Can't it just be simple?

The sophistication of truth
Posted by Seth Godin on September 30, 2014
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/09/the-sophistication-of-truth.html


A common form of complexity is the sophistication of fear.

Long words when short ones will do. Fancy clothes to keep the riffraff out and to give us a costume to hide behind. Most of all, the sneer of, "you don't understand" or, "you don't know the people I know..."

"It's complicated," we say, even when it isn't.

We invent these facades because they provide safety. Safety from the unknown, from being questioned, from being called out as a fraud. These facades lead to bad writing, lousy communication and a refuge from the things we fear.

I'm more interested in the sophistication required to deliver the truth.

Simplicity.

Awareness.

Beauty.

These take fearlessness. This is, "here it is, I made this, I know you can understand it, does it work for you?"

Our work doesn't have to be obtuse to be important or brave.

Seth Godin is a writer, a speaker and an agent of change.

SOURCE
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/09/the-sophistication-of-truth.html

Modulation of autoimmune rheumatic diseases by oestrogen and progesterone

Modulation of autoimmune rheumatic diseases by oestrogen and progesterone
• Grant C. Hughes & Divaker Choubey
Nature Reviews Rheumatology 10, 740–751 (2014) doi:10.1038/nrrheum.2014.144
Published online 26 August 2014
http://www.nature.com/nrrheum/journal/v10/n12/full/nrrheum.2014.144.html
Abstract
Sexual dimorphism is evident in the risk and expression of several human autoimmune diseases. Differences in disease manifestations observed between sexes are likely to involve immunomodulation by sex steroids, nonhormonal factors encoded by genes on the X and Y chromosomes, and immunological phenomena unique to pregnancy. In systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and perhaps other autoantibody-mediated diseases, oestrogen seems to increase the risk of disease in genetically predisposed women by targeting key immune pathways, including the type 1 interferon (IFN) response, differentiation of CD4+ T helper cells and survival of autoreactive B cells. By contrast, progesterone seems to reduce the risk of SLE by counteracting the effects of oestrogen on some of these same pathways, which suggests that the balance between oestrogen and progesterone can determine disease expression. In this Review we focus on the roles of the sex steroid hormones oestrogen and progesterone in modulating the risk and expression of SLE and rheumatoid arthritis. Intensive research in this area promises to identify novel therapeutic strategies and improve understanding of the immunological requirements and complications of pregnancy, and is expected to define the mechanisms behind sexual dimorphism in autoimmunity, immunity and other aspects of human health—a newly announced directive of the NIH.

QotD: What?

I used to think the cell
as a factory full of machines.
I now conceive it as a multi-scale set
of biased stochastic processes.
--Nicolas Le Novere