Our Brains Power Our Lives, Nourish It Daily

By Paul Ebeling: Our brain powers our lives. So, it is Key that we treat the brain as we care for our heart, or any other part of our body and it is critical that we begin focusing on brain health as early in our lives as possible.

Without course correction, cognitive functions actually start diminishing while we are in our 30’s. In fact, cognitive decline can begin 20 years before any symptoms start to appear.

But, loss of brain function as we age is not inevitable, and we can take measures early to protect the integrity of our brain function.

Maintaining brain health results from subscribing to a more active and healthy lifestyle as we grow older. Exercise, proper nutrition, healthful sleep and rest, stress management are among the lifestyle goals that must be addressed in order to maintain the health of our brain long term.

In contrast to what you may have heard, our genes do not fully determine our fate.

What we do on a daily basis to promote health and wellness, including our brain health can help prepare us to thrive as we age. As we continue to live longer than ever before, it is essential that we begin nourishing and supporting our brains early and correctly.

Keith Black, MD, is the Founder/Chairman and Professor, Department of Neurosurgery at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.

He has discovered 5 Key ingredients shown in clinical research to yield significant brain health benefits.

Together, Dr. Black and his Team worked to identify and thoroughly test ingredients, specifically designed for supporting the brain, Each ingredient has a special role and function to play within the brain.

The Key ingredients are, as follows:

• DHA (Omega-3), an essential Omega-3 fatty acid, DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) that serves as a major structural component of the brain promoting optimal neuronal function and supports synaptic membrane structure and function, healthy neurotransmitter function, and support of the stability and fluidity of cellular membranes
• EPA (Omega-3), another important Omega-3 fatty acid, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) supports cognitive function for maximum brain health.
• Fisetin, an important flavonoid (plant phytochemical) found in certain fruits and vegetables shown in animal studies to support memory and mental function. Fisetin’s antioxidant properties are believed to promote memory storage by forming strong connections between neurons in the brain, and provide support against free radicals
• Decaffeinated Green Tea Extract, a naturally occurring polyphenols (compounds in plants that have antioxidant properties) that can help reduce the formation of free radicals in the body and have neurosupportive effects.
• Vitamin D, which supports overall brain structure and function by working with Omega-3 fatty acids to support cognitive function and contains powerful immune support, essential for brain health.

Choosing to be proactive and help mitigate cognitive decline means that several actions are required for maximum effectiveness on brain function over time, including maintaining optimal BMI, refraining from smoking and minimizing alcohol consumption, engaging in regular physical activity and committing to well-balanced diet that is rich in Organic fruits and vegetables.

Switching to Real Food diets that are low in saturated fats, processed flour and sugar can stem irreversible progressive brain disorder.

Studies show that people who consume a lot of junk food and processed foods and do not get proper nutrition may end up having less brain cognition over time as they age.

Investing in your brain health now can change the path to cognitive decline.Our Brains Power Our Lives, Nourish It Daily - Live Trading News

Read More........→April 09, 2018

Space junk removal mission blasts off

An experimental spacecraft that could remove space junk around Earth has been launched into orbit and will test a number of new technologies.

An Active Debris Removal (ADR) mission, designed to demonstrate technologies to remove space junk, was launched on Monday 2nd April from the Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station (ISS).

"RemoveDEBRIS" is a mission designed and manufactured by a consortium of leading space companies, led by the University of Surrey and funded by the European Commission. It is one of the world's first concrete steps to begin cleaning up the tens of thousands of space junk pieces currently orbiting Earth.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivered the RemoveDEBRIS satellite to the ISS, where it is being deployed, via the NanoRacks Kaber system, to conduct a series of experiments that will demonstrate cost-effective technologies for observing and capturing space debris.

In the first of two capture experiments, a net will be discharged at one of the deployed target cubesats to demonstrate net capture in space. The second capture experiment will see a harpoon launched at a deployable target plate, made of representative satellite panel materials – the first harpoon capture in orbit. The third experiment involves vision-based navigation by deploying the second cubesat and demonstrating rendezvous navigation using cameras and a LiDaR. Finally, the RemoveDEBRIS spacecraft will deploy a large dragsail to speed de-orbit, where it will burn up as it enters Earth's atmosphere.

The US Space Surveillance Network tracks 40,000 objects and it is estimated that there are over 7,600 tonnes of space junk in and around Earth's orbit – with some moving faster than a speeding bullet, approaching speeds of 30,000 miles per hour.

"It is important to remember that a few significant collisions have already happened. Therefore, to maintain the safety of current and future space assets, the issue of the control and reduction of the space debris has to be addressed," said Professor Guglielmo Aglietti, Director of the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey. "We believe the technologies demonstrated with RemoveDEBRIS could provide feasible answers to the space junk problem – answers that could be used on future space missions in the very near future."

Aurélien Pisseloup, Space Engineer at Airbus, said: "Airbus has been investing in new technologies for space debris removal in co-operation with space agencies and institutes. Contributing to this exciting mission with our expertise and concretely with our harpoon, net experiments and vision-based navigation (VBN) moves the international space community one big step forward in tackling space debris."Space junk removal mission blasts off

Read More........→April 07, 2018

Scientists Put a New Twist on Artificial Muscles

In recent years, researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas and colleagues at the University of Wollongong in Australia have put a high-tech twist on the ancient art of fiber spinning, using modern materials to create ultra-strong, powerful, shape-shifting yarns.

UT Dallas scientists produced the fibers in this woven textile by highly twisting nylon sewing thread to produce coiled artificial muscles. The coiled muscles can contract by over 30 percent when thermally or electrically heated, and might one day be used to make intelligent textiles, such as clothing that adjusts its porosity in response to temperature.

Because the artificial muscles can be made in different sizes and configurations, potential applications range from robotics and prosthetics to consumer products such as smart textiles that change porosity and shape in response to temperature.

“We call these actuating fibers ‘artificial muscles’ because they mimic the fiber-like form-factor of natural muscles,” said Dr. Carter Haines BS’11 PhD’15, associate research professor in the NanoTech Institute and co-lead author of the PNAS article, with research associate Dr. Na Li. “While the name evokes the idea of humanoid robots, we are very excited about their potential use for other practical applications, such as in next-generation intelligent textiles.”

In a perspective article published Sept. 26 online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists at UT Dallas’ Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute describes the path to developing a new class of artificial muscles made from highly twisted fibers of various materials, ranging from exotic carbon nanotubes to ordinary nylon thread and polymer fishing line.

Science Based on Ancient Art

Spinning animal fur and plant fibers to make thread and yarn goes back thousands of years. Aligning the fibers and then twisting them into yarn gives the yarn strength.

By exploiting this concept, and adding 21st-century science, the UT Dallas researchers have produced actuating muscle yarns that, like their wooly counterparts, can be woven, sewn and knitted into textiles.

For example, carbon nanotubes are essentially tendrils of tiny, hollow tubes that are super-strong and electrically conductive. In 2004, led by Dr. Ray Baughman, director of the NanoTech Institute and the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry at UT Dallas, the team developed a method to draw “forests” of nanotubes out into sheets of aligned fibers — much like carded wool — and then twist the sheets into yarns.

When heated and cooled, spiral-shaped artificial muscles expand and contract back and forth.

UT Dallas Scientists Put a New Twist on Artificial Muscles from UT Dallas on Vimeo.

Next, the group turned to polymer fibers such as nylon sewing thread and fishing line, which consist of many individual molecules aligned along the fiber’s length. Twisting the thread or fishing line orients these molecules into helices, producing torsional — or rotational — artificial muscles that can spin a heavy rotor more than 100,000 revolutions per minute.

When these muscles are so highly twisted that they coil like an over-twisted rubber band, they can produce tensile actuation, where the muscle dramatically contracts along its length when heated, and returns to its initial length when cooled. That research, published in 2014, showed that simple, low-cost muscles made from fishing line can lift 100 times more weight and generate 100 times higher mechanical power than a human skeletal muscle of the same length and weight.

“The success of our muscles derives from their special geometry and the fact that we start with materials that are anisotropic — when they are heated, the materials expand in diameter much more than they expand along their length,” said Baughman, senior author of the PNAS perspective. This anisotropy is an intrinsic property of high-strength polymer fibers, and is the same principle that drives powerful artificial muscles the researchers discovered in 2012, which they made by adding a thermally responsive “guest” material within a carbon nanotube yarn.

“When these fibers are then twisted and coiled, their internal geometry changes so that when they are heated, that diameter expansion results in a change in length,” Baughman said. “The fiber’s diameter only has to expand by about 5 percent to drive giant changes in length.”

The Latest Twist

In their most recent experiments, described for the first time in the PNAS article, Haines and Li added a new twist to their artificial muscles.

“The coiled artificial muscles we initially made from fishing line and nylon sewing thread were limited in the amount they could expand and contract along their length,” Haines said. “Because of their geometry — like a phone cord — they could only contract so far before the coils began to collide with one another.”

The solution: Form the coiled actuators into spirals.

“The advantage to the spiral shape is that now our muscle can contract into a flat state, expand out in the other direction, and return to its original length, all without getting stuck on itself,” Li said. “Our experiments to date have been proof-of-concept, but have already shown that we can use heating and cooling to drive this back-and-forth motion across a giant range. This type of telescoping actuator can produce over an 8,600 percent change in length, compared to around 70 percent for our previous coils.”

Smart Clothing

Li said one potential application for the spiral-shaped coil might be thermally responsive clothing. Instead of a down-filled jacket, a coat that incorporates many small coils could change the loft and insulating power of the garment in response to temperature.

In the laboratory, Haines and Li have produced spools of coiled polymer muscle threads suitable for sewing. “We have shown that these thermally responsive fibers can be used in conventional machines, such as looms, knitting machines and sewing machines,” Li said. “As we move forward with our research, and scale it up, we hope to incorporate our ideas into functional fabrics and textiles for a variety of purposes, from clothing to environmentally responsive architecture to dynamic art sculptures.”

The group's research is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Robert A. Welch Foundation and the Australian Research Council.

Contacts and sources:Amanda Siegfried

University of Texas at Dallas Scientists Put a New Twist on Artificial Muscles

Read More........→November 13, 2016