Extreme Genital Mutilation to Keep Women 'Pure' on Retreat in Somaliland

An increased understanding of the severe health risks of extreme forms of female genital mutilation is now gradually rolling back the prevalence of a ritual supposed to keep women 'pure' in Somalia's northwest.

In the self-declared Somali republic of Somaliland, most women over 25 have undergone the most extreme form of FGM, known as "pharaonic". This entails removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, cutting out flesh from the vulva and sewing up the outer labia, leaving only a tiny orifice for the passage of urine and menstrual flow.

The procedure is normally done with a razor blade when the girl is between 5 and 11 years old, and without any pain killers. They remain sewn up until marriage, at which point they are either opened up during sex -- causing pain and distress to both partners -- or cut open with scissors.

"I cut girls for 15 years. My grandmother and mother taught me how and it was a source of income for me -- but I stopped doing any cutting four years ago," recounted Amran Mahmood.

"I decided to stop because of the problems. The worst time was when I was cutting a girl and she started bleeding. I injected the muscle to stop the bleeding and I cleaned the area and she kept on bleeding."

As well as social status, being a so-called "cutter" brought in good money. Cutting one girl takes 30 minutes and brings in between $30 and $50, a large sum of money for Somaliland.

Amran's own daughter was cut, but she swears her granddaughters will not undergo the full procedure.

After attending awareness programmes organised by Tostan, an anti-FGM NGO financed by the UN children's agency UNICEF, Amran has become an anti-cutting advocate.

- 'Things are changing' -

The medical consequences of the stitching -- urine retention, blocking of menstrual flow, pain, bleeding, infection and childbirth complications -- have brought the practice into disrepute.

In the urban setting of Hargeysa at least, the generation who are adolescents today have largely abandoned it in favour of less extreme forms, which still involve the removal of the clitoris.

Their mothers, mindful of the pain they themselves have endured, support the change.

"Things are changing. There are now men willing to marry uncut girls," said village headman Mohamed Said Mohamed, a Muslim like most in Somalia, sporting a greying beard and a traditional sarong.

"I am totally against cutting. It is not accepted by our religion."

FGM is concentrated in some 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, according to the World Health Organization which says cutting has no health benefits and brands the practice a violation of human rights. It says more than 125 million girls and women today have undergone the procedure, whose roots are a mix of cultural, social and supposedly religious factors.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to eliminate FGM in December 2012.

At Sheikh Nuur primary school the girls sit on one side of the classroom in long beige skirts topped off by a black hijab, the boys on the other in beige trousers and white shirts.

"People are beginning to see how dangerous the extreme form is," said 14-year-old Sagal Abdulrahman, a slim, articulate and slightly solemn girl.

"The first type involved stitches, and is the painful one, because there are many times when the woman gives birth and has pain. And ? when she has her period, it causes pain. The second type is not that painful," said her classmate Asma Ibrahim Jibril.

"I'm very happy because my parents chose the less severe one, and I was very OK with that. And I won?t face the painful things that would come in the future," she said.

- Islamic jurisprudence -

For Charity Koronya, a UNICEF protection officer, all forms of FGM must be stopped.

"To me total abandonment is the key because even if it is just a small cut it is still a violation," she said, explaining that she herself comes from a Kenyan tribe that practices the clitoridectomy form of FGM.

She escaped the practice because her father, who travelled outside their home district for his work, refused it.

The issue of whether of whether Islamic law requires FGM is the subject of much discussion, with several clerics admitting they themselves are confused.

"Completely stopping FGM is not going to work in our country," Abu Hureyra, a local religious leader taking part in a roundtable said, "but we are in favour of stopping the extreme type."

"There are doctors who say cutting is good for a woman's health," insisted Mohamed Jama, an elder from Somaliland's religious affairs ministry.

"If you cut a woman you are killing her," countered a younger leader Rahman Yusuf.

Other clerics seemed puzzled, saying they had consulted experts in Islamic law in Saudi Arabia and Qatar only to receive contradictory responses.

For Koronya the mere fact that the practice is now being discussed in public was a victory.

"Initially it was difficult to discuss FGM in public. Today religious leaders, women's leaders talk about it and even talk about the link between FGM and sexuality," she said.

"Having public discussions about FGM is a big step forward."

 Source:UNICEF

 

Researchers Find Deadly Malaria Parasite of Humans Came from Africa, Not Asia

An international team of scientists has traced the origin of Plasmodium vivax, the second-worst malaria parasite of humans, to Africa, according to a study published this week in Nature Communications. Until recently, the closest genetic relatives of human P. vivax were found only in Asian macaques, leading researchers to believe that P. vivax originated in Asia.

The study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, found that wild-living apes in central Africa are widely infected with parasites that, genetically, are nearly identical to human P. vivax.

This finding overturns the dogma that P. vivax originated in Asia, despite being most prevalent in humans there now, and also solves other vexing questions about P. vivax infection: how a mutation conferring resistance to P. vivax occurs at high frequency in the very region where this parasite seems absent and how travelers returning from regions where almost all humans lack the receptor for P. vivax can be infected with this parasite.

Of Ape and Human Parasites

Members of the labs of Beatrice Hahn, MD, and George Shaw, MD, PhD, both professors of Medicine and Microbiology at Penn, in collaboration with Paul Sharp, PhD, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Edinburgh, and Martine Peeters, PhD, a microbiologist from the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement and the University of Montpellier, tested over 5,000 ape fecal samples from dozens of field stations and sanctuaries in Africa for P. vivax DNA. They found P. vivax-like sequences in chimpanzees, in western and eastern gorillas, but not in bonobos. Ape P. vivax was highly prevalent in wild communities, exhibiting infection rates consistent with stable transmission of the parasite within the wild apes.

Ape P. vivax infects both gorillas and chimpanzees, unlike the ape precursor of P. falciparum, the deadliest human malaria parasite, which only infects gorillas. The origin of P. falciparum in gorillas was discovered several years ago by the same international group of investigators. The team continued its widespread screen of malaria parasite DNA in wild-living primates, and noted that P. vivax was also endemic in gorillas and chimpanzees in central Africa.

To examine the evolutionary relationships between ape and human parasites, the team generated parasite DNA sequences from wild and sanctuary apes, as well as from a global sampling of human P. vivax infections. They constructed a family tree of the sequences and found that ape and human parasites were very closely related. But ape parasites were more diverse than the human parasites and did not group according to their host species. In contrast, the human parasites formed a single lineage that fell within the branches of ape parasite sequences.
Source: Nature

Rare Undersea Discovery Could Extend Your Life by 10, 20 or 30 Years

Rare Undersea Discovery Could Extend Your Life by 10, 20 or 30 Years
One of today's biggest killers is heart disease, and specifically high blood pressure. It’s a slow, but efficient killer that robs many people of what should be the last 10, 20 or 30 years of their lives.
Part of the reason that heart disease is so prevalent and intractable is that it often requires massive changes to one’s lifestyle— everything from radically altering ones diet to implementing serious exercise routines.  These changes aren't easy, and people often realize the true danger only when it’s too late.
Now, however, scientists are claiming that they have isolated unusual ingredients that have the ability to restore blood pressure to normal levels.
Dr. Haengwoo Lee, a renowned biochemist living near Seattle, Washington conducted a massive 15 year, multimillion dollar clinical study on these two ingredients. The first is Seanol, an extremely rare seaweed extract from Ecklonia Cava that's proven to be 100 times more powerful than any land-based antioxidant. It's also the only FDA-approved Ecklonia Cava marine-algae extract in existence.
The second ingredient is Calamarine, a deep-sea omega-3 discovery that delivers 85% more DHA omega-3s to your heart, brain, joints, and eyes. It's known to combat everything from fatigue and poor memory, to vision problems, joint pain, mood swings and depression.
Dr. Lee combined Seanol and Calamarine with a high dose of vitamin D to form Marine-D3, the newest supplement in the fight against age-related illnesses and high blood pressure.
According to the CDC, about 1 in 3 U.S. adults has high blood pressure, which increases the risk for heart disease and stroke, the two leading causes of death in the United States. Increasing your omega-3 intake can reduce high blood pressure, and Calamarine delivers some of the greatest concentration of omega-3s known to science. Plus, it's formulated without any fishy burps or aftertaste. Combined with Seanol's ability to reduce body inflammation, as well as help cells get the nutrients they need to thrive, stay healthy and protected, Marine-D3 is able to boost a body's entire well being.

The statements and claims made about this product have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (U.S.). This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.

Source:Collective Evolution

How We Can All Use Our Breath To Awaken To Who We Really Are

More than ever, awakening to ‘who we really are’ is important not just for ourselves but for society and the world. It is quite clear that we cannot solve the problems we face today with the very same unconscious, manipulative mind that created them in the first place.” –Dennis LewisbookcoverI heard Dennis Lewis, the author of Breathe into Being, say during an interview on YouTube something quite profound, but rarely noticed by most human beings: our very first act upon entering the world is to take a breath and our final act upon death is to exhale breath. The fact that this singular act of breathing bookends our life makes it worthy of getting to know it better, does it not?Indeed, this movement of drawing in and exhaling life-giving breath is something we experience non-stop throughout our entire existence. Yet, just how mindful are we of something that happens to our body 17,280 times per day (12 breaths per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 24 hours in a day), every single day of our lives!? For most of us, the answer is, not very. Why? Because breathing takes no conscious effort on our part; it simply happens, thankfully, automatically. Says Dennis:

    “You can check in on your breathing any time at all, since you are always being breathed now, and ponder for a moment this essential miracle of yourself, the miracle of being itself breathing.”

Notice the last three words of the sentence: “being itself breathing.” Most of us never stop to consider what actually POWERS the mechanical act of breathing—it is simply taken for granted. By becoming silent, and tuning into our body, we can notice that our body is indeed being breathed. To further explain this, here’s an excerpt from the book:

    Looking toward the No-Thing that You Are

   “The awareness of the ‘breath of life’ as it moves through us draws us immediately (if we pay attention) toward something far greater than the paltry little mental, emotional, or physical ‘I’ that we habitually call ourselves. By spending several minutes each day directing your attention inward toward the underlying energies of the ‘breath of life’—including the physical movements of inhalation, exhalation, and the brief but natural resting place before the next inhalation—you will become quieter inside and more present to yourself as you are. This will enable you to look even deeper inside toward the ‘no-thing’ that you are in your very essence. It will enable you to look toward what you experience when you are zero distance from yourself, toward the silent, spacious receptivity, the pure, impartial awareness, that lies at the heart of being—the simple, undefined, unqualified, I AM. Can you experience this right now as you follow your exhalations and inhalations for at least five minutes?”The above quote by Dennis points out that there is something much deeper at work here. That this mysterious invisible force that “breathes us” is in fact responsible for animating the entire universe and every single movement within it! It is easy to forget this as we go about our day-to-day activities. And yet, without this Life force, Life would not exist. Without the formless, there could be no form, for we live in a world of duality. And yet, most everyone is so focused on form, that the formless, the Source, goes virtually unnoticed.And yet, in my own experience, the desire to try to explain the mystery drops away by itself the more one abides in it. It’s as if you see all questions are from the mind, and thus can only lead you to more questions; it’s endless. Mind can never know it’s source, just like a wave can never “know” the ocean. Instead, when the mind is relaxed, a higher power, call it intuition, is discovered.One discovers that this intuitive knowing is ALWAYS in harmony with Life’s natural flow, and so we begin to awaken and to trust it. As this happens, the limitations and falseness of the beliefs we used to hold to explain events and people becomes more obvious to us, and they begin to fall away. As this happens, our true Self begins to shine through, revealing a peace and happiness that is causeless because it is not dependent on outside circumstances.
“Instead of seeing and welcoming the world as it is, we generally either reject what is in favor of what we believe should be; or we entangle it so deeply in our self-serving stories that what actually is remains hidden from us at the deepest levels.” –Dennis LewisAnother observation by Dennis in the book is that before we are able to take a new, fresh breath, we first must completely empty ourselves of our “old” breath. Out with the old, in with the new. This process is not confined to our breathing, but our thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes as well. To take on a new, more empowering belief, we must first let go of our old ones that no longer serve us.Eckhart Tolle, on several occasions, has talked about the breath being a portal into the now. Why? Because breathing always takes place in the only place it can: now! So, by tuning into our breath, we automatically leave the noisy mind (which is always focused on the past or future) and become present. Through repetition and self-awareness, like any skill, we can become better at learning to be more present. And our breath is always available to help us do this.
“It is not a matter of knowing something deeper about ourselves but rather of experiencing the mystery of ourselves as completely unknown—the miracle of awakeness itself.” –Dennis Lewis

Final Thoughts
After reading this little 115 page book (which is broken up into many short, easy to read chapters, approximately one per page), you will never look at your breath in quite the same way. What sets Breathe into Being by Dennis Lewis apart from other books on “breath-work” is that it focuses on the inherent mystical aspect of our breath. In other words, you may have picked up the book in order to become more aware of your breath, but by the time you put it down you realize it is not your breath at all… it’s God’s breath! And this powerful realization profoundly changes the way you view yourself, the world, and your fellow-man. Unity goes from being a nice concept, to what has always been the case, but was simply not noticed because we were so caught up in our thoughts, and so felt separate from everything else. Our breath becomes our ever-present portal back home to the Infinite.
Source:Collective Evolution

More than ever, awakening to ‘who we really are’ is important not just for ourselves but for society and the world. It is quite clear that we cannot solve the problems we face today with the very same unconscious, manipulative mind that created them in the first place.” –Dennis Lewis

I heard Dennis Lewis, the author of Breathe into Being, say during an interview on YouTube something quite profound, but rarely noticed by most human beings: our very first act upon entering the world is to take a breath and our final act upon death is to exhale breath. The fact that this singular act of breathing bookends our life makes it worthy of getting to know it better, does it not?

Indeed, this movement of drawing in and exhaling life-giving breath is something we experience non-stop throughout our entire existence. Yet, just how mindful are we of something that happens to our body 17,280 times per day (12 breaths per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 24 hours in a day), every single day of our lives!? For most of us, the answer is, not very. Why? Because breathing takes no conscious effort on our part; it simply happens, thankfully, automatically. Says Dennis:

“You can check in on your breathing any time at all, since you are always being breathed now, and ponder for a moment this essential miracle of yourself, the miracle of being itself breathing.”

Notice the last three words of the sentence: “being itself breathing.” Most of us never stop to consider what actually POWERS the mechanical act of breathing—it is simply taken for granted. By becoming silent, and tuning into our body, we can notice that our body is indeed being breathed. To further explain this, here’s an excerpt from the book:

Looking toward the No-Thing that You Are

“The awareness of the ‘breath of life’ as it moves through us draws us immediately (if we pay attention) toward something far greater than the paltry little mental, emotional, or physical ‘I’ that we habitually call ourselves. By spending several minutes each day directing your attention inward toward the underlying energies of the ‘breath of life’—including the physical movements of inhalation, exhalation, and the brief but natural resting place before the next inhalation—you will become quieter inside and more present to yourself as you are. This will enable you to look even deeper inside toward the ‘no-thing’ that you are in your very essence. It will enable you to look toward what you experience when you are zero distance from yourself, toward the silent, spacious receptivity, the pure, impartial awareness, that lies at the heart of being—the simple, undefined, unqualified, I AM. Can you experience this right now as you follow your exhalations and inhalations for at least five minutes?”

The above quote by Dennis points out that there is something much deeper at work here. That this mysterious invisible force that “breathes us” is in fact responsible for animating the entire universe and every single movement within it! It is easy to forget this as we go about our day-to-day activities. And yet, without this Life force, Life would not exist. Without the formless, there could be no form, for we live in a world of duality. And yet, most everyone is so focused on form, that the formless, the Source, goes virtually unnoticed.

And yet, in my own experience, the desire to try to explain the mystery drops away by itself the more one abides in it. It’s as if you see all questions are from the mind, and thus can only lead you to more questions; it’s endless. Mind can never know it’s source, just like a wave can never “know” the ocean. Instead, when the mind is relaxed, a higher power, call it intuition, is discovered.

One discovers that this intuitive knowing is ALWAYS in harmony with Life’s natural flow, and so we begin to awaken and to trust it. As this happens, the limitations and falseness of the beliefs we used to hold to explain events and people becomes more obvious to us, and they begin to fall away. As this happens, our true Self begins to shine through, revealing a peace and happiness that is causeless because it is not dependent on outside circumstances.

“Instead of seeing and welcoming the world as it is, we generally either reject what is in favor of what we believe should be; or we entangle it so deeply in our self-serving stories that what actually is remains hidden from us at the deepest levels.” –Dennis Lewis

Another observation by Dennis in the book is that before we are able to take a new, fresh breath, we first must completely empty ourselves of our “old” breath. Out with the old, in with the new. This process is not confined to our breathing, but our thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes as well. To take on a new, more empowering belief, we must first let go of our old ones that no longer serve us.

Eckhart Tolle, on several occasions, has talked about the breath being a portal into the now. Why? Because breathing always takes place in the only place it can: now! So, by tuning into our breath, we automatically leave the noisy mind (which is always focused on the past or future) and become present. Through repetition and self-awareness, like any skill, we can become better at learning to be more present. And our breath is always available to help us do this.

“It is not a matter of knowing something deeper about ourselves but rather of experiencing the mystery of ourselves as completely unknown—the miracle of awakeness itself.” –Dennis Lewis

Final Thoughts
After reading this little 115 page book (which is broken up into many short, easy to read chapters, approximately one per page), you will never look at your breath in quite the same way. What sets Breathe into Being by Dennis Lewis apart from other books on “breath-work” is that it focuses on the inherent mystical aspect of our breath. In other words, you may have picked up the book in order to become more aware of your breath, but by the time you put it down you realize it is not your breath at all… it’s God’s breath! And this powerful realization profoundly changes the way you view yourself, the world, and your fellow-man. Unity goes from being a nice concept, to what has always been the case, but was simply not noticed because we were so caught up in our thoughts, and so felt separate from everything else. Our breath becomes our ever-present portal back home to the Infinite.

- See more at: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/01/14/how-we-can-all-use-our-breath-to-awaken-to-who-we-really-are/#sthash.IGutGEmf.dpuf

How to Decalcify Your Pineal Gland

Calcification of the pineal gland is more often found in adults than it is in younger people. This is due to the fact that over time, calcium builds up in the gland and slowly breaks down the ability for the gland to rid the excess calcium. Although calcification rates vary by country, it might be that in countries where fluoride is added to the water supply, higher rates of pineal gland calcification exists. It has been discovered that fluoride tends to build up in the pineal gland which greatly contributes to the calcification.

Considering Fluoride used in water fluoridation and toothpaste is not not necessary for healthy teeth, and considering it is toxic waste from fertilizer and aluminum creation, it would be drastically healthier for you to avoid consuming it. For Details Watch this Video:

not necessary for healthy teeth, and considering it is toxic waste from fertilizer and aluminum creation, it would be drastically healthier for you to avoid consuming it. You can learn more about fluoride by reading any one of the following articles.
Article 1 Article 2 Article 3

Below I have shared a video on how to decalcify the pineal gland, feel free to check it out. The video also shares information about why you would benefit from keeping your pineal gland clean and decalcified. The benefits stretch from overall health to spiritual. Share this info with others!

- See more at: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/03/29/how-to-decalcify-your-pineal-gland/#sthash.4ZWe8uZ6.dpuf

Calcification of the pineal gland is more often found in adults than it is in younger people. This is due to the fact that over time, calcium builds up in the gland and slowly breaks down the ability for the gland to rid the excess calcium. Although calcification rates vary by country, it might be that in countries where fluoride is added to the water supply, higher rates of pineal gland calcification exists. It has been discovered that fluoride tends to build up in the pineal gland which greatly contributes to the calcification.[2]

Considering Fluoride used in water fluoridation and toothpaste is not necessary for healthy teeth, and considering it is toxic waste from fertilizer and aluminum creation, it would be drastically healthier for you to avoid consuming it. You can lea
- See more at: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/03/29/how-to-decalcify-your-pineal-gland/#sthash.4ZWe8uZ6.dpuf

Calcification of the pineal gland is more often found in adults than it is in younger people. This is due to the fact that over time, calcium builds up in the gland and slowly breaks down the ability for the gland to rid the excess calcium. Although calcification rates vary by country, it might be that in countries where fluoride is added to the water supply, higher rates of pineal gland calcification exists. It has been discovered that fluoride tends to build up in the pineal gland which greatly contributes to the calcification.[2]

Considering Fluoride used in water fluoridation and toothpaste is not necessary for healthy teeth, and considering it is toxic waste from fertilizer and aluminum creation, it would be drastically healthier for you to avoid consuming it. You can learn more about fluoride by reading any one of the following articles.
Article 1 Article 2 Article 3

Below I have shared a video on how to decalcify the pineal gland, feel free to check it out. The video also shares information about why you would benefit from keeping your pineal gland clean and decalcified. The benefits stretch from overall health to spiritual. Share this info with others!

- See more at: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/03/29/how-to-decalcify-your-pineal-gland/#sthash.4ZWe8uZ6.dpuf

Calcification of the pineal gland is more often found in adults than it is in younger people. This is due to the fact that over time, calcium builds up in the gland and slowly breaks down the ability for the gland to rid the excess calcium. Although calcification rates vary by country, it might be that in countries where fluoride is added to the water supply, higher rates of pineal gland calcification exists. It has been discovered that fluoride tends to build up in the pineal gland which greatly contributes to the calcification.[2]

Considering Fluoride used in water fluoridation and toothpaste is not necessary for healthy teeth, and considering it is toxic waste from fertilizer and aluminum creation, it would be drastically healthier for you to avoid consuming it. You can learn more about fluoride by reading any one of the following articles.
Article 1 Article 2 Article 3

Below I have shared a video on how to decalcify the pineal gland, feel free to check it out. The video also shares information about why you would benefit from keeping your pineal gland clean and decalcified. The benefits stretch from overall health to spiritual. Share this info with others!

- See more at: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/03/29/how-to-decalcify-your-pineal-gland/#sthash.4ZWe8uZ6.dpuf

Calcification of the pineal gland is more often found in adults than it is in younger people. This is due to the fact that over time, calcium builds up in the gland and slowly breaks down the ability for the gland to rid the excess calcium. Although calcification rates vary by country, it might be that in countries where fluoride is added to the water supply, higher rates of pineal gland calcification exists. It has been discovered that fluoride tends to build up in the pineal gland which greatly contributes to the calcification.[2]

Considering Fluoride used in water fluoridation and toothpaste is not necessary for healthy teeth, and considering it is toxic waste from fertilizer and aluminum creation, it would be drastically healthier for you to avoid consuming it. You can learn more about fluoride by reading any one of the following articles.
Article 1 Article 2 Article 3

Below I have shared a video on how to decalcify the pineal gland, feel free to check it out. The video also shares information about why you would benefit from keeping your pineal gland clean and decalcified. The benefits stretch from overall health to spiritual. Share this info with others!

- See more at: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/03/29/how-to-decalcify-your-pineal-gland/#sthash.4ZWe8uZ6.dpuf

Researchers Identify Genetic Alteration That Drives Development of Childhood Brain Tumor

Researchers working with the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital-Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project have identified the most common genetic alteration found in brain tumor ependymoma and have also found that this alteration plays an important role in the tumor development, a new study published in the online edition of Nature reveals.
The results provide a foundation for new research to improve diagnosis and treatment of ependymoma, the third most common brain tumor in children. St. Jude has begun work to translate the discovery into new treatments for a disease that remains incurable in 40 percent of young patients. The findings should also aid efforts to understand and intervene against other cancers, including adult tumors. 
The newly discovered alteration involves a gene named RELA. The gene plays a pivotal role in the NF-•B pathway, a signaling system in cells that regulates inflammation. Researchers have long recognized that this pathway is inappropriately switched on in many adult tumors.  This study marks the first time scientists have found a repeated mistake—a gene alteration-in the central part of the pathway in brain cancer.

In this study, 70 percent of young patients with ependymomas in the front part of the brain carried the RELA alteration and few other genetic changes. The alteration was not found in ependymomas in other regions of the brain.

"In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that a frequent mutation in the heart of the NF-•B pathway is sufficient to transform normal brain cells into cancer cells and drive tumor development," said co-corresponding author Richard Gilbertson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center. "This should help us to understand how abnormal NF-•B activity drives cancer and to develop new treatments to block that activity."

The alteration fuses RELA with parts of another gene, C11orf95, in a process called translocation. The translocation produces abnormal proteins that rapidly cause fatal brain tumors in mice. These tumors resembled the human disease.

"This is an exciting finding, not only for understanding the biology of a rare and particularly devastating childhood brain cancer, but also for understanding how it might be effectively treated," said co-author Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

St. Jude is now leading an international study to determine if the C11orf95-RELA translocation might help predict the outcome for ependymoma patients. St. Jude has also developed a test to identify tumors that carry the translocation. Co-corresponding author David Ellison, M.D., Ph.D., St. Jude Department of Pathology chair, led that effort.

An analytic tool called CICERO developed by St. Jude researchers played a key role in identifying the translocation. Co-corresponding author Jinghui Zhang, Ph.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Computational Biology, led the team that developed CICERO.

Finding the translocation required sifting through 246 billion pieces of genetic information that contain the complete genetic code of the tumor as well as the normal DNA from 41 young patients with ependymoma. The researchers also studied the RNA in 77 ependymomas. The DNA in cells contains the code for each gene, while RNA transmits this information to the part of the cell that makes proteins. By sequencing both the DNA and RNA, scientists can see which genes are turned on and are making abnormal products such as the RELA translocation.

Using CICERO, researchers found abnormalities in RNA that led them to the C11orf95-RELA translocation. The fusion gene was created when a piece of chromosome 11 that houses both the C11orf95 and RELA genes was shattered and incorrectly reassembled.

The result is one of the most commonly occurring translocations ever reported in brain tumors. Of the 41 ependymomas in this study that began in the front part of the brain, 29 tumors had the translocation and made RELA fusion proteins. "The fact the alteration results in abnormal proteins offers a potential new therapeutic target, which is significant for ependymoma," Gilbertson said.

Researchers are working to understand how the fusion proteins cause cancer. Evidence suggests that C11orf95 plays a key role by altering the way that RELA moves through the cell and performs its normal functions. Investigators also discovered translocations involving other genes that appear to drive ependymoma.

The study was part of the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, which has sequenced the complete normal and tumor genomes of 700 young cancer patients. The project was launched in 2010 to harness advances in genome sequencing technology to improve understanding and treatment of some of the most aggressive and least understood childhood cancers.

Source:Nature

Boosting Brain Power Through a Video?

The brain's structure, plasticity and motor skills may be boosted by watching a video of simple tasks before actually carrying them out, a new study revealed. Brain plasticity is the brain''s ability to flex and adapt, allowing for better learning. The brain loses plasticity as it ages.
 For the study, 36 right-handed healthy adults participated in 40-minute training sessions five times a week for two weeks. Half the group watched videos of a specific task, such as writing with a pen, cutting with scissors or handling coins, then were asked to complete the task themselves. The other half watched videos of landscapes and then were asked to complete the same tasks.

At the start of the study and again two weeks later, the groups were tested for strength and hand skills, and also underwent 3-D MRI brain scans. Scientists looked at brain volume changes in both groups.

The study found that the group who completed the training along with watching the activity videos had 11 times greater improvement of motor skill abilities, mainly in terms of strength, compared to those who watched the landscape videos.

"Our study lends credence to the idea that even as an adult, your brain is able to better learn skills just by watching the activity take place. With a dramatic increase of videos available through mobile phones, computers, and other newer technology, this topic should be the focus of more research," said study author Paolo Preziosa, MD, with San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy. "The results might also contribute to reducing disability and improving quality of those who are impaired or who are undergoing physical rehabilitation."

The study was supported by the Italian Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 27,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer''s disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, Parkinson''s disease and epilepsy.
Source:American Academy of Neurology,
 

Hypnosis therapy shown to decrease fatigue levels in breast cancer patients

Researchers at Mount Sinai find cognitive behavioral therapy plus hypnosis reduces fatigue in radiotherapy breast cancer patients

Breast cancer patients receiving radiotherapy showed decreased fatigue as a result of cognitive behavioral therapy plus hypnosis (CBTH), according to a study recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The study, titled, "Randomized Controlled Trial of a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Plus Hypnosis Intervention to Control Fatigue in Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer," was led by Guy Montgomery, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of the Integrative Behavioral Medicine Program in the Department of Oncological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The results of a randomized controlled trial of 200 patients showed that the treatment group had significantly less fatigue than a control group both during treatment and for up to six months afterwards.
The average patient in a treatment group had less fatigue than 79 percent of patients in a control group at the end of radiotherapy. Six months after the end of radiotherapy, the average patient in a treatment group had less fatigue than 95 percent of patients in a control group. "These results support CBTH as an evidence-based complementary intervention to control fatigue in patients undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer," said Dr. Montgomery. "CBTH works to reduce fatigue for patients who have few other treatment options. It is also noninvasive, has no adverse side-effects, and its beneficial effects persist long after the last intervention."
Additionally, patients also reported that participating in CBTH was relaxing and helpful. "This study is important because it shows a new intervention that helps to improve patients' quality of life during taxing course of breast cancer radiotherapy and for long after," said Montgomery.
Source:Clinical Oncology.

GW Spirituality and Health Pioneer Publishes Paper on Development of the Field

While spirituality played a significant role in health care for centuries, technological advances in the 20^th century overshadowed this more human side of medicine. Christina Puchalski, M.D.’94, RESD’97, founder and director of the George Washington University (GW) Institute for Spirituality and Health and professor of medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), and co-authors published a commentary in Academic Medicine on the history of spirituality and health, the movement to reclaim medicine’s spiritual roots, and the future of this field.
Spirituality, defined as a person’s search for meaning, purpose, and connection, is now incorporated into the curricula of more than 75 percent of U.S. medical schools — curricula that was developed and implemented first at SMHS. In 2012, Oxford published the first textbook on spirituality and health. National and International organizations have recognized the role of spirituality in patient-centered care. This didn’t happen without the tireless efforts of Puchalski, her colleagues at GW including Jim Blatt, M.D., director of the Clinical Learning and Simulation Skills Center and professor of medicine at SMHS, the support she received at GW, and grants from organizations such as the John Templeton Foundation.
“The integration of spirituality in to our medical culture is crucial for creating compassionate, patient-centered physicians,” said Puchalski. “It changes our health system from merely emphasizing physical suffering. Rather, physicians are taught to respond to all patients’ suffering with compassion, recognizing that health is more than the absence of disease. This is when healing, defined as patients’ ability to find hope and meaning even in the midst of suffering, can occur.”
The Academic Medicine paper includes:

• A report on the National Competencies in Spirituality and Health (NCSH), which was created at a consensus conference of faculty from seven medical schools and is being reported in the paper for the first time. The NCSH will organize efforts in this developing field within medical education and in national and international organizations.
• Information on the GW Institute for Spirituality and Health-Templeton Reflection Rounds Initiative, a program supported by the John Templeton Foundation. The program provides clerkship students the opportunity to reflect on patient encounters and develop their own inner resources to address the suffering of others.
• Commentary on the future direction of the field of spirituality and health.

“In the coming years, we hope the field of spirituality and health will have a more global reach, with a focus on interprofessional education,” said Puchalski. “We also anticipate a full integration of spirituality and health education: From the first year of medical school, into residency, and continuing into professional development.”
Additional authors on the paper include Blatt; Mikhail Kogan, M.D., medical director at the GW Center for Integrative Medicine; and Amy Butler, Ph.D., executive director for foundation relations at GW.

Wonder Pill to Keep You Slim, Avoid Diabetes and Ward Off Old Age, Coming Soon

A pill that could help people lose weight, avoid diabetes and even hold off the effects of old age is being created by a team of researchers.
The pill being developed by the team from Aston University in Birmingham is based on the discovery of a hormone released after exercise, which can reprogramme fat cells to burn energy instead of storing it, the Daily express reported.

Researchers have found that the hormone, known as Irisin, can "predict" how quickly someone is ageing.

Irisin is naturally present in the body and it helps increase the metabolic rate, that could in turn help cut obesity and stop -people getting type 2 diabetes.
Source:University in Birmingham
 

Thoughts About Future may Prompt People to Make Better Food Choices

There is more to stress eating than simply emotion and thinking about the future may help people make better food choices, says a new study from University of Delaware associate professor Meryl Gardner.Gardner tried to find out why when someone is in a bad mood will they choose to eat junk food and why when someone is in a good mood will they make healthier food choices?

"In an evolutionary sense, it makes sense that when we feel uncomfortable or are in a bad mood, we know something is wrong and focus on what is close to us physically and what is close in time, in the here and now," said Gardner.

The researchers conducted four laboratory experiments to examine whether people in a positive mood would prefer healthy food to indulgent food for long-term health and well-being benefits and those in a negative mood would prefer indulgent foods to healthy foods for immediate, hedonistic mood management benefits.

The findings of all the studies combined contribute to current research by demonstrating that individuals can select healthy or indulgent foods depending on their moods, an area previously under-represented in past clinical research on the role of healthy foods.

The findings also indicate the integral aspect of the time horizon, showing that individuals in positive moods who make healthier food choices are often thinking more about future health benefits than those in negative moods, who focus more on the immediate taste and sensory experience.
 Source:University of Delaware
 

'Paralysis Cure' Possible Shows Master-Avatar Monkey Experiment

A cure for paralysis is probably close at hand as scientists working on a paralysis cure said on Tuesday they had demonstrated how a monkey can use only its thoughts, transferred by electrodes, to manipulate a sleeping fellow primate's arm to do its bidding.
The lab experiment, in which a fully sedated Rhesus monkey's hand moved a joystick to perform tasks at the other monkey's command, was designed to simulate full paralysis -- the brain completely disconnected from the muscle it seeks to control.

"We demonstrate that a subject can control a paralysed limb purely with its thoughts," co-author Maryam Shanechi of Cornell University's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering told AFP of the study in the journal Nature Communications.

The discovery "could have the potential to help paralysed patients regain control of their own limbs."

In lab tests, a team of engineers and neuroscientists used electrodes to connect the brain of one monkey to the spinal cord of another via a computer that decoded and relayed the neural signals.

The first monkey, dubbed the "master", was placed in a special chair before a computer screen that showed a cursor and a green circle that alternated between two spots. The monkey's head was restrained.

The second animal, or "avatar", was fully sedated in a separate enclosure -- its arm strapped to a 360-degree joystick with which to move the cursor and chase the circular target on the "master's" screen.

As the master thought of moving the cursor, its brain signals were decoded to determine which of the two targets it had in mind, and the data was relayed in real-time to the spinal cord of the sleeping avatar, whose arm manipulated the joystick accordingly.

Every time the cursor hit its target, the master received a squirt of juice as reward.

- Proof of concept -

Previous research into so-called brain-machine interfaces (BMI) had shown people move computer cursors or even robotic arms using their thoughts.

Shanechi and her team claim they are the first to give an animal control over the actual limb of another animal.

The findings "provide a proof of concept that just by thinking, subjects can move an arm in two dimensions" even with no physiological connection between the brain and the muscle, she said.

Paralysis can be caused by damage to the central nervous system, especially the spinal cord, by stroke or diseases like Parkinson's or an accident.

Scientists are keen to find a way for paralysed people to move their own limbs in a natural way, but have found it difficult to read the brain signals that control the complex functioning of the muscles.

Previous BMI research has allowed only repeated movements to the same target over and over again, or on a single line, said the study authors.

What is different this time: Shanechi and her team decoded the brain signals the monkey directed at his on-screen target rather than trying to decipher the detailed step-by-step processes required to achieve the movement.

- High precision -

The primate pair, interchangeably master and avatar, hit the target in about 84 percent of cases, the researchers said.

Also new was the use of separate monkeys, which "more closely mimics true quadriplegia", said co-author Ziv Williams of the Harvard Medical School's Center for Nervous System Repair.

In connecting the brain and muscles of a singular animal, scientists can never be sure how much of the movement achieved is "confounded by possible sensory feedback of preserved muscle contractions", he explained.

Bernard Conway, head of biomedical engineering at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, commented that the research was "a key step forward" in identifying a paralysed subject's intention or desire to perform a specific movement and translating that into action.

University of Warwick biomedical engineering professor Christopher James added the findings had "profound implications... for controlling limbs in spinal cord injury, or controlling prosthetic limbs with limb amputees."

It was not clear how well the findings in sedated monkeys could be replicated in truly paralysed patients whose muscles have become weak with disuse.

 Source:University of Strathclyde in Glasgow/AFP
 

Scientists Testing Probiotic Treatment for Vaginal Thrush

Scientists are testing vaginal pessaries (medical device inserted into the vagina) containing 'good' probiotic bacteria for the treatment of vaginal thrush. Research published today (19 February) in the Society for Applied Microbiology's Journal of Applied Microbiology shows that this approach could be a viable alternative to using precious antimicrobial drugs.
The team, led by Dr M. Cristina Verdenelli at Università di Camerino, Italy, tested five strains of lactobacilli for their antimicrobial potential against the most common type of vaginal infections, Candida. Their in vitro experiments showed that the combination of two strains, Lactobacillus rhamnosus IMC 501® and Lactobacillus paracasei IMC 502®, also known as SYNBIO®, patented by Synbiotec Srl, had all the necessary characteristics.

Dr Verdenelli said "We've all heard of using natural yoghurt to manage vaginal thrush as an alternative to antimicrobial medicines, but we wanted to test whether the type of probiotic bacteria found in yoghurt could actually kill or restrict the growth of candida. The results in the lab have been very good and we have moved on to test our formulation in patients."

Dr Verdenelli's team were looking for two main characteristics of the bacteria: their ability to produce a substances that would likely kill the candida and their ability to grow on human cells alongside the yeast infection. Of the five strains they tested, the SYNBIO® formulation had the best overall characteristics, adhering well to human cells, growing alongside candida, and producing hydrogen peroxide to kill the yeast cells

Results from the human study, carried out at the Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Centre for Perinatal and Reproductive Medicine, Santa Maria della Misericorida, University Hospital of Perugia, in collaboration with Professor Gian Carlo Di Renzo, are pending.

With the increasing problem of antimicrobial resistance, it is vital to consider alternative methods of preventing and control infection and this study is a good example of scientists doing just that.
 Source:Journal of Applied Microbiology
 

Garlic Helps Ward Off Bacterial Infections: Study

 A new research has revealed that garlic can help in warding off bacterial infections.
Garlic contains ajoene and this is the secret ingredient which does the magic of protecting the body from bacteria. Ajoene destroys the communication system, Quorum Sensing, of the bacteria. This system is responsible for causing infections.

"There is a potent chemical compound in the garlic plant that neutralises resistant bacteria by paralysing their communication system. Ajoene—the substance present in garlic—specifically prevents the bacteria from secreting the toxin rhamnolipid, which destroys white blood cells in the body," says Tim Holm Jakobsen of University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

White blood cells or leukocytes are important because they form a part of the immune system and protect us from infections.

But the researcher says that garlic alone is not so effective. It has to be combined with antibiotics to see the result. Bacteria become resistant to medicines because they form a biofilm composed of organics compounds around themselves. Ajoene alone is not able to break this film, but a combination of the garlic and antibiotic ruptures almost 90 per cent of the film.

"Garlic contains so little ajoene that you would need to eat around 50 a day to achieve the desired effect," Jakobsen says. But the study will surely go a long way in finding treatment for fighting bacterial infections.
Source:University of Copenhagen's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

 

 

Evolution Stuck as Slime for Billion Years Before Progressing Further

After the first life developed in the ancient oceans as slime, around 3.6 billion years ago, it remained as it was for a billion years before evolving further. A new research has revealed ancient conditions that almost ended life on Earth. The Tasmanian researchers, who used a new technique they developed to hunt for mineral deposits, found that first life developed in the ancient oceans around 3.6 billion years ago and remained just a little more than a layer of slime for a billion years.

According to University of Tasmania geologist Professor Ross Large, the slowdown in evolution was tightly linked to low levels of oxygen and biologically-important elements in the oceans.

Source:The research will be published in the March issue of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.



 

Study Suggests New Dads may Have Less Craving for Sex

A study has suggested that new fathers may be less inclined towards having sex.             

Lee Gettler, of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, tracked the lives and hormones of 433 young men from the Philippine islands and found that the most testosterone-fuelled men were also the most likely to become fathers.

But after having a baby their levels of the male sex hormone dropped along with the amount of sex they had,Daily Mail reported.

Gettler also found an increase in the hormone prolactin, which is normally associated with breastfeeding, particularly among men with the most hands-on approach to parenting.

It is thought the hormonal changes make a man more responsive to the needs of his child.

"Mothers undergo substantial biological change with pregnancy and birth, yet there has been a tendency to think of the father as kind of inertly along for the ride," Gettler told the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual conference.

But it is not just mothers who respond to the demands of parenthood.

"I think evolution has shaped male physiology to help men invest in their children and provide good care for them."

"The drop in libido could well be nature's way of stopping the new father from straying," he added. But it is not for ever -- as hormone levels return to normal within a year or two.
 Source:University of Notre Dame
 

Here is What Separates Love from Lust

Have you ever wondered why your mind wavers between an intense longing for the opposite sex and pleasurable goals at times?

Scientists have discovered a key area in the brain of a neurological patient that helps you choose between love and lust.
"A region deep inside the brain called the anterior insula plays an instrumental role in love," said neuroscientist Stephanie Cacioppo at University of Chicago.

In the study, the patient made decisions normally about lust but showed slower reaction times when making decisions about love - in contrast to neurologically typical participants matched on age, gender and ethnicity.

The new data suggest that the posterior insula - that affects sensation and motor control - is implicated in feelings of lust or desire, while the anterior insula has a role in the more abstract representations involved in love.

"We reasoned that if the anterior insula was the origin of the love response, we would find evidence for that in brain scans of someone whose anterior insula was damaged," Cacioppo added.

The patient and the control group were shown 40 photographs at random of attractive, young women dressed in appealing, short and long dresses.

They were asked whether these women were objects of sexual desire or love.

The patient with the damaged anterior insula showed a much slower response when asked if the women in the photos could be objects of love.

The current work makes it possible to disentangle love from other biological drives like lust, said the study published in the journal Current Trends in Neurology.

 Source:journal Current Trends in Neurology.
 

For a Noble Cause: 100 People Commit Their Live Bodies for Science

Researchers have revealed one hundred people are set to share their live bodies for science as part of a new study that will examine how to improve personal health.


The Hundred Person Wellness Project, which will begin next month, is going to require round-the-clock monitoring of its subjects, who are presumed healthy at the time of enrolment, News24.com reported.

Scientists will start by sequencing the entire genome of each participant, and then for the next 25 years, are going to take regular measurements of sleep patterns, heart rate, gut bacteria, proteins that track organ health, blood samples, immune cell activity and more.

The aim of the nine-month pilot program - which is targeting 100,000 people within the next four years - is on ways to improve individual wellness based on each person's unique make-up.

 Source:News 24.com

New Ways to Treat Depression Discovered

Scientists have claimed to have discovered new and different methods to treat depression.

Depression treatments on the horizon include new medications, electrical and magnetic stimulation of the brain and long-term cognitive behavioral therapy for stress management.
 For more than 50 years, depression has been studied and understood as a deficiency of chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters, which carry signals between brain cells.

Commonly used antidepressants are designed to either increase the release or block the degradation of three neurotransmitters - dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin.

But drugs that target neurotransmitters, such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil, succeed in inducing the remission of depression in fewer than half of patients.

This has prompted researchers "to look beyond neurotransmitters for an understanding of depressive disorders," authors Murali Rao from Loyola University and Julie M. Alderson a resident at East Liverpool City Hospital in Ohio, wrote.

New theories of depression are focusing on differences in neuron density in various regions of the brain; on the effect of stress on the birth and death of brain cells; on the alteration of feedback pathways in the brain and on the role of inflammation evoked by the stress response.

Chronic stress is believed to be the leading cause of depression, the authors wrote. Long-term stress harms cells in the brain and body.

Stressful experiences are believed to be closely associated with the development of psychological alterations and, thus, neuropsychiatric disorders.

In conditions of chronic stress exposure, nerve cells in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved with emotions, learning and memory formation, begin to atrophy.

The new depression theories should not be viewed as separate entities because they are highly interconnected, and integrating them provides for a more expansive understanding of the pathophysiology of depression and biomarkers that are involved, Rao and Alderson wrote.

Such biomarkers are molecules in the body that can be indicators of depression. The authors identify more than a dozen potential biomarkers depression, including monoamine regulators; proinflammatory cytokines and other inflammatory mediators; mediators of glutaminergic activity and GABAergic activity; and regulators of neurogenesis.

Source:The study is published in the journal Current Psychiatry.
 

Key to Living Longer Lies in Regular Exercise and Social Contact

Social contact and regular exercise are key to healthy and happy aging and living a longer life, according to newly presented research.            
In fact, feeling extremely lonely can increase an older person's chances of premature death by 14 percent, an impact nearly as strong as that of a disadvantaged socioeconomic status, according to John Cacioppo, psychology professor at the University of Chicago.

He noted that a meta-analysis of several studies published in 2010 showed that social isolation had twice the impact on the risk of death as obesity.

Cacioppo presented the findings Sunday at an annual conference in Chicago of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The research carried out on a group of 20,000 people revealed adverse health effects of feeling alone, including sleep problems, high blood pressure, impaired immune cells and depression.

"Retiring to Florida to live in a warmer climate among strangers is not necessarily a good thing if it means you are disconnected from people who mean the most for you," Cacioppo said.

Often, loneliness is accompanied by a sedentary lifestyle, which can significantly weaken one's health.

Simple exercise such as walking regularly at a good pace can't just cut the risk of cardiovascular and Alzheimer's disease by 50 percent -- it can also clearly slow down the normal aging process of an older person's brain, Kirk Erickson of the University of Pittsburgh told AFP.

At the conference, the assistant professor of psychology presented new details of a study published in 2011 that involved 120 people aged 65 and older.



- Older brain 'highly modifiable' -



With age, the brain shrinks, he said. Physical activity, however, helps improve its overall functioning and, in particular, increases the volume of the hippocampus by 2 percent, which reverses cerebral aging by one to two years and boosts mental capacities.

"For one, this research has demonstrated the brain remains highly modifiable late in adulthood," Erickson said.

"Even though the brain shrinks and declines tend to happen it does not seem to be as inevitable ... and exercise seems to be a great way to take advantage of this natural capacity for brain plasticity."

What's more, it's apparently not necessary to do a lot of exercise to get that result -- a "modest amount" is all it takes, he said.

However, he acknowledged, "there is still a lot to learn. We don't really know very much about how much is exactly needed."

"Even though we have learned a lot I have to say we still have a long way to go," he added.

"But that being said, physical activity seems to be one of the most promising approaches for positively influencing brain health in late adulthood."

According to the Pew Research Center, the baby boomer generation began to turn 65 on January 1, 2011, with 10,000 doing so each day until 2030, said Cacioppo.

"This has been called the silver tsunami," he said.

Some see an aging population as inevitably one with greater dementia and poor health, as predicted 15 to 20 years ago, he added.

"But in fact we see a decline in disability rather than an increase in part because" of medical advances and people "starting to take better cares of themselves."

Still, a sedentary lifestyle rather than one filled with physical activity is the norm in old age, he said.

"But we have new information about how to better age."
Source:AFP



 

News Video:Why does the brain remember dreams?

Some people recall a dream every morning, whereas others rarely recall one. A team led by Perrine Ruby, an Inserm Research Fellow at theLyon Neuroscience Research Center (Inserm/CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1), has studied the brain activity of these two types of dreamers in order to understand the differences between them. In a studypublished in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, the researchers show that the temporo-parietal junction, an information-processing hub in the brain, is more active in high dream recallers. Increased activity in this brain region might facilitate attention orienting toward external stimuli and promote intrasleep wakefulness, thereby facilitating the encoding of dreams in memory.The reason for dreaming is stilla mystery for the researchers who study the difference between “high dream recallers,” who recall dreams regularly, and “low dream
recallers,” who recall dreams rarely. In January 2013 (work published inthe journal Cerebral Cortex),
the team led by Perrine Ruby, Inserm researcher at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, made the following two observations: “highdream recallers” have twice as many time of wakefulness during sleep as“low dream recallers” and their brains are more reactive to auditory
stimuli during sleep and wakefulness. This increased brain reactivity may promote awakenings during the night, and may thus facilitate memorisation of dreams during brief periods of wakefulness. In this new study, the research team sought to identify which areas of the brain differentiate high and
low dream recallers. They used Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to measure the spontaneous brain activity of 41 volunteers during wakefulness and sleep. The volunteers were classified into 2 groups: 21 “high dream recallers” who recalled dreams 5.2 mornings  perweek in average, and 20 “low dream recallers,” who reported 2 dreams per month in average. High dream recallers, both while awake and while asleep, showed stronger spontaneous brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and in the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), an area of the brain involved in attention orienting toward external stimuli.This may explain why high dream recallers are more reactive to environmental stimuli, awaken more during sleep, and thus better encode dreams in memory than low dream recallers. Indeed thesleeping brain is not capable of memorising new information; it needs to awaken to be able to do that,”explains Perrine Ruby, Inserm Research Fellow.The South African neuropsychologist Mark Solms had observed in earlier studies that lesions in these two brain areas led to a cessationof dream recall.  The originality of the French team’s results is to show brain activity differences between high and low dream recallers during sleep and also during wakefulness.“Our results suggest that high and low dream recallers differ in dream  memorization, but do not exclude that they  also differ in dream production. Indeed, it is possible that high dream recallers produce a
larger amount of dreaming than low dream recallers” concludes the research team.

Video subtitle  will soon available in English

Immune System in Newborn Lungs Different from That in Adults

Newborns are more susceptible to infections maybe due to their immature and inexperienced immune systems. The most common dangerous condition in newborns and infants are lower respiratory tract infections caused by viruses, especially respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). A study published on February 13th in PLOS Pathogens shows how the immune system in the lungs during early life differs from the one in older children and adults.

Ideally, newborns could be protected against RSV by vaccination, but it is known that the immune system in early life is less responsive to "conventional" vaccines. Barney Graham and colleagues, from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are working on understanding the early immune system in order to develop effective vaccines for newborns and infants.

The immune response to virus infection in the lung involves mobile immune cells called dendritic cells (or DCs). After contact with a viral intruder, the DCs move into adjacent lymph nodes where they activate another type of immune cell, called CD8+ T cells, and thereby orchestrate a massive, body-wide, virus-specific attack. Graham and colleagues studied the behavior of these lung DCs in newborn mice and compared it with that in older animals.

They found that the lung DC responses following RSV infection undergo dramatic changes during the first weeks of life. One of the two subsets active in adults was present in low numbers and functionally limited in newborn mice. The second subset, called CD103+ DCs, is present in similar numbers in newborn and adults after virus infection. Following migration to the lymph nodes, CD103+ DCs initiate CD8+ T cell responses. However, when newborn CD103+ DCs and CD8+ T cells interact, the results are very different from the same interaction in older mice.

Depending on the age of the mice at the time of RSV infection, the CD103 DCs activate different subsets of CD8+ T cells. This suggests that DCs from newborns take up, digest, and present parts of an intruding virus to other immune cells in a fundamentally different way than in adults. In addition, the researchers found that CD103+ DCs from newborn mice have much lower expression of two critical "co-stimulatory" molecules (called CD80 and CD86) on their surface. These co-stimulators directly interact with a counterpart (called CD28) on the CD8+ T cells and in doing so boost the immune response, something that is severely impaired in neonatal mice. Dampening CD28-mediated stimulation in adult mice demonstrated that limited CD28-mediated co-stimulatory support from neonatal DCs may constitute one mechanism by which newborn and adult DCs induce distinct CD8+ T cell responses.

"A better understanding of deficiencies in early-life immunity will guide vaccine approaches that induce disease-sparing immune responses in infants", the researchers say. "Our data suggest that the CD80/CD86-CD28 axis may be exploited in the design of pediatric vaccines to promote the generation of more "adult-like" immune responses".
 Source:PLOS Pathogens
 

Scientific Validation of Anti-Diabetes Ayurvedic Medicines Begins in Kerala

An official revealed that CARe Keralam, which recently scientifically validated the anti-diabetes ayurvedic formulation Nishaakathakaadhi Kashayam (NKK) thus facilitating its sale abroad, is going ahead with the same process for other products too.

Led by Adrian V. Bell, researchers from the University of California Davis used a mathematical equation, called the Price equation, which describes the conditions for altruism to evolve.

The equation motivated the researchers to compare the genetic and the cultural differentiation between neighbouring social groups.

The researchers used previously calculated estimates of genetic differences, and the World Values Survey (whose questions are likely to be heavily influenced by culture in a large number of countries) as a source of data to compute the cultural differentiation between the same neighbouring groups.

When compared, it was found that the role of culture had a much greater scope for explaining our pro-social behaviour than genetics.

In applying their results to ancestral populations, the World Values Survey was less useful.

But ancient cultural practices, such as exclusion from the marriage market, denial of the fruits of cooperative activities, banishment and execution happen now as they did then.

Such activities would have exerted strong selection against genes tending toward antisocial behaviour, and presumably in favour of genes that predisposed individuals toward being pro-social rather than anti-social.

This would result in the gene-culture coevolution of human prosocial propensities.

Source:The study has been published in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Five-Fold Growth in Ayurveda Targeted by Kerala

A Kerala government official has said that the two-day International Business Meet (IBM) on Ayurveda being held at Kochi next week is expected to bring a five-fold increase in the state's share.

"At present, the Indian ayurveda industry is worth Rs.10,000 crore of which Kerala's contribution is about Rs.1,000 crore. We are aiming for a five-fold rise in the state's share by 2020," said Aruna Sundarajan, managing director of the state-owned Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation.

The event beginning here Friday will be the meeting point of key stake-holders from the industry to evolve a road map for harnessing the global opportunities in the ayurveda business.

About 4,000 delegates from 22 countries, including ministers, top officials and CEOs will attend.

The meet is being organised as part of the Global Ayurveda Festival 2014.

"We see IBM as a platform to showcase this strength of ayurveda before the business and entrepreneurial community and take ayurveda to the global level," said Sundararajan.

The technical sessions at the IBM will cover export promotion, products, services, wellness, research, education, quality standards, financial and other support systems and medicinal plants cultivation.

Representatives from Singapore, Italy, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the Philippines and Sri Lanka will make presentations on the opportunities in their respective countries.

 

 

Kindness Has Cultural Roots, Not Genetic

It is not the genes that make a person to go for blood donation or enrol for the army, for researchers have now attributed such self-sacrificing attitude to socially learned behaviour rather than an inherent trait. which describes the conditions for altruism to evolve.

The equation motivated the researchers to compare the genetic and the cultural differentiation between neighbouring social groups.

The researchers used previously calculated estimates of genetic differences, and the World Values Survey (whose questions are likely to be heavily influenced by culture in a large number of countries) as a source of data to compute the cultural differentiation between the same neighbouring groups.

When compared, it was found that the role of culture had a much greater scope for explaining our pro-social behaviour than genetics.

In applying their results to ancestral populations, the World Values Survey was less useful.

But ancient cultural practices, such as exclusion from the marriage market, denial of the fruits of cooperative activities, banishment and execution happen now as they did then.

Such activities would have exerted strong selection against genes tending toward antisocial behaviour, and presumably in favour of genes that predisposed individuals toward being pro-social rather than anti-social.

This would result in the gene-culture coevolution of human prosocial propensities.

The study has been published in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 Source:National Academy of Sciences.

 

Mystery of 'missing' Genetic Risk Decoded

Study results may help us solve an important riddle- why research to look for the genetic causes of common diseases has failed to explain more than a fraction of the heritable risk of developing them.Susceptibility to common diseases is believed to arise through a combination of many common genetic variants that individually slightly increase the risk of disease, plus a smaller number of rare mutations that often carry far greater risk.

 However, even when their effects are added together, the genetic variants so far linked to common diseases account for only a relatively small proportion of the risk we know is conveyed by genetics through studies of family history.But the major new study, published today (Thursday) in the journal PLOS Genetics, shows for the first time in cancer that some common genetic variants could actually be indicators of the presence of much more influential rare mutations that have yet to be found.

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, led an international consortium made up of more than 25 leading academic institutions on the study, which was funded by the European Union.The research, involving 20,440 men with prostate cancer and 21,469 without the disease, identified a cluster of four common genetic variants on chromosome 17 that appeared to give rise to a small increase in prostate cancer risk, using the standard statistical techniques for this type of study.

But the study found an alternative explanation for the risk signal - a small proportion of the men with these common variants were in fact carriers of a rare mutation in the nearby HOXB13 gene, which is known to be linked to prostate cancer. Under this 'synthetic association', the number of people carrying a cancer risk variant was much lower than had been assumed, but those people who did inherit a variant had a much higher risk of prostate cancer than had been realised.

The discovery shows that the prevailing genetic theory - that common cancers are predominantly caused by the combined action of many common genetic variants, each with only a very small effect - could potentially underestimate the impact of rare, as yet undiscovered mutations.The results are important because they show that there is a need for renewed effort by geneticists to find the causal variants, whether common or rare, behind the many common cancer-associated variants identified in recent years.Identifying any underlying rare mutations with a big effect on disease risk could improve the genetic screening and clinical management of individuals at greater risk of developing cancer, as well as other diseases.

Study co-leader Dr Zsofia Kote-Jarai, Senior Staff Scientist at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), said: "As far as we are aware, this is the first known example of a 'synthetic association' in cancer genetics. It was exciting to find evidence for this theory, which predicts that common genetic variants that appear to increase risk of disease by only a modest amount may indeed sometimes be detected purely due to their correlation with a rarer variant which confers a greater risk.

"Our study does not imply how widespread this phenomenon may be, but it holds some important lessons for geneticists in cancer, and other common diseases. It demonstrates the importance of identifying the causal genetic changes behind the many common variants that have already been shown to influence risk of disease."Our study also demonstrates that standard methods to identify potential causal variants when fine-mapping genetic associations with disease may be inadequate to assess the contribution of rare variants.

Large sequencing studies may be necessary to answer these questions unequivocally."Study co-leader Professor Ros Eeles, Professor of Oncogenetics at The Institute of Cancer Research and Honorary Clinical Consultant at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: "One important unanswered question in cancer genetics - and in genetics of common disease more generally - is why the genetic mutations we've discovered so far each seem to have such a small effect, when studies of families have shown that our genetic make-up has a very large influence on our risk of cancer."Our study is an important step forward in our understanding of where we might find this 'missing' genetic risk in cancer. At least in part, it might lie in rarer mutations which current research tools have struggled to find, because individually each does not affect a large number of people."

  Source:The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)PLOS Genetics/