The statement also defends the ability of the project to set its own scope, which critics have said is too narrow.

But it says new recommendations for management of the HBP and the balance between its core and partner projects (both contentious issues) are expected in September.zhangmered

Critics cautiously welcomed the reply.

Under the heading "no single roadmap for understanding the human brain", Robert Madelin (the relevant director-general within the EC) responded directly to last week's open letter. kmenur'blog

"As a public funding agency, we take all such signals seriously," he wrote. "We welcome debate."
Cautious optimism

Responding to the concern that the HBP concentrates too exclusively on simulations of the brain, Mr Madelin stated, "The exact scope of the project is a matter for the project itself."

He also addressed the sidelining of cognitive neuroscientists, who study the brain from a more "top-down", function-based perspective than the "bottom-up" cell and network modelling that is at the heart of the HBP.

This type of work was recently "repositioned" outside the core of the project.kiiwsily123

As part of a review of the project's Framework Partnership Agreement, a necessary hurdle to unlock funding from within Horizon 2020, the EC statement suggested there will be recommendations on "the balance between the core project and a number of partnering projects" - presumably including cognitive work.

That review, due in September, should also address "the governance of the overall initiative" and is being conducted "by high-level and independent experts", wrote Mr Madelin lomeng'blog.

The project's critics had demanded a review by top neuroscientists who are not associated with the HBP.

Dr Zachary Mainen, one of the principal organisers of the protest letter, told the BBC he was "cautiously optimistic", while noting a lack of specific commitments in the EC's response. kiiwsily

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"I certainly expect that we are going to be dealing with this outbreak, minimum, for a few months to several months," he told AFP news agency.

"I really hope to see a turnaround where we begin to see a decrease in cases in the next several weeks."

BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says educating people rather than closing borders is seen as the most effective way to contain the outbreak.

Cultural practices and traditional beliefs in some areas have hampered public health measures, contributing to the spread of the disease, he adds.

In some cases, mobs have attacked health workers forcing emergency centres to close.

The WHO has already sent more than 150 experts into West Africa over the past few months to try to contain the outbreak.

But it says political commitment is needed from the region itself to ensure this outbreak is stopped soon.

Most of the deaths have been centred in the southern Guekedou region of Guinea, where the outbreak was first reported in February.

But health officials say the region's porous borders have allowed infected people to carry the disease into other countries.

Ebola spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids and there is no vaccine or cure. It kills up to 90% of those infected.
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Traffic and other campaigners want to see a toughening of the laws in Thailand. If an animal is captured at the border it can be seized.

However, if the animal gets into the country there are significant loopholes. Elephants don't have to be registered until they are eight years old, creating an opportunity for these smuggled calves to be "laundered" into the domestic population.

"Elephant populations are being depleted all over South East Asia," said Dr Shepherd.

"By logging, being poached for their ivory and captured for trade - if you add up all these pressures, any off-take at all has a conservation impact."

Political turmoil in Thailand over the past two years hasn't helped the drive to strengthen the laws in the country.

Thailand made significant efforts to ban a legal trade in ivory ahead of a meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) last year.

There are worries that while laws exist on the statute books, they are not always enforced.
elephants Elephants being held at a camp near the border between Myanmar and Thailand

"They clamped down and seized elephants but no-one was prosecuted," said Joanna Cary-Elwes from the charity Elephant Family.

"Their heart is in the right place but there's absolutely no deterrent to criminals - it is low risk and very high profit."

She believes that tourists need greater awareness of the smuggling situation, especially at trekking facilities.

"This is a UK-relevant issue - we have a million people flocking to Thailand every year. Most don't realise when they are posing next to a cute baby elephant what that animal has had to endure to be in a camp."

The campaigners are hoping that a meeting of Cites in Switzerland next week will increase pressure on both Thailand and Myanmar to act.
huer'blog 美容达人的空间 Healthy to everyone -Love lifejierman123 的部落格 孟宇西斯

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