Silk LED bulb emulates natural sunlight

 

The idea is that the Silk lightbulb will give you energy boosting blue light in the daytime and warm light in the evening to help you chill Our well-being and mood throughout the day is largely influenced by the light we are exposed to. Following this principle, a start-up called Saffron has developed the prototype of a LED light that can sync our internal clock to the natural shifting color spectrum of the sun. The light is called Silk and the designers claim it can improve our performance and sleep patterns by giving us get the right kind of light for each time of the day. The programmable LED bulb emits light that is tailored to the user’s internal circadian rhythm, that is, our physical, mental and behavioral changes over the course of a 24-hour cycle in response to light and darkness. This is what evolution has programmed us to to do, but artificial lights, including digital screens, disrupt that balance. The 800 lumen bulb, which is compatible with E27 sockets, has two banks of LEDs, one of cool colored LEDs and a bank of warmer LEDs. For a full daylight experience, only the cool colored LEDs will be powered on. It is also possible to get the two color banks to mix and strike the right balance between warm and cool. At night, only the warm LEDs will light up. The idea is that the Silk lightbulb will give you energy boosting blue light in the daytime and warm light in the evening to help you chill and have more restorative sleep, unlike conventional lights which the designers say are wrong half of the time. To set up the light, all its takes is plugging in a bridge circuit and setting up Wi-Fi details (it uses the Zigbee protocol). The system syncs with local sun movement information online and automatically adjusts the lighting to suit. An existing light switch can be used to control the Silk bulb, with no modification required. This is thanks to a feature called nClick, where the number of clicks on the switch tells the light what to do. With one click, the user activates the normal bulb function, two clicks could change the color temperature and three clicks might set it to fade off over time. For more advanced control, the Silk Light app (iOS and Android) enables the user to create their own zone-based schedules and switch behaviors to meet the lighting needs of a particular situation, such as a yoga session or a dinner party, for example. People who suffer from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) may well benefit from this customizable lighting scheme. The Silk Light team has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to manufacture the LED lightbulb. As of writing, the early bird package of three Silk bulbs plus one Silk bridge is still available for a pledge of US$99. If all goes to plan, estimated delivery is set to start in January 2016.   Source:Saffron, Kickstarter

Electronic skin patch with sensor device

 

This prototype wearable device of an electronic skin patch is as thin as a temporary tattoo and can store and transmit data about a person's movements, receive diagnostic information and release drugs into skin. Although there have been other efforts by researchers to develop "electronic skin," this device is the first with the capability of storing information and also delivering medicine, combining patient treatment and monitoring. The device was developed cooperatively by Nanshu Lu, a mechanical engineer at the University of Texas at Austin, and Dae-Hyeong Kim of Seoul National University in South Korea. The researchers layered a package of stretchable nanomaterials onto a material that mimics the softness and flexibility of skin. The resulting sticky patch houses a device roughly 4 centimeters long, 2 centimeters wide and 0.3 millimeters thick that contains sensors, RAM capabilities, microheaters and medicine. The patch must adhere to skin through electrostatic force because using an adhesive would disrupt electrical connectivity. "This technology could help electronics that interact with humans be more mechanically compatible," Lu. "In terms of application, its uses range from consumer products like rollable displays and solar cells to personal digital health care like EKG and emotion sensors to computer gaming." Lu received support from a National Science Foundation grant (CMMI 13-01335) to study the mechanics at the bioelectronics interface. The researchers reported their findings in Nature Nanotechnology. Credit: Donghee Son and Jongha Lee

Early-age exercise in mice has positive effects on adult levels of voluntary exercise

 

Theodore Garland is a professor of biology at UC Riverside. Credit: CNAS, UC Riverside.  What impact can exercise done early in life have on the propensity for exercising during the adult years? A team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside did experiments on mice in the lab to find out. Specifically, they evaluated the effects of early exercise on adult physical activity, body mass, food consumption and circulating leptin levels. They found that early-age exercise in mice has positive effects on adult levels of voluntary exercise in addition to reducing body mass -- results that may have relevance for the public policy debates concerning the importance of physical education for children. "These results may have implications for the importance of regular physical education in elementary and middle schools," said Theodore Garland, a professor of biology, who led the research project. "If kids exercise regularly through the school years, then they may be more likely to exercise as adults, which could have far-reaching positive effects on human health and well-being. "Modest levels of exercise can perhaps lower body mass without necessarily triggering homeostatic compensatory responses in food intake. If true, and if this relationship exists in humans, then it could prove of value for ultimately determining recommended daily exercise criteria." Study results appear online in Physiology & Behavior. The researchers conducted their experiments on male mice, half of which were selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running (high runners), the rest serving as the control. Half of the high runners and half of the control mice were allowed wheel access when they were about 24 days old for a total of 21 days, which got the mice through puberty. The rest of the mice were given no wheel access. After three weeks the researchers removed the wheels for seven weeks. Then, they gave all the mice wheel access for about two weeks. They continued to monitor the mice's cage activity, food consumption and body mass. They found increased adult wheel running on both the high runners and the control lines of mice during the first of the two weeks of adult testing. "Although the positive effect of early-life exercise lasted for only one week, it is important to note that one week in the life of a mouse is equivalent to about nine months for humans," Garland said. "Our results suggest that any positive effects of early-life exercise on adult exercise propensity will require reinforcement and maintenance if they are to be long-lasting." His team of researchers found, too, that all mice that had access to early exercise were lighter in weight than their non-exercised counterparts. Garland explained that, in general, exercise will stimulate appetite sooner or later. However, it is possible that certain types of exercise, engaged in for certain durations or at certain moderate levels, might not stimulate appetite much, if at all, at least in some individuals. "If we could understand what sorts of exercise these might be, then we might be able to tailor exercise recommendations in a way that would bring the benefits of exercise without the compensatory increases in appetite that usually occur, hence leading to better prospects for weight loss," he said. Garland was joined in the study by Wendy Acosta, Thomas H. Meek, Heidi Schutz, Elizabeth M. Dlugosz and Kim T. Vu. Meek is now at the University of Washington; Schutz is at Pacific Lutheran University, Wash.; and Dlugosz is at the University of Tennessee. A grant to Garland from the National Science Foundation supported the study.

Inactivity reduces people's muscle strength

 

New research reveals that it only takes two weeks of not using their legs for young people to lose a third of their muscular strength, leaving them on par with a person who is 40-50 years their senior. The Center for Healthy Aging and the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen conducted the research. Time and again, we are told that we need to stay physically active and exercise daily. But how quickly do we actually lose our muscular strength and muscle mass if we go from being averagely active to being highly inactive? For example when we are injured, fall ill or simply take a very relaxing holiday. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have examined what happens to the muscles in younger and older men after a period of high inactivity, by way of so-called immobilization with a leg pad. Both older and younger people lose muscular strength "Our experiments reveal that inactivity affects the muscular strength in young and older men equally. Having had one leg immobilized for two weeks, young people lose up to a third of their muscular strength, while older people lose approx. one fourth. A young man who is immobilized for two weeks loses muscular strength in his leg equivalent to aging by 40 or 50 years," says Andreas Vigelsoe, PhD at the Center for Healthy Aging and the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. Young people lose twice as much muscle mass With age, our total muscle mass diminishes, which is why young men have approx. one kilogram more muscle mass in each leg than older men. Both groups lose muscle mass when immobilized for two weeks -- young men lose 485 grams on average, while older men lose approx. 250 grams. The participants' physical fitness was also reduced while their one leg was immobilized in a pad. "The more muscle mass you have, the more you'll lose. Which means that if you're fit and become injured, you'll most likely lose more muscle mass than someone who is unfit, over the same period of time. But even though older people lose less muscle mass and their level of fitness is reduced slightly less than in young people, the loss of muscle mass is presumably more critical for older people, because it is likely to have a greater impact on their general health and quality of life," says Martin Gram, researcher at the Center for Healthy Aging and the Department of Biomedical Sciences, explains. Cycling is not enough After two weeks of immobilization, the participants bicycle-trained 3-4 times a week for six weeks. "Unfortunately, bicycle-training is not enough for the participants to regain their original muscular strength. Cycling is, however, sufficient to help people regain lost muscle mass and reach their former fitness level. If you want to regain your muscular strength following a period of inactivity; you need to include weight training," Andreas Vigelsoe states. "It's interesting that inactivity causes such rapid loss of muscle mass, in fact it'll take you three times the amount of time you were inactive to regain the muscle mass that you've lost. This may be caused by the fact that when we're inactive, it's 24 hours a day," Martin Gram concludes. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Copenhagen The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Andreas Vigelsoe, PhD et al. Six weeks’ aerobic retraining after two weeks’ immobilization restores leg lean mass and aerobic capacity but does not fully rehabilitate leg strenght in young and older men. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, June 2015 DOI: 10.2340/16501977-1961

Study authors say its likely protective effect comes from antihypertensive drugs

 

A new study suggests that people with a genetic predisposition to high blood pressure have a lower risk for Alzheimer's disease. However, authors conclude the connection may have more to do with anti-hypertension medication than high blood pressure itself. "It's likely that this protective effect is coming from antihypertensive drugs," said co-author John Kauwe, associate professor of biology at Brigham Young University. "These drugs are already FDA approved. We need to take a serious look at them for Alzheimer's prevention." The study, published this month in PLOS Medicine, analyzed genetic data from 17,008 individuals with Alzheimer's and 37,154 people without the disease. Data came from the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium and the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project. BYU researchers worked with scholars from the University of Cambridge, Aarhus University in Denmark and the University of Washington on the massive study. BYU's role was to flex its muscles in supercomputing and bioinformatics. With the help of BYU's supercomputer, Kauwe and undergraduate student Kevin Boehme pieced together 32 data sets for the analysis. The research team looked for links between Alzheimer's disease and a number of health conditions -- including diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol -- but only found a significant association between higher systolic blood pressure and reduced Alzheimer's risk. (A weak connection between smoking and Alzheimer's also surfaced.) "Our results are the opposite of what people might think," said fellow co-author Paul Crane, a University of Washington associate professor of internal medicine. "It may be that high blood pressure is protective, or it may be that something that people with high blood pressure are exposed to more often, such as antihypertensive medication, is protecting them from Alzheimer's disease." University of Cambridge senior investigator scientist Robert Scott led the study, which used "Mendelian randomization" to find if the risk factors (BMI, insulin resistance, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes) for Alzheimer's had a causal impact. Mendelian randomization uses subjects' genetics as a proxy for a randomized clinical trial. "This is to date the most authoritative paper looking at causal relationships between Alzheimer's disease and these potentially modifiable factors," Kauwe said. "In terms of the number of samples, it can't get bigger at this point."

Most of amateur athletes undergoing hypoxic training are not advised by specialists

 

This is an athlete doing hypoxic training with professional monitoring. Credit: Jesús Álvarez-Herms Physical performance after periods of hypoxic training -- in low-oxygen conditions -- has become a matter of growing controversy within the scientific community. An international study, with the help of Spanish researchers, compared professional and amateur athletes' knowledge and understanding of this type of training According to the results, just 25% of amateurs are assessed and monitored by specialists. The most popular way of training in low-oxygen conditions is known as intermittent hypoxic training. This consists of creating natural or artificial conditions that result in increased oxygen deficiency in the subject either when they are exercising or at rest. The technique has proved to be efficient in improving oxygen transfer in some sportspeople and, consequently, in improving their physical performance. However, this cannot be extrapolated to all the cases in which this type of training has been used. Therefore, a study published in the journal Physiology & Behaviour involving Spanish researchers from the Faculty of Biology's Department of Physiology and Immunology at the University of Barcelona (UB) and the University of Lleida's National Institute of Physical Education, aimed to compare professional and amateur athletes' use, methodology, knowledge and understanding of hypoxic training. "Medical and scientific monitoring and regulation of the physiological responses to exposure to this type of training is not all that widespread among amateurs. Only 25% make use of it as opposed to 98% of professionals," lead researcher Jesús Álvarez-Herms, of the UB, explained. According to the authors, the data corresponds to the fact that professional athletes bear certain aspects very much in mind, such as nutrition to control breathlessness and avoid possible increased deficiencies. For instance, if professional sportspeople undergo hypoxic training they seriously consider using iron supplements. In contrast, amateurs -- for the most part -- follow programmes on their own, without specialist monitoring. As a matter of fact, the lack of monitoring of their hypoxic training can lead to certain health problems for the sportspeople. "The risk that may be run is connected with individuals' low tolerance to altitude," indicated Álvarez-Herms, which relates to an increase in breathlessness, the onset of anemia and loss of muscle mass as the possible adverse effects of hypoxia. The differences in regulation between professionals and amateurs suggest that the latter group follow hypoxic training programmes "which they are responsible for themselves or which are assessed by people who are not fully trained in the area. The consequences of this are increased health risks and the possibility that their efforts will prove to be ineffective," added the scientist. Professional sportspeople: more cautious with their results In order to conduct the study, the experts drew up a questionnaire with 17 questions, which was completed by a total of 203 sportspeople -- 95 professionals and 108 amateurs -- from different sporting disciplines (cycling, triathlon and endurance running) during the 2013-2014 season. For the group of amateur sportspeople, the researchers selected athletes of a good standard with high physical performance levels, who did not take part in international events, but participated in Spanish tournaments and elite cycling races. In general, a higher percentage of professional endurance sportspeople expose themselves to hypoxia to aid physical improvement -- 84% of professionals as opposed to 19% of amateurs," Álvarez-Herms explained. The questionnaires show that all the sportspeople go through hypoxic training because they are confident that it improves their performance. However, professionals are less optimistic than amateurs in this regard. "Higher level athletes believed their performance would improve by between 5% and 9%, whilst amateur athletes anticipated an improvement of between 10% and 48%," stated Álvarez-Herms. A possible explanation for this is that the scope for physical improvement in professional sportspeople is smaller than in amateurs and therefore they are not as capable of improving. The authors indicate that tailoring training and the use of hypoxia to each individual is key, stating: "The main recommendation we would make to sportspeople undergoing altitude training is to evaluate their individual physiological and physical response to altitude." According to the expert, the conclusions drawn from the study show "a significant difference in scientific application and professional monitoring between amateur and professional sportspeople with regard to the hypoxic technique. This leads to an even greater gulf in performance between sportspeople." Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: J. Álvarez-Herms, S. Julià-Sánchez, M.J. Hamlin, F. Corbi, T. Pagès, G. Viscor. Popularity of hypoxic training methods for endurance-based professional and amateur athletes. Physiology & Behavior, 2015; 143: 35 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2015.02.020

Funny Ads Reminding You to Change Your Printer Ink

 

Posted: 25 Jun 2015 11:00 PM PDT

Ogilvy & Mather Colombia a demandé à Juan Cárdenas et Andrés Astorquiza d’imaginer la prochaine campagne de prints pour les cartouches d’encre de la marque Ecofill. Sur la signature « Don’t let (ink) run out when you need it the most », nous voyons des protagonistes dans des situations cocasses et amusantes où ils perdent leurs vêtements qui correspondent aux couleurs de l’encre cyan, magenta, jaune et noir.

 

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do

 

Communication Motivation by Amy Morin Mentally strong people have healthy habits. They manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in ways that set them up for success in life. Check out these things that mentally strong people don’t do so that you too can become more mentally strong.   1. They Don’t Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Themselves Mentally strong people don’t sit around feeling sorry about their circumstances or how others have treated them. Instead, they take responsibility for their role in life and understand that life isn’t always easy or fair.   2. They Don’t Give Away Their Power They don’t allow others to control them, and they don’t give someone else power over them. They don’t say things like, “My boss makes me feel bad,” because they understand that they are in control over their own emotions and they have a choice in how they respond.   3. They Don’t Shy Away from Change Mentally strong people don’t try to avoid change. Instead, they welcome positive change and are willing to be flexible. They understand that change is inevitable and believe in their abilities to adapt.   4. They Don’t Waste Energy on Things They Can’t Control You won’t hear a mentally strong person complaining over lost luggage or traffic jams. Instead, they focus on what they can control in their lives. They recognize that sometimes, the only thing they can control is their attitude.   5. They Don’t Worry About Pleasing Everyone Mentally strong people recognize that they don’t need to please everyone all the time. They’re not afraid to say no or speak up when necessary. They strive to be kind and fair, but can handle other people being upset if they didn’t make them happy.   6. They Don’t Fear Taking Calculated Risks They don’t take reckless or foolish risks, but don’t mind taking calculated risks. Mentally strong people spend time weighing the risks and benefits before making a big decision, and they’re fully informed of the potential downsides before they take action. You may be interested in this too: 14 Things Positive People Don’t Do   7. They Don’t Dwell on the Past Mentally strong people don’t waste time dwelling on the past and wishing things could be different. They acknowledge their past and can say what they’ve learned from it. However, they don’t constantly relive bad experiences or fantasize about the glory days. Instead, they live for the present and plan for the future.   8. They Don’t Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over Mentally strong people accept responsibility for their behavior and learn from their past mistakes. As a result, they don’t keep repeating those mistakes over and over. Instead, they move on and make better decisions in the future.   9. They Don’t Resent Other People’s Success Mentally strong people can appreciate and celebrate other people’s success in life. They don’t grow jealous or feel cheated when others surpass them. Instead, they recognize that success comes with hard work, and they are willing to work hard for their own chance at success.   10. They Don’t Give Up After the First Failure Mentally strong people don’t view failure as a reason to give up. Instead, they use failure as an opportunity to grow and improve. They are willing to keep trying until they get it right.   11. They Don’t Fear Alone Time Mentally strong people can tolerate being alone and they don’t fear silence. They aren’t afraid to be alone with their thoughts and they can use downtime to be productive. They enjoy their own company and aren’t dependent on others for companionship and entertainment all the time but instead can be happy alone.   12. They Don’t Feel the World Owes Them Anything Mentally strong people don’t feel entitled to things in life. They weren’t born with a mentality that others would take care of them or that the world must give them something. Instead, they look for opportunities based on their own merits.   13. They Don’t Expect Immediate Results Whether they are working on improving their health or getting a new business off the ground, mentally strong people don’t expect immediate results. Instead, they apply their skills and time to the best of their ability and understand that real change takes time. The tougher people may live a happier life because they can do these simple things: 10 Things You Never Realized You Could Do To Be Happy Featured photo credit: Pretty young woman with sketched strong and muscled arms via Shutterstock