Push-Up Capacity Linked with Lower Incidence of Cardiovascular Disease events among Men

Man doing push-ups
“Association Between Push-up Exercise Capacity and Future Cardiovascular Events Among Active Adult Men,” Justin Yang, Costas A. Christophi, Andrea Farioli, Dorothee M. Baur, Steven Moffat, Terrell W. Zollinger, Stefanos N. Kales, JAMA Network Open, February 15, 2019, doi: 10.1001./jamanetworkopen.2018.8341

Active, middle-aged men able to complete more than 40 push-ups had a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes – including diagnoses of coronary artery disease and major events such as heart failure – during 10 years of follow-up compared with those who were able to do less than 10 push-ups during the baseline exam.

“Our findings provide evidence that push-up capacity could be an easy, no-cost method to help assess cardiovascular disease risk in almos...

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Developable Mechanisms can Reside inside the Surface of a Structure

This image shows how developable mechanisms reside in the surface of an object.
Credit: BYU Photo

It took just over 10 years, but real science has finally caught up to the science fiction of Iron Man’s transforming exoskeleton suit. Engineers at Brigham Young University detail new technology that allows them to build complex mechanisms into the exterior of a structure without taking up any actual space below the surface.

This new class of mechanisms, called “developable mechanisms,” get their name from developable surfaces, or materials that can take on 3D shapes from flat conformations without tearing or stretching, like a sheet of paper or metal...

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Tidal Rails: The beginning of the end of an Open Star Cluster

Image of the Hyades, the star cluster closest to the Sun.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI

Researchers verify this phenomenon using Gaia data from the Hyades. In the course of their life, open star clusters continuously lose stars to their surroundings. The resulting swath of tidal tails provides a glimpse into the evolution and dissolution of a star cluster. Thus far only tidal tails of massive globular clusters and dwarf galaxies have been discovered in the Milky Way system. In open clusters, this phenomenon existed only in theory. Researchers at Heidelberg University have now finally verified the existence of such a tidal tail in the star cluster closest to the Sun, the Hyades. An analysis of measurements from the Gaia satellite led to the discovery.

Open star clusters are collections o...

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New Molecules Reverse Memory Loss linked to Depression, Aging

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Novel Benzodiazepine-Like Ligands with Various Anxiolytic, Antidepressant, or Pro-Cognitive ProfilesMolecular Neuropsychiatry, 2019; 1 DOI: 10.1159/000496086

New therapeutic molecules developed at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) show promise in reversing the memory loss linked to depression and aging.
These molecules not only rapidly improve symptoms, but remarkably, also appear to renew the underlying brain impairments causing memory loss in preclinical models.

“Currently there are no medications to treat cognitive symptoms such as memory loss that occur in depression, other mental illnesses and aging,” says Dr. Etienne Sibille, Deputy Director of the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at CAMH and lead scientist on the study.

What’s unique and p...

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