Saturday, January 28, 2017

FLP-7

FLP-7 Neuropeptide Hormone Triggers Serotonin To Drive Fat Loss

Florian Rosado January 28, 2017

A brain hormone that appears to trigger fat burning in the gut has been identified by biologists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). The finding in animal models could have implications for future pharmaceutical development.

TSRI Assistant Professor Supriya Srinivasan, senior author of the new study, said:

“This was basic science that unlocked an interesting mystery.”

Previous studies had shown that the neurotransmitter serotonin can drive fat loss. Yet no one was sure exactly how./.../

The World Post Weekend Roundup

THE WEEKEND ROUNDUP

No sooner did “the party of Davos” ― as top White House aide Stephen Bannon calls the global elite ― end its annual conclave in the Swiss Alps late last week than the “Nationalist International” was born down in the Rhine Valley city of Koblenz, Germany. All the main populist movements from across Europe gathered together there to celebrate the Brexit and Trump victories as a premonition of their own expected success in elections over the coming year. They called on their fellow Europeans to “wake up” like the Americans and British and take back control of their national destinies.

Luiz Cechella. Nosso avô materno.

Por Luiz Binato em A Razão de hoje - Santa Maria, RS

Eu (neto do Luiz) e nossos netos Pedro, Antônio e Eduardo, aos 15 também...

Para mais informações sobre nossa família: http://www.cechella.com.br/ Site organizado pela Dra. Marília Cechella casada com outro neto - Cláudio Cechella, a partir do livro Casata Cechella publicado por minhas irmãs Lia Maria e Maria Helena e outro primo Luiz Fernando Cechella e sua esposa Lúcia Marina Dias Cechella.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Prenatal AD origins

Alzheimer’s Roots May Extend Back As Far As the Womb

Summary: A lack of vitamin A during pregnancy or shortly
after birth may facilitate Alzheimer’s disease later in life,
a new study reports.

Source: University of British Columbia.

Vitamin A deficiency could ‘program’ brain tissue.

Biochemical reactions that cause Alzheimer’s disease could begin in the womb or just after birth if the fetus or newborn does not get enough vitamin A, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.

These new findings, based on studies of genetically-engineered mice, also demonstrate that supplements given to newborns with low levels of vitamin A could be effective in slowing the degenerative brain disease.

“Our study clearly shows that marginal deficiency of vitamin A, even as early as in pregnancy, has a detrimental effect on brain development and has long-lasting effect that may facilitate Alzheimer’s disease in later life,” said Dr. Weihong Song, a professor of psychiatry and Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease./.../

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Laniakea

https://youtu.be/rENyyRwxpHo

New Galactic Supercluster Map Shows Milky Way's 'Heavenly' Home

By Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor

Esta simulação de computador retrata o superaglomerado gigante, com a localização da Via Láctea mostrada como um ponto vermelho

A nossa galáxia, Via Láctea, fica dentro de um superaglomerado gigante. Agora, um novo mapa cósmico criado por pesquisadores da Universidade do Havaí em Honolulu nos oferece um olhar sem precedentes sobre os limites dessa nossa casa celestial./.../

Brain Pollution

Summary

Some of the health risks of inhaling fine and ultrafine pollutant particles are well-established, such as asthma, lung cancer, and, most recently, heart disease. But a growing body of evidence suggests that such exposure can also harm the brain, accelerating cognitive aging, and may even increase risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. The link between air pollution and dementia remains controversial—even its proponents warn that more research is needed to confirm a causal connection and work out just how the particles might enter the brain and make mischief there. But a growing number of epidemiological studies from around the world, new findings from animal models and human brain imaging studies, and increasingly sophisticated techniques for modeling PM2.5 exposures have raised alarms. Indeed, in an 11-year epidemiological study to be published next week in Translational Psychiatry, University of Southern California (USC) researchers will report that living in places with PM2.5 exposures higher than the Environmental Protection Agency's standard of 12 μg/m3 nearly doubled dementia risk in older women. If the finding holds up in the general population, air pollution could account for roughly 21% of dementia cases worldwide, says the study's lead author, epidemiologist Jiu-Chiuan Chen of the Keck School of Medicine at USC.

↵* in Los Angeles, California

DIABETES outcomes?

The goals of treatment of type 2 diabetes are to reduce the risk of diabetic complications and, as a result, improve the quality and, possibly, duration of life. For several decades, authoritative guidelines instructed clinicians to strictly control glucose levels of patients with diabetes to accomplish these goals. In addition, in the 1990s, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began to approve drugs for the treatment of diabetes based on hemoglobin A_1c (HbA_1c) levels as the outcome. The prevailing concept was that risk reduction could be achieved by a clinical focus on reaching target values of HbA_1c, agnostic to the strategies used. This concept, analogous to early notions about lipid lowering, persisted despite the failure of trials evaluating tight glycemic targets, as assessed by HbA_1c levels, to reduce the risk of heart disease or improve survival.¹

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eRwwUKUsx5tH9lCs1ZVa-vkFBVIwsc2LEJiDtT0rTSs/edit?usp=sharing

ZH - Flávio Kanter: Incerteza em Medicina

Artigo na ZH de hoje de meu amigo AMICOR Flávio Kanter. Entre tantos artigos que ele tem escrito, este eu não poderia deixar de reproduzir. Até deu ânimo para terminar um inacabado sobre Realidade e Imaginação. Obrigado e Parabéns!...

WHO

Trois candidats pour diriger une OMS en quête de confiance

Le Comité exécutif de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé a désigné mercredi à Genève les trois candidats finalistes qui souhaitent succéder à la Chinoise Margaret Chan. Le moment est crucial. La crise Ebola a mis en évidence les faiblesses de l’organisation

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Microbioma

NSF awards $3 million for plant and animal microbiome and phenomics research

01/24/2017 06:00 AM EST

Millions of microbes living on and in the human body collectively make up our microbiomes. These microbial ecosystems help keep us healthy. The same processes are at work in other animals, as well as in plants.
To better understand the role microbiomes play in human health and in ecosystems around the world, the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Biological Sciences has awarded $3 million in Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER). In addition to ...

More at https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=190766&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

Supercluster Vela

O vizinho colossal da Via Láctea

ED. 251 | JANEIRO 2017

A Via Láctea (em azul e branco, no eixo horizontal) e a localização do novo supercluster Vela (VCS) e do supercluster Shapley (SC)

Um dos maiores superclusters de galáxias foi descoberto perto da Via Láctea por astrofísicos da Europa, Austrália e África do Sul (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 8 de novembro). Denominado supercluster Vela, esse mega-agrupamento de galáxias tinha passado despercebido devido à sua localização. Ele se situa atrás do plano da Via Láctea, onde a poeira e as estrelas de nossa galáxia o encobrem, à distância de 800 milhões de anos-luz. Os autores do trabalho dizem que o novo supercluster – denominado Vela por estar perto dessa constelação – parece superar os predicados do Shapley, antes a maior estrutura com galáxias (mais de 8 mil) do Universo observável. A massa descomunal do Vela, ainda não calculada com precisão, exerce forte influência sobre o movimento gravitacional da Via Láctea, que se desloca a 50 quilômetros por segundo na direção da megaestrutura.“A gravidade do supercluster Vela pode explicar a diferença entre o movimento registrado pela Via Láctea no espaço e o previsto a partir da distribuição das galáxias até agora conhecidas”, comenta Matthew Colless, da Universidade Nacional da Austrália, um dos autores do estudo. O supercluster foi descoberto a partir do cruzamento de dados de múltiplos telescópios e levantamentos de galáxias.

Shameless Lying?

UNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

Why Do Political Figures Lie So Blatantly?

Are They Pathological Liars? Narcissists? Psychopaths? “Masterful Manipulators”?

Trump Spokesman’s Lecture on Media Accuracy Is Peppered With Lies

Nearly all American politicians lie, but few as blatantly as those affiliated with the present administration. How do they do it? Are they lacking a conscience? Do they believe their own lies? Do they start with small falsehoods, stretch the truth, reinterpret events, and finally graduate to verifiably false statements?

“This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” Spicer said, contradicting all available data.

Crowds on the National Mall just before Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017 (left) and Barack Obama’s in 2009.

Photograph: Reuters./.../

How to fix it

Something Broken? Learn To Fix Anything With These 4 Websites

Dann Albright May 8, 2014 5 minutes

No one likes it when their things break. It might be something big, like your TV or your car, or something smaller, like a leaky faucet or a cracked floor tile. You can spend hundreds of dollars to have a professional help you out, or you can learn how to fix it yourself for the cost of some tools and a couple hours of work. Which would you rather do?

Be Safe!

Before you go trying to fix all of your problems by yourself, make sure that you’re making safe decisions. If something really expensive or potentially dangerous (especially things that include flames or electricity) is broken, I strongly recommend calling a professional unless you have experience with this sort of thing.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Climate: 50 Years Ago

The Jan. 27, 1967, cover of TIME Cover Credit: LARRY LEE

MEDIA

50 Years Ago This Week: Worry Over
Climate Change Has Already Begun

Lily Rothman

Jan 23, 2017

Milestone moments do not a year make. Often, it’s the smaller news stories that add up, gradually, to big history. With that in mind, in 2017 TIME History will revisit the entire year of 1967, week by week, as it was reported in the pages of TIME, to see how it all comes together. Catch up on last week’s installment here.

Week 4: Jan. 27, 1967

Illustrated with several pages of color photos, this cover story traced the growing awareness that "belching smokestacks that long symbolized prosperity" were becoming a "source of irritation," or worse. Though air pollution wasn't a new phenomenon, it was getting worse as consumption of power increased in the U.S. and around the world, causing "$11 billion a year in property damage alone" and numerous health problems. It was also, the magazine noted, causing a "gradual warming trend" that could "melt the polar ice craps"—a warning that may sound like something meant for today's readers, not those of 50 years ago. (As the magazine noted, this disaster would at least solve one problem: "Since this would raise ocean levels more than 100 feet, it would effectively drown the smog problems of the world's coastal cities.")

Geriatrics 2016

From: Wiley Geriatrics

JAGS’ Top 15 Most Talked About Articles in 2016

Here are the top 15 articles published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) in 2016 as measured by Altmetric, which provides a measure of the quality and quantity of online attention each article receives in traditional news outlets and on social media. Click the @AGSJournal twitter summaries to learn more.

	Can a Healthy Lifestyle Compress the Disabled Period in Older Adults?
	●	@AGSJournal: Walking greater distances and having a better diet is associated with a compression of the period spent disabled

	Mediation of Cognitive Function Improvements by Strength Gains After Resistance Training in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment: Outcomes of the Study of Mental and Resistance Training
	●	@AGSJournal: Strength training has clinically relevant benefits for cognitive function, muscle strength, and aerobic capacity

	Driving Cessation and Health Outcomes in Older Adults
	●	@AGSJournal: Stopping driving for older adults may contribute to a variety of health problems, particularly depression

	Providing Acute Care at Home: Community Paramedics Enhance an Advanced Illness Management Program-Preliminary Data
	●	@AGSJournal: The Community Paramedicine model may enhance care for homebound individuals with advanced illness

	High Dose Monthly Vitamin D for Prevention of Acute Respiratory Infection in Older Long-Term Care Residents: A Randomized Clinical Trial
	●	@AGSJournal: High-dose vitamin D3 reduced acute respiratory infections in older long-term care residents but also increased falls

	Compression of Morbidity Is Observed Across Cohorts with Exceptional Longevity
	●	@AGSJournal: There is a compression of morbidity at oldest ages that is generalizable to longevity in ethnically diverse groups

	Willingness and Ability of Older Adults in the Emergency Department to Provide Clinical Information Using a Tablet Computer
	●	@AGSJournal: Half of older adults in the ED are willing to give health info via tablets, but most can’t enter the info correctly

	Effect of Reproductive History and Exogenous Hormone Use on Cognitive Function in Mid- and Late Life
	●	@AGSJournal: Reproductive life events related to sex hormones are positively related to aspects of cognition in later life

	Antipsychotic Medication for Prevention and Treatment of Delirium in Hospitalized Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
	●	@AGSJournal: Use of antipsychotic meds are not associated with delirium duration, severity, or hospital/ICU length-of-stay

	Global Sensory Impairment in Older Adults in the United States
	●	@AGSJournal:Two-thirds of community-dwelling U.S. adults aged 57 to 85 have two or more sensory deficits

	High-Risk Medications in Hospitalized Elderly Adults: Are We Making It Easy to Do the Wrong Thing?
	●	@AGSJournal: Default doses in electronic medical records are often greater than what is recommended for high-risk medications

	Effects of Home Based Tai Chi and Lower Extremity Training and Self Practice on Falls and Functional Outcomes in Older Fallers from the Emergency Department Randomized Controlled Trial
	●	@AGSJournal: Tai chi reduces falls more than conventional lower extremity training, with effects lasting for at least 1 year

	Potentially Unsafe Activities and Living Conditions of Older Adults with Dementia
	●	@AGSJournal: Older adults with dementia who are not aware of the diagnosis are more likely to engage in unsafe behaviors

	How U.S. Doctors Die: A Cohort Study of Healthcare Use at the End of Life
	●	@AGSJournal: Despite what we might think, doctors don’t die that differently than the rest of the U.S. population

	Prevalence and Predictors of Fatigue in Middle-aged and Older Adults: Evidence From the Health and Retirement Study
	●	@AGSJournal: The prevalence of fatigue in men and women was much higher than that reported in literature

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