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Study Divulges: Low Proportion of Complications in Abortion

December 10, 2014 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

A report unveils that the major complications rate linked with abortion are pretty low. The proportion is even lower than the rate of colonoscopy’s complication.

Researchers from University of California discovered that the complication rate of abortion is very rare.

Researcher closely examined 54,900 abortion cases emerged in 2009 and 2010. Afterwards, experts kept an eye on the patients till the next six weeks of abortion.

Later on, they concluded that merely 2.1 percent of the participants experienced complications. In this ratio of participants merely 0.23 percent patients suffered from major complication. Some of these major complications were surgery and blood transfusion.

However, these complication rates are relatively lower as compared to the colonoscopy. These situations are much safe than a wisdom tooth extractions.

Ushma Upadhyay, an assistant professor of Advancing New Standard in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) stated that the present abortion procedure is safe for every woman.

Moreover, she informed that the data in this study involve woman of every age but still complication rate turn out extremely low. Majority of the abortion involved in study were carried out in outpatient clinics. Merely three percent of the abortion performed in hospitals.

Recently, several state legislatures implemented regulations which have an impact on abortion rate. However, these rules merely compel women to travel to another state for this particular reason.

The report is published in the Monday’s edition of Obstetrics & Gynecology Journal.

Here’s Why Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Didn’t Gobble

November 5, 2014 By Jason Leathers 2 Comments

A celestial object known as ‘G2’, believed to be a cloud of hydrogen gas was discovered by researchers in 2003. However, earlier this year, it had a close encounter with a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

The astronomers were quite excited about this phenomenon because this would eventually enable them to see the huge gas cloud being gobbled up by the black hole called Sagittarius A*.

In contrast to what the astronomers expected, however, G2 was not smashed during its encounter with the black hole, and a recent study reveals an authentic explanation why.

Andrea Ghez from the department of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and colleagues said that, “the reason G2 proceeded intact after its encounter with the black hole is that it is not actually a cloud of hydrogen gas at all.” The study is published on 3^rd November in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The researchers claimed that if G2 had been a hydrogen gas cloud as initially assumed, it could have been torn apart by Sagittarius A* that would have produced celestial fireworks.

Ghez said, “G2 survived and continued happily on its orbit; a simple gas cloud would not have done that. G2 was basically unaffected by the black hole. There were no fireworks.”

The researchers conducted a detailed study of G2 with the help of the world’s largest optical and infrared telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii and suggested that G2 is probably a pair of stars.

The binary star system had been orbiting the black hole together and then merged to become an extremely large star enveloped in the dust and gas with its movement being influenced by the powerful gravitational field of the black hole, Ghez and colleagues claimed.

Similarly, the researchers noted that G2 seemed to be one of a rising class of stars close to the black hole, which were created due to the powerful gravity of the black hole causing the binary stars to merge into one.

“G2 is a dusty red object linked with gas that reveals tidal interactions as it’s next to its closest approach to the Galaxy’s central black hole. We propose that G2 is a binary star merger product and will ultimately appear similar to the B-stars that are tightly clustered around the black hole (the so-called S-star cluster),” researchers wrote.

Mystery of Massive Milky Way Objects Solved – Scientists Claimed

November 5, 2014 By Brian Galloway 1 Comment

Astronomers finally solved the mystery of celestial body located at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Recently, researchers of University of California discovered that the entity is a union of two stars. The object is entirely wrapped with the dust and gases.

Scientist revealed some really significant information about these stars and named it as G2. They informed that it is merely a pair of stars that had been around Sagittarius A. Sagittarius A is a really sharp and astronomical radio source.

Now the two stars have merged and created an incredibly huge new star which is covered by gas and dust.

Researchers have been trying to find out the reality of the particular object since several years. Earlier, they supposed that the object is nothing but a cloud of hydrogen gas.

Andrea Ghez, the professor of UCLA informed that G2 survived the massive destruction of black hole. Generally, people think that black hole is an empty space. However, the black holes are the objects of intense density which has a really powerful gravitational attraction. It has such an extreme gravitational appeal from which even light cannot run away.

Therefore, the affect of black hole is pretty evident on the stars of the Milky Way. G2 is also one of the neighbor stars of black hole which is formed through the strong gravitational force of black hole.

The study is printed in Monday’s edition of The Astrophysical Journal. The entire report is based on the Keck telescope observations from Hawaii.

Researchers Reveal Mystery Behind ‘Space Weather’

October 29, 2014 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

Researchers have been trying for the past several years to unveil the mystery behind space weather. However, it sounds like an alien fiction, space weather is something which is vital to all of us. The sun is thrusting millions of tons of charged, hot plasma into the space every second. This ‘solar wind’ thrashes the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth, which caused strong geomagnetic storms that can destroy satellites, blackout power grids and disrupt cell phone service.

Researchers, Conducting Studies From Across the U.S.

Researchers are continuously trying to predict these solar outbursts which will eventually help us take measures to cope with them. They conducted experiments in order to uncover the physics behind space weather. Researchers will present results of their studies at the 56^th annual meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics in New Orleans.

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory researchers show how magnetic reconnection accelerates the solar wind to high energy, and how the subsequent solar wind interacts with the solar wind surrounding the Earth. Magnetic reconnection is an explosive phenomenon that occurs in solar flares. In the meantime, Michael Brown, Swarthmore College professor used a plasma “wind tunnel” to imitate signatures of magnetic turbulence in the solar wind.

University of California, Los Angeles researchers have recorded observations of how plasma magnetic waves interrelate with each other. Satellite measurements indicate that the observed interactions could explain the behavior of the hot plasma. These studies on physical processes were conducted to understand what happens in the space.

A Major Milestone in Space Weather Research

Huge bursts of plasma from the sun were created by magnetic reconnection.However, up till now, researchers had not been able to find out how reconnection converts magnetic energy into the explosive particle energy. Researchers at the Plasma Physics Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy have offered new insights into space weather.

The researchers conducted a Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) study, in which they identified how the transformation of magnetic energy to particle energy takes place. Moreover, they also experimentally measured the amount of magnetic energy that gets converted into explosive particle energy. The reconnection converts about 50% of magnetic energy, researchers said. 1/3 of the conversion heats the electrons and the remaining 2/3 speed up the ions in the plasma.

“It was a major milestone in the space weather research,” Masaaki Yamada, lead author of the MRX study said.

Brain Injuries in Aged People Cause Dementia – Study Reveals

October 28, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Truamatic brain injury raise the risk of dementia in adults who are 55 years old. This head injury could cause more hazards for aged people as compared to the young ones.

Traumatic brain injury is also known as concussion. It is one of the most common injuries of brain which usually occur due to the sports and other recreation activities.

A moderate to severe TBI is associated with an increase in dementia risk for adults 55 years of age and older, they report. But, for senior citizens – age 65 and older – it only takes a mild TBI to make dementia look more likely.

Experts of University of California conducted this study. They analyzed the data of 164,661 people to confirm this research. Most of these people faced TBI or non-TBI body trauma of neck and head.

The result demonstrates that nearly 32 percent of patient sufferd from dementia after TBI. This 32 percent is equivalent to 51,799 patinets of Traumatic brain injury. However, the average time for the emergence of trauma is the first 3.2 years after the TBI injury.

Dr. Raquel Garner, main author of the study stated that it is indeed really astonishing that aged brain are more open to the after effects of the traumatic brian injury. Therefore, people should make an effort to avoid the head injuries specially in adults.

The study is printed in an online Journal JAMA Neurology.

Leaky Galaxy May Fling Some Light On The Universe Evolution

October 11, 2014 By Jason Leathers 3 Comments

About 400 million years ago, the universe was very dark until the first star producing galaxies started to make ultraviolet light, which ultimately lighted up the cosmos.

Recently, NASA-funded research team with grant number 12886 at the Johns Hopkins University discovered a compact galaxy named as J0921+4509. The researchers believed that it possesses similar characteristics needed to lighten up the early universe. It is actually emitting photons with an energy that ionize hydrogen atoms. This galaxy also enables over 20% of its ultraviolet radiation to leak through the dust clouds causing it to emit strong levels of ultraviolet light and providing hints to astronomers on how the earliest galaxies of the universe may have likely behaved.

J0921+4509 is located 2.9 million years away from the Milky Way galaxy. It generates stars in a compact region similar to the rate of budding galaxies of earliest times. Moreover, the galaxy whips around 50 stars having the same mass as the sun every year that is 33 times more than the number of stars that the Milky Way produces for the same period.

Brian Siana, an astronomer from the University of California, Riverside stated that, “That’s quite high. This is roughly the fraction that we think all galaxies in the early universe had to have in order to ionize the hydrogen in the intergalactic medium.”

Thousands of years after the Big Bang, the cosmic scattered protons and electrons started to cool and developed the first atom of hydrogen. The fact ultimately resulted in the creation of hydrogen walls along with the clouds of cosmic dust, which has the ability to absorb ultraviolet radiation. This averted light from fleeing and blotched the dark ages of the universe.

With the passage of time, these radiations become too strong that it re-ionized the hydrogen. It actually happens when the photons gather enough energy in order to break up the electrons from the hydrogen atoms, which resulted in lighting up the previously dark universe. The astronomers think that, the radiation that broke electrons come from stellar births, but they are not sure about that.

Sanchayeeta Borthakur, an astronomer from the Johns Hopkins University stated that, “The galaxies contains star forming regions that are wrapped with cold gases so the radiation won’t come out. If we want to know that how the radiation gets out of the galaxy, we need to learn the mechanisms that ionized the universe.” He further stated that, it seems that the newly discovered galaxy might provide some hints concerning how the early universe lighted up.

Moreover, the researchers have been in a long quest of finding a ‘holey’ galaxy to examine how star-produced radiation plays a role in ionization process. For this purpose, the researchers placed the particular galaxy with the help of radiation leak measurement method and Cosmic Origin Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. As per the statement of researcher’s team “a combination of unusually strong winds, intense radiation and a massive, highly star-forming galaxy” for the validity of the indicator.

Borthakur stated that, “The confirmation of the indicator is key and now people can use this indicator to study distant galaxies at longer wavelengths.”

The study is published in the journal ‘Science’.

Curiosity Strengthen Human Memory: Research Shows

October 3, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

The recent study revealed that, the triggering of dopamine eventually resulted in the strengthening of our memory. Dopamine, a chemical produced when there is any activity going on in the brain. However, the researchers revealed that the students who are more curious about things happening around have more dopamine produced as compared to those who are bored most of the times. Moreover, the researchers told that, the stimulation of the students’ curiosity is quite useful for them to attain good grades.

The neuroscientists at the University of California told that, curiosity is similar to the gap. The wish to fill the gap can make students to find the desired answer, Chara Ranganath stated.

The researchers have gathered the study data from the college students by asking a series of trivia questions. Every question is rated by the students on the basis of their answers. Moreover, list of questions they were not sure with the answers were shown to them on a screen. At the same time as showing the questions and answers, an MRI was linked to the student’s brain in order to check brain activity.

According to the results of the MRI, when a student gets curious with the answer, the production of dopamine in the brain is higher. The MRI test displays that the curiosity has some neural conduit, which causes people to crave for a chocolate or to run to win a race.

Again after an hour, the students were given a test having same questions. The average true answers that they are more curious about are 35 out of 50 whereas for questions that they are not that curious is 27 out of 50. This directed to the researchers’ conclusion that when curiosity is irked, it actually enhances person’s memory.

On the other hand, after one day, the same series of questions were given to different set of students. The result was still the same showing that students got more correct answers to questions that they are more curious than questions that does not interest them much.

California Wildfire Demolished 10 Homes and 22 Outbuildings, Few Others Rarely Affected

September 21, 2014 By Chen Lai Leave a Comment

Close to 32 homes have fallen victim to a wildfire in Northern California officials stated. A fire information officer, Capt. Tom Piranio stated that ten residences and around 22 other buildings were destroyed by the now named King Fire. These figures are preliminary and more assessing of the damage is to continue once conditions for safety are available.

The fire created smoke to the point that the Ironman Triathlon, a popular sporting event had to be canceled. The event is held near Lake Tahoe.

The inferno spread quickly and grew to 128 square miles or more. The King Fire is located near Sacramento, the state’s capital about 60 miles east of the city. Over 2,800 people are not allowed to return to their homes and the fire is only ten percent contained so far. Only around one hundred people have been allowed to return to their residences.

One suspect has been detained regarding starting the fire but he so far has plead not guilty. He is being held on ten million dollars bail. Wayne Allen Huntsman, a 37 year old man is the prime suspect regarding arson.

The fire so far has spread to an estimated size of 80,000 acres. Fire officials hope that thunderstorms can help battle the blaze or if things don’t turn out right the storms could hamper firefighting efforts. Over a half a million gallons of fire retardant was deployed by firefighters and over 200,000 gallons of the same substance was dropped in one day on the raging inferno. The strategy of dropping the fire retardant is to give fire crews time to get into the affected areas and create fire lines with digging.

One of nine wildfires going on in California right now, the King Fire is being fed by dry and hot conditions and also by the drought that has broken records as well.

The sheer magnitude of the King Fire is not to be underestimated. It is a major hazard that could spell even greater disaster should firefighters not gain the upperhand soon. Authorities are certain that the fire was set and a suspect in custody. To add to the problem is that the fire is in terrain that is steep and formidable. Even citizens are chipping in to fight the blaze by digging fire lines and helping fire crews. Of note is the University of California, Berkley’s research station that is under threat of the King Fire. The complex has numerous wildlife and plants at the location. Also under the gun are hydroelectric plants and power lines that feed vital electricity and water to Sacramento and the surrounding region.

Early Therapeutic Intervention may Reverse Autism in Babies

September 9, 2014 By Jason Leathers Leave a Comment

A small new study suggests that the infants as young as 6 months old who revealed signs of autism, apt treatment provided by parents seemed to prevent developmental delays by age 3 in most of the toddlers.

The Davis MIND Institute researchers of the University of California found that 6 of the 7 infants in the study had caught up in language and other learning skills between the ages of 2 and 3 years. Usually before this age, most of the tots with autism are already diagnosed.

In fact the authors cautioned that the therapy program used in the study directed by parents during daily feeding, diapering and play routines needs to be investigated in larger, randomized tryouts. One of the authors Sally Roger said; you cannot either predict that this intrusion is prevented autism or changed the course. Sally said that we are really working on; “Could the infants’ developmental patterns be changed?”

She also explained that parents are quite aware of autism and the early signs for it. But, unfortunately we don’t have investigative tools or validated treatments for this age group. So parents and pediatricians are sort of in limbo on this, which is why we’re working so hard on it.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 68 children in the United States have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).The CDC states that ASDs are distinguished by deficits in typical behavior of the tot, communication and social skills, and are about five times more common among boys than girls.

Sally Rogers along with her colleagues researched the effects of “Infant Start” therapy on 7 infants who were between the age of 6 and 15 months at the start of the study. 4 of them had siblings facing autism, but all 7 were highly symptomatic for an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), revealing issues such as reduced eye contact, social engagement and intentional communication. All infants were otherwise healthy, with normal vision and hearing.

One-hour training sessions was organized for the parents for the period of 12 weeks. The researchers coached them to support their infants’ concentration to faces and voices, and helped them understand and perk up their babies’ interest in social interactions.

Wang, another researcher said that “The goal of early autism screening is early treatment, but sorry to say, we are in a state where we actually pushing early screening and now really need to invest in treatment research to show what the most effective treatments at that early age are. We need to come up to speed.”

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