Pregnant women exposed to moderate amounts of several common air pollutants have babies with lower birthweights than do women in areas with cleaner air, according to a new study.http://www.myspace.com/louis_j_sheehan_esquire
Newborns with low birthweights face an increased risk of lifelong health problems. Previous studies searching for a link between air pollution and birthweight had yielded mixed results.
Now, in one of the largest studies of this kind, scientists at Yale University looked at records of 358,504 births in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The team found that four types of air pollution correlate with low birthweight. The culprits are carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and two classes of airborne particles: those smaller than 10 and smaller than 2.5 micrometers (designated PM2.5).
"Maternal exposure to air pollution may adversely affect risk of low birthweight, even in areas without high pollution levels," says Michelle L. Bell, lead scientist on the newly reported work. Air-pollution amounts were based on Environmental Protection Agency records for the 15 counties in which the women lived while pregnant. Only two counties—New Haven and Fairfield, Conn.—didn't meet EPA's air-quality standards, exceeding the standard for PM2.5.
Carbon monoxide showed the largest effect. In one comparison, the scientists considered the average birthweights in counties at the 75 percent point in rank for a given pollutant and in counties at the 25 percent mark. For carbon monoxide, infants in those groups differed in birthweight by an average of 16.2 grams. The next-worst offender was PM2.5, which showed a difference of 14.7 g, the scientists report online and in an upcoming Environmental Health Perspectives.
These differences in birthweight can increase the newborn's risk of complications such as gastrointestinal infections and respiratory problems in the first weeks of life, comments Srimathi Kannan of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
However, only 4 percent of the babies in the study met the clinical standard for low birthweight—less than 2,500 g (about 5.5 pounds)—which is associated with life-threatening complications in infancy and heart disease in adulthood. A woman's risk of having a low-birthweight baby increased by no more than 5.4 percent when she lived in a county at the 75 percent mark for air pollutants rather than in a county at the 25 percent mark. http://www.myspace.com/louis_j_sheehan_esquire
In arriving at these results, the researchers adjusted for many factors that can influence birthweight, such as prenatal care, gestational length, type of delivery, and the child's sex and birth order. They also considered the mother's race, education, marital status, age, and tobacco use, all of which have been shown to influence the weights of newborns. http://www.myspace.com/louis_j_sheehan_esquire
The new study is "much more comprehensive in its investigation" than previous research, Kannan says, noting that the biological mechanisms linking these pollutants to reduced fetal growth are still poorly understood. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
komodo 66.kom.3991 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
A young Komodo dragon will spontaneously mouth and paw at a Frisbee and make other gestures that "would be considered play in a dog or cat," says Gordon Burghardt of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. http://louis_j_sheehan.today.com/
Behaviorists wrestling with the problem of describing and explaining play haven't paid much attention to reptiles, Burghardt says. Yet for decades, observers have recorded anecdotes of young Komodo dragons doing things that lack obvious utility and suggest whimsical antics. When a Komodo dragon egg hatched at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., Burghardt jumped at the chance to make systematic observations as the youngster grew up. http://louis_j_sheehan.today.com/
Burghardt and his colleagues worked with zoo staff for 2 years to videotape 31 sessions with the young female Komodo dragon, named Kraken, as keepers put new objects into her enclosure. Besides a Frisbee, the novelties they offered her included plastic rings, a shoe, a bucket, and a tin can.
Kraken typically nudged them with her snout, swiped at them with her paw, and carried them around in her mouth. She treated them differently from her food, and Burghardt says the tapes "disprove the view that object play is just food-motivated predatory behavior." http://louis_j_sheehan.today.com/
The tapes also show Kraken seemingly eager for social play. In one session, she eased up behind caretaker Trooper Walsh, who managed to stand almost still. Kraken then reached up to his rear pocket, pulled out his handkerchief, and stood near him with it in her mouth. He reached to grab it, and the two of them both pulled at it in what Burghardt says looks, even to the trained eye, like someone playing tug-of-war with a puppy.
Behaviorists wrestling with the problem of describing and explaining play haven't paid much attention to reptiles, Burghardt says. Yet for decades, observers have recorded anecdotes of young Komodo dragons doing things that lack obvious utility and suggest whimsical antics. When a Komodo dragon egg hatched at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., Burghardt jumped at the chance to make systematic observations as the youngster grew up. http://louis_j_sheehan.today.com/
Burghardt and his colleagues worked with zoo staff for 2 years to videotape 31 sessions with the young female Komodo dragon, named Kraken, as keepers put new objects into her enclosure. Besides a Frisbee, the novelties they offered her included plastic rings, a shoe, a bucket, and a tin can.
Kraken typically nudged them with her snout, swiped at them with her paw, and carried them around in her mouth. She treated them differently from her food, and Burghardt says the tapes "disprove the view that object play is just food-motivated predatory behavior." http://louis_j_sheehan.today.com/
The tapes also show Kraken seemingly eager for social play. In one session, she eased up behind caretaker Trooper Walsh, who managed to stand almost still. Kraken then reached up to his rear pocket, pulled out his handkerchief, and stood near him with it in her mouth. He reached to grab it, and the two of them both pulled at it in what Burghardt says looks, even to the trained eye, like someone playing tug-of-war with a puppy.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
training 333.tra.1 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Among physically healthy seniors, advancing age often takes a toll on memory and other mental abilities. There's encouraging news, though, for those who want to boost their brainpower.
A brief training course in any of three domains of thought�memory, reasoning, or visual concentration�yields marked improvement on tests of these cognitive skills, according to the largest geriatric study to date of these instructional techniques. The enhancement lasts for at least 2 years. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US
"Improvements in memory, problem-solving, and concentration following training roughly counteracted the degree of cognitive decline that we would expect to see over a 7-to-14-year period among older people without dementia," says psychologist Karlene Ball of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US Ball and her colleagues report their findings in the Nov. 13 Journal of the American Medical Association.
It's not yet clear whether training-induced effects translate into improved thinking in everyday situations, cautions Ball. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US
In their study, the scientists recruited 2,832 men and women, ages 65 to 94.
They came primarily from senior-housing sites, community centers, and medical facilities in six urban regions of the United States. Participants were in good health and living independently. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US
These volunteers were randomly assigned to one of three training groups or a control group that didn't receive any training. One course of instruction focused on ways to improve memory for word lists and stories. Another bolstered reasoning in problems analogous to daily tasks such as reading a bus schedule. A third coached participants to identify visual information quickly in computer displays that corresponded to challenges such as reading traffic signs while driving.
Each training course consisted of 10 roughly hour-long sessions over 5 to 6 weeks. Most who completed training received a refresher set of four training sessions 11 months later.
Immediately after the first round of sessions, 26 percent of memory-trained participants, 74 percent of reasoning-coached volunteers, and 87 percent of those instructed in visual concentration showed substantial improvement on the targeted skill. While most members of the no-training group showed no change or declined, a small number improved as much as those who had received training. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US
The proportion of trained participants scoring markedly above their starting value dipped slightly over the next 2 years but remained greater than the proportion of untrained volunteers who upped their performance similarly.
Refresher sessions enhanced training-induced gains in reasoning and visual concentration but not in memory.
"I think we can build on these results to see how training ultimately might be applied to tasks that older people do everyday, such as using medication or handling finances," comments psychologist Richard M. Suzman of the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md.
A brief training course in any of three domains of thought�memory, reasoning, or visual concentration�yields marked improvement on tests of these cognitive skills, according to the largest geriatric study to date of these instructional techniques. The enhancement lasts for at least 2 years. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US
"Improvements in memory, problem-solving, and concentration following training roughly counteracted the degree of cognitive decline that we would expect to see over a 7-to-14-year period among older people without dementia," says psychologist Karlene Ball of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US Ball and her colleagues report their findings in the Nov. 13 Journal of the American Medical Association.
It's not yet clear whether training-induced effects translate into improved thinking in everyday situations, cautions Ball. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US
In their study, the scientists recruited 2,832 men and women, ages 65 to 94.
They came primarily from senior-housing sites, community centers, and medical facilities in six urban regions of the United States. Participants were in good health and living independently. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US
These volunteers were randomly assigned to one of three training groups or a control group that didn't receive any training. One course of instruction focused on ways to improve memory for word lists and stories. Another bolstered reasoning in problems analogous to daily tasks such as reading a bus schedule. A third coached participants to identify visual information quickly in computer displays that corresponded to challenges such as reading traffic signs while driving.
Each training course consisted of 10 roughly hour-long sessions over 5 to 6 weeks. Most who completed training received a refresher set of four training sessions 11 months later.
Immediately after the first round of sessions, 26 percent of memory-trained participants, 74 percent of reasoning-coached volunteers, and 87 percent of those instructed in visual concentration showed substantial improvement on the targeted skill. While most members of the no-training group showed no change or declined, a small number improved as much as those who had received training. LOUIS-J-SHEEHAN-ESQUIRE.US
The proportion of trained participants scoring markedly above their starting value dipped slightly over the next 2 years but remained greater than the proportion of untrained volunteers who upped their performance similarly.
Refresher sessions enhanced training-induced gains in reasoning and visual concentration but not in memory.
"I think we can build on these results to see how training ultimately might be applied to tasks that older people do everyday, such as using medication or handling finances," comments psychologist Richard M. Suzman of the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md.
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