>
>
Image by ShashiBellamkonda via FlickrO2 HUB: O2 HUB >> THINKING AHEAD: The New Small Business M…: | Digital marketing has become VAST: Marketing techniques constantly have to evolve and change with changing t…”
>
>
Welcome to O2 HUB This HUB is designed to ENTERTAIN and INFORM on CURRENT AFFAIRS, HUMANITIES, ART …
O2 VISIONS – Ver 1. An easy mistake to make – 2 min 4 sec
>
Are you innovating?
>
The world’s first computerised map of the brain was released yesterday by scientists at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, in Seattle, Washington, after more than four years of cutting-edge research.
The Human Brain Atlas is an interactive research tool that will help scientists to understand how the brain works and aid new discoveries in disease and treatments.
The information used to build it comes from the analysis of two human brains, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a variation of MRI called diffusion tensor imaging.
Allan Jones, the CEO of the institute, told Wired how the brains were also chopped up into small pieces, and RNA extracted from the tissue. They used this RNA to obtain a read-out of the 25,000 genes in the human genome.
All this information was put together to create a detailed map of the brain. One thousand anatomical sites in the brain can be searched, supported by more than 100 million data points that indicate the gene expression and biochemistry of each site.
For example, a researcher could quickly create a 3D snapshot (see image below) of all the locations in the brain where Prozac’s biochemical targets are expressed.
The researchers found a striking 94 per cent similarity in the biochemistry between the two brains, and discovered that at least 82 per cent of all human genes are expressed in the brain.
Allan says this isn’t too surprising:
When you think about the complexity of the functions of the brain, and the variety of different cell types found within the brain, it’s not quite as surprising to see how much of the genome is used to serve the brain
![LateralView_2001[1].jpg](https://i0.wp.com/www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/assets_c/2011/04/LateralView_2001%5B1%5D-thumb-600x404-122609.jpg)
Both brains used in the $55 million project were male, which prompted The Wall Street Journal to ask why a woman’s brain had not been included. Allan told Bloomberg that eligible brain donors usually die from accidental causes or cardiac arrest, both of which disproportionately affect men. However, he says the project is currently processing a female brain, and that ultimately, the facility will run at least 10 brains through the process.
Other researchers are also attempting to map neural connections in a mouse brain, something MRI cannot do. They will turn slices of brain into digital images by an automated electron microscope. A computer will read those images, trace the outlines of nerve cells, and stack the pictures into a 3D reconstruction.
Maps like these have limitless potential in drug discovery and human genetics and will no doubt be an essential step forward in the fight against disease.
>
Smithsonian Institution Photo
WEB11565-2010
A plot of the locations of newly detected and previously known lobate scarps shows that the faults are globally distributed. The newly discovered lobate scarps are shown by the white dots and the previously known scarps are shown by black dots. Most of the previously known lobate scarps were found in Apollo Panoramic Camera photographs that covered only part of the lunar equatorial region. The locations of the lobate scarps are plotted on the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) global topographic model of the Moon. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Smithsonian
>
“By making online transactions more trustworthy and better protecting privacy, we will prevent costly crime, we will give businesses and consumers new confidence, and we will foster growth and untold innovation,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.
“That’s why this initiative is so important for our economy.”
The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) proposes to create secure and reliable online credentials that would be available to consumers who want to use them.
It would be private-sector driven and participation would be voluntary.
The system would involve using a single credential — unique software on a smartphone, a smart card or a token that generates a one-time digital password — and would eliminate the need to remember multiple passwords.
“The consumer can use their single credential to log into any website, with more security than passwords alone provide,” the White House said.
“Consumers can use their credential to prove their identity when they’re carrying out sensitive transactions, like banking, and can stay anonymous when they are not.”
In making online transactions more secure, the White House said the goal was to give businesses and consumers “more confidence in conducting business online.”
“The Internet has transformed how we communicate and do business, opening up markets, and connecting our society as never before,” Obama said. “But it has also led to new challenges, like online fraud and identity theft, that harm consumers and cost billions of dollars each year.”
The proposed “identity ecosystem” would also provide better privacy protections.
“Today, a vast amount of information about consumers is collected as they surf the Internet and conduct transactions,” the White House said. “How organizations handle that information can vary greatly, and more often than not, it is difficult for consumers to understand how their privacy will (or will not) be protected.
“The NSTIC seeks to drive the development of privacy-enhancing policies as well as innovative privacy-enhancing technologies to ensure that the ecosystem provides strong privacy protections for consumers,” it added.
(c) 2011 AFP
O2task's Blog 