Throughout the centuries, policy-makers and pressure groups have attempted to impose rules in the face of a recalcitrant reality. Montaigne observed, "Through presumptions they make laws for nature and marvel at the way nature ignores these laws." So too with health policy where one shibboleth plaguing society is the misuse of the concept of egalitarianism. In our society, that should mean equa...

In our society the amount of data doubles almost every year. Hence, there is an urgent need for a new generation of computationally intelligent techniques and tools to assist humans in extracting useful information (knowledge) from the rapidly growing volume of data. When we attempt to solve real-world problems, like extracting knowledge from large amount of data, we realize that they are typic...

The cathodic polarographic wave observed for solutions of AlCl, in pyridine is due not to reduction of Al(III), but to reduction of the solvent, in which process Al(II1) plays an essential role, apparently by polarizing the pyridine through the formation of a Lewis acid-base adduct with the pyridine nitrogen. Macroscale electrolysis of pyridine solutions of AlCl, at a mercury cathode results in...

The first of two tectonic-oriented objectives during Leg 160 in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (April–May, 1995) was concerned with study of processes of genesis and incipient collision of the Eratosthenes Seamount, a substantial crustal feature, with the active margin of the Eurasian plate to the north, represented by southern Cyprus. The upper part of the Eratosthenes Seamount (upper several h...

In recent years, Cu-Ni deposits have been discovered at different localities in the Eastern part of Kunlun orogenic belt such as Xiarihamu, Langmuri, Shitoukengde, and Wenquan. Eclogites are usually exposed areas associated with these deposits, thereby implying a certain coupling relationship between eclogite distribution. this study, samples from Xiarihamu Langmuri were analyzed using petrogeo...

I was somewhat taken aback when asked to write an article for a History issue of Bioinformatics, because not by any stretch of the imagination am I a ‘bioinformaticist’. I have no formal training in computer or information science. By education, I am a biochemist whose early experience was in the area of proteins. Bioinformatics was not a term that existed when I began my scientific career. My ...

The cause(s) of Meniere's disease is(are) not known but two main hypotheses have been proposed and have been widely accepted, to explain the characteristic symptoms: low frequency hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo. It is supposed that there is an overpressure within the endolymphatic spaces accompanied by fissures in the membranes, and in particular in the Reissner's membrane, which leads to t...

The authors state in the preface that tropical neurological disorders are not diseases of particular latitudes, but of particular deprivations. These diseases occur in the tropics because war, famine, poverty and oppression occur in the tropics. They point out that neurological diseases common in the tropics today were once common everywhere. However, this opening view does not serve as a platf...