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Department of Energy Announces Third Grant for U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy & International Affairs David Sandalow announced today that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will receive $12.5 million over the next five years to lead a consortium on energy-efficient building technologies under the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC). The funding will be matched by the consortium partners to provide at least $25 million in total U.S. funding. Chinese counterparts will contribute an additional $25 million.

"The U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center will help to save energy and cut costs in buildings in both the United States and China," said Assistant Secretary Sandalow. "This new partnership will also create new export opportunities for American companies, ensure the United States remains at the forefront of technology innovation, and help to reduce global carbon pollution."

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will lead a consortium that includes Oak Ridge National Lab, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California-Davis, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Energy Foundation, ICF International, the National Association of State Energy Officials, the Association of State Energy Research and Technology Transfer Institutions, The Dow Chemical Company, Honeywell, General Electric, Saint-Gobain, Bentley, ClimateMaster, Pegasus Capital Advisors, and Schneider Electric.

President Obama and President Hu Jintao formally announced the establishment of the CERC during the President's trip to Beijing last November. At the time, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu joined Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang and Chinese National Energy Administrator Zhang Guobao to sign the protocol launching the Center.

In the United States, buildings account for nearly 40 percent of energy consumption and carbon emissions, and nearly half the new floor space built in the world every year is built in China. As such, the U.S. and China will play central roles in the world's transition to an energy efficient building sector in the years ahead.

Two additional consortia were announced by Secretary Chu last month - one led by the University of Michigan to advance technologies for clean vehicles and one led by West Virginia University to focus on the next generation of clean coal technologies, including carbon capture and storage. Total funding for CERC, including private and public investments in both countries, will be at least $150 million.

U.S. government funding will be used to support work conducted by U.S. institutions and individuals only. Chinese partners will be announced in the coming months by the Chinese government.

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Hi Roger,

I wanted to send this to you in reference to the discussion on evolution and art. I've been meaning to annotate it for the Leonardo Bibliographies, but haven't gotten to it yet. I hope it can be useful.

Gabe harp

bibliography

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Burke, E. 1757. A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful. R. and J. Dodsley, London.

Endler, J. A. 1992. Signals, signal conditions and the direction of evolution. American Naturalist 139:S125-S153.

Gablik, S. 1976. Progress in Art. Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York.

Kirkpatrick, M. 1982. Sexual selection and the evolution of female preference. Evolution 36:1-12.

Miller, G. F. 2001. Aesthetic fitness: How sexual selection shaped artistic virtuosity as a fitness indicator and aesthetic preferences as mate choice criteria. Bulletin of Psychology and the Arts 2:20-25.

Ryan, M. J. 1990. Sensory systems, sexual selection, and sensory exploitation. Oxford Surveys of Evolutionary Biology 7:157-195.

Scheib, J. E., S. W. Gangestad, and R. Thornhill. 1999. Facial attractiveness, symmetry, and cues of good genes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 226:1318-1321.

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Loos, A., & Opel, A. (1997). Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays. Ariadne Press (CA).

Ellen Dissanayake, Art and Intimacy: How the Arts Began (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000),

Christy, J. H., and P. R. Y. Backwell. 1995. The Sensory Exploitation Hypothesis. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 10:417-417.

Laland, K. N. 1992. A Theoretical Investigation of the Role of Social Transmission in Evolution. Ethology and Sociobiology 13:87-113.

Miller, G. 2000. The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature. Doubleday, New York.

Nettle, D. and H. Clegg. Schizotypy, creativity and mating success

in humans. Proc. R. Soc. B (2006) 273, 611–615

Kavolis, V. Community Dynamics and Artistic Creativity. American Sociological Review, Vol. 31, No. 2. (Apr., 1966), pp. 208-217.

Luhmann, N. Art as a social system. Stanford University Press. Stanford, Calif. 2000.

Network Theory—the Emergence of the Creative Enterprise. Albert-László Barabási. Science 29 April 2005:Vol. 308. no. 5722, pp. 639 - 641

Low, Bobbi S. 1979. Sexual selection and human ornamentation. In Chagnon, Napoleon A., and William Irons, eds., 462-87.

- describes a test of sexual selection for art as the comparison of stable versus unstable symbolic systems

Danto, A. C. 1986. The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art. Columbia University Press, New York.

Darwin, C. 1871. The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. John Murray, London.

Endler, J. A., and A. L. Basolo. 1998. Sensory Ecology, Receiver Biases, and Sexual Selection. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 13:415-420.

Lenski, R. 1999. A Distinction Between the Origin and Maintenance of Sex. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 12:1034-1036.

-distinguishes between the orgin and maintenance of sexual reproduction which is a useful comparison for considering the origin versus the maintenance of art

Turney J. (2004). THE ABSTRACT SUBLIME: Life as information waiting to be rewritten. Science as Culture, 13, 89-103. Retrieved July 17, 2008, from http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/csac/2004/00000013/00000001/art00004

Dissanayake, E.: What Is Art For? Seattle, University of Washington Press (1988)

Dissanayake, E.: Homo Aestheticus : Where Art Comes from and Why. 1st University of Washington Press

ed. Seattle, University of Washington Press (1995)

Healy, S., & Braithwaite, V. (2000). Cognitive ecology: a field of substance? Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 15(1), 22-26.

Bergson, H. (2005). Creative Evolution. Cosimo Classics.

Ryan, M. J., Phelps, S. M., & R, A. S. (2001). How evolutionary history shapes recognition mechanisms. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(4), 143-148. Retrieved July 17, 2008, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VH9-42PC695-G&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=7e622bb148b27c4cbf3d290d0a790563

Arak, A., & Enquist, M. (1995). Conflict, Receiver Bias and the Evolution of Signal Form. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, 349(1330), 337-344.

Endler, J. A., & Basolo, A. L. (1998). Sensory ecology, receiver biases and sexual selection. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 13(10), 415-420.

Jansson, L., & Enquist, M. (2003). Receiver bias for colourful signals. Animal Behaviour, 66(5), 965-971. Retrieved July 17, 2008, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W9W-49J8TBN-J&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=d7fd52368874c927aac68023a8029efd

Scourfield, J., N. Martin, G. Lewis, and P. McGuffin. 1999. Heritability of social cognitive skills in children and adolescents. Br J Psychiatry 175:559-564.

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Is this the biggest undiscovered danger when subjectively experiencing overwhelming feelings of regret?

This is why it is very dangerous to keep my mind any longer in the mental stage of regret for having wrongly complied with the demands of LRS ((http://www.laworks.net/WorkforceDev/LRS/LRS_Main.asp), ) to move to Shreveport, LA, USA on 9/13/19 despite knowing that this could be the worst mistake because ever since my mind was driven to discover that:

I can work as a freelancer under other people's SSN / tax ID at freelancer.com, upwork.com, guru.com, indeed.com, etc. from anywhere in the world

In Mexico I realized that American freelancers might prefer to get taxed in Mexico because there the income tax is only 16%.

Oman and UAE don't even charge income tax.

Bank of America fears antitrust law enforcement so much that it refuses to operate branches in LA, AL and GA.

It is possible to define a freelancing project equivalent for any job description.

Therefore, banks, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, SAP, Wal-Mart, Oracle, etc. and any other multinational cooperation could be operated by freelancers instead of hiring employees.

Letting freelancers compete for projects that are equivalent to traditional job descriptions instead of hiring employees would save lots of money.

This would protect from antitrust law enforcement because it cannot be proven that all freelancer projects add up to a global banking enterprise or any other huge company.

This allows them to secretly establish undetectable monopolies.

==============================================================

Freelancing portals, such as reelancer.com, upwork.com, guru.com, indeed.com, etc. could focus their business operations in very small countries such as, for example,

1.) San Marino (a small enclave in Italy with a population of only 33,562) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino)

2.) Andorra is the sixth-smallest nation in Europe, having an area of 468 square kilometres (181 sq mi) and a population of approximately 77,006.[15][16] The Andorran people are a Romance ethnic group of originally Catalan descent.[17] Andorra is the 16th-smallest country in the world by land and the 11th-smallest by population. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra)

3. Liechtenstein is bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and Austria to the east and north. It is Europe's fourth-smallest country, with an area of just over 160 square kilometres (62 square miles) and a population of 38,749.[

4.) Vatican City /?væt?k?n/ (listen), officially Vatican City State (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano;[g] Latin: Status Civitatis Vaticanae),[h][i] is the Holy See's independent city-state enclaved within Rome, Italy.[12] Established with the Lateran Treaty (1929), it is a distinct territory under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity of international law, which maintains the city state's temporal, diplomatic, and spiritual independence.[j][13] With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres)[b] and a population of about 825,[c] it is the smallest sovereign state in the world by both area and population (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City), etc.

to employ more than 50% of its population as freelancers. This would allow representatives of commercial enterprises to win the majority during democratic elections.

=================================================================

SAP alone employs more than 84,000 people worldwide (https://www.sap.com)

Winning elections in a small independent country is a huge competitive advantage it allows to optimize its laws and government for any commercial enterprise, whose representatives have won the elections.

Any commercial enterprise that has gained full political power in one country can learn how to run every competitor out of business by officially consisting of independently operating smaller commercial subunits competing against one another while being secretly controlled by the same group of owners.

Authored by Thomas Hahn, PHD

Email: CIA101FBI@gmail.com

Skype ID: TFH002

Android Smartphone: + 1 571 839 0727

Virtual Google Voice Phone: + 1 501 301 4890

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas_Hahn10

Co-edited by Yo-Ling Chen (Independent Scholar) and Ela Przybyło (Illinois State University)

Deadline for abstracts: September 30, 2024

Contact email: globalacearo(at)gmail(dot)com

In the past two decades, asexuality studies scholarship has grown exponentially, reflecting the rise of asexual and aromantic communities around the world. The majority of scholarship in asexuality studies, however, remains either on Anglophone ace communities, primarily in North America, or situated in Western sexual epistemologies. This edited volume seeks to explore a broader array of global asexualities and aromanticisms by gathering together scholarship on ace and aro identities, resonances, and their translations both outside of Western contexts and beyond Western colonial knowledge frames.

Acknowledging that modern Western notions of asexual and aromantic identities do not account for all nonsexual and nonromantic experiences across time and space, we intentionally make use of a porous and plural definition of ‘asexualities’ and ‘aromanticisms’ in framing this edited volume. In our understanding, asexualities and aromanticisms encompass identities, orientations, and sites of knowledge production and life invention that challenge compulsory sexuality and amatonormativity, or the universalized assumptions that equate sexual activity and romantic love with paramount human value. With this definition in mind, we seek to encompass both manifestations of asexual/aromantic identities as they occur in non-Western contexts and nonsexual/nonromantic explorations that exceed modern Western notions of sexual and romantic orientation. Likewise, we are also interested in work that draws on antiracist, Indigenous, decolonial, and non-Western bodies of knowledge to explore the intersections of compulsory sexuality and amatonormativity with race, Indigeneity, citizenship, location, geopolitics, coloniality, class, caste, gender, ability, language, and nation.

We envision a dynamic collection of academic research articles, non-academic essays, interviews, and English translations of the many manifesto/a/xs that have been written around ace/aro politics outside of the Anglophone world, as well as asexuality studies scholarship that is happening in languages other than English. We welcome submissions of abstracts from: activists, artists, writers, translators, and scholars at all stages of their careers who have an interest in challenging normative structures of sexuality and romance and have demonstrated a commitment to ace/aro flourishing and community building through their creative output and scholarship.

We especially welcome submissions that build on existing scholarship, including but not limited to: asexuality and asexual marriage brokering in China (Wong 2015; Wong and Guo 2020), compulsory marriage and nonsexual women in India (Singh 2022), practices of castration and eunuchism in Asia (Chiang 2012 and 2018; Reddy 2003), asexuality and herbivore masculinities in Japan (Colecio 2022; Fotache 2014; Lehtonen 2018; Morioka 2013), antisexualism in Russia (Siggy 2014), queer singlehood in Chinese literature (Heinrich 2013), asexuality and non-Western kinship forms (Kenney 2020 and 2024), marriage refusal and transnational feminisms outside of North America (Chen 2023), Black and antiracist theorizations of ace/aro possibilities (Brown 2022; Miles 2019; Owen 2014, 2018, and 2024; Smith 2020), hypersexualization and desexualization in dialogue with Asian and Asian-American contexts (Kim 2017 and 2024; Lee 2020), celibacy and Hindu nationalism (Alter 1994; Basu 1993; Haynes 2020; Reddy 2003), asexuality and religiosity in Poland and other Eastern European contexts (Kurowicka and Przybyło 2019), disability and ace/aro identities (Gupta 2014; Kim 2011 and 2014; Yergeau 2017), and theorizations of the erotic that center Indigenous worldviews in dialogue with ace/aro communities and knowledges (TallBear 2018 and 2021).

Please email abstracts (up to 300 words), along with a 100-word bio, to globalacearo(at)gmail(dot)com by September 30, 2024. Accepted contributors will be asked to submit pieces of up to 5,000 words, due in Spring 2025 (see anticipated timeline below). We welcome previously unpublished essays on asexualities and aromanticisms that challenge compulsory sexuality and amatonormativity, especially as they intersect with race, Indigeneity, citizenship, location, geopolitics, coloniality, class, caste, gender, ability, language, and nation; perspectives from across Asia, Africa, South and Central America, the Middle East and West Asia, Eastern Europe, and Indigenous Nations, communities, and knowledges anywhere in the world; and abstracts for English translations of key ace/aro advocacy texts or scholarship and interviews with key figures and activists in the aforementioned contexts. We are thematically interested in submissions dealing with, but not limited to:

We are in contact with an interested editor at Routledge about this edited volume and will take steps to secure a book contract once we have a sense of the pieces in the collection and its eventual structure. We aim to secure the contract once we have a full book proposal, i.e. before the manuscript is complete.

CFP for abstracts closes: September 30, 2024

Editorial responses: October 31, 2024

Chapter in-progress online workshops: November 2024

Full pieces due: April 15, 2025

Edited pieces returned to authors: June 30, 2025

Revised/Final drafts due: September 30, 2025

Copyediting and Proofs: Fall 2025

Launch: 2026

Simplicity is the key to the interpretation of physics. Nothing more simple in the analysis than supposing the existence of some parameter "hidden," invisible and not measurable which is an integral part of a pair of photons and that tells at the time of their creation: "you are oriented east" or "you are oriented to the west. "This analysis requires us to introduce "hidden variables", a process which in physics is debatable, but allows in a very elegant way to explain everything in realistic terms. The pair of photons has its own objective reality that can describe them completely. Part of this reality is unknowable but never mind, the problem is only human, nature is safe.

We have two options: 1) quantum mechanics is inherently probabilistic; 2) quantum mechanics is not inherently probabilistic, but deterministic. The first position is that of the so-called "Copenhagen interpretation", still very accredited by physicists, while the second was that of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) and of the "hidden variables". Subsequently, Bell showed that the hidden variables can not be there. John Bell in 1964 pointed the way for an experimental verification of the existence of hidden variables, but subsequent experiments, especially the French group of Alain Aspect, have shown the full validity of quantum mechanics.

Then, the second theoretical position is no longer sustainable. Instead it is if we consider the fact that the "ontological materiality" turns out to be greater than the "physical". There are no additional variables that may enter into the physic calculation, but there are physical materials that physics fails to consider which have an impact on theorizing. These factors determine the overall behavior of matter which, therefore, appears inherently probabilistic. It can be said that Einstein was right: the hidden variables exist, only that they lurk outside of physics, in ontology.

Many physicists (Einstein leading) have always refused that indetermination be an inherent feature of physical reality. Consequently, they preferred to assume that the description provided by quantum mechanics was simply incomplete. Their reasoning, in practice, consists in saying: even at the microscopic level physical reality continues to be deterministic, only that we can not know the exact values of the state variables and so we are forced to an indeterministic description. To explain this failure many proponents of determinism (starting from Einstein himself) introduced the so-called "hidden variables". At the microscopic level, there would be some factor that is not yet known which would prevent us from a deterministic description. The moment we knew, we could provide a description of these factors completely deterministic

For many years the debate between the advocates of the hidden variables and the promoters of intrinsic indeterminism remained on a purely metaphysical level. In 1964, however, the physicist J.S. Bell derived a famous inequality (Bell's theorem) that allowed to transfer experimentally what until then had been a metaphysical discussion. Such inequality, in practice, led us to expect different experimental results depending on whether had been true the hypothesis of hidden variables (at least limited to the so-called "local theories") or not.

Now, the Heisenberg principle would not only establish our inability to learn at the same time the values of the position and momentum of a particle. These values are established, before a measurement be made, they are absolutely and inherently indeterminate.

Einstein's objections to quantum mechanics made sense because he was perfectly aware that quantum mechanics is incompatible with determinism. However, his views obstinately deterministic and his attempts to defend them (hidden variables) have not stood the test of facts.

The microscopic reality is inherently indeterminate. However, what is surprising is that the macroscopic reality is instead largely deterministic. To explain this apparent contradiction is a fascinating challenge in theoretical physics. An interesting attempt at a solution appears that provided by three Italian physicists G. Ghirardi, A. Rimini and. T. Weber (in Physical Review D 34, 470, 1986).

So, in this context it became obvious that the description of the states of a physical system offered by quantum mechanics was incomplete and that such an incompleteness was responsible for the indeterministic character of the theory. In other words, it has been assumed that quantum mechanics is indeterministic only because our level of knowledge does not put us in a position to "see" some additional variable, able to "complete" the description of the physical system provided by quantum mechanics. According to this conjecture, if we were able to identify these new variables, currently "hidden", we would recuperate a level of description deeper than the quantum level and at that level determinism could be recovered. "

In fact, the enigma of the "hidden variables" was not solved by a logical-deductive approach, as Popper might have wished, or was it only partially.

As already said, “in 1964 the issue was a crucial turning point: J. Bell showed that for a large family of theories and hidden variables, the so-called local theories, it is impossible to reproduce with media operations on hidden variables all the predictions of quantum mechanics. "" the result of Bell had the great merit of showing on the experimental ground the theme of possible deterministic completions of quantum mechanics, and a great interest aroused for the realization of experiments sensitive to discrepancies between the predictions of quantum mechanics and that of the local theories of hidden variables . "(Enrico Beltrametti)

In 1981, Alain Aspect was able to realize the first of a series of experiments of high quality. In practice, the experiment showed that Einstein had been wrong in suggesting the idea of hidden variables.

As for Popper, we could say that he lost a game: the one with LQ,

Criticism of Popper was wrong from a logical point of view, but in many ways it had some basis. Popper did not want to admit a weakness of logic explicit in theory LQ. For Popper's logic was to remain an ‘a priori’ science, having as main feature the absolute independence from any content. Therefore, he refused to consider the possibility of choosing logics different from the logic, most suitable than this to the empirical character of particular situations.

Already in the Logic of Scientific Discovery, which was finished in 1934, then prior to the writing of Birkhoff and von Neumann, Popper anticipated: "... replacing the word" true with "the word" likely "and the word" false  with "the word" unlikely ", nothing is gained.

However Popper earned another no less important point. The revolutionary discovery of Bell and Aspect was not from a pure inductivism, but from experiments carried out in the light of a theory already formulated ‘a priori’, then from a hypothesis to be subjected to strict scrutiny, identifying the elements and data that could refute it. At least on this ground, Popper took an important rematch.

At the time of the article in Einstein's death, the controversy was still strong and "philosophical" issues had a great weight, so much so that an American physicist was the victim of McCarthyism and lost his job for supporting a deterministic model with hidden variables. Today we tend to minimize the importance of our imperfect knowledge on the subject; theories are used as they are reaping the fruits without worrying about a coherent understanding of the underlying laws. Most physicists do not interpret more the principle of indeterminism  in a metaphysical way. It is considered as a simple impossibility of knowing at the same time position and momentum of the particles in a system still felt completely deterministic. After all, beyond the supposed wave-particle duality, also in the macroscopic world there is a kind of uncertainty: for example, I can not measure my speed with accuracy higher than my reaction time to press the button on the timer.

The cerebellum is the critical structure in the brain that contains all the efference-copy codes for both mindful and mindless behavior, including that which regulates autonomic functions of the body (Tehovnik, Hasanbegović, Chen 2024). These codes can be thought of as mirror representations of the body, representations that are continuously updated through the senses as an animal interacts with its environment. What this does is provide an animal with the best predictions of the future, so that corrections can be made immediately to enhance survivability. Even though the German word for a mirror representation of the self has been referred to as ‘Doppelganger’, and recently employed to emphasize the internet’s ability for users to have various versions of themselves (Klein 2023), that is having many avatars, this idea preceded modern humans by tens of millions of years, since the current-day cerebellum of all vertebrates has been shaped by 500 million years of evolution (Cisek 2019). In humans, the cerebellum has an estimated information storage capacity of 2.8 x 10^14 bits of information and an aggregate information transfer rate with a capacity of 1.1 x 10^14 bit per second (Huang 2008; Tehovnik, Hasanbegovic, Chen 2024), which is an extraordinary number depicting 2^(10^14) possibilities per second. Individual modules composed of Purkinje neurons in the cerebellum that are dedicated to a function (e.g., your primary language) are summoned by the immediate activation of specific islands of neurons in the neocortex (i.e., a collection of declarative-conscious units, Tehovnik, Hasanbegović, Chen 2024), so that the cerebellar modules can complete the function automatically, much like that of the autonomic nervous system for regulating the gut. Sigmund Freud (1899) has referred to this regulation as being part of the ‘id’ or the ‘unconscious’, which is a central feature in psychoanalysis.

The Economist newspaper (August 31, 2024) recently published two articles on the significance of having a ‘Doppelganger’ for regulating race cars, healthcare, as well as corporations using AI. One of two articles is included below:

“

When a factory has secrets to protect it is not unusual for security staff to ask that no photos be taken. This industrial campus in Milton Keynes, north-west of London, however, is particularly cautious. It is the home of Oracle Red Bull Racing, a Formula 1 team involved in a competitive contest that relies on levels of engineering so advanced they would leave most manufacturers in the dust.

Red Bull employs some 1,500 people building racing cars. Their principal mission is to keep two of those cars at the peak of their performance for the team’s drivers—Max Verstappen (the winner of three world championships since 2021) and Sergio Pérez—to deliver more race victories during the 2024 Grand Prix. Out on the track, they race in a world where mere fractions of a second over a minimum of 305km separates winners from losers. But there is another world in which the f1 teams battle it out: a virtual one.

During a season Red Bull’s cars will be subject to several thousand design changes and tweaks. These have to be done at breakneck speed, with components designed, tested, shipped and fitted in a matter of days between races. There is no room for error. Like its f1 rivals, the only way Red Bull can maintain such a pace is by using software that simulates the entire production process, so that any problems are ironed out before they emerge.

That simulation is done using what is called a “digital twin”. The advantages such twins offer in speed, reliability and cost together represent the future of manufacturing.

A digital twin is a virtual representation of something. It could be an object, like a car or an aircraft. Or, as we consider in the next two stories, it could be more complex systems, such as industrial processes or bodily organs. Even in the case of a humble car part, it encompasses more than physical attributes, from details about how the object was built and how it ages to how it breaks and the way it can be recycled.

To work, a digital twin needs to be constantly updated by its physical counterpart. This is done using real-time information gleaned from sensors that measure just about anything that can be measured. In the case of Red Bull, each of its cars’ digital twins is updated by more than 250 sensors constantly checking things like engine performance, tyre temperatures and suspension movements. By the end of a race, the amount of wireless data relayed by each car back to a team’s engineers can be in the terabytes.

The race track serves as a laboratory for the transfer of digital twins to the broader motor industry, says Ignazio Dentici, head of the automotive division of Hexagon, a Swedish company which supplies twinning technology. This includes laser scanners, which Red Bull uses to check the dimensions of components down to an accuracy of two millionths of a metre. That might seem extreme, but f1 is an extreme sport. Not only does such accuracy ensure that parts match the design specs, it also ensures that they do not stray outside the strict dimensions laid down by f1 rules, which can lead to disqualification.

The digitisation of car design and the virtual testing of prototype vehicles in a simulator has helped shrink the process of taking a new model of a regular vehicle from conception to mass production from around five years to about two, adds Mr Dentici. Carmakers are now trying to create digital twins of their factories and supply chains to plan production more efficiently. As the volume of data grows, artificial intelligence (ai) will help analyse the twins and suggest improvements.

“All this is a long way from where digital twins began. That is usually pegged to the Apollo space programme and, in particular, April 13th 1970. On that day the (often misquoted) words “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” were uttered, as the three astronauts on Apollo 13 reported that an oxygen tank had ruptured, disabling some of the spacecraft’s critical systems. To help bring them back to Earth safely, nasa’s engineers used the simulators on which the crew had been trained to work out new manoeuvring procedures. The simulators were largely physical models, as computerisation was limited. But it was possible to use data transmitted from the damaged spacecraft to recreate the problems, and thus explore ways around them.

The idea of using a purely digital model for engineering spread as computer power increased and sophisticated design and manufacturing programs emerged. Specialised software has also been developed for things like structural analysis and computational fluid dynamics, which can be used to explore aerodynamics without the need for an expensive wind tunnel. At the same time, powerful computer graphics allow results to be displayed in more elaborate ways, including virtual-reality systems that let engineers peer inside things like aircraft wings, as well as driving virtual cars on virtual roads and race tracks.

These tools are now being used on the grandest scales. At the Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, all 76 of America’s fleet of giant b-52 bombers need their engines replaced. These cold-war aircraft date from the 1950s and each has eight jet engines, configured as pairs of jets contained in four pods, hanging under their wings. The work, and the way the updated bombers will fly, is already well understood. This is because the entire process has been extensively explored using a digital twin.

When the engine-replacement programme was put out to tender, the usAir Force made digital models a requirement, ruling out any paper plans. This virtual “fly-off”, potentially worth $2.6bn, was won by Rolls-Royce, a British engineering group, using a digital twin that replicated its f130 military engines installed in a b-52. These engines will be manufactured at a Rolls-Royce factory in Indianapolis.

Rolls-Royce, along with its two big American rivals, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, which also competed for the contract, were among the first to start using digital twins to monitor the performance of their engines. Airlines used to buy engines for their aircraft, maintain them and carry their own stock of spares. Now they mostly rent their engines using a subscription model known as “power by the hour”, which means manufacturers are paid only when their engines are working.

As a result, “we are heavily incentivised to understand how our fleets of civil engines are behaving,” explains Steve Gregson, a senior Rolls-Royce engineer. Each engine, therefore, has a digital twin. Whenever the real engines are airborne, sensors relay data to an open-all-hours monitoring centre where the twins are updated and checked for anything that looks amiss. Automated algorithms, using a form of ai, then look for patterns and anomalies that may not be readily apparent.

To illustrate how this works in practice, Mr Gregson describes a recent flight from Singapore to Los Angeles. A couple of hours after departure, the health monitoring detected a potential engine problem and suggested a likely cause. Engineers liaised with the airline and pilots, concluding it was safe for the flight to continue. Meanwhile, a team of technicians were summoned from Indianapolis, spare parts were put on a plane from France, and a replacement engine sourced. By the time the flight landed, a team was ready to make repairs and get the aircraft back into the air as quickly as possible.

Spotting problems before they occur has both safety and financial benefits. It also makes routine servicing more effective. Aircraft used to require their engines be serviced at set intervals, even though some journeys cause more wear and tear than others. Planes flying out of an airport in a desert region, like the Middle East, can ingest gritty dust particles, which abrade components faster. Certain flights are more heavily laden, which adds stress. And some pilots push the throttles harder than others. As the digital twin takes such things into account, maintenance schedules can be tailored to how each engine is actually wearing. This means some engines can stay on the wing as much as 30% longer, says Rob Fox, a senior design manager with Rolls-Royce.

Although many cars inform their owners when they need servicing, most do not have sophisticated digital twins keeping tabs on them the way jet engines and f1 cars do. But as sensors get cheaper and model-building becomes easier, that could change. Other products may follow, from phones to washing machines. The technology is yet to enter its highest gear.

“

(In: Surprise! It’s Twins. The Economist, Aug. 31, 2024)

THE AGONY OF GHOST

Psych. José Manuel Bezanilla

 

SUMMARY: The paradigm is the omnipresent specter that permeates and regulates everything we know, is the organizer of social structures and thought, especially logic and mathematics. It is the governing body of theory and can not be subjected to empirical while can not be falsified evidence. Our world is immersed in the great Western paradigm, which has its origins in the SXVII with thought Cartesian, where a primacy to the disjunction of the conjunction occurs, and little by little the world was constructed in mutually exclusive dichotomies, which have led people lead lives where split jump from one universe to another in seconds instead of integrating whether to be or seen or observe the world as a complex whole.

 

WHO IS THE GHOST?

 

Although the title of this may seem like science fiction or mystical he intends to continue this line of ideas presented earlier in this publication on the complex thought.

 

In the present we'll pretend make a presentation on how this position has gradually penetrated scientific thought and has slowly been eroding the already old and worn out modern western paradigm.

 

A paradigm as mentioned by Plato revolves around the exemplification of models or rules, while for Aristotle is an argument that seeks generalization.

 

He mentioned Morin (1998) that the paradigm "is defined by opposition and complementarity with the notion of phrase: where the paradigm is the linchpin of the governing relations between the elements ...". This means that the paradigm is the linchpin of principles, representations, beliefs and ideas that illustrate representative of the normal or common bone exemplary cases. As Khun mentioned (quoted in Morin) scientific knowledge unlike popular belief (and popular I mean most people and academics) not consist in the simple accumulation of empirical evidence and knowledge, but how the logic of science and structuring of formulas and theories is governed by principles and tenets that are hidden and not mentioned. These principles and hidden budgets make up what we call the governing paradigms, turning them into "the set of beliefs, values and recognized technicians that are common to the members of a given group." (Ibid.)

 

We can highlight and following the above line so that the logic and methodology is governed by the structures of thought that are formed from the governing paradigm, so it has a fundamental structure and regulate the landscapes of vision paper, the field cognitive, cultural and epistemological where scientific theories are born.

 

Then as Morin mentions ".... the paradigm under his rule contains fundamental concepts or categories of intelligibility governing while the type of logical relationships of attraction / repulsion between the same concepts or categories." (Ibid.) Understanding this as the paradigm in which are embedded the person will determine which lines and structures of thought that are accepted and rejected within the socio-cultural context.

 

Although the notion of paradigm is dark -menciona Morin holds because of its obscurity, as it is radical and individual or collective unconscious, where as mentioned Freud is hardly possible to glimpse the tip of the iceberg is installed. the author argues that because of its ambiguity and referring to deep and tangled psychological, logical, linguistic, ideological and cultural roots says.

 

Morin mentioned that the nature of the paradigm is:

 

The promotion / selection of the governing categories of intelligibility. This refers to the order of conceptions putting each in its place, so Materialistic refer to the matter, the spirit and Spiritualists Structuralists structures. The paradigm is the entity that selected / rejected or subordinating those concepts that break with the fundamental order of their approaches and generate noise and instability theory.

 

Determine the guiding logic operations. The paradigm seems to depend on the logical structure, but actually hides behind it and selects the logical operations that are going to become preponderant, pertinent and obvious. It is found in the nucleus of every system of ideas and all discourse.

 

It is situated in the center of the operations of thought which involve:

 

 

The characters prelogical dissociation, association, rejection and unification.

Logical disjunction characters / conjunction, exclusion / inclusion relating to the guiding principles.

Presemánticos prelinguistic and characters that make the speech governed by the paradigm.

 

FEATURES GHOST.

 

The paradigm is outside the scope of any empirical testing, although theories and postulates that it break off if they are, so it is said that "it is not falsifiable"

 

Has an axiomatic principle of authority is founder of the axioms and axiom authority validates your paradigm.

 

Holds a principle of exclusion: this refers to the paradigm leaves out all data, ideas, theories and postulates that does not recognize.

 

It makes us blind to that which does not recognize: that which is not recognized by the paradigm is as well not exist.

 

It is invisible: It is located in an unconscious and super-conscious place that allows you to be the invisible core of the visible organization of the theory. The paradigm remains virtual, as it never is formulated and it is not possible to access it but its manifestations.

 

Create evidence by hiding himself: those who believe obey the facts and experience are more immersed in it, as is the paradigm that tells them problems and facts see and that data or findings are relevant and which do not.

 

It becomes a generator of sense of reality: For as it regulates the laws of thought and logic, one that reflects the paradigm for example positivist, thinks deterministic empirical phenomena are real facts and phenomena that appear as random or poorly controlled are illusions or nonexistent.

 

It becomes invulnerable: because the paradigm is invisible for being in the center of thought and direct, it is not possible that those who live under his command become aware of its existence and it exerts control over them.

 

Paradigms collide and are incompatible with other paradigms. So when someone is at the end of the paradigm perceived as false and misleading anything that comes from the other paradigm. The structures of thought from the other paradigm seem alien and strange, so they hit it automatically triggering a process of imminent rejection.

 

It is attached to the speeches and generating systems: from the principles and tenets that are generated in the paradigm eat dinner this is continually reinforced and updated by the "progress" of these.

 

A major paradigm determines a way of seeing the world: The way we approach and build the mental image we have of the world, is determined and supported by the guiding principles of the paradigm.

 

OUR GHOST (Gordian knot)

 

Murayama (Morin) mentions that it is possible the existence of several paradigms within a culture, whether in a peaceful coexistence or a constant struggle. So this split matter / spirit inherited from the time of Descartes, are not two paradigms clash or coexistence but which are the fundamental branches of a larger paradigm that we call the great paradigm of the West. The paradigm in its continued pervasiveness not only dominates the structures of thought, but embraces and provides coherence to the social structure.

What are the assumptions that have permeated the construction of our world under the influence of this great Western paradigm? We have built a world order solventándonos in separation and hierarchy of three fundamental principles: sovereignty spiritual, physical strength and fertility.

 

Is it really the paradigm that determines this cosmonoologico order?

If we look at the phenomenon as a complex structure, it is not possible to affirm that the paradigm is that hidden emperor who instructs and directs the creation and structure of the human world (since fall into the same trap paradigm), but while this cosmonoologica structure it is generated by the paradigm, in its own evolution and dynamism generates and maintains the same creative paradigm.

 

We must try to penetrate into the depths of the unconscious where the center of this knot.

 

The fundamental principle of the Cartesian paradigm is mainly aimed at the disjunction, favoring the construction of opposites. Thus, the separation of subject and object, placing the "knower" above everything existing in the world, while objects are used to produce knowledge, power and control is favored. And intone from this fundamental separation order of the world was structured in a way split without having a possibility of integration of opposites unlike the vision of the Eastern world where there is inherently the principle of duality.

 

This great disjunctive paradigm has been the center of worship of the individual and generated anthropocentrism where supremacy is given to the strongest, the powerful, the objective, measurable and quantifiable; while the metaphysical, subjective, soft, receptive has followed his own from the world and a place of sanctuary, where is the sacred and religion, in a place where it is roads "surely" away from organizational core social structures and can only focus to order and salvation subjective. And so we can see that in everyday life people fragmented where there is time and space for the practice of spirituality and other everyday for the material, when the person is integrated structure are carried out. And that's where Nitche and Jung put his finger on the yaga shouting alarmed "God is dead", if has died inside people and lost the sense of moral and intrinsic respect for all forms of existence, placing god as an extrinsic figure that should dictate and regulate the behavior bringing results in a value orientation of people by the generative / single principle.

 

We live slaves of endemic conflict where our spirits are separated and continually excluded the spirit in the field of material and matter in the realm of the spiritual, and then only one can be good and true while the other is bad and perteneced to illusion.

Citing Morin "Western humanism is a mythology that seeks to articulate the science that denies man with the man who seeks omnipotence" so when the man is in the universe of the scientist tends to zero but when in the of the arts tends to infinity, leaping from universe to universe continually inadvertently live in times producing and building image, power, revenue denying the subtle and subjective to passing this universe where allowed him feel.

 

The Western paradigm has generated a schizophrenic culture where people live at least a double life split where at one point we dive into the subjectivity of feelings and beliefs, while on the other we focus on value judgments and global looking determinist explanations of parceled and disciplinary visions.

 

The Gordian knot.

 

Throughout the history of Western culture and the various developments such as capitalism, industry, bureaucracy, urban lifestyle, they have paradigmatically established different organizational principles such as science, organization of the economy , society and the nation-state.

 

These principles of order determine the approach and treatment of reality where mutually conceal the subject and object, reducing phenomena to an order of measurement, calculation and control at the expense of completeness and quality, the perception of complexities.

 

The development of society and culture are embedded in the heart of the great Western paradigm and thus observe how the generativity of science and society coincide as producers and products of the phenomenal changes in society.

 

ELPARADIGMA CLASSIC SCIENCE.

 

In the seventeenth century a separation between science and philosophy, where begins a path that gives primacy to the disjunction, where value judgments on the theoretical concepts diverge and knowledge development focuses since rationalism Cartesian given the experimental empirical verification, based on a rationalism that seeks the establishment of universals and empiricism that leaves aside the subject and based all based on facts.

 

The origins of this great paradigm back to the physics based on observation and measurement of physical phenomena ignores any possible kind of subjectivity; and in that unbridled race for hiperobjetividad, generated a split between observer-conceptuador and socio-historical-cultural context where ideas and knowledge are conceived, which quashed any kind of reflection on itself, and IT IS NOT THAT THE eVIL tHAT !, afflicts the complete absence of reflection inward, as it continued posture control and objectivity (not saying that systematization and search for objective knowledge is bad) is not the that has led man to focus in the physical and material, carried away to an excessive and uncontrolled process of the human being himself and the medium itself where we live.

 

And then then if we look at the social structure, we note that is supported on a paradigm of exclusion, which in its desire to reduce and control, cleaves and destroys the "true reality" that both defends with all the ingredients of complexity that compose or as they say scholars gestalt "... the whole is more than the sum of its parts ...".

 

How is it that the paradigm has been placed at the heart of society?

 

Science in its own process, is geared towards the capture of reality, as based on the processes of mathematization manages to make abstractions of phenomena, to the extent of abstracting from their natural environment to manipulate artificially (experiment) and it is this phenomenon which enthroned disjunction operational supremacy paradigm with regard to knowledge generation "divide phenomena and can control".

 

During the seventeenth century in the West (Europe) it develops gradually pair science-technique, where techno-science from the perspective of Heidegger tends to imprison nature, where science manipulated to verify and technical checks to manipulate.

 

Gradually this dyad begins to settle in universities, and gradually passes wings and state enterprises; It is that in two centuries this paradigm shifts from the periphery of thought to the heart of the social structure.

 

This generates a significant prolongation of rationalism-empiricism structure where an organization of society based on a mechanistic model of mass production (rationalism), accompanied by an exaggerated pragmatism that seeks efficiency at any price (empiricism) is given, and an alignment between economic rationalization and bureaucracy (social rationalization) where technologization of society favors given.

 

In line with these ideas, Morin wonders "if Is technoscience which took over the company or society is the one that gripped technoscience?" And raises the author who is a correlational process, where with fashion society was developing technological advances, the technology was introduced to the core of social organization. And the author mentions that in order to penetrate the nature of the ghost, it is necessary to introduce into the darkness where "the ideal and the social transmuted into each other."

 

 

 

GHOST OF DEATH.

 

For death ghost is given, bone paradigmatic revolution, it is essential that a transformation is given in the basic nucleus of social structure, as it requires all those patterns and structures holding and are supported by the paradigm break outgoing not only in the social structure, but in thinking and even the structure of spiritual conception.

 

If we look at the current socio-psycho-cultural situation we realize that the great Western paradigm is already exhausted, as to where we direct view are rather erosion integrity, being such that the neoliberal economic model hurts more people which benefits, generating hunger and misery in most countries and people, coupled with a devaluation of the human being in a "cheap labor" sonde has shifted the education of the mind and spirit in a technical education allow states to put at the service of the great powers skilled workers (spiritual slaves) who survive from day to day and the best his ideal is to realize the "American Way of Life".

 

Also if we look to the spiritual life, everything indicates that we are in a deep darkness, where despite "the great scientific discoveries," people are increasingly alone and separated from the others, unable to recognize the nature human in which they face, and because you think or dress differently to me then I must destroy it. Or we can say that our spirits are tired and lethargic, as we show the symbol and the image presented by the dominant religion of old age, fatigue and exhaustion, which is held in power with serum injections daily to rise lacking any force up to save herself, refusing to dwindle to become born again from its own ashes.

 

In conclusion over this and supported the ideas of Morin I have tried to present the nature of this ghost that is omnipresent in everything people do or think, I struggled to provide evidence that though they may be weak show signs of a significant wear in spirit and foundation. But I do not dare give the lace, and enact a new paradigm as that would fall into the trap of ghost and get stuck in its mouth to be devoured by it; but if I can say something important that people can do is to cultivate a more inclusive mind try to focus on the totality and complexity of the phenomena avoiding partiality and judgments of good-bad or black-white, as the world presents various shades of gray and the trial of an action is an intricate complex of intentions, situations and contexts.

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Morin, Edgar. (1998) "Method IV" Ideas Caterra Madrid.

Hepatocellular carcinoma-general concepts

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, also called malignant hepatoma) is a primary malignancy (cancer) of the liver. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitide infection (hepatitis B or C) or cirrhosis (alcoholism being the most common cause of hepatic cirrhosis).[1] In countries where hepatitis is not endemic, most malignant cancers in the liver are not primary HCC but metastasis (spread) of cancer from elsewhere in the body, e.g., the colon. Treatment options of HCC and prognosis are dependent on many factors but especially on tumor size and staging. Tumor grade is also important. High-grade tumors will have a poor prognosis, while low-grade tumors may go unnoticed for many years, as is the case in many other organs, such as the breast, where a ductal carcinoma in situ (or a lobular carcinoma in situ) may be present without any clinical signs and without correlate on routine imaging tests, although in some occasions it may be detected on more specialized imaging studies like MR mammography.

The usual outcome is poor, because only 10 - 20% of hepatocellular carcinomas can be removed completely using surgery. If the cancer cannot be completely removed, the disease is usually deadly within 3 to 6 months.[2] This is partially due to late presentation with large tumours, but also the lack of medical expertise and facilities. This is a rare tumor in the United States. A new receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, sorafenib has been shown in a Spanish phase III clinical trial to add two months to the lifespan of late stage HCC patients with well preserved liver function [3].

-Risk factors

The main risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma are

Alcoholism

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis C

Aflatoxin

Cirrhosis of the liver

Wilsons disease[citation needed]

When hepatocellular adenomas grow to a size of more than 6–8 cm, they are considered cancerous and thus become a risk of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Diabetics are also at risk for adenomas. Also, those individuals who abuse anabolic steroids are also at risk to develop hepatic adenomas.[4]

Although hepatocellular carcinoma most commonly affects adults, children who are affected with biliary atresia, infantile cholestasis, glycogen-storage diseases, and other cirrhotic diseases of the liver are predisposed to developing hepatocellular carcinoma.

Children and adolescents are unlikely to have chronic liver disease, however, if they suffer from congenital liver disorders, this fact increases the chance of developing hepatocellular carcinoma.[5]

-Signs and symptoms

HCC may present with jaundice, bloating from ascites, easy bruising from blood clotting abnormalities or as loss of appetite, unintentional weight loss, abdominal pain,especially in the upper -right part, nausea, emesis, or fatigue.[6]

-Pathogenesis

Main article: Carcinogenesis

Hepatocellular carcinoma, like any other cancer, develops when there is a mutation to the cellular machinery that causes the cell to replicate at a higher rate and/or results in the cell avoiding apoptosis. In particular, chronic infections of hepatitis B and/or C can aid the development of hepatocellular carcinoma by repeatedly causing the body's own immune system to attack the liver cells, some of which are infected by the virus, others merely bystanders. While this constant cycle of damage followed by repair can lead to mistakes during repair which in turn lead to carcinogenesis, this hypothesis is more applicable, at present, to hepatitis C. Chronic hepatitis C causes HCC through the stage of cirrhosis. In chronic hepatitis B, however, the integration of the viral genome into infected cells can directly induce a non-cirrhotic liver to develop HCC. Alternatively, repeated consumption of large amounts of ethanol can have a similar effect. Besides, cirrhosis is commonly caused by alcoholism, chronic hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis C. The toxin aflatoxin from certain Aspergillus species of fungus is a carcinogen and aids carcinogenesis of hepatocellular cancer by building up in the liver. The combined high prevalence of rates of aflatoxin and hepatitis B in settings like China and West Africa has led to relatively high rates of heptatocellular carcinoma in these regions. Other viral hepatitides such as hepatitis A have no potential to become a chronic infection and thus are not related to hepatocellular carcinoma.

-Diagnosis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) most commonly appears in a patient with chronic viral hepatitis (hepatitis B or hepatitis C, 20%) or/and with cirrhosis (about 80%). These patients commonly undergo surveillance with ultrasound due to the cost-effectiveness.

In patients with a higher suspicion of HCC (such as rising alpha-fetoprotein and des-gamma carboxyprothrombin levels), the best method of diagnosis involves a CT scan of the abdomen using intravenous contrast agent and three-phase scanning (before contrast administration, immediately after contrast administration, and again after a delay) to increase the ability of the radiologist to detect small or subtle tumors. It is important to optimize the parameters of the CT examination, because the underlying liver disease that most HCC patients have can make the findings more difficult to appreciate.

On CT, HCC can have three distinct patterns of growth:

A single large tumor

Multiple tumors

Poorly defined tumor with an infiltrative growth pattern

A biopsy is not needed to confirm the diagnosis of HCC if certain imaging criteria are met.

The key characteristics on CT are hypervascularity in the arterial phase scans, washout or de-enhancement in the portal and delayed phase studies, a pseudocapsule and a mosaic pattern. Both calcifications and intralesional fat may be appreciated.

CT scans use contrast agents, which are typically iodine or barium based. Some patients are allergic to one or both of these contrast agents, most often iodine. Usually the allergic reaction is manageable and not life threatening.

An alternative to a CT imaging study would be the MRI. MRI's are more expensive and not as available because fewer facilities have MRI machines. More important MRI are just beginning to be used in tumor detection and fewer radiologists are skilled at finding tumors with MRI studies when it is used as a screening device. Mostly the radiologists are using MRIs to do a secondary study to look at an area where a tumor has already been detected. MRI's also use contrast agents. One of the best for showing details of liver tumors is very new: iron oxide nano-particles appears to give better results. The latter are absorbed by normal liver tissue, but not tumors or scar tissue.

In a review article of the screening, diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, 4 articles were selected for comparing the accuracy of CT and MRI in diagnosing this malignancy.[7] Radiographic diagnosis was verified against post-transplantation biopsy as the gold standard. With the exception of one instance of specificity, it was discovered that MRI was more sensitive and specific than CT in all four studies.

-Pathology

Micrograph of hepatocellular carcinoma. Liver biopsy. Trichrome stain.Macroscopically, liver cancer appears as a nodular or infiltrative tumor. The nodular type may be solitary (large mass) or multiple (when developed as a complication of cirrhosis). Tumor nodules are round to oval, grey or green (if the tumor produces bile), well circumscribed but not encapsulated. The diffuse type is poorly circumscribed and infiltrates the portal veins, or the hepatic veins (rarely).

Microscopically, there are four architectural and cytological types (patterns) of hepatocellular carcinoma: fibrolamellar, pseudoglandular (adenoid), pleomorphic (giant cell) and clear cell. In well differentiated forms, tumor cells resemble hepatocytes, form trabeculae, cords and nests, and may contain bile pigment in cytoplasm. In poorly differentiated forms, malignant epithelial cells are discohesive, pleomorphic, anaplastic, giant. The tumor has a scant stroma and central necrosis because of the poor vascularization.[8]

-Staging

Important features that guide treatment include: -

size

spread (stage)

involvement of liver vessels

presence of a tumor capsule

presence of extrahepatic metastases

presence of daughter nodules

vascularity of the tumor

MRI is the best imaging method to detect the presence of a tumor capsule.

-Management

This article's factual accuracy may be compromised because of out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page. (January 2010)

Liver transplantation to replace the diseased liver with a cadaveric liver or a living donor graft. Historically low survival rates (20%-36%). During 1996–2001 the rate had improved to 61.1% , likely related to adoption of the Milan criteria at US transplantation centers. Expanded Shanghai criteria in China resulted in overall survival and disease-free survival rates similar to the Milan criteria[9]. Studies from the late 2000 obtained higher survival rates ranging from 67% to 91%[10]. If the liver tumor has metastasized, the immuno-suppressant post-transplant drugs decrease the chance of survival. Considering this objective risk in conjunction with the potentially high rate of survival, some recent studies conclude that: "LTx can be a curative approach for patients with advanced HCC without extrahepatic metastasis"[11]. For those reasons, and others, it is considered nowadays that patient selection is a major key for success[12].

Surgical resection to remove a tumor together with surrounding liver tissue while preserving enough liver remnant for normal body function. This treatment offers the best prognosis for long-term survival, but unfortunately only 10-15% of patients are suitable for surgical resection. This is often due to extensive disease or poor liver function. Resection in cirrhotic patients carries high morbidity and mortality. The expected liver remnant should be more than 25% of the total size for a non-cirrhotic liver, while that should be more than 40% of the total size for a cirrhotic liver. The overall recurrent rate after resection is 50-60%.

Percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) well tolerated, high RR in small (<3 cm) solitary tumors; as of 2005, no randomized trial comparing resection to percutaneous treatments; recurrence rates similar to those for postresection.

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is usually performed for unresectable tumors or as a temporary treatment while waiting for liver transplant. TACE is done by injecting an antineoplastic drug (e.g. cisplatin) mixed with a radioopaque contrast (e.g. Lipiodol) and an embolic agent (e.g. Gelfoam) into the right or left hepatic artery via the groin artery. As of 2005, multiple trials show objective tumor responses and slowed tumor progression but questionable survival benefit compared to supportive care; greatest benefit seen in patients with preserved liver function, absence of vascular invasion, and smallest tumors. TACE is not suitable for big tumors (>8 cm), presence of portal vein thrombus, tumors with portal-systemic shunt and patients with poor liver function.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) uses high frequency radio-waves to destroy tumor by local heating. The electrodes are inserted into the liver tumor under ultrasound image guidance using percutaneous, laparoscopic or open surgical approach. It is suitable for small tumors (<5 cm). A large randomised trial comparing surgical resection and RFA for small HCC showed similar 4 years-survival and less morbidities for patients treated with RFA.[13]

Selective internal radiation therapy can be used to destroy the tumor from within (thus minimizing exposure to healthy tissue). There are currently two products available, SIR-Spheres and TheraSphere The latter is an FDA approved treatment for primary liver cancer (HCC) which has been shown in clinical trials to increase survival rate of low-risk patients. SIR-Spheres are FDA approved for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer but outside the US SIR-Spheres are approved for the treatment of any non-resectable liver cancer including primary liver cancer. This method uses a catheter (inserted by a radiologist) to deposit radioactive particles to the area of interest.

Intra-arterial iodine-131–lipiodol administration Efficacy demonstrated in unresectable patients, those with portal vein thrombus. This treatment is also used as adjuvant therapy in resected patients (Lau at et, 1999). It is believed to raise the 3-year survival rate from 46 to 86%. This adjuvant therapy is in phase III clinical trials in Singapore and is available as a standard medical treatment to qualified patients in Hong Kong.

Combined PEI and TACE can be used for tumors larger than 4 cm in diameter, although some Italian groups have had success with larger tumours using TACE alone.

High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) (not to be confused with normal diagnostic ultrasound) is a new technique which uses much more powerful ultrasound to treat the tumour. Still at a very experimental stage. Most of the work has been done in China. Some early work is being done in Oxford and London in the UK.

Hormonal therapy Antiestrogen therapy with tamoxifen studied in several trials, mixed results across studies, but generally considered ineffective Octreotide (somatostatin analogue) showed 13-month MS v 4-month MS in untreated patients in a small randomized study; results not reproduced.

Adjuvant chemotherapy: No randomized trials showing benefit of neoadjuvant or adjuvant systemic therapy in HCC; single trial showed decrease in new tumors in patients receiving oral synthetic retinoid for 12 months after resection/ablation; results not reproduced. Clinical trials have varying results.[14]

Palliative: Regimens that included doxorubicin, cisplatin, fluorouracil, interferon, epirubicin, or taxol, as single agents or in combination, have not shown any survival benefit (RR, 0%-25%); a few isolated major responses allowed patients to undergo partial hepatectomy; no published results from any randomized trial of systemic chemotherapy.

Cryosurgery: Cryosurgery is a new technique that can destroy tumors in a variety of sites (brain, breast, kidney, prostate, liver). Cryosurgery is the destruction of abnormal tissue using sub-zero temperatures. The tumor is not removed and the destroyed cancer is left to be reabsorbed by the body. Initial results in properly selected patients with unresectable liver tumors are equivalent to those of resection. Cryosurgery involves the placement of a stainless steel probe into the center of the tumor. Liquid nitrogen is circulated through the end of this device. The tumor and a half inch margin of normal liver are frozen to -190°C for 15 minutes, which is lethal to all tissues. The area is thawed for 10 minutes and then re-frozen to -190°C for another 15 minutes. After the tumor has thawed, the probe is removed, bleeding is controlled, and the procedure is complete. The patient will spend the first post-operative night in the intensive care unit and typically is discharged in 3 – 5 days. Proper selection of patients and attention to detail in performing the cryosurgical procedure are mandatory in order to achieve good results and outcomes. Frequently, cryosurgery is used in conjunction with liver resection as some of the tumors are removed while others are treated with cryosurgery. Patients may also have insertion of a hepatic intra-arterial catheter for post-operative chemotherapy. As with liver resection, the surgeon should have experience with cryosurgical techniques in order to provide the best treatment possible.

There is a new drug Sorafenib which was originally used for Renal Cell Cancer that has shown promising results when used with Hepatocellular Cancer

Interventional radiology

Agaricus blazei mushrooms inhibited abnormal collagen fiber formation in human hepatocarcinoma cells in an in vitro experiment.[15]

Abbreviations: HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; TACE, transarterial embolization/chemoembolization; PFS, progression-free survival; PS, performance status; HBV, hepatitis B virus; PEI, percutaneous ethanol injection; RFA, radiofrequency ablation; RR, response rate; MS, median survival.

A systematic review assessed 12 articles involving a total of 318 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with Yttrium-90 radioembolization.[16] Excluding a study of only one patient, post-treatment CT evaluation of the tumor showed a response ranging from 29 to 100 % of patients evaluated, with all but two studies showing a response of 71 % or greater.

A group of researchers studied the use of Sorafenib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Sorafenib is a small molecule that inhibits tumor-cell proliferation and tumor angionesis. It also increases the rate of apoptosis in other tumor models. The results indicated that single-agent sorafenib might have a beneficial therapeutic effect. In this study, for instance, the median overall survival was of 9.2 months and the median time to progression was of 5.5 months. Also, the survival benefit represented a 31% relative reduction in the risk of death.[17]

-Prevention

Since hepatitis B or C is one of the main causes of hepatocellular carcinoma, prevention of this infection is key to then prevent hepatocellular carcinoma. Thus, childhood vaccination against hepatitis B may reduce the risk of liver cancer in the future.[18]

In the case of patients with cirrhosis, alcohol consumption is to be avoided. Also, screening for hemochromatosis may be beneficial for some patients.[19]

-Prognosis

Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (January 2010)

The usual outcome is poor, because only 10 - 20%[citation needed] of hepatocellular carcinomas can be removed completely using surgery. If the cancer cannot be completely removed, the disease is usually fatal within 3 – 6 months. However, survival can vary, and occasionally people will survive much longer than 6 months. The prognosis for metastatic or unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma has recently improved due to the approval of nexavar for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

-Epidemiology

Age-standardized death from liver cancer per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004.[20]

no data

less than 7.5

7.5-15

15-22.5

22.5-30

30-37.5

37.5-45

45-52.5

52.5-60

60-67.5

67.5-75

75-110

more than 110HCC is one of the most common tumors worldwide. The epidemiology of HCC exhibits two main patterns, one in North America and Western Europe and another in non-Western countries, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, central and Southeast Asia, and the Amazon basin. Males are affected more than females usually and it is most common between the age of 30 to 50[1] Hepatocellular carcinoma causes 662,000 deaths worldwide per year[21], about half of them in China.

-Non-Western Countries

In some parts of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, HCC is the most common cancer, generally affecting men more than women, and with an age of onset between late teens and 30s. This variability is in part due to the different patterns of hepatitis B and hepatitis C transmission in different populations - infection at or around birth predispose to earlier cancers than if people are infected later. The time between hepatitis B infection and development into HCC can be years, even decades, but from diagnosis of HCC to death the average survival period is only 5.9 months according to one Chinese study during the 1970-80s, or 3 months (median survival time) in Sub-Saharan Africa according to Manson's textbook of tropical diseases. HCC is one of the deadliest cancers in China where chronic hepatitis B is found in 90% of cases. In Japan, chronic hepatitis C is associated with 90% of HCC cases. Food infected with Aspergillus flavus (especially peanuts and corns stored during prolonged wet seasons) which produces aflatoxin poses another risk factor for HCC.

-North America and Western Europe

Most malignant tumors of the liver discovered in Western patients are metastases (spread) from tumors elsewhere.[1] In the West, HCC is generally seen as a rare cancer, normally of those with pre-existing liver disease. It is often detected by ultrasound screening, and so can be discovered by health-care facilities much earlier than in developing regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa.

Acute and chronic hepatic porphyrias (acute intermittent porphyria, porphyria cutanea tarda, hereditary coproporphyria, variegate porphyria) and tyrosinemia type I are risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma. The diagnosis of an acute hepatic porphyria (AIP, HCP, VP) should be sought in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma without typical risk factors of hepatitis B or C, alcoholic liver cirrhosis or hemochromatosis. Both active and latent genetic carriers of acute hepatic porphyrias are at risk for this cancer, although latent genetic carriers have developed the cancer at a later age than those with classic symptoms. Patients with acute hepatic porphyrias should be monitored for hepatocellular carcinoma.

-Research

Current research includes the search for the genes that are disregulated in HCC,[22] protein markers,[23] and other predictive biomarkers.[24][25] As similar research is yielding results in various other malignant diseases, it is hoped that identifying the aberrant genes and the resultant proteins could lead to the identification of pharmacological interventions for HCC.[26]

-References

- a b c Kumar V, Fausto N, Abbas A (editors) (2003). Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease (7th ed.). Saunders. pp. 914–7. ISBN 978-0-721-60187-8.

- Hepatocellular carcinoma MedlinePlus, Medical Encyclopedia

- http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/359/4/378

- "Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Diseases". http://www.hepatocellular.org/. Retrieved May 12, 2010.

- "Pathophysiology". http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/986988-overview. Retrieved May 12, 2010.

- http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/liver-cancer/DS00399/DSECTION=symptoms

- El-Serag HB, Marrero JA, Rudolph L, Reddy KR (May 2008). "Diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma". Gastroenterology 134 (6): 1752–63. doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2008.02.090. PMID 18471552. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0016-5085(08)00426-5.

- Hepatocellular carcinoma (Photo) ATLAS OF PATHOLOGY

- Jia Fan; Guang-Shun Yang; Zhi-Ren Fu; Zhi-Hai Peng; Qiang Xia; Chen-Hong Peng; Jian Zhou; Yang Xu et al. (2009). "Liver transplantation outcomes in 1,078 hepatocellular carcinoma patients: a multi-center experience in Shanghai, China". Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology 135 (10): 1403-1412. doi:10.1007/s00432-009-0584-6. http://www.springerlink.com/content/m20156148046t6g8/fulltext.pdf.

- Vitale, Alessandro; Gringeri, Enrico; Valmasoni, Michele; D'Amico, Francesco; Carraro, Amedeo; Pauletto, Antonio; D'Amico, Francesco Jr.; Polacco, Marina; D'Amico, Davide Francesco; Cillo, Umberto (2007). "Longterm results of liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: an update of the University of Padova experience". Transplantation Proceedings 39 (6): 1892-1894. doi:10.1016/j.transproceed.2007.05.031. http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=19021177.

- Aiman Obed; Tung-Yu Tsui; Andreas A. Schnitzbauer; Manal Obed; Hans J. Schlitt; Heinz Becker; Thomas Lorf (2009). "Liver transplantation as curative approach for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: is it justified?". Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery 393 (2): 147-141. doi:10.1007/s00423-007-0250-x. http://www.springerlink.com/content/em42670j1802m171/fulltext.pdf.

- Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Need for a New Patient Selection Strategy. 240. 2004. pp. 924-925. doi:10.1007/s00423-007-0250-x. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1356504/.

- Chen, Min-Shan; Li, Jin-Qing; Zheng, Yun; Guo, Rong-Ping; Liang, Hui-Hong; Zhang, Ya-Qi; Lin, Xiao-Jun; Lau, Wan Y (2006). "A Prospective Randomized Trial Comparing Percutaneous Local Ablative Therapy and Partial Hepatectomy for Small Hepatocellular Carcinoma". Annals of Surgery 243 (3): 321–8. doi:10.1097/01.sla.0000201480.65519.b8. PMID 16495695.

- American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2005 Annual Meeting, Abstracts on Hepatobiliary Cancer

- Sorimachi, K; Akimoto, K; Koge, T (2008). "Inhibitory effect of Agaricus blazei Murill components on abnormal collagen fiber formation in human hepatocarcinoma cells". Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 72 (2): 621–3. doi:10.1271/bbb.70700. PMID 18256462

- Vente MA, Wondergem M, van der Tweel I, et al (April 2009). "Yttrium-90 microsphere radioembolization for the treatment of liver malignancies: a structured meta-analysis". Eur Radiol 19 (4): 951–9. doi:10.1007/s00330-008-1211-7. PMID 18989675.

- "Sorafenib in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma". http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/4/378. Retrieved May 12, 2010.

- "Hepatocellular carcinoma". https://health.google.com/health/ref/Hepatocellular+carcinoma. Retrieved May 12, 2010.

- "Prevention". http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000280.htm. Retrieved May 12, 2010.

- "WHO Disease and injury country estimates". World Health Organization. 2009. http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/estimates_country/en/index.html. Retrieved Nov. 11, 2009.

- "Cancer". World Health Organization. February 2006. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/. Retrieved 2007-05-24.

- Genetic research in HCC Stanford Asian Liver Center

- Huntington Medical Research Institute News, May 2005

- Journal of Clinical Oncology, Special Issue on Molecular Oncology: Receptor-Based Therapy, April 2005

- Lau W, Leung T, Ho S, Chan M, Machin D, Lau J, Chan A, Yeo W, Mok T, Yu S, Leung N, Johnson P (1999). "Adjuvant intra-arterial iodine-131-labelled lipiodol for resectable hepatocellular carcinoma: a prospective randomised trial". Lancet 353 (9155): 797–801. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(98)06475-7. PMID 10459961.

- Thomas M, Zhu A (2005). "Hepatocellular carcinoma: the need for progress". J Clin Oncol 23 (13): 2892–9. doi:10.1200/JCO.2005.03.196. PMID 15860847. http://www.jco.org/cgi/content/full/23/13/2892.

regards

Prof. Mohammed Abdulwahab AlKhateeb

-MD.,FICMS.,-INTERNAL MEDICINE - IRAQ - BAGHDAD,1993.

-Membership in international society of Iraqi scientists - MISIS - USA

-Active membership of New York Academy of Scientists)-AMNYAS-USA, 1984.

-European Society of digestive Oncology - ESDO MEMBERSHIP-AUSTERIA

-Acive membership of American Cancer Society / Cancer Survivors Network-USA. (http://csn.cancer.org/user/130076)

-Mayoclinic center health responder (physicianupdate.mayoclinic.org) & sharing.mayoclinic.org)-USA.

-Membership and Founder of "internal medicine & Clinical Pharmacology group" in ResearchGate – USA, (http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohammed_Alkhateeb/ )

-NOW WORKING IN ERBIL/IRAQ