WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most extensive study yet by the U.S. government on suicide among military veterans shows more veterans are killing themselves than previously thought, with 22 deaths a day - or one every 65 minutes, on average.
The study released on Friday by the Department of Veterans Affairs covered suicides from 1999 to 2010 and compared with a previous, less precise VA estimate that there were roughly 18 veteran deaths a day in the United States.
More than 69 percent of veteran suicides were among individuals aged 50 years or older, the VA reported.
"This data provides a fuller, more accurate, and sadly, an even more alarming picture of veteran suicide rates," said Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington state, who has championed legislation to strengthen mental health care for veterans.
The news came two weeks after the U.S. military acknowledged that suicides hit a record in 2012, outpacing combat deaths, with 349 active-duty suicides - almost one a day.
That was despite sharper focus at the leadership level at the Pentagon and VA on the suicide problem, and came during an overall rise in suicides in the United States. The number of suicides in the United States rose 11 percent from 2007 to 2010, the VA said.
The VA did not provide raw data and acknowledged its national figures were still estimates. The new study was based on data collected from 21 states in which military status is reported on the death certificate. It said more data from more states were being processed.
Reuters last year obtained less-detailed data for the 2005-to-2010 period from 32 states, also showing a significant rise in the number of suicides among the country's 23 million veterans.
The VA said that while the number of veteran suicides had risen, the percentage of all suicides in America identified as "veteran" declined from 1999 to 2003 and had remained relatively constant in recent years.
The VA said the data would help it better identify where at-risk veterans may be located and improve targeting of specific suicide intervention and outreach activities.
"We have more work to do and we will use this data to continue to strengthen our suicide prevention efforts," Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a statement.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Jan. 31, 2013 ? For the first time, researchers have been able to see a thought "swim" through the brain of a living fish. The new technology is a useful tool for studies of perception. It might even find use in psychiatric drug discovery, according to authors of the study, appearing online on January 31 in Current Biology.
"Our work is the first to show brain activities in real time in an intact animal during that animal's natural behavior," said Koichi Kawakami of Japan's National Institute of Genetics. "We can make the invisible visible; that's what is most important."
The technical breakthrough included the development of a very sensitive fluorescent probe to detect neuronal activity. Kawakami, along with Junichi Nakai of Saitama University and their colleagues, also devised a genetic method for inserting that probe right into the neurons of interest. The two-part approach allowed the researchers to detect neuronal activity at single-cell resolution in the zebrafish brain.
Akira Muto, the study's lead author from the Kawakami lab, used the new tool to map what happens when a zebrafish sees something good to eat, in this case a swimming paramecium. The researchers were also able to correlate brain activity with that prey's capture.
The new tool now makes it possible to ask which brain circuits are involved in complex behaviors, from perception to movement to decision making, the researchers say, noting that the basic design and function of a zebrafish brain is very much like our own.
"In the future, we can interpret an animal's behavior, including learning and memory, fear, joy, or anger, based on the activity of particular combinations of neurons," Kawakami said.
By monitoring neuronal activity in the zebrafish brain, Kawakami thinks that researchers may also be able to screen chemicals that affect neuronal activity in the brain. "This has the potential to shorten the long processes for the development of new psychiatric medications," he said.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cell Press, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Akira Muto, Masamichi Ohkura, Gembu Abe, Junichi Nakai, Koichi Kawakami. Real-Time Visualization of Neuronal Activity during Perception. Current Biology, 2013; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.12.040
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Winners of 10th annual International Science & Technology Visualization Challenge announcedPublic release date: 31-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bobbie Mixon bmixon@nsf.gov 703-292-8485 National Science Foundation
More than 200 entries received from 18 countries
The National Science Foundation (NSF), along with the journal Science, today announces the 53 winners and honorable mentions of the International Science & Technology Visualization Challenge, a highly competitive contest jointly sponsored by NSF and Science. Science magazine is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
This latest competition received more than 200 entries from 18 countries, including entries from 19 U.S. states and Canadian territories. The Feb. 1, 2013, issue of Science features the winning submissions, which are also accessible to the public at NSF's website.
"It's the 10th year of this challenge, and each year, partnering with Science magazine, we receive beautiful and compelling visualizations that enhance public understanding of science," said Judith Gan, NSF's director of Legislative and Public Affairs. "Researchers are generating more information than ever before, and visualization techniques are evolving to meet the challenge of conveying this information in comprehensible ways, as well. This year's many outstanding contributions are evidence of this continuing adaptation necessary to illuminate increasingly complex information."
"This year's winning entries are a spectacular collection. Each one exposes a hidden facet of the natural world, or puts scientific concepts in a new light. And they use cutting-edge techniques to draw the viewer in," said Colin Norman, Science magazine's news editor. "That's exactly what we were hoping for when we joined with NSF a decade ago to launch the science and engineering visualization challenge."
Winning entries feature owls that can perform 270-degree neck rotations, biomineral crystals found in a sea urchin's tooth, a realistic video simulation of a human heart, a flash game about Special Relativity and other compelling visualizations.
A committee of staff members from Science and NSF screened the entries and sent finalists to an outside panel of experts in scientific visualization to select the winners. In addition, as was the case for the first time last year, the public participated in the voting process, selecting their favorite images as People's Choice awardees. The challenge received more than 3,150 public votes.
The winning entries are featured by category at the links below in NSF's International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge Special Report, where several winners are featured in a video produced by NSF.
The 2012 winning entries are included in five categories:
PHOTOGRAPHY
First Place & People's Choice:
Pupa U. P. A. Gilbert and Christopher E. Killian--University of Wisconsin-Madison
Biomineral Single Crystals
Viktor Sykora--Charles University (Czech Republic)
Jan Zemlicka, Frantisek Krejci and Jan Jakubek--Czech Technical University (Czech Republic)
X-ray micro-radiography and microscopy of seeds
ILLUSTRATION
First Place:
Emmett McQuinn, Pallab Datta, Myron D. Flickner, William P. Risk and Dharmendra S. Modha--IBM Research-Almaden (San Jose, Calif.)
Connectivity of a Cognitive Computer Based on the Macaque Brain
Honorable Mention and People's Choice:
Maxime Chamberland, David Fortin and Maxime Descoteaux--Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab (Quebec, Canada)
Cerebral Infiltration
POSTERS & GRAPHICS
First Place:
Fabian de Kok-Mercado, Michael Habib, Tim Phelps, Lydia Gregg and Philippe Gailloud--Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, Md.)
Adaptations of the Owl's Cervical & Cephalic Arteries in Relation to Extreme Neck Rotation
Honorable Mention:
Mark Nielsen and Satoshi Amagai--Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Chevy Chase, Md.)
Bill Pietsch and Davey Thomas--Astronaut 3 Media Group (Arlington, Va.)
Andy Knoll--Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.)
Earth Evolution: The Intersection of Geology and Biology
People's Choice:
Will Stahl-Timmins, Clare Redshaw, Mathew White, Michael Depledge and Lora Fleming--University of Exeter Medical School (England, U.K.)
The Pharma Transport Town: Understanding the Routes to Sustainable Pharmaceutical Use
GAMES & APPS
Honorable Mention:
Debbie Denise Reese, Robert E. Kosko, Charles A. Wood and Cassie Lightfritz--Wheeling Jesuit University (Wheeling, W.Va.)
Barbara G. Tabachnick--California State University, Northridge
CyGaMEs Selene II: A Lunar Construction GaME
Honorable Mention:
Andy Hall--TestTubeGames (Cambridge, Mass.)
Velocity Raptor
People's Choice:
Gayatri Mehta--University of North Texas (Denton, Texas)
UNTANGLED
VIDEO
First Place & People's Choice:
Guillermo Marin, Fernando M. Cucchietti, Mariano Vazquez and Carlos Tripiana--Barcelona Supercomputing Center (Barcelona, Spain)
Alya Red: A Computational Heart
Honorable Mentions (3-way tie):
Christine E. Farrar, Zac H. Forsman, Ruth D. Gates, Jo-Ann C. Leong and Robert J. Toonen--University of Hawaii, Manoa
Observing the Coral Symbiome Using Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy
Thomas Brown--Nucleus Medical Media (Kennesaw, Ga.)
Fertilization
Michael Rubinstein, Neal Wadhwa, Frdo Durand, William T. Freeman, Hao-Yu Wu and John Guttag--MIT (Cambridge, Mass.)
Revealing Invisible Changes In The World
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Winners of 10th annual International Science & Technology Visualization Challenge announcedPublic release date: 31-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bobbie Mixon bmixon@nsf.gov 703-292-8485 National Science Foundation
More than 200 entries received from 18 countries
The National Science Foundation (NSF), along with the journal Science, today announces the 53 winners and honorable mentions of the International Science & Technology Visualization Challenge, a highly competitive contest jointly sponsored by NSF and Science. Science magazine is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
This latest competition received more than 200 entries from 18 countries, including entries from 19 U.S. states and Canadian territories. The Feb. 1, 2013, issue of Science features the winning submissions, which are also accessible to the public at NSF's website.
"It's the 10th year of this challenge, and each year, partnering with Science magazine, we receive beautiful and compelling visualizations that enhance public understanding of science," said Judith Gan, NSF's director of Legislative and Public Affairs. "Researchers are generating more information than ever before, and visualization techniques are evolving to meet the challenge of conveying this information in comprehensible ways, as well. This year's many outstanding contributions are evidence of this continuing adaptation necessary to illuminate increasingly complex information."
"This year's winning entries are a spectacular collection. Each one exposes a hidden facet of the natural world, or puts scientific concepts in a new light. And they use cutting-edge techniques to draw the viewer in," said Colin Norman, Science magazine's news editor. "That's exactly what we were hoping for when we joined with NSF a decade ago to launch the science and engineering visualization challenge."
Winning entries feature owls that can perform 270-degree neck rotations, biomineral crystals found in a sea urchin's tooth, a realistic video simulation of a human heart, a flash game about Special Relativity and other compelling visualizations.
A committee of staff members from Science and NSF screened the entries and sent finalists to an outside panel of experts in scientific visualization to select the winners. In addition, as was the case for the first time last year, the public participated in the voting process, selecting their favorite images as People's Choice awardees. The challenge received more than 3,150 public votes.
The winning entries are featured by category at the links below in NSF's International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge Special Report, where several winners are featured in a video produced by NSF.
The 2012 winning entries are included in five categories:
PHOTOGRAPHY
First Place & People's Choice:
Pupa U. P. A. Gilbert and Christopher E. Killian--University of Wisconsin-Madison
Biomineral Single Crystals
Viktor Sykora--Charles University (Czech Republic)
Jan Zemlicka, Frantisek Krejci and Jan Jakubek--Czech Technical University (Czech Republic)
X-ray micro-radiography and microscopy of seeds
ILLUSTRATION
First Place:
Emmett McQuinn, Pallab Datta, Myron D. Flickner, William P. Risk and Dharmendra S. Modha--IBM Research-Almaden (San Jose, Calif.)
Connectivity of a Cognitive Computer Based on the Macaque Brain
Honorable Mention and People's Choice:
Maxime Chamberland, David Fortin and Maxime Descoteaux--Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab (Quebec, Canada)
Cerebral Infiltration
POSTERS & GRAPHICS
First Place:
Fabian de Kok-Mercado, Michael Habib, Tim Phelps, Lydia Gregg and Philippe Gailloud--Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, Md.)
Adaptations of the Owl's Cervical & Cephalic Arteries in Relation to Extreme Neck Rotation
Honorable Mention:
Mark Nielsen and Satoshi Amagai--Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Chevy Chase, Md.)
Bill Pietsch and Davey Thomas--Astronaut 3 Media Group (Arlington, Va.)
Andy Knoll--Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.)
Earth Evolution: The Intersection of Geology and Biology
People's Choice:
Will Stahl-Timmins, Clare Redshaw, Mathew White, Michael Depledge and Lora Fleming--University of Exeter Medical School (England, U.K.)
The Pharma Transport Town: Understanding the Routes to Sustainable Pharmaceutical Use
GAMES & APPS
Honorable Mention:
Debbie Denise Reese, Robert E. Kosko, Charles A. Wood and Cassie Lightfritz--Wheeling Jesuit University (Wheeling, W.Va.)
Barbara G. Tabachnick--California State University, Northridge
CyGaMEs Selene II: A Lunar Construction GaME
Honorable Mention:
Andy Hall--TestTubeGames (Cambridge, Mass.)
Velocity Raptor
People's Choice:
Gayatri Mehta--University of North Texas (Denton, Texas)
UNTANGLED
VIDEO
First Place & People's Choice:
Guillermo Marin, Fernando M. Cucchietti, Mariano Vazquez and Carlos Tripiana--Barcelona Supercomputing Center (Barcelona, Spain)
Alya Red: A Computational Heart
Honorable Mentions (3-way tie):
Christine E. Farrar, Zac H. Forsman, Ruth D. Gates, Jo-Ann C. Leong and Robert J. Toonen--University of Hawaii, Manoa
Observing the Coral Symbiome Using Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy
Thomas Brown--Nucleus Medical Media (Kennesaw, Ga.)
Fertilization
Michael Rubinstein, Neal Wadhwa, Frdo Durand, William T. Freeman, Hao-Yu Wu and John Guttag--MIT (Cambridge, Mass.)
Revealing Invisible Changes In The World
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Eye-sight troubles are very common conditions. Terrible lighting style, regular looking at computer system window screens along with strains help with people struggling with imperfect idea. Certainly, eye-sight complaints are never fresh troubles for you are lots of people who have attempted to clarify the key reason why eye sight degrades. A great number of people have as well experimented with build solutions by which people could possibly boost their idea in addition to assist in preventing further more worsening of these eye sight. A common technique eyesight physical exercises, specially those created by Bill Horatio Bates within the later 19th century.
Your Bates Procedure
William Bates has been the fervent believer which eyesight troubles were the consequence of force on region. He thought that will spectacles have been some sort of crutch that had been not just needless in every circumstances but could be hazardous, raising the stress on your eye area and further destroying the individuals eye-sight. Bates additionally believed that a lot of the load eye exercises has been biological. That is certainly, which the eyeball truly evolved fit and slim when attempting to pay attention to some thing, and therefore this change, any time made to possibly be remarkable, induced anxiety. Bates observation workouts intended to improve the particular muscles, building these alterations in shape much less serious and also in that way lowering the strain they will prompted. Bates as well experienced that contact with sun light would probably reduce the constant tension and enhance idea.
Among the list of Bates attention exercises meant to lower tension was termed as ?palming?. With this method clients were being encouraged to close his or her sight for several minutes and loosen up. Through since the sight with all the possession with their hands and wrists, without the need of depressing, the was deepened as well as force launched. Bates considered from any of the natural shades or equipment and lighting expert each time a particular person shut down his or her sight had been caused by observation stress. They believed that if your individual ended up being really tranquil however observe strong blackness as well as tension would likely disappear.
Jan. 30, 2013 ? Comforting a friend or relative in distress may be a more hard-wired behavior than previously thought, according to a new study of bonobos, which are great apes known for their empathy and close relation to humans and chimpanzees. This finding provides key evolutionary insight into how critical social skills may develop in humans.
The results are published in the online journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, observed juvenile bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo engaging in consolation behavior more than their adult counterparts. Juvenile bonobos (ages 3 to 7) are equivalent to preschool or elementary school-aged children.
Zanna Clay, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Emory's Department of Psychology, and Frans de Waal, PhD, director of the Living Links Center at Yerkes and C.H. Candler Professor of Psychology at Emory, led the study.
"Our findings suggest that for bonobos, sensitivity to the emotions of others emerges early and does not require advanced thought processes that develop only in adults," Clay says.
Starting at around age two, human children usually display consolation behavior, a sign of sensitivity to the emotions of others and the ability to take the perspective of another. Consolation has been observed in humans, bonobos, chimpanzees and other animals, including dogs, elephants and some types of birds, but has not been seen in monkeys.
At the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary, most bonobos come as juvenile or infant orphans because their parents are killed for meat or captured as pets. A minority of bonobos in the sanctuary is second generation and raised by their biological mothers. The researchers found bonobos raised by their own mothers were more likely to comfort others compared to orphaned bonobos. This may indicate early life stress interferes with development of consolation behavior, while a stable parental relationship encourages it, Clay says.
Clay observed more than 350 conflicts between bonobos at the sanctuary during several months. Some conflicts involved violence, such as hitting, pushing or grabbing, while others only involved threats or chasing. Consolation occurred when a third bonobo -- usually one that was close to the scene of conflict -- comforted one of the parties in the conflict.
Consolation behavior includes hugs, grooming and sometimes sexual behavior. Consolation appears to lower stress in the recipient, based on a reduction in the recipient's rates of self-scratching and self-grooming, the authors write.
"We found strong effects of friendship and kinship, with bonobos being more likely to comfort those they are emotionally close to," Clay says. "This is consistent with the idea that empathy and emotional sensitivity contribute to consolation behavior."
In future research, Clay plans to take a closer look at the emergence of consolation behavior in bonobos at early ages. A process that may facilitate development of consolation behavior is when older bonobos use younger ones as teddy bears; their passive participation may get the younger bonobos used to the idea, she says.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Emory University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Zanna Clay, Frans B. M. de Waal. Bonobos Respond to Distress in Others: Consolation across the Age Spectrum. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e55206 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055206
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Public release date: 31-Jan-2013
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