May 6
Shell spiral. The Veliger. April 1, 1970.
Ptychodon microundulata, a New Zealand land snail, magnified 110 x.
Internet Archive
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Argentina
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Kyrgyzstan
seen from Brazil
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Moldova
seen from United States
Shell spiral. The Veliger. April 1, 1970.
Ptychodon microundulata, a New Zealand land snail, magnified 110 x.
Internet Archive
Entire board resigns over actions of academic publisher whose profit margins outstrip even Google and Amazon
More than 40 leading scientists have resigned en masse from the editorial board of a top science journal in protest at what they describe as the “greed” of publishing giant Elsevier.
The entire academic board of the journal Neuroimage, including professors from Oxford University, King’s College London and Cardiff University resigned after Elsevier refused to reduce publication charges.
Academics around the world have applauded what many hope is the start of a rebellion against the huge profit margins in academic publishing, which outstrip those made by Apple, Google and Amazon.
Neuroimage, the leading publication globally for brain-imaging research, is one of many journals that are now “open access” rather than sitting behind a subscription paywall. But its charges to authors reflect its prestige, and academics now pay over £2,700 for a research paper to be published. The former editors say this is “unethical” and bears no relation to the costs involved.
Professor Chris Chambers, head of brain stimulation at Cardiff University and one of the resigning team, said: “Elsevier preys on the academic community, claiming huge profits while adding little value to science.”
He has urged fellow scientists to turn their backs on the Elsevier journal and submit papers to a nonprofit open-access journal which the team is setting up instead.
He told the Observer: “All Elsevier cares about is money and this will cost them a lot of money. They just got too greedy. The academic community can withdraw our consent to be exploited at any time. That time is now.”
Elsevier, a Dutch company that claims to publish 25% of the world’s scientific papers, reported a 10% increase in its revenue to £2.9bn last year. But it’s the profit margins, nearing 40%, according to its 2019 accounts, which anger academics most. The big scientific publishers keep costs low because academics write up their research – typically funded by charities and the public purse – for free. They “peer review” each other’s work to verify it is worth publishing for free, and academic editors collate it for free or for a small stipend. Academics are then often charged thousands of pounds to have their work published in open-access journals, or universities will pay very high subscription charges.
Purpose Unrefreshing and non-restorative sleep is a hallmark complaint in people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). However, little is known about their habitual sleep and night-to-night fluctuations under real-life conditions. This study aimed to characterize sleep, and the intraindividual variability (IIV) of sleep in people living with ME/CFS compared with matched controls. Methods In this case-control study, 38 ME/CFS and 38 controls wore a wrist accelerometer continuously for 7 days and completed concurrent sleep diaries, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Within the ME/CFS group, participants were also stratified by symptom severity using the Bell Disability Scale. Sleep IIV was quantified using the coefficient of variation, the root mean square of successive differences, and the Bayesian variability model, respectively. Results Compared with controls, individuals with ME/CFS spent significantly more time in bed and exhibited poorer sleep efficiency (SE) (all p
Based on the study provided, here is a summary of sleep efficiency (SE) in individuals with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS):
Key Findings on Sleep Efficiency:
Overall Reduction: Patients with ME/CFS exhibit significantly poorer sleep efficiency compared to healthy controls. They experience a nearly doubled sleep onset latency (taking much longer to fall asleep) and increased wakefulness after sleep onset (frequent waking during the night).
The "Time in Bed" Dissociation: Despite spending nearly an extra hour in bed, the actual total sleep time of ME/CFS patients does not differ from healthy individuals. This demonstrates that prolonged sleep opportunity does not translate into restorative sleep due to their compromised sleep efficiency.
High Night-to-Night Fluctuation: A hallmark finding of this study is that sleep efficiency in ME/CFS is highly unstable and shows pronounced intraindividual variability from one night to the next. Patients frequently alternate between low- and relatively high-efficiency nights.
Preserved Bedtime Schedules: Interestingly, this high instability in sleep continuity occurs despite patients maintaining relatively regular and stable bedtimes, which is often an adaptive pacing strategy to manage their illness.
Clinical Implications
Because sleep efficiency fluctuates so dramatically from night to night, a single- or two-night laboratory sleep assessment (such as standard polysomnography) can easily misrepresent a patient's typical sleep patterns. The study underscores the necessity of extended, multi-night ambulatory monitoring (e.g., using wrist accelerometry and sleep diaries) to truly capture the burden of sleep disturbances in ME/CFS.
Cavemen scientific journal is Here!
Hiya folks!
We are the cavemen scientific journal , what is it you may ask? WELL... It's a blog , a webcomic and a journal? at the same time?(we are pretty confused too).
The journal consists of articles , articles about physics, chemistry, inventions, philosophy but all from ancient times written and recorded by the cavemen from the stone age!
It's humorous, satirical and yet at the same time educational?(Again we are still fighting on what it is),BUT whatever it is it is always entertaining.
but you may ask who are you? and what is your part in this ? And well we are just cavemen too and we are the ones who bring you all these articles, we as in just the two of us....,BARRY(local caveman ,writer and cave painter),KARI(Local gatherer and editor),But two is enough to write about the knuckle-headed Cavemen.
So share it with your friends, and don't forget to follow us if you'd be interested in reading our articles going forward and lastly hold on to your hats because our first article will be dropping soon.
Have a great day
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title
Heredity vs. environment
A protein that disrupts cells’ energy centers may be a culprit in chronic fatigue syndrome | Science | AAAS
New study offers clues as to how exhaustion could arise in people with ME/CFS—and potentially related conditions such as Long Covid
People living with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) struggle not only with extreme exhaustion and the cognitive problems known as brain fog, but with a profound lack of information about what causes their symptoms and how to treat them. Scientists have yet to pin down the biology underlying the condition, which affects up to 2.5 million people in the United States alone, according to some estimates.
Now, researchers have identified a protein that’s present at unusually high levels in the muscles of people with ME/CFS and that disrupts cells’ ability to generate energy. The findings, reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could point to new therapeutics for this condition and for illnesses that share similar characteristics, such as Long Covid.
Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist at Yale School of Medicine who was not involved in the work, praises the research as “very well done” but cautions that the suspect protein is likely “a piece of the puzzle, as opposed to explaining the whole disease.” The findings suggest it could act as one of several “middlemen” between whatever sparks the illness and symptoms such as fatigue, she says.
...
The NHLBI researchers wondered whether WASF3 was interacting with mitochondria, cellular compartments responsible for energy generation that have been suggested to malfunction in people with ME/CFS and Long Covid. Sure enough, by changing levels of WASF3 inside cultured cells from S1 as well as in other human and mouse cells, the team found the protein could disrupt mitochondrial function. Specifically, high levels of WASF3 interfered with the assembly of mitochondrial proteins into molecular complexes that support normal energy production.
This came up in a journal of biology, and it's cracking me up. Spice up your existential crisis by publishing it in Genetics.
