Perceived stress may predict future coronary heart disease risk

Dec. 17, 2012 ? Are you stressed? Results of a new meta-analysis of six studies involving nearly 120,000 people indicate that the answer to that question may help predict one's risk of incident coronary heart disease (CHD) or death from CHD. The study, led by Columbia University Medical Center researchers, was published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

The six studies included in the analysis were large prospective observational cohort studies in which participants were asked about their perceived stress (e.g., "How stressed do you feel?" or "How often are you stressed?"). Respondents scored either high or low; researchers then followed them for an average of 14 years to compare the number of heart attacks and CHD deaths between the two groups. Results demonstrate that high perceived stress is associated with a 27% increased risk for incident CHD (defined as a new diagnosis or hospitalization) or CHD mortality.

"While it is generally accepted that stress is related to heart disease, this is the first meta-analytic review of the association of perceived stress and incident CHD," said senior author Donald Edmondson, PhD, assistant professor of behavioral medicine at CUMC. "This is the most precise estimate of that relationship, and it gives credence to the widely held belief that general stress is related to heart health. In comparison with traditional cardiovascular risk factors, high stress provides a moderate increase in the risk of CHD -- e.g., the equivalent of a 50 mg/dL increase in LDL cholesterol, a 2.7/1.4 mmHg increase in blood pressure or smoking five more cigarettes per day."

"These findings are significant because they are applicable to nearly everyone," said first author Safiya Richardson, MD, who collaborated with Dr. Edmondson on the paper while attending the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (she graduated in 2012 and is currently a resident at North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System in Manhasset, New York). "The key takeaway is that how people feel is important for their heart health, so anything they can do to reduce stress may improve their heart health in the future."

Coronary heart disease (CHD), also called coronary artery disease, is a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart. It is caused by a buildup of plaque in the arteries, which can lead to hardening of the arteries, or atherosclerosis. CHD is the leading cause of death in the United States for men and women; more than 385,000 people die each year from CHD.

The researchers did further analysis to try to learn what might underlie the association between stress and CHD. They found that while gender was not a significant factor, age was. The people in the studies were between the ages of 43-74; among older people, the relationship between stress and CHD was stronger.

"While we do not know for certain why there appears to be an association between age and the effect of perceived stress on CHD, we think that stress may be compounding over time. For example, someone who reports high perceived stress at age 60 may also have felt high stress at ages 40 and 50, as well." Dr. Edmondson also noted that older individuals tend to have worse CHD risk factors such as hypertension to begin with, and that stress may interact with those risk factors to produce CHD events.

"The next step is to conduct randomized trials to assess whether broad population-based measures to decrease stress are cost-effective. Further research should look at whether the stress that people report is about actual life circumstances (e.g., moving or caregiving), or about stable personality characteristics (e.g., type A vs. B), said Dr. Edmondson.

"We also need to ask why we found this association between stress and CHD, e.g., what biological components or mechanisms are involved, and what is the role of environment or lifestyle (e.g., diet, alcohol and drug use, exercise), and how best to moderate these factors to lower the risk of CHD," said Dr. Richardson.

The paper is titled, "Meta-Analysis of Perceived Stress and Its Association With Incident Coronary Heart Disease." The other contributors are Jonathan A. Shaffer, Louise Falzon, David Krupka and Karina W. Davidson, all from CUMC's Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health.

This research was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants HL-088117 and CA-156709. It was supported in part by Columbia University's Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) grant No. UL1RR024156 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences -- National Center for Research Resources/NIH. Dr. Edmondson is supported by NIH grant KM1CA156709.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia University Medical Center.

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Journal Reference:

1. Safiya Richardson, Jonathan A. Shaffer, Louise Falzon, David Krupka, Karina W. Davidson, Donald Edmondson. Meta-Analysis of Perceived Stress and Its Association With Incident Coronary Heart Disease. The American Journal of Cardiology, 2012; 110 (12): 1711 DOI: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2012.08.004

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/OepbNqUntp4/121217121413.htm

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The Music Club, 2012

Carly Rae Jepsen at the 86th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City

Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images.

Dear Will, Jason, Lindsay, and Ann,

I?m tempted to suggest, instead of the traditional Music Club back and forth, that we fire up a webcam, record a group rendition of ?Call Me Maybe,? and call it a day. You know: 10 hands, one guitar. Wailing sax solo. Copious horse-dancing. Kazoo.

I?m almost serious. In 2012, more than ever, music seemed inseparable from moving pictures, from the strobe-lit flow of images that pour through our computers and smartphones. I?m struck by how many of the big musical moments of ?12 were televisual, from Frank Ocean?s stirring debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to M.I.A.?s jaw-dropping ?Bad Girls? video to the year?s most important performance, Pussy Riot?s ?punk prayer? protest at Moscow?s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour?a Situationist d?tournement staged for streaming video.

It wasn?t just the music itself. Increasingly, our pop music (pardon the expression) discourse is conducted on YouTube: a conversation between artists and audiences, unfolding in binary code. The chief example from 2012 is Carly Rae Jepsen?s hit, an adorable little pop song that turned out to be awfully big?sturdy enough to stand up to countless tributes and cover versions, capacious enough to hold a wide world?s worth of meanings, including the homoerotic ones that Ann zeroed-in on in a great piece. And, of course, there was ?Gangnam Style??the freakiest freak hit in history; a novelty song send-up of South Korean yuppies that seduced everyone: Indonesian flash mobbers, Naval Academy midshipmen, Hasidic wedding revelers, MC Hammer; a testament to pop?s dissolving borders and crumbling fourth walls.

Speaking of the fourth wall: The savviest music essay that I encountered in 2012 wasn?t written by one of our critic colleagues. It came from everybody?s favorite Australo-Belgain pop star, Gotye. I?m talking about ?Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra,? Gotye?s video remix of his breakthrough hit, collaged together from the unnumbered bedroom covers that made the song a sensation in the first place. Gotye?s stunt reminded me of an argument I first heard from the academic Karl Hagstrom Miller: In the 21^st century, we have circumnavigated back to the late 19^th, when pop was a participatory sport, and the amateur was the star. As in 1890, the real musical action these days is taking place at home. And the laptop camera is the new parlor room piano.

Now, this video-centric view may well be a warped one. I?m 43-year-old guy with an 8-year-old kid; I don?t get out much anymore, and when I do, it?s usually to eat something locally sourced and pan-seared. Today, more than any time in the rock era, musicians are making their living by playing music live; if you went to a Springsteen concert this year, or experienced the sweaty communal bliss of a dance club, you might have a different perspective on things than I do. And yet: While I didn?t make it to Jay-Z?s Barclays Center concerts this fall, I sat in my living room a couple of miles away and watched a livestream on Jay?s Life+Times website. Do you know what I saw? I squinted at my laptop and watched thousands of people holding their cellphones aloft to film Jay-Z. They weren?t filming the rapper himself, mind you?they were filming his gigantic video doppelganger, flickering on the Jumbotron above the Barclays Center stage. Screens facing screens facing screens: a clusterfuck of opposing mirrors that would baffle the imagination of Borges.

All of which adds to the unsettling feeling that records, while not quite beside the point, are definitely not the point?and may not even be a good starting point for a state-of-the-music discussion in 2012. Which in turn makes the annual agony of compiling best-of lists more agonizing, more absurd. Nevertheless, here are my top albums and songs:

1. Future, Pluto
2. Kellie Pickler,?100 Proof?
3. Bruno Mars, Unorthodox Jukebox
4. Bob Dylan, Tempest
5. Micachu and the Shapes, Never
6. Melanie Fiona, The MF Life
7. Ka,?Grief Pedigree?
8. Miguel, Kaleidoscope Dream
9. JB and the Moonshine Band, Beer for Breakfast
10. Usher,?Looking 4 Myself
11. Lionel Richie, Tuskegee
12. Jeremih, Late Nights with Jeremih?
13. fun., Some Nights
14. R. Kelly, Write Me Back
15. Jens Lekman,?I Know What Love Isn't
16. Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
17. Prinzhorn Dance School,?Clay Class
18. 2 Chainz, Based on a T.R.U. Story
19. Keyshia Cole, Woman to Woman
20. Action Bronson,?Blue Chips

1. Frank Ocean, ?Thinkin Bout You?
2. Kacey Musgraves, ?Merry Go ?Round?
3. Justin Bieber, ?Die in Your Arms?
4. fun. ft. Janelle Mon?e, ?We Are Young?
5. Alan Jackson, ?So You Don?t Have To Love Me Anymore?
6. Carly Rae Jepsen, ?Call Me Maybe?
7. Santigold, ?Big Mouth?
8. Ca$h Out, ?Cashin' Out?
9. Miguel, ?Adorn?
10. Rhye, ?The Fall?
11. Tim McGraw, ?Better Than I Used To Be?
12. Usher, ?Climax?
13. Ka, ?No Downtime?
14. Kendrick Lamar, ?Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe?
15. Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra, ?Lost?
16. Danny Brown, ?Grown Up?
17. Luke James, ?I Want You?
18. Gerardo Ortiz, ?Amor Confuso?
19. Kitty Pryde, ?Okay Cupid?
20. RDX, ?Jump?
21. Anthony Hamilton, ?Pray for Me?
22. Taylor Swift, ?22?
23. Solange, ?Losing You?
24. Blonds, ?Run?
25. Gotye, ?Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra?

Click here for a Spotify playlist of these songs.

Roughly speaking, my favorites fell into two categories: 1.) straight-up genre records and 2.) genre-of-one records, in which musicians accentuated their eccentricities and pursued obsessions past the bounds of good sense and, sometimes, good taste. In the former category are things like JB and the Moonshine Band?s Beer for Breakfast, a great country-rock album, with songs as witty and catchy as they are rollicking; 2 Chainz?s delectable punchline rap; and R. Kelly?s Write Me Back, a suave ?70s soul throwback that finds Kells doing slightly bonkers impersonations of Barry White and Marvin Gaye. The purest genre music of the year was Kellie Pickler?s 100 Proof, a beautiful country record that struck the sweet spot between trad and contemporary. I?m still not quite sure how the American Idol also-ran turned into such a fine singer, with the gravitas to handle old-fashioned honky-tonk and acoustic weepers and the brass to pull off Nashville pop. In any case, country is the genre I turn to for comfort food, and Pickler, of all people, served the tastiest, most nourishing dish.

As for the weirdos: Two in particular stood out. One is Mica Levy, the London art-pop ragamuffin behind Micachu and the Shapes, whose clangorous Never was the rare ?difficult? album that I loved without having to try hard. I hope to make a case for this odd, noisy music in a future post. But first let me talk about Future?s Pluto.

Future, from Atlanta, is nominally a rapper; denominationally, spiritually, he?s a kind of bluesman. To be precise: He?s a heartsick, sex-crazed, sci-fi bluesman, strapped to the chassis of the Mars Rover, bellowing out his pain and perversions, lit by ghostly glow of Phobos. Over the previous couple of years, Future released a string of mixtapes, establishing himself as a spirited but unremarkable rapper. But for his first official album, he had a great, gauche idea: He slathered on the auto-tune, wrote a bunch of songs about sex and loneliness, and let rip, rap-singing in a demented sob.

A few years back, auto-tune was everywhere; today, it?s d?class?. But Pluto is great: It?s the album that everyone was trying to make circa 2008, when T-Pain ruled radio and Kanye released 808s and Heartbreak. I love the sound: Listen to ?Astronaut Chick,? with Future?s effects-strafed croon gusting over plaintively tinkling synth chords and a windswept whirl of percussion. It?s a song as tuneful, as shamelessly maudlin, as ?Hard To Say I?m Sorry,? and I don?t think I need to tell you guys that I mean that as a compliment. The real surprise of Pluto is the pathos?the way Future twists gangsta clich?s, including some nasty misogynist ones, into touching puppy-love plaints. When?s the last time you heard rap singles as earnestly lovelorn as ?Neva End? and the startling ?Turn on the Lights??

Turn on the lights
I'm looking for her, too
I heard she keep her promises and never turn on you
I heard she ain't gon? cheat and she gon? never make no move
I heard she be there anytime you need her
She come through

In short, Future has pioneered a new style: Afrofuturist schmaltz. Of course, you could also call Pluto R&B, a category whose boundaries continued to expand in 2012. In last year?s Music Club, I bellyached about the joyless sex of the Weeknd/Drake school of nu-R&B. Miguel remedied that problem in 2012, with an album that embraced the new production palate and old-school sensuality. But I remain suspicious of the late-breaking blog-love for R&B, especially for Miguel and Frank Ocean. Don?t get me wrong: I love those guys and hope to write about them in depth before we?re through. But am I wrong to think that Miguel and Ocean?s music?which flaunts its arty ambitions and steers away from R&B?s traditional deep groove?is R&B for people who don?t really like R&B, R&B for self-styled aesthetes, whose ears are clapped closed to more commercial/traditional R&B: to Jeremih and Usher and the redoubtable Kelly, not to mention women like Keyshia Cole and Melanie Fiona? Anyway ? let?s discuss.

In the meantime, a quick note about a sonic trend. Did you guys notice things quieting down in 2012? Wherever I turned this year, I heard musicians playing with dulcet sounds, and silences?lowering their volume, and letting stillness and space creep into their songs. Consider some examples. Ocean and Miguel, of course. And ?Climax.? And Jeremih?s awesome ?Fuck U All the Time,? with its slow, leaky-faucet tempo and eerie emptiness. I heard the new sound in the music of young chanteuses: Jessie Ware, Cooly G, Lianne La Havas, Jhen? Aiko, Nite Jewel, and the sublime (and mysterious) Rhye. I heard it in dancehall and hip-hop; in ?Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe? and on my favorite New York rap album of the year, Ka?s noirish Grief Pedigree. Of course, I heard it in The xx?the masters of menacing quietude?and in the spiky miniatures of Prinzhorn Dance School. Even Nicki Minaj hushed up a bit, for one song at least.

What?s happening, here? Is this a predictable pendulum swing, a reaction to the bludgeoning roar of four-on-the-floor club music, which has dominated pop in since the rise of Gaga? Is it a response to technology: Are the ubiquitous Beats by Dre headphones transforming our tastes, fostering demand for softer music, with more sharply etched details, and some room for our ears to breathe? Are we seeing a stealth British invasion? Notice how many of the artists in the above paragraph are Brits, and the music?s genetic links to British styles like trip-hop and Sade?s jazz-soul. Or is this ?trend? merely wishful thinking on my part, another sign of incipient fuddy-duddyness? Am I slouching into middle age, like millions before me, by reaching for the easy listening?

Let me know what you think?but keep your voices down.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=ba5d14ae8a9f5261543baa5a72d3c3ca

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Researchers discover fastest light-driven process

Thursday, December 6, 2012

A discovery that promises transistors ? the fundamental part of all modern electronics ? controlled by laser pulses that will be 10,000 faster than today's fastest transistors has been made by a Georgia State University professor and international researchers.

Professor of Physics Mark Stockman worked with Professor Vadym Apalkov of Georgia State and a group led by Ferenc Krausz at the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and other well-known German institutions.

There are three basic types of solids: metals, semiconductors, used in today's transistors, and insulators ? also called dielectrics.

Dielectrics do not conduct electricity and get damaged or break down if too high of fields of energy are applied to them. The scientists discovered that when dielectrics were given very short and intense laser pulses, they start conducting electricity while remaining undamaged.

The fastest time a dielectric can process signals is on the order of 1 femtosecond ? the same time as the light wave oscillates and millions of times faster than the second handle of a watch jumps.

Dielectric devices hold promise to allow for much faster computing than possible today with semiconductors. Such a device can work at 1 petahertz, while the processor of today's computer runs slightly faster than at 3 gigahertz.

"Now we can fundamentally have a device that works 10 thousand times faster than a transistor that can run at 100 gigahertz," Stockman said. "This is a field effect, the same type that controls a transistor. The material becomes conductive as a very high electrical field of light is applied to it, but dielectrics are 10,000 times faster than semiconductors."

The results were published online Dec. 5 in Nature. The research institutions include the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, the Department of Physics at the Munich Technical University, the Physics Department at Ludwig Maximilian University at Munich and the Fritz Haber Institute at Berlin, Germany.

At one time, scientists thought dielectrics could not be used in signal processing ? breaking down when required high electric fields were applied. Instead, Stockman said, it is possible for them to work if such extreme fields are applied at a very short time.

In a second paper also published online Dec. 5 in Nature, Stockman and his fellow researchers experimented with probing optical processes in a dielectric ? silica ? with very short extreme ultraviolet pulses. They discovered the fastest process that can fundamentally exist in condensed matter physics, unfolding at about at 100 attoseconds ? millions of times faster than the blink of an eye.

The scientists were able to show that very short, highly intense light pulses can cause on-off electric currents ? necessary in computing to make the 1s and 0s needed in the binary language of computers -- in dielectrics, making extremely swift processing possible.

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Georgia State University: http://www.gsu.edu

Thanks to Georgia State University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125775/Researchers_discover_fastest_light_driven_process

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Rebuilding family's ruined home after fire | KFOR.com ? Oklahoma ...

Posted on: 4:50 pm, December 6, 2012, by Courtney Francisco, updated on: 10:55am, December 7, 2012

OKLAHOMA CITY ? An Oklahoma City woman is pulling the community together to help a neighbor get back into their home by Christmas

It was destroyed by a fire last Tuesday on the 4500 block of S.W. 24th St.

Walking through debris, Joenita Rhodes and her 3-year-old adopted son, Kiev, see scorched pictures, baby blankets.

It?s all that?s left of their home after it was destroyed by the fire.

?It?s really hard to see it now because I got married in this back yard; I started my family here,? Rhodes said.

The fire started in the laundry room when the dryer exploded.

The flames destroyed at least half of the home.

All Rhodes, her husband and son could do was watch fire fighters tried to save the home.

It was a sad sight for neighbor, Amy Mayen, who said the family is always helping others.

They helped her fix up her home when she moved next door eight years ago and they were always willing to help friends and family in need of a place to stay.

With Rhodes? home destroyed, those people also face homelessness again.

So Mayen?s mission is to get the Rhodes back into their home with the help of the community.

Posters hang on the burnt out home asking for lumber to rebuild.

?Love thy neighbor, I really didn?t know what that meant until I moved here,? Mayen said. ?I?know we can get this house rebuilt and get Kiev back home for Christmas.?

Mayen said a roofer has already come forward to help patch the holes, and Rhodes? husband?s boss is lending them a trailer to live in until their home is ready.

?That makes my heart just, it melts because I mean I love these people,? Rhodes said. ?I want to come home.?

?Now when she looks at her charred home, she has a hopeful heart.

The Rhodes did have insurance, although the family said it looks like they are only going to pay for some of the damage.

For now, Mayen said she needs the help of construction companies or anyone with spare lumber.?

To learn more about the Rhodes?s story or to see how you can help, click here.?

Source: http://kfor.com/2012/12/06/rebuilding-familys-ruined-home-after-fire/

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Video: Is there a fiscal cliff deal in sight?

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