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The wind sublimates snowflakes in Antarctica - Researchers have observed and characterized a weather process that was not previously known to occur in Antarctica's coastal regions. It turns out that the katabatic winds that blow from the interior to the margins of the continent reduce the amount of precipitation (mainly snowfall)βwhich is a key factor in the formation of the ice cap. By forming a very dry layer of air in the first kilometer or so of atmosphere, the winds turn the falling sn...
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Patients who lose consciousness for more than a year are considered extremely unlikely to regain it, but a 35-year-old Frenchman who had been in a vegetative state for 15 years has shown hints of awareness after having key brain regions electrically stimulated, scientists reported on Monday.
The patient was able to follow an object with his eyes, turn his head when asked to, and widened his eyes in surprise when a researcherβs head came close to his face, none of which he did in a vegetative state. Although he is far from recovered, and although hopeful results in one patient donβt mean the technique will work for others, the study adds to evidence that there might be a way to restore consciousness to some patients, even years later.
The new report shows that even in a very low functioning brain a shift in observable behaviors from none, a vegetative state, to some limited ones, a minimally conscious state, can occur said Dr. Nicholas Schiff a neurologist at Weill Cornell Medical College who was not involve in the current case.
He led a 2007 study in which a minimally conscious patient (a person who shows occasional intention, attention, awareness, and responsiveness) improved somewhat with deep brain stimulation of the thalamus..
Unfortunately, while the French patient, Schiffβs, and a few others have been βawakenedβ by some sort of brain stimulation, those individual successes have yet to translate into help for thousands of vegetative or minimally conscious patients.
There is strongly accumulating evidence that it is possible in many cases to increase brain activity [long] after severe injury Schiff said, but there is essentially no infrastructure to have clinical follow-up or even larger investigative studies.
The new case involved a Frenchman whose brain damage, suffered in a car accident, left him completely unresponsive and unconscious, known as a vegetative state.
He became minimally conscious, responding to some signals from the outside world, after a month of having his vagus nerve, which runs from the abdomen to the brain, where it has numerous connections to regions that the researchers call a hot zone for conscious awareness, stimulated with a device implanted in his chest.
Brain imaging and electrical recordings of brain activity (EEG) showed changes that likely account for his improvement, scientists led by Angela Sirigu of Franceβs National Center for Scientific Research reported in Current Biology.
UCLA psychologist Martin Monti an expert on consciousness who has used ultrasound directed at the thalamus to awaken a coma patient, said the French study seemed solid but somewhat vague on how much the patient improved.
They just donβt make it very clear what exactly he recovered Monti said, such as just some small sign of consciousness or [whether he] could, say, blink eyes in response to command.
Brain recordings offered additional evidence that something significant had changed, however. The man had stronger brainwaves called a theta signal, which is absent in the vegetative state but present with minimal consciousness.
In particular, theta activity increased at the junction of three brain areas: the parietal region, just behind the crown of the head, which perceives sensory information and integrates it into the mysterious state called consciousness; the temporal lobe, behind the temples and responsible for making sense of sound; and the occipital lobe, located at the bottom back of the brain and responsible for processing vision. This junction is the consciousness βhot zone.β
Different brain regions also seemed more strongly connected.
Although the physical basis of consciousness is one of the deepest enigmas in biology, the best guess is that it arises from coordinated activity between the cortex and the thalamus, a switching station for sensory and motor signals, and within the cortex, which handles higher-order cognitive functions.
When connectivity between and among these regions increase for whatever reason, people in minimally conscious states spontaneously recover. In this case, the βwhatever reasonβ was vagus nerve stimulation.
Though that seems like the vagus is punching above its weight, in fact this nerve keeps wowing neuroscientists with its powers. In this case, its apparent consciousness-raising effects stem from the multiple and far-flung connections it makes throughout the brain directly or indirectly, including with the thalamus. As best Sirigu and her colleagues can tell, stimulating the vagus seems to knit together a consciousness network that had been shredded by the manβs brain injury.
By stimulating the vagus nerve, it is therefore βpossible to improve patientsβ presence in the world,β she said, challenging the belief that disorders of consciousness lasting longer than a year are irreversible.
She is confident the man did not go from a vegetative state to minimal consciousness spontaneously.
His partial recovery coincided with the vagus stimulation, and after 15 years it seemed unlikely his improvement was due to anything else.
It could not be the result of chance Sirigu said.
The French case brings to at least four the number of patients βawakenedβ by a brain-based intervention, including Montiβs at UCLA.
But he was in a coma for only a couple of weeks. Schiff and his colleagues used an electrode implanted in the thalamus to restore some brain activity to a patient who had been in a minimally conscious state for 21 years, they reported last year, though the change did not bring about real-world improvements.
Siriguβs approach was the same as what I and [Schiff] did Monti said, except it stimulated the thalamus indirectly, via the vagus, rather than directly.
If the thalamus really is the door to consciousness, why donβt physicians try stimulating it to bring back thousands of vegetative and minimally conscious patients? βMaybe it just needs time?β Monti wondered.
The patient was able to follow an object with his eyes, turn his head when asked to, and widened his eyes in surprise when a researcherβs head came close to his face, none of which he did in a vegetative state. Although he is far from recovered, and although hopeful results in one patient donβt mean the technique will work for others, the study adds to evidence that there might be a way to restore consciousness to some patients, even years later.
The new report shows that even in a very low functioning brain a shift in observable behaviors from none, a vegetative state, to some limited ones, a minimally conscious state, can occur said Dr. Nicholas Schiff a neurologist at Weill Cornell Medical College who was not involve in the current case.
He led a 2007 study in which a minimally conscious patient (a person who shows occasional intention, attention, awareness, and responsiveness) improved somewhat with deep brain stimulation of the thalamus..
Unfortunately, while the French patient, Schiffβs, and a few others have been βawakenedβ by some sort of brain stimulation, those individual successes have yet to translate into help for thousands of vegetative or minimally conscious patients.
There is strongly accumulating evidence that it is possible in many cases to increase brain activity [long] after severe injury Schiff said, but there is essentially no infrastructure to have clinical follow-up or even larger investigative studies.
The new case involved a Frenchman whose brain damage, suffered in a car accident, left him completely unresponsive and unconscious, known as a vegetative state.
He became minimally conscious, responding to some signals from the outside world, after a month of having his vagus nerve, which runs from the abdomen to the brain, where it has numerous connections to regions that the researchers call a hot zone for conscious awareness, stimulated with a device implanted in his chest.
Brain imaging and electrical recordings of brain activity (EEG) showed changes that likely account for his improvement, scientists led by Angela Sirigu of Franceβs National Center for Scientific Research reported in Current Biology.
UCLA psychologist Martin Monti an expert on consciousness who has used ultrasound directed at the thalamus to awaken a coma patient, said the French study seemed solid but somewhat vague on how much the patient improved.
They just donβt make it very clear what exactly he recovered Monti said, such as just some small sign of consciousness or [whether he] could, say, blink eyes in response to command.
Brain recordings offered additional evidence that something significant had changed, however. The man had stronger brainwaves called a theta signal, which is absent in the vegetative state but present with minimal consciousness.
In particular, theta activity increased at the junction of three brain areas: the parietal region, just behind the crown of the head, which perceives sensory information and integrates it into the mysterious state called consciousness; the temporal lobe, behind the temples and responsible for making sense of sound; and the occipital lobe, located at the bottom back of the brain and responsible for processing vision. This junction is the consciousness βhot zone.β
Different brain regions also seemed more strongly connected.
Although the physical basis of consciousness is one of the deepest enigmas in biology, the best guess is that it arises from coordinated activity between the cortex and the thalamus, a switching station for sensory and motor signals, and within the cortex, which handles higher-order cognitive functions.
When connectivity between and among these regions increase for whatever reason, people in minimally conscious states spontaneously recover. In this case, the βwhatever reasonβ was vagus nerve stimulation.
Though that seems like the vagus is punching above its weight, in fact this nerve keeps wowing neuroscientists with its powers. In this case, its apparent consciousness-raising effects stem from the multiple and far-flung connections it makes throughout the brain directly or indirectly, including with the thalamus. As best Sirigu and her colleagues can tell, stimulating the vagus seems to knit together a consciousness network that had been shredded by the manβs brain injury.
By stimulating the vagus nerve, it is therefore βpossible to improve patientsβ presence in the world,β she said, challenging the belief that disorders of consciousness lasting longer than a year are irreversible.
She is confident the man did not go from a vegetative state to minimal consciousness spontaneously.
His partial recovery coincided with the vagus stimulation, and after 15 years it seemed unlikely his improvement was due to anything else.
It could not be the result of chance Sirigu said.
The French case brings to at least four the number of patients βawakenedβ by a brain-based intervention, including Montiβs at UCLA.
But he was in a coma for only a couple of weeks. Schiff and his colleagues used an electrode implanted in the thalamus to restore some brain activity to a patient who had been in a minimally conscious state for 21 years, they reported last year, though the change did not bring about real-world improvements.
Siriguβs approach was the same as what I and [Schiff] did Monti said, except it stimulated the thalamus indirectly, via the vagus, rather than directly.
If the thalamus really is the door to consciousness, why donβt physicians try stimulating it to bring back thousands of vegetative and minimally conscious patients? βMaybe it just needs time?β Monti wondered.
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Reminders feature is finally rolling out to Google Home units.
#Android #Google #GoogleHome
https://drd.life/2hto6FQ
#Android #Google #GoogleHome
https://drd.life/2hto6FQ
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Hubble peers inside a celestial geode
In this unusual image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the celestial equivalent of a geode - a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet radiation from a young hot star.
Real geodes are handball-sized, hollow rocks that start out as bubbles in volcanic or sedimentary rock. Only when these inconspicuous round rocks are split in half by a geologist, do we get a chance to appreciate the inside of the rock cavity that is lined with crystals. In the case of Hubble's 35 light-year diameter "celestial geode" the transparency of its bubble-like cavity of interstellar gas and dust reveals the treasures of its interior.
Credit:
ESA/NASA, YÀel Nazé (University of Liège, Belgium) and You-Hua Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana, USA)
In this unusual image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the celestial equivalent of a geode - a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet radiation from a young hot star.
Real geodes are handball-sized, hollow rocks that start out as bubbles in volcanic or sedimentary rock. Only when these inconspicuous round rocks are split in half by a geologist, do we get a chance to appreciate the inside of the rock cavity that is lined with crystals. In the case of Hubble's 35 light-year diameter "celestial geode" the transparency of its bubble-like cavity of interstellar gas and dust reveals the treasures of its interior.
Credit:
ESA/NASA, YÀel Nazé (University of Liège, Belgium) and You-Hua Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana, USA)
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The brightly lit limb of a crescent #Enceladus looks ethereal against the blackness of space. The rest of the moon, lit by light reflected from #Saturn, presents a ghostly appearance.
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SIX Years of Mountain Monday!
This week is the 6th Anniversary of Mountain Monday! I look forward to seeing your mountain photographs today and a big thanks to everyone who has participated over the years!
If you wish to participate in Mountain Monday post a photograph you have made of a mountain (or has mountains in it) - tag me (+Michael Russell) in the post, and use the hashtag #mountainmonday! You can also tag the +Mountain Monday page if you wish (it does occasionally ensure I don't miss your post). On the very first Mountain Monday I posted a photograph of Hope Mountain from Silver Lake Provincial Park in Hope, British Columbia. For each anniversary I have done the same as it is one of my favourite local parks.
A bit more about this photograph here: https://www.mrussellphotography.com/blog/silver-lake-hope-mountain/
For #mountainmonday (+Mountain Monday) by +Michael Russell
+Landscape Photography #landscapephotography by Margaret Tompkins et al.
#mountains #photography #photos #britishcolumbia #provincialparks
This week is the 6th Anniversary of Mountain Monday! I look forward to seeing your mountain photographs today and a big thanks to everyone who has participated over the years!
If you wish to participate in Mountain Monday post a photograph you have made of a mountain (or has mountains in it) - tag me (+Michael Russell) in the post, and use the hashtag #mountainmonday! You can also tag the +Mountain Monday page if you wish (it does occasionally ensure I don't miss your post). On the very first Mountain Monday I posted a photograph of Hope Mountain from Silver Lake Provincial Park in Hope, British Columbia. For each anniversary I have done the same as it is one of my favourite local parks.
A bit more about this photograph here: https://www.mrussellphotography.com/blog/silver-lake-hope-mountain/
For #mountainmonday (+Mountain Monday) by +Michael Russell
+Landscape Photography #landscapephotography by Margaret Tompkins et al.
#mountains #photography #photos #britishcolumbia #provincialparks
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"A window to the Heaven"
By +Luca Micheli www.lucamicheliphotography.com After walking 40 minutes to reach this place the panorama was absolutely stunning.
I've to walk on a little path to reach this place but the result is awesome.
Don't you think?
I hope you can enjoy this view like I did as well. - Luca Micheli
#photography #landscape #dolomites #sunset
By +Luca Micheli www.lucamicheliphotography.com After walking 40 minutes to reach this place the panorama was absolutely stunning.
I've to walk on a little path to reach this place but the result is awesome.
Don't you think?
I hope you can enjoy this view like I did as well. - Luca Micheli
#photography #landscape #dolomites #sunset
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Unfolding Before Me -- Fort Collins, Colorado
"Life, now, was unfolding before me, constantly and visibly, like the flowers of summer that drop fan-like petals on eternal soil."
-- Roman Payne, Rooftop Soliloquy
A species of hoverfly (?) mines the pollen on a white flower in the last rays of the setting sun in northern Colorado... The flower and bees won't last much longer here - it got down to 37ΒΊF on Friday, and fall is truly in the air.
For #MacroMonday, and #hqspmacro for +HQSP Macro, and #hqspflowers for +HQSP Flowers, and #Macro4All by +Bill Urwin, +Thomas Kirchen, +Walter Soestbergen (+Macro4All ), and #macromaniacs for +MacroManiacs and +Sandra Deichmann, and +FLOWER POWER / #FlowerPower curated by +Edith Kukla, and +//flower colors// curated by +angelic labru...
"Life, now, was unfolding before me, constantly and visibly, like the flowers of summer that drop fan-like petals on eternal soil."
-- Roman Payne, Rooftop Soliloquy
A species of hoverfly (?) mines the pollen on a white flower in the last rays of the setting sun in northern Colorado... The flower and bees won't last much longer here - it got down to 37ΒΊF on Friday, and fall is truly in the air.
For #MacroMonday, and #hqspmacro for +HQSP Macro, and #hqspflowers for +HQSP Flowers, and #Macro4All by +Bill Urwin, +Thomas Kirchen, +Walter Soestbergen (+Macro4All ), and #macromaniacs for +MacroManiacs and +Sandra Deichmann, and +FLOWER POWER / #FlowerPower curated by +Edith Kukla, and +//flower colors// curated by +angelic labru...
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A beautiful morning
Chelila, Bhutan
My last daybreak in Bhutan is over and the sun is climbing fast in a cloudless sky between mature conifers. Although these trees might look tired or damaged, the ground below is full of young trees working on reaching the very same height one day.
The forest floor was littered with spring flowers and I encountered several of the iconic species like the Kalij pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos) and Himalayan monal (Lophophorus impejanus).
Image Copyright Β© 2017 +Morten Ross
Image Capture Date: 18 April 2017 05:47
Altitude: 3724 meters
#landscape #sunrise #mountains #forest #himalaya #bhutan
#LandscapePhotography +Landscape Photography curated by +Margaret Tompkins +Eric Drumm +Chandler L. Walker +Krzysztof Felczak +AJ Lim +Jeff Beddow +H Peter Ji +Jani Westman +Dorma Wiggin +Ranco Sevla Sevla
#hqsplandscape +HQSP Landscape
#BTPLandscapePro +BTP Landscape Pro , owned and curated by +Nancy Dempsey
Chelila, Bhutan
My last daybreak in Bhutan is over and the sun is climbing fast in a cloudless sky between mature conifers. Although these trees might look tired or damaged, the ground below is full of young trees working on reaching the very same height one day.
The forest floor was littered with spring flowers and I encountered several of the iconic species like the Kalij pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos) and Himalayan monal (Lophophorus impejanus).
Image Copyright Β© 2017 +Morten Ross
Image Capture Date: 18 April 2017 05:47
Altitude: 3724 meters
#landscape #sunrise #mountains #forest #himalaya #bhutan
#LandscapePhotography +Landscape Photography curated by +Margaret Tompkins +Eric Drumm +Chandler L. Walker +Krzysztof Felczak +AJ Lim +Jeff Beddow +H Peter Ji +Jani Westman +Dorma Wiggin +Ranco Sevla Sevla
#hqsplandscape +HQSP Landscape
#BTPLandscapePro +BTP Landscape Pro , owned and curated by +Nancy Dempsey
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Zoom into NGC 3603
This zoom into star-forming region NGC 3603 shows a central cluster of young, hot stars. The giant nebula NGC 3603 is a prominent star-forming region in the Carina spiral arm of our galaxy, about 20,000 light-years away. It is the largest nebula seen in visible light in the Milky Way.
Within its core lies one of the most massive young star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy. The cluster is surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust β the raw material for new star formation. Powerful ultraviolet radiation and fast winds from the bluest and hottest stars have blown an enormous cavity in the gas and dust enveloping the cluster.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI);
Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, R. O'Connell (UVa), F. Paresce (INAF, Bologna, Italy), E. Young (USRA/NASA Ames), the WFC3 SOC, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
This zoom into star-forming region NGC 3603 shows a central cluster of young, hot stars. The giant nebula NGC 3603 is a prominent star-forming region in the Carina spiral arm of our galaxy, about 20,000 light-years away. It is the largest nebula seen in visible light in the Milky Way.
Within its core lies one of the most massive young star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy. The cluster is surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust β the raw material for new star formation. Powerful ultraviolet radiation and fast winds from the bluest and hottest stars have blown an enormous cavity in the gas and dust enveloping the cluster.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI);
Acknowledgment: NASA, ESA, R. O'Connell (UVa), F. Paresce (INAF, Bologna, Italy), E. Young (USRA/NASA Ames), the WFC3 SOC, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
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New Google+ content restrictions for G Suite
For those who administer Google+ for domains, the team is gradually rolling out over the next couple of weeks one of the most highly requested enterprise features: new content restriction modes (Public, Private, and Hybrid) to help manage content within the domain. Read more about it on G Suite blog.
For those who administer Google+ for domains, the team is gradually rolling out over the next couple of weeks one of the most highly requested enterprise features: new content restriction modes (Public, Private, and Hybrid) to help manage content within the domain. Read more about it on G Suite blog.
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The largest panorama I've ever taken on PS4, comprised of (34) 4K images. #PS4Pro #Unchartedthelostlegacy Original dimensions before uploading 15,489 x 3750.
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I sure freaked out in this horror game! If you have any thoughts about the video, just leave a comment down below. Thanks for watching!
Video β https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2ISUIqaxV0&t=25s
My YouTube Channel [DannyYO] β https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-KtvnEZHYYbm4JXFKyiw6g/featured
#Contemp #ScaryGame #HorrorGame #Gaming #YouTube
Video β https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2ISUIqaxV0&t=25s
My YouTube Channel [DannyYO] β https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-KtvnEZHYYbm4JXFKyiw6g/featured
#Contemp #ScaryGame #HorrorGame #Gaming #YouTube
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