Re: [Fis] THE SOCIOTYPE: SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND BEYOND
of adulthood and increase with age (reaching the maximum around age 70). The lack of social bonds has deleterious effects on health through its effect on the brain, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), vascular processes, blood pressure, gene transcription, inflammatory, immune, and sleep quality. Research indicates that perceived social isolation (i.e., loneliness) is a risk factor, and may contribute to poorer cognitive performance, greater cognitive impairment and poorer executive function and an increased negativity and depressive cognition that accentuate sensitivity to social threats. In fact, loneliness is associated not only with poor physical health; it also includes psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and personality disorders, suicidal thoughts, depression and Alzheimer. A GROWING SOCIAL PROBLEM In today's society there is a significant change in the way social relationships are maintained, for the intrusion of the new ITs adds to the important social disintegration that is occurring for other reasons (aging, migration, marginalization of minorities, etc.). In our times, relational networks are apparently larger and faster, but more transient and devoid of personal contact, so that individuals are at greater risk of social isolation. The evidence in fast-developing countries is that economic growth and technological development have gone hand-in-hand with an increase in mental and behavioral disorders, family disintegration, social exclusion, and lower social trust. FINAL QUESTIONS I have seen in some other sessions that some final questions help to focus the discussion; I will try with some easy ones: 1. Do you see pertinent the triad genotype-phenotype-sociotype? 2. Is there a species average on the number and classes of bonding relationships? 3. Is face-to-face conversation our fundamental way to actualize social bonds? 4. And what about the New Technologies relationships? Are they a surrogate or a helpful tool? Both? 5. Is loneliness exacerbated in contemporary societies? Thanks! :) Raquel -- - Raquel del Moral Grupo de Bioinformacion / Bioinformation Group Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud Avda. San Juan Bosco 13, 50009 Zaragoza Tfno. +34 976 71 44 76 e-mail.rdelmoral.i...@aragon.es - -- Dr. Jorge Navarro López Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud Avda. San Juan Bosco, 13, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain Telf: 34 976 71 3526 ( 6818) Fax: 34 976 71 5554 jnavarro.i...@aragon.es ___ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
[Fis] Tactilizing processing (from Stan)
Stan said: Folks -- As one who has been puzzling about the "relations between the microworld and the macroworld" for some time, and who is in the middle of studying Conrad's 1996 paper on fluctuons, I am wondering, and would ask Jorge, if it is not case that macro - micro communication is one (broadcast) to many, while micro - macro is many (ensemble) to one. The simplest case is the macro statistical summation of a micro ensemble's behavior, and the macro entrainment, by means of imposing boundary conditions, of micro behavior. Is there something beyond this by way of these wave phenomena in the below abstract? Exactly what? Do the second messengers each contact only one micro player, or many? Certainly amplification by way of "enzymatic readout and control" is effected by the accumulation of enzymatic end products to the point where the cell can 'recognize the message'. I attach a figure from my 1985 book on compositional hierarchies to show my general view of the relations between levels -- which may, or may not, need to be modified because of microscopic wave phenomena. STAN -- ___ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
[Fis] Tactilizing processing
Dear Stan Joseph, Many thanks for your responses and for your interest in my naive comments. My interpretation of M. Conrad views in that wonderful abstract is that most molecular recognition events are per se isolated or followed by some very specific pathway. Then in many cases an accessory tool is needed to integrate their specific molecular work into the general cellular processes. In that sense, second messengers are reading and measuring the outcome of quite many microscopy happenstances and driving to a mesoscopic, highly amplified value of their own concentrations (e.g., calcium ions, AMP-cyclic, glycerol... ). This mesoscopic value is broadcast then through Brownian motion to a variety of targets, putting into action other microscopic and mesoscopic processes, etc. In summary, my view is that second messengers represent the transition from many micro- to a meso- and then to many other micro- and so on, in this way driving the general percolation of information flows (Pedro has also written about the measurement roles of second messenger within signaling systems of eukaryotes): I am more interested in the prokaryotes and I am currently working in the signalome of M. tuberculosis (any help will be welcome!! it is awfully complex). Best wishes, Jorge -- ___ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
[Fis] Tactilizing processing
Dear FIS people, As a new comer to Systems Biology and graduated in Chemical Engineering, I can say little (and understand only a little bit) about the fluctuon model. May I say that personally I find far more interesting the pioneering ideas of M. Conrad on molecular bio-computing, which were also inspired by his vertical view of the information flows. For instance, nowadays protein complexes are recognized as a fundamental aspect of the proteome. About this matter, some FIS people will enjoy the following abstract: "Proteins and other macromolecules may be viewed as shape-based (or tactile) pattern recognizers. Biological cells exploit this inherent capability by transducing macroscopic signal patterns impinging on the external membrane to microscopic patterns at the molecular level, via second messengers. The parallelism inherent in the wave function description of these microscale processes in effect serves to increase the computing power of molecular computing systems as compared to macroscopic analogs. The conversion and recognition process is highly reminiscent of measurement. The linking role of second messengers allows macroscopic signals to set the state of the cell (in analogy to state preparation), while enzymatic readout and control of cellular behavior is an amplification process that corresponds to measurement of the microstate at a later point of time. Since the standard time evolution equations are reversible and unitary, while measurement is not, it is conceivable that the study of molecular computing will lead to new insights into the relation between the microworld and the macroworld. The model presented suggests that projection processes that are masked in ordinary laboratory systems are brought to macroscopic significance by the highly nonlinear chain of amplification events in the biological cell." Quantum mechanics and molecular computing: Mutual implications Michael Conrad DOI:10.1002/qua.560340725 International Journal of Quantum Chemistry Supplement: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Quantum Biology and Quantum Pharmacology Volume 34, Issue S15, pages 287301, 12/19 March 1988 Best wishes Jorge -- ___ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
Re: [Fis] Beijing FIS Group
Dear Xueshan, Is the creation of Systems Biology related to Genomics, Proteomics, Transcriptomics, Glycomics, and many many other "-mics"? If so, what is the relationship between the Systems Biology and information from the x-mics angle? It is a very good question. In my practical experience, the "omic" disciplines provide a lot of data, usually compiled into data-bases, so that one can obtain many "lists of parts" about most processes and cellular subsystems. But in many cases that info is insufficient. For instance I am working in the signaling system of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and, if I go to the "tuberculist" data base, I can obtain more than two hundred transcriptional factors presumably related to signaling functions (belonging either to the "one, two or three-component systems"), however the true signaling function of each component is very difficult to obtain (a painful task one-by-one, searching at the literature). Thus I have to spent a lot of time to get a systemic or general approach, and even more if I want to build some models... Systems Biology is like ecology, that has to deal with the integration of a lot of partial specialized information from many other disciplines. What is your opinion about Leroy E. Hood' words: "Biology Is an Informational Science". I think (it is a very personal opinion!, obviously influenced by Pedro) that the leaders of Bioinformatic and Systems Biology (Gilbert, Hood, Brenner, Kitano, etc.) are not very serious in that type of statements. What they mean is that biology and molecular biology are becoming not really information sciences but intensive "computer science users". Usually one doesnt find very deep theoretical reflexion in these guys although their works are very good from the technical point of view. Are there any difference between transmitter in Neuroscience and hormone in Endocrinology from the viewpoint of information transmission and communication ? Neurobiology is not my turf. Raquel will answer you very soon about that. By the way, do you know anyone working on Systems Biology in your University? Nice to talk to you! Jorge -- ___ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
