MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'composition'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:49:49 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4482756&cid=t_126232_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fwhat-womens-tears-do-to-men%2F2011.02.16 Humans are the only living things that cry when they are overcome with emotion. Why do we do this? A study by Noam Sobel and colleagues at the Weizmann Institute provide part of the answer, at least as it relates to women. The scientists showed that when men get a whiff of women’s tears, they experience a temporary, generalized loss of libido and a dip in testosterone. Really. (And you thought that red, runny nose was the turn off, didn’t you?) Scientists have known for decades that the chemical composition of “emotional tears” differs from tears shed due to simple irritation. But now, it appears that some of the chemicals contained in the former are actually pheromones; biological substances that create behavioral changes in others who are exposed to them. Such chemicals were kno... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4482756 Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:00:32 +0100 4482756 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4394530&cid=t_126232_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F01%2F24%2Feugenics-the-story-of-carrie-buck%2F Psychology has a fascinating and rich history, filled with amazing advances. But it wasn’t all progress. Psychology has a painful past — with many victims. One of the most devastating times in psychology was a movement called eugenics, a name coined by Sir Francis Galton in 1883. The goal of eugenics was to improve the genetic composition of the population: to encourage healthy, smart individuals to reproduce (called positive eugenics) and to discourage the poor, who were considered unintelligent and unfit, from reproducing (negative eugenics). One of the main methods to discourage reproduction was through sterilization. While it seems ludicrous now, many people, both abroad and in the U.S., agreed with the principles of eugenics. In fact, state governments soon started establishing st... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4394530 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:52:48 +0100 4394530 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=983276&cid=t_126232_107_f&fid=35025&url=http%3A%2F%2Frrresearch.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F10%2Fmodeling-mutation-with-transition-bias.html As part of our new-improved Perl model of uptake sequence evolution, we had been intending to incorporate the usual transition:transversion bias into the part of the model that simulates mutation of the evolving sequence. But it's turning out to be HARD.In the previous version, the mutation step incorporated a bias of the same strength as the user-specified base composition. For the H. influenzae genome (38% G+C), the routine we were using caused the mutagenesis to produce As and Ts each 31% of the time and to produce Gs and Cs each 19% of the time. This was perfectly satisfactory (or would have been if not for other components of the mutagenesis that were unnecessarily cumbersome).At a recent planning session we thought we had figured out a way to also have transition mutations (AG and CT... RRResearch blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=983276 Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:19:00 +0100 983276 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=683294&cid=t_126232_133_f&fid=35096&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAutismVox%2F%7E3%2F126128390%2F I used to teach writing and composition to first-year college students. I would often ask students to choose a contraversial topic—-abortion, gay marriage—and analyze how a writer, or two different writers, constructed their argument for or against the issue in question. I no longer teach these sorts of composition courses, but if I did I think I would include “vaccines and autism” on the list of “contraversial topics.” Here are some “mock” essay assignments that I would put on a syllabus if I were to teach such a course: (1) Close Reading Essay Choose one day of testimony from the “vaccine court” held in June of 2006 at the U.S. Court of Claims, in which Theresa and Michael Cedillo claimed that their now-12-year-old daughter, Mic... Autism Vox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=683294 Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:58:38 +0100 683294