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Category Archives: Mind Building
Metal Drinking Straw Impales Woman’s Brain and Kills Her in Freak Accident
Reusable metal straws might help save the planet, but these trendy little tubes could actually kill you. Yep, you read that right. A woman in the UK died last year after a metal straw pierced through her eye and into her brain when she fell while carrying a mason jar-styled drinking glass with a screw-top lid.
Elena Struthers-Gardner, 60, was a retired jockey and had mobility difficulties because of a horse-riding accident in her 20s. Her wife, Mandy Struthers-Gardner, said the accident left Elena with multiple fractures on her lower spine and caused scoliosis, which made her prone to falling over "like a sack of potatoes" at random moments, according to the Daily Mail.
Mandy said she didn't hear the fall, but she found Elena lying face-down making "unusual gurgling sounds." After turning Elena over, Many saw the straw had gone through her eye—and it was still attached to the drinking glass. She immediately called for an ambulance.
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Unfortunately, doctors said the severity of Elena's injury made it very unlikely she would survive. Her family eventually decided to take her off life support.
Elena officially died from a traumatic brain injury. She reportedly had become alcohol-dependent in the months leading up to her death, but toxicology reports showed no alcohol in her system at the time of her fatal fall.
A coroner's report noted that metal drinking straws should never be used with a lid that fixes them in place, and "great care" should always be taken while using them. "There is no give in them at all," assistant coroner Brendan Allen said, according to The Sun. "If someone does fall on one and it’s pointed in the wrong direction, serious injury can occur."
Mandy said, "I miss her very much; she was taken far too early. I hope this never happens to anyone else."
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American Airlines Apologizes After Flight Attendants Make Doctor Cover Up Outfit with Blanket
A doctor from Texas has received an apology from American Airlines, after flight attendants allegedly threatened to kick her and her 8-year-old son off a plane because they deemed her outfit inappropriate.
Dr. Latisha “Tisha” Rowe, who specializes in family medicine in Houston, went viral on Twitter on June 30 after sharing her experience on a flight from Jamaica to Miami.
Rowe claimed that a flight attendant approached her after boarding the aircraft and asked her to deplane. Once outside, she was met by another another attendant who inquired if she had a jacket before explaining that the ensemble she was wearing, a printed strapless romper, was deemed “too distracting” by members of the flight crew.
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Rowe alleged she was then told she needed to cover up. If she was not able to find acceptable attire, she and her son would not be allowed to fly.
After the humiliating incident, she took to Twitter to share front and side photos of the outfit she was wearing when the incident occurred taken after landing in the airport bathroom.
American Airlines has a “contract of carriage” that it requires passengers to agree upon the purchase of tickets. That contract mentions attire, stating, “Dress appropriately; bare feet or offensive clothing aren’t allowed.” It does not not provide examples or descriptions of clothing that would fall outside those rules.
Regardless, Rowe said on Twitter that she felt her outfit “covered EVERYTHING” and was perfectly acceptable. And while she says she defended her outfit to flight attendants, she told Insider.com she stopped after she saw that her son was fighting back tears, embarrassed.
“My automatic mommy protective mode started,” Rowe recalled to the outlet. “I’m like, ‘How do I fix it? I don’t want to be in this situation. I just, I want this done.'”
To solve the problem, Rowe asked for a blanket that she then tied around her waist. Eventually, after repeatedly asking to go back on the plane, she claims crew members allowed her to reboard as long as she remained covered for her entire flight.
“I’m disgusted,” Rowe wrote on Twitter. “I’m tweeting so I won’t cry. Seriously. My heart hurts. … Just before boarding I posted my trip was unforgettable. Now it’s even more unforgettable, but not in a good way.”
She added that her son spent the flight in tears, with a blanket over his head.
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In a statement to PEOPLE, American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said the company was remorseful and doing what they could to make it up to her.
“We were concerned about Dr. Rowe’s comments, and reached out to her and our team at the Kingston airport to gather more information about what occurred,” Gilson said. “We apologize to Dr. Rowe and her son for their experience, and have fully refunded their travel.”
“We are proud to serve customers of all backgrounds and are committed to providing a positive, safe travel experience for everyone who flies with us,” Gilson added.
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Rowe, meanwhile, has remained outspoken about the issue on Twitter — accusing American Airlines of body shaming and racial bias.
“As a mother my body has changed dramatically,” Rowe said. “Those changes mean more curves. It took time to appreciate them only to be shamed for them and even worse tell my son to be ashamed of my body as well. #bodyshaming.”
“When a white man dresses casually people will say ‘he’s the rich guy in the room’ since he is carefree and can wear what he wants…” Rowe wrote in another tweet. “When an educated black woman dresses for the occasion (island attire) she is vulgar and asked to cover up… We are policed for being black. Our bodies are over sexualized as women and we must ADJUST to make everyone around us comfortable. I’ve seen white women with much shorter shorts board a plane without a blink of an eye. I guess if it’s a ‘nice a—’ … it’s okay.“
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Proper attire on flights is an ever-present issue airlines continue to struggle to navigate appropriately.
In 2017, United Airlines faced backlash after forbidding two young girls from a flight because they were wearing leggings that a crew member deemed inappropriate. One of the children was 10 years old.
Meanwhile incidents of severely underdressed passengers elsewhere have gone unpunished. On an Air France flight in February 2019, a man stripped down to his boxer shorts, but, according to his seat mate, flight attendants on that plane “shrugged” at the infraction.
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Newsflash: This Swimsuit Photo isn’t Meant to Be a Body Positivity Message Just Because She’s ‘Fat’
Instagram influencer @thevagaggle is tired of having her posts misinterpreted. That's what she wrote in the caption of a recent photo she shared, which shows her looking relaxed and confident in a yellow bathing suit outdoors.
“It’s often assumed that I’m a body positivity account. I suppose it’s because I’m fat,” she explained. “My body exists slightly out of the lines of the ideal beauty standards so I’m assumed to be brave and inspiring for simply donning a swimsuit and enjoying the sun."
"But let’s be honest, me doing that is more to do with narcissism than it is my bravery and body positivity," she continued.
@thevagaggle said that while she’s glad that larger body types like hers are getting more representation and beauty standards are embracing different shapes and sizes, she wants people to recognize that other kinds of bodies are still marginalized.
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“When fat bodies started getting represented it was the white, small fat, able, young bodies that appeared first,” she added. “So yes, I get it, it’s great to see yourself represented but we’re now well on that path and why I want to know, and you should too, is when are we going to start seeing other marginalised bodies represented.”
Her post, which most of her followers might have assumed was simply about feeling confident in her own skin, actually takes on a more serious issue, one she hopes her 33K followers will keep fighting for.
“It’s almost like we small fat white women have achieved our own representation and our own body confidence and the fight has stopped,” she added. “P.s. this post isn’t about what I’m wearing, I’ve deliberately not tagged my swimsuit.”
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Health24.com | Suspect your child has an ear infection? There may soon be an app for that
Can a smartphone app spot an ear infection?
It did so with high accuracy in new research.
Ear infections occur when fluid builds up behind the eardrum and gets contaminated. Though an ear infection can hurt and make it hard to hear, sometimes there are no symptoms and diagnosis can be difficult.
This app uses a smartphone’s microphone and speaker and a piece of paper to detect fluid behind the eardrum.
The app prompts the smartphone to emit a series of soft, audible chirps that are directed into the ear through a small paper funnel. Depending on the way the chirps are reflected back to the phone, the app determines the likelihood of fluid behind the eardrum.
“It’s like tapping a wine glass,” said co-first author Justin Chan, a doctoral student in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle.
“Depending on how much liquid is in it, you get different sounds,” he explained in a university news release. “Using machine learning on these sounds, we can detect the presence of liquid.”
To train the app to detect changes in sound, the University of Washington researchers tested 53 children, aged 18 months to 17 years, at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
About half were scheduled to undergo surgery to place tubes in their ears, a common treatment for chronic fluid buildup. The other half were scheduled to have surgery unrelated to ears, such as a tonsillectomy.
“What is really unique about this study is that we used the gold standard for diagnosing ear infections,” said co-first author Dr Sharat Raju, a surgical resident.
“When we put in ear tubes, we make an incision into the eardrum and drain any fluid present. That’s the best way to tell if there is fluid behind the eardrum.”
The app correctly identified the likelihood of fluid 85% of the time – similar to specialised tools that use acoustics or a puff of air for the purpose, researchers said.
The study was published in May in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
“Designing an accurate screening tool on something as ubiquitous as a smartphone can be game-changing for parents as well as health care providers in resource-limited regions,” co-author Shyam Gollakota said in the news release. He’s an associate professor of computer science and engineering.
“A key advantage of our technology is that it does not require any additional hardware other than a piece of paper and a software app running on the smartphone,” Gollakota added.
Ear infections are the most common reason kids see a paediatrician, according to the US National Institutes of Health.
Researchers plan to commercialise the app and make it available to the public.
Image credit: iStock
Are sugary drinks causing cancer?
A study suggests a link for both fizzy pop and and fruit juices, although the reason is not clear.
A moderate dose of novel form of stress promotes longevity
A newly described form of stress called chromatin architectural defect, or chromatin stress, triggers in cells a response that leads to a longer life. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the Houston Methodist Research Institute report in the journal Science Advances that moderate chromatin stress levels set off a stress response in yeast, the tiny laboratory worm C. elegans, the fruit fly and mouse embryonic stem cells, and in yeast and C. elegans the response promotes longevity. The findings suggest that chromatin stress response and the longevity it mediates may be conserved in other organisms, opening the possibility of new ways to intervene in human aging and promote longevity.
“Chromatin stress refers to disruptions in the way DNA is packed within the nucleus of the cell,” said corresponding author Dr. Weiwei Dang, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics and the Huffington Center on Aging and member of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor. “One of the factors that influences chromatin structure is proteins called histones.”
In the nucleus of cells, DNA wraps itself around histone proteins forming a ‘beads-on-a-string’ structure called chromatin. Other proteins bind along chromatin and the structure folds further into more complicated configurations. Everything involving DNA would have to deal with this chromatin structure, Dang explained. For example, when a particular gene is expressed, certain enzymes interact with the chromatin structure to negotiate access to the gene and translate it into proteins. When chromatin stress happens, disruption of the chromatin structure can lead to unwanted changes in gene expression, such as expression of genes when they are not supposed to or lack of gene expression when it should occur.
In this study, Dang and his colleagues worked in the lab with the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to investigate how the dosage of histone genes would affect longevity.
They expected that yeast genetically engineered to carry fewer copies of certain histone genes than normal or control yeast would have chromatin changes that would result in the yeast living less than controls.
“Unexpectedly, we found that yeast with fewer copies of histone genes lived longer than the controls,” said first author Ruofan Yu, research assistant in molecular and human genetics in the Dang lab.
Yeast with a moderately low dose of histone genes showed a moderate reduction of histone gene expression and significant chromatin stress. Their response to chromatin disruption was changes in the activation of a number of genes that eventually promoted longevity.
In previous work Dang and colleagues had shown that in aging cells chromatin structure progressively falls apart. Histone alterations, such as a decrease in their protein levels, are a characteristic of the aging process, but the researchers showed that if they compensated for this age-related decrease in histone levels by overexpressing certain histone genes they extended the lifespan of aging yeast cells. In this study they discovered that moderately reducing the number of copies of histone genes in young yeast also promoted longevity.
“We have identified a previously unrecognized and unexpected form of stress that triggers a response that benefits the organism,” Yu said. “The mechanism underlying the chromatin stress response generated by moderate reduction of histone dosage is different from the one triggered by histone overexpression we had previously described, as shown by their different profiles of protein expression responses.”
Dang, Yu and their colleagues found that chromatin stress also occurs in other organisms such as the laboratory worm C. elegans, the fruit fly and mouse embryonic stem cells, and in yeast and C. elegans the chromatin stress response promotes longevity.
“Our findings suggest that the chromatin stress response may also be present in other organisms. If present in humans, it would offer new possibilities to intervene in the aging process,” Dang said.
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Materials provided by Baylor College of Medicine. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
How social movements can use virtual worlds
Online virtual worlds can help social movements raise awareness and create safe spaces for their members, according to a new study by an academic at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
The research examined how an LGBT group used a virtual world for their own cause, which was different to its intended design. These worlds are immersive, three-dimensional environments, where users create an avatar, or character, that enables them to interact with other users.
The study, by Dr Brad McKenna of UEA’s Norwich Business School, focused on the game World of Warcraft (WoW) and analysed data from an LGBT ‘guild’ within it. It looked at how its members used the technology compared to ordinary game play.
The guild, known as ‘Alpha’ for the purposes of the study, was created to “better service the LGBT community and offer a safe, inclusive place to game for members of any sexual orientation or gender identity.” The group was the largest special interest guild in WoW, with up to 7800 members during the course of the study. There were approximately 15,000 characters in the guild, as it was possible for one player to have multiple characters.
The group held regular activities inside the game, including an annual Pride parade, model competitions and dance parties. The movement also had a website with discussion forums.
The findings, published in Information Systems Journal, show how members used the game’s features and virtual environment for their specific needs and objectives. For example, in ordinary game play, players have spells they can use in battle against others. However, the members used these as lighting effects to create an atmosphere during the parade and dance party.
They also show how the group navigated changes made to the game by the developers. On one occasion, the parade route had to move when the virtual landscape it previously went through changed after an update.
Another change involved introducing a cap on the size of guilds because the developers found that large ones did not function well in the system. This saw the group having to come up with creative ways to continue their existence without losing members.
To conduct his research Dr McKenna joined the LGBT guild, with permission from its leaders, and participated in their movement over a period of 18 months. He created an avatar, which became his identity when in WoW.
“This study provides some practical examples of how virtual worlds can act as a safe haven for social movements or to create awareness, for example about for LGBT issues, within a broader gaming community,” said Dr McKenna, a lecturer in information systems. “Many group members came from countries that do not support LGBT rights, so this was a safe space for them.
“By understanding the affordances, or possible actions, available to them groups can shape how the world works for them and think of more creative uses of the technology and features, using them in a much different way, without involvement from the game’s developers.
“This paper also raises some important issues for virtual world social movements. If a movement wants to use these worlds to advance their cause, their leaders and members need to be aware of what the virtual world can offer them and how they could use that to their advantage, or be aware of actions which could potentially be a hindrance to their cause.
“Social movements also need to be aware of the type of virtual world they might use, for example a social virtual world, or a gaming virtual world, as depending on the type, different limitations or affordances might impact the movement.”
Other social movements have previously used WoW, for example to raise awareness for breast cancer, for political rallies and environmental protests. Dr McKenna said the findings may have implications for other users of virtual worlds and businesses.
“Different online communities could use these ideas, look at how the technology can be shaped for their causes. For organisations which operate within virtual worlds, these findings begin to shed light on the issues faced, and suggests that they need to be willing to evolve if they want to continue operating in these environments, which may constantly be changing.
“Going forward, social movements may make use of other emerging technologies, such as virtual or augmented reality. Insights from this study could provide the analytical tools necessary to understand how different technologies impact LGBT and other movements.”
Pollution warning over car tyre and brake dust
Even going electric won’t stop cars polluting city streets, government advisers say.
Human pregnancy dependent on cells evolved in platypus-like animal 300 million years ago
Platelet cells, which prevent mammals from bleeding non-stop, first evolved around 300 million years ago in an egg-laying animal similar to the modern duck-billed platypus, finds joint research by UCL and Yale University.
This event was a prerequisite for the origin of placental development in mammals, including human beings.
The paper, published as a peer-reviewed opinion piece in Biology Letters, suggests that platelet cells were critical in the evolution of eutherian mammals, to which humans belong, and which are distinguished by a deep invasive placenta (haemochorial placentation), by where maternal blood comes in direct contact with the fetus.
Co-led by Professors John Martin (UCL Division of Medicine) and Günter Wagner (Yale University), the research finds that platelet cells, which clot blood caused by cuts or lesions, enabled haemochorial placentation, helping the mother prevent haemorrhaging at birth.
In the paper researchers show that an egg-laying animal similar to a modern duck-billed platypus started creating platelets — possibly by chance — and these were passed on when this animal group diverged around 300 million years ago into monotremes (the first mammal group), of which the existing duck-billed platypus and echidna are living descendants, marsupials (also mammals) and eutherian mammals, which include modern humans.
UCL Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, John Martin, said: “We have shown with convincing evidence that platelets occurred 300 million years ago even before monotremes arose.
“This unique feature subsequently allowed the placenta to develop, which led to the eutherian mammals and therefore human beings.
“During birth, safe disconnection of the placenta from the uterus is essential for the survival of the mother and child, so without platelets, neither would have survived and the evolutionary step to eutherian mammals, including human beings, would never have happened.”
This research was undertaken as part of the ‘Yale UCL Collaborative’: a strong relationship between the two universities designed to increase creativity.
Yale Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Günter Wagner, said: “The unique presence of platelets in mammals explains why deeply invasive placentation is limited to mammals, even though live birth is found in many other animal lineages, but not invasive placentation.”
The authors met through the ‘Yale UCL Collaborative’, which promotes joint research and student exchange, and this year is celebrating 10 years, since its inception.
Professor Martin said: “The primary goal of the Yale UCL Collaborative is to reach higher levels of creativity and quality of idea than we would have achieved alone.
“Through this partnership, I have been able to work with Professor Wagner, a world-leading expert in evolutionary biology, and test and challenge my theory of the evolution of eutherian placentation.
“Through this joint research we have concluded the origins of platelets ultimately led to human evolution.”
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Materials provided by University College London. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
