A study involving older adults has found that diabetes was associated with higher levels of tau protein and greater brain atrophy.
The study involved 816 older adults (average age 74), of whom 397 had mild cognitive impairment, 191 had Alzheimer's disease, and 228 people had no cognitive problems. Fifteen percent (124) had diabetes.
Those with diabetes had greater levels of tau protein in the spinal and brain fluid regardless of cognitive status. Tau tangles are characteristic of Alzheimer's.
Those with diabetes also had cortical tissue that was an average of 0.03 millimeter less than those who didn't have diabetes, regardless of their cognitive status. This greater brain atrophy in the frontal and parietal cortices may be partly related to the increase in tau protein.
There was no link between diabetes and amyloid-beta, the other main pathological characteristic of Alzheimer's.
Previous research has indicated that people with type 2 diabetes have double the risk of developing dementia. Previous research has also found that those who had been diabetic for longer had a greater degree of brain atrophy
The findings support the idea that type 2 diabetes may have a negative effect on cognition independent of dementia, and that this effect may be driven by an increase in tau phosphorylation.
(2015). Type 2 diabetes mellitus and biomarkers of neurodegeneration.
Another study adds to the evidence that changes in the brain that may lead eventually to Alzheimer’s begin many years before Alzheimer’s is diagnosed. The findings also add to the evidence that what we regard as “normal” age-related cognitive decline is really one end of a continuum of which the other end is dementia.
In the study, brain scans were taken of 137 highly educated people aged 30-89 (participants in the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study). The amount of amyloid-beta (characteristic of Alzheimer’s) was found to increase with age, and around a fifth of those over 60 had significantly elevated levels of the protein. These higher amounts were linked with worse performance on tests of working memory, reasoning and processing speed.
More specifically, across the whole sample, amyloid-beta levels affected processing speed and fluid intelligence (in a dose-dependent relationship — that is, as levels increased, these functions became more impaired), but not working memory, episodic memory, or crystallized intelligence. Among the elevated-levels group, increased amyloid-beta was significantly associated with poorer performance for processing speed, working memory, and fluid intelligence, but not episodic memory or crystallized intelligence. Among the group without elevated levels of the protein, increasing amyloid-beta only affected fluid intelligence.
These task differences aren’t surprising: processing speed, working memory, and fluid intelligence are the domains that show the most decline in normal aging.
Those with the Alzheimer’s gene APOE4 were significantly more likely to have elevated levels of amyloid-beta. While 38% of the group with high levels of the protein had the risky gene variant, only 15% of those who didn’t have high levels carried the gene.
Note that, while the prevalence of carriers of the gene variant matched population estimates (24%), the proportion was higher among those in the younger age group — 33% of those under 60, compared to 19.5% of those aged 60 or older. It seems likely that many older carriers have already developed MCI or Alzheimer’s, and thus been ineligible for the study.
The average age of the participants was 64, and the average years of education 16.4.
Amyloid deposits varied as a function of age and region: the precuneus, temporal cortex, anterior cingulate and posterior cingulate showed the greatest increase with age, while the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, parietal and occipital cortices showed smaller increases with age. However, when only those aged 60+ were analyzed, the effect of age was no longer significant. This is consistent with previous research, and adds to evidence that age-related cognitive impairment, including Alzheimer’s, has its roots in damage occurring earlier in life.
In another study, brain scans of 408 participants in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging also found that higher levels of amyloid-beta were associated with poorer cognitive performance — but that this interacted with APOE status. Specifically, carriers of the Alzheimer’s gene variant were significantly more affected by having higher levels of the protein.
This may explain the inconsistent findings of previous research concerning whether or not amyloid-beta has significant effects on cognition in normal adults.
As the researchers of the first study point out, what’s needed is information on the long-term course of these brain changes, and they are planning to follow these participants.
In the meantime, all in all, the findings do provide more strength to the argument that your lifestyle in mid-life (and perhaps even younger) may have long-term consequences for your brain in old age — particularly for those with a genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer’s.
(2012). Β-Amyloid Burden in Healthy Aging Regional Distribution and Cognitive Consequences.
Neurology. 78(6), 387 - 395.
(2012). APOE modifies the association between Aβ load and cognition in cognitively normal older adults.
Neurology. 78(4), 232 - 240.
Why is diabetes associated with cognitive impairment and even dementia in older adults? New research pinpoints two molecules that trigger a cascade of events that end in poor blood flow and brain atrophy.
The study involved 147 older adults (average age 65), of whom 71 had type 2 diabetes and had been taking medication to manage it for at least five years. Brain scans showed that the diabetic patients had greater blood vessel constriction than the age- and sex-matched controls, and more brain atrophy. The reduction in brain tissue was most marked in the grey matter in the parietal and occipital lobes and cerebellum. Research has found that, at this age, while the average brain shrinks by about 1% annually, a diabetic brain might shrink by as much as 15%. Diabetics also had more white matter hyperintensities in the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes.
Behaviorally, the diabetics also had greater depression, slower walking, and executive dysfunction.
The reduced performance of blood vessels (greater vasoconstriction, blunted vasodilatation), and increased brain atrophy in the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes, was associated with two adhesion molecules – sVCAM and sICAM. White matter hyperintensities were not associated with the adhesion molecules, inflammatory markers, or blood vessel changes.
It seems that the release of these molecules, probably brought about by chronic hyperglycemia and insulin resistance, produces chronic inflammation, which in turn brings about constricted blood vessels, reduced blood flow, and finally loss of neurons. The blood vessel constriction and the brain atrophy were also linked to higher glucose levels.
The findings suggest that these adhesion molecules provide two biomarkers of vascular health that could enable clinicians to recognize impending brain damage, that could then perhaps be prevented.
The findings also add weight to the growing evidence that diabetes management is crucial in preventing cognitive decline.
(2011). Adhesion Molecules, Altered Vasoreactivity, and Brain Atrophy in Type 2 Diabetes.
Diabetes Care. 34(11), 2438 - 2441.
The issue of “mommy brain” is a complex one. Inconsistent research results make it clear that there is no simple answer to the question of whether or not pregnancy and infant care change women’s brains. But a new study adds to the picture.
Brain scans of 19 women two to four weeks and three to four months after they gave birth showed that grey matter volume increased by a small but significant amount in the midbrain (amygdala, substantia nigra, hypothalamus), prefrontal cortex, and parietal lobe. These areas are involved in motivation and reward, emotion regulation, planning, and sensory perception.
Mothers who were most enthusiastic about their babies were significantly more likely to show this increase in the midbrain regions. The authors speculated that the “maternal instinct” might be less of an instinctive response and more of a result of active brain building. Interestingly, while the brain’s reward regions don’t usually change as a result of learning, one experience that does have this effect is that of addiction.
While the reasons may have to do with genes, personality traits, infant behavior, or present circumstances, previous research has found that mothers who had more nurturing in their childhood had more grey matter in those brain regions involved in empathy and reading faces, which also correlated with the degree of activation in those regions when their baby cried.
A larger study is of course needed to confirm these findings.
(2010). The plasticity of human maternal brain: Longitudinal changes in brain anatomy during the early postpartum period..
Behavioral Neuroscience. 124(5), 695 - 700.
Older news items (pre-2010) brought over from the old website
Tetris increases gray matter and improves brain efficiency
In a study in which 26 adolescent girls played the computer game Tetris for half an hour every day for three months, their brains compared to controls increased grey matter in Brodmann Area 6 in the left frontal lobe and BAs 22 and 38 in the left temporal lobe — areas involved in planning complex coordinated movements, and coordinating sensory information. Their brains also showed greater efficiency, but in different areas — ones associated with critical thinking, reasoning, and language, mostly in the right frontal and parietal lobes. The finding points to improved efficiency being unrelated to grey matter increases.
Haier, R.J. et al. 2009. MRI assessment of cortical thickness and functional activity changes in adolescent girls following three months of practice on a visual-spatial task. BMC Research Notes, 2, 174.
Neural changes produced by learning to read revealed
Understanding how our brain structures change as we learn to read is difficult because of the confounding with age and the learning of other skills. Studying adult learners is also problematic because in most educated societies adult illiteracy is typically the result of learning impairments or poor health. Now a new study involving 20 former guerrillas in Colombia who are learning to read for the first time as adults has found that these late-literates showed a number of significant brain differences compared to matched adult illiterates, including more white matter between various regions, and more grey matter in various left temporal and occipital regions important for recognizing letter shapes and translating letters into speech sounds and their meanings. Particularly important were connections between the left and right angular gyri in the parietal lobe. While this area has long been known as important for reading, its function turns out to have been misinterpreted — it now appears its main role is in anticipating what we will see. The findings will help in understanding the causes of dyslexia.
Carreiras, M. et al. 2009. An anatomical signature for literacy. Nature, 461 (7266), 983-986.
Sex difference on spatial skill test linked to brain structure
It’s been well established that men (as a group) consistently out-perform women on spatial tasks. Research has also established that the parietal lobes in women tend to have proportionally more gray matter. Now a new study shows that the thicker cortex in the parietal lobe in women is associated with poorer mental rotation ability. It also reveals that the surface area of the parietal lobe is increased in men, compared to women, and this is directly related to better performance on mental rotation tasks. It also appears that, perhaps because the brain structure is different between men and women, the way the brain performs the task is different. While men appear able to globally rotate an object in space, women seem to do it piecemeal.
Koscik, T. et al. 2008. Sex differences in parietal lobe morphology: Relationship to mental rotation performance. Brain and Cognition, Article in Press
A new study provides more evidence that the ability to deliberately focus your attention is physically separate in the brain from the part that helps you filter out distraction. The study trained monkeys to take attention tests on a video screen in return for a treat of apple juice. When the monkeys voluntarily concentrated (‘top-down’ attention), the prefrontal cortex was active, but when something distracting grabbed their attention (‘bottom-up’ attention), the parietal cortex became active. The electrical activity in these two areas vibrated in synchrony as they signaled each other, but top-down attention involved synchrony that was stronger in the lower-frequencies and bottom-up attention involved higher frequencies. These findings may help us develop treatments for attention disorders.
Buschman, T.J. & Miller, E.K. 2007. Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up Control of Attention in the Prefrontal and Posterior Parietal Cortices. Science, 315 (5820), 1860-1862.
Right parietal lobe implicated in dyscalculia
By temporarily knocking out an area in the right parietal lobe (the right intraparietal sulcus), researchers have induced dyscalculia in normal subjects, providing strong evidence that dyscalculia is caused by malfunction in this area. These findings were further validated by testing participants suffering from developmental dyscalculia. Although less well-known, dyscalculia is as prevalent as dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (around 5%).
Kadosh, R.C. et al. 2007. Virtual Dyscalculia Induced by Parietal-Lobe TMS Impairs Automatic Magnitude Processing. Current Biology, online ahead of print March 22
Fast language learners have more white matter in auditory region
An imaging study has found that fast language learners have more white matter in a region of the brain that’s critical for processing sound. The study involved 65 French adults in their twenties, who were asked to distinguish two closely related sounds (the French 'da' sound from the Hindi 'da' sound). There was considerable variation in people’s ability to learn to tell these sounds apart — the fastest could do it within 8 minutes; the slowest were still guessing randomly after 20 minutes. The 11 fastest and 10 slowest learners were then given brain scans, revealing that the fastest learners had, on average, 70% more white matter in the left Heschl's gyrus than the slowest learners, as well as a greater asymmetry in the parietal lobe (the left being bigger than the right).
Golestani, N., Molko, N., Dehaene, S., LeBihan, D. & Pallier, C. 2006. Brain Structure Predicts the Learning of Foreign Speech Sounds. Cerebral Cortex, Advance Access published on April 7, 2006
How sleep improves memory
While previous research has been conflicting, it does now seem clear that sleep consolidates learning of motor skills in particular. A new imaging study involving 12 young adults taught a sequence of skilled finger movements has found a dramatic shift in activity pattern when doing the task in those who were allowed to sleep during the 12 hour period before testing. Increased activity was found in the right primary motor cortex, medial prefrontal lobe, hippocampus and left cerebellum — this is assumed to support faster and more accurate motor output. Decreased activity was found in the parietal cortices, the left insular cortex, temporal pole and fronto-polar region — these are assumed to reflect less anxiety and a reduced need for conscious spatial monitoring. It’s suggested that this is one reason why infants need so much sleep — motor skill learning is a high priority at this age. The findings may also have implications for stroke patients and others who have suffered brain injuries.
Walker, M.P., Stickgold, R., Alsop, D., Gaab, N. & Schlaug, G. 2005. Sleep-dependent motor memory plasticity in the human brain.Neuroscience, 133 (4) , 911-917.
IQ-related brain areas may differ in men and women
An imaging study of 48 men and women between 18 and 84 years old found that, although men and women performed equally on the IQ tests, the brain structures involved in intelligence appeared distinct. Compared with women, men had more than six times the amount of intelligence-related gray matter, while women had about nine times more white matter involved in intelligence than men did. Women also had a large proportion of their IQ-related brain matter (86% of white and 84% of gray) concentrated in the frontal lobes, while men had 90% of their IQ-related gray matter distributed equally between the frontal lobes and the parietal lobes, and 82% of their IQ-related white matter in the temporal lobes. The implications of all this are not clear, but it is worth noting that the volume of gray matter can increase with learning, and is thus a product of environment as well as genes. The findings also demonstrate that no single neuroanatomical structure determines general intelligence and that different types of brain designs are capable of producing equivalent intellectual performance.
Haier, R.J., Jung, R.E., Yeo, R.A., Head, K. & Alkire, M.T. 2005. The neuroanatomy of general intelligence: sex matters. NeuroImage, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 16 January 2005
Development of working memory with age
An imaging study of 20 healthy 8- to 30-year-olds has shed new light on the development of working memory. The study found that pre-adolescent children relied most heavily on the prefrontal cortex and parietal regions of the brain during the working memory task; adolescents used those regions plus the anterior cingulate; and in adults, a third area of the brain, the medial temporal lobe, was brought in to support the functions of the other areas. Adults performed best. The results support the view that a person's ability to have voluntary control over behavior improves with age because with development, additional brain processes are used.
Intelligence based on the volume of gray matter in certain brain regions
Confirming earlier suggestions, the most comprehensive structural brain-scan study of intelligence to date supports an association between general intelligence and the volume of gray matter tissue in certain regions of the brain. Because these regions are located throughout the brain, a single "intelligence center" is unlikely. It is likely that a person's mental strengths and weaknesses depend in large part on the individual pattern of gray matter across his or her brain. Although gray matter amounts are vital to intelligence levels, only about 6% of the brain’s gray matter appears related to IQ — intelligence seems related to an efficient use of relatively few structures. The structures that are important for intelligence are the same ones implicated in memory, attention and language. There are also age differences: in middle age, more of the frontal and parietal lobes are related to IQ; less frontal and more temporal areas are related to IQ in the younger adults. Previous research has shown the regional distribution of gray matter in humans is highly heritable. The findings also challenge the recent view that intelligence may be a reflection of more subtle characteristics of the brain, such as the speed at which nerve impulses travel in the brain, or the number of neuronal connections present. It may of course be that all of these are factors.
Haier, R.J., Jung, R.E., Yeo, R.A., Head, K. & Alkire, M.T. 2004. Structural brain variation and general intelligence. Neuroimage. In press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.04.025
Maturation of the human brain mapped
The progressive maturation of the human brain in childhood and adolescence has now been mapped. The initial overproduction of synapses in the gray matter that occurs after birth, is followed, for the most part just before puberty, with their systematic pruning. The mapping has confirmed that this maturation process occurs in different regions at different times, and has found that the normal gray matter loss begins first in the motor and sensory parts of the brain, and then slowly spreads downwards and forwards, to areas involved in spatial orientation, speech and language development, and attention (upper and lower parietal lobes), then to the areas involved in executive functioning, attention or motor coordination (frontal lobes), and finally to the areas that integrate these functions (temporal lobe). "The surprising thing is that the sequence in which the cortex matures appears to agree with regionally relevant milestones in cognitive development, and also reflects the evolutionary sequence in which brain regions were formed."
Differential effects of encoding strategy on brain activity patterns
Encoding and recognition of unfamiliar faces in young adults were examined using PET imaging to determine whether different encoding strategies would lead to differences in brain activity. It was found that encoding activated a primarily ventral system including bilateral temporal and fusiform regions and left prefrontal cortices, whereas recognition activated a primarily dorsal set of regions including right prefrontal and parietal areas. The type of encoding strategy produced different brain activity patterns. There was no effect of encoding strategy on brain activity during recognition. The left inferior prefrontal cortex was engaged during encoding regardless of strategy.
Bernstein, L.J., Beig, S., Siegenthaler, A.L. & Grady, C.L. 2002. The effect of encoding strategy on the neural correlates of memory for faces. Neuropsychologia, 40 (1), 86 - 98.


No doubt you’ve heard (and probably quoted) the old adage “Idle hands are the Devil’s tools” in one form or another. Though I can’t remember a specific instance, I’m sure I’ve said it to at least one of my students or the child of a friend. So I did some “research” (meaning I typed it into Google) and found this:
“‘Idleness is the root of mischief.’ This maxim has been traced back to [Geoffry] Chaucer's 'Tale of Melibee' (c. 1386). [It was] first attested in the United States in 'Collections' (1808). The proverb is found in varying forms: ‘Satan has some mischief for idle hands to do’; ‘The devil finds work (or mischief) for idle hands to do.’ From ‘Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings’ by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).” [italics mine]
Upon further “research” I found some information regarding The Tale of Melibee here. It was the second tale in Chaucer’s collection The Canterbury Tales, the only one that Chaucer did not write himself. In fact, it was a translation based on a story that was a translation based on another story. For that reason alone I would think it worth reading, although you apparently can’t find it in some contemporary versions of the collection (that link explains everything).
Like most maxims/proverbs/adages/clichés, it has lasted for centuries because it states a simple truth about human nature that will never change. In this case, referring to the necessity of constant forward motion. I find it very apropos (very appropriate to a particular situation) as an elementary Special Education teacher. When a child’s hands are idle, mischief is never out of reach! Which makes Fridays in our classroom particularly stressful some weeks [smile]
As many of you know, I work in the Resource Room at a local elementary school. Taking some time on Friday afternoons to cook something simple and delicious has become part of our routine; we only have four students from 12:30-2:00, as compared to our normal group of fourteen who come and go (most kids are served M-Th for one or two half hour blocks). These particular students are in greater need of some independent living skills than extra academic work, so we’ve been working on basic recipes. This past Friday, our resident supervisor of the cooking process was out sick, so we decided to try a Valentine’s Day-themed art project. Here are the hands at work:
I must say they did remarkably well for students with fine motor difficulty and short attention spans. The idea was to make a “mixed media canvas” using a cardboard base, Valentine themed scrapbook paper and embellishments, and some good old fashioned Elmer’s School Glue. I cut the paper into 6x6 inch squares and had them tear strips and/or pieces to collage the background. They used paint brushes to apply the glue and embellishments. It was my goal to have this take an hour; they finished up after about 50 minutes, and each one was as unique as its creator (these children happen to be in grades two, four, and five):
My instructions were simply to choose three or four of their favorite papers to layer on the background, tearing them (no scissors necessary) and gluing them down. They were given some embellishments, and the rest was up to them! I am so proud of their creativity and determination, and I know whomever they gift these to will receive them with big smiles and hugs. I look forward to future projects, and will try to share more photos of the great work they encourage.
For those of you with children, this might be a fun way to make an extra special gift for someone you love – it’s quick, easy, and allows for a great deal of individual creative expression. The possibilities for materials are cheap, easy to access, and endless! (I cut up an old box for the bases, and some paper I didn’t particularly like for the decoration! They can be any size or shape. Tearing paper is a good release of energy and helpful for kids who struggle to use scissors.)


Electronic products have grown in a substantial way over the last twenty years, this has changed the speed and the way in which we obtain information and communicate with one another. According to recent studies of the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association), the average American household owns up to twenty four electronic products.
When you donate your old electronics for the purposes of reuse, this will promote an extension in the lives of electronic products. Recycling electronics at the correct facilities can prevent valuable materials entering into waste streams. You are now presented with a variety of options on donating or recycling old electronics.
Various electronic retailers, cell phone, TV and Computer manufacturers now participate in sponsored recycling events, or a take back type of program. Many states have successfully implemented laws on recycling and disposal of electronic products.
However, not all recyclers for electronic goods will follow practices of sound recycling for the preservation of the environment. Responsible refurbishes or recyclers of electronics are now certified. This means that they demonstrate and meet up with the correct procedures in recycling practices. The EPA suggests that all types of electronic recyclers should be certified and at the same time customers should only choose from recyclers that are certified.
Methods on Recycling Your Old Electronics
1.Use only Certified Recyclers
Find electronic recyclers that have been certified through BAN (Basel Action Network). This organization only certifies recyclers that practice responsible methods in recycling electronic products. This will mean your electronic gadget will be either recycled or reused in the correct way, without ending up as added pollution in the landfills.
2.Visit Your Local Civic Institutions
Electronic waste has become a widespread problem over the years. Local governments, universities and schools now offer the public specific days on which they can drop off their old electronic products.
Various communities will post recycling days, check out your nearest newspaper or visit associated websites. Encourage your friends and family members to join you on the days that are allocated to recycling electronic products.
Alternatively there are a number of stores involved in offering the public an effective method of disposing of their old electronics. You will be able to drop off a variety of products at one location. Some of the electronic products accepted will include:
There are even organizations that now offer the public an opportunity in recycling electronic products using a system of containers that have a pre-paid postage available. This system offers cash rewards on specific products. These rewards can additionally be transferred in donating your cash rewards to organizations that work for charity.
Contribute to a greener environment and ensure your old electronics are disposed of in the correct manner. Make sure you only use certified recyclers who practice safe methods of disposing waste or reusing electronic products. This will contribute to a better ways of recycling.
About the author
Vince Bradley is a kitchen appliance technician. He is specializing in stove and refrigerator repair. He likes to write and give advise about how to maintain kitchen appliance in good condition and also how to repair a broken home appliance. He is works for a ABCAuthorizedRepair in Studio City, CA.


If you’re a bird-watching enthusiast and had the opportunity to observe a bird nest closely, you’ve probably noticed that some birds eat their babies’ poop.
Shortly after the adult feeds the nestling, the baby turns its rear end to the mother and delivers an odd white thing, which the mother catches with its bill and then swallows it. Sounds gross, right?! So why don’t adult birds even flinch while eating these?
The white things baby birds release right after eating are called fecal sacs. Some adult birds choose to eat the fecal sacs because they are, in fact, highly nutritious for them. They may also eat them to avoid leaving the nest.
If you think that’s weird, wait until you finish reading the article! You’re about to discover some jaw-dropping details about a baby bird’s pooping behavior! Although many aspects of this behavior will sound gross, they’ll make you admire birds more than ever!
Table of Contents
Why Do Birds Eat Their Babies’ Poop?
Baby bird poop should always be removed from the nest. The thing is, some birds choose to get rid of it by eating it because it’s highly nutritious.
During the nesting season, adult birds are quite stressed and often do not have time to care for themselves and eat accordingly, so they take advantage of their babies’ poop. It has been proven that females consume baby poop more often than males, as their food intake is typically less nutritious.
Additionally, parents may choose to eat their babies’ fecal sacs to avoid leaving them alone in the nest.
But what exactly does baby bird poop contain that prompts adult birds to eat it? Baby bird poop is, in fact, called a fecal sac because it doesn’t contain feces only. The poop is actually surrounded by a white mucous membrane with a dark end.
This membrane is of excellent help to avoid the nest from getting dirty and, therefore, helps parents avoid the accumulation of pathogenic microorganisms. Additionally, the removal of these fecal sacs prevents predators from finding the nest.
Why Are Fecal Sacs Nutritious?
As mentioned, some bird parents choose to eat the fecal sacs instead of throwing them away. Scientists believe this happens because baby fecal sacs are highly nutritious.
A study focused on examining 173 feces belonging to corn bunting nestlings (Emberiza calandra) showed they were filled with invertebrate remains and cereal grains.
This phenomenon is more common in altricial young that are born quite undeveloped, and their digestive systems cannot process all the food, and therefore the fecal sacs contain remains of what the babies are fed. Consequently, the parents can benefit from the nutrients and energy stored in the fecal sacs.
Once the babies mature, however, most parents stop eating their fecal sacs, as their digestive system becomes increasingly stronger and therefore, capable of digesting food properly. In fact, when they’re mature enough to fledge, baby birds stop producing fecal sacs.
A study on mockingbirds showed that the parents stopped eating their babies’ fecal sacs once the young were only six days old. After this, the adults carried the fecal sacs away from the nest. Robins probably eat their babies’ poop only during the first few days after hatching, too.
Now you’re probably wondering why the parents aren’t affected by the bacteria in the poop? If it’s dangerous to leave the fecal sacs in the nest, why is it not harmful for the parents to ingest it?
That’s where the white mucous membrane plays its role. Scientists argue that it protects the bird’s skin and feathers from bacteria. Once it reaches the gut, the bird’s digestive system can handle the bacteria well.
Poop Eating – A Protective Behavior
As mentioned, another reason for parents to eat their babies’ poop is to avoid leaving the young unattended. If both the male and the female care for their young, this may not be a problem, as they can exchange duties.
On the other hand, if only one parent provides parental care, it would probably do its best to avoid leaving its kids alone, and eating their poop could reduce the time spent away from the nest.
Why Do Baby Birds Eat Then Poop Right After?
Studies have shown that baby birds poop right after eating because that’s what their instincts tell them to do to avoid poop piling up in the nest.
Scientists observed 159 nests of 8 bird species for more than 400 hours and concluded that nestlings’ defecation times depend rather on feeding times than on gut processing times.
As such, the nestlings scientists observed pooped right after being fed because the parents were there to clean the poop.
Upon these observations, scientists argued that nestlings possess a strong plasticity in defecation time as they can alter the whole physiological process so that defecation occurs when parents are around. Even if the parents feed their nestlings at different times, they still poop only after eating. Isn’t this fascinating?!


With all the debate about the high cost of good healthcare, it’s not surprising that we’re all demanding more transparency in healthcare. Transparency is not just important for the patients but also for the physicians, payers, and providers. By not only demanding but providing transparency in the healthcare industry, good quality healthcare may once again be attainable and affordable for everyone.
What is Transparency in Regards to Healthcare?
When we think of or hear the word transparent or transparency, what comes to mind is the ability to see something clearly. In regards to healthcare, transparency would have the same meaning, which would be the ability to see clearly. Everyone, from the patient and physicians to the providers and payers, is seeking to have better transparency in healthcare. Without transparency, no one is fully aware of what’s going on and what type of service they are paying for. There needs to be more transparency in all areas of healthcare.
See our ranking of the 50 Most Affordable Healthcare MBA Degree Programs.
Transparency for the Patient
Imagine going to the hospital with a stomach ache and hearing the barrage of tests they planned to run on you to determine the cause. If you were informed of the cost of the tests prior to having them performed, would you still have them done? Unless you have perfect health insurance, the answer would probably be no. Transparency for the patient is having the knowledge of how much the procedures are going to cost before the patient has them so that he or she can make an informed decision based on that information. The truth is that very few patients know what they’re going to have to pay for their healthcare until it’s too late.
Transparency for the Physician
Even though it is the physician or surgeon that’s providing or recommending the service, they seldom know the true and total cost of the service. They also don’t know the quality of service the patient is getting when they refer that patient to a colleague. The physicians are getting paid for the service, but there is no real accountability for the physician who made the referral if the patient doesn’t get the best possible service because there is no transparency.
Transparency Within a Healthcare Facility
The best way to improve both the cost and the quality of healthcare is to have more transparency within the healthcare organization. The transparency must start with the workforce and work its way right up to the administration. Although it’s only one small example if the CNAs or nurses knew exactly how much each band-aid cost, would they still provide a patient with three when one is sufficient?
The surgical staff can’t be expected to try to keep down costs in the surgical room if they have no idea what it’s costing them, the hospital and the patients. If the facility is not transparent about costly mistakes that have been made in the hospital, the workers might not be as cautious as they should. Transparency is necessary in all areas of healthcare.
Organizations like U.S. News & World Report often rank hospitals based on various factors, with the quality of patient care at the top of the list. However, with a lack of transparency, many of these rankings are inaccurate due to lack of information.
Healthcare should never be a luxury available and affordable only to the wealthy. From the low-income individual to the wealthy politician fighting for better healthcare, we’re all in agreement that changes must be made. The best way to attain these positive changes and provide the best health care for everyone is by having full transparency in healthcare on all levels.


So the way I think about it is, everything good that we have in our lives, that civilization consists of, is from our intelligence, it’s not the result of our long teeth or big scary claws.
This seems to conflict with the idea that culture is largely responsible for our success - an idea expressed as follows by Richard Dawkins in 1976:
Most of what is unusual about man can be summed up in one word: `culture'.
Indeed, culture may well lave led to the production of our large brains, according to the idea that big brains are meme nests.
Of course the ideas that brains and culture are our primary powers are not completely independent. Culture requires brains, and many animals have rudimentary cultures, so culture alone is not enough. Indeed even brains and culture are not enough. Whales have both in considerable abundance - but they lack opposable thumbs and so never invented technology.
If Stuart Russell is right then smarter machines are what we need. However if it is our collective intelligence that needs boosting, there there might be other, better ways of accomplishing this besides boosting the individual intelligence of machines. During the agricultural revolution, human development took off when humans crowded together in cities. At the same time, their levels of aggression and hostility went down and they became more sociable. It was networking - rather than individual intelligence - that was most obviously involved.
Machines are now also clustering together - in data centers and in the cloud. They also face barriers to communication and trade mirroring our own hostility, paranoia and distrust - in the form of firewalls and incompatible protocols. It is quite common for machines in adjacent racks to never communicate at all. Humans in skyscrapers are similarly anti-social, but this is hardly an ideal situation.
Theory suggests an obvious way of improving cooperation between machines: use cultural kinship. Shared memes result in cooperation in the same way that shared genes do. If we can (somehow) get the machines to share enough software they will start talking to each other more - and this is likely to accelerate the ongoing machine cultural explosion, mirroring - or rather extending - the human cultural explosion that kicked off for us thousands of years ago.


The water that comes out of your tap is clean, right?
It should be. But in the United States, we can’t afford to keep taking for granted that safe, clean water flows from our taps.
The crisis in Flint, Michigan is the leading edge of a desperate situation for our tap water in communities across the country as our water infrastructure crumbles. That’s why Food & Water Watch has worked with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to introduce the WATER Act, one big step to ensure our water’s safety for generations to come.
Our pipes are getting old. Most of the water pipes in our communities were built following World War II, and some are over a century old. Too many are still made of lead. As these aging pipes deteriorate, service interruptions will become more common, and lead and other contaminants will leach into our water, putting the health of entire communities in danger – especially children’s health.
But instead of increasing our funding for water infrastructure to deal with this looming need, the federal government has decreased funding sharply – by 82 percent per capita since 1977, traded away in funding cuts and budget negotiations. That’s just irresponsible, and it’s time for Congress to make sure our declining water systems get the repairs they need.
If the WATER Act passes, it will reverse this trend by providing up to $35 billion in dedicated funding each year to keep our water and sewer systems working. Funded entirely by closing corporate tax loopholes, this bill will secure a significant portion of what we need over the next 20 years to protect our drinking water. It will:
- Support publicly owned and managed water and sewer systems (which on average are more reliable and cost-effective than privately-managed systems) so that no community has to sacrifice their clean water and their residents’ health to budget shortfalls.
- Provide grants to help homeowners replace lead pipes running to their homes, a costly but essential part of keeping everyone’s water free of lead contamination.
- Encourage green infrastructure to capture and treat stormwater and runoff.
- In the process of making all these improvements, create as many as 945,000 jobs.
In addition to providing this much-needed source of funding, the WATER Act would also:
- Require EPA to coordinate a study about: water affordability; discrimination and civil rights violations by water and sewer providers; public participation in water regionalization efforts; and water shutoffs.
- Increase technical assistance to rural and small municipalities and tribal governments.
- Create a new grant program for the repair, replacement or upgrading of septic tanks and drainage fields.
- Limit Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) funding to publicly owned, operated and managed utilities.
- Create a new grant program to fund public schools’ testing and replacement of drinking water infrastructure due to lead.
- Provide SRF funding for grants to owners of private service lines for replacement of lead service lines.
- Increase funding for grants to tribal governments for drinking water infrastructure.
There’s no time to lose in making this investment in our water. If we ever needed an example of what happens to people and communities when our water infrastructure crumbles, the crisis in Flint has given us a dire one. But Flint is not alone. Experts have called Flint the canary in the coalmine – there are other Flints waiting to happen in communities across the United States.
We can’t let this happen again. Take action to support the WATER Act and protect our water for generations to come.


James Earle McClees, These children were turned out of the St. Lawrence Hotel, Chestnut St., Philadelphia, on account of Color, 1863
During the Civil War, schools for freedmen, ex-slaves, and their children were set up in many areas of the South that fell under Union control. In 1863, General Nathaniel P. Banks, the Union commander of the Gulf states, established a privately funded system of public education for African Americans in the region. To raise funds for this ambitious project, Banks organized a promotional tour of the North featuring a handful of emancipated slaves from Louisiana. Their images, reproduced in cartes-de-visite such as this, were sold to support the new schools. This carte, one of about twenty different ones that were published, shows three very young, light-skinned ex-slaves, Rebecca Huger, Charles Taylor, and Rosina Downs. Made in the Philadelphia studio of James E. McClees, who later worked with Washington Lafayette Germon, it is unusual in that it protests against not only conditions in the South but also the everyday racism prevalent in the North.


This week’s Torah portion continues the narrative of the flight of Yaakov (Jacob) from the wrath of his brother Esav (Esau). After his dream of the ladder, he completes his journey to his mother’s homeland, where he will spend the next 20 years working for a livelihood, marrying and having twelve of his thirteen children. Upon his arrival, he meets Rachel, the woman he knew he was destined to marry, and “he raised up his voice and cried (Beraishis/Genesis 29:11).” Rashi explains he was upset that he was forced to come without gifts, in contrast to Eliezer, his grandfather’s emissary, who came to this land to find his mother for his father laden with golden bracelets and rings. Yaakov had departed with the appropriate presents, but had to part with them in the middle of his journey. Esav had sent Elifaz, his son, to murder Yaakov, but Elifaz was a disciple of his grandfather Yitzchak (Isaac), not his father. Nevertheless, he chased after and caught up to Yaakov and asked his uncle if there was any way he could follow his father command to kill him. Yaakov remembered the maxim that one bereft of any possessions is considered a dead man, so he told Elifaz to take all of his worldly possessions.
Riva (Rabbi Yitzchak ben Asher; died c.1130; student of Rashi; one of the early Tosafists, a group of French and German Rabbis of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries whose commentary on the Babylonian Talmud appears alongside the text of the Gemara) is perplexed by the entire sequence. The Torah limits its command to honor one’s father and mother to situations which do not run afoul of Torah law. But Esav’s order was to murder Yaakov, an act forbidden by the same Ten Commandments, thus Elifaz had no obligation whatsoever to heed his father. Why did he continue to look for a way to fulfill his father’s wishes? Riva answers that Elifaz wished to find a way that fulfilled Esav’s command without violating the Torah.
How did Riva answer his question? Ultimately, Esav’s words were NOT fulfilled, so Elifaz really did not accomplish anything. With Esav’s command not fulfilled, the question returns: why did Elifaz expend the time and effort to comply with his father’s request when he had no obligation to do so? Furthermore, why did Yaakov assist Elifaz’s pursuit? He knew that Elifaz’s charge was impossible and not binding. Yet he gave away the jewelry he had brought to give to his future bride to his nephew, a situation that pained him so that he was brought to tears. We know that Yaakov was very thrifty. Twenty years later, during his return to Canaan, he got into a battle with Esav’s guardian angel after he went back across the Yabok Stream to fetch some small vessels he had left behind and would not abandon, even though by that time he had amassed great wealth (Beraishis 32:25; Rashi ibid.). How could he forsake all of this jewelry?
Rabbi Alter Hanoch Leibowitz (Rosh Yeshiva/Dean of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Forest Hills, Queens, New York) draws the answer from a concept found in the Talmud in Tractate Gittin (81a). The Talmud contrasts the piety of the “earlier generations” to that of the “later generations”. The earlier generations, the Talmud elucidates, were meticulous about bringing in their produce from the fields to the manor house through the front gate. Transporting the produce on this path, through the normal point of entry, created an obligation to tithe the products of the gifts for the Kohanim (the priests), the Leviim (their assistants), and the poor. The later generations would bring in the produce through adjacent storage yards or rooftop points of entry. These entries, not intended to be used for this function, did not generate an obligation to tithe. Both generations followed the letter of the law, but it was the earlier generation who saw the mitzvah opportunity, and chose not to utilize the legal loophole.
Elifaz and Yaakov, declares Rabbi Leibowitz, personify this value to an even greater degree. Elifaz knew that he did not, and could not, have any obligation to respect his father’s wishes. He could not even imagine that there was any way to obey. Nevertheless, maybe – some way, somehow – someone could formulate a plan that complied partially. So great was Elifaz’s desire to fulfill the divine command to honor his father, if there could be any semblance of conforming to Esav’s order, it would be worth all of the effort. Yaakov identified with Elifaz’s passion and concurred that any measure Elifaz could take should be taken; thus, he innovatively found a solution and fully facilitated its achievement.
How do we view our mitzvah opportunities? Are they an occasion to fortify our relationship with the Master of the Universe, to strengthen our “G-d consciousness”, to sanctify even our most mundane acts? Or are they a hindrance, an obstacle we go to great lengths to circumvent? Elifaz traveled a considerable distance on the hope that he might be able to find a solution to an impossible situation. Are we willing to go that extra mile?
Have a good Shabbos!
Copyright © 2001 by Rabbi Pinchas Avruch and Project Genesis, Inc.
Kol HaKollel is a publication of the Milwaukee Kollel Center for Jewish Studies 5007 West Keefe Avenue; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; 414-447-7999


Walt Disney's Pluto (left) immortalised on the surface of Pluto
While studying the latest Nasa images of the former ninth planet of the solar system, which is making headlines around the world, for interesting geological features, we stumbled across this remarkable face of the loveable Disney cartoon pooch etched into the fascinating world.
"Planet" Pluto was discovered in March 24 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, whose ashes have now gone past the dwarf planet in the New Horizons unmanned probe.
Just six months later Pluto the dog was introduced to the world by Walt Disney as Mickey Mouses's pet bloodhound in cartoon film The Chain Gang.
But at that point the pet was not named.


California has become the first U.S. state to have its public schools teach gay history. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Thursday that would require the contributions of LGBT Americans throughout history to be included the state’s educational syllabus. The bill was authored by Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco, and has drawn loud opposition from conservative and evangelical groups in the state. “It is an outrage that Governor Jerry Brown has opened the classroom door for homosexual activists to indoctrinate the minds of California’s youth, since no factual materials would be allowed to be presented,” said Rev. Louis Sheldon, chairman and founder of the Traditional Values Coalition, which represents more than 43,000 churches. But California law already requires schools to teach students about the contributions of other minority groups, and Sen. Leno’s office cited research showing that schools that teach students about LGBT people and issues are perceived as more inclusive. “History should be honest,” said Gov. Brown in his statement following the signing of the bill into law.
Friday, July 15, 2011


By Colin Gilbert
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that results from a person’s exposure to a terrifying event. Military combat, car accidents, or other near-death experiences are often at the root of the PTSD, which manifests itself in nightmares, cold detachment, or intense flashbacks.
Traditional forms of therapy have long been considered the best option for helping people cope with the disorder. Now, however, the medical community has found a surprising new ally in the battle against PTSD. Beta blockers, which are usually used to treat high blood pressure and other heart conditions, are helping some people stop traumatic memories before they start.
One beta blocker in particular, Propranolol, has been shown to interfere with the formation of traumatic memories. In 2003, the scientific journal Biological Psychiatry featured an article with a title that speaks for itself: “Immediate treatment with Propranolol decreases PTSD two months after trauma.” As the title implies, the beta blocker showed signs of effectiveness when given to people within just a few days of the traumatic event.
In studies where some traumatized patients received the drug and others received an inactive placebo, the people who received the drug exhibited fewer signs of PTSD in the months that followed. However, the data is still inconclusive. While some studies suggest a link between beta blockers and the prevention of PTSD, others don’t.
Once PTSD has already established itself as a menacing force in a person’s life, beta blockers like Propranolol don’t seem to do much good. The reason for this seems to stem from the way traumatic memories are formed in the brain. During a frightening experience, the body’s sympathetic nervous system enters a “fight-or-flight” mode, releasing stress hormones that raise blood pressure, sharpen the senses, and produce an acute sense of awareness.
Immediately after the traumatic event, the hormones also affect the formation of the memory, eventually scarring the mind with a nightmarish series of associations. PTSD occurs when the memory of the event has become a permanent trigger for the intense panicked reaction.
Beta blockers function by blocking the very stress hormones that are released during a terrifying experience, so they may also interfere with the subsequent production of traumatic memories. The less frightful a person is during and after an experience, the less likely he or she is to develop PTSD.
Although many people are excited by the idea of preventing PTSD with beta blockers, others are more wary of the practical and ethical implications of deleting trauma. These critics believe that stripping a memory of psychological or emotional content is unwise and that the body’s natural mechanisms for interpreting horrific events should be trusted.
In a 2005 issue of Nature magazine, psychiatrist Dr. Paul McHugh asserted in response to the research on beta blockers and PTSD that “psychiatrists are once again marching where angels fear to tread.” McHugh suggested that traumatic memories prevent people from experiencing the same kinds of horror in the future, but his opponents maintain that PTSD’s disabling characteristics go beyond the scope the healthy coping mechanisms.


heic1520 — Photo Release
Revisiting the Veil Nebula
24 September 2015
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope imaged three magnificent sections of the Veil Nebula in 1997. Now, a stunning new set of images from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 capture these scattered stellar remains in spectacular new detail and reveal its expansion over the last years.
Deriving its name from its delicate, draped filamentary structures, the beautiful Veil Nebula is one of the best-known supernova remnants. It formed from the violent death of a star twenty times the mass of the Sun that exploded about 8000 years ago. Located roughly 2100 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan), this brightly coloured cloud of glowing debris spans approximately 110 light-years.
In 1997, Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) photographed the Veil Nebula, providing detailed views of its structure. Now, overlaying WFPC2 images with new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) data provides even greater detail and allows scientists to study how far the nebula has expanded since it was photographed over 18 years ago.
Despite the nebula’s complexity and distance from us, the movement of some of its delicate structures is clearly visible — particularly the faint red hydrogen filaments. In this image, one such filament can be seen as it meanders through the middle of the brighter features that dominate the image.
Astronomers suspect that before the Veil Nebula’s source star exploded it expelled a strong stellar wind. This wind blew a large cavity into the surrounding interstellar gas. As the shock wave from the supernova expands outwards, it encounters the walls of this cavity — and forms the nebula’s distinctive structures. Bright filaments are produced as the shock wave interacts with a relatively dense cavity wall, whilst fainter structures are generated by regions nearly devoid of material. The Veil Nebula’s colourful appearance is generated by variations in the temperatures and densities of the chemical elements present.
The blue coloured features — outlining the cavity wall — appear smooth and curved in comparison to the fluffy green and red coloured ones. This is because the gas traced by the blue filter has more recently encountered the nebula’s shock wave, thus still maintain the original shape of the shock front. These features also contain hotter gas than the red and green coloured ones . The latter excited longer ago and have subsequently diffused into more chaotic structures.
Hidden amongst these bright, chaotic structures lie a few thin, sharply edged, red coloured filaments. These faint hydrogen emission features are created through a totally different mechanism than that which generates their fluffy red companions, and they provide scientists with a snapshot of the shock front. The red colour arises after gas is swept into the shock wave — which is moving at almost 1.5 million kilometres per hour! — and the hydrogen within the gas is excited by particle collisions right at the shock front itself.
Despite utilising six full Hubble fields of view, these new WFC3 images cover just a tiny fraction of the nebula’s outer limb. Located on the west side of the supernova remnant, this section of the outer shell is in a region known as NGC 6960 or — more colloquially — the Witch’s Broom Nebula.
Notes for editors
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
ESA/Hubble, Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 176 62397500


|Natural range of Fraxinus velutina|
Fraxinus velutina (Velvet Ash or Arizona Ash or Modesto Ash) is a species of Fraxinus native to southwestern North America, in the United States from southern California east to Texas, and in Mexico from northern Baja California east to Coahuila and Nuevo León.
Fraxinus velutina is a small deciduous tree growing to 10 m tall, with a trunk up to 30 cm diameter. The bark is rough gray-brown and fissured, and the shoots are velvety-downy. The leaves are 10–25 cm long, pinnately compound with five or seven (occasionally three) leaflets 4 cm or more long, with an entire or finely serrated margin. The flowers are produced in small clusters in early spring; it is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate trees. The fruit is a samara 1.5–3 cm long, with an apical wing 4–8 mm broad.
Fraxinus velutina is closely related to Fraxinus latifolia (Oregon Ash) and Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Green Ash), replacing these species to the south of their respective ranges; it intergrades with F. latifolia in central California (around Kern County, without a clear boundary between the species.
In Arizona, the range of Fraxinus velutina is centered on the Mogollon Rim, from the northwest in the Grand Canyon feeder canyons of southern Utah and Nevada, to the central-east White Mountains (Arizona) merging into the same mountainous area of western New Mexico, then to the Rio Grande valley south to trans-Pecos Texas. In Arizona and northern Sonora it also is found in the sky island mountain ranges, the Madrean Sky Islands, and is found from central-southern Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert mountains, and the desert ranges south into northern Sonora and the very north of the Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera of Sonora and Chihuahua. Scattered populations occur eastward through the Chihuahuan Desert regions of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Nuevo León.
In California Fraxinus velutina is found in the southern Sierra Nevada, the Mojave and Colorado Deserts, and the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, with scattered populations extending into Baja California.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fraxinus velutina.|
- Germplasm Resources Information Network: Fraxinus velutina
- Jepson Flora: Fraxinus velutina
- Southwest Environmental Information Network: Fraxinus velutina
- Griffin, J. R., & Critchfield, W. B. (1976). The Distribution of Forest Trees of California. U.S. Forest Service Research Paper PSW-82.
- Little. Atlas of United States Trees, Volume 3, Minor Western Hardwoods, Map 83, Fraxinus velutina.
- Little. Atlas of United States Trees, Volume 3, Minor Western Hardwoods, Little, Elbert L, 1976, US Government Printing Office. Library of Congress No. 79-653298. Map 83, Fraxinus velutina.


The Birds and the Bees… and Diabetes
If you have diabetes, you may know the importance of keeping your glucose level as close to normal as possible. When you do, you feel good. You probably also know that to keep your glucose at that level, you should:
- Make healthy food choices
- Eat the right amounts of food
- Be active every day
- Stay at a healthy weight
- Take your medicines and check your blood glucose as planned with your health care team
But there's another reason to keep your body healthy and your diabetes in check, besides making you feel and look good. Did you know that your baby has a higher risk of birth defects if your diabetes isn't under control? At this point you're probably thinking, "Whoa, that's not happening any time soon. Why think about it now?"
There may come a day when you start a family. And guess what? All those good things you do for yourself now are also good for a future baby. Women who can control their diabetes before they become pregnant cut the risk of birth defects in half. Of every 100 births to women with uncontrolled diabetes:
- 3 to 10 babies have heart (cardiac) defects
- 2 babies have brain and spinal cord (central nervous system) defects
- 1 baby has stomach and intestine (gastrointestinal) defects
- 2 babies have muscle and bone (musculoskeletal) defects
- 2 babies have cleft lip or palate (orofacial clefts)
- 3 babies have kidney and bladder (urinary tract) defects
And it's not just the baby that is affected. There is more of a risk to you too. But there's good news to all of this: You can choose to be healthy now. Why wouldn't you? Being in control of your diabetes makes you feel and look good. In addition, all women should take 400μg (micrograms) of folic acid daily (found in most multivitamins). This is important for women with or without diabetes. Folic acid helps prevent birth defects, and it keeps you healthy – it's used to make red blood cells, and research is going on about its role in improving memory and preventing certain diseases.
Learning to live with your diabetes now, and taking folic acid, is a great way for you to be healthy and feel good. And if you start a family sometime in the future you'll be glad you took such good care of yourself now.
McLeod L, Ray J: Prevention and detection of diabetic embryopathy. Community Genet. 2002;5:33-39.
Pregestational diabetes mellitus. ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 60. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Obstet Gynecol 2005;105:675-85.
MDHHS FACT CARDS:The Birds and the Bees… and Diabetes (PDF)
La diabetes, la cigüeña y tú (PDF)
Questions? Comments? Contact Us!
Michigan Department of Community Health
Birth Defects Program


ATRAP ANTIHYDROGEN EXPERIMENT
In accordance with the Standard Model of particles and fields, there was a believe that the antimatter is an exact mirror of matter and all nature phenomena are invariant under the conjugation of charge (C), parity (P), time reversal (T). This statement formally is enclosed in the CPT theorem which is valid for local, Lorentz-invariant quantum field theories. Moreover, the CPT theorem implies the equal amount of matter and antimatter in the Universe. However, the experimental observations show a complete absence of antimatter (visible only as reaction products in cosmic rays) and dominance of matter in the observed Universe. The reason for this matter excess has not been discovered yet. Thus, particularly interesting are studies of particles and antiparticles properties in order to contribute in an explanation of this phenomena, and also experimentally test predictions of the CPT theorem.
Particularly, this could be accomplished by investigating the possible spectroscopic differences between the antihydrogen and the hydrogen atoms. Such spectroscopy could compare at a higher precision than the most stringent CPT test with leptons and baryons, and cold trapped antihydrogen atoms would also allow for precise measurement of the gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter.
One of the groups, which conducts research in this field is international ATRAP collaboration. Scientists from United States, Germany, Canada and Poland, together are conducting research at the European Research Center for Nuclear Physics, CERN, on the border of Switzerland and France. The main gaol of ATRAP collaboration is to compare the properties of the hydrogen atom consisting of a proton nucleus, and an electron in orbit around the nucleus, with the properties of antihydrogen atom having antiproton nucleus with a positron (anti-electron) on its orbit. According to current knowledge both atoms should have by same physical properties. One possible method of comparison of the two atoms is by utilizing the laser spectroscopy, which allows to examine their internal structure. Spectroscopy is based on using a laser, which induces excitation of the atom, and then after short time, registering light emitted from the process of the de-excitation of the atom. If the atoms and anti-atom would be the same, also their inner structures should be identical, which would mean that the radiation emitted from excited atoms and anti-atoms should be the same.
The internetional ATRAP group is leaded by Prof. Dr Gerald Gabrielse from Harvard University (USA) with the collaboration of Colorado State Univeristy (USA), Northwestern Univeristy (USA), York Univeristy (Canada), Forschungszentrum Juelich (Germany) and Jagiellonian University (Poland). Work of the ATRAP Krakow Group is coordinated by Dr Marcin Zieliński.
Photo taken in April 2017 in front of the AD (193) building at CERN. From the left: M. Zieliński, D. Zambrano, E. Tardiff, B. Głowacz, G. Gabrielse, E. Nottet, T. Skinner, O. Andriyevska, N. Jones, T. Morrison, G. Khatri.
Photo taken in March 2017 in front of the AD (193) building at CERN. From the left: M. Zieliński, D. Alfs, G. Głowacz, D. Grzonka, K. Marable, N. Jones, G. Khatri, D. Zambrano, T. Morrison, D. Yost, E. Tardiff.
The ATRAP group uses apparatus, which consists of devices capable to produce antihydrogen atoms, and their trapping for sufficient time enabling to study it with spectroscopy method. Anti-hydrogen atoms are produced inside the Penning trap comprised of the electrodes to which the electric field is applied. The process of antihydrogen forming, uses the antiproton cloud (coming from the antiproton decelerator AD) and positrons (supplied from the source of radioactive sodium 22Na). Produced anti-atoms are electrically neutral, and thus one needs to trap them using magnetic field gradient, to avoid its annihilation with the trap walls. One of the important results which was achieved by ATRAP, was to demonstrate production of 105 atoms of antihydrogen in a ground state, which is sufficient number to perform the spectroscopy.
In this context, one of the major challenges, is to effectively identify and count produced antihydrogen atoms. For this purpose, two methods are used: (a) constructive detection using a radio frequency, and (b) destructive detection of products resulting from the annihilation of antihydrogen atoms with thePenning trap electrodes. The detection system, which allows for registration of annihilation process, consists of scintillating fiber detector directly surrounding the Penning trap, and the two layers of scintillator hodoscope mounted at a distance of about 50 cm from the place where atoms are produced. In the framework of this project we developed methods of identifying antihydrogen atoms, thanks to registration of antihydrogen annihilation product, by means of scintillation detectors. Algorithms, based on the time of the signals and the energy deposited in the scintillators are capable to determine the topology of the annihilation process. Difficulties in identifying interesting processes comes from the fact that the volume in which antihydrogen atoms are produced, is contaminated by the natural cosmic ray background particles. As part of the research conducted in this project we developed methods for identifying the antihydrogen annihilation events with efficiency of almost 60%.
- Lyman-alpha source for laser cooling antihydrogen
- Electron-cooled accumulation of 4 × 10^9 positrons for production and storage of antihydrogen atoms
- Large numbers of cold positronium atoms created in laser-selected Rydberg states using resonant charge exchange


Our unique system of deploying clergy has its roots in the earliest days of Methodism. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, preached up to 40,000 sermons in his lifetime. He was an "itinerant" preacher, traveling from town to town in England, setting up Methodist societies.
"John Wesley believed that itinerant preachers who moved from place to place were more effective than those who settled in, grew comfortable, and wore out what they had to say," says the Rev. Belton Joyner.
In a letter to the Rev. Samuel Walker in 1756, Wesley wrote, "We have found by long and consistent experience that a frequent exchange of preachers is best. This preacher has one talent, that another; no one whom I ever yet knew has all the talents which are needful for beginning, continuing, and perfecting the work of grace in a whole congregation."
In the early days of Methodism in America, a pastor — most often a circuit rider — might be appointed to half of a state or more. His appointment might be for only three months, after which he moved to another circuit. Thousands of the oldest United Methodist congregations today trace their history to a circuit rider.
These riders traveled from place to place to begin Methodist societies. Eventually, especially after the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1784, most of these societies became congregations. This practice continued and became the basis for the itinerant system The United Methodist Church uses today.
United Methodist pastors are sent, not called or hired. "Itinerancy" refers specifically to the commitment by pastors to go and serve wherever their bishops send them. "Appointment" is the action taken by bishops. These are different, yet related.
Clergy in The United Methodist Church commit to serve where their bishop appoints them. Appointments are typically for one year at a time, though the bishop may move any itinerant pastor at any time. The goal of the appointment process is to match as much as possible the gifts and graces of the particular pastor or deacon with the ministry needs of a particular congregation or ministry setting. In this "serial leadership" of consecutive pastors and deacons — no two are alike — over time, the combination of skills blends to form a broad base of developed ministries.
While bishops make appointments, they incorporate a consultative process outlined in The Book of Discipline that includes district superintendents, clergy and pastor/staff parish relations committees. The needs and desires of clergy are considered, but the mission of the church comes first.
Joyner explains, "In a connectional system such as United Methodism, the question from any individual congregation or from any individual [clergy] is not, 'What is best for me?' The question is 'What is best for us, the whole connection?' The one who has oversight, the bishop, makes those decisions. (The New Testament word for bishop is episkopos, which means 'the one who can see the whole picture.')
"The changing of pastors brings different and often-needed gifts to the local church (1 Cor. 12:4). The changing of settings can keep a pastor refreshed. The missionary journeys of Paul are surely a reminder of that (for example, Acts 13:2-14:7; 15:36-18:22; 18:23-21:19)."
This content was produced by Ask The UMC, a ministry of United Methodist Communications.


To most the mind is a great mystery and its inner workings unknown. We have had it since birth and used it so much that we never stop to think what it really is and what it does.
Our brain allows us to take information through our senses, turn it into an experience, and then record that as a memory. Our memories affect our future actions and those actions further widen our understanding. With a better understanding our values, desires, and goals evolve. Thus our future decisions are determined by our past, and without our past we would have no future.
Think of your subconscious mind as a great library of your thoughts. It keeps track of everything your conscious mind does and then rearranges them for later use. All of your knowledge, conclusions, beliefs, and memories lay there room after room and shelf after shelf. Through thinking you can gain an access to this whole library and all of its content. Everything can be found, but without a proper map some of the shelfs and its content are hard to find.
Your attention determines what your subconscious mind comprehends as important. If someone introduces himself to you and your attention immediately switches to another thing, you won’t remember his name very long. Similarly if a car passes by and you pay no attention to it, you won’t be able to describe it later if asked. On the contrary, if a beautiful lady passes by you will remember her face even days later. What makes the difference? Your attention!
Try to think of any subject, and then note how all the related things start to pop into your mind. Those then lead you to think of an another subject that then again brings you to another set of ideas. Sometimes you are not able to recall an idea you were looking for, in which case the information was not indexed very well, but rather quite carelessly in haste. In this case your subconscious goes into work and tries to find it for you, and then at some point it may surface in your conscious mind.
Without sufficient linkage your memories get lost in deep chambers from where they are very hard to find. To make sure you can later gain an access to something you had paid attention to you must connect it to your previous information. That creates a strong linking between the things you want to remember, and very quickly your subconscious mind can give you the exact information you are looking for, along with all sort of related thoughts and concepts. Think of your thoughts as points in your brain, each new piece of information becomes a new point, and then you simply connect all those points. The more connections you have the quicker you are able to locate the right location.
Attention alone is not enough to really understand and remember what you read, for example. You should also reflect on what you read by thinking of the subjects covered, the new things you learned, the conclusions you drew, and how they match with your previous understanding. You should stop and reflect on all occasions, even just about your normal day. Think of what you achieved that day: the things you did, the people you met, and so on. The result is a stronger mind where the various subjects are better linked to each other.
At the end all would be for nothing If you won’t give your brain enough time to rest. Some of the best ideas and realizations pop into your conscious mind when you are meditating. Meditation helps your mind to get rid of all the waste in your head and thus focus on what matters. Also, if you work too long you will become tired and then your thought process become slow and your ability to learn new things will diminish. During your sleep your subconscious mind goes over all the things you had done and learned while your body is loading its batteries and getting ready to for the next day.
Your subconscious mind is a friend who is there to hand over everything you ask for. If you ask nothing it will give you nothing, but if through continuous requests you ask it to deliver certain information it will learn it to be valuable. Thus the next time you pay attention to something similar your mind will be there to capture and store it for your later use. Your mind becomes stronger when you give it some exercise.
All in all, acquiring a great memory requires hard work and perhaps some conscious awareness about how it really works. Treat it well and you will get rewarded.
In conclusion, do these three things and you will see improvement:
- Focus your attention
- Reflect what you learned
- Meditate and rest


As cities grow, the area of impervious surfaces they cover grows. In cities across the US, roads, rooftops, parking lots, sidewalks and driveways increased by an average of 326,000 hectares per year between 2012 and 2017.
When it rains, stormwater gathers on these surfaces or flows into gutters, storm drains and sewer systems. However, extreme precipitation events can overwhelm a city's capacity to transport stormwater, resulting in urban floods. The introduction of green infrastructures (GI), such as bioswales with permeable surfaces, has provided municipalities with a new tool to manage flood risk associated with rainfall. Cities including Portland, Phoenix and Atlanta have developed plans and invested in implementing GI to mitigate the risk of floods.
New research from Portland State University combines demographic data with the distribution of GI and geographic areas prone to rainwater flooding in Portland, Phoenix and Atlanta and asks whether these cities are equitably building GI to mitigate flood risks.
The paper, "Urban flood risk and green infrastructure: Who is exposed to risk and who benefits from investment? A case study of three US cities," appears in Landscape and Urban Planning.
According to the paper's lead author, Arun Pallathadka, a Ph.D. student in the Earth, Environment and Society program at Portland State, the research team found that the placement of GI in each of the cities inconsistently overlapped with areas prone to rainwater flooding, and non-white and low-income populations were more vulnerable to flood risk. Portland and Phoenix have increased investments in GI in neighborhoods with higher populations of non-white and low-income residents, marking a transition to more equitable flood risk management. In Atlanta, the risk of rainwater flooding was relatively low for non-white and low-income residents, though there was a substantial disparity in GI coverage.
"Flooding is the costliest natural hazard," Pallathadka said. "But when we talk about flooding, the focus is often on the floodplain, on rivers. But with climate change, we're expecting an increase in flooding associated with rainfall events. We wanted to know where the hotspots in cities are associated with a risk of flooding from rain, who are the people living in those communities, and where are cities placing infrastructure to help reduce the hazards."
In addition to the spatial, temporal and demographic analysis, the research team, which includes Heejun Chang, a professor of geography at Portland State and Jason Sauer and Nancy Grimm of Arizona State University, developed that can be used by researchers, city planners and policymakers to categorize neighborhood risk levels. Cities can use the tool to help guide investments in GI to neighborhoods most at risk of flooding from rainfall events.
A conceptual framework for understanding the distribution and implications of urban pluvial flood risk and green infrastructure (GI) in urban communities.
The methods deployed by the team provide cities with a novel approach to assessing the need for GI in neighborhoods prone to flooding associated with rainwater while also planning for the equitable distribution of those resources as they move ahead under the threat of increasing extreme precipitation events associated with a warming planet.


WW2 British Army Rifleman (Mid-Late War)
The British Army was, in 1939, a volunteer army. It was trained and equipped to be a small, mechanized, professional army, with its main function being to garrison the British Empire. It became evident early in the war that its initial structure and manpower was woefully unprepared and ill-equipped for a war with multiple enemies on multiple fronts. Limited conscription was implemented in early 1939, and full conscription shortly after the declaration of war with Germany. During the early years of the Second World War, the British Army suffered defeat in almost every theatre of war in which it was deployed. With mass conscription, the expansion of the British Army was reflected in the formation of larger armies and army groups. From 1943, the larger and better-equipped British Army never suffered a strategic defeat (although there were failures, most notably the Battle of Arnhem, part of Operation Market Garden, in September 1944).


One of the most challenging responsibilities of a tester is ensuring the security of a Web application. In this tip, I’ll cover a few steps testers can take to be more effective in testing for OWASP’s top security vulnerability: injection.
According to the OWASP project:
Injection occurs when user-supplied data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. Attackers trick the interpreter into executing unintended commands via supplying specially crafted data. Injection flaws allow attackers to create, read, update, or delete any arbitrary data available to the application. In the worst case scenario, these flaws allow an attacker to completely compromise the application and the underlying systems, even bypassing deeply nested firewalled environments.
It is extremely difficult to test security into a project -- if not impossible. The key to fixing injection vulnerabilities is to not introduce them in the first place and/or to detect them in the build phase. Using static code analysis or similar automated tools will uncover a ton of these flaws. Still, no tool can replace a careful, experienced, methodical tester working her way through a Web application.
The first step in identifying injection flaws is to understand where user input is captured and used by the application. With injection attacks, it really doesn’t matter if the input is stored in a database or other file, or if it’s reflected back on the next page. The issue is to root out where unsanitized input is leveraged by the application. So it’s critical to understand the input and output of your application -- where is data brought into the application and where is it later output. This means that as a tester you will need to have a far better understanding of technical implementation of an application than if you were simply testing for conformance to requirements. By understanding the data flow, you can begin to probe how the application leverages data.
Another step in testing your application is to understand what technologies are leveraged. For example, does your application run in an LDAP environment? Will LDAP injection testing be important? Is a SQL backend involved? Is your application architected such that XPATH or XQUERY are potential attack vectors? By understanding your application, you can develop an accurate sense of the scope of the project and what technologies and attacks you need to probe.
Your patience will be challenged by the next task -- documenting and executing tests. Probing for SQL injection vulnerabilities in an application is fun and exciting the first few times – and in an unhealthy sense, discovering a valid defect is definitely rewarding. But these boundaries need to be probed control after control, page after page, POST parameter after POST parameter. It can become tedious. The good news is that this level of a “test everything” approach is generally a one-time process within legacy code. Once tested, always tested may not be an appropriate maxim, but it’s safe to say that a page which passed these tests last year and has not changed since is unlikely to have a new defect on it. There are a few commercial and open-source tools available to aid in your testing, but until a tester really knows an app, relying on an automated tool to probe every corner is insufficient.
A few additional notes to consider in your injection testing:
- Many applications are developed with client-side input validation. This is a good thing; it prevents the benevolent user from uploading bad data. Unfortunately, it sometimes prevents the inexperienced tester from fully testing an application. In order to get beyond client-side input validation, you will need to learn how to use a proxying tool. Using this tool, you will begin to learn what data is input into the application (there is much more “input” than just the controls on a web page). You’ll also be able to bypass client-side validation, so you can run malicious input tests.
- Even if a potential injection vulnerability is addressed, it doesn’t mean it has been fixed. A common response to an injection vulnerability is to “blacklist” various inputs (blacklisting means to explicitly deny any request for which the input matches a value in a list). Many hackers get around client- and server-side validation by encapsulating the text used in an attack.
The keys to succeeding at injection testing are 1) to be methodical, 2) to understand the technology underlying your application and 3) to use tools appropriately.
- Penetration testing and other security testing techniques
- Recommended reading for mobile Web design and testing


This essay is in memory of derry jeffares and his writings on yeats, especially his commentary on the poems, with its helpful notes and its quotations of applicable remarks by yeats. Posts about wb yeats written by wlm3 yeats “vacillation and the commentary that followed. The spiritual wisdom of the gospels for christian preachers and teachers year a on earth as it is in heaven john shea liturgical press collegeville, minnesota. Complete summary of william butler yeats' a dialogue of self and soul enotes plot section of “vacillation,” although in the a commentary on the. The failure of wb yeats: aesthetics, unity of being, and the trails all about the written page yeats had been a new commentary on the poems of wb yeats.
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Home » english » modern poetry » engl 310 - lecture 6 - william butler yeats lecture 6 - william butler yeats vacillation,” “lapis lazuli. —yeats, “vacillation in his elegy for yeats, written just days after the poet’s death by yeats himself “in commentary” on chatterjee’s own.
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1. Flexible teaching structure, adaptable to the needs and diversity of different groups.
2. Learning reflection to encourage students’ learning autonomy.
3. Practice tests for the Cambridge Young Learners Exams familiarise students with the external exam format.
4. Generous selection of story texts to encourage reading for pleasure.
5. Skyrocket Your Grammar - a valuable resource with illustrative grammar tables and exercises to consolidate key structures.
6. Richmond Learning Platform includes a variety of tools for teachers and students to make practice fun and relevant.


When it comes to producing finished goods using injection molding processes, one option is called overmolding. This process results in a single finished workpiece being produced using a combination of molding steps where at least two types of plastic materials—or more—are molded together over each layer of material.
Overmolding can be used to produce a wide range of workpieces for numerous industries, including automotive, aerospace, medical, household goods, and so on. For instance, a plastic scrub brush with a soft plastic grip could be manufactured using overmolding processes.
Overmolding Injection Molding Process Steps
There are typically at least two overmolding injection molding process steps. Depending on the complexity of the finished workpiece being produced, there could be additional steps. However, the third, fourth, and subsequent steps would be similar to the second step.
Step 1: Mold the base layer of the workpiece.
The first step is to produce the base layer of the plastic workpiece. This is normally carried out through plastic injection molding, where a liquid plastic material is injected into a mold. Once cooled, the first-step material is placed into an overmolding machine.
Step 2: Apply the second layer to the workpiece.
This step is when the second layer of plastic material is applied over the initial base layer material. It can be a soft plastic or rubber and does not have to be the identical type of plastic material used for the base layer.
The multiple materials enhance the appearance or functionality of the finished workpiece. For example, a multi-colored toothbrush with a rubberized handle is one such product produced using overmolding processes.
How Is Overmolding Different from Multi-Shot Plastic Injection Molding?
While the processes can seem similar, there are some major differences between the two injection molding processes. With overmolding, the initial base layer is a single piece that is removed from the injection molding machine and placed into an overmolding injection machine.
With a multi-stage injection molding machine, a single workpiece is also produced, yet the materials are encapsulated over one another. There are multiple injectors and molds used in the process. The first plastic material is moved into a second mold where the second plastic material is injected and encapsulated over the first material.
Another key difference is that multi-stage injection molding is faster since a single machine is used to produce the desired workpieces. However, this method is not viable for every type of workpiece. Overmolding may be the better choice, depending on what finished goods you manufacture.
One of the primary benefits of overmolding is that it allows you to create work with a wide range of materials, applying a textured grip over a metal material. For instance, the plastic grips on pliers and other tools are normally produced using overmolding processes.
Another great example is a clamshell case made of hard plastic with a soft rubber casing on its exterior to absorb impact if it is accidentally dropped.
For further information about overmolding and injection molding processes and our customized overmolding and injection molding services, please feel free to contact Laszeray Technology, LLC at 440-582-8430 today! We also offer investment casting tooling, CNC production machining, secondary manufacturing, rapid prototyping, product design, engineering, finishing operations, value analysis, and value engineering services.
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Julia Belluz · Tuesday, February 21, 2017, 7:36 pm
And will soon live longer still.
South Korea is set to become the world leader in life expectancy by the end of the next decade. And the United States? Well, it’s poised to lag behind other wealthy countries when it comes to progress in longevity.
In a new study, published in The Lancet, researchers predict that average life expectancy will reach beyond 90 years for South Korean women by 2030. Men there will also see big gains.
A handful of other wealthy countries will get closer to becoming centenarians too, but these improvements won’t be spread evenly. Americans, in particular, won’t be doing nearly as well against its economic peers.
It’s yet another example of the importance of equitable access to health care — something South Korea and many other developed countries have managed to provide their citizens while the US continues to falter.
[Chart showing that fewer women in the US will live as long as women in other highly developed countries]
For the study, researchers at the Imperial College London, the World Health Organization, Northumbria University and the University of Washington, developed a new model for predicting future life expectancy in 35 countries using 21 forecasting projections. Most impressively, they found that in South Korea, life expectancy in women could jump from 84 in 2010 to 91 by 2030. In France, Japan, and Spain, female life expectancy is expected to hit at least 88 or 89 years, up from around 85.
Men in South Korea as well as Australia and Switzerland are also expected to lead the world on life expectancy, living to about 84 by 2030, with Canada, Spain, New Zealand, the Netherlands following close behind.