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How to Photograph Rivers and Streams

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How to Photograph Rivers and Streams

There are many reasons for shooting rivers and streams in landscape photography and there’s a lot involved so here’s part one (probably).

Being in the landscape regularly will inevitably lead you along rivers or creeks. A lot of joy can be found being immersed in a shot from within a river. The bubbling rushing sounds, water drop splashes, glowing mossy rocks and birds whooshing along catching insects are some of the many highlights. You really do feel alive photographing from a stream and often the challenges it presents are well worth overcoming as the visual rewards can be fabulous.

Compositionally water presents excellent opportunities for a photograph such as making leading lines to another subject – like a mountain or waterfall. The patterns and shapes made by flowing water offer endless possibilities and can be the main subject in themselves. You will sometimes find S shapes and curves which are sought after compositional devices. Looking closely and exploring will reap visual rewards and you may see reflections plus reflected colors which help build a composition if the water isn’t too fast flowing. If you are lucky and the sun is shining at the right angle, water spray can form rainbow prisms which can make welcome color splashes too!

Don’t be a pussy, get in!

Eventually, you will want to get into the river or creek you are photographing, it happens to everyone. Unless you’re going to drown. Stay out if you intend to drown – yes it can be dangerous. Often the best compositional leading lines and action is from within the river, there’s no getting away from the fact you will want to get in at some point. When you do decide to take the plunge (waka waka), you’ll want to consider investing in appropriate footwear because if you wear your regular hiking shoes they will fall apart quickly. And they’ll get stinky quickly!

Use our very scientific and informative Arctic-ometer© infographic to pick the most appropriate footwear. Here’s a brief rundown:

  1. Flip flops
    If you are somewhere warm enough good for you! Flip flops are great for hot places where there are no leeches or other waterborne critters. Shooting in warm places is a dream for landscape photographers and flip flops beat barefoot if there are scratchy rocks etc.
  2. Water shoes
    These specifically designed shoes let out the water and are apparently more grippy on slippery rocks. As above you’re probably somewhere pretty warm if you can get away with water shoes. Enjoy!
  3. Wellington boots
    Wellies are maybe the easiest all-rounder for beginners as you can hop into the creek as well as wear them on the hike, which saves some extra weight. Often they will do the job and you can find insulated boots for colder conditions.
  4. Thigh waders
    Longer and heavier than wellies, waders allow far deeper… wading. I carry these with me most of the time over wellies nowadays. The considerable extra weight is well worth it when you can happily reach most parts of a river or creek.
  5. Chest waders or fishing waders
    These are the Mecca of water footwear. In fact this is pretty much whole body wear.
    If you are too embarrassed to get chest waders simply tell everyone you are taking up fishing and they will nod agreeably. You may get a look or two when you don chest height neoprene style-lead waders, however after a couple of hours in snow-melt rivers you’ll be grateful for the investment. (The ones I use were about $90 from Amazon).
  6. There’s a six? Yes – a wetsuit.
    If you’re wearing a wetsuit while shooting you’re doing something awesome and you don’t need our advice! Go play.

Versatile and essential, get your footwear sorted and you won’t look back! The good news is that any of these are applicable to photographing in oceans too.

Other essentials and tips for photographing rivers

  • Generally avoid the sky
    As a rule of thumb avoid the sky as it will probably be blown out. Of course, there are always exceptions and sometimes a little blowout isn’t too bad. Exceptions include having subject matter in the distance, such as a mountain or waterfall. Usually, these will be higher than the creek in the frame and have some sky around them.
  • Experiment with your shutter speed.
    Use the right speed for the water you are shooting; if there is a fast flow it could be quicker or you may want a slow dreamy look. As with all landscape photography try and visualize the end result when making the photo. Here’s one example when shooting multiple frames in the landscape can be really useful. Find the shutter speed you like the best, whether it is 1/2 second or milky smooth at 5 seconds by taking enough pictures to see the difference. More on shutter speeds here.
  • Polarise
    Invariably you’ll need a polarizer, but you don’t have to use it to the full effect. Sometimes the contrast will be too great when used at 100% so again use some experimentation in the field. See our related article about photography filters here.
  • Exposure is critical
    If you are making an HDR blend this isn’t so critical, but for single frames, you will want to carefully consider your exposure. Generally, the brightest part of the image will be the fastest flowing water, using this will make for a solid exposure baseline.
  • Watch the weather
    Shooting water can be done on any day, but partially cloudy are generally the best.
    Having some light on any scene, rather than completely flat grey days will improve river and creek photos just as they do dry-landscapes. Some beams, patchy light through trees and golden hour color all make for creating depth, although beware of strong sunlight as the water will easily blow out.
  • Beware fast flowing rivers
    Not only can these be dangerous, but your tripod can easily move when shooting. Put your leg in front of the tripod if it’s really fast flowing to disperse the water and try and position the other legs behind rocks to lessen the impact.
  • Regularly clean your lenses
    Your lens will probably get misty/sprayed if you are in the water. Check the element to avoid disappointment later. If there is a lot of spray use a baggy or graduated filter to compose the shot first or consider taking your lens-hood. See our post here about keeping your lens clean in water.

Some extra things to consider are having a lot of pockets. You may be away from the river banks and will end up stuffing your pockets with bits and bobs. Similarly using a backpack is pretty essential rather than a slingback or other bag, which may flop into the water. One thing I will be getting one day soon is polarised sunglasses. It’s virtually impossible to gauge the slippery rocks with regular glasses and this has been on my list for ages!

Women Genuinely Like Flowers | The Effect Of Flowers To Women’s Emotions

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Women Genuinely Like Flowers | The Effect Of Flowers To Women’s Emotions

Q: Society and media seem to try to convince everyone that men should give women flowers if they’re trying to show affection.

But is that just media-driven fake news in an age of alternative facts? Should I try to come up with some other random gift, like a candle, to show that I’m creative or unconventional?

A: No, dummy.

In the latest issue of the Journal of “No Duh” Science for Idiots*, it was shown that women genuinely like getting flowers, it increases their happiness literally for days, and flowers even result in cognitive improvements in elderly populations.

Furthermore, flowers seem to have special effects that other gifts don’t have. Just buy the dang flowers.

INTRODUCTION

Flowers serve no purpose for humans. At least, that’s the logical conclusion – you can’t eat them and they’re not particularly useful as resources. Some have medicinal value but not most of the popularly-cultivated varieties.

Yet, humans have spent thousands of years cultivating flowers for no purpose other than aesthetics and fragrance.

However, one evolutionary theory suggests that some aesthetic things, like cultivating flowers, are beneficial only because of the positive emotions they generate.

In other words, people were more likely to survive if they stopped to smell the roses – to enjoy the beautiful things in life. This causes positive emotions and those are beneficial to humans in survival.

Additionally, it could be a strategy for the flowers as well. More beautiful flowers are more likely to be cultivated by humans, thus increasing their survival strategy as well!

Some researchers sought to test what exactly the effects of flowers in human behavior might be, and the results were published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology in 2005.

STUDY 1

The researchers first sought to see the effect of giving women flowers. Does it result in genuine happiness, or fake/feigned happiness?

To determine the genuineness of happiness, the researchers explained the difference of various smiles.

“Duchenne smiles” (named after their discoverer, Guillame Duchenne in the mid-1800s) are a type of smile that has been identified in research as a genuine indicator of happiness. It occurs in infants, kids, and adults. It’s characterized by contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle and the orbicularis oculi muscle.

  • In plain language, it’s a smile that raises the corners of the mouth, raises the cheeks, AND creates crow’s feet in the eyes. It’s a broad, whole-face smile.
  • Non-Duchenne smiles involve only the mouth muscles.

Duchenne smiles seem to be almost hard-wired into human behavior and indicate reciprocal happiness and prosocial behavior.

They were pre-interviewed on various personality traits and demographic characteristics.

147 adult women were recruited in New Jersey and selected for facial expressiveness and broader ranges of emotional responses.

The researchers then went to the Society of American Florists and, after consultation, carefully selected a mixed-flower bouquet that has a variety of colors and odors and is maximally effective in eliciting happiness (as far as they could tell).

They also found some other common gift items:

  • A fruit/candy basket
  • A large, multi-wicked, fragrant candle
  • The participants were told that they would be part of an experiment and that the necessary items for the experiment would be delivered at their home.
  • When the items were delivered, the gift (either a bouquet, the sweets basket, or the candle) was presented to the participant, and a second observer rated the participant’s smile.
  • Then the participant answered a variety of mood and other questions.
  • Three days later, the participant was interviewed again with open-ended questions to determine the effects of the gift.

NONE of the presenters, observers, or interviewers were aware of the purpose of the experiment (so they weren’t biased to see things that weren’t there).

RESULTS:

How many of the participants responded to the flowers with a genuine, Duchenne smile? ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.

An effect doesn’t get stronger than this, folks.

The sweets basket had a 90% success rate and the candle had a 77% success rate.close

Also, this shifted according to age: older people liked the fruit baskets more, and younger people smiled more in general.

In the second interview, only those women in the flower group experienced an increase in positive emotions after 3 days.

Part of the reason for the difference may be that the participants were able to display the flowers in a communal space such as the living room or a dining room, thus boosting their effects over multiple days.

Candles were more likely to be placed in private areas, and sweets baskets disappeared as their contents were consumed.

STUDY 2

Does this effect extend to both men and women?

The researchers sought to replicate the experiment in a different way – in a public elevator.

Some assistants were assigned to stand in a university elevator and wait for an individual to enter by themselves. Randomly, one assistant was instructed to do one of four things:

Present the person with a single daisy out of a basket of flowers. The basket had a sign on it that said “Free Flowers/Gift! The Society of American Florists Supports of Random Act of Kindness Day! People will be receiving flowers/gifts at random, on the elevator. You can pass on the kindness!”

Hold the basket of flowers but don’t give the person one.

Present the person with a ballpoint pen with the university logo on it out of a basket (this basket didn’t mention the Society of American Florists).

Do nothing.

Then, the individual’s response was measured and noted by the second assistant.

122 individuals were recorded for this study (around half male/female).

RESULTS:

The individuals who received flowers exhibited the highest levels of positive social responses (remarks, gestures, facial expressions) of any group.

This was the case for both men and women, but women especially.

In fact, women who were given a flower showed the highest positive social ratings of any other group in any condition.

Unsurprisingly, people who saw the basket but weren’t offered a flower had the most negative response.

STUDY 3

This study replicated these results in a retirement home among seniors.

113 seniors in a retirement home had an interview about their mood and general characteristics. In that interview, they were given either a:

Mixed flower bouquet, like the one in Study 1

A monochromatic yellow bouquet

Or no flowers at all.

A follow-up interview was conducted 2-3 days later.

Some seniors got a second bouquet in the second interview.

Notably, the interviews also included measurements of cognitive ability – specifically, what details about the flowers and general events of the study they could remember. This was a measurement of memory.

RESULTS:

Once again, it was shown that the flowers increased positive mood for the seniors.

Receiving the flowers the second time got a boost in their scores for happiness (lower levels of depressive symptoms).

Notably, those who received flowers had better memories of the event – the flowers seemed to boost their cognitive skills.

CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION

What can we learn here?

The flowers effect isn’t a myth. Women love flowers. It’s a genuine reaction, it may have evolutionary roots, and flowers seem to be better than some other common gifts in eliciting this response.

But that’s not all – this effect works for both men and women, AND seniors.

For seniors, the flowers even gave them a boost in their cognitive skills – specifically, episodic memory.

Research Shows That the Clothes You Wear Actually Change the Way You Perform

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Research Shows That the Clothes You Wear Actually Change the Way You Perform

If you’ve ever watched the rehearsal process of a play, then you know just how powerful clothes are. Even in the very early stages of a project, professional actors will come to practice in certain clothing pieces that make them feel more like their character. Perhaps it’s an old pair of shoes, a long and heavy skirt, or a bandana that helps them get just the right swagger, grace, or edge.

A few weeks later, when they’re closer to opening, they’ll have an actual dress rehearsal with their real costumes. It’s pretty amazing to see how the right clothes bring the performances up to a whole new level and transform the actor into the character! As business professionals, we can actually learn a lot from this.

Like it or not, your clothes and presentation communicate volumes about you as a person. The question is not whether you care about fashion, it’s more about what you’re communicating intentionally or unconsciously through your fashion choices. Just as the actor in the right costume moves and speaks differently, so does the everyday person.

Your clothes tell a story about you. If you want to show that your work is clean, sharp, and to the point, you need to dress in clean lines, sharp creases, and (yes) points on your shoes and tie. Even the way you wear your glasses speaks volumes about you and your work!

What Do the Details Show?

Research shows that you can tell a lot about someone’s personality, politics, status, age and income just from looking at a photo of their shoes.

Did you ever notice that when President Barack Obama addressed a crowd of working class Americans, he would speak with no jacket and his sleeves rolled up? That silently and instantly communicated to the audience that he too was a hard worker.

You might remember when a 44 page dress code published by Swiss bank UBS went viral. The obsessive stipulations detailed everything from the sensible (“If you wear a watch, it suggests reliability and that punctuality is of great concern to you”) to the downright invasive (employees were instructed on how to shower and apply lotion, how to wear their underwear, and told not to eat garlic during the week).

They may have been control freaks, but UBS got one thing right: every detail about your presentation communicates something.

When you’re dressing or grooming, consider what it says about you and whether it’s in line with the message you want to communicate. There’s no right or wrong. It’s all about context. A tie can make you look reliable and rooted in tradition. This might be important at an investment firm, where clients want to know that you’re serious about stewarding their capital. But it can also come off as stuffy and resistant to change, which may be inappropriate for a tech startup.

Your Clothing Impacts Your Thinking

Of course, dressing smart is also important for your confidence and sense of self-empowerment. But your style does more than just send messages, to your mind or to others. New research shows it actually impacts how you think. Professional dress, one study found, increases abstract thinking and gives people a broader perspective. So that tie might actually be switching on your creativity button.

“The formality of clothing might not only influence the way others perceive a person, and how people perceive themselves, but could influence decision making in important ways through its influence on processing style,” the study says.

Professional attire creates social distance. When we are more socially distant, we tend to think in more distant, abstract terms. In socially distant settings we address people by their title, for instance, rather than the more intimate first name.

“Even after controlling for socioeconomic status, students wearing more formal clothing showed stronger inclinations towards abstract processing.”

Thin-Slicing

Usually we process visual details instantaneously through a process called thin-slicing. That’s when the brain makes millisecond judgements based on new stimulus. It often happens without us even knowing. We might just get a feeling that we don’t trust someone, or that someone else is steady and reliable. We might not even know why.

That gut feeling, commonly called intuition or a first impression, is really part of the very fast-paced mental process of thin-slicing. It’s how we continually judge books by their covers, all day, every day.

So choose your personal presentation with care. Presentation includes not only your clothes, but your accessories, hairstyle, fragrance, posture, body language, tone of voice, and the level of energy with which you move and speak. Think of the person that you need to be in any particular situation. Then dress, groom, and accessorize in a way that helps you mentally step into that personality.

Are you marching in there to get things done? Put on something red, roll up your sleeves and speak in a commanding voice. Are you making social connections at a gala event? Go for suave, but not workplace formal. Dress to feel attractive. Speak in a smooth tone, and let one shoulder relax.

If you’re loafing around on a long weekend with half a box of pizza, you can probably get away with breaking out the frumpy comfortables.

Taking intentional command of how you dress and present is a good step in empowering yourself, accomplishing your goals, and living a more lucid life at the helm of your decisions. So pay attention! Remember, all the world’s a stage.

WC win justification for how we went about the game in last four years

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WC win justification for how we went about the game in last four years

When tournaments are finally won, the victors often talk of relief. Relief that they have met, or exceeded, expectations, relief that they have got over the line. Relief, above all, that they will not have to live with the agony of defeat. Amid the happiness and excitement generated by England’s remarkable World Cup victory at Lord’s on Sunday, there is a palpable sense that the whole team, as well as the ECB, are relieved that four years of hard work has been rewarded with the ultimate prize. The alternative would have been unthinkable.

Beginning this tournament as favourites, with home advantage, and having swept aside most of their opponents since the last World Cup, the pressure was on England over the past seven weeks. A nation expected. Had they been unable to win the tournament, their best chance in a generation, plenty of questions would have been asked about Eoin Morgan’s team and the value of the progress they had made since their capitulation in Australia in 2015. Too fickle? Maybe. But it’s also the reality.

Those questions will never be asked of this team now. They will always be the team who won England’s first World Cup, the favourites who backed it up and delivered. It wasn’t perfect – far from it – but they beat India, Australia and New Zealand twice, the three other best teams, in what were effectively four consecutive knock-out games. They are worthy winners.

“It’s terribly exciting and justification for how we went about it for the last four years,” head coach Trevor Bayliss, who finally won a final after three previous unsuccessful attempts as a coach, said at The Oval on Monday. “At different times we have copped a bit of criticism for the way we went about it. But we had an end goal in mind and this is the result. I am one from four now so I am quite happy with at least getting one.

“To see the joy on the boys faces yesterday and to see the way they celebrated in the dressing room was all worth it.”

It was fitting, in a way, that England’s journey started four years ago in a series against New Zealand, the team they beat in yesterday’s final. Five brilliant matches in the early summer of 2015 showcased, for the first time, the bold style that is now the hallmark of this England team. They won the series 3-2 and started in style by making 408 in the first ODI. They chased 350 within 44 overs at Trent Bridge in the fourth game. They scored more than 300 in the first four matches. It was a revelation.

It was also a key moment in the development of this team, a line drawn under what had gone before and a radical change of approach initiated. That series was, Joe Root said, when the team started to believe they might be able to do something special in one-day cricket. “The way we performed throughout that series, the way Morgs laid things out and gave the guys opportunity to go and express themselves and play in that manner,” he said at the Oval.

“And seeing us do it and adapt to it so quickly obviously meant that we were good enough to do it. But it’s obviously a long road form there to continue to do it and look to improve be more consistent and grow as a team. It’s been such a fun journey these last four years.”

England have had their moments during that time, of course. They disappointingly lost in the semi-final of the Champions Trophy in 2017. They suffered thrashings against South Africa at Lord’s, against Australia in Adelaide and in Colombo against Sri Lanka, all on surfaces which did a bit. They lost other games too, including three in the group stages of the World Cup. But after each setback, England responded.

“The main plan was to let them go out and test the ceiling of how good they could be,” Bayliss said.”We knew they were going to stuff up. We knew they would lose games and probably lose some games badly but you only get better from making mistakes and seeing how well you can play. Learn from those mistakes with a period of four years to get it right. The talent of the team was obvious very early on.”

And all that talk of fault lines on tricky pitches can be put to bed now, too, after they emerged victorious in both the semi-final and final on surfaces which were far from the batting belters on which they dominate. Flat track bullies, yes, but far, far more than that now. “That’s the one thing I said yesterday to some of the coaching staff, that just showed how much these guys have grown over the four years,” Bayliss added.

“In one way, we have been practising for the last three and four years and learning to play on flat decks. There were games where we lost wickets and lost badly on wickets that were doing a little bit. But that’s how much they have grown. They have learnt from those bad games and been able to play some smart cricket and adjust to wickets with a little bit in them. Hopefully that’s put that to rest.”

Ben Stokes is another who might well be feeling relief after his man of the match performance. Relief that the fracas outside a Bristol nightclub two years ago will now be consigned to a footnote in any evaluation of his contribution. In danger then of throwing a career away, he is now a World Cup winner and a – the? – key reason of why his team got over the line. He has worked incredibly hard since that night in Bristol to get himself in this position. And then he delivered on the biggest stage. The narrative has certainly been changed.

“I don’t want this taken out of context but he is a real fighter,” Bayliss said. “What he did yesterday was extraordinary. You can’t stop him at practice. He wants to be involved in absolutely everything. He has a belief in his own ability and the rest of the players have a belief in his ability as well. At some stage that was going to come out and it was just set up for him beautifully.”

Was Bayliss concerned that this day, this redemption, might not come for Stokes? “Not really. The type of bloke he was, if there was one guy who could come back from that sort of adversity, he was the one. I’m really happy he was able to show what he can do on a big stage. His zest for life, he is a leader of people off the field as well and not just on it. He is a guy that a lot of people gravitate to. Everyone in the team is so happy for him.”

Stokes, Root, Bayliss. World Cup winners all of them. “It sounds pretty special, doesn’t it?” Root said. “If you’d said it four years ago, I might not have believed you. But what a journey What a tournament. What a day yesterday was

Comic-Con Unveils New Teaser For ‘The Walking Dead’

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Comic-Con Unveils New Teaser For ‘The Walking Dead’

A new teaser for the new season of The Walking Dead has been unveiled at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con. We’re expecting a longer trailer later today, but this was unveiled in Southern California yesterday at the world’s biggest comic convention.

The Walking Dead stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Lennie James, Alanna Masterson, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Seth Gilliam, Ross Marquand, Austin Amelio, Tom Payne, Xander Berkeley, Khary Payton, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It airs on AMC Stateside, who debuted the teaser, and the Fox cable channel in the UK.

The Walking Dead returns to screens later this year.

Urea dysfunctions in the liver may signal cancer

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Urea dysfunctions in the liver may signal cancer

A new study, now published in the journal Cell, suggests that the way in which the human body processes nitrogen may be key to finding new ways of detecting and destroying cancer.

Nitrogen is a gas that is vital for all organisms. Both plants and animals need it in order to make proteins.

When our body processes nitrogen, it generates a substance called urea as waste; the body later eliminates this substance through urine.

This metabolizing process is called the urea cycle, and it takes place in the liver.

New research suggests that dysregulations in the urea cycle could be a marker of cancer. The new study was led by Dr. Ayelet Erez, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

Studying urea dysregulations and tumors
Dr. Erez and colleagues altered the genetic expression of urea cycle enzymes in the colon cancer tumors of rodents and compared their urea levels with those of control mice.

The mice whose urea cycle had been interfered with had lower blood levels of urea and higher levels of a substance called pyrimidine in their urine.

The scientists also examined the medical records of 100 children who had been diagnosed with cancer at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

“We found that on the day of their admission to the hospital,” explains the lead researcher, “children with cancer had significantly decreased urea levels in their blood, compared with documented levels of urea in healthy children of the same age.”

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Finally, the researchers also analyzed large genomic sets in search of DNA mutations that could indicate disruptions in the urea cycle.

They found mutations in DNA, RNA, and proteins, which indicates an excess of pyrimidine. This is produced through the synthesis of nitrogen and can, in turn, promote the growth of cancer cells.

Overall, the findings suggest that dysfunctions in the urea cycle may be a good indicator of cancer.

“Standard laboratory tests check for high levels of urea in blood, but we are now showing that low levels can also signal a problem,” says Dr. Erez. “Cancerous cells don’t waste anything, they make use of as much nitrogen as possible instead of disposing of it in the form of urea, as do normal cells.”

Making tumors vulnerable to immunotherapy
As the researchers explain, high levels of pyrimidine represent both good news and bad. The bad news is that it could make the cancer spread faster and more aggressively, but the good news is that the mutations that are related to excessive pyrimidine could make cancer cells more vulnerable to an attack from the immune system.

Therefore, malignancies characterized by a dysregulated urea cycle could be destroyed more easily with immunotherapy.

To test this hypothesis, Dr. Erez and colleagues examined melanoma tumors and found that the tumors that had dysregulated urea cycles responded better to immunotherapy. Dr. Erez and colleagues conclude:

“Taken together, our findings demonstrate that [urea cycle dysregulation] is a common feature of tumors that profoundly affects carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, and immunotherapy response.”

Moreover, say the researchers, the results could lead to better tools not only for diagnosing cancer, but also for treating it.

“Yet another possibility worth exploring,” Dr. Erez says, “is whether genetic manipulation of the tumor to induce such dysregulation prior to immunotherapy can increase the therapy’s effectiveness.”

Diets ‘devoid of vegetable matter’ may cause colon cancer

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Diets ‘devoid of vegetable matter’ may cause colon cancer

A new study emphasizes the importance to gut health of eating plenty of vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, and kale.
selection of greens
Eating brassicas such as collards, kale, and broccoli may protect against colon cancer.
Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute in London, United Kingdom, found that keeping mice on a diet rich in a compound known as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) — which comes from such vegetables — prevented the animals’ intestines from becoming inflamed and developing colon cancer.

They report the study in a paper now published in the journal Immunity.

“Seeing the profound effect,” says study senior author Dr. Brigitta Stockinger, a group leader at the Francis Crick Institute, “of diet on gut inflammation and colon cancer was very striking.”

Our digestive system produces I3C when we eat vegetables from a “large and diverse group” of plants known as brassicas.

Brassicas include, but are not limited to: broccoli, cabbage, collards, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, swede, turnip, bok choi, and mizuna.

Colon cancer typically starts as a growth, or polyp, in the lining of the colon or large intestine. It can take many years for the cancer to develop from a polyp and not all polyps become cancerous.

Cancer of the colon or rectum is the third most commonly diagnosed in both women and men in the United States, not counting skin cancer.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimate that there will be 97,220 new cases of diagnosed colon cancer in the U.S. in 2018.

‘Concrete evidence’ of hidden mechanism
Despite a lot of evidence about the benefits to our digestive system of a diet rich in vegetables, much of the underlying cell biology remains unknown.

The new findings are the first to give “concrete evidence” of how dietary I3C — through its effect on a cell protein known as aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) — protects the gut from inflammation and cancer.

AhR has several roles, and for it to work properly, it has to be activated by a compound that binds to it uniquely. I3C is such a compound.

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One of AhR’s jobs in the gut is to pick up environmental signals and pass them on to immune cells and other cells in the lining. These signals are important for protecting the digestive tract from inflammation-promoting signals that come from the “trillions of bacteria” that live in it.

Another important role that AhR plays is helping stem cells convert into specialized gut lining cells that produce protective mucus and help extract nutrients from food.

When AhR is absent or does not work properly, the stem cells do not convert into working cells in the gut lining but “divide uncontrollably.” Uncontrolled cell division may lead to abnormal growths that can become malignant, or cancerous.

Importance of ‘plant matter’ in diet
Dr. Stockinger and her colleagues saw that normal laboratory mice that ate “purified control diets” developed colon tumors within 10 weeks, while those that ate standard “chow” containing grains and other ingredients did not develop any.

Purified control diets are tightly controlled to include precise amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrate, fiber, minerals, and vitamins. They are designed to exactly match nutritional requirements without including germs, allergens, and other substances that might introduce spurious variables in experiments.

The new study suggests that because purified control diets contain less plant matter, they have fewer compounds that activate AhR, compared with standard chow diets or diets enriched with I3C.

Dr. Chris Schiering, of Imperial College London, remarks that “even without genetic risk factors,” it would seem that “a diet devoid of vegetable matter can lead to colon cancer.”

‘Significantly fewer tumors’
The researchers used mice and organoids, or “mini guts,” grown from mouse stem cells, in their experiments. These revealed that the ability of intestinal epithelial cells to replenish themselves and repair the gut lining after infection or chemical damage was “profoundly influenced” by AhR.

The team also found that genetically engineered mice whose intestinal epithelial cells had no AhR — or could not activate the protein — failed to control an infection from a gut bacterium called Citrobacter rodentium. The animals developed gut inflammation and then colon cancer.

“However, when we fed them a diet enriched with I3C, they did not develop inflammation or cancer,” remarks first author Dr. Amina Metidji, also of the Francis Crick Institute.

Additionally, notes Dr. Metidji, when they switched mice that were already developing colon cancer to a diet rich in I3C, they found that those animals developed “significantly fewer tumors” and that those tumors were less likely to be malignant.

In discussing their results, the researchers raise the issue of whether it is the high fat content or the low consumption of vegetables in high-fat diets that explains the link to colon cancer.

The scientists now expect to continue the work on I3C and AhR with organoids grown from human gut tissue extracted in biopsies. Eventually, they expect the work to lead to human trials.

Vitamin D: Recent research uncovers new benefits

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Vitamin D: Recent research uncovers new benefits

As much of the world experiences a record-breaking heat wave, this Spotlight turns its attention to vitamin D, the so-called sunshine vitamin. Here, we inspect the latest research.
Tropical sun
The “sunshine vitamin” has a range of surprising benefits.
Vitamin D is a hot topic currently, with a raft of studies proclaiming its benefits for a variety of serious conditions.

Conversely, other recent studies have been more cautious, questioning its perceived usefulness for treating some illnesses.

Vitamin D is a nutrient that is synthesized in our skin when it is exposed to sunlight, and it is also present in some foods.

Sunlight is the best source of vitamin D, but in the winter months, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommend topping up vitamin D levels by eating vitamin D-containing foods each day. These include oily fish, fortified milk, beef liver, egg yolks, mushrooms, and fortified breakfast cereals.

What does vitamin D do?
Scientists know that vitamin D is essential for many aspects of maintaining good health and that deficiency is linked with problems for both physical and mental health.

Perhaps most notably, vitamin D helps to regulate the levels of calcium in our bodies, strengthening our bones and preventing bone-weakening conditions, such as osteoporosis.

Increasingly though, studies are also suggesting that vitamin D might have protective benefits against heart failure, diabetes, cancer, respiratory tract infections, autoimmune disease, and even hair loss.

A surprisingly large number of people have insufficient levels of vitamin D. For instance, according to one study, more than 40 percent of adults in the United States are deficient. Because of its prevalence, it is important to determine what the public health implications of this epidemic might be.

Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency can vary between individuals, but they typically include pain in the joints, muscles, or bones; fatigue; breathing problems; and low mood or seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Below, we run through a number of intriguing recent studies that investigate associations between vitamin D and an assortment of illnesses.

Vitamin D and heart failure
Several studies have suggested that vitamin D could offer protective benefits against cardiovascular illness, but scientists have yet to pinpoint what mechanisms are driving this association.

Recently, though, Medical News Today reported on a study that used a mouse model to investigate how a type of vitamin D, called 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, affects heart cells. In particular, the researchers looked at the cells responsible for developing scar tissue following a heart attack, called cardiac colony-forming unit fibroblasts (cCFU-Fs).

cCFU-Fs are an important area of study because, when heart tissue is scarred, the heart has a harder time pumping blood, which can lead to heart failure.

The researchers behind the study found that vitamin D inhibited the action of cCFU-Fs, which prevented scar tissue from building around the hearts of the mice in the study, potentially preventing blockages in the cardiovascular system.

“With further study,” wrote the authors, “vitamin D could prove to be an exciting, low-cost addition to current treatments, and we hope to progress these findings into clinical trials for humans.”

Vitamin D and cancer
Breast cancer and bowel cancer have both been linked with cases of vitamin D deficiency in recent studies. One of these analyzed data from two randomized clinical trials and a prospective cohort study.

The researchers found that high levels of vitamin D were inversely associated with risk of breast cancer among women who were cancer-free at baseline.

Pink ribbon blue background
Studies suggest that vitamin D impacts breast cancer risk.
According to the study results, the higher the levels of vitamin D, the lower the risk of breast cancer.

This relationship remained significant even after the results were adjusted for confounding factors, such as age, body mass index (BMI), intake of calcium supplements, and smoking habits.

Although a link between vitamin D deficiency and colorectal cancer has previously been reported, not all studies have been able to replicate these findings. A new, large-scale study attempted to settle this by drawing on data from three continents, including 5,700 colorectal cancer cases and 7,100 controls.

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The researchers calculated that people whose levels of vitamin D fall below those specified in the current guidelines have a 31 percent increased risk of developing bowel cancer. By contrast, those with vitamin D levels above the current recommended levels were 22 percent less likely to develop this cancer.

Vitamin D and belly fat
Another recent study examined a previously observed link between obesity and lower levels of vitamin D, focusing in particular on how different types of body fat might interact with vitamin D.

The study authors reported that having excess belly fat was linked with lower levels of vitamin D:

“[T]he strong relationship between increasing amounts of abdominal fat and lower levels of vitamin D suggests that individuals with larger waistlines are at a greater risk of developing deficiency and should consider having their vitamin D levels checked.”

However, the study was not able to prove whether a deficiency in vitamin D causes fat to be stored around the belly, or if having belly fat somehow contributes to a deficiency in vitamin D. The researchers say that future studies will attempt to determine cause and effect in this relationship.

Vitamin D and Alzheimer’s disease
A systematic review from researchers in Australia recently attempted to settle the debate surrounding vitamin D’s ability to protect against Alzheimer’s. The systematic review analyzed more than 70 studies looking at the association.

They concluded that there was no significant association between vitamin D deficiency and risk of Alzheimer’s.

Intriguingly, the authors did suggest that — based on their systematic review — there may be an association between exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays and protection against multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s, but that this may be independent of vitamin D production.

The authors said that further studies would be needed to confirm these links and identify the mechanism responsible for such associations.

Vitamin D and chronic pain
Over the years, some scientists have theorized that low levels of vitamin D might cause or worsen chronic pain.

So, in 2015, a group of scientists set out to collate existing evidence to examine the relationship.

Woman in pain
Could vitamin D ease chronic pain?
The resulting Cochrane review, updated in 2015, explains that:

“Observational and circumstantial evidence suggests that there may be a role for vitamin D deficiency in the etiology of chronic painful conditions.” The team scrutinized the findings from a number of studies.

Following the analysis, they concluded that the available scientific evidence is not strong enough to support a connection between vitamin D deficiency and chronic pain.

The authors write, “Based on this evidence, a large beneficial effect of vitamin D across different chronic painful conditions is unlikely. Whether vitamin D can have beneficial effects in specific chronic painful conditions needs further investigation.”

So, as ever, more work will be needed to finally close the lid on this interaction.

We hope this article has enhanced your understanding of the latest scientific thinking around this fascinating chemical. Please remember, however, that over-exposure to sunlight — especially the hot, midday sun — can result in skin damage and increase risk of skin cancer.

Farsight Security COO Alexa Raad: ‘Be Your Own Champion’

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Farsight Security COO Alexa Raad: ‘Be Your Own Champion’

Alexa Raad is chief operating officer of Farsight Security, based in San Mateo, California. Farsight Security is a provider of real-time actionable Internet threat intelligence solutions.

In this exclusive interview, Raad discusses methods of curbing cybercrime by tracking bad actors through the trails they leave in the domain name system. She also offers some encouraging advice to women and girls interested in breaking into the cybersecurity field.

Farsight Security COO Alexa Raad

Alexa Raad

Chief Operating Officer

Farsight Security

TechNewsWorld: What is Farsight Security’s mission?

Alexa Raad: We believe that everyone is entitled to a safer Internet, and so everything we do starts out with that mission in mind. What we do is provide Internet defenders with very valuable data that they can use to get some context around nefarious acts.

As an example, if you think about Internet threats like phishing and botnets and malware — all of those start with a DNS — a domain name system. And so every kind of nefarious act leaves footprints and fingerprints in the DNS. That’s something that cannot be faked. We provide information that is contextual.

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To give an example, a lot of the new domain names that are registered are typically registered with bad intent, meaning criminals are going to use them to commit some sort of act, like phishing attacks, etc. When a domain name is registered, it’s fine, but when traffic starts going to those sites, it becomes much more dangerous.

When people start actually going to a phishing site, it raises the threat level. We have a global sensor network that picks up these resolutions. We collect this data, but without any personally-identifiable information, which is important.

That information allows people to see what’s actually got some traction, and we also add additional information for guilt by association. If a phishing site is actually hosted where there are lots of other bad actors or bad sites, that provides you with some context. You start to follow that and get a better picture of that attack than you would otherwise.

We provide real-time and historical information, and both are contextual. The real-time data is important, because you have to fight these battles in near real time. The historical information is important because you want to know if this was the first time we ever saw this URL or domain name. A lot of these patterns repeat themselves. It is unlikely that a site was bad six months ago and all of a sudden it’s reformed. Having that contextual information is important.

TNW: Why do you have a passion for cybersecurity? Why do you think it’s an important and vital field?

Raad: I believe in the mission of cybersecurity. I want to leave our kids with a safer Internet. The Internet is such a utility — we all rely on it, and we have to have some modicum of expectation that the Internet is safe.

The DNS is a fabric that’s equalizing. Regardless of where you are on the Internet, you have a voice. We’re learning that if Internet is not taken care of, there will be unintended consequences.

TNW: What are some of the key cybersecurity issues today? What are some prevalent or common problems that we face?

Raad: There’s an increasing number of attacks with the Internet of things. The number of Internet-enabled devices is increasing, and all of these connected devices provide vectors for cybersecurity attacks. The race is on for cheaper devices, but the race isn’t necessarily on to create more secure devices.

TNW: What advice would you give to girls and women wanting to get into the cybersecurity field?

Raad: It’s the ideal field for women. To be really good in cybersecurity, you have to have an inquisitive mind, be a problem-solver, and see things holistically.

For a problem that’s complex, you need to think holistically, you can’t compartmentalize. You have to think, how would a criminal look at your DNS architecture? Women tend to think holistically, and if you do, you will excel in this field.

The other piece of advice I would give is that you have got to be your own champion. Don’t wait for anyone to propose something to you or to give you the promotion that you deserve. You have to speak up. You have to be your own advocate, and you have to lay out the business case.

If you want to be promoted, for instance, you have to say, this is what I’ve done, this is what I’ve accomplished, this is what I can do more of, and this is why it’s in your own best interest to promote me. There is an imbalance in the number of women in power, and it’s also at the executive level. Very few women are CEOs or in the c-suite or on the board, and there is a lot that women can offer and do.

Whether it’s because companies recognize the need to hire more women or they have a policy to do so, the opportunities for women are there. The security industry is growing. There aren’t enough people to fill the jobs available, and a lot of them are high-paying, with good benefits. You just need to be your own champion.

TNW: What new cyberthreats are emerging, and how can businesses prepare themselves to face them?

Raad: You see a lot of ransomware. Just a few weeks ago I was at my dentist, and he told me that he had just been the victim of a ransomware attack, and he ended up paying it. You wouldn’t have thought he would be the victim of an attack like that, but someone in his organization had clicked on a link, and all of his patient records were frozen until he paid the ransom.

You will see more of this because it pays well, and it targets people who aren’t well-versed in security hygiene. We’ll see more and more of the security issues and attacks that come because of insecure devices like wearables and Internet-connected devices.

There isn’t an incentive for manufacturers to create more security. The economic incentive is more toward creating devices that are cheaper and more affordable than more security, but it really has to be both. It requires both better engineering and better policy

Oracle Releases Second Half of Autonomous DB

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Oracle Releases Second Half of Autonomous DB

A lot of people might have thought Oracle’s announcement of the autonomous database at last year’s OpenWorld and its subsequent release earlier this year were the whole story, but there’s a lot more, and Tuesday’s webcast featuring Larry Ellison was proof.

Ellison must find his CTO role — since he handed the CEO reins to Safra Catz and Mark Hurd — to be stimulating and liberating at the same time. Being CTO gives Ellison the ability to be highly creative in a part of the industry that plays to his strengths. It’s a highly technical field where few septuagenarians make a mark, and it gives him access to lots of smart people to trade ideas.

His evident joy was on display Tuesday as he introduced the second part of the autonomous database. The announcement this spring focused on autonomous data warehousing, or ADW. Tuesday was all about autonomous transaction processing, or ATP.

Oracle vs. Amazon
Some of the messaging was the same: The database provisions, maintains and repairs itself, for example. “There’s nothing to do,” Ellison said more than once, suggesting that database administrators’ jobs surely will be redefined by the announcement.

Nothing to do extends to nothing to break, and an embedded expert system very well might do a better job than the average DBA.

Toward the end of his talk, Ellison showed a graphic that provided all the proof you might need to accept the efficacy of the automation. It involved the NetSuite database. After 20 years, it has been well refined — yet even for it, the expert system found ways to improve performance.

The autonomous database is an important economic milestone of sorts too. Database technology solidified in the 1970s and there has been little progress in automating the tasks of keeping a database operating — until now.

Automation, which this product offers in spades, is a sign that we’re late in the life of a disruptive innovation (i.e., the relational database). It’s a sign of commoditization, and an indicator that we’re dealing with the biggest quantities — and market share is essential for turning profits.

That’s why I think Ellison took such delight in making invidious comparisons between Oracle’s database and Amazon’s.

A Few Caveats
Amazon has a market share lead, and Oracle badly wants to reverse the situation. That’s why there’s so much emphasis on price and performance.

For example, Oracle has introduced a guarantee that it can lower a customer’s Amazon bill by half, and Ellison has boasted that his database competitors all use Oracle for their own data.

There’s no doubt this market has been commoditizing, and that only the biggest and most efficient producers will survive. Naturally, Oracle and Ellison expect to be in the winner’s circle.

It takes more than software to deliver the 99.995 percent up time promised. All of the autonomous database functionality requires Exadata hardware, and because it is fault tolerant, multiple servers are at the ready.

In the cloud configuration supported by Oracle data centers, customers experience serverless conditions — meaning that when the database is not in use, it uses no server time and incurs no server costs. Oracle also has made provisions for big customers that can afford all of the hardware and who wish to keep all data processing in-house.

That said, the autonomous database represents a new era in IT, in which the default position is cloud. The assumption is that business will be unimpeded, or at least less impeded, by IT systems that are slow or hard to change.

With the full release of the autonomous database and its associated security capabilities announced earlier this year, we’ve reached the end of the line for common legacy applications. They will be around for years, but it’s hard to see how very many new ones will be made or sold

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