Ronnie is our smart and rascally Australian Shepard!
Heres what were reading today!
“The process began in April where Dr. Liu injected 10 million AST-OPC1 cells directly into Kris’ cervical spinal cord. Dr. Liu explains that; “Typically, spinal cord injury patients undergo surgery that stabilizes the spine but does very little to restore motor or sensory function. With this study, we are testing procedure that may improve neurological function, which could mean the difference between being permanently paralyzed and being able to use one’s arms and hands. Restoring that level of function could significantly improve the daily lives of patients with severe spinal injuries.””
“Co-author Dr Isabelle Mareschal also from QMUL’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences added: “There are numerous claims in popular culture that women and men look at things differently – this is the first demonstration, using eye tracking, to support this claim that they take in visual information in different ways.””
““Even over a short period of time, we saw aerobic exercise lead to a remarkable change in the brain,” said the study’s lead investigator, Laura D. Baker, Ph.D., from Wake Forest School of Medicine (WFSM) in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The study included 35 adults with MCI participating in a randomized, controlled trial of exercise intervention. Individuals with MCI are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, which affects more than 5 million Americans today.”
“The males of the extraordinary semi-aquatic mammal – one of the only kind to lay eggs – have venomous spurs on the heels of their hind feet.
The poison is used to ward off adversaries.
But scientists at the University of Adelaide and Flinders University have discovered it contains a hormone that could help treat diabetes.”
““We’ve made a step forward by incorporating the substance we’re interested in into the lipid coating of the microbubbles. This makes the substance stay adhered to the microbubbles and prevents it circulating freely through the body,” SINC was told by the physicist Carlos Sierra, a UEIL researcher who receives a grant from A Coruña’s Berrié Foundation and the lead author of the paper on this new advance, published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.”
““Children who have profound visual deficits often expend a disproportionate amount of effort trying to see straight ahead, and as a consequence they neglect their peripheral vision,” said Duje Tadin, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at Rochester. “This is problematic because visual periphery—which plays a critical role in mobility and other key visual functions—is often less affected by visual impairments.””
26 Comments
mariecote · December 3, 2016 at 8:08 pm
I read the article about platypus venom. This caught my attention since I would never have thought that platypus venom could somehow relate to diabetes! I think it’s incredible that they discovered this by unintentionally. I think that its important to use other organisms (and apparently their hormones) as inspiration for potential treatments; chances are, treatments to all of our diseases lie somewhere in the animal kingdom. This venom has the potential to treat diabetes 2, the type of diabetes that is generally more difficult to treat than type 1 diabetes. But, as mentioned at the end of the article, it may be a long time before a treatment gets approved.
ChrisKwasnyPSY340 · December 6, 2016 at 2:21 pm
I read the article regarding how men and women see differently and immediately jumped to the conclusion that this could not be true. In my social psychology class we recently learned how there are many perceived differences between men and women both psychologically and socially and that many of these perceived differences are in fact, false. After reading the article I was astonished that when looking at a screen, men and women use the left and right hemispheres differently. Women analyzed the face on the screen more and the researchers were able to determine the gender of the participant with 80% accuracy according to the way they looked at the face. Not only this, but the accuracy of this research remained constant over 60 nationalities.
mmulder · December 6, 2016 at 6:46 pm
I read the article regarding stem cell research. The results that the patient, Kris, had after only 2 months are amazing. He went from absolutely no movement to being able to write and operate his wheelchair. While these may seem like miniscule tasks to a fully functioning individual, to Kris this is freedom. He will no longer rely on someone else to push his wheelchair and he will be able to answer phone calls and write messages to friends. This is a huge step in the medical community and I am sure that teams like Dr. Lui’s will continue to research and try to find more possible improvements. I cannot even begin to imagine how painful and terrible it would be to go from a fully functional individual to suddenly paralyzed. I am so happy that the medical community is putting time and effort into helping paralyzed patients regain motor control and function.
mmulder · December 6, 2016 at 6:54 pm
I read the article regarding exercise and brain functioning. I found this article to be super interesting and actually passed it along to my parents for them to read! We hear about how great exercise is and how important a healthy diet is but seeing actual results from a study is very impactful. It is so easy to take 30 minutes out of a busy day and exercise, but I know I personally am lazy sometimes and avoid the gym. After reading this article, I now not only will be motivated by being “in shape” but also by improving my cognition and increasing oxygen flow to my brain. I hope this study is widely read across the country because I think most people would easily decide to exercise 4 times a week if it meant increasing cognitive performance and slowing dementia.
daniellomayesva · December 7, 2016 at 11:14 am
I read the article about how men and women view faces differently and thought it was surprising that women explore faces more than men do. In addition, the fact that they could predict the gender of the participant with 80% accuracy just based off of tracking their eye movements is astonishing. I would have thought that there would be greater variance since people typically pay attention to different features in others when analyzing their physical appearance. I wonder why women tend to view people’s faces using the left side of their brain, like as to what evolutionary reason is underlying this phenomenon.
Shawn Tan · December 7, 2016 at 11:26 am
I read the article regarding the differences in the way men and women see the world. Through eye-tracking, they found that there is a distinct difference in the way the two genders see faces, as referred to in their study. It’s a fascinating find; men and women have been so different for so long, and maybe this in part, explains it. When you see the world, physically, in a different way, then it explains why there are such large differences in attitude and values among men and women. It also explains in part, the behavior and the differences in behavior between men and women. Since women perceive the world different from men, they behave differently because they see the world differently. Clearly, the same idea applies to men as well.
EmmaPessereau · December 7, 2016 at 11:41 am
I read the article about how men and women absorb facial recognition differently and found it very insightful. The findings that women tend to focus more on the left side of faces was really thought provoking and lead me to consider how I look at my boyfriend and if I tend to stare more at his left side. it was also interesting that women explored the entire face more than men, because my boyfriend asked my jokingly when we first began dating if I had ‘wandering eye syndrome’ because he felt self conscious that I was supposedly looking all over his face instead of at his eyes, while I couldn’t really tell I was doing it, and certainly did not mean to make him self conscious. I found the findings pretty accurate if the team was able to tell the gender of a participant solely by the movement of their eyes from the tracking device. I loved that the findings could help with autism diagnosis or even driving, in the future.
daniellomayesva · December 7, 2016 at 11:47 am
I also read the article about the study conducted on exercise’s effects on brain functioning and found it fascinating but not surprising that exercise significantly increased brain volume and functioning specifically with gray matter in test subjects. I have always supported the notion that exercise is one of the best natural remedies to a number of issues including depression, anxiety, and even physical illness like the common cold. My grandfather had a friend who was clinically depressed for 10 years and tried all sorts of medications, then one day he calls up my grandfather and says “hey guess what I went on a run today and for the first time in 10 years I feel happy.” After that he continued to exercise and hasn’t had problems with his depression ever since. I think this is for multiple reasons including the release of pleasure/reward neurochemicals such as endorphin, and the fact that exercise is meditative and refocuses brain activity. Given that meditation is known to benefit mental well being, it isn’t surprising to me that exercise would boost brain functioning in a healthy way.
EmmaPessereau · December 7, 2016 at 12:27 pm
The article about how male platypus’ have venom that can be synthesized to make a treatment for diabetes was really interesting, not only because I don’t know very much about the species and it was fascinating to learn about how the males lay the eggs and need to produce the venom to protect the offspring. The fact that male platypus produce GLP-1 and in a long lasting form even if it is as a weapon. I wondered how much more research would be needed before there was the possibility of using the chemical for human treatment, and pondered that there would need to be much studying of long term effects, side effects and symptoms from a treatment specifically made by the platypus.
chrisalvarez5 · December 7, 2016 at 11:13 pm
I read the article about the proven correlation between exercise and cognitive function. I thoroughly enjoyed this article because it truly exposes the importance and benefits of aerobic exercise. I believe many patients these days are being over-prescribed by their physicians to treat cases that might have a safer treatment approach, like exercise. A recent study in cardiovascular medicine showed diabetic patients are taking an average of 3.4 drugs to lower systolic blood pressure. It seems that establishing a strict aerobic exercise regimen would significantly impact the goal at hand. Having blood transport oxygen to the brain and really to all vascular parts of the body has been scientifically proven to be beneficial. It’s simply amazing to read how quickly (6-months) the test subjects showed signs of increased brain volume, in turn, increasing their cognitive performance. I researched a little to find other health benefits aerobic exercise has on the brain. Harvard medicine reported that exercise reduces insulin levels, promotes angiogenesis, and improves mood/sleep.
rshah · December 8, 2016 at 9:48 am
I read the article on how aerobic exercise preserves brain volume and improves cognitive function. This article reinforces the principles of how mental and physical health are so strongly correlated with each other. It is crucial for us to exercise our minds as much as we exercise our bodies, and this study explains how physical exercise still has a significant impact on cognition. What i noticed was that this study was composed of older adults around rather than those who would particularly have a healthier lifestyle because of being younger, around 20-25 years. By analyzing the cognitive abilities of older adults, the connection between Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment was better understood. I am currently in BIO 361, Principles of Physiology. In this class, we have gone in depth about the cellular and metabolic mechanisms of how aerobic respiration and physical exercise relates to oxygen consumption. By relating these two concepts on both the cellular and behavioral levels, it makes sense as to how brain volume is preserved with higher oxygen levels and efficient circulation. The brain, which is the main control of the nervous system that moves our muscles, is in constant communication with muscles in the rest of our bodies. By expanding the range of movement and stretching these tissues, the brain adapts to a larger range of motion and responds to the stretching in a positive manner. By directly seeing fruitful results from a neuroscience study as such, it makes people (including me!) to be more mindful about physical exercise and how it is equally as important for brain function and well as any other part of the human body. I never particularly paid attention to how brain volume could be an indicator for other neurological problems or disease until reading this article and learning more about how important gray matter is.
savannahlestes · December 8, 2016 at 12:22 pm
I read the article about stem cells used to help someone who was paralyzed. That is truly amazing! There is going to be a lot of crazy advances coming up in science lately. CRSPR was just done in a human last month; to anyone who hasn’t heard of it, it is a way that we can alter DNA in living beings to actively change the body! It is already being done in China on a man to cure lung cancer. Sick cell anemia is being cured. The possibilities are endless! It is crazy how much progress we made, and all the moral questions that are going to soon be coming along.
savannahlestes · December 8, 2016 at 12:26 pm
I like the article about how video games can help improve children’s vision. There is so much negativity around video games, that they are all trash and bad for you. It seems like it can be really beneficial to kids to an extent. It helps them with peripheral vision, and also I remember from previous lectures it can help them with spatial skills. This is something that normally testosterone improves, so maybe for girls video games could be a way to improve peripheral vision and spatial awareness!
mictom16 · December 8, 2016 at 6:57 pm
I found the article “Platypus venom paves way to possible diabetes treatment,” lacked information. Though it is very interesting that the platypus protein was discovered and that it leads to an increase in insulin, it does not offer an explanation as to how exactly it will treat Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a disease characterized by insulin resistance and a relative lack of insulin. This protein can certainly increase insulin in the blood. But once that insulin is in the bloodstream, receptors can still be resistant to it.
mictom16 · December 8, 2016 at 7:08 pm
The article “It’s all in the eyes: Women and men really do see things differently,” offers enlightening information. Humans have come to rely on vision the most out of all of their senses. And the fact that males and females differ in how they process visual information really shows that there are big differences between each gender. The article mentioned that females look at the left side of someone’s face more often and that they tend to scan faces more often than men. I wonder if this aids in empathy. If females scan faces more often maybe they can look for emotion or for possible facial features that convey something better that help them be more empathetic.
chrisalvarez5 · December 8, 2016 at 10:11 pm
I read the article about stem cells. What an incredible story and advancement in that field of medicine. It’s astonishing how quickly the 10 million stems cells that were injected into the patient’s spinal cord help regenerate motor skills. It seems that the potential of stem cells is limitless. The ability to give rise to new cell’s of the same nature can solve many prevalent medical issues including specific diseases, blunt trauma, and potentially other syndromes. It appears that implementing that form of treatment has the ability to help/solve many problems.
slandy · December 12, 2016 at 8:52 am
The article, “Platypus venom paves way to possible diabetes treatment,” was eye-catching due to its medical application. Today, 9.3% of the population is facing this disorder of metabolism, including type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. I’m curious to find out more: can the long-lasting form of GLP-1 be injected into humans for similar effects of long-lasting insulin release? Or is there still research to be done regarding the biochemistry of the hormone molecule? Does the molecule target the endocrine cells or the receptors on liver cells? This article also proposes the idea that there are many other animals in the same families as the platypus, gila monster, and sea snail, lacking functional stomachs, which might have greater or equal connection to the high functioning GLP-1.
Venus · January 18, 2017 at 9:13 am
I read the article about action video games helping children with poor vision see better. I was intrigued with this article because growing up, my mom did not allow me to play a lot of video games because she said they would ruin my vision. Upon further reading into the article, I found that the subjects of the study had central visual acuity less than the legal blind limit. I found it interesting that the researchers trained the children’s brains to use more of their peripheral vision by projecting the games and the children were viewing the game from a close distance on a large monitor. The stable findings after the study makes me wonder if this would work with a child with 20/20 vision.
kmmenden · January 22, 2017 at 6:42 pm
I read the article on platypus venom and diabetes. A lot of my family has diabetes, so I am always wanting to learn more about the disease. In my Cell Biology class last quarter, we actually talked about the GLP-1 hormone and I even did a flowchart assignment on it, tracking it through the body. Since the hormone produces insulin and lowers blood sugar levels, it would be great to have a long-term hormone in our own bodies. It was interesting that the researches decided to look at the platypus in the first place, but since they lack a functional stomach and obviously need a high functioning metabolic system, the curiosity does make sense. It will be interesting to see if the hormone in platypuses will render the same effects in humans and allow us to (maybe) have a cure for diabetes.
kylie.wong18 · February 5, 2017 at 11:01 pm
I read the article about advancement in stem cells, and I think that the medical advances that are being made are life changing. It’s a huge accomplishment to be able to replace spinal cord nerves to help regain movement since spinal cord damage had been thought to be permanent. Like the story shows, it not only improves people’s lives physically but also their self confidence and mental/emotional aspects of their lives as well which I believe is in a lot of ways more important. I remember when I first heard about stem cells, I was excited for its potential since their differentiation could be utilized in so many ways, and it is amazing to see how far they have come and all the good that has come out of it.
Venus · February 13, 2017 at 1:03 pm
I read the article about aerobic exercise preserving brain volume and improving cognitive function. Although the before and after MRIs of the participants’ brains show greater brain volume and shape, how do we know that this benefits the participants? However, I do agree that exercising in the morning is beneficial for brain activity. I normally have 6 AM basketball practice twice a week and I feel a lot more awake during the class after than on days without practice. It would be interesting to see if aerobic exercise helped individuals with no cognitive impairments.
jcatson98 · March 10, 2017 at 2:50 pm
I read the article on genders and how they view the world differently. I thought this was very interesting and when I read the title I was very intrigued because I never thought about something like this. The article described how men and women actually do indeed look at faces differently and use a different process to view the same image. This article made me think and ponder about if every person sees the world the same way, or if we all have our own unique vision on the world. I would like to know if there would be a way to perform studies to determine if each person sees the same as everyone else. This article really got my brain running and make me question lots of things!
jcatson98 · March 14, 2017 at 3:42 pm
I read the article of how aerobic activity preserved brain volume and how it improves cognitive function. I wanted to read this because it got me very interested due it the reason of myself coming from a very athletic family who all exercise daily. The article explained how any type of exercise will strengthen the brain, however aerobic activity cerates the most potential benefits in higher cognitive function. Aerobic activity increases gray matter, and increased directional stretch of brain tissue the most! I found this very fascinating and the first thing I thought of was my 85-year-old grandpa. He rides his bike still five times a week and is still sharp with his cognitive functions as if he is 40. I think this is a direct cause of all the aerobic activity he performs in. I really liked this article and would recommend it to a fried without a doubt!
Courtneycrane · March 16, 2017 at 10:16 pm
I wanted to read and comment about the aerobic exercise article because I saw that many students have been commenting about it. I see why it’s been a common one, its so interesting that regular aerobic exercise can have such an impact on the brain’s functions! I’ve been a long distance runner for years, and have also known older adults who have been running for years. I found this to be a good study since the subjects already presented with MCI- mild cognitive impairment. With exercise as a treatment, they improved, which is phenomenal. I truly think exercise can prevent the increase of risk of dementias, and this is one study just showing the facts
Courtneycrane · March 16, 2017 at 10:19 pm
I thought it was very peculiar that the platypus venom and diabetes article was listed on Australia’s newspage- they seem to have the coolest animals there! Anyways, I wanted to read this article because my mom is a certified diabetes educator and I plan on telling her about it. Because diabetes is such a profound disease in the world, I think that more research will continue to arise like this. I’ve heard of the GLP-1 peptide before, but not in this case. Even if someone were to find the cure to diabetes, there are still numerous other factors to consider that cause and worsen diabetes. However, this is a pretty cool find in research today.
kayleeroe · May 2, 2017 at 1:53 pm
I read the article, “Aerobic Exercise Preserves Brain Volume and Improves Cognitive Function”. I liked this article a lot because it shows further evidence on the benefits of exercise. Many people exercise due to the idea that they want to improve their physical health, but as shown in this study, exercising benefits the brain as well. It is news to me that exercising can preserve the brain volume and increase the local gray matter volume. These findings could be enough to influence an elder who is on the verge of developing Alzheimer’s disease and help them drastically to reduce the effects.