#Isacoff

[jazzdailyblog]

Exploring the Sonic Landscape of "Mysterious Traveller": A Jazz Fusion Masterpiece by Weather Report

Introduction: In 1974, the jazz fusion ensemble Weather Report released their groundbreaking album “Mysterious Traveller.” As the band’s fourth studio album, it marked a pivotal moment in their evolution, showcasing their innovative blend of jazz, funk, and rock influences. Produced by Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, the album not only cemented Weather Report’s place in the jazz fusion genre but…

[avecespienso]

EL NACIMIENTO DEL ESTADO DE ISRAEL Y EL CONFLICTO ÁRABE-ISRAELÍ

A continuación, la introducción a un breve recorrido histórico por el surgimiento del Estado de Israel y el conflicto árabe-israelí que continúa hasta nuestros días.

"El 7 de octubre del 2023 inició la denominada guerra de Gaza tras el ataque de un grupo armado de militantes palestinos. Este conflicto armado ha puesto la mirada internacional sobre la ocupación israelí y el genocidio perpetrado contra el pueblo palestino que, contrario a lo expuesto en los medios masivos de comunicación, inició a principios del siglo pasado e incluso ahora continúa sin que se pueda divisar un fin claro.

Para poder entender el contexto actual del conflicto árabe-israelí y el estado de la política occidental, es necesario retroceder al surgimiento del sionismo como movimiento de masas y a la fundación del Estado de Israel a mitad del siglo XX.

Al analizar este momento histórico, es importante destacar que el conflicto en la actualidad no se trata —ni se trató nunca— sobre límites territoriales. Es una disputa por la mera existencia. Sus orígenes se encuentran en los eventos posteriores a la Primera Guerra Mundial, pero los detalles se hayan envueltos en mitos, desinformación y una representación profundamente estilizada que retrata, de forma consistente, a Israel como la víctima (Isacoff, 2005, p. 74). Muchos autores marcan el inicio de la contienda con la Guerra de los Seis Días en 1967 y la conquista de Israel sobre la franja de Gaza, la Ribera Occidental, el este de Jerusalem y los Altos de Golan (Rashid, 2014). Esa guerra, la cual inició de forma preventiva por parte de Israel, fue parte de un conflicto bélico que comenzó más de medio siglo antes y cuyas raíces sobre las reclamaciones históricas del territorio datan hace miles de años.

Las raíces judías en el territorio comienzan en algún momento entre 1800 y 1500 a.C., cuando la comunidad hebrea, un grupo semita, migró hacia Canaan (lo que hoy conocemos como Israel/Palestina). Alrededor del año 1000 a.C. sus descendientes establecieron el reino de Israel con Jerusalén como su capital. El reino se encontraba bajo control extranjero, el más conocido siendo el Imperio Romano, aunque constantemente organizaban revueltas, lo que llevó a su expulsión en 135 a.C. Entonces, la población judía se esparció a través de Europa y el Medio Oriente durante los siguientes 1800 años. Los romanos nombraron al territorio Palaestina, mismo que estuvo bajo control de los árabes a partir del siglo VII, introduciendo un nuevo lenguaje y religión: el árabe y el Islam. Con la presencia de una minoría judía en el área desde el siglo VII hasta el siglo XX, la mayoría de sus habitantes eran palestinos. Es importante reconocer que aunque la mayoría de palestinos son musulmanes, también existen palestinos cristianos, judíos y católicos que vivieron juntos de forma relativamente pacífica durante los siglos en los que Palestina formó parte del Imperio Otomano (1517-1918). Sin embargo, la emergencia del nacionalismo moderno que arrasó con Europa llevó a una alza en la discriminación y hostilidad hacia los judíos, periodo al que suele referirse como el movimiento antisemita en Europa, por lo que los judíos respondieron creando su propia forma de nacionalismo, el movimiento sionista, que emergió en Europa durante el siglo XIX.

Formalmente, se declaró la intención de fundar un Estado por y para los judíos durante el Primer Congreso Sionista en 1887, presidido por Theodor Herzl, el fundador del sionismo político moderno. Seis años antes, el Dr. Yehuda Leib Pinsker había publicado un panfleto titulado Auto-Emancipación, un análisis profundo del antisemitismo que surgió como respuesta a la persecución que enfrentó la comunidad judía al sur de Rusia. Pinsker llamaba al establecimiento de una nación judía donde pudieran vivir no como invitados, sino como dueños (Longfellow et al., 2012, pp. 3).

En su momento el panfleto dio origen a un largo y contencioso debate en el que, por un lado, algunos académicos judíos argumentaban que la fundación de un Estado propio era la única forma de garantizar la seguridad de las distintas comunidades judías que hasta ese entonces se encontraban esparcidas por toda Europa y, por el otro, quienes argumentaban que el establecimiento de una entidad judía independiente o autónoma podía llevar siglos, por lo que sería más razonable que dedicaran sus esfuerzos en establecer una Europa más liberal e ilustrada que pudiera aceptar a los judíos como miembros con los mismos derechos (ibídem, p. 4-7). Inspirados por el sionismo político, pequeños grupos de judíos dejaron Europa y establecieron asentamientos agrícolas en Palestina, que en ese entonces pertenecía al Imperio Otomano. Al principio estos asentamientos eran pequeños y los recién llegados se enfrentaron a poca oposición por parte de la población ya establecida. Sin embargo, las tensiones entre ambos grupos creció durante y después de la Primera Guerra Mundial, cuando las políticas británicas producto de la guerra jugaron un rol importante en crear un conflicto entre judíos y árabes en el Medio oriente (Herzog, 1982). El Imperio Británico, que estaba particularmente en contra del Imperio Otomano, entró en negociaciones con un líder rebelde árabe, prometiendo la independencia de los árabes del imperio en 1915, pero después retrocedieron en su acuerdo de dividir el territorio bajo sus mandatos. Los británicos también cortejaron el apoyo judío internacional emitiendo la Declaración Balfour en 1917, que apoyaba el concepto de un hogar nacional judío en Palestina.

Dicho escenario aumentó drásticamente la inmigración judía y se aceleró por la persecución judía de Adolf Hitler en Alemania, lo que alteró el equilibrio de la población, desplazó a muchas personas de sus tierras y amenazó su objetivo de establecer un estado árabe independiente en la región. Pronto estalló la violencia entre los grupos. El aumento del conflicto hizo que Gran Bretaña declarara que su mandato sobre Palestina era intratable, transfiriendo así su mandato a las Naciones Unidas. La resolución 181 de las Naciones Unidas dividió Palestina en dos: dando el 55% de la tierra a los judíos y el 45% a los palestinos, mientras ponía la ciudad de Jerusalén bajo una autoridad internacional separada. Los judíos aceptaron la propuesta y proclamaron la creación del Estado de Israel en mayo de 1948; los palestinos rechazaron la pérdida de su territorio. Estalló una lucha en la que los países árabes vecinos apoyaron a los palestinos. Los palestinos se refieren a la guerra como An-Nakba o la catástrofe, mientras las victoriosas fuerzas israelíes la denominan la Guerra de Independencia. Durante la guerra, aproximadamente 700,000 palestinos fueron desplazados de sus hogares y territorios que, de acuerdo con varios autores (Zerriffi, 2001), dio inicio a la crisis de refugiados que persiste hasta la actualidad, con implicaciones políticas tanto para palestina como para los países vecinos. Junto con la desterritorialización del pueblo palestino, el territorio se fragmentó tras la guerra, lo cual complicó significativamente las aspiraciones palestinas de establecer un estado independiente y unificado.

Es especialmente importante destacar que la An-Nakba se convirtió en un elemento central de la identidad nacional palestina, influyendo en la narrativa política y en las demandas de autodeterminación, se convirtió en un catalizador para el movimiento de resistencia palestino, dando pie al surgimiento de organizaciones como la Organización para la Liberación de Palestina (OLP), que posteriormente moldearían el panorama político palestino e internacional.

Como se ha mencionado, tras la guerra de independencia o la catástrofe, las Naciones Unidas finalizaron la guerra entre Israel y los países árabes, dejando a Palestina con una crisis de refugiados y condiciones políticas y económicas deplorables. Esto provocó que la mayoría de palestinos se unieran a grupos rebeldes que posteriormente se transformaron en la OLP en 1964, establecida con apoyo de la Liga Árabe. La organización pronto se encontró bajo el mando de Yasser Arafat y para 1967 daría inicio la Guerra de los Seis días, que se volvió especialmente significativa pues, como se ha expuesto anteriormente, Israel ocupó la península de Sinaí, los Altos de Golan, Gaza, la Ribera Occidental y el este de Jerusalén (Khalidi, 2021). De acuerdo con la ley internacional la ocupación, que continúa hasta la actualidad, no es permanente. En ese contexto, Israel no sólo era varias veces más grande que en 1948, además un millón de palestinos se encontraban bajo el mando israelí. Asimismo, más de 200,000 palestinos más se convirtieron en refugiados (Forsythe, 1972).

A principios de 1977, el entonces primer ministro de Israel, Menachem Begin, inició una campaña para establecer asentamientos judíos en los territorios ocupados. A pesar de que la política de ocupación es controversial incluso entre los propios israelíes y de que es considerada ilegal dentro de la ley internacional, cientos de miles de ocupantes judíos se asentaron y continúan llegando al este de Jerusalén, la Ribera Occidental y la franja de Gaza. Como resultado de estos asentamientos, los palestinos perdieron la mayor parte de su territorio. Además, los asentamientos han causado conflictos y fuertes tensiones al mandar ocupantes armados y tropas israelíes a dichos territorios, así como al limitar drásticamente la libertad de tránsito de los palestinos. Los civiles palestinos son víctimas frecuentes de violencia por parte de los ocupantes, y múltiples guerrillas han atacado como respuesta a los civiles dentro de Israel. El conflicto se expandió al país vecino de Líbano, donde la OLP, tras ser expulsada de Jordania en 1970-71 en un evento conocido como Septiembre Negro, la OLP estableció su base en la región. Desde allí, continuó sus operaciones contra Israel hasta la invasión israelí del Líbano en 1982 (Khalidi, 2006). Estos factores, aunados a la desestabilidad política presente en el país antes de 1970, contribuyeron al estallido de la Guerra Civil del Líbano, convirtiendo a la nación en un campo de batalla para conflictos regionales más amplios, incluyendo el conflicto árabe-israelí y la rivalidad entre Siria e Israel.

Un circulo vicioso se estableció a continuación: los israelís, apelando a sus preocupaciones por la seguridad de sus habitantes y el derecho a la defensa, han limitado las capacidades políticas, económicas y de tránsito de los palestinos, mientras los palestinos, frustrados por el trato que reciben a manos de los israelís, aumentan sus actos de resistencia."

Link de descarga para acceder al texto completo

[kindasortadragons]

They've done formal linguistic studies on this, and you're pretty much spot on at age 3 being when they start figuring this stuff out*. (3-5 is the general age range for development of lexical tasks)

*figuring stuff out more so being they've developed enough so that there is both an increase in lexical capacity and the necessary semantic knowledge.

Also this is found across languages! Simple words such as dog/cat are easy first words and allow kids as young as 7 months to begin finding patterns in life -> "oh, a dog is an animal with 4 legs and hair? That horse is a dog too. Just a *really* big one!"

It's easier to generalize what you know and put things into groups that are already established, especially for young kids

(Dog is a dog is a dog: Infant rule learning is not specific to language by Saffran et al. + I think there's an Isacoff/Stromswold paper that focuses more on the 3-5 age range)

i frequently think abt how difficult it must be for babies to learn what a dog is. theres so many different shapes and sizes of dog and they're all dog. a chihuahua is dog a greyhound is dog a mastiff is dog. and yet something relatively similar like cat and tiger or sheep and goat is not the same. it seems very unfair.

[dk-thrive]

Music is continuous... It is only we who turn away.”

On Aug. 29, 1952, in an open-air converted barn in Woodstock, N.Y., pianist David Tudor, known for his interpretations of contemporary music, gave the premiere of a work by John Cage (1912-1992) remarkably different from anything else in the classical repertoire. Tudor had been familiar with the full range of the avant-garde, from the spacious pointillism of Morton Feldman’s “Extensions 3” to the thorny complexity of Pierre Boulez’s First Piano Sonata, both of which were also on the program.

For the Cage piece, however, the pianist curiously sat motionless at the keyboard, holding a stopwatch. The composer had indicated three separate movements with specific timings. Keeping an eye on the timepiece, Tudor announced the beginning of each section by closing the keyboard lid, then paused for the required duration before signaling its end by opening the lid again. All the rest was stillness; throughout the performance he didn’t make a sound.

But Cage’s “4’33”” is actually not about silence at all. Though most members of the audience were focused on the absence of music, there were also ambient vibrations they ignored: wind stirring outside, raindrops pattering on the tin roof—and, toward the end of the performance, the listeners themselves making “all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out. Music is continuous,” the composer explained. “It is only we who turn away.”

— Stuart Isacoff, from "The Sounds of Silence" (Wall Street Journal, November 5, 2021)

[passerine-free-pass]

Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides)

© Jon Isacoff

[rockislandadultreads]

On the History of Music: Books to Read

The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth by Michael Spitzer

A colossal history spanning cultures, time, and space to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. 165 million years ago saw the birth of rhythm. 66 million years ago was the first melody. 40 thousand years ago Homo sapiens created the first musical instrument. Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to this music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet music is an overlooked part of our origin story. The Musical Human takes us on an exhilarating journey across the ages – from Bach to BTS and back – to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. With insights from a wealth of disciplines, world-leading musicologist Michael Spitzer renders a global history of music on the widest possible canvas, looking at music in our everyday lives; music in world history; and music in evolution, from insects to apes, humans to AI. Through this journey we begin to understand how music is central to the distinctly human experiences of cognition, feeling and even biology, both widening and closing the evolutionary gaps between ourselves and animals in surprising ways. The Musical Human boldly puts the case that music is the most important thing we ever did; it is a fundamental part of what makes us human.

God Save the Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop by Kathy Iandoli

Every history of hip-hop previously published, from Jeff Chang’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop to Shea Serrano’s The Rap Yearbook, focuses primarily on men, glaringly omitting a thorough and respectful examination of the presence and contribution of the genre’s female artists.   For far too long, women in hip-hop have been relegated to the shadows, viewed as the designated “First Lady” thrown a contract, a pawn in some beef, or even worse. But as Kathy Iandoli makes clear, the reality is very different. Today, hip-hop is dominated by successful women such as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, yet there are scores of female artists whose influence continues to resonate. God Save the Queens pays tribute to the women of hip-hop—from the early work of Roxanne Shante, to hitmakers like Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot, to the superstars of today. Exploring issues of gender, money, sexuality, violence, body image, feuds, objectification and more, God Save the Queens is an important and monumental work of music journalism that at last gives these influential female artists the respect they have long deserved.

A Natural History of the Piano: The Instrument, the Music, the Musicians--from Mozart to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between by Stuart Isacoff

A Natural History of the Piano distills a lifetime of research and passion into one brilliant narrative. We witness Mozart unveiling his monumental concertos in Vienna’s coffeehouses, using a special piano with one keyboard for the hands and another for the feet; European virtuoso Henri Herz entertaining rowdy miners during the California gold rush; Beethoven at his piano, conjuring healing angels to console a grieving mother who had lost her child; Liszt fainting in the arms of a page turner to spark an entire hall into hysterics. Here is the instrument in all its complexity and beauty. We learn of the incredible craftsmanship of a modern Steinway, the peculiarity of specialty pianos built for the Victorian household, the continuing innovation in keyboards including electronic ones. And most of all, we hear the music of the masters, from centuries ago and in our own age, brilliantly evoked and as marvelous as its most recent performance. With this wide-ranging volume, Isacoff gives us a must-have for music lovers, pianists, and the armchair musician.

Twilight of the Gods: A Journey to the End of Classic Rock by Steven Hyden

Since the late 1960s, a legendary cadre of artists—including the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Black Sabbath, and the Who—has revolutionized popular culture and the sounds of our lives. While their songs still get airtime and some of these bands continue to tour, its idols are leaving the stage permanently. Can classic rock remain relevant as these legends die off, or will this major musical subculture fade away as many have before, Steven Hyden asks. In this mix of personal memoir, criticism, and journalism, Hyden stands witness as classic rock reaches the precipice. Traveling to the eclectic places where geriatric rockers are still making music, he talks to the artists and fans who have aged with them, explores the ways that classic rock has changed the culture, investigates the rise and fall of classic rock radio, and turns to live bootlegs, tell-all rock biographies, and even the liner notes of rock’s greatest masterpieces to tell the story of what this music meant, and how it will be remembered, for fans like himself.

[confusedbyinterface]

Okay so the first part is pretty much as it says, there's a video game called Cultist Simulator where you're an occultist, and one of the things you can do is create paintings and if they have occult themes you attract attention from the Suppression Bureau and they might arrest you.

The second part is about H. R. Giger's Work 219: Landscape XX, also known as the Penis Landscape, which you can look up because I suspect tumblr will mark it NSFW. Famously, the Dead Kennedys included Landscape XX as a poster with their album Frankenchrist: originally Jello Biafra wanted it as the cover, but the other band members thought that was a bit too far.

Because of this, they were charge with distribution of harmful matter to minors. Jello Biafra's apartment was raided by the police, so they could seize the evidence: a print of Penis Landscape. Apparently they demanded Biafra tell them where the artist was hiding out so they could arrest him (Switzerland. Giger lives in Switzerland.) The prosecutor, Michael Guarino, said H. R. Giger was as evil as the serial killer Richard Ramirez.

Unfortunately for him, Biafra and Alternative Tentacles were represented pro bono by famous defence attorney Phil Schnayerson, who completely derailed his strategy. Guarino wanted to shock the jury, whipping out the painting at the most dramatic moment

Isn't this painting sick? Isn't this painting obscene? Isn't this painting sick? Don't you think Giger is obsessed with sex with the dead? Isn't this painting sexually explicit? Isn't this sick? Isn't this sick?

(Jello Biafra imitating Michael Guarino)

Instead Schnayerson introduced it as evidence right in his opening remarks, handing out copies to the jury, getting them used to looking at it.

And instead of that happening, Phil, on his first question-- I mean it was like his first question out of the box. All of a sudden, Phil is passing this poster out to the jurors. And they're looking at it. And they are getting used to it. And he said, this is a poster that's ugly and it's offensive. But you're going to have to decide whether or not it's obscene.

He brought in professors of art history and music critics as expert witnesses to give the jury context for Giger's work, surrealist painting, punk music, and so on, and making Guarino look more and more ridiculous.

The jury ended up deadlocked, 7-5 in favour of acquittal, and Judge Susan Isacoff refused Guarino's request for a retrial, saying "we've seen enough experimenting with the law, charges dropped, case dismissed."

Jello Biafra tells his side of the story in High Priest of Harmful Matter, which you can find on Bandcamp.

And This American Life interviewed him and Michael Guarino about it years later

The whole Cultist Simulator universe has like suppressed landscape paintings because they're Lovecraftian dreamscapes which expand minds too much and reveal secrets of the Mansus and the Hours to people meanwhile in real life all the banned landscape paintings I can think of were suppressed because Giger just painted a bunch of dicks and asses

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 8, 2021

Cannabinoids modulate associative cerebellar learning via alterations in behavioral state. Albergaria, C., Silva, N. T., Darmohray, D. M., & Carey, M. R. (2020). eLife, 9, e61821.

Cell Assemblies in the Cortico-Hippocampal-Reuniens Network during Slow Oscillations. Angulo-Garcia, D., Ferraris, M., Ghestem, A., Nallet-Khosrofian, L., Bernard, C., & Quilichini, P. P. (2020). Journal of Neuroscience, 40(43), 8343–8354.

Effect of Top-Down Connections in Hierarchical Sparse Coding. Boutin, V., Franciosini, A., Ruffier, F., & Perrinet, L. (2020). Neural Computation, 32(11), 2279–2309.

Closed-Loop Deep Learning: Generating Forward Models With Backpropagation. Daryanavard, S., & Porr, B. (2020). Neural Computation, 32(11), 2122–2144.

Biased Neural Representation of Feature-Based Attention in the Human Frontoparietal Network. Gong, M., & Liu, T. (2020). Journal of Neuroscience, 40(43), 8386–8395.

Optogenetic inhibition-mediated activity-dependent modification of CA1 pyramidal-interneuron connections during behavior. Gridchyn, I., Schoenenberger, P., O’Neill, J., & Csicsvari, J. (2020). eLife, 9, e61106.

Closed loop motor-sensory dynamics in human vision. Gruber, L. Z., & Ahissar, E. (2020). PLOS ONE, 15(10), e0240660.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation-Induced Motor Cortex Activity Influences Visual Awareness Judgments. Hobot, J., Koculak, M., Paulewicz, B., Sandberg, K., & Wierzchoń, M. (2020). Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14, 1078.

ReLU Networks Are Universal Approximators via Piecewise Linear or Constant Functions. Huang, C. (2020). Neural Computation, 32(11), 2249–2278.

Reverse-Engineering Neural Networks to Characterize Their Cost Functions. Isomura, T., & Friston, K. (2020). Neural Computation, 32(11), 2085–2121.

Serial Prefrontal Pathways Are Positioned to Balance Cognition and Emotion in Primates. Joyce, M. K. P., García-Cabezas, M. Á., John, Y. J., & Barbas, H. (2020). Journal of Neuroscience, 40(43), 8306–8328.

Orderly compartmental mapping of premotor inhibition in the developing zebrafish spinal cord. Kishore, S., Cadoff, E. B., Agha, M. A., & McLean, D. L. (2020). Science, 370(6515), 431–436.

Experience, circuit dynamics, and forebrain recruitment in larval zebrafish prey capture. Oldfield, C. S., Grossrubatscher, I., Chávez, M., Hoagland, A., Huth, A. R., Carroll, E. C., … Isacoff, E. Y. (2020). eLife, 9, e56619.

A Cerebellar Computational Mechanism for Delay Conditioning at Precise Time Intervals. Sanger, T. D., & Kawato, M. (2020). Neural Computation, 32(11), 2069–2084.

Long-Term Characterization of Hippocampal Remapping during Contextual Fear Acquisition and Extinction. Schuette, P. J., Reis, F. M. C. V, Maesta-Pereira, S., Chakerian, M., Torossian, A., Blair, G. J., … Adhikari, A. (2020). Journal of Neuroscience, 40(43), 8329–8342.

Point process temporal structure characterizes electrodermal activity. Subramanian, S., Barbieri, R., & Brown, E. N. (2020). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(42), 26422–26428.

Prefrontal Neural Ensembles Develop Selective Code for Stimulus Associations within Minutes of Novel Experiences. Takehara-Nishiuchi, K., Morrissey, M. D., & Pilkiw, M. (2020). Journal of Neuroscience, 40(43), 8355–8366.

Statistical Learning Model of the Sense of Agency. Yano, S., Hayashi, Y., Murata, Y., Imamizu, H., Maeda, T., & Kondo, T. (2020). Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 2395.

Variational Online Learning of Neural Dynamics. Zhao, Y., & Park, I. M. (2020). Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 14, 71.

Deconstructing Generative Adversarial Networks. Zhu, B., Jiao, J., & Tse, D. (2020). IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 66(11), 7155–7179.

[neurosciencenews]

With single gene insertion, blind mice regain sight

https://neurosciencenews.com/gene-insertion-vision-10906/

Gene therapy that targets retinal ganglion cells with light-sensitive cone opsins helps restore vision in mice. Researchers report a potential human treatment could be available within three years.

“You would inject this virus into a person’s eye and, a couple months later, they’d be seeing something,” said Ehud Isacoff, a UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology and director of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. “With neurodegenerative diseases of the retina, often all people try to do is halt or slow further degeneration. But something that restores an image in a few months — it is an amazing thing to think about.”

(image: The orange lines track the movement of mice during the first minute after they were put into a strange cage. Blind mice (top) cautiously keep to the corners and sides, while treated mice (middle) explore the cage almost as readily as normal sighted mice (bottom). The image is credited to Ehud Isacoff and John Flannery. )

Open access research:Michael H. Berry, Amy Holt, Autoosa Salari, Julia Veit, Meike Visel, Joshua Levitz, Krisha Aghi, Benjamin M. Gaub, Benjamin Sivyer, John G. Flannery & Ehud Y. Isacoff “Restoration of high-sensitivity and adapting vision with a cone opsin” Nature Communications, volume 10, Article number: 1221 (2019). doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09124-x

[blognachrichten]

Medizin: Forscher schenken blinden Mäusen mittels Gen-Eingriff das Augenlicht zurück

Mäuse, die auf Grund von defekten Rezeptoren auf der Netzhaut blind waren, können nach einem Gen-Eingriff wieder sehen, wenn auch wohl mit Einschränkungen. Ehud Isacoff, Professor für Zell- und Molekularbiologie an der University of California, Standort Berkeley, bugsierte das Gen, das für die Bildung des Grünlicht-Rezeptors zust��ndig ist, mit Hilfe von deaktivierten Viren direkt ins … http://bit.ly/2WwUSVZ

[orbemnews]

Scientists Partially Restored a Blind Man’s Sight With New Gene Therapy A team of scientists announced Monday that they had partially restored the sight of a blind man by building light-catching proteins in one of his eyes. Their report, which appeared in the journal Nature Medicine, is the first published study to describe the successful use of this treatment. “Seeing for the first time that it did work — even if only in one patient and in one eye — is exciting,” said Ehud Isacoff, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study. The procedure is a far cry from full vision. The volunteer, a 58-year-old man who lives in France, had to wear special goggles that gave him the ghostly perception of objects in a narrow field of view. But the authors of the report say that the trial — the result of 13 years of work — is a proof of concept for more effective treatments to come. “It’s obviously not the end of the road, but it’s a major milestone,” said Dr. José-Alain Sahel, an ophthalmologist who splits his time between the University of Pittsburgh and the Sorbonne in Paris. Dr. Sahel and other scientists have tried for decades to find a cure for inherited forms of blindness. These genetic disorders rob the eyes of essential proteins required for vision. When light enters the eye, it is captured by so-called photoreceptor cells. The photoreceptors then send an electrical signal to their neighbors, called ganglion cells, which can identify important features like motion. They then send signals of their own to the optic nerve, which delivers the information to the brain. In previous studies, researchers have been able to treat a genetic form of blindness called Leber congenital amaurosis, by fixing a faulty gene that would otherwise cause photoreceptors to gradually degenerate. But other forms of blindness can’t be treated so simply, because their victims lose their photoreceptors completely. “Once the cells are dead, you cannot repair the gene defect,” Dr. Sahel said. For these diseases, Dr. Sahel and other researchers have been experimenting with a more radical kind of repair. They are using gene therapy to turn ganglion cells into new photoreceptor cells, even though they don’t normally capture light. The scientists are taking advantage of proteins derived from algae and other microbes that can make any nerve cell sensitive to light. In the early 2000s, neuroscientists figured out how to install some of these proteins into the brain cells of mice and other lab animals by injecting viruses carrying their genes. The viruses infected certain types of brain cells, which then used the new gene to build light-sensitive channels. Originally, researchers developed this technique, called optogenetics, as a way to probe the workings of the brain. By inserting a tiny light into the animal’s brain, they could switch a certain type of brain cell on or off with the flick of a switch. The method has enabled them to discover the circuitry underlying many kinds of behavior. Dr. Sahel and other researchers wondered if they could use optogenetics to add light-sensitive proteins to cells in the retina. After all, they reasoned, retinal cells are nerves as well — an extension of the brain, in other words. For Ed Boyden, a neuroscientist at M.I.T. who helped pioneer the field of optogenetics, the quest to use these proteins to cure blindness took him by surprise. “So far, I’ve thought of optogenetics as a tool for scientists primarily, since it’s being used by thousands of people to study the brain,” he said. “But if optogenetics proves itself in the clinic, that would be extremely exciting.” Dr. Sahel and his colleagues recognized that the optogenetic proteins created by Dr. Boyden and others were not sensitive enough to produce an image from ordinary light entering the eye. But the scientists could not beam amplified light into the eye, because the glare would destroy the delicate tissue of the retina. So the scientists chose an optogenetic protein that’s sensitive only to amber light, which is easier on the eye than other colors, and used viruses to deliver these amber proteins to the ganglion cells in the retina. Next, the researchers invented a special device to transform visual information from the external world into amber light that could be recognized by the ganglion cells. They created goggles that scan their field of view thousands of times a second and register any pixels in which the light changes. The goggles then send a pulse of amber light from that pixel into the eye. The researchers reasoned that this strategy might be able to create images in the brain. Our eyes naturally dart around in tiny movements many times a second. With each jump, many pixels would change light levels. Still, it was an open question whether blind people could learn to use this information to recognize objects. “The brain has to learn a new language,” said Botond Roska, an ophthalmologist at the University of Basel and a co-author of the new study. After testing their gene therapy and goggles on monkeys, Dr. Roska, Dr. Sahel and their colleagues were ready to try it out on people. Their plan was to inject gene-bearing viruses into one eye of each blind volunteer, then wait several months for the ganglion cells to grow optogenetic proteins. They would then train the volunteers to use the goggles. Unfortunately, they only managed to train one volunteer before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the project. After years of preparation for the study, it was now stuck in limbo. But then the one volunteer they had managed to train got in touch. For seven months, he had been wearing the goggles at home and on walks. One day he realized he could see the stripes of a crosswalk. When the pandemic subsided in France over the summer, the scientists managed to bring him into their lab for more training and tests. They discovered that he could reach out and touch a notebook sitting on a table, but had less luck with a smaller box of staples. When the scientists set out either two or three tumblers in front of the volunteer, he managed to count them correctly 12 out of 19 times. During some of the trials, the volunteer wore a cap with electrodes that could detect brain activity through his scalp. When the goggle sent signals to his retina, it activated parts of the brain involved in vision. “It is a major achievement from a scientific point of view, and most importantly for blind people,” said Lucie Pellissier, a neuroscientist at the University of Tours in France who was not involved in the study. Dr. Sahel and his colleagues founded a company called GenSight to move their technique through clinical trials with the hopes of getting it approved by regulators. They’re not alone. Dr. Isacoff and his colleagues have founded a similar company called Vedere Bio that was acquired last October by Novartis. It will take many more positive results from clinical trials before optogenetics can become a standard treatment for some forms of blindness. For now, Dr. Sahel and his colleagues are bringing in the other volunteers for training, as well as testing higher doses of the virus and upgrading their goggles to thin spectacles that would be more comfortable while also delivering more information to the retina. Dr. Isacoff and his colleagues have carried out experiments of their own that raise the possibility that other optogenetic proteins could make retinal cells sensitive enough to detect light without the help of goggles. “I think it’s going to perform quite well,” he said. For all the time that Dr. Sahel has put into his own system, he hesitated to guess how far it could improve. “Until you have a patient tell you what they are seeing, you really can’t predict anything,” he said. Source link Orbem News #blind #Gene #mans #partially #restored #Scientists #sight #therapy

[mondonews]

Blind Man's Sight Partially Restored with 'Optogenetics' Gene Therapy

Blind Man’s Sight Partially Restored with ‘Optogenetics’ Gene Therapy

Using a technique called optogenetics, researchers added light-sensitive proteins to the man’s retina, giving him a blurry view of objects. “Seeing for the first time that it did work — even if only in one patient and in one eye — is exciting,” said Ehud Isacoff, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study. The procedure is a far cry from full…

[savageone007]

On the Market in New York City

On the Market in New York City

TriBeCa Condo • $1.925 million • MANHATTAN • 25 Murray Street, No. 4K A one-bedroom, two-bath unit in a 10-story prewar TriBeCa condo, with an oversized living room flooded with light, exposed brick, a renovated open kitchen, shared laundry, a bike room, a 24-hour concierge and a roof deck with plantings. Allison Chiaramonte and Tania Isacoff Friedland, Warburg Realty, 212-439-4531;…

[architectnews]

Leonard Bernstein’s Radical-Chic, New York

Leonard Bernstein’s Radical-Chic, New York Penthouse, NY Building, American Architecture Photos

Leonard Bernstein’s Radical-Chic in New York

Nov 12, 2020

Leonard Bernstein’s Radical-Chic

Radical-Chic is now for sale on TopTenRealEstateDeals.com, $29.5 million

Location: 895 Park Avenue, Apt PHA, New York, NY, USA

Fifty years ago Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre, were the owners of one of Park Avenue’s very best apartments. Their home was also the site of one of the famous and controversial social-political happenings of the 1970s.

When some of New York’s wealthiest citizens met with top leaders of the anti-police Black Panther Party. Or as Tom Wolfe described it in his January 1970 New York magazine article, “Radical-Chic: That Party at Lenny’s.” Big names from the entertainment world including Jason Robards, Jerome Robbins, Otto Preminger, Barbara Walters and Mike Nichols were there. So were Harold Taylor, Lillian Hellman, Cynthia Phipps and several dozen other members of New York City’s cultural and intellectual elite.

Wolfe described it as a “a penthouse duplex full of stars, a Manhattan tower full of stars, with marvelous people drifting through the heavens.” Although Bernstein is long gone, the Park Avenue home is still one of New York’s heavenly apartments and is for sale at $29.5 million.

The 14-room penthouse sits atop one of the most elegant prewar Art Deco full-service cooperative buildings on the Upper East Side, built in1930. Spread across two floors of the 21-story building, the duplex measures approximately 6,300 square feet with an additional 700 square feet of outdoor space between two private landings. A private elevator landing opens to a 34-foot grand gallery that continues to the formal living room, dining room and library. There are six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, multiple wood-burning fireplaces, wood plank floors and a sunny enclosed solarium.

There are good views across Midtown Manhattan and the cityscape surrounding Central Park. The building amenities include doormen, health club, squash court, basketball court and even an elevator attendant.

The former Park Avenue penthouse of famed composer and cultural icon Leonard Bernstein, where he hosted some of the world’s most illustrious celebrities and politicians of the 1970s, is now on the market. Priced at $29.5 million, it is listed with Bonnie Chajet, Allison Chiaramonte and Tania Isacoff Friedland of Warburg Realty, Manhattan.

Photo credit: Warburg Realty

Source: TopTenRealEstateDeals.com

Leonard Bernstein’s Radical-Chic, New York images / information received 121120

Location: 895 Park Avenue, Apt PHA, New York City, USA

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The post Leonard Bernstein’s Radical-Chic, New York appeared first on e-architect.

[celestinehall]

Lesson Learned: Operate from the client’s perspective

In this column, real estate agents across the nation share stories of the lessons they’ve learned during their time in the industry. This week, find out how New York City broker Tania Isacoff Friedland keeps the focus on client needs to provide the best possible service. Lesson Learned: Operate from the client’s perspective posted first on https://www.inman.com/

[margartspencer]

Lesson Learned: Operate from the client’s perspective

In this column, real estate agents across the nation share stories of the lessons they’ve learned during their time in the industry. This week, find out how New York City broker Tania Isacoff Friedland keeps the focus on client needs to provide the best possible service. Lesson Learned: Operate from the client’s perspective posted first on https://www.inman.com/