- ‘This is an emergency’: Dr Chris Van Tulleken on why ultra processed food fuels obesity, tooth decay and illness Channel 4 News
- The most ultra processed foods experts say you should cut from your diet now Wales Online
- There is nothing healthy about our paranoia over ultra processed food The Telegraph
- I’m a dietitian – here’s the 9 worst ultra-processed foods ‘linked to silent killers’ and what to eat inste… The Sun
- Oh Good – Ultra-Processed Food Might Be Worse For Us Than We Thought HuffPost UK
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Tag Archives: Processed
Justice Department Investigation Leads to Takedown of Darknet Cryptocurrency Mixer that Processed Over $3 Billion of Unlawful Transactions – Department of Justice
- Justice Department Investigation Leads to Takedown of Darknet Cryptocurrency Mixer that Processed Over $3 Billion of Unlawful Transactions Department of Justice
- Philly feds help dismantle popular crypto money-laundering site responsible for cleaning $3 billion in illicit funds The Philadelphia Inquirer
- ChipMixer Is Shut Down for Allegedly Laundering $3 Billion in Crypto The Wall Street Journal
- Federal Police Take Down ‘Dark Web Cryptocurrency Laundromat’, Seize $42M in Bitcoin Decrypt
- ChipMixer Crypto Service Shut by US, Germany Over $3 Billion in Transactions Bloomberg
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For weight loss, replace processed foods with healthy, fiber-rich carbs
According to a large and growing body of research, this one swap could help you lower your risk of cancer and Type 2 diabetes, reduce your likelihood of dying from heart disease or a stroke and help you shed pounds without counting calories.
While it sounds simple, for many people it will be a big change. These high-quality carbs make up just 9 percent of all the calories that Americans consume.
For most people, processed, low-quality carbs are dietary staples. They make up 42 percent of all the calories that Americans consume. They include the packaged foods that dominate many supermarket shelves and household dinner tables, like white bread, pastries, pasta, bagels, chips, crackers and foods with added sugars, such as breakfast cereals, flavored yogurts, desserts, juices and soft drinks.
What happens when you swap out processed carbs for high-quality carbs?
Studies show that the fiber in these foods has multiple benefits. It promotes satiety, which helps you feel full. It nourishes the microbes that make up your gut microbiome, which can lower inflammation and protect against chronic diseases. And it improves your blood sugar control and cholesterol levels
A large meta-analysis in the Lancet examined the health effects of eating different types of carbs. The analysis, based on data collected from 4,635 people in 58 clinical trials, showed that adults who ate the highest levels of whole grains, vegetables and other fiber-rich carbs had a 15 to 31 percent reduction in diabetes, colorectal cancer and their risk of dying from a stroke or heart disease compared to people who ate the lowest amounts of these foods.
They also lost more weight — “despite not being told to eat less food or do more physical activity,” said Andrew Reynolds, a nutrition epidemiologist at Otago Medical School and co-author of the research.
Why are processed carbs so bad for you?
On average, Americans eat five servings a day of foods with refined grains, like white bread and pasta, and just one serving a day of foods that are whole grain, like brown rice and barley, said Fang Fang Zhang, a nutrition epidemiologist at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University and author of a study in JAMA that examined the types of carbs and macronutrients that Americans consume.
In her research, Zhang found that Americans have been cutting back on their intake of sugary sodas and other foods with added sugar, thanks to growing public awareness about the damaging health effects of sugar.
But at the same time, we’ve been eating more and more foods with refined grains, in part because they are so ubiquitous.
“We are seeing an overall trend toward increased consumption of refined grains,” said Zhang. “With refined grains we are missing our target.”
These foods have been stripped of their fiber, vitamins and minerals and industrially converted into flour and sugar. This causes them to be rapidly absorbed by the body, prompting blood sugar and insulin levels to spike and activating reward regions in the brain, all of which can lead to cravings, overeating and a cascade of metabolic changes that lead to poor health.
Healthy carbs are those that haven’t been highly processed and stripped of their natural fiber. Fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains are fiber-rich and full of health-promoting nutrients that help protect against heart disease and other leading causes of death.
Here’s how to swap your carbs
If your goal is to lose weight and improve your metabolic health, you don’t need to count calories or go on a restrictive diet. Just start by cutting the empty carbs from your diet. Here’s how to do it:
Cut the white foods. Cut back on foods like cereal, pastries, white bread, white pasta, juices, sweetened beverages and other foods with added sugar.
Add healthy carbs. It’s simple. Eat more vegetables, whole grains, beans and lentils.
Add healthy fats and protein: After getting rid of those empty carbs, some people find that they feel better replacing them with foods higher in fat and protein, like nuts, seeds, avocado, eggs, poultry, yogurt and seafood.
Add healthy grains: Try replacing white and highly-processed carbs with whole grains, whole wheat breads, beans, peas, lentils, legumes, quinoa, fruits, vegetables and other unrefined carbs.
Add higher quality “nutrient dense” foods back into your diet. These foods carry different labels that can help you identify them. Look for descriptors like “minimally processed,” “seasonal,” “grass-fed,” “whole grain” and “pasture-raised.”
It may be tough at first to cut back on some of your favorite refined carbs, but you won’t feel as hungry if you replace them with fiber-rich carbs and healthy fats.
Why the quality of your carbs matters
In one randomized trial that was published in JAMA, overweight people who were counseled to cut back on added sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods for a year lost weight — without counting calories — and showed improvements in their blood sugar and blood pressure levels.
This approach worked whether people followed a diet that was relatively low in fat or relatively low in carbs. The findings showed that for weight loss, diet quality trumped diet quantity, said Christopher Gardner, the director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who has studied the effects of different diets on metabolic health and weight loss.
If you want to eat a healthier diet, your first step, he said, should be “to get rid of the empty carb calories that just come with glucose and no fiber, vitamins or minerals.”
He recommends replacing those foods with what he calls a “foundational diet” rich in plant foods that are eaten by cultures around the world, like beans, nuts, seeds and vegetables.
In Latin American cuisine, red, black and pinto beans are staples. In the Middle East, people have been using chickpeas and sesame seeds to make hummus and other dishes for centuries. In India, red and yellow lentils can be found in delicious dal, soups and stews. And in the Mediterranean, many dishes incorporate things like fava beans, cannellini beans and split peas.
“Americans eat a shockingly low number of beans, nuts and seeds,” he said. “We should eat more like these other cultures around the world.”
Do you have a question about healthy eating? Email EatingLab@washpost.com and we may answer your question in a future column.
Processed Foods May Increase Dementia Risk, Study Finds
- Researchers followed more than 10,000 adults as they aged to see how diet relates to mental sharpness.
- They found people who regularly ate ultra-processed foods had an increased risk of cognitive decline.
- Ultra-processed foods account for more than half of total calories consumed by Americans.
Most of the food we eat is processed to some degree, but not all additives are created equal.
Ultra-processed foods — a category that includes frozen meals, fast food, and most breakfast cereals — have been linked to health risks like heart disease, cancer, and early death.
Recent research suggests that eating some of the most heavily processed foods on a regular basis may impact brain health in the long term.
In a study of more than 10,000 middle-aged adults, those who got more than 20% of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods had an increased risk of cognitive decline over a 10-year period, according to results published Monday in JAMA Neurology.
That’s less than the average intake of ultra-processed foods in Brazil, where the study took place, coauthor Claudia Suemoto told CNN. In the US, consumption of processed foods is even more prevalent: about 57% of calories consumed by the US population come from ultra-processed foods, New York University researchers found in 2021.
People who ate the greatest proportions of ultra-processed foods had a 28% faster rate of global cognitive decline compared with those who ate the least. The part of the brain responsible for executive function appeared to be especially hard hit, researchers noted.
However, balancing out processed snacks with whole foods may help to preserve some brain power, the authors found.
It’s not too late to preserve brain health with healthy foods
Researchers noticed signs of cognitive decline in participants over the observation period, which lasted about eight years for each individual. The average age of participants at the start of the study was 51, underscoring the importance of taking preventive measures in middle age.
Cognitive ability was scored based on immediate and delayed word recall, word recognition, and verbal fluency, according to the study methods.
While most people who got more than 20% of their daily energy from ultra-processed foods scored progressively lower on the cognitive tests over the years, those who maintained an overall healthy diet seemed to defy the association.
The researchers grouped participants not only based on ultra-processed food consumption, but also according to their overall diet. They scored all participants based on how closely they followed the MIND diet, a cross between the Mediterranean and DASH diets that features leafy greens, berries, nuts, olive oil, whole grains, fish, and poultry.
The diet is meant to work as an intervention for neurodegenerative delays, so experts believe it helps prevent the type of cognitive decline seen in the study. As expected, participants with an above-average MIND diet score did not experience the accelerated decline observed in most processed food consumers.
Highly Processed Foods Can Be Considered Addictive Like Tobacco Products
Summary: Based on the criteria set for tobacco addiction, a new study reports that highly-processed foods can be addictive.
Source: University of Michigan
Can highly processed foods be addictive?
It’s a question that researchers have debated for years as unhealthy diets are often fueled by foods loaded with refined carbohydrates and added fats.
To find a resolution, a new University of Michigan and Virginia Tech analysis took the criteria used in a 1988 U.S. Surgeon General’s report that established that tobacco was addictive and applied it to food.
Based on the criteria set for tobacco, the findings indicate that highly processed foods can be addictive, said lead author Ashley Gearhardt, U-M associate professor of psychology, and Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, assistant professor at Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech.
In fact, the addictive potential for food such as potato chips, cookies, ice cream and French fries may be a key factor contributing to the high public health costs associated with a food environment dominated by cheap, accessible and heavily marketed highly processed foods, the researchers said.
The research, published in the current issue of Addiction, offers evidence that highly processed foods meet the same criteria used to identify cigarettes as an addictive substance:
- They trigger compulsive use where people are unable to quit or cut down (even in the face of life-threatening diseases like diabetes and heart disease)
- They can change the way we feel and cause changes in the brain that are of a similar magnitude as the nicotine in tobacco products
- They are highly reinforcing
- They trigger intense urges and cravings
“Of note, there is no biomarker in the brain that tells us whether something is addictive or not,” Gearhardt said. “Identifying that tobacco products were addictive really boiled down to these four criteria, (which) have stood up to decades of scientific evaluation. Highly processed foods meet every single one of these criteria.”
DiFeliceantonio said the ability of highly processed foods to rapidly deliver unnaturally high doses of refined carbohydrates and fat appear key to their addictive potential.
Highly processed foods contain complex substances that cannot be simplified to a single chemical agent acting through a specific central mechanism. The same can be said for industrial tobacco products, which contain thousands of chemicals including nicotine, Gearhardt said.
When the Surgeon General’s report was released more than 30 years ago, tobacco products were the largest cause of preventable death. But many people and tobacco manufacturers resisted accepting their addictive and harmful nature.
“This delayed the implementation of effective strategies to address this public health crisis, which cost millions of lives,” said Gearhardt, who directs U-M’s Food and Addiction Science and Treatment lab.
“When we realized tobacco products were addictive, it made us realize that smoking wasn’t just an adult choice, but that people were getting hooked and couldn’t stop even when they really wanted to. This same thing appears to be happening with highly processed foods and this is particularly concerning because kids are a major target of advertising for these products.”
Poor diets dominated by highly processed foods now contribute to preventable deaths on par with cigarettes. Similar to tobacco products, the food industry designs their highly processed foods to be intensely rewarding and hard to resist, the researchers said.
See also
“It is time to stop thinking about highly processed foods just as food, but instead as highly refined substances that can be addictive,” DiFeliceantonio said.
About this food and addiction research news
Author: Press Office
Source: University of Michigan
Contact: Press Office – University of Michigan
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access.
“Highly processed foods can be considered addictive substances based on established scientific criteria” by Ashley N. Gearhardt et al. Addiction
Abstract
Highly processed foods can be considered addictive substances based on established scientific criteria
Background
There is growing evidence that an addictive-eating phenotype may exist. There is significant debate regarding whether highly processed foods (HPFs; foods with refined carbohydrates and/or added fats) are addictive. The lack of scientifically grounded criteria to evaluate the addictive nature of HPFs has hindered the resolution of this debate.
Analysis
The most recent scientific debate regarding a substance’s addictive potential centered around tobacco. In 1988, the Surgeon General issued a report identifying tobacco products as addictive based on three primary scientific criteria: their ability to (1) cause highly controlled or compulsive use, (2) cause psychoactive (i.e. mood-altering) effects via their effect on the brain and (3) reinforce behavior. Scientific advances have now identified the ability of tobacco products to (4) trigger strong urges or craving as another important indicator of addictive potential. Here, we propose that these four criteria provide scientifically valid benchmarks that can be used to evaluate the addictiveness of HPFs. Then, we review the evidence regarding whether HPFs meet each criterion. Finally, we consider the implications of labeling HPFs as addictive.
Conclusion
Highly processed foods (HPFs) can meet the criteria to be labeled as addictive substances using the standards set for tobacco products. The addictive potential of HPFs may be a key factor contributing to the high public health costs associated with a food environment dominated by cheap, accessible and heavily marketed HPFs.
2 Of The Worst Processed Drinks That Lead To Belly Fat, According To Experts
A healthy weight loss diet is about more than the food you eat; it’s also important to consider the beverages you put in your body every day. While sticking to plain old water is always your best bet for staying healthy and hydrated, you may be tempted to indulge in some sweet drinks throughout the day. However, experts warn that consuming excess sugar (even when it comes in an unassuming beverage) can lead to serious health consequences, including weight gain. For this reason, cutting certain sugary drinks out of your diet is your best option if you’re trying to slim down.
To discover some of the worst high-sugar drinks that could be slowing your weight loss, we spoke to health experts Beth Hawkes, MSN, RN-BC of Nurse Code and Dana Ellis Hunnes PhD, MPH, RD and author of Recipe for Survival. They pointed out two major culprits: store-bought fruit juice and energy drinks.
Sugary fruit juice
Although juice may seem like a healthy beverage, especially considering the fact that it’s made from notoriously healthy fruit, Hawkes says that it’s actually quite the opposite. While making your own green juice at home may be another story, buying fruit juice at the store is an absolute no-go for anyone looking to lose weight. That’s because these varieties are typically highly processed and packed with sugar. In fact, a single serving of store-bought fruit juice can even be worse for you than a can of soda in certain instances. “For example, there are about 31 grams of sugar in a 12-ounce serving of orange juice, which is more than the 22 grams found in the same amount of cola,” Hawkes tells us. Yikes!
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that all of that sugar can do some serious damage to your body and even result in weight gain over time. Hawkes explains how this happens: “When you consume such a quantity of the sweet stuff, your levels of blood glucose soar into the stratosphere. This tells our metabolism to slow down and thus burn fewer calories which leads us towards gaining weight instead.” For this reason, cutting juice (especially store-bought varieties) out of your diet is highly recommended if you’re trying to shed some pounds.
Energy drinks
Although you may love the caffeine boost and sweet flavor you get from energy drinks, Hunnes tells us they can come with a serious cost: inflammation and weight gain. Similar to the dangers of sugary fruit juice, energy drinks can take a toll on your health due to harmful, sweet ingredients. “Energy drinks have added ingredients like alternative sweeteners and sugar,” she explains, noting that “the average sugar content of an energy drink is 54 grams, an alarming rate that can cause weight gain and poor digestive health.” Yikes!
But be careful—sugar isn’t the only ingredient in energy drinks that can cause you to gain belly fat. As it turns out, sugar-free varieties that taste equally sweet can also be just as bad for you. As it turns out, that sweet flavor will still lead to an insulin response, triggering inflammation and weight gain. “Digestion begins all the way in the mouth, and sweet flavors do release some insulin whether there’s actual sugar or not,” Hunnes explains. “There might still be some response, even if it is a lower or lesser inflammatory response.” Say it ain’t so! Guess we’ll skip the Red Bull and opt for some black coffee next time we’re feeling sleepy…
The bottom line
Of course, at the end of the day, treating yourself to some sweet beverages every now and then won’t kill you. However, it’s important to be aware of the risks at hand when you indulge in sugar-packed drinks like fruit juice and energy drinks. Remember that moderation is always key, and if you want to avoid belly fat, it’s best to limit your overall sugar intake as much as possible.
Stunning Image of Supernova Remnant Processed by New Australian Supercomputer
Within 24 hours of accessing the first stage of Australia’s newest supercomputing system, researchers have processed a series of radio telescope observations, including a highly detailed image of a supernova remnant.
The very high data rates and the enormous data volumes from new-generation radio telescopes such as ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder) need highly capable software running on supercomputers.
This is where the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre comes into play, with a newly launched supercomputer called Setonix – named after Western Australia’s favorite animal, the quokka (Setonix brachyurus).
ASKAP, which consists of 36 dish antennas that work together as one telescope, is operated by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO; the observational data it gathers are transferred via high-speed optical fibers to the Pawsey Centre for processing and converting into science-ready images.
In a major milestone on the path to full deployment, we have now demonstrated the integration of our processing software ASKAPsoft on Setonix, complete with stunning visuals.
Traces of a dying star
An exciting outcome of this exercise has been a fantastic image of a cosmic object known as a supernova remnant, G261.9+5.5.
Estimated to be more than a million years old, and located 10,000-15,000 light-years away from us, this object in our galaxy was first classified as a supernova remnant by CSIRO radio astronomer Eric R. Hill in 1967, using observations from CSIRO’s Parkes Radio Telescope, Murriyang.
Supernova remnants (SNRs) are the remains of powerful explosions from dying stars. The ejected material from the explosion plows outwards into the surrounding interstellar medium at supersonic speeds, sweeping up gas and any material it encounters along the way, compressing and heating them up in the process.
The galactic supernova remnant G261.9+5.5. (Wasim Raja/CSIRO; Pascal Elah/Pawsey)
Additionally, the shockwave would also compress the interstellar magnetic fields. The emissions we see in our radio image of G261.9+5.5 are from highly energetic electrons trapped in these compressed fields. They bear information about the history of the exploded star and aspects of the surrounding interstellar medium.
The structure of this remnant revealed in the deep ASKAP radio image opens up the possibility of studying this remnant and the physical properties (such as magnetic fields and high-energy electron densities) of the interstellar medium in unprecedented detail.
Putting a supercomputer through its paces
The image of SNR G261.9+05.5 might be beautiful to look at, but the processing of data from ASKAP’s astronomy surveys is also a great way to stress-test the supercomputer system, including the hardware and the processing software.
We included the supernova remnant’s dataset for our initial tests because its complex features would increase the processing challenges.
Data processing even with a supercomputer is a complex exercise, with different processing modes triggering various potential issues. For example, the image of the SNR was made by combining data gathered at hundreds of different frequencies (or colors, if you like), allowing us to get a composite view of the object.
But there is a treasure trove of information hidden in the individual frequencies as well. Extracting that information often requires making images at each frequency, requiring more computing resources and more digital space to store.
While Setonix has adequate resources for such intense processing, a key challenge would be to establish the stability of the supercomputer when lashed with such enormous amounts of data day in and day out.
Key to this quick first demonstration was the close collaboration between the Pawsey Centre and the ASKAP science data processing team members. Our teamwork enabled all of us to better understand these challenges and quickly find solutions.
These results mean we will be able to unearth more from the ASKAP data, for example.
More to come
But this is only the first of two installation stages for Setonix, with the second expected to be completed later this year.
This will allow data teams to process more of the vast amounts of data coming in from many projects in a fraction of the time. In turn, it will not only enable researchers to better understand our Universe but will undoubtedly uncover new objects hidden in the radio sky. The variety of scientific questions that Setonix will allow us to explore in shorter time frames opens up so many possibilities.
This increase in computational capacity benefits not just ASKAP, but all Australia-based researchers in all fields of science and engineering that can access Setonix.
While the supercomputer is ramping up to full operations, so is ASKAP, which is currently wrapping up a series of pilot surveys and will soon undertake even larger and deeper surveys of the sky.
The supernova remnant is just one of many features we’ve now revealed, and we can expect many more stunning images, and the discovery of many new celestial objects, to come soon.
Wasim Raja, Research scientist, CSIRO and Pascal Jahan Elahi, Supercomputing applications specialist, Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, CSIRO.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Seeing How Odor Is Processed in the Brain
Summary: Odor information in the brain is unrelated to perception during the early stages of being processed, but when perception later occurred, unpleasant odors were processed more quickly than pleasant odors.
Source: University of Tokyo
Does the smell of a warm cup of coffee help you start your day the right way? Or can you not stand the strong, heady stuff?
According to new research, how quickly your brain processes the smell of your morning beverage might depend on whether you think that odor is pleasant or not.
A team at the University of Tokyo created a special device that can deliver 10 diverse odors in a way that is accurate and timely. The odors were administered to participants who rated their pleasantness while wearing noninvasive scalp-recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) caps, which record signals inside the brain.
The team was then able to process the EEG data using machine learning-based computer analysis, to see when and where the range of odors was processed in the brain with high temporal resolution for the first time.
“We were surprised that we could detect signals from presented odors from very early EEG responses, as quickly as 100 milliseconds after odor onset, suggesting that representation of odor information in the brain occurs rapidly,” said doctoral student Mugihiko Kato from the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo.
Detection of odor by the brain occurred before the odor was consciously perceived by the participant, which didn’t happen until several hundred milliseconds later.
“Our study showed that different aspects of perception, in particular odor pleasantness, unpleasantness and quality, emerged through different spatial and temporal cortical processing,” said Kato.
“The representation of unpleasantness in the brain emerged earlier than pleasantness and perceived quality,” said Project Associate Professor Masako Okamoto, also from the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
When unpleasant odors (such as rotten and rancid smells) were administered, participants’ brains could differentiate them from neutral or pleasant odors as early as 300 milliseconds after onset.
However, representation of pleasant odors (such as floral and fruity smells) in the brain didn’t occur until 500 milliseconds onwards, around the same time as when the quality of the odor was also represented. From 600-850 milliseconds after odor onset, significant areas of the brain involved in emotional, semantic (language) and memory processing then became most involved.
The earlier perception of unpleasant odors may be an early warning system against potential dangers.
“The way each sensory system recruits the central nervous system differs across the sensory modalities (smell, light, sound, taste, pressure and temperature). Elucidating when and where in the brain olfactory (smell) perception emerges helps us to understand how the olfactory system works,” said Okamoto.
“We also feel that our study has broader methodological implications. For example, it was not known that scalp-recorded EEG would allow us to assess representation of odors from time periods as early as 100 milliseconds.”
This high temporal resolution imaging of how our brains process odors may be a stepping stone towards better understanding the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases in future, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, in which a dysfunction in the sense of smell is an early warning sign. The team is interested in exploring several further research avenues.
“In our daily life, odors are perceived along with other sensory information like vision, and each sense influences the perception of the other,” said Kato.
“Although we presented olfactory stimuli alone in the current study, we think that analyzing brain activity under more natural conditions, such as presenting odors with a movie, is important.” Perhaps Smell-O-Vision might yet make a comeback?
Funding: This work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to M.O. (18H04998 and 21H05808) and JST-Mirai program to K.T. (JPMJMI17DC and JPMJMI19D1).
About this olfactory processing research news
Author: Joseph Krisher
Source: University of Tokyo
Contact: Joseph Krisher – University of Tokyo
Image: The image is in the public domain
See also
Original Research: Closed access.
“Spatiotemporal dynamics of odor representations in the human brain revealed by EEG decoding” by Masako Okamoto et al. PNAS
Abstract
Spatiotemporal dynamics of odor representations in the human brain revealed by EEG decoding
How the human brain translates olfactory inputs into diverse perceptions, from pleasurable floral smells to sickening smells of decay, is one of the fundamental questions in olfaction.
To examine how different aspects of olfactory perception emerge in space and time in the human brain, we performed time-resolved multivariate pattern analysis of scalp-recorded electroencephalogram responses to 10 perceptually diverse odors and associated the resulting decoding accuracies with perception and source activities.
Mean decoding accuracies of odors exceeded the chance level 100 ms after odor onset and reached maxima at 350 ms. The result suggests that the neural representations of individual odors were maximally separated at 350 ms.
Perceptual representations emerged following the decoding peak: unipolar unpleasantness (neutral to unpleasant) from 300 ms, and pleasantness (neutral to pleasant) and perceptual quality (applicability to verbal descriptors such as “fruity” or “flowery”) from 500 ms after odor onset, with all these perceptual representations reaching their maxima after 600 ms.
A source estimation showed that the areas representing the odor information, estimated based on the decoding accuracies, were localized in and around the primary and secondary olfactory areas at 100 to 350 ms after odor onset.
Odor representations then expanded into larger areas associated with emotional, semantic, and memory processing, with the activities of these later areas being significantly associated with perception.
These results suggest that initial odor information coded in the olfactory areas (<350 ms) evolves into their perceptual realizations (300 to >600 ms) through computations in widely distributed cortical regions, with different perceptual aspects having different spatiotemporal dynamics.
Crucial Russian sovereign bond payment received by JPMorgan, processed -source
File Photo: A view of the exterior of the JP Morgan Chase & Co. corporate headquarters in New York City May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar
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NEW YORK, March 17 (Reuters) – Coupon payments on Russian sovereign bonds due this week were received by correspondent bank JPMorgan (JPM.N), processed and the bank then made an onwards credit to the paying agent Citi (C.N), a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday, an indicator that the country may have averted default.
The payment received was a U.S. dollar payment, the source said. After being credited to the paying agent, it would be checked and distributed on to various bondholders, the source said.
Russia said on Thursday it had made debt payments that were due this week. Russia was due to pay $117 million in coupon payments on Wednesday on two dollar-denominated sovereign bonds and some creditors had received payments, market sources separately told Reuters, also indicating it avoided what would have been its first external bond default in a century. read more
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The payments were widely seen as the first test of whether Moscow would meet its obligations after Western sanctions hobbled its financial dealings.
The source said that JPMorgan’s obligation as a foreign correspondent bank was to process payments, but that given the circumstances, also to check with authorities before doing so.
Sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine have cut Russia off from the global financial system and blocked the bulk of its gold and foreign exchange reserves, while Moscow has in turn retaliated – all of which complicate payments.
The bank checked with authorities before processing, the source said. Not to process the payment would have harmed bondholders, the source said.
Under the sanctions and restrictions announced last month, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. banks were prohibited from correspondent banking – allowing banks to make payments between one another and move money around the globe – with Russia’s largest lender, Sberbank, within 30 days. Washington and its partners also started barring some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system – a step that will stop lenders from conducting most of their financial transactions worldwide. read more
A March 2020 report by the Bank for International Settlements showed that correspondent banks have been “paring back their cross-border banking relations for the past decade.” The number of correspondent banks fell by 20% between 2011 and 2018, even as the value of payments increased, the report said.
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Reporting by Megan Davies;
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Curiosity Rover Snapped This Photo of a Tiny And Delicate Mineral ‘Flower’ on Mars
The Curiosity rover took a picture of something pretty enticing this week on the surface of Mars. While the object in question looks like a tiny little flower or maybe even some type of organic feature, the rover team confirmed this object is a mineral formation, with delicate structures that formed by minerals precipitating from water.
Curiosity has actually seen these types of features before, which are called diagenetic crystal clusters. Diagenetic means the recombination or rearrangement of minerals, and these features consist of three-dimensional crystal clusters, likely made of a combination of minerals.
Curiosity deputy project scientist Abigail Fraeman said on Twitter that these features that were seen previously were made of salts called sulfates.
(1/3) Your Friday moment of zen: A beautiful new microscopic image from @MarsCuriosity shows teeny, tiny delicate structures that formed by mineral precipitating from water.
(Penny approximately for scale added me)https://t.co/cs7t11BWAj pic.twitter.com/AU20LjY5pQ
— Abigail Fraeman (@abbyfrae) February 26, 2022
From studies of previous features like this found on Mars (you can read a paper on them here), originally the feature was embedded within a rock, which eroded away over time. These mineral clusters, however, appear to be resistant to erosion.
Another name for these features is concretion, which you may remember from the Opportunity rover, who saw features that were nicknamed ‘blueberries,’ since they were small and round. You can see round concretions next to the flower-like feature in this image.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)
The rover science team saw this feature earlier this week and named it ‘Blackthorn Salt’. They used the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager, called MAHLI, to take these close-up images. This camera is the rover’s version of the magnifying hand lens that geologists usually carry with them into the field. MAHLI’s close-up images reveal the minerals and textures in rock surfaces.
Here you can see a 3-D model of the object, thanks to Simeon Schmauss:
Curiosity found another flower-like feature back in 2013, and the Spirit rover found similar-looking rocks that were nicknamed ‘cauliflower’ features because of their knobby protuberances.
Our thanks to Kevin Gill who processed the images, taken on Sol 3397. See more great Curiosity images processed by Kevin at his Flickr page.
This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.