Washington, United States | Taking the bus or train to work may be even healthier than walking, according to a new study published by the American Heart Association.
"Bus/train commuters had even lower rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and overweight than the walkers or bikers," according to a press release about the findings, which were presented at the AHA's Scientific Sessions 2015 meeting this weekend.
The study, which was conducted in Japan, found that compared to drivers, public transport riders were 44 percent less likely to be overweight, 27 percent less likely to have high blood pressure and 34 percent less likely to have diabetes.
But, in a rather counterintuitive result, somewhat improved health benefits were also seen in comparison with walkers and bikers, researchers said.
They suggested that one explanation could be that commuters actually walked farther to and from the train or bus station than people who biked or walked to and from work.
"If it takes longer than 20 minutes one way to commute by walking or cycling, many people seem to take public transportation or a car in urban areas of Japan," said lead study author Hisako Tsuji, director of the Moriguchi City Health Examination Center in Osaka, Japan.
Tokyo, Japan | Japanese researchers have developed a micro-thin thermal sensor that can be attached directly to the skin, potentially useful in monitoring the health of infants or even making sportswear more comfortable.
The group said that the device, embedded in an ultra-fine film, can measure target temperatures between 25 and 50 degrees Celsius (77-122 F), a range that includes that of the human body.
The finding, made in collaboration with the University of Texas, was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America this week.
Professor Takao Someya, who heads a research team at the University of Tokyo working on such flexible devices, said that the electronic circuit composed of graphite and a semicrystalline acrylate polymer is just 15 micrometres in thickness, or about one fourth that of a human hair.
He said that the sensors can be printed onto adhesive plasters that can used to monitor body temperature.
"For example, a plaster applied directly to a wound or after surgery could provide warning of infection by detecting local changes in temperature due to inflammation," he told reporters on Monday.
"By putting it on the skin of a baby you can easily check the infant's body temperature... or the measuring of changes in body temperature over a large area could help develop comfortable (clothing)."
He added that the materials are cheap and widely used in manufacturing and envisions the device could be commercialised for practical use in as soon as three years.
The team tested the sensor by placing it directly on the lung of a rat to measure the organ's temperature.
"The device successfully measured cyclic changes in lung temperature of just 0.1 degree centigrade as the animal breathed, demonstrating its utility as a sensor for monitoring body vital signs in physicological settings," research associate Tomoyuki Yokota said.
Miami, United States | People who report drinking three to five cups of coffee per day are less likely to die prematurely from heart disease, suicide, diabetes or Parkinson's disease, US researchers said.
Both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee were shown to have benefits, said the study by researchers at the Harvard University Chan School of Public Health published in the November 16 edition of the journal Circulation.
The study compared people who don't drink coffee, or drank less than two cups daily, to those who reported drinking "moderate" amounts of coffee, or up to five cups daily.
The study did not prove a cause-and-effect for coffee and the reduced likelihood of certain diseases, but uncovered an apparent link that aligns with previous research, and that scientists would like to probe further.
"Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation," said first author Ming Ding, a doctoral student in the Department of Nutrition.
"That could explain some of our findings. However, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms producing these effects."
No protective effect was found against cancer in this study. Some previous research has pointed to a link between coffee consumption and a lower risk of certain cancers.
The study was based on data gathered from three large, ongoing surveys including some 300,000 nurses and other health professionals who agree to answer questionnaires about their own medical conditions and habits at regular intervals over the course of 30 years.
"In the whole study population, moderate coffee consumption was associated with reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease, and suicide," said the findings.
Researchers also accounted for potential confounding factors such as smoking, body mass index, exercise, alcohol consumption, and diet. But the fact that the research relied on surveys, which use self-reported behavior, could raise questions about its reliability.
And experts warned that coffee -- a substance adored by many devotees -- may not be right for everyone.
"Regular consumption of coffee can be included as part of a healthy, balanced diet," said senior author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard.
"However, certain populations such as pregnant women and children should be cautious about high caffeine intake from coffee or other beverages."
Miami, United States |US researchers have grown vocal cord tissue in a lab, an advance that could one day help restore the voices of millions who suffer from cancer or other diseases, a study said
For now, the research is in the early stages, according to the study in Science Translational Medicine.
The tissue has been shown to last for three months in mice that were engineered to have a human-like immune system, and produced sound vibrations when transplanted into intact voice boxes from dog cadavers.
Lead researcher Nathan Welham, a speech-language pathologist from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said the advance is important because vocal cords are "an exquisite system and a hard thing to replicate."
The bio-engineered tissue was grown over the course of two weeks, using healthy vocal fold cells -- known as fibroblasts and epithelial cells -- from surgical patients who had these cells removed for unrelated reasons, said the study.
The cells were isolated, purified and applied to a three-dimensional collagen scaffold, much like the kind scientists use to grow artificial skin in the lab.
When grown, the cells "assembled into layers that closely resembled the structure and protein makeup of natural vocal cord mucosa," the study said.
To see if the engineered tissue would work, it was transplanted into voice boxes that had been excised from deceased dogs. When humid air was blown through, the tissue vibrated and produced sound the way scientists expected it would.
The engineered tissue also feels like natural vocal cords, and is moist and elastic like the real thing, Welham said.
While it will likely be years before such engineered tissue is widely available to those in need, researchers say their work is a promising step forward for the those with vocal cord dysfunction, which affects 20 million people in the United States and has no effective cure.
"Voice is a pretty amazing thing, yet we don't give it much thought until something goes wrong," said Welham.
Singapore, Singapore | Singapore opened to the public a Sg$532 million ($376 million) National Gallery that boasts the world's biggest public collection of Southeast Asian modern art.
The new attraction is housed inside the British colonial-era former City Hall and Supreme Court buildings, which were fused into a single facility during a 10-year makeover.
The gallery houses a collection of modern art from across Southeast Asia comprising over 8,000 works from the 19th and 20th centuries in all media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography and video, officials said.
They include the works of artists like Raden Saleh of Indonesia, Fernando Amorsolo and Imelda Cajipe-Andaya of the Philippines, U Ba Nyan of Myanmar, Nguyen Gia Tri of Vietnam, Latiff Mohidin of Malaysia, Montien Boonma of Thailand and Svay Ken of Cambodia.
The gallery also has a dedicated Singapore art collection and will feature international exhibitions from time to time.
The project is part of the city-state's efforts to become a hub of culture and the arts and shed its traditional image as a strait-laced society fixated on commerce and finance.
A number of smaller museums and galleries have sprouted in recent years in the same district.
"I hope that in time Singaporeans will grow to love the gallery and that it will become the pride of Singapore," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who led opening celebrations on Monday, said in a Facebook post.
London, United Kingdom | Tickets to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday celebrations sold out within hours as Buckingham Palace promised four days of pageantry "fit for the queen" including dancing and horse shows.
Britain's longest-ever reigning monarch, Elizabeth turns 90 on April 21 next year and the palace has organised a public celebration lasting four days at Windsor Castle, one of her residences outside London.
The 25,000 tickets for the events between May 12-15 cost up to £165 (234 euros, $249), with the most expensive places situated next to the "Royal Enclosure" where royals might attend.
The queen herself will attend the finale on Sunday and proceeds from the sale will go to charity, Buckingham Palace said.
Those unable to buy tickets can still apply for one of 5,000 free slots, allowing them to watch the ceremony on a screen and watch celebrities arrive.
The ceremonies will involve 900 horses and 1,500 artists including dancers, musicians and actors from around the world, the palace said.
Around 100 bagpipe players will also take part.
The queen is expected to celebrate her actual birthday in private and then take part in an official yearly ceremony known as the Trooping the Colour in June.
Washington, United States | President Barack Obama awarded the highest civilian honor to filmmaker Steven Spielberg, the man behind Hollywood hits "E.T.," "Jurassic Park" and "Indiana Jones."
"Steven's films are marked most importantly by a faith in our common humanity," Obama said as he awarded him the Medal of Freedom.
"His stories have shaped America's story, and his values have shaped our world."
Obama noted Spielberg's work in founding the Shoah Foundation, which records testimonies of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust.
The director, who has won three Oscars and whose films have grossed more than $9 billion in ticket sales, has celebrated his own ability to naviguate between various genres, from blockbusters like "Jurassic" park to historic dramas like "Schindler's list."
"Film has always been the greatest way for me to unburden myself of my demons and to therefore cast my demons on you," he said earlier this month while presenting his Cold War thriller "Bridge of Spies" in Berlin.
Among the 17 awardees at the White House ceremony were singer-director Barbra Streisand and songwriter James Taylor.
Among other entertainment stars honored were music producer Emilio Estefan and pop star Gloria Estefan, a Cuban American couple seen as trailblazers for being Spanish-language stars who successfully crossed over to the English-language market.
Grammy-winner Itzhak Perlman and composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim also received the honor alongside baseball great Willie Mays and fellow legend Yogi Berra, who got a posthumous award.
New York, United States | California rockers Eagles of Death Metal want to be the first band to play the Bataclan theater when the Paris venue reopens after the November attacks targeted their gig.
"I don't want to spend my life trying to appease assholes I want to spend my life smiling with my friends and entertaining them," Jesse Hughes, the band's vocalist, told Vice in an interview.
"I cannot wait to come back to Paris. I cannot wait to play. I want to come back. I want to be the first band to play in the Bataclan when it opens back up," he said.
"I was there when it went silent for a minute. Our friends went there and died. I'm gonna go back there and live."
Gunmen attacked nearly simultaneously targets across Paris on November 13, killing 130 people, 89 of them at the Bataclan.
The band sat down for a full interview with Vice.com in Los Angeles after returning to America following the carnage.
They each detailed the instant decisions they took to save their lives, and the horrors they saw as the gunmen emptied round after round indiscriminately into the crowd.
The band had been due to perform across Europe until December 10, but has put on hold all further concerts. A number of French fans have appealed on them online to return to play.
"We don't really have a chance. We have to finish the tour," said Josh Homme, Death Metal co-founder who was not in Paris.
"We have a song called 'I Love You All The Time.' If you're a country artist, if you're death metal, if you're a DJ, it doesn't matter, cover that song and we'll donate the publishing (royalties)," he told Vice.
Helsinki, Finland |Are you receiving emoji figures relaxing in a sauna or a headbanging "heavy metal dude"? Smile, you must be in Finland.
This year, the Nordic country has launched a special online Christmas calendar set of emojis, featuring naked sauna-goers, heavy-metal lovers and even an old Nokia handset -- all symbols of Finnish culture, the foreign ministry said .
"we are to publish a set of emojis that can be downloaded and after that, each day a new emoji will be released," Petra Theman, the ministry's director for public affairs, told AFP.
Theman said Finland, where Christmas calendars are a tradition, went for the emojis package because it is different, and because it is easy to share.
The emojis, which are used in text and online messages, can be downloaded for free from various app stores.
"We have looked through different moments and emotional states that nearly every Finn recognises and which Finns might need as emojis when they communicate," Theman said.
Typically Finnish ideograms, such as the sauna or the heavy metal aficionado, have been missing from commonly-available international emoji packs, she said.
The Finnish foreign ministry believes these are the world's first national emojis.
Finland is home to some two million saunas -- nearly one for every two people in a country of 5.4 million.
But the sauna emoji need not be restricted to conversations about the traditional Finnish bath, she said.
The "sauna (emoji) can be used to signal anything 'hot', like that girl you went on a date with yesterday," she said.
Emojis first came from Japan, and have become massively popular in the age of smart phones.
The Finnish emojis were designed for the ministry by Brazilian Bruno Leo Ribeiro.
Seattle, United States | A gum-covered wall in the US city of Seattle that had become a major tourist draw is finally getting a cleanup after more than two decades, officials said .
A three-man crew began removing the more than one million gum wads with high-pressure steam cleaners and were expected to finish the job on Thursday, Emily Crawford, a spokeswoman for Pike Place Market, where the infamous Gum Wall is located, told AFP.
She said the wall, started in an alley in 1991 by patrons of a nearby theater, had spread over the years as people sought space for their masticated mess.
"Visitors started wanting to find clean space to put their gum so instead of adding to the wall they would walk down the alley and find their own brick or clean space," Crawford said.
"It's very sticky and goopy and it has just gotten to the point where over the summer there was just so much gum down there that it's ending up on the alley floor and it has quite an odor."
Crawford added that while the much-photographed wall was colorful and drew visitors, it was also germ-infested.
"From a distance it can look colorful but once I'm close it repels me," she said. "Looking at a bunch of gum with a cigarette butt in it isn't very attractive."
Local artists have been invited to decorate the cleaned-up space on Saturday except for the area of the original brick Gum Wall, which will remain empty in order to welcome more gooey gum.
"We expect people to come back and contribute to the wall again and that's fun," Crawford said. "People love it."
