| Monday, August 15, 2005 |  |
| Web sperm sites crackdown planned | 1 comment |
| 15 Aug 2005 @ 23:42 Web sperm sites crackdown planned Proposals to regulate internet sites trading in human sperm and eggs are set to be unveiled this week by ministers. The plans are part of a wider consultation on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act (HFEA) 1990. Websites currently fall outside existing regulation, and so do not have to comply with the same safety and quality procedures as clinics. The head of one of the sites said he would welcome it being accredited. "It's better to have a medical involvement... You could spend several thousand pounds - go through several cycles and not know that your fallopian tubes were blocked for example" Professor Ian Craft London Fertility Centre Clinics which carry out IVF treatment are monitored by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. But there is no such control for websites which deliver sperm and kits for insemination at home, or which match egg donors and surrogate mothers. Because the companies operate databases, rather than actual clinics, they do not come within reach of the HFEA. This means they are not inspected or obliged to screen donors for genetic problems or sexually transmitted infections such as HIV, which has led to concerns about safety. The Department of Health has said there are a number of other concerns regarding how internet sites operate, including the fact that donors do not have the same legal protection as donors at regulated clinics. This means website donors are regarded as the legal parent, unlike those who donate via clinics. The consultation will ask if the law should be changed to make sure internet companies meet the same standards as fertility clinics - or whether the practice should be banned altogether. 'Stringent testing' Health Minister Caroline Flint said the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act had served well, but the government wanted to ensure legislation kept up with the latest scientific developments. John Gonzalez, chief executive of the Man Not Included website, said his business did screen donors for HIV and other infections. It offered a "simple route" for people who wanted to conceive, he added. He said he supported "some sort of accreditation", although not at the same level as fertility clinics. "That would be like trying to saying you could have the same regulations governing the use of a tricycle to those for a Ferrari." 'Several thousand pounds' Professor Ian Craft of the London Fertility Centre - a private firm which offers IVF - told the BBC: "I think it's better to have a medical involvement - it's not just man not included, it's man and doctor not included. "You could spend several thousand pounds - go through several cycles and not know that your fallopian tubes were blocked for example. "There are always health risks if you're not screened in the same way that you're screened in an HFEA approved centre." Officials acknowledge they can target internet companies only if they are based in the UK. More > |
| Folic acid 'cuts dementia risk' | 0 comments |
| 15 Aug 2005 @ 23:39 Folic acid 'cuts dementia risk' Eating plenty of folic acid - found in oranges, lemons and green vegetables - can halve the risk of Alzheimer's disease, a study has suggested. US National Institute on Aging experts monitored diets over seven years. They found adults who ate the daily recommended allowance of folates (B vitamin nutrients) had a reduced risk of the disease. UK researchers said the study added weight to previous suggestions folates could reduce Alzheimer's risk. The evidence for the benefit of other vitamins in changing the prospects for somebody at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is not consistent; the evidence supporting folate intake is very convincing Dr Susanne Sorensen, Alzheimer's Society The study is published in Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association. Folates have already been proven to reduce birth defects, and research suggests that they are beneficial to warding off heart disease and strokes. They have also been shown to help modify levels of homocysteine - an amino acid found in the blood. Previous research has linked high levels of homocysteine to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Dietary benefits In this latest US study, doctors analysed data on the diets of 579 people aged 60 or over from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging to identify the relationship between dietary factors and Alzheimer's disease risk. None of the participants were showing signs of dementia when the study began. Over the course of the study, participants provided detailed diaries documenting their eating habits, including supplement intakes and calorie amounts for typical seven-day periods. Researchers examined the amounts of nutrients including vitamins E, C, B6, B12, carotenoids and folic acid in people's diets. Fifty-seven of the original participants went on to develop Alzheimer's. The researchers found those who consumed at least the recommended daily amount of 400 micrograms of folic acid had a 55% reduced risk of going on to develop Alzheimer's compared to those consuming under that amount. However, most of those were taking folic acid supplements, suggesting they did not consume sufficient quantities of the nutrient in their diet. It is estimated that the average person in Britain consumes around 200mcg per day. The US study found no link between taking vitamin C, carotenoids (such as beta-carotene) or vitamin B-12 and decreased Alzheimer's risk. 'Further evidence' Dr Maria Corrada, who led the research, said: "Although folates appear to be more beneficial than other nutrients, the primary message should be that overall healthy diets seem to have an impact on limiting Alzheimer's disease risk." Dr Claudia Kawas, who also worked on the research, said: "It is still possible that other unmeasured factors also may be responsible for this reduction in risk. "People with a high intake of one nutrient are likely to have a high intake of several other nutrients and may generally have a healthy lifestyle." Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the UK's Alzheimer's Society, said: "This study adds further weight to evidence that folates reduce the risk of people developing Alzheimer's disease. She added: "Whereas the evidence for the benefit of other vitamins in changing the prospects for somebody at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is not consistent; the evidence supporting folate intake is very convincing." |
| Thin skin will help robots 'feel' | 0 comments |
 15 Aug 2005 @ 23:36Thin skin will help robots 'feel' Japanese researchers have developed a flexible artificial skin that could give robots a humanlike sense of touch. The team manufactured a type of "skin" capable of sensing pressure and another capable of sensing temperature. These are supple enough to wrap around robot fingers and relatively cheap to make, the researchers have claimed. The University of Tokyo team describe their work in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The materials they're using may not be completely novel but the integration appears to be something new Douglas Weibel, Harvard University The researchers explain how pressure-sensing and temperature-sensing networks can be laminated together, forming an artificial skin that can detect both properties simultaneously. Takao Someya, lead author on the latest research, previously developed a form of artificial skin capable of sensing pressure. But the ability to sense temperature as well allows the scientists to more closely imitate the functions of human skin. Someya and his colleagues used electronic circuits as pressure sensors and semiconductors as temperature sensors. They embedded these sensors in a thin plastic film to create networks of sensors. Organic materials The transistors used in the circuits and the semiconductors both use "organic" materials based on chains of carbon atoms. This makes them mechanically flexible and relatively inexpensive to fabricate. "Both of those characteristics sound compelling. The material sounds like it could have lots of functions," Dr Douglas Weibel, of the department of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University told the BBC News website. "The materials they're using may not be completely novel but the integration appears to be something new." The University of Tokyo scientists say their breakthrough has the potential to improve how robots will function in the real world. And they add that there is no need to stop at simply imitating the functions of human skin. "It will be possible in the near future to make an electronic skin that has functions that human skin lacks," the researchers write in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Future artificial skins could incorporate sensors not only for pressure and temperature, but also for light, humidity, strain or sound, they add. |
| Malaysians get tough on mobile phones | 0 comments |
| 15 Aug 2005 @ 23:34 Malaysians get tough on mobiles By Jonathan Kent BBC News, Kuala Lumpur The Malaysian government is to put a stop to the anonymous use of mobiles. From the end of the year, people using a prepaid service will have to register their details with phone companies. The decision follows growing fears about the use of unregistered phones by members of violent militant groups either to communicate with one another or to trigger explosions. "The main reason we are doing this is because of security," said Communications minister Lim Keng Yaik. "It's getting very dangerous. Prepaid cards pose a security threat because nowadays terrorists are using cell phones to detonate bombs." Rumours by text Though Malaysia has been almost entirely free of the violence that has plagued other countries in South East Asia, the authorities here are also concerned about a number of instances where wild and unfounded rumours have been spread by text message. In 2002 villagers in the state of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo fled their homes after SMS messages claimed that head-hunters were roaming the area. A big number of prepaid users are foreign workers, and they do not have fixed addresses Lim Keng Yaik, Communications minister Taking the heads of warriors from rival villages as trophies was common in Sabah before the British colonial authorities put a stop to the practice, but the mere mention of head-hunters still has the power to fuel panic. In January 2005, less than a month after the December tsunami disaster, thousands of people fled their homes around Semporna, also in Sabah, after text messages warned of another killer wave. In both instances police believe the rumours were started by thieves who wanted to steal into empty villages to rustle water buffalo or ransack homes. To stem such rumours the Malaysian government will require new users to show identity cards or passports when they buy a new sim card. Existing users will have to register when their credit runs out and they have to buy more. Challenging task With 14 million out of Malaysia's 16 million mobile users using prepaid services, it promises to be a major task. It will not be helped by the transient status of some phone users. "A big number of prepaid users are foreign workers, and they do not have fixed addresses," Mr Lim admitted. Many just live in shacks in the jungle near to factories or on building sites. Nor does the Malaysian government have the best record in enforcing its numerous laws and directives. However it is unlikely to face opposition from civil liberties groups, who say they have more pressing concerns. |
| Tsunami clue to 'Atlantis' found | 1 comment |
| 15 Aug 2005 @ 23:31 Tsunami clue to 'Atlantis' found A submerged island that could be the source of the Atlantis myth was hit by a large earthquake and tsunami 12,000 years ago, a geologist has discovered. Spartel Island now lies 60m under the sea in the Straits of Gibraltar, but some think it once lay above water. The finding adds weight to a hypothesis that the island could have inspired the legend recounted by the philosopher Plato more than 2,000 years ago. Evidence comes from a seafloor survey published in the journal Geology. Marc-André Gutscher of the University of Western Brittany in Plouzané, France, found a coarse-grained sedimentary deposit that is 50-120cm thick and could have been left behind after a tsunami. Shaken sediments Dr Gutscher said that the destruction described by Plato is consistent with a great earthquake and tsunami similar to the one that devastated the city of Lisbon in Portugal in 1755, generating waves with heights of up to 10m. The thick "turbidite" deposit results from sediments that have been shaken up by underwater geological upheavals. It was found to date to around 12,000 years ago - roughly the age indicated by Plato for the destruction of Atlantis, Dr Gutscher reports in Geology. Spartel Island, in the Gulf of Cadiz, was proposed as a candidate for the origin of the Atlantis legend in 2001 by French geologist Jacques Collina-Girard. It is "in front of the Pillars of Hercules", or the Straits of Gibraltar, as Plato described. The philosopher said the fabled island civilisation had been destroyed in a single day and night, disappearing below the sea. Sedimentary records reveal that events like the 1755 Lisbon earthquake occur every 1,500 to 2,000 years in the Gulf of Cadiz. But the mapping of the island carried out by Dr Gutscher failed to turn up any manmade structures and also showed that the island was much smaller than previously believed. This could make it less likely that the island was inhabited by a civilisation. Story from BBC NEWS: [link] Published: 2005/08/15 13:47:56 GMT More > |
| Erotic images can turn you blind | 0 comments |
| 15 Aug 2005 @ 23:18 Erotic images can turn you blind 18:09 12 August 2005 NewScientist.com news service Gaia Vince Researchers have finally found evidence for what good Catholic boys have known all along – erotic images make you go blind. The effect is temporary and lasts just a moment, but the research has added to road-safety campaigners’ calls to ban sexy billboard-advertising near busy roads, in the hope of preventing accidents. The new study by US psychologists found that people shown erotic or gory images frequently fail to process images they see immediately afterwards. And the researchers say some personality types appear to be affected more than others by the phenomenon, known as “emotion-induced blindness”. David Zald, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Marvin Chun and colleagues from Yale University in Connecticut, showed hundreds of images to volunteers and asked them to pick a specific image from the rapid sequence. Most of the images were landscape or architectural scenes, but the psychologists included a few emotionally charged images, portraying violent or sexually provocative scenes. The closer these emotionally charged images occurred prior to the target image, the more frequently people failed to spot the target image, the researchers found. “We observed that people failed to detect visual images that appeared one-fifth of a second after emotional images, whereas they can detect those images with little problem after neutral images,” Zald says. Primitive brain “We think there is essentially a bottleneck for information processing and if a certain type of stimulus captures attention, it can jam up the bottleneck so subsequent information can’t get through,” Zald explains. “It appears to happen involuntarily. The stimulus captures attention and once allocated to that particular stimulus, no other stimuli can get through” for several tenths of a second. He believes that a primitive part of the brain, known as the amygdala, may play a part. That region is involved in evaluating sensory input according to its emotional relevance and has an autonomic role, influencing heart rate and sweating. “It is possible that emotionally-charged stimuli produce preferential rapid routing of the impulse that bypasses the slower cortical route via the amygdala," Zald told New Scientist. "Patients with amygdala lesions pick out the target image without reacting to violent images, although they show normal blindness reactions when sexual images are introduced, which suggests another mechanism may also be involved.” Harm avoiders The researchers think emotion-induced blindness could lead to drivers simply not seeing another car or pedestrian if they have just witnessed an emotionally charged scene, such as an accident or sexually explicit billboard. The effect could exacerbate the more obvious problem of drivers simply being distracted by large, arresting images. "It's the responsibility of drivers to ensure that when they are behind the wheel they keep their eyes on the job in hand," says a spokeswoman from Brake, a UK road safety organisation. And some people are more vulnerable than others. The study assessed participants using a personality questionnaire, rating them according to their level of “harm avoidance”. Those scoring highly were more fearful, careful and cautious; those scoring low were more carefree and more comfortable in difficult or dangerous situations. The researchers found that those with low harm avoidance scores were better able to stay focused on a target image than those with high harm avoidance scores. “People who are more harm avoidant may not be detecting negative stimuli more than other people, but they have a greater difficulty suppressing that information,” Zald suggests. The Brake spokeswoman says companies should think about the consequences of placing emotionally charged billboards at dangerous road junctions: “We should be concerned if drivers are experiencing split-second breaks in concentration, which could result in an accident or death on the roads.” Journal reference: Psychonomic Bulletin and Review (August 2005 issue) |