Lifeboat Foundation

More than a quarter of all stroke victims develop a bizarre disorder -; they lose conscious awareness of half of all that their eyes perceive.

After a stroke in the brain’s right half, for example, a person might eat only what’s on the right side of the plate because they’re unaware of the other half. The person may see only the right half of a photo and ignore a person on their left side.

Surprisingly, though, such stroke victims can emotionally react to the entire photo or scene. Their brains seem to be taking it all in, but these people are consciously aware of only half the world.

Dr. Ralph W. Moss and son Ben discuss how a walk in the woods may help manage symptoms and improve quality of life. Delve into the science behind how the Japanese practice of “Forest Bathing” and aromatherapy can reduce stress, improve mood, and ease pain.

Program Notes:

Continue reading “Essential Oils, Aromatherapy & Cancer — Fragrant Forest Bathing and Potent Pain Relief” »

Imagine a wearable patch that tracks your vital signs through changes in the color display, or shipping labels that light up to indicate changes in temperature or sterility of food items.

These are among the potential uses for a new flexible display created by UBC researchers and announced recently in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Continue reading “Stretchy color-changing display points to future of wearable screens” »

Breast milk is not simply sustenance. It also is rich in micronutrients that are critical for healthy brain development in infants.

Now, researchers have identified a component of breast milk that promotes how neurons form connections in infants’ brains. Myo-inositol is a small cyclic sugar molecule in breast milk that also is found in a typical adult diet, including in fruits and grains. The study emphasizes the powerful role that what we eat plays in brain function. It was published in PNAS on July 11.

“The effects of micronutrients on the brain are really under-appreciated,” says Thomas Biederer, Ph.D., associate professor of neurology and principal investigator. “As a neuroscientist, our findings were stunning to me.”

Immunotherapy could be the “shot in the arm” you need to treat your allergies.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (August 7, 2019) – You may think you can’t tell the difference between the symptoms caused by spring, summer and fall allergies. They all usually involve sneezing, sniffling, itchy eyes and a runny nose. And while symptoms for each Allergies are inappropriate or exaggerated reactions of the immune system to substances that, in the majority of people, cause no symptoms. Symptoms of the allergic diseases may be caused by exposure of the skin to a chemical, of the respiratory system to particles of dust or pollen (or other substances), or of the stomach and intestines to a particular food. rel= tooltip allergy season may be similar, the treatment can look very different, particularly if Immunotherapy is a form of preventive and anti-inflammatory treatment of allergy to substances such as pollens, house dust mites, fungi, and stinging insect venom.

China: A recent article published in Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology reports the case of mycobacterium marinum skin infection in the left upper limb of a female patient with chronic idiopathic myelofibrosis during ruxolitinib treatment.

“Our case illustrates the diversity of skin infections that may occur during JAK (Janus kinase) inhibitors treatment, and the need for clinical attention to atypical mycobacterial skin infections cannot be ignored,” Xiaonan Chen, Affiliated Hospital of Weifang Medical University, Weifang, People’s Republic of China, and colleagues wrote in their case study.

Mycobacterium marinum is an atypical bacterium, and skin infections that result from it are relatively rare, usually occurring in homemakers who clean and prepare fish for food and workers engaged in seafood processing. The infection often occurs after fish spines, scales, etc., puncture the skin. The JAK/STAT signalling pathway is closely linked with the human immune response to infections. Therefore, JAK inhibitors may induce and exacerbate various conditions in clinical practice.

Computers possess two remarkable capabilities with respect to images: They can both identify them and generate them anew. Historically, these functions have stood separate, akin to the disparate acts of a chef who is good at creating dishes (generation), and a connoisseur who is good at tasting dishes (recognition).

Yet, one can’t help but wonder: What would it take to orchestrate a harmonious union between these two distinctive capacities? Both chef and connoisseur share a common understanding in the taste of the food. Similarly, a unified vision system requires a deep understanding of the visual world.

Now, researchers in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have trained a system to infer the missing parts of an image, a task that requires deep comprehension of the image’s content. In successfully filling in the blanks, the system, known as the Masked Generative Encoder (MAGE), achieves two goals at the same time: accurately identifying images and creating new ones with striking resemblance to reality.

Simply the smell of seafood can make those with an allergy to it violently ill—and therefore more likely to avoid it. The same avoidance behavior is exhibited by people who develop food poisoning after eating a certain meal.

Scientists have long known that the immune system played a key role in our reactions to allergens and pathogens in the environment, but it was unclear whether it played any role in prompting these types of behaviors towards allergic triggers.

According to Yale-led research published July 12 in the journal Nature, it turns out that the immune system plays a crucial role in changing our behaviors.

Bryan Johnson’s anti-aging routine costs him $2 million a year, and he’s constantly monitored. Yet, the tech CEO says he’s never been happier.