aarika reservist: October 2012

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Higher Breast Cancer Risk Attributed to Age of First Period and Menopause

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j.r. smith

Poetry in motion: Gemini Observatory releases image of rare polar ring galaxy

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2012) ? When the lamp is shattered, The light in the dust lies dead. When the cloud is scattered, The rainbow's glory is shed.

These words, which open Shelley's poem "When the Lamp is Shattered," employ visions of nature to symbolize life in decay and rebirth. It's as if he had somehow foreseen the creation of this new Gemini Legacy image, and penned a caption for it. What Gemini has captured is nothing short of poetry in motion: the colorful and dramatic tale of a life-and-death struggle between two galaxies interacting. All the action appears in a single frame, with the stunning polar-ring galaxy NGC 660 as the focus of attention.

Polar-ring galaxies are peculiar objects. Astronomers have found only a handful of them, so not much is known about their origins. Most have an early-type spiral system, called a lenticular galaxy, as the central showpiece. But NGC 660, which lies about 40 million light-years distant toward the direction of Pisces the Fishes, is the only polar-ring galaxy known with what is called a late-type lenticular galaxy as its host. All, however, display a ring of stars, dust, and gas that extends tens of thousands of light-years across space along an orbit nearly perpendicular to the main disk.

Models of how polar-ring galaxies form offer two general formation scenarios: 1) a piercing merger between two galaxies aligned roughly at right angles, or 2) when the host galaxy tidally strips material from a passing gas-rich spiral and strews it into a ring.

What you see in this new Gemini Legacy image, then, is not a single dynamic body but either the "bloody" aftermath of one galaxy piercing the heart of another or the remains of a furious tidal struggle between two galaxies that shattered one galaxy's "lamp," scattered its dust and gas, and formed a colorful, 40,000-light-year-long ring of visual glory.

Born of Violence

Brian Svoboda of the University of Arizona, who recently studied the chemical and temperature environment of NGC 660, believes that unique morphology arises from a previous interaction with a gas-rich galaxy. The geometry of NGC 660 -- an enormous edge-on polar ring (some 40,000 light-years across) -- contains more gas (and associated star formation) than its host, which strongly suggests a violent formation. "One of the main characteristics of NGC 660 is that the ring is not truly polar, but is inclined ~45 degrees from the plane of the disk," Svoboda points out. "The simulations for the piercing mergers cannot reproduce these low inclination polar rings; however, the tidal accretion scenario can."

NGC 660's polar ring resolves into hundreds of objects, a considerable part of which are blue and red supergiant stars. The youngest detected stars in the ring formed only about 7 million years ago, indicating a long, ongoing process.

"Gemini's incredible definition of the active star forming regions strewn through the polar ring in NGC 660, juxtaposed against the exquisite crossing dust lanes, is simply beautiful. It really is the most incredible picture I've seen of the galaxy," Svoboda exclaims. "None of the other images I've seen, including those from the Hubble Space Telescope, show the star forming regions with such clarity."

Weighing the Evidence

If NGC represents a merging of two galaxies, astronomer would expect to find a collapsed core and a burst of star formation, which they do see. But the monkey wrench is the uniquely high gas content of both NGC 660's disk component and its polar ring.

"A tidal accretion event will place gas in the polar ring without strongly interacting with the original gas rich host," Svoboda explains. "Tidal interaction is consistent with an influx of gas into the nuclear region creating the starburst that we observe now." Further evidence, he says, is NGC 660's lack of a double nucleus (i.e. two super-massive black holes), which one would expect from a merger.

Astronomers have not detected any "tails" extending from NGC 660, a key signature of many tidal interactions. Usually, when galaxy passes close to another, tidal forces eject stars, gas, and dust into a graceful tail of extragalactic debris and stretched them far into space. But both polar-ring models have produced systems without tidal tails while creating active star formation in the polar ring.

While it can't be proven with a great deal of confidence, in the case of NGC 660, Svoboda says, "I think that there is good evidence to suggest that the origin of the polar ring lies in the tidal accretion event scenario." Particularly he notes that the ring may be about 1 billion years old, so the stripped galaxy could have moved out of the field by the time of our observations now.

Life from Death?

Unseen to the eye, but bright at radio wavelengths, is a compact source (less than 32 light-years in extent) at the host's core. Believed to be a super cluster of stars in a dense cloud of dust and gas, this powerful radio emitter contains perhaps a few thousand hot, blue youthful stars.

Galaxies usually have a majority of old red stars at their cores, but one of the violent scenarios that created NGC 660 has triggered a furious burst of star formation at the galaxy's core. Either way, the gravitational interaction between the two galaxies created shock waves that plowed into giant clouds of gas, causing them to collapse into behemoth blue stars, many likely containing more than 100 times the mass of our Sun. These monstrous, short-lived, stars exploded shortly thereafter as supernovae, which generated more shock waves, creating a domino effect that has ever since perpetuated the creation of youthful stars at NGC 660's core. NGC 660, then, is not only a polar-ring galaxy but also a starburst galaxy. These systems are among the most dense and intense star-forming environments known.

Probing Dark Matter

The ring in a polar-ring galaxy rotates at a speed comparable to that of its host galaxy. By determining how fast a polar ring rotates at different distances from the center of the system, astronomers can search for evidence of elusive and mysterious dark matter in NGC 660's halo. Radio observations have shown that while the ring's velocity close to NGC 660's core is normal, the velocity in the ring's outer parts remains consistent; theoretically the rotational velocity should have dropped off significantly due to the region's gas-poor environment. This finding points to the existence of huge amounts of dark matter in NGC 660.

Astronomers believe dark matter influences the dynamics of all galaxies. Yet understanding dark matter remains one of the astronomy's greatest challenges. Further observations of the enigmatic environment of NGC 660 may shed more light on this ? well ? dark matter.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Gemini Observatory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/4R5tCeXVN_U/121018185949.htm

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Scenes from the 'Promised Land' on Mars

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Ken Kremer / Marco Di Lorenzo

This mosaic of imagery from Curiosity's navigation camera system shows a scoop on the end of the rover's robotic arm taking a sample of Martian soil on Sol 66 (Oct. 12).

By Alan Boyle

NASA's Curiosity rover is rooting around what scientists call the Martian "Promised Land"?? a place where three geological formations come together to provide a deliciously complex picture of Mars' ancient past.

Although the ultimate destination for Curiosity's $2.5 billion, two-year mission is a 3-mile-high mountain called Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp, the rover is going to be spending the next few weeks nosing around its current site, which is called Glenelg. That name comes from a geological formation in Canada's Northwest Territories, but it's also a fitting name because it's spelled the same forward and backward. Similarly, Curiosity will be going backward and forward, retracing its steps for a while when it's time to head for the mountain.

Considering that Curiosity will be in the Promised Land for several weeks, we might as well get to know the place. These pictures from Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo show you the rover's surroundings. Kremer is a New Jersey-based journalist, research chemist and photographer; Di Lorenzo is a physicist who's a high school educator and photographer in Italy.

Both men are part of an active "amateur" community that makes use of the imagery provided by Curiosity and other Mars probes, such as NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Opportunity rover. "Amateur" is in quotes, because the work done by amateur image-processing gurus is such a great complement to the professional work from the Mars mission teams.

Many of these gurus hang out online at UnmannedSpaceflight.com. Some also maintain their own Mars-related websites, such as Martian Vistas, the Gale Gazette and the Road to Endeavour. If you haven't checked out these sites yet ... well, what are you waiting for? And if you have other recommendations for interplanetary imagery, such as the Mars Science Laboratory mission's home page or the Planetary Society's blog network, feel free to pass them along as a comment below.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / Ken Kremer / Marco Di Lorenzo

A series of images captured by Curiosity's Mastcam system shows the foreground terrain on Sol 50 (Sept. 26), with eroded hills in the background. Click on the picture to see a larger image.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / Ken Kremer / Marco Di Lorenzo

This panorama shows Curiosity's view of Glenelg on Sol 64 (Oct. 10), with hills in the far distance. The mosaic was assembled from 75 images acquired by the Mastcam 100 camera. Click on the picture to see a larger image.

Where in the Cosmos
I used a section of one of the Kremer/Di Lorenzo panoramas as today's "Where in the Cosmos" puzzle picture on the Cosmic Log Facebook page, and it took only a matter of seconds for Bart Salatka (and many others) to name Glenelg as the place where the picture was taken. To reward his quick wits and fast fingers, I'm sending Salatka a pair of 3-D glasses that are being provided courtesy of Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope project. Two of the close runners-up, Josh Sandler and Manny Acevedo, are eligible to receive 3-D glasses as well. Those cardboard specs will come in handy for seeing 3-D pictures from Curiosity's mission, such as this fresh view of the Rocknest site at Glenelg.

Congratulations to the other recent winners of "Where in the Cosmos" honors: Kevin Seaford, Lee Robbins and Tom Phillips for recognizing a satellite image of the aurora borealis; and Jeff Henager and Jenn Mason for identifying dust streaks on Mars. To get in on the action, click the "like" button for the Cosmic Log Facebook page. But hang tight: Due to travel plans, the next "Where in the Cosmos" contest won't take place until December. More about that later...

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/19/14564505-scenes-from-mars-promised-land?lite

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Friday, October 19, 2012

Daily vibration may combat prediabetes in youth

ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2012) ? Daily sessions of whole-body vibration may combat prediabetes in adolescents, dramatically reducing inflammation, average blood glucose levels and symptoms such as frequent urination, researchers report.

In mice that mimic over-eating adolescents headed toward diabetes, 20 minutes of daily vibration for eight weeks restored a healthy balance of key pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators and was better than prescription drugs at reducing levels of hemoglobin A1c, the most accurate indicator of average blood glucose levels, said Dr. Jack C. Yu, Chief of the Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University.

In normal mice, just four days of vibration also dramatically improved the ability to manage a huge glucose surge similar to that following a high-calorie, high-fat meal. "It's a very good sign," said Yu. "If you eat a pound of sugar, your blood glucose will go up. If you are prediabetic, it will go up even more and take longer to come down."

Interestingly, vibration did not produce similar changes in older, normal mice, Yu told researchers at the Third World Congress of Plastic Surgeons of Chinese Descent.

"This is our model: the average American teenager who eats too much," said Yu, who regularly operates on obese and often prediabetic adolescent males who want their abnormally large breasts reduced. "The only way to burn fat is to exercise. We shake the bone for you rather than the body's muscle shaking it. This is a highly efficient way to fool the bone into thinking we are exercising."

It's also one way to deal with the reality that many individuals simply will not exercise regularly, he said.

Yu, also a craniofacial surgeon who studies bone formation, said while it's unclear exactly how vibration produces these desirable results, it seems linked to the impact of movement on bone health. Vibration mimics the motion bones experience during exercise when muscles are doing the work. The slight bending and unbending of bone triggers remodeling so it can stay strong. One result is production of osteocalcin, a protein essential to bone building, which also signals the pancreas to get ready for food. While this prehistoric relationship is tied to the hunt for food, it doesn't work so well in 21^st century living where folks are moving too little and eating too much, Yu said. The constant demand can produce resistance to the insulin required to use glucose as energy.

Additionally, the body tends to hold onto fat for energy and survival, which researchers think is key to the chronic inflammation found in obesity-related type 2 diabetes. The fat itself produces inflammatory factors; the immune system also can misidentify fat as an infection, resulting in even more inflammation but, unfortunately, not eliminating the fat.

The bottom line is an unbalanced immune response: too many aggressors like the immune system SWAT team member Th17 and too few calming regulating factors like FoxP3. Researchers looked in the mouse blood and found vibration produced a 125-fold increase in immune system homeostasis and similar results in the kidney. This included positive movement in other players as well, such as a five-fold reduction in what Yu calls the "nuclear fuel," gammaH2AX, an indicator that something is attacking the body's DNA.

The animal model researchers used has a defect in the receptor for leptin, the satiety hormone, so the mice uncharacteristically overeat. Vibration also significantly reduced the mouse's diabetic symptoms of excessive thirst and diluted urine, resulting from excessive urination. The mice also seemed to like it, Yu said.

Next steps include learning more about how vibration produces such desirable results and large-scale clinical studies to see if they hold true in adolescents.

Prediabetics can avoid type 2 diabetes by making healthy diet changes and increasing physical activity, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Vibration technology was originally developed by the former Soviet Union to try to prevent muscle and bone wasting in cosmonauts. MCG researchers reported in the journal Bone in 2010 that daily whole body vibration may help minimize age-related bone density loss.

Yu and Biomedical Engineer Karl H. Wenger developed the whole-body vibrator used for the animal studies. Study coauthors include Wenger as well as GHSU's Drs. Babak Baban, Sun Hsieh, Mahmood Mozaffari and Mohamad Masoumy.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia Health Sciences University. The original article was written by Toni Baker.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/cjvjK84WkTo/121019141258.htm

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

High toll of mental illness and addictions must be addressed

Public release date: 10-Oct-2012
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Contact: Michael Torres
media@camh.ca
416-595-6015
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

'Opening Eyes, Opening Minds' report released on World Mental Health Day

October 10, 2012 (Toronto) Mental illnesses and addictions take more of a toll on the health of Ontarians than cancer or infectious diseases, according to a new report by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Public Health Ontario yet this burden could be reduced with treatment, say scientists from Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

"The majority of people with mental illness or addiction aren't receiving treatment, even though effective interventions are available," says report co-author Dr. Paul Kurdyak, Chief of General and Health Systems Psychiatry at CAMH, and Adjunct Scientist at ICES. "For instance, only a small fraction of people with depression or alcohol use disorders are accessing health services."

"If such a low percentage of people with diabetes were receiving treatment, there would be a public outcry."

Released today, the report Opening Eyes, Opening Minds, shows that the overall burden of mental illness and addictions in Ontario is 1.5 times higher than all cancers and seven times higher than all infectious diseases.

"The reasons for this burden are because mental illnesses and addictions emerge at a young age, they are highly disabling and prevalent in society, and they can last a lifetime," says Dr. Kurdyak.

In Ontario, Canada's most populous province, depression had the highest burden of all nine conditions measured in the report. Its burden was more than the combined impact of lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers. The problem is world-wide, with the World Health Organization drawing attention to untreated depression a "global crisis" as its theme for World Mental Illness Awareness Day today.

"Approximately 60 to 65 per cent of people with depression, and as many as 90 per cent of those with alcohol use disorder, remain untreated," says Dr. Kurdyak. "Yet there are effective therapies available for people suffering from these disorders."

Alcohol use disorders accounted for 88 per cent of all mental illness and addiction-attributable deaths in Ontario and 91 per cent of years lost due to early death.

"People don't seek care because of stigma around these disorders, particularly for problematic alcohol use," says Dr. Jrgen Rehm, co-author of the report and Director of CAMH's Social and Epidemiological Research Department. "This report reinforces the need for changes, such as strengthening the role of family physicians in treatment, exploring effective approaches from other jurisdictions, and reducing stigma so that people begin to ask for help."

Burden refers to the impact of an illness on reducing life expectancy and quality of life, based on factors such as pain, functioning and social relations, among others. Using the same methodology as earlier reports on the burden of cancer and infectious diseases, burden was calculated using a measure called a health-adjusted life year (HALY), which shows the amount of healthy life lost.

Overall, the nine conditions measured in the report contributed to the loss of more than 600,000 HALYs in Ontario. In addition to alcohol use disorders and depression, conditions examined were bipolar disorder, social phobia, schizophrenia, panic disorder, agoraphobia, cocaine addiction and prescription opioid misuse. Opening Eyes, Opening Minds: The Ontario Burden of Mental Illness and Addictions Report is the most thorough evaluation of the impact of mental illness and addictions on Ontarians to date.

"However, there is hope and it's important to remember that these conditions are treatable. If we increase the likelihood that people seek and get timely access to treatments, the burden for individuals and the entire population will be reduced," says Dr. Kurdyak.

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To view a copy of the Ontario Burden of Mental Illness and Addictions Report, visit the ICES or PHO websites (www.ices.on.ca or www.oahpp.ca).

Media Contact: Michael Torres, CAMH Public Affairs, 416 595-6015.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital, as well as one of the world's leading research centres in the area of addiction and mental health. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to help transform the lives of people affected by mental health and addiction issues.

CAMH is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre.

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High toll of mental illness and addictions must be addressed

Public release date: 10-Oct-2012
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Contact: Michael Torres
media@camh.ca
416-595-6015
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

'Opening Eyes, Opening Minds' report released on World Mental Health Day

"If such a low percentage of people with diabetes were receiving treatment, there would be a public outcry."

"The reasons for this burden are because mental illnesses and addictions emerge at a young age, they are highly disabling and prevalent in society, and they can last a lifetime," says Dr. Kurdyak.

Alcohol use disorders accounted for 88 per cent of all mental illness and addiction-attributable deaths in Ontario and 91 per cent of years lost due to early death.

###

To view a copy of the Ontario Burden of Mental Illness and Addictions Report, visit the ICES or PHO websites (www.ices.on.ca or www.oahpp.ca).

Media Contact: Michael Torres, CAMH Public Affairs, 416 595-6015.

CAMH is fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre.

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/cfaa-hto101012.php

the scream

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

How a community of online gamers is changing basic biomedical ...

Events, Medicine X, Research, Stanford News, Technology, Videos Lia Steakley on October 1st, 2012

This weekend at the Medicine X conference,?Stanford biochemist?Rhiju Das, PhD, shared with the audience how he and colleagues are tapping into the online gaming community to accelerate researchers??understanding of DNA?s once-unsung chemical cousin, RNA. Das?s laboratory partnered with scientists at Carnegie Mellon University?to design a video game, called?EteRNA, that?allows players to design RNA molecules. Researchers synthesize the ?winning? RNA sequences on a weekly basis, determine if they fold up as designed and?feed the experimental findings back to the players.

The game now has more than 51,000 players, and more than 4,400 have logged enough hours playing the game to submit lab designs. These users are churning out roughly?1,000 designs on a weekly basis, but Das? lab can only synthesize about eight each week. As Das?explains in?the above?video,?he and his team hope to solve this problem using an approach?comparable to cloud computing that they call ?cloud biochemistry.?

Previously: How play and games can impact the future of science and health,?O?Reilly Radar Q&A looks at how games can improve health,?Paramecia PacMan: Researchers create video games using living organisms?and?Mob science: Video game, EteRNA, lets amateurs advance RNA research

More news about Stanford Medicine X is available in the Medicine X category.

Source: http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2012/10/01/how-a-community-of-online-gamers-is-changing-basic-biomedical-research/

texas tornados

SeaWorld killer-whale injury spurs PETA complaint

A killer whale at SeaWorld in San Diego is recovering from a nasty gash to its jaw that is the subject of a dispute between the park and the animal rights group PETA.

SeaWorld says the 11-year-old killer whale named Nakai was injured during a show last month when he somehow came in contact with a portion of the pool. The gaping hole is so big that Nakai's jawbone was left exposed.

PETA says an anonymous whistle-blower told them that Nakai was attacked by other captive, angry orcas at the park.

"You can't keep three young males together in what is, for them a fishpond or a fishbowl," PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk told ABC News. "They will have nowhere to go unless they can swim through concrete when they feel aggressive towards each other."

The animal rights group has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, saying it wants SeaWorld disciplined for not keeping the whales separated as required under the Animal Welfare Act. The law requires incompatible marine mammals to be kept in separate enclosures, PETA said

SeaWorld says veterinarians determined the injury was not a result of an animal bite and provided video to ABC News showing Nakai on the mend. Trainers and veterinarians say they are closely monitoring his recovery and treating him with antibiotics.

"He's [Nakai] doing very well and interacting with all the other whales and trainers," said Kristi Burtis, supervisor of animal training at SeaWorld.

Nakai is a killer whale with a violent family tree. Nakai's father, Tilikum, was the orca that killed a trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando two years ago.

"It's hard to tell if they're just playing rough or if these are just aggressive interactions between individuals," said Robert Pitman of the National Marine Fisheries Service in San Diego.