Theoretically

2003-12-12T00:16:00.000-08:00

An introduction to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder

There are many psychological disorders I've researched over the years, but the one I have seen the most in action and yet understood the least is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This is because my stepfather, who has been in my family for over ten years, has moderate obsessive compulsive disorder which dictates a sizable amount of his daily routine. Though he is a psychologist himself, as is every adult member of my family, he refuses to treat or even acknowledge the condition, therefore presenting a whole host of problems within the family. In an attempt to understand this disorder, I've done research into the cause, symptoms, and cures for this disorder. I hope that by understanding the condition I can either find a way to limit the effects I'm exposed to or at least minimize the conflict in the household.
Obsessive compulsive individuals generally experience obsessive thoughts that lead to compulsive behavior. An example of this is the constant, unrelenting concern that one may have harmed themselves or others, causing them to go back and repeat what they've just done to ensure that no one was injured. Another is the constant worry that one is losing control of their environment, and thus aggressively attempt to control all aspects of their surroundings through obsessive organizing. Some other common obsessive thoughts are fear of contamination by germs, intrusive sexual thoughts or urges, the need to have everything perfect, and the need to confess or tell. These thoughts generally lead to compulsions such as unnecessary washing, inappropriate touching, hoarding and saving, and prolonged prayer.
These compulsive behaviors are generally done to attempt to get rid of the obsession, which is an unwanted, recurring thought. They will often perform these acts over and over, usually according to certain rules. An important question that has yet to be answered is whether obsessive compulsive disorder is inherited or learned, or is caused by some third, unknown factor. While a specific gene hasn’t been located for OCD, studies have shown that child-onset OCD generally runs in families, as it has in my stepfather’s. The disorder appears to be caused by difficulties in communication between the orbital cortex, located in the front of the brain, and structures located deeper in the brain. These structures use serotonin, a chemical messenger, to communicate, and insufficient levels of serotonin have been noted in individuals exhibiting OCD as well as depression. It has also been found that medication which raises levels of serotonin have improved OCD symptoms and relieved the accompanying anxiety.
Another similarly named condition my stepfather exhibits is Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder which is a collection of personality traits that, despite its similar name, does not specifically involve obsessions and compulsions. Instead, it is a personality pattern that involves a preoccupation with rules, schedules, and lists. Other preoccupations include perfectionism, an excessive devotion to work, rigidity; and inflexibility. While a small portion of OCD afflicted individuals also exhibit OCPD symptoms, those who do can generally treat both afflictions by treating OCD. Some common treatment are education, psychotherapy, and medication, all which my stepfather has refused.
By understanding the root of this problem, I can begin to uncover motives in my stepfather’s behavior that where previously nebulous or seemingly nonexistent. I’ve found that much of the irrational anger and frustration he exhibits is a result of rules, plans, or schedules being violated, changed, or interrupted. Much of what I originally attributed to just being hot-tempered can be explained when you examine the root of the problem as I have here. While conventional treatment is out of the question, by knowing the psychological buttons that can spark extreme frustration or anger, I can better avoid them in the future and minimize conflict. This will hopefully help the entire family run more smoothly and reduce the ever-present stress this disorder has caused in the past. While I still do not particularly like or agree with the actions of my stepfather, I can begin to understand the motives and thoughts that inspire them.

2003-11-29T18:07:00.000-08:00

Living Life As A Question

-Kody Kinzie

In my life, there has always been a central way of thought that directs and influences the way I act and the choices I make. That way of thought reflects my love of the empirical and investigative outlook provided by science. Though the majority of life transcends mere facts and takes on an entirely new level of knowing, to know the basics is to be able to differentiate between what is true and what isn't at the most fundamental level. With that understanding, it is possible to go on any number of journeys into the theoretical and fantastic yet never lose hold on what is true. This knowledge of the truth, unable to be corrupted by multiple interpretations or changed on a whim, has always drawn me. When it comes to truth, I began as a believer in what I could see, taste, touch, smell, and hear, and I even had my doubts about that on occasion. By extension and necessity, I have also become a believer in logical processes which can deduce things not normally apparent to the senses.
Ever since I was young, the thought that there was something more to our universe than meets the eye captivated me in a way nothing else seemed to. Knowing that what we see isn't necessary the way things worked pressed me to understand the inner workings of things that are normally ignored. While this drive may have lead me to the faith-based religious end of the spectrum, the insatiable human need to personify one's surroundings has never held meaning for me. The explanation that an event occurred because something felt like making it happen at that time, while easy to explain and comforting to believe, gives me pause for several reasons. One is the incredible sense of entitlement it reflects, that something that transcends physics has both emotions and wishes so flatteringly similar to ours, and that it would choose to spend that incredible power on making it rain. So then, if not because something or someone felt like it (which doesn't need a cause), then there must be another reason. It has always been that question that drives me to understand things at their most basic and fundamental level.
For me, the presence of facts and hard, cold truths in life is not sufficient to bring forth any real understanding. While providing the basis for knowledge, facts are meaningless unless viewed in context. A computer contains facts, but if you tried to have a discussion with it, you would find it to be less than interesting. It's the meaning and the endless questioning that differentiates human intelligence and the recollection of a machine. While computers can access facts and act on them rapidly, unencumbered by the knowledge of why the facts are important, only humans can take those facts and know them in a way that becomes almost pure instinct. I am a creative person, and by definition creativity is spontaneous and unusual. While the random thoughts and emotions I weave into stories and actions surely have an origin, the cause is so wrapped up in chance that they may as well have come from anywhere. It is this creativity that lends a human edge to the pursuit of facts, and tempers my expression of it. After all, a solely creative person would be without a base or any single direction in thought, while one immersed purely in facts would lack personality. I strive to balance facts with creativity and the human questions that make them meaningful.
In pursuit of this understanding, which is a combination of facts and the knowledge of where they fit in, I have encountered a gray area between what is real and what is assumed. This area lurks where the senses end and hypothesis as to the cause or outcome of the event begin. Where do we go when our senses cannot perceive the very thing we try to understand? Do we assure ourselves it occurred because something felt like making it happen? This is where the necessity of logic, and the salvation of science based on fact, comes in. Some things are so apparent they do not have to be proven. Saltwater, for example, contains salt. You know this because you can put the salt in and make it, or you can remove the water and be left with salt. You can't see the salt in the saltwater, however you know that it is there. At the most basic level, it is an assumption. However, using logic, you can string together facts to reach a conclusion that is otherwise an assumption. These simple assumptions based on related facts can be applied on a much greater scale, which makes such things as quantum theory possible. Any number of elaborate anomalies or everyday occurrences which have no perceivable physical source can be explored by this process. Armed with these tools, my drive in life is to ask questions and to have them answered in a way that makes sense, and the only field that answers the questions my curiosity generates has been science.
Unfortunately, I've found logic to be a double edged sword when used on such a great scale as the universe. While things familiar to us can be logically predicted based on similar occurrences and previous experiences, it is egotistical to believe that all things behave in ways that make immediate sense to us. While the most basic or general phenomenon can be deduced using human logic, there are many too strange or unusual to be accurately guessed at. In this case, the physical and logical aspects of science must be used in conjunction. While the great majority of modern science is born of theories rather then facts, the only method to discover the real inner workings of things is through the process of elimination. Disproving theories until only one remains that cannot be disproven brings us closer to scientific truth. That is the basis for science in the modern world as we expand our questions to encompass things that cannot be readily perceived, and that is the system that has always made perfect sense to me. With seemingly logical assumptions backed up or disproven by hard facts, things beyond normal perception can be understood with greater accuracy.
These thoughts and methods have been present in my mind since I began to question the way the world worked. Maybe it's not even the answers that I desire so much as exploring the questions and the process in doing so. Either way, the application of both the senses and the mind to it's full potential in such a way excites and fulfills me as no other subject. Science is the discovery of the universe and the way everything works, and I can't think of anything more captivating then the pursuit of understanding. Though I have many interests, my passion for science tends to shine through in all of them, often in the nerdiest sense possible. Usually it's knowing some obscure fact that creates long, awkward pauses as my friends roll their eyes. Often it's seeing something perfectly ordinary and wondering as to all the reasons behind it. The questions I wonder about, both wonderful in scope and intimidating in size, can only be satisfied by stepping beyond wondering and seeking the answers. All real understanding starts with a question, and the more curious a person is in one area, the more motivated they will be to learn in that subject. With me, it's simple. I want to know how everything works. With such a large question, the answer, I've found, lies within my love of science.
I build my life around searching for these answers, and for me it is the quest and resolution that makes the questions worth asking. Thinking and questioning like a scientist has changed and improved my life in countless areas, and has helped satisfy my natural curiosity. Fortunately, that curiosity seems impossible to ever fully satisfy, leaving me always with something to strive for. At night I lay in bed and wonder about life on other planets. I wonder about stars, and energy, and anti-ballistic fibers, and viruses, and antimatter, and black holes, and a thousand different things that I don't know the answer to... yet.

2003-09-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome:
A look into the scientific hurdles standing between humanity and the cure.

By Kody Kinzie

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and subsequently Human Immunodeficiency Virus, were first noted in the united states in the early 1980's, and has been a major worldwide concern ever since. The ease in which the virus spreads, combined with low initial awareness, has lead to raging epidemics in many countries, particularly in Africa. While over 600,000 cases of AIDS has been reported in the US alone, that number, accounting for a mere .6% of the US population, seems insignificant when compared to other countries. In south Africa, a full 20.1% of the adult population is infected, with close to one million people living with AIDS. One reason the disease has been so prevalent is the manner in which it spreads, most commonly by unprotected sex with someone who is infected. It can also be transmitted by sharing needles, as well as any other contact with the blood of an infected individual. Though it doesn’t spread through casual contact or biting insects, it has still managed to infect millions worldwide. With so much international attention, one might wonder why a cure hasn’t been found yet. In order to understand the reasons behind this apparent lack of progress, one must first understand what the virus it’s self is, and how it works.
The HIV virus is a retrovirus, which means that it’s genetic code is made up of ribonucleic acid (RNA). Once the virus infects a cell, it transcribes its RNA into DNA, which is then inserted into the host cell’s DNA. It is also a lentiviruse, which is a type of retrovirus that typically have a long period of time between infection and the appearance of symptoms. When infecting a host cell, the virus binds to the membrane of the cell and enters the by merging membranes with the host cell. Once inside, the virus transcribes its RNA into DNA and inserts it’s genetic code into the host cell. The host cell then begins to produce virus cells, until the cell can produce no more. When this occurs, the virus cells burst from the cell, absorbing and coating themselves with the membrane of the host cell, and go off to infect more cells and repeat the process. The host cell is typically killed when this occurs, but some cells are able to produce the HIV virus and still remain stable, thus proving extremely dangerous when infected. Some immune cells are infected when dormant, and produce no virus cells until activated by a normal immune system response. Studies have shown that oncogenes, which are responsible for the rapid replication of cancer cells, are also activated when the host cell is infected. What makes the HIV virus unique is the way in which it infects a body as a whole. Upon entry, it infects cells rapidly and quickly spikes to extremely high numbers in the blood and lymph system. During this stage, it seeds internal organs, particularly lymph organs, and may also insert it’s self into latent cells and hide within the DNA of the cell. At this point, the body fights back with a massive immune response, which is typically enough to destroy any viral infection. During this stage, an infected person usually experiences flu like symptoms. These symptoms stop once the body has destroyed the majority of the HIV virus, and may not return for up to ten years. Inside the body however, the virus cells that have evaded the immune response, either by rapid mutation or by remaining in the DNA of cells, begin to multiply again, crippling the immune system slowly and deliberately. By the time symptoms begin to emerge again, the immune system may be irreparably damaged.
AIDS is commonly thought to be the actual virus, when instead it is simply a state of acute HIV infection. Death from AIDS is not caused by one specific virus, it is caused by a combination of factors. Once an HIV infection is severe enough, the immune system will be so weakened that it cannot function anymore. In this state, the body cannot fight off any infection, even one that normally would have caused mild discomfort, or go completely unnoticed. When this occurs, an infected person will die from virtually any infection, viral or bacterial, as the infection will meet no resistance. Unfortunately for the patient, one doesn’t have to come into outside contact with a virus to become infected. Many viruses contracted as a child are never fully eliminated, such as variation of the herpes virus, which lives in the spine and periodically emerge to cause canker sores. Often times a latent virus will emerge and begin infecting the body once it meets no resistance, even if the patient is isolated from any possible sources of virus cells.
Typically, a vaccine is developed to prevent infection by a virus. A vaccine works by “teaching” immune cells to identify and destroy a virus by injecting inert or dead virus cells into the body. Once the body learns to recognize the foreign characteristics of a virus cell, it can fight them much more effectively if infected in the future. Unfortunately, the development of an AIDS vaccine faces many challenges to overcome before it can be successful. One such problem is that the HIV virus mutates and recombines extremely rapidly, subtly changing the characteristics of it’s self and confusing immune cells by doing so. Another problem is that it infects immune cells, the cells that are typically activated by a vaccine. In this case, activating those cells only make the virus more widespread and encourage production. HIV can also be transmitted in more then one state. While most viruses are transmitted by virus cells entering the body, the HIV virus can enter the body through cells it has infected. Once it is hidden in the DNA of a cell, it is extremely difficult to detect, and may remain undetected until it’s recourses are exhausted by the virus and it dies. Yet another hurdle is that researchers have yet to determine what an effective immune response would consist of, as the typical immune response is unusually ineffective. The lack of an ideal animal model for testing is also a major setback, impairing scientists ability to understand how the virus operates in the human body.
Despite setbacks, there are many avenues that scientists are currently exploring in an attempt to fight this disease. Though the rapid mutation of the virus makes it difficult to detect, if a common element is found that all HIV mutations share, a vaccine could be devised which universally protects from HIV infection. Other methods of prevention include research into stopping the virus after, or even during infection. Scientists are looking into methods of stopping the virus from binding to a cell altogether, rendering it inert. Without the ability to bind to a host cell, it could not infect it, and would be destroyed by the body’s immune system before it could replicate it’s self. Another approach is to remove the recourses necessary for the virus to reproduce, either by rendering it incapable of entering the cell, or by preventing it from adding it’s DNA to the host cell’s DNA. Any disruption to the virus’s reproductive cycle can be turned into a cure, and although the AIDS virus is proving tough to kill, it is forcing scientists to think in new ways and explore options and methods never tested before.
In conclusion, the HIV virus is both a worldwide epidemic and a challenge to conventional medicine. It’s worldwide recognition has granted it more attention then any other virus in history, and in doing so has attracted some of the best minds in the field. The challenge in creating a vaccine, or an outright cure, will require new methods and ways of thinking to overcome, which may bring about a revolution in modern medical procedures. Yet despite the challenge and the potential benefits, it is through death and it’s notorious resistance to cures that it has drawn that attention, and must be done away with before it becomes even more of an epidemic then it already is. While it’s hard-earned public spotlight has increased public awareness, which is a huge factor in prevention, third world nations with little or no health care continue to suffer. Science has yet to come up with a reliable, universal cure, but through careful research and understanding of the HIV virus, combined with public awareness, we should not have long to wait.

2003-08-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

A breif introduction:
This blog will focus primairily on thoughts, theories, observations and comparisons of mine. Some will be purely factual, others speculitive. This post is factual, as to provide an introduction for later posts.

Anti-Ballistic Fibers: The methods of today and tomorrow, an introduction.

Bulletproof vests of today utilize synthetic fibers to be flexible, lightweight, and able to provide protection from any range of ballistic threats. From bullets to shrapnel, soft body armor has revolutionized the way that military, police, and civilian forces operate, creating a concealable, convenient, and effective method of increasing safety in a hostile situation. The most famous of the fibers is manufactured by DuPont, and is known as Kevlar. There are two major points that make Kevlar so useful in bullet proof vests: the fiber it's self, and the way it's woven. While Kevlar fibers are five times stronger then steel, if you covered yourself with them and happened to be shot, they would do little to nothing to prevent penetration. What makes them effective against penetration is that on top of being so strong, they are tightly woven into an interconnected network. When force is applied to one point, the entire network absorbs the force as opposed to just the point that is hit. This way, the force of the impact is divided along the whole of the vest, and the actual force felt by the wearer is many times less because it is spread out. By using layers, the force of the bullet is lessened with each layer it passes through. The head of the bullet also widens as it impacts, increasing the area of impact and lessening the force. In this way, it prevents from penetration of the vest, as well as blunt force trauma, which is caused by the vest moving too much under the impact, into the wearer's body. Kevlar fibers are twisted to increase the tightness and density of the weave, to prevent this. When the vest gives too much, the impact of the bullet won't be distributed enough, and an area of the vest will push against the wearer's vest hard enough to cause ribs to break, or other unpleasant consequences. As opposed to the penetration of a bullet, it would feel as if the wearer was hit by a large, blunt object many times the size of and moving half the speed of a bullet.
While Kevlar has been incredibly successful, a new material may be better suited to the task. In the world of synthetic fibers, it is altogether ironic that natural fibers have bested the tireless efforts of DuPont scientists. To find a superior fiber, you need look no farther then spider silk, which has the highest tensile strength of any known solid. If this material could be mass produced, tampered with, and maybe even improved on, it could lead to a new fiber at least twice as strong as Kevlar, far lighter, and more flexible. While the secrets of spider silk were at first shrouded in mystery, it has been shown that the primary components of spider silk are amino acids, namely glycine and alanine. Recent methods of creating this substance have consisted of injecting the proper DNA into a bacteria cell, and letting the cell create the amino acids and proteins necessary for creation. The bacteria were then dissolved, and the proteins they created artificially spun using techniques like that of a spider. As you can see, creating this material in sufficient quantity is a serious hurtle. While synthetic spider silk will prove to be an incredibly valuable commodity in the future, other methods of stopping bullets may be created. After all, a bulletproof vest is required to do one thing: stop bullets. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. You can catch the bullet, as Kevlar does, and protect against blunt force trauma. You can also deflect the bullet, which is accomplished by applying as much force to the bullet as it is applying to you. Hard body armor, such as steel and ceramic plates, work like this. While this works fine with hard body armor, it is difficult to engineer soft body armor that would do this and still prevent blunt force trauma. While it might be possible to create a rubber-like substance that causes the bullet to bounce off, the force of the rubber pushing back on the bullet would be transferred to the person wearing it. Since the force must be equal to the force of the bullet to make it bounce off, none of the force would be disbursed, and the blunt force trauma would be rather unpleasant and probably deadly. Another option that occurred to me was a material interlaced with vapor-pockets. As the bullet penetrates each layer, it hits a new pocket, releasing pressurized vapor. The force of the escaping would slow down the bullet, and possibly even eject it from the material entirely. Unfortunately, unless disbursed, the force of the gasses escaping would also knock the wearer on his ass with severe blunt trauma, as the same principal as the rubber would apply. Therefore blunt trauma remains the biggest concern, and so far the only answer seems to be to distribute the force. While this is easy for hard body armor, it remains a task only possible through a dense network of synthetic fibers in soft body armor. Kevlar remains the dominating force in soft body armor protection, but scientific research may find a way to overcome the issue with blunt force trauma in a lightweight and flexible package. Once this step is made, any number of bullet-stopping techniques may be applied that were before ruled as ineffective.