As a person grows, it encounters changes in life. This increases the chance of experiencing social jetlags. Some may be facing too many workloads that cause them to stay late and sleep late. Others may have to stay late to catch up with their friends during weekends since they are busy working for the rest of the week. This results to changes in your normal body rhythm. While you continue to disrupt your body’s normal rhythm, you gain fat from time to time.

A study was conducted to check the different factors that affect a person’s weight. This study focuses on how your “social jetlags” results to your excess foot intake and eventually increase your weight. The study focuses on the behaviour or a person when experiencing different factors that changes their sleeping habits. Based on the study, a person who experience stress and face a lot of work load tends to drink more coffee and have vices like smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages. For these people, coffee gives them the energy they needed to work overtime while smoking and drinking alcoholic drinks keeps them relax. But they did not realize, that these items causes them to be deprive of sleep and skip meals. Once you are deprived or sleep and skipped meals, your body gets tired and the next time you eat, you eat double of what you normally have. With the same pattern, you will eventually gain more fat than you ever expected.

Age is also another factor for a person to gain weight. As a person ages, the body’s metabolism slows down. As a person ages, they spend less time to rest and usually eats in different times. This affects the digestive system. Your digestive system has its own schedule that is based on your body clock and your age. For people who eat late, the food you consumed may not be digested properly because it already missed its schedule. The nutrients that are supposed to be absorbed by your body will be put to waste and your body will not be able to turn the fats to energy. These fats if not turned into energy will be just added weight for you.

To avoid getting all the excess fat, all you have to do is keep a normal sleeping habit as much as possible. A regular sleeping pattern will keep you in your normal body rhythm. This means no late food intake, your digestive system will work properly and the fats from the food you eat will be turned into energy and be used for your work to relieve you from any stress. This is a cycle. Once you disrupt one factor, you will affect all other. SO start living healthy now, get enough sleep and eat the right kinds of food to avoid getting fat.

Genetic markers are specific areas in an organism’s genome which can be correlated with physical attributes. Using this correlation, geneticists can identify key markers which yield specific physical characteristics. With the years of breeding data, scientists are now able to determine specific sites in a Holsteins cow’s genome which would enable breeders to obtain their desired attribute. Similar to the experiments began by Gregor Mendel, Thomas Hunt Morgan and Hugo de Vries, the practice of examining the 50,000 genetic markers in the genome of desired bulls have allowed geneticists to determine which trait is affected by specific portions of the cow’s genome and yield patterns which can aid in the production of dairy cows with higher quality and quantity milk. Through years of observations and validations, specific markers have been discovered and have actually been verified to be able to induce desired traits. Statistical techniques applied to genomic knowledge and breeder data can now be used together to better explain links and patterns essential to breeding the perfect dairy cow.

Using all of these data and tools, geneticists can now tag quantitative values on specific markers which highlight the economic impact of the trait it codes for. Taken together, these markers can give scientists a number- called the lifetime net merit, which enables breeders to have a more accurate estimate on the potential of a bull to sire better quality dairy cows. As such, breeders and farmers can now better assign economic values to their bulls and further improve upon their herd’s general production. Utilizing the lifetime net merit as a benchmark, scientists have determined that Badger-Bluff Fanny Freddie is the ultimate dairy cow.

The implications of the science and methods undergone into producing Badger-Bluff Fanny Freddie are not limited to the dairy industry. Genomics, both applied and theoretical, is still in its infancy. The use of such techniques in such a key industry highlights the future potential it holds and hints at other applications in livestock and animal breeding. As more data is accumulated in genomics dairy research, it further expands the field’s horizons and streamlines data gathering, research and techniques for added efficiency and accuracy.

The robot was designed as part of an experiment that can help disabled patients use robotic devices with mental control in order to help them communicate and handle objects. The robot defines its action by merging the conscious controlling thoughts of the patient along with computer calculated algorithms for it to create action. Jose del R. Milan developed a software that greatly improves the robots usability and the control it receives from the user. for example the robot can calculate to find a door when it is about to jump off the stairs. The advancement of robot technology and for patients being able to control these robots can be a huge breakthrough in modern robotics and also a great advantage for the thousands of people suffering from locked-in syndrome. This form of paralysis renders the whole body incapable of movement while other patients retains their blinking ability. It is thought that there is no cure for the condition but with Milan’s research, it can help living with the paralysis bearable and giving paralyzed patients the ability to participate back into society with the aid of robotic proxies.

Justin Sanchez, a director in Neuroprosethics Research Group said in a statement that the years of development prior to this has been a proof that the concept indeed works. With the research gearing in fast, their is a huge responsibility to push the technology and its devices to usability and get them to people who need them to do various everyday activities. Justin Sanchez was also studying the concept of shared in control in a University in Miami.

In September it was announced that Milan’s software has achieved another important milestone in the field of brain wave technology by creating brain-machine connections and dividing the human workload aspect with that of the robot’s. In previous studies, patients were only able to execute three commands. The process proved exhausting to the patients because in order to carry out commands, the patient needs to fully concentrate to be able to produce action. With the shared control capability, the patient can mentally relax with the robot being able to identify his or her intentions and creating an action without full mental concentration.

Milan is constantly improving his software that can better filter the users thoughts determine which actions are desired. The technology will most likely be provided to those who are in need of it, but Milan and auto manufacture Nissan are collaborating to create vehicles that possess the same technology. Cars will soon then be equipped with the technology and brain waves will solely be used to drive the car. Another milestone that can prove helpful for disabled patients and a breakthrough in the field of science and robotics.

The study performed in New York at the Mount Sinai School Medical Department changes the RNA detection process inside out. Scientists Ke Hao and Eric E. Schadt discovered that to get the DNA of an individual by use of RNA data. Nearly all the studies revealed how the RNA relays the genetic information using DNA sequences.

Researchers studied the levels of messenger RNA that sends DNA’s instructions in section of the liver tissue which were collected in the two separate studies. One of the studies concentrated on individuals who were subjected to gastric bypass surgery and the other one studied the samples of the liver. The Mount Sinai group studied the markers known as expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) that are places on the genome regulating the expression of some proteins or the RNAs. They employed algorithms which matched the eQTL patterns to distinctions in DNA bases, hence extrapolate the DNA sequences. Schadt explained it as listening to a symphony and inferring which tools are in the group, necessarily unwinding the building process of tracing samples of the tissue back to RNA as well as the gene which instructed it.
Using the DNA inference, one could hypothetically use the RNA levels in matching a person to an independently attained DNA sample as scanning a given barcode to check if the two products match.

The researchers demonstrated that the DNA found at crime scene can be genotyped, furthermore against the barcodes gotten from the studies of gene expression like the GEO database, thus enables the people investigating to connect unknown persons at the scene to persons who took part in a specific study.

This discovery alerts people about privacy. When one has stomach-shrinking surgery, and they have never given DNA to any crime database, the authority might not be in a position to track him down through the medical records. Getting the warrants for the information might also be difficult. In the Mount Sinai news, Schadt suggested that the age of privacy in medical may be close. He said that instead of coming up with ways of protecting a person’s privacy given the capability to get large information on the people, we could be served better by the people who acknowledged the fact that the latest high-dimensional data reflect profoundly on the people we are. He added that we should accept that it is hard to shield an individual’s information from other people. It is like to trying to protect privacy concerning appearances.

As per the opinion of experts like neuroscientist Seth Blackshaw of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a published online report on March 25th in Nature Neuroscience, except few rare cases, most part of the human brain does not make any new nerve cells. But there is a place called the median eminence, which makes new nerve cells throughout the whole life of a human being and is also a vital place of brain’s metabolism.

During the animal research, Scientists kept few mice on unhealthy fatty diet and observed them for a particular period of time. They noticed that the production of new brain cells jumped in those mice, which were on unhealthy fatty diet for a particular period of time. Scientists observed those mice for couple of weeks more and found that they gained weight considerably. Research result indicated that the production of new brain cells in the median eminence part of the mice brain, which were on unhealthy diet, was four times higher than the mice which were on normal diet. To verify the result of the investigation and to analyse the impact of the new-born nerve cells, scientist Blackshaw and his colleagues stopped the production of new cells of few mice through careful targeted laser. The subsequent result brought an inspiring fact into notice that despite consuming same fatty diet those mice didn’t gain as much weight as other mice that still could produce the new nerve cells.

Scientists are investigating the original parent brain cell of the new born cells. The parent cell is known as tanycytes and can be found in both mice and human. Researchers are still unable to determine that how the new born cells control metabolism.

The result of the experiment is not ubiquitous as scientists are not sure if the human brain cells will behave the same way in response to fatty diet. Scientists all around the world are quite hopeful about the research finding because they think that if human brain cells react in the same way as the brain cells of mice, these nerve cells can be targeted for further treatment to cure obesity. According to endocrinologist Jeffrey Flier of Harvard Medical School in Boston, future research on the same subject may unveil several mysteries related to obesity. As per him, future medical research findings will be able to solve several confusions regarding obesity, diet, brain cells and brain’s capability in controlling and affecting hunger and eating habit in human.

The chemicals are found in a class of compound known as Perfluorinated Compounds (PFCs) which have been yielded by the productions of chemicals used widely in homes. This is because of the fact that they make utensils and fabrics stain repellant and also they induce non stick properties. For example, Teflon and Scotchgard. These chemicals pollute the water and food. They end up being ingested by children leading to lower immune response even after immunization. The body is not able to produce enough antibodies to fight infections.

Many research scientists were shocked by such revelations especially Philippe Grandjean who is a physician at Harvard Medical school. His team carried out research by closely examining some 587 children in Denmark as they grew from birth until they were seven years old. The research was conducted by examining the amount of PFCs in their bloodstream. The children were immunized normally for infections such as tetanus and diphtheria.

The immune response of the children was the carefully checked over the years as they grew. It was discovered that those with a high concentration of the PFCs pollutant had a slow response to the vaccine. This proved that the chemical’s effect on the children was weakening the immune system. The response was the same before and after the shots.

With the slow immune response, it is feared that children might end up being vulnerable to allergic reactions, asthmatic attacks or even autoimmune diseases. Children who are more exposed to the PFOA, PFOS and another closely associated compound, have inadequate immune response with low antibody levels. It is clear that such children will be prone to illness if care is not taken.

Biologically response to toxins is majorly the role of the immune system to detect. In case of being exposed to PFOS, the antibody production is highly derailed hence when foreign bodies are introduced they may not be detected. With such incidences immunization will become obsolete as the process is made inactive as no antibodies are produced.

Toxicologists highly anticipate such findings especially those in the field. Cell based studies have also detected a similar problem brought about by the presence of PFOS and PFOA. Manufacturers may have decided to end the use of PFC compounds, Corsin Emanuela of University of Milan in Italy remarks that the chemicals remain as a great toxin threat.

Generally vaccines are produced for helping prevent infection in children. However, with production of PFC compounds such will be ineffective in helping prevent infection. It is important to do all it takes to make sure that children are healthy.

However, a recent study published in February could prove to be a groundbreaking study in the search for a scientific formula for examining imminent system collapse. This study seeks to ascertain when a system of a certain level of complexity is headed towards collapse.Using math principles, the research tries to help people to get an understanding of systems even when there is little data available to make any complex computations.Perhaps the background of a study of this nature would have to be the apparently numerous ecological systems and other systems that seem to be collapsing at an unprecedented rate. The need to have a scientific manner of analyzing system collapse is perhaps at its highest now.

Although much of the theory used by the researchers has been there for a long time,not many developments had been done previously, perhaps because many scientists don’t think it will work for complex systems. The accuracy of such calculations is not guaranteed, as scientists may know very little about the system.If you don’t know about the system, then it follows that you cannot actually come up with a computation that is specific to that particular system.

This study employs the blanket indications that a system is headed south, although it also considers any information that may be available about the system.It starts with what is known about the given system,then links it with the general arithmetic formula for a normal system.They then add an external disturbance that will adversely affect the system, then observe how the system crumbles over time.

It is possible to anticipate collapse of a system by looking at the relative behavior. More stable systems have a way of recovering much faster after there is a significant disturbance in the system.However, if the system seems to be slower in recovering even after minor disturbances, then that is a warning sign of looming collapse.This advances a theory that one sign of a looming system collapse is a slowdown.

This idea was tested by growing a special kind of bacteria in flasks under standard conditions.In normal conditions, these bacteria have a way of protecting each other from the sun in turns, so that all of them survive. However, with increasing light intensity, some of them die, and they become fewer. Because they are fewer and can’t protect each other as well as before, they die even more and eventually there are no more.

Although many of the findings of this study are not proven for a fact, and there are some disputes here and there, it has to be acknowledged that it takes us one step forward towards a discovery that has eluded scientists for centuries: predicting imminent system collapse.

• printed copy of this file on separate pages
• Coloured pencils
• Scissors
• Glue

What to do

1. Colour in the house picture.
2. Cut out the picture along the thick black lines.
3. Fold along the dotted lines so the picture sticks up in the middle like a flat-topped pyramid.
4. Put glue on the tabs marked ‘a’, and stick them down to keep the pyramid shape.
5. Put glue on the ‘b’ tabs, and stick the pyramid onto the rectangle on the other sheet of paper.

To view the illusion

1. Put your house picture up on the wall in a big room.
2.  Go to the other side of the room and close one eye.
3. Look at your house picture – does it look like it goes in instead of sticking out?
4. Move around a bit and keep looking at the picture – does it move strangely?

What’s happening?

Your body has several different ways of seeing in 3D. You have two eyes for a good reason – they see the world from two slightly different angles. By comparing these two images, your brain can work out how close objects are. This type of 3D vision works best with objects that are close to you. When you are looking at objects far away, the images from your eyes are too similar and your brain can’t work out the distance. If you have one eye closed, then your brain doesn’t have a comparison at all – everything looks flat!

Your brain can also pick up clues from experience. You’re quite used to seeing rooms, so if you see something that looks like one, then your brain will try to match what you see with what you know. Rooms are hollow, so you imagine the house picture in this activity is also hollow, instead of sticking out as it does. As you move around looking at the picture, it doesn’t change the way you’d expect, leading to a very strange effect.

Applications

To create the illusion, this picture uses perspective drawing. This technique was originally developed hundreds of years ago to draw accurate pictures of objects in the real world. In perspective drawing, parallel lines such as straight train tracks are drawn so they would meet at a ‘vanishing point’. It also gives mathematical rules for drawing far away objects smaller.

A picture that follows these rules closely will look realistic and 3D. The house picture you made uses these rules to trick you – the walls get smaller as they move towards the centre, making them look further away, and the lines along the edges of the rug, pictures, skirting and cornices appear to meet at a ‘vanishing point’ in the centre of the image.

Colour in the printout of the house.

Cut out the house along the thick black lines.

When you're viewing the illusion,try to get rid of big shadows by lighting from the front instead of from above.

Chuong's system captures the 3d shape of insects.

3D is in! 3D movies and computer games are increasingly popular, but the technology can be used for more than just cool special effects – scientists can get a lot of information from a simulated 3D object. But it can be hard making these 3D objects. To help, Dr Chuong Nguyen from CSIRO is developing a simple system of capturing the shapes and colours of insects.

The first step is to take a lot of 2D photos of the insect. They are taken from lots of different angles, to capture as much detail as possible. A calibrating pattern is placed underneath the insect and is used to work out precisely where the camera was when each photo was taken.

To turn those photos into a 3D object, the computer uses a subtractive technique similar to carving. It starts by simulating a large volume of space around the insect. Then, for each photo, it finds the outline of the insect. The program makes a virtual ‘cookie cutter’ with the insect’s outline. It puts the cookie cutter where the camera took the photo from, and pushes it through the simulated space. The whole insect must be somewhere in this slice.

With one photo, the cut is just a long prism, and it only looks like an insect from one angle. But the insect is certainly somewhere inside that prism. Analysing another photo creates a second, different insect prism from another angle. The insect was inside both these prisms, so the computer only needs to keep the part that’s inside both. Mathematicians call this the ‘intersection’ of the two objects.

The shape still doesn’t look much like an insect, but by creating prisms from each photo and taking the intersection of all of them, the model gets closer and closer to the actual shape of the insect. Once all the photos are used, the shape is complete. Then the software projects the photos onto the surface of the model, so it’s coloured correctly.

Chuong’s system isn’t perfect – it can’t model surface dips such as an open mouth, or the dimples on a golf ball. But with many shiny and colourful insects including beetles, cicadas, wasps and bees, the system gives realistic results, and looking at one of Chuong’s scans is a lot quicker than driving to Canberra to check out the Australian National Insect Collection!

The results reveal a close association between the human genome and that of the gorillas. The astonishing fact is that parts of the human genome share a higher degree of similarity with the genomes of the gorilla’s than that of the chimp’s. In fact, the gorillas share the same set of genes that highlight our unique evolutionary pattern. The genetic sequence analysed was that of a western lowland gorilla, a female, named Kamillah, who lives at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The DNA of other gorillas were also sequenced; that includes two more western lowland gorillas and one eastern lowland gorilla, which is a rare species.

A group of scientists, led by researchers from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, in Hinxton, near Cambridge, reported in Nature, that the human genome is more than 98 percent similar to that of the chimp’s. To be precise, the percentage of difference between the genomes of the two species is just 1.37 %. They also revealed that the humans and gorillas have about 1.75 percent difference in their genes, whereas the orangutans and humans have a 3.6 percent difference in their gene sequence. It was also revealed that the base pairing of DNA, was found to be similar in both humans and apes.

The lead researcher of the study, Aylwyn Scally says that the functional biology of humans more closely resembles the gorilla than the chimp. Though the chimps are the human’s closest relative, a good 15 % of the human genome closely resembles the gorilla genome. Similar gene activity patterns were also noted between the two organisms. This study on genomes sheds light on the evolutionary studies. Scally’s team suggest that humans and chimps evolved into separate beings, some 6 million years ago. They point out that interbreeding could be reason for the delay in the segregation of DNA into two unique genomes.

The team also suggests that the evolution of gorillas got separated from the line of humans and chimps around 10 million years ago. The study also revealed that the evolution of genes was largely due to natural selection. In apes and humans, approximately 500 genes have evolved in a fast manner. In gorillas genes responsible for hardening of skin evolved rapidly. The hearing genes and genes responsible for brain development in humans and gorillas also showed accelerated evolution. The genomes of eastern and western lowland gorillas were also compared and the scientists showed that these species split about 500,000 years ago, but they had continued to interbreed.

Much more information remains to be explored from the genome study of gorillas and apes. Ajit Varki, a gylcobiologist and ape expert at the University of California agrees that this study has exposed much information regarding the speciation, mechanisms, evolution and gene flow between the species. Varki was not a part of the study and he is positive that this study will benefit several other researchers.