John Hopton for redOrbit.com – @Johnfinitum

RedOrbit recently looked at hypnagogia, the twilight zone between wakefulness and sleep. Here, in a continuation of investigating sleep phenomenon, we talked to Ryan Dungan Hurd, author of three books on the subject of lucid dreaming. He tells us what it is, how to do it, and why we would even want to.

RedOrbit: For people new to the concept, could you explain what exactly lucid dreaming is?

RDH: A lucid dream is a dream in which you realize you are dreaming. This realization can be momentary, and often precedes waking up from sleep. However, the practice of lucid dreaming involves techniques for staying “lucid” in the dream, which allows the dreamer to make choices and even manipulate the dream content to some degree. Dreamers often delight in flying or seeking out specific dream characters. Although not scientifically recognized until the early 1980s thanks to the work of Stanford University researcher Stephen LaBerge, the practice of lucid dreaming has been noted and practiced for hundreds of years in both Eastern and Western cultures, as well as in indigenous cultures around the world.

RO: So it is something that happens both involuntarily and voluntarily? If it can be made to happen, how can this be achieved?

RDH: Lucid dreams are a natural part of the dreaming process. About 50 percent of people have had a spontaneous lucid dream at least once in their lives. Lucid dreaming appears to be linked to sleep health as well – those who have more awakenings at night and are in general “light sleepers” may find it easier to have a lucid dream. The interesting thing is that most people can induce a lucid dream – this is what Stephen LaBerge and other dream researchers have discovered after 30 years of research.

The methods to induce lucid dreams are not fool proof, by any stretch, but they do work. In general, lucid dreaming induction techniques involve sleep disruption, cognitive and motivational exercises, and the use of assists including nootropics (dream supplements) and technology, such as lucid dreaming light masks.

Cognitive and motivational exercises are key to going “lucid” for many. One popular and effective practice is building prospective memory through the use of repeating a motivational phrase such as “Next time I’m dreaming, I will realize I’m dreaming!” Stephen LaBerge invented a technique he calls MILD (mnemonically induced lucid dreaming) that relies on this basic skill. If you dream repetitively, say of your high school lunch room, you can tie the memory exercise to it, such as “The next time I’m in my high school lunch room, I’m dreaming!” These repetitive scenes and sometimes objects are known as dream signs.

For another example, I often dream of my teeth falling out or being messed up. I’ve trained myself to think “If my teeth are messed up, I’m dreaming.” This is a cognitive habit that then stirs actual lucidity when I reflexively think it in the dream. Studies show that a strong intention or desire to have a lucid dream is also helpful. So it helps to know what you want to do when you wake up in the dream- -and you can develop this into a journaling exercise or simply a mental exercise before sleep.

RO: Are there advantages to lucid dreaming, such as improving or learning skills, taking ourselves on fantastical adventures, possibly even health, and many others?

RDH: Lucid dreaming is applied for many purposes around the world, including self-growth (meeting fears), spiritual growth (prayer and meditation), sports rehearsal (improving athletic performance), sexual discovery (orgasms in lucid dreams are physiologically real), creativity (visual arts, writing, mathematics, scientific discovery), and therapeutic aims (trauma reduction, for example, for those suffering with PTSD).

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Most people are familiar with “baby talk,” the use of higher-pitched voices and fluctuating frequencies that mark an adult’s elocution when speaking to a very young child, but is there a difference in how mothers and fathers address growing infants and toddlers?

That’s what Dr. Mark VanDam, professor in the Speech and Hearing Sciences department at Washington State University wanted to find out. In research scheduled to be presented Tuesday at the spring meeting of Acoustical Society of America, they studied 11 two-parent families with preschool-age children to see the tonal differences of moms and dads.

They found that when fathers interact with their kids, they were less likely than mothers to use raised fundamental frequencies, and demonstrated less of a tendency to alter the mean, range, and variability of their vocalizations. Dr. VanDam’s team noted that, to the best of their knowledge, this marks the first time this asymmetry between the parent sexes has been demonstrated.

Different approaches are complementary to learning

Each of the families involved in the study were traditional, two-parent families with a preschool-aged child (mean age: approximately 30 months), and each of them contributed whole-day audio recordings of a typical day in their lives. The recording device was placed in a chest pocket at a fixed distance of between seven and 10 centimeters from the child’s mouth.

About 150 hours worth of recordings were collected using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system. As they were processed using automatic speech recognition software, each segment was labeled with adult male, adult female, or child vocalization.

The research found that mothers frequently used higher pitch and varied their pitch more often when speaking with their children than they did when talking to adults. On the other hand, dads spoke to their kids using intonation patterns similar to those used when speaking to other adults.

Dr. VanDam explained that mothers use this altered language (referred to by the researchers as “motherese”) as a bonding tool, but added that it was not “a bad thing” for fathers to not use the same type of cadence when speaking to their young offspring. Instead, he said in a statement, the fathers may be “doing things that are conducive to their children’s learning but in a different way. The parents are complementary to their children’s language learning.”

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Hitmen have feelings, too. They just tend to bury those emotions and convince themselves they’re just doing their jobs when they successfully carry out a hit.

In research published in a recent edition of The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, David Wilson, a professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, and his colleagues looked at those hired killers categorized as novices by a prior study. They found that if those individuals can convince themselves they’re just businessmen dealing with a target and not a person, they can successfully hide any negative feelings associated with the task.

The key is having a sense of detachment to their victim(s), as was the case in the March 2010 shooting of Gulistan Subasi. The assassin in this case, North London teenager Santre Sanchez Gayle, was offered just £200 ($310) to commit the murder, and after the act was done, she left the scene in a taxi before the victim could become personalized.

On the other end of the spectrum was the case of Orville Wright, who was hired to execute a woman named Theresa Pitkin nearly a decade ago. Wright broke into her flat, but could not bring himself to carry out the act after striking up a conversation with his would-be victim, thus humanizing her.

Seeing victims as targets for normal business transactions

Wilson cites Jimmy Moody, a henchman for the Richardson gang in London during the 1960s and later served as an assassin for the IRA, as the prime example of a contract killer who separated his “work” from the rest of his seemingly normal life. He was the classic example of a hitman who was only motivated to kill for financial reasons, the authors said.

Moody is believed to have carried out contract killings in several major cities in the UK during the 1960s, and became involved in the IRA after escaping from Brixton prison. Although not sharing the political convictions of that group, he went on to be called “a perfect secret weapon” for the IRA, often torturing people believed to be informants before shooting them in the back of the head, just behind the ear.

“Moody and the other people in our study show us that when contract killers aren’t as successful in switching off their emotions, their jobs tend not to go to plan,” Dr. Rahman said. “Moody reframed his victims as targets, seeing getting the job done as a normal business activity.”

“These sorts of killers are akin to ‘criminal undertakers’, who have given themselves ‘special liberty’ to get things done in the name of business,” he added. “The motivation for most people who become hitmen is economic, so the reframing shows their resourcefulness as individuals who want to minimize risk and effort in the pursuit of maximizing profit.”

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
A new study from Texas-based researchers has found that NFL players who suffered from concussions, in which they lost consciousness, tended to have smaller brain structures later in life compared to men from similar backgrounds.
The study team said their report, published in JAMA Neurology, was the first to look at the relationship among hippocampal volume, memory, and concussion severity.
“This is a preliminary study, and there is much more to be learned in the area of concussion and cognitive aging,” study author Munro Cullum, professor of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics at University of Texas Southwestern. “While we found that aging individuals with a history of concussion and loss of consciousness showed smaller hippocampal volumes and lower memory test scores, the good news is that we did not detect a similar relationship among subjects with a history of concussion that did not involve loss of consciousness, which represents the vast majority of concussions.”
Studying the ballers
Study participants were former NFLers ranging from 36 to 79 years old, with an average age of 58. Some of the former players were also considered to have Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a condition that impacts memory performance and may lead to dementia.
The Texas researchers also enlisted 21 healthy men of with comparable age, educational, and intelligence who never experienced a concussion or played professional football.
The study team said their results do not describe why the hippocampus was smaller in the athletes who suffered far more severe concussions. Some shrinking is a part of the standard aging process, but the decline is accentuated in those with MCI and was even more significant in those MCI participants with a background of concussion combined with loss of consciousness.
The study team concluded there must be a snowballing effect of concussion history and MCI on size and performance of the hippocampus.
Concussion biomarker
In January, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania published a study that could make it easier for doctors to quantify the amount of damage suffered during the massive head traumas that football players endure on a regular basis.
The team in that study found elevated levels of a protein fragment called SNTF could be use as a biomarker for long-term physical and mental symptoms related to a concussion.
“We extended this biomarker research to the domain of professional sports to test its merit as an objective and rapid way to determine a players’ severity of brain injury,” says lead author, Robert Siman, a research professor of neurosurgery at Penn. “This blood test may aid neurobiologically-informed decisions on suitability for return to play following a sports-related concussion.”
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Jonny Lim for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Ever wonder why you can’t seem to fall asleep or stay asleep? Ever wake up groggy, or just plain unrested? Well, we’re here to help and tell you some things you might be doing wrong.

1. Using your phone/tablet/computer in bed

Studies have shown that the use of your phone, computer, TV, tablet, or anything with a screen before bed disrupts your sleep. Why? Researchers claim the light from these devices disrupts your melatonin production. So yeah, your Facebook stalking can wait ’til the morning.

2. Playing video games/watching TV

Similar to the first one, the light from television hurts your sleep, but also the mental stimulation (perhaps from a riveting game of Call of Duty) further hurts you and your beautiful union with bed.

3. Eating a big meal and/or the wrong foods

Late night snacks are one of the greatest things in the world, however, avoid large meals before bed. Your body will be too busy digesting the food to let you fully rest. If you’re going to eat, it’s best to do it at least 2-3 hours before bed.

There’s also some things you should avoid (even in small amounts) if you’re going to eat before bed. Chocolate, spicy food, salty foods, or fatty foods: Don’t eat them. Why? Chocolate bars actually contain caffeine and they also have a stimulant called theobromine that can increase heart rate and sleeplessness. Spicy, salty, and fatty foods have the potential to cause acid reflux.

In other words, don’t take Patrick’s lead on this:

4. Exercising

No, this does not mean you have to stop exercising entirely. Trust me. I’m disappointed, too. Exercising can actually help you sleep. So keep doing your thing at the gym, just not right before bed.

5. Reading a book

A nice read before bed sounds like a great idea–until the book becomes way too interesting and you can’t put it down. The next thing you know, it’s the morning and you have no idea what just happened.

So unless you’re reading the dictionary or anything by John Steinbeck, keep the reading to a minimum before bed and show some kind of self-restraint.

6. Drinking alcohol

Drinking might trick your body into thinking you’re tired and you need sleep. Alcohol is a depressant after all. However, it has the potential to disturb your REM sleep to the point where it is no longer restorative. Also: hangovers.

7. Smoking

Smoking is a terrible habit as is, but it’s also not good for your sleep either. Nicotine is a stimulant, and keeps your body from reaching a restful state. Thus, really avoid anything that contains nicotine before bed.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

People who are adept at homebrewing beer may soon be able to brew their own antibiotics, anti-cancer medication, or other drugs thanks to a due technique discovered by bioengineers from the University of California, Berkeley and an international team of colleagues.

In research published Monday in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, John Dueber, an assistant professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley, and his fellow researchers explained how they built on the homebrewing technique. The technique consists of using yeast to convert sugar into alcohol and creating a microbial factory capable of producing drugs.

In a statement, they explained that they focused on replicating a complex, 15-step process in poppy plants in microbes – a process that allows production of therapeutic substances. While previous efforts have been able to recreate different portions of the poppy’s drug pathway using yeast or E. coli, Dueber’s team for the first time was able to replicate the final steps, enabling the task to be completed from start to finish in a single organism.

They replicated the early steps in the process using an engineered strain of yeast, and then they were able to synthesize a compound found in poppy called reticuline from a glucose derivative known as tyrosine. The authors said that their research is the first to describe each step of the process, from feeding yeast glucose through the synthesis of the target drug, and that the challenge now is to link each step together and to work on scaling-up the process.

Bridging the gap in the poppy pathway

The researchers explained that the poppy pathway is an attractive target for such studies because it contains a highly active class of bioactive compounds known as Benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs). This family of natural products contains some 2,500 molecules that can be used for such bioactivities as painkillers, antibiotics, and anti-cancer therapeutics, Dueber told redOrbit.

The part of the pathway in which the glucose is converted to reticuline, “the last intermediate common to all types of these BIAs” and a “major branch-point hub,” had previously only been accomplished in E. coli, he explained via email. The downstream enzymes of most of these branches, however, had only previously been successful using yeast “because they contain enzymes that are notoriously problematic to functionally express in E. coli.”

“Ultimately, you want the entire pathway for producing your desired molecule of interest to all be expressed in the same cell because this can be robustly grown in large-scale fermenters,” the UC Berkeley bioengineer told redOrbit. His team isolated then improved an enzyme that completes the first missing step in the pathway in yeast, and then extends it to produce reticuline.

“We accomplished this by expressing a flower (Mirabilis jalapa) enzyme that converts the product of our missing enzymatic step (L-DOPA) into a molecule that is highly fluorescent and colored,” he said. “This allowed us to both isolate a beet enzyme capable of doing this reaction (the enzyme is involved in synthesizing the violet pigment that gives beets their color) and then further improving the enzyme by mutating its sequence and picking the cells that were the most fluorescent/colored. We then replaced this flower enzyme for synthesizing the fluorescent biosensor with the downstream BIA producing enzymes.”

Previous research demonstrated that reticuline fed to yeast cells could be converted to codeine, and another study has demonstrated the conversion of of thebaine to morphine in yeast. The steps featured in those studies overlap, establishing the steps to go from reticuline to morphine, Dueber said. One last step is required to convert connect all of the dots – epimerization from one type of reticuline to the other – and he is confident that another lab will soon describe this process.

Several possible benefits, but concerns as well

Dueber told redOrbit via email that there are “several potential benefits” to their research. For instance, it “enables the production of this large family of natural products, hopefully in high concentrations once the before mentioned inefficient enzymatic steps are improved. Again, many of these have potential for a variety of desirable bioactivities, but we are currently limited in studying many since the natural plants make them in vanishingly low amounts.”

“Yeast are much easier to genetically reprogram than plants and also replicate much faster,” doubling their population in about two hours, he added. “This should allow us to introduce non-native enzymes to make so-called unnatural natural molecules, further increasing the diversity of this already large BIA family. We may be able to make therapeutics that have even more desirable bioactivity.”

This could allow them to produce a steady supply of morphine that is not subject to weather conditions, pests, or other destructive elements. The supply of the substance could be adjusted to match the medical field’s demand, Dueber explained, and the fermentation process could be done in a secured location. He and his colleagues believe that sugar-fed yeast could reliably produce these substances in only a few years’ time, and they are calling for regulators and law enforcement officials to take note of their research.

“There are considerable challenges to be overcome, but I think a morphine-producing strain could be achieved in a two-to-three-year timeframe if it was made the central focus of a talented metabolic engineering lab given the rapid progress in the last couple of years,” he told redOrbit via email. “Due to the concern of the illicit potential misuse of such a strain, the authors of our paper think it is extremely important to engage the public and government now to consider the most sensible steps to take to encourage the research that holds great potential for benefiting society while taking measures to make the illicit uses as difficult as possible.”

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

John Hopton for redOrbit.com – @Johnfinitum

DNA profiling and artists impressions are associated with catching serious bad guys, but now litterbugs in Hong Kong are subject to the same techniques.

DNA collected from tiny traces of saliva on cigarette butts and gum is being used to create a highly accurate (if slightly creepy) impression of perpetrators’ faces. The images are then plastered around the city like advertising, in what Wired describes as “high-tech scarlet lettering”.

Hong Kong’s Face Of Litter campaign is the work of ad agency Ogilvy for the non-profit Hong Kong Cleanup, together with Parabon Nanolabs, a company out of Virginia that has developed a method to construct digital portraits from small traces of DNA.

Less than a nanogram (or less than one billionth of the mass of a penny) of dried saliva is need for scientists to construct a digital likeness.

Parabon’s technique benefits from the growing information we have about the human genome. Blood or saliva can be analyzed in order to make an educated prediction of what a person might look like. “We’re interested in using DNA as a blueprint,” explains Steven Armentrout, founder of Parabon. “We read the genetic code.”

The DNA from trash in Hong Kong is taken to a genotyping lab, where a massive data set on the litterbug is produced. This data, when processed with Parabon’s machine-learning algorithms, helps to form an assessment of certain phenotypes, or traits. In this way, it is different to DNA profiling that matches to existing samples.

Method can’t judge how trendy the subject is (hairstyle, facial hair)

The method is only accurate with things that have little environmental variability, such as eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling, and face shape. Height and age are less easy to ascertain, as are hair appearance (straight, wavy, or curly) and style, which is probably why most of the poster images appear bald. (It could be a way of saying “this is what you’ll look like when you’re doing hard time for littering.”)

But actually, the campaign is not quite as sinister as it seems. All of the people whose DNA was used were contacted and asked for their permission to use their images. So really it is a public confession rather than a shaming as they are contributing to public awareness of littering and of a cool new technology.

The method also used market research to ascertain things that DNA profiling found difficult, such as age. Because they were aware that people of 18 to 34 generally chew gum while those who drop cigarettes were likely to be over 45, the scientists were able to incorporate age into the images.

This is not yet a exact science but is perhaps a sign of things to come, and a reason for debate on the ethical use of increasingly easy-to-use DNA samples.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

If it seems as though our increasing reliance on technology has made it more difficult for us to concentrate for long periods of time, there may not be scientific evidence to support that notion, thanks to a new report released this weekend by Microsoft researchers.

Assuming that you’re still reading and not, instead, checking your Facebook, here are the details: In 2000, the attention span of the average human was 12 seconds, but by 2013, it had dropped to just eight seconds, or one second shorter than that of a goldfish. The study was conducted using a combination of surveys and EEG scans, according to Engadget reports published on Sunday.

The website added that much of the attention-span decline is being attributed to the proliferation of mobile devices and the wealth of content available to younger people who compulsively seem to find themselves checking their smartphones and tablets to see what’s new on social media and their favorite websites. Fortunately, they said, the news isn’t all bad.

Not paying attention, or being more selective information consumers?

According to Engadget, while technology may be harming our overall attention span, it also appears to be improving our ability to concentrate in short bursts and to multitask, Microsoft’s report found. Also, it gives people a better sense of what things are worthy of their attention and makes it easier for them to remember those things deemed useful.

The study also reported that 44 percent of Canadians have to really concentrate in order to keep focused on the task at hand, and that 45 percent of them admit they can easily get sidetracked from what they’re doing. Half of those polled said that they automatically reach for their smartphones when nothing else is occupying their attention, it added.

“No matter what environment humans are in (be it the plains of Africa or a crowded street in New York), survival depends on being able to focus on what’s important – generally what’s moving. That skill hasn’t changed, it’s just moved online,” Alyson Gausby, Consumer Insights Lead with Microsoft Canada, wrote in the foreword of the study.

“Today, multi-screening is a given,” she continued, adding that people “turn to their secondary screens to fill in those in-between moments when they might otherwise drop off completely” and are thus “more engaged overall and already primed for immersive experiences… Rest assured,” Gausby concluded, “digital won’t be the cause of our (at least attentional) downfall.”

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Researchers at the University of Manchester are developing a shocking new solution to an age old problem: A medical method that can improve wound healing by electrifying a patient’s skin.

Dr. Ardeshir Bayat and his colleagues recruited 40 volunteers and gave each of them a harmless, half-centimeter cut on their upper arm. Those study participants were then divided randomly into two groups – one group that was left to heal normally, and another which was treated with electrical pulses over a two-week period.

The researchers found that those pulses stimulated angiogenesis—or the process of forming new blood vessels, increasing blood flow to the wounded area. As a result, individuals receiving this type of treatment saw their wounds heal significantly faster than the control group. The authors published their findings in a recent edition of the journal PLOS One.

Devices to speed up healing

Slow-healing skin wounds can be a huge pain for people all over the world, the researchers explained. In the UK alone, the NHS spends more than £1 billion, or $1.5 billion, on chronic wound care. Chronic wounds, they noted, are wounds that remain open and fail to heal for at least six weeks.

Dr. Bayat’s team, in collaboration with Oxford BioElectronics Ltd., hope that these injuries can be treated using new devices that take advantage of electrical stimulation, based on the findings of their study. The university and the company teamed up on a five-year project to develop and evaluate dressings that can generate nerve impulses to the site of the damaged skin.

“This research has shown the effectiveness of electrical stimulation in wound healing, and therefore we believe this technology has the potential to be applied to any situation where faster wound healing is particularly desirable, such as following human or veterinary surgical wounds, accidental, or military trauma and in sports injuries,” Dr. Bayat said in a statement.

“This is an exciting partnership, working on a pioneering project with the potential to change substantially the way cutaneous wounds are managed in the future,” he added. “When used in acute and chronic wounds, bandages are essentially just a covering. With this technology we hope that the dressings will be able to make a significant functional contribution to healing the wounds and getting the patient back to full health as quickly as possible.”

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Abbey Hull for redOrbit.com – @AbbeyHull4160
In all the fashion magazines and runway photos, the new trick up almost every celebrity makeup artists’ sleeve is “contouring”. We all have seen this trend whether we realize it or not; but the real question is not how accented can these cheekbones be (and yes, all good things can have a limit), but rather: Why is contouring so popular?
Let it be known to the world—makeup is both an art and a science!
Breaking down contouring
While every person has their own opinions as to what is considered attractive, the rise in contouring makeup among individuals cannot go unnoticed. By blending two different shades of makeup in strategic places, a person can define their bone structure. This technique makes cheekbones more prominent, noses appear smaller, and enhances those areas that some people like, such as a stronger jaw lines, smaller foreheads, and bigger eyes.

So why do it?
Here’s where science plays a role in our everyday makeup application. Dr. David C. Mabrie, M.D., a board-certified facial cosmetic surgeon in the San Francisco bay area and Pinole, breaks down the science of beauty in an attractive face into four parts:
Symmetry: When it comes to taking pictures, everyone has a “good side.” “No one has a perfectly symmetrical face, but symmetry is a quality that is universally attractive,” Dr. Mabrie noted on his practice’s website. With many people, the reasoning for a “good side” could be that their face possesses a slightly lowered cheekbone on one side or the corner of their mouth may slightly sag. With contouring makeup, people are able to non-surgically improve their facial symmetry and create a more-balanced look.
Youthfulness: This one seems fairly simple: In studies, research shows that people find youthful facial features more attractive.
“On a primal level, youth equals health, strength, and fertility, so it’s only natural that we’d find youthful faces more attractive,” Dr. Mabrie detailed. By having smooth skin and the absence of shadows and wrinkles, courtesy of a good foundation and concealer in makeup, contouring can potentially increase your level of attractiveness.
Familiarity: To those who believe only the tall, dark, and handsome mystery or exotic types are worthy of being called attractive, research tells you to think again. Studies have shown that men and women find “average” faces more attractive—thus, the closer you are to the prototypical attractive face with symmetry and balanced proportions, the more attractive you are to the general population. Average doesn’t seem so average now, does it?

Proportionality: Sometimes you can’t pinpoint why a person is attractive, and this is where proportionality comes in. “Attractiveness is often the product not of stunning features, but balanced features that complement one another,” Dr. Mabrie wrote. Since ancient times, the idea of proportionality and “golden ratio” has been studied, but Dr. Mabrie has his own theories.
“There are defining points of the prototypical attractive face such as the cheekbones and chin. If these are over or under-defined, the face loses its familiar, proportional quality, which can diminish attractiveness,” Dr. Mabrie noted. “The nose is also a defining point. A strong, smooth nasal bridge and a defined nasal tip that is not round or bulbous will enhance attractiveness.”
With simple mixes of hues, anyone can utilize the four parts what makes an attractive face and try something new, whether you stick to your strong makeup routine or branch out to try something new. All it takes is a little art, a little skill, and a little science to be runway or workday ready.
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

By introducing a beneficial, naturally occurring genetic mutation into the DNA of human red blood cells, researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Australia have come up with a technique that could ultimately lead to a cure for sickle-cell anemia.

As lead investigator Professor Merlin Crossley, dean of the UNSW science department, and his colleagues reported Thursday in the journal Nature Communications, the procedure activates an ordinarily sleeping gene only active in unborn children. As a result, production of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin is increased in red blood cells.

“An exciting new age of genome editing is beginning, now that single genes within our vast genome can be precisely cut and repaired,” Professor Crossley explained in a statement, adding that the study “provides a proof of concept that changing just one letter of DNA in a gene could alleviate the symptoms of sickle cell anemia and thalassaemia.”

Increasing oxygen collection by activating fetal hemoglobin

Crossley said that, since the genetic variation introduced by the research team occurs naturally, the approach should be both safe and effective, thought he emphasized that additional research was needed before it could actually be tested in humans as a potential cure for inherited blood disorders.

The study authors explained that people produce two different types of hemoglobin: a fetal kind of hemoglobin that has a high affinity for oxygen, allowing the growing child to collect oxygen from its mother’s blood, and an adult version that actives after birth. As many as five percent of adults worldwide carry a mutation that affects their hemoglobin genes, they said.

Individuals who inherit mutant genes from both patents have damaged hemoglobin and suffer from life-threatening conditions such as sickle cell anemia and thalassaemia – conditions that require patients to take medication and receive blood transfusions throughout their life. However, this technique could put an end to all of that.

They introduced a positive, single-letter mutation into human red blood cells keeping their fetal hemoglobin gene activated throughout their lives, and “significantly” reducing their symptoms, the professor explained. This was achieved by using genome-editing proteins called TALENs, and if proven safe, this method could offer considerable significant advantages over conventional gene therapy or other approaches to deal with these inherited blood disorders.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

An increasing number of women are freezing their eggs because they’re not yet ready to have children and they want to keep the door open to start a family later in life. In fact, The Daily Mail recently reported that demand for the procedure in the UK has risen 400 percent.

While it can be difficult to choose the right time to become a mother, in the past, it has been equally challenging for a woman to decide what is the best time to have her eggs frozen. Now, however, Dr. Tolga B. Mesen, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s Fertility Clinic, and her colleagues have calculated the ideal age.

As the authors wrote in the journal Fertility and Sterility, they set out to estimate “the optimal age to pursue elective oocyte cryopreservation.” They used a model “constructed to determine the success and cost-effectiveness of oocyte preservation versus no action when considered at ages 25–40 years, assuming an attempt at procreation 3, 5, or 7 years after initial decision.”

In other words, as Science explains, Dr. Mesen and her fellow researchers considered a variety of economic and biological factors to determine the ideal age for women to have their eggs frozen if they want to become pregnant and start a family as late in life as humanly possible.

Finding the “sweet spot” for freezing oocytes

There are two main factors to consider when determining when it is best to freeze a human egg, according to Science: the viability of those eggs once thawed, and how much it will cost to keep the oocytes preserved. The longer a woman waits to freeze her eggs, the less likely it is that they will result in a live birth – but in terms of dollars, older women benefit the most, since they often have fewer years of fertility left.

As part of their research, the UNC-led team collected data from national registries and surveys of pregnancies and fertility treatments, as well as ongoing studies on conception rates and medical records from fertility clinics all over the country. They then created their decision-tree models to calculate the probability of live birth when a woman either froze her eggs for a specific amount of time or opted to wait to try to get pregnant naturally or through IVF.

They found that egg freezing was most beneficial to women when the wait period was seven years, as it increased the chances of a live birth for women of all ages (though that increase was minimal for women 32 years of age of younger, according to Science). The largest improvements were observed when eggs were frozen at age 37, as the probability of a successful live birth at 44 years of age increased from 21.9 percent to 51.6 percent.

Furthermore, the study authors concluded that most women would have to freeze their eggs by the age of 34 in order to have at least a 70 percent chance of giving birth to a live child. Since the researchers also found that egg freezing provided the most improvement in live birth rates versus not freezing until after age 30, Dr. Mesen told Science that she and her colleagues believe the so-called “sweet spot” for freezing ages in between the ages of 31 and 33.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Using a smartphone to talk or text while exercising on a treadmill could reduce the intensity of the exercise, thus lowering its benefits to a person’s cardiovascular and overall health, according to new research published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.
In the study, Dr. Jacob Barkley and Dr. Andrew Lepp of Kent State University in Ohio and their colleagues assessed the impact of smartphone uses on exercise, recruiting 44 students to take part in four separate 30-minute workout sessions on a treadmill.
Three of those sessions measured the affects of common smartphone uses such as talking, texting, and listening to music, and the fourth served as a control where participants did not have access to their mobile devices. During each workout, the researchers recorded the average speed of the treadmill, the student’s heart rate, and their overall enjoyment of the experience.
Leave the phone in the locker room
The Kent State team found that, when compared to the no-smartphone condition, the other three behaviors each had a different affect on the exercise behavior of the students. Listening to music had the most positive impact, increasing the average treadmill speed of the participants as well as their heart rates and their degree of enjoyment of the workout experience.
Talking was found to increase the overall enjoyment of the experience and maintained heart rate in comparison to the control, but reduced the overall speed of the individuals. Texting, on the other hand, reduced both speed and heart rate and had no impact on enjoyment. According to the authors, the findings help explain previous research at Kent State that uncovered a negative link between smartphone use and cardiorespiratory fitness.
“It appears as if listening to music and, to a lesser extent, talking may have benefits on the duration and/or frequency of exercise due to their ability to increase enjoyment,” explained Dr. Lepp said. “However, if an individual’s opportunity for exercise is constrained by time, then it appears best to avoid talking on a smartphone during planned exercise.”
“Most people indicate that their lack of exercise is due to time constraints,” added Dr. Barkley. “When this is the case, this study suggests that a smartphone should not be used for talking or texting as both may potentially reduce fitness. If one is looking to get the most benefits and improvements out of their workout, leave the smartphone in the locker room and enjoy your music with another type of device.”
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.