Activation of extracellular signal-related kinase signaling in the pedunculopontine tegmental cells is involved in the maintenance of sleep in rats

In paper citation: (Desarnaud, Macone & Datta, 2011)

The new results from this paper include:

1. Levels of ERK 1&2 expression and phosphorylation in the PPT increased with the amount of time spent in sleep. It did not increase in the mPRF or the cortex.
2. With increased time spent sleeping, levels of ERK 1&2 activity increased in the PPT and decreased in the mPRF.
3. Levels of ERK 1&2 expression, phosphorylation, and activity in the PPT of individual animals positively correlated with the total percentage of time spent in SWS, REM, and total sleep. 
4. Levels of ERK 1&2  expression, phosphorylation, and activity in the PPT of individual animals negatively correlated with their total percentage of time spent awake.

Other important information:

• ERK 1&2 are cytoplasmic until activated. Then they translocate to the nucleus and activate cAMP response element binding protein (Vanhoutte et al. 1999).
• Other studies have shown that activating ERK 1&2 increases sleep in a dose dependent manner, and blocking ERK 1&2 decreases sleep (Foltenyi et al. 2007).
• Figure 7 of the paper describes an entire model of ERK 1&2's involvement in sleep.
• In wakefulness 
• glutamate activity is high enough to activate NMDA receptors (not just kainate receptors)
• Ca2+ rushes in and activates STEP, a phosphatase
• STEP dephosphorylates ERK 1&2
• Ca2+ also activates CaMK2
• In SWS
• GABA activates GABA-b receptors, which are linked to G proteins
• the G proteins inhibit adenylyl cyclase, and CaMK2
• This allows ERK 1&2 and PKA to increase
• In REM sleep
• Glutamate activates kainate receptors
• These let in just a little Ca2+ increasing ERK 1&2
• The Ca2+ activates AC and increases PKA 

Remaining questions:

• Why did they only study the first two hours of sleep? Did it have to do with initial ERK levels being different from later ERK levels? How long does it take ERK to clear?
• This study splits rats into low sleepers and high sleepers. What might cause a rat to sleep less in the first place and could this be correlated to the findings that we see?
• Why do they use phosphorylated myelin basic protein to measure ERK activity levels?

Targeted marketing

I love it when charity organizations are clever; it is often so difficult for them to target the group that they want to target. In this case, a skin cancer prevention group posted an advertisement for a free trial of tanning lotion that "triples the effect of the sun." The full story is here.

The Pro-Life Battle Cry: "I want to adopt your baby!"

My husband just sent me the link to this blog, which encourages Christian families to adopt special needs and abortion-bound babies.

God has really laid it on my heart that when the time comes in which we could adopt, the place to go is really outside the abortion clinic. As a moderate Malcolm Gladwell reader, I do believe that the marketing and convenience of an idea can make all the difference in whether the idea succeeds. If I were a woman who didn't feel that she had options, I would be looking for an instant out. If, instead of saying, "there is a nebulus family out there who could help you raise your family," we said, "Right now, we want to see you through your pregrancy and adopt the baby you have," it would be more concrete and more of a real option.

And let's face it, what is cooler than saving lives?

Hama Rules

Yesterday, my husband reminded me of a chapter I read in Thomas Friedman's book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, and he also sent me this NY Times article on the Hama Rules and how they have evolved to fit the current political situation.

In 1982, the majority of Syrians were Sunni Muslims, yet they were not in power. Syria was a closed country at the time, like North Korea is today, so most news came as only rumors to the rest of the world. The ruling Alawite regime was the minority group in power, and they used every means available to keep the rest of the country at bay. When the Sunnis decided to revolt in the city of Hama in February of 1982, the government shelled the city and blew up building after building, full of civilians. They killed 20,000 people. This was an act of terrorism that said, "Don't even think about trying to overthrow us. We can crush you." That May, the government opened up the city and invited Syrians from all over the country to see the carnage and get the not-so-subtle message: we will not hold back to get what we want.

Now, the Syrian government is attack its own people again and the country is in revolution. Is it that people have forgotten just how brutal their leaders are? Or is it that terrorism is not enough to prevent the human spirit from flourishing and people from seeking human rights?  Only time will tell. And we can only pray that Syria repents from using bloodshed to secure power.

The Beautiful Tree: A Personal Journey Into How the World's Poorest People Are Educating Themselves by James Tooley

The Beautiful Tree is a great book for anyone interested in effective models of education in international development. The main thesis is that there are private schools for poor children in the slums of almost every developing country that are out performing their government sponsored competitors. Throughout the book, Tooley meets with development experts and influential politicians who all share one common belief: private schools are only for the wealthy. Tooley makes a great argument for why the private schools are often better: because if parents are unhappy with their children's education, they take their kids and their money elsewhere.

Tooley also exposes the inefficiency of the IMF, and argues that government-sponsored schools are a western model that doesn't even work perfectly in the west, and that this model is imperialistic. He backs his argument with historical records of private schools that existed well before the IMF was ever created. I think that he gets a little heavy handed with his argument that western school systems are imperialistic, but he also does an excellent job testing kids in both government and private schools and he shows that the kids in private schools learn better than their peers. He also provides lengthy data that the kids in  private school are mostly gender mixed and that their parents earn paltry sums, but value education. The private schools are very cheap.. most are less than $10 for a school year in the slums of Hyderabad, India.

Conclusion:
A good read, I would recommend it!

Boston vs Rochester

I would never have expected Rochester to have things that Boston doesn't have, but it does!

Here are just a few things that Rochester seems to have that Boston doesn't:

- Wegmans

- A dedicated jazz radio station (Boston just has NPR and Emerson College)

- Coffee shops everywhere

- weekly contra dancing

Boston has some really great things though. For example:

- bike lanes and "sharrows" that show motorists that bikes belong in the road with them (I haven't gotten beeped or sworn at yet in Boston!)

- thousands of externally beautiful apartment buildings.

- the churches that we are considering are very focused on outreach.

- playgrounds and spraygrounds every 2-4 blocks.

Boston also has some things I didn't expect as much. For example:

- The T (aka the metro) is really slow on off-hours. I can walk 2.5 miles faster than I can go someplace making one connection.

- There are a decent number of homeless people who work the streets.

- The traffic is unlike other cities. Until you know all the unwritten rules of Boston driving you aren't that safe on the road.

Boston!

It's been about one week since I officially moved to Boston and Salim and I have had lots of interesting adventures.

First of all, we have visited almost 20 different apartments looking for "the one." Our current favorite is in Jamaica Plain near one of Beth's favorite restaurants - Sorella's. The neighborhood is a lot like the Park Ave/University Ave neighborhood in Rochester, only there are lots of hispanic families mixed in with the trendy young professionals. You can see some pictures of the apartment that we are considering here: PICASA

In true scientific form, we developed a form for marking down elements of apartments that are important to us. This included things as basic as "space for a dining room table," and as fundamental as "good cell reception." We then decided how much each of these elements was worth to us (aka "laundry in building" was valued at $50/month). Some elements were show stoppers... apartments without bicycle storage, or apartments that needed bars on the windows were simply thrown out. Any apartment that was priced more cheaply than our piece-by-piece analysis became a final contender.

On Thursday, we sat inside a little falafel shop and listed out our three final contenders, and decided that 69 Mozart Street came out on top. Yesterday, however, I had cold feet. We decided to walk around the neighborhood at night, and I wanted to walk alone to see how people would treat a decently dressed woman alone on the street.

I walked past three single-looking men sitting on a porch. In Rochester, I would have expected a comment or a whistle in that situation. But the men respectfully said "hullo, miss" as I walked by. Good signs all around.