Pundit Interviews

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Perishable Pundit
P.O. Box 810425
Boca Raton FL 33481

Ph: 561-994-1118
Fax: 561-994-1610

Produce Business

Deli Business

American Food & Ag Exporter

Cheese Connoisseur

Jim Prevor’s Perishable Pundit, November 5, 2012

The New York Produce Show and Conference is an unusual event. More intimate than the larger shows, it is second to none in its ambition to provide a world-class event in the Capital of the World.

With this year, we have expanded our University Exchange Program across the Atlantic to a most extraordinary Italian University, and the Professor the school is sending over is doing extraordinarily interesting research. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more:

Gabriella Morini
Assistant Professor
(Ricercatore — Researcher)
Taste and Food Sciences
University of Gastronomic Sciences
(Universita Degli Studi Di Scienze Gastronomiche)
Pollenzo, Italy

Q: Could you provide a preview of your talk? What are the key issues you will bring to light?

A: I will discuss the function of the sense of taste; the influence of taste in food preferences and food choices and therefore on nutrition and health. My research makes the case that vegetables are the best trainers or the optimum way to educate your sense of taste. It is critical to introduce vegetables in the diet as early as possible, not only in children but even during a mother’s pregnancy, to influence and condition taste receptors in order to establish good eating habits and good health that will last in the long term.

Q: Is there a scientific reason why people’s taste buds wouldn’t naturally gravitate toward vegetables? Why is it so challenging to increase produce consumption?

A: I have been working since 1988 on taste sensors -- how sense works with the molecules that are present in the food we eat. I have a paper I wrote in English on the molecular aspects of taste, which might be of interest to your readers. When our ancestors were living in the bush, the only way to decide if we should eat something was to taste it. There were no labels.

People were learning in no uncertain terms what was poisonous and what was not. We never think about the chemical composition we eat in terms of taste. Everyone likes foods that are sweet or salted, and fat taste lipids are important. We also have receptors for umami, a Japanese word meaning a pleasant savory taste. This is what we naturally prefer.

We don’t like much bitter taste. Think about a baby or child and what they do when we put something bitter on their plate. We also don’t like acidic foods. It might be spoiled because it has undergone fermentation. Most of the bitter compounds are coming from plants. Plants protect themselves from being eaten from animals.

Q: Doesn’t our sense of taste mature over our lifetime? For example, adults often prefer more bitter tastes than children. Is this based on biological or environmental factors? What about food preferences built on cultural and religious differences and rituals, etc.?

A: When we grow up, we change our sense of taste, especially regarding bitter. Adults like beer, coffee, and many other things bitter. There are also differences within cultures. For example, in Italy, we have a word amaro, collectively used for bitter liqueurs, which are considered medicinal and served at the end of a meal to aid digestion.

On one side, there are information-built receptors and genetics, but also humans are different than other animals. Humans are not as strict on what we eat. It’s not just receptors, but the culture and other causes. There are people who eat cows and those who don’t, people who eat dogs and those who don’t, and the same with snakes. Raw meat is important in some parts of the world and not others.

We know that children and also adults don’t eat that many vegetables. They’re bitter and astringent.

Scientists have been working on studies to show that if you get people used to eating vegetables at a young age, it will change their taste preferences. There is also evidence that when a mother eats vegetables during pregnancy and breast feeding, it impacts a gene of taste preference

If we start introducing vegetables to babies, and serve them to toddlers, we will build a taste preference for vegetables. Koalas only eat one thing. Humans adapt to what we have available. In humans, we see we can get used to eating what is healthy.

Q: Has our genetic system and sense of taste evolved to adjust to modernity and the transformations in the food supply chain?

A: Our genetic system is geared to prefer fat and salt. We eat food because we have to. We eat molecules introduced through food to survive. We have senses that influence our food preferences. We do like sweet, salty, umami, and fat because of our genetic system that accommodated a time where there was not too much food.

The problem until 100 years ago was not eating enough. The world has changed. We have a sensory system to detect food that is old. If you go to the grocery store when you are hungry, you buy everything. In the past, there was a long process to get food. Now, we get what we want quickly. It’s important to educate people on this phenomenon. It’s like driving a Ferrari without knowing how; eventually you crash. You need a driver’s license

Q: Using your driving analogy, what are the main lessons people can pull from your research to avoid reckless food choices and reverse unhealthy eating and obesity trends?

A: We need to let people know as much as possible ways to educate sense of taste, to like or to go for healthy. Right now, we need vegetables in our diet more than ever before. Vegetables reduce calorie intake, introduce variety, and are rich in vitamins and antioxidants. We have to improve the consumption of vegetables. One way is to say they are good for you, but that doesn’t always work because we eat what we like. Nobody can force us to eat something we don’t like.

Q: That said, isn’t this an uphill battle to shake conditioned eating behaviors and food preferences?

A: We have to learn to like vegetables. This is the philosophy and there is scientific proof. Researchers have taken groups of children and introduced them to different varieties of vegetables repetitively, leading to a gradual shift in their taste preferences over time, but there is no easy fix.

You bring up eating behaviors. The problem is that it is very difficult to change habits. We are not koalas, so we can learn what to eat and train our genetic system. Now there are scientific papers to show that the best chance for success is to start with children or even better with pregnant mothers.

We also need a multifaceted effort that follows children throughout their daily activities, such as tending a school garden and integrating that into the educational curriculum. In Italy, officials are trying to improve school canteens and include more fresh vegetables.

Children gravitate to peas, carrots and potatoes because they’re not bitter. However, bitter is very good when it comes to vegetables, offering vitamins and nutrients that can’t be found elsewhere. Bitter is better. We have to get people to choose bitter. We have to teach people to like vegetables.

Q: Do you think the produce industry should try to create new vegetable varieties with tastes and flavor profiles that duplicate or simulate what we naturally like?

A: No. We have to retrain our senses to bitter, hot compounds, ginger, onions, chilies, compounds that may have strange tastes… more tastes besides sweet and sour. Also we need a way to recognize these are good for us.

Q: So produce industry executives who look for ways to compete with junk food companies by disguising fruits and vegetables to taste more like the snacks kids desire is not the way to go? For example, produce marketers, and for that matter parents, adding cheese sauce to broccoli, dipping carrots in peanut butter, spreading cream cheese on celery, or drizzling fruit with honey or chocolate could be counter-productive?

A: That is not the right direction. Now we know these bitter vegetable compounds are good for us, and responsible for the taste. It’s a code. We have to learn the language of taste. It’s an investment for a mom to prepare vegetables, but how much time do they invest in getting their children to learn French or German or something else they believe is important.

We have to give the instrument to learn the language of taste, more vegetables and also different ones. I like to say variety is the taste of life. I think it’s not a good approach to reduce bitter taste. There will always be something more fatty, more sweet or salty, or more pleasant out there. The industry will find it difficult to compete if it’s trying to out-sweeten cookies and cake.

Wild animals decide by taste. Humans are different. They may alter food choice depending on which part of the world they live, or which part of the year, say Easter or Christmas. The code is important. We change over our lifetime. We have to try to start at the beginning with what’s good for us. It’s difficult to find people who don’t like cakes.

It is not just about changing the taste code. Competing with junk food is not the solution. I’m reminded of the expression when a food is so good — “to die for” — usually when we eat something very sweet or tasty. If we just continue going that way, we will die… literally.

Broccoli with cheese sauce is just adding calories and avoiding the real issue. It’s a superficial approach.

Q: What tactics do you recommend?

A: The best time to act is when a woman is pregnant. She pays very much attention to her health and will be receptive to information on what she should eat and why it is so important. Lipids, carbohydrates and fats are present in any foods, but there are antioxidants and nutrients in vegetables that are important to human development.

Just as studies show that the music children hear during pregnancy can be influential, research shows that those introduced early to vegetables will gravitate to those tastes. In Italy, there was a concern that when a mother was eating a lot of garlic while breastfeeding, children weren’t eating meat. That’s not the problem now. We need food less rich in easy calories.

Q: There are claims that characteristics of processed foods actually stimulate bad eating habits. Is there truth to that?

A: In the industry, in the 1940s and 1950’s after the Second World War, the only mission was to sell more food. Now we have all the problems with food-related diseases. I think the aim of the industry has changed. I was reading about the ban of big size soda in New York. There is a push to limit calories in meals, reduce portions. In 50 years, we’ve moved from food keeping us alive to the source of what is killing people.

Even in the vegetable world, variety was selected for longer shelf life and the same shape. Minds are changing. What kept us alive can now kill us. At the same time, with so many advances, we live longer.

I’m not one to say the past was better, but our children are the first generation that has less expectancy of life. That is going down hill. The food system, the industry, even fast food, must change. It will be against their business not to change.

Q: As long as there is consumer demand for sweet, salty, fatty and umami, won’t companies continue to produce what is profitable? Despite all the research espousing benefits of produce, and concerted efforts from both government and private organizations to fight obesity, increasing produce consumption remains a challenge. Does the cornerstone of this change require retraining our sense of taste?

A: It’s not easy. It will take time. We don’t have time to adapt genetically. Our body is very much set to adapt to scarcity of food. We are very good at managing scarcity of food, and not good at managing the excess. We cannot wait to adapt biologically, but humans have brains.

Q: With advances in technology, the world has become so mobile, from international travel and exposure to a wide variety of ethnic cuisines, to an array of unusual produce items and unexpected spices. Doesn’t this create heighted interest to experiment with bitter vegetables and daring taste profiles?

A: We know that we have a genetic sense of taste. Detecting receptors of taste is not so different for people living in Ecuador, India, the North Pole or the South Pole. People move around the world and still generally eat the same. Yes, there is ethnic and cultural diversity within communities. I eat a dish that is traditional where I live. It has a sauce made with anchovies and a lot of garlic and raw vegetables. A lot of children in Italy love it. My American friends love peanut butter, but in Europe I don’t know anyone who does. Marmite, a spread from yeast extract, is popular as Vegemite in Australia. I think it’s awful.

But if you think about globalization of food, pizza, pasta, and fast food have become universal because they’re not bitter or acidic at all.

If you have a dog, you know it will eat all the food that is there. As humans, we learn to adapt. Why do we have to use sense of taste when we can go to the supermarket and buy whatever we want? We have to be more aware of what we eat. We can also change when we’re old, but it’s more challenging. If you want to learn an instrument, you’ll learn much faster when you’re a child. It’s the same with sense of taste.

Professor Morini’s research and the presentation that grows out of it is simultaneously perhaps the most inspiring and most challenging presentation we have ever had at The New York Produce Show and Conference.

It is both inspiring and challenging because, though the good Professor may be Italian she reminds us of Aristotle in her approach: She challenges us to be more completely human and identifies rationality as the key trait differentiating humans from animals.

She also touches on a long term concern of ours — what about the vegetables? In pieces such these herehere, here and here, we have cautioned that the produce industry efforts to increase consumption are sometimes uncomfortably close to a bait-and-switch. First, we promote the importance of eating more fruits and vegetables, research which is typically based on a diverse basket of produce items. Then, we run programs that give out only sweet snack fruit which, in and of itself, won’t deliver the promised health benefits.

In our piece titled, The Bitter Truth About Promoting Produce To Children,we examined a study that showed children recoil from the bitter taste of many of the most nutritionally valuable vegetables and analyzed the challenge this posed for efforts to both increase consumption and to use increased consumption to improve public health.

Now Professor Morini comes along with several specific points:

  1. The industry is starting too late. It is fine to have school salad bar programs and school snack programs but, we need to start with pregnant women and babies; taste receptors are established in utero.
  2. It is not enough to simply increase access to fruits and vegetables. We have to understand that there is a need to consciously train our taste buds to like more vegetables.
  3. Substituting non-caloric sweeteners for sugar — say drinking diet soda rather than regular — may help a bit on the margin with public health but, fundamentally doesn’t work because it feeds our desire for sweetness as opposed to retraining our palates to prefer other tastes.
  4. Efforts to develop sweeter vegetable varieties or to get children to eat vegetables with cheese sauce, etc., are distractions from the key job: getting people to like tastes they are not used to and getting them to realize these tastes are good for them.
  5. There is an urgency here. We do not have time to allow our bodies to adapt through the normal genetic process. We need to use our intellect and make choices that we are not driven to make by our own genetics. We are suited for living in a world characterized by a shortage of food and we live in a world of abundance. This leads to obesity and related complications.

It is a fascinating thesis and may well be true — what is not clear is whether it is possible on a mass scale.

We know that some individuals get “religion” and dramatically change their eating habits. We know that there are shifts that occur gradually as people age.

But do we have even one example of a whole nation dramatically changing its eating habits to be healthier?

It is fine to admonish people — but there are plenty of people who don’t make the effort to make sure their children speak French or German. What are we to do about those people?

Inevitably a campaign such as this seems likely to have class-based implications. In affluent countries, one reason poor people are poor is that, because of low education and relative isolation from knowledgeable social networks, they are not good at picking up societal messages as to what behaviors lead to success. It is the affluent and educated who are likely to have the presence of mind to hear messages such as this and act on them. We see this already… habits such as smoking and behaviors that lead to obesity are less common among the more affluent and educated.

What reasonable expectation can we possibly have that the general population will so dramatically change its behavior?

It is a fascinating topic, and we can’t wait to hear Professor Morini give her presentation at The New York Produce Show and Conference. In fact, she will be giving two. The main presentation will be given as part of the Educational Micro-Session Program on December 5, 2012 at Pier 94, and a second special version also will be adapted to the interests of the foodservice and culinary segment of the industry and presented as part of the “Ideation Fresh” Foodservice Forum on December 6, 2012, at the Sheraton New York Hotel.

Make sure you are there to hear this thought-provoking presentation; you can do so by registering here.

In addition, as mentioned above, Professor Morini will tailor her message to culinary and foodservice professionals at this year’s ”Ideation Fresh” Foodservice Forum, held on December 6. If you would like more information on this conference, please email us here.

If you are interested in coming early to The New York Produce Show and Conference and want to immerse yourself in international trade, we have a separate event — The Global Trade Symposium — held on Tuesday, December 4. If interested, please email us here.

Hotels are available at this link.

And we have negotiated a roster of travel discounts which you can find here.

There is also an extensive spouse program, which you can sign up for here.

And a roster of great tours can be signed up for here.

We invite you to come to The New York Produce Show and Conference and Celebrate Fresh! It’s also where the industry starts thinking in new ways. Come and be part of that conversation.


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Looking for a mechanical engineer with experience in consumer hard goods. Experience and interest in ergonomics, product development, fastenings, mechanics, prototyping, and/or contemporary minimalist design a plus. You will be working closely with the designer to refine the engineered components and mechanics of the product - in this case, a high-end consumer backpack. Time commitment will be flexible- meetings as needed throughout the prototyping and production process. Ideally in the Greater Toronto Area.
Skills: Hardware Prototyping Mechanical Engineering Product Design
Hello, We need to build a platform that moves up and down that is controlled via Arduino (or similar system) and we need detailed instructions how to do it including code and wiring. Here is how should the setup look like: Platform attached to a thread fixed to stepper motor NEMA17 Stepper motor is controlled by control board (as mentioned - Arduino or similar). System will have 3 main inputs: A - number of motor turns “A” B - number of motor turns “B” C - sound input (microphone) And a few other inputs: D - lower endpoint E - upper endpoint F - ON/OFF switch A and B inputs are switches with a numerical value of how many turns should a motor move. Here can be switches (with 5 positions/values) or an lcd screen with buttons to adjust these values. Only five values for each switch will be used. C input gives a start for motor movement. Once the beep is heard - platform is moved up by the distance A+B. Once a double (or different tone) beep is heard, system moves the platform down by the distance B. After turning the machine ON, platform goes down to the lowest point until the lower endpoint button is reached. After the machine is turned OFF, platform goes up to the highest endpoint button is reached. After the machine hears a triple beep (or a special tone), platform goes up to the highest endpoint button is reached. We need to build such system and need detailed instructions including hardware parts, and software code.
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Current Scenario: Please review the simplified block diagram. The Flora BLE is connected to the Flora MCU. The Flora BLE transmits at the rate of 9600 baud but even at this baud rate it drops a lot of values On the receiving side we have an nrf51 dongle that captured the data via COM port in to a file. Our windows application reads this file and processes the data further. Ideally we want to transmit at 115200 without any data loss. Required solution: BT native component selection that can replace the Flora BLE and stream in UART mode at 115200 and USB dongle for the PC than can receive it via USB/COM. Simple connections as shown in the schematic for ease of soldering / connecting. Can be any native BT profile. Should work on 3.7V Li-ion battery
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Deliverable #1: Hardware prototype for two boards ( board A & board B) - it is acceptable to hand mount modules on prototype board and hand wire connections. Alternatively can create pcb. Board A has 2 modules on it. Board B adds a 3rd module. Each module requires power, antenna & high speed serial connections. Deliverable #2: Qty 15 demo boards: Take board A & B prototypes from Deliverable #1 and design custom PCBs. Then assemble, test and validate in 2 builds: Build 1 - 5 units Build 2 - remaining 10 units
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Skills: Hardware Prototyping Digital Signal Processing Hardware Troubleshooting PCB Design


I'm Aaron Meyer: a bioengineer, cyclist, and nerd.

You can also find me on Twitter, Github, LinkedIn, and Google Scholar.

Author Post: On Why We Build Models

The work from the final portion of my Ph.D. thesis is online today in Cell Systems, a brand new journal from Cell Press. Though nascent, the journal has already published exciting studies on the geospatial distribution of bacteria in cities, using CRISPR-Cas9 to rapidly engineer yeast metabolic pathways, and programming synthetic circuits in gut microbiota 1.

In it, we use differential equation modeling to understand how AXL (and very likely the other TAM receptor tyrosine kinases) senses phosphatidylserine (PtdSer)-presenting debris, a long-understood core function of the family. This was by far the most challenging undertaking of my Ph.D.–from utilizing the computational techniques to carefully designing the experimental measurements at each stage. The experience has taught me an enormous amount about the purpose and power of systems biology2.

Shou et. al. very recently described it best:

When scientists want to explain some aspect of nature, they tend to make observations of the natural world or collect experimental data, and then extract regularities or patterns from these observations and data, possibly using some form of statistical analysis. Characterizing these regularities or patterns can help scientists to generate new hypotheses, but statistical correlations on their own do not constitute understanding. Rather, it is when a mechanistic explanation of the regularities or patterns is developed from underlying principles, while relying on as few assumptions as possible, that a theory is born. A scientific theory thus provides a unifying framework that can explain a large class of empirical data. A scientific theory is also capable of making predictions that can be tested experimentally. Moreover, a theory can be refined in the light of new experimental data, and then be used to make new predictions, which can also be tested: over time this cycle of prediction, testing and refinement should result in a more robust and quantitative theory. Thus, the union of empirical and quantitative theoretical work should be a hallmark of any scientific discipline.

In a sense, kinetic rate equation models are fundamentally different from most data-driven approaches. These models of molecular systems make very few assumptions about underlying processes, meaning that we can not only learn from models that reproduce a behavior but often also from the ones that “break” and can’t fit the data. Relying only on experimental results doesn’t shield you from assumptions; in biology, experimental designs often rely on the underlying assumption that any one component of an organism has a unimodal relationship to the phenotype we observe. This is in part because the most simple (and often only feasible) experiments in one’s empirical toolbox are knockdown and/or overexpression, along with qualitative biochemical analyses. Biological systems are complex and nonlinear in their behavior though, and this initial view can quickly break down. For certain scales, a kinetic model can, in essence, be used as a scientific theory. Developed from underlying principles of rate kinetics and explaining the data we observe with as few assumptions as possible, it provides a unified framework for communication and further testing of our current understanding.

In the case of TAM receptors, manipulation by the addition or removal of ligand, receptor, or PtdSer has produced many observations. Some seemingly conflict with the previous mental model of particular factors being simply “activating” or “repressive.” The new theory/model that we propose, while being more complex, is maximally simple for the phenomena we wish to explain. With this new model, we can see how the previous mental model could be misleading, as complex, nonlinear relationships exist with respect to the timescale of one’s assay and factors such as PtdSer. That isn’t to say it is correct–it will always be wrong. In the near term, while we model only one receptor, AXL, the other TAM receptors MerTK and Tyro3 have critical roles both in normal physiology and cancer, and our understanding of how these receptors are similar or different is just beginning to be assembled. As TAM-targeted therapies are developed and evaluated in vivo, these models will help us understand how they work and develop even better therapies.

We need better methods at every step of this type of modeling, from construction and parameterization to understanding predictions3. Biology is complex, and mechanistic models such as these quickly become intractable on larger scales. Our study introduces the additional complexity of spatial scale, which makes each step of the process, as well as the corresponding experimental techniques, considerably more challenging. In the long term, I believe spatial organization of signaling will prove to be a critical component of understanding many cellular processes. We are going to need systems techniques to understand them.

  1. I am incredibly excited by this journal’s creation. Systems biology has lacked a true “home” even as it has matured into an established field, and I am enthusiastic this will be it.

  2. Ironically, I had to be convinced that such a project would be challenging enough to be interesting. After all, we learned about ODE modeling in undergraduate classes, it’s been applied for decades, and I would only be considering two proteins! Surely in the era of big data, a few rate parameters could be thrown together in a weekend and output some simulations of receptor activation. And rather than simulate a phenomena, why not just measure it experimentally?

  3. Of course there are huge efforts to develop better tools for these purposes, but these remain difficult problems. Notable promising directions are rule-based models (such as BioNetGen) and brave attempts to try and accelerate Markov Chain Monte Carlo (e.g. DREAM). Truly rigorous modeling still remains a challenge even for the computationally adept however. It would be wonderful to have a rule-based framework that handled rigorous parameterization, spatial modeling through finite differences, compile-time detailed balance, and automatic differentiation (since all of these systems are stiff of course), but such a tool would be a considerable computational undertaking.

The Bad Luck of Improper Data Interpretation

An article and news summary is out in Science this week with a bold claim: that two-thirds of all cancers are due to baseline mutagenesis intrinsic to cell division, and not environmental factors or genetics. This is based on observed correlation between the number of stem cell divisions and incidence of cancer in various tissues. Certainly, such a conclusion would have immense consequences—it would emphasize treatment strategies over those of prevention, and refocus efforts away from understanding environmental toxins. Sadly, this conclusion is based on a frightening variety of errors in interpretation and basic math.

Most specifically, the two-thirds figure comes from the correlation coefficient between stem cell divisions and cancer incidence. While it is the case that the former explains 65% of the variation in cancer incidence between tissues, this does not translate to a percentage of cancer cases. This data is plotted on a log-log axis, and so distance along the plot is not linear. As the cancers with clear environmental factors are more common, the 65% claim is surely much lower.

Second, while this correlation might explain variation between tissues, it does not suggest the source of mutagenesis. Any factor that had similar effects throughout all tissues would vary this plot on the y-axis but have no effect on the correlation. Notably, as the data is plotted on a log axis, even for tissue-specific toxins many fold changes in the incidences of these cancers would still have no effect on the conclusions of this study.

Additional failures of interpretation in this study suggest little understanding of the data analysis involved. For example, k-means clustering a single variable lends little insight, and with outliers on either end is sure to form two groups with separation near the center of the range. This provides no evidence of there being two “classes” of cancer.

This article seems to be the product of lax peer review and pressure to over-interpret data to boost public interest. Both of these provide short-term gain to those involved but in the long run corrupt the scientific literature and erode public trust in science. Don’t do it!

Early Independence

Science doesn’t simply happen when money is spent; it requires immense effort, creative ideas, and dedicated time from well-trained scientists. Many factors can threaten these other requirements, such as funding instability and the aging of scientists. The average age at which an investigator receives their first R01, the mainstay grant of biomedical research, is now well into the mid-40’s. This drives many of the most talented individuals out of biomedical research, and curtails the benefit we as investors in biomedical research derive from those who remain, by limiting their ability to perform independent science during some of their most creative years.

To begin to address this one problem, the NIH has begun an experiment, the Early Independence Award, funding young investigators immediately after their Ph.D. so that they may undertake their own research independently. I’m excited to be officially joining this experiment, and hope you’ll see exciting work from the Meyer lab at MIT soon.


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1.  Sound localization: Jeffress and beyond
Current opinion in neurobiology  2011;21(5):745-751.
Many animals use the interaural time differences (ITDs) to locate the source of low frequency sounds. The place coding theory proposed by Jeffress has long been a dominant model to account for the neural mechanisms of ITD detection. Recent research, however, suggests a wider range of strategies for ITD coding in the binaural auditory brainstem. We discuss how ITD is coded in avian, mammalian, and reptilian nervous systems, and review underlying synaptic and cellular properties that enable precise temporal computation. The latest advances in recording and analysis techniques provide powerful tools for both overcoming and utilizing the large field potentials in these nuclei.
PMCID: PMC3192259  PMID: 21646012
2.  Organization of the Auditory Brainstem in a Lizard, Gekko gecko. I. Auditory Nerve, Cochlear Nuclei, and Superior Olivary Nuclei
The Journal of comparative neurology  2012;520(8):1784-1799.
We used tract tracing to reveal the connections of the auditory brainstem in the Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko). The auditory nerve has two divisions, a rostroventrally directed projection of mid- to high best-frequency fibers to the nucleus angularis (NA) and a more dorsal and caudal projection of low to middle best-frequency fibers that bifurcate to project to both the NA and the nucleus magnocellularis (NM). The projection to NM formed large somatic terminals and bouton terminals. NM projected bilaterally to the second-order nucleus laminaris (NL), such that the ipsilateral projection innervated the dorsal NL neuropil, whereas the contralateral projection crossed the midline and innervated the ventral dendrites of NL neurons. Neurons in NL were generally bitufted, with dorsoventrally oriented dendrites. NL projected to the contralateral torus semicircularis and to the contralateral ventral superior olive (SOv). NA projected to ipsilateral dorsal superior olive (SOd), sent a major projection to the contralateral SOv, and projected to torus semicircularis. The SOd projected to the contralateral SOv, which projected back to the ipsilateral NM, NL, and NA. These results suggest homologous patterns of auditory connections in lizards and archosaurs but also different processing of low- and high-frequency information in the brainstem.
PMCID: PMC4300985  PMID: 22120438
auditory nerve; ITD; cochlear nuclei; superior olive; reptile; lizard; tract tracing; Tokay gecko
3.  Calcium-Binding Protein Immunoreactivity Characterizes the Auditory System of Gekko gecko
The Journal of comparative neurology  2010;518(17):3409-3426.
Geckos use vocalizations for intraspecific communication, but little is known about the organization of their central auditory system. We therefore used antibodies against the calcium-binding proteins calretinin (CR), parvalbumin (PV), and calbindin-D28k (CB) to characterize the gecko auditory system. We also examined expression of both glutamic acid decarboxlase (GAD) and synaptic vesicle protein (SV2). Western blots showed that these antibodies are specific to gecko brain. All three calcium-binding proteins were expressed in the auditory nerve, and CR immunoreactivity labeled the first-order nuclei and delineated the terminal fields associated with the ascending projections from the first-order auditory nuclei. PV expression characterized the superior olivary nuclei, whereas GAD immunoreactivity characterized many neurons in the nucleus of the lateral lemniscus and some neurons in the torus semicircularis. In the auditory midbrain, the distribution of CR, PV, and CB characterized divisions within the central nucleus of the torus semicircularis. All three calcium-binding proteins were expressed in nucleus medialis of the thalamus. These expression patterns are similar to those described for other vertebrates.
PMCID: PMC3170861  PMID: 20589907
cochlear nucleus; magnocellularis; laminaris; angularis; torus
4.  Detection of Interaural Time Differences in the Alligator
PMCID: PMC3170862  PMID: 19553438
5.  Vestibular nuclei characterized by calcium-binding protein immunoreactivity and tract tracing in Gekko gecko
Hearing research  2012;296:1-12.
Immunohistochemical techniques were used to describe the distribution of the calcium binding proteins calretinin, calbindin and parvalbumin as well as synaptic vesicle protein 2 in the vestibular nuclei of the Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko). In addition, tract tracing was used to investigate connections between the vestibular nerves and brainstem nuclei. Seven vestibular nuclei were recognized: the nuclei cerebellaris lateralis (Cerl), vestibularis dorsolateralis (Vedl), ventrolateralis (Vevl), ventromedialis (Vevm), tangentialis (Vetg), ovalis (VeO) and descendens (Veds). Vestibular fibers entered the brainstem with the ascending branch projecting to Vedl and Cerl, the lateral descending branch to Veds, and the medial descending branch to ipsilateral Vevl. Cerl lay most rostral, in the cerebellar peduncle. Vedl, located rostrally, was ventral to the cerebellar peduncle, and consisted of loosely arranged multipolar and monopolar cells. Vevl was found at the level of the vestibular nerve root and contained conspicuously large cells and medium-sized cells. Veds is a large nucleus, the most rostral portion of which is situated lateral and ventral to Vevl, and occupies much of the dorsal brainstem extending caudally through the medulla. VeO is a spherically shaped cell group lateral to the auditory nucleus magnocellularis and dorsal to the caudal part of Vevl. Vevm and Vetg were small in the present study. Except for VeO, all other vestibular nuclei appear directly comparable to counterparts in other reptiles and birds based on their location, cytoarchitecture, and connections, indicating these are conserved features of the vestibular system.
PMCID: PMC4101695  PMID: 23201031
6.  Middle Ear Cavity Morphology Is Consistent with an Aquatic Origin for Testudines
PLoS ONE  2013;8(1):e54086.
The position of testudines in vertebrate phylogeny is being re-evaluated. At present, testudine morphological and molecular data conflict when reconstructing phylogenetic relationships. Complicating matters, the ecological niche of stem testudines is ambiguous. To understand how turtles have evolved to hear in different environments, we examined middle ear morphology and scaling in most extant families, as well as some extinct species, using 3-dimensional reconstructions from micro magnetic resonance (MR) and submillimeter computed tomography (CT) scans. All families of testudines exhibited a similar shape of the bony structure of the middle ear cavity, with the tympanic disk located on the rostrolateral edge of the cavity. Sea Turtles have additional soft tissue that fills the middle ear cavity to varying degrees. When the middle ear cavity is modeled as an air-filled sphere of the same volume resonating in an underwater sound field, the calculated resonances for the volumes of the middle ear cavities largely fell within testudine hearing ranges. Although there were some differences in morphology, there were no statistically significant differences in the scaling of the volume of the bony middle ear cavity with head size among groups when categorized by phylogeny and ecology. Because the cavity is predicted to resonate underwater within the testudine hearing range, the data support the hypothesis of an aquatic origin for testudines, and function of the middle ear cavity in underwater sound detection.
PMCID: PMC3544720  PMID: 23342082
PMCID: PMC3821004  PMID: 24265615
PMCID: PMC3821005  PMID: 24265616
9.  Specialization for underwater hearing by the tympanic middle ear of the turtle, Trachemys scripta elegans
PMCID: PMC3367789  PMID: 22438494
underwater sound; evolution; cochlea; auditory brainstem response
11.  Bigger Brains or Bigger Nuclei? Regulating the Size of Auditory Structures in Birds
Brain, Behavior and Evolution  2004;63(3):169-180.
Increases in the size of the neuronal structures that mediate specific behaviors are believed to be related to enhanced computational performance. It is not clear, however, what developmental and evolutionary mechanisms mediate these changes, nor whether an increase in the size of a given neuronal population is a general mechanism to achieve enhanced computational ability. We addressed the issue of size by analyzing the variation in the relative number of cells of auditory structures in auditory specialists and generalists. We show that bird species with different auditory specializations exhibit variation in the relative size of their hindbrain auditory nuclei. In the barn owl, an auditory specialist, the hind-brain auditory nuclei involved in the computation of sound location show hyperplasia. This hyperplasia was also found in songbirds, but not in non-auditory specialists. The hyperplasia of auditory nuclei was also not seen in birds with large body weight suggesting that the total number of cells is selected for in auditory specialists. In barn owls, differences observed in the relative size of the auditory nuclei might be attributed to modifications in neurogenesis and cell death. Thus, hyperplasia of circuits used for auditory computation accompanies auditory specialization in different orders of birds.
PMCID: PMC3269630  PMID: 14726625
Evolution; Auditory; Neuronal computation; Birds; Allometry
12.  Evolution of a sensory novelty: Tympanic ears and the associated neural processing
Brain Research Bulletin  2007;75(2-4):365-370.
Tympanic hearing is a true evolutionary novelty that appears to have developed independently in at least five major tetrapod groups—the anurans, turtles, lepidosaurs, archosaurs and mammals. The emergence of a tympanic ear would have increased the frequency range and sensitivity of hearing. Furthermore, tympana were acoustically coupled through the mouth cavity and therefore inherently directional in a certain frequency range, acting as pressure difference receivers. In some lizard species, this acoustical coupling generates a 50-fold directional difference, usually at relatively high frequencies (2–4 kHz).
In ancestral atympanate tetrapods, we hypothesize that low-frequency sound may have been processed by non-tympanic mechanisms like those in extant amphibians. The subsequent emergence of tympanic hearing would have led to changes in the central auditory processing of both high-frequency sound and directional hearing. These changes should reflect the independent origin of the tympanic ears in the major tetrapod groups. The processing of low-frequency sound, however, may have been more conserved, since the acoustical coupling of the ancestral tympanate ear probably produced little sensitivity and directionality at low frequencies. Therefore, tetrapod auditory processing may originally have been organized into low- and high-frequency streams, where only the high-frequency processing was mediated by tympanic input.
The closure of the middle ear cavity in mammals and some birds is a derived condition, and may have profoundly changed the operation of the ear by decoupling the tympana, improving the low-frequency response of the tympanum, and leading to a requirement for additional neural computation of directionality in the central nervous system. We propose that these specializations transformed the low- and high-frequency streams into time and intensity pathways, respectively.
PMCID: PMC3269633  PMID: 18331899
Middle ear; Tympanum; Lizard; Frog; Hearing; Auditory; Brain stem
Developmental Neurobiology  2007;67(14):1957-1974.
PMCID: PMC3269634  PMID: 17918244
14.  Modeling coincidence detection in nucleus laminaris
Biological Cybernetics  2003;89(5):388-396.
PMCID: PMC3269635  PMID: 14669019
15.  Microsecond Precision of Phase Delay in the Auditory System of the Barn Owl
Journal of Neurophysiology  2005;94(2):1655-1658.
The auditory system encodes time with sub-millisecond accuracy. To shed new light on the basic mechanism underlying this precise temporal neuronal coding, we analyzed the neurophonic potential, a characteristic multiunit response, in the barn owl’s nucleus laminaris. We report here that the relative time measure of phase delay is robust against changes in sound level, with a precision sharper than 20 µs. Absolute measures of delay, such as group delay or signal-front delay, had much greater temporal jitter, for example due to their strong dependence on sound level. Our findings support the hypothesis that phase delay underlies the sub-millisecond precision of the representation of interaural time difference needed for sound localization.
PMCID: PMC3268176  PMID: 15843477
Journal of Neurobiology  2003;55(2):165-178.
PMCID: PMC3268178  PMID: 12672015
PMCID: PMC3260528  PMID: 12196590
18.  Computational Diversity in the Cochlear Nucleus Angularis of the Barn Owl
Journal of Neurophysiology  2002;89(4):2313-2329.
The cochlear nucleus angularis (NA) is widely assumed to form the starting point of a brain stem pathway for processing sound intensity in birds. Details of its function are unclear, however, and its evolutionary origin and relationship to the mammalian cochlear-nucleus complex are obscure. We have carried out extracellular single-unit recordings in the NA of ketamine-anesthetized barn owls. The aim was to re-evaluate the extent of heterogeneity in NA physiology because recent studies of cellular morphology had established several distinct types. Extensive characterization, using tuning curves, phase locking, peristimulus time histograms and rate-level functions for pure tones and noise, revealed five major response types. The most common one was a primary-like pattern that was distinguished from auditory-nerve fibers by showing lower vector strengths of phase locking and/or lower spontaneous rates. Two types of chopper responses were found (chopper-transient and a rare chopper-sustained), as well as onset units. Finally, we routinely encountered a complex response type with a pronounced inhibitory component, similar to the mammalian typeIV. Evidence is presented that this range of response types is representative for birds and that earlier conflicting reports may be due to methodological differences. All five response types defined were similar to well-known types in the mammalian cochlear nucleus. This suggests convergent evolution of neurons specialized for encoding different behaviorally relevant features of the auditory stimulus. It remains to be investigated whether the different response types correlate with morphological types and whether they establish different processing streams in the auditory brain stem of birds.
PMCID: PMC3259745  PMID: 12612008
19.  Maps of interaural time difference in the chicken’s brainstem nucleus laminaris
Biological cybernetics  2008;98(6):541-559.
Animals, including humans, use interaural time differences (ITDs) that arise from different sound path lengths to the two ears as a cue of horizontal sound source location. The nature of the neural code for ITD is still controversial. Current models differentiate between two population codes: either a map-like rate-place code of ITD along an array of neurons, consistent with a large body of data in the barn owl, or a population rate code, consistent with data from small mammals. Recently, it was proposed that these different codes reflect optimal coding strategies that depend on head size and sound frequency. The chicken makes an excellent test case of this proposal because its physical pre-requisites are similar to small mammals, yet it shares a more recent common ancestry with the owl. We show here that, like in the barn owl, the brainstem nucleus laminaris in mature chickens displayed the major features of a place code of ITD. ITD was topographically represented in the maximal responses of neurons along each isofrequency band, covering approximately the contralateral acoustic hemisphere. Furthermore, the represented ITD range appeared to change with frequency, consistent with a pressure gradient receiver mechanism in the avian middle ear. At very low frequencies, below400 Hz, maximal neural responses were symmetrically distributed around zero ITD and it remained unclear whether there was a topographic representation. These findings do not agree with the above predictions for optimal coding and thus revive the discussion as to what determines the neural coding strategies for ITDs.
PMCID: PMC3170859  PMID: 18491165
Auditory; Hearing; Sound localization; Sensory
20.  Interaural timing difference circuits in the auditory brainstem of the emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae)
PMCID: PMC2948976  PMID: 16435285
21.  Microseconds Matter
PLoS Biology  2010;8(6):e1000405.
This Primer focuses on detection of the small interaural time differences that underlie sound localization.
PMCID: PMC2893944  PMID: 20613856
22.  Effect of Sampling Frequency on the Measurement of Phase-Locked Action Potentials
Phase-locked spikes in various types of neurons encode temporal information. To quantify the degree of phase-locking, the metric called vector strength (VS) has been most widely used. Since VS is derived from spike timing information, error in measurement of spike occurrence should result in errors in VS calculation. In electrophysiological experiments, the timing of an action potential is detected with finite temporal precision, which is determined by the sampling frequency. In order to evaluate the effects of the sampling frequency on the measurement of VS, we derive theoretical upper and lower bounds of VS from spikes collected with finite sampling rates. We next estimate errors in VS assuming random sampling effects, and show that our theoretical calculation agrees with data from electrophysiological recordings in vivo. Our results provide a practical guide for choosing the appropriate sampling frequency in measuring VS.
PMCID: PMC2955492  PMID: 20953249
vector strength; phase-locking; auditory brainstem; sound localization; temporal coding; circular statistics

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Mechanisms of Placebo Effects

There has been a recent upsurge of interest in placebo effects (e.g., Blakeslee, 1998 a, b; Brown, 1998; Harrington, 1997; Holden, 2002; Moerman, 2001; Petrovic, Kalso, Petersson, and Ingvar, 2002). The word placebo (from the Latin, I shall please) has two related meanings: (1) a substance containing no medication but prescribed or given to reinforce a patient's expectation to get well; (2) an inactive substance or treatment used as a control in an experiment to test the effectiveness of a drug or medical treatment. Many reports show that placebos have significantly greater effects than giving no treatment, so rather than employing placebos simply as controls in experiments or clinical trials, there is increasing study of the mechanism(s) of placebo effects. As in many cases in biological psychology and biomedical sciences, no single mechanism accounts for all the effects.

Some of the proposed mechanisms are these: (1) As the text notes (pp. 241-242), it was found in the 1970s that placebo reduction of pain is mediated in part by endogenous opioids, demonstrated by the fact the effect could be reduced by the opioid-blocker naloxone. This suggested to some that the placebo effect is "real" because it is mediated by a known physiological mechanism. This could not be a complete explanation for placebo effects, because they occur not only for relief of pain, but also for other situations such as asthma attacks, where opioids would not normally relieve the symptoms. (2) It was also found in the 1970s that immunosuppressive effects can be conditioned to originally ineffective stimuli (p. 500). (3) The placebo might reduce stress, allowing the body to regain a natural, optimal level of functioning. Each of these mechanisms would be expected to be systemic, affecting the whole body, but cases were found in which the placebo effect held for only a specific part of the body. Thus, in an experiment in which a placebo in the form of a topical anesthetic was administered to one index finger and then shock was applied to both index fingers, most subjects reported less pain in the finger with the sham anesthetic (Montgomery and Kirsch, 1996). Such results support the interpretation that the expectancies of people cause placebo effects. The role of the basal amygdala in interpretation of stimuli and expectancies is discussed on pp. 483-485, and further work is to be expected on how expectations translate into bodily responses.

The variability of effects among placebo studies causes difficulties in accepting these effects. Moerman (2001) compared 117 double-blind placebo-controlled ulcer studies from all over the world. Doctors used the same drugs, the same placebo pills, and studied images of the stomach lining before and after treatment to rate effects. Among the studies, drugs caused improvement in 38-100%, whereas placebos worked from 0 to 100% of the time. The placebo effects were more variable than the drug effects, but among the studies the rates of healing for placebos and drugs correlated significantly (r=.40). The world average for placebo healing effects in these ulcer studies was 36%, and results for the United States were close to this value, yet placebos were effective in 59% of the patients in Germany but 22% in the neighboring counties of Denmark and the Netherlands, and only 7% in Brazil. To try to find whether national variation in placebo effectiveness is general across diseases, Moerman (2001) examined the results of controlled studies of treatments for moderate hypertension and for generalized anxiety disorder. Here the placebo effects for Germany were among the lowest for treatment of hypertension and middling for anxiety disorder, and no generality was found across nations. Differences in effectiveness of placebos have been attributed in part to cultural factors, including the differences in the enthusiasm and conviction with which physicians present the treatments, but the variability within nations indicates that this question is far from being solved.

In spite of the variability of results, Benson and Friedman (1996) urge physicians to harness the power of the placebo effect, since it is effective in so many situations, is safe and inexpensive and has withstood the test of time. Noting the negative connotations of the term "placebo effect," they suggest renaming it "remembered wellness."

Further understanding of the placebo effect is provided by a recent study in which PET brain imaging was used to compare the neural mechanisms involved in both opioid analgesia and placebo analgesia (Holden, 2002; Petrovic, Kalso, Petersson, and Ingvar, 2002). Six experimental conditions were included: heat pain and treatment with a rapidly acting opioid injected 40 sec. before the start of heat stimulation (pain-opioid [POP]), non-painful warm stimulation and opioid treatment (WOP) heat pain and placebo treatment with a saline injection (PPL), non-painful warm stimulation and placebo (WPL), heat pain only (P), and non-painful warm stimulation only (W). Heat pain was produced by pressing a metal stimulator at 48 degrees C on the back of the left hand for 70 sec. 48 degrees may not seem very hot, but the pressure on the back of the hand prevented reduction of heat by blood circulation, and subjects rated the pain an average of 65 on a scale where 100 meant unbearable pain (personal communication from Martin Ingvar, Feb. 18, 2002). The control stimulation was 38 degrees C. Although there was high inter-individual variation in placebo effectiveness among the 9 subjects, most showed lower pain ratings during the PPL condition than in the P condition.

Brain imaging showed that both opioid analgesia and placebo analgesia activated the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and a region in the pons. The authors suggest that in some cases cortical regions may exert control over analgesic systems of the brainstem, not only during opioid analgesia but also during placebo analgesia. Those subjects who showed a greater placebo effect also showed greater activation of the anterior cingulate cortex. Thus this study helps to understand a mechanism involved in the placebo analgesic effect.

The concept of effects of expectations on bodily processes has been extended to include the "nocebo effect" (from the Latin, I shall harm). This is the concept that an inactive substance or treatment can cause distress, illness, or even death (such as have been asserted to occur as a result of “voodoo” curses). Understandably, there has been much less research on the nocebo phenomenon than on the placebo effect. In one study, 48% of 40 asthmatics who were exposed to water vapor and told they were inhaling irritants or allergens experienced substantially increased airway resistance (Luparello et al., 1968). The twelve subjects who developed full-blown attacks were relieved by the same saline solution when it was presented as a therapeutic treatment. Thus, the same substance, presented differently, was either a nocebo or a placebo. Further experiments extended these findings (Luparello et al., 1970). Recently physicians have become concerned that nonspecific nocebo side effects of medications may distress patients, lead them to refuse to use prescribed drugs, and may cause physicians to discontinue what would otherwise be an appropriate therapy (Barsky, et al., 2002). They suggest that health care personnel can attempt to ameliorate nonspecific side effects to medications by identifying patients most likely to develop them and establishing a collaborative relationship with the patient to help understand and tolerate these bothersome but nonharmful symptoms.

Petrovic, P., Kalso, E., Petersson, K.M. and Ingvar, M. (2002). Placebo and opioid analgesia -- imaging a shared neural network. Sciencexpress. Available on Internet at http://alfpek.ingvar.com/pek.htm


POLICE are appealing for the rightful owners of suspected stolen property to contact them.

In separate incidents officers have seized property including medals, a bike and some stained glass window panels.

The Ridgeback black bike was seized from a man in Coxford who claimed he had found it but officers think it may have been stolen and are appealing for the owner to get in touch.

A number of medals have also been recovered which are thought to have been stolen during a burglary.

The six medals were awarded during World War Two and include the Battle of Britain Star, Africa Star, the Italy Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence medal and the War medal.

Police are also hoping to trace the owners of some distinctive stained glass window panels that were found by officers as they searched a van.

Anyone who recognises any of the property can contact Helen Ward at Southampton Central police station on 023 8053 323.


In its attempts to bring investment to India, the country’s new government is facing a host of challenges. If it stays the course, its efforts should pay off.

or years, the phenomenon that domestic and global corporations and fund managers worried about most when considering investments in India—even more than its vacillating politicians and avaricious bureaucrats—was the unpredictability of the monsoon and the effect it has on India’s GDP growth.Their concern was hardly surprising: With 25% of India’s GDP and over two thirds of its population being directly dependent on the monsoon, the engine of the economy is fueled by rainwater.
During the fiscal year 2003-2004 (April-March), the Indian economy grew by 8.2%, driven by a 9.1% jump in agricultural production as a result of an abundant monsoon and higher industrial output. This year the rains have not

Already GDP growth expectations have been scaled down to 6.5% for fiscal year 2004-2005. But this figure assumes that there will be some agricultural growth. If the agricultural sector shows a negative growth for the year, the overall GDP growth number may have to be scaled down further.

The monsoon failure joins a string of unexpected events in 2004, ranging from the electoral defeat of the pro-reform NDA government to potential reversals on privatization, electricity and banking reforms—and promises of increased subsidies from a left-leaning government. While these developments rattled stock market investors, things are not as bleak as they appear.Within the ruling alliance there is no fundamental objection to continuing with the reform process, for example.“It is the pace of reforms which has changed and not the direction, and so far there has been no loss of confidence among investors,”says Ajit Ranade,group chief economist at the diversified industrial giant Aditya Birla Management Corporation.While the monsoon has an indirect impact on industrial demand, there are several mitigating factors. Both the industry and services sectors, which make up 75% of GDP, have proven to be very resilient and in recent years have shown strong growth even when monsoons have been poor. In 2002-2003, for example, India suffered the worst drought in 15 years, but GDP still grew by 4%, despite a 5.2% shrinkage in the agricultural sector. In fact, as India’s economy modernizes, the impact of the monsoon is diminishing significantly.

The failure of this year’s monsoon might throw macro calculations off for the next year, but it does not mean that foreign investment interest will decline.

“There is no dearth of opportunity in the Indian marketplace,” says Mahesh Vyas, managing director of the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE). “Investors, foreign and Indian alike, will have to see the opportunity for themselves and that the opportunity is much larger than they think.”

In sectors such as telecom, banking, insurance, IT-enabled services, petroleum and auto ancillaries, there has been a deluge of foreign investments.Recently,Singapore Technologies and Malaysia Telekom announced they would invest $220 million for a 33% stake in IDEA Cellular, India’s fifth-largest cellular company, the latest example of big-ticket investments in the Indian services sector. “Thanks to a robust manufacturing and years to reach $60 billion a year.This year has been even better: During the first two months of fiscal 2004-2005, exports grew by 25% over the same period last year. Export performance has been so buoyant that India has been running a current account surplus for the past three consecutive years, which, according to the Reserve Bank of India, reached an all-time high of 1.4% of GDP.

Unfortunately, the new government’s efforts to attract FDI and portfolio flows are being hindered by contradictory statements emanating from the different factions of the ruling alliance.The finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, has announced increased equity ceilings in telecom to 74% and in civil aviation and insurance to 49% and the sale of a 5%

Ajit Ranade, Aditya Birla Management Corporation
services sector, the economy can safely grow at 6.5% even with a poor monsoon, and this growth rate is above the long-term trend-line growth,” says Ranade.

Export Market Flourishes
Potential investors are also reassured by the fact that India’s economy is becoming increasingly export driven, as companies achieve the scale and confidence to expand into new markets. For example, from a base of almost zero a few years ago, the automobile sector, including ancillaries, now exports $3.5 billion worth of vehicles and components.The petroleum sector has seen similar growth: Now it exports $3 billion worth of value-added products annually, including motor and aviation fuel.The IT sector has gone from a few hundred million dollars of exports in the mid-1990s to $10 billion in exports for 2003-2004.

Figures like these have helped India achieve 17% compound annual growth in exports for the past two consecutive stake in power company NTPC. But the government’s communist allies,backed by the trade unions, want these rescinded and further restrictions imposed on foreign investment. Undeterred, the government is sticking to its revised $15 billion annual FDI target—although it does not acknowledge that against the current target of $10 billion India received just $5 billion last year.

As yet, India does not have a clear plan for how it will achieve these figures, but it still wants to match the kind of capital flows received by China in recent years. “FDI can be used as a tool for growth, especially as India needs investment in new capacities. India offers great opportunity with skilled labor besides having a large domestic market,”says Vyas.

While the hurdle of political opposition can be easily overcome, the government’s FDI policy is still very cumbersome and desperately needs streamlining. “We have to create a climate to attract investment. We need to reduce the in-vestors’ points of contact with the bureaucracy, streamline the current requirements of multiple approvals, introduce a uniform FDI policy and not the sectoral kind that we have now, and introduce fiscal competition between states to attract investments,”says Ranade.Even in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, an investor setting up a call center operation needs 15 different sets of approvals from various local and state government bodies,underscoring the kind of bureaucracy that even controls sectors that are relatively uncomplicated to set up and run.

Both FDI and portfolio investments are linked to overall investor confidence in the system—not just political, but infrastructural as well. If the system and the environment are unstable or too cumbersome, then investments may not be so forthcoming. Foreign portfolio flows, though less stable, were robust last year and amounted to $11 billion—the highest ever inflow since India opened up its stock markets in 1995.With less favorable conditions prevailing this year, few are expecting to see similar inflows.The key factor that brought in last year’s bumper investment harvest was strong anticipated GDP growth.“There were several factors that drove GDP growth last year, which will be difficult to sustain in the current year. We had a confluence of favorable factors, such as low interest rates, low inflation, high business confidence and a great monsoon,” Ranade remarks.

One Country, Many Markets
The government knows well that faster GDP growth is critical to sustaining foreign investments, and its target is 7% to 8% growth for the next few years. This will be difficult to achieve without significant structural reforms. “Sustainable higher growth is a challenge now. What we need is a combination of reform plus infrastructure creation,” says Ranade.

A key recommendation of various think tanks and industry associations is the creation of a common economic market within India. Currently each state controls the flow of goods to and from other states, and each transit gener

ates taxes for the local and state governments concerned.This has gradually led to an institutionalized mechanism for corruption, delays and consequently increased the cost of goods flowing through the country.

The introduction of a value-added tax (VAT) in place of the cumbersome excise duty, state taxes and octroi (city taxes) regime is planned with a phased introduction from April 2005. It is expected to go a long way in ensuring better tax compliance, besides making indirect taxation uniform across the country. A key benefit expected from the introduction of VAT is that the tax-to-GDP ratio will improve substantially from the current dismal 9.5% (state taxes add another 6%). According to the recommendations of the task force on tax reform headed by the government’s chief economic adviser, Vijay Kelkar, the introduction of VAT will eliminate the revenue deficit by 2008-2009 and will increase GDP by 2%.

These measures will be crucial for building GDP, but the government also has to drive forward other projects, such as building new highways linking the major urban centers and creating other physical infrastructure such as ports and airports, as well as increasing public spending on healthcare and education. Some other recommendations being made to the government involve increasing the flow of credit to the small and medium-size enterprise (SME) sector and providing stable electricity at a lower cost to industries, thus leading to larger investment demand.The investment rate in India stands at around 20%—lower than the savings rate of 24%.According to the Planning Commission (which designs, implements and monitors five-year public investment plans), India needs a 28% investment to GDP ratio in order to sustain growth rates at 8% per annum, so there is a substantial investment gap that needs to be filled.

This is the minimum requirement for creating the environment for sustainable GDP growth and creating the right climate for domestic and foreign investment.The government also needs to ensure that people have the necessary spending power. Rural public works projects, major infrastructure projects, a stable tax regime and steadily increasing urban and rural incomes are providing the base for increasing consumer demand, which is a trigger for investment demand. “This year may not be great thanks to the drought, but if investors have a three- to five-year perspective, then things look good,”says Vyas.

Labor Reforms Itself
One common argument put forward as a stumbling block to foreign investment is the lack of labor reform, leading to lower foreign investor confidence. This could be a source of worry, considering that the biggest driver of FDI in India is labor outsourcing, whether it is in software services, auto components or textiles. But lack of labor reform or government willingness to consider allowing corporations the leeway to introduce a hire and fire policy is increasingly proving to be a non-issue.The reality is that Indian labor has proven itself to be very flexible.This fact has been demonstrated by events over the past few years.

cover_story_2 and successful voluntary retirement schemes abound both in corporate India as well as in the government sector. Over the past couple of years Tata Steel, the country’s largest private sector steel producer, reduced its workforce by more than 35%, from 78,000 to 50,000, while State Bank of India, India’s largest bank, reduced its workforce by 10%, or 23,500 employees, for example.

The worries for FDI investors in reality are not so many, since most global corporations are looking for specific skills or niches within which they can operate.The story for portfolio investors is different because they have a shorter time frame so they will be more concerned about short-term changes. Softer issues such as law and order play an important part in increasing confidence levels of all investors both foreign and domestic and irrespective of their investment holding time frame.

Political analysts and fund managers are unanimous that under the country’s new political masters, maintaining law and order will be a paramount concern and disturbances such as the communal flare-up witnessed a year ago in Gujarat will not recur. “The situation on the ground is getting better.The government, thanks to its social spending and various mega projects, is putting money into the hands of the population to spend,” says Vyas. People now increasingly have money to spend, and the law-and-order issues are being better appreciated. With so many changes already complete or under way, India probably already has the ingredients in place for making a lucrative investment pie that could whet the appetite of domestic and foreign investors.


Do you want to engage in discussions about health care, financial markets, or Social Security reform? Or perhaps you'd like to investigate why working women earn a fraction of what men earn, or the effectiveness of policies aimed at improving the environment, or even the impact of our economy's growing globalization. If you are interested in developing a coherent framework to answer questions like these, then you should consider studying economics at Hamilton.

Students who concentrate in economics learn to identify economic issues and problems, to form hypotheses and to gather and use data to test these hypotheses. They also learn how to formulate policies to deal with economic problems and how to analyze both the intended and unintended effects of these policies.

A concentration in economics requires the completion of five required courses and four electives within the department. Economics majors do need to take calculus prior to taking some intermediate-level courses but do not need to have taken any economics in high school. To earn a minor in economics, a student must complete four required courses and one additional economics course of her or his choice.


AN EAST Lancashire MP is warning constituents not to be entrapped by ‘legal loan sharks’ over the festive and new year period.

Hyndburn and Haslingden MP Graham Jones is urging residents to make use of credit unions and financial advice instead of high interest ‘payday loan’ firms.

He said: “A large number of people will be looking for credit over the festive period.

“However I want to offer a Christmas warning about using payday loan companies, or what are commonly referred to as legal loan sharks.

“Legal loan sharking risks putting people into a spiral of debt, with people having to take out other high-interest loans to pay off their existing ones. These companies prey on the poor and vulnerable.

“I am a member of Haslingden Credit Union, a much safer, fairer and more ethical means of lending money for a short term.”


First of 64 General Dynamics-built MeerKAT Radio Telescope Antennas ‘Stands-up’ in South Africa

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When all 64 MeerKAT antennas are operational, the instrument radio telescope will be sensitive enough to pick up a cell phone signal from Saturn.

NEWTON, N.C - General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies and Stratosat Datacom (Pty) Ltd., a South African company, have completed the installation of the first of 64 MeerKAT radio telescope antennas that will form the MeerKAT telescope array. The array is located in South Africa's Karoo region and will be a technologically advanced radio telescope designed to locate radio-frequency signals from the furthest reaches of the universe, possibly from the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang. The MeerKAT array will constitute 25 percent of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), which is scheduled for completion in 2024. Until the SKA is completed, the MeerKAT array will be the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere. Stratosat Datacom is the antenna prime contractor for the project

General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies' Duisburg, Germany, facility led the engineering and design of the MeerKAT antennas, including the incorporation of an 'indexer.' The addition of the indexer is unique on this type of antenna and allows scientists to easily and quickly change or "tune" the radio frequency of one or more antennas during any scientific experiment.The ability to alter the frequency of a radio telescope antenna without disrupting the entire array's performance is a significant technology advancement for radio telescopes.

With the completed antenna design, the Stratosat and General Dynamics SATCOM team is working closely with a number of South African fabricators, engineers and technicians to build and install the MeerKAT antenna array over the next three years.

"For more than 40 years, General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies has been helping scientists and astronomers unravel the mysteries of the universe," said Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems. "We are proud to be partnering with Stratosat in the construction of the MeerKAT array and look forward to the new and exciting discoveries it will yield."

Bolted to a specially constructed concrete platform, each 43-metric-ton MeerKAT antenna includes an 8.5-meter-tall pedestal that contains the control systems for the antenna. The pedestal supports a 13.5-meter main reflector with a boom-arm that holds a smaller reflector and the indexer mechanism. Once operational, radio signals from the antenna will be transmitted to a super-computer, which will create the visual map of the object or region in the universe being observed. The data received by a single MeerKAT antenna, in one day, will generate enough raw data to fill 15 million 64-GB devices.

MeerKAT in one of the precursor instruments for the SKA. The SKA project is an international effort to build the world's largest radio telescope, with a square kilometer (one million square meters) of collecting area. The scale of the SKA represents a huge leap forward in both engineering and research, and development towards building and delivering a unique instrument, with the detailed design and preparation now well under way. As one of the largest scientific endeavors in history, the SKA will bring together some of the world's leading scientists, engineers and policy makers. For more information about SKA visit

Since 1968, General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies has been a global leader designing and building some of the world's most advanced optical telescope mirror structures and radio telescope antennas.The company's technologically advanced antennas are found in astronomical observatories and scientific installations around the world, including:

  • Lowell Observatory Discovery Channel Telescope (Arizona, U.S. A.), connecting millions of Discovery Channel viewers to real-time astronomy and research.

General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies also supplies commercial satellite antennas and related ground station products used by commercial communications companies and broadcast networks worldwide.

General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies is a part of General Dynamics C4 Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD).

News Source : First of 64 General Dynamics-built MeerKAT Radio Telescope Antennas ‘Stands-up’ in South Africa


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I came across an article by X and Y that is a nearly 100% self-plagiarised from an article by X several years earlier. A couple of words were changed, but that is it. The figures and tables are the same and so is the list of references. The titles are different. The publishers of the two journals are different.

To put it mildly, I am disappointed by the authors' unethical behavior, by the failure of referees to uncover the earlier work when reviewing relevant literature to assess novelty, and by the editor/publisher for apparently not bothering to use plagiarism detection software.

My first reaction was that I should report this case to the journal editor. Based on what I've heard from colleagues, however, they appear to not always take self-plagiarism seriously, presumably because it's a lot of unpleasant work. Should I therefore report this to PubPeer instead? Or to the editor and PubPeer?

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My purely personal 2 cents: falsification of results or plagiarism are the two capital crimes of science - the first, because it wastes everybody's time, the second because it takes away credit from someone else. Self-plagiarism is a nuisance because it assigns undeserved credit to oneself, but, frankly, it only has a real effect in publication-counting institutions/evaluations, and I am tempted to say that, if that's what they do, they deserve it. The evaluations I am involved in permit to list only a very limited number of publications, which makes self-plagiarism pointless. – Captain Emacs Feb 28 at 14:38
I personally find it disturbing that you suggest an editor should by default put all authors under suspicion by using "plagiarism detection software". A good peer review should easily uncover such a case anyway. – Zulan Feb 28 at 14:50
@Zulan: It seems to me that this is simply an insurance policy on the part of an editor to guard against referees not doing their job properly. If I were a journal editor, I would use plagiarism detection software as a matter of course. I would rather find out myself and reject an article prior to review than having to investigate and perhaps retract a published article. – G. L. Feb 28 at 15:10
@Zulan: Most referees do not have access to plagiarism-detection software and can only detect it by either manually searching the Internet for sentences, performing an intensive literature research or knowing the plagiarised texts sufficiently well. All of this is not their job, and can be easily performed by a software that should be the standard for publishers. As a referee, I would feel insulted and complain if a journal wasted my time by letting me review an article that a software could have easily detected to be plagiarised. – Wrzlprmft Feb 28 at 15:18
@Captain Emacs: Of course I agree that self-plagiarism is not equal to falsification of results or plagiarism. Nevertheless I feel that as reviewers and readers of articles, we cannot let self-plagiarism slide. I submit that as readers of the scientific literature, we have a duty to report such abuses. – G. L. Feb 28 at 15:19
up vote 60 down vote accepted

Taking the complaint public shames both the author and the journal, which may be counterproductive if the journal is responsible and willing to act promptly (mistakes do happen, even for very good journals).

I would thus recommend starting by reporting to the journal, which should have a procedure for dealing with such things. If the journal does not take you seriously or refuses to act, then take it public and shame both the author and the journal.

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I suggest that you report this to the journal or editor first. If they fail to properly react to it, you can still escalate this by making it public. While the journal is likely to blame for not using proper plagiarism detection mechanisms, they are also likely the victim here, not the culprit.

Also, keep in mind that there may be reasons for this duplicate publication, e.g., one of the papers being published at a predatory publisher (see also this question which is essentially the same situation happening to a peer-reviewer).

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Good point about predatory publishers. This is not the case here, however. The two journals have been published since the late 70's/early 80's. The publishers have reputable names. – G. L. Feb 28 at 15:27
@G.L.: The predatory publishers are only an example for some bizarre reason for this that you did not think of. Always give the accused a chance to explain. – Wrzlprmft Feb 28 at 15:42
You mean to say that if I have mistakenly published a paper in a predatory journal, then it is acceptable for me to republish it somewhere more reputable? Because that would not be ok in my book. – Federico Poloni Feb 28 at 21:48
While the journal is likely to blame for not using proper plagiarism detection mechanisms - In my field, I don't think we have any systemized mechanisms. The mechanism would be either the editor or referee realizes this, or someone else notices it later and reports it. – Kimball Feb 29 at 0:21
@Kimball You have got some standard solution to this that the publisher simply buys. No need to re-invent the wheel in your field. Many scientists are not ever aware these things exist. – yo' Feb 29 at 7:37

The case sounds serious. I have reported in a blog post (Plagiarism: everything but the title) an almost carbon-copy of a paper, but not by the same authors, which was withdrawn soon afterward.

First, check it is a regular peer-reviewed paper. Some "tutorial" or editorial papers may appear more than once: in Imperfect impact, the author provides a case of such a paper published 9 times, and the outcomes on terms of citations, with respect to journal impact factors.

Then, I would suggest you to first report to the (area) editor responsible for publication (generally mentioned on the published paper page). (S)he should get in touch with the corresponding author, or hand it over to higher authorities.

If you have no feeback (say in one month), copy the same letter to the journal editors in chief, copy to the publisher.

If you see no action, a last mail to X and Y before making stuff public would be fair. They would have the option to withdraw the paper by themselves.

P.S. the impact for authors is one more paper on their list, and potential more citations on careless databases, as shown in this figure from the above blog post (same paper published in different journals):

Effects of multiple publication

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As far as I can tell, the later paper is a regular paper, not an invited paper that may have been afforded special privileges. (Even if it were, it should have cited the earlier paper....) You make a good point about contacting the authors if I don't hear back from the editor/editor-in-chief. – G. L. Feb 28 at 19:27
One of the authors might be aware of the issue. I have seen stories where one author adds other famous ones (without their consent) to help acceptance. One option, if you fell confident enough: start the process by a letter to the author. My opinion: it is better to start with the person in charge of the publication, the area editor – Laurent Duval Feb 28 at 19:39

There is no such thing as self-plagiarism.

If you have written something and the journals allow it and are aware of it, it is neither illegal nor prohibited by academic standards to publish and recycle it in 100 journals if it is your work.

I think you mean some other problems by the term "self-plagiarism":

  • The author tries to sell his old work as new results obtained by paid work. That is fraud, pure and simple, especially if the author was funded to get new results.
  • The author has published the work under the copyright terms of the journal. Normally the journal gets exclusive rights for publication and violating this terms is illegal.

Even if it is not forbidden, people do not try it except for a very good reason.

You are aggravating your academic colleagues because place for publishing is precious and you are wasting this space (There is nothing against trying several publishers as long as you retract the other submissions). You are also indicating that you are past your zenith in your academic career if you need to fall back on old work (In fact, I think of it more as terminal illness) or you come off as having a massive ego problem if you try to push your invaluable contributions into several journals. So your indignation is justifiable, especially because Journals will normally not allow duplicate publication and your suspicion is legitimate.

So contact the journal editor of the first publication and clear that up. It may be perfectly explainable what the author is doing, so take no action until you know what is going on.

ADDITION: Just for curiosity: PLL's "But it’s well-established now with the meaning of “re-using one’s own old work and presenting it as novel”" convinced me to ask Goggle's Ngram because I was curious about its usage.

Occurence of "self-plagiarism"

So the current usage in books is 45/100 000 000 instances. If we compare that the usage of the domain-specific, non-English word "Camellia"

Occurence of "Camellia"

Camellia occurs (at maximum) in 40/1 000 000 instances. Which means that "Camellia" is used approximately 100 times more than the "self-plagiarism" term. For fun, "Camellia" is comparable in usage to "trichloride".

It was used sporadically during the 1990s ("Duplicate publication" is definitly preferred) and only after the 2000s it became more prevalent and also used in titles and abstracts. The Wikipedia entry defined "self-plagiarism" 2005 and there it was specified later that this word was used mainly by biomedicine to summarize four categories: duplicate publication, copyright infringement, salami-slicing and use of own text modules. It must also be said that its usage is controversial for exactly this reasons,because it tries to subsume salami-slicing and the use of own text modules under a term which contains much more serious violations like duplicate publication or copyright infringement. So "self-plagiarism" is according to the "Committee on Publication Ethics" not equivalent to duplicate publication.

Sorry, but "self-plagiarism" seems to be neither as widespread or well-accepted as claimed nor is its usage uncontroversial.

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I could not disagree more with two of your statements. First, if there is no such thing as self-plagiarism, why are there several posts and a tag in this forum? And why would it be discussed on Wikipedia and many other webpages? Second, you say that it is neither illegal nor prohibited by academic standards to publish and recycle something you've written in 100 journals. Any journal (I have published in) has required me to state that the work being submitted is original and has not been published or submitted elsewhere. – G. L. Feb 28 at 20:13
@G. L. Citation Wikipedia: "The concept of "self-plagiarism" has been challenged as being self-contradictory, an oxymoron and on other grounds." The reason is simple: Plagiarism is defined as using works of other people without consent or appropiation. The pink invisible unicorn has also a Wikipedia page, that does not mean that it exists or makes sense. And your second objection misses completely the cursive and the journals allow it and are aware of it statement and more comments below it. – Thorsten S. Feb 28 at 20:32
@ThorstenS.: your (and Wikipedia’s) argument that self-plagiarism is self-contradictory seems like saying that chamomile tea can’t exist because tea is defined as the species Camellia sinensis. Self-plagiarism is indeed different from plain plagiarism — so maybe it’s a badly-chosen term. But it’s well-established now with the meaning of “re-using one’s own old work and presenting it as novel”, and this meaning certainly makes sense and occurs all too often in practice. – PLL Feb 28 at 21:07
@PLL Sigh, not again a slidshod misnomer which becomes a standard word. I will at least not accept it as long as possible. I am afraid I am getting old. – Thorsten S. Feb 28 at 21:17
@ThorstenS. As the old joke goes: "Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?" Language is a messy affair and we don't get to dictate which words our culture assigns to concepts. – jakebeal Feb 29 at 3:40

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