Coffee consumption associated with decreased risk for basal cell carcinoma

 by Biomechanism 

Caffeine could be related to an inverse association between basal cell carcinoma risk and consumption of coffee, a study found.

The prospective study, presented at the 10th AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held Oct. 22-25, 2011, examined the risks of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma in connection with coffee consumption and found a decreased risk for BCC only.

“Given the nearly 1 million new cases of BCC diagnosed each year in the United States, daily dietary factors with even small protective effects may have great public health impact,” said researcher Fengju Song, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the department of dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. “Our study indicates that coffee consumption may be an important option to help prevent BCC.”

Data were taken from the Nurses’ Health Study (Brigham and Women’s Hospital) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (Harvard School of Public Health). In the Nurses’ Health Study, 72,921 participants were followed from June 1984 to June 2008. In the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, 39,976 participants were followed from June 1986 to June 2008.

The researchers reported 25,480 incident skin cancer cases. Of those, 22,786 were BCC, 1,953 were SCC, and 741 were melanoma.

Song and colleagues reported that women who consumed more than three cups of coffee per day had a 20 percent reduction in risk for BCC, and men who consumed more than three cups per day had a nine percent risk reduction compared with people who consumed less than one cup per month.

The amount of coffee consumption was inversely associated with BCC risk. Those in the highest quintile had the lowest risk, with an 18 percent reduction for women and a 13 percent reduction for men.

Song and colleagues were surprised by the inverse connection in BCC cases only. Animal studies have suggested an association between coffee intake and skin cancer risk, but epidemiologic studies have not conclusively shown the same results, they said.

“Mouse studies have shown that oral or topical caffeine promotes elimination of UV-damaged keratinocytes via apoptosis (programmed cell death) and markedly reduces subsequent SCC development,” Song said. “However, in our cohort analysis, we did not find any inverse association between coffee consumption and the risk for SCC.”

Song said that additional studies specifically addressing the association between coffee consumption and BCC and the mechanism behind this association are warranted.

New study finds fetal heart rate not a good indicator of a baby’s health

 by Biomechanism 

“Maternal-fetal medicine specialists at Intermountain Medical Center seek better ‘road map’ to improve deliveries, healthier babies”

Physicians preparing to deliver a baby look at fetal heart rate patterns to guide them in deciding whether or not to perform a C- section. But a new study by maternal-fetal medicine specialists at Intermountain Medical Center shows that those heart rate patterns may not be a good indicator of a baby’s health, and in fact may lead to unnecessary interventions and higher costs.

“We’re trying to create a better a road map for labor,” says Marc Jackson, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Intermountain Medical Center, the flagship facility for the Intermountain Healthcare system, and principal investigator on the study. “For years we’ve used the fetal heart rate to try to identify problems, but it’s not a very good map because we have so many babies in an ‘indeterminate’ category.”

In an attempt to clear up that uncertainty, Dr. Jackson and his colleagues at Intermountain Medical Center studied fetal heart rate patterns from more than 48,000 labor and delivery cases at 10 Intermountain Healthcare hospitals over a 28-month period. The fetal heart rates were then classified using a system developed in 2008 by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The results of the study are published in the October issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The system is comprised of three categories: Category I heart rate patterns are considered normal, and, as a rule, do not indicate fetal stress. Category III patterns are abnormal and rare, and usually indicate a problem. Category II patterns are considered indeterminate, and their significance uncertain.

Researchers examined the time babies spent in each of these categories and neonatal outcomes. The fetal heart rate patterns were classified as category I nearly 78% of the time, as category II patterns 22% of the time, and as category III rates only very rarely, 0.004% of the time when data from all stages of labor were analyzed.

But, when looking at the data for just the final two hours of delivery, the numbers changed. The data show that category I rates decreased to 61%, while category II rates increased to 39%, and category III rates increased to 0.006%.

As for outcomes, babies that spent the entire time in category I scored well. Five minutes after birth, only 0.6 percent had Apgar scores of less than seven. Apgar is a system for determining a newborn’s health using a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the healthiest. Only 0.2 percent required admission to the neonatal intensive care unit. Category III fetal heart rates were very uncommon, occurring in only 0.1 percent of the patients studied, and resulted in admission to the NICU about half the time.

Category II fetal heart rate patterns showed up most often, occurring in 84 percent of all labors. They also found that the amount of time spent in category II increased in the two hours before delivery. This also coincided with lower Apgar scores and increased admissions to the NICU.

Regardless of those statistics, the vast majority of category II babies had no short-term problems after delivery. This means that using category II heart rate patterns as an indicator of fetal health is an unreliable method, researchers say.

Without a good map to guide them during those critical hours, doctors and nurses must play a guessing game – one that will almost always spur them to act with caution – possibly ordering a C-section delivery when it might not be necessary.

“Our next step, obviously, is to sort out those patterns in Category II to determine which ones are more predictive of a baby that’s sick and one that’s healthy,” says Dr. Jackson. “When we know that, we will be able to make better decisions for both the mother and her baby.”

Dr. Jackson and his team are currently examining the data on preterm babies during the same period in hopes of uncovering more clues that will help them better decipher category II patterns.

________________

-Latest Health News on Babies Health

Gene variation predicts rate of age-related decline in mental performance

 by Biomechanism 

A tiny difference in the coding pattern of a single gene significantly affects the rate at which men’s intellectual function drops with advancing age, investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System have learned.

In a study to be published in Translational Psychiatry, the researchers tested the skills of experienced airplane pilots and found that having one version of the gene versus the other version doubled the rate at which the participants’ performance declined over time.

The particular genetic variation, or polymorphism, implicated in the study has been linked in previous studies to several psychiatric disorders. But this is the first demonstration of its impact on skilled task performance in the healthy, aging brain, said the study’s senior author, Ahmad Salehi, MD, PhD, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford.

The study also showed a significant age-related decline in the size of a key brain region called the hippocampus, which is crucial to memory and spatial reasoning, in pilots carrying this polymorphism.

“This gene-associated difference may apply not only to pilots but also to the general public, for example in the ability to operate complex machinery,” said Salehi, who is also a health-science specialist at the VA-Palo Alto.

The gene in question codes for a well-studied protein called brain-derived neurotropic factor, or BDNF, which is critical to the development and maintenance of the central nervous system. BDNF levels decline gradually with age even in healthy individuals; researchers such as Salehi have suspected that this decline may be linked with age-related losses of mental function.

Genes, which are blueprints for proteins, are linear sequences of DNA composed of four different chemical units all connected like beads on a string. The most common version of the BDNF gene dictates that a particular building block for proteins, called valine, be present at a particular place on the protein. A less common – though far from rare – variation of the BDNF gene results in the substitution of another building block, methionine, in that same spot on the protein. That so-called “val/met” substitution occurs in about one in three Asians, roughly one in four Europeans and Americans, and about one in 200 sub-Saharan Africans. Such a change can affect a protein’s shape, activity, level of production, or distribution within or secretion by cells in which it is made.

It appears that the alternative “met” version of BDNF doesn’t work as well as the “val” version. This variant has been linked to higher likelihood of depression, stroke, anorexia nervosa, anxiety-related disorders, suicidal behavior and schizophrenia.

So Salehi and his colleagues decided to look at whether this polymorphism actually affected human cognitive function. To do this, they turned to an ongoing Stanford study of airplane pilots being conducted by two of the paper’s co-authors – Joy Taylor, PhD, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Jerome Yesavage, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences -examining a wide array of neurological and psychiatric questions.

For this new research, Salehi and his colleagues followed 144 pilots, all healthy Caucasian males over the age of 40, who showed up for three visits, spaced a year apart, spanning a two-year period. During each visit, participants – recreational pilots, certified flight instructors or civilian air-transport pilots – underwent an exam called the Standard Flight Simulator Score, a Federal Aviation Administration-approved flight simulator for pilots.

This test session employs a setup that simulates flying a small, single-engine aircraft. Each participant went through a half-dozen practice sessions and a three-week break before his first visit. Each annual visit consisted of morning and afternoon 75-minute “flights,” during which pilots confronted flight scenarios with emergency situations, such as engine malfunctions and/or incoming air traffic. Resulting test scores pooled several variables, such as pilots’ reaction times and their virtual planes’ deviations from ideal altitudes, directions and speed. A pilot’s score represented the overall skill with which he executed air-traffic control commands, avoided airborne traffic, detected engine emergencies and approached landing strips.

Blood and saliva samples collected on the pilots’ first visits allowed the Stanford investigators to genotype all 144 pilots, of whom 55 (38.2 percent) turned out to have at least one copy of a BDNF gene that contained the “met” variant. In their analysis, the researchers also corrected for pilots’ degree of experience and the presence of certain other confounding genetic influences.

Inevitably, performance dropped in both groups. But the rate of decline in the “met” group was much steeper.

“We saw a doubling of the rate of decline in performance on the exam among met carriers during the first two years of follow-up,” said Salehi.

About one-third of the pilots also underwent at least one round of magnetic resonance imaging over the course of a few years, allowing the scientists to measure the size of their hippocampi. “Although we found no significant correlation between age and hippocampal size in the non-met carriers, we did detect a significant inverse relationship between age and hippocampal size in the met carriers,” Salehi said.

Salehi cautioned that the research covered only two years and that the findings need to be confirmed by following participants over a multiyear period. This is now being done, he added.

No known drugs exist that mimic BDNF’s action in the brain, but there is one well-established way to get around that: Stay active. “The one clearly established way to ensure increased BDNF levels in your brain is physical activity,” Salehi said.

THE LAST PIECE OF ADVICE STEVE JOBS GAVE

Apple’s Jobs Told Cook Not to Ask ‘What Would Steve Do?’: Tech

(Bloomberg) — When Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook took the microphone at a memorial tribute to Steve Jobs at the company’s campus last week. He shared a piece of advice Jobs gave him before his death on Oct. 5.

“Among his last advice for me and all of you was to never ask what he would do. ‘Just do what’s right,’” Cook said. Jobs wanted Apple to avoid the trap that Walt Disney Co. fell into after the death of its iconic founder, Cook said, where “everyone spent all their time thinking and talking about what Walt would do.”

For Apple, which Jobs co-founded at age 21 and built into the world’s most valuable technology company, that’s easier said than done. The challenge for Cook and his executive team will be to maintain Jobs’s legacy without being hobbled by it, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean at the Yale University School of Management.

“You’ve got to be careful you don’t create rituals, which are antithetical to Jobs’s own approach,” Sonnenfeld said. “He was constantly breaking glass and moving forward. Walt Disney was surrounded by a cadre of creative people who were every bit the equal of Jobs’s lieutenants, but they became haunted by the question, ‘What would Walt do?’”

Taking Over

When Jobs resigned in August, Cook took over as CEO and ran day-to-day operations during Jobs’s three medical leaves. Jobs passed away after battling a rare form of pancreatic cancer first diagnosed in 2003. Since returning to the company in 1997, Jobs introduced one top-selling product after another, from the first iMac personal computer to the iPod music player, iPhone and iPad tablet, changing the electronics, music, mobile- phone and retail industries along the way.

Walter Isaacson’s 571-page biography of Jobs, which went on sale yesterday, confirms what most people already knew: Jobs was unique. Throughout the book, he alone drives Apple’s business in big and small ways, from what products would be built to which songs would be featured in iTunes TV ads.

Jobs told Isaacson that one of his great hopes was that Apple would remain as innovative and committed to product excellence after his death. During the memorial on Oct. 19, Apple director Al Gore said Jobs had spent years developing processes to ensure a smooth transition.

Still, in the book, there’s no detailed plan for how Apple will be run in his absence. Jobs’s comments instead suggest some tricky challenges ahead for Cook.

‘Not a Product Person

Jobs has praise for Cook’s operational expertise, yet he acknowledged that products — Jobs’s primary focus, above earnings, employee satisfaction or shareholder returns — aren’t his strong suit, the book says.

“Tim’s not a product person, per se,” Jobs told Isaacson.

THREE GREAT WAYS TO FIRE UP YOUR CAREER

Has your career met a standstill, or worse, is floundering? These tips will get your job back on track and propel you toward success. Take the first step to become entirely successful and read the top 3 tips here!

Career Success for Newbies recommends…

1. NOW!

Do things NOW! Do not procrastinate. Nothing irks a manager more than a newbie at work already showing signs of lazing or taking shortcuts. Attack your work immediately. Have a plan of attack for the work that is assigned to you.

Without procrastinating, you can finish your work much earlier. This allows you to be assigned more work. As the trust with your supervisor increases, he/she will assign you more and more important work. Make a decision now to put in place a plan for this career success factor.

2. Next Steps

Never leave a meeting without clear next steps you must complete. A date of when the work is expected to be completed by you is part of this next step. This also applies to your discussion with your supervisor. Always seek to clarify what’s needed from your end before you leave the discussion.

If you are lucky enough to be chairing any meetings or are a project leader, remember that listing the set of next steps or action plans is your responsibility. When you have clear next steps, who and when the task should be completed, you become productive. You get a career boost when you are fertile. It is one of the most straightforward career success factors to practice.

3. Notice

No, I do not mean giving notice. Notice here means being a keen observer of things around you and people. Now, it doesn’t mean being nosy and starting gossiping. Every office has its dynamics. Do not be pulled into the politics that can hurt your career at an early stage. Notice here means to observe and to take note of things. When you notice things you become more careful.

You also become better at knowing how things work in the office. You will blend in better. Notice and learn what are the norms of the industry, the ethics and the legalities. Notice the corporate culture and who is in charge. Sometimes those truly in power are those who can influence the bosses.

மனிதனின் ஆயுட்காலத்தை அதிகரிக்ககூடிய மாத்திரை கண்டுபிடிப்பு

மருத்துவ துறை வளர்ச்சியின் காரணமாக மனிதனின் சராசரி வயதானது ஆண்டுதோறும் அதிகரித்து வருகிறது. இந்நிலையில் ஆரோக்யமான உடல்நலத்துடன் 150 ஆண்டுகளைக் கடந்து வாழ்வதற்கான மாத்திரையை கண்டுபிடிப்பதற்கான ஆராய்ச்சியில் மருத்துவர்கள் ஈடுபட்டுள்ளனர். இது அடுத்த 5 ஆண்டுகளில் விற்பனைக்கு வரும் என்று நம்பிக்கை தெரிவித்துள்ளனர். இது குறித்து அவுஸ்திரேலியாவின் நியூ சவுத்வேல்ஸ் யுனிவர்சிட்டி பேராசிரியர் பீட்டர் ஸ்மித் கூறுகையில், மனிதனுக்கு வயதாவதை ஒத்திப்போடும் மாத்திரையை கண்டுபிடிப்பது குறித்து ஆராய்ச்சி நடைபெற்று வருகிறது. இதன் மூலம் 150 ஆண்டுகளைத் தாண்டி வாழ முடியும். அதாவது வயதாவதைத் தடுக்கும். இதுமட்டுமல்லாமல் நோய்நொடியின்றி ஆரோக்கியமாக வாழவும் இந்த மாத்திரை உதவும். இந்த மாத்திரை உடலில் உள்ள செல்களை புதுப்பித்து உற்சாகமுடன் இருக்க வகை செய்யும் என்றார். ஹார்வர்டு யுனிவர்சிட்டி பேராசிரியரும், அவுஸ்திரேலியாவைச் சேர்ந்தவருமான டேவிட் சின்க்ளெய்ர் கூறுகையில், மனிதன் வயதாவதற்கு உடலில் உள்ள ஜீன்கள் குழுவே முக்கிய காரணமாக உள்ளது. அவற்றை புதுப்பித்துக் கொள்வதற்கான வாய்ப்பை நமது உடல் பெற்றிருக்கிறது. ரெட் ஒயினில் உள்ள ஒரு பொருள் ரெஸ்வரேட்டல் என்ற தாவரத்திலும் உள்ளது. இதை ஈஸ்ட், புழு, ஈ மற்றும் எலி ஆகியவற்றில் செலுத்திய போது அதன் வாழ்நாள் அதிகரித்தது கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டது. இதை அடிப்படையாகக் கொண்டு மனிதனின் வாழ்நாளை அதிகரிப்பதற்கான மாத்திரையை தயாரிக்க முயற்சி நடைபெற்று வருகிறது என்றார்.

Shri Shirdi Sai Baba Mandir Edmonton- Diwali celebration Part 1

Diwali 2011

“O Sita, see the golden lord of mountains [Mainaka], which is golden-peaked and which rose up, piercing the ocean, to provide rest to Hanuman.” (Lord Rama speaking to Sita Devi, Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kand, 123.18) hiraṇyanābhan śailendran kāñcanaṃ paśya maithili || viśramārthan hanumato bhittvā sāgaramutthitam | Lord Rama, the victorious son of King Dasharatha, having just slain His enemy who had unrightfully taken His religiously wedded wife away from Him, was riding home in the aerial car known as the Pushpaka. An arduous many months had just culminated with the rescue of His wifeSita Devi, and now came the time to go back home, to return to His land where He had not been for fourteen years. The last memories Rama had of that place were from the day He was almost crowned as the new king, with His father King Dasharatha ready to hand the throne over to Him, as He was the eldest son. Fourteen years having passed and Dasharatha having quit His body, Rama would return home nonetheless. He would be received with a tremendous welcome consisting of so many lights that the occasion became celebrated thereafter as Diwali or Deepavali, which means a row of lamps. On the way home, Shri Rama, happy to be reunited with His wife, pointed out to her a collection of important places which were soon to become sacred pilgrimage sites. Always mindful of the services offered to Him, Rama even noted the important areas relating to His dearmost servants, which included the best of them all, Shri Hanuman. If you haven’t seen one of your closest friends for a while, when you do actually meet up with them, you’ll want to know what they have been up to. “What have you been doing? What did you do for such and such occasion? How are your friends and family doing?” With Sita, her meeting with Rama piqued an even stronger interest, for she had been held captive in a tucked away grove of Ashoka trees for many months. The wicked ruler of the island kingdom of Lanka had taken her away from the side of her husband and then threatened to kill her if she didn’t give in to becoming his wife. Lord Rama is the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the guise of a human being, someone who is spiritual in every way. The fact that Rama is still celebrated to this day and His glorious qualities and activities still studied and taken delight from shows that He is no ordinary human being. The shastras already reveal to us Rama’s divinity, but as if we needed further convincing, annual occasions like Diwali remind us that Rama is God not only based on His own displays of strength and valor, but also from the merits of His associates, who substantiate the Lord’s supreme position with their every act. Try to imagine the most beautiful woman in the world and you’ll get a slight idea of Sita Devi’s appearance. One way that the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, describe God is to say that He is the source of all energies. He is also the most fortunate living entity; hence He is known as Bhagavan. One of these fortunes involves having the most beautiful consort by your side. It would make sense then that Rama’s wife would be lacking nothing in terms of beauty. Since having her company is one of the greatest rewards in life, she is known as the goddess of fortune. Since God is married to the goddess of fortune, He is known by such names as Shripati, Shrinatha, Madhava, Lakshmipati and Sitapati. Based on the definitions of Rama’s names, Sita cannot be with any other man. It is simply not possible. During her marriage ceremony on earth, many kings came to Janakpur to try to raise the bow handed down by Lord Shiva, which would earn them Sita’s hand in marriage. Yet only Shri Rama could lift the bow, as He is the only person worthy of being Sita’s husband. The external events always seem to be manageable, that if we can just manipulate things a certain way we’ll achieve our end. The Lord’s constitutional position, however, is absolute. As spirit souls, we too are knowledgeable, blissful and eternal, but our brilliant qualities can be covered up from time to time based on the type of body we assume. Hence we go through temporary ups and downs, gains and losses. With Rama there is never a loss. Even when it seems otherwise, Rama will rise to the challenge and maintain His constitutional position as the supreme enjoyer and husband of the goddess of fortune. As if having learned nothing from the contest in Janaka’s kingdom, Ravana thought he could have Sita even after she was married to Rama. He took her away through a backhanded plot, for he couldn’t survive in a fair fight against Rama. Ravana was proud of his strengths achieved through pleasing divine figures, but he liked his opulence and good standing too much to try to jeopardize them by fighting with someone who he was told could defeat him. Thinking that by taking Sita away Rama would then wallow in despair and not continue to fight, Ravana figured he was safe in Lanka. “Just as a tree starts to blossom during the proper season, so the doer of sinful deeds inevitably reaps the horrible fruit of their actions at the appropriate time.” (Lord Rama speaking to Khara, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 29.8) Little did Ravana know that Rama doesn’t work alone. Just as the rewards of karma come to the worker at the right time -similar to how the trees blossom in season - Ravana’s punishment and Rama’s reunion with Sita were in the works as soon as the beautiful princess was taken away. Though the odds seemed stacked against Rama - as He was roaming the forest with only His younger brother Lakshmana by His side while Ravana had a massive army in Lanka - the Lord is never bereft of accompanying divine associates. He can even take monkeys and turn them into devoted fighters. Ironically enough, that’s exactly what He would do. How did this transformation happen? As a touchstone turns iron into gold, communion with the divine consciousness turns an individual from any species into a surcharged soul capable of carrying out their devotion to the Supreme Lord. The Vanaras in the kingdom of Kishkindha were guaranteed of success in their mission simply based on their desire to serve Rama. The most capable Vanara was Hanuman, and he would play an integral role in Sita’s rescue. The first step in Ravana’s demise was learning where he was living, which meant finding where Sita was. It wasn’t even known for sure if Ravana had taken her or if Sita was still alive. Therefore a search party had to be sent out to scour the earth, to leave no stone unturned. Sugriva, the leader of the monkeys in Kishkindha, dispatched his massive monkey army to perform this task, while in the back of his mind he knew that only Hanuman would be able to succeed. Sure enough, the burden would fall upon Hanuman to leap to the island of Lanka once it was learned that Sita was there. Not having an aerial car with him, Hanuman’s only option was to jump from a mountaintop and fly across the ocean. Since he was carrying out Rama’s work, the celestials in the sky and other powerful figures around the scene watched with rapt attention. The ocean personified was one such onlooker, and he wanted to help Hanuman.  The ocean had a link to the Ikshvaku dynasty, the family in which Rama appeared.  Hanuman was helping Rama, thus the ocean felt that it should help out someone who was doing work on behalf of the Ikshvakus.  Whoever would help Hanuman would also play a part in the sacred sequence of events that would be celebrated for millions of years in the future. The mountain Mainaka acted on behalf of the ocean. He was told to rise out of the ocean and act as a resting place for Hanuman during his journey. When Hanuman approached, Mainaka revealed what he had been told and how he would be supremely honored to offer at least some service to Hanuman, who was carrying out Rama’s business. Hanuman did not want any help though, for he was determined to fly ahead. Nevertheless, since he was asked so nicely, he honored Mainaka and the ocean by touching his hand on the top of the mountain and then proceeding on with his journey. Shri Rama is antaryami, or the supreme witness, which means that He resides within the heart of every living entity. Therefore He knew what Hanuman was up to, but He still took great delight in hearing about his journey later on. On the trip home to Ayodhya, while riding in the aerial car Rama pointed out the mountain Mainaka to Sita and told her that this was where Hanuman was granted rest in his flight to Lanka. During this trip home, Rama had pointed out to Sita various places where Rakshasas had been killed and other things had taken place relating to her rescue. Sita was in captivity while the final battle was going on, so she really had no information of what transpired. Moreover, she had no idea where the notable events took place. Rama knew that the victory was a team effort, and He was supremely pleased by the faithful dedication shown by the Vanaras, including Hanuman. For these reasons He thought that the specific locations relating to Hanuman were as important as those relating to His own achievements. From her own observations and the descriptions given to her by Rama, Sita could understand what the Vanaras had sacrificed, and how they were forever devoted to both she and her husband. When Rama later pointed out Kishkindha, Sita asked for the car to stop to pick up the wives of the monkeys, for Sita understood what it was like to be waiting somewhere while your husband was off fighting to the death with a powerful enemy. She wanted the chief Vanaras and their wives to accompany them on the journey home, where they would be ceremoniously greeted. “Seeing the city of Kishkindha, which was formerly protected by Vali, Sita, who was feeling shy out of love, then spoke the following humble words to Rama: ‘O King, I wish to enter Your capital city of Ayodhya with You, accompanied by the beloved wives of Sugriva, headed by Tara, as well as the wives of the other Vanara leaders.’” (Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kand, 123.23-25) Diwali reminds us of Rama’s triumphant return home and the wonderful service that the Vanaras provided. With Rama come Lakshmana and Sita, and also Hanuman and his many monkey friends. With a transcendental family like that, how can anyone who thinks of them ever feel alone? On the day where they lined up a row of welcoming lights, the faithful residents of Ayodhya would get to see their beloved Rama again, and they would get to hear of the events relating to His fourteen year exile and how Sita was eventually rescued. What they didn’t know was that their celebration would itself spark an ageless tradition, one that continues to this very day. From the journey home and the celebration now known as Diwali, we see that any service rendered to Shri Rama or one of His servants never goes in vain. Every kind act is noticed by Rama Himself, and He takes so much delight from them that He shares His sentiments with Sita, taking great pleasure in being so honored. Therefore it was not surprising that the residents of Ayodhya would lay out a massive collection of lamps to welcome back their beloved Rama. That same Supreme Lord can eternally reside within our minds by regularly worshiping Him and His associates and chanting the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. In Closing: Shri Rama shows to Sita the mountain with golden peak, Which gave rest to Hanuman while Lanka trying to reach. The couple returning to Ayodhya, on the way home, Flying in aerial car with closest friends, never alone. Sita, captive in Lanka for months that were many, So seeing places related to rescue made her happy. Shri Rama Vanaras with Hanuman did help, Their devotion to the Lord Sita could tell. Therefore she was happy to see places of significance, Relating to Hanuman, immeasurable in importance. With the output of devotion Rama does not bother, Looks for sincerity only, like Him no other. Residents of Ayodhya had not seen Him for fourteen years, Aligned rows of lamps when of His arrival they did hear. Festival so grand that annual tradition it did spark, To remember Rama’s arrival home, to please the heart.

Artificial Skin Feels With Nerves Made of Clear Nanotube Springs

By Rebecca Boyle

Stretchy Skin-Like Sensor The latest breakthrough from Stanford's artificial skin lab is a super-stretchy, transparent and highly sensitive skin-like sensor. Steve Fyffe/Stanford News Service

A new stretchy, supple synthetic skin prototype developed at Stanford has some impressive pressure sensitivity, deforming and contorting without any breakage or wrinkling. It’s made of spray-on carbon nanotubes, which act as springs and can measure the force being applied to them.

“This sensor can register pressure ranging from a firm pinch between your thumb and forefinger to twice the pressure exerted by an elephant standing on one foot,” according to Darren Lipomi, a postdoc at Stanford who wrote a paper describing the new sensor. And it doesn't deform at all.

Lipomi and colleagues in Zhenan Bao’s skin lab used nanotubes suspended in liquid, spraying them onto a silicone surface and then stretching the silicone. The nanotubes arrayed themselves in alignment with the direction of the stretch, according to Stanford News. A second stretch, perpendicular to the first, makes the nanotubes stretchable in any direction. After their initial stretch, the tubes coil up like springs, and can be stretched repeatedly without losing their conductivity, Bao explains in a Stanford video.

The sensors are made from two nanotube-coated silicone pieces, sandwiching a third layer of deformable silicone that stores an electrical charge. When pressure is applied, the device’s capacitance increases, and this can be used to calculate the amount of pressure. It’s not quite as sensitive as another super-sensitive skindeveloped in the same lab last year, because the researchers were focused on making this one transparent.

The goal is to use sensors like this to build a sensitive yet surreptitious artificial skin, Lipomi said.

“The ultimate dream of this type of research is to restore functionality to lost skin, or amputees, or injured soldiers or burn victims,” he said. The research is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.