Male mice abandon their homicidal tendencies to become doting parents and accomplished homemakers when a gene is removed from the region of the brain that detects pheromones, new research shows. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Most animals have sex-specific behavior, and male mice are no exception. They make male-specific grunts, they attempt to mate with nearby females and, worst of all, they commit infanticide.
New data presented November 18 by neuroscientist Catherine Dulac showed that removing a gene called Trpc2 from male mice made them act like females. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.INFO The protein this gene encodes is crucial in the brain for animals to sense pheromones.
Last year, Dulac and colleagues showed the opposite: Females who lack the Trpc2 gene act like males. Irrefutable video evidence showed a female mutant mouse carousing in a cage full of either female or male mice persistently (if unsuccessfully) attempted to sow her wild oats, the team reported in Nature.
“I have to say, the first time I saw these results I just couldn’t really understand what was going on,” Dulac says of the discovery. That observation led the researchers to propose that females had the right connections of neurons in their brains to act like males, and all it took was the right switch — in this case, the lack of Trpc2 — to turn on the male behavior circuit.
In the new research, the scientists tested a mutant male’s maternal instincts by putting him in a cage with a litter of pups. Normally, the male mouse would kill the unfamiliar pups. But while observers waited for the carnage to ensue, the mutant male set about building a nest, then gently picked up each helpless pup and moved it to the new home.
His display of unexpected female behavior showed that in mice, the basis for both male and female behavior probably exists in each animal’s brain, Dulac says. It’s just a matter of activating the right collection of neurons. — Laura Sanders
Creativity may have genetic roots
A study comparing performing artists to people with little or no experience in the arts found that many of the artists inherited variants of two genes involved in novelty-seeking, attention, memory and problem solving. The variants appeared in only one of the non-artists.
These particular genes may influence the development of creative achievement in at least some individuals, across a variety of fields, proposes a team led by Kevin Dunbar and Laura Petitto, both of the University of Toronto.
Variants of the two genes were found in 15 of 58 professional dancers, musicians and actors — about one-quarter of them— versus only one of 36 comparison individuals. The genes, called DRD4 and COMT, influence transmission of dopamine, a chemical messenger in the brain.
“Combinations of genetic variants, rather than specific genetic variants, may be linked to pursuing and achieving expertise in creative activities,” Petitto says.
Brain imaging studies of the same participants indicate that, relative to the comparison group, performing artists display much more activity in a frontal brain region critical for remembering and manipulating different pieces of information at once. This disparity may partly result from intense, long-term practice of creative endeavors by performing artists, in addition to any genetic advantage, Petitto says.
The Toronto researchers plan to look for additional gene variants linked to creative expertise. They also hope to include acclaimed creative virtuosos in their experiments. — Bruce Bower
Babies care for mom
Mothers spend years caring for their young and, it turns out, may get some benefits in return. New findings from University of Richmond researchers show that babies contribute to the long-term cognitive health of their moms.
Previous studies have shown that the hormonal fluctuations that occur during pregnancy, birth and lactation work to remodel the female brain, increasing the size of neurons in some regions and producing structural changes in others.
In recent work with rats, psychologist Craig Kinsley and his students found that the brains of aged females who had given birth possessed fewer deposits of amyloid precursor protein, or APP, a harbinger of Alzheimer’s disease, than did age-matched rats who had not given birth. His group then looked at the cognitive effects of motherhood in rats that were bred to express high levels of APP as they matured. Half of the females were allowed to mate and raise pups, the other half remained virgins.
Behavioral studies showed that the moms performed better at memory and spatial tasks, such as catching prey, than the non-moms. When checking the levels of APP in the brains of the aged females, scientists found that the mother rats had an 11-fold decrease in the amount of protein in their brains.
The new study also showed that the brains of mom rats had higher numbers of estrogen receptors, which are thought to provide some protective benefits in the aging female brain, Kinsley said.
“People often focus on the time and care that mothers give to their young, but this suggests that babies are, in turn, contributing to the long-term welfare of the mother,” he says. — Susan Gaidos
A blinking minute
Humans blink 13,500 times a day on average, but not necessarily randomly, new data from rats suggest.
People blink far more than what is required to maintain moist, healthy eyes. “Spontaneous blinking is not just to maintain a tear film on the cornea. There’s something more there,” says neuroscientist Kyle Horn of Stony Brook University in New York.
Horn found that, in rats, the time increments between blinks vary widely. A rat could blink several times in quick succession and then wait a long period of time before the next blink. But closer analyses of the data showed that an overall pattern of blinks was repeated every 10 minutes.
“Something purely random is not that easy to generate,” says Horn. He and his group think that a relatively simple brain system may control blinking. By mapping the pattern of blinking, the researchers hope to figure out what that system is.
Horn’s team also tested whether factors other than time could make blinking non-random. They found that rats blink more frequently right before and after they groom themselves.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
lines 5.lin.001 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
As a percentage of family income, money spent by U.S. women with breast cancer is much greater for low-income patients than for those who are well off, according to research presented December 12 in Texas at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Public health researcher Lisa Lines of the consulting firm Boston Health Economics in Waltham, Mass., and her colleagues analyzed expenditures made by 806 breast cancer patients from 1996 to 2005. Out-of-pocket costs included insurance premiums, payments to meet deductibles, co-pays and any other payments made to meet medical or drug costs associated with treatment.http://Louis-J-Sheehan.biz
The average annual out-of-pocket expenditure was about $2,300 per breast cancer patient, about half of which was spent on prescription drugs.
“Breast cancer is actually not the most expensive cancer for out-of-pocket expenditures,” Lines says. This and other data suggest that breast cancer costs patients more than colon or prostate cancer, but less than lung cancer, she says.
But breast cancer has a large proportion of people with a “high burden,” she says. The researchers classified patients as having a high burden when their out-of-pocket costs for coping with the cancer exceeded 10 percent of the family’s income. Roughly 70 percent of low-income breast cancer patients fell into the high-burden category in this analysis, compared with about 15 percent of middle-income and less than 5 percent of high-income breast cancer patients — apparently the result of better insurance, she says.
Cancer patients in general are disproportionately affected by a high out-of-pocket burden. That’s because many cancers have come to be treated more like a chronic disease than they used to be and are treated on an outpatient basis, Lines says. In the past, most cancer patients were treated in hospitals, where major medical insurance covered much of the cost. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Public health researcher Lisa Lines of the consulting firm Boston Health Economics in Waltham, Mass., and her colleagues analyzed expenditures made by 806 breast cancer patients from 1996 to 2005. Out-of-pocket costs included insurance premiums, payments to meet deductibles, co-pays and any other payments made to meet medical or drug costs associated with treatment.http://Louis-J-Sheehan.biz
The average annual out-of-pocket expenditure was about $2,300 per breast cancer patient, about half of which was spent on prescription drugs.
“Breast cancer is actually not the most expensive cancer for out-of-pocket expenditures,” Lines says. This and other data suggest that breast cancer costs patients more than colon or prostate cancer, but less than lung cancer, she says.
But breast cancer has a large proportion of people with a “high burden,” she says. The researchers classified patients as having a high burden when their out-of-pocket costs for coping with the cancer exceeded 10 percent of the family’s income. Roughly 70 percent of low-income breast cancer patients fell into the high-burden category in this analysis, compared with about 15 percent of middle-income and less than 5 percent of high-income breast cancer patients — apparently the result of better insurance, she says.
Cancer patients in general are disproportionately affected by a high out-of-pocket burden. That’s because many cancers have come to be treated more like a chronic disease than they used to be and are treated on an outpatient basis, Lines says. In the past, most cancer patients were treated in hospitals, where major medical insurance covered much of the cost. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Saturday, April 11, 2009
flu 1.flu.1 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire Getting plenty of vitamin D — more than diet can offer — appears to provide potent protection against colds, flu and even pneumonia, a new study reports. Although the amount of protection varies by season, the trend is solid: As the amount of vitamin D circulating in blood climbs, risk of upper respiratory tract infections falls. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.US
Though that’s not too surprising (SN: 11/11/06, p. 312), the researchers found one unexpected trend: “In people with preexisting lung disease, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — or COPD, low levels of vitamin D act like an effect modifier,” says Adit Ginde, an emergency room physician at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine in Aurora who led the study. The findings appear in the Feb. 23 Archives of Internal Medicine. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.US
In people with lung disease, he says, low levels of the sunshine vitamin “magnify many-fold” the apparent vulnerability to infection seen in people with healthy lungs. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
“It’s well-documented that at the turn of the century, kids with rickets [due to vitamin D deficiency] had much higher risk of upper respiratory tract infections,” notes Michael Holick of Boston University. “And treating them with vitamin D lowered that risk. We also know that your immune function is carefully regulated by vitamin D.” For instance, he notes, vitamin D controls the activity of the immune cells that are responsible for destroying infectious germs.
“It’s nice to see that it’s now being documented” with nonanecdotal data, Holick says.
Ginde and his colleagues correlated vitamin D levels of nearly 19,000 adults participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with their recent health. NHANES periodically samples a random cross section of the U.S. population; people are selected to be representative of the nation as a whole.
Although no minimum vitamin D level ideal for health has been established, there is a general consensus that people ought to have at least 30 nanograms per milliliter of blood — sometimes described as about 80 nanomoles per liter (SN: 10/16/04, p. 248). In this NHANES data set, only about 45 percent of the population had that minimum. So the researchers separated the NHANES participants into three groups: those with 30 or more ng/ml, those with gross deficiency (less than 10 ng/ml of vitamin D) and those in between.
In every season, people in the lowest vitamin D group were about 36 percent more likely to be suffering a respiratory infection than those in the highest group. Infection risks for people in the middle group fell between those rates.
But low levels of vitamin D more than doubled the risk of respiratory infection for people with COPD — and boosted it almost sixfold in people with asthma — compared with participants who had normal lung function and were in the highest vitamin D group.
Also disturbing, Ginde points out that the NHANES data he analyzed had been collected about 15 years ago, when almost twice as many people as today had vitamin D levels above 30 ng/ml.
Though the body can make plenty of vitamin D as a result of sun exposure, people are spending less time outdoors and covering up when they do go out, so natural vitamin D production has been falling. Ginde and his colleagues plan to supplement high-risk populations during winter months with high doses of vitamin D to see if those people have reduced infection rates compared with untreated people. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.US
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Comments 6
* Wow. I wonder ... when I first started using light boxes for winter blues my winter colds just quit happening. I'd always had four or five each winter, the usual starting with a sore throat. I built a _lot_ of light boxes (four to eight 4' fluorescent tubes, at the time, with electronic ballasts. They're a lot smaller now.
Since I started using them for many hours, really to extend my "daytime" for the dark half of the year -- going on fifteen years -- I get maybe one cold.
I'd figured maybe it was using the lights, or maybe I had gotten old enough to have met all the possible cold viruses. Maybe ....
Hank Roberts Hank Roberts
Mar. 2, 2009 at 7:21pm
* The link to the UCSD/GrassrootsHealth series can be found on http://www.grassrootshealth.net/
Leo Baggerly
Leo Baggerly Leo Baggerly
Mar. 1, 2009 at 8:56am
* http://tinyurl.com/auy649
Sorry, here is the link to the University of California You Tube series of Vitamin D presentations. Do watch them to the end as there is a Q&A session that also has useful information.
Edward Hutchinson Edward Hutchinson
Feb. 24, 2009 at 4:23pm
* Generally speaking every 1000iu/daily D3 raises status 10ng/mL or 25nmol/l.
The ideal vitamin d status associated with least disease incidence is 60ng/mL ~ 150nmol/l.
For those of us living above latitude 50n with current status around 30nmol/l around 5000iu may be needed to reach optimum.
Grassrootshealth.org do a chart presenting Garlands data "Disease Incidence Prevention by Serum 25(OH)D Level"
They have also put a nice series of 30minutes lectures by Garland, Trump, Heaney and Gorham on various aspects of Vitamin d in relation to cancer incidence, prevention and treatment. There will be another on Diabetes soon.
Edward Hutchinson Edward Hutchinson Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Feb. 24, 2009 at 4:16pm
* The recommended daily intake, now usually referred to as "dietary reference intakes," is 200 international units (5 micrograms) per day through age 50, then 400 IU from age 51 to 70, and 600 IU for people 70 and older. I use the IU values because that's how vitamin D is usually reported on product labels. Ginde is currently talking about administering somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 IU per day throughout the winter months. In other words: 25 to 75 micrograms per day.
Janet Raloff Janet Raloff
Feb. 24, 2009 at 3:43pm
* It would be useful to know what the "high dose" that Ginde will be using for high-risk populations and how it compares to the 5 - 15 mcg (based on age) that NIH shows as Adequate Intakes (AIs) for Vitamin D (http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp).
Though that’s not too surprising (SN: 11/11/06, p. 312), the researchers found one unexpected trend: “In people with preexisting lung disease, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — or COPD, low levels of vitamin D act like an effect modifier,” says Adit Ginde, an emergency room physician at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine in Aurora who led the study. The findings appear in the Feb. 23 Archives of Internal Medicine. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.US
In people with lung disease, he says, low levels of the sunshine vitamin “magnify many-fold” the apparent vulnerability to infection seen in people with healthy lungs. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
“It’s well-documented that at the turn of the century, kids with rickets [due to vitamin D deficiency] had much higher risk of upper respiratory tract infections,” notes Michael Holick of Boston University. “And treating them with vitamin D lowered that risk. We also know that your immune function is carefully regulated by vitamin D.” For instance, he notes, vitamin D controls the activity of the immune cells that are responsible for destroying infectious germs.
“It’s nice to see that it’s now being documented” with nonanecdotal data, Holick says.
Ginde and his colleagues correlated vitamin D levels of nearly 19,000 adults participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with their recent health. NHANES periodically samples a random cross section of the U.S. population; people are selected to be representative of the nation as a whole.
Although no minimum vitamin D level ideal for health has been established, there is a general consensus that people ought to have at least 30 nanograms per milliliter of blood — sometimes described as about 80 nanomoles per liter (SN: 10/16/04, p. 248). In this NHANES data set, only about 45 percent of the population had that minimum. So the researchers separated the NHANES participants into three groups: those with 30 or more ng/ml, those with gross deficiency (less than 10 ng/ml of vitamin D) and those in between.
In every season, people in the lowest vitamin D group were about 36 percent more likely to be suffering a respiratory infection than those in the highest group. Infection risks for people in the middle group fell between those rates.
But low levels of vitamin D more than doubled the risk of respiratory infection for people with COPD — and boosted it almost sixfold in people with asthma — compared with participants who had normal lung function and were in the highest vitamin D group.
Also disturbing, Ginde points out that the NHANES data he analyzed had been collected about 15 years ago, when almost twice as many people as today had vitamin D levels above 30 ng/ml.
Though the body can make plenty of vitamin D as a result of sun exposure, people are spending less time outdoors and covering up when they do go out, so natural vitamin D production has been falling. Ginde and his colleagues plan to supplement high-risk populations during winter months with high doses of vitamin D to see if those people have reduced infection rates compared with untreated people. http://LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN.US
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* Comment
Found in: Body & Brain
Share & Save
* slashdot slashdot
* digg digg
* facebook facebook
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* technorati technorati
Comments 6
* Wow. I wonder ... when I first started using light boxes for winter blues my winter colds just quit happening. I'd always had four or five each winter, the usual starting with a sore throat. I built a _lot_ of light boxes (four to eight 4' fluorescent tubes, at the time, with electronic ballasts. They're a lot smaller now.
Since I started using them for many hours, really to extend my "daytime" for the dark half of the year -- going on fifteen years -- I get maybe one cold.
I'd figured maybe it was using the lights, or maybe I had gotten old enough to have met all the possible cold viruses. Maybe ....
Hank Roberts Hank Roberts
Mar. 2, 2009 at 7:21pm
* The link to the UCSD/GrassrootsHealth series can be found on http://www.grassrootshealth.net/
Leo Baggerly
Leo Baggerly Leo Baggerly
Mar. 1, 2009 at 8:56am
* http://tinyurl.com/auy649
Sorry, here is the link to the University of California You Tube series of Vitamin D presentations. Do watch them to the end as there is a Q&A session that also has useful information.
Edward Hutchinson Edward Hutchinson
Feb. 24, 2009 at 4:23pm
* Generally speaking every 1000iu/daily D3 raises status 10ng/mL or 25nmol/l.
The ideal vitamin d status associated with least disease incidence is 60ng/mL ~ 150nmol/l.
For those of us living above latitude 50n with current status around 30nmol/l around 5000iu may be needed to reach optimum.
Grassrootshealth.org do a chart presenting Garlands data "Disease Incidence Prevention by Serum 25(OH)D Level"
They have also put a nice series of 30minutes lectures by Garland, Trump, Heaney and Gorham on various aspects of Vitamin d in relation to cancer incidence, prevention and treatment. There will be another on Diabetes soon.
Edward Hutchinson Edward Hutchinson Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Feb. 24, 2009 at 4:16pm
* The recommended daily intake, now usually referred to as "dietary reference intakes," is 200 international units (5 micrograms) per day through age 50, then 400 IU from age 51 to 70, and 600 IU for people 70 and older. I use the IU values because that's how vitamin D is usually reported on product labels. Ginde is currently talking about administering somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 IU per day throughout the winter months. In other words: 25 to 75 micrograms per day.
Janet Raloff Janet Raloff
Feb. 24, 2009 at 3:43pm
* It would be useful to know what the "high dose" that Ginde will be using for high-risk populations and how it compares to the 5 - 15 mcg (based on age) that NIH shows as Adequate Intakes (AIs) for Vitamin D (http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp).
Saturday, January 10, 2009
oxygen 7.oxy.111 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. Avalanches, vicious winds and sub-zero temperatures aren’t the only extremes endured by those who climb Mount Everest. Hypoxia, a lack of oxygen that can lead to cell death, also threatens. But a study of people ascending Mount Everest’s slopes suggests that some humans are especially tolerant of low oxygen levels, perhaps because their bodies use oxygen more efficiently. The findings, reported in the Jan. 8 New England Journal of Medicine, could inform the treatment of critically ill patients struggling to breathe in hospitals. http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.blog.ca
The new work reports the lowest recorded blood oxygen levels in a nonhibernating mammal. It is also one of the first analyses to come out of a much larger investigation of more than 200 people who made the trek to Everest in an effort to understand how the body adapts to low oxygen levels. http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.blog.ca
Patients suffering from cystic fibrosis, septic shock and other critical ailments often have severely low levels of blood oxygen. Treatment often involves administering oxygen with a mask, or mechanically ventilating the lungs, a harsh procedure that can do more harm than good, says Michael Grocott of University College London, lead author of the new study. But because the health of such patients is compromised and many variables are involved, studying the effect of low oxygen alone isn’t easy.
“So many things are going on that separating out oxygen is difficult,” says Grocott. Basic questions still loom, he says. “Why do some people adapt well while others seem to struggle?”
Typically studies of how the body responds to low levels of oxygen are conducted in a hypobaric chamber that simulates the effects of high altitudes. But Grocott’s team surmised that the expense and persuasion required to get 200 healthy people to sit in a metal box for three weeks might be skirted if those people could be convinced to climb the 5,300 meters to the Everest base camp. The Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition was born. In April and May of 2007 more than 200 people, age 18 to 73, made the trek, making themselves available to more than 60 doctors and scientists aiming to get at why some people fare better than others in the thin air at the tallest peak on Earth.
access
Enlargemagnify
TESTING THE ASCENTClimbers of Mount Everest stop at the Balcony (8,400 meters) to give blood samples to researchers. Data from this work show that people who can reach this altitude tolerate the lowest known blood oxygen levels observed in nonhibernating mammals.Caudwell Xtreme Everest
The research team sampled blood, analyzing oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, pH and concentrations of lactate and hemoglobin. Ten subjects were sampled in London (75 meters above sea level). Nine were sampled at the Everest base camp (5,300 m). These individuals, all healthy climbers, then tackled Everest’s southeast ridge. Small shelters were constructed along the route and blood was taken from climbers’ groin arteries. Samples were taken at Camp 2 (6,400 m), from six people at Camp 3 (7,100 m) and finally at what is known as the Balcony (8,400 m) from the four people who made it to the summit and were available for testing (8,848m). Samples taken higher than the base camp were quickly brought to a lab set up at Camp 2 for analysis. Bad weather prohibited taking samples at the summit.
Supplemental oxygen was used only at or above 7,100 m, but samples were only taken after people had been breathing the ambient air for several minutes or hours.
At the highest altitudes, the subjects showed an impressive adaptive response, says Grocott. Most people would pass out after two to three minutes in such altitudes, these climbers were not only conscious, but also clearly communicated by radio and performed complication-free sampling. The blood oxygen levels of the four tested climbers were startlingly low — the lowest a mere 19.1 millimeters mercury, the researchers report. In patients, levels below 60 mm Hg are cause for concern, Grocott says.
The findings suggest that the amount of oxygen alone isn’t the secret to physiological success. Other factors could be how much oxygen a person’s hemoglobin can carry, or the efficiency of the cellular factories known as mitochondria, which use the oxygen.
“There’s a significant possibility that some people may just be more efficient,” Grocott says.
Even among the four climbers tested at 8,400 meters, there was individual variation in measured variables such as blood oxygen levels and pH. This physiological variation among people fits with recent work done by Cynthia Beall of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
“This shows that healthy people have a huge range of variation in being able to respond to stress,” says Beall.
Her investigations of the physiology of Tibetans and other highlanders suggest that a major gene is involved in how much oxygen hemoglobin transport throughout the body. (The Everest team is also looking into the genetics of adaptation to high altitudes.)
Beall tips her hat to the field team. “To have the audacity to think about doing this work — and then to do it! I’m very impressed. The difficulty of taking the measurements alone, and adapting the equipment — they did a beautiful job.”
The results suggest that at high altitudes the problem isn’t the lack of oxygen, but the body’s ability to deliver and use it, comments Paul Firth of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. An analysis of mortality rates on Mount Everest by Firth and colleagues appeared in the British Medical Journal in December. “People don’t run out of gas,” he says, “the delivery deteriorates.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
The new work reports the lowest recorded blood oxygen levels in a nonhibernating mammal. It is also one of the first analyses to come out of a much larger investigation of more than 200 people who made the trek to Everest in an effort to understand how the body adapts to low oxygen levels. http://louis9j9sheehan9esquire.blog.ca
Patients suffering from cystic fibrosis, septic shock and other critical ailments often have severely low levels of blood oxygen. Treatment often involves administering oxygen with a mask, or mechanically ventilating the lungs, a harsh procedure that can do more harm than good, says Michael Grocott of University College London, lead author of the new study. But because the health of such patients is compromised and many variables are involved, studying the effect of low oxygen alone isn’t easy.
“So many things are going on that separating out oxygen is difficult,” says Grocott. Basic questions still loom, he says. “Why do some people adapt well while others seem to struggle?”
Typically studies of how the body responds to low levels of oxygen are conducted in a hypobaric chamber that simulates the effects of high altitudes. But Grocott’s team surmised that the expense and persuasion required to get 200 healthy people to sit in a metal box for three weeks might be skirted if those people could be convinced to climb the 5,300 meters to the Everest base camp. The Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition was born. In April and May of 2007 more than 200 people, age 18 to 73, made the trek, making themselves available to more than 60 doctors and scientists aiming to get at why some people fare better than others in the thin air at the tallest peak on Earth.
access
Enlargemagnify
TESTING THE ASCENTClimbers of Mount Everest stop at the Balcony (8,400 meters) to give blood samples to researchers. Data from this work show that people who can reach this altitude tolerate the lowest known blood oxygen levels observed in nonhibernating mammals.Caudwell Xtreme Everest
The research team sampled blood, analyzing oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, pH and concentrations of lactate and hemoglobin. Ten subjects were sampled in London (75 meters above sea level). Nine were sampled at the Everest base camp (5,300 m). These individuals, all healthy climbers, then tackled Everest’s southeast ridge. Small shelters were constructed along the route and blood was taken from climbers’ groin arteries. Samples were taken at Camp 2 (6,400 m), from six people at Camp 3 (7,100 m) and finally at what is known as the Balcony (8,400 m) from the four people who made it to the summit and were available for testing (8,848m). Samples taken higher than the base camp were quickly brought to a lab set up at Camp 2 for analysis. Bad weather prohibited taking samples at the summit.
Supplemental oxygen was used only at or above 7,100 m, but samples were only taken after people had been breathing the ambient air for several minutes or hours.
At the highest altitudes, the subjects showed an impressive adaptive response, says Grocott. Most people would pass out after two to three minutes in such altitudes, these climbers were not only conscious, but also clearly communicated by radio and performed complication-free sampling. The blood oxygen levels of the four tested climbers were startlingly low — the lowest a mere 19.1 millimeters mercury, the researchers report. In patients, levels below 60 mm Hg are cause for concern, Grocott says.
The findings suggest that the amount of oxygen alone isn’t the secret to physiological success. Other factors could be how much oxygen a person’s hemoglobin can carry, or the efficiency of the cellular factories known as mitochondria, which use the oxygen.
“There’s a significant possibility that some people may just be more efficient,” Grocott says.
Even among the four climbers tested at 8,400 meters, there was individual variation in measured variables such as blood oxygen levels and pH. This physiological variation among people fits with recent work done by Cynthia Beall of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
“This shows that healthy people have a huge range of variation in being able to respond to stress,” says Beall.
Her investigations of the physiology of Tibetans and other highlanders suggest that a major gene is involved in how much oxygen hemoglobin transport throughout the body. (The Everest team is also looking into the genetics of adaptation to high altitudes.)
Beall tips her hat to the field team. “To have the audacity to think about doing this work — and then to do it! I’m very impressed. The difficulty of taking the measurements alone, and adapting the equipment — they did a beautiful job.”
The results suggest that at high altitudes the problem isn’t the lack of oxygen, but the body’s ability to deliver and use it, comments Paul Firth of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. An analysis of mortality rates on Mount Everest by Firth and colleagues appeared in the British Medical Journal in December. “People don’t run out of gas,” he says, “the delivery deteriorates.” Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
earthquake 7.ear.0001002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Midstate quakes have area shook up
Sunday, December 28, 2008
BY LARA BRENCKLE
Of The Patriot-News
Maria Coole of Lancaster was home early Saturday watching a DVD of the mortuary-themed show "Six Feet Under" when she heard a "strange, roaring rumble" that "came from a little more than six feet under," she said. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
The noise sent Coole to her feet and her two dogs into a panic.
"I knew immediately it was an earthquake," Coole said. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
More than 1,000 people called the Lancaster County 911 center after the earthquake, which occurred just after midnight and was centered near the Salunga/Landisville area.
The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed a 3.3-magnitude quake. It could be felt as far west as Carlisle, as far east as Malvern in Chester County, north into Lebanon County and south into Maryland, according to the Geological Survey.
A dispatcher with the Lebanon County Emergency Management Agency said dispatchers there got a few calls from the Cornwall and South Lebanon Twp. areas.
A Cumberland County dispatcher said the center got at least one call from someone who felt it in the Mechanicsburg area, and at least one Harrisburg-area resident called The Patriot-News.
"I was really just unnerved," Coole said. "I wasn't frightened for my life, but I was unnerved for about an hour afterward."
This isn't the first time the midstate has felt the earth shaking this year.
In October, dozens of small earthquakes, averaging about 2.0 on the Richter scale, rattled Dillsburg and had residents wondering if their homes and businesses were safe.
A team of seismologists from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University came to the area to set up portable seismographs in backyards in hopes of recording more quakes or aftershocks.
Carroll Twp. and Dillsburg officials also organized a town meeting, attended by earth science and geological experts, to reassure residents that what they are feeling is perfectly normal for East Coast earthquakes, which are considerably less dramatic and damaging than those in California.
The cracking, roaring sound Coole heard is similar to the sounds Dillsburg residents experienced.
At the time, Charles Scharnberger, a retired professor of earth science from Millersville University, said it was possible Dillsburg could have a fault plane somewhere, or there was a large formation of diabase rock -- an ancient, rigid rock that fails explosively when it cracks -- nearby.
It usually takes a 4.0 on the Richter scale to crack pavement or rock, said John Costino, a technician with the observatory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. LARA BRENCKLE: 255-8154 or lbrenckle@patriot-news.com
ON THE WEB
U.S. Geological Survey map of Saturday's earthquake: earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/dyfi/events/us/2008bcah/us/index.html
©2009 Patriot-News
© 2009 PennLive.com All Rights Reserved. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Midstate quakes have area shook up
Sunday, December 28, 2008
BY LARA BRENCKLE
Of The Patriot-News
Maria Coole of Lancaster was home early Saturday watching a DVD of the mortuary-themed show "Six Feet Under" when she heard a "strange, roaring rumble" that "came from a little more than six feet under," she said. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
The noise sent Coole to her feet and her two dogs into a panic.
"I knew immediately it was an earthquake," Coole said. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com
More than 1,000 people called the Lancaster County 911 center after the earthquake, which occurred just after midnight and was centered near the Salunga/Landisville area.
The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed a 3.3-magnitude quake. It could be felt as far west as Carlisle, as far east as Malvern in Chester County, north into Lebanon County and south into Maryland, according to the Geological Survey.
A dispatcher with the Lebanon County Emergency Management Agency said dispatchers there got a few calls from the Cornwall and South Lebanon Twp. areas.
A Cumberland County dispatcher said the center got at least one call from someone who felt it in the Mechanicsburg area, and at least one Harrisburg-area resident called The Patriot-News.
"I was really just unnerved," Coole said. "I wasn't frightened for my life, but I was unnerved for about an hour afterward."
This isn't the first time the midstate has felt the earth shaking this year.
In October, dozens of small earthquakes, averaging about 2.0 on the Richter scale, rattled Dillsburg and had residents wondering if their homes and businesses were safe.
A team of seismologists from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University came to the area to set up portable seismographs in backyards in hopes of recording more quakes or aftershocks.
Carroll Twp. and Dillsburg officials also organized a town meeting, attended by earth science and geological experts, to reassure residents that what they are feeling is perfectly normal for East Coast earthquakes, which are considerably less dramatic and damaging than those in California.
The cracking, roaring sound Coole heard is similar to the sounds Dillsburg residents experienced.
At the time, Charles Scharnberger, a retired professor of earth science from Millersville University, said it was possible Dillsburg could have a fault plane somewhere, or there was a large formation of diabase rock -- an ancient, rigid rock that fails explosively when it cracks -- nearby.
It usually takes a 4.0 on the Richter scale to crack pavement or rock, said John Costino, a technician with the observatory.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. LARA BRENCKLE: 255-8154 or lbrenckle@patriot-news.com
ON THE WEB
U.S. Geological Survey map of Saturday's earthquake: earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/dyfi/events/us/2008bcah/us/index.html
©2009 Patriot-News
© 2009 PennLive.com All Rights Reserved. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Thursday, December 25, 2008
coal 3.coa.00020 midbrain Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire . By the age of 14 months, infants are masters of imitation. They mimic all sorts of behaviors, including laboratory antics such as touching one's forehead to a box that then lights up.
Babies on the brink of toddlerhood are not indiscriminate copycats, however. They sometimes opt for simpler ways to do what an adult shows them, signaling a budding capacity for evaluating the sensibility of others' behavior, according to a study in the Feb. 14 Nature.
Gy�rgy Gergely of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest and his colleagues studied 14 infants, all 14 months old, who watched a female experimenter perform the forehead-to-light-box trick under two conditions. In an initial series of trials, the woman pretended to be cold and executed the head action while her hands held a blanket around her. In a second set of trials, she performed the same head maneuver with no blanket, her hands resting next to the light box.http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com
When the woman's hands were occupied, only three infants reenacted her head action. When her hands were free, that number rose to 10. In both sets of trials, most of the infants who did not mimic the forehead-to-box action lit the box instead by touching it with their hands.
Infants opted for this simpler technique when they figured that the adult had a good reason�holding the blanket�for not using her hands on the box, the researchers theorize.http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com
This finding coincides with positron emission tomography data, published in the February NeuroReport, indicating that separate brain networks orchestrate the imitation of specific actions for achieving a goal versus the accomplishment of a goal by means of one's own choosing. As 10 men duplicated a series of actions by an experimenter arranging toy blocks, increased activity occurred uniquely in a frontal-brain area already implicated in making preparations for forthcoming actions. When the men built the same structure in their own way, however, activity increased primarily in a midbrain section involved in coordinating movements.
"Just as we distinguish between a person's goals and his or her technique for trying to reach those goals, the brain also separates means from goals," says study coauthor Andrew N. Meltzoff of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Babies on the brink of toddlerhood are not indiscriminate copycats, however. They sometimes opt for simpler ways to do what an adult shows them, signaling a budding capacity for evaluating the sensibility of others' behavior, according to a study in the Feb. 14 Nature.
Gy�rgy Gergely of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest and his colleagues studied 14 infants, all 14 months old, who watched a female experimenter perform the forehead-to-light-box trick under two conditions. In an initial series of trials, the woman pretended to be cold and executed the head action while her hands held a blanket around her. In a second set of trials, she performed the same head maneuver with no blanket, her hands resting next to the light box.http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com
When the woman's hands were occupied, only three infants reenacted her head action. When her hands were free, that number rose to 10. In both sets of trials, most of the infants who did not mimic the forehead-to-box action lit the box instead by touching it with their hands.
Infants opted for this simpler technique when they figured that the adult had a good reason�holding the blanket�for not using her hands on the box, the researchers theorize.http://louis2j2sheehan2esquire2.wordpress.com
This finding coincides with positron emission tomography data, published in the February NeuroReport, indicating that separate brain networks orchestrate the imitation of specific actions for achieving a goal versus the accomplishment of a goal by means of one's own choosing. As 10 men duplicated a series of actions by an experimenter arranging toy blocks, increased activity occurred uniquely in a frontal-brain area already implicated in making preparations for forthcoming actions. When the men built the same structure in their own way, however, activity increased primarily in a midbrain section involved in coordinating movements.
"Just as we distinguish between a person's goals and his or her technique for trying to reach those goals, the brain also separates means from goals," says study coauthor Andrew N. Meltzoff of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
avrocar 4.avr.00200 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Project Silverbug was a code name given to an experimental saucer-shaped aircraft in the 1950s built by Avro Aircraft Ltd. in Malton, Ontario, Canada for the US military. The high security surounding the project led to conjecture that the Americans were using the cover of Project Silverbug to test alien craft that they had captured.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Avro's Special Project Group
* 2 Project Y
* 3 US Military involvement
* 4 Project Y-2
* 5 Summary
* 6 External Links
* 7 Relevant Discussion Threads
Avro's Special Project Group
One of the key engineers at Avro Aircraft was John Carver Meadows "Jack" Frost who had joined Avro Canada (the commonly used name for the aircraft company) in June 1947 after working for several British firms. He had been with de Havilland since 1942 and had worked on the de Havilland Vampire jet fighter and the D.H.108 Swallow experimental supersonic aircraft. At Avro Canada, he had worked on the Avro CF-100 before starting on a flying disc design in a research team known as the "Special Projects Group."
Shortly after its formation, the Special Projects Group started researching vertical take-off and landing capability (VTOL) with emphasis on a paper study Frost had labelled the "pancake" engine, a jet turbine that had its main componets arranged in a circular design. From the outset, the Special Projects Group had a cloak-and-dagger feel to it. Housed in a Second World War-era structure, across from the company headquarters, the group had all the accoutrements of a top-secret operation, including security guards, locked doors and special pass cards. Within the confines of this technical fortress, Frost surrounded himself with a collection of like-minded dreamers and maverick engineers. There he encouraged close cooperation and, while ostensibly the boss, he was collegial and very much one of the boys.
Project Y
In 1952, the Avro Special Projects team began research and development work on a series of VTOL designs, known initially as "Project Y." The first of these proposed aircraft was a "spade-shaped" fighter intended to be powered by Frost’s revolutionary pancake engine. Named Project Y, this craft was designed to sit on its tail, and promised, in theory, at least, VTOL capabilities, climb rates to the tune of 100,000 feet per minute and speeds up to 1,500 mph. Project Y, funded by the company and the Canadian government, proceeded to the mock-up stage. By 1953, with the company having little more than a wooden mockup, paper drawings and promises to show for a $4-million (Cdn) outlay, a more critical eye was cast on the project. Not surprisingly, the plug got pulled when government funding from the Defence Research Board dried up.
US Military involvement
Frost wouldn't accept defeat; in addition to being a gifted designer, he was also a talented promoter and salesman. In late 1953, a group of U.S. defence experts visited Avro Canada to view the new CF-100 fighter jet. Somewhere along the way, Frost co-opted the tour and rerouted it to the Special Projects area where he proceeded to show off his mockup, models and drawings (some never before seen by senior company officials) for a completely circular disk-shaped aircraft known as "Project Y-2."
The USAF agreeing to take over funding for Frost's Special Projects Group and with American dollars rolling in, Project Y-2 received a new moniker -"Project 1794"- and a new lease on life. Frost and his team began pursuing a real flying saucer, one that would have advanced weapon systems and produce speeds in excess of Mach 2.
Project Y-2
Project Silver Bug was the American "Black" project version of the Avro Aircraft Canada Y-2 undertaken by the United States Air Force in 1953. Project Y-2 was begun by the Canadian John Frost, who was apparently in the loop on Nazi Saucer programs and was quite fascinated by them.{fact} It involved a "radial flow jet" engine design which was simply radical for the time. As late as 1976 people were copyrighting ideas essentially identical to this 1955 design (see US Patent # 4,193,568). This aircraft was listed as being capable of over 80,000 feet and Mach 3 and able to hover at up to 18,000 ft. without using afterburners. Due to newspaper leaks in the mid-'50s a cover story for the an earlier "Omega" program was leaked to "Look" magazine which, while broadly similar, disinformed the public as to the radical engine (substituting many small conventional jets for the single radial flow) and the control systems to be used.
Later in 1958 Avro Aircraft Ltd. was contracted to build a somewhat similar, small ground-cushion vehicle reminiscent of the "Look" magazine item for the USAF and US Army. I too am convinced that this "Avrocar" was constructed only for disinformation purposes while Y-2 went "Black" as a means of providing the US Gov't with "plausible deniability" and also the possibility of telling those who saw "flying saucers" that it was only that Avro vehicle.
At any rate, the Y-2 later Silver Bug item was an entirely other matter. It clearly DID go Black and the incredible performance projected by educated engineers for it really prove WHY it has been such a secret. The saucer shape give natural "all aspect" stealth, the radial flow engine was capable of producing incredible thrust in an aerodynamically appealing shape, and the vertical take off and landing abilities gave the US the possibility of underground basing. All of these features provided the possibility of "Cold War" winning technology in the 1950's! Clearly they didn't want the Soviets possessing any or suspecting their existence until they developed technology that could reasonably be expected to counter "stealth."
The strongest evidence that Avro built something to resemble Y-2 comes from 5.4 million dollars spent on Avro's own "Private Venture 704" including about 2 million dollars from the USA up to 1957. The Avrocar project was commenced after this time and used only 4 million or so to completion. Avro stated themselves that the first step in responding challenge of developing the Y-2 was to build the engine and the control duct system. Clearly this is where the first 5.4 million dollars went. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com With all that money came rumors and the Avrocar would be a great way to dispel them.
Meanwhile with the Avrocar, the project used a much less sophisticated arrangement in a much slower and lower flying design. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com It did prove the control system devised for the Y-2/PV 704/Silver Bug and provided publicly acceptable "proof" of the flying saucer design. It was also used to proved "proof" that the concept was UNFEASABLE!
The initial test flights revealed it was underpowered, unstable and could not transition to proper forward flight. Interestingly, recent films show the solved the instability problem. There is testimony on the record that they also finished doing modifications required to allow the craft to transition to forward flight (after which it was expected to be capable of 300 mph). http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com This is the date the US money disappeared and the project was terminated with all drawings, tooling, and flying examples taken to the USA. The examples at Wright Patterson and in the Smithsonian are NOT the final Avrocar version but early development models that were far from successful. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Avro's Special Project Group
* 2 Project Y
* 3 US Military involvement
* 4 Project Y-2
* 5 Summary
* 6 External Links
* 7 Relevant Discussion Threads
Avro's Special Project Group
One of the key engineers at Avro Aircraft was John Carver Meadows "Jack" Frost who had joined Avro Canada (the commonly used name for the aircraft company) in June 1947 after working for several British firms. He had been with de Havilland since 1942 and had worked on the de Havilland Vampire jet fighter and the D.H.108 Swallow experimental supersonic aircraft. At Avro Canada, he had worked on the Avro CF-100 before starting on a flying disc design in a research team known as the "Special Projects Group."
Shortly after its formation, the Special Projects Group started researching vertical take-off and landing capability (VTOL) with emphasis on a paper study Frost had labelled the "pancake" engine, a jet turbine that had its main componets arranged in a circular design. From the outset, the Special Projects Group had a cloak-and-dagger feel to it. Housed in a Second World War-era structure, across from the company headquarters, the group had all the accoutrements of a top-secret operation, including security guards, locked doors and special pass cards. Within the confines of this technical fortress, Frost surrounded himself with a collection of like-minded dreamers and maverick engineers. There he encouraged close cooperation and, while ostensibly the boss, he was collegial and very much one of the boys.
Project Y
In 1952, the Avro Special Projects team began research and development work on a series of VTOL designs, known initially as "Project Y." The first of these proposed aircraft was a "spade-shaped" fighter intended to be powered by Frost’s revolutionary pancake engine. Named Project Y, this craft was designed to sit on its tail, and promised, in theory, at least, VTOL capabilities, climb rates to the tune of 100,000 feet per minute and speeds up to 1,500 mph. Project Y, funded by the company and the Canadian government, proceeded to the mock-up stage. By 1953, with the company having little more than a wooden mockup, paper drawings and promises to show for a $4-million (Cdn) outlay, a more critical eye was cast on the project. Not surprisingly, the plug got pulled when government funding from the Defence Research Board dried up.
US Military involvement
Frost wouldn't accept defeat; in addition to being a gifted designer, he was also a talented promoter and salesman. In late 1953, a group of U.S. defence experts visited Avro Canada to view the new CF-100 fighter jet. Somewhere along the way, Frost co-opted the tour and rerouted it to the Special Projects area where he proceeded to show off his mockup, models and drawings (some never before seen by senior company officials) for a completely circular disk-shaped aircraft known as "Project Y-2."
The USAF agreeing to take over funding for Frost's Special Projects Group and with American dollars rolling in, Project Y-2 received a new moniker -"Project 1794"- and a new lease on life. Frost and his team began pursuing a real flying saucer, one that would have advanced weapon systems and produce speeds in excess of Mach 2.
Project Y-2
Project Silver Bug was the American "Black" project version of the Avro Aircraft Canada Y-2 undertaken by the United States Air Force in 1953. Project Y-2 was begun by the Canadian John Frost, who was apparently in the loop on Nazi Saucer programs and was quite fascinated by them.{fact} It involved a "radial flow jet" engine design which was simply radical for the time. As late as 1976 people were copyrighting ideas essentially identical to this 1955 design (see US Patent # 4,193,568). This aircraft was listed as being capable of over 80,000 feet and Mach 3 and able to hover at up to 18,000 ft. without using afterburners. Due to newspaper leaks in the mid-'50s a cover story for the an earlier "Omega" program was leaked to "Look" magazine which, while broadly similar, disinformed the public as to the radical engine (substituting many small conventional jets for the single radial flow) and the control systems to be used.
Later in 1958 Avro Aircraft Ltd. was contracted to build a somewhat similar, small ground-cushion vehicle reminiscent of the "Look" magazine item for the USAF and US Army. I too am convinced that this "Avrocar" was constructed only for disinformation purposes while Y-2 went "Black" as a means of providing the US Gov't with "plausible deniability" and also the possibility of telling those who saw "flying saucers" that it was only that Avro vehicle.
At any rate, the Y-2 later Silver Bug item was an entirely other matter. It clearly DID go Black and the incredible performance projected by educated engineers for it really prove WHY it has been such a secret. The saucer shape give natural "all aspect" stealth, the radial flow engine was capable of producing incredible thrust in an aerodynamically appealing shape, and the vertical take off and landing abilities gave the US the possibility of underground basing. All of these features provided the possibility of "Cold War" winning technology in the 1950's! Clearly they didn't want the Soviets possessing any or suspecting their existence until they developed technology that could reasonably be expected to counter "stealth."
The strongest evidence that Avro built something to resemble Y-2 comes from 5.4 million dollars spent on Avro's own "Private Venture 704" including about 2 million dollars from the USA up to 1957. The Avrocar project was commenced after this time and used only 4 million or so to completion. Avro stated themselves that the first step in responding challenge of developing the Y-2 was to build the engine and the control duct system. Clearly this is where the first 5.4 million dollars went. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com With all that money came rumors and the Avrocar would be a great way to dispel them.
Meanwhile with the Avrocar, the project used a much less sophisticated arrangement in a much slower and lower flying design. http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com It did prove the control system devised for the Y-2/PV 704/Silver Bug and provided publicly acceptable "proof" of the flying saucer design. It was also used to proved "proof" that the concept was UNFEASABLE!
The initial test flights revealed it was underpowered, unstable and could not transition to proper forward flight. Interestingly, recent films show the solved the instability problem. There is testimony on the record that they also finished doing modifications required to allow the craft to transition to forward flight (after which it was expected to be capable of 300 mph). http://34819louis0j0sheehan0esquire.wordpress.com This is the date the US money disappeared and the project was terminated with all drawings, tooling, and flying examples taken to the USA. The examples at Wright Patterson and in the Smithsonian are NOT the final Avrocar version but early development models that were far from successful. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
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