Month: April 2014

By Bahar Gholipour, Staff Writer Published: 04/29/2014 01:56 PM EDT on LiveScience How well a person recovers from traumatic events may depend on in part on their self-esteem, according to researchers who examined the effects of a major earthquake on the survivors' brains. The researchers had conducted brain scans of university students for a study before the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011. After the earthquake, they repeated the scans on 37 of the same people, and tracked stress-induced changes in their brains in the following months. …

Somehow as I was walking — and often running — through my younger years, I thought that I was on my way to arrive at some "place." This place was the goal, and there would be a "grown up" Robin there waiting to welcome me into the full wonder of maturity and adulthood.

The above steps take a certain level of deliberate mental focus and sustained effort. As you complete your savoring moment, surrender. Sink into the experience, softening the need to do, notice, or direct anything. Give yourself a breath or two to just steep.

By Julien Ponthus and Mark John PARIS (Reuters) – General Electric's overtures to the power business of France's former industrial beacon Alstom have shown again how the French state, for all its interventionist zeal, has limited room for maneuver against big business. Citing "patriotic concern" over loss of jobs and control of a group with a history stretching back 86 years, President Francois Hollande's government leapt into action to find ways of countering the offer after news of it emerged last week. While Germany's Siemens – billed by Paris as a possible white knight – still has a month to make its intentions clear, Alstom's decision to review GE's $16.9-billion bid makes the U.S. giant the clear favorite to secure the turbine and grid assets that make up the bulk of Alstom revenues. If GE succeeds, it will mark the latest climb-down for a two-year-old government which has already ended up on the losing side of public stand-offs in the telecom and steel industries.

“To be able to see the elderly dancing and spinning with autonomy, balance and a cognitive awareness of their space and body helped us understand ways to join useful exercise with a pleasant activity,” said lead author Eliane Gomes da Silva Borges, of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro state in Rio de Janeiro. With aging, muscles weaken and sensory mechanisms that help sustain balance are less sharp, which can lead to falls as well as limiting a person’s physical activity. Nursing home residents tend to have less freedom and fewer opportunities for physical activity, so it’s all the more important to find ways for them to exercise to preserve their strength and balance, the researchers write. “We have to realize that the practice of physical activity is beneficial because it strengthens the musculoskeletal system and professionals (in nursing homes) can and must help,” Borges told Reuters Health in an email.

It's okay that things are difficult. That's part of what gives them their savor. Not all fulfilling experiences are grounded in some difficulty, but many are. Honor yourself for the hard things you're dealing with. And be aware of the things that are not difficult in your life, including the things that do support you.

The data compiled in the recent study is scattered in its relevance, based on age, and does not provide any concrete evidence of health concerns due to high-protein diets.

Get the highlights from this week’s tweet chat.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists implanted thin sheets of scaffolding-like material from pigs into a few young men with disabling leg injuries — and say the experimental treatment coaxed the men's own stem cells to regrow new muscle.

By James Regan and Benjamin Mallet PARIS (Reuters) – Cash-strapped French engineering group Alstom said on Wednesday it would explore a $16.9 billion offer from General Electric for its energy arm while leaving the door open to a rival bid from Germany's Siemens. Alstom gave Siemens until the end of May to propose its own deal after the government of President Francois Hollande balked at the U.S. group's overtures last week, insisting any outcome must safeguard jobs at the one-time champion of French industry, while ensuring the nation's energy independence. Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg – furious when news of the deal emerged last week – softened his tone towards GE, calling it a "a serious company". "We have a good relationship with GE," Montebourg told a parliamentary committee after Alstom confirmed in a statement it was reviewing the GE offer.

General Electric said its effort to buy some activities of France’s Alstom was just beginning and there will be opportunities to modify its bid, Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said on French television on Wednesday. Germany’s Siemens is also vying to buy parts of Alstom via an asset swap, and has seen its candidacy pushed by the French government eager to keep Alstom in European hands. “The process is only beginning,” said Immelt through a translator on France 2 television.