Scientists Produce World's First Magnetic Soap

                                         The liquid crystal progression of each surfactant was investigated by the solvent penetration method (i.e. phase cut). A small amount of surfactant was placed on a microscope slide under a coverslip. The slide was mounted on the cover slide and heated until the sample was fluid and completely isotropic. After slow cooling (1.0 °C min-1) to 25 °C, a drop of water was added to the edge of the coverslip. As the water penetrated the surfactant, a concentration gradient was established, from water at one side to pure surfactant at the other, enabling the entire range of mesophases to be observed in the field of view. (Credit: Image courtesy of Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL))                                  ScienceDaily  — Scientists from Bristol University have developed a soap, composed of iron rich salts dissolved in water, that responds to a magnetic field when placed in solution. The soap’s magnetic properties were shown with neutrons at the Institut Laue-Langevin to result from tiny iron-rich clumps that sit within the watery solution. The generation of this property in a fully functional soap could calm concerns over the use of soaps in oil-spill clean ups and revolutionise industrial cleaning products.

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Scientists have long been searching for a way to control soaps (or surfactants as they are known in industry) once they are in solution to increase their ability to dissolve oils in water and then remove them from a system. The team at Bristol University have previously worked on soaps sensitive to light, carbon dioxide or changes in pH, temperature or pressure. Their latest breakthrough, reported in Angewandte Chemie, is the world’s first soap sensitive to a magnetic field.
Ionic liquid surfactants, composed mostly of water with some transition metal complexes (heavy metals like iron bound to halides such as bromine or chlorine) have been suggested as potentially controllable by magnets for some time, but it had always been assumed that their metallic centres were too isolated within the solution, preventing the long-range interactions required to be magnetically active.
The team at Bristol, lead by Professor Julian Eastoe produced their magnetic soap by dissolving iron in a range of inert surfactant materials composed of chloride and bromide ions, very similar to those found in everyday mouthwash or fabric conditioner. The addition of the iron creates metallic centres within the soap particles.
To test its properties, the team introduced a magnet to a test tube containing their new soap lying beneath a less dense organic solution. When the magnet was introduced the iron-rich soap overcame both gravity and surface tension between the water and oil, to levitate through the organic solvent and reach the source of the magnetic energy, proving its magnetic properties.
Once the surfactant was developed and shown to be magnetic, Prof Eastoe’s team took it to the Institut Laue-Langevin, the world’s flagship centre for neutron science, and home to the world’s most intense neutron source, to investigate the science behind its remarkable property.
When surfactants are added to water they are known to form tiny clumps (particles called micelles). Scientists at ILL used a technique called “small angle neutron scattering (SANS)” to confirm that it was this clumping of the iron-rich surfactant that brought about its magnetic properties.
Dr Isabelle Grillo, responsible of the Chemistry Laboratories at ILL: “The particles of surfactant in solution are small and thus difficult to see using light but are easily revealed by SANS which we use to investigate the structure and behaviour of all types of materials with typical sizes ranging from the nanometer to the tenth of micrometer.”
The potential applications of magnetic surfactants are huge. Their responsiveness to external stimuli allows a range of properties, such as their electrical conductivity, melting point, the size and shape of aggregates and how readily its dissolves in water to be altered by a simple magnetic on and off switch. Traditionally these factors, which are key to the effective application of soaps in a variety of industrial settings, could only be controlled by adding an electric charge or changing the pH, temperature or pressure of the system, all changes that irreversibly alter the system composition and cost money to remediate.
Its magnetic properties also makes it easier to round up and remove from a system once it has been added, suggesting further applications in environmental clean ups and water treatment. Scientific experiments which require precise control of liquid droplets could also be made easier with the addition of this surfactant and a magnetic field.
Professor Julian Eastoe, University of Bristol: “As most magnets are metals, from a purely scientific point of view these ionic liquid surfactants are highly unusual, making them a particularly interesting discovery. From a commercial point of view, though these exact liquids aren’t yet ready to appear in any household product, by proving that magnetic soaps can be developed, future work can reproduce the same phenomenon in more commercially viable liquids for a range of applications from water treatment to industrial cleaning products.”
Peter Dowding an industrial chemist, not involved in the research: “Any systems which act only when responding to an outside stimulus that has no effect on its composition is a major breakthrough as you can create products which only work when they are needed to. Also the ability to remove the surfactant after it has been added widens the potential applications to environmentally sensitive areas like oil spill clean ups where in the past concerns have been raised.”

Scientists keep their eyes on peripheral vision

USC Dornsife's Bosco S. Tjan (above) and USC graduate student Anirvan S. Nandy theorized in a new paper that peripheral vision is hindered by the visual experience formed in the brain during eye movements. Credit: Dietmar Quistorf. (Medical Xpress) -- Two USC scientists are bringing peripheral vision into focus, showing that the way the brain sharpens its attention while the eyes are in motion leads to false assumptions about how objects should look.
The eye’s photoreceptors — the cells that detect light — are clustered at the center of the field of vision, leaving the periphery like a low-resolution camera. USC Dornsife neuroscientist Bosco S. Tjan and USC graduate student Anirvan S. Nandy theorized that peripheral vision is hindered by the visual experience formed in the brain during eye movements.
Their paper was published online on Jan. 8 in Nature Neuroscience.
According to the researchers, a single neural signal directs the eyes to look at an object of interest in the periphery and causes the brain to start paying attention to that object. Unless they are tracking an object — such as a police officer’s penlight during a sobriety test — human eyes do not tend to move in fluid motions. Instead, they jump from one point of focus to another in a jerky fashion called “saccadic” eye movement.
Those movements bring an object into the center of the field of vision. The brain actually starts paying attention to that object — “turning on” its ability to learn about it — shortly before the eyes move and lock on to it.
The researchers said this makes the version of the visual world that the brain learns from the periphery appear smeared.
“Parts of the brain that process peripheral vision assume these smears were typical of the physical world and make corresponding perceptual errors that cannot be explained by merely seeing the world in low resolution,” said Tjan, associate professor of psychology.
Vision is based, in part, on assumptions made by the brain. For example, if you look at a coffee mug, your brain sees one side of it and assumes that the rest is completely round — when in fact the back side that you do not see could be almost any shape at all, to a certain point.
“For the brain to see things, generally speaking, it has to make assumptions about the world,” Tjan said.
(Mis)guided by the peripheral vision’s smeared version of the world, the brain would have a hard time recognizing objects in the periphery and be more prone to error. Tjan and Nandy’s theory explained a wealth of empirical data on peripheral vision gathered in the last few decades.
Tjan said he hopes their work will help inform therapy for patients suffering from diseases like macular degeneration, in which damage to the retina costs patients sight at the center of the field of vision.
Macular degeneration is, for the moment, irreversible. Patients with macular degeneration are retaught how to see by focusing their attention outside the center of their field of vision — a difficult task, given the poor quality of the image with which they are left.

“At least for now, the best we can hope for is to train a patent to use [his or her] periphery. But to do that, we need to know why the periphery is so much worse,” Tjan said.

The research was supported by the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
Provided by USC College
"Scientists keep their eyes on peripheral vision." January 20th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-scientists-eyes-peripheral-vision.html

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Biochip measures glucose in saliva, not blood

  by Biomechanism 

Engineers at Brown University have designed a biological device that can measure glucose concentrations in human saliva. The technique could eliminate the need for diabetics to draw blood to check their glucose levels. The biochip uses plasmonic interferometers and could be used to measure a range of biological and environmental substances. Results are published in Nano Letters. 

Each plasmonic interferometer – thousands of them per square millimeter – consists of a slit flanked by two grooves etched in a silver metal film. The schematic shows glucose molecules “dancing” on the sensor surface illuminated by light with different colors. Changes in light intensity transmitted through the slit of each plasmonic interferometer yield information about the concentration of glucose molecules in solution. Credit: Domenico Pacifici

For the 26 million Americans with diabetes, drawing blood is the most prevalent way to check glucose levels. It is invasive and at least minimally painful. Researchers at Brown University are working on a new sensor that can check blood sugar levels by measuring glucose concentrations in saliva instead.
The technique takes advantage of a convergence of nanotechnology and surface plasmonics, which explores the interaction of electrons and photons (light). The engineers at Brown etched thousands of plasmonic interferometers onto a fingernail-size biochip and measured the concentration of glucose molecules in water on the chip. Their results showed that the specially designed biochip could detect glucose levels similar to the levels found in human saliva. Glucose in human saliva is typically about 100 times less concentrated than in the blood.

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“This is proof of concept that plasmonic interferometers can be used to detect molecules in low concentrations, using a footprint that is ten times smaller than a human hair,” said Domenico Pacifici, assistant professor of engineering and lead author of the paper published in Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
The technique can be used to detect other chemicals or substances, from anthrax to biological compounds, Pacifici said, “and to detect them all at once, in parallel, using the same chip.”
To create the sensor, the researchers carved a slit about 100 nanometers wide and etched two 200 nanometer-wide grooves on either side of the slit. The slit captures incoming photons and confines them. The grooves, meanwhile, scatter the incoming photons, which interact with the free electrons bounding around on the sensor’s metal surface. Those free electron-photon interactions create a surface plasmon polariton, a special wave with a wavelength that is narrower than a photon in free space. These surface plasmon waves move along the sensor’s surface until they encounter the photons in the slit, much like two ocean waves coming from different directions and colliding with each other.
This “interference” between the two waves determines maxima and minima in the light intensity transmitted through the slit. The presence of an analyte (the chemical being measured) on the sensor surface generates a change in the relative phase difference between the two surface plasmon waves, which in turns causes a change in light intensity, measured by the researchers in real time.
“The slit is acting as a mixer for the three beams — the incident light and the surface plasmon waves,” Pacifici said.
The engineers learned they could vary the phase shift for an interferometer by changing the distance between the grooves and the slit, meaning they could tune the interference generated by the waves. The researchers could tune the thousands of interferometers to establish baselines, which could then be used to accurately measure concentrations of glucose in water as low as 0.36 milligrams per deciliter.
“It could be possible to use these biochips to carry out the screening of multiple biomarkers for individual patients, all at once and in parallel, with unprecedented sensitivity,” Pacifici said.
The engineers next plan to build sensors tailored for glucose and for other substances to further test the devices. “The proposed approach will enable very high throughput detection of environmentally and biologically relevant analytes in an extremely compact design. We can do it with a sensitivity that rivals modern technologies,” Pacifici said.
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Tayhas Palmore, professor of engineering, is a contributing author on the paper. Graduate students Jing Feng (engineering) and Vince Siu (biology), who designed the microfluidic channels and carried out the experiments, are listed as the first two authors on the paper. Other authors include Brown engineering graduate student Steve Rhieu and undergraduates Vihang Mehta, Alec Roelke.
The National Science Foundation and Brown (through a Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award) funded the research.

Patterns of Chromosome Abnormality: The Key to Cancer?

  by Biomechanism 

A healthy genome is characterized by 23 pairs of chromosomes, and even a small change in this structure — such as an extra copy of a single chromosome — can lead to severe physical impairment. So it’s no surprise that when it comes to cancer, chromosomal structure is frequently a contributing factor, says Prof. Ron Shamir of the Blavatnik School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University.

A lung cancer karyotype. Source: University of Cambridge Department of Pathology.

Now Prof. Shamir and his former doctoral students Michal Ozery-Flato and Chaim Linhart, along with fellow researchers Prof. Shai Izraeli and Dr. Luba Trakhtenbrot from the Sheba Medical Center, have combined techniques from computer science and statistics to discover that many chromosomal pairs are lost or gained together across various cancer types. Moreover, the researchers discovered a new commonality of chromosomal aberrations among embryonic cancer types, such as kidney, skeleton, and liver cancers.
These findings, recently published in Genome Biology, could reveal more about the nature of cancer. As cancer develops, the genome becomes increasingly mutated — and identifying the pattern of mutation can help us to understand the nature and the progression of many different kinds of cancer, says Prof. Shamir.

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Looking at the big picture

As cancer progresses, the structure of chromosomes is rearranged, individual chromosomes are duplicated or lost, and the genome becomes abnormal. Some forms of cancer can even be diagnosed by identifying individual chromosomal aberrations, notes Prof. Shamir, pointing to the example of a specific type of leukemia that is caused by small piece of chromosome 9 being moved to chromosome 22.
When analyzing many different kinds of cancer, however, the researchers discovered that chromosomal aberrations among different cancers happen together in a noticeable and significant way. The researchers studied a collection of more than fifty thousand cancer karyotypes — representations of chromosomal layouts in a single cell — and charted them according to commonalities. The researchers were not only able to confirm different chromosomal aberrations that appeared in specific cancer types, but also for the first time identified a broader effect of pairs of chromosomes being lost or gained together across different cancer types.
It was also the first time that researchers saw a connection among solid kidney, skeleton, and liver cancers. While it was known that these cancers all develop in the embryo, they were previously analyzed independently. The TAU researchers have now confirmed that they share chromosomal characteristics and aberrations, much like various forms of leukemia or lymphomas.

Aberrations a driving force for cancer

Under normal circumstances, even a small change to a person’s chromosomal structure can be devastating. For example, Down’s syndrome is caused by a single extra copy of Chromosome 21. “But in cancer, there are many cases of extra or missing chromosomes. Yet cancer cells thrive more effectively than other cells,” Prof. Shamir says.
Prof. Shamir hopes that future investigation into these chromosomal aberrations will give researchers more clues into why something that is so detrimental to our healthy development is so beneficial to this disease. Cancer is the result of sequences of events, he says, each causing the genome to become more mutated, mixed, and duplicated. Tracking these changes could aid our understanding of the driving forces of cancer’s progress.
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Prof. Shamir heads the Edmond J. Safra Program for Bioinformatics and holds the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Chair in Bioinformatics.

Entry point for hepatitis C infection identified

  by Biomechanism 

A molecule embedded in the membrane of human liver cells that aids in cholesterol absorption also allows the entry of hepatitis C virus, the first step in hepatitis C infection, according to research at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
The cholesterol receptor offers a promising new target for anti-viral therapy, for which an approved drug may already exist, say the researchers, whose findings were reported online in advance of publication in Nature Medicine.

An overview of HCV (Hepatitis C virus) entry into the cell with suggested role of NPC1L1 and potential pathway for blocking by Zetia. Photo: Bruno Sainz/University of Illinois

An estimated 4.1 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C virus, or HCV, which attacks the liver and leads to inflammation, according to the National Institutes of Health. Most people have no symptoms initially and may not know they have the infection until liver damage shows up decades later during routine medical tests. Continue reading below…

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Previous studies showed that cholesterol was somehow involved in HCV infection. The UIC researchers suspected that a receptor called NPC1L1, known to help maintain cholesterol balance might also be transporting the virus into the cell.

The receptor is common in the gut of many species — but is found on liver cells only in humans and chimpanzees, says Susan Uprichard, assistant professor in medicine and microbiology and immunology and principal investigator in the study. These primates, she said, are the only animals that can be infected by HCV.
Uprichard and her coworkers showed that knocking down or blocking access to the NPC1L1 receptor prevented the virus from entering and infecting cells.
Bruno Sainz, Jr., UIC postdoctoral research associate in medicine and first author of the paper, said because the receptor is involved in cholesterol metabolism it was already well-studied. A drug that “specifically and uniquely targets NPC1L1″ already exists and is approved for use to lower cholesterol levels, he said.
The FDA-approved drug ezetimibe (sold under the trade-name Zetia) is readily available and perfectly targeted to the receptor, Sainz said, so the researchers had an ideal method for testing NPC1L1′s involvement in HCV infection.
They used the drug to block the receptor before, during and after inoculation with the virus, in cell culture and in a small-animal model, to evaluate the receptor’s role in infection and the drug’s potential as an anti-hepatitis agent.
The researchers showed that ezetimibe inhibited HCV infection in cell culture and in mice transplanted with human liver cells. And, unlike any currently available drugs, ezetimibe was able to inhibit infection by all six types of HCV.
The study, Uprichard said, opens up a number of possibilities for therapeutics.
Hepatitis C is the leading cause for liver transplantation in the U.S., but infected patients have problems after transplant because the virus attacks the new liver, Uprichard said.
While current drugs are highly toxic and often cannot be tolerated by transplant patients taking immunosuppressant drugs, ezetimibe is quite safe and has been used long-term without harm by people to control their cholesterol, Uprichard said. Because it prevents entry of the virus into cells, ezetimibe may help protect the new liver from infection.
For patients with chronic hepatitis C, ezetimibe may be able to be used in combination with current drugs.
“We forsee future HCV therapy as a drug-cocktail approach, like that used against AIDS,” Uprichard said. “Based on cell culture and mouse model data, we expect ezetimibe, an entry inhibitor, may have tremendous synergy with current anti-HCV drugs resulting in an improvement in the effectiveness of treatment.”
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The study was supported by NIH Public Health Service grants, the American Cancer Society Research Scholar grant, the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science NIH grant, the UIC Council to Support Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease, and a grant from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.
Naina Barretto, Danyelle Martin, Snawar Hussain, Katherine Marsh and Xuemei Yu, of UIC; Nobuhiko Hiraga, Michio Imamura and Kazuaki Chayama, of Hiroshima University in Japan; and Waddah Alrefai of UIC and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago also contributed to the study.

High fructose consumption by adolescents may put them at cardiovascular risk

  by Biomechanism 

Evidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk is present in the blood of adolescents who consume a lot of fructose, a scenario that worsens in the face of excess belly fat, researchers report. 
An analysis of 559 adolescents age 14-18 correlated high-fructose diets with higher blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin resistance and inflammatory factors that contribute to heart and vascular disease.
Heavy consumers of the mega-sweetener also tend to have lower levels of cardiovascular protectors such as such as HDL cholesterol and adiponectin, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University.

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These dangerous trends are exacerbated by fat around their midsection, called visceral adiposity, another known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The association did not hold up for adolescents with more generalized, subcutaneous fat.

“It is so very important to provide a healthy balance of high-quality food to our children and to really pay close attention to the fructose and sucrose they are consuming at their home or anyone else’s,” said Dr. Vanessa Bundy, an MCG pediatric resident. Drs. Bundy and Norman Pollock, bone biologist at MCG’s Georgia Prevention Institute are co-first authors on the study published in The Journal of Nutrition.
“The nutrition that caregivers provide their children will either contribute to their overall health and development or potentially contribute to cardiovascular disease at an early age,” Bundy said. The best way caregivers can support healthy nutrition is to be good role models, she said. A healthy diet with plenty of physical activity – not dieting – is the best prescription for growing children.
“Adolescents consume the most fructose so it’s really important to not only measure the levels of fructose but to look at what it might be doing to their bodies currently and, hopefully, to look at cardiovascular disease outcomes as they grow,” Pollock said.

Dr. Vanessa Bundy is an MCG Pediatric Resident and Dr. Norman Pollock is a bone biologist at MCG's Georgia Prevention Institute. Credit: Phil Jones, GHSU photographer

While animal studies have had similar findings, evidence in children is needed to support dramatic steps to curb consumption, such as asking schools to remove soda and other vending machines or, at least, to limit access, Pollock said. The researchers noted that more study is needed to flesh out the relationship between high fructose consumption and cardiovascular risk and whether these early associations forebode adult disease.
Fructose, or fruit sugar, is found in fruits and veggies but also in high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener used liberally in processed foods and beverages. Researchers suspect growing bodies crave the cheap, strong sweetener and companies often target young consumers in ads.
“Fructose itself is metabolized differently than other sugars and has some byproducts that are believed to be bad for us,” Bundy said. “The overall amount of fructose that is in high fructose corn syrup is not much different than the amount in table sugar but it’s believed there’s something in the syrup processing that plays a role in the bad byproducts of metabolism.”
The study took a “snapshot” of the adolescents’ lives, looking at overall fructose consumption, general diet history and body fat.
“A unique aspect of our study design is that we took into account the fructose released from sucrose during digestion along with the fructose found in foods and beverages,” Pollock said. “Because sucrose is broken down into fructose and glucose before it arrives at the liver for metabolism, it is important to consider the additional fructose from sucrose when determining the overall health effect of fructose.”
-Health Research News
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Courtesy Georgia Health Sciences University

Teens have fewer behavioral issues when parents stay involved

When parents of middle school students participate in school-based, family interventions, it can reduce problem behavior, according to new research released online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The transition to adolescence can be particularly challenging, as during this period, children are more likely to engage in potentially harmful behavior with their peers while having less monitoring from and communication with their parents.  The researchers were interested in whether an intervention called the Family Check-Up (FCU)—a short program that provides feedback and skill training for parents—could mitigate some of the troubles many parents and teens face. “We hypothesized that we would find significant intervention effects on all four outcomes—family conflict, parental monitoring, antisocial behavior and alcohol use,” said Mark J. Van Ryzin, Ph.D., of the University of Oregon and lead author of the study. “We were pleased that these hypotheses were confirmed.”
Van Ryzin and his colleagues followed 593 seventh and eighth graders and their families in a randomized controlled trial, with families assigned either to participate in the FCU program or to a control group of “school as usual” students at three public schools in the Pacific Northwest. The researchers gathered data primarily from students' self-reports to provide a broad assessment of family interaction. Researchers also videotaped parents interacting with their teens at home and school. Both parents and teens received comprehensive feedback about their interaction with each other.
One of the program’s strengths is its short duration. “The average participating family only received about 4 and half hours of intervention time,” said Van Ryzin.
“Most adolescents with behavioral problems see professionals after they are in trouble instead of beforehand, which is why this program is unique; there are few preventive programs like it,” said Garry Sigman, M.D., director of adolescent medicine at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. “It requires either a school district willing to incur the time and financial costs of trained professionals or collaboration between schools and mental health professionals. In either case, most districts do not have funds or interest in this type of endeavor.”
While no simple answer exists for decreasing teenagers’ behavioral problems, Sigman said, “I only wish more young adolescents would have the opportunity for their parents to get the type of education offered by the Family Check-Up.  To be sure, it doesn’t happen very often in primary care offices.”
Sigman said he helps parents understand that adolescence is not a time to pull back on involvement in their children’s lives. “I suggest parents know where their teens are, have curfew rules, and make their values and wishes explicit regarding teen drinking, substance use and sex.”

“If support and services like the Family Check-Up are available, it can help implement reasonable strategies for change,” said Van Ryzin. “The key is to involve the whole family in the process, not just the adolescent.”

More information: Van Ryzin, M.J., et al. (2012). Engaging Parents in the Family Check-Up in Middle School: Longitudinal Effects on Family Conflict and Problem Behavior Through the High School Transition. Journal of Adolescent Health. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.10.255
Provided by Health Behavior News Service
"Teens have fewer behavioral issues when parents stay involved." January 20th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-teens-behavioral-issues-parents-involved.html
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Robert Karl Stonjek

PCE in drinking water linked to an increased risk of mental illness

PCE in drinking water linked to an increased risk of mental illness
The solvent tetrachloroethylene (PCE) widely used in industry and to dry clean clothes is a neurotoxin known to cause mood changes, anxiety, and depression in people who work with it. To date the long-term effect of this chemical on children exposed to PCE has been less clear, although there is some evidence that children of people who work in the dry cleaning industry have an increased risk of schizophrenia. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health found that exposure to PCE as a child was associated with an increased risk of bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

From 1968, until the early 1980s, water companies in Massachusetts installed vinyl-lined (VL/AC) water pipes that were subsequently found to be leaching PCE into the drinking water supply. Researchers from Boston University followed the incidence of mental illness amongst adults from Cape Cod, born between 1969 and 1983, who were consequently exposed to PCE both before birth and during early childhood.

While there was no increase seen in the incidence of depression, regardless of PCE exposure, people with prenatal and early childhood exposure to PCE had almost twice the risk of bipolar disorder, compared to an unexposed group, and their risk of PTSD was raised by 50%.
Dr Ann Aschengrau from Boston University School of Public Health warned, "It is impossible to calculate the exact amount of PCE these people were exposed to - levels of PCE were recorded as high as 1,550 times the currently recommended safe limit. While the water companies flushed the pipes to address this problem, people are still being exposed to PCE in the dry cleaning and textile industries, and from consumer products, and so the potential for an increased risk of illness remains real."
More information: Occurrence of mental illness following prenatal and early childhood exposure to tetrachloroethylene (PCE)-contaminated drinking water: a retrospective cohort study. Ann Aschengrau, Janice M Weinberg, Patricia A Janulewicz, Megan E Romano, Lisa G Gallagher, Michael R Winter, Brett R Martin, Veronica M Vieira, Thomas F Webster, Roberta F White and David M Ozonoff Environmental Health (in press)
Provided by BioMed Central
"PCE in drinking water linked to an increased risk of mental illness." January 20th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-pce-linked-mental-illness.html
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Robert Karl Stonjek

Violin and subatomic particle duet set to be performed at leading UK particle physics lab

One of the world’s leading physics laboratories is set to stage a unique musical duet between a violinist and radioactive subatomic particles later this month. ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, based at the Rutherton Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, is regarded as one of the UK’s major scientific achievements in the last 30 years and has played a part in a number of breakthroughs in physics and chemistry since it was commissioned in 1985.
Now it will play host to an experiment of a different kind as innovative music composer Alexis Kirke brings his contemporary Cloud Chamber composition to the ‘venue’ later this month.
Alexis, a member of Plymouth University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research, rose to prominence when he used the rising sun and the city’s iconic Roland Levinsky Building as musical instruments in his Sunlight Symphony in 2010.
Now his latest work operates on an altogether smaller scale. Alexis said: “A piece of physical apparatus, called a cloud chamber, will be saturated with ethanol and cooled by liquid nitrogen.
“The subatomic particle tracks are made visible by this cloud chamber and a camera above the chamber will follow some of the particle tracks, converting them into synthesized music which accompanies the violin. The image from the camera is also magnified onto a screen for the audience to see.”
Musician Ben Heaney will play the violin, which will be connected electrically to the chamber. The instrument’s amplified sound will also be sent to an electronic field system positioned near the particles, which will create a force field in the chamber, directly affecting the behaviour of the particle tracks, effectively enabling the ions and the violinist to influence each other musically.
Cloud Chamber debuted at the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival in Plymouth in February 2011, and this will be only the second public performance of the piece. Alexis, who is also composer-in-residence of the Marine Institute at Plymouth University, has been keen to collaborate with ISIS since he visited in 2010
ISIS is owned and operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Spokesman Dr Martyn Bull said: “We are very pleased that our collaboration with Alexis to create music inspired by the research at ISIS will be performed at the second target station. Cloud Chamber composition is an extremely imaginative and creative convergence of ground-breaking science research and music performance.”

The performance will take place on January 28th at the £145 million Second Target station, which was completed in 2008. ISIS is currently building a second set of instruments, one of which, called Chipir, will be a unique facility in Europe for testing for the effects of cosmic radiation particles on the electronics found in aircraft, mobile phones and medical equipment.”

Provided by University of Plymouth
"Violin and subatomic particle duet set to be performed at leading UK particle physics lab." January 20th, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-violin-subatomic-particle-duet-uk.html
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Robert Karl Stonjek

Notre Dame psychologist developing new math learning strategies

What do children know about mathematics before they start learning it in school? How do external factors like language, education and culture affect children’s understanding? What is the best way to structure an environment so they have the building blocks needed for success in math? These are just some of the questions Notre Dame psychologist Nicole McNeil seeks to answer in her research, for which she recently received a three-year, $565,000 grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
“The development of mathematical thinking presents a paradox,” says the Mary Hesburgh Flaherty and James F. Flaherty Assistant Professor of Psychology, whose scholarship focuses on cognitive development, specifically mathematical cognition.
“On one hand, young children and even infants have been shown to have a surprisingly sophisticated understanding of abstract math concepts,” she says. “On the other hand, math is a notoriously difficult subject to learn in school, with many children and adults failing to achieve basic competence.”
This is McNeil’s second IES award. In 2007, she received a four-year grant totaling more than $750,000 to determine whether modifications to traditional arithmetic practice could improve children’s understanding of mathematical equivalence.
The new funding will allow McNeil to build on what she learned during the first study in order to “develop and test a comprehensive intervention that is affordable, effective at producing mastery, and easy for teachers and parents to administer in schools, after-school programs and homes.”
Her goal, she says, is to create a program that has the potential to have “real and lasting benefits for children’s mathematical achievement and algebra readiness in the long term.”
To further support her work, McNeil has also recently been awarded a five-year CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) worth approximately $750,000. CAREER grants are NSF’s “most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”
As part of the NSF grant, McNeil will conduct a longitudinal study to see if a better understanding of math equivalence in the second grade leads to greater success in higher grades, especially algebra readiness in the sixth grade.
As an undergraduate, McNeil planned to become a doctor and was double majoring in chemistry and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. One of her professors suggested she build her medical school application resume by working in a research lab on campus, and she found her way into one focused on cognitive development and communication.
“I developed a passion for cognitive development research—I couldn’t get enough of it—so I abandoned my idea of going to medical school and instead chose to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology,” she says.
Inspired by that experience, McNeil now challenges her students in the Department of Psychology to discover their own academic passions. She encourages them to find a “big question” that intrigues them and then works to provide the tools and guidance they need to pursue an answer.
“I feel strongly that students need to have one-on-one attention from faculty members,” McNeil says. “It gives them the opportunity to bounce ideas off and ask questions of an expert in the field. This type of intellectual discourse puts them in the position to eventually make a real contribution to the field.
“Students in my lab also get to be involved in every aspect of research, from conceptualization to dissemination.”
Through all this work on her own scholarly projects and with her students, McNeil hopes she can help parents and teachers determine the best ways to structure each child’s mathematical education so that all children can learn to be successful in school—and beyond.
Provided by University of Notre Dame

"Notre Dame psychologist developing new math learning strategies." January 20th, 2012. http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-notre-dame-psychologist-math-strategies.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Measuring Efficiency

“Advancement of material vision or material civilization is a great stumbling block for spiritual advancement. Such material advancement entangles the living being in the bondage of a material body followed by all sorts of material miseries. Such material advancement is called anartha, or things not wanted.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.8.27 Purport)
“Son, back in my day, we used to walk five miles in the snow to school and back. We didn’t have the comfortable, air conditioned and heated bus to take us places. We would go to work on the farm right after school. None of this video game playing, television watching, and general time wasting. We also got married at a young age and didn’t get divorced. In my day, we didn’t have so many of the things that you have now, and yet we liked everything that we did have.” The classic old fuddy-duddy grumbles about how much life has changed since their time and how the newer generation doesn’t know how good they have it. Though it is natural for the human being to get into this mindset as they grow older, the attitude actually uncovers the secret of how easy it is to find a baseline of happiness. Though the advanced lifestyle hinged on progress seems the better option, by comparing the disposition of the consciousness and the minimum requirement for having peace of mind, there is no question which system is superior.
How can there be any contest in this matter? Nowadays we have microwaves, internet, cellular telephones, high definition television sets, automobiles and airplanes. Just from these basic advancements so much of everyday life has changed. No longer do you have to worry about the harsh winter coming to wreak havoc on your family. The drought in the summer is also okay, for you can buy your food from some other source. The vital provisions can be shipped in from an area where the harvest is bountiful. Because of these options there is not so much of a reliance on aspects of the past lifestyle which now seem primitive.
Easy to overlook in this analysis is attachment. With each new gadget and advancement of technology comes a new source of misery. You can take something as simple as the automobile to see evidence of this. In days past, you had to walk many miles to get to places. Correspondingly, the places you needed to get to weren’t too far away. The neighborhood school served the people living within close proximity. The larger plots of land allowed for food to be grown locally; you didn’t have to travel very far to eat. With the requirement for walking, exercise was automatically accounted for. This not only helped in keeping one’s physical health strong, but it aided in mental faculties as well. A sedentary lifestyle can become so mentally debilitating that it can lead to depression. Obesity in children is now an epidemic, though this is a veritable enigma. Children have the most energy, so why should they ever become excessively overweight? They can handle a tremendous amount of food because of how much energy they can burn off in a given day.
With the automobile comes the responsibility of insurance payments and maintenance. If the car stops working, you have to find a way to fix it. This is going to cost money, which means that part of the time that you travel to work is spent on maintaining your car, which, ironically enough, you use to get to work. In one sense you’re working just so that you can maintain something that can ensure that you keep working.
The automobile also brings an increased risk of accidental death. The news media pays much attention to soldiers killed in action overseas, but the number of deaths on the highway each year dwarfs that by a significant amount. On one side you have people killed while carrying out their occupational duties, namely the protection and defense of the innocent, and on the other you have people travelling to work, school, or the homes of family and friends. Obviously the number of deaths should be higher for those involved in dangerous combat, but the total number of traffic fatalities is much greater. Though the number is so high, it is just brushed aside as being part of the collateral damage that comes with having the freedom to drive on the open road.
For the champions of advancement the underlying appeal of progress is the ability to travel to new destinations. A person can now explore outer space if they want instead of being stuck in a tiny little area with no way out. Why would a person choose prison life over a life of freedom? Why would someone want to remain complacent and follow the same behavior every day when they can continuously explore and discover new things about this complex place that we call the creation?
The questions can be turned around though. Who is actually more advanced, the person who is content with a simple lifestyle dedicated to service to one particular entity or the person who requires constant expensive change to feel stimulated in the mind? Let’s think of it another way. Say we have two cellular telephone devices. They are identical except for the performance of the battery. One phone has a battery that can allow the phone to operate for up to a week with average use. The other phone’s battery goes dead in a few days. Obviously the phone with the stronger battery is superior, as it is more efficient. It can do more work with the same amount of energy as can the other phone with the inferior battery.
Applying the same principle, the living entity who requires costly advancement simply to find mental felicity is less efficient than the person who can find happiness at any time and in any circumstance. Lest we think the latter person is a myth, the Vedic principles provide instructions to create that very disposition for all of us. At the heart of activity is the search for ananda, or bliss. The external appearances can cloud this fact, but when the wise person abstracts behavior, both present and past, it is seen that this desire for pleasure is the instigator of every single action. Even austerity measures like dieting and observing ritualistic functions are undertaken for eventually furthering a better mental condition.
As consciousness is the key determining factor in a person’s happiness, when it can be focused on something that has an inexhaustible supply of bliss, pleasure can be found in any circumstance, regardless of the time period or how advanced society may be. That ultimate source of pleasure is, not surprisingly, the Supreme Lord, who thus gets a specific description based on this feature. Since He is the reservoir of pleasure and all-attractive, He is known as Krishna in the Vedic tradition.
How do we connect with Krishna? Do we need the simple life of the farm or the hustle and bustle of the city? While for the spiritualist it is easy to put down the latest advancements in technology, can’t things like e-readers and internet videos help one to connect with God? Aren’t these outlets easier to use than the past requirements of having to travel to a place where discussions on Krishna were being held? Shri Krishna, being absolute, can be found through His holy names, which are put together nicely in the perfect prayer known as the maha-mantra, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”.
The maha-mantra addresses Krishna and His energy and asks them to be allowed to be engaged in the Lord’s service without motivation and without interruption. The same desire for pleasure is there, but since it is directed at connecting with Krishna, the devotee is considered free of desire, akama. Since there is no personal desire, the service can continue without interruption, for there is no stage of maturity that causes the outflow of service to cease.
For the spiritualist who makes the chanting of the maha-mantra a serious occupation and follows the prescribed regulations of reciting it for sixteen rounds a day on a set of japa beads coupled with abstention from meat eating, gambling, intoxication and illicit sex, the Supreme Lord and His smiling face can be remembered at any time and at any place. Shrila Haridasa Thakura, the acharya of the holy name, would find tremendous pleasure by living in a cave and chanting the maha-mantra in front of the sacred tulasi plant, who as a goddess grants devotion to Krishna to those who honor her.
On the other side, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and his disciples found supreme pleasure by travelling around the world and distributing the holy names to as many people as possible. This endeavor required travelling on airplanes, using typewriters and computers, and making use of basically everything the modern advanced society had to offer. Therefore in either situation, in the primitive or the modern, the soul desperately craving lasting happiness can find it.
In general, the simplified, renounced lifestyle is considered superior, for at least there are less distractions. But all in all, it is the efficiency of the mind which determines whether one’s condition is superior or not. The person who doesn’t need to travel far and wide to find happiness is much better situated than one who is aimlessly looking for that elusive happiness in all places around the world. As inside of every living being rests the Supreme Lord within the heart next to the individual soul, we don’t have to go far to find God. Through following the simple instructions of the bona fide spiritual masters, the mind can turn into a very efficient machine that uses the strong attachment to God to fuel further activities, which in turn keep the flame of devotion alive.

“For one who remembers Me without deviation, I am easy to obtain, O son of Pritha, because of his constant engagement in devotional service.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.14)

More than just finding happiness in the present, it is promised by Shri Krishna Himself, who is the source of that pleasure, that into the next life the same engagement will continue for the devoted soul. The lower animals find sense pleasure through basic activities, but we don’t consider the animals to be advanced because they don’t know anything about the soul. Repeatedly taking birth as a pig is considered a punishment because one never learns how to connect with God, who brings the highest pleasure anyone can ask for. In this respect there can be no comparison between the person immersed in bhakti and the living entity comfortably situated in material affairs. One side has an engagement that will continue for lifetime after lifetime, while the other is both burdened by many unwanted responsibilities and limited by the duration of their body’s existence.
The supremacy of bhakti is proved by the efficiency of the workers who follow it. Moreover, their superior standing validates the position of Shri Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Material life in an advanced society requires exploitation of resources that aren’t so abundant. With scarcity comes fierce competition, and with competition comes a loss of compassion, leading to the predicament where everyone is always suspicious of one another. Therefore it shouldn’t surprise us that there are so many wars and constant strife in a life focused on material pursuits.

The fact that those things we actually need are the most abundantly available shows that God exists. Water, grains, milk and sunlight are available to practically everyone, and they are not expensive. Those things that we don’t require - elegant jewelry, modern electronic gadgets, and fancy cars - are more expensive on purpose. In a similar manner, in spirituality, Krishna is most fully represented in the processes that are the easiest to implement, that are applicable to the most number of people. The holy name is thus His greatest blessing, a sound vibration that is Krishna Himself. Anyone can recite it and find their way towards a most advanced consciousness.

In Closing:
Primitive better than advanced lifestyle, say we dare?
Before you scoff, the efficiency levels do you compare.
One side to so many amenities is attached,
While the other from everything is detached.
To find mental stimulation must travel far and wide,
While simple take pleasure having God by their side.
No need for expense, chanting holy name is free,
From the benefits supremacy of bhakti you’ll see.
Whether old or new, use everything that is around,
To serve Krishna, to maintain His name’s sound.