Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts

Marrying a cousin?, you may want to read this first.

In modern western society, marrying your cousin is not well accepted, particularly in the United States. Through a combination of old prejudices and present-day conventional wisdom about inherited birth defects, first cousin marriage is seen by many as a little too close for comfort, as well as a bad idea if you want children.
However, first cousin marriage is far more common, and far less dangerous, than many of us have been led to believe, as you’ll soon see. Further, if you include second cousins in the mix, according to the Clinical Genetics Handbook, the increased risks with regards to having children are nearly non-existent in this case compared with non-cousin marriage.
While there have been instances of the banning of marriage between cousins at various points through history, such as the Roman Catholics banning the practice for a time starting with the Council of Agde in 506 AD, for the most part marriage among cousins has been popular as long as people have been getting married.  In fact, it is estimated that as many as 80% of the marriages in human history have been between first or second cousins.

This switch in cousin-marriage’s acceptance began in earnest in some parts of the Western world in the mid-19th century. Specifically, until the 1860s or so, first cousins commonly married in Europe and the U.S. In fact, Charles Darwin, Mr. Natural Selection himself, was married to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood.

Nonetheless, the practice soon fell out of fashion in the United States. Although never outlawed in England, during the second half of the 19th century, many states began to ban marriages between first cousins, as part of a larger movement after the Civil War for greater state involvement in a variety of areas, including education, health and safety.

Researchers note that the distinction in marriage bans between England and the U.S. may be explained by the fact that, in the United States, the practice “was associated not with the aristocracy and upper middle class [Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were second cousins] but with much easier targets: immigrants and the rural poor.”

 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were second cousins

In some societies, first cousin marriage is traditional and well-accepted, although many make a distinction between “cross-cousins” and “parallel cousins.”

Cross cousins have parents who are siblings, but of the opposite sex. The parents of parallel cousins are also siblings but are of the same sex



Globally, cousin marriages are still going strong, with an estimated 10% of all marriages in the world being between cousins, and has high as 50% in some regions of the world. 

However, cousin marriage is making a comeback in the U.S., as well, as more and more studies continue to debunk the overblown risks once commonly touted.

Worldwide, it has been estimated that almost half of all Muslims are inbred:
In Pakistan, 70 percent of all marriages are between first cousins (so-called "consanguinity") and in Turkey the amount is between 25-30 percent.

Statistical research on Arabic countries shows that up to 34 percent of all marriages in Algiers are consanguine (blood related), 46 percent in Bahrain, 33 percent in Egypt, 80 percent in Nubia (southern area in Egypt), 60 percent in Iraq, 64 percent in Jordan, 64 percent in Kuwait, 42 percent in Lebanon, 48 percent in Libya, 47 percent in Mauritania, 54 percent in Qatar, 67 percent in Saudi Arabia, 63 percent in Sudan, 40 percent in Syria, 39 percent in Tunisia, 54 percent in the United Arabic Emirates and 45 percent in Yemen.

From a biological point of view it becomes clear that first cousin marriage is not recommended because close relatives have a higher than normal consanguinity which means an increased chance of sharing genes for recessive traits. With this high amount of shared DNA, you have a higher risk of birth defects in a baby. Even if cousin marriages are not performed, you can still have such genetic defects in populations where there is a restricted social structure.

 We've all heard about what supposedly happens if cousins marry. A recent study, though, showed that while there is increased risk of some genetic disease, the risk is actually smaller than a lot of people might think.


The numbers from this study are pretty interesting. For unrelated people, the risk of having a child with a serious genetic problem is around 3 or 4 percent. In other words, 3 or 4 of every 100 babies have potential problems (seems high to me but that is what the report claims).

If first cousins have kids, that risk goes up by 2 or 3 percent. At first this almost doubling of the risk might seem scary. But many genetic advisers argue that the increase isn't big enough to discourage marriage between first cousins.

Now, the more closely related two people are, the more likely it is that they'll share the same set of hidden disease genes. People might have thought that first cousins were too closely related and so there would be a big increase in genetic diseases if cousins marry.

Remember, we all have two copies of each of our genes -- one from mom and one from dad. We also have on average around 5-10 disease genes each. So how come we all aren't wracked by genetic diseases?

Because most of these "bad" copies of genes are recessive. What recessive means is that you need both copies to be bad to get a disease -- a single good copy can save you.

If we all shared the same disease genes, then the likelihood of kids getting these diseases would be high. But we don't. Everyone has a different set of hidden disease genes so that the odds are against people each giving one of the same bad genes to their kids.

There are lots of places in the Middle East, Africa and Asia where marriages between first cousins are encouraged. There is no rampant genetic disease in these places suggesting all along that the risk was low.

Congenital abnormality is more common in the Pakistani community due to cousin marriage practice.

Birth defects in children of cousins are the result when both parents have an abnormal recessive gene. This arises mostly with generation upon generation of first cousin unions. Most people do not have these, but even when they are present, the odds of their children having them are only one in four.


‘If both parents carry the same mutations, there is a one-in-four chance of having an affected child — which can result in anything from a mild disability to a catastrophic illness or a miscarriage.’


In Pakistan, where there has been cousin marriage for generations, and according to professor Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen from South Danish University, the current rate is 70% one study estimated infant mortality at 12.7 percent for married double first cousins, 7.9 percent for first cousins, 9.2 percent for first cousins once removed/double second cousins, 6.9 percent for second cousins, and 5.1 percent among non-consanguineous progeny. Among double first cousin progeny, 41.2 percent of pre-reproductive deaths were associated with the expression of detrimental recessive genes, with equivalent values of 26.0, 14.9, and 8.1 percent for first cousins, first cousins once removed/double second cousins, and second cousins respectively.

A BBC report discussed Pakistanis in the United Kingdom, 55% of whom marry a first cousin. Given the high rate of such marriages, many children come from repeat generations of first-cousin marriages. The report states that these children are 13 times more likely than the general population to produce children with genetic disorders, and one in ten children of first-cousin marriages in Birmingham either dies in infancy or develops a serious disability.

The BBC also states that Pakistani-Britons, who account for some 3% of all births in the UK, produce "just under a third" of all British children with genetic illnesses. Published studies show that mean perinatal mortality in the Pakistani community of 15.7 per thousand significantly exceeds that in the indigenous population and all other ethnic groups in Britain. Congenital anomalies account for 41 percent of all British Pakistani infant deaths

There is no objection whatsoever in the Islamic religion for a man to marry any of his relatives except al-maharim (those forbidden for marriage) whom Allah mentioned in surat al-nisaa', 4:23 (interpretation of the meaning):

Prohibited to you (For marriage) are:- Your mothers, daughters, sisters; father's sisters, Mother's sisters; brother's daughters, sister's daughters; foster-mothers (Who gave you suck), foster-sisters; your wives' mothers; your step-daughters under your guardianship, born of your wives to whom ye have gone in,- no prohibition if ye have not gone in;- (Those who have been) wives of your sons proceeding from your loins; and two sisters in wedlock at one and the same time, except for what is past; for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful;-Qur'an 4:23
Allah has made marriage with first cousins lawful. There is no dispute about this in Islamic Law. Anyone who wishes to dispute with this is placing his own religion in serious danger. 

 It is established by the Qur’ân, the Sunnah, the practice of the Companions including the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and the consensus of the Muslim Ummah.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) married his daughter Fatima to Ali (may Allah be pleased with them) and he is the son of her father's uncle, as well as the marriage of the Prophet himself to Zainab bint Jahsh (may Allah be please with her) and she is his aunt's daughter (i.e. his cousin); and there are many other such examples.

"Is it better or preferable for a Muslim to marry someone he is not related to rather than a relative?"
The answer to this question varies from case to case, and perhaps it may be preferable to marry people who are non-relations, for example if one aspires to form new social ties or bonds, and regards the existence of a marriage relationship with a different family as constructive in widening the circle of social bonds.

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Sources:

Getting More Vitamin D In Your Day

Vitamin D is More Than a Bone Builder
Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin whose major role is to aid in absorption of calcium and phosphorus from the intestine and build and maintain bone mass. Beyond its function in calcium metabolism, it also has a role in reducing inflammation, preventing malignant cell growth, moderating immune function, and leveling mood.

Why Work so Hard at Getting D?
Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with many diseases and health conditions including cancer, obesity, cardiovascular disease, depression, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure. The research is sometimes confusing about exactly why vitamin D is depleted in these conditions. It is possible that having low levels of this vitamin actually causes disease and breakdown of body processes. It is also possible that the underlying causes of these conditions cause the deficiency at the same time. What we do know is that people who have many of these conditions have very low levels of vitamin D, and researchers are now trying to find out whether supplementing with vitamin D will prevent and/or treat these conditions.



Are All “Ds” Created Equal?
There are several chemical compounds classified as vitamin D, and until recently it was thought that they were not equally bioavailable (capable of being put to effective use in the body).
Early research showed that the more effective type was vitamin D3. This is the type of vitamin D that you produce when your skin is exposed to sunlight; supplements are usually derived from animal sources of the vitamin. The other common type, vitamin D2, was thought to be not as effective. vitamin D2 is obtained from plant sources and is usually the type used to fortify milk and other foods. More recent research, however, finds that both types of vitamin D are equally effective in raising the levels of vitamin D in your body.

Are You Likely to Be D-Deficient?
There is a fair chance that you are not getting enough vitamin D. Depending on which study you read, as many as half to two thirds of adults are deficient in vitamin D. If you work indoors, always use sun block, live in a northern latitude, are over 50, and/or don’t take a daily supplement, you may well be low in this important vitamin.




How Much Vitamin D Do You Need?
How much vitamin D you need is tricky. The recommended daily allowance is 200 IU per day until the age of 50, and 400 IU daily once you are over 50. But many experts think that is far too low. The recommendation was originally intended to prevent rickets in children, long before the role of vitamin D in so many other conditions had been explored.
The upper level of safe dosage is usually stated to be 2000 IU per day. This is also a controversial number, with some experts saying it is lower and some saying it is safe at much higher doses.

So how do you decide how much you need?

The most conservative approach is to take a supplement of 400IU per day and get out in the full sun at least 3 times a week for fifteen minutes at a time. This combination would be safe for almost all menopausal women. But for some, especially those who are never in the sun or have been vitamin D deficient for a long time, this would not be enough. If you think you may be vitamin D deficient, talk with your healthcare provider about what dosages would be good for you. He or she may recommend larger doses for a short period of time, then smaller maintenance doses after that.

How to Get More Vitamin D
There are several ways to boost your daily vitamin D:
•Sunshine
Sunshine is the most natural way to get vitamin D. The vitamin D you get this way is easily used by your body, it is free, and you can combine it with exercise for a great bone building combo. For white women who live where there is strong sunlight, about 15 to 20 minutes three times a week will usually produce enough vitamin D to keep you from being deficient.
For some people, sunshine is difficult to come by. If you wear clothing that covers all of your skin, if you live in a northern or rainy climate, or if you are dark-skinned, you may have trouble getting enough sunshine to make adequate levels of vitamin D.
•Food
There are several food sources for vitamin D. Fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel are sources of this vitamin, as are egg yolks, cheese and beef liver. Vitamin D-fortified milk and other foods are also good sources. The Office of Dietary Supplements' Vitamin D Fact Sheet offers additional food sources, as well as more information on vitamin D.



•Supplements
You can find vitamin D supplements in two forms: vitamin D2, and vitamin D3, as discussed earlier. There are still some unknowns about whether one type is superior to the other in preventing deficiency. If you have the choice of buying either, D3 is probably the better choice since there is longstanding evidence that it is more easily absorbed by the body.




Vitamin D and Drug Interactions
There are a number of medications that can interact with vitamin D. Check with your medical provider before you begin taking vitamin D supplements if you are taking any medications, but in particular:
•thiazide diuretics, such as Diuril (chlorothiazide) and Enduron (methyclothiazide), which could cause dangerously high calcium levels
•calcium-channel blockers, such as Cardizem (diltiazem) and Norvasc (amlodipine)
•anti-seizure medications, such as phenytoin, primidone, phenobarbital and valproic acid
•corticosteroids, such as prednisone
•Xenical (orlistat)
•Cholesterol lowering medications that interfere with fat metabolism, such as cholestyramine



How The Quran Shapes The Brain



“If it wasn’t for their political problems and constant fighting between each other, the Muslims would have been on the moon by the 1400’s” was the statement made by a non-Muslim professor in a 400-level undergraduate class on the history of science. It seems that the rate of discovery and advancement in science achieved by the Muslims was quite impressive and has yet to be replicated. What was it that they were doing that allowed for their fast progress?


The teacher in me immediately thinks about their education system, and the neuroscientist in me wants to examine the factors involved in shaping the brains of such a civilization. Interestingly, many Muslim religious scholars will say something about how the Muslims were the leaders when the Quran was the center of their education, and only when they abandoned the Quran that they lost their reign. The amazing thing about this is that while Muslim religious scholars are typically talking about spiritual and moral realities, there is actually a material reality to what they’re saying, which takes place in the brain.
A quick disclaimer here: The list of all that is affected in the brain by the Quran and how that can influence other functions is quite exhaustive. But in the interest of keeping it short, I chose some major areas to present in this article.

Before getting into the brain and how the Quran changes it, one should be familiar with how traditional Muslim education took place. In case you’re wondering where I’m getting this from, it’s from reading the biographies of major figures of scholarship in the traditional Muslim world such as Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sina, and others. This is also based on my personal experience and what I have been told by some of my teachers.

The very first thing taught to an aspiring student was the Quran, which had to be memorized completely. Unlike anything else encountered in spoken Arabic, Quran recitation is a very specific science. Local dialects of Arabic or different ways of pronunciation are not permitted when reciting the Quran. In fact, part of learning the Quran is learning what is called in Arabic taj’weed, which means elocution. The very first thing the student must do is replicate exactly how the teacher is reciting the verse. This refers to where individual letter sounds are being generated in the mouth and throat and where the tongue is to be placed exactly. Once this is done, the student writes the verse on a wooden board in the Othamni script, which follows different spelling rules than regular Arabic writing. The student then takes his board and goes away to memorize the verse. A typical memorization session for a beginner starts with repeating one verse multiple times as it is read on the board to also memorize how it is spelled using the Othmani script. The next day the student reviews the verse several times before returning to the teacher to receive the following verse. After repeating it with the teacher to ensure exact replication of sound and pronunciation, the student writes the new verse and goes away to begin a new memorization session. The third day begins with reviewing the first verse one final time, followed by the second verse several times before going to receive the third verse. On the fourth day the first verse is not reviewed anymore as it would have taken hold in memory, and the second verse takes its place for being reviewed while the third verse is repeated several times before going to receive the fourth verse. At the end of the week is a complete review session for everything that was memorized in the previous days.

As the days pass the capacity for memorization increases and the student is able to take on several verses or even pages at a time instead of only one or two verses. The writing using Othmani spelling continues, as well as the review sessions. Eventually, the whole Quran having more than 6,200 verses is memorized word for word with their specific pronunciation and Othmani spelling. Now the hard task begins as the student works to review all the verses on a monthly basis so as to not forget them. This usually means taking the 30 parts of the Quran as it has been divided to facilitate memorization, and reviewing one part everyday until all 30 have been recited by the end of the month.

It should be mentioned here that the Quran has 10 different modes of recitation. This refers to the placement of diacritical marks on the words and how certain words are pronounced. Some students take this task on and memorize the Quran in all the different modes of recitation, which requires a very careful attention to where the pronunciations are different so they’re not confused with each other given how subtle they sometimes can be.

There are a couple of important qualities about the Quran that relates to how it sounds. Verses in the Quran rhyme and change rhythm often, which gives a pleasurable effect to the listener. Furthermore, as one recites, they’re supposed to sing it rather than simply read it. In fact, the very practice of Taj’weed (elocution) forces the reciter into a singing tone as they enunciate the words of each verse.

A final note to bring up is in regards to the Arabic language and writing in Othmani script. Part of studying the different modes of recitation requires the student to write not only in an unusual spelling, but also to exclude the diacritical marks from the words. This would allow the student to learn the variations of recitation without having the diacritical marks visually interfere with their memorization of different modes of recitation. Moreover, the grammar of the Arabic requires the proper use of diacritical marks in pronunciation so as to not confuse things such as the subject and predicate. This means that the one learning the Quran must always keep track of how the words are enunciated so as to not alter the overall meaning of the verse.






How all of this relates to the brain is quite impressive. The brain is recognized to be a malleable organ that can change its connections and even its size of certain areas based on how active they become. Understanding how involved the brain is of someone learning the Quran using the traditional Muslim method can explain how they were able to achieve such success in their knowledge endeavours.

While learning the Quran, the careful attention to listening and pronunciation of verses stimulates an area of the brain located in the temporal lobe. The temporal lobe is also where the hippocampus is located, which is the memory consolidation center. It’s also the brain region activated for processing of musical sounds such as the case when the Quran is recited. Moreover, it becomes involved when the student engages in handwriting exercises similar to the ones on the wooden board. Where this matters is that this is the part of the brain whose activity levels and capacities have been correlated with a person’s aptitude for learning new information. The more activation this area receives, and the more involved this activation is such as the case with the Quran, the better and more efficient it becomes in its functions for learning and memory.



The parietal lobes are also quite heavily engaged as one learns the Quran. The left parietal lobe deals with reading, writing, and functions in speech. It’s also the part whose activity is important for math and logic problems. The right parietal lobe handles speech tone, which is related to elocution. It’s also responsible for visuospatial relationships and understanding facial expressions. The front part is responsible for the sense of touch discrimination and recognition, which is active during handwriting. The back part plays an important role in attention. Both lobes are also activated during skill learning tasks. Overall, having parietal lobes that have been well activated translates to better logic and math-solving skills, eloquence in general speech, better ability at reading emotional states from facial cues, improved attention, and enhanced capacity for understanding visuospatial relationships. This last one can explain why Muslims were so good at astronomy.

Other brain regions the activity of Quran recitation strongly activate are the frontal lobes and the primary motor cortex. The frontal lobes activity deals with higher order functions, including working memory, memory retrieval, speech production and written-word recognition, sustained attention, planning, social behavior, in addition to others. For example, as the student is reading the Othamni script, his brain must quickly decide on the proper pronunciation of the word, which without the diacritical marks means it must be distinguished from other possibilities that include not only wrong words, but also wrong enunciation depending on the specific recitation he’s using out of the 10 valid ones. The amazing thing about this is that the brain after practice will do these things without conscious control from the student. This trains the area of the brain responsible for inhibition, which is important for social interaction. Children with ADHD have been shown to have this area to be under-developed.

Given the Quran’s content that for example includes descriptions of individuals and places, it activates the occipital lobes, which are involved in generating mental imagery. This brain region is also important in visual perception. Becoming active as a result of generating mental imagery indirectly improves visual perception capacities since the area activated is within the same region. The Quran is also rich in its content for history, parables, and logical arguments, all of which recruit different areas that become more efficient and better connected as they are continually activated due to the consistent review sessions.



Putting all this together, it’s no wonder Muslims were able to make such vast contributions to human knowledge in a relatively short amount of time, historically speaking. After the aspiring student during the height of Muslim rule has mastered the Quran, his education in other sciences began by the time he was in his early teenage years. Given the brain’s malleable nature, the improved connections in one region indirectly affect and improve functions in adjacent locations. The process in studying the Quran over the previous years has trained his brain and enhanced its functions relating to visual perception, language, working memory, memory formation, processing of sounds, attention, skill learning, inhibition, as well as planning just to name a few. Now imagine what such an individual will be able to do when they tackle any subject. It makes sense how someone like Imam Al Ghazali can say he studied Greek philosophy on the side during his spare time and mastered it within 2 years.

What was the Muslims’ secret for their exponential rise in scientific advancement and contribution to human knowledge? Literally, the Quran when it was the centre of their education system.

Mohamed Ghilan

Men And Women's Differences due... PERSONALITY

while reading the next article, I came to the conclusion that if scientist turn to study what Quran says better than tray to "Discover what is already discovered", we will save a lot of time and effort,not to mention money.Have you heard about the famous book
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus? is a book written by John Gray. The book has sold more than 7 million copies worldwide, I have never read it and insh'allah I'll never do it, just by reading the title I know is about how different men and woman are due the gender factor,something I'm in complete disagree, but in this "New wold" full of "Opportunities" for everyone where is claimed to be the "Modern Era" where no Discrimination exist (aha, and then you weak up and realize it was a dream), there is people trying to prove how different we are and when some one proves the contrary then they come with another "Strategy", this is the case of the article I talk about in the beginning of this post.. if you are interested please read it compleate, then if you turn to what the Quran say, we found that Man and Women are different due their personality which is formed according the circumstances and the availability of resources and not because a sex difference(second article in this post).
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Men And Women's Differences Extend To Personality, Study Claims
by Claire Gordon

Men and women are more alike than different -- that's been the consensus view for many years among the researchers who study personality differences between the sexes. But a new study claims this wisdom is wrong. By correcting for measurement errors, three researchers put forth a study that was published on Wednesday on the Public Library of Science website saying they've found that men and women feel and behave in markedly different ways. They're almost like "different species," Paul Irwing, one of the researchers, told The Huffington Post.

The research, conducted by Marco Del Giudice of Italy's University of Turin and Irwing and Tom Booth of the UK's University of Manchester, involved getting 10,000 Americans to take a questionnaire that measured 15 different personality traits. According to their analysis,

"men are far more dominant, reserved, utilitarian, vigilant, rule-conscious, and
emotionally stable"
, while

"women are far more deferential, warm, trusting, sensitive, and emotionally
"reactive."
The two sexes were roughly the same when it came to perfectionism, liveliness, and abstract versus practical thinking.

"If you translate it into the simplest terms," said Irwing, "only 18 percent of men and women match in terms of personality profiles, and that's staggeringly different from the consensus view."

The consensus view, most persuasively set out in a 2005 study by Janet Shibley Hyde, a professor of psychology and women's studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, demonstrated through a meta-analysis of 46 other studies that men and women were actually very similar, not only in personality traits, but in other realms of supposed gender difference, like self-esteem, leadership, and math ability.

In the early 1970s, Hyde became one of the first researchers to focus on the psychology of women. "Before that, psychology had been a psychology of men," Hyde told The Huffington Post, and many theories had been developed based on entirely male samples. So she began to study women, and the differences between women and men, and was surprised at how small those differences turned out to be. "I mean, I was trying to study difference," Hyde said.

Hyde says the final figure Irwing, Del Giudice, and Booth came up with -- the "global sex difference" -- is "really uninterpretable, it doesn't mean anything."

In past studies on this topic, researchers would simply add up all the survey responses, according to Del Giudice. This led to imperfect results because of careless responses and misreadings. Through a sophisticated method called "structure equation modeling," the researchers claim they were able to remove this random error. When asked if he could translate this concept for a lay person, Irwing replied: "I teach courses on this and it takes me approximately 20 hours."

Past research also usually compared one variable at a time, Del Giudice said. He believes this method led to underestimations of the sex difference because when you actually combine all personality traits, with all their small discrepancies, the result is a much more significant difference. For example, if you were to examine the difference between men and women's body types using the traditional method, you would look at torso circumference and waist-hip ratios and torso-leg ratios, one by one. In Del Giudice's method, you would crunch all these figures into one much larger number. And that's what he did with personality.

"They kind of globbed together all these personality dimensions and said there was a big difference," Hyde said. "They're throwing together apples and oranges and dishwashers to get this thing in 15-dimensional space. We don't know what 15-dimensional space looks like."

But Del Giudice contends that his team didn't measure "a haphazard list of traits." Rather, they considered 15 facets that could offer a reasonably complete picture of a person's personality.

Irwing thinks that some researchers in the past may have been biased in their methods, in order to reduce any gender difference. "It's for totally laudable reasons," he said. "People are very concerned, or were very concerned, that women didn't get equal opportunities, and that there was a lot of bias in selection processes."

"People are afraid that studies like ours will turn the clock back," Irwing added.

Hyde is one of those people. "This huge difference is not only scientifically false," she said, "it has unfortunate consequences for places like the workplace and education and heterosexual romantic relationships."

But the authors stand by their results, and are currently drafting a lengthy response to Hyde's objections. "I think distorting science because of what you would like to believe, or because of what you think the political consequences are, is very dangerous," said Irwing.

The study doesn't speculate as to whether the alleged differences are due to nature or nurture, although Irwing points out the results are consistent with standard evolutionary theory. Even if these differences aren't indelibly printed in our genes, Hyde believes there's still cause for alarm.

If men and women have wildly different personalities, "then how can we do the same job men can, and deserve equal pay for equal work?" she asked. "A married couple have marital difficulties, and they go to the therapist, who says 'he's from Mars, you're from Venus, you'll never be able to communicate. It's hopeless.' If you have a gender similarities point of view, you just need to work on communicating."

----------------------------------------------------
The Woman's Personality
and Role in Life
(An edited summary of Sayyed Fadlullah's view)


Women in the Queen are cited as role models for both men and women, which proves that Islam does not consider women as anything but equal to men; their innate weakness and tendency to be emotional can surely be overcome if favorable conditions and a strong belief are available.

The woman's Personality

How do we discover the woman's personality? Should we go to the religious texts? Or should we study the elements of this personality through the woman's interactions in life?

We believe that the second option is the objective and realistic one. It also constitutes a base for understanding the religious texts enabling us to interpret them in a way that does not contradict with the outside world, or to deduce that some traditions are not authentic since they contradict the principles of our doctrines as manifested by the Quran and the authentic traditions.

In the light of these guidelines, we observe that it is difficult to distinguish between a man and a woman who live in similar cultural social and political circumstances. The man's awareness and understanding of these circumstances is not greater than that of the woman. On the contrary, we see in many examples that women have outdone men in their clear vision and deep understanding owing to certain internal and external factors. This is what we notice in certain historic examples when the women live in favorable cultural and social conditions. They were able to assert their effective and active role that is based on the pillars of thought and doctrine.

This is what the Quran tells us when Allah talks about Lady Mary (a.s.) and the Pharaoh’s wife, and this is what history tells us when it speaks about such models as Khadija, the Mother of believers, Fatima Az-Zahra' (The Prophet's daughter) and Zainab bint Ali…. And about the positions and stands those great ladies had that are based on their belief, spirituality and understanding of the religion and the circumstances around them and how they challenged the situations that confronted them. All these prove that there is no difference between them and the men that lived in their time.

If some people talk about certain unique traits in the personality of these woman, we do not find any special attributes they were adorned with except that they lived in natural circumstances that enabled them to develop spirituality and mentally, as well as their commitment in practice and that the elements of their personality were able to balance one another in a natural way to allow them to develop in the way they did. We cannot say that they were granted supernatural powers in a way that we can no longer say that they are ordinary women, for this is not proved beyond any doubt, although in the case of Mary, Allah says that he had chosen her due to her spirituality and obedience of God.

But if God has guided her by the spirit He sent her, there is no supernatural power she possesses as such.

It is a grace from Allah that aimed at guiding her as to how to act and to give her spiritual strength to continue to act in the normal way she did and to give her more strength to fight the natural human weakness that lies in her just as any man would encounter in such situations.

The Quran of Sheba is a Quranic example of how wise a woman could be, as a ruler that studies all the elements and examines all the options before taking any decision, a woman that is not ruled by her emotions but by her mind. These attributes enabled her to rule over men who found in her the rational and capable person that is capable of running their affairs.

We deduce form this example that women are capable of overcoming the inner weakens that negatively affect their judgment, suggesting that weakness in women is not an inescapable fate.

Another example we should study is Pharaoh’s wife who lived a life of extreme extravagance, but she refused all that because of her belief which made her unable to reconcile between the life she was living in and the poverty and deprivation of the masses, as well as her husband's role in wronging them.

Thus, she asked Allah to build her a place in Heaven as a symbol of her refusal of the reality and to enable her to be strong each time she found some weakness taking the better of her. She asked God to save her from Pharaoh and his tyrannical actions, as well as the people who helped him in his wronging.

Thus she became a role model for believers both men and women. Mary(a.s.) too was a role model for all believers in her belief in God and in her morals and devoutness, to the extent that all of her life was an extended prayer and a token of belief in Allah and obedience to His Will . God cites as an example of those who believed, the wife of Pharaoh. She said: "My Lord, build a home for me near You in Paradise, and save me from Pharaoh and his works; and save me from the transgressing people." Also Mary, the daughter of Imran, who maintained her chastity. So We blew into her from Our spirit, and she believed in the words of her Lord and His Scriptures; and she was of those who were obedient. 66:11-12


Taking the strong believing women as role models for both men and women, clearly
indicates that the Quran acknowledges the woman's ability to be a strong person
who can overcome any innate weakens in her. The woman, thus, could well be a
role model just like the man, since both are capable of humanistic giving
without any differences pertaining to their sex.
The difference in sex does not hinder the ability of being strong on the levels of thinking, giving, having a strong willpower and the ability to take the right decision and the right position after studying all options, once the circumstances that favor creativity and rational thinking are available.

CPR may become a thing of the past

By: Bryain Resnick


For the past 40 years, CPR has been composed of two things—rescue breaths and chest compressions—and this formula for cardiac survival can revive around 25 percent of patients without a pulse. However, emerging evidence suggests there may be a more effective protocol for resuscitation that can save even more lives, and it's simpler than traditional CPR.

Cardiocerebral resuscitation, or CCR, differs from CPR in that for the first 5 to 10 minutes after cardiac arrest, a rescuer does not breathe for the patient at all. Instead, the focus shifts to performing unrelenting chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute. One clinical trial in Wisconsin showed this technique saved 30 percent more lives when compared with traditional CPR. Better yet, patients who receive CCR instead of CPR were found to be 24 percent more likely to be neurologically intact upon release from the hospital.

"It's one of the first times in medicine something has gotten simpler," says Dr. Amal Mattu, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

There are two main reasons why it works: One, constant pressure on the chest maintains a constant blood pressure, which insures blood flow to vital organs. In CPR, when a rescuer turns from his chest compressions to give the breaths, the blood pressure quickly drops to near zero and the blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs. Blood pressure is built up slowly over the course of the compressions, so when the rescuer returns to them, he or she has to make up for lost time.

Second, ventilations actually counteract the effectiveness of chest compressions. When a rescuer breathes for a patient, he or she forces air into the lungs, which increase the pressure inside the chest. Then, this force squeezes on the veins that return blood to the heart. "That results in less filling of the heart," Mattu says. "If there is less blood coming back to the heart, there is going to be a lower output from the heart, lower blood pressure, lower perfusion of the coronary arteries and the brain." Constant blood flow to the brain increases the chances for survival, and that is one reason why the studies are finding CCR patients to be more neurologically intact. The more time the brain spends without oxygen, the greater the chance for brain damage.

"Chest compressions, early on, are much more important than airway issues. When people are focused on airway issues, they tend to not do as good chest compressions, or their chest compressions are too slow," Mattu says. What rescuers need to realize, he says, is when the heart stops beating due to cardiac arrest, the blood has enough oxygen to support the organs for around 5 or 10 minutes.

Quality chest compressions are just as important as having a defibrillator early on. Dr. Comilla Sasson, professor of emergency medicine at University of Colorado Denver, and her colleagues found when EMS arrives on the scene, doing immediate chest compressions is as beneficial as shocking a patient with a defibrillator right away. Furthermore, they found if the EMS personnel arrived more than 5 minutes after the onset of the cardiac arrest, chest compressions first had a slight advantage.

Currently, CPR certifying organizations, such as the American Heart Association, have yet to include the principles of CCR in their protocols, but Sasson thinks the AHA will probably include some of this research when they meet to discuss their guidelines in November.

When the organization last changed their protocols in 2005, they increased the ratio of compressions to breaths from 15:2 to 30:2, and this year, they may forgo the breathing all together. "Our research right now is showing that chest compressions are the most important thing that you can do," she says. "We are hopeful that the Heart Association will take that to heart."

Most people have an aversion to mouth-to-mouth breathing to begin with, and Sasson speculates that a bystander trained in CCR will be more willing to act than a person who thinks he or she has to breathe for the victim. "The best way to increase bystander CPR rates in the U.S. is to get the message out that hands-only CPR works," she says.

A study published in the July issue of The New England Journal of Medicine found that 911 callers who were given instructions for CCR were more likely to intervene than callers who were given instructions for traditional CPR. Currently, 25 percent of people who receive out-of-hospital CPR will survive. If the studies are valid and CCR can significantly increase this percentage, then a lot more people will survive.


However, CCR is not a panacea. Mattu says this method should only be used with primary cardiac arrest, which means the heart stops pumping blood due to a problem with the heart and not because the patient has stopped breathing. In those instances, positive pressure ventilation is essential. On the other hand, Mattu says about 80 percent of cardiac arrest victims are primary cardiac arrest patients and could benefit from CCR. Additionally, after 5 or 10 minutes of chest compressions, a person will start to need some more air put into their lungs.

Over the past 30 years, prehospital cardiac survival rates have been constant—nine out of 10 people will not survive a cardiac arrest—in spite of all the money and efforts to teach CPR to the public. Currently, only 25 percent of patients receive any out-of-hospital resuscitation at all. Sasson says the combination of the science of CCR and public outreach to teach it is what needs to be done to increase cardiac arrest survival. "I think that is where hands-only CPR can revolutionize the approach to cardiac arrest," Sasson says. "It's a really simple message—pump hard, pump fast."

Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation

Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation “space storm”, Nasa has warned.

National power grids could overheat and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working after the Sun reaches its maximum power in a few years.

Senior space agency scientists believe the Earth will be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares after the Sun wakes “from a deep slumber” sometime around 2013, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
In a new warning, Nasa said the super storm would hit like “a bolt of lightning” and could cause catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken.

Scientists believe it could damage everything from emergency services’ systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, through to “everyday” items such as home computers, iPods and Sat Navs.
Due to humans’ heavy reliance on electronic devices, which are sensitive to magnetic energy, the storm could leave a multi-billion pound damage bill and “potentially devastating” problems for governments.

“We know it is coming but we don’t know how bad it is going to be,” Dr Richard Fisher, the director of Nasa's Heliophysics division, said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

“It will disrupt communication devices such as satellites and car navigations, air travel, the banking system, our computers, everything that is electronic. It will cause major problems for the world.

“Large areas will be without electricity power and to repair that damage will be hard as that takes time.”

Dr Fisher added: “Systems will just not work. The flares change the magnetic field on the earth that is rapid and like a lightning bolt. That is the solar affect.”

A “space weather” conference in Washington DC last week, attended by Nasa scientists, policy-makers, researchers and government officials, was told of similar warnings.

While scientists have previously told of the dangers of the storm, Dr Fisher’s comments are the most comprehensive warnings from Nasa to date.Dr Fisher, 69, said the storm, which will cause the Sun to reach temperatures of more than 10,000 F (5500C), occurred only a few times over a person’s life.Every 22 years the Sun’s magnetic energy cycle peaks while the number of sun spots – or flares – hits a maximum level every 11 years.

Dr Fisher, a Nasa scientist for 20 years, said these two events would combine in 2013 to produce huge levels of radiation. He said large swathes of the world could face being without power for several months, although he admitted that was unlikely.A more likely scenario was that large areas, including northern Europe and Britain which have “fragile” power grids, would be without power and access to electronic devices for hours, possibly even days.

He said preparations were similar to those in a hurricane season, where authorities knew a problem was imminent but did not know how serious it would be.“I think the issue is now that modern society is so dependant on electronics, mobile phones and satellites, much more so than the last time this occurred,” he said. “There is a severe economic impact from this. We take it very seriously. The economic impact could be like a large, major hurricane or storm.”

The National Academy of Sciences warned two years ago that power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications could “all be knocked out by intense solar activity”.

It warned a powerful solar storm could cause “twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina”. That storm devastated New Orleans in 2005 and left an estimated damage bill of more than $125bn (£85bn).Dr Fisher said precautions could be taken including creating back up systems for hospitals and power grids and allow development on satellite “safe modes”.
“If you know that a hazard is coming … and you have time enough to prepare and take precautions, then you can avoid trouble,” he added.

His division, a department of the Science Mission Directorate at Nasa headquarters in Washington DC, which investigates the Sun’s influence on the earth, uses dozens of satellites to study the threat.The government has said it was aware of the threat and “contingency plans were in place” to cope with the fall out from such a storm.These included allowing for certain transformers at the edge of the National Grid to be temporarily switched off and to improve voltage levels throughout the network.

The National Risk Register, established in 2008 to identify different dangers to Britain, also has “comprehensive” plans on how to handle a complete outage of electricity supplies.

A posible vaccine to prevents breast cancer

A new vaccine that prevents the development of breast cancer showed positive results in mice, U.S. scientists say.



Experts at the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic (Ohio), say that a single dose of immunization prevented the development of breast tumors in rodents and also inhibited the growth of existing tumors.



They now plan to conduct clinical trials of the vaccine in humans, according to advance in the journal Nature Medicine.



If successful, will be the first vaccine to prevent the disease in many countries is the leading cause of cancer death among women.



Unique challenge


The vaccine is composed of an antigen-a substance that causes the formation of antibodies, called a-lactalbumin.



In the study, carried out in mice genetically engineered to be prone to cancer, half were vaccinated with the antigen and the other half with a vaccine that did not contain the compound.


None of the mice injected with developing the disease antigen, but all the rest it was developed, say the authors.


If it works in humans the same way as it worked in mice will be monumental.Might be able to eliminate breast cancer


Prof. VIncent Tuohy Prof. Vincent Tuohy


So far, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, for its acronym in English) approved cancer preventive vaccines, one against cervical and other against the liver.


However, these immunizations virus attack: the human papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical cancer and hepatitis B (HBV) in liver cancer.


The new vaccine, however, strikes the formation of the disease.


The viruses are recognized by the immune system as foreign invaders, but not so with cancer, which is the uncontrolled growth of the cells themselves.


So a vaccine to attack the overgrowth of cells, is really attacking the patient's body itself, destroying also their healthy tissue.


La The key to the new immunization, Professor Tuohy explains, is "finding a target within the tumor is typically not in a healthy person."


In the case of breast cancer, scientists detected the antigen a-lactalbumin, a protein found in most breast tumors but not in healthy women, except when they nurse.


No damage to healthy tissue


In this way, scientists say, the vaccine can prepare a woman's immune system to attack the a-lactalbumin, avoiding the formation of the tumor without harming healthy tissue breast.

The vaccine antigen was able to prevent the development of tumors in mice.

Scientists plan to vaccinate women older than 40 years, the age at which begins to increase the risk of the disease and decrease the chance of pregnancy.
And it could be offered to younger women with increased risk of developing the condition.

Although experts say it will have to wait some years before the vaccine becomes available in the clinic, progress, they say, could have major implications for the prevention of breast cancer.


" "This study is in its early stages and hope to see the results of large clinical trials to see if this vaccine is safe and effective in humans," says Dr. Palframa Caitlin, the British charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer.


According to the World Health Organization, nearly 1.3 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year worldwide and about 500,000 die from the condition.



Although disease rates have declined gradually since the mid-90s in developed countries, thanks to early detection and improved treatments, in nations with low and middle income the number of cases continues to rise.