labour union ABVAKABO is handling the case. They mention in the English version of their “Advice for PhD candidates on a grant” that they “are trying to persuade the minister [of Education, Culture, and Science] to cut the funding to universities that appoint PhD candidates on the basis of a grant”. The university on one hand invoked budget constraints to justify the bursary system while the other party who wants the bursary system abolished is lobbying for more budget cuts. Don’t you think this is funny? Just imagine what will happen to the university if this is allowed to unfold further.

Enough of serious matters. I’m moving to really funny stories this time. I never knew before I came here in Groningen that loempia is a Vietnamese food. I think the Vietnamese took the recipe from us. They should have at least changed the name. Perhaps another foreign bursary Huynh Kim Hieu (if that is his real name and not just a Facebook alias) should be given the chance to write the next column in order to refute this claim of mine. Oops. This is not funny.

After five paragraphs of my attempt to write a funny column, I finally came to a conclusion that writing such column is difficult. I remember a quote from another BCN student’s Facebook profile: “Life is a comedy for those who think: a tragedy for those who feel.” Maybe that’s the reason for the difficulty. Someone should write a research proposal out of this topic and submit it to one of the many BCN experts on emotion, linguistics, and what have you.

In the meantime, one thing I learned from the BCN debating club is to take the stand of others as mine even if they are completely opposite to my position in order to keep the flame of debate burning. I hope you had this in mind when you read this column.

Link

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Paano umusbong ang utak?

Evolutionary Surprise: Developmental 'Scaffold' for Vertebrate Brain Found in Brainless Marine Worm

Ang pinagmulan ng napakakumplikadong bahagi ng mga hayop na vertebrates ay nananatiling isang misteryo. "Sa kasalukuyang teorya ng evolution, tila umusbong ito nang basta na lang. Wala kang makikitang katulad nito sa ibang hayop," ayun kay Ariel Pani, isang mananaliksik sa Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) na nasa Woods Hole at isang graduate student sa University of Chicago.

Subali't kamakailan sa peryodikong Nature, iniulat ni Pani at ng kanyang mga kasamahan na ang ilan sa mga genetic processes na nagreregulate sa pagbubuo ng utak ng vertebrates ay makikita din sa acorn worm, isang hayop na walang utak na nakatira sa ilalim ng dagat ng Waquoit Bay sa Falmouth, Massachusetts.

(Ang Nature paper ay mababasa dito ngunit nangangailangan ng subscription sa journal para mabasa ang buong papel.)

Basahin ang buong balita (English) dito.

Link

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Ang mga enzymes ng ating buhay

Last year, sinulat ko ang nakakamanghang kwento ng mga enzymes. Simple lang ang mensahe na gusto ko ipaabot sa kwentong iyon: na ang enzymes ay may takdang panahon at proseso ng pagkabuhay at paggampan ng gawain hanggang kamatayan nito. Malamang nabanggit na rin sa kwento ang mahalagang papel ng mga enzymes sa buhay ng ibang molecules at kapwa proteins at enzymes, pero mukhang hindi ko masyadong na-highlight ang kahalagahan ng papel na ito sa buhay ng tao. Hindi ko po tinutukoy ang sandamukal na enzymes sa mga katawan natin kundi kung paano ang bawat isa sa atin ay parang mga enzymes sa ibang tao.

Bilang rebyu, ang enzyme ay tumutulong na i-transporma ang isa pang protina o kapwa enzyme sa ibang anyo na maaaring may iba o dagdag na kakayahan para sa panibagong gawain nito. Ang proseso ng transpormasyong ito ay may iba't ibang partikular na prosesong pinagdadaanan at may iba't ibang haba ng panahong ginugugol bago matapos. Ang ibang proseso ng transpormasyon ay minsan magdudulot ng panibagong anyo kung saan ang enzyme at ang trinanspormang molecule (ang substrate) ay magsasama hanggang kamatayan. Merong dimers, trimers, tetramers na pagsasama. Magkakaiba ang (1) haba ng pagsasama ng enzyme at substrate, (2) kinakailangang lakas (activation energy) para mangyari ang pagsasama, at (3) laki ng pagbabago ng substrate pagkatapos ng pagsasama.

Hindi ba't ganyan din ang buhay ng tao? May mga tao sa paligid natin na magsisilbing enzyme at tayo ang kanilang substrate: makakasalamuha natin sila ng matagal o panandalian o paminsan-minsan at ang mga panahon na makakasalamuha natin sila ay magbubunga ng maliit o malaking transpormasyon sa ating kaisipan at pagkatao. Ang ating mga magulang, mga kapatid, malapit na kapitbahay, kababata, at mga kaibigan ay ang ating mga enzymes. Tayo din ay naging enzymes sa maraming tao. May mga tao na napakaikli lang ng panahon nating nakilala (halimbawa sa bus o sa jeep) pero may malaking epekto sa ating kaisipan at pagtingin sa buhay. Meron namang mas matagal nating makakasama (taon ang inaabot halimbawa) kung saan napakalaking pagbabago ang naging epekto sa atin at hindi na natin halos maalala kung ano tayo bago ang pagsasamang ito. May mga tao na nagbibigay ng magandang pagbabago sa atin at meron naman na hindi kaaya-aya. Pero kahit ang mga hindi kaaya-ayang pagbabago ay maaaring panandalian lang at pagkatapos ay magpapatibay pa lalo sa atin.

Bilang pagtatapos sa sequel na ito, gusto ko lang sabihin na huwag nating kalimutan na ilang beses sa buhay natin ay kinailangan natin ang tulong ng mga enzymes sa buhay natin para lalo tayong tumibay at maging mas may silbi sa pag-usad ng di-tumitigil na pagbabago ng lipunan.

Link

Friday, January 27, 2012

Mapanganib sa ekonomiya ng Pilipinas ang pagsandal sa call center industry

MEDIA RELEASE
27 January 2012

IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Avenue, Quezon City Philippines
Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 62|Fax: 929-2496| E-mail: media@ibon.org
http://www.ibon.org

OBAMA'S "INSOURCING" HIGHLIGHTS RISKS OF RELYING ON BPOs

The recent pronouncement by US Pres. Barack Obama to bring outsourcing jobs back to the US highlights the dangers of relying on business process outsourcing (BPO), and on foreign economies in general, for Filipino jobs. According to research group IBON, even if it is still unclear if Pres. Obama’s proposed “insourcing” legislation will pass, the vulnerability of the sector and the government’s misplaced attention to this is increasingly apparent.

The “insourcing” initiative has been dismissed either as mere election-related rhetoric or in any case as unlikely to prosper against corporate lobbying, such as by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP). But the initiative is just another example of adverse trends facing the sector and more of this are likely to emerge as the crisis in the US and the rest of the world worsens in the coming years, the research group said.

Government and industry estimates for the BPO are of 1.3 million jobs and US$25 billion in revenues in 2016. These are unlikely and it will be recalled that the original BPO “Roadmap to 2010” target was for 1.0 million jobs and US$12 billion in revenues in 2010 – of which only 525,000 jobs and US$8.9 billion materialized.

As it is, IBON noted that the growth of the BPO sector is already slowing slightly in terms of jobs and revenues. The 21.9% growth in BPAP-reported jobs in the sector in 2011, to an estimated 640,000, was slightly slower than the 24.1% growth in 2010. Similarly the 22.5% reported growth in revenues, to some US$10.9 billion, was slightly slower than the 25.3% growth in 2010.

The slowing global and, in particular, US economy appears to have affected the sector’s performance despite the country reportedly having nudged India out as the world’s leading BPO center. The World Bank has previously estimated global economic growth to have fallen to 2.7% in 2011 from 4.1% in 2010 and US economic growth from to 1.7% (2011) from 3.0% (2010). Developments in the US economy are particularly relevant because the latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) data notes that the US accounts for 72% of foreign investment and 80% of BPO service exports.

It can for instance be noted that the trend in the deployment of Filipino nurses to the US dropped from 649 in 2008 to just 85 in 2010. In his campaign for the US presidency, Pres. Obama campaigned for prioritizing American nurses over migrants declaring: ““The notion that we would have to import nurses makes absolutely no sense.” Recently, the Democrats’ House Bill 1933 reviving temporary visas for registered nurses was approved by Congress. Among others the bill limits the number of H1-C temporary registered nurse visas to 300 per year from a previous quota of 500 annually.

The government has so far budgeted at least Php575 million in subsidies for private foreign BPO investors consisting of trainings, curriculum and teacher development, career marketing and scholarships through TESDA and CHED. According to IBON, these funds will be more productively spent supporting Filipino industry, science and technology than for a sector that is such a small part of the economy and by its nature does not give much value-added. The BPO sector is barely integrated into the local economy outside of its relatively few jobs and so does not stimulate or encourage domestic production. (end)

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout


To: English Wikipedia Readers and Community
From: Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director
Date: January 16, 2012

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate — that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. Here’s how it’s been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community’s discussion. From the public statement, signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:Billinghurst:

It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations.


In making this decision, Wikipedians will be criticized for seeming to abandon neutrality to take a political position. That’s a real, legitimate issue. We want people to trust Wikipedia, not worry that it is trying to propagandize them.

But although Wikipedia’s articles are neutral, its existence is not. As Wikimedia Foundation board member Kat Walsh wrote on one of our mailing lists recently,

We depend on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. And we depend on a legal infrastructure that also allows other sites to host user-contributed material, both information and expression. For the most part, Wikimedia projects are organizing and summarizing and collecting the world’s knowledge. We’re putting it in context, and showing people how to make to sense of it.

But that knowledge has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikimedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to.


The decision to shut down the English Wikipedia wasn’t made by me; it was made by editors, through a consensus decision-making process. But I support it.

Like Kat and the rest of the Wikimedia Foundation Board, I have increasingly begun to think of Wikipedia’s public voice, and the goodwill people have for Wikipedia, as a resource that wants to be used for the benefit of the public. Readers trust Wikipedia because they know that despite its faults, Wikipedia’s heart is in the right place. It’s not aiming to monetize their eyeballs or make them believe some particular thing, or sell them a product. Wikipedia has no hidden agenda: it just wants to be helpful.

That’s less true of other sites. Most are commercially motivated: their purpose is to make money. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a desire to make the world a better place — many do! — but it does mean that their positions and actions need to be understood in the context of conflicting interests.

My hope is that when Wikipedia shuts down on January 18, people will understand that we’re doing it for our readers. We support everyone’s right to freedom of thought and freedom of expression. We think everyone should have access to educational material on a wide range of subjects, even if they can’t pay for it. We believe in a free and open Internet where information can be shared without impediment. We believe that new proposed laws like SOPA and PIPA, and other similar laws under discussion inside and outside the United States — don’t advance the interests of the general public. You can read a very good list of reasons to oppose SOPA and PIPA here, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Why is this a global action, rather than US-only? And why now, if some American legislators appear to be in tactical retreat on SOPA?

The reality is that we don’t think SOPA is going away, and PIPA is still quite active. Moreover, SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. All around the world, we're seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the Internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond SOPA and PIPA: they are just part of the problem. We want the Internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone.

On January 18, we hope you’ll agree with us, and will do what you can to make your own voice heard.

Sue Gardner,
Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation

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