High Sounds of Ear Phones damage brain

Turning the volume up too high on your earphones may damage nerve cells that carry signals to the brain, researchers have warned.

University of Leicester research found that earphones or headphones on personal music players can reach noise levels similar to those of jet engines.

Noises louder than 110 decibels are known to cause hearing problems such as temporary deafness and tinnitus (ringing in the ears), but the study for the first time observed the underlying cell damage.

"The research allows us to understand the pathway from exposure to loud noises to hearing loss. Dissecting the cellular mechanisms underlying this condition is likely to bring a very significant healthcare benefit to a wide population," lead researcher, Dr Martine Hamann, said.

Nerve cells that carry electrical signals from the ears to the brain have a coating called the myelin sheath, which helps the electrical signals travel along the cell.

Exposure to loud noises - noise over 110 decibels - can strip the cells of this coating, disrupting the electrical signals.

This means the nerves can no longer efficiently transmit information from the ears to the brain.

However, the coating surrounding the nerve cells can reform, letting the cells function again as normal.

This means hearing loss can be temporary, and full hearing can return, the researchers said in a statement.

"We now understand why hearing loss can be reversible in certain cases. We showed that the sheath around the auditory nerve is lost in about half of the cells we looked at, a bit like stripping the electrical cable linking an amplifier to the loudspeaker. The effect is reversible and after three months, hearing has recovered and so has the sheath around the auditory nerve," Hamann said.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Triphala (Three Fruits) - Anti-Cancer Natural Drug

Triphala, a traditional ayurvedic medicine, has significant anti-cancer properties, which raises the hope for its wider use for cancer treatment in future, scientists claim.

With triphala inhibiting growth of cancerous tumours, scientists said it may be used for both therapeutic and preventive cancer treatment in the long run, after successful trials on animals and humans, which may take several years to complete.

Triphala is a non-toxic fruit-formulation, used in India since long as a household ayurvedic product to tackle chronic intestinal disorders and keep the heart healthy.

“The most important conclusion from our experiment is that we found about seven mg of chebulinic acid (the active molecule in Triphala) present in the dose used on mice, that may be responsible for its anti-cancer effect,” Sujit Basu, associate professor at the Ohio State University, who led a team of researchers, told Deccan Herald.

Generally available in the market as a powder, triphala is a combination of three fruit-amla (Emblica officinalis), haritaki (Terminalia chebula) and bibhitaki (Terminalia bellerica)-in equal amount.

Basu and his colleagues used commercially available triphala powder for the experiment. They administered it to cancer-afflicted mice, at a dose of 100 mg per kg of body weight, for seven days. Laboratory analysis showed significantly less growth in cancerous cells in mice who were administered triphala.

Experiments were also conducted with cancer cell lines, which too yielded promising results. The ayurvedic medicine, as well as its main active constituent, the chebulinic acid, block the action of a body chemical called vascular endothelial growth factor (VGEF) that plays a critical role in tumour formation.

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Triphala

Marine Cloud Brightening Technique to Counter Intensity of Hurricanes

Cloud seeding could reduce destructive power of hurricanes

Environmental scientists working to tame the hurricanes, one of the most destructive forces of nature on Earth, has proposed using cloud seeding to decrease sea surface temperatures where the storm form.

Theoretically, the team claimed the technique could reduce hurricane intensity by a category.

The team focused on the relationship between sea surface temperature and the energy associated with the destructive potential of hurricanes. Rather than seeding storm clouds or hurricanes directly, the idea is to target marine stratocumulus clouds, which cover an estimated quarter of the world’s oceans, to prevent hurricanes forming.

“Hurricanes derive their energy from the heat contained in the surface waters of the ocean. If we are able to increase the amount of sunlight reflected by clouds above the hurricane development region then there will be less energy to feed the hurricanes,” said Dr Alan Gadian from the University of Leeds.

Using a technique known as Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB), the researchers propose that unmanned vehicles could spray tiny seawater droplets, a good fraction of which would rise into the clouds above, increasing their droplet numbers and thereby the cloud reflectivity and duration. In this way, more sunlight is bounced back into space, thereby reducing sea surface temperature.

The team’s calculations, based on a climate ocean atmosphere coupling model (HadGEM1) suggest this could reduce the power of developing hurricanes by one category. Somewhat different cloud-seeding projects, designed to directly influence rainfall amounts, already exist around the world and were most famously used in China during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“Data shows that over the last three decades hurricane intensity has increased in the Northern Atlantic, the Indian and South-West Pacific Oceans. We simulated the impact of seeding on these three areas, with particular focus on the Atlantic hurricane months of August, September and October,” said Gadian.

The calculations showed that when targeting clouds in identified hurricane development regions the technique could reduce an average sea surface temperature by up to a few degrees, greatly decreasing the amount of energy available to hurricane formation.

One potential drawback to the idea is the impact of cloud seeding on rainfall in neighbouring regions. The team noted concerns that seeding in the Atlantic could lead to a significant reduction of rainfall in the Amazon basin and elsewhere. However, if different patterns of seeding were used, such rainfall reductions were not found over land.

“Much more research is needed and we are clear that cloud seeding should not be deployed until we are sure there will be no adverse consequences regarding rainfall,” said Gadian.

“However if our calculations are correct, judicious seeding of maritime clouds could be invaluable for significantly reducing the destructive power of future hurricanes,” he concluded.

The study has been published in Atmospheric Science Letters.

Cancer Cure Plant

Fagonia cretica - Plant from Indian Sub=continent is a cure for Cancer.

Scientists have discovered that extracts from a plant found in arid regions of India and Pakistan can kill cancerous cells and produces no harmful side-effects associated with chemotherapy.

Tea from the plant known as Virgin’s mantle is already drunk by women in rural Pakistan who have breast cancer, the Daily Mail reported.

Researchers from Aston University, Birmingham, and Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley, found that it contains potent anti-cancer agents that act singly or in combination against the proliferation of cancer cells.

Laboratory tests showed they arrested the growth of cells within five hours of application and caused them to die within 24 hours.

The plant, which has the botanical name Fagonia cretica, is found in arid, desert regions of Pakistan, India, Africa and parts of Europe.

Professor Helen Griffiths and Professor Amtul R Carmichael, who headed the study, found herbal tea made from the extract of the plant destroys cancer cells but unlike conventional chemotherapy, treatment does not damage normal breast cells, thus reducing side effects.

Reports from breast cancer sufferers in Pakistan suggested the plant extract does not trigger any serious side effects such as loss of hair, drop in blood count or diarrhoea.

The plant extract had a novel mechanism which could remedy defects in cell DNA that would normally resist tumour growth.

An impaired DNA response not only allows the cancer to flourish, it also inhibits the way chemotherapy works which reduces its effectiveness.

“A small hospital 100 miles north of Lahore in Pakistan started using the herbal tea 40 years ago to treat breast cancer patients. It appears to keep them in remission, although we can’t use the word cure at this stage,” Carmichael said.

“However, they live for a long time without losing their hair or putting on a large amount of weight, or experiencing other toxic side effects associated with chemotherapy, so we are confident this extract has something to contribute,” Carmichael was quoted by the paper as saying.

At present the herbal tea is being used to treat Asians but there might be different effects in Caucasian patients, she added.

The study was published in the journal PloS One.

Ginger

Ginger, a common spice in Indian kitchens can manage high levels of blood sugar which create complications for long-term diabetic patients, a new study has claimed.

Ginger, traditional part of Indian diet also help diabetics

Researchers from the University of Sydney found that ginger has the power to control blood glucose by using muscle cells.

“Ginger extracts obtained from Buderim Ginger were able to increase the uptake of glucose into muscle cells independently of insulin,” Professor of pharmaceutical chemistry Basil Roufogalis who led the research said in a statement.

“This assists in the management of high levels of blood sugar that create complications for long-term diabetic patients, and may allow cells to operate independently of insulin,” Roufogalis said.

“The components responsible for the increase in glucose were gingerols, the major phenolic components of the ginger rhizome. Under normal conditions, blood glucose level is strictly maintained within a narrow range, and skeletal muscle is a major site of glucose clearance in the body,” Roufogalis added.

The pharmacy researchers extracted whole ginger rhizomes obtained from Buderim Ginger and showed that that one fraction of the extract was the most effective in reproducing the increase in glucose uptake by the whole extract in muscle cells grown in culture.

The study also determined how the gingerols could increase glucose uptake and showed an increase in the surface distribution of the protein GLUT4.

When the protein localises on the surface of muscle cells it allows transport of glucose into cells.

In type 2 diabetic patients, the capacity of skeletal muscle to uptake glucose is markedly reduced due to impaired insulin signal transduction and inefficiency of the GLUT4.

The study was published in the journal Planta Medica.

Teacher Job

Job Satisfaction - Teacher's perspective

Once a big banquet was hosted by a millionaire to celebrate his elevation as CEO of a Multi National Company. All his corporate compatriots were invited as well as childhood friends. In a free wheeling discussion over the meal, He said  "Doctor wants his child to become a doctor.........              Engineer wants his child to become engineer......              Businessman wants his ward to become CEO.....                   BUT a teacher also wants his child to become one of them..!!!!    Nobody wants to become a teacher BY CHOICE"    Very sad but that's the truth.....!!! The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. ---- The CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone  who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?" To stress his point he said to another friend, "You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?" Teacher Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make?"  (She paused for a second, then began...) "Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner. I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 min. without an I Pod,  Game Cube or movie rental." "You want to know what I make? (She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table) I make kids wonder. I make them question. I make them apologize and mean it. I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions. I teach them how to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn't everything. I make them read, read, read. I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator. I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity. I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe. Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life."  ( Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.) "Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and  pay no attention because they are ignorant. You want to know what I make?" "I MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ALL YOUR LIVES, EDUCATING KIDS AND PREPARING THEM TO BECOME CEO's,  AND DOCTORS AND ENGINEERS.........." "What do you make Mr. CEO?"   His jaw dropped; he went silent. THIS IS WORTH SENDING TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW

HAPPINESS is JOURNEY,not DESTINATION-