Fatty diets may be associated with reduced semen quality

 by Biomechanism 

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Men’s diets, in particular the amount and type of different fats they eat, could be associated with their semen quality according to the results of a study published online in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction [1] on Wednesday.

The study of 99 men in the USA found an association between a high total fat intake and lower total sperm count and concentration. It also found that men who ate more omega-3 polyunsaturated fats (the type of fat often found in fish and plant oils) had better formed sperm than men who ate less.

However, the researchers warn that this is a small study, and its findings need to be replicated by further research in order to be sure about the role played by fats on men’s fertility. Professor Jill Attaman, who was a Clinical and Research Fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School at the time of the research [2], said:

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“In the meantime, if men make changes to their diets so as to reduce the amount of saturated fat they eat and increase their omega-3 intake, then this may not only improve their general health, but could improve their reproductive health too. At a global level, adopting these lifestyle modifications may improve general health, as high saturated fat diets are known to be a risk factor for a range of cardiovascular diseases; but, in addition, our research suggests that it could be beneficial for reproductive health worldwide.”

A number of previous studies have investigated the link between body mass index (BMI) and semen quality, with mixed results. However, little is known about the potential role of dietary fats and semen quality, and so Prof Attaman and her colleagues set out to investigate it in men attending a fertility clinic.

Between December 2006 and August 2010 they questioned the men about their diet and analysed samples of their semen; they also measured levels of fatty acids in sperm and seminal plasma in 23 of the 99 men taking part.

The men were divided into three groups according to the amount of fats they consumed. Those in the third with the highest fat intake had a 43% lower total sperm count and 38% lower sperm concentration than men in the third with the lowest fat intake. “Total sperm count” is defined as the total number of sperm in the ejaculate, while “sperm concentration” is defined as the concentration of sperm (number per unit volume). The World Health Organisation provides a definition of “normal” total sperm count and concentration as follows: the total number of spermatozoa in the ejaculate should be at least 39 million; the concentration of spermatozoa should be at least 15 million per ml.

The study found that the relationship between dietary fats and semen quality was largely driven by the consumption of saturated fats. Men consuming the most saturated fats had a 35% lower total sperm count than men eating the least, and a 38% lower sperm concentration. “The magnitude of the association is quite dramatic and provides further support for the health efforts to limit consumption of saturated fat given their relation with other health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease,” said Prof Attaman.

Men consuming the most omega-3 fats had slightly more sperm (1.9%) that were correctly formed than men in the third that had the lowest omega-3 intake.

Of note: 71% of all the men in the study were overweight or obese, and the health effects of this could also affect semen quality. However, the researchers made allowances for this. “We were able to isolate the independent effects of fat intake from those of obesity using statistical models,” said Prof Attaman. “Notably, the frequency of overweight and obesity among men in this study does not differ much from that among men in the general population in the USA (74%).”

The study is subject to a number of limitations that could affect the results; for instance, the use of a food frequency questionnaire might not accurately reflect men’s actual diets, and only one semen sample per man was collected. The authors point out that studies like theirs cannot show that dietary fats cause poor semen quality, only that there is an association between the two.

“To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date examining the influence of specific dietary fats on male fertility,” they write. But they conclude: “Given the limitations of the current study, in particular the fact that it is a cross-sectional analysis and that it is the first report of a relation between dietary fat and semen quality, it is essential that these findings be reproduced in future work.”

Prof Attaman and her colleagues are continuing to investigate how dietary and lifestyle factors influence fertility in men and women as well as the treatment outcomes of couples undergoing fertility treatment.

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[1] “Dietary fat and semen quality among men attending a fertility clinic”, by Jill A. Attaman et al. Human Reproduction journal. doi:10.1093/humrep/des065
[2] Prof Jill Attaman is currently Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Dartmouth Medical School and a Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Subspecialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

A surprising new kind of proton transfer

 by Biomechanism 

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Berkeley Lab scientists and their colleagues have discovered an unsuspected way that protons can move among molecules — revealing new opportunities for research in biology, environmental science, and green chemistry

When a proton – the bare nucleus of a hydrogen atom – transfers from one molecule to another, or moves within a molecule, the result is a hydrogen bond, in which the proton and another atom like nitrogen or oxygen share electrons. Conventional wisdom has it that proton transfers can only happen using hydrogen bonds as conduits, “proton wires” of hydrogen-bonded networks that can connect and reconnect to alter molecular properties.

Hydrogen bonds are found everywhere in chemistry and biology and are critical in DNA and RNA, where they bond the base pairs that encode genes and map protein structures. Recently a team of researchers using the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) discovered to their surprise that in special cases protons can find ways to transfer even when hydrogen bonds are blocked. The team’s results appear in Nature Chemistry.

Stacking the odd molecules

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Uracil is one of the four bases of RNA (carbon atoms are brown, nitrogen purple, oxygen red, hydrogen white). Because methyl groups discourage hydrogen bonding, methylated uracil should be incapable of proton transfer. But after ionization of methylated uracil dimers, a proton moves by a different route, from one monomer to the other. Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Southern California

A group led by Musahid Ahmed, a senior scientists in Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division (CSD), has long collaborated with a theoretical research group at the University of Southern California (USC) headed by Anna Krylov. In recent work to understand how bases are bonded in staircase-like molecules like DNA and RNA, Krylov’s group made computer models of paired, ring-shaped uracil molecules, and investigated what might happen to these doubled forms (dimers) when they were subjected to ionization – the removal of one or more electrons with resulting net positive charge.

Uracil is one of the four nucleobases of RNA, whose structure is similar to DNA except that, while both use the bases adenine, cytosine, and guanine, in DNA the fourth base is thymine and in RNA it’s uracil. The USC group used a uracil dimer labeled 1,3-dimethyluracil – “a strange creature that doesn’t necessarily exist in nature,” says CSD’s Amir Golan, who led the Berkeley Lab team at the ALS. The purpose of this strange creature, Golan says, is to block hydrogen bonding of the two identical monomers of the uracil dimer by attaching a methyl group to each, “because methyl groups are poison to hydrogen bonds.”

The uracils could still bond in the vertical direction by means of pi bonds, which are perpendicular to the usual plane of bonding among the flat rings of uracil and other nucleobases. “Pi stacking” is important in the configuration of DNA and RNA, in protein folding, and in other chemical structures as well, and pi stacking was what interested the USC researchers. They brought their theoretical calculations to Berkeley Lab for experimental testing at the ALS’s Chemical Dynamics beamline 9.0.2.

To examine how the molecules were bonded, Golan and his colleagues first created a gaseous molecular beam of real methylated uracil monomers and dimers, then ionized them with a beam of energetic ultraviolet light from the ALS synchrotron. The resulting species were weighed in a mass spectrometer to see how the uracil had responded to the extra boost of energy.

“Uracils could be joined by hydrogen bonds or by pi bonds, but these uracils had been methylated to block hydrogen bonds. So what we expected to see when we ionized them was that if they were bonded, they would have to be stacked on top of each other,” Golan says. Instead of holding together by pi bonds, however, when ionized some uracil dimers had fallen apart into monomers that carried an extra proton.

Where the protons come from

“What we did not expect to see was proton transfer,” Golan says. “Surprising as this was, we needed to find where the protons were coming from. The methyl groups consist of a single carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms, but methylated uracil has other hydrogens too. Still, the methyl groups were the natural suspects.”

To test this hypothesis, the researchers invited colleagues from Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry to join the collaboration. They created methyl groups in which the hydrogen atoms – which like most hydrogen had single protons as their nuclei – were replaced by deuterium atoms, “heavy hydrogen” atoms with nuclei consisting of a proton and a neutron of virtually the same mass.

The molecular beam experiment was repeated at the ALS, and once again some of the methylated uracil dimers fell apart into monomers upon ionization. This time, however, the tell-tale monomers were not simply protonated, they were deuterated.

Says Golan, “By looking at the mass of the fragments we could see that instead of uracil plus one” – the mass of a single proton – “they were uracil plus two” – a proton and neutron, or deuteron. “This proved that indeed the transferred protons came from the methyl groups.”

The experiment showed that proton transfer in this case followed a very different route from the usual process of hydrogen bonding. Here the transfer involved not just an attraction between molecular arrangements that were slightly positively charged and others that were slightly negatively charged, as in a hydrogen bond. Instead it required significant rearrangements of the two uracil dimer fragments, to allow protons of hydrogen atoms in the methyl group on one monomer to move closer to an oxygen atom in the other. Theoretical calculations of the new pathway were led by USC’s Krylov and Ksenia Bravaya.

The moral of the story, says Golan, is that methyl groups do not always kill proton transfer. “Granted, this was a model system – what we did was ionize the uracil systems in the gas phase instead of in solution, as would be the case in a living organism,” he says. “Nevertheless, we showed that proton transfer is possible without hydrogen-bonding networks. Which means there could be unsuspected pathways for proton transfer in RNA and DNA and other biological processes – especially those that involve pi-stacking – as well as in environmental chemistry and in purely chemical processes like catalysis.”

The next step: a range of new experiments to directly map proton transfer rates and gain structural insight into the transfer mechanism, with the goal of visualizing these unexpected new pathways for proton transfer.

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“Ionization of dimethyluracil dimers leads to facile proton transfer in the absence of H-bonds,” by Amir Golan, Ksenia B. Bravaya, Romas Kudirka, Oleg Kostko, Stephen R. Leone, Anna I. Krylov, and Musahid Ahmed, is published by Nature Chemistry and appears in advance online publication at http://www.nature.com/nchem/index.html. Golan, Kostko, Leone, and Ahmed are with Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division, and Golan and Leone are also with the Departments of Chemistry and Physics at the University of California at Berkeley. Bravaya and Krylov are with the University of Southern California. Kudirka is with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division. This work was supported principally by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and by the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation.

சூரியசக்தி கட்டமைப்பு

தினமலர் முதல் பக்கம் » பொது செய்தி »தமிழ்நாடு
பதிவு செய்த நாள் : மார்ச் 13,2012,23:14 IST
கடுமையான மின்வெட்டில் தமிழகம் தத்தளிக்கிறது. உடனடியாக மின் உற்பத்தியை பெருக்க வேறு வழியும் இல்லை. எனவே, கடைசியாக அரசுக்கு புது திட்டம் ஒன்று உதித்துள்ளது. இத்திட்டப்படி, தமிழகத்தில், வீடுகள் தோறும் சூரியமின் சக்தி உற்பத்தியை கட்டாயமாக்க முடிவு செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது. தமிழகத்திற்கான, மரபுசாரா எரிசக்தி மின் கொள்கை தயாரிக்க பட்டுள்ளது. அதில், சூரியமின் சக்தியை கட்டாயமாக்குவதுடன் பல முன்னோடி திட்டங்கள் பரிந்துரைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. இது தற்போது வரைவு நிலையில், முதல்வரின் ஒப்புதலுக்காக வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. கடந்த, அ.தி.மு.க., ஆட்சியில் மழை நீர் சேகரிப்பு திட்டம், எல்லா கட்டடங்களுக்கும் கண்டிப்பாக அமல்படுத்தப்பட்டதை போல், இந்த திட்டத்தையும் கட்டாயமாக்க அரசு திட்டமிட்டுள்ளது.

மத்தியஅரசை நம்பி...: தமிழகத்தின் அனைத்து மின் உற்பத்தி முறைகளும், மத்திய அரசை நம்பியே உள்ளன. அனல்மின் உற்பத்திக்கு, மத்திய அரசு நிலக்கரி தர வேண்டும். அணுமின் நிலையம், மத்திய அரசின் கட்டுப்பாட்டில் உள்ளது. நீர்மின் நிலையம் அமைக்க, பல்வேறு மாநிலங்களோடு போராட வேண்டும். எரிவாயு மின் நிலையத்திற்கும், மத்திய அரசு தான் எரிவாயு ஒதுக்க வேண்டும். இந்த நிலையில், இந்தியாவில் முதன்முறையாக, சூரியசக்தியை அதிக அளவில் பயன்படுத்தும் மாநிலமாக தமிழகத்தை மாற்ற, முதல்வர் ஜெயலலிதா முடிவு செய்துள்ளார்.

தனி கொள்கை: இதன்படி, தமிழகத்திற்கு என, மரபுசாரா மின்சார கொள்கை வகுக்கப்பட்டு உள்ளது. இதில், மரபுசாரா எரிசக்திகள், சிறு புனல் மின்நிலையங்கள் ஆகியவற்றை அதிகப்படுத்த, உரியயோசனைகள் வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. தமிழக எரிசக்தித் துறை செயலர் தலைமையிலான, மின்கொள்கை கமிட்டியில், மின்வாரிய தலைவர், எரிசக்தி மேம்பாட்டு முகமை தலைவர், திட்டக்குழு உயரதிகாரிகள், ஊரக வளர்ச்சித் துறை அதிகாரிகள் மற்றும் துறை பொறியாளர்கள் இடம் பெற்றுள்ளனர். இந்தக் குழுவினர், ஓய்வு பெற்ற பொறியாளர்கள் மற்றும் துறையில் சிறந்த வல்லுனர்கள் மற்றும் ஐ.ஏ.எஸ்., அதிகாரிகளிடம் ஆலோசனை பெற்று, மின் கொள்கை தயாரித்துள்ளனர். இந்த அறிக்கை, முதல்வர் ஒப்புதலுடன் விரைவில் வெளியிட தயாராக உள்ளது.

திட்டம் என்ன: இதுகுறித்து கமிட்டியில் உள்ள அதிகாரி ஒருவர் கூறியதாவது: மழைநீர் சேமிப்பு திட்டம் போல், இடவசதி கொண்ட அனைத்து வீடுகளிலும், சூரியசக்தி தட்டுகள் வைத்து, மின்சாரம் தயாரித்து, தங்கள் வீட்டுத் தேவையை பூர்த்தி செய்ய வேண்டும். நட்சத்திர விடுதிகள், அரசின் சார்பிலான தங்கும் விடுதிகள், ஓய்வு இல்லங்கள் போன்றவற்றில், சூரிய சக்தி கட்டமைப்புகள் பொருத்தப்பட வேண்டும். தமிழக தொழிற்சாலைகள் மற்றும் வெளிநாட்டு நிறுவனங்களும், தங்களது கட்டடத்தின் மேல்தளம் அல்லது வளாகத்தில், சூரியசக்தி கட்டமைப்புகளை அமைக்க வேண்டும். இதற்கு, மத்திய அரசின் மானியத்துடன், தமிழகம் சார்பிலும் சலுகைகள் அளிக்கப்படும். சூரியசக்தி ஏற்றும் ரீசார்ஜ் பேட்டரி பொருத்தப்பட்ட விளக்குகள், அரசின் சார்பில், சலுகை விலையில் விற்பனை செய்தல் போன்ற பல திட்டங்களை நடைமுறைப்படுத்தலாம் என, வரைவு அறிக்கையில் ஆலோசனைகள் கூறப்பட்டு உள்ளன.
காற்றும் கை கொடுக்கும்: தமிழகத்தில் கூடுதலாக, காற்றாலைகள் அமைக்கவும், கடலோரத்தில் காற்று எப்போதும் வீசும் பகுதிகளை தேர்ந்தெடுத்து, காற்றாலைகள் நிறுவவும் பரிந்துரைகள், மின்கொள்கையில் கொடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளன. அவை இறுதி வடிவம் பெற்று, முதல்வர் ஒப்புதலுடன் வெளியிடப்படும், என்றார்.

சூரியசக்தி கட்டமைப்புக்கு 50 சதவீத மானியம்: சூரிய சக்தி கட்டமைப்புகள் அமைக்கும் செலவு, வீடுகளின் மின் பயன்பாடுக்கு ஏற்ப மாறும். உதாரணமாக, 1,000 வாட், அதாவது, 1 கிலோ வாட் திறன் கொண்ட சூரிய சக்தி கட்டமைப்புகளை அமைக்க, 50 ஆயிரம் ரூபாய் செலவாகும். இதில்... * 15 வாட்ஸ் திறனில் நான்கு சி.எப்.எல்., பல்புகள்
* 750 வாட்ஸ் இஸ்திரி பெட்டி
* 150 வாட்ஸ் குளிர்பதனப் பெட்டி
* 75 வாட்ஸ் உயர்மட்ட மின் விசிறி அல்லது மேஜை மின் விசிறி
* 100 வாட்ஸ் "டிவி'
* 500 வாட்ஸ் மிக்சி
* 300 வாட்ஸ் கிரைண்டர் போன்ற பொருட்கள் பயன்படுத்தலாம். ஆனால், இவை அனைத்தையும் ஒரே நேரத்தில் பயன்படுத்தினால், 2,000 வாட் அல்லது 2 கிலோ வாட் மின் கட்டமைப்புகள் தேவை. எனவே, மின் விசிறி, விளக்குகள் உள்ளிட்ட ஒரு சில பொருட்களுக்கு மட்டுமே, சூரிய சக்தி மின் இணைப்பு கொடுக்கப்படும். சூரிய சக்தி தடைபடும் போது, வழக்கமான
மின் இணைப்பில் மின்சாரம் எடுத்து கொள்ள வசதி செய்யப்படும். இதேபோல், அனைத்து அரசு மருத்துவமனைகள், ஓட்டல்கள், போலீஸ் குடியிருப்புகள், அலுவலகங்கள், பயிற்சி மற்றும் தங்கும் மையங்கள், சமுதாய நலக்கூடங்கள், மெட்ரோ ரயில் நிலையங்கள் ஆகியவற்றில், சாதாரண விளக்குகள் பயன்பாட்டிற்கும், விடுதிகளில், சமையல் தொடர்பான கருவிகளை இயக்கவும், சூரிய சக்தி கட்டமைப்புகள் அமைக்கப்படும். இந்த திட்டத்திற்கு, மத்திய அரசின் சார்பில், மொத்த செலவில், 50 சதவீதம் மானியமாக கிடைக்கும். மீதத் தொகையில், தமிழக அரசின் சார்பில் சில சலுகைகள் வழங்குவது குறித்து, ஆலோசனை நடக்கிறது. மேலும், தனியார் வங்கிகள் மற்றும் இந்திய மரபுசாரா எரிசக்தி ஏஜன்சி சார்பில், கடன் வழங்கவும் வசதி செய்யப்படும் என தெரிகிறது.

கூடுதல் தகவலுக்கு தொடர்பு கொள்ளுங்கள்: சூரிய சக்தியில் உங்கள் வீடும் ஒளிர, கூடுதல் தகவல்களுக்கு, சென்னையிலுள்ள தமிழக எரிசக்தி மேம்பாட்டு முகமையை, 044-2822 4830, 2822 2973, 2823 6592 ஆகிய எண்களில் தொடர்பு கொள்ளலாம். 

Planetary Grid and Sacred Geometry

Anthropologists may have found that the planetary grid of Earth is an icosahedron by mapping high magnetic field locations in anomaly zones such as the Bermuda Triangle. The icosahedron is the shape of Archangel Metatron’s cube (Sphere of creation), which is a sacred geometric energy form that includes all other forms including the Flower of Life, Seed of Life, tree of life, the golden ratio, the golden spiral, the golden mean, Phi, Fibonacci, tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron and the dodecahedron. Archangel Metatron’s cube has shown up unbiased in many traditions throughout history from the ancient Tibetan Book of the Dead, Freemasons, Judaism, in the shape water & diseases, etc. Archangel Metatron is believed by many ancient civilizations to be the right hand being of God/universal consciousness in the creation process.The message mapped out in the form of conclusive math as depicted in sacred geometry is a infinite unbreakable truth in nature, which is that everything exists in unity, harmony, and oneness. If any living thing doesn't realize this, then nature dismantles it and recreates new life forms that will work with the laws of nature. If we live in an icosahedron grid, then everything people focus on with their emotions & thoughts will manifest at a faster rate than before we entered the higher vibrating Sphere. A person’s fears may manifest first to release karmic debt and then positive experiences start surfacing to create loving experiences. So if someone has been deceiving others and fearful of their secrets surfacing, then such fears will surface so they can be forgiven or transcended. We may live in an era where all truths surface so we can start co-creating more beautiful experiences through a unified collective consciousness. This is why it’s important to live a life guided by your higher self than by your ego and live from your heart guiding your mind. Some may have a hard time working through their karmic fears in this era. 

“The Planetary Grid A New Synthesis” by William Becker, Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Illinois, Chicago and Bethe Hagens, Professor of Anthropology at Governors State University.
http://missionignition.net/bethe/planetary_grid.php 
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/mapas_ocultotierra/esp_mapa_ocultotierra_12.htm 

“1987 Planetary Grid Update” by Bethe Hagens, Professor of Anthropology at Governors State University.
http://missionignition.net/bethe/GSU_Geostat_Report.php 

“Planetary Grid System” by Christopher Bird.
http://missionignition.net/bethe/planetgrid_chrisbird1975.php 
http://www.biogeometry.org/page103.html 

“Earth Grids: Planetary Metaphysics”
http://earthacupuncture.info/earth_grid.htm 

“The Grid” by Token Rock
http://www.tokenrock.com/explain-Grid-121.html 

“Earth Grid Research”
http://montalk.net/science/115/earth-grid-research 

Very brief Wikipedia history of Archangel Metatron’s Cube. The Flower of Life is believed to be the first completed pattern of life formed out of sonic vibrations from the basic Seed of Life structure created by God. These patterns show up in various religious artworks throughout indigenous mandala artwork such as seen in ancient Tibetan Buddhism, ancient Egyptian, and many more much older traditions. The strongest sacred geometric shape known is Metatron’s Cube a.k.a the Sphere of Creation, which all other forms such as the Flower of Life, Seed of Life, tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron and the dodecahedron fit into the 5th element, which is Archangel Metatron’s icosahedron cube. The mathematical formulas of Phi, Fibonacci, Golden Ratio, and the Golden Spiral can be mapped consistently in all sacred geometric forms. Archangel Metatron is believed to be the scribe of God or consciousness’s right hand being in creation. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatron 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_of_Life 

“Sacred Geometry 101E: Metatron’s Cube” and “Sacred Geometry 101F (Part 2): Pi - Phi - Fibonacci Sequence” by Charles Gilchrist. Here are the cliff notes for you if you don’t need to review the mathematical proof. We are all interconnected. We’re all one. We are all energy as mapped by the sacred geometric math in the creation of the sound waves of your spiral coiled DNA. You’re living a delusion by choice in this holographic universe if you think you’re separate from others and using whatever old dated constructs to justify such delusions. WAKE UP! 

                                                                  A discourse on the aspect of Sacred Geometry known as Metatron's Cube by Charles Gilchrist.


The powerful sounds at the end of this video were created my my very talented friend Jandy, from Australia. Her YouTube Channel is JezebelDecibel. The name of the piece is "Quent Laxis; Music & Solfeggio frequency 396".


For more details on Sacred Geometry: go to our very expansive Sacred Geometry website:

Enjoyable exercise has benefits

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

The study showed that people could increase their fitness level while exercising at an enjoyable pace. Image: buzzanimation/iStockphoto Exercise doesn't need to be all about ‘no pain, no gain’ to reap the associated health benefits, according to research published in two top-ranking journals.   The research showed that exercising at a ‘somewhat hard’  intensity was  perceived to be ‘pleasant’ and resulted in increased aerobic capacity and improved physical health including improved body mass index, blood pressure and blood lipid profile.   The research was published in A and A* ranked journals by University of South Australia academics Professor Roger Eston, who is Head of the School of Health Sciences, and Associate Professor in Exercise and Sport Psychology Gaynor Parfitt, along with their PhD student Harrison Evans from the University of Exeter in the UK, now a PhD student at UniSA.   Prof Eston says the first study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, is significant because a recent position statement of the American College of Sports Medicine stated there was insufficient evidence to support using the rating of perceived exertion as a primary method of exercise training.   “However, we now have excellent evidence to show that it can be used to improve aerobic capacity,” Prof Eston says.   “This first-time study observed a 17 per cent increase in aerobic capacity from a self-paced, eight-week treadmill training program where previously sedentary participants exercised for 30 minutes, three times per week, at a level they perceived to be ‘somewhat hard’.   “Their aerobic function was improved so that as the program went on, they could work physiologically harder, but their rating of perceived exertion was the same. So they increased their fitness levels and received associated health benefits such as improved body mass index and reduced blood pressure.”   Prof Eston says that a most important component of the program was that participants perceived the exercise to be pleasant.   “If you’re going to prescribe someone exercise, you’re going to have a much stronger chance of having them stick with it if they’re enjoying it. And these people actually enjoyed the experience. They found it to be pleasant,” he says.   “Another important thing here is the intensity was left to the individuals to set for themselves, so they were given the autonomy to control the exercise, the speed and the gradient of the treadmill according to this level of perceived exertion. That’s important because you’re giving the individual the autonomy to control the exercise intensity ... and at the end of the day the brain is in control.”   The second study, published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, showed using the rating of perceived exertion was just as effective as a VO2 max test to measure cardiovascular fitness.   “With a VO2 max test you keep cranking up the treadmill until you physically can’t keep going anymore, which has risks in sedentary and middle-aged populations, but with our study we were able to show that when individuals were instructed to exercise at four incremental, perceptually regulated intensities set at levels perceived to be ‘very light’, ‘light’, ‘somewhat hard’ and ‘hard’ we could reliably predict their maximal aerobic capacity,” Prof Eston says.   “This was possible because of the very strong linear relationship between the ratings of perceived exertion and submaximal measures of physiological intensity such as oxygen uptake and heart rate. The RPE is as good as or better than heart rate for predicting maximal oxygen uptake.   “This study has implications for the clinical environment because we should be able to use this sort of predictive protocol for cardiac patients and in other clinical settings.” Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Sharpest teeth in history found

MONASH UNIVERSITY

The razor-sharp teeth of the conodonts were only one millimetre in length but allowed them to apply significant pressure to their food. Image: D. Jones, A. R. Evans, K. K. W. Siu The tiny teeth of a long-extinct prehistoric fish are the sharpest that have ever been recorded, according to new research.  Research published this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B by scientists from Monash University and the University of Bristol showed the teeth of conodonts, a group that first appeared around 500 million years ago, were easily able to bite through the animal's food despite measuring only a millimetre in length.  The fragile nature of the tiny fossil remains of animals that died out more than 200 million years ago meant scientists had to create virtual 3D models of the material using X-rays from a particle accelerator in Japan before they could conduct thorough research.  One of the study's authors, Dr Alistair Evans of Monash University's School of Biological Sciences, said evidence suggested the conodonts were the first vertebrates to develop teeth.  “Conodonts had no other skeleton than the teeth in their mouths. These came together a bit like scissors, to slice up food,” Dr Evans said.  The research findings offered insights into the evolution of teeth in larger vertebrates, including humans.  "The conodonts took an alternative route through evolution to humans, who developed less efficient, but less breakable, blunter teeth, to which greater force can be applied by jaw muscles," Dr Evans said.  "The sharpness of conodont teeth allowed them to overcome the limitations of their small size. Since pressure is simply force applied divided by area, to increase pressure you must either increase the force or shrink the area. Conodont evolution took the latter route, allowing them to apply enough pressure to break up their food." Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Harder than diamond, stronger than steel

JIRI CERVENKA, THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Imagine a material just one atom thick, 300 times more potent than steel, more complex than diamond, a fantastic conductor of heat and electricity, and super-flexible. This might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but believe it or not, such a material already exists. The name of this supermaterial is graphene, one of the most exciting prospects in science today. In the latest graphene-related research – released last week – researchers from Vanderbilt University found a way to overcome one of graphene’s most problematic flaws – a high sensitivity to external influences, which causes graphene-based devices to operate more slowly than they should. The researchers found a way to dampen external influences on the graphene and could then observe electrons moving through their graphene three times faster than was previously possible. This development could lead to a new generation of graphene-based devices, including touch screens and solar panels. More on the uses of graphene in a moment, but first, what is graphene? Graphene is a new structural form (or 'allotrope') of carbon – one of the most versatile elements in the universe. It was discovered in 2004 by Russian-born physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who jointly received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their troubles. Graphene is a single, flat layer of carbon atoms packed tightly into a two-dimensional honeycomb arrangement. The in-plane (two-dimensional) carbon-carbon bonds in graphene are the strongest bonds known to science. It is these bonds that give graphene its unbelievable mechanical strength and flexibility. Graphene is a single layer of graphite, the material found in pencil 'lead'. When you draw on paper with a pencil, weakly bound graphene sheets in the graphite spread over your paper like a pack of cards. But because graphene is so thin – the thickness of a single carbon atom – it is tough to see. This is one of the reasons it took researchers so long to find graphene sheets among thicker stacks of graphite. Despite being so thin, graphene is an excellent conductor of electricity. Electrons flow through graphene with almost zero electrical resistance. This unusual property, combined with its nearly invisible nature, makes graphene an ideal material for the transparent electrodes used in computer displays and solar cells. While scientists have known about graphene since 2004, it was in 2010 that researchers from Samsung and Sungkyunkwan University took a critical step in developing the commercial applications of this material. They developed a scalable fabrication method that produced transparent and flexible graphene electrodes measuring 30 inches (76 cm) diagonally. This method enabled them to manufacture multi-layer electrode films and incorporate these into a fully functional touch-screen panel device capable of withstanding high strain. As a result of this development, it mightn’t be too long before graphene is powering the displays on your favourite electronic gadgets. One of the most promising aspects of graphene is its potential as a replacement to silicon in computer circuitry. Graphene conducts electricity faster (at room temperature) than any other material, it produces very little heat dissipation and it consumes less power than silicon – the building block of modern computing. These characteristics could make graphene ideal as the basis for superior signal processing components in superfast computers and mobile technologies. However, there are still many obstacles that need to be overcome. The biggest barrier is the low 'on-off current ratio' of current, superfast graphene transistors. Put another way, electrons in graphene are almost unstoppable and, therefore, very hard to control. As a result, it is nearly impossible to set graphene transistors to an 'off' state. If graphene is to compete with existing silicon technology, this current ratio of on-off will need to be improved. In other words, we’ll need to find a way to control electrical currents within graphene transistors to turn them 'off'. Many researchers are working on this exact problem, trying to gain control over the disobedient charge carriers by opening a gap in graphene’s “electronic band” – the part of the material that conducts electricity. Graphene can also be modified to take on different properties found in its normal form. For instance, researchers have: made graphene magnetic turned graphene into a supercapacitor, a new energy-storage device with remarkably high storage capacity and superfast energy release, and improved graphene’s world-leading thermal conductivity by creating 'isotopically pure' graphene – graphene made from just one carbon isotope. Each of these modifications has potential technological applications. Graphene sheets can also be incorporated in different composite materials, harnessing graphene’s extraordinary mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. These composite materials could lead to stronger, lighter car and aeroplane parts, better electrical batteries, and electricity-conducting super-tough textiles. However, perhaps one of the most surprising and unusual graphene discoveries relates to membranes made of graphene oxide – a chemical derivative of graphene. When these membranes were used to seal a metal container, not even the smallest gas molecule, such as helium, could penetrate the membrane. However, when the researchers tried the same with water, they found it could pass through the graphene-oxide membrane without problems. Although the principle behind this unusual behaviour is not yet understood, it could one day be used to selectively remove water or for other filtration applications. This surprising result shows how much we still have to learn about graphene. If current research and development is anything to go by, we’ll be hearing plenty more about this amazing material in the coming years. Jiri Cervenka receives funding from ARC. The University of Melbourne is a Founding Partner of The Conversation. Editor's Note: This article was originally published by The Conversation, here, and is licenced as Public Domain under Creative Commons. See Creative Commons - Attribution Licence.

அம்மை நோயை கட்டுப்படுத்தும் நுங்கு!

இயற்கையானது காலத்திற்கு ஏற்ப உணவுகளை அளிப்பதில் ஆற்றல் படைத்தது. கோடை காலம் வந்துவிட்டாலே நுங்கு சீசன் தொடங்கிவிடும். கோடை காலத்தில் உடலுக்கு குளுமை தரவே இயற்கையானது நுங்கினை அறிமுகப்படுத்தியுள்ளது. நுங்கு பனை மரம் தரும் அரிய பொருளாகும். இதில் கால்சியல், பாஸ்பரஸ், வைட்டமின் பி காம்ளக்ஸ், தையாமின், ரிபோஃப்ளோவின் போன்ற சத்துக்கள் அடங்கியுள்ளன.

குளுமை தரும் நுங்கு
கோடையின் வெம்மையை கட்டுப்படுத்துவதில் நுங்கு சிறந்த உணவுப் பொருளாகும். இது குளிர்ச்சி தருவதோடு வைட்டமின் பி, சி சத்துக்கள் நிறைந்துள்ளதால் உடலுக்கு ஆரோக்கியத்திற்கு ஏற்றது.

துவர்ப்பு சுவை
பனங்காயை வெட்டினால் மூன்று அல்லது நான்கு நுங்குகள் தனித்தனியாக கிடைக்கும் அதனை அப்படியே விரலால் எடுத்து சாப்பிடலாம். இளம் நுங்கினை அப்படியே சாப்பிட வேண்டும். ஒருசிலர் மேல்தோல் துவர்ப்பாக இருக்கிறது என்பதற்காக அதனை நீக்கிவிட்டு வெறும் சதையை மட்டுமே சாப்பிடுவார்கள். இதனால் சத்துக்கள் முழுமையாக கிடைக்க வாய்ப்பில்லை. சிறு குழந்தைகளுக்கு ஜீரணமாக நேரமாகும் என்பதால் நசுக்கிக் கொடுக்கவேண்டும். முற்றிய நுங்கு, பெரியவர்களுக்கே ஜீரணமாகாது எனவே இளம் நுங்கே உண்பதற்கு ஏற்றது.

அம்மைநோய்
அம்மை நோயால் அவதிப்படுபவர்கள் இளம் நுங்கை சாப்பிட்டு வர உடல் குளிர்ச்சி ஏற்படும். குடலில் உள்ள சிறு புண்களையும் ஆற்றும்.

பதநீரும் நுங்கும்
பனை மரத்தில் இருந்து கிடைக்கும் பதநீர் சுவை மிகுந்தது. பனை மட்டையில் பதநீர் ஊற்றி இதனுடன் நுங்கை எடுத்துப்போட்டு குடித்தால் அதன் ருசியே அலாதிதான். எப்படிப்பட்ட கோடை வெப்பத்திலும் இந்த பானம் தாகத்தை தீர்க்கும் குடலுக்கும், உடலுக்கும் குளுமையை ஏற்படுத்தும்.

வேர்குரு போக்கும் நுங்கு
கோடையில் வேர்குரு தொல்லையினால் அவதிப்படுபவர்கள் நுங்கை தொடர்ந்து சாப்பிட்டு வர வேர்க்குரு நீங்கும். தோலுடன் நுங்கை சாப்பிட்டு வர சீதக்கழிசல் நீங்கும்.

Exercise can lead to female orgasm, sexual pleasure

This is researcher Debby Herbenick. Credit: Indiana University

Findings from a first-of-its-kind study by Indiana University researchers confirm anecdotal evidence that exercise -- absent sex or fantasies -- can lead to female orgasm.

While the findings are new, reports of this phenomenon, sometimes called "coregasm" because of its association with exercises for core abdominal muscles, have circulated in the media for years, said Debby Herbenick, co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. In addition to being a researcher, Herbenick is a widely read advice columnist and book author.

"The most common exercises associated with exercise-induced orgasm were abdominal exercises, climbing poles or ropes, biking/spinning and weight lifting," Herbenick said. "These data are interesting because they suggest that orgasm is not necessarily a sexual event, and they may also teach us more about the bodily processes underlying women's experiences of orgasm."

The findings are published in a special issue of Sexual and Relationship Therapy, a leading peer-reviewed journal in the area of sex therapy and sexual health. Co-author is J. Dennis Fortenberry, M.D., professor at the IU School of Medicine and Center for Sexual Health Promotion affiliate.

The results are based on surveys administered online to 124 women who reported experiencing exercise-induced orgasms (EIO) and 246 women who experienced exercise-induced sexual pleasure (EISP). The women ranged in age from 18 to 63. Most were in a relationship or married, and about 69 percent identified themselves as heterosexual.

Here are some key findings: 

• About 40 percent of women who had experienced EIO and EISP had done so on more than 10 occasions.
• Most of the women in the EIO group reported feeling some degree of self-consciousness when exercising in public places, with about 20 percent reporting they could not control their experience.
• Most women reporting EIO said they were not fantasizing sexually or thinking about anyone they were attracted to during their experiences.
• Diverse types of physical exercise were associated with EIO and EISP. Of the EIO group, 51.4 percent reported experiencing an orgasm in connection with abdominal exercises within the previous 90 days. Others reported experiencing orgasm in connection to such exercises as weight lifting (26.5 percent), yoga (20 percent), bicycling (15.8), running (13.2 percent) and walking/hiking (9.6 percent).
• In open-ended responses, ab exercises were particularly associated with the "captain's chair," which consists of a rack with padded arm rests and back support that allows the legs to hang free. The goal is to repeatedly lift the knees toward the chest or toward a 90-degree angle with the body.

Herbenick said that the mechanisms behind exercise-induced orgasm and exercise-induced sexual pleasure remain unclear and, in future research, they hope to learn more about triggers for both. She also said that study findings may help women who experience EIO/EISP feel more normal about their experiences or put them into context.

Herbenick cautioned that it is not yet known whether such exercises can improve women's sexual experiences.

"It may be that exercise -- which is already known to have significant benefits to health and well-being -- has the potential to enhance women's sexual lives as well."

The study did not determine how common it is for women to experience exercise-induced orgasm or exercise-induced sexual pleasure. But the authors note that it took only five weeks to recruit the 370 women who experienced the phenomenon, suggesting it is not rare.

"Magazines and blogs have long highlighted cases of what they sometimes call 'coregasms,'" Herbenick said. "But aside from early reports by Kinsey and colleagues, this is an area of women's sexual health research that has been largely ignored over the past six decades."

Provided by Indiana University

"Study: Exercise can lead to female orgasm, sexual pleasure." March 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-female-orgasm-sexual-pleasure.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

The Japanese traditional therapy, honokiol, blocks key protein in inflammatory brain damage

Microglia are the first line defence of the brain and are constantly looking for infections to fight off. Overactive microglia can cause uncontrolled inflammation within the brain, which can in turn lead to neuronal damage. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Journal of Neuroinflammation shows that, honokiol (HNK) is able to down-regulate the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory enzymes in activated microglia via Klf4, a protein known to regulate DNA.

Scientists from the National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, India, used lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a molecule present on the surface of bacteria, to stimulate an immune response from microglia cells. LPS mimics the effect of a bacterial infection and the microglia cells spring into action, releasing proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNFa.

Activation of microglia also stimulates the production of nitric oxide (NO) and Cox-2, which co-ordinate the immune response, leading to inflammation. However uncontrolled inflammation can lead to neuronal death and permanent brain damage. Microglial inflammation is also observed in several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis.

The team led by Dr Anirban Basu found that the inflammatory response was mediated by Klf4, a 'transcription' factor which binds directly to DNA to enhance or impede gene expression. Treating microglia with HNK reduced their activation and HNK treated cells secreted less cytokines in response to LPS. HNK also down regulated the activity of Klf4 (and pNF-kb - another regulator of inflammation).

Dr Basu suggested that HNK down regulates Klf4 which in turn down regulates NO and Cox-2 production. He said, "HNK can easily move across the blood brain barrier and we found that HNK reduced levels of pNF-kb and Klf4 as well as the number of activated microglia in the brains of LPS treated mice."

He continued, "Our work with HNK has found that Klf4 is an important regulator of inflammation. Both HNK and Klf4 may be important not only in regulating inflammation due to infection, but may also have applications in other diseases which affect the brain and nervous system."

More information: Therapeutic targeting of Kruppel-like factor 4 abrogates microglial activation, Deepak K Kaushik, Rupanjan Mukhopadhyay, Kanhaiya L Kumawat, Malvika Gupta and Anirban Basu, Journal of Neuroinflammation (in press)

Provided by BioMed Central

"The Japanese traditional therapy, honokiol, blocks key protein in inflammatory brain damage." March 19th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-japanese-traditional-therapy-honokiol-blocks.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek