Bisaya Bloggers

An alarming news published in Philippine Daily Inquirer based on a research by Asian Development Bank should make us rethink of conserving water.

The Philippines’ water resources are fast deteriorating with rapid urbanization, with only about 33 percent of river systems still suitable as a supply source and up to 58 percent of groundwater now contaminated. Water availability in the Philippines could be “unsatisfactory” in eight of its 19 major river basins and in most major cities before 2025.

Urbanization has been pointed out as the major cause of this arising problem. Poor environmental management, extensive forest denudation, poor maintenance of sanitary landfills, crowding in urban areas, etc, are few of the effects of urbanization that have subsequently affected the availability of clean water in the Philippines, especially in large cities Cebu and Metro Manila.
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Stem cells have been considered as promising breakthrough as cancer treatments. Potential sources such as skin cells, bone marrow cells, etc., have been widely researched. It seems that there is addition to these sources as researchers from a biotechnology firm in Arizona discovered the endometrial regenerative cells.

Ethical issues have been raised regarding this new form of medical treatment.

Stem cells come from two main sources: embryos or adult tissues. Embryonic stem cells can give rise to virtually any cell type in the body, but they are controversial because conventional procedures for obtaining them involve the destruction of an embryo. Adult stem cells, such as those found in bone marrow, do not pose the same ethical concerns, but they have limited powers and collecting them can require invasive procedures.

While the new technique of reverting skin cells to an embryonic stem cell-like state promises to overcome the ethical dilemmas, this approach could come with safety concerns that make the cells too risky for use in humans. The technique for converting the skin cells involves using viruses to insert several genes, one of which is known to cause cancer.

Menstrual stem cells could turn out to be a happy medium between embryonic and adult stem cells, providing an ethically acceptable alternative that is readily accessible and appears to give rise to most of the major tissue types in the body.MSNBC

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Philadelphia doctors say “yes!”

A new interesting treatment is being tested by Philadelphia doctors to restore life and bring people back from the dead.

A cardiac arrest patient was saved by the new experimental treatment of chilled saline injection. Cooling pads are then wrapped around a patient. The body temperature is normally 98 degrees, but cooling brings it down to 92 degrees. Doctors keep it there for about 24 hours. This process is called intentional hypothermia. Accordingly, it decreases cellular injury when the cells are deprived of oxygen, so with less injury we are able to do a better job of getting people back.
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Later today we will be presenting our research topic to a panel of clinical instructors.

Kulbaan ko and at the same time... excited? Hehehe...

I don't know why. Mura man gud og muatubang ka sa korte, kay it's like you have to present and defend your case in front of people, and you have to do your darnest best to convince the judges that your study is significant and viable.

Tandandandan...

Bahala na...

Our study, by the way, is all about emotional intelligence. We had interesting variables along with emotional intelligence, but because of time constraints, we simply focused on a less difficult variable.

Talking to plants will make them healthier, so the belief says. But what if they can also talk back and say what they need and express their gratitude? I mean not literarily but through a ring in your phone! That would be interesting, and oh.. odd!

Botanicalls.com has merged plant care with telecommunications, through it new system where your plants can call you on the phone when they need water, when they haven’t gotten enough, and to thank you when they’re no longer thirsty.

How does it work?

Each plant on the Botanicalls system is equipped with sensors connected to an Arduino microcontroller which contains code particular to that plant type. When a plant’s microcontroller determines that the plant needs to make a phone call based on current sensor information, it sends data through an Xbee wireless radio to an Xport gateway. This gateway connects to the internet, where it contacts a PHP script with the plant’s ID number and type of need. PHP then packages this information and passes it on to Asterisk, an open-source telephone system, which generates the call. When the call is placed, a prerecorded audio file is played, expressing the particular desire of that plant.

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A study found out that emissions from office laser printers can be as unhealthy as cigarette smoke. Smoking ban in some country are already taking its effects but it seems that people has new reason to worry.

The average printer releases toner particles that can get deep into the lungs and cause respiratory problems and cardiovascular trouble, according to Morawska’s team, part of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, and specialists in atmospheric particles. CNET news

The researchers tested 62 laser printer models and found that 17 of them were “high emitters” of toner particles. Although these particles have not had examined for chemical contents but these were considered carcinogens [agents causing cancer].
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An interesting study (a PDF document) by the psychologists at the University of Texas about the reasons why people have sex was released They asked nearly 2,000 people why they’d had sex, and compiled a total of 237 reasons. This study is considered the “most thorough taxonomy of sexual motivation ever compiled.”

Motivations were basically the same between men and women - it’s more about lust in the body than a love connection in the heart. The foremost reason, which was the same for both men and women, was attraction towards their partners. The rest of the top 10 for each gender were also almost all the same, including “I wanted to express my love for the person,” “I was sexually aroused and wanted the release” and “It’s fun.”
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I attended last Thursday the Regional Research Convention organized by the Philippine Nurses' Association, Cebu chapter. I must say I found it very interesting. I was even fascinated by the presentations of the different researchers from the different nursing schools here in Cebu (I wonder why they called in "regional" when only nursing schools in Cebu were in attendance). Almost all of the researchers were already professional nurses. Only a couple research work, I think, were products of undergraduates.

But it was, on the whole, very interesting and very informative. I find that I actually like the idea of doing research work. I didn't enjoy doing my thesis during my first course. It's only now, now that I see the whole purpose of research (somehow I didn't see the whole point back then), nursing research in particular, which is "to develop knowledge about issues of importance to the nursing profession" (Polit and Beck), that I see how wonderful it is. The technical side of research is indeed daunting. It can discourage you or bore you. It is tempting to think of it merely as a requirement for the course, and indeed many look at it that way. But if you understand its main purpose, you will begin to really appreciate it. One of the things that I noticed during the presentations at the convention was that all of the presentors talked with such enthusiastic, some even with animated, facial expressions. That's because research work is really intellectually stimulating and fulfilling. Intellectually stimulating because it engages your whole mind, because you are researching on a particular topic, problem or question that interests or excites you (It is silly, of course, to do research on a topic that you really don't care about), and fulfilling because you know that you are contributing something significant to the profession, whether to nursing practice, education, or administration.

I hope I can carry this interest after I graduate. I hope I can do research works later when I become a professional, with God's grace, of course.

It has been proven that exercise is the best way to lower your blood cholesterol. However, not many of people have ample time to hit the gym. The Harvard HealthBeat Newsletter provided tips on how to lower your blood cholesterol through dietary techniques.

• Cut down on saturated fat in cooking. You can use of liquid cooking oils rather than butter or margarine. Use nonstick pans. Instead of frying, bake, broil, roast, steam, or stew. Discard drippings.
• Avoid trans fats. Because trans fats increase your LDL and decrease your HDL, the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board says there’s no safe level of trans fat intake, and the National Cholesterol Education Program urges people to eat as little as possible. Avoid or eat only very small quantities of foods that list shortening, partially hydrogenated oil, or hydrogenated oil among their first ingredients.

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Lifestyle and diet modifications are vital to management of hypertension, defined as a consistent elevation in blood pressure. Researchers, in an effort to stop and prevent this pandemic, which kills millions of people worldwide, continuously find diets or foods that may lower blood pressure.

Some foods and supplements have been suggested to have beneficial effects on high blood pressure. These include fish oils, olive oils, Vitamin C, and potassium.

Fish Oils: Several studies have shown that replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat in the diet can help lower blood pressure in hypertensive individuals. Fish oils containing eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), for example, have been found quite effective in lowering both blood pressure and triglyceride levels.
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Scientists continue to find ways to deliver better health care to patients; one new innovation is the availability of artificial blood, so called because it is made up of plastic molecules that have an iron atom at their core, like hemoglobin, that can carry oxygen through the body. This new discovery could help to substitute for blood, which is not always readily available in cases of emergencies, especially pointed out was its huge advantage in war zones.

Besides its storage advantage; it is light to carry, does not need to be kept cool, it can be sterilized, and can be kept for longer, the new artificial blood has its advantages over human blood as pointed out in this WikiPedia article.
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Cancer experts have identified a set of health problems that may be symptoms of ovarian cancer, and they are urging women who have the symptoms for more than a few weeks to see their doctors.

These symptoms, which are found more common in women, include bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and feeling a frequent or urgent need to urinate A woman who has any of those problems nearly every day for more than two or three weeks is advised to see a gynecologist, especially if the symptoms are new and quite different from her usual state of health.
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The term “wiiitis” was coined by Dr. Julio Bonis, a medical resident, after waking up one Sunday morning with intense pain in the right shoulder. He did not recall any recent injuries or trauma and had not participated in any sports or physical exercise recently. When he consulted a rheumatologist and the Patte’s test was positive, consistent with acute tendonitis isolated to the right infraspinatus.

Then he recalled his activities for the previous 24 hours and remembered that he had bought a new Nintendo Wii (pronounced “wee”) video-game system and had spent several hours playing the tennis video game.

With the Wii system, the player faces a video screen and moves a handheld controller (approximately 14.5 cm by 3.0 cm by 3.0 cm, with a weight of approximately 200 g) containing solid-state accelerometers and gyroscopes that sense three-dimensional spatial movements. In the tennis video game, the player makes the same arm movements as in a real game of tennis. If a player gets too engrossed, he may “play tennis” on the video screen for many hours. Unlike in the real sport, physical strength and endurance are not limiting factors. New England Journal of Medicine

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Students’ fingertips may hold a clue to their academic test scores, a British study found out. 75 children aged 6-7 at a British elementary school. The subjects’ hands were photocopied and the length of their fingers measured. They checked the children’s math and verbal scores on a standardized British academic exam, then compared the test scores and finger length data, especially the ratio of the length between the children’s index and ring fingers.

The results say that:

Among boys, a low ratio of index finger length to ring finger length was associated with higher math scores. But that ratio wasn’t associated for better or worse with boys’ verbal test scores.

The opposite was true for girls. Among girls, a low ratio of index finger length to ring finger length was linked to better verbal test scores, but not to any patterns in girls’ math test scores. WebMD.com

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