Nel giro di una ventina d'anni il cioccolato potrebbe diventare raro e molto costoso: crisi economica e caccia al profitto minacciano le coltivazioni di una delle piante più amate del mondo. E tu? Quanto saresti disposto a pagare per una tavoletta di cioccolato?

La notizia è di quelle preoccupanti: entro 20 anni il cioccolato potrebbe diventare una rara prelibatezza. Lo ha dichiarato qualche giorno fa la Cocoa Research Association, che su questo argomento è un’autorità riconosciuta a livello mondiale. Negli ultimi 6 anni il prezzo del cacao è più che raddoppiato e gli addetti ai lavori non nascondono le loro preoccupazioni.

Questa pianta cresce solo in una fascia molto ristretta, entro i 10° di latitudine dall’equatore, e di fatto solo nei paesi in via di sviluppo. Secondo quanto riporta il quotidiano britannico Indipendent, i governi di questi paesi non offrono alcun incentivo ai coltivatori di cacao, che si trovano così nell’impossibilità di sostituire le piante man mano che invecchiano e muoiono.

Meglio i soldi del cacao

E nemmeno gli sforzi dei colossi del settore sembrano servire: la Mars Inc per esempio ha sequenziato qualche tempo fa il genoma del cacao con l’obiettivo di sviluppare arbusti più resistenti e produttivi. Ma anche le piante migliori devono fare i conti con gli interessi degli agricoltori che sempre più spesso decidono di abbandonare la coltivazione del dolce frutto a favore di soia, grano geneticamente modificato e palma da olio, molto più redditizia del cacao perché impiegata nell’industria alimentare e nella produzione di biocarburanti.

Secondo Tony Lass, presidente della Cocoa Research Association, i piccoli coltivatori di cacao non guadagno più di 80 centesimi di euro al giorno, e così o decidono di convertirsi a colture più remunerative o cambiano addirittura lavoro, trasferendosi in città e abbandonando le campagne.
Il risultato? Nel giro di 20 anni il cioccolato sarà come il caviale e, ammesso di trovarlo, potrebbe costare dai 10 ai 20 euro la tavoletta.

Fonte: Focus.it

Low levels of household income are associated with several lifetime mental disorders and suicide attempts, and a decrease in income is associated with a higher risk for anxiety, substance use, and mood disorders, according to a report in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

"To date, findings on the relationship between income and mental illness have been mixed," the authors write as background information in the article. "Some studies have found that lower income is associated with mental illness, while other studies have not found this relationship."

Jitender Sareen, M.D., FRCPC, of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, and colleagues analyzed data from the U.S. National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions – the largest longitudinal, population-based mental health survey – to examine the relationship between income, mental disorders, and suicide attempts. A total of 34,653 non-institutionalized U.S. adults, age 20 years and older, were interviewed twice, three years apart.

"Participants with household income of less than $20,000 per year were at increased risk of incident mood disorders during the three-year follow-up period in comparison with those with income of $70,000 or more per year," the authors report.

"A decrease in household income during the two time points was also associated with an increased risk of incident mood, anxiety, or substance use disorders in comparison with respondents with no change in income," they write.

An increase in income during the follow-up period was not associated with any increase or decrease in the risk of developing mental disorders.

The authors believe their study findings have important public health implications.

"Most important, the findings suggest that income below $20,000 per year is associated with substantial psychopathologic characteristics and that there is a need for targeted interventions to treat and prevent mental illness in this low-income sector of the population," they conclude. "The findings also suggest that adults with reduction in income are at increased risk of mood and substance use disorders."

Source: PhysOrg

Investigative Journalist and historian Webster Tarpley, author of Obama - The Postmodern Coup: Making of a Manchurian Candidate and 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA - Myth of the 21st Century . Tarpley discusses the CIA efforts to destabilize the Mediterranean/Arab world, as well as how we can pull out of the current depression, and why Wikileaks is a well orchestrated "striptease" by the CIA to reveal selected information. The overthrow of governments in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as other unrest in the Middle East is part of a "post-modern coup,"-- destabilization techniques used by the US and the UK to further their agendas without direct military aggression, he argued. By breaking countries such as Libya, Sudan, and Yemen into smaller squabbling states, they become easier to control, he explained.

With Tunisian refugees possibly going to Italy, "the CIA would say, 'well if we can submerge Southern Europe beneath a wave of two million refugees, good-- that makes the euro weaker, and makes the dollar more attractive-- we're saving our...imperialist system','' Tarpley continued. He further commented that the idea that there is an Arab youth movement demanding democracy is a fairy tale. WikiLeaks, he suggested, pretends to attack the US, but in reality, it's other countries that get slammed and look bad. He characterized WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as having an "MK Ultra pedigree" having grown up in Australia with the Hamilton-Byrne cult. Tarpley also talked about the breakdown of the world economic structure. To correct the system, he said huge "zombie banks" and derivatives have to wiped out, and Wall St. transactions should be subject to sales taxes.

Webster Tarpley : the most incisive critic of Anglo-American hegemony. As an activist historian he is best known for his book- George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992), a masterpiece of research which is still a must read. He is a 9/11 Truth Scholar and activist; AB Princeton 1966, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa; Fulbright Scholar at University of Turin, Italy; and MA in humanities from Skidmore College. He is fluent in Italian, German, French, Latin and Russian. A decades-long expert on international terrorism, his 1978 study for the Italian parliament "Chi ha ucciso Aldo Moro?"(Who Killed Aldo Moro?) broke open the ownership of the "Red Brigades" by NATO's clandestine "stay-behind" networks.

Source: geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com

Scientists from the Morgridge Institute for Research, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of California and the WiCell Research Institute moved gene therapy one step closer to clinical reality by determining that the process of correcting a genetic defect does not substantially increase the number of potentially cancer-causing mutations in induced pluripotent stem cells.

Their work, scheduled for publication the week of April 4 in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and funded by a Wynn-Gund Translational Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness, suggests that human induced pluripotent stem cells altered to correct a genetic defect may be cultured into subsequent generations of cells that remain free of the initial disease. However, although the gene correction itself does not increase the instability or the number of observed mutations in the cells, the study reinforced other recent findings that induced pluripotent stem cells themselves carry a significant number of genetic mutations.

"This study showed that the process of gene correction is compatible with therapeutic use," says Sara Howden, primary author of the study, who serves as a postdoctoral research associate in James Thomson's lab at the Morgridge Institute for Research. "It also was the first to demonstrate that correction of a defective gene in patient-derived cells via homologous recombination is possible."

Like human embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells can become any of the 220 mature cell types in the human body. Induced pluripotent stem cells are created when skin or other mature cells are reprogrammed to a pluripotent state through exposure to select combinations of genes or proteins.

Since they can be derived from a patient's own cells, induced pluripotent stem cells may offer some clinical advantages over human embryonic stem cells by avoiding problems with rejection. However, scientists are still working to understand subtle differences between human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, including a higher rate of genetic mutations among the induced pluripotent cells and evidence that the cells may retain some "memory" of their previous lineage.

Gene therapy using induced pluripotent stem cells holds promise for treating many inherited and acquired diseases such as Huntington's disease, degenerative retinal disease or diabetes. The patient in this study suffers from a degenerative eye disease known as gyrate atrophy, which is characterized by progressive loss of visual acuity and night vision leading to eventual blindness.

While diseases such as genetic retinal disorders and diabetes offer attractive targets for induced pluripotent stem cell-based transplant therapies, concerns have been raised over the commonly occurring mutations in the cells and their potential to become cancerous.

Howden says that because gene targeting to correct specific genetic defects typically requires an extended culture period beyond initial induced pluripotent stem cell generation, researchers have been interested to learn whether the process would increase the number of mutations in the cells. The team set out to determine if it was possible to correct defects without introducing a level of mutations that would be incompatible with clinical applications.

In the study, the researchers used a technique called episomal reprogramming to generate the induced pluripotent stem cells. In contrast to techniques that use retroviruses, episomal reprogramming doesn't involve inserting DNA into the genome. This technique allowed them to produce cells that were free of potentially harmful transgene sequences.

The scientists then corrected the actual retinal disease-causing gene defect using a technique called homologous recombination. The stem cells were extensively "characterized" or studied before and after the process to assess whether they developed significant additional mutations or variations. The results showed that the culture conditions required to correct a genetic defect did not substantially increase the number of mutations.

"By showing that the process of correcting a genetic defect in patient-derived induced pluripotent cells is compatible with therapeutic use, we eliminated one barrier to gene therapy based on these cells," Howden says. "There is still much work to be done."

David Gamm, an author of the study and an assistant professor with the Department of Ophthalmology and the Waisman Center Stem Cell Research Program, says the ability to correct gene defects in a patient's own induced pluripotent stem cells should increase the appeal of stem cell technology to researchers striving to improve vision in patients with inherited blinding disorders.

"Although further development certainly is needed before such techniques may reach the clinical trial stage, our findings offer reason for continued hope," Gamm says. "Dr. Howden and our collaborative group have overcome an important hurdle which, when considered in the context of other recent developments, may lead to personalized stem cell therapies that benefit people with genetic visual disorders."

In addition to primary author Howden, who holds joint appointments with the Morgridge Institute for Research, the Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology and the Genome Center of Wisconsin, co-authors of the study included: Thomson, who in addition holds an appointment with the Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, University of California-Santa Barbara; Gamm, who holds joint appointments with the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health's Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Waisman Center Stem Cell Research Program; Jeff Nie, Goukai Chen, Brian McIntosh, Daniel Gulbranson, Nicole Diol and David Vereide with the Morgridge Institute for Research; Athurva Gore, Zhe Li, Ho-Lim Fung and Kun Zhang, of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California-San Diego; and Benjamin Nisler, Seth Taapken and Karen Dyer Montgomery of WiCell Research Institute.

Source: ScienceDaily

Una ricercatrice americana ha scoperto che i pipistrelli sono in grado di selezionare gli stimoli sonori in base alla loro importanza per la sopravvivenza e ipotizza che anche gli uomini utilizzano un meccanismo simile per orientarci nel complesso ambiente sensoriale che ci circonda. (Silvia Artana)

Come facciamo a sentire la sirena di un’ambulanza in mezzo alla confusione del traffico dell’ora di punta, tra i clacson che suonano e la radio accesa? Ce lo spiegano i pipistrelli. La statunitense Bridget Queenan, del Georgetown University Medical Center, ha scoperto che nel cervello dei chirotteri esistono neuroni che “zittiscono” gli altri quando rilevano suoni importanti e neuroni che “gridano più forte” per trasmettere questi suoni al di sopra del rumore di fondo. Un meccanismo che - secondo la ricercatrice - potrebbe essere presente anche negli uomini.

Suoni per orientarsi

La funzione uditiva del cervello dei pipistrelli è da sempre oggetto di studio per la capacità che hanno questi mammiferi di utilizzare i suoni in modo complesso. Infatti, oltre a emettere un’ampia gamma di segnali sonori per comunicare con i propri simili, essi utilizzano i suoni per orientarsi nello spazio e cacciare. Grazie alla ecolocalizzazione, una specie di sonar biologico, i pipistrelli lanciano segnali sonori a frequenze specifiche e ascoltano gli echi che questi producono rimbalzando sulle superfici circostanti per individuare gli oggetti e le prede.
   
E NEGLI UOMINI?

Un meccanismo simile a quello dei neuroni dei pipistrelli sarebbe attivo anche nel cervello degli uomini e spiegherebbe per esempio come fa una madre a sentire la voce di suo figlio in un parco giochi affollato di altri bambini.
Una teoria che, se dimostrata, potrebbe aiutarci a capire come riusciamo a individuare le informazioni che ci servono per vivere e relazionarci con i nostri simili tra tutti gli stimoli sensoriali che ci bombardano quotidianamente. 

Che rumore!

Ma immaginate una colonia di centinaia di pipistrelli che emettono segnali per "vedere" e nel frattempo cercano di comunicare? Come a ecolocalizzare e a sentire contemporaneamente i messaggi sociali nella confusione sonora? La ricercatrice statunitense ha sottoposto alcuni pipistrelli con i baffi (Pteronotus Parnellii) in stato di veglia a differenti combinazioni di segnali di ecolocalizzazione e di comunicazione e ha monitorato l’attività di un’area del loro cervello dove è massima l’acutezza del sistema uditivo.

Neuroni silenziatori

Le rilevazioni hanno evidenziato la presenza di neuroni che “silenziano” letteralmente l’attività di altre cellule neurali quando identificano suoni importanti e di neuroni che amplificano la percezione dei segnali sociali in presenza di rumore di fondo, interagendo in un network che permette ai pipistrelli di sentire le comunicazioni necessarie alla propria sopravvivenza in mezzo all’inquinamento acustico della colonia.

Fonte: Focus.it

TA

High school students who feel they do not fit in are less likely to attend college — particularly girls who are gay or obese — according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.

"Because social experiences in high school have such demonstrable effects on academic progress and attending college, the social concerns of teenagers are educational concerns for school," says sociologist Robert Crosnoe.

Crosnoe has completed one of the most comprehensive studies of the long-term effects on teenagers who say they don't fit in. He used national statistics from 132 high schools and spent more than a year inside a high school in Texas with 2,200 students, observing and interviewing teenagers. His findings will be published in his new book "Fitting In, Standing Out" (Cambridge University Press, April 11).

"Kids who have social problems — often because they are overweight or gay are at greater risk of missing out on going to college simply because of the social problems they have and how it affects them emotionally," says Crosnoe, a Sociology Department professor and Population Research Center affiliate. "Not because of anything to do with intelligence or academic progress."

Girls were 57 percent and boys 68 percent less likely than peers of the same race, social class and academic background to attend college if they had feelings of not fitting in, according to the study. Particularly at risk were girls who are obese, who are 78 percent less likely to attend college than non-obese girls, and those who are gay, who are 50 percent less likely to attend.

Crosnoe found feelings of not fitting in led to increased depression, marijuana use and truancy over time. Those coping strategies interrupt the education process — the classes teenagers take, the grades they make — which, in turn, affect their ability to go to college.

"Teenagers cope with the discomforts of not fitting in, including being bullied, in ways that are protective in the short term, but disastrous in the long term," says Crosnoe.

His research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and William T. Grant Foundation, has resulted in recommendations for how parents, teachers and policymakers can ensure that the social side of high school supports, rather than undermines, academics. It comes at a time when state lawmakers and federal policymakers are tackling bullying — often a cause of teenage social problems — as a national crisis.

Source: EurekAlert