Orange and green monkeys jumping around the room

The Lancet
Volume 370, Issue 9598, Page 1588
3 November 2007
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61663-8

Dr Sunku Hemanth Guptha MRCP, Tha Han MB, Qais Arafat FRCR, Okubadejo Deyo FRCP

Department of Medicine for Older People, Edith Cavell Hospital, Peterborough, UK

In July, 2006, a 62-year-old solicitor, with a 14-year history of Parkinson's disease, began to have worse tremor, stiffness, and fatigue, and reduced motor control. His illness had previously been well controlled by co-careldopa and selegiline. Ropirinole was introduced, and his symptoms decreased as the dose was increased. However, after 2 months, when the dose was 12 mg daily, he started to experience visual hallucinations of orange and green monkeys jumping around his room, and men in green ...

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2807%2961663-8/fulltext

Ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by lap dancers: economic evidence for human estrus?

Evolution and Human Behavior
Volume 28, Issue 6, November 2007, Pages 375–381

Geoffrey Miller, Joshua M. Tybur, Brent D. Jordan

Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA

Abstract

To see whether estrus was really “lost” during human evolution (as researchers often claim), we examined ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by professional lap dancers working in gentlemen's clubs. Eighteen dancers recorded their menstrual periods, work shifts, and tip earnings for 60 days on a study web site. A mixed-model analysis of 296 work shifts (representing about 5300 lap dances) showed an interaction between cycle phase and hormonal contraception use. Normally cycling participants earned about US$335 per 5-h shift during estrus, US$260 per shift during the luteal phase, and US$185 per shift during menstruation. By contrast, participants using contraceptive pills showed no estrous earnings peak. These results constitute the first direct economic evidence for the existence and importance of estrus in contemporary human females, in a real-world work setting. These results have clear implications for human evolution, sexuality, and economics.

Keywords

Estrus; Female sexuality; Behavioral economics; Sexual service industries; Hormonal contraception

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513807000694

Elvis to Eminem: quantifying the price of fame through early mortality of European and North American rock and pop stars

J Epidemiol Community Health
Oct 2007; 61(10): 896–901
doi:10.1136/jech.2007.059915

Mark A Bellis, Clare Lushey, Karen Hughes, Karen Tocque, John R Ashton
Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Castle House, North Street, Liverpool L3 2AY

Tom Hennell
Public Health Group, Government Office for the North West of England, Manchester, UK

Background

Rock and pop stars are frequently characterised as indulging in high‐risk behaviours, with high‐profile deaths amongst such musicians creating an impression of premature mortality. However, studies to date have not quantified differences between mortality experienced by such stars and general populations.

Objective

This study measures survival rates of famous musicians (n = 1064) from their point of fame and compares them to matched general populations in North America and Europe.

Design

We describe and utilise a novel actuarial survival methodology which allows quantification of excess post‐fame mortality in pop stars.

Participants

Individuals from North America and Europe performing on any album in the All‐Time Top 1000 albums from the music genres rock, punk, rap, R&B, electronica and new age.

Results

From 3 to 25 years post fame, both North American and European pop stars experience significantly higher mortality (more than 1.7 times) than demographically matched populations in the USA and UK, respectively. After 25 years of fame, relative mortality in European (but not North American) pop stars begins to return to population levels. Five‐year post‐fame survival rates suggest differential mortality between stars and general populations was greater in those reaching fame before 1980.

Conclusion

Pop stars can suffer high levels of stress in environments where alcohol and drugs are widely available, leading to health‐damaging risk behaviour. However, their behaviour can also influence would‐be stars and devoted fans. Collaborations between health and music industries should focus on improving both pop star health and their image as role models to wider populations.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2652970/

Tongue-Print: A Novel Biometrics Pattern

Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Vol. 4642, 2007, pp 1174-1183
DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-74549-5_122
Advances in Biometrics
International Conference, ICB 2007, Seoul, Korea, August 27-29, 2007, Proceedings
Lee, Seong-Whan, Li, Stan Z. (Eds.)

David Zhang (1), Zhi Liu (2), Jing-qi Yan (2), Peng-fei Shi (2)

1. Biometrics Research Centre, Department of Computing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
2. Institute of Image Processing and Pattern Recognition, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

Abstract

The tongue is a unique organ in that it can be stuck out of mouth for inspection, and yet it is otherwise well protected in the mouth and is difficult to forge. The tongue also presents both geometric shape information and physiological texture information which are potentially useful in identity verification applications. Furthermore, the act of physically reaching or thrusting out is a convincing proof for the liveness. Despite these obvious advantages for biometrics, little work has hitherto been done on this topic. In this paper, we introduce this novel biometric and present a verification framework based on the tongue-prints. The preliminary experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the tongue biometrics.

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-540-74549-5_122

Penises as Variable-Volume Hydrostatic Skeletons

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Volume 1101, pages 453–463, April 2007
DOI: 10.1196/annals.1389.014

Diane A. Kelly

Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003

Abstract:

Penises are inflatable intromittent organs that transfer sperm to a female during copulation. Most of the time, males store their penises in a flexible detumesced state, but they can rapidly inflate them with blood when an opportunity for reproductive behavior arises. In mammals, the primary erectile tissue is called the corpus cavernosum; its anatomy is a close match to a model hydroskeleton reinforced by an axial orthogonal fiber array. The wall of the corpus cavernosum contains layers of highly organized collagen fibers arranged at 0° and 90° to the penile long axis. Flaccid wall tissue is folded. Collagen fiber straightening during erection expands the tunica albuginea and increases both its stiffness and its second moment of area. These changes make the entire penis larger and harder to bend. Axial orthogonal fiber reinforcement affects the mechanical behavior of the erect corpus cavernosum, making it resistant to tensile, compressive, and bending forces.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1196/annals.1389.014/abstract