Khutbah Terakhir Nabi Muhammad S.A.W.

Kutbah ini disampaikan pada 9 Zulhijah Tahun 10 Hijrah di Lembah Uranah, Gunung Arafah.

Wahai manusia, dengarlah baik-baik apa yang hendak ku katakan. Aku tidak mengetahui apakah aku dapat bertemu lagi dengan kamu semua selepas tahun ini. Oleh itu dengarlah dengan teliti kata-kata ku ini dan sampaikanlah ia kepada orang-orang yang tidak dapat hadir di sini pada hari ini.

Wahai manusia, sepertimana kamu menganggap bulan ini dan kota ini sebagai suci, maka anggaplah jiwa dan harta setiap muslim sebagai amanah suci.

Kembalikan harta yang diamanahkan kepada kamu kepada pemiliknya yang berhak.

Jangan kamu sakiti sesiapapun agar orang lain tidak menyakiti kamu lagi.

Ingatlah bahawa sesungguhnya kamu akan menemui Tuhan kamu dan Dia pasti membuat perhitungan di atas segala amalan kamu.

Allah telah mengharamkan riba, oleh itu segala urusan yang melibatkan riba dibatalkan mulai sekarang.

Berwaspadalah terhadap syaitan demi keselamatan agama kamu.

Dia telah berputus asa untuk menyesatkan kamu dalam perkara-perkara besar, maka berjaga-jagalah supaya kamu tidak mengikutinya dalam perkara-perkara kecil.

Wahai manusia, sebagaimana kamu mempunyai hak atas isteri kamu, mereka juga mempunyai hak di atas kamu. Sekiranya mereka menyempurnakan hak mereka keatas kamu maka mereka juga berhak untuk diberi makan dan pakaian dalam suasana kasih sayang.

Layanilah wanita-wanita kamu dengan baik, berlemah lembutlah terhadap mereka kerana sesungguhnya mereka adalah teman dan pembantu kamu yang setia. Dan hak kamu atas mereka ialah mereka sama sekali tidak boleh memasukkan orang yang kamu tidak sukai ke dalam rumah kamu dan dilarang melakukan zina.

Wahai manusia, dengarkanlah bersungguh-sungguh kata-kataku ini, sembahlah Allah, dirikanlah sembahyang lima kali sehari, berpuasalah di bulan Ramadan!, dan tunaikan zakat dari harta kekayaan kamu. Kerjakanlah ibadat haji sekiranya kamu mampu.

Ketahuilah bahawa setiap muslim adalah saudara kepada muslim yang lain. Kamu semua adalah sama, tidak seorangpun yang lebih mulia dari yang lainnya kecuali dalam taqwa dan beramal soleh.

Ingatlah bahawa kamu akan mengadap Allah pada suatu hari untuk dipertanggungjawabkan diatas segala apa yang telah kamu kerjakan. Oleh itu awasilah agar jangan sekali-kali kamu terkeluar dari landasan kebenaran selepas ketiadaanku.

Wahai manusia, tidak akan ada lagi Nabi dan Rasul yang akan datang selepasku dan tidak akan lahir agama baru.

Oleh itu wahai manusia, nilailah dengan betul dan fahamilah kata-kata ku yang telah aku sampaikan kepada kamu.

Sesungguhnya aku tinggalkan kepada kamu dua perkara, yang sekiranya kamu berpegang teguh dan mengikuti kedua-duanya, nescaya kamu tidak akan tersesat selama-lamanya. Itulah Al Quran dan Sunnah ku.

Hendaknya orang-orang yang mendengar ucapanku, menyampaikan pula kepada orang lain semoga yang terakhir lebih memahami kata-kataku dari mereka yang terus mendengar dari ku.

Saksikanlah Ya Allah, bahawasanya telah ku sampaikan risalah Mu kepada hamba-hambaMU.

Biodegradable products may be BAD for the environment, release greenhouse gas: NC State study

⁠May.31, 2011 in ⁠Environmental Health, Environmental Health: Bioplastics, Environmental Health: Sustainability ⁠Leave a Comment

 

Research from North Carolina State University shows that so-called biodegradable products are likely doing more harm than good in landfills, because they are releasing a powerful greenhouse gas as they break down. “Biodegradable materials, such as disposable cups and utensils, are broken down in landfills by microorganisms that then produce methane,” says Dr. Morton Barlaz, [...]

 



More here: http://www.stonehearthnewsletters.com/biodegradable-products-bad-for-the-environment-release-greenhouse-gas-nc-state-study/environmental-health/

Employees more likely to be happy when management readily shares information, consults with them

⁠Jun.02, 2011 in ⁠Human Behavior, Human Behavior: Sadness, Human Behavior: Self Esteem, Human Behavior: Stress, Workplace Issues

 

People are happier when their jobs have variety and autonomy.

 

Managements that readily share information and consult with employees make for happier staff.

 

There are ways of treating people at work that can make them happier and which have little to do with money.

 

Performance-related pay, including bonuses given to City workers and other employees, make no difference to employee satisfaction or stress.

 

People who are given greater variety and independence in their jobs feel both less stressed and more satisfied, according to findings which suggest that several management practices designed to make employees more efficient also make them happier, according to a new study.

 

Employees are also more likely to be happy when management readily shares information and consults with them, the study shows.

 

Stephen Wood, the University of Leicester Professor of Management who led the research, said: “The way jobs are designed has a huge impact on employees’ sense of happiness at work. But this is in danger of being neglected, at a time when people are worrying about unemployment, job security and the fairness of large salaries.”

 

The research measures two separate forms of well-being: anxiety and job satisfaction. It tests to see whether either is different in workplaces where executives practise what management gurus call “high performance work systems”: boosting performance by giving people greater involvement in their own companies. This includes granting employees more variety and autonomy – what Wood calls “enriched jobs”. It also includes “informative management”: telling people more about changes in their company, including staffing and its overall financial performance. Another example is greater consultation between bosses and employees where both sides can put forward their views: “consultative management”.

 

Professor Wood says: “The current government’s desire to measure our well-being seems

 

Largely to have provoked public debates about whether money can make us happy. This research shows there are ways of treating people at work that can make them happier, which have little to do with money.”

 

Job Satisfaction: Fact or Fiction: Are you satisfied with your job?

 

The study is reported in a paper written by Professor Wood and Lilian de Menezes, Professor at Cass Business School in London. The paper suggests that in particular, “Enriched jobs appear to be key to well-being at work.” The report adds: “An enriched job may also increase opportunities for skill use and development, job variety, and the sense of being valued or playing a significant role in the organization or society, thus adding to the potential impact on well-being.”

 

Taking the findings into the practical realm, the authors recommend: “Our study implies that priority should be given to initiatives that enrich jobs, enhance consultation and improve information sharing and consultation.” Wood also stresses that future surveys of well-being organised by the government should include the quality of work. The government is still discussing how precisely to measure well-being.

 

The study also shows that performance-related pay, one widely-used management tenet of high performance work systems, makes no difference to satisfaction or stress. Performance-related pay includes bonuses given to City workers and other employees.

 

The research is based on data from the government’s 2004 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, which involved 22,451 employees at 2,295 workplaces in the UK. Professors Wood and de Menezes used data gathered from questionnaires filled out by the employees and the interviews with managers at the same workplaces.

 

For example, managers were asked whether they designed core jobs so employees had “a lot” of influence over how they did their work at one extreme, or no influence at the other. Employees were asked about their well-being at work, such as whether they felt tense “all of the time” at one end, to “never” at the other.

 

The analysis then correlated the measures of management practice, such as how managers design jobs, with the measures of the well-being of employees.

 

While the study presents practical evidence of how to make people happier at work, other research suggests there has been a long-term decline in job autonomy – although it may have stabilized recently at a low level. Individual autonomy at British call centres, for example, is exceptionally low compared with other countries, according to another study by Professor Wood and David Holman of Manchester Business School.

 

This latest research on happiness and high performance work systems is reported in ‘High Involvement Management, High Performance Work Systems and Well-Being’, S. Wood and L. M. de Menezes, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2011, Vol. 22, No.7, pp.1585–1608.

Controlling Anger: An Islamic Approach

What is anger? Why and how does it happen? How does it affect our health and our relationships? Can anger be controlled? And how can we do that? In this series, we'll discuss anger and techniques for anger management and conflict resolution in light of Islamic teachings.

Living with a highly stressful modern lifestyle, we all suffer from bursts of anger, whether it is we who get angry or others who get angry with us. Daily traffic, the economic crisis, and relationship and job stress all cause everyone a buildup of negative emotions that need venting.

Often, while trying to relieve the pressure, we burst into anger tantrums, which we regret later because, inevitably, we cause harm in the process, which in turn causes more anger and we end up spinning in a vicious circle of negative feelings and actions. The constant pressures make it almost unrealistic to ask people to control their anger.

Taking advantage of the lucrative market, hundreds of anger management books and workshops were produced, promising instant, magical solutions to the millions of sufferers worldwide; yet, the problem keeps getting worse.

As Muslims, we're not immune to the anger epidemic; we're even bearing additional pressures of religious and racial profiling. We're often perceived as guilty until proven innocent, which is extremely frustrating for honest citizens. What's worse, anger-inducing techniques are deliberately used in some situations to cause an emotional eruption in order to affirm the stereotype of the "uncivilized" that is now being indiscriminately attached to all Muslims.

Yet, we forget that we have a treasure of effective anger management techniques in our heritage waiting to be rediscovered and adapted to our modern knowledge of human behavior and relationship dynamics. Let's start by examining anger itself and then gradually discover how to manage it and even use it to our advantage.

What Is Anger?

It is a misconception that emotions cannot be controlled and could run wild against our will

Anger is an emotion. Emotions follow thoughts, so if you are angry, it's because you're thinking angry thoughts. We have to learn how to manage our thinking in order to modify our reactions to situations. It is a misconception that emotions cannot be controlled and could run wild against our will. And so, it is not a surprise that Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) promises peace of "heart" to anyone who strives to control his thoughts in order to prevent an angry emotional reaction: "Whoever curbs his anger while being able to carry it out, Allah will fill his heart with certainty of faith." (Abu Hurairah).

Anger is a choice. It has nothing to do with gender, level of stress, or ethnic group. We get angry because we choose to be angry. Thus, the Prophet's order "Do not become angry and furious" (Al-Bukhari) isn't asking the impossible — it's actually reminding us that we have a choice

No one can make you angry. A person or situation cannot make you angry, and your emotions depend on the way you process the situation based on various factors, such as past experiences, upbringing, and frame of reference. Therefore, our reaction is learned, not inherited. We learn to be angry. And so God Himself teaches us how to make the choice: The Prophet said, "When Allah completed the creation, He wrote in His Book, which is with Him on His Throne, 'My Mercy overpowers My Anger'" (Al-Bukhari).

Anger is wasted energy. When we get really angry and start shouting, does it help us solve our problems? No, it doesn't — it actually clouds our judgment and complicates problems. Does it encourage others to be helpful? No, it doesn't — it drives them away. So, what do we really gain from all this expended energy? Nothing. Muslims are aware they will be asked how they spent every second of their lives and every ounce of their energy, which makes it shameful to consciously waste energy.

Constructive Anger vs. Destructive Anger

What determines the effects of anger on you is largely how you deal with it and how successfully you can channel the explosive energy into  something useful

Anger is built into humans, and it comes in many types, so all of us are bound to experience anger in one way or another. It isn't a "bad" emotion of itself either. It's how we process it that makes it good or bad, constructive or destructive. What determines the effects of anger on you is largely how you deal with it and how successfully you can channel the explosive energy into achieving something useful and constructive.

For example, if you get angry because of injustice and use your anger to work very hard to restore justice, then your anger was constructive. But if you get angry because of injustice and use it as an excuse to retaliate with more injustice, or fall into despair and depression, or promote hate, or engage in criminal activity, then this is destructive anger. It eats you away and degrades you as a human, while at the same time it causes harm and destruction to those around you.

This downward spiral of negativity isn't befitting a good Muslim, whom the Prophet described as someone whom people are "safe from his tongue and his hand." In other words, a good Muslim isn't only encouraged, but is in fact duty-bound to learn how to control and manage his anger. And that's what we will discuss in the next articles.

Sahar El-Nadi is an Egyptian freelance journalist who traveled to 25 countries around the world and currently based in Cairo. Sahar also worked in many people-related careers in parallel, including presenting public events and TV programs; instructing training courses in communication skills; cross cultural issues; image consulting for public speakers; orientation for first-time visitors to the Middle East; and localization consulting for international educational projects.

Info on cancer

Johns Hopkins Update - Very Good Article  

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY
IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY ('TRY', BEING THE KEY WORD) TO ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY.  

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins :

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer  
   cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have
   multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients
   that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after  
   treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the
   cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable
   size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a  
   person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer
   cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and
   forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has
   nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic,
   to environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing
    diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune
    system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing
   cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells
   in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract etc, and can
   cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars
   and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often
   reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of
   chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor
   destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from
   chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either
   compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb
   to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to
     mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy.
     Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other
     sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer
     cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

*CANCER CELLS FEED ON:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off
   one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar
   substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made
   with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute
    would be Manuka honey (a New Zealand Honey - can be found at some health food stores or online {Amazon.com}) or molasses, but only in very small
    amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in
   color Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the
   gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting
   off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer
   cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based
   diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken
   rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock
   antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all
   harmful, especially to people with cancer..

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole
   grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into
   an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked
   food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live
   enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to
   cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance
   growth of healthy cells.. To obtain live enzymes for building
   healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most
   vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw
   vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at
   temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high
   caffeine Green tea is a better alternative e and has cancer
   fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or
   filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap
   water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of
     digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the
     intestines becomes putrefied and leads to more toxic
     buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By
     refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes
     to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the
     body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system
     (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals,
     EFAs etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy
     cancer cells.  Other supplements like vitamin E are known
     to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's
     normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or
     unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit.
     A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior
    be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put
    the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to
    have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy
    life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated
     environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to
     get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen
     therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer
     cells.

1. No plastic containers in microwave.

2. No water bottles in freezer.

3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital, was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper.  The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave.  As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.  

The Holy Prophet (SAW) Said:

The Holy Prophet (SAW) Said:   1) Four things that make your body sick:   a) Excessive talking b) Excessive sleeping c) Excessive eating and d) Excessive meeting other people 2) Four things that destroys the body:   a) Worrying b) Sorrow (Sadness/Grief) c) Hunger d) Sleeping late in the night 3) Four things that dry the face & take away its happiness:   a) Lying b) Being disrespectful / impudent (insisting on something wrong knowingly) c) Arguing without adequate knowledge & Information. d) Excessive immorality (doing something wrong without fear). 4) Four things that increases the wetness of face & its happiness:   a) Piety b) Loyalty c) Generosity (being kind) d) To be helpful to others without he/she asking for that. 5) Four things that stop the Rizq (Sustenance) :   a) Sleeping in the morning (from Fajr to sunrise) b) Not Performing Namaz or Ir-regular in Prayers c) Laziness / Idleness d) Treachery / Dishonesty 6) Four things that bring / increase the Rizq:   a) Staying up in the night for prayers. b) Excessive Repentance c) Regular Charity d) Zikr (Remembrance of Allah / God).  The Holy Prophet (SAW), Also said to communicate to others even if you listen One Verse (Ayaah) & this one verse will stand on the Day of Judgment for intercession.   The Holy Prophet (SAW) said, Stop doing everything during the Azaan, even reading the Quran, the person who talks  during the Azaan will not be able to say the Kalima E Shahada on his/her death bed....

Using DNA in Fight Against Illegal Logging

Featured In: Academia News

 

Advances in DNA 'fingerprinting' and other genetic techniques led by Adelaide researchers are making it harder for illegal loggers to get away with destroying protected rainforests. DNA fingerprinting for timber products has grown in international recognition due to research led by the University of Adelaide that traces individual logs or wood products back to the forests where they came from.

 

Professor Andrew Lowe, Director of the University's Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, and Dr Hugh Cross, Molecular Biologist at the State Herbarium of South Australia, have been working with Singapore company Double Helix Tracking Technologies (DoubleHelix), a leader in applied genetics for forest trade and conservation.

 

In a new paper published in the journal of the International Association of Wood Anatomists, Professor Lowe and Dr Cross say DNA science has made a number of key advances in the fight against illegal loggers.

 

"Molecular marker methods have been applied to freshly cut wood for a number of years, and it's now also possible to extract and use genetic material from wood products and old samples of wood," Professor Lowe says. "We can use 'DNA barcoding' to identify species, 'DNA fingerprinting' to identify and track individual logs or wood products, and we can also verify the region the wood was sourced from.

 

"The advancement of genetics technologies means that large-scale screening of wood DNA can be done cheaply, routinely, quickly and with a statistical certainty that can be used in a court of law. Importantly, these methods can be applied at a customs entry point to the country - certification documents can be falsified, but DNA cannot."

 

An estimated 10% of wood imported into Australia consists of illegally traded timber, which has been cut down outside designated logging areas or outside agreed environmental controls. Australian companies have been the first in the world to purchase timber products that use DNA fingerprinting, as part of proof of legal origin starting back in 2007 - European and American importers are now following suit.

 

Jonathan Geach, a Director of DoubleHelix, says: "As the technology is now proven scientifically and commercially, we're looking at a large-scale application in the Congo Basin, as well as working with governments in Europe and America to tighten the grip on illegal timber trade.

 

"Having Professor Lowe as a leading researcher from the University of Adelaide and as an active member of our team has been tremendously important in driving the role of DNA tracing in timber internationally."

 

Professor Lowe says a number of improvements in genetic marker methods still need to be made, such as for old or degraded wood samples. "Nevertheless, the advances in the use of DNA to identify wood are exciting," he says.

 

This research is closely aligned with another major project, to develop a 'DNA barcode' for every tree and grass species on earth. "The Barcode of Life projects will take five years to complete, but the information will lead to a step change in the way we can manage our species and ecosystems right across the globe," Professor Lowe says.

 

Source: University of Adelaide

Most athletes peak at age 26, chess players at 31, following physiological law: study

Most athletes peak at age 26, chess players at 31, following physiological law: study

 

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Stone Hearth News

 

Geoffroy Berthelot and Stephane Len, both researchers at the IRMES (Institut de Recherche bioMédicale et d’Epidemiologie du Sport at INSEP, Paris, France), have published their findings in Age, the official journal of the American Aging Association, describing the evolution of performances in elite athletes and chess grandmasters. This article is congruous with the epidemiological approaches developed by the laboratory, and suggests that changes in individual performance are linked to physiological laws structuring the living world.

 

Physiological parameters that characterize human capabilities (mobility, reproduction or the capacity to perform tasks) evolve throughout the life cycle. The physical and intellectual abilities follow the same pattern, starting at the moment of conception: The performance of each individual is limited at birth, then increases to a peak before declining until death. With these findings, Geoffroy Berthelot and Stephane Len modeled the careers of more than 2,000 athletes (from a panel of 25 Olympic disciplines) and grandmasters of chess. They demonstrate a simple relation between changes in performance and the age of individuals.

 



 

The results of this study validate a model previously published by Moore: The evolution of the performances of an individual throughout his life follows an exponential growth curve to a peak before declining irreversibly, following another negative exponential curve. This peak is reached at the age of 26.1 years for the disciplines studied: athletics (26.0 years), swimming (21.0 years) and chess (31.4 years). For each data set, the evolution curve is representative of a range of 91.7% of the variance at the individual level and 98.5% of the variance in terms of sport events. Moreover, these cycles are observable in other physiological parameters such as the development of lung function or cognitive skills, but also at the level of cells, organisms and populations, reflecting the fractal properties of such a law.

 

This study suggests that technical change, energy consumption and development strongly influenced the performance of individuals. These have increased significantly over the last century compared to today’s values. Ultimately, the modeling of changes in performance with age can be extended to all individuals and lead to an estimate of life expectancy.

 

Further research will refine these descriptive models and apply them to other areas of human activity (scientific, economic, ecological …), and test their viability, which may help to assess the relationships of man to his environment.

Elite cyclists are the world’s best athletes: Applied Physiology Lab director at the U of Kansas

Elite cyclists are the world’s best athletes: Applied Physiology Lab director at the U of Kansas

 

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Stone Hearth News

 

The 2,100-mile Tour de France, which begins July 2, will showcase the most superb cyclists in the world. As the Tour participants scale the Alps and Pyrenees and sprint through European streets, the aggressive struggle between teams and riders will build to a crescendo as the Tour reaches its final stage on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

 

But the true soul of the event, one expert said, is a contest of physical stamina and the ability of human beings to tolerate pain.

 



 

Phil Gallagher, director of the Applied Physiology Laboratory at the University of Kansas, is excited to watch the upcoming Tour de France as a longtime fan of cycling and a former endurance athlete himself. But the KU researcher also will observe “le Tour” as an authority on the exceptional human physiological processes that allow these select cyclists to ride for 21 days and push their bodies to extremes.

 

“These guys have been training their entire lives,” Gallagher said. “As a result, elite cyclists have larger hearts than the typical person, so they’re able to push out more blood per beat. They’re able to extract more oxygen from their blood than an untrained individual would.”

 

Gallagher, who qualified multiple times for the U.S. Olympic trials as a cross-country skier, has led research measuring the output of cyclists with a power meter. Gauging cyclists’ productivity in watts, Gallagher found that average riders generate less than half the power of the elite athletes who compete in the Tour de France.

 

“For example, I just went out and cycled around 45 miles this weekend, and averaged around 200 to 225 watts,” said Gallagher. “These Tour riders average double that — and they’re riding double that distance each day. They’ll put out 450 watts average power. They’re basically the top athletes in the world.”

 

To maintain such incredible production of energy, the cyclists in the Tour de France have honed their physiques through extreme training to become specialized for the task, for instance producing more oxygen-transporting red blood cells than the average person.

 

“One way to do this is called ‘live high, train low,’ where you either sleep in a tent that reduces the oxygen level, or you literally live at altitude but train at sea level,” Gallagher said. “Then, as your blood travels through your lungs, it will grab more oxygen from your lungs and deliver more to your muscles.”

 

In recent years, it was this need for a high ratio of red blood cells to plasma that led to doping scandals in the sport, where many riders have been charged with using erythropoietin, or EPO. Others reportedly have undergone secret blood transfusions, where their own blood was stored and returned to their bodies during the race.

 

“Doping is not just in this sport,” said Gallagher. “But the Tour is such a big event, especially in Europe. In the 1990s, doping was just rampant. If you were a Tour rider in the 1990s, chances are that you were doping. There have been a couple of teams since then that have set an anti-doping agenda, and the Tour itself has done a better job of testing these athletes as well.”

 

Indeed, this year 198 blood samples will be taken from the riders the Thursday before the race and a further 150 urine tests and 50 blood tests will be made during the event.

 

Besides rigorous testing, Gallagher said the Tour riders also will be faced with the prospect of fueling themselves with enough calories during the event to make an average person blush.

 

“These cyclist will consume up to 10,000 calories per day, and they will still lose weight,” the KU researcher said. “Even when they’re riding they’ll go through what are called feed zones. They’ll grab a bag with a bunch of food in it. And after they get done riding each day, they’re just gobbling food.”

 

Ultimately, the stress on the bodies of the cyclists will cause them significant physical pain. To a great extent, their psychological power to withstand this discomfort will help determine their success on the Tour.

 

“You need to have the mental capacity to handle a lot of pain,” Gallagher said. “Every single day you’re going 100-plus miles, you throw in the mountains, and you throw in the fact that it’s a race. So it’s prolonged pain that’s going to last for minutes to hours at a time, where you’re just going to be miserable. It takes a special person to handle that.”

 

But for average people looking to achieve a higher level of fitness and endurance, Gallagher says a training regime should be simple, and consist of regularly putting in miles on a bike.

 

“Just go out and ride,” he said. “You just need a bike and a helmet. Have a good time. Hook up with some friends and go out and ride 20 miles or more.”

 

Source

 

This entry was posted in Fitness, Fitness: Cycling, Sports Medicine. Bookmark the permalink.

 

← Virtual health clubs feasible, closer to fruition: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Ocean warming melting polar ice sheets faster than thought: study

Warming of the ocean’s subsurface layers will melt underwater portions of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets faster than previously thought, according to new University of Arizona-led research. Such melting would increase the sea level more than already projected.

 

The research, based on 19 state-of-the-art climate models, proposes a new mechanism by which global warming will accelerate the melting of the great ice sheets during this century and the next.

 



 

The subsurface ocean layers surrounding the polar ice sheets will warm substantially as global warming progresses, the scientists found. In addition to being exposed to warming air, underwater portions of the polar ice sheets and glaciers will be bathed in warming seawater.

 

The subsurface ocean along the Greenland coast could increase as much as 3.6 F (2 C) by 2100.

 

“To my knowledge, this study is the first to quantify and compare future ocean warming around the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets using an ensemble of models,” said lead author Jianjun Yin, a UA assistant professor of geosciences.

 

Most previous research has focused on how increases in atmospheric temperatures would affect the ice sheets, he said.

 

“Ocean warming is very important compared to atmospheric warming because water has a much larger heat capacity than air,” Yin said. “If you put an ice cube in a warm room, it will melt in several hours. But if you put an ice cube in a cup of warm water, it will disappear in just minutes.”

 

Given a mid-level increase in greenhouse gases, the researchers found the ocean layer about 650 to 1,650 feet (200 to 500 meters) below the surface would warm, on average, about 1.8 F (1 C) by 2100.

 

Along the Greenland coast, that layer would warm twice as much, but along Antarctica would warm less, only 0.9 F (0.5 C).

 

“No one has noticed this discrepancy before – that the subsurface oceans surrounding Greenland and Antarctica warm very differently,” Yin said.

 

Part of the warming in the North comes from the Gulf Stream carrying warm subtropical waters north. By contrast, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current blocks some of the subtropical warmth from entering the Antarctic’s coastal waters.

 

Even so, the Antarctic ice sheet will be bathed in warming waters, the team writes.

 

Co-author Jonathan T. Overpeck said, “This does mean that both Greenland and Antarctica are probably going melt faster than the scientific community previously thought.”

 

Overpeck, a UA professor of geosciences and co-director of UA’s Institute of the Environment, said, “This paper adds to the evidence that we could have sea level rise by the end of this century of around 1 meter and a good deal more in succeeding centuries.”

 

The paper by Yin, Overpeck and their colleagues, “Different Magnitudes of Projected Subsurface Ocean Warming Around Greenland and Antarctica,” is scheduled for online publication in Nature Geoscience on July 3.

 

Their co-authors are UA assistant professor of geosciences Joellen L. Russell; Stephen M. Griffies and Ronald J. Stouffer of the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J.; and Aixue Hu of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

 

Other researchers have recently measured surprisingly high subsurface ocean temperatures along coastal glaciers in Greenland, Yin said. In addition, scientists have reported the Greenland and Antarctica glaciers that empty into the sea are moving faster.

 

Yin decided to figure out how much those subsurface currents would warm during this century and the next.

 

IMAGE: The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this composite image of Antarctica’s ice-covered landscape on January 27, 2009. The surface appears rough where the Transantarctic…

Click here for more information.

 

Glaciers are rivers of ice. Like rivers of liquid water, glaciers move downhill. Some glaciers melt before reaching the ocean, and others, called tidewater glaciers, flow all the way to the sea.

 

The face of a tidewater glacier visible from a boat is only part of it – much of the glacier’s leading edge is underwater in a deep fjord.

 

Yin’s research suggests Greenland’s glaciers are being exposed to increasingly warm subsurface water that will melt the underwater portion of the glaciers. As a result, the tops of the glaciers will no longer have support and will topple into the sea, creating icebergs. In addition, as the undersides of the glaciers melt, that meltwater will speed the glaciers’ movement into the sea by lubricating their undersides.

 

Ultimately, those glaciers will melt back so far they no longer reach the sea, the team writes.

 

In contrast, much more of the Antarctic ice sheet is based on land that is already below sea level. Therefore as the Antarctic ice sheet melts back, the leading edge of the ice sheet will continue to be underwater. As such warming and melting continues into the 22nd century and beyond, parts of the Antarctic ice sheet may disintegrate, the team writes.

 

Yin’s next step is examining climate models that can zero in even further on the regional effects of climate warming on the subsurface ocean and the ice sheets.

Eggs contain antioxidants, may help prevent heart disease and cancer

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Stone Hearth News

While eggs are well known to be an excellent source of proteins, lipids, vitamins and minerals, researchers at the University of Alberta recently discovered they also contain antioxidant properties, which help in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Jianping Wu, Andreas Schieber and graduate students Chamila Nimalaratne and Daise Lopes-Lutz examined egg yolks produced by hens fed typical diets of either primarily wheat or corn. They found the yolks contained two amino acids, tryptophan and tyrosine, which have high antioxidant properties.

After analyzing the properties, the researchers determined that two egg yolks in their raw state have almost twice as many antioxidant properties as an apple and about the same as half a serving (25 grams) of cranberries.

However, when the eggs were fried or boiled, antioxidant properties were reduced by about half, and a little more than half if the eggs were cooked in a microwave.

“It’s a big reduction but it still leaves eggs equal to apples in their antioxidant value,” said Wu.

The discovery of these two amino acids, while important, may only signify the beginning of finding antioxidant properties in egg yolks, says Wu.

“Ultimately, we’re trying to map antioxidants in egg yolks so we have to look at all of the properties in the yolks that could contain antioxidants, as well as how the eggs are ingested,” said Wu, adding that he and his team will examine the other type of antioxidant already know to be in eggs, carotenoids, the yellow pigment in egg yolk, as well as peptides.

In previous research, Wu found that egg proteins were converted by enzymes in the stomach and small intestines and produced peptides that act the same way as ACE inhibitors, prescriptions drugs that are used to lower high blood pressure.

That finding defied common wisdom and contradicted the public perception that eggs increased high blood pressure because of their high cholesterol content. Additional research by Wu suggests the peptides can be formulated to help prevent and treat hypertension.

Wu is convinced the peptides also have some antioxidant properties, which leads him to suggest that when he completes the next step in his research, the result will likely be that eggs have more antioxidant properties than we currently know.

The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Food Chemistry.

Source

This entry was posted in Nutrition, Nutrition: Antioxidants, Nutrition: Food: Eggs, Science Updates.

How healthy people deal with negative emotions

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Stone Hearth News

A big part of coping with life is having a flexible reaction to the ups and downs. Now, a study which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people choose to respond differently depending on how intense an emotion is. When confronted with high-intensity negative emotions, they tend to choose to turn their attention away, but with something lower-intensity, they tend to think it over and neutralize the feeling that way.

Emotions are useful—for example, fear tells your body to get ready to escape or fight in a dangerous situation. But emotions can also become problematic – for example, for people with depression who can’t stop thinking about negative thoughts, says Gal Sheppes of Stanford University, who cowrote the study with Stanford colleagues Gaurav Suri and James J. Gross, and Susanne Scheibe of the University of Groningen. “Luckily, our emotions can be adjusted in various ways,” he says.

Sheppes and his colleagues studied two main ways that people modulate their emotions; by distracting themselves or by reappraising the situation. For example, if you’re in the waiting room at the dentist, you might distract yourself from the upcoming unpleasantness by reading about celebrity breakups – “Maybe that’s why the magazines are there in the first place,” Sheppes says – or you might talk yourself through it: “I say, ok, I have to undergo this root canal, but it will make my health better, and it will pass, and I’ve done worse things, and I can remind myself that I’m ok.”

While many previous studies directly instructed people to employ different strategies and measured their consequences, the researchers wanted to know which regulation strategies people choose for themselves when confronted with negative situations of mild and strong intensity. In one experiment, participants chose how to regulate negative emotions induced by pictures that produce a low-intensity emotion and some that produce high-intensity emotion – a picture of a snake in the grass, for example, should give you low-intensity fear, while a picture of a snake attacking with an open mouth should be more intense. In another experiment, participants chose how to regulate their anxiety while anticipating unpredictable electric shocks, but they were told before each shock whether it would be of low intensity or more painful shock. Before the experiments, the participants were trained on the two strategies, distraction and reappraisal, and during the experiments, they talked about which strategy they were using at which time.

In both experiments, when the negative emotion was low-intensity, participants preferred to reappraise – think through it, telling themselves why it wasn’t so bad. But when high-intensity emotions arose, they preferred to distract themselves.

It’s helpful to understand which strategies healthy people choose to regulate their emotions in different contexts, Sheppes says, because it seems like people with depression and anxiety disorders might have those problems partially because it is hard for them to flexibly modulate their emotions to differing situational demands. “Maybe they need to learn when and when not to engage,” he says.

Source

There’s No Such Thing as a Negative Emotion, by D.S. Barron

This entry was posted in Human Behavior, Human Behavior: Anxiety, Human Behavior: Panic Attacks, Human Behavior: Stress, Mental Health: Depression.

Microchips in and on plants, flowers

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Stone Hearth News

Radiofrequency Identification (RFID), or microchip technology, has been used for years in animal identification systems and is now being tested for use in plants. Researchers note that microchip techniques have varied applications for plants. The technology can be used to help guide visitors through parks and botanical gardens, to thwart theft of valuable plants, and to aid scientists and growers in monitoring plant health. For example, RFID codes have been used successfully with grapevines to create databases and to generate ‘‘virtual gardens’’ in which production, monitoring, global positioning system coordinates, and other data are archived.

Microchips have traditionally been attached externally, which can change the aesthetics of plants. Researchers in Italy have designed a new way to tag shrubs by imbedding microchips, thus minimizing damages to plants’ appearance. According to a study published in HortTechnology, the method is a desirable way to tag ornamental shrubs. “Plant tagging using radiofrequency identification (RFID) microchips is attractive for ornamental shrubs such as rose due to their high market value, wide distribution, health certification system, and numerous uses”, explained corresponding author Andrea Luvisi.

To test the effects of embedding microchips in roses, the scientists tagged two cultivars and performed observations of tissues around the microchip and growth analysis of plant canes. Results showed that microchip implantation did not cause xylem necrosis in 8- to 9-mm-diameter canes, but wilt of the lateral shoot and negative impacts on growth were observed in lower diameter canes compared to control plants. The tagged roses were tracked by a database developed for rose information, field log, and botanical sheet retrieval.

The findings suggested that rose plants can be safely tagged with a RFID microchip as early as the nursery phase without negative effects on plant appearance. “As opposed to other woody species for which methods of microchip implantation have been tested, rose tagging offers the possibility of insertion within canes of less than 10 mm diameter, such as those typically found in the rose nursery setting”, noted Luvisi. “Moreover, the possibility of tagging after grafting without changing common plant production procedures and aesthetic value are important considerations.”

The researchers added that their database has the capacity to track tagged plants from the nursery to maturity through multiple applications.

###

The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortTechnology electronic journal web site.

Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org

Source

Extreme Green Organic Gardening

This entry was posted in Botany: Gardening.