[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="The major benefits of reflexology"][/caption]

The major benefits of reflexology!

In living organisms a stable structure is desirable, and homeostatic mechanisms are present to maintain equilibrium. However, if an organism cannot break out of a given equilibrium state it may prove brittle and vulnerable to external pressures. The birth and death of individuals allows a tribe or species to adapt to a changing external environment. An alternative response to environmental changes is exhibited by cellular slime molds which, when food is scarce, merge into a "multicellular slug-like coordinated creature which crawls to an open lit place and grows into a fruiting body. Some of the amoebae become spores to begin the next generation, but some... sacrifice themselves to become a dead stalk, lifting the spores up into the air."

Corporations and other large organisations also suffer from the effects of homeostasis. Although there is an entire industry devoted to the study of organisational structural dynamics and change management, stagnation is more often than not alleviated by market pressures, whether by acquisition or enforced "restructuring". In our work lives we are each happy to accept a comfortable equilibrium state, but this reduces the ability of the organisation to adapt. And of course, when nation states are too rigid and authoritarian they tend to fall to revolution rather than evolution.

In the brain homeostasis might correspond to boredom resulting from a lack of stimulation. This reaction is perhaps intended to instigate a search for new ideas or experiences, which are generally rewarded by a feeling of pleasure. If something is new and exciting it's usually fun too, because we enjoy learning. The desire for novelty provides a mechanism to move the mind out of an unhelpful state.

If a garden is left to nature, a power law distribution of species quickly develops. One or two particularly well-suited or vigorous plants take over whilst others dwindle. Gardeners address this by weeding and pruning. Even "wild gardens" require the careful application of a little encouragement and discouragement. When a new plant appears it must be nurtured whilst the weeds are kept in check.

If social sites like Digg, Wikipedia and Twitter are to remain dynamic and continually evolving they need to solve the homeostasis problem. In the social media, new and interesting contexts or individuals with novel viewpoints should somehow be amplified. There has been recent discussion on Twitter about how a modified Retweet could be useful, and perhaps this partly fulfills the need since the resulting amplification is relative to the connectivity of the sender, but it ultimately depends on the goodwill of community members. I have mentioned in previous posts how novelty can be identified with semantic profiling, but how can it be "subtly encouraged" without threatening the social ecosystem in question?

How on earth did you happen upon this site?  If Mr. J or CHS Biology have any relevance to you then you've somehow magically stumbled into what will be the preeminent online resource for success in your future class.  On this site, you will be provided regular updates on news, current assignments, lecture notes, and much much more!  So make sure to bookmark this site and check back in often as construction is estimated to be over shortly in time for the beginning of school.

[Co-Authored: William Bergquist and Agnes Mura]

[Derived from William Bergquist and Agnes Mura, Ten Themes and Variations for Postmodern Leaders and Their Coaches. and from a forthcoming book, William Bergquist and Agnes Mura, Building an Appreciative Organization: Themes and Strategies for Effective Postmodern Leaders, Consultants and Coaches. For information on both books contact Emily Browne, Administrator, Pacific Soundings Press, 3550 Watt Ave. Suite 140, Sacramento, California 95821.]

Theme: Acknowledging Irreversibility in Our Postmodern World

Fundamental Question

What might we learn from postmodern theorists, observers and critics as well as contemporary physicists and biologists about the nature of change as it is now occurring in 21^st Century societies?

Contemporary organizational theory—and, for that matter, most organizational theory during the past century—has been built upon a solid, mechanistic foundation. Many successful organizations during the Twentieth Century operated as well oiled systems. This perspective was key to the success of corporate enterprise during what Henry Luce called The American Century. These organizations imported resources from the outside (such as raw materials, employees, capital, sales orders and customers). They then provided some sort of transformation upon these imported resources (such as converting iron to automobiles, or untrained children to properly educated citizens). Finally these finely tuned organizations exported the transformed product to other organizations located in the external world. Unfortunately, these organizations are often ill equipped to deal with the highly turbulent, complex and unpredictable world of the Twenty First Century.

The mechanistic organization of the Twentieth Century ran like a pendulum. A pendulum epitomizes elegance and simplicity in motion. We can disrupt the course of the pendulum by giving it an added push or by bumping into it and slowing it down. In either case, the pendulum will adjust its course and continue swinging back and forth at a greater or lesser magnitude. The pendulum, in modern systems theory terms, will always return to a homeostatic balance, retaining its basic form or pathway. Systems theorists would suggest that organizations tend to return to their previous form and function even with disruptions and interference. While the contemporary organization may seem to be chaotic and in disarray, we are (according to many modern theorists) merely witnessing a long term process of homeostatic readjustment and an ultimate return to a former state or style of functioning.

Is this mechanistic analogy to the pendulum still accurate for Twenty First Century organizations? Ilya Prigogine, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, suggests that many processes in nature (including perhaps those exhibited by organizations) don’t match very well with the mechanistic world of the pendulum—as much as scientists throughout the ages would like the world to resemble this orderly pendulum. Rather, many processes of the world are likely to resemble the phenomenon that we call fire. Fire is a perplexing problem in the history of science. Prigogine notes that modern scientists, in an effort to create a coherent mechanistic model of the world, have tended to ignore the complex, transformative processes of fire, concentrating on only one of its properties: the capacity to generate heat. Fire thus became a heat machine for scientists and was treated in a mechanistic manner.

Fire, however, has many fascinating properties. Most importantly, it is an irreversible process: it consumes something that can not be reconstructed. Those of us who live in the San Francisco Bay Area were tragically attuned to this phenomenon during the early 1990s, as we watched the irreversible destruction of our neighbor’s homes in the Oakland Firestorm. These homes could never be "unburned." There would never be a readjustment in the community that was destroyed by the fire. There could only be the construction of new homes and a new community. Many other processes of change and transformation are similarly irreversible. Avalanches can never be undone, nor can Pandora’s Box ever be closed once the lid is opened and the evil spirits have escaped. Rumors can never be totally dispelled once they are let out of their box, just as the good old times can never be restored, despite the efforts of Walt Disney, Frank Capra and other purveyors of nostalgia.

We are reminded of early childhood experiences. One of us was having a debate with a cousin. This debate like all debates during childhood concerned one of the “fundamental” issues of life. In this instance we were arguing about whether or not anything is impossible. I argued that anything is possible. My cousin argued that some things are impossible and offered an example: “you can’t return the toothpaste to a tube once you have squeezed it out!” I had no good rebuttal to that argument and was very impressed with this evidence. Until recently I had no category in which to place this example of impossibility—or more accurately irreversibility. Many changes in organizations operate like toothpaste that has just been squeezed from the tube. I suppose you could get it back in the tube—but what a mess! And would the tube of toothpaste ever really be the same again? We squeeze out organizational truths in moments of frustration or anger and can never cover them up again (a variation on Pandora’s Box). We tentatively consider a change in organizational structure, but the word gets out and we are soon stuck with this change whether we like it or not. We become bound up in complex and paradoxical relationships and can’t undo them—except by divorce. The equilibrium has been disturbed, chaos often follows, and there is no returning home as the same person we were when we left. Time moves in one direction and can not be reversed.

A second remarkable characteristic of fire is its ephemeral nature. It is all process and not much substance. As Prigogine notes, the Newtonian sciences concentrated on substances and the ways in which forces operated on various substances. It became the science of being. Fire, by contrast, is a science of becoming. Science of being, notes Prigogine, focuses on the states of a system, whereas a science of becoming focused on temporal changes—such as the flickering of a flame. Fire demands a focus not on the outcomes of a production process, but on the nature of the process itself. As adults, we often focus on the outcomes of our children’s creative work. We admire their drawings of sunsets or battles among alien forces. Yet, our children tend to focus on the process of drawing. Their picture is not a static portrait. Rather it is story that is unweaving as the child places various lines on the page. In a similar manner we must often focus on the ways in which decisions are made in organizations, or the styles being used to manage employees, rather than focusing on the final decisions that are made or the relative success of the employee’s performance. Unfortunately, organizational processes (like fires) are elusive. They are hard to measure and even harder to document in terms of their ultimate impact on an organization.

Pendulums operate in a quite different manner from fire. First, the movement of a pendulum is quite predictable, whereas fire is very unpredictable. Once we know the initial parameters of the pendulum (length of stem, force being applied when pendulum is first pushed in a specific direction, and so forth) we can predict virtually everything of importance about this mechanistic and relatively closed system. Even without this initial information, we can readily predict the future movement of the pendulum after observing its trajectory once or twice.

A second important feature of the pendulum that makes it a favorite of many modern day scientists is its primary connection to one of the central building blocks of Newtonian science, namely, gravity. While fire seems to defy or at least be indifferent to gravity, flickering about as if it was without weight or form, our noble pendulum provides clear evidence that gravity is present and operating in a uniform and predictable manner on objects of substance. The pendulum is a tool that readily is transformed into a technology (for example, the Swiss watch), based on its dependability and conceptual accessibility. Fire, by contrast, can burn and rage uncontrolled. Once started, fires tend to take on a life of their own, seemingly defying the laws of entropy. Pendulums gradually lose energy and obey the laws of entropy. They will stop when they receive inadequate attention and never rage out of control.

A third feature of the pendulum is the reversibility of its process. The pendulum must swing back and forth, repeatedly moving back to a space that it occupied a short time before. The pendulum, like many mechanistic systems, frequently undoes what has already been done in order for the system to remain in equilibrium and in operation. A pendulum that swings in only one direction ("to but not fro") would soon be replaced by one that works properly. Organizations that operate like pendulums shift in one direction. They then soon correct themselves and shift back in the opposite direction. Large inventories are soon corrected by a drop in production orders. Later, production orders are increased to make up for a drop in inventory.

In organizations that resemble pendulums, homeostasis is always preserved—eventually. The organization keeps returning to an ideal or minimally acceptable state. Homeorhesis (a Greek word referring to the tendency of organizations to return to a common pathway or style) is also preserved. Leaders of the organization oversee, review and readjust the organization’s mode of operation in order to return to a desired path, style or strategy. Time reverses itself and even restores itself as the organization returns to a previous stasis or “rhesis.” The exceptional biologist and anthropologist, Gregory Bateson speaks of this as “first order” change. In essence, a first order change is one in which people in an organization are doing more of something that they are already doing or less of something that they are already doing. They bring about first order change as a way of returning to some desired state of being (homeostasis). We spend more money on a computer system in order to reduce our customer response time to a former level. We reduce the cost of a specific product in order to restore our competitive edge in the market place. We pay our employees higher wages in order to bring back the high level of morale and productivity in the company. First order changes are always reversible, because we can go back to the drawing board and repeatedly readjust our change effort, while being directed by feedback systems that provide us with information about how we are performing relative to our standard or goal.

También me recuerda a Paul Watzlawick. Es cierto que una imagen vale mas que mil palabras. Pero los conceptos y la comunicación son también palabras. 
En una de sus mejores obras "Teoría de la comunicación humana", se presentan algunos conceptos que me evocan las imágenes de este vídeo. Por otra parte como me decía mi amigo y colega Blas... muy oportuno al momento que vivimos. Ya lo creo.

• INTERACCION: Serie de mensajes intercambiados entre personas. Dicha secuencia es mayor que un único mensaje, pero no es infinita. La interacción ha de concebirse como un sistema, denominado sistema interaccional, y un ejemplo es la familia.
• SISTEMA: Es un conjunto de objetos, así como de relaciones entre los objetos y entre sus atributos.
• MEDIO: Para un sistema dado, el medio es el conjunto de todos los objetos cuyos atributos al cambiar afectan al sistema y también aquellos objetos cuyos atributos son modificados por la conducta del sistema.
• SISTEMA ABIERTO: Aquel que intercambia materiales, energías o información con su medio. Propiedades importantes de los sistemas abiertos son la totalidad, la retroalimentación y la equifinalidad.
• SISTEMA INTERACCIONAL: Dos o más comunicantes en el proceso, o en el nivel, de definir la naturaleza de su relación. Los sistemas interaccionales se consideran el foco natural para el estudio del impacto pragmático a largo plazo de los fenómenos comunicacionales.
• REGLA: Según Jackson, es el producto de la progresiva estabilización de la relación entre personas. Es el modo peculiar cómo ellos se relacionan como resultado de su interacción a lo largo del tiempo. Las reglas se instalan debido al efecto limitador de la comunicación: se observa en efecto una extrema limitación de las conductas posibles en alguno de sus aspectos o dimensiones, lo cual determina una configuración redundante.
• LIMITACION: La comunicación tiene un efecto limitador: en una secuencia comunicacional, todo intercambio de mensajes disminuye el número de movimientos siguientes posibles.
• TOTALIDAD: Cada una de las partes de un sistema está relacionada de tal modo con las otras, que un cambio en una de ellas provoca un cambio en todas las demás y en el sistema total. Esto es, un sistema se comporta no sólo como un simple compuesto de elementos independientes, sino como un todo inseparable y coherente.
• RETROALIMENTACION: Cadena donde el hecho A afecta al hecho B, este al hecho C, etc., y donde el último hecho afecta a su vez al hecho A. La retroalimentación es negativa si conduce a mantener constante el sistema y es positiva si lleva al cambio, esto es, a la pérdida de la estabilidad o equilibrio.
• EQUIFINALIDAD: Principio según el cual idénticos resultados pueden tener orígenes distintos, porque lo decisivo es la naturaleza de la organización.
• ESTABILIDAD: Un sistema es estable con respecto a algunas de sus variables si éstas variables tienden a permanecer dentro de límites definidos. Son los llamados sistemas de "estado constante".

• HOMEOSTASIS: Estado constante o estabilidad de un sistema, en general mantenido como tal mediante mecanismos de retroalimentación negativa.

• CALIBRACION: Regulación del sistema a partir de reglas.
• FUNCION ESCALONADA: Cambio en la calibración de un sistema

... it hurt at times, really hurt at times, but now I am feeling soooo much better :D

Don't get me wrong, my back is still sore but all over I feel better! If I could, regardless of my health, I'd go and see Clive at least once a month, I just feel the holistic benefits are that great. He's got my lymph glands going, eased my neck and everything :D

Oh ... just in case you don't know the word reflexology ...

Reflexology is an Holistic, non-invasive therapy that has a documented history dating back 5000 years. It was known about in ancient China and there are paintings on the walls of the tomb of Ankhamor (a physician to the Pharoah) in Saqquara depicting its use in around 2500 B.C.

There are approximately 7200 nerve endings on the feet, and these relate to various organs and glands within the body. A mirror image of the body has been mapped on the feet and presure applied on specific reflex points on the feet can affect the corresponding part of the body.

The energy flow or Chi which flows through the body, if disrupted can cause illness or dis-ease and Reflexology aims to restore and maintain balance.

The body has its own powerful healing response, Reflexology aims to stimulate this into normal functioning and once acheived, help to maintain Homeostasis or balance.

Clive also reminded me where I can do pointing on my hands to both ease my back and get my adrenal glands working i.e. gets the anti-inflammatory 'stuff' working. The number 10 spot is for my adrenal glands and in the white bit to the side is for my spine. Oh and I must always do it on both hands to maintain the balance :)

via Ted.com:

Click on the image to watch the video "The amazing intelligence of crows"

and then perhaps be afraid, be very, very afraid. The crows have decided that it would be a lot easier to train us if we're going to insist on not behaving in a mutually beneficial manner.

First, it's a vending machine. Next, they want a lot of the jobs that people currently get paid to do, like pick up trash in a stadium after an event. And it isn't optional...

with thanks to Fleshbucket for the video and site recommendation.

update: It hasn't been easy to find a video of the Simpsons episode where Homer raises an army of crows, but this one does try...

Human homeostasis is the property to regulate the internal environment of the body, as to maintain
constant condition for all the body.
Humans are regulators, they try to maintain constant conditions, e.g. temperature.
The main contributor to homeostasis are the kidneys. Kidneys can regulate homeostasis in 5 different
ways:

1. Regulation of blood water levels
2. Reabsorption of substances into the blood
3. Maintenance of salt and iron levels in the blood
4. Regulation of blood pH
5. Excretion of urea and wastes

 Thermoregulation

 Thermoregulation is an important aspect of human homeostasis. Heat is mainly produced by the liver. Humans have been able to adapt to a great diversity of climates. High temperatures pose serious stresses for the human body, placing the person in great danger of injury or even death. In order to deal with these conditions, humans have developed many modes of adaptation.

The skin assists in homeostasis. It does this by reacting differently to hot and cold conditions so that the inner body temperature remains constant. Sweating is the primary mode by which humans attempt to lose excess body heat.

A lot of diseases result from a "homeostasis imbalance". There is a large range of diseases, for example:

• Diabetes
• Dehydration
• Hypoglycemia
• Gout
• Or any disease resulting in a toxin in the blood

Homeostasis is all about balance. Looking at my unit outline, there is not much time spent specifically on this subject - but it reaches out is to many other fields, and the effects can be enormous.

Keeping balance is easy, you do it all the time. Stand up, and you will not fall down. You can balance on your two feet. No balance, you fall down, you hurt yourself. Same with pretty much every system in your body. 

Take, for example, your body temperature. This should be 36.8 °C. If it drops below that point, your body will start shivering in order to produce heat, additionally goosebumps will appear on your skin to retain heat. If you get too hot, your blood vessels near your skin dilate to let of more heat.

"Keeping the internal body constant is called Homeostasis. It is a state of Dynamic Equilibrium."

(Dynamic equilibrium: always being adjusted and tweaked to be in balance)

Other systems that are regulated by homeostasis include levels of salt, carbondioxide water and oxygen in your body.

A basic look at how this is achieved shows that there are three components required for a control system

1. Receptors: Gather the required information, e.g. what is the current body temperature?
2. Integrators: These decide what needs to be done, whether everything is fine or a correction is needed.
3. Effectors: Enforcement of any necessary corrections

How?

There are two ways that homeostasis is regulated: Threough the nervous system (short term)and through the endocrine system (long term). Imagine yourself in minor car accident. The initial shock come from your nervous system, it acts quickly and does not last long. But does the feeling wear off half an hour later? Nope. Your endocrine system has kicked in and taken over that part for the nervous system.

Clever aye?

More How.

The body has two mechanisms:

Negative feedback - decreases the likelihood that the action would happen again

•  Real World example: Telling a child off for bad behaviour: you don't want that happening again.

• The mechanisms that is used in most regulatory systems in the body

An example would be the regulation of blood sugar levels in the bloodstream. The brain insists on blood sugar levels being at exactly 90mg of glucose per 100ml of blood. (to quote Dr Richard Brightwell: "The brain is lazy, selfish and tells you lies").

In case your glucose levels rise above that, your pancreas releases insulin (making cells more permeable to glucose to help absorbtion) until an appropriate level is reached.

Same story if your glucose levels drop below the 90mg/100ml, your pancreas releases glucagon in to the blood stream

Positive feedback - increases the probability that the action will happen again

• Real world example: Praising a child for good behaviour: You want to encourage this to happen again.
• Not found very often in the body.

Childbirth is a great example: The soon-to-be born baby, just by being in the uterus, exerts pressure against the wall of the uterus, which acts as a trigger to release Oxytocin (which is a hormone that makes smooth/involuntary muscles contract. Females have more smooth muscles than males: in their uterus). Relesing oxytocin contracts the uterus, the baby exerts more pressure upon the uterus, more oxytocins is released - a cycle. These contractions are called – you guessed it – contractions, and stop after the stimulant (baby) has been removed (born). No need for the uterus to contract anymore!

Actually, that is not true. Apparently the mammary glands are another area of the body where one can stimulate the release of oxytocin. After childbirth, the uterus is not quite the size it used to be, still pretty stretched. More oxytocins equals more contraction equals a uterus that more represents it’s original state. An interesting fact that goes with this is the rising number of hysterectomies that occurred during the 1970’s, following the introduction of artificial mothers milk, so mums in the 1950’s did not have to breast feed (and apparently weren’t encouraged to do so). They did not receive enough oxytocins. Their uterus were left in a semi-stretched state, thinner and bigger that natural, an ideal breeding ground for bacteria.

Morale: Everything happens for a reason.

Los caballos no mienten, gracias a Dios. Su comportamiento siempre se muestra acorde con aquello que realmente quieren transmitir, sin segundas intenciones, sin lugar a equívocos. Son un libro abierto, con su historia y su texto, al que debemos aprender a leer si queremos acercarnos. La diferencia respecto a cualquier otra lectura será que aquí debe existir una actitud humilde y positiva de base por nuestra parte.

El caballo como ser vivo tiende a alcanzar un estado de homeostasis, es decir, tiende a regular múltiples parámetros para conseguir un equilibrio doble, tanto interno como respecto del medio externo en el que se haya. Es por ello que actuará de catalizador de nuestro estado, evitando nuestras neurosis. Emociones básicas como la rabia, la tristeza o el miedo, hacen que unas substancias denominadas neuropéptidos se derramen en nuestro torrente sanguíneo. Los animales los captan y no aceptan tal actitud distorsionadora por nuestra parte. Aquí es cuando debemos entrar en un estado de no-mente, es decir, de meditación, para poder abrir un canal de comunicación fluida.

La sensación de biofilia que se nos ofrece al acariciar un caballo nos ayuda a retornar al contacto con la Naturaleza, de la que formamos parte. El caballo, y Ella, nos responden con aceptación, nunca con resignación. El escenario natural en el que el caballo nos introduce nos ayuda a desarrollarnos como seres humanos, desestructurando los reflejos condicionados a los que estamos acostumbrados, y diluyendo nuestros mecanismos de defensa que, en tal contexto de aceptación y en interacción con el caballo, dejan de tener sentido.

Todo este proceso es el camino que nos lleva a una actitud de humildad. Despojarnos de lo que creemos ser, mirarnos adentro gracias a la manera en el caballo nos espejea, escucharnos con detenimiento y comunicarnos de forma transparente, desde lo que somos: un animal consciente.

[slideshare id=308539&doc=functions-of-the-liver-1205663642144171-2&w=425]

Download it here: functions-of-the-liver.ppt

Boring introduction (sounds like it's narrated by Hannibal Lecter):

Introduction to liver functions from Encyclopedia Britannica

Flashy introduction, then focuses on liver cancer from the CancerCompass.com

Good tutorial with simple animation of bile secretion from Colorado State

Great EM images from Dr. Jastrow's EM Atlas

Good histology set of specialized cells of the GI system from siumed

now if i could just get rid of the achy coughy feeling and actually sleep at night i'd be set... and i still have four perm wraps waiting for me when i go to school tomorrow*groans*

There of course good old wiki.

Membrane science is still an important research area in biology and medicine. This interface between the cell's interior and its environment is crucial in many aspects of biology. One key discovery is that of aquaporin by Peter Angre in 2003. This discovery won him the Nobel prize in Chemistry together with Roderick Mckinnon, who worked on the structure and mechanism of potassium channels.

Peter Andre's lecture on aquaporins.

Mckinnon's lecture on potassium channels.