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New research seeks to identify location of brain consciousness

Chris Barncard
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 19:52 UTC
Brain Scan
© Jonathan Nackstrand, AFPA neuropsychologist points to a brain scan showing the brain activity of a paedophile at the Huddinge hospital near Stockholm.
A small amount of electricity delivered at a specific frequency to a particular point in the brain will snap a monkey out of even deep anesthesia, pointing to a circuit of brain activity key to consciousness and suggesting potential treatments for debilitating brain disorders.

Macaques put under with general anesthetic drugs commonly administered to human surgical patients, propofol and isoflurane, could be revived and alert within two or three seconds of applying low current, according to a study published today in the journal Neuron by a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison brain researchers.

"For as long as you're stimulating their brain, their behavior — full eye opening, reaching for objects in their vicinity, vital sign changes, bodily movements and facial movements — and their brain activity is that of a waking state," says Yuri Saalmann, UW-Madison psychology and neuroscience professor. "Then, within a few seconds of switching off the stimulation, their eyes closed again. The animal is right back into an unconscious state."

Mice have been roused from light anesthesia before with a related method, and humans with severe disorders have improved through electric stimulation applied deep in their brains. But the new study is the first to pull primates in and out of a deep unconscious state, and the results isolate a particular loop of activity in the brain that is crucial to consciousness.
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Doberman

Stray dogs maul 12-yr-old girl to death in Punjab, India


The Tribune (India)
Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:11 UTC
dog attack
A minor girl of a migrant family, who had gone to look for potatoes in fields of Naulari village, was attacked and mauled to death by stray dogs. The deceased identified as, Simran (12), was a Class IV student of Naulari primary school. Daughter of Jugal Sharma, a resident of Bihar, and she was presently residing on the farms of Sukhdev Singh, a farmer.

As per the information, Simran left her room to collect potatoes from fields for her family on Tuesday evening at about 6 pm. When she did not return till late night, her family members started searching for her. Later, they spotted her lying in a pool of blood with stray dogs sitting nearby. She had died on the spot. The victim's family members managed to shoo away dogs with much difficulty.
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Attention

UN calls for greater global effort in tackling locust invasion as June upsurge forecast


China Global TV Network
Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:44 UTC
locusts
The United Nations (UN) has called on the international community to help East African and West Asian countries where devastating swarms of locusts continue to devour crops and threaten food safety in the region.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) stated that Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are the worst affected by the desert locusts that present an extremely alarming and unprecedented threat to food security and the livelihoods of 13 million people.

Some researchers have tied the plague to climate change which has brought a prolonged bout of exceptionally wet weather in East Africa. Desert locusts usually thrive after continuous rainfalls that trigger blooms of vegetation in their normally arid habitats.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Dozens of endemic Sumatran birds closer to extinction due to habitat loss, hunting

Jon Afrizal
The Jakarta Post
Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:52 UTC
Straw-headed Bulbul
© Lee Tiah KheeStraw-headed Bulbul
Dozens of bird species endemic to Sumatra Island are closer to extinction because of habitat loss from land use change as well as illegal hunting.

According to bird conservation NGO Burung Indonesia, 42 bird species have been listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. Meanwhile, nine species are listed as critically endangered.

"Most of the species in the critically endangered category are losing their habitat [and are] illegally hunted," Burung Indonesia spokesman Achmad Ridha Junaid said on Tuesday.

For example, cucak rawa (straw-headed bulbuls) were often hunted to be sold as pets, despite their limited number remaining in the wild, Achmad went on to say. The IUCN red list in August 2018 estimated the number of cucak rawa in the wild at 600 to 1,700.

Some experts believe the species is extinct by now.
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Binoculars

Sub-Antarctic-dwelling king penguin spotted unusually far north at Port Davey, Tasmania - 2nd in 2 months

Georgie Burgess
abc.net.au
Wed, 19 Feb 2020 11:34 UTC
The king penguin spotted at Port Davey
© Roaring 40s KayakingThe king penguin spotted at Port Davey stocked up on fish before moulting.
A second king penguin has been spotted on mainland Tasmania, with one wildlife officer calling the sighting especially rare "unless you're on a tourist ship going to Antarctica".

The penguin was spotted by kayakers at Port Davey in Tasmania's far south-west.

Wildlife officer Julie McInnes said it was a different penguin to the bird spotted at Seven Mile Beach near Hobart last month.

Comment: King penguin turns up on beach in Tasmania, Australia 1,500 kilometres from home

Dr McInnes said it was unusual to have two king penguins sighted in one year.

"This is a really rare thing for people to see, unless you're on a tourist ship going to Antarctica," Dr McInnes told ABC Radio Hobart.
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Attention

150 cetaceans and 269 sea turtles washed up last year in Taiwan

Lin Chia-nan
Taipei Times
Wed, 19 Feb 2020 10:58 UTC
A Cuvier's beaked whale found on a beach in Hualien, eastern Taiwan
© Ocean Conversation AdministrationA Cuvier's beaked whale found on a beach in Hualien, eastern Taiwan in March, 2019.
Last year, 150 cetaceans and 269 sea turtles washed up on the nation's shores, the Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA) said yesterday, blaming improper fishing activities for many of the injuries.

Most of the animals were dead when they washed up, the agency said.

Of the beached whales and dolphins, the bodies of 77 were severely rotted, making it difficult to determine why they became stranded, while 33 were bycatch, it said.

Of the beached cetaceans whose species were identified, 43 were finless porpoises, followed by 30 bottlenose dolphins, 13 pygmy killer whales, 10 Fraser's dolphins, six pygmy sperm whales, six dwarf sperm whales and six Taiwanese humpback dolphins, it added.

Of the beached turtles, 240 were green sea turtles, 13 were hawksbill sea turtles, eight were loggerhead sea turtles and eight were olive ridley sea turtles, the agency said.
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Question

Mystery in Spain's Catalonia as hundreds of dead birds appear on highway

Isha Sesay
Euro Weekly
Tue, 18 Feb 2020 15:28 UTC
dead birds
Mystery has shrouded Spain's Catalonia as hundreds of dead birds have been found on a highway.

A local resident recorded footage whilst driving down the C-31b highway which connects Tarragona to Salou, sharing the video on social media to alert the police and environmental groups of their strange discovery.

This caught the attention of the Grup d'Estudi i Protecció dels Ecosistemes Catalans-Ecologistes de Catalunya (GEPEC) who believe that the deaths of the starlings may have been caused by a chemical leak in the atmosphere or mass poisoning. They also detail that from speaking to residents in the area that they reported "strong chemical smells in the air."

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Binoculars

India's birds suffering dramatic population declines, warns scientific report

G. Ananthakrishnan
The Hindu
Mon, 17 Feb 2020 15:07 UTC
a fiery battle between a short-toed eagle and a spectacled cobra
© Ramamurthy KarthikA fiery battle between a short-toed eagle and a spectacled cobra
Growing threat from loss of habitat, widespread presence of toxins, hunting and trapping, it says

Over a fifth of India's bird diversity, ranging from the Short-toed Snake Eagle to the Sirkeer Malkoha, has suffered strong long-term declines over a 25-year period, while more recent annual trends point to a drastic 80% loss among several common birds, a new scientific report jointly released by 10 organisations said on Monday.

The State of India's Birds 2020 (SoIB) assessment raises the alarm that several spectacular birds, many of them endemic to the sub-continent, face a growing threat from loss of habitat due to human activity, widespread presence of toxins including pesticides, hunting and trapping for the pet trade. Diminishing population sizes of many birds because of one factor brings them closer to extinction because of the accelerated effects of others, the report warned. For every bird species that was found to be increasing in numbers over the long term, 11 have suffered losses, some catastrophically.

Of 101 species categorised as being of High Conservation Concern — 59 based on range and abundance and the rest included from high-risk birds on the IUCN Red List — endemics such as the Rufous-fronted Prinia, Nilgiri Thrush, Nilgiri Pipit and Indian vulture were confirmed as suffering current decline, and all except 13 had a restricted or highly restricted range, indicating greater vulnerability to man-made threats.
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Black Cat

6-year-old girl attacked by mountain lion while walking trail in Santa Clara County, California


abc7news.com
Mon, 17 Feb 2020 13:40 UTC
mountain lion
A six-year-old girl was attacked by a mountain lion Sunday in the Rancho San Antonio County Park and Open Space Preserve.

The incident happened around 10 am while the child was walking on a trail about two miles from the main parking lot, park officials said.

"The animal, suspected to be a mountain lion, was scared away by adults who were with the child," they said.

"It came out of the bushes and right about when it grabbed a hold of the girl and an adult pushed the mountain lion and it ran off," said MidPeninsula Regional Open Space District ranger, Brad Pennington.

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Attention

Half a million mussels found dead on New Zealand beach


Yahoo! News
Sat, 15 Feb 2020 13:19 UTC
dead mussels
New Zealand resident Brandon Ferguson found over 500,000 dead mussels and shells on the shores of the Maunganui Bluff Beach in the country's North Island.

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