Finally: Missing link between vitamin D, prostate cancer

 

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A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Prostate offers compelling evidence that inflammation may be the link between Vitamin D and prostate cancer. Specifically, the study shows that the gene GDF-15, known to be upregulated by Vitamin D, is notably absent in samples of human prostate cancer driven by inflammation.

"When you take Vitamin D and put it on prostate cancer cells, it inhibits their growth. But it hasn't been proven as an anti-cancer agent. We wanted to understand what genes Vitamin D is turning on or off in prostate cancer to offer new targets," says James R. Lambert, PhD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and associate research professor in the CU School of Medicine Department of Pathology.

Since demonstrating that Vitamin D upregulates the expression of GDF-15, Lambert and colleagues, including Scott Lucia, MD, wondered if this gene might be a mechanism through which Vitamin D works in prostate cancer. Initially it seemed as if the answer was no.

"We thought there might be high levels of GDF-15 in normal tissue and low levels in prostate cancer, but we found that in a large cohort of human prostate tissue samples, expression of GDF-15 did not track with either normal or cancerous prostate tissue," Lambert says.

But then the team noticed an interesting pattern: GDF-15 was uniformly low in samples of prostate tissue that contained inflammation.

"Inflammation is thought to drive many cancers including prostate, gastric and colon. Therefore, GDF-15 may be a good thing in keeping prostate tissue healthy -- it suppresses inflammation, which is a bad actor potentially driving prostate cancer," Lambert says.

The study used a sophisticated computer algorithm to analyze immunohistochemical (IHC) data, a task that in previous studies had been done somewhat subjectively by pathologists. With this new technique, Lambert, Lucia and colleagues were able to quantify the expression of the GDF-15 protein and inflammatory cells by IHC staining on slides taken from these human prostate samples.

Additionally encouraging is that the gene GDF-15 was shown to suppress inflammation by inhibiting another target, NFkB. This target, NFkB, has been the focus of many previous studies in which it has been shown to promote inflammation and contribute to tumor formation and growth; however, researchers have previously been unable to drug NFkB to decrease its tumor-promoting behavior.

"There's been a lot of work on inhibiting NFkB," says Lambert. "Now from this starting point of Vitamin D in prostate cancer, we've come a long way toward understanding how we might use GDF-15 to target NFkB, which may have implications in cancer types far beyond prostate."

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Colorado Denver. The original article was written by Garth Sundem. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. James R. Lambert, Ramon J. Whitson, Kenneth A. Iczkowski, Francisco G. La Rosa, Maxwell L. Smith, R. Storey Wilson, Elizabeth E. Smith, Kathleen C. Torkko, Hamid H. Gari, M. Scott Lucia. Reduced expression of GDF-15 is associated with atrophic inflammatory lesions of the prostate. The Prostate, 2014; DOI: 10.1002/pros.22911

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Elementary school in China builds a rooftop running track

 

A Chinese elementary school located in Taizhou, Zhejiang has come up with an innovative way to save space by building an athletic track on its roof

Image Gallery (11 images)

A Chinese elementary school located in Taizhou in China's Zhejiang province has come up with an innovative way to save space on land by building an athletic track on its roof. Designed by LYCS Architecture, the Tian Tai No.2 Primary School features an open-air rooftop basketball court, 100 meter sprinting track and a 200 meter looped running track, which is half the size of an Olympic track.

In order to complete the achievement, the entire structure of the school was built in an oval shape and reduced to four levels (instead of five) to cater for the rooftop athletics area. Made possible by the circular shape of the building, the school also features a 2,658 sq m (28,610 sq ft) internal courtyard, which is suitable for further physical activities, whole school assemblies and lunch time play area. The classrooms and walkways also look out onto the interior courtyard, creating a private and protected environment for the students.

"The design focuses on the relationship between architecture and site, site and city, form and function," says LYCS Architecture. "Because of the very small area given, the 200 m running track was projected onto the roof level, giving an additional 3000+ sq m [32,291 sq ft] of usable area on the ground as well as the oval shape of the school building, creating a sense of inwardness and security for the students."

The open air track is protected by three layers of safe guarding, which includes: an external 180 cm (5.9 ft)-high tempered glass wall; a 50 cm (1.65 ft)-wide green belt, and an interior 120 cm (3.93 ft)-high metal guardrail. In an effort to reduce kinetic noise throughout the building below, spring cushions have also been dispersed beneath the all-weather running track.

Source: LYCS Architecture via Archdaily

 

Common Painkillers Tied to Blood Clot Risk, Study Suggests

 

WEDNESDAY Sept. 24, 2014, 2014 -- People who use painkillers called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) -- which include aspirin, naproxen (Aleve) and ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) -- may be at increased risk for potentially deadly blood clots, a new study suggests.

But the study only showed an association between use of the painkillers and higher clotting risk; it did not prove cause-and-effect.

The researchers analyzed the results of six studies involving more than 21,000 cases of a type of blood clot called a venous thromboembolism (VTE).

These clots include deep vein thrombosis (a clot in the leg) and pulmonary embolism (a clot in the lungs).

Reporting online Sept. 24 in Rheumatology, the analysis found that people who used NSAIDs had an 80 percent higher risk for venous clots.

"Our results show a statistically significant increased VTE risk among NSAID users. Why NSAIDs may increase the risk of VTE is unclear," study lead author Patompong Ungprasert, of Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, N.Y., said in a journal news release.

"Physicians should be aware of this association and NSAIDs should be prescribed with caution, especially in patients already at a higher risk of VTE," the researcher added.

Ungprasert noted that all types of NSAIDs were evaluated as one group, but not all types of NSAIDs may boost the risk of VTE.

Two experts said the findings are in keeping with prior research.

"It is not entirely surprising that NSAIDs are again implicated in causing clot-related illness," said Dr. Steven Carsons, chief of the division of rheumatology, allergy and immunology at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.

He pointed to the case of Vioxx, a powerful NSAID painkiller that was withdrawn from the market in 2004, after studies found a higher risk of heart attack and stroke in users.

The new study "makes a compelling case for further study and clinical surveillance for venous clotting events in those patients taking NSAIDs," Carsons said. However, he stressed that the study could not pinpoint which types of NSAIDs might pose the greatest risk, or which type of patients might be most vulnerable.

According to Carsons, "aspirin, the 'original' NSAID, has sufficient anti-clotting properties to be effective for prevention of VTEs, and most studies show that naproxen (Aleve) -- a common prescribed and over-the-counter NSAID -- carries no additional clotting risk."

Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum is a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She said that "without discerning which NSAIDS are more safe than others, this study shows the potential increase in VTE. It is important that both physicians and patients understand this risk, especially for those people who are already at risk for VTE."

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about deep vein thrombosis.

 

Experimental Cervical Cancer Vaccine Looks Promising in Trial

 

WEDNESDAY Oct. 1, 2014, 2014 -- An experimental vaccine meant to protect against nine types of human papillomavirus (HPV) could prevent 90 percent of all cervical cancers, a new study suggests.

Researchers examined data from more than 2,500 women with precancerous cervical lesions and found that nearly all were caused by the nine types of HPV targeted by the vaccine being developed by Merck and Co.

The new vaccine, currently undergoing clinical trials, protects against more types of HPV than current vaccines, according to the study published Oct. 1 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

"We wanted to study how many cervical precancers could potentially be prevented by an investigational nine-valent HPV vaccine that provides protection against the HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58," Dr. Elmar Joura, an associate professor of gynecology at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, said in a journal news release.

"Given the high vaccine efficacy that was observed in a large phase III clinical trial testing the nine-valent HPV vaccine, if vaccination programs with this new-generation vaccine are effectively implemented, approximately 90 percent of invasive cervical cancer cases worldwide could be prevented, in addition to the majority of precancerous lesions," he said.

Of the women aged 15 to 26 with precancers, about one-third were infected with more than one HPV type, the researchers said. Of women aged 24 to 45 with precancers, nearly one in five was infected with more than one HPV type, the investigators found.

HPV, which is spread through sexual contact, not only can lead to cervical cancer, but also cancers of the vulva, vagina and anus in women. In men, it can lead to cancers of the anus and penis.

The study was funded by Merck. Joura has received grant support to his institution, as well as advisory board and lecture fees from Merck and other drug companies.

Joura noted that even though current HPV vaccines (Gardasil and Cervarix) are known to be safe, their use in the United States and other wealthy nations has been "inadequate." He said the use of HPV vaccines must increase if their full potential to reduce cervical cancer is to be achieved.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about HPV vaccines.

Harold Washington Library–Chicago-Ill.

 

Original (Wikipedia_en):

Depois de editada com o Gimp 2.6 :

7 Signs You Don't Make Enough Money

 

If you are constantly struggling to make ends meet, you may be facing a combination of problems. It can be frustrating to be in a financial rut and not be able to find a way out. You may think that you make decent money, but you are still struggling each month. You may be overspending or you may not make enough money. You may be overspending while not making enough to cover your basic needs. This can lead to real trouble. If you do not make enough to cover your bills, you will need to take steps now to increase your income. Even if you feel like you are too poor to budget, a budget can help you get back on track, and you can use these strategies to help you cope with being poor. Learn seven signs that you do not make enough money.

Jamie Grill/The Image Bank/Getty Images

1. You Are Using Your Credit Cards Every Month

One of the biggest signs that you have an income issue is that you are using credit cards towards the end of the month to cover all of your expenses. If you are running out of money during the month, or you are using credit cards to help you manage between paychecks, then you are most likely facing an income issue. You need to find a way to stop using your credit cards. 

2. You Run Out of Money at the Beginning of the Month

Every now and then, you can have a bad month where everything is super tight the last week or so. However, if you are struggling to make ends meet after the fifth of the month, then you are most likely facing an income crisis. This is a strong indicator of an income crisis, because it demonstrates that there is not as much overspending going on. If you are barely able to pay your bills and you do not have enough left over to eat on, then you are not making enough money.

3. You Can't Cover Your Bills

If you are choosing between which bills to pay, then you definitely have an income crisis. It is important to do something about this situation as quickly as possible. You may need to take on a second job to help you catch up. You should also look for ways to reduce your bills like moving to an area with lower rent or selling your car. Take the steps both in the short term and the long term to fix this situation.

4. There's Nothing Else to Cut

When you look at your budget to find extra money, you cannot find anything else to cut. You are already doing without cable, you do not have a gym membership, and you never eat out. It can be very frustrating when you are choosing between eating and paying your electricity bill. If you have cut everything you can and you still cannot make ends meet then you have a serious income issue.

5. You Can't Handle an Emergency

When you are stretched tight each month, it is difficult to put money aside in an emergency fund. If you are not able to handle an emergency, you may end up using your credit cards. Eventually your credit card payments will grow large enough that they cripple you even more. If you do not have any extra money for an emergency fund each month, then you do not make enough money. 

6. You Are Constantly Worried About Money

There is a difference between worrying about how to pay for an unexpected car repair, and the sick knot in your stomach that never leaves as you worry about how to pay for groceries or cover the rent. If you are worrying about money constantly, and it is keeping you awake at nights, you are likely not making enough money. Put some of the worry to good use and start making a plan that will turn your situation around.

7. You Are Not Reaching Your Financial Goals

If you are barely staying afloat and not making any progress on paying off your debt or saving money, then you are likely not making enough money. This situation may not be as serious as the other signs listed above, but it is still enough that you may want to take the steps you need to change your current situation. You may find yourself in this situation when you start your first job, and you don't make as much as you thought you would. You need to address this before it becomes a more permanent problem.

source: www.about.com

 

Bizarre Facts About the World Wide Web, 2014

 

September, 2014

Since its inception in the 1960's, the Internet has grown from a military experiment into a gigantic living organism filled with oddities and subcultures.  Since the World Wide Web launched 24 years ago, the Net has seen truly explosive growth in tech, business, and culture.

Here are some of the bizarre factoids that describe the Internet and the World Wide Web. Grab yourself a mug of root beer and join us for some truly incredible trivia below!

Related: what is the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web?

Jurgen Ziewe/Ikon Images/Getty Images

1. The Internet Requires Approximately 50 Million Horsepower in Electricity

Yes. With an estimated 8.7 billion electronic devices connected to the Internet, the electricity required to run the system for even one day is very substantial.  According to Russell Seitz and the calculation of Michael Stevens, 50 million brake horsepower worth of electrical power is required to keep the Internet running in its current state. More »

It Takes 2 Billion Electrons to Produce a Single Email Message. Digital Vision / Getty Images

2. It Takes 2 Billion Electrons to Produce a Single Email Message.

According to Michael Stevens and Vsauce calculations, a 50 kilobyte email message uses the footprint of 8 billion electrons.  The number sounds ginormous, yes, but with electrons weighing next to nothing, 8 billion of them weigh less than a quadrillionth of an ounce. More »

Of the 7 Billion on Planet Earth, Over 2.4 Billion Use the Internet. Image Source / Getty Images

3. Of the 7 Billion People on Planet Earth, Over 2.4 Billion Use the Internet

While most of these calculations cannot be precisely confirmed, there is high confidence amongst most internet statistics that more than 2 billion people use the internet and the Web as a matter of weekly habit. More »

The Internet Weighs As Much As One Strawberry. Flickr Select / Getty Images

4. The Internet Weighs As Much As One Strawberry

Russel Seitz is a physicist who has crunched some very precise numbers.  With some atomic physics assumptions, the billions upon billions of 'data-in-motion' moving electrons on the Internet add up to approximately 50 grams.  That is 2 ounces, the weight of one strawberry. More »

Over 8.7 Billion Machines Are Connected to the Internet. Iconica / Getty Images

5. Over 8.7 Billion Machines Are Currently Connected to the Internet.

Smartphones, tablets, desktops, servers, wireless routers and hotspots, car GPS units, wristwatches, refrigerators and even soda pop machines: the Internet is comprised of billions of gadgets.  Expect this to grow to 15 billion gadgets by 2015, and to 40 billion gadgets by 2020.  More »

 

Every 60 Seconds on the Internet... Gizmodo.com

6. Every 60 Seconds, 72 Hours of YouTube Video Is Uploaded

...and of those 72 hours, most of the videos are about cats, Harlem Shake dance moves, and inane things that no one is interested in.   Like it or not, people love to share their amateur videos in the hopes that it will go viral and achieve a small bit of celebritydom. More »

Electrons Only Move a Few Dozen Meters Before Stopping on the Net. Photodisc / Getty Images

7. Electrons Only Move a Few Dozen Meters Before Stopping on the Net.

Yes, an electron doesn't travel very far through the wires and transistors of our computers; they move perhaps a dozen meters or so between machines, and then their energy and signal is consumed by the next device on the network. Each device, in turn, transfers the signal to the adjacent set of electrons and the cycle repeats again down the chain. All of this happens within fractions of seconds.  More »

The Internet's Total Data Weighs Less Than a Grain of Sand. Photolibrary / Getty Images

8. The Internet's 5 Million Terabytes Weigh Less Than a Grain of Sand

Weighing even less that all the moving electricity, the weight of the internet's static data storage ('data-at-rest') is freakishly small.  Once you take away the mass of the hard drives and transistors, it boggles the mind that 5 million TB of data comprises less mass than a grain of sand. More »

Over 78% of the US people Use the Internet. Cultura / Getty Images

9. Over 78% of North Americans Use the Internet

The USA and the English language were the original influences that spawned the Internet and the World Wide Web.  It makes sense that the great majority of the US people rely on the Web as a daily part of life. More »

1.7 Billion of the Internet's Users Are in Asia. Cut Images / Getty Images

10. 1.7 Billion of the Internet's Users Are in Asia

That's right: over half of the regular population of the Web resides in some part of Asia:  Japan, South Korea, India, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore are just some of the countries with this high adoption rate.  There are a growing number of web pages published in these asian languages, but the predominant web language continues to be English. More »

 

Ebola Vaccines May Be Deployed in West Africa by January, Officials Say

 

TUESDAY Oct. 21, 2014, 2014 -- A pair of promising Ebola vaccines could be deployed against the outbreak ravaging three West African nations by January, experts say.

Rival American and Canadian vaccines are being prepared for possible use in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, but first they have to pass expedited human safety trials in the United States, manufacturers say.

If all goes well, inoculation of frontline health workers in West Africa could begin in early 2015.

On Tuesday, a top official from the World Health Organization (WHO) said it's possible that tens of thousands of doses could be available for "real-world" testing in West Africa by January, the Associated Press reported.

Dr. Marie Paule Kieny, an assistant director general for WHO, said preliminary safety data on both vaccines should be available by December.

Twenty human subjects have already been injected with the American vaccine in one of the safety trials, and by the end of November or early December researchers will know whether it is safe, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The agency is developing this vaccine with drug maker GlaxoSmithKline.

"I don't know if that's going to be the best one, but that's the one farthest along in terms of development," Fauci said.

At the same time, Canada has started shipping its own experimental vaccine to WHO, sending 800 vials for possible use in West Africa.

Those vials are expected to arrive in Switzerland on Wednesday for testing among volunteers in Geneva, Hamburg, Germany, and the African nations of Gabon and Kenya, according to the AP.

"These data are absolutely crucial to allow decision-making on what dose level should go in the efficacy testing in Africa," Kieny said. "We expect, we hope, to have a go-ahead by the end of the month."

That would allow the vaccine to be shipped for use in West Africa immediately afterward.

The Canadian vaccine is being produced by the Public Health Agency of Canada and NewLink Genetics, a U.S. firm that holds the license for the vaccine.

The Canadian vaccine has also entered the human testing stage in the United States, with about 40 volunteers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland receiving a dose, according to Canadian Health Minister Rona Ambrose.

The American and Canadian vaccines appear to be the most promising, in that they are far enough along that they might be put into use during the current Ebola epidemic, said Dr. Craig Smith, medical director of infectious diseases at University Health Care System in Augusta, Ga.

"Both of these vaccines are the top choices for availability and production," Smith said. "They're not ready for prime time if it wasn't an emergency situation, but they are the ones the World Health Organization is supporting."

The two vaccines both aim to create immunity to Ebola through the use of a simpler, less harmful virus into which Ebola genetics have been spliced, Smith said.

The American vaccine uses a chimpanzee cold virus, called chimp adenovirus type 3, to deliver Ebola genetic material to human cells. The Canadian vaccine uses a virus common to cattle and horses called vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which is in the same viral family as the rabies virus but causes only flu-like symptoms in infected humans.

The goal of both vaccines is to trigger an immune system response that creates antibodies that will defend the body against Ebola infection. Both have shown promise in animal trials.

There are several other Ebola vaccines in development. Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have developed an Ebola vaccine that piggybacks on the established rabies virus vaccine, for example.

But the other vaccines are not likely to be ready in time for this epidemic. "It's not that they aren't good, it's just that they aren't farther along in development," Fauci explained.

It's an open question whether any of these vaccines will be available in time and in large enough quantities to do any good.

Alan Barrett, director of the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Texas Medical Branch, said that even with a revved-up testing schedule, "having a vaccine that would have an effect on this epidemic is unlikely. It's just not going to be ready in time."

But if the epidemic is still raging into early 2015 and the vaccines prove safe, Barrett said health care workers likely will be the first people in West Africa to receive inoculations.

"Clearly, you want your health care workers immunized, because otherwise they can't help those who are ill," he said.

Which people next receive the vaccine will be a matter of both scientific and ethical debate, Barrett said. The vaccine must be used in a way that can prove its clinical effectiveness, but with thousands dying it may be difficult to stick to such standards.

WHO likely will use a technique called "cluster randomization" to test the effectiveness of Ebola vaccines, Smith said.

"As the vaccine becomes available, you vaccinate everyone in one village, and then compare their progress to that of other unvaccinated villages," he said. "That way, you're not using placebo. If you go in to vaccinate a village, they know that they are all going to get the vaccine."

Smith said this type of clinical trial is not commonly used "because placebo control studies are the gold standard," but it would likely need to be used in the face of a deadly epidemic.

More than 4,500 people have already died from the Ebola virus, and public health experts have said there could be 10,000 new cases a week by the end of the year if stronger measures to fight the often deadly virus are not taken.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on the Ebola virus.

Medication Errors Occur Every 8 Minutes in U.S. Children

 

MONDAY Oct. 20, 2014, 2014 -- A child receives the wrong medication or the wrong dosage every eight minutes in the United States, according to a recent study.

Nearly 700,000 children under 6 years old experienced an out-of-hospital medication error between 2002 and 2012. Out of those episodes, one out of four children was under a year old. As the age of children decreased, the likelihood of an error increased, the study found.

Though 94 percent of the mistakes didn't require medical treatment, the errors led to 25 deaths and about 1,900 critical care admissions, according to the study.

"Even the most conscientious parents make errors," said lead author Dr. Huiyun Xiang, director of the Center for Pediatric Trauma Research at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

That conscientiousness may even lead to one of the most common errors: Just over a quarter of these mistakes involved a child receiving the prescribed dosage twice.

"One caregiver may give a child a dose, and then a second caregiver, who does not know that and wants to make sure the child gets the proper amount of medicine, may give the child a dose, too," Xiang said. Other reasons for errors included incorrectly measuring the dosage or overprescription of some medications, he said.

Xiang and his colleagues analyzed all the medication errors reported to the National Poison Data System for all children under 6 years old during the study period. Their findings were released online on Oct. 20 in the journal Pediatrics.

Another common feature was that eight of every 10 errors involved liquid medication. There are several possible reasons for that, Xiang said.

"Young children are more likely to be given liquid medicine than medicine in other forms, like tablets or capsules," he said, especially since many prescription and over-the-counter children's medications are in liquid form.

"A second reason is that liquids can be difficult to measure correctly," Xiang said. "Some liquid medications are measured in milliliters, other in teaspoons, some with measuring cups, some with syringes. That can be confusing to parents and caregivers."

A different study -- from the August issue of Pediatrics -- found that using teaspoons or tablespoons to administer children's medications was behind many drug dosing errors. Instructions requiring teaspoons or tablespoons made it twice as likely that parents or another caregiver would incorrectly follow the doctor's prescription than if the instructions were in milliliters, that study found. An error was even more likely if parents used a kitchen spoon to measure out the dose, according to the earlier study.

In the current study, Xiang's team also found that errors involving cough and cold medicines suddenly dropped by two-thirds from 2005 to 2012, a dive likely linked to two events, Xiang said.

In 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it was reviewing the safety of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children, and soon after, manufacturers voluntarily withdrew those drugs from shelves for children under 2 years old.

Shortly thereafter, the American Academy of Pediatrics said that cough and cold medicines weren't effective in children under 6, and that those medications might pose a health risk to young children.

While errors related to those medicines dropped, however, mistakes involving other medications increased by 37 percent, though the study did not look at why.

"It may be associated with the increased use of analgesics and antihistamines among young children," said Xiang.

Pain relievers and cough and cold medicines each comprised about a quarter of all the errors identified, and antihistamines made up 15 percent of the errors. Antibiotics made up about 12 percent.

The medications causing the highest rate of hospitalization or death included muscle relaxants, cardiovascular drugs and mental health drugs, such as sedatives and antipsychotics.

To avoid these errors, Xiang recommended that parents use a smartphone app to keep to a medication schedule and to use only the measuring cup or syringe that comes with a medication for measuring it. If a mistake should occur, parents should keep the national poison emergency helpline handy: (800) 222-1222.

"Parents need to realize that medication errors at home are very common, but those errors can be reduced," he said.

One expert believes that some parents may be too ready to reach for over-the-counter medicines for their children.

"The take-home message from this study for parents is that children do not routinely require medications for fever, congestion or the common cold," said Dr. Minu George, Interim Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

"Decreasing use of the medications may lead to fewer errors," she added. "Education is key -- educating parents on how to keep their child comfortable and when it is necessary to call and/or see their physician before giving medications can prevent errors in the future."

(Note from this blog : Those above mentioned events occur not only in the US but also worldwide, of course.)

More information

Learn more about giving medication to children from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Most published medical research is false; Here's how to improve

 

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In 2005, in a landmark paper viewed well over a million times, John Ioannidis explained in PLOS Medicine why most published research findings are false. To coincide with PLOS Medicine's 10th anniversary he responds to the challenge of this situation by suggesting how the research enterprise could be improved.

Research, including medical research, is subject to a range of biases which mean that misleading or useless work is sometimes pursued and published while work of value is ignored. The risks and rewards of academic careers, the structures and habits of peer reviewed journals, and the way universities and research institutions are set up and governed all have profound effects on what research scientists undertake, how they choose to do it and, ultimately, how patients are treated. Perverse incentives can lead scientists to waste time producing and publishing results which are wrong or useless. Understanding these incentives and altering them provides a potential way for drastically re-shaping research to improve in medical knowledge.

In a provocative and personal essay, designed to spur readers into thinking about how research careers could be redesigned in order to encourage better work, Ioannidis suggests practical ways in which our current situation could be improved. He describes how successful practices from some branches of science could be distributed to others which have performed badly, and suggests ways in which academic structures could provide greater benefits from the work of researchers, administrators, publishers and the research funding which supports them all.

"The achievements of science are amazing yet the majority of research effort is currently wasted," asserts Ioannidis. He calls for testing interventions to improve the structure of scientific research, and doing so with the rigor normally reserved for testing drugs or hypotheses.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by PLOS. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Gordon C. S. Smith. Variation in Caesarean Section Rates in the US: Outliers, Damned Outliers, and Statistics. PLoS Medicine, 2014; 11 (10): e1001746 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001746

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RAZAR riflescope brings push-button zoom to the battlefield

 

The RAZAR riflescope allows shooters to change focus without distraction

Image Gallery (7 images)

In combat, seconds count and a moment’s hesitation or distraction can mean the difference between life and death. So it's no small problem that modern riflescopes often require soldiers to look away from their targets or take their hands off their rifles in order to change magnification. Sandia National Laboratories’ Rapid Adaptive Zoom for Assault Rifles (RAZAR) riflescope is capable of switching between high and low zoom magnifications at the touch of a button, allowing soldiers to concentrate on the battle rather than their scopes.

Currently a prototype, RAZAR is the result of an eight-year development effort led by Army Special Forces officer turned optical engineer Brett Bagwell. Based on a US Department of Defense (DoD) need for a compact zoom riflescope that could change magnifications quickly, Sandia says the scope is not only easy to use, but rugged, lightweight, compact, and very energy efficient.

The key to RAZAR is Sandia’s “adaptive zoom” technology, which was invented by David Wick while he worked as an optical engineer for the laboratory. It differs from conventional zoom optics in that the lenses don’t move. In a regular scope, magnification is changed by having the optical components moving along the scope’s axis. That’s why telescopes extend and retract and automatic zoom cameras do their little dance when they focus.

In adaptive zoom, the optics act more like the human eye, where focus is controlled by muscles that change the shape of the lens. Adaptive zooms use glass lenses combined with polymer lenses made of two flexible, hermetically-sealed membranes filled with a polymer fluid. An ultrasonic piezoelectric actuator electro-mechanically changes the lens curvature inside of 250 milliseconds and with an accuracy of 100 nanometers. This allows the scope to be compact, lightweight, and adjustable, while using very little power, with two AA batteries providing enough power to make 10,000 actuations.

Sandia says that though the principle is not new, the tolerances required much of the RAZAR technology to be developed from scratch. First invented in the late 19th century, adaptive lenses has previously been used for little more than cheap, adjustable spectacles for the developing world. One special problem Sandia faced was finding ways of manufacturing the polymer lenses that eliminated bubbles and other flaws that would affect the optical qualities.

Another feature of the adaptive zoom system is the “zero-power hold” feature, which, unlike camera-based zooms, maintains focus if the power is switched off. This means a RAZAR scope can still be used with dead batteries – although the focus can't be changed.

Sandia also sees the RAZAR technology has having applications in medical imaging, binoculars, hunter scopes, cell phones, security cameras, and other places where optical zoom is needed in a compact package. Bagwell is currently working on a night vision version of RAZAR and recently demonstrated an adaptive zoom that worked in the thermal infrared waveband.

The video below outlines the RAZAR adaptive zoom system.

Source: Sandia Labs

 

Overweight women lose in the labor market, study finds

 

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Overweight women are more likely to work in lower-paying and more physically demanding jobs; less likely to get higher-wage positions that include interaction with the public; and make less money in either case compared to average size women and all men, according to a new Vanderbilt study.

"Starting when a woman becomes overweight, she is increasingly less likely to work in a personal interaction or personal communication occupation. And the heaviest women in the labor market are the least likely individuals to work in personal interaction occupations," says Jennifer Shinall, assistant professor of law at Vanderbilt Law School and author of 'Occupational Characteristics and the Obesity Wage Penalty.'

MORE WEIGHT = MORE PHYSICAL JOBS

But the reverse is true for overweight and obese women when it comes to physically strenuous jobs.

"As a woman becomes heavier she is actually more likely to work in a physical activity occupation. So morbidly obese women are the most likely to work in a physically demanding occupation," says Shinall.

Shinall labels personal interaction jobs as those where the employee works closely with the customer, such as a salesperson, customer service representative or receptionist. Physically demanding positions are healthcare support (nurse's aides or home health aides), healthcare practitioners (such as registered nurses), food preparation and childcare.

FEMALE WAGE PENALTY

Shinall found that obese women are penalized in the labor market because of lower demand in the marketplace, but heavier men do not encounter the same penalty.

"No matter what the type of occupation, obese men seem to do just as well as average size men. They make just as much as non-obese men and make just as much money in both personal interaction occupations and physical occupations. But we see the opposite pattern for women," says Shinall.

OBESE WAGE PENALTY

For the heavier women who get a job interacting with customers, there is still a price to pay.

"A morbidly obese woman working in an occupation with an emphasis on personal interaction will earn almost 5 percent less than a normal-weight woman working in an occupation with exactly the same emphasis," Shinall says. Even after taking differences in education and socioeconomic status into account, there seems to be no scenario where being overweight becomes an advantage for a woman.

LEGAL IMPACT

From a legal perspective, there has been a lot of discussion on whether an obese individual is considered disabled in regards to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Shinall suggests that when it comes to discrimination lawsuits, the ADA may not be the correct avenue since obese women are actually filling strenuous physical labor jobs.

"What seems to be going on in the labor market may be more of a sex discrimination issue that could be tied to Title VII."

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sex discrimination in employment. Shinall, whose paper is under review for publication, used matched data from the Current Population Survey, American Time Use Survey's Eating and Health Module (ATUS EHM) and the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) for her research.

More information can be found at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2379575

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Vanderbilt University. The original article was written by Amy Wolf. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Immersed in violence: How 3-D gaming affects video game players

 

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Researchers found that people who played violent video games in 3-D showed more evidence of anger afterward than did people who played using traditional 2-D systems -- even those with large screens.

Playing violent video games in 3-D makes everything seem more real -- and that may have troubling consequences for players, a new study reveals.

Researchers found that people who played violent video games in 3-D showed more evidence of anger afterward than did people who played using traditional 2-D systems -- even those with large screens.

The higher anger in 3-D players was connected to the fact that, compared to 2-D players, they were more likely to feel they were "immersed in the game," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University.

"3-D gaming increases anger because the players felt more immersed in the violence when they played violent games," said Bushman. "As the technology in video games improves, it has the ability to have stronger effects on players."

Bushman conducted the study with lead author Robert Lull, a graduate student in communication at Ohio State. They announced their findings on Sunday (10/19) during the New Horizons in Science briefings at ScienceWriters2014, an annual conference hosted this year by Ohio State.

Bushman discussed these new results as part of his presentation "Guns, gender, race and violent video games: Searching for the roots of modern aggression."

The study has been accepted for publication in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture.

Participants were 194 college students, about two-thirds of whom were women. All of the students played the video game Grand Theft Auto IV for 15 minutes. Half were instructed to play violently (kill as many people as possible in the game) and half played nonviolently (they went bowling).

They played on a 17-inch 2-D screen, a 96-inch 2-D screen or on a 96-inch 3-D screen while wearing appropriate 3-D glasses.

Later, all participants reported their mood on a variety of dimensions, including anger. For example, they were asked to rate how angry, annoyed and furious (among other adjectives) they felt on a scale of 1 to 5.

Results showed that for those who played nonviolently, it didn't matter if they played in 2-D or 3-D -- their levels of anger were relatively low and unchanged.

Those who played violently showed higher levels of anger than nonviolent players no matter how they played, 2-D or 3-D. But those who played violently on 3-D were significantly angrier than those who played violently on the 2-D systems.

Why did those who play violently in 3-D show more anger? Another result from the study gives the answer.

After playing the games, participants were asked several questions measuring how immersed they were in the game. For example, they were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 7 how much they felt they "were really 'there' in the game environment" and how much they felt like other characters in the game were real.

Results showed that people who played in 3-D felt more immersed in the game than did those who played in 2-D, and that immersion was related to the increased anger felt by those who played violently.

"The combination of violent content and immersive technology like 3-D can be troublesome," Bushman said.

"This is something that needs to be considered by everyone involved -- electronics manufacturers, video game developers, consumers, parents and content ratings agencies."

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Ohio State University. The original article was written by Jeff Grabmeier. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Amazonas-Brasil

 

Amazonas é uma das 27 unidades federativas do Brasil, sendo a maior delas em território, com uma área de 1 559 159,148 km², constituindo-se na nona maior subdivisão mundial, sendo o maior que as áreas da França, Espanha, Suécia e Grécia somadas. Seria o décimo oitavo maior país do mundo em área territorial, pouco superior à Mongólia. É maior que a Região Nordeste, com seus nove estados; e equivale a 2,25 vezes a área do estado norte-americano do Texas. A área média de seus 62 municípios é de 25 335 km², superior à área do estado brasileiro de Sergipe. O maior deles é Barcelos, com 122 476 km² e o menor é Iranduba, com 2 215 km².

Pertencente à Região Norte do Brasil, é a segunda unidade federativa mais populosa desta macrorregião, com seus 3,8 milhões de habitantes em 2014, sendo superado apenas pelo Pará. No entanto, apenas dois de seus municípios possuem população acima de 100 mil habitantes: Manaus, a capital e sua maior cidade com 2 milhões de habitantes em 2014, que concentra cerca de 52% da população do estado, e Parintins, com pouco mais de 110 mil habitantes. O estado é, ainda, subdividido em 13 microrregiões e 4 mesorregiões.Seus limites são com o estado do Pará ao leste; Mato Grosso ao sudeste; Rondônia e Acre ao sul e sudoeste; Roraima ao norte; além da Venezuela, Colômbia e Peru ao norte, noroeste e oeste, respectivamente.

Em 1850, no dia 5 de setembro, foi criada a Província do Amazonas, desmembrada da Província do Grão-Pará. Os motivos que levaram à criação da Província do Amazonas foram muitos, em especial, a grandíssima área territorial administrada pelo Grão-Pará, com capital em Belém, e as tentativas fracassadas do Peru em ampliar suas fronteiras com o Brasil, com o apoio dos Estados Unidos.

O estado possui um dos mais baixos índices de densidade demográfica no país, superior apenas ao do estado vizinho, Roraima. Conforme dados do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, a densidade demográfica equivale a 2,23 habitantes por quilômetro quadrado.6 Detém 98% de sua cobertura florestal preservada e um dos maiores mananciais de água doce do planeta, proveniente da maior rede hidrográfica do mundo. A hidrografia do estado, entretanto, sofre grande influência de vários fatores como precipitação, vegetação e altitude. Em geral, os rios amazonenses são navegáveis e formam sua maior rede de transporte.6 Possui o maior Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano (IDH) (empatado com o Amapá) e o maior PIB per capita entre todos os estados do Norte do Brasil. A Região Metropolitana de Manaus, com população superior aos 2,2 milhões de habitantes e sendo a maior em área territorial do mundo, é sua única região metropolitana. O Pico da Neblina, ponto culminante do Brasil, também se situa em território amazonense.

Rio Amazonas, perto de Manaus

Encontro das Águas

 

Araras

Arena Amazônia – Manaus

Skyline parcial de Manaus

Smoking interferes with neurocognitive recovery during abstinence from alcohol

 

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Numerous studies have shown that individuals with an alcohol use disorder perform worse than those without one on multiple neurocognitive domains of function following detoxification from alcohol, although the level of impairment can vary widely among individuals. A new study of the degree of neurocognitive recovery in treatment-seeking alcohol dependent individuals (ALC) -- with varied degrees of smoking status -- during the first eight months of sustained abstinence from alcohol has found that smoking status influenced the rate and level of recovery.

Results will be published in the November 2014 online-only issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

"There have been few longitudinal studies that have specifically studied the effects of cigarette smoking on cognitive recovery in ALC during abstinence," said Timothy C. Durazzo, associate professor in the department of radiology and biomedical imaging at the University of California San Francisco, and corresponding author for the study. "To our knowledge, there have been no previous studies that used multiple assessment points to investigate the effects of cigarette smoking on cognitive recovery over the first eight months of abstinence from alcohol. We chose to examine measures of processing speed, learning and memory, and working memory because these abilities have been shown to be adversely affected by alcohol use disorders as well as chronic cigarette smoking."

Durazzo and his colleagues examined a total of 133 ALC participants -- 30 had never smoked, 28 were former smokers, and 75 were active smokers -- as well as 39 never-smoking "control" participants. Approximately 89 percent of the participants were male. All of the participants were given standardized measures of auditory-verbal and visuospatial learning and memory, processing speed, and working memory. Assessments after one week, four weeks, and eight months of abstinence for the ALC group allowed a comparison of the rates of neurocognitive changes from one to four weeks versus one to eight months of abstinence. The controls completed a baseline assessment and a follow-up approximately nine months later.

"We found that, overall, the ALC as a group showed the greatest rate of recovery on most abilities during the first month of abstinence," said Durazzo. "Over eight months of sustained abstinence from alcohol, active-smoking ALC showed poorer recovery than never-smoking ALC on measures of learning, and both former-smoking ALC and active-smoking ALC recovered less than never-smoking ALC on processing speed measures. In addition, after eight months of abstinence, active-smoking ALC performed worse than both controls and never-smoking ALC on most measures, former-smoking ALC performed worse than never-smoking ALC on several tests, but never-smoking ALC were not different from controls on any measure. Overall, the findings indicated never-smoking ALC showed full recovery on all measures after 8 months of sustained abstinence from alcohol."

"What this new research has found is that cognitive improvements are not uniform across alcoholic patients in recovery," explained David A. Kareken, deputy director of the Indiana Alcohol Research Center, and professor in the department of neurology at Indiana University School of Medicine. "In particular, some of this variability in cognitive recovery is explained by smoking. That is, those who stopped drinking, yet continued to smoke -- or even smoked in the past -- were slower to recover some types of mental skills over a period of months as compared to those who never smoked. This was most evident in skills such as visual memory, attention, and the capacity to quickly perform motor tasks that require directed, focused mental activity."

Durazzo said he was somewhat surprised by the degree of recovery. "The average alcohol consumption for the never-smoking ALC participants was about 370 drinks per month during the year prior to study," he said. "This suggests that significant cognitive recovery is possible during sustained abstinence from alcohol."

Both Durazzo and Kareken commented on the damaging toxicity of cigarette smoke.

"Cigarette smoke contains a tremendous number of toxic compounds that affect multiple organs in the body, including the brain," said Durazzo. "The components of cigarette smoke can promote significant oxidative stress in the lungs, blood vessels, and brain in humans. Oxidative stress is cause by 'free radicals' that directly damage the various cells that constitute the brain, which may lead to impaired function; the human brain is highly vulnerable to oxidative stress. The active-smoking ALC stopped drinking, but continued to smoke, which may have damped their recovery because of continued exposure to the various chemicals in cigarette smoke that promote oxidative stress. The diminished recovery of former-smoking ALC may represent the residual effects of long-term oxidative stress; however, this is all speculative."

Kareken agreed. "What precisely it is about smoking that causes alcoholic patients to recover cognitive abilities more slowly is uncertain, as smoking involves much more than delivering a drug," he said. "Certainly, nicotine can acutely stimulate attention and mental abilities, which is one reason why many people find smoking to be reinforcing. However, smoking also involves the delivery of a very large number of toxins and gasses that ... may also interact with how alcohol damages the brain. Smoking could affect the brain indirectly, as well, by damaging other organs that interact with the brain, such as the heart and lungs. Teasing apart the precise effects will be complex."

"Our findings stress the importance of evaluating the influence of conditions/behaviors that often accompany alcohol use disorders, such as cigarette smoking, to better understand the factors that may hinder cognitive recovery during abstinence from alcohol," said Durazzo. "The frequency of cigarette smoking is much higher in those with alcohol and substance use disorders compared to the general public. It is important to emphasize that cigarette smoking alone is associated with adverse effects on multiple areas of cognitive function, such as learning and memory and processing speed. And, just like alcohol use disorders, cigarette smoking and nicotine dependence are treatable conditions. We believe our findings strongly reinforce the growing clinical movement to offer a comprehensive smoking-cessation program to individuals seeking treatment for alcohol and substance use disorders."

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Timothy C. Durazzo et al. Effects of Cigarette Smoking History on Neurocognitive Recovery Over 8 Months of Abstinence in Alcohol-Dependent Individuals. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, October 2014 DOI: 10.1111/acer.12552

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