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Team Finds Link between Premature Birth and Weaker Brain Connections

October 20, 2015 By Grant Hamersma Leave a Comment

According to a recent report, a Washington University team finds link between premature birth and weaker brain connections that may lead to further health complications including increased risk of ADHD, autism, anxiety and other neurological dysfunctions.

Researchers said that brain scans of 138 babies showed that babies born before due date, or preemies, display differences in their brain networks that may translate in emotional and social impairments later in their lives.

Scientists know that babies’ brains are extremely ‘plastic’ in the first months of life, so they sought evidence that premature birth has some negative impact on the infants’ brains and emotional intelligence.

“The brain is particularly ‘plastic’ very early in life and potentially could be modified by early intervention,”

said Dr. Cynthia Rogers, lead author of the study and child psychiatry expert at WU School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Dr. Rogers added that doctors cannot perform interventions if there are no symptoms. Yet, the new study tries to tie premature birth to later problems in order to give early interventions the green light.

The study’s results were unveiled Monday during the annual scientific gathering of the Society for Neuroscience. According to official reports, one in nine babies born in the U.S. are delivered prematurely. This may boost their risk of ADHD, ASD and impair their cognitive and motor functions.

Dr. Rogers and her fellow researchers analyzed the MRI and DTI brain scans of 58 full-term babies and 76 preemies. Scans clearly showed that there were neurological differences between the two groups.

The preemies involved in the study were born at maximum 10 weeks earlier. Scientists found that their brains displayed differences in key regions that were responsible for communication skills, attention and processing of emotions. Past studies showed that the same areas were affected in kids living with ADHD or autism.

Study authors also reported that they found abnormalities in white matter and brain circuits of prematurely born babies. They explained that these babies’ key brain regions didn’t properly connect to one another in resting state. And this may lead to later developmental and learning problems.

The most striking abnormalities were recorded in the frontoparietal network and a default-mode network which is mostly active when the subject is at sleep. But the problems caused by these abnormalities would not emerge until children are slightly older.

Scientists plan to monitor the infants for up to a decade. They also plan to perform more brain scans when study participants reach the age of 2, 5 respectively 9 or 10.
Image Source: Pixabay

Monster Asteroid Expected to Whizz Past Earth on Halloween

October 20, 2015 By Lonnie Davidson 1 Comment

NASA recently announced that a monster asteroid expected to whizz past Earth on Halloween will make a surprise flyby at a mind-numbing speed of more than 7,800 miles per hour (125,530 km per hour).

The space agency explained that the asteroid has an ‘extremely eccentric’ orbit, but does not represent a threat for life on Earth. The space rock dubbed 2015 TB145 is one of the Near Earth space Objects (NEOs) space agencies and amateurs have been hunting for years.

The asteroid will greet us on October 31 from a 310,000-mile distance. The closest space object that got his close to our planet was an asteroid in July 2006. Although its size is relatively large, 2015 TB145 was first detected on October 10 despite NASA’s and other space agencies best efforts to track asteroids.

“The asteroid is on an extremely eccentric and a high inclination orbit,”

NASA scientists announced this week.

Researchers also said that the asteroid may have a diameter of 0.17 miles or 280 meters to 0.38 miles or 620 meters. The asteroid that allegedly wiped out dinosaurs was 2.5 to 3.7 miles across, new research suggests.

Although the space boulder won’t be visible with the naked eye, sky gazers will be able to take a look at it with a telescope. NASA explained that the asteroid is the closest NEO expected to zip past Earth until August 2027.

At that time, 1999 AN10 would fly past our planet at just one lunar distance. But in the meantime, more asteroids may just pop-up just like it happened with 2015 TB145.

The monster asteroid expected to whizz past Earth on Halloween was classified as a hazardous space object by experts worldwide, NASA confirmed, since it would fall under the safe distance limit of 4,600, miles or 7,402,982 kilometers.

Nevertheless, scientists are confident that, despite its extreme orbit and the close flyby, 2015 TB145 would not collide with Earth.
NASA has a program to monitor the skies for dangerous asteroids and comets, and from the data provided by its Sentry monitoring system there are almost no chances for a NEO to hit Earth this century.

There were rumors circulating on the Internet that a monster asteroid would slam into Earth last month, but NASA debunked the rumors. The European Space agency (ESA) also has a NEO monitoring program, and the agency closely works with NASA to cover larger parts of the skies. Non-professional astronomers and NEO hunters worldwide are also invited to report any suspicious activity.
Image Source: Flickr

Great Red Spot on Jupiter is Getting Smaller

October 19, 2015 By Joseph Decker Leave a Comment

Not only our planet’s polar ice cap is shrinking, but the famous Great Red Spot on Jupiter is getting smaller, also. The piece of news was recently released by NASA on its official website.

A new batch of images provided by ESA/NASA’s Hubble telescope confirms what scientists suspected for nearly a decade – the Great Red Spot on Jupiter is getting smaller at an alarming rate. Scientists also reported that the monstrous feature is also getting more circular in the process.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a super-storm larger than our planet with winds howling at speeds of up to 340 mph. NASA suggested that the storm lost 150 miles since last year and continues to shrink. Nevertheless, the spot is still gigantic on our scale. With its 10,000 miles in diameter, it could fit our planet and its moon.

When we asked NASA scientists whether the trademark spot could someday vanish, researchers said that they had no idea whether or when it would vanish.

Amy Simon, a planetary scientist with the U.S. space agency, recently told reporters that a more probable scenario would be for the spot to stabilize when it reached a smaller size. That may happen in the next decade. Simon explained that researchers first detected the spot in the late 1870s and it was much larger at that time.

NASA researchers also suggested that the spot changed its color. In past years, it was more reddish, but now it has a more orangey tint. Additionally, its core is less visible now than it was in the not so distant past, but scientists couldn’t provide an explanation for the change.

Hubble made the discovery with help from its newly upgraded tool called the Wide Field Camera. NASA scientists combined all the snapshots taken over a period of 10 hours and produced a detailed global map of the gas giant.

Simon added that all Jupiter data gathered by the Hubble space telescope provided scientists with “hints that something really exciting is going on.”

“This time is no exception,”

the NASA researcher added.

Yet, NASA scientists recently detected another ‘exciting’ feature related to the gigantic cosmic vortex – an elongated mystery object being twisted by the strong winds within the storm. NASA pledged that Hubble would use its instruments to get detailed view of the weather on other gas giants such as Neptune and Uranus.

Reports on atmospheric conditions on the planets would be beamed back to Earth every year. The new program, which was named the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy, is designed to help scientists keep an eye on the atmosphere of giant planets and keep track of changes in their weather.
Image Source: Wikimedia

YouTube will Reward Premium Users with Exclusive Video Content

October 19, 2015 By David Kellen Leave a Comment

The largest video sharing platform on the planet YouTube will reward premium users with exclusive video content from its top-ranked stars. Though the subscription service is not yet available, the site tries to lure new customers to its premium ad-free service.

YouTube pledged to unveil the new type of exclusive video content Wednesday in an industry event held in Los Angeles. According to people familiar with the matter, the site has been prepping for the big event since last year. In September 2014, YouTube announced that it would invest millions of dollars in “new content from some of our top creators.”

But at that time, the video sharing site didn’t mention that only users who pay for its premium services would have access to the content. The move was announced under the guise of an attempt to make the site more like TV, having programming, channels, and all.

But rumors now have it that the website would use at least a fraction of the new content to gain some extra revenue while promoting the exclusive content as a bonus for premium users. Premium users will also have access to ad-free videos for a monthly fee.

Nevertheless, YouTube doesn’t plan to turn every user on the planet into a premium subscriber. Most video content will remain free-of-charge, and videos and their creators will continue to make money from the embedded ads. But subscribing for the paid version will remove the pesky ads and bring some bonuses such as the exclusive content.

On the other hand, YouTube urged all creators and content providers to take part in the paid service as well. The website declined to reveal an official date for the roll out of the new programming. Sources within the company said that not all exclusive videos were ready to be launched so we should expect the new feature to be available early next year.

Last month, several reports showed that the website would launch its premium service by the end of October. But that may also not happen until 2016. YouTube couldn’t be reached for comment.
Yet, the site is not at its first attempt to issue exclusive content.

Four years ago, the company pumped more than $100 million in artists such as Jay Z and Ashton Kutcher to make videos that can only be watched by the site’s users. Nevertheless, the effort didn’t pay off and YouTube ditched the project.

But now the video sharing service will focus on self-made stars on the site, rather than putting a risky bet on stars in the music and film industries.
Image Source: Flickr

Smoking during Pregnancy Ups Risk of Heart Disease in Kids

October 19, 2015 By Lonnie Davidson 1 Comment

According to a study led by researchers at the University of California smoking during pregnancy ups risk of heart disease in kids.

Both unborn and born children exposed to second-hand smoke are more prone to developing atrial fibrillation later in life than their peers who weren’t exposed to tobacco smoke, the study found.

Dr. Gregory Marcus, lead author of the study and expert in treating arrhythmia at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco, Calif., admitted that his team didn’t find a cause-and-effect relationship between second-hand smoke exposure and risk of atrial fibrillation and more research needed to be done. Yet, doctors did find a link that is statistically significant.

Patients affected by atrial fibrillation experience irregular heart beat because the upper and lower chambers of their heart stop to synchronize. The U.S. Heart, Lung and Blood Institute cautioned that the condition may boost risk of stroke and can lead to heart failure and chest discomfort.

In their study, which was published last week in the medical journal HeartRhythm, authorss wrote that their research is the first to find an association between atrial fibrillation and second-hand smoke.

The recent study involved nearly 5,000 participants who agreed to take part in an online survey about their second-hand smoke exposure in their early years and history of cardiovascular disease.

The research team was especially interested in atrial fibrillation since the lead author is an expert in the condition.

About 12 percent of survey participants said that they were diagnosed with the heart condition. The median age of those who had the disease was 62, while the median age of those that didn’t develop the condition was 50.

The findings were adjusted for other risk factors that may boost heart disease risk such as substance abuse, age, sex, physical activity and so on.

Study authors learned that participants who said that their mothers smoked while expecting or in their early years were 40 percent more likely to develop atrial fibrillation than their healthier peers.

Surprisingly, people who weren’t exposed to other risk factors that may promote the condition had an even higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation in the wake of second-hand smoke exposure.

Dr. Cuno S.P.M. Uiterwaal, a Dutch researcher who was not involved in the study said that the new research points out that “smoke exposure may not only have short term consequences, such as to the fetus, but also long-term hazards to offspring.”
Image Source: Pixabay

New Horizons Team Published First Paper on Historic Mission to Pluto

October 19, 2015 By Adam Lynch Leave a Comment

Pluto close-up showing its famous ‘Heart’

On Thursday, New Horizons team published first paper on historic mission to Pluto, and the findings are astounding. The new research paper describes in great detail the dwarf planet’s geological structures, its atmosphere and eerie moons.

The New Horizons team published first paper on historic mission to Pluto on Oct. 16 in the journal Science.

The research was based on data beamed back by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its historic flyby of the planet on July 14. The scientific data and imagery revealed that Pluto is a far more complex world than scientists had imagined. It is also an active world to many scientists’ surprise.

Jim Green, chief planetary scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, described Pluto as a ‘fascinating world.’

“New Horizons is not only writing the textbook on the Pluto system, it’s serving to inspire current and future generations to keep exploring […],”

Green added.

New Horizons probe had its closest encounter with the dwarf planet in mid-July. From an 8,507 mile altitude, New Horizons took some aweing photos of the remote world. But the data currently needs one more year to reach Earth as downlink speed is incredibly slow because of the incredible distance.

The photos revealed impact carters, grooves, and many more landforms. They also showed that Pluto has a colorful surface rather than being a dull black-and-white world.

The imagery also unveiled traces of water ice on the plant’s surface and thick haze in its atmosphere. According to New Horizons data, Pluto is slightly larger than scientists had estimated.

Alan Stern, the lead author of the research paper and planetary scientist at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), acknowledged that Pluto and its moons surprised New Horizons team in many ways. Planetary geologists, for instance, were surprised that old worlds can remain geologically active for so much time.

Pluto’s largest Moon Charon also impressed investigators. The moon is geologically active and has a dark colored spot at one of its poles. Its crust’s composition is also more complex than researchers had calculated.

Scientists hoped that the flyby may reveal the presence of smaller moons around Pluto, which it didn’t. Its known tinier moons Nix and Hydra were also scrutinized during the probe’s whizzing by. Scientists found that Nix is about 34 miles long, while Hydra us 27 miles long. Both moons are shinier than their larger counterpart Charon.

During the flyby, New Horizons gathered 50 Gb of new data on the planet and its moons. Scientists estimate that it make take at least a decade to analyze all the data.
Image Source:

Chipotle Hires Former Starbucks CIO, Curt Garner

October 13, 2015 By Grant Hamersma Leave a Comment

Since it needs a professional to take care of its mobile app and other online services, Chipotle hires former Starbucks CIO, Curt Garner. The restaurant chain said that there was an open position for a chief information officer and Garner seemed the perfect man for the job.

The move may prove crucial for Chipotle’s business because Starbucks is renowned for its user-friendly mobile apps among retailers. While Garner was on board, Starbucks was able to focus more on online audiences and see its mobile sales jump to 20 percent of total sales in the U.S. in less than a decade.

That’s incredible especially because many retailers struggle for years to lure new customers through their mobile apps and online services. And few were successful.

Starbuck’s mobile app became popular because of a clever rewards program and the ability to pay by phone without further complications. But the coffeehouse chain doesn’t stop here. Its tech team constantly improves the app and website. Recently, the coffee giant unveiled an order-and-pay-ahead feature that may further boost sales.

But Garner is no new entry at Starbucks. He worked for the coffee giant for nearly 20 years. When Garner was first hired, the coffee company didn’t have more than 2,000 stores. Today, Starbucks has over 22,000 locations across the world and counting.

But the announcement that Chipotle hires former Starbucks CIO, Curt Garner, was a surprise to many people. The burrito chain has about 1,850 locations, while its mobile app is not very popular among users. For instance, on iTunes the restaurant chain’s app has 2.5 stars out of a maximum of five.

When surveyed why they do not like Chipotle’s app, customers had a wide range of complaints. Most of them said that the app lacks a user-friendly API, while other complained that they cannot properly customize larger orders.

Steve Ells, one of the restaurant chain’s chief executives, said that the company plans to change the way people perceive and eat fast food. For this purpose, the burrito chain plans to provide its customers with the best customer experience they can.

But to reach these goals, “the strategic use of technology” is essential, Ells added. He also said that Garner was valuable and “ideal” addition to the company’s management team because of his expertise and experience gained with Starbucks.

Garner will leave Starbucks in November and he will become Chipotle’s first chief information officer. The announcement that he would join Chipotle was made less than a week after his former employer unveiled former Adobe Systems CIO Gerri Martin-Flickinger as its first CTO.
Image Source: Flickr

Florida Woman Driving under Influence while Live Streaming on Periscope

October 13, 2015 By Lonnie Davidson Leave a Comment

On Saturday, Lakeland Police Department officers pulled over and arrested a 23-year-old Florida woman driving under influence while live streaming on Periscope.

Police officers said they learned about the woman’s behavior from her peers on the social media who called 911 to report a probable drunk driver that was broadcasting herself behind the wheel live. Police officers said that they never saw anything like that in their entire careers.

Twitter-owned Periscope is a video streaming and sharing service that allows you to broadcast live video content from your mobile phone. Shared videos can be viewed by users all around the world.

Because the woman’s video was available for everyone to see, her Periscope page was flooded with messages from concerned users that she may do herself harm or to somebody else. Dozens of users urged her to stop driving before something awful happened.

Sgt. Gary Gross, a spokesperson for LPD, said that the woman acknowledged in the video that she was drunk. He also added that the case quite shocked him since after three decades of law enforcement he had never seen anything like it before.

A 911 operator told police that she received a call from a Periscope user telling her that there was a drunken woman on public roads in the north Lakeland area. The caller couldn’t be more specific with the woman’s locations because the driver said that he she had no idea where she was.

In her streaming video, Whitney Beall, 23, repeatedly told her live audience that she was “drunk” and “f***ing drunk,” and that she had no idea where she was exactly. She also said that her car had a flat tire.

As the 911 caller was redirected to police dispatch, the woman turned on and off the live streaming session several times. The man who reported the DUI couldn’t tell more about the woman’s car except that it was a Toyota racing in the north Lakeland area, making it harder for police officers in the area to detect the driver.

LPD computer systems do not allow police officers to access sites such as Periscope, so they couldn’t see the live broadcast while it was being streamed. A police officer downloaded the app on his mobile phone and was able to watch the woman’s video.

From the video, police officers were able to detect landmarks in the area and were able to locate the female driver. They learned that the woman did had a flat front tire.
Image Source: Freestockphotos

Seminole County Judge Sent a Domestic Violence Victim to Jail

October 9, 2015 By Jeremy Kennedy Leave a Comment

Just as the Domestic Violence Awareness Month unfurls, one Seminole County Judge sent a domestic violence victim to jail for failing to show up and testify against the man who abused her.

The case taking place in the Seminole County Court is already under the attention of the public, while many question the attitude of Judge Jerri Collins, presiding the case.

Was the case handled appropriately? Should a domestic violence victim be sent to jail?

The woman in case had reported in April that the father of her one-year-old son was beating her constantly. According to the police report filed that month, the woman declared that Myles Brennan, the perpetrator had choked her in front of their child, pressed her eyes with his thumbs and even attacked her with a knife.

Myles Brennan’s police records show that this is not the first time he engaged in domestic violence. Up until the case was set to be judged in the Seminole County Court, the domestic violence victim was highly cooperative with authorities. As the date when the woman needed to show up in court and testify against Brennan approached, she became increasingly fearful. When the date was set she failed to show up in court.

During a later hearing, Judge Jerri Collins displayed a highly aggressive attitude towards the woman. The records reveal the Judge’s tone and manner of action. Instead of the support usually expected from higher instances towards domestic violence victims, the Judge resorted to scolding the woman.

A short excerpt of the conversation taking place in the court:

“Your Honor, I’m very sorry for not attending…I’ve been dealing with depression and a lot of personal anxiety since this happened…”

“You think you’re going to have anxiety now? You haven’t even seen anxiety. You disobeyed a court order knowing that this was not going to turn out well for the state!”.

Holding the woman in contempt of the court, Judge Jerri Collins decided to sentence her to a short time in jail. While being handcuffed, the woman pleaded for understanding of her situation and the fact that her one-year-old baby would be left without his mother for that time.

As the Seminole County Judge sent a domestic violence victim to jail, questions are being raised on whether the case was handled appropriately.

According to Jeanne Gold, the CEO of SafeHouse, a prevention group against domestic violence, the Judge’s conduct was certainly inappropriate and appalling. Rather than taking revenge on the woman for apparently wasting state and court resources, a more understanding approach towards her situation would have been indicated.

Judge Collins was not available for comment. The prosecutors in the State Attorney’s Office commented that domestic violence victims are rarely jailed for the reasons invoked by the Judge, but that sometimes it happens.

Richard Hornsby, criminal-defense attorney in Orlando declared that it is common for victims of domestic violence to feel fear and anxiety at the prospect of meeting the perpetrator in court.

Currently it’s unclear if Judge Collins will face any consequences for her conduct and handling of the case.

Photo Credits: Pixabay

Tribune Media Lists for Sale Chicago’s Emblematic Tribune Tower

October 9, 2015 By Adam Lynch Leave a Comment

According to a recent announcement, Tribune Media lists for sale Chicago’s emblematic Tribune Tower, a 36-story high office building located on Michigan Avenue in one of the city’s most crowded shopping districts.

The building, which was completed in 1925 and owned ever since by Chicago Tribune’ and Los Angeles Times’ former parent company Tribune media, sits on three acres of land. Its owner partnered with real estate banking company Eastdil Secured to either find a buyer for the historic building or a partner that can help the company redevelop the it.

We learned that Tribune Media lists for sale Chicago’s emblematic Tribune Tower on Thursday from the building’s owner. The company also said that it plans to monetize the building and surrounding land, and turn them into a retail center. Tribune Tower also has hundreds of feet of frontage on one of world’s busiest and most dynamic commercial avenues.

Tribune Real Estate’s head Murray McQueen announced Thursday that the building’s location and prestige make it a site with unprecedented development potential. The building’s owner now hopes that many private and public investors may be interested in the tower. On Feb.1, 1989, the tower was listed as one of Chicago’s landmarks.

Currently, the neo-Gothic building is home to the Chicago Tribune, WGN Radio, Tribune Media, and the Howells & Hood restaurant. It has more than 700,000 square feet of space but it is zoned for 1.7 million more.

Tribune Tower was built between 1923 and 1925 after Chicago Tribune launched a design contest for its headquarters. More than 260 projects were submitted, and $100,000 worth or prizes were awarded for the best entries.

The first prize was won by two architects from New York named John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood. The duo’s neo-gothic building impressed just about everyone at the newspaper with its crown of spires, buttresses, and gargoyles. The team was awarded $50,000, while the second prize went to the critics’ favorite, ‘Saarinen’s tower,’ whose architect received $20,000.

McQueen added that the building has more linear frontage along Chicago’s busiest commercial avenues than Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue in NYC. This is why the building may have tremendous potential for retail business

Tribune Media ditched Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune among other newspapers last year to focus on the businesses with higher margin such as real estate. The company also has plans to redevelop Times Mirror Square in LA and other sites in Florida and California.
Image Source: Flickr

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