Departure from locked-in syndrome

A man who had been in vegetable state for five years answered
the questions using only his thought.

Note) If you dont know the difference between vegitable state
and locked-in syndrome, please check here.

The 29-year-old Belgian was able to respond to simple Yes/No
questions such as “Is your father’s name Alexander?” by
changing his brain activity. British and Belgian researchers then
read his response by checking functional magnetic resonance
imaging known as fMRI scans.

In their research, 54 patients who are diagnosed with vegetable
state joined in the examination for their research. The result is
that 5 patients of them were able to respond to simple Yes/No
questions correctly. This means that at least 5 of them are not in
vegetable state but the state which are higher consciousness like
locked-in syndrome.

The researcher seems to develop their research in order to
introduce their technique to reduce misdiagnosis. I think this
achievement is really useful for their original purpose. Patients
took care as a vegetable state might prove they are not. However,
I also think this is the really big one step to achieve to
communicate with patients in locked-in syndrome. I know it still
have long distance to realize this.

However, there is no doubt the result of this research give
momentum to this research area and lead someone to invent a
device which can interpret thought of patients in locked-in
syndrome into something other people can understand. If it is
realized, many patients will be able to express their thought
more than Yes or No. It is clear that this kind of device will be
flame of hope especially for patient in locked-in syndrome.

During researching this subject, I remember the person who
suffered from muscular dystrophy. His name is Masashi Yoshida.
I saw him on TV last summer. He used to strongly disagree with
dignified death. However, He changed his mind to completely
opposite direction after he had seen that his friend, who was also
a patient suffering from the same disease with him, was
gradually losing his working muscle and heading into a locked-in
syndrome. I think this story is really persuasive how locked-in
syndrome is cruel and isolated for him. When he could not move
any muscle other than his cheek, he asked his family to turn off
his artificial ventilator right after he cannot communicate
with others.

I hope the result of this research will be a milestone to lead
patients in locked-in syndrome to be able to communicate others
with hope again.

reference:
Willful Modulation of Brain Activity in Disorders of Consciousness


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The deifferences among some kinds of conciousness

Just out of curiosity, I checked the differences among brain death, vegetable state, locked-in syndrome and coma.

In order to understand the figure above, we need to know the
definitions of “the Level of Consciousness” and “the Content of
Consciousness”. The level of consciousness is related to arousal
and used to determine whether or not patients are awake.
Meanwhile, the content of consciousness is more related to what
we mention a patient is conscious or unconscious. This might be
confusing, so I will give you an example. When you sleep deeply,
of course you are not awake and maybe you are dreaming.
Comparing with this state, if your level of consciousness is same
and your content of consciousness is higher, your new state is
more close to be awake but you are not conscious much.
Therefore, your dream is more vivid and realistic.

Now let us move to main subject; Differences among brain death,
vegetable state, locked-in syndrome and coma.

Vegetable state is the situation that the content of consciousness
is really low or nothing but the level of consciousness is high. It
means that patients in vegetable state look awake – they may
move, cry or laugh – but they are unconscious. However, they
are responsive against external stimulus.

Locked-in syndrome is that patients cannot communicate with
others because their muscle is paralyzed even though both
content and level of consciousness is high. So, they are awake
and conscious but there is no way to convey their thought.

Patients in coma are in a state being not awake and responsive.
Therefore, they do not response to any external stimulus except
stimulus to spinal cord.

You might thought brain death and coma are same when you see
the figure above. Actually I did. However, those are completely
difference. Brain death is diagnosed when all function of brain
stem are lost and does not return to be functional. So, it means
that the patients cannot breathe by themselves without
ventilatory support. Meanwhile, patients who are in coma can
breathe by themselves although their content and level of
consciousness are very low or nothing.

Before I examine these differences in detail, my knowledge
about them is really vague. Now it is clearer. It takes long time to
check what I don’t know. However, making something clear and
simple is really comfortable for me.

I will upload related article with this article tomorrow.

References:
brain imaging: altered states of consciousness
Vegetative state


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Frontier of Emerging Issue

There is a word I have really loved since I had heard.
The word is “Frontier of Emerging Issue”, say in Japanese “Kadai
Shenshi Koku”. Hiroshi Komiyama, the precedent president of
the University of Tokyo, said Japan is one of these countries.
It means that …

Japan has many problems that other countries have yet to face.
However, other counties are expected they will suffer from some
of those problems in near future. Therefore, what we need to do
is find the way to solve the problems that Japan faces now and
send out this solution to the other countries to help. Then, let us
be a leader of the world as a “Frontier of Emerging Issue.”

This is the way to thinking of him. I already told you, but I repeat
that. I really like his way to thinking. It is so positive.
In general thinking of Japanese, problem is just a problem and we deal with this problem just as a big burden.
However, his way to thinking let us have an idea that
there is a true chance when we are in a problem.

Now, let us check one example what kind of problem Japan
struggle with. Actually, I think there are many… but I pick one
from them. I think the issue of declining birthrate and an aging
society is a good example.

Comparing with 20% in U.S., the percentage of children who are
younger than 15 in Japan is 13%, which has declining for 35
years. This is the lowest among the 31 major countries, trailing
Italy and Germany. The number of people 65 and
older has reached 22.5%. Sorry to say, but the actions that
Japanese government took have yet to finish in good result.
However, I expect that china and India will have a same problem
when those country catch up with advanced country. I hope we
could finds good solution by the time.

If you interested in the word "Frontier of Emerging Issue",
you can read the interview with Mr. Komiyama here.
And I check the data of aging society here.


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6, 300, 1000 and more?

What do you think this numbers are?
Be ready to be surprised.
When I knew it, I was really surprised.

Those numbers are how many boars are killed in Japan
as a harmful animal in each year. The first number 6 is
the data in 1994. The second number 300 is in few years ago
and last one 1000 is in last year.
It is really easy to understand the damages to crops
by boars are getting bigger and wider year after year.
I knew those numbers from my ex-boss’s blog.
He is a kind of educator to teach how great to stay in woods
to children. Therefore, he knows many things
related to nature.

I used to work as a volunteer under his instruction
for two months. That time was really joyful for me.
I learned many things there.

Anyway, what he wants is not only to inform us
the fact many boars are caught,
but also to suggest “We should eat them, if killing them.”
If you want to know more about this in detail, check here.
You can find the original article.

This article gives me a chance to think deeper about this issue.
Actually, I agree with him with no doubt. We should eat them.
I think killing boars without eating is a sin.
However, I had had no clear reason why I thought so
before knowing these numbers of boars killed in a year.
It is clear that killing other animals is to be satisfied
with predator’s apatite in natural system.
That is the one reason. However, I thought there is
another reason. That is, especially in my case, we thank
and pray for them by eating.
For example, my grandmother said whenever I eat fish
really cleanly, I mean just bones are left, my grandmother said
“they are pleased to be eaten cleanly.”
I also think the action to eat them let us lessen the sin
against killing animals.

What do you think?

I wrote the related article, hunting civil servants.
If you have a time, please read it.


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Matching arrangement by parents

Recently, the number of matching arrangement
parties has increased. In addition, those parties are not
just usual arrangement parties where single people
themselves join in but arrangements parties which are
hold by their parents for their single son/ daughter's sake.

Those parents say that they have a responsibility to deal with
their children’s problem that they cannot find
their future spouse by themselves.
In fact, the data in 2006 provided by Japanese statistic bureau
report that 59% among men in their 20th and 30th
and 47% among women in their 20th and 30th are single.
The data itself is little bit old, but considering
the economic situation we are in now, we can easily imagine
that these rates are even worse. The host of those parties says,
“Young men today are not much aggressive against women
and they are not well to approach. It is natural flow that parents
who worry about their children get together.
Moreover, before their son/daughter start to meet each other,
parents knowing one another makes the arrangement smoother.”

However, even though I can understand the situation we are in,
because I am single too, I think it is weird.
It is just like that parents send application to a company and
take an interview for their children’s sake
instead of their children.

Therefore, I prefer to find my future spouse by myself.
However, now I am saying like this but no one knows future…
My parents might be joining in an arrangement party
in the future for my sake.


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Hunting civil servants

"Hunting civil servants" does not mean killing civil servants
to eat them. It means that civil servants who have a hunting
license. Should I mention them like “civil servants hunter” or
something? Anyway, this is the article about them and what I feel.

Recently, the number of civil servants with a hunting license has
increased steadily especially in rural area.
There are three main reasons.

One reason is damages to farm-goods from wild animals such as
boars, monkeys and deer. These animals come down to crop field
from mountains and eat all crops they can get their hands on.
In addition, the case that columns of old worth temple
are damaged by them is also reported. Therefore, they need to take
action against these problems promptly.

Another reason is aging society. In the past, there were more
villagers who did hunt because they ate harmful animals.
However, they get aged, so they cannot go hunting anymore.

And last one is that civil servants are easy to be asked to deal
with these animals by villagers. Because civil servants originally
work for them.

However, some officers said they don’t want to kill animals.

So, I want to suggest another one solution. That is to release
dogs. Takeshi Yoro, the author of “Baka no Kabe”, said,
“The number of bears which came down from mountain and
attacked humans were smaller than now. Because, dogs were
released all around and they terrorized bears.” I think what he
said is right and impressive, although he only mentioned about
bears. In addition, some scholars said that since human being
started their life with dogs, humans have not needed to worry about
raid by wild animals. This fact leads to let humans do agriculture,
moreover to establish their civilization.
Dogs have been really related to our social establishment
through all eras.
Why don’t us trust dogs and release them again instead of just
having them with a collar.


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One straight cut creates all shapes

Please look over three photos above.
Do you know how to make it?
It is so amazing and exciting!!
To make this swan’s shape, only thing you need to do is
fold paper several times and one nice straight cut with
your scissors.

I found this in the newspaper on Feb 3rd. You can check
the same article here. This article tells us the idea
Eric Demaine, the 28-year-old professor in MIT, proved
in which all shapes can make with one piece of paper
and one straight cut. However, main subject of
this special article is about seeing the world
through mathematics. All articles in this paper are
really interesting.

However, most interesting part of this article is
the way Martin, Eric’s father, educate his child Eric.
He gave Eric a chance to know how fun to learn
through playing. For example, when Eric was young,
they show their magic they had practiced each other
and they tried to find out what the trick their magic have
each other. They did this every week. He also took Eric
to a library to check what kind of fish it was,
taking a raw fish they had caught with them
and had the conversation like this, “This fish does not
have any poison, so let’s eat this!!”
How fun it seems like!! I really want to teach
my child like this. Actually, I do not have a child
but someday I want to have. To do so,
I need to get married first…
Anyway, I think most important part of education is
someone who teaches his/her children should have curiosity
and fun to a subject he/she teaches.
If he/she has, the children will share curiosity with them.
You know how fun to share hobbies,
to play instruments together or playing soccer together
with your friend. It is same, I think.

By the way, this is the link to Eric Demaine’s site.
You can download templates of origami.

http://erikdemaine.org/foldcut/examples/


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