This year is the fourth anniversary of the festival and coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Association of South East Asian Nation, or Asean.

 

One of the founders and the program director of the festival, Okky Madasari, said ALF will carry the theme of "Beyond Imagination" this year, with a goal to make culture and literature a central part of life in Asean member countries.

 

"We are one big community," Okky said on Sunday (11/06), adding that the festival also focuses on introducing the achievements of Asean writers to global audience.

 

"This is an important role for ALF. Only literature and culture can create a true bond between us. Relying only on economic and political partnerships will leave 'Asean community' as a mere slogan, an empty rhetoric," she said.

 

This year, the ALF is fully supported by the Indonesian Education and Culture Ministry, Tourism Ministry and Foreign Ministry.

 

As it does every year, ALF has a series of warm-up events in store, among them "Sastra Masuk Kampung" (Literature Goes to Kampung), a residency program to introduce literature to local communities. This year they will also have a national jamboree of literature.

 

Discussions — arguably the highlight of the festival — will be centered on the topics of freedom of expression amid increasing radicalism and the constant threat of terrorism, and the central role social media plays in everyday life.

 

The festival will also feature art performances, culinary workshops and a book fair.

 

The Tourism Ministry’s marketing development deputy, Esthy Reko Astuti, praised the festival, saying it would be an interesting event for Kota Tua and a marquee event for Indonesia's literary community.

 

"ALF has shown literature adds many different colors to people's perception of Indonesia," Esthy said last Friday.

 

"Literature encourages people to exchange ideas and thoughts," she added.

 

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya had announced Kota Tua as one of ten priority tourist destinations in Indonesia along with Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Tanjung Kelayang in Belitung, Tanjung Lesung in Banten, Borobudur Temple in Central Java, the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java, Mandalika in Lombok, Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara, Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi and Morotai in North Maluku.

 

A new study reveals how a dietary supplement could be used to reduce excitability in brain cells " a known trigger of seizures " opening the door to possible new treatments for epilepsy.

 

Researchers speculated that reductions in a protein modification called O-GlcNAcylation in the brain cells of rats and mice might lead to neural excitability, which is a known trigger of seizures.

 

In the new study, increasing levels of this protein with glucosamine " which is a supplement used to help reduce pain in osteoarthritis, among other conditions " was found to reduce neural excitability in rodents.

 

The findings not only help to shed light on the processes behind neural excitability, but they may also have identified a new treatment target for epilepsy.

 

Study co-author Prof. John Chatham, of the Department of Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues recently reported their findings in The Journal of Neuroscience.

 

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that is estimated to affect around 3 million adults and 470,000 children in the United States.

 

The condition is characterized by unpredictable, recurrent seizures, which can occur when brain cells become hyperactive. This may cause surges of electrical activity that disrupt signaling between brain cells.

 

In a previous study, Prof. Chatham and team found that increases in protein O-GlcNAcylation are associated with a reduction in the strength of synapses in the hippocampus of the brain. Synapses are structures that allow neurons to transmit signals to each other.

 

The team notes that neural excitability in the hippocampus " or the learning and memory region of the brain " is often implicated in people with epilepsy.

 

Given their previous findings, the researchers hypothesized that increasing O-GlcNAcylation levels could help to reduce neural excitability, thereby preventing seizures.