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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Monogamy...


The Ancient Sexual Revolution that May Have Spurred Human Monogamy

Did a sexual revolution, led by low-ranking males and faithful females, lay down the roots of the modern family?

HB Photography / Getty Images
HB PHOTOGRAPHY / GETTY IMAGES
Monogamous, romantic love — or, more prosaically, pair-bonding — may have evolved in a sexual revolution that could have laid down the roots of the modern family, according to an intriguing new mathematical model.
Researchers have long wondered why — unlike our sexually promiscuous chimpanzee-like ancestors — humans developed strong pair bonds with individual partners. It’s thought that at one time, human ancestors did engage in chimp-like habits of sex and child-rearing, in which strong alpha males mated freely with the females of their choice, and then left the child-raising duties to them. So, the question is, How did we got from there to the modern-day monogamous, two-parent family?
“People have been discussing ways by which the transition from promiscuity to pair-bonding could have occurred and there are various different scenarios,” says study author Sergey Gavrilets, distinguished professor of ecology, evolutionary biology and mathematics at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. “What I’ve done is shown mathematically that some of these scenarios are more likely than others.”/.../

Global Mental Health


Putting Evidence into Practice: The PLoS Medicine Series on Global Mental Health Practice

Vikram Patel1,2, Rachel Jenkins3, Crick Lund4, the PLoS
 Today we are delighted to announce the launch of the PLoS Medicine series on Global Mental Health Practice, and to issue a call for case studies that can help broaden our understanding of global mental health in “real-life” contexts.
The series was initiated by the lead author (VP), who is joined by two other leaders in global mental health (RP and CL) to serve as guest editors. Together, they bring an international, broad, and multidisciplinary perspective that will assist the PLoS Medicine senior Magazine editor (JC) in developing this vital series.
We aim to address the gap between public health approaches to mental health, exemplified by two series in The Lancet [1],[2], and clinical approaches to addressing mental disorders (such as the packages of care published in this journal [3] and efficacy studies often published in specialist psychiatric journals). Lying between these two realms is a niche for demonstrating how the principles of global mental health are put into practice in real-world contexts. These principles, reflected in the goals of international efforts such as the Movement for Global Mental Health (http://www.globalmentalhealth.org), explicitly aim to (1) improve access to evidence-based care for people with mental, neurological, or substance use disorders and (2) promote the human rights of people affected by these disorders. Articles in the PLoS Medicine series will report a diverse range of health interventions from around the world where action has demonstrated tangible improvements in one or both of these goals./.../

‘Old-Person Smell’


‘Old-Person Smell’ Really Exists, Scientists Say

Elderly people have a distinct smell, confirm researchers at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, but contrary to stereotype their scent isn't all bad.

GSO Images / Getty Images
GSO IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES
‘Old-person smell’ is a real thing — and it’s not just due to mothballs or a musty house. Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia confirmed that elderly people really do have a distinct scent, so recognizable in fact that people can identify them by body odor alone.
The researchers speculate that the human ability to discern age through scent might be an evolutionary skill related to the way other animals are able to sniff out young, virile mates and avoid those that are older or sick./.../

Carga do tabagismo


Doenças causadas pelo cigarro matam 357 por dia no país

JOHANNA NUBLAT
DE BRASÍLIA

A cada dia, 357 fumantes ou ex-fumantes morrem no Brasil das principais doenças ligadas ao tabagismo, especialmente enfermidades cardíacas, pulmonares e câncer.
Tratar doenças decorrentes do fumo custa R$ 21 bilhões anuais às redes de saúde pública e privada do país --sem contar o fumo passivo.
Esse valor é cerca de cinco vezes o que o governo federal vai gastar, até 2014, no plano de combate ao crack./.../

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Sirtuins in Cognitive Ageing


Sirtuins in Cognitive Ageing and Alzheimer's Disease

Nady Braidy; Tharusha Jayasena; Anne Poljak; Perminder S. Sachdev
Posted: 05/29/2012; Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2012;25(3):226-230. © 2012 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Abstract and Introduction

Abstract

Purpose of review Sirtuins are a family of enzymes highly conserved in evolution and involved in mechanisms known to promote healthy ageing and longevity. This review aims to discuss recent advances in understanding the role of sirtuins, in particular mammalian SIRT1, in promoting longevity and its potential molecular basis for neuroprotection against cognitive ageing and Alzheimer's disease pathology.
Recent findings Accumulative increase in oxidative stress during ageing has been shown to decrease SIRT1 activity in catabolic tissue, possibly by direct inactivation by reactive oxygen. SIRT1 overexpression prevents oxidative stress-induced apoptosis and increases resistance to oxidative stress through regulation of the FOXO family of forkhead transcription factors. In addition, resveratrol strongly stimulates SIRT1 deacetylase activity in a dose-dependent manner by increasing its binding affinity to both the acetylated substrate and NAD+. Recently, SIRT1 has been shown to affect amyloid production through its influence over the ADAM10 gene. Upregulation of SIRT1 can also induce the Notch pathway and inhibit mTOR signalling.
Summary Recent studies have revealed some of the mechanisms and pathways that are associated with the neuroprotective effects of SIRT1./.../

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Autism x antidepressants


New Report Shows Drug Companies Lied and Overstated Their Drug’s Ability to Treat Autism

 Print

Story at-a-glance

  • Up to one-third of autistic children are prescribed antidepressant drugs to treat repetitive behaviors, but their benefits have been greatly overstated.
  • A new analysis reviewed data from five published, and one unpublished, trials and found a strong suggestion of publication bias – so strong that it could no longer be concluded that antidepressants are effective in children with autism
  • Drug companies publish only a fraction of the studies they fund -- the ones that promote their drugs. If a study does not have findings that are favorable to its product, it is unlikely it will ever make it into a journal for publication and they are under absolutely no mandate to disclose that to the public.
  • In order for independent researchers to be able to confirm or refute a drug's safety and/or effectiveness, they need access to the same raw data and clinical study reports made available to regulators – but this data is often kept secret by drug companies
  • Oftentimes drugs are released to the market or prescribed for conditions without being proven safe or effective – and this includes antidepressants for children with autism


By Dr. Mercola
The antidepressant class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are among the most frequently prescribed drugs for autism.
Although none are specifically approved for the treatment of autism, it's estimated that up to one-third of autistic children receive the drugs, often to treat the repetitive behaviors like tapping or head banging that are frequently observed in those with the condition. 
A new analysis by researchers from Yale and the University of Michigan has now revealed that serious study biases have been occurring; while published research appears to show the drugs have a modest benefit in patients, in reality they have little or no benefit at all./.../

Friday, May 25, 2012

2552 - AMICOR 15

















Greetings to ProCOR! 15th anniversary

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 1 minuto atrás
*A message to the ProCor network* ProCor is this month celebrating a 15th anniversary. In this time there have been tremendous changes in the global landscape of cardiovascular prevention... [image: Dr. Bernard Lown] Bernard Lown, MD ProCor Founder. Research Pioneer. Nobel Laureate. Learn more >

WCC 2012: Post-congress news

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 12 minutos atrás
** **LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONGRESS www.worldcardiocongress.org****LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WORLD HEART FEDERATION www.worldheart.org****TELL US WHAT YOU THINKcongress@worldheart.org WCC SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS 2012 NEWS / May 2012* The World Congress of Cardiology (WCC) 2012 is now over. The World Heart Federation would like to thank the participants, committees, faculty members, exhibitors, its members and ... mais »

Well-connected brains

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 9 horas atrás
Well-connected brains make you smarter in older ageMay 24, 2012 Core subnetwork (PNAS) Older people with robust brain “wiring” — nerve fibers that connect different, distant brain areas — can process information quickly and that this makes them generally smarter, University of Edinburgh research suggests. According to the findings, joining distant parts of the brain together with better wiring improves mental performance, suggesting that intelligence is not found in a single part of the brain. However a loss of condition of this wiring or “white matter” — the billions of nerve fibers... mais »

Childhood Stress

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 9 horas atrás
Childhood Stress Leaves Genetic Scars by Katherine Rowland on 24 April 2012, 2:19 PM | 7 Comments ENLARGE IMAGE [image: sn-telomeres.jpg] *Early damage.* Telomeres (red) are shorter in children who have been abused. Credit: Pasleka/Photo Researchers Inc. Traumatic experiences in early life can leave emotional scars. But a new study suggests that violence in childhood may leave a genetic mark as well. Researchers have found that children who are physically abused and bullied tend to have shorter telomeres—structures at the tips of chromosomes whose shrinkage has been linked to aging a... mais »

Bacterial weapons

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 9 horas atrás
[image: MPI_syringes] Syringes isolated from Shigella flexneri. Adding soluble needle protein leads to a spontaneous elongation of some needles. The bar corresponds to 100 nanometers (1 nanometer corresponds to a millionth millimeter). (Credit: Christian Goosmann, Michael Kolbe/Mac Planck Institute) Zooming in on bacterial weapons in 3D The researchers deciphered the structure of the needle atom by atom and visualised its molecular architecture for the first time in the angstrom range (one tenth of a nanometer). This required progresses in several fields. “We have made big steps for... mais »

From skin to heart

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 11 horas atrás
*Alert from AMICOR Jorge Ossanai*Scientists Turn Human Skin Cells Into Healthy Heart Cells By ALEXANDRA SIFFERLIN | @acsifferlin | May 23, 2012 | [image: Dr. John D. Cunningham / Getty Images] DR. JOHN D. CUNNINGHAM / GETTY IMAGES In a medical first, scientists in Haifa, Israel, took skin cells from two heart failure patients and reprogrammed them into stem cells that generated healthy, beating heart muscle cells in the lab. Though human testing is likely a decade off, the hope is that such cells can be used to help people with heart failure repair their damaged hearts with their own... mais »

WHO

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 22 horas atrás
Gabriel Scally on Andrew Lansley’s Geneva fantasy at the World Health Assembly 24 May, 12 | by BMJ Group Sometimes, while attending a World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, I get the feeling that I am in a parallel universe where diplomat speak serves to smooth over unresolvable conflict and where we are discussing not the world as it is but a fantasyland. That feeling was never stronger than when listening to contributions from the US delegation during the worst of the Bush era. Maintaining a connection with the reality of inequality and preventable death and disease is made more d... mais »

Lia M. Cechella Achutti

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 1 dia atrás
Minha irmã artista. Exposição em Santa Maria e notícia em jornal.

10 Fully Democratic Countries of 2011

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 1 dia atrás
Top 10 Fully Democratic Countries of 2011REDOCEAN FEBRUARY 18, 2012 2 Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) published it 4th democracy index report for the year 2011 (as of beginning of December). This index gives a brief picture of the world wide democracy including 165 independent states, 2 territories and covering almost all of the world’s population and independent states excluding micro states. Ranking is done on basis of Overall Democracy Index which is based on 5 categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; a... mais »

Medical Records

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 1 dia atrás
*Alerta do AMICOR Jorge Ossanai* 10 Ways to Lose Your Medical Records Medical information is a gold mine for thieves. They can steal your identity, pull insurance scams or even blackmail you with that information. Unfortunately, there are more ways today for your health records to fall into the wrong hands than ever before.

Freebase

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 1 dia atrás
Freebase Medicine*Freebase* is an open, Creative Commonslicensed graph database with more than *22 million* entities. An *entity* is a single person, place, or thing. Freebase connects entities together as agraph. Ways to use Freebase: - Use Freebase's *Ids*to uniquely identify entities anywhere on the web - *Query* Freebase's data using MQL - Build *applications*using our API orAcre, our hosted development platform Freebase is also a*community* of thousands of data-lovers, working together to improve Freebase's data. Learn how to contribute, join our mailing list, or fi... mais »

Periodontal Disease and Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás
- AHA Scientific Statement Periodontal Disease and Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease: Does the Evidence Support an Independent Association?A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association 1. Peter B. Lockhart, DDS, Co-Chair; et al. 1. A link between oral health and cardiovascular disease has been proposed for more than a century. Recently, concern about possible links between periodontal disease (PD) and atherosclerotic vascular disease (ASVD) has intensified and is driving an active field of investigation into possible association and causality. Th... mais »

Social inequality

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás
Relationship Between Social Status and Wound-Healing in Wild Baboons *Findings show it's best to be "top baboon"* [image: Photo of an adult male baboon resting on a tree near Amboseli National Park, Kenya.]An adult male baboon rests on a tree near Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Credit and Larger Version *May 21, 2012* Turns out it's not bad being top dog, or in this case, top baboon. Results of a study by University of Notre Dame biologist Beth Archie and colleagues from Princeton University and Duke University finds that male baboons that have a high rank within their society recover ... mais »

urine/blood test: pancreatic cancer

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás
Maryland teen wins world's largest high school science competition Published May 21, 2012 *Alerta do AMICOR Jorge Ossanai* [image: Intel-ISEF-2012_Opening-Ceremony.jpg] - May 15, 2012: Last night, the world's largest high school science research competition, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a program of Society for Science & the Public, kicked off with a celebration of the 70 countries represented by the more than 1,500 9th - 12th graders who are competing this week for more than $3 million in awards. (Intel) - AP Photo/Franka Bruns N... mais »

Heart Attacks Risk

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 5 dias atrás
*Artigo selecionado pelo AMICOR Jorge Ossanai* * * *Alguma semelhança com a estratégia de invadir o Irak em busca de armas de destruição em massa? Da invasão do Afeganistão em busca de um único culpado? Ou de incentivar a indústria automobilística e dar suporte aos bancos para aquecer a economia em recessão?...(o comentário em verde vai por minha conta, AAchutti)* * * U.S. Panel Backs Broader Steps To Reduce Risk of Heart Attacks By GINA KOLATA Published: May 16, 2001 ** Impressed by mounting evidence that deaths from heart disease could be significantly reduced with aggressive treatm... mais »

Cérebro humano

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 5 dias atrás
* Vídeo * *Revising the numbers* Agora legendado em inglês: vídeo sobre a anatomia do cérebro humano, que mostra como os pesquisadores chegaram ao número de 86 bilhões de neurônios, em vez de 100 bilhões como se acreditava anos atrás. *Vale a pena ver o Vídeo que está neste arquivo, bem como outros cujos links aparecem ao final*

EVOLUTION OF PRIMARY CARE

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 5 dias atrás
The Evolving Primary Care Physician Susan Okie, M.D. N Engl J Med 2012; 366:1849-1853May 17, 2012 *Selected by the AMICOR Jorge Ossana* ReferencesComments (3) Audio Interview [image: Interview with Dr. Susan Okie on the ongoing evolution of the primary care physician.] Interview with Dr. Susan Okie on the ongoing evolution of the primary care physician. (16:45) - Listen - Download The primary care doctor is a rapidly evolving species — and in the future could become an endangered one. As the United States grapples with the dual challenges of making health care more widely avail... mais »

Pain Relief

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 5 dias atrás
Distraction As Pain Relief *Referred by the AMICOR Jorge Ossanai* Main Category: Pain / Anesthetics Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry Article Date: 19 May 2012 - 0:00 PD Mental distractions make pain easier to take, and those pain-relieving effects aren't just in your head, according to a report published online in *Current Biology*, a Cell Press publication. The findings based on high-resolution spinal fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) as people experienced painful levels of heat show that mental distractions actually inhibit the response to incoming pain signals... mais »

Happiest cities

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 6 dias atrás
The happiest cities in the world By Rachel James | May 18, 2012, 5:00 AM PDT 0Comments more + - - - - - - - Feeling overall satisfaction with your everyday environment is no small feat. Ericsson’s Consumer Lab just put out a report (PDF) detailing how happy residents actually are in 13 cities worldwide./.../

New Kind of Science

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 6 dias atrás
Looking to the Future of *A New Kind of Science*Stephen Wolfram May 14, 2012 *(This is the third in a series of posts about A New Kind of Science. Previous posts have covered the original reaction to the book and what’s happened since it was published.)* Today ten years have passed since *A New Kind of Science* (”the NKS book”) was published. But in many ways the development that started with the book is still only just beginning. And over the next several decades I think its effects will inexorably become ever more obvious and important. Indeed, even at an everyday level I expect tha... mais »

MARIA JOSÉ PIRES DA ROCHA (60 ANOS DO FALECIMENTO)

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 6 dias atrás
*MARIA JOSÉ PIRES DA ROCHA* (1929-1952) Hoje, dia 18 de maio, completam-se 60 anos do trágico falecimento de nossa amiga e companheira, na flor de seus 23 anos. Data desta época meu namoro com sua amiga - hoje minha esposa - Valderês Antonietta Robinson. Para quem for de Santa Maria, e estiver interessado, mais dados e imagens podem ser obtidos através do link acima da foto. Seus amigos sobreviventes devem se reunir hoje às 18:30 em missas que serão celebradas simultaneamente aqui em Porto Alegre e em Santa Maria

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 1 semana atrás
How Reliable Are the Social Sciences?By GARY GUTTING [image: The Stone] The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless. TAGS: PHILOSOPHY, SOCIAL SCIENCES Public policy debates often involve appeals to results of work in social sciences like economics and sociology. For example, in his State of the Union address this year, President Obama cited a recent high-profile study to support his emphasis on evaluating teachers by their students’ test scores. The study purportedly shows that students with teachers who raise their standardized test score

Greetings to ProCOR! 15th anniversary

A message to the ProCor network

ProCor is this month celebrating a 15th anniversary. In this time there have been tremendous changes in the global landscape of cardiovascular prevention...
Dr. Bernard Lown

Bernard Lown, MD

ProCor Founder. Research Pioneer. Nobel Laureate.

WCC 2012: Post-congress news




 

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONGRESS
www.worldcardiocongress.org

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WORLD HEART FEDERATIONwww.worldheart.org

TELL US WHAT YOU THINKcongress@worldheart.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The World Congress of Cardiology (WCC) 2012 is now over. The World Heart Federation would like to thank the participants, committees, faculty members, exhibitors, its members and all the people who contributed to making WCC 2012 a big success. A total of 10’748 delegates from 133 countries came to Dubai in April to attend 178 main sessions, learn about the science presented in 1’177 abstracts and visit the 103 booths in the exhibition area.
 /.../