world 4 science

2010-12-04T18:35:00.003-08:00

The Humor Gap

2010-12-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

When comedian Susan Prekel takes to the stage and spots an attractive man in the audience, her heart sinks. “By the end of my gig he’s going to find me repulsive, at least as a sexual being,” she says.
In more than a decade of performing on the New York City comedy circuit the attractive, tall brunette has been asked out only once after a show. But male comics get swarmed. “They do very well with women. I see it all the time,” Prekel says. Comedians, it turns out, may simply be experiencing an extreme version of the typical romantic interplay between men and women. Although both genders consistently prefer a partner with a sense of humor, there is an intriguing discrepancy in how that preference plays out. Men want someone who will appreciate their jokes, and women want someone who makes them laugh. The complementary nature of these desires is no accident. Researchers suspect humor has deep evolutionary roots—in 1872 Charles
Darwin noticed chimps giggling as they played—and many argue that the laws of natural selection can help explain the complex senses of humor we have today.
Men and women use humor and laughter to attract one another and to signal romantic interest—but each gender accomplishes this in a different way. And as a relationship progresses, the way men and women use humor changes; it becomes a means of soothing one another and smoothing over rough patches. In fact, humor is rarely about anything funny at all; rather sharing a laugh can bring people closer together and even predict compatibility over the long haul.

Humor in all its forms—sarcastic, witty, anecdotal, ironic, satirical—is as complicated and evolved as language. It can be a weapon used to alienate and a means to communicate interest and intelligence. So at
the risk of unweaving a rainbow, it’s time to take a serious look at humor. Make Me Laugh
It was when scientists started watching men and women be funny, in addition to studying what people found funny, that interesting patterns emerged. “The literature prior to the 1990s focused on joke appreciation,”
says Martin Lampert, humor expert and chair of social sciences at Holy Names
University in Oakland, Calif. “This was a contrived situation where subjects were presented with jokes and we documented their reaction.” Experiments then started to look at humor production, asking subjects to
come up with jokes or studying how people amuse one another in the real world. “This gave us a much more accurate picture of what was happening,” Lampert says.
In 1996 Robert R. Provine, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, analyzed 3,745 personal ads and found that women sought a mate who could make them laugh twice as often as they offered to
return the favor. Men, on the other hand, offered humor about a third more than they requested it. These findings were the first big clue that the sexes were approaching humor from different angles.
Ten years later Eric R. Bressler of Westfield State College and Sigal Balshine of Mc- Master University revealed another intriguing gender difference. The psychologists showed 200 people photographs of men and women, each paired with either a funny or a fairly straight autobiographical statement. Women chose the funnier men as potential dates, but men showed no preference for the funny women (as Prekel, the comedian, has been witnessing in the real world). And yet all over the world, both sexes consistently rank a sense of humor as one of the most important traits in a mate—so why the disparity? “Although both sexes say they want a sense of humor, in our research women interpreted this as ‘someone who makes me laugh,’ and men wanted ‘someone who laughs at my jokes,’ ” says Rod A. Martin of the University of Western Ontario. In
2006 Martin, along with Bressler and Balshine, asked 127 subjects to choose between pairs of potential partners for either a one-night stand, a date, a short-term relationship, a long-term relationship or friendship. In each pair one partner was described as receptive to the participant’s humor but not very funny themselves, and the other partner was described as hilarious but not all that interested in the participant’s own witty remarks.
In every context other than friendship, men preferred women who would laugh at their jokes to
those who made jokes. Women, however, preferred partners who were funny.
The fact that a man and a woman complement each other when they offer and request humor is
striking because laughter is not under our conscious control, Provine points out. And as with many behaviors
that occur outside of our awareness, researchers suspect these opposing desires may have
arisen because they serve a reproductive purpose.

Why Funny Men Are So Attractive

From an evolutionary perspective, the sex that contributes more resources to the development of
offspring will likely be the choosier of the two. In all mammals, that choosier sex is the female, because
of the burden of pregnancy. So the male must compete for female attention—think of the courtship
displays of bucks with their grand antlers. When a female is drawn to an impressive performer,
she is unknowingly responding to his genetic health—thereby increasing the likelihood that her
offspring will survive. This evolutionary force is referred to as sexual selection, and psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman of New York University thinks it may explain why humor is so important in early courtship and why men produce the jokes while women appreciate them. “Humor is pretty sexy at first meeting. When you
have little else to go on, a witty person who uses humor in a clever, original way is signaling quite a lot
of information, including intelligence, creativity, and even aspects of their personality such as playfulness
and openness to experience,” says Kaufman, who has done studies on the role of creativity
in humor.
Supporting this idea are studies that show that humor is a good indicator of intelligence—a highly
prized, heritable trait. For instance, in 2008 Daniel Howrigan of the University of Colorado at Boulder
asked nearly 200 people to create humorous statements and draw funny images. Those who scored
higher on a test of general intelligence were also rated by observers as being significantly funnier.
A more subtle test of the sexual selection hypothesis for humor depends on what women want when they are at their most fertile—during ovulation.
A large body of research has shown that when considering short-term partners, ovulating women
tend to prefer men who have signs of good genes, such as body symmetry, masculine facial features
and behavioral dominance. In contrast, when considering long-term partners at any point in their cycle,
women show no preference, often choosing men with resources (in this day and age, that means
money) and nurturing characteristics—in other words, good dads. If humor is a sign of creativity and intelligence and hence an indicator of high-quality genes, funny guys should be highly desirable to women when they are ovulating. Indeed, a 2006 study by Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico and
Martie Haselton of the University of California, Los Angeles, showed exactly that. Forty-one women
read descriptions of creative but poor men and uncreative but wealthy men and rated each man’s desirability as a short-term mate. During high fertility, women chose creative men about twice as often
as wealthy men for short-term pairing, but no preference emerged for long-term partners—exactly
the pattern one would expect. So if being funny is what it takes to get the girls, then making others guffaw should be a priority for guys. Think back on the class clowns you’ve known.
Were they boys?
And while the boys were clowning, chances are the girls were giggling. Studies of laughter also reveal
clues about humor’s important, evolved role in courtship, as Provine discovered when he started
studying spontaneous conversation in 1993. He had tried studying laughter in the laboratory, but plopping a person in front of a TV with a couple of Saturday Night Live episodes did not incite much hilarity.
Provine came to the stark realization: laughter is inherently social. So he set out, like a field primatologist, to observe human interaction in urban spaces: malls, sidewalks, cafes. He made note of about 1,200 laugh episodes—comments that elicited a laugh from either the speaker or the listener— and figured out which gender laughs when. The results may not come as a surprise. Women, in general, laugh a lot more than men, according to Provine’s data—especially in mixed-sex groups. “Both men and women laugh more at men than at women,” Provine observes. This finding aligns with the idea that men are performing humor and women,
the “selectors,” are appreciating it, but of course there are other possible explanations. Are women
simply less discriminating when it comes to humor? Or are men the funnier gender?
Cracking the Laughter Code Recent research suggests these possibilities are unlikely. Men and women are consistently judged to be equally funny when they go head to head on humor production. For instance, in 2009 Kim Edwards, a Ph.D. student in psychology at the University of Western Ontario, asked men and women to come up with funny captions for single-frame cartoons. Both genders created an equal number of
highly rated captions.
In humor appreciation, too, women and men are on equal footing. In 2005 psychiatrist Allan Reissof Stanford University showed men and women 30 cartoons while scanning their brains. Both genders rated 24 of the cartoons as funny, and when asked to rank them in terms of how funny they were, the genders again agreed. In addition, men and women had very little difference in their response times to the jokes they liked.
Given the sexes’ similar capacity for humor production and appreciation, the fact that women
laugh more—and men are laughed at more—must have its roots in something other than simply who
is being funny. In fact, Provine’s data support this idea, too: 80 to 90 percent of the statements that elicited laughter in his field studies were not funny at all. Rather people laughed at banal phrases such
as “I’ll see you guys later!” or “I think I’m done.” His research also showed that people tend to laugh
more when they are speaking as opposed to listening.
Many studies have confirmed this finding, and experts believe that when a speaker laughs, it sets
his or her audience at ease and facilitates social connections. [For more on the general benefits of laughter,
see “Laughing Matters,” by Steve Ayan; Scientific American Mind, April/May/June 2009.]
Provine found one notable exception to the rule that speakers laugh more than their audience, however:
when a man is talking to a woman, the woman laughs more than the man. The difference is sizable:
when Provine averaged laughter in two-person pairs, the speakers laughed 46 percent more than
the person listening. When a woman was talking to another woman, she laughed 73 percent more than her interlocutor, but when a woman was in conversation with a man she produced 126 percent more laughter. Male speakers laughed less than female speakers, but they still laughed 25 percent more
than their listeners when they were talking to other men. But in the specific circumstance where a man
was talking to a woman, the men laughed 8 percent less than their partners. The fact that women laugh so much when they are speaking to men— and they laugh more than men even when the men are doing the talking—suggests that there is some instinct at play. Perhaps it is a reflection of the female role as sexual selector, but whatever the roots may be of the female instinct to laugh around men, it works—men find women attractive when they laugh. Perhaps it is because laughter unconsciously signals interest and enjoyment.
Consider that chimpanzees utter laughlike sounds when they are being chased by other chimps,
and as with human children, the one being chased is the one who laughs. For chimps playing, the panting
laugh is a signal to the chaser that the play is fun and nonthreatening. The enjoyment might come from
anticipation, as if the laughter is sending a message: I’m going to keep running, but it’s going to be really
fun when I get caught. Because women are the ones typically chased in courtship, could there be a link?
“I think there’s an interesting parallel there,” humor expert Martin says. “In both cases, the laughter is a
signal of enjoyment and invitation to continue.” Indeed, studies have shown that laughter is a
powerful measurement of the level of attraction between two people. In 1990 psychologists Karl
Grammer and Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Urban Ethology in Vienna
studied natural conversations in mixed-sex groups and measured the amount of laughter coming from
men and women. Later on each individual self-reported how attracted they were to other members
of the group. It turns out it is the amount of female laughter that accurately predicts the level of attraction
between both partners. In other words, a woman laughs a lot when she is attracted to a man or
when she senses a man’s interest—and that laughter, in turn, might make her more attractive to him
or signal that she welcomes his attention. Funny through the Years As attraction transitions to a relationship, humor’s role changes, but sharing a laugh is no less important. Many agree it is the connection that humor
fosters that makes it so good for relationships, especially over the long term. Humor often becomes a private
language between two people. A couple’s in joke can make a mundane or tense moment hilarious.
But here again, each gender’s role is different— and interestingly, in some ways men and women
change places. Unlike during courtship, when men are usually the humor producers and women are the
appreciators, in long-term relationships it can sometimes be harmful for men to use humor. When
women are the humorous partners, however, relationships tend to thrive. Funny men are not necessarily a curse, of course, but in certain situations male humor might be dangerous. In 1997 psychologists Catherine Cohan of Pennsylvania State University and Thomas Bradbury of the University of California, Los Angeles, analyzed the marriages of 60 couples over an 18-month period, using data from self-reports and
audiotaped conversations of the couples working through a specific marital issue. They found that in
couples who had a major life stressor such as a death in the family or a lost job, the husband’s use of humor
during problem solving was a warning sign. These couples were more likely to wind up divorced
or separated within 18 months than couples with a life stressor where the male did not use humor. This
result may be about men knowing how and when to crack the tension with a joke. Timing is key. “Particularly
with men’s humor we see it used to avoid problems or serious conversations,” Martin says.
“And if it’s used aggressively—in a teasing or putdown way—or at an inappropriate time, it can be
detrimental to the relationship.” The idea that male humor might sometimes be bad for a relationship is supported by results from the Coping Humor Scale (CHS) test developed by Martin and psychologist Herbert Lefcourt of the University of Waterloo, which measures how much one uses humor to cope with life stress. They found in 1986 that men who score high on the CHS report less marital satisfaction than their peers who do not use humor as much to cope. They also discovered that men tend to use more disparaging forms of humor, directed at others, when coping with a tough situation. If this is the type of humor men are referring to when they take the CHS, Lefcourt notes, it might explain the lower relationship satisfaction.
Women, on the other hand, have been shown by many studies to often use self-deprecating humor,
which may bring relief to a tense situation. [For more on types of humor each gender prefers, see
box on page 43.] And the CHS study found that women who use more humor to cope reported
greater marital satisfaction. A recent physiological study may help explain why. Couples psychologist John Gottman of the Gottman Institute analyzed 130 couples discussing their top three most problematic issues. Starting when they were newlyweds, couples came to Gottman’s lab once a year for six years and had private
discussions while Gottman measured their physiological responses, such as blood pressure and pulse,
with a polygraph and electrocardiogram. Gottman found that the reduction of the male’s heart rate during these intense discussions was critical for a successful marriage (whereas the women’s heart rates made no difference). Some men were good at soothing themselves, but the next best way to lower these husbands’ heart rates was for their wives to crack a joke to relieve the tension. Couples in which the women deescalated the conflict in this way, according to Gottman, were more likely to have a stable marriage through at least the study’s six years, as compared with couples in which the wives did not use humor. As a relationship progresses, then, a man’s humor becomes less important—perhaps even counterproductive in certain situations—whereas a woman’s sense of humor becomes a blessing. During courtship, a man’s wit attracts a woman, and her appreciative laughter, in turn, is attractive to him. But as commitment increases, the challenge becomes less about landing a mate and more about keeping one around. “Here it is more about sympathy and attunement to the other’s feelings and perspectives,” Martin says. “The goal is less to entertain and impress and more to reduce interpersonal tensions, convey understanding, save face for oneself and one’s partner. Women may be more skilled at these uses of humor.” Of course, in real life men and women inhabit
a wide spectrum, with far greater individual variation than is reflected in the trends that show up in
the lab. Many people have traits that are the opposite of those normally associated with their sex. But
in general, the way men and women use humor betrays its deeper purpose—to help us connect and
bond with one another. A genuine laugh is one of the most honest ways to convey: I’m with you.

Hypertension

2010-11-29T14:07:00.000-08:00

Hypertension affects about 1 in 4 American adults and is one of the most widespread worldwide diseases afflicting humans. It raises the risk of heart disease and stroke for those afflicted, so it’s important to understand how to lower hypertension. High blood pressure, aka hypertension risk factors include obesity, drinking too much alcohol, smoking, and family history of hypertension. Hypertension is the most important modifiable risk factor for coronary heart disease (the leading cause of fatality in North America), stroke (the third leading cause), congestive heart failure, end-stage renal disease, and peripheral vascular disease.

Normal blood pressure with respect to cardiovascular risk is less than 120/80 mm Hg, (however, unusually low readings should be evaluated for clinical significance as well). Prehypertension is a new category emphasizing that patients with prehypertension are at risk for progression to hypertension and that lifestyle modifications are important preventive strategies. Home blood pressure predicts cardiovascular events much better than do office readings and can be a useful clinical tool. Anyone with hypertension should be monitoring their own BP at home. BP kits are available everywhere, and they are inexpensive. If your BP readings suddenly become low, you should tell your doctor to titrate downwards your medication so that you do not become syncopal, (passing out). The following are the ranges of BP:

Normal – Systolic, (top number) lower than 120, diastolic, (bottom number) lower than 80.

Prehypertension - Systolic 120-139, diastolic 80-99.

Stage 1 hypertension- Systolic 140-159, diastolic 90-99.

Stage 2 hypertension- Systolic equal to or more than 160, diastolic equal to or more than 100

Recommendations to lower blood pressure and thus decrease cardiovascular disease risk include the following:

• Lose weight if overweight. Even a few extra pounds will raise blood pressure.

• Google DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) for a reasonable diet, which is rich in fruits and vegetables.

• Limit alcohol intake to no more than 1-2 drinks/day.

• Increase aerobic activity (30-45 min most days of the week).

• Reduce sodium intake, learn to read nutritional information labels on products you purchase.

• Maintain adequate intake of dietary potassium, calcium and magnesium for general health.

• Stop smoking and reduce intake of dietary saturated fat and cholesterol for overall cardiovascular health.

Dr. Scopelliti is both a Fellow of the American College of Functional Neurology, and, a Fellow of the American Board of Vestibular Rehabilitation, practicing at the 279 Professional Arts Bldg at the rear of Monmouth Medical Center, in Long Branch, NJ. His office specializes in the drug free management of patients suffering with vertigo, dizziness, imbalance, presyncope, dystonia, TBI, headaches, ADD and other brain based disorders. As a community service, Dr. Scopelliti offers a free computerized risk of fall posturographic analysis and consultation. The office can be reached at (732) 229-5250. Dr. Scopelliti has a wealth of information updated weekly on the web at www.dcneuro.net. You may also obtain a free report on vertigo and dizziness by subscribing on line to our E News.

The Whys and Hows of Natural Healing

2010-11-29T13:59:00.001-08:00

Natural healing is holistic healing. It is a process by which a person's health is restored in the most natural way without the use of conventional medicine throughout the entire healing process. The human body is blessed with divine gifts in the form of natural resources that enable not only the enhancement of health but also the freedom from any type of disease or illness.

Natural healing is effective because it uses the power of the mind through affirmation and visualization, meditation, the goodness of nature through natural herbs and healthful foods, and the energy of your body through hand and body massage, yoga, and acupuncture to bring about healing of the body, the mind, and the soul. In order to prevent any future relapse and to guarantee long-term cure, the healing process has to be complete and wholesome. In addition, in natural healing, there is no need to take any form of chemicals or to undergo any invasive procedure, which not only may produce negative side effects but also may interfere with the natural healing process.

Natural healing has long proven to be a very good alternative to the traditional way of healing practiced by medical doctors. As a matter of fact, many natural healing clinics have sprung up across the United States. People are using natural healing techniques more than anything else mainly because they are highly effective with minimal or zero side effects, and they are less expensive than the treatments of conventional medicine.

Be a natural healer of your own disease. How do you bring about natural healing?

First of all, you must know the difference between healing and treatment: treatment originates from the outside, whereas healing comes from within; treatment aims at removing symptoms of disease, while healing tackles the source of disease.

Next, natural healing begins with the mind first. Your mind controls your body, and everything you do and think.

For natural healing to take place, your mind must express the intention to heal, without which there is no cure or healing. Your intention to heal is then manifested in focus, which directs your mind towards your goal to heal yourself.

To reach that goal, you need resources; that is, you must empower yourself with knowledge so that you may know how to heal yourself. Knowledge is power: it may establish a connection to your true self, and thereby instrumental in allowing you to make the right health choices and decisions, as well as to live your life in a lifestyle that is in accordance with your higher purpose.

Through the many facets of mind power, such as affirmation, visualization, and meditation, your mind begins its healing process. Healing begins with the mind, and mind healing is always mind over matter.

Natural healing is always slow: it does not happen overnight. You need to set your short-term and long-term goals, and make your commitment to reach those goals. Your commitment is is your mental responsibility to make you heal. Living is a challenge, and so is healing. During the healing process you may have to face different challenges before you can ultimately overcome the disease or illness. Facing challenges requires mind power.

Once your mind is healed, natural healing of the body will follow. Your body is the product of what your mind thinks and the choices it makes. If your mind wants to heal, your body will be healed. Natural healing is just that simple.

Information On Lactic Acid Bacteria

2010-11-29T13:57:00.000-08:00

Lactic acid bacteria, although an agent of food spoilage, are also good bacteria.

So, what is a Lactic Acid Bacteria anyway? If you will look at it through a microscope, you will see something that is rod shaped. LAB, the acronym for them, may fall into cocci category or circulars germ or bacteria.

The Probiotic acid bacteria are found in decaying plants and other lactic resources. These are then used in the process of fermentation. Fermentation is process that converts carbohydrates in alcohol.

Lactic acid fermentation is just one of the reasons why LAB is good bacteria. This usually follows the rest of the fermentation process with the use of lactic acid.

There are still other ways that LAB could be helping us. And, here are some of them:

It keeps bad breath away! About a couple of years ago, research was conducted in using LAB against bad breath. Accordingly, these good bacteria could remedy this problem by replacing other bacteria with their kind populating our mouth.

Bad breath is caused by another kind of bacteria which is called anaerobes. Lactic acid bacteria kill these germs with hydrogen peroxide. After this, they would simply become the dominate bacteria in the area.

If you want to try this, experts recommend the daily consumption of yogurt. This food contains bifida and lactobacillus bacteria which are, coincidentally part of LAB’s properties. Of course, you should always go for non-sweetened yogurt rather than the sweetened to see the effect.

It keeps your gastrointestinal health at peak condition. It provides help for your metabolism and helps you avoid any illnesses due to undigested foods. Moreover, because it is a naturally occurring organism, you can be assured that you are not eating something that could harm your health.

It helps you avoid high blood pressure. High blood pressure is probably one of the most common sicknesses people have throughout the world. Drinking lactic milk, according to some experiments, can lower the risk of this health problem. Accordingly, this is because of the bacteria formed through fermentation.

Lactic Acid Probiotic can help in the strengthening of the human immune system. And, when you have strong immune system that means you are more resistant to disease.

It helps you avoid infections. There are some people who are born more sensitive skin. People with sensitive skin can easily experience swelling and rashes.

Doctors suggest people with this type of skin to include LAB-containing food everyday. Though lactic acid bacteria may not totally solve your skin problem, you should at least experience minimal reaction from your skin or skin’s hypersensitivity.

Of course, the help that LAB extends doesn’t end here. The great thing is that you can save money. This is because of the many benefits coming from these bacteria.

Obviously, if you have a strong immune system then that only means that you don’t get sick often. This helps you reduce doctor’s visits and any medication you might need.

Finally, you too can spend more time with your family. If you do not get sick all the time, then you are lucky because you don’t have to be away from your family.

Lactic Acid Bacteria can provide us with different healthy benefits. But still, it is advisable that we consult with doctors from time to time.

Diet Plans And Menus - The Mincavi Diet

2010-11-29T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Mincavi Diet was created in 1984 by Lyne Martineau. This diet was inspired by the Canadian Food Guide. It offers five weight loss programs, varying from 1400 to 2000 calories daily. On your initial visit to a Mincavi center you will be assigned a program based on your sex, your age, your body mass index, and your level of physical activity. Your program may be adjusted in function of your weight loss. Here are some of the diet principles.

Put the accent on fruits and vegetables. Depending on your program, you will consume 4 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. But you are allowed to eat as many vegetables as you want. Dark green vegetables are said to be the best. Eat 4 to 7 servings of good fats such as olive, canola, and walnut oil each day. Eat 3 to 7 servings of cereal products daily. Eat 90 to 150 grams (from 3 to 5 ounces) of protein every day including 2 to 4 servings of dairy products, and some meat or meat substitutes. Drink a minimum of three glasses of soy beverages weekly. Eat fish, the best is fatty fish, at least twice a week. Keep a daily food consummation journal and bring it to meetings with professionals. Spend 30 to 60 minutes a day in athletic activities. Go to Mincavi meetings that are held once a week in some locations.

The Mincavi Diet presents several advantages. It is easy to follow and is well adapted to families. Its meals are balanced and may be eaten in restaurants and at home. The company sells prepared foods. The disadvantage is the need to count the number of portions.

Here are two sample menus, both are in the 1400 calorie range :

Menu 1

Breakfast: Banana and chocolate waffles.

Your mid-morning snack is a yogurt and 15 (half an ounce) milliliters of nuts.

Lunch: Cabbage soup. 4 crackers. 5 milliliters of non-hydrogenated margarine. Spinach and parsnip loaf. The mid-afternoon snack is an apple.

Supper: Vegetable juice. Green salad with 30 milliliters of salad dressing. Chicken tournedos. A kiwi.

Menu 2

Breakfast: French toast. 15 milliliters of natural syrup. 150 milliliters of strawberries.

The mid-morning snack is a yogurt.

Lunch: Sole. Green salad. 45 milliliters of dressing. Low-calorie jelly. Two slices of cantaloupe.

The mid-afternoon snack is a peach and 30 milliliters of almonds.

Supper: Tomato soup. Calves liver. Baked potato. 5 milliliters of non-hydrogenated margarine. Peas and carrots.

Weight Regain Mistakes: Some Common Blunders to Avoid

2010-11-29T13:54:00.003-08:00

So you have lost some or all of the weight that you wanted to. Now you have got to avoid these weight regain mistakes that are so common for dieters. There are a few thing that you must do to ensure the weight stays off. The first obvious thing is you must understand that high levels of exercise are a key element of keeping fat off and ensuring that you stay at your ideal body-weight.

When we lower our calorie intake we know that your body gets sluggish, you often don't feel like really exercising or if you do you really don't do it at the level that you should. So this means that you have to push yourself extra hard because your body will naturally want to slow down and conserve its energy levels. You will hit a plateau. A fat loss plateau, this is something that you don't hear about all that often.

This is why most of those diet plans show the people immediately after the weight loss. They don't show them a few months later—this is because a lot of people put the weight back on quickly. In fact the majority of them do.

So you say, "This is not going to happen to me; I won't make the same weight regain mistakes". But it is actually a natural occurrence in the body. Your body tricks you into thinking a number of different ways so it can keep the energy it has stored. It is a physiological response; the body thinks it is in starvation mode.

This is why people who think that diet alone is the answer for them are actually not generally going to make it long term in their weight loss goals. When you don't look at the results right after the weight loss, but instead look a year ahead, generally you will not be happy with the results at all.

The system that works long term, the system that ensures you wont make the same weight regain mistake is high exercise levels while feeding the muscle with high intake clean foods. This is much, much better than simply losing weight through starvation alone. Low calorie diets are generally not the answer, especially when there is no exercise being performed.

You have to eat to feed your muscles, but we are not talking about fast food at lunch and a heavy, fatty dinner. The right kinds of foods and the basics of good nutrition.

If the question is can you simply lose weight with diet alone, then yes. But if you don't want to be fighting that weight loss roller-coaster for your whole life then it is time to simply lose the weight the right way, while building a leaner, better body.

The bottom line is, weight loss the right way will trump temporary weight loss every time. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or telling you the temporary results. They will gain the weight back, but if you do it right you won't!

Automatic Irrigation Systems Are The Better Way To Water

2010-11-29T13:47:00.001-08:00

When you have a large yard with a lot of flower beds watering can be a chore. Lugging around hoses can make your back sore and the job uninviting. Because you love your flower beds you hate to stop watering them. Isn't there a better way to water?

Many landscapers and lawn services recommend automatic irrigation systems for large yards with lots of flower beds. Having such a system will mean no more dragging heavy hoses around. You may wonder if one of these is right for you. They are best installed by landscaping companies experienced with plants and watering. Proper layout is essential for optimal performance and low maintenance.

Not all sprinkler systems are alike. Some sprinklers sit above the ground perpetually. They can have a better watering radius, but because they stick out of the ground, these types of sprinklers are prone to being tripped over and to being destroyed by lawn mowers.

Other sprinkler systems use pop up sprinklers. These sprinklers, a friend to lawn services because they aren't easily hit, sit flush or below ground level when not in use and pop up above the ground when the irrigation system comes on. When a pop up sprinkler breaks, it can cause localized flooding and can be difficult to fix.

Drip systems are designed more for flower beds than lawns and put water directly at the base of the plants. The problem is, except for the main water pipe, these irrigation lines must stay above ground to keep from clogging with dirt. The tips are replaceable, but if the irrigation line gets a crack or a leak, fixing it requires a little knowledge.

All of these systems can be laid out, hooked up to a water faucet, and turned on manually. Doing so requires you to remember to turn it on and off. If you forget to shut off the irrigation system, your water bill could take a hard hit. If you go away for a few days, your flower beds could suffer miserably.

Using an automatic irrigation system eliminates the problems with manual operation. Computerized control of the flow, the amount of water, and the length of time the water is on, saves on maintenance because it eliminates excess pressure which can burst the lines. They can be set on multiple timers to water one section at a time, and can be set to run during the cool parts of the day when less water evaporates.

This type of system saves water, which can lower your water bill. It's a great choice when you have a lot of flower beds or a large yard. Many quality landscapers and lawn services are able to install and maintain an automatic irrigation system to meet the needs of your landscape. With such a system, you can stop lugging hoses and start enjoying your flower beds.

Why a Logo Design is Mandatory?

2010-11-29T13:46:00.000-08:00

When a business has its work circle distinguished from others and its parameters defined well above the other than what is the point that urges to have a logo designed for an organization or a product? Why to spend an extra amount of money on the designing procedure and why to transform the words into an image or graphically illustrated alphabets to mark your recognition in the market? The answers lie in understanding the various perspectives of our business industry and criteria built up by our customers to rate ones corporate caliber.

Business Perspective: Logo design has become a necessity for businesses to build firm pillars of their recognition on the market grounds. Any thing that gains importance has certain reasons attached to it that help it reach such a status.

Picture delivers more than words: The effect a picture or graphically illustrated words can create on an individual’s mind set is enormously great than words can deliver by million folds. It is easy to imprint the image on ones memory than to memorize hundreds of words in order to remember an organization’s verdict.

Marks identity: It is a logo design that makes your organization or products to stand out from those having the similar products as yours in the industry therefore a logo design helps you mark your identity in the business circle.

Gives a trendy and stable look: A well defined logo design of your organization or your product gives your corporate image a trendy look and sends your customers and competitors a message of stability in your business.

Good marketing tool: Your customers are able to relate to you via your logo design. Placing your logo on to the marketing collaterals or forums that are not much spacious will be enough for your representation among your competitors.

Builds relationship with your clients: Your target customers are able to relate all your products easily with your organization by memorizing your logo design. The more your logo gets across their eye, the more sense of stability it marks on their minds, the more they trust you and a result the more it all strengthens your relationships.

Customers Psychology: Customers are the judges who rate your products or services and thus, help in flourishing your business or turning it a way down the hill. Our society has certain norms and standards that no one can get away with. People are so busy in their lives that they don’t have time to read the whole set of description in order to get familiar with your organization and its products. In such circumstances, a logo design can catch you the attention of your target customer. It is the human psychology that the thing that tempts our eye is demanded by our brain. Similarly a logo design that represents your corporate vision in front of your customer must encompass all those features that can replace thousands of words compulsory to be read at users end to get acquainted with your business stature.

Both the customer’s and business perspectives have made it mandatory for the organizations to have their logo designed in order to enhance their corporate image.

The Simple Way To Start Exercising

2010-11-29T13:45:00.000-08:00

It's not a surprise to find out that most people today are overweight. Much more than recent years, up to sixty percent of adults today have a problem with weight. And that problem isn't likely to go away by itself. While it may feel good to put the blame on the growing fast food industry, which seems to appear every place you turn, pointing the finger doesn't really do us much good. Unless you take responsibility for your problems, they aren't likely to go away.

It's easy to not feel motivated simply because everybody else is fat, or blame your genes, but that doesn't really address the problem. Unless we take matters into our own hands, we will continue to become fatter and fatter. So what's the answer? The latest diet fad, the latest health food craze, or the latest late night infomercial selling us the latest and greatest exercise contraption?

Naturally, those can have a positive influence, but since they require a herculean effort, they will likely only be short lived. The reason they will only be a short term fix is because they promise quick results. And in order to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time, as those program seem to always promise, it takes an enormous amount of willpower, and an immediate lifestyle change. Changes that in actuality don't last very long.

So what do we do? Since it took a while to gain all this weight, it is going to take a while to lose it. Natural and easy is the most popular way. A slow, gradual change to our diets, and a slow, gradual increase in our daily activity. While there are plenty of ways to change your diet, depending on your body type, and your various dispositions, changing your exercise program can be a little bit easier.

The best way to add in a little bit of exercise is through the old fashioned practice of walking. Walking just a little bit every day can add a host of benefits over the long term. Only twenty or twenty five minutes a day can have wonderfully profound and life changing effects. Most people are pleasantly surprised when they find what a simple walk every day will do.

The best thing about walking is that you don't need any new equipment, or any special shoes. Special classes or instruction, as well as intricate equipment isn't needed at all. You can even bring along an MP3 player to keep you company along the way. If you'd like to start a powerful program to quickly start losing weight, then you can't go wrong with a simple, everyday walk.

Filming the invisible in 4-D

2010-11-28T06:17:00.000-08:00

Picture this: a movie revealing the inner workings of a cell or showing a nanomachine in action.

A new microscopy is making such imaging possible

by ahmed h. zewail

The human eye is limited in its vision. We cannot see objects much thinner than a human hair (a fraction of a millimeter) or resolve motions quicker than a blink (a tenth of a second).

Advances in optics and microscopy over the past millennium have, of course, let us peer far beyond the limits of the naked eye, to view exquisite images such as a micrograph of a virus or a stroboscopic photograph of a bullet at the millisecond it punched through a light bulb. But if we were shown a movie depicting atoms jiggling around, until recently we could be reasonably sure we were looking at a cartoon, an artist’s impression or a simulation of some sort. In the past 10 years my research group at the California Institute of Technology has developed a new form of imaging, unveiling motions that occur at the size scale of atoms and over time intervals as short as a femtosecond (a million billionth of a second). Because the technique enables imaging in both space and time and is based on the venerable electron microscope, I dubbed it four-dimensional (4-D) electron microscopy.

We have used it to visualize phenomena such as the vibration of cantilevers a few billionths of a meter wide, the motion of sheets of carbon atoms in graphite vibrating like a drum after being “struck” by a laser pulse, and the transformation of matter from one state to another. We have also imaged individual proteins and cells.

Four-dimensional electron microscopy promises to answer questions in fields ranging from materials science to biology: how to understand the behavior of materials from the bottom up, from the atomic to macroscopic scale; how nanoscale or microscale machines (NEMS and MEMS) function; and how proteins or assemblies of biological molecules fold and become organized into larger structures, a vital process in the functioning of all living cells. Four-dimensional microscopy can also reveal the atomic arrangements of nanoscale structures (which determine the properties of new nanomaterials), and, potentially, track electrons moving around in atoms and molecules on the timescale of attoseconds (a billion billionth of a second). Along with the advances in basic science, the potential applications are wide-ranging, including the design of nanomachines and new kinds of medicines.

Cats and Atoms in Motion

Although 4-d microscopy is a cutting-edge technique that relies on advanced lasers and concepts from quantum physics, many of its principles can be understood by considering how scientists developed stop-motion photography more than a century ago. In particular, in the 1890s, etienne-Jules Marey, a professor at the

Collège de France, studied fast motions by placing a rotating disk with slits in it between the moving object and a photographic plate or strip, producing a series of exposures similar to modern motion picture filming.

Among other studies, Marey investigated how a falling cat rights itself so that it lands on its feet. With nothing but air to push on, how did cats instinctively perform this acrobatic feat without violating Newton’s laws of motion? The fall and the flurry of legs took less than a second— too fast for the unaided eye to see precisely what happened. Marey’s stop-motion snapshots provided the answer, which involves twisting the hindquarters and forequarters in opposite directions with legs extended and retracted. High divers, dancers and astronauts learn similar motions to turn themselves. Another approach, stroboscopic photography, relied on short light flashes to capture events occurring on much shorter timescales than is possible with mechanical shutters. The flashes make an object moving in the dark momentarily visible to a detector such as an observer’s eye or a photographic plate. In the mid-20th century Harold Edgerton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology greatly advanced stroboscopic photography by developing electronics that could produce reliable, repetitive, microsecond flashes of light.

The falling-cat experiment requires shutter times or stroboscopic flashes short enough for the photographs to show the animal clearly despite its motion. Suppose the cat has righted itself half a second after being released. At that instant the cat will be falling at five meters per second, so by using one-millisecond flashes we will ensure that the cat falls no more than five millimeters during each exposure so that the image of the cat will be only slightly blurred by its motion. To slice the acrobatics into 10 snapshots, the photographs must be taken every 50 milliseconds.

If we wish to observe the behavior of a molecule instead of a feline, how fast must our stroboscopic flashes be? Many changes in molecular or material structure involve atoms moving a few angstroms (one angstrom equals 10–10 meter). To map out such motion requires a spatial resolution of less than one angstrom. Atoms often move at speeds of about one kilometer per second in these transformations, requiring stroboscopic flashes no longer than 10 femtoseconds to observe them with better than 0.1-angstrom definition. As long ago as the 1980s researchers used femtosecond laser pulses to time chemical processes involving moving atoms, but without imaging the positions of the atoms in space—the wavelength of the light is hundreds of times longer than the spspacing between atoms in molecules or materials.

Accelerated electrons have long produced images at atomic scales—as in electron microscopes— but only with targets fixed in place and imaged over time intervals of milliseconds or longer, being limited by the speed of the camera.

The atom-scale movies we sought thus required the spatial resolution of an electron microscope but with femtosecond electron pulses to “illuminate” the targets. The illuminating packets of electrons are called probe pulses. Another issue is clocking of the motion—having a well-defined instant in time when the motion begins. We will not get useful images if all the probe pulses take snapshots before the motion starts or after it finishes. In photographing the cat, the recording begins when the cat is released.

For ultrafast recording, a femtosecond initiation pulse called the clocking pulse launches the material or the process to be studied.

Even with probing and clocking under control, the issue of synchronization remains. Here the typical ultrafast experiment drastically departs from the cat analogy. Marey could complete his experiment by dropping one cat once, if everything went according to plan. And it did not matter much if the series of exposures began, say, five, 10 or 17 milliseconds after the cat’s release.

Ultrafast microscopy, however, may probe millions of atoms or molecules for each clocking pulse or may build up images by repeating an experiment thousands of times. Imagine if Marey had been restricted to capturing only a narrow vertical strip of the field of view with each cat drop. To build up the series of full snapshots of the falling cat, he would have had to repeat the experiment many times, recording along a slightly different vertical strip each time. For the various strips to combine sensibly and form a meaningful whole image, he would need to prepare the cat in the same starting configuration for each drop and carefully synchronize the release with the shutter openings in the same way each time. (The technique would also rely on the cat moving in thesame fashion every time. I suspect molecules are more reliable than cats in that respect.)

The starting configurations must be accurate to a small fraction of the cat’s size, and the time synchronization must be accurate to less than the shutter durations. Similarly, in ultrafast imaging of atoms or molecules, the launch configuration must be defined to subangstrom resolution, and the relative timing of clocking and probe pulses must be of femtosecond precision. The timing of probe pulses relative to the clocking is accomplished by sending either of these pulses along a path with an adjustable length.

For a pulse traveling at the speed of light, setting the path length to an accuracy of one micron corresponds to setting the relative timing with 3.3-femtosecond accuracy.

A further major and fundamental problem remained to be overcome before we could make movies with electrons. Unlike photons, electrons are charged and repel one another. Crowding a lot of them into a pulse spoils both the temporal and spatial resolutions because the electrons’ mutual repulsion blows the pulse apart. In the 1980s Oleg Bostanjoglo of the Technical University of Berlin did achieve imaging using pulses having as few as 100 million electrons, but the resolutions were no better than nanoseconds and microns (later significantly improved to the submicron level by researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory).

My group attacked this challenge by developing single-electron imaging, which built on our earlier work with ultrafast electron diffraction. Each probe pulse contains a single electron and thus provides only a single “speck of light” in the final movie. Yet thanks to each pulse’s careful timing and another property known as the coherence of the pulse, the many specks add up to form a useful image of the object. A similar feat is sometimes exhibited as one of the characteristic oddities of quantum mechanics: electrons pass through two slits one at a time, each one contributing a single speck at some random location on a detection screen. Yet all the specks add up to form predictable patterns of light and darkness characteristic of interfering waves. Single-electron imaging was the key to 4-D ultrafast electron microscopy (UEM). We could now make movies of molecules and materials as they responded to various situations, like so many startled cats twisting in the air.

The Four-Dimensional Electron Microscope

A standard electron microscope records still images of a nanoscopic sample by sending a beam of electrons through the sample and focusing it onto a detector. By employing single-electron pulses, a four-dimensional electron microscope produces movie frames representing time steps as short as femtoseconds (10–15 second).

Each frame of the nanomovie is built up by repeating this process thousands of times with the same delay and combining all the pixels from the individual shots. Researchers may also use the microscope in other modes, such as with one many-electron pulse per frame, depending on the kind of movie to be obtained. The single-electron mode produces the finest spatial resolution and captures the shortest time spans in each frame.

DECIPHERING NANOMATTER

One of our first targets was graphite, the “lead” material in pencils. We chose graphite in part because it is an unusual material, with applications in environments as extreme as those in nuclear reactor cores, and because it has close relatives that are just as remarkable. Graphite consists of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern to form sheets reminiscent of chicken wire. Relatively weak bonds hold the sheets together in a stack. Writing with an ordinary pencil relies on pieces of the graphite sloughing off and adhering to the paper. The pencil marks include tiny quantities of the strongest material known to science—graphene, which consists of isolated single sheets of carbon atoms. Researchers are studying graphene vigorously for a variety of electronics applications. Furthermore, when soft graphite is subjected to extreme pressure, its atoms rearrange to form diamond, one of the hardest known substances.

To study graphite’s response to mechanical shocks, we took nanoscale crystals of the substance— some only nanometers thick, or a few sheets of atoms—and struck them with intense femtosecond laser pulses, which served as the clocking pulses for our microscope. Each laser pulse pushed the graphite’s layers of atoms momentarily closer together, setting them oscillating up and down.

Our electron microscope sent its electrons through these oscillating graphite layers to produce two kinds of picture: a real-space image (much like a photograph of the graphite surface) or a diffraction pattern, which is a regular array of spots whose precise configuration provides information about the arrangement and separations of atoms in the graphite lattice. In particular, we could track the layers oscillating up and down by the movements of the spots in the diffraction pattern. The oscillations had frequencies of about 10 to 100 gigahertz (1010 to 1011cycles per second). No imaging experiment had previously observed such high-frequency resonances unfolding over time. From our measurements we determined the elasticity of graphite perpendicular to the planes of atoms—how the material responds to compressing or stretching forces acting in that direction.

Imagine that the graphite crystal is a stack of rigid metal plates connected by springs and that the laser pulse is a large sledgehammer striking the top plate. We measured the properties of the springs. The metal-plate analogy is reasonable as long as our “camera” is zoomed in very close. If the camera figuratively “pulls back,” however, more of the tiny graphite crystal comes into view. Now the hammer is striking one region of the top metal sheet, and it becomes apparent that the sheets are flexing, with the compression and expansion propagating out from the impact point in waves.

When we pull back the camera even farther and take images more slowly, yet another kind of dynamics comes into view. Now we see how the laser pulse sets the entire nanoscopically thin crystal oscillating, like a drumhead hit by a drumstick. We saw that in the first few microseconds after the laser pulse hit, the crystal’s motion appeared chaotic, but as time went on the entire crystal settled down into a well-defined resonant oscillation—it drummed!

For these oscillations, the material property that sets the resonance frequency is the elasticity of the graphite planes—their response to being stretched or compressed in the plane. We found that the graphite is much more resistant to being deformed in the planes of carbon atoms than it is to having those planes pulled apart or pushed together. The results can be explained by considering that the chemical bonds joining the carbon atoms in each hexagonal layer are much stronger than the bonds linking adjacent planes to one another.

Although studies of bulk samples of graphite produce similar data about graphite’s elasticity, the information we obtained tells us much more.

It addresses questions of two types that are fundamental to our understanding of how materials behave at the nanoscale: first, at what length scale does the description of a substance in terms of a continuum material with properties such as elasticity break down? Second, can we extrapolate from the behavior at atomic scales of length and time to reproduce the known macroscopic properties of a material? With graphite, we found that even quite nanoscopic samples (only a few dozen atomic layers thick) behave surprisingly like the bulk material. Would this description still be valid near the graphene limit?

The movies of graphite I have described thus far all relied on collisions of our probe electrons with the sample in which they lose no energy— like rubber balls bouncing off something hard.

Sometimes, however, a probe electron may lose energy, by exciting an electron in a carbon atom.

The amount of energy lost depends on the kind of bond in which the atom’s electron was involved.

A very old technique called electron energy loss spectroscopy can measure such losses; the energy spectra obtained provide information about the bonding in a material and the chemical elements that compose it. Using this method with our ultrafast electron microscope, we showed that during the compression phase, the bonding inside the graphite shifted toward the kind of bond that is characteristic of diamond. In the expansion phase, the bonding of the surface atoms shifted toward that of graphene. Conventional electron energy loss spectroscopy is far

too slow to observe these changes.

From Cantilever s to Cells

My group has now carried out four-dimensional microscopy on a number of materials in addition to graphite. In iron, we made diffraction images to follow the crystal structure changing from what is called body-centered cubic to face-centered cubic, a process that occurs in many industrial applications at high temperatures, including production of steel. We saw two dynamic processes unfold when we heated the iron from room temperature to nearly 1,500 kelvins in about a nanosecond. First, specks of the face-centered phase developed, or nucleated, at locations in the crystal relatively slowly—on a nanosecond timescale—out of the incoherent motions of iron atoms. Second, these regions of the new phase grew at the speed of sound, meaning that the process took only picoseconds (10–12 second) to encompass the hot iron. This rapidly spreading transformation involves numerous atoms being displaced in a coordinated fashion, a curious kind of “emergence” of a large-scale change in the crystal from the innumerable underlying nanoscopic motions. Understanding of this phenomenon might lead to better ways to handle iron and steel (and many other materials) in industrial processes.

One of the most powerful applications of 4-D ultrafast electron microscopy is seeing nanosystems and microsystems as they function in real time. For instance, we imaged the resonant oscillations of nanoscopic cantilevers, which had not been accomplished before for such high-frequency motions. From our results we determined a range of quantities that describe the cantilevers’ material properties and their motion, and we saw that they functioned coherently for nearly 1011 oscillations. Researchers can use such data to test the theoretical models that guide design of microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical systems, which in turn may lead to new kinds of such devices or new uses for them.

Four-dimensional imaging with ultrafast electron microscopy also has potential biological applications. To fully understand how the body functions, investigators need to know not only the structures of the various proteins and other molecular and cellular structures involved but also their dynamics—how a protein folds, how it selectively recognizes other molecules, what role the water around it plays, and so on. Some biological functions involve ultrafast steps. For instance, our vision and photosynthesis in plants both rely on photons of light triggering femtosecond- scale processes. Although many proteins function, and malfunction, on timescales much longer than femtoseconds, the atomic and molecular motions in the initial femtoseconds can determine whether these macromolecules ultimately fold properly into a useful structure or into one that, say, causes Alzheimer’s disease.

One study on protein folding illustrates the kind of techniques needed and the results that are possible. My colleagues and I investigated how quickly a short length of protein would fold into one turn of a helix by heating the water in which the protein was immersed—a so-called ultrafast temperature jump. (Helices occur in innumerable proteins.) We found that short helices formed more than 1,000 times faster than researchers have thought—arising in hundreds of picoseconds to a few nanoseconds rather than the microseconds commonly believed. Knowing that such rapid folding occurs may lead to new understanding of biochemical processes, including those involved in diseases.

Biological imaging with our 4-D ultrafast technology often relies on a well-established technique called cryoelectron microscopy, in which a sample in water is plunged quickly into liquid ethane (which boils at –89 degrees Celsius). The water freezes into a glassy solid that does not diffract electrons and spoil imaging (and the sample itself!) as ordinary ice crystals do. We have obtained images of bacterial cells and protein crystals in this way. In the future we hope to watch proteins embedded in such vitreous water fold and unfold: a clocking pulse will boost the temperature enough to melt a tiny droplet of the water around the protein,which will unfold and then promptly refold. When the water cools and refreezes, it renders the molecule ready for another clocking pulse. The same approach could allow us to visualize the dynamics of bacterial flagella and of the fatty acid bilayers that make up cell membranes. As with our graphite studies, ultrafast electron energy loss spectroscopy should let us map changes in bonding. Capturing the image before the biosystem moves or disintegrates should provide sharper images than currently possible in cryomicroscopy.

Variants of ultrafast electron microscopy might well push below the nanoscale in structural dynamics studies and below a femtosecond in the imaging of the electron distribution in matter.

Very recently, my Caltech group demonstrated two new techniques. In one, convergent-beam UEM, the electron pulse is focused and probes only a single nanoscopic site in a specimen. The other, near-field UEM, enables imaging of the evanescent electromagnetic waves (“plasmons”) created in nanoscopic structures by an intense laser pulse—a phenomenon that underlies an exciting new technology known as plasmonics.

This technique has produced images of bacterial cell membranes and protein vesicles with femtosecond- and nanometer-scale resolution. In recent years Ferenc Krausz of Ludwig Maximilian

University of Munich, Paul Corkum of the University of Ottawa and others have opened up the attosecond regime to optical (light-based) studies using extremely short laser pulses. At Caltech, we have proposed several ultrafast electron microscopy schemes for attosecond-scale electron-based imaging, and we are now pursuing the experimental realization in collaboration with Herman Batelaan of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

The electron microscope is extraordinarily powerful and versatile. It can operate in three distinct domains: real-space images, diffraction patterns and energy spectra. It is used in applications ranging from materials and mineralogy to nanotechnology and biology, elucidating static structures in tremendous detail. By integrating the fourth dimension, we are turning still pictures into the movies needed to watch matter’s behavior—from atoms to cells—unfolding in time.

What Are the Benefits of Sales Software?

2010-11-25T14:10:00.000-08:00

With any purchase in life, you want to buy only those things that are beneficial to you or those things that bring you some other type of satisfaction. As far as cash registers are concerned, there are not many people who get excited about them due to the fun factor. And you might also be surprised to hear that a traditional cash register is not the most effective choice for a retail chain. The best choice by far and away is a hosted point of sale software system. A point of sale software system can do several important tasks for you and help to stimulate sales through those tasks.

A major benefit of hosted point of sale software is the sales reports that the software can produce. Extremely detailed and specific reports can be made in real time situations at the touch of the button from anywhere in the world. If you are facing the decision of cutting back the number of hours that your store is in operation, you can create a report for that. Simply ask for a report that features the sales figures between seven and nine o'clock at night for the last three months. The point of sale software system will instantly provide a concise report showing only those numbers. If the sales revenues are not covering the costs of operations for those two hours, you will know that it is time to close the store at seven pm. This feature is particularly important for the owner of several different retail locations. It is impossible to be in all of your locations by yourself each evening, but with hosted point of sale software, you will know how each store performed every night.

The system can also notify you of your number one selling product. You will know which products are truly attracting customers. While you may think that it is your line of fancy high-heeled shoes, it is quite possible that cheaper shoes are your number one sellers. With such information, you will be able to make educated decisions about what product to promote. On a related note, hosted software can also signal your number one supplier so that you know from whom to order and from whom not to. Contracts with producers can be quite expensive and if a particular supplier is under performing, you need to know so you can break the business relationship off.

One last benefit of hosted point of sale software is the inventory management function that helps improve customer service, cut down on hours of labor, and allows for a true representation of your stock room. A hosted point of sale software system can track your entire inventory in real time. The moment that a product leaves your store, the system instantly and automatically takes it out of your inventory numbers. With this feature, you can know without a doubt the number of items you currently have on hand. Plus, point of sale software notifies you when it is time to place a new order to replenish your stock. Your inventory management will be interconnected between all of your locations and allow you to make better business decisions.

French People Are Drinking "Sea Water" For Their Well Being

2010-11-25T14:02:00.000-08:00

Have you ever tried drinking sea water? Suppose you haven’t, since it is too salty, even though marine algae and electrolytes at the right quantities would be beneficial for your well being. That’s why the multinational French company ALTA CARE Laboratoires has created the first thalasso drink in the world. ALTADRINE THALASSO DRINK contains algae in a fibre base complimented with marine electrolytes that help the body in its cleaning and draining functions. With this mode of action, ALTADRINE THALASSO DRINK cleans your inside while stimulating metabolism, burning body fats and producing new energy.

ALTADRINE THALASSO DRINK are monodose sachets with a unique funnel shape; in fact, the difference is we are used to square shaped sachets, which make us lose part of the product while pouring it into a bottle. Instead, ALTA CARE Laboratoires chose to have sachets with a funnel form in order to reduce dispersion when inserting the sachet in a bottleneck. So, wherever you are, you can pour the content of the sachet in a litre bottle of water, consuming it during the day for internal cleaning.

The French so are drinking this “sea water” more than ever for their well being. The salty thalasso taste of ALTADRINE THALSSO DRINK is masked by an excellent flavour of passion fruit with a touch of grapefruit.

ALTADRINE THALASSO DRINK is available in all pharmacies.

Brazilian Healthcare Industry Set for Stupendous Growth

2010-11-25T14:00:00.000-08:00

The healthcare industry in Brazil posted an unprecedented growth during the past few years on the back of government’s active support and enhanced private investments. According to our new research report “Brazil Healthcare Market Analysis”, the Brazilian healthcare industry is expected to sustain its growth pace in near future due to the increasing burden of diseases and favoring demographic conditions, which will create a strong demand for better healthcare facilities. The healthcare industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 14.5% during 2010-2013.

Brazil is recognized as a pharma-emerging nation, which is expected to witness further expansion in its pharmaceutical industry as many blockbuster drugs are going off-patent in the coming 2-3 years. The pharmaceutical industry is also undergoing consolidation and is set for growth in segments like, generics and OTC drugs. We have done an extensive research and analysis of various segments of the Brazil healthcare market with special focus on factors driving growth in these segments. The segments covered in the report include: Hospital Services Industry, Pharmaceutical Industry, and Medical Devices Industry.

We have found that the medical tourism industry is one of the emerging markets of the healthcare industry in the nation. Apart from this, clinical trials constitute one such area in which, companies can really make a difference in Brazil, owing to its unique combination of developing country conditions along with an increasing burden of diseases, which makes it an ideal destination for research. Our report thoroughly discusses emerging markets that can provide future opportunities to our clients.

The report has examined current market trends, industrial developments, and competitive landscape to enable clients understand the market structure and its progress in coming years. It provides an insight into the regulatory environment and industry restraints that facilitate clients in devising strategic plans before taking investment decisions to get optimal returns. The report also contains forecast for all segments of the healthcare industry to provide a rogue direction in which, these segments are likely to move in coming years.

Here's Why Losing Weight Slowly Is The Best Way

2010-11-25T07:54:00.000-08:00

More and more people today are having problems with their weight. A recent government study indicates that up to sixty percent of all adults are severely overweight, or clinically obese. While this may seem like depressing news, the problem continues to get worse. Despite so many available diet methods and exercise techniques, why do we continue to swell around our midsection?

One of the main reasons is a paradox of society. The more modern our society becomes, the more technologically advanced we develop, the sooner we can get things done. Instant movie downloads, email, text messages, even food delivery is available at the touch of a button. Virtually anything we want we can get fairly quickly. Naturally food is the biggest issue here. Unless you live in the middle of a huge cornfield, it's nearly impossible to drive anywhere without passing several fast food shops. Even if the grocery store, they have several ready made, or microwave ready meals that are lacking in healthy ingredients.

So it makes sense then, that when you browse the book store, or search the Internet, the most popular diet and nutrition books as well as the various exercise programs you run across are designed to promise quick results with little, or no effort. Lose weight while you sleep. Get slim and never be hungry. Lose fifty pounds in one weekend.

Unfortunately, even if you tried to get fat that quick, it wouldn't work. The human body is vast collection of complicated and amazing chemical reactions, and changing your metabolism, your weight, and your physical appearance takes time. Just as it takes a while to gain weight, it also takes a while, usually longer, to get skinny. Most people wouldn't be to intrigued to shell out twenty or thirty dollars for a book that promised to show you how to lose five pounds in a month.

However, by asking people that actually do have fairly decent bodies, they'll tell you how much work it requires. Especially if you are past your teenage years, when you could eat anything and not gain a single ounce. The trick then, is to accept the idea that a slow, gradual weight loss is the best way. It's the easiest to start, and the easiest to keep going.

And by far, without question, the best exercise for weight loss is simple walking. One foot in front of other, for twenty minutes a day or so. Of course, the more you walk the better, but if you are just starting out, twenty minutes a day is fine. Skip the fad diets, skip the hundred dollar a month gym membership, and go for a walk. You will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

When the Sea Saved Humanity

2010-11-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

Shortly after Homo sapiens arose, harsh climate conditions nearly extinguished our species. Recent
finds suggest that the small population that gave rise to all humans alive today survived by exploiting
a unique combination of resources along the southern coast of Africa

With the global population of humans currently approaching seven billion, it is difficult to imagine that Homo sapiens was once an endangered species. Yet studies of the DNA of modern-day people
indicate that, once upon a time, our ancestors did in fact undergo a dramatic population decline.
Although scientists lack a precise timeline for the origin and near extinction of our species, we can
surmise from the fossil record that our forebears arose throughout Africa shortly before 195,000
years ago. Back then the climate was mild and food was plentiful; life was good. But around
195,000 years ago, conditions began to deteriorate.

The planet entered a long glacial stage known as Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS6) that lasted until roughly 123,000 years ago. A detailed record of Africa’s environmental conditions during glacial stage 6 does not exist, but based on more recent, better-known glacial stages, climatologists surmise that it was almost
certainly cool and arid and that its deserts were probably significantly expanded relative to their
modern extents. Much of the landmass would have been uninhabitable. While the planet was
in the grip of this icy regime, the number of people plummeted perilously—from more than 10,000 breeding individuals to just hundreds. Estimates of exactly when this bottleneck occurred and how small the population became vary among genetic studies, but all of them indicate that everyone alive today is descended from a
small population that lived in one region of Africa sometime during this global cooling phase.
I began my career as an archaeologist working in East Africa and studying the origin of modern humans. But my interests began to shift when I learned of the population bottleneck that geneticists had started talking about in the early 1990s. Humans today exhibit very low genetic diversity relative to many other species with much smaller population sizes and geographic ranges—a phenomenon best explained by the occurrence
of a population crash in early H. sapiens. Where, I wondered, did our ancestors manage to survive during the climate catastrophe?

Only a handful of regions could have had the natural resources to support hunter-gatherers. Paleoanthropologists argue vociferously over which of these areas was the ideal spot. The southern
coast of Africa, rich in shellfish and edible plants year-round, seemed to me as if it would have
been a particularly good refuge in tough times. So, in 1991, I decided I would go there and look
for sites with remains dating to glacial stage 6.

Celebrating Science

2010-11-24T13:55:00.000-08:00

In 1845 James K. Polk succeeded John Tyler, Jr., as the 11th president. The U.S. annexed Texas as the 28th state, and the young nation’s “manifest destiny” to occupy all of North America became a popular ideal. The industrial revolution was burgeoning, easing people’s lives with mechanical marvels. By this time, for instance,

Cyrus McCormick had created a labor-saving reaper for crops. And with a promise to explain “New Inventions, Scientific Principles, and Curious Works,” the painter and inventor Rufus Porter introduced

the first issue of a broadsheet called The Scientific American on August 28, 1845. Porter was “a mechanical Johnny Appleseed sowing seed of new and ingenious ideas as he traveled through New

England and abroad through his journals,” wrote Jean Lipman in Rufus Porter,

Yankee Pioneer (Clarkson N. Potter, 1968); you can learn more about him at

the Rufus Porter Museum in Bridgton, Me. Porter took out more than 100 patents,

but his best-known innovation is his revolver mechanism, which he sold in 1844 to Samuel Colt for $100. Scientific American reflected his broad interests.

Preventing Hearing Loss

2010-11-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

Scientists discover why we get deafer with age

and how antioxidants might slow the process

Old age brings with it a host of physical woes, and among the most common is

hearing loss. Forty percent of Americans older than 65 suffer from hearing loss,

and by 2030 some 65 million Americans will be hard of hearing.

Now joint work by researchers at the universities of Wisconsin, Florida,

Washington and Tokyo has uncovered the mechanism behind age-related hearing

loss, and with the help of simple chemicals, they have managed to keep old mice

hearing as well as young pups.

The team investigated a molecular mechanism that has been implicated in many

age-related maladies but had not yet been tied to hearing loss. Our bodies are

constantly exposed to short-lived organic molecules known as free radicals, which

harm cells in a process called oxidation. When cells are stressed by oxidative

damage, they release a protein called Bak, which triggers a cascade of events

culminating in cell suicide.

To test whether this mechanism was responsible for age-related hearing loss, the

researchers compared normal mice with genetically engineered mice that do not

have the gene necessary to make Bak. These Bak-deficient mice failed to develop

hearing problems as they aged, but the ordinary mice, subjected to the same

oxidative stress, became hard of hearing. Although most cells in the body are

replaced with new cells after they die, the inner ear’s sensory nerve cells and

ganglion neurons do not regenerate, so hearing loss is permanent.

After determining the cause of hearing loss, the researchers combed through

published literature to see what kind of intervention might stave off free radical

damage. Two antioxidants—molecules that prevent free radicals from harming

cells—stood out: alpha lipoic acid (found in organ meats) and coenzyme Q10

(abundant in meat, fish and poultry). “When we fed [normal] mice these

antioxidants in their food, they were protected from free radical damage in the

cochlea,” says the study’s first author, Shinichi Someya of the University of

Wisconsin–Madison. The team focused exclusively on the inner ear in its studies,

but Someya says other body systems might also benefit from the antioxidants.