Just a Spill of My Thoughts. . . . . .

Lots of red meat shortens life

- New Scientist Magazine, 28 March 2009; Page 5

STEAK may taste good but it’s not doing you many favours. Eating large amounts of red and processed meats seems to shorten your life. Both types of meat have been linked to cancer and heart disease, but Rashmi Sinha and colleagues at the US National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, wanted to know their effect on overall death rates.

They asked 545,000 volunteers aged between 50 and 71 about their diet over the past year, and used this to estimate their meat intake. The researchers then monitored the volunteers for 10 years .

During that time, more than 71,000 of the group died. After controlling for numerous factors, including age, weight, smoking history and total food intake , the researchers found that women who consumed the most red meat – 66 grams per 1000 calories – were 36 per cent more likely to have died than women who ate the least – 9.1 grams. Men who ate large amounts of red meat were 31 per cent more likely to have died ( Archives of Internal Medicine, vol 169, p 562 ).

Red Meat

Consumption of processed meats, such as sausage, salami and hot dogs, was lower but still had a significant effect on the rate of deaths.

“This is probably the biggest and most carefully done study on the relationship between diet and mortality,” says Barry Popkin , an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Grilled beef steak

Eating Red Meat Sets Up Target For Disease-causing Bacteria, Study Finds

ScienceDaily, 30 October 2008

Offering another reason why eating red meat could be bad for you, an international research team, including University of California, San Diego School of Medicine professor Ajit Varki, M.D., has uncovered the first example of a bacterium that causes food poisoning in humans when it targets a non-human molecule absorbed into the body through red meats such as lamb, pork and beef.

In findings to be published on line October 29th in advance of print in the journal Nature, the scientists discovered that a potent bacterial toxin called subtilase cytotoxin specifically targets human cells that have a non-human, cellular molecule on their surface. The molecule –N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) – is a type of glycan, or sugar molecule, that humans don’t naturally produce.

Subtilase cytotoxin is produced by certain kinds of E. coli bacteria, causing bloody diarrhea and a potentially fatal disease called haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) in humans. Humans usually become infected after eating contaminated red meat, which is why this is also known as “hamburger” disease.

Beef burger

Varki, UC San Diego School of Medicine distinguished professor of medicine and cellular and molecular medicine, and co-director of the UCSD Glycobiology Research and Training Center, previously discovered that humans don’t produce Neu5Gc because they lack the gene responsible for its production. Therefore, it was thought that humans should be resistant to the toxin.

“Ironically, humans may set themselves up for an increased risk of illness from this kind of E. coli bacteria present in contaminated red meat or dairy, because these very same products have high-levels of Neu5Gc,” Varki explained. “The Neu5Gc molecule is absorbed into the body, making it a target for the toxin produced by E. coli.”

In the Nature study, the researchers discovered that sites where the Neu5Gc has been incorporated into the human body coincide with toxin binding. “When the toxin binds to the non-human Neu5Gc receptors, it can result in serious food-poisoning and other symptoms in humans,” said Varki. The research emphasizes the need for people to eat only well-cook meat or pasteurized dairy products, processes that destroy contaminating bacteria.

Served beaf steak

Five years ago, Varki and his colleagues at the UC San Diego School of Medicine published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describing how Neu5Gc is absorbed into human tissues – including the surface of cells lining the intestines and blood vessels – as a result of eating red meat and milk products. At the time, the researchers also showed that this foreign molecule generates an immune response that could potentially lead to inflammation in human tissues. The UC San Diego study was the first to investigate human dietary absorption of the Neu5Gc glycans which, while not produced in humans, does occur naturally in red meats. Levels are very low or undetectable in fruits, vegetables, eggs, poultry and fish. The researchers proved that people who ingest Neu5Gc incorporate some of it into their tissues, and demonstrated that many generated an immune response against the molecule, conjecturing that a lifetime of gradual incorporation of this glycan “invader” could result in disease.

The UC San Diego team included postdoctoral fellow Jonas C. Löfling and professor of pathology Nissi M. Varki. The international research collaborators included Jamie Rossjohn and Dr. Travis Beddoe, as well as Emma Byres and Matthew C.C. Wilce from Monash University in Victoria, Australia; Adrienne W. Paton, James C. Paton, Ursula M. Talbot and Damien C. Chong of the University of Adelaide, South Australia; David F. Smith, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia; and Hai Yu, Shengshu Huang and Xi Chen, UC Davis Department of Chemistry.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, and by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council.

Well, it has been part of the Merlion PhD program that I will have to spend few months in France. Part of the project that I work on will be done in the LIRMM (stands for: Laboratoire d’Informatique, de Robotique et de Microélectronique de Montpellier), Université Montpellier 2.

Paris I'm Coming.....

My trip there will be supported and funded by the French Government, through the CROUS, the regional office of CNOUS (Centre national des œuvres universitaires et scolaires). Hence my status during my stay in France is BGF (boursier du gouvernement français) meaning that I am a French Government Scholarship Holder. Well, the day has been set. My friends and I have spent some time together, having dinner or just playing games. And here, I would like to present special thanks to everybody who saw me off to Paris in the Changi Airport, Singapore.

Thank you my friends for seeing me off in Changi Airport

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow………..

by: Alice Walker

And you are really good friends of mine……  Thank you!

Scorpions – Under The Same Sun

Lyrics:klaus meine, bruce fairbairn

I saw the morning
It was shattered by a gun
Heard a scream, saw him fall, no one cried
I saw a mother
She was praying for her son
Bring him back, let him live, dont let him die

Do you ever ask yourself
Is there a heaven in the sky
Why cant we get it right

cause we all live under the same sun
We all walk under the same moon
Then why, why cant we live as one

I saw the evening
Fading shadows one by one
We watch the lamb, lay down to the sacrifice
I saw the children
The children of the sun
How they wept, how they bled, how they died

Do you ever ask yourself
Is there a heaven in the sky
Why cant we stop the fight

cause we all live under the same sun
We all walk under the same moon
Then why, why cant we live as one

Sometimes I think Im going mad
Were loosing all we had and no one seems to care
But in my heart it doesnt change
Weve got to rearrange and bring our world some love

And does it really matter
If theres a heaven up above
We sure could use some love

cause we all live under the same sun
We all walk under the same moon
Then why, why cant we live as one
cause we all live under the same sky
We all look up at the same stars
Then why, tell me why cant we live as one

Reading those lyrics, will surely make us believe that when people understand each other, understand that we are different to each other, but we still have a lot of common thing we share, the condition described with the word ‘peace’ will be created.

I remember once, Obama said in his speech in Cairo, qouted from the Qur’an, that mankind were created male and female, races and tribes, so that we may know one another. Yes, so that we may know each other.

We were created different is not to fight one another. It is also not to force the dissimilarities to ‘change’ or ‘be changed’.

Remember, there will be no rainbow when all are red.

There are a lot of beuty in diversity.

Imagine!, when there is only red, or only yellow, or only bluw, there will surely no rainbow that we can enjoy to see in this world.

It’s been months since we have a get-together (get-to-get-her? get-to-gather?) on the end of february. And this time, we went to CSC club in Bukit Gombak for playing pool and bowling after having so much rice and chicken in KFC Westmall.

(Bring your own rice, KFC in Singapore won’t provide you with rice anyway).

And here are some pics on it….

We Are Friends!

After having lunch in KFC, we walk to the CSC Club bukit gombak, with so much talks and jokes along the street…

'nTo in action

Well, the bowling is fully booked when we arrived. While waiting for our reservation, it’s worth to spend some times here in the pool and bilyard.

I am in action

And here I am, for the first time to bowl. Never gotten strike, but it was really nice.

Well, the most important thing for all PhD students all over the world, is nothing but THESIS. Yes, it is thesis.

I’m still remember clearly when the lecturer in my Graduate Communication class, Dr Murphy, once said that “Your PhD is your Thesis”. And that is true. I 200% agree to what she said.

And here it comes…  After so loooong waiting, the time has finally came for my colleague in Robotics Research Center (RRC) – BioRobotics Group, to “celebrate” the judgement day of his works.

Congratullation, Dr Low!!

Your Dr has finally been officially attached in front of your name.

and now…  let’s go party!!!!

The People in the BioRobotics Group

Dr Low, 2nd from left

Me (center) with my Gym/Jog/Swim/Lab/Groups/Lunch-mates..

The party was in the Sakura International Buffet in Sport Center, Jurong West.

Merlion in Singapore

Merlion PhD scholarship is a scholarship given by French Government through the French Embassy in Singapore to foster scientific collaboration between Singapore and France.

The following information is taken from the website of the French Embassy in Singapore http://www.ambafrance-sg.org in 21 June 2009 12:00 Paris time:

The candidates have to be involved, for their PhD studies, in a French-Singaporean research project of which the themes are in accordance with the scientific priorities of both partners.

The research project must be jointly defined and agreed upon by both French and Singaporean partners, along with the student. The two-PhD supervisors (1 French and 1 Singaporean) must be clearly identified, and the periods of stay in France and Singapore for the research project detailed precisely. The co-funding of the research project, if it exists, will also be considered.

Singaporean candidates who possess a grant or a scholarship from any Singaporean institution are eligible and may cumulate both funding sources, that from France and that from Singapore. In any case, the Singaporean partner must commit itself to financing the student during his stay in Singapore.

The length of stay supported by the Embassy is 18 months over a period of 3 years with a maximum of 6 months per year.
Important things to be noticed:

• The proposal should originate from both supervisors. We will not accept an individual application.

• Only new PhD student are eligible.

• Specific attention will be given to the funding of the project. Co-funding is mandatory.

• Flexibility : if the student stays less than 6 months during his first or second year, it could be possible to put off the time missing (or one part) the year after. Each case will be considered case per case.

More information can be found in the website.

In year 2008, only 5 PhD students awarded the scholarship. This info also taken from the website:

For MERLION PhD, the selected proposals are:

Mathematics:

• Codes and Secret Sharing Schemes

Physics:

• Dilute nitride technology for high speed photonics
• Ultracold fermions in 2D honeycomb lattice: Quantum Hall Effect in Effective Magnetic Field

Engineering:

• Pathological Tremor Modelling and Active Compensation via Functional Electrical Stimulations
• Molecular Design of Complex molecule Logic Gate

Eiffel Tower in Paris, Francs

This program is really good, in the sense that it could accelerate institutional collaboration between Singapore Institutions (Universities and Research Institutes) and the French Institutions. In addition, this program will allow more researchers form Singapore and France to be more involve in a project co-funded by institutions in both country. Last but not least, the student will have chance to spend some times in both countries. This will surely brings another big opportunities in the future when the their time comes to take over the research directions towards better society through science and technology.

Find more about Merlion PhD Scholarship, visit: http://www.ambafrance-sg.org