China researchers link obesity to bacteria

 

December 19th, 2012 in Overweight and Obesity

Chinese researchers have identified a bacteria which may cause obesity, according to a new paper suggesting diets that alter the presence of microbes in humans could combat the condition.

Researchers in Shanghai found that mice bred to be resistant to obesity even when fed high-fat foods became excessively overweight when injected with a kind of human bacteria and subjected to a rich diet.

The bacterium—known as enterobacter—had been linked with obesity after being found in high quantities in the gut of a morbidly obese human volunteer, said the report, written by researchers at Shanghai's Jiaotong University.

The mice were injected with the bacterium for up to 10 weeks as part of the experiment.

The experiments show that the bacterium "may causatively contribute to the development of obesity" in humans, according to the paper published in the peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISMEJ).

A human patient lost over 30 kilograms in nine weeks after being placed on a diet of "whole grains, traditional Chinese medicinal foods and prebiotics", which reduced the bacterium's presence in the patient's gut to "undetectable" levels, the paper said.


One of the report's authors, Zhao Liping, lost 20 kilograms in two years after adopting a diet of fermented probiotic foods such as bitter melon to adjust the balance of bacteria in his gut, the American magazine Science said in an article this year on his previous research.

Zhao's work on the role of bacteria in obesity is inspired by traditional Chinese beliefs that the gut is the "foundation for human health", Science reported.

The scientists wrote in their latest paper that they "hope to identify more such obesity-inducing bacteria from various human populations" in future research.

Obesity worldwide has more than doubled since 1980,
 according to the World Health Organisation, with 
more than 500 million adults worldwide suffering from the condition according to 2008 statistics.



(c) 2012 AFP
"China researchers link obesity to bacteria." December 19th, 2012.


Source:
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-china-link-obesity-bacteria.html

China researchers link obesity to bacteria

....................................................................

*Remember ulcers were discovered to be caused by bacteria after years of other things, like stress, were blamed for causing the condition.

Building human body parts – CNN Photos - CNN.com Blogs

Photography • Research • Seamus Murphy • VII Photo Agency

Seamus Murphy

Seamus Murphy is an Irish photographer represented by VII. 

Building human body parts

Alex Seifalian’s lab at University College London is helping humans who lose body parts to repair their bodies the way a newt would if it lost its tail – by growing another.
The researchers in his lab, which Seifalian calls “the human body parts store,” create the body parts with synthetic materials and a patient’s stem cells.
The lab builds a scaffold of the needed body part with a porous nanocomposite material, developed and patented by the team, and then puts it in a bioreactor with some of the patient’s bone marrow. The patient’s cells cover the scaffold and fill its many holes so that it essentially becomes the patient’s own.
After it is inserted into the patient, it’s absorbed by the body and replaced by new cells over time.
The team has successfully developed a small artery bypass graft and an artificial trachea, or windpipe, both first-evers that are now at work inside patients.
Seifalian’s lab, at UCL’s Department of Nanotechnology and Regenerative Medicine, recently took on a compassionate case of growing a nose for a 56-year-old man who had had his nose removed during cancer treatment. The man had a prosthetic plastic nose attached to glasses that he could wear, but he chose to not go out in public very often.
Earlier in December, after the nose had been forming in a glass jar for about four weeks, the lab-grown nose was implanted under the man’s arm. The patient’s doctor will move it to his face after it further develops under his skin. For the first year, the nostrils will remain sealed to avoid infection.
“You work in a lab all alone, don’t see the future of it,” Seifalian said. “What’s most exciting is that the things we make go to patients.”
Photographer Seamus Murphy visited the lab on assignment with The Daily Mail. The photos accompanied an article profiling the lab and the breakthrough work being done there.
Murphy, who has spent more time in a war zone working as a conflict photographer than shooting scientific research, said taking portraits of the doctors and staff was akin to his work as a documentarian, but the still life aspect of the assignment posed an attractive challenge for him.
“It’s always challenging to take on something requiring solutions - that can be a dilemma with traveling, getting access to somebody important for the story, or in this case, finding ways to represent science,” Murphy wrote in an e-mail interview.
“Often in the course of working I will shoot a detail and try to make it say something compelling with its stillness so it’s not completely alien.”
He said the ear and nose looked eerily believable and even felt real.
“The nose freaked me out more than the ear– I think because of its dimensionality,” he wrote.
Murphy said he never felt queasy, just fascinated and in awe of the work being done in the lab.
– Lauren Russell, CNN

Filed Under: Assignment
Building human body parts – CNN Photos - CNN.com Blogs

What is Heart Attack?

A heart attack (also known as a myocardial infarction) is the death of heart muscle from the sudden blockage of a coronary artery by a blood clot.

Coronary arteries are blood vessels that supply the heart muscle with blood and oxygen.

Blockage of a coronary artery deprives the heart muscle of blood and oxygen, causing injury to the heart muscle.

Injury to the heart muscle causes chest pain and chest pressure sensation.

If blood flow is not restored to the heart muscle within 20 to 40 minutes, irreversible death of the heart muscle will begin to occur.

Muscle continues to die for six to eight hours at which time the heart attack usually is "complete."

The dead heart muscle is eventually replaced by scar tissue.

Reasons for heart attack

• Smoking
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• High cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Family history
• Peripheral artery disease
• Obesity

Symptoms of Heart Attack

• Chest pain (angina)
• Shortness of breath
• Palpitations (skipped beats or a racing or pounding heart)
• Leg swelling
• Bluish skin color (cyanosis)
• A prolonged, unexplained cough
• Coughing up blood
• Persistent fatigue or feeling unwell

 Source:
 What is Heart Attack?
TropT
 http://troptnet.blogspot.ca/

Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier 2 FULL FIGHT - YouTube

Uploaded by genghis711 on Nov 8, 2011

https://twitter.com/#!/genghis7
 

Ali vs Frazier 2
1/28/74

Category:

Sports

License:  Standard YouTube License

Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier 2 FULL FIGHT - YouTube

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maA4QACDXOY&feature=fvwrel

Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier 1 FULL FIGHT - YouTube

Uploaded by genghis711 on Sep 1, 2011

http://twitter.com/#!/genghis7
 

Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier 1 "The Fight of the Century"
3/8/1971

Category:

Sports

License:  Standard YouTube License

Source:
Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier 1 FULL FIGHT - YouTube

 Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctKAGKVpCUU&feature=fvwrel

Exercise is just one part of the Ornish heart disease program. Patients Mike Rich and Dawn Diven hit the machines at the West Virginia University Heart Institute in Morgantown. Although supporters say lifestyle changes promoted by the program can reverse heart disease, some are skeptical. [Photo by David Smith / AP Images for American Medical News]

Medicare’s new approach to familiar diseases

Some see coverage of intensive cardiac rehab and weight-loss counseling as growing acknowledgment that traditional medicine has limits in tackling heart disease and obesity.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews correspondent. Posted May 14, 2012.

When patients with a history of multiple heart attacks or coronary artery bypass surgeries come to Silverton Hospital in Woodburn, Ore., staff members see that something beyond the usual drugs and medical procedures might be needed.

Yet that something, while perhaps unconventional, may not be as radical as one might expect, said emergency physician Frank Lord, MD.

 Just exercise, a low-fat vegetarian diet and stress management through group support, meditation — and yoga.

The yoga element “was certainly a surprise to me,” said Dr. Lord, who oversees the one-year multidisciplinary program offered at Silverton known as Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease. “But until patients learn how to deal with stress, it’s really difficult to be disciplined in the other areas needed to control their disease,” especially for those with chronic conditions.

A year after they go through the program, Silverton heart patients on average have lost 22 pounds, blood sugar levels have dropped by 23%, and depression scale scores have plummeted 41%.

“That’s what you hope for if you put someone on an antidepressant. And the weight loss for folks with a body mass [index] over 35 was within a pound of what you should find if they had done gastric bypass” surgery, Dr. Lord said.

Those kinds of results persuaded officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2010 to approve coverage of the Ornish program under the new benefit category of intensive cardiac rehabilitation. It is believed to be the first time Medicare has covered such a so-called integrative medicine program.

In a similar move, Medicare in 2011 approved its first-ever coverage of obesity screening and “intensive behavioral therapy,” otherwise known as weight-loss counseling, in a primary care setting.

Heart disease and obesity account for $550 billion in annual U.S. health spending. 

Despite some reservations, the health care community largely has cheered the developments as long overdue recognition of the medical and behavioral factors underlying costly chronic diseases, and the need for less traditional preventive measures.

Supporters also hope Medicare’s decisions encourage more private insurers to follow suit, giving physicians and patients the moral and financial boost to do their parts.

“We as a country and certainly as a health care industry have had a fascination with technology, and yet we know from very good research that some of the most significant impact on patients’ health and wellness has to do with lifestyle issues,” said American Academy of Family Physicians President Glen Stream, MD.

“Medicare’s recognition of that and willingness to pay for it is also a message to [physicians] that we need to refocus on the importance of including this in the care of our patients.” Neither the American Medical Association nor the AAFP has taken positions on the specific coverage initiatives.

Heart disease and obesity account for $400 billion and $150 billion, respectively, in annual health spending, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

As payers seek to control those costs, “we are certainly going to see a lot more innovation, and what we’re all looking for is different ways of encouraging and investing in a much more holistic approach to patients,” said Christine C. Ferguson, a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and director of the school’s STOP Obesity Alliance.

However, she warned, “we are in the early stages of figuring out how to incorporate that [approach] without overwhelming the system. … We need to be cautious that we are not asking so much of primary care providers that they can’t be successful.”

Physician as team leader

A multiyear Medicare demonstration project and other studies reviewed by CMS showed the Ornish program significantly reduced several cardiac risk factors — including blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass index — slowing the disease and reducing the need for more invasive procedures and powerful drugs.

The intensive cardiac rehab benefit is available to patients who had a certain cardiac event.

Medicare covers 72 hours of therapy in the “comprehensive lifestyle modification program.” Medicare covers only 36 hours of traditional cardiac rehab, which focuses mostly on exercise.

The Ornish program was designed for hospitals and physician offices. A handful of hospitals have received Medicare certification, though more run the program independently.

Hundreds of health professionals, hospitals and clinics have expressed interest in training and certification. Medicare began coverage in January 2011, with the first patients receiving benefits that spring.

A 5% to 7% improvement in weight loss has shown to significantly improve health outcomes.

Proponents praised the program’s team-based approach, involving a physician supervisor, nurse case manager, dietitian, exercise physiologist, mental health professional and yoga instructor.

“We know treatment works so much better when we work on chronic diseases as a team,” said internist Shanthi Manivannan, MD, medical director of the Ornish program at West Virginia University Healthcare’s Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., a Medicare-certified site.

“It’s almost impossible for physicians to take care of everything. They don’t have the expertise or the time,” Dr. Manivannan said. She coordinates with patients’ primary care doctors who supervise progress by, for example, setting limits on exercise protocols or adjusting medications.

Similarly, many of the newly covered obesity counseling sessions will not be provided entirely by physicians. Supervised nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists or physician assistants also can provide this primary care.

Medicare will cover weekly and monthly face-to-face sessions for six months — up to a year for those who lose at least 6.6 pounds. Qualifying patients must have a body mass index of 30 or higher, according to CMS.

Whether physicians counsel patients on weight loss themselves or serve in supervisory roles, they must engage patients in prevention and be their cheerleaders, said Steven F. Horowitz, MD, director of cardiology at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut.

“I hear physicians say it’s impossible to change patients’ behavior, but they don’t have to,” he said. “Patients look up to their doctors, and our role is to enthusiastically support the concept” and refer them to other professionals who can help if necessary.




Convincing skeptics

Medicare’s coverage of intensive cardiac rehab and weight-loss counseling means more patients can access care that otherwise is unaffordable, said Dr. Horowitz, also medical director of Stamford’s Ornish program. 

“But there’s still a large population with private insurance who can’t participate, and while traditionally private payers follow Medicare, it doesn’t happen overnight.”

Sometimes Medicare follows others’ leads. Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield was the first payer to cover the Ornish program in 1997, including for patients at risk for heart disease. The program has saved the insurer 30% to 60% — about $1,500 to $3,000 — per cardiac episode by cutting down on hospital admissions.

Instead of following the traditional disease treatment model, “we wanted to take a different approach and get to the very foundation of behavior change,” said Highmark representative Atiya Abdelmalik, RN. Highmark and WVU Healthcare — which started offering the Ornish program in 2002 — participated in the Medicare demo that led to the agency’s coverage decision.

Studies show that the Ornish program significantly lowers blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass index.

The program’s founder, internist Dean Ornish, MD, of Sausalito, Calif., said it took him 16 years to get Medicare on board. “I’m grateful they finally did, because no matter how good a program is clinically, if it’s not reimbursable, it’s not sustainable.” Dr. Ornish is a clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco’s Dept. of Medicine, and runs the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, which focuses on the effects of lifestyle on diseases.
Lifestyle changes such as those promoted by his heart program have been shown to impact other major chronic diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, he said. “I think one reason Medicare is paying for this is because it can be medically effective and cost-effective” in more ways than one.
But although such alternative programs may test the limits of conventional treatments, they have their own limits. Some cardiologists and health plans have expressed wariness about their effectiveness compared with conventional care.

In a December 2009 comment letter to CMS, the American College of Cardiology said “evidence demonstrating that the Ornish program’s effects on the course of coronary heart disease or revascularization rates is unclear.” The ACC said the program might meet the initial hurdle for Medicare coverage, but patient outcomes might not show that it improves enough cardiac conditions over a long enough period to meet the full requirements for an intensive cardiac rehab program.

In an April email, Vera Bittner, MD, MSPH, a professor of medicine and section head of preventive cardiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, indicated the ACC is supportive of Medicare access to cardiac rehab in general — and that it, like other preventive care, should follow a “patient-centered” approach. “Bundling of different counseling services, limiting services to a particular type of physician or a specific intervention or set of interventions, or specifying specific time intervals outside which services are not reimbursable will limit access to these services.”

In another comment letter to CMS, America’s Health Insurance Plans pointed to a 2009 study showing that some patients in the Ornish Medicare demo fared no better on long-term rehospitaliza­tion or mortality rates than patients who under­went traditional cardiac rehab, despite large differences in program costs.

The year-long Ornish program cost $5,650 per beneficiary, of which Medicare paid 80%. Traditional cardiac rehab lasted for 18 weeks and cost Medicare only $683.

The Ornish program requires strict dietary and lifestyle changes, which can result in low enrollment and adherence rates, the letter said. The insurers trade group similarly expressed to CMS concerns that the new obesity counseling might benefit only a small population.

Physicians also may lack the in-depth training to administer obesity counseling. Seventy-two percent of primary care physicians surveyed by the STOP Obesity Alliance in 2010 said nobody in their practices had been trained to deal with weight-loss issues, though 89% agreed it was their job.

Other obesity challenges mirror those of the medical home, added GWU’s Ferguson, a former Massachusetts health commissioner. There is a need for improved integration, a supportive payment system and sufficient primary care supply.

Several of the Medicare-approved Ornish program sites acknowledged that their operations are barely cost-neutral. Even hiring a single dietitian can be difficult for smaller physician practices, said the AAFP’s Dr. Stream.

Some physicians also want to ensure that preventive coverage does not overshadow surgical options for high-risk patients.

“Patients and their health care providers need an arsenal of treatments. … For the morbidly obese, bariatric surgery is the most effective therapy,” the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery wrote in a CMS comment letter.

Dr. Ornish agreed that lifestyle modification programs, while a valid alternative to surgery for some, may not be suitable in every case. “This is meant to give patients the full range of options.”

Preventive programs aren’t necessarily going to be a moneymaker for practices, Silverton Hospital’s Dr. Lord said.

“But that’s not a reason to get into this,” he said. “The ones who really benefit are the patients, and it’s wonderful for them.”

Alternative heart disease strategy shows promise

The Medicare-covered intensive cardiac rehabilitation program known as the Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease has lowered patients’ risk of repeat heart attacks and other symptoms of heart disease through comprehensive lifestyle modifications.

A recent study of 2,974 Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield patients who went through the one-year program at 24 hospital sites in four states between 1998 and 2009 showed promising results:
Mean change in measure:     After 12 weeks   After one year

Body mass index

-6.6%

-7.8%


Depression scale scores

-47.4%

-44.7%


Diastolic blood pressure

-8.5%

-4.8%


Exercise capacity

22.2%

24.4%


Hemoglobin A1c

-11%

-5.6%


Systolic blood pressure

-8.7%

-4.7%


Total cholesterol

-14.9%

-6.2%


Source: “The Effectiveness and Efficacy of an Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation Program in 24 Sites,” American Journal of Health Promotion, March/April 2010



Copyright 2012 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.





American Medical Association

Medicare's new approach to familiar diseases - amednews.com

GOVERNMENT

Chimpanzee found to be smarter than US High School Students

Study: Female chimpanzee smarter than US High School Students

Written by Robert Smith
Saturday, 01 September 2012

A twenties-something genius ape named Natasha has been found to demonstrate more intelligence than a typical U.S. high school student. The findings have been published in the peer-reviewed science journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.


As the paper documents, Natasha repeatedly demonstrates skills and reasoning that escape modern-day high school students.

 "The caretakers named Natasha as the smartest chimpanzee, precisely the same chimpanzee that our tests had revealed to be exceptional," wrote authors Esther Herrmann and Josep Call of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (reported at Discovery.com).
According to these scientists, Natasha has demonstrated the following skills; all of which escape the dumbed-down mental capacity of a typical U.S. high school student:

• An ability to repeatedly escape the chimpanzee enclosure using planning skills.

• An ability to disable an electric fence by throwing branches on it and observing the sparks. Once the sparks stopped, Natasha knew the fence was disabled and then proceeded to climb it.

• The ability to wield a special tool to avoid a trap while locating hidden food. (U.S. high school students eat toxic food chemicals every day which trap them in a lifetime of chronic disease.)

• According to scientists, "ape intelligence might be a bundling of skills related to learning, tool usage, understanding of quantities, and an ability to reach conclusions based on evidence and reasoning." (http://news.discovery.com/animals/ape-genius-chimpanzee-intelligence-...) U.S. high school students, on the other hand, largely run their lives based on drama, jealousy, sex and emotional reactions to simple stimuli such as corporate logos on basketball shoes.

• Intelligent chimpanzees are well known to manufacture their own tools in order to extract (yummy) termites out of holes in trees. A typical U.S. high school student barely has the skill to open a frozen burrito wrapper and punch "START" on a microwave oven.

On a similar note, it is well known that the U.S. military conducts vaccine medical experiments on human soldiers for the sole reason that "humans are cheaper than monkeys." Lab monkeys actually try to escape from vaccine assaults, while humans actually line up at pharmacies and PAY to be injected with experimental vaccines!

The question isn't whether apes are smarter than humans... it's actually this far more important question: Are many humans dumber than apes?



24Medica - Study: Female chimpanzee smarter than US High School Students

Link: http://www.24medica.com/content/view/2807/2/

Geniuses exist among non-humans too

   Aug 27, 1:56 pm

Washington, August 27 (ANI):  A series of tests examining intelligence in chimps have found that some apes are much smarter than others.

One chimp in particular, an adult female in her 20’s named Natasha, who scored far better than other chimps was classified as being “exceptional.”

The findings, published in the latest Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, suggest that geniuses exist among non-humans, Discovery News reported.

Instead, a perfect storm of abilities seems to come together to create the Einsteins of the animal kingdom. Natasha’s keepers at the Ngamba Island chimpanzee sanctuary in Uganda knew she was special even before the latest study.

“The caretakers named Natasha as the smartest chimpanzee, precisely the same chimpanzee that our tests had revealed to be exceptional,” wrote study authors Esther Herrmann and Josep Call of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Natasha has made headlines over the months for her attention-grabbing antics. For example, she repeatedly escaped her former enclosure, surrounded by an electric fence. She did this by tossing branches at the fence until she didn’t see a spark, letting her know that the power was off.

She also learned how to tease humans, beckoning them to throw food her way, only to spray the unsuspecting person with water.

Herrmann and Call decided to study this chimp, along with numerous others, to see if there really are chimp prodigies among non-human great apes. To do this, the researchers created a multi-part mental challenge consisting of eight tasks.

For the first task, the chimps had to find hidden find, testing their spatial knowledge. For the second, the chimps wielded a tool -- avoiding a trap -- to again obtain a food reward. The remaining tasks demonstrated understanding of things like colour, size and shape.

“We identified some individuals who consistently scored well across (the) multiple tasks,” wrote the authors, who again made note of Natasha, who aced nearly every task.

The researchers could not identify “a general intelligence factor.” They instead indicate that ape intelligence might be a bundling of skills related to learning, tool usage, understanding of quantities, and an ability to reach conclusions based on evidence and reasoning.

For other animals, Herrmann and Call mention the dogs Rico and Chaser, who knew the meaning of hundreds of words. (ANI)

Geniuses, chimps, Ngamba Island, Uganda, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B,

 LINK:  http://www.aninews.in/newsdetail9/story70406/geniuses-exist-among-non-humans-too.html

 

By

Natasha, who appears in this photo, outperformed other chimps on tests given by researchers to measure intelligence. Click to enlarge this image.
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology/Esther Herrmann

Certain apes appear to be much smarter than others, with at least one chimpanzee now called "exceptional" when compared to other chimps.
The standout chimp, an adult female in her 20s named Natasha, scored off the charts in a battery of tests. The findings, published in the latest Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, suggest that geniuses exist among non-humans, but that no one attribute constitutes intelligence.

Instead, a perfect storm of abilities seems to come together to create the Einsteins of the animal kingdom. Natasha's keepers at the Ngamba Island chimpanzee sanctuary in Uganda knew she was special even before the latest study.


"The caretakers named Natasha as the smartest chimpanzee, precisely the same chimpanzee that our tests had revealed to be exceptional," study authors Esther Herrmann and Josep Call of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology wrote.
"All three of the most experienced caretakers included Natasha in their lists (of the most intelligent chimps)," they added.

Natasha has made headlines over the months for her attention-grabbing antics. For instance, she repeatedly escaped her former enclosure, surrounded by an electric fence. She did this by tossing branches at the fence until she didn't see a spark, letting her know that the power was off.

She also learned how to tease humans, beckoning them to throw food her way, only to spray the unsuspecting person with water.

Herrmann and Call decided to study this chimp, along with numerous others, to see if there really are chimp prodigies among non-human great apes. To do this, the researchers created a multi-part mental challenge consisting of eight tasks.

WATCH VIDEO: See how chimp family groups cope with the death of a close relative. (Caution: Images may be disturbing to some viewers.)

For the first task, the chimps had to find hidden food, testing their spatial knowledge. For the second, the chimps wielded a tool -- avoiding a trap -- to again obtain a food reward. The remaining tasks demonstrated understanding of things like color, size and shape.

"We identified some individuals who consistently scored well across (the) multiple tasks," wrote the authors, who again made note of Natasha, who aced nearly every task.

The researchers could not identify "a general intelligence factor." They instead indicate that ape intelligence might be a bundling of skills related to learning, tool usage, understanding of quantities, and an ability to reach conclusions based on evidence and reasoning.
As the saying goes, necessity may be the mother of invention and, at least in some cases, one reason behind chimp cleverness.

Call, for example, told Discovery News about chimps that make tools for extracting termites out of mounds. The process requires several steps.

"They uproot the stem or use their teeth to clip the stem at the base and then remove the large leaf from the distal end by clipping it with their teeth before transporting the stem to the termite nest, where they complete tool manufacture by modifying the end into a 'paint brush' tip by pulling the stem through their teeth, splitting the probe lengthwise by pulling off strands of fiber, or separating the fibers by biting them," he said.


As for why only some chimps go through such an elaborate process, "a lot depends on the ecological constraints and needs," he said.

In terms of other animals, Herrmann and Call mention the dogs Rico and Chaser, who knew the meaning of hundreds of words.

"Interestingly," the scientists point out, "all of these dogs (considered to be very smart) are border collies. And many of their owners reported that they did not train the dogs to play the fetching game; it was the dogs who trained them!"

The jury is still out on what exactly constitutes such cleverness. The researchers propose that more studies be conducted, with "tasks that capture cognitive, motivational and temperament dimensions."

That's because, in part, a willingness to learn and a positive attitude seem to make as big of a difference in dogs, chimps and other animals as they do in humans.

Tags: Animals, Chimpanzee, Escaped, Great Apes, Learning

 LINK:  http://news.discovery.com/animals/ape-genius-chimpanzee-intelligence-120826.html

• Reference

Exceptionally Smart Chimps Are Like Humans

Read more at http://www.naturenplanet.com/articles/2937/20120827/exceptionally-smart-chimps-are-like-humans-chimpanzee-intelligence-task-learning-understanding.htm#vACeUz2OkeJFvezq.99

Aug 27, 2012 07:43 AM EDT

Tags

social intelligence, chimpanzees

(Photo : Reuters) Some chimpanzees are exceptionally smart than others.

A new study finds that some chimpanzees are exceptionally smarter than the other ones just like humans.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany studied chimpanzees including 20-year-old female chimp Natasha from the Ngamba Island chimpanzee sanctuary in Uganda to find out if social intelligence existed among apes, a quality that is believe to set humans apart from other primates, reported Discovery News.

 
Natasha has been touted as a chimp genius for her exceptional levels of intelligence. Earlier studies have showed that the female prodigy has learnt to communicate with other members of its species and to deal with various other situations.

They gave eight tasks to Natasha and other chimpanzees such as identifying color, size and shape, finding a hidden food, and using a tool to avoid traps and find food. They found several chimpanzees to perform well in all the tasks assigned to them suggesting that social intelligence can also be found among apes other humans.
In particular, Natasha performed exceptionally well in all the tasks.

"The caretakers named Natasha as the smartest chimpanzee, precisely the same chimpanzee that our tests had revealed to be exceptional," study authors Esther Herrmann and Josep Call of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology wrote, reported Discovery News. "All three of the most experienced caretakers included Natasha in their lists (of the most intelligent chimps)."

The chimp is already very popular for its antics that have never been seen before. She has tried to escape from her enclosure numerous times that is covered with an electric fence by tossing the tree branches against the fence. She attempted to escape when there was no spark coming from the fence understanding that that power had been switched off and it was safe to escape. Natasha has also learnt to clap hands in order call the caretakers and demand more food. Her antics have also involved her signaling to the visitors and splashing water on them.
Natasha's display of intelligence levels equaling the humans has awed the scientists. While the experts identified high intelligence levels among the apes, they could not find one particular factor that attributed to the quality.
Instead, they pointed out several factors such as learning and understanding using evidence and reasoning abilities and tool for the apes' intelligence.

The findings are published in the latest journal of Philosophical Transactionsof the Royal Society B.

Read more at http://www.naturenplanet.com/articles/2937/20120827/exceptionally-smart-chimps-are-like-humans-chimpanzee-intelligence-task-learning-understanding.htm#vACeUz2OkeJFvezq.99

LINK:

www.naturenplanet.com/articles/2937/20120827/exceptionally-smart-chimps-are-like-humans-chimpanzee-intelligene-task-learning-understanding.htm

(NaturalNews) A twenties-something "genius ape" named Natasha has been found to demonstrate more intelligence than a typical U.S. high school student. The findings have been published in the peer-reviewed science journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

As the paper documents, Natasha repeatedly demonstrates skills and reasoning that escape modern-day high school students. "The caretakers named Natasha as the smartest chimpanzee, precisely the same chimpanzee that our tests had revealed to be exceptional," wrote authors Esther Herrmann and Josep Call of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (reported at Discovery.com, link below).

According to these scientists, Natasha has demonstrated the following skills; all of which escape the dumbed-down mental capacity of a typical U.S. high school student:

• An ability to repeatedly escape the chimpanzee enclosure using planning skills.

• An ability to disable an electric fence by throwing branches on it and observing the sparks. Once the sparks stopped, Natasha knew the fence was disabled and then proceeded to climb it. (A typical U.S. high school student cannot figure out how to pull his pants up around his waist.)

• The ability to wield a special tool to avoid a trap while locating hidden food. (U.S. high school students eat toxic food chemicals every day which trap them in a lifetime of chronic disease.)

• According to scientists, "ape intelligence might be a bundling of skills related to learning, tool usage, understanding of quantities, and an ability to reach conclusions based on evidence and reasoning." (http://news.discovery.com/animals/ape-genius-chimpanzee-intelligence-...) U.S. high school students, on the other hand, largely run their lives based on drama, jealousy, sex and emotional reactions to simple stimuli such as corporate logos on basketball shoes.

• Intelligent chimpanzees are well known to manufacture their own tools in order to extract (yummy) termites out of holes in trees. A typical U.S. high school student barely has the skill to open a frozen burrito wrapper and punch "START" on a microwave oven.

On a similar note, it is well known that the U.S. military conducts vaccine medical experiments on human soldiers for the sole reason that "humans are cheaper than monkeys." Lab monkeys actually try to escape from vaccine assaults, while humans actually line up at pharmacies and PAY to be injected with experimental vaccines!

The question isn't whether apes are smarter than humans... it's actually this far more important question: Are many humans dumber than apes?

Chimpanzees are more AWARE than the average human, too

According to the latest science, chimpanzees are conscious, aware beings with just as much awareness as humans (http://news.discovery.com/animals/chimpanzees-self-awareness-110504.h...). Humans, on the other hand, go to great lengths to diminish their awareness with alcohol, drugs and mind-altering psychiatric drugs.

Chimpanzees are acutely aware of their environments, while a typical high-school-aged human seems to exist in a sleepwalking zombie state from which only violent video games or online porn can cause them to awaken. While a typical chimpanzee works to observe reality while attempting to make sense of the world, a typical high school teen tries to escape reality and reject the real world.

Interestingly, organizations contributing to the problem of dumbed-down, zombified humans include Discovery.com where the story of Natasha the genius ape was originally reported. To the right of the story is an advertisement for -- get this -- a mind-altering psychiatric drug known as ABILIFY. The text right there on the page next to the story about how smart the "genius ape" is reads:

Antidepressants can increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, teens and young adults. (See screen shot below.)

Apparently, Discovery News did not think this fact is a sufficient reason to ban such ads from its website. As long as there's money to be made promoting these toxic chemicals, who cares if a few children commit suicide or blow away their classmates in a mass shooting?

That's how stupid humans are, by the way: They promote things that harm other humans as long as they make a profit in the process. Chimpanzees don't seek out mind-altering psychiatric drugs. Only a human is stupid enough to assault their brain chemistry with a patented, synthetic chemical made in a factory. You can't brainwash an ape into thinking childhood is a disease. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPS9SohzMjw)

The real hilarity in this story, however, is the subhead text in the Discovery.com article which reads, "Zoo Chimp Makes Elaborate Plots to Attack Humans" while adjacent to this column, the site runs an ad for a mind-altering drug that accomplishes the same thing!

Here's the image from the Discovery News website, which makes Discovery.com look like an ignorant cabal of drug-pimping apes:

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/036980_genius_chimpanzee_intelligence.html#ixzz25UQsKJrj

See full-sized image at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/images/Ape-Human-Article-Abilify-Ad-v3.jpg

Sources include:
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/
http://news.discovery.com/animals/ape-genius-chimpanzee-intelligence-...

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/036980_genius_chimpanzee_intelligence.html#ixzz25UR0pxo8

Genius female chimpanzee found to be smarter than U.S. high school students

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/036980_genius_chimpanzee_intelligence.html#ixzz25UREhFSt

The Structure of Individual Differences in the Cognitive Abilities of Children and Chimpanzees

1. Esther Herrmann1,
2. Maria Victoria Hernández-Lloreda2,
3. Josep Call1,
4. Brian Hare3 and
5. Michael Tomasello1

+ Author Affiliations

1. ¹Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
2. ²Departamento de Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
3. ³Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University

1. Esther Herrmann, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany E-mail: eherrman@eva.mpg.de

Abstract

Most studies of animal cognition focus on group performance and neglect individual differences and the correlational structure of cognitive abilities. Moreover, no previous studies have compared the correlational structure of cognitive abilities in nonhuman animals and humans. We compared the structure of individual differences of 106 chimpanzees and 105 two-year-old human children using 15 cognitive tasks that posed problems about the physical or social world. We found a similar factor of spatial cognition for the two species. But whereas the chimpanzees had only a single factor in addition to spatial cognition, the children had two distinct additional factors: one for physical cognition and one for social cognition. These findings, in combination with previous research, support the proposal that humans share many cognitive skills with nonhuman apes, especially for dealing with the physical world, but in addition have evolved some specialized skills of social cognition.

• individual differences
• chimpanzees
• human children
• social cognition
• physical cognition
•  
• LINK: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/21/1/102?patientinform-links=yes&legid=sppss;21/1/102 
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1. Published online before print December 18, 2009, doi: 10.1177/0956797609356511 Psychological Science January 2010 vol. 21 no. 1 102-110

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Animal Emotions

Do animals think and feel?

by Marc Bekoff

"Natasha Einstein" the Chimpanzee Valedictorian

A new look at chimpanzee multiple intelligences reveals genius

Published on August 29, 2012 by Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. in Animal Emotions

We all know that chimpanzees and other animals are extremely intelligent and deeply emotional. And now a recent and extremely detailed study shows just how smart chimpanzees can be and that there are measurable individual differences in intelligence. Esther Herrmann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany and her colleague Josep Call have discovered that a female chimpanzee named Natasha was the smartest of the 106 chimpanzees they tested. The abstract for their original research article can be found here.
During their study the researchers "noticed a wide range of skills among the chimps and wondered whether they could measure this variation in ability—and whether there were studies that could predict the chimps’ overall performance in all areas, like an IQ test in humans. So they gave a battery of physical and social tests to 106 chimps at Ngamba Island and the Tchimpounga chimpanzee sanctuary in the Republic of the Congo, and to 23 captive chimpanzees and bonobos in Germany. In one experiment, chimps were asked to find food in a container after it had been shuffled around with empty containers. In another, they had to use a stick to get food placed on a high platform. The researchers analyzed the data to determine if the scores in some tests helped predict performance in others."

Related Articles

• On Mourning and Being Human
• Chimpanzees: I Know What You Don't
• Chimps are like humans? Stop monkeying around
• Is Pet-Luv Caused By A Virus of the Mind?
• Cannibalistic Hippy Orgy-War Breaks Out!

Individual differences and multiple intelligences are important to study
While the reseaerchers didn't discover a general intelligence factor, g, that predicted intelligence on different sorts of skills they did discover large individual differences and that Natasha was the class valedictorian. Thus, they "advocate an approach based on testing multiple individuals (of multiple species) on multiple tasks that capture cognitive, motivational and temperament factors affecting performance. One of the advantages of this approach is that it may contribute to reconcile the general and domain-specific views on primate intelligence."

This study is a landmark attempt to open the doors to learning more about animal intelligence focusing on individual differences. It is also reminiscent of Howard Gardner's research on multiple intelligences in human apes and lays the foundation for work on animal genius and within species variations in intelligence. There is a great need for research on wild animals living in their natural habitats where they are not constrained by varying conditions of captivity.

Being a birdbrain is just fine
It is also important to include other animals in these sorts of analyses because we know there are significant individual differences among members of many different species and even among members of the same litter or brood. We also know that some birds can do things that chimpanzees can't do. For example, New Caledonian Crows (see also) make and use more sophisticated tools than do chimpanzees and it would be fascinating to learn more about multiple intelligences and the existence of valedictorians in these Einsteinian birds and other animals. Calling someone a "birdbrain" can be quite the compliment.

It's an exciting time for those people who are interested in the cognitive and emotional capacities of nonhuman animals. Stay tuned for more on the fascinating world of the amazing beings with whom we share our planet and how they differ from one another. For example, I'll be writing about "street smart" dogs later on because there clearly are individual dogs (and other animals) who do better "on the streets" than do others. The same goes for "urban smart" wild animals among whom some individuals do just fine, whereas others do not.


Link:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201208/natasha-einstein-the-chimpanzee-valedictorian

 http://www.african-safari-pictures.com/chimpanzee-pictures.html

Zany Science
Animal geniuses also exist
ANI

Washington, August 28, 2012

 A series of tests examining intelligence in chimps have found that some apes are much smarter than others. One chimp in particular, an adult female in her 20s named Natasha, who scored far better than other chimps was classified as being “exceptional.” The findings, published in

the latest Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, suggest that geniuses exist among non-humans, Discovery News reported. Natasha’s keepers at the Ngamba Island chimpanzee sanctuary in Uganda knew she was special even before the latest study.
“The caretakers named Natasha as the smartest chimpanzee, precisely the same chimpanzee that our tests had revealed to be exceptional,” wrote study authors Esther Herrmann and Josep Call of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Natasha has made headlines over the months for her attention-grabbing antics. For example, she repeatedly escaped her former enclosure, surrounded by an electric fence. She did this by tossing branches at the fence until she didn't see a spark, letting her know that the power was off.

 http://www.hindustantimes.com/HTNext/ZanyScience/Animal-geniuses-also-exist/Article1-920400.aspx

 

This most intelligent of apes still occurs in the wild in the following countries:
Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.
Some of the East African parks where you can see and get chimp pictures are:

· Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda

· Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

· Kibale National Park, Uganda

· Murchison Falls Conservation Area, Uganda

· Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

· Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Lake Victoria, Uganda

· Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania – where there is also a sanctuary

· Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania

· Rubondo Island National Park, Tanzania

· Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, northern Zambia

· Garamba National Park, DRC

· Parc National des Virunga, DRC

· Parc National du Kahuzi-Biega, DRC

· Loango National Park, Gabon (west Africa)

A lot of what we know about chimpanzees today is thanks to people like Jane Goodall dedicating much of their lives to observing and studying these apes.

Chimpanzee Pictures Of Their Lifestyle

For the most part they follow a vegetarian diet, but will also hunt and kill other animals for meat.
Chimps live in societies of up to 80 individuals, broken into smaller “clans”. There are no definitive leaders in chimp groups, but a definite rank order. Adult males almost always dominate females, and the most respected male is the one that can put up the biggest display of strength and create the most noise by hooting and screaming. Chimpanzee photos of this in the wild are few and far between.
Conflict among clan members can usually be ascribed to a subordinate crossing the line by stealing food for example or failing to get out of the way… nothing serious.

Almost Human

Humans and chimpanzees share an amazing 98.6% of the same DNA.
It is interesting that chimpanzee babies develop at a faster rate than humans, at least up to the age of four. Chimps begin to walk and climb at 5 months, humans usually at around 1 year of age.
Female chimps reach sexual maturity at 12 years. When in heat she will often mate with each male in her clan and sometimes with outside males too. The male doesn’t take part in raising of the young and is quite likely to wander off to another clan if there are receptive females there.
What makes them so fascinating and enjoyable to watch and take chimpanzee pictures of has no doubt something to do with their “cuddliness” or strong sense of physical touch. Chimps spend a lot of time grooming each other and especially the young need this reassurance for their wellbeing.
We almost recognise ourselves when they stand on their hind legs to scan the area, or even run on their back legs if they are carrying something or charging in aggression. Usually however, they get around on all-fours, using the knuckles on their hands rather than the palm.
They also use tools such as sticks to “fish” termites out of their mound, throw sticks and stones to repel predators and teach each other their obtained skills, for instance cracking nuts with stones.

Under Threat

It’s sad then that humans are the ones responsible for their decline in numbers through ghastly practices of poaching for meat or the pet trade (approximately 4000 chimps a year are killed and captured in Africa).
At the current rate of decline in numbers, two sub-species of chimpanzee could become extinct in the next 50 years and the only chimpanzee picture you will get of them then is in a zoo.

 http://www.african-safari-pictures.com/chimpanzee-pictures.html