My Perspective

Have you seen the documentary "Eating our way to Extinction" yet? This film documents the impact animal agriculture has on our planet. Here are the key take away messages from this documentary. The extensive deforestation for the sake of cattle grazing and clearing of rain forest for monocrop (soya, maize) cultivation to feed animals raised for meat leads to ecological collapse.  The discarded fishing nets in the ocean lead to concentration of microplastics in fish that is part of human diet as they feed on plankton (filter feeders) which accumulate microplastics in them. The unchecked use of antibiotics in animal farms has resulted in antibiotic resistance. The limitless use of nitrogen based fertilizers leads to dead zones in nearby water bodies due to their run off. The unrestrained use of pesticide and insecticide leads to biomagnification of these carcinogens. The carbon footprint of animal agriculture in terms of immense water usage, grains exclusively cultivated just t...

'Bhagawat Gita' (also 'Bhagavad Gita') is the holy sacred book of the Hindus. The verses or shlokas are written in Sanskrit language which is the oldest classical language from India. However, this language is not popular among common folks. So learning the sacred verses is quite hard. Yet, this holy scripture has something to offer to us in the 21st century. It is considered an influential management book by many leaders.  So I was wondering on how to make it interesting for younger generation to engage in learning of this holy book. Then I hit upon an idea to gamify learning of these verses. How about a game of typing but the text are the English transliterated Sanskrit verses from the Gita. I developed "Bhagavad Gita Typing Game" as a web app to enable wide reach across device types (desktop, mobile, tablet) yet be OS agnostic. Now one can practice their typing skills on a verse from the Sacred book. Thus learning both the sacred text as well as practising ...

My latest paper published in Biological Psychiatry: CNNi journal aimed to assess whether Mismatch Negativity (MMN) is reduced in early state psychosis. MMN is an event-related potential that occurs when repetitive sounds are interrupted by an occasional sound that differs in frequency or duration. Many studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia are impaired in this process. Moreover, there is evidence that MMN-deficits may be present in early-stage psychosis.  To investigate this possibility, we employed Magnetoencephalography (MEG) to establish whether MMN-responses are impaired in participants at 116 Clinical High Risk for psychosis and 33 First Episode Psychosis Patients compared with 38 psychiatric controls and 49 healthy controls. Contrary to our hypothesis, MMN-responses were intact, suggesting that MMN may not constitute a biomarker for early detection and diagnosis of psychosis. Reference : [1] Pradeep D, et. al., "Intact Mismatch Negativity Responses in Clinical ...

Recently I had a choice to either buy decent yet cheap shoes that might last a couple of years or excellent hence expensive shoes that promises to last many years. I was wondering how to approach this dilemma: quality vs cost trade-off. Would it make sense to save money now but keep replacing it often which would cost the same as buying a expensive ones that last the entire duration. This is when I recalled a quote by Sir Terry Pratchett in his 1993 novel "Men at Arms". The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.     Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he...

Antipsychotic drugs are an important treatment option for psychotic disorders including schizophrenia. Antipsychotic-induced weight gain is a frequently reported adverse drug reaction, particularly to second-generation antipsychotics. The mechanisms of antipsychotic-induced weight gain include genetic, biological and psychosocial factors that are not fully understood. Previous research shows that female gender and younger age are risk factors for developing antipsychotic-induced weight gain. While African Americans appear to have increased risk of antipsychotic-induced weight gain compared to individuals of European descent, East Asians who show reduced risk.  However, antipsychotics have an important role to play in alleviating psychotic symptoms. So the balance of its therapeutic benefit and its side effects needs to be weighed in by a medical professional before deciding on its discontinuation or lowering of dosage. References : [1] Wannasuphoprasit, Y., Andersen,...

Here is the basic tenet of Hinduism: Irrespective of our nationality, race, ethnicity, caste, creed, we (the entire world) belong to one big family. If one believes in this philosophy then it does matter which country's citizenship they have, they are a part of this big family.  Such a mindset enables us as a species to tackle global problems like climate change. Previously such an approach has been shown to work for instance when the world came together to tackle ozone layer depletion due to CFCs. So let us embrace this philosophy in its entirety. Sanskrit Shloka (couplet) : अयं निजः परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम्। उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्॥ Transliteration : ayaṃ nijaḥ paro veti gaṇanā laghucetasām। udāracaritānāṃ tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam॥ English translation : This is mine, that is his, say the small minded, The wise believe that the entire world is one family. Kannada translation : ಇದು ನನ್ನದು, ಅದು ಬೇರೆಯವರದ್ದು, ಇಂತಹ ಯೋಚನೆ ಸಣ್ಣ ಮನಸ್ಸಿನವರು ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಉನ್ನತ ಸ್ವಭಾವದ ಜನರು ಇಡೀ...

Self-control is the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviour in the face of temptations and impulses. It is an aspect of inhibitory control and classified as an executive function since it is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one's behaviour in order to achieve specific goals. However, the lack of self-control or excessive self-control both extremes are deleterious to one's mental health.  On the one hand we have individuals who are into substance abuse who are characterised by their desire for instant gratification in other words their lack of self-control to delay reward. They show greater temporal discounting due to their impulsivity which leads to their addiction to narcotics, gambling, shopping, overeating, pornography etc.  On the other hand we have individuals with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) - a mental health condition that causes an extensive preoccupation with perfectionism, organization and control over...

I just read the latest review on sleep abnormalities in schizophrenia. Here are some of the key points: Individuals in the early course of schizophrenia experience considerable sleep loss and overall shallower sleep, and hence the higher rates of insomnia in these subjects.  Sleep disruptions in these patients are also likely involved in psychotic symptomatology, where psychotic experiences worsen sleep and sleep disturbances exacerbates psychotic symptoms. A vicious cycle! Altered sleep characteristics shared among First Episode and Chronic patients included increased sleep onset latency, increased wake after sleep onset, and reduced sleep efficiency. Thus difficulties in initiating and maintaining sleep first occur in full-blown psychosis and remain relatively stable throughout the course of the disorder. Reference : [1] Bagautdinova, Joëlle, Ahmad Mayeli, James D. Wilson, Francesco L. Donati, Rebekah M. Colacot, Nicholas Meyer, Paolo Fusar-Poli, and Fabio Ferrarelli. "Sleep...

In the 1968 book entitled "The Pythagorean Proposition" by Elisha Scott Loomis, which has documented 371 distinct proofs of Pythagoras theorem, it is claimed that there is no possible proof using trigonometry since all identities of trigonometry are proved using Pythagoras theorem and hence a trigonometric proof results in a circular logic. However this is not the case. In 2009 Jason Zimba has proved [1] Pythagoras theorem using trigonometry avoiding circular logic. His simple proof involves defining sine and cosine angles using similar right angled triangles and then presenting a geometric proof of sine and cosine of the subtraction angle formula and finally leading to the Pythagoras theorem. Reference: [1] Zimba, J., 2009. On the possibility of trigonometric proofs of the Pythagorean theorem. In Forum geometricorum (Vol. 9, pp. 1-4).  Link:  https://forumgeom.fau.edu/FG2009volume9/FG200925.pdf  

In ancient Indian scriptures, specifically yoga philosophy, OM is considered a sacred syllable or mantra whose repeated prolonged utterance as in a form of meditation is associated with positive and beneficial effects on humans. What is the science behind it? Here are three studies that scientifically investigated the effect of OM chanting.

Once upon a time, was a cat of mine; I called her Pilli, as she was silly; She ate a ball of yarn, found on a big old barn; Then she had kittens, all wearing mittens! ~ yours truly

This Veganuary, please watch Seaspiracy documentary on Netflix to understand the human induced devastating impact on the oceans through fishing, whaling, oil extraction etc. References:  -  https://www.seaspiracy.org/facts