Split (1)

train · 2.6M rows

text stringlengths 11 58.2k
Lovers of Indian food, give yourselves a second helping: Daily consumption of a certain form of curcumin — the substance that gives Indian curry its bright color — improved memory and mood in people with mild, age-related memory loss, according to the results of a study conducted by UCLA researchers.
The research, published online Jan. 19 in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, examined the effects of an easily absorbed curcumin supplement on memory performance in people without dementia, as well as curcumin’s potential impact on the microscopic plaques and tangles in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Found in turmeric, curcumin has previously been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in lab studies. It also has been suggested as a possible reason that senior citizens in India, where curcumin is a dietary staple, have a lower prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and better cognitive performance.
“Exactly how curcumin exerts its effects is not certain, but it may be due to its ability to reduce brain inﬂammation, which has been linked to both Alzheimer’s disease and major depression,” said Dr. Gary Small, director of geriatric psychiatry at UCLA’s Longevity Center and of the geriatric psychiatry division at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and the study’s first author.
The double-blind, placebo-controlled study involved 40 adults between the ages of 50 and 90 years who had mild memory complaints. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or 90 milligrams of curcumin twice daily for 18 months.
All 40 subjects received standardized cognitive assessments at the start of the study and at six-month intervals, and monitoring of curcumin levels in their blood at the start of the study and after 18 months. Thirty of the volunteers underwent positron emission tomography, or PET scans, to determine the levels of amyloid and tau in their brains at the start of the study and after 18 months.
The people who took curcumin experienced significant improvements in their memory and attention abilities, while the subjects who received placebo did not, Small said. In memory tests, the people taking curcumin improved by 28 percent over the 18 months. Those taking curcumin also had mild improvements in mood, and their brain PET scans showed significantly less amyloid and tau signals in the amygdala and hypothalamus than those who took placebos.
The amygdala and hypothalamus are regions of the brain that control several memory and emotional functions.
Four people taking curcumin, and two taking placebos, experienced mild side effects such as abdominal pain and nausea.
The researchers plan to conduct a follow-up study with a larger number of people. That study will include some people with mild depression so the scientists can explore whether curcumin also has antidepressant effects. The larger sample also would allow them to analyze whether curcumin’s memory-enhancing effects vary according to people’s genetic risk for Alzheimer’s, their age or the extent of their cognitive problems.
“These results suggest that taking this relatively safe form of curcumin could provide meaningful cognitive benefits over the years,” said Small, UCLA’s Parlow–Solomon Professor on Aging.
The paper’s authors, in addition to Small, are Prabha Siddarth, Dr. Zhaoping Li, Karen Miller, Linda Ercoli, Natacha Emerson, Jacqueline Martinez, Koon-Pong Wong, Jie Liu, Dr. David Merrill, Dr. Stephen Chen, Susanne Henning, Nagichettiar Satyamurthy, Sung-Cheng Huang, Dr. David Heber and Jorge Barrio, all of UCLA.
The study was supported by the Ahmanson Foundation, the Marshall and Margherite McComb Foundation, the McMahan Foundation, Bob and Marion Wilson, the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation Fund for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health.
Theravalues Corp. provided the curcumin and placebos for the trial, as well as funds for laboratory testing and for Small’s travel to present preliminary findings at the 2017 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
Learn more about the neuroscience research theme at UCLA.
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information. For 25 years, the company's award-winning software and technologies have redefined business, entertainment, and personal communications by setting new standards for producing and delivering content that engages people virtually anywhere at anytime. From rich images in print, video, and film to dynamic digital content for a variety of media, the impact of Adobe solutions is evident across industries and felt by anyone who creates, views, and interacts with information. With a reputation for excellence and a portfolio of many of the most respected and recognizable software brands, Adobe is one of the world's largest and most diversified software companies.
Noting that debtors owe the city a whopping $749 million, aldermen trying to avoid painful spending cuts are urging Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration to be far more aggressive in bill collections.
But City Hall budget officials say they already are going after the deadbeats as best they can, and those efforts will pay off next year. "There will be no more free rides," budget officials declared in a statement.
Details of that behind-closed-doors debate emerged Thursday, a day after aldermen met with Budget Director Alexandra Holt and other key administration officials. Another session is set for Friday.
The meetings began after 28 of the 50 City Council members signed a letter questioning the mayor's plans to cut library staffing, close mental health centers, reduce the number of emergency dispatchers and cut back on graffiti-erasing crews.
Aldermen had received an administration list of who owes the city the most, along with a bottom-line debt tally. Among the debtors: banks with unpaid fees and fines related to foreclosed properties, poor suburbs and major hospitals struggling to pay their water and sewer bills, other property owners, and 100 people who each owed between $20,000 and $88,000 in parking ticket fines and penalties.
"Some of it's going to be uncollectable, of course," conceded Ald. John Arena, 45th, one of the four aldermen who attended Wednesday's meeting with Emanuel budget officials. "You are not going to collect $700 million. But how do you get $700 million behind?"
Arena said better collection efforts would not avert all of the cuts troubling aldermen, but it "can close some of the gap."
City budget officials said the mayor already is going after overdue fines, fees and taxes.
"In 2012, we will increase collections significantly, and have estimated that we will bring in nearly $33 million, which is nearly double what we collected last year," the statement said.
In the mayor's sights are suburbs that owe millions of dollars in water bills; banks that owe fines, fees and penalties on vacant properties; city and sister-agency employees with unpaid city debt; tax scofflaws; and rental car companies that have racked up parking-ticket fines.
"I think they have already factored in a number for a more aggressive attempt at collecting debts," said Ald. Patrick O'Connor, 40th, who is Emanuel's floor leader and did not sign the letter. "It might not be the best budget practice to just inflate those figures because we want to cut somewhere else."
Aldermen also are asking the administration to consider declaring a greater portion of special taxing district funds as surplus and pushing the mayor to reconsider his plan to up the cost of vehicle stickers by $60 on more than 184,000 larger SUVs and cars.
Discussions within the administration — and between aldermen and budget officials — is expected to extend through the weekend. The Budget Committee meets Monday to consider changes to Emanuel's proposed spending plan.
Analysis: The Texans are reportedly pleased with Foreman's progress, though news of his evolution isn't a huge surprise overall given how Foreman had already drawn praise this offseason for slimming down. After playing at a listed weight of 235 pounds last season coming off a torn Achilles, Foreman is clearly taking total advantage of his first full offseason program in the pros, uninhibited by any rehab work. Entering the draft, he seems to be the odds-on favorite to open the 2019 campaign in the No. 2 role behind Lamar Miller.
BARCELONA have been handed a year-long transfer ban by FIFA for breaching its rules on the transfer of players aged under 18.
The Spanish club have been sanctioned for breaking the rules in the case of 10 minors and been punished with a transfer embargo for two transfer windows and a fine of 450,000 Swiss francs.
The Spanish FA has also been fined for rule breaches in terms of registering the players and fined 500,000 Swiss francs.
FIFA said in a statement: "FC Barcelona has been found to be in breach of article 19 of the regulations in the case of 10 minor players and to have committed several other concurrent infringements in the context of other players.
"The disciplinary committee regarded the infringements as serious and decided to sanction the club with a transfer ban at both national and international level for two complete and consecutive transfer periods, together with a fine of 450,000 Swiss francs.
"Additionally, the club was granted a period of 90 days in which to regularise the situation of all minor players concerned."
Barcelona will almost certainly appeal against the transfer ban, which has cast a shadow of doubt over moves already agreed for Borussia Monchengladbach keeper Marc-Andre ter Stergen and Croatian 17-year-old Alen Halilovic, who turns 18 in June.
Barcelona have a trio of youth players from South Korea, including much-sought after 15-year-old striker Lee Seung Woo, plus other players from Africa.
FIFA only allows international youth transfers when one of three situations apply: the player's parents have moved country for their own, non-related reasons; the move takes place within the European Union if a player is aged between 16 and 18; or the player's home is less than 50 kilometres from the national border being crossed.
The late George Hoffman's excellent book on home inspection needed updating and Steve Horgan has eminently accomplished that task. Although some home buyers should spend about $200 for a professional inspection before purchasing a home, reading this book shows prospective home buyers what to look for to avoid wasting time and money.
The purpose of the book is not to eliminate professional home inspectors. Rather, it is to show buyers potential structural problems to avoid when considering a home purchase. In other words, buyers should not spend the money for a professional inspector until a house passes their own inspection, using the techniques suggested in the book.
This book is so simple and easy to read quickly that every home buyer should spend an hour or two gleaning its valuable contents. The checklists are invaluable as is the chapter on "annual home maintenance" for homeowners who want to prevent costly problems after buying.
But this book is not just about how to spot physical trouble with a house. It also discusses good and bad floor plans as well as other home-buying considerations such as outside influences on a home's desirability.
Organized in a very logical sequence, the book's chapters discuss soils and foundation, drainage, exterior paint and appearance, roof, interior, wiring, heating, plumbing, fireplace, tile, insulation, termites and other pests, plus "how to make an offer." Throughout the book are excellent drawings which simplify the concepts discussed in the text.
Hoffman's book won't make you a home inspection expert, but it will alert you to the possible trouble spots.
For, this is South Kashmir’s Shopian, Ground Zero of the resurgence of armed militancy in the Valley, the town where Hizbul commander Burhan Wani posed for a picture with 12 associates a year before he was shot dead.
THE word “ceasefire” is relatively new to the local lexicon here. For, this is South Kashmir’s Shopian, Ground Zero of the resurgence of armed militancy in the Valley, the town where Hizbul commander Burhan Wani posed for a picture with 12 associates a year before he was shot dead.
Here, the promise of a Ramzan ceasefire announced by the Centre on Wednesday isn’t just an issue of trust between people and the government but also a reminder of how much conflict has irrevocably shaped life here.
That’s why, barely 24 hours into the ceasefire, the dominant sense is one of relief laced with a welcome that’s cautious, even wary.
The markets in Shopian were abuzz Thursday. On the first day of Ramzan, locals shopped for dates, fruits and new clothes and as the call for afternoon prayers rose from mosques, shopkeepers left for prayer with their shops unattended. Teenagers more commonly seen walking the streets enforcing shutdowns were replaced by students in uniform.
The conflict here means students have attended classes for less than 10 days this year. But on Day 1 of the ceasefire, at Government Degree College (GDC) in Shopian on Thursday, students swarmed the campus.
There are over 4,500 students enrolled in GDC, almost all woman students have their heads covered, many have veiled faces.
Students rush in and out of classes, some fumbling with their schedules unable to find classrooms, “This is my first day of college today. All this time, I did not leave home because my parents worried for my safety,” said 19-year-old Shahid.
Sumaira’s question finds an echo in many who say they study at home with help from siblings and neighbours and sit in front of their TV sets with their families in the evening to catch up on the news and decide whether they will be able to step out the next day. The ceasefire, they hope, will bring some relief and, who knows, it may even be extended.
Qayoom said businesses can recover losses and events can be put on hold but lives lost will not be recovered. “So if this government is serious about bringing change, the ceasefire must be taken beyond Ramzan,” he said. And many locals believe that once “cordon and search” operations by security personnel, a routine here, are restrained, people will have a shot at normalcy.
PUBLIC officials and other politicians have wide access to the public through the media. They are public property and open to accusation or complaint, which they can answer readily and extensively. That’s particularly true during election season when issues against one another fly thick and fast.
Yet they sue. The reason is that a lawsuit is a weapon, which can be used for their own purpose. Most likely not to resolve an issue or clear the air: litigation can drag for ages, beyond the election period. Rather, to express outrage, serve a propaganda purpose, to harass the rival, or a mix of all.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV pleaded not guilty to four libel cases filed against him by presidential son Paolo Duterte, who’s running for Davao City vice mayor, and the president’s son-in-law Manases Carpio, accusing them during a 2017 interview of extorting money from the ride-hailing company Uber.
Alcover must have said worse things about Tomas and yet the mayor picked an almost innocuous opinion, one among hundreds of views from the public, on the issue of the day at the time, a small boy bullying a co-student, bulkier and taller boy, in Manila.
The councilor posted the allegedly concocted quote on his Facebook wall. No journalist, newspaper or broadcast station was involved. Tomas couldn’t sue a SunStar or a Nalzaro, it was just Alcover, over an issue totally unrelated to the concerns of the city.
Paolo and Manases, identified to the most visible political family in the country, did not include in their complaint dyAB’s Leo Lastimosa, who did the radio interview with Trillanes in Cebu City.
Is this a new thing, sparing the media that reported or transmitted the statements that led to the libel suit? Maybe, the complainants just happened not to dislike the journalist or news outfit concerned. But the right to drag media into politicians’ legal battle is still there.
So is the right of a complainant public official to pick a faraway venue. Trillanes lives and works in Manila and yet has to fly to Davao, along with his entourage of bodyguards and staff, to answer the libel complaint.
When a Cebu journalist is sued by, say, a congressman with office in Quezon City and residence in Zamboanga, he has to bear the expense and distress of facing the charge in either place, not in Cebu City, where the newspaper or broadcast station is located.
Public officials like Trillanes can afford the expense of travel--and getting a lawyer, which also costs more because of the distance. The complainant enjoys the advantage of home court and the pleasure of watching the distress of the persons he sues.
Until the law is changed, it is often a lopsided battle for the journalist sued by a public official. Public officials don’t realize the extent of the disadvantage until they themselves are charged with libel by rival politicians.
That must have sunk into Trillanes and other public officials who sympathize with his plight of being hounded with lawsuits.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Tacko Fall scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds as UCF served Northern Kentucky its first loss of the season with a 66-53 victory on Saturday night.
Fall was 7 of 8 from the field for the Knights (5-1). Aubrey Dawkins added 12 points and five rebounds and B.J. Taylor had 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.
UCF shot 44 percent from the field overall compared to 32 percent for Northern Kentucky and had a 51-35 rebounding advantage.
UCF led by a slim margin through most of the low-scoring first period and back-to-back 3-pointers by McDonald and Dawkins pushed it to 24-19 with 7:24 left in the half. The Knights were up 34-32 at the break.
The Knights opened the second half on a 19-6 run featuring 3-pointers by Dawkins and Collin Smith and dunks by Fall and Smith to stretch it to 53-38 with 14:55 left.
Drew McDonald scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Norse (6-1).
A scene from "The Good Mind," one of more than 100 to screen later this month at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival.
Flash forward a couple hundred years or so and what’s left of the Onondaga Nation, for instance, occupies about 12 square miles compared with about 4000 square miles previously. The Onondaga don’t want it given back. Mostly they want some say in the stewardship of their ancestral land – in the stewardship of everybody’s Mother Nature. OK, they wouldn’t mind a well-expressed apology or two for broken treaties and awful transgressions.
Six Nations activists have been about as vocal and organized as anyone in the long fight against fracking in New York (banned in 2015). They speak up for Onondaga Lake, one of the most polluted industrial waste dumps in the US. (Not much commitment to improvement there.) Meanwhile, the Onondaga school teaches Indian culture and language as well as the standard public school curriculum.
There’s a long-standing joke about “The Indian Problem”: The problem is that there are still Indians. Without learning more from Indian wisdom, the problem may end up being a dearth of all humans. See “The Good Mind” and appreciate little-taught history and history unfolding.
Chuck Jaffee: What’s “The Good Mind”?
Gwendolen Cates: [It’s their] great law of peace from when the peacemaker came a thousand years ago [to the Haudenosaunee people]. It’s a wonderful model, but it takes work.
CJ: Did you know the concept of “The Good Mind” before you started this film?
GC: That’s why I made the film, after learning about the Haudenosaunee and the Onondaga. I have a long history in Indian country since I was a child. It had a great influence on my worldview. I have such respect for native people, their patience and perseverance, what they’ve gone through for so long. I first met the Onondaga in 2000 when I was working on my book, “Indian Country.” [In 2013] they asked me to do things [related to] the 400-year anniversary of a Dutch treaty, which was a foundation of all subsequent treaties.
GC: The Canandaigua treaty happened when the US republic was in its fragile infancy. If tribes of the Haudenosaunee took the side of the British, the United States might have lost. It was very self-serving. The US never respected treaties though it’s the supreme law of the land.
CJ: Do the Haudenosaunee people feel things are getting better or do they think just keep fighting the fight because it needs to be fought?
GC: Over time, people have gotten stronger. There’s optimism in that regard. It’s been so long just literally trying to survive.
The familiar touches throughout the documentary “Drokpa” help emphasize how foreign life seems on the expansive Tibetan plain. Life is difficult for nomadic indigenous families, for these herders of yak and sheep.
A mom says to her kid — who’s probably hiding rather than just tucked under his blanket — “Time to get up. I’m begging you.” A woman refers to getting married at 16 and having two kids quick, the dad leaving, and the mom remarrying. A grandpa fumbles with rubber banding a toddler’s hair. Not incidentally, the women claim to do more work than the men, not the least of which is preparing all the food from scratch. (They even make the clay stove from scratch.) Seeing the men sitting around playing some checkers-like game probably isn’t meant as proof.
Motor bikes next to horses and solar panels next to huge tents with television hint at modernization. Desertification drifts over lakes that dry out. Grasslands shrink. Sand accumulates. Migration to population centers and resettlement projects looms over tradition.
Dung…. Yak and sheep and horses produce lots of dung. There’s some motorized help but mostly women fill and haul baskets of dung. It’s fuel for cooking and heating. The nomads also spread dung on sandy areas hoping to reclaim or at least slow changes to the landscape.
A film such as “Drokpa” does more than assure a cinematic style in documentary coverage. It helps us smooth our perspective on the far corners of an essentially spherical planet.
Check out a noteworthy example of a modern citizen. The documentary “Fractured Land” journeys with Caleb Behn. Weighing his own background, gifts and opportunities, Caleb knows that lawyers get to present to judges and other arbiters of change.
And yet, to play in the circus, he has heard, sometimes you must put on the clown suit. He wears a proper suit and tie. He also wears a mohawk hairdo. There are special communication opportunities where he chooses to display his tattoos and piercings.
Caleb has been gaining some celebrity in Canada. His gentle manner helps make a good impression alongside his imposing physical look. Embedding himself in the details and unglamorous grunt work of legal battles competes with the demands on him as a communicator and a frontline activist. All this competes with a hankering to build a life on the edge of the wilderness and close to family and ancestral homeland.
Caleb’s home ground has long been fractured by extractive industries. Supposedly, such can only be done in consultation with the affected First Nations. Supposedly, devastating expansions are good for Canada.
It’s probably more interesting to see where Caleb will be ten years down the road, but it’s substantially interesting to see where he’s come from and where he is now.
Actress Amy Poehler, already a “Baby Mama” in real life and on-screen, is pregnant with her second child, US Weekly reported Wednesday.
No due date was released.
The former “Saturday Night Live” star has a 16-month old son, Archie, with husband Will Arnett.
Unique opportunity to purchase a luxury lake home that is less than 2 years old. Featuring an existing dock, 4 car garage, outstanding outdoor and indoor living spaces, gorumet kitchen with 4 ovens, 2 dishwashers and a warming drawer, a second full kitchen in the lower level, outdoor kitchen, stone fireplace at poolside, 7 bedrooms (including a suite for the In laws or adult child) , 7.5 bathrooms, stunning theater room , 2 covered lanais and so much more. Imagine your family & friends here.
WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren called Tuesday for sweeping anti-corruption laws in Washington, including a lifetime ban on presidents, members of Congress and other officeholders from working as lobbyists. But even as she assailed members of President Donald Trump’s administration, the Massachusetts Democrat refused to confirm or rule out her own run for president.
But it was clear that Warren’s pitch was a salvo in defining what she wants the party to stand for when Democrats nationally are struggling to find a leader and a message beyond their hostility toward Trump. Ahead stand the November midterm elections in which Trump and the GOP are defending their majorities in the House and Senate. The 2020 presidential race effectively begins after that.

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.