Tiny molecular change linked to psychiatric illness

Based on this research, it appears that a tiny change on the molecular level in the brain cells of babies can lead to all sorts of psychiatric problems later in life.  Drinking, physical abuse, drug use or illness in the mother, all can cause illnesses such as schizophrenia and some forms of autism and bipolar disorders for a fetus.  We're talking of changes of the most basic chemical type within the developing fetal cells of a newborn leading to a lifetime of mental issues.

This information, perhaps not directly related to a character in your story, can help you understand how this person became the way they are.  In the debate of nature versus nurture, it appears that nature is the culprit.  This asks the question, "can talk therapy cure such a disease when its cause is genetic?"  I can't answer this.

From a human standpoint, since the stem cells of people with a psychiatric problem were used to make this "diagnosis", is there hope that a stem cell therapy may be available some day in the future.  

Come to think of it, this could be core of a plot for a nice piece of fiction, don't you think?

Here's the report:

A single molecular mechanism in the developing brain has been identified that sheds light on how cells may go awry when exposed to a variety of different environmental insults. The findings suggest that different types of stressors prenatally activate a single molecular trigger in brain cells that may make exposed individuals susceptible to late-onset neuropsychiatric disorders.

Children whose mothers were exposed during pregnancy to any one of a variety of environmental stressors -- such as trauma, illness, and alcohol or drug abuse -- become susceptible to various psychiatric disorders later in life such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and some forms of autism and bipolar disorders.

Suggested reading
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Yale University researchers have identified a single molecular mechanism in the developing brain that sheds light on how cells may go awry when exposed to a variety of different environmental insults. The findings suggest that different types of stressors prenatally activate a single molecular trigger in brain cells that may make exposed individuals susceptible to late-onset neuropsychiatric disorders.

In addition, researchers created stem cells -- which are capable of becoming neurons -- from biopsies of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. Genes from these "schizophrenic" stem cells responded more dramatically when exposed to environmental insults than stem cells obtained from non-schizophrenic individuals. The findings support to the thesis that stress induces vulnerable cells to malfunction.

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Story Source: Materials provided by Yale University, written by Bill Hathaway from the research by Kazue Hashimoto-Torii, Masaaki Torii, Mitsuaki Fujimoto, Akira Nakai, Rachid El Fatimy, Valerie Mezger, Min J. Ju, Seiji Ishii, Shih-hui Chao, Kristen J. Brennand, Fred H. Gage, Pasko Rakic. Roles of Heat Shock Factor 1 in Neuronal Response to Fetal Environmental Risks and Its Relevance to Brain Disorders. Neuron, 2014

Reading Literary Fiction Improves 'Mind-Reading' Skills

What a cool headline.

I'll admit I don't read much literary fiction, usually the Booker Prize winner of the year, or books of like credential.  Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Jack London and similar writers are more my speed.

But I certainly understand the importance of this research to supporters of teaching reading as a leisure activity, as well as to the authors of literary works.

Here's the full press release:

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Heated debates about the quantifiable value of arts and literature are a common feature of American social discourse. Now, two researchers from The New School for Social Research have published a paper in Science demonstrating that reading literary fiction enhances a set of skills and thought processes fundamental to complex social relationships -- and functional societies.

Ph.D. candidate David Comer Kidd and his advisor, professor of psychology Emanuele Castano performed five experiments to measure the effect of reading literary fiction on participants' Theory of Mind (ToM), the complex social skill of "mind-reading" to understand others' mental states. Their paper, which appears in the Oct. 3 issue of Science is entitled "Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind."

To choose texts for their study, Kidd and Castano relied on expert evaluations to define three types of writing: literary fiction, popular fiction, and nonfiction. Literary fiction works were represented by excerpts from recent National Book Award finalists or winners of the 2012 PEN/O. Henry Prize for short fiction; popular fiction works were drawn from Amazon bestsellers or an anthology of recent popular fiction; and non-fiction works were selected from Smithsonian Magazine.

After participants read texts from one of the three genres, Kidd and Castano tested their ToM capabilities using several well-established measures. One of these measures is the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" test, which asks participants to look at black-and-white photographs of actors' eyes and indicate the emotion expressed by that actor. Another one is the Yoni test,
which includes both affective trials and cognitive ones. "We used several measures of ToM to make sure the effects were not specific to one type of measure, thus accumulating converging evidence for our hypothesis, " the researchers said.

Across the five experiments, Kidd and Castano found that participants who were assigned to read literary fiction performed significantly better on the ToM tests than did participants assigned to the other experimental groups, who did not differ from one another.

The study shows that not just any fiction is effective in fostering ToM, rather the literary quality of the fiction is the determining factor. The literary texts used in the experiments had vastly different content and subject matter, but all produced similarly high ToM results.

"Experiment One showed that reading literary fiction, relative to nonfiction improves performance on an affective ToM task. Experiments Two through Five showed that this effect is specific to literary fiction," the paper reports.
Kidd and Castano suggest that the reason for literary fiction's impact on ToM is a direct result of the ways in which it involves the reader. Unlike popular fiction, literary fiction requires intellectual engagement and creative thought from their readers. "Features of the modern literary novel set it apart from most bestselling thrillers or romances. Through the use of […] stylistic devices, literary fiction defamiliarizes its readers," Kidd and Castano write. "Just as in real life, the worlds of literary fiction are replete with complicated individuals whose inner lives are rarely easily discerned but warrant exploration."

"We see this research as a step towards better understanding the interplay between a specific cultural artifact, literary fiction, and affective and cognitive processes," Kidd and Castano say.

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Writing Fiction: Creative and Critical Approaches (Approaches to Writing)
by Amanda Boulter

Story Source: David Comer Kidd And Emanuele Castano. Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind. Science, October 2013

Abused Women Often Fear for Pets Left Behind

Have you ever known or known of an abused woman, and wondered why she won't leave him?

It may be because of a pet.

Jennifer Hardesty, associate professor of human development and family studies at the University of Illinois, discovered when she interviewed women victims of domestic violence that 34 percent of women delayed leaving out of concern for their pets because their abuser had threatened and harmed the animals in the past. 

"He made me stand there and . . . watch [him kill my cat]. And he was like: That could happen to you."

~ Study participant

Admittedly Hardesty's sample size was small, 19 women, but it does point out a somewhat unexpected complication in these stories of abuse, which could make an interesting and educational plot twist in your next story.

"For abused women, a pet can be a treasured source of unconditional love and comfort -- maybe even protection -- in a time of transition. Many are strongly bonded to their animals," Hardesty said.

"These incidences are very symbolic of what the abuser is capable of doing. He's sending the message: I can do something just as severe to hurt you," said Jennifer Hardesty, a U of I associate professor of human development and family studies.

Recommendations from UofI:
Veterinarians and women's shelters can make it easier for abused women to decide to leave their homes, particularly when the abuser is using a beloved pet as part of a campaign to control his partner, reports a companion University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine study.

At present, only a few shelters welcome pets. In response, the College of Veterinary Medicine is pioneering a program that provides a safe haven for pets until women in shelters can find housing and reclaim their animals.

"It would be ideal if the pet was able to stay with the woman at the shelter, but you'd need a reasonably well socialized and non-aggressive animal for that, and it would require a major shift in facilities and training for shelter personnel," said Marcella Ridgway, a clinical associate professor in the U of I College of Veterinary Medicine.

Hardesty advised that domestic violence shelter staff:

• Inform women seeking shelter about safe haven programs and other emergency resources for pets, preferably before they arrive at the shelter
• Provide opportunities for women to discuss their pets
• Incorporate pets into active safety planning efforts
• Educate and train staff about sensitive approaches that acknowledge that women have different bonds to their pets
• Collaborate with community partners to develop safe haven programs or other safe options for pets

Ridgway recommended that veterinary professionals:

• Help spread the word about safe haven programs and emergency resources for pets
• Become educated and promote awareness about the links between domestic violence and pet abuse
• Be knowledgeable and nonjudgmental with clients who disclose domestic violence
• Address pet health care issues in an honest and thorough but nonjudgmental manner, using a triaged approach to avoid overwhelming clients
• Assist clients in consideration of rational choices for long-term planning for pets
• Collaborate with community partners to develop safe haven programs or other safe options for pets
• Contribute to broader professional discussions about effective veterinary approaches to domestic violence, including routine screening

"Programs like this one empower abused women. When a woman who has been victimized makes a decision to protect a beloved pet, she's not a victim, and that's important," Hardesty said.

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Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship
by Alan Beck

Story Source:  J. L. Hardesty, L. Khaw, M. D. Ridgway, C. Weber, T. Miles. Coercive Control and Abused Women's Decisions About Their Pets When Seeking Shelter. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2013.

 

Story development: Strict Societies = Violent Drinking Cultures

An experienced novelist or screenwriter will tell the neophyte considering writing a book or screenplay, "understand your characters by working out their backstories first".

I came across this study from 2008 earlier today on Science Daily, the results of which offer insight into rigid or male dominated cultures, whether in the third world or in various corners of our own country.

Strict Societies Foster Violent Drinking Cultures

Countries with strict social rules and behavioral etiquette such as the United Kingdom may foster drinking cultures characterized by unruly or bad behavior, according to a report on alcohol and violence released today by International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP). The report lists 11 cultural features that may predict levels of violence such as homicide and spousal abuse.

Violence-reinforcing cultures tend to share the following features:

1. Cultural support (in media, norms, icons, myths, and so on) for aggression and aggressive solutions;
2. Militaristic readiness and participation in wars—societies that are frequently at war have consistently higher rates of interpersonal violence as well;
3. Glorification of fighters;
4. Violent sports;
5. Corporal and capital punishment;
6. Socialization of male children toward aggression;
7. Belief in malevolent magic;
8. Conspicuous inequality in wealth;
9. A higher than normal proportion of young males in the society;
10. Strong codes of male honor—in general, societies and subgroups that actively subscribe to strong codes of honor tend to have higher rates of homicide;
11. A culture of male domination.

A model to put in your files to pull out when developing your next story.  For more on story development, consider reading:

A Story is a Promise: Good Things to Know Before Writing a Novel, Screenplay or Play
by Bill Johnson

Story Source:  International Center for Alcohol Policies (2008, October 2). Strict Societies May Foster Violent Drinking Cultures. ScienceDaily.

The Science Behind Developing The Commitment Phobic Character

You're working up the back story of a commitment phobic character, someone who is attracted to but can't let him or herself get close to another, more commitment-comfortable character in your story.

This brings up the question, is commitment-phobia genetic? If genetic, is there much one can do to learn to open up and trust?

Or is commitment phobia a learned behavior?  And if learned, what can a person do to overcome this hurdle? 

Here's a bit of science you may find very useful: according to research published  in 2012 in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, commitment phobia is a behavior learned at the hands of emotionally distant parents, which gives you a model for piecing together your character's back stories as well as the personalities of your character's parents and siblings.

Here's the complete story from December, 2012:

'Commitment-Phobic' Adults Have Mom and Dad to Blame

Afraid to commit to a relationship? According to new research from Tel Aviv University, it could be just one more thing to blame on your parents.

A study of the romantic history of 58 adults aged 22-28 found that those who avoid committed romantic relationships are likely a product of unresponsive or over-intrusive parenting, says Dr. Sharon Dekel, a psychologist and researcher at the Bob Shapell School of Social Work.

Commitment phobia is a behavior learned at the hands of emotionally distant parents. . .

Dr. Dekel and her fellow researcher, Prof. Barry Farber of Columbia University, found that 22.4 percent of study participants could be categorized as "avoidant" when it came to their relationships, demonstrating anxiety about intimacy, reluctance to commit to or share with their partner, or a belief that their partner was "clingy," for example. Overall, they reported less personal satisfaction in their relationships than participants who were determined to be secure in their relationships.

Dr. Dekel and Prof. Farber found that while both secure and avoidant individuals expressed a desire for intimacy in relationships, avoidant individuals are conflicted about this need due to the complicated parent-child dynamics they experienced when young.

Taking lessons from childhood
The premise of their study, says Dr. Dekel, is based on attachment theory, which posits that during times of stress, infants seek proximity to their caregivers for emotional support. However, if the parent is unresponsive or overly intrusive, the child learns to avoid their caregiver.

The researchers believe that adult relationships reflect these earlier experiences. When infantile needs are met in childhood, that person approaches adult relationships with more security, seeking intimacy, sharing, caring, and fun, says Dr. Dekel. The researchers labeled these relationships "two-adult" models, in which participants equally share desires with their partner. Avoidant individuals, however, are more likely to adopt an "infant-mother" intimacy model.

When they enter relationships, there is an attempt to satisfy their unmet childhood needs, Dr. Dekel explains. "Avoidant individuals are looking for somebody to validate them, accept them as they are, can consistently meet their needs and remain calm -- including not making a fuss about anything or getting caught up in their own personal issues."

The tendency to avoid dependence on a partner is a defense mechanism rather than an avoidance of intimacy, she adds.

Hope for the commitment-phobic?
It's important to study this group further because beyond their severely diminished ability to conduct satisfying romantic relationships, they are also less happy in their lives and are more likely to suffer illnesses than their secure counterparts, notes Dr. Dekel. Psychologists need a better understanding of what these insecure individuals need, perhaps through more sophisticated neurological studies, she suggests.

There is also the question of whether or not these attachment styles are permanent. Dr. Dekel believes that there are some experiences which can help people develop more secure relationship styles.

There are hints that after experiencing a traumatic event, survivors show a greater ability and desire to form closer relationships, Dr. Dekel observed in a previous study in the Journal of Psychological Trauma, completed during her post-doctoral work with Prof. Zahava Solomon. As an expert in the field of trauma recovery and post-traumatic growth who has worked with patients in Israel and abroad to overcome traumatic events, she is beginning to study this phenomenon in greater depth.

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Committed? or Not: Insight Into Today's Commitment Phobia Epidemic
by Lisa M. Hall

A Writer's Guide to Characterization: Archetypes, Heroic Journeys, and Other Elements of Dynamic Character Development
by Victoria Lynn Schmidt

Story Source: Sharon Dekel, Barry A. Farber. Models of Intimacy of Securely and Avoidantly Attached Young Adults. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2012.

Why Your Parents Think Your Partner Isn't Good Enough

"Our model predicts that the conflict will be stronger when fathers rather than mothers control (family) resources."

The conflict between parent and child over the child's choice of a mate has long been fodder for soap operas, horse operas and opera operas. Also romantic comedies, drama and tragedies. It may even play out in your life, as a child or as a parent.

Have you ever wondered why this is?  I mean, how this standard conflict between parents and children came to be?  Even why in some cultures arranged marriages are the only option?  Yes, this is great fodder for the writer, but why is this such an ancient and universal theme?

An evolutionary explanation to this age-old conundrum is offered in a study published today, September 20, 2013 in the journal Evolution & Human Behavior, written by Dr. Tim Fawcett, a research fellow in Bristol's School of Biological Sciences. 

As Dr. Fawcett notes, "It is common for parents to influence mate choice - from arranged marriages to more subtle forms of persuasion - but they (parents) often disagree with their children about what makes a suitable partner."

"Surveys show that children tend to place more importance on physical attractiveness, smell and sense of humor, whereas parents care more about social class and family background."

According to Fawcett, it all comes down to control of parental resources: reseachers found that parents tend to give more resources to children whose partners provide less support, and that this leads to a conflict over mate choice.  His model shows that, typically, parents prefer a son-in-law who is more caring and supportive than their daughter would otherwise choose.

Dr. Fawcett said: "The conflict over parental resources is central to understanding why parents and children disagree in mate choice."

"Parents are equally related to all of their children," Fawcett explains, "whereas children value themselves more than their siblings -- so each child wants to get more than their fair share of parental resources.  This means that the children are willing to settle for a mate who is less caring than their parents would ideally like."

Piet van den Berg, lead author on the study, said: "Our model predicts that the conflict will be stronger when fathers rather than mothers control resources."

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The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master
by Martha Alderson

Story Source: Pieter van den Berg, Tim W. Fawcett, Abraham P. Buunk and Franz J. Weissing. The evolution of parent–offspring conflict over mate choice. Evolution & Human Behavior, 2013.

People Predisposed to Hate or Love

It's a base assumption in our society that we all have freedom of choice to love or hate, whether people, products or anything else.  New research shows that you and I are actually following a script, that when we each love or hate, we're simply are doing what we are predisposed to do.

Freedom of choice apparently doesn't exist, at least according to this research.  Here's an edited version of the press release, parsed according to my predispositions and not my freedom of choice.

Why Do Haters Have to Hate?

Newly Identified Personality Trait Holds Clues

New research has uncovered the reason why some people seem to dislike everything while others seem to like everything. Apparently, it's all part of our individual personality -- a dimension that researchers have coined "dispositional attitude."

People with a positive dispositional attitude have a strong tendency to like things, whereas people with a negative dispositional attitude have a strong tendency to dislike things, according to research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The journal article, "Attitudes without objects: Evidence for a dispositional attitude, its measurement, and its consequences," was written by Justin Hepler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Dolores Albarracín, Ph.D., the Martin Fishbein Chair of Communication and Professor of Psychology at Penn.

"The dispositional attitude construct represents a new perspective in which attitudes are not simply a function of the properties of the stimuli under consideration, but are also a function of the properties of the evaluator," wrote the authors. "[For example], at first glance, it may not seem useful to know someone's feelings about architecture when assessing their feelings about health care. After all, health care and architecture are independent stimuli with unique sets of properties, so attitudes toward these objects should also be independent."

However, they note, there is still one critical factor that an individual's attitudes will have in common: the individual who formed the attitudes. "Some people may simply be more prone to focusing on positive features and others on negative features," Hepler said.

To discover whether people differ in the tendency to like or dislike things, Hepler and Albarracín created a scale that requires people to report their attitudes toward a wide variety of unrelated stimuli, such as architecture, cold showers, politics, and soccer. Upon knowing how much people (dis)like these specific things, the responses were then averaged together to calculate their dispositional attitude (i.e., to calculate how much they tend to like or dislike things in general).

The theory is that if individuals differ in the general tendency to like versus dislike objects, attitudes toward independent objects may actually be related. Throughout the studies the researchers found that people with generally positive dispositional attitudes are more open than people with generally negative dispositional attitudes. In day-to-day practice, this means that people with positive dispositional attitudes may be more prone to actually buy new products, get vaccine shots, follow regular positive actions (recycling, driving carefully, etc.)

"This surprising and novel discovery expands attitude theory by demonstrating that an attitude is not simply a function of an object's properties, but it is also a function of the properties of the individual who evaluates the object," concluded Hepler and Albarracín.

"Overall, the present research provides clear support for the dispositional attitude as a meaningful construct that has important implications for attitude theory and research."

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Conflict & Suspense (Elements of Fiction Writing)
by James Scott Bell

Story Source:  Justin Hepler, Dolores Albarracín. Attitudes without objects: Evidence for a dispositional attitude, its measurement, and its consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2013

Intelligence Is Not a Remedy for Racism

Smart people are just as racist as their less intelligent peers -- they're just better at concealing their prejudice, according to a University of Michigan study.

"High-ability whites are less likely to report prejudiced attitudes and more likely to say they support racial integration in principle," said Geoffrey Wodtke, a doctoral candidate in sociology. "But they are no more likely than lower-ability whites to support open housing laws and are less likely to support school busing and affirmative action programs."

He analyzed data on the racial attitudes of more than 20,000 white respondents from the nationally representative General Social Survey. He examined how their cognitive ability, as measured by a widely used test of verbal intelligence, was linked with their attitudes about African-Americans, and about different policies designed to redress racial segregation and discrimination.

Respondents were about 47 years old at the time of the interview, on average, and had completed 12.9 years of education. They correctly answered an average of about six of the 10 cognitive ability test questions.
Among Wodtke's findings:

• High-ability whites were more likely than low-ability whites to reject residential segregation and to support school integration in principle, and they were more likely to acknowledge racial discrimination in the workplace. But there were only trivial differences across cognitive ability levels in support for policies designed to realize racial equality in practice.
• In some cases, more intelligent whites were actually less likely to support remedial policies for racial inequality. For example, about 27 percent of the least intelligent whites supported school busing programs, compared with 23 percent of the most intelligent whites.

"The principle-policy paradox is much more pronounced among high-ability whites than among low-ability whites," said Wodtke, who is also affiliated with the Population Studies Center at the U-M Institute for Social Research. "There's a disconnect between the attitudes intelligent whites support in principle and their attitudes toward policies designed to realize racial equality in practice.

"Intelligent whites give more enlightened responses than less intelligent whites to questions about their attitudes, but their responses to questions about actual policies aimed at redressing racial discrimination are far less enlightened. For example, although nearly all whites with advanced cognitive abilities say that 'whites have no right to segregate their neighborhoods,' nearly half of this group remains content to allow prejudicial real estate practices to continue unencumbered by open housing laws."

According to Wodtke, the broader implication of this study is that racism and prejudice don't simply come about as a result of low mental capacities or deficiencies in socialization. Rather, they result from the need of dominant groups to legitimize and protect their privileged social position within an intergroup conflict over resources.

"More intelligent members of the dominant group are just better at legitimizing and protecting their privileged position than less intelligent members," he said. "In modern America, where blacks are mobilized to challenge racial inequality, this means that intelligent whites say -- and may in fact truly believe -- all the right things about racial equality in principle, but they just don't actually do anything that would eliminate the privileges to which they have become accustomed.

"In many cases, they have become so accustomed to these privileges that they become 'invisible,' and any effort to point these privileges out or to eliminate them strikes intelligent whites as a grave injustice."

White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
by Tim Wise

Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice
by Paul Kivel

Story Source:  American Sociological Association (ASA) (2013, August 11). Smart enough to know better: Intelligence is not a remedy for racism. ScienceDaily.

SciFi in Real Life: Steerable Needles in Your Brain

I remember the 1966 movie, "Fantastic Voyage", starring Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, Edmond O'Brien, and Donald Pleasence.  The idea was to shrink a submarine and crew to microscopic size so they could save the life of some politico.  The main image I retain is Raquel Welch (left) in a skin-tight suit that is stripped down to the minimum by rampaging and probably sexist, male white blood cells. 

The rest of the story remains a blank.

Well, the concept has come true in a way with a new image-guided surgical system under development at Vanderbilt University. It employs steerable needles about the size of those used for biopsies to penetrate the brain with minimal damage and suction away the blood clot that has formed.

The story goes on to describe this as a high-tech method to remove blood clots from a patient's brain after they suffer a life threatening embolism. 

Now, instead of suction tubes, how about electrodes or a tip that can freeze a microscopic portion of a brain to erase a memory, change a  personality, remove inhibitions, or implant a compulsion without damaging the rest of a personality.

It is a very real possibility.  Imagine if you will a man or woman wide awake, strapped down to a surgical table as a probe is carefully guided into place, say the memory center of the brain, or one that controls a certain behavior.  The person is helpless to prevent what is being done to them, so their facial expression would go from anger to rage to fear to panic then to??

Here's the rest of the press release:

The system is described in an article accepted for publication in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. It is the product of an ongoing collaboration between a team of engineers and physicians headed by Assistant Professor Robert J. Webster III and Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery Kyle Weaver. 

Brain clots are leading cause of death, disability
The odds of a person getting an intracerebral hemorrhage are one in 50 over his or her lifetime. When it does occur, 40 percent of the individuals die within a month. Many of the survivors have serious brain damage.

"When I was in college, my dad had a brain hemorrhage," said Webster. "Fortunately, he was one of the lucky few who survived and recovered fully. I'm glad I didn't know how high his odds of death or severe brain damage were at the time, or else I would have been even more scared than I already was."

Steerable needle could prevent "collateral damage" during surgery
Operations to "debulk" intracerebral hemorrhages are not popular among neurosurgeons: They know their efforts are not likely to make a difference, except when the clots are small and lie on the brain's surface where they are easy to reach. Surgeons generally agree that there is a clinical benefit from removing 25-50 percent of a clot but that benefit can be offset by the damage that is done to the surrounding tissue when the clot is removed. Therefore, when a serious clot is detected in the brain, doctors take a "watchful waiting" approach -- administering drugs that decrease the swelling around the clot in hopes that this will be enough to make the patient improve without surgery.

For the last four years, Webster's team has been developing a steerable needle system for "transnasal" surgery: operations to remove tumors in the pituitary gland and at the skull base that traditionally involve cutting large openings in a patient's skull and/or face. Studies have shown that using an endoscope to go through the nasal cavity is less traumatic, but the procedure is so difficult that only a handful of surgeons have mastered it.

Last summer, Webster attended a conference in Italy where one of the speakers, Marc Simard, a neurosurgeon at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, ran through his wish list of useful imaginary neurosurgical devices, hoping that some engineer in the audience might one day be able to build one of them. When he described his wish to have a needle-sized robot arm to reach deep into the brain to remove clots, Webster couldn't help smiling because the steerable needle system he had been developing was perfect for the job.

Webster's design, which he calls an active cannula, consists of a series of thin, nested tubes. Each tube has a different intrinsic curvature. By precisely rotating, extending and retracting these tubes, an operator can steer the tip in different directions, allowing it to follow a curving path through the body. The single needle system required for removing brain clots was actually much simpler than the multi-needle transnasal system.

I think this can save a lot of lives.
When Webster returned, he told Weaver about the potential new application. The neurosurgeon was quite supportive: "I think this can save a lot of lives. There are a tremendous number of intracerebral hemorrhages and the number is certain to increase as the population ages."

Graduate student Philip Swaney, who is working on the system, likes the fact it is closest to commercialization of all the projects in Webster's Medical and Electromechanical Design Laboratory. "I like the idea of working on something that will begin saving lives in the very near future," he said.

Active cannula removed 92 percent of clots in simulations
The brain-clot system only needs two tubes: a straight outer tube and a curved inner tube. Both are less than one twentieth of an inch in diameter. When a CT scan has determined the location of the blood clot, the surgeon determines the best point on the skull and the proper insertion angle for the probe. The angle is dialed into a fixture, called a trajectory stem, which is attached to the skull immediately above a small hole that has been drilled to enable the needle to pass into the patient's brain.

The surgeon positions the robot so it can insert the straight outer tube through the trajectory stem and into the brain. He also selects the small inner tube with the curvature that best matches the size and shape of the clot, attaches a suction pump to its external end and places it in the outer tube.

Guided by the CT scan, the robot inserts the outer tube into the brain until it reaches the outer surface of the clot. Then it extends the curved, inner tube into the clot's interior. The pump is turned on and the tube begins acting like a tiny vacuum cleaner, sucking out the material. The robot moves the tip around the interior of the clot, controlling its motion by rotating, extending and retracting the tubes. According to the feasibility studies the researchers have performed, the robot can remove up to 92 percent of simulated blood clots.

"The trickiest part of the operation comes after you have removed a substantial amount of the clot. External pressure can cause the edges of the clot to partially collapse making it difficult to keep track of the clot's boundaries," said Webster.

The goal of a future project is to add ultrasound imaging combined with a computer model of how brain tissue deforms to ensure that all of the desired clot material can be removed safely and effectively.
Other members of the research team are Jessica Burgner, formerly a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt and now executive director of the Hannover University Center for Mechatronics in Germany, and Ray Lathrop, a graduate student at Vanderbilt.

*  *  *  *  *

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy: A Bestselling Science Fiction/Fantasy Writer Shares
by Orson Scott Card

Story Source:  Vanderbilt University (2013, August 8). Robot treats brain clots with steerable needles. ScienceDaily.

Fiction, Global Warming, and the Writer

Any writer worth his or her syntax how should be considering how global warming and the resulting change in our climate impacts the story and plot.
 
This includes the positions taken by deniers and the political debate that swirls around the topic.
 
I'm not going to take a stand on this other than to say that researchers have determined that the less a person knows about global warming and climate change, the more likely they are to deny the science behind the phenomenon. They are something like the old 19th Century "Know-nothing" political party in the U.S. which took the position toward slavery and their rapidly changing economy, "If I keep my head in the sand, maybe it will go away."  It didn't, as you know.
 
Unfortunately, it looks we're just at the beginning of the impacts.  Consider these three releases from August 1st of this year, and think of how these results can impact your characters and your story lines.

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Climate Change Occurring Ten Times Faster

Than at Any Time in Past 65 Million Years

Aug. 1, 2013 — The planet is undergoing one of the largest changes in climate since the dinosaurs went extinct. But what might be even more troubling for humans, plants and animals is the speed of the change. Stanford climate scientists warn that the likely rate of change over the next century will be at least 10 times quicker than any climate shift in the past 65 million years. 
The planet experienced a 5 degree Celsius hike in temperature 20,000 years ago, as Earth emerged from the last ice age. This is a change comparable to the high-end of the projections for warming over the 20th and 21st centuries.
 
The geologic record shows that, 20,000 years ago, as the ice sheet that covered much of North America receded northward, plants and animals recolonized areas that had been under ice. As the climate continued to warm, those plants and animals moved northward, to cooler climes.
 
Some of the strongest evidence for how the global climate system responds to high levels of carbon dioxide comes from paleoclimate studies. Fifty-five million years ago, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was elevated to a level comparable to today. The Arctic Ocean did not have ice in the summer, and nearby land was warm enough to support alligators and palm trees.
 
Record-setting heat
Researchers reviewed results from two-dozen climate models to describe possible climate outcomes from present day to the end of the century. In general, extreme weather events, such as heat waves and heavy rainfall, are expected to become more severe and more frequent.
 
For example, the researchers note that, with continued emissions of greenhouse gases at the high end of the scenarios, annual temperatures over North America, Europe and East Asia will increase 2-4 degrees C by 2046-2065. With that amount of warming, the hottest summer of the last 20 years is expected to occur every other year, or even more frequently.
 
By the end of the century, should the current emissions of greenhouse gases remain unchecked, temperatures over the northern hemisphere will tip 5-6 degrees C warmer than today's averages. In this case, the hottest summer of the last 20 years becomes the new annual norm.
 
Story Source: N. S. Diffenbaugh, C. B. Field. Changes in Ecologically Critical Terrestrial Climate Conditions. Science, 2013.
 

Cool Heads Likely Won't Prevail in a Hotter, Wetter World:

Climate Change Will Likely Exacerbate Violence

Aug. 1, 2013 — Should climate change trigger the upsurge in heat and rainfall that scientists predict, people may face a threat just as perilous and volatile as extreme weather -- each other.
 
Researchers from Princeton University and the University of California-Berkeley report in the journal Science that even slight spikes in temperature and precipitation have greatly increased the risk of personal violence and social upheaval throughout human history. Projected onto an Earth that is expected to warm by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, the authors suggest that more human conflict is a likely outcome of climate change.
 
The researchers analyzed 60 studies from a number of disciplines -- including archaeology, criminology, economics and psychology -- that have explored the connection between weather and violence in various parts of the world from about 10,000 BCE to the present day. During an 18-month period, the Princeton-Berkeley researchers reviewed those studies' data -- and often re-crunched raw numbers -- to calculate the risk that violence would rise under hotter and wetter conditions.
 
They found that while climate is not the sole or primary cause of violence, it undeniably exacerbates existing social and interpersonal tension in all societies, regardless of wealth or stability.
 
"We attained a huge amount of the data that was available and we used the same method on all of the data so that we could directly compare studies," the lead researcher said. "Once we did that, we saw that all of the results were actually highly consistent -- previously they just weren't being analyzed in a consistent way."
 
The researchers examined three categories of conflict:

1. "personal violence and crime," which includes murder, assault, rape and domestic violence;
2. "intergroup violence and political instability," such as civil wars, riots, ethnic violence and land invasions; and
3. "institutional breakdowns," which are abrupt and major changes in governing institutions or, in extreme cases, the collapse of entire civilizations.

Extreme climatic conditions amplified violence in all three categories, regardless of geography, societal wealth or the time in history. An aberrant climate coincided with incidents including spikes in domestic violence in India and Australia; increased assaults and murders in the United States and Tanzania; ethnic violence in Europe and South Asia; land invasions in Brazil; police using force in the Netherlands; civil conflicts throughout the tropics; the collapse of ancient empires; and wars and displacement in Middle-Ages Europe.

"We find the same pattern over and over again, regardless of whether we look at data from Brazil, Somalia, China or the United States," Miguel said. "We often think of modern society as largely independent of the environment, due to technological advances, but our findings challenge that notion. The climate appears to be a critical factor sustaining peace and wellbeing across human societies."

And the climate does not have to deviate much to upset that peace and wellbeing researchers concluded.  These are pretty moderate climate changes, but they have a sizable impact on those societies.

"There's a large amount of evidence that environmental conditions actually change a person's perception of their own condition, or they also can change the likelihood of people using violence or aggressive action to accomplish some goal," lead researcher Solomon Hsiang ended. 

Story Source: Solomon M. Hsiang, Marshall Burke, and Edward Miguel. Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict. Science, 1 August 2013
 

More Accurate Model of Climate Change's Effect On Soil

Aug. 1, 2013 — Scientists from UC Irvine and the National Center for Atmospheric Research discovered that in cases of increased carbon input to soil (such as carbon dioxide or nutrient fertilization), microbes actually released the added carbon to the atmosphere, and does not store it as traditional thinking assumes. Story Source: William R. Wieder, Gordon B. Bonan, Steven D. Allison. Global soil carbon projections are improved by modeling microbial processes. Nature Climate Change, 2013

The volume of serious research on climate change is difficult to keep up with as new studies are released almost daily.  It's not unusual that two, three, four, or more studies as released on a single day.

Looking for a good, well researched, and accepted primer on global warming and climate change?  Consider this selection from our friends at Powell's Books, the largest independent bookstore.

 

Global Warming for Beginners (For Beginners)
by Ph.d. Dean Goodwin

"Write drunk, edit sober."

Tennessee Williams in his cups.

A often cited quote from Ernest Hemingway, known for his drinking.

Why have so many writers been alcoholics and addicts?

A new book, The Trip to Echo Spring: Why Writers Drink, by Olivia Laing, just published in England by Canongate and to be published in America in December by Picador, explores the lives of many well known authors.

To order The Trip to Echo Springs from Powells Books, the world's largest single site new and used bookstore, click on the image below:

Trip To Echo Spring: Why Writers Drink
by Olivia Laing

Where have all the burglars gone? And a Woman Warrior Passes

An article in the July 19, 2013 online edition of the Economist notes that police records and surveys of victims across Europe and North America show crime against the person and against property falling over the past ten years.  Even falling dramatically.

In America the fall began around 1991; in Britain it began around 1995, though the murder rate followed only in the mid-2000s. In France, property crime rose until 2001—but it has fallen by a third since. Some crimes are all but disappearing. In 1997, some 400,000 cars were reported stolen in England and Wales: in 2012, just 86,000.

Why?  The experts are divided in explaining the decline, but it appears to be a combination of better policing, better  awareness of crime prevention by the population, and certain demographic changes.

To read the entire Economist Article:  Falling crime

Looking for a woman war hero to write about or fictionalize?  In the same issue of the economist is the story of fighter pilot Nadia Popova, a true woman war hero who flew over eight hundred sorties against German positions on the Russian front during WWII.  Even if historical or war fiction isn't your genre', it's a fascinating story of a brave warrior who just happened to look like a Hollywood starlet.  Fascinating stuff.

Writing Crime Fiction: Making Crime Pay
by Janet Laurence

The Bourne Identity in Real Life

It's the basis of the Bourne Identity series by Robert Ludlum: a man awakens not knowing who or where is he. 

It's called Transient Global Amnesia, a temporary total loss of memory, a device often used in fiction.

Just to prove that this fictional reality exists in our world, consider the American who wakes up with amnesia speaking Swedish.  In fact, the man claims he cannot remember anything of past life after being found unconscious in a motel room in Palm Springs.  Michael Boatwright, 61, woke up with amnesia, calling himself Johan Ek, the Desert Sun reported.

Boatwright was found unconscious in February, and was transported to the Desert Regional medical center.  Hospital officials believe Boatwright may have been in town for a tennis tournament in the Coachella valley. He was found with a duffel bag of exercise clothes, a backpack and tennis rackets. He also carried a passport, a California identification card, a veteran's medical card and a social security card – all of which identified him as Michael Thomas Boatwright.
Of course, there are questions.  Is he faking it for some unknown reason?  That is a real possibility.  Is the CIA trying to assassinate him?  Or get him to do some hideous crime a la the Manchurian Candidate? 

The plot thickens.

Limbo: A Woman with Amnesia Struggles with the Loss of Her Identity
by Thomas Robert Phillips Iii

Transient Global Amnesia
by Britt Talley Daniel Md

Fictional James Bond Inspired Real CIA Toys

Much is made of the influence of the Star Trek series on developing technology from warp drive to the now ubiquitous cell phone (the inventor of which admits Star Trek's communicators gave him the idea.)

But wait, a new study tells us there's more.  A symbiotic relationship of sorts between our CIA and Ian Fleming's James Bond.

When it comes to developing cool spy toys, it seems Fleming's James Bond books and movies were years ahead of our own CIA in spy gadgets.  And, that the real-life CIA copied outlandish gadgets from Goldfinger and From Russia With Love, according to a University of Warwick analysis of declassified letters and interviews revealing the bond between Ian Fleming and Allen Dulles.

However the relationship between the former CIA director and the spy thriller writer went far deeper than raiding the novels for technological inspiration.

Through Dulles, the agency actively leaned on the British author to paint it in more positive light at a time when US film-makers, authors and journalists were silent about the activities of the CIA, fearful to even mention it by name.

Dr. Christopher Moran from the University of Warwick has trawled through declassified letters and media reports from the 1950 and 60s for the study, Ian Fleming and the Public Profile of the CIA, published in the Journal of
Cold War Studies.

He said: "There was a surprising two-way influence between the CIA and the James Bond novels during the Cold War, stemming from the mutual admiration between Allen Dulles and Ian Fleming.

"This ranged from the copying of devices, such as the poison-tipped dagger shoe in From Russia With Love, to the agency using the 007 novels to improve its public profile.

"It's even more striking that this was going on at time when mentioning the CIA was strictly off-limits for the US media and cultural establishment, whereas Fleming, as a British author, could say what he liked.

"For a long time, the James Bond books had a monopoly on the CIA's public image and the agency used this to its advantage."

Declassified letters between Allen Dulles and Ian Fleming reveal the former CIA boss's strong affection for the Bond novels -- he even persuaded the author not to pension off 007 in 1963.

And in a rediscovered 1964 edition of Life Magazine, Dulles describes his meeting with the 'brilliant and witty' Fleming in London in 1959 where the author told him that the CIA was not doing enough in the area of 'special devices'.

On his return to the US, Dulles urged CIA technical staff to replicate as many of Bond's devices as they could.

The article details how the CIA successfully copied Rosa Klebb's infamous spring-loaded poison knife shoe from the film From Russia with Love.

But it had less luck with the homing beacon device used in Goldfinger to track the villain's car -- the CIA version had 'too many bugs in it', Dulles said, and stopped working when the enemy entered a crowded city.

The letters between Dulles and Fleming also show how the CIA tapped into James Bond for public relations support, with the author agreeing to include a number of glowing references to the CIA in his later novels. He did this out of respect for Dulles, a close friend, but the effect was to promote the image of the CIA. In return, Dulles rhapsodised about Fleming in the American press, even saying on one occasion that his organisation "could do with a few James Bonds."

Dr Moran said: "The early 007 novels, written in the 1950s, introduce millions of readers to the CIA for the first time through the character of its agent Felix Leiter.

"Although Fleming's portrayal of the CIA is largely favourable, readers are left in no doubt that the British intelligence services are the superior outfit.

"In Live and Let Die, for example, Leiter comes across as a bit of a bungler, unable to blend in with the locals and forced to rely on paid informants.

"But in the later books, as the friendship between Dulles and Fleming deepens, a far rosier picture of the CIA emerges.

"For example, in Thunderball, Bond's boss 'M' dispenses with his characteristic economy of words to speak enthusiastically about the way the CIA is selflessly putting itself in the service of freedom.

"And Allen Dulles is even the subject of several honourable mentions in the later books.

"It really does come across as a bit of a mutual appreciation society."

*  *  *  *  *

Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools of Their Trade in the Most Detailed Operational Book Ever Authorized by the CIA
by Antonio Mendez

Story Source: Christopher Moran. Ian Fleming and the Public Profile of the CIA. Journal of Cold War Studies, 2013

Inside the Minds of Murderers

Impulsive Murderers Much More Mentally Impaired Than Those Who Kill Strategically

The minds of murderers who kill impulsively, often out of rage, and those who carefully carry out premeditated crimes differ markedly both psychologically and intellectually, according to a new study by Northwestern Medicine® researcher Robert Hanlon.

"Impulsive murderers were much more mentally impaired, particularly cognitively impaired, in terms of both their intelligence and other cognitive functions," said Hanlon, senior author of the study and associate professor of clinical psychiatry and clinical neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

"The predatory and premeditated murderers did not typically show any major intellectual or cognitive impairments, but many more of them have psychiatric disorders," he said.

Published online in the journal Criminal Justice and Behavior, the study is the first to examine the neuropsychological and intelligence differences of murderers who kill impulsively versus those who kill as the result of a premeditated strategic plan.

• Compared to impulsive murderers, premeditated murderers are almost twice as likely to have a history of mood disorders or psychotic disorders -- 61 percent versus 34 percent.
• Compared to predatory murderers, impulsive murderers are more likely to be developmentally disabled and have cognitive and intellectual impairments -- 59 percent versus 36 percent.
• Nearly all of the impulsive murderers have a history of alcohol or drug abuse and/or were intoxicated at the time of the crime -- 93 percent versus 76 percent of those who strategized about their crimes.

Based on established criteria, 77 murderers from typical prison populations in Illinois and Missouri were classified into the two groups (affective/impulsive and premeditated/predatory murderers). Hanlon compared their performances on standardized measures of intelligence and neuropsychological tests of memory, attention and executive functions. He spent hours with each individual, administering series of tests to complete an evaluation. Hanlon has spent thousands of hours studying the minds of murderers through his research.

"It's important to try to learn as much as we can about the thought patterns and the psychopathology, neuropathology and mental disorders that tend to characterize the types of people committing these crimes," he said. "Ultimately, we may be able to increase our rates of prevention and also assist the courts, particularly helping judges and juries be more informed about the minds and the mental abnormalities of the people who commit these violent crimes."

---

Cruelty, Violence, and Murder: Understanding the Criminal Mind (Library of Object Relations)
by Arthur Hyatt-williams

The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime
by Adrian Raine

Story Source:  R. E. Hanlon, M. Brook, J. Stratton, M. Jensen, L. H. Rubin. Neuropsychological and Intellectual Differences Between Types of Murderers: Affective/Impulsive Versus Predatory/ Instrumental (Premeditated) Homicide. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2013