Prostate Cancer Risk Linked To Early-Onset Baldness In New Study

French researchers said it, and now a team from the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have released new evidence to support their claim: Men who lose their hair early in life have a greater risk of developing prostate cancer.

In a study of 537 African-American men -- 318 with prostate cancer and 219 controls -- investigators discovered that baldness of any kind was associated with a 69 percent increased risk of prostate cancer, particularly among African-American men.

According to the study, which was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, black men with frontal baldness, and not vertex baldness, were more than twice as likely to have been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. The association was even stronger among those who were diagnosed when younger than 60, with a sixfold increase in high-stage prostate cancer and a fourfold increase in high-grade prostate cancer.

The findings concur with a 2011 report showing that men who start to go bald at age 20 may be more likely to develop prostate cancer in later life. Though grim, the team conducting that study suggested that their findings be used as a basis for early screening or preventative therapy for those at higher risk.

“Early-onset baldness may be a risk factor for early-onset prostate cancer in African-American men, particularly younger men,” said Charnita Zeigler-Johnson, Ph.D., research assistant professor at the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UPenn and lead author of the study. “Pending future studies to confirm our results, there is a potential to use early-onset baldness as a clinical indicator of increased risk for prostate cancer in some populations of men,” he added.

Black men have the highest incidence rate for prostate cancer in the United States and are more than twice as likely as White men to die of the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.

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Ancient Fashion Trends & 'Style' Revealed In Study Of 75,000-Year-Old Shell-Beads

By Michael Balter

The 2013 Academy Awards were, as always, as much about making appearances as about making films, as red carpet watchers noted fashion trends and faux pas. Both Jessica Chastain and Naomi Watts wore Armani, although fortunately not the same dress. And Best Supporting Actress Anne Hathaway switched from Valentino to a controversial pale pink Prada at the last minute because her original dress looked too much like someone else's. Of course, no actress would be caught dead wearing the same style 2 years in a row. A new study of ancient beaded jewelry from a South African cave finds that ancient humans were no different, avoiding outdated styles as early as 75,000 years ago.

Personal ornaments, often in the form of beads worn as necklaces or bracelets, are considered by archaeologists as a key sign of sophisticated symbolic behavior, communicating either membership in a group or individual identity. Such ornaments are ubiquitous in so-called Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe beginning about 40,000 years ago, where they were made from many different materials—animal and human teeth, bone and ivory, stone, and mollusk shells—and often varied widely among regions and sites.

Even more ancient personal ornaments go back to at least 100,000 years ago in Africa and the Near East. But this earlier jewelry seems less variable and was nearly always made from mollusk shells. So some archaeologists have questioned whether these earlier ornaments played the same symbolic roles as the later ones, or even whether they were made by humans at all.

In a new study in press at the Journal of Human Evolution, a team led by archaeologist Marian Vanhaeren of the University of Bordeaux in France claims to have found evidence of a relatively sudden shift in the way that shell beads were strung. The beads were found at Blombos Cave in South Africa in archaeological layers dated between 75,000 and 72,000 years ago, during a time period marked by four distinct layers of artifacts called the Still Bay tradition. This tradition includes bone awls and sophisticated stone spear points and knives, as well as beads from jewelry: sixty-eight specimens of the southern African tick shell, Nassarius kraussianus, most found clustered together and thought to be part of individual necklaces or bracelets. All the shells are perforated with a single hole, and the team's microscopic studies—as well as experiments with shells of the same species collected near the site—have suggested that they were punctured with a finely tipped bone point.

Reconstruction (with modern shells) of the Blombos Cave beadwork.

To get an idea of how the shell beads were worn, Vanhaeren and her colleagues examined the wear (smoothing) around the perforations and on other parts of the shells. They then carried out additional experiments in which N. kraussianus shells were shaken together for many hours at a time and exposed to a diluted vinegar solution meant to mimic human sweat, among other tests, while strung together in various ways.

By stringing the shells themselves in various configurations, the team identified six possible ways that the beads could have been worn, including tying a knot around each shell, stringing them in a continuous row, braiding them with two strings at a time, and reversing the orientations of the shells to each other. Then, by analyzing the wear on the shells caused by these arrangements, Vanhaeren and colleagues determined just how the beads were strung. "In the lower [older] layers, the shells hang free on a string with their flat, shiny [sides] against each other," Vanhaeren says. But like all fashions, that one didn't last long: In the two upper, younger layers, "the shells are knotted together two by two, with their shiny side up" (see photos).

The team concludes that this is the earliest evidence of a shift in "social norms" or "customized style," a change that "parallels the many similar changes in symbolic norms observed among more recent and historically known human societies." It is not yet clear whether the earlier residents of Blombos changed their own fashion ideas, or if they were later replaced by another group of early humans who liked to wear their beads differently. Either way, the findings suggest that these beads, like jewelry today, served a fully symbolic function, the team concludes.

It's an "impressive in-depth study" filled with "fascinating detail," says Olaf Jöris, an archaeologist at the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre in Neuwied, Germany. Stanley Ambrose, an archaeologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, adds that the team's "basic conclusions"—that there was a change in style, or at the very least a change in technique, during the Still Bay period—"seem sound." He adds that the shell beads come from a time when overall cultural innovation among early humans appears to have been speeding up, as evidenced by the short-lived nature of the Still Bay itself, which was soon replaced with other stone and bone tool styles.

But Jöris and some other archaeologists caution against drawing too many firm conclusions from the work. Randall White, an archaeologist at New York University in New York City, has questioned—on the basis of experiments that he and his students carried out—whether the perforations in the Blombos beads were actually made by humans. He suggests that the holes were the result of burial damage, trampling, or even erosion by acidic soils. Jöris says the researcher's assumption that the shell beads were strung as necklaces or bracelets could be wrong, because they did not consider the possibility that they were sewn onto clothing, a cultural style often found in the European Upper Paleolithic. That arrangement could have caused wear patterns that the team did not consider, he says.

ScienceNOW, the daily online news service of the journal Science

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A Case Study In The Value Of Responsive Design

In advance of the responsive orchestra website review later this week, it makes sense to provide a working example of not only what responsive design is, but why it is a necessary component for contemporary performing arts org web design.

In order to get a really good idea of just how effective responsive web design is at producing both desktop and mobile versions of a website via single source contact, take a look at a psychopath; or to be more accurate, the Lost Colony’s Psychopath: Haunted Island website.

In 2013, Venture Platform user The Lost Colony decided to launch a new fall attraction and needed a simple micro-site to help promote and brand their outdoor haunted trail, which features special effect lighting, animation, and live actors.

The end result was www.hauntedisland.org; the entire project cost less than $500 and took 13 days to produce an incredibly tap-friendly site that works equally well on Smartphones, tablets, laptop, and desktop browsers. Everything a site visitor needs to know about the attraction, right down to a button for ordering tickets, is on a single fast loading page.

When was the last time you heard about a project that took so little time, at that price point, and produced such a powerful user friendly end result that works across all platforms? That’s what responsive design is all about when implemented properly.

Here are some actual screencaps from this project on Smartphone, tablet, and desktop browsers.

If you don’t have a Smartphone or tablet handy, you can still get a good sense for how responsive design works by resizing your browser. Try this:

Open another browser in a separate window and/or screen and head over to http://hauntedisland.org/.Minimize your browser window.Drag the window so the browser width gets smaller or larger.Keep an eye on the page elements while you’re dragging, do you notice what happens to elements like the slider text, which moves below the slide image on narrow browser widths (i.e. Smartphone) then back to the image overlay position when the browser is wider (tablet and desktop widths)?Same thing is true for the purchase tickets button which is located to the right of the related text on wider browsers but moves below on narrow widths. And keep an eye on the line break points for all text based content.

Or just sit back, relax, and watch this screencast video.

Yes, it was fun to put an upbeat tune behind a demo featuring a scary, thriller style design.

In the end, this case study provides a better understanding of not only what responsive design is, but how it works and how you need to begin thinking about incorporating it into the very first steps of your design process.

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house. I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why. In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu. For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, and love a good coffee drink.

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Food Cooked At High Temperatures May Pose Diabetes Risk, Study Finds

By Mikel Theobald

A healthy diet is one of the cornerstones of managing diabetes. Switching out sugary, high-carb foods for more healthful choices is a given, but you may not realize that the cooking methods you use to prepare even good-for-you foods can put your health at risk. A University of Illinois study found evidence that cooking methods using high temperatures, like grilling, frying, and broiling, are particularly risky because they produce “advanced glycation end products,” or AGEs, harmful compounds that may play a role in the development of diabetes-related complications.

Advanced glycation end products are sugar-derived substances produced naturally in small amounts by your body. They began forming when you were in the womb and continue accumulating as you age. When you have diabetes, you produce higher concentrations of AGEs because of the increased levels of glucose in your system.

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AGEs are also produced in foods, especially those that are exposed to heat. Foods cooked at high temperatures are more likely to produce a higher amount of AGEs – and you can taste the results. These compounds are responsible for giving steaks their enticing charred grill marks and brownies their irresistibly crispy edges. Foods that are pasteurized or sterilized at high heat can also form AGEs. Animal-based foods that have high fat and protein are typically AGE-rich to begin with and more likely to form additional AGEs when cooked at high temperatures. On the other hand, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and milk have relatively few AGEs, even when cooked.

Damaging Effects of AGEing

According to Claudia Luevano-Contreras, a PhD candidate in the division of nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-author of the University of Illinois study on AGEs, “it is believed that AGEs could provoke the tissue damage seen in complications of diabetes." A number of studies have found that a higher intake of AGEs produce levels of inflammation and oxidation in people with diabetes. Inflammation triggered by oxidative stress is at the root of many chronic conditions.

Atherosclerosis, the dangerous buildup of plaque along arteries, is already a health threat to people with diabetes, and high amounts of AGEs in your diet could make it worse. According to the American Diabetes Association, studies show that AGEs contribute to plaque buildup, arterial stiffening, and loss of elasticity in large blood vessels. Blood flow to your heart could become reduced if plaque buildup, inflammation, or oxidation occurs. Without adequate oxygen-rich blood flow to your heart, your chance of having a heart attack or developing cardiovascular disease increases.

Tips to Minimize Risk

A Mount Sinai School of Medicine study published by the Journals of Gerontology found that the inflammation and oxidative stress that commonly occur with old age will occur even in healthy younger people if their diet includes a high amount of AGEs. The research suggests changing your approach to cooking to reduce your exposure to AGEs. The American Diabetes Association offers tips to get you started:

- Eat more fresh foods.
- Cook at lower temperatures.
- Cook using moist heat techniques: Steam, boil, poach, or stew foods.
- Marinate foods in acidic liquids, such as lemon juice and vinegar, rather than sugary sauces, to reduce AGEs.
- If you choose to use the grill, be sure to clean off any charred remains on the grilling rack before cooking.
- Turn meat often, every 30 to 60 seconds, to avoid charring.
- If a food does become charred or blackened, cut off those pieces before eating.
- Choose thin, lean cuts of meat that require less cooking time.
- Opt for fish instead of meat – fish cooks faster, leaving less time for AGEs to form.
- Remove skin when cooking poultry because it chars easily.

"Charred Foods May Pose Diabetes Risks" originally appeared on Everyday Health.

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Twitter Study: Reasons For Success On Twitter

Advertise virtually anything here, with CPM banner ads, CPM email ads and CPC contextual links. You can target relevant areas of the site and show ads based on geographical location of the user if you wish.

Starts at just $1 per CPM or $0.10 per CPC.

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UK Drinking Study: Britons Underestimate Their Alcohol Consumption By 40 Percent (VIDEO)

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LONDON -- Truth and alcohol may not mix, particularly when people are asked how much they drink.

That's the implication of a study released Wednesday that reveals a big gap between the booze Britons own up to drinking and the amount of alcohol sold nationwide. The study indicates that people routinely underestimate their alcohol consumption by around 40 percent.

That may not be particularly surprising, but the study puts a figure to the phenomenon of the drunk who claims not to have anything more than a couple of beers. Lead author Sadie Boniface said the unreported alcohol equates to nearly one bottle of wine per British adult per week – an amount she said wasn't just disappearing.

"It has to have gone somewhere," she said in a telephone interview.

Boniface and Nicola Shelton, both with the University College London's Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, derived their figures by comparing self-reported data in a public health survey accounting for 14,041 people aged 16 and up to alcohol sales figures kept by British tax authorities.

The gap was huge. More than 20 percent of Britons' annual wine consumption – or 2.6 million hectoliters (69 million gallons) – was unaccounted for. Nearly half of Britons' beer consumption – 45 million hectoliters (1.2 billion gallons) – was unclaimed. And Britons seemed particularly reluctant to take credit for gulping down whiskey, vodka, tequila and gin. Nearly 60 percent of Britain's spirit consumption remained unreported.

Boniface said the more accurate reporting of wine versus beer and spirits might have something to do with the cultural baggage attached to them.

"If you think about drinking wine, you generally think of sitting around a fancy meal," she said. "It's thought of as much more of a civilized drinking occasion than drinking spirits might be, although that's just speculation."

The study, published in the European Journal of Public Health, considered a host of other possible reasons for the underreporting. Maybe children under the age of 16, tourists or homeless people – all groups which wouldn't have been covered by the survey – were buying the unclaimed booze. Maybe the whiskey was being kept on shelves rather than being sipped after dinner. Maybe the wine was being used in cooking, or thrown out when it expired, or being spilled across white carpets.

Boniface said those factors were all considered and then ruled out.

"It can't be a small minority – such as homeless people – that are drinking vast, vast amounts," she said. "It's a widespread problem."

Issues around self-reporting aren't new – people routinely overestimate their height or underestimate their weight, for example. And it's long been known that alcohol intake is particularly liable to be underreported; Boniface said that many doctors mentally double the alcohol intake given to them by their patients.

But Boniface said the study fleshed out an issue which is particularly salient in the context of Britain's struggle to control a surge in boozing which has seen Britain's annual alcohol-related death toll more than double between 1992 and 2008. If authorities don't know how much Britons are drinking, she said, then how can they get a handle on the situation?

Underreporting has "huge consequences for public health," she said, "and we don't have any idea what they are."

___

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European Journal of Public Health: http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org

Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter

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Crabs Feel Pain After All, New Study Suggests

Bob Elwood, Queen's University Belfast, led a study showing that crabs respond to a mild electrical shock in a way consistent with pain.

By: Joseph Castro, LiveScience Contributor
Published: 01/16/2013 06:03 PM EST on LiveScience

Scientists have long held that crabs are unable to feel pain because they lack the biology to do so, but behavioral evidence has recently shown otherwise. Now, new research further supports the hypothesis that crabs feel pain by showing that crabs given a mild shock will take steps to avoid getting shocked in the future.

From humans to fruit flies, numerous species come equipped with nociception, a type of reflex that helps avoid immediate tissue damage. On the other hand, pain, which results in a swift change of behavior to avoid future damage, isn't so widespread. (Research has also shown naked mole rats may be immune to pain.)

In the new study, researchers allowed shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) to choose between one of two dark shelters in a brightly lit tank. One shelter came with a mild shock. After just two trials, crabs that initially chose the shocking shelter began opting for the zapless shelter, suggesting they learned to discriminate between the two options and headed for the less painful one.

"It's almost impossible to prove an animal feels pain, but there are criteria you can look at," said lead researcher Robert Elwood, an animal behaviorist at Queen's University, Belfast, in the U.K. "Here we have another criteria satisfied — if the data are consistent, a body of evidence [showing crabs feel pain] can build up."

Building evidence

Elwood initially set out to see if crabs and other crustacean decapods feel pain after a chef posed him the question around eight years ago. If the invertebrates (animals without backbones) feel pain, he reasoned, their reactions to unpleasant stimuli would be more than the simple reflex of nociception — the experience would change their long-term behavior.

Elwood's first experiment showed that prawns whose antennae were doused with caustic soda vigorously groomed their antennae, as if trying to ameliorate pain. Importantly, this behavior didn't occur if Elwood treated the antennae with an anesthetic first.

Another experiment showed that hermit crabs would leave their shells if given a mild shock. "A naked crab is basically a dead crab — they were trading off avoiding the shock with getting out of the shell," Elwood told LiveScience, adding that many of the crabs moved into new shells if any were available. [The 10 Weirdest Animal Discoveries]

For his new study, Elwood tested 90 shore crabs, which naturally seek dark spaces, to see if they exhibited "avoidance learning" and would discriminate between a dangerous and a safe area. Half of the crabs were shocked upon entering the first chamber of their choice, while the other half were not. For each crab, the jolting chamber stayed the same throughout the 10 trials.

In the second trial, most of the crabs returned to their original shelter; whether they were shocked in the first trial had little effect on their second choice. However, crabs were more likely to change shelter in the third trial if they were shocked in the second trial. And as the trials wore on, crabs that chose incorrectly became more likely to exit the unpleasant chamber, brave the bright arena and hide in the alternate shelter. By the final test, the majority of the crabs chose the nonshock shelter at first go.

Time for change?

The research "provides evidence that supports the issue that crabs — and other crustacean decapods as well — feel pain," Francesca Gherardi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Florence in Italy who wasn't involved in the study, told LiveScience in an email. "It is avoidance learning that makes the difference."

Animals in pain should quickly learn to avoid the unpleasant stimulus and show long-term changes in behavior, Gherardi noted. More research is needed on decapods' avoidance learning and "discrimination abilities between painful and nonpainful situations," he said.

Elwood said he thinks future research should go in a different direction. Stress often comes with pain, he said, so other experiments could look at changes in crustacean hormones or heart rates due to shock.

Whatever the case, Elwood feels it may be time to reconsider the treatment of decapods in the food industry. "If the evidence for pain in decapods continues to stack up with mammals and birds that already get some protection, then perhaps there should be some nod in that direction for these animals," he said.

The study was published today (Jan. 16) in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

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