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September 09, 2021

 

Increasingly Humans are developing a new artery, indicating that we are still evolving.

When imagining how our species could look in the future, it's common to get carried away with details like height, brain size, and skin colour. Even now, minor changes in our body show how unpredictable evolution may be.

Consider something as simple as an extra blood vessel in our arms, which, if current trends continue, may become commonplace in a few generations.

According to researchers from Flinders University and the University of Adelaide in Australia, an artery that runs down the centre of our forearms while we're still in the womb isn't disappearing as frequently as it used to.

That implies there are more adults than ever before who have an extra vascular channel running beneath their wrist.

In 2020, Flinders University anatomist Teghan Lucas remarked, "Anatomists have been investigating the incidence of this artery in people since the 18th century, and our work indicates it's obviously rising."

"When it comes to evolution, the prevalence was around 10% in people born in the mid-1880s compared to 30% in people born in the late 20th century, so that's a huge increase in a relatively short period of time."

Three major arteries in the forearm - median in the center. (ilbusca/Digital Vision Vectors/Getty Images)


The median artery, which transports blood down the centre of our arms to feed our growing hands, originates quite early in the development of all humans.

It normally regresses after eight weeks, leaving the job to two other vessels: the radial (which we can feel when taking a person's pulse) and the ulnar.

Anatomists have known for a long time that the median artery's withering isn't a guarantee. It may linger for another month or so in certain circumstances.

It may still be pumping when we're born, nourishing either just the forearm or, in some cases, the hand as well.

Lucas and colleagues Maciej Henneberg and Jaliya Kumaratilake from the University of Adelaide analysed 80 limbs from cadavers given by Australians of European heritage to compare the prevalence of this persisting blood channel.

On passing, the donors ranged in age from 51 to 101, indicating that they were nearly all born in the first half of the twentieth century.

The researchers recorded how often they came across a chunky median artery capable of delivering a good supply of blood and compared the statistics to records gleaned from a literature search, taking into account tallies that would over-represent the vessel's appearance. Their findings were published in the Journal of Anatomy in 2020.

The fact that the artery is three times as frequent in adults now as it was more than a century ago is a remarkable discovery that implies natural selection favours individuals who keep this extra bit of blood flow.

"This rise could have been caused by changes in genes involved in median artery formation, or health issues in mothers during pregnancy, or both," Lucas adds.

We could suppose that having a long-lasting median artery would provide a steady supply of blood to dexterous fingers and powerful forearms long after we were born. However, having one puts us at a higher risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful ailment that limits our ability to use our hands.

It will take a lot more detective work to figure out what kinds of factors play a big part in the processes that lead to a persistent median artery.

Whatever they are, we are sure to see more of these vessels in the future years.

"By 2100, the majority of people will develop median artery disease of the forearm," Lucas said.

The reemergence of a knee bone called the fabella, which is also three times more prevalent today than it was a century ago, parallels the dramatic increase of the median artery in adults.

Small microevolutionary changes add up to large-scale variances that identify a species, no matter how minor they are.

Together, they produce new pressures, leading us down new paths of health and sickness that we may find difficult to envisage right now.


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September 06, 2021

 

According to science, how often should you exercise to get in shape?

Elite athletes, such as Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who won gold in the men's 1,500 metre event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, train nearly ten to fourteen times each week, putting in a lot of time on the track and in the gym. For the rest of us, though, getting in shape does not have to entail such a strenuous regimen.

The frequency with which you should train is determined by a variety of factors, including your training goals, the intensity of your exercise, and any injury history you may have. How often you need to exercise depends on the type of training you conduct.

Different systems in our bodies are strained during exercise. This stress induces weariness, but it also causes "adaptations" (improvements) that are unique to the stress we've been exposed to.

While resistance training (such as weight lifting) helps us increase muscular strength, it is less likely to improve our cardiovascular fitness since it stresses our skeletal muscles more than our hearts.

However, progress can only be made through a combination of recovery and repetition. Improvements will be lost if the training stimulus is not repeated. We must also allow our bodies adequate time – but not too much time – to rest and "adapt" between training sessions.

In a nutshell, the key to developing fitness is to train consistently, which includes establishing a balance between working out and getting appropriate rest.

To make matters even more complicated, some body systems take longer to recuperate than others. Sprinting, high-intensity interval training, or very heavy resistance training, for example, will take longer to recover from than a lower-intensity workout, such as a slow jog that primarily strains the heart and lungs.

This means you may need to exercise more or less than you anticipate, depending on the type of training you undertake.

Endurance training

Regular, low-intensity activities are beneficial while training for endurance sports. Regularly training at this intensity improves the body's oxygen utilisation and makes it easier to exercise at the same intensity over time.

In fact, successful endurance runners spend the majority of their training (about 80%) at low intensities, with higher-intensity sessions carefully planned — usually two to three times per week, with at least 48 hours between them. This also aids athletes in recovering faster and avoiding injury in between workouts.

Sports that need a high level of skill

Many sports, such as swimming, tennis, and martial arts, necessitate a mix of physical and technical abilities. Although more research is needed in this area, it is widely believed that consistent and intentional practise increases performance in these sports.

Swim coaches, for example, encourage high-volume, low-intensity training (focused on technique) to help their swimmers move through the water more efficiently and easily. However, because overuse injuries can occur when we undertake the same type of exercise repeatedly, it may be preferable to vary the training load to help the body heal – thus balance hard days with easy training days and recovery days.

High-intensity exercises (like running or practising a tennis serve) can alter the central and peripheral neural systems, which are both regarded to be critical for skill improvement. However, because these activities may only be sustained at the proper intensity for a short length of time, it's crucial to only do a little each training session, but practise consistently over time to avoid damage.

In short, in both endurance and skill-based sports, training "smarter" rather than "harder" is critical.

Strengthening your resistance

More training sessions each week result in larger gains in physical strength when it comes to muscle building. This is likely due to the fact that increased training volume leads to higher improvements in muscle growth and strength. However, rest and rehabilitation (together with good nutrition) are still essential for muscle growth.

Muscle-strengthening exercises should be done two or more times a week, on average, to promote muscle and bone health. Working different muscle groups on different days can assist guarantee you are still challenging your muscles enough to gain strength while giving yourself enough time to recuperate between exercises if increasing muscular size is your aim.

While doing resistance training on a more frequent basis is good, even one day per week can help you gain strength. Squats and lunges, for example, can help you build strength if you do them correctly.

It's also worth noting that lifting to failure, or exercising at your absolute utmost until you can't lift any more repetitions on a certain exercise, has no additional strength-building benefits. Leaving a little bit in reserve may, in fact, be more advantageous for growing strength.

Fitness and health

The most crucial factor for the ordinary individual seeking to get in shape is not how much exercise they do, but the quality of that exercise.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT), for example, has shown promise in terms of enhancing fitness and health. This entails exerting maximum effort for a brief amount of time, followed by a period of rest.

A recent study found that three times a week, practising four to seven bouts of vigorous, one-minute exercises with 75 seconds of recovery enhanced fitness and mental wellbeing. For persons who don't exercise on a regular basis, less than 30 minutes per week may be beneficial.

The frequency with which you should exercise relies on a variety of factors, including your physical ability, your training goals, and the intensity of the exercise you're undertaking.

We suggested varying the types of training you perform each week and allowing enough recuperation time between strenuous or resistance training days - at least one recovery day per week. But, in the end, the most successful training regimen is one that you stick to over a lengthy period of time.

 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article

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September 02, 2021

The key to conquering addictions and psychiatric problems is hidden deep within our brains' netherworld and the circuitry that makes us feel good.



This part of the brain, like space, requires greater investigation.

The mesolimbic dopamine system, which consists of neurons projecting from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens—a critical structure in mediating emotional and motivation processing—is the oldest and most well-known reward pathway.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced when the brain anticipates a reward. Eating pizza, dancing, shopping, or sex can all cause a surge in dopamine. However, it can also be caused by drugs, which can lead to substance abuse.

Researchers are exploring for pathways other than dopamine that could play a role in rewards and reinforcement in order to find new strategies to treat addiction and psychiatric disorder.

Researchers from the Bruchas Lab at the University of Washington School of Medicine pushed the study on our reward pathways further in a report published in Nature Neuroscience, discovering that there is additional channel beyond dopamine. The Bruchas Lab is advancing our understanding of the brain's inner workings and developing treatments for psychiatric disorders.

"This study opens up new avenues for understanding reward circuitry that may be altered in nicotine, opiates, or other drug abuse, as well as neuropsychiatric diseases that affect reward processing, such as depression," said corresponding author Dr. Michael Bruchas, who runs the Bruchas Lab at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Researchers discovered that GABA neurons make up about 30% of cells in the VTA in this study. VTA GABA neurons are becoming more well recognised as participants in reward and aversion, as well as prospective therapeutic targets for addiction, depression, and other stress-related diseases.

Neurons are the basic building blocks of the brain and nervous system; they are the cells that receive sensory input from the outside world, give motor commands to our muscles, and transform and relay electrical signals at every step along the way.

"We discovered unique GABAergic cells that project broadly to the nucleus accumbens, but only projections to a specific portion contribute to reward reinforcement," said Raajaram Gowrishankar, a postdoctoral scholar in the Bruchas Lab and the Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain, and Emotion.

Researchers discovered that long-range GABA neurons from the VTA to the ventral, but not the dorsal, nucleus accumben shell, are involved in reward and reinforcement behaviour in both male and female mice. They discovered that this GABAergic projection suppresses cholinergic interneurons, which are important actors in reward learning.

The researchers claimed that their findings "improve our understanding of neural circuits that are directly implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders including depression and addiction."

The findings, according to co-lead author Ream Al-Hasani of Washington University's Center for Clinical Pharmacology, are similar to putting together Legos and figuring out how one component links to another.

Each puzzle piece can take years to complete.

The discoveries, according to Gowrishankar, are allowing scientists to better comprehend brain subregions and visualise how certain neuromodulators are released during reward processing.

The researchers are able to emphasise heterogeneity in the brain, or differences in the brain, in scientific terms.

"It's critical that we don't think of brain structures as monolithic," Gowrishankar added. "In the brain, there is a lot of subtlety. It's amazing how plastic it is. The way it's set up. This discovery demonstrates one way in which disparities can manifest."

 


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September 02, 2021

 "WE SEE THIS AS A TOOL FOR MULTIPLY PROGRAMMERS," 



Work that is arduous

Elon Musk's AI research business, OpenAI, has just released a new algorithm dubbed Codex that can comprehend orders written in English and turn them into pieces of useful code.

Codex is said to be able to take instructions and turn them into tangible software like rudimentary games or webpages, either as a technique to ease programming labour for expert coders or as a tool to assist newcomers learn. According to The Verge, a user might explain the basic appearance or functionality of a website they wish to construct in daily English, including things like menu arrangement and text box positioning, and Codex would create a minimal design depending on how it interpreted the request.

Assistant with Artificial Intelligence

The goal isn't to put AI in charge of programming entirely. Instead, Codex functions as a programmer's assistant or deputy, taking conceptual ideas and attempting to implement them through code.

OpenAI CTO and co-founder Greg Brockman told The Verge, "We see this as a tool to multiply programmers." “You have to ‘think hard about an issue and try to comprehend it,' and then ‘map those small pieces to existing code, whether it's a library, a function, or an API.'”

Humans find the second half monotonous, but Codex thrives at it, according to Brockman: “It takes folks who are already programmers and takes away the tedium.”

GPT-3, OpenAI's infamous text-generating algorithm that was trained on massive sections of the written internet, is the foundation of Open Source Codex. The extra sourcing for Codex, though, may annoy the existing open-source programming community, according to The Verge. That's because Codex is based on data gathered from open-source code repositories that programmers created and shared with the rest of the world.

Technically, Codex might be viewed as a more efficient way of accomplishing this, and OpenAI informed The Verge that it is not infringing on any copyright restrictions. However, by constructing such a powerful tool on the backs of volunteers, OpenAI risks being accused of profiteering from a collaborative community's free work, so it will be interesting to see how programmers react to the new tool.


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